KHOSROO PURVIZ AND THE FAIR SHIRENE. 157 
against it, in order to avenge his father, as he called him, and 
his benefactor, as he certainly was. The Persian arms over-ran 
the whole of the eastern empire ; and accomplishing the ambition 
of his grandfather Noushirvan, in marching the Mithratic stand¬ 
ards into Palestine, he became master of Jerusalem, violated the 
holy sepulchre, consumed the churches of Helena and Constan¬ 
tine to ashes, and carried away what was alleged to be the true 
cross, with a long train of prisoners and spoil, into Persia. 
Intoxicated with these achievements, and his consequent 
fame, Khosroo Purviz determined that the capitals and palaces 
of his kingdom, should transcend all that had ever yet been 
beheld on the earth. Uncounted sums were lavished on their 
erection, and embellishments; and the pleasures with which they 
were filled, exhausted the powers of invention ; leaving the luxu¬ 
rious monarch nothing to wish for, but new senses, and prolonged 
youth to enjoy the paradises which grew around him. But “ there 
is a tide in the affairs of all men and the falling back of this 
king’s, was fated to sweep away, with his former glory, all these 
pleasures, and, finally, his life. The sudden invasion of Persia 
by a Roman army, led by the brave Emperor Heraclius, roused 
Khosroo from his dream of sensual happiness; but he awoke too 
late ; the original bravery of his spirit had perished under the 
weight of debasing enjoyments, and he fled in terror from his 
favourite palace of Dustajerd, on hearing of Heraclius’s approach. 
But his son Schirouch, who, it appears, had conceived an impious 
passion for the beautiful Shirene, his father’s queen, seized the 
king in his flight, threw him into a dungeon, and caused him to 
be murdered. After the commission of this horrid act, the par¬ 
ricide threw himself at the feet of his mother-in-law, (who, like 
another Helen, seems to have been endowed with an ever-bloom- 
