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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Prince of India, Volume I, by Lew. Wallace
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Prince of India, Volume I
+       or, Why Constantinople Fell
+
+Author: Lew. Wallace
+
+Posting Date: March 14, 2014 [EBook #6848]
+Release Date: November, 2004
+First Posted: February 1, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCE OF INDIA, VOLUME I ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anne Soulard, Naomi Parkhurst, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version
+by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PRINCE OF INDIA
+
+OR
+
+WHY CONSTANTINOPLE FELL
+
+
+BY LEW. WALLACE
+
+
+
+VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+   _Rise, too, ye Shapes and Shadows of the Past
+    Rise from your long forgotten grazes at last
+    Let us behold your faces, let us hear
+    The words you uttered in those days of fear
+    Revisit your familiar haunts again
+    The scenes of triumph and the scenes of pain
+    And leave the footprints of your bleeding feet
+    Once more upon the pavement of the street_
+                                       LONGFELLOW
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+BOOK I
+
+THE EARTH AND THE SEA ARE ALWAYS GIVING UP THEIR SECRETS
+
+     I. THE NAMELESS BAY
+    II. THE MIDNIGHT LANDING
+   III. THE HIDDEN TREASURE
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+THE PRINCE OF INDIA
+
+     I. A MESSENGER FROM CIPANGO
+    II. THE PILGRIM AT EL KATIF
+   III. THE YELLOW AIR
+    IV. EL ZARIBAH
+     V. THE PASSING OF THE CARAVAN
+    VI. THE PRINCE AND THE EMIR
+   VII. AT THE KAABA
+  VIII. THE ARRIVAL IN CONSTANTINOPLE
+    IX. THE PRINCE AT HOME
+     X. THE ROSE OF SPRING
+
+
+BOOK III
+
+THE PRINCESS IRENE
+
+     I. MORNING ON THE BOSPHORUS
+    II. THE PRINCESS IRENE
+   III. THE HOMERIC PALACE
+    IV. THE RUSSIAN MONK
+     V. A VOICE FROM THE CLOISTER
+    VI. WHAT DO THE STARS SAY?
+   VII. THE PRINCE OF INDIA MEETS CONSTANTINE
+  VIII. RACING WITH A STORM
+    IX. IN THE WHITE CASTLE
+     X. THE ARABIAN STORY-TELLER
+    XI. THE TURQUOISE RING
+   XII. THE RING RETURNS
+  XIII. MAHOMMED HEARS FROM THE STARS
+   XIV. DREAMS AND VISIONS
+    XV. DEPARTURE FROM THE WHITE CASTLE
+   XVI. AN EMBASSY TO THE PRINCESS IRENE
+  XVII. THE EMPEROR'S WOOING
+ XVIII. THE SINGING SHEIK
+   XIX. TWO TURKISH TALES
+    XX. MAHOMMED DREAMS
+
+
+BOOK IV
+
+THE PALACE OF BLACHERNE
+
+     I. THE PALACE OF BLACHERNE
+    II. THE AUDIENCE
+   III. THE NEW FAITH PROCLAIMED
+    IV. THE PANNYCHIDES
+     V. A PLAGUE OF CRIME
+    VI. A BYZANTINE GENTLEMAN OF THE PERIOD
+   VII. A BYZANTINE HERETIC
+  VIII. THE ACADEMY OF EPICURUS
+    IX. A FISHERMAN'S FETE
+     X. THE HAMARI
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I
+
+THE EARTH AND THE SEA ARE ALWAYS GIVING UP THEIR SECRETS
+
+
+
+THE PRINCE OF INDIA
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE NAMELESS BAY
+
+
+In the noon of a September day in the year of our dear Lord 1395, a
+merchant vessel nodded sleepily upon the gentle swells of warm water
+flowing in upon the Syrian coast. A modern seafarer, looking from the
+deck of one of the Messagerie steamers now plying the same line of
+trade, would regard her curiously, thankful to the calm which held her
+while he slaked his wonder, yet more thankful that he was not of her
+passage.
