A SERPENT ON A ROCK
A southern sun beat fierce and pitiless on the terrace of the queen's
palace at Babylon. Hewn out of the solid rock, a smooth and glistening
pavement refracted those noon-day beams like burnished metal. Not a
breath of wind arose to cool the heated air; not a bird dared spread its
wing against the burning sky; yet Assarac stood motionless and
thoughtful in the open unshaded space, heedless alike of throbbing
brain, blistered skin, and sandals scorching under his very feet.
Suddenly he started and stepped quickly forward, like one about to
trample something beneath his heel. Checking himself in the act, he
paused to mark a serpent gliding along the unfriendly pavement, as if
seeking for a hole or crevice wherein to shelter its shining skin and
smooth, flat, cunning head.
He had thought to slay it; but no, it was not in him to do the creature
harm, as he stood watching it with wistful eyes, and bitter thoughts,
and a strange sad feeling of compassion at his heart.
Uncoiling many a sleek and glistening fold, it worked its way slowly,
painfully, traversing in all its length and breadth the surface of that
pitiless pavement, so different from the dank morass and tangled brake
for which its nature yearned. The wise reptile, type of caution,
intellect, sagacity, measured its cunning in vain against the beautiful
impenetrable slab, could find no solace in the hard unyielding stone.
"Is it better, after all," thought Assarac, "to wind, like this wily
creature, along the devious paths of policy, or to take the straight and
open road, leading to danger indeed, but to danger that may be foreseen,
assailed and vanquished with the strong hand? Would I be the tiger,
blind with desire of blood leaping at the wild-deer's throat, to slake a
cruel thirst? or the serpent, crafty, patient, persevering, exhausting
all its ingenuity, all its devices, against an obstacle smooth and
impenetrable as this adamantine pavement, heated by the sun's rays, not
to warm and cherish, but to scorch, wither, and consume?"
Thus meditating, with an unusual cloud of despondency on his brow,
Assarac turned away, and traversing the large cool hall of the queen's
palace, walked thoughtfully through leafy wilderness and shaded
pleasure-ground to the silver temple of the Fish-God, where he had been
summoned by Semiramis, that he might assist with his counsels the great
design on which her heart was bent.
Kalmim, who had again resumed attendance in the household of her royal
mistress, rejoicing that the days of mourning were at last expired,
waited as usual in the porch.
With winning smiles and sparkling eyes--since Kalmim's bow was always
bent for practice as for slaughter--she drew those silken hangings that
screened the presence of Semiramis, and admitted him to the court of
ivory and silver, as she had admitted Sarchedon once before, when that
comely warrior arrived from the camp, bearing the signet of the Great
King.
The queen had not forgotten. Something in the gesture of her tirewoman,
something in the murmur of doves, the babble of waters, the scene, the
place, the listless noon-day heat, recalled that other interview but too
forcibly now, and she received Assarac with a languid loving smile.
The eunuch's whole nature glowed beneath her glance, while prostrating
himself at her feet, he pressed the hem of her garment to his lips, with
such rapture and devotion as he had never felt for Baal, Nisroch,
Ashtaroth, nor all the host of heaven.
Her favourable looks emboldened him to speak; and after the formal
salutation, "Great Queen, live for ever!" he offered his advice unasked,
in a burst of impassioned eloquence, very different from his usual
composed immovable demeanour.
"It is a war," said he, "of which the new-born babe in the land of
Shinar may never live to see the end, unless indeed it should terminate
in an advance on Babylon by innumerable hosts, under the leadership of
Aryas the Beautiful, and the sacking of our city by those swarms of
fierce savages who congregate in the wind-swept deserts of the north.
The Great Queen's arm reaches far, her hand is strong and skilful; but,
trust me, she is about to plunge it in a very hornets' nest!"
"And crush them like locusts in my grasp!" exclaimed Semiramis, all her
beauty kindling into flame, while she threw up her graceful head in
feminine defiance. "I make no war with drones, sparing their lives and
taking away their gods, yet exacting small tribute of cattle or slaves:
but when the insects carry stings, it is worth while to conquer and
destroy. They breed _men_, I hear, beyond the Zagros range--men stronger
and fiercer, like their own storms, the farther you march towards the
north. I will carry back ten thousand of their champions, chained in
pairs, to make sport for my fickle people here in Babylon. The blind
fools! they are as proud of their queen's might as if it were their own.
