If this fit grows on me, I am afraid I shall become no better than an idiot.

And yet, when I was a little boy, they tell me, I was sharp enough at talking." To which the other lads retorted, "Well, it is a bad business altogether: and if you cannot bestir yourself for your friends, if you can do nothing for us in our need, we must turn elsewhere." [13] When Cyrus heard that he was stung to the quick: he went away in silence and urged himself to put on a bold face, and so went in to his grandfather, not, however, without planning first how he could best bring in the matter.

Accordingly he began thus: "Tell me, grandfather," said he, "if one of your slaves were to run away, and you caught him, what would you do to him ?" "What else should I do," the old man answered, "but clap irons on him and set him to work in chains ?" "But if he came back of his own accord, how would you treat him then ?" "Why, I would give him a whipping, as a warning not to do it again, and then treat him as though nothing had happened." "It is high time then," said the boy, "that you began getting a birch ready for your grandson: for I am planning to take my comrades and run away on a hunting expedition." "Very kind of you to tell me, beforehand," said Astyages.

"And now listen, I forbid you to set foot outside the palace grounds.

A pretty thing," he added, "if for the sake of a day's hunting I should let my daughter's lamb get lost." [14] So Cyrus did as he was ordered and stayed at home, but he spent his days in silence and his brow was clouded.