IN THE GATE
Bowed to the dust, with rent garments, drooping head, and aching heart,
from which the very life seemed pressed out, Ishtar sat herself down in
the gate to watch for the passing by of the king, as he rode from the
place where he had been administering justice to his people since
sunrise. She had not long to wait; the trampling of hoofs soon warned
her that the royal troop was approaching, and flinging back her veil,
she had scarcely time to rise erect before the well-known white horse
was upon her, guided by the hand that most she feared and hated in the
world.
Its rider, buried in thought, proceeded at a walk, accompanied only by
Assarac, the few mounted spearmen in attendance remaining several paces
behind. Ninyas appeared unusually grave and preoccupied. His face was
somewhat hidden by the fall of a linen tiara and the profusion of his
dark silken hair, but in his rounded symmetry of limb, his graceful
gestures, and royal dignity of bearing were conspicuous those personal
advantages which formed perhaps the only merit of their new ruler in the
eyes of the common crowd.
Faint and forced were the cheers that greeted his approach, dark and
discontented the glances that followed him as he passed on. He from whom
so much was expected had turned out a failure and a disappointment. To
cruelty and injustice the people of Babylon would have submitted without
a murmur, but for incapacity they had little forbearance; for one who
wasted neither blood nor treasure, they entertained a fierce and
dangerous contempt.
Already loud regrets had been heard among the populace for the iron rule
of Ninus and the warlike glories of the Great King. Already whispers,
fierce and earnest in their suppression, asked when her days of mourning
would be ended; and suggested that the queen should again take part in
affairs of empire--should govern Babylon, her own especial city, in
person. Even before the seat of judgment, murmurs to this effect were
distinctly audible, and a cry of "Semiramis! Semiramis!" had been caught
up and reëchoed in the outskirts of the crowd. On such occasions, the
calm face of Assarac was observed to denote secret triumph and
gratification, yet clouded with something of anxiety and deep earnest
thought. Riding on the king's right hand, he seemed even now so
engrossed in meditation, that he was the more disturbed of the two when
a figure, rising, as it were, out of the earth, wound its arms round the
royal knee, at the imminent risk of being trampled to death, and laid
its forehead to the white horse's shoulder in an attitude of
heart-broken entreaty and abasement. Merodach must have recognised her.
Ishtar knew that the animal avoided touching her with its hoofs, while,
in spite of skilled hand and severe bridle, it pressed its muzzle
against her fair shoulder with a mute loving caress.
"How now!" exclaimed the rider haughtily.--"What foolish damsel is this
who encumbers the royal path, seeing that the sun is already high? Know
you not how the people cry without ceasing for justice during the space
of two hours after dawn? Stand aside, girl, lest that tender body of
yours be trampled like a lily in the dust!"
Ishtar raised her tear-stained face, pale as the flower to which she had
been compared, and sobbed out wildly,
"As thy soul liveth, hear me! Only hear me, ere thou ride on in thy
might, and crush me to death beneath thy feet! What am I that I should
stand in the path of my lord the king?"
Surely he remembered her voice. He seemed strangely disturbed, and the
hand that reined Merodach shook till the bridle rang again. Turning to
Assarac, he murmured in a stifled voice,
"Bid them keep the people back, I pray you; with point of spear if need
be. I will hear what the damsel has to say."
Then Ishtar poured forth her whole heart with an eloquence that could
only have been wrung from her by his danger whom she loved better than
her very life. She reminded Ninyas of his professed attachment to
herself, of their flight through the desert to the south, of her
unwilling thraldom, and constant resistance at Ascalon, notwithstanding
his rank, his beauty, his exceeding attractions, avoiding, with womanly
tact, every allusion that could hurt his self-love, and lavishing, with
womanly recklessness, every expression of flattery that could impress on
him the immeasurable distance between his handmaid and her lord. Then
she bade him judge of her feelings by his own. What had she to live for
but the man she loved? The youth was to _her_ as water in the desert, as
a breath of air to one bricked up in a dungeon. She was sick for his
comely face. She made her prayer to the king, because she had been
taught from childhood he was the representative of Baal in the land of
Shinar, the embodiment of truth, justice, and mercy amongst his people.
She knelt to him as to Nisroch with the eagle-head. She presumed not to
stand before his face without a gift. Let her find favour in his sight.
It was the only jewel she had left. Let him take it. Let him but grant
her petition, rescue this goodly youth from captivity, and take
herself--her life--all she had to give!
In accordance with ancient custom forbidding the suppliant to enter the
presence of a superior without an offering, she thrust into the king's
hand that amulet of emerald which had already changed owners so many
times. Even at her extremity of need she could not help remarking how
white and delicate were those royal fingers that trembled round the
jewel, how fair and shapely was the arm that shook with some inward
conflict of passions, terrible in their struggle against the strength
that kept them down. It was marvellous to her that jealousy should have
such power over the male nature, and if Ninyas cared so very dearly for
her, surely she ought to pity him, she thought, even though she could
not love! All this under-current of feeling and reflection passed
through her mind while she watched every turn and gesture of her lord
with the eager eyes of one who balances between life and death.
The royal face was hidden by its tiara; the royal voice came low and
husky with its haughty question,
"Is it a lover, girl, for whom you make this bold petition? Did he buy
you with a trinket and cast you aside in the desert, and will nothing
force him back to your arms save a decree of the king? Go to! You seem
over-shameless for a maiden,--over-tender for a wife. I have spoken."
