THE FENCED CITY
"The storm has broke at last," said Aryas, stooping to lift a headless
arrow that had fallen at his feet. "If it hail no deadlier missiles than
this, there will be little glory in sheltering under buckler and
headpiece, behind stone buttress and unbroken wall."
Sarchedon took the arrow from the king's hand.
"Behold," said he, "the feathers are dipped in blood. Such a token is
the deadliest of all defiance from my countrymen. My lord the king hath
ever measured glory by danger. Trust me, he will have enough of both who
holds a fenced city against which the armies of Assyria come up to cast
a bank."
"So be it," was the dauntless answer. "The god of our nation hath never
failed us yet, and those can scarce refuse to accept the award of battle
who worship no other power but that of the naked sword!"
They were standing on the wall of Ardesh, scanning anxiously the lines
of the Assyrian camp, which now encircled them. The Comely King had here
concentrated all his forces, and the hosts of Semiramis, disappointed,
it may be, that they met so little resistance on their march, completely
invested the capital of Armenia, where the men of the north had taken
their stand, determined to put forth all their strength in a single
blow, and finish the struggle once for all.
The Assyrians had surrounded the city by night. At dawn their trumpets
sounded about it on all sides, and ere noon the siege had so far
commenced, that the headless arrow, formerly dispatched to the Great
Queen as a token from Aryas, was shot into his stronghold, to alight at
his very feet, wet and stained with blood.
"She is here in person," observed Sarchedon in a low grave voice, while
he turned the arrow round and round in his hand. "None of her servants
would have dared to send such a messenger as this. It means war to the
death, no ransom for the captive, no mercy for the wounded, no burial
for the slain."
"Is she, then, so pitiless a conqueror?" asked the Comely King,
repressing certain hideous misgivings, that he had undertaken a task
beyond his strength, and that not only his own life, which he was always
willing enough to wage freely, but the safety of his people and the very
existence of his kingdom were in the utmost peril.
"Merciless!" repeated Sarchedon. "An eagle has mercy when she turns from
the dead carrion, a lion has mercy when he is gorged; but how shall men
look for mercy from the solid impenetrable rock? That woman has, indeed,
the lion's courage and the eagle's ken; but her heart is stone. And yet
she is so beautiful,--so beautiful," he added, while a tide of wild and
thrilling memories imparted a mournful tone to his revilings; "I have
seen a poor wretch she has condemned turn on her his last look, full of
love and worship, ere they covered his face and led him forth to die. Is
she not more than woman? Is she not Ashtaroth, Queen of Light, come
down to lead the sons of Ashur to their doom?"
The king was straining his eyes towards the camp of the enemy. He cared
as little for the beauty of Ashtaroth as of Semiramis.
"If she is with her armies in person," said he, "and leads the attack, I
will slay her with mine own hand. Behold, when I have cut the string,
her captains and men of war shall bend the bow in vain. Look out yonder,
Sarchedon, over the eastern slope. You know the array of your countrymen
in camp or line of battle. Surely where the chariots of iron are massed,
down yonder by the waterside, between the lines of horses, should be the
abiding place of the Great Queen."
From the rampart whereon they stood, a bluff face of rock descended
precipitously towards the camp of the Assyrians. Such, indeed, was the
defence of Ardesh on every side; the natural difficulties of the
stronghold being enhanced by a solid wall of masonry, against which,
even after a bank had been raised by the besiegers to the necessary
height, their battering-rams might be plied for a considerable period
without effect. Save on the eastern quarter, the fall was nearly
perpendicular, affording no encouraging prospect to an attacking force;
but here the cliff sloped off in an incline, up and down which a goat
might travel freely, or an active man unencumbered with armour might
pass to and fro. If Ardesh were to be carried by assault, this was its
only practicable point, although the inequalities of the surface were so
trifling, and the angle so imperceptible, that the ascent looked
perfectly smooth and upright from below.
Leaning over, with his attention riveted on the camp of the enemy, the
king let his helmet fall from his head at this very spot. It rolled
several cubits down the incline, till caught by a projecting corner of
rock, where it hung bright and glittering, like a morning dew-drop on a
dead autumn leaf. Aryas looked after it and laughed.
"Token for token," said he. "A headless helmet in answer to a headless
shaft. If it ever gets down to their camp, they may summon their wise
men to read the riddle in vain."
