A Victor of Salamis Part 48

The _Nausicaa's_ people staggered to the oars. So busy were they in righting their own ship few saw the crowning horror. A moment more and a few drifting spars, a few bobbing heads, were all that was left of the Phnician. The aegean had swallowed her.

A shout was pealing from the ships of the h.e.l.lenes. "Zeus is with us!

Athena is with us!"

At the outset of the battle, when advantage tells the most, advantage had been won. Themistocles's deed had fused all the Greeks with hopeful courage. Eurybiades was charging. Adeimantus was charging. Their ships and all the rest went racing to meet the foe.

But the _Nausicaa_ had paid for her victory. In the shock of ramming the triple-toothed beak on her prow had been wrenched away. In the _melee_ of ships which had just begun, she must play her part robbed of her keenest weapon. The sinking of the Barbarian had been met with cheers by the h.e.l.lenes, by howls of revengeful rage by the host against them. Not lightly were the Asiatics who fought beneath the eyes of the king to be daunted. They came crowding up the strait in such ma.s.ses that sheer numbers hindered them, leaving no s.p.a.ce for the play of the oars, much less for fine manuvre. Yet for an instant it seemed as if mere weight would sweep the h.e.l.lenes back to Salamis. Then the lines of battle dissolved into confused fragments. Captains singled out an opponent and charged home desperately, unmindful how it fared elsewhere in the battle.

Here an Egyptian ran down a Euban, there a Sicyonian grappled a Cilician and flung her boarders on to the foeman's decks. To the onlookers the scene could have meant naught save confusion. A hundred duels, a hundred varying victories, but to which side the final glory would fall, who knew?-perchance not even Zeus.

In the roaring _melee_ the _Nausicaa_ had for some moments moved almost aimlessly, her men gathering breath and letting their unscathed comrades pa.s.s. Then gradually the battle drifted round them also. A Cyprian, noting they had lost their ram, strove to charge them bow to bow. The skill of the governor avoided that disaster. They ran under the stem of a Tyrian, and Glaucon proved he had not forgotten his skill when he sent his javelins among the officers upon the p.o.o.p. A second Sidonian swept down on them, but grown wise by her consort's destruction turned aside to lock with an aeginetan galley. How the fight at large was going, who was winning, who losing, Glaucon saw no more than any one else. An arrow grazed his arm. He first learned it when he found his armour b.l.o.o.d.y. A sling-stone smote the marine next to him on the forehead. The man dropped without a groan. Glaucon flung the body overboard, almost by instinct.

Themistocles was everywhere, on the p.o.o.p, on the foreship, among the rowers' benches, shouting, laughing, cheering, ordering, standing up boldly where the arrows flew thickest, yet never hit. So for a while, till out of the confusion of ships and wrecks came darting a trireme, loftier than her peers. The railing on p.o.o.p and prow was silver. The shields of the javelin-men that crowded her high fighting decks were gilded. Ten pennons whipped from her masts, and the cry of horns, tambours, and kettledrums blended with the shoutings of her crew. A partially disabled h.e.l.lene drifted across her path. She ran the luckless ship down in a twinkling. Then her bow swung. She headed toward the _Nausicaa_.

"Do you know this ship?" asked Themistocles, at Glaucon's side on the p.o.o.p.

"A Tyrian, the newest in their fleet, but her captain is the admiral Ariamenes, Xerxes's brother."

"She is attacking us, Excellency," called Ameinias, in his chief's ear.

The din which covered the sea was beyond telling.

Themistocles measured the water with his eye.

"She will be alongside then in a moment," was his answer, "and the beak is gone?"

"Gone, and ten of our best rowers are dead."

Themistocles drew down the helmet, covering his face.

"_Euge!_ Since the choice is to grapple or fly, we had better grapple."

The governor shifted again the steering paddles. The head of the _Nausicaa_ fell away toward her attacker, but no signal was given to quicken the oars. The Barbarian, noting what her opponent did, but justly fearing the handiness of the Greeks, slackened also. The two ships drifted slowly together. Long before they closed in unfriendly contact the arrows of the Phnician pelted over the _Nausicaa_ like hail. Rowers fell as they sat on the upper benches; on the p.o.o.p the _proreus_ lay with half his men.

Glaucon never counted how many missiles dinted his helmet and buckler. The next instant the two ships were drifting without steerage-way. The grappling-irons dashed down upon the Athenian, and simultaneously the brown Phnician boarders were scrambling like cats upon her decks.

"Swords, men!" called Themistocles, never less daunted than at the pinch, "up and feed them with iron!"

