Part 6 (1/2)
Sethos tendered the wine-cup as in duty bound, then stood with hands crossed before him, and looks bent lowly on the earth. The king drained his morning draught to the dregs; and for a moment there rose a faint flush on the ashen features, a lurid glow in the wan weary eyes--but only to fade as quickly; and it was a sadly tremulous hand, though so broad and sinewy, that grasped his wine-cup; while the deep voice came very hoa.r.s.e and broken in which he asked Sethos,
”Who waits outside? Is it near sunrise?”
”Sargon, the royal s.h.i.+eld-bearer,” was the answer, ”has been on guard since c.o.c.k-crow; and Shamash, Prince of Light, will doubtless show himself above the horizon so soon as my lord the king appears at the door of his tent.”
Ninus bent his s.h.a.ggy brows in displeasure on the volubility of his servant.
”Halt!” said he. ”Rein in thy tongue, lest the dogs have their share of it without the camp. Fill yet again; and let me hear no more of this endless jargon about the G.o.ds.”
It was death to laugh in the king's presence; but Sethos, replenis.h.i.+ng the goblet to its brim, did not repress a smile. The old warrior's second draught seemed somewhat to renew his strength.
”Reach me that gown,” said he--”the heavy one; and the girdle yonder.
Fool! that in which hangs the sword--my good old sword! Ha! if Baal and Ashtaroth had done for me but one half the service of horse and weapon, they might take their share of the spoil, and welcome. By the belt of Nimrod, they shall not have one shekel more than a tenth this time!
Thirteen G.o.ds, by my beard, and every G.o.d a thousand priests! Why, it is enough to ruin the richest king that ever built treasure-house. I must reduce them. I will about it at once, when the people are busy with the triumph. I wonder what _she_ will say--my beautiful! I angered her long ago, when I refused to wors.h.i.+p Satan up yonder in the mountains. I would be loath to anger her again, though I will wors.h.i.+p nothing but the eyes that are watching fondly for my return.”
Old, exhausted, weary as he was, there came a gentle look over his grim war-worn face while he thought of the woman he loved so fondly, whom it had cost him so much of crime and cruelty to possess. But the pa.s.sion of acquisition, almost inseparable from age, was strong in the king's heart; and it chafed him to think the votaries of Baal should so largely share in the fruits of this his last and most successful expedition beyond the Nile.
Sethos, standing before him in the prescribed att.i.tude of respect, marked every shade of his lord's countenance, drawing his own conclusions, and preserving his usual air of imperturbable good humour and self-conceit.
The early flush of sunrise now stole under the hangings of the tent, crimsoning the cup-bearer's feet where he stood, so that his sandals looked as if they had been dipped in blood.
”Bid them sound trumpets,” said the king. ”Go tell Arbaces that the vanguard must set themselves in array at once. Where is Ninyas? He should have been waiting before his father's tent ere now. Wine, sloth, and pleasure--he loves them all too well. Yet the boy drew a good bow in his first battle, and rode through Pharaoh's hors.e.m.e.n, dealing about him like Nimrod himself. Go, bring him hither; and, Sethos, as you pa.s.s through the camp, order the captain of the night to call in the watches.
So soon as the camels are loaded I shall march.”
A warrior to the very marrow, Ninus loved such minute details as the marshalling of a vanguard, or the ordering of an encampment, better than all the pomp of royalty; and felt more at ease in steel harness, on the back of a good steed, than seated in purple and gold, with the royal parasol over head, the royal sceptre in hand, an object of wors.h.i.+p to adoring crowds in ancient Nineveh, or even great Babylon itself.
His son Ninyas, on the contrary, though scarcely yet verging on manhood, was already steeped in sensuality, and a slave to that reckless indulgence of the appet.i.tes which so soon degenerates from pleasure into vice. His grim father perhaps would have been less patient of excesses and outbreaks in camp and city but for the lad's exceeding beauty and likeness to his mother, Semiramis, whose race and womanly graces were reproduced with startling fidelity in those delicate boyish features, that lithe symmetry of form.
Sethos was a prime favourite with the prince, who approached his father's tent, leaning on the cup-bearer's shoulder, in respectful haste, denoted by his flushed face and disordered apparel. Though careless of the displeasure with which Ninus visited such unwarlike negligence, as he was of everything save the folly of the moment, he had put on neither harness nor headpiece, had neither taken a spear in his hand nor girt a sword upon his thigh.
The old king's s.h.a.ggy brows lowered till they almost hid his dull stern eyes.
”What maiden is this,” said he, ”who comes thus unveiled into the camp of warriors? Go, take needle in hand, and busy them with cunning embroidery if those unmanly fingers be too dainty to bear the weight of heavier steel.”
It was death to laugh in the king's presence, death to a.s.sume any other than the prescribed att.i.tude with bowed head and crossed hands; nevertheless a merry peal rang through the tent, the boy tossed the king's goblet in the air, and caught it again, while his fresh young voice answered lightly,
”There is a season for all things, father, and I like fighting at the proper time as well as old Nimrod himself. But this is a day of victory and rejoicing. I begin it with a drink-offering to my lord the king.”
He held the cup to Sethos while he spoke, laughing to see how little of the generous fluid was left in the wine-skin. His mirth was contagious, and the old lion smiled a grim smile while he laid his large wrinkled hand on the lad's shoulder, with a kindly gesture that was in itself a caress.
”Begone with you!” said he, ”and if proven harness be too heavy for those young bones, at least take bow and spear in hand. It was thus your mother came riding into camp the first time I ever saw those arched brows of hers. You have her fair face, lad, and something of her proud spirit and wilful heart.”
He looked after the boy sadly and with a wistful shake of his head; but just then a trumpet sounded, and the old warrior's eye gleamed, his features a.s.sumed their usual fierce and even savage expression, while he summoned his armour-bearer to rivet harness on his back, and the captains of his host to take their short, stern orders for the day.
And now the whole camp was astir. Tents were struck and camels loaded with a rapidity only acquired by the daily repet.i.tion of such duties under the eye of discipline and in presence of an enemy. Ere long, where horses and beasts of burden had been loosely picketed, or wandering half tethered amongst bundles of unbound forage, between the lines of dusky weather-stained tents--where spears had been piled in sheaves, amongst cooking utensils and drinking vessels--where bow and arrow, sword and s.h.i.+eld, helm and habergeon, had been tossed indiscriminately on war-chariots, horse furniture, or scattered heaps of spoil--where the movable city had seemed but a confused and disorganised ma.s.s, was fairly marshalled the flower of an a.s.syrian army, perfect in formation, splendid in equipment, and no less formidable, thus disposed in its smooth motionless concentration, like a snake prepared to strike, than when drawn out in winding s.h.i.+ning lines to encircle and annihilate its foe.
Even the captives had their allotted station, and with the spoil were disposed in mathematical regularity, to be guarded by a chosen band of spears. These prisoners were of two kinds, separate and distinct in every detail of feature, form, and bearing. The darker portion, some of whom were so swarthy that their colour looked like bronze, scowled with peculiar hatred on their conquerors, and, as it seemed, with the more reason that several bore such wounds and injuries as showed they had fought hard before they were taken alive, while a whiter-skinned and better-favoured race, with flowing beards, high features, and stately bearing, who kept entirely apart and to themselves, seemed to accept the proceedings of their captors in the forbearance of conscious superiority, not without a certain sympathy, as of those who have interests and traditions in common with their masters.