"It must not remain _there_!" answered Sarchedon. "The flash of steel
will draw every eye in the host to the only joint in our harness; and I
know their cunning of warfare well. Let my lord the king shelter for a
space beneath the wall, lest I draw on him a storm from yonder dark
cloud of archers in the vineyard when I show myself. We shall have no
more headless arrows shot into Ardesh to-day."
"I would I had known in time!" muttered Aryas. "Not a leaf had been left
on the vines to screen a marksman, not a hand's breadth of green but had
been scathed and shrivelled by fire within a bowshot of the walls. Well
climbed, Sarchedon! By the sword of my father, the Assyrian hath a leap
and a footfall like a goat!"
While he spoke, the royal bowbearer crept cautiously down the precipice,
taking advantage of every inequality that afforded foothold, of every
tuft and fibre of vegetation that he could grasp. Slinging the recovered
helmet round his neck with a bowstring, and thus leaving both hands at
liberty for his ascent, he returned even less laboriously than he
departed; and surmounting the wall, stood by the king's side, panting,
breathless, but exulting with boyish glee in the achievement of his
exploit.
"And they marked me not from below!" said he triumphantly; "though I
dared not often trust myself to look down, I could have seen if bow had
been bent or arrow pointed from the camp. Surely the Assyrian sleeps on
his post; surely they have lost their discipline since I carried a spear
in the guards of the Great King!"
"We will give them a lesson in warfare ere long," answered Aryas, but
though his tone was bold enough, his eye wandered uneasily over the
mighty array of tents and banners that covered the plain below. "We can
hold them at our pleasure till the snow winds come to help us from the
north, unless they give the assault at this very spot beneath our feet,
and here, too, we are guarded by the river, shallow though it be, for if
to-day it steals smoothly and gladly through the water-flowers, like a
youth wooing a maiden to the dance, to-morrow it comes roaring down in a
seething flood, unbridled and irresistible as a host of northern
horsemen with a broken enemy in their front."
But the king's prevision and the keen eyes of his bowbearer were alike
at fault. Thus it fell out that the only assailable point in the
defences of Ardesh was laid open to an enemy who never failed to strike
home without delay at the weakest place.
* * * * *
It had been the custom of the Great Queen, during their long and
toilsome progress from the country between the rivers to the mountain
regions of Armenia, to inspect with her own eyes the camp-life of her
armies, and to satisfy herself of their nourishment, their comfort,
their general efficiency, above all, their loyalty to her person and
fidelity to the standard under which they marched.
For this purpose she would assume the disguise of a simple archer,
hiding her face, as if to screen it from the sun, with the folds of a
linen head-dress, such as has always been affected by inhabitants of hot
climates, and so, often without a single attendant, would stroll
unrecognised through the camp, listening to the rude talk of the
spearmen, and noting for future reproof any instances of negligence,
tyranny, or misconduct that took place within her observation. Men
wondered how an ill-yoked chariot, a trodden and turbid watering-place,
an over-loaded camel, all came under notice of the Great Queen; so that
the prevalent belief in her godlike birth and more than human attributes
gained ground day by day from these examples of a knowledge that seemed
at once ubiquitous and infallible.
No sooner had she disposed her forces, with all the skill her experience
suggested, round the stronghold of her enemy than she determined to
examine for herself the actual state of the wall which fortified it,
even if she had to venture within bowshot of the defenders. For this
purpose she stole from her own magnificent pavilion in the attire of an
Assyrian archer, and covering her face as usual, passed slowly through
the lines where the flower of an army lay encamped, which, though sadly
weakened by the toil and hardships of its protracted march, seemed yet
formidable antagonists to any power on earth.
The men were scattered about in groups, already making preparations,
though noon was not long past, for their principal meal at sundown. Here
a brawny warrior, with arms bare to the shoulder and legs to the thigh,
was shredding herbs in his headpiece, the homeliness of his occupation
contrasting ludicrously with the warlike nature of his cooking vessel,
as did the nudity of his extremities with the proven harness that kept
his mighty chest. A comrade, lying on his back with arms folded over his
face, kicked his legs in the air, while he watched the proceedings with
a listlessness that denoted he was for evening duty, and would have no
share in the result. A score of others, ungirt, unsandalled, half-armed,
half-dressed, were gathered round a dying camel, vociferating many
opposing remedies for the poor beast's treatment, while the roar of an
irritated stallion, the peal of a trumpet, the stamp and snort of a row
of feeding horses, mingled with the hum of voices rising from a circle
of stalwart warriors sitting, though the sun beat fiercely down, round
the embers of their camp-fire.
