The Prince of Iran looked upon his young friend sorrowfully. “My father and I have sworn!” he said. “How can our words return to us? We are bound to support Cambyses as King of Kings. No less are we bound to aid you if oppressed by him. We will not fail you. Should he seek to detain you, we shall demand your release, even at the head of an army. What can you ask more? That we be oath-breakers?”
“No, I ask it not! I will be guided by your advice.”
Having thus decided, the three composed a message from Bardya to the King, notifying him that it would please Bardya to visit Hamadan on his way to Bactra and be his guest for some days. The Prince of Iran then took his departure and went to the camp of the Imperial Guard. After detailing a strong company to guard the palace wherein slept his beloved, he called a council of all his chief captains and read to them the King’s decree directing him and the Guard to march into Western Asia. The captains were delighted. The common soldiers, when they heard the news next day, broke forth in a pandemonium of jubilation. To march into the rich country of rich old Crœsus with their beloved Prince, to gain renown and wealth, though by hard knocks, under such a leader—what more could a stout warrior ask? So they all rejoiced and one and all agreed that King Cambyses was a wise King. But their Prince and Commander was silent and sorrowful.
Cambyses announced, two days later, that it pleased him to accept the invitation of the Prince of Iran to hunt royal game on his estates in the jungles surrounding Lake Baktigan. This lake is a brackish body of water lying in the bottom of a long, narrow valley between low mountains, a day’s journey south of Persepolis. It is shallow in summer and fall, but in spring, after the winter rains, fed by the floods of the Araxes and several mountain torrents, it rises to respectable dimensions, and is then about sixty miles long by five wide. Reeds, grass, shrubs, and stunted trees cover its shores. On the hills near is some heavy timber. Little known to the modern traveler, yet, in the ancient days, it was a resort of royal hunters who dared to seek the lion and the tiger in their lairs. It was a part of the estates of the King of Iran. The Prince, as was the custom, had invited the King of Kings to make free use of all his father’s property. But he was surprised when Cambyses indicated that he would hunt. Prexaspes had advised his royal master to accept because it would please the Persian nobility. Cambyses also desired to show himself a mighty hunter, as had all his ancestry, and this influenced him to dissemble his true feeling towards the Prince and to accept his invitation. Prince Bardya and the great lords of Persia were invited to attend. It fell upon the Prince of Iran as host to provide transportation, victuals, equipage, and beaters; and right royally did he provide.
It was an imposing expedition that marched down the swift Araxes to the jungles of Lake Baktigan. First, on a big horse, rode a magnificently attired master of the hunt, glittering in gold and silver and gorgeous in crimson uniform. Then followed several hundred skilled hunters, wardens of the estate whose duty it was to furnish the table of King Hystaspis with game and to guard his preserves against common robbers and poachers. They were arrayed in distinctive uniform and were mounted on wiry animals used to hill-climbing and hunting. With them was a pack of hounds. Then rode King Cambyses, on a beautiful white stallion, and looking right royal in his close-fitting tunic, his leather riding-breeches, red shoes, and round felt cap in which were stuck several black eagle feathers. A stout armor-bearer rode next with the King’s short sword, a buckler, a stout bow, and a quiver full of arrows. Another servant carried javelins and a heavy spear. At the King’s left and half a horse behind rode Prexaspes similarly arrayed. Behind them rode the Prince of Iran, Prince Bardya, and a hundred or more notables. Many pack-animals and servants followed with the impedimenta.
They camped in a dense forest at the northern end of the lake, where the Araxes poured in its flood of fresh water. Next day the hunt began. The chief huntsman built a low platform in the branches of a live-oak which stood at the crossing of several jungle paths about a mile below the camp. The King and his armor-bearers took station on this, while the nobles and retainers formed in line at some distance to the rear in order to turn the game should it pass him. Cambyses was a great archer. It was his daily custom to practice shooting with the heavy Persian bow. He boasted that no man in Iran could excel him. None ever did excel in his presence, it being convenient to miss and stand lower in the scores than his Royal Highness. It is related that the King was accustomed to shoot apples from the heads or hands of boys, an example possibly followed by William Tell of later fame. The King later attempted this feat with the son of Prexaspes and slew the son.
The huntsmen went to a point several miles down the lake, and, having formed a long line with one end resting on the shore and the other far out on the hills, marched with shouts, horn-blowing, and drum-beating northward and drove the savage denizens of the wilderness towards the King. The latter acquitted himself very well. Deer and antelope fell before his arrows. Jackals, snapping at the shafts which pierced their vitals, tumbled about and died. The King roared with savage laughter as the stricken animals leaped to their death. A wild boar was smitten, but, gnashing his teeth in rage and pain, he turned upon the beaters desperately and gashed one severely with his tusks. Animals which escaped the King ran the gantlet of weapons in the hands of the nobles. The slaughter was great. Two lions were aroused, but they broke through the line of beaters and escaped. That night all feasted on the King’s meat and praised his skill.
On the next day Cambyses decided to hunt on foot, following the hunters with hounds through the jungle paths. His nobles followed to witness his feats of arms. Hunters and beaters formed a long semicircular line with the wings thrust forward, one along the margin of the lake, and the other along a ridge running parallel thereto. The King was at the middle of the line with the chief hunter. The Prince of Iran, Prince Bardya, and several of the nobles followed closely after him.
Several smaller animals soon fell before the King’s archery, but he fretted because no lion or tiger appeared. He ordered the hounds unloosed. They sprang away into the jungle, and almost immediately terrific roars announced the presence of lions. A female and a young lion appeared, dashing towards the hills, the mother turning now and again to leap at the snarling pack baying at her heels. The King loosed an arrow at her, but it fell short. He was about to pursue, when a more thunderous roar close by warned him of the proximity of another royal beast. An instant later, a black-maned male lion appeared in an open space twenty paces distant, lashing his tail and emitting breathy coughs of rage. The animal paused but an instant, crouching low, then leaped towards the King with gigantic bounds. The King drew an arrow to its head and launched it. It smote the lion in the shoulder, but missed a vital point. Cries of terror arose from the attendants, and the armor-bearer of the King sought to interpose his buckler between the beast and his master. But master and man went down in a heap under the impact of the lion’s heavy body. Then the Persian nobles gallantly hastened to the rescue. The Prince of Iran dashed forward with a heavy spear and thrust the sharp blade into the red mouth of the lion as it sprang to meet him. It reared up on hind legs, battling with the heavy spear. Prince Bardya then shot an arrow into the beast’s side with such force that the barb passed through its body. Its heart was transfixed; the great beast gasped, fell over, and died.
Cambyses was not severely injured, but was much chagrined. He had missed a fair shot, been ignobly thrown down, and saved by those he hated. He gave short thanks to his saviors and berated his armor-bearer for not interposing more effectually. He hunted no more after that on foot in the jungle, but he succeeded in slaying two lions from the safety of a platform erected in a tree.