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diff --git a/40519-0.txt b/40519-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb86f79 --- /dev/null +++ b/40519-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12210 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40519 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + - The book uses both Palæologus and Palælogus. + - The book uses both DeStreeses and De Streeses. + In both cases, both spellings have been retained as printed. + + Page 304: Ramedan should possibly be Ramadan. + + + + + + "_Your swarthy hero Scanderbeg, + Gauntlet on hand and boot on leg, + And skilled in every warlike art, + Riding through his Albanian lands, + And following the auspicious star + That shone for him o'er Ak-Hissar._" + + LONGFELLOW + + + + + THE CAPTAIN OF THE JANIZARIES + + _A STORY OF THE TIMES OF SCANDERBEG + AND + THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE_ + + BY JAMES M. LUDLOW, D.D. LITT.D + + ELEVENTH EDITION + + + NEW YORK AND LONDON + HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS + + + + + Copyright, 1886, by DODD, MEAD & CO. + + Copyright, 1890, by JAMES M. LUDLOW. + + _Electrotyped by Dodd, Mead & Co._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The story of the Captain of the Janizaries originated, not in the +author's desire to write a book, but in the fascinating interest of +the times and characters he has attempted to depict. It seems strange +that the world should have so generally forgotten George Castriot, or +Scanderbeg, as the Turks named him, whose career was as romantic as it +was significant in the history of the Eastern Mediterranean. Gibbon +assigns to him but a few brief pages, just enough to make us wonder +that he did not write more of the man who, he confessed, "with unequal +arms resisted twenty-three years the powers of the Ottoman Empire." +Creasy, in his history of the Turks, devotes less than a page to the +exploits of one who "possessed strength and activity such as rarely +fall to the lot of man," "humbled the pride of Amurath and baffled the +skill and power of his successor Mahomet." History, as we make it in +events, is an ever-widening river, but, as remembered, it is like a +stream bursting eastward from the Lebanons, growing less as it flows +until it is drained away in the desert. + +Though our story is in the form of romance, it is more than "founded +upon fact." The details are drawn from historical records, such as the +chronicles of the monk Barletius--a contemporary, though perhaps a +prejudiced admirer, of Scanderbeg--the later Byzantine annals, the +customs of the Albanian people, and scenes observed while travelling +in the East. + +The author takes the occasion of the publication of a new edition to +gratefully acknowledge many letters from scholars, as well as notices +from the press, which have expressed appreciation of this attempt to +revive popular interest in lands and peoples that are to reappear in +the drama of the Ottoman expulsion from Europe, upon which the curtain +is now rising. + + + + +THE CAPTAIN OF THE JANIZARIES. + +CHAPTER I + + +From the centre of the old town of Brousa, in Asia Minor--old even at +the time of our story, about the middle of the fifteenth +century--rises an immense plateau of rock, crowned with the fortress +whose battlements and towers cut their clear outlines high against the +sky. An officer of noble rank in the Ottoman service stood leaning +upon the parapet, apparently regaling himself with the marvellous +panorama of natural beauty and historic interest which lay before him. +The vast plain, undulating down to the distant sea of Marmora, was +mottled with fields of grain, gardens enclosed in hedges of cactus, +orchards in which the light green of the fig-trees blended with the +duskier hues of the olive, and dense forests of oak plumed with the +light yellow blooms of the chestnut. Here and there writhed the heavy +vapors of the hot sulphurous streams springing out of the base of the +Phrygian Olympus, which reared its snow-clad peak seven thousand feet +above. The lower stones of the fortress of Brousa were the mementoes +of twenty centuries which had drifted by them since they were laid by +the old Phrygian kings. The flags of many empires had floated from +those walls, not the least significant of which was that of the +Ottoman, who, a hundred years before, had consecrated Brousa as his +capital by burying in yonder mausoleum the body of Othman, the founder +of the Ottoman dynasty of the Sultans. + +But the Turkish officer was thinking of neither the beauty of the +scene nor the historic impressiveness of the place. His face, shaded +by the folds of his enormous turban, wore deeper shadows which were +flung upon it from within. He was talking to himself. + +"The Padishah[1] has a nobler capital now than this,--across the sea +there in Christian Europe. But by whose hands was it conquered? By +Christian hands! by Janizaries! renegades! Ay, this hand!"--he +stripped his arm bare to the shoulder and looked upon its gnarled +muscles as he hissed the words through his teeth--"this hand has cut a +wider swathe through the enemies of the Ottoman than any other man's; +a swathe down which the Padishah can walk without tripping his feet. +And this was a Christian's hand once! Well may I believe the story my +old nurse so often told me,--that, when the priest was dropping the +water of baptism upon my baby brow, this hand seized the sacred +vessel, and it fell shattered upon the pavement. Ah, well have I +fulfilled that omen!" + +The man walked to and fro on the platform with quick and jarring step, +as if to shake off the grip of unwelcome thoughts. There was a majesty +in his mien which did not need the play of his partially suppressed +fury to fascinate the attention of any who might have beheld him at +the moment. He was tall of stature, immensely broad at the shoulders, +deep lunged, comparatively light and trim in the loins, as the close +drawn sash beneath the embroidered jacket revealed: arms long; hands +large. He looked as if he might wrestle with a bear without a weapon. +His features were not less notable than his form. His forehead was +high and square, with such fulness at the corners as to leave two +cross valleys in the middle. Deep-set eyes gleamed from beneath broad +and heavy brows. The lips were firm, as if they had grown rigid from +the habit of concealing, rather than expressing, thought, except in +the briefest words of authority,--Cæsar-lips to summarize a campaign +in a sentence. The chin was heavy, and would have unduly protruded +were it not that there were needed bulk and strength to stand as the +base of such prominent upper features. Altogether his face would have +been pronounced hard and forbidding, had it not been relieved as +remarkably by that strange radiance with which strong intelligence and +greatness of soul sometimes transfigure the coarsest features. + +These peculiarities of the man were observed and commented upon by two +officers who were sitting in the embrasure of the parapet at the +farther end of the battlement. The elder of the two, who had grown +gray in the service, addressed his comrade, a young man, though +wearing the insignia of rank equal to that of the other. + +"Yes, Bashaw,[2] he is not only the right hand of the Padishah, but +the army has not seen an abler soldier since the Ottoman entered +Europe. You know his history?" + +"Only as every one knows it, for in recent years he has written it +with his cimeter flashing through battle dust as the lightning through +clouds," replied the young officer. + +The veteran warmed with enthusiasm as he narrated, "I well remember +him as a lad when he was brought from the Arnaout's[3] country. He was +not over nine years of age when Sultan Mahomet conquered the lands of +Epirus, where our general's father, John Castriot, was duke. As a +hostage young George Castriot was brought with his three brothers to +Adrianople." + +"Are his brothers of the same metal?" asked the listener. + +"Allah only knows what they would have been had not state +necessity----" The narrator completed the sentence by a significant +gesture, imitating the swirl of the executioner's sword as he takes +off the head of an offender. + +"But George Castriot was a favorite of the Sultan, who fondled him as +the Roman Hadrian did his beautiful page, Antinous. And well he might, +for a lad more lithe of limb and of wit never walked the ground since +Allah bade the angels worship the goodly form of Adam.[4] Once when a +prize was offered for the best display of armor, and the provinces +were represented by their different champions in novel helmets and +corselets and shields, none of which pleased the imperial taste, it +was the whim of the Padishah to have young Castriot parade before the +judges panoplied only in his naked muscle, and to order that the prize +should be given to him, together with the title Iscanderbeg.[5] And +well he won it. In the after wrestling matches he put upon his hip the +best of them, Turcomans from Asia, and Moors from Africa, and +Giaours[6] from the West. And he was as skilful on a horse's legs as +he was on his own. His namesake, Alexander, could not have managed +Bucephalus better than he. I well remember his game with the two +Scythians. They came from far to have a joust with the best of the +Padishah's court. They were to fight singly: if one were overthrown, +the other, after the victor had breathed himself, was to redeem the +honor of his comrade. Scanderbeg sent his spear-head into the throat +of his antagonist at the first encounter, when the second barbarian +villain treacherously set upon him from the rear. The young champion +wheeled his horse as quickly as a Dervish twists his body, and with +one blow of his sword, clove him in twain from skull to saddle." + +"Bravo!" cried the listener, "I believe it, for look at the arm that +he has uncovered now." + +"It is a custom he has," continued the narrator. "He always fights +with his sword-arm bared to the shoulder. When he was scarce nineteen +years old he was at the siege of Constantinople, in 800 of the +Hegira,[7] with Sultan Amurath. His skill there won him a Sanjak.[8] +Since that time you know his career." + +"Ay! his squadrons have shaken the world." + +"He has changed of late, however; grown heavy at the brows. But he +comes this way." + +As the general approached, the two bashaws bowed low to the ground, +and then stood in the attitude of profound obeisance until he +addressed them. His face gleamed with frank and genial familiarity as +he exchanged with them a few words; but it was again masked in sombre +thoughtfulness as he passed on. + +Near the gate by which the fortress was entered from the lower town +was gathered a group of soldiers who were bantering a strange looking +creature with hands tied behind him--evidently some captive. + +"What have you here?" said Scanderbeg, approaching them. + +"That we cannot tell. It is a secret," replied the subaltern officer +in charge of the squad, making a low salâm, and with a twinkle in his +eyes which took from his reply all semblance of disrespect. + +"But I must have your secret," said the general good-naturedly. + +"It is not our secret, Sire," replied the man, "but his. He will not +tell us who he is." + +"Where does he belong? What tongue has he, Aladdin? You who were once +interpreter to the Bey of Anatolia should know any man by his tongue." + +"He has no tongue, Sire. He is dumb as a toad. His beard has gone +untrimmed so long that it has sewed fast his jaws. He has not +performed his ablutions since the last shower washed him, and his ears +are so filled with dirt plugs that he could not hear a thunder clap." + +The face of the captive seemed to strangely interest the general, who +said as he turned away, "Send him to our quarters. The Padishah has +taken a fancy to deaf mutes of late. They overhear no secrets and tell +no tales. We will scrape him deep enough to find if he has a soul. If +he knows his foot from his buttocks he will be as valued a present to +His Majesty as a fifth wife.[9] Send him to our quarters." + +The general soon returned to the fortress. A room dimly lighted +through two narrow windows that opened into a small inner court, and +contained a divan or couch, a table, and a motley collection of arms, +was the residence of the commandant. A soldier stood by the entrance +guarding the unfortunate captive. + +"You may leave him with me," said Scanderbeg approaching. + +The man was thrust into the apartment, and stood with head bowed until +the guard withdrew. The general turned quickly upon him as soon as +they were alone. + +"If I mistake not, man, though your tongue be tied, your eye spake to +me by the gate." + +"It was heaven's blessing upon my errand reflected there," replied the +man in the Albanian language. "I bear thee a message from Moses +Goleme, of Lower Dibria, and from all the provinces of Albania, from +every valley and every heart." + +"Let me hear it, for I love the very flints on the mountains and every +pebble on the shore of old Albania," replied Scanderbeg eagerly. + +"Heaven be praised! Were my ears dull as the stones they would open to +hear such words," said the man with suppressed emotion. "For since the +death of thy noble father--" + +"My father's death! I had not heard it. When?" exclaimed the general. + +"It is four moons since we buried him beneath the holy stones of the +church at Croia, and the Sultan sent us General Sebaly to govern in +his stead." + +"Do you speak true?" cried Scanderbeg, laying his hand upon the man's +shoulder and glaring into his face. "My father dead? and a stranger +appointed in his stead? and Sultan Amurath has not even told me! +Beware, man, lest you mistake." + +"I cannot mistake, Sire, for these hands closed the eyes of John +Castriot after he had breathed a prayer for his land and for his +son--one prayer for both. Moses Goleme was with us, for you know he +was thy father's dearest friend and wisest counsellor, and to him thy +father gave charge that word should be sent thee that to thee he +bequeathed his lands." + +"Stop! Stop!" said Scanderbeg, pacing the little room like a caged +lion. "Let me think. But go on. He did not curse me, then? Swear to +me,"--and he turned facing the man--"swear to me that my father did +not curse me with his dying breath! Swear it!" + +"I swear it," said the man, "and that all Albania prays to-day for +George Castriot. These are the tidings which the noble Moses bade me +bring thee, though I found thee at the Indus or under the throne of +the Sultan himself. I have no other message. That I might tell thee +this in the free speech of Albania I have kept dumb to all others. If +it be treason to the Sultan for thee to hear it, let my head pay the +penalty. But know, Sire, that our land will rest under no other rule +than that of a Castriot." + +"A Castriot!" soliloquized the general. "Well, it is a better name +than Scanderbeg. Ho, guard! Take this fellow! Let him share your +mess!" + +When alone the general threw himself upon the divan for a moment, then +paced again the apartment, and muttered to himself---- + +"And for what has a Castriot given himself to the Turk! Yet I did not +betray my land and myself. They stole me. They seduced my judgment as +a child. They flattered my conceit as a man. Like a leopard I have +fought in the Padishah's arena, and for a leopard's pay--the meat that +makes him strong, and the gilded cage that sets off his spots. I have +led his armies, for what? For glory. But whose glory? The Padishah +cries in every emergency, 'Where is _my_ Scanderbeg? Scanderbeg to the +rescue!' But it means, 'Slave, do my bidding!' And I, the tinselled +slave, bow my head to the neck of my steed, and the empire rings with +the tramp of my squadrons, and the praise of Scanderbeg's loyalty! +Pshaw! He calls me his lightning, but he is honored as the invisible +Jove who hurls it. And I am a Castriot! A Christian! Ay, a Christian +dog,[10] indeed, to fawn and lick the hands of one who would despise +me were he not afraid of my teeth. He takes my father's lands and +gives them to another; and I--I am of too little account to be even +told 'Thy father is dead.'" + +Scanderbeg paused in the light that streamed through the western +window. It was near sunset, and a ruddy gleam shot across the room. + +"This light comes from the direction of Albania, and so there comes a +red gleam--blood red--from Albania into my soul." + +He drew the sleeve of the left arm and gazed at a small round spot +tattooed just above the elbow--the indelible mark of the Janizary. + +"They that put it there said that by it I should remember my vow to +the Padishah. And, since I cannot get thee out, my little talisman, I +swear by thee that I shall never forget my vow; no, nor them that made +my child-lips take it, and taught me to abjure my father's name, my +country's faith, and broke my will to the bit and rein of their +caprice. It may be that some day I shall wash thee out in damned +Moslem blood. But hold! that would be treason. Scanderbeg a traitor? +How they will hiss it from Brousa to Adrianople; from the lips of +Vizier and pot-carrier! But is it treason to betray treason? But +patience! Bide thy time, Castriot!" + +A slight commotion in the court drew the attention of Scanderbeg. In a +moment the sentry announced: + +"A courier from His Majesty!" + +The message told that the Ottoman forces had been defeated in +Europe--the noted bashaw, Schehadeddin, having been utterly routed by +Hunyades. The missive called the Sultan's "always liege and invincible +servant, Scanderbeg, to the rescue!" Within an hour a splendid suite +of officers, mounted on swift and gaily caparisoned steeds, gathered +about the great general, and at the raising of the horse-tail upon the +spear-head, dashed along the road to the coast of Marmora where +vessels were in waiting to convey them across to the European side. +Scanderbeg had but a moment's interview with the dumb captive, +sufficient to whisper, + +"Return our salutation to the noble Moses Goleme; and say that George +Castriot will honor his confidence better in deeds than he could in +words. I know not the future, my brave fellow, and might not tell it +if I did, even to ears as deaf as yours. But say to Goleme that +Castriot swears by his beard--by the beard of Moses--that brighter +days shall come for Albania even if they must be flashed from our +swords. Farewell!" + +The man fell at the general's feet and embraced them. Then rising he +raised his hand, "By the beard of Moses! Let that be the watchword +between our people and our rightful prince. Brave men scattered from +Adria to Hæmus will listen for that watchword. Farewell, Sire. By the +beard of Moses!" + +Scanderbeg summoned a soldier and said sternly, "Take this fellow +away. He is daft as well as dumb and deaf. Yet treat him well. Such +creatures are the special care of Allah. Take him to the Bosphorus +that he may cross over to his kin, the Greeks, at Constantinople." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] A title of the Sultan. + +[2] Bashaw; an old name for pasha. + +[3] Arnaout; Turkish for Albanian, a corruption of the old Byzantine +word Arvanitæ. + +[4] Koran, Chap. II. + +[5] Iscander-Beg; or The Lord Alexander. + +[6] Giaours; a term of reproach by which the Turks designate the +unbelievers in Mahomet, especially Christians. + +[7] 800 of the Hegira; 1422 of the Christian era. + +[8] Sanjak; a military and administrative authority giving the +possessor command of 5,000 horse. + +[9] The Moslems are allowed four wives. Beyond this number their women +can be only concubines. + +[10] The Moslems call Christians dogs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +A little hamlet lay, like an eagle's nest, high on the southern slope +of the Balkan mountains. The half dozen huts of which it consisted +were made of rough stones, daubed within and without thick with clay. +The roofs were of logs, overlaid with mats of brushwood woven together +by flexible withes, and plastered heavily. The inhabitants were +goatherds. Their lives were simple. If they were denied indulgence in +luxuries, they were also removed from that contact with them which +excites desire, and so were contented. They seldom saw the faces of +any from the great world, upon so large a portion of which they looked +down. Their absorbing occupation was in summer to watch the flocks +which strolled far away among the cliffs, and in winter to keep them +close to the hamlet, for then terrific storms swept the mountains and +filled the ravines with impassable snow. + +Milosch and his good wife, Helena--Maika Helena, good Mother Helena, +all the hamlet called her--were blessed with two boys. Their faces +were as bright as the sky in which, from their lofty lodgings, they +might be said to have made their morning ablutions for the eleven and +twelve years of their respective lives. Yet they were not children of +the cherubic type; rather tough little knots of humanity, with big +bullet-heads thatched over with heavy growths of hair, which would +have been red, had it not been bleached to a light yellow by sunshine +and cloud-mists. Instead of the toys and indolent pastimes of the +nursery they had only the steep rocks, the thick copse, the gnarled +trees, and the wild game of the mountains for their play-things. They +thus developed compactly knit muscles, depth of lung and thickness of +frame, which gave agility and endurance. At the same time, the +associations of their daily lives, the precipitous cliff, the +trembling edge of the avalanche, the caves of strange beasts, the wild +roaring of the winds, the awful grandeur of the storms, the impressive +solitude which filled the intervals of their play like untranslatable +but mighty whispers from the unknown world taking the place of the +prattle of this,--these fostered intrepidity, self-reliance, and +balance of disposition, if not of character. For religious discipline +they had the occasional ministrations of a Greek priest or missionary +monk from the Rilo Monastir, many leagues to the west of them. They +knew the Creed of Nicæa, the names of some of the saints; but of truly +divine things they had only such impressions as they caught from the +great vault of the universal temple above them, and from the +suggestions of living nature at their feet. + +By the side of Milosch's house ran--or rather climbed and tumbled, so +steep was it--that road over the Balkans, through the Pass of Slatiza, +by which Alexander the Great, nearly two thousand years before, had +burst upon the Moesians. Again, within their father's memory, Bajazet, +the "Turkish Lightning" as he was called because of the celerity of +his movements, had flashed his arms through this Pass, and sent the +bolts of death down upon Wallachia, and poured terror even to the +distant gates of Vienna. Often had Milosch rehearsed the story of the +terrible days when he himself had been a soldier in the army of the +Wallachian Prince Myrtche; and showed the scar of the cut he had +received from the cimeter of a Turkish Janizary, whom he slew not far +from the site of their home. + +Their neighbor, Kabilovitsch, a man well weighted with years, not only +listened to these tales, but added marvellous ones of his own; +sometimes relating to the wars of King Sigismund of Hungary, who, +after Prince Myrtche, had tried to regain this country from the cruel +rule of the Moslems; more frequently, however, his stories were of +exploits of anonymous heroes. These were told with so much enthusiasm +as to create the belief that the narrator had himself been the actor +in most of them. For Kabilovitsch was a strange character in the +little settlement; though not the less confided in because of the +mystery of his previous life. He had come to this out-of-the-way +place, as he said, to escape with his little daughter the incessant +raids and counter-raids of Turks and Christians, which kept the +adjacent country in alarm. + +Good Uncle Kabilovitsch--as all the children of the hamlet called +him--named his daughter, a lass of ten summers, Morsinia, after the +famous peasant beauty, Elizabeth Morsiney, who had so fascinated King +Sigismund. + +Morsinia often braided her hair, and sat beneath her canopy of +blossoming laurel, while Constantine, the younger of Milosch's boys, +dismounted from the back of his trained goat at the mimic threshold, +and wooed her on bended knee, as the good king wooed the beautiful +peasant. Michael, the elder boy, was not less ardent, though less +poetic, in the display of his passion for Morsinia. A necklace of +bear's claws cut with his own hand from a monster beast his father had +killed; a crown made of porcupine quills which he had picked up among +the rocks; anklets of striped snake skin--these were the pledges of +his love, which he declared he would one day redeem with those made of +gems and gold--that is, when he should have become a princely warrior. + +To Constantine, however, the little maiden was most gracious. It was a +custom in the Balkan villages for the young people, on the Monday +after Easter, to twist together bunches of evergreens, and for each +young swain to kiss through the loops the maid he loved the best. With +adults this was regarded as a probationary agreement to marry. If the +affection were mutually as full flamed the following Easter, the kiss +through the loop was the formal betrothal. Constantine's impatience +wreathed the evergreens almost daily, and, as every kiss stood for a +year, there was awaiting them--if the good fairies would only make it +true--some centuries of nuptial bliss. + +The little lover had built for himself a booth against the steep +rocks. Into this Morsinia would enter with bread and water, and +placing them upon the stone which answered for a table, say, in +imitation of older maidens assuming the care of husbands, "So will I +always and faithfully provide for thee." Then she would touch the +sides of the miniature house with a twig, which she called her +distaff, saying, "I will weave for thee, my lord, goodly garments and +gay." She would also sit down and undress and redress her doll, which +Constantine had carved from wood, and which they said would do for the +real baby that the bride was expected to array, in the ceremony by +which she acknowledged the obligations of wifehood.[11] + +But Michael was not at all disconsolate at this preference shown his +brother; for he knew that Morsinia would prefer him to all the world +when she heard what a great soldier he had become. Indeed, on some +days Michael was lord of the little booth; and more than once the fair +enchantress put the evergreen loop around both the boys in as sincere +indecision as has sometimes vexed older hearts than hers. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[11] These are still Servian customs. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +In the winter of 1443--a few months subsequent to the events with +which our story begins--the Pass of Slatiza echoed other sounds than +the cry of the eagle, the bleating of the flocks, and the songs and +halloos of the mountaineers. Distant bugle calls floated between the +cliffs. At night a fire would flash from a peak, and be suddenly +extinguished, as another gleamed from a peak beyond. Strange men had +gone up and down the road. With one of these Uncle Kabilovitsch had +wandered off, and been absent several days. Great was the excitement +of the little folks when Milosch told them that a real army was not +far off, coming from the Christian country to the north of them, and +that its general was no other than the great Hunyades, the White +Knight of Wallachia--called so because he wore white armor--the son of +that same King Sigismund and the fair Elizabeth Morsiney. How little +Morsinia's cheeks paled, while those of the boys burned, and their +eyes flashed, as their father told them, by the fire-light in the +centre of their cabin, that the White Knight had already conquered the +Turks at Hermanstadt and at Vasag and on the banks of the Morava, and +was--if the story which Milosch had heard from some scouts were +true--preparing to burst through the Balkan mountains, and descend +upon the homes of the Turk on the southern plains. Little did they +sleep at night, in the excitement of the belief that, at any day, they +might see the soldiers--real soldiers, just like those of Alexander, +and those of Bajazet--tramping through the Pass. The tremor of the +earth, occasioned by some distant landslide, in their excited +imagination was thought to be due to the tramp of a myriad feet. The +hoot of the owl became the trumpet call for the onset: and the sharp +whistle of the wind, between leafless trees and along the ice-covered +rocks, seemed like the whizzing flight of the souls of the slain. + +Once, just as the gray dawn appeared, Kabilovitsch, who had been +absent for several days, came hurriedly with the alarming news that +the Turks, steadily retiring before the Christians, would soon occupy +the Pass. They were already coming up the defiles, as the mists rise +along the sides of the mountains, in dense masses, hoping to gain such +vantage ground that they could hurl the troops of Hunyades down the +almost perpendicular slopes before they could effect a secure lodgment +on the summit. The children and women must leave herds and homes, and +fly instantly. The only safe retreat was the great cave, which the +mountaineers knew of, lying off towards the other Pass, that of +Soulourderbend. + +The fugitives were scarcely gone when the mountain swarmed with +Moslems. The mighty mass of humanity crowded the cliffs like bees +preparing to swarm. They fringed the breastworks of native rock with +abattis made of huge trunks of trees. During the day the Turks had +diverted a mountain stream, so that, leaving its bed, it poured a thin +sheet of water over the steepest part of the road the Christians were +to ascend. This, freezing during the night, made a wall of ice. The +Christians were thus forced to leave the highway and attempt to scale +the crags far and near; a movement which the Turks met by spreading +themselves everywhere above them. Upon ledges and into crevices which +had never before felt the pressure of human feet clambered the +contestants. Every rock was empurpled with gore. Turkish turban and +Hungarian helmet were caught upon the same thorny bush; while the +heads which had worn them rolled together in the same gully, and +stared their deathless hatred from their dead eyes. + +The Turks in falling back discovered the mouth of the cave in which +the peasants had taken refuge. As the Moslem bugles sounded the +retreat, lest they should be cut off by the Christians who had scaled +the heights on their flanks, they seized the women and children, who +soon were lost to each other's sight in the skurry of the retiring +host. The hands of Constantine were tied about the neck, and his legs +about the loins, of a huge Moslem, to whose keeping he had been +committed. An arrow pierced the soldier to the heart. + +It seemed as if more than keenness of eye--some inspiration of his +fatherly instinct--led Kabilovitsch on through the vast confusion, far +down the slope, outrunning the fugitives and their pursuers, avoiding +contact with any one by leaping from rock to rock and darting like a +serpent through secret by-paths, until he reached the horsemen of the +Turks, who had not been able to follow the foot-soldiers up the steep +ascent. He knew that his little girl would be given in charge to some +one of these. He, therefore, concealed himself in the growing darkness +behind a clump of evergreen trees, close to which one must pass in +order to reach the horses. A moment later, with the stealth and the +strength of a panther, he leaped upon a Turk. The man let go the tiny +form of the girl he was carrying; but, before he could assume an +attitude of defence, the iron grip of Kabilovitsch was upon his +throat, and the steel of the infuriated old man in his heart. Under +the sheltering darkness, carrying his rescued child, Kabilovitsch +threaded his way along ledges and balconies of rock projecting so +slightly from the precipitous mountain that they would have been +discerned, even in daylight, by no eye less expert than his own. At +one place his way was blocked by a dead body which had fallen from the +ledge above, and been caught by the tangled limbs of the mountain +laurel. Without relinquishing his load, he pushed with his foot the +lifeless mass down through the entanglement, and listened to the +snapping of the bushes and the crashing of loosened stones, until the +heavy thud announced that it had found a resting place. + +"So God rest his soul, be he Christian or Paynim!" muttered the old +man. "And now, my child, are you frighted?" + +"No, father, not when you are with me," said Morsinia. + +"Could you stand close to the rock, and hold very tight to the bush, +if I leave you a moment?" + +"Yes, father, I will hold to the bush as tight as it holds to the +rock." + +Kabilovitsch grasped a root of laurel, and, testing it with main +strength, swung clear of the ledge, until his foot rested upon another +ledge nearly the length of his body below. Bracing himself so that he +spanned the interval with the strength of a granite pillar, he bade +the child crawl cautiously in the direction of his voice. As she +touched his hands, he lifted her with perfect poise, and placed her +feet beside his own on a broad table rock. + +"Now, blessed be Jesu, we are safe! Did I not tell you I would some +day take you to a cavern which no one but Milosch and I had ever seen? +Here it is. Unless Sultan Amurath hires the eagles to be his spies--as +they say he does--no eye but God's will see us here even when the sun +rises. You did not know, my little princess, what a coward your old +father had become, to run away from a battle. Did you, my darling?" +said he kissing her. "Never did I dream that Ar----, that Kabilovitsch +would fly like a frightened partridge through the bushes. But my +girl's heart has taken the place of my own to-night." + +As he spoke he slipped from his shoulders the rough cape, or armless +jacket, of bear-skin, and wrapped the girl closely in it. He then +carried her beneath the roof of a little cave, where he enfolded her +in his arms, making his own back a barrier against the cutting night +wind and the whirling snow. The cold was intense. Thinking only of the +danger to the already half-benumbed and wearied body of the child, he +took off his conical cap, and unwound the many folds of coarse woollen +cloth of which it was made, and with it wrapped her limbs and feet. + +Thus the night was passed. With the first streak of the dawn +Kabilovitsch crept cautiously from the ledge, and soon returned with +the news that the Turks had vanished, swept away by the tide of +Christian soldiers which was still pouring over and down the mountain +in pursuit. + +Horrible was the scene which everywhere greeted them as they clambered +back toward the road. The dead were piled upon the dying in every +ravine. Red streaks seamed the white snow--channels in which the +current of many a life had drained away. The road was choked with the +hurrying victors. But the old man's familiarity with the ground found +paths which the nimble feet of the maid could climb; so that the day +was not far advanced when they stood on the site of their home. +Scarcely a trace of the little hamlet remained. Whatever could be +burned had fed the camp-fires of the preceding night. The houses had +been thrown down by the soldiers in rifling the grain bins which were +built between their outer and inner walls. + +The old man sat down upon the door-stone of what had been his home. +His head dropped upon his bosom. Morsinia stood by his side, her arm +about his neck, and her cheek pressed close to his, so that her bright +golden hair mingled with his gray beard--as in certain mediæval +pictures the artist expresses a pleasing fancy in hammered work of +silver and gold. They scarcely noticed that a group of horsemen, more +gaily uniformed than the ordinary soldiers, had halted and were +looking at them. + +"By the eleven thousand virgins of Coln! I never saw a more unique +picture than that," said one who wore a skull cap of scarlet, while an +attendant carried his heavy helmet. "If Masaccio were with us I would +have him paint that scene for our new cathedral at Milano, as an +allegory of the captivity in Babylon." + +"Rather of the captivity in Avignon. It would be a capital +representation of the Holy Father and his daughter the Church," +replied a companion laughing. "Only I would have the painter insert +the portrait of your eminence, Cardinal Julian, as delivering them +both." + +"That would not be altogether unhistoric; for the deliverance was not +wholly wrought until our time," replied the cardinal, evidently +gratified with the flattering addition which his comrade, King +Vladislaus, had made to his pleasing conceit. "But if to-day's victory +be as thorough as it now looks, and we drive the Turks out of Europe, +it would serve as a picture of the captivity in which the haughty, +half-infidel emperor of the Greeks and his daughter, Byzantium, will +soon be to Rome." + +"But, by my crown," said Vladislaus, "and with due reverence for the +great cardinal under whose cap is all the brain that Rome can now +boast of--I think the Greeks will find as much spiritual desolation in +Mother Church as these worthy people have about them here." + +"I can pardon that speech to the newly baptized king of half-barbarian +Hungary, when I would not shrive another for it," replied Julian +petulantly. "The son of a pagan may be allowed much ignorance +regarding the mystery of the Holy See. But a truce to our badgering! +Let us speak to this old fellow. Good man, is this your house? By +Saint Catherine! the girl is beautiful, your highness." + +"It was my home, Sire, yesterday, but now it is his that wants it," +replied Kabilovitsch. + +"And where do you go now?" asked the cardinal. + +"Towards God's gate, Sire; and I wish I might see it soon, but for +this little one," said the old man, rising. + +"Holy Peter let you in when you get there," rejoined His Eminence, +turning his horse away. + +"Hold! Cardinal," replied the king. "I am surprised at that speech +from you. You have tried to teach me by lectures for a fortnight past +that Rome has temporal as well as spiritual authority, all power on +earth as well as in heaven. Now, by Our Lady! you ought to help this +good man over his earthly way towards God's gate, as well as wish him +luck when he gets there. But the priest preaches, and leaves the laity +to do the duties of religion. Credit me with a good Christian deed to +balance the many bad ones you remember against me, Cardinal, and I +will help the man. The golden hair of the child against the old man's +head were as good an aureole as ever a saint wore. And that Holy Peter +knows, if the Cardinal does not. Ho, Olgard! Take the lass on the +saddle with you. And, old man, if you will keep close with your +daughter, you will find as good provision behind the gate of +Philippopolis as that in heaven, if report be true. And, by Saint +Michael! if we go dashing down the mountain at this rate we will vault +the walls of that rich Moslem town as easily as the devil jumped the +gate of Paradise." + +Kabilovitsch trudged by the side of Olgard, who held Morsinia before +him. It was hard for the old man to keep from under the hoofs of the +horses as the attendant knights crowded together down the narrow and +tortuous descent. Suddenly the girl uttered a cry, and, clapping her +hands, called, + +"Constantine, Constantine!" + +The missing lad, emerging from a copse, stood for an instant in +amazement at the apparition of his little playmate; then dashed among +the crowd toward her. + +"Drat the witch!" said a knight--between the legs of whose horse the +boy had gone--aiming at him a blow with his iron mace. Constantine +would have been trampled by the crowding cavalcade, had not the strong +hand of a trooper seized him by his ragged jacket and lifted him to +the horse's crupper. + +"So may somebody save my own lad in the mountains of Carpathia!" said +the rough, but kindly soldier. + +"Ay, the angels will bear him up in their hands, lest he even dash his +foot against a stone, for thy good deed," exclaimed a monk, who, with +hood thrown back, and almost breathless with the effort to rescue the +lad himself, had reached him at the same moment. + +"Good Father, pray for me!" said the trooper, crossing himself. + +"Ay, with grace," replied the monk, extricating himself from the +crowd, and hasting back to the side of a wounded man, whom his +comrades were carrying on a stretcher which had been extemporized with +an old cloak tied securely between two stout saplings. + +As night darkened down, the plain at the base of the mountain burst +into weird magnificence with a thousand campfires. The Turks were in +full retreat toward Adrianople, and joy reigned among the Christians. +It was the eve of Christmas. The stars shone with rare brilliancy +through the cold clear atmosphere. + +"The very heavens return the salutation of our beacons," said King +Vladislaus. + +A trumpet sounded its shrill and jubilant note, which was caught up by +others, until the woods and fields and the mountain sides were flooded +with the inarticulate song, as quickly as the first note of a bird +awakens the whole matin chorus of the summer time. + +Cardinal Julian, reining his horse at the entrance to the camp, +listened as he gazed-- + +"'And with the angel there was a multitude of the heavenly host +praising God!' Let us accept the joy of this eve of the birth of our +Lord as an omen of the birth of Christian power to these lands, which +have so long lain in the shadow of Moslem infidelity and Greek heresy. +Our camps yonder flash as the sparks which flew from the apron of the +Infant Jesu and terrified the devil.[12] Sultan Amurath has been +scorched this day, though the infernal fiend lodge in his skin, as I +verily believe he does." + +"Amurath was not in personal command to-day. At least so I am told," +replied Vladislaus. "He is occupied with a rebellion of the +Caramanians in Asia. Carambey, the Sultan's sister's husband, led the +forces at the beginning of the fight. He was captured in the bog, and +is now in safe custody with the Servian Despot, George Brankovich. +Hunyades and the Despot have been bargaining for his possession. But +the real commandant, as I have learned from prisoners--at least he was +present at the beginning of the fight--was Scanderbeg." + +"Scanderbeg?" exclaimed Julian with great alarm. "What! the Albanian +traitor, Castriot?--Iscariot, rather, should be his name--This then, +Your Majesty, is no night for revelry; but for watching. The flight of +the enemy, if Scanderbeg leads them, is only to draw us into a net. +What if before morning, with the Balkans behind us, we should be +assaulted with fresh corps of Turks on the front? There is no +fathoming the devices of Scanderbeg's wily brain. And never yet has +he been defeated, except to wrest the better victory out of seeming +disaster. Does General Hunyades know the antagonist he is dealing +with? that it is not some bey or pasha, nor even the Sultan himself, +but Scanderbeg? I have heard Hunyades say that since the days of +Saladin, the Moslems have not had a leader so skilful as that Albanian +renegade: that a glance of his eye has more sagacity in it than the +deliberations of a Divan:[13] and that not a score of knights could +stand against his bare arm. We must see Hunyades." + +"I confess," replied King Vladislaus, "that I liked not the easy +victory we have had. I would have sworn to prevent a myriad foes +climbing the ice road we travelled yesterday, if I had but a company +of pikemen; yet ten thousand Turkish veterans kept us not back; and +they were led by Scanderbeg! There is mystery here. Jesu prevent it +should be the mystery of death to us all! Let's to Hunyades! If only +your wisdom or prayers, Cardinal, could reclaim Scanderbeg to his +Christian allegiance, I would not fear Sultan Amurath, though he were +the devil's pope, with the keys of death and hell in his girdle." + +Hunyades was found with the advance corps of the Christians. But for +his white armor he could scarcely be distinguished from some subaltern +officer, as he moved among the men, inspecting the details of their +encampment. The contrast of the commander-in-chief with the kingly and +the ecclesiastical soldier was striking. He listened quietly to their +surmises and fears, and replied with as little of their excitement as +if he spoke of a new armor-cleaner: + +"Yes! we shall probably have a raid from Scanderbeg before morning. +But we are ready for him. Do you look well to the rear, King +Vladislaus! And do you, Cardinal, marshal a host of fresh Latin +prayers for the dying; for, if Scanderbeg gets among your Italians, +their saffron skins will bleach into ghosts for fright of him." + +The cardinal's face grew as red as his cap, as he replied: + +"But for loyalty to our common Christian cause, and the example of +subordination to our chief, I would answer that taunt as it deserves." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] Vide Apochryphal Gospels. + +[13] Divan; the Turkish Council of State. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The company which Kabilovitsch and the children had joined was halted +at the edge of the great camp. Other peasants and non-combatants +crowded in from their desolated homes; but neither Milosch's face, nor +Helena's, nor yet little Michael's, were among those they anxiously +scanned. The command of King Vladislaus secured for the three favored +refugees every comfort which the rude soldiers could furnish. The boy +and girl were soon asleep by a fire, while the old man lay close +beside them, that no one could approach without arousing him. He, +however, could not sleep. On the one side was the noisy revelry of +the victors; on the other, the darkness of the plain. Here and there +were groups of soldiers, and beyond them an occasional gleam of the +spear-head of some sentinel, who, saluting his comrade, turned at the +end of his beat. + +The dusky form of a huge man attracted Kabilovitsch's eye. As the +stranger drew near, his long bear-skin cape terminating above in a +rough and ungraceful hood, and his long pointed shoes with blocks of +wood for their soles, indicated that he was some peasant. He seemed to +be wandering about with no other aim than to keep himself warm. Yet +Kabilovitsch noted that he lingered as he passed by the various +groups, as if to scan the faces of his fellow-sufferers. + +"Heaven grant that all his kids be safe to-night!" muttered the old +man. + +As the walking figure passed across the line of a fagot fire, he +revealed a splendid form; too straight for one accustomed to bend at +his daily toil. + +"A mountaineer? a hunter?" thought Kabilovitsch, "for the +field-tillers are all round of shoulder, and bow-backed. But no! His +tread is too firm and heavy for that sort of life. One's limbs are +springy, agile, who climbs the crags. A hunter will use the toes more +in stepping." + +Kabilovitsch's curiosity could not keep his eyes from growing heavy +with the cold and the flicker of the fire light, when they were forced +wide open again by the approach of the stranger. The old man felt, +rather than saw, that he was being closely studied from behind the +folds of the hood which the wanderer drew close over his face, to +keep out the cutting wind which swept in gusts down from the +mountains. He passed very near, and was talking to himself, as is apt +to be the custom of men who lead lonely lives. + +"It is bitter cold," he said, with chattering teeth, "bitter cold, by +the beard of Moses!" + +The last words startled Kabilovitsch so that he gave a sudden motion. +The stranger noticed it and paused. Gazing intently upon the old man, +who had now assumed a sitting posture, he addressed him-- + +"By the beard of Moses! it's an awful night, neighbor." + +"Ay, by the beard of Moses! it is; and one could wear the beard of +Aaron, too, with comfort--Aaron's beard was longer than Moses' beard; +is not that what the priest says?" said Kabilovitsch, veiling his +excitement under forced indifference of manner, at the same time +making room for the visitor, who, without ceremony stretched himself +by his side, bringing his face close to that of the old man, and +glaring into it. Kabilovitsch returned his gaze with equal sharpness. + +"What know you of the beard of Moses?" said the stranger. "Was it gray +or black?" + +"Black," said Kabilovitsch, studying the other's face with suspicion +and surprise. "Black as an Albanian thunder cloud, and his eye was as +undimmed by age as that of the eagle that flies over the lake of +Ochrida."[14] + +"You speak well," replied the stranger, pushing back his hood. + +His face was massive and strong. No peasant was he, but one born to +command and accustomed to it. + +"You are----Drakul?" asked the man. + +"No." + +"Harion?" + +"No." + +"Kabilovitsch?" + +"Ay, and you?" + +"Castriot." + +Kabilovitsch sprang to his feet. + +"Lie down! Lie down! Let me share your blanket," said the visitor. +"This air is too crisp and resonant for us to speak aloud in it; and +waking ears at night-time are over quick to hear what does not concern +them. We can muffle our speech beneath the blanket." + +Kabilovitsch felt the hesitation of reverence in assuming a proximity +of such intimacy with his guest; but also felt the authority of the +command and the wisdom of the precaution. He obeyed. + +"I feared that I should find no one who recognized our password. I +must see General Hunyades to-night; yet must not approach his +quarters. Can you get to his tent?" + +"Readily," said Kabilovitsch. "During the day my little lass yonder +won the attention of King Vladislaus, and he gave me the password of +the camp to-night for her safety. '_Christus natus est_'." + +"You must go to him at once, and say that I would see him here. You +will trust me to keep guard over these two kids while you are away? I +will not wolf them." + +"Heaven grant that you may shepherd all Albania,"--and the old man was +off. + +"I knew that the prodigal Prince George would come back some day," +said he to himself. "Many a year have I kept my watch in the Pass, and +among the mountains of Albania. And many a service have I rendered as +a simple goatherd which I could not have done had I worn my country's +colors anywhere except in my heart. And, 'by the beard of Moses!' +During some weeks now I have carried many a message, had some fighting +and hard scratching which I did not understand, except that it was 'by +the beard of Moses!' And now Moses has come; refused at last to be +called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and will free his people. God +will it! And George Castriot has lain under my blanket! I will hang +that blanket in the church at Croia as an offering to the Holy +Virgin.--But no, it belongs to the trooper. Heaven keep me discreet, +or, for the joy of it, I cannot do my errand safely. I'll draw my hood +close, lest the moon yonder should guess my secret." + +Kabilovitsch was challenged at every turn as he wound between the +hundreds of camp-fires and tents; but the magic words, "Christus natus +est," opened the way. + +A circle of splendid tents told him he drew near to headquarters. In +the midst of them blazed an immense fire. Camp-tables, gleaming with +tankards and goblets of silver, were ranged beneath gorgeous canopies +of flaxen canvas, which were lined with blue and purple tapestries. A +multitude of gaily dressed servitors thronged into and out of them. +Here was the royal splendor of Hungary and Poland; there the pavilion +of the Despot of Servia; there the glittering cross of Rome; and, at +the extreme end of this extemporized array of palatial and courtly +pride, the more modest, but still rich, banner of the White Knight. + +Kabilovitsch approached the latter. + +"Your errand, man?" said the guard, holding his spear across the +flapping doorway of the tent. + +"Christus natus est!" was the response. + +"That will do elsewhere, but not here," rejoined the guard. + +"My business is solely with General Hunyades," said Kabilovitsch. + +"It cannot be," said the spearman. "He has no business with any one +but himself. If you are a shepherd of Bethlehem come to adore the +Infant Jesu--as you look to be--you must wait until the morning." + +"My message is as important to him as that of the angels on that +blessed night," said the goatherd, making a deep obeisance and looking +up to heaven as if in prayer, as he spoke. + +"Then proclaim your message, old crook-staff! we have had glad tidings +to-day, but can endure to hear more," said the guard, pushing him +away. + +"No ear on earth shall hear mine but the general's," cried the old +man, raising his voice: "No! by the beard of Moses! it shall not." + +"A strange swear that, old leather-skin! Did you keep your sheep in +Midian, where Moses did, that you know he had a beard. Your cloak is +ragged enough to have belonged to father Jethro; and I warrant it is +as full of vermin as were those of the Egyptians after the plague +that Moses sent on them. But the ten plagues take you! Get away!" + +"No, by the beard of Moses!" shouted Kabilovitsch. + +"Let him pass!" said a voice from deep within the tent. + +"Let him pass!" said another nearer. + +"Let him pass!" repeated one just inside the outer curtain. + +The goatherd passed between a line of sentinels, closely watched by +each. The tent was a double one, composing a room or pavilion, +enclosed by the great tent; so that there was a large space around the +private apartment of the general, allowing the sentinels to patrol +entirely about it without passing into the outer air. + +At the entrance of the inner tent Hunyades appeared. He was of light +build but compactly knit, with ample forehead and generous, but +scarred face; which, however, was more significantly seamed with the +lines that denote thought and courage. He was wrapped in a loose robe +of costly furs. He waved his hand for Kabilovitsch to enter, and bade +the guards retire. Throwing himself on a plain soldier's couch, he +drew close to it a camp seat, and motioned his visitor to sit. + +"You have news from the Albanians, by the beard of Moses?" said +Hunyades inquiringly. + +A moment or two sufficed for the delivery of Kabilovitsch's message. + +"Ho, guard! when this old man goes, let no one enter until he comes +back; then admit him without the pass, instantly," said Hunyades, +springing from the couch. "Now, old man, give me your bear skin--now +your shoes--your cap. Here, wrap yourself in mine. You need not shrink +from occupying Hunyades' skin for a while, since you have had to-night +a more princely soldier under your blanket. Did you say to the north? +On the edge of the camp? A boy and a girl by the fire; and he?" + +The disguised general passed out. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[14] A lake in Albania. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +"By the beard of Moses! I'll break your head with my stick if you come +stumbling over me in that way," growled Scanderbeg from beneath his +blanket, as a peasant-clad man tripped against his huge form extended +by the camp fire. + +"Then let the cold shrink your hulk to its proper size," replied the +stranger. "But you should thank me, instead of cursing me, for waking +you up; for your fire is dying out, and you would perish, sleeping in +the blanket that exposes your feet that it may cover your nose. But +I'll stir your fire and put some sticks on it, if I may sit by it and +melt the frost from my beard and the aches from my toes. But whom have +you here?" + +The man stooped down and eagerly removed the blanket from the +partially covered faces of the children. + +"Constantine!" he exclaimed, "God be praised! and Kabilovitsch's +girl,--or the starlight mocks me!" + +"Father!" cried the boy, waking and throwing his arms about the neck +of the man who stooped to embrace him. + +"And Michael? is he here, too?" asked Milosch. + +"No, father," said the child. "We were parted at the cave, and I have +not seen him except in my dream." + +"In your dream, my child? In your dream? Jesu grant he be not killed, +that his angel spirit came to you in your dream! Did he seem bright +and beautiful--more beautiful than you ever saw him before--as if he +had come to you from Paradise? No? Then he is living yet on the earth; +and by all the devils in hell and Adrianople! I shall find him, though +I tear him from the dead arms of the traitor Castriot himself, as I +was near to taking you, my boy, from the grip of the Turk whose heart +I pierced with an arrow the day of the fight;--but I was set upon and +nigh killed myself by a score of the Infidels." + +"And our mother dear?" asked Constantine. "She is safe?" + +"Ay! ay! safe in heaven, I fear, but we will not give up hope until we +have searched our camps to-morrow; nor then, until we have burned +every seraglio of the Turks from the mountains to the sea. But who +brought you and the lass here?" asked Milosch, eyeing the form of the +surly man beside him. + +"Why, good Uncle Kabilovitsch did," said the boy, staring in amazement +at the spot now usurped by the strange figure of Scanderbeg. + +"Kabilovitsch went to fetch some fire-peat from the gully I told him +of," muttered Scanderbeg. + +"Yes, he is coming yonder," said Milosch, as Kabilovitsch's well-known +hood and cape were outlined against the white background of a +snow-covered fir tree a short distance off. "But he has found no fuel. +Wrap close, my hearties: you will have no more blaze to-night. Ha! +Kabilovitsch!" said he, raising his voice, as the familiar form seemed +about to pass by. "Has the fire in your eye been put out by the cold, +that you cannot find your own place, neighbor? I would have sworn +that, if Kabilovitsch were blind, he could find a lost kid on the +mountains; and now he hardly knows his own nest." + +The assumed Kabilovitsch came near, and gave an awkward salute, which, +while intended to be familiar, was not sufficiently unlimbered of the +habit of authority to avoid giving the impression that its familiarity +was only assumed. + +"By the beard of Moses! I had almost mistook my own camp, now the +fires are smouldering," said he, approaching. + +"He is not Kabilovitsch," said Milosch, half to himself and half +aloud. + +"No," replied Scanderbeg. "But I'll go and find Kabilovitsch. Perhaps +he has more peat than he can carry. And, stranger, I'll help you find +what you are seeking--for you seem daft with the cold--if you will +help me find him I am to look for. By the beard of Moses! that's a +fair agreement; is it not?" + +"A strange swear, that!" said Milosch, looking after the two forms +vanishing among the fir trees. "It is some watchword, and I like it +not among these camp prowlers. I fear for Kabilovitsch. The newcomer +wore his clothes, which I would know if I saw them on the back of the +cardinal; for good Helena cut the hood for our neighbor as she cut the +skirt for his motherless child, little Morsinia there. Some mischief +is brewing. I shall watch and not sleep a wink." + +Had one been lurking in the copse of evergreens to which the men +withdrew, he would have overheard conversation of which these +sentences are parts. + +"Yes, General Hunyades, the time has come. I can endure the service of +the Sultan no longer. But for what I am about to do I alone am +responsible, and must decline to share that responsibility with any +other, either Moslem or Christian. I believe, Sire, that I am in this +directed by some higher power than my own caprice. I am compelled to +it by invisible forces, as really as the stars are dragged by them +through the sky yonder." + +"No star," replied Hunyades, "has purer lustre than that of your noble +purpose, and none are led by the invisible forces to a brighter +destiny than is Scanderbeg." + +"Let not your Christian lips call me Scanderbeg, but Castriot," said +his companion. "Yes, I believe that my new purpose comes from the +inbreathing of some celestial spirit, from some mysterious hearing the +soul has of the inarticulate voice of God. Else why should the thought +of it so strangely satisfy me? I cast myself down from the highest +pinnacle of honor and power and riches with which the Moslem service +can reward one;--for I am at the head of the army, and even the +Vizier has not more respect at Adrianople than have I wherever the +soldiers of the Sultan spread themselves throughout the world. To +leave the Padishah will be to leave every thing for an uncertain +future. Yet I am more than content to do it." + +"Not for an uncertain future, noble Castriot," replied Hunyades +warmly, grasping his hand. "The highest position in the armies of +Christian Europe is yours. My own chieftaincy I could demit without +regret, knowing that it would fall into your hands. The army of Italy +you can take command of to-morrow if you will; for that +scarlet-knobbed coxcomb of an ecclesiastic, Julian, is not fitted for +it. Or Brankovitch, the Servian Despot, will hail you as chief +voivode.[15] You have but to choose from our armies, and put yourself +at the head of whatever nation you will: for the legions will follow +the pointing of your invincible sword as bravely as if it were the +sword of Michael, the Archangel." + +"No! No! These things tempt me not," said Scanderbeg. "I must live +only for Albania. That strange spirit which counsels me comes into my +soul like a pure blast from off my Albanian hills. The voices that +call me are like the dying voice of my father, the sainted Duke John, +who prayed then for his land and for his son--for both in the one +breath that floated his soul to God. Let me look again upon the rocky +fastnesses of the Vitzi, the waters of little Ochrida and Skidar, and +call them mine; I shall then not envy even the plume on your helmet, +generous Hunyades; nor regret what I forsake among the Moslems, +though my estate were that of the entire empire which the Padishah +sees in his dreams, when, not the city of Adrian, but the city of +Constantine shall have become his capital." + +"Christendom will hardly forgive the slight you put upon it, noble +Castriot, by declining some general command, and will soon grow +jealous of your exclusive devotion to little Albania," said Hunyades, +with evident candor. + +"Christendom will not lose, but gain, thereby," replied Scanderbeg. +"For is not Albania, after all, a key point in the mighty battle which +is still to be waged with the Turk over these Eastern countries of +Europe, from Adria to the Euxine?" + +"How so?" asked Hunyades. "Have we not this day broken the power of +the Turk in Europe? and is he not now in headlong haste to the sea of +Marmora?" + +Scanderbeg replied with slow, but ominous, words: + +"General Hunyades, the Moslem power was not this day broken. Trust not +the semblance. My arm could have hurled your soldiers down the +northern declivities of yonder mountains with as much ease as yours +shattered the Turkish ranks at Vasag and Hermannstadt. The armies +still in front of you wait but the word to assail your camp with dire +vengeance for their mysterious defeat--ay, mysterious to them. And the +Padishah is hasting with the hordes released by his victories over the +Caramanians, to join them. No, Sire, the battle for empire on these +plains, and in Macedonia, and along the Danube, has not ended: it has +but just begun. And Albania will be the key spot for a generation to +come. No Ottoman wave can strike central Europe but over the Albanian +hills. A Christian power entrenched there will be a counter menace to +every invasion from the side of the Moslem, and a tremendous auxiliary +in any movement from the side of Christendom. My military judgment +concurs with the voice of that spirit which speaks within me, and bids +me as a Christian to live for Albania." + +"I see in your plan," replied Hunyades, "a gleam of that far wisdom +that won for you the title of 'The eye of the Ottoman,' as your valor +made you the 'right hand of the Sultan.' While my view of the relative +power of the two civilizations now fronting each other on our +battle-lines might be different from yours, and I should place the key +point in the great field rather on the lower Danube than so far to the +west, I yet submit my judgment to yours. Assign to me my part in the +affair you would execute, and, my word as a soldier and a Christian, +you shall have my help." + +"Nay," replied Scanderbeg. "As I said, I can share the responsibility +of my action with no one. Grave charges will ring against my name. My +old comrades will scorn my deed as treacherous. Even history will fail +to understand me. Let me act alone; obeying that strange voice which +will justify me, if not before men, at least at the last day of the +world's judgment. The Moslem has wronged me; outraged my humanity; +slit the tongue of my conscience that it should not speak to me of my +duty; and tried to put out the eyes of my faith. The Divinity bids me +avenge myself. But the vengeance is only mine, and God's. No other +hand must be stained with the blood of it, least of all thine, noble +Hunyades. My plan must be all my own. I only ask that, when I have +extricated myself from Moslem ties, I may have the friendship of +Hunyades. Especially that the way may be left open for my passing +through the places now held by your troops, without challenge and +delay. All else has been arranged by a handful of faithful Albanian +patriots." + +"It shall be as you desire, General Castriot. Choose your password, +and it shall open the way for you though it were through the back door +of the Vatican." + +"Let then the 'beard of Moses' be respected. My trusty Albanians are +accustomed to it." + +"Good!" replied Hunyades. "And I will seal our compact by taking +Adrianople in honor of the departure of its only defender." + +"Nay," said Scanderbeg. "It will not be wise to press upon the +capital. Every approach is guarded more securely than were those at +Vienna by the Christians. The Padishah's engineers are more skilful +than any in the land of the Frank or German. The new compound of +saltpetre and sulphur, of which you hardly know the use, is buried +beneath every gate; and a spark will burst it as Ætna or Vesuvius.[16] +Even the valor of the White Knight cannot conquer the soulless +element. The black grains never blanch with fear. No panic can divert +a stone ball hurled from cannon so that it shall not find the heart of +the bravest. I advise that your armies pause awhile with the prestige +of having scaled the Balkans. In a few months opportunities may have +ripened. Once I am in Albania, Sultan Amurath shall know that the +name of Scanderbeg--the Lord Alexander--was not his, but Fate's +entitling; for, unless my destiny is misread, the Macedonian legions +of the Great Alexander were not swifter than my new Macedonian braves +shall be. This will encourage the Venetians and Genoese; and with +their navies on the Hellespont, the timid Palælogus pressing out from +his covert of Constantinople, and insurrection everywhere from the +Crimea to Peloponnesus, there will not, a generation hence, be left a +turban in Europe. Believe me, General, the Turk's grip of nearly a +century, since he pinched the continent at Gallipoli, cannot be +loosened in a day." + +"To no other than Castriot would I yield my judgment; and not to him, +but that his words are as convincing as his sword. Then so let it be," +was the reply of the Christian leader. + +The Albanian disappeared. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] Voivode; a Servian and Albanian term for general. + +[16] Gunpowder was at this time coming into general use. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Hunyades, closely muffled in his bear-skin disguise, returned to the +camp. + +"A desperate adventure that of Castriot," thought he. "It is well that +he permits no voice but his own to speak his plans, and no ear but +mine to hear them. + +"Hist! + +"No; it is but the ice crackling from the balsams. Yet who knows what +interlopers there may have been? and if the brave Scanderbeg may not +be hamstrung before he reaches his own camp? The ride will be long and +rattling after he enters the Turkish lines. Will it excite no +suspicion? Nor his absence? Heaven guard the brave heart, for the very +mole holes in the ground are the Sultan's ears, into which he drinks +the secrets of his soldiers. By the way, I must lift the dirty cap +from the fellow who called me Kabilovitsch at the herdsman's fire; for +the messenger who brought me word surely said that only Castriot and +the two children were there. Who may this other one be? I must +discover; and if he knows aught he should not, he shall know no more +this side of hell-gate, or my dagger's point has grown so honest that +it has forgotten the way to a knave's heart." + +Approaching the little group, Hunyades went behind them, that, if +possible, he might overhear some words before any persons there knew +of his presence. + +Milosch had been ill at ease through the continued absence of his +friend Kabilovitsch, the peculiar action of the strange man who had +taken his place beneath the blanket, and the apparition of the one who +wore the cap and cape which he thought he could not mistake. There had +always been a mystery about Kabilovitsch's early life, which their +long and close neighborly relations upon the mountain had not enabled +him to solve. The girl, he often thought, was of too light a build and +too fair featured to be the child of the mountaineer. The story +Kabilovitsch often told about the early death of the child's mother, +Milosch's wife never heard without impatience and a shrug of the +shoulders. Who was the child? Could there be any plot to carry her +away among persons who knew the secret of her birth? Milosch could +reach one definite conclusion about the matter, and that was that he +ought to guard the child just now. So, with senses made alert by +suspicion, he heard the soft footfall of Hunyades through the +crust-broken snow; and though with head averted, noted his stealthy +approach. The caution observed by the stranger made Milosch feel +certain of the intended treachery. Loosening the short sheath-knife, +which hung by the ring in its bone handle from his girdle, he grasped +it tightly, and with a sudden bound faced the intruder. + +"Your business, man?" said he, eyeing him as a hunter eyes a wolf to +anticipate the spring of the brute, that the knife may enter his +throat before the fangs strike. + +"A rude greeting to a neighbor, that," was the quiet reply. + +"A fair enough greeting to one who wears a neighbor's fleece, and +prowls by night about his flock. Stop! not a step nearer! or, by the +soul of Kabilovitsch, whom, for aught I know, you have murdered, I +will send you to meet him!" + +A motion of the stranger toward his weapon was anticipated by the +mountaineer, who gripped the intruder with the strength of a bear, +pinioning his arms by his sides, and falling with him to the ground. +In an instant more, however, the dagger point of his antagonist began +to penetrate Milosch's thigh. Clenching tighter to prevent a more +deadly thrust, he felt beneath his opponent's rough outer robe the +hard corselet woven with links of iron--not the coarse fabric such as +was worn by common soldiers, but the lighter steel-tempered underwear +of knights and nobles. + +"You have murdered another better than yourself, damned villain, and +have stolen his shirt. But it shall not save you this time." + +As he let out these words one by one and breath by breath, Milosch +worked the knife into such a hold that he could press it into the back +of his antagonist. Slowly but surely the stout point made its way +between the hard links until the man's flesh quivered with the pain. +Then Milosch hissed through his clenched teeth:-- + +"Who are you? If you speak not, you die. If you lie, let the devil +shrive your black soul! for I'll send you to him on the knife point. +Speak!" + +"I am General Hunyades," replied the almost breathless man. + +The words relieved him from the pressure of the knife, but not from +the crunching hug of his captor. + +"Prove it!" hissed Milosch. "I have heard that Hunyades has a scar on +the left side of the neck. Uncover your neck!" + +Milosch released Hunyades' left hand sufficiently to allow him to +reach upward. In an instant the leathern string which bound the +bear-skin cape about his neck was broken, the lacings of a velvet +jacket loosened, and the fingers of Milosch led over the roughened +surface of the scarred skin. + +The herdsman rose to his knees, and kissed the hand of the general. + +"Strike thy dagger into me! for I have raised my hand against the +Lord's anointed," cried he in shame and fear. + +"Nay, friend," said the chief; "the fault was mine, and yours shall be +the reward of the only man who ever conquered Hunyades. Your name, my +good fellow?" + +"Milosch!" + +"Milosch, the goatherd of the Pass? I have heard tell of your +strength; how you could out-crunch a bear; I believe it. You have been +faithful to your absent friend, as you have been severe with me." + +"But what of my friend Kabilovitsch? You surely wear his gear," said +Milosch. + +"Yes, I borrowed these of a passing stranger--I know not that he be +Kabilovitsch--with which I might pass disguised among the guards. The +owner of this cape and hood is keeping warm in a tent hard by until I +return. But whom have you here?" + +"The lad is mine. The lass is my neighbor's. He calls her Morsinia, in +honor of your fair mother," replied Milosch. + +"Then I must see her face. She should be fair with such a name." + +As he raised the coarse-knit hood which closely wrapped her, a flicker +of the dying fire-light illumined for an instant the features of the +child. The uncombed mass of golden hair made a natural pillow in which +lay a face unsurpassed in balance of proportion and delicacy of detail +by any sculptor's art. Her forehead was high and full, but apparently +diminished by the wealth of curling locks that nestled upon brow and +temples; her nose straight and thin, typically Greek; her lips firm, +but arched, as with some abiding and happy dream; her skin, purest +white, tinged with the glow of youthful health, as the snow on the +Balkans under the first roseate gleam of the morning sun. + +"A peasant's child?" asked the general. But without waiting for reply, +continued, "No, by the cheek of Venus! It took more than one +generation of noble culture, high thoughts and purest blood, to mould +such a face as that. She was not born in your neighbor's cot on the +mountains? Will you swear that she was? No? Then I will swear that she +was not. And the boy? Ah!" said he, scanning Constantine's face. "I +know his stock. He is a sprig of the same rough thorn-tree that came +near to tearing me to pieces just now. But his face is gentler than +yours. Yet, it is a strong one; very bold; broad-thoughted; +deep-souled; a sprig that may bear even better fruit than the old +one." + +"Heaven grant it may!" said Milosch, fervently. + +"Yes, if you will let me transplant it from these barren mountains to +the gardens of Buda and the banks of the Drave, it will get better +shelter than you can give it. The boy shall be my protégé for +to-night's adventure, if his father will enter my personal service. +You see, you gave me so warm a welcome that I am loath to part company +with you, my good fellow." + +"Heaven bless you, Sire!" replied Milosch; "but my heart will cling to +these cliffs until I know that my faithful wife and other boy are no +longer among them." + +"I shall give orders that the camp be searched," promised Hunyades. +"If they live, and have not been carried away by the Turks, they must +have sought refuge somewhere in the host. Farewell! When you will, +Hunyades shall stand the friend of Milosch." + +The apparent old herdsman returned through the heart of the camp to +headquarters. + +"Methinks, comrade, that you bandied words with a greater than you +knew, when you teased the old goatherd awhile ago," said a sentinel, +thrusting his thumb into the side of the spearman at the entrance to +the general's hut. "Do you note his mien as he comes yonder? That +crumpled old bear skin cannot hide his straight back; nor those shoes, +as big as Spanish galleons, break the firmness of his tread. If the +gust of wind should lift his cape you would see at least a golden +cross on his shoulders. You cannot hide a true soldier." + +The bear-skin passed between the fluttering canvas without challenge. +Hunyades made a playful salute to Kabilovitsch, who rose to meet him. + +"I found your camp. I have looked into the face of your little +daughter." + +"Mary save her!" said the old man with gratified look. + +"I say I saw your daughter, your _daughter_, you know," said the +general again, quizzing Kabilovitsch with his eyes. + +"Ay, my daughter! and the Virgin Mother never sent a fairer child, +save Jesu himself, to prince or peasant." + +"Come, now," said the general, "tell me, did the Holy Virgin send this +child to prince _or_ peasant?" + +"Why?" said Kabilovitsch, "these horny hands should tell thee, Sire, +that I was not royal born." + +"But the girl may be, if you were not. Is she your child?" + +"Yes, my child, if heaven ever sent one to man." + +"But, tell me," probed the general, "how did heaven send you the +maiden? Did the mother bring her, or did the angels drop her at your +door? For, if that girl be your child, heaven did not know you even by +sight; since it put not a freckle of your dark skin upon her fair +face, nor one of your bristles into her hair. The stars are not +begotten of storm-clouds; nor do I think she is your daughter." + +To this the old man replied, more to himself than to his interrogator, +"If she is not mine by gift of nature, she is mine by gift of Him who +is above nature." + +"I will not steal your secret," said Hunyades. "Her name has excited +my interest in her and her heaven-given or heaven-lent father. She +needs better protection than you can give her in the camp. I will send +her to headquarters." + +"I would gratefully put her under your protection for a few days," +said Kabilovitsch. "My duty takes me away from her for a while; +dangerous duty, Sire, and if I should fall--" + +"If Kabilovitsch falls, Hunyades will be as true father to the lass. +Have you any special desire regarding her or yourself, my brave man? +You have but to name it." + +"But one, Sire," replied Kabilovitsch. "That I may see her safely +conditioned at once. For it may be that before the day dawns I shall +be summoned. I serve a cause as mysterious as the Providence which +watches over it." + +"An Albanian mystery? They are generally as inscrutable as a thunder +cloud; but are revealed when its lightning strikes!" replied Hunyades, +dismissing the old man, accompanied by two guards, who were +commissioned to obey implicitly any orders the herdsman might give +regarding the party of refugees by his camp-fire. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +The Christian host prolonged the festival of the Nativity from day to +day, until the mustering forces of the Ottomans summoned them from +dangerous inactivity again to the march and the battle. The latter +they found at Mount Cunobizza, where the enemy had massed an enormous +force. The Christian army, with its splendid corps of Hungary, Poland, +Bosnia, Servia, Wallachia, Italy and Germany, was not a more +magnificent array than that of their Moslem opponents. For the most +part of the day the field was equally held, but in the afternoon the +Turkish left seemed to have become inspired with a strange fury. The +Janizaries, at the time renowned as the best disciplined and most +desperate foot-soldiers in the world, were rivalled in celerity and +intrepidity, in skilful manoeuvring and the tremendous momentum +with which they struck the foe, by other Moslem corps; such as the +squadrons of cavalry collected from distant military provinces, each +under its Spahi or fief-holder; and the irregular Bashi-Bazouks, who +seemed to have sprung from the ground in orderly array. Their diverse +accoutrements, complexions, and movements suggested the hundred arms +of some martial Briareus, all animated by a single brain. The war cry +of "The Prophet!" was mingled with that of "Iscanderbeg!" In the +thickest of the fight appeared the gigantic form of the circumcised +Albanian, his gaudy armor flashing with jewels,[17] his right arm +bared to the shoulder, his cimeter glancing as the lightning. The +Italian legions opposite him, upon the Christian left, were hurled +back again and again from their onslaught, and were pressed mile after +mile from the original battle site. Hunyades inflicted a compensatory +punishment upon the Moslem left, shattering its depleted ranks as a +battering ram crashes through the tottering walls of a citadel. The +chief of the Christians saw clearly Scanderbeg's plan[18] to leave the +victory in his hands, and at the opportune moment he wheeled his +squadrons to the assistance of King Vladislaus, thus combining in +overwhelming odds against the enemy's centre, which Scanderbeg had +effectually drained of its proper strength. As soon, however, as it +was evident that the Christians were the victors, Scanderbeg, by +superb generalship, interposed the Janizaries between the enemy and +the turbaned heads that, but for this, were being whirled in full +flight from the field. The rout was changed into orderly retreat. +Hunyades found it impossible to press the pursuit, and muttered, + +"Scanderbeg commands both our armies to-day. We can only take what he +is minded to give." + +At length night looked down upon the camps. Few tents were erected. +Hunyades sat for hours beneath a tree, waiting for he knew not what +developments. On the Turkish side even the Beyler Beys, the highest +commanders, were content to stretch their limbs with no other canopy +than the three horse-tails at the spear-head, the symbol of their rank +and authority. Far in the rear were the few pavilions of the suite of +the Grand Vizier, who represented the absent Sultan Amurath. Late into +the night the Vizier sat in counsel with the Sultan's Reis Effendi or +chief secretary, to whom was entrusted the seal of the empire. He was +enstamping the many despatches which fleetest horsemen carried to +distant Spahis, summoning them with their reserves to rally for the +defence of Adrianople. + +Just before the dawn the secretary was left alone. Even he, and, in +his person, the empire, must catch an hour's sleep before the exciting +and exacting duties of the new day. He reclined among his papers. But +a summons awakened him: the messenger announcing Scanderbeg. The +guards withdrew to a respectful distance from the outside of the tent. + +"Do not rise," said the general, gently pressing the secretary back to +his reclining posture. "I only need the imperial seal to this order." + +The secretary scanned the paper with incredulous eyes. It was a +firman, or decree of the Sultan, passing the government of Albania +from General Sebaly to Scanderbeg, with absolute powers, and ordering +the commandant of the strong fortress of Croia to place all its +armament and that of adjacent strongholds in Scanderbeg's hand as the +viceroy of the Sultan. As the secretary lifted his face to utter an +inquiry for the relief of his amazement, knowing that the Sultan, then +absent in Asia, could not have ordered such a document, the strong +hand of Scanderbeg gripped his throat, and his poniard threatened his +heart. + +"The mark!" whispered the assailant. + +The terrified man tremblingly reached the seal, and pressed it against +the wax. The weapon then did its work, and so suddenly that the +secretary had no time for even an outcry. Then silently, so that the +guards, who were but a few paces distant, heard no commotion, he laid +the lifeless form on the divan, and covered it with the embroidered +cloak it had worn when living.[19] + +Passing out, Scanderbeg gave orders that the tent should not be +entered by the guards until morning, that the secretary might rest. He +gave the password, "The Kaaba," as sharply as if his lips would take +vengeance on the once sacred, but now hated sound. His military staff +joined him at a little distance. Vaulting into the saddle he led the +way toward the north. At the edge of the camp by a rude bridge he +halted, and said to his attendants, + +"I meet at this point the Beyler Bey of Anatolia, whose staff will be +my escort to his camp. The Padishah's cause needs closest conference +of all the commanders; for treason is abroad. Ah! I hear the escort. +Return to quarters, gentlemen!" + +Riding forward alone in the direction of the noise, he cried, "Who +comes?" + +"The Kaaba at Mecca," was the response. + +"Well, if the Kaaba takes the trouble to come to me it is a good omen, +by the beard of Moses!" + +"By the beard of Moses!" murmured a group of horsemen, bowing their +turbaned heads in the first gray light of the approaching day. The +cavalcade closed around the fugitive chieftain, and moved along in +silence, except to respond to the sentinels. As they passed the +extreme picket of the Turks they halted. A wardrobe had been secreted +in a cave beyond a copse near the road. Dismounting, the men exchanged +their turbans for caps of wolf or beaver skin. Their gaily trimmed +jackets, such as were worn by the Turkish foot-soldiers, gave place to +short fur sacks. Their flowing, bag-bottomed trousers were kicked off, +leaving abbreviated breeches of leather. In a few moments the +splendidly uniformed suite of a Moslem bey was transformed into a +rough, but exceedingly unique-looking, band of Albanian guerillas. +Scanderbeg assumed a helmet, the summit of which carried as a device +the head and shoulders of a goat--since the times of Alexander the +Great the symbol of the powers in, or bordering upon, Macedonia. The +Turkish uniforms were bundled upon the cruppers for future use. + +The men stood for a moment, each by the side of his horse. At a motion +of the officer in charge they gave the salute; touching their bared +foreheads, and bowing to the ground. The officer then approached +Scanderbeg, and, presenting his sword, said: + +"Sire! to thee, as the son of our Duke John, we give our swords +together with our hearts and our lives." Instantly every sword was +laid upon the ground; and the crisp air rattled with the cry, "Long +live Duke George! A Castriot forever!" + +Scanderbeg gazed silently for a moment upon the faithful group. There +was no doubt of their loyalty: for they had proved it by an adventure +of rare daring in penetrating the Turkish camp. The face of the great +general, usually masking so completely his strongest feelings, lost +now its rigidity. His eyes were moist; his lips trembled; every +lineament was eloquent with the emotion he could neither conceal nor +tell in words. After a few moments' impressive silence, he returned +the sword to the officer, and, pointing westward, cried, + +"Forward to Albania!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] The old chronicles admit, as one weakness of Scanderbeg, a +fondness for personal decoration. + +[18] The author adds these lines to the meagre details of this battle +as known, for the purpose of accounting for its immediate issue, and +for the subsequent events. + +[19] Some historians represent Scanderbeg as having had Albanian +accomplices in this murder. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +"Thank Heaven! the plan did not fail," said the chief officer, riding +by the side of the fugitive general. + +"In no particular has it failed, Colonel," replied Scanderbeg. "And +for this every praise is due your wise precautions. I have never known +better work of brain or nerve. With such grand soldiers as you and +your men, I fear nothing for Albania. But your name, Colonel?" + +"Moses Goleme," replied the officer courteously. + +Scanderbeg reined his horse, and gave him his hand heartily. "A man as +grand as he is brave! And do I really look into the face of him whom I +was to have sought out in Dibria, that I might tell him his words had +been to me like a voice from heaven? Heaven reward you, good Moses! +But you must vow to stand by me yet as patiently as you have done +hitherto--during my apostasy. I shall need your charity still; for I +am but a returning prodigal; a half-Christian; a man of strange ways; +of a temper which I understand not myself, and which will disappoint +you. Pledge me that you will be my good angel. Counsel me frankly, +fearlessly, as a man should always counsel a man. Rebuke me freely: +but bear with me in your heart, as you would with a child." + +"I may not advise the most capable general in the world," replied +Moses Goleme. "I vow to obey. Let that be my part. As I have already +imperilled my estates by open opposition to the Turkish rule, and +given my life to the liberty of my country, so I offer all to thee, +Sire, the sovereign of my heart, until you shall be acknowledged the +sovereign of Albania, and a new empire be founded on the east of the +Adriatic which shall take the place of the decaying powers of Italy on +the west." + +"The task your patriotism proposes is vast," replied Scanderbeg; "too +vast for one man and one lifetime." + +"Too great for any but the great Castriot!" was the answer, evidently +as honest as it was reverent. "But you do me too much honor, General, +in praising my plan of meeting you. I was ably seconded by my men, and +especially by two of them. One of them was wounded." + +"I trust you speak not of a brave fellow who brought me the time and +place of the rendezvous: for I never saw such strength and daring in +my life." + +"The same, I fear," said Moses. "A Servian, whom I had not known +before yesterday. But he was boiling over with rage for the slaughter +of his family, and commended to me by our most trusted scout." + +"Did he tell you how he found me out, and communicated your plan to +me?" + +"No, for he was too severely hurt to speak much." + +"I will tell that part for him, then," said Scanderbeg. "It was in the +hottest of the fight. My own body-guard was thrown into confusion. A +fellow, clad like one of my own staff, crowded close to my side. His +horse actually rested against my own, and I would have severed his +head from his shoulders for his impudent valor, had not his oath at +his beast been 'by the beard of Moses!' Seeing that I observed it he +grunted, 'At the brook to the north!' as he dodged the circles of the +cimeters; and 'Near the Roman road!' he hissed as he pared the cap +from a Christian's head with his sword; and 'At the ninth hour +to-night!' he shouted as he parried a thrust. Before I had breathing +space--for I was closely beset at the time--he had gone; borne back by +a Spahi,[20] who envied him his place and emulated his valor. But he +was not skilful in using his weapon or managing his horse. I am +grieved, but not surprised, at his receiving hurt. I thought he must +have fallen. But who was the other?" + +"Yonder old fellow with a huge green turban on the saddle before him. +If his brain were as big as his head-piece, he could not have planned +better. He has dwelt about here lately." + +"I must thank him in person," said Scanderbeg, riding back toward him. + +"What!" he exclaimed as the full daylight fell upon the man's +features, "Kabilovitsch?" + +The old man diverted Scanderbeg's compliments by an expression of +solicitude for Milosch, whom he had permitted to undertake the +desperate venture already narrated, although until a few days before +he, being a Servian, had no knowledge of the project of the Albanians. + +"We must haste, Sire," said Moses. "It is advised that you cross to +the north of the pass in the Balkans, and take thence the valley way +between Caratova and the Egrisu. A message from General Hunyades +informs me that relays can be provided along the road, and that every +facility shall be given us." + +"Kabilovitsch will accompany us?" asked Scanderbeg. + +"On one condition, Sire," replied the old man. "My little daughter +must go with me: a lass of ten spring tides--" + +"Impossible! for our ride must be night and day." + +"Then I may follow, but cannot accompany you," said Kabilovitsch. + +"I need such men as you with me. No true Albanian will delay for a +child. Country must be child and mother to us all," said the general. + +The cheeks of Kabilovitsch whitened; his eyes flashed. Looking +Scanderbeg squarely in the face, he said quietly, but putting +intention into every word, + +"George Castriot may lead, but may not rebuke the patriots who have +watched for Albania with sacrifices he knows not of, while he has been +among our country's enemies. An old man, thy father's friend before +thou wast born, may say that, Sire." + +Scanderbeg grew pale in turn. He had been unaccustomed to brook +insubordination, however righteous. Who had dared to question him? Who +to fling the taunt into his face? The hot words were upon his lips. +But he paused, at first from the mere habit of self-restraint. Then, +because he was a wise man, and realized that he was no longer the +tyrant, with power of life and death over his soldiers--men who had +been hired, stolen, impressed into the service, and transformed into +mere machinery of flesh and blood--but was to be the public liberator +of a people every man of whom was already as free as he. Then, he had +become a just man. Strange and sanguinary as had been the events +accompanying his desertion of the Turks, he had taken this step only +after a deep moral struggle. He had revolted from his own past life; +and felt an inward disgrace for what had been his outward glory--the +service of the Moslem; he despised himself more than any other person +could. It was this sense of the justice of Kabilovitsch's rebuke that +checked the rage which had blanched his face, and sent the flush to +his temples, as he slowly, replied, "I bow to the merited chastisement +of your words. Your years and your better life give you license to +utter them. My future shall atone for the past. But cannot your child +be left safely where she is?" + +"She is safe where she is; but I may not leave her without providing +for her future. Milosch is lying in a cottage but a little before us. +If his wounds are not fatal--as I believe they are not, though the +leech thought otherwise--I may bring the girl to him, and still +overtake you before you come in sight of the Black Mountains. I can +cross this country by paths through which I could not direct you. +During many years, for justice's sake and our country's, I have +wandered over these mountains where only the eagle's shadow has +fallen." + +"I will stop with you at the cottage," said Scanderbeg, "for, though +the moments are precious, I would bless the brave fellow for his work +yesterday." + +There were several wounded Christian soldiers at the little hovel. A +Greek monk was administering both spiritual and physical comfort; for +Rilo Monastir had sent its inmates along the track of the Christian +army in spite of the insults of the Latin soldiers, who, though in +sight of the common enemy of their faith, could not repress the +meanness of their sectarian jealousy and hatred. Milosch was doing +well. His wounds were, one in the fleshy part of the shoulder, the +other a contusion on the head, from a blow which had stunned him. A +few weeks would put him again upon his feet, though perhaps his +fighting days were over; for the flesh wound lay across an important +muscle, and would permanently destroy the strength of the right arm. + +Milosch fell in with the proposition of Kabilovitsch regarding +Morsinia. Though a Servian, he had lost interest in his own country +because of the vacillating course of the Despot, George Brankovitch, +who was half Christian and half Moslem, according to the policy of the +moment. Milosch would identify himself with the cause of Albania, for +which he had already done and suffered so much. + +The two men entered into what is known among the Servians and +Albanians as "Brotherhood in God," covenanting in the name of God and +St. John to devote their lives, each to the other, and both to their +common cause. The compact was sealed by each putting the left hand +upon the other's heart, and holding up the right hand in invocation of +the Divine witness. Kabilovitsch said: + +"My brother, I commit to thy keeping our daughter, Morsinia, thine and +mine, from henceforth. She is all I have but life to share with thee, +which also I freely give." + +To this Milosch replied: + +"My brother, I commit to thy keeping our boy, Constantine, thine and +mine from henceforth. He is all I have that I wot of to share with +thee, but my life which--God spare it--I freely give." + +"Bismallah!"[21] said Scanderbeg. "And if the girl and the boy were +the ones I saw asleep in each other's arms by the fire the other +night, the compact is good for two generations at least." + +It was agreed that, upon his sufficient recovery, Milosch should bring +the children from the camp of Hunyades to Albania. + +The ride by the Vitosh and Rilo Mountains where the mighty ranges of +the Balkans, the Upper Moesian, and the Rhodope are thrown close +together, was sufficiently grand to engross the eye and mind of the +dashing riders. Thus most of the day was passed in silence, broken +only by the clatter of the horses' hoofs against the rocks; the roar +of cascades making their awful plunge hundreds of feet from the +precipices; the complaint of rivers far down at the bottom of ravines, +fretting beneath the prison roof of ice and snow; and glorious pines, +pluming the brow of crag and ledge, through which the everlasting +winds breathed the dirge over fallen empires of men. + +As they forced their way up a long and tedious ascent, Scanderbeg +joined Kabilovitsch and said: + +"To relieve the tedium of this slow part of the journey you must tell +me about that lass you would not leave for the love of Albania. A +sweet face as I saw it. I could have run off with it myself, had I not +other business on hand. And I can pardon a father's heart for +clinging very closely to such a child. You will forget my rude speech +a while ago. I played with a little lass like that when I was a boy. +The face of your child, that night I watched for you, carried me back +to those happy days. I could see my little sweet-heart in her; though +thirty years have thrown their shadows of dark events across my +memory." + +Kabilovitsch turned familiarly to Scanderbeg with the query, + +"May I read your thoughts, Sire?" + +"Yes, he is welcome to do so who can find my soul beneath this +battered face." + +"That child was the fair Mara, the daughter of the noble George +Cernoviche, whose castle ruins lie now by the shore of Ochrida. Am I +not right?" + +"Right! but I knew not of the fall of her father's house. Can you tell +me aught of the history of my little maiden. If she lives, she must be +a goodly matron now." + +"Yes, I can tell her story and more. She married the noble Musache de +Streeses, whose castle once stood near the Skadar."[22] + +"Ah! I have heard of his sad fate," replied the general. "Oh, for +vengeance on these villains who have despoiled the land! Musache de +Streeses was the richest of all the land-owners on the coast of Adria, +the soul of honor, a genuine patriot, with whom my father held +confidential intercourse. His purse and sword were freely offered for +service against the Turk. It was a favorite scheme of my father to +some day unite our families. I hear that my nephew, Amesa, has become +possessed of those estates, being also nephew to De Streeses, who was +slain by the Turks. But my fairy, Mara, you said was married to De +Streeses. It was she, then, who, with her infant child, was killed by +the Turks during the raid?" + +"Noble Castriot! De Streeses and the Lady Mara were murdered, foully, +treacherously," said the old man, reining his horse, and speaking with +terrible passion. + +"Oh, to take vengeance!" exclaimed Scanderbeg. "By the fair face of +Mara! this, with the thousand other murders of these years, shall be +washed out, if my sword drains a myriad veins of Turkish blood to make +sure of his who struck so brutal a blow!" + +"Your sword need not search so wide as that," said Kabilovitsch. "The +family of De Streeses were murdered by hands we both know but too +well." + +"How know you, Kabilovitsch?" + +The man removed his cap as if inviting the inspection of his face, +and, lowering his voice, replied, + +"I am not Kabilovitsch, I am Arnaud." + +"Arnaud, the forester of De Streeses? Arnaud, whose shoulders I +bestrode before I ever mounted a steed?" exclaimed Scanderbeg, turning +his horse and stopping, but at his companion's motion indicating +caution, lowering his tone, and moving close beside him. + +"The same, Sire. And the Turks who murdered the nobleman and his +beautiful wife were not such Turks as you have been accustomed to +command. Too white of skin and too black of heart were they. I would +not say this, but that I give you also my reasons for so grave an +accusation. Turks in raiding do not discriminate in their +depredations; but these harmed not a leaf beyond the castle of De +Streeses. Nor do Turks swear by St. John, as I heard one of them do as +he cursed a fellow villain for some slip in the plan. Nor again would +Turks, seeking only for plunder, have shown as much eagerness to kill +the little babe as they did to slay its father; and this they did, +searching even among the ashes for evidence that the tiny bones had +been sufficiently charred to prevent their recognition. But the child +was not in the castle at the time. My good wife was suckling it--the +Lady Mara being of delicate condition--and that night the babe was at +the lodge. As soon as the commotion was heard at the castle the child +was hidden in the copse." + +"But where is this child now?" asked Scanderbeg eagerly. + +"You have gazed upon her by my camp-fire, sire; and your soul saw in +her face that of the sainted Mara, though your eyes detected her not." + +"And you know the perpetrator of this damnable deed?" asked +Scanderbeg. + +"I may not say I know, since your noble father refused to believe that +any other than Turkish hands did it. But he who possesses the estate +now knows too much of this affair to thank God in his prayers for his +inheritance. I saved the child; yet Lord Amesa has sworn that once a +Turk who fell beneath his sword in a private brawl confessed to him +that his hands had strangled the infant on the night of the raid. Some +one interested had suspicion of where the truth lay, for my own cot +was raided, and my wife slain one night during my absence. But the +child was safe elsewhere. Since then, knowing that her life was secure +only through her being secreted, I have been a wanderer. A price was +secretly set upon my head by Amesa. In the mountains of Macedonia, in +the pass of the Balkans, have I kept watch over my sacred charge. I +want not to see Albania, but as I can see justice done in Albania. +Therefore I said I would go only if the lass might go with me, and +under the strong protection of a Castriot who knows the truth, whose +very soul recognized the child of Mara." + +"The child's life shall be as sacred to me as if Mara had become my +wife as she vowed in her play, and the child were my own," said +Scanderbeg. "But this perplexes our cause. Amesa is one of our +bravest, wiliest voivodes. To antagonize him with this old charge +would imperil my reception with the people and the liberty of our +land. But I pledge you, my good Arnaud, that though vengeance waits, +it shall not sleep. In the time when it shall be most severe upon the +offender, and most honorable to the name of Albanian justice, the bolt +shall fall." + +It was readily foreseen by both that only at the peril of her life +could Morsinia be allowed to accompany her foster father, Arnaud or +Kabilovitsch, to the camp of Castriot. The former forester would be +recognized and suspicion at once excited as to the person of his ward. +It was, therefore, determined that she should be domiciled safely in a +little hamlet on the borders of Albania, where her history was +unknown; and that, to elude suspicion, Milosch and the boy, +Constantine, should accompany her, as her father and brother, neither +of whom knew her true history. The "Brotherhood in God" between +Kabilovitsch and his old neighbor gave sufficient warrant for +Milosch's claim to paternity. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] Spahi: master of cavalry. + +[21] Bismallah; "Please God," a Turkish common exclamation. + +[22] Lake Scutari. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +But while these refugees from the little hamlet on the mountains were +so favored of good Providence, what of the others? Our story must +return to the day of the battle in the Pass of Slatiza. Mother Helena +fell beneath the sword of a Turk while defending herself from his +insults. The boy, Michael, with arms bound above the elbows and drawn +back so that, while retaining the use of his hands, he could not free +himself, was driven along with others under guard of several soldiers. +As they descended the mountains the band of captives was steadily +increased by contributions from the cottages and hiding places along +the way. They were mostly boys and girls, the old men and women having +been slain or left to perish in the utter desolation which marked the +track of the army. Some of the captives were children too young to +endure the tramp, and were carried upon the horses of the mounted +soldiers. No one was treated unkindly. After the first day their bands +were untied so that they moved without weariness. They shared the best +of the soldiers' rations--sometimes feasting while their captors +fasted--and were snugly wrapped in the blankets by the camp-fires at +night. The daily march, after the Christian army had abandoned the +pursuit, was of but a few miles, with long intervals for rest. Indeed, +Michael thought that the troopers were more anxious about his being +kept in good condition, even in fresh and comely appearance, than +Mother Helena would have been. As they approached Philippopolis they +were all made to wash at a stream. Their matted locks were combed:--a +hard job with the mass of rebellious red bristles which stood about +Michael's head, like a nimbus on the wooden image of some Romish +saint. In some instances the captors went into the city and returned +with pretty skirts of bright colored wool or silk, and caps made of +shells and beads for the girls. Fantastic enough were the costumes and +toilets which the rough old troopers forced upon the little maidens; +but if they were pleasing to the captors they would prove, perhaps, as +pleasing to the rough slave buyers in the market square of +Philippopolis, who purchased the girls for disposal again at the +harems of the capital. An officer of excise presided over these sales, +and, before the property was delivered to the purchaser, retained +one-fifth the price as the share of the Sultan. If any of the girls +were, in the judgment of the officer, of peculiar beauty or promise, +they were reserved for the royal harem; the value of them being paid +to their captors out of the tax levied upon the others. This gave +occasion for the extravagant and often ludicrous costumes in which the +diverse tastes of the soldiers arrayed their captives for the contest +of beauty. + +The boys, however, were not sold. They were the special property of +the Sultan, to be trained as Janizaries for military service, or +employed in menial positions about the royal seraglio. The captors +received rewards according to the number and goodly condition of the +lads they brought in. + +The band of boys to which Michael was attached was marched at once to +Adrianople. Several hundreds were gathered in a great square court, +which was surrounded by barracks on three sides, and on the fourth +faced the river Marissa. A great soup kettle, the emblem of the +Janizary corps, was mounted upon a pole in the centre of the square, +and seemed to challenge the honors of the gilt star and crescent, the +emblem of royalty, that gleamed from the tall staff in an adjacent +court of the seraglio. There were scattered about utensils for +domestic use; the tools of carpenters, blacksmiths, armorers, +harness-makers and horse-shoers; old swords, battered helmets, broken +wagons, bow-guns, the figure heads of veteran battering rams; indeed +all the used and disused evidences that within these walls lived a +self-sustaining community, able to provide for themselves in war or in +peace. + +For several days the new boys were fed with delicious milk and meats, +prepared by skilful hands of old soldiers, who knew the art of nursing +the sick almost as well as they knew that of making wounds. For a few +nights the lads slept upon soft divans, until every trace of weariness +from the journey had disappeared. They were then stripped naked and +examined carefully by the surgeons. If one were deformed, or +ill-proportioned, or failed to give promise of a strong constitution, +he was taken away to be trained as a woinak or drudge of the camps. +Perhaps three-fourths of the entire number in Michael's company were +thus branded for life with an adverse destiny. + +The more favored lads were graded into ojaks, or messes; and among +them were daily contests in running and wrestling, according to the +results of which the ojaks were constantly changing their members; the +strongest and most agile living together in honorary distinction from +their fellows. + +The officers in charge of these Janizary schools were old or crippled +men, whom years or wounds had rendered unfit for service in the field, +and who were assigned to the easier task in compensation for past +fidelity. The spirit of the veterans was thus infused into the young +recruits by constant contact and familiarity with them; and the rigid +habits of the after service were acquired almost insensibly through +the daily drill and discipline. + +Michael's rugged health and mountain training enabled him to advance +rapidly through the various grades. Though almost the youngest in his +company, he was the first in the race, and no one could take him from +his feet in the wrestling match. + +"A sturdy little Giaour," said old Selim, a fat and gouty Janizary, +the creases of whose double chin were good companions to the +sabre-scar across his cheek. + +"Ay, tough and handy!" responded Mustapha, an old captain of the +corps, ogling Michael with his widowed eye, and stroking his beard +with his equally bereaved hand, as he watched the boy wriggling from +beneath to the top of a companion nearly double his size. "If the +little fellow is as agile in wit as he is in limb he will not long be +among the Agiamoglans.[23] A splendid build! broad in the shoulders; +deep-chested, but not flat; narrow loins; compact hips--just the make +of a lion. As lithe a lad as you were once, my now elephantine Selim, +when Bajazet stole you from your Hungarian home. Ah! you have changed +somewhat since the old Padishah had you for his page. I remember when +your waist was as trim as a squirrel's--but now--from the look of your +paunch I would think you were the soldier who drank up the poor +woman's supper of goat's milk, and had his belly ripped open by the +Padishah to discover his guilt.[24] Only goat's milk swells like that. +Let us see if some of the butter sticks not yet to your ribs," said +the old soldier, making a pass at his comrade's middle. + +"That's not a true soldier's pass, to strike so low," said Selim, +laughing. "But you, Mustapha, were once a better runner than yon lad +will ever be." + +"I was as good with my legs as with my arms," replied the veteran, +pleased with the compliment, and fondling his bare calves with his +hand. "But at what match did you see me run?" + +"I only saw you run once," said Selim, "and that was at Angora, when +Timour the Lame[25] was after you to get your ugly head for the +pyramid of skulls he left there as a monument. But see the lad! He +tosses the big one as a panther topples an ox. We have not had his +match in the school since Scanderbeg was a boy." + +"Poor Scanderbeg!" said Mustapha. + +"How now!" inquired Selim, "is there any news from him?" + +"Yes. He has met his first defeat. He was in command at the last +battle under the Balkans. Carambey got fast in a bog, in the first +battle, and Scanderbeg was unable to redeem the defeat in the second. +But he lived not to know it. He sent a host of gibbering Giaour ghosts +to hell while on his way to heaven. 'In the crossing of the cimeters +there is the gate of paradise,' says the Koran; and, though his body +could not be found, he went through the gate, beyond a doubt." + +"That is a loss, comrade, the Padishah can never make good with any +man in the service. But have you not noted, Mustapha, that Scanderbeg +never fought so well against Christians as against the Caramanians, +the Kermians and rebellious Turks. In Anatolia I have seen his lips +burst with blood,[26] through sheer rage of fight; but in Servia he +seemed listless and without heart for the fray. The Grand Vizier has +noted it, and twitted him with remembering too well that he was +Christian born." + +"And how did he take that?" + +"Why, the color came to his face; his lips swelled; his whole body +shook;--just as I have seen him when compelled to restrain himself +from heading a charge, because the best moment for it had not +arrived." + +"Did the Vizier take note of his manner?" + +"Yes, and spoke of it to the Padishah. Amurath looked troubled, and I +overheard him say, 'I must not believe it, for I need him. No other +general can match Hunyades.' And the Padishah said well; and he had +done well if he had taken the Vizier's head from his shoulders for +such an insinuation. For Scanderbeg only half loyal were better than +all the rest of the generals licking the Padishah's feet. But, +Mustapha, we must train the little devil yonder to forget that he ever +heard the name of Jesu, Son of Mary, except from the Koran." + +"Let us see if he has as much courage as he has cartilage," said +Mustapha. "The day is one fit for the water test. Let us have the +squad on the river's bank. If you will bring them, I will go and +arrange the test." + +"It is too cold, and besides I do not like it," said Selim. "I have +known some of the best and hottest blood that ever boiled in a child's +veins to be chilled forever by it. It is too severe, except for +trout." + +"But it is commanded. And to-day is as mild as we shall have for a +whole moon yet," was the reply, as Mustapha moved toward the water. + +The river Marissa was covered with thin ice, not strong enough to bear +the weight of a person. A young woinak had attached a small red flag +to a block of wood, and whirled it out over the slippery surface some +three rods from the shore. The boys gathered naked and shivering at +the barrack doors, and, at a signal were to dash after the flag. All +hesitated at the strange and cruel command, until a whip, snapping +close to their bare backs, started them. Some slipped and fell upon +the rough and icy stones of the paving in the court. Others halted at +the river's edge. Only a few ventured upon the brittle ice; and they, +as it broke beneath them, scrambled back to the shore. One or two +fainted in the shock of the cold plunge, and were drawn in by the +woinaks. But three pressed on, breaking the ice before them with their +arms, or with the whole weight of their bodies, as they climbed upon +its brittle edge. Soon they were beyond their depth; one dared to go +no further, and, blue and bleeding, gave up the chase. The prize lay +between Michael and his companion. This boy was larger and older than +he; and finding that the ice would sustain his weight, stretched +himself on it, and crawled forward until he grasped the flag. But the +momentary pause, as he detached it from the wooden block and put it +between his teeth, was sufficient to allow the crackling bridge to +break beneath him; and he sunk out of sight. At the same instant +Michael disappeared. Though several yards from his companion, he +plunged beneath the ice, and reappeared carrying the flag in his teeth +and holding his comrade's head above the water until the woinaks could +reach and rescue them both. + +"Bravo!" shouted the attendants. The boys were hurried into the +barracks, and given a hot drink made from a decoction of strong mints; +while the woinaks smeared their bodies with the same, and rubbed them +until the shock of their exposure was counteracted by the generous +return of the natural heat. + +"I thought," said old Mustapha, "that we would have drowned some +to-day. It is a cruel custom; but it is worth months of other +practices to find out a lad's clear grit and power of endurance. The +two boys who got the flag will some day become as valiant as +ourselves, eh, Selim?" and the living eye of the veteran nodded to the +empty socket across his nose--the nearest approach to a wink he was +capable of. + +"As the boys were floundering in the water," said Selim, "I thought of +a scene which I saw about at the same spot--now three score years have +gone since it--for it was just after I was brought into the Janizary's +school. Our Padishah's great grandfather, the first Amurath, had +erected a high seat or throne on the river's bank yonder. You know +that Saoudji, the Padishah's son, had joined the Greeks; but the young +traitor was captured. Well! old Amurath bade the executioner pass the +red hot iron before his son's eyes until the sight was dried up in +them. Then, while the blind prince was groping about and begging for +mercy, the Padishah, his father, commanded a circle of swordsmen to be +formed about him, swinging their cimeters, so that his head would fall +by the hand of him whom he chanced to approach. Thus it might be said, +that since he was a king's son, he had used the princely privilege of +selecting his own executioner. And having thus set them an example of +paternal duty, Amurath commanded the fathers of the Greek youths, whom +he had captured, to cut off the heads each of his own son. Those whose +fathers were not known or could not be found, were tied together in +groups and thrown into the stream; the Padishah betting heavily with +the Grand Vizier upon those who should float the longest. So, cruel +though our customs are, you see, Mustapha, we are not so barbaric as +our ancestors." + +"Nor so abominably vicious as the Greeks," said Mustapha. "With them +the loving mothers put out the eyes of their children.[27] No, we are +quite gentle nurses of the lads committed to our charge, though +sometimes our tiger claws will prick through the velvet." + +"Come, help me up! good Mustapha," said Selim, trying to rise from a +bench in the sunshine of the court where they were sitting. "The cold +stiffens my bones." + +"Bah! comrade, you have no bones, only flesh and belly. How will you +balance your fat hulk on the bridge that is finer than a hair and +sharper than the edge of a sword that takes you over hell into +paradise? I fear me, Selim, that I shall have to content myself with +the company of the Prophet and the houris in heaven, for you will +never get there, unless I give you a lift across Al Sirat,"[28] said +Mustapha, giving his comrade a jerk which sent him far out into the +court, where with difficulty he kept his feet upon the slippery +stones. + +The old fellow took the rough play good-naturedly, and replied, + +"You will never see paradise, Mustapha. The houris will have nought to +do with so ugly a face as yours. It will turn them all squint-eyed to +look at you." + +"Do you think I know not the art of love-making?" said Mustapha, +striking the attitude of a fashionable young man of the day. + +Selim roared with laughter. "Mustapha making love? The thing is +impossible; since, if the houri be in the sunshine of your good eye, +you have no arm on that side to embrace her; and if you embrace her +with the arm you have got, you have no eye on that side to look upon +her beauty. Trust me, you old moulted peacock, that I shall get over +Al Sirat before Mustapha has found a houri----" + +"Hist!" said Mustapha, pointing to the entrance of the square from the +seraglio court adjoining, and assuming an attitude of the gravest +dignity. In a moment more the two officers knelt, and resting their +foreheads on the ground, remained in that position until a lad of some +twelve years approached them and touched the head of each with his +foot, bidding them rise. + +"I have come, good Selim, to see what new hounds you have for me," +said the young Prince Mahomet.[29] + +"Ah! my little Hoonkeawr![30] the Prophet, your namesake, has sent you +a fine one; as lithe as a greyhound and as strong as a mastiff; and, +if I mistake not, already trained for the game; for he came from the +Balkans, where foxes run wild when and where they will." + +"That is capital. I shall like him," cried the prince, with delight. +"I must see him." + +"Not to-day, your highness; for the boys are under the leech's charge. +They have been put to the water-test, and are all packed snugly in +their beds." + +"The water-test, Selim, and you called me not?" said the boy, looking +furious in his rage. "You knew I wanted to see it; and you told me not +for spite. You will pay for this one day, you fat villain! And I want +the hunt now. I came for it; did I not, Yusef?" addressing a eunuch, +an old man with ashen face and decrepit body, but gorgeously arrayed, +who accompanied the prince as his constant attendant. + +"We must wait, I suppose," said the man, with a supercilious tone and +toss of his head, as if to even speak in the presence of the soldiers +were a degradation to his dignity. + +"To-morrow we will have the hunt in better style than we could arrange +it now were the boys able," said Selim, endeavoring to appease the +young tyrant. + +The prince and his escort moved away without deigning a reply + +"It is best not to insist," said the eunuch. "A wise maxim I will give +thee, my prince:--Beware of demanding the impossible--check back even +the desire of it. The rule of the Janizary school is that the boys +have rest after the water-test, and the Padishah would not allow even +his own son to break it. I would train thee to self-command; for the +time may come when thou shalt command the empire. Your brother, +Aladdin, is mortal." + +"So you always interfere with me. You hate me, Yusef; I know you do. I +wish the boys had all been drowned in the river, and old Selim, and +you too," cried the royal lad, giving way to an outburst of childish +rage. + +"Wait until thou canst get the bit between thy teeth before attempting +to run thine own gait," coolly replied the old eunuch. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] The Inexpert, or lower grade of Janizaries. + +[24] An incident narrated in Turkish history. + +[25] Timour-lenk or Timourlane; Timour the Lame. + +[26] See old annals. + +[27] Vide, the Greek Empress Irene and her son Constantine. + +[28] The bridge over hell mentioned above. + +[29] Afterward Sultan Mahomet II. + +[30] Literally, Man of Blood, a title of the Sultan. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Beyond the walls of the seraglio lay the royal hunting grounds. Many +acres of the city were enclosed within high walls of clayey earth, +packed into huge square blocks and dried in the sun; on the top and +outside of which bristled a miniature abattis of prickly vines. Some +parts of this park were adorned with every elegance that the art of +landscape gardening could devise. In the summer season these portions +were covered with floral beauties, interspersed with water-jets, which +tossed the light silver balls like fairy jugglers; broad basins +sparkling with gold fish; and walks leading to little kiosks and +arbors. Even its winter shroud could not conceal from the imagination +what must have been its living beauty in summer. + +The greater part of this reserve was, however, left in its natural +state. Gnarled old olive trees twisted themselves like huge serpents +above the dense copses of elder and hazel bushes. Dusky balsams rose +in pyramids, overtopped by the pines, which spread their branches like +umbrellas. Here and there were open fields, encumbered with stinted +underbrush, and either broken with out-cropping rocks, or smooth with +strips of meadow land now white and glistening under the snow. + +This section of the park presented a fascinating appearance on the day +of the fox-hunt. Scores of lads from the Janizary school were there, +dressed in all shades of bright-colored jackets, and short trousers +bagged at the knees; the lower part of the limbs being protected with +close-fitting stockings of leather, terminating in light, but strong, +sandals. Each wore a skull cap or fez of red flannel, from the top of +which and down the back hung a tassel, that, by its length and +richness, indicated some prize won by its wearer in previous games. +Old soldiers gathered here and there in groups; some, the Janizaries, +wearing tall sugar-loaf-shaped hats of gray; others, white turbans, or +green ones, indicating that their possessors had made a holy +pilgrimage to Mecca. Elegant burnooses, or sleeveless cloaks, of +white, black, orange and yellow silks, fluttered in the wind or were +gathered at the waist by rich sashes, from which hung great cimeters. + +Near an open spot was a stand, or running gallery, enclosed in +lattice-work, from behind which the ladies of the harem could witness +the sports, themselves unseen. The presence of these invisible +beauties was indicated by the stiff, straight forms of the black +eunuchs, whose faces appeared above their white cloaks like heads of +ebony on statues of alabaster. + +Prince Mahomet rode a horse, small but compactly built, with head and +mane suggestive of the power of his well-rounded muscles; slim ankles, +seemingly better adapted to carry the lighter form of a deer; jet +black, in strongest contrast with the white tunic and gaily +embroidered jacket of the little prince, as well as with the +saddle-cloth of purple silk, in which the star and crescent were +wrought with threads of gold. With merry shout the young tyrant chased +the boys, who, carrying wands decorated with ribbons, ran ahead of him +to clear the way. + +"So it will be if he ever comes to the throne," said Selim to a +comrade. "Mahomet II. would follow no one. There would be no use of +viziers and generals, and he would even attempt to drive the +Janizaries like his sheep. It is well that Aladdin is the elder." + +"But woe to Aladdin if Mahomet lives after his brother comes to the +throne," said the man addressed. "With such fire-boxes about him one +could justify the practice of a sovereign inaugurating his reign by +the slaughter of his next of kin."[31] + +The woinaks brought in several crates, with latticed sides, containing +the foxes, which, one by one, were to be let loose for the chase; the +boys to act the part of hounds, and drive the game from the thickets, +in which they would naturally take refuge, out into the open space, +and within arrow range of the prince. Mahomet, by constant practice, +had acquired great dexterity in managing his steed, and almost +unerring aim in using the bow from the horse's back. + +A splendid red fox was thrust out of the crate. For a moment he +remained crouching and trembling in his fright at the crowd; then +darted suddenly for the underbrush. The boys, imitating the sharp cry +or prolonged baying of a pack of hounds, scattered in different +directions; some disappearing in the copse; others stationing +themselves at the openings or run-ways where they thought the animal +would appear. The bugle of the white eunuch, who was constantly near +the prince, kept all informed of his position, so that reynard might +be driven toward him. In a few moments the arrow of Mahomet laid him +low. + +A second fox was liberated--like many of the Sultan's nobler +creatures--only to fly to his speedy execution. The third animal was +an old one, who persisted in taking the direction opposite to that in +which the chasers would drive him. Again and again, as the boys closed +about him, he dashed through the thickest of their legs, leaving them +tumbled together in a heap. At one time he sprang through the opening +at which Michael, studying the tricks of the quick-witted brute, had +stationed himself. Sudden as were his movements, the young +mountaineer's were not less so; for, like a veritable hound, he threw +himself bodily upon the prey. Passing his right hand beneath the +entire length of the animal's body from the rear, he grasped his front +leg and bent it back beneath him; at the same time using his whole +weight to keep the animal's head close to the ground, so as to escape +his fangs. He had taken more than one beast in a similar way from the +holes in the old mountain pass. In the excitement of the sport he now +forgot that he was merely to enable another to get the game without +effort or danger. + +Prince Mahomet rode to the spot toward which the fox had turned, and, +in a sudden outburst of anger at this interference with his shot, +drove the arrow at the two as they were struggling on the ground. The +whirring barb cut the arm of Michael before it entered the heart of +the prey. The sharp cry of pain uttered by the lad recalled Mahomet +from his insane rage. The rushing attendants showed pity for Michael, +but no one ventured a remonstrance against this act of imperial +cowardice and cruelty. A moment's examination showed that the lad's +wound was not serious, being only a cut through the flesh. But as the +pallor of his fright died away from his face, it was followed by a +deep flush of anger. Tears of vexation filled his eyes. His glance of +scorn was hardly swifter than his leap: for, with a bound, his arms +were around the prince's body, while his weight dragged him from the +saddle to the ground. Mahomet, rising, drew a jeweled dagger, and made +several hasty passes at his assailant, who, however, dextrously +avoided them. The posing of the lads would have done justice to the +fame of professional gladiators. The prince pressed upon his +antagonist with incessant thrusts, which, by skilful retreating and +parries with his bare arm, Michael avoided; until, with a ringing blow +upon Mahomet's wrist, he sent the weapon from his hand, and closed +with him; the prince falling to the ground beneath the greater +strength of Michael. + +The spectators at this point interfered. As they rose the eunuch +grasped the little victor, and shaking him, cried: "I will cut the +throat of the Giaour cub of hell." + +But the one hand of old Mustapha was upon the eunuch's throat, and his +one eye flashed like a discharging culverin, as he cried, "Had I +another hand to do it with, I would cut yours, you white-faced +imbecile! Don't you know that the boy belongs to the Janizaries? and +woe to him who is not a Janizary that lays a hand on him!" + +"The prince's honor must be avenged," wheezed out the eunuch between +the finger grips of the old soldier. "I care not for the Janizary, +though you were the Aga[32] himself, instead of a mutilated slave." + +The eunuch had drawn his dagger, and was working his hand into a +position whence he could strike, when old Selim's hand grasped his. + +"None of that treachery, or we will let out of your leprous skin what +manhood is left in you, you blotch on your race! Touch one hair of +Black Khalil's[33] children and you die like the dog you are. Let him +go, Mustapha! His coward throat is no place for you to soil a brave +hand. We will get a snake to strangle him; a buzzard to pick his grain +of a soul out of his vile carcass;[34] an ass to kick him to death. We +must observe the proprieties." + +"Pardon my heat!" said the eunuch. "My zeal for my prince has led me +too far." + +"Not at all!" said Selim. "It is pleasant to see that you have some +heat in your cold blooded toad nature." + +"It is better for us to retire," said the eunuch to Mahomet. "I shall +sound the signal for the close of the games." + +Mahomet stood stubbornly for awhile; then turning to Michael said in a +tone which was strangely without a shade of anger or petulance in it: + +"Say, young Giaour, you and I must have this out some day." + +Michael could not help a half-smiling recognition of the boyish +challenge, and replied: + +"I have seen more foxes than you have, and know some tricks I didn't +show you to-day." + +As they moved out of the park, Yusef delivered a brief lecture to his +princely pupil. "Hark thee, my master. I warn thee, that thou have an +eye always open and a hand always closed to the Janizaries. They have +grown from being the heel to think that they are the head of the +state. They dictate to thy father, the Padishah, and snub the very +Vizier. I would have killed both those old imbeciles, but that it +would not have been politic. I am glad, too, that thou didst not let +thy dagger find the heart of the Balkan boy. That would not have been +politic. For, Allah grant! thou mayest one day be Padishah. Then this +day would be remembered against us." + +"But, Yusef, I did not spare the boy. I think he spared me; and if I +ever get to be Padishah, I will make him my vizier, for his +cleverness. It would be a pity that so brave a man were elsewhere than +at my right hand. Though he angered me awfully at the moment, I shall +like that fellow. Did you see how he gripped the fox with his bare +arms? He must teach me how to do that. Was it between the hind legs he +thrust his hand, or across the beast's body? I could not see for my +being so mad because he spoiled for me a fine running shot." + +"Thou art a strange child, Mahomet. Thou seemest to have forgotten +that the boy leaped at thy throat, and would have torn out thine eyes, +but that thou wast more valiant than he." + +"Well, I should despise him as white-livered and milk-galled if he had +not sprung at me," said Mahomet. "Has not every noble fellow quick +blood, as well as a prince, Yusef? That boy shall be mine. He shall +teach me his tricks, and I shall give him all my sweetmeats; for they +get none of such things in the school." + +"Ah! my little prince, thy head is as full of wit as a fig is of +seeds. Thou art gifted to know and use men. One that is born to rule +must make his passion bend to policy. He must not allow himself the +pleasure of hating those whom he can use. But take heed of this:--whom +he cannot use he must not love." + +"But I was not born to rule, Yusef. If so, I would have been born +earlier, before my brother Aladdin cried in his nurse's arms, and +would not be comforted until they had covered the soft spot on his +bare head with a paper crown. Do you believe in omens, Yusef?" + +"Not in such; only in dreams," said the eunuch. + +"Well; I dreamed that our two heads--yours and mine, Yusef--were +together on a pike-staff, grinning at Aladdin's coronation." + +"Nonsense, child!" said the eunuch, his white face bleaching a shade +whiter under the thought, as they passed through the gateway into the +seraglio grounds. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] The custom also in other Oriental nations than the Turkish. + +[32] Aga; commander. + +[33] Kara Khalil Tschendereli, the founder of the Janizaries in the +time of Sultan Orchan. + +[34] According to a Moslem tradition the beautiful birds of paradise +hold in their crops the souls of holy martyrs until the resurrection. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +The physical training of the young Janizaries consisted in such daily +exercises as would develop strength and tirelessness of muscle, +steadiness of nerve, keenness and accuracy of eye, as well as grace of +mien. They were also taught by expert workmen all the arts of daily +need; to make as well as to use the bow; to trim and balance the +arrow; to forge, temper, and sharpen the sword; to shoe the horse; to +make and mend their clothing and the entire trappings of their steeds; +to build and manage the keelless kaiks[35] which darted like fishes +through the surface of the river; to bind rafts into pontoons for the +crossing of streams; to reap and grind the grain, and cook their food. +Any special talent or adaptability was noted by the instructors, and +the Janizaries encouraged to attain to rare expertness in single arts. + +The training in arms was especially severe, and under masters in +fencing, archery, riding, swimming, marching, deploying--the ablest +tacticians, whose wounds or age permitted their absence from active +campaigns, being found always at the head of the various departments. +The Janizary, while a mere lad in years, was often more than a match +in single combat for the most stalwart men in other corps, such as the +Piadé and Azabs among footmen, the Ouloufedji and Akindji among +troopers. + +But, notwithstanding this individual prowess and ambition were +stimulated to the highest degree, they were disciplined to abject +obedience within the corps. Each one was as a part of some intricate +mechanism, all moved by one spring, which was the will of the chief +Aga. At a moment's notice they must start, in companies or alone; on +military expeditions, or secret service as spies and scouts; it might +be to the recesses of Asia or the upper Danube; to assail forts or to +conduct intrigues; having always but one incentive, that of the +common service and the common glory. + +To develop in the same person these two seemingly antagonistic +qualities--of intensest individuality and abject subserviency to their +order--required the shrewdest manipulation of the mind and will of the +cadet from his earliest enrollment in childhood. As certain expert +horse-trainers control the spirit of noble steeds, without +extinguishing any of their fiery ardor, and tell the secret of their +power to those who come after them in the guild, so from the days of +Black Khalil this marvellous system of discipline had been perpetuated +among the corps, producing but rarely a weakling and as rarely a +rebel. + +Michael learned his first lesson in subordination upon the return from +the hunt. While the Janizary officers were not displeased with the +prowess the little fellow had shown, even against the prince, it was +foreseen that such an impetuous nature needed the curb. For three days +he was confined to a room in solitude and silence. No one spoke or +listened to him. His only attendant was an old man, both deaf and +dumb, who evidently knew nothing and cared nothing for Michael's +offence or its punishment. + +During this time the lad's suspense was terrible. Was he to be killed +for having assaulted the prince? Would they take him to the torture? +Perhaps this old man had been guilty of some such offence, and they +had cut his tongue and bored out his ears! He had heard of the searing +iron passed before the eyes, and then the life-long darkness. When he +slept his overwrought imagination fabricated horrid dreams in which +he was the victim of every species of cruelty. He fancied that he was +being eaten by a kennel of foxes, to whom he is given every day until +their hunger shall be satisfied; then taken away and reserved for +their next meal. He tried to compute how many days he would last. +Sometimes he imagined that he was exposed naked in the cold, and made +to stand day and night on the ice of the Marissa, until he should be +frozen: but his heart is so hot with his rebel spirit that it will not +freeze. Once he thought that Prince Mahomet came each day and stabbed +him with that pearl-set dagger he drew on him at the hunt. + +His dreams were too frightful to allow him to sleep long at a time; +yet, when awake, his fears were such that he longed to get back again +among the terrible creatures of his fancy. Oh, that some one would +speak to him, and tell him his fate! He would welcome the worst +torture, if only he could be allowed to talk to the torturer. + +After a while rage took the place of, or at least began to alternate +with, fear. He regretted that he had not killed the impudent prince. + +"There stands his horse," he would say to himself--marking a line on +the wall--"now I leap; seize his dagger; strike him to the heart; and, +before they can stop me, plunge it into my own heart, so! Ah! when I +am out of this place I will kill him! I will! and go down to hell with +him!" And the little frame would swell, and the eyes gleam with +demoniacal light through the dusky chamber. + +There are deep places even in a child's soul--ay, bottomless +depths--which, when unfretted by temptation, are so tranquil and +clear that the kindliness and joy of heaven are reflected in them, +warranting the saying of the old Jewish Rabbis, "Every child is a +prophet of the pure and loving God." But when disturbed by a sense of +wrong and injury, these depths in a child's heart may rage as a +caldron hot with the fires of hell; as a geyser pouring out the wrath +and hatred which we conceive to be born only in the nether world. + +After a time Michael's fury died away. Another feeling took its +place--the crushing sense of his impotence. His will seemed to be +broken by the violence of its own spasm. He was stunned by his +realization of weakness. He fell with his face to the cold stones of +the floor, moaning at first, but soon passing into a waking stupor in +which only consciousness remained: hopeless, purposeless, without +energy to strive, and without strength to cry--a perfectly passive +spirit. The centipede that crawled from the dusty crevice of the +walls, and raised half his body to look at the strange figure lying +there, might have commanded him. The spider might have captured him, +and spun about his soul a web of destiny, if only he could have +conveyed a thought of it from his tiny eyes. For, as the body faints, +so also does the spirit under the pressure of woe. + +The old mute brought in the meal on the third day, placed it beside +him, and retired. An hour later he returned and found the bread +untasted; the child in the same attitude, but not asleep. He touched +him with his foot, but evoked no sign that his presence was +recognized. He gazed for a few moments; then shook his head like an +artisan who, upon inspecting some piece of work he has been making, is +not satisfied with it. + +He summoned Selim. The old soldier, finding that his entrance did not +arouse the lad, crossed his legs upon the floor beside him, and +waited. The light from the high window of the room fell upon Selim's +wrinkled face. But it seemed as if another light, one from within, +blended with it. His harsh features were permeated by a glow and +softness, as he gazed upon the exhausted child. His eyes filled with +tears; but they were speedily dried by the stare with which he turned +and looked first at the blank walls, and then, following back the ray +of light, to the window and beyond; his soul transported far away over +lands, through years, to a cottage on the banks of the Grau. He saw +there a face so beautiful! was it really of one he once called +"Mother?" or a dim and hazy recollection of a painting of the +Christian Madonna he had seen in his childhood? Happy groups of +village children were playing down among the lilies by the water's +edge, and over the hills gently sloping back from the river's bank. +Their faces were as clear cut there against the blue sky beyond the +window, as once--sixty years ago--they were against the green grass of +the meadow. He heard again the sweet ring of the chapel bell echoing +back from the ragged rocks of the opposite shore. And now the midnight +alarm! A fight with strange looking turbaned men! Flames bursting from +the houses of the hamlet! Men shrieking with wounds, and women +struggling in the arms of captors! And a little child, ah, so lonely +and tired with a long march! and that child--himself!--His eyes +rested as fondly upon Michael as did ever a father's upon his boy. + +But as the wind extinguishes a candle, a movement of Michael sent all +the gleams gathered out of former days from old Selim's features. +Severity, almost savageness, took the place of kindliness among the +wrinkles of his countenance, as naturally as the waters of a rivulet, +held back for a moment by a child's hand, fill again their channels. + +The boy raised his head. His face was pale; the eyes sunken; their +natural brilliance deepened, but as that of the flashing waters is +deepened when it is frozen into the glistening icicle. Or shall we say +that the dancing flames of the child's eyes had become the steady glow +of embered coals;--their life gone out, but the hot core left there, +not to cheer, only to burn. Those three days of silence, with their +successive dramas of mystery, terror, rage and depression, had wrought +more changes in him than many years of merely external discipline +would have done. + +The close searching glance of Selim detected all this; and also that +the child was in a critical condition. The will was broken, but it was +not certain that this had not been accomplished by the breaking of the +entire spirit; instead of curbing, destroying it: not taming the +tiger's daring, but converting it into the sluggishness and timidity +of the cat. + +"Michael!" cried he. + +There was no response except the slight inclination of the head +indicating that the word had been heard. + +"Follow me!" + +The lad rose mechanically, showing no interest or attention beyond +that required for bodily obedience. + +Pausing at the door-way the old man put his hand upon the boy's +shoulder and said sternly, yet with a caution ready to change his +tone-- + +"Do you know that we have power to more severely punish you?" + +The words made no impression upon the child. + +"The bastinado? The cage?" The boy raised his face, but upon it was no +evidence of fear; perhaps of scorn. He had suffered so much that +threats had no power over him. + +Selim was alarmed at these symptoms. His experience with such cases +taught him that this lethargic spell must be broken at whatever cost. +Feeling must be excited; and if an appeal to the child's imagination +failed, physical pain must be inflicted. Something must rouse him, or +insanity might ensue. + +A peculiar instrument of torture was a frame set with needles pointing +inwards. Into this sometimes a culprit was placed, and the frame +screwed so close about the person that he could not move from a fixed +position without forcing the needles into his flesh. This frame was +put about the boy. He stared stupidly at the approaching points, but +did not shrink. Selim pressed one of the needles quickly. Instantly +the boy uttered a cry of pain. His face blanched with fright. The +tears sprang to his eyes, and through them came an agonizing look of +entreaty. + +Selim's whole manner changed as suddenly. Schooled as he was to +harshness; to strike one's head from his shoulders at the command of +the Aga without an instant's hesitation; to superintend the slow +process of a "discipline" by torture, without a remorseful +thought;--yet this was not his nature. And now that better, deeper, +truer nature, hitherto unexercised for years, asserted itself. His +heart went out to Michael the instant there was no further necessity +for its restraint. + +"Bravo! my little hero," cried he, catching him to his arms. "You are +of the metal of the invincibles, and henceforth only valiant deeds, +bright honors and endless pleasures are to be yours. You shall lodge +with me to-night." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[35] Kaiks or caiques; light row-boats. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Selim's apartment was off from the common barracks of the Janizaries. +It was luxuriantly furnished in its way. Elegant rugs lay upon the +marble floor. A divan, with silken covering, filled one end of the +room. The walls were hung with a variety of richly wrought weapons and +armor:--short swords, long crescent-shaped cimeters, spears of +polished wood headed with glistening steel, helmets, breastplates, +greaves. Badges and honorary decorations shone among costly robes +which had accumulated since the days when he had been a page to the +Sultan Amurath I. + +Upon a low table, reaching to the edge of the divan, had been placed +salvers holding cups and open dishes of silver. A woinak entered with +basins of scented water in which to wash the hands and bathe the face. + +Selim placed his little guest by his side upon the divan. Mustapha +also appeared, and, removing his shoes, made a profound and dignified +salâm--quite in contrast with his usual rough and badgering manner +when with Selim--then placed himself beside his comrade upon the +cushions. An excellent repast was served. There was hare's flesh +chopped and rolled with rice into balls, made more savory with curry +sauce. Sweet cakes, pastry of figs and candied orange blossoms excited +a thirst for the sweetened water, which was so strongly flavored with +the juices of fruits that the more scrupulous Moslems refused to drink +it, lest they should disobey the command of the Koran prohibiting the +use of wine. + +The two old men vied with each other in telling thrilling stories of +adventure in battle and on secret service; of the romance of castles +and courts; of how they won their honors and got their scars; of the +favors of princes and princesses; and of exploits in which, though the +rules of their order forbade their marrying, they retaliated the +captivity of the maiden's eye by capturing her person. The burden of +every story was the praise of the Janizary organization, which alone +enabled them to attain such glories and joys. The close brotherhood, +which gave to each the help of all the ten thousand, was commended by +incidents illustrating it. They told of their Aga or chief, who was +more powerful than the Grand Vizier--for sultans made these latter by +a word, and unmade them with equal caprice, often with the stroke of +the sword; but to touch a hair of the Aga would be for the Sultan to +lose the favor of the entire band, whom he regarded as the main +support of his throne, as their hands had won it for his fathers. Did +not the word of Mustapha and Selim, at the fox-hunt, cow the pride of +Yusef, who was next to the Capee Aga or chief of the white eunuchs? +Yet Selim and Mustapha were but captains in the Janizaries. No general +in any other arm of the service would have dared to antagonize the +eunuch as they did. + +As Michael listened, his cheeks flushed and chilled by turns with the +excitement of his martial ambition. The dreams he used to have in his +mountain home, of being a soldier and coming back covered with badges +of honor to claim Morsinia as his bride, seemed to be dissolving into +the reality. Nor was his ardor damped when he learned from Selim that +the first step toward all this was the total surrender of himself to +the service of the brotherhood, in pledging and keeping obedience to +its rules; as a part of the body, like the hand, must never be severed +from the rest, but keep the contact perfect in every muscle and nerve, +in order to have the strength which only the health of the whole body +can give to it. Selim explained to him how wrong it had been for him +to seize the fox, no matter how excited he was, or how much daring it +showed to do so, since he had not been ordered to seize, but only to +turn the beast toward the Prince. Besides, to raise a hand against the +prince was treason--unless it were ordered by the chief of the +Janizaries. Therefore he had been punished according to the Janizary +discipline; though they would not have allowed any one else to touch +him--no not even the Padishah himself. + +Michael's spirit was fully healed with such words. His depression gave +way to a hotter ambition and pride of expectation than he had ever +felt before, when Selim put upon his head the whitish gray cap, like +that worn by the dervishes, and differing from it only in having upon +the back a strip of wool which the old man thus explained, as he told +the story of the organization of the Janizary corps. + +"The death angel, Azrael, has reaped the earth more than five times +since the mighty Othman,[36] who founded our empire, entered paradise. +His queen, Malkhatoon, the most beautiful of women, had given him two +sons. Never since Khalif Omar followed the Prophet was nobler +successor than would have been either Alaeddin or Orchan to Othman. +The stars shone not with deeper lustre than did the wisdom of +Alaeddin. The storm never burst more resistlessly on your Balkan +mountains than did the bravery and strength of Orchan beat down the +foe. To Orchan the empire came by will of Allah and Othman. But to +Alaeddin the new king said, 'Thou art wise, my brother, above all men. +Be thou the eyes of the throne, and I will be its arm!' So Alaeddin +was the great minister of the mighty Orchan. To Prince Alaeddin we owe +our best laws, our system of drilling and marching in all the Ottoman +armies. + +"But two lights are better known than one. And in a dream the Angel +Gabriel, who knows the secrets of Allah regarding men, said to +Alaeddin, 'Go look into the eyes of Kara Khalil Tschendereli. We have +given him a thought for thee and thy people.' And Kara Khalil said, +'Know, O wise and virtuous Prince Alaeddin, I have been permitted in +my dreams to stand upon the wall Al Araf, that runs between paradise +and hell. In the third story of the seven which divide perdition I saw +the ghosts of the Giaours. But while I watched their torments the +spirit of Othman, the Blessed, came to me, and, pointing to a gate in +the wall, said, in a voice so sweet that all the birds in paradise +echoed it, but so strong that it shook the mighty wall Al Araf as if +it would fall, "I charge thee, as thou art a true believer in Mahomet, +open that gate that some of the believers in Jesu, Son of Mary, may +escape into paradise." + +"'"What power have I for such a miracle, O Othman," I cried. But +Othman said: + +"'"Thou shalt save the souls of the boys among the captives Allah +gives thee in battle. Is it not written in the Koran that all the +children are at their birth gifted with the true faith. Believe this, +and teach the captive boys to trust the Prophet, to breathe the holy +Islam of Father Abraham, and to draw the sword for Allah. So shalt +thou be a saviour of many souls. And such valor will Allah send these +rescued ones, and such blessings shall follow them, that the Giaour +children shall conquer for thee the Giaour nations."' + +"And so, Michael," added Selim, "the wisdom of earth and heaven +appointed our order. We are still the Yeni Tscheri,[37] though a +century has gone by since we were founded; for the vigor of perpetual +youth is ours. + +"When Orchan, at such advice of Alaeddin and Kara Khalil enrolled the +first of the new troop--bright Christian boys like yourself, +Michael--they were led to the old dervish, Hadji Beytarch, whose +sanctity was as the fragrance of paradise itself. The face of the holy +man caught the lustre of the prophecy from heaven. As he drew the +sleeve of his mantle over each bowed head--and the strip of wool on +our cap is the sign of his sleeve--he uttered this benediction: 'Thy +face shall be white and shining; thy right arm shall be strong; thy +sabre shall be keen; and thine arrows sharp. Thou shalt be fortunate +in fight, and thou shalt never leave the battle-field save as a +conqueror.'" + +"And have they never been conquered?" asked Michael with incredulity. + +"Never!" cried Selim. + +"Except," added Mustapha, "that they might prepare themselves for some +greater victory. Allah sometimes makes known to us his will that we +should retreat; then we take up our kismet as joyfully as we would +shout the advance. That we may make sure of Allah's will, before +retreating we always assault the enemy thrice. If at that sacred +number we cannot conquer we know that the victory has been reserved, +still held for us, but in the closed hand of Fate." + +"But what of those who were killed? I certainly saw many Janizaries +lying dead in the snows of the Balkans the day of the fight. Are they +not conquered?" asked the boy. + +"Nay, more than conquerors," said Mustapha. "If one falls in battle +paradise flings wide its gates, and troops of angels and houris come +to lead his soul in a triumphal procession into that beautiful land +where the earth is like purest musk, and where the great Tuba tree +grows--a branch of which shades the kiosk of every believer, and bends +down to place its luscious fruit into his hand, if he so much as +desires it; where are grapes and pomegranates, and such as for spicy +sweetness have never been tasted on earth; where are streams of water +and milk and wine and honey, whose bottoms are pebbled with pearls and +emeralds and rubies; where the houris, the fairest of maidens, dwell +close beside the believer in pavilions of hollow pearls, and serve +every wish of the faithful even before he can utter it."