6LIZHI36T 
 
 
 
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THE ::- 
 
 MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS 
 
 AND 
 
 HERBERT D. WARD 
 
 ..." The man the son of his god, 
 Like heaven may he be pure ! 
 Like the midst of heaven may he shine ! " 
 
 BABYLONIAN INCANTATION 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1890 
 
Copyright, 1890, 
 BY ELIZABETH STUART PIIELPS WARD 
 
 AND 
 
 HERBERT D. WARD. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 
 SIXTH THOUSAND. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass. t U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by II. 0. Houghton & Co. 
 
mo 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 THERE are few things about which it is easier 
 to disagree than a historical tale dealing with a 
 period so remote that fable and fact contend for 
 the field. 
 
 The authors of this story have taken the 
 liberty of adjusting the uncertain calendar of 
 the times to the necessities of art. They have 
 not thought it urgent strictly to follow the Bib- 
 lical chronology, for reasons obvious to any 
 Oriental student and important to the movement 
 of the narrative. 
 
 Modern Assyriology has become a rapid and 
 complex series of discoveries. To dogmatise, 
 is to be unscientific. The enthusiastic research 
 of to-morrow may overthrow the theory of to- 
 day. "The Master of the Magicians," be it 
 remembered, is not an archa3ological treatise, 
 but a novel. 
 
 H. D. W. 
 E. S. P. W. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IT was spring in Babylon. The ingenious 
 clepsydra lazily marked the second division of 
 the sultry morning. It was the month Airu. 1 
 The moon and. the sun were balanced, and food 
 was in the mouth of the people. 
 
 Protected by a high wall, that incloses a 
 square of two stades each way, stands the tow- 
 ering temple of Bel. This holy pyramid is the 
 glory of Babylon, and confers imperishable honor 
 upon its royal restorer, Nebuchadrezzar the 
 Great. The essential and conspicuous feature 
 of the temple is the Ziggurat, or tower, which 
 rises in decreasing rectangular stages to the 
 height of three hundred and fifty-six feet from 
 the level ground. This tower rears itself up- 
 ward in seven courses from its platform base. 
 The platform is considered by many the eighth 
 stage. But such is not the case. It is a square 
 
 1 April. 
 
2 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 whose sides measure one stadium, or six hundred 
 feet each. This is the mountain which the king 
 may Merodach protect him ! reared to Bel. 
 Not even are Imgur-Bel or Nevitti-Bel, the ram- 
 parts of this eternal city, more magnificent than 
 the stupendous foundation of the temple of Bel 
 and of the Queen of Heaven. Upon this plat- 
 form (whose sides confront the cardinal points, 
 and under whose four corners the king hath set 
 his seal and cylinder) rise the seven different 
 elevations in pyramidal exactness. Each of 
 these is sacred to its own planet. Each has a 
 proportionate and decreasing base line, and each, 
 with the exception of the crowning shrine, is 
 thirty-six feet high. Is not this the square of 
 six, the number of the lawful days of labor? 
 The first stage, dedicated to Saturn, is painted a 
 bituminous coat of black. This is a square of 
 two hundred and fifty-six feet. The second is 
 painted white ; each of its four sides measures 
 two hundred and twenty feet. The third glows 
 in the hue of a Damascus orange. This is ded- 
 icated to Jupiter ; its sides measure each one 
 hundred and eighty-four feet. The fourth, sa- 
 cred to Mercury, was burned in its building to a 
 vitreous blue. Its sides are diminished like the 
 rest by thirty-six feet. The fifth stage shows 
 a bright blood-red ; the ruddy clay, by order of 
 the chief high priest, was simply burned. Mars 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 3 
 
 rejoices in this scarlet token, and gives victory 
 to the army of the king. The sixth huge step is 
 sacred to the moon. Each of its sides measures 
 seventy-six feet. They shine like the moon at 
 midnight. They are coated with princely silver. 
 The number of talents of precious metal used 
 thereon is a royal secret, but each plate was 
 hammered to the thickness of a thumb nail, and 
 who dares tear it away ? The seventh stage is 
 the last. It is a cube. Forty feet is its height. 
 Forty feet is its width. Forty feet is its length. 
 This is the temple of the god Bel. It is sacred 
 to the sun, and is as dazzling to the eye. The 
 king said, Let there be naught but gold without 
 and within. Beaten plates of gold were affixed 
 to this shrine of Bel, and its framework was 
 built of selected cedars of Lebanon from beyond 
 the desert. The grandeur of this pyramid is su- 
 preme. It is likened unto the rainbow that is 
 seen when the sesame first sends forth its shoot. 
 There are thirty-six temples to the gods within 
 Imgur-Bel, the outer wall of Babylon. This is 
 of all the greatest, and in declaring it the 
 tongues of men become confused. Planned by 
 the astrologer of King Sargon, it rises to a mys- 
 tic height. Is it not the square of sixteen, the 
 square of four, the square of two ? A broad, 
 winding ascent, mounting from stage to stage, 
 leads to the top ; and midway there is a resting 
 
4 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 place for the people who offer at the altar of 
 Bel. 
 
 Such is the wonder of Babylon, unequaled 
 among all the architectural marvels of the city 
 of the Gate of God. Within the golden shrine 
 blaze three images of gold. They are known 
 as Bel, Beltis his wife, and Ishtar the Queen of 
 Babylon. Before the image of Beltis, the Queen 
 of the Land, are two lions of gold. On each 
 side of these gleam two serpents of silver. Be- 
 fore the sacred statues is the table of gold, and 
 upon this rest the golden bowls, one for each of 
 the deities. 
 
 No one knows the full extent of the treasures 
 of Bel but Nebuchadrezzar the king, and no 
 one is more beloved of the king than Mutusa-ili, 
 the wisest of his subjects, who teaches the mys- 
 teries of the priestly lore to such pupils as the 
 king ordains. At the base of the tower of Bel 
 is a second chapel ; this contains a sitting image 
 of Bel, molten of gold. Opposite to this rises a 
 statue of the king, twelve cubits in height, also 
 of solid gold. Within are the offerings of the 
 rich, jewels of carbuncle and ruby, and thrones 
 of carved ivory and gold taken from the Sido- 
 nians in battle. Outside of this smaller shrine 
 are two altars. The larger one is of silver ; 
 on it are daily offered fifty full-grown victims. 
 Upon this great altar, at the annual festival of 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 5 
 
 the god, are burned a thousand talents of frank- 
 incense of priceless odors. The smaller altar is 
 of gold. Here a hundred sucklings are offered 
 between the morning and the evening hours. 
 These altars stand upon the northeast, the cool 
 front of the great tower of Babylon. Opposite 
 are the brazen gates within the wall, the entrance 
 to the sacred court. Here ends the road of 
 Nana, which the king laid out from his new pal- 
 ace northward to the temple. The road of Nana 
 crosses the Shebil canal half-way from the pal- 
 ace to the Ziggurat. On the right of the road 
 of Nana, just beyond the Shebil canal, which pro- 
 tects the pleasure-ground of the king, about two 
 stades southwest of the temple of Bel, stands the 
 ancient library of Babylon. Built two thousand 
 years before the son of Nabu-pal-usur began to 
 reign, it had been restored by each successive 
 ruler, until now, with all its additions, it has be- 
 come a solemn and a stately pile. Raised, as all 
 public buildings are, upon a platform, it is pro- 
 tected by a battlement, or escarpment, that rises 
 fifty feet from the ground. A moat, fed from 
 the lazy Euphrates, surrounds the battlement. 
 From the Nana road projects the only entrance 
 to this palace of learning. This short avenue 
 is paved with brilliant bricks, upon which are 
 painted and burned the Houses of the Sun. A 
 drawbridge drops across the fosse, and the way 
 
6 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 comes to an abrupt stop before huge doors of 
 brass that are guarded on each side by lions 
 carved in stone. Thence there is a dark ascent 
 until the upper court is reached. Now the maze 
 of buildings and their foreboding look strike the 
 searcher after truth with bewilderment ; his 
 hushed foot falls within timidly. To the right, 
 in a wing, is the hall of instruction of Mutusa-ili, 
 the sage of Babylon, beloved of the king. 
 
 It was the third hour of the morning watch. 
 The water-clock seemed flooded. This common 
 timepiece had an odd attachment. At each 
 division of the day it dropped a corresponding 
 number of pebbles into a brazen urn below.. 
 Three times this pleasant clatter resounded 
 through the silent halls, on a bright morning of 
 the second month of the fifteenth year of the 
 reign of Nebuchadrezzar. 
 
 A little group stood in the court-yard under 
 the shade of a tall date-palm, intently watching 
 the gilded shrine on the Ziggurat of Bel. It was 
 the hour of prayer, and the pilgrims on their 
 weary ascent were seen to halt and bend their 
 bodies low in devotion. One among this group, 
 in the court of what was known as the royal 
 library or university, stood preeminent for his 
 age and bearing. From his head rose a tur- 
 ban, shaped like a cone, crowned with a scarlet 
 rosette. That was the only bit of color on his 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 7 
 
 attire. Cool, white, spotless linen reached to 
 his feet. In his left hand he held a stick of 
 choice cedar ; its handle was a sphere of lapis- 
 lazuli, upon which the sun and moon were en- 
 graved. That wand was a badge of office, and 
 was the sole ornament which Mutusa-ili owned ; 
 it was a present from the king. His beard was 
 long and white. It hung upon his breast in 
 curls. From behind his turban fell what might 
 be called a veil : it consisted of two broad linen 
 bands ; these protected his neck and back from 
 the scorching heat of the sun. About him 
 were his pupils. They were the pick of the 
 Babylonian Empire. They numbered hardly 
 over a score, and were the future high priests, 
 astronomers, diviners, and rulers of provinces 
 and of the armies of the king. These youths, 
 for the oldest had not yet known seventeen 
 years, were gazing as devoutly as boys can, and 
 with a suspicion of curiosity, upon the iridescent 
 temple before them. At nine o'clock precisely, 
 a bright standard was raised from the top of 
 the tower. This could easily be seen all over 
 the aristocratic part of the city. It was the sig- 
 nal for prayer. The boys were in the habit of 
 timing their water-clock in the court by this 
 daily token. This morning the water-clock was 
 almost a minute ahead of the official time, and 
 one boy, in the midst of his profound devotion, 
 
8 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 nudged another significantly, as if a wager had 
 been won. He that was the master stood intent. 
 He mused, rather than adored, and seemed, con- 
 trary to his wont, to be communing with another 
 divinity. A bright-faced youth by his side may 
 have understood his master's thoughts, for he 
 touched the linen robe of the teacher not irrev- 
 erently, and whispered, 
 
 " Is not Bel enough ? " 
 
 " Hush, Susa ! " hastily answered the sage. 
 " Bel is not alone. There is another fount of 
 Deity. I look beyond the veil of yonder sacred 
 shrine. Thou knowest naught yet of these mys- 
 tic things." 
 
 The lad blushed at this transcendental rebuke, 
 and, wondering what it meant, fixed his gaze 
 again aloft. One hand was folded across his 
 breast, the other extended before him in the 
 conventional attitude of devotion. Then the 
 crimson banner that flaunted from the height 
 was lowered. The moment of prayer had passed, 
 and the business of the day was briskly resumed. 
 Astrologers swarmed into the library to con- 
 sult the Illumination of Bel. Historians came 
 to verify their records ; students were numerous. 
 They had flocked from all parts of the empire 
 to study what only this university, with its in- 
 comparable library and ready corps of instruc- 
 tors could teach them. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS, 9 
 
 Mutusa-ili was the recognized head of this 
 seat of learning. His word was the final appeal 
 in the culture of the times. But his special duty 
 was to train youths to be men, and to carry them 
 through all the branches of learning known to 
 the Babylonians. His term of instruction was 
 completed when the students became fit to take 
 the position in the world which the king com- 
 manded. The present class was not yet two 
 years advanced. Another had almost completed 
 its course. That was mainly composed of high- 
 born captives who were becoming naturalized. 
 Of these, many were Jews of the last captivity 
 from Jerusalem. 
 
 Within the chamber of instruction the buzz 
 of work had begun. On a high seat, or throne, 
 sat the master. In his left hand was the wand 
 of office. With his right he gesticulated gravely. 
 About him, on low benches, the boys wrote dili- 
 gently. 
 
 " May Nebo instruct me ! " said one lad petu- 
 lantly ; " any fool can copy Akkadian, but who 
 can translate the stuff ? " 
 
 " Bring the tablet here," said the teacher 
 mildly. "Thou didst well to call upon Nebo. 
 Thou needest more of the art to learn." For 
 Nebo was the deity of the university, the god 
 of instruction. 
 
 The boy brought up his tablet of moist clay 
 and stood with his stylus in his mouth. 
 
10 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Surely thou canst render the fable of the 
 ass and the lion's skin ? " asked the master. 
 
 " It is easy enough to recognize the words for 
 ass, owner, and long ears. I cannot understand 
 the rest ; it is useless work." 
 
 The lad looked disconsolately at the neat tablet 
 which he had to copy and translate into his own 
 tongue ; it was written in the language of two 
 thousand years before his day, the language 
 of the priests and scribes, and of the literature 
 classic to the age. 
 
 Susa's venerable teacher smiled. 
 
 " When I taught Balatsu-usur, whom the 
 king (may Merodach protect him!) brought 
 captive from Jerusalem, the alien learned it in 
 one day. Surely a stranger shall not outstrip 
 thee. Now get thee to thy work again. Use 
 the dictionary more diligently, or thou shalt 
 never become a Rubu-Emga, a glorious chief 
 like thy father." 
 
 The lad looked discouraged, and his teeth 
 unconsciously closed upon and splintered the 
 three-edged wooden stylus, the pen which 
 wrote characters upon the clay by pressure. He 
 drew another cedar stylus from his bosom and 
 bent to his work. 
 
 When the morning work was nearly done, 
 the boy lifted a bright face to his master, and 
 made it known that the transcription on his tab- 
 let was complete. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 11 
 
 u Has any other pupil finished the fable ? " 
 asked Mutusa-ili. No one answered. 
 
 " Then read what thou hast written, Susa, 
 and the gods guide thy speech." 
 
 The lad proudly read his translation as follows. 
 
 " An ass, finding the skin of a lion, put it on 
 with pride. Disguised, it now spread terror 
 among the neighborhood. Some went and told 
 the king. The royal hunt was organized. Just 
 as the king came up in his chariot, the fraud 
 was discovered by the master of the ass, who 
 espied his long ears and recognized his loud 
 voice. The master belabored the ass until the 
 skin of the lion fell off, revealing to the dis- 
 gusted king the vulgar beast of burden. In his 
 disappointment, the king ordered the ass to be 
 killed, and the owner to work in the brick-yard 
 for one month." 
 
 " Let me now see the writing," said the mas- 
 ter, as a low hum of approval was heard from 
 the rest of the boys at this glib and perfect ren- 
 dering. Susa was the quickest scholar, given to 
 pranks, but aspiring and earnest. His family 
 was of the best old stock in the land, and, being 
 destined ultimately for high preferment, he had 
 importance among the lads. His brother, a 
 young man of twenty-five, was already captain 
 of the king's body-guard, an office of distinc- 
 tion. Allit, known to many by his military 
 
12 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 name as Arioch the Tall, was preferred by the 
 king ; Amytis, the queen, shared this sentiment. 
 Susa would naturally come before the notice of 
 the king, who took a personal interest, when he 
 was in Babylon, in the advancement made by 
 each of his proteges. 
 
 The teacher scanned the tablet which the boy 
 had laid upon his knee. Here and there a 
 wedge-shaped letter was written indistinctly 
 through inexperience, but the transcription was 
 correct. 
 
 " See," said the pleased master. " I will 
 stamp it with my seal, and do thou put thy mark 
 upon its edge. It shall be stored in the vaults 
 where thy father's and thy grandfather's first 
 perfect exercises are kept for all time and times 
 and a day." 
 
 The lad's face quivered with joy at this great 
 honor ; for it was the custom to preserve the first 
 perfect translations of the old Akkadian in the 
 library. This acted as a powerful stimulus on 
 the student, and it became a matter of honor in 
 a family that such exercises should date back a 
 thousand years or so in direct descent. 
 
 While the teacher was yet speaking, an un- 
 usual commotion was heard in the halls of the 
 building. The master, with the composure of 
 age, exhibited indifference, but the boys became 
 restless. There was a shout, followed by an- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS 13 
 
 other. The lads could stand it no longer. At a 
 nod from Mutusa-ili they rushed to the terrace 
 without. 
 
 The cry now rang out distinctly : " The king ! 
 It is the king ! The favorite of Marduk ! 
 Nebuchadrezzar the king ! " 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 IT was true that the king had returned to 
 Babylon. He had been on a military expedi- 
 tion one of a score organized against the 
 mountain tribe that happened at the time to 
 have revolted and refused tribute. Like the 
 majority of such excursions, it had been only 
 a matter of days to punish the offenders and 
 bring captive thousands of rebels. Nebuchad- 
 rezzar had approached his royal city at the 
 northern gate, and now, palpitating with tri- 
 umph, advanced to offer his booty before the 
 altar of Bel. 
 
 In his chariot of state the king rode. Beside 
 him the charioteer drove the restless horses. 
 Behind him stood a bare-headed eunuch, who 
 held the gorgeous parasol, the emblem of sov- 
 ereignty, above the monarch's head. Behind the 
 king rode the generals of the right and of the 
 left, each in his chariot. Allit, the brother of 
 Susa, followed upon a mighty horse. After 
 him were his men in rank, their hands upon 
 their javelins, ready to start at the king's 
 command. Then came throngs of prisoners, 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 15 
 
 about to be branded as slaves. These marched 
 sullenly, their hands behind them, their heads 
 in halters. In droves, like cattle, they stag- 
 gered along. Among them were women and 
 children. The weakest of these were carried 
 in carts. This procession was miles in length, 
 and as it wound its way through the crowds 
 of hooting citizens, the captives looked in vain 
 for sympathy. In such a piteous procession 
 lay the source of the nation's wealth and weak- 
 ness, for the captive force must be recruited 
 whenever gigantic building enterprises were un- 
 dertaken. It was rumored that the king had 
 himself fomented this last revolt, so as to have 
 at hand sufficient laborers to build some elabo- 
 rate gardens for his Median queen. However 
 that might be, the people did not trouble them- 
 selves as long as their king was successful and 
 the trade stimulated. 
 
 The boys had run swiftly to the Nana road to 
 meet the procession. The streets were crowded 
 with excited people who came out to greet the 
 pageant. The greater part of the mob were of 
 the lower class, who always traveled on foot ; 
 many were slaves ; but here and there a chariot 
 revealed an arrogant noble, or from a brilliant 
 litter, carried by Egyptians, peered the uncovered 
 face of a woman decked with embroideries and 
 jewelry. As Susa ran along, he jarred against 
 
16 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 a girl. She was young. She could not have 
 been over seventeen. She turned, with a motion 
 of annoyance, but when she saw the lad's guilt- 
 less face she smiled pleasantly upon him. In 
 the rush of the throng Susa noticed only two 
 things about this girl: a soft, dark look, and 
 crimson fringe upon a white robe. The boy was 
 a young observer, but he was conscious of a 
 startled, truant expression that played prettily 
 over her face, as if a home-keeping girl had 
 snatched a forbidden pleasure, a moment's glance 
 at a world that was not hers. Susa, with the 
 chivalry of youth, hastened to make such repara- 
 tion as he could for his roughness. He nodded 
 brightly to the maiden. 
 
 " Come after me. We '11 get the best view 
 of the procession." 
 
 Then he plunged forward in a lordly way. He 
 bellowed to a slave, and nudged a portly citi- 
 zen aside. The girl followed closely, and Susa 
 escaped many a hard word as she smiled apol- 
 ogy here and there for the ardor of her young 
 protector. It was not long before the two, pant- 
 ing with exercise, had skirted along the lower 
 wall of the temple and faced the procession as 
 it was about to pass within the sacred inclosure. 
 
 " Yonder rides my brother," said Susa proudly. 
 "He is captain of the king's guard. He is a 
 fine fellow. I came out to see him. He has 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 17 
 
 been at the wars. I shall shout to him when 
 he gets near enough." 
 
 " Where ? " asked the girl. " Quick ! I must 
 get homeward. I ought not to be here." 
 
 " Have you run away ? " suggested the lad 
 comfortably. " That is excellent. I do that 
 when I can. I ran away from school once. But 
 Mutusa-ili knows how to make you sorry you 
 did it, I can tell you ! It is a poor bargain to 
 play truant at the king's school. But it is fun 
 while it lasts." 
 
 The girl nodded, with a twinkle in her eye. 
 
 "I can't play truant," she answered confi- 
 dently, "for I may not go to school. I have 
 only run away from home to see the parade. 
 That is very tame, you see. I am only a 
 woman." 
 
 " Women are very useful," observed the 
 young lord calmly. " But there comes my 
 brother. See ! His name is Allit. He is brave, 
 I tell you. He never surrenders. He is never 
 captured. Yonder he rides, like a king behind 
 the king. Is he not a handsome fellow ? " 
 
 Susa pointed to the procession, and the maid- 
 en's eyes demurely followed the slow motion of 
 his finger. The parade was an imposing affair. 
 The king rode first, haughty and splendid. His 
 chariot was covered with plates of gold. The 
 wheels and the harness of the horses were 
 
18 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 studded with gems : these were of differing 
 colors, turquoise, garnets, and emerald. The 
 horses were cream-white, caparisoned in cloth- 
 of-gold. 
 
 The monarch was arrayed in his royal robes. 
 The tiara glittered upon his head. The char- 
 ioteer checked the pace of the impatient horses 
 as they approached the brazen entrance to the 
 temple. Nebuchadrezzar motioned, and the well- 
 trained horses came to a full stop. They might 
 have been carved from marble, so still they stood. 
 But for the tinkling of the bells attached to 
 their collars, they gave no sign of life. Now, 
 not even the king could ride into the sacred 
 court. Like the humblest of his subjects, he 
 was proud to walk and bow the knee to his 
 protective divinity. 
 
 Thus it was natural that when the king 
 halted the procession should crowd up. The 
 mass pressed closer. Bearers of shields tried 
 to calm restive horses. When the sovereign 
 alighted, the shout of welcome rent the air. 
 
 The throng had now become so great that 
 Susa and the girl had been forced apart. Susa 
 had been jammed into the front rank of the 
 spectators, while she was looking at the captain 
 of the guards, the king behind the king. 
 The boy searched for her in vain, but she had 
 disappeared. Wild songs of joy burst from the 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 19 
 
 people. The horns, the timbrels, and the harps 
 resounded shrilly. One looked, and the faces 
 of the musicians were sad. They were out of 
 tune with the universal joy, for they were He- 
 brew captives playing at their master's nod. 
 This was the song with which the people greeted 
 Nebuchadrezzar : 
 
 " Mighty legions which devised against thee, 
 
 Before thy feet 
 Thou cuttest them in pieces. 
 
 Thou, thou, 
 Art king of kings! " 
 
 As the last triumphal sound died away, two 
 horses that their attendants had vainly tried to 
 hold, became maddened. Hemmed in by a wall 
 of people, they communicated a contagion of 
 fright to the horses of a chariot at the immediate 
 left. The four infuriated steeds charged the 
 mob. Cries of terror and warning rang out 
 from the occupants of the two war-chariots. 
 The mass melted before this onslaught. One 
 slave, caught by hoofs, was crushed, and the 
 heavy chariot passed over him. No one paid 
 attention to this incident. It was only a slave. 
 
 Susa was in direct line of the path of destruc- 
 tion, but with the alertness of youth he had 
 dodged, and now stood safe. As he watched the 
 people parting before the shock, he saw that one 
 was left behind. In his confusion, he noticed 
 
20 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 nothing but a waving drapery of white touched 
 with crimson, which looked to his excited imag- 
 ination like spots of blood. The horses were 
 upon her. He fancied that she was struck, and 
 in an agony of terror cried above the universal 
 shriek, 
 
 " Allit, Allit ! Save her ! Save that girl ! " 
 During this, to say the least, unusual commo- 
 tion, for these horses were by far too well trained 
 to lose their composure, except under extraordi- 
 nary provocation, a young man sat disdainfully 
 observing this disgraceful lack of equine disci- 
 pline, lightly checking his own impatient horse. 
 The youth had an unconscious but proud air of 
 command that was exceedingly becoming. It 
 bespoke high birth and a manly training. He 
 wore a brazen helmet, with its curved crest 
 carved into the head of a horse ; it glittered in 
 the morning sun. Beneath it appeared a face 
 that might have belonged to Adar, god of 
 strength, the champion warrior himself. It was 
 large, but not coarse. The bones of the head, 
 like those of the rest of the young man's body, 
 were massive ; yet the skin, tanned by a hundred 
 expeditions, was as soft as silk from Shushan. 
 His deep, luminous eyes had a boyish sparkle. 
 Dark lashes gave them a happy look. His thick 
 but finely shaped lips curled as he watched the 
 confusion. He grasped his sword and looked 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 21 
 
 towards the king, as if awaiting an order to 
 punish the unskillful 'charioteers. When he 
 looked back, the four horses had begun their 
 mad plunge. The rabble was scattering before 
 them. The charioteers were pale with fright 
 at the coming catastrophe. The young warrior 
 nonchalantly prepared himself to view the dis- 
 aster. He was as composed as if in his own 
 apartments. This indifference, which was either 
 acquired through soldierly discipline, or affected 
 to conceal habitual and deep feeling, had a 
 marked influence on his men, who glanced at 
 him, and stood still. As the young man watched 
 the dispersion of the crowd, his heart gave a 
 sudden upward start. The receding wave left 
 one behind. She stood with her hands clasped 
 across her breast, swaying this way and that, in 
 a stupor of indecision. Crimson trimming flick- 
 ered like flame upon a snow-white robe. Allit 
 was at right angles to her, and to the dashing 
 horses that bore down upon their sacrifice. The 
 young man spoke one word to his horse ; his heel 
 enforced it. There would be only a hundred- 
 yard dash. Susa's cry of distress reached the 
 rider's ears. The horse entered into his mas- 
 ter's spirit, and flew at an unprecedented speed. 
 All eyes turned upon the captain of the guards. 
 Did he not ride to certain death? Allit and 
 the chariot with the uncontrolled animals drew 
 
22 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 together. The horse was as true to the will of 
 his rider as an arrow to the aim of an Assyrian 
 archer. No power could now stop the impetus 
 of trained brute speed. The young man bent 
 from his embossed saddle. Was it to escape 
 the pointed pole of the chariot? The girl 
 seemed unmindful of her position. She was in 
 a trance of fear. Every motor muscle had been 
 struck with nerve paralysis. She drooped and 
 fell. The people could not see the arm that en- 
 veloped her, for the action was too quick. But 
 they saw a white form rise like a whirlwind in 
 the air. Her feet swung far behind. The sharp 
 pole that bound the horse to the chariot was 
 afterwards found to have impaled a sandal which 
 it had pierced through the heel. There were 
 also a few shreds of cotton, and one drop of 
 blood. 
 
 The deed was done, that all Babylon rehearsed 
 for many a day. The girl was saved. Allit at 
 the last moment hardly doubted his own destruc- 
 tion, but the maiden must be saved at any cost ; 
 this was the duty of a soldier and a gentleman. 
 He spoke a final word to his horse, lovingly, as 
 a true horseman does, and galloped on. So close 
 was his escape that, as he thundered across the 
 course of the runaway chariot, its sharpened 
 pole tore a furrow across his horse's flank, and 
 wounded the girl in the foot. She had fainted. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 23 
 
 She did not hear the king speak. The cries of the 
 court, and the people shouting' applause at Allit's 
 superb deed, passed over her unconsciousness. 
 She did not know that this rescue disconcerted 
 the flying horses, and resulted in their capture. 
 Susa's hand clutched his brother's bridle, and 
 the two spoke affectionately. It was Susa's 
 arm that helped her down and placed her on 
 the pavement, and the boy's voice that kept the 
 curious mob back. After a few moments, her 
 eyes opened languidly. A handsome, unfamiliar 
 face bent over her with a smiling but critical 
 look. A cup of palm wine soon restored her to 
 herself. She turned from the stranger to Susa, 
 her boyish friend. 
 
 " I don't know where I am," she said faintly. 
 
 "You are safe enough now," answered the 
 boy briskly. " What a narrow pull you 've had ! 
 My brother did it. Speak to him. He saved 
 you. Is n't he a magnificent fellow ? " 
 
 A blush stole over her pale, olive face, giving 
 her the complexion of a pomegranate when its 
 core is ripe. She regarded for the first time 
 " the king behind the king." 
 
 Allit saw this beautiful color transformation. 
 He had only a moment to stop. The procession 
 was already moving, and he must keep his place. 
 The girl was agreeable to him. He was glad 
 she was not ugly or old. How they would have 
 
24 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 laughed at him his brother officers for risk- 
 ing his life for a wrinkled woman or a common 
 slave ! He had known many loves, after the 
 manner of a Babylonian noble, and thought 
 lightly of women. The maiden attracted him. 
 It would be easy to see her again. 
 
 Susa now thought it time for him to speak. 
 
 " Come, Allit, don't be bashful. She wants 
 to thank you. Then I will see her home in a 
 litter. For a few shekels, the dogs shall fetch 
 one." The boy pointed to a batch of curious 
 eunuchs. 
 
 The girl, supported by Susa, had now strug- 
 gled to an upright position. Allit approached 
 her, and gave an unconscious military salute, 
 as if before his superior. She made a pretty 
 motion with her lips, and said, 
 
 " My young friend says you are his brother. 
 He must be happy to own such a brave and 
 noble brother. I thank you, and my father will 
 express to you more fittingly my feelings. He 
 will call upon you." 
 
 " It was nothing," said the captain. " My 
 men wait for me. Tell me, who is it I have 
 saved this day ? Who is the father of so fair a 
 child?" 
 
 " I am Lalitha," answered the maiden, with 
 slight embarrassment, " the only daughter of 
 Mutusa-ili, the sage." 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 25 
 
 " Why, that 's my master ! " began Susa. 
 
 At this juncture the trumpet sounded. La- 
 litha gave a little start at the peal, and tottered, 
 moaning, 
 
 " My foot ! Oh, my foot ! " 
 
 The sandal had been torn away, and drops of 
 blood now stained the bricks beneath. Hastily 
 drawing forth from his robe a silken cloth of fine 
 texture, Allit stooped down to bind the wound. 
 The second call sounded. The soldier dared 
 not wait. With one of the too significant looks 
 he knew so well how to give, he gently said, 
 
 " Maiden, Lalitha, daughter of Mutusa-ili, we 
 will meet again." 
 
 Susa was busy trying to bind the wounded 
 foot, when the captain of the guards galloped 
 off and appeared at the head of his command. 
 When Lalitha was lifted into the litter which 
 Susa had ordered, she did not see the captain, 
 but her eyes encountered the piercing glance of 
 one surrounded by a hundred eunuchs. She 
 shrank from a woman over whom a golden can- 
 opy waved, and behind whom royal fan-bearers 
 performed their meek attentions. Well might 
 Lalitha hide her face ; she beheld, for the first 
 time, Amytis, the daughter of Astyages, the 
 dreaded Queen of Babylon. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 WHEN the brazen gate had closed upon such 
 as the King of Spirits allowed within his sacred 
 court, a young man was seen to disengage him- 
 self from the crowd, and walk briskly away. 
 He had been a spectator of the pageant. He 
 had witnessed the rescue, and he had strained 
 his eyes to note the features of the girl. His 
 face had taken on an expression of benevolent 
 satisfaction when the deed was accomplished. 
 But when the excitement was over, and the pro- 
 cession had disappeared behind the wall, the 
 young man, with a sad and thoughtful mien, left 
 the place, and walked back over the same road 
 towards the palace of the king. People whis- 
 pered to each other as he passed. Some bowed 
 reverently, and many a maiden put on a coquet- 
 tish air to attract his attention. But he passed 
 indifferently by; his robe swayed behind him 
 as he strode the tessellated pavement. 
 
 His garment was not dyed, according to the 
 custom of the place, nor was it marked by heavy 
 embroideries. Cleansed to a curious whiteness 
 by the fuller, its sternness was relieved by a 
 
TEE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 27 
 
 scroll-work of gold along the border. If one 
 had looked nearer, he would have recognized 
 characters within the pattern. The scholar 
 would have pronounced them Hebrew. A hand- 
 kerchief of the finest linen was worn loosely, 
 like a turban. At this season of the year, a 
 light covering was ample protection from the 
 perpendicular rays of the sun. The youth wore 
 shoes that curved upward at the toe. These 
 were colored a dull red and had no latchets. 
 He was conspicuous as the only one on the street 
 without a cane. Every movement of this young 
 man's was aristocratic. The refinement and in- 
 telligence of his face revealed high birth ; his 
 grace, the courtier ; but his simplicity and utter 
 disregard of all the frippery of the day gave 
 an unconscious rebuke to the jeunesse doree of 
 Babylon. This man was no free Babylonian. 
 He was a captive and a Jew ; since the last con- 
 quest of Jerusalem, the most distinguished pris- 
 oner-of-war known to Babylon. This captive, 
 who had already made such a stir at court, was 
 known to his countrymen by the name of Daniel. 
 They called him the representative of God, the 
 most beautiful of all the sons of Judah. But 
 Babylon had given a title of its own, half affec- 
 tionate and half sarcastic, to this upstart whom 
 the king honored. They named him Balatsu- 
 usur, " May Bel protect his life." 
 
28 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 When Daniel came to the Shebil canal, he 
 was challenged by the guards who protected the 
 drawbridge, but in giving the sign with his left 
 hand he was as usual passed with a salute, which 
 he courteously returned. He was now within 
 Nebuchadrezzar's private pleasure - grounds. 
 Two large palaces glittered before him. Foun- 
 tains abounded ; streams of water dripped with 
 a pleasant lisp into cool basins. Well-culti- 
 vated trees stood in groups, with a stately air, 
 like princes ; in their luxuriant leaves the breeze 
 stirred deferentially. The hot air was moistened 
 and grateful. The broad avenue of the gar- 
 dens divided into three parts ; one went straight 
 through a wall into the court-yard of the great 
 palace. This wall was a hundred feet high 
 and fifty broad, and was calculated to impress 
 the visitor with his own insignificance and the 
 supremacy of the king. Another way skirted 
 to the right among cool shrubbery, and then 
 mounted by steps to the embankment of a huge 
 reservoir with a long name (the Yapur Shapu), 
 that protected the grounds upon the east, and 
 afforded continual refreshment against the ter- 
 rible summer heat. The third arm of the ave- 
 nue passed westward a few hundred feet, until 
 it reached the Euphrates itself, the god-given 
 river of Sippara. Daniel chose this latter road, 
 and soon reached the brick quay that protected 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 29 
 
 the banks from encroachments by flood. This 
 brick wall formed an important feature of the 
 defenses of the palace fortress. Military watch- 
 towers frowned upon it. The wall was used as 
 a favorite promenade by the king and those 
 whom the king honored. Many feet beneath 
 flowed the river. Boats shot across it like busy 
 thoughts. 
 
 Daniel walked on until he came to the stone 
 bridge spanning the river which separated the 
 greater from the lesser palace. His eyes looked 
 over this long masterpiece of engineering to- 
 wards the west. They had a pathetic expres- 
 sion. Beyond the river was the desert, and be- 
 yond the desert was home, his birthplace, the 
 city of Jerusalem. He loitered on the bridge 
 sadly. A carved lion arrested his attention, and 
 he stopped and mused before it ; it was an ex- 
 cellent piece of sculpture, and he gave to it the 
 naive interest of the Jew, to whom " graven im- 
 ages " were forbidden sources of culture. The 
 beast was bending over a man held in a mighty 
 clutch : one paw tortured him ; the other was 
 raised to strike. Daniel's homesick imagination 
 saw in this painted carving the emblem of Baby- 
 lon, which had crushecLhis country underfoot, 
 and was ready to smite it again. 
 
 " How long ! How long ! " murmured the 
 captive. As he leaned over the parapet, hot 
 
30 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 tears of impotent bitterness fell into the water 
 below. 
 
 Daniel was one of the very few Jews who at 
 the court of Babylon had preserved their national 
 characteristics unscorched by the splendor and 
 luxury to which their sensuous natures deeply 
 responded ; and who had kept their religious 
 spirit unsullied in the midst of a ceremonious 
 devotion to any one of a thousand gods one felt 
 pleased to choose ; who were fiery patriots, ready 
 to disregard a royal command for conscience' 
 sake, at peril to position or to life. It was a 
 well-known fact, the talk of the court, the thing 
 which first brought him into prominence, that 
 he refused to eat the dainties and wines served 
 directly from the king's table ; he lived upon 
 fruit and vegetables alone, to the extreme fear 
 of Allit Arioch, the captain of the guards, who, 
 by reason of his position, was responsible not 
 only for the health but even the good looks of 
 the Jewish prince. But Allit the Tall was 
 bound to acknowledge that the young vegeta- 
 rian grew fairer and fatter than all other youths 
 fed richly from the king's table. In point of 
 fact, Daniel had an abhorrence for the practice 
 of the court in the dedication of food. Not a 
 mouthful appeared before the king but had been 
 consecrated to some heathen god or other. Dan- 
 iel would not eat idolatrous banquets ; he pre- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 31 
 
 ferred vegetables and hunger ; and the jeers of 
 his fellow-captives did not swerve him by the 
 length of a grasshopper's beak from his strenu- 
 ous purpose. 
 
 Now, Daniel had unconsciously won recogni- 
 tion in another way. For so young a man he 
 was eminent as a scholar ; quick in acquiring a 
 difficult language, and the science of the obser- 
 vation of the stars contained therein ; adapted 
 general culture by an intuitive graciousness ; 
 ready to yield to foreign customs when a matter 
 of religion was not involved. In addition to 
 these qualities, which commanded the highest 
 esteem in Babylon, where learning and savoir 
 faire were more highly prized than at any other 
 court, Daniel was a dreamer. Like Joseph of 
 old, he had strange visions and told them to 
 no one. This habit of communing with a world 
 beyond the visible had given him peculiar eyes. 
 They were un-Jewish ; they were long, and at 
 once full and narrow ; they were gray, one 
 might almost say greem They appeared unob- 
 servant of passing detail. When they looked 
 at one, they -seemed to gaze upon the image cast 
 within. They were not sparkling, but had an 
 iridescence. The pupils were always dilated, as 
 if they groped in the dark. In contrast, the 
 bright color of his face was impressive. His as- 
 pect gave significance to a phrase in the writings 
 
32 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 of his people, " the light of his countenance ; >J 
 for in the company of other men he shone like a 
 torch. 
 
 As Daniel stood leaning over the bridge, he 
 fell, not for the first time nor the last, in his 
 nervously excited history, into a state which was 
 nothing more nor less than a trance. He was 
 looking at the motion of the water below. Its 
 quiver fascinated him. The sparkle of the 
 water flooded his brain as a crystal ball swung 
 in the air affects a mesmeric subject. The light 
 grew within him until he was faint. Daniel was 
 in another world, although his eyes were open, 
 and he seemed to be altogether in this. To 
 a casual observer, nothing unusual had taken 
 place ; probably the young seer could have ex- 
 plained the mystery of such a vision no better 
 than we. 
 
 Now, as Daniel stood entranced, a fat man 
 waddled toward him from the king's greater pal- 
 ace. This creature was short, puffy, and held a 
 stout stick in his right hand. His fingers were 
 covered with rings. In his left he grasped a long 
 fringed scarf, which hung loosely before and be- 
 hind, passing over the left shoulder ; tassels of 
 dark Tyrian purple swung from each end of this 
 scarf. His dress was highly colored, and con- 
 spicuous for an embroidered cross-belt, that 
 passed under the right arm and over the left 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 33 
 
 shoulder, and also for an exquisite girdle about 
 the waist. His face was beardless, and his head 
 and feet were bare. Such was Ashpenaz, the 
 prince of eunuchs, as he salaamed before the 
 dreamer. At that moment he had an air of 
 lordly command that would have been ridiculous 
 in any other eunuch but Ashpenaz. His head 
 wagged solemnly. lie was theatrically conscious 
 of his official importance. He was perhaps a 
 bit embarrassed as he stopped behind Daniel, and 
 his fat fingers tightened on his scarf, his badge 
 of authority, with a resolute grip. 
 
 Ashpenaz gave an important cough to attract 
 the attention of the absorbed Jew. There was 
 no answer. The eunuch tapped his cane on the 
 pavement impatiently, but no response came. 
 He glanced over his shoulder to see if any one 
 were looking, advanced cautiously, and touched 
 Daniel with his stick. The seer did not stir. 
 Ashpenaz was out of temper at this delay. He 
 plucked" up courage, and, taking the prince of 
 Israel by the arm, ave him a vigorous shake. 
 
 */ ' O O 
 
 This interruption had the desired effect. The 
 young man turned, towered above the chief 
 eunuch, and bent upon him sightless, open eyes. 
 Ashpenaz shuddered and grew pale. Pie was in 
 the habit of saying that he did not believe in 
 seers ; which meant then, as it is apt to in all 
 ages, that he was particularly afraid of them. 
 
34 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Collecting himself with a spurt of bravado, Ash- 
 penaz made out to mutter, 
 
 " The queen Amytis the queen would see 
 thee immediately." 
 
 This word had a marked effect upon Daniel. 
 He stretched out his hands in a warning gesture, 
 and, in a low tone that struck awe to the heart 
 of the now thoroughly uncomfortable eunuch, 
 exclaimed, 
 
 " The queen ? Amytis the queen ? She shall 
 meet her doom betiveen heaven and earth" 
 
 The young man stopped, put his hands before 
 his face as if brushing away an unwelcome 
 sight, tottered, sighed, and then awoke. Look- 
 ing about in amazement, he recognized where he 
 was. Ashpenaz stood before him in an attitude 
 of unusual deference and fear. 
 
 "Ah, my friend," said Daniel courteously. 
 "1 am afraid that I wandered for a moment. 
 What can I do for you to-day ? The king has 
 returned, I see. There will be gay times and 
 much building now. Is he well ? " 
 
 "My Lord Balatsu-usur ! Why didst thou 
 give me such a fright ? When I gave thee the 
 message of the queen, thou didst look and say 
 but I dare not repeat it. The queen wishes 
 thy counsel immediately. I am ordered to sum- 
 mon thee to her presence." 
 
 Ashpenaz stopped with a wheeze, and looked 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 35 
 
 at liis companion cautiously, as if in fear of 
 another ill-omened retort. Daniel only said 
 
 " Let it be done ; I come." 
 
 But as he strode along his face darkened and 
 his lips tightened. Daniel had a genuine affec- 
 tion for the king, and but scant respect for the 
 royal consort. Amytis was not a Babylonian, 
 but a Mede. She was the price of peace be- 
 tween the two great empires that divided the 
 Assyrian spoil. She had come willingly, for 
 she was then but a child. But now she was in 
 the full sway of feminine caprice. Beloved 
 after a fashion by Nebuchadrezzar, who cared 
 more for the construction of memorable temples 
 and palaces than for the lures of women, and 
 more for the gods than for either, she was rest- 
 lessly dissatisfied with herself and all about her. 
 She had been reared in the cool mountains ; she 
 hated the lowlands and the heat. Her home- 
 sickness, or what passed for such, served as an 
 excuse for every fit of petulance or flitting freak. 
 At present she was wearied, and desired to be 
 amused. Daniel was the latest craze at court, 
 and so he was summoned. This was no secret. 
 The young captive understood it perfectly. 
 Though but twenty-two years of age, he had 
 learned to keep his social discoveries to himself. 
 He had met Amytis frequently, but this was 
 the first time that he had been ordered to a 
 
36 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 private audience. Her mood might load him 
 with chains, or exalt him to dangerous honors. 
 
 The two had now left the bridge, and were 
 passing through the garden. It was about mid- 
 day. Had it been two months later, the heat 
 would have been unendurable. As it was, the 
 sun burned furiously, and both men were glad 
 of a halt to refresh themselves at a stream that 
 was carried artificially beside the path, beneath 
 a cluster of orange-trees. Neither spoke, and 
 after a brief rest Daniel made a silent motion 
 indicating that he wished to proceed through the 
 bronze gate that swung against the wall. This 
 huge wall was the last fortification to the inner 
 palaces of the king. Within the inclosure an- 
 other large garden blossomed gayly. Two pal- 
 aces glittered down upon the flowers. The most 
 famous of these was built by the king in fifteen 
 days. 
 
 In the garden of the king was a beautiful 
 shrine dedicated to Bel-Merodach, Nebuchadrez- 
 zar's favorite divinity. Daniel and Ashpenaz 
 passed through the guarded wall, and mounted 
 the platform of the palace. Entering, they 
 walked rapidly by halls of state and private 
 apartments until they came to that portion of 
 the new palace which contained the apartments 
 of the women of the court. This looked di- 
 rectly down upon the queen's private gardens 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 37 
 
 and over into the Shebil canal. Aslipenaz now 
 left Daniel in a vestibule, and hastened to an- 
 nounce his approach. This was Daniel's first 
 introduction into the harem of the king. He 
 did not wait long. In a moment the eunuch 
 appeared, put his fingers to his lips, and said, 
 " The queen awaits thee ; follow me." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SUSA was almost beside himself at the dignity 
 of his new position. Boys of his age were 
 thrust aside in Babylon, and treated as mere 
 infants until they assumed the flowing manly 
 robe, and brushed their forelock aside in token 
 of their having come of age. Whether they 
 were teething or studying astrology, they were 
 as subject to their parents as the meanest slave ; 
 life itself was at the disposal of the child's father. 
 This was Susa's first responsibility, and he 
 strutted beside the litter of the faint girl impor- 
 tantly. Every now and then he pushed his head 
 with boyish familiarity, but quite respectfully, 
 behind the curtains and asked her how she was. 
 Lalitha answered cheerfully ; the boy was not 
 old enough to know whether she were really 
 hurt or not. As he walked beside her he chat- 
 tered continually ; he told her about the prowess 
 of Allit, and assured her that his brother was 
 in the habit of doing just such favors to pretty 
 maidens every day. 
 
 " Indeed ? " said Lalitha demurely. 
 
 It was not far to the modest house of Mutusa- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 39 
 
 ill, but before they were there a cry of pain was 
 heard from the litter. The motion, gentle as it 
 was, had been too much for the wounded foot. 
 The bandage had slipped, and blood was slowly 
 trickling from an ugly wound in the heel. The 
 girl was evidently suffering. Susa held her 
 quivering hand with pleasant boyish kindness. 
 He ordered the bearers to push on and up to 
 the house unceremoniously. The door was 
 flung open, and the venerable figure of Lalitha's 
 father appeared. His white beard flowed to his 
 waist, and his long hair waved in the delicate 
 breeze ; it lay like a nimbus about his dark, 
 emaciated face. He was pale with alarm. La- 
 litha reached her arms out of the litter toward 
 her father with a pretty, courageous gesture. 
 
 "Dear father, I have only hurt my foot a 
 little ; I am well and safe. I almost can walk. 
 See ! " 
 
 She tried to place her foot upon the ground, 
 and gave a low cry of anguish. Mutusa-ili did 
 not speak a word. With the self-possession of 
 his race and his experience, he gathered his 
 daughter silently into his arms, and bore her to 
 the house. Love put strength into his spare 
 frame. He was father and mother to Lalitha. 
 
 As the girl passed from sight over the thresh- 
 old she waved her hand to Susa, who stood dis- 
 consolately beside the litter. But Mutusa-ili 
 
40 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 noticed him no more than if he had been one of 
 the slaves ; he was so used to the boy. 
 
 When Lalitha was laid upon a couch in an 
 inner chamber she turned her face to the wall, 
 and the scenes of the past hour rolled like a ball 
 through her brain. Her father did not discuss 
 the accident. He gave her a cooling drink, and 
 proceeded to investigate the wound, and by an 
 application of pounded roots to relieve the pain. 
 The hurt was severe. Lalitha would not be able 
 to walk for a long time. 
 
 " How didst thou happen to meet my pupil, 
 Susa ? " asked Mutusa-ili, when he had come to 
 the end of such surgery as he knew. It was his 
 first question. 
 
 " His brother, the captain of the king's guard, 
 snatched me from under the hoofs of the horses, 
 and Susa brought me home," said Lalitha. It 
 was her only answer. It seemed to her as if 
 she said a great deal. It seemed to the old man 
 as if she had said more than she had. He re- 
 garded her piercingly. 
 
 " Dear father ! " said Lalitha, laughing. 
 "What have I done?" 
 
 " Thou hast lived to bless me," said the old 
 man tremulously. 
 
 With moist eyes he sat by his daughter's 
 couch. She kissed his withered hand, while 
 he played with her hair and stroked her cheek. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 41 
 
 As lie fondled her, his dark eyes seemed to the 
 girl to dilate. She could not take her own gaze 
 from his. As he lightly waved his hand over 
 her forehead, he muttered words in a strange 
 tongue. Her eyes closed. When he stooped 
 and kissed her forehead the pain was forgotten. 
 The excitement had passed. The girl slept. 
 
 Mutusa-ili, teacher, student, astrologer, and 
 seer, an unworldly man, had family connections 
 of the most worldly sort. He was, in fact, no 
 other than own brother to the great Egibi, head 
 of the banking firm of Egibi and Sons, famous 
 to all Babylonian history, the richest bankers of 
 their age. At present, Egibi was the treasurer 
 of the state. He lived in a lordly mansion, 
 that compared well enough with some of the 
 king's palaces ; it had, in fact, been at one time 
 used as the residence of the governor of Babylon, 
 and was the most imposing private house in the 
 gorgeous city. But the poor relation, like the 
 poor relation of all ages, was none the better for 
 the wealth and importance of his brother. The 
 two men had gone their several ways : Egibi to 
 his fortune and fame ; Mutusa-ili to the scant 
 luxuries and severe seclusion of the scholar. 
 
