Men wondered when she ate and slept, inclining to believe that this supernatural beauty must be above such human wants, tended and nourished by the stars from whence it came.

Only a.s.sarac perhaps, in all that host, knew too well that the Great Queen's pa.s.sions and affections were of earth, earthly; that the flame which scorched her heart and blazed in her eyes was no enlightening radiance, but a devouring fire to wither and consume--knew too well, yet loved her all the more; for the eunuch's whole being was now saturated with a sentiment n.o.ble in its origin, disastrous in its results, that yet springs from the fairest and sweetest instincts of man's nature, as poison may be distilled from flowers.

It caused him to labour and watch, to endure hunger, thirst, heat and fatigue. It bade him forget pride, ambition, self-respect. It made him a warrior, a hero, and a slave. It rendered him brave, pitiful, generous, and unhappy.

Twice since sundown had the queen ridden out through the camp with a.s.sarac at her rein. Once more she was astir an hour before daybreak, yet, as she mounted at the entrance of her pavilion, the eunuch stood there in waiting to help her to the saddle, and attend her in her ride.

Without a word she galloped through the lines, at such speed as the dubious light permitted amongst the numerous obstacles of a camp, nor drew bridle till she reached a spot by the river, where certain ma.s.ses of shadows looming against the sky denoted that the walls of Ardesh would be visible with dawn of day. Here she halted and broke silence.

"A city of defence," said she with a gentle laugh, "like a blade, or a pitcher, or a woman, or anything else you please, is no stronger than its weakest place. On this side alone is Ardesh not impregnable. I have made thee a warrior, a.s.sarac, as a girl spins her hank out of a tangle of flax, with the patient heart and the gentle hand. Show me thou hast profited by my lessons, and tell me why I brought thee here at a gallop before dawn?"

Brightening as he always did with the sound of her voice, a.s.sarac answered, reasonably enough, "To scan the place warily as soon as it is light: to learn every bush and stone, count every blade of gra.s.s on the ground where we mean to give the a.s.sault."

"Not so," she answered, in the same light tone. "All that was done in this poor head of mine when first I marked the spot. No; the warrior-eunuch has yet much to learn from the warrior-queen. It is not enough to set your own host in array, and mark your own plan of battle; you must also fight for your enemy, put yourself in his place, and so, antic.i.p.ating him in every plan he can devise, force him at last to accept the contest when and where you choose to offer it. The reason women always foil men is, that they _cannot_ put themselves in our places, nor foresee what we may or may not do in the plainest situation.

But this concerns neither thee nor me. I think I have even less of the woman than thou, a.s.sarac, of the man."

He answered not a word, moving uneasily in his saddle, as if from a sudden hurt.

"Nay," she added, guessing his discomposure from his silence; "I meant we are both above the weaknesses of our fellows--kindred spirits treading down all obstacles in our path, knowing no law but our own will and our own desires. Listen, then, thou priest of Baal in harness of proof--listen, and learn while I teach thee that which shall be of more service to-day than all the lore aching neck and dazzled eyes ever yet gathered from the stars. Is not this the weak side of the fortress, and therefore the better for our a.s.sault?"

"Aryas must know it also," replied the eunuch, "and will have mustered here his chief power of defence. Peradventure we might surprise him, with less loss, on a stronger quarter."

"An apt scholar," replied the queen, "and worthy to be a captain of ten thousand; nevertheless, in so far at fault that he sees not with the eyes of his enemy. Behold! The Armenian, hopeless of defending his city from such a host as mine in the process of a regular siege; and seeing the river in which he trusted turning to dry ground beneath his eyes, will determine to hazard a battle here on this narrow strip where he can fight at a vantage, while half the attacking army is engaged with pickaxe and spade. Listen, priest. I hear the tinkle of their tools even now, borne on the light breeze that steals in advance of day. He little guesses the work was all completed by the middle watch of night; that every company is bending, armed, over a feigned task in order of battle; that, at the first note of a trumpet from the queen's pavilion, be it dark or daylight or gray uncertain dawn, the hosts of a.s.syria will set themselves in array without hesitation or confusion, every bow bent, every horse mounted, every man in his place.

"Since my tent was pitched yonder by the stream, I have not found a moment till now to breathe the cool night air and loose the buckle of my belt. Is it not grand and joyous, this pause before the storm? At such a moment I feel how n.o.ble it is to lead the sons of Ashur to battle.

To-night, a.s.sarac, I _know_ that I am the Great Queen!"

