"Well said, Sarchedon!" was the vain-glorious reply. "Why did we not push on, as I advised? By the gods of my fathers, I swear to you, that if Ninyas had been your leader but for one week, rather than the Great King, he would have left the Ethiopians to lose themselves amongst the marches in our rear, fought a pitched battle on the plain by the sweet river, and you and I would have been drinking wine of Eshcol in the palace of Pharaoh at this moment."
It may be that Sarchedon had his own opinion of the strategy which should have conduced to so triumphant a result. He answered gravely enough:
"My lord confessed even now that he was far better in the palaces of Babylon. Is he not satisfied with the spoil, the captives, and the cheers of the people? They lifted up their voices when he passed to-day as it had been great Nimrod himself."
"The lazy drones!" laughed his well-pleased listener. "When I come to rule, they shall have something more to do than shout, I promise them. Reach me that flagon, I pray you—nay, hold! I am like my scoffing old sire, in one respect at least—I pour all drink-offerings down my own throat! No; what pleased me best to-day was neither spoil nor glory nor the voices of fools. It was the face of a maiden sweeter than the honeysuckle and fairer than the rose. Did you not mark her Sarchedon? or were you so busy in attendance on the queen, my mother, that you had eyes for none beside?"
Stifling the hideous misgivings that rose like a flood in his heart, Sarchedon answered with forced calmness:
"My lord must have passed to-day under the glances of a thousand damsels, and every one his handmaid. The comeliest of all were standing behind Kalmim, in attendance on the Great Queen."
"You are blind! by the beak of Nisroch, you must be blind!" exclaimed the excitable young prince. "Take Kalmim herself—for when she has tired her head and painted her eyes she is the best of them, since the queen loves not too much beauty so near her own—but take Kalmim, I say, and tell me whether she shows not like a camel beside a courser when you compare her with the daughter of Arbaces. O! never bend your brows and look so scared towards the chief captain. He cannot hear us up there; and, by the belt of Ashur, the king's voice raised in anger is enough to deafen a man in both ears! What can have chafed the old lion to make him roar so fiercely, even over his food?"
In truth, the deep harsh tones of Ninus, loud and overbearing, were heard above the ring of flagons, the clatter of tongues, all the din that accompanies a feast—even above the vibration of the lyre, the roll of the drum, the soft sweet music floating on the night air from an unseen gallery, far off amongst the pillared corridors that surrounded the open court.
Like the lion to which his graceless son compared him, Ninus was lashing himself into rage. His theme was the rapacity of priests, and, to use his own words, the extortions of the gods.
"Ten thousand of you!" roared the old warrior, turning fiercely on Assarac, of whom he had asked a question relating to certain details of the day's pageant. "Ten thousand demons! and for Baal alone. By the beard of Nimrod, he should be better served than any of us his descendants, who must needs feed the hungry swarming brood. And you would have me believe that there are gods as many as stars in heaven? Hear him, Arbaces! You and I have set armies in array ere this, so strong that our trumpets in the centre carried no sound to the horsemen on the wings; but if we are to have a thousand gods, and every god ten thousand priests, it will pass your skill and mine to devise how such a multitude may be ranged in order of battle. And one company of my bowmen would put them all to flight ere you could ride a furlong! Ten thousand priests of Baal! Ten thousand vultures tearing at a dead carcass! I trow there will be little left for the desert-falcon that struck the prey. You read the stars, forsooth, and can foretell the future easily as I can forget the past! Go to! Will you compute me the share of spoil I am likely to assign to-morrow for your entertainment and the altars of your gods?"