Part 28 (1/2)
”I thank my lord for the comparison,” replied Rekamat, now quivering with vexation. ”He used not to think so when he hunted the lion under the walls of Nineveh: the vulture had bright eyes and sweet tones when she flapped her wings in Babylon before the Egyptian campaign, and my lord seemed well-pleased to find her hovering over him in Ascalon when he arrived with half-a-score of attendants, and a maiden swaddled up in sere-cloths on a dromedary. O that I had never come here! never seen this hideous, hot, and hateful town! never, never, _never_ looked on the face of my lord!”
Skilful in the science of such warfare, Rekamat burst into a storm of sobs, veiling her bright face with her delicate hands, to hide the tears, which were not perhaps forthcoming so freely as she could wish.
It was no part of the prince's nature to soften at sight of a woman's distress, real or simulated. He laughed heartily now, and she turned on him like a tigress.
”My lord has yet to learn the first lessons of manhood!” she exclaimed.
”What do I say? Am I not a fool to look for a warrior's beard on a boy's chin? Out on the smooth cheek and the white skin! Give me the heart, I say. As bright Ashtaroth is my witness, I would I were Prince Ninyas but for a single day!”
She was very handsome with her burning cheeks and flas.h.i.+ng eyes. It may be, that all the evil in her listener's disposition woke up at her petulance and audacity; but his countenance remained unmoved, his voice seemed unusually gentle, while he asked, ”Why?”
She looked in his face scared, dominated by the quiet tones that to her feminine apprehension seemed more threatening than the loudest outbreak of wrath.
”Why?” she repeated. ”Because I would cherish the faithful heart that beats only for me, while the stubborn slave who dared to mock my power should be thrust out with scorn into the wilderness.”
”Have you done?” asked Ninyas, still in the same placid tones, with the same hard unchanging smile.
She fell at his feet now, and her tears began to flow in sad earnest. In her anger, she had been ready enough to run the risk of offending him; but she shrank from paying the penalty.
”I am but as dust in the sight of my lord,” was her reply. ”It is for the prince to command, and for his handmaid to obey.”
”To-morrow, at dawn,” said Ninyas, ”you will sit in the gate of the city, with your garments rent and ashes scattered on your head. In the sight of archers and spearmen, and all the people of Ascalon, you will draw water from the well to wash the feet of Ishtar, as she takes her place of honour, doing homage to the beauty of her who is the chosen of your lord. I have spoken.”
Then he turned coldly away, leaving the prostrate beauty cowed and defeated, though maddened with the bitter prospect of her humiliation.
Notwithstanding his self-a.s.sertion, however, Ninyas proceeded on his undertaking with feelings of considerable annoyance and ill-humour. To be baffled by one woman was bad enough, but to be flouted for his failure by another was irritating in the extreme. He resolved that this trifling must be borne no longer, that the royal favour he offered must be accepted forthwith. What! the girl was in his power, after all! He had not wavered when her father lay slain on his own hearth; why should he hesitate now? She must be taught her lesson, here in this grim lonely fortress, and learn to accept with becoming grat.i.tude the honours thrust upon her by the G.o.ds.
Bold, reckless, unfeeling, he possessed the chief elements of success; but he was young, and left out of his calculations the thousand wiles and stratagems through which, in all encounters of their wits, a man is invariably out-manoeuvred by a woman.
While he entered her chamber, the girl felt her heart stop beating and her whole frame tremble like a leaf. She dropped her veil, nevertheless, with a steady hand, standing erect, to all appearance calm and motionless as a statue.
A flaring torch of pine-wood, dipped in pitch and fixed in a ring of bronze against the wall, shed its wavering glare on these two comely figures, playing over the sparkling jewels and festive garments of the one, while it deepened into gloom and mystery the shrouded outline of the other. Costly articles of furniture were scattered about the apartment, such as ivory couches, dressed skins of beasts, silken cus.h.i.+ons, and tables of elaborate Egyptian carving. On one of these stood two jewelled cups, and a flagon sparkling with amber wine from the south.
Ninyas paused at the threshold; then advancing on that silent inmate, took her hand, and pa.s.sed his arm round her waist.
”I have quitted lighted hall,” said he, ”and circling wine-cup, because of the Lily of Ascalon, without whom there seems no savour in the feast, no mirth in the revellers. My lily is drooping here in solitude--lo, I come to transplant her to a fairer garden and a richer soil.”
Quick as thought she flashed one glance into his beautiful face, and made up her mind even while she looked.
”His servant felt cruelly disappointed that my lord bade her not to the banquet,” was the deceitful answer. ”It is to my shame and sorrow, if I have in any way displeased my lord.”
Thus speaking, she disengaged herself gently from the encircling arm, and fell at his feet in an att.i.tude that expressed the utmost humility, but made it exceedingly difficult for Ninyas to embrace her again.
”You know,” said he, ”that you are always welcome to your prince. Come when she will and how she will, he only desires to lay the lily in his bosom, and place Ishtar beside him on a throne.”
”Then my lord is no longer wroth with his handmaid,” said she, unveiling and rising to her feet, while she called into her beautiful eyes a look that thrilled her admirer to the core. ”I have sat here silent and sad, thinking that the cloud between us was never to pa.s.s away. Lo, my lord looks favourably on his servant, and she is glad in the light of his smile once more.”
Rejoiced, no less than surprised, by the happy turn matters seemed to have taken, pluming himself also on his own wisdom in having left her for a s.p.a.ce to herself, all the heart Ninyas possessed flew to his lips while he exclaimed:
”I love you, Ishtar! love you better than power, riches, a warrior's fame, a king's throne, the wine I drink, the very air I breathe! O, I love you so, my pure and precious pearl, that I sometimes think the pleasure can never pay me for the pain!”