The fruit—peaches, apricots, plums, and figs—was being served when I first caught a glimpse of Stamenes, the viceroy, and Agathon, the commandant, talking low and staring at me. Stamenes leant back in a carven chair whilst the Hellene bent over his shoulder and spoke in his ear. As soon as I looked at them, they turned their gaze away. I did not quite like the look of things; but, since I was full of good food and inflamed with love of Nirouphar, my suspicions were hard to arouse.
The wine was proffered, along with beer and palm wine, though I have never cared for these latter when real wine could be had. A trumpet blast signaled the libation. I noticed that most of the Hellenes had adopted the foreign habit of drinking their wine straight, even as I had. Apollodoros stood up, made a speech, and presented me to the company.
"Get up and tell them what you have told me about your journey, Troop Leader Leon," he said.
I had liefer fallen through the floor, but I rose on quaking legs and looked out over a meadow of gleaming cuirasses, shimmering silks, rings and other baubles winking in the lamplight, and wine-flushed faces.
"Though no orator," I began, "I'll try to give you a truthful tale, unadorned by tricks of rhetoric ..."
I launched into my account. For the first half hour all went well. Then the audience began to fidget, cough, whisper, and make love to their companions. I raised my strong voice and kept on. I had got the hipparchia as far as Karmana when I felt a tug on my shirt tail.
It was Vardanas. "Cut it short," he hissed. "You are boring them."
"So from Karmana we came to Babylon, and here we are. Oh, there were a few small adventures like being attacked by nomads and lions, but nought to speak of. Thank you for your attention." I sat down.
The audience cheered, no doubt in relief that I was not going on all night, and began to talk among themselves. Soon the music could hardly be heard above the roar of voices.
Apollodoros stood up and belched. "Now hear this!" he shouted. "It's time our fair guests showed us some of the dances for which Babylon is famous. Get up, girls, and go to it. What's that abandoned tune you dance to?"
Somebody spoke to the orchestra, which burst into a wild tune. About twenty women, including Zerbanis and Nika, let themselves be pushed out to the middle of the floor, whence tables and couches were drawn back.
The oldest of the women lined the others up in pairs, facing each other, gave them directions, snapped her fingers, and led the first figure —a lively affair with much spinning, arm waving, stamping, and finger snapping. Bright-colored skirts and robes billowed and whirled.
Anon, at a signal from the leader, the women doffed their shawls and veils and threw them in a heap in the center of the floor.
Now the orchestra changed to a slow dreamy tune. The women moved with slinking, serpentine motions. At another signal, they shed their outer robes and tossed them on the heap.
The orchestra played a martial tune; the women marched about in warlike poses. After a while the men began to shout: "Take it off! Take it off!" Off came their jackets to join the heap on the floor.
I felt a nudge and heard Vardanas' voice: "Nirouphar and I must go, Leon. I do not mind the show, but this is no place for a Persian girl of good family."
"But—" I began as he took Nirouphar's arm and forcibly drew her away from me. She protested and hung back, but he was the stronger.
"Nin-Nika will keep you company," he called back.
I wanted Nin-Nika not, nor did I want to start a dispute in public. Angry and unhappy, I turned my eyes back to the dance.
Now the orchestra caterwauled as if in deepest grief, and the women went through motions of mourning.
"Take it off!" yelled the men. Thyestes was among the loudest shouters. He pounded his table and screamed at his Zerbanis.
Off came the skirts, leaving the lassies in thin shirts and gay petticoats. A yearning tune brought off the shirts; and a furiously passionate melody, the petticoats. The women danced naked but for jingling ornaments.
In a frenzy of lust, Thyestes vaulted over his table, picked up Zerbanis (who must have weighed nigh as much as he) and bore her out of the hall. I had a glimpse of him as he carried her up a stair leading to the roof garden. Other men did likewise with their wenches. Drinking vessels fell to the floor; men tripped over couches and fell. Fights broke out. The noise was deafening.
All of a sudden the breath was knocked out of me by a heavy weight that landed in my lap. I found my arms full of Nika, clutching my neck, pressing her big brown breasts against me, smothering me with kisses, and muttering in broken Greek: "I love! You come! I make happy!"
Now, I am ordinarily cautious almost to the point of timidity, but under the circumstances I do not think I can be blamed for yielding to overwhelming forces. Besides, I was always so grateful to any woman who was not repelled by my plainness that I could deny her nought. I got up unsteadily, saying: "Hold it, lass; wait till I get this fixed."
For, what with the wine, the scenes I had witnessed, and this passionate assault upon me, I found when I stood up that the hang of my kilt left something to be desired in soldierly smartness.
"You come! I show!" she panted.
She led me almost at a run out of the hall. Instead of taking one of the stairs to the roof garden, howsomever, she led me into one of the corridors between the rows of governmental buildings surrounding the Hanging Gardens. Save for an occasional wall lamp, the place was almost entirely dark. I should have fallen on my face but that my guide knew the way.
Then suspicion began to edge passion out of the saddle. I braced my feet and slowed the woman's rush.
"Whoa!" I said. "Not so fast, kimmer. Whither away?"
She paused for breath, and a noise made me turn. But it was too late. Strong arms caught my wrists and twisted them behind me. I tore one arm loose and threw off the man who clutched it, but, ere I could do more, something smote me on the pate, and I swooned away in a shower of stars.
I awoke in a dark prison cell, shackled to the wall, with a lump on my head like the egg of a goose. When I had drunk a bowl of water left within my reach, I felt life return despite a headache. My indignant shouts brought a jailer. Instead of answering my questions, he shuffled off.
Presently there came the sound of many feet and the light of lanterns in the gloom. A cockscomb helmet shadowed the face of Aga-thon, the commandant. The other well-clad visitor was Stamenes, the viceroy. A pair of armed men of great girth and thew walked behind them.
"Awake, I see," said Agathon, grinning. "People who visit our fair city should pay more heed to our ordinances. With so much street traffic we must needs be strict, lest chaos ensue."
"What mean you?"
"Come, come, Thessalian, you know well enough. You left your elephant standing in a forbidden zone; you blocked traffic by causing a crowd to gather; and lastly you tried to bribe an officer of the law in the performance of his duty."
"I bribed nobody!" I shouted. "It was that Peithagoras who paid the guard."
"My, such a beastly temper! We know otherwise. Now we come to the penalty. We've been punishing such offenses lightly, but too many evildoers flout our just laws. It's time we made an example. So we've dug back into the archives."
"Long way back," said the Persian. "Babylonians wonderful. Keep records back to creation of world."
"And we've found just what we need!" said Agathon. "My dear fellow, you'll die when you hear. Back when the Assyrians ruled the land, some old king named Sennakrops—"
"Sennacheribos," said Stamenes.
"—decreed that any man who left beast or vehicle standing in a forbidden zone should be slain, and his body impaled on a stake before his house as a warning. Now, as you don't dwell here, we can't impale you in front of your house—"