[38] + +But Michael's eyes were heavy; and as the old veterans diverted the +conversation to some matter of business between them, his excited +imagination reproduced the description of paradise in his dreams. +Only, the pavilion of pearl was shaped like good Uncle Kabilovitsch's +cot on the mountains, and the houris were all fair-haired Morsinias. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] Whence the word Ottoman. Also written Osman, whence the Osmanlis. + +[37] Yeni Tscheri; new troop; corrupted in Janizary. + +[38] _Vide_ Koran. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +Weeks and months passed away, during which the physical exercises of +the lads in the Janizary school were varied with lessons in the +Turkish language; and, in the case of a select number, in the Arabic, +mastering it at least sufficiently to read the Koran, large sections +of which they were compelled to commit to memory. + +The teachers in the Janizary schools were far from ordinary men. They +were highly learned, and, like most Orientals of education, gifted +with great eloquence. After the daily tasks had been accomplished the +boys were gathered in a semicircle upon the floor about the +instructor, who sat cross-legged among them, and narrated in glowing +language the history of the Prophet and his successors in the +khalifate; inflaming their young minds with the most heroic and +romantic legends of Arabia and Egypt, Algiers and Granada, where the +Koran had conquered the faith of the people whom the swords of the +true Moslems had subdued. Wild stories of the early days of the Turks, +before Ertoghral,[39] "The Right-hearted Man," led the tribes from the +banks of the Euphrates; and earlier still when Seljuk[40] led his +people from north of the Caspian; of the settlement of their remote +ancestors in Afghanistan, where the great chief was first called +Sultan;[41] of how they had once held the religious faith of +Zoroaster. Indeed, myths from the very dawn of known history, when the +Turkius did all sorts of valiant deeds in far-off China.[42] + +The Christian books were made to appear to the young proselyte as but +imperfect suggestions of the completed teaching of the book of +Mahomet; while the peculiar dogmas of the Christians were restated +with such shrewd perversion that to the child's judgment they seemed +puerile or untrue. + +"Behold the sky!" one would exclaim. "Is it not one dome, like the +canopy of one mighty throne? Behold the light! Does it not pour from +one sun and fill all space with one flood? Breathe the air! Is it not +the same over all lands and in all lungs? Do not all birds fly with +one mechanism of wings? and all men live by the same beating of the +heart? How then can there be three Gods, Allah, and Jesu and Mary, as +the Christians teach?[43] What does reason say? What does the universe +testify? What says the true and wise believer?" + +"There is one God and Mahomet is His Prophet," would be the response +of the pupils, bowing their heads to the floor. + +"Can the less contain or give out the greater? Can a stone bring forth +the orange tree? Can a stick give birth to the eagle? A worm be the +father of a man? How, then, can we say with the Christians, that Mary +of Bethlehem is the mother of God? What says the faithful and wise +believer?" + +"There is one God, and Mahomet is His prophet," would be the choral +response. + +"Is God weak? Can men thwart His plans? Shall we then believe that the +infidel Jews crucified the Son of God?" + +"God is great, and Mahomet is His Prophet," would roll up from the +lips of the scholars. + +"Shall we, then, kiss the toe of the pope because he calls himself the +grand vizier of Allah, when our Janizaries can cut the throats of his +soldiers, as our brethren of Arabia destroyed the crusaders? Or shall +we kiss the hand of the patriarch of the Greeks, who claims supremacy +in the name of Allah, when already our arms have shut up the whole +Greek empire within the walls of Constantinople? What says the +faithful and wise believer?" + +"God is great, and Mahomet is His Prophet," is the reply. + +"Who would cringe and beg forgiveness at the feet of a dirty priest, +when the sword of every Janizary may open for him who holds it the +gate of paradise?" + +Not only such arguments, but every event of the day that could +emphasize or illustrate the superiority of the Moslem faith, was +skilfully brought to bear upon the susceptible minds of the youths. +And within the first year of Michael's cadetship one such significant +event occurred. + +In the year of the Hegira 822,[44] six months after the flight of +Scanderbeg, it was solemnly agreed between Christian and Moslem that +the sword should have rest for ten years. A stately ceremony was made +to seal the compact. Vladislaus of Hungary represented in his person +the pledge of kingly honor. Hunyades gave the sanction of a soldier's +word. And Cardinal Julian was supposed to have added to the treaty the +confirmation of all that was sacred in the religion of which he was so +exalted a representative. On behalf of the Christians, the concord was +signalized by an oath upon the Gospels. On the other side, Sultan +Amurath, in the presence of his generals and the holiest of the Moslem +dervishes, swore upon the Koran. This compact, guarded by all that men +hold to be honorable on earth and sacred in heaven, lulled the +suspicions of the Turks. The rigid drill, the alert espionage, the +raids along the border gave way to the indolence of the barracks and +the pastimes of the camp. Thousands of horses and their riders were +returned to till the fields in the Timars, Ziamets and Beyliks[45] +scattered throughout distant provinces. The Sultan retired to meditate +religion, or devise the things belonging to permanent peace, in his +secluded palace at Magnesia in Asia Minor. The death of his eldest +son, Prince Aladdin, led him to put the crown of associate Padishah +upon the brow of the young Mahomet that in these quiet times the +prince might learn the minor lessons of the art of ruling. + +But this sense of security among the Turks offered too strong a +temptation to the cupidity of the Christian leaders. King Vladislaus +opposed conscientious objections to any breach of the compact. +Hunyades maintained his personal honor by at first refusing to draw +his sword. But Cardinal Julian stood sponsor to a breach of faith, +and announced that principle which has, in the estimate of history, +made his scarlet robe the symbol of his scarlet sin--that no faith +need be kept with infidels; and, in the name of the Holy Father, +granted absolution to the chief actors for what they were about to do. + +Without warning, the tide of Christian conquest poured from Servia +eastward until it was checked in that direction by the Black Sea. The +hordes of Europe then turned southward, seized upon Varna, and pitched +their camps amid the pennants of their ill-gotten victory near to its +walls. To human sight no power could avert irrevocable disaster to the +arms, if not the subversion of the entire empire of the Ottomans in +Europe. + +In their extremity the lands of the Moslem made their solemn appeal to +Allah. Every mosque resounded with reiterated prayers. The camps +echoed the pious invocations with loud curses and the rattle of the +preparation of armor. Scurrying messengers flew from the centre to the +circumference of the Ottoman domain, and hastily gathered legions +concentrated for one supreme blow in retaliation for the grossness of +the insult, and in vindication of what they believed to be the cause +of honor and truth, which, in their minds, was one with that of Allah +and the Prophet. + +The Sultan hurried from his retreat, and with marvellous celerity +marshalled the faithful against the invaders at Varna. Riding at the +head of the Janizaries, he caused the document of the violated treaty +to be held aloft on a lance-head in the gaze of the two armies, and +with a loud voice uttered this prayer--a strange one for a Moslem's +lips-- + +"O, Thou insulted Jesu, revenge the wrong done unto Thy good name, and +show Thy power upon Thy perjured people!" + +Victory hovered long between the contending hosts, but at last rested +with the Moslems. To make the intervention of Allah more apparent, it +was told everywhere, how, when Amurath believed that he was defeated, +and had given the order for retreat, a soldier seized the bridle of +the Sultan's horse and turned him back again toward the enemy. The +very beast felt the inspiration of heaven, and led the assault upon +the breaking columns of the Christians, until the victors returned, +bearing upon spear-points the heads of Cardinal Julian and King +Vladislaus; while Hunyades fled in disgrace from the field. + +It is not to be wondered at that such an event, which led many whole +communities to renounce their alliance with the Christian powers, and +many of the chiefs of Bosnia and Servia to accept the Moslem faith, +should have rooted that faith more deeply in the hearts of those who +already held it. A flame of fanaticism ran throughout the Mohammedan +world. The most rabid sects increased in the number and fury of their +devotees. Many who were engaged in useful occupations left them to +became Moslem monks, spending their lives in meditation, if perchance +they might receive more fully the blessings which heaven seemed ready +to pour upon every true believer; or to become preachers of the +jehad--the holy war against the infidels. + +In the schools of the Janizaries the fanaticism was fed and fanned to +a flame of utmost intensity. The square court within their barracks +was transformed into a great prayer place of the dervishes. Here the +Howlers formed their circles, and swaying backward and forward with +flying hair and glaring eyes, grunted their talismanic words from the +Koran, until they fell in convulsions on the pavement. And the +Wheelers spun round and round in their mystic motions until, full of +the spirit they sought, they dropped in the dizzying dance. Learned +sheiks preached the gospel of the sword, and the imams watered the +seed thus sown with fervent prayers, until the ardent souls of the +youth seemed to have lost their human identity, and to be transformed +into sparks and flashes of some celestial fire which was to destroy +the lands of the Christians. + +Michael's mind was not altogether unimpressed by the religious +fanaticism that raged around him. While in quiet moments he was +troubled with what he heard against the Christian faith which he had +been taught in his mountain home, at other times he was caught in the +tide of the general enthusiasm and felt himself borne along with it, +swirled around in the rings of the mad maelstrom; not unwilling to +yield himself to the excitement, and yet by no definite purpose +committing himself to it. If it requires all the strength of an adult +mind, with convictions long held and character well formed, to +maintain its faith and principles against the attrition of daily +temptation in a Christian land, we must not be surprised if the child +gave way to the incessant appeal of the Moslem belief, accompanied as +it was by extravagant promises of secular pleasure, and counteracted +by no word of Christian counsel. + +But the spiritual impulse in Michael was less active than the martial +instinct; and this latter was stimulated to the utmost by the +associations of every day and hour. The battles which were fought on +the great fields were all refought in the vivid descriptions of the +Janizary teachers, and sometimes in the mimic rencounters of the +playground. Michael rebelled against his childish years which +prevented his joining some of the great expeditions that were fitted +out;--against the Greeks of the Peloponnesus, the Giaour lands to the +north, and the Albanians on the west, who, under Scanderbeg, had +become the chief menace against the Ottoman power. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] About 1280 A. D. + +[40] About the end of the tenth century. + +[41] Between 997 and 1030 A. D. + +[42] Tribes of Turkius were mentioned by Pliny. + +[43] This perversion of the Christian dogma of the Trinity was taught +by heretical sects in the time of the Prophet Mahomet, and is embodied +in the Koran. + +[44] A. D., 1444. + +[45] Fiefs or portions of conquered lands given to soldiers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +The career of Scanderbeg, or Castriot, as the Albanians love to call +their great national hero, makes one of the most illustrious pages in +history, whether we look for the display of personal courage, astute +generalship, or loftiest patriotism. His military renown, already so +wide-spread as the commander of the Turks, became universal through +the almost incredible skill with which, for many years, his handful of +patriots held the mountains of Albania against the countless armies of +the Sultan. His superlative devotion to his country, was maintained +with such sacrifices as few men have ever rendered to the holiest +cause. He resisted the bribes of riches, power and splendor with +which the Sultan, baffled by his arms, attempted to seduce his honor. +These things went far to atone for the treachery of his defection from +the Turkish service. + +Upon his arrival in Albania, the citadel of Croia was given into his +hands by the commandant, who was either unsuspicious of the false +order that was sealed by the now dead hand of the Sultan's secretary, +or who had found that the wily Albanians had already access to its +gates. Sfetigrade and other prominent fortresses fell rapidly, won by +strategy or by the valorous assault of the patriots. The Albanians had +been almost instantaneously transformed into an invincible army by the +electric thrill which the coming of Castriot had sent everywhere, from +the borders of Macedonia to the western sea; and by the skill with +which that great captain organized his bands of Epirots and Dibrians. +An army of forty thousand Turks was at one time divided by his +masterly movements, and slain in detail. A second army met a similar +fate. The great Sultan himself attempted the capture of this Arnaout +"wild beast," as he had learned to call him. One hundred and fifty +thousand men, supplied from the far-reaches of Asia where the Ottoman +made most of his levies, swarmed like a plague of locusts through the +valleys of Epirus. By sheer momentum of numbers they pressed their way +up to the fortress of Sfetigrade. + +The defence of this place is one of the most heroic in the annals of +war or patriotism. As the glacier melts at the touch of the warm earth +in the Alpine valleys so the mighty army of Amurath dissolved in blood +as it touched the beleaguered walls. At the same time Scanderbeg, +adopting some new expedient in every attack, made his almost nightly +raids through the centre of the Turkish host, like a panther through +the folds of the sheep, until Amurath cried in sheer vexation among +the generals, "Will none of you save us from the fury of that wild +beast?" The incessant slaughter that broke the bewildered silence of +the generals was the only response. + +Thus passed some six years since the time when our story opens; years +which, had they stood by themselves, and not been followed by fifteen +years more of equal prowess, would have won for Scanderbeg the +unstinted praise of that distinguished writer who enrolls him among +the seven greatest uncrowned men of the world's history.[46] + +During these years Castriot had studied with closest scrutiny the +character of his nephew, Amesa. His natural discernment, aided by his +long observation of human duplicity while among the Turks--and, indeed +by his own experience, as for many years he had masked his own +discontent and ultimate purpose--gave him a power of estimating men +which may be called a moral clairvoyance. He discovered that in his +nephew which led him to credit the story of Kabilovitsch--as the +forester Arnaud was still called, although some more than suspected +his identity. The chief saw clearly that Amesa's loyalty would be +limited by his selfish interests. Those interests now led him to most +faithful and apparently patriotic devotion. Besides, the loss or +alienation of so influential a young voivode, involving a schism in +the house of the Castriots, might be fatal to the Albanian cause. The +general, therefore, fed the ambition of his relative, giving him +honorable command, for which he was well fitted by reason of both +courage and genius. Nor did Amesa disappoint this confidence. His +sword was among the sharpest and his deeds most daring. The peasant +soldiers often said that Amesa was not unworthy the blood of the +Castriots. To Sultan Amurath's proposal of peace on condition of +Scanderbeg's simple recognition of the Ottoman's nominal suzerainty, +allowing him to retain the full actual possession of all his ancestral +holdings, Amesa's voice joined with that of Moses Goleme and the other +allied nobles in commending the refusal of their chief. + +Amesa's courage and zeal seemed at times to pass the control of his +judgment. Thus, in a sharp battle with the Turks, during the temporary +absence of Castriot, who was resisting an encroachment of the +Venetians on the neighboring country of Montenegro, the fiery young +voivode was seized with such blind ferocity that he knew not where he +was. He had engaged a group of his own countrymen, apparently not +discerning his mistake until he had unhorsed one of them, whom he was +on the point of sabering, when his arm was caught by a comrade. The +endangered man was Kabilovitsch, who saw that there was a method in +Amesa's madness which it behoved him to note. + +It was evident to Kabilovitsch not only that he was recognized by +Amesa, but also that the young voivode was more than suspicious of the +former forester's knowledge of the affair by which the magnificent +estate of De Streeses had passed into his hands. The good man's +solicitude was intense through fear that Amesa had become aware of the +escape of the child heir, and might discover some clue to her +whereabouts. Several times Milosch had visited the camp inquiring for +Kabilovitsch; and Constantine had made frequent journeys carrying +tidings of Morsinia's welfare. Had neither of these been spied upon? +Did no one ever pass the little hamlet where she was in covert who +recognized in the now daily developing womanly features the likeness +of her mother, Mara De Streeses? + +A little after this assault of Amesa upon Kabilovitsch, came news +which startled the latter. To understand this the reader must +penetrate a wild mountainous district a double score of miles from the +camp of Castriot. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[46] Sir William Temple. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +Out of a broad valley, through which lies the chief highway leading to +the north-west of Albania, there opens a narrow ravine which seems to +end abruptly against the precipitous front of a mountain range. But, +turning into this ravine, one is surprised to find that it winds +sharply, following a swift stream, and climbing for many miles through +the mountain, until it suddenly debouches into a picturesque valley, +which affords grazing space for sheep and enough arable land to +sustain the peasants who once dwelt there. + +A hamlet nestled in this secluded vale. No road led beyond it, and it +was approached only by the narrow and tortuous path we have described. +A rude mill sentineled a line of three houses. These dwellings, though +simple in their construction, were quite commodious. A room of ample +dimensions was enclosed with walls of stone and loam, supporting a +conical roof of thatch. On three sides of this room and opening into +it were smaller chambers, having detached roofs of their own. The +central apartment was the common gathering place for quite an +extensive community, consisting of a family in three or four +generations; for each son upon marrying brought his wife to the +paternal homestead, and built a new chamber connecting with the +central one. The three houses contained altogether nearly a hundred +souls. The last of these dwellings was of ampler proportions than the +others, and was occupied by a branch of an ancient family to which the +inhabitants of the other houses were all of kin. By reason of its +antiquity as well as the comparative wealth of its occupants, it was +regarded as the konak, or village mansion; and the senior member of +its little community was recognized as the stargeshina, or chief of +the village. + +It was the latter part of April; the day before that upon which from +time immemorial the peasants among these mountains had observed the +festival of Saint George, which they devoted to ceremonies +commemorative of the awakening summer life of the world. + +It was still early in the afternoon, though the high mountain wall on +the west had shut out the sun, whose bright rays, however, still +burning far overhead, dropped their benediction of roseate shadows +into the valley they were not permitted to enter; loading the +atmosphere with as many tints as there were in Buddha's bowl when the +poor man threw in the bud of genuine charity, and it burst into a +thousand flowers. + +A group of maidens gathered at the little mill, each holding an +earthen bowl to catch the glistening spray drops which danced from the +edge of the clumsy water-wheel. When these were filled they cast into +the "witching waters" the early spring flowers, anemones and violets +and white coral arbutus, which they had picked during the day. It was +a pleasing superstition that the water, having been beaten into spray, +received life from the flowers which the renewed vitality of the +awakening spring spirit had pressed up through the earth; and that, if +one should bathe in this on St. George's day, health and happiness +would attend him during the year. + +"What is it?" cried one as a crackling in the bushes far above their +heads on a steep crag was followed in a moment by the beat of a +pebble, as it glanced from ledge to ledge almost to their feet. + +"The sheep are not up there!" said another. + +"Perhaps the Vili!"[47] suggested a third, "for I am sure that I have +seen one this very day." + +"What was he like?" exclaimed several at once, while all kept their +eyes upon the cliff above. + +"There! there! Did you see it?" Several avowed that they saw it +stealing along the very brow of the hill; but all agreed that it +passed so swiftly that they could not tell just what they saw. + +"It was just so with the one I saw to-day," said the former speaker. +"I was on the ledge by the old eagle's nest, gathering my flowers. A +tall being passed below me on the path, dressed so beautifully that I +know it was none of us, and had dealings with none of us. It seemed +anxious not to be seen; for my little cry of surprise caused it to +vanish as if it melted into the foam of the stream as it plunges into +the pool." + +"That was just like the Vili," interposed one. "They live under the +river's bank. They talk in the murmur of the streams. Old Mirko, who +used to work much in the mill, learned to understand what they said. +Did this one you saw have long hair? The Vili, Mirko said, always +did." + +"I cannot say," replied the girl, "for its head was hidden in a +blossoming laurel bush between it and me." + +"It was one," cried another, "for there are no blossoming laurels yet. +It was its long white hair waving in the wind, that you saw." + +"Let us go down to the pool!" proposed one, "maybe we can see it +again." + +"No! No!" cried the others, in a chorus of tremulous voices. + +"No, indeed," said one of the larger girls, "for it might be they are +eating, or they are dancing the Kolo--which they always do as the sun +goes down, and if any body sees them then they get angry, and will +come to your house and look at you with the evil eye." + +Hasting home with their bowls of water crowned with flowers, they told +their story to the stargeshina. + +The old man laughed at their credulity:-- + +"Girls always see strange things on the eve of Saint George." + +At the evening meal in the great room of the first house, the +patriarch, taking his cue from the story the girls belonging to that +household had told of their imagined vision, repeated legend after +legend about those strange beings that people the unknown caverns in +the mountains, and rise from the brooks, leaving the water-spiders to +mark the spot where they emerged so that they may find their way back +again, and of the wjeshtiges, who throw off their bodies as easily as +others lay aside their clothes, flit through the fire, ride upon the +sparks as horses, float on the threads of white smoke--all the time +watching the persons gathered about the blazing logs, that they may +mark the one who is first to die. "This doomed person," the old man +said, "they visit when he has gone to sleep, and, with a magic rod, +open his breast; utter in mystic words the day of his death; take out +his heart and feast upon it. Then they carefully close up the side, +and, though the victim lives on, having no heart, no spring of life in +him, sickens and droops until the fatal day; as the streams vanish +when cut off from the fountains whence they start." + +These stories were followed by songs, the music of which was within a +narrow range of notes, and sung to the accompaniment of the gusle--a +rude sort of guitar with a single string. The subjects of these songs +and the ideas they contained were as limited in their range as the +notes by which they were rendered; such as the impossible exploits of +heroes, and improbable romances of love. The merit of the singing +generally consisted in the additions or variations with which the +genius of the performer enabled him to adorn the hackneyed music or +original narrative. + +"Let Constantine take the gusle, and sing us the song about the +peasant maid who conquered the heart of the king," said the +stargeshina. + +"Constantine is not here," replied a clear and sweet, but commanding +sort of voice. "He went out as it began to darken, and has not +returned." + +The speaker rose as she said it, and went toward the large door of the +room to look out. She was a young woman of slender, but superb form, +which the costume of the country did not altogether conceal. She was +tall and straight, but moved with the graceful freedom of a child, for +her straightness was not that of an arrow--rather of the unstrung bow, +whose beauty is revealed by its flexibility. Her limbs were rounded +perfectly to the feminine model, but were evidently possessed of +muscular strength developed by daily exercise incident to her mountain +life. A glance at her would disprove that western theory which +associates the ideal of female beauty only with softness of fleshly +texture and lack of sinew. Her face was commanding, brow high, eyes +rather deep-set and blue, mouth small--perhaps too straight for the +best expression of amiability--chin full, and suggestive of firmness +and courage. As she gazed through the doorway into the night a +troubled look knit her features--just enough, however, to make one +notice rather the strong, steady and heroic purpose which conquered +it. When she turned again to the company the firelight revealed only a +girlish sweetness and gentleness of face and manner. She took the +gusle and sang a pretty song about the dancing of the witches; her +merry voice starting a score of other voices in the simple chorus. +Then followed a war song, in which the daughter of a murdered +chieftain calls upon the clan to avenge her father, and save their +land from an insulting foe. It was largely recitative, and rendered +with so much of the realistic in her tones and manner as to draw even +the old men to their feet, while, with waving hands and marching +stamp, they started the company in the refrain. + +Milosch set the example of retiring when the evening was well +advanced. Though Constantine was still absent, it gave his father no +anxiety, for the boy was accustomed to have his own private business +with coons in the forest, and the eels in the pool, and, indeed, with +the stars too--for often he would lie for hours looking at them, only +Morsinia being allowed to interrupt his conference with the +bright-eyed watchers above. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[47] Still a Servian and Albanian superstition. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Constantine, who was now a manly fellow of nearly eighteen years, had +left the house when it grew dark. The night was thick, for heavy +clouds had spread their pall over the sky. A little space from the +house was the kennel. A deep growl greeted his approach to it. + +"Still, Balk!" muttered he, as he loosed an enormous mastiff, and led +the brute toward the side of the house on which the clijet, or +chamber, occupied by Morsinia was located. + +"Down, Balk!" he said, as again and again the huge beast rose and +placed his paws upon his master's shoulders. Balk was tied within a +clump of elder-bushes a little way from the house, and at the opening +of a foot-path ascending the mountain. The young man lay down with his +head upon the mastiff. Nearly an hour passed; the silence unbroken +except by a querulous whine of the dog as his comrade refused to +indulge his playful spirit. Suddenly Balk threw up his head and +sniffed the air nervously. Yet no sound was heard, but the soughing of +the winds through the budding trees, and the murmur of the brook. The +animal became restless and would not lie down except at the sternly +whispered command. + +Leaving him, Constantine opened the shutter of the clijet occupied by +his father and himself, and quietly entered. Though in the dark, he +strung a strong bow, balanced several arrows in his hand to determine +the best, saying to himself as he did so, "I can send these straight +in the direction of a sound, thanks to my night hunting!" A dagger was +thrust into the top of his leather hose. He wound his head in the +strooka--the cloth which answers for both cap and pillow to those who +are journeying among those mountains and liable to exposure without +bed or roof at night. + +The noise though slight awakened Milosch, who had fallen into a light +sleep. + +"Where now, my boy? No coon will come to you such a night as this." + +"Father, I did not tell you, because you laugh at my fears," said +Constantine in a low tone. "But the anxiety of Uncle Kabilovitsch and +the great captain, too, when I went to camp last week, makes me more +cautious about Morsinia. The Vili are about, as the girls said." + +"Nonsense, you child! It's a shame that a boy of your years should +believe such stuff. Besides what have the Vili to do with our +daughter?" + +"Look here, father; when I was searching for a rabbit's burrow this +afternoon I saw the footprint of one of them, and it wore a soldier's +shoe too. That is the sort of Vili I believe in." + +"Why, boy!" said Milosch, "your head is so full of soldiering that +rabbits' burrows look like soldiers' feet. Or your head is so turned +with love for our girl, that you must imitate the Latin knights, and +go watch beneath the shutter of your lady's castle. Go, along, then, +and let the night dews take the folly out of you. Foolish boy!" added +he, as he turned toward the wall. + +Constantine went back to the dog. The huge beast had thrust himself +as far as the cord would allow him in the direction away from the +house, and stood trembling with excitement as he peered into the black +shadows which lay against the mountain. Constantine could detect no +unusual sound save the creaking of the gigantic limbs of the trees as +they rubbed against each other in the rising wind, the sharpening +whistle of the breeze, and the crackle of the dead brushwood. Yet the +mastiff's excitement increased. He strained the rope with his utmost +strength, but the hand of his master upon his neck checked the whining +growl. + +A branch snapped on the hillside in the direction of the path. + +"No wind did that," muttered he. A stone rolled down the declivity. + +"No foot familiar with that path did that. You are right, Balk!" and +by main strength he pressed the mastiff's head to the ground, and, +with his arm about his neck, kept him crouching and silent. + +Stealthy steps were heard. + +"One! Two!" counted the boy. "You and I are enough for them, eh, +Balk?" + +The dog licked the face of his master in token that he understood, and +would take his man if Constantine would do equally well. + +"Three! Four! Five! A large band! Too many for us, Balk! We must rouse +the village----" + +But at the moment he would have started, his attention was arrested by +low voices almost at his side. + +"The clijet nearest. When she is taken I will sound the bugle +call--the Turkish call, so that your dash through the village will be +thought to be one of their dashes. Do as little real damage as you +can, keeping the appearance of a genuine raid; but no matter if you +have to cut the throats of a half-dozen or more; especially the +red-headed fellow you have seen in camp, and the old devil with the +paralyzed arm. I and Waldy will carry the girl, and wait for you by +the horses on the open road. Let's inspect!" + +Two dusky outlines moved toward the house. Constantine cut the rope, +and, at a push of his hand the dog crawled a few feet until he was +clear of the copse; then sprang into the air. There was a hardly +audible exclamation of surprise and terror; a low growl of satisfied +rage, as when a tiger seizes the food thrown to him in his cage. One +man is down in death grapple with his strange assailant whose teeth +are at his throat. A sharp whiz and a cry of pain tell that the arrow +of Constantine has not missed its mark. + +A second whiz, and the form topples! + +The boy stood stupefied with the reaction of the moment. But the +multiplying footfalls along the ledge aroused him. He darted into the +house, swinging the great bar that turned on a peg in the door post +across the entrance, and thus securing it behind him. To arouse the +household was the work of a moment. A word explained all. Arms were +seized, not only by the men, but also by the women: for even to this +day a marauder will meet no more skilful and brave defenders of the +villages of Albania than the wives and daughters who encourage the men +by their example as well as by their words. Their hands are trained to +use the sword, the axe, the dagger; and the cry of danger transforms +the most domestic scene into an exhibition of Amazons. + +The expected attack was delayed. Fears were excited lest the raiders +were about to set fire to the house. If such were the case, the policy +of the inmates was to sally forth and cut their way through the +assailants, at whatever cost. Some one must go out. It might be to +meet death at the door. Standing in a circle they hastily repeated the +Pater Noster, each one giving a word in turn; the one to whom the +"Amen" came accepting the appointment as directly from God. With drawn +weapons they gathered at the door, which was opened suddenly. No enemy +appearing, it was closed, leaving the new sentinel without. + +After going a few paces the guard stumbled over the dead body of the +dog, by the side of which a man was vainly struggling to rise. Drawing +his dagger he would have completed the work of the mastiff's +fangs,--when he checked the impulse by better judgment-- + +"No, it's better to have him along with us. He'll come handy before we +get through this job!" + +So, grasping the two arms of the wounded man in such a way as to +prevent his using a weapon, if strength enough should remain, he swung +the helpless hulk upon his back, as he had often carried the carcass +of a wolf down the mountain; and, giving the preconcerted signal at +the door, was instantly re-admitted. + +The wounded man wore the Turkish uniform, and was evidently the +officer in charge of the raiding party. This fact sufficiently +explained the delay in following up the attack, for doubtless his men +were still waiting for the order which he would never give. + +"We must rouse our neighbors," said the old man, who was recognized as +the commandant of the dwelling, and obeyed as such with that reverence +for seniority which is to this day a beautiful characteristic of the +Albanian people. + +Constantine held a hurried, but confidential talk with Milosch, who +proposed that Constantine and his sister should undertake the +hazardous venture of alarming the next house. All remonstrated against +Morsinia's venturing, the patriarch refusing to allow it. Milosch +persuaded him with these words, which were not overheard by the +others-- + +"She is the chief object of attack; this I have discovered. If she +remains in the house she will be captured. Her only safety is to leave +it, and disappear in the darkness. Once out there she can hide near +by, or can thread her way up among the crags, where no stranger's foot +will ever come. She knows every stone and tree in the dark as well as +a mole knows the twists and turns of his burrow." + +Morsinia caught at once the spirit of the adventure, and in her +eagerness preceded Constantine to the doorway. The thrill of fear on +her account gave way to a thrill of applause for her as she stood in +readiness. She had donned a helmet of thick half-tanned hides, and a +corsage of light iron links, looped together and tied with leathern +thongs, about her person. Her arms were left free for the use of the +bow and stock which swung from her shoulder, and the klaptigan, or +short dagger, which hung in the plaits of her kilt. + +"The Holy Virgin protect her!" was the prayer which came from all +sides as she flung her arms about the neck of Milosch, and as she +afterward bowed her head to receive the kiss of the patriarch upon her +forehead. The light in the room was extinguished that their exit might +not be noted by any without when the door should open. + +For a moment Constantine and Morsinia stood close to the door which +had closed behind them. Their keen hearing detected the fact that the +house was surrounded, though by persons stationed at a distance, +chiefly upon the higher slopes of the hills. The road to the next +house was evidently guarded. + +Constantine insisted upon Morsinia's concealing herself rather than +attempting to go with him to the neighbors; but only after +remonstrance with him did she consent to his plan. Silently crossing +the road, and without so much as breaking a stick or rustling a dead +leaf beneath her feet--a dexterity acquired in approaching the timid +game with which the mountains abounded, and which she had often +hunted--she disappeared in the dense copse. + +Constantine moved cautiously by the wayside, easily eluding the notice +of the men whose dark outlines were discerned by him as they stood on +guard at intervals along the road. He had nearly approached the +neighboring house when the still night air was rent with the shrill +note of a Turkish bugle call from the direction of the dwelling they +had left. + +"Could it be that the captured officer had recovered sufficient +reason and strength to break from his captors and give the signal?" +thought Constantine. The call sounded again--it was evidently from a +distance, beyond the village. A score or more dim forms at the sound +gathered in the road; some emerging from the bushes near, others +descending from points high up the slopes on either side--their +hurried but muffled conversation showed that they were about to make +the appointed dash upon the doomed dwelling. But a second blare of +trumpets sounded far down toward the entrance of the valley, followed +by a clanging of armor and clatter of horses' feet. Torches glared far +away. A party was evidently just winding out of the defile into the +open space where the hamlet stood. Rescuers doubtless! for the first +party of raiders scattered to right and left, and were heard climbing +again up the wooded slopes. Morsinia hastened to Constantine, and +together they hurried to meet the new comers. But they were not +rescuers. They attacked the house with shouts of "Allah! Allah!" They +fired it with their torches. Some poured along the road toward the +next house. + +They were genuine Turks. Unable to conquer Scanderbeg in battle, the +great army had spread everywhere to lay waste the country. In fertile +meadows, along every stream, wherever a castle or chalet was known to +be, raged the numberless soldiers, who, beaten in nobler fight, sought +vengeance by becoming murderers of the more helpless, and kidnappers +of women and children to fill their harems. + +With flying feet Constantine and Morsinia outstripped the riders, +alarmed the second house, and ran to the third. Behind them the +crackling flames told that it was too late to return. All who could +escape gathered at the great konak. Since a similar raid, some years +before, this building had been converted into a rude fortification. +The wall which surrounded it, as an enclosure for sheep and cattle, +had been built up high and strong enough to prevent any approach to +the main structure by an anticipated foe, except as the scalers of the +wall should be exposed to the missiles of those within. The konak +proper was pierced with loop-holes, through which a shower of arrows +could be poured by unseen archers. + +The court was already filled with the fugitives, while some had +entered the building, when it was surrounded by the Turks. Constantine +had gained from Morsinia a promise to avoid exposure; and had agreed +upon a place of meeting on the mountain, in the event of their both +surviving the conflict. But the eagerness of Constantine overcame his +discretion, and, heading a group of peasants who had not been able to +enter the konak, he mingled in a hand-to-hand fight with the +assailants. Morsinia's interest led her to closely watch the fray from +the bordering thicket, changing her position from time to time that +she might not lose sight of the well-known form of her foster-brother. +Seeing him endangered, she could not resist the vain impulse to fly to +his assistance; as if her arms could stay those of the stout troopers +who surrounded him; or as if a Turk could have respect for a woman's +presence. Scarcely had she moved from her covert when strong hands +seized her, and, by a quick movement, pinioned her arms behind her +back. + +"Ho! man, guard this girl! If my houri escapes, your head shall be +forfeit," cried her captor, an officer, to a common soldier who was +holding his horse. In a moment he was lost to sight in the struggling +throng. + +The wall was carried, and, though many a turban had rolled from the +lifeless head of its wearer, the building was finally fired--life +being promised to the women who should surrender. Some of these, who +were young, were thrust from the door by their kindred, who preferred +for them the chances of miserable existence as Turkish prey, to seeing +them perish with themselves. Most, however, fought to the last by the +side of their husbands and fathers, and were slain in the desperate +attempt to make their way from the flames which drove them out. + +Constantine, by strange strength and skill, extricated himself from +the mêlée. A sharp flesh wound cooled his blind rage; and, realizing +that another's life, as dear to him as his own, was involved in his +safety, he withdrew from the danger, and sought Morsinia. + +Not finding her during the night, he returned in the earliest dawn to +the konak. The building was in ruins; the ground strewn with dead and +wounded. With broken hearts the few who had escaped were bewailing +their loved ones killed or missing. But there was no tidings of +Morsinia. In vain the woods were searched; every old trysting place +sacred to some happy memory of the years they had spent together--the +eagle's crag, the cave in the ravine, the dense copse. But only +memories were there. Imagination supplied the rest--a horrid +imagination! The poor boy was maddened and crushed; at one moment a +fiend; at the next almost lifeless with grief. + +An examination at the lower house discovered the body of his father, +Milosch. He had been killed outside the house; for his body, though +terribly gashed, was not burned, as were those found within the walls +of the building. + +Constantine had, up to this time, regarded himself as a boy; now he +felt that he was a man, with more of life in its desirableness behind +than ahead of him: a desperate man, with but a single object to live +for, vengeance upon the Turk, and upon those who, worse than Turks, of +Albanian blood, had first attempted Morsinia's capture. + +Yet there was another thing to live for. Perhaps she might be +recaptured. Improbable, but not impossible! That, then, should be his +waking dream. Such a hope--hope against hope--was all that could make +life endurable, except it were to drain the blood of her captors. + +He was driven by the poignancy of his grief and the hot fury of his +rage, to make this double object an immediate pursuit. He felt that he +could not sleep again until he had tasted some of the vengeance for +which he thirsted. + +But how could he accomplish it? He must lay his plan, for it were +worse than useless to start single-handed without one. He must plot +his tragedy before he began to execute it. + +He sat down amid the ruins of the hamlet--amid the ruins of his +happiness and hopes--to plot. But he could devise nothing. His +attempts were like writing on the air. He sat in half stupor; his +power to think crushed by the dead weight of mingled grief and the +sense of impotency. + +But suddenly he started---- + +"Fool! fool, that I am, to waste the moments! This very night it may +be done." + +He hastily stripped the body of a dead Turkish soldier, and, rolling +the uniform into a compact bundle, plunged with it through the thicket +and up the steep mountain side. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +The valley in which the little hamlet lay, as well as the ravine by +which it was approached, was exceedingly tortuous. The stream which +seemed to have made these in its ceaseless windings, sometimes almost +doubled upon itself, as if the spirit of the waters were the prey of +the spirit of the hills that closed in upon its path, and thus it +sought to elude its pursuer. Though it was fully twenty miles from the +demolished konak to where the narrow valley debouched into the open +plain, it was not more than a quarter of this distance in a straight +line between those points. The interjacent space was, however, +impassable to any except those familiar with its trackless rocks. From +a distance the mountain lying between seemed a sheer precipice. But +Constantine knew every crevice up which a man could climb; the +various ledges that were connected, if not by balconies broad enough +for the foot, at least by contiguous trunks of trees, balustrades of +tough mountain laurel, or ropes of wild vine. He could cross this wall +of rock in an hour or two, but the Turkish raiders would occupy the +bulk of the day in making the circuit of the road. Indeed they would +in all probability not leave the security of the great ravine, and +strike the highway, until night-fall; for the terror of Scanderbeg's +ubiquity was always before the Turks. It was this thought that had +prompted Constantine's sudden action when he started up from his +despairing reverie amid the embers of his home. + +It was still early in the afternoon when, having passed with the +celerity of a goat among the crags, he looked down from the further +side of the great barrier upon the Turkish company. He stood upon a +ledge almost above their heads; and never did an eagle's eye take in a +brood upon which he was about to swoop, more sharply than did +Constantine's observe the details of the camp below him. + +There were the horses tethered. Yonder was a group of officers playing +at dice. In a circle of guards beyond, a few women and children; and +among them--could he mistake that form? + +The soldiers were preparing their mess. Some were picking the feathers +from fowls; others building fires. Then his surmise had been correct, +that they would not leave the valley until night. + +Constantine donned the Turkish uniform he had brought with him, and +climbed down the mountain. Sentinels were posted here and there upon +bold points from which they might get a view of the great plain +beyond. Toward this they kept a constant watch, as one of them +remarked to his comrade upon a neighboring pinnacle of rock: "Lest +some of Scanderbeg's lightning might be lying about loose." Posing +like a sentinel whenever he was likely to be observed, Constantine +passed through their lines, the guards being too far apart to detect +one another's faces. Hailed by a sentinel, he gave back the playful +salute with a wave of his hand. + +Emboldened by the success of his disguise, he descended to a ledge so +near the group of officers that he could easily hear their +conversation. They did not use the pure Turkish speech, but sometimes +interspersed it with Servian, for many of the officers, as well as the +men, in the Sultan's armies were from the provinces where the Turkish +tongue was hardly known. The common soldiers in this group Constantine +observed used the Servian altogether. + +"Good!" said he to himself, "point number one in my plot." + +"The highest throw wins the choice of the captives," cried one of the +officers. "What say you, Oski?" + +"Agreed," replied the one addressed, "but she will never be your houri +in paradise, Lovitsch?" + +"Why not?" + +"Because the Koran forbids casting lots?" + +"Well," replied his comrade. "I will take my beauty now, in this +world, rather than wait for the next. So here goes!" + +"By Khalif Omar's big toe! You have won, Oski. Which will you take?" + +"The little one with the bright black eyes," replied Oski; "unless you +can prevail upon Captain Ballaban to give me his. The man who owns +that girl will never have any houris in paradise. They would all die +for jealousy." + +"Captain Ballaban is his name," murmured Constantine to himself. +"Good! Point number two in my plot." + +"I would not have her for a gift," said Lovitsch, "for she has a +strange eye--the evil eye perhaps--at least there is something in it I +cannot fathom. She looks straight through a man. I touched her under +the chin, when those gentle blue orbs burst with fire. There was as +much of a change in her as there is in one of our new-fashioned cannon +when it is touched off; quiet one moment, and sending a bullet through +you the next. She's the daughter of the devil, sure." + +"You are a bold soldier, Lovitsch, to be afraid of a girl," laughed +his comrade. "I would like the chance of owning that beauty. If I +could not manage her I could sell her. She would bring a bag of gold +at Adrianople. Captain Ballaban will probably give her as a present to +Prince Mahomet. He can afford to do so, for the prince has shown him +wonderful favors. Think of a young Janizary, who has not seen nineteen +summers, with a captain's rank, and commanding such greybeards as we!" + +"No doubt the prince favors him," replied Lovitsch, "but that will not +account for his advance in the Janizary's corps. Nothing but real grit +and genius gets ahead among those fellows. The prince can give his +jewels and gold, but he could not secure a Janizary's promotion to a +soldier any more than he could bring him to disgrace without the +consent of the Aga. No, comrade, Ballaban was born a soldier, and has +won every thread in his captain's badge by some exploit or sage +counsel. But I wish he was back with us. I like not being left in +charge of such a motley troop as this. If Scanderbeg should close up +the mouth of this ravine with a few score of his spavined cavalry, we +would be like so many eggs in a bag, to be smashed together, without +Ballaban's wit to get us out." + +"I think the captain has returned, for, if I mistake not, I saw his +red head a little while ago glowing like a sunset on the crag yonder," +replied Oski, looking up toward the spot where Constantine was +sitting. + +----"Good! said Constantine, holding his council of war with his own +thoughts. "The captain looks like me before sunset. Perhaps I can look +like him after sunset. One advantage of having a head tiled in red! +But I will not show it again. Point number three in my plot."---- + +"Quite likely the captain has returned, and is prowling about, +inspecting everything, from the horses'-tails to our very faces, that +he may read our thoughts. That is his way," said Lovitsch, glancing +around. + +"Which way did he go?" + +"You might as well ask which track the Prophet's horse took through +the air when he carried his rider on the night journey to heaven. A +messenger from the chief Aga met him just as we were finishing the +fight last night, and, with a word turning over the command to me, he +mounted his horse and was off. Perhaps he heads some other raid +to-night; or, for aught I know, may be conferring with Scanderbeg in +the disguise of a Frankish general; for that Ballaban's brain is as +prolific of schemes and tricks as this ant's nest is full of +eggs"--turning over a stone as he spoke. + +The afternoon waned, and, as the night fell, preparations were made +for the march. When it was dark a light bugle note called in the +sentinels, and the company moved forward. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +In the gathering gloom Constantine approached the extreme edge of the +camp, where those who were to bring up the rear had just mounted. A +soldier, somewhat separated from the others, was leading several +horses; either a relay in case of accident to the others, or those +animals whose saddles had been emptied during the fight at the konak. +Constantine's appearance was evidently a surprise to the soldier, who +eyed him closely, but made no movement indicating suspicion beyond +that of a rather pleased curiosity. The man made a low salâm, bowing +his turban to the saddle bow, and addressed him-- + +"Will you not mount, Sire?" Without responding Constantine leaped into +a saddle. + +"You will pardon me, Captain," continued the soldier. "You are +welcome back, for we are in better heart when you are with us." + +"Thanks, good fellow," said Constantine, "but I have not returned +yet--at least my return must not be known to the troops until the +morning. We will take your tongue out if you tell any one I am back +without bidding." + +The man gave a quick glance as if perplexed. Constantine's hand was +upon his dagger. But the soldier's doubt was relieved as he seemed to +be confident of the familiar form of his captain; and he explained his +apparent suspicion by quickly adding-- + +"You speak the Servian excellent well, Captain." + +"One must get used to it, and every other tongue, in commanding such a +mixed crew as the Sultan gathers into his army," said Constantine. + +"You Janizaries are wonderful men," replied the soldier. "You know all +languages. There was the little Aga I once"-- + +"No matter about that now," said Constantine, interrupting him. "I +want you for a special duty. Can I trust you to do me an errand? If +you do it well you will be glad of it hereafter." + +"Ay, ay, Sire! with my life; and my lips as mute as the horse's." + +"I captured a girl last night. She knows something I would find out by +close questioning. I must have her brought to the rear." + +"Ay! the girl Koremi holds?" + +"Yes, tell Koremi to loiter a little with her until I come up. We must +not go far from this defile before I find out what she knows, if I +have to discover it with my dagger in her heart; for there are +traitors among us. Last night there were Arnaouts dressed as Moslems +in the fight." + +"That I know," said the soldier, "for I tripped over a fellow myself, +hiding in the bushes, who swore at me in as good round Arnaout tongue +as they speak in hell. I ran him through and found a Giaour corslet +under his jacket. If there are traitors among us we will broil them +over our first camp-fire, that they may scent hell before they get +there." + +"You see then why I must find out what I can at once," said the +assumed captain. "Some of our men are in league with the Arnaouts. I +can find out from that girl every one of them. Impress this upon +Koremi; and if he hesitates to let the girl drift to the rear, you can +tell him that he will be suspected of being in league with the +rascals." + +Constantine took the ropes which held the horses the man was leading; +and, bidding him to haste, but be cautious that no one but Koremi +should know the message, followed slowly behind. + +It was nearly an hour later when the form of the soldier appeared in +the road just before him. + +"Right!" said Constantine. + +"Right!" was the response, first to the assumed captain, then repeated +to some one behind him. Two other forms appeared; one of them a woman. + +Anticipating his orders, the second trooper untied a rope from about +his own waist, and handed it, together with the rein of the horse the +woman rode, to Constantine. Then, making a low obeisance, the two +troopers withdrew a little distance to the rear. + +The other end of the rope which Constantine held was about the waist +of the captive. Drawing the led horse close to his own, and dropping +his turban more over his face, Constantine closely scrutinized the +features of the woman. She was Morsinia. It was difficult for him to +repress the excitement and delay the revelation of his true person, +but the hazard of the least cry of surprise or recognition on her part +nerved him to coolness. + +"Where are you taking me? If you have the courage, kill me," said the +girl. + +Constantine replied only by whistling a snatch of an Albanian air. + +"Are you an Albanian renegade?" continued the girl. "Could you not be +content to sell yourself to fight for the Turk against other enemies, +but must be a double traitor, and kill and kidnap your own kind?" + +The whistling continued. But as the soldiers were a little removed, he +said in a low voice, disguising his natural tones: + +"I am an Albanian, and if you will not speak, but only obey, I can +save you." + +"Jesu grant you are true!" was the tremulous response. + +"This will prove it," muttered he, reaching toward her, and with his +knife cutting a broad strap which bound her limbs to the saddle. "If +tied elsewhere, here is the knife." + +The way, which had been narrowed by the projection of the mountains on +either side, now widened a little. Constantine knew the spot well. +There had once been a mill and peasant's hut there, and now quite a +plat of grass was growing from the soft soil. The eye could not +discern it, for the darkness was rayless. But Constantine remembered +the grassy stretch was just round the point of rock they were passing. +The horses were walking slowly, being allowed by their riders to pick +their way along the stony road. As they turned the rock a strong wind +rushed through the ravine, wailing a requiem over the now deserted +settlement and the dead leaves of last year, which it whirled in +eddies; and singing a lullaby through the trees to the new-born leaves +of the spring time, which were rocked on the cradling branches. This, +together with the clatter of the horses' feet before and behind them, +enabled Constantine to draw the captive's horse and his own upon the +soft turf without being heard. Halting them at a few yards' distance, +they allowed the men who had followed them to pass by, and sat in +silence until the lessening sound told them that the soldiers had made +another turn in the road. Then, wheeling the horses, Constantine gave +loose rein back over the track they had come. After a short ride he +dismounted, and closely examining the way, led the horses to one side, +up a path, and down again to a little plateau, perhaps a furlong from +the main road, where a grazing patch would keep them from being +betrayed by the neighing. He dreaded the fatigue of further journey to +his comrade; for even his own ordinarily tireless frame was beginning +to feel the drain of the terrible night and day they had passed +through. + +Constantine threw off his turban and stretched his strong arms to +lift the captive from her horse, exclaiming with delight in his own +familiar tones,-- + +"I am no Albanian, dear Morsinia, but--" + +"Constantine!" she cried. + +He laid an almost lifeless form upon the turf, for the shock of the +revelation had been too much for her jaded nerves and excited brain. +Unrolling the cloth of his turban he spread it over her person, while +his own breast was her pillow. Slowly she recovered strength and +self-command. + +In a few words the mutual stories of the hours of their separation +were told. Morsinia had been treated with exceeding kindness and +respect, as the captive of the chief officer of the expedition, who +seemed to be a person of some distinction, though she had not seen +him. Constantine insisted upon his companion's seeking sleep, but by +his inquiries, did as much as her own thoughts to keep her awake; so +that at the dawn they confessed that the eyes of neither had been +closed. The necessity of procuring food led them to start at daybreak +for the nearest settlement. They descended to the road and retraced +the course of the preceding night; for it was useless to return to the +wrecked hamlet. They had gone but a short distance when they heard the +sound of a body of cavalry directly in front of them, riding rapidly +up the valley. There was no time to avoid the approaching riders +either by flight or concealment. Constantine said hastily, + +"Remember, if they are Turks, I too am a Turk, and you are my captive. +If they are friends, all is well. Stay where you are, and I will ride +forward to meet them." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +The newcomers proved to be a detachment of Albanians. Constantine was +instantly captured notwithstanding his declaration that his dress was +only assumed. + +"Aha! you are a Christian now in a Turk's skin, are you? But yesterday +you were a Turk in a Christian's feathers," was the taunt with which +he was greeted by one of the foremost riders, who continued his +bantering. "Your face is honest, if your heart is not, you Moslem +devil; for your ugly features will not lie though your tongue does. I +would know that square jaw and red head equally well now, were it +under the tiara of the pope instead of under the turban; and I would +cut your throat if you carried St. Peter's key in your girdle; you +change-skinned lizard!" + +"Who is he?" cried the horsemen, gathering about. + +"Why! the very knave who escaped us about sundown yesterday, after +spying our camp; and he has the impudence to ask us to take him +prisoner that he may spy us again." + +"Let us hamstring him!" cried another, "and, unless St. Christopher +has turned Moslem in paradise and helps the rascal, he will find no +legs to run away with again." + +"Set him up for a mark when we halt," proposed a third. "A ducat to +him whose arrow can split his ear without tearing the cheek at forty +paces!" + +Constantine was helpless as they adjusted a halter about his neck, +with which to lead him at the side of a horseman, the butt of the +scurrilous wit and sharper spear-points of his half mad and half merry +captors. + +They had gone but a few paces when the colonel commanding the +detachment made his way through the troopers to the front. He was a +venerable man with long flowing white beard. His bodily strength +seemed to come solely from the vitality of nerve and the dominance of +his spirit; for he was well worn with years. + +"What is this noise about?" he asked sternly. + +Before any could reply he stared with a moment's incredulity and +wonder at Constantine, who relieved his doubts by recognizing him. + +"Colonel Kabilovitsch!" cried he, doffing his turban as if it had been +a Christian cap.[48] "Your men are playful fellows, as frolicksome as +a cat with a mole." + +"But why are you here, my boy? and why this disguise?" interrupted +Kabilovitsch. + +The explanation was given in a few words;--on the one side the story +of the slaughter at the village, and the adventures of Morsinia and +Constantine; on the other of how the news of the Turkish raid reached +the camp at Sfetigrade about noon, and the rescuing party had started +at once under Kabilovitsch's command, and ridden at breakneck speed +during the entire night in the hope of meeting the Turks before they +emerged from the narrow valley. + +Learning now that they were too late for this, Kabilovitsch halted his +command, and with Constantine sought the place where Morsinia was in +waiting. When the old man heard that the first assailants of the +hamlet had been Albanians in disguise his rage was furious; and +through his incautious words Morsinia learned more of her relation to +the voivode Amesa than her reputed father had ever told her; for the +mystery of her family had never been fully explained in her hearing. +It had heretofore been deemed best that the girl should not be made +the custodian of her own secret, lest her childish prattle might +reveal it to others. Yet she had guessed the greater part of the +problem of her identity. But Kabilovitsch was now led by the new +curiosity which his inadvertent expressions had awakened in her, as +well as by the remarkably discreet and cautious judgment she had +displayed, to tell her the entire story of her own life. This was not, +however, until orders had been passed through the troop for rest, and +the fires hastily kindled along the roadside had prepared their +refreshing breakfasts. + +Removed from the hearing of all others, Kabilovitsch rehearsed to +Morsinia and Constantine what the reader already knows of her +extraction and early residence in Albania. He advised her to extreme +caution against the slightest reference to herself as the young Mara +de Streeses, and that she should insist upon her identity as the +daughter of the Servian peasant Milosch and the sister of Constantine. + +Morsinia buried her fair face in the gray beard of the old man, as +years ago she had done when they sat upon the door-stone of their +Balkan home, and sobbed as if his words had orphaned her. In a few +moments she looked up into his fine but wrinkled face, and drawing it +down to hers, kissed him as she used to do, and said lovingly, + +"I must believe your words; but my heart holds you as my father: for +father you have been to me, and child I shall be to you so long as God +gives us to one another." + +The old man pressed her temples between his rough hands, and looked +long into her deep blue eyes, as he said slowly, + +"Ay, father and mother both was I to thee, my child, from that +terrible night, sixteen years ago. My rough arms have often cradled +thee. But now you have a nobler and stronger protector in our +country's father, the great Castriot. To him you must go; for it is no +longer safe in these lonely valleys. Under his strong arm and +all-watchful eye you will be amply protected. There are nameless +enemies of the old house of De Streeses whom we must avoid as +vigilantly as we avoid the Turks." + +It was determined that Constantine should make a detour with her, and +approach Sfetigrade from the south, giving out that they were +fugitives from the lower country, which the enemy had also been +raiding. + +The colonel stated to his under officers, in hearing of the men, that +the young Turk was really one of Castriot's scouts, and that the young +woman was an accomplice. Borrowing from one and another sufficient +Albanian costumes to substitute for Constantine's disguise, +Kabilovitsch dismissed the couple. + +There was no end to the badgering the officious soldier who had first +arrested the scout received at the hands of his comrades. They jeered +at his double mistake in taking the fellow yesterday as a Turkish spy +in Albanian uniform, because he had slipped away so shrewdly, and now +again being duped by him a real Albanian in Turkish disguise. Some +threw the halter over the fellow's neck; others made mimic preparation +for hamstringing him; while one presented him with an immense scroll +of bark purporting to be his commission as chief of the department of +secret service, finishing the mock presentation by shivering the bark +over the fellow's head. The unhappy man contented himself +philosophically:-- + +"No wonder General Castriot baffles the enemy when his own men cannot +understand him. You were all as badly twisted by that fellow's tricks +as I was. But I will never interfere with that red head again, though +he wears a turban and is cutting the throat of the general himself." + +Two days later a beautiful girl accompanied by her brother--who was as +unlike her as the thorn bush is unlike the graceful flowering clematis +that festoons its limbs, both of them in apparent destitution, +refugees from near the Greek border--entered the town of Sfetigrade. +By order of the general, to whom their piteous story was told by +Kabilovitsch--for he had chanced, so he said, to come upon them as +they were inquiring their way to the town--they were quartered with a +family whose house was not far from the citadel. For some weeks the +girl was an invalid. A raging fever had been induced by over +excitement and the subsequent fatigue of the long journey. Colonel +Kabilovitsch could not refrain from expressing his interest in the +young woman by almost daily calls at the cottage where she lay. One +day, when it was supposed by the surgeon that she might not live, the +old man was observed to stand long at the cot upon which the sick girl +was lying. A look of agony overspread his features when the surgeon, +who had been feeling her pulse, laid her almost nerveless hand beneath +the blanket. + +"Dear, good old man," said the housewife. "I warrant he has laid some +pretty one of his own in the ground. Maybe a child, or a lover, +sometime back in the years. These things do come to us over and over +again." + +The brother of the sick girl scarcely noticed the visits of Colonel +Kabilovitsch, except to respond to his questions when no one but +himself could give the exact information about the patient's +condition; for none watched with her so incessantly. + +But her marvellous natural vitality enabled the sufferer to outlive +the fever; and, as she became convalescent, the old colonel seemed to +forget her. His interest was apparently in her suffering rather than +in herself. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[48] Moslems do not remove the hat in making salutation. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The battlements of Sfetigrade lay, like a ruffled collar, upon +enormous shoulders of rock rising high above the surrounding country. +Over them rose, like a massive head, the citadel with its bartizans +projecting as a crown about the brow. The rock upon which the +fortification stood was scarped toward the valley, so that it could be +climbed only with the help of ladders, even though the assailants were +unresisted by its defenders. The few spots which nature had left +unguarded were now choked with abattis, or overlooked by bastions so +skilfully constructed as to need far less courage and strength for +their defence than were possessed by the bands of Dibrian and Epirot +patriots who fought from behind them. + +The assaults which Sultan Amurath launched against the place had been +as frequent as the early summer showers, and his armies were beaten to +pieces as the rain rebounded in spray and ran in streams from the +rocks. The chagrin of the baffled Sultan reflected itself in the +discouragement of his generals and the demoralization of their men. +The presence of his majesty could not silence the mutual +recriminations, the loud and rancorous strife with which brave +officers sought to lay upon one another the responsibility for their +defeat, rather than confess that the daily disasters were due to the +superior genius commanding among their foes. Especially was the envy +of the leaders of the other corps and branches of the service excited +against the Janizaries, to whose unrivalled training and daring were +due whatever minor victories had been won, and whatever exploits +worthy of mention had been performed. + +A lofty tent, whose projecting centre-pole bore the glittering brass +crescent and star, and before the entrance to which a single +horse-tail hung from the long spear, denoted the headquarters of a +Sanjak Bey. In front of the tent walked two men in eager, and not +altogether amiable, conversation. The one was the Bey, whose huge +turban of white, inwound with green, indicated that his martial zeal +was supplemented by equal enthusiasm for his faith; and that he had +added to the fatigue of many campaigns against the infidels the toil +of a more monotonous, though more satisfactory, pilgrimage to Mecca. +His companion was an Aga of the Janizaries, second only in rank to the +chief Aga. + +The latter was speaking with a wrath which his courteous words but ill +concealed-- + +"I do not impugn your honor or the sincerity of your motives, +Caraza-Bey, in making your accusation against our Captain Ballaban; +but the well-known jealousy which is everywhere manifested against our +corps compels me to believe not a single word to the discredit of him +or any of the Yeni-Tscheri without indubitable proof. I would allow +the word of Captain Ballaban--knowing him so well as I do--to outweigh +the oaths on the Koran of a score of those who, like yourself, have +reason to be jealous of his superior courage." + +"But your upstart captain's guilt can be proved, if not to your +personal satisfaction, at least before those who will not care to ask +your assent to their judgment," replied the other, not attempting to +veil his hatred of the Aga, any more than his purpose of crushing the +one of whom they were speaking. + +"What will the lies of a whole sanjak of your hirelings avail against +the honor of a Janizary?" replied the Aga. "If two horse-tails[49] +hung from the standard yonder, I would not publicly disgrace Captain +Ballaban by so much as ordering an inquiry at your demand. The +Janizaries will take no suggestion from any but the Padishah." + +"A curse on the brag of the Janizaries! The arrogancy of the Christian +renegades needs better warrant than Ballaban can give it," sneered the +Bey. "If you like, let the matter rest as it is. The whole army +believes that one of your dervish-capped heroes--the best of the +brood, I imagine--deserted his comrades in battle, and all for the +sake of a captive girl." + +"It is a lie!" shouted the Aga, drawing his sword upon him. + +The attitude of the two officers drew a crowd, who rushed from all +sides to witness the duel. Both were masters of sword play, so that +neither obtained any sanguinary advantage before they were separated +by the arrival of the chief Aga, who forbade his subaltern to continue +the conflict. Upon hearing the occasion of the affray, the chief said: + +"The trial of Captain Ballaban shall be had, with the publication of +the fact that Caraza-Bey has assumed the position of his accuser; and, +in the event of his charge proving false, he shall atone for his +malice by submitting to any punishment the captain may indicate; and +the force of the Janizaries shall execute it, though they cut the +throats of his entire command in order to do it. We must first +vindicate the honor of the corps, and then take vengeance upon its +detractors. I demand that Caraza-Bey make good his charge to-morrow at +the sixth hour, or accept the judgment of coward and vilifier, which +our court shall then proclaim to the army." + +At the appointed time on the day following, the tent of the chief Aga +was the gathering place of the notable officers of the corps. Without, +it differed from hundreds of other tents only in its size, and in the +pennant indicating the rank of its occupant. Within, it was lined with +a canopy of finest silk and woollen tapestries, on the blue background +of which crescents and stars, cimeters and lance-heads, battle-axes, +shields, turbans and dervish caps were artistically grouped with texts +from the Koran, and skilfully wrought in braids and threads of gold. +The canvas sides of the tent were now removed, making it an open +pavilion, and inviting inspection and audience from any who desired to +approach. A divan was at one side, and made a semicircle of about half +the tent. Upon this sat the chief Aga, his cushion slightly raised +above those at his side, which were occupied by the agas of lower +rank. A group of officers filled the space beneath the tent; and +soldiers of all grades made a dense crowd for several rods beyond into +the open air. + +The chief Aga waved his hand to an attendant, and the military court +was formally opened. Several cases were disposed of before that of +Captain Ballaban was called. + +There was led in a stalwart soldier of middle age. Two witnesses +deposed that, in a recent assault upon the enemy's works at +Sfetigrade, when there was poured upon the assailants a shower of +arrows and stones from the battlements above, this man, without orders +from his officer, had cried, "Give way! Give way!" and that to this +cry and his example were due the confusion of ranks and the retreat +which followed. + +The chief Aga turned and looked silently upon the man, awaiting his +reply to the accusation. The accused was speechless. The chief then +turned to the Aga to whose division the culprit belonged, that he +might hear any plea that he should be pleased to offer for the +soldier; but the Aga's face was stolid with indifference. The chief, +without raising his head, sat in silence for a moment, as in solemn +act of weighing the case. He then muttered an invocation of Allah as +the Supreme Judge. He paused. A gleam of light circled above the man; +a hissing sound of the cimeter and a thud were heard. The culprit's +head rolled to the ground. His trunk swayed for an instant and fell. + +This scene was apparently of little interest to the spectators. A +second case only tested their patience. One was charged with having +failed to deliver an order from the colonel of his orta, or regiment, +to a captain of one of the odas, or companies. Both these officers +testified, the one to having sent the order, the other to not having +received it, and on this account to have failed to occupy a certain +position with his men in a recent engagement with the enemy. The +culprit alleged that it was impossible to deliver the order because of +the enemy's movements at the time. The Aga of the division, being +appealed to by the silent gaze of the judge, simply said: + +"The man is brave;" when, by a motion of the hand, the judge dismissed +the soldier together with the case. + +The expectation not only of common soldiers, but also of officials, +led them to crane their necks to look at the next comer. Even the +ordinarily immobile features of the chief relaxed into an expression +of anxiety as a young man walked down the aisle made by the reverent +receding of the crowd to either side. He was not graceful in form. His +body was beyond the proportion of his legs; though his arms +compensated for any lack in the length of his lower limbs. His neck +was thick, the head round, with full development of forehead, though +that portion of his face was somewhat concealed by the short, bushy +masses of red hair which protruded beneath his rimless Janizary cap. +His face was homely, but strongly marked, evincing force of character +as clearly as the convolutions of his muscles evinced animal strength +and endurance. The brightness of his eye atoned for any lack of beauty +in his features; as did his free and manly bearing make ample amends +for deficiency in grace of form. Altogether he was a man to attract +one's attention and hold it pleasantly. + +Though he bent low to the earth in his obeisance to the chief officer +of his troop, it was without the suggestion of obsequiousness, with +that dignity which betokens real reverence and crowns itself with the +honor it would give to another. + +The chief Aga announced that, although the witnesses in this case were +not of the order of the Yeni-Tscheri, and, therefore, had no claim to +the consideration of the court, yet it pleased him in this peculiar +case to waive the right to try the matter exclusively among +themselves, that the good name of the Yeni-Tscheri might suffer no +reproach. "Caraza-Bey," added the chief, "for some reason best known +to himself does not accept the privilege we have extended him, to +speak in our official presence what he has freely spoken elsewhere. We +shall, therefore, hear any witnesses he may have sent." + +One Lovitsch, belonging to the irregular auxiliary troops, testified +that Captain Ballaban had organized a raid upon an Albanian village, +and engaged himself and company for the venture; but had left them in +the heat of the fight, not rejoining them until the second day. A +common soldier deposed that the captain returned to the company early +in the second evening, and induced him, the witness, and Koremi, to +whom the captain had entrusted a beautiful captive, to bring the girl +to the rear, under plea of getting from her information regarding the +enemy; and had then mysteriously disappeared with her. Koremi +corroborated this testimony. + +Captain Ballaban gave a look of puzzled curiosity as he heard this; +but otherwise evinced not the slightest emotion. + +The crowd gazed upon the young captain with disappointment while +testimony was being given. The agas present being unable to conceal +the deep anxiety depicted upon their countenances, as they leaned +forward with impatience to hear from his lips some exonerating +statement, which, however, they feared could not be given. A few faces +wore a look of contemptuous triumph. But two persons maintained +composure. It might be expected that the chief Aga, from his +familiarity with such scenes, if not from the propriety of his being +the formal embodiment of the rigid and remorseless court of the +Janizaries, whose decrees he was to announce, would show no emotion, +however strong his sympathy with the prisoner. + +The endangered man answered his gaze with equal stolidity when the +judge turned to him for his defence; but he remained speechless. A +shudder of horror ran through the crowd. The executioner stepped +forward to the side of the apparently convicted person. A slight +ringing sound, as the long curve of the well-tempered blade grazed the +ground, sent to every heart the chilling announcement of his +readiness. The chief Aga turned to the others, but sought in vain any +palliatory suggestion or appeal for mercy, except in the mute agony of +their looks. The chief then raised his eyes as if for the invocation +of Allah's confirmation of the sentence as just. But his prayer was a +strange one:--"Oh, Allah! thou hast given a wondrous spirit to this +man; a courage worthy of the soul of Othman himself!" Then rising with +excitement he addressed the throng in rapid speech. + +"Look upon this man, my brothers of the shining face![50] + +"Did he quail at the ring of the executioner's sword? Did he even +change color when he heard the damning testimony? A true son of Kara +Khalif is he. A word from his lips would have exonerated him, yet he +would not speak it lest it should reveal the secrets of our service, +which he would keep with dead lips rather than live to tell them. But +I shall be his witness; and you, my brothers, shall be his judges. +Captain Ballaban was recalled from the raid by our brother Sinam, aga +of the division to which the captain belongs. But, alas! the sword of +Scanderbeg has loosed Sinam's soul for flight to paradise, and he +could not testify to this man's fidelity. But I know the order of +Sinam; in this very tent it was written. And though the faithful +messenger who carried it was slain in after conflict, the order was +executed by Captain Ballaban to every letter: every moment of his +absence from the raid is accounted for on my tablets"--tapping his +forehead as he spoke. + +A loud shout burst from the crowd which made the tent shake as if +filled with a rising wind. + +"Ballaban! Ballaban!" cried the multitude, lifting the brave fellow +upon their shoulders. + +"Take that for your grin when you thought he was guilty!" shouted one, +as he delivered a tremendous blow upon the face of another. + +"Death to Caraza-Bey! Down with the lying villain!" rose the cry, the +crowd beginning to move, as if animated by a common spirit, to seek +the envious commandant of the neighboring corps. But they halted at +the tent side waiting for the sign of permission from their chief, +who, by the motion of his hand forbade the assault which would have +brought on a terrific battle between the Janizaries and their rivals +throughout the army. + +"We shall deal with Caraza-Bey hereafter, if his shame does not send +him skulking from the camps," said the chief, resuming his sitting +posture, and restoring order about him. + +"Summon the witnesses again," he proceeded. + +"You Lovitsch testified truly as to Captain Ballaban's absence, and +may go. But you twin rascals who swore to his escape with the girl, +your heads shall go to Caraza-Bey, and your black souls to the seventh +hell.[51] Executioner, do your office!" + +"Hold!" cried Ballaban, as the man drew his cimeter. "Upon my return +to the company I found my fair captive gone, and under such strange +circumstances that I can see that these good fellows may be honest in +what they have stated. I bespeak thy mercy, Sire, for them." + +"Captain Ballaban's will shall be ours," replied the chief, with a +wave of his hand dismissing the assemblage. As the crowd withdrew, he +said, "My brothers, the agas, will remain, and Captain Ballaban." + +The sides of the tent were put up. The guard patrolled without at a +distance of sixty paces, that no one might overhear the conversation +in the council. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[49] Two horse-tails; the symbol of a Beyler Bey, a chief bey of +Europe or Asia. + +[50] A title of Janizaries given them by the dervish who blessed the +order at its institution in the days of Orchan. + +[51] According to the Moslems, hell is divided into seven stories or +cellars, the lowest being reserved for hypocrites. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +"Has Captain Ballaban any explanation of this conspiracy against him?" +asked one. + +"None!" was the laconic reply. But after a moment's pause he added: +"Perhaps there was no conspiracy, except as our jealous neighbors are +willing to take advantage of every unseemly circumstance that can be +twisted to point against any of the Yeni-Tscheri. This may explain +something. The girl that I captured at the Giaour village was no +common peasant, by the cheek of Ayesha! Her face, as lit by the +blazing konak, was of such beauty as I have never seen except in some +dreams of my childhood. Her voice and manner in commanding me to +liberate her were those of one well-born or used to authority. It was +well that I bethought me to give her into the keeping of that +dull-headed Koremi, or she might have bewitched me into obeying her +and letting her go. My belief is that the girl was rescued. It may be +that our men were heavily bribed to give her up, or that some one +personated myself and demanded her, and that the story of my return +may be thus accounted for, but I cannot see any treachery in Koremi's +manner. If she was of any special value to Scanderbeg he would find +some way of running her off, though he had to make a league with the +devil and assume my shape to do it. The Arnaouts, you know, believe +that the Vili are in collusion with Scanderbeg, and that one of them, +a he-vili, Radisha, or some such sprite, is his body servant. That +will account for it all," added he, laughing at the conceit. + +"But," said the second Aga, "Caraza-Bey's insult was none the less, if +your surmise be true. We must wash it out in the blood of a hundred or +so of his hirelings to-morrow." + +The chief shook his head. + +"But," continued the second Aga, "the jealousy of our corps must be +punished. You see how near it came to losing for us the life of one of +our bravest. Caraza-Bey must fight me to-morrow." + +"Bravo!" cried all; while one added, "And let the challenge be public, +that the entire force of the Yeni-Tscheri be on hand and all the +troops of the Beyler Bey of Anatolia, and--" lowering his voice-- "we +can manage it so that the fight become general, and teach these +reptiles of Asiatics that the Yeni-Tscheri are the right hand and the +brain of the empire." + +"Ay, _are_ the empire!" said another. "Let us have a scrimmage that +will be interesting. The war with Scanderbeg is getting monotonous. +One day he comes into our camp, like a butcher into a slaughter pen, +and the next day we are marched out to him, to be slaughtered +elsewhere. It requires one to be full of Islam, the Holy Resignation, +to stand this sort of life. Yes! let's do a little fighting in our own +way and get rid of some of this soldier spawn which the Padishah has +brought with him from across the Bosphorus!" + +"But you forget, my brothers," said Ballaban, "that this fight with +the Sanjak Bey does not belong to any one beside myself. His lie was +about me. I then am the man to take off his head; and I think I can do +it with as good grace as the executioner was nigh to taking off mine +just now." + +"No, Captain!" said the chief. "Your rank is as yet below the Bey's, +and he would make that an excuse for declining the gage. Besides," +said he, lowering his voice, "I have special service for you +elsewhere, which cannot be delayed." + +When the agas, making the low courtesy, retired, the chief walked with +Ballaban. + +"Captain, I have heard no report of the errand upon which you were +sent." + +"No, Sire, I was arrested the moment I returned to camp." + +"You succeeded, I know, from the movements of the enemy: although the +slowness of the Padishah in ordering an advance, when Scanderbeg was +diverted by your ruse, prevented our taking advantage of it." + +"Yes," said Ballaban, "I succeeded as well as any one could, not being +seconded from headquarters. But I did some service incidentally, and +picked up some helpful information. The night after leaving the hamlet +we fired, I fell in with a company of Arnaouts who were coming to the +rescue. They would have got into the narrow valley before our men got +out, had I not managed to trick them. I was in disguise and readily +passed for an Arnaout lout, giving them false information about the +direction our party had taken, and so lost them an hour or two, and +saved the throats of Lovitsch's fellows, a mere rabble, good enough +for a raid, but not to be depended upon for a square fight. But we +must have no more raids. Scanderbeg has means of communication as +quick and subtle as if the clouds were his signals and the stars were +his beacons. + +"I then came upon a Dibrian settlement, pretending to be a fugitive +from the valleys to the north; and entertained the villagers with +bug-a-boo stories about the hosts of men with turbans on their heads +and little devils on their shoulders who had destroyed all that +country, and were now pouring down toward the south. + +"By the way," continued Ballaban laughing, "there was an old fellow +there, very lame, with a patch over one eye, who could hardly stand +leaning on his staff, he was so palsied with age. But the one eye that +was open was altogether too bright for his years; and his legs didn't +shake enough for one who rattled his staff so much. So I put him down +as one of Scanderbeg's lynxes--they are everywhere. I described to him +the Moslem movements in such a way as to let a trained soldier believe +that we had entirely changed front, with the prospective raising of +the siege of Sfetigrade and alliance with the Venetians for carrying +the war farther to the north. The old codger took the bait, and asked +fifty questions in the tone of a fellow whose head had been used for a +mush-pot instead of a brain-holder; but every question was in its +meaning as keen as a dagger-thrust into the very ribs of the military +situation. Well! I helped him to all the information he wanted; when +with a twinkle in his eye, he hobbled away, as wise as an owl when a +fresh streak of day-light has struck him: and before night the whole +country to the borders of Sternogovia was alive with Scanderbeg's +scouts; and every cross-path was a rendezvous of his broken-winded +cavalry. + +"I saw one thing which gave me a hint I may use some day. At a village +the women were carrying water from a spring far down in a ravine, +though there was a fine flowing fountain quite near them. It seems +that a dog had got into the fountain about a month before, and was +drowned. These Dibrians believe that, if any one should drink the +water of such a spring before as many days have passed as the dog has +hairs on his tail, the water will make his bowels rot, and his soul go +into a dog's body when he dies. + +"The next night I spent inside the walls of Sfetigrade." + +"No!" cried the chief. "Why, man, you must fly the air with the +witches!" + +"Not at all, I have some acquaintances in that snug little place; and +when they go to bed they hang the key of the town on a moonbeam for +me. If it is not there, I have only to vault over the walls, or sail +over them on the clouds, or burrow under them with the moles, or hold +my breath until I turn into a sprite, like the wizards on the Ganges, +and lo! I am in. Well! that night I lodged with a worthy family of +Sfetigrade, pretending that I was a poor fugitive from the very town +we had raided a few nights before. And, by the hair of the beautiful +Malkhatoon![52] I saw there the very captive I had taken. She lay +asleep on a cot just within a doorway--unless I was asleep myself and +dreaming, as I half believe I was." + +"Yes, it was a dream of yours, no doubt, Captain," said the chief, +"for when a young fellow like you once gets a fair woman in his arms, +as you say you had her in yours the night of the raid, she never gets +out of the embrace of his imagination. He will see her everywhere, and +go about trying to hug her shadow. Beware illusions, Captain! They use +up a fellow's thoughts, make him too meek-eyed to see things as a +soldier should. The love passion will take the energy out of the best +of us, as quickly as the fire takes the temper out of the best +Damascene blade." + +"I thank you for your counsel, Aga," replied Ballaban, his face +coloring as deep as his hair. "But there was one thing I saw with a +waking eye." + +"And what was that?" + +"That there was but one well of water in the town of Sfetigrade; the +one in the citadel court. But another thing I didn't see, though I +searched the place for it;--and that was a dog to throw into the well; +or I would have thirsted the superstitious garrison out. They have +eaten up the last cur." + +"Then the surrender must come soon," said the Aga. + +"No," replied Ballaban, "for the voivode Moses Goleme came into the +town as I was leaving, driving a flock of sheep which he had stolen +from us; for he had cut off an entire train of provisions which had +been sent to our camp from Adrianople." + +"Then I must have you off at once on another errand, Captain. You see +yonder line of mountains off to the northwest. It may be necessary to +shift the war to that region for a while. Ivan Beg,[53] the +brother-in-law of Scanderbeg, has raised a pack of wild fiends among +those hills of his, and is driving out all our friends. Nothing can +stand against him unless it be the breasts of the Yeni-Tscheri. +Scanderbeg may compel us to raise the siege of Sfetigrade, for he +bleeds us daily like a leech. A diversion after Ivan Beg will at least +be more honorable than a return to Adrianople. Now I would know +exactly the passes and best places for fortification in Ivan's +country; and you, Captain, are the man to find them out. You should be +off at once. Take your time and spy thoroughly, making a map and +transmitting to me your notes. And while there feel the people. It is +rumored that the young voivode, Amesa, is restless under the +leadership of Scanderbeg. If a dissension could be created among these +Arnaouts, it would be well. Amesa has a large personal following in +that north country; for his castle is just on the border of it." + +"But," replied Ballaban, "I must first pluck the beard of that +cowardly Caraza-Bey!" + +"No! I forbid it. Your blood is worth more in your own veins than +anywhere else. I should not consent to your risking a drop of it in +personal combat with any one except Scanderbeg himself." + +The fight between the second Aga and Caraza-Bey did not take place. +That worthy was conveniently sent by Sultan Amurath, who had learned +of the feud, to look after certain turbulent Caramanians; and leaving +behind him a wake of curses upon all Janizaries from the chief to the +pot-scourers, he took his departure for the Asiatic provinces. + +Had he remained, the Turks would have had enough to occupy them +without this gratuitous mêlée. For during the night scouts brought +word that Scanderbeg had massed all his forces, that were not behind +the walls of Sfetigrade, at a point to the right of the Turkish lines. +Hardly had the army been faced to meet this attack, when scouts came +from the left, reporting serious depredations on that flank. Amurath, +in the uncertainty of the enemy's movement, divided his host. The +Asiatics were given the northern and the Janizaries the southern +defence; either of them outnumbering any force Scanderbeg could send +against them. But, as a tornado cuts its broad swath through a forest, +uprooting or snapping the gigantic trees, showing its direction only +by the after track of desolation, which it cuts in almost unvarying +width, while beyond its well defined lines scarcely a branch is broken +or a nest overturned among the swaying foliage--so Scanderbeg swooped +from east to west through the very centre of the Turkish encampment, +gathering up arms and provisions, and strewing his track with the +bodies of the slain. By the time that the Moslems were sufficiently +concentrated to offer effective resistance the assailants were gone. + +At the head of the victorious band Scanderbeg rode a small and +ungainly, but tough and tireless animal--like most of the Albanian +horses, which were better adapted to threading their way down the +pathless mountain sides, than to curveting in military parade--their +lack of natural ballast being made up by the enormous burdens they +were trained to carry. + +The figure and bearing of Scanderbeg, however, amply compensated the +lack of martial picturesqueness in his steed. He was in full armor, +except that his sword arm was bared. His beard of commingled yellow +and gray fell far down upon the steel plates of his corselet. A helmet +stuck far back upon his head, showed the massive brow which seemed of +ampler height, from the Albanian custom of clipping short, or shaving +the hair off from the upper forehead. + +Wheeling his horse, he engaged in conversation with a stout, but +awkward soldier. + +"You and your beast are well matched, Constantine. You both need +better training before you are fit to parade as prisoners of Amurath. +You sit your horse as a cat rides a dog, though you do hold on as well +with your heel as she with her claws. Your short legs would do better +to clamp the belly of a crocodile." + +"Yes, we are both accustomed to marching and fighting in our own way, +rather than in company," replied Constantine. "But the beast has not +failed me by a false step; not when we leaped the fallen oak and +landed in the gulch back yonder. The beast came down as safely and +softly as on the training lawn." + +"And you have done as well yourself," replied the general. "That was a +bad play though you had with the Turk as we cut our way through the +last knot of them. But for a side thrust which I had time to give at +your antagonist, while waiting for the slow motions of my own, I fear +that your animal would be lighter now by just your weight. You strike +powerfully, but you do not recover yourself skilfully. A good +swordsman would get a response into your ribs before you could deal +him a second. Here, I will show you! Now thrust! Strike! No, not so; +but hard, villainously, at me, as if I were the Turk who stole your +girl! So! Again! Again!--Now learn this movement"--pressing his own +sword steadily against his companion's, and bending him back until he +was almost off his horse. "And this," dealing so tremendous a slash +with the back of the sword that Constantine's arm was almost numbed by +the effort to resist it.--"And this!" transmitting a twisting motion +from his own to his opponent's weapon, so that for one instant they +seemed like two serpents writhing together; but at the next +Constantine's sword was twirled out his hand. + +"You will make a capital swordsman with practice, my boy. And the +girl? Keep a sharpened eye for her; and tell me if so much as a new +spider's web be woven at her door." + +A peasant woman stood by the path as they proceeded, holding out her +hand for alms, as she ran beside the general's horse. He leaned toward +her to give something; but, as his hand touched hers, she slipped a +bit of white rag into it: + +"The map of the roads, Sire, twixt this and Monastir!" + +"And your son, my good woman?" inquired the general kindly. + +"Ah! the Virgin pity me, Sire, for he died. We could not stop the +bleeding, for the lance's point had cut a vein. But I have a daughter +who can take his place. She knows the signals--for he taught them to +her--and can make the beacon as well as he; and is as nimble of foot +to climb the crag. But please, Sire, the child did not remember if the +enemy going west was to be signalled by lighting the beacon before or +after the bright star's setting." + +"Just after, good mother. If they go to the east and cross the +mountain, fire the beacon just before the star sets. And the brightest +of all stars be for your own hope and comfort!" + +"And for dear Albania's and thine own!" replied the woman, +disappearing in the crowd, as a man dashed close to Scanderbeg on a +well-jaded steed. + +"The Turkish auxiliaries will be at the entrance to the defile in +thirty hours." + +"Your estimate of their number, neighbor Stephen?" + +"From three to five thousand." + +"Not more?" + +"Not more in the first detachment. A second of equal size follows, but +a day in the rear." + +"Good! Take with you our nephew, Musache de Angeline, and five hundred +Epirots each. This will be sufficient to prevent the first detachment +getting out of the pass. I will strike the second from the rear as +soon as they enter the pass. They can not manoeuvre in that crooked +and narrow defile, and we will destroy them at our leisure. Strike +promptly. Farewell!" + +"Miserable sheep!" he muttered, "why will these Turks so tempt me to +slaughter them?" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[52] Bride of Othman. + +[53] Ivo, the Black, or Tsernoi, from whom the mountain country to the +north of Albania was called Tsernogorki, or, in its Latinized form, +Montenegro. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Upon the southern slope of the Black Mountain--that is, on the rising +uplands which lead from Albania to Montenegro--lay the ancient and +princely estates of the De Streeses. A dense forest of pines spread +for miles, like a myriad gigantic pillars in some vast temple. They +seemed to support, as it were, some Titanic dome surrounded with +pinnacles and turrets, a huge cluster of jagged rocks, which was +called by those who gazed upon it from leagues away "The Eyrie." In +the midst of these great monoliths, and hardly distinguishable from +them, rose the walls of the new castle which the voivode Amesa had +built upon the ruins of that destroyed at the time of the massacre of +its former possessor. + +The horse of the voivode stood within the court, his head drooping, +and the white sweat-foam drying upon his heated flanks. His master +paced up and down the enclosure, engaged in low but excited +conversation with a soldier. + +The voivode was of princely mien; tall, but compactly built; face full +in its lower development, and somewhat sensual; eyes gray and +restless, which gave one at first a sharp, penetrating glance, and +then seemed to hide behind the half-closed lids, like some wild animal +that inspects the hunter hastily, then takes to covert. + +"You are sure, Drakul, that the party which drove you from the hamlet +were Turks, and not Arnaouts in disguise, like yourselves?" + +"I could not mistake," said Drakul, a hard-faced man, one of whose +eyebrows was arched higher than the other, and whose entire +countenance was distorted from the symmetrical balance of its two +sides, giving an expression of duplicity and cruelty. "I could not +mistake, noble Amesa, for I have too often eyed those rascals over the +point of my sword not to know a Turk in the dark. But all the fiends +combined against us that night. We left our two best men dead, and the +two we wanted, the boy and the girl, escaped us. The she-witch did not +come back to the village the next day; but the red-headed imp did, and +raved like a hyena when he found the girl missing. I watched him as he +suddenly went off, doubtless, to some spot they both knew of. The +young thief stole the clothes off a dead Turk. The next day we spied +him again; this time with that Arnaud-Kabilovitsch, Albanian-Servian, +forester-colonel, or whatever he may be, who came back when Castriot +did. The fellow escaped us a second time." + +"Track him! track him!" cried Amesa spitefully. "I will make you rich, +Drakul, the day you bring me that fox's brush of red hair from his +head." + +"I have tracked him and could take you to the very spot where he and +the girl are to-day," said the man. "Come this way, my noble +Amesa,"--leading him to the side of the court commanding a far stretch +of country to the north-west. "Now let your eye follow Skadar[54] +along the left shore: then up the great river.[55] Not two leagues +from the mountain spur that bends the stream out of your sight, at the +hamlet just off the road into your Uncle Ivan's country--" + +"The stargeshina has a red goitre like a turkey cock? I know every hut +in the hamlet," interrupted Amesa. "But why think you she is there?" + +"Why? I have seen her, and him with her. I followed the fellow day +after day. Once I saw him yonder on the spur. He clipped the bark of a +tree, and in the smoothed spot cut a line. A little beyond he did the +same thing again. He spied this way and that way with all the pains +one would take to pick a way for an army. Then he took a roll of paper +from his bosom, and marked down something for every mark he had made +upon the trees. And when he was out of sight I took the range of his +marks, and by St. Theckla! they pointed straight to a path which led +down the mountain to the ford in the great river that is opposite the +old turkey cock's konak." + +"But you may have mistaken the man," suggested Amesa. + +"Not I, Sire. I know his head as well as a bull knows a red rag; and +his duck legs, and his walk like an ambling horse." + +"It is he," submitted Amesa. "But how know you that the girl was there +in the hamlet?" + +"Did I not see her, my noble Amesa? And could I not know her from the +look of her father? If I could forget him living, I have never passed +a night without seeing his face as it was dead, when we dragged him to +the burning beams of the old house that stood on this----" + +"Silence!" cried Amesa in a sudden burst of rage. "How dare you allude +to my uncle's death without my bidding?" + +There was a pause for a few moments, during which Amesa stamped +heavily upon the stone pavement of the court as he walked, like one +endeavoring to shake off from his person some noisome thing that +troubled him. The man resumed-- + +"Besides, the children of the village said she was a stray kid there, +and not of kin to anybody. And while I was there the same stump-headed +fellow who marked the direction came to the hamlet." + +"Be ready to accompany me to-morrow, Drakul. You can say that we are +scouting." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[54] Lake Scadar or Scutari. + +[55] The Tsernoyevitcha, the great river of Montenegro which empties +into Lake Scutari. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +The lake of Skadar lay like an immense _lapis lazuli_ within its +setting of mountains, which, on the east, were golden with the rays of +the declining sun, and on the west, enameled in emerald with the dense +shadows their summits dropped upon them. The surface of the water was +unbroken, save here and there by black spots where a pair of loons +shrieked their marital unhappiness, or a flock of wild ducks floated, +like a miniature fleet, about the reed-fringed shores of some little +island. Had there been watchers on the fortress of Obod, which lay on +the cliff just above where the Tsernoyevitcha enters Skadar, they +would have espied a light shallop gliding along the eastern bank of +the lake. This contained the voivode Amesa and his attendant. Just at +night-fall they reached the cavern, whose hidden recesses begot a +hundred legends which the weird shadows of the cave clothed in forms +as fantastic as their own, and which still flit among the hamlets of +Montenegro. It was said that whoever should sleep within the cave +would rest his head on the bosoms of the nymphs:--only let him take +care that their love does not prevent his ever waking. Amesa and his +companion were courageous, but discretion led them to wind the strooka +about their heads, and seek without a couch of pine needles between +the enormous roots of the trees which had dropped them. + +The dawn had just silvered the east, and the coming sun transformed +the cold blue tints of Skadar into amber, when they entered the river. +The great stream wound through the broad lowlands of Tsetinie, girdled +with rocky hills. Then it dashed in impetuous floods between more +straightened banks, or lingered, as if the river spirit would bathe +himself in the deep pools that were cooled by the springs at their +bottoms. Though familiar with the phenomenon, they loitered that they +might watch the schools of fish which were so dense in places as to +impede the stroke of the oar blade, and tint the entire stream with +their dull silvery gleam.[56] Emerging from a tortuous channel, +through which the river twisted itself like a vast shining serpent, +they came to a cluster of houses that nestled in a gorge. These houses +were made of stone, and so covered with vines as to be hardly +distinguishable from the dense shrubbery that clambered over the +rocks about them. + +Amesa was warmly greeted by the stargeshina who occupied the konak, or +principal house. The older people remembered the visitor as the comely +lad who, before the return of George Castriot, was almost the only +male representative of that noble family left in the land. The voivode +was honored with every evidence that the villagers felt themselves +complimented by the visit of their guest, whatever business or caprice +might have brought him thither. + +A simple repast was provided, in which the courtesy of the service on +the part of the stargeshina more than compensated any poverty in the +display of viands;--though there were set forth meats dried in strips +in the smoke of an open fire; eggs; sweet, though black bread; and +wine pressed from various mountain berries, and allowed to ferment in +skins. As they sat beside a low table at the doorway of the konak, the +stargeshina offered a formal salâm, the zdravitsa, which was half a +toast and half a prayer, and extended his hand to Amesa in the +protestation of personal friendship. At the meal the glories of +Castriot and Ivan Beg--or Ivo, as the peasants called him--were duly +recited. + +"But why," said the old man, rising to his feet with the enthusiasm of +the sentiment--"Why should the country sing the praises of George +Castriot, who for thirty years was willing to be a Turk and fight for +an alien faith? Your shoulders, noble Amesa--Prince Amesa, my loyal +heart would call you--could as well have borne the burden of the +people's defence. Your arm could strike as good a blow as his for +Albania. Your blood is that of the Castriots, and untainted by Moslem +touch. Your estates, since you have become heir to the lands of De +Streeses, make you our richest and most influential voivode." + +These words made the eyes of Amesa flash, not with any novel pleasure, +rather with an ambition to which he was no stranger. But the flash was +smothered at once by the half-closed eyelids, and he responded-- + +"I ought not to hear such words, my good friend. My Uncle George is +the hero of the hour. The people need a hero in whom they believe; and +the very mystery of his life for the thirty years among the Turks, and +the romance of his return, make him a convenient hero." + +"But Sire, my noble--my Prince Amesa--do you not daily hear such words +as I speak? The thought is as common as the Pater Noster, and echoes +from Skadar to Ochrida. It was but a week since a young Albanian +passed through this border country, whispering everywhere that the +land was ready to cry Amesa's name rather than the reformed renegade, +George Castriot's; that Scanderbeg, the Lord Alexander, the strutting +title the Turks gave him, was an offence to the free hearts of the +people." + +"Ah! and what sort of a man for look was this Albanian?" asked Amesa +in surprise. + +"A sturdy youth of, say, twenty summers, with hair like a turban which +had been worn by a dozen slaughtered Turks, so blood red is it." + +Amesa gave a puzzled look toward Drakul, who was eating his meal at a +little distance, but whose ears seemed to prick up like those of a +horse at this description. + +"It is likely that he may be again in the village this very night. Our +neighbor next lodged him. I will ask him if he will return," said the +stargeshina, leaving the konak for a little. + +"It is he; it's that Constantine," said Drakul, coming nearer to +Amesa. "The wily young devil is ready to betray your Uncle George. +That will make the matter easier." + +"The way is clear, then," replied Amesa. "I am glad that the raid was +not successful. It might have led to further blood. With this fellow +in league with us, it is straight work and honorable." + +The stargeshina reported the man would probably be in again that very +night, and added: + +"I would you could see him; for though he is fair spoken, there is +some mystery in his going day after day among these mountains, like a +hound who is looking for a lost scent." + +"Perhaps he is attracted here by some of the fair maidens of the +hamlets," suggested Amesa, looking at Drakul, who was tearing a bit of +jerked meat in his teeth, apparently intent only upon that selfish +occupation. + +"It may well be, for our neighbor here has harbored a bit of stray +womanhood which might tempt a monk to lodge there rather than in his +cell," said the old man. + +A shout from above them attracted their attention to a merry company +which was coming down the mountain. It was the procession of the +Dodola. Drought threatened to destroy the scanty grain growing in the +narrow valleys, and the vines on the terraces cut out of the steep +hills. According to an ancient custom, a young maiden had been taken +by her companions into the woods, stripped of her usual garments, and +reclothed in the leaves and flowers of the endangered vegetation. Long +grasses and stalks of grain were matted in many folds about her +person, and served as a base for artistic decoration with every +variety of floral beauty. Her feet were buskined in clover blossoms. A +kilt of broad-leaved ferns hung from her waist, which was belted with +a broad zone of wild roses. White and pink laurel blossoms made her +bodice. An ivy wreath upon her brows was starred with white daisies, +and plumed with the stems and hanging bells of the columbine. + +The Dodola thus appeared as the impersonation of floral nature athirst +for the vivifying rains. Her attendants, who led her in a leash of +roses, chanted a hymn, the refrain of which was a prayer to Elijah, +who, since he brought the rain at Carmel, is supposed by the peasants +of Albania to be that saint to whom Providence has committed the +shepherding of the clouds. As the procession wound down the terraced +paths between the houses, the Dodola was welcomed by the matrons of +the hamlet, who stood each in her own doorway, with hair gathered +beneath a cap of coins, teeth enameled in black, fingers tipped +brownish-red with henna. The maidens sung a verse of their hymn at +each cottage; and, at the refrain, the housewife poured upon the head +of the leaf-clad Dodola a cup of water; repeating the last line of +the chorus, "Good Saint Elias, so send the rain!" + +As the Dodola paused before the konak, Amesa said, quite +enthusiastically, and designing to be overheard by the fair girl who +took the part of thirsting nature, "If Elias can refuse the prayer of +so much womanly beauty, I swear, by Jezebel, that I shall hereafter +believe, with the Turks, that the austere old prophet has become +bewitched with the houris in paradise, and so does not care to look +into the faces of earthly damsels." + +"You may still keep your Christian faith, for the Dodola has won the +favor of the Thunderer,"[57] replied the stargeshina. "Listen to his +love-making in response to the witchery of that wild dove! Do you hear +it?" + +The distant murmur of a coming shower confirmed the credulity of the +peasants. + +"Yes, soon the Holy Virgin will turn her bright glances upon us,"[58] +said he looking at the sky. + +"Who is that wild dove who acts the Dodola?" inquired Amesa. + +"The one I told you of, who has come into our neighbor's cot," replied +the old man. "But only the sharp eyes of the crows saw where she came +from. Did she not speak our tongue and know our ways as well as any of +us, I should say she was one of the Tsigani who were driven out of the +morning land by Timour.[59] Yet it may be that her own story is true. +She says she had two lovers in her village; and these two were +brothers in God, who had taken the vow before heaven and St. John to +help and never to hinder each other in whatever adventure of love or +brigandage, at cost of limb or life. But as the hot blood of neither +of these lovers could endure to see this nymph in the arms of the +other, it was determined that she should be slain by the hand of both, +rather than that the sacred brotherhood should be broken. By her own +father's hearth the two daggers were struck together at her heart. But +the strong arms of the slayers collided, and both blows glanced. She +escaped and fled, and came hither." + +"And you believe this story?" asked Amesa, with a look of incredulity +mingled with triumph, as of one who knew more than the narrator. + +"I believe her story, noble Amesa, because--because no one has told me +any other. But--" He shook his head. + +"Does not the young stranger you spoke of know something of her, that +he prowls about this neighborhood?" asked the guest. + +"It may be. I had not thought it, but it may well be! Hist--!" + +The Dodola passed by, returning to her own cottage. As she did so her +bright black eyes glanced coquettishly at the stranger from beneath +her disarranged chaplet of flowers and dishevelled hair. She soon +returned, having assumed her garments as a peasant maid, but with +evident effort to make this simple attire set off the great natural +beauty of face and form, of which she was fully conscious. Her +forehead was too low; but Pygmalion could not have chiselled a brow +and temples upon which glossy black ringlets clustered more +bewitchingly. Her eyes flashed too cold a fire light to give one the +impression of great amiability in their possessor; but the long lashes +which drooped before them, partially veiled their stare so as to give +the illusion of coyness, if not of maidenly modesty. Her mouth was +perhaps sensuously curved; but was one of those marvellously plastic +ones which can tell by the slightest arching or compressing of the +lips as much of purpose or feeling as most people can tell in +words:--dangerous lips to the possessor, if she be guileless and +unsuspicious, for they reveal too much of her soul to others who have +no right to know its secrets; dangerous lips to others if she would +deceive, for they can lie, consummately, wickedly, without uttering a +word. Her complexion was scarcely brunette; rather that indescribable +fairness in which the whiteness of alabaster is tinged with the blood +of perfect health, slightly bronzed by constant exposure to the +sunshine and air--a complexion seldom seen except in Syria, the Greek +Islands, or Wales. Her form was faultless,--just at that stage of +development when the grace and litheness of childhood are beginning to +be lost in the statelier mysteries of womanly beauty; that transition +state between two ideals of loveliness, which, from the days of +Phidias, has lured, but always eluded, the artist's skill to +reproduce. + +The girl's face flushed with the consciousness of being gazed at +approvingly by the courtly stranger. But the pretty toss of her head +showed that the blush was due as much to the conceit of her beauty as +to bashfulness. As she talked with the other maidens, she glanced +furtively toward the door of the konak, where Amesa sat. The young +voivode foresaw that it would not be difficult to entice the girl +herself to be the chief agent in any plan he might have for her +abduction. + +He needed, however, to make more certain of her identity with the +object of his search. He could discern no trace of Mara De Streeses in +her face; much less in her manner. Since Drakul had suggested it, he +imagined a resemblance to De Streeses himself, whose bearing was +haughty and his temperament fiery. + +The evening brought the young man of whom the stargeshina had spoken. +His resemblance to the description given him of Constantine left no +doubt in Amesa's mind of his being the mysterious custodian of the +heiress to his estates. The young Servian he supposed would at once +recognize him as Amesa; for, as a prominent officer in the army, his +face would be well known to all who had been in Castriot's camps, even +if the gossip of the villagers did not at once inform him of his +presence. It were best then, thought Amesa, to boldly confront him; +win him, if possible, to his service; if not, destroy him. + +The young stranger was at once on frolicksome terms with the village +girls and lads; and Amesa thought he observed that through it all the +fellow kept a sharp, if not a suspicious, eye upon him. Lest he should +escape, the voivode invited him to walk beyond the houses of the +village. When out of sight and hearing he suddenly turned upon the +young man, and, laying a hand upon his shoulder, exclaimed, + +"You are known, man!" + +Upon the instant the stranger was transformed from the sauntering +peasant into a gladiator, with feet firmly planted, the left hand +raised as a shield, and the right grasping a yataghan which had been +concealed upon his person. Amesa, though the aggressor, was thrown +upon the defensive, and was compelled to retreat in order to gain time +for the grip of his weapon. + +The two men stood glaring into each other's eyes as there each to read +his antagonist's movement before his hand began to execute it. + +"I did not know that a Servian peasant was so trained," said Amesa, +still retreating before the advance of his opponent, who gave him no +opportunity to assume the offensive. + +"For whom do you take me that you dare to lay a rough hand on me?" +said the man, half in menace, and yet apparently willing to discover +if his assailant were right in his surmise. + +"Arnaud's man and I need not be enemies," said Amesa, seeing no chance +of relieving himself from the advantage the other had gained in the +sword play. "I can reward you better than he or Castriot." + +A smile passed over the man's face, which Amesa might have detected +the meaning of had his mind been less occupied with thoughts about his +personal safety from the yataghan, whose point was seeking his throat +according to the most approved rules of single combat. + +"And what if I am Arnaud's man?" + +As he said this the yataghan made a thorough reconnoissance of all the +vulnerable parts of Amesa's body from the fifth rib upwards, followed +by Amesa's dagger in ward. + +"You do not deny it?" said the Albanian between breaths. + +"I deny nothing. Nor need I confess anything, since you say I am +known." + +"Shall we be friends?" asked Amesa, cautiously lowering his arm. + +"You made war, and can withdraw its declaration, or take the +consequences," was the reply. + +The two men put up their weapons. + +"So good a soldier as you are should not be here guarding a girl," +said Amesa. + +"Guarding a girl?" said the man in amazement, but, recollecting +himself, added, "And why not guard a girl?" + +"Come," replied Amesa, "you and I can serve each other. You can do +that for me which no other man can; and I can give to you more gold +than any other Albanian can." + +"And when you are king of Albania, Prince Amesa, you can reward me +with high appointment," said the stranger with a slight sneer, which, +however, Amesa did not notice, at the moment thinking of what the +stargeshina had said of the man's interest in the movement against his +uncle's leadership. + +"You have but to ask your reward when that event comes," he replied. + +"I will swear to serve Amesa against Scanderbeg to the death," said +the man offering his hand. + +"You know the girl's true story?" asked Amesa. + +"Of course," was the cautious reply. "But of that I may not speak a +word. I can leave his service whose man you say I am, but I cannot +betray anything he may have told me. As you know the girl's story it +is needless to tempt me to divulge it," added he, with shrewd +non-committal of himself to any information that the other might +recognize as erroneous. + +"You speak nobly for a Servian," said the voivode. + +"How do you know I am a Servian?" asked the stranger. + +"Partly from your accent. You have not got our pure Albanian tongue, +though it is now six years you have been talking it. And then +Arnaud--Colonel Kabilovitsch--came back as a Servian. Is it not so?" +asked Amesa, noticing the surprised look which the mention of +Kabilovitsch's name brought to the man's face. + +For a while the stranger was lost in thought; but with an effort +throwing off a sort of reverie, he said: + +"Pardon my silence. I have been thinking of your proposal. May I +follow you to the village after a little? I would think over how best +I can meet your proposition, my Prince Amesa." + +"I will await you at the konak. But first let us swear friendship!" +said the voivode. + +"Heartily!" was the response. "With Amesa as against Scanderbeg." + +"You will induce the girl to go with me to my castle. She will fare +better there than here, playing Dodola to these ignorant peasants." + +"It is agreed." + +As Amesa disappeared, the man sat down upon a huge root of a tree, +which for lack of earth had twined itself over the rock. He buried +his face in his hands-- + +"Strange! strange! is all this. Kabilovitsch? the girl? Not my little +playmate on the Balkans--sweet faced Morsinia. The Dodola here is not +she. If Uncle Kabilovitsch is Colonel Kabilovitsch, or this Arnaud he +speaks of, then this treacherous Amesa is on the wrong track. Can it +be that Constantine--dear little Constantine--is in Albania, and that +I am mistaken for him? No, this is impossible. But still I must be +wary, and not do that which would harm a golden hair of Morsinia's +head, if she be living, or Constantine's, or Uncle Kabilovitsch's. +There's some mystery here. Only one thing is certain--Amesa mistakes +this pretty impudent Dodola girl for somebody else. To get her off +with him may serve that somebody else: for the voivode is a villain: +that much is sure. The cursed Giaour serpent! I will help him to get +this saucy belle of the hamlet, and so save somebody else, whoever she +may be who is the game for which he lays his snares." + +An hour later the Dodola, whose name was Elissa, passed Amesa and +blushed deeply. + +The family at whose house the girl was living made no objection to +Amesa's request that she should be transferred to the protection of +the voivode. The elders of the village acquiesced; for, said one, + +"We do not know who she is, and may get into difficulty through +harboring her." + +Another averred his belief that she was possessed of the evil eye; for +he had observed her staring at the olive tree the day before it was +struck by lightning; and he declared that half the young men of the +hamlet were bewitched with her. + +A sharp-tongued dame remarked that some of the older men would rather +listen to the merry tattle of the sprite than to the most serious and +wholesome counsel of their own wives. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[56] Still noted by travellers on this river. + +[57] An Albanian title of Elijah. + +[58] The Albanians regard Mary as the sender of lightning. + +[59] Tsigani; a word by which Slavic people designate the gypsies, who +are supposed by them to have come from India in the time of Tamerlane. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +"Do you know the mind of Gauton who commands at the citadel in +Sfetigrade?" asked Amesa of his new confederate, as they parted. + +"I have talked with him," replied the man. "He is very cautious." + +"Discover his opinion on the matter of my advancement," said Amesa. + +"Send him some gift," suggested the man, "I will take it to him. He is +very fond of dogs, and I learn that he has just lost a valuable +mastiff. Could you replace it from your kennels at the castle?" + +"No, but I have a greyhound, of straight breed since his ancestors +came out of the ark. His jaws are as slender as a heron's beak: chest +deep as a lion's: belly thin as a weasel's: a double span of my arms +from tip to tail. To-morrow night meet me at the castle. Should I not +have arrived, this will give you admission," presenting him with a +small knife, on the bone handle of which was a rude carving of the +crest of Amesa. "Give it to the warden. He will recognize it." + +Long before the arrival of Amesa and Drakul at the castle in company +with Elissa, the stranger, whom the reader will recognize as Captain +Ballaban dressed as an Albanian peasant, had been admitted. He had +wandered about the court, mounted the parapet, inspected the +draw-bridge and portcullis, clambered down and up again the almost +precipitous scarp of the rock, and asked a hundred questions of the +servants regarding the paths by which the castle was approached. The +old warden entertained him with stories of Amesa's early life, his +acquisition of the estate, and his prowess in battle; in all of which, +while the warden intended only the praise of his master, he discovered +to the attentive listener all the weaknesses of the voivode's +character. + +Upon Amesa's arrival late in the day, Ballaban avoided much +intercourse with him, except in relation to the selection of the dog. +To Elissa he gave a few words of advice, to the effect that she was +now the object of the young lord's adoration; and that, in order to +secure her advantage, she should make as much as possible a mystery of +her previous life. With this council--which was as much as he dared to +venture upon in his own ignorance of the exact part he was +playing--Ballaban departed, leading a magnificent hound in leash. A +little way from the castle he sat down, and drawing from his breast a +roll of paper, added certain lines and comments, as he muttered to +himself,-- + +"I have made neater drawings than this for old Bestorf in the school +of the Yeni-Tscheri, but none that will please the Aga more. There is +not a goat path on the borders that I have not got. A sudden movement +of our armies, occupying ground here and here and here, where I have +blazed the trees, would hold this country against Ivan Beg and +Scanderbeg. And with this black-hearted traitor, Amesa, in my +fingers!--Well! Let's see! I will force him into open rebellion +against Scanderbeg, unless he is deeper witted than he seems. But +which plan would be best in the long run?--to stir up a feud between +him and Scanderbeg, and let them cut each other's throats? Or, +inveigle him to open alliance with our side, under promise of being +made king of Albania? That last would settle all the Moslem trouble +with these Giaours. And it could be done. The Padishah offered +Scanderbeg the country on condition of paying a nominal tribute, and +would offer the same to Amesa. And Amesa would take it, though he had +to become Moslem. I will leave these propositions with the Aga," said +he, folding up the papers, and putting them back into his bosom. "In +either case I shall keep my vow with Amesa to help him against +Scanderbeg. But the devil help them both!" + +Whistling a snatch of a rude tune, part of which belonged to an +Albanian religious hymn he had heard in his rambles, and part to a +Turkish love song--swinging his long arms, and striding as far at each +step as his short legs would allow him, he went down the mountain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +"Who comes here?" cried the sentinel at the bottom of the steep road +which led up to the gate at the rear of the town of Sfetigrade. + +The man thus challenged made no reply except to speak sharply to a +large hound he was leading, and which was struggling to break away +from him. In his engrossment with the brute he did not seem to have +heard the challenge. As he came nearer the sentinel eyed him with a +puzzled, but half-comical look, as he soliloquized,-- + +"Ah, by the devil in the serpent's skin, I know him this time. He is +the Albanian Turk we were nigh to hamstringing. If I mistake that red +head again it will be when my own head has less brain in it than will +balance it on a pike-staff, where Colonel Kabilovitsch would put it if +I molested this fellow again. I'll give him the pass word, instead of +taking it from him; that will make up for past mistakes." + +The sentinel saluted the new comer with a most profound courtesy, and, +shouldering his spear, marched hastily past him, ogling him with a +sidelong knowing look. + +"Tako mi Marie!"[60] + +"Tako mi Marie!" responded the man, adding to himself, "but this is +fortunate; the fellow must be crazy. I thought I should have had to +brain him at least." + +As he passed by, the sentinel stood still, watching him, and muttered, + +"How should I know but Castriot himself is in that dog's hide." + +The dog turned and, attracted by the soldier's attitude, uttered a low +growl. + +"Tako mi Marie! and all the other saints in heaven too, but I believe +it is the general in disguise," said the sentinel. + +"Tako mi Marie!" said the stranger saluting the various guards, whom +he passed without further challenge, through the town gates and up to +the main street. + +The great well, from which the beleaguered inhabitants of Sfetigrade +drew the only water now accessible, since the Turks had so closely +invested the town, was not far from the citadel. It was very deep, +having been cut through the great layers of rock upon which the upper +town stood. Above it was a great wheel, over the outer edge of which +ran an endless band of leather; the lower end dipping into the water +that gleamed faintly far below. Leathern sockets attached to this belt +answered for buckets, which, as the wheel was turned, lifted the water +to the top, whence it ran into a great stone trough. The well was +guarded by a curb of stones which had originally been laid compactly +together; but many of them had been removed, and used to hurl down +from the walls of the citadel upon the heads of the Turks when they +tried to scale them. + +The dog, panting with the heat, mounted one of the remaining stones, +and stretched his long neck far down to sniff the cool water which +glistened a hundred feet below him. The man shouted angrily to the +beast, and so clumsily attempted to drag him away that both dog and +stone were precipitated together into the well. + +"A grapple! a rope!" shouted the man to a crowd who had seen the +accident from a distance. "Will no one bring one?" he cried with +apparent anger at their slow movements--"Then I must get one myself." + +The crowd rushed toward the well. The man disappeared in the opposite +direction. + +It was several hours before the dead dog was taken from the polluted +water. The Dibrian soldiers refused to drink from it. The superstition +communicated itself like an epidemic, to the other inhabitants. For a +day or two bands sallied from Sfetigrade, and brought water from the +plain: but it was paid for in blood, for the Turkish armies, aware of +the incident almost as soon as it occurred, drew closer their lines, +and stationed heavy detachments of Janizaries at the springs and +streams for miles around. The horrors of a water-famine were upon the +garrison. In vain did the officers rebuke the insane delusion. The +common soldiers, not only would not touch the water, but regarded the +accident as a direct admonition from heaven that the town must be +surrendered. Appeals to heroism, patriotism, honor, were less potent +than a silly notion which had grown about the minds of an otherwise +noble people--as certain tropical vines grow so tough and in such +gradually lessening spirals about a stalwart tree that they choke the +ascending sap and kill it. They who would have drunk were prevented +by the others who covered the well with heavy pieces of timber, and +stood guard about it. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[60] Help me, Mary! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +In vain did Castriot assault the Turks who were intrenched about the +wells and springs in the neighborhood. Now and then a victory over +them would be followed by a long procession from the town, rolling +casks, carrying buckets, pitchers, leather bottles and dug-out +troughs. The amount of water thus procured but scarcely sufficed to +keep life in the veins of the defenders: it did not suffice to nourish +heart and courage. It was foreseen that Sfetigrade must fall. + +Constantine was in the madness of despair about Morsinia. Her fate in +the event of capture was simply horrible to contemplate. Yet she could +hardly hope to make her way through the Turkish lines. Constantine was +at the camp with Castriot when it was announced that the enemy had at +length got possession of every approach to the town, so that there was +no communication between the Albanians within and those without, +except by signaling over the heads of the Turks. Castriot determined +upon a final attack, during which, if he should succeed in uncovering +any of the gates of the town, the people might find egress. + +Constantine begged to be allowed the hazardous duty of entering, by +passing in disguise through the Turkish army, and giving the +endangered people the exact information of Castriot's purpose. Taking +advantage of his former experience, he donned the uniform of a +Janizary, easily learned the enemy's password, and at the moment +designated to the besieged by Castriot's signal--just as the lower +star of the Great Dipper disappeared behind the cliff--he emerged from +the dense shadows of an angle of the wall. He was scarcely opposite +the gate when the drawbridge lowered and rose quickly. The portcullis +was raised and dropped an instant later, and he was within the town. + +Throwing off his disguise, he went at once toward the commandant's +quarters to deliver despatches from Castriot. But a shout preceded +him-- + +"The destroyer! The destroyer! Death to the destroyer!" + +Multitudes, awakened by the shouting, came from the houses and +soldiers' quarters. Constantine was seized by the crowd, who yelled: + +"To the well with him! Let the dog's soul come into him!" + +He was borne along as helplessly as a leaf in the foaming cataract. + +"To the well! To the well with the poisoner!" + +The cry grew louder and shriller; the multitude maddening under the +intense fury of their mutual rage, as each coal is hotter when many +glow with it in the fire. Women mingled with soldiers, shrieking their +insane vengeance, until the crowd surged with the victim around the +well. The planks were torn off by strong hands. The horror of the deed +they were about to commit made them pause. Each waited for his +neighbor to assume the desperate office of actually perpetrating what +was in all their hearts to do. + +At length three of the more resolute stepped forward as executioners +of the popular will. The struggling form of Constantine was held erect +that all might see him. Torches waved above his head. One stood upon +the well curb, and, dropping a torch into the dark abyss, cried with a +loud voice-- + +"So let his life be put out who destroys us all!" + +"So let it be!" moaned the crowd; the wildness of their wrath somewhat +subdued by the impressiveness of the tragedy they were enacting. + +The well hissed back its curse as the burning brand sunk into the +water. + +But a new apparition burst upon the scene. Suddenly, as if it had +risen from the well, a form draped in white stood upon the curb. Her +long golden hair floated in the strong wind. Her face, from sickness +white as her robe, had an unearthly pallor from the excitement, and +seemed to be lit with the white heat of her soul. Her sunken eyes gave +back the flare of the torches, as if they gleamed with celestial +reprobation. + +"The Holy Virgin!" cried some. + +"One of the Vili!" cried others. + +The crowd surged back in ghostly fear. + +"Neither saint nor sprite am I," cried Morsinia. "Your own wicked +hearts make you fear me. It is your consciences that make you imagine +a simple girl to be a vengeful spirit, and shrink from this horrid +murder, to the very brink of which your ignorance and wretched +superstition have led you. Blessed Mary need not come from Heaven to +tell you that a man--a man for whom her Son Jesu died--should not be +made to die for the sake of a dead dog. I, a child, can tell you +that." + +"But the well is accursed and the people die," said a monk, throwing +back his cowl, and reaching out his hand to seize her. + +"And such words from you, a priest of Jesu!" answered the woman, +warding him off by the scathing scorn of her tones. "Did not Jesu say, +'Come unto Me and drink, drink out of My veins as ye do in Holy +Sacrament?' Will He curse and kill, then, for drinking the water which +you need, because a dog has fallen into it?" + +These words, following the awe awakened by her unexpected appearance, +stayed the rage of the crowd for a moment. But soon the murmur rose +again-- + +"To the well!" + +"He is a murderer!" + +"It is just to take vengeance on a murderer!" + +The woman raised her hand as if invoking the witness of Heaven to her +cause, and exclaimed-- + +"But _I_ am not a murderer. A curse on him who slays the innocent. I +will be the sacrifice. I fear not to drink of this well with my dying +gasp. Unhand the man, or, as sure as Heaven sees me, I shall die for +him!" + +A shudder of horror ran through the crowd as the light form of the +young woman raised itself to the very brink of the well. It seemed as +if a movement, or a cry, would precipitate her into the black abyss. +The crowd was paralyzed. The silence of the dead fell upon them, as +she leaned forward for the awful plunge. + +Those holding Constantine let go their grip. + +At this moment the commandant appeared. He had, indeed, been a silent +witness of the scene, and was not unwilling that the superstition of +the soldiers should thus have a vent, thinking that with the sacrifice +of the supposed offender they might be satisfied, and led to believe +that the spirit of the well was appeased. He hoped that thus they +might be induced to drink the water. But he recoiled from permitting +the sacrifice of this innocent person, lest it should blacken the +curse already impending. + +"I will judge this case," he cried. "Man, who are you?" + +"I bear you orders from General Castriot," replied Constantine, +handing him a document. + +By the light of a torch the officer read, + + "In the event of being unable to hold out, signal and make a + sally according to directions to be given verbally by the + bearer. + + CASTRIOT." + +Turning to the crowd, the commandant addressed them. + +"Brave men! Epirots and Dibrians! We are being led into some mistake. +My message makes it evident that on this man's life depends the life +of every one of us----" + +His voice was drowned by wild cries that came from a distant part of +the town. The cries were familiar enough to all their ears; but they +had heretofore heard them only from beneath the walls without. They +were the Turkish cries of assault. "Allah! Allah! Allah! Allah!" +rolled like a hurricane along the streets of Sfetigrade. The gates had +been thrown open by some Dibrian, whom superstition and a +thirst-fevered brain had transformed into a traitor. + +"Quick!" cried Constantine. "Fire three powder flashes from the +bastion, and follow me." + +"Brave girl!" said he to Morsinia, grasping her hand and drawing her +toward the citadel. + +"It is too late!" replied the commandant. "All the ports are occupied +by the enemy. We can but die in the streets." + +"To the north gate, then! Burst it open, and cut your way to the east. +Castriot will meet you there. I will to the bastion." + +"We must go with them," said Morsinia. "Better die in the streets than +be taken here." + +"No, you shall not die, my good angel. I have prepared for this. +First, I will fire the signal." In a few seconds three flashes +illumined the old battlements. + +Returning to Morsinia, he said quietly, "I have prepared for this," +and unwound from about his body a strong cord, looped at intervals so +that it could be used for a ladder. Fastening this securely, he +dropped the end over the wall. Descending part way himself, he opened +the loops one by one for the feet of his companion; and thus they +reached a narrow ledge some twenty feet below the parapet. From this +to the next projection broad enough to stand upon, the rock was steep +but slanting; so that, while one could not rest upon it, it would +largely overcome the momentum of the descent. Fastening a cord +securely beneath the arms of Morsinia, he let her down the slope to +the lower ledge. Then, tying the rope to that above, he descended +himself to her side. From this point the path was not dangerous to one +possessed of perfect presence of mind, and accustomed to balance the +body on one foot at a time. Thanks to her mountain life, and the +strong stimulus to brain and nerve acquired by her familiarity with +danger, Morsinia was undizzied by the elevation. Thus they wound their +way toward the east side of the wall; and, as they neared the base of +the cliff, sat down to reconnoitre. + +Above them frowned the walls of the citadel. Just beneath them were +many forms, moving like spectres in the darkness which was fast +dissolving into the gray morning twilight. The voices which came up to +their ears proved that they were Turks. For Morsinia to pass through +them without detection would be impossible. To remain long where they +were would be equally fatal. + +But their anxiety was relieved by a well known bugle-call. At first it +sounded far away to the north. + +"Iscanderbeg! Iscanderbeg!" cried the Turks, as they were deployed to +face the threatening assault. But scarcely had they formed in their +new lines when the sound, as of a storm bursting through a forest, +indicated that the attack was from the south. + +Taking the Turks who were still outside the walls at a disadvantage, +Castriot's force made terrible havoc among them, sweeping them back +pell-mell past the eastern front and around the northern, so as to +leave the north gate clear for the escape of any who might emerge +from it. + +But, alas, for the valor of the commandant and the noble men who +followed him! few succeeded in cutting their way through the swarm of +enemies that had already occupied the streets of Sfetigrade. + +This movement, however, enabled Constantine and Morsinia to descend +from their dangerous eyrie. The apparition of their approach from that +direction was a surprise to the general. + +"Why, man, do you ride upon bats and night-hawks, that you have flown +from yonder crag? I shall henceforth believe in Radisha and his +beautiful demon. And may I pray thy care for myself in battle, my fair +lady?