 The home of Lalitha was a simple place, only 
 one story high. It stood in a quiet court, and 
 had a little tower. In the daytime an awning- 
 protected the tower from the sun, and night 
 
42 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 found it a cool retreat. Bright flowers and 
 vines grew luxuriantly over the tower, which 
 had a gay, jaunty appearance, like a well-dressed 
 girl. Here was Lalitha's private garden. Be- 
 neath was her own room, and directly adjoining 
 that the room of the elderly woman-servant, 
 Kisrinni by name, who played duenna to the 
 motherless girl. The walls of the house were 
 thick, and the bricks were large, each stamped 
 with the name of the king. For the king owned 
 many of the brick-yards, and part of his rev- 
 enue was made by selling bricks to his subjects 
 at cheaper rates than any one else could manu- 
 facture them. There were no windows in La- 
 litha's room, but light was diffused from a 
 square opening in the roof above. During the 
 heat of the day this was covered, so as to ex- 
 clude the sun, but not the light. 
 
 The other part of the house was the master's. 
 Ever since his wife had died, Mutusa-ili had 
 lived in secluded rooms alone, and only his 
 daughter approached them. In one he slept; 
 in another he kept his library, carefully stowed 
 away in earthen jars ; his astronomical instru- 
 ments were there, jealously guarded. The roof 
 of this study, or laboratory, rose in a cone. 
 Steps of bricks jutted from the wall, leading to 
 the top of this cone. The steps protruded by 
 less than two feet, and there were no banis- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 43 
 
 ters to support the hand. It looked almost im- 
 possible to a stranger to mount these stairs, but 
 they were as sufficient to the aged scholar as the 
 stone steps that led majestically up the platform 
 of the temple of Bel. The top of the cone, which 
 was barely large enough for two or three per- 
 sons to stand upon comfortably, was the watch- 
 tower of the sage. It was here that he observed 
 and calculated the stars and their courses. It 
 was here that the devout seer knelt in prayer. 
 It was here that the mystic received those reve- 
 lations that gave him his coveted influence in 
 Babylon. It was to this secluded spot, screened 
 from view by a high terra-cotta railing, that 
 Mutusa-ili mounted on the night of his daugh- 
 ter's rescue. He held in his hand a disk of 
 black stone, on which quaint figures were in- 
 scribed. In the centre of the diagram were 
 carved the sun, the crescent moon, the star 
 Venus, and the thunderbolt of Mars. The edge 
 of the design held the scorpion, the bull, the ram, 
 the serpent, the clog, the arrow, the eagle, each 
 surrounded by its mysterious sign, known only 
 to the initiated student of the constellations. 
 
 When Mutusa-ili had reached the platform, 
 he laid the precious planisphere upon a small 
 table, and took from his pocket what looked like 
 a wooden tube. This he leveled upon the heav- 
 ens with diligent search. After a time he took 
 
44 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 his eye from this strange instrument, and began 
 to trace some curious figures carefully upon 
 soft clay. Mutusa-ili was an ardent astrologer. 
 Brought up under Chaldean or priestly instruc- 
 tion, he had far outstripped his contemporaries 
 in astronomical researches. No one understood 
 how to predict an eclipse better than he. He 
 had made the most valuable discoveries of his 
 time by means of this instrument which he was 
 now holding in his hand. Pondering upon the 
 properties of the magnifying-glass, he had natu- 
 rally discovered its opposite. Mutusa-ili had, in 
 fact, invented the telescope. 1 By its aid he was 
 now making a new chart of the heavens. When 
 he had shown to Nebuchadrezzar the satellites of 
 Saturn and of Jupiter, the delighted monarch 
 would have raised him to a princely rank, but 
 the scholar declined to leave his simple life. For 
 Mutusa-ili was a mystic, and what mystic can be 
 a courtier ? The young seer, Daniel, was try- 
 ing to solve that problem. The old man aban- 
 doned it outright. 
 
 Mutusa-ili believed implicitly in his own abil- 
 ity to predict the occultation of a planet ; he 
 was no less assured that the stars were the in- 
 fallible heralds of fortune to men, be it good or 
 ill. It was he whom Nebuchadrezzar had been 
 used to consult in every expedition or great un- 
 
 1 Rawlinson's Fourth Monarchy, chap. 5. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 45 
 
 dertaking. Mutusa-ili was at least an honest 
 diviner. He trustfully regulated his own life 
 and that of his household upon the results of 
 each night's observation. These he carefully 
 wrote down, and the records were kept in sealed 
 jars until the fall of the holy city. 
 
 Mutusa-ili was now casting, for the fiftieth 
 time, the horoscope of his daughter. He was 
 unmanned by the events of the day. They had 
 found him completely unprepared. Why had 
 his art failed him ? Why did he not know that 
 his darling was at the point of destruction ? 
 " Surely the night-hawk troubled my soul yes- 
 terday," muttered the old man, as he bent ner- 
 vously to his occult calculations. Would Lalitha 
 recover from her wound ? Did the presence of 
 the astral house of Allit foretell peace or war, 
 power or love ? 
 
 Astrology was Mutusa-ili's hobby, nay, his 
 weakness. In his way, he was a powerful skep- 
 tic. He repudiated the prevalent belief in 
 omens that directed one's hourly acts. He 
 laughed at those who were controlled by the 
 presence of a white dog in the house or the posi- 
 tion of a mule's foot in death. He held these 
 superstitions as degrading. There was no science 
 in them, and that was the end of it. But astrol- 
 ogy was the bride of a great intellect. 
 
 Mutusa-ili was of Jewish descent. His family 
 
46 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 had been in Babylon for two hundred years. 
 After his ancestors had been torn from their 
 country and transplanted to this hot-house soil, 
 they had gradually succumbed to the Babylonian 
 customs and religion. Yet these apostate fam- 
 ilies had religiously intermarried, preserving the 
 purity of their blood and some of their tradi- 
 tions. Probably not a dozen people knew that 
 Egibi, the powerful banker prince, was a Jew, 
 and that Egibi, being translated, meant Jacob. 
 Surely not five understood that Mutusa-ili, the 
 Babylonian sage, the interpreter of the mys- 
 teries of the heavens and of the gods, was of 
 the conquered race, and that his honored name 
 was but the Babylonian synonym for Methu- 
 selah. Not even Lalitha, his only child, had 
 suspected, until less than a year ago, that her 
 father was not of the priestly class, a Chaldee 
 of the Chaldeans. One day he told her. For, 
 he said : " Thou art no longer a child, and I may 
 not deceive thee." 
 
 Mutusa-ili was a wavering man, in a. strange 
 position. A Jew, and yet not a Jew, in a thou- 
 sand ways he, like his influential brother, light- 
 ened the load of those who had recently come 
 as captives from Jerusalem. The Egibi had 
 not the paltry nature of those who, when alien- 
 ated from their nation, sink into its habitual 
 foes. These good men were the greatest bene- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 47 
 
 factors that the poor Jewish slaves had in 
 Babylon, and it was through their persistent 
 and diplomatic intercession at court that the 
 burdens of the mechanics were lightened. Some 
 prominent captive families were even granted 
 land outside the city gates, for homes. 
 
 Daniel had been a fortunate captive from 
 the first. When, with hundreds of others, he ar- 
 rived in the city, homesick, forlorn, and friend- 
 less, he had attracted the attention of Mutusa- 
 ili. Through the scholar's mediation, the young 
 man and three of his companions were edu- 
 cated at the university of the king. Mutusa-ili 
 had been enthusiastic in the matter of Daniel's 
 culture, and the result had justified his benevo- 
 lent whim. Daniel had come to Babylon thor- 
 oughly equipped for new instruction. Young 
 as he was, he had already exhausted the wis- 
 dom of the rabbis, whose knowledge consisted 
 in the interpretation of a few books of law, 
 barely large enough to cover a hundred tablets 
 of clay. Mutusa-ili had devoted himself, body 
 and soul, to this lovable youth. At the end of 
 a three years' course of instruction, Daniel stood 
 preeminent among his fellow-pupils. 
 
 But the teacher was afraid of his scholar. 
 Daniel probed him too deeply with questions 
 which he could not answer. The sage of Baby- 
 lon had to acknowledge to himself that he was 
 
48 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 as a babe before that Jewish youth, whose un- 
 youthful eyes read right through his head into 
 his heart. 
 
 One day, when the teacher had been expound- 
 ing to his pupil the grandeur of the temple of 
 Bel and the power of Merodach, the young man 
 interrupted him : 
 
 "What is Bel-Merodach, O my master? He 
 lacketh the proof of godliness. Jehovah is not 
 made of gold, but he could lead my people out 
 of Egypt, as he can out of Babylon, in his own 
 good time. What has Bel done? What can 
 the golden god perform ? " 
 
 Mutusa-ili was silent. In the voice of the lad, 
 his own conscience, dormant for seventy years, 
 awoke. What could Bel do ? 
 
 At another time, in the midst of a heavy 
 discourse upon the nature of the worship of 
 Ishtar, Daniel gravely propounded a startling 
 query : 
 
 " Do the groves of Ishtar keep a maiden 
 pure?" 
 
 Mutusa-ili shot a fiery glance at the young 
 man. 
 
 " Thou speakest," he said sternly, " of mat- 
 ters which are beyond thy years and the under- 
 standing thereof." 
 
 " I can understand the whiteness of woman," 
 replied the youth, with a gesture of beautiful 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 49 
 
 obeisance, " and I perceive that the worshiper 
 of Ishtar respects it not. The shekels, or the 
 land, or the ass of his neighbor, these he re- 
 specteth ; but not his wife or his daughter. 
 Babylon has become a reproach among nations, 
 and a dishonor to all mankind, in that her 
 daughters are not chaste. Wouldst thou, Mu- 
 tusa-ili, my best beloved teacher, allow thy 
 daughter to enter the grove of Ishtar ? " 
 
 The scholar bowed his head, and for very 
 shame made no answer to the pupil. How could 
 he ? For thus stood the shameful law of Baby- 
 lon : that every woman in the land, for once in 
 her lifetime, should subject herself, in the name 
 of religion and of the custom of the country, 
 to dishonors of which the pen may not write. 
 And when the daughter of Mutusa-ili came to 
 woman's estate, the priestess of Ishtar had sent 
 for her, that she should visit the splendid and 
 abominable shrine of the goddess. The pitiable 
 fact was that the girl's father, Babylonianized 
 Jew that he had become, for very lack of cour- 
 age to resist the current of society on which he 
 drifted, might even have yielded to the stream, 
 and accepted the dishonor of his house, as he 
 did other incidents of captivity. But Lalitha 
 had settled the question in a very simple way. 
 The high-spirited and pure-minded girl had 
 flashed a dagger before the old man's face, and 
 
50 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 vowed to plunge it in her heart, if a deed like 
 that were mentioned in her presence by either 
 gods or men. Then Mutusa-ili asked his first 
 favor of the king, that his daughter might be 
 spared by the law of the land ; nor did he plead 
 his alien blood. 
 
 Daniel had scorched the soul of Mutusa-ili. 
 The young man's high look blazed like a pillar 
 of fire before the life of the morally feeble, in- 
 tellectual man. The two loved each other. Yet 
 Daniel made 110 effort to proselyte Mutusa-ili, 
 whom he supposed to be a Babylonian of the 
 Babylonians. 
 
 Mutusa-ili was troubled in spirit. The wor- 
 ship of what Daniel called " a litter of gods " 
 was becoming more and more unsatisfactory. 
 In his old age he yearned for the stern, un- 
 compromising spirit of the young captive. He 
 cursed his father and those before him that they 
 had departed from the worship of the one only 
 God. Each night he consulted the stars for an- 
 swers to impossible questions. 
 
 What had Bel-Merodach to say ? What was 
 Ishtar's whim ? Did Jehovah hear ? When 
 should he, Mutusa-ili, find a way out of his diffi- 
 cult position ? What planet departed from, or 
 defaulted to him ? What sign of the zodiac 
 kindled toward him ? Should he renounce ? 
 Should he advance ? Could the denationalized 
 
THE MASTER OF TEE MAGICIANS. 51 
 
 exile become a patriot ? Must the man of books, 
 and dreams, and social importance sacrifice him- 
 self for such a common thing as religious truth? 
 Mutusa-ili substituted astrology for con- 
 science, and made the stars do the work of com- 
 mon sense. As he leaned over his calculations, 
 on the top of the conical tower, a solitary, strug- 
 gling, picturesque old man, the full moon threw 
 pale fires upon his head ; the locks that escaped 
 from his turban seemed phosphorescent. He 
 looked like a spirit beating out its destiny from 
 fate by forces that might become his slave or 
 his master. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 WHEN Ashpenaz, the conductor of Daniel, 
 had impressively enjoined silence upon the 
 young man, he bade him follow. They passed 
 through an entrance guarded by fierce attend- 
 ants. These bowed low and grounded their jave- 
 lins ; a deaf-mute preceded them. The three 
 halted before a portiere, colored yellow, red, and 
 blue, that hung from the high ceiling above, and 
 touched the floor with brilliant rosettes of purple 
 and gold. Here the deaf-mute struck a bell ; this 
 was soon answered from within. The deaf-mute 
 averted his face and drew the hangings apart, 
 that the two might enter. 
 
 When Daniel passed between the heavy folds 
 he started back, as if he had been smitten in the 
 face. He was in what seemed to him a long gar- 
 den. The intoxicating fragrance of a thousand 
 
 o o 
 
 flowers puffed in his face. Added to this stole 
 the overpowering odor of frankincense, precious 
 and penetrating beyond compare. His senses 
 were staggered. The warm breath, laden with 
 spices from Arabia and cinnamon from Ceylon, 
 mounted to his brain. Before him he saw, 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 53 
 
 through the haze, palm-trees rise, and beneath 
 them shrubs, with flowers of burning hues, waved 
 amorously towards fountains that tinkled and 
 cooled the air. Rich draperies hung sumptu- 
 ously where they could, while hidden music of 
 the harp and flute calmed the listener to lan- 
 guor. Color, scent, sound, and beautiful form 
 had played the witch to make the spot alluring. 
 
 Daniel was familiar with the luxury of courts, 
 but of such a sight as this he had never dreamed. 
 This unknown life was jealously guarded from 
 the outer world, for whom it was death to enter 
 unbidden by the royal hostess. Daniel might 
 have surrendered to the scene in a dreamy way : 
 it was a fair sight ; he was weary and disheart- 
 ened ; for once in his life he would have been 
 glad to clasp a lotus blossom to his breast in 
 heavy-lidded revery. 
 
 But, at the sight of the queen, the ascetic 
 started. He had seen her before. All Babylon 
 was familiar with her beauty, when she sat 011 the 
 throne before the people, beside the king, clad 
 in her robes of state, and looking down haughtily 
 like a handsome sphinx. But this was Daniel's 
 first private audience with the queen. As he en- 
 tered the presence chamber, Amytis had turned 
 her head, looking backward from the couch on 
 which she lay, and motioning her fan-bearer to 
 cease. Her hair swept loosely to her waist. Her 
 
54 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 bare arms curled above her head, showing a 
 golden serpent that wound itself about her wrist. 
 Her only garment was a leopard-skin, caught 
 about one shoulder, and extending almost to her 
 bare feet. The blood surged into Daniel's face. 
 He would away, and flee this polluted atmos- 
 phere, and defy the Median and her wiles ! The 
 young Jew held back ; but Ashpenaz whispered : 
 " On my head, thou must come." For now the 
 queen, waving Ashpenaz back, raised herself 
 languorously, moved her blood-red lips, and said, 
 " Come hither, fair stranger ; or art thou too 
 wise to talk to so frivolous a woman as I ? " 
 As the queen spoke, she slid farther into the 
 leopard covering, as if in deference to the stern 
 look of disapproval from Daniel's eyes. 
 
 " The queen has commanded, and I am here," 
 answered the young man coldly, averting his 
 eyes from the dangerous sight before him. The 
 ear-rings of the queen glistened merrily. This 
 evident lack of adoration was new to her; it 
 amused her, and she spoke good-naturedly : 
 
 "Ah! So? Well- Did I not spy thee 
 watching the procession to-day ? Didst thou see 
 the king ? He looks weary after so hard an ex- 
 pedition. And " Amytis 'blushed slightly 
 " and what thinkest thou of the victory ? Was 
 it well snatched? And, prithee, dost thou know 
 who saved that girl from the chariot? " 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 55 
 
 Daniel hardly knew which question to answer 
 first. It was his instinct, not his knowledge of 
 women, which led him to say enthusiastically, 
 with brightening face, 
 
 " Verily, O queen, that was a fine deed ! The 
 young man performed what no other in Babylon 
 could have done. The king is honored by Allit, 
 his captain." 
 
 " Oh," said Amytis, casting her eyes down, 
 " any one of the guard could have done as much, 
 and better too, perchance. And why give the 
 quiver of an eyelash to risk one's self for the 
 sake of such vulgar clay ? " 
 
 The queen angrily tossed her head. Her 
 heavy perfumed hair gave forth a scent, new to 
 Daniel in the overpowering catalogue of sweet 
 odors that greeted him on his first entrance. He 
 turned abruptly away to hide his displeasure. 
 This woman before him represented to his mind 
 all the luxury and glamour that enchained his 
 people to magnificent Babylon, and made them 
 traitors to their country and their God. 
 
 Amytis, observing the preoccupation of her 
 visitor, made sign to a slave to fetch two goblets 
 of Damascus wine, cooled with snow from the 
 Zagros mountains. The Jew remained standing, 
 absorbed in thought. 
 
 " The maiden is a woman," he said at length, 
 " and the captain did but a soldier's duty towards 
 a gentler citizen." 
 
56 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Daniel spoke firmly and very respectfully, but 
 with a gentle hesitation. His cheek, generally 
 so pale in comparison with the rich and swarthy 
 coloring of the Babylonian, flushed brilliantly 
 for a moment, and then the color died away, 
 leaving him as white as a lily. Who had ever 
 spoken to the queen like this before? Only 
 sweetmeats dropped from the lips of others upon 
 this pampered woman. Nebuchadrezzar loved 
 her : that was the beginning and end of the mat- 
 ter. Who rules the king rules the kingdom. A 
 thousand lives like Lalitha's might be sacrificed 
 to the whim of Amytis with scarce a comment. 
 Daniel was half alarmed at the probable effect 
 of this interview upon the helpless girl. But 
 the queen proceeded, with pretty, well-bred soft- 
 ness : 
 
 " So ? Bold Balatsu-usur ! The girl is young 
 and handsome. That accounts for it, for Allit 
 is ever cavaliering after a pretty face. Who is 
 she? Knowest thou ? " 
 
 The queen leaned far over to look into the 
 young man's face. Hate and jealousy gleamed 
 for an instant in her eyes, and then died away, 
 leaving only a look of girlish eagerness. The 
 leopard-skin had slipped from her breast ; a cinc- 
 ture of gold shone against her rich red skin. 
 Her feet glistened upon a many-tasseled shawl, 
 dyed ruby-red and embroidered cunningly in a 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 57 
 
 quaint pattern. Her nails were dyed black and 
 polished, after the latest fashion of the hour. 
 Daniel tried not to look at them. Luckily a 
 diversion came. The slave approached, bearing 
 the wine. At another motion from the royal 
 mistress, a girl drew near with an armful of 
 flowers, which she strewed upon the inlaid pave- 
 ment at their feet. Amytis gathered the orange 
 blossoms, and, as she took the goblet, crowned 
 it with a spray. 
 
 " Drink," she said softly. " The wine came 
 hither but yesterday. I will crown thy cup, if 
 thou tellest me the name of the maiden." 
 
 " If that be the condition, O queen," answered 
 Daniel, glad to escape again, " I could not tell 
 thee, though thou slay me. I drink no wine. 
 When I was brought hither I vowed that naught 
 but water should quench my thirst." 
 
 The queen's eyes now shot a look of open 
 anger that would have caused any other man in 
 the kingdom to shiver with fear. Two slaves 
 instinctively tightened their hands upon their 
 weapons. Daniel stood as if unconscious of the 
 storm that might burst upon him. But an ex- 
 pression of amused sarcasm quickly followed on 
 the countenance of the queen. 
 
 " Are not the wines of Babylonia fit for Jew- 
 ish taste ? Is the juice of the Galilean grape 
 sweeter than the goblet before thee ? " 
 
58 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Not so, great Amytis," answered Daniel 
 truthfully, with a view to conciliation. " But 
 Babylon, with all its splendor, is so seductive 
 that, lest I should fall from favor with my God, 
 I have vowed unto Him abstinence in food and 
 drink." 
 
 The young man bowed like a courtier. The 
 queen's face brightened. She observed his 
 grace and modesty; secretly she felt awed by 
 his undaunted manner. She knew a handsome 
 man when she saw one. Daniel's beauty was 
 not lost upon her. 
 
 " Pity that so handsome a fellow is a Jew ! " 
 she thought. The queen, being of Median 
 birth, could not understand the tolerance and 
 affection felt by the Babylonians towards the 
 Jewish prisoners of state. In her eyes Daniel 
 was but a captive ; by a native Babylonian he 
 was regarded as an imported citizen, a protege 
 of the king, and eligible to any office in the 
 empire. 
 
 " Canst thou ride, O Jew? " asked the queen, 
 suddenly glancing at the slender but compact 
 nervous physique before her. 
 
 Daniel smiled. " I am a prince in my own 
 land, and bred to arms as to the law. As a pu- 
 pil in the palace of Babylon, I exercise in mimic 
 battle, on foot, on horse, or in the chariot, every 
 day." 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 59 
 
 " Then perhaps thou wilt accompany us upon 
 the hunt after the Seventh day ? " The queen 
 had a mocking air ; these words dropped in a 
 light, sarcastic ripple ; with a saucy nod and play- 
 ful twist of the orange blossom, she added, 
 
 " I should like to see you two ride together 
 against the roaring lion." 
 
 "I have hunted the lion, O queen," said 
 Daniel composedly, though his hands, hidden 
 in the folds of his robe, clutched at the insult, 
 " and I have bearded the lioness and her young. 
 But when does the king hunt ? " 
 
 "Next full moon." Amytis lost her vivacious 
 air when the name of the king was mentioned. 
 
 " The king is much disturbed by dreams, and 
 the seer has prescribed a moonlight hunt 011 the 
 plains of Doura to blast away the evil spirit. 
 Nebuchadrezzar is moody and weary with fight- 
 ing. The hunt will favor him. It will be a fine 
 aft'air, for Allit leads it. And canst thou answer 
 this riddle, O Jew? Who is the best horseman 
 in Babylon?" 
 
 The queen had suddenly become stern, as be- 
 fitted any judge who sat within the city gates. 
 
 " The king," answered Daniel simply. 
 
 " I mean next to the king," replied Amytis 
 petulantly. 
 
 " That riddle, O queen, is not easy to answer, 
 for many an obscure horsemen there is, who can 
 
60 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 tame an ostrich for his steed. But of such as 
 are known to the queen, Allit is the chief by 
 far." 
 
 Another warm blush rose to the passionate 
 face of the queen at mention of the warrior's 
 name. Was it love, or hate ? Suddenly an ex- 
 pression of intense fury spread over her brow. 
 
 " By the gods of my father ! would that that 
 shameful slave had died by fire, rather than the 
 captain of the king's guard had risked but the 
 nail of his little finger to save her ! Who is 
 this woman, who is doubtless even now weaving 
 subtle nets to entrap our Allit? Who is she, 
 captive Jew?" 
 
 But scarcely had she allowed herself this out- 
 burst, when Amytis drew back as if struck by 
 an arrow. The eye of Daniel encountered hers 
 sturdily. A fathomless light blazed upon her. 
 The youthful form had expanded, until his sta- 
 ture seemed to reach that of the mighty gods. 
 His face shone with a strange radiance that 
 blinded her. His words came forth slowly from 
 pale, stern, unyouthful lips : 
 
 " O queen, live forever. Thou knowest not 
 thyself, nor will the king lend the countenance 
 of his bidding to that which the gods deny. 
 But if rBel-Merodach and the gods of Babylon 
 punish not the thoughts of thy heart, behold, 
 Jehovah, the God of Israel, liveth." 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. Gl 
 
 The young man stood for a moment as if 
 wrapt in prayer, while Amytis regarded him 
 more in awe than anger. 
 
 Hardly knowing what she did, she motioned 
 to the girl who brought the garlands, and, with 
 something like embarrassment, said, 
 
 " Mariamnu, sing us one of your songs. The 
 prince of the Jews is ill. Methinks, fair sir, 
 thou hadst rather hear a slave of thine own land 
 sing than talk with the courtesy due from sub- 
 ject to queen. Come, girl, get thy lyre, and 
 soothe this caged leopard with thy melody." 
 
 The Jewish girl cast an appealing look at Dan- 
 iel; her eyes were hopelessly sad. She struck 
 a few preliminary chords that rang plaintively 
 across the garden-court, as if they sought a con- 
 cord among the listening trees. Then she lifted 
 up her pure voice and sang, 
 
 A wind came out of the west 
 
 At the cool of the day, 
 
 Close a lotus blossom lay 
 Upon my breast. 
 Silken is my vest, 
 And soft the bed 
 On which I hide my head. 
 
 Carven is the cup 
 
 From whose lip I sup. 
 
 But a wind came out of the east 
 At the dip of the day, 
 And carried my heart away. 
 Oh, it bore my soul away, 
 
62 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 And bore it home. 
 For the wind is free 
 To rise and roam, 
 Out of the east, 
 And into the west, 
 And home ! 
 
 Ah, me ! 
 
 The low wail died slowly away, and was lost 
 in the key sounded by the waterfall near by. 
 The maid had sung resting one knee upon the 
 ground, half leaning against the trunk of a fra- 
 grant citron. Shadows played across her face, 
 and her eyes were cast down. 
 
 When she had finished she seemed scarcely 
 to breathe, but stole a quick glance at the coun- 
 tenance of Daniel, which was reverently turned 
 towards the west. Tears welled from his eyes ; 
 his heart was borne on the wings of the setting 
 sun to Jerusalem. 
 
 The queen dismissed the girl with a gesture 
 of great displeasure, and would have done the 
 same to Daniel had not an officer announced 
 the coming of the king. There was immediate 
 bustle in the court. Opposite the couch of the 
 queen stood an ivory throne, finished with Sido- 
 nian carving and studded with precious stones. 
 
 The king walked alone, followed by two fan- 
 bearers. He motioned to Ashpenaz to stay be- 
 hind, and eagerly approached the queen. He 
 was still clad in his garments of state. The 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 63 
 
 odor of frankincense from the altar lingered 
 about his person. His expression was noble 
 and benevolent. His eyes were of the sort one 
 might call visionary. They had a reverence in 
 them, as if he felt himself the viceroy of the 
 gods. Two deep furrows ran upwards across 
 his forehead, the only indication of the morose- 
 ness and ferocity that often characterized this 
 great monarch. His robe was resplendent in 
 embroidery. Upon his head he wore the high, 
 conical tiara, emblem of royalty. He carried 
 his bow in his hand, in right warlike fashion. 
 With real affection he approached his favored 
 queen, whose eyes had not left him. She 
 bowed her head deeply, but did not rise from 
 the cushions. Nebuchadrezzar regarded her, as 
 
 O 
 
 she lay like a tamed tigress on her couch. The 
 queen pleased him. He was at first unaware of 
 the presence of Daniel, standing respectfully at 
 one side. 
 
 " Thou art not alone, my fair mountain queen," 
 he said, turning with slight displeasure. " But 
 we are pleased to know that thou conversest 
 with so learned a youth. Come hither, my fair 
 prince. Didst thou teach thy queen aught of 
 the stars, or of the secrets of the gods ? " 
 
 The king smiled pleasantly at the young man, 
 who knelt for a moment respectfully before his 
 conqueror and protector. 
 
64 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Nay, indeed," laughed the queen, " nothing 
 so solemn. I leave the stars and the gods to 
 thee. We were discussing nothing less than 
 the new mountain garden thou didst promise 
 me on my return." 
 
 " And what I promise I will perform. I will 
 rear thee a garden to the skies. Thou shalt 
 forget thy mountain home in the cool breezes 
 that shall soothe thee from the summit of the 
 wonder I shall erect for her whom my heart 
 loveth. May Merodach judge me and be my 
 witness, thou shalt dwell in thy mountain gar- 
 den, as thou callest it, in thirty days. What I 
 have said I will execute." 
 
 The king indicated by a paternal gesture that 
 he was ready to dispense with the company of 
 the favorite captive. Daniel arose quickly from 
 his knees to leave the royal presence. 
 
 " Go thou in peace," said Nebuchadrezzar. 
 " Thou art continually in my favor. Increase 
 in learning. The king forgets not the wise. I 
 would speak alone with the queen." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE captain of the king's guard was on duty. 
 He sat in a chamber within the broad gateway 
 of the wall that protected the palaces and shut 
 them off from the city proper. Allit was alone. 
 The other soldiers were more social ; they played 
 at games to while away time, or burnished their 
 trappings leisurely, after the havoc of the cam- 
 paign. A selected number patrolled the fortifi- 
 cations, and kept to their stations on the citadel. 
 The sun was declining, and the multitude that 
 had sought shelter from its fierce gaze now 
 flocked in the streets and about the bazaars and 
 gates, gossiping, and bartering their goods. It 
 was now three days since the army had returned, 
 and the citizens were wondering at what enter- 
 prise the king would put his myriads of slaves to 
 work now. It was rumored that he would finish 
 the temple of Nebo at Borsippa; it was said 
 that the fortifications at Cutha were to be en- 
 larged and repaired ; it was whispered that a 
 huge and curious garden for the alien queen was 
 newest in the king's fancy. 
 
 The rescue of Lalitha by Allit, being a piquant 
 
66 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 adventure, occupied a large share of the street 
 chatter. Give your ordinary gossip a chance be- 
 tween affairs of state and an event in which a 
 man and woman are concerned, and he makes 
 no delay in his choice, which is as inevitable as 
 love or scandal. 
 
 " He is a brave fellow, of the true stock of 
 Akkad," said a seller of lentils to a woman who 
 had come with provisions from beyond the outer 
 wall. 
 
 " Say you so ? " asked the market-woman in- 
 differently ; she was absorbed in selling a mea- 
 sure of last year's barley at double its quoted 
 price. She continued with more vivacity when 
 her shrewd sale was effected : " Would that he 
 had saved my daughter! He could have had 
 her to keep for two maneh." 
 
 " Thinkest thou the captain of the king would 
 trouble his fine head to look at thy girl ? " sneered 
 the lentil merchant. " But by our lady Ishtar ! 
 nay, sir, it is impossible that the palm wine 
 should be fermented ; it came from the press 
 only yesterday. By Nebo ! there goes the only 
 customer I 've had this morning, but, as I was 
 remarking, by our lady! it is my belief that 
 Allit Arioch would have ridden to his death to 
 save any girl in Babylon, if that were the end 
 of the matter. Come, neighbor, let us drink 
 my new wine to this brave Babylonian ! " 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 67 
 
 But a toast that had to be paid for was too 
 much to contribute even to the popularity of the 
 reigning lion. 
 
 The barley woman turned the subject of con- 
 versation to the barley crop. 
 
 But Allit, like many another hero, thinking 
 less of his deed than of the complications into 
 which it brought him, sat with troubled look. 
 His gay appearance was curiously at odds with 
 his dismal expression. His head-dress was of a 
 brilliant color ; his locks had been carefully po- 
 maded ; his black beard dropped in straight set 
 curls from his chin ; and his cheeks glistened 
 with the latest fad in ointments. The daring 
 captain had changed into the luxurious man of 
 fashion. In his delight at getting back to the 
 city after an arduous campaign, he had given 
 himself over to all the pampering ease that the 
 metropolis could afford and that his profession 
 would allow. But Allit was not happy. Out- 
 side of the door the human-headed bull, the 
 gigantic winged cherub that adorned the en- 
 trance of the gate, regarded him ; it had the 
 impenetrable solemnity belonging to the sculp- 
 ture of the times. For the first time in his life 
 Allit observed it attentively ; the winged cherub 
 eyed him like a sphinx ; it seemed to ask ques- 
 tions and to answer none. 
 
 Allit was in a fermentation. A civil conflict 
 
68 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 was agitating him. He had long since learned 
 how to obey. It was easy for him to command ; 
 but now the art of thinking and of planning for 
 himself was forced upon him. Allit was not 
 used to reflection ; it was like a new science to 
 sit there, while the other soldiers were amusing 
 themselves, and seriously consider himself and 
 his relations to the finer aspects of life. Allit 
 was young. He was extremely handsome, and a 
 great favorite with women. He was a man who 
 had always adopted the fashion as a matter of 
 course. 
 
 Brought up from youth with his king, he had 
 blindly followed Nebuchadrezzar's fortunes, his 
 wives and his gods. He had done this carelessly, 
 rather than with an eye to royal favor ; and his 
 establishments and horses, his escapades and 
 intrigues, were the despair of his fellow-officers, 
 as well as the gossip of the court and town. It 
 had been no uncommon thing for him to buy 
 two or three beautiful daughters of some pros- 
 perous land-owner in the vicinity, tire of them in 
 as many weeks, and then distribute them to his 
 friends. Such was the state of morals in Baby- 
 lon at that time that no one thought the worse 
 of the king's captain for adopting the custom 
 of his people, nor did it occur to him to think 
 the worse of himself. Open-handed and ardent, 
 proud and courteous, soldier and aristocrat, he 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS 69 
 
 represented the old stock of the earlier Babylon, 
 before Assyria smote and conquered the province, 
 which, revolting' in turn, under the control of 
 the father of Nebuchadrezzar shot into a second 
 glory, now known as the proudest of the world. 
 Allit had the full benefit of the highest social 
 glamour to transfigure his attractive personnel. 
 He was implicitly trusted by the king, and 
 madly adored by the ladies of the court. Just 
 now the golden thread in the intricate pattern 
 of his life was woven by the jeweled fingers of 
 Amytis the queen. Conqueror of the proudest 
 man who ever lived, the wife of Nebuchadrezzar 
 stooped to court the admiration of her eminent 
 subjects. 
 
 The king was loving, but blind, and the ex- 
 citement that nourished Amytis first intoxicated, 
 then withered, her victims. The predecessor of 
 Allit had paid for the queen's favor by the loss 
 of his head. It was now the turn of Allit, and 
 the court wondered how long he would last. But 
 Allit was too fine a tactician. He played for 
 the game, not for the stake. The queen was un- 
 scrupulous in her pursuit, but Allit was honor- 
 able and even playful in his evasion. He en- 
 joyed being put upon his mettle. It interested 
 him that he could successfully steal an interview 
 with the queen, and not even allow his royal mis- 
 tress to suspect that he was carrying on the 
 
70 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 same strategy with twenty other women from 
 Sippara to Eridhu. But for the first time the 
 jealous attention of Amytis had become irksome 
 to him. Since he had cast that hurried look 
 into the face of the girl he happened to save, his 
 fancy, ready to fly at the first touch, had taken 
 a new turn. For the life of him he could not 
 forget her. True, his fellow-officers had amused 
 themselves considerably at his expense, and al- 
 ready high wagers were offered as to when the 
 fortunate girl would swell the list of the cap- 
 tain's victims ; but the badinage of the court 
 did not seem as important to him as usual. The 
 girl haunted his imagination ; he tried to throw 
 her off ; he refused, on plea of official business, 
 to see her father, the venerable Mutusa-ili, who 
 came to thank him. He had roughly rebuked 
 the boyish prattle of his brother Susa ; but the 
 lad's enthusiastic praises of the stranger whom 
 he protected but for an hour had their effect. 
 Amused and annoyed at the persistence of an 
 interest his intellect repudiated, Allit was glad 
 when his solitary reflections came to their nat- 
 ural end. He started with pleasure when the 
 gnomon marked the hour of his release, and his 
 duty for the day was done. He glanced at the 
 colossus by the gate. 
 
 " Remain thou in solitude, if thou likest it, 
 and answer thine own questions ! " he muttered. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 71 
 
 He straightened himself with military alacrity, 
 received a report or two, gave a few final orders 
 for the night, and sauntered slowly toward the 
 temple of Bel, whose seven brilliantly colored 
 stages shone with a sacred softness in the twi- 
 light. Allit walked abstractedly, and hardly 
 noticed the greetings of the people. Two inci- 
 dents only clearly arrested his attention. 
 
 A foppish-looking man reined up his horses 
 and invited the captain to a private carousal in 
 honor of a god, to be held next week. 
 
 " Nay," replied Allit gravely. " Thanks for 
 thy courtesy, but I am preoccupied." 
 
 He had scarcely refused the invitation, when 
 he was summoned by a glance to a litter borne 
 by four Egyptians. Within this litter reclined 
 Ina, the acknowledged beauty of Babylon. Ina 
 was the daughter of Egibi the banker, who, it 
 will be remembered, was the wealthiest untitled 
 citizen of the province and treasurer of the state. 
 She affected the softer hues of red, because they 
 became her peculiar complexion. This was of 
 a coloring lighter than that of most of the Baby- 
 lonian women, but it preserved the rich olive 
 tints that were frequently found among Jewish 
 maidens of distinguished birth. Her hair was 
 wavy and dark, and was looped behind on the 
 top of her head. A fillet of gold confined it in 
 front, and rubies shone from arms, ears, and 
 
72 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 throat. She lay in her litter plunged in red and 
 silver, and poutingly beckoned Allit to approach. 
 
 " And why, noble Allit," she immediately be- 
 gan, " hast thou not numbered thyself as one of 
 our guests since thy return ? Does the favor of 
 the queen turn thy heart to forget old friends 
 of humbler station ? Or dost thou search the 
 streets for another maiden to snatch from death 
 to life ? " 
 
 For the first time, Allit, to his own inward 
 discomfort, was betrayed into a blush, which 
 Ina, daughter of Egibi, was delighted to see. 
 Needed a woman better proof that her charm 
 worked well ? 
 
 Allit bowed without smiling, and looked Ina 
 so steadfastly in the face that she cast down her 
 eyes. Allit at this moment was indescribably 
 reminded of Lalitha. He remembered a glow 
 of red upon white, a mass of waving dark hair 
 against an olive skin, and a smile. That was all. 
 In Ina he saw the same type of feminine beauty ; 
 but he missed and valued the more the un- 
 decorated, unassuming expression of the modest 
 stranger. 
 
 " Nay, my Lady Ina," he said gallantly, " I 
 have by no means forgotten thee. How could 
 any man do that ? But I have been busy with 
 affairs. The king is about to put ten thousand 
 captives at work upon a new garden he buildeth 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 73 
 
 for the queen. I am well occupied. I will 
 come soon to thee, perhaps to-morrow. Is thy 
 father well ? He is a very busy man. I have 
 need to convert some spoil into well-coined silver 
 shekels, and will consult him. Farewell. May 
 Ishtar be thy guardian ! " 
 
 Allit walked away, twirling his cane comfort- 
 ably ; he fancied that he had got out of that very 
 well. The lady looked after him with a troubled 
 expression, sighed deeply, and sternly ordered 
 her slaves home. 
 
 The captain walked on fast and faster. The 
 vision of a girl dashed to her death beneath a 
 chariot flew faster than he ; he could not out- 
 stride it. lie felt as if he were gathering him- 
 self together again for the dangerous rush. 
 
 " May Nergal sustain me ! " he muttered. 
 His pace had quickened almost to a run ; and, 
 the street being crowded, he paid for his dream- 
 ing by a collision with another foot passenger, 
 who was going in the opposite direction. Allit, 
 in short, bumped into a very venerable man, 
 and fairly knocked him down. He quickly re- 
 covered himself, and proceeded to pick up the 
 person whom he had so unceremoniously over- 
 turned. 
 
 The old man was groaning, more in anger 
 than in pain. 
 
 " Has Raman in his anger blasted me, or has 
 
74 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 a scoundrel committed an assault, deeming me 
 unprotected ? " 
 
 He glanced fiercely upon Allit, whose apolo- 
 gies he did not seem to find impressive, adjusted 
 his turban, regained his stick, and now carefully 
 scrutinized the luckless offender. Allit had 
 recognized the subject of his awkwardness im- 
 mediately, but he waited for Mutusa-ili to do 
 him a like honor. 
 
 " By my faith," said Mutusa-ili, in a changed 
 tone, "it is Allit, the king's captain. Truly, 
 Adar, the lord of the brave, hath given thee 
 strength as well as clumsiness. My bones feel 
 as if a battering-ram had smitten them. But, 
 gallant captain, for the sake of my daughter, 
 thou art forgiven ; thy penalty is that thou be 
 my right-hand staff and accompany me home." 
 
 Thus it was. Fate had stepped in, and Allit, 
 with no slight feeling of embarrassment, urged 
 Mutusa-ili to lean heavily upon him ; he fell 
 slowly into step with the old man. 
 
 " I have endeavored to thank thee," observed 
 Mutusa-ili, with the scant effusiveness of age, 
 " for the service thou hast done my house. I 
 was denied entrance to thee at the palace. 
 Enter now with me, and grant me the oppor- 
 tunity of a host to express my obligations. Par- 
 take thou of our evening meal. We may not 
 furnish Libyan wine, but I have a skin from 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 75 
 
 Shushan not yet opened, and my daughter would 
 gladly greet thee, though she walketh not as yet, 
 poor maid ! " 
 
 There was clearly nothing else to be done, and 
 Allit accompanied the scholar, with an eager- 
 ness to which he tried to give the name of reluc- 
 tance. As he was about to enter the gateway 
 of the old man's home, he noticed a stir upon 
 the street. Slaves in royal livery loudly ordered 
 the populace aside. Then came the cry : 
 
 44 The queen ! The queen ! " Involuntarily the 
 two men halted. A covered chariot approached. 
 There was a flash of footmen, horsemen, and 
 brilliant metal standards. Allit did not see two 
 angry eyes resting upon him, and with a torrent 
 of jealousy regarding the house. People rose 
 from their humble postures. The procession 
 had passed. The two men turned and entered 
 the house. The queen, Ina, the hundred loves 
 of the man of pleasure, where were they ? 
 What were they ? When Mutusa-ili led Allit 
 to the couch of the wounded girl, there seemed 
 to exist no other woman in all the world. 
 
 Lalitha, very pale but very sweet, looked up 
 at her visitor like a contented bird viewing a 
 new land. If she had not been lying down, one 
 would have expected her to turn her head side- 
 ways, twitter a little, and start a pair of pretty 
 wings. Allit stood in a constrained attitude, 
 
76 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 but his eyes leaped toward her adoringly. The 
 girl spoke first. 
 
 " Thou art come," she said simply. " It gives 
 us pleasure to bless thee, kind sir. My father 
 and I are thy debtors for all our lives." 
 
 "Thy preserver suppeth with us to-night," 
 said Mutusa-ili. " I will summon our slave Kis- 
 rinni to prepare the evening meal. Do thou en- 
 tertain our guest until I return." 
 
 In this natural way the old man departed, 
 leaving the two alone. Allit found this more 
 comfortable ; but Lalitha thought it strange that 
 she began to feel embarrassed. She dropped 
 her eyes and played with the fringe upon the 
 coverlet of her couch. Lalitha was charming in 
 a white robe, but the draperies about her were 
 of crimson silk and wool. She gave to the 
 young man the same vivid impression of white 
 and red that he had snatched from that vision 
 of her as she stood, swaying to her death, be- 
 fore the chariot ; but now, as before, the white- 
 ness overcame the redness in his fancy. He 
 noticed that the girl's garment was fastened 
 at the throat, contrary to the fashion of dress 
 among Babylonian women, who wore the robe 
 caught over one shoulder and under the other 
 arm, freely unveiling the breast. But Lalitha 
 was modestly draped from her fair throat to her 
 wounded foot. Her eyes had nothing of the 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 11 
 
 boldness which Allit expected to find in a wo- 
 man, and took as a matter of course. She re- 
 garded him timidly. The king's captain looked 
 at her with a frank, critical glance ; it deepened 
 to an expression perfectly new to Allit's gay 
 face. 
 
 " Thy brother, the lad Susa, comes here every 
 day to cheer me, for I am a prisoner," said La- 
 litha suddenly. 
 
 It was an abrupt, awkward little speech, but 
 Lalitha felt as if she must say something ; she 
 could think of nothing else. 
 
 " Would that I were Susa ! " observed Allit 
 quickly. He had no sooner said this than he 
 felt ashamed of himself for bringing the paltry 
 gallantries of the court and the world into this 
 nest of peace and purity. Lalitha shot a quick 
 glance up his tall height ; she looked startled ; 
 one could almost hear her rustle her invisible 
 wings to fly. Evidently she believed what he 
 said. Well; why not? Was it not true? Allit 
 watched her. The man of the world was over- 
 come with the intoxication of a perfectly new 
 sensation. She looked at him so fearlessly, yet 
 with such an expression of shrinking delicacy, 
 that he was stirred toward a respect he had 
 never felt for any woman. All the unexercised 
 honor of his manhood was challenged by her 
 chastity. 
 
78 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Thou art a white bird ! " he murmured im- 
 pulsively. " May the gods guard thee ! Thou 
 shouldst receive the homage of a better man 
 than I." 
 
 " Art thou not a good man ? " asked Lalitha, 
 in wide-eyed wonder. "I have thought kindly 
 of thee ... all this while." 
 
 " Think of me as little as possible," protested 
 Allit, stung into a downright honest effort to 
 protect the girl from herself, from himself. 
 " Think of me no more." 
 
 Lalitha laughed merrily. 
 
 " Is that the way they talk at court, kind 
 sir ? Such humility hath no good place, to my 
 mind, in the life of a man who hath wrought 
 a deed like thine. Why, I have to think of 
 thee. Thou gavest me back to my father and to 
 life. I was not educated to be a discourteous, 
 ungrateful girl. . . . But perhaps," added La- 
 litha, with a sudden cloud upon her charming 
 face, "perhaps thou hast already had enough 
 of the affair and thou would st not be annoyed 
 by even the gratitude of a lowly maiden ; per- 
 haps it incommodes thee, sir, to be reminded of 
 me, and of the trouble I have been to thee." 
 
 Lalitha faltered out these preposterous words 
 so ingenuously that the man of pleasure could 
 have fallen on his knees before her innocent 
 soul. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 79 
 
 " Thou art ridiculous ! " said Allit savagely. 
 "Any other woman in Babylon, in thy place, 
 would see would know would understand." 
 
 The courtier hesitated. The girl's clear eyes 
 seemed to burn upon him like two soft altar 
 lamps. 
 
 " I do not know many things," said Lalitha 
 gently. " I live alone, with Kisrinni and my 
 father. I go not abroad ; I did very wrong the 
 day of the procession ; it was the only time. I 
 shall not be so naughty again ; I have promised 
 my father. I do not understand a great deal 
 that perhaps I ought to know ; when I am older 
 I may do so." 
 
 " May Ishtar forbid ! " cried Allit ; " but at 
 least thou mayest understand when a man says 
 he is afraid of thee." 
 
 " Afraid ! Of me ? " cried Lalitha. 
 
 But at this moment Mutusa-ili appeared, with 
 Kisrinni salaaming behind him. 
 
 " We will spread our simple board," said the 
 old man, looking very happy, " in my daughter's 
 apartments, that she may sup with us, in honor 
 of her preserver and of her dear life." 
 
 " Be it so," said Allit devoutly. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 NEBUCHADREZZAR had an extraordinary posi- 
 tion in the Babylonian court. No law restrained 
 the king. He was the monarch, he was the no- 
 bility, he was the priesthood, he was the law. 
 His whim might condemn subjects by the thou- 
 sand to be cut into inch pieces ; he was account- 
 able to no power in earth or heaven. He raised 
 and he dashed down. Commanders, chief 
 eunuchs, high priests, and captains rose and fell 
 before his will like grain before the wind. The 
 king claimed divine descent, and devoutly be- 
 lieved in his own claim. For, he said, " Hath 
 not Merodach begot me of my mother ? " 
 
 Was the son of Heaven to be resisted in his 
 most intolerable commands? The nation never 
 disputed an authority that often partook of the 
 most despotic tyranny. The king was of an 
 odd, composite formation. His character was 
 as capricious as a child's, and as undecipherable 
 as a prehistoric tablet. He was energetic, and 
 apt in turning energy into affairs. This leader 
 of armies and conqueror of nations had a rebel 
 in his own nature, he was born with a rash 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 81 
 
 temper. Many acts of cruelty resulted. The 
 man was not by nature relentless, but it was so 
 easy to cause the massacre of a score of chiefs 
 by the mere wave of his hand that his royal 
 carelessness led him lightly. 
 
 With all this, the king was the most religious 
 of men. . Believing himself to be the child of 
 the gods, he dedicated to them the spoil of his 
 successful campaigns. The most magnificent 
 temples ever enjoyed by the Babylonian deities 
 rose like splendid prayers at the beck of Nebu- 
 chadrezzar. It was a fact which his treasurer 
 alone knew, and secretly grieved over, that 
 three fourths of the monarch's wealth went to 
 the glorification of the gods, whose shrines he 
 repaired, and whose worship he stimulated 
 throughout the length of the land of Shinar. 
 From Sepharvaim to Teredon, a fortress on 
 the Persian gulf, which the king was building, 
 the priests burnt incense, and praised the 
 name of the son of Merodach, their lavish and 
 beneficent lord. 
 
 But, although the king ruled with a hand of 
 bronze, he himself was an humble subject. A 
 master who mastered the king swayed every 
 Babylonian, high or low. A power more arro- 
 gant than that of the sceptre ruled the ruler. 
 In these days we give to this autocrat the name 
 of Superstition. The people were divided into 
 
82 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 two classes : the Chaldeans, or priests, and the 
 commonalty. The masses of the people lived 
 in alarm. They feared each day of the week. 
 They quaked every hour of the day. They 
 blinked with restlessness at the light, wondering 
 what it might bring forth. They started with 
 ague at the darkness, shrinking from the fever 
 or the pest that lay in wait for them. They 
 shuddered at the vampire that would feed upon 
 their blood. The sacerdotal caste concentrated 
 in its ranks all the science and all the learning 
 of the times. The priests were the physicians of 
 the trembling body and of the throbbing heart. 
 They prescribed philters, incantations, and talis- 
 mans for a cough or for a panic. For a fixed 
 price, they consulted the auguries of the stars, 
 or studied the prophetic position of a wand. 
 