'Twas a good stroke of yours, Assarac, that enabled me to resume my
woman's garment at will. You welded the iron like a cunning smith while
it glowed and sparkled on the forge. I could not patiently endure the
constant restraint; I never should have guessed how irksome it is to be
a man."
"Irksome, indeed," said the eunuch, "so long as women have softer
skins, stronger wills, and harder hearts. But the prince himself made
the very opportunity that foiled him. I did but whisper in the Great
Queen's ear to seize it. And though she drew her bow almost at a
venture, the arrow flew deftly home, according to her wont."
"Nevertheless," answered Semiramis generously, "it was _your_ eye that
aimed the shaft, though my finger pulled the string. I have always
esteemed the head that counsels far above the arm that strikes. By the
beak of Nisroch! I believe that I have not in the land of Shinar so wise
and true a servant as this high-priest of Baal!"
For answer, he was fain to kiss the hem of her robe once more. When he
tried to speak, the words seemed stifled in his throat. With one of her
rapid glances, she even detected something like a tear glisten in his
eye.
"It is far better and easier," she continued, "to reign for myself, and
meet my people frankly without disguise. While I personated my son, I
felt in every word, every gesture, the likelihood of detection; and they
were beginning to hate me as a king. I saw it every hour. To hate
without fearing--a fatal sentiment in such subjects as mine, whom I can
govern easily as I can rein Merodach, but by far different means. The
ruler of Babylon must have a frank brow, a close mouth, a sharp sword, a
long arm, and an immovable heart. When I reigned here in the absence of
the Great King, ere he--ere he--went before us to the stars--who can
reproach me that I ever turned one step aside, for any consideration of
pity or compunction? And yet, did you not hear, my friend, how they
yelled and shouted, leaping for joy to think they had got their queen
back again? Ah, they have not come to the end of it yet! And now counsel
me, Assarac. What is to be done about the prince?"
"He is safely disposed," answered the eunuch, keeping his eyes
steadfastly off her face. "Nevertheless there is no gate so close but it
may be opened by treachery, no wall so high it cannot be surmounted with
a ladder of gold. The captains of ten thousand are loyal and trusty
warriors, yet who among them could resist a tempter offering the
leadership of the host? I would bestow my lord Prince Ninyas in a prison
from which no captive escapes, a fortress friend and foe are alike
powerless to break through. There is yet a golden throne vacant in the
sky, and he might take his place in it without delay, by the side of the
Great King."
It was a ghastly proposal; yet Semiramis seemed to listen without
astonishment, and rather in sorrow than in any outburst of anger or
dismay. She answered in a sad, thoughtful and dejected tone:
"Such a measure would be wise, I grant, and would set the question at
rest for ever. But I must not--I will not--consent! I cannot but think
the doves that fed me in my infancy have imparted something of their
nature to mine. I loved the boy dearly all his childhood through; none
the less, perhaps, that in form and features he seemed so entirely mine
own. I was a good mother to him, as any sun-burned peasant who brings
her babe into the vineyard on her back; and, will you believe me,
Assarac? he cared more for a rough word or a rude jest from the Great
King than for my fondest caress, my smiles, my very tears. When I have
pleaded with him, even to his own advantage, he has turned his back on
me, and laughed outright."
How strange it seemed that any man on earth could see that matchless
face unmoved, hear that sweet voice unwon! But Assarac dared not speak,
lest all his self-control should fail, and Semiramis proceeded with her
complaint:
"He loved the meanest dancing-girl out of the market better than the
mother to whom he owed his life, his beauty, his favour with the Great
King. He would leave me for horse, and hawk, and hound, without a
word--the ring of a timbrel, the flash of a torch, the clink of a
wine-cup, would have taken him from beside my dying bed; and yet I cared
for the lad through it all, sheltered him many a time from his father's
anger, and screened his weakness, his incapacity, his vices, from the
people over whom he thought some day to reign. I have done too much for
Ninyas, and I have had no return. When I sent him to Ascalon with that
white-faced girl, I thought we were rid of his follies for a space, to
the profit of every one concerned. I never dreamed she would leave him,
nor that the child loved its toy so well as to follow even to the gate
of Babylon. That he should ride through in woman's attire must have been
arranged expressly by the gods. Had he come in his own person, I had
been compelled to act with less mercy. I thank you again, Assarac, that
you saw the opportunity at a glance. One so sage in counsel, so quick in
action, cannot but be skilful in war. Ere this year's dates have turned
to russet, you and I will flaunt the banner of Ashur in the very face of
the Beautiful King before his gate at distant Ardesh, and water our
horses, whether he will or no, in the swift Araxes. War is the sport of
kings, and am not I more king than queen when I mount my chariot in
harness and headpiece, armed with bow and spear?"
