Ishtar shuddered. To her, for all his comeliness, he was loathsome as a leper, terrible as a beast of prey.
"It is but justice I require," said she, wringing her hands. "Bare justice for an Assyrian-born carried into captivity."
"He shall be brought back by the sons of Ashur with the strong hand," replied Kalmim stoutly. "Who can stand against Assyria in her might? But I know not yet whither they have taken him, nor how you have discovered the prison-house where he is lodged."
"I came into the market at sunrise," answered Ishtar, "to sell the clasp of my father's girdle, that I might eat a morsel of bread. Ashtaroth must have had pity on me; for she directed my steps to those very traders who bought Sarchedon from the sons of Anak. One, who seemed chief among them, spoke me fair, and treated me well. Perhaps he has a daughter of his own. From him I learned, that when they divided the spoil, his brother had taken the Assyrian warrior for his share, and was journeying with him to Armenia, where he would sell him for a goodly slave to stand before the king. I pray you, Kalmim, is it very far to Armenia?"
"It is many days' journey," replied Kalmim hopefully. "But those who have horses and camels need not the wings of a bird. I have heard it said of the Great King, that his sceptre stretched over the whole land of Shinar, his spear to the uttermost ends of the earth, and his arrows reached the heavens. I know not; but I think the sons of Ashur can obtain what they want, even from beyond the mountains of Armenia, if they go to ask for it with bow and spear. These traders, though, are soft and smooth-spoken, false as prosperous lovers, every man of them! How know you their tale is true?"
"By this token," answered Ishtar, showing Sarchedon's amulet in her hand.
Kalmim recognised it at once. Many a time since she missed it from the Great Queen's neck had she speculated on its absence, and wondered what fresh combinations of intrigue and duplicity were denoted by this imprudent generosity of her mistress. Though Semiramis, she knew, entertained a peculiar reverence for the trinket, as possessing some supernatural charm, yet when she bade her tirewoman go back to search for it in the temple of Baal, there was a restless anxiety in her demeanour not to be explained by mere concern for a lost jewel. And now her eyes were opened. She marvelled how she could have been so dull and blind. She resolved to hold the clue tight, and never let it go till she had turned its possession to her own advantage. Though she tried to look innocent and unconscious, it was impossible to keep down the sparkle in her eye, the crimson on her cheek, while she asked as carelessly as she could,
"Is it a sign between you, and did he send it to vouch for the truth of the messenger?"
"Not so," answered Ishtar. "They took it from his neck by stealth, and the good trader gave it into my hand, because I desired it from him as a gift. When I look on it, I seem to see the noble face of my beloved. O Kalmim, we must deliver him, and bring him back."
"We must deliver him, and bring him back," repeated Kalmim, pondering deeply. In a few seconds she ran through the main points and bearings of the case.
So long as Sarchedon remained a captive in Armenia, it was obvious that he could be of little service to her designs, but if she could by any means recall him to Babylon, a path seemed open that should lead to her own aggrandisement and paramount influence in the palace. She was sufficiently persuaded that the seclusion of Semiramis would last but for a short time; that her masculine intellect would soon weary of inactivity; and that her energies would again rule the nation through the son, as heretofore through the sire. She was shrewd enough to have observed that Ninyas did nothing without the counsel of Assarac; and she had not forgotten Assarac's implicit and slavish devotion to the queen. She was also satisfied that her royal lady had contracted one of those infatuated passions for Sarchedon to which she was occasionally subject, and which her tire-woman's experience reminded her would be gratified at any cost of danger or shame. If, then, she could go to the queen when the days of mourning had expired, and say to her, "I have got your treasure safe in Babylon, under lock and key; I brought him back from Armenia by my own exertions, and you need but lift up your finger to behold him here at your feet," would she not become one of the greatest personages in Assyria, herself the fount of honour, wealth, influence, and promotion? Sethos, she decided, should obtain the leadership of the royal guard, and her other lovers be rewarded, more or less, in proportion to their attractions. Meantime Sarchedon must be brought back.
"You love him dearly then," said she, "and would shrink from no sacrifice to insure his safety?"
There was more than devotion in Ishtar's simple answer,
"I would give my life for the life of him."
"There is but one power under that of Ashtaroth to help you at your need," pursued Kalmim. "If the king will send an embassy to Armenia, as to Egypt, for the recovery of Sarchedon, the youth may yet return, fast as camels can travel. But you must make your petition at once, and in person. You are young and comely, though a little too pale. Such faces as yours seldom plead with Ninyas in vain."
Ishtar clasped her hands and trembled.
"Is there no other way?" said she. "There is none in all the land of Shinar before whom I would not rather bow down my face than the prince."
"The prince, girl! what mean you?" exclaimed the other. "Are you mad? There is none can help you in such a matter but the king."
"Only—only," stammered Ishtar, "I fled on purpose to avoid him."
"Fled!" repeated Kalmim scornfully; "whence and why? There is no time to lose. Tell me in a word: has Ninyas, too, taken a fancy to that white face of yours?"
That white face turned crimson, while about brow and lip gathered such haughty defiance, that for a moment the girl looked like her father when he set the battle in array.
"He would have forced me to love him," said she; "but I had rather be lying dead without the city wall!"
"Is it so indeed?" exclaimed Kalmim, a little vexed, it may be, to hear of another woman's conquest, yet highly pleased with the promise of success it seemed to offer. "Then Ashtaroth doth indeed favour us, and the prey is taken ere we spread the net. If he wooed you unsuccessfully, believe me, he is not out of your power yet. You need but ask your price, and he will pay it. That price must be the recovery of Sarchedon."
Love and hatred were tearing at the poor girl's heart—love gained the mastery.
"What would you have me do?" she asked; but her voice was so changed, the other looked anxiously in her face.
"Now you are reasonable," said Kalmim, after a pause, "and will take a friend's advice. So shall all turn to our advantage at last. This must you do: rend that garment of yours thus, not down to the hem, but so that it falls gracefully away in two pieces, uncovering neck and shoulder. Scatter a little dust on your head—a very little—not enough to dim the lustre on your hair. Then sit you down in the gate yonder; I will show you the place. Wait till Ninyas rides by, coming from the judgment seat. He must be leaving it ere now. When you hear the tramp of the white horse, turn not your face to right or left; but as he draws near, start up in front of him, throw back your veil, wreathe your arms about his knee, pour forth your prayer, and implore your lord to do with you what he will."
"Be it so," answered Ishtar, calm and pale, like one in the grasp of death. "Thus shall I save you, Sarchedon my beloved! But never, never will I look in your dear face again."
Bowed to the dust, with rent garments, drooping head, and aching heart, from which the very life seemed pressed out, Ishtar sat herself down in the gate to watch for the passing by of the king, as he rode from the place where he had been administering justice to his people since sunrise. She had not long to wait; the trampling of hoofs soon warned her that the royal troop was approaching, and flinging back her veil, she had scarcely time to rise erect before the well-known white horse was upon her, guided by the hand that most she feared and hated in the world.
Its rider, buried in thought, proceeded at a walk, accompanied only by Assarac, the few mounted spearmen in attendance remaining several paces behind. Ninyas appeared unusually grave and preoccupied. His face was somewhat hidden by the fall of a linen tiara and the profusion of his dark silken hair, but in his rounded symmetry of limb, his graceful gestures, and royal dignity of bearing were conspicuous those personal advantages which formed perhaps the only merit of their new ruler in the eyes of the common crowd.
