A Victor of Salamis Part 63

Soon the council was broken up. The final commands were given. Every officer knew his task. The cavalry was to be ready to charge across the Asopus at gray dawn. With Lycon and Democrates playing their part the issue was certain, too certain for many a grizzled captain who loved the ring of steel. In his own tent Mardonius held in his arms the beautiful page-Artazostra! Her wonderful face had never shone up at his more brightly than on that night, as he drew back his lips from a long fond kiss.

"To-morrow-the triumph. You will be conqueror of h.e.l.las. Xerxes will make you satrap. I wish we could conquer in fairer fight, but what wrong to vanquish these h.e.l.lenes with their own sly weapons? Do you remember what Glaucon said?"

"What thing?"

"That Zeus and Athena were greater than Mazda the Pure and glorious Mithra? To-morrow will prove him wrong. I wonder whether he yet lives,-whether he will ever confess that Persia is irresistible."

"I do not know. From the evening we parted at Phaleron he has faded from our world."

"He was fair as the Amesha-Spentas, was he not? Poor Roxana-she is again in Sardis now. I hope she has ceased to eat her heart out with vain longing for her lover. He was n.o.ble minded and spoke the truth. How rare in a h.e.l.lene. But what will you do with these two gold-bought traitors, 'friends of the king' indeed?"

Mardonius's face grew stern.

"I have promised them the lords.h.i.+ps of Athens and of Sparta. The pledge shall be fulfilled, but after that,"-Artazostra understood his sinister smile,-"there are many ways of removing an unwelcome va.s.sal prince, if I be the satrap of h.e.l.las."

"And you are that in the morning."

"For your sake," was his cry, as again he kissed her, "I would I were not satrap of h.e.l.las only, but lord of all the world, that I might give it to you, O daughter of Darius and Atossa."

"I am mistress of the world," she answered, "for my world is Mardonius.

To-morrow the battle, the glory, and then what next-Sicily, Carthage, Italy? For Mazda will give us all things."

Otherwise talked Democrates and Lycon as they quitted the Persian pickets and made their way across the black plain, back to the lines of the h.e.l.lenes.

"You should be happy to-night," said the Athenian.

"a.s.suredly. I draw up my net and find it very full of mullets quite to my liking."

"Take care it be not so full that it break."

"Dear Democrates,"-Lycon slapped his paw on the other's shoulder,-"why always imagine evil? Hermes is a very safe guide. I only hope our victory will be so complete Sparta will submit without fighting. It will be awkward to rule a plundered city."

"I shudder at the thought of being amongst even conquered Athenians; I shall see a tyrannicide in every boy in the Agora."

"A stout Persian garrison in your Acropolis is the surest physic against that."

"By the dog, Lycon, you speak like a Scythian. h.e.l.lene you surely are not."

"h.e.l.lene I am, and show my native wisdom in seeing that Persia must conquer and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g sail accordingly."

"Persia is not irresistible. With a fair battle-"

"It will not be a fair battle. What can save Pausanias? Nothing-except a miracle sent from Zeus."

"Such as what?"

"As merciful Hiram's relenting and releasing your dear Glaucon." Lycon's chuckle was loud.

"Never, as you hope me to be anything save your mortal enemy, mention that name again."

"As you like it-it's no very pretty tale, I grant, even amongst Medizers.

Yet it was most imprudent to let him live."

"You have never heard the Furies, Lycon." Democrates's voice was so grave as to dry up the Spartan's banter. "But I shall never see him again, and I shall possess Hermione."

"A pretty consolation. _Eu!_ here are our outposts. We must pa.s.s for officers reconnoitring the enemy. You know your part to-morrow. At the first charge bid your division 'wheel to rear.' Three words, and the thing is done."

Lycon gave the watchword promptly to one of Pausanias's outposts. The man saluted his officers, and said that the Greeks of the lesser states had retreated far to the rear, that Amompharetus still refused to move his division, that the Spartans waited for him, and the Athenians for the Spartans.

"n.o.ble tidings," whispered the giant, as the two stood an instant, before each went to his own men. "Behold how Hermes helps us-a great deity."

"Sometimes I think Nemesis is greater," said Democrates, once again refusing Lycon's proffered hand.

"By noon you'll laugh at Nemesis, _philotate_, when we both drink Helbon wine in Xerxes's tent!" and away went Lycon into the dark.

Democrates went his own way also. Soon he was in the fallow-field, where under the warm night the Athenians were stretched, each man in armour, his helmet for a pillow. A few torches were moving. From a distance came the hum from a group of officers in excited conversation. As the orator picked his way among the sleeping men, a locharch with a lantern accosted him suddenly.

"You are Democrates the strategus?"

"Certainly."

"Aristeides summons you at once. Come."

There was no reason for refusing. Democrates followed.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX

THE AVENGING OF LEONIDAS

Morning at last, ruddy and windy. The Persian host had been long prepared.

The Tartar cavalry with their bulls-hide targets and long lances, the heavy Persian cuira.s.siers, the Median and a.s.syrian archers with their ponderous wicker-s.h.i.+elds, stood in rank waiting only the word that should dash them as sling-stones on Pausanias and his ill-starred following. The Magi had sacrificed a stallion, and reported that the holy fire gave every favouring sign. Mardonius went from his tent, all his eunuchs bowing their foreheads to the earth and chorussing, "Victory to our Lord, to Persia, and to the King."

They brought Mardonius his favourite horse, a white steed of the sacred breed of Nisaea. The Prince had bound around his turban the gemmed tiara Xerxes had given him on his wedding-day. Few could wield the Babylonish cimeter that danced in the chieftain's hand. The captains cheered him loudly, as they might have cheered the king.

"Life to the general! To the satrap of h.e.l.las!"

But beside the Nisaean pranced another, lighter and with a lighter mount.

The rider was cased in silvered scale-armour, and bore only a steel-tipped reed.

"The general's page," ran the whisper, and other whispers, far softer, followed. None heard the quick words pa.s.sed back and forth betwixt the two riders.

"You may be riding to death, Artazostra. What place is a battle for women?"