Eastern Tales by Many Story Tellers Part 30

"I will not," answered I, "lift up my private arm against thy life, but I shall deliver thee to the power of the Cadi, who is the deputy of the great Allah's vicegerent."

"Give me, then," said the Princess of Ca.s.simir, "the book of the genius Macoma, that I may be defended from the insults and contrivances of the base Bennaskar."

The request of the Princess appeared to be so reasonable, that I obeyed her, and put the book into her hands.

Bennaskar, when I was leaving the vaulted chamber, besought me not to destroy the friend who had supported me; but I told him that Allah was to be obeyed rather than man.

I hastened to the Cadi; but as it was night, his officers told me I could not be heard, till I informed them that I had in my power a wicked magician, who, by sorceries, had stolen the Princess of Ca.s.simir. When they heard this, they acquainted the Cadi; and that vigilant magistrate arose, and followed me to the house of Bennaskar with his guard.

As I entered the house, I was amazed to see him standing in the entrance with a lamp in his hand; but my astonishment increased when I saw him fall down before the Cadi, and confess his guilt.

The Cadi commanded the guards to seize him, and then ordered him to lead us to the place where he had concealed the Princess of Ca.s.simir.

Bennaskar obeyed; but as he went through the apartments, he said to me, "Mahoud, you are sensible that the Princess Hemjunah's body is half buried in the earth, and uncovered; therefore prevail upon the Cadi that he suffer us to go before and release her: for my part, my sins oppress me, and I wish to restore to her dignity a much-injured Princess."

"If," said I, "you will promise to release the Princess, I will endeavour to prevail on the Cadi to permit what you propose; but, otherwise, let the whole world be a witness of your wicked malice."

"O my friend," said Bennaskar, "accuse me not, my own heart persecutes me sufficiently. Yes, Mahoud," continued he, "I will, as you require me, release the Princess, and trust to the mercy of the Cadi; for the service of the evil genii will neither bring me profit nor peace."

I was pleased at this repentance of Bennaskar, and besought the Cadi that he would suffer us to enter the vaulted chamber first, and recover the Princess from her enchantment. The Cadi acquiesced in my proposal, but ordered the guards to surround the entrance, while Bennaskar and myself entered the chamber.

As soon as we entered, Bennaskar seized me suddenly by the throat, and, before I could speak or recollect myself, he dragged me into the closet and shut the door after us.

"Now," said he, "villain! receive the just rewards of a perjured heart." Saying this, he spat in my face, and threw me on the ground, and then flew out of the closet, shutting the door forcibly after him.

I remained for some moments stupefied by my fall; but after a time arose, and opening the closet, I was surprised to see neither the Princess of Ca.s.simir nor the magician Bennaskar.

While I was in this confusion, the Cadi and his guards, being impatient at our stay, entered the chamber, and the Cadi commanded his guards to seize me, saying, "Villain! where is the Princess of Ca.s.simir, and the man who revealed thy unrighteous actions?"

At this I began to answer, when I perceived that my voice was as the voice of Bennaskar. I immediately looked on my clothes, and found them changed. In short, I doubted not that my malicious foe had transformed me into his own appearance.

I fell at the feet of the Cadi, and besought him for one moment to hear me. I acquainted him with every circ.u.mstance of my adventures, from my entrance into the house of Bennaskar to the present moment.

But he and his guards laughed at my tale, and commanded me to deliver up my friend and the Princess of Ca.s.simir. In vain did I call Allah to witness the truth of my story; the Cadi was enraged at my persisting in the tale, and ordered his guards to give me a hundred strokes with the chabouc.

To add to my misfortune, Bennaskar appeared at one end of the room; and when I cried out and pointed to him, the Cadi, who saw him not, thinking that I meant to mock him, ordered me another hundred lashes with the chabouc.

Vexed with myself, and subdued by the pain, I fell on the ground, and my guards were ordered to carry me to the prison, where I was loaded with chains, and thrown into a deep dungeon.

The next morning I was brought out again before the Cadi, and carried into the hall of justice. The Cadi there pa.s.sed sentence upon me, that I should be burnt alive the next day unless I delivered up Mahoud and the Princess of Ca.s.simir.

