SHARING THE SPOIL
In the palace of Ardesh, where the naked sword stood for men to worship,
they set up a golden image of Baal; where a free monarch sat amongst his
free warriors, the servant of a despotic mistress now lorded it over a
conquered race. Between rise and set of sun a king had perished, an army
had been cut to pieces, and a warlike people ceased to hold its place
among nations.
In the court of that royal dwelling, under the soft evening sky, Assarac
stood in state to receive the captains of the host, take note of their
prisoners, and count the spoil. He had borne him all day like a warrior
of might--cool as the wariest of leaders, bold as the fiercest of
spearmen. None the less was his practised eye scanning the material
results of triumph, his active brain plotting to consolidate the fruits
of victory.
Though himself unwounded, the eunuch's harness was riven and dented, the
linen garment, which, in right of his priestly office, he affected even
in battle, was streaked and spotted with blood. Fed by the fire within,
his look was keen and piercing; there seemed little more trace of
fatigue on his care-worn face than it had worn day and night since the
host marched out from the northern gate of Babylon; and, conscious he
had borne him like a true son of Ashur, under the eyes of the Great
Queen, his aspect, lately so dejected and morose, was brightened by a
passing gleam, as from the light of hope.
It looked a ghastly task on which his mind was bent. Files of Assyrian
spearmen, passing proudly before him, laid down the heads of enemies
slain in arms or taken prisoners after the combat; so lavishly and with
such precision, that a pile of these hideous trophies had already risen
to the height of a man's girdle. Two scribes, tablet in hand, took note
of their exact number; while Assarac, as the queen's chief counsellor,
recorded the names of the successful warriors, and apportioned the share
to which each would be entitled in dividing the spoil.
Not a murmur rose against his award; for it was still fresh in men's
minds how at the turning-point of battle, when victory hung doubtful in
the balance, all that fierce energy and daring which had rendered Ninus
such a successful leader seemed to have descended on the priest of Baal
whom the old king so mistrusted and reviled.
Man by man the champions of the Assyrian host passed by. One laden with
the spoil he had already gathered, rude in workmanship, yet precious in
its barbaric splendour and intrinsic worth. Another, dragging some
hapless foeman, whom he had bound securely with his girdle, and whose
fate hung on the eunuch's nod; for the conqueror, with bared arm and
naked steel, held himself ready to pierce, flay, or decapitate at the
lightest sign. A third, leading a comely mountain maid, white and ruddy,
with shy blue eyes and tangled locks of gold, scared, trembling,
weeping, yet sometimes blushing, not without conscious triumph, that
she had herself taken captive the strong fighter in whose power she
seemed to be.
For the vanquished, Assarac now showed a clemency unusual in the
traditions of his people, not entirely in accordance with his own
nature, as it had hitherto appeared, hard, practical, uninfluenced by
feeling, and looking only to results. It was observed that he spared all
captives save only such warriors as had been taken fighting against the
bodyguards of the Great Queen; while for the Armenian women, in this
their hour of sorrow, he manifested a pity and consideration that
elicited certain ribald comments from his countrymen, and no small
surprise from the prisoners themselves. But censure, praise, and
ridicule were alike unable to affect him to-day. With that power of
concentration which constitutes the principal element of success in war,
government, or indeed any business of life, his energies were engrossed
in the important task of so disposing that great Assyrian army, as to
provide for security and good order in the captured town.
Leader after leader therefore he summoned and dismissed, receiving their
tale of spoil and captives, giving directions for the distribution of
their men. "Where has he learned his skill of warfare," said the old
captains to each other, "this high-priest of our Assyrian god? Surely
Baal comes down to him by night and speaks with him face to face."
So strongly was national pride and self-confidence imbued with a
religious belief in their gods, that this opinion seemed to the sons of
Ashur extremely probable and well-conceived. It reflected honour on
themselves, their worship, and their triumph; above all, it invested
Assarac with an influence and authority most essential in the absence of
the Great Queen. Not a line of the eunuch's face, not a turn of his
body, was permitted to weaken this impression of superhuman strength and
sagacity, of holiness fresh from the fount of fire itself. Calm,
dignified, imperious, moved by no casualty, equal to all occasions, he
issued his commands with a foresight and wisdom that elicited order from
the very excesses of a victorious army in a city taken by assault; and
yet at Assarac's heart, though stifled and suppressed by the strong will
within, raged a tumult far more difficult to deal with in its unbridled
folly than the wildest license of warriors drunk with wine and blood.