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +The fall of Sfetigrade, while a material loss to the Albanian cause, +served rather to exalt than to diminish the prestige of their great +general. The fame of Scanderbeg brightened as the gloomy tidings of +the fate of the stronghold spread; for that event, due to a +circumstance which no human being could control, gave his enemies +their first success, after nearly seven years of incessant effort, +with measureless armaments, innumerable soldiery and exhaustless +treasure. + +The adversity also developed in Scanderbeg new qualities of greatness, +both military and moral. As the effort to drain a natural spring only +evokes its fuller and freer flow, so disappointment augmented his +courage, impoverishment in resources enlarged the scheme of his +projects, and the defeat of one plan by circumstances suggested other +plans more novel and shrewd. The sight of the Turkish ensign floating +from the citadel of Sfetigrade disheartened the patriots. The tramp of +fresh legions from almost all parts of the Moslem world was not so +ominous of further disaster as were the whispers of discontent from +more than one who, like Amesa, had ambitions of their own, or, like +brave Moses Goleme, were discouraged regarding ultimate success. But +the great heart of Castriot sustained the courage of his people, and +his genius devised plans for the defence of his land which, for +sixteen years yet, were to baffle the skill and weary the energies of +the foe. + +The chief gave orders that Morsinia, having eluded capture, should +occupy for the day his own tent; for the Albanian soldiers, as a rule, +were destitute of the luxury of a canvas covering. Returning toward +the middle of the morning, and having need to enter, he bade +Constantine call her. No response being given, Castriot raised the +curtain of the tent. Upon a rude matting, which was raised by rough +boards a few inches from the earth, her limbs covered with an +exquisitely embroidered Turkish saddle cloth, Morsinia lay asleep. Her +neck and shoulders were veiled with her hair, which, rich and +abundant, fell in cascades of golden beauty upon the ground. + +The great man stood for a moment gazing upon the sleeping girl. His +ordinarily immobile features relaxed. His face, generally +passionless, unreadable as that of the sphinx, and impressive only for +the mystery of the thoughts it concealed, now became suffused with +kindly interest. His smile, as if he had been surprised by the +fairness of the vision, was followed by a look of fatherly tenderness. +The tears shot into his eyes; but with a deep breath he dropped the +curtain, and turned away. Of what was he thinking? Of little Mara +Cernoviche, his playmate far back in the years? or of himself during +those years? Strange that career among the Turks! and equally strange +all the years since he had looked upon the little child asleep by the +camp fire at the foot of the Balkans! One who gazed into his face at +that moment would have discovered that the rough warrior spirit was an +outer environment about a gentle and loving nature. + +He was interrupted by officers crowding about him, bringing +intelligence of the enemy, or asking questions relative to the +immediate movements of their own commands. These were answered in +laconic sentences, each one a flash of strategic wisdom. + +In the first leisure he put his hand fondly upon Constantine's head, +and said quietly as he seated himself upon a rock near the tent door-- + +"Tell me of last night." + +As Constantine narrated what the reader is already familiar with, +dwelling especially upon Morsinia's part in the scene at the well, and +her courage in the descent from the wall, Scanderbeg exclaimed +eagerly-- + +"A true daughter of Musache De Streeses and Mara Cernoviche! The very +impersonation of our Albania! Her spirit is that of our heroic people, +fair as our lakes and as noble as our mountains! But these scenes are +too rough for her. Her soul is strong enough to endure; but so is the +diamond strong enough to keep its shape and lustre amid the stones +which the freshet washes together. But it is not well that it should +be left to do so. Besides, the diamond's strength and inviolable +purity will not prevent a robber from stealing it. There are envious +eyes upon our treasure. We had better have our diamond cut and set and +put away in a casket for a while. We will send her to Constantinople. +There she will have opportunity to gain in knowledge of the world, and +in the courtly graces which fit her princely nature." + +"Would not Italy be better?" suggested Constantine. + +"No," said Scanderbeg. "The Italians are uncertain allies. I know not +whom to trust across the Adriatic. But Phranza, the chamberlain at +Constantinople, is a noble man. I knew him years ago when I was +stationed across the Bosphorus, and had committed to me nearly all the +Ottoman affairs, so far as they affected the Greek capital. He is one +of the few Greeks we may implicitly trust. And, moreover, he agrees +with me in seeking a closer alliance between our two peoples. If the +Christian power at Constantinople could be roused against the Turk on +the east, while we are striking him on the west, we could make the +Moslem wish he were well out of Europe. But Italy will do nothing." + +"The Holy Father can help, can he not?" asked Constantine. + +"The Holy Father does not to-day own himself. He is the mere +foot-ball of the secular powers, who kick him against one another in +their strife. No, our hope is in putting some life into the old Greek +empire at Constantinople. The dolt of an emperor, John, is dead, +thanks to Azrael[61]! In Constantine, who has come to the throne, +Christendom has hope of something better than to see the heir of the +empire of the Cæsars dancing attendance upon Italian dukes; seeking +agreement with the Pope upon words of a creed which no one can +understand; and demoralizing, with his uncurtained harem, the very +Turk. If the new emperor has the sense of a flea he will see that the +Moslem power will have Constantinople within a decade, unless the +nations can be united in its defence. I would send letters to Phranza, +and you must be my envoy. With Morsinia there, we shall be free from +anxiety regarding her; for no danger threatens her except here in her +own land--to our shame I say it. A Venetian galley touches weekly at +Durazzo, and sails through the Corinthian gulf. You will embark upon +that to-morrow night." + +"But Colonel Kabilovitsch?" inquired Constantine. + +"He has already started for Durazzo, and will make all arrangements. +Nothing is needed here but a comely garment for Morsinia, who left +Sfetigrade with a briefer toilet than most handsome women are willing +to make. Colonel Kabilovitsch will see that you are provided with +money and detailed instructions for the journey." + +A soldier appeared with a bundle. "A rough lady's maid!" said the +general, "but a useful one I will warrant." + +Unrolling the bundle, it proved to be a rich, but plain, dress, +donated from a neighboring castle. + +An hour later Scanderbeg held Morsinia by both hands, looking down +into her eyes. It was a picture which should have become historic. The +giant form of the grim old warrior contrasted fully with that of the +maiden, as some gnarled oak with the flower that grows at its base. + +"Keep good heart, my daughter," said the general, imprinting a kiss +upon her fair brow. + +She replied with loving reverence in her tone and look, "I thank you, +Sire, for that title; for the father of his country has the keeping of +the hearts of all the daughters of Albania." + +It were difficult to say whether the sweet loveliness in the lines of +her face, or the majesty of character and superb heroism that shone +through them, gave her the greater fascination as she added, + +"If Jesu wills that among strangers I can best serve my country, there +shall be my home." + +"But you will not long be among strangers. Your goodness will make +them all friends. Beside, God will keep such as you, for he loves the +pure and beautiful." + +Morsinia blushed as she answered, + +"And does God not love the true and the noble? So he will keep thee +and Albania. Does not the sun send down her[62] beams as straight over +Constantinople as over Croia? and does she not draw the mists by as +short a cord of her twisted rays from the Marmora as from the +Adriatic? Then God can be as near us there as here; and our prayers +for thee and our land will go as speedily to the Great Heart over all. +The Blessed Mary keep you, Sire!" + +"Ay, the Blessed Mary spake the blessing through your lips, my child," +responded Scanderbeg as he lifted her to her horse. + +Constantine released himself from the general's hearty embrace, and +sprang into the saddle at her side. Preceded and followed by a score +of troopers they disappeared in the deep shadows of a mountain path. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[61] The death angel. + +[62] In Albanian speech the sun is feminine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Durazzo lies upon a promontory stretching out into the Adriatic. The +walls which surrounded it at the time of our story, told, by the +weather-wear of their stones, the different ages during which they had +guarded the little bay that lies at the promontory's base. A young +monk,[63] Barletius, to whom Colonel Kabilovitsch introduced the +voyagers, as a travelling companion for a part of their journey, +pointed out the great and rudely squared boulders in the lower course +of masonry, as the work of the ancient Corcyreans, centuries before +the coming of Christ. The upper courses, he said, were stained with +the blood of the Greek soldiers of Alexius, when the Norman Robert +Guiscard assaulted the place, hundreds and hundreds of years ago. + +Indeed, to the monk's historic imagination, the world seemed still +wrapped in the mists of the older ages; and, just as the low lying +haze, with its mirage effect, contorted the rocks along the shore into +domes and pinnacles, so did his fancy invest every object with the +greatness of the history with which the old manuscripts had made him +familiar. + +While Morsinia listened with a strange entertainment to his rhapsodic +narrations, Constantine was busy studying the graceful lines of the +Venetian half-galley that lay at the base of the cliff, and upon which +they were to embark; her low deck, cut down in the centre nearly to +the water's edge; her sharp, swan-necked prow raised high in air, and +balanced by the broad elevation at the stern; the lateen sail that, +furled on its boom, hung diagonally against the slender mast; the rows +of holes at the side, through which in calm weather the oars were +worked; the gay pennant from the mast-head, and the broad banner at +the stern, which spread to the light breeze the Lion of St. Mark. + +They were soon gliding out of the harbor of Durazzo, at first under +the regularly timed stroke of a score of oarsmen. Rounding the +promontory, the west wind filled the sail; and, careening to the +leeward, the galley danced toward the south through the light spray of +the billows which sung beneath the prow like the strings of a zither. + +Perhaps it was this music of the waves--or it may have been that the +wind was blowing straight across from Italy; or, possibly, it was the +beauty of the maiden reclining upon the cushioned dais of the stern +deck--that led the weather-beaten sailing master to take the zither, +and sing one after another of Petrarch's love songs to Laura. Though +his voice was as hoarse as the wind that crooned through the cordage, +and his language scarcely intelligible, the flow of the melody told +the sentiment. Constantine's eyes sought the face of his companion, as +if for the first time he had detected that she was beautiful. And +perhaps for the first time in her life Morsinia felt conscious that +Constantine was looking at her;--for she generally withstood his gaze +with as little thought of it as she did that of the sky, or of +Kabilovitsch. Even the monk turned his eyes from the magnificent +shores of Albania, with their beetling headlands and receding bays, to +cast furtive glances upon the maiden. + +The monk's face was a striking one. He was pale, if not from holy +vigil, from pouring over musty secular tomes. He had caught the spirit +of the revival of learning which, notwithstanding all the superstition +of ecclesiastics, was first felt in the cloisters of the church. His +forehead was high, but narrow; his eyes mild, yet lustrous; his lower +features almost feminine. One familiar with men would have said, "Here +is a man of patient enthusiasm for things intellectual, a devotee to +the ideal. He may be a philosopher, a poet, an artist; but he could +never make a soldier, a diplomat, or even a lover, except of the most +Platonic sort. Just the man for a monk. If all monks were like him, +the church would be enriched indeed; but, if all like him were monks, +the world would be the poorer." + +Among other passengers was a Greek monk, Gennadius. This man's full +beard and long curly forelocks hanging in front of his ears, were in +odd contrast with the smooth face and shaven head of the Latin monk. +Though strangers, they courteously saluted each other. However sharp +might be the differences in their religious notions, they soon felt +the fraternity such as cultured minds and great souls realize in the +presence of the sublimities of nature. They studied each other's faces +with agreeable surprise as the glories about them drew from their lips +vivid outbursts of descriptive eloquence, in which, speaking the Latin +or Greek with almost equal facility, they quoted from the classic +poets with which they were equally familiar. + +As the galley turned eastward into the Corinthian gulf there burst +upon them a panorama of natural splendor combined with classic +enchantment, such as no other spot on the earth presents. The +mountainous shores lay about the long and narrow sea, like sleeping +giants guarding the outflow of some sacred fountain. Back of the +northern coast rose, like waking sentinels, the Helicon and Parnassus, +towering thousands of feet into the air; their tops helmeted in ice +and plumed with fleecy clouds. The western sun poured upon the track +of the voyagers floods of golden lustre which lingered on the still +waters, flashed in rainbows from the splashing oars, gilded with glory +the hither slope of every projection on either shore, and filled the +great gorges beyond with dark purple shadows. + +As Morsinia reclined with her head resting on Constantine's shoulder, +and drank in the gorgeous, yet quieting, scene, the two monks stood +with uncovered heads and, half embracing, chanted together in Greek +one of the oldest known evening hymns of the Christian church. In free +translation, it ran thus:-- + + "O Jesu, the Christ! glad light of the holy! + The brightness of God, the Father in heaven! + At setting of sun, with hearts that are lowly, + We praise Thee for life this day Thou hast given." + +"I love that hymn," said Gennadius, "because it was written long +before the schism which rent the Holy Church into Latin and Greek." + +"We will rejoice, then, that by the inspiration of the Holy Father, +Eugenius, and the assent of your patriarch, the wound in the body of +Christ has, after six centuries, at last been healed," replied +Barletius. + +"I fear that the healing is but seeming," said the Greek. "I was a +member of the council of Florence, and know the motives of the men who +composed it, and the exact meaning of the agreement--which means +nothing. Your Pope cares not a scrap of tinsel from his back for the +true Christian dogma; and while his ambition led him to desire to +become the uniter of Christendom, his own bishops, who know him well, +were gathered in synod at Basil, and pronounced him heretic, perjurer +and debauchee." + +"But you Greeks were doubtless more honest," said Barletius, with a +tone and look of sarcasm. + +"Humph!" grunted Gennadius, walking away; but turning about quickly he +added, + +"How could we be honest when, for the sake of the union, we assented +to a denial of our most sacred dogmas by allowing the _Filioque_?[64] +It is not in the power of men living to change the truth as expressed +through all past ages in the creed of the true church. Our emperor +yielded the points to the Latins; but holy Mark of Ephesus and Prince +Demetrius, our emperor's brother, did not. They retired in disgust +from Italy. Why, the very dog of the emperor, that lay on his +foot-cloth, scented the heresy to which his master was about to +subscribe, and protested against the sacrilege by baying throughout +the reading of the act of union. And I learn that the clergy and +populace at Byzantium are foaming with rage at this impiety of our +Latinizing emperor. I am hasting thither that I may utter my voice, +too, in my cell in prayer, and from the pulpit of St. Sophia, against +the unholy alliance." + +"Yet," said Barletius, with scorn, "your emperor and church +authorities subscribed. What sort of a divine spirit do you Greeks +possess, that prompts you to confess what you do not believe?" + +"I feel your taunt," replied Gennadius. "It is both just and unjust. +Have not some of your own prelates lately taught that the end +justifies the means? The union, though wrong in itself, was +justified--according to Latin ethics--by the result to be secured, the +safety of both Greek and Latin churches from being conquered by the +Turks. Our Eastern empire, the glory of the later Cæsars, has already +become reduced to the suburbs of Byzantium. The empire of Justinian +and Theodosius has not to-day ten thousand soldiers to withstand the +myriads of the Sultan. There must be union. We must have soldiers, +even if we buy them with the price of an article of the creed--nay the +loan of the article--for the union will not stand when danger has +passed. Conscience alone is one thing: conscience under necessity--I +speak the ethics of you Latins--is another thing. But I abhor the +deceit. Your bishop, whom you call Pope, has no reverence from our +hearts, though we were to kiss his toe. You are idolaters with your +images of Mary and the saints. _Filioque_ is a lie!" cried the Greek, +giving vent to his prejudice and spite. + +Barletius in the meantime had felt other emotions than the holiest +being kindled within him by these hot words of his companion; and when +the Greek had flashed his unseemly denunciation at _Filioque_, the +Latin's soul burst in responsive rage. But he was not accustomed to +harsh debate. Words were consumed upon his hot lips, or choked in his +fury-dried throat. His frame trembled with the pent wrath. His hands +clenched until the nails cut into the flesh. But alas for the best +saintship, if temptation comes before canonization! The thin hand was +raised, and it fell upon the holy brother's face. The blow was +returned. But neither of them had been trained to carnal strife, nor +had they the skill and strength to do justice to their noble rage. +Constantine, who leaped forward to act as peace-maker, stopped to +laugh at the strange pose of the antagonists; for the Greek had +valiantly seized the cowl of the Latin, and drawn it down over his +face; while Barletius' thin fingers were wriggling through Gennadius' +beard, and both were prancing as awkwardly as one-day-old calves about +the narrow deck, with the imminent prospect of cooling their spirits +by immersion in the water. + +The presence of this danger led Constantine to separate the scufflers; +although his laughter at the contestants had made his limbs almost as +limp as theirs. The ecclesiastical champions stood glaring their +celestial resentment, the one white, the other red, like two statues +of burlesque gladiators carved respectively in marble and porphyry. + +The conflict might have been renewed had not Morsinia risen from her +cushion, and approached them. But no sooner did Gennadius realize the +danger of having so much as his gown touched by a woman, than he +bolted to the other end of the galley, and sat down, with fright and +shame, upon a coil of ropes. The Greek had been trained at the +monastery on Mount Athos. From that masculine paradise the fair +daughters of Eve were as carefully excluded as if they were still the +agents of Satan, and sent by the devil to work the ruin of those who, +by lofty meditation and unnatural asceticism, would return to the +pre-marital Adamic state of innocence. During the long twilight, and +when the night left only the outlines of the mountains sharply defined +high up against the star-lit sky, Gennadius still sat motionless; his +legs crossed beneath him; his head dropped upon his bosom. He gave no +response to the salutation of the attendant who brought him the +evening meal: nor would he touch it. When the sailors sung the songs +whose melody floated over the sea, keeping time to the cadences of the +light waves which bent but did not break the surface, the monk put his +fingers into his ears. He tried to drive out worldly thoughts by +recalling those precepts of an ancient saint which, for four hundred +years, had been prescribed at Mount Athos for those who would quiet +their perturbed souls and rise into the upper light of God. They were +such as these. "Seat thyself in a corner; raise thy mind above all +things vain and transitory; recline thy beard and chin upon thy +breast; turn thy eyes and thoughts toward the middle of thy belly, the +region of the navel; and search the place of the heart, the seat of +the soul, which when discovered will be involved in a mystic and +ethereal light." + +Barletius, equally chagrined by his display of temper before the +laity, sought relief by inflicting upon himself a task of Pater +Nosters, which he tallied off on his beads, made of olive-wood and +sent him by a learned monk at Bethlehem. + +When his punishment seemed accomplished, Morsinia asked him, + +"Good father, why did you quarrel with the stranger?" + +Barletius entered into a long explanation of the faith of the Roman +Church at the point challenged by the Greek. + +"I understand your words," said Morsinia, "but I do not understand +their meaning." + +"It is not necessary that you should, my child. If Holy Church +understands, it is enough. A child may not understand all that the +mother knows; yet believes the mother's word. So should you believe +what Mother Church says." + +"I would believe every word that Mother Church speaks, even though I +do not understand why she speaks it," said Morsinia reverently. "But +how can one believe another's words when one does not know what they +mean; when they give no thought? Now what you say about the +'procession of the spirit,' and the 'begetting of the Son,' I do not +get any clear thought about; and how then can I believe it in my +heart." + +The monk cast a troubled look upon the fair inquirer, and replied-- + +"Then you must simply believe in Holy Church which believes the +truth." + +"And say I believe the creed, when I only believe that the Church +believes the creed?" queried the girl. + +"It is enough. Happy are you if you seek to know no more. Beware of an +inquisitive mind. It leads one astray from truth, as a wayward +disposition soon departs from virtue. Credo! Credo! Credo! Help thou +mine unbelief! should be your prayer. Restrain your thoughts as the +helmsman yonder keeps our prow on the narrow way we are going. How +soon you would perish if you should attempt to find your way alone out +there on the deep! Woe to those who, like these wretched Greeks, +depart from truth, and teach men so. Anathema, Maranatha!" + +"But, tell me, good father, can that be necessary to be believed, +about which whole nations, like the Greeks, differ from other nations, +like the Latins? I have seen Greeks at their worship, and bowed with +them, and felt that God was near and blessing us all. And I have heard +them say, when they were dying, that they saw heaven open; and they +reached out their arms to be taken by the angels. Does not Jesu save +them, though they may err about that which we trust to be the truth?" + +"My child, you must not think of these things," said Barletius kindly. +"It is better that you sleep now. The air is growing chill. Wrap your +cloak closely even beneath the deck." + +He walked away, repeating a line from Virgil as he scanned the +star-gemmed heavens. + +"Suadentque cadentia sidera somnos." + +Wrapping his hood close over his face, he lay down upon the deck. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[63] Marinus Barletius, a Latin monk of the time, has given us in his +chronicles, the most extended account of Scanderbeg. + +[64] Filioque; "and the Son." The Latin Church holds that the Holy +Spirit proceeds from the Father _and the Son_. The Greeks deny the +latter part of the proposition. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +Two new comers joined the party at Corinth, where, crossing the +isthmus on horses, they re-embarked. One was Giustiniani, a Genoese, +of commanding form and noble features, the very type of chivalric +gentility, bronzed by journeyings under various skies, and scarred +with the memorials of heroic soldiership on many fields. The other was +a Dacian, short of stature, with broad and square forehead, and a +crooked neck which added to the sinister effect of his squinting eyes. + +"Well, Urban," said the Genoese, "you still have confidence in your +new ordnance, and think that saltpetre and charcoal are to take the +place of the sword, and that every lout who can strike a fire will +soon be a match for a band of archers:--Eh!" + +"Yes, Sire, and if the emperor would only allow me a few hundred +ducats, I would cast him a gun which, from yonder knoll, would heave a +stone of five talents'[65] weight, and crash through any galley ever +floated from the docks of Genoa or Venice. Four such guns on either +side would protect this isthmus from a fleet. But, I tell you, noble +Giustiniani, that without taking advantage of our new science, the +emperor cannot hold out long against the Turk. The Turk is using +gunpowder. He is willing to learn, and has already learned, what the +emperor will find out to his cost, that the walls of Constantinople +itself cannot long endure the battering of heavy cannon." + +"You are right, Urban," replied the Genoese. "The Turk is also ahead +of us in the art of approaching citadels. I have no doubt that his +zigzag trenches[66] give the assailant almost equality with the +besieged in point of safety. I will gladly use my influence at the +court of Byzantium in behalf of your scheme for founding large cannon, +Urban; if, perchance, the defence of the empire may receive a tithe of +the treasure now squandered in princely parades and useless +embassages." + +The galley glided smoothly through the little gulf of Ægina, with its +historic bays of Eleusis and Salamis. Giustiniani and Urban discussed +the disposition of the Greek and Persian fleets during the ancient +fight at Salamis, as they moved under the steep rocky hill on which +Xerxes sat to witness the battle. They soon rounded the headland, +opposite the tomb of Themistocles, and anchored in the harbor of the +Piræus. + +This port of Athens was crowded with shipping. There were Spanish +galleasses like floating castles, with huge turrets at stem and stern, +rowed by hundreds of galley slaves. Other vessels of smaller size +floated the standard of France. Those of the maritime cities of Italy +vied with one another in the exquisite carving of their prows and the +gaiety of their banners. + +The chief attention was centred upon a splendid galley of Byzantium, +whose deck was covered with silken awnings, beneath which a band of +music floated sweet strains over the waters. This was the vessel of +the imperial chamberlain, Phranza, who, having been entertained in +Athens with honors befitting his dignity, was now about to return to +Constantinople. + +Giustiniani ordered his galley alongside of that of the chamberlain, +by whom he was received with distinguishing favors. Constantine took +this opportunity to deliver, through the Genoese, Scanderbeg's letters +to Phranza. They were read with evident gratification by the +chamberlain. With a hearty welcome, not devoid of some curiosity on +his part, as he scrutinized the appearance of the strangers, he +invited Constantine and his companion to complete their journey in his +galley. + +Morsinia was at first as much dazed by the splendor, as she was +mortified by her ignorance of the formalities, with which she was +received. But the natural dignity of her bearing stood her in good +stead of more courtly graces: for these modern Greeks emulated those +of ancient times in the reverence they paid to womanly beauty. The +chamberlain was somewhat past middle life. He was a man whose studious +habits, as the great historian of his times, did not dull his +brilliancy as the master of etiquette. Nor had his astuteness as a +statesman been acquired by any sacrifice of his taste for social +intrigues. The diversions from the cares of state, which other great +men have found at the gaming-table or in their cups, Phranza sought in +studying the mysteries of female character; admiring its virtues, and +yet not averse to finding entertainment in its foibles. A true Greek, +he believed that physical beauty was the index of the rarer qualities +of mind and heart. He would have been a consenting judge at the trial +of that beautiful woman in the classic story, the perfection of whose +unrobed form disproved the charge of her crime. He was such an ardent +advocate of the absolute authority of the emperor that, though of +decided aristocratic tendencies, he held that no marriage alliance, +however high the rank of the bride, could add to the dignity of the +throne: indeed, that beauty alone could grace the couch of a king; +that the first of men should wed the fairest of women, and thus +combine the aristocracy of rank with the aristocracy of nature. He had +frequent opportunities to express his peculiar views on this subject; +for, among the problems which then perplexed his statecraft, was that +of the marriage of the emperor--that the succession might not be left +to the hazard of strife among the families of the blood of the +Palæologi. Had the choice of the royal spouse been left entirely in +his hands, he would have made the selection on no other principle than +that adopted by the purveyor of plumage for the court, who seeks the +rarest colors without regard to the nesting-place of the bird. + +The genuine politeness of the courtier, together with Morsinia's +womanly tact in adapting herself to her new environment, soon relieved +her from the feeling of restraint, and the hours of the voyage passed +pleasantly. Her conversation, which was free from the conventionalities +of the day, was, for this very reason, as refreshing to Phranza as the +simple forms of nature--the mountain stream, the tangles of vines and +wild flowers--are to the habitués of cities. There was a native poetry +in her diction, an artlessness in her questions, and a transparent +honesty in her responses. Indeed, her very manner unveiled the +features of so exalted and healthy a mind, of a disposition so frank +and ingenuous, of a character so delicately pure and exquisitely +beautiful, that they compensated many fold any lack of artificial +culture. The great critic of woman forgot to study her face: he only +gazed upon it. He ceased to analyze her character: he simply felt her +worth. + +But no fairness of a maiden, be she Albanian or Greek, can long +monopolize the attention of an elderly man whose swift vessel bears +him through the clustering glories of the Ægean. Nor could any awe for +his rank, or interest in his learned conversation, absorb Morsinia +from these splendors which glowed around her. They gazed in silence +upon the smooth and scarcely bending sea, which, like a celestial +mirror, reflected all the hues of the sky--steely blue dissolving into +softest purple; white mists transfused by sunset's glow into billows +of fire; monolithic islands flashing with the colors of mighty agates +in the prismatic air; clouds white as snow and clear cut as diamonds, +lifting themselves from the horizon like the "great white throne" that +St. John saw from the cliffs of Patmos yonder. + +Crossing the Ægean, the voyagers hugged the old Trojan coast until off +the straits of the Hellespont. They lay during a day under the lee of +Yeni Sheyr shoals, and at night ran the gauntlet of the new Turkish +forts, Khanak-Kalesi and Khalid-Bahar, at the entrance to the Sea of +Marmora. Two days later there broke upon the view that most queenly of +cities, Byzantium, reclining upon the tufted couch of her seven hills, +by the most lovely of seas, like a nymph beside her favorite fountain. +The galley glided swiftly by the "Seven Towers," which guard on +Marmora the southern end of the enormous triple wall. The bastions and +towers of this famous line of defenses cut their bold profile against +the sky for a distance of five or six miles in a straight line, until +the wall met the extremity of the Golden Horn on the north; thus +making the city in shape like a triangle--the base of gigantic +masonry; the sides of protecting seas. + +Gay barges and kaiks shot out from the shore to form a welcoming +pageant to the returning chamberlain. With easy oars they drifted +almost in the shadows of the cypress trees which lined the bank and +hid the residences of wealthy Greek merchants and the pavilions of +princes. The lofty dome of St. Sophia flashed its benediction upon the +travelers, and its challenge of a better faith far across the +Bosphorus to the Asiatic Moslem, whose minarets gleamed like +spear-heads from beside their mosques. From the point where the Golden +Horn meets the strait of the Bosphorus and the sea of Marmora, rose +the palace of the emperor, embowered in trees, and surrounded with +gardens which loaded the air with the perfume of rarest flowers and +the song of birds. Rounding the point into the Golden Horn, the grim +old Genoese tower of Galata, on the opposite bank, saluted them with +its drooping banner. They dropped anchor in the lovely harbor. Strong +arms with a few strokes sent the tipsy kaiks from the galley through +the rippling water to the landing. An elegant palanquin brought the +wife of Phranza to meet her lord. Another, which was designed for the +chamberlain, he courteously assigned to Morsinia; while Constantine +and the gentlemen of the suite mounted the gaily caparisoned horses +that were in readiness. The chamberlain insisted upon Morsinia and +Constantine becoming his guests, at least until their familiarity with +the city should make it convenient for them to reside elsewhere. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[65] A modern Greek talent weighs 125 English pounds. + +[66] The present art of "slow approach" was an invention of the Turks. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +The house of Phranza was rather a series of houses built about a +square court, in which were parterres of rarest plants, divided from +each other by walks of variegated marble, and moistened by the spray +of fountains. + +Morsinia's palanquin was let down just within the gateway. A young +woman assisted her to alight, and conducted her to apartments +elegantly furnished with all that could please a woman's eye, though +she were the reigning beauty of a court, instead of one brought up as +a peasant in a distant province, and largely ignorant of the arts of +the toilet. She was bewildered with the strangeness of her +surroundings, and sat down speechless upon the cushion to gaze about +her. Was she herself? It required the remembrance that Constantine was +somewhere near her to enable her to realize her own identity, and that +she had not been changed by some fairy's wand into a real princess. + +"Will my lady rest?" said the attendant, in softest Greek. + +Morsinia was familiar with this language, which was used more or less +everywhere in Servia and Albania; but she had never heard it spoken +with such sweetness. The words would have been restful to hear, though +she had not understood their meaning. Without hesitation she resigned +herself to the hands of the servant, who relieved her of her outer +apparel. Another maiden brought a tray of delicate wafers of wheat, +and flasks of light wine, with figs and dates. A curtain in the wall, +being drawn, exposed the bath; a great basin of mottled marble, and a +little fountain scattering a spray scented with roses. + +Morsinia began to fear that she had been mistaken for some great lady, +whose wardrobe was expected to be brought in massive chests, and whose +personal ornaments would rival the toilet treasures of the Queen of +Sheba. There entered opportunely several tire-women, laden with silks +and linens, laces and shawls, every portion of female attire, in every +variety of color and shape--from the strong buskin to the gauze veil +so light that it will hide from the eye less than it reveals to the +imagination. + +The guest was about to question her attendants, when one gave her a +note, hastily written by Constantine, and simply saying-- + +"Be surprised at nothing." Phranza had expressed to Constantine the +deep interest of the emperor in the career of Scanderbeg, and his +plans for Morsinia. + +"Scanderbeg," said he, "is the one hero of our degenerate age; the +only arm not beaten nerveless by the blows of the Turk. I have asked +nothing concerning yourself, my young man; nor need I know more than +that such a chieftain is interested in you and your charge. Your great +captain informs me (reading from a letter), that any service we may +render you here will be counted as service to Albania; and that any +favor we may bestow upon the lady will be as if shown to his own +child. Is she of any kin to him?" + +"I may not speak of that," replied the youth, "except to tell that her +blood is noble, and that General Castriot has made her safety his +care. An Albanian needs but to know that this is the will of our +loving and wise chieftain, to defend Morsinia with his life." + +"You speak her name with familiarity," said Phranza. + +"It is the custom of our people," replied Constantine, coloring. "The +trials of our country have thrown nobles and peasants into more +intimate relations than would perhaps be allowed in a settled +condition. This, too, may have influenced General Castriot in sending +her here, where her life may be more suitable to her gentle blood." + +"It is enough!" exclaimed Phranza. "If our distance from Albania, and +our own pressing difficulties and dangers do not allow us to send aid +to your hero, we can show him our respect and gratitude by treating +her, whom he would have as his child, as if she were our own. And now +for yourself--well! you shall have what, if I mistake you not, your +discreet mind and lusty muscles most crave--an opportunity 'to win +your spurs,' as the western knights would say. Events are thickening +into a crash, the out-come of which no one can foresee, except that +the Moslem or the Christian shall hold all from the Euxine to the +Adriatic. This double empire cannot long exist. Scanderbeg's arms +alone are keeping the Sultan from trying again the strength of our +walls. A disaster there; an assault here! You serve the one cause +whether here or there." + +"I give my fealty to the emperor as I would to my general," replied +the young man warmly. + +Constantine found himself arrayed before night in the costume of a +subaltern officer of the imperial guard, and assigned to quarters at +the barracks in the section of the city near to the house of the +chamberlain. His brief training under the eye of Castriot, and his +hazardous service, had developed his great natural talent for +soldiership into marvellous acquirements for one of his years. With +the foils, in the saddle, in mastery of tactics, in engineering +ability displayed at the walls--which were being constantly +strengthened--he soon took rank with the most promising. By courtesy +of the chamberlain he was allowed the freest communication with +Morsinia, and was often the guest of her host; especially upon +excursions of pleasure up the Golden Horn to the "Sweet Waters," along +the western shore of the Bosphorus, to the Princess Island, and such +other spots on the sea of Marmora as were uninfested by piratical +Turks. + +Morsinia became the favorite not only of the wife of Phranza, but of +the ladies of the court, and the object of especial devotion on the +part of the nobles and officers of the emperor's suite. + +But it would have required more saintliness of female disposition than +was ever found in the court of a Byzantine emperor, to have smothered +the fires of jealousy, when, at a banquet given at the palace, +Morsinia was placed at the emperor's right hand. It might not be just +to Phranza to say that to his suggestion was due the praise of +Morsinia's beauty and queenly bearing, which the emperor overheard +from many of the courtiers' lips. Perhaps the charms of her person +forced this spontaneous commendation from them: as it was asserted by +some of the more elderly of the ladies--whom long study had made +proficient in the art of reading kings' hearts from their faces, that +the monarch found an Esther in the Albanian. + +The reigning beauty at the court of Constantine Palælogus at this time +was the daughter of a Genoese admiral. Though not reputed for +amiability, she won the friendship of Morsinia by many delicate +attentions. Gifts of articles of dress, ornaments and such souvenirs +as only one woman can select for another, seemed to mark her +increasing attachment. A box of ebony, richly inlaid with mother of +pearl, and filled with delicious confections, was one day the offering +upon the shrine of her sisterly regard. The wife of Phranza, in whose +presence the box was opened, on learning the name of the donor, +besought Morsinia not to taste the contents; and giving a candied fig +to a pet ape, the brute sickened and died before the night. + +An event contributed to the rumors which associated the name of the +fair Albanian with the special favors of the emperor. An embassage +from the Doge of Venice had brightened the harbor with their galleys. +A gondola sheathed in silver, floated upon the waters of the Golden +Horn, like a white swan, and was moored at the foot of the palace +garden--the gift of the Doge. Another, its counterpart, was in the +harbor of Venice--the possession of the daughter of the Doge; but +waiting to join its companion, if the imperial heart could be +persuaded to accept with it the person of its princely owner. Better +than the ideal marriage of Venice with the sea--the ceremony of which +was annually observed--would be the marriage of the two seas, the +Adriatic and the Ægean; and the reunion of their families of confluent +waters under the double banner of St. Mark and Byzantium. But the +Grand Duke Lucas Notaris, who was also grand admiral of the empire, +declared openly that he would sooner hold alliance with the Turk than +with a power representing that schismatic Latin Church. The hereditary +nobles protested against such a menace to social order as, in their +estimate, a recognition of a republic like Venice would be. But it was +believed that more potent in its influence over the emperor than these +outcries, was the whisper of Phranza that the silver gondola of Venice +was fairer than its possessor; and that queenly beauty awaited +elsewhere the imperial embrace. + +No habitué of the court knew less of this gossip than Morsinia +herself; nor did she suspect any unusual attention paid her by the +emperor to be other than an expression of regard for Castriot, whose +ward she was known to be. Or if, when they were alone, his manner +betrayed a fondness, she attributed it to his natural kindliness of +disposition, or to that desire for recreation which persons in middle +life, burdened with cares, find in the society of the young and +beautiful; for no purpose of modesty could hide from Morsinia the +knowledge which her mirror revealed. She had, too, the highest respect +for the piety of the emperor; the deepest sympathy with him in his +distress for the evils which were swarming about his realm; and a true +admiration for the courage of heart with which he bore up against +them. It was therefore with a commingling of religious, patriotic, +and personal interest that she gave herself up to his entertainment +whenever he sought her society. That she might understand him the +better, and be able to converse with him, she learned from Phranza +much of the history of recent movements, both without and within the +empire. So expert had she become in these matters that the chamberlain +playfully called her his prime minister. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +One evening the lower Bosphorus and the Golden Horn were alive with +barges and skiffs, which cut the glowing water with their spray-plumed +prows and flashing blades. Thus the tired day toilers were accustomed +to seek rest, and the idlers of fashion endeavored to quicken their +blood in the cool wind which, from the heights of the Phrygian +Olympus, poured across the sea of Marmora. The Emperor, attended by +one of his favorite pages, appeared upon the rocky slope which is now +known as Seraglio Point. A number of boats, containing the ladies and +gentlemen of the court, drew near to the shore. It was the custom of +his majesty to accept the brief hospitality of one and another of +these parties, and for the others to keep company with him; so that +the evening sail was not unlike a saloon reception upon the water. The +dais of Phranza's boat was, on the evening to which we refer, +occupied by Morsinia alone; and, as the rowers raised the oars in +salute of his majesty, he waved his hand playfully to the others, +saying: + +"The chamberlain is so occupied to-day that he has no time to attend +to his own household. I will take his place, with the permission of +the dove of Albania." + +"Your Majesty needs rest," said Morsinia, making place for him at her +side on the dais, which filled the stern of the barge, and over which +hung a silken awning. "Your face, Sire, betokens too much thought +to-day." + +Throwing himself down, he replied lazily: "I would that our boat were +seized by some sea sprite, and borne swift as the lightnings to where +the sun yonder is making his rest, beyond the Hellespont, beyond the +pillars of Hercules, beyond the world! But you shall be my sprite for +the hour. Your conversation, so different to that of the court, your +charming Arnaout accent, and thoughts as natural as your mountain +flowers, always lead me away from myself." + +"I thank heaven, Sire, if Jesu gives to me that holy ministry," +replied she blushing deeply and diverting the conversation. "But why +are you so sad when everything is so beautiful about us? Is it right +to carry always the burden of empire upon your heart?" + +"Alas!" replied he, "I must carry the burden while I can, for the time +may not be far distant when I shall have no empire to burden me. +Events are untoward. While Sultan Amurath lives our treaty will +prevent any attack upon the city. But if another should direct the +Moslem affairs, our walls yonder would soon shake with the assault of +the enemy of Christendom. Nothing but the union of the Christian +powers can save us." + +"And you have the union with Rome?" suggested Morsinia. + +"A union of shadows to withstand an avalanche," replied the Emperor. +"The Pope is impotent. He can only promise a score of galleys and his +good offices with the powers. At the same time our monks have almost +raised an insurrection against the throne for listening to the +proposition of alliance to which my lamented brother subscribed during +the last days of his reign." + +"But God," replied Morsinia, "is wiser than we, and will not allow the +throne of the righteous to be shaken. I have looked to-day at the +marvellous dome of St. Sophia. As I gazed into its mighty vault, and +thought of the great weight of the stones which made it, I looked +about to see upon what it rested. The light columns and walls, far +spread, seemed all insufficient to support it. As I stood looking, I +was at first so filled with fear that I dared not linger. But then I +remembered that a great architect had made it; and that so it had +stood for many centuries, and had trembled with songs of praise from +millions upon millions of worshippers who in all these generations +have gathered under it. Then I stood as quietly beneath it as I am now +under the great vault of the sky. And surely, Sire, this Christian +empire was founded in deeper wisdom than that of the architect. Are +not the pillars of God's promises its sure support? Have not holy men +said that so long as the face of Jesu[67] looks down from above the +great altar, the sceptre shall not depart from him who worships before +it?" + +"But," said Palælogus, "God rejects His people for their sins. The +empire's misfortunes have not been greater than its crimes. As the +rising mists return in rain, so the sins of Constantinople, rising for +centuries, will return with storms of righteous retribution. And I +fear it will be in our day; for the clouds hang low, and mutter +ominously, and there is no bright spot within the horizon." + +"Say not so, my Emperor!" cried Morsinia earnestly. "A breath of wind +is now scattering yonder cloud over Olympus; and the lightest moving +of God's will can do more. Do you not remember the words of a holy +father, which I have often heard one of our Latin priests repeat to +those fearful because of their past lives;--'Beware lest thou carry +compunctions for the past after thou hast repented and prayed. That is +to doubt God's grace.' But I am a child, Sire, and should not speak +thus to the Emperor." + +"A child?" said his majesty, gazing upon her superb form and strong +womanly features. "Well! a child can see as far into the sky as the +most learned and venerable; and your faith, my child, rests me more +than all the earth-drawn assurances of my counsellors. Where have you +learned so to trust? I would willingly spend my days in the convent of +Athos or Monastir to learn it! But I fear me the holy monks have it +not of so strong and serene a sort as yours." + +"I have learned it, Sire, as my heart has read it from my own life. My +years are scarcely more numerous than my rescues have been, when to +human sight there was no escape from death, or what I dreaded worse +than death. I have learned to hold a hand that I see not; and it has +never failed. Nor will it fail the anointed of the Lord; for such thou +art. But see! yonder comes my brother Constantine. I know him from his +rowing. They who learn the oars on mountain lakes never get the stroke +they have who learn it at the sea." + +The Emperor turning in the direction indicated, frowned, and said +angrily, + +"Your brother has forgotten the regulations, and is in danger of +discipline for rowing within the lines allowed only to the court." + +The boat came nearer; not steadily, but turning to right and left, +stopping and starting as if directed by something at a distance which +the rower was watching. + +The Emperor's attention was turned almost at the same instant to a +light boat shooting toward them from an opposite direction. The +occupant of this was a monk. His black locks, mingled with his black +beard, gave a wildness to his appearance, which was increased by the +excited and rapid manner of his propelling the craft. + +"Something unusual has occurred, or they would wait the finding of +another messenger than he," said the Emperor. + +The monk's boat glided swiftly. When within a few yards of the barge +in which the Emperor was the man stood up, his eyes flashing, and his +whole attitude that of some vengeful fiend. "Hold!" shouted the rowers +of the royal barge, endeavoring to turn the craft so as to avoid a +collision. + +"The man is crazed!" said Morsinia. + +But at the instant when the two boats would have come together, +another, that of Constantine, shot between them and received the blow. +Its thin sides were broken by the shock. + +The monk who had come to the very prow, and drawn a knife from his +bosom, cried out, "To the devil with the Prince of the Azymites."[68] + +He leaped upon Constantine's boat in order to reach that containing +the Emperor: but was caught in the strong arms of Constantine who fell +with him into the water. The monk gripped with his antagonist so that +they sank together. In a few seconds, however, Constantine emerged. A +thin streamer of blood floated from him. He was drawn upon the barge. +Morsinia's hand tore off the loose gold-laced jacket, and found the +wound to be a deep, but not dangerous flesh cut across the shoulder. +It was several moments before the monk appeared. He gasped and sank +again forever. + +Constantine stated that the day before, while aiding in the erection +of a platform for some small culverin that Urban had cast, the latter +spoke to him of the marvellous mosaic ornamentation in the vestibule +of the little church just beyond the walls, and took him thither. The +monk was there, and passed in and out, evidently demented, and +muttering to himself curses upon the Latinizers. Constantine thought +little of this at the time; for a mad monk was not an uncommon sight +in the city. But observing the same man at the quay hiring a boat, he +determined to watch him. Hence the sequel. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[67] A face of Christ was wrought in mosaic in the wall above the +chancel of St. Sophia. The Turks still have a traditional saying that +the Christian shall not again possess Constantinople until the face of +Jesus appears visibly in St. Sophia. At the time of its capture by the +Moslems this picture of Christ was painted over. It is now again dimly +discerned through the fading and scaling paint. + +[68] The "Azymites" were those who used unleavened bread in the +sacrament, and at the time of which we are writing the word was used +among the Greeks as a term of reproach to the Latinizers, that is, +those who favored union with the Latin Church. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +The members of Phranza's family were dining, as was their custom on +pleasant days, under the great fig tree in the garden; a favorite spot +with the chamberlain when allowed that privacy of life and domestic +retirement which were seldom enjoyed by one whose duty it was to show +the courtesies of the empire to ambassadors and distinguished visitors +from the ends of the earth. + +"I would willingly exchange conditions with old Guerko, the gate +keeper, to-day," said Phranza, pushing from him the untasted viands. +"The gate-keeper of an empire has less liberty and rest." + +"What new burden has the council put upon you, my lord?" said his +wife. + +"Remember that your little prime minister will help you," interposed +Morsinia playfully. + +Phranza glanced with a kindly but troubled look at her---- + +"The wheels of the public good grind up the hearts of individuals +remorselessly," continued the good man. "Here am I with a spouse as +fair as Juno; yet I must leave her for months, and maybe years, that I +may seek a spouse for the Emperor. I am to make a tour of all +Christian courts; sampling delicate bits of female loveliness, and +weighing paternal purses. But sacred policy takes the place of holy +matrimony among the great. An emperor and empress are not to be man +and wife, but only the welding points of two kingdoms, though their +hearts are burned and crushed in the nuptials. I had hoped that his +majesty would assert his sovereignty sufficiently to declare that, in +this matter, he would exercise the liberty which the commonest boor +possesses, and choose who should share his couch, and be the mother of +his children. But the very day after his escape from the mad monk, he +put the keeping of his royal heart into the hands of his ministers. +The shock of the attempt upon his life, or something else (glancing at +Morsinia), seems to have turned his head with fear for the succession. +So, to-morrow I sail to the Euxine to inspect the Circassian beauties, +who are said to bloom along its eastern shore. But my dear wife will +be consoled for my absence by the return of our nephew Alexis, who, I +learn from my letters, is already at Athens, having wearied of his +sojourn among the Italians, and will be with you before many days. +Heaven grant that he has not become tainted with the vices of the +Italians, which are even worse than those of the Byzantines. I trust +he will find his aunt's care, and the sisterly offices of our Albanian +daughter, more potently helpful than my counsel would have been." + +The magnificent retinue, the splendid galleys, the untold treasures +scraped from the bottom of the imperial coffers, with which, on the +following day, the chamberlain sailed away through the Bosphorus to +the Euxine, were but poor compensation to his loving household for his +prolonged absence. Nor was his place adequately filled by Alexis with +his fine form and western elegance of manners. In one respect +Phranza's wish was met; for if the care of his aunt was not +appreciated by the young man, the sisterly offices of the fair +Albanian were. + +Morsinia's respect for the absent Phranza led her to allow more +attention from Alexis than her heart, or even her judgment, would have +suggested. The young nobleman soon entangled himself in the web of her +unconscious fascination. It was not until with passionate ardor he +told his love, that Morsinia realized her fatal power over him. But +with a true woman's frankness and firmness, she endeavored to dispel +the illusion his ardent fancy had created. + +"If I have not yet won you," cried the impetuous youth, "do not tell +me that my suit is hopeless. It was folly in me to dream that you +would see in me anything worthy of your love, so soon as your +transcendent beauty of face and soul made me feel that you were all +worthy of mine. Let me prove myself by months or years of devotion, +if you will. If I do not now merit your esteem, surely the charm of +daily looking upon you will make me better; the sweetness of your +spirit will change mine; then as you see in me some impression of your +own goodness, you will not scorn and repel me. I beg that you will +make of me what you will, and love me as you can. I am not harder than +the marble of which Pygmalion made the statue he loved. Mould me, +Morsinia!" + +"It is not that you are not worthy of me, Alexis. The nephew of +Phranza need not humiliate himself at the feet of any king's daughter. +But--but--it may not be! It cannot be!" and, gently releasing the hand +she had allowed him to seize, she withdrew to her own chamber. + +Alexis stood for a moment as if stupefied with his disappointment. +This feeling was followed by a chagrin, which showed itself in the +deep color mounting his haughty face. Then rage ensued, and he stamped +upon the ground as if crushing some helpless thing beneath his feet, +and muttered to himself: + +"If not I, no man shall have her and live. Can it be that Albanian +Constantine? Who is that vagrant? that menial? that hell-headed +hireling who follows her? Angels and toads do not brood together; and +he is of no kin to her." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +Through a narrow street, lighted by the lanterns which hung before the +doors of the few wine shops that were still open--for the hour was +late--a man, wrapped in a hooded cloak, went stumbling over the dogs +that were asleep in the middle of the way, and not unfrequently over +the watchmen lying upon the mats before the closed entrances to the +bazaars they were guarding. He entered one wine shop after another, +muttering an oath of disappointment as he withdrew from each. At +length he turned into an alley, which seemed like a mere crevice in +the compact mass of houses, and threaded his way between windowless +and doorless walls, until the passage widened into a small and filthy +court. At the extreme rear of this a lamp was just flickering with its +exhausted oil, and only sufficed to show him a doorway. Rapping gently +he called in Italian: + +"Pedro! Giovan!" + +The door was opened by a short, stout man with bullet head, who spread +himself across the entrance and peered into the face of the late +comer. Two villainous looking men stared through the lurid glare of a +rush light on a low table, at which, squatted on the ground, they were +playing dice. A purse or pouch of gold thread, decorated with some +device wrought with pearls and various precious stones, lay beside +them. + +"Ah, the gentleman from Genoa!" exclaimed one. "You are quite welcome +to our castle. Ricardo, where is the stool? Well! if you can't find +it, lie down, and let the gentleman sit on your head." + +"You appear to be in luck, Pedro, if I am to judge from the purse +yonder," said the visitor. "Your lady has taken you back to her +affection, and given you this as a love token, I suppose." + +"I'll tell you the secrets of my lady's chamber, Signior, when you +tell me those of yours," replied Pedro. + +"Perhaps," interposed Giovan, "the gentleman would have us help him in +to the secrets of his lady's chamber. How now, Signior Alexis, have +you trapped a new beauty so soon in Byzantium?" + +"Let's throw for this before we talk," interposed Ricardo, holding the +purse in one hand and a dice cup in the other. "One business at a +time." + +The three men threw. The stake fell to Ricardo, who thrust the rich +prize into his dirty pocket, where a third of the contents of the +purse had previously been deposited. + +"May I see the little bag?" asked Alexis. + +"No!" was the surly response. + +"You see, Signior," interposed Giovan, in an attempt to mitigate the +rudeness of his comrade, "You see it was a trust from--from a dead +man, who was afraid to take it with him to purgatory, lest the fire +might tarnish it. So we keep it for him until he comes back. And we +are still in the trust business, Signior! Our credit is without a +stain. You know it was just a suspicion of our integrity--we would not +have our honor even suspected by the police--that led us to leave +Genoa. Will you trust us with any little business?" + +"Do you know the Albanian officer in the emperor's guards?" asked +Alexis. + +"No, and want to know nothing about officers of any sort," growled +Giovan. + +"Ay!" interposed Ricardo, "the red-topped fellow, with a body like +Giovan's, and the neck the right height to come under my sword arm?" +making the gesture of cutting off one's head with a sabre. "Does he +disturb you?" + +"Yes!" + +"It will be worth a hundred ducats," said Giovan. + +"A hundred and fifty," said Ricardo; and, lowering his voice to the +others, added, "I need fifty, and I would take only my even share." + +"You shall have it," said Alexis, counting out the gold. "If you +deceive me, you know that one word from me here in Byzantium will cost +you your heads. Good night!" + +When he had gone, Giovan said in low voice: + +"I say, Pedro, we will divide a thousand ducats out of this." + +"How?" exclaimed the two. + +"The young officer is brother to the lady at the grand chamberlain's. +She will pay heavy ransom if we deliver him instead of--" drawing his +finger across his throat. "Of course we should have to leave +Byzantium. But Ricardo and I have concluded that it were best to be +gone anyhow; for the people here are so poor that our business does +not thrive. This purse once held ducats, but when we took it, it had +only silver bits. We pocket-bankers need better constituency." + +"Yes, we had better get out of this," said Pedro. "General Giustiniani +has come to live in Galata.[69] He got his weasel-eyes on me yesterday +as I was doing a little business by the old wharf. That man knows too +much, he does. But he'll never get me on the galley benches again. I'd +crawl like a mud turtle on the bottom of Marmora before I'd go under +the hatches a second time. I like freedom and fresh air, I do--" +blowing out of his face the thick smoke emitted by the wick floating +on the surface of a saucer of oil. + +"Right!" said Giovan. "Let's get out of this if we can do so with +enough gold to pay our royal travelling expenses. But if we spare the +neck of that fellow who is in Signior Alexis' way, where will we keep +him that Alexis will not know it?" + +"Our mansion here is hardly commodious enough for so distinguished and +lively a guest as the young officer will be likely to be," said +Ricardo, scraping the spiders' webs from the low ceiling of the room +with his cap. + +"Try the old water vault," suggested Pedro. + +"Good!" said Ricardo, "when the Albanian goes to the walls, as he does +every day, he will pass near to the opening." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[69] A suburb of Constantinople, occupied by the Genoese. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +The day following the three ruffians lingered about the site of the +old Hippodrome--through the open space of which the citizens passed in +going from one part of the city to another. Toward evening a stone was +thrown against the bronze-sheathed column, or walled pyramid, which +still held some of the great plates that in the palmy days of +Byzantium made it one of the wonders of the city. It was the signal +for alertness. A short-bodied, long-armed, red-haired man, dressed in +the white kilt and gold-embroidered jacket of a citizen, sauntered +leisurely through the Hippodrome. He measured with his eye the space +which once blazed with the splendor of fashion, when, beneath the +imperial eye of a Justinian or Theodosius, the horses of Araby and +Thracia ran, and the factions of "the Blues" and "the Greens" shouted, +and the whirling wheels of the golden chariots sprinkled the dust upon +the multitudes. + +The man paused to gaze at the bronze column of three intertwined +serpents, with silver-crested heads, which was believed to have been +brought from the temple at Delphi to his new city by the great +Constantine. He stood reverently before the tall Egyptian obelisk of +rose-granite, whose light red glowed with deeper hue in the eastern +flush of the twilight sky; puzzled over its vertical lines of +hieroglyphs which thirty centuries had not obliterated, and studied +the figures on its marble base, representing the machines used by the +engineers of Theodosius in hoisting the great monolith to its place, +a thousand years ago. Broken statues--the spoil of conquered cities in +generations of Greek prowess which shamed the supineness of the +present, stood or lay about the grand pillar of porphyry, which was +once surmounted by the statue of Apollo wrought by Phidias. + +"Shame for such neglect!" muttered the man. "A people that cannot keep +its art from cracking to pieces with age, cannot long keep the old +empire of the Cæsars." + +The narrow street to the north of the Hippodrome square shut out the +remnant of daylight as the man turned into it. His attention was drawn +by the groaning of some poor outcast crouching in the dark shadow of +an angle in the wall. As he stooped to inspect this object a stunning +blow fell upon his head. Two stalwart men instantly pinioned his arms. +They rolled his helpless body a few yards, and carried or slid it down +a flight of steps into a dark cavern, whose sides echoed their +footfalls and whispers, as if it were the place of the last Judgment +where the secrets of life are all to be proclaimed. Reaching the +bottom, one of the men produced a light. The glare seemed to excavate +a hollow sphere out of the thick darkness, but revealed nothing, +except the spectral flash of the bats flitting around the heads of the +intruders, and the damp earthen floor upon which the men had thrown +their victim. At length great forms rose through the gloom, like the +trunks of a forest. The water of a subterranean lake gleamed from near +their feet, but its smooth black sheen was soon lost in the darkness. +A small boat, or raft, was near, into which the man was lifted; one +of the ruffians sitting on his feet, the other by his head, while the +third propelled the craft by pushing against great granite pillars +between which they passed. After going some distance the boat ground +its bottom against a mass of fallen masonry and dirt, which made a +sort of island, perhaps twenty feet across. Here they landed, and +dragged their victim. + +"What would you have with me?" said the prostrate man. + +"It is enough that we have you," said Pedro, in broken Greek. "We want +nothing more; not even to keep your miserable carcass, since we have +already got our pay for burying it. I'll be your father-confessor and +shrive you. If you like the Latin--Absolvo te! and away go your sins +as easily as I can strip this gold-laced jacket off your back. Or if +you prefer the Greek--By the horns of Nebuchadnezzar, I've forgotten +the priestly words! But I'll shrive you all the same without the holy +mumble. And if you want to pray a bit yourself, why fold your feet in +front of your nose and kneel on your back." + +"Why do you kill me?" said the man. "I am nothing to you." + +"Nothing to us, but something to him who has hired us. As honest men +we must do what we were paid to do." + +"Unless I can pay you more," said the man, instantly taking a hopeful +hint. + +"Do you wear the belt of Phranza, that you think you can pay so much?" +replied one of the ruffians, feeling about the person of the helpless +man. + +"What I have I give--a hundred ducats." + +"A hundred! Are you love-crossed that you value life so little? You'll +skin well, my gentle lambkin; and as you are half tanned already, we +will sell your hide to the buskin maker for almost that sum; and your +fat (feeling his ribs) will grease a hundred galley masts. A thousand +ducats is your value, you Albanian imp!" + +"I do not possess so much," said the victim. + +"But your sister does," said the ruffian; and not noting the surprised +look of the man, continued: "We have arranged for that. Your life is +worth to us just one thousand ducats of gold. Sign this!" producing a +bit of paper on which was something written. + +"I cannot read it in this light. You read it. I may trust such honest +fellows as you are." + +The man read--"To my sister, the Albanian, at the house of Phranza. I +am in danger from which I can escape only if you will give the bearer +one thousand ducats. Speak not to any one of it, or my life is +forfeit. That you may know this is genuine the bearer will show you my +ring and a clip of my hair." + +"Give me your ring; and, comrade, warm the wax to seal the letter," +said Giovan. + +"But I am not the man you seek," said the victim. + +"And who in the devil's name are you then?" + +"A mere stranger." + +"Prove it!" + +"Take the ring, and the lady will not recognize it." + +"We shall see," said the ruffian, "but we will take the hundred +ducats now to pay for any trouble you have put us to." + +His belt was stripped off, and its golden contents ripped out. The +victim was untied, first having been completely disarmed. The three +men entering the boat, pushed off in the direction from which they had +entered. + +The island prisoner watched the receding light as it flashed its long +rays on the water, illumined the arches of the roof, and lit the +crouching figures in the boat. The multiplying pillars became like a +solid wall as the light receded, until at length the darkness was +complete. The sound of the boat as it scratched against the stone at +the landing, gave place to the most oppressive silence. + +To attempt escape in the direction of the entrance would be folly. If +he could find his way his captors would doubtless be on guard and +easily overpower him, as he would have to wade or swim. But to remain +where he was would be as hazardous, for the wretches would not risk +exposure for the sake of the hundred ducats they had secured; but +would probably return and put him out of the way of witnessing against +them. + +As he meditated, a low rumble like distant thunder, ran along the +arches. "Some passing vehicle in the city above," he concluded. + +A light drip, as of a bat's wing touching the water! Another! and +another! "Strange that they should be so regular!" thought the man. +"There must be some inlet: I will explore." + +He walked cautiously into the water in the direction of the sound. +Soon he was beyond his depth; but, being an expert swimmer, kept on; +his outstretched arms answering as antennæ of some huge water-spider, +and guarding him from collision with the pillars. + +The dripping sound became louder. Now it was just above his head. He +felt his way with his hands until it became evident that he was at the +end or side of the subterranean lake. But the shore was steep; indeed, +a wall. Fixing his fingers into the crevices between the stones, he +was able to raise himself half out of the water. Reaching up with one +hand he felt the curved edge of a viaduct, by which the dark lake was +evidently fed, or had been in earlier days. But, bah! The water now +trickling through it was foul. The spring had been stopped, and the +viaduct become a sewer; fed doubtless through its rents with the +soakage of the city. + +But might there not be an opening into the upper air? If not, a great +human mole--especially if, to blind scratching power, he adds the +skill of one trained in the art of engineering--can possibly make an +opening. + +The prisoner climbed into the viaduct. It was large enough to allow +him to crawl a short distance. A faint glimmer of light proved the +correctness of his surmise that it was connected with the surface. But +fallen stones blocked his way. As he lay planning with fingers and +brain for his further progress, voices sounded from the reservoir. +They were those of two of the cut-throats returning. He pushed himself +back to the opening. His captors had missed him at the island. If +they knew of this sluice, or chanced to come upon it in their search, +he was lost in his present position; for a pair of bare heels was the +only weapon he could show against their sharp daggers. He let himself +down into the water, and swam silently away. The light, however, from +his captors' lamp came nearer. + +"Hist!" said one. "He is yonder; perhaps by the devil's window." + +The boat pushed directly toward the viaduct he had left. + +While they explored the opening, which might well be called the window +into the blackness of darkness of the nether world, their victim swam +rapidly, keeping always in the shadow of the great pillars. But the +boat was upon his track again. + +The fugitive now made a fortunate discovery. Several feet below the +surface of the water the base of each pillar projected far enough for +standing room. This base had probably marked the height to which the +water was originally allowed to rise. By standing upon one of these +projections, he was able to move round the pillar, so as to keep its +huge block between himself and his pursuers. Thus they passed him. By +the light in the boat he could discern the ground or shore near which +was the entrance. + +Returning to coast the other side of the cavern, they had passed close +by him, when, his foot slipping, he was projected into the water. The +wretches hailed with grim joy the splash, and turned the boat in the +direction of the noise. But, dropping beneath the surface, the man +swam to a pillar near by, from which he watched their baffled circuit +of his former retreat. + +This chase could not be kept up endlessly. Plunging again under the +water, he swam directly to the boat. Rising suddenly, he grasped its +side with main weight and overturned it. The cries of the men and the +splashing of the boat echoed a hundred times among the arches; while +the hissing oil of the open lamp, which, poured on the surface of the +water, blazed for a moment, made as near a representation of +pandemonium as this world ever affords, except in the brain of the +demented. + +Though the captive had endeavored to keep his bearings, and had not +lost for an instant his presence of mind, the swirling of the boat had +destroyed all impression of the direction he should take. He +remembered that on one of the pillars the projecting base was broken. +It was that on which he had stood when he caught a glimpse of the +ground near the entrance. If he could find that pillar again he could +take his bearings as readily as if a star guided him. Several pillars +were tried before the talismanic one was discovered. Feeling the +broken place, and recalling the way in which he stood upon the narrow +ledge when he saw the entrance, he took his course accordingly, and +swam on. + +One of his pursuers had evidently found a lodgment somewhere, and was +calling lustily to his comrade for help. But there came back no answer +to his call. + +On went the swimmer until the light of the outer world gleamed through +the crevice of the door, twenty or thirty feet above him, and he +crawled upon the ground. + +Squeezing the water from his garments, he climbed the stairway, and, +opening the heavy and worm-eaten doors, peered out. The street was +crowded with passers; for another day had come since his entrance to +the old reservoir. In his half naked and bedrabbled condition he +hesitated to make his exit, and returned to the bottom of the stairs. +A hand on the door above made him leap to one side. + +Giovan entered. Peering intensely into the shadows, he descended the +steps. Pausing a moment he whistled through his teeth. There was no +response. He whistled louder on his fingers. A shout came back. + +"Help! Giovan--help!" + +Giovan's dagger protruded from his belt. Another's hand suddenly drew +it, and, before he had recovered from his surprise, it entered his +neck to the haft. The Italian's short breeches, velveteen jacket and +skull cap were made to take the place of the remnant of the prisoner's +once most reputable wardrobe, and he sallied forth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +Later in the day the gate keeper at Phranza's mansion put into +Morsinia's hand a letter left with him by an Italian laboring man. It +was addressed--"To the Albanian lady," and read thus: + +"Your brother's life is threatened by some secret enemy. Let him +exercise an Albanian's caution! This is the advice of a stranger." + +A little before this, as the "poor Italian" was moving away from the +gate of Phranza, a gorgeous palanquin, with silken canopy and sides +latticed with silver rods, was borne in by four stout and well-formed +men, with bare legs and arms, purple short trousers, embroidered +jackets, and jaunty red caps, whose long tassels hung far down their +backs. + +The "Italian" stepped into an angle that the palanquin might pass; and +stood gazing a long time after it had disappeared. At length, turning +away, he said to himself: + +"Strange! It must be that my imagination has been disturbed by the +scenes of last night. But the lady in yonder palanquin is my dream +made real. The pretty face of the child with whom I once played on the +mountains must have cut its outlines somewhere on my brain, for I seem +to see it everywhere. My captive in the mountains of Albania had the +same features--though I saw them only under the flash of a torch. +Imagination that, surely! The girl at Sfetigrade was similar. And now +this one! The aga's advice to beware female illusions was good. But +she may be the Albanian lady after all. Impossible! Stupidity! Perhaps +my chosen houri in paradise is only flashing her beauty upon my soul +from these fair earthly faces, and so training me first to love her as +an ideal, that the joy of the realization may be perfect. But, tut! +tut! silly boy that I am!" + +Whistling monotonously he turned down a street. + +A short, crooked-necked officer passed along. His face at the moment +was the picture of dissatisfaction. The "Italian" stopped him, and, +with a courtesy which belied his common apparel, addressed him:-- + +"Captain Urban of the engineers, is it not?" + +"And who are you?" was the surly, yet half respectful, reply, as the +one addressed glanced into the other's face. + +"One who knows that the cannon you are casting are not heavy enough to +lodge a ball against the old tower of Galata yonder across the Golden +Horn, much less breach a fortification; and further, that all you can +cast at this rate from now until the Turks take Byzantium would not +enable you to throw ten shot an hour." + +"By the brass toe of St. Peter! man, I was just saying the same thing +to myself," replied Urban. + +"And the Emperor's treasury, when he has bought himself a wife, will +not have enough left to buy saltpetre with which to fire the guns, if +he should allow you brass enough for the casting," added the stranger. + +"True again, my man; and the Emperor's service in the meantime does +not yield stipend enough for an officer to live upon decently. If you +were better dressed, my prince of lazaroni, I couldn't afford to ask +you to drink with me; but this cheap shop will shame neither your +looks nor my purse. Come in." + +"Who are you, my good fellow?" asked Urban, as he drained a cup of +mastic-flavored wine. "Were not your voice different, and your +pronunciation of Greek rather provincial, with a slight Servian +brogue, I would take you for one of our young engineers. You are not +an Italian, spite of your garb." + +"No," was the reply, "I was once in the employ of the Despot of +Servia, engineer and artillery-man; but I think of entering the +service of the Sultan. He pays finely, and gives one who loves the +science of war a chance to use his genius." + +"For such a chance and good pay I would serve the devil," said Urban. +"The Greek emperor here is no saint, and yet I have served him for a +crust. I am not bound to him by any tie. If you find good quarters +with the Turks, give me a hint, and I will join you." + +The stranger eyed him closely as he said this, and replied in low +tones--"Captain Urban, I am a Moslem; Captain Ballaban of the Janizary +corps. And I bear you a commission from the Padishah. To seek you is a +part of my business in Constantinople. I do not ask you to take my +word for this, but if you will accompany me, I will give you proof of +my authority. A thousand ducats I will put into your hand within an +hour, with which you may taste the Padishah's liberality and imagine +what it shall be when you accompany me to Adrianople." + +The two men left the wine shop together and entered a bazaar. The +stranger whispered to the merchant who was nearly buried amid huge +piles of goods of every antique description; strange patterned +tapestries, rugs of all hues and sizes, ebony boxes inlaid with silver +and ivory, shields bossed and graven, spear-heads, cimeters and +daggers. The salesman made as low a salâm as his crowding wares would +permit, and, opening a way through the heaps of merchandise, conducted +the visitors into an inner room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +To better understand the events just recited, we must trace some +scenes which had been enacted elsewhere. + +During the sojourn of Constantine and Morsinia in Constantinople, the +Turks had made no progress toward the conquest of Albania. The walls +of Croia, upon which they turned their thousands of men, and +exhaustless resources of siege apparatus, served only to display the +valor and skill of the assailants, the superior genius of Castriot, +and the endurance of his bands of patriots. + +The haughty Sultan Amurath, broken in health, more by the chagrin of +his ill success than by exposures or casual disease, retired to +Adrianople, in company with his son, Prince Mahomet, who was satisfied +with a few lessons in the science of military manoeuvering as taught +by the dripping sword of Castriot; and preferred to practice his +acquirements upon other and less dangerous antagonists. Prince Mahomet +had scarcely withdrawn to Magnesia in Asia Minor, and celebrated his +nuptials with the daughter of the Turkoman Emir, when news was brought +of the death of his father. + +The prince was hardly twenty-one years of age; but his first act was +ominous of the promptitude, self-assertion and diligence of the whole +subsequent career of this man, whose success on the field and in the +divan made him the foremost monarch of his age. + +On hearing the news he turned to Captain Ballaban, for whom the young +Padishah entertained the fondest affection, and who had accompanied +him to Magnesia in the capacity of kavass.