Page 84 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

the image that he had erected there, no glimmer of knowledge or recognition of it
flickered through his tortured mind.

His unusual physical strength enabled his to traverse a great distance before night
fell and he was overtaken by weariness. He had arrived at the distant foothills, whither
men only went on hunting expeditions, but a place abundantly inhabited by animals of
every kind. A mountain doe peered through the trees at this strange intruder upon their

solitude, and sped away like lightning to her own haunts and to her young. The
erstwhile king of Babylon plucked leaves from the trees and ate them and chewed the
tender ends of tall grasses, and quaffed the water from a clear brook to quench his
thirst. After that, he lay on a grassy plot and soon was in a heavy slumber.

The king having descended to the plane of the animal creation and living as they
lived, the creatures gradually became accustomed to his presence among them. They
feared him less and less as they discovered that he did them no harm. Moreover, as he

had become bereft of human wisdom and cunning he shortly acquired the instinct of
the animals in the line of self-protection, and was able to distinguish between those
things which he could eat and those things which were injurious. The sovereign hand
of God was upon him also, to preserve his body from harm and from being devoured

by some prowling beast as he lay in helpless sleep.

No beast of the forest was more fearful of man than he. As parties of huntsmen
came into those regions, they occasionally caught glimpses of an unkempt savage,

who had the appearance of a man and yet seemed more like an animal than like a man.
He would peer furtively at them from behind a tree and then dart through the thickets
of the forest on the wings of the wind, as fleet and as frightened as an antelope.

The hunters would discuss among themselves this strange denizen of the wilds,
and some would insist that they could recognize in this wolf-man, with matted hair
and beard, the features of Nebuchadnezzar, formerly the emperor of the Babylonian
Empire. Others would scoff at the possibility that it could be he.

‧ ‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧

Meanwhile in the city and the empire, things did not go so well. For a time after
the flight of the monarch-turned-madman, the affairs of state were entirely handled by
Daniel, the Hebrew statesman. As long as he was uninterfered with, the empire
enjoyed continued prosperity and tranquility. But it shortly became evident that to

serve Babylon as Prime Minister with the inflexible Nebuchadnezzar behind the
scenes, was quite a different thing from serving in that capacity without the moral