CHAPTER XXII
MARDONIUS GIVES A PROMISE
"Ugh--the dogs died hard, but they are dead," grunted Xerxes, stillshivering on the ivory throne. The battle had raged disagreeably close tohim.
"They are dead; even so perish all of your Eternity's enemies," rejoinedMardonius, close by. The bow-bearer himself was covered with blood anddust. A Spartan sword had grazed his forehead. He had exposed himselfrecklessly, as well he might, for it had taken all the efforts of thePersian captains, as well as the ruthless laying of whips over the backsof their men, to make the king's battalions face the frenzied Hellenes,until the closing in of Hydarnes from the rear gave the battle itsinevitable ending.
Xerxes was victorious. The gate of Hellas was unlocked. The mountain wallof OEta would hinder him no more. But the triumph had been bought with aprice which made Mardonius and every other general in the king's hostshake his head.
"Lord," reported Hystaspes, commander of the Scythians, "one man in everyseven of my band is slain, and those the bravest."
"Lord," spoke Artabazus, who led the Parthians, "my men swear the Helleneswere possessed by _daevas_. They dare not approach even their dead bodies."
"Lord," asked Hydarnes, "will it please your Eternity to appoint fiveother officers in the Life Guard, for of my ten lieutenants over theImmortals 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 thefuneral pyres of cedar and precious oils to be prepared for your brothersAbrocomes and Hyperanthes, and command the Magians to offer prayers forthe repose of their _fravashis_ in Garonmana the Blessed, for it pleasedMazda the Great they should fall before the Hellenes."
Xerxes waved his hand in assent. It was hard to be the "Lord of theWorld," and be troubled by such little things as the deaths of a fewthousand servants, or even of two of his numerous half-brethren, hard atleast on a day like this when he had seen his desire over his enemies.
"They shall be well avenged," he announced with kingly dignity, thensmiled with satisfaction when they brought him the shield and helmet ofLeonidas, the madman, who had dared to contemn his power. But all thegenerals who stood by were grim and sad. One more such victory would bringthe army close to destruction.
Xerxes's happiness, however, was not to be clouded. From childish fears hehad passed to childish exultation.
"Have you found the body also of this crazed Spartan?" he inquired of thecavalry 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 crossthat all may see it. And you, Mardonius," addressing the bow-bearer, "rideback to the hillock where these madmen made their last stand. If youdiscover 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 fairtreatment of valiant foes. The dishonouring of the corpse of Leonidas wasdispleasing to more than one high-minded Aryan nobleman. But the king hadspoken, and was to be obeyed. Mardonius rode back to the hillock at themouth of the pass, where the Hellenes had retired--after their spears werebroken and they could resist only with swords, stones, or naked hands--forthe 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 andwent with a few followers among the dead. Plunderers were already at theirharpy work of stripping the slain. The bow-bearer chased them angrilyaway. He oversaw the task which his attendants performed as quickly aspossible. Their toil was not quite fruitless. Three or four Thespians werestill breathing, a few more of the helots who had attended Leonidas'sSpartans, but not one of the three hundred but seemed dead, and that toowith many wounds.
Snofru, Mardonius's Egyptian body-servant, rose from the ghastly work andgrinned 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 draggedfrom a bloody 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 forthand lay him with the others that are living."
It was not easy to roll the three corpses from their feebly stirringcomrade. When this was done, the stricken man was still encased in hiscuirass 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 heardLeonidas took only older men on his desperate venture. Here, rascals, doyou not see he is smothered in that helmet? Lift him up, unbuckle thecuirass. By Mithra, he has a strong and noble form! Now the helmet--uncoverthe face."
But as the Egyptian did so, his master uttered a shout of mingledwonderment and terror.
"Glaucon--Prexaspes, and in Spartan armour!"
