by Shlomo Kalo
The Queen chose a spacious corner of the garden, with its verdant lawns and lush flowers, blooming in all seasons of the year, and mosaic paths strewn with fragments of gold, gleaming in the moonlight and reflecting back the gentle lustre of the stars.
The paths led the guests to a circular patio, with a fountain at the centre of it, and water gushing from the beaks of four swans of solid gold, their necks intertwined, and cascading in graceful arcs into the marble basin, sparkling with ever-changing colours. The tops of the tables set up beside the fountain were panels of ivory covered by white cloths with silver trimmings; the legs were cast gold.
Drinks were served in silver goblets, and all the tableware was pure gold, burnished well.
At the central table sat the royal couple: the King resplendent in his blue robes with their gold tracery, his white sash and the short sword suspended from it, with gold scabbard and silver hilt - and the Queen in white robes likewise trimmed with gold. The crown on the King’s head was gold, studded with sapphires, while the Queen’s slender coronet, in the shape of interwoven clover-leaves, was encrusted with diamonds. The Lady Domilin, in deep purple, sat beside the royal couple with her son, Belshazzar the heir to the throne, a feckless youth in his early twenties, resembling his father only in his curly beard. With his broad face and narrow forehead he tended to take after his mother, and his watery eyes betrayed the profligacy of the libertine.
An orchestra hidden from view played soft music as the refreshments were served. One by one the courtiers toasted King Nebuchadnezzar and Queen Temior and wished them long life and happiness.
The King rose from his seat, thanked the well-wishers and said:
“The life of man is paved with surprises and novelties, and mine has been no exception! Whatever a man aspires to and hopes for, he shall attain it, so long as he is the faithful servant of his God. For God is the unflagging source of all hopes, and He is their fulfilment. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
“And to my wife, my best beloved, dearest of all to me – I wish all the happiness that God gives to those of courageous spirit and pure heart, happiness of which none is more deserving than she! And to all those present here – may your enterprises be blessed, and may you find joy in your spouses and contentment in your issue!”
“So be it!” – the chorus rang out, as goblets were raised and drained at a single gulp. The slaves were quick to refill the crystal glassware.
And then a troupe of Indian dancers appeared, combining sinuous and startling gestures of hand and eye with the conventional steps of the dance, movements that were both graceful and suggestive – and all to the sounds of flutes.
Mishael, who was sitting beside him, commented:
“They say that in the course of time, troupes of dancers will not be enough, but the entire population will be out there, dancing and playing!” To which he responded in all seriousness:
“That will be the first sign of the ultimate degradation of the human species!”
On the improvised stage, a variety of performers appeared in succession: fire-eaters and sword-swallowers, conjurors putting doves in helmets and pulling out rabbits, while others ignited quantities of powder, creating strange explosive sounds and projecting balls of fire into the sky, to the amazement of the revellers, who applauded loudly. To conclude the entertainment, three clowns with painted faces leapt onto the stage and after performing some impressive bodily contortions, recited humorous verses, poking irreverent but innocuous fun at the King and the Queen, the party-goers, the Chaldean race and the entire population of Babylon.
The wine flowed freely, relaxing inhibitions, and when all the appetizing refreshments had been consumed, the King rose to take a stroll in the garden, the guests following.
Nashdernach accompanied the King. Queen Temior, who throughout the festivities had been gazing fixedly at Nejeen, approached her and greeted her. Nejeen returned her greeting with a deep bow, and without another word the Queen took her arm and led her on a leisurely circuit of the garden, following the sparkling mosaic paths. The gentle light of many lanterns and the reflections of the moon and stars flickered at the feet of the strollers.
He walked with Mishael, with Hananiah and Azariah following, and behind them came the three wives, Havatzelet, Deborah and Hannah, chatting together in hushed tones. Other guests walked with their wives, while the crown-prince Belshazzar accompanied his mother,
As they strolled on, he caught a glimpse of the King, leading Nashdernach into the palace. It seemed that Mishael noticed this too. Some important business that cannot be delayed! – he thought.
