"Nay, Sethos," said she; "I would peril much for your sake, because--because--you never asked of me anything for yourself, and what you bestow on man or woman is given freely and without an afterthought.

But Ninyas is one, and you are another. If I am to risk life and limb, it must be for the cup-bearer, not for the king. I am not like an armour of defence, to be put on or laid aside at will. Steel headpiece and linked habergeon ward off death from this man as from that; but, trust me, there is some difference between a harness of proof and a woman's heart."

He looked kindly in her face, and a thought seemed to strike him.

"Even here, in our imprisonment," said he, "there sometimes reaches us an echo, faint and feeble, of rumours that stir the outer world. Is it true the Great Queen has summoned an innumerable host to march forthwith on this expedition to the North?"

"It _is_ true," said Kalmim; "and she leaves me here at home--_me_, without whom awhile ago she could not lay a plait nor plant a bodkin.

But that you are here in captivity, Sethos, and I shall be near you, it would have angered me bitterly, and I had reproached her roundly to her face. But let her beware! A smouldering flame is not a fire extinguished; and none was ever yet the better for offending Kalmim, with or without a cause."

"In the queen's absence, there must be a governor of the city," he whispered. "Will the obedience of the people be given to such a one when their ruler is many a day's march away? O Kalmim, if Ninyas be ever righted, ever sit on the throne of Ashur in the palace of his fathers, I, even I, shall stand in a dress of honour at his right hand; and who but Kalmim will then really sway the sceptre, far and wide, over the whole land of Shinar?"

Her eyes flashed, her cheek glowed. No woman is so empty, so frivolous, but that she willingly entertains a project of ambition; and the last watch of night had pa.s.sed away, dawn was already glimmering on the horizon of the desert, while Sethos and his visitor were yet taking earnest counsel together how they might restore the dynasty to its rightful heir, and sap, till it crumbled into ruins, the glory and power of her who was now supreme mistress of the eastern world.

CHAPTER XLIV

THE VEILED QUEEN

In all her reflected splendour as the wife of the great conqueror--in her richest l.u.s.tre of youthful beauty--in her n.o.blest state of royal magnificence while she administered for an absent husband the affairs of his boundless empire--never did Semiramis appear so glorious, so beautiful, or so queenly, as when she pa.s.sed in review, on the frontiers of the land of Shinar, the innumerable forces she had collected, less, indeed, to gratify the cravings of ambition than of a softer yet more engrossing sentiment, which in her woman's heart predominated over desire of conquest and love of war.

Even with her untold resources, unscrupulous strength of will, and unquestioned power, it was no light task for the Great Queen to muster such a host as might invade the strange and distant regions for which it was destined, if not with certainty of victory, at least, without prospect of defeat. To the haughty a.s.syrian, polished and luxurious, though fierce and warlike, that rude inhospitable country, from which he was fenced by his northern mountains, seemed awful as the land beyond the grave. For him, the word "Armenia" meant a place of horror, mystery, and romance. With Egypt he was familiar as with the sandy desert that parted him from his ancient enemy. Of Ethiopia, notwithstanding its scorching suns and endless wastes, he had formed his own ideas, sufficiently extravagant, attributing to its burning clime many demons, monsters, and other prodigies, yet wholly satisfied that all the powers of the south, in or out of nature, were as nothing before the face of Baal and the might of Ashur. The warlike Philistine tribes, even the redoubtable children of Anak, he had fought against, with varying success, gradually absorbing them in his own dominion or pushing them farther into the wilderness. It was his custom to conquer wherever he found room to drive his chariots and wheel his hors.e.m.e.n; but he had never yet penetrated beyond the Zagros range to the snowy peaks, the s.h.a.ggy woods, the dreary wilds of the North. That he should meet with peril and adventure such as the veterans of Ninus had not even dreamed, he was fully persuaded; that he should overcome all obstacles, he had been no son of Ashur had he not implicitly believed; but that he was engaged in a formidable undertaking, and would encounter a powerful foe, seemed obvious from the enormous levies collected, and the gigantic preparations made to carry out the war.

The whole expedition was commanded to a.s.semble within a few days' march of the frontier, there to receive final orders, and pa.s.s in review under the eyes of the Great Queen.

Wearing a dazzling harness of steel inlaid with gold, and a burnished helmet, on which blazed a ruby of such size and splendour that its rays seemed to play round her head like a plume of fire, Semiramis, standing in a war-chariot, revealed to her a.s.sembled host a beauty brighter than the metal, richer and more l.u.s.trous than the gem. Close by her wheel, so that she could mount him at a moment's notice, was led Merodach, caparisoned with crimson and gold. Not a warrior in the host who looked on him but swore that white horse with his eyes of fire was well worthy to carry so precious a burden. She seemed to prize him dearly, laying her hand on his smooth and swelling neck in frequent caresses, which the horse acknowledged with arching crest, brightened eye, and quivering ear, looking about him, nevertheless, as if not wholly satisfied, and neighing loudly on occasion when a burst of martial music, or the tramp of an armed column, seemed to wake in him certain memories of the heart, so faithful and so touching in that creation man is pleased to call the brute. Though Semiramis had broke him to her hand, and tamed him to her will, she could not teach the horse to forget his rider. Perhaps she loved him none the less that ear and eye seemed always on the watch for his absent lord.

