"I speak, O Mighty One," he answered. "Would that my tongue had been torn from its roots, and my lips sealed by the seal of the Death-G.o.d, ere it should have been my duty to make this my announcement. The Devourer from the outer world hath been discovered wandering upon the mountains. How he gained this land, which is without entrance and without exit, no man knoweth. The wise men believe that he came hither like a fowl of the air."

Istar, trembling, clutched the glittering arm of her crystal throne for support, while a dark, sinister expression settled upon her flawless countenance. The crowd about me, awestricken and hushed in expectation, awaited her words breathlessly.

"Lo!" cried the high priest of the Temple of the Seven Lights, suddenly stepping back and dragging me roughly forward, "Lo! O Beauteous Queen of all the G.o.ds, he is here, in thine holy presence!"

I lifted my face. Our eager eyes met.

Her tiny hands were so tightly clenched that the nails were driven into her palms, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s heaved and fell quickly, her brows knit in a fierce anger, but in her eyes was a look of unutterable dread.

For a moment she covered her face with her hands, as if to shut me out of her gaze, but next instant she raised her narrow eyebrows, her blanched lips parted, and she turned upon the high-priest in a sudden outburst of fury. Extending her bare arm towards him she cursed him.

"Knowest thou not the writing upon my foundation-stones, offspring of Anu, defiler of the holy Ziggurratu?" she screamed in rage.

The aged high-priest uttered a cry, as if he had been struck a blow.

But he answered not.

"Knowest thou the words graven upon the great image? Speak, accursed one. Speak!"

"I do, O Queen," he faltered.

"Then, malediction upon thee. Vengeance and hate, sorrow and torture of the flesh. May the Air-G.o.d rend thee; may Shamas, the lord of Light, hide his face from thee for ever; and may Niffer, lord of the Ghost Land, take thee for his slave! May Ninkigat, the lady of the great Land of Terrors, strangle thee, and may the other--whom I dare not name--fill thy vitals with molten metal and consume thee!"

"Mercy!" cried the wretched man, falling upon his knees, and grovelling upon the polished pavement. "Mercy, O Istar, Queen of Ea, and ruler of all creatures! Have mercy upon thy servant!"

"Nay, unto me thou hast shown no mercy, accursed sp.a.w.n of a scorpion; thou shalt receive none," she answered. Then, lifting her hand towards the file of soldiers that lined the walls, she commanded,--

"Abla, Nabu-nur-ili, Akabi-ilu, forward quickly, ye guards of our majesty. Take this son of Nergal forth to the top of the steps and cast him down with force like a dog, so that his bones be broken and his body mutilated. Then, with his blood, let the words graven upon the image be re-written on the lintel of the Temple of the Seven Lights, so that all may remember. Away with him. Let his body be cast into the lion-pit,"

she added, with a majestic sweep of her white arm. "I have spoken."

"Have compa.s.sion, O Istar! At least, let me live!" cried the aged priest; but ere he could utter the last sentence the soldiers had dragged him forth, with the dreaded Queen's imprecation resounding in his ears in multiplied echoes.

In the full fury of her ungovernable rage this beautiful G.o.ddess of the Mysterious Land, at first so graceful and languorous, looked magnificent. With her unbound hair falling about her shoulders and reaching below her girdle, she raised her arms in mad rage, pouring forth a string of curses so terrible that those surrounding her visibly shuddered.

"And thou!" she cried, suddenly turning and gazing intently upon me with eyes sharp as arrows. "So thou art the stranger!"

The people around me were full of pa.s.sionate anger and abject terror.

Behind, before me, everywhere, I saw only glaring eyes, strained wide open as if to devour me, defiant faces, eager hands fingering sword-hilts, and heard the gnashing of teeth between threatening lips.

"So thou hast dared to accompany that viper Rabbani, and enter my presence!" she cried, in a second outburst of indignation. Her strange terror had been succeeded by rage and defiance terrible to behold. The veins in her brow stood out like blue cords as she spoke, and her soft, perfumed cheeks were suffused by anger.

"I was brought before thee by thy people, O Queen," I answered, endeavouring to appease her. "I knew not thine high-priest, ere I entered thine House of l.u.s.tre."

"I have spoken; and he shall die," she snapped, apparently thinking I was making an appeal on the aged man's behalf. "Ascend to me, so that I may see thee more closely."

Thus commanded, I crossed the inlaid pavement and ascended the broad, silver steps leading to the great throne of crystal, before which she now stood upon her prostrate women, erect and queenly. Gaining the pavement of gold whereon the throne was set, I was drawing nearer, when two great eunuchs sprang forward, motioning me not to approach her further.

"Arrest thy steps," they cried, frantically. "The person of Istar, our ruler, is sacred. None but dwellers within this, her temple, may look upon her."

"Retire," she cried to the eunuchs. "I commanded him to approach me."

The men slunk back to their places in chagrin, and as they did so I advanced yet another couple of paces, and dropped upon one knee before her. Her beauty was amazing. The sweet perfumes that exuded from her ample draperies filled my nostrils.

"Whence comest thou?" she asked me in calm, serious voice, gazing upon me with her huge, wonderful eyes.

