FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
"It is our only course against such a foe," said Aryas, after a gloomy
silence, during which lord and servant seemed to have been following out
no cheering train of thought. "For any nation on earth to oppose thy
countrymen in warfare is to wield a shepherd's staff against a blade of
tempered steel. But one heavy blow from the club, well-aimed and
unexpected, may sometimes shiver the deadlier weapon to its hilt. Our
long swords of the mountain bite sharp and true. The wedge of Armenia
can pierce a column, however dense, and the gap widens as we fight on.
Surely it will cleave the might of Assyria, as a woodman's axe cleaves
the sturdy oak of the hills."
"But the oak is rooted to its place," objected Sarchedon, "while the
Assyrian can wheel and stoop and strike like a falcon in the air. His
horsemen will open out, and bend their bows till they have wrapped the
advancing wedge in a storm of deadly hail--till its men fall thick, and
its might is loosened from the rear. Then will Semiramis order up her
war-chariots on either flank; and, once broken, as well he knows, there
is no rallying for the long swords of my lord the king."
"They shall _not_ be broken," exclaimed Aryas. "With Thorgon to lead
them on foot, with their king to direct the battle in his chariot, with
thy skill of warfare, Sarchedon, and our own good cause, I commit the
result to that power which hath ever befriended Armenia, in attack and
in defence--the might of the Naked Sword. Yet I would we could fight
them at a vantage, nevertheless," he added, his enthusiasm changing to
deep anxiety and concern. "Their armour, their weapons, their horses,
are better than ours, and they outnumber us ten to one."
"True, O king!" replied Sarchedon; "therefore must we fall upon them
unawares. Behold! In their ranks every spearman hath been taught to
handle spade, every slinger uses the pick deftly as he whirls the thong,
each third man carries a mattock or a shovel; and the Great Queen
values their labour no dearer than their lives. This night one half her
host will be employed to turn the course of the river that keeps your
city on its eastern side. Let my lord the king summon his men of war in
the hours of darkness, and at daybreak go down to battle. If he conquer,
it will be with the first onslaught. If he fail, then may Sarchedon, his
friend and servant, pay back the life he owes, and die at his lord's
feet."
Again that ominous shadow passed over the king's face: he laid his hand
kindly on the other's shoulder, and spoke in a low sad voice.
"Sarchedon," said he, "when I shielded thee from the demand of an
Assyrian embassy, it was for jealousy of my father's honour--for the
cause of the stranger and the oppressed. When I took thee out from under
thy horse--ay, from off the very horns of the wild bull--it was for care
of a faithful servant risking life at the pleasure of his lord. Now we
are master and slave, crowned king and belted bowbearer no more, but
friends in esteem and affection, brothers in confidence and love. I tell
thee that the days of Aryas, the son of Aramus, are numbered, and the
Mountain Men must choose them another king to guide their counsels and
lead their long swords into battle. Last night I dreamed a dream; and it
needs no wise man, no cunning soothsayer, to read the interpretation
thereof. Behold, I was hunting in the mountain, riding to and fro with
bow in hand and hound in leash, seeking to take a prey. In vain I
traversed hill and valley, rock and river, stately forest and scattered
copse--leaf, grass, and flower were alike scathed and blighted. It
seemed that a flight of locusts had passed over all. Then I cursed the
nakedness of the land in my wrath; and while thrice I shouted 'Barren,
barren, barren!' mine own voice sounded hideous in mine ears. So I rode
slowly on, and beneath my horse's feet I beheld three things that caused
my blood to curdle and the hair of my flesh to stand on end.
"The first was a slain eagle pierced by a headless shaft; the second was
a wild bull noosed in a woman's girdle; the third was a dead man lying
on his face with the king's sandals on his feet, the king's baldrick on
his shoulders, and the king's quiver at his back. I tell thee,
Sarchedon, the warning lies betwixt thee and me. Let us drink a cup of
wine in fellowship to-night; for if we go down to battle with
to-morrow's dawn, one of us shall have quenched his thirst for ever by
noon of day."
"On my head may it fall!" exclaimed Sarchedon. "Let the slave perish,
and let his lord, who raised him from the dust, ride forth to victory!"
