Halil the Pedlar Part 21

Suddenly one of these street dancing-girls scream aloud to her companions in the midst of the mazy dance, bringing them suddenly to a standstill.

"Look, look!" she cried, "there comes Gul-Bejaze! Gul-Bejaze, the wife of Halil Patrona."

"Gul-Bejaze! Gul-Bejaze!" resound suddenly on every side. The bayaderes recognise the woman who had been shut up with them in the same dungeon, surround her, begin to kiss her feet and her garments, raise her up in their arms on to their shoulders, and so exhibit her to all the women a.s.sembled together on the piazza.

"Yonder is the wife of Halil Patrona!" they cry, and Rumour quickly flies with the news all through the city. Everyone of the bayaderes dancing among the people has something to say in praise of her. Some of them she had cared for in sickness, others she had comforted in their distress, to all of them she had been kind and gentle. And then, too, it was she who had restored them their liberty, for was it not on her account that Halil Patrona had set them all free?

Everyone hastened up to her. The poor thing could not escape from the clamorous enthusiasm of the st.u.r.dy muscular fish-wives and bathing women who, in their turn also, raised her upon their shoulders and carried her about, finally resolving to carry her all the way home for the honour of the thing. So for Halil Patrona's palace they set off with Gul-Bejaze on their shoulders, she all the time vainly imploring them to put her down that she might hide away among the crowd and disappear, for she feared, she trembled at, the honour they did her. From street to street they carried her, whirling along with them in a torrent of drunken enthusiasm everyone they chanced to fall in with on the way; and before them went the cry that the woman whom the others were carrying on their shoulders was the wife of Halil Patrona, the feted leader of the people, and ever denser and more violent grew the crowd. Any smaller groups they might happen to meet were swept along with them. Now and then they encountered the harems of the greatest dignitaries, such as pashas and beglerbegs. It was all one, the august and exalted ladies had also to follow in the suite of the wife of Halil Patrona, the most powerful man in the realm, whose wife was the gentlest lady under Heaven.

Suddenly, just as they were about to turn into the great square in front of the fortress of the Seven Towers, another imposing crowd encountered them coming from the opposite direction. It was the escort of the Sultana. The half a thousand odalisks and the four hundred eunuchs occupied the whole width of the road, but face to face with them were advancing ten thousand intoxicated viragoes led by the frantic bayaderes.

"Make way for the Sultana!" cried the running eunuchs to the approaching crowd, "make way for the Sultana and her suite!"

The execution of this command bordered on the impossible. The whole s.p.a.ce of the square was filled with women--a perfect sea of heads--and visible above them all was a quivering, tremulous white figure which they had raised on high.

"Make way for the Sultana!" screamed the Kadun-Kiet-Khuda, who led the procession; a warty old woman she was, who had had charge of the harem for years and grown grey in it.

At this one of the boldest of the bayaderes thrust herself forward.

"Make way thyself, thou bearded old witch," she cried; "make way, I say, before the wife of Halil Patrona. Why, thou art not worthy to kiss the dust off her feet. Stand aside if thou wilt not come along with us."

And with these words she banged her tambourine right under the nose of the Kadun-Kiet-Khuda.

And then the bad idea occurred to some of the eunuchs to lift their broadswords against the boisterous viragoes, possibly with a view of cutting a path through them for the Sultana.

Ah! before they had time to whirl their swords above their heads, in the twinkling of an eye, their weapons were torn from their hands, and their backs were well-belaboured with the broad blades. The furious maenads fell upon their a.s.sailants, flung them to the ground, and the next instant had seized the bridles of the steeds of the odalisks.

The Kizlar-Aga was fully alive to the danger which threatened the Sultana. The whole square was thronged with angry women who, with faces flushed and sparkling eyes, were rushing upon the odalisks. Any single eunuch they could lay hold of was pretty certain to meet with a martyr's death in a few seconds. They tore him to pieces, and pelted each other with the b.l.o.o.d.y fragments before scattering them to the winds. Elhaj Beshir, therefore, earnestly implored the Sultana to turn back and try to regain the Seraglio.

Adsalis cast a contemptuous look on the Aga.

"One can see that thou art neither man nor woman," cried she, "for if thou wert one or the other, thou wouldst know how to be courageous."

Then she buried the point of her golden spurs in the flank of her steed, and urged it towards the spot where the most frantic of the maenads stood fighting with the mounted odalisks, tearing some from their horses, rending their clothes, and then by way of mockery remounting them with their faces to the horses' tails.

