CHAPTER XLII
A TRAITOR IN PURPLE
Although they had been repulsed, the Macedonians returned to theircamp, confident that Tyre could not much longer stand against them.Alexander ordered the sacrifice of a black bull to Ph[oe]bus. After acareful examination of the entrails, Aristander, the soothsayer, soughtthe king and spoke to him in private.
"Tyre will fall before the month ends," he said. "Ph[oe]bus haspromised it."
"But the month will end to-morrow," Alexander replied, in astonishment.
"Nevertheless, there can be no doubt," Aristander declared. "To-morrowthou wilt be in possession of the city."
"Let us see what the army thinks," the king returned.
The news soon spread through the camp. Some of the soldiers rejoicedas though the promise had already been fulfilled, while others refusedto believe, declaring that the thing was impossible. In order to savethe God from discredit, Alexander issued a proclamation extending themonth three days beyond its accustomed term. With this the army wassatisfied.
Clearchus gave way to an agony of disappointment when he regainedconsciousness to find himself on the siege boat with the walls of Tyrereceding from him. Chares and Leonidas were obliged at first toprevent him by force from throwing himself into the sea. It was onlywhen the Theban reminded him that it was still possible for them toenter the city that he became calmer. He was for seeking the passagethrough which Joel had emerged as soon as day ended, but the youngIsraelite convinced him that such an attempt would surely befrustrated. The breach in the wall was only a short distance from thepassage and workmen would be engaged there, to say nothing of the guardthat would certainly be established. He consented finally to yield tohis friends and await the third watch of the night. This delay wouldpermit them to get a few hours of rest.
The sun went down in flaming glory, casting the long shadow of theTyrian walls across the Macedonian camp. The thin smoke of a thousandfires rose lazily in the quiet The soldiers ceased to recount theirescapes in the dreadful breach and stretched themselves on the ground.Only in Alexander's tent a light continued to glow.
In the middle of the second watch, a small boat crept in from thepurple shadows of the sea and grated on the sand. Two men stepped outand turned their faces toward the camp. By their features and dressthey were Ph[oe]nicians. Of the first sentinel they met, they demandedto be led to Alexander, and the reasons they gave caused the captain ofthe guard to grant their request.
The captain emerged from the king's tent at the end of half an hour andhurried away in the darkness. He brought back with him Clearchus,Chares, Leonidas, Nathan, and Joel. The Theban was rubbing his eyesand yawning over his interrupted slumbers.
"What is all this about?" he grumbled. "Have we not done enough forone day? I wish this cursed city was in the bottom of the sea!"
"It is by the king's order," the captain reminded him.
They found Alexander stretched upon his couch and the two Ph[oe]niciansseated before him. From the expression of the king's eyes as theysought his, Clearchus knew that something of moment was in his mind,and his pale face brightened.
One of the strangers was Prince Hur, son of King Azemilcus. The youngman seemed ill at ease, and his fingers played constantly with thegolden chain that he wore as a member of the council. His companionwas older and more composed. His lips were thin and his eyes were keenand penetrating.
"Comrades," Alexander said, using the term that endeared him to everysoldier in his army, "I have a dangerous service to ask of you. KingAzemilcus has dreamed that his city is about to fall, and we know thathis dream is true. He has sent his son and his chancellor to us to askhis life, and it has been granted to him. But many things may happenwhen the blood is hot with fighting, and it is necessary thatMacedonians be with him when we enter. Therefore I wish you to go tohim and guard him when the time arrives. You may conduct him to theTemple of Melkarth, which will be set aside as a sanctuary.
"It has been promised that you shall pass unharmed into the city andremain there in the palace until I come. If this promise is not kept,Azemilcus and all his family are to be crucified upon the walls as awarning to those who may wish to break faith with Alexander."
The young king looked keenly at the Ph[oe]nicians. The prince loweredhis eyes and moved uneasily.
"There is one thing more," Alexander continued. "If any of you havefriends in the city whom you desire to protect, it is made a conditionof the safety of Azemilcus that he shall aid you by every means in hispower."
He glanced meaningly at Clearchus as he uttered these words, and theyoung man's heart bounded with renewed hope.
They left the tent in silence. The captain of the guard accompaniedthem to the boat.
"Azemilcus is betraying his city," Chares whispered.
"We shall save Artemisia and rescue Thais," Clearchus replied, grippingthe arm of his friend.
They entered the boat and rowed silently to the Egyptian Harbor. Thetowering height of the wall swallowed the little craft in its shadowand no sentinel challenged them. They bent their heads as they glidedunder the great guard-chains that stretched across the entrance of theharbor, and threading their way among the shipping, they reached thelanding and disembarked.
