“Nay, unto me thou hast shown no mercy, accursed spawn of a scorpion; thou shalt receive none,” she answered. Then, lifting her hand towards the file of soldiers that lined the walls, she commanded,—
“Abla, Nabu-nur-ili, Akabi-ilu, forward quickly, ye guards of our majesty. Take this son of Nergal forth to the top of the steps and cast him down with force like a dog, so that his bones be broken and his body mutilated. Then, with his blood, let the words graven upon the image be re-written on the lintel of the Temple of the Seven Lights, so that all may remember. Away with him. Let his body be cast into the lion-pit,” she added, with a majestic sweep of her white arm. “I have spoken.”
“Have compassion, O Istar! At least, let me live!” cried the aged priest; but ere he could utter the last sentence the soldiers had dragged him forth, with the dreaded Queen’s imprecation resounding in his ears in multiplied echoes.
In the full fury of her ungovernable rage this beautiful goddess of the Mysterious Land, at first so graceful and languorous, looked magnificent. With her unbound hair falling about her shoulders and reaching below her girdle, she raised her arms in mad rage, pouring forth a string of curses so terrible that those surrounding her visibly shuddered.
“And thou!” she cried, suddenly turning and gazing intently upon me with eyes sharp as arrows. “So thou art the stranger!”
The people around me were full of passionate anger and abject terror. Behind, before me, everywhere, I saw only glaring eyes, strained wide-open as if to devour me, defiant faces, eager hands fingering sword-hilts, and heard the gnashing of teeth between threatening lips.
“So thou hast dared to accompany that viper Rabbani, and enter my presence!” she cried, in a second outburst of indignation. Her strange terror had been succeeded by rage and defiance terrible to behold. The veins in her brow stood out like blue cords as she spoke, and her soft, perfumed cheeks were suffused by anger.
“I was brought before thee by thy people, O Queen,” I answered, endeavouring to appease her. “I knew not thine high-priest, ere I entered thine House of Lustre.”
“I have spoken; and he shall die,” she snapped, apparently thinking I was making an appeal on the aged man’s behalf. “Ascend to me, so that I may see thee more closely.”
Thus commanded, I crossed the inlaid pavement and ascended the broad, silver steps leading to the great throne of crystal, before which she now stood upon her prostrate women, erect and queenly. Gaining the pavement of gold whereon the throne was set, I was drawing nearer, when two great eunuchs sprang forward, motioning me not to approach her further.