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adequate to the full accomplishment of the extensive destruction 

 which he intended should overwhelm his enemies, the Turanian 

 sovereign rushed forwards at the head of the formidable forces he had 

 raised, to the attack of Balk, to which he instantly laid siege : and, 

 having at length taken it by storm, with Tartar ferocity, put all the 

 inhabitants indiscriminately to the sword, subverted the grand fire- 

 temple, and sacrificed, as victims to his rage, Zeratusht and the 

 seventy priests, who were in the act of officiating at it. Enfeebled 

 by age, but retaining still a portion of the martial vigour which 

 distinguished his juvenile years, the veteran Lohorasp, issuing from 

 his cloistered retreat, at the head of a few faithful followers, in vain 

 attempted to stem the deluge of Barbarians, who were spreading 

 desolation through the sacred city. He fell early in the unequal con- 

 test ; and, no obstacle then remaining to obstruct his march, Argiasp 

 pressed on with his victorious army into the centre of Persia, where 

 so great a panic had seized the Persians, that the prudent Hystaspes 

 did not think it proper to make an immediate attack upon him. 

 He suffered him to waste his strength in long and fatiguing 

 marches and in attacks on fortified towns, which daily diminished 

 his numbers. Then (at the united request of the nation, who 

 loudly called for his release) liberating his son Asfendiar from 

 confinement, he sent him, with a fresh and powerful army, against 

 troops emaciated by fatigue and thinned by disease. The attack 

 was made with such irresistible impetuosity that the Turanian army 

 was compelled to make its retreat out of Persia with more rapidity 

 than they had advanced into it, and were driven with great slaughter 

 beyond the limits of the northern mountains. 



It was now evident that Asia could not, at the same time, hold 

 two monarchs of such power and military spirit as Hystaspes and 

 Argiasp ; the entire subjugation, or rather extirpation, of the latter 

 was therefore determined on in the court of Persia, and Asfendiar 