“Have you heard the latest news about Or-Nego, or Isaac Hameir as he is now?” Mishael asked him, and when he responded with a quizzical look, went on to say:
“He really has built a house and turned it into a hostel. And there are people of other races too, who stayed on in Judah and have been inspired by his example – building themselves huts in that vicinity and worshipping with him, praising the Almighty God day and night, without a pause, even when they are eating their frugal meals, even when working in the fields. Do you believe such a thing is possible?” – he was asked and he replied:
“I believe it absolutely.”
“One of the exiles who happened to be there, on his way to do business in Egypt and stayed among them for a while, was impressed by the strength of their commitment and the purity of their qualities, and he said that if ten such men had lived there in the time of Zedekiah, Judah would have been spared and Jerusalem not burned to the ground. And it is fine work that they are doing there,” Mishael warmed to his theme, sensing the keen interest of the others, “ploughing small plots of land – one man harnessed to the plough and the other guiding him, as they have no animals, and they sow with eagerness and reap with joy – it is all team-work, and everything is shared in common. In the first year their produce was meagre, but now with God’s blessing they have enough to supply their needs. And while working in the fields or at any other business, they never tire of reciting verses from the Psalms and the praises of God are for ever on their lips, and they ask His pardon and thank Him for all the good things, all the bounteous grace that He has bestowed upon them. They have planted trees as well – fig and olive and pomegranate – and they rear and tend them with care, and eat their fruit and share it with any chance visitor. They don’t waste their time in idle talk, and their guests have a simple choice to make: either to pray with them or to keep their silence. The people gathered around Isaac Hameir converse only in passages drawn from the Scriptures. Nevertheless, as this exile told me, there is always good cheer in their abodes, and their eyes reflect the pure wonderment of children. The exile’s heart went out to them and he says he would willingly have stayed there, if his family and household in Babylon did not depend on him.”
“These righteous people,” the other retorted solemnly, “are the last hope of the race of Israel and of Judah and indeed, the last hope of all humanity. And the more that they grow in number, and the stronger is their faith – the closer will be salvation, and the love of God will be acknowledged by the majority, and thus the threat of violence and destruction will be averted. But if the faith of some becomes a matter of lip-service only, then in the course of time deceivers will spring up among them, and hypocrites and charlatans, and violence and destruction will be inevitable. But these people, following the lead of Isaac Hameir, have begun sowing the good seed in the world, and this seed will never go to waste.”
“They bear the light in their hearts!” Mishael asserted, in a hushed and emotional voice.
“They don’t bear the light,” he corrected him, “they are the light!”
It seemed they had completed a full circuit of the garden, as they were again approaching that doorway where, not long before, the King had disappeared, in the company of Nashdernach, his chief minister. At that moment, the two of them appeared again. The King’s face was grim, Nashdernach’s eyes were moist.
“D
o you see what I see?” asked Mishael, sounding perplexed.
“Yes,” he answered him and did not elaborate, feeling a dim sense of foreboding.
The party was over. The revellers bowed low to the royal couple, to the Lady Domilin and to her son, the egregious Belshazzar, heir apparent to the throne.
When they went to their bed-chamber, sleep eluded them. Perhaps on account of the mixed impressions they had absorbed that day, or perhaps for some other reason, something not easily identified that was troubling them.
He asked her about Queen Temior, who throughout the walk had not left her side, and Nejeen answered him with enthusiasm:
“Queen Temior is a wonderful woman! She has something of the purity of the maiden about her, as if nothing unclean could ever sully her.