-- + +"I shall leave to you, Captain, the duty of representing me at the +burial of my royal father at Brusa, after which meet me at +Adrianople." + +Leaping into the saddle, he cried to the company about him, "Let those +who love me, follow me!" and spurred his Arab steed to the Hellespont. + +The magnificent cortege of the dead Sultan moved rapidly from the +European capital of the Turks to their ancient one in Asia Minor. The +thoughts of the attendants were more toward the new hand which would +distribute the favors or terrors of empire, than toward the hand which +was now cold. + +Captain Ballaban was in time to join the reverent circle which +committed the royal body to its ancestral resting place. They buried +it with simple sepulchral rites, in the open field, unshadowed by +minaret or costly mosque or memorial column; that, as the dying +Padishah had said, "the mercy and blessing of God might come unto him +by the shining of the sun and moon, and the falling of the rain and +dew of heaven upon his grave." + +Sultan Mahomet II. was scarcely within the seraglio at Adrianople when +Captain Ballaban reported for duty. Passing through the outer or +common court, he entered by the second gate into the square surrounded +by the barracks of the Janizaries, who, as the body guard of the +monarch, occupied quarters abutting on those of the Sultan. + +Near the third gate was gathered a crowd of Janizaries, in angry +debate; for as soon as they realized that the firm and experienced +hand of Amurath was no longer on the helm, the pride and audacity of +this corps inaugurated rebellion. + +"The Janizaries have saved the empire, let them enjoy it," cried one. + +"Our swords extended the Moslem power, so will we have extension of +privilege," cried another. + +"Why should Kalil Pasha be Grand Vizier instead of our chief Aga? +Kalil is one of the Giaour Ortachi.[70] + +"Down with the Vizier!" rang among the barracks. + +"A mere child is Padishah! one of no judgment the Hunkiar!" + +"My brothers," said Captain Ballaban. "You know not the new Padishah. +Well might Amurath have said to him what Othman said to Orchan: 'My +son, I am dying: and I die without regret, because I leave such a +successor as thou art.' Believe me, my brothers, if Mahomet is young, +he is strong. If he is inexperienced in the methods of government, it +is because heaven wills that he shall invent better ones." + +"Your head is turned by the Padishah's favors," muttered an old +guardsman. + +"But am I not a Janizary?" cried the captain, "and it is as a Janizary +that the Padishah loves me, as he loves us all. I once heard him say +that the white wool on a Janizary's cap was more honorable than the +horse tail on the tent spear of another. Old Selim here can tell you +that, as a child, Mahomet was fonder of the Janizary's mess than of +the feast in the harem." + +"Yes," said old Selim, with voice trembling through age, but loud with +the enthusiasm excited by the captain's appeal. "My hands taught +Mahomet his first parries and thrusts; and he would sit by our fire to +listen to the stories of the valor of our corps, and clap his hands, +and cry 'good Selim, I would rather be a Janizary than be a prince.'" +The old man's eyes filled with tears as he added, "And all the four +thousand prophets bless the Padishah!" + +While this scene was being enacted without, the young Sultan was +reclining, with the full sense of his new dignity, upon the sofa which +had never been pressed except by the person of royalty. It was covered +with a cloth of gold and crimson velvet, relieved by fringes of +pearls. Before it was spread a carpet of silk, an inch thick, whose +softness, both of texture and tints, made a luxuriant contrast with +its border, which was crocheted with cords of silver and gold. The +walls of his chamber were enriched with tiles of alabaster, agate, and +turquoise. The ceiling was plated with beaten silver, hatched at +intervals with mouldings of gold; near to which were windows of +stained glass made of hundreds of pieces closely joined to form +transparent mosaic pictures, through which the variegated light +flooded the apartment. + +Mahomet was himself in striking contrast with his surroundings. He was +dressed in négligé, with loose gown, large slippers, and white skull +cap. + +Before the Sultan stood the Grand Vizier, Kalil, bedizened in the +costume of his office:--an enormous turban in whose twisted folds was +a band of gold; a bournous of brocade, enlivened by flowers wrought +upon it in green and red; and a cashmere sash gleaming with the +jewelled handle of his yataghan. + +"They are even now in revolt, your Majesty," said the Vizier. "Your +safety will be best served by severe measures. They say the iron has +not grown into your nerves yet." + +The Sultan colored. After a moment's pause he replied. "When Captain +Ballaban comes we will think of that matter." + +"The captain had just arrived as I entered, Sire." + +"Then announce to the Janizaries that the seven thousand falconers and +game keepers which my father allowed to eat up our revenue, as the +bugs infest the trees, are abolished; and their income appropriated to +the better equipment of the Janizaries." + +"But, Sire, would you sharpen the fangs of----" + +"Silence! I have said it," said Mahomet, striking his hand on his +knee. "But what is this demand from Constantinople?" + +"That the pay for the detention of your Cousin Orkran at +Constantinople shall be doubled, or the Greeks will let him loose to +contest the throne with your Majesty." + +"Assent to the demand," said the Sultan. "The time will the sooner +come to avenge the insult, if we seem not to see it." + +The Vizier continued looking at his tablets. "Maria Sultana[71] asks, +through the Kislar Aga, that she may be allowed, since the death of +her lord, to return to her kindred." + +"Let her go! She is a Giaour whose cursed blood was not bettered by +six and twenty years' habitation with my father. She is fair enough in +her wrinkles for some Christian prince, and George Brankovitch needs +to make new alliances." + +"Hunyades"--said the Vizier. + +"Ay, make peace with him, and with Scanderbeg, too, if that wild beast +can be tamed, which I much doubt." + +The Sultan rose from his cushion, his form animated with strong +excitement, and, putting his hand upon the shoulders of the +Vizier--who drew back at the strange familiarity--and looking him +fixedly in the face, he whispered: "Everything must wait,"--and the +words hissed in the hot eagerness with which he said them--"until--I +have Constantinople." + +Turning upon his heel, he withdrew toward his private chamber. + +The Sultan threw himself upon his bed. The Capee Aga, or chief of the +white eunuchs, whose duty it was to act as valet-de-chambre, as well +as to stand at the right hand of the Sultan on state occasions, began +to draw the curtains around the silver posts upon which the bed +rested. + +"You may leave me," said his majesty. "Nay, hold! Send Captain +Ballaban of the Janizaries." + +As the young officer entered, the face of the Sultan relaxed. + +"You make me a man again, comrade," said he, grasping his hand. "These +few days playing Sultan make me feel as old as the empire. I hate +this parade of boring viziers and mincing eunuchs; and to be shut up +here with these palace proprieties is as irksome to me as Timour's +iron cage was to my grandfather Bajazet. I think I shall put my harem +on horse-back, and take to the fields. Scudding out of Albania with +Scanderbeg at one's heels were preferable to this busy idleness. You +have had a rapid ride to get from Brusa so soon, and look winded. Roll +yourself on that wolf's skin. I killed that fellow in Caramania. By +the turban of Abraham! your red head looks well against the black +hide. But why don't you laugh? Have they made a Padishah of you, too, +that you must mask your face with care?" + +"I have a care, Sire," said the soldier. + +"Tell me it," said the Sultan, "and I'll make it fly away as fast as +the Prophet's horse took him to the seventh heaven." + +"The Janizaries are restless, Sire." + +"Does not the donative I have announced pacify them?" + +"I have not heard of it," said the officer. + +"Listen! Is not that their shout?" Shout after shout rent the air from +the court without. + +The Janizary turned pale; but in a moment said, "Your donative has +been announced. They are cheering your Majesty." + +"Long live the Padishah!" "Long life to Mahomet!" rang again and +again. + +"I thank you, Sire," eagerly cried the young man, kissing the hand of +the Sultan. + +"What else would they have?" asked he. + +"Nothing but chance to show their gratitude by valiant service," was +the reply. + +"This they shall have, with you to lead them," putting his hand on the +young officer's shoulder. + +"Nay, Sire, I may not supplant those who are my superiors by virtue of +service already rendered." + +"But I command it. The corps shall to-morrow be put under your orders +as their chief Aga." + +"I beg your Majesty to desist from this purpose," said Ballaban. "The +spirit of the corps, its efficiency, depends upon the strictest +observance of the ancient rules of Orchan and Aladdin. By them we have +been made what we are." + +"But," cried Mahomet angrily, "there shall be no other will than mine +throughout the army." + +"I would have no other will than thine, Sire," was the response; "but +it were well if your will should be to leave the Janizaries' rule +untouched." + +"You young rebel!" cried Mahomet, half vexed yet half pleased as, +bursting into a laugh, he dashed over the face of his friend a jar of +iced sherbet which was upon a lacquered stand at his side. + +"You may thank the devil that it wasn't the arrow I once shot you +with," said the playful tyrant, as Ballaban jumped to his feet. + +"If you were not the Sultan now, I would pull you from the bed, as I +pulled you from your horse that day," replied the good-natured +favorite, making a motion as if to execute the threat. + +"You are right," said Mahomet rising. "I am Sultan! Sultan? pshaw! Yet +Sultan, surely." He paced the floor in deep agitation, and at length +said, "I have a duty to perform, than which I would rather cut off my +arms." + +"Let me do the deed, though it takes my arm and my life," said +Ballaban eagerly. + +"You know not what it is, my old comrade." + +"But I pledge before I know," was the response which came from +stiffened lips and bowed head, as the captain made his obeisance. + +The Sultan looked him in the face long and earnestly, and then, +turning away, said: + +"No! no! there are hands less noble than yours." + +"But try me, Sire." + +"You know the custom of our ancestors, approved by the wisdom of +divans, as an expedient essential to the peace and safety of the +empire, that--But I can not speak it: nor will I ask it of you. Leave +me, Captain. Come to-morrow at this hour. I shall need the relief of +your company then, even more than to-day." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[70] Brothers of the infidels. + +[71] One of the sultanas of Amurath II. and daughter of George +Brankovitch, Despot of Servia. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +An hour later the Kislar Aga, chief of the black eunuchs in charge of +the royal harem, was announced. + +"Well, Sinam, have any of your herd of gazelles escaped?" asked the +Sultan. + +"None. But Mira Sultana would pay her homage at your Majesty's feet." + +"Mira, the Greek?" said Mahomet, the deep color rising to his temples. + +Lowering his tone to a whisper, he conversed for a few moments with +the eunuch, who prostrated himself upon the ground, and with harsh, +yet thin voice, said: + +"Your Majesty is wise, very wise. Your will is that of Allah, the +Great Hunkiar. It shall be done." + +Mira was a beautiful woman. The light texture of her robe revealed a +perfect form; and the thin veil lent a charm to her face, such as +shadows send across the landscape. + +Mahomet shuddered, as the kneeling woman embraced his feet. The words +of her congratulation to the young monarch, her protestation of +devotion to him as to his father, though uttered with the sweetest +voice he had ever heard, and with evident honesty, sent a visible +tremor through the frame of her listener. And when she added, "My +child, Ahmed, the image of his noble father and thine, will serve thee +with his life, and"-- + +"It is well! It is well," interrupted the Sultan. "Be gone now!" + +The morning following was one in which the hearts of the citizens of +Adrianople stood almost throbless with horror. Mothers clasped their +babes with a shudder to their breasts; and fathers stroked the fair +hair of their boys, and thanked Allah that no tide of royal blood ran +in their veins. A story afterward floated over the lands of Moslem and +Christian, as terrible as a cloud of blood, dropping its shadow into +palace and cottage, and dyeing that page of history on which Mahomet's +name is written with a damning blot. + +While Mira Sultana was bowing at the feet of the new monarch, +congratulating him upon his accession to the throne, her infant son, +Ahmed, half brother to Mahomet, was being strangled in the bath by his +orders. Another son of Amurath, Calapin, had, through his mother's +timely suspicion, escaped to the land of the Christians. + +It was late in the day when Captain Ballaban appeared for audience +with the Sultan. His Majesty was apparently in the gayest of moods. + +"Come, toss me the dice! We have not played since I laid aside my +manhood and put on the Padishah's cloak. Come! What? Have you no stake +to put up? Then I will stake for both. A Turkoman, the father of my +own bride, has sent me a bevy of women, Georgians, with faces as fair +as the shell of an ostrich's egg,[72] and voices as sweet as of the +birds which sang to the harp of David.[73] The choice to him who wins! +What! does not that tempt the cloud to drift off your face? Then have +your choice without the toss. What! still brooding?" added he, growing +angry. "By the holy house at Mecca! I'll make you laugh if I tickle +your ribs with my dagger's point." + +"You made me promise that I would be true to you, my Padishah, and if +I should laugh to-day I would not be true," replied Ballaban quietly. +"My face wears the shadows which the people have thrown into it." + +"The people?" said Mahomet growing pale. + +"Ay, the people have heard the wailing of the Sultana." + +"For what? Tell me for what?" asked the Sultan with feigned surprise. + +Ballaban narrated the story which was on every one's lips. + +"It is treason against me," cried the monarch. Summoning the Capee Aga +he bade him call the divan. + +The great personages of the empire were speedily gathered in the +audience room. At the right of the Sultan stood the Grand Vizier and +three subordinate viziers. On his left was the Kadiasker, the chief of +the judges, with other members of the ulema or guild of lawyers, +constituting the high court. The Reis-Effendi, or clerk, stood with +his tablets before the seat of the Sultan. The rear of the room was +filled with various princes and high officials. + +Turning to the Kadiasker, the Sultan asked: + +"What is the denomination of the crime, and the penalty of him who, +unbidden by the Padishah, shall put to death a child of royal blood?" + +The Kadiasker, after a moment's evident surprise at the question, +pronounced slowly the following decision: + +"It were a double crime, Sire, being both murder and treason. And if +perchance the child were fatherless, let a triple curse come upon the +slayer. For what saith the Book of the Prophet?[74] 'They who devour +the possessions of orphans unjustly, shall swallow down nothing but +fire into their bellies, and shall broil in raging flames.' If such +be the curse of Allah upon him who shall despoil the child of his +rightful goods, much more does Allah bid us visit with vengeance one +who despoils the child of that chiefest possession--his life. Such is +the law, O Zil Ullah."[75] + +Turning to the Kislar Aga, Mahomet commanded him to give testimony. + +The Nubian trembled as he looked into the blanched face of the Sultan; +but soon recovered his self possession sufficiently to read his +master's thoughts, and said, + +"The child of Mira Sultana was found dead at the bath while in the +hands of Sayid." + +"Was Sayid the child's appointed attendant?" asked the Kadiasker. + +"He was not," was the response. + +"Let him die!" said the judge slowly. + +"Let him die!" repeated the Grand Vizier. + +The Sultan bowed in assent and withdrew. + +The swift vengeance of the Padishah was hailed with applause by the +officials, as if it had erased the blood guilt from the robe of royal +honor; but the people shook their heads, and kept shadows on their +faces for many days. + +"I tire of this life in the barracks," said Captain Ballaban to the +Sultan, shortly after this event. + +"Speak honestly, man," was the reply. "You tire of me; my heart is not +large enough to entertain one of such ambition." + +"Nay, Sire, but I would get nearer to the innermost core of your +heart, into that which is your deepest desire." + +"And where, think you, is that spot?" said the Sultan smiling. + +"Constantinople," was the laconic response. + +"Ah! true lover of mine art thou, if you would be there. Until I put +the Mihrab[76] in the walls of St. Sophia, I shall not sleep without +the dream that I have done it. Know you not the dream of Othman? how +the leaves of the tree which sprang from his bosom when the fair +Malkhatoon, the mother of all the Padishahs, sank upon it, were shaped +like cimeters, and every wind turned their points toward +Constantinople? My waking and sleeping thoughts are the leaves. The +spirit of Othman breathes through my soul and turns them thither. Go! +and prepare my coming. The walls withstood my father Amurath. Discover +why? I hear that Urban, the cannon founder, is in the pay of the +Greeks. He who discovered a way to turn the Dibrians against +Sfetigrade can find a way to turn a foreigner's eyes from the battered +crown of the Cæsars to something brighter--Go, and Allah give you +wisdom!" + +The reader is acquainted with the immediate sequel of Captain +Ballaban's departure, his adventure with the Italian desperadoes at +the old reservoir, and his success with Urban. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[72] The type of a beautiful complexion according to the Koran, Chap. +XXXVII. + +[73] Koran, Chap. XXXIV. + +[74] Koran, Chap. IV. + +[75] Shadow of God, one of the titles of the Sultan. + +[76] The niche in mosques, on the side toward Mecca, in the direction +of which the Moslems turn their faces to pray. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +The siege and capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, was, +with the exception of the discovery of America, the most significant +event of the fifteenth century. The Eastern Roman Empire then +perished, after eleven centuries of glory and shame; of heroic +conquests, and pusillanimous compromises with other powers for the +privilege of existence; exhibiting on its throne the virtues and +wisdom of Theodosius and Justinian, and the vices and follies of +emperors and empresses whose names it were well that the world should +forget. + +But the historic importance of the siege was matched by the thrilling +interest which attaches to its scenes. + +The last of the Constantines, from whose hands the queenly city was +wrested, was worthy the name borne by its great founder, not, perhaps, +for his display of genius in government and command, but for the pious +devotion and sacrificial courage with which he defended his trust. A +band of less than ten thousand Christians, mostly Greeks, and a few +Latins whose love for the essential truth of their religion was +stronger than their bigotry for sect, withstood for many weeks the +horrors which were poured upon them by a quarter of a million Moslems. +These foes were made presumptuous by nearly a century of unchecked +conquest; their hot blood boiled with fury and daring excited by the +promises of their religion, which opened paradise to those that +perished with the sword; and they were led by the first flashings of +the startling genius and audacity of Mahomet II. + +The Bosphorus was blockaded six miles above the city by the new +fortress, Rumili-Hissar, the Castle of Europe; answering across the +narrow strait to Anadolu-Hissari--the Castles of Asia. + +A fleet of three hundred Moslem vessels crowded the entrance to the +Bosphorus, to resist any Western ally of the Christians that might +have run the gauntlet of forts which guarded the lower entrance to +Marmora. At the same time this naval force threatened the long water +front of the city with overwhelming assault. The wall which lay +between the sea of Marmora and the Golden Horn, and made the city a +triangle, looked down upon armies gathered from the many lands between +the Euphrates and Danube;--the feudal chivalry from their ziamets +under magnificently accoutred beys; the terrible Akindji, the mounted +scourge of the borders of Christendom; the motley hordes of Azabs, +light irregular foot-soldiers,--these filling the plains for miles +away:--while about the tents of the Sultan were the Royal Horse +Guards, the Spahis, Salihdars, Ouloufedji and Ghoureba, rivals for the +applause of the nations, as the most daring of riders and most skilful +of swordsmen: and the Janizaries, who boasted that their tread was as +resistless as the waves of an earthquake. + +Miners from Servia were ready to burrow beneath the walls. A great +cannon cast by Urban, the Dacian, who had deserted from the Christian +to the Moslem camp, gaped ready to hurl its stone balls of six hundred +pounds weight. It was flanked by two almost equally enormous +fire-vomiting dragons, as the new artillery was called: while fourteen +other batteries of lesser ordnance were waiting to pour their still +novel destruction upon the works. Ancient art blended with modern +science in the attack; for battering rams supplemented cannon, and +trenches breast-deep completed the lines of shields. Moving forts of +wood antagonized, across the deep moat, the old stone towers, which +during the centuries had hurled back their assailants in more than +twenty sieges. The various hosts of besiegers in their daily movements +were like the folds of an enormous serpent, writhing in ever +contracting circles about the body of some helpless prey. From dawn to +dark the walls crumbled beneath the pounding of the artillery; but +from dark to dawn they rose again under the toil of the sleepless +defenders. + +Thousands, impelled by the commands of the Sultan, and more, perhaps, +by the prospect of reward in this world, and in another, out of which +bright-eyed houris were watching their prospective lords, mounted the +scaling ladders only to fill with their bodies the moat beneath. At +the point of greatest danger the besieged were inspired with the +courage of their Emperor, and by the aid of the bands of Italians whom +the purse and the appeals of John Giustiniani had brought as the last +offering of the common faith of Christendom upon the great altar +already dripping with a nation's blood. + +Sometimes when the Christians, whose fewness compared with the +assailants compelled them to serve both day and night, were +discouraged by incessant danger and fatigue, a light form in helmet +and breastplate moved among them, regardless of arrows and bullets of +lead: now stooping to staunch the wounds of the fallen; now mounting +the parapet, where scores of stout soldiers shielded her with their +bodies, and hailed her presence with the shout of "The Albanian! The +Albanian!" The reverence which the soldiers gave to the devoted nuns, +who were incessant in their ministry of mercy, was surpassed by that +with which they regarded Morsinia. She had become in their eyes the +impersonation of the cause for which they were struggling. + +The interruption by the war of the negotiations with the Emir of +Trebizond, whose daughter had been selected as the imperial spouse, +revived the rumors which had once associated the fair Albanian's name +with that of his Majesty; and gave rise to a nick-name, "the Little +Empress," which, among the soldiers, came to be spoken with almost as +much loyalty of personal devotion, as if it had received the imperial +sanction. + +Constantine's solicitude led him to remonstrate with Morsinia for the +exposure of her person to the dangers of the wall: but she replied-- + +"Have you not said, my dear brother, that the defence is hopeless? +that the city must fall? What fate then awaits me? The Turks have +service for men whom they capture, which, though hard, is not damning +to body and soul. What if they send you to the mines, to the galleys? +What if they slay you? You can endure that. Yet I know that you +yourself would perish in the fight before you would submit to even +such a fate. But what is the destiny of a woman who shall fall into +their hands? It is better to die than to be taken captive. And is not +yonder breach where the men of the true God are giving their lives for +their faith, as sacred as was ever an altar on earth? Is not the crown +of martyrdom better than a living death in the harem of the infidel? +The arrow that finds me there on the wall shall be to me as an angel +from heaven; and a death-wound received there will be as painless to +my soul as the kiss of God." + +"But this must not be!" cried Constantine. "Our valor, if it does not +save the city, may lead to surrender upon terms which shall save all +the lives of the people." + +"It is impossible," replied she. "His Majesty informed me yesterday +that Mahomet had pledged to his soldiers the spoil of the city, with +unlimited license to pillage." + +Constantine was silent, but at length added. "If worst comes, it will +then be time enough to expose your life." + +"But the end is near, dear Constantine. The city is badly provisioned. +The poor are already starving. The garrison is on allowance which can +sustain it but a few days. Besides, as you have told me, the Italians +are at feud with the Greeks, and ready to open the gates if famine +presses upon them." + +"Yes, curses on the head of that monk Gennadius, who sends insult to +our allies every day from his cell!" muttered Constantine. "But I +cannot see you in danger, Morsinia. Promise me--for your life is +dearer to me than my own--that you will not go upon the walls. I need +not the solemn oath to our brave Castriot, and that to our father +Kabilovitsch, that I will guard you. But, if not for my sake, then for +their sake, take my counsel. I know that you are under the special +care of the Blessed Jesu. Has He not shielded us both--me for your +sake--many times before?" + +"Your words are wise, my brother. You need not urge the will of +Castriot and father Kabilovitsch, for your own wish is to me as sacred +as that of any one on earth," said she, looking him in the eyes with +the reverence of affection, and yielding to his embrace as he kissed +her forehead. + +"But," added she, "I must exact of you one promise." + +"Any thing, my darling, that is consistent with your safety," was the +quick reply. + +"It is this. Promise me, by the Virgin Mother of God, that you will +not allow me to become a living captive to the Turk." + +"Not if my life can shield you. This you know!" + +"Yes, I would not ask that, but something harder than that you should +die for me." + +A pallor spread over the face of Constantine, for he suspected her +meaning, yet asked, "And what--what may that be?" + +"Take my life with your own hand, rather than that a Turk should touch +me," said Morsinia, without the slightest tremor in her voice. + +Constantine stood aghast. Morsinia continued, taking his strong right +hand in hers, and raising it to her lips-- + +"That were joy, indeed, if the hand of him who loves me, the hand +which has saved me from danger so often--could redeem me from this +which I fear more than a thousand deaths! Promise me for love's sake!" + +"I may not promise such a thing," said the young lover, with a voice +which showed that her request had cut him to the heart. + +"Then you love me not," said the girl, turning away. + +But the look upon Constantine's face showed the terrible tragedy which +was in his soul, and that such an accusation brought it too near its +culmination. Instantly she threw herself into his arms. + +"Forgive me! forgive me!" cried she. "I will not impugn that love +which has proved itself too often. But let us speak calmly of it. Why +should you shrink from this?" she asked, leading him to a seat beside +her. + +"Because I love you. My hand would become paralyzed sooner than touch +rudely a hair of your head." + +"Nay, in that you do not know yourself," said Morsinia. "Would you not +pluck a mole from my face if I was marred by it in your eyes!" + +"But that would be to perfect, not to harm you," said Constantine. + +"And did you not hold the hand of the poor soldier to-day, while the +leech was cutting him, lest the gangrene should infect his whole body +with poison? And would you not have done so had he been your long lost +brother, Michael, whom you loved? And would you not have done it more +willingly because you loved him?" + +"Yes," said Constantine, "but that would be to save life, not to +destroy it." + +"But what, my brother dear, is the fairness of a face compared with +the fairness of honor? What the breath of the body, when both the body +and the soul in it are threatened with contamination of such an +existence as every woman receives from the Turk?" + +"I cannot argue with you, Morsinia. My nature rebels against the deed +you propose." + +"But," replied she, "is not love nobler, and should it not be +stronger, than nature? If nature should rebel against love, let love +crush the rebellion, and show its sovereignty. If my hand should +tremble to do aught that your true service required, I would accuse my +hand of lack of devotion. But I think that men do not know the fulness +of love as women do." + +"Let me ask the question of you, Morsinia," replied the young lover +after a pause. "Could you take my life as I lie here? Will your hand +mix the poison to put to my lips in the event of the Turk entering the +city? My life will be worse than death in its bitterness if you are +lost to me." + +Morsinia pondered the question, growing pale with the fearfulness of +the thought. For a while she was speechless. The imagination started +by Constantine's question seemed to stun her. She stared at the vague +distance. At length she burst into tears, and laying her head upon her +companion's shoulder, said: + +"I love you too dearly, Constantine, to ask that of you which you +shrink from doing. There is another who can render me the service." + +"Who would dare?" said Constantine, rising and gazing wildly at her. +"Who would dare to touch you, even at your own bidding?" + +"I would," said Morsinia quietly. "And this I shall save for the +moment when I need the last friend on earth," she added, drawing from +her dress the bright blade of an Italian stiletto. "Perhaps, my heart +would tremble, and my flesh shrink from the sharp point, though I love +not myself as I love you." + +"Let us talk no more of this," said Constantine, "but leave it for the +hour of necessity, which happily I think will not soon come. I must +tell you now for what I sought you. I have been ordered this very +night to aid in a venture which, heaven grant! shall re-provision the +city. Several large galleys, laden with corn and oil, are now coming +up the sea from Genoa. If they see the cordon of the enemy's ships +drawn across the harbor, not knowing the extremity to which the city +is reduced, they may return without venturing an encounter. I am to +reach them, and, if possible, induce them to cut their way through. +The great chain at the entrance to the Golden Horn will be lowered at +the opportune moment, and all the shipping in the harbor will make an +attack upon the enemy's fleet. Of this our allies must be informed. As +soon as it is dark I shall drift in a swift little skiff between these +Turkish boats; and before the dawn I shall be far down on Marmora. +To-morrow night, if your prayers are offered, Jesu will grant us +success." + +With a kiss he released himself from her embrace and was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +Constantine eluded the heavy boats of the Turks, which were anchored +to prevent their drifting away upon the swift current with which the +Black Sea discharges itself through the Bosphorus into Marmora. Upon +meeting the befriending galleys, it was with little difficulty that he +persuaded the Genoese captains to risk the encounter with the Turkish +fleet. As Constantine pointed out to the Italian captains, the +enormous navy of the blockaders, formed in the shape of a crescent, +and stretched from the wall of the city across to the Asiatic shore, +presented a more formidable obstacle to the eye than to the swift and +skilfully manned Genoese galleys. The Turkish boats were generally but +small craft, and laden down to the water's edge with men. The Genoese +had four galleys, together with one which belonged to Byzantium. + +These were vessels of the largest size, constructed by men who had +learned to assert their prowess as lords of the sea. They were armed +with cannon adapted to sweep the deck of an adversary at short +range:--a weapon which the Turks had not yet floated, though they were +in advance of the Christians in using such artillery on land. The high +sides of the Christian galleys, moreover, prevented their being +boarded except with dangerous climbing, while the defenders stood +ready to pour the famous liquid called "Greek fire" upon the heads of +those who should attempt it. Besides, heaven favored the Christians; +for a strong gale was blowing, which, while it tossed the boats of +their adversaries beyond their easy control, filled the sails of the +Genoese, and sent them bounding over the waves: the oarsmen sitting +ready to catch deftly into the bending billows with their blades. Each +of the five vessels chose for a target a large one of the Turks, and +clove it with its iron prow: while the cannon swept the Turkish +soldiers by hundreds from other boats near to them. Passing through +the thin crescent, the Christian galleys skilfully tacked, and, +careening upon their sides, again assailed the Turks before they could +evade their swift and resistless momentum. Again and again the galleys +passed, like shuttles on a loom, through the line of the enemy, +sinking the unwieldy hulks and drowning the crowded crews. + +From the walls and house tops of the city went up huzzas for the +victors and praises to heaven. From the shores of Asia, and from below +the city wall, thousands of Moslems groaned their imprecations. The +Sultan raged upon the beach, as he saw one after another of his +pennants sink beneath the waves. Dashing far into the sea upon his +horse, he vented his impotent fury in beating the water with his mace, +shrieking maledictions into the laughing winds, and invoking upon the +Christians curses from all the Pagan gods and Moslem saints. + +At one moment the Byzantine galley was nearly overcome, having been +caught in a group of Turkish boats, whose occupants climbed her sides, +and did murderous work among the crew. Though ultimately rescued by +the Genoese, it was only after severe loss. + +But above all other casualties the Christians mourned the fate of +young Constantine. With almost superhuman strength he had cut down +several assailants; but was finally set upon by such odds that he was +pressed over the low bulwarks, and fell into the sea. The galley with +its consorts made way to the chain at the entrance to the Golden Horn, +where the rich stores, a thousand times richer now in the necessity +which they relieved, were received amid the acclamations of the +grateful Greeks. + +But woe,--Oh, so heavy! crushed one solitary heart. Her eyes stared +wildly at the messenger who brought the fatal tidings; and stared, +hour by hour, in their stony grief, upon the wall of her apartment. +Kind attendants spoke to her, but she heard them not. Her soul seemed +to have gone seeking in other worlds the soul of her lover. The +servants, awed by the majesty of her sorrow, sat down in the court +without, and waited: but she called them not. Daylight faded into +darkness. The lamp which was brought she waved with her hand to have +taken away. The maidens who came to disrobe her for the night found +her bowed with her face upon the couch; and, receiving no response to +their proffered offices, retired again to wait. + +The morning came; and the cheer of the sunlight which, quickening the +outer world, poured through the windows high in the walls of her +apartment, seemed to awaken her from her trance. But how changed in +appearance! The ruddy hue of health, and the bronzing of daily +exposure to the open air, seemed alike to have been blanched by that +which had taken hope from her soul. Her eyes were sunken, and the +lustre in them, though not lessened, now seemed to come from an +infinite depth--from some distant, inner world which had lost all +relation to this, as a passing star. Morsinia rose, weak at first; but +her limbs grew strong with the imparted strength of her will. She ate; +and speaking aloud--but more in addressing herself than her +attendants--said: "I will away to the walls!" + +Through the masses of debris, and among the groups of men who were +resting and waiting to take the places of their wearied comrades on +the ramparts, she went straight to the gate of St. Romanus, where the +assaults were most incessant. The cry of "The Little Empress!" gave +way to that of "The Panurgia! The Panurgia!"[77] as some, though +familiar with her form, were startled by the almost unearthly change +of her countenance. She returned no salutation as was usual with her, +but, as if impelled by some superhuman purpose, her beauty lit as with +a halo by the majesty of a celestial passion, she climbed the steps +into the tottering tower above the gate. A strong, but gentle hand was +put upon her arm. It was that of the Emperor. + +"My daughter, you must not be here. Come away!" + +She looked at him for an instant in hesitation; and then, bowing her +head, responded in scarcely audible voice: + +"I will obey you, Sire," and added, speaking to herself-- + +"It is _his_ will too." + +"I know your grief," said his majesty kindly, "and now, as your +Emperor, I must protect you against yourself." + +"I want no protection," cried the broken-hearted girl. "Oh, let me +die! For what should I live?" + +"My dear child," said the Emperor with trembling voice, while the +tears filled his eyes. "In other days your holy faith taught me how to +be strong. Now, in your necessity, let me repeat to you the lesson. +For what shall _you_ live? For what should _I_ live? I am Emperor, but +my empire is doomed. I live no longer for earthly hope, but solely to +do duty; nothing but duty, stern duty, painful every instant, crushing +always, but a burden heaven imposed on a breaking heart. That heaven +appoints it--that, and that alone--makes me willing to live and do it. +When the time comes I shall seek death where the slain lie the +thickest. But not to-day; for to-day I can serve. Live for duty! Live +for God! The days may not be many before we shall clasp hands with +those who, now invisible, are looking upon us. Let us go and cheer the +living before we seek the companionship of the dead." + +As the Emperor spoke, his face glowed with a majesty of soul which +made the symbol of earthly majesty that adorned his brow seem poor +indeed. + +Gazing a moment with reverent amazement at the man who had already +received the divine anointing for the sacrifice of martyrdom he was so +soon to offer, Morsinia responded: + +"Your words, Sire, come to me as from the lips of God. I will go and +pray, and then--then I shall live for duty." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[77] The Panurgia, a name given to the Holy Virgin, who at a former +siege of Constantinople, in 1422, was imagined to have appeared upon +the wall for its defense. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + +Mahomet had not expended all his petulant rage upon feelingless waves +and distant Christians. He summoned to his presence the Admiral of his +defeated fleet, Baltaoghli, and ordered that he should be impaled. + +The Admiral had shown as much naval skill as could, perhaps, have been +exhibited with the unwieldy boats at his command; and, moreover, had +brought from the fight an eyeless socket to attest his bravery and +devotion. The penalty, therefore, which Mahomet attached to his +misfortune, brought cries of entreaty in his behalf from other brave +officers, especially from the leading Janizaries. This opposition at +first confirmed the determination of the irate despot. But soon the +petition of the honored corps swelled into a murmur, which the more +experienced of his advisers persuaded Mahomet to heed. + +The Sultan had schooled himself to obey the precept which Yusef, the +eunuch, who instructed his childhood, had imparted, viz, "Make passion +bend to policy." He therefore apparently yielded, so far at least as +to compromise with those whom he feared to offend, and commuted the +Admiral's sentence to a flogging. + +The brave man was stretched upon the ground by four slaves. Turning to +Captain Ballaban, the Sultan bade him lay on the lash. Ballaban +hesitated. Drawing near to Mahomet, he said respectfully, but firmly, + +"The Janizaries are soldiers, not executioners, Sire." + +Mahomet's rage burst as suddenly as powder under the spark. + +"Away with the rebel!" cried he. "We will find the executioner for +him, too, who dares to disobey our orders." + +Seizing his golden mace, the Sultan himself beat the prostrate form of +the Admiral until it was senseless. + +Wearying of his bloody work, Mahomet glared like a half satiated beast +upon those about him. + +"Where is the damned rebel who dares dispute my will? Did no one +arrest him?" + +"The order was not so understood," said an Aga who was near. + +"You understand it now," growled the infuriated, yet half-ashamed, +monarch. "Arrest him!--But no! Let these slaves go search for the +runaway. It shall be their office to deal with one who dares to break +with my will." + +The Janizaries returned to their places near the walls. + +Mahomet was ill at ease when his better judgment displaced his unwise +passion. His love for Ballaban, the manliness of the captain's reply +to the unreasonable order, and the danger of injuring one who stood so +high in the estimate of the entire Janizary corps, were not outweighed +even by the sense of the indignity which the act of disobedience had +put upon the royal authority. + +The slaves, not daring to venture among the Janizaries in their search +for Captain Ballaban, easily persuaded themselves that he must have +fled; and that, perhaps, he might be lurking somewhere on the shore, +as this was the only way of escape. Their search was rewarded. Though +in the disguise of scant garments, utterly exhausted so that he could +make no resistance, their victim was readily recognized by his form +and features, which were too peculiar to be mistaken. The captain had +apparently attempted to escape by water; perhaps, had ventured upon +some chance kaik or raft, and been wrecked in the caldron which the +strong south wind made with the current pouring from the north. + +His wet garments, such as he had not stripped off, and his exhausted +look confirmed their theory. + +One of their number brought the report to the Grand Vizier, Kalil, who +repeated it to the Sultan. + +"I will deal with him in person. Let no one know of the capture until +I have seen him," said Mahomet, seeking an opportunity to revoke the +threat against his friend, which he had uttered in insane rage; and, +at the same time, to cover his imperial dignity by the semblance of a +trial. + +The culprit was brought in the early evening to the Sultan's tent. A +large lantern of various colored crystals hung from the ridge-pole, +and threw its beautiful, but partly obscured, light over the arraigned +man. + +His captors had clothed him in the uniform of the Janizaries. + +"His face has a strange look, as if another's soul had taken lodging +behind the familiar lineaments," the Sultan remarked to Kalil as he +scanned the culprit closely. + +"Do you know, knave, in whose presence you are?" said Mahomet, +sternly. + +"I know not, Sire, except that the excellent adornment of your person +and pavilion suggest that I am in the presence of his majesty the--" + +"Silence, villain! do you mock me?" cried the Padishah, in surprise at +the man's assumed ignorance. + +"I mock thee not, Sire," said the victim, bowing with courtly +reverence, and speaking in a sort of patois of Greek and Turkish. "But +I was about to say that I know thee not, except that from the +excellence of thy person and estate thou art none less"---- + +"Silence, you dog! This is no time for your familiar jesting, +Ballaban. Speak pure tongue, or I'll cut thine from thy head!" +interrupted the Padishah. + +"I speak as best I can," replied the man, "for I was not brought up to +the Turkish tongue. I presume that I address the king of the Turks." + +"Miserable wretch!" hissed his majesty, drawing his jewelled sword. +"Dare you call me king of the _Turks_? TURKS! thou circumcised +Christian dog! thou pup of Nazarene parentage! thou damned infidel, +beplastered with Moslem favors!"[78] + +"It would seem that I needed Moslem favors, which in my destitute +condition and imminent danger, I most humbly crave," replied the +object of this contumely. + +"Are you mad?" shrieked the Sultan, rising and glaring into the +other's face. "You _are_ mad, man. Poor soul! Ay! Ay! I see it now. +Some demon has possessed you. Some witch has blown on the knots +against you."[79] + +"I am not mad, Sire," said the culprit, "but a poor castaway on your +coast." + +"Hear him, poor fellow! so mad that he knows not himself. Well! well! +I must forgive you then for not knowing me," said Mahomet, with +genuine pity. "Did you love me so, old comrade, that my harsh words +knocked over your reason? or did your reason, toppling over, lead you +to challenge me as you did? We must cure this malady, though it takes +the treasure of the empire to do it." Lowering his voice he addressed +the Vizier: + +"I could not believe that my faithful comrade would have rebelled. It +was not he, but the demon who has possessed him. Think you not so, +good Kalil?" + +The Vizier bowed in assent to the Sultan's theory, and whispered, "It +provides a wise escape from antagonizing the Janizaries. But you +should summon a physician." + +Clapping his hands, an attendant appeared, who was dispatched for the +court physician; a man of fame in his profession, whose duty it was to +be always within call of the Sultan. + +The physician entering, examined the culprit, looking into his eyes, +balancing his head between his hands to determine if there were any +sudden disturbance of the proportionate avoirdupois; noting if his +tongue lay in the middle of his mouth, and feeling his pulse. At +length he said in low voice to the Sultan and Vizier: + +"There is, Sire, no outward evidences of lacking wit. I would have him +speak." + +"He is the Janizary, Captain Ballaban," whispered the Vizier. "You +will observe that the wit is clean gone from him. Tell us your story, +Ballaban, or whoever you are." + +"I beg the favor of your excellency, your lordship, Sire; for, since +you deny that you are the king of the Turks, I know not what title to +give to your authority. I am your prisoner. I fought on the Byzantine +galley as Jesu gave me strength, but was unfortunate enough to fall +overboard, and fortunate enough to avoid capture by the Turkish boats, +as I dived beneath them, or rested myself below their sterns until I +reached the shore. But as heaven willed it, I landed below the walls +of the city. I was altogether weaponless, having shuffled off my +armor that I might swim--and altogether blown by my effort--or, by +the bones of Abraham! I had never been captured by the cowardly slaves +you sent. I ask only the treatment of an honorable enemy." + +"By the beard of the Prophet!" exclaimed Mahomet, "if he were a +Christian I would give him liberty for the valor of his speech. Some +of the spirit of our gallant Ballaban is still left in him. The +witches could not take the great heart out of him, though they stole +away his wits. What say you, Sage Murta?" The physician replied, +knitting his brows and stroking his chin-- + +"The Padishah is wise. The man is mad. But since his heart is not +touched by the demon, but only his memory erased and his imagination +distorted, my science tells me there is hope of his cure." + +"What medicament have you for a diseased mind?" asked the Sultan. + +With reverent pomposity, but in low voice not overheard by the +patient, the physician uttered the prescription: + +"First, we have the religious cure--if so be that the man is under the +charm of the evil spirits--Find thee a cord with eleven knots tied on +it:--for such was the number on the cord with which the daughters of +Lobeid, the Jew, bewitched the Prophet. As thou untiest the knots +repeat the last two chapters of the Koran, which the Angel Gabriel +revealed as the talisman, saying-- + +"'I fly for refuge unto the Lord of the daybreak, that he may deliver +me from the mischief of the night, when it cometh on; and from the +mischief of women, blowing on the knots; and from the mischief of the +envious; and from the mischief of the whisperer, the devil, who slyly +withdraweth, who whispereth evil suggestions into the breasts of men: +and from genii and men.' + +"If this should fail--as I have known it to fail in the case of those +who were not born in the sacred family of Islâm--we should try the +virtues of the heritage bowl, which is much esteemed among the +Giaours. I have possessed myself of one, once the property of an +ancient family. It is made of silver, and engraved with forty-one +padlocks. A decoction mixed in this bowl, and poured on the head of +the patient any time within seven weeks after the day on which they +celebrate the imagined rising of Jesu, son of Mary, from the dead, +will often break the most malignant spell. The Christian Paska[80] is +just past; so that it will be opportune." + +"But should this likewise fail?" asked Mahomet, impatient with the +sage's prolixity. + +"Ah! we shall then have to try our strictly human remedies. This +ailment is called by the Latin disciples of Galen, _dementia_, which +signifieth that the man's mind, his natural thoughts, have gone away +from him. We must recall them. For this we must have some strong +appeal to that which was his hottest passion or interest before his +mind flew away from him. Do you know the absorbing humor of this man? +Was he a lover? If so, we must find the fair one who has robbed him of +his better part, and, restoring her to him, we shall restore him to +himself." + +"Nay," said Mahomet. "Captain Ballaban was never enamored of woman. +The maid who lured the Prophet from the charms of Ayesha and +Hafsa,[81] would not have turned Ballaban's head. I once offered him +the choice of a bevy of Georgians; but he would not even look at them. +He is a soldier; from tassel to shoe-thong a soldier." + +"Ah! then we have the remedy at hand," said Murta, rolling his eyes as +if reading the prescription in the air. "Give him command; military +excitement; honors of the field. When the cimeters gleam then will +reason flash again. And my science is at fault if the simple summons +to some high duty work not a counter charm to break the spell that is +on him, though it were woven by the mystic dance of all the genii and +devils." + +"We will try this last remedy first," said Mahomet. "Dismiss him. Let +him go as he will, without hindrance or seeming to follow, until my +orders be brought him by his Aga. In the meantime search the shore for +the knotted cord the witches may have blown upon. And, good Murta, +send for the silver bowl; for my brain is that hot that I fear me the +Giaour ghosts we have sent gibbering to hell during the last few days +have left the spell of their evil eyes upon me too." + +The following day was not far advanced when Captain Ballaban was +summoned to the Sultan's tent, the rumor of his restoration to royal +favor having been made to precede the summons. In fact, after the +affair of the preceding afternoon, Ballaban had not gone to the sea +shore, but retired to his own quarters, where he loyally awaited +either his death summons, or an invitation for some wild frolic with +the Padishah; he knew not which, so thought about neither; but busied +himself over a plan for a new gun-carriage he was going to submit to +Urban. + +With assumed stolidity he entered the royal tent. As he rose from his +obeisance upon the earth, his majesty embraced him with boyish +delight. + +"Your old self again: I see your soul in your face. I'd give half the +horse-tails in the empire rather than lose that shock of hair from my +sight, or the glowing brain that is under it from my councils, my +red-headed angel!" + +"There is no need to lose it, except by cutting it off at my +shoulders," said Ballaban, falling in with the humor of the Sultan, +yet watchful not to be taken unawares, if, in its fitfulness, that +humor should turn. + +"I have a grand service for you, if you have skill and courage enough +to execute it," said Mahomet, watching the effect on his friend. + +The captain's eyes flashed with the prospect, as he said: + +"I wait your plan, Sire; only let it be bold." + +"I have no plan, you must make one. I would see if your brain is as +square as the pot you keep it in," said the Sultan, tapping him on the +head with a jewelled whip staff, and adding, + +"It is evident, Captain, that we must get possession of the Golden +Horn; for so long as the enemy hold that for their harbor, we cannot +prevent their reprovisioning the city as they did yesterday; and a few +more such auxiliaries as they brought, indeed, another such leader as +the Genoese Giustiniani, would compel us to raise the siege. How can +we take the harbor? Our boats can never raise the chain at the mouth." + +"That has been my problem since the siege began," said Ballaban. "I +remember while in Albania, as I lodged one night in a village, I met +with some Italian officers, who had come to offer their swords to +Castriot. They told how they moved their fleet overland, several miles +on a roadway of timbers.[82] We can use that device. The thing is not +impracticable; for there is a depression to the north of Galata, +through which from the Bosphorus to the inland extremity of the Golden +Horn is but five or six miles. Our vessels are not large; could be +transported with the multitudes of our troops, and on the still water +of the harbor would soon, by superior numbers, capture those of the +Christians." + +"A good conception!" said Mahomet, "and if my reading has not been at +fault, the Roman Augustus did something similar.[83] It shall be done. +Let it not be said that the Ottoman was surpassed in daring or +difficulty of enterprise by Pagan or Christian. You shall perform it, +Ballaban. The woods above Galata will serve for planking, and the +engineers can be spared from before the walls until it is +accomplished." + +A few days later a large fleet of the Moslems was conveyed overland, +by means of a roadway of greased timbers. To the amazement of the +Christians their adversary's navy no longer lay idly upon the +Bosphorus, but was transformed into a line of floating batteries +within the harbor of the Golden Horn, and from their rear soon +destroyed the fleet of the defenders. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[78] The Ottomans regard the appellation of "King of the TURKS" as an +insult, since the Turks are comparatively few of the many subjects of +the Sultan in Europe. Some of the most distinguished servants of the +empire are of Christian parentage, and either have been conquered or +have voluntarily submitted to the domination of the Moslem. + +[79] The Moslem superstition led them to believe that witches, by +tying knots in a cord and blowing on them, brought evil to the person +they had in mind. + +[80] Easter. + +[81] The Coptic Mary with whom the Prophet was said to have been +enamored. + +[82] In 1437 the Venetians carried many large ships across the country +from the river Adige to the lake of Garda. + +[83] At Actium. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + +The city was now completely invested. Menaced from all sides, the +defenders were not sufficient in numbers to guard the many approaches. +Yet the daily fighting was desperate, for the Moslems were inspired by +the certainty of success, while the Christians were nerved with the +energy of despair. To end the siege Mahomet designated a time for a +combined assault from sea and land. + +As the fatal day dawned, numberless hordes moved towards the walls. +The great ditches were soon filled with the dead bodies of thousands +of the least serviceable soldiers, who had been driven from behind by +the lances of the trained bands, that they might thus worry the +patience and exhaust the resources of the brave defenders, without +taxing the best of the Moslem troops. The carcasses of the slain made +a highway for the living, over which they poured against the gate of +St. Romanus. The four grim towers toppled beneath the pounding of +great stone balls hurled from the cannon of Urban. The defenders were +driven off the adjacent walls by the storms of bullets and arrows that +swept them. At the critical moment the Janizaries, unwearied as yet by +watching or fighting, twelve thousand strong, as compact a mass +beneath the eye of the Sultan as the weapon he held in his hand, moved +to where the breach was widest. + +"The spoil to all! A province to him who first enters!" cried the +Sultan, waving his iron battle mace. Hassan, the giant, first mounted +the rampart, and fell pierced with arrows and crushed with stones. But +through the gap his dying valor had made in the ranks of the foe first +rushed the company of Ballaban. + +In vain did the people crowd beneath the dome of St. Sophia, grasping +with hopeless hope an ancient prophecy that at the extreme moment an +angel would descend to rescue the city. Alas! only the angel of death +came that day; and to none brought he more welcome news than to the +Emperor,--"Thy prayer is answered; for thou hast fallen where the dead +lie thickest!" Near the gateway of St. Romanus, where he had met the +first of the invaders, under the piles of the dead, gashed by sabre +strokes and crushed beneath the feet of the victors, lay the body of +Constantine Palæologus, the noblest of the Cæsars of the Eastern +Empire! + +The Turks placed his ghastly head between the feet of the bronze +horse, a part of the equestrian statue of Justinian, where it was +reverently saluted even by the Moslems, who paused in the rage of the +sack to think upon the virtue and courage of the unfortunate monarch. + +Captain Ballaban had pressed rapidly through the city to the doors of +St. Sophia. The oaken gates flew back under the axes of the Moslems. +Monks and matrons, children and nuns, lords and beggars were crowded +together, not knowing whether the grand dome would melt away and a +legion of angels descend for their relief, or the vast enclosure would +become a pen of indiscriminate slaughter. The motley and helpless +misery excited the pity of the captors. Ballaban's voice rang through +the arches, proclaiming safely to those who should submit. That he +might the better command the scene, he made his way to the chancel in +front of the grand altar. It was filled with the nuns, repeating their +prayers. Among them was the fair Albanian. Her face was but partly +toward him, yet he could never mistake that queenly head. She was +addressing the Sisters. Holding aloft the bright shaft of a stiletto, +she cried,-- + +"Let us give ourselves to heaven, but never to the harem!" + +Ballaban paused an instant. But that instant seemed to him many +minutes. As, under the lightning's flash, the whole moving panorama of +the wide landscape seems to stand still, and paints vividly its +prominent objects, however scattered, upon the startled eye of the +beholders; so his mind marvellously quickened by the excitement, took +in at once the long track of his own life. He saw a little child's +hand wreathing him with flowers plucked beside a cottage on the +Balkans; a lovely captive whose face was lit by the blazing home in a +hamlet of Albania; a form of one at Sfetigrade lying still and faint +with sickness, but radiant as with the beginning of transfiguration +for the spirit life; and the queenly being who was borne in the +palanquin through the gate of Phranza. But how changed! How much more +glorious now! Earthly beauty had become haloed with the heavenly. He +never had conceived of such majesty, such glory of personality, such +splendor of character, as were revealed by her attitude, her eye, her +voice, her purpose. + +"But now," thought he, "the descending blade will change this utmost +sublimity of being into a little heap of gory dust!" + +All this flashed through his mind. In another instant his strong hand +had caught the arm of the voluntary sacrifice. The stiletto, falling, +caught in the folds of her garments, and then rang upon the marble +floor of the chancel. Morsinia uttered a shriek and fell, apparently +as lifeless as if the blade had entered her heart. + +The Janizary stood astounded. A tide of feeling strange to him poured +through his soul. For the first time in his life he felt a horror of +war. Not thousands writhing on the battle field could blanch his cheek +with pity for their pangs: but that one voice rang through and through +him, and rent his heart with sympathetic agony. Her cry had become a +cry of his own soul too. + +For the first time he realized the dignity of woman's character. This +woman was not even wounded. She had fallen beneath the stroke of a +thought, a sentiment, a woman's notion of her honor! The women he had +known had no such fatal scruples. Other captive beauties soon became +accustomed to their new surroundings. Many even offered to buy with +their charms an exchange of poverty for the luxuries of the harem of +Pashas and wealthy Moslems. Was this a solitary woman's tragedy of +virtue? Or was it some peculiar teaching of the Christian's faith that +inspired her to such heroism? However it came, the man knew that with +her it was a mighty reality; this instinct of virtue; this sanctity of +person. + +And this woman was his dream made real! A celestial ideal which he had +touched! + +The man's brain reeled with the shock of these tenderer and deeper +feelings, coming after the wildness of the battle rage. He grasped the +altar for support. The blood seemed to have ceased to bound in his +veins, the temples to be pulseless; a band to have been drawn tightly +about his brain so as to paralyze its action. He felt himself falling. +A deathly sickness spread through his frame. He was sure he had +fainted. He thought he must have been unconscious for a while. Yet +when he opened his eyes, the soldier near him was in the same attitude +of dragging a nun by her wrists as when he last saw him. Time had +stood still with his pulses. He shuddered at the cruelty on every +side, as the shrieks from the high galleries were answered by those in +distant alcoves and from the deep crypt. He watched the groups of old +men and children, monks and senators, nuns and courtesans, tied +together and dragged away, some for slaughter, some for princely +ransom, some for shame. + +The building was well emptied when the Sultan entered. + +He at once advanced to the altar and proclaimed: + +"God is God; there is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God!" + +"But whom have we here, Captain Ballaban?" + +"Your Majesty, I am guarding a beautiful captive whom I would not have +fall into the hands of the common soldiers; I take it, of high +estate," replied the Janizary, knowing that such an introduction to +the royal attention alone could save her from the fate which awaited +the unhappy maidens, most of whom were liable to be sold to brutal +masters and transported to distant provinces. + +The Sultan gazed upon the partly conscious woman, and commanded,---- + +"Let her be veiled! Seek out a goodly house. Find the Eunuch Tamlich." +Ballaban shuddered at this command, and was about to reply, when his +judgment suggested that he was impotent to dispute the royal will +except by endangering the life or the welfare of his captive. + +The safest place for her was, after all, with the maidens who were +known to be the choice of the Sultan, and thus beyond insult by any +except the imperial debauchee. + +Mahomet II. gave orders for the immediate transformation of the +Christian temple of St. Sophia into a Mosque. In a few hours +desolation reigned in those "Courts of the Lord's House," which, when +first completed, ages ago, drew from the imperial founder, the remark: +"Oh, Solomon! I have surpassed thee!" and which, though the poverty of +later monarchs had allowed it to become sadly impaired, was yet +regarded by the Greek Christians as worthy of being the vestibule of +heaven. + +The command of the Sultan: "Take away every trace of the idolatry of +the infidel!" was obeyed in demolishing the rarest gems of Christian +art to which attached the least symbolism of the now abolished +worship. The arms were chiseled off the marble crosses which stood out +in relief from the side walls, and from the bases of the gigantic +pillars. The rare mosaics which lined the church as if it were a vast +casket--the fitting gift of the princes of the earth to the King of +Kings--were plastered or painted over. The altar, that marvellous +combination of gold and silver and bronze, conglomerate with a +thousand precious stones, was torn away, that the red slab of the +Mihrab might point the prayers of the new devotees toward Mecca. The +furniture, from that upon the grand altar to the banners and mementoes +of a thousand years, the donations of Greek emperors and sovereigns of +other lands, was broken or torn into pieces. There remained only the +grand proportions of the building--its chief glory--enriched by +polished surfaces of marble and porphyry slabs; the superb pillars +brought by the reverent cupidity of earlier ages from the ruined +temple of Diana at Ephesus, the temple of the Sun at Palmyra, the +temple on the Acro-Corinthus, and the mythologic urn from Pergamus, +which latter, having been used as a baptismal font by the followers of +Jesus, was now devoted to the ablutions of the Moslems. + +From St. Sophia the Sultan passed to the palace of the Greek Cæsars. + +"Truly! truly!" said he "The spider's web is the royal curtain; the +owl sounds the watch cry on the towers of Afrasiab," quoting from the +Persian poet Firdusi, as he gazed about the deserted halls. He issued +his mandate which should summon architects and decorators, not only +from his dominions, but from Christian nations, to adorn the splendid +headland with the palatial motley of walls and kiosks which were to +constitute his new seraglio. + +The considerateness of Ballaban led him to select the house of Phranza +as the place to which Morsinia was taken. The noble site and +substantial structure of the mansion of the late chamberlain commended +it to the Sultan for the temporary haremlik; and the familiar rooms +alleviated, like the faces of mute friends, the wildness of the grief +of their only familiar captive. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + +Constantine, after his escape from the Sultan's tent, where he had +been taken for the demented Ballaban, was unable to enter +Constantinople before it fell. His heart was torn with agonizing +solicitude for the fate of Morsinia. He knew too well the +determination of the dauntless girl in the event of her falling into +the hands of the Turks. Filling his dreams at night, and rising before +him as a terrible apparition by day, was that loved form, a suicide +empurpled with its own gore. Yet love and duty led him to seek her, or +at least to seek the certainty of her fate. He therefore disguised +himself as a Moslem and mingled with the throng of soldiers and +adventurers who entered the city under its new possessors. He wandered +for hours about the familiar streets, that, perchance, he might come +upon some memorial of her. The secrets of the royal harem he could not +explore, even if suspicion led his thought thither. The proximity of +the residence of Phranza was guarded by the immediate servants of the +Sultan, so that he was deprived of even the fond misery of visiting +the scenes so associated with his former joy. + +In passing through one of the narrowest and foulest streets--the only +ones that had been left undisturbed by the Vandalism of the +conquerors--he came upon an old woman, hideous in face and decrepit, +whom he remembered as a beggar at the gate of Phranza. From her he +learned many stories of the last hours of the siege. + +According to her story she had gone among the first to St. Sophia. +When the Moslems entered they tied her by a silken girdle to the +person of the Grand Chamberlain, and, amid the jeers of the soldiers, +marched them together to the Hippodrome. She remembered the Sultan as +he rode on his horse,--how he struck with his battle hammer one of the +silver heads of the bronze serpents, and cried: "So I smite the heads +of the kingdoms!" Just as he did so he turned, and saw her in her rags +tied to the courtly-robed lord, and in an angry voice commanded that +the princely man be loosed from contact with the filthy hag. Phranza +was taken away: but nobody cared to take her away. She was trampled by +the crowd, but lived. And nobody thought of turning her out of her +hovel home. She was as safe as is a rat when the robbers have killed +the nobler inmates of a house. + +The woman said that she had heard that the daughter of Phranza was +sent away somewhere to an island home. But the Albanian +Princess,--Yes, she knew her well; for no hand used to drop so +bountifully the alms she asked, or said so kindly "Jesu pity you, my +good woman!" as did that beautiful lady. The beggar declared that she +stood near her by the altar in St. Sophia. "She looked so saintly +there! There was a real aureole about her head as she prayed, so she +was a saint indeed. Then she raised her dagger!" But the wretched +watcher could watch no longer, though she heard her cry, so wild that +she would never cease to hear it. + +The beggar ceased her story; all her words had cut through her +listener's heart as if they had been daggers. + +"It is well!" he said, "I will go to Albania. Among those who loved +her I will worship her memory; and, under Castriot, I will seek my +revenge." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + + +Morsinia's fears, and her horror at the anticipated life in the harem, +were not confirmed by its actual scenes. Except for the constant +surveillance of the Nubian eunuchs and female attendants, there was no +restriction upon her liberty. She passed through the familiar +corridors, and rested upon the divan in what had been her own chamber +in better days. Other female captives became her companions; but among +them were none of those belonging to Constantinople. Suburban +villages were represented; but most of the odalisks[84] were +Circassian beauties, whose conduct did not indicate that they felt any +shame in their condition. They indulged in jealous rivalry, estimating +their own worth by the sums which the agents of the Sultan had paid +their parents for their possession; or bantering one another as to who +of their number would first meet the fancy of their royal master. +There were several Greeks, who, with more modesty of speech, spared +none of the arts of the toilet to prepare themselves to better their +condition in the only way that was now open to them. A Coptic girl had +been sent by Eenal, the Borghite Khalif of Egypt, as a present to the +Sultan. Her form was slight, and without the fullness of development +which other races associate with female beauty, but of wonderful grace +of pose and motion; her face was broad; eyes wide and expressionless; +mouth straight. Yet her features had that symmetry and balance which +gave to them a strange fascination. The Turcoman Emir who had already +given his daughter to Mahomet--the nuptials with whom he was +celebrating when called to the throne--exercised still further his +fatherly office in presenting to his son-in-law as fine a pair of +black eyes as ever flashed their cruel commands to an amative heart. +To study this physiognomical museum afforded Morsinia an entertaining +relief from the otherwise constant torture of her thoughts. + +To her further diversion one was introduced into the harem who spoke +her own Albanian tongue. This new comer was of undoubted beauty, so +far as that quality could be the product of merely physical elements. +It was of the kind that might bind a god on earth, but could never +help a soul to heaven. Her lower face, with full red lips arching the +pearliest teeth, and complexion ruddy with the glow of health, shading +into the snowy bosom, might perhaps serve to make a Venus; but her +upper features, the low forehead and dilated nostrils, could never +have been made to bespeak the thoughtful Minerva in this retreat of +those, who, to the Moslem imagination, are the types of heavenly +perfection. Her eyes were bright, but only with surface lustre. Her +nature evidently contained no depths which could hold either noble +resentment or self sacrificing love; either grand earthly passion or +heavenly faith. + +This woman's vanity did not long keep back the story of her life. She +told of her conquest of the village swains who fought for the +possession of her charms; of the devotion of an Albanian prince who +took her dowerless in preference to the ladies of great family and +fortune, and would have bestowed upon her the heirship to his estates: +of how she was stolen away from the great castle by a company of +Turkish officers, who afterward fought among themselves for the +privilege of presenting her to the Validé Sultana;[85] for it was +about the time of the Ramedan feast when the Sultan's mother made an +annual gift to her son of the most beautiful woman she could secure. +The vain captive declared that the jealousy of the odalisks at +Adrianople had led the Kislar Aga to send her here to Constantinople. + +"And who was the Albanian nobleman whose bride you had become?" asked +Morsinia. + +"Oh, one who is to be king of Albania one day, the Voivode Amesa." + +"Ah!" said Morsinia, "this is news from my country. When was it +determined that Amesa should be king?" + +"Oh! every one speaks of it at the castle as if it were well +understood. And when he becomes king then he will claim me again from +Mahomet, though he must ransom me with half his kingdom. Yes, I am to +be a queen; and indeed I may be one already, for perhaps Lord Amesa is +now on the throne. And that is the reason I wear the cord of gold in +my hair; for one day my royal lover will put the crown here." + +The bedizened beauty rose and paced to and fro through the great +salôn. The pride which gave the majestic toss to her head, however it +would have marred that ethereal form which the inner eye of the +moralist or the Christian always sees, and which is called character, +only gave an additional charm to her;--as the delicate yet stately +comb of the peacock adds to the fascination of that bird. Her carriage +combined the gracefulness of perfect anatomy and health with the +dignity which conceit, thoroughly diffused in muscle and nerve, lent +to all her movements. With that step upon it no carpet beneath a +throne would have been dishonored. Her dress was in exquisite keeping +with her person. The close fitting zone or girdle about her waist left +the bust uncontorted; a model which needed no device to supplement +the perfection of nature. A robe of purple velvet trailed luxuriantly +behind; but in front was looped so as to display the loose trousers of +white silk which were gathered below the knee and fell in full ruffles +about the unstockinged ankles, but not so low as to conceal the rings +of silver which clasped them, and the slippers of yellow satin, ending +in long and curved points, which protruded from beneath. + +As the other women gazed at this self-assumed queen of the harem the +green fire of jealousy flashed alike from black eyes and blue. The +straight thin noses of the Greeks for the moment forgot their classic +models, and dilated as if in rivalry of that flattened feature of the +Egyptian; while the straight mouth of the daughter of the Nile writhed +in indescribable curves, indicative of commingled wrath, hatred, pique +and scorn. + +This parade would have produced in Morsinia the feeling of contempt, +were it not for that sisterly interest which was awakened by the fact +that she was her own country-woman. Morsinia's face, usually calm in +its great dignity and reserve, now flushed with the struggle between +indignation and pity for the girl. + +At this moment the purple hangings which separated the salôn from the +open court were held aside by the silver staff of the eunuch in +charge; and the young Padishah stood as a spectator of the scene. + +"Ah! Tamlich," cried he, addressing the black eunuch, "you were right +in saying that the great haremlik at Adrianople, with its thousand +goddesses, could not rival this temporary one for the fairness of the +birds you have caged in it." + +The women made the temineh--a salutation with the right hand just +sweeping the floor, and then pressed consecutively to the heart, the +lips and the forehead; a movement denoting reverence, and, at the same +time, giving field for the display of the utmost grace of motion. + +The Padishah passed among these his slaves with the license which +betokened his absolute ownership; stroking their hair and toying with +their persons according to his amiable or insolent caprice. Morsinia, +however, was spared this familiarity. The Sultan himself colored +slightly as he addressed her a few words in Greek, of which language, +in common with several others, he knew enough to act as his own +interpreter. His questions were respectful, all limited to her comfort +in her new home. With Elissa, the queenly Albanian, he was at once on +terms of intimacy. Her manner betokened that she gave to him only too +willingly whatever he might be disposed to take. + +As the Sultan withdrew, the eunuch Tamlich remarked to him: + +"My surmise of your Excellency's judgment was verified. Said I not +that the two Arnaouts were the fairest? And did I not behold your +Majesty gaze longest upon them?" + +"I commend your taste, Tamlich," replied Mahomet. "But those two are +as unlike as a ruby and a pearl." + +"But as fair as either, are they not? The chief hamamjina[86] declares +that the blue-eyed one has the most perfect form she ever saw; and +that it is a form which will improve with years. Morsinia Hanoum[87] +will be more fit for Paradise, while Elissa Hanoum may lose the grace +of the maiden as a matron. But the cherry is ripe for the plucking +now." + +"I like the ruby better than the pearl," said the Sultan. "I cannot +quite fathom the deep eye of the latter. She thinks too much. I would +not have women think. They are to make us stop thinking. The problems +of state are sufficiently perplexing: I want no human problem in my +arms." + +"But one who thinks may have some skill in affording amusement. Have I +not heard thee say, Sire, 'Blessed is the one who can invent a new +recreation?' That requires thinking." + +"Right, Tamlich! can she sing?" + +"Ay! your Majesty, to the Greek cythera; and such songs that, though +they know not a word of them--for the songs are in her own Arnaout +tongue--the odalisks all fall to weeping." + +"I like not such singing," said Mahomet. "To make people think with +her thoughtful eyes is bad enough in a woman. To make them weep with +her voice is wicked, is Christian. I will give her away to some one +who wants a wife that thinks. There is Hamed Bey, one of the +muderris[88] who is to be put at the head of my new chain of +Ulemas.[89] He will want a wife who thinks; and his eyes are that +blind with dry study that it will do him good to weep. But who is the +woman? I think I saw her face in St. Sophia the day of our entry." + +"She belonged to the house-hold of Phranza, the Chamberlain, who +possessed this very house," replied the eunuch. "And I think, from its +goodly size and decoration, he must have used the treasury of the +empire freely." + +"To Phranza! Why, I have a daughter of his in the nursery at +Adrianople. His wife I have given to the Master of the Horse.[90] His +son I have this day sent to hell for his insolence. But she is an +Arnaout; therefore not of kin to Phranza. Search out her story, +Tamlich! For a member of the family of Phranza, and not of his blood, +may be of some political consequence. I will keep her. But get her +story, Tamlich, get her story!" + +"I have it already, Sire," replied the eunuch. + +"Ah!" + +"She is a ward of Scanderbeg, the Arnaout traitor, sent to +Constantinople to escape the danger of capture by thine all-conquering +arms. But the bird fled from the fowler into the snare." + +"Perhaps a child of Scanderbeg! Eh, Tamlich? One at least whose life +is of great value to him, and was to the Greek empire. I will inform +Scanderbeg that she is in my possession. By the dread of what may +happen to her I shall the easier force that ravening brute to make +terms; for I am tired of battering my sword against his rocks, trying +to prick his skin. Keep her close, Tamlich, keep her close!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[84] Odalisk; the title of a childless inmate of the harem. + +[85] Mother of the Sultan. + +[86] Hamamjina; bath attendant. + +[87] Hanoum; a title given to matrons. + +[88] Muderris; professors in the high schools. + +[89] Chain of Ulemas; a renowned system of colleges. + +[90] Gibbon; Chapter LXVIII. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + + +Late in the day the Sultan retired to a neighboring mansion, once +possessed by the Greek Grand Duke, Lucas Notaras, and there sought +relaxation from the incessant cares of the empire. The day had been +wearisome. Architects had submitted plans for the detailed +ornamentation of the new seraglio which was rising on the Byzantine +Point. One of the plans led to dispute between the Padishah and the +chief Mufti, the expounder of the Moslem law. It was occasioned thus. +The porphyry column[91] which stood hard by the palace of the Greek +emperors, had once served to hold aloft the bronze statue of Apollo, a +precious relic of ancient Greek mythology. This was afterward +reverenced by the people as the figure of the Emperor Constantine the +Great, or worshipped by them as that of Christ. An architect proposed +that the time-glorious shaft should now be surmounted by the colossal +statue of Mahomet II. The Mufti declared the project to be impious, as +tempting to idolatry, against which the Koran was so clear and +denunciatory, and also the Sounna or traditional sayings of the +Prophet. The Sultan's pride rebelled against this assumption of an +authority above his own. But the Sultan's superstitious regard for the +faith among the people, which led him to wash his hands and face +openly whenever he spoke with the architect, who was a Christian +engaged at great cost from Italy, also led him to fear to break with +the prescriptions and customs of his religion in this matter. He +contented himself with an oath that he had sooner lost the honor of a +campaign than the privilege of seeing himself represented as the +conqueror of both Constantine and Christ. Generals, too, had been in +council with him that day regarding the conduct of intrigues for the +possession of the Peloponnesus, and about the wars in Servia, Boznia +and Trebizond. Ill tidings had come from Albania, where Scanderbeg was +consuming the Turkish armies, as a great spider entraps in his webs +and at his leisure devours a swarm of hornets, which, could they have +free access to him, would instantly sting him to death. The messenger +who brought this news was rewarded by having hurled at his head an +immense vase of malachite, in the exertion of lifting which the +imperial wrath was sufficiently eased to allow of his turning to other +business. A plan for the reception of the inmates of the grand harem +at Adrianople, when they should be transported to the spacious +buildings being constructed for them in the seraglio, was also a +pleasing diversion, and led the Sultan to make the brief visit to the +fair ones at the house of Phranza, which has been described. But the +nettled spirit of the Padishah was far from subdued. He had during the +day given an order, the sequel to which we must relate, and which, +while it disturbed his conscience and flooded him at moments with the +sense of self-contempt, also inflamed his natural passion for cruelty. +He determined to drown the noble, and to satiate the the vicious, +craving by an hour or two of unrestrained debauch. + +In the court of the house of the Grand Duke Notaras was spread the +royal banquet. Rarest viands were flanked by flagons of costliest +wines. Upon the momentary surprise of the steward when he received the +order to provide the wines, the monarch cried in a contemptuous tone: + +"Ah! I know your thoughts. It is not according to the Koran that wine +should be drunk. But by the staff of Moses,[92] which they found in +the palace of the Cæsars yonder, I swear that Mahomet the Emperor +shall not yield to Mahomet the Prophet in everything. The Prophet made +laws to suit his own taste, so will I[93]. He can have Mecca and +Medina and Jerusalem; but I shall reign without him in my own palace +in Stamboul, which I have captured with my own hand. Bring the wine, +or I'll spill your black blood as a beverage to those in hell! It will +be sweet enough for your kin who are black with roasting. I will have +wine to-day! Cool it in all the snows from Mount Olympus yonder; for +my blood is as hot as if I were shod with fire; and my skull boils +like a pot."[94] + +About the table were divans cushioned with down and covered with +yellow silk. The Padishah took his seat upon the highest cushion. By +his side stood the chief of the black eunuchs, splendidly[95] attired +in the waistcoat of flower embroidered brocade, tunic of scarlet, +flowing trousers, red turban, and half boots of bronzed leather. He +held a wand of silver covered with elegant tracery and topped in +filagree. As he waved this symbol of his office, there came from the +various doors opening into the court groups of the harem women. They +were draped in gauze, in the folds of which sparkled diamonds and +glowed the hues of precious stones selected by the taste of the chief +eunuch to set off the complexion and hair of their various wearers, +and at the same time to facilitate their grouping into sets of +dancers. The court was made radiant with these beautiful forms, which +moved in circles or in spirals about the fountains and under the +orange trees, whose white blossoms and golden fruit in simultaneous +fulness completed the picture for the eye, while their fragrance +loaded the air with its delicate delight. + +The Kislar Aga had arranged a scene which especially pleased the +monarch, whose head was already swimming with the combined effect of +the mazy dance and the fumes of the wine. An attendant led into the +court, held partly by a strong leash and partly by the voice of his +trainer, a magnificent leopard. With utmost grace the beast leaped +over the ribboned wand, falling so softly to the ground that, though +of enormous weight, he would not seemingly have broken a twig had it +lain beneath his feet. In imitation of this, a eunuch led into the +court by a leash of roses a Circassian dancer, the gift of a +Caramanian prince. Her form was as free from the hindrances of dress +as that of her spotted competitor; except that a bright gem burned +upon her forehead, in the node which gathered a part of her hair; +while the abundance of her tresses was either held out on her snowy +arms, or fell about her as a veil almost to her feet. With a hundred +variations the girl repeated the motions of the leopard, leaping the +wands with equal grace as she came to them in the measures of the +dance. + +The great brute had laid his head in the lap of his trainer, and was +watching his beautiful rival with apparent enjoyment; only now and +then uttering a low growl as if in jealousy, when the Bravo! of the +Sultan rewarded some especially fascinating movement. The girl came to +the side of the magnificent monster and dropped her long hair over his +head. The brute closed his eyes as if soothed by the wooing of the +maiden. Cautiously, but encouraged by the low voice of the trainer, +she placed her head upon the mottled and living pillow. A great paw +was thrown about her shoulder. + +The Sultan was in ecstasy of applause, and shouted: + +"A collar of gold for each of them!" + +The girl attempted to rise, but her splendid lover seemed to have +become really enamored of the beautiful form he held. Her slightest +motion was answered by a growl; while the swaying of his tail +indicated that, as among human kind, so with the brutes, the softest +sentiments were to be guarded by those of a severer nature; that +baffled love must meet the avenging of cruel wrath. Like the affection +of some men, that of the leopard was limited to its own gratification, +and utterly regardless of the comfort of its object; for the fondness +of the brute was not such as to prevent his long nails protruding +through their velvet covering, and entering the bare flesh of the +girl. She quivered with pain, yet, at the quick warning of the +trainer, she made no outcry. The man drew from his pocket a small bit +of raw flesh, and diverted the eyes of the brute from the blood +streaming at each claw-puncture on the neck and bosom of his victim. +The leopard savagely snapped at the morsel, and, at the same instant +struck it with his paw, and leaped to seize it as it was hurled many +feet away. The girl as quickly darted to a safe distance. Attendants +instantly appeared and surrounded the beast with their spear points. +He crouched at the feet of the trainer, and whined in fear until he +was led out. + +The girls then encircled the seat of the Sultan, and vied with one +another in the simulated attempt to throw over him a spell. Nor was +the attempt merely simulated, as each one displayed the utmost art of +beauty and manner to win from the half-drunken tyrant some token of +his favor. + +When Elissa came near the Sultan, he bade her play with him as the +Circassian did with the leopard. He held her and exclaimed to the +others: + +"Beware your leopard when he growls! but where is the other Arnaout? I +will have the pearl with the ruby of the harem! where is she, I say? +Did I not order you to bring all the odalisks to my feast?" + +"From your Majesty's orders but lately, Sire, I supposed--" began the +eunuch. + +"Supposed? You are to obey, not to suppose," cried the demented man, +slashing at him with the cimeter that lay at his feet. + +"But she is not robed for the feast." + +"Bring her as she is, and robe her here. You said that she was fairer +than this one. If she is not fairer than this one, the leopard's claws +will grip her, and the beast shall have your black body for his next +supper. Bring her!" + +The eunuch soon returned with Morsinia. She wore a sombre feridjé, or +cloak completely enveloping the person. This she had on at the moment +she was summoned, and the eunuch obeyed literally the mandate of the +monarch to bring her as she was. + +As she stood before the Sultan she appeared, in contrast with her half +naked and bejeweled sisters, like a prophetess; some female Elijah +before Ahab surrounded by his household of Jezebels. Throwing back the +yashmak, or long veil--the one Moslem costume she had very willingly +assumed after her captivity--she gazed upon the tyrant with a look of +amazed inquiry of his meaning in summoning her to such a place. The +sovereignty of her soul asserted and expressed itself in her noble +brow, her clear and steady eye, her dauntless bearing. + +"Sire, I have obeyed," said she, making the obeisance which in form +was obsequious, but which she executed with such dignity that even the +dull wit of the reveller felt that she had not really humbled herself +before him by so much as the shadow of a thought. + +"Disrobe her!" cried the monarch. + +The woman stepped back, as if to avoid the contact of her person with +the black eunuch; but as suddenly threw off the feridjé herself. If +she had seemed a gloomy prophetess before, her appearance now would +have suggested to an ancient Greek the apparition of Pudicitia, the +goddess of modesty. Her gown of rich pearl-tinted cloth covered her +shoulders; and, though opened upon the bosom, it was to show only the +thick folds of white lace which embraced the throat in a ruffle, and +was clasped with a single gem--a cameo presented to her by the Greek +Emperor. + +The bearing of the woman gave a temporary check to the abominable rage +of the royal wretch, and recalled him to his better judgment. For it +was a peculiarity of Mahomet that no passion or debauch could +completely divert him from carrying out any plan he had devised +pertaining to his imperial ambition. As certain musicians perform +without the sacrifice of a note the most difficult pieces, when too +drunk to hold a goblet steadily to their lips, and as certain noted +generals have staggered through the battle without the slightest +strategic mistake, so Mahomet never lost sight of a political or +military purpose he had formed. While sleeping and waking, in the +wildest revelry and in the privacy of his unspeakable sensuality, that +project blazed before him like a strong fire-light through the haze. + +"Take her away! Take her away!" said he to the eunuch, recollecting +his purpose of using her in his negotiations with Scanderbeg; and +covering his retreat from his original command by the remark, "She is +the woman who thinks, I want none such to put her head against my +heart. She might discover my thoughts; and by the secrets of Allah! +if a hair of my beard knew one of my thoughts I would pluck it out and +burn it."[96] + +As Morsinia withdrew, a eunuch approached and whispered to the Sultan. + +"Ah! it is good! good!" cried the Monarch. "My Lord, the Grand Duke +Notaras, will revisit his mansion. For him we have provided a feast +such as his master Palæologus never gave him. Ah! my lovely Arnaout +shall sit at my right hand--for the queen of beauty has precedence +to-day," said he, addressing Elissa. "And the Egyptian shall make me +merry with the music of her voice, which I doubt not is sweeter than +the strains of her native Memnon. And, Tamlich, you shall do me the +honor of representing the king of Nubia, and lie there opposite." + +The eunuch stood bewildered; for never before had a Moslem proposed to +introduce into his harem the person of any man, as now the Duke of +Notaras was to look upon the beauties who should be reserved solely +for the feasting of the Padishah's eyes. + +Mahomet, knowing his thoughts, bade him obey, and cried, + +"Let the fair houris veil their faces with their blushes. Bring in +Notaras!" + +Three blacks entered, each bearing a great salver, on which was a +covered dish of gold. + +"To Tamlich I demit the honors of the board," said he, waving the +foremost waiter toward the eunuch, whose face almost blanched at the +strange turn affairs were taking, or perhaps with the suspicion that +to-morrow his head would fall from his shoulders as the penalty of +having witnessed the Padishah disgrace himself. + +The attendants placed the dishes before the eunuch and the two favored +beauties. The covers removed revealed the ghastly sight of three human +heads, their unclosed eyes staring upward from their distorted faces +and gory locks. The eunuch leaped from the divan. The women fell back +shrieking and fainting. They were the heads of the Grand Duke Notaras +and his two children. + +Well did the Sultan need the strong diversion of the drunken revelry +to drown the thoughts of what he knew to be transpiring at the hour. +In spite of his royal word to the distinguished captive who had made +his submission absolute, except to the extent of seeing his children +dishonored to the vilest purposes, Mahomet had ordered that Notaras +should be beheaded at the Hippodrome, having been first compelled to +witness the decapitation of his family. + +Even Mahomet was sobered by the horrid ghoulism he had devised, and +dismissed the terror-stricken revelers with a volley of curses. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[91] Porphyry column; now the famous Burnt Column. + +[92] Staff of Moses; one of the relics held sacred by the Greeks at +the time. + +[93] Gibbon's statement of Mahomet II's. opinion. + +[94] Punishment of those in hell, according to Koran. + +[95] See effigy in the museum of the Elbicei-Atika at Constantinople. + +[96] A similar remark was made afterward by Mahomet II. to a chief +officer who asked him his plans for a certain campaign. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + + +The courage of Morsinia when she appeared before Mahomet had been +stimulated by an event which occurred a little before her summons. + +She was sitting by the latticed window in the house of Phranza. It +overlooked the wall surrounding the garden, which on that side was a +narrow enclosure. This had been her favorite resort in brighter days. +From it she could see what passed in the broad highway beyond, while +the close latticed woodwork prevented her being seen by those without. +While musing there she was strangely attracted by an officer who +frequently passed. His shape and stature reminded her strongly of +Constantine. As he turned his face toward the mansion the features +seemed identical with those of her foster brother. Recovering from the +stroke of surprise this apparition gave her, Morsinia rubbed her eyes +to make sure she was not dreaming, and looked again. He was in +conversation with another. It could not be Constantine, for, aside +from the general belief in Constantine's death before the termination +of the siege, this person was saluted with great reverence by the +soldiers who passed by, and approached with familiarity by other +officers of rank. + +The sight brought into vivid conviction what had long been her day +dream, namely, that Michael, her childhood playmate, might be living, +and if so, would probably be among the Turkish soldiers; for his +goodly physique and talent, displayed as a lad, would certainly have +been cultivated by his captors. She now felt certain of her theory. So +strong was the impression, and so active and exciting her thoughts as +she endeavored to devise a way by which the discovery might be +utilized to the advantage of both, that even the loathsome splendor of +the Sultan's garden party, had not impressed her as it otherwise would +have done. + +For several days after she was almost oblivious to the monotony of the +harem life; so busy was she with her new problem. She determined that, +at any cost, she would bring herself into communication with the +officer, and, if her theory should be confirmed, declare herself, and +boldly propose that he should rescue her. For she could not conceive +that, however much he had become accustomed to Turkish life, he had +lost all yearning for his liberty and all impression of his Christian +faith. + +But how could she convey any intelligence to him? Except through the +eunuchs, the inmates of the harem had little communication with the +outer world. The customs of life there were as inflexible as the +walls. + +To her natural ingenuity, now so quickened by necessity and hope, +there at length appeared an end thread of the tangle. The women of the +harem relieved the tedium of their existence by making various +articles, the construction of which might not mar the delicacy of +their fingers; such as needlework upon their own clothing, coverings +for cushions, curtains, tapestried hangings, spreads for couches, +cases in which the Koran could be kept so that even when being read +it need not be touched by the fingers, bags of scented powders, and +the like. Many of these articles were disposed of at the bazaars of +the city, and the proceeds spent by the odalisks at their own caprice; +generally for confections and gew-gaws. At the time there was quite a +demand for articles made in the harem. Many thousands of Moslems had +been imported from Asia Minor to take the place of the rapidly +disappearing Greek population. Large stores of articles were sent from +the great harem at Adrianople, and sold for fabulous prices in the +bazaars of Stamboul, as the new capital was called by the Turks. The +agents for the sale of these things were generally the female +attendants at the harem, who had free association with the bazaar +keepers. Sometimes these women sold directly to the individual +purchasers without going to the trade places. An officer or young +citizen was often inveigled into buying, and paying exorbitant prices +too, on hearing that some odalisk had set longing eyes upon him, and +wrought the purse or belt, the dagger-sheath or embroidered jacket, as +a special evidence of her favor. Many were the stories which the +gallants of the city and garrison were accustomed to tell, as they +displayed their purchases, about nocturnal adventures, in which they +were guided only by a pair of bright eyes, and of favors received from +beauties whose names, of course, prudence forbade them to mention. All +the traditions of lovers, romances of moon-shadowed grottoes, and all +the stories of castles with the thread at the window, that have been +told from the beginning of the world, had their counterpart in those +the swains of Stamboul told about the Sultan's earthly paradise at +Adrianople, or those which, in their amatory bantering, they had made +to cluster about the villa of the late Phranza at the new capital. + +An old woman, who, formerly a servant in the harem, had been given by +the Validé Sultana, the mother of Amurath, to a subaltern officer as +wife, but had long been a widow, was permitted freely to enter the +haremlik, and engaged as a convenient broker between those within and +those without. One day Morsinia, in giving her some of her handiwork +for sale, held up an elegant case of silk containing several little +crystals, or phials, of atar of roses. + +"Kala-Hanoum, do you know the young Captain Ballaban?" + +"Ay, the Knight of the Golden Horn?" asked the woman. + +"And why do they call him that?" + +"Because," she replied, "his head glows like one, I suppose." + +"Yes, he is the man--Well! find him--Tell him any story you please +about my beauty." + +"I need not invent one; I must only tell the truth to bewitch him," +replied the old dame, with real fondness and admiration. "But that +will be difficult. I can invent a lie better than describe the truth, +unless you help me." + +"Well," said Morsinia, "tell him as much truth about my appearance as +you can, and invent the rest. Tell him--let me see--that my eyes are +as bright as the stars that shine above the Balkans." + +"Do they shine there more brilliantly than here where they make their +toilet in the Bosphorus?" asked the woman. + +"Oh! yes," said Morsinia, "for the air is clearest there of any place +on the earth. Tell him, too, that my teeth are as white as the snows +that lie in the pass of Slatiza." + +"Where is that?" queried the messenger. + +"Oh! it is a grotto I have heard of, that lies very high up toward the +sky, where the snows are unsoiled by passing through the clouds, +which, you know, always tints them. And then tell him that altogether +I am as queenly as--as--well! as the wonderful Elizabeth Morsiney, the +bride of the Christian king Sigismund." + +"Elizabeth Morsiney? yes, I will remember that name, if some day you +will tell me her story." + +"That I will," said Morsinia. "And tell the young officer that the +odalisk who made this lovely case has dreamed of him ever since she +was a child." + +"He cannot resist that," said the woman. + +"But you must sell it to no one else. And see this elegant sash of +cashmere! I will give it to you to sell on your own account, Hanoum, +if you bring me some sure evidence that he has bought the case of +perfume. And be sure to tell him that just when the sun is setting he +must go somewhere alone, and look at the sun through each of the +little phials, and he may see the face of her who sent them; for you +know that a true lover can always see the one who sends a phial of +atar of roses in the sun glints from its sides. And when you bring me +evidence that he has bought it, then, good Kala, you shall have the +sash of cashmere." The old woman's cupidity hastened her feet upon +her errand. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + + +"Peace be with thee!" said the old woman, dropping a low courtesy to +the officer, as he walked near the new buildings of the seraglio. + +"Peace be unto _thee_, and the mercy of God and His blessing,[97] good +woman!" replied the soldier; but waving his hand, added kindly, "I +have no need of your harem trumpery." + +"But see this!" said she, showing the elegant case of perfumery. "This +holds the essence of the flowers of paradise." + +"Go along, old mother! I would have no taste for it if it contained +the sweat of the houris."[98] + +"But this case was made especially for you, Captain Ballaban." + +"Or for any other man whose purse will buy it," replied he, moving +away. + +The woman followed closely, chattering into his deaf ears. + +"But, could you see her that made it, you would not decline to buy, +though you gave for it half the gold you found in the coffers of the +rich Greeks the day your valor won the city, brave Captain; and the +cost of it is but a lira;[99] and the maiden is dying of love for +you." + +"Then why does she not give it to me as a present? Love asks no +price," said he, just turning his head. + +"That she would, but for fear of offending your honor by slighting +your purse," said the quick-witted woman. + +"Well said, mother! I warrant that the Beyler Bey, or the noble +Kaikji,[100] who made love to you never got you for nothing." + +"Indeed, no! He paid the Validé Sultana ten provinces, and a brass +buckle besides, to prevent her giving me to Timour; who took it so +hard that he would have broken his heart, but that the grief went the +wrong way and cracked his legs, and so they call him Timour-lenk. That +was the reason he made war on the Ottomans. It was all out of jealousy +for me," said she, making a low and mock courtesy. "But if you could +see the beautiful odalisk who made this! Her form is as stately as the +dome of St. Sophia." + +"She's too big and squatty, if she's like that," laughed the officer. + +"Her face glows in complexion like the mother of pearl," went on the +enthusiastic saleswoman. + +"Too hard of cheek!" sneered the other. "Even yours, Hanoum, is not so +hard as mother of pearl." + +"A neck like alabaster----" + +"Cold! too cold! I would as soon think of making love to a +gravestone," was the officer's comment. + +"And such melting lips----" + +"Yes, with blisters! I tell you, old Hanoum, I'm woman proof. Go +away!" + +"And her eyes shine through her long lashes like the stars through the +fir trees on the Balkans." + +"Tut! Woman, you never saw the stars shine on the Balkans. They do +shine there, though, like the very eyes of Allah. A woman with such +eyes would frighten the Padishah himself." + +Kala Hanoum took courage at this first evidence of interest on the +part of the officer, and plied her advantage. + +"And her teeth are as white as the snows in the grotto of Slatiza--" + +"The grotto of Slatiza? You mean some bear's cave. But the snows are +white there, whiter and purer than anywhere else on earth, except as I +once saw them, so red with blood, there in the Pass of Slatiza. But +how know you of Slatiza, my good woman?" + +"And altogether she is as fair as the bride of Sigismund of Hungary," +said Kala, without regarding his question. + +"And who was she, Hanoum?" asked the man, with curiosity fully +aroused. + +"Why, Elizabeth Morsiney, of course." + +The officer turned fully toward the woman, and scanned closely her +features as if to discover something familiar. Was there not some hint +to be picked from these words? + +"Hanoum, who told you to say that?" + +The woman in turn studied his face before she replied. She would +learn whether the allusions had excited a pleasant interest, or roused +antagonism in him. It required but a moment for her to discover that +Morsinia had given her some clue that the man would willingly follow, +so she boldly replied: + +"The odalisk herself has talked to me of these things." + +"The odalisk! What is she like?" said he eagerly. "Describe her to +me." + +"Why, I have been describing her for this half-hour; but you would not +listen. So I will go off and do my next errand." + +The woman turned away, but, as she intended it should be, the officer +was now in the attitude of the beggar. + +"Hold, Hanoum, I will buy your perfume--But tell me what she is like +in plain words. Is she of light hair?" + +"Ay, as if she washed it in the sunshine and dried it in the +moonlight, and as glossy as the beams of both." + +"Think you she belonged to Stamboul before the siege?" + +"Ay, and to the great Scanderbeg before that." + +The officer was bewildered and stood thinking, until Kala interrupted +him. + +"But you said you would buy it, Captain." + +"Did I? Well, take your lira." + +As the woman took the piece of money she added: "And don't forget that +the odalisk said she had dreamed of you since she was a child, and +that at sunset if you looked through the phials you would see her +face." + +"Nonsense, woman!" + +"But try it, Sire, and maybe the noble Captain would send something to +the beautiful odalisk?" + +"Yes, when I see her in the phial I will send her myself as her +slave." + +The man thrust the silken case into the deep pocket of his flowing +vest and went away. + +Then began a struggle in Captain Ballaban. Since the capture of the +fair girl by the altar of St. Sophia, he had been unable to efface the +remembrance of her. She stood before him in his dreams: sometimes just +falling beneath the dagger; sometimes in the splendor which he +imagined to surround her in the harem; often in mute appeal to him to +save her from the nameless horrors which her cry indicated that she +dreaded. When waking, his mind was often distracted by thoughts of +her. The presence of the Sultan lost its charm, for he had come to +look upon him as her owner, and to feel himself in some way despoiled. +He was losing his ambition for distant service, and found himself +often loitering in the vicinity of the Phranza palace. + +This feeling which, perhaps, is experienced by most men, at least once +in life, as the spell of a fair face is thrown over them, was +associated with a deeper and more serious one in Captain Ballaban. + +From the day of her capture until now he had felt almost confident of +her identity with his little playmate in the mountain home. She thus +linked together his earliest and later life; and, as he thought of +her, he thought of the contrast in himself then and now. The things +he used to muse about when a child, his feelings then, his purposes, +his religious faith, all came back to him, and with a strange strength +and fascination. He began to realize that, though he was an enthusiast +for both the Moslem belief and the service of the Ottoman, yet he had +become such, not in his own free choice, but by the overpowering will +of others. At heart he rebelled, while he could not say that he had +come to disbelieve a word of the Koran, and was not willing to harbor +a purpose against the sovereignty of the Padishah. Still he was +compelled to confess to himself that, if the fair woman were indeed +his old play-mate, and there was open a way by which he could release +her from her captivity, he would risk so much of disloyalty to the +Sultan as the attempt should require. Indeed, he argued to himself +that, except in the mere form of it, it would not be disloyalty; for +what did Mahomet care for one woman more or less in his harem? And was +this woman not, after all, more his property than she was that of the +Padishah? He had captured her; perhaps twice; and had saved her life +in St. Sophia, for only his hand caught her dagger. She was his! + +Then he became fond of indulging a day dream. The Sultan sometimes +gave the odalisks to his favorite pashas and servants. What if this +one should be given to him? + +He had gone so far as once to say in response to the Sultan, who +twitted him for being in love, that he imagined such to be the case, +and only needed the choice of His Majesty to locate the passion. But +he did not dare to be more specific, lest he might run across some +caprice of the Sultan; for he felt sure that so beautiful an odalisk +as his captive would not long be without the royal attention. + +Old Kala Hanoum's information regarding the fair odalisk allayed the +turmoil in Ballaban's breast, in that it gave certainty to his former +suspicions. For her words about the stars above the Balkans, the snows +of Slatiza, and Elizabeth Morsiney, were not accidental. He had no +doubt that the Albanian odalisk was the little lady to whom he once +made love in the bowers of blackberry bushes, and vowed to defend like +a true knight, waving his wooden sword over the head of the goat he +rode as a steed. In the midst of such thoughts and emotions, Captain +Ballaban awoke to full self-consciousness, and said to himself---- + +"I am in love! But I am a fool! For a man with ambition must never be +in love, except with himself. Besides, this woman I love is perhaps +half in my imagination; for I never yet caught a full view of her +face. As for her being my little Morsinia--Illusion! No! this is no +illusion! But what if she be the same! Captain Ballaban, are you going +to be a soldier, or a lover? Take your choice; for you can't be both, +at least not an Ottoman soldier and a lover of a Christian girl." + +Rubbing his hand through his red hair, as if to pull out these +fantasies, he strode down to the water's edge, and, tossing a Kaikji a +few piasters, was in a moment darting like an arrow across the +harbor;--a customary way the captain had of getting rid of any +vexation. The cool evening breeze wooed the over-thoughtfulness from +his brain, or he spurted it out through his muscles into the oar +blades, which dropped it into the water of oblivion. + +He was scarcely aware that he was becoming more tranquil, when a quick +cry of a boat keeper showed that he had almost run down the old tower +of white marble which rises from a rocky islet, just away from the +mainland on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. + +"Kiss-Koulessi, the Maiden's Tower, this," he muttered. "Well, I have +fled from the fortress of one maiden to run against that of another. +Fate is against me. Perhaps I had better submit. Why not? Wasn't +Charis a valiant general of the old Greeks, who sent him here, once on +a time, to help the Byzantines? Well! He had a wife, the fair +Boiidion, the 'heifer-eyed maiden.' And here she lies beneath this +tower. The world would have forgotten General Charis, but for his wife +Damalis, whom they have remembered these two thousand years. A wife +_may_ be the making of a man's fame. If the Sultan would give me my +pick of the odalisks I think I would venture." + +These thoughts were not interrupted, only supplemented, by the sun's +rays, now nearly horizontal, as striking the water far up the harbor +of Stamboul, they poured over it and made it seem indeed a Golden +Horn, the open end of which extended into the Bosphorus. The ruddy +glow tipped the dome of St. Sophia as with fire; transformed the gray +walls of the Genoese tower at Galata into a huge porphyry column, +sparkling with a million crystals; and made the white marble of the +Maiden's Tower blush like the neck of a living maiden, when kissed +for the first time by the hot lips of her lover. + +So the Captain thought: and was reminded to inspect the silken +treasure he had purchased. He would look through the phials, as--who +knows--he might see the face of her who sent them. If looking at the +red orb of the sun, just for an instant, made his eyes see a hundred +sombre suns dancing along the sky, it would not be strange if his long +meditation upon a certain radiant maiden should enable him to see her, +at least in one shadowy reproduction of his inner vision. + +He drew the silken case from his pocket. It was wrought with real +skill, and worth the lira, even if it had contained nothing, and meant +nothing. The little phials were held up one by one, and divided the +sun's beams into prismatic hues as they passed through the twisted +glass. In each was a drop or two of sweet essence, like an imprisoned +soul, waiting to be released, that it might fly far and wide and +distill its perfume as a secret blessing. + +"But this one is imperfect," muttered the Captain, as he held up a +phial that was nearly opaque. It was larger than the others, and +contained a tightly wrapped piece of paper. "The clue!" said he, and, +after a moment's hesitation, broke the phial. Unwinding the paper, he +read: + +"You are Michael, son of Milosch. I am Morsinia, child of +Kabilovitsch. For the love of Jesu! save me from this hell. We can +communicate by this means." + +It was a long row that Captain Ballaban took that night upon the +Bosphorus. Yet he went not far, but back and forth around the new +seraglio point, scarcely out of sight of the clear-cut outline of the +Phranza Palace, as it stood out against the sky above the ordinary +dwellings of the city. The dawn began to peer over the hills back of +Chalcedon, and to send its scouts of ruddy light down the side of Mt. +Olympus, when he landed. But the length of the night to him could not +be measured by hours. He had lived over again ten years. He had gone +through a battle which tired his soul as it had never been tired under +the flashing of steel and the roar of culverin. Only once before, +when, as a mere child he was conquered by the terrors of the +Janizaries' discipline, had he suffered so intensely. Yet the battle +was an undecided one. He staggered up the hill from the landing to the +barracks with the cry of conflict ringing through his soul. "What +shall I do?" On the one side were the habit of loyalty, his oath of +devotion to the Padishah, all his earthly ambition which blazed with +splendors just before him--for he was the favorite of both the Sultan +and the soldiers--and all that the education of his riper years had +led him to hope for in another world. On the other side were this new +passion of love which he could no longer laugh down, and the appeal of +a helpless fellow creature for rescue from what he knew was injustice, +cruelty and degradation;--the first personal appeal a human being had +ever made to him, and he the only human being to whom she could +appeal. To heed this cry of Morsinia he knew would be treason to his +outward and sworn loyalty. To refuse to heed it he felt would be +treason to his manhood. What could he do? Neither force was +preponderating. + +The battle wavered. + +What did he do? What most people do in such circumstances--he +temporized: said, "I will do nothing to-day." Like a genuine Turk he +grunted to himself, "Bacaloum!" "We shall see!" + +But though he arranged and ordered an armistice between his contending +thoughts, there was no real cessation of hostilities. Arguments +battered against arguments. Feelings of the gentler sort mined +incessantly beneath those which he would have called the braver and +more manly. And the latter counter-mined: loyalty against love: +ambition against pity. + +But all the time the gentler ones were gaining strength. On their side +was the advantage of a definite picture--a lovely face; of an +immediate and tangible project--the rescue of an individual. The +danger of the enterprise weighed nothing with him, or, at least, it +was counter-balanced by the inspiriting anticipation of an adventure, +an exploit:--the very hazard rather fascinating than repelling. Yet he +had not decided. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[97] Koran, Chapter IV. "When you are saluted with a salutation, +salute the person with a better salutation, or at least return the +same." + +[98] According to the Koran the houris perspire musk. + +[99] About an English pound sterling. + +[100] Kaikji; a common boatman. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + + +Captain Ballaban was summoned by the Sultan. + +"Well, comrade," said Mahomet, familiarly throwing his arm about his +friend, much to the disgust of the Capee Aga, the master of +ceremonies, through whom alone it was the custom of the Sultans to be +approached. + +"Well! comrade, I gave a necklace worth a thousand liras to a girl who +pleased me in the harem." + +"Happy girl, to have pleased your Majesty. That was better than the +necklace," replied Ballaban. + +"Think you so? Let me look you through and through. Think you there is +nothing better in this world than to please the Padishah? Ah! it is +worth a kingdom to hear that from a man like you, Ballaban. Women say +it; but they can do nothing for me. They dissipate my thoughts with +their pleasuring me. They make me weak. I have a mind to abolish the +whole harem. But to have a man, a strong man, a man with a head to +plot for empire and to marshal armies, a man with an arm like thine to +make love to me! Ah, that is glorious, comrade. But let me make no +mistake about it. You love me? Do you really think no gold, no honors, +could give you so much pleasure as pleasing me? Swear it! and by the +throne of Allah! I will swear that you shall share my empire. But to +business!" dropping his voice, and in the instant becoming apparently +forgetful of his enthusiasm for his friend. + +"We make a campaign against Belgrade. I must go in person. Yet +Scanderbeg holds out in Albania. It is useless meeting him in his +stronghold. You cannot fight a lion by crawling into his den. He must +be trapped. Work out a plan." + +"I have one which may be fruitful," instantly replied Captain +Ballaban. + +"Ah! so quick?" + +"No, of long hatching, Sire. I made it in my first campaign in Albania +with your royal father. The young Voivode Amesa is nephew to +Scanderbeg. He is restless under the authority of the great general: +has committed some crime which, if known, would bring him to ruin: is +popular with the people of the north." + +"Capital!" said Mahomet eagerly. "I see it all. Work it out! Work it +out! He may have anything, if only Scanderbeg can be put out of the +way, and the country be under our suzerainty. Work it out! And the +suzerain revenues shall all be yours; for by the bones of Othman! +there is not a province too great for you if only you can settle +affairs among the Arnaouts. + +"And now a gift! I will send you the very queen of the harem." + +"My thanks, Padishah, but I----" began Ballaban, when he was cut short +by the Sultan. + +"Not a word! not a word! I know you decline to practice the softer +virtues, and prefer to live like a Greek monk. But you must take her. +If you like her not, drown her. But you shall like her. By the dimple +in the chin of Ayesha! she is the most perfect woman in the empire." + +"But," interposed Ballaban, "I am a Janizary, and it is not permitted +a Janizary to marry." + +"A fig for what is permitted! When the Padishah gives, he grants +permission to enjoy his gifts. Besides, you need not marry. You can +own her; sell her if you don't like her. But you must take her." + +"Of what nation is she? Perhaps I could not understand her tongue," +objected Ballaban. + +"So much the better," said Mahomet. "Women are not made to talk. But +this woman is an Arnaout, from Scanderbeg's country." + +Captain Ballaban could scarcely believe his ears. + +This then is Morsinia! To have her, to save her without breach of +loyalty! This was too much. With strangely fluttering heart he +acquiesced, and his thanks were drawn from the bottom of his soul. + +The next day he sought Kala Hanoum, and sent by her to Morsinia a gem +enclosed in a pretty casket, with which was a note, reading,-- + +"It shall be so. Patience for a few days, and our hearts shall be made +glad." + +How strangely Fate had planned for him! It must have been Fate; for +only powers supernal could have made the gift of the Padishah so +fitting to his heart. No chance this! His secret passion, unbreathed +to any ear on earth, had been a prayer heard in heaven! + +Ballaban was now an undoubting Moslem that he found Kismet on the side +of his inclinations. He belonged to Islâm, the Holy Resignation; +resigned to the will of Providence, since Providence seemed just now +to have resigned itself to his will. He was surprised at the ecstatic +character his piety was taking on. He could have become a dervish: +indeed his head was already whirling with the intoxication of his +prospects. + +Captain Ballaban, like a good Moslem, went to the Mosque. He made his +prayer toward the Mihrab; but his eyes and thoughts wandered to the +spot at the side of it, where he had saved the life of Morsinia; and +he thanked Allah with full soul that he had been allowed to save her +for himself. + +The Padishah, the following day, bade Ballaban repair to a house in +the city, and be in readiness to receive the gift of heaven and of his +own imperial grace. On reaching the place an elderly woman--the +Koulavous, an inevitable attendant upon marriages--conducted him +through the selamlik and mabeyn to the haremlik of the house. The +bride or slave, as he pleased to take her, rose from the divan to meet +him. Though her thick veil completely enveloped her person, it could +not conceal her superb form and marvellous grace. His hand trembled +with the agitation of his delight as he exercised the authority of a +husband or master, and reverently raised the veil. + +He stood as one paralyzed in amazement. She was not Morsinia. She was +Elissa! + +He dropped the veil. + +Strange spirits seemed to breathe themselves in succession through his +frame. + +First came the demon of disappointment, checking his blood, stifling +him. Not that any other mortal knew of his shattered hopes; but it was +enough that he knew them. And with the consciousness of defeat, a +horrible chagrin bit and tore his heart, as if it had been some dragon +with teeth and claws. + +Then came the demon of rage; wild rage; wanting to howl out its fury. +He might have smitten the veiled form, had not the latter, overcome by +her bewilderment and the scorn of him she supposed to have been a +lover, already fallen fainting at his feet. + +Then rose in Ballaban's breast the demon of vengeance against the +Sultan. Had Mahomet been present he surely had felt the steel of the +outraged man. Only the habit of self-control and quiet review of his +own passions prevented his seeking the Padishah, and taking instant +vengeance in his blood. + +Then there came into him a great demon of impiety, and breathed a +curse against Allah himself through his lips. + +But finally a new spirit hissed into his ears. It was Nemesis. He felt +that this was the moment when a just retribution had returned upon +himself. For he well knew the face that lay weeping beneath the heap +of bejewelled lace and silk. It was that of the Dodola, whom he had +flung into the arms of the Albanian Voivode Amesa when he was awaiting +the embrace of some more princely maiden. And now the sarcasm of fate +had thrown her into his arms. + +"Allah! Thou wast even with me this time," he confessed back of his +clenched teeth. + +"But doubtless," he thought, "it was through the information I gave to +the Aga that this girl has been stolen away from Amesa." + +"Would that heaven rid me of her so easily!" he muttered. "Yet that is +easy; thanks to our Moslem law, which says, 'Thou mayest either retain +thy wife with humanity or dismiss her with kindness.'[101] Yet I +cannot dismiss her with kindness. She can not go back to the royal +harem. If I dismiss her I harm her, and Allah's curse will be fatal +if I wrong this creature again--to say nothing of the Padishah's if I +throw away his gift. I must keep her. Well! Bacaloum! Bacaloum! It is +not so bad a thing after all to have a woman like that for one's +slave; for a wife without one's heart is but a slave. Well!" He raised +the veil again from the now sitting woman. + +The mutually stupid gaze carried them both through several years which +had passed since they had parted at Amesa's castle. + +Elissa was easily induced to tell her story. Assuming that it might be +already known to her new lord, she gave it correctly; and therefore it +differed substantially from that she had told to Morsinia. She had +been but a few days in Amesa's home when he discovered that she was +not the person he had presumed her to be. In an outburst of rage he +would have taken her life, but was led by an old priest to adopt a +more merciful method of ridding himself of her. To have returned her +to the village above the Skadar would have filled the country with the +scandal, and made Amesa the laughing stock of all. She was therefore +sent within the Turkish lines, with the certainty of finding her way +to some far-distant country. Her beauty saved her from a common fate, +and she was sent as a gift to the young Padishah by an old general, +into whose hands she had fallen. + +Ballaban assured the woman of his protection, and also that the time +would come when he would compensate her for any grief she had endured +through his fault. In the meantime she was retained in the luxurious +comfort of her new abode. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[101] Koran, Chap. II. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + + +Captain Ballaban was almost constantly engaged at the new seraglio. It +was being constructed not only with an eye to its imposing appearance +from without and its beauty within, such as befitted both its splendid +site between the waters and the splendor of the monarch whose palace +it was to be; but also with a view to its easy defence in case of +assault. Upon the young officer devolved the duty of scrutinizing +every line and layer that went into the various structures. + +He was especially interested in the side entrances, and communications +between the various departments of the seraglio. He gave orders for a +change to be made in the line of a partition and corridor, and also +for a slight variation in the position of a gateway in the walls +dividing the mabeyn[102] court from that of the haremlik. Just why +these changes were made, perhaps the architects themselves could not +have told; nor were they interested to enquire, supposing that they +were made at the royal will. Ballaban was disposed to indulge a little +his own fancy. If there was to be a broad entrance for public display, +and then a narrow passage for the Sultan only, why not have a way +through which he could imagine a fair odalisk fleeing from insult and +torture into the arms of--himself? But Ballaban's face grew pale as he +watched the completion of a sluice way leading from a little chamber, +down through the sea wall, to meet the rapid current of the Bosphorus. +He remembered the declaration of the Padishah, that, if ever an +odalisk were unfaithful to him, she should be sewn into a bag, +together with a cat and a snake, and drowned in Marmora.[103] + +In the meantime old Kala Hanoum was amazed at the number of articles +of Morsinia's handiwork she was able to induce the young captain to +purchase. Indeed, he never refused. And quite frequently she was the +bearer of gifts, generally confections, sometimes little rolls of silk +suitable for embroidery with colored threads or beads, accompanied by +the name of some fellow officer of the Janizaries from whom apparently +an order for work was given; the Captain acting as an agent in a sort +of co-partnership with Kala. Of course this was only secret mail +service between Ballaban and the odalisk. If Kala suspected it, her +commissions were so largely remunerative that she silenced the thought +of any thing but legitimate business. + +Ballaban devised plans for her escape which Morsinia found it +impracticable to execute from her side of the harem wall; and her +shrewdest suggestions were pronounced equally unsafe by the strategist +without. Ballaban had caught glimpses of Morsinia while loitering +among the trees at the upper end of the Golden Horn, by the Sweet +Waters, where the ladies of the harem were taken by the eunuchs on +almost weekly excursions. He had proposed to have in readiness two +horses, that, if she should break from the attendants, they might flee +together. But before this could be accomplished, the excursions were +discontinued, as the attention of all was turned to a new pleasure. + +The grand haremlik was at length completed. Perhaps no place on earth +was so suggestive of indolent and sensual pleasure as this. There were +luxurious divans, multiplying mirrors, baths of tempered water, +fountains in which perfumes could be scattered with the spray, broad +spaces for the dance, half hidden alcoves for the indulgence in that +which shamed the more public eye, and gardens in which Araby competed +with Africa in the display of exotic fruits and flowers. + +A day was set for the reception of the grand harem from +Adrianople--which contained nearly a thousand of the most beautiful +women in the world--into this new paradise. The Kislar Aga had +arranged a pageant of especial magnificence, which could be witnessed +by the people at a distance. Two score barges, elegantly decorated, +rowed by eunuchs, their decks covered with divans, were to receive the +odalisks from Adrianople at the extreme inner point of the seraglio +water front on the Golden Horn. The Validé Sultana's barge was to lead +the procession, which should float to the cadences of music far out +into the harbor. At the same time, the Sultan in his kaik, and the +women of the temporary haremlik, each propelling a light skiff +decorated with flags and streamers, were to move from the extreme +outer point of the seraglio grounds, until the two fleets should +meet, when, amid salvos of artillery from the shores, the odalisks +with the Sultan were to turn about and lead their sisters to the water +gate of the haremlik. Orders were given forbidding the people to +appear upon the water, or upon the shores within distance to see +distinctly the faces of the ladies of the harem. + +Every evening at sundown a patrol of eunuchs made a cordon of boats a +few hundred yards from the shore, within which, screened by distance +from the eyes of common men, the odalisks went into training for the +great regatta. The Padishah, sitting in his barge, encouraged their +rivalry by gifts for dexterity in managing the little boats, for +picturesqueness of dress and for grace of movement, as with bared arms +and streaming tresses, they propelled the kaiks. + +Morsinia found herself one of the most dexterous in handling the oars. +The free life of her childhood on the Balkans and among the peasants +of upper Albania, had developed muscle which this new exercise soon +brought into unusual efficiency. She observed that the attendant +eunuchs were deficient in this kind of strength, and had no doubt +that, with her own light weight, she could drive the almost +imponderable kaik swifter than any of them. + +The young Egyptian woman was her only competitor for the honor of +leading the fleet on the day of the regatta. To add to the interest of +the training, Mahomet ordered that the two should race for the honor +of being High Admiral of the harem fleet; and one evening announced +that the competitive trial should take place the next afternoon. The +course was fixed for a half mile, just inside of Seraglio Point, +where the waters of the harbor are still, unvexed by the rapid current +which pours along the channel of the Bosphorus. The flag-boat was to +be anchored almost at the meeting of the inner and outer waters. + +That night Morsinia wrote a note containing these words-- + + "About dusk just below the Seven Towers watch for kaik. + + MORSINIA." + +Kala Hanoum was commissioned early the following morning to deliver a +pretty little sash, wrought with stars and crescents, to Captain +Ballaban. Morsinia was careful to show Kala the scarf, and dilate upon +the peculiar beauty of the work until the woman's curiosity should be +fully satisfied; thus making sure that she would not be tempted to +inspect it for herself. She then wrapped the note carefully within the +scarf, and tied it strongly with a silken cord. + +Old Kala had a busy day before her, with a dozen other commissions to +discharge. But fortune favored her in the early discovery of the well +known shape of the Captain in ordinary citizen's dress, as he was +engaged in eager conversation with the Greek monk, Gennadius, whom the +Sultan had allowed to superintend the worship of the Christians still +resident in the city. Indeed Mahomet was wise enough to even pension +some of the Greek clergy to keep up the establishment of their faith; +for he feared to antagonize the millions in the provinces of Greece +who could not be persuaded to embrace Islam; and was content to exact +from them only the recognition of his secular supremacy. Kala Hanoum +had too much reverence in her nature to interrupt a couple of such +worthies; so she followed a little way behind them. They came to the +gate-way--a mere hole in the wall--which led to what was known as the +Hermit's Cell, the abode of Gennadius during the siege. The spiritual +pride of the monk had prevented his exchanging this for a more +commodious residence into which the Sultan would have put him. He said +he only wanted a place large enough to weep in, now that the people of +the Lord were in captivity. + +The monk had entered the little gateway, and his companion was +following, when Kala's instinct for business got the better of her +reverence; and, darting forward, she thrust the little roll into his +hand just as he was stooping to enter the gate, not even glancing at +his face. She said in low voice, not caring to be overheard by the +monk: + +"A part of your purchase yesterday, Sire, which you have forgotten." + +She waited for no reply, but trotted off, muttering to herself: + +"That's done, now for old Ibrahim the Jew." + +The contrast between Morsinia and the Egyptian as they presented +themselves for the contest, afforded a capital study in racial +physique. The latter was rather under size, with scarcely more of +womanly development than a boy. Her face was almost copper colored; +her hair jet and short. The former was tall, with femininity stamped +upon the contour of bust and limb; her face pale, even beneath the +mass of her light locks. + +The kaiks were of thinnest wood that could be held together by the +web-like cross bracing, and seemed scarcely to break the surface of +the water when the odalisks stepped into them. Morsinia had brought a +feridjé of common sort; saying to the eunuch, whose attention it +attracted, that yesterday she was quite chilled after rowing, and to +day had taken this with her by way of precaution. She might have found +something more beautiful had she thought in time; but it would be dark +when they returned. Besides, it would be a capital brace for her feet; +the crossbar arranged for that purpose being rather too far away from +the seat. So saying she tossed it into the bottom of the kaik before +the officious eunuch could provide a better substitute. + +The Padishah's bugle sounded the call. It rang over the waters, +evoking echoes from the triple shore of Stamboul, Galata and Skutari, +which died away in the distant billows of Marmora. As it was to be the +last evening before the pageant of the grand reception, the time was +occupied in making final arrangements for the order in which the boats +should move; so that it was growing dark when the Padishah reminded +the chief marshal that they must have the race for the Admiral's +badge. Katub, a fat and indolent eunuch, was ordered to moor his kaik, +for the stake boat, as far out toward the swift current as safety +would permit. + +The two competitors darted to the side of Mahomet's barge. From a long +staff, just high enough above the water to be reached by the hand, +hung a tiny streamer of silk, the broad field of which was dotted with +pearls. This was to be the possession of the fair rower who, rounding +the stake boat first, could return and seize it. + +The Sultan threw a kiss to the fair nymphs as a signal for the start. +Myriads of liquid pearls, surpassing in beauty those upon the +streamer, dropped from the oar blades, and strewed the smooth surface; +or were transformed into diamonds as they sunk swirling into the +broken water. The spray rose from the sharp prows in sheafs, golden as +those of grain, in the ruddy reflection of the western sky. Each +graceful kaik, and the more graceful form that moved it, almost +created the illusion of a single creature; some happy denizen of +another world disporting itself for the luring of mortals in this. + +The boats kept close company. The Egyptian was expending her full +strength, but her companion, with longer and fewer strokes, was +apparently reserving hers. They neared the stake. The Egyptian, having +the inside, began to round it; but the Albanian kept on, now with +rapid and strong strokes. The spectators were amazed at her tactics. + +"She is making too wide a sweep," said the Sultan. + +"She does not seem inclined to turn at all," observed the Kislar Aga. + +"She will strike the current if she turn not soon," rejoined Mahomet +excitedly. + +The prow of her kaik turned off westward. + +"She is in the stream!" cried several. "She will be overturned!" But +on sped the kaik, heading full down the current, which, catching it +like some friendly sprite from beneath, bore it quickly out of sight +around the Seraglio Point; and on--on into a thick mist which was +rolling up, as if sent of heaven to meet it, from the broad expanse of +the sea. + +"An escape!" cried the Sultan. "After her every one of you black +devils!" + +The eunuchs wasted several precious moments in getting the command +through their heads, and, even when they started, it was evident that +their muscles were too flaccid, their spines too limp, and their wind +not full enough to overhaul the flying skiff of the Albanian. + +"To shore! To horse!" cried the raging monarch. + +A quarter of an hour later, horsemen were clattering down the stony +street along the water front of Marmora, pausing now and then to stare +out into the sea mist, dashing on, stopping and staring, and on again. +The foremost to reach the Castle of the Seven Towers left orders to +scour the shore, and to set patrol to prevent any one landing. Some +were ordered to dart across to the islands. Within an hour from the +escape every inch of shore, and the great water course opposite the +city, were under complete surveillance. + +Just before this was accomplished a man arrived at the water's edge, +close to the south side of the great wall of which the Castle of Seven +Towers was the northern flank. He held two horses, saddled and bagged, +as if for a distant journey. A second man appeared a moment later, who +came up from a clump of bushes a little way below. + +"In good time, Marcus!" said the new comer, who stooped close to the +water and listened, putting his hand to his ear so as to exclude all +sounds except such as should come from the sea above. + +"Listen! an oar stroke! Yes! Keep everything tight, Marcus." + +Darting into the copse, in a moment more the man was gliding in a +kaik, with a noiseless stroke, out in the direction of the oar splash +of the approaching boat. Nearer and nearer it came. The night and the +mist prevented its being seen. The man moved close to its line. It was +a light kaik, he knew from the almost noiseless ripple of the water as +the sharp prow cut it. The man gave a slight whistle, when the stroke +of the invisible boat ceased, and the ripple at its prow died away. + +"Morsinia!" + +"Ay, thank heaven!" came the response. + +"Speak not now, but follow!" and he led the way cautiously toward the +little beach where the horses were heard stamping. They were several +rods off, piloting themselves by the sound. + +"Hark!" said the man, stopping the boats. Hoofs were heard +approaching, and voices-- + +"She might have put across to the Princess Island," said one. + +"Nonsense!" was the reply. "She would only imprison herself by +that--more likely she has gone clean across to Chalcedon. But I hold +that she has played fox, and turned on her trail. Ten liras to one +that she is by this time in Galata with some of the Genoese Giaours. +If so, she will try to escape in a galley; but that can be prevented: +for the Padishah will overhaul every craft that sails out until he +finds her. But hoot, man! what have we here? Two horses! A woman's +baggage! She has an accomplice! An elopement! The horses are tied. +The runaway couple haven't arrived yet. Dismount, men! we will lie in +wait along the shore here. Yes, let their two horses stand there to +draw them to the spot by their stamping. Send ours out of hearing. Now +every man to his place! Silence!" + +"Back! Back! We are pursued on land," said the man in the boat to +Morsinia, and both boats pushed noiselessly out again from the shore. + +"I had prepared for this, Morsinia. You must come into my boat; we +will row below for a mile, where we can arrange it at the shore." + +Quietly they shot down in the lessening current, until they turned +into a little cove made by a projecting rock. As lightly as a fawn the +girl leaped to the beach. Her companion was by her side in an instant. +She drew back, and gave no return to his warm embrace, but said +heartily: + +"Thank Heaven, and you, Michael!" + +"Michael?" exclaimed the man. "Indeed I do not wonder that you think +me a spirit, and call me by the name of my dead brother. But this +shall assure you that I am Constantine, and in the flesh," cried he, +as he pressed a kiss upon her lips. + +Morsinia was dazed. She tried to scan his face. She fell as one +lifeless into his arms. + +He seated himself on the rock and held her to his heart. For a while +neither could speak. + +"Is it real?" said she at length, raising her head and feeling his +face with her hand. "But how"---- + +Voices were heard shouting over the water. + +"We must be gone," said Constantine. + +The excitement of her discovery that her lover was still living, and +her bewilderment at his appearance instead of Michael, were too much +for Morsinia. Constantine carried the exhausted girl into his boat, +which was larger than hers. Towing her little kaik out some distance +he tipped it bottom upwards, and let it drift away. + +"That will stop the hounds," muttered he. "They will think you have +been overturned." + +With tremendous, but scarcely audible, strokes he ploughed away +westward. It was not until far from all noise of the pursuers that he +paused. