Eastern Tales by Many Story Tellers Part 35

The slave, having put on her veil, followed the Vizier Horam, and was introduced to the tent of Misnar.

"What!" said the Sultan, as he saw his Vizier enter with the female slave, "what new kind of warrior has Horam brought me?"

"Light of mine eyes!" answered the Vizier, "behold a woman who is desirous of executing thy commands. This slave a.s.sures me that the sages of the caves of Denraddin have read in the stars of heaven that by her means the Sultan of India should be delivered from the enemy that oppressed him."

"Then," said the Sultan, "let her go; and may the Prophet of the Faithful guide her footsteps in safety and security! I am a.s.sured that Horam would not consent to an enterprise that was foolish and weak; and to his direction I leave the fate of this trusty female."

The slave then fell prostrate, and besought the Sultan to give her some of his writings and mandates, that she might pretend she had stolen them from his tent, with a design to carry and lay them at the feet of Tasnar and Ahubal.

The Sultan approved of her scheme, and ordered several mandates to be written and signed relative to the motions of his army the next day, which were quite contrary to the real disposition he intended to give out.

The female slave being furnished with these, and being conducted by the Vizier to the outskirts of the Sultan's army, walked forward till she was challenged by the sentinels of Ahubal, who seized upon and carried her to their commander.

The commander, fearful of deceit, first satisfied himself that she was really a female slave, and then asked her what brought her alone out of the camp of the Sultan.

"Bring me," said she, "before your Prince; for I have things to deliver up to him that will be of service to his army."

The commander then sent her with the guard to the pavilion of Ahubal, where that Prince and the enchanter Tasnar were consulting in private together.

As soon as the female slave had gained admittance, she fell prostrate at the feet of Ahubal, which Tasnar observing, commanded the guards to seize her.

"Let us see," said the enchanter, "what service this slave can do us, before she is trusted so near our persons."

The female slave, being secured by the guards, was doubtful how to behave.

"Have you, base slave," said the enchanter, "aught to reveal to us? or are you sent as a spy to betray the counsels of the brave?"

"I have," said the female slave (somewhat recovered from her surprise), "papers and mandates of great consequence, which I have stolen from the tent of the Sultan; and I bring them to the Prince Ahubal, the lord of all the hearts of the Indian empire."

She then produced her mandates, and the guards laid them at the feet of Ahubal.

The Prince Ahubal, having read the papers, gave them to Tasnar, saying, "These are indeed valuable acquisitions, and the female slave that brought them is worthy of high honour and reward."

The slave, hearing this encomium, bowed down her head; for the guards who held her prevented her falling prostrate.

"Mighty son of Dabulcombar," said the enchanter, "let the guards carry her forth, till we consult what reward she shall receive."

As soon as the female slave was carried out, "My Prince," said Tasnar, "it is indeed politic to give rewards to those who serve us; and therefore it is sometimes necessary to do it, that the silly birds may be the more surely entangled in the snares of State; but when we can better serve our ends by their destruction than by their safety, it is but just that we should do so. This slave has already risked her life for our service, and therefore she will no doubt be ready to lay it down if we require it."

As the enchanter said this, he called one of the guards, and commanded him to bring in the female slave and the bow-string.

The slave approached, still held by the guards.

"Kind slave," said the enchanter, "you have already served us much; there is one thing more that we require: let the slaves fit the bow-string to thy neck, and let thy last breath be sent forth in praise of thy lord Ahubal."

The slaves of Ahubal then put upon the wretched female the deadly bow-string, and strangled her instantly; after which they retired, leaving her dead body on the floor of the tent.

"What hast thou done, O Tasnar?" said Ahubal, astonished at the deed.

"I suspect," said the enchanter, "that this female was sent on a vile errand; and see, here," continued he, searching her garments, "is the weapon of death!"

So saying, he drew a dagger from her bosom, which she had concealed with a design of stabbing the enchanter.

"Prudent Tasnar," said the Prince, "I admire thy foresight; but of what use is this murdered slave now to us?"

"The disguise of this slave," answered the enchanter, "will introduce me into the camp of the Sultan, and, I hope, will give me an opportunity of reaching his heart with that steel which he designed for mine. But no time must be lost: the morning will, ere long, disclose its grey light in the east."

Thus it is that deceit often leads into danger, and recoils upon itself.

The enchanter then put on the garments of the murdered female slave, and stroking his face, it became like hers, so that Ahubal could scarcely believe but the slave was revived. He also cut off the head of the female slave, and, anointing it with a white ointment, it resembled his own. Thus equipped, the commander of the advanced guard conducted him to the foremost sentinels of the rebel army. The disguised enchanter soon reached the camp of the Sultan; and the sentinels, imagining it was the same female slave whom Horam had led through their ranks in the former part of the night, suffered him to pa.s.s unexamined.