“She spoke about you, saying you are nothing other than a god come down from Heaven in human form, and a divine mission has been entrusted to you. All this she can tell from the look on your face and its beauty, which she says is spirit and not of this world. As for me, she said I am an angel whose task it is to stand at your right hand in your struggles against the forces of evil, to rejoice in your joy and share in your victory. And then she went on to say, as if moving to another topic: ‘I know that yours is the happiness in which the Shekhinah prevails, as indeed is mine, and we should, both of us, thank God day and night for that conjugal bliss which is the lot of no more than a score of couples in all the universe. God has smiled on us, and we are both numbered with that chosen few!’” And Nejeen continued:
“Temior told of herself, and described two parents devoted to their only daughter and committed to her utterly, seeing no purpose to their lives except in bringing her happiness and indulging her every whim. As for her husband, he is deeply sorry that she has born him no son, only two daughters who cannot succeed him, while his heir, Belshazzar, is a disappointment to him, although he does not say so. And she, for her part, behaved towards him like a spoilt child, and it seems she will never forgive herself for this after all that he has done for her, those hanging gardens that he built for her, reckoned one of the wonders of the world. And she persisted in her misery until he sent her back to her parents, though this was very painful for him. And she knows that everything he did he did for love, for love of her, wanting only her happiness. Yes, he sent her back to her home and her homeland and her illustrious parents, of the royal house of Media, with a tolerant smile on his face but with eyes sunk deep in their sockets, showing the strain of sleepless nights. How could she treat him so – to this day it is beyond her understanding. And this because above all and after all – there is no man in the world to compare with him and she loves him; she loved him then, loves him now and will always love him.
“And the Queen was thoughtful, and for a while we walked on in silence, filling our lungs with the glorious fragrance of the royal gardens. And suddenly the remarkable Queen Temior stopped dead and looked at me and said: ‘When I was brought to him on the morning of my wedding day and saw him for the first time in my life, I thought my heart had stopped beating. Body and mind – I was all ablaze, with a fire so intense I was scared of myself! I wanted to run for my life, escape while I still could, flee from him, hide from him. I never imagined such a powerful attraction could even exist, sweeping everything before it like a mighty river in spate. I wanted to be by myself, to think things through, weigh up the arguments and come to the right decision. And that is why I behaved as I did!’ And so saying she linked her arm in mine and before we had walked more than a couple of paces she whispered in my ear as if imparting a secret: ‘If your husband is a god who has taken on human flesh, King Nebuchadnezzar, my husband, is the most perfect human being alive! He is kind-hearted and generous, a man of dauntless courage and regal stature – a model to be followed by all peoples and kingdoms of the earth, wherever they may be, an example to all enlightened rulers! And he has one great love in his life, one love, for one wife. And he trusts in God with all his heart and mind, and to Him he dedicates all his acts, and through Him he loves as only he knows how to love – with unflagging devotion, with sacrifice! And I tell you something else,’ Temior said in conclusion, ‘and remember this well.’ And she declared with a force that set my heart quaking: ‘When the King dies – his Queen shall die with him!’”
He did not tell her of his conversation with Mishael. He stared up at the ceiling with its dense crop of carvings, showing incidents from the Holy Scriptures of the Jews. Here is Abraham, dressed as a shepherd, a shepherd’s crook in his hand, leading his flock, and his eyes not watching the sheep but gazing upwards, to the sky. Could he follow in the footsteps of Abraham, be like him?
He did not remember if he closed his eyes in sleep, or stared all night at the images on the ceiling, thinking of the patriarchs of his race and their actions, and their legacy. If there is any hope for my people it is in the hands of a righteous few, like Or-Nego, or Isaac Hameir as he is now called; their task is to awaken the spirit of the people and renew its youth, and light its path and guide its steps towards the hope that is distant and seems not to exist… And then he thought he heard footsteps in the next room, hesitant, furtive footsteps, and suddenly he was fully awake. He sat up on his bed and waited, and he did not have to wait long before hearing a soft, timid tap at the door.
“Enter!” he heard his calm voice reverberating in the room, and saw Nejeen’s wide open eyes, following his movements uneasily.
The door opened a crack, and the footman spoke without looking inside:
“Excellency, please forgive your servant! Lord Nashdernach has asked that you be wakened, and he is waiting for you in the parlour!”
“I shall come at once!”
