"
"What!" said the king, suddenly rising to his feet. "Daniel, the first
president in the kingdom? Daniel, noted for his wisdom and prudence?
Impossible! Ye have been wrongly informed! Beware how ye thus accuse the
best man in Babylon!"
"Thy servants wonder not at thy astonishment, O king! If we had not been
eye-witnesses to the thing, we could have in no wise believed it; but the
eyes and ears of thy servants are witnesses against him. He offers his
petitions, and tramples upon the authority of our king."
"His petitions!" cried the excited king. "And to whom does he offer his
petitions?"
"He daily offers his petitions to his God, O king!"
"His God! Wiseman! Who can--But--If--Say ye not that Daniel was
concerned in making this law?"
"Yea, verily, O king! May the gods forbid that we should utter aught but
truth in the presence of King Darius!"
"To me it seemeth a strange thing that Daniel, the worshiper of the God
of Israel, should frame a law that bears oppressively on himself and upon
thousands of his nation within the realm.
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