122 HISTORICAL TALES.

them, while the people everywhere were against
them. They determined, therefore, to maintain the
bridge.

But, to rid themselves of the Seyiiiane they pre-
tended to take their advice, and destroyed the bridge
for the length of a bow-shot from the northern shore
of the stream. The Scythians, thinking that they
now had their enemies at their mercy, departed in
search of their foes. That night the Persian army,
in a state of the greatest distress and privation,
reached the Danube, the Scythians having missed
them and failed to check their march. To the horror
of Darius and his starving and terror-stricken men,
the bridge, in the darkness, appeared to be gone.
An Egyptian herald, with a voice like a trumpet, was
ordered to call for Histiceus, the Milesian. He did so,
an answer came through the darkness, and the hopes
of the fleeing king were restored. The bridge was
speedily made complete again, and the Persian army
hastily crossed, reaching the opposite bank before
the Seythians, who had lost their track, reappeared
in pursuit.

Thus ended in disaster the first Persian invasion
of Europe. It was to be followed by others in
later years, equally disastrous to the invaders. As
for the despots of Ionia, who had through selfish-
ness lost the chance of freeing their native land,
they were to live to see, before many years, Ionia
desolated by the Persian tyrant whom they had
saved from irretrievable ruin. We shall tell how
this came about, as a sequel to the story of the in-
vasion of Scythia.