Finding it vain to repeat my declarations that I was the real Mahoud, and that I suffered through the vile enchantments of Bennaskar, I remained silent; but this was construed into surliness, and I was ordered five hundred bastinadoes to make me speak.

The Cadi then commanded me to be carried back to the dungeon, and ordered a large pile of wood to be raised in the market-place, whereon I was to be burnt the next morning, before all the people.

I spent the night in the utmost horror, and earnestly wished that the sun might never more behold my sorrows. But the darkness pa.s.sed away as usual, and I beheld the dreadful morning dawn. A tumultuous crowd had collected before the door of the dungeon to see me pa.s.s to execution, and as I was dragged along, the common people nearly overwhelmed me with stones.

As I advanced to the pile, I perceived the Cadi and his officers were seated before it. He commanded me to be brought again before him ere I was bound to the pile.

"Art thou," said he, "wretched magician, willing to bring forth the Princess, or thy friend, who are concealed by thy wicked arts, or must the sentence of our law be executed upon thee?"

"O judge," said I, "since my tale will not gain credit with thee, at least let me know by whose accusation it is that I am brought before thee, and who it is that accuses me of magic or sorcery. Am not I Bennaskar, the wealthy merchant of Delhi? and where are my accusers?

Who dare say aught against my fame? You came into my house by night, you seized my person, you inflicted on me the punishment of a slave; you cast me into a dungeon, and condemned me to the flames; and all this without the appearance of a single witness against me: wherefore, O Cadi, I appeal unto the righteous Sultan of the East, and I hope my fellow-citizens will not suffer me to be executed while no proofs of guilt are brought against me."

"Young man," answered the Cadi, "your appeal is unnecessary, for I am not desirous of destroying my fellow-creatures without a cause. Your plea were just and proper, did not your own confession contradict your present a.s.sertion. Yesterday you declared that you were not Bennaskar, and to-day you say you are; wherefore out of your own lips I have convicted you of falsehood; whereas, had you really been Bennaskar the merchant, and not a magician, there had been no need of two different accounts of yourself."

The people, hearing this distinction of the Cadi, applauded their judge; and one and all cried out that I was a magician, and deserved the flames.

The guards were then ordered to bind me on the pile, and I was led up and fixed to a post by the chains which had been fastened on my body the day before; and now, amidst the acclamations of the mob, was the pile kindled, and the smoke and the flame surrounded the unfortunate Mahoud.

In a moment the crowd and the heavens disappeared from my sight, and I found myself in the body of a toad, at the bottom of the pile. I hopped forward out of the flames, and with difficulty hid myself beneath a stone in the street.

The crowd, having waited till the pile was consumed, carried the ashes out of the city, and scattered them in the air. I remained till night beneath the stone.

It was my intention, as soon as it was dark, to creep out of the city into the woods; but sleep overtook me at the time when animals retire to their rest, and when I awoke in the morning I found myself in this forest, where I remained during the s.p.a.ce of a moon alone, till I met with these two miserable companions of my solitude.

"Your adventures, O Mahoud," said the Sultan of India, "are wonderful, and an excellent lesson of caution and prudence to us who are joined in one common fate; and since I perceive both your misfortunes and my own have been brought about by our want of trust and prudence, I shall, with the utmost resignation, acknowledge that the all-perfect Allah is ever willing to a.s.sist those who are not wanting to themselves.

"But, O Mahoud, suffer me, ere I declare my own grief, to ask what has become of the lovely Hemjunah, the Princess of Ca.s.simir? and wonder not at my solicitude, for the mention of her name brings to my memory ideas of the past. How was it possible that lovely being should be betrayed into the powers of those wicked enchanters? But why should I be surprised at her weakness, who am myself the object of their malice? Surely," continued the Sultan, "this our companion, whom you called Princess, cannot be the daughter of Zebenezer, the Sultan of Ca.s.simir?"

"You are right, indeed, in your conjectures," answered Mahoud; "the Princess of Ca.s.simir is a fellow-sufferer with us, and he who is on my right hand is Horam, the favourite of Misnar, the Lord of Delhi."

