Sarchedon Part 39

Nevertheless, each went to his home with a pleasing prospect of coming rejoicings, of war and triumph, feast and revel, harp, timbrel, and beat of dancing feet, splendour in the palace, plenty in the suburb, jovial days and merry nights throughout great Babylon once more.

Hisroch the Abenger

CHAPTER XLI

A SERPENT ON A ROCK

A southern sun beat fierce and pitiless on the terrace of the queen's palace at Babylon. Hewn out of the solid rock, a smooth and glistening pavement refracted those noon-day beams like burnished metal. Not a breath of wind arose to cool the heated air; not a bird dared spread its wing against the burning sky; yet a.s.sarac stood motionless and thoughtful in the open unshaded s.p.a.ce, heedless alike of throbbing brain, blistered skin, and sandals scorching under his very feet.

Suddenly he started and stepped quickly forward, like one about to trample something beneath his heel. Checking himself in the act, he paused to mark a serpent gliding along the unfriendly pavement, as if seeking for a hole or crevice wherein to shelter its shining skin and smooth, flat, cunning head.

He had thought to slay it; but no, it was not in him to do the creature harm, as he stood watching it with wistful eyes, and bitter thoughts, and a strange sad feeling of compa.s.sion at his heart.

Uncoiling many a sleek and glistening fold, it worked its way slowly, painfully, traversing in all its length and breadth the surface of that pitiless pavement, so different from the dank mora.s.s and tangled brake for which its nature yearned. The wise reptile, type of caution, intellect, sagacity, measured its cunning in vain against the beautiful impenetrable slab, could find no solace in the hard unyielding stone.

"Is it better, after all," thought a.s.sarac, "to wind, like this wily creature, along the devious paths of policy, or to take the straight and open road, leading to danger indeed, but to danger that may be foreseen, a.s.sailed and vanquished with the strong hand? Would I be the tiger, blind with desire of blood leaping at the wild-deer's throat, to slake a cruel thirst? or the serpent, crafty, patient, persevering, exhausting all its ingenuity, all its devices, against an obstacle smooth and impenetrable as this adamantine pavement, heated by the sun's rays, not to warm and cherish, but to scorch, wither, and consume?"

Thus meditating, with an unusual cloud of despondency on his brow, a.s.sarac turned away, and traversing the large cool hall of the queen's palace, walked thoughtfully through leafy wilderness and shaded pleasure-ground to the silver temple of the Fish-G.o.d, where he had been summoned by Semiramis, that he might a.s.sist with his counsels the great design on which her heart was bent.

Kalmim, who had again resumed attendance in the household of her royal mistress, rejoicing that the days of mourning were at last expired, waited as usual in the porch.

With winning smiles and sparkling eyes--since Kalmim's bow was always bent for practice as for slaughter--she drew those silken hangings that screened the presence of Semiramis, and admitted him to the court of ivory and silver, as she had admitted Sarchedon once before, when that comely warrior arrived from the camp, bearing the signet of the Great King.

The queen had not forgotten. Something in the gesture of her tirewoman, something in the murmur of doves, the babble of waters, the scene, the place, the listless noon-day heat, recalled that other interview but too forcibly now, and she received a.s.sarac with a languid loving smile.

The eunuch's whole nature glowed beneath her glance, while prostrating himself at her feet, he pressed the hem of her garment to his lips, with such rapture and devotion as he had never felt for Baal, Nisroch, Ashtaroth, nor all the host of heaven.

Her favourable looks emboldened him to speak; and after the formal salutation, "Great Queen, live for ever!" he offered his advice unasked, in a burst of impa.s.sioned eloquence, very different from his usual composed immovable demeanour.

"It is a war," said he, "of which the new-born babe in the land of Shinar may never live to see the end, unless indeed it should terminate in an advance on Babylon by innumerable hosts, under the leadership of Aryas the Beautiful, and the sacking of our city by those swarms of fierce savages who congregate in the wind-swept deserts of the north.

The Great Queen's arm reaches far, her hand is strong and skilful; but, trust me, she is about to plunge it in a very hornets' nest!"

