Page 145 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

to the even tones of Parmashta tolling out the words which he needed not to hear.
“Know, O King, that the law of the Medes and Persians is that no decree nor
statute which the king establishes may be changed.”

Darius hesitated a moment and then burst out in a loud voice: “I see it all now, you
contemptible curs! You litter of pariahs, you spawn of serpents! And I myself deserve
nearly as much condemnation as you for being such an unutterable fool-I worth of the

worship of a god, bah! I could curse myself that I was duped by your flattering words
that were naught but a mask for your wicked, hateful and envious hearts, that would
stop at nothing to destroy the noblest man that you or I have ever known. My own
pride and vanity blinded me to the evil design into which I have been inveigled.

“If this hand of mine,” (and he shook his fist at them) “clasped in the vise of the
unchangeable laws of the Medes and Persians is used to smite down my friend Daniel,
be it known to you crooked conspirators that there is nothing to prevent this same
hand from signing another order to consign to the same lions who may devour Daniel,

your rotten bones and stinking flesh – though you be the appointees of Cyrus himself.
Get out of my presence!” As he talked his voice rose to such a crescendo that it was a
scream. Never before had Darius’ power of invective (well-known to his military
associates) reached such a height!

As the presidents and princes slunk trembling from his presence, he hurled these
words after them: “And you, Parmashta and Adalia, defile not further the offices of
government with your polluted presence.”

Then the king turned and commanded the court pages to summon to his presence
the leading legal authorities in the city.

By the time that four lawyers had arrived, the king had retired to a side room and
had a copy of the proclamation laid out on the table.
“See if you can discover any legal discrepancy in the framing of this document
that may give us a loop-hole for remitting the penalty from the Prime Minister, by

reason of his high office or because of ignorance of the law or for any other reason. If
you can discover a way out, I will reward you richly.”

As the lawyers sat down and pored over every word of the proclamation, the king
paced the floor in an extreme state of mental anguish. After a time one of the lawyers
said to the king: “Would it not be well, Your Majesty, to ask the Chief President to
come? It may be that he will deny that, kneeling before his window, he was praying to
any god.”

The king sent for Daniel. When he came, the king and the lawyers asked him