THE WINGS OF A DOVE
An hour after sunrise, Babylon the Great was up and dressed like any
other restless lady, wakeful and astir, warm with life and beauty, rich
in gaudy colours, bright with gold and gems.
Trumpets that mustered warriors by thousands were pealing from her
walls. Priests of Baal and prophets of the grove were chanting their
idolatrous hymns, to ring of harp or sound of timbrel, through a score
of stately temples, a hundred squares, terraces, and open places in the
city. Oxen were lowing, sheep bleating, as they stood in droves herded
together for sacrifice. Peasants from without were toiling under their
market-produce; merchants of Tyre and of the South were guiding their
camels, laden with bales of costly goods for the mart of nations; a
hundred streams of labour, luxury, and traffic converged to this common
centre; and through all her gates the wealth of a hundred countries was
flowing in to enrich the mistress of the world.
She accepted their tribute like a queen lavish of smiles and honours,
repaying real substantial benefits with bright glitter of ornament, with
show of tinsel and gilding, with a false welcome and a cold farewell.
Her visitors took their leave, the better for her notice, by an acquired
taste for deteriorating luxuries, an increased discontent with the manly
simplicity of their homes. They thronged in and out nevertheless,
crowding especially to one quarter of the city, on the banks of the
broad river, at an equal distance from the two royal palaces, where it
was customary to hold a market for all kind of wares and provisions,
where a man might purchase, according to his needs, a barley loaf or a
dress of honour, a rope of onions or a string of pearls.
Here prevailed that stir, turmoil, and confusion of tongues which must
necessarily accompany such gatherings of different tribes and
professions, especially under a southern sky. The plain-spoken
countryman discoursed volubly on the luxuriant growth of garden-stuff
that overflowed his baskets; the keener-witted citizen cheapened and
chaffered, sparing neither laughter nor sarcasm, nor shrill and
deafening abuse; dark-skinned Ethiopians grinned, nodded, clapped their
hands, and rubbed their woolly heads in mingled amazement and delight;
haughty warriors stalked in and out the stalls of the various traders
with martial strides and offensive demeanour, taking at their own price
such things as they required, or, on occasion, omitting the ceremony of
payment altogether; troops of women, chiefly from the lowest class,
added their eager voices to the general clamour, hanging their swaddled
infants at their backs, hoisting them on their shoulders, or extricating
with loud outcries and hearty cuffs the stronger urchins, who
persistently sought every opportunity of being trampled under foot by
the crowd; while over all, at no distant intervals, towered the pliant
necks and patient heads of meek-eyed camels, looking sleepily down on
the confusion, in calm tolerant contempt, like that of their swarthy
riders, for those who dwelt in cities, earning bread by the bustle and
competition of sedentary occupation rather than by long adventurous
journeys or the vicissitudes of robbery and war.
These were invariably objects of undisguised interest to the bystanders;
for about man and beast hung a smack of the boundless desert, the wild
free air, the untrodden measureless waste, as from the dress and bearing
of the mariner seems to exhale a flavour of his adopted element, a
breath from the salt breezes of the sea.
They were mostly sun-burned and travel-worn, bearing traces of fatigue,
hardship, and long exposure by night and day.
To a group of these, standing somewhat apart, surrounding one of their
camels, which had lain calmly down, load and all, Ishtar thought well to
address herself. They were apparently traders of a superior class, while
something in their dress and furniture, denoting that their home was in
the north, led her to believe they would offer a more liberal price for
jewels than those southern merchants, who might probably have brought
with them many such valuables for sale. The men, like their camels,
seemed very weary; nevertheless they entered on the business of a
bargain without delay.
"The damsel needs but look round," said one, "to see that her servants
have no need of such things. We are overcome with long travel, sore
hungered and athirst. What have we to do with clasp and jewel? Your
servants are faint for lack of bread. Can they comfort their hearts with
gems and gold?"
"Behold the sandals dropping from our feet," pursued another, "the
halters of our camels worn to the last fibre! Bring us goats'-hair
ropes, woollen raiment, or even garments of fine linen; we will buy them
of you, and welcome--at a price."
Sorely discouraged, Ishtar would have protested; but the words died on
her lips, and she turned meekly away. Perhaps no amount of eloquence
could have served her so well as this apparent indifference. The
principal trader leaped down from his camel, and accosted her with some
eagerness.
"Be not hasty, my daughter," said he. "The foolish guest turns from a
smoking platter, the wise waits till it is cool. Those who desire not
to buy may be willing to sell. Will you look on the wares we have
brought out of the south?--over the long trackless desert, and through
the nations whose hand is ever stretched out to spoil and slay--the
Amalekites, the Hivites, and the Anakim."
Ishtar started. The mention of the last-named tribe brought the blood to
her brow. She turned back, and replied,
"Show me your wares, if you will, but I too am faint for lack of bread.
