86 Narrative of the Armenian king [Fbb. 



a merited retribution from my hands immediately after my return 

 to Armenia. 



" Hereupon, Sapor ordered Arsaces to be put in chains, and 

 driven to the castle of oblivion in Khujistan. Here he directed him 

 to be kept in strict and perpetual confinement until his death. On 

 the following day he summoned to his presence Vasak Mamiconian, 

 the famous Armenian general, and heaped on him torrents of abuse. 

 He took advantage of his diminutive size, and addressed him in a 

 contemptuous manner. ' Thou little fox,' said he, ' remember that it 

 was you that devastated our country for the last thirty years, by 

 putting innumerable Persians to the sword ! I will make you 

 die the death of a fox !' To which Vasak replied, ' However 

 diminutive I may appear in your eye, 1 am sure you have not 

 as yet had a personal experience of my mighty arms. I have 

 hitherto acted as a lion, though now you call me by the contemptible 

 appellation of a fox ! But, while I was Vasak, I was like a giant. 

 I fixed my right foot on one mountain, and my left on another. The 

 right mountain was levelled to the ground by the pressure of my 

 right foot, and the left mountain sunk under the weight of my left.' 

 Sapor desired to know who were personified by these two mountains, 

 that were represented to tremble under the power of the Armenian 

 general. ' One of these mountains,' replied Vasak, ' signifies the 

 king of Persia, and the other the emperor of Greece. As long as 

 we were not forsaken by the Almighty 1 held both the potentates in 

 awe and subjection. While we obeyed the laws of the Gospel and 

 followed the paternal advice of our spiritual head, Nieuses the Great*, 

 ■we knew how to dictate and counsel you. But God has withheld 

 from us the favor of his protection, and we are plunged into the pit 

 with open eyes. I am now in your hands. Treat me as you choose.' 

 Hereupon the king of Persia ordered the Armenian general Vasak 

 to be cruelly butchered, his skin to be flayed and filled with hay, and 

 carried to the castle of oblivion, where the king Arsaces was im- 

 prisoned." 



Here ends this singularly romantic narrative of Faustus. The 

 castle of oblivion, it must be remembered, was a place of solitary 

 confinement in Khujistan, intended for prisoners of rank and distinc- 



* iptrb'v ^frpuk-u Nierses the Great was one of the pontiffs of Armenia, and 

 great-grandson of St. Gregory the Illuminator. He built upwards of two 

 thousand convents, monasteries and hospitals in Armenia, and was consequently 

 called by the appellation of the CJ^°'Z. Architect. He was poisoned by Pap, 

 the son and successor of Arsaces, and was buried in the village of Thiln. 