"What!" said Misnar, transported, and yet at the same time recoiling with surprise, "is my faithful Horam also the unfortunate partner of my griefs?"

Misnar then, turning to the Princess of Ca.s.simir, said, "O Princess, whom a severe enchantment has deprived of the most exquisite of forms, to load thee with the most wretched, permit me to request an account of your unfortunate labours since you left the Court of your father Zebenezer; that at least I may indulge my wishes for your recovery, though my arm is too weak to work either my own or your deliverance."

"Most ill.u.s.trious Sultan," answered the Princess, "I shall obey your commands, although the remembrance of my misfortune is grievous, and the confession of my indiscretion must fill me with shame."

"It is enough, O Princess," said the Sultan, "to confess our faults to Heaven; and he is the weakest of the sons of earth who takes a pleasure in hearing of the failings of others."

"O Sultan," replied Hemjunah, "your politeness cannot extenuate, though it may gloss over, my imprudence; and by delaying to unfold my little history to you, my crime may seem more black while hidden than when it shall be revealed."

As the Princess uttered these words, a dervish, worn with age and bowed down by infirmity, appeared among the thickets of the forest.

Horam immediately recollected the features of the good old saint, and said, "My royal master, yonder is Shemshelnar, the most pious worshipper of Allah among all the sons of Asia."

"I do not remember his features," answered Misnar: "came he not to the council of our divan?"

"No, my royal lord," said Horam, "the infirmities of age were upon him."

By this time Shemshelnar had reached the place where the transformed company were seated; and, falling prostrate before Misnar, he said, "Wonder not, O Prince of India, that Shemshelnar, thy slave, doth thus acknowledge his Prince, though deformed by the enchantments of the wicked. I knew the evils that surrounded thee; and although I was unable to attend thy council, yet I prayed in secret to Him who bestoweth at the noonday, that He would avert from my royal master the misfortunes which threatened to overpower him. Allah heard my prayer as I lay prostrate in my cell; and the genius Bahoudi appearing, commanded me to seek thee in the forest of Tarapajan, whither thy wayward fortune should lead thee. 'O genius,' replied I, 'how shall age and infirmity comply with thy commands?'

"'Go,' said Bahoudi, touching me with his finger, 'for strength is given thee from above. The enchantress Ulin hath transformed thy Prince into the most hideous reptile of the earth. But wonder not at the deformity of his appearance, nor at the malice of her who has overpowered him; for such is the fate of those who are most exalted in their virtues, that their enemies, whenever an opportunity is afforded to them, will strive to render them most odious. Thy Prince, before thou canst arrive in the forest, will be surrounded by three others in equal affliction: it is permitted thee to rescue the Sultan of India; but the rest must wear the chains of the enchantress till Ulin is no more.'

"But ere I restore thee, O Sultan of my heart," continued Shemshelnar, "such are the words which the genius hath commanded me to utter before thee:

"Religion, O Misnar, is the first and the greatest duty of life, and the service of Allah the sweetest offering of a grateful heart. But He who appointed the ceremonies and services of piety and devotion hath also given to all their respective stations in the warfare of life.

How, then, shall we pay honour to Allah, if we neglect and desert the peculiar duties of that post wherein Allah hath placed us? The signet of Mahomet, O Prince, of which Mangelo the prophet did prophesy, is it not that seal which the Faithful bear on their frontlets, when they obey the voice of reason and religion? and the girdle of Opakka, with which Kifri, the enchanter, is endued, what is it but foresight and prudence, the best allies of the Sultans of the earth? To save his people my Prince has deserted them, and given away what he sought to keep. When Allah placed thee on the throne of India, He thence expected to hear thy pet.i.tions; but, as faults which proceed from goodness, though uninstructed, are beheld with Heaven's piteous eye, therefore arise, O Sultan," said Shemshelnar, and touched him, "rise from the filth of the earth, and again a.s.sume the glories with which Allah hath endued thee. And know, that such is His care over thee, that He hath curbed the hands of thine enemies, and bids thee go forth against them, a.s.sured of this, that they shall not be able by their enchantments to foresee thy designs, nor to overpower thee by the help of their magical deceits, unless thou yield to their snares.