The Greatest Historical Novels of Georg Ebers. Georg Ebers
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will not be contradicted. Take off those ornaments at once, I entreat you. There, that is right. We cannot succeed unless you obey me. How white your neck is! The fair Peri would look dark by your side.”
“But—”
“When your turn comes to ask a favor of the king, tell him you have no wishes, now that the sun of your life has withdrawn his light.”
“Yes, that I will do.”
“When your father asks after your welfare, you must weep.”
“I will do that too.”
“And so that all the Achaemenidae can see that you are weeping.”
“That will be a fearful humiliation!”
“Not at all; only a means by which to rise the more surely. Wash the red color from your cheeks and put on white powder. Make yourself pale—paler still.”
“Yes, I shall need that to hide my blushes. Boges, you are asking something fearful of me, but I will obey you if you will only give me a reason.”
“Girl, bring your mistress’s new dark green robe.”
“I shall look like a slave.”
“True grace is lovely even in rags.”
“The Egyptian will completely eclipse me.”
“Yes, every one must see that you have not the slightest intention of comparing yourself with her. Then people will say: ‘Would not Phaedime be as beautiful as this proud woman, if she had taken the same pains to make herself so?”’
“But I cannot bow down to her.”
“You must.”
“You only want to humble and ruin me.”
“Short-sighted fool! listen to my reasons and obey. I want especially to excite the Achaemenidae against our enemy. How it will enrage your grandfather Intaphernes, and your father Otanes to see you in the dust before a stranger! Their wounded pride will bring them over to our side, and if they are too ‘noble,’ as they call it, to undertake anything themselves against a woman, still they will be more likely to help than to hinder us, if I should need their assistance. Then, when the Egyptian is ruined, if you have done as I wish, the king will remember your sad pale face, your humility and forgetfulness of self. The Achaemenidae, and even the Magi, will beg him to take a queen from his own family; and where in all Persia is there a woman who can boast of better birth than you? Who else can wear the royal purple but my bright bird of Paradise, my beautiful rose Phaedime? With such a prize in prospect we must no more fear a little humiliation than a man who is learning to ride fears a fall from his horse.”
And she, princess as she was, answered: “I will obey you.”
“Then we are certain of victory,” said the eunuch. “There, now your eyes are flashing darkly again as I like to see them, my queen. And so Cambyses shall see you when the tender flesh of the Egyptian shall have become food for dogs and the birds of the air, and when for the first time after long months of absence, I bring him once more to the door of your apartments. Here, Armorges! tell the rest of the women to get ready and enter their litters. I will go on and be there to show them their places.”
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The great banqueting-hall was bright as day—even brighter, from the light of thousands of candles whose rays were reflected in the gold plates forming the panelling of the walls. A table of interminable length stood in the middle of the hall, overloaded with gold and silver cups, plates, dishes, bowls, jugs, goblets, ornaments and incense-altars, and looked like a splendid scene from fairy-land.
“The king will soon be here,” called out the head-steward of the table, of the great court-lords, to the king’s cup-bearer, who was a member of the royal family. “Are all the wine-jugs full, has the wine been tasted, are the goblets ranged in order, and the skins sent by Polykrates, have they been emptied?”
“Yes,” answered the cup-bearer, “everything is ready, and that Chian wine is better than any I ever tasted; indeed, in my opinion, even the Syrian is not to be compared to it. Only taste it.”
So saying he took a graceful little golden goblet from the table in one hand, raised a wine-pitcher of the same costly metal with the other, swung the latter high into the air and poured the wine so cleverly into the narrow neck of the little vessel that not a drop was lost, though the liquid formed a wide curve in its descent. He then presented the goblet to the head-steward with the tips of his fingers, bowing gracefully as he did so.
The latter sipped the delicious wine, testing its flavor with great deliberation, and said, on returning the cup: “I agree with you, it is indeed a noble wine, and tastes twice as well when presented with such inimitable grace. Strangers are quite right in saying that there are no cupbearers like the Persian.”
“Thanks for this praise,” replied the other, kissing his friend’s forehead. “Yes, I am proud of my office, and it is one which the king only gives to his friends. Still it is a great plague to have to stay so long in this hot, suffocating Babylon. Shall we ever be off for the summer, to Ecbatana or Pasargada?”
“I was talking to the king about it to-day. He had intended not to leave before the Massagetan war, and to go straight from Babylon into the field, but to-day’s embassy has changed matters; it is probable that there may be no war, and then we shall go to Susa three days after the king’s marriage—that is, in one week from the present time.”
“To Susa?” cried the cup-bearer. “It’s very little cooler there than here, and besides, the old Memnon’s castle is being rebuilt.”
“The satrap of Susa has just brought word that the new palace is finished, and that nothing so brilliant has ever been seen. Directly Cambyses heard, it he said: Then we will start for Susa three days after our marriage. I should like to show the Egyptian Princess that we understand the art of building as well as her own ancestors. She is accustomed to hot weather on the Nile, and will not find our beautiful Susa too warm.’ The king seems wonderfully fond of this woman.”
“He does indeed! All other women have become perfectly indifferent to him, and he means soon to make her his queen.”
“That is unjust; Phaedime, as daughter of the Achaemenidae, has an older and better right.”
“No doubt, but whatever the king wishes, must be right.”
“The ruler’s will is the will of God.”
“Well said! A true Persian will kiss his king’s hand, even when dripping with the blood of his own child.”
“Cambyses ordered my brother’s execution, but I bear him no more ill-will for it than I should the gods for depriving me of my parents. Here, you fellows! draw the curtains back; the guests are coming. Look sharp, you dogs, and do your duty! Farewell, Artabazos, we shall have warm work to-night.”
BOOK 2.
CHAPTER I.
The principal steward of the banquet went forward to meet the guests as they entered, and, assisted by other noble staff-bearers (chamberlains and masters of the ceremonies), led them to their appointed places.
When they were all seated, a flourish of trumpets announced that the king was near. As he entered the hall every one rose, and the multitude received him with a thundering shout of “Victory to the king!” again and again repeated.
The way to his seat was marked by a purple Sardian carpet, only to be trodden by himself and Kassandane. His blind mother,