"And does love count for nothing in the project?" asked the eunuch, with
so much of reverence as masked, but did not quite conceal, a bitter
sneer.
Semiramis turned from him in obvious displeasure: under the delicate ear
he marked her very neck grow crimson with a blush. He bore pain well,
this priest of a false god, and proceeded to urge his objections in the
calm tone befitting one who offers counsel to a superior.
"Has the Great Queen counted well the cost?" said he. "Has she
considered how many bones of men and horses must whiten the line of
march to rearward of her armies, ere they pass the Zagros range? Can her
chariots of iron penetrate its wooded defiles? How shall her camels
climb its steep and slippery rocks? Say she advances to the fertile
country beyond the hills: she must either encounter those terrible
savages, who worship a naked sword as the sons of Ashur worship Nisroch
and Baal--gigantic warriors, clad in skins, but armed with bow and spear
eating human flesh and drinking horses' blood--or she will behold a
barren plain before her, its peasants fled, its wells choked up, its
harvest wasted by fire, affording neither food nor water to man or
beast. When she has surmounted these obstacles, with the loss of half
her strength, she will find herself face to face with a countless host
of horsemen from the northern desert, under the leadership of Aryas the
Beautiful himself."
In many respects, she was a woman to the core.
"I have heard he _is_ beautiful," she answered with a light laugh.
His reply was grave and sad:
"Could not he have met Semiramis, at the frontiers of her empire, in
all honour and splendour, without encounter of armies and shedding of
blood? Must he, too, rue the youthful manhood and comely face that bring
him a captive to the Great Queen's chariot-wheels, because of her
ungovernable desire--"
"How, slave!" she burst out fiercely.
"For glory and warlike renown," continued the eunuch; adding, humbly
enough, "My life is in her hand. Let the queen take it, here at the
shrine of Dagon, rather than do aught which shall prejudice her honour
and her name."
She looked appeased.
"It is mine honour," said she, "that this matter immediately concerns. I
send an embassy, demanding a certain captive at the hand of Aryas; and
what is his reply? Neither gifts nor tribute, nor words of homage and
respect, but two winged arrows bound together by a link of gold. It
needs not the dark wisdom of the Egyptian to interpret such a sign. He
means that this is no question of barter or ransom, but one to be
decided between us by bow and spear. It is the issue I most desired in
my heart."
"He means that the Comely King and the Comely Queen should join their
hosts, and bind themselves together in a link that can never be
dissolved," murmured the eunuch, almost with a groan.
She smiled in beautiful scorn.
"I have the arrows in my quiver," said she; "the first shall be shot
into his camp, the day I meet him face to face, with its feathers dipped
in blood. It may warn him, perhaps, that I have sworn to drive the
second with mine own hand through his heart. There are goodly men in the
world, I trow, besides Aryas, and one ten thousand times as fair is
wasting in captivity even now. Prate not to me, Assarac! I tell you,
that if I wrap the world in flames, I will have Sarchedon back, here in
Babylon, before this year's dates have fallen from the palm! I am sick
till I see his noble face again. It is enough: I have spoken."
Then the eunuch knew he was dismissed, and passed out of the temple
sadly, thoughtfully with drooping head, folded hands, and slow dejected
step.
Crossing the terrace once more, he looked about for the serpent; but it
was gone.
Calling to mind its struggles and windings, he wondered where and how it
could have found rest, foiled at every turn by the glowing surface of
that smooth unimpressionable stone.