CHAPTER XXXVI
TYRE ACCEPTS THE CHALLENGE
The entire population of Tyre was at work before dawn on the dayfollowing the return of the ambassadors. The council had decided toaccept Alexander's challenge. As the first measure of preparation, itordered the abandonment of the Old City on the mainland and the removalof its residents to the New City. In order to make room for them, afleet was to be sent to Carthage, carrying women and children. Thisfleet was to return with such aid as the strong colony of the Westmight be willing to give.
Huge flatboats and a multitude of smaller craft plied backward andforward between the harbors and the mainland. The brilliant stuffsthat had been hanging in the sun were gathered into bales. Here was aboat laden with the contents of a glass factory: huge amphorae, delicatevases, cylinders, scarabs, beads, and amulets of a hundred iridescenthues. Beside it came another vessel, carrying a freight of iron,bronze, and copper, wrought into armor and household furnishings.Other ships brought Syrian cotton and embroideries; white wool and wineof Helbon; corn, honey, balm, and oil from Israel; ivory, ebony,spices, and perfumes from Arabia; lead and tin from the mines of Spain;cedar chests filled with Babylonian embroideries; elephant, lion,leopard, and deer skins from Africa. These precious commodities werestored in the warehouses.
All the public granaries were filled to overflowing, and what graincould not be brought away was destroyed. At the close of the secondday, the ancient parent city, from which had sprung such a brood offlourishing daughters, and which more than once had defied the might ofthe great empire beyond the mountain, lay deserted. Silence andforeboding pervaded the New City as the Tyrians looked across thestrait at the empty houses in which many of them had been cradled.
There was little time for despondency. The labor of preparation hadbeen only begun, and the task of making ready the vessels destined forCarthage went forward briskly.
A swift galley was sent to King Azemilcus, who immediately deserted thePersian fleet with all his ships and returned to take charge of thedefence of the city. His arrival was the signal for great rejoicing,for his warships would insure command of the sea to Tyre, sinceAlexander had none with which to oppose them.
At last the departure of the fleet destined for Carthage could bedelayed no longer. The scouting ships brought word that the Macedonianarmy had left Sidon and taken up its march southward. Thousands ofwomen and children, accompanied by the aged and infirm, crowded aboardthe merchant vessels that had been pressed into service. Husbands saidfarewell to their wives, and fathers took their children in their armsfor perhaps the last time. One by one the ships were towed out of theharbor and spread their sails for their long flight to the West. Thestreets were filled with weeping.
Not all the women and children were sent away, even of the betterclass; for, in spite of the precautions taken by the council, no Tyrianbelieved that the city was really in danger. Its possession of the seawould prevent famine, and even if Alexander should succeed in reachingits walls, he would never be able to break through them.
While the slanting sails of the departing fleet still glimmered on thehorizon, the watchers on the walls of Tyre saw the sun glinting fromthe armor of the Macedonian array. Presently bands of horsemen dashedup to the walls of the Old City, circled around them, and rode boldlythrough the open gates. They seemed astonished to find the placedeserted. The Ph[oe]nicians hurled shouts of derision at them from thewalls across the water, scornfully inviting them to try the strait.
Thais' lip curled as she watched this demonstration. She stoodmotionless among the whispering leaves which hedged the roof ofPhradates' house, gazing intently at the advancing army.
"Will they ever be able to cross to us?" Artemisia said.
"There come the Companion cavalry!" Thais exclaimed, shading her eyes.
The troop made a brave showing as it advanced toward the Old City withflying pennants, the manes of the horses tossing free.
"And there is the phalanx!" Artemisia cried, clasping her hands.
The lines emerged, rank after rank, from the dust-clouds. Behind themcame more cavalry and then the light-armed troops, followed by wagonsand a long train of pack animals. The streets of the Old City becameanimated again, though not with Ph[oe]nicians. The soldiers swarmedthrough the houses, choosing their quarters and freeing themselves fromtheir burdens. Smoke began to curl up from the chimneys.
A group of men came down to the water front and made a long survey ofthe walls of the New City. Thais fixed her eyes upon them, leaningover the parapet. Suddenly she caught Artemisia's arm.
"I see him!" she cried. "There he is."
"Who is it? Where?" Artemisia asked, bewildered.
"Chares!" Thais replied. "Do you see that crimson cloak and his yellowhair? O my hero!"
Artemisia trembled and her cheek grew pale.