Faint and forced were the cheers that greeted his approach, dark and discontented the glances that followed him as he passed on. He from whom so much was expected had turned out a failure and a disappointment. To cruelty and injustice the people of Babylon would have submitted without a murmur, but for incapacity they had little forbearance; for one who wasted neither blood nor treasure, they entertained a fierce and dangerous contempt.
Already loud regrets had been heard among the populace for the iron rule of Ninus and the warlike glories of the Great King. Already whispers, fierce and earnest in their suppression, asked when her days of mourning would be ended; and suggested that the queen should again take part in affairs of empire—should govern Babylon, her own especial city, in person. Even before the seat of judgment, murmurs to this effect were distinctly audible, and a cry of "Semiramis! Semiramis!" had been caught up and reëchoed in the outskirts of the crowd. On such occasions, the calm face of Assarac was observed to denote secret triumph and gratification, yet clouded with something of anxiety and deep earnest thought. Riding on the king's right hand, he seemed even now so engrossed in meditation, that he was the more disturbed of the two when a figure, rising, as it were, out of the earth, wound its arms round the royal knee, at the imminent risk of being trampled to death, and laid its forehead to the white horse's shoulder in an attitude of heart-broken entreaty and abasement. Merodach must have recognised her. Ishtar knew that the animal avoided touching her with its hoofs, while, in spite of skilled hand and severe bridle, it pressed its muzzle against her fair shoulder with a mute loving caress.
"How now!" exclaimed the rider haughtily.—"What foolish damsel is this who encumbers the royal path, seeing that the sun is already high? Know you not how the people cry without ceasing for justice during the space of two hours after dawn? Stand aside, girl, lest that tender body of yours be trampled like a lily in the dust!"
Ishtar raised her tear-stained face, pale as the flower to which she had been compared, and sobbed out wildly,
"As thy soul liveth, hear me! Only hear me, ere thou ride on in thy might, and crush me to death beneath thy feet! What am I that I should stand in the path of my lord the king?"
Surely he remembered her voice. He seemed strangely disturbed, and the hand that reined Merodach shook till the bridle rang again. Turning to Assarac, he murmured in a stifled voice,
"Bid them keep the people back, I pray you; with point of spear if need be. I will hear what the damsel has to say."
Then Ishtar poured forth her whole heart with an eloquence that could only have been wrung from her by his danger whom she loved better than her very life. She reminded Ninyas of his professed attachment to herself, of their flight through the desert to the south, of her unwilling thraldom, and constant resistance at Ascalon, notwithstanding his rank, his beauty, his exceeding attractions, avoiding, with womanly tact, every allusion that could hurt his self-love, and lavishing, with womanly recklessness, every expression of flattery that could impress on him the immeasurable distance between his handmaid and her lord. Then she bade him judge of her feelings by his own. What had she to live for but the man she loved? The youth was toheras water in the desert, as a breath of air to one bricked up in a dungeon. She was sick for his comely face. She made her prayer to the king, because she had been taught from childhood he was the representative of Baal in the land of Shinar, the embodiment of truth, justice, and mercy amongst his people. She knelt to him as to Nisroch with the eagle-head. She presumed not to stand before his face without a gift. Let her find favour in his sight. It was the only jewel she had left. Let him take it. Let him but grant her petition, rescue this goodly youth from captivity, and take herself—her life—all she had to give!
In accordance with ancient custom forbidding the suppliant to enter the presence of a superior without an offering, she thrust into the king's hand that amulet of emerald which had already changed owners so many times. Even at her extremity of need she could not help remarking how white and delicate were those royal fingers that trembled round the jewel, how fair and shapely was the arm that shook with some inward conflict of passions, terrible in their struggle against the strength that kept them down. It was marvellous to her that jealousy should have such power over the male nature, and if Ninyas cared so very dearly for her, surely she ought to pity him, she thought, even though she could not love! All this under-current of feeling and reflection passed through her mind while she watched every turn and gesture of her lord with the eager eyes of one who balances between life and death.
The royal face was hidden by its tiara; the royal voice came low and husky with its haughty question,
"Is it a lover, girl, for whom you make this bold petition? Did he buy you with a trinket and cast you aside in the desert, and will nothing force him back to your arms save a decree of the king? Go to! You seem over-shameless for a maiden,—over-tender for a wife. I have spoken."
She was on her knees again, pressing the rider's garment to her forehead.
"By the glory of Shamash!" she exclaimed—"by the might of Ashur!—by the blood of Nisroch! I am a true woman. May my lips wither, may my tongue drop out, may my heart be consumed to ashes, if I conceive a falsehood in the face of my lord the king! His servant loves the youth—loves him so dearly, that for his sake she would accept death with joy, life-long bondage with gratitude—that to insure his safety she would give her hopes, her heart, her all, and consent never, never to see him again!"
The king was certainly changed. Looking wildly up in that comely face, it was colder, paler than before, and the lips turned very white while they asked in a low stern voice,
"How came you by this amulet? Speak the truth, girl, lest even now your eyes be covered and your body flung from the wall. Was it given you by—by this faithless lover of yours?"
"Not so, my lord," answered Ishtar eagerly. "As your servant liveth, it was round his neck when they bore him into captivity, and but that I had come to the market at sunrise to eat bread, I should never have known where they had taken him. I saw the jewel in the wares of an honest merchant, and I learned from him all that my heart desired to know."
Ninyas smiled as if well pleased, and spoke in a softer voice.
"Let him be brought to the palace at once," said the king, turning to Assarac. "An honest merchant ought to be easily distinguished in the market-place of Babylon. I should like to see him, girl, and I should like also to learn whither they have dared to carry this Assyrian-born. How called you him? Sarchedon, was it not?"
"Surely my lord is wiser than Nebo," answered the girl, "to know good from evil. It is even as he hath said. Behold, the king discovered it before my tongue could form the name that was in my heart."
The rider's hand gave such an involuntary wrench to the bridle, as caused Merodach to rear straight-on-end in resentment and surprise. Caressing the horse, and laughing lightly the while, Ninyas continued to question his suppliant:
"They have carried this free-born son of Ashur into captivity. It seems they have more courage than wisdom. And whither have they taken him?"
"Far beyond the northern mountains," answered Ishtar, "into the land of Armenia; and for that he is so comely of face and noble of stature, they will be loth to yield him back, for he is to stand in goodly raiment at the right hand of the king."
"Hear her, Assarac!" exclaimed Ninyas, turning to the eunuch, with flushed brow and sparkling eyes. "This comes of unstrung bows and peaceful counsels, the way of the serpent on the rock rather than of the lion by the water-spring, or the eagle in the sky. Go to! Are the spears of Ashur bulrushes by the river-side? Are his horses ham-strung? Hath the arm of his might dwindled to the lily hand of a maiden? I tell you, that for every furlong they have taken their captive beyond the bounds of Shinar, I will send chariots of iron and mailed horsemen a league into the land of Armenia to burn, ravage and destroy, to bring away their gods and lead their men and maidens into captivity! Nay, if so much as a hair of Sarchedon's head shall have fallen, I will sow their country with salt, and blot out its very name from among nations! Damsel, depart in peace; your petition is granted. I have spoken."