 To the Babylonian the universe was filled with 
 spirits, good and evil, who were directly the 
 cause of every phenomenon of nature. The 
 blast of the sirocco or the loss of a tooth had 
 a supernatural explanation. Projected by a 
 blind fate into the midst of a mad contest be- 
 tween these spirits, the sufferer feels himself in- 
 voluntarily drawn into the combat of which he 
 is the unwilling battle-ground. His escape is 
 only through mysterious incantations, of which 
 the initiated alone know the secret, and by 
 amulets which they only can consecrate. But 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 83 
 
 life itself is one long paean of despair. The 
 gods command men to eat and drink, and be 
 merry. Well they may, for men are doomed at 
 death to the lowest depths that yawn in desert 
 places. The earth carries them away 
 
 " To the house of darkness, the seat of the god Irkalla, 
 To the house from whose entrance there is no exit, 
 To the road whose course never leads back, 
 To the house whose inmate is shut off from light, 
 Where dust is their sustenance, clay their food. 
 The light they behold not, in darkness they dwell." 
 
 Virtue is rewarded only by earthly happiness ; 
 it has no future. Pain is the beginning and 
 the end of life. At resurrection, the dead start 
 into coarse birds, frightful griffins, or horrible 
 vampires. This superstitious slavery was more 
 frightful than the bondage of the Jewish cap- 
 tives. It eroded private life to an incredible 
 extent. A man could not undertake a journey, 
 he might not call upon a neighbor, until intri- 
 cate tables of lucky and unfavorable days had 
 been consulted, and all the omens proved pro- 
 pitious. 
 
 It was to be expected that a system of coin- 
 cidences between certain appearances of the 
 sun, moon, or planets, and personal or political 
 changes, should be eagerly uplifted to high in- 
 tellectual rank. Thus, by the marvelous sym- 
 pathy which the Chaldeans thought they recog- 
 
84 THE MASTER OF THE IfAGlCIANS. 
 
 nized between celestial phenomena and terres- 
 trial events, their religion became subordinated 
 to astronomy. Astrology developed into the ruler 
 of life. The destiny of the people was controlled 
 by priests, who took good care to exact what 
 might be called a toll for passage on the sidereal 
 turnpike. Omens were as numerous as diseased 
 imaginations, and demons were as plentiful as 
 priests. Phantoms and spectres made virulent 
 assault upon unexorcised men, in magical droves 
 of seven. Disease was always the personal work 
 of an evil spirit ; it could not be conjured away 
 unless a propitious genius was guaranteed to 
 take its place. It was the habit in Babylon to 
 carry sick people to the open street, where all 
 passers-by, in courtesy, stopped and prescribed 
 a remedy. Besides astrologers and exorcists, 
 there was a powerful sect of diviners and sooth- 
 sayers that carried on a lucrative trade. Pro- 
 phetic arrows and wands, each with an omen 
 written upon it, were drawn from heaps. Nebu- 
 chadrezzar is known once to have chosen his 
 route against an enemy by the tactics of a magic 
 arrow. The flight of a bird foretold the future, 
 and the entrails of victims opened ghastly pages 
 to inspection. It was well known that if the 
 intestines of an ass turned to the left, were 
 twisted and of a bluish color, wailing would not 
 enter the land. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 85 
 
 Presages were drawn from the clouds, from 
 thunder and from lightning. Serpents, being 
 considered shrewder than most people, were ele- 
 vated in some of the temples of Babylon to re- 
 veal the will of the gods. Dogs played princi- 
 pal roles in the system of portents. Stray dogs 
 acquired an awful importance in human affairs. 
 In weird incantation the king heard once a year 
 that if a red dog enters the palace and crouches 
 under the throne the palace shall be burnt, and 
 if a white dog enters the temple its gods shall 
 desert it. A prominent official at the palace 
 and temple was, consequently, the dog-catcher, 
 who religiously disposed of unclaimed, unkempt 
 animals. And alas, if a piece of furniture fell, 
 or the timbers of a house cracked at night ! 
 The omen was prodigious and dark. It was a 
 well-known fact that before Nebuchadrezzar was 
 born, a peasant woman gave birth to a boy with 
 the ears of a lion. That foretold the hero. 
 Mothers feared to bear a son with no right 
 hand, for then his family would be blotted out, 
 but there would be prosperity in that of his 
 neighbor. Two years before the overthrow of 
 Babylon, a mare dropped a foal with only one 
 eye. The secret was not well kept, and the de- 
 moralization resulting from that disastrous cir- 
 cumstance was instrumental in bringing about 
 the destruction of the eternal city and the de- 
 vastation of the land of Akkad. 
 
86 TEE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 There was still another class of priests, whose 
 business was the interpretation of dreams. There 
 were moreover professional dreamers, whose 
 visions were recorded, and followed with great 
 anxiety by prince and people. As an astrolo- 
 ger, an interpreter of the stars and their import 
 to man, Mutusa-ili was eminent ; but as an in- 
 terpreter of dreams he had long easily stood 
 without rival in the land. This art was the fa- 
 vorite at court. Every one had dreams sent by 
 Ishtar of Arbela in the middle of the night, and 
 although special dreams had their codes of inter- 
 pretation, uncatalogued visions were numerous, 
 and required a classifier. A dream was the oc- 
 casion of the sale of Joseph the Jew, and of his 
 subsequent power over his brethren. A dream 
 influenced Gyges to pay tribute to the king of 
 Assyria. A- dream announced to Croesus the 
 death of his son Atys. The future royalty of 
 Darius, son of Hystaspes, was revealed to Cyrus 
 in a dream. Did not Isaiah reproach the Jews 
 for sleeping among tombs to dream prophetic 
 dreams ? 
 
 Thus the Babylonian passed his daily exist- 
 ence, struggling to ward off evil and to propi- 
 tiate the good. The priest was the only resource 
 or relief. He became an absolute power in the 
 land ; even the king must bend to him. Yet it 
 is noticeable that the Chaldean sorcerers did not 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 87 
 
 pretend to order the gods, like many a more 
 modern believer. They implored. They did 
 not presume to fathom the knowledge of the di- 
 vine and all-powerful word, which was to them 
 the source of life, the panacea for every misfor- 
 tune. That mysterious word was the secret of 
 Ea, and Silik-Moulou-Ki, who dispensed good to 
 man, and who was the mediator between Ea 
 and suffering mortality. 
 
 The city was aghast. The palace was in a 
 ferment. Citizens went to their business with 
 averted faces, and spoke below their breath. 
 The soldiers within the citadel sombrely shook 
 their heads, and attended to their duties with an 
 unusual military precision that was ominous. 
 The treasurer, the Rab-daiku, the lord execu- 
 tioner, and Ashpenaz, chief of the eunuchs, 
 were in stately and mysterious conference. Al- 
 lit, the captain of the king's guard, had been 
 imperatively summoned to attend upon the mon- 
 arch. The queen was invisible. But by far 
 the greatest consternation took possession of the 
 soothsayers, the astrologers, the interpreters and 
 diviners. A deputation of the most august in 
 their profession were sent in hot haste to bid 
 Mutusa-ili, their acknowledged chief, to a sol- 
 emn convocation. With bleached faces this 
 sacred body discussed the news that had startled 
 
88 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 them from the dignified routine of their daily 
 duties. The temple of Bel-Merodach was in a 
 state of distraction. The chief astronomer, who 
 occupied the observatory at the summit of the 
 Ziggurat, was said to be almost unconscious with 
 terror at his failure to predict the misfortune 
 that had come upon the sacerdotal caste. 
 
 What was the calamity that agitated Baby- 
 lon? The king had dreamed a dream. That 
 was all, and enough. Nebuchadrezzar had seen 
 a vision. The omen disquieted his soul, and he 
 had passed an uneasy night beneath the royal 
 canopy. The next morning, for the first time 
 in his life, he forgot, on rising, to perform his 
 usual devotions and religious lustrations, and 
 called for his captain in tones that betokened ill 
 to somebody. Allit, perceiving from the terror 
 and haste of the messenger that something was 
 wrong, stopped only to throw a robe about his 
 shoulders, adjust a sword to his side, and take a 
 poniard in his hand. The young man lost no 
 time in appearing before the king, who lay upon 
 his gold and ivory couch. Nebuchadrezzar 
 awaited his favorite with impatience, and greeted 
 him with a scowl. 
 
 " By Nebo, the sustainer of my house ! thou 
 takest thy time to answer my command ! " 
 
 " Nay, my lord, deign to behold me. I came 
 hither even as I was, with but this robe, a scant 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 89 
 
 protection for my body, but with my sword to 
 defend the king." 
 
 The soldier flourished his sword with such 
 vigor that the royal fan -bearer jumped back, in 
 terror of his life. The king seemed appeased at 
 this evidence of devotion, and raised himself 
 slightly to scan the face of his officer. Allit 
 took advantage of the softer moment to drop 
 reverently upon his knees and touch his fore- 
 head to the carpet of the royal footstool. This 
 was, in form, a precious tapestry, woven to set 
 forth the contest of Bel and the dragon. Allit's 
 eyes were on the dragon ; it was a yellow and 
 black dragon, but Allit saw neither black nor 
 yellow. All his senses had gone to swell the 
 power of hearing with which he listened to the 
 king. Allit was courtier enough to know that 
 the monarch's mood betokened ill effects in some 
 direction. 
 
 "Nay, my good friend and captain, I doubt 
 thee not," said Nebuchadrezzar slowly. " Would 
 that I could depend on every officer I have 
 raised on high as I trust thee ! Thou hast my 
 favor ; for I am sad. He who hath made Baby- 
 lon the metropolis of the universe hath dreamed 
 this night a dream." 
 
 The king sighed deeply, and lay back upon 
 his couch. The two looked each other gravely 
 in the face after this momentous confession. 
 
90 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Allit, who felt the depression of the unknown 
 quantity, was bound to cheer the royal dreamer. 
 
 " Perchance thou hast seen the body of a yel- 
 low dog " 
 
 The king shook his head contemptuously. 
 
 u Then," proceeded Allit hopefully, u thou 
 didst see a bear, whose feet " 
 
 The king, with a superior smile, waved off 
 this vulgar insinuation. 
 
 " May Merodach protect the king ! " ejacu- 
 lated Allit with growing fear. " Didst thou see 
 a great light and the land in flames, or was the 
 god Nergal smiting " 
 
 " Hold ! " cried Nebuchadrezzar, with an im- 
 perative motion. "The king dreams not after 
 the manner of his subjects. My dream is 
 strange to the written annals of the wise men of 
 Babylon. This dream," the king, as he spoke, 
 gestured with unusual animation and impres- 
 siveness, " which Ishtar of Arbela in conde- 
 scension hath sent unto me, will astound the art 
 of divination." 
 
 Allit knew not what to say. He felt that an 
 epoch was at hand. He dared not comment one 
 way or the other, lest he miss a guess, and his 
 head with it. He took the safest available 
 course, and anxiously suggested, 
 
 " Shall I not summon to the king, whom 
 Merodach honors, the high priest of Bel, and 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 91 
 
 Mutusa-ili the sage, and all the wise men of 
 Babylon, to interpret this strange and wonderful 
 dream ? " 
 
 But the king shook his head pertinaciously. 
 
 " I am resolved. The goddess hath not sent 
 this vision to me in vain. Do thou make pro- 
 clamation in my name as follows : 4 In three 
 days let all the wise men of Babylon assemble 
 before my throne, and let them tell the king his 
 dream and interpret the same. If they fail I 
 will have their heads for it; yea, the head of 
 every soothsayer in the land will I smite from 
 his neck. Their science is a falsehood, and they 
 eat the bread of wickedness, and shall die ; from 
 the highest to the lowest they shall be cut off. 
 Thus saith Nebuchadrezzar, first-born of Nabo- 
 polassar, and son of Merodach, the king of 
 gods.' " 
 
 This was the edict which stunned the land. 
 The king had proposed an unheard-of test. Any 
 one could interpret, but who could conjure the 
 dream itself ? Mourning was in Babylon, and 
 the third day was nigh at hand. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ALLIT himself was overwhelmed when he heard 
 the incredible edict of the king. He knew that 
 to attempt to divert the royal dreamer from his 
 purpose by pleading was as foolish as to tear a 
 hound from the flank of a wild bull. In a few 
 hours, when he heard the criers proclaiming the 
 will of their sovereign about the streets of Baby- 
 lon, Allit began to realize the horror of the situ- 
 ation. He was not especially devout, and cared 
 little enough whether the college of the Chal- 
 dean priesthood were blotted out or not. He 
 had small faith in their prognostications ; like a 
 true soldier, he was in the habit of dashing at 
 his end. What was an omen ? Could it charge 
 a battalion ? " Only one man is worth a bunch 
 of dates," he said to himself ; then a blinding 
 doubt smote him. Supposing Mutusa-ili should 
 fail ? Could he ? Preposterous thought ! Allit 
 grew pale, became nervous and excitable. " No 
 man interpreteth like her father," he brooded ; 
 " but can the stars reveal to him the dream it- 
 self ? " The father of Lalitha tortured dead ? 
 Distressed beyond self-control, Allit hastened to 
 demand audience of the king. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 93 
 
 " There is mourning among the Chaldeans, O 
 king," he began impetuously. " Wilt thou not 
 forget thine edict, and shall not an interpreta- 
 tion satisfy the heart of the king ? " 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar bristled like a Parthian lion. 
 
 " May the dragon, whom Merodach my lord 
 hath overcome, smite me if by a single dent in 
 the moistened clay I remit my command ! " 
 
 The courtier forgot himself and his own peril. 
 He was not accustomed to forget himself ; but 
 then he was not accustomed to remember the 
 house of Lalitha. 
 
 " But, O gracious king," he urged, " hast thou 
 forgotten mercy? Who in former times hath 
 demanded such a rare thing of any Chaldean ? 
 Wilt thou not honor him who doeth the king's 
 pleasure, and thus perchance save the rest ? " 
 
 The blaze of lightning on the countenance of 
 Nebuchadrezzar turned, at this fearless plea, into 
 the softness of a spring morning. The manly 
 quality of generosity ruled in the king after a 
 royal fashion, and the despotic side of his na- 
 ture succumbed to it with moody ease. 
 
 " Ah ! By Nergal ! thou art the light of mine 
 eyes. I had forgotten the balm that the gods 
 have granted unto their sovereign representa- 
 tives. Make proclamation that he who showeth 
 me the dream and the interpretation thereof 
 shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great 
 
94 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 honor, and moreover he shall save the carcasses 
 of all Chaldeans unto life." 
 
 So it came about that this second mandate 
 was proclaimed abroad in the courts of the wise 
 men and in the temples of the gods. It did not 
 soothe the apprehensions of the magicians and 
 the interpreters as one might expect a balm to 
 do. The more lenient favor of Nebuchadrezzar 
 rather seemed to emphasize his tyranny. Neb- 
 uchadrezzar presented a problem older than 
 Babylon, and as new as yesterday : How comes 
 it that the most relentless of men are the ten- 
 derest ? 
 
 The fears of Allit were allayed, but not re- 
 moved. He paced the halls of the palace rest- 
 lessly. His tall, broad figure loomed against 
 the painted pictures of the gods that decorated 
 the courts he strode. He stopped before one of 
 these and angrily regarded it. " Canst thou, 
 picture of a golden image, mighty god ! canst 
 thou, O Bel, teach the hidden mysteries of the 
 unknown world of sleep unto Mutusa-ili ? " 
 
 Allit frowned upon the protective deity of 
 the palace. Poor Lalitha ! Poor maiden I His 
 thoughts melted at the vision of that white- 
 plumed bird in her bereaved nest. His heart 
 stormed within him suddenly. He clenched his 
 hand about his sword, and shook it at the effigy 
 upon the wall; the god seemed to taunt him 
 with a cold smile. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 95 
 
 " Thou false and powerless god ! " exclaimed 
 the soldier. " If her father fail, by the seven 
 planets, that change not, I renounce thee and all 
 thy brood, and will follow the gods of even " 
 He stopped to think of the most powerless na- 
 tion, the most down-trodden gods that he knew. 
 His heretical outburst was interrupted by a low, 
 penetrating voice, which uttered in his very ear 
 two startling words, "A. Jeiu ? " 
 
 As a javelin whirrs upon its deadly errand, 
 the captain of the king's guard wheeled. The 
 rash interrupter at that moment stood scanter 
 chance of his life than he seemed in the least 
 aware of. He Was robed in white ; his complex- 
 ion was of the transparency of a flower whose 
 petals are smitten by the sun. The youth's 
 eyes were modestly turned down, but he stood 
 as firm as one of those erect lions that support 
 upon their backs the pillars of the palace. 
 
 "What! thou, Balatsu-usur ? " Allit spoke 
 in real astonishment, sheathing his sword. 
 
 "Yea, noble captain, it is I," said Daniel. 
 He slowly raised his eyes, and fixed them steadily 
 upon the bold glance before him. " And well 
 for thee that it is only I. As the lost traveler 
 in the desert, dying of a mighty thirst, is led by 
 his horse unerringly unto the water of life, so 
 thy heart leadeth thee unto the Truth of truths." 
 
 By this time Allit had recovered himself, and, 
 
96 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 looking critically upon this didactic young man, 
 shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Oh, every one to his own gods. The Jews 
 have theirs, who seems to have little power to 
 protect them ; and we have ours, who at least 
 tosses us victories, as I toss sweetmeats to a 
 girl." He laughed disdainfully. 
 
 " Far be the day that makes a Jew of Allit ! 
 Who is Jehovah ? Ask Bel-Merodach ! " 
 
 Daniel did not answer this taunt ; he was him- 
 self courtier enough to change the subject with 
 graceful tact. 
 
 " The king hath had a dream," he said 
 politely ; " it trouble th his spirit. Can no one 
 of the Chaldeans tell him his dream and the in- 
 terpretation thereof ? " 
 
 Allit's trouble came back to his mind at this 
 question. He liked Daniel, and had always re- 
 spected him. He knew that the sweeping order 
 included this fair and eminent young scholar, 
 who was attached to the University of Bel. He 
 looked regretfully upon Daniel, whose blooming 
 life might so soon be crushed out. Allit, like 
 many another light nature, had at times felt the 
 nameless fear with which this dreamy but un- 
 swerving Jew inspired those who approached 
 him. 
 
 " No," replied Allit, in a new tone, " I am 
 afraid not, unless, Mutusa-ili, father of La " 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 97 
 
 he checked himself " unless Mutusa-ili," he 
 stammered, " be the man." 
 
 " Thou art right," returned Daniel, with an 
 inward prayerful look ; " perchance we all die, if 
 Mutusa-ili the sage hath not power to tell the 
 dream. Thy gods Nebo and Bel-Merodach have 
 no greater magician than he." 
 
 Allit did not reply, but only nodded, looking 
 mournfully upon the ground. Daniel cast a 
 keen glance at the captain. He noticed that his 
 friend looked thin and somewhat pale. The as- 
 pect of his face seemed at war with his notorious 
 life. Allit 's expression was not that of the de- 
 bauchee. The Jew was a young man ; and he, 
 too, had who knew what private views of Lali- 
 tha ? whom he must often have seen. It needed 
 but the divination of youth and sensitiveness 
 to interpret the courtier's condition. But what 
 superhuman wit reviewed this human intelli- 
 gence ? Daniel's countenance grew vague ; his 
 eye dimmed ; his long, thin figure trembled. 
 
 " Fear thou not," he said, in a piercing whis- 
 per. " Jehovah hath not ordained the bereave- 
 ment of the maiden from this cause." 
 
 Allit started, with a vivid blush. What ne- 
 cromancy had this young Jew, whose high and 
 stern morality silently rebuked the practice of 
 the court at which he was a captive ? The cap- 
 tain of the king hastened to protest. 
 
98 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS, 
 
 " By Ishtar, I covet not the maiden, either 
 from her father or from herself. I dare not.*' 
 
 " Behold," said Daniel, " such fear as thy fear 
 containeth the highest courage of a man. Cul- 
 tivate thou it in God's name and the maiden's. 
 Go unto her, and bid her take courage in the 
 name of Jehovah." 
 
 Something in the face of Daniel awed the cap- 
 tain of the guards. Involuntarily the two men 
 clasped hands ; they were silent. Daniel seemed 
 to warn and bless. With a religious gesture he 
 turned and went his way. 
 
 Allit did not linger to ponder upon the per- 
 plexing scene between himself and the young 
 Jew ; instead, he proceeded to obey him. Gird- 
 ing up his robes, he hastened to find Mutusa-ili 
 at his house. 
 
 Allit had walked rapidly through the palace, 
 and was on the point of emerging through the 
 brazen gates into the Nana road, when he heard 
 a puffing behind him, and a disagreeable voice 
 called, 
 
 44 Allit ! Brave captain ! Good Allit, I bid 
 thee stop ! " 
 
 It was the voice of Ashpenaz. The captain 
 had halted, with an undisguised shrug of impa- 
 tience, and would have left this revolting person 
 in the lurch, had he not feared that the chief 
 eunuch might be the bearer of a royal message. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 99 
 
 " Thou art a plague, O mighty captain, and 
 dost rejoice in the sweat of thy servant. Thou 
 stridest like a camel. Who can overtake thee ? 
 Here is the summons of the queen. Here is her 
 royal seal." The gorgeous and unpleasant dig- 
 nitary fumbled for his order, which lay in a little 
 clay tablet inclosed in a gold box. 
 
 Allit took the tablet impatiently, read it with 
 a scowl, and crushing it in his hand, threw the 
 ball far into the moat. The eunuch watched 
 him curiously, but said nothing. 
 
 " Express my inconsolable regrets to the 
 queen," said Allit, impulsively, " but I am de- 
 parting for a space on inevitable business. In 
 an hour I shall attend her, and delight myself 
 with the radiance of her presence." 
 
 This was the first time that any sulbject had 
 been known directly to disobey the queen, or 
 even to neglect her orders. 
 
 Allit turned, made a profound mock saluta- 
 tion to the prince of eunuchs, and hastened 
 across the bridge to the cottage of Mutusa-ili. 
 
 The eunuch hurried to tell the queen that 
 Allit had refused her summons. Ashpenaz was 
 as wily as his kind. He made the most of the 
 defiance in Allit's answer, and the least of its 
 deference. 
 
 " A pest upon Amytis ! " thought Allit hotly. 
 "This time the proud Median shall wait my 
 
100 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 will. Must I dance, a slave, to tlie nod of this 
 shameful queen? Not I, and Raman shall be 
 my guardian. I fear her not." 
 
 But almost with the words the courtier came 
 to himself. The danger of his position occurred 
 to him like a discovery. He felt as if he had 
 been bewitched, and were recovering his equi- 
 poise. He thought of Daniel with displeasure. 
 He dashed off the Jew's influence with the whole 
 strength of his disdain. What could that pale- 
 faced boy teach him? Was he to be awed 
 by a pair of nebulous eyes and high-sounding 
 words ? Daniel might as well expect to rule the 
 province of Babylonia. Save Mutusa-ili ? Why 
 had he, Allit, the favorite of the court, denied 
 the queen ? As for Lalitha, he had kissed a 
 hundred girls fairer and prouder than she ; and 
 was he to be daunted by a coy trick ? Of course 
 Mutusa-ili must be saved at any reasonable cost. 
 But if the worst came, a small bribe to Kisrinni, 
 and Lalitha was his ; and, by the groves of Ish- 
 tar, his she should be, if by fraud or force ! 
 But the maiden would not deny him. No woman 
 had ever done that ; not even the queen. Would 
 Lalitha be the first to say him nay ? 
 
 In such a mood, and with many maledictions 
 on the interfering Jew, and on himself for yield- 
 ing so tamely to the spell of Daniel's nature, 
 Allit arrived at the barred door of Mutusa-ili's 
 
THE MASTER 01-^ TIt'E, 
 
 house and gave a thundering knock. He had no 
 sooner done so than his heart failed within him. 
 The imperious captain and intrepid reprobate 
 collapsed, even at the sight of Kisrinni, into the 
 timid lover. The young man had wit enough 
 left to marvel at his own moodiness ; the whole 
 situation was wearing upon what in these days 
 we call " the nervous system." But no Baby- 
 lonian knew that he had nerves. 
 
 The slave woman received Allit trustfully. 
 " The master has gone to the temple," she said, 
 " and the poor maiden is alone. I will conduct 
 you to her, mighty sir." 
 
 Kisrinni preceded the visitor to the apart- 
 ments of her young mistress. Allit followed, 
 with a throbbing heart. No shrine in the land 
 seemed, to the man of pleasure, so sacred as 
 that simple room. 
 
 Lalitha lay upon her couch. A short, stout 
 stick beside the divan showed that she had 
 attempted to walk. Her eyes were large with 
 weeping, and her face pale with the portent of 
 an immeasurable danger. 
 
 At the sight of Allit she impulsively stretched 
 out both hands to him, and then drew them 
 quickly back. This simple act, the sweet de- 
 pendence and the instinctive modesty of it, had 
 a powerful effect upon the courtier. Unknown 
 delicacies in his nature seemed to rise before his 
 
: \%&& l tfSTJlll*qF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 own consciousness, like strange, shy creatures 
 out of foreign depths. All that mad, rude, com- 
 monplace reasoning of a moment ago was gone, 
 who knew where, who knew why ? When 
 he looked into the pure eyes of Lalitha, Allit 
 became a stranger to himself. He had, not a 
 thought that he could not have uttered to the 
 world. 
 
 As for Kisrinni, she stood discreetly, close 
 against the portiere, a bent, gnarled figure, look- 
 ing as if she had been cut from the trunk of an 
 old oak. 
 
 Lalitha spoke first, with no more ceremony 
 than a netted bird : 
 
 " My father ! You have come to save my 
 poor father ! " 
 
 " Would to all the gods of Chaldea that I 
 had ! " protested Allit ; " but am I the king of 
 Babylon?" 
 
 " Susa said you were the king behind the 
 king," said Lalitha simply. She turned her 
 wan little face toward him so confidingly that 
 the tears sprang to the soldier's eyes. Unused 
 to such emotion, he busied himself in checking 
 it, and did not reply to the girl for the moment. 
 " Ah," exclaimed Lalitha compassionately, " I 
 am sorry I made you cry. I did not mean to." 
 
 " Thou art a lovely creature ! " whispered 
 Allit. " Thou art a little divinity ! Thou hast 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 103 
 
 wings, and fliest from me. I am not worthy to 
 kneel in the dust beneath thy feet." 
 
 " No one ever spoke to me like that," said 
 Lalitha. " I do not know how to answer you." 
 
 She laid her head back, and looked at Allit 
 through her half-closed eyes. She did not blush 
 or tremble. The poor girl was too sad for co- 
 quetry. 
 
 " I forget," she added, " that my trouble is 
 not your trouble." 
 
 " It shall be my trouble ! " cried Allit hotly. 
 " And, by Bel-Merodach and all his godlings, I 
 will do for thee in the matter as if Mutusa-ili 
 were father to myself." 
 
 44 1 do not understand these things," pleaded 
 Lalitha, " for I am but a maiden ; but tell me, 
 sir captain, is not my father a wise man? " 
 
 " The wisest of the wise in Babylonia," re- 
 turned Allit promptly. 
 
 " Doth he not interpret the dreaming of 
 dreams skillfully?" 
 
 " Like none other in the province." 
 
 " Can he not tell the king this thing demanded 
 of him ? Will he not know what dream the 
 king dreameth ? Is that beyond the art of 
 Mutusa-ili ? Is not my father as wise as the 
 mind of the king ? " 
 
 "The mind of the king is as the mind of 
 a madman ! " blazed Allit imprudently. " Be 
 
104 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 comforted. Thy father is wiser than the son of 
 Meroclach. Weep no more." 
 
 " I cannot help it," sighed Lalitha. " I am 
 very sad. I perceive that my father is sorely 
 troubled in spirit. Tell me, honorable sir, can 
 they put my father to his death if he read not 
 the dream of the king? " 
 
 " May Beltis, Queen of the Land, brood over 
 thee, poor bird ! " said Allit ; " but if thou put- 
 test me on mine oath, I must tell thee that the 
 deed can be done. Even in Babylon can such 
 a deed be done." 
 
 " But will they ? " persisted Lalitha, raising 
 herself on one arm, and staring piteously in the 
 soldier's face ; the crimson and white coverlet of 
 her couch quivered with the trembling of her 
 delicate, sorrow-shaken body. 
 
 " By my soul, and by my faith, and by the 
 honor of Babylon, they shall not, then ! " cried 
 Allit, starting to his feet. The dark color 
 rushed over his swarthy face. His tall height 
 rose before the girl like a fortified gate. " By 
 my life, I will save unto thee thy father, if I die 
 for him ! " 
 
 A strange pang wrenched the heart of the 
 girl. It was like a new disease. She did not 
 know what it meant. She felt suddenly very 
 faint, and thrust her hands out pleadingly. The 
 gay Babylonian did not touch her. He bowed 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 105 
 
 his head silently before her, crossed his arms 
 in the attitude of religious reverence, and left 
 her without another word. 
 
 As he departed from the house, a slave girl 
 on the opposite side of the street veiled herself, 
 and hastened away with the air of one who avoids 
 recognition. The captain of the guards was too 
 abstracted to notice, and if he had, would not 
 have recognized the figure of Mariamnu, the 
 Jewish captive, slave and forced spy of Amytis 
 the queen. 
 
 Allit hastened at great speed back to the 
 palace. He was absorbed in the idea of saving 
 Mutusa-ili. Moreover, he felt the necessity of 
 retrieving himself with the queen, though he 
 revolted from her at this crisis with as much 
 ardor as he had formerly expended in parry- 
 ing the pursuit of his royal leopardess. On 
 his arrival, he pushed his way as far as the en- 
 trance to the intoxicating gardens where we have 
 already seen her. Expecting an immediate sum- 
 mons to her presence, as usual, for Allit never 
 waited long in vain, he was stunned when a slave 
 brought him word, with that indefinable lack of 
 respect that is so quickly adopted toward fallen 
 favorites,. that the queen could not receive him. 
 She was occupied with affairs, and Ashpenaz 
 attended her. The slave of the queen looked at 
 the captain with veiled insolence, and abruptly 
 
106 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 turned away. Allit, in a storm of bewilderment, 
 departed hastily from the court of the women. 
 Perhaps it was only the coquette's caprice. But 
 the break, if it must come, might as well come 
 now. As he returned to his quarters at the 
 gate, another slave, with uiidiminished deference, 
 handed to him the king's orders. These were 
 written on clay and stamped with the royal seal. 
 The tablet was then enveloped with a thick coat- 
 ing of a coarser earth. Allit's name and title 
 were on the outside cover, which he easily broke 
 away, leaving the inner writing plain to the eye. 
 He read, 
 
 " On receipt, do thou immediately arrest and 
 imprison all the wise men in the city of the 
 Gate of God. On thy head, do thou guard 
 them, and let not one escape" 
 
 This was stamped with the royal lapis-lazuli 
 seal, upon which Bel-Merodach, with uplifted 
 hand and sword, attacked and put to flight the 
 dragon of disorder, a monster half lion and half 
 eagle. Such was the mandate and the crest of 
 Nebuchadrezzar, king and builder of Babylon, 
 son of Merodach, beloved of the gods. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE gates of the university were closed. 
 The boys, headed by Susa, were in a state of 
 patriotic rebellion. Mutusa-ili, their master, was 
 under strict arrest, and the boys were fond of 
 him. Even now, at trumpet-call, the venerable 
 scholar was dragged (it is true, with great ten- 
 derness) to the audience chamber of the king. 
 Nearly a thousand wise men were solemnly 
 marched into the imposing hall, and were sta- 
 tioned in long ranks before the high and as yet 
 empty throne of the king and queen. 
 
 Mutusa-ili, white-haired, bowed with the 
 weight of a crushing responsibility, stood si- 
 lently. Beside him, wearing an air of forced 
 ease, Allit lifted his high bronze helmet to cool 
 his forehead, or nervously toyed with the gilt 
 rosettes that ornamented his linen breastplate. 
 An attendant carried his shield and quiver. 
 He held his own richly decorated bow. Allit 
 watched his dignified but downcast captive ap- 
 prehensively. He was revolving the problem of 
 the sage's possible escape. The how and the 
 when tormented him. Behind him were the 
 
108 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Rab-mag, high priest and chief conjurer of Bit- 
 Sagila, the seven-staged temple of Bel, and the 
 chief divines of Bit-Zida the temple of Nebo at 
 Borsippa, which was now undergoing reconstruc- 
 tion. 
 
 " By the sun of Sippara, these fat, beflounced 
 priests look glum enough. I fancy our king 
 tosseth them as a wild ox doth a rabbit. I 
 paid two maneh for a false sign, the other day. 
 It serves the greedy dogs right," whispered an 
 irreverent foreign subaltern to his mate, as they 
 closed the rear of this woebegone procession. 
 
 The huge and stately audience hall was built 
 in the form of a Greek cross, whose transverse 
 arms were three times the breadth and twice the 
 length of the other two. The pavement was of 
 glazed red brick, but upon each block, before it 
 was burned, writing was inscribed. The whole 
 floor became thus a large and imperishable mon- 
 ument, describing, in characters that the world 
 might read, the achievements of the king. The 
 gates were of bronze and cedar. Two human- 
 headed bulls, of sacred import, confronted the 
 entrance. These were twice the height of the 
 tallest warrior, and were carved of gray marble 
 before they left the heart of the mountain to be 
 sent down the sacred river. 
 
 Mutusa-ili stood before the throne. It was 
 Nebuchadrezzar's throne of high justice. Seated 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 109 
 
 upon this, the monarch rendered decisions that 
 shook the land from the source of the " glitter- 
 ing arrow " 1 to its fortified outlet, from the 
 Zagros mountains to the summits of Lebanon. 
 
 A nod from the ivory throne mulcted the 
 swift Arabians of their fragrant fields. A 
 glance hurled ten thousand chariots and one 
 hundred and twenty thousand horsemen west- 
 ward upon Jehoiakim and Necho, upon Tyre and 
 Jerusalem. A scowl from the Chaldean mon- 
 arch, and Zedekiah fell. A sign, and Uaphris 
 lost Egypt and his life. A word, and twenty 
 thousand captives breathed the deadly sirocco of 
 the deserts, on their weary march to the city of 
 the conqueror. Whenever this baleful throne 
 was occupied, it meant misery : either new 
 crowds of captives, Jews, Egyptians, Moabites, 
 or Arabians, began to make burning bricks be- 
 neath the fiery sun ; or native and unfaithful 
 subjects lost their heads and were mutilated 
 upon the city walls. 
 
 Truly, a fateful hall ! Verily, a bloody throne ! 
 The wisdom of the Chaldeans appealed from it 
 on this mournful day to their greatest of sages. 
 The priests closely watched their chief and 
 spokesman; all of them were curious, a few 
 hopeful, but more undisguisedly despaired. 
 
 Mutusa-ili regarded none. His eyes mechani- 
 
 1 The Tigris. 
 
110 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 cally read the prowess of his master in the in- 
 scription at his feet. Then they sought the 
 massive supports of the dazzling dais. Four 
 golden lions upheld the fretted pedestals. Each 
 clutched a victim in its claws. The first was a 
 Nubian ; the second, an Egyptian ; the third, a 
 Jew ; and the fourth, an Armenian mountaineer. 
 The ghastly group was life-size, and represented 
 the conquest of the world. Each victim was 
 carved of alabaster, and was painted his native 
 hue. The artist, moreover, had depicted blood 
 so naturally upon the wounds that, as one looked, 
 it seemed to flow. The spectacle had a ghastly 
 fascination. 
 
 The sage's eyes grew dark as they bent upon 
 these emblems of tyranny ; then they softened, 
 in spite of himself, for Nebuchadrezzar, no mat- 
 ter what his hot and variant moods, was dear to 
 Mutusa-ili. 
 
 But now tears of burning shame blinded him, 
 for the seer had consulted the stars in vain. He 
 had spent hours of the night in wasted prayer. 
 The Babylonian gods, one and all, had veiled 
 themselves, and granted not a sign, not an inspi- 
 ration. And was this to be the end of a sacred 
 life ? Where was Nebo ? Surely, Merodach, the 
 god of justice, could not oppress his servant? 
 Was Adar a-hunting ? It could not be that the 
 ears of mighty Nergal were heavy with the din 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. Ill 
 
 of battle? Is it possible that Ishtar wantons 
 in deadly sport with her aged devotee ? Nay, 
 teacher of mankind, hide not thy head when thy 
 worshiper kneels for an understanding mind, to 
 penetrate the secrets of the heart ! Alas, Belus, 
 King of Spirits, canst thou not leave Nipur but 
 for the space of a single watch, to give an old 
 man peace ? Is Anu dead ? If so, of what 
 avail is Erech? Whither shall the shattered 
 spirit depart, when the king commands to die ? 
 
 Mutusa-ili dared not breathe these horrid her- 
 esies. " O, gods, if ye be gods, blast a 
 stricken heart, sunken in despair ! But are all 
 the gods of Babylon but breath ? And are my 
 only hopes, the stars, decadent from their 
 courses ? " 
 
 Thus the trembling man despaired, not at the 
 vision of death, but of faith. The religious be- 
 lief that his intelligence had recently begun to 
 question, but which his pride and habit openly 
 accepted, was unveiled of its imbecility before 
 this fierce crisis. Mutusa-ili knew perfectly 
 well, as he stood awaiting the king's approach, 
 that neither he nor any other priest, soothsayer, 
 or diviner could tell the dream. He felt the 
 dishonor of a false position. He saw a thousand 
 lives hanging on a pretense to spurious wisdom. 
 How soon would he, who had been revered above 
 all the wise men of Babylon, be loathed as a pit- 
 
112 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 if ul pretender ! He cast his eyes about to see if 
 Daniel were near. An impulse of reverence for 
 the young man's intrepid fidelity to a religion 
 unpopular at court swept over Mutusa-ili. At 
 that moment he envied the young Jew his sim- 
 ple manliness. He was adrift himself, as much 
 as a solitary acorn swept upon the current of 
 the Life of the World. 1 
 
 Allit had been watching his charge narrowly. 
 A great pity, strange enough to this careless 
 soldier, almost overcame the captain. It needed 
 but a glance to see that Mutusa-ili could no 
 more tell the king's dream and interpret it than 
 one of the captives painted in the brilliant frieze 
 above them. A sullen despair now seized Allit. 
 The scanty hope he had so assiduously petted 
 flew away as suddenly as a scarlet flamingo 
 startled by a wounded boar. He looked sternly 
 around ; perhaps he might see one single face 
 lighted with the glimmer of an inspiration. He 
 only encountered gloomy, stolid, self-restrained 
 priests who were as ignorant of the great laws of 
 mind as the bow he held. Here and there were 
 strange faces. Many chief priests and their 
 assistants from famous temples had journeyed 
 hither for consultation and to feast themselves in 
 the capital. These also had been unceremoni- 
 ously apprehended, and had not the look of men 
 
 1 The Euphrates. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 113 
 
 who enjoyed this startling opportunity to test 
 their professional skill. 
 
 At this moment the bow fell from Allit's hand, 
 and clattered on the pavement. The captain 
 turned deadly pale, beneath his painted cheeks, 
 at this portentous omen. Emotions of vague 
 terror became communicated, as such subtleties 
 are, from man to man. Strong captives trem- 
 bled in the sudden stillness, and coarse soldiers 
 grasped their weapons the tighter. No one 
 stepped forward to pick up the innocent bow. 
 Allit stood haughtily erect, but not a slave 
 sprang to his duty. 
 
 " How now, my brave brother ! A captain of 
 the king hath need of his weapons, this bloody 
 day. Take thy bow and hold it." 
 
 A graceful boy, flying his brilliant mantle 
 over his shoulders, stooped and mockingly held 
 the weapon out. 
 
 "What! Susa? Thou here? Get thee gone, 
 or the king condemn thee also." 
 
 " I ? m afraid he has, Allit. A company led 
 by Ashpenaz drove us boys like sheep in here, 
 and by our Lady Ishtar here I am. I begin 
 already to see vultures and smell death." 
 
 Susa laughed merrily. His undaunted look 
 encountered his brother's dark frown. He 
 glanced, with the contemptuousness of a boy, 
 over the rabble of lesser magicians cowering be- 
 
114 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 fore their imminent doom. Softly Susa's gaze 
 went back to his brother, and thence to his dear 
 master, Mutusa-ili. Then the lad impetuously 
 cast himself at the old man's feet, and put his 
 forehead beneath the scholar's dry and trembling 
 hand. Susa broke into something like a sob. 
 
 " O my master, my lord ! May Nebo pre- 
 serve thee ! How can the king harm thee f If 
 I were a king, I would fight him for it, and 
 protect thee." 
 
 Allit was in torment. Was everything dear 
 to him to be blotted out on this accursed day ? 
 He turned fiercely. For the moment he re- 
 garded the two with indecision : the venerable 
 master and irreverent lad were clasping each 
 other. The boy rose to his feet slowly, still 
 bending his head under the old man's silent ben- 
 ediction. They moved apart, but spoke no 
 words. Then Allit's heart burst aflame. The 
 father of Lalitha, that white bird, and Susa, 
 whom his mother swore him to protect until the 
 two-part earthen jar 1 closed over the elder or 
 younger son ! 
 
 " By the seven dark-browed thunders ! " mut- 
 tered Allit, " ye shall not die, or all the gods 
 in Babylon avail not to protect the son of false 
 Merodach from my vengeance " 
 
 He stopped in the midst of the first trea- 
 
 1 The coffin. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 115 
 
 son that his hot blood had ever forced to his 
 lips. 
 
 "Ah ah?" 
 
 The low breathing of this disdainful interroga- 
 tion brought the captain to his usual composure. 
 He took his hand from his sword lightly, and 
 with graceful energy motioned his captives back 
 into line ; as he did so, he bowed superciliously 
 to the wily eunuch. Ashpenaz darted a stinging 
 look from his narrow eyes, but he added no pri- 
 vate rebuke. When he spoke, it was loudly 
 enough, so that every one could hear him : 
 
 " The king, whom Merodach his father pro- 
 tects, approaches. Let his favorite captain at- 
 tend him to his throne." 
 
 The faint music of stringed instruments was 
 now heard droning its plaintive way through the 
 corridors. The arrested soothsayers arranged 
 themselves quickly in solemn and picturesque 
 lines. Soldiers bearing spears surrounded the 
 priests, and assumed a reverential posture. Al- 
 ii t hastened to the brazen doors. The stately 
 procession advanced with measured tread. A 
 band of eleven musicians preceded it. Seven 
 struck the harp ; the rest played the flute and the 
 lyre. Following them, a choir of nine boys and 
 six women sang with uplifted hands and averted 
 eyes, the praises of the king. Ashpenaz, the 
 major-domo of the palace, stood opposite Allit at 
 
116 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 the doors, and regarded his trained musicians 
 critically. These played and sang with sad pre- 
 cision. They were the most beautiful of all the 
 Jewish captives of a lower rank. At a sign 
 from their leader, the hymn of praise burst forth. 
 
 Thou king of lions, 
 Conqueror of conquerors, 
 Destroyer of nations, 
 Shepherd of thy people, 
 Destined of the gods ! 
 
 As the full force of the clear, boyish chorus 
 fell, a single voice penetrated the obeisant si- 
 lence of the audience room. It was the voice 
 of a woman, young, and trained to her art. 
 A glance at her face, which bore a sensitive re- 
 luctance, and seemed to be pleading for a veil 
 denied it, revealed Mariamnu, favorite of the 
 queen, the Hebrew slave and singer, soprano of 
 the court. 
 
 Thus sang Mariamnu : 
 
 The world is at thy feet ; 
 
 There lie we. 
 
 Strike the timbrel sweet, 
 
 Let the sackbut ring. 
 
 Fair the fetters be, 
 
 Glad the captives sing, 
 
 With the world beneath thy feet, 
 
 Here lie we. 
 
 As the pathetic tones ceased, certain of the 
 captive Jews exchanged significant looks appre- 
 
THE MASTER OF TEE MAGICIANS. 117 
 
 ciative of this adulatory sarcasm, which was too 
 fine for the royal perception. 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar walked in more than solemn 
 state, as befitted the dignity due to such a rare 
 decree. Before him, two attendants waved fans 
 of peacock's feathers, whose prismatic tints 
 looked like bronze rainbows high overhead. Be- 
 side him, in honor of this sinister event, the 
 queen was borne upon a purple palanquin. 
 Boys swung burning incense at her side. Be- 
 hind the royal pair, two more attendants held 
 artfully embroidered umbrellas over them ; these 
 were emblematic of absolute sovereignty. As 
 the king strode beneath the cedar lintel, he 
 paused, and cast a cruel look over the vast and 
 crowded audience hall. As moist and vigorous 
 wheat droops instantly beneath the sirocco, the 
 doomed priests dropped upon their knees and 
 touched their foreheads to the inscribed bricks. 
 The musicians had marched ahead, and had 
 taken their places behind the thrones. Their 
 harps were silent. 
 
 The king seemed to enjoy the fear which 
 he excited. The ranks of despairing devotees 
 stretched forth their hands, and lifted their 
 heads, and then dropped them to the pavement, 
 after their fashion, with painful regularity. 
 They uttered no cry for mercy. They were 
 dumb with terror. Of them all, one only bowed 
 
118 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 low in a respectful posture, but did not abase 
 himself. 
 
 The king observed the exception, and flung 
 at the sage a look of mingled contempt and re- 
 spect. Amytis, noting the king's expression, 
 yawned a little ; a sneer sat upon her handsome 
 face. The train advanced. Ashpenaz hastened 
 to assist the king to mount the throne. The 
 captain stepped forward, with a profound mili- 
 tary salute. 
 
 The musicians and the captives looked on 
 drearily. When the queen descended from her 
 litter and took her position on the smaller throne 
 beside the king's, the buzzing of a bee could have 
 been heard in that vast court. The sun glanced 
 in cheerily from above, and seemed to have the 
 only glad heart there. The king's scowl deep- 
 ened. His eyes were wild and blood-shot. He 
 looked like a soothsayer in a forced frenzy. The 
 stricken men arose. As Nebuchadrezzar seated 
 himself upon the throne, the musicians struck a 
 resounding chord, and a low murmur of admira- 
 tion arose and swelled from his assembled sub- 
 jects. 
 
 In recognition of this prompt tribute, the 
 monarch, whose morbid appetite such flattery 
 often satisfied, brightened. A more hopeful 
 atmosphere stole like an incantation into the 
 audience room. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 119 
 
 The king leaned back, and glanced again 
 about him, whispered a word to Amytis, and 
 smiled. As for her, she looked at Allit; dis- 
 pleasure and infatuation struggled in her eyes. 
 The despot made a well-known sign to his fa- 
 vorite captain. Allit nodded towards the doors, 
 and a large crowd of citizens rushed in and 
 filled the suffocating hall. In all-important judg- 
 ments the people had free access to the court. 
 A few officials and favored citizens had reserved 
 privileges, and moved to prominent seats with 
 the leisure of position. Among these were 
 Egibi the banker, and Ina, his daughter. Al- 
 lit, when he saw her, was diverted for the mo- 
 ment from his gloom. He had the pleasing sen- 
 sations of a man who is beloved by a belle to 
 whom he is indifferent. He glanced gallantly 
 at Ina. In this passing preoccupation, he failed 
 to observe the entrance among the common 
 crowd of two veiled women, one, it seemed, el- 
 derly, and one quite young, who attracted a cer- 
 tain attention because of their very effort to 
 avoid it. Babylonian ladies were not so modest, 
 as a rule, that a veiled face and figure and 
 shrinking manner could wholly escape notice. 
 
 And now the trumpet commanded silence. It 
 was obeyed ; the mass of humanity in the great 
 hall seemed to breathe like one agitated man. 
 Mutusa-ili regarded no one. His eyes were on 
 
120 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 the claws of the throne. The king stirred, and 
 slowly turned his dark glance abroad ; it moved 
 over the swaying crowds like a cloud, rested 
 upon the priests gloomily, then concentrated 
 itself. Perhaps two thousand people were in 
 the audience room. Of these, Nebuchadrezzar 
 began to appear conscious of the existence of 
 only one. He observed his favorite astrologer 
 and master with an expression half of hope, half 
 distrust, but wholly intense and terrible. Mu- 
 tusa-ili drew a long breath, lifted his head with 
 a greater than royal majesty, and their eyes met. 
 Monarch and soothsayer studied each other. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 " AKE all here ? " Nebuchadrezzar turned 
 his mace towards his captain, while his eyes still 
 clung to the old man. 
 
 " O king, live forever ! Yea, all are before 
 thee, save a few young men of the captivity." 
 
 "They can be found?" 
 
 " Yea, my lord the king." 
 
 " Let them stay for one more watch. My 
 mercy giveth them two hours' grace after Sin, 
 the brilliant god, hath given up these carcasses 
 to the wild beasts that wander without my city 
 wall. Let this decree go forth." 
 
 " My lord the son of Merodach commands, 
 and I obey." 
 
 Allit bowed his head to the pavement, while 
 his breath within him stopped for joy that 
 Balatsu-usur was still safe. But what could that 
 young Jew do ? Nay, what could he not do ? 
 Thus the heart of Allit consoled him, in this hour 
 when love and life hung on a madman's dream. 
 
 " So ! all are here ? And for what ? Did 
 Ishtar mock me with a dream ? Tell me, Allit, 
 didst thou say that all are before me? " 
 
122 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Verily, O king, thou didst hear thy servant 
 say, Yea," 
 
 " Truly I have power. Hath Bel more ? 
 Nebuchadrezzar's planet hath come. Tell me, 
 old astrologer, when shall that mighty star ap- 
 pear that flashed upon the zenith from north to 
 south, whose tail spread like a reptile, and Elam 
 was ravaged by the first Nebuchadrezzar, five 
 hundred periods ago ? It shall come. It shall 
 come. Nebo shall protect my crown. I have 
 power to raise on high and to kill. I am the 
 son of Merodach. He that denies it dies in the 
 dust before me, for I am a god." 
 
 The king rose, in a frenzy of excitement. His 
 eyes seemed about to burst from his head. His 
 high tiara trembled, his hands shook. He 
 frothed at the mouth, and withal looked so ter- 
 rible that soldiers, priests, and citizens hid their 
 faces in their hands upon their knees, before 
 this outburst of royal mania. At this moment 
 Nebuchadrezzar seemed inspired, and many 
 secretly repeated exorcisms to preserve them 
 from his divinity. Allit was one of the few 
 who had a suspicion that the dream, whatever 
 it was, prolonged sleeplessness, and religious 
 brooding had produced fever, and a consequent 
 aberration of the intellect. But the multitude, 
 having no such scientific explanation of the 
 king's condition, swayed like stricken grain be- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 123 
 
 fore the throne. This exhibition of power paci- 
 fied the king ; he rested grimly, as a lion does 
 before a fatal leap. 
 
