Tancred Part 33

'It is not yesterday for those who live in cities, where they say at one gate that it is morning, and at another it is night. Where men tell lies, the deed of the dawn is the secret of sunset. But in the desert nothing changes; neither the acts of a man's life, nor the words of a man's lips. We drink at the same well where Moses helped Zipporah, we tend the same flocks, we live under the same tents; our words have changed as little as our waters, our habits, or our dwellings. What my father learnt from those before him, he delivered to me, and I have told it to my son. What is time and what is truth, that I should forget that a prophet of Jehovah married into my house?'

'Where little is done, little is said,' observed Sheikh Ha.s.san, 'and silence is the mother of truth.

Since the Hegira, nothing has happened in Arabia, and before that was Moses, and before him the giants.'

'Let truth always be spoken,' said Amalek; 'your words are a flowing stream, and the children of Rechab and the tribes of the Senites never joined him of Mecca, for they had the five books, and they said, "Is not that enough?" They withdrew to the Syrian wilderness, and they multiplied. But the sons of Koreidha, who also had the five books, but who were not children of Rechab, but who came into the desert near Medina after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed El Khuds, they first joined him of Mecca, and then they made war on him, and he broke their bows and led them into captivity; and they are to be found in the cities of Yemen to this day; the children of Israel who live in the cities of Yemen are the tribe of Koreidha.'

'Unhappy sons of Koreidha, who made war upon the Prophet, and who live in cities!' said Sheikh Ha.s.san, taking a fresh pipe.

'And perhaps,' said the young Emir, 'if you had not been children of Jethro, you might have acknowledged him of Mecca, Sheikh of Sheikhs.'

'There is but one G.o.d,' said Amalek; 'but there may be many prophets. It becomes not a son of jethro to seek other than Moses. But I will not say that the Koran comes not from G.o.d, since it was written by one who was of the tribe of Koreish, and the tribe of Koreish are the lineal descendants of Ibrahim.'

'And you believe that the Word of G.o.d could come only to the seed of Abraham?' asked Tancred, eagerly.

'I and my fathers have watered our flocks in the wilderness since time was,' replied Amalek; 'we have seen the Pharaohs, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Iskander, and the Romans, and the Sultan of the French: they conquered everything except us; and where are they? They are sand. Let men doubt of unicorns: but of one thing there can be no doubt, that G.o.d never spoke except to an Arab.'

Tancred covered his face with his hands. Then, after a few moments'

pause, looking up, he said, 'Sheikh of Sheikhs, I am your prisoner; and was, when you captured me, a pilgrim to Mount Sinai, a spot which, in your belief, is not less sacred than in mine. We are, as I have learned, only two days' journey from that holy place. Grant me this boon, that I may at once proceed thither, guarded as you will. I pledge you the word of a Christian n.o.ble, that I will not attempt to escape. Long before you have received a reply from Jerusalem, I shall have returned; and whatever may be the result of the visit of Baroni, I shall, at least, have fulfilled my pilgrimage.'

'Prince, brother of queens,' replied Amalek, with that politeness which is the characteristic of the Arabian chieftains; 'under my tents you have only to command; go where you like, return when you please. My children shall attend you as your guardians, not as your guards.' And the great Sheikh rose and retired.

Tancred re-entered his tent, and, reclining, fell into a reverie of distracting thoughts. The history of his life and mind seemed with a whirling power to pa.s.s before him; his birth, in clime unknown to the Patriarchs; his education, unconsciously to himself, in an Arabian literature; his imbibing, from his tender infancy, oriental ideas and oriental creeds; the contrast that the occidental society in which he had been reared presented to them; his dissatisfaction with that social system; his conviction of the growing melancholy of enlightened Europe, veiled, as it may be, with sometimes a conceited bustle, sometimes a desperate shipwreck gaiety, sometimes with all the exciting empiricism of science; his perplexity that, between the Asian revelation and the European practice there should be so little conformity, and why the relations between them should be so limited and imperfect; above all, his pa.s.sionate desire to penetrate the mystery of the elder world, and share its celestial privileges and divine prerogative. Tancred sighed.

He looked round; some one had gently drawn his hand. It was the young Emir kneeling, his beautiful blue eyes bedewed with tears.

'You are unhappy, said Fakredeen, in a tone of plaintiveness.

'It is the doom of man,' replied Tancred; 'and in my position sadness should not seem strange.'

'The curse of ten thousand mothers on those who made you a prisoner; the curse of twenty thousand mothers on him who inflicted on you a wound!'

''Tis the fortune of life,' said Tancred, more cheerfully; 'and in truth I was perhaps thinking of other things.'

'Do you know why I trouble you when your heart is dark?' said the young Emir. 'See now, if you will it, you are free. The great Sheikh has consented that you should go to Sinai. I have two dromedaries here, fleeter than the Kamsin. At the well of Mokatteb, where we encamp for the night, I will serve raki to the Bedouins; I have some with me, strong enough to melt the snow of Lebanon; if it will not do, they shall smoke some timbak, that will make them sleep like pashas. I know this desert as a man knows his father's house; we shall be at Hebron before they untie their eyelids. Tell me, is it good?'

