The Adventures of Captain Mago

It was early in the morning that we reached the river-mouth, and having entered it, proceeded till we came to a little town dedicated to the god Oannes. There is no stone found in the country, and the place, like all the other towns on the Euphrates, is built entirely of bricks, the fortifications being circular walls constructed of bricks, baked and unbaked, cemented with layers of bitumen. On the right were the remains of vast forests, which, according to the statements of the learned, were, three hundred years ago, the haunts of the elephant. On the other side, extending as far as the eye could reach, was a long stretch of meadow-lands and corn-fields. Looking up the river, we could count some hundreds of tents pitched among the crops or sheltered by the forest, the fires of the encampment sending up columns of smoke, and groups of horses being picketed everywhere amongst them. A few boats and two large ships of Phœnician build were moored to the shore; but what struck us most of all was the swarms of soldiers, many of them with swords drawn and lance in hand, who were posted everywhere alike on the river-bank, in the pastures, among the crops, and along the skirts of the forest.

"The army of the Assyrians!" cried Himilco.

"The gods be praised!" said Hannibal, in an ecstasy of delight; "now shall I set eyes upon something like an army once again. See, how admirable their position! how skilful their groupings! I must make the acquaintance of their officers."

He was stopped short in his panegyric by the shouts of a troop of horsemen who were galloping towards us, and ordering us, in Chaldean, to bring our ships immediately to a standstill, and to tell them who we were. From the stern of my ship I answered the officer in command as courteously as I could, and he, in reply, ordered me to remain where I was whilst he reported my statement to his superior. In about a quarter of an hour he returned from the camp whither he had gone, and brought with him a troop of cavalry, at the head of which rode a burly fellow armed in a complete suit of mail, and carrying a lance.

Hannibal again began to praise the order and accoutrements of the troop and their leader to Chamai, who, while admitting the superiority of Assyrian cavalry, contended that the infantry of Judah was second to none; but before they had finished their military discussion, the Chaldean had halted just opposite our ships, and was calling out that our principal officers must come ashore and state our demands in the presence of Belesys, the King's commander-in-chief.

Hanno knew enough of Chaldean to remember that the word "belesys" in that language signified "terrible," and muttered that it was a formidable name for a man to have.

Taking the Queen of Sheba's letters, and followed by eight sailors carrying her presents to the King, and escorted by my own officers, I went on shore. The Chaldean was tall and stout; he had a wide face, with a strong jaw and great deep-set eyes; his beard was thick and frizzled like the rest of his company, and his manners were extremely coarse and insolent.

"Come, now, you sailor fellows, stir yourselves a little briskly, will you?" he cried; "I'm not fond of walking my horse."

He conducted us first of all through an enclosure filled with war-chariots, and then past an encampment of infantry, composed of Mesopotamians armed with maces and spears, and in physiognomy bearing a striking likeness to the people of Judæa. A little removed from us was a regiment of Medes, the representatives of a nation recently subjugated, but whose ancestors had given Nineveh her line of kings. They were thick-set, and had round heads, scanty beards, and obliquely-set eyes. Their fierce expression of countenance attracted our notice, and armed with their swords and short, strong bows, they must be very formidable in battle. As we passed, we were near enough to hear that they were making coarse jokes upon us in their own tongue. A noisy band of half-naked Arabs next caught our attention. These, with their camels, always form part of the contingent of the King of Assyria, and mingling with them I recognised some Midianite slave-dealers and some Phœnician merchants, who act as purveyors to the army, but make their chief profits by purchasing slaves and plunder from the soldiers.

We proceeded to the cavalry encampment, and when we were about in the middle of it, we were ordered to halt. We found ourselves in front of a large circular tent made of rich hangings, the entrance of which was guarded by Kardook infantry carrying maces, and equipped with breast-plates, greaves, crested helmets, and round shields. This was the tent of Belesys, the terrible.

"Enter," said the officer who had been conducting us, adding in a jeering tone: "I hope the general will give you a handsome reception; perhaps he will put on a good temper for the occasion."

He burst into a roar of laughter and galloped off.

"Stop!" cried Chamai, wrathfully; "is that the way you speak to a Phœnician captain?"

But his words were wasted. The Chaldean was out of hearing, far away.

The Kardook guards scrutinised us narrowly, and consulted each other in an undertone. They appeared especially attracted by the dress of Hanno, who had arrayed himself in the costly presents of the Queen of Sheba. Turning to him, one of them said:

"Are you captain?"

"No," replied Hanno, pointing to me; "there is our captain."

The Kardooks stared in astonishment.

I was dressed in my ordinary naval attire; but as the Assyrians always associate dignity of place with costliness of apparel, they could only account for my appearance by conjecturing that I was in disguise.

"You wish to see Belesys?" said the guard; and having entered the tent, returned again immediately with permission for us to be admitted.

The Assyrian commander-in-chief was at the farther extremity of the tent, surrounded by a number of officers and slaves, and was reclining, or rather lolling, upon a luxurious couch; he was superbly dressed, but wore no armour. Armed men stood on both sides of him, and two cup-bearers were in attendance holding goblets of wine, of which, however, he was in no need, as he was already very drunk.