Where was the queen? Again and again had that question presented itself
in the hour of victory, and now, though the stars were out, he could not
answer it yet.
While driving the Armenians back upon the town of Ardesh, and entering
their capital with a routed enemy, he never doubted but that Semiramis
was performing her part of the battle, and that they would meet at
sunset in the Comely King's palace, where he would receive from her some
acknowledgment of the valour he had shown, some word of thanks for the
service he had done. For a time the exigencies of such a success left
him not a moment to make inquiries concerning the mistress of nations,
even had it been prudent to do so. It was necessary to assume supreme
authority, and wield it without scruple; but when a clear head, an
undisputed will, and an unequalled organisation had disposed of their
immediate necessities, and the Assyrian host with its captives was
securely established for the night, Assarac's anxiety became maddening
as hour by hour passed on, but brought no tidings of the Great Queen.
It never entered his head that she could be slain. To him, Ashtaroth was
no more an impersonation of light, beauty, and unearthly power than
Semiramis. That she might have been taken up at the moment of victory,
to join the stars of heaven in a chariot of fire, he was perhaps the
only man of all the host who did _not_ believe; but none the less was it
impossible for him to realise that imperial glory as shadowed by defeat,
that matchless face as pale and fixed in death.
Thus was he spared more than one hideous pang; yet perhaps it is a
question whether the suspense that racked him now, with all its
maddening possibilities, was not fiercer torture than would have been
the certainty that she was gone from him for ever, and he must grovel
before his idol no more.
While the stars shone coldly down on the scene of conflict, while a new
moon shed her gentle light on fire-scathed tower and blackened wall
above--on writhing sufferer and stiffened corpse below--on riven
harness, prostrate horses, chariots broken where they fell--on the
tents of the conquerors, the lines of the vanquished, the wounded, the
sleeping, the dying, and the great banner of Ashur drooping sullenly
over all,--Assarac wrapped himself in a dark-coloured mantle, and
leaving the royal palace of Ardesh, stole down to the plain below,
hoping that on the field of battle, where he had last seen her, he might
recover some traces of the queen.
Already, ere he proceeded half a bowshot, he had disturbed a jackal at
its loathsome feast. The eunuch shuddered and hurried on. Was this,
then, the end and climax of all the pomp of war, the glory of the host,
the thunder of chariots, the shouting of captains, the sword, the
shield, and the battle?
A nation rising in its might at sunrise, going forth to conquer, and at
nightfall--lo, a wild dog mumbling a bone!
His pursuits, his profession, the juggleries that deceived the people,
the pseudo-science that professed to read the stars, had taught him,
perhaps, to ponder and reflect, where others of his nation were content
to act and to enjoy. Looking from the scene of carnage at his feet to
that summer's night so fair and pure above, the great question thrust
itself upon his mind, which his experience, his reason, all the
traditions of Ashur, all the mystic lore of Baal, seemed unable to
answer.
What was this confusion on earth, this order and regularity in heaven,
and why were these things so? Did Nisroch take thought for that Armenian
woman, wailing in the darkness over the body of her dead lord, or Baal
pity the maimed swordsman yonder, trailing his length like a crushed
reptile towards the stream that, in his agony of thirst, he forgot had
been drained and turned aside? Was there indeed a motive power to govern
in heaven? And if so, did it leave the evils of earth to right
themselves as best they might, by force, fraud, and subtlety, the strong
arm and the cunning brain? A thrill of triumph passed through him, while
he murmured,
"It must be so! Let him lord it up yonder who will, man is the god
below; and he who never flinches from his purpose shall not fail in his
desire. Such a one stands here to-night in these my garments. Conqueror
of the north, Assarac the eunuch has to-day taken his place among the
mighty ones of earth, and who shall say him nay? Hath he not led the
hosts of Assyria to victory? Hath he not adjudged to each triumphant man
of war the meed of his deserts; and shall not he also take his share of
the spoil? Costly jewels, treasures of gold, herds of camels, horses,
armour, and cunning needlework--the common needs of common men--he
careth for none of these; and yet to-night, surely to-night, shall he
garner the harvest that has been sown in fire, and reaped in blood.