+
+She could not have exceeded a hundred tons burthen. At the bow and
+stern she was decked, and those quarters were fairly raised. Amidship
+she was low and open, and pierced for twenty oars, ten to a side, all
+swaying listlessly from the narrow ports in which they were hung.
+Sometimes they knocked against each other. One sail, square and of a
+dingy white, drooped from a broad yard-arm, which was itself tilted,
+and now and then creaked against the yellow mast complainingly,
+unmindful of the simple tackle designed to keep it in control. A
+watchman crouched in the meagre shade of a fan-like structure
+overhanging the bow deck. The roofing and the floor, where exposed,
+were clean, even bright; in all other parts subject to the weather and
+the wash there was only the blackness of pitch. The steersman sat on a
+bench at the stern. Occasionally, from force of habit, he rested a hand
+upon the rudder-oar to be sure it was yet in reach. With exception of
+the two, the lookout and the steersman, all on board, officers,
+oarsmen, and sailors, were asleep--such confidence could a
+Mediterranean calm inspire in those accustomed to life on the beautiful
+sea. As if Neptune never became angry there, and blowing his conch, and
+smiting with his trident, splashed the sky with the yeast of waves!
+However, in 1395 Neptune had disappeared; like the great god Pan, he
+was dead.
+
+The next remarkable thing about the ship was the absence of the signs
+of business usual with merchantmen. There were no barrels, boxes,
+bales, or packages visible. Nothing indicated a cargo. In her deepest
+undulations the water-line was not once submerged. The leather shields
+of the oar-ports were high and dry. Possibly she had passengers aboard.
+Ah, yes! There under the awning, stretched halfway across the deck
+dominated by the steersman, was a group of persons all unlike seamen.
+Pausing to note them, we may find the motive of the voyage.
+
+Four men composed the group. One was lying upon a pallet, asleep yet
+restless. A black velvet cap had slipped from his head, giving freedom
+to thick black hair tinged with white. Starting from the temples, a
+beard with scarce a suggestion of gray swept in dark waves upon the
+neck and throat, and even invaded the pillow. Between the hair and
+beard there was a narrow margin of sallow flesh for features somewhat
+crowded by knots of wrinkle. His body was wrapped in a loose woollen
+gown of brownish-black. A hand, apparently all bone, rested upon the
+breast, clutching a fold of the gown. The feet twitched nervously in
+the loosened thongs of old-fashioned sandals. Glancing at the others of
+the group, it was plain this sleeper was master and they his slaves.
+Two of them were stretched on the bare boards at the lower end of the
+pallet, and they were white. The third was a son of Ethiopia of unmixed
+blood and gigantic frame. He sat at the left of the couch,
+cross-legged, and, like the rest, was in a doze; now and then, however,
+he raised his head, and, without fully opening his eyes, shook a fan of
+peacock feathers from head to foot over the recumbent figure. The two
+whites were clad in gowns of coarse linen belted to their waists;
+while, saving a cincture around his loins, the negro was naked.
+
+There is often much personal revelation to be gleaned from the
+properties a man carries with him from home. Applying the rule here, by
+the pallet there was a walking-stick of unusual length, and severely
+hand-worn a little above the middle. In emergency it might have been
+used as a weapon. Three bundles loosely wrapped had been cast against a
+timber of the ship; presumably they contained the plunder of the slaves
+reduced to the minimum allowance of travel. But the most noticeable
+item was a leather roll of very ancient appearance, held by a number of
+broad straps deeply stamped and secured by buckles of a metal blackened
+like neglected silver.
+
+The attention of a close observer would have been attracted to this
+parcel, not so much by its antique showing, as by the grip with which
+its owner clung to it with his right hand. Even in sleep he held it of
+infinite consequence. It could not have contained coin or any bulky
+matter. Possibly the man was on some special commission, with his
+credentials in the old roll. Ay, who was he?
+
+Thus started, the observer would have bent himself to study of the
+face; and immediately something would have suggested that while the
+stranger was of this period of the world he did not belong to it. Such
+were the magicians of the story-loving Al-Raschid. Or he was of the
+type Rabbinical that sat with Caiphas in judgment upon the gentle
+Nazarene. Only the centuries could have evolved the apparition. Who was
+he?