"If that is Chares, then Clearchus must be there too," she faltered."Oh, Thais, are you sure?"
She strove to look, but the tears that dimmed her eyes prevented herfrom seeing anything clearly.
"I am certain," Thais replied. "Who else could it be? There is noother in the army so strong and handsome as he. Look! he is signallingto us."
The figure in crimson stood forward from the rest, his cloak, inflatedby the wind, swelling back from his shoulders. He waved his handtoward the city. Thais tore off her saffron shawl and waved it inreturn, forgetting that, while he stood alone, to him she was one ofthousands who were moving on the walls and the house-tops.
"I suppose you would bring them over if you could!" sneered a voicebehind her. It was Phradates, who had approached unnoticed.
"Can you blame me if I want to win my wager?" Thais replied, smiling.
"I am half sorry I made it," the Ph[oe]nician said sullenly.
Thais saw that he was angry and she leaned toward him until he felt herwarm breath upon his cheek.
"If I lose, I will pay!" she whispered, in a tone that only he couldhear.
A dark flush mounted to his cheek.
"It will not be long," he returned confidently.
"I would not be too sure of that," she replied, with a blush, givinghim a sidelong glance under her lashes.
Phradates could not understand why he had not long ago given free reinto his passion. More than once he had called himself a fool for hisforbearance and resolved in his own mind to end it; but when the timecame for putting his plans into execution, he found them halted by anindefinable barrier that he could not break. It surprised him thatthis could have happened. All his life it had never occurred to him torestrain himself. He was master of one of the greatest fortunes inTyre, and with him to wish was to have. Moreover, he had learnedThais' history, so far as it was generally known, and it seemed to himridiculous that an Athenian dancing girl should succeed so long inholding him at arm's length. But now he must keep his oath.
Next day, and for many days thereafter, Tyre sat and watched the slowdevelopment of the scheme that had been laid for her destruction. Shesaw the Macedonian army tear down the walls of the Old City and conveythem, block by block, to the water front, where they were cast into thesea. Soon the beginning of a broad causeway began to jut out from theshore, pointing like a huge finger at the angle of the city wall,midway between the two harbors, which was nearest to the mainland.Detachments of soldiers brought in squads of men from the surroundingcountry, who were set at work with the army upon the mole. Piles ofcedar were driven into the sand. Earth was brought in baskets andpoured over the stones. When the waves washed it away, trees weredragged from the mountain side and thrown in with their leaves andbranches to hold it in place. Acres of rushes were cut and laid uponthe soil to bind it. Foot by foot the causeway lengthened. On theshore could be seen men building towers and battering rams, catapults,and ballistae.
Alexander's figure became so familiar to the Tyrians that even thechildren could point him out. He was seen everywhere, overlooking andsuperintending the work in all its details. One
day he was missed, andthe next, smoke was observed drifting up from the rocky fastnesses ofLebanon, which the Tyrians knew had been held for centuries by untamedrobber bands, who had exacted toll from their caravans and even fromthe convoys of the Great King. Their spies on shore brought them wordthat the robbers had attacked Alexander's scouting parties and he hadgone to punish them. Tyre laughed at the idea that he could take theimpregnable strongholds among the crags, but the columns of smokecontinued to rise farther and farther back among the mountains; andwhen Alexander reappeared on the mole, at the end of a week, the newscame that the robbers had been harried and hunted out of their cavesuntil not a vestige of them remained. Tyre wondered, and a vagueuneasiness crept into the city.
The mole had advanced almost within bow-shot of the wall when the citywoke from its lethargy of contempt and began to bestir itself. Towerswere erected on the wall opposite the causeway, and the wall itself wasraised. The engineers and their workmen, whose skill was famedthroughout the world, fashioned new machines for repelling the expectedattack.
When the Macedonians had covered more than half the distance betweenthe shore and the wall, the Ph[oe]nicians began to resist theiradvance. The catapults were brought into play. These were great bowsof tough wood, set in a solid framework. The strings of twisted gutwere drawn back by a windlass, and huge arrows, made of iron andweighing two or three hundred pounds, were fitted to the grooveprepared for them. The string was released by drawing a trigger as ina cross-bow, and the missile sped to the mark.
The catapults were reenforced by the ballistae. In a frame of heavybeams an arm was set, with a great spoon at one end, while the otherwas held firmly in twisted cords. By means of a rope wound about aroller the arm was drawn back, and a stone or a ball of metal wasplaced in the spoon. Suddenly freed, the arm flew up until it washalted by a cross-beam of the framework, when the missile left it andhurtled through the air toward the mole.
