Sarchedon. A Legend of the Great Queen, etc

Front matter

SARCHEDON SARCHEDON % Jjgmir ai % (feat §mm. BY G. J. WHYTE MEL VILLE, AUTHOR OF 'THE GLADIATORS,' 'HOLMBY HOUSE," ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1871. [All rights reserved.] LONDON: EOESON AND SOrJS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N.W. CONTENTS OF VOL. m. 3Risrot|j % %t)tsxqn. CHAP. " v PACK i. A Serpent on a Eock .... 3 11. Before the Altar . . . . .16 m. The Snare of the Fowler . . . 29 iv. The Veiled Queen 44 v. Aryas the Beautiful . . . .56 vi. A Wind from the South . . . .69 ▼11. The Fenced City . . . . .81 vm. Sons of the Sword . . . . -99 ix. Faithful unto Death . . . .111 x. A Fool in his Folly . . . .120 xi. Bow and Spear 133 xn. Lost and Won . . . . . .146 xin. Sharing the Spoil . . . . .158 xiv. Counting the Cost . . . . .171 xv. The Voice of the Charmer . . .182 xvi.

Eequited . . . . . . .196 xvn. Betrayed ....... 207 xviii. Who is on my Side ? . . . . .218 xix. Forgiven 231 xx. Lost in the Dark . . . . . VOL. III. NISROCH THE AVENGER. ' Your sin follows steadily behind, as the cart-wheel follows the draught-bullock.' Bhuddhagosa Proverbs. vol. in. E SARCHEDON.

Chapter I

A SERPENT ON A ROCK. A southern sun beat fierce and pitiless on the ter race 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 SARCHEDON. 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 im penetrable 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 fore seen, 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 A SERPENT ON A ROCK. 5 an obstacle smooth and impenetrable as this ada mantine pavement, heated by the sun's rays, not to warm and cherish, but to scorch, wither, and con sume ?' Thus meditating, with an unusual cloud of des pondency 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 Semi ramis, 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 ad mitted 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 SARCHEDON. 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 inter view 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 hps, 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, hve 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 congre gate 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 !' f A SERPENT ON A ROCK. 7 ' And crush them hke locusts in my grasp !' ex claimed 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 SARCHEDON. 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 puUed 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 senti ment 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 be fore 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. ' Never theless 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 : SARCHEDON. ' 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 some thing 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 pea sant 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 pro ceeded 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, with out 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 th?. 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 ?' SARCHEDON. '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 displea sure : 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 horse men 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 fron tiers 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, demand ing a certain captive at the hand of Aryas ; and what is his reply ? Neither gifts nor tribute, nor words of SARCHEDON. 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.

Chapter II

, BEFORE THE ALTAR. But for priest, as for warrior, there is no respite from daily duty, to be discharged with scrupulous care and unfailing zeal, however sore may be the heart within, aching under linen garment or proven harness of steel. Assarac must needs officiate at the altar of his god an hour before the sun went down, even had a victorious enemy been wasting the city with fire and sword, or had his own life been about to terminate with the first shadows of night. How he loathed the mummery, that yet made him all he was ; the machinery of which he knew so well each cog-wheel, catch, and lever ; the false glare and sparkle that seemed so poor a substitute for the steady rays of truth ! And yet he dared not whisper, even to his own heart, how mean and paltry was all this artifice by which he climbed to power.

He had a new religion now — that religion of the heart which sweeps wiser creeds away in a flood of blind unreasoning devotion; which degenerates, with out a misgiving, into the wildest fanaticism, and can number its martyrs, as compared with those sacri ficed to any other superstition, at the rate of a hun dred to one. He did not conceal from himself that he loved the queen — he, for whom the love of woman must ever be as the blind man's desire for light, fiercer, perhaps, and more ungovernable, because of the very impossibility that it should be realised. Cruel are the pangs of a hunger which is not even fed by hope. Intolerable is a thirst to which the very offer of water seems but mockery and aggravation. Nevertheless, he did not care to strive against his folly now. For a time, he had believed himself invulnerable — thought his very nature kept him safe — and that, for him at least, there must ever be an insuperable bar between admiration, regard, sympathy, and the slavish devotion which others called love.

