BEFORE THE ALTAR

But for priest, as for warrior, there is no respite from daily duty, to be discharged with scrupulous care and unfailing zeal, however sore may be the heart within, aching under linen garment or proven harness of steel. a.s.sarac must needs officiate at the altar of his G.o.d an hour before the sun went down, even had a victorious enemy been wasting the city with fire and sword, or had his own life been about to terminate with the first shadows of night.

How he loathed the mummery, that yet made him all he was; the machinery of which he knew so well each cog-wheel, catch, and lever; the false glare and sparkle that seemed so poor a subst.i.tute for the steady rays of truth! And yet he dared not whisper, even to his own heart, how mean and paltry was all this artifice by which he climbed to power.

He had a new religion now--that religion of the heart which sweeps wiser creeds away in a flood of blind unreasoning devotion; which degenerates, without a misgiving, into the wildest fanaticism, and can number its martyrs, as compared with those sacrificed to any other superst.i.tion, at the rate of a hundred to one.

He did not conceal from himself that he loved the queen--he, for whom the love of woman must ever be as the blind man's desire for light, fiercer, perhaps, and more ungovernable, because of the very impossibility that it should be realised. Cruel are the pangs of a hunger which is not even fed by hope. Intolerable is a thirst to which the very offer of water seems but mockery and aggravation. Nevertheless, he did not care to strive against his folly now. For a time, he had believed himself invulnerable--thought his very nature kept him safe--and that, for him at least, there must ever be an insuperable bar between admiration, regard, sympathy, and the slavish devotion which others call love. After admiration had become indiscriminating, regard unreasoning, and sympathy painful, he shut his eyes to the truth for about a day; but when he opened them, yielded without effort, plunging wildly into the abyss, owning a certain morbid pride, in the consciousness of his self-immolation, the while.

And now heart, brain, and faculties were all saturated with the poison.

His strong will yielded gladly to the spell; his keen intellect was content to follow where it ought to lead; and had the queen bid him help her, as she said, to wrap the world in flames, his own hands would have brought the fire, though it scorched him to the bone.

To say that he loved is to say that he was jealous; but the torture he suffered was to that of other men as a cancer feeding on the vitals to a flesh-wound lacerating the skin. _They_ might fret and struggle, gnashing their teeth, raving vengeance, threatening reprisals, alternately worsting the rival and reproaching the idol; but _he_ must suffer in silence, smiling however sad, erect however crushed and humbled, outwardly serene though troubled to very madness within.

And all unvisited by a ray of light, a glimpse of hope, even by the dream of what _might_ be, which has gilded so many a weary night-watch with fleeting visions of the dawn. Surely, through its very degradation, there was something sublime in such utter self-abas.e.m.e.nt, such complete self-sacrifice of love!

And yet his port was never more a.s.sured, his step firmer, his aspect more dignified, than when, after this interview with Semiramis, that had stung him to the core, he took his place at the altar to offer the usual evening sacrifice to his G.o.d.

The sun was sinking, and its level beams shed a crimson flush on the white garments of a band of priests, as on the spotless alabaster columns that crowned the lower story of the temple, supporting those upper chambers, of which the mysteries were veiled to eyes profane. A hundred steps, broken by five stately terraces, led down to an open s.p.a.ce, in which thousands were crowded to witness the ceremony with upturned faces, that glowed no less vividly than did altar, shrine, and priests in the warm red l.u.s.tre of a setting sun.

As in the morning to the east, so in the evening sacrifice the people turned themselves to the west.

A score of oxen stood lowing behind the altar. It seemed the poor beasts felt some forebodings of the fate that awaited them; though not till incense had been burned and drink-offerings poured out were their throats to be cut, at a given signal, and their flesh roasted for the consumption of that lavish G.o.d, whose daily service thus required the presence of a thousand satellites. These stood, marshalled like warriors, in rear of a.s.sarac and Beladon, who a.s.sisted him in his functions. Swinging their censers, they continued chanting, or rather muttering, in a low voice and a minor key, certain formal repet.i.tions, detailing the names and quality of their deity.

