“ Heed ye and remember one who hath wrought this evil in my soul! The King! who hath crucified a woman's love! The King! who hath torn a woman's heart from out her breast and set a raging devil as the master of her blood! So harken, ye children of Assyria, and ye who write on tablets and the graven stele! Remember! And now make ready for a war!"
"A war?" cried Nakir-Kish, who knew that the nations rested on their arms and were at peace. "What war?"
Semiramis turned upon him with a cry of consuming rage, and with the scepter of an hundred lands she smote him across his mouth. ”

“ For the first time since the battle with the Kurds she marked a frown of anger upon the servant's brow, yet little she reckoned of the wrath of any man.
"Huzim," she answered, and her teeth shone white in the light of a riding moon, "I know not what path is best for fools to take, nor if you would hide in idleness beneath the desert's sands; but as for me, as Ishtar hears my oath, I go to Bactria."
"But why?" he demanded, in a tone of keen despair. "Why tempt the gods when wisdom pointeth out the way?"
Once more Semiramis raised her arms toward the stars, and her fists were clenched. ”

“ Across the Syrian hills, beneath the splendour of a million stars, rode Menon and Semiramis, side by side. Their hearts were full with the fullness of a joy which conquers speech and leaves them to beat with a voiceless pulse of peace. Their eyes alone told secrets, tender, deep, for each had hunted through the desert for a grain of sand, and, finding it, was glad, for they knew that its name was love.
Before them, silent too, rode Huzim, his head bowed low upon his mighty chest, for a worm of jealousy had entered him because of this love of a master for his bride. Was a slave not human? ”

“ Semiramis was not of Habal's stamp, nor did she boast of her deeds abroad; yet still their memory beckoned, till her soul was full with a great unrest. At home she was idle, grieving for the things so changed, wandering through a house made desolate by the flight of those she loved. Old friends would come—gaunt shepherds, gazing on her beauty with the eyes of cattle that rove the hills—to linger, then slink away to hide the passion in their hearts.
"Home! Home!" she cried. "No longer is it home, for the dove hath flown, and my lord is not beside me in the gloom!" ”

“ Once more she started, yet controlled her voice, answering in a tone of wonderment:
"A leathern sack of gems? In truth I know naught of it. As Bêlit liveth, your words are the words of foolishness."
"True," grinned Kishra; "no treasure is hidden on the river bank, nor is there a garden-seat before our eyes, nor a fish pond near at hand where a man may hide his body beneath the scum and harken unto whisperings."
At his taunting speech Semiramis raised her fist as if to dash it in his evil face, then let it fall beside her, while she sank upon the garden seat in bitter tears. ”

“ For in his armor lay a rotting lie! A lie! For Habal—my good dog Habal—sleepeth with his paws and muzzle on a stranger's breast! A lie, I say! A lie! For Menon liveth and by Ninus was crucified!"
The shrill voice ceased. It had risen to the scream of a tigress calling to her mate; but now no answering roar burst forth in echo of her call. The sons of Assyria sat silent—wondering. All had heard the tale of Prince Menon's death, and many had seen him laid away to sleep. On the vale's lip they had wept for a man they loved. They had seen—had known! How, then, should the dead arise to life again? ”

“ He was gaining now! He saw with a hunter's joy that his quarry wearied of her work. Her strokes grew feeble, while the flaming head sank lower among the waves.
"By Bêlit," he wheezed, "the kiss is mine, or I rest my bones at the bottom of thy lake!"
The space of a spear's length lay between the two, and inch by inch the pursuer cut it down, while the nymph had ceased to mock him with her laughter, and bent her ebbing strength to the effort of escape. For her the race was run. On came the panting hunter in her wake, remorseless, eager, a hard hand reaching for her floating locks. ”

“ Such men alone were bidden to the feast—such men who in secret loved the Queen, yet dared not lay a tongue to the telling of their love.
Then unto these sons of war came the mistress of Assyria, not in her gem-sewn robes of state, but in the armor of a battle-queen. On her breasts were set her nipple-plates of gold; on her flame-hued locks that helm which had flashed like star-fire through the ruck of war. Across her shoulders was flung a leopard skin, and her arms were bare, stripped of all save the bands of bronze which bound the sinews of her wrists. ”