With the exception of Bichri, we all made a low bow on entering the tent; but the young archer, who was not always in a conciliating mood, did not feel disposed on this occasion to exhibit any sign of courtesy.

Pushing aside one of the cup-bearers who was obstructing his view, Belesys stared straight at us. He was a tall man, with a great frizzled beard, thick lips, and a heavy jaw, and his hair was glossy with perfumed ointment. A heavy mace which lay by his side was surmounted by the figure of a bull's head. As he gazed at us, he shook his head, screwed up his eyes, and, indeed, distorted all his features; while his attendants, as if to flatter him by imitation, did precisely the same. We waited some time for him to speak, and at last, in a tone that quite confirmed our suspicion that he was intoxicated, he roared out:

"You see those two big fellows? and you see that youngster with the bow? Take them, and give them five-and-twenty lashes apiece; and then put them amongst my archers. I don't dislike the look of them."

Utterly astounded, I held my tongue. Taking no notice of Hanno's clenched fist and gleaming eye, he went on, hiccupping as he spoke:

"That young man with the gold shoulder-belt, strip him to the skin, and pack him off to the slaves. I don't care for the other old scarecrows; do as you like with them; there's an ugly one-eyed rascal among them; hang him or behead him as you please, the sooner the better."

"What?" shrieked Himilco, in ungovernable rage; "what? do you call me a one-eyed rascal? and our captain, a Phœnician admiral, do you call him a scarecrow? By all the gods!" —

Belesys burst into a roar of laughter, repeated his orders that we should be put under arrest, and taking a cup from the nearest cup-bearer, drained it at a gulp and flung it back into the man's face.

"Handcuff them, I say!" he bawled again.

Several of his men approached to execute his bidding, but I shook off the hands of the Chaldean who ventured near me; Hannibal floored the man who was about to assail him, by planting his fist heavily in the fellow's eyes after the Cymri fashion in Prydhayn; Chamai, in genuine Celtic style, knocked down another by butting at him with his head in the middle of the stomach; but Bichri, the most agile of us all, took a much more determined measure. Bounding like a cat upon the couch, he fixed his knee firmly upon the general's breast, and with one hand caught hold of his beard, while with the other he held the point of his knife close enough to his throat to be felt.

"Capital, Bichri! well done!" shouted Hannibal, drawing his sword.

"Keep your hold, Bichri, and long live the King!" cried Chamai, following Hannibal's example.

Hanno and myself, resolved to act on the defensive, also drew our swords; Himilco tripped up another of the Chaldeans by one of those adroit turns of the hand with which a sailor knows so well how to take a landsman by surprise; and all my own sailors, seeing the aspect of affairs, in a moment set down their packages and unsheathed their cutlasses.

"Shall I cut his throat?" asked Bichri, coolly, appealing to me.

"No; wait a little," I answered; "let me talk to him a bit first."

Approaching near enough for him to hear me distinctly, I said:

"Belesys, you have only to cry out or make the least resistance, and in one instant that knife severs your head from your body."

"Soldiers," I continued, turning myself to his guard, "the moment you call for assistance or lift up your hands to attack us, that moment, mark me, your general is a dead man."

The proximity of Bichri's knife to the general's gullet seemed to have a sobering influence upon him, and in a voice very much subdued, he implored his soldiers and slaves to keep perfectly quiet, and at his wish they retreated to the sides of the tent.

Bichri began to whistle one of his Benjamite airs, and deliberately brought up his other knee on to the general's chest.

"You are stifling me, young man; let me breathe, let me breathe."

"O nonsense, I know better than that," replied Bichri, without stirring an inch; "I am a very light weight."

"Let me go," gasped Belesys. "Believe me, I was only joking; let me free, and I will recompense you liberally."

"As to letting you free, that's not my concern; that depends upon Captain Mago; no one but the captain gives orders; you should sue to him."

At a hint from me that he should allow the Assyrian room to breathe, Bichri removed his feet to the ground, but without relaxing his hold upon his beard or lifting the knife from his throat. Belesys was breathing heavily; his face was pale; his forehead moist with a cold sweat; there was no doubt about his being sober now; and he piteously asked for our captain to speak to him. Without waiting for me, Himilco began to jeer him.

"Ah! you would like to see the old scarecrow, would you? and here am I, too, the one-eyed rascal; it is a long way to come, all round Libya, to cut your throat, but it is quite worth the trouble if it teaches you that you shouldn't get drunk all by yourself."

And snatching the goblet from one of the cup-bearers he drained it off, and pitched the empty cup at the nose of the general.

"Gently," I said, and laid my hand upon the irascible pilot. "Belesys is mistaken altogether; he did not understand that we were conveying presents to his King."

The Assyrian gave so violent a start that his neck was actually grazed by Bichri's knife. He was beginning to bawl out something about his illustrious sovereign Belochus II., when I admonished him that he had better not speak so loud, a warning that Bichri enforced by tightening his grasp upon his throat.

"I was but jesting; you should take a joke," he gasped. "Only tell your young man to loose his hold upon my throat, and I swear by the almighty Nisroch, I will not hurt a hair of your heads. Can you not trust me now?"