"And crush them like locusts in my grasp!" exclaimed Semiramis, all her beauty kindling into flame, while she threw up her graceful head in feminine defiance. "I make no war with drones, sparing their lives and taking away their G.o.ds, yet exacting small tribute of cattle or slaves: but when the insects carry stings, it is worth while to conquer and destroy. They breed _men_, I hear, beyond the Zagros range--men stronger and fiercer, like their own storms, the farther you march towards the north. I will carry back ten thousand of their champions, chained in pairs, to make sport for my fickle people here in Babylon. The blind fools! they are as proud of their queen's might as if it were their own.

'Twas a good stroke of yours, a.s.sarac, that enabled me to resume my woman's garment at will. You welded the iron like a cunning smith while it glowed and sparkled on the forge. I could not patiently endure the constant restraint; I never should have guessed how irksome it is to be a man."

"Irksome, indeed," said the eunuch, "so long as women have softer skins, stronger wills, and harder hearts. But the prince himself made the very opportunity that foiled him. I did but whisper in the Great Queen's ear to seize it. And though she drew her bow almost at a venture, the arrow flew deftly home, according to her wont."

"Nevertheless," answered Semiramis generously, "it was _your_ eye that aimed the shaft, though my finger pulled the string. I have always esteemed the head that counsels far above the arm that strikes. By the beak of Nisroch! I believe that I have not in the land of Shinar so wise and true a servant as this high-priest of Baal!"

For answer, he was fain to kiss the hem of her robe once more. When he tried to speak, the words seemed stifled in his throat. With one of her rapid glances, she even detected something like a tear glisten in his eye.

"It is far better and easier," she continued, "to reign for myself, and meet my people frankly without disguise. While I personated my son, I felt in every word, every gesture, the likelihood of detection; and they were beginning to hate me as a king. I saw it every hour. To hate without fearing--a fatal sentiment in such subjects as mine, whom I can govern easily as I can rein Merodach, but by far different means. The ruler of Babylon must have a frank brow, a close mouth, a sharp sword, a long arm, and an immovable heart. When I reigned here in the absence of the Great King, ere he--ere he--went before us to the stars--who can reproach me that I ever turned one step aside, for any consideration of pity or compunction? And yet, did you not hear, my friend, how they yelled and shouted, leaping for joy to think they had got their queen back again? Ah, they have not come to the end of it yet! And now counsel me, a.s.sarac. What is to be done about the prince?"

"He is safely disposed," answered the eunuch, keeping his eyes steadfastly off her face. "Nevertheless there is no gate so close but it may be opened by treachery, no wall so high it cannot be surmounted with a ladder of gold. The captains of ten thousand are loyal and trusty warriors, yet who among them could resist a tempter offering the leadership of the host? I would bestow my lord Prince Ninyas in a prison from which no captive escapes, a fortress friend and foe are alike powerless to break through. There is yet a golden throne vacant in the sky, and he might take his place in it without delay, by the side of the Great King."

It was a ghastly proposal; yet Semiramis seemed to listen without astonishment, and rather in sorrow than in any outburst of anger or dismay. She answered in a sad, thoughtful and dejected tone:

"Such a measure would be wise, I grant, and would set the question at rest for ever. But I must not--I will not--consent! I cannot but think the doves that fed me in my infancy have imparted something of their nature to mine. I loved the boy dearly all his childhood through; none the less, perhaps, that in form and features he seemed so entirely mine own. I was a good mother to him, as any sun-burned peasant who brings her babe into the vineyard on her back; and, will you believe me, a.s.sarac? he cared more for a rough word or a rude jest from the Great King than for my fondest caress, my smiles, my very tears. When I have pleaded with him, even to his own advantage, he has turned his back on me, and laughed outright."

How strange it seemed that any man on earth could see that matchless face unmoved, hear that sweet voice unwon! But a.s.sarac dared not speak, lest all his self-control should fail, and Semiramis proceeded with her complaint:

