"Your friend Zoroaster," she added presently, "could be of great service to you and your cause, if he wished." "I would that he were a Hebrew!" exclaimed Nehushta, with a little sigh, which did not escape Atossa.
"Is he not?
I always thought that he had secretly embraced your faith.
With his love of study and with his ideas, it seemed so natural." "No," replied Nehushta, "he is not one of us, nor will he ever be.

After all, though, it is perhaps of little moment what one believes when one is so just as he." "I have never been able to understand the importance of religion," said the beautiful queen, spreading her white hand upon the purple of her mantle, and contemplating its delicate outline tenderly.

"For my own part, I am fond of the sacrifices and the music and the chants.

I love to see the priests go up to the altar, two and two, in their white robes,--and then to see how they struggle to hold up the bullock's head, so that his eyes may see the sun,--and how the red blood gushes out like a beautiful fountain.

Have you ever seen a great sacrifice ?" "Oh yes! I remember when I was quite a little girl, when Cambyses--I mean--when the king came to the throne--it was magnificent!" Nehushta was not used to hesitate in her speech, but as she recalled the day when Cambyses was made king, it suddenly came over her that any reminiscences of the past might be painful to the extraordinary woman by her side.