“ This plan of war seemed good to Ninus, and in his joy he forgot all else save the fire of a mighty conqueror; yet when his engines were dragged into the plains and set at vantage points within his lines, he remembered Menon, and his heart grew cold again.
This man had saved Assyria's vanguard from defeat, aye, even the life of Ninus he had saved, and thereby won the love of a multitude who were witness to the deed. Justice cried out for the King's forgiveness, yet it cried in vain, for justice is ever a feather-weight in the scale of jealousy. ”

“ For another I plead—for one who shall grope in darkness all his days—yet in his hell of everlasting night, one cry hath rung through the empty hall of years—one heart-cry beating at the doors of life—Shammuramat!"
The Bactrian ceased. The Queen, in wonder, was silent, too, for the words of the man seemed strange and meaningless. Yet why should the dead arise to life? Why should the thread of memory become a chain and drag her back to her lord of other days?—to Menon the Beautiful—he who had torn the veil of Ishtar, and bade her look on the naked glory of a heart! ”

“ For a moment he looked upon his master, then shrugged and left the council tent in silence, striding down the rocky path to his camp below. He yearned to reach the walls of Zariaspa, yet he knew full well that Ninus might accomplish naught without the aid of his ladders and his catapults; and these must be watched with a sleepless eye, for in them lay the hope of a breach in the city's walls or a path which led to the summit of the citadel. One man would stand upon that lofty goal and claim the prize—Semiramis—and Menon swore by his every god of light and gloom to be that man! ”

“ In the hours of noon they rested long beneath the shade of canopies, and slept; then took up their flight again, to shiver through the cool of night when a huge moon leapt with wondrous suddenness from beneath the world and raced away along his curving, star-lit path. And thus they journeyed till the dawn of the twelfth red day, when Menon spied the fringe of a green oasis as it rose from the desert's rim. Like a cool, sweet dewdrop it seemed to lie in the core of a yellow leaf, and after a weary ride at quickened pace the travellers came upon the outposts of Boabdul's camp. ”

“ By the gleam of the stars alone they toiled, till a sickly glow came stealing from out the east; and then, as the sun came up, they stood at last on the mountain's spine, poor Habal dropping at their feet with heaving flanks and a lolling tongue.
Semiramis heaved a sigh. Beneath her lay the land of Bactria, yet hidden now by a ghostly sea of mist—a mist that writhed and heaved, revealing giant peaks that seemed to peep out timidly, to turn and flee as though pursued by spirits of the under-world ”

“ Her better self must battle against ambition, passion, the blood of direct inheritance, the thousand ghostly guides that lead her into perilous ways, while on the scales of circumstances must hang the issue of her rise or fall. She must face still other foes, in men who are stronger than herself—men who seek her charms for weel or woe; for perfect love is a woman's highest goal, and a man may make or mar it by the mould of his great or little heart.
If, therefore, in her later days Semiramis was evil, the fault was not all her own. ”

“ To the warriors in Menon's charge, their chieftain had passed from boyhood to sterner age, for his laugh no more resounded through the camp as in days of old, and a frown of gloom sat always upon his brow. Where the followers of Ninus feasted by night and day, laying great rolls of fat upon their bones, Menon's men were held to the toil of war, to the practice of arms and a temperate use of wine and food, till slender and gaunt they grew, yet clear of sight and as hard as the rocky roads up which they climbed. ”

“ Naught had this stallion of Barbary known save love and tenderness; and now, with drooping head, he looked upon the cursing King, and wondered. No covering was there to shield his flanks against the cold; no water wherewith to bathe his wind-burned nostrils; no hand to stroke his muzzle in caress; no lips to croon the love-songs of the land of Araby. The chill of the night had entered into him, till he whinnied for the shelter of a master's tent, and coughed in pain; then man and beast lay down together in a hollow in the sands which Ninus dug with his royal nails. ”

