we went into the king’s gardens, carrying with us the magic mirror of the babylonians. we saw the great cedar tree, and we went and sat under its branches and spoke of what we should do. the magic mirror would have to be given to the king, but for long eean was fearful of going into the palace.
at last we went to the doors. they were unguarded, and we went within the palace. we came to the chamber where the king was wont to sit upon his throne, and we saw the king there, and around him there were bearded men with fierce eyes; by their fashion of carrying swords we knew them to be the leaders of the king’s armies. these fierce-eyed men stood with their feet upon the steps of the throne, speaking in anger[pg 107] to the king. they did not see us as we came into the chamber. but in a while one caught sight of us, and he uttered a fierce word. i went to them, holding the magic mirror raised in my hands. the king raised his head, and he saw the mirror, and he cried out to us.
i went and left the magic mirror on the throne, beside the king. i lifted my voice and i told him how i had taken the mirror from the top of the tower, and that now the tower was overthrown, but the mirror was saved for the babylonians. then the king said to the fierce-eyed men, “this is the magic mirror of the babylonians, and i say to you that babylon is yet in safety.” again he said to them, “speak now and say what is to be done about this girl who brought the mirror down from the tower.”
one of the fierce-eyed men said, “who is the boy who is with her?”
the king looked on eean and knew who he was. he said, “this is the boy who was with the enchanter on whom be evil.”
the man said, “banish the girl and the boy also,[pg 108] but do no evil to them inasmuch as they have brought to us the magic mirror of the babylonians.”
the king said, “take them from the city, but let some treasure be given to them because they have brought to me the magic mirror of the babylonians.”
one of the fierce-eyed men took us, and he brought us into a chamber in which there were many open jars. in some of the jars there were gold, and in others there were silver coins. the fierce-eyed man who was with us spoke to me, and he said i might take from the jar with the gold coins. i took many of them, and i tied them in different parts of my dress. then he bade us follow him, and he led us out of the palace and to a place where a chariot with two horses was standing.
he put eean and me into the chariot, and he bade the charioteer drive with us out of the city. the charioteer, a silent man, stood up in his chariot, and lashed the horses. we drove through one street, and then another and another street,[pg 109] and all the streets were empty. the charioteer called to the guards of a gateway, and the gate was opened, and we passed out of the city. we drove on until we came to where there was a great river. then the charioteer halted, and he called across the river, and a man with a ferry came from the other side. he was a very ancient man, and he had a beard of great length. the charioteer said to him, “old man of the river, take these two across and away from us!”
we went into the ferry, and the ferryman took his pole and pushed across to the other side of the river. the man in the chariot turned his horses and drove back to babylon.
when the ferryman had left us on the other side of the river, eean said to me, “where now shall we go?” i made answer and said, “we shall go to my country, and to the place where my father is. and it may be that zabulun when he comes from the cave that is under the sea will not be able to find you there.”