While darts and stones were showered upon the causeway from the walls,vessels attacked it from both harbors, filled with archers andslingers, who drove the workmen back. Tyre was jubilant. Alexander,she thought, must now surely abandon his foolish enterprise.
Work on the causeway was indeed halted for a time, but only long enoughto permit the Macedonians to contrive means of defence. Two greattowers were built and pushed out to the end of the mole. These weretall enough to dominate the wall. They were provided with catapultsand ballistae, with which to answer and silence those of the Tyrians,and were manned by soldiers, who from their height were able to reachthe decks of the triremes that were sent to annoy them. For furtherprotection, palisades of timber and movable breastworks wereconstructed on the mole, and pushed forward as it advanced.
Work was resumed, and the long causeway crept nearer and nearer to thecity. By order of the council, under cover of night, sponge and pearldivers were sent to the mole in small vessels. With cords in theirhands they plunged into the water and fastened them to the foundationstones of the mole, which the crews on board the boats pulled away.
But in spite of all these devices, the mole continued to lengthen.
Still the Tyrians remained confident. The council hit upon a plan todestroy the towers, and when all was ready the people flocked to thewalls to witness its execution. Artemisia and Thais watched from theroof, where, day after day, for weeks, they had counted the inches ofprogress made on the mole and calculated how long it would be beforethe structure could reach the wall.
"See!" cried Artemisia. "They are going to try to burn the towers."
An old transport, that had been used for carrying horses, emergedclumsily from the Sidonian Harbor, towed between two triremes. Thewide deck was heaped with dry wood, which had been saturated withbitumen and intermixed with straw. From the yards of the mastscaldrons filled with sulphur, naphtha, and oil were suspended bychains. Upon the deck stood rows of naked men, each holding in hishand a blazing torch.
Slowly and laboriously the ship was guided through the choppy sea to apoint directly to windward of the end of the mole. A strong northwestbreeze sang through her rigging, and her stern had been filled withballast until her bow stood almost out of the water. Sailors wentaloft and set two small sails to give her headway. The triremes castoff, and she swam straight for the northern tower.
The two women had watched the preparations with the most intenseexcitement. As the fire-ship neared the mole, gathering speed as shewent, they saw a volley of huge stones shoot from the towers in herdirection.
"They are trying to sink her," Thais said breathlessly.
"Zeus grant that they may succeed!" cried Artemisia.
Some of the stones struck the ship, scattering her load ofcombustibles; but they failed to check her approach. The best marksmenin the army strove to pick off her crew. The divers raised shields,from which the arrows harmlessly rebounded.
When the ship had come within a few fathoms of the mole, the men onboard of her scattered blazing oil into the caldrons swinging from heryards and thrust their torches into the heaps of material that lay uponher deck. Then they plunged into the sea and swam back to the city.The steersman followed, and the next instant the transport, sendingbefore her a roaring banner of flame, ran high upon the mole at thefoot of the northern tower.
A mighty shout arose from the walls of Tyre as the spectators saw theflames wrap themselves around the tower, shrivelling up the green skinsof cattle that had been hung to protect it. The soldiers swarmed downthrough the smoke and fire like rats, leaping from the lower stories intheir haste. In a moment the lofty structure was sending out redtongues from every loophole and window. A great cloud of black smokerolled from the end of the mole toward the shore.
Thais and Artemisia saw the Greeks driven back from the towers and fromthe defences which had protected the work. Presently the fire attackedthese and ran across to the second tower. The transport still lay withher nose in the rocks, belching flames that were streaked with greenand blue and white as they fed upon the various substances which hadbeen stored in her hull.
Dashing down from the windward side, the Tyrian vessels tore away suchof the work as had escaped the conflagration, while the bowmen on theirdecks sent flights of arrows upon the huddled workmen who had beenforced back by the heat and smoke. The towers fell one after the otherwith a crash into the sea, which hissed into steam as the glowingtimbers sank. In an hour nothing was left at the end of the causewaybut the blackened ruin and part of the transport, through whose ribsthe waves washed.
"The time is at hand," Phradates said to Thais, with a smile full ofmeaning.
"Not yet," she exclaimed, smiling. "The siege has only begun. I toldyou you did not know Alexander."
Nevertheless, secretly her heart was full of misgivings, and the slavewomen who waited upon her that night found her hard to please.