Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/286

 stones, that I should proceed forward ? No, it is ire, which you worship, that surrounds you. Why then do you avoid your God and urge me to go forward ? Thou hast called the Mocks a tribe of devils. I can find no other name more applicable to the Sasanians than cowards T' The king it will be recollected was a Sasanian. On concluding this speech, he clapped spurs to bis horse, and passed through, as through a garden of flowers, leaving a passage open to Shapuh, by which his life was preserved. Atom, perceiving that the king would never forgive him for the contempt with which he had treated him, retired to his country, the land of the Mocks. In a like contemptuous manner Sha- puh was treated by other chiefs.

About this time, Hazkert, king of Persia, a. D.418. commenced a dreadful persecution of the chris* tians, and many were martyred by him. St. Isaac, being much esteemed by him, took a journey into Persia, and by mild language and good counsels succeeded in softening his heart. St. Marutha assisted him in this delightful work.

After the persecution of the christians had a.d.419« ceased, Hazkert fell dangerously ill, which coming to the knowledge of Shapub, he left Armenia in the fourth year of his reign, and hastened to visit his father. On his quitting the kingdom, however, he left a large body of

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