"From the world that lieth beyond the impregnable limits of thy kingdom, O Queen," I answered.

"Who art thou, that thou shouldst speak our sacred tongue?" she inquired quickly, in surprise.

"I am but a wanderer," I replied. "The language of ancient a.s.syria hath been recovered by our wise men from the monuments of Nimroud and of Babylon." Her surprise found echo in the murmurings of the eager, excited crowd; but a moment later she asked,--

"How camest thou hither?"

"By an entrance which I followed. It led me through the Valley of Mists, until I came hither unto this thy city."

"An entrance!" she cried, in alarm. "Then thou earnest not as a bird of the air!"

I replied in the negative, and was about to explain the extraordinary manner by which I had gained access to the mysterious Land of the No Return, when she turned upon me with clenched hands, in a paroxysm of rage so sudden that I was startled.

"Then thou art actually a pagan from the unknown land beyond," she cried, trembling with anger. "Be thou accursed! accursed! accursed!

May the celestial triad cut thee off, and may Rimmon tear and devour thee!"

A murmur of approbation went round those a.s.sembled, and at the mention of the dreaded G.o.d all bowed, while the priests in their horned caps raised their arms and lifted their deep voices in adulation.

Speechless, I stood before her while she poured out upon me the vials of her uncurbed wrath. I trembled, fearing lest she should condemn me to a similar doom to which the aged high-priest had been hurried for what appeared to be a petty offence. In her anger she stamped her tiny foot upon the neck of one of the prostrate women, causing her to writhe. But the half-nude pair acting as her footstool uttered no cry. They were worshipping the G.o.ddess and sacrificing themselves to her.

"Thou accursed son of the Unknown!" she cried, addressing me. "Thou hast dared to enter this my forbidden land, therefore thou art my captive, my slave, my servant!" She had folded her arms with an air so terrible that I was immediately as one rooted to the golden pavement.

"Kill him, O Istar!" the people cried. "Suffer not his baneful presence to contaminate us! Suffer not his unclean hand to touch the hem of thy sacred robe! Kill him! Let us witness the lions tearing him!"

At the raising of her white, bejewelled hand there was complete silence.

She looked at me, crushing me with her haughty beauty.

"He came hither," she said, addressing her courtiers and slaves, "in order to feast his eyes upon what is forbidden, to discover that which for a hundred generations hath been hidden from the pagans of the other world. He therefore shall, ere his soul is given unto Rimmon, witness that which he desireth. He is my captive. My name shall gnaw him like remorse. I will be to him more execrable than the pest, and he shall feel every moment, until the day he is cast into the lion-pit, the chastis.e.m.e.nt of a G.o.ddess."

Ghastly, and with hands clenched, I quivered like a stringed instrument when the over-tense strings are about to snap. Words choked me, and I bowed my head before her.

"My slave thou art," she cried, turning suddenly upon me. "Thou shalt ever grovel in the dust before me; thou shalt take the place of those women who have prostrated themselves before me, and are from this time forth absolved. In future thou shalt be as my footstool. Neither by night nor day shalt thou leave my presence. In my waking hours my heel shall be upon thy neck; in my hours of slumber thou shalt still be wakeful. Whithersoever I go there also shalt thou go, placing thyself as rest for my feet, and thus be ever in my sight. If thou attemptest to fly, I will draw the bears from the mountains, and the lions shall hunt thee, even unto the ends of the earth."

Stepping from the women, upon whose quivering bodies she had been standing, she commanded them to rise, and at signal from her the eunuchs tore from my shoulders the robe in which I had been attired. Then, although struggling vainly in their iron grip, I was cast, face downwards, upon the pavement before the throne, and a moment later the mysterious Queen of Ea stood with her feet upon my back. Her weight crushed my breast, causing my breathing to become difficult; but, applauded by her subjects, she remained in that position addressing them, cursing me for daring to enter her kingdom, and a.s.suring them that ere long they should be entertained by my death beneath the claws of the lions.

"I heed not the graven lines upon the foundation-stone," she exclaimed, in conclusion. "Three hundred thousand soldiers are ready day and night to do my bidding, and if men fail me, I will call down the wrath of the G.o.ds most terrible. I will overthrow this my city and burn its temples.

Not a single tower, nor tree, nor wall shall remain, and the galleys shall float on streams of blood. I fear not this slave beneath my heel.

I would kill him now, with this my poniard; but ere he dies he shall feel the chastis.e.m.e.nt of Istar. I am thy ruler, and his punishment is in my hands."

"Wisely hast thou spoken, O G.o.ddess, whom we worship with one accord, and to whom we sacrifice those of thy s.e.x. Thou art indeed our just ruler, at whose word mountains tremble and rivers stand still. Thine armed men shall ever be faithful unto thee, and beneath thine heel we leave the wanderer from the Unknown."

"Then go; let the veil fall," she answered. "In my temple, before the graven lines upon my foundation-stone, let full thanksgiving be offered at moonset for our discovery of this wanderer, who is safe in our hands, and thus prevented from escaping back unto his own execrable, accursed race."