Page 60 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

to the worship of the gorgeous golden image in the plain of Dura, together with much
dancing, feasting and revelry, and all at the expense of the royal treasury.

As the image neared completion under the efficient management of Baladan with
his corps of experts and hive of workers, other preparations also rounded out to
perfection. Before the official proclamation was issued the populace were all aware of
the approaching event. For as well as the religious and social aspects of the occasion

the king had ordered great parades of Babylon’s military might, athletic contests, and
out-door theatricals―all could be accommodated in the spacious plain of Dura.

But Rhea the queen, darling of the king and of the people, beautiful and charming,

but insulated and isolated from all this in her palatial apartment, was the only one in all
the realm who was ignorant of the approaching festival.

Beside the time she spent in planning and consulting for the relief of the poor and

the sick, she devoted herself to a study of the Mosaic Pentateuch of the Hebrew
scriptures, under the tutelage of an old Hebrew scholar, and also of the Psalms of David
and Asaph. Rhea alone would be untouched by the proclamation and the awful penalty
threatened toward any who disobeyed it.