+
+In the course of half an hour the man stirred, raised his head, looked
+hurriedly at his attendants, then at the parts of the ship in view,
+then at the steersman still dozing by the rudder; then he sat up, and
+brought the roll to his lap, whereat the rigor of his expression
+relaxed. The parcel was safe! And the conditions about him were as they
+should be!
+
+He next set about undoing the buckles of his treasure. The long fingers
+were expert; but just when the roll was ready to open he lifted his
+face, and fixed his eyes upon the section of blue expanse outside the
+edge of the awning, and dropped into thought. And straightway it was
+settled that he was not a diplomatist or a statesman or a man of
+business of any kind. The reflection which occupied him had nothing to
+do with intrigues or statecraft; its centre was in his heart as the
+look proved. So, in tender moods, a father gazes upon his child, a
+husband at the beloved wife, restfully, lovingly.
+
+And that moment the observer, continuing his study, would have
+forgotten the parcel, the white slaves, the gigantic negro, the
+self-willed hair and beard of pride--the face alone would have held
+him. The countenance of the Sphinx has no beauty now; and standing
+before it, we feel no stir of the admiration always a certificate that
+what we are beholding is charming out of the common lines; yet we are
+drawn to it irresistibly, and by a wish vague, foolish--so foolish we
+would hesitate long before putting it in words to be heard by our best
+lover--a wish that the monster would tell us all about itself. The
+feeling awakened by the face of the traveller would have been similar,
+for it was distinctly Israelitish, with exaggerated eyes set deeply in
+cavernous hollows--a mobile mask, in fact, concealing a life in some
+way unlike other lives. Unlike? That was the very attraction. If the
+man would only speak, what a tale he could unfold!
+
+But he did not speak. Indeed, he seemed to have regarded speech a
+weakness to be fortified against. Putting the pleasant thought aside,
+he opened the roll, and with exceeding tenderness of touch brought
+forth a sheet of vellum dry to brittleness, and yellow as a faded
+sycamore leaf. There were lines upon it as of a geometrical drawing,
+and an inscription in strange characters. He bent over the chart, if
+such it may be called, eagerly, and read it through; then, with a
+satisfied expression, he folded it back into the cover, rebuckled the
+straps, and placed the parcel under the pillow. Evidently the business
+drawing him was proceeding as he would have had it. Next he woke the
+negro with a touch. The black in salute bent his body forward, and
+raised his hands palm out, the thumbs at the forehead. Attention
+singularly intense settled upon his countenance; he appeared to listen
+with his soul. It was time for speech, yet the master merely pointed to
+one of the sleepers. The watchful negro caught the idea, and going to
+the man, aroused him, then resumed his place and posture by the pallet.
+The action revealed his proportions. He looked as if he could have
+lifted the gates of Gaza, and borne them easily away; and to the
+strength there were superadded the grace, suppleness, and softness of
+motion of a cat. One could not have helped thinking the slave might
+have all the elements to make him a superior agent in fields of bad as
+well as good.
+
+The second slave arose, and waited respectfully. It would have been
+difficult to determine his nationality. He had the lean face, the high
+nose, sallow complexion, and low stature of an Armenian. His
+countenance was pleasant and intelligent. In addressing him, the master
+made signs with hand and finger; and they appeared sufficient, for the
+servant walked away quickly as if on an errand. A short time, and he
+came back bringing a companion of the genus sailor, very red-faced,
+heavily built, stupid, his rolling gait unrelieved by a suggestion of
+good manners. Taking position before the black-gowned personage, his
+feet wide apart, the mariner said:
+
+"You sent for me?"
+
+The question was couched in Byzantine Greek.
+
+"Yes," the passenger replied, in the same tongue, though with better
+accent. "Where are we?"
+
+"But for this calm we should be at Sidon. The lookout reports the
+mountains in view."