"He loved the meanest dancing-girl out of the market better than the mother to whom he owed his life, his beauty, his favour with the Great King. He would leave me for horse, and hawk, and hound, without a word--the ring of a timbrel, the flash of a torch, the clink of a wine-cup, would have taken him from beside my dying bed; and yet I cared for the lad through it all, sheltered him many a time from his father's anger, and screened his weakness, his incapacity, his vices, from the people over whom he thought some day to reign. I have done too much for Ninyas, and I have had no return. When I sent him to Ascalon with that white-faced girl, I thought we were rid of his follies for a s.p.a.ce, to the profit of every one concerned. I never dreamed she would leave him, nor that the child loved its toy so well as to follow even to the gate of Babylon. That he should ride through in woman's attire must have been arranged expressly by the G.o.ds. Had he come in his own person, I had been compelled to act with less mercy. I thank you again, a.s.sarac, that you saw the opportunity at a glance. One so sage in counsel, so quick in action, cannot but be skilful in war. Ere this year's dates have turned to russet, you and I will flaunt the banner of Ashur in the very face of the Beautiful King before his gate at distant Ardesh, and water our horses, whether he will or no, in the swift Araxes. War is the sport of kings, and am not I more king than queen when I mount my chariot in harness and headpiece, armed with bow and spear?"

"And does love count for nothing in the project?" asked the eunuch, with so much of reverence as masked, but did not quite conceal, a bitter sneer.

Semiramis turned from him in obvious displeasure: under the delicate ear he marked her very neck grow crimson with a blush. He bore pain well, this priest of a false G.o.d, and proceeded to urge his objections in the calm tone befitting one who offers counsel to a superior.

"Has the Great Queen counted well the cost?" said he. "Has she considered how many bones of men and horses must whiten the line of march to rearward of her armies, ere they pa.s.s the Zagros range? Can her chariots of iron penetrate its wooded defiles? How shall her camels climb its steep and slippery rocks? Say she advances to the fertile country beyond the hills: she must either encounter those terrible savages, who worship a naked sword as the sons of Ashur worship Nisroch and Baal--gigantic warriors, clad in skins, but armed with bow and spear eating human flesh and drinking horses' blood--or she will behold a barren plain before her, its peasants fled, its wells choked up, its harvest wasted by fire, affording neither food nor water to man or beast. When she has surmounted these obstacles, with the loss of half her strength, she will find herself face to face with a countless host of hors.e.m.e.n from the northern desert, under the leadership of Aryas the Beautiful himself."

In many respects, she was a woman to the core.

"I have heard he _is_ beautiful," she answered with a light laugh.

His reply was grave and sad:

"Could not he have met Semiramis, at the frontiers of her empire, in all honour and splendour, without encounter of armies and shedding of blood? Must he, too, rue the youthful manhood and comely face that bring him a captive to the Great Queen's chariot-wheels, because of her ungovernable desire--"

"How, slave!" she burst out fiercely.

"For glory and warlike renown," continued the eunuch; adding, humbly enough, "My life is in her hand. Let the queen take it, here at the shrine of Dagon, rather than do aught which shall prejudice her honour and her name."

She looked appeased.

"It is mine honour," said she, "that this matter immediately concerns. I send an emba.s.sy, demanding a certain captive at the hand of Aryas; and what is his reply? Neither gifts nor tribute, nor words of homage and respect, but two winged arrows bound together by a link of gold. It needs not the dark wisdom of the Egyptian to interpret such a sign. He means that this is no question of barter or ransom, but one to be decided between us by bow and spear. It is the issue I most desired in my heart."

"He means that the Comely King and the Comely Queen should join their hosts, and bind themselves together in a link that can never be dissolved," murmured the eunuch, almost with a groan.

She smiled in beautiful scorn.

"I have the arrows in my quiver," said she; "the first shall be shot into his camp, the day I meet him face to face, with its feathers dipped in blood. It may warn him, perhaps, that I have sworn to drive the second with mine own hand through his heart. There are goodly men in the world, I trow, besides Aryas, and one ten thousand times as fair is wasting in captivity even now. Prate not to me, a.s.sarac! I tell you, that if I wrap the world in flames, I will have Sarchedon back, here in Babylon, before this year's dates have fallen from the palm! I am sick till I see his n.o.ble face again. It is enough: I have spoken."

Then the eunuch knew he was dismissed, and pa.s.sed out of the temple sadly, thoughtfully with drooping head, folded hands, and slow dejected step.

Crossing the terrace once more, he looked about for the serpent; but it was gone.

Calling to mind its struggles and windings, he wondered where and how it could have found rest, foiled at every turn by the glowing surface of that smooth unimpressionable stone.

CHAPTER XLII