Part 45 (1/2)
It had been the custom of the Great Queen, during their long and toilsome progress from the country between the rivers to the mountain regions of Armenia, to inspect with her own eyes the camp-life of her armies, and to satisfy herself of their nourishment, their comfort, their general efficiency, above all, their loyalty to her person and fidelity to the standard under which they marched.
For this purpose she would a.s.sume the disguise of a simple archer, hiding her face, as if to screen it from the sun, with the folds of a linen head-dress, such as has always been affected by inhabitants of hot climates, and so, often without a single attendant, would stroll unrecognised through the camp, listening to the rude talk of the spearmen, and noting for future reproof any instances of negligence, tyranny, or misconduct that took place within her observation. Men wondered how an ill-yoked chariot, a trodden and turbid watering-place, an over-loaded camel, all came under notice of the Great Queen; so that the prevalent belief in her G.o.dlike birth and more than human attributes gained ground day by day from these examples of a knowledge that seemed at once ubiquitous and infallible.
No sooner had she disposed her forces, with all the skill her experience suggested, round the stronghold of her enemy than she determined to examine for herself the actual state of the wall which fortified it, even if she had to venture within bowshot of the defenders. For this purpose she stole from her own magnificent pavilion in the attire of an a.s.syrian archer, and covering her face as usual, pa.s.sed slowly through the lines where the flower of an army lay encamped, which, though sadly weakened by the toil and hards.h.i.+ps of its protracted march, seemed yet formidable antagonists to any power on earth.
The men were scattered about in groups, already making preparations, though noon was not long past, for their princ.i.p.al meal at sundown. Here a brawny warrior, with arms bare to the shoulder and legs to the thigh, was shredding herbs in his headpiece, the homeliness of his occupation contrasting ludicrously with the warlike nature of his cooking vessel, as did the nudity of his extremities with the proven harness that kept his mighty chest. A comrade, lying on his back with arms folded over his face, kicked his legs in the air, while he watched the proceedings with a listlessness that denoted he was for evening duty, and would have no share in the result. A score of others, ungirt, unsandalled, half-armed, half-dressed, were gathered round a dying camel, vociferating many opposing remedies for the poor beast's treatment, while the roar of an irritated stallion, the peal of a trumpet, the stamp and snort of a row of feeding horses, mingled with the hum of voices rising from a circle of stalwart warriors sitting, though the sun beat fiercely down, round the embers of their camp-fire.
It was not in the nature of Semiramis to pa.s.s these magnificent specimens of manhood without notice. Half unconsciously she lingered in their vicinity, marking their ample beards, fine stature, and robust proportions, agreeing well with their deep full tones, while they discussed freely enough the chances of the expedition and the stirring events of their daily life, sparing not the captains of ten thousand, nor forbearing to criticise the great leader herself, who stood by and overheard.
”'Tis a strained bow they bid us bend, my brothers,” observed a scarred, war-worn veteran, whose mien and bearing displayed all the fierce pride, the overweening self-confidence a.s.sumed by those who had served under the Great King; ”a strained bow and a frayed cord--peradventure, a headless shaft to point, as well; but that makes little odds against solid masonry and bare rock. I doubt, if we are to get at the kernel of this date here over against us, we must crack the sh.e.l.l with our teeth.”
”I can tell thee that mine are blunt for want of use,” retorted a comrade, hammering busily at a broken link in his habergeon. ”How are men to be fed on the march through a country that grows nothing but oaks and brushwood? There is gra.s.s, indeed, between the hills, and game for those who can hunt it in the woods, but of corn and cattle the valleys are bare as the palm of my hand.”
”And empty as his belly,” laughed a third. ”He liketh well to have store of good things in both.”
”But Semiramis forbade pillage,” interposed his neighbour, grinning.
”They took an auxiliary with a s.h.i.+eld full of barley that he s.n.a.t.c.hed from an old man's thres.h.i.+ng-floor, and she impaled him on the spot.”
”Fool! that was in our own land of s.h.i.+nar, before we crossed the frontier,” said the first speaker. ”The Great Queen never forbade pillage in an enemy's country till we marched into this wilderness, where there is nothing to take. Besides, the rogue slew the old man in his own vineyard, and he was only an auxiliary after all.”
”And an ungainly wretch to boot, I will wager my share of supper presently out of that scanty pot,” added a handsome young spearman, arranging his curly beard in the breastplate he had polished up to the brightness of a mirror for that purpose. ”A comely youth of proper stature, be he captain or camel-driver, need never fear but he will find favour in the sight of the Great Queen.”
His fellows laughed loud and long.
”Hear him!” shouted one, clapping the speaker on the back, ”the favourite of Ashtaroth!”
”The dainty lotus-flower of the host!” exclaimed another; while a third, turning on him with mock gravity, bade him,
”Go to for a fool, who must be answered according to his folly.”
”Dost thou verily believe,” said he, ”that because of thy bull's head and shoulders, thy foolish leer like a sheep in a sacrifice, and the perpetual grin of a southern ape eating a sour pomegranate, thou wilt get preferment at her hands, who knows a man when she sees one, and treats him like the arrows in her quiver? Lo! the bow is bent, the mark is struck or missed, another is fitted to the string; but the same shaft never comes into her royal service again. Though thy turn of duty takes thee daily to the great pavilion, I doubt if the queen hath ever seen thee yet.”
”She shall hear of me, nevertheless,” said the other, with a glance at the beleaguered town.
”Knocking that empty head of thine against the wall!” returned the veteran. ”I tell ye, my brothers, that of all the wars yet undertaken by the sons of Ashur, this is the most untoward and ill-advised. What said the Great King when he turned back from the Zagros range, taking earth and water of the Men of the Mountain, but refraining to occupy their country? 'I would be lord of all below,' said he, pointing to those snow-whitened hills that mingle with the clouds, 'while I leave to my fathers the dominion of the sky!' He has gone to join them at last; but could he come back to us this night, I tell ye by to-morrow's sunset we should be a day's march on our journey towards home!”
”Then why are we here now?” was asked by two or three voices at once.
The answer came in a grave important tone:
”Because of a treasure within those walls that Semiramis would wage life and empire, and you and me, and the whole might of Ashur to attain. What it is, I know not; if I knew, peradventure I dared not tell. But this I will uphold of the Great Queen, that her lightest wish is to the fixed resolve of another, as a man walking in armour to a maiden was.h.i.+ng her feet in a stream.”
His listeners nodded approval, and scanning the lofty towers above them, began hazarding many conjectures as to the nature of that possession so coveted by their queen. A strong opinion seemed to prevail that Ardesh contained some illimitable store of spoils h.o.a.rded by Armenian kings for ages; and this impression served partly to counteract their general feeling of despondency and disheartening belief in the impregnable strength of the place. The youngest of these men of war spoke the most hopefully.
”I will never admit,” said he, ”that the might of man can shut out the sons of Ashur under the banner of our Great Queen. A rock is steep. Go to! shall we not cast a bank against it? A wall is thick; shall we not undermine it from beneath? Give me a high curved s.h.i.+eld to keep my head, a steel pick, and an iron crowbar; behold, I will sit like a partridge in the barley, and burrow like a coney amongst the rocks.”
”So be it,” answered the veteran moodily. ”The sooner our trumpets sound to the a.s.sault the better. I tell thee, man, though the guards still show a goodly front, the hosts of a.s.syria are wasting and waning day by day, like that river in Egypt I pa.s.sed over dry shod, like a flagon of Damascus wine, my brother, standing betwixt thee and me.”