UNVEILED
Like a swan cleaving the waters, Merodach forced his way through the ebb
and flow of an eager crowd, even dangerous in the impatience with which
it surged to one common centre, where two figures, dusty and
travel-worn, as though arriving from a journey, sat patiently on their
drooping horses to receive with exceeding calmness the cheers and
congratulations lavished by the populace. One of these was in female
attire, and enough of the veil and mantle were thrown aside to disclose
a beautiful face, recognised with wild enthusiasm by the people of
Babylon for that of the Great Queen. Shouts of welcome, acclamations
denoting a transport of loyalty and affection, rose on all sides.
"Semiramis! Semiramis!" was the ceaseless burden of many thousand
voices; while the lowest and dirtiest of the excited multitude demanded
angrily the repeal of that law which forbade a woman to reign over the
sons of Ashur, insisting that their queen should be invested with
supreme authority in this her especial city, the work of her hands,
proposing that she should ride at once to the palace, on a pavement
composed of their own necks and shoulders, many of them proceeding to
fling themselves on their faces with that object forthwith.
So flattering a reception seemed, however, to raise no corresponding
gratitude in the person to whom it was offered. The beautiful face wore
only an expression of malicious amusement mingled with somewhat scornful
surprise; while the other horseman, riding in close attendance, looked
strangely troubled, whispering doubt and apprehension in the ear of his
more composed, if more contemptuous, companion.
Sethos--for it was no other than the Great King's cup-bearer who thus
found himself in a situation of extreme perplexity--on his arrival in
Babylon felt indeed at his wits' end. When he obeyed the summons of his
young lord, to ride with him through the desert, day and night, till
they reached the great city, which Ninyas, for reasons of his own,
proposed to enter in female disguise, he bade farewell to the grim
towers of Ascalon with a light heart, looking on the expedition, though
it necessitated more bodily exertion than he loved, as one of intrigue,
mirth, and amusement, especially at the end. The little he could gather
from Ninyas during their journey failed to prepare him for such a
reception as awaited them; and indeed the young king toyed, trifled, and
galloped through all these leagues of burning sand as if life had
nothing more serious to offer than the jest of leaving his tired
attendants, one by one, in the wilderness, and riding his own good horse
mercilessly to the point of death.
It had ever been the nature of Ninyas to appear lightest of heart when
most he saw cause for vexation or anxiety; nor, indeed, was it without
good reason that he quitted his retirement to look after his
inheritance in person, and made an effort to retain the sceptre, which
he first learned was his own at the moment it seemed so mysteriously to
be slipping from his grasp.
His conversation with Sethos had been the earliest communication he
received of his father's departure to the stars; it filled him with
wonder and alarm. Subsequent explanations and comments of the cup-bearer
served only to increase his bewilderment. But for the audacity of such a
proceeding, he would have felt satisfied that another had personated him
in order to rob him of his crown.
It perplexed him, too, that he should have received no tidings from the
mother to whom he was accustomed to fly in all his difficulties,
feeling, perhaps, no little concern for her safety as well as for his
own succession.
The escape of Ishtar also angered him to the core, while of Rekamat he
was wearied, even to disgust. He resolved, therefore, on returning
without delay to Babylon, there to examine for himself the opposition
with which he had to contend, adopting the attire of a woman, as most
likely thus to avoid recognition, while he prosecuted his inquiries and
ascertained the nature of a conspiracy that must have been organised for
his destruction.
It seemed, therefore, inconvenient and untoward in the last degree to
find himself the object of such an ovation as now greeted him, denoting
enthusiastic attachment, not for himself, but for the mother to whom he
bore so close a resemblance. He felt his position more embarrassing than
ever, when it dawned on him that in his own capital his own people
mistook him for the queen. A score of times he strove to address them,
and a score of times his voice was drowned in the deafening acclamations
that arose the moment he opened his lips.
His patience was failing fast, and an angry light already glittered in
his eyes, when the whole expression of his face changed to one of
extreme consternation and dismay. Dashing up at a gallop, and halting
within two strides, sat a figure on a white horse, so like himself in
his ordinary royal attire, that for a space in which a man might have
counted a hundred, his senses deserted him, and, speechless from
sheer amazement, he could but gaze with dilated eyes, like one
horror-stricken at some vision from another world. The face, the form,
the scarlet robe, the princely tiara, the golden collar, the jewelled
sword, the very trappings of the horse, were all his own; and in the
gesture with which that figure suddenly drew rein to station itself
motionless over against him, he seemed to see _himself_ not in the
foolish disguise he had lately assumed, but as it had been his custom to
ride through the streets of Babylon, the darling of the Assyrian people,
the flower of young heroes, the fairest of young princes, in the eastern
world.
Brief as was the interval during which his presence of mind forsook him,
it was long enough to permit one of those rapid strokes by which, in
love, war, and policy, bold spirits gain the mastery; the other Ninyas
had also paused for a moment, as if confused and uncertain how to act,
but Assarac, pressing to the white horse's side, whispered a few earnest
words in its rider's ear--words that brought a flash of energy and
intelligence into the beautiful face of his listener, ere the eunuch
turned in the saddle to impress some hasty directions on a captain of
ten thousand, who was in attendance at his back.
Meantime the multitude shouted louder than ever, crowding, as they
believed, in eager homage about their queen, unconscious of the pressure
caused by a ring of spearmen circling gradually round Sethos and the
veiled figure at his side.