Exulting in her success, yet even more bewildered than rejoiced by the good fortune that had gained her object without sacrifice of personal freedom, Ishtar lost no time in obeying the royal injunction. Shrouding her fair face in its veil, she wrapped her rent garments modestly about her, and glided into the thickest of the crowd. Her escape was for a moment unnoticed, while the king gazed thoughtfully on the amulet she had left for a gift; but looking quickly up, as if about to give some directions to Assarac, the attention of each was arrested by tumultuous shouting at the adjoining gate, repeated in a thousand echoes of a thousand voices along the city wall.
It seemed that both were prepared for disaffection and disturbance among the populace. They exchanged meaning looks, and Assarac whispered in the royal ear,
"There are twenty bands of spearmen massed behind the rampart; priests and prophets are scattered in the market-places and squares of the city; chariots of iron are harnessed in scores, and horsemen by thousands wait but the holding up of my hand to mount. I pray you give the word, and ere the sun goes down, Baal shall exterminate, root and branch, all who question the authority of—of my lord the king."
Looking on the royal personage he addressed, the eunuch's eyes blazed with an admiration that seemed almost too warm for reverence, too passionate for loyalty. At the sound of tumult, the signal-note of conflict, Ninyas started into life with as much fire and energy as Merodach himself. The folds of the tiara fell back, disclosing those matchless features, that radiant face, glowing with just such pleasurable excitement as brightens the aspect of an ardent hunter when he sights the deer. That supple stately form, springing into graceful energy of attitude and gesture, seemed an embodiment of beauty in warlike harness. How could such softness and delicacy be endowed with such resistless might? Surely horse and rider, thought Assarac, formed a pair unequalled the wide world through.
"Keep the men of war back!" exclaimed Ninyas gleefully. "Never take your eye off my right hand. When I raise it thus, let the spears open out by wings, unmask the archers, and bid them bend their bows."
"You will return to the palace!" exclaimed Assarac. "You will not risk that precious life in a city tumult! By the light of Ashtaroth, by the blood of Nisroch, by the safety of the empire, by all you hold most sacred, I entreat you to keep out of danger!"
His voice was broken with real emotion, his features worked convulsively, as if he pleaded for something dearer than life, but a ringing laugh was the only answer to his appeal, and the anxious eunuch could but press on at a gallop to keep near the white horse and its rider, as they made for the great gate of Babylon that looked towards the south.
Like a swan cleaving the waters, Merodach forced his way through the ebb and flow of an eager crowd, even dangerous in the impatience with which it surged to one common centre, where two figures, dusty and travel-worn, as though arriving from a journey, sat patiently on their drooping horses to receive with exceeding calmness the cheers and congratulations lavished by the populace. One of these was in female attire, and enough of the veil and mantle were thrown aside to disclose a beautiful face, recognised with wild enthusiasm by the people of Babylon for that of the Great Queen. Shouts of welcome, acclamations denoting a transport of loyalty and affection, rose on all sides. "Semiramis! Semiramis!" was the ceaseless burden of many thousand voices; while the lowest and dirtiest of the excited multitude demanded angrily the repeal of that law which forbade a woman to reign over the sons of Ashur, insisting that their queen should be invested with supreme authority in this her especial city, the work of her hands, proposing that she should ride at once to the palace, on a pavement composed of their own necks and shoulders, many of them proceeding to fling themselves on their faces with that object forthwith.
So flattering a reception seemed, however, to raise no corresponding gratitude in the person to whom it was offered. The beautiful face wore only an expression of malicious amusement mingled with somewhat scornful surprise; while the other horseman, riding in close attendance, looked strangely troubled, whispering doubt and apprehension in the ear of his more composed, if more contemptuous, companion.
Sethos—for it was no other than the Great King's cup-bearer who thus found himself in a situation of extreme perplexity—on his arrival in Babylon felt indeed at his wits' end. When he obeyed the summons of his young lord, to ride with him through the desert, day and night, till they reached the great city, which Ninyas, for reasons of his own, proposed to enter in female disguise, he bade farewell to the grim towers of Ascalon with a light heart, looking on the expedition, though it necessitated more bodily exertion than he loved, as one of intrigue, mirth, and amusement, especially at the end. The little he could gather from Ninyas during their journey failed to prepare him for such a reception as awaited them; and indeed the young king toyed, trifled, and galloped through all these leagues of burning sand as if life had nothing more serious to offer than the jest of leaving his tired attendants, one by one, in the wilderness, and riding his own good horse mercilessly to the point of death.
It had ever been the nature of Ninyas to appear lightest of heart when most he saw cause for vexation or anxiety; nor, indeed, was it without good reason that he quitted his retirement to look after his inheritance in person, and made an effort to retain the sceptre, which he first learned was his own at the moment it seemed so mysteriously to be slipping from his grasp.
His conversation with Sethos had been the earliest communication he received of his father's departure to the stars; it filled him with wonder and alarm. Subsequent explanations and comments of the cup-bearer served only to increase his bewilderment. But for the audacity of such a proceeding, he would have felt satisfied that another had personated him in order to rob him of his crown.
It perplexed him, too, that he should have received no tidings from the mother to whom he was accustomed to fly in all his difficulties, feeling, perhaps, no little concern for her safety as well as for his own succession.
The escape of Ishtar also angered him to the core, while of Rekamat he was wearied, even to disgust. He resolved, therefore, on returning without delay to Babylon, there to examine for himself the opposition with which he had to contend, adopting the attire of a woman, as most likely thus to avoid recognition, while he prosecuted his inquiries and ascertained the nature of a conspiracy that must have been organised for his destruction.
It seemed, therefore, inconvenient and untoward in the last degree to find himself the object of such an ovation as now greeted him, denoting enthusiastic attachment, not for himself, but for the mother to whom he bore so close a resemblance. He felt his position more embarrassing than ever, when it dawned on him that in his own capital his own people mistook him for the queen. A score of times he strove to address them, and a score of times his voice was drowned in the deafening acclamations that arose the moment he opened his lips.
His patience was failing fast, and an angry light already glittered in his eyes, when the whole expression of his face changed to one of extreme consternation and dismay. Dashing up at a gallop, and halting within two strides, sat a figure on a white horse, so like himself in his ordinary royal attire, that for a space in which a man might have counted a hundred, his senses deserted him, and, speechless from sheer amazement, he could but gaze with dilated eyes, like one horror-stricken at some vision from another world. The face, the form, the scarlet robe, the princely tiara, the golden collar, the jewelled sword, the very trappings of the horse, were all his own; and in the gesture with which that figure suddenly drew rein to station itself motionless over against him, he seemed to seehimselfnot in the foolish disguise he had lately assumed, but as it had been his custom to ride through the streets of Babylon, the darling of the Assyrian people, the flower of young heroes, the fairest of young princes, in the eastern world.
Brief as was the interval during which his presence of mind forsook him, it was long enough to permit one of those rapid strokes by which, in love, war, and policy, bold spirits gain the mastery; the other Ninyas had also paused for a moment, as if confused and uncertain how to act, but Assarac, pressing to the white horse's side, whispered a few earnest words in its rider's ear—words that brought a flash of energy and intelligence into the beautiful face of his listener, ere the eunuch turned in the saddle to impress some hasty directions on a captain of ten thousand, who was in attendance at his back.
Meantime the multitude shouted louder than ever, crowding, as they believed, in eager homage about their queen, unconscious of the pressure caused by a ring of spearmen circling gradually round Sethos and the veiled figure at his side.