 " Arise, my children. I am the shepherd of 
 my people. Behold the justice of the king." 
 
 Of course they all scrambled up as fast as 
 they could. Susa happened to be prostrate be- 
 hind Ashpenaz, and was playing with the bril- 
 liant fringe of the eunuch's robe. As the 
 corpulent major-domo had with much difficulty 
 almost regained his feet, Susa gave his robe a 
 quick jerk, and Ashpenaz fell backwards with 
 a loud crash, and rolled bellowing before the 
 throne. Here the eunuch lay upon his broad 
 back, and called upon half the gods of his ac- 
 quaintance ; for he could no more turn over than 
 a turtle. 
 
 Susa laughed outright, and immediately Allit 
 turned his head away. Mutusa-ili, however, 
 took a quick step forward to help Ashpenaz to 
 his feet. Thereupon, for the first time that fate- 
 ful day, Nebuchadrezzar was seen to smile. He 
 took no further notice of Mutusa-ili than to 
 order him back by a gesture with one hand, 
 while with the other he beckoned Susa. 
 
 " Hallo, thou young dog ! Is it thus that 
 thou dost reverence the baldness of thy superior ? 
 Fly, and raise thy fallen victim, or, by the city 
 of my hands, I give thee to the fiery furnace." 
 
124 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " I try, O king," said Susa, repressing a droll 
 look and rushing up to Ashpenaz, " but do the 
 gods decree that a stripling shall move a moun- 
 tain?" 
 
 It was all the front rank could do to restrain 
 their smiles as Susa began to wrestle (making 
 as much as he might of the deed) with the mas- 
 ter of ceremonies. The king stroked his beard 
 to conceal his amusement. 
 
 " O my lord the king," wailed the eunuch, 
 " he puncheth me ; yea, between the ribs doth 
 he punch me more than his duty requireth." 
 
 " My lord the king," protested Susa merrily, 
 " he sprawleth ; yea, he sprawleth in thy presence 
 more than his case requireth." 
 
 Amid groans and curses Ashpenaz regained 
 his equilibrium. His scarf of office was torn, 
 his fringe mangled, and he looked generally 
 so discomfited and disreputable that one might 
 even have compassionated him but for the sour 
 temper in which he received the lad's mischief. 
 
 " O king, hear thy servant." His shrill voice 
 shook with rage and chagrin. " I demand his 
 head, even the head of this cub do I demand." 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar turned his face, upon which 
 anger was admirably feigned, toward Susa. The 
 lad had always been one of his favorites. 
 
 "Take him out and away." Two soldiers 
 sprang to obey. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 125 
 
 "Whither? To the City of Death?" asked 
 Susa, smiling saucily at the owner of a million 
 lives. The lad stood undaunted. The contrast 
 between the brave boy and the cringing priests 
 was too evident to go unnoticed, and the king, 
 who loved courage above all other virtues, hard- 
 ened his heart against the soothsayers, and loved 
 the brother of Allit, his captain. 
 
 " By my great Lord Merodach, no ! That is 
 too good for such as thou. I punish thee with 
 worse, with life. Begone ! Now, Ashpenaz, 
 good counsellor, art satisfied with my severity ? " 
 
 In the little commotion which followed the 
 removal of Susa from the hall, half the specta- 
 tors failed to notice that the diviners were drawn 
 into close rank before the throne, that the at- 
 tention of the monarch had suddenly concen- 
 trated itself upon them, and that the by-play 
 had changed in a moment to tragedy. 
 
 " Priests and soothsayers of Babylon, the 
 Gate of God ! " The voice of Nebuchadrezzar 
 went clanging like bronze through the audience 
 court. A thousand strong, the miserable men 
 had crawled to their feet. Mutusa-ili, who had 
 remained standing for some moments, now lost 
 his conspicuousness among them, and seemed to 
 melt into the common herd. There was some- 
 thing significant and sad in this ; as if the 
 choice nature given to the sage and devotee 
 
126 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 must sink into the clay of vulgar aims and 
 names, science accept the fate of charlatanry, 
 and all sacred illusions lap the dust beneath the 
 feet of royal mania. Yes, but if illusion, let it 
 go ! There was something inspiring about the 
 . scene, after all. It seemed to be a challenge to 
 divine truth, and the true heart sprang to it. 
 
 " Interpret unto me my dream" 
 
 There was no answer to this preposterous 
 command. The diviners bowed deprecatingly, 
 but no one returned a word. Their wits were 
 put to it. Who should risk the first attempt to 
 soothe the alienated intellect of the tyrant ? 
 
 " Diviners of Babylon ! The king hath no 
 leisure to wait your laggard skill. Interpret 
 unto me my dream." 
 
 This time a voice answered firmly enough, 
 
 " Tell us thy dream, O Nebuchadrezzar, that 
 we may perchance interpret it to thee. Any 
 priest of us will do the possible to serve the 
 king. The impossible, that we may not do, for 
 kings or gods." 
 
 It was Mutusa-ili who spoke. He was pale 
 and had an agitated look, but it could not be 
 called an expression of fear. 
 
 " I tell ye not ! " thundered the monarch. 
 " Interpret unto me my dream." 
 
 Mutusa-ili made a striking motion with his 
 hands : it was as full of dignity as of despon- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 127 
 
 dency ; it needed no words, and was accompanied 
 by none. The king understood it perfectly ; so 
 did the unhappy priests ; they glanced at each 
 other and trembled. Would their chief make 
 no feint even of performing the miracle ? For 
 his life's sake and theirs, would he not pre- 
 tend for a moment? Would he substitute in- 
 conceivable self-respect for the natural effort 
 to play with or delay the delusion of this mad- 
 man? 
 
 The priests muttered together in strange 
 tongues unknown to the common people. A 
 diviner from the temple of Nebo at Borsippa, 
 distinguished for his skill, gathered his breath, 
 and stepped out from the rank and file. 
 
 " The son of Merodach is wiser than the chil- 
 dren of men," he began, with a bravado which 
 easily passed for assurance ; " he dreameth as 
 he pleaseth, and demandeth as he willeth. Be- 
 hold I, even I, high priest of the temple of the 
 Seven Spheres of Heaven and of Earth, do ven- 
 ture to interpret the dream of the king." 
 
 A murmur of excitement buzzed through the 
 hall. Mutusa-ili did not raise his eyes ; they 
 had returned to the claws of the throne ; he was 
 watching the clutched and tortured Jew. 
 
 " The dream of the king," proceeded the 
 priest, " was even as I say. Bel-Merodach hath 
 revealed it unto me, even since I have been in 
 
1'28 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 the royal presence at this hour. Nebuchadrezzar 
 hath dreamed " 
 
 " Well ? " asked the king sardonically, for 
 the priest halted. 
 
 " It is too terrible ! " groaned the priest, as if 
 seized with sudden agony. " It tormenteth my 
 soul. Behold, if I reveal it, a panic will snatch 
 the people. Revolt will fire the land. So 
 ghastly and so hideous to the heart of man is 
 the dream of the king that Merodach com- 
 mandeth me, and I obey. 4 Speak it not,' com- 
 mandeth Bel ; ' tell thou not the direful thing 
 in the presence of the king's people ' " 
 
 " Thou art skillful," interrupted the king 
 grimly. " Thy head will be a fair price for so 
 shrewd a venture." 
 
 " Nay, does my lord the king command me to 
 disobey the divine voice, even the will of his 
 father Merodach ? " 
 
 This was regarded by most of the spectators 
 as a poser on the part of the priest from Bor- 
 sippa. The people were on the whole surprised, 
 when the king reiterated, 
 
 " Soothsayers of Babylon ! Interpret unto 
 Nebuchadrezzar his dream." 
 
 " I obey," faltered a magician known as the 
 famous astrologer of the cupola of the temple 
 of Zarpanit. " I can interpret the king's dream. 
 Behold, my lord, thou hast dreamed " 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 129* 
 
 " Ye-es ? " drawled Amytis pleasantly. The 
 queen was becoming ennuyee with these priests, 
 " It sounds easy. Pray proceed, sir priest. 
 Hurry a little, to please a queen." 
 
 " That is precisely why I hesitate," answered 
 the priest promptly. He blushed and stam- 
 mered ; he wore an air of superior delicacy. 
 " Alas," he said, " it is even true. The dream 
 and the interpretation thereof are no matter for 
 the ear of the queen. Nay, they are not sub- 
 jects for the hearing of ladies; and the audi- 
 ence hall aboundeth with ladies. I pray thee, 
 my lord, have me excused from such an immod- 
 esty." 
 
 A slight laugh rippled through the hall at 
 this piece of bravado ; which, considering the 
 state of morals and manners in Babylonia, was 
 ingenious, to say the least of it. But Amytis 
 frowned. 
 
 " Nay, then, my lord," she pouted, " if thou 
 dreamest such things as may not be told thy 
 queen, for my part I would that the king kept 
 his dreams to himself and made them not pub- 
 lic. I am indebted to the priest from the temple 
 of Zarpanit, and I particularly request thy favor 
 in consideration of his delicacy." 
 
 But the king was now so thoroughly angry 
 that the queen's jest hit the wrong nerve. In 
 terrible tones, he reiterated his demand : 
 
130 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 "Tell me my dream, and interpret it unto 
 me, or ye die for it. Yea, even to the number 
 of a thousand shall ye die." 
 
 Silence replied to this threat. Nebuchadrez- 
 zar leaned forward in his seat. Its arm was 
 carved at the edge in the form of a sacred goose. 
 The king's fingers closed over the ivory head 
 and bill. The delicate handiwork could not 
 stand the brutal strain. It snapped and broke. 
 In ungovernable fury, the king tore off the arm 
 and hurled the missile at the last speaker. It 
 smote the unhappy priest straight on the temple, 
 and he fell ; and even where he fell, his false 
 brains rushed forth, and there he died. This 
 episode recalled the king to himself, but did not 
 tend to soothe the anxiety of his subjects. 
 
 " And thou, Mutusa-ili, master of my youth, 
 diviner of my manhood, and sage in whom I 
 trusted, are the gods at the hunt ? Are they 
 asleep?" The king turned upon the old man 
 with impetuous ferocity, tinged with a love and 
 respect which he could not shake off, even in so 
 mad a moment. 
 
 Mutusa-ili made no answer, but the tremu- 
 lous motion of his robe revealed the convulsive 
 agitation of his hands. After a pause, the king's 
 voice raised itself sarcastically : 
 
 " Awake thy words, old man. Recall thy wan- 
 dering powers, or, by this dream, thou too liest 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 131 
 
 like yonder corpse." He pointed at the body, 
 which two slaves were bearing from the hall. 
 
 At the king's last words a terrible shriek tore 
 the air. It seemed to proceed from the winged 
 bull that guarded the entrance to the judgment 
 hall. The sound fluttered wildly for a moment, 
 and died away wailing. 
 
 "An omen ! " cried the priests. Even the 
 king seemed shaken by the weird and human 
 cry. The bearded mouth of the majestic bull 
 might have been thought to wear a sarcastic ex- 
 pression, but remained shut as tight as ever. At 
 the cry, Mutusa-ili changed color, and, gathering 
 his strength to his bosom, spoke to the monarch 
 in severe tones : 
 
 " O king, live forever! Be it known unto 
 thee, by the tongue of a prophet of the gods, 
 that there is not a man upon the earth that can 
 show the king's matter. Therefore, O king, tell 
 thy servants the dream, and I will show thee the 
 interpretation." 
 
 " The thing is gone from me," said the king 
 confusedly. " Even if I would, am I a magi- 
 cian, such as thou pretendest to be ? Can I tell 
 thee what is not ? Tell me the dream, I say, 
 the dream ! " 
 
 " But, O king, deign to remember. Hath 
 great Sargon recorded the like ? Hath Sippara 
 or Cutha, yea, or Babylon, books that have 
 
132 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 sealed upon the imperishable clay a like require- 
 ment ? What king, since when Xisuthrus built 
 the bituminous ark, hath demanded such a rare 
 thing of any enchanter or Chaldean? I tell 
 thee, mighty king, that there is none other that 
 can show it before the king except the gods, 
 whose dwelling is not with flesh." 
 
 The old man's voice rang loud. These brave 
 words comforted the magicians with a short- 
 lived hope. 
 
 " Thou liest," said the king, scowling. " Ye 
 have all prepared lying and corrupt words to 
 gain a space of time. My will changeth not. 
 Ye have failed, and ye die. Thus do I purge 
 the land of rot. Here, bring me my tablet. 
 Write the decree. My judgment seal hath 
 struck the soft clay even as I shall strike the 
 heads from off this tribe of cursed impostors. 
 Yea, I say it, even I in my glory, ye shall be 
 cut to pieces ; ye shall be fed to lions, to vul- 
 tures, and to crocodiles ; and your houses shall be 
 made a dunghill. Go, Allit. Lead them forth. 
 Pierce their tongues. Blind them with spears. 
 Let not the sun set upon a quiver of their car- 
 casses, or thou too losest thy perfumed head. 
 Go, I say. By Merodach my father, that 
 which I have sworn, that will I perform." 
 
 Before the king ceased speaking, that wail- 
 ing cry, which had seemed to proceed from 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 133 
 
 the human-headed bull, was repeated with such 
 piercing insistence that every man looked at his 
 neighbor, and even in the suffocating heat of 
 the vast crowd grew cold to the heart with 
 superstitious fear. From behind the paws of 
 the stone monster a veiled figure shot ; seemed 
 to try to rise, as if it would fly above the heads 
 of the people ; and then fluttered down like a 
 wounded or a netted bird. Men and women 
 made way for the apparition ; it bounded be- 
 tween them in lithe leaps, and, before a hand 
 was raised to stay it, sank at the feet of the 
 king. The veil fell in her flight, and the child- 
 like face of Lalitha lifted itself like an exqui- 
 site, obeisant carving to the throne. 
 
 44 Why, king, good king, dear king, you have 
 made a mistake. You would not kill my father? 
 You could not kill my father?" The girl's 
 sweet voice, thrilling with unconsciousness of 
 herself, uttered these naive words in a tone that 
 could be heard to the ends of the hall. " He is 
 a good man," pleaded Lalitha. " Everybody 
 knows that we live alone together, with one slave 
 woman yonder, who brought me hither. Groat 
 king! You have everything, a queen, and 
 all the people. I am a poor girl. I have no- 
 body but my father. I have heard him say you 
 are a good, wise king. You will not kill him, 
 you will not kill my father! " 
 
134 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Ah, there," said Lalitha, suddenly dropping 
 her voice, " there is the queen. I see her now. 
 I was behind the stone god. The queen will 
 save my father. She will beg the king for a 
 poor girl . . . and an old man . . . my father's 
 life, queen ! His life, king ! His old life . . . 
 his precious, oh, his precious life ! " 
 
 " But I have set my seal," protested the 
 king ; he was evidently much moved. He mut- 
 tered to himself, " Beautiful ! beautiful ! " A 
 relenting of the muscles softened all the lines of 
 his dark face. Mutusa-ili held his breath. La- 
 litha had the wit not to add a word to her spon- 
 taneous plea. She drew closer to the throne, 
 crawling upon her knees, and bent her head to 
 the footstool of Nebuchadrezzar ; her lovely lips 
 pressed his sandal. 
 
 Then Amytis, who had preserved an ominous 
 silence, opened her petulant mouth and spoke 
 distinctly : 
 
 " I know the girl. She is a low creature. 
 She should not touch thee, Nebuchadrezzar. 
 Spurn her from thee." 
 
 The king drew a sharp breath, pressed his 
 hand to his forehead perplexedly, and made a 
 motion of dismissal to Lalitha. 
 
 " If I had not set my seal in the clay " he 
 began, with what seemed to be genuine softness 
 and sadness. "But the judgment seal hath 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 135 
 
 stamped the condemnation in the legal clay. 
 By the honor of the throne of Babylon, Mu- 
 tusa-ili dieth. Trouble me not. Yex me no 
 more ! " cried the king wildly. " I am a-wea- 
 ried of the matter. Take the girl away ! " 
 
 In the confusion which followed this scene, 
 only two persons in the hall noticed the captain 
 of the guards. At the sight of Lalitha, Allit's 
 face had become suffused, and as dark as his 
 helmet. He motioned to an officer to take his 
 place, and with bowed head rushed from the 
 court. Two women observed his appearance 
 and departure. They were Amytis the queen, 
 who frowned, and Ina, the daughter of Egibi, 
 who blushed. Lalitha neither frowned nor 
 blushed. Lalitha did not think about Allit. 
 She knelt, a prostrate, piteous figure, at the feet 
 of the king, her being poured out in entreaty, 
 as wine pours from a silver shell. Father love 
 is older than lover's love ; and in emergencies it 
 measures deeper. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 MUTUSA-ILI felt that his humiliation was 
 complete. Must a girl plead for his life ? That 
 it was his own girl did not seem to help the 
 matter. The meanest slave was less pitiable 
 than he. In a prominent place sat Egibi, his 
 brother, the treasurer of the king. It could not 
 be said that there was no affection in Egibi's 
 face ; but like most influential sympathy, it was 
 more ornamental than useful. Mutusa-ili turned 
 towards Allit for support, for his limbs trembled 
 beneath him ; but the captain had gone. At 
 this moment was he preparing the death-war- 
 rant? It would have been something to the old 
 teacher if he could have even seen the boy Susa. 
 The circle of dependent priests about the dis- 
 graced sage had widened, and he stood severely 
 apart and miserably alone. Death seemed less 
 hard than this bitter moment, this huge and 
 only failure of his life. 
 
 While Lalitha clasped the king's feet, Mu- 
 tusa-ili would have prayed, if he had thought of 
 any gods in whom he felt any particular confi- 
 dence. He knew too well that her naive inter- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 187 
 
 cession was his last hope. When that failed his 
 heart died within him. 
 
 But the queen's words stung the old man's 
 disabled pride. It was the chief of the royal 
 astrologers who raised his head from beneath 
 that blow. When the decree of death had gone 
 forth, Mutusa-ili, with a commanding gesture, 
 approached the throne". He spoke with passion- 
 ate but dignified emphasis : 
 
 " Behold, I declare it unto gods and men, my 
 daughter, this maiden, is as white as the wings 
 of the morning. Let God deal with her accuser. 
 She needeth a greater Judge than I. And thou, 
 O king, hear me, thy master. The stars decree 
 that neither I nor these die by thy impious hand. 
 Before thou wast born, or Babylon was built, 
 the gods were." The old man raised himself to 
 a majestic height, and stretched out both hands ; 
 his long fingers beckoned the soothsayers to 
 approach. 
 
 " Nebuchadrezzar, king of Bab}don ! I swear 
 it by the seven planets, yea, by the hidden 
 word of II, I swear that thou diest, and thy 
 kingdom become a piecemeal to many nations, 
 if thou takest these anointed lives. Nay, hear 
 me, son of Merodach, nor vex thyself at my 
 inspired speech. Behold and see ! Here we 
 stand. I draw about this people the mystic 
 circle of the skies. Fall back, ye slaves and 
 
138 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 soldiers. Step but a sandal within this awful 
 ring, and Eaman blasts ye in his wrath. Back, 
 I say ! or I hurl the curse of Anu, II, and Hea 
 at ye, and your first-born die ! " 
 
 Now, Mutusa-ili was consciously perpetrating 
 the last fraud of his life ; it was for life's sake, 
 and we may forgive him. He had small faith 
 in his own incantation ; but the people had, 
 that was the main thing. In vain the king- 
 commanded and threatened. Not a soldier 
 would cross the magic line to arrest the diviner. 
 Not a slave dared touch the hem of his garment. 
 The priests fell on their faces before it. The 
 spectators trembled with excitement. Only La- 
 litha turned toward him. The young girl, veil- 
 ing herself, crept upon her knees from the feet 
 of the throne toward the feet of her old father ; 
 but when she reached the sacred circle, she too 
 paused thereat, and humbly, dutifully, beauti- 
 fully, bowing her head, she kissed the invisible 
 barrier, and passed it not. 
 
 This exquisite exhibition of trust in Mutusa- 
 ili's sacred art created a momentary sensation, 
 of which the soothsayer was not slow to take ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 We said that Mutusa-ili perpetrated the last 
 fraud of his life. To do him justice, this scene 
 was not entirely fraudulent. The wisdom of 
 the East is a mystical wisdom, and Mutusa-ili 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 139 
 
 had been trained not only in it, but by it. He 
 could look back upon a novitiate of seven, yea, 
 of fourteen years, in the most ancient, most 
 powerful, and, so far as is yet revealed, the most 
 honest brotherhood of seers known to the Orient. 
 What he had seen, many a king would have 
 given a conquered nation to witness. What he 
 had performed, many a sage would have given 
 his life to imitate. But these choice experiences 
 were a law unto themselves. Their own mas- 
 ters might be entirely unable to control the 
 force which they had evoked. Marvels which 
 the diviner had wooed by fastings and scourges, 
 and blood and tears and vigils, and sought for 
 years and in vain, might flash upon him at the 
 turn of a moment, blinding him with light and 
 with glory. No one knew better than the sage 
 of Babylon the caprice of mystery. Yet no 
 one was as much moved as he, when the major- 
 domo of the court, Ashpenaz, with haughty 
 mien and defiant bearing, strode forward to re- 
 trieve his awkwardness before the royal pair. 
 Thus, with a bravado of obedience to the king's 
 command, he boldly pushed the frightened sol- 
 diers aside, and stepped to the magic line. Mu- 
 tusa-ili stood towering. His gaunt eyes burned ; 
 they seemed to see nothing newer than the art 
 and wisdom of ten thousand years. He muttered 
 strange words in an untranslatable tongue. He 
 
140 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 made with his long hands curious motions, un- 
 familiar to the popular necromancy and to the 
 common practice of his art. Ashpenaz paused, 
 wavered ; he put his hand to his heart ; one 
 foot crossed the imaginary line ; he gave a ter- 
 rible cry, and fell, face down. The soldiers raised 
 him fearfully. He was livid and senseless. 
 
 Mutusa-ili paid no attention to this incident. 
 He regarded the king solemnly. 
 
 " Thou art the greatest of the magicians," said 
 Nebuchadrezzar uneasily, " but canst thou in- 
 terpret to me my dream ? " 
 
 Alas for Mutusa-ili! He made a pleading, 
 upward motion of the hands towards Nebu- 
 chadrezzar, but retained a piteous silence. The 
 king leaned back on his ivory throne, and 
 laughed. 
 
 " Balatsu-usur ! Oh, Balatsu-usur ! Art thou 
 here ? " 
 
 Susa stood panting before a wooden door set 
 in from the thick wall, and hidden in a dark and 
 narrow corridor of the state apartments adjoin- 
 ing the university of Bel, and set apart for dis- 
 tinguished students. The lad threw his whole 
 weight upon the panels to force the barrier open. 
 But he could not ; the wooden peg which held 
 the door was placed in sure position. 
 
 " Balatsu-usur, noble Jew, it is I, the brother 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 141 
 
 of Allit. He sendeth me in mortal haste. An- 
 swer, quick, in the name of thine own God ! " 
 
 At the last invocation the peg was drawn, and 
 the door swung back upon its bronze sockets. 
 Susa drew back with awe. A figure, whose face 
 was of the whiteness of an oleander, stood before 
 him. Daniel's robe was refulgent ; it harmo- 
 nized with the tints of his countenance. It was 
 as though the full moon had bathed him with a 
 sheen which, like glaze on brick, refused to fade 
 away. There was a tradition handed down from 
 father to son, among the priestly class of Aaron, 
 that Moses once, on the mountain of Sinai, 
 caught the radiance of the one God, and that it 
 abode for many days upon his countenance, to 
 the destruction of those who dared to lift his 
 veil and look. Daniel at this moment had such 
 an appearance. Susa felt himself seized by a 
 holy fear. 
 
 " At last thou hast come," said the Jew gently. 
 "Hath Mutusa-ili shown the king his dream?" 
 Daniel still stood in the narrow doorway, but 
 Susa, he knew not why, continued to kneel out- 
 side. 
 
 " Quickly ! quickly ! " entreated the lad. 
 " My lord, prince of Israel, stay not to question 
 me, but fly to the judgment hall. My brother 
 Allit, the captain, goeth out of his wits for 
 grief. He bade me bring thee faster than the 
 
142 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 raven flieth, for life's sake, he said, and for 
 Lalitha's." 
 
 In liis excitement, the boy leaned forward to 
 pluck Daniel's robe that he might hasten him, 
 but the seer drew it back with a strange reluc- 
 tance. 
 
 " Nay, touch me not," he said solemnly, " lest 
 the vision of the night go from me. Let me 
 forth. Follow thou me." 
 
 " If a girl can kiss the incantation, I should 
 fancy a soldier might cross it," observed Amytis 
 scornfully. The challenge of a handsome woman 
 always piques men, and dares them on in their 
 own despite ; and the queen, though none too 
 much respected, was comely of countenance, and 
 admired in Babylon. A guardsman responded 
 impulsively to her taunt ; and after a moment's 
 hesitation, two or three others followed him. At 
 the magic line they paused. Instinctive rever- 
 ence, if not a genuine dread, withheld them 
 a little. Lalitha's kneeling figure seemed to 
 waver before their eyes like white fire offered to 
 a goddess. She did not raise her head. She 
 seemed as unconscious of their proximity as a 
 spirit. Her lips touched the sacred circle ; they 
 moved in gentle prayer. 
 
 Mutusa-ili stood motionless in the centre of 
 the circle. He had a majestic air. Something 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 143 
 
 of scorn was in it. The terror of the people was 
 his respite, if not his reprieve. He looked across 
 the sweet protection of Lalitha ; he could not 
 trust himself to touch her, even to glance at her. 
 He eyed the soldiers imperiously. Thus they 
 stood, superstition, womanhood, and force im- 
 pressively arrayed against each other. 
 
 " Arrest the priest ! " cried the king. " Arrest 
 the soothsayer, or, by my own hand, your lives 
 shall answer for it, and ye go forth like the 
 corpse of him ye did behold ! " 
 
 " Stay thy judgment, king of Babylonia ! " 
 The well-known voice of the king's captain rang 
 manfully through the hall ; his guardsmen rec- 
 ognized their superior officer, and, with military 
 precision, turned about face and saluted him. 
 
 " Behold, I have found a man," cried Allit, 
 " I have found a man of the children of the cap- 
 tivity of Judah, who will make known unto the 
 king the interpretation of his dream." . . . 
 
 Daniel stood before the king and before the 
 soothsayers. The young Jew shone like a god. 
 A splendor clothed him as if it fell through a 
 sun-shot cloud. Many spectators hid their faces. 
 But Mutusa-ili regarded him steadfastly. The 
 soothsayer said to himself, 
 
 " This is the radiance of a pure heart and of 
 an honest life." 
 
144 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Lalitha still knelt at the margin of the en- 
 chanted line, devoutly and devotedly. The first 
 thing which the prince of Israel did was to lift 
 the maiden to her feet ; this he did with great 
 gentleness and reverence. Kisrinni came for- 
 ward from the crowd, and seemed to envelop 
 the poor girl and to mother her out of sight. 
 The next act of Daniel's was simple enough and 
 tremendous enough. He crossed the circle of 
 the incantation. He crossed it firmly and 
 quietly, making no fuss about it in any way, and, 
 respectfully moving Mutusa-ili to one side, took 
 his place before the throne. 
 
 Cries from the priests, shouts from the crowd, 
 protests from the soldiers, jangled through the 
 air ; but they sounded like the jeers of jackdaws 
 at a sacred bell. Nothing happened, absolutely 
 nothing. The Jew neither dropped dead, nor 
 withered to a monkey, nor fell palsied, for his 
 blasphemy. At the very moment when the 
 young devotee saved the aged soothsayer, he 
 ruined him. Mutusa-ili gave his reputation, his 
 system, his faith in an art, his faith in himself, 
 and the faith of a nation in him, for his aged 
 life. 
 
 So Balatsu-usur told the king his dream. It 
 is on record in an older Book than this that the 
 young man did this deed ; and the dream and 
 the interpretation thereof will be found therein. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE .MAGICIANS. 145 
 
 minutely related. It was, on the whole, rather 
 a dull dream, like other dreams, of no particu- 
 lar interest except to the dreamer. 
 
 But wild rumors of the case had gone afloat. 
 The audience in the judgment hall had grown 
 to crushing proportions. Many fell, and were 
 trampled on in their efforts to hear or to see. 
 The crowd was so great that much which was 
 said by the Jew was of necessity lost to the mass. 
 
 But when the young man had reported to the 
 king the details of the dream which was a 
 much-mixed matter, worthy of the fantasy of a 
 gifted maniac, he raised his voice, and spoke 
 loudly before the king and all the people ; and 
 what he said was remembered in Babylon for 
 many a year. 
 
 " Have I, Nebuchadrezzar, told unto thee thy 
 dream?" 
 
 And the king made answer gently : 
 
 "Thou tellest me the dream." 
 
 " Thou didst behold this great Image. Gold 
 was its head. Brass was its belly. Iron were 
 its feet ; but clay was in them. And behold, a 
 stone, carved without hands, did smite the Im- 
 age, and it fell. Tell I thee thy dream ? " 
 
 And the king repeated humbly : 
 
 " Thou hast told me my dream." 
 
 Then the young man answered solemnly, but 
 his mien was modest, and in his eye could be 
 
146 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 seen no more human fear than in that of an 
 eagle in mid-heaven : 
 
 " Thou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom 
 the God of Heaven hath given the kingdom, the 
 power, the strength, and the glory . . . and 
 after thee shall arise another kingdom . . . and 
 another . . . and a fourth . . . but the God of 
 Heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall 
 never be destroyed ; but it shall break to pieces 
 all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for- 
 ever." . . . 
 
 It would have taken but the turn of a whim, 
 when Balatsu-usur had said these words, to have 
 torn him in pieces. Half a thousand soothsay- 
 ers could have done it, though they took their 
 lives from his white hand. Amytis would have 
 done it ; but she admired him too much. The 
 king might have done it ; but the king where 
 was the king ? 
 
 Prostrate upon his royal face, prostrate be- 
 fore the court, the queen, the people down 
 like a pleading conscience or a suppliant faith, 
 Nebuchadrezzar the Great lay in the dust before 
 his captive Jew, and worshiped him right roy- 
 ally. 
 
 " Thou art the Master of the Magicians ! ? ' 
 said the king. " For . thou commandest the 
 power of thy God, and thou controllest the spirit 
 of man." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BEFORE nightfall, Babylon was astir with the 
 facts and the rumors of the day's event. The 
 captive Jew had become the hero of royal whim 
 and of popular excitement. Plain moral purity 
 and religious fervor had done for the young man 
 what a lifetime of political scheming had failed 
 to do for many a gray-headed, disappointed ad- 
 venturer ; then, as in all ages, intrigue regarded 
 the success of sincerity with astonishment. On 
 the whole, simple surprise overcame jealousy in 
 the court. The deed was so confusing, it was 
 so confounding, that it caused more intellectual 
 embarrassment than ill-feeling. The Babylo- 
 nians discussed it with hot attention, but for the 
 most part genially enough. The truth was, it 
 was hard not to like this extraordinary Jew. 
 Something about him compelled the kinder feel- 
 ings. The boisterous nature of that rude time 
 did not know what to make of him. His mo- 
 tives were as inconceivable to them as the astron- 
 omy of twenty centuries to come. They dis- 
 cussed him as they would a discovery in science. 
 
 Daniel had hastened from the judgment hall 
 
148 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 as soon and as fast as he was permitted. To 
 the king's excessive adulations he had replied 
 with much emotion : 
 
 " Rise, Nebuchadrezzar. Worship me not, for 
 I am but a man, and the servant of the Most 
 High God. Worship Him who did reveal the 
 matter unto me in the night-watches, and whose 
 will alone I do. Behold, there is one God, and 
 He is holy. Jehovah is his name. Worship 
 thou Him" 
 
 " If thou art his representative," said Nebu- 
 chadrezzar, " verily I will consider the matter ; 
 for he appeareth to me to be an intelligent god, 
 quite worthy of some attention." 
 
 Now, as Nebuchadrezzar was known to be 
 pretty constant to one or two pet deities of the 
 highest order, but was also agile in carrying on 
 what might be called a kind of celestial flirta- 
 tion with many minor gods, Daniel was not as 
 much impressed with his proselyte as he might 
 have been. 
 
 " Explain thou to him," said the king conde- 
 scendingly, " that he may command the services 
 of Nebuchadrezzar the Great, son of Bel-Mero- 
 dach. It will probably be of some value to him 
 to know the fact." 
 
 Half sick at heart in the very hour of his tri- 
 umph, the Jew remained silent before the idol- 
 ater, and glided from the court, that he might 
 calm his soul in solitude. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 149 
 
 " He goeth to pray," said the priest from 
 Borsippa. "Jehovah keepeth him at it pretty 
 constantly. He must be an exacting god." 
 
 But Amytis the queen watched the young 
 man narrowly. She said to Mariamnu, 
 
 " A very handsome fellow ! " 
 
 Amytis was lightly attracted by success. She 
 easily idealized prominent people. She leaned 
 toward the king, and chatted about the favorite 
 of the hour with unprecedented interest. It did 
 not detract from her animation that Allit could 
 observe this, if he would take the trouble. 
 
 Daniel was in his plain little room in the 
 outer apartments of the university, at the hour 
 of sunset : he stood, according to the custom of 
 the captive people, with his face toward the 
 west ; his hands were outstretched for the even- 
 ing prayer ; his countenance was lifted away 
 from the world of men and the affairs thereof. 
 The captain of the guards, who had sought him 
 upon an official errand, paused with a light foot 
 and bowed head. Daniel remained at prayer 
 for some time. Allit did not like to interrupt 
 him. He could not understand this perplexing 
 captive. The man of pleasure was thoroughly 
 puzzled by the ascetic. 
 
 " No wine," thought Allit, " no banquets, no 
 battles, no women. Not a woman ! Not even 
 
150 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 a slave ! And, verily, I believe he is younger 
 than I." 
 
 When Daniel came to the end of his prayer, 
 he did not seem surprised to see the captain ; 
 Daniel, it was said, was seldom surprised. He 
 gave Allit an extraordinarily beautiful smile, 
 warm, human, manly, tender ; it made words 
 of welcome unnecessary. But Allit was used to 
 talking ; and, as quickly as possible, he made 
 known to Balatsu-usur the startling announce- 
 ment that the interpreter of the king's dream 
 had been appointed governor of the province 
 of Babylonia, and was expected henceforth to 
 make his home at the court and near the person 
 of the king. 
 
 Daniel received his incredible appointment 
 with composure. 
 
 " A thousand pardoned men will see to-mor- 
 row's sun," said the Jew joyously ; " and the 
 maiden abideth with her father in her own 
 place." 
 
 And so it was that Daniel, the courtier, was 
 commanded by the king to attend his first hunt. 
 Whatever political upheavals rent the court or 
 the city, whatever the mood of the king or the 
 season of the year, the hunt was not inter- 
 rupted. Once a month it fell due. If very ex- 
 citing, it was often prolonged for several days. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 151 
 
 Perhaps the master of the chase led the court 
 upon stocky Susanian horses, with arrow and 
 with spear aimed against the wild boar, whose 
 lair was along the banks of the great river ; and 
 the king was diverted when his mastiffs had 
 brought one of these tusked brutes to bay ; he 
 enjoyed piercing it with a bronze-tipped shaft. 
 Sometimes the leashed Lydian greyhounds 
 coursed the wild ox or the shy stag upon the 
 plain, and the stallion of the desert sprang to 
 speed the royal hunter to the death. 
 
 But Nebuchadrezzar in his more violent moods 
 was not satisfied to pursue either the boar, the 
 wild ox, the hyena, or the bear. There is no 
 more sovereign game than the lion, or the lioness 
 with cub. Even the striped tiger is less danger- 
 ous than the dark-maned lions of the plain of 
 Doura. It was fit that the king of men should 
 meet the king of beasts on terms of equality. 
 
 As an additional effort to drive the cares of 
 state from the mind of the king, this hunt was 
 planned on the night of the full moon. It was 
 to be held outside the southern walls of the city 
 of Babylon. Here began the long extent of the 
 plain of Doura. Canals intersected the land, 
 and the fertility of the soil was famous in a 
 country where wheat returned to a sower two 
 hundred and often three hundred fold. Among 
 mulberry and olive groves, many a private man- 
 
152 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 sion, like a huge white cameo cut upon a bril- 
 liant green background, loomed impressively. 
 Towers of temples rose from the low horizon, 
 and before an elaborate shrine, set midway in 
 the plain, the shadow of one of those numerous 
 likenesses of himself, which Nebuchadrezzar 
 scattered over the land, fell pompously. 
 
 The quick night had nearly come. The cav- 
 alcade of the hunting-party had ridden far and 
 fast. Gates and bridges were open at their ap- 
 proach, and there had been no halt until they 
 drew breath before this temple for refreshments. 
 The party was a small one, but unusual, be- 
 cause the queen, with one female attendant in 
 her chariot, accompanied the hunt. It was her 
 freak, and the king denied her not. Daniel 
 drove in one of the royal chariots, as befitted 
 the governor of the richest province in the 
 world. Allit rode his horse, and directed the 
 attendants, mounted and on foot. By his side, 
 a second horse was trained to keep perfect step. 
 This insured another mount in case of danger. 
 Nebuchadrezzar drove in his two- wheeled hunt- 
 ing-chariot, behind three eager Persian horses, 
 specially reared for the chase. At his left, the 
 bare-headed charioteer held the round reins. 
 The hunting- chariot, with the exception of the 
 double quiver attached to the outside, was un- 
 ornamented, plain even to severity ; but the 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 153 
 
 equipment of the horses betrayed care, from 
 their banged forelocks and tasseled breastplates 
 to their long tails, tied in the middle with a yel- 
 low ribbon. 
 
 Nergal was the national deity of the chase, 
 and his was the temple before which they 
 stopped. 
 
 The king and his retinue halted at the outer 
 gates of the walled inclosure. A hundred priests 
 awaited him. Daniel and Allit, with a few others, 
 alighted, while Nebuchadrezzar poured a liba- 
 tion before the god. Daniel would have re- 
 mained behind, away from this idolatrous rite, 
 but his rank compelled attendance. 
 
 It did not take long to spill the wines, to in- 
 spect the entrails, to consume the sacrifice, and 
 to set all the pious flummery of the occasion in 
 action. 
 
 The omens all proved favorable, and Nergal 
 naturally gave his sanction and protection to his 
 richest patron and to the moonlight hunt. That 
 was the important point. The horses were 
 exchanged. The party took their hasty lunch 
 of roasted pheasants and rice, of fruits and 
 wine. Daniel ate only dried dates and drank 
 the tepid water of irrigation, to the disgust of 
 the rest. The ram's horn rang, and they were 
 away. 
 
 The entrance to the paradise of the king lay 
 
154 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 not many rods from the temple of Nergal. This 
 tract was at once a park and a hunting-preserve. 
 It was a square of many miles, and was bounded 
 on its four sides by deep and wide canals that 
 cut each other at the corners, and thus formed 
 an impassable moat. There was but one entrance 
 to these grounds ; it was given by a wide bridge 
 supported on inflated skins. On the side of 
 the park a heavy wooden gate forbade exit. 
 This unapproachable territory was a natural 
 jungle and an artificial grove. There were no 
 houses in the inclosure ; only a few huts, where 
 the keepers of the captive beasts lived and 
 guarded their dangerous game. 
 
 Near the centre of the grove were the cages ; 
 full fifty of these could be seen, gaunt in the 
 moonlight. From many of them, fierce growls 
 and the deep, unmistakable cry of the famished 
 lions could be heard. 
 
 This was Daniel's first introduction to the 
 king's private hunting-ground, and the new 
 favorite asked his charioteer many questions as 
 they drove rapidly towards the cages : Whence 
 came the animals? From across the desert? 
 Were not the most ferocious captured in the 
 province? How long did it take to starve a 
 lion? How many keepers a year perished, on 
 the average ? And how often a hunter ? Slave ? 
 yes. But courtier ? Death by the jaws of a 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 155 
 
 lion, how was it considered, as death goes ? 
 Except for the horror, was it more than another ? 
 
 When the huntsmen reined up before the 
 barred inclosures, Nebuchadrezzar alighted, as 
 he was wont, to inspect the game. He stepped 
 from one cage to another, and jabbed the furious 
 lions with a spear to test their temper. He 
 uttered low chuckles of delight when a fierce 
 snarl or a vicious slap of the paw made the 
 strong cage shake. 
 
 The king taunted his antagonists. The on- 
 slaught, when it came, was the more desper- 
 ate and deadly, for all animals respond to a 
 taunt in proportion to their ferocity. Not one 
 of these sportsmen, who shuddered before Mu- 
 tusa-ili's false incantations, was afraid to meet 
 a famished lion in single combat. Such hand- 
 to-paw fights, where weapon and claw were 
 matched, often made the issue exceedingly 
 doubtful. Nebuchadrezzar had dispatched no 
 less than nine hundred lions with his own hand. 
 Judge if his fingers trembled on his bow-string, 
 when the hot breath of the fiercest of its kind 
 enveloped him. 
 
 By this time the hundred beaters had taken 
 their positions on foot along the edges of the 
 jungle, to frighten the game back into the open 
 clearing when it came that way. There were 
 three chariots in all ; these rolled up under thick 
 
156 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 shade at some distance from the cages, but 
 near enough to see the direction the liberated 
 lions should take. The king, the queen, and 
 Daniel, with their respective foot attendants, 
 formed one picturesque and eager group. Each 
 was armed with a bow and two quivers full of 
 arrows. At the left side of the hunter hung a 
 double-edged short sword, and on the right hip 
 a dagger. Every quiver held a sharp hatchet, 
 provided for the last emergency, and at the 
 back of the chariot a long spear rested in its 
 socket. This was to ward off an attack from 
 the rear. Amytis and Mariamnu, her slave, 
 were armed like the rest, but they did not 
 carry the sword. At their side a gigantic war- 
 rior held a high shield, and made ready to pro- 
 tect the women with his lance or his life. Allit 
 was everywhere, stationing the men and giving 
 loud commands. Amytis watched him out of 
 her almond-shaped eyes. The order of this 
 hunt was as follows : "If the lion come thy 
 way, lift up thy voice. Yea, lift it till thou 
 howlest, that thou frighten the game toward the 
 royal party. Give the king the first attack." 
 
 The moon was full. The light on the long 
 plain was intense. The jungle lay in the dis- 
 tance like a low cloud. Every object sharpened, 
 stood out in relief, or took to itself a shadow 
 black as bitumen from Hit. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 157 
 
 " Dost thou tremble, Balatsu-usur ? " Amytis 
 leaned over and touched his arm with the sharp 
 point of an arrow. Her voice tinkled through 
 the silence like a shallow bell. Daniel would 
 have answered, but his horses suddenly shivered 
 under their rattling harness. The door of the 
 largest cage had been opened from above, and 
 the captive had rushed forth to fatal freedom. 
 
 In the first pride of his recovered liberty, the 
 royal beast stood with mane erect. His tufted 
 tail lashed his sides with dull thuds. Which 
 way would he turn ? The lion gave a disdainful 
 look at the slave crouching in his cage built 
 above the empty prison. It too often happened 
 that the unfortunate man whose task it was to 
 free the lions was burned next day in his 
 earthen coffin, and sent to the City of the Dead. 
 The perilous privilege of opening the cage was 
 sometimes given to convicted robbers, as a chance 
 to earn their lives. 
 
 This particular lion seemed a little puzzled by 
 his freedom, and glared about him hesitatingly. 
 Growls from the caged beasts greeted him far 
 up and down the park. He threw back his head, 
 and answered them by a roar that made the 
 night start. In response to this came quickly 
 the best thing that our poor race can offer in the 
 shape of a human roar. The united lungs of 
 the hunting-party raised the tremendous shout 
 
158 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 which was intended to provoke the game. The 
 lion made a blind dart at he knew not what, 
 and espying a slave, who had been stationed as 
 a decoy beneath a palm-tree, rushed at him. 
 
 44 Away ! Away ! " cried the king. His horses, 
 snorting with their sense of danger and love of 
 it, leaped to meet it. The governor of Baby- 
 lonia followed fast enough ; the queen was not 
 far behind. The lion had reached the palm- 
 tree ; an arrow in his flank caused him to hesi- 
 tate and turn. Nebuchadrezzar thundered down 
 upon him in his three-horse chariot. The ani- 
 mal seemed to reflect. There, like a self-pos- 
 sessed duelist, he awaited the shock. At the 
 distance of two hundred feet or more the king 
 sped a second arrow. It pierced the brute in 
 the shoulder. His nature awoke. With a roar 
 made terrible by pain, he sprang upon the royal 
 chariot. Not a muscle in the king's body quiv- 
 ered. Even the charioteer did not wince; he 
 trusted the king. Nebuchadrezzar's lips tight- 
 ened. His brow contracted. The look of con- 
 scious power which he wore was cruel. He was 
 as fearful to look upon as the animal. Even as 
 the lion clutched the side of the chariot, it fell 
 shot through the heart. Nebuchadrezzar's aim 
 was as true and as leisurely as if he had been 
 target-shooting in his palace yard. 
 
 44 Truly thou art king ! " Allit rode up im- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 159 
 
 petuously. He had trembled for his sovereign. 
 The escape was narrower than the royal hunter 
 was apt to make. The great lion with a muffled 
 choke rolled back against the chariot wheel. 
 
 " Truly," said Daniel, " thou art king ! " He 
 had sprung down, dagger in hand, to help as 
 soon as the courtesy or necessity of the chase 
 permitted. 
 
 "Of course he is," said Amytis impatiently. 
 " Now for the next ! I had n't even a shot. 
 Which one of you two can outhunt the king?" 
 She looked from the soldier to the saint. If Al- 
 ii t would only retrieve himself by some great 
 deed to-night, in spite of the low-born girl she 
 would take him back. The vague nature of the 
 queen dissolved and formed again like a cloud, 
 at every puff of riotous incident. 
 
 But Daniel made no reply. He was ponder- 
 ing upon the king. Was this the same man 
 who bowed at his feet but yesterday? 
 
 " In sooth, Nergal forge tteth not his sup- 
 pliants. Can thy god do more?" The king 
 turned lightly towards Daniel. In the flush of 
 this splendid feat of courage, he estimated him- 
 self without even his usual standards. Being 
 the favorite lord of creation, was he not doubt- 
 less a favorite of Daniel's god, too ? 
 
 Daniel, in truth, felt some uninspired anxiety 
 about his sovereign ; which, being a devout man, 
 he found it natural to explain religiously. 
 
160 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " May Jehovah guard thee ! " he said gravely, 
 " but this is a serious pastime." 
 
 " Away ! Away ! " cried the king impatiently. 
 Allit's loud voice rang with the order promptly. 
 Amytis followed the captain and the governor 
 with a wavering look. The second cage yawned, 
 and there bounded forth a lion captured in the 
 Libyan desert for the king's amusement. He 
 sniffed the air as if the scent of blood had 
 reached his nostrils. He stopped but a moment 
 to reconnoitre, and then, in the hubbub of shouts 
 and halloos, started toward the jungle. Already 
 the king was in hot pursuit. Daniel's horses 
 were now racing by the monarch's side. Amytis 
 caught the wild spirit, and dashed after them. 
 The animal turned his tawny head and observed 
 his pursuers. He seemed thoroughly frightened, 
 and increased his pace to long leaps. Arrow 
 after arrow overtook the fleeing creature, but he 
 only shook his mane and leaped the faster. Allit 
 was in despair. If the lion entered the jungle, 
 it might take the rest of the night to find and 
 slay him. There was poor sport in that. He 
 gave order to the beaters far ahead to cut the 
 lion off, divert him aside, catch him on their 
 shields, and turn him back. It was some dis- 
 tance to the thick underbrush. The ground was 
 level, the trees not too numerous, the sky favora- 
 ble, and the pace tremendous. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 161 
 
 " By Nergal, faster ! Let him escape me 
 not!" Nebuchadrezzar leaned forward and 
 touched his horses' flanks impatiently. 
 
 "By the prophets, such a race is not in 
 Judah ! " Daniel's blood rose as it had not 
 since he followed the chase in his native land. 
 He turned to his driver. " Am I the governor 
 of this province of Babylon ? " 
 
 " Yea, my lord, thou knowest it." 
 
 " Then let not the king outstrip the governor 
 by the length of a cubit ! " 
 
 But Amytis, either in spirit or in body, was 
 not to be outdone. 
 
 " Shall he who was yesterday a slave outride 
 a queen ? Let the prince of Judah lead by the 
 breadth of a hand, and thou diest, charioteer of 
 Amytis ! " 
 
 Obedient to this practical hint, the third 
 chariot began to gain upon the first two. Amy- 
 tis grasped her bow as she urged the steaming 
 horses. But Mariamnu stood behind, holding 
 on as best she could. Even the captive Jewess 
 had caught the fire of this mad chase. She 
 wished she could dash through all her life like 
 this. If only it could be without the queen ! 
 Allit easily kept the lead over all, by a few rods. 
 Behind, a score of attendants on foot dashed on. 
 They were trained to run like the gazelle. 
 
 The king of beasts approached the jungle. 
 
162 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 The jungle was something which he understood. 
 These arrows and spears raining upon him, these 
 bewildering shouts, how set the teeth or snap 
 the claw at them ? He stopped, and cautiously 
 looked about him. He saw the chariots bearing 
 down upon him in one stern rank. He was sur- 
 rounded on all sides. But this brute was born a 
 coward, and, in pursuance of his nature, he turned 
 again and made for the underbrush. With a 
 mighty spring he jumped upon the line of beaters. 
 There was a terrible cry and the unmistakable 
 sound of the crunching of bones, and the lion 
 had passed over the body of one unfortunate and 
 rushed on. 
 
