Part 38 (1/2)
”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 a.s.sarac. ”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 a.s.syrian-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 n.o.ble 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, a.s.sarac!” 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 s.h.i.+nar, I will send chariots of iron and mailed hors.e.m.e.n a league into the land of Armenia to burn, ravage and destroy, to bring away their G.o.ds 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 pet.i.tion 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 a.s.sarac, 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 a.s.sarac whispered in the royal ear,
”There are twenty bands of spearmen ma.s.sed 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 hors.e.m.e.n 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 pa.s.sionate 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 att.i.tude 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 a.s.sarac, 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 a.s.sarac. ”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.
CHAPTER XL
UNVEILED
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 mult.i.tude 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 grat.i.tude in the person to whom it was offered. The beautiful face wore only an expression of malicious amus.e.m.e.nt 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 amus.e.m.e.nt, 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.