Mingled, however, with the protestations of loyalty and affection lavished on Semiramis, rose many a seditious outcry, many an angry burst of impatience and contempt against the name of Ninyas. As the spearmen encompassed the newcomers, there was much increase of ill-humour amongst the multitude, thus wedged together by a band of iron that compressed them from without—women shrieked and fainted—children were trampled under foot—strong men, reeling and swaying to and fro, cursed audibly, directing savage scowls and fierce abuse at the rider of the white horse, as though their ruler were answerable even for the excesses of a disorderly crowd. The storm increased, the human waves surged, swelled, and roared, everything indicated a tumult, and still the serried ranks of spearmen narrowed their circle, drawing closer and closer round the little knot of figures on which all eyes were fixed.
"Never had man or woman such a chance!" whispered Assarac. "By the body of Ashur, his sceptre has come down from the stars into your very hand. It is but to close your fingers, and you grasp it once for all!"
The rider of the white horse replied by a look of intelligence in the eunuch's face, and a gesture of supreme contempt for the noisy multitude.
Assarac's eyes answered with a gaze of devoted and passionate adoration.
"Opportunity," he murmured, "is the harvest of the gods!" But the sentiment seemed lost on the ear to which it was addressed; for the fiery white horse, obeying hand and heel, began to plunge with such formidable energy as soon cleared a breathing-space, so to speak, in the receding crowd.
And now the roll of chariots was heard without the gate, while a score of trumpets answered each other in swelling notes of war from all quarters of the city. Men knew that for every trumpet rode a thousand of Assyria's terrible horsemen, armed with bow and spear.
It was well, thought Sethos, for his lord and himself, that they were so safely guarded. Stalwart warriors, massed ten deep, kept the people off on every side; but with thunder of wheels and bray of clarions, a certain panic took possession of the crowd, and it closed in so heavily on the plunging Merodach that, active as was the animal, it seemed in danger of being swept off its feet. Had they once gone down, neither horse nor rider would ever have risen again.
Assarac exerted all his strength and all his courage to keep in close attendance. On his face was graven the set expression of one who elects rather to die than fail in his desire; and under that storm of howls, and threats, and bitter execrations, the eunuch bore himself like a man.
An ever-increasing pressure in the crowd had now forced the white horse against the surface of the city wall, which sloped upwards from within at such an angle as permitted a nimble bowman to surmount the incline, and reach a narrow platform, whence under cover of the rampart he could discharge his missiles in safety against an enemy. It was very steep, and afforded a foothold slippery and insecure to the last degree.
Measuring it in one rapid glance, his rider's hand and heel roused Merodach's courage to the utmost for his effort. With a bound like a wild-deer, a shower of sun-baked clay, a hideous moment of poise, struggle, and recovery, the white horse bore his rider to this point of vantage and security, standing there motionless, save for a quick vibration of his ears, a prolonged snort, expressing triumph, defiance, and a sense of danger past.
Throned in their recess, the pair seemed rather to have come down from the gods than gone up from amongst men.
Such a feat, with such a people, could not but produce an irresistible effect. Voices raised a little earlier in scorn and hatred now shouted enthusiastic admiration and approval. One such display of skill in horsemanship seemed enough to regain for their reckless ruler all the popularity that had been withdrawn.
Every eye was now riveted on the white horse and its rider. At a signal that the latter desired to speak, unbroken silence fell on those assembled thousands, and not an accent was lost of that sweet measured voice, clear, full, and musical in the cadence of its every tone.
"Sons of Ashur," it said, "men of Babylon, conquerors of the world, ye love the line of Nimrod dearly, but ye love notme! Tell me not ye have changed in one brief moment, because of a bold leap and a willing steed. I am unworthy to reign over you. I have been weighed, and found wanting. I have tried, and failed. Baal in his temple has warned me to abandon the reins I possess neither power nor wit to guide. I have seen your reception of Semiramis. I know—none better—the worth and wisdom of the Great Queen. Sons of Ashur, in her favour I abdicate; to her hand I resign my sceptre, at her feet I lay my crown. May the queen live for ever! I have spoken. And now stand aside, sons of Ashur, while I come down, lest I hurt a hair of the head of one of her especial people, whom she will rule with a mother's love, whom she will lead to triumphs beside which the glory of Ninus himself shall pale and fade away!"
With these words, Merodach was urged to the downward leap. A column of spearmen cleared a passage through the crowd, and the brave white horse, followed by the eyes of all Babylon, galloped off at speed towards the palace of the Great Queen.
When men turned to look for her, marvelling at her strange appearance among them weary and travel-worn out of the desert, lo, she too had vanished with her attendant, guarded, it was said, by hosts of archers, clouds of horsemen who thronged about her so thick and close, that none might lock on the royal person, nor come within hearing of the royal voice.
Nevertheless, each went to his home with a pleasing prospect of coming rejoicings, of war and triumph, feast and revel, harp, timbrel, and beat of dancing feet, splendour in the palace, plenty in the suburb, jovial days and merry nights throughout great Babylon once more.
A southern sun beat fierce and pitiless on the terrace of the queen's palace at Babylon. Hewn out of the solid rock, a smooth and glistening pavement refracted those noon-day beams like burnished metal. Not a breath of wind arose to cool the heated air; not a bird dared spread its wing against the burning sky; yet Assarac stood motionless and thoughtful in the open unshaded space, heedless alike of throbbing brain, blistered skin, and sandals scorching under his very feet.
Suddenly he started and stepped quickly forward, like one about to trample something beneath his heel. Checking himself in the act, he paused to mark a serpent gliding along the unfriendly pavement, as if seeking for a hole or crevice wherein to shelter its shining skin and smooth, flat, cunning head.
He had thought to slay it; but no, it was not in him to do the creature harm, as he stood watching it with wistful eyes, and bitter thoughts, and a strange sad feeling of compassion at his heart.
Uncoiling many a sleek and glistening fold, it worked its way slowly, painfully, traversing in all its length and breadth the surface of that pitiless pavement, so different from the dank morass and tangled brake for which its nature yearned. The wise reptile, type of caution, intellect, sagacity, measured its cunning in vain against the beautiful impenetrable slab, could find no solace in the hard unyielding stone.
"Is it better, after all," thought Assarac, "to wind, like this wily creature, along the devious paths of policy, or to take the straight and open road, leading to danger indeed, but to danger that may be foreseen, assailed and vanquished with the strong hand? Would I be the tiger, blind with desire of blood leaping at the wild-deer's throat, to slake a cruel thirst? or the serpent, crafty, patient, persevering, exhausting all its ingenuity, all its devices, against an obstacle smooth and impenetrable as this adamantine pavement, heated by the sun's rays, not to warm and cherish, but to scorch, wither, and consume?"
Thus meditating, with an unusual cloud of despondency on his brow, Assarac turned away, and traversing the large cool hall of the queen's palace, walked thoughtfully through leafy wilderness and shaded pleasure-ground to the silver temple of the Fish-God, where he had been summoned by Semiramis, that he might assist with his counsels the great design on which her heart was bent.
Kalmim, who had again resumed attendance in the household of her royal mistress, rejoicing that the days of mourning were at last expired, waited as usual in the porch.
With winning smiles and sparkling eyes—since Kalmim's bow was always bent for practice as for slaughter—she drew those silken hangings that screened the presence of Semiramis, and admitted him to the court of ivory and silver, as she had admitted Sarchedon once before, when that comely warrior arrived from the camp, bearing the signet of the Great King.