Hanging diagonally against the panel of her chariot, within ready reach of her royal hand, swung a quiver of sandal-wood, containing but the two arrows which the Comely King had sent in answer to her haughty demand.

She had sworn by Ashtaroth never to draw bow till she came face to face with Aryas, and then to return him his own warlike tokens in deadly quittance, accompanied each with five hundred thousand men.

Flashing back the light from its polished surface like a mirror of steel, the queen's shield, all chased and embossed with gold, was suspended at the back of her chariot. As the coveted office remained unfilled, every mighty man of war in the host had in turn believed he would be selected to bear it before her in battle; but Semiramis, having long since made her choice, kept her own counsel, determining to face the weapons of her enemies unfenced until she had set _him_ free to protect her person, who was never out of her thoughts; who had obtained, perhaps from his very indifference, so strange an ascendency over her wild and wilful heart.

a.s.sarac, the eunuch, well pleased to accompany the expedition, coveted more than others this honourable post. When captain after captain had been pa.s.sed over, a sweet intoxicating hope bade the priest's brain swim, and so changed his character that in a transport of enthusiasm he could forget alike the exigencies of policy and the dictates of common sense.

Descending from his chariot, he approached the position Semiramis had taken up, while the flower of her armies pa.s.sed by in countless thousands, and, making his obeisance, proffered a request that he might be permitted to guard her safely with his life, in terms of the humblest devotion ever offered by a subject to a queen.

She laughed in his face--a kind frank hearty laugh, that stung him to the quick.

"What are you thinking of," said she, "my trusty sage and counsellor?

Surely that weight of steel on your brow has disordered the workings of your keen and subtle brain. Know you not, that when Semiramis mounts her war-chariot, she drives in the fore-front of the battle? I tell you, man, I have had shafts and javelins flying round me as thick as locusts on a field of barley in the blade! I have seen the stoutest captains of Ashur cower beneath that deadly hail! What would a priest of Baal do in such a storm?"

He was deeply hurt, and showed it. Had not he, the priest, the eunuch, confronted dangers in her interests at home to which the reddest battlefield that ever ran with blood was but a game of play? He felt within him a spirit of fierce and reckless daring far above the animal courage of the spearman, but he only answered sadly,

"I could at least die at the feet of my queen, making of my body a pedestal for her to crush and trample, if it raised her but an inch!"

With a cruelty, the more pitiless that it seemed so utterly unconscious, she turned on him her soft alluring glance, her sweet bewildering smile.

Perhaps, because of his very nature, she was more lavish of such endearments to _him_ than to others; perhaps, in sheer wantonness of beauty, she cared not what they were, nor how many, whom she scorched to death with the fire she thus flung carelessly about; but the avowed regard, the frank kindness with which she treated her devoted servant, were at once the provocatives and the punishment of his presumption.

Meanwhile he, the counsellor, the reader of the stars, the man of statecraft, of wisdom, the priest, the eunuch, was blindly, madly, in love with his queen!

"Could I spare you?" said she earnestly, even tenderly. "Where should stand the pedestal from which Semiramis may look over a conquered world, but on the far-sighted wisdom, the unshaken fidelity of her best and truest servant? I tell you, a.s.sarac, that you and I, beardless though we be, have more skill of war than all the captains of all this marching host, that rather than lose your counsel, I would send the half of mine armies, bows, spears, and auxiliaries, back to the homes they quitted at my command. And yet look on them, priest. By the beauty of Ashtaroth, these are not men to be despised!"

While she spoke, the chariots of a.s.syria were filing past her, two by two. Each, drawn by its three horses, contained its complement of warriors--its heavily armed bowman, his charioteer, and shield-bearer, all of whom were on occasion formidable foot-soldiers, strong, fierce, and skilled in the use of deadly weapons. In their midst waved the scarlet-and-gold banner of Ashur, representing Merodach, G.o.d of war, standing on a bull, with a drawn bow in his hand. Their appointments, their discipline, their very looks seemed to ensure victory. The queen's eye sparkled, and the colour rose in her delicate cheek.

"'Tis a gallant show!" she murmured; "each comelier than his comrade, and every captain of ten thousand fit to mate a queen. Is it worth while to hazard all for one so little different from the rest? Yes; I hold that man was made for woman's pleasure, to destroy him how and when she will!"

The eunuch, hearing her last sentence, smiled sadly. "So be it!" he answered. "The altar must have its victim and the flame its fuel, but the votary is none the less destroyed that he is consumed in sacred fire."