She seldom thus divulged her own thoughts, her own sentiments. The tones of that voice, always so bewitching, thrilled to his heart's core; and with irrepressible admiration he burst out, "Queen of the sons of Ashur! Queen of the whole earth! Were there indeed crowns of fire above, queen of the host of heaven! What have I to offer in earnest of such devotion as never worshipper yielded to his G.o.d? It is little enough to give this poor brain in council, this poor body in battle; but O that I could take the heart out of my breast now, this moment, and lay it down before thee there, to trample beneath thy feet!"

"It is too much," she answered, almost in a whisper. "I may tread warriors in the dust, but I make no footstool of a servant's heart, be he man of war, eunuch, or priest of Baal. Keep it in thy harness, good friend, and see that to-day it turn not to water in the face of the Comely King."

Dawn was still below the mountain, and he could not read her countenance; but on his ear, sharpened by intense emotion, there jarred a something in her voice that broke its full melodious ring. Was it kindness? Was it pity? Maddening thought! was it the insult of covert mirth?

"I am not like others," said he. "I know it too well; and yet my adoration of my queen is less the blind man's yearning for the day he hath never seen than that desire of the spirit for some star it must not hope to attain, which yet raises it, by the very agony of its despair, towards the light for which it longs."

She had a brief s.p.a.ce of leisure before the joyous revelry of battle would commence. There was no better pastime, she thought, at hand. Why not examine into so strange a phase of human suffering, and learn how much the heart, even of such a man as this, could be made to bear, before it maddened him past all endurance? Surely such studies, so curious in themselves, enhanced the flavour of that pursuit she dignified with the name of love; a pursuit far inferior, no doubt, to war, equal though, and perhaps in very hot weather preferable, to the chase. Here a memory of Sarchedon came to disturb her equanimity; but so much of bitterness and vexation mingled with the thought, that her heart grew all the harder for its indulgence. What had she to do with pity, she who had slain beasts by scores and men by hundreds to pa.s.s an idle day? Had she ever wished her shaft recalled when it pierced the lion through from shoulder to shoulder; and were these human creatures half so brave, so n.o.ble as the brutes? Was she not the Great Queen, answerable to none on earth, and fearless of the very stars in heaven?

Besides, it amused--more, it interested--her. So she, the conqueror of the world, thought no shame to trifle with him as a village maid trifles with her peasant lover, as a cat trifles with its paltry little prey.

"There is a light," she said, reverting gently to his wild confession of idolatry, "that blinds a man's eyes, besides burning his fingers. It is not that by which he sees his way clearly to safety or success."

"And of what avail are safety and success to _me_?" demanded a.s.sarac, striving in the early twilight to read his doom on that remorseless face. "Success, the prize of him who hopes; safety, the desire of him who fears. If I am below hope, surely I am also above fear. My queen, look on that shadowy ma.s.s of wall and tower, darkening every moment against the coming light of dawn. How many bold warriors, think you, are within that city who to-day will draw the sword and throw away the scabbard once for all? I too have drawn the sword and rushed upon my fate. Like one who leaps into air from the tower of Belus, I cannot recall my plunge. Great Queen, I have dared to love the very dust beneath your feet. Here, in the day of battle, I dare to tell you so.

Ere set of sun, Semiramis shall be ruler over all the world, from the warm river of Egypt to the bleak snow-deserts of the north; or a.s.sarac shall be down in the strife of hors.e.m.e.n, trodden out of all likeness to humanity. Enough! I can but serve her at the end as I have served her from the beginning; and for wages I do but ask, great glorious queen, look kindly on me ere I die!"

His voice came hoa.r.s.e and broken, his smooth face worked convulsively from chin to eyebrows. Surely any other woman must have been moved--at least to compa.s.sion; but Semiramis, pulling her horse's head up from the wet morning herbage he was cropping with avidity, gazed intently on the walls of Ardesh, now visible in the light of dawn.

Was not the great stake for which she played enclosed within those towers, the desire of her eyes, the treasure of her wilful heart? She could understand, she thought, those longings on which the eunuch laid such stress, but of pity, save for her own sufferings, she had none to spare.

"Listen!" exclaimed the queen, turning round on her companion with one hand held in air, as though she had not heard a syllable of his appeal, "they are mustering even now within the place. Stand still, Merodach!

Good horse, the ring of steel stirs thee like thy mistress! What say you, a.s.sarac--can we creep on a bowshot nearer to make sure? The light is behind them, and we may defy their archers for a few moments yet."

Thus speaking, she moved her horse forward a score of paces, followed by the priest, vexed, smarting, dizzy with anger and shame.

But his tortures were not over, his punishment not yet complete. Sitting calmly on her horse, though day was breaking fast, and every instant brought nearer the certainty of a storm of arrows from the wall, Semiramis looked round with a careless smile, like some light-minded dame chattering with her tirewoman.