The queen had not forgotten. Something in the gesture of her tirewoman, something in the murmur of doves, the babble of waters, the scene, the place, the listless noon-day heat, recalled that other interview but too forcibly now, and she received Assarac with a languid loving smile.
The eunuch's whole nature glowed beneath her glance, while prostrating himself at her feet, he pressed the hem of her garment to his lips, with such rapture and devotion as he had never felt for Baal, Nisroch, Ashtaroth, nor all the host of heaven.
Her favourable looks emboldened him to speak; and after the formal salutation, "Great Queen, live for ever!" he offered his advice unasked, in a burst of impassioned eloquence, very different from his usual composed immovable demeanour.
"It is a war," said he, "of which the new-born babe in the land of Shinar may never live to see the end, unless indeed it should terminate in an advance on Babylon by innumerable hosts, under the leadership of Aryas the Beautiful, and the sacking of our city by those swarms of fierce savages who congregate in the wind-swept deserts of the north. The Great Queen's arm reaches far, her hand is strong and skilful; but, trust me, she is about to plunge it in a very hornets' nest!"
"And crush them like locusts in my grasp!" exclaimed Semiramis, all her beauty kindling into flame, while she threw up her graceful head in feminine defiance. "I make no war with drones, sparing their lives and taking away their gods, yet exacting small tribute of cattle or slaves: but when the insects carry stings, it is worth while to conquer and destroy. They breedmen, I hear, beyond the Zagros range—men stronger and fiercer, like their own storms, the farther you march towards the north. I will carry back ten thousand of their champions, chained in pairs, to make sport for my fickle people here in Babylon. The blind fools! they are as proud of their queen's might as if it were their own. 'Twas a good stroke of yours, Assarac, that enabled me to resume my woman's garment at will. You welded the iron like a cunning smith while it glowed and sparkled on the forge. I could not patiently endure the constant restraint; I never should have guessed how irksome it is to be a man."
"Irksome, indeed," said the eunuch, "so long as women have softer skins, stronger wills, and harder hearts. But the prince himself made the very opportunity that foiled him. I did but whisper in the Great Queen's ear to seize it. And though she drew her bow almost at a venture, the arrow flew deftly home, according to her wont."
"Nevertheless," answered Semiramis generously, "it wasyoureye that aimed the shaft, though my finger pulled the string. I have always esteemed the head that counsels far above the arm that strikes. By the beak of Nisroch! I believe that I have not in the land of Shinar so wise and true a servant as this high-priest of Baal!"
For answer, he was fain to kiss the hem of her robe once more. When he tried to speak, the words seemed stifled in his throat. With one of her rapid glances, she even detected something like a tear glisten in his eye.
"It is far better and easier," she continued, "to reign for myself, and meet my people frankly without disguise. While I personated my son, I felt in every word, every gesture, the likelihood of detection; and they were beginning to hate me as a king. I saw it every hour. To hate without fearing—a fatal sentiment in such subjects as mine, whom I can govern easily as I can rein Merodach, but by far different means. The ruler of Babylon must have a frank brow, a close mouth, a sharp sword, a long arm, and an immovable heart. When I reigned here in the absence of the Great King, ere he—ere he—went before us to the stars—who can reproach me that I ever turned one step aside, for any consideration of pity or compunction? And yet, did you not hear, my friend, how they yelled and shouted, leaping for joy to think they had got their queen back again? Ah, they have not come to the end of it yet! And now counsel me, Assarac. What is to be done about the prince?"
"He is safely disposed," answered the eunuch, keeping his eyes steadfastly off her face. "Nevertheless there is no gate so close but it may be opened by treachery, no wall so high it cannot be surmounted with a ladder of gold. The captains of ten thousand are loyal and trusty warriors, yet who among them could resist a tempter offering the leadership of the host? I would bestow my lord Prince Ninyas in a prison from which no captive escapes, a fortress friend and foe are alike powerless to break through. There is yet a golden throne vacant in the sky, and he might take his place in it without delay, by the side of the Great King."
It was a ghastly proposal; yet Semiramis seemed to listen without astonishment, and rather in sorrow than in any outburst of anger or dismay. She answered in a sad, thoughtful and dejected tone:
"Such a measure would be wise, I grant, and would set the question at rest for ever. But I must not—I will not—consent! I cannot but think the doves that fed me in my infancy have imparted something of their nature to mine. I loved the boy dearly all his childhood through; none the less, perhaps, that in form and features he seemed so entirely mine own. I was a good mother to him, as any sun-burned peasant who brings her babe into the vineyard on her back; and, will you believe me, Assarac? he cared more for a rough word or a rude jest from the Great King than for my fondest caress, my smiles, my very tears. When I have pleaded with him, even to his own advantage, he has turned his back on me, and laughed outright."
How strange it seemed that any man on earth could see that matchless face unmoved, hear that sweet voice unwon! But Assarac dared not speak, lest all his self-control should fail, and Semiramis proceeded with her complaint:
"He loved the meanest dancing-girl out of the market better than the mother to whom he owed his life, his beauty, his favour with the Great King. He would leave me for horse, and hawk, and hound, without a word—the ring of a timbrel, the flash of a torch, the clink of a wine-cup, would have taken him from beside my dying bed; and yet I cared for the lad through it all, sheltered him many a time from his father's anger, and screened his weakness, his incapacity, his vices, from the people over whom he thought some day to reign. I have done too much for Ninyas, and I have had no return. When I sent him to Ascalon with that white-faced girl, I thought we were rid of his follies for a space, to the profit of every one concerned. I never dreamed she would leave him, nor that the child loved its toy so well as to follow even to the gate of Babylon. That he should ride through in woman's attire must have been arranged expressly by the gods. Had he come in his own person, I had been compelled to act with less mercy. I thank you again, Assarac, that you saw the opportunity at a glance. One so sage in counsel, so quick in action, cannot but be skilful in war. Ere this year's dates have turned to russet, you and I will flaunt the banner of Ashur in the very face of the Beautiful King before his gate at distant Ardesh, and water our horses, whether he will or no, in the swift Araxes. War is the sport of kings, and am not I more king than queen when I mount my chariot in harness and headpiece, armed with bow and spear?"
"And does love count for nothing in the project?" asked the eunuch, with so much of reverence as masked, but did not quite conceal, a bitter sneer.
Semiramis turned from him in obvious displeasure: under the delicate ear he marked her very neck grow crimson with a blush. He bore pain well, this priest of a false god, and proceeded to urge his objections in the calm tone befitting one who offers counsel to a superior.
"Has the Great Queen counted well the cost?" said he. "Has she considered how many bones of men and horses must whiten the line of march to rearward of her armies, ere they pass the Zagros range? Can her chariots of iron penetrate its wooded defiles? How shall her camels climb its steep and slippery rocks? Say she advances to the fertile country beyond the hills: she must either encounter those terrible savages, who worship a naked sword as the sons of Ashur worship Nisroch and Baal—gigantic warriors, clad in skins, but armed with bow and spear eating human flesh and drinking horses' blood—or she will behold a barren plain before her, its peasants fled, its wells choked up, its harvest wasted by fire, affording neither food nor water to man or beast. When she has surmounted these obstacles, with the loss of half her strength, she will find herself face to face with a countless host of horsemen from the northern desert, under the leadership of Aryas the Beautiful himself."
In many respects, she was a woman to the core.
"I have heard heisbeautiful," she answered with a light laugh.
