Belshazzar and his counselors, considering themselves secure, gave
way to their depraved appetites. The palace was one scene of debauchery
and revelry by day and by night.
The Persian general soon saw that an assault on such formidable defenses
would be useless. A project was conceived in his mind. He made the
inhabitants believe that he intended to reduce the city by famine. To
this end he caused a line of circumvallation to be drawn quite around the
city with a large and deep ditch; and, that his troops might not be
over-fatigued, he divided his army into twelve bodies, and assigned to
each of them its month of guarding the trenches. The great ditch was
completed, but the reveling Babylonians little thought of its real
design.
Belshazzar, the king, made a feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank
wine before the thousand. This feast was one of great splendor. The most
spacious and magnificent rooms in the richest city in the world were
crowded with rank and beauty.
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