"What think you, a.s.sarac?" she whispered. "Is he waking yet, this Comely King?--of whose beauty they make such a prate you would suppose he was Shamash, G.o.d of day. I would fain see him rise from his couch; for I like well to look on beauty, both of man and beast."

Then she patted Merodach on his swelling neck, sighing and smiling too while she caressed her favourite: the sigh was for memory, the smile for triumph and for hope.

"We shall rouse him to some purpose," answered the eunuch, mastering his emotion bravely. "And the Great Queen shall judge of his beauty for herself, naked and a prisoner, bound at her chariot-wheels."

He spoke firmly, even gaily, as behoved one who had made up his mind for the worst. That day, he resolved, should see the end of all this doubt, and longing, and misery. In the front of battle he would perform such deeds of valour as should force the queen's regard for _him_, the eunuch, who could thus put to shame her stoutest men of war, or in the ranks of the long swords he would find out the great secret, and start for yonder place, wherever it might be, that Ninus and Sargon, and so many others, had reached long ago.

Semiramis caught up her rein with an exclamation of delight.

"I was sure of it!" she said; "I knew it from the first! They will fight in the plain--they are moving the host down even now. Behold, I can see their archers on the wall! It is time for you and me, a.s.sarac, to prove the mettle of our horses and the surety of their archers' aim."

As she spoke, she urged Merodach to a gallop, while an arrow whistling by her cheek quivered in the ground a spear's length farther on. The good horse only sped the faster, and ere morning had brightened the mountain's crest, Semiramis reached her pavilion, and her trumpets rang gaily out, to set the sons of Ashur in array.

CHAPTER LI

BOW AND SPEAR

It was a goodly sight, could the queen have waited to behold it, that downward march of the Armenian host to meet their enemy in the plain.

The flower and pride of all the north, formidable in size, number, and length of weapons, they deployed, squadron by squadron, and company by company, under cover of their archers on the wall, till they found s.p.a.ce near the river's empty bed to form that wedge, or solid triangle in which it was their custom to offer battle. This ma.s.s consisted of spearmen, who with levelled points and raised bucklers seemed to present but an impervious hedge of steel to the efforts of an adversary. It was designed to penetrate and cleave asunder by sheer weight and pressure the opposing force, while Thorgon and his long swords, mounted on their swift hardy horses, held themselves in readiness to cut up and destroy in detail the fragments of an enemy thus riven the wider the more it gave ground to its a.s.sailants.

Such a method of fighting was considered by the mountain men to insure victory; and the queen's eye sparkled, her cheek glowed, when she beheld the hosts of Aryas the Beautiful thus eager to engage her own on a system of which she had mastered all the details, prepared to worst it at every point.

"The lion is astir," she said, "and walking deliberately into the toils without an effort at escape. By the light of Ashtaroth, I will have his claws pared, his fangs drawn, and the beast as tame as a kitten, before close of day!"

Splendidly armed, ablaze with gold and jewels that flashed in the morning sun, she stood in her chariot, looking like the G.o.ddess by whom she swore, her beautiful face radiant with pleasure, her heart beating high with courage, triumph, and the wild tumult of unbridled love.

Her shield-bearer's place still remained vacant, and save a youth to drive her horses, she was alone in the chariot; for a.s.sarac, who remained as usual in attendance, occupied another at her side.

The eunuch's face was very grave and sad; its fleshy outlines had fallen, the eyes were sunk and haggard, while about the lips care and sorrow had carved those anxious lines that age itself fails to imprint when the heart remains at ease.

He looked little like a priest of Baal, less like a warrior of Ashur: but never prophet burned with fiercer fire, never were nerves of champion strung to more desperate courage, than glowed in the vexed heart and wounded spirit of a.s.sarac the eunuch, thus waiting on Semiramis the queen.

He had galloped back with her to the camp before sunrise, and at the first trumpet call ascended into his chariot, that he might aid her with his counsel, perhaps shield her with his body in the press of battle.

In the disposal of her power she had shown her accustomed skill. Dark ma.s.ses of hors.e.m.e.n gathered like clouds on either flank. Her spearmen, in a solid column, occupied the centre, protecting a bristling array of war-chariots, ready to be launched against the enemy so soon as he advanced into the plain; while forming her own guard and a reserve to be hurled, as it were, at the critical moment on any point she should select, rode a picked body of warriors clothed in blue, shining with gilded armour, and chosen from the flower of her men of war by the queen herself.

Aryas the Beautiful, surveying from his chariot the line of battle thus opposed to him, felt, while his courage rose with its very hopelessness, a sad conviction of the impossibility of his task. He whispered as much to Sarchedon, who accompanied him.

"Behold," said he, "how the wolves are gathering to hem in the mountain bull on every side. I knew not they were so many, nor so fierce. Surely he is a daring leader who joins battle with the sons of Ashur."