"Nay, hear me," replied the king; "for I have already told thee lord and
slave are no words between Aryas and Sarchedon. If I accept the vision
for myself, I am willing to face its interpretation freely as I would
face the horsemen of Assyria and the chariots of the Great Queen. I
might die many a baser death than to fall in battle with Thorgon and his
long swords at my back. But if it is for thee that the dream has been
sent, I tell thee, my faithful friend and comrade, I cannot bear to
think that thy share in our joint venture should be all loss and no
gain. When I took thee into my palace, rude and homely though it seem, I
swore its halls should be a harness of proof and a tower of defence for
the stranger who sought its shelter. When I gave thee a place in my
heart, I resolved I would bring thee to promotion and honour--not to
danger, defeat, and death. Go out from among us, Sarchedon, ere it be
too late. Return, as of thine own free will, to the Assyrian, with fair
words and costly gifts. Buy their favour and the safety of thy body with
that fair province of the south that lies by the Glassy Lake. Behold, it
is a gift from me to thee. Tell them that the open hand of Aryas is
heavy as his clenched fist. Bid the Great Queen depart in peace; but if
she must needs come to buffets, there is space enough to fight a kingly
battle beneath the walls of Ardesh. If she desires to seize my father's
crown, she must take it off my brows by force where I stand, in my
war-chariot armed with bow and spear."
For all answer, Sarchedon stripped the quiver from his shoulders, took
the sword from his thigh, and laid the weapons at his lord's feet.
"It is enough," said he. "If the king can believe his servant capable of
thus ransoming one poor life at the cost of honour, I have served him
already too long. There are many brave men among his subjects better
fitted than Sarchedon for the highest post Armenia has to offer. Poor
and naked as he came, let the Assyrian return to the station from which
he was raised by the favour of my lord the king. Yet, if true service
and a grateful heart may plead for him, even now he will but ask to take
his place to-morrow in the fore-front of battle, and, habited like a
simple soldier of Aryas, march with the Men of the Mountain to his
death."
The king's features worked with emotion. "Not so," he exclaimed in
hoarse and broken accents. "True and faithful servants I can number by
scores, but such a heart as this cleaveth to a man, be he king or
herdsman, once in a lifetime. Surely it sticketh faster than a brother.
I have proved thee, Sarchedon, as one proves the harness that is to keep
his life. I tell thee, we will go down to battle side by side; together
we will bend the bow and point the javelin. Honour, danger, and triumph
we will share alike; and when the end comes, as something warns me come
it will, peradventure in death we shall not be divided."
Then he lifted belt and baldrick from the stones, and with his own hand
fastened the quiver at Sarchedon's back, girt the sword on his thigh,
thus reinstating the bowbearer in all the honours he had voluntarily
resigned.
Standing side by side in this reversal of their relative positions, it
chanced that the servant caught sight of his own figure and his master's
reflected in the burnished surface of an empty wine-flagon over against
him. Remarking, not for the first time, their extraordinary similarity
of form and features, Sarchedon now ventured on a request that only the
high favour in which he stood, and the humility of his tone while
proffering it, could have rendered palatable to his listener.
"Let not the king be wroth with his servant," said he, hesitating, like
one who tries a plank with his foot ere he commits it to the whole of
his weight, "if we ask yet another proof, in addition to all the honours
heaped on him, of the trust in which he is held by his lord. Behold,
like the sand that sucks the desert spring, he thirsteth yet for more!
Let the king grant him the desire of his heart, and live for ever!"
"Say on, man!" replied Aryas, somewhat impatiently; "surely there needs
not all this ceremony between thee and me. By to-morrow's sunset," he
added, in a lower, sadder tone, "the same wild dog may be scaring the
vultures from us both."
"Then, if we are to meet our death together," replied Sarchedon, "let it
be in the same habit and the same armour. This is the boon I earnestly
beg of my lord to grant. Men have said, ere now, that armed and in the
field there is some such resemblance between Sarchedon and him who is
called Aryas and Beautiful, as between the illusive verdure of the
desert and those groves and waters that it represents. Let me take upon
me then to array myself in such attire and harness as are worn by my
lord the king; so, in the press of battle, the advantage of his presence
and conduct shall be double, while the risk from his enemies--for my
people strike ever at the head--will be but half."
Aryas pondered.
"And if I fall," said he, "wilt thou bring on the Men of the Mountain
like a free Armenian king, leading the long swords to the charge again
and again, even unto death?"
"I will do my best," replied the other; "for, indeed, whither am I to
retreat? and what will be my fate if I am made a captive? Surely I have
nothing to fear but defeat. If the long swords will follow, I ask no
better than to lead them through the ranks of Assyria--to the very
chariot of the Great Queen!"
The king's eyes blazed with unwonted fire.
"Swear it!" he exclaimed vehemently.
"I swear it by the everlasting wings!" answered Sarchedon; and so they
made their compact with death.