It was not in the nature of Semiramis to pass these magnificent
specimens of manhood without notice. Half unconsciously she lingered in
their vicinity, marking their ample beards, fine stature, and robust
proportions, agreeing well with their deep full tones, while they
discussed freely enough the chances of the expedition and the stirring
events of their daily life, sparing not the captains of ten thousand,
nor forbearing to criticise the great leader herself, who stood by and
overheard.
"'Tis a strained bow they bid us bend, my brothers," observed a scarred,
war-worn veteran, whose mien and bearing displayed all the fierce pride,
the overweening self-confidence assumed by those who had served under
the Great King; "a strained bow and a frayed cord--peradventure, a
headless shaft to point, as well; but that makes little odds against
solid masonry and bare rock. I doubt, if we are to get at the kernel of
this date here over against us, we must crack the shell with our teeth."
"I can tell thee that mine are blunt for want of use," retorted a
comrade, hammering busily at a broken link in his habergeon. "How are
men to be fed on the march through a country that grows nothing but oaks
and brushwood? There is grass, indeed, between the hills, and game for
those who can hunt it in the woods, but of corn and cattle the valleys
are bare as the palm of my hand."
"And empty as his belly," laughed a third. "He liketh well to have store
of good things in both."
"But Semiramis forbade pillage," interposed his neighbour, grinning.
"They took an auxiliary with a shield full of barley that he snatched
from an old man's threshing-floor, and she impaled him on the spot."
"Fool! that was in our own land of Shinar, before we crossed the
frontier," said the first speaker. "The Great Queen never forbade
pillage in an enemy's country till we marched into this wilderness,
where there is nothing to take. Besides, the rogue slew the old man in
his own vineyard, and he was only an auxiliary after all."
"And an ungainly wretch to boot, I will wager my share of supper
presently out of that scanty pot," added a handsome young spearman,
arranging his curly beard in the breastplate he had polished up to the
brightness of a mirror for that purpose. "A comely youth of proper
stature, be he captain or camel-driver, need never fear but he will find
favour in the sight of the Great Queen."
His fellows laughed loud and long.
"Hear him!" shouted one, clapping the speaker on the back, "the
favourite of Ashtaroth!"
"The dainty lotus-flower of the host!" exclaimed another; while a third,
turning on him with mock gravity, bade him,
"Go to for a fool, who must be answered according to his folly."
"Dost thou verily believe," said he, "that because of thy bull's head
and shoulders, thy foolish leer like a sheep in a sacrifice, and the
perpetual grin of a southern ape eating a sour pomegranate, thou wilt
get preferment at her hands, who knows a man when she sees one, and
treats him like the arrows in her quiver? Lo! the bow is bent, the mark
is struck or missed, another is fitted to the string; but the same shaft
never comes into her royal service again. Though thy turn of duty takes
thee daily to the great pavilion, I doubt if the queen hath ever seen
thee yet."
"She shall hear of me, nevertheless," said the other, with a glance at
the beleaguered town.
"Knocking that empty head of thine against the wall!" returned the
veteran. "I tell ye, my brothers, that of all the wars yet undertaken
by the sons of Ashur, this is the most untoward and ill-advised. What
said the Great King when he turned back from the Zagros range, taking
earth and water of the Men of the Mountain, but refraining to occupy
their country? 'I would be lord of all below,' said he, pointing to
those snow-whitened hills that mingle with the clouds, 'while I leave to
my fathers the dominion of the sky!' He has gone to join them at last;
but could he come back to us this night, I tell ye by to-morrow's sunset
we should be a day's march on our journey towards home!"
"Then why are we here now?" was asked by two or three voices at once.
The answer came in a grave important tone:
"Because of a treasure within those walls that Semiramis would wage life
and empire, and you and me, and the whole might of Ashur to attain. What
it is, I know not; if I knew, peradventure I dared not tell. But this I
will uphold of the Great Queen, that her lightest wish is to the fixed
resolve of another, as a man walking in armour to a maiden washing her
feet in a stream."
His listeners nodded approval, and scanning the lofty towers above them,
began hazarding many conjectures as to the nature of that possession so
coveted by their queen. A strong opinion seemed to prevail that Ardesh
contained some illimitable store of spoils hoarded by Armenian kings for
ages; and this impression served partly to counteract their general
feeling of despondency and disheartening belief in the impregnable
strength of the place. The youngest of these men of war spoke the most
hopefully.