His reply was grave and sad:
"Could not he have met Semiramis, at the frontiers of her empire, in all honour and splendour, without encounter of armies and shedding of blood? Must he, too, rue the youthful manhood and comely face that bring him a captive to the Great Queen's chariot-wheels, because of her ungovernable desire—"
"How, slave!" she burst out fiercely.
"For glory and warlike renown," continued the eunuch; adding, humbly enough, "My life is in her hand. Let the queen take it, here at the shrine of Dagon, rather than do aught which shall prejudice her honour and her name."
She looked appeased.
"It is mine honour," said she, "that this matter immediately concerns. I send an embassy, demanding a certain captive at the hand of Aryas; and what is his reply? Neither gifts nor tribute, nor words of homage and respect, but two winged arrows bound together by a link of gold. It needs not the dark wisdom of the Egyptian to interpret such a sign. He means that this is no question of barter or ransom, but one to be decided between us by bow and spear. It is the issue I most desired in my heart."
"He means that the Comely King and the Comely Queen should join their hosts, and bind themselves together in a link that can never be dissolved," murmured the eunuch, almost with a groan.
She smiled in beautiful scorn.
"I have the arrows in my quiver," said she; "the first shall be shot into his camp, the day I meet him face to face, with its feathers dipped in blood. It may warn him, perhaps, that I have sworn to drive the second with mine own hand through his heart. There are goodly men in the world, I trow, besides Aryas, and one ten thousand times as fair is wasting in captivity even now. Prate not to me, Assarac! I tell you, that if I wrap the world in flames, I will have Sarchedon back, here in Babylon, before this year's dates have fallen from the palm! I am sick till I see his noble face again. It is enough: I have spoken."
Then the eunuch knew he was dismissed, and passed out of the temple sadly, thoughtfully with drooping head, folded hands, and slow dejected step.
Crossing the terrace once more, he looked about for the serpent; but it was gone.
Calling to mind its struggles and windings, he wondered where and how it could have found rest, foiled at every turn by the glowing surface of that smooth unimpressionable stone.
But for priest, as for warrior, there is no respite from daily duty, to be discharged with scrupulous care and unfailing zeal, however sore may be the heart within, aching under linen garment or proven harness of steel. Assarac must needs officiate at the altar of his god an hour before the sun went down, even had a victorious enemy been wasting the city with fire and sword, or had his own life been about to terminate with the first shadows of night.
How he loathed the mummery, that yet made him all he was; the machinery of which he knew so well each cog-wheel, catch, and lever; the false glare and sparkle that seemed so poor a substitute for the steady rays of truth! And yet he dared not whisper, even to his own heart, how mean and paltry was all this artifice by which he climbed to power.
He had a new religion now—that religion of the heart which sweeps wiser creeds away in a flood of blind unreasoning devotion; which degenerates, without a misgiving, into the wildest fanaticism, and can number its martyrs, as compared with those sacrificed to any other superstition, at the rate of a hundred to one.
He did not conceal from himself that he loved the queen—he, for whom the love of woman must ever be as the blind man's desire for light, fiercer, perhaps, and more ungovernable, because of the very impossibility that it should be realised. Cruel are the pangs of a hunger which is not even fed by hope. Intolerable is a thirst to which the very offer of water seems but mockery and aggravation. Nevertheless, he did not care to strive against his folly now. For a time, he had believed himself invulnerable—thought his very nature kept him safe—and that, for him at least, there must ever be an insuperable bar between admiration, regard, sympathy, and the slavish devotion which others call love. After admiration had become indiscriminating, regard unreasoning, and sympathy painful, he shut his eyes to the truth for about a day; but when he opened them, yielded without effort, plunging wildly into the abyss, owning a certain morbid pride, in the consciousness of his self-immolation, the while.
And now heart, brain, and faculties were all saturated with the poison. His strong will yielded gladly to the spell; his keen intellect was content to follow where it ought to lead; and had the queen bid him help her, as she said, to wrap the world in flames, his own hands would have brought the fire, though it scorched him to the bone.
To say that he loved is to say that he was jealous; but the torture he suffered was to that of other men as a cancer feeding on the vitals to a flesh-wound lacerating the skin.Theymight fret and struggle, gnashing their teeth, raving vengeance, threatening reprisals, alternately worsting the rival and reproaching the idol; buthemust suffer in silence, smiling however sad, erect however crushed and humbled, outwardly serene though troubled to very madness within.
And all unvisited by a ray of light, a glimpse of hope, even by the dream of whatmightbe, which has gilded so many a weary night-watch with fleeting visions of the dawn. Surely, through its very degradation, there was something sublime in such utter self-abasement, such complete self-sacrifice of love!
And yet his port was never more assured, his step firmer, his aspect more dignified, than when, after this interview with Semiramis, that had stung him to the core, he took his place at the altar to offer the usual evening sacrifice to his god.
The sun was sinking, and its level beams shed a crimson flush on the white garments of a band of priests, as on the spotless alabaster columns that crowned the lower story of the temple, supporting those upper chambers, of which the mysteries were veiled to eyes profane. A hundred steps, broken by five stately terraces, led down to an open space, in which thousands were crowded to witness the ceremony with upturned faces, that glowed no less vividly than did altar, shrine, and priests in the warm red lustre of a setting sun.
As in the morning to the east, so in the evening sacrifice the people turned themselves to the west.
A score of oxen stood lowing behind the altar. It seemed the poor beasts felt some forebodings of the fate that awaited them; though not till incense had been burned and drink-offerings poured out were their throats to be cut, at a given signal, and their flesh roasted for the consumption of that lavish god, whose daily service thus required the presence of a thousand satellites. These stood, marshalled like warriors, in rear of Assarac and Beladon, who assisted him in his functions. Swinging their censers, they continued chanting, or rather muttering, in a low voice and a minor key, certain formal repetitions, detailing the names and quality of their deity.
After a short delay, during which Assarac kept his eyes steadily fixed on the setting sun, he advanced before the altar, followed by Beladon, who waved above his superior's head the mystic ring, which, enclosing a representation of wings, formed the emblem of that incomprehensible power whose attributes were ubiquity and eternity. The eunuch's gait and gestures were solemn and imposing in the extreme; his ornaments of massive gold, his spotless robes, deeply embroidered, falling in heavy folds about his person, his fine stature and noble bearing—all were calculated to enhance his own dignity and that of the sacred office he fulfilled. Turning slowly to Beladon, he received at the hands of that assistant a golden cup filled with wine to the brim, and poured from it gravely a libation to the four quarters of heaven, finishing with the west. A hundred priests then advanced, chanting their hymns in time to a measured march, a hundred timbrels rang in sounding strains to the praise of Baal; and while fires were kindled, while smoke went up, and music swelled, the blood of twenty oxen flowed round the altar, filling the channels cut to receive it with a bubbling crimson stream.
Assarac and Beladon stood on each side, facing the people, wrapt, as it were, in a holy trance. Men looked on them in awe-struck wonder as votaries under the immediate influence of the god, whom Ashur himself, coming down from his throne, might address face to face, who were communing even now in spirit with the souls of departed heroes, with all the powers of all the host of heaven.
Little did they think how the eunuch's whole being was possessed at that very moment by a human vision of the brightest eye that ever shone in promise, the sweetest lips that ever kissed or smiled; while his attendant, yielding to desires yet more of earth, earthly, pierced the crowd with a gaze that, for all its semblance of holy preoccupation, did but seek a well-known female figure, alluring of form, lavishly attired, and not too closely veiled.