After ad miration had become indiscriminating, regard unrea soning, and sympathy painful, he shut his eyes to the truth for about a day ; but when he opened them, yielded without effort, plunging wildly into the abyss, vol. in. c SARCHEDON. owning a certain morbid pride, in the consciousness of his self-immolation, the while. And now heart, brain, and faculties were all sa turated with the poison. His strong will yielded gladly to the spell ; his keen intellect was content to follow where it ought to lead ; and had the queen bid him help her, as she said, to wrap the world in flames, his own hands would have brought the fire, though it scorched him to the bone. To say that he loved is to say that he was jealous ; but the torture he suffered was to that of other men as a cancer feeding on the vitals to a flesh-wound lacerating the skin.

They might fret and struggle, gnashing their teeth, raving vengeance, "threatening reprisals, alternately worsting the rival and reproach ing the idol ; but he must suffer in silence, smiling however sad, erect however crushed and humbled, outwardly serene though troubled to very madness within. And all unvisited by a ray of light, a glimpse of hope, even by the dream of what might be, which has gilded so many a weary night-watch with fleeting visions of the dawn. Surely, through its very de gradation, there was something sublime in such utter self-abasement, such complete self-sacrifice of love ! And yet his port was never more assured, his step firmer, his aspect more dignified, than when, after this interview with Semiramis, that had stung him to the core, he took his place at the altar to offer the usual evening sacrifice to his god.

The sun was sinking, and its level beams shed a crimson flush on the white garments of a band of priests, as on the spotless alabaster columns that crowned the lower story of the temple, supporting those upper chambers, of which the mysteries were veiled to eyes profane. A hundred steps, broken by five stately terraces, led down to an open space, in which thousands were crowded to witness the ceremony with upturned faces, that glowed no less vividly than did altar, shrine, and priests in the warm red lustre of a setting sun. As in the morning to the east, so in the evening sacrifice the people turned themselves to the west. A score of oxen stood lowing behind the altar. It seemed the poor beasts felt some forebodings of the fate that awaited them ; though not till incense had been burned and drink-offerings poured out were their throats to be cut, at a given signal, and their flesh roasted for the consumption of that lavish god, whose daily service thus required the presence of a thousand SARCHEDON. satellites.

These stood, marshalled like warriors, in rear of Assarac and Beladon, who assisted him in his functions. Swinging their censers, they continued chanting, or rather muttering, in a low voice and a minor key, certain formal repetitions, detailing the names and quality of their deity. After a short delay, during which Assarac kept his eyes steadily fixed on the setting sun, he ad vanced before the altar, followed by Beladon, who waved above his superior's head the mystic ring, which, enclosing a representation of wings, formed the emblem of that incomprehensible power whose attributes were ubiquity and eternity. The eunuch's gait and gestures were solemn and imposing in the extreme ; his ornaments of massive gold, his spot less robes, deeply embroidered, falling in heavy folds about his person, his fine stature and noble bearing — all were calculated to enhance his own dignity and that of the sacred office he fulfilled.

Turning slowly to Beladon, he received at the hands of that assistant a golden cup filled with wine to the brim, and poured from it gravely a libation to the four quarters of heaven, finishing with the west. A hundred priests then advanced, chanting their hymns in time to a measured march, a hundred timbrels rang in sounding strains to the praise of Baal ; and while fires were kindled, while smoke went up, and music swelled, the blood of twenty oxen flowed round the altar, filling the channels cut to receive it with a bubbling crimson stream. Assarac and Beladon stood on each side, facing the people, wrapt, as it were, in a holy trance. Men looked on them in awe-struck wonder as votaries un der the immediate influence of the god, whom Ashur himself, coming down from his throne, might address face to face, who were communing even now in spirit with the souls of departed heroes, with all the powers of all the host of heaven.

Little did they think how the eunuch's whole being was possessed at that very moment by a human vision of the brightest eye that ever shone in promise, the sweetest lips that ever kissed or smiled ; while his attendant, yielding to desires yet more of earth, earthly, pierced the crowd with a gaze that, for all its semblance of holy preoccupation, did but seek a well known female figure, alluring of form, lavishly at tired, and not too closely veiled. No sooner had the sun gone down, the stars come out, than Beladon, whose time was now his own, sought one of those courts which formed a communi- SARCHEDON. cation between the temple of Baal and the king's palace, supposed by the people of Babylon to be occupied by Ninyas in a retirement from which their present temper would have rendered it ex tremely dangerous for him to emerge.