Keeping to the left, the chancellor led them toward the palace. Morethan once they were forced to step aside to avoid the heaps of ruinsthat told of the work done by the ballistae. As they advanced, thegreat bulk of the palace rose before them above the wall, to which itwas joined and of which it formed a part. As they advanced, thechancellor was careful to keep in the deepest shadow, and his handshook as he fitted the key into a small door in the palace wall.
"We are safe!" he said to the prince as the door closed behind them.
"Very well," the young man replied, yawning; "I am going to bed."
He turned abruptly into a lateral passage and disappeared. Thechancellor seemed in doubt for a moment whether to call him back, buthe decided to let him go.
"Follow me," he said to the Macedonians.
They groped their way upward after him along a winding stair thatseemed to be built into the city wall. This slow progress continuedfor many minutes without a glimmer of light until they reached whatappeared to be a windowless chamber. There the chancellor left them,bidding them wait until he had notified the king of their arrival.
He was absent so long that Leonidas began to grow uneasy. He found thechamber destitute of furniture and without doors save that by whichthey had entered and that by which the chancellor had left them. Bothwere now secured. This had been accomplished without attracting theirattention and it added to their uneasiness.
"We are like owls in a cage," Nathan said. "We can do nothing butwait."
"I do not like it," Leonidas replied.
"Nonsense," Chares remarked. "They brought us here for a purpose andwe are of more use to them alive than dead. Do you suppose thatAzemilcus is anxious to be crucified?"
"Perhaps not," the Spartan replied, "but it maybe that he has changedhis mind. If he does not send for us soon, I think we had better trythe door."
Clearchus said nothing, but he paced impatiently back and forth acrossthe narrow room, pausing at every sound. The night was passing and thehour for the sacrifice to Moloch was drawing nearer. Shut up in thepalace, they would be powerless to save Artemisia. The moments seemedhours to him. At last he could bear the suspense no longer.
"We should never have permitted the chancellor to leave us!" he said,and, striding to the door, he began to beat upon it with the hilt ofhis sword until the metal of which it was composed rang like a bell.
There was no response. The others joined him, raising a tumult loudenough to be heard throughout the palace, but even then some timeelapsed before the bars were removed and the door swung open. Thechancellor had returned alone, his face white and scared in theflickering light of the lamp that he had set upon the stone floor whilehe worked at the bars.
"Sile
nce, or we are all lost!" he whispered imploringly, taking up thelamp with a hand that trembled so that the oil spilled upon the floor."Do you want to invite death?"
"Don't talk to us of silence!" bellowed Chares, threatening the old manwith his sword. "What do you mean by shutting us up here? You haveyet to learn that it is not wise to keep the soldiers of Alexanderwaiting. Take us to your king."
"Yes, yes!" muttered the chancellor with chattering teeth. "Follow me;but in the name of Baal keep silence! I fear they have heard youalready."
"Little I care if they have, whoever they are," the Theban exclaimed,stalking after the chancellor, sword in hand. "If you try any more ofyour tricks, your head goes off like a chicken's."
They made several turns in the passage, ascended a last short flight ofsteps, and came to a second door, which their guide pushed open. Theyfollowed him into a large room, hung with woven tapestries, carpetedwith silken rugs, and strewn with luxurious divans. It was on thesouthern side of the palace, with windows that looked out across thewall toward the sea. The light of the lamps was already yielding tothe gray dawn which silvered the surface of the water.
With his back to the window stood Azemilcus, king of the doomed city.His thin white hair straggled from under a close-fitting cap to thediamond collar which encircled his wrinkled throat. A gorgeous robe ofcrimson hid his shrunken figure. He looked old and feeble, but hiseyes were as bright as jewels set in the head of a mummy.
"Welcome, gentlemen!" he said quietly, stretching forth a wasted handtoward Chares, who was striding toward him with anger in his face. "Imust ask your pardon for your detention; but we are prisoners here,like yourselves."
Astonishment halted the Theban, who stood staring at the king as thoughhe had not heard aright. Clearchus stepped forward.
"What do you mean? Who has made you a prisoner?" he asked sharply.
The small king smiled with irony on his lips.
"I fear it can be only the prince, my son," he replied.
"The same one who helped to bring us here and who left us as soon as weentered the palace?" Clearchus demanded.
"Yes," Azemilcus answered, crossing his hands and hiding them in thewide sleeves of his robe. "He is not sharp-witted, my son; and itturns out that he still has hopes of saving Tyre so that he may reignhere in my place. You see what they have been doing."
He stepped back and waved his hand toward the window. Beneath them wasthe breach that had been so desperately attacked and defended. TheTyrians had raised a new wall, nearly as thick and as high as the citywall itself. It formed a half-circle inside the gap, joining the mainwall at either end, so that an attacking force, seeking to storm thebreach, would be caught as in the bend of a bow. Swarms of men werestill at work there by the light of torches.