 Allit had dismounted by the time the chariots 
 were on the spot, the three abreast. The 
 creature had already done more execution 
 through cowardice than he would probably have 
 achieved had he bravely stood at bay. 
 
 " O king, it is a grievous shame ! See, the 
 beast hath sent one of our fellows to Ninkigal. 
 Shall we let a third one out?" 
 
 The three chariots came to so sudden a halt 
 beside Allit that the horses reared upon their 
 haunches with angry neighs. 
 
 " Nay, save the rest. We will track this one 
 for the blood he spilt until he die. Wilt thou 
 follow me, noble Jew ? " Nebuchadrezzar had 
 leaped to the ground, with bow in hand. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 163 
 
 " Verily, O king, thy servant goeth in the 
 name of Jehovah." 
 
 " And I too, in the name of Ishtar." Amytis 
 shot Daniel a sarcastic look. She had dis- 
 mounted. Her body swayed with a lithe free- 
 dom peculiar to a cat or a panther. Allit ad- 
 mired her magnificent figure. But Daniel turned 
 away, as if afraid of being seared. 
 
 "Nergal shall lead me," answered the king 
 haughtily. 
 
 " And Amytis me ! " Allit bent low with his 
 old sweet homage, as he softly whispered this 
 word. 
 
 " Away, then ! " Allit spoke to the beaters 
 as if they had been human dogs just unleashed ; 
 and indeed they were. With shouts of defiance, 
 the attendants spread into the steaming jungle. 
 The king struck boldly into the black, luxuriant 
 undergrowth, followed by the Jew, the captain, 
 and the queen. Amytis, with all her Median 
 spirit, was quite willing to allow the tall warrior 
 with shield and spear to protect her. A woman 
 values her courage chiefly that she may count 
 it as naught before the valor of man. But Ma- 
 riamnu was left behind, with the charioteer and 
 the dead. She was forgotten ; nor did the cap- 
 tive maiden grieve at this. 
 
 - The small party had stopped for breath. A 
 
164 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 slave had given them wine from a skin, and they 
 were refreshed. Only Daniel fasted. The 
 hunters had reached a little clearing, on which 
 the moon lay like a high tide. Allit drew near 
 to Nebuchadrezzar, and put a hand upon his 
 arm. 
 
 " What ? Where ? What is the matter ? " 
 whispered the king. 
 
 The captain grimly pointed across the open 
 space. Dead sugar-canes crackled about them, 
 wild olive-trees shaded them, and the yellow-- 
 flowered acacia shot from beneath their feet like 
 jets of fire from a burning world. Amytis had 
 plucked a spray of scarlet mistletoe, as she 
 brushed under a dead sycamore ; this she had 
 coquettishly twined about her hair and bosom. 
 As the hunters stood to listen for the game, the 
 flute notes of a nightingale cut the soft, moist 
 air. In the rapture of this romantic spot, Amy- 
 tis would fain have drawn nigh and hung upon 
 the arm of Allit. But Daniel gave her a stern 
 look, and her warm hand dropped at her side. 
 The shrill cry of a bittern now arose like the 
 voice of a herald in an amphitheatre. 
 
 " Look ! Look ! " whispered Allit. Not four 
 hundred paces ahead of them, the lion cautiously 
 stepped into the full moon, and looked about 
 him. He seemed thoroughly aware of his dan- 
 ger. The lion approached the king, and the 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 165 
 
 king boldly started alone to meet the lion. 
 Every heart beat the faster ; the king only was 
 really cairn. He had the unmistakable assur- 
 ance of one of his own gods. His shadow seemed 
 to fall like that of a mountain. The two mon- 
 archs of the earth examined each other. The 
 lion shivered, and turned. As he did this, the 
 king shot, and the arrow pierced through the 
 mane into the neck. With a catlike motion 
 of the paw, the creature swept the arrow from 
 its wound, and turned upon its royal torturer. 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar did not swerve. He awaited 
 the attack as calmly as he would receive a dep- 
 utation in his audience chamber. His men 
 sprang to divert the lion, but he waved them 
 back. The lion did not leap upon the king, but 
 approached him warily. This caution made the 
 duel the more ominous. Nebuchadrezzar dropped 
 upon his knee, and took a long, steady aim. He 
 seemed carved from stone, and his bow stood 
 out in white relief. No one dared to stir. As 
 the lion bent for his fatal spring, the simul- 
 taneous whir of bowstring and arrow was heard. 
 The beast leaped into the air. The king stepped 
 aside, expecting to see his prey dead at his feet. 
 
 But the son of Merodach had missed his aim 
 for the first time in many years, and before a 
 heart could beat, the lion, with a stroke of his 
 paw, had smitten the king's leg, and had felled 
 
166 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 him to the ground. The victorious creature 
 now stood over the prostrate favorite of Nergal, 
 and snarled at Allit and at Daniel. Who dared 
 stir ? The furious animal might mangle the 
 king beneath him. The two men started for- 
 ward together. The lion awaited them. The 
 king had the wit not to make the slightest mo- 
 tion, well knowing that it were his death. Allit, 
 with a mighty plunge, thrust his sword at the 
 lion's breast. As he did so, he gave a great 
 shout, hoping to disconcert the creature. But 
 the Libyan was too quick at parrying. He 
 caught the sword in its descent with his claws, 
 and hurled it from the captain's hand. Allit, 
 nothing daunted, grasped his dagger, and gave 
 a brave leap towards the lion's jaw. As he did 
 this, he slipped in the marsh, and fell short 
 across the head of the king. The dagger struck 
 a stump, and lay there useless. The lion's hot 
 breath fanned the two men. He tossed his 
 head, and growled confident summons to a sure 
 death. 
 
 Daniel was left. His slight figure looked 
 ridiculously disproportionate to such a mad ven- 
 ture. His nervous hand tightened upon his 
 short blade, and he took a step, fastening his 
 wonderful eyes upon the hungry creature. The 
 lion did not cower before the governor of Baby- 
 lon or the seer of Judah, but his motions be- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 167 
 
 came less restless. He eyed the Jew with re- 
 spect and interest ; he seemed for the moment 
 to forget his victims in some new sensation 
 
 O 
 
 powerful enough to divert vengeance. Daniel 
 had the appearance of one who hesitates for an 
 instant between two courses of action. Would 
 he trust too far to magic or mysticism, setting 
 Heaven knew what incomprehensible power 
 against a wounded lion ? 
 
 Suddenly he tore off his outer cape, and 
 flaunted the woollen cloth in the reflecting, al- 
 most calmed face of the animal. This taunt 
 was too much. The lion jumped for the Jew. 
 No trained gladiator could have anticipated that 
 leap more surely. The young man left the cloth 
 in the clutch of the claws, and, bending low and 
 to one side, plunged the dagger up to its chased 
 hilt into the lion's heart. 
 
 " There is no sorcery in that blow. He is 
 a king among hunters. Allit is a child beside 
 him." Thus spoke Amytis to herself. She ran 
 forward lightly, and perched herself upon the 
 quivering carcass. 
 
 " Nergal is great. He hath preserved his 
 servant," groaned the king when Daniel sought 
 to lift him up. 
 
 " Nay, my lord, it was Balatsu-usur." Allit 
 spoke with the deference a man of power feels 
 towards his physical superior. 
 
168 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Nay," said Daniel solemnly, " it was Je- 
 hovah." 
 
 " Not a single shot to-night ! " Amytis still 
 sat upon the warm beast, and spoke with pert 
 petulance. She did not concern herself about 
 the king's wound. 
 
 "Another!" The king's voice rang with 
 its usual imperiousness. "Let the third beast 
 out ! " He tried to rise again, but fell, groan- 
 ing. 
 
 " Get me to my chariot," admitted Nebuchad- 
 rezzar, " and let us to the palace. Haste, or I 
 bleed to death." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 RELIEF from mortal emergency either strength- 
 ens the enduring power or perceptibly decreases 
 it. Little troubles become so paltry by contrast 
 that one disregards them ; or else they fret us 
 more than ever, because the greater misery has 
 left no strength to bear the less. In the house 
 of Mutusa-ili there dwelt the dregs of sadness 
 fallen from the first foam of joy which had 
 bubbled about the escape of the sage. 
 
 Several things contributed to the despondency 
 which Lalitha could not help sharing, while her 
 whole strong, joyous youth protested against it. 
 It might be natural to an aged man, she sup- 
 posed it was to be expected that old people 
 should be gloomy ; but for a well girl with a 
 live father, what was the use in moping? And 
 the captain of the guards had been to see them 
 twice, thrice, and another time, since that dread- 
 ful day in the court of judgment. Lalitha ran 
 about the house singing. Life was delightful ! 
 
 But when she looked upon her father's face, 
 Lalitha stopped singing. Mutusa-ili had aged 
 fifteen years in as many days. His professional 
 
170 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 humiliation, his wasted skill, his ruined reputa- 
 tion, the quiver of an awakening sense of neg- 
 lected honor, the outcries of an abandoned faith, 
 the pressure of beliefs that he found it equally 
 hard to choose or refuse, all were heavy upon 
 the old man's spirits. His strength broke ; he 
 had been a vigorous man, but physical weak- 
 ness, like a new acquaintance, took hard hold of 
 him, and puzzled him. He wondered whether 
 the darkened life which the Jew and the Baby- 
 lonian had saved were worth the cost at which 
 it had been bought. 
 
 He spoke gratefully and decorously to Allit 
 and to Daniel ; neither of the two young men 
 neglected the disgraced scholar ; but when they 
 had left the house, he turned wearily to Lalitha 
 and murmured, 
 
 " Are our guests departed ? Leave me, my 
 daughter, for I would commune with mine own 
 heart." 
 
 Now, another calamity had befallen the shad- 
 owed home. Lalitha thought it a pretty piece 
 of good fortune, and Kisrinni chuckled about 
 it like an ape. Only the old father understood 
 it. Lalitha had received a summons to court. 
 
 The lion-hunt was over. The moon had 
 waned. The king was fretted by his wound, 
 which did not heal as it should ; a certain viru- 
 lence, new even to the morose nature of Nebu- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 171 
 
 chadrezzar, began to creep into the royal moods. 
 The kin needed incessant excitement. He de- 
 
 O 
 
 manded every day some new thing under the 
 sun. Novelty, in all ages the most difficult 
 pleasure to provide for caprice, evaded the skill 
 of Ashpenaz and the captain of the guards. 
 Nothing happened. The city was without event. 
 The court was dull. The lion was killed, and 
 the king was torn, and the war was over, and 
 the dream was interpreted, and what now ? 
 
 One day the king took to his fancy a thought, 
 which (Allit had blessed all the gods of Baby- 
 lon) had escaped the royal reflection up to this 
 unlucky moment. 
 
 " Behold," said Nebuchadrezzar, " I would 
 have before me the maiden. She was a comely 
 maiden, and pleaded bravely for the soothsayer 
 her father. Verily, it was a pretty beggar ! 
 Now, I bethink me, she did kiss the latchet of 
 my sandal. Bring her hither to me." 
 
 Now Allit, who was the official bearer of the 
 command, received it with a heavy heart. Like 
 other men of his sort, he was ready enough him- 
 self to play with the down on the wing of his 
 white bird ; but the aim of another hunter 
 startled him with strangling rage. Up to this 
 time, be the truth told, it had never occurred 
 to the captain that he might not, whenever the 
 time came why hasten ? she was so young, so 
 
172 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 fair, so pure " make love " to the daughter 
 of Mutusa-ili in any fashion that should best 
 please him, and to any end, or no end, as his 
 mood might dictate. He regarded Lalitha as, 
 in a sense, his own ; these new impulses of his 
 higher nature, these strange movements of an 
 emotion as different from passion as the maiden 
 herself was different from, say, the queen of 
 Babylonia, puzzled the captain of the guards. 
 He treated them as fine, fresh flavors in the 
 wine of love, not to be drunken too quickly or 
 too rudely ; for even the Babylonian found him- 
 self refined by the delicate atmosphere of an ex- 
 perience not usual to his nation or his class. 
 
 But when the king Ah, that was another 
 matter ! 
 
 Lalitha at court ? Lalitha ordered to the 
 harem of Nebuchadrezzar? The captain clutched 
 his sword and set his teeth. Too terrible ! 
 
 " Bear thou my command," said the king 
 moodily. " Why standest thou there hesitating 
 before me ? Bring unto me the maiden, and 
 that forthwith." 
 
 Instead of obeying this mandate immediately, 
 the captain of the guards took his life in his 
 hands, and delayed on the way at the gorgeous 
 apartments of the new governor of Babylonia, 
 in the outer palace. In hot words he poured 
 forth his story, and entreated the assistance of 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 173 
 
 the Jew who kept no women, and who had, for 
 the time, Allit dully wondered what, frater- 
 nal, unearthly, divine tenderness and protecting 
 care for the daughter of Mutusa-ili. 
 
 Daniel heard him to the end without remark ; 
 then said composedly, 
 
 " But, pray, sir captain, why is thy soul 
 troubled ? Why may not one fate as well as 
 another befall the maiden? In Babylon these 
 things are the fashion. The king's favor is 
 grateful unto women. Why should not the 
 damsel go before the king?" 
 
 " Thou ravest ! " blazed Allit. " Thy prefer- 
 ment hath turned thy head and poisoned thy 
 spirit. I did think thee a god, unspotted, not 
 like other men. Thou art worse than other men, 
 for thou hast the power to free the netted bird, 
 and thou refrainest. I will have none of thee, 
 thou spoiled captive ! " 
 
 "Nay, softly, my good friend," said Daniel, 
 with a strong smile. " Listen to me. Answer 
 me the question of my soul to thine, before thou 
 judgest of me. . . . What wouldst thou with 
 Lalitha ? Tell me, captain of the guards ! Is 
 the favor of the monarch less honorable to the 
 maiden than the secret thoughts of thine own 
 heart?" 
 
 " I have never wronged the girl ! " protested 
 Allit. But his eyes fell before the stern gaze of 
 the ascetic. 
 
174 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Nay," replied Daniel quietly, " nay, thou 
 takest thy leisure. . . . Go from me, Allit. 
 Ponder my words. As for the maiden, leave 
 her case to me." 
 
 " Must she come to court ? " groaned Allit. 
 "Is there no way of preventing of interfer- 
 ing" 
 
 " She must appear within the gates," said 
 the governor of Babylon. "The king will be 
 obeyed." 
 
 Allit, who perforce bore the royal mandate to 
 the house of Mutusa-ili, was closeted with the 
 weakened sage for a long and painful consulta- 
 tion ; but to Lalitha he did not explain the situ- 
 ation. The two men understood its full gravity. 
 The girl comprehended it no more than she did 
 the secrets of the worship of Ishtar. She re- 
 garded a visit to the court as a gala occasion, 
 and innocently prepared herself for it with girl- 
 ish delight. It was very perplexing to Lali- 
 tha that when Kisrinni had robed her in a gay 
 costume of crimson silk heavily wrought with 
 golden beads, and had clasped her soft arms 
 with her mother's jewels, bracelets of cor- 
 nelian and gold, and curious agates bound with 
 golden chains, Mutusa-ili should frown darkly 
 at the slave. 
 
 " Knowest thou no better than that?" he de- 
 manded, with something of his old force. " Re- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 175 
 
 move these baubles, Kisrinni ! Robe thy mis- 
 tress in her white garment, even such as she 
 weareth at her daily tasks ; and see thou to it 
 that she is veiled exceedingly, for I cannot ac- 
 company the maiden to the palace, as I would." 
 
 Alas for Mutusa-ili ! The disgraced sooth- 
 sayer would not be welcomed, probably not re- 
 ceived, within the palace. The debilitated old 
 man had not the pluck to force an entrance into 
 the gay world which had abandoned him. 
 
 "I cannot protect the maiden," he had said to 
 Allit, with a despondency all but abject. " She 
 goeth more safely in the shelter of her own in- 
 nocence than within my palsied arm. Mutusa- 
 ili hath become naught, and less than naught, at 
 the court of Nebuchadrezzar. I will entreat 
 Balatsu-usur that he may exercise his mercy 
 for the damsel, if danger befall her. To the 
 Jew, and to the God of the Jew, do I commend 
 her." 
 
 Thus it was that Lalitha with the old slave 
 made her way to the palace unattended. Hav- 
 ing seen the king before, the girl did not find 
 herself overawed by him. She thought him 
 quite agreeable, and answered his inquiries 
 naively. But the palace absorbed her. Her 
 wide, innocent eyes wandered over it like a 
 child's. 
 
 " It is very pretty," she said, with a long 
 
176 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 breath. " I have been counting the fountains 
 in the court. There are twenty-seven. I would 
 my dear father had one. He complains of the 
 drouth, since he has been sick." 
 
 "Is Mutusa-ili ill?" asked the monarch, melt- 
 ing between a smile and a frown. 
 
 " Oh, yes, king, did you not know that? " re- 
 plied Lalitha, sighing. " I must go back to him 
 now. I must not linger. He will miss me." 
 
 " Thou hast a fair face," said the king dream- 
 ily. "Thou art like a flower. Stay awhile 
 with me, for I too am not well." 
 
 He looked at the trembling girl gloomily. 
 Nebuchadrezzar's weakness was not for women. 
 In his present dark mood, he regarded Lalitha 
 almost coldly. But her exquisite beauty, her 
 artlessness, her innocence, seemed to spring to 
 him like budding blossoms. As he watched her, 
 a curious tenderness, half paternal, half devout, 
 overcame him. 
 
 " I am not well," he repeated complainingly. 
 " I suffer. Comfort thou me." 
 
 " I will come another day," replied Lalitha, 
 fluttering. "My dear father must not be left 
 alone too long. I pray you, good king, to let 
 me say farewell now, and go my way. The 
 palace is very pretty, but I have seen enough. 
 I would go home now. Come, Kisrinni ! " 
 
 "Verily," muttered the king, "she hath no 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 177 
 
 more fear than a dove in mid-heaven. She is a 
 choice creature for a man not overborne with 
 affairs, or who desireth to rest himself there- 
 from. Methinks at another time I might not 
 feel so ill. I might arouse myself, and appre- 
 ciate the maiden." 
 
 He made a sign of dismissal, which Lalitha 
 joyfully obeyed. She could not have told why, 
 but she began to be very anxious to be at home. 
 In the outer court, she fancied that she heard 
 the voice of Allit, and was comforted to believe 
 that he protected her. She hastened to pull 
 Kisrinni after her, that they might depart 
 swiftly. 
 
 But at this moment Ashpenaz, followed by 
 a slave girl, sauntered across the mosaic floor, 
 and brushed by Lalitha, so near that she winced 
 and shrank away from him, and in so doing 
 slipped upon the marble. In the effort to re- 
 gain her balance, she lost sight of Kisrinni, for 
 whom she called loudly. 
 
 " Hush thee ! " whispered the slave girl. " I 
 will show thee the way. Follow me." 
 
 Before sunset, Allit, raging in the outer court, 
 where he stood on duty and on watch, under- 
 stood perfectly that Lalitha had been decoyed 
 into the harem of the king. 
 
 Once again the captain of the guards made 
 
178 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 hot haste to the governor of Babylonia; this 
 time he was ready to tear him in pieces. 
 
 "Thou boastest that thou wouldst save the 
 maiden ! And there thou standest at thy 
 prating prayers like a slave about to be cast 
 into a den of lions ; while Lalitha By Bel- 
 Merodach, and Jehovah " 
 
 " Nay, nay," interrupted Daniel serenely, 
 " take not the name of Jehovah upon thine 
 idolatrous lips." 
 
 " Verily, I would take Jehovah for my god," 
 cried Allit furiously, " if that would help the 
 maiden ! " 
 
 " The spirit which Jehovah respecteth is not 
 thy spirit," said Daniel. " Thou knowest not 
 of what thou ravest. As for the maiden " 
 
 Allit interrupted the governor by a terrible 
 groan. He hid his handsome face in his fash- 
 ionably ringed hands. Daniel had never seen 
 such emotion in the man of pleasure. 
 
 " What wouldst thou," repeated the Jew 
 sternly, " what wouldst thou with the daugh- 
 ter of Mutusa-ili ? " 
 
 " Worship her ! " cried the captain. His face 
 came up from his hands. He had not known 
 until that moment that he did worship Lalitha. 
 But now there seemed to be no doubt about it. 
 
 " And wed her ? " asked the Jew. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 179 
 
 Allit changed color. His heart felt as if it 
 overturned in his body. His large eyes opened 
 widely in genuine astonishment. 
 
 " I had not thought of marrying" replied 
 the courtier frankly. 
 
 " Go thou," said Daniel sternly. " Go from 
 me. Leave the damsel as she is. Verily, she 
 is safer in the harem of Nebuchadrezzar than 
 in the peril of thy false heart. . . . She lov- 
 eth thee," said the Jew. " She loveth thee," he 
 repeated, one could not say how mournfully. 
 " Love is the net. Yea, love is the danger." 
 
 " I believe," returned the agitated captain, 
 " that thou thyself "- 
 
 But he faltered before the Jew's deep glance. 
 
 " I myself do honor her," said Daniel, in a 
 low, awed voice ; u thou hast said it. I do honor 
 the damsel, and thou shalt do her no dishonor, 
 neither now nor at any time to come. As Je- 
 hovah is my witness, Allit, thou shouldst take 
 shame upon thyself that thou lookest upon the 
 face of the maiden, for thine eyes do work sor- 
 row upon her, and thou regardest it not ! " 
 
 " I do but go the way of my people," protested 
 Allit, "and the way of my times. It is not 
 demanded of a man that he wed the woman 
 whom his choice prefers." 
 
 " The way of thy people is the way of 
 abomination ! " answered the Jew energetically. 
 
180 THE MASTER 0F THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Babylon is the whore of the world. Behold, 
 there is yet another kind of manhood from the 
 manhood of Babylonia. The living God taketh 
 pleasure in it, and the heart of a modest maiden 
 turneth safely to it. Be thou, Allit Arioch, be 
 thou that man." 
 
 " Thou demandest of me a miracle ! " said 
 Allit, in a low voice. 
 
 " If the purity of a man be a miracle, then do 
 I," answered Daniel. " But more than this do I 
 demand of thee : yea, verily, that thou shalt 
 plunge thyself in the waters of the soul and lave 
 thyself, and cleanse thy heart, and abhor thyself, 
 until thou becomest fit to touch the hem of the 
 garment of this maiden, than whom is none so 
 white of soul in all Babylon ; and that thou pray 
 the living God to have mercy upon thee, if so 
 be thou mayst become worthy to take the dam- 
 sel from his hand, and abide with her, and her 
 only, and cherish her, and protect her, and en- 
 dear thyself to her, as a man endeareth himself 
 to his wife in the sight of God and men." 
 
 Allit made no reply. His brain whirled. He 
 felt as confused as if the Jew had commanded 
 him to take a throne beside Jehovah ; which, 
 to the fancy of the aristocratic idolater, was not 
 an incredible proposition. He looked at Daniel 
 perplexedly. Then his eyes dropped like a lit- 
 tle boy's. The seer's gaze transfixed him. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 181 
 
 That indescribable radiance which sometimes 
 surrounded the Jew began to scintillate, and 
 a throbbing, like a pulse, beat through it ; it 
 seemed to overflow and to flood the Babylonian. 
 
 The moral force of the young devotee over- 
 whelmed the captain of the guards. He felt 
 that he was becoming conquered by an incom- 
 prehensible superiority. Curiously enough, he 
 put his hand to his sword. The military instinct 
 came first ; of his soul he knew next to nothing. 
 What was this impalpable power ? Could not 
 the truest blade in the battalion stab it ? Allit 
 tried to recover himself, but the Jew stood 
 sternly. Moved by he knew not what that was 
 irresistible, the soldier bowed his head ; he took 
 the attitude of devotion before Balatsu-usur ; 
 his large lips moved silently. 
 
 " Thou art a god," he whispered. " After all, 
 thou must be a god." 
 
 " Nay," said Daniel gently, " I am but a man 
 who serveth a God." 
 
 " Preserve thou the maiden," entreated Allit 
 humbly. " Snatch her from the trap that hath 
 set its teeth upon her. Then shalt thou com- 
 mand the commander of the king's guards. Lo, 
 I would be the officer of thy heart, for it is not 
 like the heart of other men." 
 
 But Daniel made no answer. He had become 
 again absorbed in prayer. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 IT was the dead of the hot night. Babylon 
 was gay that night. There was a carousal at 
 the gate of the king, and the streets were sympa- 
 thetically merry. The larger palace was awake 
 and athrob. Everybody of importance was 
 there. The women of the harem bestirred them- 
 selves languorously, and looked out of their cage 
 with soft, long, narrow eyes. It had been the 
 royal pleasure that the news of the banquet 
 should reach them at a late hour. When it 
 came, the girls chattered among themselves like 
 peacock chicks. What an event, to have some- 
 thing to say ! During the first long hours that 
 Lalitha had shared their perfumed prison, these 
 women had uttered but two or three remarks. 
 An Egyptian said, 
 
 " I have been trying to count the flies. I 
 miss the count. I think there are a thousand." 
 
 A Babylonian danseuse had yawned, and mur- 
 mured, 
 
 " I am very sleepy." 
 
 The liveliest girl in the harem played at toss- 
 ing an ivory ball from a silver cup. When she 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 183 
 
 caught the ball, she laughed excessively, and 
 said, 
 
 "See! See!" 
 
 But now that the announcement of the ca- 
 rousal had been allowed to penetrate their flow- 
 ery dungeon, the girls found their mute tongues ; 
 their dull minds stirred; their light natures 
 puffed about like down. The king, the queen, 
 the feast, the dance, the chief eunuch, formed 
 exciting topics of what they called conversation. 
 To Lalitha it was a great relief that the women 
 had at last found something to speak of. They 
 had stared at her, and examined her robe, and 
 mocked at her tears, till she could have crushed 
 them all, like poisonous gnats. When the 
 Egyptian said, "'Oh, you will get used to it ; " 
 and the danseuse said, "I, too, cried I cried 
 as much as an hour," Lalitha shrank from them, 
 as near the entrance to the guarded rooms as 
 she could get, and put her veil before her face, 
 as if they had been rude men. Now, at least, the 
 harem had forgotten its new inmate, and she 
 could weep in peace. Lalitha listened, in hope 
 and terror, for every sound. She expected her 
 release each moment. She considered that the 
 slave had made a mistake, and that she would 
 be immediately freed and taken home. She 
 scarcely gave a thought to the details of the 
 harem. She had a vague sense of sumptuous 
 
184 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 draperies, rugs, and skins ; of half -robed women 
 prone upon them ; of a stifling atmosphere, in 
 which it seemed the air of heaven never blew ; 
 of musk and attar of roses ; of incense and old 
 tapestries ; of fountains playing idly ; of pea- 
 cock's fans, and cups of wine half drained ; of 
 pillars and apartments opening, dim and gor- 
 geous, beyond the closed court ; of tinkling 
 music, frail and foolish, trickling from unseen 
 instruments ; of the voice of an unseen singer, 
 languorously singing : 
 
 Fold the wing, fold the wing, 
 
 Soft-eyed bird. 
 
 Sleep and sing, sleep and sing. 
 Do not weep, do not weep, 
 
 Pretty thing ! 
 
 Love and sleep, love and sleep. 
 Pluck the flower of the hour. 
 
 Joy is deep. 
 Red the flower, rich the hour. 
 
 Sweet is sleep. 
 
 Lalitha had listened to this song with her face 
 hidden in her veil ; her hot tears scorched her 
 own sweet flesh, and she lifted her arm and 
 kissed them off, as if she had been consoling 
 a child. When she looked up the harem was 
 empty. The last of the girls had been called to 
 her place at the feast, and she was, or seemed 
 to be, quite alone. This terrified her, and she 
 began to sob afresh. At this moment the fringe 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 185 
 
 of the long curtain of cloth-of-silver, near which 
 she was crouching, swept inward and brushed 
 against her arm ; the little gust which came 
 with it puffed into her face like a warm breath. 
 A low voice, sadder and sweeter than any she 
 had heard in the harem of the king, said apa- 
 thetically, " Thou art to follow me." 
 
 Lalitha bounded to her feet, and dried her 
 tears with the quickness of youth and hope. 
 She looked into the delicate, despondent face of 
 Mariamnu. 
 
 " Thou art come to take me home ! " cried 
 Lalitha joyfully. She followed Mariamnu with- 
 out a word of protest. The captive singer made 
 no reply to the girl's artless outcry. She walked 
 in advance of her, with bowed head. Once she 
 extended her hand backward, and touched the 
 white robe of Lalitha ; then gently let it drop. 
 Lalitha looked at her inquiringly. The two 
 girls traversed the court and the corridor in per- 
 fect silence. 
 
 44 But we are going into the palace, not out ! " 
 cried Lalitha suddenly. She stopped short. 
 " This is not the way we came. This is not the 
 way out. This is not the way home. Take me 
 home ! I must go home ! " 
 
 But Mariamnu shook her head. " Thou must 
 follow me," she said hopelessly. " The queen 
 commandeth audience of thee." 
 
186 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 The night, as we said, was hot. The heavy 
 air gave no breath to the revelers, and they 
 dropped out in groups, or by twos, to rest in 
 the great gardens. Here, at least, one could 
 steal a march upon whatever breeze there might 
 arise, and, languidly sunken upon the cool grass, 
 or a leathern couch, or thin rug of fine silk, rest, 
 and rise, and play again. Flowers, oh, flowers ! 
 What a world of them ! The Babylonians were 
 the great flower lovers of the world. The pal- 
 aces were tapestried with them ; the revelers 
 were festooned with them, even as people of a 
 more sparing taste decorate pillars or shrines ; 
 the gardens seemed not by a blossom depleted 
 of them. 
 
 The queen, tired of the carousal, and, if the 
 truth were told, annoyed that the captain of the 
 guards had not chosen to approach her, willed to 
 rest herself without the palace. She had chosen 
 a mat of golden tissue flung upon a bank of red 
 oleanders. Her women stood at a little distance, 
 her deaf-mutes behind her ; Ashpenaz looked on 
 decorously. But the queen was, to all practical 
 conversational purposes, alone when Mariamnu 
 brought Lalitha into her presence. Lalitha made 
 no pretense of any manners, but was crying now, 
 right heartily. She remembered the queen only 
 too well. 
 
 Amytis regarded her in cold, critical silence. 
 
THE MASTER OF TUB MAGICIANS. 187 
 
 " It is a blubbering creature," she said at 
 length. "Stop that boo-hooing, or I'll have 
 thy fool of a head from thy bundled shoulders. 
 Pull off her robe, Mariarnnu. Teach her how 
 the slaves dress at the court of Babylon." 
 
 To these royal words Lalitha answered by 
 sinking on her knees, and begging for her free- 
 dom, with all the fervor of fright and ignorance. 
 
 Amytis laughed lightly. 
 
 "We consider that" she said with signifi- 
 cance, " when thou hast shown some courtesy to 
 thy queen. Answer me such questions as I shall 
 ask, and then we will consult upon thy free- 
 dom." 
 
 " Gladly will I ! " cried Lalitha happily. 
 " Anything thou desirest, so that thou send me 
 home to my poor father. I fear me he will die 
 of terror by this time." 
 
 "Knowest thou," asked the queen abruptly, 
 " the captain of the guards ? " 
 
 "Yea, verily," said Lalitha promptly. It did 
 not occur to her that there was any reason why 
 the queen's eminently proper question should 
 not be answered. 
 
 " His name is " began the queen idly. 
 
 "Allit. I call him Allit. I think the sol- 
 diers call him Arioch, also." 
 
 " Ah, yes. I remember. He cometh to the 
 house of thy father ? " 
 
188 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " Yes, indeed, surely he cometh. He is a great 
 friend of my father." 
 
 " Ah, yes. Cometh he often ? " 
 
 " Not so often, once. Very often, lately," said 
 Lalitha artlessly. 
 
 "Yes? As often as" 
 
 " Every few days, it may be ; or a day longer. 
 He is very kind." 
 
 " Hum yes I see. Thou say'st it. And 
 to thee ? Is he kind to thee, my girl ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed ! " cried Lalitha. " He 
 saved my poor life, to begin with. He caught 
 me from under the chariot, thou knowest. The 
 captain has been always kind to me. I am 
 grateful to him. We are very fond of him." 
 
 The openness of the girl's tone was no more 
 to be mistaken than its joyousness. The queen's 
 face grew dark. In this dialogue the good and 
 the evil were almost equally candid. Amytis 
 had too unchastened and unchecked a nature 
 to play the politician, either in love or hate. 
 Simple as Lalitha was, she could not fail to 
 perceive the expression of rage which mounted 
 slowly to ferocity upon the handsome counte- 
 nance of the Median. 
 
 "You see this captain let me say how 
 often?" demanded the queen. "Your father 
 is shrewd enough to wink at the intrigue, I 
 make no doubt. Tell me ! How many days in 
 the seven?" 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 189 
 
 There is a turn in such moral duels when art- 
 lessness becomes discretion itself. Lalitha sud- 
 denly grew as mute as the deaf-and-dumb slave 
 who fanned the queen. Her ingenuousness 
 rose upon its guard, like the ruffling fur of a 
 tame doe that is abused. She put her pretty 
 lips together, and received the questions of the 
 queen in soft and obstinate silence. 
 
 What might she not have done ? Could any 
 poor word of hers hurt her captain ? It djd not 
 occur to Lalitha whether her naivete could hurt 
 herself. 
 
 " Answer me ! " commanded the queen. 
 
 Lalitha burst into tears. 
 
 " I was never moved by the tears of a slave," 
 said Amytis scornfully. "Yours and you are 
 not worth the leisure of the daughter of Astya- 
 ges. You cease to be amusing to me, you toy 
 of the king's captain ! And now and now " 
 repeated the queen, with a rising voice " you 
 last new whim of a half-mad king come 
 hither!" 
 
 Lalitha hesitated, advanced, and drew back. 
 
 " Come to me ! " cried Amytis shrilly. 
 
 Lalitha trembled, but obeyed, drawing quite 
 near to the reclining figure of the queen. Amy- 
 tis raised herself on one elbow, and, putting out 
 her small, dark hand with a catlike motion, 
 drew the girl's arm within her reach. Suddenly 
 
190 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 bending her head, she laid her lips to the soft 
 curve of the inner forearm, as if the sardonic 
 fancy had seized her to feign a kiss upon it. 
 
 Lalitha drew back, with a loud cry of pain. 
 The small teeth of the Median had closed and 
 met upon her flesh. 
 
 There was something so vicious, so unqueen- 
 like, in this act of vulgar jealousy and brutality 
 that even Ashpenaz uttered an expression of 
 surprise or protest. This recalled the queen to 
 herself. She pushed the bleeding girl away 
 violently, and summoned the eunuch to her side. 
 A whispered order shot into his dull ear. The 
 eunuch seemed to reply, or to be about to reply 
 earnestly. But Amytis waved him away, and, 
 gathering herself like a pantheress from the 
 oleander bed, with a light bound moved up the 
 garden toward the palace. Her women followed 
 her, swaying like paper lanterns bright trifles 
 in a shadowy scene. Ashpenaz laid his hand 
 upon the robe of Lalitha. 
 
 " Your way," he said, " is with me." 
 
 " I will shriek ! " cried Lalitha. She raised 
 her young voice. " I will call on the whole 
 world ! Some of these people will save me ! 
 There must be one who would take a poor girl 
 out of this awful place ! " 
 
 " If you utter a sound," replied the eunuch, 
 " she will have the head of your captain for it." 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 191 
 
 Lalitha and the eunuch came to a sudden 
 halt at the extreme limit of the royal pleasure- 
 grounds looking toward the Nana road. She 
 had followed him pathetically, a quelled creature. 
 The name of her lover had conquered the girl. 
 She could only die, at the most. But oh, not 
 a hair of Ms perfumed head should come to harm 
 because of her. Lalitha set her teeth upon her 
 terrors, and gave no alarm. She had stumbled 
 through the shrubbery blindly, half 'dragged, 
 half supported, by the eunuch, who cursed the 
 queen, but obeyed her, as his nature was. In 
 the distance, in a solitary spot, Lalitha saw two 
 tall guards. They had spears ; the light from 
 the gardens behind caught the tips of the spears. 
 She began to sob, like a little frightened girl ; 
 but she did not attempt to cry out. 
 
 When Ashpenaz came to so abrupt a stop, 
 she looked about her wildly. No one was to be 
 seen. The guards were still at a distance, and 
 had not observed her. What ailed the eunuch ? 
 He^ staggered, and put his hand to his head. He 
 drew his breath with difficulty. He acted like 
 an asphyxiated person. Suddenly he thrust out 
 both hands before his suffused face, as if in pro- 
 test against an invisible power. Then they 
 dropped at his side. He had thus released the 
 girl, apparently quite unconscious that he did so, 
 and now sank slowly, like a man overcome by 
 
192 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 sleep or wine. As Lalitha, sick with repulsion 
 and terror, watched him, he rolled upon the 
 grass at her feet, and fell into a deep swoon, or 
 slumber. 
 
 Lalitha was too frightened to dare run, nor 
 did she know where to run. She made a little 
 start out into the street, and stood panting. By 
 this movement, she came out from behind the 
 shadow of the shrubbery, and thus brought her- 
 self face to face with Balatsu-usur. He was 
 standing quite still. He looked as tall and 
 white as a marble pillar. 
 
 " Veil thyself," said the Jew, " and come unto 
 thy father." 
 
 He spoke strangely, almost dully. He had 
 the distrait appearance of a mystic or of a hypno- 
 tizer ; of a man interrupted either in communion 
 with his God or in an experiment upon a fellow- 
 man, it was not easy to say which. It might 
 have been both. Daniel had an extraordinary 
 duality of nature. If ever there was a spiritual 
 man of the world, he was the man. He did not 
 glance in the direction of the eunuch. 
 
 " Thou savest me ! " cried Lalitha softly. 
 She was still afraid of the soldiers. She crept 
 around the other side of her preserver, so that 
 he should be between her and the spears. 
 
 " Jehovah saveth thee," said the young man 
 solemnly. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 193 
 
 " That fat man in the bushes has tumbled 
 down," said Lalitha, with the irreverence and 
 irrelevance of girlishness and pity. " I think 
 he has a fit." 
 
 Her protector made no reply. 
 
 "I am afraid of the soldiers," proceeded Lali- 
 tha. " The man was fain to give me to them. 
 Would they put out my eyes with their spears, 
 do you think ? And pierce my tongue with a 
 red-hot iron ? " 
 
 Lalitha's imagination dwelt upon one of the 
 prevailing punishments of her time, with the 
 high colors of terror and inexperience. A slight 
 tremor passed through the body of her calm 
 companion ; he drew her hand upon his arm, as 
 they passed the guardsmen in silence. The two 
 spears were lowered instantaneously. The offi- 
 cers saluted the governor of Babylon. When 
 he had passed them, he gently dropped the hand 
 of his charge, and turned the corner of the 
 street. He seemed to be reflecting, that he 
 might use the highest words to the maiden ; that 
 he might take from the rarest opportunity the 
 richest treasure. 
 
 " God love thee, Lalitha," he said at last. 
 
 But might not a man do as much ? Oh, but 
 he was young, and a man, after all ! She was 
 so lovely, she was so lovable, she was so soft. 
 She clung to his robe so prettily, and leaned 
 
194 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 toward him so confidingly ; she was so wan with 
 her fright, with her wound, with the blood 
 upon her arm, and her tears ; she was so pitiful 
 and adorable ; she was so weak and so mighty ; 
 she was so harmless and so dangerous ! Is a 
 man a god, that he shall neither see, nor know, 
 nor feel ? 
 
 As Daniel walked beside Lalitha through the 
 streets of Babylon, his holy heart held, who 
 knew what human tumult? The devotee had 
 never before, in all the years that he had known 
 the girl, passed as much time as this alone in 
 her sweet presence. A perfectly new experience 
 awaited the saint. He moved down the streets 
 beside her, in a silence which awed Lalitha, as 
 if he had been a deity. His lips stirred. Did 
 he pray ? At the threshold of her father's house, 
 the young man turned, and gently raised Lali- 
 tha's bleeding arm and examined it. His lip 
 quivered. Then he lifted her face by the tip of 
 one finger beneath her delicate chin, as he would 
 touch a child, and looked upon her longer than 
 he had ever looked in his life. His countenance 
 was blinding beautiful. 
 
 " May God watch between thee and me," he 
 said gently. " And now go in, my child. Arouse 
 thy father with thine own voice. Dearer than 
 the voice of angels will it be to his ear. And, 
 verily, I wonder not thereat." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 LALITHA'S girlish voice, pealing joyously at 
 her father's door, brought no response. She re- 
 peated the call, but without effect. 
 
 " Try the door," said the Jew quickly. It 
 was not barred. The latch yielded to her light, 
 obedient hand ; and the two stepped into the 
 house. It was perfectly still, and very dark. 
 
 " He is asleep," said Lalitha uneasily, " or he 
 sitteth in his tower to calculate. I will run and 
 call him." 
 
 " I attend thee," said Daniel gravely, " and 
 by thy permission, I precede thee." 
 
 He pushed on before toward the apartments 
 of the sage. The dumb and darkened house 
 echoed to their footsteps. Lalitha ran, calling, 
 
 " Father, father, father ! " 
 
 The sickening sensation which possesses one 
 who utters a beloved name vainly is never with- 
 out a premonition of the hour when it shall have 
 been uttered for the last time. Lalitha, too 
 young to know what she feared, but fearing the 
 the more for that, began to sob. They had 
 reached the lower story of the tower in which 
 
196 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 the sage worked. The apartment was dimly 
 lighted by one small oil-lamp that had well-nigh 
 spent itself. Heavy shadows crouched in the 
 corners, as if they had flung themselves there 
 headlong. In one of these, a figure prone upon 
 an ottoman, and covered with a rug, could be 
 imperfectly distinguished. 
 
 " Maiden, stand back ! " said the voice of the 
 governor of Babylon, with the full note of au- 
 thority. He held out his devout, athletic arm to 
 bar her way. Deftly as the motion of a light 
 leaf before a great wind, the girl dived, her 
 sinuous body dipped below the Jew's hand, 
 she swayed to her balance, and flung herself 
 upon the ottoman with a loud cry, which waked 
 Kisrinni ; soundly sleeping, and perfectly 
 comfortable in spite of her excessive anxiety. 
 This she hastened, in the full flower of Oriental 
 speech, to make known, with such facts as she 
 had to add to it ; they were few enough. 
 
 When she had returned from the palace with- 
 out her mistress, Mutusa-ili stared her in the 
 face, " like a man gone five days dead," and de- 
 manded his daughter. 
 
 " Thou must demand her of the king," said 
 the slave woman. It did not seem to have oc- 
 curred to her that she was not bearing agreeable 
 intelligence. Mutusa-ili, at these words, bowed 
 his head, " as if he had been a slave," said Kis- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 197 
 
 rinni, and had said no word to the woman, but 
 departed from her, and ascended to the tower 
 where he was accustomed to wed solitude to 
 study, and bitterness to age. He had walked so 
 feebly, and he trembled so in climbing the pro- 
 jecting bricks that led to the conical tower, that 
 Kisrinni, for very anxiety, had remained on 
 watch in the room below. She could not under- 
 stand why it was not an honor that Lalitha 
 should enter the harem of the king ; but an old 
 man who tottered on a brick twenty feet above 
 ground, this was comprehensible. Kisrinni's 
 fidelity was proportionate to her nature. At 
 all events, since he ascended the tower, noth- 
 ing had been heard of Mutusa-ili. Kisrinni 
 could not climb the bricks, and that was the end 
 of the matter. 
 
 Lalitha was quite used to the tower, and she 
 flew up the narrow steps with wings in her feet. 
 The governor of Babylon followed her more 
 slowly, as best he might. When they came out 
 together upon the top, the girl, by a pretty in- 
 stinct, for very girlish fright, drew back and 
 clung to him. 
 
 The young ascetic trembled. 
 
 " 1 protect thee," he whispered, "I protect 
 thee." 
 
 In the open space beneath the stars, Mutusa- 
 ili sat upright. His gray head was bare to the 
 
198 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 now rising wind. The dew had touched it. At 
 his feet lay his diagram of the planets and their 
 prophecies ; the shallow Persian glass of water 
 used by astrologers to prescribe a fate stood be- 
 side the diagram ; dark scrolls and rare tablets 
 of ancient clay, familiar to magicians and famous 
 among them, lay scattered in unusual, it seemed 
 to be perhaps intentional, disorder around him. 
 He sat stiffly. His face was turned toward the 
 palace. The music of the revel came faintly, 
 like the language of another planet, to the 
 tower. His eyes stared before him. An open 
 scroll lay upon his lap ; the edge made a little 
 crackling noise in the wind. His hands were 
 clasped upon the scroll. When the two came 
 up behind him, the old man did not stir. 
 
 "He slumbereth," whispered Lalitha fear- 
 fully. " Shall I waken him ? " 
 
 " Remain thou," said the Jew, in some agita- 
 tion. " I will awaken him." 
 
 He stepped up and laid his hand upon the old 
 man's shoulder. He called him, Honored sage, 
 Dear master, Father of Lalitha ; and each name 
 came in a louder voice, and seemed more im- 
 perious and more precious than the last. But 
 Mutusa-ili made answer to none of them. Dan- 
 iel gently stooped, and tried to unlock the old 
 man's cold, clenched hands. As he did so, the 
 dim light revealed to these devout eyes, so fami- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 199 
 
 liar with the sacred writings of his faith, the 
 contents of the scroll which the despairing cap- 
 tive soothsayer of Babylon had substituted for 
 the mysteries and mockeries of the Chaldean 
 magic. 
 
 Mutusa-ili held beneath his stiffened clasp the 
 holy writings of his unacknowledged ancestors, 
 the hymns of David, prophet, poet, and king 
 of Israel. His finger rested upon the words : 
 
 "My soul lonyeth, yea, even faint eth, for the 
 courts of the Lord" 
 
 "He sleepeth," said Lalitha decidedly. But 
 she shrank, and did not touch the silent figure. 
 She had come around in front of it now, so that 
 she stood between the old man's fixed eyes and 
 the palace which he had watched, who shall 
 say how long, or how piteously ? With what un- 
 recorded prayers had the disgraced and helpless 
 father sought to avert the dishonor of his house 
 and the anguish of his child ! Had he exhausted 
 the craft of the idolater, or discarded it ? Had 
 he come at the last, driven by a deceived intel- 
 lect or drawn by a broken heart, to the God 
 of his abandoned people? Did Bel-Merodach 
 deny? Would Jehovah reply? Poor old dis- 
 appointed eyes, turn but once. Give but a 
 glance. Is there not a gleam of recognition in 
 your steady look ? Look at Lalitha ! Oh, look 
 but once at Lalitha ! 
 
200 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " He sleepeth," repeated Lalitha uneasily. 
 
 " If it be the will of God that I do tell thee," 
 said the Jew in a deep voice, " his will be done. 
 For thy father sleepeth not, save as they sleep 
 who wake no more." 
 
 44 But thou saidst thou wouldst waken him ! " 
 cried Lalitha. She had begun to tremble, but 
 not to understand. 
 
 "I may not,'' replied Daniel solemnly, "I 
 may not do that deed." 
 
 '* But thou art the master of the masters," 
 pleaded the girl. " Thou art the Master of the 
 Magicians. All Babylon knoweth this. Since 
 the king dreamed, thou canst not deceive us of 
 thy art. Waken my father ! Thou wiser than 
 the Chaldeans of Chaldea, waken my father! 
 Thou greater than Mutusa-ili, waken him ! " 
 
 But the Master of the Magicians bowed his 
 head before the girl. 
 
 " Behold," he whispered, " there is a greater 
 than I. The magic of the living God hath been 
 wrought upon Mutusa-ili. If he waken or no, 
 at some other time, God knoweth. It is not 
 revealed to me. . . . Come thou ! This is no 
 place for thee, my child. Go thou below, to 
 the slave woman. I will attend thee. . . . Per- 
 haps," added Daniel, in genuine masculine des- 
 peration, " Kisrinni can explain the matter to 
 thee." 
 
THE MASTER OF TEE MAGICIANS. 201 
 
 Lalitha walked a few steps obediently, like a 
 child. At the top of the brick ladder which 
 led from the tower, she turned and looked back. 
 The Jew had fallen upon his knees, and, with 
 his face toward the west, prayed silently. His 
 hand lay upon the hands of her father, and the 
 three hands upon the old scroll that crackled 
 in the wind. Now Daniel seemed to be making 
 an effort to turn the old man's body, or the low, 
 movable seat upon which he sat, so that Mutusa- 
 ili's fixed eyes, too, should seek the Holy City, 
 while the captive prayed. 
 
 Lalitha did not go down the brick stairs. 
 She stood perfectly still. 
 
 " My father dieth," she said distinctly. "My 
 father is dead." 
 
 She did not say anything more, or cry out. 
 She thrust forth both her hands confusedly, tot- 
 tered, and sank. He caught her on the brink 
 of the stairway, down which, otherwise, she 
 must have dashed headlong. 
 
 " Run thou ! " called Daniel to the slave wo- 
 man. "Run quickly to the nearest guard at 
 the corner of the Street of the Tamarisks, and 
 make known to him that the governor of Baby- 
 lon desireth the attendance of the captain of the 
 guards." 
 
 It was almost dawn when Allit came into the 
 
202 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 presence of Lalitha. The two young men, with- 
 out other help than the old slave's, had done all 
 that was needful upon the top of the tower. 
 The dead astrologer lay in the lower room, 
 among his parchments and his diagrams, his 
 tablets and his calculations. Even in his death 
 he looked more solitary than most men, and 
 more comfortless. Beneath his clasped hands, 
 the songs of David, prince of Israel, remained 
 undisturbed. 
 
 Balatsu-usur gathered the soothsayer's manu- 
 scripts and planisphere into a corner of the 
 room, where he covered them from sight with a 
 woolen cloth, as if the eyes of the dead might 
 see them, and find some disturbance in the 
 sight. 
 
 "Let them lie there," he said authoritatively. 
 
 " Come thou. Be witness unto me while I 
 read what I did observe." 
 
