Out from the thicket whence sprang the lion sped a man, Idina, master of the hounds, and leaped beside Belshazzar. A brave deed, but foolish. In his hand was only his whip of office.
“All the Persian’s skill could not save his horse.”
“Help! the king is in peril!” was his shout to the distant beaters. But Belshazzar might have fared to the “World-Mountain” that day had it not been for another. Right at the raging bull rode the Persian, and a second shaft flew, not at the arrow-proof hide, but into one flaming eye. The loudest bellow of all shook the forest when the monster charged Darius. All the Persian’s skill could not save his horse. One horn hooked in the belly—the scream of a dying charger, that was all. But Darius was on foot before the bull could turn from his triumph. His short sword was in his hand. He met the charge of the bull on the side where the shaft had blinded. Belshazzar saw him shun the sweep of the terrible horns, and the onrush of the bull drove the steel clean to the hilt in the shoulder. Another snort, a bellow that made the high boughs quiver, and the auroch tore away. They heard him dash down a small tree in his charge, a second, a third; then there was a crashing fall, and silence.
Darius stood staring about and leaning on his bow. Nergal, pierced to the heart, lay twitching, though life was fled. The horses were struggling in their last agony. Belshazzar was trying to stagger to his feet. How long it had seemed since the bull burst upon them!
King and envoy looked upon one another. Darius saw Belshazzar strive twice to speak, but the words thickened in his throat. Then the king’s eye lit on Idina, and the royal wrath blew out on him:—
“Verily, as I am lord of Babylon, you shall be impaled! Why not rescue sooner?”
“Lord,” replied the other, losing his wits as he trembled, “it was as you ordered. When the prince was confronting the auroch, I was to unleash Nergal—”
The words were like fire upon dry straw; for the king had forgotten all else in the thought of his own danger.
“Nergal? By the Maskim, what is lying there on the ground? A lion?”