The country is very wild in some parts, and we must trust to what we can take with us for our comfort.

Do not spare the mules, therefore, but take everything you need." "Besides, we may not return," said Nehushta thoughtfully.
Her companion was silent.

"Do you think we shall ever come back ?" she asked presently.
"I have dreamed of coming back," answered Zoroaster; "but I fear it is to be even as you say." "Why say you that you fear it! Is it not better to live at the court than here in this distant fortress, so shut off from the world that we might almost as well be among the Scythians?
Oh, I long for the palace at Shushan! I am sure it will seem tenfold more beautiful now than it did when I was a child." Zoroaster sighed.

In his heart he knew there was to be no returning to Media, and yet he had dreamed of marrying the princess and being made governor of the province, and bringing his wife home to this beautiful land to live out a long life of quiet happiness.

But he knew it was not to be; and though he tried hard to shake off the impression, he felt in his inmost self that the words of the dying prophet foretold truly what would happen to him.