[5] Croesus, who had shut himself up inside his palace, cried out on Cyrus, and Cyrus left a guard round the building while he himself went to inspect the captured citadel.

Here he found the Persians keeping guard in perfect order, but the Chaldaean quarters were deserted, for the men had rushed down to pillage the town.

Immediately he summoned their officers, and bade them leave his army at once.

[6] "I could never endure," he said, "to have undisciplined fellows seizing the best of everything.

You know well enough," he added, "all that was in store for you.