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102] The mabeyn lies between the selamlik (general reception room for +men) and the haremlik; and is the living apartment for men. + +[103] The sluice which was supposed to have been used for this purpose +is still seen at Old Seraglio Point. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + + +Imminent as was the danger still, the curiosity of both at the +strangeness of the Providence which had brought them back to each +other, as from the dead, was such that they must talk; and the +freshness of the newly-kindled love stole many a moment for endearing +embrace. Indeed an hour passed, and the night might have flown while +they loitered, were it not that the rising wind brought a distant +sound which awakened them to the remembrance that they were still +fugitives. + +Constantine at length insisted that his companion should lie upon the +bottom of the boat, and take needed rest. + +"If I had now my feridjé!" said she. + +"I have provided for that," replied Constantine. "Yours would be +recognized. I have one belonging to the common women, which will be +better." In addition to the feridjé, the foresight of Constantine had +laid in warm wraps and a store of provisions. These were packed in +bundles that they might be carried conveniently on horses, in the +hand, or in the boat, as necessity should compel. + +"I cannot rest," said Morsinia, "when there is so much to say and +hear." + +"But you must lie down. I will tell you my story; then you can tell me +yours." + +"But can we not stop?" + +"No. It will not be safe to do so yet." + +"I have learned to trust your guidance as well as your love," said +she, and reclined in the stern of the boat. + +The moon rose near to midnight. The fog illumined by it made them +clearly visible to each other, while it shut out the possibility of +their being seen by any from a distance. + +"It is the blessing of Jesu upon us," said Morsinia. "The same as when +He stood upon the little lake in Galilee, like a form of light, and +said, 'Be not afraid.'" + +Constantine gave his story in hasty sentences and detached portions, +breaking it by pauses in which he listened for pursuers, or gave his +whole strength to the oars, or, more frequently, did nothing but gaze +at his companion: more than once reaching out his hand to touch her, +and see if she were not an apparition. + +He told of his escape from the Turks, his arrest as a lunatic and the +scene before the Sultan, his return to Constantinople after its +capture, and the apparent evidence he there had from the old beggar, +of Morsinia's death: with all of which the reader is familiar. He also +related how he had gone to Albania. The report of Morsinia's death had +caused the greatest grief to Kabilovitsch, and thrown General Castriot +into such a rage that he found easement for it in a special raid upon +the Turkish camp; which raid was remembered, and was still spoken of +by the soldiers, as the "Call of the Maiden." For as Castriot returned +from fearful slaughter, in which he had completely riddled the enemy's +quarters, captured their commander and compelled them to break up the +campaign, the general was overheard to say, "The maiden's spirit +called us and we have answered." Without knowing the meaning of these +words the soldiers probably assumed that they were a reference to the +Holy Virgin Mary, whose blessing Castriot had invoked upon the +enterprise. After that Sultan Mahomet sent a special embassage and +proposal of peace to Albania. In the royal letter he stated, + +"She whom the Emperor of the Greeks was unable to keep for Scanderbeg +is now in the custody of the royal harem, safe and inviolate; to be +delivered into Scanderbeg's hand as a pledge of a treaty by which +Scanderbeg shall agree to cease from further depredations and invasion +of Macedonia, and to submit to hold his kingdom in fief to the Ottoman +throne." + +The letter ended with a boastful reference to the Sultan's conquest of +Constantinople, Caramania and other countries, and the threat of +invading Albania with a host so great as to cover all its territory +with the shadow of the camps. + +Castriot's reply, when known, filled the Dibrians and Epirots with +greatest enthusiasm. It closed with the words,-- + +"What if you have subjugated Greece, and put into servitude them of +Asia! These are no examples for the free hearts of Albania!"[104] + +The news contained in Mahomet's missive led Castriot to allow +Constantine to go to Constantinople, that he might discover, if +possible, whether Morsinia was really living, and was the person +referred to by the Sultan. On reaching the city, Constantine had +sought out the monk Gennadius, with whom he had been often thrown +before and during the siege. From him he learned nothing of Morsinia +except the old story of her self-sacrifice by the side of the +altar;--which story had become so adorned with many additions in +passing from mouth to mouth, that the "Fair Saint of Albania" was +likely to be enrolled upon the calendar of the holy martyrs. +Constantine was returning with the monk from the church of Baloukli, +where they had gone to see the perpetuated miracle of the fishes which +leaped from the pan on hearing of the capture of the city, and which +are still, with one side black with the frying, swimming in the tank +of holy water. He had just reached the little gate of the monk's +lodging when Morsinia's message was put into his hand by a little old +woman. + +"But how did you know of my arrival in Constantinople?" Constantine +asked, as he concluded his account. + +The question led to Morsinia's story, and the revelation that his +brother Michael was still living, an officer of the Sultan, as like to +Constantine as one eye to the other; their mistaken identity by Kala +Hanoum having led to the present happy denouement. The mutual +narratives of the past grew into plans for the future, the chief part +of which related to the restoration of Michael from the service of the +Moslem. + +While they talked, the day broke over the Asiatic coast. The faint +glow of light rapidly changed into bars of gold, which were +transformed into those of silver, and melted again into a broad sheen +of orange and purple tints. But for the shadowed slopes of the eastern +shore that lay between the water and the sky, this would have made +Marmora like an infinite sea of glory. + +But there was a fairer sight before the eyes of Constantine; one more +suggestive of the heavenly. It was the face of his beloved, now first +clearly seen. It seemed to him that she could not have been more +enchanting if he had discovered her by the "River of the Water of +Life" in the Golden City, where only he had hoped ever again to gaze +upon her. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[104] According to Knowles, this was a part of Scanderbeg's reply to +Amurath II. + + + + +CHAPTER L. + + +The fugitives landed a good score of miles from Stamboul, on the +northern shore of Marmora, and struck the highway which runs westward, +following the coast line to Salonika, where it divides, bending south +into Greece, and branching north through Macedonia. The fugitives +followed the latter highway. The country through which they passed was +at the time conquered by the Moslem, but was dotted over with the +settlements of the adherents to the old faith, who kept the watchfires +of hope still burning in their hearts, though they were extinguished +on the mountains. It was by this route that Constantine had gone to +Stamboul. He was therefore familiar, not only with the way, but with +the people; and easily secured from them concealment when necessary, +and help along the journey. His belt had been well filled with gold by +Castriot, so that two fleet horses and all provisions were readily +supplied. + +Their journey was saddened by their solicitude for the fate of +Albania. Before Constantine had left that country, Moses Goleme, +wearied with the incessant sacrifices he was compelled to make, and +discouraged by what he deemed the impossibility of longer holding out +against the Turks, had quarreled with Castriot, and thrown off his +allegiance. He had even been induced by Mahomet's pledge of liberty to +Albania--if only Castriot were overthrown--to enter the service of the +enemy. The wily Sultan had placed him in command of an invading army, +with which, however, he had returned to his country only to meet an +overwhelming defeat at the hands of the great captain, and to flee in +disgrace to Constantinople. + +This swift vengeance administered by the patriots did not entirely +crush the dissatisfaction among the people. Their fields were wasted +by the long war; for half a generation had passed since it began. Only +the personal magnetism of their chief held the factions to their +doubtful loyalty. + +After several weeks' journeying, our fugitives reached the camp of +Castriot. It little resembled the gorgeous canvas cities of the Turks +they had passed. The overspreading trees were, in many instances, the +only shelter of voivodes and princely leaders, the story of whose +exploits floated as an enchantment to the lovers of the heroic in all +lands. + +But the simple welcome they received from the true hearts of their +countrymen was more to Morsinia and Constantine than any stately +reception could have been. Kabilovitsch's joy was boundless. The +venerable man had greatly failed, worn by outward toil, and more by +his inward grief. Castriot had grown prematurely old. His hair was +whitened; his eyes more deeply sunken beneath the massive brows; his +shoulders a little bowed. Yet there was no sign of decrepitude in face +or limb. His aspect was sterner, and even stronger, as if knit with +the iron threads of desperation. + +As Kabilovitsch, whom the wanderers had first sought upon their +arrival, led them to Castriot, the general gazed upon them silently +for a little. Years, with their strange memories, seemed to flit, one +after another, across his scarred face. Taking Morsinia's hands in +his, he stood looking down into her blue eyes, just as he had done +when years ago, he bade her farewell. Then he kissed her forehead as +he said: + +"Thank heaven! there is not yet a wrinkle on that fair brow. But I +wronged you, my child, in sending you among strangers. Can you forgive +the blunder of my judgment? It was my heart that led me wrong." + +"I have nothing to forgive thee," replied Morsinia. "Though I have +suffered, to gaze again into thy face, Sire, takes away even the +memory of it all. I shall be fully blessed if now I can remove some of +those care marks from thy brow." + +"Your return takes away from me twice as many years as those you have +been absent, and I shall be young again now--as young almost as +Kabilovitsch," added he, with a kindly glance at the old veteran, +whose battered dignity had given place to an almost childish delight. + +The scene within the tent was interrupted by a noise without. A crowd +of soldiers had gathered, and were gazing from a respectful distance +at a strange-looking man: "A man of heaviness and eaten up with +cares." He was clad in the coarsest garments; his beard untrimmed; +hatless; a rope about his neck. As Scanderbeg came out of the tent, +the man threw himself at his feet, and cried, as he bowed his head +upon the ground: + +"Strike, Sire! I have sold my country. I have returned to die under +the sword of my true chief, rather than live with the blessing of his +enemies. The curse on my soul is greater than I could bear, with all +the splendid rewards of my treason. Take out the curse with my blood! +Strike, Sire! Strike!" + +He was Moses Goleme. Castriot stood with folded arms and looked upon +the prostrate man. His lips trembled, and then were swollen, as was +noted of them when his soul was fired with the battle rage. Then every +muscle of his face quivered as if touched by some sharp pain. Then +came a look of sorrow and pity. His broad bosom heaved with the +deep-drawn breath as he spoke. + +"Moses Goleme, rise! Your place is at no man's feet. For twenty years +you watched by Albania, while I forgot my fatherland. Your name has +been the rallying cry of the patriot; your words the wisdom of our +council; your arm my strength. Brave man! take Castriot's sword, and +wear it again until your own heart tells you that your honor has been +redeemed. Rise!" + +Untying the rope from the miserable man's neck, he flung it far off, +and cried,-- + +"So, away with whatever disgraces the noble Goleme! My curse on him +who taunts thee for the past! Let that be as a hideous dream to be +forgotten. For well I know, brave comrade, that thy heart slept when +thou wast away. But it wakes again. Thou art thy true self once more!" + +The broken-hearted man replied, scarcely raising his eyes as he spoke: + +"My hands are not worthy to touch the sword of Castriot. Let me +cleanse them with patriot service. Tell me, Sire, some desperate +adventure, where, since thou wilt not slay me, I may give my wretched +life for my country." + +"No, Moses, you shall keep your life for Albania. I know well the +strength of your temptation. My service is too much for any man. Were +it not that I am sustained by some strange invisible spirit, I too +would have yielded long ago. But enough! The old command awaits thee, +Moses." + +The man looked upon Castriot with grateful amazement. But he could not +speak, and turned away. + +At first he was received sullenly by the soldiers; but when the story +of Castriot's magnanimity was repeated, the camps rang with the cry, +"Welcome, Goleme!" That his restoration might be honored, a grand raid +through the Turkish lines was arranged for the next night. The watch +cry was, "By the beard of Moses!" and many a veteran then wielded his +sword with a courage and strength he had not felt for years. Even old +Kabilovitsch, whose failing vigor had long excused him from such +expeditions, insisted upon joining in this. Constantine then rewhetted +his steel for valiant deeds to come. And, as the day after the fight +dawned, Moses Goleme led back the band of victors, laden with spoil. +As he appeared, to make his report to the chief, his face was flushed +with the old look; and, grasping the hand of Castriot, he raised it to +his lips and simply said: + +"I thank thee, Sire!" and retired. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + + +Captain Ballaban was among the first to learn of the personality of +the odalisk who had escaped at the time of the race. His first thought +was to aid her in eluding pursuit, presuming that she had gone alone +and without accomplice. But when the horses were discovered at the +Seven Towers, he gave way to a fit of jealousy. In his mind he accused +Morsinia of having made him her dupe; for, notwithstanding his +assurances of aid, she had evidently made a confidant of another. His +better disposition, however, soon led him to believe that she had been +spirited away through some plan devised in the brain of Scanderbeg. +While he rejoiced for her, he was disconsolate for himself; and +determined that, upon his return to the war in Albania, to which field +he knew it was the purpose of the Padishah to transfer him, he would +discover the truth regarding her. He had learned from her secret +missives, which Kala Hanoum had brought him before the flight, of the +death of his father Milosch and his mother Helena, and the supposed +death of his brother Constantine. There were, then, no ties of +kinship, and but this one tie of affection to Morsinia, to divide his +allegiance to the Padishah. And Morsinia had faded again from reality, +if not into his mere dream, at least into the vaguest hope. His ardent +soul found relief only by plunging into the excitement of the military +service. + +Mahomet had not exhausted his favors to Ballaban by the gift of the +Albanian Venus, Elissa. Summoning him one day he repeated his purpose +of designating him as the chief Aga of the Janizaries, the old chief +having been slain in a recent engagement. Ballaban remonstrated, as +once before, against this interference with the order of the corps, in +which the choice of chief Aga was left to the vote of the soldiers +themselves. + +Mahomet replied angrily--"I tell you, Ballaban, my will shall now be +supreme over every branch of my service. My fathers felt the +independence of the Janizaries to be a menace to their thrones. Their +power shall be curbed to my hand, or the whole order shall be +abolished." + +"Beware!" replied Ballaban. "You know not the alertness of the lion +whose lair you would invade. I will serve my Padishah with my life in +all other ways, but my vows forbid my treachery to my corps. Strike +off my head, if you will, but I cannot be Aga, except by the sovereign +consent of my brothers." + +"I shall not take off your head, comrade," replied Mahomet. "I need +what is in it too much, though it belongs to a young rebel. But +begone! I shall work my plans without asking your advice in the +matter." + +A firman was issued by which the Padishah claimed the supreme power of +appointing to command in all grades of the military service. Within an +hour after its proclamation, the Janizaries were in open defiance of +the sovereign. Before their movements could be anticipated, the great +court in front of the selamlik in the seraglio was filled with the +enraged soldiery. That sign of terror which had blanched the faces of +former Padishahs--the inverted soup-kettle--was planted before the +very doors of the palace, and the Sultan was a prisoner within. + +"Recall the firman! Long live the Yeni-Tscheri!" rang among the +seraglio walls, and was echoed over the city. + +The Sultan not appearing, there rose another cry, at first only a +murmur, but at length pouring from thousands of hoarse throats,-- + +"Down with Mahomet! Live the Yeni-Tscheri!" + +Still the Sultan made no response. There was a hurried consultation +among the leaders of the insurgents. Then a rapid movement throughout +the crowd. For a moment it seemed as if they had turned every man +against his fellow. But Mahomet's experienced eye, as he watched from +the latticed window, saw that the swarm of men was only taking shape. +The mob was transformed into companies. Between the ranks passed men, +as if they rose out of the ground; some dragging cannon; some bearing +scaling ladders. + +Mahomet appeared upon the platform, dressed in full armor. He raised +his sword, when silence fell upon the multitude. + +"I am your Padishah." + +"Long live Mahomet!" was the cry. + +"Do I not command every faithful Ottoman? Who will follow where +Mahomet leads?" + +"All! all!" rang the response. + +"Then reverse the kettle!" commanded he, his face lit with the +assumption of victory. + +"Reverse the firman!" was the answer. + +"Never!" cried the monarch, infuriated with this unexpected challenge +of his authority. + +The Janizaries retreated a few steps from the platform. The Padishah +assumed that they were awed by his determination, and smiled in his +triumph. But his face was as quickly shaded with astonishment; for the +movement of the insurgents was only to allow the cannon to be +advanced. + +The sagacity of the monarch never forsook him. Not even the wildness +of passion could long lead him beyond the suggestion of policy. +Raising his hand for silence, he again spoke. + +"We are misunderstanding each other, my brave Yeni-Tscheri. If you +have grievance let your Agas present it, for the Padishah shall be the +father of his people, and the Yeni-Tscheri are the eldest born of his +children." + +The Sultan withdrew. Eight Agas held a hurried consultation, and +presented themselves to the sovereign to offer him absolute and +unquestioning obedience upon the condition of their retaining as +absolute and unquestioned self-government within the corps. + +While they were in consultation, Captain Ballaban appeared among the +troops. He waved his hand to address them. + +"He is bought by the Padishah. We must not hear him," cried one and +another. + +"My brothers!" said the Captain, having after a few moments gained +their attention. "I love the Padishah. But I adore that royal hand +chiefly because, beyond that of any of the heirs of Othman, it has +already bestowed favor upon our corps. But our order is sacred. He may +command to the field, and in the field, but it must be from without. +We must choose our own Aga as of old." + +"Long live Ballaban!" rose from every side. + +The speaker broke into a rhapsodic narration of the glories of the +corps, interwoven with the recital of the exploits of the Padishah, +during which he was interrupted by cheer after cheer, mingled with the +cry of "Ballaban! Ballaban forever!" + +The Sultan, hearing the shout, shrewdly seized upon the opportunity it +suggested, and leaving the Agas, rushed to the platform. He shouted-- + +"Allah be praised! Allah has given one mind to the Padishah and to his +faithful Yeni-Tscheri. Ballaban forever! Yes, take him! Take him for +your Aga! The will of the corps and the will of the sovereign are one, +for it is the will of Allah that sways us all!" + +The soldiers, caught by the enthusiasm of the instant, repeated the +shout, drowning the voices of the few who were clear-headed enough to +remember that the firman had not been withdrawn. + +"Ballaban! Long live Ballaban Aga! Long live Mahomet Padishah!" + +The Agas appeared, but were impotent to assert their dissent. As well +might they have attempted to howl down a hurricane as to make +themselves heard in the confusion. Indeed, their presence upon the +platform was regarded by the corps as their endorsement of the +Padishah's desire, and served to stimulate the enthusiasm that broke +out in redoubled applause. + +Mahomet followed up his advantage, and formally confirmed the apparent +election by announcing-- + +"A donative! A double pay to every one of the Yeni-Tscheri! and the +Padishah's fifth of the spoil shall be divided to the host!" + +The multitude were wild with delight. The inverted soup-kettle was +turned over, and swung by its handle from the top of the staff; +following which, the crowd poured out from the court.[105] + +Within a few days Ballaban, as chief Aga, led his corps toward +Albania. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + + +After the defeat of Moses as a Turkish leader, and his return to his +patriotic allegiance, there was a lull in active hostilities between +the two powers. Amesa, like other of the prominent voivodes in +Scanderbeg's army, took the occasion offered to look after his own +estates. He had added somewhat to his local importance by marrying the +daughter of a neighboring land-owner. But neither conjugal delights, +nor the additional acres his marriage brought him, covered his +ambition. His envy of Castriot had deepened into inveterate hatred. + +The Voivode sat alone in the great dining hall of his castle. It was +late in the night. As the blazing logs at one end of the room cast +alternately their glare and shadows around, the rude furniture seemed +to be thrown into a witching dance. Helmets and corselets gleamed +bravely from their pegs, suggesting that they were animated by heroic +souls. The great bear-skin, with its enormous head, lying at the +Voivode's feet, crouched in readiness to receive the lunge of the +boar's tusks which threatened it from the corner. Pikes, spears, bows +and broad-mouthed arquebuses were ranged about, as if to defend their +owner, should any demon inspire these lifeless forms for sudden +assault upon him. + +Amesa had been sitting upon a low seat between the fire and a +half-drained tankard of home-brewed liquor, his brows knit with the +concentration of his thoughts. + +A slight sound without arrested his attention. + +"Drakul is late, but is coming at last. If only he has brought me the +red forelock of that fellow who used to be always crossing my track, +and has now come back to Albania!" he said, in a tone of musing, but +intended to be heard by the delinquent as the great oaken door creaked +behind him. Raising his eyes, but not turning his head to look, Amesa +changed his soliloquy into a volley of oaths at the comer. + +"I thought your name-sake, Drakul, had run off with you, you lazy +imp.[106] What kept you?" + +"A long journey," was the reply. + +Amesa started to his feet, for the voice was not that of Drakul. He +faced one whose appearance was not the less startling because it was +familiar. + +"I have brought the red forelock myself," said the visitor. + +Amesa stared stupidly an instant, then reached toward his weapon lying +upon the table near. + +"Stop!" said the man, laying the flat side of his sword across the +Voivode's arm before he could grasp his yataghan. + +"How dare you intrude yourself unbidden here!" cried the enraged +Amesa. + +"It required no daring," was the cool reply, "for I am the stronger." + +"Help! Help!" shouted the voivode, as he realized that he would not be +permitted to reach his weapon. + +The door swung, and a band of strange men stood in the opening. + +"I feared, noble Amesa," said the intruder, "that I should not be a +welcome guest, and so brought with me a party of friends to help me to +good cheer while under your roof. You need not disturb your servants +to help you, for, if they should hear, they could not obey, as they +are all safely guarded in their quarters. If they should come out they +might be harmed. Let them rest. Retire, men! You recognize me, Lord +Amesa?" + +"Ay. You are Arnaud's whelp," sneered the entrapped man. + +"More gentle words would befit the courtesy of my host," was the quiet +reply. "But you are as much mistaken as when you took the simple +witted Elissa on my commendation. Do not respond, Sire! In your heat +you might say that which pride would prevent your recalling. I am a +Moslem soldier, and you are my prisoner; as secure as if you were in +Constantinople." The visitor threw off the Albanian cape, and +revealed the elegantly wrought jacket of the Janizary Aga. + +"And what would you have of me? Is there nothing that can satisfy you +less than my life?" asked Amesa. + +"My noble Amesa," said Ballaban Aga, taking a seat and motioning the +Voivode to another. "Years ago I gave you my word in honor that I +would serve you against Scanderbeg. I have come to redeem that pledge, +and you must help me." + +"How can that be, if you are an officer of the Moslems?" asked Amesa, +taking the seat, and adopting the low tone of the other; for these +words had excited in him all his cupidity, and stirred his natural +secretiveness and habit of sinister dealing. His eyes ceased to glare +like a tiger's when at bay; they shone now like a snake's. + +"Amesa must enter the service of the Padishah." + +"Impossible!" cried he; but in a tone that indicated, not indignant +rejection of the proposition; rather doubt of its practicability. + +"But first you must raise here in Albania the standard of revolt +against Scanderbeg, claiming the title of king of Epirus and the +Dibrias for yourself. Scanderbeg's sword will, of course, compel the +next step--your safety in the Turkish camp. The Padishah will then +become your patron, offering to withdraw his armies and restore the +ancient liberties of the country, with the solitary limitation that +you shall acknowledge the suzerainty of the Sultan. The revenues you +may collect shall remain in your possession for the strengthening of +your local power. The defection of Moses Goleme well nigh destroyed +the leadership of Scanderbeg--yours will complete the work. Yet it +will not be defection; rather, as Moses Goleme regarded it, the truest +service of your country, because the only service that is +practicable." + +"But I cannot thus break with the patriot leaders," said Amesa, +apparently having felt a real touch of honor. + +"It must be," replied the Aga. "You cannot longer remain as you are, +even if you would. You, Sire, have been guilty of some great crime. +Nay, do not deny it! Nor need you take time to give expression to any +wrath you may feel on being plainly accused of it," continued +Ballaban, silencing Amesa more effectively by the straight look into +his eyes than by his words. "My moments here are too few to talk about +the matter, and you should have exhausted any feeling you may have had +in private penitence heretofore, rather than reserve it until another +person lays it to your charge. But the point is this:--Scanderbeg is +aware of your crime, and awaits only the opportune moment to punish +you as it deserves." + +"How do you know that?" said Amesa, the bright gleam of his eye +changing to a stony stare, as the color failed from his face, and he +leaned back in ghastly consternation. + +"It is enough that I know it. The Janizaries have not roamed these +Albanian hills for twelve years without finding out the secrets of the +country. The holes in the ground are our ears, and the very owls spy +for us through the dark. But enough of words. Sign this, and set to it +your seal!" + +Ballaban presented a parchment, offering formally, in the name of the +Sultan, the government of Albania to Amesa, on the condition set forth +above. + +"I would consider the"--began Amesa; but he was cut short by +Ballaban-- + +"No! sign instantly! I have done for you all the considering that is +necessary, and must be gone." + +"But," began Amesa again, "so important a matter--" + +"Sign instantly!" repeated Ballaban; and, pointing to the door where +the soldiers stood waiting their orders--"or neither Amesa nor his +castle will exist until the day breaks." + +The baffled man took from a niche in the wall a horn of thickened ink, +and, with the wooden pen, made his signature, and pressed the ancient +seal of the De Streeses against the ball of softened wax attached to +it. + +"This will serve to keep you true: for if by the next fulness of the +moon Amesa's standard be not raised against Scanderbeg's, this, as +evidence of your treason, shall be read in all your Albanian camps," +said Ballaban, placing the document in his bosom. "And should you need +to confer with your new friends, your faithful Drakul may inquire at +our lines for Ballaban Badera, Aga of the Janizaries." + +With a low salâm he withdrew. A few muffled orders, a shuffling of +feet, and the castle was as quiet as the stars that looked down upon +it. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[105] The firman of Sultan Mahomet was never revoked, and from his +time until the extinction of the order of Janizaries by Sultan +Mahmoud, in 1834, the Padishah always appointed the Chief Aga. + +[106] The word Drakul signifies in Servian "the Devil." + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + + +The martial pride of the Ottoman never made a more imposing +demonstration than when his armies deployed upon the plain of +Pharsalia[107] in Thessaly, and threatened the southern frontier of +Albania. Nor had Jove, who, according to the mythologic conception, +held his court upon the summit of the not distant Olympus--looked down +upon such a display of earthly power since, fifteen centuries before, +the armies of Pompey and Cæsar there contended for the domination of +the Roman world. For Mahomet II. had sworn his mightiest oath, that, +by one blow, he would now sweep all the Arnaout rebels into the sea; +and that the waves of the Adriatic over against Italy, and those of +the Mediterranean which washed the Greek peninsula, and the Euxine +that stayed the steps of the Muscovite, should sing with their +confluent waves the glories of the European Empire of the Ottoman +which lay between them. + +The menace to Scanderbeg's domain was not chiefly in the numbers of +men whom the redoubtable Isaac Pasha now commanded in the name of the +Sultan; but in the fact that the mighty host was accompanied by Amesa, +the new "King of Albania." + +The defection of the Voivode had sent consternation through the hearts +of the patriots. Their leaders looked with suspicion into one +another's faces as they gathered in council; for no one knew but that +his comrade was in secret league with the enemy. Wearied with trials, +the soldiers whispered in the camps that Amesa was a Castriot as well +as Scanderbeg. Italians of rank, who had loaned their swords to the +great chieftain, were returning to their homes, saying that it was not +worth while to risk their lives and fortunes in defending a people who +were no longer agreed in defending themselves. Scanderbeg, apparently +unwilling or unable to cope with this double danger,--the power of the +Ottoman without, and a civil war within his land--retired to +Lyssa,[108] far away to the north. + +The Turks determined to inaugurate their final conquest, by the formal +coronation of their ally, so that, heralded by King Amesa's +proclamations, they might advance more readily to the occupation of +the land. The day was set for the ceremony of the royal investiture. +As their scouts, ranging far and wide, reported no enemy to be near, +the attention of the army was given to preparation for the splendid +pageants, the very story of which should awe the simple peasant +population into submission, or seduce their hearts with the hope of +having so magnificent a patron. + +The day before that appointed for this glorious dawn of the new +royalty, was one of intense heat, in the middle of July. The snows had +melted even from the summit of the Thessalian Olympus, though its bare +pinnacle yonder pierced the sky nearly ten thousand feet above the +sea. Armor was heaped in the tents. Horses unsaddled were gathered in +stockades, or tethered far out on the glassy plain. Soldiers +stretched themselves under the shadow of the trees, or wandered in +groups through the deserted gardens and orchards of the neighboring +country, feasting upon the early ripened fruits. Only the eagles that +circled the air high above the vast encampment, or perched upon the +crags of distant hills, seemed to have any alarm; for now and then +they darted off with a shrill cry. + +But an eye, like that of a mysterious retributive Providence, was +peering through the thicket that crested a high hill. Scanderbeg, +presumed to be far away, had studied the plain long and intently; +when, turning to Constantine, who was at his side, he said: + +"Now plan me a raid through that flock of silly sheep. Where would you +strike, my boy?" + +Constantine replied, "There is but one point at which we could enter +the plain,--through yonder depression. The hills on either side would +conceal the advance until well upon them. Besides, the narrowness of +the valley, and the growth of trees would prevent their meeting us +with more than man for man." + +Scanderbeg shook his head. + +"The Turks know that place invites attack as well as we do, and have +ranged so as to prevent surprise there. But yonder line of trees and +copse leads almost to the centre of their camp." + +"But it is exposed to view on either side," replied Constantine. + +"So much the better," said Castriot, "and therefore it is not guarded +even in Isaac Pasha's thought. It would take longer after the alarm to +range against us there than in the ravine. Their cavalry is all on +this side the trees. They could not cut through the bushes before we +were by the horse-tails yonder, there by the Pasha's tent." + +"But is it not too open?" said Constantine, almost incredulous. + +"Yes, at any other time than this, when the Turks are not dreaming of +our being within a dozen leagues of them. The very boldness of such an +attack as this at high noon-tide will be better for us than any +scheming. And, if I mistake not, and our beasts are not too jaded by +the long march, we shall have the souls out of a thousand or so of the +Turks before they can get their bodies into armor. And I give to you, +my boy, the care of our nephew, Amesa. Be diverted by no side play, +but cut your way straight to him. If possible, spare his life, but he +must never get a crown upon his head." + +As silently as the summer's fleecy clouds gather into the storm, the +band of patriots, summoned from their various quarters, gathered +behind the spur of the hill. The Turks were startled as with a sudden +rising tempest. Beys and Pashas and Agas had scarcely emerged from +their tents, when five thousand Albanian cavalrymen were already +turning the line of the woods. On they came with the celerity of a +flock of birds just skimming the ground. The sentry flew as the leaves +before the wind. The very multitude of the Turks, driven toward the +centre, but fed the dripping swords of the assailants. Among the tents +wound the compact array of Albanian riders, like a huge serpent. On +and on it rolled, scarcely pausing to repel attack. Dividing, one +part crushed the headquarters of Isaac, while the other wrapped in its +crunching folds the splendid camp of Amesa. + +Bravely did this young Absalom defend his unfledged royalty. +Surrounded by a group of Albanian renegades like himself, he fought +desperately, well knowing the dire vengeance which should follow his +capture. But one by one they fell. Amesa remained almost alone, as yet +unharmed. The captain of the Albanian troops commanded a halt, and, +dismounting, he demanded Amesa's surrender. + +"To none but a Castriot will a Castriot surrender!" cried the +infuriate man, making a lunge at the challenger. The thrust was +avoided. + +"You shall surrender to another," cried the Albanian officer. "Stand +back, men, he shall yield to me alone." + +"Who are you?" growled the challenged man. + +"One who has the right to avenge the wrong done to Mara de Streeses," +was the reply. + +Quick as a panther Amesa leaped upon him. But the tremendous blow he +aimed, might as well have been delivered against a rock, as against +the sword of Constantine. The effort threw him off his balance; and +before he could recover himself, the tremendous slash of his opponent, +though warded, brought him to the ground. In an instant Constantine's +knee was upon his breast, and his sword at his throat. + +"Do you surrender?" + +"Yes!" groaned the helpless man. + +He was instantly disarmed, and bound by the girth to a horse. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[107] Vide Knowles, History of the Turks, and Albanian Chronicles. + +[108] Modern Alessio. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + + +The corps of Janizaries had been quartered at some distance from the +main body of the Turks. Their new Aga comprehended at once the +significance of the turmoil in the camp, and hastened to the defence. +Though he moved rapidly, and with a well conceived plan of confronting +the enemy, yet, most of his troops being foot-soldiers, he was unable +to confront the swift-riding squadrons of Scanderbeg. These assailants +withdrew from the field, but only to return again and again upon the +panic stricken Turks, whose fears had magnified the numbers of their +foes into scores of thousands. So rapidly did assault follow assault, +and from such diverse quarters, that the Moslem fright imagined one +attack was headed by the terrible Ivan Beg with his savage +Montenegrins, and another by Hunyades, a report of whose alliance with +Scanderbeg had reached the camps before the battle. Indeed the rumble +of a coming thunder storm was interpreted into the clamor and tread of +unknown myriads ready to burst through the mountains. Never did a more +insane panic steal away the courage of soldiers and the judgment of +generals. Late in the day the plain of Pharsalia was the scene of one +vast wreck. Overturned tents displayed immense stores of burnished +arms and vestments, provisions of need and luxury, standards for the +field and banners for the pageant; and everywhere strewn amid this +debris of pomp and pride the half-armored bodies of the slaughtered +Turks. In narrow mountain valleys the freshet following the sudden +tempest, never changed the bloom of the summer gardens more +completely, than this panic, following Scanderbeg's raid, changed the +splendid camp of the morning into the desolation upon which the +setting sun cast, as a fitting omen, its red rays. Indeed, we can +conceive no similitude by which to express the contrast better than +that of Amesa himself, in the morning adorned in the splendor of his +royal expectation, and at night lying bound with ropes at the feet of +Scanderbeg. + +The grand old chieftain looked at the renegade for a moment with pity +and scorn; then turned away, saying,-- + +"Let him lie there until Captain Constantine, to whom he belongs, +shall come." + +But Constantine came not. Though the main body of the Turks had taken +to precipitate flight, the Janizaries had managed, by their unbroken +and orderly retreat, to cover the rear, and prevent pursuit by +Scanderbeg. Ballaban had reached the group engaged in the capture of +Amesa, and almost rescued him. This would have been accomplished had +not Constantine and a handful of his company made a living wall +between the Janizaries and those who were leading away the miserable +man. Ballaban, feeling the responsibility of saving him whom he had +led into this shameful misfortune, pressed to the very front. + +"By the sword of the Prophet! the fellow fights bravely," he +exclaimed, as he watched Constantine, baffling a half dozen +Janizaries who were pressing upon him. + +"Back, men! I would measure my arm against his," he cried, as he laid +his sword against that of his unknown antagonist. + +Both were in complete armor, their faces concealed by the closed +helmets. The soldiers stood as eager spectators of the masterly sword +play. The two men seemed evenly matched,--the same in stature and +build. There was, too, a surprising similarity in movement--the very +tactics of the Janizary in thrust and parry being repeated by the +Albanian; their swords now flashing like interlacing flames; the sharp +ring as the Albanian smote upon the polished metal of his antagonist's +armor, answered by the duller thud as the Janizary's blow fell upon +the thick leather which encased the panoply of his opponent. Then both +stood as if posing for the sculptor; their sword points crossing; +their eyes glaring beneath the visors; the slightest movement of a +muscle anticipated by either--then again the crash. + +But Constantine was exhausted by his previous engagement with Amesa. +In an unlucky moment the sword turned in his hand. The steadiness of +the grip was lost. He managed to ward the blow which the Aga +delivered; but, foreseeing that he could not recover his grasp soon +enough to return it, and that his opponent was thrown slightly off his +perfect poise by his exertion, he dropped his sword, and closed with +him. They fell to the ground; but the Aga, more alert at the instant, +was uppermost, and his dagger first in position for the fatal cut. + +"I can not slay so valiant a man as you," said Ballaban. "You +surrender?" + +"I must," was the response. As they rose, Ballaban looked a moment +upon the vanquished, and said, + +"I would know the name of my worthy antagonist, for worthier I never +found. Scanderbeg himself could not have done better. But I had the +advantage of being in better wind at the start, or, Allah knows, I had +fared hard." + +"It is enough that I am your prisoner," said Constantine, "and that I +have detained my conqueror long enough to prevent the recapture of +that Albanian traitor, Amesa. You can have me willingly, now that you +cannot have him." + +The Albanian threw up his visor. Ballaban stared at the face. It was +as familiar as his own which he saw daily in the polished brass +mirror. The Janizaries stared with almost equal amazement. + +"No wonder he fought so well, Aga!" said one, "for he is thy other +self." + +"Let him be brought to our headquarters when we halt," said Ballaban, +remounting his horse, and dashing away to another part of the field. + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + + +Night brought little sleep to the Turkish host. Though danger was +past, a sense of humiliation and chagrin was shared by officers and +men, as they realized that their defeat was due to their own folly +more than to the strength of their foe. In every tentless group the +men disturbed the quiet of the night with their ceaseless quarrels. +Members of the different commands, hopelessly confused in the general +flight, rivalled one another in the rancor and contempt of their +mutual recriminations as much as they ever emulated one another in the +courage and prowess of a well fought field. Among those of highest +rank bitter and insulting words were followed by blows, as if the +general disgrace could be washed out by a gratuitous spilling of their +own blood. + +But a different interest kept Ballaban waking. Beneath the great tree, +which had been designated as the headquarters of the Janizaries, and +from a limb of which was suspended the symbolic kettle, his prisoner +had been awaiting the Chief Aga. The glimpse of his face at the time +of the capture had awakened in the Janizary more than a suspicion of +the personality of the captive; while the name of Ballaban, which he +had heard from the soldiers, revealed to the Albanian that of his +captor. With impatience the Aga conversed with the various commanders +who thronged him, and as soon as possible dismissed them. When they +were alone Constantine rose, and, without completing his salâm, +exclaimed, + +"You play more roughly, Michael, than when last we wrestled together +among the rocks of Slatiza." + +"Ah, my brother Constantine, I thought of you when you gripped me in +the fight to-day; for it was the same old hug with which we rolled +together long ago. I would have known you, had you only given me time +to think, without your raising the visor." + +The brothers stood for a moment in half embrace, scanning each other's +face and form. An onlooker would have noted that their mutual +resemblance was not in the details of their features, so much as in +certain marked peculiarities; such as the red and bristling hair, +square face, prominent nose and chin. Constantine's forehead was +higher than Michael's, which had more breadth and massiveness across +the brows. In speaking, Constantine's eye kindled, and his plastic +lips gave expression to every play of sentiment: while Michael's face +was as inflexible as a mask; the deep light of his glance as +thoroughly under control of his will as if it were the flash of a dark +lantern; his appearance revealing not the shadow of a thought, not the +flicker of an emotion, beyond that he chose to put into words. This +physiognomical difference was doubtless largely due to the training of +years. The Janizary's habit of caution and secretiveness evolved, as +it were, this invisible, but impenetrable, visor. The custom of +unquestioning obedience to another, and that of the remorseless +prosecution of whatever he regarded as politic for the service, gave +rigidity to the facial muscles; set them with the prevalent purpose; +stereotyped in them the expression of determination. A short beard +added to the immobile cast of his countenance. Thus, though when +separated the two men might readily be taken the one for the other, +when together their resemblance served to suggest as wide contrasts. + +The entire night was spent by the brothers in mutual narrations of +their eventful lives. Though their careers had been so distinct, in +different lands, under rival civilizations, in the service of +contending nations, and inflamed by the incentives of antagonistic +religions, yet their roads had crossed at the most important points in +each. They learned to their astonishment that the most significant +events, those awakening the deepest experience in the one life, had +been due to the presence of the other. As Michael told of his raid +upon the Albanian village, Constantine supplied the key to the mystery +of the escape of his fair captive, and the arrest of Michael for +having at that time deserted his command. Then Michael in turn +supplied the key to Constantine's arrest by Colonel Kabilovitsch's men +as a Turkish spy. Constantine solved the enigma of Amesa's overtures +to Michael in reference to the Dodola Elissa; and Michael solved that +of Constantine's rough handling by the garrison of Sfetigrade for +having dropped the dog into the well. Constantine unravelled the +diabolical plot which had nearly been tragic for Michael in the old +reservoir at Constantinople; and Michael as readily unravelled that of +the serio-comic drama in the tent of Mahomet, when Constantine's life +was saved through the assumption that he was his lunatic brother. +Constantine supplied to Michael the missing link in the story of +Morsinia's escape from Constantinople; and Michael supplied that +which was wanting of Constantine's knowledge of the story of her +escape from death in the horrors of the scene in St. Sophia after the +capture of the city. They had, under the strange leadings of what both +their Christian and Moslem faith recognized as a Divine Providence, +been more to each other than they could have been had their lives +drifted in the same channel during all these years. In the old boyhood +confidence, which their strange meeting had revived, Michael did not +withhold the confession of Morsinia's influence upon him, though she +had been to him more of an ideal than a real person, a beautiful +development to his imagination out of his childhood memory of his +little playmate in the Balkans. Nor did Constantine hesitate to +declare the love and betrothal by which he held the charming reality +as his own. He told, too, of her real personality as the ward of +Scanderbeg, and the true heir of the splendid estates until recently +held by Amesa. + +The dawn brought duties to the Aga which precluded further conference +with Constantine. + +"We must part, my dear brother," said Michael. "Our armies will +probably return through Macedonia, and abandon the campaign: for such +is the unwise determination of our commander Isaac. You must escape +into your own lines. That can be easily arranged. We may not meet +again soon; but I swear to you, by the memory of our childhood, that +your personal interest shall be mine. Aside from the necessities of +the military service, we can be brothers still. And Morsinia, that +angel of our better natures; you must let me share with you, if not +her affection, surely her confidence. I could not woo her from you if +I would; but assure her that, though wearing the uniform of an enemy, +I shall be as true in my thoughts of her as when we played by the old +cot on the mountains; and as when I pledged my life to serve her while +she was in the harem at Stamboul." + +"But why must this war against Castriot continue? I would that our +compact were that of the armies to which we belong," said Constantine. + +"It is impossible for a Janizary to sheath the sword while Scanderbeg +lives," replied the Aga. "Our oath forbids it. He once was held by the +vow of the Prophet's service, and deserted it. I know his temptation +was strong. In my heart I might find charity for him." The speaker +hesitated as if haunted by some troublesome memory, then +continued--"But a Janizary may show no charity to a renegade. Besides, +he is the curse of Albania. But for his ambition, these twelve years +of blood would have been those of peace and happiness through all +these valleys, under the sway of our munificent and wise Padishah." + +"Your own best thoughts, Michael, should correct you. What are peace +and its happy indolence compared with the cause of a holy faith?" + +"You speak sublimely, my brother," replied Michael, "but your faith +gains nothing by this war. Under our Padishah's beneficence the +Giaours are protected. The Greeks hold sufficient churches, even in +Stamboul, for the worship of all who remain in that faith. Indeed, I +have heard Gennadius the monk of whom you were speaking awhile +ago--say that he would trust his flock to the keeping of the Moslem +stranger sooner than to the Pope of Rome. I have known our Padishah +defend the Greek Giaours from the tyranny of their own bishops. He +asks only the loyalty of his people to his throne, and awaits the will +of Allah to turn them to his faith; for the Book of the Prophet says +truly, Allah will lead into error whom he pleaseth and whom he +pleaseth he will put in the right way.[109] Believe me, my brother, +Albania's safety is only in submission. The Fate that directs all +affairs has indubitably decreed that all this vast peninsula between +Adria and Ægea shall lie beneath the shadow of the Padishah's sceptre; +for he is Zil-Ullah, the shadow of God. Who can resist the conqueror +of the capital of your Eastern Christian Empire; the conqueror of +Athens, and of the islands of the sea?" + +"Let us then speak no more of this," said Constantine. "Our training +has been so different, that we can not hope to agree. But we can be +one in the kindliness of our thoughts, as we are of one blood. Jesu +bless you, my brother!" + +"Allah bless you, Constantine!" was the hearty response, as the two +grasped hands. Eyes which would not have shown bodily pain by so much +as the tremor of their lids, were moist with the outflow of those +springs in our nature that are deeper than courage--springs of +brotherly affection, fed by hallowed memories of the long ago. + +Two Janizaries accompanied Constantine beyond the Turkish lines. + +"What new scheme has the Aga hatched in his brain now?" said one of +them, as they returned. + +"He has twisted that fellow's brain so that he will never serve +Scanderbeg truly again," was the knowing reply. "The Aga is the very +devil to throw a spell over a man. They say that when he captured the +fellow yesterday, he had only to squint into his face a moment, when, +as quick as a turn of a foil, the man changed his looks, and was as +much like the Aga as two thumbs." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[109] Koran, Chapter VI. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + + +The splendor of the victory, and the inestimable spoil which fell into +the hands of the Albanians, elated the patriot braves; and the good +news flew as if the eagles that watched the battles from afar were its +couriers. Castriot, however, seemed to be oblivious to the general +rejoicing. The wrath he had displayed during the time of Amesa's +menace from the ranks of the enemy, was displaced by pity as he looked +upon the contemptible and impotent man. He touched him with his foot, +and said, in half soliloquy-- + +"And in this body is some of the blood of the Castriots! Humph!" + +Turning away he paced the tent-- + +"And why not Castriot's blood in Amesa! It is not too immaculate to +flow in his veins, since it has filled my own. I was a Turk, too, +once. But----" looking at the wrinkles upon his hand--"growing old in +a better service may atone somewhat for the shame of earlier days. And +these hands never murdered a peaceful neighbor and his innocent wife, +and robbed a child of her inheritance--though they did murder that +poor Reis-Effendi. But God knows it could not be helped. But what is +one man that he shall condemn another!" An officer approached for +orders. + +"What, Sire, shall be done with the prisoner?" + +"Let him lie until Constantine comes!" was the response. + +Late in the night the general sat gazing upon the miserable heap of +humanity that crouched by the tent side. Amesa raised himself as far +as his bonds would permit, and began to speak. + +"Silence!" demanded Castriot, but without taking his eyes from the +prisoner. + +A subaltern, anxious to induce the general to take needed rest, again +suggested some disposition of the prisoner for the night. + +"Let him lie until Constantine comes!" + +"Captain Constantine has been captured, Sire," replied the officer; +"men who were with him have returned, and so report." + +"By whom captured?" asked the general in alarm. + +"By Janizaries." + +Castriot smiled, and asked, "It is certain he was not slain?" + +"Certain, Sire, for Ino saw him being taken away." + +"Let the prisoner lie there until Captain Constantine returns." + +The morning found Amesa still bound. No one had been allowed to speak +to him, nor he to utter a word. + +During Castriot's absence from the tent not one approached it; only +the guard patrolled at the distance of a couple of rods. + +"The torture of such a villain's thoughts will be more cruel than our +taunts or swords. Let him lie there, and tear himself with his own +devil claws!" had been Castriot's order. + +Toward noon the camp rang with cheers. Scouts reported that +Constantine had escaped, and was returning. Castriot alone seemed +unsurprised, though gratified with the news. He went to the edge of +the camp to meet him. + +"Well, my boy, your brother was not so well pleased with your looks, +and let you go sooner than I thought he would. I expected you not +until to-night." + +"My brother? How knew you, Sire, that I had seen him? for I have told +it to none." + +"Then tell it to none. To warn you of that I came to meet you, lest +your tongue might be unwise. Did you not tell me yourself that +Ballaban was the Moslem name of your brother?" + +"But how knew you that he was in this service?" asked Constantine. + +"As I know every officer in the enemy's service in Albania above an +ojak's command. And the Aga of the Janizaries is to my mind as the +commander of the expedition. And I will tell you more, my boy;--unless +the Padishah has gone daft with his chagrin over this defeat, Ballaban +Aga will command the next campaign against us: for none save he kept +his wits in the fight yesterday. His plan was masterful, and saved the +whole Moslem army. He held his Janizaries so well in hand, and so well +placed, that I could not follow up our advantage, nor even strike to +rescue you. Ballaban evidently has been much in the Albanian wars, and +has learned my methods better than any of our own officers. Should he +succeed to the horse-tails, the war hereafter will not be so one-sided +as it has been. Mark that, my dear fellow. But we must look to our +royal prisoner, after I have heard your story." + +Late in the day Castriot summoned Moses Goleme, Kabilovitsch, and +Constantine. Amesa was unbound, and was bidden to speak what he could +in extenuation of his treason. The Voivode protested his innocence of +any designs against the liberties of his country; and declared that he +had despaired of obtaining her independence under Castriot's +leadership. Better was it to take the virtual freedom of Albania under +the Sultan's nominal suzerainty, than to longer wage a hopeless war. +In this he was seconded, he said, by the noblest generals and +patriots. He was about to mention them; but was forbidden to utter so +much as a suspicion against any one. + +"I would not know them," said the magnanimous chief. "I will not have +a shadow of distrust in my mind toward any who have not drawn sword +against us. Let them keep their thoughts in their own breasts. Noble +Moses, your lips shall pronounce the sentence due Amesa's treason." + +The Dibrian general was silent. + +"Then, if Moses speaks no condemnation, no other lips shall," said +Castriot. + +Amesa threw himself at the feet of the chief, and began to pour forth +his gratitude. + +"The life thou hast spared, Sire, shall ever be thine. My sword shall +be given to thee as sovereign of my heart, as well as of my country." + +"Hold!" said Castriot. "What says Arnaud, the forester?" + +Amesa raised his face, blanched as suddenly with horror as it had been +flushed with elation. The venerable Kabilovitsch sat in silence for a +time, lost in the vividness of his recollections. At length, with slow +speech and tremulous voice, he portrayed the scenes of that terrible +night when the castle of the gallant De Streeses was destroyed, its +owner slain, the fair Mara driven back into the flames from which she +would have fled. + +"It is a lie," shouted Amesa. "The deed was wrought by Turks!"---- + +"Thy words condemn thee!" said Castriot. "The crime was not laid to +thy charge, Amesa. But now it shall be. Let Drakul be brought." + +Soldiers led in the man. The villain, whose hand had stayed at no deed +of daring or cruelty, was now seized with such cowardly fright that he +could scarce keep his legs. He was dragged before the extemporized +court. In answer to questions, he admitted his part, not only in the +original murders, but also in the raid upon the hamlet where Amesa had +suspected the heiress of De Streeses to be concealed. + +Amesa's rage at this betrayal burst forth in savage oaths, mingled +with such contradictory denials of his story as clearly confirmed its +truth. + +"For his treason against my authority, I refuse to take vengeance," +said Castriot. "But Albania, appealing for God's aid in establishing +its liberties, must, in God's name, do justice. What says Colonel +Kabilovitsch?" + +The old man spoke as if the solemnity of the Last Judgment had fallen +upon him,-- + +"As soon I must go before Him whose mercy I shall so sadly need for +the sins of my own life, I forgive Amesa the cruelty with which he has +followed me. God is my witness, that my personal grievance colors not +a thought of my heart. But, as I shall soon stand before the Judge, +together with the noble De Streeses, who was robbed of life in its +meridian, and that bright spirit whose cry for Amesa's mercy I heard +from out the flames, I say, Let justice be done! and let the soul of +the murderer be sent to confront his victims there before their God!" + +"Amen!" said Constantine. Moses Goleme was silent. + +Amesa had lost all his bravado. He trembled as would the meanest of +men who should bow his neck to the sword. He confessed his crime, and +piteously begged for his life; or, at least, that time should be given +him to make preparation for what he dreaded worse than death. A spirit +already damned seemed to have taken possession of his quivering frame. + +"Your life, Amesa," said the chief, "is forfeit for your crimes. On +the citadel walls of Croia, when we shall have returned there, as the +sun sets, so shall your life! Jesu grant that, through your +repentance and the prayers of Mother Church, your soul may rise again +in a better world!" + +"Amen!" responded all. + +The army returned from the Thessalian border through the country +northward, everywhere received with ovations by the people. The fate +of Amesa, though commiserated, was as generally commended. No one, +however attached by association to the once popular Voivode, raised a +voice in dissent from the sentence, or in pity for the culprit. + + + + +CHAPTER LVII. + + +The news reached Morsinia at Croia long before the return of the army. +She took little joy in the hearty and generous acclaim that welcomed +her to her inheritance. She had no vanity to be stimulated by the +popular stories which associated her beauty with her wealth. Her +thoughts seemed to be palled with heaviness, rather than canopied by +the bright prospects which fortune had spread for her. + +When Castriot officially announced to her the restoration of the +DeStreeses' property, she refused to enter upon her estates, which +were to come to her through the ceremony of blood in the execution of +her enemy. + +"No! Let them be confiscate to the State. I cheerfully surrender their +revenues for Albania. I ask nothing more than to be the instrument of +so aiding our noble cause and its noble leader," said she. + +"Albania will insist that you shall obtain your right. From voivode to +lowest peasant, the people will be content only as the daughter of +DeStreeses graces his ancient castle." + +"But," responded she, "I shall never enter its doors over the body of +my enemy. May not some other fate be his?" + +"Law should be sacred," said Castriot. + +"But is it not a law of Albania that even a murderer need not be +executed if all the family of his victim unite in his behalf, and he +pay the Krwnina?[110] Am I not all the family of DeStreeses? Let then +the estates be the Krwnina." + +"That cannot be," replied Castriot. "The law requires the price of +blood to be paid by the murderer, and the estates belong not to Amesa. +Besides, Albania will be better served by your occupation of the +castle, reviving its ancient prestige, and proclaiming thus that the +reign of justice has been restored in our land." + +"But let justice be mingled with mercy," said Morsinia. + +"Nay, the mercy would dilute the quality of the justice." + +"Can there be no mitigation of our cousin Amesa's fate, which shall +not prejudice the right?" asked the fair intercessor. "If Jesu prayed +to his Father that His murderers might be forgiven, may not I plead +that my father, the father of his country, shall be gracious to him +who has wronged me?" + +Castriot was absorbed in deep thought. At length he replied: + +"Ah, how little we men, schooled to revenge and bloodshed, know what +justice is, and what mercy is, as these sentiments move in the heart +of the Eternal! Your pure soul, my child, has closer kinship with +heaven than ours. I fear to deny your request, lest I should offend +that mysterious Spirit which has seemed to counsel me since, in the +land of the Moslems, I swore to return to my Christian faith; and +which, in my prayers and dreams, has been strangely associated with +you. In all that is right and good your conscience shall still inspire +mine: for you are my good angel. Amesa's life shall be spared. But no +breath of his must so much as taint the air of Albania. I am summoned +by my old ally, Ferdinand of Naples, to assist in driving the French +from his domains. Amesa shall go with me, and be kept in custody among +strangers. But it must be proclaimed from the citadel of Croia that +his life is restored him by the daughter of Musache de Streeses. + +"And yet, my dear child," continued he, "in these rude times you +cannot dwell alone in the castle. You need a protector who is not only +wise and brave, and loyal to Albania, but loyal to you. My duties +elsewhere will prevent my rendering that service. Colonel +Kabilovitsch's age is stealing the alertness from his energies. Our +Constantine--Ah! Does the blush tell that I am right?" He took her +hand, as he asked: "May I exercise the father's privilege, according +to our Albanian custom, and put this hand into Constantine's, to keep +and to defend?" + +Morsinia replied frankly. "Since, Sire, I may not give my estates to +my country, bestow them upon whom you will; and my hand must go to +him, who, since we were children, has held my heart." + +The following day, as the sun gilded the walls of Croia with his +setting rays, an immense concourse of soldiers and peasants gathered +within the citadel court. The executioner led the traitor, followed by +a priest, out upon the bastion. A trumpet sounded, and the silence +which followed its dying note was broken by the voice of the crier, +who announced that, in the name of God and the sovereign people, and +by the ordaining of George, Duke of Albania, the decree of justice +should be executed upon the Voivode Amesa. Then followed the record of +his crimes, together with the declaration that his appearance in arms +among the enemy, having been, according to his declaration, not +treason against his country, but rebellion against the military +chieftaincy of Duke George, was by the grace of that high official +forgiven; and further that the sentence of death for his foul murder +of Musache De Streeses and his wife Mara Cernoviche, was, through the +intercession of Mara, sole survivor of that ancient house, and by the +authority of Duke George, commuted to perpetual banishment from the +realm, in such place and condition as seemed best to the Duke for the +security of the land. + +The people stood in amazement as they listened. The relief from the +horror of the anticipated spectacle, when the head of the former +favorite should be held up by the executioner, led them to accept +complacently this turn in affairs, even though their judgment did not +commend it. In a few moments the cry rose, "Live Duke George! A +Castriot forever!" Soon it changed to wilder enthusiasm, "Long live +Mara De Streeses!" This storm of applause could not be stilled until +Morsinia permitted herself to be led by Castriot to the edge of the +battlement. + +As the sun was setting, the huge mass of the citadel rose like a +mighty altar from the bosom of the gloom which had already settled +about its base. Slowly the shadow had climbed its side, crowding the +last bright ray until it vanished from the top of the parapet. It was +at this instant that Morsinia appeared. The citadel beneath her was +sombre as the coming night which enwrapped it, but her form was +radiant in the lingering splendor of the departing day. As she raised +her hand in response to the grateful clamor of the people, she seemed +the impersonation of a heavenly benediction. The multitude gazed in +reverent silence for a moment. Then, as the sun dropped behind the +western hill, veiling the glory of this apparition, they made the very +sky resound with their shouts; and in the quick gathering darkness +went their ways. + +A few weeks later, the castle of De Streeses was decked with banners, +whose bright colors rivalled the late autumnal hues of the forest from +the midst of which it rose. Multitudes of people all day long thronged +the paths leading up to it from the valleys around. Gorgeously arrayed +voivodes, accompanied by their suites, made the ravines resound with +their rattling armor; and bands of peasants, in cheap but gaudy +finery, threaded through the by paths. Those who possessed tents +brought them. Others, upon their arrival in the proximity of the +castle, erected booths and festooned them with vines, which the +advancing season had painted fiery red or burst into gray feathery +plumes. From cleared places near the castle walls rose huge spirals of +smoke, as oxen and sheep, quartered or entire, were being roasted, to +feed the multitude of guests; while great casks of foaming beer and +ruddy sparkling wine excited and slaked their thirst. The recent +defeat of the Turks had led to the withdrawal of their armies, at +least until winter should have passed; and the people of the northern +country gave themselves up to the double celebration of the well-won +peace and the nuptials of Mara De Streeses. + +Within the castle the great and the dignified of the land abandoned +themselves to equal freedom with the peasants, in the enjoyment of +games, and the observance of simple and fantastic national customs. +Morsinia and Constantine kissed again through the ivy wreath, as in +the days of childhood. The new matron's distaff touched the oaken +walls of the great dining hall; and her hand spread the table with +bread and wine and water, in formal assumption of her office as +housewife. When she undressed and dressed again the babe, borrowed +from a neighboring cottage, she received sundry scoldings and many +saws of nursery advice from a group of peasant mothers. The happy +couple were almost buried beneath the buckets of grain, which some of +the guests poured over them, as they wished them all the blessings of +the soil. When they approached the fire place they were showered with +sparks, as some one struck the huge glowing log and invoked for them +the possession of herds and flocks and friends as many as the +fireflecks that flew. + +Gifts were offered: those of the poor and rich being received with +equal grace;--a rare breed of domestic fowls following a case of +cutlery from Toledo in Spain; and a necklace of pearls preceding a +hound trained by some skillful hunter. On opening the casket which +Castriot presented, as he kissed the golden cluster upon the forehead +of the bride, there was found within a cap of sparkling gems, such as +is worn by oriental brides, a parchment commissioning Constantine as a +voivode in the Albanian service, with governor's command of the Skadar +country. + +The blessing of the priest was supplemented by those of the old men, +which were put in form of prophecies. Kabilovitsch inclosed the happy +couple in outstretched arms, and gazing long into their faces, said: + +"As on that night at the foot of the Balkans I wrapped you, my +children, in my blanket, and, in my absence, another greater than we +knew, our generous Castriot, took my place to watch over you; so now, +as soon I must leave you forever, One greater than man knows, even our +Covenant God, shall be your guardian!" + +A man, apparently decrepit with the weight of years, assumed the +privilege of a venerable stranger upon such occasions, and came to +utter his prophecy. His head was covered with a close fitting fur +cap, which concealed his brow to the eyes. Straggling gray locks hung +partly over his face and down his neck. As he spoke, Constantine +started with evident amazement, which was, however, instantly checked. +The bride seemed strangely fascinated. Kabilovitsch, who had been too +much absorbed with his own thoughts to notice the stranger's approach, +lifted his head quickly, and put his hand to his ear, as if catching +some faint and distant sound. This was the old prophet's blessing-- + +"Allah ordains that these walls, consecrated to Justice, and inhabited +by Love, shall from this day be guarded by Peace. Even the Moslem's +sword shall be stayed from hence!" + +He bowed to the floor, touching with his lips the spot where Morsinia +had stood. Before the guests could fully comprehend this scene, he was +gone. But lying on the floor where he had bowed was a silken case, +elegantly wrought. Morsinia uttered a subdued, yet startled, cry as +she seized it. The gift seemed to have thrown a spell about her; for, +with paled cheeks, she asked that she might retire to rest awhile in +her chamber. + +"A wjeshtize!" cried several, looking out from the door through which +the man had passed. + +"Heaven grant he has left no curse!" exclaimed others. + +The silken case contained several crystals of atar of roses. In one of +these, which was larger than the others, gleamed, instead of the +perfumed drop, a splendid diamond. Upon a piece of parchment, as fine +as the silk of which the case was made, Morsinia read-- + + "My pledge to give my life for thine shall be kept when need + requires--Meanwhile know that the Padishah, the rightful + Lord of Albania, has bestowed this castle upon Ballaban + Badera, Aga of the Janizaries, who in turn bestows it upon + Mara De Streeses-- + + "Signed, + "MICHAEL." + + * * * * * + +Our story has covered a period of thirteen years. For eleven years +more the genius of Scanderbeg, which his perhaps too partial +countrymen used to compare to that of Alexander and Pyrrhus, withstood +the whole power of the Ottoman Empire, directed against him by the +most skilful generals of the age. Sinam and Assem, Jusem and Caraza, +Seremet and the puissant Sultan Mahomet himself successively appeared +in the field; but retreated, leaving their thousands of slain to +attest the invincibility of the Albanian chief. Only one Ottoman +commander ventured to return for a second campaign. The old Latin +chronicles of the monk Marinus Barletius--who records the deeds of +Castriot in thirteen volumes--assign this honorable distinction to the +Janizary, Ballaban Badera. In six campaigns this redoubtable warrior +desolated Albania. From Thessaly, northward over the land, poured the +Moslem tide, but it stayed itself at the waters of Skadar; and, as if +fate had approved the prophecy of the aged stranger at the nuptials of +Constantine and Morsinia, the castle of De Streeses during all these +terrible years, looked down upon bloodless fields. Though his lands +were ravaged, the courage of Castriot was not wearied, nor was his +genius baffled, until, in the year 1467, there came upon him a +mightier than Ballaban, a mightier than Mahomet. In the presence of +the last enemy he commended his country to the valor of his voivodes, +his family to the protection of friends,[111] and his soul to the +grace of Jesu, his Saviour. They buried him in the old church at +Lyssa. Years after, no Scanderbeg succeeding Scanderbeg, the Turks +possessed the land. They dug up his bones, and, inclosing their +fragments in silver and gold, wore them as amulets. Pashas and Viziers +esteemed themselves happy, even in subsequent centuries, if they might +so much as touch a bone of Scanderbeg; "For perchance," they said, +"there may thus be imparted to us some of that valor and skill which +in him were invincible by the might of men." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[110] The price of blood, generally 1000 piastres among the poorer +classes, which was paid by the culprit to the village where the crime +was committed, and by it paid to the general government. + +[111] Castriot married late in life. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Captain of the Janizaries, by James M. Ludlow + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40519 *** |