The Adventures of Captain Mago

"Not quite," I answered, smiling.

It was now my turn to assume the tone of irony, and with mock reverence I turned to him and said:

"And now, most valiant Belesys, servant of the mighty Belochus, will you condescend to do me the favour of visiting our ships?"

"By all means. I am ready; I will come at once."

"We will take our time," I continued. "Just attend to me: you must have, you know, every proper mark of respect; on your way to the vessels you shall walk between Hannibal and Chamai; they shall show their respect by drawing their swords, and Bichri shall walk close behind you; that will be another sign of respect: and when you get on board you shall remain on board until I have had an interview with the King. On board ship, you have heard, it is the captain who gives orders."

"I think I understand your terms," he replied. "I am to go with you; if I cry out you will murder me; and when I am on your ship I am to be kept as a hostage."

"Precisely so," I said.

The incorrigible Himilco renewed his jeering, and asked whether he could not produce a little more wine, but the general made no reply, and closed his eyes as if he were in deep thought. Bichri took his seat upon the breast of his prisoner, who, in spite of the indignity he was receiving, seemed to be so much struck with admiration for the young man, that he promised to make his fortune if he would enter his service.

"But get up, get up, I entreat you," he begged him, in an imploring tone. "I assure you that you are a great deal heavier than you seem to imagine."

Bichri made no answer, but whistled an air, and jolted himself up and down upon his seat.

Himilco, meanwhile, filched a flask of wine from one of the cup-bearers, whom he rewarded by some good hard knocks, and then professed that he was enjoying himself extremely.

"Come now, general," I said at length; "we can't spend all day waiting here; we shall have some one coming in. Is your mind made up?"

He made an ambiguous movement. Bichri frowned, and jerked his knife.

"Yes, I will come," he said, abruptly. "After all, I was in fault."

We now arranged our party as I had proposed. Assuming all the appearance of respect, Hannibal and Chamai placed themselves one on each side of Belesys, and Bichri, still whistling gently to himself, followed alone behind. I followed with Hanno and Himilco, and the sailors, taking up their packages, brought up the rear.

As we passed along the ranks, the soldiers all prostrated themselves in honour of their general, and I could scarcely suppress a smile at their ignorance of the true state of things. Belesys did not utter a word or make a sign, and in half an hour's time he was on board the Ashtoreth, witnessing the respectful salute with which my own people always acknowledged my return.

"To your posts, men!" I cried, cheerily; "here is the noble commander-in-chief of the Assyrian army; he does us the honour to inspect our ships."

"And he intends," said Himilco, "to treat you to a double ration of wine."

"Long live the King of Assyria! long live his illustrious general!" rose in acclamation from a chorus of voices.

Belesys, who was still rather pale, smiled uneasily, but with a forced hilarity professed himself ready not only to give my brave men the double allowance of wine, but to provide them with some sheep and oxen besides. Once again a general cheer was raised, and Hannibal made him a military salute. Chamai merely shrugged his shoulders and Bichri could not help confiding to Dionysos that the man before them was nothing but a drunken coward, who ruled the 50,000 men under his command by blows and lashes.

"They are not Hellenes, then," said the young Phocian, proudly; "no Hellenes submit to blows!"

Belesys bit his lip; he had overheard what was said, and it mortified him; he tried to conceal his annoyance, and remarked to me that he had thought Phœnicians were too much engrossed by commerce to have any concern in the affairs of states. Hannibal was on the point of quoting the case of Adonibal, the naval suffect of Utica, as an instance to the contrary, when our attention was arrested by the transit of a section of the Assyrian army from one bank of the river to the other. The water was covered with boats and with large rafts, on which were placed all the war-chariots, and at the stern of every one of them was a group of men holding the heads of the horses that were swimming behind. The passage of the infantry was made on inflated goat-skins. The utmost confusion prevailed; several poor fellows were drowned, but that seemed a matter of utter indifference to the officers that stood upon the bank lashing the men with whips to make them quicken their movements. At one place we observed that a large bevy of prisoners was being conducted before an official who was seated on a kind of open air tribunal, surrounded by guards. Some town had evidently been lately captured. All the gods, and a quantity of booty, were first laid at the officer's feet, and then the prisoners – men, women, and children – were brought before him. They were a wretched, dejected set, many of the men fettered with heavy bronze chains, and nearly all with their hands bound behind their backs, the whole of them being compelled to prostrate themselves in turn before the officer, who placed his foot upon their necks. In a few cases a respite was granted and life was spared; but as a general rule the captives were forthwith hanged or beheaded in the presence of their fellow-sufferers. I observed that out of the number of miserable objects, four were selected and sent off to be tied to stakes that were driven into the ground on an adjacent eminence.

It was truly a heartrending spectacle. Chamai and Hannibal had seen something of the kind before in the course of the warfare in their own land; but to Aminocles and his countrymen, with their Hellenic ideal of liberty, the sight was intolerably shocking, and they were loud in their asseverations that they would die before they would incur the risk of any such utter degradation.