The Athenian's heart sank. It seemed to him impossible that after thedefeat of the preceding day, a second attack could succeed when thebreach had been repaired. They were inside the city, it was true, butthey were only five against forty thousand.
For a moment there was silence in the room. The bitter smile stillrested on the thin lips of the old king. The chancellor stoodnervously rubbing his knuckles, first with one hand and then with theother. Leonidas examined the wall and the new work with an eye thattook in every detail. He turned to the king.
"You know that if you try to deceive us, we will kill you," he saidquietly.
"Well?" the king replied, still with his thin smile.
"You say that it is your son who has shut you up," Leonidas continued."Why do you think so?"
"Because he alone, besides this man, knew that I had summoned you," theking said.
Leonidas looked at the chancellor, whose ashen face grew a shade palerunder his scrutiny.
"You were about to betray your city and your son has betrayed you," theSpartan said.
"That is a harsh way to put it," Azemilcus answered. "The city waslost already."
"Is it lost now?" Leonidas demanded, pointing to the new wall.
"Yes," said the old king. "To-day, to-morrow, next month, it willfall. The Gods have deserted us. The boy told me they would."
"It is not surprising that the Gods have deserted you," the Spartanobserved. "But your son, who has conspired against you, knows that weare here."
"Yes," the king admitted.
"And you kept us shut up while you were considering whether there wasnot some way of getting rid of us so that we might not be found andused as proof of your treachery," Leonidas continued. "You were readyto sacrifice us, who had come to save you, so that you might prove yourson a liar and defeat his attempt."
Azemilcus made no reply, but the smile left his lips and he glancedfurtively from side to side. Chares muttered some words in his throatthat sounded like a curse.
"You are speaking to a king," Azemilcus said at last, drawing himselfup with an assumption of dignity and trying to meet the eyes of hisquestioner.
"I am speaking to a fool!" Leonidas replied contemptuously. "In orderto profit by his double perfidy, your son must have proof against you.Who will believe him unless we are found? It will be his first care toproduce us, and if he can do this, there will be no hope left for you.Every moment that you kept us behind that door brought you nearer todeath."
He paused, and Azemilcus made no reply; but his smile came back and hiseyes wandered toward a table where a great flagon of wine had been set.
"There may yet be time to save ourselves and you," Leonidas continued."If you can get rid of us for the present, you will have nothing tofear. You can deny your son's story and it will be attributed to aclumsy plot to overthrow you. Is there no way out of the palace thatis not guarded?"
"None that I know," the king replied.
The chancellor uttered a clucking sound in his throat that seemedinvoluntary. Leonidas gripped him by the shoulder.
"Do you know a way?" he cried. "Speak quickly."
The chancellor went down on his knees and raised his hands insupplication.
"Mercy!" he wailed. "Mercy! I know--I have heard of a way!"
"Where does it lead?" Leonidas demanded fiercely.
"To the Temple of our Lord, Baal-Moloch," the old man whimpered.
King Azemilcus looked at his chancellor with his keen eyes andsarcastic smile.
"Now I understand many things," he remarked dryly.
"Oh, my master, I took them!" the chancellor cried, with tears rollingdown his cheeks. "Esmun made me do it. He said Moloch demanded them."
"My rubies," the king said musingly. "Well, never mind. We will talkof them hereafter."
"What is one piece of treachery, more or less, to you?" Leonidas saidroughly. "Remain here. Should you escape your son, we will seek you,if we can, when those come whom you cannot escape. If we do notreturn, fly to the Temple of Melkarth and embrace his knees that youmay be spared. Farewell!"
He dragged the chancellor to his feet. The man was shaking so that hecould hardly stand. Below them in the palace they could hear the trampof ascending footsteps and the sound of voices.
"They are coming; we cannot remain here," Nathan cried.
Leonidas snatched up the flagon of wine and hastily filled a golden cupthat he offered to the chancellor.
"Drink this," he said. "It will give you strength."
Instead of taking the cup, the chancellor uttered a choking cry andpushed it from him.
"Not that!" he gasped. "See, I am strong! I will lead you!"
He seemed indeed to have recovered from his weakness, for he steppedbriskly toward the door by which they had entered. Leonidas looked athim and then at the wine spilled upon the floor.
"Poisoned!" he exclaimed, and such a blaze of wrath gleamed in his eyethat the old king shrank back.
"So this was your plan for getting rid of us!" the Spartan said.
His grasp tightened about the hilt of his sword, and for an instant hehesitated; but the tramp of the soldiers was close at hand and hereflected that a dead king
could not betray Tyre. He sheathed hissword and darted into the passage after his companions. Azemilcus madefast the door behind them and let the draperies fall over it. Then heturned with his mocking smile to face his accusers.