After a short delay, during which a.s.sarac kept his eyes steadily fixed on the setting sun, he advanced before the altar, followed by Beladon, who waved above his superior's head the mystic ring, which, enclosing a representation of wings, formed the emblem of that incomprehensible power whose attributes were ubiquity and eternity. The eunuch's gait and gestures were solemn and imposing in the extreme; his ornaments of ma.s.sive gold, his spotless robes, deeply embroidered, falling in heavy folds about his person, his fine stature and n.o.ble bearing--all were calculated to enhance his own dignity and that of the sacred office he fulfilled. Turning slowly to Beladon, he received at the hands of that a.s.sistant a golden cup filled with wine to the brim, and poured from it gravely a libation to the four quarters of heaven, finishing with the west. A hundred priests then advanced, chanting their hymns in time to a measured march, a hundred timbrels rang in sounding strains to the praise of Baal; and while fires were kindled, while smoke went up, and music swelled, the blood of twenty oxen flowed round the altar, filling the channels cut to receive it with a bubbling crimson stream.

a.s.sarac and Beladon stood on each side, facing the people, wrapt, as it were, in a holy trance. Men looked on them in awe-struck wonder as votaries under the immediate influence of the G.o.d, whom Ashur himself, coming down from his throne, might address face to face, who were communing even now in spirit with the souls of departed heroes, with all the powers of all the host of heaven.

Little did they think how the eunuch's whole being was possessed at that very moment by a human vision of the brightest eye that ever shone in promise, the sweetest lips that ever kissed or smiled; while his attendant, yielding to desires yet more of earth, earthly, pierced the crowd with a gaze that, for all its semblance of holy preoccupation, did but seek a well-known female figure, alluring of form, lavishly attired, and not too closely veiled.

No sooner had the sun gone down, the stars come out, than Beladon, whose time was now his own, sought one of those courts which formed a communication between the temple of Baal and the king's palace, supposed by the people of Babylon to be occupied by Ninyas in a retirement from which their present temper would have rendered it extremely dangerous for him to emerge. Semiramis had returned to live in her own royal dwelling, where she held such state as caused all former magnificence to pale. The king's house, therefore, as it was called, became comparatively deserted; and with the exception of its wooded parks or paradises, fenced off for game, no spot in the whole city could have been so secluded as that in which Beladon lingered, pacing to and fro, stopping, muttering, glancing about him in fretful perturbation of spirit, peculiar to one waiting for a woman on whom he cannot quite depend. "At last!" he exclaimed, catching sight of a veiled figure gliding amongst the arches that skirted the court, like a ghost in the dubious starlight. "At last! And I saw you in the midst of the mult.i.tude before the sun went down, looking on at the sacrifices. Where have you lingered, woman, and what have you been doing since?"

Kalmim, for it was none other, raised her veil and laughed in his face.

"Who hunts learns cunning," said she. "Who toils learns skill. Who waits learns patience. With cunning, skill, and patience, even a priest may come at what he desires."

"Kalmim," he exclaimed earnestly, "do you believe there is nothing I would shrink from that you bade me undertake? Are you a.s.sured that I am constant and true as your own shadow on the wall? Do you trust me as I trust _you_?"

She had an object; and laid her hand on his arm with a pressure that implied a world of confidence, while she answered,

"Stanch as string to bow, hound to slot, a woman to her mirror, and a man to his desire. We have never been less than friends, Beladon, why should we? Perhaps, at last, we may be something more."

He had an object too; therefore, resisting the impulse that prompted him to pa.s.s his arm round her waist without farther ceremony, he a.s.sumed an air of respectful devotion and observed,

"I have no secrets from Kalmim; I trust her without reserve. There is not a question she could ask me I would hesitate to answer from my heart. Will she do as much for me in return?"

"Of course!" she burst out frankly, while her bold black eyes looked him through and through. "What do you desire to know?"

"Arbaces was my friend," he replied abruptly. "The Great King's chief captain fell shamefully murdered in his own dwelling. His daughter was carried off by force into the desert. What has become of her now?"

