“So I wrote to Babylon, to your Eternity.”
“And a certain Athenian fugitive saved your lives? And you brought him to Sardis?”
“I did so, Omnipotence.”
“Of course he is at the banquet.”
“The king speaks by the promptings of Mazda. I placed him with certain friends and bade them see he did not lack good cheer.”
“Send,—I would talk with him.”
“Suffer me to warn your Majesty,” ventured Mardonius, “he is an Athenian and glories in being of a stubborn, Persian-hating stock. I fear he will not perform due obeisance to the Great King.”
“I can endure his rudeness,” spoke Xerxes, for once in excellent humour; “let the ‘supreme usher’ bring him with full speed.”
The functionary thus commanded bowed himself to the ground and hastened on his errand.
But well that Mardonius had deprecated the wrath of the monarch. Glaucon came with his head high, his manner almost arrogant. The mere fact that his boldness might cost him his life made him less bending than ever. He trod firmly upon the particular square of golden carpet at the foot of the dais which none, saving the king, the vizier, and the “Six Princes,” could lawfully tread. He held his hands at his sides, firmly refusing to conceal them in his cloak, as court etiquette demanded. As he stood on the steps of the throne, he gave the glittering monarch the same familiar bow he might have awarded a friend he met in the Agora. Mardonius was troubled. The supreme usher was horrified. The master-of-punishments, ever near his chief, gazed eagerly to see if Xerxes would not touch the audacious Hellene’s girdle—a sign for prompt decapitation. Only the good nature of the king prevented a catastrophe, and Xerxes was moved by two motives, pleasure at meeting a fellow-mortal who could look him in the eye without servility or fear, delight at the beautiful features and figure of the Athenian. For an instant monarch and fugitive looked face to face, then Xerxes stretched out, not his hand, but the gold tip of his ivory baton. Glaucon had wisdom enough to touch it,—a token that he was admitted to audience with the king.