 Beneath the Psalm of David, upon the dead 
 man's knee, a second writing had been found. 
 This was a small tablet, inscribed with a stylus. 
 Upon the words of clay the clay hand rested 
 heavily; there had been some difficulty in re- 
 moving it. When Daniel had brought the tab- 
 let close to the little oil-lamp, and had examined 
 it, he laid it down reverently. It was the will 
 of Mutusa-ili. It bore date of but a week ago. 
 Thus it ran : 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 203 
 
 Methuselah, Jew, worshiper of Jehovah, in- 
 habitant of Babylon, known to men as Mu- 
 tusa-ili, invofcer of idols, interpreter of the stars 
 and diviner of dreams. 
 
 My fields, my house, and my goods shall be 
 for my daughter, Lalitha. I appoint Daniel, 
 Governor of Babylon, Prince of Israel, wor- 
 shiper of Jehovah, guardian to Lalitha. Let her 
 be subject unto him. May the great God, whose 
 name is recorded on this tablet, curse her with 
 irrevocable malediction, and scatter her race 
 even to the last days, if she cleave not to the 
 God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Daniel, 
 whose servant I am, alas, too late. 
 Witnesses : 
 
 EGIBI, royal treasurer and banker, 
 son of Adamu. 
 
 HANANIAH, son of David. 
 
 MISHAEL, sou of Elzaphan. 
 
 AZARIAH, son of Jezaniah. 
 
 BABYLON, month Ululu, day 25th, in the fifteenth year of 
 the accession of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. 
 
 The two young men, when they had read the 
 will, exchanged glances. The eye of Allit was 
 feverish and half -closed with . emotion ; it was 
 more nearly wary than the captain's boy-like 
 gaze had ever been before in his life. But Dan- 
 iel's expression had the steadfast illumination of 
 a man to whom duty is as dear as it is clear. 
 
204 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 After all, both were men, and both were young. 
 This will threw Lalitha absolutely under the 
 control of the Jew. The governor of Babylon 
 could do as he would with his ward, and there 
 would be neither law nor sentiment to ask a 
 question of him. Power more precious to Allit 
 than the throne of Babylon lay in the hands of 
 this promoted captive, this saintly courtier, the 
 captain's official and moral superior, his friend 
 and his rival ? 
 
 Had he a rival in this sacred youth ? Was 
 the Master of the Magicians the master of the 
 last and finest magic of human life ? Would he 
 will away or woo away the inclination of the 
 fatherless girl? Nay, had he already wrought 
 upon the spell ? 
 
 The captain was not an imaginative man ; but 
 as he laid the tablet back in the hand of Balat- 
 su-usur, his fancy took an unprecedented flight. 
 He felt to the full of his nature the possibilities 
 of the situation. Daniel's invaluable presence 
 at the crisis of the girl's bereavement, his en- 
 dearing tenderness, his dangerous ability to be 
 of use to her, the glamour of the dead father's 
 confidence and evident preference, the supreme 
 personal beauty of the prince of Israel, 
 what would these mean, what would they do, to 
 Lalitha ? 
 
 The man of a hundred successful intrigues, 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 205 
 
 he who had held the fairest women of Babylon 
 at the feet of his light fancy, felt before these 
 facts something like the surprise of a child at 
 its first hurt. It seemed to Allit as if he had 
 received a sabre thrust contrary to the tactics. 
 He looked at Daniel almost stupidly. The 
 moral force of the Jew, which had already be- 
 gun to lift the " soul sodden with pleasure," 
 found a tremendous aid in the plain human 
 complication. To spiritual momentum there 
 was now added the push of commonplace jea- 
 lousy. Thus, the lower motive, like the higher, 
 found, as it often does in our strangely economic 
 scheme of things, its unexpected and important 
 value. 
 
 Allit opened his full lips to speak some 
 hot-hearted words. But he glanced at the dead 
 astrologer, and bowed his head silently. Dan- 
 iel followed the look. A strange, bright smile 
 curved his delicate mouth. 
 
 "Go thou," he said gently, "go thou and 
 comfort the maiden because of her father. She 
 awaiteth thee. Perchance she hath need of 
 thee, for her sorrow constraineth her sorely." 
 
 " Thou art not as other men ! " said Allit 
 reverentially. But he went. And thus at the 
 hour of dawn he came to her. He thought of 
 that other debt he owed the Jew; by whose 
 power whether of magic, or of man, or of the 
 
206 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 gods, the Babylonian knew not the girl had 
 been spared from deadlier than death. He did 
 not know, at that moment, whether he most 
 honored the man or most loved the woman. 
 What purity had Daniel preserved ! A delicacy 
 and embarrassment, new to his experience, over- 
 took the captain of the guards. He scarcely 
 dared to raise his eyes to her. When he did 
 so, an instant taught him that the girl was as 
 unaware of what she had escaped as she was of 
 the eternal fate of the dead man in the next 
 room. Lalitha knew no more of moral disease 
 than she did of physical dissolution. Allit ap- 
 proached her with awe. He had not seen her 
 since her escape from the harem ; and his emo- 
 tion at the rush of events was great. 
 
 Lalitha was in the ante-room to her father's 
 apartments. Further than this no one had been 
 able to persuade her. She was walking up and 
 down and across the little room. Her fluttering 
 movements reminded Allit of the fancy con- 
 scious to him the first time that he saw her, 
 more than ever she had the look of a bird. She 
 was not sobbing, or moaning, but yet it seemed 
 to him as if she would beat her heart out. The 
 room was still very dark. At the eastern door, 
 but a little ajar, day struggled to enter. Baby- 
 lon was quiet, uncommonly so, after the night's 
 carousal. In the streets, the early water-car- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 207 
 
 riers had begun to stir sluggishly, but the citi- 
 zens slept. 
 
 Upon the date-palm that grew between the 
 house and the street, a swallow had found itself 
 awakened, and suddenly swung upon the lintel, 
 and pecked thereat. Lalitha stopped her tem- 
 pestuous pacing, and watched the swallow. 
 
 " It is the spirit ! " cried Lalitha. " It is the 
 spirit of my father ! Let him in ! Let him do 
 as he willeth, Kisrinni ! " 
 
 But Kisrinni had stepped into the adjoining 
 room ; the Jew had summoned her ; some last 
 service to the dead needed, or was made to need, 
 her presence. Allit stepped forward quietly, 
 and opened the door wide, thus bringing him- 
 self into the full sight of Lalitha. 
 
 " Ah," she sighed, " thou ! " 
 
 The swallow flew in. The captain closed the 
 door. The bird beat wildly about the heads of 
 the two. Lalitha watched it fearfully. She 
 was full of the superstitions of the people to 
 whose faith her father had apostatized, and 
 among whom she had been reared. The swallow 
 settled slowly toward the girl. She held her 
 breath, and lifted her beautiful, wounded arm, 
 raising her forefinger tip. The bird descended 
 gently, regarding her with the mingling of cau- 
 tion, suspicion, and trust, seen only in its kind, 
 and then delicately dropped and poised upon her 
 outstretched finger. 
 
208 TIJE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 " He blesseth me," whispered Lalitha. Allit 
 did not speak. What could he say ? It was 
 but a swallow, and a girl. Yet the soldier was 
 as dumb as any mute slave in Babylon. Purity, 
 delicacy, exquisite girlhood, devoutness, imagi- 
 nation, these were matters hard to be under- 
 stood. Add the sorrow of one of the sorest of 
 human bereavements, and the Babylonian bowed 
 before the mystery. Lalitha, unconscious and 
 sweet, was the unconquerable fact of his experi- 
 ence. As she stood, rapt, with the bird upon 
 her hand, the captain of the guards instinctively 
 took the attitude of devotion before the girl; 
 then deliberately retained it. 
 
 The bird rose slowly ; fluttered above her up- 
 turned face, and made a long, fine circle over- 
 head ; then darted into the room of death. 
 Lalitha watched, but did not follow it. The 
 astrologer lay in the state which age and scholar- 
 ship and high repute give to human clay; the 
 sensitiveness of defeat and cruel anxiety added 
 pathos to his features. Here, if ever, lay a man 
 dead of a broken heart. Daniel and Kisrinni 
 were praying beside the corpse ; the one ad- 
 dressed Jehovah, the other muttered a charm, 
 well known to have been revealed to the mother 
 of the king by Bel-Merodach. The swallow 
 circled over the body of Mutusa-ili : then, mount- 
 ing slowly, sought the tower of the sage, and 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 209 
 
 escaped through the exit of the brick stair- 
 way. As the bird broke free, day burst upon 
 Babylon. 
 
 " He is gone ! " moaned Lalitha. 
 
 When she turned, the dark room was flooded 
 with the suiibreak from above. The bird could 
 be heard singing without. The captain of the 
 guards still stood in the attitude of devotion ; 
 Daniel communed with Jehovah. The slave wo- 
 man whispered snatches from a familiar hyimi 
 to " The House of the Land of Death : " 
 
 " To the land of no return he hath departed ; 
 To the afar off, to regions of corruption, 
 Where light is never seen, where the dead exceed the living ; 
 Where ghosts, like birds, whirl round and round the vaults 
 of dust." 
 
 But Allit prayed to Lalitha. She wavered 
 toward him, with a little appealing motion. 
 Her chin began to quiver, like a child's. Her 
 eyes filled, and overflowed. But she was patheti- 
 cally quiet. 
 
 " I comfort thee," said Allit impetuously. In 
 an instant the worshipper had become the lover. 
 He sprang toward her, and held out his arms. 
 " Thou shalt not weep, for thou art precious 
 to me," whispered the Babylonian. " Only love 
 me, and I will comfort thee. Try to love me ! " 
 pleaded the captain humbly. 
 
 Lalitha' s wan little face changed color deli- 
 
210 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 cately. She made a motion, as if perhaps she 
 nodded ; but she did not speak. 
 
 " Love me, Lalitha, love me ! " entreated 
 Allit. " Make me worthy, for 1 am unworthy. 
 Make thou me fit to take thee to wife." 
 
 " My father is dead," said Lalitha. 
 
 At this moment the Jew entered the room. 
 An unearthly radiance illuminated his face. He 
 held in his hand the tablet of clay. She tried 
 to read it, laid it down and sighed, and tried 
 again. Her eyes wandered from it to him, to 
 Allit, drearily. 
 
 " By the authority of death, I ask thee," said 
 Daniel tenderly. " Would st thou wed this man ? 
 Lieth thy happiness in his keeping? " 
 
 " My father is dead ! " repeated Lalitha. 
 
 " Verily, I have chosen an untimely hour to 
 woo the maiden," whispered Allit between his 
 teeth. " Better is she, it seemeth, in thy holy 
 company. I am only a man like other men ! " 
 
 Devoutly raising her cold little hand to his 
 forehead, the captain of the guards made obei- 
 sance to the girl, and, suddenly wheeling, like a 
 phalanx in retreat, left her with the Jew. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 O HOT Babylon ! The Gate of God had be- 
 come the mouth of hell. This was the time of 
 the year when rivers, dashing from their moun- 
 tain sources, were devoured by the sun before 
 they reached the Euphrates. A lizard, leaving 
 its shady nook in the crumbling wall, was roasted 
 to death as it touched the pavement. Birds sank 
 in their stifling flight, and fell broiling upon the 
 bricks. Not a breath shook the most delicate 
 leaves ; pistachio and olive branches drooped 
 pitifully ; melons and rare grapevines shrank to 
 skeletons. Without and within the city, house- 
 holders buried themselves deep beneath thick 
 walls of unburnt brick, and vagabonds dug into 
 the hot earth like worms, hoping for an air to 
 breathe that was not aflame. 
 
 Upon the ramparts the captains of tens and of 
 hundreds wrapped themselves in thick woolens 
 and hid in massive chambers, awaiting with im- 
 patience the evening eastern breeze. But the 
 luckless private often fell upon his sentry beat ; 
 and frequently he lay where he dropped, for the 
 exertion of lifting him might bring a sunstroke 
 upon several still valuable soldiers. 
 
212 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 But who pitied the slaves within the walls? 
 Babylon was but a royal citadel built for kingly 
 pleasure. The ruthless builder, under whose 
 lash a thousand frequently perished in one day, 
 was not likely to spare himself the least of his 
 luxuries in this deadly weather. Twice ten thou- 
 sand laborers had not rested during the long 
 night, that the last caprice of the monarch 
 might be finished upon the day appointed. The 
 Hanging Gardens were built. 
 
 Amytis was beside herself with joy, like a 
 child with a new bauble. She had arisen early, 
 that she might personally inspect the finishing 
 touches given to the great work. 
 
 After the queen had sent her chief henchman 
 to conduct Lalitha, who knows where ? she had 
 gone to such rest as satisfied vengeance gives, 
 and had dropped the matter. Her commands 
 were always scrupulously obeyed. Why refer 
 to them, especially if they carry an urr:leasant 
 tang in the mouth ? But when morning came, 
 it pleased her to mention the subject to her 
 eunuch. Ashpenaz stammered in confusion, 
 when, after a few casual remarks, Amytis asked 
 him sarcastically whether the girl objected to 
 her escort and her fate. His hesitation aroused 
 her quick suspicion. 
 
 " Is the deed done ? Answer, on thy head ! " 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 213 
 
 The silver parasol held above her trembled in 
 the suffocating air, for the queen had stamped 
 her foot with a concussion worthy of a market- 
 woman in a quarrel. 
 
 " Yes yes " stuttered Ashpenaz, " that 
 is" 
 
 " Thou liest ! " said the queen succinctly. 
 Then the eunuch fell flat upon his fuming face, 
 and kissed her embossed sandal, and implored 
 mercy, and told her all he knew. The demon of 
 the southwest wind smote him with a sunstroke. 
 He swooned. He had a fit. When he came to 
 himself, the girl had escaped him. A god must 
 have snatched her. She must be dead. He 
 was sure of that. She was probably turned into 
 a vampire. It was hot enough for any transfor- 
 mation. The omens he had consulted did not 
 deny this supposition. And so forth, and so on. 
 
 "It is a great disappointment," said Amytis 
 thoughtfully. But she did not have the head 
 of Ashpenaz for it. Her garden was finished, 
 and that was occupation enough. After a 
 round feminine scolding, she forgave the chief 
 eunuch. She found herself amused. Her loves 
 and her jealousies were light. When she had 
 anything else to do, it was quite possible to for- 
 get the daughter of Mutusa-ili. Lalitha was the 
 plaything of the queen's ennui. Amytis tossed 
 off the subject for the nonce, and turned merrily 
 
214 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 to the Garden of Ascents, one of the seven won- 
 ders of the civilized world, the regal gift of 
 Nebuchadrezzar, her lord and king. 
 
 Nothing was impossible to this king. No 
 potentate known to history has ever displayed 
 such constructive faculty. He converted it into 
 temples and palaces, fortifications and gigantic 
 reservoirs, as easily as a woman converts fancy 
 into embroidery. Nebuchadrezzar was the Au- 
 gustus of Babylon. His most ambitious designs 
 were achieved with such painstaking elaboration, 
 with such conscientious workmanship, and with 
 such marvelous celerity that his contemporaries 
 whispered of occult enchantment, as explanatory 
 of his success. It was he who rebuilt the won- 
 derful seven-towered pyramid to the god Bel- 
 Merodach. Nebuchadrezzar found eight other 
 temples in Babylon dismantled and sunken in 
 ruins, besides scores of neglected shrines through- 
 out Babylonia ; among them the marvelous tem- 
 ple of the Seven Spheres at Borsippa. All these 
 he restored to greater than their original propor- 
 tions, and furnished them with gold and silver 
 and brass ; with the richest stones and woods 
 and stuffs that the world could produce. By 
 way of pastime he had excavated the Nahar 
 Malcha, the royal canal, whose broad and deep 
 waters connected the Tigris with the Euphrates. 
 But the indefatigable builder rested his fame 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 215 
 
 chiefly upon the , double walls that inclosed and 
 protected his holy city. These he raised, and 
 without he ditched them, and thus he strength- 
 ened the city. The skeptical may think this no 
 great work. Let it be remembered that this 
 outer wall was fifty cubits wide and two hun- 
 dred cubits high, and inclosed over one hundred 
 square miles. Four Parises or two Londons 
 could encamp therein ; and the number of the 
 largest Babylonian bricks required to rear the 
 outer wall, or Imgur-Bel, would be eighteen 
 thousand seven hundred and sixty-five millions, 
 or twice the amount of masonry used in build- 
 ing the great Chinese wall. 
 
 One is therefore not disposed to wonder that 
 this king (as we have already noticed) built his 
 new palace on the other side of the river, over 
 against Kadimerra, the old palace of the kings 
 of Babylon, in the incredible space of fifteen 
 days. Nebuchadrezzar at his best energy could 
 annihilate time ; and slaves, to whom the Egyp- 
 tian captivity of the Jews would have been 
 Elysian ease, wrought the marvels at which the 
 world wonders. 
 
 The palaces, the pleasure-grounds, the bastions 
 that formed the royal fastness, on the eastern 
 bank of the river, were four miles in compass, 
 and were protected by three frowning walls sur- 
 rounded by deep moats. These fortifications 
 
216 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 formed the impregnable citadel of the city. 
 Their outline took the shape of an oval. On 
 the west, the Euphrates bent like a bow about 
 it. At the north, a few hundred yards above 
 the new palace, the Shebil canal drained the 
 river, and carried its waters into a huge rectan- 
 gular reservoir. This was also dug by the king, 
 and called the Yapur Shapu, great basin. This 
 body of water formed the eastern protection of 
 the citadel. From the southern end of this reser- 
 voir, the Shebil canal flowed, turned, and again 
 joined the river at the distance of a few thousand 
 cubits. It was on the southern extremity of this 
 reservoir, opposite the ancient royal palace, that 
 the king had built his latest freak and most dar- 
 ing design. Here Amytis, embowered in moist 
 trees and unwithered flowers, could defy the 
 fearful heat under which the builders of the 
 mound had dropped dead. From this towering- 
 height a breeze was possible. From all sides 
 the water cooled the air, and the vast basin rip- 
 pled below. From the side of the reservoir the 
 garden rose to a perpendicular height of two 
 hundred and fifty feet. Arches supported each 
 tier on this side. Those in the Coliseum give 
 some idea of the architecture. From the three 
 other sides, the structure rose in five pyramidal 
 stages, each fifty feet in height, and upborne by 
 pillars of brick and stone over twenty feet in 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 217 
 
 circumference. The second stage was supported 
 on six hundred and twenty-five pillars, and the 
 fifth on one hundred and sixty-nine. Imagine 
 the grandeur of these ascents, when the total 
 number of columns reached fifteen hundred and 
 twenty-four, of the same height and circumfer- 
 ence. Each of these platforms, as well as the 
 top, was finished flat : first in reeds mixed with 
 bitumen ; over this a solid brick masonry ; next 
 covered by a coating of lead from across the 
 desert ; the whole surmounted by a layer of 
 earth thick enough for the roots of the largest 
 trees. A winding, decorated staircase led from 
 within to the top. Fountains flashed every- 
 where. Groves grew, who knew how ? Seen 
 from a distance, the forest seemed to have leaped 
 into mid-air. Flowers ran over the mathemat- 
 ical accuracy of the design like freshets of color. 
 Every plant known to Babylonia, or imported by 
 her florists from Persia, Judea, Syria, or Media, 
 was fostered here. While soldiers dropped of 
 sunstroke and slaves died for water, these royal 
 flowers were shaded and cherished day and night. 
 Should a vine droop, chosen by Nebuchadrezzar 
 to please a fickle queen, or a bud die that had 
 been honored by the royal selection? A line 
 of slaves carried the water, which they dared not 
 taste, in skins, to freshen this dream of delight. 
 Garden houses and exquisite apartments looked 
 
218 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 from between cool leaves. The sumptuous 
 fancy, which was highly cultivated by the race 
 and by the age, gave itself every possible trick 
 to make the mountain garden agreeable to the 
 mountain queen. What if the treasury were de- 
 pleted ? Let the people groan beneath the most 
 capricious and exorbitant taxes of the civilized 
 world. The queen must be happy. What if 
 the slaves sank by the score ? The queen must 
 be cool. 
 
 It was now a lunar month since the omens 
 had proved favorable, and the work had been 
 undertaken. This day the stupendous fancy 
 must be finished. Obedient to the decree and 
 prompt to the hour, overseers were withdrawing 
 their men, and squads here and there along the 
 terrace were planting the last shrubs, or straight- 
 ening the last full-grown tree, or giving an ar- 
 tistic and natural pose to some jagged boulder, 
 wrenched from mountainous cliffs, and brought 
 down the river for many a mile on huge rafts 
 of inflated skins or pitched reeds. 
 
 The king was particularly morose and cross. 
 Nothing went to suit him. Allit trembled lest 
 the task should not be done. The captain was 
 very uncomfortable this morning. He had hur- 
 ried from the house of Mutusa-ili to the royal 
 presence, more concerned with his private dis- 
 tress than with public affairs. No woman had 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 219 
 
 ever before delayed to drop into the arms of 
 the king's captain, if she had the opportunity. 
 Allit was confounded by Lalitha. He could 
 not explain her. Was it possible that she did 
 not love him ? The captain could think of no 
 other reason for her extraordinary hesitation in 
 responding to his suit. What then ? Had the 
 pious Jew allured her fancy ? Yet Allit could 
 not cultivate anger with Daniel. Here was 
 the second mystery. The finer side of his na- 
 ture revolted from a low jealousy of this high 
 soul. That seemed to Allit like making a spear- 
 thrust at a marble god. He had the military 
 temperament, with its accompanying sense of 
 honor. When he had said to Balatsu-usur, " I 
 am the officer of thy heart," the captain spoke 
 with prosaic seriousness. He had surrendered 
 to the Jew. He felt like a man on parole. How 
 could he seek a vulgar vengeance ? That were 
 out of the question, for that were dishonor. 
 
 It was therefore with a cordial manner, though 
 with some constraint, that Allit went forth to 
 meet Balatsu-usur, who had followed him to the 
 hanging gardens by some half hour's delay. 
 Both young men looked pale and worn ; but the 
 Jew had the air of a tired spirit ; the Babylo- 
 nian of a worried man. 
 
 " The king hath the temper of a demon this 
 morning," said Allit at once. " Thou must 
 
220 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 make the news to him. I have no mind for 
 the venture. He would have tossed two slaves 
 from the topmost terrace of the garden, because 
 the flower-bed thereon was not completed and 
 trimmed to his mind ; but I constrained him. 
 Deal thou with Nebuchadrezzar touching what 
 we have witnessed." 
 
 " Hast thou broken the matter to the queen ? " 
 asked Daniel briefly. 
 
 The captain shrugged his fine shoulders. 
 " Does a man turn from the dove to the vam- 
 pire? " he cried, in a tone of hot disgust so un- 
 mistakable that it was well for his curly head 
 Amytis was two hundred paces above him, wind- 
 ing her way to the top of the gardens, through 
 bloom, and blush, and scent, and height, and 
 breeze, and moisture that wrought upon the 
 senses and the fancy like a diviner's spell. Amy- 
 tis was hard to please ; but she was pleased. 
 Nebuchadrezzar had wrought a miracle for his 
 young and petulant queen, and it was agreeable 
 to her. Some historians have held that he 
 feared her fickleness, and would spare himself 
 her infidelity ; and the result was the mountain 
 garden. At all events, Amytis was busy, and 
 had for the time being no interest in her flirta- 
 tions or her intrigues. 
 
 While the two young men stood apart together, 
 a slave brought imperious summons to the cap- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 221 
 
 tain of the guards, of whom the king had imme- 
 diate need. 
 
 Daniel passed on at once, and up the winding 
 stair. He overtook the queen upon the fourth 
 tier of the garden. She was bathing in a per- 
 fumed brook that trickled the full length of the 
 cool, green, alluring arcade. Mariamnu held 
 her outer robe. Daniel started back. Amytis 
 laughed, and beckoned him to approach. Mari- 
 amnu deftly threw the golden tissue over the 
 brown, bare neck of the queen. The Jew obeyed 
 the royal mandate sternly enough. He thought 
 of that white girl 
 
 " Why so grim a face, governor of Babylon ? " 
 cried Amytis, with an imperious motion of her 
 forefinger. " Have you no smile for your queen's 
 gala day ? At the least, I supposed you had come 
 to wish me joy of my mountain garden." 
 
 " And thus I have," returned Daniel politely 
 enough. " Truly the king, thy lord, hath wrought 
 a marvel in thy behalf " Here the courtier 
 stopped ; the dreamer in him seemed to float up 
 like a mist, and drown his beautiful face ; his 
 eyes closed ; his lips moved ; he stretched his 
 hands out with a blind motion. 
 
 " Between heaven and earth" murmured the 
 seer, " a doom, between heaven and earth " 
 
 " What say you ? " demanded the queen 
 sharply. She stepped from the brook, and held 
 
222 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 out her small bare foot for Mariamnu to dry 
 with silken towels. She was absorbed in the 
 brook and the bath. She was not paying much 
 attention to the Jew. His evident distress and 
 embarrassment scarcely appealed to her. He 
 had thus time to recover himself from his short 
 trance, and to realize his position, before harm 
 came of it. 
 
 " Your pardon, my queen," said the governor 
 of Babylon contritely. " I am not well. I 
 stumble in my words. I have watched all night, 
 and for that came I to have speech with you. 
 Mutusa-ili, the master, lieth dead in his house." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Amytis, putting her wet foot 
 down hard, and crushing a cluster of red Judean 
 lilies. " So the old man is dead, is he ? And 
 the daughter?" 
 
 " God hath preserved her out of the snare of 
 the fowler," said the Jew gravely. " She weep- 
 eth beside her dead in her father's house." 
 
 " She escaped from the harem," observed 
 Amytis, without raising her narrow eyes. " The 
 king will be in a rage. He is so cross, lately, 
 one cannot abide him." 
 
 Now the king had forgotten Lalitha in an 
 hour, as Amytis knew, and Daniel suspected. 
 
 " If the maiden hath no foe more dangerous 
 than Nebuchadrezzar, she will fare well," ob- 
 served Daniel, in a lower tone. " Nor is it my 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 223 
 
 intention that she shall. By the will of Mutusa- 
 ili I am become the guardian of the maiden and 
 of her property." 
 
 " Is it possible ? " interrupted the queen, in 
 unqueenly curiosity. " Has she property ? " 
 
 " I protect it," replied Daniel firmly ; " and I 
 protect her. Thus runneth the law of Babylon, 
 which I both serve and represent." 
 
 The queen made a petulant gesture. She was 
 too happy that morning to fly into a fury ; but 
 still she was ill pleased. She flung the tissue 
 higher over one shoulder, and lower on the 
 other ; moving her long neck from side to side 
 impatiently. 
 
 44 Come yonder, Mariamnu. Let us away 
 from this glum fellow. I am tired of the mat- 
 ter, sir ! Everywhere, it is that girl that girl 
 that girl! And now you" . . . 
 
 Amytis glided away in the shrubbery like a 
 beautiful snake. She seemed to hiss a little as 
 she moved. Yet she admired the governor of 
 Babylon immensely. 
 
 The Jew went up to the topmost tier of the 
 mountain garden, alone, and anxiously. He 
 dreaded to break the news to the king, whose 
 irritability was of late becoming dangerous to 
 his lower subjects, and serious to the higher. 
 But it was necessary to make some arrange- 
 meiits for the public funeral of Mutusa-ili. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 SURGERY was not an accomplished science at 
 the court of Babylon ; and even the king, who 
 scorned the baser superstitions of his subjects, 
 was impatient over the mummeries performed 
 upon his lacerated leg. 
 
 " The star Marbuda hath passed into an 
 eclipse," said one enterprising and comforting 
 physician, " and the son of Marduk is involved 
 in the tempest of the elements. Surely thou art 
 joyful that thy grievous wound doth balance the 
 portents of the heavens ? " 
 
 " Not a bit of it ! " roared the king, with a 
 grimace of pain. " Out with this false astrol- 
 oger into the ditch beyond the wall ! " 
 
 " Let the sacred python be twined around his 
 majestic leg, and the evil spirit will slink away," 
 suggested another rash practitioner, after an 
 uncomfortable diagnosis. But the sacred snake 
 exhibited an unheard-of friskiness of temper 
 united with marked disinclination to twine ; so 
 the unlucky prescriber was forced to spend 
 several days soothing (if he could) the sacred 
 reptile. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 225 
 
 Every spirit in heaven and earth was implored 
 to ward off the attack of the seven evil spirits 
 from the stricken monarch, 
 
 " Seven are they, seven are they. 
 In the abyss of the deep, seven are they. 
 Disturbers of thy peace are they. 
 Evil are they, bnJef ul are they." 
 
 Thus chanted magicians in vain exorcisms, 
 burning Arabian spices and muttering strange 
 incantations to appease the torments of the king. 
 Amulets were of no avail, for the wound gaped, 
 and would not heal. 
 
 But worse was the wound upon the mind of 
 the royal patient. Nebuchadrezzar owed his life 
 to a power which was represented by an un- 
 fathomable quantity, the governor of Babylon. 
 And what a life it had become ! Nebuchad- 
 rezzar was an ardent devotee to the gods of his 
 peculiar choice. As the shepherd of his peo- 
 ple, he had made himself the religious primate 
 and example of the land. He had manufac- 
 tured gods of every description, and worshiped 
 them promiscuously. But it had occurred to 
 him that jealousy might be aroused among the 
 divinities if he coquetted with too many at the 
 same time. Therefore, advising his subjects 
 to do the same, he gradually confined most 
 of his attention to the pet deities of the city 
 of his restoration. Who worshiped Bel-Mero- 
 
226 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 dach and Nebo more devoutly than the king ? 
 Who was more loyal to the traditions of his 
 country than he ? His father had recreated 
 the ancient kingdom of Babylon ; and he had 
 consolidated it, and extended it by the power 
 of one policy, the ecclesiastical. He united 
 the nation by humoring its whole intricate sys- 
 tem of worship. Did statesmanship or a reli- 
 gious conscience govern his life ? Now the king 
 was not dull, and he had noticed that when- 
 ever he had invaded Judea, and had deported 
 thousands of captives to Babylon, he had en- 
 countered an invisible power which force of arms 
 could not subdue. 
 
 Captives from Carchemish or from far Cilicia 
 might accept the deities of the bewitching and 
 luxurious capital ; but the Jews, as a race, de- 
 manded and maintained the worship of a God 
 who shamed the voluptuous votaries of Ishtar, 
 and mocked the curling frankincense of the Zig- 
 gurat of Bel. The one God Jehovah, whom the 
 king, with his usual spirit of liberality, at first 
 patronized, and then tolerated, had become the 
 object of his personal respect. What was at 
 first an incident in politics was now a control- 
 ling factor that demanded recognition. More 
 than once he had come up against this Jewish 
 Jehovah, as if a man dashed against the wall 
 of Imgur-Bel; each time his pride received a 
 wound. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 227 
 
 There was that dream which mocked his mem- 
 ory till it maddened him. Then it mocked the 
 priests whose temples he had built. It ruined 
 his chief soothsayer, the president of his uni- 
 versity. What magic had the fates evoked, 
 when Daniel read like a scroll what the king's 
 mind had clean lost ? What sorcery saved the 
 priests, and compelled the monarch to humble 
 himself before the slave ? 
 
 These thoughts preyed upon the king, until 
 he grew unbearable to gods and men. At mo- 
 ments, his brain became clotted with revenge 
 against a force which he could neither compre- 
 hend nor classify, but only bitterly admire. 
 Daniel had inflicted a blow upon Nebuchadrez- 
 zar's ecclesiastical pride which the building of a 
 thousand temples could not efface. Time and 
 again, the despot would have given his captain 
 the order to strangle the governor of Babylonia, 
 but he dared not arouse the only divinity that 
 had ever awed him. 
 
 But this, though enough, was not all that ailed 
 the king. Not only Merodach, but Nergal, had 
 forsaken him. For the first time in his life he 
 had missed his aim at the hunt, and the victim 
 had become the victor. Was that accursed lion 
 sent by Balatsu-usur's god ? If so, to what po- 
 litical end ? Nebuchadrezzar's vaunted prowess 
 had become the sport of the whole province. 
 
228 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 His sacred life had been at the mercy of a 
 beast and a Jew. The disgrace haunted him, 
 and unnerved him. He was, in short, a sick 
 man. Was poison from the lion's claws stealing 
 into his vitals ? Unconsciously, his head swayed 
 monotonously, like a wild beast's in captivity. 
 
 His natural moodiness became chronic mo- 
 roseness. He sought solitude, and yet thirsted 
 for society. His personal cruelties multiplied ; 
 his subjects lived in terror and perplexity. His 
 officers held aloof from him. His women shrank 
 from him. His queen grew cold to him. Only 
 Daniel and Allit remained in faithful, voluntary 
 attendance upon him. Threats of their young 
 lives flew over their heads fifty times a day; 
 but the governor and the captain served him 
 with a persevering and courageous quiet which 
 the sick monarch respected, as madness always 
 respects serene -courage, and feebleness strength. 
 
 The condition of the king had, unfortunately, 
 been emphasized by the events which followed 
 the death of Mutusa-ili. The circumstances of 
 the sage's death and burial had created an un- 
 lucky complication. Babylon rocked with ex- 
 citement when it was made known that the chief 
 diviner of the province, the most distinguished 
 of living Chaldean soothsayers, had died abjur- 
 ing the art which had made him famous, and 
 the religion of the land which had educated 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 229 
 
 and honored him. Mutusa-ili had not lain four 
 hours dead, before every intelligent man in the 
 city knew that the master of her great univer- 
 sity had acknowledged the faith of the captive 
 race ; willing his family forever to the faith of 
 the Jew, and his eminent name to the worship 
 of Jehovah, an uncultivated god, favored by 
 a poor lot, who amounted to so little that they 
 could have but one. 
 
 With the fickleness and forgetfulness usual 
 to the people of a restless nation, Mutusa-ili's 
 recent downfall at court seemed to slip out of 
 mind. No one said, u He failed to interpret the 
 king's dream. We disgraced him and deserted 
 him ; " but only, " This was a great man. He 
 was an honor to Babylon. He was a Chaldee 
 of the Chaldeans." Half of Babylon stopped 
 there, and waived his religious abjuration as the 
 fantasy of a stricken, old, unhappy, dying man ; 
 these called for a great public funeral. The 
 other half cried out upon them and upon him. 
 The seer had apostatized. The royal favorite 
 had descended to the captive creed. Dishonor 
 to his memory, and to every Babylonian who 
 honored it ! 
 
 In the university of Bel the excitement cul- 
 minated. The students, headed by Susa, were 
 in a ferment. A riot in the classes threatened 
 to become a rebellion. The boys demanded the 
 
230 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 ashes of their great master, and would take no 
 less. An imposing ceremony, an incineration in 
 the court of the university, a tremendous occa- 
 sion, nothing else was to be thought of. 
 
 Susa, followed by his committee of arrange- 
 ments, marched boldly to the palace, and re- 
 quested as much of the king. Now this young 
 gentleman, since his last unlucky appearance in 
 public life, had remained in an obscurity which 
 he felt to be unnatural to his career. A dull life, 
 led at one's scrolls, aAd over one's dusty tablets 
 of science, philology, and religion ; tyrannized 
 by masters, and never once summoned to court, 
 this had lasted long enough. 
 
 A brother in authority had his disadvantages 
 as well as his uses. Allit had of late confined 
 Susa so strictly to the unimportant sphere of 
 the university that this young person did not 
 feel called upon to take the captain of the 
 guards into his confidence in the matter of the 
 master's funeral. He explained to the boys 
 that this was unnecessary ; he himself being a 
 favorite of the king, and quite competent to at- 
 tend to the business. 
 
 Now, in truth, this was so nearly the fact of 
 the situation that Susa met with a better chance 
 than he deserved. He did, indeed, make his 
 way, with his confident air, to the presence of 
 the sullen king ; to whom he presented the peti- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 231 
 
 tion of the students with a bright assurance 
 that would have cost him his curling head, if it 
 had not gained him his case. 
 
 The king's frown blurred into the first smile 
 seen upon his haggard face for many a dark 
 day. 
 
 " Thou art young," he said, " and demandest 
 of the king as the young lion roareth for its 
 food. . . . Thine eye is bright, and wandereth 
 to and fro. Thou hast not care. Thou knowest 
 not sorrow. Thou fearest naught. Nebuchad- 
 rezzar doth not affright thee. . . . Would that 
 I were young ! " 
 
 " Our master was old, and we honor age," 
 said Susa, with the adroitness of extreme candor. 
 "Give us our way in behalf of our dead. I 
 told the boys," added Susa, " that the king was 
 always kind to me. They would think I lied if 
 we could not have the funeral." 
 
 The king looked with emotion deeper than the 
 case called for, upon the lad. He repeated the 
 word, "Kind? Kind!" He could not remem- 
 ber when any one had called Nebuchadrezzar 
 kind. He rose suddenly, to conceal the signs of 
 tremulousness upon his face. 
 
 "Bury thy master as thou wilt," he said. 
 " It shall not be said that Nebuchadrezzar faileth 
 to honor his dead seer, or the petition of his 
 high-born students. Go from me, and see thou 
 to it." 
 
232 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Thus it befell that the sage received the last 
 courtesy from the university over which he had 
 presided. The body of Mutusa-ili was burned 
 to ashes in the court of the schools, with all the 
 mortuary pomp of the times. It had been em- 
 balmed in honey, as the custom went, and laid 
 in the earthen jar, preparatory to its last dreary 
 journey, a hundred miles through the hot coun- 
 try to Erech, the common cemetery of Babylon. 
 The remains were detained by order of the king. 
 A public funeral of the largest proportions re- 
 sulted. The thousand priests who had failed to 
 tell the dream came from their thousand altars 
 to do honor to that other failure, their dead 
 chief. The priest from Borsippa said, "After 
 all, he was but one of us," and the successor 
 of the priest from Zarpanit shook his head, 
 and asked, " Can you tell me the genealogy of 
 this Jehovah, to whom our late brother apos- 
 tatized?" 
 
 At that moment, Ina, the daughter of Egibi 
 the banker, was saying to her father, " He must 
 be a very common god." For Egibi was at the 
 funeral. All the world was at the funeral. 
 Court and people, throne and university, did 
 honor to the dead sage. The hired mourners 
 lost their usual importance. Egibi's large face 
 was of a dull pallor. But he did not arise be- 
 fore the people, and join the wailing friends. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 233 
 
 The treasurer of Babylon did not say, " I am his 
 brother." Lalitha and Kisrinni wept apart to- 
 gether a forlorn little family to lament a man 
 until the governor of Babylon, being by law 
 the guardian of the girl, stepped out with torn 
 garments and placed himself, as a mourner, at 
 her side. 
 
 So Mutusa-ili came to his last rest in the uni- 
 versity which he had cherished with the passion- 
 ate devotion of a scholarly and unworldly man. 
 While the body, swathed in honey and spices 
 and sacred oils, was burning, the students 
 chanted in an ancient tongue an unfamiliar 
 dirge. When the urn which received the ashes 
 was lifted upon the bier, to be taken before the 
 altar in the temple of Bel, and thence borne 
 back to the library of the university, where it 
 should be honored for time and times and a 
 day, Susa's clear young voice rose above the 
 chorus of the students : 
 
 Unto his rest, 
 Hands on his breast, 
 Bear him apart. 
 Flame hath his heart, 
 The worm and the rust 
 Touch not his dust. 
 We hold his name ; 
 Earth hath his fame. 
 
 It was at the moment when the chorus re- 
 peated, 
 
234 TEE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Keep we his name ; 
 Give earth his fame ! 
 
 and the boys had bent to the bier to carry it 
 within the courts of the temple for the final cere- 
 monial, that the interruption came which con- 
 vulsed Babylon, and would have turned the 
 burial into a riot, had it come from any other 
 source than the governor of the province. For 
 Daniel did no less nor more than step forward, 
 and authoritatively forbid the students to carry 
 the body into the temple of Bel. 
 
 " These ashes go not within the idolatrous 
 gates of Bit Sagila, the Ziggurat of Merodach," 
 he said. " Bury the Jew Methuselah in the 
 faith of Jehovah, the living God." 
 
 The effect of this interference was intense. 
 The crowd swayed and murmured. The thou- 
 sand priests muttered together. The students 
 protested in decorous undertones. The seven 
 colored stages of the insulted temple seemed to 
 glitter malignantly, then to frown and reel a lit- 
 tle. By virtue of the law and for decency's sake, 
 the will of the dead man's executor was, per- 
 force, respected. The burial procession turned 
 about, and reluctantly deposited the urn in the 
 library of the university, without the sanction of 
 Bel-Merodach. It was a tremendous event. 
 
 The students, with the superior tolerance of 
 education, made the best of it, but the people 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 235 
 
 made the worst. Before night, the city was in 
 an uproar, these clef ending, those berating, the 
 whole affair. The interment, the governor, the 
 king, the dead man, all came in for their share 
 of popular blame or approval. Mutusa-ili, who 
 of all people had loved and required peace, be- 
 came in death the cause of a popular disturb- 
 ance which would have sorely troubled his quiet 
 spirit. The excitement subsided too slowly, too 
 fiercely. Nothing could have happened which 
 would have presented such tests to the unassail- 
 able position of the captive governor in Babylon. 
 But the sick king was worried by the matter, 
 and brooded over it to his own hurt. 
 
 It was not until the afternoon of the next day 
 that the governor and the captain found leisure 
 to discuss the events which were shaking the 
 city. They met in the pleasure-grounds of the 
 king's outer garden the garden bounded by 
 the Shebil canal. The sun had passed far into 
 its third quarter ; the shadows were long ; the 
 air stirred with the ghost of a breath ; it was 
 not yet night. 
 
 Allit was much moved by the interment of 
 Mutusa-ili ; he had been allowed to pass some 
 moments with Lalitha that morning ; he experi- 
 enced the new, sweet sensation of grieving in 
 the grief of her in whose life he wished to live. 
 He felt a filial tenderness toward the dead man 
 
236 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 which astonished the soldier. But this delicate 
 sympathy was all he dared offer to Lalitha then. 
 It was not an hour for love-making. The girl 
 looked at him through a wall of glass. It was 
 the wall of sorrow. The lover could not pass it, 
 and must not shatter it. He had to content 
 himself with tears when he perished for kisses. 
 Allit had never been denied joy before, by the 
 pain of life. It seemed to him very unnatural. 
 He was quite puzzled. Like other men of his 
 sort, he turned readily from the private perplex- 
 ity to public affairs. These, at least, were com- 
 prehensible. Conversation diverted his discom- 
 fort, he was not accustomed to being uncom- 
 fortable. 
 
 He watched the Jew with an obviously new 
 expression, in which respect for executive ability 
 was added to spiritual deference. 
 
 " Verily, thou art the master," he said heart- 
 ily ; " there is no magician in Babylon who could 
 do thy deed. Thou defiedst the religion of the 
 nation as if thou gavedst an order to a guardsman. 
 I looked for a riot; nay, a revolution would 
 not astonish me. Behold, the people growl 
 at thee like little dogs ; but they kiss the hand 
 and obey thee. Bel-Merodach hath received an 
 insult from thee ; but thy head is as firm upon 
 thy shoulders as the Ziggurat upon its base. 
 Thou art not like other men ! " 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 237 
 
 u My God is not like other gods," replied 
 Daniel quietly. " That is the explanation of the 
 matter." 
 
 " Do all the worshipers of thy god deeds like 
 thine ? " inquired the Babylonian shrewdly. " I 
 have known many a Jew. I know but one 
 Balatsu-usur." 
 
 Daniel was silent. The two men paced the 
 length of the path, they were at the open end, 
 known as the "green end," of the gardfens, 
 where the grass was most abundant, and re- 
 turned again to their starting-point, before the 
 careless and boisterous soldier put to the saintly 
 politician the abrupt question, 
 
 " Where, O prince of Israel, did Mutusa-ili 
 go?" 
 
 " To the bosom of Abraham," replied Daniel 
 promptly. 
 
 This answer seemed to give but vague theo- 
 logical light to the Babylonian, who knitted his 
 bronze brows like a boy in the university over 
 his first translation. "Tell me," he insisted, 
 " is there one place for a dead Babylonian, and 
 another for a dead Jew? Where will thy breath 1 
 go, to the west 2 or to the east ? " 
 
 " As there is but one God, who createth and 
 governeth all things, so is there but one Heaven 
 and one Sheol," answered Daniel readily, after 
 
 1 Soul. 2 The Babylonian Hades lay in the west. 
 
238 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 the manner of the law of his people. " Who- 
 soever forsaketh idolatry and worsbipeth the 
 living God shall abide with Him in the latter 
 day ; but whither he who cleaveth to his sins 
 shall go, whether to the west or to the east, 
 none knoweth but the iniquitous dead, nor shall 
 know until the end of the world. The will of 
 Jehovah shall be done." 
 
 " From all accounts, I feel an interest in this 
 Jelbvah," admitted the captain. " He seems to 
 me to be a well-meaning god. I think, myself, 
 a god shows to better advantage, not to go hunt- 
 ing, or to meddle with wine and women. I have 
 no objection to Jehovah. Teach thou me more 
 of his worship. I understand it not, but I find 
 it very respectable." 
 
 Allit was thinking of Lalitha, though he did 
 not say so. By the will of her father, Lalitha 
 was now an acknowledged Jewess ; and must 
 remain so. 
 
 The Jewish seer looked at the idolater help- 
 lessly. He had the tact not to say how impos- 
 sible he felt it to explain Almighty God to a 
 Babylonian soldier. He proceeded to skirt the 
 outlines of the subject with the aptness of his 
 race for religious polemics. The Jews were the 
 greatest theologians of the world. 
 
 " We are the children of Adam," began Dan- 
 iel, " who was created of God in Eden " 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 239 
 
 " Ah, yes," interrupted Allit, " I know that 
 story. It is very like our own. There are 
 books in our library whose antiquity no man 
 knoweth. Susa showed me one last week, 
 the lad is better educated than I ; I was put to 
 the horse too early to study. But it is known, 
 even to men no more cultivated than I, that our 
 Lady Tiamat brought forth the first deep, when 
 the clouds were not, and in the earth was no 
 seed ; then had none of the gods come forth. 
 Is thy scroll more ancient than ours ? " 
 
 Allit struck the hilt of his sword with the 
 palm of his left hand, repeatedly, as if he had 
 made a great point. 
 
 " Go on," said the Jew composedly. 
 
 " We had a flood," continued Allit, " in our 
 religion. It was a mighty flood. It overspread 
 the world. Xisuthros was saved by Bel, and 
 his house with him, upon the mountain of Nizir. 
 Even upon the mountain of Nizir was Xisuthros 
 snatched from the deep, and his seed after him. 
 I have been told that thy religion relate th a 
 similar freshet. Now how can there be two 
 freshets of this kind ? Tell me, learned Jew." 
 
 " Say on," said Daniel quietly. 
 
 " Our Lady Tiamat," proceeded Allit, " hath 
 been called in some of our tablets the 4 Great 
 Serpent.' She was a most remarkable goddess. 
 Merodach, the brilliant god, did battle against 
 
240 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 her. She, it is well known, was the temptress 
 of mankind. She sat behind the Tree of Life. 
 On one side of her was the man. The woman 
 stood upon the other. Thus were the man and 
 the woman tempted, in the beginning of time. 
 Every Babylonian knoweth as much as this. 
 Yet I understand that the worshiper of Jehovah 
 worshipeth a tree, a man and a woman, and 
 the serpent, who did tempt both the woman and 
 the man." 
 
 " What else ? " asked Daniel. 
 
 " I understand not how these things can be," 
 urged the captain. " There are many other 
 difficulties, but I am not a scholar. These are 
 all I can think of at this moment. What makest 
 thou of them, Balatsu-usur ? " 
 
 " I make the will of God of them," replied 
 the Jew, without embarrassment, " and the will 
 of God no man may understand." 
 
 " Perhaps not," said Allit, with a troubled air. 
 " But I play not with the matter. I desire to 
 understand. Is intelligent man a foolish fellow, 
 that Jehovah should not respect his intellect? 
 Is thy scroll more ancient than our scroll? I 
 have been taught that our religion was before 
 the first Jew was born into the world." 
 
 " If thou art indeed of an earnest mind to- 
 ward these matters," said Daniel more gravely, 
 " then will the living God meet thee earnestly. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 241 
 
 Religion is the most difficult study of all the 
 world, O favorite of Nebuchadrezzar. It is 
 not to be struck at, as thou fleckest the horse 
 with thy whip. Know thou this, and rjespect 
 the knowledge : In the childhood of the world 
 did Jehovah reveal precious truths to many men. 
 These have the wanderings of men scattered, 
 and their sins corrupted. The living God did 
 breathe into the clay, and the first man was be- 
 gotten of the spirit. Pass me thine amulet ; 
 nay, do not blush. I know that thou wearest 
 the spell against thy heart, beneath thy breast- 
 plate. Behold the tree. It is the Tree of Life. 
 Behold the woman. She is the Eve of the Jew. 
 Behold the man, for he is our Adam. Look 
 upon the serpent. Thou callest her Lady Tia- 
 mat. We call her the Devil, for God hath 
 named her." 
 
 " I begin to see," said Allit, brightening a 
 little over the theological dilemma. " You call 
 the Lady Tiamat the Devil. Then there is our 
 Xisuthros. You call him " 
 
 " Noah," interrupted the Jew. 
 
 " And we have the mountain Nizir. You 
 call it " - 
 
 " Ararat," said Daniel promptly. " It is 
 Ararat," he added, with perfect assurance. 
 
 Allit looked puzzled. " Perhaps so," he sighed. 
 
 " Know thou, : ' proceeded Daniel in a different 
 
242 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 tone, " that the living God gave truth to man, 
 and man corrupted the truth. Unto many na- 
 tions are many marvels given and many words 
 related. Even as the relating of a tale goeth, 
 captain of the guards, within the battalion, many 
 mouths make many versions thereof. But the 
 tale is the same tale." 
 
 " There is some sense in that," observed Allit. 
 
 " Jehovah is the living God," urged the Jew. 
 " He is but one, and the nations have dealt with 
 him even as they have with the writings of his 
 people. The living God is cut apart among 
 many men, even as these tales are distributed 
 and cut to pieces. 
 