Semiramis had returned to live in her own royal dwelling, where she held such state as caused all former magnifi cence to pale. The king's house, therefore, as it was called, became comparatively deserted; and with the exception of its wooded parks or paradises, fenced off for game, no spot in the whole city could have been so secluded as that in which Beladon lingered, pacing to and fro, stopping, muttering, glancing about him in fretful perturbation of spirit, peculiar to one waiting for a woman on whom he can not quite depend. 'At last!' he exclaimed, catching sight of a veiled figure gliding amongst the arches that skirted the court, like a ghost in the dubious star-light. ' At last ! And I saw you in the midst of tbe multitude before the sun went down, looking on at the sacrifices. Where have you lingered, woman ? and what have you been doing since ?' Kalmim, for it was none other, raised her veil and laughed in his face. 'Who hunts learns cunning,' said she. 'Who toils learns skill.

Who waits learns patience. With cunning, skill, and patience, even a priest may come at what he desires.' ' Kalmim,' he exclaimed earnestly, ' do you be lieve there is nothing I would shrink froih that you bade me undertake? Are you assured that I am constant and true as your own shadow on the wall ? Do you trust me as I trust you V She had an object; and laid her hand on his arm with a pressure that implied a world of confidence, while she answered, ' Stanch as string to bow, hound to slot, a wo man to her mirror, and a man to his desire. We have never been less than friends, Beladon, why should we ? Perhaps, at last, we may be something more.' He had an object too; therefore, resisting the impulse that prompted him to pass his arm round her waist without farther ceremony, he assumed an air of respectful devotion, and observed, ' I have no secrets from Kalmim ; I trust her without reserve.

There is not a question she could ask me I would hesitate to answer from my heart. Will she do as much for me in return ?' ' Of course !' she burst out frankly, while her SARCHEDON. bold black eyes looked him through and through, ' What do you desire to know ?' 'Arbaces was my friend,' he replied abruptly. ' The Great King's chief captain fell shamefully mur dered in his own dwelling. His daughter was carried off by force into the desert. What has become of her now ?' 'You love her !' she exclaimed, turning her head away in feigned vexation. 'You love Ishtar, the cun ning white -faced wanton ! I ought to have known it ; I did know it all along ! And yet you, Beladon — I thought you so different from the others. 0, it is hard to bear ! How could I have been so weak ? How can I be so foolish now ?' She had put him thoroughly in the wrong.

Sur prised, alarmed, perplexed, perhaps not a little soft ened and flattered, he hastened to excuse himself with more ardour than discretion. ' It is for Assarac,' he stammered, ' not for me. The chief priest saw her awhile ago in the market, and she has escaped him — him who can track a bird in the air surely as a camel on the sand ! He bade me trace her. That is why I came to you.' It passed through Kalmim's mind, that if Assarac set such store by the discovery of Ishtar's refuge, the information she had power to give would only be of value so long as it was withheld. If she would get her price, she must beware of submitting her mer chandise to the light of day. The good-will of her customer too must obviously be secured in the first instance. ' And you do not love her yourself, Beladon ?' she sobbed. 'You are sure of it — you will swear it — on — on — the altar of your god !' The storm had lulled — yet not too suddenly.

The heaving bosom, half-unveiled, though somewhat deep in colour, was not without its charms. ' By every altar of every god that reigns !' answered the deluded priest. ' By Ashtaroth, queen of love and light ; by Baal, in whose very presence even now I stood ; and by your own sweet self, whom I worship perhaps more fervently than all the host of heaven put together !' ' I cannot but believe you,' she answered, smiling sweetly, while she abandoned her hand to his caresses. ' Nay, it would make me very sad not to believe you, Beladon. Will you always be true to me?' ' Always !' he exclaimed, with an appearance of sincerity that might perhaps be attributed to his SARCHEDON. habit of making the same profession to every woman who was kind and fair. She, too, was not without practice, and accepted the assurance calmly enough. ' You do love me,' she whispered, ' and, indeed, if ever I could bring myself to think of a priest, it should be one like — well, like Beladon, perhaps, though I sought in every temple through the land of Shinar till I found him.