“My children,” said Belteshazzer to them, “behold your mistress. She is one of the great ones of earth and is worthy of all service. She shall be known to you as the Princess Esther. It is enough for you to know that she is one most highly favored of our God. You must obey her slightest wish. Your training in the house of Belteshazzer has fitted you to serve the greatest of earth. Let your tongues never speak unto others what you may see or hear concerning her. To all questions say that she is a relative of Belteshazzer. For are we not all descended from one common Father?”
They fell on their knees before Athura, the strange, beautiful one, whose face was that of a woman though her garb was that of a man. Each, taking one of Athura’s hands, placed it upon her head, saying in the soft accents of the Syrian tongue: “We shall heed your words, great Master. We are her servants.”
Athura smiled upon the maidens and raising them up impulsively kissed them, saying in the same language, with which she was familiar: “Your service will be light. You shall be my sisters and companions rather than servants. The princesses of the house of Belteshazzer are worthy to be friends of the highest born.”
Belteshazzer then retired. From chests full of rich garments, the maids quickly produced feminine apparel and at once proceeded to bathe, dress, and perfume their new mistress. Presently, under their ministrations, Athura in all her matchless beauty and royal demeanor stood before them like Deborah of old, a veritable Hebrew princess.
Belteshazzer traveled into Arabia, and the Princess Esther went with him. No one imagined that the beautiful young woman, to whom all naturally gave deference, was the first Princess of the Empire.
CHAPTER XIV
THE WAR AGAINST EGYPT
THE Great King continued to prepare for war with the Egyptians. There came to him a Greek named Phanes, who at one time had been high in the service of King Amasis of Egypt, but who, having conspired against him, was compelled to flee. By flattery and art he raised himself high in the estimation of Cambyses and inflamed his mind with tales of the wealth that would be found in the great temples of the Nile Valley. The King then hastened his preparations and sent him to raise levies amongst the Ionian Greeks. The Greeks who remained in the service of the Egyptian King so hated him because of his treachery that they had made a blood covenant to kill him. But he succeeded in recruiting a large body of his countrymen, who marched with him and the Prince of Iran towards Tyre.
When spring opened, the vast array of men whom the King had gathered from Iran, Assyria, and Babylonia, marched by way of Damascus towards Tyre. Many nations contributed troops. Wild mountaineers of the Caucasus marched shoulder to shoulder with the polished, slighter-built Babylonians. The light-armed Getæ and Derbicæ rode with the heavy cavalry of the Medes and Persians. From Bactra and Sogdiana came a portion of the veteran army of King Hystaspis. From the Zagros and Elburz mountains poured out the fierce infantry of Aryan blood. Chariots, hundreds in number, rumbled over the rough desert roads. Bowmen, spearmen, slingers, and swordsmen, a half million or more in all, rolled like a tide across the wastes. The army under the Prince of Iran was composed for the most part of veterans of many wars, inured to army life and eager to follow their Prince to battle. Its nucleus was the old Imperial Guard of Cyrus, recruited to its full number of thirty thousand horsemen. The remainder were fighters from the warlike peoples of his satrapy—Lydians, Greeks, Scythians of the Black Sea regions, Paphlagonians, Hebrews, and Syrians.
It was springtime when the Great King, leaving Patatheites, the Magian, as regent of the empire, departed from his capital of Hamadan, accompanied by his sister-wife, Artistone, and a portion of his harem. A thousand servants marched with him to administer to his comfort. He journeyed by easy stages to Damascus and thence to Tyre.
The city of Tyre, though nominally independent, had been coerced into lending her fleets to the King of Kings. Though it occupied a strong position on an island and though its people carried on a great trade with Egypt, yet when the veteran army of the Prince of Iran encamped on the mainland opposite, and his demand came in the name of the Great King that it should furnish a fleet of vessels for his use, it hastened to comply.