"You love her!" she exclaimed, turning her head away in feigned vexation. "You love Ishtar, the cunning white-faced wanton! I ought to have known it; I _did_ know it all along! And yet _you_, Beladon--I thought you so different from the others. O, it is hard to bear! How could I have been so weak? How can I be so foolish now?"

She had put him thoroughly in the wrong. Surprised, alarmed, perplexed, perhaps not a little softened and flattered, he hastened to excuse himself with more ardour than discretion.

"It is for a.s.sarac," he stammered, "not for me. The chief priest saw her awhile ago in the market, and she has escaped him--_him_ who can track a bird in the air surely as a camel on the sand! He bade me trace her.

That is why I came to _you_."

It pa.s.sed through Kalmim's mind, that if a.s.sarac set such store by the discovery of Ishtar's refuge, the information she had power to give would only be of value so long as it was withheld. If she would get her price, she must beware of submitting her merchandise to the light of day. The good-will of her customer too must obviously be secured in the first instance.

"And you do not love her yourself, Beladon?" she sobbed. "You are sure of it--you will swear it--on--on--the altar of your G.o.d!"

The storm had lulled--yet not too suddenly. The heaving bosom, half-unveiled, though somewhat deep in colour, was not without its charms.

"By every altar of every G.o.d that reigns," answered the deluded priest.

"By Ashtaroth, queen of love and light; by Baal, in whose very presence even now I stood; and by your own sweet self, whom I worship perhaps more fervently than all the host of heaven put together!"

"I cannot but believe you," she answered, smiling sweetly, while she abandoned her hand to his caresses. "Nay, it would make me very sad _not_ to believe you, Beladon. Will you always be true to me?"

"Always!" he exclaimed, with an appearance of sincerity that might perhaps be attributed to his habit of making the same profession to every woman who was kind and fair.

She, too, was not without practice, and accepted the a.s.surance calmly enough.

"You _do_ love me," she whispered, "and, indeed, if ever I could bring myself to think of a priest, it should be one like--well, like Beladon, perhaps, though I sought in every temple through the land of Shinar till I found him. And now, if I tell you all I know, frankly and freely, will you promise me what I ask in return?"

"I promise," said he, pressing her hand to his lips.

"Will you swear?" she asked.

"Can you not trust me without an oath?" he pleaded.

"Freely," was her answer. "But you must swear it nevertheless, to please _me_."

"I _do_ swear!" he exclaimed. "By the Seven Stars--the Consulting Judges--the might of Baal--the blood of Nisroch himself!"

"And by the three wings in the circle," she added impressively.

He hesitated; but the dark eyes, softer and sadder than their wont, were looking straight into his own, the balmy breath was on his cheek. Kalmim had never before seemed so kind, so womanly, so lovable, and he committed himself to his promise by swearing that solemn oath which, neither in letter nor in spirit, did a son of Ashur ever dare to break.

She looked more than satisfied. "I can tell you all about Ishtar," said she, "so long as she remained within the city walls, because I, who speak with you now, accompanied the girl, for old friendship's sake, beyond the southern gate, even to the Well of Palms, when she departed.

She rode an old and sorry camel, bearing but a skin of water and a lump of dates. She was veiled and clothed for a long journey. I had nursed her on my knees when I was scarcely more than a babe myself; and I helped her, I own (for she is poor and lonely now), to beast, clothes, and provisions--though I begged hard of her to remain, little believing her earnest a.s.surance, that if she could but find them, she had powerful friends in the wilderness. Nevertheless, even at the Well of Palms a tall rider had stopped to water his horse, and she did but speak a word in his ear, when he dropped on the sand to do obeisance at her feet. I was frightened, and fled to hide myself in the vineyards; but when I raised my head, they were riding away together into the desert with their faces towards the east. My own opinion is, that she has vanished from the earth like her mysterious mother, and gone back to the stars from which she traces her descent. And now, Beladon, that I have told you all I know, I claim from you the fulfilment of your promise and your oath."

CHAPTER XLIII

THE SNARE OF THE FOWLER