When this was accomplished Ninus came to view his handiwork. He looked and his heart was glad, for now no more would this man rise up to steal his fruits of passion or of power.
"Heed," spoke he; "renounce Shammuramat for evermore, and I lift thee from the nails and heal thy wounds." Menon made no answer, and presently the master spoke again: "To fling away thy life is but the deed of a mindless fool, for I swear by the breath of Asshur thine eyes shall look no more upon Shammuramat!"
"Liar!" cried Menon, and laughed in scorn—laughed, though a sweat of anguish dripped down upon his breast; and the laughter enraged the King.
With his fingers he touched his eyes; touched, too, the dagger in his girdle and made a sign to the eunuch Neb. Two thrusts, and the brain of Menon wandered on a darkened road; then Ninus looked up and mocked at the man impaled upon the wall.
"Who now," he asked, "will look upon Shammuramat? and who shall say that the lord of Assyria speaketh falsely, even to a fool?"
He ceased; then Menon raised his drooping head and cursed his King in prophecy:
"Thou spawn of hell! Laugh now in my hour of tears! Rejoice, ere the hand of reckoning shall draw thy taunting tongue! Thou hast slain my heart and let my body live! Slay, thou, the body, also, but the spirit thou cans't not slay! 'Twill come to thee, this spirit, watching at thy couch and board, watching through thy huntings and thy wars—through days of waking and the nights of troubled sleep! 'Twill bay thy trail of blood and lead the hounds of Ishtar to their kill! Laugh, then, O lord of lies, and wait for Menon! Wait!"
The shrill voice ceased to ring throughout the chamber, and he who cried in prophecy hung limp and speechless from the nails. The eunuchs crouched, trembling, at the master's feet, and the master, also, was afraid. Nor man nor beast he feared, yet if a spirit rode upon his soul, full well he knew that the steed would race for Gibil's smoking stalls; so the King took council within himself whereby to cheat a ghostly rider of his mount.
"In truth," he mused, "if Menon liveth, his spirit may not wander from its outer shell; and if it there remain, how, then, shall it follow me, with a nose of vengeance snuffling at my trail? Again, should the woman accuse me of his death, right well may I swear a guiltless oath while his life be still his own."
Thus mused Ninus and washed his conscience of a stain, then turned to his eunuchs in a sharp command: