A Victor of Salamis Part 36

Xerxes was victorious. The gate of h.e.l.las was unlocked. The mountain wall of ta would hinder him no more. But the triumph had been bought with a price which made Mardonius and every other general in the king's host shake his head.

"Lord," reported Hystaspes, commander of the Scythians, "one man in every seven of my band is slain, and those the bravest."

"Lord," spoke Artabazus, who led the Parthians, "my men swear the h.e.l.lenes were possessed by _daevas_. They dare not approach even their dead bodies."

"Lord," asked Hydarnes, "will it please your Eternity to appoint five other officers in the Life Guard, for of my ten lieutenants over the Immortals five are slain?"

But the heaviest news no man save Mardonius dared to bring to the king.

"May it please your Omnipotence," spoke the bow-bearer, "to order the funeral pyres of cedar and precious oils to be prepared for your brothers Abrocomes and Hyperanthes, and command the Magians to offer prayers for the repose of their _fravas.h.i.+s_ in Garonmana the Blessed, for it pleased Mazda the Great they should fall before the h.e.l.lenes."

Xerxes waved his hand in a.s.sent. It was hard to be the "Lord of the World," and be troubled by such little things as the deaths of a few thousand servants, or even of two of his numerous half-brethren, hard at least on a day like this when he had seen his desire over his enemies.

"They shall be well avenged," he announced with kingly dignity, then smiled with satisfaction when they brought him the s.h.i.+eld and helmet of Leonidas, the madman, who had dared to contemn his power. But all the generals who stood by were grim and sad. One more such victory would bring the army close to destruction.

Xerxes's happiness, however, was not to be clouded. From childish fears he had pa.s.sed to childish exultation.

"Have you found the body also of this crazed Spartan?" he inquired of the cavalry officer who had brought the trophies.

"As you say, Omnipotence," rejoined the captain, bowing in the saddle.

"Good, then. Let the head be struck off and the trunk fastened on a cross that all may see it. And you, Mardonius," addressing the bow-bearer, "ride back to the hillock where these madmen made their last stand. If you discover among the corpses any who yet breathe, bring them hither to me, that they may learn the futility of resisting my might."

The bow-bearer shrugged his shoulders. He loved a fair battle and fair treatment of valiant foes. The dishonouring of the corpse of Leonidas was displeasing to more than one high-minded Aryan n.o.bleman. But the king had spoken, and was to be obeyed. Mardonius rode back to the hillock at the mouth of the pa.s.s, where the h.e.l.lenes had retired-after their spears were broken and they could resist only with swords, stones, or naked hands-for the final death grip.

The slain Barbarians lay in heaps. The Greeks had been crushed at the end, not in close strife, but by showers of arrows. Mardonius dismounted and went with a few followers among the dead. Plunderers were already at their harpy work of stripping the slain. The bow-bearer chased them angrily away. He oversaw the task which his attendants performed as quickly as possible. Their toil was not quite fruitless. Three or four Thespians were still breathing, a few more of the helots who had attended Leonidas's Spartans, but not one of the three hundred but seemed dead, and that too with many wounds.

Snofru, Mardonius's Egyptian body-servant, rose from the ghastly work and grinned with his ivories at his master.

"All the rest are slain, Excellency."

"You have not searched that pile yonder."

Snofru and his helpers resumed their toil. Presently the Egyptian dragged from a b.l.o.o.d.y heap a body, and raised a yell. "Another one-he breathes!"

"There's life in him. He shall not be left to the crows. Take him forth and lay him with the others that are living."

It was not easy to roll the three corpses from their feebly stirring comrade. When this was done, the stricken man was still encased in his cuira.s.s and helmet. They saw only that his hands were slim and white.

"With care," ordered the humane bow-bearer, "he is a young man. I heard Leonidas took only older men on his desperate venture. Here, rascals, do you not see he is smothered in that helmet? Lift him up, unbuckle the cuira.s.s. By Mithra, he has a strong and n.o.ble form! Now the helmet-uncover the face."

But as the Egyptian did so, his master uttered a shout of mingled wonderment and terror.

"Glaucon-Prexaspes, and in Spartan armour!"

What had befallen Glaucon was in no wise miraculous. He had borne his part in the battle until the h.e.l.lenes fell back to the fatal hillock. Then in one of the fierce onsets which the Barbarians attempted before they had recourse to the simpler and less glorious method of crus.h.i.+ng their foes by arrow fire, a Babylonian's war club had dashed upon his helmet. The stout bronze had saved him from wound, but under the stroke strength and consciousness had left him in a flash. The moment after he fell, the soldier beside him had perished by a javelin, and falling above the Athenian made his body a ghastly s.h.i.+eld against the surge and trampling of the battle. Glaucon lay scathless but senseless through the final catastrophe. Now consciousness was returning, but he would have died of suffocation save for Snofru's timely aid.

It was well for the Athenian that Mardonius was a man of ready devices. He had not seen Glaucon at his familiar post beside the king, but had presumed the h.e.l.lene had remained at the tents with the women, unwilling to watch the destruction of his people. In the rush and roar of the battle the messenger Artazostra had sent her husband telling of "Prexaspes's"

flight had never reached him. But Mardonius could divine what had happened. The swallow must fly south in the autumn. The Athenian had returned to his own. The bow-bearer's wrath at his protege's desertion was overmastered by the consuming fear that tidings of Prexaspes's disloyalty would get to the king. Xerxes's wrath would be boundless. Had he not proffered his new subject all the good things of his empire? And to be rewarded thus! Glaucon's recompense would be to be sawn asunder or flung into a serpent's cage.

Fortunately Mardonius had only his own personal followers around him. He could count on their discreet loyalty. Vouchsafing no explanations, but bidding them say not a word of their discovery on their heads, he ordered Snofru and his companions to make a litter of cloaks and lances, to throw away Glaucon's tell-tale Spartan armour, and bear him speedily to Artazostra's tents. The stricken man was groaning feebly, moving his limbs, muttering incoherently. The sight of Xerxes driving in person to inspect the battle-field made Mardonius hasten the litter away, while he remained to parley with the king.

"So only a few are alive?" asked Xerxes, leaning over the silver rail of the chariot, and peering on the upturned faces of the dead which were nearly trampled by his horses. "Are any sound enough to set before me?"

"None, your Eternity; even the handful that live are desperately wounded.

We have laid them yonder."

"Let them wait, then; all around here seem dead. Ugly hounds!" muttered the monarch, still peering down; "even in death they seem to grit their teeth and defy me. Faugh! The stench is already terrible. It is just as well they are dead. Angra-Mainyu surely possessed them to fight so! It cannot be there are many more who can fight like this left in h.e.l.las, though Demaratus, the Spartan outlaw, says there are. Drive away, Pitiramphes-and you, Mardonius, ride beside me. I cannot abide those corpses. Where is my handkerchief? The one with the Sabaean nard on it. I will hold it to my nose. Most refres.h.i.+ng! And I had a question to ask-I have forgotten what."

"Whether news has come from the fleets before Artemisium?" spoke Mardonius, galloping close to the wheel.

"Not that. Ah! I remember. Where was Prexaspes? I did not see him near me.

Did he stay in the tents while these mad men were destroyed? It was not loyal, yet I forgive him. After all, he was once a h.e.l.lene."

"May it please your Eternity,"-Mardonius chose his words carefully,-a Persian always loved the truth, and lies to the king were doubly impious,-"Prexaspes was not in the tents but in the thick of the battle."

"Ah!" Xerxes smiled pleasantly, "it was right loyal of him to show his devotion to me thus. And he acquitted himself valiantly?"

"Most valiantly, Omnipotence."

"Doubly good. Yet he ought to have stayed near me. If he had been a true Persian, he would not have withdrawn from the person of the king, even to display his prowess in combat. Still he did well. Where is he?"

"I regret to tell your Eternity he was desperately wounded, though your servant hopes not unto death. He is even now being taken to my tents."

"Where that pretty dancer, your sister, will play the surgeon-ha!" cried the king. "Well, tell him his Lord is grateful. He shall not be forgotten.

If his wounds do not mend, call in my body-physicians. And I will send him something in grat.i.tude-a golden cimeter, perhaps, or it may be another cream Nisaean charger."

A general rode up to the chariot with his report, and Mardonius was suffered to gallop to his own tents, blessing Mazda; he had saved the Athenian, yet had not told a lie.

The ever ready eunuchs of Artazostra ran to tell Mardonius of the h.e.l.lene's strange desertion, even before their lord dismounted. Mardonius was not astonished now, however much the tidings pained him. The Greek had escaped more than trifling wounds; ten days would see him sound and hale, but the stunning blow had left his wits still wandering. He had believed himself dead at first, and demanded why Charon took so long with his ferry-boat. He had not recognized Roxana, but spoke one name many times-"Hermione!" And the Egyptian, understanding too well, went to her own tent weeping bitterly.

"He has forsaken us," spoke Artazostra, harshly, to her husband. "He has paid kindness with disloyalty. He has chosen the lot of his desperate race rather than princely state amongst the Aryans. Your sister is in agony."

"And I with her," returned the bow-bearer, gravely, "but let us not forget one thing-this man has saved our lives. And all else weighs small in the balance."

When Mardonius went to him, Glaucon was again himself. He lay on bright pillows, his forehead swathed in linen. His eyes were unnaturally bright.

"You know what has befallen?" asked Mardonius.

"They have told me. I almost alone of all the h.e.l.lenes have not been called to the heroes' Elysium, to the glory of Theseus and Achilles, the glory that shall not die. Yet I am content. For plainly the Olympians have destined that I should see and do great things in h.e.l.las, otherwise they would not have kept me back from Leonidas's glory."

The Athenian's voice rang confidently. None of the halting weakness remained that had made it falter once when Mardonius asked him, "Will your h.e.l.lenes fight?" He spoke as might one returned crowned with the victor's laurel.

"And wherefore are you grown so bold?" The bow-bearer was troubled as he looked on him. "n.o.bly you and your handful fought. We Persians honour the brave, and full honour we give to you. But was it not graven upon the stars what should befall? Were not Leonidas, his men, and you all mad-"

"Ah, yes! divinely mad." Brighter still grew the Athenian's eyes. "For that moment of exultation when we charged to meet the king I would again pay a lifetime."