Part 48 (1/2)

The _Nausicaa's_ people staggered to the oars. So busy were they in righting their own s.h.i.+p few saw the crowning horror. A moment more and a few drifting spars, a few bobbing heads, were all that was left of the Phnician. The aegean had swallowed her.

A shout was pealing from the s.h.i.+ps of the h.e.l.lenes. ”Zeus is with us!

Athena is with us!”

At the outset of the battle, when advantage tells the most, advantage had been won. Themistocles's deed had fused all the Greeks with hopeful courage. Eurybiades was charging. Adeimantus was charging. Their s.h.i.+ps and all the rest went racing to meet the foe.

But the _Nausicaa_ had paid for her victory. In the shock of ramming the triple-toothed beak on her prow had been wrenched away. In the _melee_ of s.h.i.+ps which had just begun, she must play her part robbed of her keenest weapon. The sinking of the Barbarian had been met with cheers by the h.e.l.lenes, by howls of revengeful rage by the host against them. Not lightly were the Asiatics who fought beneath the eyes of the king to be daunted. They came crowding up the strait in such ma.s.ses that sheer numbers hindered them, leaving no s.p.a.ce for the play of the oars, much less for fine manuvre. Yet for an instant it seemed as if mere weight would sweep the h.e.l.lenes back to Salamis. Then the lines of battle dissolved into confused fragments. Captains singled out an opponent and charged home desperately, unmindful how it fared elsewhere in the battle.

Here an Egyptian ran down a Euban, there a Sicyonian grappled a Cilician and flung her boarders on to the foeman's decks. To the onlookers the scene could have meant naught save confusion. A hundred duels, a hundred varying victories, but to which side the final glory would fall, who knew?-perchance not even Zeus.

In the roaring _melee_ the _Nausicaa_ had for some moments moved almost aimlessly, her men gathering breath and letting their unscathed comrades pa.s.s. Then gradually the battle drifted round them also. A Cyprian, noting they had lost their ram, strove to charge them bow to bow. The skill of the governor avoided that disaster. They ran under the stem of a Tyrian, and Glaucon proved he had not forgotten his skill when he sent his javelins among the officers upon the p.o.o.p. A second Sidonian swept down on them, but grown wise by her consort's destruction turned aside to lock with an aeginetan galley. How the fight at large was going, who was winning, who losing, Glaucon saw no more than any one else. An arrow grazed his arm. He first learned it when he found his armour b.l.o.o.d.y. A sling-stone smote the marine next to him on the forehead. The man dropped without a groan. Glaucon flung the body overboard, almost by instinct.

Themistocles was everywhere, on the p.o.o.p, on the fores.h.i.+p, among the rowers' benches, shouting, laughing, cheering, ordering, standing up boldly where the arrows flew thickest, yet never hit. So for a while, till out of the confusion of s.h.i.+ps and wrecks came darting a trireme, loftier than her peers. The railing on p.o.o.p and prow was silver. The s.h.i.+elds of the javelin-men that crowded her high fighting decks were gilded. Ten pennons whipped from her masts, and the cry of horns, tambours, and kettledrums blended with the shoutings of her crew. A partially disabled h.e.l.lene drifted across her path. She ran the luckless s.h.i.+p down in a twinkling. Then her bow swung. She headed toward the _Nausicaa_.

”Do you know this s.h.i.+p?” asked Themistocles, at Glaucon's side on the p.o.o.p.

”A Tyrian, the newest in their fleet, but her captain is the admiral Ariamenes, Xerxes's brother.”

”She is attacking us, Excellency,” called Ameinias, in his chief's ear.

The din which covered the sea was beyond telling.

Themistocles measured the water with his eye.

”She will be alongside then in a moment,” was his answer, ”and the beak is gone?”

”Gone, and ten of our best rowers are dead.”

Themistocles drew down the helmet, covering his face.

”_Euge!_ Since the choice is to grapple or fly, we had better grapple.”

The governor s.h.i.+fted again the steering paddles. The head of the _Nausicaa_ fell away toward her attacker, but no signal was given to quicken the oars. The Barbarian, noting what her opponent did, but justly fearing the handiness of the Greeks, slackened also. The two s.h.i.+ps drifted slowly together. Long before they closed in unfriendly contact the arrows of the Phnician pelted over the _Nausicaa_ like hail. Rowers fell as they sat on the upper benches; on the p.o.o.p the _proreus_ lay with half his men.

Glaucon never counted how many missiles dinted his helmet and buckler. The next instant the two s.h.i.+ps were drifting without steerage-way. The grappling-irons dashed down upon the Athenian, and simultaneously the brown Phnician boarders were scrambling like cats upon her decks.

”Swords, men!” called Themistocles, never less daunted than at the pinch, ”up and feed them with iron!”

Three times the Phnicians poured as a flood over the _Nausicaa_. Three times they were flung back with loss, but only to rage, call on their G.o.ds, and return with tenfold fury. Glaucon had hurled one sheaf of javelins, and tore loose another, eye and arm aiming, casting mechanically. In the lulls he saw how wind and sea were sweeping the two s.h.i.+ps landward, until almost in arrow-shot of the rocky point where sat Xerxes and his lords. He saw the king upon his ivory throne and all his mighty men around him. He saw the scribes standing near with parchment and papyrus, inscribing the names of this or that s.h.i.+p which did well or ill in behalf of the lord of the Aryans. He saw the gaudy dresses of the eunuchs, the litters, and from them peering forth the veiled women. Did Artazostra think _now_ the h.e.l.lenes were mad fools to look her brother's power in the face? From the sh.o.r.es of Attica and of Salamis, where the myriads rejoiced or wept as the scattered battle changed, the cries were rising, falling, like the throb of a tragic chorus,-a chorus of t.i.tans, with the actors G.o.ds.

”Another charge!” shouted Ameinias, through the din, ”meet them briskly, lads!”

Once more the hoa.r.s.e Semitic war-shout, the dark-faced Asiatics dropping upon the decks, the whir of javelins, the scream of dying men, the clash of steel on steel. A frantic charge, but stoutly met. Themistocles was in the thickest _melee_. With his own spear he dashed two Tyrians overboard, as they sprang upon the p.o.o.p. The band that had leaped down among the oar benches were hewn in pieces by the seamen. The remnant of the attackers recoiled in howls of despair. On the Phnician's decks the Greeks saw the officers laying the lash mercilessly across their men, but the disheartened creatures did not stir. Now could be seen Ariamenes, the high admiral himself, a giant warrior in his purple and gilded armour, going up and down the p.o.o.p, cursing, praying, threatening,-all in vain. The _Nausicaa's_ people rose and cheered madly.

”Enough! They have enough! Glory to Athens!”

But here Ameinias gripped Themistocles's arm. The chief turned, and all the h.e.l.lenes with him. The cheer died on their lips. A tall trireme was bearing down on them in full charge even while the _Nausicaa_ drifted.

They were as helpless as the Sidonian they had sent to death. One groan broke from the Athenians.

”Save, Athena! Save! It is Artemisia! The queen of Halicarna.s.sus!”