Mingled, however, with the protestations of loyalty and affection
lavished on Semiramis, rose many a seditious outcry, many an angry burst
of impatience and contempt against the name of Ninyas. As the spearmen
encompassed the newcomers, there was much increase of ill-humour amongst
the multitude, thus wedged together by a band of iron that compressed
them from without--women shrieked and fainted--children were trampled
under foot--strong men, reeling and swaying to and fro, cursed audibly,
directing savage scowls and fierce abuse at the rider of the white
horse, as though their ruler were answerable even for the excesses of a
disorderly crowd. The storm increased, the human waves surged, swelled,
and roared, everything indicated a tumult, and still the serried ranks
of spearmen narrowed their circle, drawing closer and closer round the
little knot of figures on which all eyes were fixed.
"Never had man or woman such a chance!" whispered Assarac. "By the body
of Ashur, his sceptre has come down from the stars into your very hand.
It is but to close your fingers, and you grasp it once for all!"
The rider of the white horse replied by a look of intelligence in the
eunuch's face, and a gesture of supreme contempt for the noisy
multitude.
Assarac's eyes answered with a gaze of devoted and passionate adoration.
"Opportunity," he murmured, "is the harvest of the gods!" But the
sentiment seemed lost on the ear to which it was addressed; for the
fiery white horse, obeying hand and heel, began to plunge with such
formidable energy as soon cleared a breathing-space, so to speak, in the
receding crowd.
And now the roll of chariots was heard without the gate, while a score
of trumpets answered each other in swelling notes of war from all
quarters of the city. Men knew that for every trumpet rode a thousand of
Assyria's terrible horsemen, armed with bow and spear.
It was well, thought Sethos, for his lord and himself, that they were so
safely guarded. Stalwart warriors, massed ten deep, kept the people off
on every side; but with thunder of wheels and bray of clarions, a
certain panic took possession of the crowd, and it closed in so heavily
on the plunging Merodach that, active as was the animal, it seemed in
danger of being swept off its feet. Had they once gone down, neither
horse nor rider would ever have risen again.
Assarac exerted all his strength and all his courage to keep in close
attendance. On his face was graven the set expression of one who elects
rather to die than fail in his desire; and under that storm of howls,
and threats, and bitter execrations, the eunuch bore himself like a man.
An ever-increasing pressure in the crowd had now forced the white horse
against the surface of the city wall, which sloped upwards from within
at such an angle as permitted a nimble bowman to surmount the incline,
and reach a narrow platform, whence under cover of the rampart he could
discharge his missiles in safety against an enemy. It was very steep,
and afforded a foothold slippery and insecure to the last degree.
Measuring it in one rapid glance, his rider's hand and heel roused
Merodach's courage to the utmost for his effort. With a bound like a
wild-deer, a shower of sun-baked clay, a hideous moment of poise,
struggle, and recovery, the white horse bore his rider to this point of
vantage and security, standing there motionless, save for a quick
vibration of his ears, a prolonged snort, expressing triumph, defiance,
and a sense of danger past.
Throned in their recess, the pair seemed rather to have come down from
the gods than gone up from amongst men.
Such a feat, with such a people, could not but produce an irresistible
effect. Voices raised a little earlier in scorn and hatred now shouted
enthusiastic admiration and approval. One such display of skill in
horsemanship seemed enough to regain for their reckless ruler all the
popularity that had been withdrawn.
Every eye was now riveted on the white horse and its rider. At a signal
that the latter desired to speak, unbroken silence fell on those
assembled thousands, and not an accent was lost of that sweet measured
voice, clear, full, and musical in the cadence of its every tone.
"Sons of Ashur," it said, "men of Babylon, conquerors of the world, ye
love the line of Nimrod dearly, but ye love not _me_! Tell me not ye
have changed in one brief moment, because of a bold leap and a willing
steed. I am unworthy to reign over you. I have been weighed, and found
wanting. I have tried, and failed. Baal in his temple has warned me to
abandon the reins I possess neither power nor wit to guide. I have seen
your reception of Semiramis. I know--none better--the worth and wisdom
of the Great Queen. Sons of Ashur, in her favour I abdicate; to her hand
I resign my sceptre, at her feet I lay my crown. May the queen live for
ever! I have spoken. And now stand aside, sons of Ashur, while I come
down, lest I hurt a hair of the head of one of her especial people, whom
she will rule with a mother's love, whom she will lead to triumphs
beside which the glory of Ninus himself shall pale and fade away!"
With these words, Merodach was urged to the downward leap. A column of
spearmen cleared a passage through the crowd, and the brave white horse,
followed by the eyes of all Babylon, galloped off at speed towards the
palace of the Great Queen.
When men turned to look for her, marvelling at her strange appearance
among them weary and travel-worn out of the desert, lo, she too had
vanished with her attendant, guarded, it was said, by hosts of archers,
clouds of horsemen who thronged about her so thick and close, that none
might lock on the royal person, nor come within hearing of the royal
voice.
Nevertheless, each went to his home with a pleasing prospect of coming
rejoicings, of war and triumph, feast and revel, harp, timbrel, and beat
of dancing feet, splendour in the palace, plenty in the suburb, jovial
days and merry nights throughout great Babylon once more.
Hisroch the Abenger