No sooner had the sun gone down, the stars come out, than Beladon, whose time was now his own, sought one of those courts which formed a communication between the temple of Baal and the king's palace, supposed by the people of Babylon to be occupied by Ninyas in a retirement from which their present temper would have rendered it extremely dangerous for him to emerge. Semiramis had returned to live in her own royal dwelling, where she held such state as caused all former magnificence to pale. The king's house, therefore, as it was called, became comparatively deserted; and with the exception of its wooded parks or paradises, fenced off for game, no spot in the whole city could have been so secluded as that in which Beladon lingered, pacing to and fro, stopping, muttering, glancing about him in fretful perturbation of spirit, peculiar to one waiting for a woman on whom he cannot quite depend. "At last!" he exclaimed, catching sight of a veiled figure gliding amongst the arches that skirted the court, like a ghost in the dubious starlight. "At last! And I saw you in the midst of the multitude before the sun went down, looking on at the sacrifices. Where have you lingered, woman, and what have you been doing since?"
Kalmim, for it was none other, raised her veil and laughed in his face.
"Who hunts learns cunning," said she. "Who toils learns skill. Who waits learns patience. With cunning, skill, and patience, even a priest may come at what he desires."
"Kalmim," he exclaimed earnestly, "do you believe there is nothing I would shrink from that you bade me undertake? Are you assured that I am constant and true as your own shadow on the wall? Do you trust me as I trustyou?"
She had an object; and laid her hand on his arm with a pressure that implied a world of confidence, while she answered,
"Stanch as string to bow, hound to slot, a woman to her mirror, and a man to his desire. We have never been less than friends, Beladon, why should we? Perhaps, at last, we may be something more."
He had an object too; therefore, resisting the impulse that prompted him to pass his arm round her waist without farther ceremony, he assumed an air of respectful devotion and observed,
"I have no secrets from Kalmim; I trust her without reserve. There is not a question she could ask me I would hesitate to answer from my heart. Will she do as much for me in return?"
"Of course!" she burst out frankly, while her bold black eyes looked him through and through. "What do you desire to know?"
"Arbaces was my friend," he replied abruptly. "The Great King's chief captain fell shamefully murdered in his own dwelling. His daughter was carried off by force into the desert. What has become of her now?"
"You love her!" she exclaimed, turning her head away in feigned vexation. "You love Ishtar, the cunning white-faced wanton! I ought to have known it; Ididknow it all along! And yetyou, Beladon—I thought you so different from the others. O, it is hard to bear! How could I have been so weak? How can I be so foolish now?"
She had put him thoroughly in the wrong. Surprised, alarmed, perplexed, perhaps not a little softened and flattered, he hastened to excuse himself with more ardour than discretion.
"It is for Assarac," he stammered, "not for me. The chief priest saw her awhile ago in the market, and she has escaped him—himwho can track a bird in the air surely as a camel on the sand! He bade me trace her. That is why I came toyou."
It passed through Kalmim's mind, that if Assarac set such store by the discovery of Ishtar's refuge, the information she had power to give would only be of value so long as it was withheld. If she would get her price, she must beware of submitting her merchandise to the light of day. The good-will of her customer too must obviously be secured in the first instance.
"And you do not love her yourself, Beladon?" she sobbed. "You are sure of it—you will swear it—on—on—the altar of your god!"
The storm had lulled—yet not too suddenly. The heaving bosom, half-unveiled, though somewhat deep in colour, was not without its charms.
"By every altar of every god that reigns," answered the deluded priest. "By Ashtaroth, queen of love and light; by Baal, in whose very presence even now I stood; and by your own sweet self, whom I worship perhaps more fervently than all the host of heaven put together!"
"I cannot but believe you," she answered, smiling sweetly, while she abandoned her hand to his caresses. "Nay, it would make me very sadnotto believe you, Beladon. Will you always be true to me?"
"Always!" he exclaimed, with an appearance of sincerity that might perhaps be attributed to his habit of making the same profession to every woman who was kind and fair.
She, too, was not without practice, and accepted the assurance calmly enough.
"Youdolove me," she whispered, "and, indeed, if ever I could bring myself to think of a priest, it should be one like—well, like Beladon, perhaps, though I sought in every temple through the land of Shinar till I found him. And now, if I tell you all I know, frankly and freely, will you promise me what I ask in return?"
"I promise," said he, pressing her hand to his lips.
"Will you swear?" she asked.
"Can you not trust me without an oath?" he pleaded.
"Freely," was her answer. "But you must swear it nevertheless, to pleaseme."
"Idoswear!" he exclaimed. "By the Seven Stars—the Consulting Judges—the might of Baal—the blood of Nisroch himself!"
"And by the three wings in the circle," she added impressively.
He hesitated; but the dark eyes, softer and sadder than their wont, were looking straight into his own, the balmy breath was on his cheek. Kalmim had never before seemed so kind, so womanly, so lovable, and he committed himself to his promise by swearing that solemn oath which, neither in letter nor in spirit, did a son of Ashur ever dare to break.
She looked more than satisfied. "I can tell you all about Ishtar," said she, "so long as she remained within the city walls, because I, who speak with you now, accompanied the girl, for old friendship's sake, beyond the southern gate, even to the Well of Palms, when she departed. She rode an old and sorry camel, bearing but a skin of water and a lump of dates. She was veiled and clothed for a long journey. I had nursed her on my knees when I was scarcely more than a babe myself; and I helped her, I own (for she is poor and lonely now), to beast, clothes, and provisions—though I begged hard of her to remain, little believing her earnest assurance, that if she could but find them, she had powerful friends in the wilderness. Nevertheless, even at the Well of Palms a tall rider had stopped to water his horse, and she did but speak a word in his ear, when he dropped on the sand to do obeisance at her feet. I was frightened, and fled to hide myself in the vineyards; but when I raised my head, they were riding away together into the desert with their faces towards the east. My own opinion is, that she has vanished from the earth like her mysterious mother, and gone back to the stars from which she traces her descent. And now, Beladon, that I have told you all I know, I claim from you the fulfilment of your promise and your oath."
He had sworn by the eternal wings, and there was no escape. The wisest men in their dealings with women have pledged themselves, ere now, to give precious metal in exchange for dross, and Beladon made no better bargain when he matched his wits against the keener intellect and finer perceptions of the queen's tirewoman.
With grave aspect, and much decreased ardour, he answered somewhat ruefully:
"I will do your bidding—not only for mine oath's sake, but because of the love I bear you. Speak, then—your servant is waiting your commands."
"It is not much I desire," said she carelessly, though had there been more light he might have seen the blush rising to her brow. "We women have strange fancies, you know; I would fain revisit my old haunts, and walk once more by night through the palace of the Great King!"
"Impossible!" he exclaimed, turning pale. "You know not what you ask——"
"Impossible!" she repeated, mocking him. "There is no such word acknowledged by the servants of Semiramis or Baal. Nothing is impossible, nor impenetrable, nor improper in the city of the Great Queen!"
"But my life would hang on your discretion," urged Beladon, much disturbed—"on the silence of a woman, whose very office it is to repeat everything she hears, whether false or true!"
"And where could it hang more safely?" she retorted. "Nay, Beladon, your welfare and mine are blended together like the bronze and gold of that buckle on your belt. The interest of one is the interest of both. Besides, think of your oath! Lead on."