She heeded him not. The war-chariots had pa.s.sed on, and all her faculties were concentrated on a troop of mounted auxiliaries, small indeed in number, but of gigantic stature, riding on horses strong, swift, and terrible as the desert wind with which they were accustomed to compete. "What have we here?" exclaimed Semiramis, holding her bow above her head, and thus bringing the whole array to a halt. "Have the winged bulls of Ashur come down from their pedestals to march into Armenia? Are these riders men or giants? Were their horses bred on earthly plains or are they born from the fire and the simoon? Behold!

Surely they are led by a woman! As I live by bread, another warrior-queen! but veiled and shrouded like a housewife in Babylon, stealing out at night to the feast of Dagon. Halt them, I say! And, a.s.sarac, command her hither to my chariot-wheels forthwith!"

The eunuch made haste to obey, and the small column formed line at once, facing Semiramis, man and beast quivering with repressed strength and spirit, held in subjection by the habit of warlike discipline. Their veiled leader took her place in the centre, sitting her horse tranquil and immovable as a statue.

A tall well-armed warrior rode out, however, from her ranks, and dismounting, prostrated himself before the queen, while his horse, waiting for him, watched his motions like a dog. Rising erect, it did not escape the notice of Semiramis, that his lofty head was on a level with her shoulder, as she stood above him in the war-chariot.

"Whence come ye?" asked the queen, "and wherefore are ye ranged under the banner of Ashur, commanded by a woman like myself?"

"Thy servants are children of Anak," answered the leader. "They are free as the wild a.s.s of the desert, paying tribute and owing subjection to none. They came out of the wilderness at the summons of the Great Queen, neither for gold nor spoil, but by _her_ bidding whom their prophets foretold, a daughter of the stars, who has come down to lead her chosen tribe into the North."

"Doubtless, from her seat on high she could see far and wide," replied Semiramis with grave irony; "and she has made no idle choice. By the beard of Nimrod, I have never set eyes on such men! And she, that veiled woman on the black horse, is your captain, then? How are ye a.s.sured she is indeed a daughter of the stars?"

"By the light in her eyes," said he simply. "Once before she appeared among us, and we knew her not, but suffered her to depart in peace, according to the prophecy--nevertheless, when she came a second time, the fire-G.o.d cleared our sight, and we beheld in her face the glory of those whom earthly mothers bore on the mountains to the sons of heaven.

Our fathers looked for her in vain; but she has descended for us, their sons; therefore at her behest have we gathered under the banner of Ashur, in the service of the Great Queen."

"Trust me, you shall not be idle!" exclaimed Semiramis: adding, with some curiosity, "And this queen of yours? Is she then always thus shrouded and invisible?"

"It is death to look on her face," answered the son of Anak. "When she unveils before the enemy, behold, he will be consumed and waste away like water spilt on the sand. May the queen live for ever!"

Semiramis scarce concealed a smile.

"It is well," said she graciously, making him a sign to retire. "When the time comes, I doubt not you will quit you like men! Like men!" she repeated, turning to the eunuch; "rather like the giants of our fathers'

time, whom ye equal in size and strength. Surely, a.s.sarac, we may take the Comely King by the beard with warriors like these--tall as camels, strong as wild bulls, fierce as lions, foolish as the ostrich, true slaves of Ashtaroth, veiled or unveiled, eager to ride to death at the wave of a woman's hand!"

He looked wistfully after the stalwart forms, sitting their horses so proudly, as they trampled on in a cloud of dust; and his heart swelled with bitter sadness while he asked himself, which of these l.u.s.ty champions would pour out his life for her so freely, so gladly as he, the eunuch, the priest. Must he always be tongue-tied? Would he never have courage to tell her? Could she not guess it, see it, feel it? O, if she knew! If she only knew!

CHAPTER XLV

ARYAS THE BEAUTIFUL

Those personal advantages of strength and beauty which caused the captivity of Sarchedon in a distant land served also to obtain for him royal notice and approval when he arrived at the place of his destination. The merchant who had purchased him from the Anakim knew well the price commanded by such specimens of manhood in an open market; but he was also aware of the fict.i.tious value the king of Armenia attached to men of goodly stature and comely looks, who were skilled in exercises of war. This wily trader laughed in his beard while he reflected on the excellent bargain he had made with these simple children of the desert, from whose tents he led away his a.s.syrian purchase towards the mountains of the north.

Sarchedon, notwithstanding anxiety for the fate of Ishtar, and sad forebodings of an endless banishment from his own country, had become so habituated to reverses that they affected his appearance and bearing but little; while, in spite of mental uneasiness, health and strength could not but increase under the care of the kindly merchant and his companions, journeying easily on, with frequent halts, breathing night and day the free open air, keener and purer as they neared those wooded mountains that formed a natural defence for the frontier of the Armenian king.