Part 26 (1/2)

CHAPTER XVI

THE COMING OF XERXES THE G.o.d-KING

At last the lotus-eating ended. Repeated messengers told how Xerxes was quitting Babylon, was holding a muster in Cappadocia, and now was crossing Asia Minor toward Sardis. Mardonius and his companions had returned to that capital. Daily the soldiery poured into Sardis by tens of thousands.

Glaucon knew now it was not a vain boast that for ten years the East had been arming against h.e.l.las, that the whole power of the twenty satrapies would be flung as one thunderbolt upon devoted Greece.

In the plain about Sardis a second city was rising, of wicker booths and gay pavilions. The host grew hourly. Now a band of ebony archers in leopard skins entered from far Ethiopia, now Bactrian battle-axemen, now yellow-faced Tartars from the northeast, now bright-turbaned Arabs upon their swaying camels,-Syrians, Cilicians, black-bearded a.s.syrians and Babylonians, thick-lipped Egyptians, came, and many a strange race more.

But the core of the army were the serried files of Aryan horse and foot,-blond-headed, blue-eyed men, Persians and Medes, veterans of twenty victories. Their muscles were tempered steel. Their unwearying feet had tramped many a long parasang. Some were light infantry with wicker s.h.i.+elds and powerful bows, but as many more hors.e.m.e.n in gold-scaled armour and with desert steeds that flew like Pegasus.

”The finest cavalry in the world!” Mardonius vaunted, and his guest durst not answer nay.

Satrap after satrap came. When at last a foaming Arab galloping to the castle proclaimed, ”Next morn the Lord of the World will enter Sardis,”

Glaucon could scarce have looked for a greater, though he had expected Cronian Zeus himself.

Mardonius, as ”bow-bearer to the king,” a semi-regal office, rode forth a stage to meet the sovran. The streets of Sardis were festooned with flowers. Thousands of spearmen held back the crowds. The Athenian stood beside Roxana and Artazostra at the upper window of a Lydian merchant prince, and his eyes missed nothing.

Never had the two women seemed lovelier than when their hearts ran out to their approaching king. He felt now the power of personal sovranty, how these children of the East awaited not Xerxes the Master, but Xerxes the Omnipotent, G.o.d-Manifest, whose decrees were as the decrees of Heaven. And their awe could not fail to awe the Athenian.

At noon the mult.i.tude caught the first token of the king. Down the road, through the gate, walked a man, bare-headed, bare-footed, alone,-Artaphernes, despot of all Lydia, going to pay his abject homage.

Presently the eunuch priests of Cybele, perched above the gate, clashed their cymbals and raised their hymn of welcome. To the boom of drums the thousand chosen cavalry and as many picked footmen of the Life Guard entered, tall, magnificent soldiers,-caps and spear b.u.t.ts s.h.i.+ning with gold. After these a gilded car drawn by the eight sacred horses, each milk-white, and on the car an altar bearing the eternal fire of Mazda.

Then, each in his flas.h.i.+ng chariot, moved the ”Six Princes,” the heads of the great clans of the Achaemenians, then two hundred led desert horses, in splendid trappings, and then-after a long interval, that the host might cast no dust upon its lord, rode a single horseman on a jet-black steed, Artaba.n.u.s-the king's uncle and vizier. He beckoned to the people.

”Have fear, Lydians, the giver of breath to all the world comes now beneath your gates!”

The lines of soldiers flung down their spears and dropped upon their knees. The mult.i.tude imitated. A chariot came running behind four of the sacred steeds of Nisaea,-their coats were like new snow, their manes braided with gold thread, bridle, bits, pole, baseboard, shone with gems and the royal metal. The wheel was like the sun. A girl-like youth guided the crimson reins, a second held the tall green parasol. Its shadow did not hide the commanding figure upon the car. Glaucon looked hard. No mistaking-Xerxes was here, the being who could say to millions ”Die!” and they perished like worms; in verity ”G.o.d-Manifest.”

For in looks Xerxes, son of Darius, was surely the Great King. A figure of august height was set off n.o.bly by the flowing purple caftan and the purple cap which crowned the curling black hair. The riches of satrapies were in the rubies and topazes on sword sheath and baldric. The head was raised. The face was not regular, but of a proud, aquiline beauty. The skin was olive, the eyes dark, a little pensive. If there were weak lines about the mouth, the curling beard covered them. The king looked straight on, unmoved by the kneeling thousands, but as he came abreast of the balcony, chance made him look upward. Perhaps the sight of the beautiful Greek caused Xerxes to smile winsomely. The smile of a G.o.d can intoxicate.

Caught away from himself, Glaucon the Alcmaeonid joined in the great salvo of cheering.

”Victory to Xerxes! Let the king of kings reign forever!”

The chariot was gone almost instantly, a vast retinue-cooks, eunuchs, grooms, hunters, and many closed litters bearing the royal concubines-followed, but all these pa.s.sed before Glaucon shook off the spell the sight of royalty cast on him.

That night in the palace Xerxes gave a feast in honour of the new campaign. The splendours of a royal banquet in the East need no retelling.

Silver lamps, carpets of Kerman rugs or of the petals of fresh roses, a thousand lutes and dulcimers, precious Helbon wine flowing like water, cups of Phnician crystal, tables groaning with wild boars roasted whole, dancing women none too modest,-these were but the incidentals of a gorgeous confusion. To Glaucon, with the chaste loveliness of the Panathenaea before his mind, the scene was one of vast wonderment but scarcely of pleasure. The Persian did nothing by halves. In battle a hero, at his cups he became a satyr. Many of the scenes before the guests emptied the last of the tall silver tankards were indescribable.

On the high dais above the roaring hall sat Xerxes the king,-adored, envied, pitiable.

When Spitames, the seneschal, brought him the cup, the bearer bowed his face, not daring to look on his dread lord's eyes.

When Artaba.n.u.s, the vizier, approached with a message, he first kissed the carpet below the dais.