There seemed no help for it. Taking her by the hand, he guided her softly through those darkened courts and passages; urging, in impressive whispers, the necessity of secrecy, laying no light stress on the peril he was himself encountering for her sake. Thus gliding like shadows, they passed stealthily through the great hall of the king's palace, immediately beneath thattalar, or upper chamber, into which Ninus had ascended when he poured his last drink-offering to the host of heaven, and was seen by his people here on earth no more.
She could not help shuddering while she recalled that awful night, when a great horror seemed to brood over the city, and men looked blankly in each others' faces, wondering what should befall them next.
Catching sight of the famous carbuncle over the gate, glowing, even in utter darkness, like a living coal, her fortitude gave way, and she screamed aloud.
However obtained, Beladon's experience seemed to have taught him that vigorous measures were judicious in cases of feminine alarm. Seizing her arm so impressively that she well-nigh screamed again for bodily pain, he whispered in her ear:
"It is death for both of us if we are discovered by the priests of Baal, who now guard the palace. I know my brethren, Kalmim, and Iloveyou. Listen! I wear a knife at my girdle, and you shall die first!"
Thoroughly frightened, she hung her head, and held her breath. Could this be the free-spoken light-hearted Beladon, whom she had hitherto esteemed a mere frivolous idler, fit only to fill a place in the showy pageants of his god? He was rising rapidly in her good opinion, while in her characteristic love of excitement a certain thrill of pleasure sweetened the terror that admonished her how many risks she ran at every step.
Traversing the great hall, they emerged on a terrace commanding one of those pleasure-grounds for which Babylon was then no less famous than in after years for the celebrated hanging-gardens that adorned the age of her decay. It was a wilderness of shrubs and flowers, of grove and rock and stream—fit haunt for the game with which it had been plentifully stocked—fit retreat for luxurious royalty during the heat of an Assyrian day—fit hiding-place to secrete the fair favourite of a jealous lord—fit stronghold to immure the person of an imprisoned king.
Its recesses were distinctly visible from the terrace twenty feet above, on which Kalmim stood. At that elevation she looked over its entire length and breadth, while a bright moon, high in the heavens, flooded every nook and corner of this paradise with a light like day.
It was now dead of night, the wild bird had gone to roost, the wild deer was couched in its lair, yet a dark object moved across the lawn, on which Kalmim's eyes were fixed, slowly, stealthily, with long-continued pauses, like some feline creature prowling for its prey.
"Come away," whispered Beladon in her ear. "You have traversed the palace; you have seen the king's garden. It is time to depart."
She made no answer. Her eyes were fixed and shining; her face set like that of a sleep-walker, or of one horror-stricken in a dream.
The figure turned slowly round. Its garments fell disordered and awry, its hair was dishevelled, its mien wild and scared, but none could mistake the beauty of that pale startled face; and in the miserable object thus stealing, shivering through the moonlight, Kalmim did not fail to recognise the person of Ninyas the king.
Surrounded by a dense column of spearmen, on whom threats, protestations, and remonstrances were alike wasted, the hapless son of Ninus and Semiramis had no sooner entered the city of his inheritance, in ill-advised disguise, than he found himself a helpless prisoner under the very eyes of his assembled people, shouting enthusiastic welcome of his return. So wisely had Assarac's measure been taken, so skilfully had he disposed the large force at his command, that Ninyas and his attendant, spite of their struggles, found themselves engulfed, as it were, and swept away in a resistless rush of spears. Their horses' bridles were seized, the animals themselves urged to a gallop, the guards who hemmed them in drowned with noisy cheers even the acclamations of an excited populace; and so the whirlwind swept on unchecked towards the king's palace, where all Babylon was persuaded its beloved queen had betaken herself, there to assume the royal diadem and sceptre, ere she sought her own dwelling on the other side of the river.
But Ninyas shuddered while they hurried him under the outspread wings of those colossal bulls; for something told him they guarded a prison-gate, obdurate and impenetrable as the very granite from which their huge proportions were hewn.
"It is all over," he whispered to Sethos. "The bow is broke and there are no more arrows in the quiver. This is one of the Great Queen's master-strokes. I ought not to have trusted her, and yet I thought my mother loved me too well to have worsted me like this!" Whereto his follower, from whose smooth and easy nature fortune, good or bad, glided without making much impression, only answered, "A silken cushion is a softer couch than the desert sand; a palace in Babylon is a nobler lodging than the fortress of Ascalon. Baal himself knows not what the coming hour may bring, but the three wings never cease to turn their everlasting wheel, and the spoke that is lowest one moment comes uppermost the next!"
The cup-bearer's philosophy was so far borne out, that the royal prisoner found no reason to complain of his personal treatment. His banquets were sumptuous, his pleasures magnificent, his retinue submissive, as if he were in truth a king; but, turn which way he would, he encountered the smooth faces and downcast looks of the priests of Baal, who answered his questions with irritating professions of ignorance, and waited on him with a subservience maddening in its vigilant humility. To those whose very existence depended on the favour of Assarac had been confided the care of this important captive, and scrupulously they fulfilled their trust. Though he wandered at will from court to court and hall to hall of the roomy palace—though he might take the air, when it pleased him, in its gardens, or follow the chase in its wilderness—he knew that never for a moment was he unwatched—felt that words, looks, gestures, all were noted and reported, that his very thoughts were known; for while many of his wishes seemed anticipated, his attempts at escape were foiled almost before contrived.
This constant supervision could not but tell on such a nature as that of Ninyas, could not but injure a constitution already sapped by luxury and indulgence. His health gave way; his mind became affected. He drank wine indeed, freely, but neither ate nor slept, wandering listlessly to and fro, chiefly in the open air, regardless of times and season—during the hours of darkness, as under the glare of noon. Had it not been for Sethos, who attended him with touching fidelity, his intellects must have wholly succumbed, and perhaps the purpose of his incarceration would have been accomplished. But the cup-bearer exhausted all his ingenuity to rouse and keep alive the faculties of his lord, desponding, nevertheless, more than was natural to his cheerful spirit and tendency in all things to hope the best.
Kalmim, watching the king with sudden frightened gaze, marked how pale he had grown and wan, how shrunken seemed his stature, how loose the costly garments hung on his limbs.
Could he see her? She knew not. He started indeed, and stood at gaze like a frightened deer, then muttered and ran on, looking up at the moon, pausing after a few steps, with drooping head and downcast eyes, to stare on the ground beneath his feet.
She was a hard, bold, pleasure-loving woman, yet her heart melted within her, and she wept.
"Are you satisfied?" whispered Beladon, in accents of considerable alarm. "I tell you, it is death to know our secrets, death to look on the sight you now see. Will you not depart ere it be too late?"
But Kalmim, it is scarce necessary to observe, had another object besides that of an idle visit to the king's palace, in thus cajoling her admirer and risking discovery by the dissolute priests of Baal. She had reason to believe that Sethos shared the captivity of his lord, and with Sethos she resolved to speak, if such an interview could be brought about by woman's wit, woman's duplicity, or woman's charms. Laying her hand caressingly on his arm, she shot one of her sweetest glances in Beladon's face, and whispered,
"Be patient with me, if you love me. I do but ask that you will take me hence to the cedar gallery. I know my way then to the outer court, and so can depart in peace."
Her quick wits reflected, that as a communication existed between the lawn and the cedar gallery, Sethos would be there in attendance on his lord.