What had befallen Glaucon was in no wise miraculous. He had borne his partin the battle until the Hellenes fell back to the fatal hillock. Then inone of the fierce onsets which the Barbarians attempted before they hadrecourse to the simpler and less glorious method of crushing their foes byarrow fire, a Babylonian's war club had dashed upon his helmet. The stoutbronze had saved him from wound, but under the stroke strength andconsciousness had left him in a flash. The moment after he fell, thesoldier beside him had perished by a javelin, and falling above theAthenian made his body a ghastly shield against the surge and trampling ofthe battle. Glaucon lay scathless but senseless through the finalcatastrophe. Now consciousness was returning, but he would have died ofsuffocation save for Snofru's timely aid.
It was well for the Athenian that Mardonius was a man of ready devices. Hehad not seen Glaucon at his familiar post beside the king, but hadpresumed the Hellene had remained at the tents with the women, unwillingto watch the destruction of his people. In the rush and roar of the battlethe messenger Artazostra had sent her husband telling of "Prexaspes's"flight had never reached him. But Mardonius could divine what hadhappened. The swallow must fly south in the autumn. The Athenian hadreturned to his own. The bow-bearer's wrath at his protege's desertion wasovermastered by the consuming fear that tidings of Prexaspes's disloyaltywould get to the king. Xerxes's wrath would be boundless. Had he notproffered his new subject all the good things of his empire? And to berewarded thus! Glaucon's recompense would be to be sawn asunder or flunginto a serpent's cage.
Fortunately Mardonius had only his own personal followers around him. Hecould count on their discreet loyalty. Vouchsafing no explanations, butbidding them say not a word of their discovery on their heads, he orderedSnofru and his companions to make a litter of cloaks and lances, to throwaway Glaucon's tell-tale Spartan armour, and bear him speedily toArtazostra's tents. The stricken man was groaning feebly, moving hislimbs, muttering incoherently. The sight of Xerxes driving in person toinspect the battle-field made Mardonius hasten the litter away, while heremained to parley with the king.
"So only a few are alive?" asked Xerxes, leaning over the silver rail ofthe chariot, and peering on the upturned faces of the dead which werenearly 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!" mutteredthe monarch, still peering down; "even in death they seem to grit theirteeth and defy me. Faugh! The stench is already terrible. It is just aswell they are dead. Angra-Mainyu surely possessed them to fight so! Itcannot be there are many more who can fight like this left in Hellas,though Demaratus, the Spartan outlaw, says there are. Drive away,Pitiramphes--and you, Mardonius, ride beside me. I cannot abide thosecorpses. Where is my handkerchief? The one with the Sabaean nard on it. Iwill hold
it to my nose. Most refreshing! And I had a question to ask--Ihave forgotten what."
"Whether news has come from the fleets before Artemisium?" spokeMardonius, 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 notloyal, yet I forgive him. After all, he was once a Hellene."
"May it please your Eternity,"--Mardonius chose his words carefully,--aPersian always loved the truth, and lies to the king were doublyimpious,--"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 hisdevotion 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 truePersian, he would not have withdrawn from the person of the king, even todisplay his prowess in combat. Still he did well. Where is he?"
"I regret to tell your Eternity he was desperately wounded, though yourservant hopes not unto death. He is even now being taken to my tents."
"Where that pretty dancer, your sister, will play the surgeon--ha!" criedthe 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 himsomething in gratitude--a golden cimeter, perhaps, or it may be anothercream Nisaean charger."
A general rode up to the chariot with his report, and Mardonius wassuffered to gallop to his own tents, blessing Mazda; he had saved theAthenian, yet had not told a lie.
* * * * * * *
The ever ready eunuchs of Artazostra ran to tell Mardonius of theHellene's strange desertion, even before their lord dismounted. Mardoniuswas not astonished now, however much the tidings pained him. The Greek hadescaped more than trifling wounds; ten days would see him sound and hale,but the stunning blow had left his wits still wandering. He had believedhimself dead at first, and demanded why Charon took so long with hisferry-boat. He had not recognized Roxana, but spoke one name manytimes--"Hermione!" And the Egyptian, understanding too well, went to herown tent weeping bitterly.
