However obtained, Beladon's experience seemed to have taught him that vigorous measures were judicious in cases of feminine alarm. Seizing her arm so impressively that she well-nigh screamed again for bodily pain, he whispered in her ear:
"It is death for both of us if we are discovered by the priests of Baal, who now guard the palace. I know my brethren, Kalmim, and I love you. Listen! I wear a knife at my girdle, and you shall die first!"
Thoroughly frightened, she hung her head, and held her breath. Could this be the free-spoken light-hearted Beladon, whom she had hitherto esteemed a mere frivolous idler, fit only to fill a place in the showy pageants of his god? He was rising rapidly in her good opinion, while in her characteristic love of excitement a certain thrill of pleasure sweetened the terror that admonished her how many risks she ran at every step.
Traversing the great hall, they emerged on a terrace commanding one of those pleasure-grounds for which Babylon was then no less famous than in after years for the celebrated hanging-gardens that adorned the age of her decay. It was a wilderness of shrubs and flowers, of grove and rock and stream—fit haunt for the game with which it had been plentifully stocked—fit retreat for luxurious royalty during the heat of an Assyrian day—fit hiding-place to secrete the fair favourite of a jealous lord—fit stronghold to immure the person of an imprisoned king.
Its recesses were distinctly visible from the terrace twenty feet above, on which Kalmim stood. At that elevation she looked over its entire length and breadth, while a bright moon, high in the heavens, flooded every nook and corner of this paradise with a light like day.
It was now dead of night, the wild bird had gone to roost, the wild deer was couched in its lair, yet a dark object moved across the lawn, on which Kalmim's eyes were fixed, slowly, stealthily, with long-continued pauses, like some feline creature prowling for its prey.
"Come away," whispered Beladon in her ear. "You have traversed the palace; you have seen the king's garden. It is time to depart."
She made no answer. Her eyes were fixed and shining; her face set like that of a sleep-walker, or of one horror-stricken in a dream.
The figure turned slowly round. Its garments fell disordered and awry, its hair was dishevelled, its mien wild and scared, but none could mistake the beauty of that pale startled face; and in the miserable object thus stealing, shivering through the moonlight, Kalmim did not fail to recognise the person of Ninyas the king.
Surrounded by a dense column of spearmen, on whom threats, protestations, and remonstrances were alike wasted, the hapless son of Ninus and Semiramis had no sooner entered the city of his inheritance, in ill-advised disguise, than he found himself a helpless prisoner under the very eyes of his assembled people, shouting enthusiastic welcome of his return. So wisely had Assarac's measure been taken, so skilfully had he disposed the large force at his command, that Ninyas and his attendant, spite of their struggles, found themselves engulfed, as it were, and swept away in a resistless rush of spears. Their horses' bridles were seized, the animals themselves urged to a gallop, the guards who hemmed them in drowned with noisy cheers even the acclamations of an excited populace; and so the whirlwind swept on unchecked towards the king's palace, where all Babylon was persuaded its beloved queen had betaken herself, there to assume the royal diadem and sceptre, ere she sought her own dwelling on the other side of the river.