“ Wherefore should he scowl, this favorite of the gods, Chief Governor of Syria, a warrior beloved of men, a youth watched covertly from many a latticed screen till his careless passing caused a yearning sigh? Wherefore should he mutter curses in his palm and dig his heel into the sands? Had he not on yestereve received a scroll from the King himself, wherein that monarch praised him for his services afield, and, more, for his crafty rule? Had Ninus not made offer of a high reward when Nineveh should be builded at the end of two short years? ”

“ For a moment Kishra sat staring at Semiramis, while through his evil brain shot the knowledge of his own credulity. From the first she had gulled him, luring him to lie in a muddy fish pond, harkening unto whisperings. No runner waited for her fish of malachite. Her tremblings and her tears were but a mask. Even in her well-feigned fury she had fed him with designs for his own undoing, and he, in his gross cupidity, had eaten of the fruit of fools. No treasure lay hidden on the river shore, but enemies who smiled and waited for their own. ”

“ For an instant the victim struggled pleasingly with leg and wing, while the smile of Semiramis broadened in its reach, to flicker, to fade, to die. A monster carp came upward with a rush. One snap, and the tempting morsel disappeared, thus making the fish-god's judgment clear, beyond the very hem of Redemption's robe.
Semiramis sat upon the temple's steps, her chin upon her hands, her eyes on a wheel of ripples that widened away from its hub of swift calamity. She pondered long, her thoughts like cats in trees, with Habal barking furiously below. ”

“ How better then, could this passion of desire be wrought than in mating with Assyria's lord? To barter one human body in exchange for dominion over all the world! True, Ninus drove the chariot of state, yet she had but to whisper in the driver's ear to turn the course of its plunging steeds. If Ninus held the reins, a woman held the lash—and, by the smoke of Gibil, she would lay it on!
Thus dreamed Semiramis, while about her the waters of the Tigris crooned their chant of mystery; above, the great stars hung, and flung their burning meteors across the sky ”

“ Three years have we girded Zariaspa's walls and battered at its masonry. Three years! and what hath been compassed in these weary days? We scrape an hundred-weight of scales from off the stones, and sacrifice a third of an army's strength to the sport of our laughing enemies. Our shafts are as swarms of harmless gnats, our lances reeds in the hands of girls; our mightiest engines toys at which the foemen crow and chuckle in their merriment. From the Oxus to the hills we harry the land in search of food, while the Bactrians fatten as they loll upon their battlements. ”

“ And now, at the dawn of a certain day, these two looked out on the desert, and were amazed. Through the mists came the army of Assyria, not as a strong-armed host to batter down its foes, but as men who were famished by the desert's breath, whose strength was spent, who reeled and fell upon the sand, to rise and struggle on again. Their war-wings stretched in ragged disarray; their chariots came crawling far behind where they should have held the van, and horsemen limped across the fiery plains, leading their drooping steeds. ”

“ Yet in her smile a man might forget defeat—forget and rejoice—forget all else save the smile and the maid who smiled.
His color spread, yet the blood-warmed tint now told no more of the sting of an humbled pride. He strove to raise his arms, but they seemed as weights too heavy for his strength, and sank beside him weakly. His thews were slack; he lay as helpless as an unweaned babe, yet the victor's eyes were laughing down into his own, and were kind.
"The kiss!" sighed Menon, and the maiden bent and gave her soul into the keeping of his lips. ”

“ Now the Bactrians on the walls, suspecting some deceitful snare, answered the summons with hoots and laughter, with the mimic howls of animals and the mocking crow of cocks. A cloud of arrows fell like drops of rain, galling the restive chariot steeds, while a captain on the wall released the beam of a catapult. A monster rock came hurtling through the air, to strike the earth within a spear's length of the King and crash through the triple line of chariots; whereat a mighty roar of rage went up, the clamour growing into fury, till Ninus wheeled his horse and gave a sharp command. ”