The giant guard heaved up his broad shoulders, and a cheerful smile passed across his rugged features.
“Have no fear that I will falter, most gracious lady,” he said. “Let them curse. If they come within reach of my spear, their curses will stop short!”
At length the cursing ceased. The King and the chief priest withdrew a space to consult. Presently they ordered a company of soldiers with a beam for a battering-ram to break down the door. The stout planks and bars soon quivered beneath heavy blows. Gustasp, seeing that it would presently fall, retreated up the narrow stairway to the upper chamber and proceeded to barricade it with furniture. A heavy divan was pressed into the narrow stair, leaving barely space at one side through which a spear might be thrust. Tables and benches were piled upon this. Then Gustasp, spear in hand, stood ready. The door below presently gave way and a squad of soldiers rushed into the room below. Finding it empty, they immediately began to ascend the stair; but, the moment one appeared in the narrow passage, the long blade of Gustasp’s spear flashed down upon him and he tumbled back gasping, with a terrible wound in his chest. A second tried the ascent and had his face slashed open. This cooled the ardor of the assailants. They drew back to take counsel. No one dared further attempt the deadly stair.
Then Athura heard a voice, cold, calm, and ironical, saying: “It seems to me far beneath the dignity of a King of the World to be leading a drunken mob in attack upon a woman! I say to you now that I for one do not approve!”
“Have a care, Prexaspes!” replied the voice of Patatheites. “Such words to the King are not to be spoken lightly!”
“Bah!” was the rejoinder in a loud voice that was heard by every man in the fortress. “Who are you to threaten me? Do you desire to break with me? If so, I will lead my Medes over to the Prince. I say to you, stop this rioting and give your thoughts to the enemy! If I be not greatly mistaken, we shall have the Persians upon us before noon to-morrow. I will venture all I have that the Prince is commander of that company approaching Nicæa! If so, his coming will be like a whirlwind. I am going down to the camp, and I demand that the King go with me. I demand that no further violence be attempted against the Princess Athura. I warn you that if we injure her and lose this battle, the Prince of Iran will flay and quarter every man in this fortress!”
His words greatly impressed all hearers and, after further angry altercation, Prexaspes triumphed and the drunken priests were ordered to return to their cells while Gaumata sulkily mounted a horse and rode with him down to the camp.
Athura praised Gustasp and presented to him a gold ring, which in after years the guard and his descendants treasured above all other possessions.
CHAPTER XX
THE OVERTHROW OF THE MAGI
ATHURA slept little during the remainder of the night. She insisted on watching a part of the time, while Gustasp slept stretched out on the floor and the maids tried to rest. She watched while the stars paled and the gray light of the dawn grew into rosy sunrise and cloudless day. Her eyes eagerly scanned the horizon towards Nicæa. As soon as the light was sufficient, she saw moving bodies of horsemen concentrating in the plain near the base of the hill on which the castle stood. She had often seen large bodies of troops, and she estimated that not less than thirty thousand were there. Officers were busily riding hither and thither placing them in line with their faces towards Nicæa.