+
+The passenger reflected a moment, then asked, "Resorting to the oars,
+when can we reach the city?"
+
+"By midnight."
+
+"Very well. Listen now."
+
+The speaker's manner changed; fixing his big eyes upon the sailor's
+lesser orbs, he continued:
+
+"A few stadia north of Sidon there is what may be called a bay. It is
+about four miles across. Two little rivers empty into it, one on each
+side. Near the middle of the bend of the shore there is a well of sweet
+water, with flow enough to support a few villagers and their camels. Do
+you know the bay?"
+
+The skipper would have become familiar.
+
+"You are well acquainted with this coast," he said.
+
+"Do you know of such a bay?" the passenger repeated.
+
+"I have heard of it."
+
+"Could you find it at night?"
+
+"I believe so."
+
+"That is enough. Take me into the bay, and land me at midnight. I will
+not go to the city. Get out all the oars now. At the proper time I will
+tell you what further I wish. Remember I am to be set ashore at
+midnight at a place which I will show you."
+
+The directions though few were clear. Having given them, the passenger
+signed the negro to fan him, and stretched himself upon the pallet; and
+thenceforth there was no longer a question who was in control. It
+became the more interesting, however, to know the object of the landing
+at midnight on the shore of a lonesome unnamed bay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MIDNIGHT LANDING
+
+
+The skipper predicted like a prophet. The ship was in the bay, and it
+was midnight or nearly so; for certain stars had climbed into certain
+quarters of the sky, and after their fashion were striking the hour.
+
+The passenger was pleased.
+
+"You have done well," he said to the mariner. "Be silent now, and get
+close in shore. There are no breakers. Have the small boat ready, and
+do not let the anchors go."
+
+The calm still prevailed, and the swells of the sea were scarce
+perceptible. Under the gentlest impulse of the oars the little vessel
+drifted broadside on until the keel touched the sands. At the same
+instant the small boat appeared. The skipper reported to the passenger.
+Going to each of the slaves, the latter signed them to descend. The
+negro swung himself down like a monkey, and received the baggage,
+which, besides the bundles already mentioned, consisted of some tools,
+notably a pick, a shovel, and a stout crowbar. An empty water-skin was
+also sent down, followed by a basket suggestive of food. Then the
+passenger, with a foot over the side of the vessel, gave his final
+directions.
+
+"You will run now," he said to the skipper, who, to his credit, had
+thus far asked no questions, "down to the city, and lie there
+to-morrow, and to-morrow night. Attract little notice as possible. It
+is not necessary to pass the gate. Put out in time to be here at
+sunrise. I will be waiting for you. Day after to-morrow at
+sunrise--remember."
+
+"But if you should not be here?" asked the sailor, thinking of extreme
+probabilities.
+
+"Then wait for me," was the answer.
+
+The passenger, in turn, descended to the boat, and was caught in the
+arms of the black, and seated carefully as he had been a child. In
+brief time the party was ashore, and the boat returning to the ship; a
+little later, the ship withdrew to where the night effectually
+curtained the deep.
+
+The stay on the shore was long enough to apportion the baggage amongst
+the slaves. The master then led the way. Crossing the road running from
+Sidon along the coast to the up-country, they came to the foothills of
+the mountain, all without habitation.
+
+Later they came upon signs of ancient life in splendor--broken columns,
+and here and there Corinthian capitals in marble discolored and sunk
+deeply in sand and mould. The patches of white on them had a ghastly
+glimmer in the starlight. They were approaching the site of an old
+city, a suburb probably of Palae-Tyre when she was one of the
+spectacles of the world, sitting by the sea to rule it regally far and
+wide.
+
+On further a small stream, one of those emptying into the bay, had
+ploughed a ravine for itself across the route the party was pursuing.
+Descending to the water, a halt was made to drink, and fill the
+water-skin, which the negro took on his shoulder.
+
+On further there was another ancient site strewn with fragments
+indicative of a cemetery. Hewn stones were frequent, and mixed with
+them were occasional entablatures and vases from which the ages had not
+yet entirely worn the fine chiselling. At length an immense uncovered
+sarcophagus barred the way. The master stopped by it to study the
+heavens; when he found the north star, he gave the signal to his
+followers, and moved under the trail of the steadfast beacon.