She was on her knees again, pressing the rider's garment to her
forehead.
"By the glory of Shamash!" she exclaimed--"by the might of Ashur!--by
the blood of Nisroch! I am a true woman. May my lips wither, may my
tongue drop out, may my heart be consumed to ashes, if I conceive a
falsehood in the face of my lord the king! His servant loves the
youth--loves him so dearly, that for his sake she would accept death
with joy, life-long bondage with gratitude--that to insure his safety
she would give her hopes, her heart, her all, and consent never, never
to see him again!"
The king was certainly changed. Looking wildly up in that comely face,
it was colder, paler than before, and the lips turned very white while
they asked in a low stern voice,
"How came you by this amulet? Speak the truth, girl, lest even now your
eyes be covered and your body flung from the wall. Was it given you
by--by this faithless lover of yours?"
"Not so, my lord," answered Ishtar eagerly. "As your servant liveth, it
was round his neck when they bore him into captivity, and but that I had
come to the market at sunrise to eat bread, I should never have known
where they had taken him. I saw the jewel in the wares of an honest
merchant, and I learned from him all that my heart desired to know."
Ninyas smiled as if well pleased, and spoke in a softer voice.
"Let him be brought to the palace at once," said the king, turning to
Assarac. "An honest merchant ought to be easily distinguished in the
market-place of Babylon. I should like to see him, girl, and I should
like also to learn whither they have dared to carry this Assyrian-born.
How called you him? Sarchedon, was it not?"
"Surely my lord is wiser than Nebo," answered the girl, "to know good
from evil. It is even as he hath said. Behold, the king discovered it
before my tongue could form the name that was in my heart."
The rider's hand gave such an involuntary wrench to the bridle, as
caused Merodach to rear straight-on-end in resentment and surprise.
Caressing the horse, and laughing lightly the while, Ninyas continued to
question his suppliant:
"They have carried this free-born son of Ashur into captivity. It seems
they have more courage than wisdom. And whither have they taken him?"
"Far beyond the northern mountains," answered Ishtar, "into the land of
Armenia; and for that he is so comely of face and noble of stature, they
will be loth to yield him back, for he is to stand in goodly raiment at
the right hand of the king."
"Hear her, Assarac!" exclaimed Ninyas, turning to the eunuch, with
flushed brow and sparkling eyes. "This comes of unstrung bows and
peaceful counsels, the way of the serpent on the rock rather than of
the lion by the water-spring, or the eagle in the sky. Go to! Are the
spears of Ashur bulrushes by the river-side? Are his horses ham-strung?
Hath the arm of his might dwindled to the lily hand of a maiden? I tell
you, that for every furlong they have taken their captive beyond the
bounds of Shinar, I will send chariots of iron and mailed horsemen a
league into the land of Armenia to burn, ravage and destroy, to bring
away their gods and lead their men and maidens into captivity! Nay, if
so much as a hair of Sarchedon's head shall have fallen, I will sow
their country with salt, and blot out its very name from among nations!
Damsel, depart in peace; your petition is granted. I have spoken."
Exulting in her success, yet even more bewildered than rejoiced by the
good fortune that had gained her object without sacrifice of personal
freedom, Ishtar lost no time in obeying the royal injunction. Shrouding
her fair face in its veil, she wrapped her rent garments modestly about
her, and glided into the thickest of the crowd. Her escape was for a
moment unnoticed, while the king gazed thoughtfully on the amulet she
had left for a gift; but looking quickly up, as if about to give some
directions to Assarac, the attention of each was arrested by tumultuous
shouting at the adjoining gate, repeated in a thousand echoes of a
thousand voices along the city wall.
It seemed that both were prepared for disaffection and disturbance among
the populace. They exchanged meaning looks, and Assarac whispered in the
royal ear,
"There are twenty bands of spearmen massed behind the rampart; priests
and prophets are scattered in the market-places and squares of the city;
chariots of iron are harnessed in scores, and horsemen by thousands wait
but the holding up of my hand to mount. I pray you give the word, and
ere the sun goes down, Baal shall exterminate, root and branch, all who
question the authority of--of my lord the king."
Looking on the royal personage he addressed, the eunuch's eyes blazed
with an admiration that seemed almost too warm for reverence, too
passionate for loyalty. At the sound of tumult, the signal-note of
conflict, Ninyas started into life with as much fire and energy as
Merodach himself. The folds of the tiara fell back, disclosing those
matchless features, that radiant face, glowing with just such
pleasurable excitement as brightens the aspect of an ardent hunter when
he sights the deer. That supple stately form, springing into graceful
energy of attitude and gesture, seemed an embodiment of beauty in
warlike harness. How could such softness and delicacy be endowed with
such resistless might? Surely horse and rider, thought Assarac, formed a
pair unequalled the wide world through.
"Keep the men of war back!" exclaimed Ninyas gleefully. "Never take your
eye off my right hand. When I raise it thus, let the spears open out by
wings, unmask the archers, and bid them bend their bows."
"You will return to the palace!" exclaimed Assarac. "You will not risk
that precious life in a city tumult! By the light of Ashtaroth, by the
blood of Nisroch, by the safety of the empire, by all you hold most
sacred, I entreat you to keep out of danger!"
His voice was broken with real emotion, his features worked
convulsively, as if he pleaded for something dearer than life, but a
ringing laugh was the only answer to his appeal, and the anxious eunuch
could but press on at a gallop to keep near the white horse and its
rider, as they made for the great gate of Babylon that looked towards
the south.