 " I deny not, nay, I urge, that it be remem- 
 bered that our father Abraham came out of 
 Chaldea, in the times before the times. I am 
 an instructed man, learned in the lore of Chal- 
 dea, as I am in the law of my people, and know 
 I not that it was given to our father Abraham 
 to know the religion of Chaldea ? Yea, verily. 
 But it was given unto him to know the will of 
 the living God, that he should discern between 
 the false religion and the true. Thy people 
 have lost Jehovah Our people have kept Him. 
 The idolater knoweth not the truth when he 
 seeth it, but the Jew hath what he did choose, 
 for God is with him." Daniel paused, but pro- 
 ceeded impressively : " There is but one God. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 243 
 
 He existeth. He remaineth. And He dwelleth 
 in the judgments of men. Worship thou Him. 
 He is holy. Be thou holy. He is pure. Purify 
 thyself, son of Babylon, that thou mayst be- 
 come fit fcr the service of Jehovah. For He is 
 a jealous God, and he scorneth the worship of 
 an evil heart." 
 
 " If the maiden will look upon me," inter- 
 rupted Allit ingenuously, "it is my purpose to 
 wed her." 
 
 Daniel smiled gravely at this practical appli- 
 cation of his theology. It might be worse, in- 
 deed ! Perhaps his proselyte was as promising 
 as the circumstances permitted. He had opened 
 his lips to reply to the Babylonian, when Allit 
 touched him on the arm, and pointed across the 
 garden. The king was coming toward them, and 
 was unattended. * 
 
 Daniel was a little sorry that their conver- 
 sation was interrupted. He had much that he 
 would have said, more, perhaps, than the at- 
 tention of the soldier would have borne. The 
 Jew wished to explain plainly to the idolater that 
 the writings of the chosen people were preserved 
 with more ecclesiastical fidelity than those of any 
 other nation known to history ; that his had been 
 the devout people of history, and had therefore 
 saved the correct records with supreme success. 
 He wished to make the captain understand 
 
244 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 something of the superior morality, the enthu- 
 siastic piety, and the sacred patriotism which 
 had wrought out of the Jewish heart the finest 
 proof of monotheism possible to that age of the 
 world. He wished to say . . . But the king 
 was coming. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 NEBUCHADREZZAR approached slowly. He 
 moved with his head bent and body bowed a 
 little forward. He walked with difficulty, limp- 
 ing perceptibly. His brow was dark. He 
 opened and closed his lips, and moistened them 
 like a child or an animal. As he came near, it 
 could be seen that he muttered. He did not 
 raise his eyes. 
 
 The two officers awaited the king with an 
 evident discomfort. The civilian was the more 
 at ease. Neither spoke until the king had well- 
 nigh stumbled over them. It was not etiquette 
 to turn the face from royalty ; and the governor 
 and the captain were already backed up against 
 the wall of the pleasure-ground as close as they 
 could get. When Nebuchadrezzar was within 
 a few inches of them, Daniel begged his pardon 
 in a firm voice, but must needs call his atten- 
 tion to the presence of his servants. The king 
 started, and stared upon his favorites. He had 
 a lowering look. His muttering ceased ; but no 
 articulate words succeeded it. A slight wheez- 
 ing sound came from his throat. He seemed to 
 
246 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 make an effort to smile, but to have lost the 
 power to do so. His lips moved grotesquely. 
 The upper one turned back above the teeth. 
 He watched the two men narrowly. He had a 
 suspicious and alarmed air. 
 
 " My lord the king hath an illness upon him," 
 ventured the captain sympathetically. " Suffer 
 thy servant to lead thee within the palace, or 
 to summon the physicians to thy relief." 
 
 The king turned slowly upon his heel, and 
 limped away. As he walked, his hands hung 
 down straight in front of him. This, with the 
 increased bowing of his body, gave him an un- 
 pleasant appearance. His figure swayed from 
 side to side ; it looked like that of a young ani- 
 mal learning to walk, or of a man who had for- 
 gotten how. The two officers followed him at 
 a respectful and perplexed distance. The path 
 down which the three were moving was a nar- 
 row one, and edged with broad spaces, upon 
 which the artificially cultivated and irrigated 
 grass of the royal garden grew richly. 
 
 Grass was a treasure fit for a king in Baby- 
 lon. It had been one of the whims of Nebu- 
 chadrezzar that his private garden should make 
 the most of it. Give Amytis her mountain, her 
 trees, her brooks, her blossoms, and her out-of- 
 door boudoirs, but to the king a severer style 
 of landscape gardening. He had constructed 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 247 
 
 plain and serious expanses touched with moss and 
 imported rock ; he liked wild flowers and tan- 
 gles of shrubbery, and little mock fields of grain. 
 The corner of the garden on which the king was 
 walking was popularly known as u the pasture." 
 The narrow path of which we have spoken 
 shrank to a foothold; then sank into short, 
 thick grass, beaten only by the royal tread. A 
 space of some nine hundred feet square it has 
 been estimated, indeed, at twice that spread 
 unbroken beyond, bounded by the fortified walls 
 on three sides, sloping into a hedge of young 
 forest trees upon the fourth. This hedge was 
 solidly protected behind the shrubbery with an 
 invisible grating of iron and of brass ; it was 
 impossible to cross it, unless one were a supe- 
 rior climber, and willing to drop into the canal 
 below, for the sake of the venture. Upon this 
 field the grass grew abundantly. It was irri- 
 gated six times a day. One or two fawns, and 
 a lamb favored by the king in a gentle moment, 
 cropped the grass sparingly, pains being taken 
 that they should be too well fed to spoil it ; they 
 were there only for the pastoral effect. 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar walked down the pasture 
 path tottering. His officers followed him, 
 stricken with inexplicable alarm. 
 
 " It is a sick man," whispered Allit. " He 
 must be taken care of. I try again, if so be, I 
 may withstand him." 
 
248 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 He pushed by Daniel, and li-ghtly touched the 
 robe of the king ; as he did this, he raised his 
 voice, and distinctly, respectfully, begged the 
 sovereign to make known to him the nature of 
 his physical distress. 
 
 " I would relieve thee," urged Allit with real 
 fondness. " I would not witness the suffering 
 of my king." 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar turned and looked upon his 
 captain. The young man saw that look in his 
 dreams for many a year to come ; for the like 
 of it he never witnessed before or after ; nor 
 is it often given to any man to do as much. 
 Physicians attending one of the most violent of 
 incurable diseases sometimes meet with an ap- 
 pearance akin to it, but as much less terrible 
 than this as mockery is less than reality. Neb- 
 uchadrezzar's eyes narrowed. His upper lip 
 curled again from off his long teeth. He made 
 a darting motion toward the captain with one 
 of his hanging hands. He did not speak, but 
 he did worse. He set his teeth, and snarled 
 upon Allit like a beast. 
 
 " It is a madman ! " whispered Daniel. " Go 
 thou. Go quickly. Call the queen unto him. 
 I remain. I fear him not. Get thou the queen 
 hither, and delay not, for his life or ours ! " 
 
 Allit saluted and departed. The royal ma- 
 niac and the intrepid Jew remained together. 
 
THE MASTER OF TEE MAGICIANS. 249 
 
 No person was in sight. Not a guard was within 
 hearing. Daniel realized the peril of his po- 
 sition imperfectly, perhaps; but duty always 
 seemed to him the safest thing to do. He 
 stepped forward quietly, and took the arm 
 of the king. Nebuchadrezzar did not resent 
 this familiarity, but appeared the rather to be 
 calmed by it. The two paced together for a few 
 turns up and down the green path, and over the 
 grass of the mimic field. The lamb was quietly 
 nibbling at a little distance ; the fawns started, 
 ran into the shrubbery, and peeped out with the 
 pretty coyness of half -tame creatures. The king 
 watched them wistfully. 
 
 " So cool," he muttered, " and so gentle. 
 They have not black thoughts. Their hearts 
 are soft. They go not bowed with cares of state. 
 Religion teaseth them not. Pleasant things ! 
 Call me hither the one that eats. I like the 
 one that eats ; for his food is gentle ; peace 
 must be in his blood." 
 
 The Jew gave no answer. He had made a 
 dreadful discovery. Alone there, with the ma- 
 niac, unprotected and unprotecting, he experi- 
 enced the sudden vertigo which preceded his 
 own strange physical conditions. His trance, call 
 it what we will, whether of divine interference 
 or of human disability, whether prophetic or hyp- 
 notic, his trance was coming upon him. He 
 
250 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 made a mighty effort to wrestle with it ; but it 
 closed about him solemnly. He was conscious 
 that the king drew back and regarded him with 
 displeasure ; that the maniac's voice broke into 
 a storm of wild words ; that he glorified him- 
 self, Babylonia, the city, the province, the throne, 
 the temples of the idols, the triumphs of war 
 and religion ; that he deified himself blasphe- 
 mously. Then strange power overshadowed the 
 Jew, and strange words fell in his own despite 
 from his quivering lips. Whence came they ? 
 Who sent them ? For his own will gave them 
 not. 
 
 " Thou, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, to 
 thee it is spoken : the kingdom is departed from 
 thee. And thou shalt be driven from men, and 
 thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the, 
 field ; thou shalt be made to eat grass as oxen, 
 and seven times shall pass over thee ; until thou 
 know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom 
 of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." 
 
 As the seer uttered these words, the king 
 gave a piercing cry. His tall form shrank to- 
 gether. He sank to the ground, as if the hand 
 of God or man had smitten him, and lay there 
 groveling. 
 
 Daniel, who came as suddenly out of his ab- 
 normal conditions as into them, called loudly for 
 help, and stooped to raise the king to his feet. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 251 
 
 But Nebuchadrezzar resisted the effort with a 
 savage growl. To his horror, the Jew saw his 
 sovereign drop upon his hands and knees, and 
 crawl out into the field. 
 
 When Amytis and Allit came to the spot, the 
 king of Babylon was huddled beside the lamb ; 
 he was breaking the short grass with his teeth, 
 as the animal did. The lamb observed him with 
 pleasure. The fawns came out of their hiding- 
 places and approached him. Amytis gave one 
 glance at the hideous sight ; then fled, shriek- 
 ing. 
 
 There is a disease but imperfectly understood 
 even by the medical science of our own day, 
 and unnamed by the crude skill of that remote 
 age. It is one of the most terrible known to 
 pathology. The physician who has met with 
 one case of it is fain to pray, " whatever gods 
 there be," that his first may be his last. It im- 
 poses peculiar and dreadful strain upon the 
 healer. The sympathy is tortured by it. The 
 nurse sickens of it. Friends fail before it. 
 The dearest and nearest of soul to the patient 
 find it almost impossible to separate the suffer- 
 ing from the sufferer. The husband loathes the 
 wife. The mother shrinks from her child. The 
 father becomes horrible to the son. Even the 
 brave heart of a truly tender woman falters be- 
 fore this trial, and the bride, who would have 
 
252 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 died of torture for her lord, pronounces life 
 worse than death because of him. She extends 
 with repulsion the barest necessities of human- 
 ity, where once she flung her being away in the 
 rapture of womanly service. Love endureth all 
 things. We know that it may even intensify 
 under almost every form of human misery, self- 
 denial, and bodily disillusion. Before this dis- 
 ease shall we say that it must be doomed ? 
 According not only to its nature, but to its 
 experience, let love reply. 
 
 Lycanthropy is a form of madness whether 
 of the blood or of the brain, or both, let wiser 
 than these narrators of an ancient love-tale 
 testify wherein the patient believes himself to 
 have become an animal, This belief gradually 
 grows from hallucination to a fixed conscious- 
 ness. The periodic mood becomes the perma- 
 nent conviction. The victim, who at first put 
 his delusion on and off, now wears it as a body 
 wears a coffin. The sweetest, the dearest qual- 
 ity goes out before this hideous fate. The purest 
 instinct, the most delicate habit, the most ten- 
 der emotion of the spirit, is crushed by the in- 
 evitable march of the disease. The animal na- 
 ture sets itself upon the human nature, like the 
 teeth of a beast in flesh, and wrestles there- 
 with till humanity is overcome. Too slowly for 
 the palliation of the victim's torment, the low 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 253 
 
 life kills the high. The last fine impulses of 
 a godlike race yield hard. The man fights, he 
 knows not why, before he becomes a brute. His 
 struggle is piteous to witness. His defeat is 
 worse, because it makes of him a thing which 
 murders pity. Recovery is possible, but it is 
 rare. Healing may exist, but it is without 
 science and without hope. This disease differs 
 from the more familiar form of rabies, in which 
 the virus of animal anger, being introduced into 
 healthy blood, causes violent and fatal condi- 
 tions. In the worse fate of lycanthropy, the 
 miserable man may not hope for death. Life 
 holds him under her claws. In a state worse 
 than that of the brute whose fate he assumes 
 rather than simulates, he endures his doom until 
 its laggard end. 
 
 Upon Nebuchadrezzar, the great king of the 
 greatest nation in the world, this horrible lot 
 had fallen. The royal autocrat had become the 
 bestial maniac. Smitten of God by the cruelest 
 of human diseases, he went out from the natural 
 conditions of human life. All that was whole- 
 some, sweet, and holy in character succumbed 
 to the brute nature that had been shall we 
 say, evolved from, or superimposed upon, the 
 royal one ? His desolate fate obeyed its own 
 law. Whence did it come ? Did tooth or claw 
 do the deadly mischief ? Did the spirit of the 
 
254 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 wild beast demand this price for his defeat and 
 his life ? Or did the wound, working on a sick- 
 ened soul, shock some sensitive ganglion, blur 
 the brain, and blot the man ? Who shall say ? 
 
 In the kingdom of Babylonia, the affliction 
 of the king was regarded with ignorant, almost 
 brutal horror. He was the condemned of heaven. 
 He was the sport of the gods. The deity of 
 the Jew had been offended with him. Jehovah 
 had spoken unto him ; he had cursed him with 
 audible curses. Nebuchadrezzar was his victim 
 and plaything. The country was threatened. 
 The throne was vacant. The people shook. It 
 was impossible to keep the hideous secret. The 
 fable of a fever having befallen the king, which 
 pacified the popular curiosity for a week or two, 
 soon gave place to a glimmer, then to the know- 
 ledge, of the truth. Their king, overcome by a 
 fate too horrible to discuss, was driven from the 
 daily life of men. In an incredibly short time, 
 every soul in Babylon knew that Nebuchadrezzar 
 was closely guarded and confined in " the pas- 
 ture " of the royal gardens ; where he lived, pro- 
 tected, loathed, and dreaded, like the brute he 
 had become. 
 
 In spite of his tyrannies and cruelties, Nebu- 
 chadrezzar was admired by his people ; in a 
 sense, he was even beloved. Above all sover- 
 eigns who ever filled the throne of Babylonia, 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 255 
 
 he fed the pride of the province ; between pride 
 and a certain sort of affection, the line is too 
 vague for most men to define. His misfortune 
 was a profound grief to the nation. All little 
 matters were forgotten in the great public ca- 
 lamity. Private gossip became too unimportant 
 to cultivate. The death and apostasy of the 
 distinguished soothsayer, the fate of his family, 
 even the slight displeasure with the governor 
 himself, which had muttered upon the lips of 
 the people, gave way to the emergency. 
 
 The nation was very uncomfortable. Not the 
 least of the catastrophe was the fact that the 
 king's disability threw the regency into the 
 hands of the Median queen. There was one 
 son ; but he was a lad still in the hands of his 
 tutors, not yet available as a sovereign. His 
 mother had never cared for the child, and any 
 attempt at that time to make use of him as a 
 royal figurehead would have resulted, probably, 
 in civil war. Not a soul in the kingdom loved 
 Amytis; few trusted her; all feared her. In 
 their calamity, the heart of the people turned by 
 instinct to one man. Before the king's afflic- 
 tion was a week old, Balatsu-usur was visited 
 by a deputation of Babylonian princes, with the 
 formal request that he use his authority, as gov- 
 ernor of the province, in sacred trust to steer 
 the people through their emergency, to the full 
 
256 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 extent of the law. Egibi, the banker and trea- 
 surer of the kingdom, headed the deputation. 
 
 " We do in particular feel the need of some 
 trustworthy intelligence which shall have a de- 
 sirable influence upon the regent," observed 
 the state treasurer, with a significant glance. 
 " It has occurred to us that thou art the man." 
 
 " Ah, yes," echoed the deputation, " thou art 
 the man." 
 
 The Jew accepted the trust, as he did all other 
 political honors, with a serenity which had al- 
 most the aspect of indifference. But, in his 
 effort to fulfill it with the simple loyalty of good 
 morals and good sense, he was, of course, ex- 
 ceptionally overborne with care. In his occupa- 
 tion with public affairs, his private interests 
 necessarily yielded a little. At the house of La- 
 litha, her guardian became perforce, for the time 
 being, a less frequent visitor. 
 
 Daniel had made every arrangement for the 
 safety and decorum of the girl's manner of life. 
 Desiring another inmate of her family beside the 
 fond but feeble slave woman, he had made some 
 especial effort to purchase Mariamnu, the favor- 
 ite of the queen, that she might become compan- 
 ion or maid to Lalitha. But Mariamnu had too 
 good a soprano to be spared from court. Amytis 
 would not listen to it. At the time of which we 
 speak, Lalitha was still living alone with Kis- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 257 
 
 rinni in her father's house ; her guardian had 
 not as yet found the right third person to instate 
 there, and he would run no risk with the wrong. 
 He himself visited the house as often as he could ; 
 but continual oversight of the girl became tem- 
 porarily impossible. Lalitha received him duti- 
 fully, and dreamed of him enthusiastically. But 
 she found it possible to live even to grieve and 
 to take comfort without him. The captain of 
 the guards did not fail to perceive, and was not 
 slow to take advantage of, this fact. In propor- 
 tion as the holy man became less necessary, the 
 human lover made himself more so, to the unob- 
 servant girl. Lalitha did not reflect ; she felt. 
 She did not argue with fate ; she received it. 
 Daniel was adorable, but Allit adored. The 
 governor was busy ; the captain was there. Allit 
 had never undertaken an expedition as seriously 
 or as shrewdly as he organized his wooing. Love 
 developed tact in the soldier, as well as refine- 
 ment. He pursued Lalitha without frightening 
 her. He taught her to confide in him ; she be- 
 gan to need him. It did indeed occur to Allit 
 that the overworked governor trusted him ; but 
 it did not once occur to him that Daniel did so 
 as much of deliberate purpose as of necessity. 
 The only important stipulation which the guard- 
 ian of the girl had made, in regulating the little 
 affairs of her life, required that she receive no 
 
258 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 visitor without the presence of Kisrinni. He 
 made no exception of the captain in the enforce- 
 ment of this rule. 
 
 " I may not talk with thee by ourselves," 
 said Lalitha prettily ; " my lord Balatsu-usur 
 forbids me." 
 
 " Art thou sorry for that ? " asked Allit, in a 
 low voice. Lalitha dropped her eyes. 
 
 " It is in thy power to deal with me always 
 by ourselves," urged the captain. 
 
 " What aileth thee ? Why what aileth thee ? " 
 he cried. For Lalitha's delicate frame trem- 
 bled so that it was as much as the man of many 
 battles could do to command his own great feel- 
 ing. It moved upon him like an army. Oh, to 
 snatch her to his heart and hold her there, un- 
 til for very helpless joy she ceased to fear the 
 power she loved ! 
 
 " I will revere thy faith," whispered Allit 
 tempestuously. " The will of Mutusa-ili will I 
 respect." 
 
 " I may not wed to abandon the faith of my 
 ancestors," pleaded Lalitha ; " my father hath 
 said it. That makes it quite impossible, as thou 
 seest, for thee for me for us we may not 
 thou must not " 
 
 " We may, and I must ! " insisted Allit, with 
 his military air. He drew himself to his full, 
 great height. Lalitha looked up at him shyly. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 259 
 
 It seemed as if she would efface herself in her 
 own sweet fear. It would have been hard to say 
 which of them was more enraptured. 
 
 " I will follow thy gods," said the captain 
 gravely, "if that be all." 
 
 Now it was impossible for a Babylonian to 
 concede more than this to a Jew, or a man to a 
 woman. Lalitha blushed divinely. She tried 
 to whisper a few words. He bent to understand 
 them. She said, 
 
 " I will mention the matter to my guardian." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 NIGHT was coming on quickly ; a dark one for 
 Babylon. For three or four days the khamsin 
 had blown balefully. This is the wind known 
 as the fiery sirocco, called in some parts of As- 
 syria the sherghis, a dreaded and deadly wind. 
 It came from the south, and came viciously 
 enough, laden with particles of scorching sand, 
 that burnt the flesh, and smothered the breath, 
 and blinded the eyes. Travelers in the open 
 country fell beneath it, from sheer exhaustion. 
 Animals panted and dropped. Vegetation with- 
 ered. The citizens of the towns shrank within 
 their doors ; he who had a home made the most 
 of it. Slaves, forced to continue the daily rou- 
 tine, died at their tasks. The hot sand drove 
 through the hotter air in such masses as to ob- 
 scure the light of midday. It was expected to 
 be a very dark night. 
 
 Lalitha came to her door to see how dark 
 it was growing. She was tired of the house. 
 Everybody was. Neither she nor the slave 
 woman had put foot in the street for four days. 
 Kisrinni complained that they were out of bar- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 261 
 
 ley, and she must needs go forth to renew their 
 supply from the market, which opened in the 
 evening on the Street of the Tamarisks. 
 
 When Lalitha came to the portico to examine 
 the weather, she found that the khamsin was 
 subsiding. 
 
 " See, Kisrinni ! " she cried, with the quick 
 spirits of youth. " Let us be happy ! The 
 khamsin abateth. I see three persons in the 
 street. Thou canst venture to go for the barley." 
 
 " The khamsin rageth in the sky after it 
 abateth on the earth," said Kisrinni learnedly. 
 " It will be a dark night, little mistress. I go, 
 but I hasten back again. Guard thyself till my 
 return." 
 
 Lalitha nodded happily. 
 
 " I watch for thee," she said affectionately. 
 " Thou art dear to me. Thou art all I have." 
 
 She poured her young tenderness upon the 
 aged creature, a precious overflow ; it must go 
 somewhere. 
 
 She felt a little lonely that night. Nobody 
 could come in. Balatsu-usur was detained by 
 official business, and there was a banquet at 
 court. This meant that the queen, who made 
 the most of the arbitrary power of the regency, 
 required the presence of Allit. It was neces- 
 sary to be very fond of Kisrinni in default of 
 any other person. 
 
262 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 So Lalitha stood on the portico, a lovely 
 shape, wrapped in cool tissues that tossed in the 
 subsiding khamsin like little clouds about her. 
 Her robe was white, confined with a crimson 
 scarf. Her black hair was braided closely to her 
 small head, and fastened with a silver dagger, 
 whose hilt was delicately chased and set with 
 garnets. She wore one amulet set in ancient 
 silver, bound high upon her round arm close to 
 the shoulder; it was a Jewish ornament that 
 her father liked. Lalitha opened the door, and 
 stood on the threshold to snatch the first breath 
 of relative coolness from the disturbed air. She 
 did not feel at all uneasy at being alone. One 
 was safe at home, and Kisrinni was never gone 
 long enough for one to wonder where she was. 
 
 While Lalitha stood at the door, a slave, 
 wearing the royal livery, approached the house, 
 and courteously inquired for the daughter of 
 Mutusa-ili, for whom he bore, he said, an urgent 
 message. The fellow was an inferior eunuch, 
 a mere detective or messenger. Lalitha had 
 never seen him. She listened to him with no 
 more than the vague, general objection which 
 any association with the court excited in her. 
 
 " Comest thou from Ashpenaz?" she inquired 
 suspiciously. 
 
 "Nay, I come from the governor of Baby- 
 lonia," replied the eunuch. "I am but the mes- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 263 
 
 senger of thy guardian. He requireth thy pre- 
 sence on important affairs, in the lesser palace 
 beyond the river. I bear his command in the 
 writing in my hand. Behold it." 
 
 " I never knew my lord Balatsu-usur to ask 
 me to come to him," hesitated Lalitha, exam- 
 ining the clay tablet, "but this is indeed his 
 command. Why cometh not my lord to visit 
 his ward, according to his custom ? " 
 
 " He aileth," replied the messenger. " He is 
 sickened of the khamsin, and may not leave the 
 palace. He desireth thy presence as speedily as 
 possible." 
 
 "Oh, sick!" cried Lalitha tenderly. "Is 
 Balatsu-usur sick ? I come at once ! Kisrinni 
 will attend me in a moment." 
 
 " I was to fetch Kisrinni," answered the slave 
 readily, " so my lord commanded. But if the 
 slave woman were not at hand, the governor 
 bade me to make no delay for her coming. The 
 matter is an urgent one." 
 
 Lalitha looked troubled, but she closed the 
 house door, and stepped into the street. It 
 seemed impossible to disobey her guardian, and 
 since it was not Ashpenaz, why fret or fear ? 
 
 "Let me see the seal," she said abruptly. 
 " The governor sealeth his commands to me with 
 the seal of state. I am acquainted with it." 
 
 In the dim light, in the puffs of the dying 
 
2G4 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 wind, and with the blasts of sand driving into 
 her face, she examined the seal that stamped 
 the edge of the tablet. 
 
 " It is broken," she objected. 
 
 " Unhappily, I fell on my way hither," pro- 
 tested the eunuch, " and the clay bruised in my 
 hand. I was blinded by the khamsin and I fell. 
 . . . But thou beholdest ; it is the great seal of 
 the province of Babylonia." 
 
 " Yes," admitted Lalitha, " it is the seal. It 
 is the seal of my guardian. How sorry I am 
 that he is sick. I will hasten to him ! But I 
 go not without Kisrinni. She hath but gone to 
 buy the barley. To save the time we will go to 
 meet Kisrinni ; her errand lieth straight upon 
 our way." 
 
 Lalitha veiled herself carefully from the 
 khamsin, and stepped out into the darkening 
 street. But they did not meet Kisrinni. 
 Whether the old woman had taken another way, 
 or had not left the bazaar, or whether, in the 
 driving of the sand and descending of the dark, 
 her young mistress actually passed without rec- 
 ognizing her, Lalitha never knew. She hurried 
 along, excited and oppressed at heart, in the 
 whirling twilight. It darkened rapidly, fear- 
 fully. A sudden vicious gust of the perishing 
 wind, what one might call a convulsion, or hys- 
 terical rattle in its throat, tore at the delicate 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 265 
 
 draperies of the girl, and wrapped them about 
 and about her. Her veil swathed her like a 
 mummy. She could neither see where she was, 
 nor breathe what air she had. She swayed upon 
 her light feet like a falling top. 
 
 "I stifle! " she cried. "It is not fit weather 
 for a girl to be out. I thought the khamsin 
 was quite over. I do not meet Kisrinni. . . . 
 I shall go home. Take me home at once ! " 
 
 " As you say," replied the eunuch, with an air 
 of deferential disappointment. " The noble gov- 
 ernor is sorely indisposed, but I obey you ; we 
 will return at once." 
 
 "I must go home!" insisted Lalitha. "I will 
 explain it to my guardian. I must find Kisrinni 
 to attend me." 
 
 "As you say," repeated the eunuch. They 
 turned, and walked for some time ; the eunuch 
 preceding, to mark the way for her as the gloom 
 increased ; the girl following in uncomfortable 
 silence. Lalitha felt ashamed of herself for her 
 timidity, and reproached herself for her venture. 
 She was torn between two irreconcilable views 
 of her situation. Unused to acting or deciding 
 for herself, she wavered from this opinion to 
 that, with the distressing ease of quick, undisci- 
 plined minds. Suddenly she stopped short, and 
 cried to the eunuch, 
 
 " But you are not taking me home ! " 
 
266 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 "Nay," said the discordant voice of a third 
 person, who had stepped out from the now fast- 
 darkening night and had grasped the girl by 
 the arm. " When the governor commands, a 
 Babylonian obeys. I will relieve my messenger, 
 and myself conduct you to Balatsu-usur." 
 
 When Lalitha recognized the voice and grasp 
 of Ashpenaz it was too dark for her to see his 
 face she did not shriek nor struggle. She 
 was far too terrified. A dumb horror settled 
 upon her. She lifted her face piteously to the 
 chief eunuch. Her large eyes widened, and 
 grew filmy, like a dying bird's. She managed 
 to articulate a few thick words : 
 
 " I came to meet Kisrinni. It was 
 it was his seal " 
 
 A fierce blast from the sirocco tore up from 
 the far south, and beat upon her cruelly. The 
 night seemed to grow hotter. The darkness rose 
 high against the blurred sky. The sand grated 
 between her teeth and burned her throat. Her 
 ears rang with it, they were filled with fire. 
 Agony struck her eyes, their lids closed upon 
 flame. She felt herself tossed to and fro wildly. 
 Gasping, and beating out her hands for breath, 
 she fell, half the victim of the khamsin, half of 
 fright, but wholly helpless, and as unconscious 
 as any slave lying dead of the sandstorm with- 
 out Imgur-Bel. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 267 
 
 "The deed will be easy enough now," said 
 the messenger coolly to the chief eunuch. " She 
 will know nothing more about it. ... Verily, 
 a hard job had I, to pacify her with thy clumsy 
 seal. She must needs examine the forgery like 
 a little politician." 
 
 They lifted the girl in silence. Ashpenaz half 
 hated the errand. But the queen had become 
 absolute monarch of the empire, and she had 
 trusted him with her vengeance for the second 
 time. . One of the first uses which Amytis made 
 of public power was this dark deed in gratifica- 
 tion of her private jealousy. Ashpenaz was not 
 the person to hesitate between killing or dying. 
 
 The river Euphrates was to Babylon the 
 " soul of the land " in the same vital sense that 
 breath is the " soul of life." This river divided 
 the capital of Nebuchadrezzar into two triangles. 
 Broad, and deep, and swift, the stream shot 
 through the city as through an open sluice. 
 Quays were built of burnt bricks cemented with 
 bitumen ; these rose to the height of fifty feet on 
 each side of the river bank, thus protecting the 
 city from the terrible rise of the waters at the 
 annual inundation. At Hit, an eight days' jour- 
 ney above Babylon, as the crow flies, the aver- 
 age width of the Euphrates is about one fourth 
 of a mile, and this natural engine discharges sev- 
 
268 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 enty-three thousand cubic feet of water a second. 
 From this point, the overflow begins. Nebu- 
 chadrezzar, realizing that the soil of Babylonia 
 could never support its enormous population un- 
 less drenched in moisture, persistently, one might 
 say passionately, renewed old levees, canals, and 
 water-courses, and dug new ones. He built one 
 canal for the benefit of his merchantmen alone, 
 that was seven hundred miles long. 
 
 The surest way to collect unpaid taxes was to 
 cut off the water from a rebellious locality. A 
 soil teeming with food thus became a desert in 
 less than six months' time. Starvation stared 
 at the people whose streams were confiscated. 
 Water was more sacred than Nebo, and its 
 channels were in a better state of repair than the 
 temples of the popular god Merodach. From 
 Sippara to Babylon large reservoirs were exca- 
 vated to catch the annual overflow. The Nahar 
 Malcha, the royal canal, interlocked the Euphra- 
 tes with the Tigris. As we have seen, great 
 Babylon herself was encased in a moat that sur- 
 rounded Imgur-Bel, the outer wall. This was 
 large and deep enough to anchor a fleet. Ca- 
 nals intersected the city like streets. Babylon 
 was the Venice of antiquity. 
 
 Now, besides the brick quays which guarded 
 the Euphrates, two walls skirted the river, af- 
 fording additional protection from an invasion 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 269 
 
 therefrom, and following the stream closely 
 until it left the southern ramparts of the city 
 to water the plain of Doura. The tremendous 
 engineering feat of deflecting the course of the 
 river had been accomplished, and while the cap- 
 tive current filled the reservoir at Sippara, its 
 city bed had been paved with bricks laid in pitch. 
 This helped the easy flow of the stream, and pre- 
 vented the natural erosion of its bed and a con- 
 sequent escape from the embankments. 
 
 Where the Euphrates entered the double city 
 walls, gratings like the teeth of a crocodile were 
 let down at nightfall. These iron incisors re- 
 plied to any strategic movement on the part of 
 an ignorant enemy. After sunset, no boat 
 could enter the city. Neither could any depart, 
 for at the river's exit southward another grating 
 snapped its jaws, and the city slept in safety. 
 Imgur-Bel and Nevitti-Bel were pierced by a 
 hundred gates of brass, twenty-five on each side 
 of the square. These corresponded to the num- 
 ber of streets which ran parallel and gave upon 
 the river. As each street approached the water, 
 it passed through the two walls that protected 
 the quays, and then dipped to a sloping landing- 
 place, where steps descended to the margin. 
 There were the ferries ; boats being kept ready to 
 convey such passengers from side to side as pre- 
 ferred the row to the long and hot walk over the 
 
270 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 bridge. But here also, at sunset, a brazen port- 
 cullis dropped. At none of the twenty -five land- 
 ing-places was entrance or egress possible after 
 legal hours. The gates opened only to the king 
 or to the governor of the province of Babylonia, 
 or to order of their official seals. Such precau- 
 tions will not seem excessive when one remem- 
 bers the bands of robbers, organized within the 
 very city, and restless for prey. A sleepy watch- 
 man on a tower gave chance for any amount of 
 mischief threatening from the other side. 
 
 The river had a swift, powerful current. One 
 of the worst accidents possible to a Babylonian 
 was a fall into the stream after the gates were 
 shut. The strongest soldier could not cling like a 
 bat to perpendicular brick. If he was not drawn 
 down by watchful crocodiles, he was impaled on 
 the sharp teeth of the lowered portcullis, where 
 the current leaped from its confinement to a 
 lazier, broader, freer life. 
 
 On the night of our story, the keeper of the 
 river gate guarding the Street of the Setting- 
 Sun performed the most treasonable act of his 
 life. When the trumpet sounded at sunset, the 
 order to release the gates that they might fall 
 to their locks, this man stood irresolute, peering 
 from the top of the stairway down the dark 
 street. He seemed to be in a tremor of inde- 
 cision. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 271 
 
 " By Nebo, if he come not in the sixtieth part 
 of a period, I close the gate, and there is no 
 opening until the morrow ! " 
 
 He slowly crept down the steps, growled a 
 curse at the long, black snout of a crocodile 
 that rested on the lowest step, now covered with 
 water, and took his place in a recess of the 
 wall, with his hands on the rude wheel. A 
 round boat, built of reeds and pitch, bobbed 
 near him in the water. It was tied by a rope 
 to a bronze ring ; there seemed to be no paddle 
 in the boat. The gate-keeper gave a vicious 
 look at the clumsy craft. He muttered, ill- 
 naturedly, 
 
 " Ten silver shekels will be a fair price for it. 
 It is a good boat, especially when it is bailed out. 
 I think it fully worth twelve shekels, if he come 
 not on the moment." 
 
 He took a half loaf of bread from a brick in 
 the recess, and cast it into the water. " Catch," 
 he said sardonically, " and haunt me no more." 
 
 The aim was true. The bread bounded from 
 the mailed head of the saurian into the black 
 current. The monster slipped back, and noise- 
 lessly disappeared in the darkness. 
 
 " Hallo, thou keeper of the gate ! Light thy 
 torch, lest we stumble into the river ! " 
 
 The imperative voice of the chief eunuch 
 roused the guardsman of the gate from his 
 
272 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 gloomy hesitation. He hurried up the slimy 
 steps, cringing. 
 
 " I dare not light, my lord. There be those 
 who might discern that no gate is down. For 
 that, the law tosseth the gate-keeper over his 
 lock. What have we here ? Another ? Verily, 
 the crocodile hath more than his share of Baby- 
 lon's pretty girls." 
 
 The fellow bent over Lalitha, and touched 
 her rudely. The girl shrank with an instinctive 
 sigh of horror, but showed no other sign of con- 
 sciousness. Ashpenaz uttered an uncomfortable 
 exclamation. 
 
 " Do you want three bricks and a bag ? " 
 asked the guardsman stolidly. Ashpenaz did 
 not reply. 
 
 " It is the usual way," urged the gate-keeper. 
 " They stay down best." 
 
 The chief eunuch was trembling visibly. He 
 was not man enough to refuse to do the queen's 
 deed, or to perform it. He beckoned his sub- 
 ordinate with shaking finger. 
 
 " Go thou," he whispered hoarsely ; " hasten 
 to Amytis. Report to her that the deed is done, 
 upon honor of this ring she put upon my finger. 
 Return it unto her with the obeisance of her 
 servant. Thou beholdest the girl. I toss her 
 to her death. Go thou, and report that thine 
 eyes have seen it." 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 273 
 
 When the messenger had departed, Ashpenaz 
 lifted Lalitha from the wet step. His arms 
 shook so that her lifeless body fell from them. 
 The guardian of the gate caught her, and the 
 two men staggered, with chattering teeth, bear- 
 ing their burden to the water's edge. Deeds 
 like this were common enough in Babylon. The 
 gate-keeper had seen his share in his time. But 
 the agitation of the eunuch was infectious. 
 
 Ashpenaz stooped at the water's edge, and 
 peered around. He saw the rude boat. He 
 kicked it with one foot ; bent over, and felt of 
 it ; his hand touched water in its bottom. While 
 he stood examining the boat, something snapped 
 at his foot. He felt the slight grazing of teeth. 
 A long, black outline turned viciously in the 
 water. With a cry of horror, the eunuch rushed 
 up the step. He said, " No, no, no ! " He 
 repeated, " Horrible ! Not in there ! Too 
 horrible ! " 
 
 A blast from the sirocco struck the river at 
 that moment, and the two men covered their 
 heads with their garments. The hot sand smote 
 upon Lalitha's unveiled face. It was so hot 
 that it blistered the flesh. 
 
 " Raman is offended with me," groaned Ash- 
 penaz. " He flayeth me because of the deed. I 
 dare not ! I dare not ! ... Is the boat thine ? " 
 
 The gate-keeper nodded sourly. He was tired 
 
274 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 of the business, which went off less easily than 
 usual. 
 
 "How much?" 
 
 " Fifteen shekels." 
 
 " Help me put her in." 
 
 The other silently obeyed. Lalitha's body 
 fell over helplessly against the side of the crazy 
 craft. 
 
 " She will upset it ! " cried the eunuch. 
 " Straighten the boat ! " 
 
 " It is only a question of time," replied the 
 accomplice grimly, but he balanced the boat. 
 " Shall I cast off the rope from the ring ? " 
 
 Ashpenaz nodded. He could not speak. He 
 turned away his eyes. 
 
 " I give her a chance ! " he muttered. 
 
 The keeper of the gate threw back his coarse 
 head, and laughed. 
 
 He unfastened the rope from the bronze ring, 
 and threw the end off. It fell short of the boat, 
 and splashed into the water. The man pulled 
 an old boat-hook from a niche in the dripping 
 wall, and gave the boat a shove. It tipped, and 
 took in water, recovered itself, and whirled into 
 mid-stream. 
 
 Silently, the long nose of the crocodile slipped 
 into the water. As silently, the bronze gate 
 dropped into its socket. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE first realization of a horrible situation is 
 like the awakening from any common dream. 
 One regards the facts for the moment with a 
 kind of shuddering curiosity; divided between 
 wondering how long the delusion will last and 
 the anguish of having been deluded. When 
 Lalitha came to herself, she looked about her at 
 first, with no more than the agitation which she 
 felt at finding herself in her own little room at 
 home after some unusually unpleasant night- 
 mare. She raised herself on one elbow, and 
 gently called, 
 
 " Kisrinni ! " 
 
 The slight motion tipped the round boat. It 
 took in water, and righted sullenly. Then the 
 girl sat upright, and stared at her hideous sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 She sat in several inches of water, in what 
 was probably the maddest craft afloat on the 
 Euphrates, and that was saying a good deal. 
 The boat had swirled into the middle of the 
 stream, and was now driving madly down. 
 There was no paddle. There was no rudder. 
 
276 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Lalitha was tossing like a chip, or more cor- 
 rectly speaking, like a ball, upon the river. 
 She was in the power of the current. Below 
 her the black torrent made a sucking sound. 
 Far above, she could see one or two stars ; these 
 pierced through the veil of dust left by the 
 khamsin. It was very dark ; the wind was still 
 abroad, and puffed upon the boat irregularly, 
 like the snarls of an animal. There was no 
 other boat in sight. No human creature was 
 visible. On either hand, a shadow, black as 
 death and solid as the tomb, towered above her. 
 Fifty feet of sheer brick wall shut her in. She 
 was pitching along at the rate of three or four 
 miles an hour. Even to her inexperienced eyes 
 the boat leaked visibly. Every motion threat- 
 ened to capsize it. Her very cries made the 
 frail thing throb. When she shrieked, it 
 seemed as if the reeds would start apart, as if 
 the tremor of her voice would plunge her into 
 the abyss. 
 
 But the river rang and rang with her terrible 
 cries. The opposite walls caught her young 
 voice, and tossed it back and forth from side to 
 side. The brazen gates made a snatch at it, as 
 if they would hold it for sport ; then let it go, 
 with a piteous echo. She called upon Bel-Mero- 
 dach and Jehovah, Balatsu-usur and Allit, Kis- 
 rinni and the chief eunuch, the spirit of her 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 277 
 
 father and the mercy of the queen, the guards, 
 the gatemen, and the citizens. Fifty feet above 
 her, in the blast of the sirocco, on deserted 
 walls, and after river hours, who should reply ? 
 She shrieked, until she stopped for very horror 
 at the sound of her own solitary and agonized 
 voice. Then she fell back in the boat, and 
 looked about her in a kind of stupor. A wave 
 within a wave moved behind her relentlessly in 
 the sinuous current. 
 
 " It is a fish," thought Lalitha, with a faint 
 sense of relief. She did not feel so drearily 
 alone. It occurred to her to put her hand out 
 and touch the fish, if she could; but the boat 
 tipped to the edge, and she shrank back. Sud- 
 denly she remembered the gates. In her igno- 
 rance of the outer world, she had the vaguest 
 idea of the river fortifications. But once her 
 father had taken her through one of these 
 brazen gates and across the river in the ferry. 
 
 " How foolish I must be ! " said the girl aloud. 
 "Of course I can get off at the next gate. 
 There were steps and a man." 
 
 She strained her eyes for a sight of the gate. 
 She peered into the darkness ; she tried to push 
 the boat up against the bricks. But with what ? 
 At every motion the mad craft shook. She 
 noticed the rope which dragged behind her. 
 She pulled at it with all her strength. It 
 
278 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 seemed to have caught in something. As she 
 tugged, the hold upon the rope yielded, and she 
 swirled out of the current. A long, dim shape 
 rose from the water angrily, dived, and disap- 
 peared. When Lalitha saw what it was, she 
 uttered a cry that might have pierced to the top 
 of the Ziggurat, or to the throne of Heaven. 
 
 At that moment, the boat shot by the first 
 gate. The poor girl had wit enough left to per- 
 ceive that it was dropped for th& night. Un- 
 guarded and deserted, the brazen surface pre- 
 sented an impassable front to the current. The 
 boat dashed up against it, and whirled away. 
 
 In an age when the simplest incident of shel- 
 tered life suffices for a tale, the perils of ruder 
 times have a certain shock, which grates upon 
 the ear like the thunder or powder of a noisy 
 play. It is well to remember that brutal re- 
 venge or mortal danger in its grossest form was 
 to the people with whom our narrative deals no 
 more than the daily episode of the street or of 
 the fireside to a happier civilization. 
 
 Lalitha's fate, almost too ghastly for our fas- 
 tidious sympathy, was, in fact, perhaps a little 
 more ingenious, but no more dreadful or deadly, 
 than the lot of hundreds like her in lands and 
 under laws where womanhood was accepted 
 prey, and helplessness and ignorance stood small 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 279 
 
 chance at the hands of social or civil power. 
 We feel it to be our privilege to shrink from 
 following what thousands of obscure girls en- 
 dured. A life like Lalitha's might go out like 
 the wick of a little candle, any night in Babylon, 
 and who the wiser ? It might be quenched in 
 tortures indescribable, and who the sadder ? 
 
 The intelligence reached the poor child's 
 friends in an unexpected way, the last 
 against which the queen was likely to provide, 
 even had she cared to take the trouble. And 
 why should she ? No power gainsaid or checked 
 the regent. 
 
 There was a banquet, as we said, at court. 
 Amytis was unusually gay. At the moment 
 when Lalitha was tossing to her death, the 
 queen raised a cup of wine high in the hot air, 
 and pledged the captain in it, laughing lightly. 
 She had beckoned him to her side from the 
 lower table, where he sat at supper. 
 
 " I give thee the health of her thy heart pre- 
 ferreth," lisped Amytis languorously. 
 
 Allit put the goblet to his lips in silence. 
 Into that mad, bad scene a sacred moment en- 
 tered. He shut himself in it reverentially. He 
 did not look at Amytis. She was half drunken 
 and half draped. She had never been so revolt- 
 ing to him. How had he ever played the game 
 of light love, and with her ? 
 
280 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 He set the goblet slowly down, gravely saluted 
 the queen, and, excusing himself as soon as he 
 could without discourtesy, returned to his own 
 table. It was the custom of the place and time, 
 at banquets like this, to seat but four at a table, 
 according to rank, age, and other affinities. But 
 etiquette went easily at court since Amytis came 
 into power. A mad carousal suited her better 
 than a decorous entertainment. Her guests 
 were not thoughtfully seated, and Allit had 
 shared with Ina, the ^daughter of Egibi, a table 
 occupied by two courtiers, a man and a woman 
 of high position, both so far under the influence 
 of wine that Ina had already withdrawn from 
 the table in unbearable discomfort. 
 
 She had been absent from the banquet-hall for 
 perhaps ten minutes, when Allit, returning to his 
 seat, observed her reenter. The expression of 
 her face arrested his attention immediately, and 
 it quickly became evident that she desired to 
 attract it. 
 
 It was a matter of plain politeness for the 
 captain to respond to the summons of a lady 
 whom he had attended at the feast, and his 
 crossing the hall to do so aroused little notice. 
 Amytis watched his mighty 'figure with dull 
 eyes; she was too sodden with the carousal to 
 feel displeasure or express curiosity. 
 
 When Allit reached the side of Ina, he was 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 281 
 
 shocked at her appearance. She trembled vio- 
 lently, and her handsome face was quite pale. 
 She put her delicate hand upon his arm, and 
 whispered close to his ear : 
 
 " I have horrible news. Come ! " 
 
 Allit followed her instantly. Ina was very 
 much in love with him, but she did not pursue 
 him. He obeyed her with the trust a man feels 
 in any woman whom, despite a little coquetry, 
 he can respect. They threaded their way 
 quickly through the lower end of the banquet- 
 room, and came into the outer hall. The cur- 
 tains swayed and fell. The great blaze of the 
 banquet darkened behind them. The rude laugh- 
 ter, the ruder songs, the shrill voices, were sud- 
 denly muffled. A cooler breath replaced the 
 stifling air. In the outer hall, a few of the 
 young nobility and titled students, who had 
 supped by themselves, were playing at dice. 
 Some servants passed in and out. Allit looked 
 at Ina confusedly. Then he perceived that Ma- 
 riamnu stood there, shrinking against the long 
 Persian curtain. 
 
 " Tell him ! " said Ina authoritatively. She 
 shook the captive to arouse her. Mariamnu 
 seemed half dead with horror or with terror, 
 one could not say which ; perhaps both. 
 
 " She has risked her life to tell me," said Ina 
 contemptuously, "and now she is as dumb as 
 
282 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 any fool in Babylon. She hath overheard a dread- 
 ful plot. How can I tell thee ? Oh, what shall 
 I do ? " cried Ina, greatly disturbed. " I wish 
 to tell thee, and I tell thee not." 
 
 "In Jehovah's name ! " whispered Mariamnu, 
 " make no delay, for the girl is in the river by 
 this hour." 
 
 Allit uttered a startled oath. As yet he com- 
 prehended nothing, but feared the more for that. 
 
 "Out with it, women ! " he commanded, with 
 masculine brutality. 
 
 " Lalitha drowneth," said Mariamnu, in her 
 apathetic way. "By the order of Amytis, 
 she" 
 
 But the women stood looking at each other 
 blindly. The captain, without word or sound, 
 teeth set, head bent, hand on hilt, had dashed 
 from the palace. 
 
 A laughing boy, who had just tossed a high 
 number, threw down his dice, left the group of 
 students, and followed Allit. Susa never lost a 
 chance to share in any promising excitement. 
 
 Mariamnu shrank into the curtain and hid 
 herself. Ina, greatly agitated, returned to the 
 banquet-hall to seek her father. She dared not 
 tell him. She had done the only thing she could 
 think of for her cousin Lalitha. She hoped 
 Allit would like her for it. It had not been 
 wholly easy to do. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 283 
 
 For a woman madly in love, voluntarily to 
 save her rival for her lover's sake, was not a 
 common deed in Babylon. There was the fine 
 blood of a nobler stock in the daughter of Egibi. 
 She had acted with impetuous humanity, which 
 had a certain reaction. When she went back, 
 alone, to the blinding banquet-hall, darker 
 now to her than any desolate black spot on 
 earth wherein she might have heard his kindly, 
 friendly, indifferent voice, the Babylonianized 
 Jewess had one moment of something like re- 
 gret for her generosity. But it passed into the 
 higher mood which found itself at home in the 
 nature of Ina. Besides besides she would 
 not have been a woman, had she not remembered 
 that Lalitha was probably dead by this time. 
 And then 
 
 Allit bounded into the night. His brain, 
 stupefied with wine and horror, had scarcely 
 the power to command his feet to run. With 
 a vacant instinct, the captain made for the high 
 quay of the river. Mechanically he plucked 
 intoxicating flowers from his head and heart, 
 and cast them as he would vipers into the dust. 
 Then he freed himself of his brilliant outer robe 
 and sash. These he threw away, and they 
 struck Susa in the face, behind him. 
 
 The boy, being the prize runner in the gymna- 
 
284 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 slum of the university, had easily overtaken his 
 clumsier brother. Susa had concluded that 
 Allit was wild with wine ; he followed him con- 
 scientiously. The two had now come to the em- 
 bankment that frowned above the river. Its 
 long line extended like the black curve of a 
 serpent's back ; the watch-towers broke the out- 
 line ; the gates below them dropped within the 
 masonry of the walls, piercing the quay to the 
 water's edge. 
 
