The Slaves of the Padishah Part 30

All the blood quitted Yffim's own face.

"Then thou hast thy fears, my master?"

"His rage demands blood, and the blood of a great man, too. Which of us?

That is all one, but a great man must die. If I cannot sacrifice someone in my place I shall perish myself, but there are men of equal value to myself from whom I can choose. There are two especially--Kucsuk and his son. They began the battle; if they had not begun it, there would have been no battle; and if there had been no battle, there would have been no disaster. They are Death's sons already. The third is the Prince of Moldavia. He was the first to fly from the fight; he had a secret understanding with the Christians. He is a son of Death also. I can throw in the Prince of Transylvania also, because he kept away from the battle altogether and was late with his tribute. Had he sent it sooner, we should have had money; and if we had had money, we should have been able to have bought hay; and if we had had hay the soldiers would not have hastened on the battle and so lost it. He also is a son of Death, therefore. Go thou into Transylvania and bring him hither to me."

Azrael listened to all this with great attention. Yffim Beg regarded her with a radiant countenance, as much as to say: "You see our heads won't ache yet!"

The odalisk, however, trembled no longer; she pressed her lips tightly together, and as if she was quite certain of what she was about to do, she pressed her sweetly smiling face close to that of the Vizier, and hanging on his arms, whispered to him:

"O Ha.s.san, how my soul would rejoice if I could see flow the blood of thine enemies."

Ha.s.san sat the damsel on his knees, and his lips sported with her twining tresses.

Yffim Beg was in such a mighty good humour at being commissioned by Ha.s.san to go as amba.s.sador to the Prince of Transylvania, and so blindly exalted by such a mark of confidence, that he fancied he could well afford to torment Azrael a little.

"Whilst thou wert away, my master," said he, "thy damsel implored me to grant her a favour, which I dare not do without first asking thy permission."

Azrael regarded the smiling Beg with sparkling eyes, anxiously awaiting what he would be bold enough to betray.

"What was it?--speak, Yffim Beg," remarked Ha.s.san wildly.

"Thou and the other Pashas are about to condemn a youth to death--young Feriz Beg, I mean."

"Well?" said Ha.s.san frowning, while the odalisk whom he held embraced trembled all over.

"Azrael would like to see the young man die."

The girl grew pale at these words; her heart for a moment ceased to beat, and then began fiercely to throb again.

"A foolish wish," said Ha.s.san; "but if thou desire it, be it so! Be present at the meeting of the Pashas, stand behind the curtains by my side, and thou shalt hear and see everything."

Azrael imprinted a long and burning kiss on Ha.s.san's forehead with a face full of death, and stood behind the curtain holding the folds together with her hands.

"If thou shouldst faint," whispered Yffim Beg sarcastically, "thou shalt have a vessel of musk from me."

Azrael laughed so loudly that Yffim fancied she must have gone mad.

"And now call the Pashas and draw the curtain of the tent," commanded Ha.s.san.

At the invitation of Yffim all the officers of the camp came to the pavilion and took their seats in a circle on cushions. Last of all came the Grand Vizier, Kiuprile, a big, stout, angry man, who, without looking at anyone, sat down on the cushion beside Ha.s.san and turned his back upon him.

Then the roll of drums was heard, and Kucsuk Pasha and Feriz Beg, well guarded, were brought in from different sides--Kucsuk on the left hand, and Feriz on the right.

"Look!" whispered Azrael to Ha.s.san from behind the curtain; "look how proud they are, the son on the right, the father on the left. They seem to be encouraging each other with their glances."

Ha.s.san nodded his head as if thanking his favourite for a.s.sisting his weak eyes, and as both figures came within the obscurity of the tent, where the light was not very good at the best of times, acting on the hint given, he turned towards the aged Kucsuk Pasha and cried:

"Thou immature youth, step back till I speak to thee."

Then, turning to young Feriz Beg, he said:

"Step forward, thou hardened old traitor! Wherefore didst thou leave the armies of the Sublime Sultan in the lurch?"

Feriz Beg, as if a weapon against his persecutors had suddenly been put into his hand, stepped boldly right up to Ha.s.san Pasha, and exclaimed in a bold voice, which rang though the tent:

"Thou art the traitor, not I; for thou darest to hold the office of general when thou art blind and canst not distinguish two paces off father from son, or an enemy from a friend."

Ha.s.san sprang in terror from his carpet when he heard Kucsuk's son speak instead of Kucsuk.

"That is not true," he stammered, changing colour.

"Not true!" replied Feriz stiffly; "then, if thine eyes be good, wilt thou tell me what regiment is now pa.s.sing thy tent with martial music?"

The tent be it understood was open towards the plain overlooking the whole camp and the river beyond.

A military band was just then crossing the ground not far from the tent, quite alone; no regiment was coming after it.

"Methinks, thou mutinous dog, 'tis no answer to my question to inquire what regiment is now pa.s.sing by, for it maybe that I know better than thou why it has arrived; nor is it part of my duty to mention the rabble by name; suffice it that I hear the trumpets and see the banners."

The Pashas looked at each other; there was neither regiment nor banners.

"So that's it, eh?" said Kiuprile, spitting in front of him; and with that he rose from his place, and, without looking at Ha.s.san, took Kucsuk and Feriz by the arm. "Come!" said he to the other generals--"you can go now!" he cried to the guards, and the whole a.s.sembly withdrew from the tent.

Ha.s.san fell back on his carpet. He himself had betrayed his great defect.

Azrael rushed from her hiding-place.

"Oh, my master!" she cried; "thou didst wrongly interpret my words, and so made everything go wrong."

"I am lost," he stammered, and quite beside himself he plunged into the interior of the tent to pray with the dervishes.

Yffim Beg stood there as if his soul had been filched from him; while Azrael approached him with a smile of devilish scorn and stroked his face down with her hand.

"Dost thou fancy thou wilt require another good word for thee?"

"I can betray thee."

"Thou couldst if thou didst but know which of the two is to live longest--Ha.s.san or I."

Two hours after this scene there was a private conversation between Ha.s.san Pasha and Yffim Beg, from which even Azrael was excluded. The interview over, Yffim Beg departed quickly from the camp. The general had sent him to Transylvania to go in his name from village to village to make a general inspection, and ask the magistrates why the common folks did not pay the taxes at the proper time. He was thence to go to the Prince and ask the cause of this delay in the transmission of taxes; thus either the people or the Prince would be held responsible.

Ha.s.san for a long time had had a scheme in his head of seizing Transylvania by force of arms, whereby, on the one hand, he would win the favour of the Porte, by adding a new subject state to Turkish territory, and, on the other hand, would secure for himself a good easy princely chair instead of a dangerously-jolting general's saddle.

At the same time Olaj Beg was worrying Apafi to seize the escaped Princess of Moldavia and send her to Ha.s.san Pasha, who was well aware that the silken cord would be constantly dangling before his eyes till he had found someone else whose neck he could jeopardise instead of his own.

Kucsuk and his son had escaped from his talons, but he had just heard from Olaj Beg that the Moldavian Princess was with Apafi, and in an interesting condition, so that there was every prospect of a young Prince being born. Here, then, in case of necessity, was a person who could be handed over, and in case she escaped, the silken cord would remain round Apafi's neck.