While we were looking on at this humiliating exhibition, a messenger arrived from the King to ascertain the object of my coming. I stated it as briefly as possible, and in another hour the man came again to summon us into the presence of Belochus. I took no one with me except Hanno, and the sailors to carry the Queen's gifts. As we walked along Hanno was silent, evidently preparing some graceful compliment; but his painstaking in this way was of no avail, as we were only permitted to view the splendour of the Assyrian sovereign from a distance. At about a hundred paces from the throne we were commanded to halt, and prostrate ourselves to the ground.

Belochus II. was seated beneath a group of trees, surrounded so closely by guards, cup-bearers, attendants with fans and parasols, and slaves, with fly-whisks, that for a long time I could see nothing of him except his tiara, which was very dazzling, his robes, which were very elaborate, and his unshod feet sparkling with gems. But at last the mass of gorgeous pomp seemed to open, and I could plainly distinguish the majestic countenance of the King, encircled with long hair, and conspicuous with a thick frizzled beard.

An avenue of soldiers was formed; some officers were sent to receive whatever documents and presents we had brought; we were bidden a second time to prostrate ourselves to the earth, and were then escorted back to our ships. I found Belesys very impatient to be released from his imprisonment, and he looked much chagrined when I told him that it was necessary for me to detain him a while longer as a hostage for my own safety.

In about an hour afterwards some letters, enclosed in a casket of gold, arrived from King Belochus for the Queen of Sheba; the present for the Queen was accompanied by a meagre gift of provisions and stuffs for myself and my people.

My mission was now accomplished, and I prepared again to set sail.

"You may go," I said to my prisoner; "let us part friends."

Belesys gave a sigh of relief.

"I am glad you are a man of your word," he said.

I laughed heartily.

"Did you suppose I should keep you? What good could you do me?"

"Revenge is sweet," he answered. "I feared you would not let my injustice go unpunished."

"Ah, you mean that would have been your course."

Belesys smiled.

"The hand that cannot be cut off must be caressed," he said.

I took good care that before he left he should see the scorpions filled with missiles and put ready for action, and then I dismissed him with the most punctilious observance of outward respect.

Before quitting the ship he made another attempt to induce Bichri to join his service, an honour which was coolly and firmly declined.

CHAPTER XXIII

WE SETTLE OUR ACCOUNTS WITH BODMILCAR

It was quite late in the evening before we reached the bar of the river, and as I was fearful of crossing it in the dark, I gave orders to lay to for the night. A small Chaldean camp was within sight, but I took every precaution to guard against any act of treachery on the part of Belesys.

A number of booths made of branches of trees had been erected on the shore, and some Phœnician dealers were purchasing plunder from the soldiers, and supplying them with wine in return. Himilco, Gisgo, and several others expressed a great wish to go ashore, and although I knew that they would only be drinking and bragging of their adventures, I could not find it in my heart to refuse them. I only stipulated that they should not go out of hearing. A couple of hours later, being curious to know what was going on in the little mart that looked so bright with its many lamps, I took Bichri and Jonah, and rowed to land. Just as I stepped on shore, I observed two galleys pass down stream, as if about to anchor below us; they were followed by a gaoul, which kept very close to the opposite bank; but as the river was very wide, and it was quite dusk, I could not distinguish its form. Knowing, moreover, that there was a great deal of slave-trafficking going on with the Assyrians, I did not give the circumstance more than a casual attention.

I found Himilco and Gisgo in animated conversation with the Chaldean soldiers, who evidently regarded all their tales about enormous stags, stinking fish-oil, and the sun shining on the wrong side, as mere romances, if not downright lies. One of them avowed that no power on earth would ever make him believe that any people could accept Jonah for their god, a mere human being like themselves. To this Bichri replied, somewhat contemptuously, that he could not see but that Jonah was every whit as good as Nisroch; and Gisgo added that he could believe anything after seeing how the Assyrians allowed themselves to be bullied by Belochus and his general Belesys.

Furious at the insults offered alike to his god and to his rulers, the Chaldean threatened to break every bone in Gisgo's skin; whereupon Gisgo replied that he was quite ready to accept a challenge, and that he would fight it out in any way he pleased; like the people of Prydhayn or Ar-Mor, if he chose.

"You had better not be fighting with us," said Himilco; "we conquer wherever we go; Sicilians, Garamantines, Suomi, Germani, we have thrashed them all. We have been to the river Illiturgis, and to the Pyrenees, and to the Chariot of the Gods, and to the Fortunate Islands, where we got as much gold as we liked. Everything succeeds with us; and the best thing you can do is to leave us alone."

The man looked aghast at the string of names which Himilco repeated out so volubly, and, in a half-apologetic tone, replied:

"You Sidonians are wonderful travellers. I am a Kardook, and thought I had done something marvellous in coming here from my far-off mountains. The world is much larger than I reckoned."

Another Chaldean now put in his word, and said that though he had not been to Tarshish, he had just seen a man of Tarshish.

"Just seen one! where?" asked Himilco.