 Allit stopped, and peered stupidly into the 
 water fifty feet below him. The hot breath of 
 the expiring sirocco stung him ; the physical 
 pain where the sand-blast hit his face gave him 
 a sense of relief ; the captain knew so little of 
 mental anguish that he experienced surprise at 
 this fact. Susa, fearing lest Allit were about to 
 jump into the whirlpool, clung to his arm, en- 
 treating some explanation of the situation with 
 boyish persistence, half anger, half fright. Al- 
 lit looked wildly about him. He managed to 
 articulate a few sentences. Susa caught the 
 words : 
 
 " Lalitha drowned." 
 
 All the fashionable oaths of the university of 
 Bel burst from the lips of the lad. He had 
 come out for a frolic. He found a tragedy. 
 
 " Why, follow the stream ! " cried Susa. 
 
 Allit obeyed him dully. In a moment the lad 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 285 
 
 had become the leader. The wretched lover fol- 
 lowed, plunging on, past gate after gate ; now 
 bending his head to one side to listen, now run- 
 ning too sharply on the edge of the walls, lean- 
 ing too far over the turbid river, scanning it 
 with his trained, keen, military eyes. Gradu- 
 ally his furious pace slackened. The hopeless- 
 ness of the situation began to make itself evi- 
 dent to his cooling brain. What fool's play was 
 this? Would glaring at the Euphrates restore 
 the dead ? The courage that the rush inspired 
 had died away from his heart, as the soul dies 
 out of the body, and left nothing but a dizzy, 
 despairing mass of moving clay. 
 
 Allit stopped short. He was above the gate 
 of the Setting Sun. He leaned against the 
 closed guard-house. The soldier's legs trembled 
 beneath him like a deserter's. Allit was indeed 
 in a pitiable state. Hot tears burned furrows 
 in his dusty cheeks. He dashed them away from 
 his eyes, and groaned, 
 
 "Lalitha! Lalitha ! " 
 
 It occurred to him to plunge into the water 
 after her. He had never before understood why 
 people do such things. He had led such a 
 happy life. How strange was misery ! 
 
 "Hear! Hush! Hark!" Susa ran up to 
 him. " Don't you hear a cry below us ? " 
 
 Allit held his breath. At that moment it was 
 
286 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 supremely still. Then came the shriek. Twice 
 
 thrice repeated, the sound curdled the blood 
 in the hearts of the listeners. It was a woman's 
 cry of mortal agony. 
 
 " It is her spirit. It howleth in the night," 
 whispered Susa superstitiously. But Allit an- 
 swered, with a mighty cry, 
 
 " If it be her spirit, or her body, or aught of 
 Lalitha, I follow her ! " 
 
 He dashed into the darkness and disappeared. 
 Above one gate, past two gates, making a peril- 
 ous pace upon the narrow wall, he pushed cra- 
 zily. What was the speck eddying yonder in the 
 water? A counter-current brought it backward; 
 it approached the wall ; it swept within eyeshot. 
 He distinguished a round, rude boat making the 
 sullen motions that are peculiar to water-logged 
 crafts. Was it empty? 
 
 " Lalitha ! Lalitha ! " The walls and the 
 river rang to the musical word. Vaguely, a 
 shadow within a shadow stirred below. As it 
 did so, the boat tipped and struck the wall with 
 a crackling whir. 
 
 " Lalitha ! Lalitha ! Lalitha ! " 
 
 The boat made a vicious plunge, and whirled 
 away. Fifty feet above it, Allit looked down 
 the perpendicular wall. Oh, to reach the gate, 
 
 to leap, to cling, to clamber, to snatch at 
 something, to get within sight of her, touch of 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 287 
 
 her, life with her, death with her ! But the 
 gate, piercing the quay, was inaccessible. Was 
 he a lizard that he could crawl down a straight, 
 smooth wall, cemented with the dreadful skill of 
 Nebuchadrezzar? The boat spun madly, and 
 dashed against the wall again. This time it 
 struck one of the brazen gates that guarded the 
 river streets. 
 
 " Lalitha ? " cried Susa for the first time, in 
 his unmistakable treble. " Catch the gate, if 
 you can, and hold it ! " 
 
 A voice came back, like the note of a broken 
 flute; but what words it spoke, if any, it was 
 impossible to tell. 
 
 " Ye gods ! Ye gods ! " groaned Allit. 
 " She dieth. I cannot open the gate. I cannot 
 reach the maiden. I plunge. I die with her." 
 
 He had thrown himself flat upon the bricks ; 
 his head hung far over the escarpment. He 
 implored her to tie the boat not to speak ^ to 
 save her strength to do something anything 
 he knew not what. He would save her 
 alas, he knew not how. 
 
 Lalitha, exhausted beyond further endurance, 
 tried bravely to obey. She grasped the hot 
 grating, as the boat shot past. What could her 
 weak arms do ? Against a boat heavy with 
 water, and a current mighty as death, what was 
 the muscle of a girl ? She clutched for a mo- 
 
288 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 ment, hoped, and held. Then the skiff twirled 
 about and dashed on. Her despairing cry, as 
 she swept down stream, was enough to break a 
 man's heart. 
 
 " Balatsu-usur ! " cried Allit, giving Susa a 
 push which almost thrust him from the wall. 
 " Haste to Balatsu-usur ! Bring him hither 
 upon his fleetest horse ! Bid him to the lower 
 gate, with the keys thereof ! " 
 
 " It will take me half an hour," groaned Susa. 
 " Oh, I shall be too late ! " But he obeyed the 
 hopeless command, bounding through the dark- 
 ness with a fine, fleet, sure step. 
 
 " The teeth of the river's mouth will gnaw her 
 to pieces before we are done with our Balatsu- 
 usuring," moaned Susa. 
 
 But if it gave Allit comfort to think that he 
 was doing something The lad was very fond 
 of Lalitha, and he sobbed as he ran along. 
 
 Allit, alone upon the quay, followed the mo- 
 tions of the boat as well as he could. He called 
 her persistently : 
 
 " Lalitha ! Lalitha ! " 
 
 It seemed to be all there was to say. His 
 voice gave her a certain courage ; there was love 
 enough in it for a girl to die by gladly. In that 
 supreme moment, Lalitha felt almost as much 
 joy as horror. 
 
 When the boat came within sight of the next 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 289 
 
 gate, half a mile beyond the last, Lalitha pre- 
 pared herself for her last chance with more com- 
 posure. She came whirling up to it madly 
 enough. She flung herself against the bars of 
 bronze. Each hand grasped a thick rod. Oh, 
 wonder! The gate trembled. It fluttered be- 
 neath her. It rose. Allit's tongue clave to the 
 roof of his mouth. He could not articulate ; he 
 dared not move. Whence came this miracle? 
 Susa was not half-way to the palace by this time. 
 It was impossible to have reached the governor, 
 to whose order alone (excepting the royal seal) 
 the gate unlocked. The great gate moved silently 
 through its grooves. Lalitha's white form rose 
 slowly from the boat. Her garments clung to 
 her limbs. The sinking boat swayed out into 
 the current; as her feet left it, Allit heard a 
 horrible, crunching sound. Amid lashing foam, 
 the boat, crushed like an eggshell, was drawn 
 beneath the waters. Still the gate arose. Lali- 
 tha hung down straight from it. Her wet robe 
 stirred heavily in the wind. She clung with the 
 last power that desperation gives. Some one 
 spoke to her. It was not Allit. She felt an 
 arm about her, not her lover's. 
 
 " It is my father's spirit," thought the girl. 
 She let go, and knew no more. 
 
 Allit precipitated himself through the guard- 
 house, and down the steps through the heart 
 
290 TEE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 of the wall, to the gate below. All the doors 
 that he had vainly tried before, were unfastened. 
 He rushed madly, sword in hand, and emerged 
 upon the steps within the water-gate. A man 
 stood there, bending over the unconscious girl. 
 
 " Hold ! " cried the lover. " Stand back, on 
 thy life!" 
 
 The man raised himself. He had a strange 
 expression, half pain, half ecstasy. 
 
 " Take the maiden," said Daniel gently, " and 
 bear her to a safer place than this ; for she is 
 thine." 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 DAWN fell gently upon the royal pleasure- 
 grounds. The air had cooled. The khamsin 
 was over. The day unfolded like an oleander, 
 in petals of white and pearl. The perfume of 
 a million flowers intoxicated the morning. The 
 freshly watered foliage glittered merrily. The 
 brilliant birds of Babylonia dipped, and rose, 
 and darted busily ; they looked like the blossoms 
 of air plants. They sang madly. One would 
 have said that Nature gave herself trouble to 
 distinguish a spot where purity, mercy, gentle- 
 ness, all holy deeds and peaceful thoughts abode ; 
 where happiness had her sanctification ; where 
 disease and misery, hatred and hell, could no 
 more enter than the scouts of a conquered enemy 
 beyond the desert. 
 
 In the " pasture " of Nebuchadrezzar's gar- 
 dens, a desolate king groveled before the sun- 
 rise. The maniac had slept but little ; he was 
 at best a poor sleeper. Perhaps a wiser than the 
 medical art of the court would have attributed 
 certain symptoms at the outset of the king's 
 disease to his prolonged and serious insomnia. 
 
292 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 He lifted his gaunt eyes from the ground, and 
 regarded the gay morning with a kind of horror. 
 Then he dropped to his favorite position, and 
 crawled pitiably about. . . . His unshaven face, 
 his unkempt hands, his neglected robe ; above 
 all, the shifting expression of his mouth, half 
 savage, half human, now settling to ferocity, 
 now appealing timidly for the care and sympathy 
 which the science of the times denied to the 
 alienated intellect these are things to dream 
 of, not to tell. When was a sovereign so abased ? 
 When did so imperious a pride undergo such ex- 
 quisite humiliation ? Madly contradictory moods 
 fell upon the royal maniac. His keepers learned 
 to prepare for their coming. At times, he fon- 
 dled the timid creatures who had been suffered 
 to share his green prison : the fawns crept to 
 him ; the lamb nibbled beside him. Then came 
 dark hours ; then, what wild nature, what sav- 
 age bestial blood, wrestled within him? The 
 gentle animals recognized the symptoms of these 
 waves of cruelty before human intelligence per- 
 ceived them. When they fled, quivering, and 
 remained hidden in the shrubbery, the guards 
 redoubled their precautions, taking good care 
 to keep themselves wellout of the way. It was 
 popularly believed that a scratch or a bite from 
 the unhappy monarch would produce a fate simi- 
 lar to his own. On this morning of which we 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 293 
 
 speak, a keeper called another, with quick and 
 agitated cry : 
 
 " Look ! By Nergal, look yonder ! Nay, but 
 what I see is too terrible for gods or men. I 
 look no more. Take thou the watch, for I am 
 sickened of the business." 
 
 The first guard turned his back to the mad- 
 man, and hid his face. The second took his 
 place, with light curiosity. A cry of horror 
 escaped him. 
 
 " Where is the lamb ? " he whispered. 
 
 The royal maniac growled. The growl had a 
 deep, strange sound, like an unsuccessful roar. 
 Warm blood upon the grass dripping blood 
 where the loathing eye refused to look an- 
 swered the keeper's question. 
 
 In the hanging gardens, no one troubled him- 
 self about what went on in the king's guarded 
 grounds. That was the physician's business, 
 and the magician's. Why should a wife be un- 
 comfortable ? The queen troubled herself about 
 nothing that morning. She was abroad early, 
 in spite of last night's carousal. She was ex- 
 ceptionally gay. In hot summer, she adopted 
 the custom of the Babylonians, who arose be- 
 fore the sun if they wished to have any day at 
 all in weather when the thermometer, if they 
 had known one, might have registered one him- 
 
294 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 dred and twenty in the shade. It may have 
 been at the first of the morning watch, or not 
 long after, when the queen chose to saunter 
 through the mountain garden to refresh herself 
 for the day ; when cares of state must come even 
 to Amytis, and the light nature wear for a few 
 hours the weight of human duty. 
 
 The gardens were well watered, and dripped 
 luxuriantly. The human force - pumps had 
 worked all night. Since the khamsin fell upon 
 the city, the carrying of water had not been suf- 
 fered to cease. Relays of captives took the 
 places of those who dropped. Now, all signs 
 of toil or suffering were scrupulously banished 
 from the gay scene. The last gardener had de- 
 parted. The last slave had done his last toil for 
 some hours to come ; until the approach of noon 
 should call an invisible force of skilled hands to 
 drop the awnings that shielded the more delicate 
 and valuable flowers from the midday fire. 
 
 At this time of the morning, Amytis amused 
 herself alone, or with a few favored slaves. She 
 dipped through artificial dew and pollen, bloom 
 and fountain, like one of the butterflies that cir- 
 cled above her small head, or one of the bright, 
 cold lizards that crept about her feet. She 
 bathed, she ran, she sang, and curled to sleep, 
 and stirred and bathed again. Mariamnu only 
 attended her. The queen thought of last night's 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 295 
 
 events apathetically. Perhaps she did not re- 
 member for the Median wine had wrought 
 well upon her exactly in what form she gave 
 the order. The girl was gone this time ; that 
 was enough. Ashpenaz swore it to her by the 
 ring last night ; by his own shaking voice he 
 had renewed the oath this morning. The queen 
 had dismissed him abruptly, asking no ques- 
 tions ; he looked so disagreeably uncomfortable 
 over the business. At all events, the girl was 
 out of the way ; Amytis laughed the louder, the 
 day was the fairer, for it. And now ? Ah, 
 well, and now, what pretty pleasure next ? 
 
 u I would behold my lord Balatsu-usur," said 
 Amytis, after a few moments of what she called 
 thought. Mariamnu sent the summons silently. 
 The captive trembled in every nerve of her thin 
 body. She knew too well that her own head 
 sat upon her shoulders to-day more lightly than 
 the calyx of any flower in the mountain garden 
 on its stalk. She robed her mistress for the 
 visit of the Jew with a temporary sense of pro- 
 tection. 
 
 Daniel answered the command leisurely. His 
 countenance had a remote expression. One 
 would have said that he did not see the queen. 
 He did not speak, but awaited her order in a 
 mute scorn. 
 
 " I have sent for thee," began Amytis, coquet- 
 
296 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 tishly, " to say to discuss to see My lord 
 Balatsu-usur, thou art not in a tender mood to- 
 ward me ! I am too frivolous a woman. Yet, 
 indeed, I have it in my heart to do some service 
 to thee." 
 
 Daniel regarded her fixedly. He made no 
 reply whatever. 
 
 " Come to me ! " cried the queen. He obeyed 
 her. She drew his ear to her lips, and whis- 
 pered a few words. Her round arm stole about 
 his neck. . . . The Jew released himself with a 
 motion more like that of an offended spirit than 
 a tempted man. He seemed to melt away from 
 her, as if her touch had no means of express- 
 ing itself to his sensation. To this high rejoin- 
 der he added the rebuke of continued, scathing 
 silence. 
 
 "Thou dost not understand me!" cried the 
 Median. Burning blushes scorched her face. 
 She turned her back upon him petulantly. 
 
 But Daniel had understood her perfectly. 
 What the queen had offered him was nothing 
 less than the utmost the full of political au- 
 thority, the crest of human glory, the vacant 
 place of Nebuchadrezzar, his awful power, 
 practically his empty throne. This offer was 
 accompanied with one soft stipulation. 
 
 Then, without hesitation and without mercy, 
 the Jew spoke these few words : 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 297 
 
 "Kather would I be cast unarmed into the 
 cage of the lions upon the plains of Doura. 
 Rather would I tread the furnace of fire where 
 the convict scorcheth." . . . Amytis uttered a 
 little cry of rage and shame. The Jew's cold 
 voice went on above her ringing ears : " Rather 
 these a thousand fold, Amytis, than touch 
 thee." 
 
 When the queen raised her abased head, Ba- 
 latsu-usur had gone. Mariainnu stood cowering 
 at a distance, by the scarlet Judean lilies ; she 
 did not dare approach, or raise her eyes. 
 
 Neither of the women had entirely recovered 
 herself when dashing steps crushed the shrub- 
 bery, and the figure of an unannounced vis- 
 itor burst upon the privacy of the garden of 
 ascents. The man was tall and mighty of 
 stature. His hanging sword caught the red lil- 
 ies and tore them, as he rushed into the presence 
 of the queen. When Amytis saw who it was, 
 her heart failed within her. But she gathered 
 herself right royally, like the leopardess she 
 was, and haughtily waved the intruder away. 
 He paid no more attention to her gesture than 
 he did to the movement of a brown moth that 
 circled over him and brushed his helmet. His 
 manner, even more than his look, was terrible 
 to Amytis. She melted and fawned, the tears 
 started, her whole being seemed to creep to 
 
298 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 him ; she remembered how fond she had once 
 been of him, how she had wished for his fond- 
 ness. It seemed to her as if she should die, if 
 he spoke as he would, if he spoke at all. She 
 knew in an instant that he understood every- 
 thing. She breathed his name tenderly : 
 . " Allit 1" 
 
 His large lips moved as if he would answer 
 her, but no sound came through them ; they 
 were dry and clumsy with rage. Amytis ob- 
 served that the soldier made no obeisance to his 
 queen. She understood that she had lost her 
 captain. Allit approached her with simple 
 human fury. Throne and crown, power and 
 peril, disappeared from his consciousness. His 
 hatred clawed for vengeance within him. The 
 man's great figure broadened and heightened 
 with his sense of mere muscular power. He 
 could have throttled her but, after all, she 
 was a woman. 
 
 "Allit," she repeated softly, "what aileth 
 thee, Allit?" 
 
 " I scorn thee ! " hissed Allit. 
 
 "Thou art mad," whispered Amytis. " Thou 
 hast an illness ; thy brain is wild. Seat thyself 
 among my flowers and cool thy blood. See, 
 we are alone. Only my slave is present. . . . 
 Stand farther, Mariamnu. Observe not my lord 
 the captain, for he is seized with a sudden evil 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 299 
 
 spirit. Come hither, my captain. The queen 
 forgiveth thy wild language. Amytis consid- 
 ereth thee too kindly to make memory of thine 
 offense. Corile to me, Allit, come ! " 
 
 Amytis half hid herself in blossoming shrubs, 
 and timidly held out her brown, bare arms. 
 Allit did not see that they trembled. He did 
 not divine that she was really afraid of him. 
 He stared at the queen stupidly. She prattled 
 like a dull child ; she tossed aimless words at 
 his awful rage, as if she threw withered flowers 
 at a shield of bronze. He could not understand 
 how she could be so imbecile. The narrow 
 brain of Amytis, dazed by folly and fright, 
 seemed unable to distinguish anything more 
 than the waymarks of her outworn passion. 
 She took the feeble course of an intellectually 
 inferior, unprincipled woman. A cleverer or 
 a better would not have added this last fuel to 
 his loathing. Her manner nauseated Allit out 
 of his poor feint of self-possession. He burst 
 into a storm of terrible words. . . . Amytis 
 raised herself from behind the foliage, and stood 
 to receive them. She had grown very pale be- 
 neath her warm, dark coloring. She drew her 
 supple form to its best proportions. Framed 
 by a yellow acacia, full in the broad sunburst, 
 she had a tawny splendor like some bright ani- 
 mal's. Even at that moment, Allit could not 
 
300 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 help thinking that she was a beautiful creature. 
 If he had been himself a more thoughtful man, 
 he might have wondered if she had more than 
 animal conscience. The two were alone upon 
 the topmost tier of the mountain garden. Only 
 the Hebrew captive was witness of their meet- 
 ing. Mariamnu had turned her blanched face 
 away from the scene, which she found no less 
 than terrible, yet before which she was as help- 
 less as the lizard in the lilies at her feet. Amy- 
 tis began to walk backward through the acacia 
 bushes. The yellow blossoms closed about her. 
 Allit burst into them. Then the queen found 
 her voice. 
 
 " I have thy head for this," she said collect- 
 edly. " I have endured thine insolence too long. 
 The queen of Babylonia is a woman like a 
 woman she hath fallen into folly. Like a woman 
 she hath forborne. Learn thou, though late, 
 that she is also a queen. The death agony may 
 teach it thee, if thou art teachable. Look thy 
 last upon thy last sunrise, Allit Arioch. See ! 
 Turn thy curling head. Come hither. For the 
 sake of what was once between us, look thy last 
 upon earth beside Amytis my Allit." 
 
 To save her crown, the queen could not have 
 withheld those last soft words. Allit answered 
 them with one hard enough to strangle the dying 
 delusion out of any folly in Babylon. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 301 
 
 " Murderess ! " he said, and said it over ; re- 
 peated it distinctly ; dwelt upon it ; dashed it at 
 her ; drew his breath in between his teeth, and 
 said it again. The acacia had closed behind 
 them. The thick shrubbery of an imported 
 Persian bush with a scarlet flower grew between 
 them and the wall, whose low edge skirted that 
 side of the high gardens that rose perpendicu- 
 larly from the reservoir. Amytis retreated be- 
 fore Allit with slow, sinuous steps. He followed 
 her, raging. He could have stamped the life 
 out of her but she was a woman. The soldier 
 withheld his hand. Yet with his tongue he beat 
 upon her. Her threat seemed to have no more 
 effect upon him than the little thorns of the 
 Persian quince that pricked him as they swung 
 against his cheek. He followed her with a 
 frightful slowness. She caught his broken sen- 
 tences : 
 
 " My wife she is to be my wife I wed 
 with her and thou and thou" Amytis 
 uttered a low exclamation. He clenched his 
 two iron hands within each other like padlocks 
 that he might not touch her. If he had given 
 himself a moment's freedom, he would have 
 killed her before she could have cried out upon 
 him. What he said he never knew. Awful 
 words fell from his hot lips. What queen? no 
 woman could forgive. Denunciation blazed 
 
302 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 upon denunciation. Scorn hurled after scorn. 
 Then came insults the worst and last. 
 
 Amytis had retreated steadily before him, in 
 who knows what ? terror of the outraged man. 
 As steadily, Allit followed. The Persian bush, 
 sending forth soothing odors, crackled and was 
 crushed beneath his heavy feet. The thorns 
 tore her soft flesh. Neither saw both were 
 too blind with the flash of the scene that the 
 queen had reached the limit of the wall's edge. 
 Still retreating, she swayed before him. 
 
 " And you missed it, after all ! " he said be- 
 tween his teeth. " Do your worst, but in spite 
 of you, this night I wed her." 
 
 Amytis started, and threw out one arm to 
 steady herself. Her beautiful body stood high, 
 for one hot instant, against the quivering sky 
 then curved her robe fell and she top- 
 pled. 
 
 The terrible cry which tore the air recalled 
 the soldier to his senses. He unlocked his 
 hands and sprang to the precipice, holding them 
 out to snatch, to save. He looked over the low 
 parapet, and shrank back ; he covered his eyes 
 and crouched against the Persian shrubo 
 
 Mariamnu stood shrieking. 
 "Have silence," commanded Allit hoarsely. 
 " Thou art the only witness. Thy life and 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 303 
 
 mine are the forfeit of this morning's work. 
 There is a moment left. Make the most of it," 
 urged Allit dully. " Fly while thou canst, if 
 thou canst. It only remaineth for me to do the 
 same. I did not do the deed," proceeded the 
 captain argumentatively ; he looked about him 
 with bloodshot, bewildered eyes. " She fell. I 
 touched her not. She fell. Amytis fell. Look 
 thou over the wall I dare not for she fell." 
 
 He tore through the crimson quince, pushed 
 through the yellow acacia, crushed the Judean 
 lilies, dashed down the path and down the steps. 
 At sight of the first guard, he recovered himself. 
 He passed them all with the ease of the queen's 
 favorite. The soldiers saluted their superior 
 officer. He reached the lowest platform of the 
 hanging gardens, and walked on leisurely. As 
 he went by the king's pasture, Allit paused a 
 moment. The keepers also saluted profoundly. 
 
 " How fares the king ? " asked the captain in 
 what he thought to be quite a natural voice. 
 
 " As the beasts of the jungle fare," was the 
 significant reply. Allit turned his white face 
 toward the sunny field, lifted his helmet in si- 
 lent obeisance to his sovereign, and passed on. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A LITTLE after the setting of the sun, a cara- 
 van of merchants, about to make the great jour- 
 ney across the desert, left Babylon for Tadmor, 
 and thence by way of Damascus to Tyre and 
 Sidon or Judea. This incident, of very common 
 occurrence, attracted less than usual attention on 
 account of the tremendous public excitement 
 aroused by the fate of Amytis ; and a group of 
 travelers who left the mansion of Egibi found 
 themselves of less than no consequence in the 
 general uproar. Foreign visitors at the resi- 
 dence of the distinguished banker were an 
 every-day affair: traders from all parts of the 
 commercial world had errands there, to ex- 
 ecute wills and deeds before a hazardous trip, 
 to exchange their stuffs for well-coined silver 
 shekels, to make deposits of moneys at the 
 bank, to receive letters of introduction and of 
 credit needful for their journey. Why observe 
 the commonplace, well-to-do merchant who, 
 with his family, a lad, presumably his son, 
 and two women of his household, took leave 
 of Egibi, and with the usual composure of his 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 305 
 
 class, motioned his servants to lead the camels 
 nearer ? 
 
 The tumult in the city was in no wise lessened 
 by the fact that nobody in it had ever loved 
 Amytis. She was their queen. The throne 
 was once again empty. What was to be done 
 with a mad king and a dead queen ? The city 
 of the Gate of God was on fire with dismay. 
 Between Evil-Merodach, the boy prince, and the 
 throne, nothing visible in the way of a sovereign 
 or even of a regent now intervened ; and this 
 heir of the pious name had up to this time given 
 no particular proofs of any kind of aptness for 
 the crown, beyond a very bad temper and his 
 father's nose. 
 
 At all events, Amytis was dead, murdered, 
 it seemed past a doubt. By whom and to what 
 end who should say ? Ashpenaz, for that brief 
 wild day ex officio ruler of Babylonia, made the 
 most of his short-lived glory to stir the swirl of 
 events to their dregs. As chief of the royal 
 eunuchs, as major-domo of the palaces, as per- 
 sonal guardian of the queen, it was the duty of 
 Ashpenaz to circulate a theory of the horrible 
 accident. His own life would none too slowly 
 pay the price of his neglect or of his dullness if 
 a satisfactory murderer did not turn up. His 
 personal objections to the captain of the guards 
 
306 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 were several and serious, the testimony was 
 sufficient, and the rest followed glibly. Be- 
 fore the crimson banner on the Ziggurat of Bel 
 told the hour of noon, criers were patrolling the 
 city throughout its vast extent, proclaiming Allit 
 Arioch, captain of the guards of our lamented 
 King Nebuchadrezzar, the murderer of the Me- 
 dian queen. The enormous price of two talents 
 of gold was set upon the curling head that half 
 the beauties of Babylon would have counted 
 themselves happy to caress. Thus were laggard 
 detectives stimulated into enthusiasm. Soldiers 
 at the gates were doubled. The ferries between 
 the east city and the west city were watched. 
 A military signal of alarm ordered the hundred 
 huge brazen gates that pierced Imgur-Bel to 
 drop in their bronze grooves ; they opened sul- 
 lenly only for accredited passengers, and snapped 
 again. Every trap was set for the fugitive. 
 The reluctant witness of the guards at the moun- 
 tain garden was enough to have condemned any 
 man in Babylon without trial or reprieve. Rank 
 was no protection against the doom of the regi- 
 cide ; that doom was too hideous for the pen to 
 dwell upon. Allit had been seen to enter the 
 gardens, unbidden and unannounced ; after a 
 brief interview he had been known to depart 
 unchallenged ; and between his coming and his 
 going the queen had met her fate. The watch- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 307 
 
 men on the Yapur Shapu told a ghastly tale. 
 It was said that she struck once in falling, and 
 bounded from the perpendicular wall. It was 
 rumored that she was mangled before she hit 
 the great reservoir, whose sluggish current mer- 
 cifully received and clothed the pitiable body of 
 the daughter of Astyages. Shrinking slaves 
 dragged the canal for a few recoiling hours ; 
 and then they found her. Before the throne 
 which she had disgraced, and the averted gaze 
 of the people whom her caprices had oppressed, 
 the Median now lay for an hour in such state as 
 death and compassion allowed her. One of the 
 most appalling rumors of the day was to the 
 effect that the death of the queen had been ob- 
 served by the poor maniac in the walled pasture. 
 It was said long afterwards that the shock had 
 profound and remarkable effects upon the king. 
 There were not wanting opinions that this men- 
 tal concussion was not wholly injurious to the 
 sufferer ; and one very aged magician claimed 
 that in consequence of a conjunction of certain 
 stars the slow restoration of the royal patient to 
 normal health had on that dreadful day begun 
 its almost imperceptible course. 
 
 But the queen was dead. " He who is alive 
 at even is dead the next day." Thus runs the 
 Babylonian proverb. The evil doer was travel- 
 ing to a distant land which cannot be seen, 
 
308 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 while her former favorite was hunted down like 
 common game. Every probable hiding-place in 
 Babylon was searched for the captain of the 
 guards. The governor of the province even of- 
 fered his own palace to the official inspection ; 
 but the officer of ten protested that it was im- 
 possible to extend such an indignity to the high- 
 est civil authority of the city. Was not Balatsu- 
 usur now the sole hope of the troubled nation ; 
 its moat, its ramparts, and its shield in this ter- 
 rible crisis ? Yea, verily. The officer and his 
 men saluted, and passed on. 
 
 It was some hours after their visit to Balatsu- 
 usur's palace before he found time to accompany 
 a guest of his, a portly merchant, to the banking 
 firm of Egibi and Sons. This was done slowly, 
 in broad noonlight, and with perfect assurance. 
 Who concerned himself with the guest of the 
 governor ? Or who, indeed, with the palace of 
 Egibi? The last place in Babylon which the 
 keenest detective wit in the city would have 
 thought of searching for the condemned captain 
 was the home of the treasurer of state. 
 
 Into that gorgeous house the most sumptu- 
 ous private home, probably, then in the known 
 world her guardian had, in fact, removed La- 
 litha immediately after her rescue from the 
 river the evening before. Allit had accompanied 
 them, in a tempest of love and rage, which 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 309 
 
 would have borne down the reluctance of a far 
 less good-natured household than that of Egibi. 
 In short, Lalitha was thrown, on the impulse of 
 one wild, wise moment, upon the mercy and 
 hospitality of her own uncle ; and Egibi, always 
 a generous though sometimes a politic man, did 
 his simple duty by the daughter of his dead 
 brother. This was natural enough ; but when 
 the tragedy of the next day threw two more 
 refugees upon the favor of Egibi's household 
 gods, and when Allit, skulking under sentence 
 of ignoble death, demanded an immediate mar- 
 riage with the banker's niece, in the name of 
 love and flight and mortal peril, the case be- 
 came complicated. As for Mariamnu, it was 
 simple enough to shelter a slave. But a con- 
 demned officer of the court a wedding dis- 
 guises a flight, these things were not within 
 Egibi's distinguished experience. The distracted 
 appearance of Susa, wretchedly hunting for his 
 brother at the banker's door, added to the un- 
 precedented perplexity of that influential man. 
 
 " By Merodach, verily, here 's another," said 
 Egibi to his daughter. " Are we to sneak all 
 Babylon under our roof in behalf of this curly- 
 pated courtier ? Judge thou ; for I am awearied 
 with the business." 
 
 Then Ina cast down her sad, fine eyes, and 
 remained lost in thought for the space of many 
 
310 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 minutes, and no person addressed her. When 
 she raised them, Allit Arioch knelt before her, 
 silent too. And he looked upon Ina. And she 
 began to tremble. For she felt in her soul that 
 his eyes commanded her ; that whatsoever he 
 did will she should perform, yea, though it 
 were to speak the word that did give him for all 
 time to the arms of a happier woman than her- 
 self ; for Allit was lord of her heart, and her 
 nature did serve him. 
 
 " Go thou," she said, in an almost inaudible 
 and most touching voice. " Go thou. Take 
 my cousin Lalitha to her own country, and wed 
 her as thy heart desireth. My father and I 
 do not deny the shelter due our kin, nor I the 
 courtesy due from a lady to an old friend." 
 
 Thus and there, that day, in concealment 
 and haste and alarm, was Lalitha wedded to 
 Allit, who took her from the hand of her guar- 
 dian, Balatsu-usur, and from the protection of 
 her uncle's house, in the presence of her cousin 
 Ina and his brother Susa ; the slaves Mariamnu 
 and Kisrinni witnessing. The ceremony was 
 completed without festivity, but with all possi- 
 ble solemnity. 
 
 The Babylonians honored marriage, in spite 
 of, perhaps because of, their light morals ; and 
 although Allit must needs wed the maiden, so 
 far as the circumstances permitted, according to 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 311 
 
 the Jewish customs, yet the Babylonian heart of 
 him rejoiced that the great seal of the city, set 
 by the governor, signed his marriage vow, be- 
 fore he turned his life forever from his home 
 and from his country. 
 
 Lalitha, very gentle, very sweet, so spent with 
 the excitement of the past few days that she 
 looked as if a little wind would waft her off her 
 feet, gathered her color and her courage for her 
 marriage hour, and lifted to Allit the pure, 
 helpless, and adoring eyes that make a man of 
 mighty muscle and of eager deeds a woman's 
 very slave. In the hurried little wedding robe, 
 over which Ina had generously flung the jewels 
 of the house of Egibi, Lalitha did not glitter, 
 but she shone softly. Her long, loose hair half 
 hid her face. She turned toward Allit deli- 
 cately, like a flower stirring on its stem. Tears 
 sprang to the soldier's eyes. How should he 
 handle that tender life? He thought of the 
 hard journey, the desert, exile, the founding of 
 a strange home in a strange land, of his disgrace 
 and flight and social ruin, and of hardships 
 which her gentle experience could not by any 
 possibility present to her imagination. 
 
 " Thou wilt regret ! " whispered the chastened 
 courtier humbly. " Thou wilt think coldly of 
 me for the fate thou sharest with a ruined man." 
 
 " Where thou goest I will go, and there will 
 
312 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 I be buried," said Lalitha. Her voice broke. 
 She could not think of anything more to say. 
 She was not a talker. And she thought it must 
 be so evident to anybody that she was the happi- 
 est, that she was the most blessed woman in the 
 world. Then Allit Arioch fell at her feet, upon 
 his knees, and gave to the Hebrew marriage an 
 unexpectedly Babylonian turn. For the power of 
 his education and of his race and of his great 
 love was strong upon him ; and he offered to 
 his Jewish wife the prayer of penitence which he 
 had been used to utter in the Ziggurat to the 
 gray god Bel, or oftener to Ishtar, the Queen 
 of Babylonian chivalry : 
 
 ' ' O my goddess . . . 
 
 O my goddess, that knowest that I knew not, 
 
 My transgression is great, many are my sins* 
 
 The sin that I committed I knew not. 
 
 The forbidden thing did I eat. . . . 
 
 God, in the strength of his heart, has overpowered me. 
 
 To my goddess, who knew, though I knew not, I make sup- 
 plication. 
 
 My transgressions are before me, may thy judgment give me 
 life. 
 
 May thy heart, like the heart of the mother of the setting 
 day, to its place return. 
 
 The feet of my goddess I embrace. 
 Peace afterwards." 
 
 Allit had scarcely risen from his knees, when 
 a whisper through the barred door of the bank- 
 er's private room, where the marriage party had 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 313 
 
 been hastily and secretly gathered, announced 
 the arrival of the camels and of the servants of 
 the foreign merchant who was expected to leave 
 the house of Egibi at the sunset hour. Egibi 
 himself responded to the summons. The mer- 
 chant was a friend of his, and received the es- 
 pecial attention of his presence in the stir of de- 
 parture. Allit, successfully disguised by the loss 
 of his fine beard and the traveling costume of a 
 middle-aged man, stepped boldly into the street, 
 and tested the harnesses of his camels. As he 
 stood there, a crier passed by, proclaiming, 
 
 " For the body of Allit Arioch, lohether dead 
 or living, two talents ! Two talents ! Two 
 talents ! " 
 
 Egibi saluted the crier. Allit imitated his 
 example with composure. 
 
 As the two men stood together beside the tall 
 white camel, they exchanged a few hasty words. 
 
 " Thou wilt find the deposits all correct," 
 said the banker. " The sum mounts well. The 
 moaeys and the bales attend thee." 
 
 " Hast thou accredited all my properties to 
 thyself ? I would not go from Babylon in thy 
 debt. It hath not been my custom to be in 
 debt." 
 
 " Concern thyself not. The matter is quite 
 satisfactory," replied the banker prince, with a 
 wave of his opulent hand. " I have accredited 
 
314 THE MASTER Of THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 thine affairs and the maiden's duly. My niece 
 hath a sufficient dowry. If I took the liberty 
 of adding unto it by a tithe or so, who gain- 
 sayeth me ? Am I not brother to Mutusa-ili ? 
 May Jehovah rest his soul ! " 
 
 " And thine ! " replied Allit, with emotion. 
 " And thine, also, Egibi." 
 
 Egibi turned his grave face toward far, in- 
 visible Jerusalem ; he made no reply. 
 
 "I have feared," suggested Allit, "that 
 under the circumstances my little property 
 would be confiscated to the crown, and thou, 
 therefore " 
 
 " Trust that to me," said the treasurer of state, 
 with a shrewd glance. 
 
 "The caravan moveth," cried the driver of 
 camels restlessly. " Thy friend will be late, my 
 lord Egibi." 
 
 In the sudden haste and little confusion that 
 fell upon the banker's household, nothing went 
 exactly as it was expected to go. When the 
 merchant who would hasten toward Damascus 
 was well upon his camel with his son ; his women 
 following upon another ; the goods, the servants, 
 and the many matters of the journey attended 
 to in such order as the hurry of the start per- 
 mitted, two persons stood in Egibi's glittering 
 rooms, and stared at each other in a kind of 
 stupefaction. These were the daughter of the 
 banker and the governor of Babylon. 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 315 
 
 "Did she not say farewell to you?" stam- 
 mered Ina. 
 
 " Nay ; I heard her not." 
 
 " Nor he to me ! Nor he to me ! " 
 
 Ina leaned against the long tapestry of heavy 
 gold embroidery that rattled behind her. She 
 hid her face. But Daniel comforted her. 
 
 " Farewells," he said, " are but stabs in the 
 heart. There be wounds enough without them. 
 . . . Nor would I blame the maiden, or the 
 youth," he added gently. " For the haste, and 
 the disguise, and the danger thereof, these are 
 serious matters. Pray thou, the rather, that 
 they escape, and God go with them." 
 
 But Kisrinni, prostrate on the floor, in a dark 
 corner of the splendid room, prayed while these 
 were talking about it. The old slave wept si- 
 lently, as she repeated the name of Beltis sixty- 
 five times. She had kissed her mistress good-by, 
 before the wedding, to make sure of it. They 
 thought she was too old to take the journey. 
 She had no price set upon her head, like Mari- 
 amnu. And probably the lady Ina would feed 
 her well. 
 
 " But how can they pass the walls ? " Ina 
 recovered herself, and looked at Balatsu-usur 
 anxiously. " The guard is doubled, my father 
 says, at every gate. It is such a horrible thing 
 it has been so sudden no time to explain 
 
316 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 and women know nothing. Nobody has told 
 me how Allit will pass Nevitti-Bel, and beyond 
 Imgur-Bel how shall he escape ? For these are 
 terrible walls, and terribly are they watched to- 
 day!" 
 
 Balatsu-usur smiled. 
 
 " The passport beareth the official seal of the 
 governor of Babylon," he said quietly. 
 
 Then Egibi came back into the room. He 
 looked pale, and walked slowly. No one spoke 
 to him. The Assyrianized Jew had committed 
 his first disloyalty to the state which had en- 
 trusted him with its highest financial position, 
 for the sake of a dead brother, whom, living, 
 he had never taken the trouble to acknowledge. 
 His daughter came to him after a moment's 
 hesitation, and hid her face upon his knees. She 
 wished that her mother were living. How could 
 fathers understand ? She heard the noise in the 
 hot streets drearily. Desolate Babylon ! In 
 a moment, in the twinkle of an eye, what a 
 desert ! 
 
 But Balatsu-usur departed silently, and went 
 alone unto his own place. 
 
 As he entered the palace, the voice of a dis- 
 tant crier came faintly on the sluggish air : 
 
 " For the head of Allit Arioch, two talents 1 
 Two talents ! Two talents ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 IT was well into the dark of the night. Weary 
 Babylon slept heavily. Only the extra guards 
 and the sleepy criers, still proclaiming a price 
 for the head of the king's captain, patrolled the 
 streets at less frequent intervals. 
 
 At the great gate of Imgur-Bel, an unattended 
 horseman halted. 
 
 " Stand ! " cried the guard anxiously. " The 
 countersign ! Thy passport ! Who art thou, 
 and on what errand wouldst thou, alone and un- 
 defended, pass Imgur-Bel, on a night like this?" 
 
 The horseman removed his turban, baring his 
 head and face fully to the guardsman's torch. 
 He extended his hand, upon which the seal 
 of the Province glittered, cut in one priceless 
 sapphirine. 
 
 " My lord the governor ! " cried the guard, 
 bowing to the ground. " I pray thy pardon. 
 In mercy, pass thou on." 
 
 He saluted and protested. The governor 
 saluted and praised. The gate opened and 
 closed with important resonance. Balatsu-usur 
 spurred his Arabian horse, and, once well with- 
 
318 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 out the city, sped through the dark, hot air as 
 recklessly as a boy in the university of Bel at 
 his riding-lessons. 
 
 He made tremendous time, to which he gave 
 no check until the outlines of the caravan to 
 Damascus met his fixed and sunken eye. Then 
 the saint halted mightily, drew his horse upon 
 the haunches with a soldier's muscle, and fell 
 into a slow and thoughtful pace. What unman- 
 ageable human impulse moved this holy heart 
 now, after all, at the end of so much struggle 
 and supremacy of soul ? But it came to seem 
 to the Jew that his breath would die out of his 
 body, if he might not look upon her face again. 
 Just to see her for one moment, only for a 
 single moment ; he thought, if he could see that 
 curve of her chin, and the way her under lip 
 trembled perhaps she would even be glad to 
 speak to him, and tell him that she was happier 
 for saying farewell to him, after all. 
 
 Daniel rode on softly. The caravan, skirting 
 the Euphrates, had just camped for a few hours 
 on the luxuriant bank. The full starlight fell 
 on it. The camels were lying down peacefully. 
 Lights glimmered still from the tents. A nod- 
 ding watchman recognized and admitted him ; 
 a watchdog barked at him dutifully. He left 
 his horse, and entered the camp on foot. 
 
 Before a cluster of tents, bearing in Assyrian 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 319 
 
 characters the ideogram of the great firm of 
 Egibi, the Jew paused. His movements were 
 almost stealthy. To avoid attention seemed to 
 be his absorbing purpose. He had pursued the 
 bride of Allit upon the wings of the wind, 
 upon the wilder wings of a mad emotion ; but 
 now that he was within a spear's toss of her, it 
 was as if he were afraid to make his presence 
 known, or to behold so much as her shadow on 
 the sand. 
 
 As he stood there, hesitant, humble, one might 
 say embarrassed, and uncertain in his move- 
 ments, a familiar sound, without any embarrass- 
 ment whatever, startled the drowsy air. It was 
 a boy's laugh. 
 
 Then Daniel lifted his head and looked, and 
 the nearest tent-lights flashed upon him merrily. 
 At the door of her tent, Mariamnu, the captive, 
 sat half within and half without the curtain. 
 Before her, stretched lazily upon the ground, 
 Susa lay chattering like a hoopoe. He regarded 
 Mariamnu with pretty, boyish admiration". 
 
 "For my part," said Susa loudly, with his 
 usual dogmatism, " I have no confidence in the 
 government. What is a throne without so much 
 as a regent ? I have seen too much of it ! I 
 know how Babylon ought to be ruled. Turn 
 your king to grass and toss your queen into a 
 reservoir, and where are you? In my opinion 
 
320 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 it will be some days before they will find that 
 fellow Arioch. He 's well hidden in that cat's- 
 cradle of a city, trust him for it. I should 
 search the big Ziggurat. But ah I was 
 not consulted." Susa had the air of having 
 made a fine political point : he looked about the 
 camp to see if any one had overheard his views ; 
 he thought himself exceedingly adroit. 
 
 Mariamnu assented in a sleepy, happy tone. 
 The captive gazed about her confusedly. Her 
 freedom perplexed her as much as the stars in 
 heaven, and seemed still as far away. Susa 
 rattled on contentedly. He took a lower tone, 
 that he might not be overheard by his neigh- 
 bors : 
 
 " The only thing I regret about it is this. 
 There was my translation from the Akkadian. 
 Mutusa-ili thought it extraordinary. It is 
 packed away in the library of the university for 
 all time and times and a day. Now my grand- 
 children will never see it. How shall I prove 
 to them that I was talented ? That 's a great 
 pity!" 
 
 He threw back his head, and laughed like a 
 fountain. Then he stretched his stout young 
 arms, clasped his hands behind his neck, and 
 yawned. 
 
 " Sing, Mariamnu. It is very stupid of those 
 two, leaving us to ourselves, this way. I sup- 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 321 
 
 pose we 've got to expect that, till this tiresome 
 journey is over. We shall have to make the 
 most of each other. I 'm glad you 're such a 
 pretty girl. Sing, Mariamnu, sing ! " 
 
 Mariamnu, with the instinct of captivity, 
 obeyed the young Babylonian. She took her 
 little lyre ; it was cut from a tortoise-shell ; it 
 had seven strings ; she leaned her head against 
 the tent-pole, and turned her eyes toward the 
 stars. 
 
 "Look there," whispered Susa. "Look at 
 them:' 
 
 He pointed down between the tents, toward 
 the outer circle of the encampment. Mariamnu 
 looked and smiled, and sang : 
 
 " Fold the tent, fold the tent. 
 
 Start away ! 
 Love is but a traveler, 
 
 Camped for a day. 
 Oh, though he kiss and whisper, 
 Though he be fair and fond, 
 Love is but a traveler, 
 
 The desert lies beyond. 
 
 " Strike the tent, strike the tent 
 
 Strong and fast. 
 Love, like any traveler, 
 
 Cometh home at last. 
 Oh, sing it to the sunlight ! 
 Oh, tell it to the wind 1 
 Love hath been a traveler, 
 
 But the desert lies behind." 
 
322 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 Daniel's haggard gaze had followed the lad's 
 finger. Were they figures ? Were they shad- 
 ows? Soft, blurred outlines moved from out 
 the tent of the merchant, friend of Egibi, and 
 bound by way of Damascus for Judea. The 
 Jew followed them silently. 
 
 The two stole down between the tents, and 
 turned their faces toward the wide night. They 
 made as if they would be a little apart from hu- 
 manity, from which, indeed, they might not free 
 themselves. He, the man, stood erect ; he had 
 the air of a god at the moment of his apotheosis. 
 She, the woman, shrank and seemed to tremble ; 
 she looked like an enraptured sacrifice. It was 
 too dark to see their faces ; but their eloquent 
 forms, modeled against the starlight, spoke like 
 the festal figures on a frieze. 
 
 Daniel delayed his foot and cast down his 
 eyes. He had meant to speak with her, just one 
 word ; to see her face for one precious moment. 
 His heavy lids lifted uncertainly. Then, in the 
 dark, the man and woman turned and clung . . . 
 
 The Jew thrust his hands against his face. 
 His head fell. From the tent behind him, the 
 low voice of Mariamnu sang delicately : 
 
 " Oh, happy, happy ! Sacred thy delight. 
 To life belongs the day, to love the night. 
 
 Oh, blessed, blessed ! for the gods give breath. 
 But love's are day and night, and life and death." 
 
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 323 
 
 The two figures unclasped, and seemed to 
 listen to the song; then clung again. When 
 Balatsu-usur raised his eyes, he saw that they 
 had moved, and set their invisible faces toward 
 their own tent. Their footsteps made no sound 
 in the soft soil. 
 
 Without a word, without a sign, and without 
 another glance, the Jew turned. He left the 
 camp at once. 
 
 When the governor of Babylon reached the 
 city, the guard at Imgur-Bel noticed that the 
 eminent horseman did not take the street lead- 
 ing to his own palace. Daniel, on the contrary, 
 rode straight to the temple of Bel. He rode 
 slowly. He was absorbed in patient thought. 
 Now this Ziggurat was the highest elevation in 
 Babylon. Daniel dismounted at the Ziggurat. 
 
 His appearance at that place and at that 
 hour surprised the idolatrous priests, to whose 
 shrine the governor of the province was not ac- 
 customed to give countenance by even the merest 
 visit of curiosity. But they saluted him with 
 enforced respect, and admitted him without 
 question. 
 
 Daniel slowly climbed the interminable slope. 
 He walked wearily. He seemed tired out. The 
 night was far spent. The dim temple lights 
 were not enough to reveal the colors of the Zig- 
 
324 THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. 
 
 gurat. The Jew counted them from memory, in 
 a dull way, as he ascended. 
 
 " I have passed the black and the white. . . . 
 This is the orange. . . . Was that the blue? 
 How far to the red ? for it holdeth the color of 
 the heart's blood. . . . Fair is she as this silver. 
 . . . When the sun arise th, will she look back, 
 if so she may once more behold the glitter of the 
 day upon the tower of gold ? " 
 
 He climbed to the topmost foothold of the 
 temple. At his peremptory request, the astrol- 
 oger on duty there descended. Daniel clung 
 with his long fingers to the marble railing ; he 
 was $0 giddy with exhaustion that he might easily 
 have fallen from the height. He stood with his 
 face toward Damascus, toward Judea. 
 
 Dawn came. The pale, violet light touched 
 his solitary figure solemnly. Far down the 
 plain the outline of the cavalcade could be seen. 
 It must have been stirring for some time. It 
 fell into shape like a huge serpent, crawled on, 
 and began to grow small. Then it faded gently. 
 He passed his hand over his e}^es, rubbed them, 
 and strained them piteously. But the white 
 caravan had vanished in the sand. Beyond was 
 the desert. As the sun rose, Daniel extended 
 his hands, palms outward, and fell upon his 
 knees. 
 
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