Then he lifted belt and baldrick from the stones, and with his own hand fastened the quiver at Sarchedon's back, girt the sword on his thigh, thus reinstating the bowbearer in all the honours he had voluntarily resigned.
Standing side by side in this reversal of their relative positions, it chanced that the servant caught sight of his own figure and his master's reflected in the burnished surface of an empty wine-flagon over against him. Remarking, not for the first time, their extraordinary similarity of form and features, Sarchedon now ventured on a request that only the high favour in which he stood, and the humility of his tone while proffering it, could have rendered palatable to his listener.
"Let not the king be wroth with his servant," said he, hesitating, like one who tries a plank with his foot ere he commits it to the whole of his weight, "if we ask yet another proof, in addition to all the honours heaped on him, of the trust in which he is held by his lord. Behold, like the sand that sucks the desert spring, he thirsteth yet for more! Let the king grant him the desire of his heart, and live for ever!"
"Say on, man!" replied Aryas, somewhat impatiently; "surely there needs not all this ceremony between thee and me. By to-morrow's sunset," he added, in a lower, sadder tone, "the same wild dog may be scaring the vultures from us both."
"Then, if we are to meet our death together," replied Sarchedon, "let it be in the same habit and the same armour. This is the boon I earnestly beg of my lord to grant. Men have said, ere now, that armed and in the field there is some such resemblance between Sarchedon and him who is called Aryas and Beautiful, as between the illusive verdure of the desert and those groves and waters that it represents. Let me take upon me then to array myself in such attire and harness as are worn by my lord the king; so, in the press of battle, the advantage of his presence and conduct shall be double, while the risk from his enemies—for my people strike ever at the head—will be but half."
Aryas pondered.
"And if I fall," said he, "wilt thou bring on the Men of the Mountain like a free Armenian king, leading the long swords to the charge again and again, even unto death?"
"I will do my best," replied the other; "for, indeed, whither am I to retreat? and what will be my fate if I am made a captive? Surely I have nothing to fear but defeat. If the long swords will follow, I ask no better than to lead them through the ranks of Assyria—to the very chariot of the Great Queen!"
The king's eyes blazed with unwonted fire.
"Swear it!" he exclaimed vehemently.