Part 51 (1/2)
CHAPTER LV
THE VOICE OF THE CHARMER
It was not the custom of an a.s.syrian army to leave its work half done.
The day after the great battle of Ardesh, the Armenians were scattered to the four winds of heaven. Thorgon and his long swords indeed lay on the field in regular lines of rank and file, as they had fallen; but, though resisting bravely while his crest could be seen above the tumult, when their king went down, the remnant of the mountain men broke up and fled in confusion to their homes. The very stratagem that had, as it were, doubled his presence for their encouragement, served perhaps but to dishearten them the more, when they no longer beheld the royal form which had hitherto seemed ubiquitous in the fight. Every portion of his host was satisfied it had taken its orders directly from the monarch; and when at last those two mailed figures, each of which was believed to be Aryas himself, came together in the hottest of the conflict, men lay so thick about the spot, that few indeed were left to observe the fall of one and disappearance of the other warrior, either of whom might have been their king.
Through many a league of mountain pa.s.s and tangled brake, fording the torrent or scouring the wind-swept plain, fled broken bands of fugitives, panting, scared, disarmed, looking wildly over their shoulder for the fierce and terrible foe, who spared not where he conquered, and when he lifted sword or javelin, never failed to drive it home.
But there was one troop of hors.e.m.e.n, scanty in number, yet formidable in appearance, that although fighting on the side of victory had suffered considerable loss. Returning towards the south in fair and orderly retreat, it yet bore no symptoms of discomfiture or flight. The children of Anak presented rather the appearance of a.s.sailants proceeding on some promising expedition than of a solitary force wilfully deserting the cause it had espoused. They restrained their invincible little horses to a steady regulated pace, halting at frequent intervals to show a bold front in case of pursuit from friend or foe. Their arms were bright, and held in readiness; their bearing was haughty and full of confidence; even the wounded sat firm and upright in their saddles, and at any moment all seemed prepared to resume the fray.
In the centre rode their Veiled Queen, accompanied by one in Armenian armour, who seemed less a prisoner than a guest.
While the battle raged at its fiercest round the white stone which Semiramis had marked at its turning-point, Ishtar found herself carried on its tide against the very person of him whom she had come to seek. It needed but a wave of her arm to rally round her those champions who believed so simply in her supernatural attributes, with whom no hors.e.m.e.n in the world could counter stroke for stroke. Pressing in on their leader, they soon encircled Ishtar and Sarchedon, soon cut their way to the outskirts of the battle, and merging alike their compact with Semiramis and their own love of fighting in blind obedience to their queen, drew off in perfectly good order, to commence a steady retreat for their southern home.
The a.s.syrian had seen Aryas fall in fight, had noted the destruction of the long swords, the total rout of those hardy warriors who hoped in vain to make head against his countrymen. What was left him now, but to drift with the stream of fate in the arms of the woman he loved?
The Anakim soon recognised him as the companion of their leader, when first she appeared among their tents and they knew her not. This was enough to insure their protection and regard. At the first halt, there was even a question of receiving him as an adopted brother in the tribe; but he wanted more than a span of the necessary stature, and that project was unwillingly abandoned. Nevertheless, every man felt pledged to do him homage and defend his person to the death.
It seemed to Sarchedon that he was riding through some unreal paradise in a dream. He told Ishtar as much, while she related her trials, her sorrows, and her undeviating constancy since they parted in the desert after their flight from Ascalon. He feared to wake, he said, and find himself again in that Egyptian dungeon, from which escape seemed hopeless as from the tomb.
”Beloved,” she answered, ”the queen of heaven will not permit us to be tried yet farther. Behold! twice has she brought you deliverance through me her servant in your hour of greatest need. It is enough. We shall be parted no more. We will cast in our lot with these children of the wilderness: they are brave, generous, faithful; they will fence us from our enemies with a hedge of steel.”
”Be it so,” he answered, looking fondly in the dear face that was unveiled only to _him_. ”Better a goats' hair tent with Ishtar in the desert than a painted chamber and an empty heart in the palace of a king. And yet,” he added somewhat wistfully, ”I would fain see the inside of great Babylon again before I die.”
They were crossing a fair and level plain, the mountains above Ardesh were already sinking on the horizon, and the children of the desert welcomed that smooth unvaried surface, as reminding them of the boundless tract they called their home.
Presently the chief, riding warily in their rear, shouted to halt.
Forming towards the point of danger, they observed a column of dust rising in the distance, as of an armed party proceeding rapidly on their track.
To those observant eyes, prompt and reliable information was afforded by the lightest tokens of earth or sky. While Sarchedon could detect but a rolling yellow cloud, the sons of Anak told each other of ten score hors.e.m.e.n and a war-chariot travelling at speed.
They bore down, therefore, in the direction of the approaching party, forming carefully round Ishtar and her companion in case of conflict.
When within a furlong of each other, both troops somewhat slackened pace, and a chariot, driven furiously towards the Anakim, was stopped at a spear-length from their chief.
Standing in it, erect and fearless before drawn bows and levelled spears, with head bared, s.h.i.+eld lowered in token of amity, a.s.sarac raised his unarmed hands, and cried in a loud voice, ”Is it peace, O my brother?”
”Let there be peace, my brother, between thee and me,” answered the chief of the Anakim; and the eunuch, getting down out of his chariot, proceeded to explain the reason of his coming and his absence in the hour of victory from the army of the Great Queen.
”Semiramis,” he said, ”had been grievously wounded at the very moment of triumph. If not hurt to the death, she was at least unable to retain command of the host, or even to provide for the government of her empire at home. Therefore must he hasten back to Babylon, that he might rule wisely and in accordance with the laws of s.h.i.+nar, while the queen's authority was thus for a s.p.a.ce in abeyance. New times were coming--a new policy, perhaps a new dominion. Those who were so skilful to rein a steed and wield a sword must ever be welcome to a warlike government, such as could alone control the sons of Ashur. He had it in his power to offer the Anakim a tract of fertile country, a land of corn and wine and oil, in which to dwell at ease, ruled by their hereditary chief and subject to their fathers' laws. Would they not hold it of the Great Queen by service of bow and spear, each man sitting under his own vine and his own fig-tree, doing that which seemed good in his own eyes?”
The Anakim glanced doubtfully at each other; their chief pointed to the mare from which he had dismounted, and shook his head.
”I could not breathe Lotus-flower,” said he, ”in the confines of such a tract. Like the wild a.s.s, whose speed she laughs to scorn, her limbs would stiffen if she might not stretch them on a plain boundless as the sky that meets it on every side.”
”There is rich spoil to share,” urged the eunuch. ”Herds of sheep, oxen, and camels, droves of captives--men, women, and children--wine, jewels, goodly raiment, and gold to be had for the asking.”