Ashtaroth, Ashtaroth, queen of love and light, hast thou ever known a
worshipper who flung before thee all he had to give, taking his heart
out, to lay it at thy feet, and asked only in return for one approving
glance, one soft and kindly smile? Surely she to whom I pray cannot
withhold these from me in such a time as this! Surely there is a goodly
meed in store for him who has to-day placed her crowning victory on the
brows of the Great Queen!"
He had nearly reached the river's bed, where the battle had been
hottest, where the carnage lay thick and reeking in broad swathes of
slaughter; a few more steps brought him to where Merodach lay stiff and
cold, with a vulture feasting on his eyes, and a wild dog tearing at his
flank. The bright stars and the young moon afforded light enough to
distinguish the dead white horse with its ghastly attendants. Assarac's
brain reeled, his blood ran cold, while he remembered that he had last
seen its rider charging furiously through the battle, on the back of her
favourite.
The vulture croaked and flapped its wings, the wild dog growled, glared,
and slunk away. Like a man chained in a nightmare, half conscious that
he is dreaming, yet wholly unable to resist the petrifying spell,
Assarac felt as if some unseen power compelled him to remain and
confront the nameless horror that he so dreaded, yet was so resolved to
disbelieve. He tried to shout, but his tongue clave to the roof of his
mouth; to draw his sword, but his hand hung powerless, and his flesh
crept, so that the very hair rose in the nape of his neck; for gliding
through the gloom, scarce half a bowshot off, there passed him a
ghostly procession, such as the spirits of the dead might form, in their
land of shadows beyond the grave.
Four tall dark figures, moving with solemn gait, bore aloft, on one of
the long wicker shields used by assailants of a fenced city, such a
shrouded burden as denoted the presence of death under the cloak that
veiled its ghastly truth.
Behind them, with drooping head, clasped hands, and a bearing that
betrayed the utmost abandonment of woe, walked a female mourner,
majestic even in the hour of sorrow that bowed her to the earth. Assarac
started into life now, if indeed that could be called life which was but
restoration to consciousness under the smart of a deadly stab; for in
the folds hanging about the corpse he recognised a royal mantle--in the
drooping and dejected mourner, beheld the person of the Great Queen.
With fixed and rigid face, with hands clasped tight, with steps that
seemed borne up and guided by some extraneous power, independent of and
even dominating his own will, the eunuch followed through the darkness,
as a sleep-walker follows the immaterial object of his dreams, never
decreasing the space that intervened, never turning aside from the
footprints of those who led, passing without heed over mailed corpse and
broken chariot, through sand and shingle and shallow pools of blood.
So the procession laboured gravely on, away from the battlefield, across
the vineyards, up the rocky path that led to those mountain forests in
which the dead king of Armenia might have found safety from his foes.
The bearers neither increased their speed nor halted, nor stinted for
lack of breath, but moved calmly forward with even measured pace, symbol
of a haughty reverence and respect, rather than of pity or distress; for
he whom they bore feet foremost had been a warrior like themselves, and
lay warlike in his riven harness, with a broken bow in his hand. He had
fallen, as was meet for a stout champion, in the fore-front of battle,
and though the horsemen of Assyria slashed it cruelly with their swords,
his comely face had never turned one hair's-breadth from the foe.
Therefore the sons of Ashur thought no shame to carry him sternly and
proudly to his rest, at the command of their mistress; therefore in
their hearts they told themselves, how at Nisroch's appointed time, it
would be well for them too that they should die in their armour, and
that their last end should be like his.
The frogs clamoured in the marsh, the night wind moaned in the pines,
filmy clouds swept over the crescent moon, and the corpse went ever
upward into the mountain, while the queen followed after it, weeping,
mute, unconscious, and Assarac, giddy and bewildered, followed blindly
after the queen.