Page 113 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

Neriglissar? And if you are indifferent to being king yourself, will you allow your son
Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, to be deprived of his kingly rights?”
These words were spoken by Queen Rhea, and made more impact upon Nabunaid

than the words of his wife. He was a man of high honor and prided himself on his
fidelity to duty, and so to be upbraided with a dereliction of duty by his royal mother-
in-law stirred him more than anything else.
“I can assure you that if I succeeded to the throne I would immediately install my

son, Belshazzar, as coruler. He is even now better equipped to handle civil affairs than
I, and I should continue in the field at the head of the armies. ”

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It was only a matter of days before the problems was automatically solved. The
city of Babylon awoke to hear the startling news that both King Neriglissar and his

son had been assassinated during the night. So unpopular was the king and so
dissatisfied were the people with his rule, that little or no public indignation was
aroused by the act. No one knew who were the instigators or who were the
perpetrators of the deed. It was thought that the king and his son had been murdered

by some member or members of the king’s own body-guard. There was no indication
that the army had anything to do with it or that the man who would logically be the
most interested in his death, Nabunaid, had any part in it by assistance or by
connivance. There was no determined effort made to apprehend the murderers.

Neriglissar and his son died unmourned, and by popular demand, the dynasty of
Nebuchadnezzar was restored in the person of his son-in-law, Nabunaid, who
immediately succeeded to the throne amid the acclaim of the people and to the high
satisfaction of the army which idolized him.