Semiramis in her chariot drove slowly round the wall of Zariaspa, scanning it from every vantage point; impenetrable, grim, it towered above her in the dignity of strength—the majesty of strength—which scorned to even mock the puny power of muscle and of brain.
"Mistress," asked Huzim who stood beside her in the chariot, "what booteth it to win this outer wall when the higher walls of the citadel must needs be scaled?"
"It booteth much," she answered with a smile, "for this citadel was made a gift to me two moons agone."
The Indian drew his reins and stared upon her in deep concern, thinking the sun, perchance, had touched her brain.
"What meanest thou?"
For a moment there came no answer, yet presently she raised her impish eyes:
"Huzim, my father Simmas once spake a mighty truth, saying that he whose tongue betrayed the children of his thought was both a murderer and a fool."
The Indian flicked his steeds, and in silence drove along the city's western side till Semiramis bade him draw his reins again; wherefore he knew not, for she paused to watch the common sight of a giant catapult hurling stones against the wall. This engine was fashioned in the form of a flinging-beam, the beam bent downward by ropes of human hair and sinews from the necks of bulls, while on its end was set a heavy stone. The beam, released, sprang upward, propelling its missile in a lumbering curve, yet wrought no harm, for the heavier stones fell short, while the lighter ones flew high, to crash into some house beyond the walls.
"See," said Semiramis, sitting upon the rim of a chariot wheel and pointing to the fruitless work, "they ever miss their mark because of these stones of unequal weight and shape. See, Huzim, the Bactrians hold no fear of missiles which fly so slowly and do but encumber the earth beneath their walls. If, perchance—"
She paused of a sudden, one brown hand rubbing idly on the chariot wheel, her gaze fixed fast on a heap of broken stones; then she laughed aloud and danced upon the sand in the manner of some joy some child.