Three times the Phnicians poured as a flood over the _Nausicaa_. Three times they were flung back with loss, but only to rage, call on their G.o.ds, and return with tenfold fury. Glaucon had hurled one sheaf of javelins, and tore loose another, eye and arm aiming, casting mechanically. In the lulls he saw how wind and sea were sweeping the two ships landward, until almost in arrow-shot of the rocky point where sat Xerxes and his lords. He saw the king upon his ivory throne and all his mighty men around him. He saw the scribes standing near with parchment and papyrus, inscribing the names of this or that ship which did well or ill in behalf of the lord of the Aryans. He saw the gaudy dresses of the eunuchs, the litters, and from them peering forth the veiled women. Did Artazostra think _now_ the h.e.l.lenes were mad fools to look her brother's power in the face? From the sh.o.r.es of Attica and of Salamis, where the myriads rejoiced or wept as the scattered battle changed, the cries were rising, falling, like the throb of a tragic chorus,-a chorus of t.i.tans, with the actors G.o.ds.

"Another charge!" shouted Ameinias, through the din, "meet them briskly, lads!"

Once more the hoa.r.s.e Semitic war-shout, the dark-faced Asiatics dropping upon the decks, the whir of javelins, the scream of dying men, the clash of steel on steel. A frantic charge, but stoutly met. Themistocles was in the thickest _melee_. With his own spear he dashed two Tyrians overboard, as they sprang upon the p.o.o.p. The band that had leaped down among the oar benches were hewn in pieces by the seamen. The remnant of the attackers recoiled in howls of despair. On the Phnician's decks the Greeks saw the officers laying the lash mercilessly across their men, but the disheartened creatures did not stir. Now could be seen Ariamenes, the high admiral himself, a giant warrior in his purple and gilded armour, going up and down the p.o.o.p, cursing, praying, threatening,-all in vain. The _Nausicaa's_ people rose and cheered madly.

"Enough! They have enough! Glory to Athens!"

But here Ameinias gripped Themistocles's arm. The chief turned, and all the h.e.l.lenes with him. The cheer died on their lips. A tall trireme was bearing down on them in full charge even while the _Nausicaa_ drifted.

They were as helpless as the Sidonian they had sent to death. One groan broke from the Athenians.

"Save, Athena! Save! It is Artemisia! The queen of Halicarna.s.sus!"

The heavy trireme of the amazon princess was a magnificent sight as they looked on her. Her oars flew in a flashing rhythm. The foam leaped in a cataract over her ram. The sun made fire of the tossing weapons on her prow. A yell of triumph rose from the Phnicians. On the _Nausicaa_ men dropped sword and spear, moaned, raved, and gazed wildly on Themistocles as if he were a G.o.d possessing power to dash the death aside.

"To your places, men!" rang his shout, as he faced the foe unmoved, "and die as Athenians!"

Then even while men glanced up at the sun to greet Helios for the last time, there was a marvel. The threatening beak shot around. The trireme flew past them, her oars leaping madly, her people too intent on escape even to give a flight of javelins. And again the Athenians cheered.

"The _Perseus_! Cimon has saved us."

Not three ships' lengths behind the Halicarna.s.sian raced the ship of the son of Miltiades. They knew now why Artemisia had veered. Well she might; had she struck the _Nausicaa_ down, her own broadside would have swung defenceless to the fleet pursuer. The _Perseus_ sped past her consort at full speed, Athenian cheering Athenian as she went.

"Need you help?" called Cimon, from his p.o.o.p, as Themistocles waved his sword.

"None, press on, smite the Barbarian! Athena is with us!"

"Athena is with us! Zeus is with us!"

The _Nausicaa's_ crew were lifted from panic to mad enthusiasm. Still above them towered the tall Phnician, but they could have scaled Mt.

Caucasus at that instant.

"Onward! Up and after them," rang Ameinias's blast, "she is our own, we will take her under the king's own eye."

The javelins and arrows were pelting from the Barbarian. The Athenians mocked the shower as they leaped the void from bulwark to bulwark. Vainly the Phnicians strove to clear the grapples. Too firm! Their foes came on to their decks with long leaps, or here and there ran deftly on projecting spars, for what athlete of h.e.l.las could not run the tight rope? In an instant the long rowers' deck of the Tyrian was won, and the attackers cheered and blessed Athena. But this was only storming the first outpost.