Suddenly the Sultana stood amongst them with a haughty, commanding look, like a demi-G.o.ddess.

"Who is the presumptuous wretch who would bar the way before me?" she cried in her clear, penetrating voice.

One of the odalisks planted herself in front of the Sultana and, resting one hand upon her hip, pointed with the other at Gul-Bejaze!

"Look!" she cried, "there is Gul-Bejaze, and she it is who bars thy way and compels thee to make room for her."

Gul-Bejaze, whom the women had brought to the spot on their shoulders, wrung her hands in her desperation, and begged and prayed the Sultana for forgiveness. She endeavoured to explain by way of pantomime, for speaking was impossible, that she was there against her will, and it was her dearest wish to humble herself before the face of the Sultana. It was all of no use. The yells of the wild Bacchantes drowned every sound, and Adsalis did not even condescend to look at her.

"Ye street-sweepings!" exclaimed Adsalis pa.s.sionately, "what evil spirit has entered into you that ye would thus compel the Sultana a.s.seki to give way before a pale doll?"

"This woman comes before thee," replied the bayadere.

"Comes before me?" said Adsalis, "wherefore, then, does she come before me?"

"Because she is fairer than thou."

Adsalis' face turned blood-red with rage at these words, while Gul-Bejaze went as white as a lily, as if the other woman had robbed all her colour from her. There was shame on one side and fury on the other.

To tell a haughty dame in the presence of ten, of twenty thousand persons, that another woman is fairer than she!

"And she is more powerful than thou art," cried the enraged bayadere, acc.u.mulating insult on the head of Adsalis, "for she is the wife of Halil Patrona."

Adsalis, in the fury of despair, raised her clenched hands towards Heaven and could not utter a word. Impotent rage forced the tears from her eyes; and only after these tears could she stammer:

"This is the curse of Achmed!"

When they saw the tears in the eyes of the Sultana, everyone for a moment was silent, and suddenly, amidst the stillness of that dumb moment, from the highest window of the prison-fortress of the Seven Towers, a man's voice called loudly into the square below:

"Sultana Adsalis! Sultana Adsalis!"

"Ha! a man! a man!" cried the furious mob; and in an instant they all gazed in that direction--and then in a murmur which immediately died away in an awe-struck whisper: "Achmed! Achmed!"

Only Adsalis was incapable of p.r.o.nouncing that name, only her mouth remained gaping open as she gazed upwards.

There at the window of the Seven Towers stood Achmed, in whose hands was now a far more terrible power than when they held the wand of dominion, for in his fingers now rests the power of cursing. It is sufficient now for him to point the finger at those he loves not, in order that they may wither away in the bloom of their youth. Whomsoever he now breathes upon, however distant they may be, will collapse and expire, and none can save them; and he has but to p.r.o.nounce the name of his enemies, and torments will consume their inner parts. The destroying angel of Allah watches over his every look, so that on whomsoever his eye may fall, that soul is instantly accursed. Since the death of Ispirizade the people fear him more than when he sat on the throne.

A deep silence fell upon the mob. n.o.body dared to speak.

And Achmed stretched forth his hand towards Adsalis. Those who stood around the Sultana felt a feeling of shivering awe, and began to withdraw from her, and she herself durst not raise her eyes.

"Salute that pure woman!" cried the tremulous voice of Achmed, "do obeisance to the wife of Halil Patrona, and cover thy face before her, for she is the true consort of her husband."

And having uttered these words, Achmed withdrew from the window whither the noise of the crowd had enticed him, and the mult.i.tude clamoured as before; but now they no longer tried to force the suite of the Sultana to make way before Gul-Bejaze, but escorted Halil Patrona's wife back to the dwelling-place of her husband.

Adsalis, desperate with rage and shame, returned to the Seraglio.

Sobbing aloud, she cast herself at the feet of the Sultan, and told him of the disgrace that had befallen her.

Mahmud only smiled as he heard the whole story, but who can tell what was behind that smile.

"Dost thou not love me, then, that thou smilest when I weep? Ought not blood to flow because tears have flowed from my eyes?"

Mahmud gently stroked the head of the Sultana and said, still smiling:

"Oh, Adsalis! who would ever think of plucking fruit before it is _ripe_?"

CHAPTER XI.

GLIMPSES INTO THE FUTURE.