"He has forsaken us," spoke Artazostra, harshly, to her husband. "He haspaid kindness with disloyalty. He has chosen the lot of his desperate racerather than princely state amongst the Aryans. Your sister is in agony."
"And I with her," returned the bow-bearer, gravely, "but let us not forgetone thing--this man has saved our lives. And all else weighs small in thebalance."
When Mardonius went to him, Glaucon was again himself. He lay on brightpillows, 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 Hellenes have not beencalled to the heroes' Elysium, to the glory of Theseus and Achilles, theglory that shall not die. Yet I am content. For plainly the Olympians havedestined that I should see and do great things in Hellas, otherwise theywould not have kept me back from Leonidas's glory."
The Athenian's voice rang confidently. None of the halting weaknessremained that had made it falter once when Mardonius asked him, "Will yourHellenes fight?" He spoke as might one returned crowned with the victor'slaurel.
"And wherefore are you grown so bold?" The bow-bearer was troubled as helooked on him. "Nobly you and your handful fought. We Persians honour thebrave, and full honour we give to you. But was it not graven upon thestars what should befall? Were not Leonidas, his men, and you all mad--"
"Ah, yes! divinely mad." Brighter still grew the Athenian's eyes. "Forthat moment of exultation when we charged to meet the king I would againpay a lifetime."
"Yet the gateway of Hellas is unlocked. Your bravest are fallen. Your landis defenceless. What else can be written hereafter save, 'The Hellenesstrove with fierce courage to fling back Xerxes. Their valour wasfoolishness. The god turned against them. The king prevailed.' "
But Glaucon met the Persian's glance with one more bold.
"No, Mardonius, good friend, for do not think that we must be foes one toanother because our people are at war,--I can answer you with ease.Leonidas you have slain, and his handful, and you have pierced themountain wall of OEta, and no doubt your king's host will march even toAthens. But do not dream Hellas is conquered by striding over her land.Before you shall possess the land you must first possess the men. And Isay to you, Athens is still left, and Sparta left, free and strong, withmen whose hearts and hands can never fail. I doubted once. But now I doubtno more. And our gods will fight for us. Your Ahura-Mazda has still toprevail over Zeus the Thunderer and Athena of the Pure Heart."
"And you?" asked the Persian.
"And as for me, I know I have cast away by my own act all the good thingsyou and your king would fain bestow upon me. Perhaps I deserve death atyour hands. I will never plead for respite, but this I know, whether Ilive or die, it shall be as Glaucon of Athens who owns no king but Zeus,no loyalty save to the land that bore him."
There was stillness in the tent. The wounded man sank back on the pillows,breathing deep, closing his eyes, expectant almost of a burst of wrathfrom the Persian. But Mardonius answered without trace of anger.
"Friend, your words cut keenly, and your boasts are high. Only the MostHigh knoweth whether you boast aright. Yet this I say, that much as Idesire your friendship, would see you my brother, even,--you know that,--Idare not tell you you do wholly wrong. A man is given one country and onemanner of faith in God. He does not choose them. I was born to serve thelord of the Aryans, and to spread the triumphs of Mithra the Glorious, andyou were born in Athens. I would it were otherwise. Artazostra and I wouldfain have made you Persian like ourselves. My sister loves you. Yet wecannot strive against fate. Will you go back to your own people and sharetheir lot, however direful?"
"Since life is given me, I will."
Mardonius stepped to the bedside and gave the Athenian his right hand.
"At the island you saved my life and that of my best beloved. Let it neverbe said that Mardonius, son of Gobryas, is ungrateful. To-day, in somemeasure, I have repaid the debt I owe. If you will have it so, as speedilyas your strength returns and opportunity offers I will return you to yourpeople. And amongst them may your own gods show you favour, for you willhave none from ours!"
Glaucon took the proffered hand in silent gratitude. He was still veryweak and rested on the pillows, breathing hard. The bow-bearer went out tohis wife and his sister and told his promise. There was little to be said.The Athenian must go his path, and they go theirs, unless he were to behanded over to Xerxes to die a death of torments. And not even Roxana,keenly as pierced her sorrow, would think of that.