Like castles forward and aft reared the prow and p.o.o.p, whither the sullen defenders retreated. Turning at bay, the Phnicians swarmed back into the waist, waiting no scourging from their officers. Now their proud admiral himself plunged into the _melee_, laying about with a mighty sword worthy of Ajax at Troy, showing he was a prince of the Aryans indeed. It took all the steadiness of Ameinias and his stoutest men to stop the rush, and save the Athenians in turn from being driven overboard. The rush was halted finally, though this was mere respite before a fiercer breaking of the storm. The two ships were drifting yet closer to the strand. Only the fear of striking their own men kept the Persians around the king from clouding the air with arrows. Glaucon saw the grandees near Xerxes's throne brandishing their swords. In imagination he saw the monarch leaping from his throne in agony as at Thermopylae.

"Back to the charge," pealed Ariamenes's summons to the Tyrians; "will you be cowards and dogs beneath the very eyes of the king?"

The defenders answered with a second rush. Others again hurled darts from the stern and foreship. Then out of the maelstrom of men and weapons came a truce. Athenian and Tyrian drew back, whilst Themistocles and Ariamenes were fighting blade to blade. Twice the giant Persian almost dashed the h.e.l.lene down. Twice Themistocles recovered poise, and paid back stroke for stroke. He had smitten the helmet from Ariamenes's head and was swinging for a master-blow when his foot slipped on the b.l.o.o.d.y plank. He staggered.

Before he could recover, the Persian had brought his own weapon up, and flung his might into the downward stroke.

"The admiral-lost!" Athenians shuddered together, but with the groan shot a javelin. Clear through the scales of the cuira.s.s it tore, and into the Persian's shoulder,-Glaucon's cast, never at the Isthmus truer with hand or eye. The ponderous blade turned, grazed the Athenian's corselet, clattered on the deck. The Persian sprang back disarmed and powerless. At sight thereof the Phnicians flung down their swords. True Orientals, in the fate of their chief they saw decreeing Destiny,-what use to resist it?

"Yield, my Lord, yield," called Glaucon, in Persian, "the battle is against you, and no fault of yours. Save the lives of your men."

Ariamenes gave a toss of his princely head, and with his left hand plucked the javelin from his shoulder.

"A prince of the Aryans knows how to die, but not how to yield," he cast back, and before the Athenians guessed his intent he sprang upon the bulwark. There in the sight of his king he stood and bowed his head and with his left arm made the sign of adoration.

"Seize him!" shouted Ameinias, divining his intent, but too late. The Persian leaped into the water. In his heavy mail he sank like lead. The wave closed over him, as he pa.s.sed forever from the sight of man.

There was stillness on the Tyrian for a moment. A groan of helpless horror was rising from the Barbarians on the sh.o.r.e. Then the Phnicians fell upon their knees, crying in their harsh tongue, "Quarter! Quarter!" and embracing and kissing the feet of the victors. Thanks to the moment of quietness given them, the Athenians' blood had cooled a little; they gathered up the weapons cast upon the deck; there was no ma.s.sacre.

Themistocles mounted the p.o.o.p of the captured flag-ship, and Glaucon with him. The wind was wafting them again into the centre of the channel. For the first time for many moments they were able to look about them, to ask, "How goes the battle?" Not the petty duel they had fought, but the great battle of battles which was the life-struggle of h.e.l.las. And behold, as they gazed they pressed their hands upon their eyes and looked and looked again, for the thing they saw seemed overgood for truth. Where the great Barbarian line had been pushing up the strait, were only bands of scattered ships, and most of these turning their beaks from Salamis. The waves were strewn with wrecks, and nigh every one a Persian. And right, left, and centre the triumphant h.e.l.lenes were pressing home, ramming, grappling, capturing. Even whilst the fight raged, pinnaces were thrusting out from Salamis-Aristeides's deed, they later heard-crowded with martial graybeards who could not look idly on while their sons fought on the ships, and who speedily landed on Psyttaleia to ma.s.sacre the luckless Persians there stationed. The cheers of the Barbarians were ended now; from the sh.o.r.es came only a beastlike howling which drowned the paeans of the victors. As the _Nausicaa's_ people looked, they could see the once haughty Phnicians and Cilicians thrusting back against the land, and the thousands of footmen running down upon the sh.o.r.e to drag the shattered triremes up and away from the triumphant h.e.l.lenes.

The _Nausicaa's_ people in wondering gaze stood there for a long time as if transfixed, forgetful how their ship and its prize drifted, forgetful of weariness, forgetful of wounds. Then as one man they turned to the p.o.o.p of the captured Tyrian, and to Themistocles. _He_ had done it-their admiral. He had saved h.e.l.las under the eyes of the vaunting demiG.o.d who thought to be her destroyer. They called to Themistocles, they worshipped as if he were the Olympian himself.

CHAPTER x.x.x