"I will never admit," said he, "that the might of man can shut out the
sons of Ashur under the banner of our Great Queen. A rock is steep. Go
to! shall we not cast a bank against it? A wall is thick; shall we not
undermine it from beneath? Give me a high curved shield to keep my head,
a steel pick, and an iron crowbar; behold, I will sit like a partridge
in the barley, and burrow like a coney amongst the rocks."
"So be it," answered the veteran moodily. "The sooner our trumpets sound
to the assault the better. I tell thee, man, though the guards still
show a goodly front, the hosts of Assyria are wasting and waning day by
day, like that river in Egypt I passed over dry shod, like a flagon of
Damascus wine, my brother, standing betwixt thee and me."
The archer turned thoughtfully away, walking through the lines with
folded hands and head bent down in earnest consideration.
There was food for reflection, even for anxiety and alarm, in the light
talk of these careless spearmen. When they touched on her personal
weaknesses, her predilection for stalwart warriors, and especially her
indomitable strength of will, the queen could not forbear a smile; but
it faded into an expression of deeper gravity than was often worn by
that bright face, while she pondered on the cost and peril of this
adventurous expedition, so wild in its object, so disastrous in its
results, confessing to her own heart that its impolicy was as obvious to
her meanest followers as to their leader. Had not Assarac himself
expressed the same opinion, almost in the same words?--Assarac, to whom
she had never given a problem so hard but that he could solve it, a task
so difficult, but that, for her sake, it was fulfilled.
Her armies melting away daily, her men of war dispirited and
ill-supplied, a strongly-fortified city in front, a barren desert in
rear! Not a captain of her host but would have quailed at the prospect,
and had he been chief in command, would have commenced a fatal and
disorderly retreat.
The character of Semiramis, however, was one on which danger and
difficulty produced the effect of a hammer on glowing steel, welding and
forging it, indeed, to the ends in view, but tempering it to an
exceeding hardness and consistency the while. The desire of the present
too, whatever it might be, became her master-passion for the time, and
while sanguine and impetuous like a very woman, she possessed the
courage, foresight, and obstinate perseverance of a man; also she
enjoyed unlimited and irresponsible power as a queen; therefore it never
entered her mind to abandon her task, or forego her intention of taking
Sarchedon out of Ardesh by the strong hand, and marching the Comely King
back to Babylon, a fettered captive at her chariot wheels.
"But to lie here inactive, waiting till he surrenders," thought the
queen, "is like staring at ripe fruit in an orchard, till it drop down
into the mouth. If a man hunger, let him climb the bough; I am but a
woman, yet I think I can at least shake the tree."
So she resolved that, at all hazards and all loss, the place must be
carried by assault without delay. Thus musing, she passed through the
vineyard occupied by her own archers to within an arrow's flight of the
beleaguered fortress, unnoticed by those who believed her to be a simple
bowman like themselves, and so proceeded to scan the wall, with an eye
trained to detect the slightest point of advantage at a glance.
It was strong, very strong. Here, perhaps, a bank might be cast against
it to some purpose; but the besiegers would suffer fearful slaughter in
the work. There, covered by their large wicker shields, and plying their
mining-tools, her heavy-armed spearmen might sap the foundations of the
wall; but could they climb, and fight, and work, all at once, where
there was scarce foothold for a goat? It must be done, nevertheless; but
how to do it? She taxed her memory and her invention in vain.
Accident, however, came to her aid, when all her warlike skill was
insufficient. Gazing steadfastly on the place, she marked the king's
helmet drop from the wall, and her heart leaped with triumph when she
beheld his bowbearer, who recovered it, reascending with little
difficulty to return it to his lord--with triumph, and with a sharper,
keener, sweeter sensation still; for in that bowbearer she recognised
him for whom she was thus willing to risk life and empire; while the
same glance revealed to her at once the desire of her eyes, and the path
by which it was to be attained. She felt her cheek burn and her pulses
throb; but even in that glowing moment, the instincts of the commander
dominated those of the woman, and her brain was never clearer, nor her
eye more accurate, than while she measured the height of the steep, and
noted every fall of ground, every inequality of surface, that could be
turned to account in moving the strength of her army at this point to
the attack.
Ashtaroth, she knew, would always be ready to do her bidding, but it
needed prudence, self-restraint, and a steadfast heart to force Merodach
to her will.