If I am compelled to take this jewel out of the market unsold, I must
creep hence to the city wall, turn my face to its shelter, and so lie
down to die."
There was something in her tone that vouched for her truth. He was a
merciful man, though he had traded and travelled through the eastern
world. Had she bargained with him, he could have found it in his heart
to cozen her out of every article she possessed, and had been proud of
his own acuteness the while. But this was a different question. It was
like fighting an unarmed adversary, taking a prey that made no effort to
resist or flee. His heart melted within him for sheer pity and
good-will. Caution, however, whispered that such appeals might form the
new mode of trading lately adopted in Babylon; and while he took the
jewel from her hand, he only said,
"We have enough and to spare of such ornaments. Nevertheless, let us
look, and judge for ourselves."
His comrades, of whom there were but two, joined in the examination.
From their immovable features she could not guess their opinion; but
Ishtar gathered that they meant to trade from the quiet air of
depreciation assumed incontinently by each.
After scrutinising the jewel at every possible angle, so as to subject
each particle of each stone to the searching test of sunlight, the last
speaker, who seemed the principal personage, weighed it carefully in a
pair of scales hanging at his belt, and observed,
"One hundred shekels of silver would surely be a fair price, oh! my
daughter? But we too have merchandise to sell. Will you not take fifty
shekels and your choice of a breadth of silk, a piece of goodly
needlework, or a wrought ornament in bronze and ivory from Tyre?"
The clasp was worth three hundred at the lowest, and he felt full of
pity and loving-kindness towards the damsel, but a profession is second
nature. He was a trader, and must live.
"Your servant is in the hand of my lord," answered Ishtar humbly. "Take
the jewel, I pray. Give me the fifty shekels, so that I may buy a morsel
of bread, and eat before I die!"
He counted them out, well pleased. It was not often, even in careless
pleasure-seeking Babylon, that he could trade to such advantage. But the
bargain now stood on a different footing. Ishtar's prompt compliance
with his terms caused him to feel bound in honour to give her free
choice of the various articles he had named, trusting only that she
might not select the rarest and most expensive. Neither he nor his
comrades would have refused her for their lives. Their probity, though
loose in the extreme, was not elastic, and no temptation could have
seduced them into any act they considered a breach of faith. Causing,
therefore, another camel to kneel down, they proceeded to unpack its
load, turning over for inspection shawls, silks, embroidery, and
trinkets, more or less costly, from the workshops of Tyre, Ascalon, or
other cities on the seacoast.
Faint with watching and exhaustion, goods, camel, traders, and
bystanders swam before Ishtar's eyes; for amongst a handful of
glittering ornaments she distinguished the amulet that the Great Queen
had bestowed on Sarchedon, that she had last seen about her lover's
neck.
With an effort of which few women would have been capable, she recalled
her fleeting senses in subservience to her will, and asked calmly to
examine the trinket. It was valuable, no doubt, yet more from its
exquisite finish than intrinsic worth, and she had presence of mind to
appear only desirous of possessing it as a gaudy trifle with which they
could have little disinclination to part.
"I will ask my lord," said she, "to bestow on me no more than this
ornament I hold in my hand. Also, if a drop be left in the water-skin,
that I may wet my burning lips, for indeed I am faint and sore athirst!"
"It is my daughter's," answered the trader. "My camels, my goods, all I
possess, are hers! The water-skin is indeed dried and shrivelled like
an ungathered grape, but here is a gourd not yet emptied, a barley-loaf
still unbroken. I pray you, eat and drink, my daughter; comfort your
heart, and go in peace."
Complying eagerly with the invitation, Ishtar felt her very life
returning with each mouthful she swallowed. Had it not been so, she
never could have found strength for the task she had set herself to
perform. Looking on that amulet, with its bird of peace following the
weapon of war through the air, her whole being, her very soul, seemed to
go out towards the lover from whom she had been parted with so little
likelihood that they might ever meet again.
"O, that I had the wings of a dove!" thought Ishtar, in the loving
impotence of her desire, wishing, with other tortured spirits of every
age and clime, but to burst through the invisible, impalpable wires of
her cage to seek the rest that none can find--broken in heart and hopes,
weary and wounded, yearning only to fly home.
And it may be that those who have followed in the slimy path of the
serpent shall one day find their bitterest punishment in aimless,
endless longing for the wings of the dove.
But could she have flown with all the speed of all the birds of air, it
was yet indispensable to follow out the clue she had already obtained in
the possession of the trinket that so lately belonged to Sarchedon.
Strengthened by food, her womanly wit regained its keenness, while
womanly shame bade her disclose but half the truth. It would be wise,
she thought, to trust this friendly merchant; yet she dared not confide
in him wholly, nor lay open to a stranger all the weakness of her heart.
