CHAPTER V.
DARIUS.
The people are actors all.
One cloth the sovereign monarch play;
And him the rest obey."—Calderon.
The jealous hatred which Cambyses bore to his brother Smerdis was so well known, that the Persians did not believe his dying declaration that the person who had seized his throne was an impostor. They accepted him as the true Smerdis, son of Cyrus. Such impostures are possible enough in a credulous age. A false Demetrius plays an important part in the history of Russia. There were many who disbelieved the fact of the two English princes having been smothered in the Tower; and many more, at quite a recent date, have believed that Louis XVII. escaped his jailers, and grew up to manhood. The secluded life of an Eastern monarch would give such an imposture additional chances of success.
The Magian usurper reigned for eight months under the name of Smerdis, giving great satisfaction to most of his subjects, for under him "the empire was peace." He remitted the heaviest taxes, and enforced no mili-