Nejeen watched him as he dressed, and he caught a glimpse of the warmth and the brightness of her eyes. She sat up as he approached her, kissed his outstretched hand and held it to her heart, saying softly, in a tone of voice evoking unfathomable depths of affection:
“God be with you!”
He kissed her forehead and went.
In the parlour Nashdernach was sitting, in the same clothes that he had worn for the garden-party. It was clear that he had not slept that night.
“King Nebuchadnezzar, glorious King of Babylon, has given back his soul to his Maker,” he reported in a dry voice, trying to hold back the tears but failing, breaking down and sobbing, his round shoulders shaking. It was some time before he regained control of himself, wiped his eyes and nose with a handkerchief and said:
“I came to inform you, because you have been chosen to accompany me in the funeral procession and give support to Queen Temior. Yes, he died in her arms. The physicians say it was his heart that failed him. He was sixty-eight years old – crowned King at the age of twenty-five, he reigned forty-three years and God was with him, and he was good to his people, and good to all the races and nations and tongues that he conquered and annexed. He was a man of dauntless courage, integrity, sincerity and incomparable loyalty; he believed firmly in his God and he loved Temior, his Queen, in a way that only a king is capable of loving… As to the physicians and their diagnosis, I have nothing to say. They are the ones who must decide, in the final analysis and we cannot quarrel with their conclusions – nor is there any point, as nothing will bring the dead back to life!
“I’m sure you noticed yesterday, how he took me aside during the garden-party. He did everything he could to avoid drawing attention, but I saw you when we went into the palace and when we came out, and you saw us, and you no doubt had conjectures and speculations of your own – and if ever there was a time for conjecture and speculation, this was it!
“What he told me went far beyond anything I ever heard him say before. He foresaw his death, and reckoned he had only hours to live. And visions such as this are not vouchsafed to anyone, save by the will of God!” Once more, Nashdernach wiped his red eyes and nose.
“Blessed be the Judge of truth!” he exclaimed, adding: “And how is Queen Temior faring? Does she have a
nyone to comfort her in this fateful hour?”
“You wouldn’t believe it, but she has composed herself in a way beyond the understanding of ordinary mortals! As befits a queen and as befits her! She sent for me, and I found her sitting on her throne in the reception hall. As you may know, recently King Nebuchadnezzar, may he rest in peace, commanded that another throne be set up beside his, a precise copy of his own, but she opposed the idea and in the end, her wishes prevailed. So the throne set up there for her was lower, and more modest both in dimensions and decorations. And this was where she was sitting, cool and restrained and you might almost say – frozen, speaking in a clear and articulate voice. She commanded me to make all the necessary arrangements for the royal funeral, but not to have the coffin constructed at this stage; she has yet to decide on the shape and the dimensions and the materials to be used. And all are anxiously awaiting her instructions, as it is no small undertaking to build a coffin of gold or even of silver – overnight! And meanwhile the body is laid out on a big table in the council chamber, and she has dressed the King in his robes of blue and purple, like a man of war going off to battle, and she it was who combed his hair and trimmed his beard, and sprinkled perfume on his face, and put the crown on his head, and King Nebuchadnezzar seems to be alive and smiling into the void above him, although his eyes are closed. Again – it was she who closed his eyes!”
“And after hinting at his imminent demise – what other instructions did the King give you in the course of that conversation?” he asked bluntly, and was answered:
“He told me to keep a close eye on the heir to the throne, Belshazzar. He considered him unfit to succeed him, and was sorely disappointed in that Temior bore him only daughters, two daughters, as you know, and according to the law of Chaldean succession – and as I understand it, the same law applies with your people – a daughter cannot accede to her father’s throne and rule in his stead. There are those who reckon this law should be changed – but meanwhile it remains in force and it must be obeyed! So, Belshazzar was the cause of much concern to his father, and most of our conversation revolved around the part I was to play as his guide and mentor, offering sound advice and averting, to the best of my ability, the disintegration of the Kingdom, and the destruction of Babylon that has been predicted. Yes, these were the King’s explicit instructions. His last will and testament.