"My lord has shown favour to his servant," said she. "I desired of him a
gift, and, lo, it lieth here in my hand! I was hungered and athirst; he
gave me to eat and to drink! Am I not in some sort the guest of my lord?
I would fain ask him one question. All my happiness hangs on his lips.
As his soul liveth, I implore my lord to tell me the truth."
"Speak on, my daughter," was the reply. "There is no space for falsehood
within the curtains of a tent, and he who dwells in the desert knows not
how to lie."
"This trinket," she continued eagerly, "you took it from its owner. It
hung round his neck. He was a son of Ashur, tall and comely as a cedar
of the mountain, brave as the lion, ruddy as sunset, bright as morning,
and beautiful as day!"
The astute trader smiled.
"You know him," said he, "and you love him! It is as my daughter hath
said."
"He is my brother," she answered, blushing crimson while she adjusted
her veil. "If aught but good hath befallen him, it were better for me
that I had never been born!"
"Such a one as you have described," answered the other, "did indeed come
into our possession by lawful barter amongst the tents of the Anakim. A
slave can have no goods to call his own, and when we discovered beneath
his garment this jewel that had escaped the eyes of his spoilers, we
might have taken it righteously by force. Nevertheless, the man was
strong and warlike. Even in bonds, it may be that he would have done
_himself_ some injury, and so lessened his price. It was well that he
suffered me to strip it from his neck unnoticed while he looked back
upon the camp, as if he had left his very heart with the tribe."
A thrill that, in spite of all, amounted to real happiness shot through
her trembling frame.
"Can he not be redeemed?" she exclaimed, clasping her hands eagerly.
"Where is he now?"
The trader pondered.
"I too have a brother," said he, "and we parted at a day's march from
the tents of the Anakim, as we have parted many a time, trusting to meet
yet once again before we die. My course lay hither to the great city;
for are not my camels laden with silks and spices and costly jewels,
such as rich Babylon must have at all hazards and at any cost? I pray
you, damsel, remember I am a fair trader; I ask for no greater profit
than enables me to get bread for myself and forage for my beasts. Some
there be who scruple not to rob with the scales, as the Amalekite robs
with the spear; but such prosper not in life, and long before their
beards turn gray, their flesh is eaten by vultures and their bones
whiten the plain.
"My lord spoke of the Assyrian," interrupted Ishtar. "Is he safe? Is he
alive?"
"That he is alive, my daughter," replied the merchant, "if care and good
usage can keep the life in a valuable captive, I will answer with my
head. We bought him at a remunerative price, and my brother is even less
likely than myself to let one suffer damage whose welfare is of such
marketable value. That he is safe with the other goods I have sufficient
reason to hope. Surely they joined a caravan guarded by more than five
hundred horsemen of the desert. Ere now they must have reached the
pleasant confines of my home--the broad-leaved oaks, the cool green
valleys, and the breezy mountains of the north."
"The north!" repeated Ishtar, aghast and discomfited. "What! beyond
Nineveh?"
"Far beyond Nineveh," said the other, "far beyond the boundaries of the
land of Shinar, where the banner of Ashur hath never been lifted, the
spear of the Assyrian never dulled its point in blood--in the land of
corn and wine, pasture and fruit tree, flocks and herds, peace and
plenty, the happy hill country of Armenia!"
"Sold to the Armenian for a slave!" was her answer. "O, my lord, shall I
never see him again?"
He pitied her from his heart.
"Much may be done," said he, "with these three weapons, sword, bow, and
spear; more yet with these, time, wisdom, patience. Add but a little
gold, and who shall say that aught is impossible? My brother is one of
those who, setting before them an object in the plain, turn neither to
right nor left till they have reached it. The Assyrian is of fine frame
and goodly stature, fit to stand on the steps of a throne. My brother
hath determined he will sell him to no meaner purchaser than a king. Not
all the wealth of Armenia will tempt him from his purpose, and to the
king he will be sold. I have spoken."
Then he turned away to prosecute his business with those who were
waiting around for examination of his merchandise, and Ishtar found
herself alone and friendless in the crowded market--alone, with a wild
foolish hope in her heart, and Sarchedon's amulet in her hand.
From the time she lost sight of him, she had never faltered one single
moment in her resolution; arduous, impossible as seemed her task, she
would not relinquish it even now.
Had she needed any farther stimulant to exertion she would have found it
in the reflection that he, the distinguished warrior, the ornament of a
court, the flower of a host, the treasure of her own heart, was a slave!
At least she knew where he had gone; at least there was one spot of
earth on which her loving thoughts could light, like weary birds, and
take their rest. But how to reach him? how to span the cruel distance
that lay between? Gazing wistfully on the amulet in her hand, she would
have bartered all her hopes here and hereafter, peace and safety, life
and beauty, innocence itself, in exchange for the wings of a dove.