In a short time he reached the royal pavilion, and demanded admittance. The Vizier Horam, who was there in waiting, heard, as he supposed, the voice of his female slave, and went out to bring her before the Sultan.

"My slave," said Horam, as he saw the disguised enchanter, "hast thou succeeded? and is Tasnar, the foe of the Faithful, dead?"

"Bring me before the Sultan," said the pretended slave, "that my lord may first behold the head of his foe."

The Vizier then led the disguised enchanter into the pavilion, where the Sultan Misnar, being warned of her coming, was seated on his throne.

As the enchanter approached, he held a dagger in one hand, which was covered by a long sleeve, and in the other he bore the fict.i.tious head. And now the pretended female was about to ascend the steps of the throne, when the Vizier commanded her first to fall prostrate before the Sultan.

The sham slave did as she was ordered; and the Vizier, seeing her prostrate, fell upon her, and slew her with his sabre.

"What hast thou done, wretched Vizier?" said the Sultan. "Has envy thus rashly stirred thee up against my faithful slave, that----"

The Sultan would probably have continued his invective against his Vizier much longer, had he not beheld the corpse of the dead enchanter change its appearance, and found that Horam, by the sudden destruction of Tasnar, had but just preserved his own life.

At the sight of this transformation, Misnar descended from his throne, and closely embraced his Vizier Horam.

"O Horam, forgive my impetuous temper!" said the Sultan: "how have I blamed my friend for doing that which alone could have saved my life!

But by what means did my faithful Vizier become acquainted with the disguise of this wicked enchanter, or how did he discover himself to thy watchful eye?"

"Lord of my heart," answered Horam, "when I carried my poor female slave through the camp (whose death we have unhappily caused by our fraud), I bade her, when she returned and saw me, first repeat these words in my ear: 'Allah is Lord of heaven, Mahomet is His Prophet, and Misnar is His vicegerent upon earth.' And this precaution I took, fearful less Tasnar, discovering our design, should invent this method of revenge. Wherefore, when the pretended slave was brought before me, and she repeated not the words that I had taught her, I was a.s.sured that it was the enchanter in disguise, and waited till, by prostrating himself before my lord, he gave me an opportunity of destroying the life of the chief of thine enemies."

The Sultan of India again embraced his faithful Vizier; and as soon as the eye of morn was opened in the east, the armies of Ahubal beheld the enchanter Tasnar's head fixed on a pole in the front of the Sultan's army.

The Prince Ahubal, rising with the earliest dawn of the morning, went forward to the front of his troops, and there, at a small distance, saw the hideous features of the enchanter Tasnar already blackening in the sun. Fear immediately took possession of his soul; and he ran, with tears in his eyes, and hid himself, till the sun went down, in his pavilion.

The Vizier Horam, perceiving the approach of the sun, would have led on the Sultan's troops to a second attack; but Misnar commanded him to forbear, that his army might rest one day after their fatigues.

The great distress of the enchanters, and their unexpected deaths, alarmed the rest of that wicked race; and Ahaback and Desra, seeing that no one enchanter had succeeded against the Sultan, resolved to join their forces; and while one led a powerful army to Ahubal's a.s.sistance from the east, the other raised the storms of war and rebellion on the western confines of the Sultan's empire.

In the meantime, the two armies of the Sultan and Ahubal continued inactive, till an express arrived that Ahaback was leading the strength of nine thousand squadrons against their Sultan, and that Desra was travelling over the plains of Embracan, with three thousand elephants and a hundred thousand troops from the western provinces.

The Sultan instantly resolved to attack Ahubal before these succours could arrive; but the Vizier Horam fell at his feet, and besought him not to hazard his army, but rather to recruit and strengthen it.

This advice, though quite contrary to the opinion of Misnar, was yet so strongly urged by the Vizier, that the Sultan gave up his better judgment to the opinion of Horam; and, when every one expected to be called forth to action, the Vizier gave orders in the camp for recruits to be sought after, and went himself to the north of Delhi to raise a second army for his master's service.

The troops of Ahubal, finding themselves free from the attacks of the Sultan's army, endeavoured to comfort their Prince, who was grieved and dejected at the loss of his friends; and the provinces of the south, to dissipate his gloom, besought him to permit them to raise a pavilion worthy of his dignity, as heretofore he contented himself with such as his generals made use of.