'Were I alone,' said Tancred, 'without a single guard, I must return.'

'Why?'

'Because I have pledged the word of a Christian n.o.ble.'

'To a man who does not believe in Christ. Faugh! Is it not itself a sin to keep faith with heretics?'

'But is he one?' said Tancred. 'He believes in Moses; he disbelieves in none of the seed of Abraham. He is of that seed himself! Would I were such a heretic as Sheikh Amalek!'

'If you will only pay me a visit in the Lebanon, I would introduce you to our patriarch, and he would talk as much theology with you as you like. For my own part it is not a kind of knowledge that I have much cultivated; you know I am peculiarly situated, we have so many religions on the mountain; but time presses; tell me, my prince, shall Hebron be our point?'

'If Amalek believed in Baal, I must return,' said Tancred; 'even if it were to certain death. Besides, I could not desert my men; and Baroni, what would become of him?'

'We could easily make some plan that would extricate them. Dismiss them from your mind, and trust yourself to me. I know nothing that would delight me more than to baulk these robbers of their prey.'

'I should not talk of such things,' said Tancred; 'I must remain here, or I must return.'

'What can you want to do on Mount Sinai?' murmured the prince rather pettishly. 'Now if it were Mount Lebanon, and you had a wish to employ yourself, there is an immense field! We might improve the condition of the people; we might establish manufactures, stimulate agriculture extend commerce get an appalto of the silk, buy it all up at sixty piastres per oke, and sell it at Ma.r.s.eilles at two hundred and at the same time advance the interests of true religion as much as you please.'

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

_In the Valley of the Shadow_

THEN days had elapsed since the capture of Tancred; Amalek and his Arabs were still encamped in the rocky city; the beams of the early sun were just rising over the crest of the amphitheatre, when four hors.e.m.e.n, who were recognised as the children of Rechab, issued from the ravine. They galloped over the plain, shouted, and threw their lances in the air.

From the crescent of black tents came forth the warriors, some mounted their horses and met their returning brethren, others prepared their welcome. The horses neighed, the camels stirred their long necks. All living things seemed conscious that an event had occurred.

The four hors.e.m.e.n were surrounded by their brethren; but one of them, giving and returning blessings, darted forward to the pavilion of the great Sheikh.

'Have you brought camels, Shedad, son of Amroo?' inquired one of the welcomers to the welcomed.

'We have been to El Khuds,' was the reply. 'What we have brought back is a seal of Solomon.

'From Mount Seir to the City of the Friend, what have you seen in the joyful land?'

'We found the sons of Hamar by the well-side of Jumda; we found the marks of many camels in the pa.s.s of Gharendel, and the marks in the pa.s.s of Gharendel were not the marks of the camels of the Beni-Hamar.'

'I had a dream, and the children of Tora said to me, "Who art thou in the hands of our father's flocks? Are none but the sons of Rechab to drink the sweet waters of Edom?" Methinks the marks in the pa.s.s of Gharendel were the marks of the camels of the children of Tora.'

'There is a feud between the Beni-Tora and the Beni-Hamar,' replied the other Arab, shaking his head. 'The Beni-Tora are in the wilderness of Akiba, and the Beni-Hamar have burnt their tents and captured their camels and their women. This is why the sons of Hamar are watering their flocks by the well of Jumda.'

In the meantime, the caravan, of which the four hors.e.m.e.n were the advanced guard, issued from the pa.s.s into the plain.

'Shedad, son of Amroo,' exclaimed one of the Bedouins, 'what! have you captured an harem?' For he beheld dromedaries and veiled women.

The great Sheikh came forth from his pavilion and sniffed the morning air; a dignified smile played over his benignant features, and once he smoothed his venerable beard.

'My son-in-law is a true son of Israel,' he murmured complacently to himself. 'He will trust his gold only to his own blood.'

The caravan wound about the plain, then crossed the stream at the accustomed ford, and approached the amphitheatre.

The hors.e.m.e.n halted, some dismounted, the dromedaries knelt down, Baroni a.s.sisted one of the riders from her seat; the great Sheikh advanced and said, 'Welcome in the name of G.o.d! welcome with a thousand blessings!'

'I come in the name of G.o.d; I come with a thousand blessings,' replied the lady.

'And with a thousand something else,' thought Amalek to himself; but the Arabs are so polished that they never make unnecessary allusions to business.

'Had I thought the Queen of Sheba was going to pay me a visit,' said the great Sheikh, 'I would have brought the pavilion of Miriam. How is the Rose of Sharon?' he continued, as he ushered Eva into his tent. 'How is the son of my heart; how is Besso, more generous than a thousand kings?'