+
+They came to a rising ground more definitely marked by sarcophagi hewn
+from the solid rock, and covered by lids of such weight and solidity
+that a number of them had never been disturbed. Doubtless the dead
+within were lying as they had been left--but when, and by whom? What
+disclosures there will be when at last the end is trumpeted in!
+
+On further, but still connected with the once magnificent funeral site,
+they encountered a wall many feet thick, and short way beyond it, on
+the mountain's side, there were two arches of a bridge of which all
+else had been broken down; and these two had never spanned anything
+more substantial than the air. Strange structure for such a locality!
+Obviously the highway which once ran over it had begun in the city the
+better to communicate with the cemetery through which the party had
+just passed. So much was of easy understanding; but where was the other
+terminus? At sight of the arches the master drew a long breath of
+relief. They were the friends for whom he had been searching.
+
+Nevertheless, without stopping, he led down into a hollow on all sides
+sheltered from view; and there the unloading took place. The tools and
+bundles were thrown down by a rock, and preparations made for the
+remainder of the night. The pallet was spread for the master. The
+basket gave up its contents, and the party refreshed themselves and
+slept the sleep of the weary.
+
+The secluded bivouac was kept the next day. Only the master went forth
+in the afternoon. Climbing the mountain, he found the line in
+continuation of the bridge; a task the two arches serving as a base
+made comparatively easy. He stood then upon a bench or terrace cumbered
+with rocks, and so broad that few persons casually looking would have
+suspected it artificial. Facing fully about from the piers, he walked
+forward following the terrace which at places was out of line, and
+piled with debris tumbled from the mountain on the right hand side; in
+a few minutes that silent guide turned with an easy curve and
+disappeared in what had yet the appearance hardly distinguishable of an
+area wrenched with enormous labor from a low cliff of solid brown
+limestone.
+
+The visitor scanned the place again and again; then he said aloud:
+
+"No one has been here since"--
+
+The sentence was left unfinished.
+
+That he could thus identify the spot, and with such certainty pass upon
+it in relation to a former period, proved he had been there before.
+
+Rocks, earth, and bushes filled the space. Picking footway through, he
+examined the face of the cliff then in front of him, lingering longest
+on the heap of breakage forming a bank over the meeting line of area
+and hill.
+
+"Yes," he repeated, this time with undisguised satisfaction, "no one
+has been here since"--
+
+Again the sentence was unfinished.
+
+He ascended the bank next, and removed some of the stones at the top. A
+carved line in low relief on the face of the rock was directly exposed;
+seeing it he smiled, and replaced the stones, and descending, went back
+to the terrace, and thence to the slaves in bivouac.
+
+From one of the packages he had two iron lamps of old Roman style
+brought out, and supplied with oil and wicks; then, as if everything
+necessary to his project was done, he took to the pallet. Some goats
+had come to the place in his absence, but no living creature else.
+
+After nightfall the master woke the slaves, and made final preparation
+for the venture upon which he had come. The tools he gave to one man,
+the lamps to another, and the water-skin to the negro. Then he led out
+of the hollow, and up the mountain to the terrace visited in the
+afternoon; nor did he pause in the area mentioned as the abrupt
+terminus of the highway over the skeleton piers. He climbed the bank of
+stones covering the foot of the cliff up to the precise spot at which
+his reconnoissance had ended.
+
+Directly the slaves were removing the bank at the top; not a difficult
+task since they had only to roll the loose stones down a convenient
+grade. They worked industriously. At length--in half an hour
+probably--an opening into the cliff was discovered. The cavity, small
+at first, rapidly enlarged, until it gave assurance of a doorway of
+immense proportions. When the enlargement sufficed for his admission,
+the master stayed the work, and passed in. The slaves followed. The
+interior descent offered a grade corresponding with that of the bank
+outside--another bank, in fact, of like composition, but more difficult
+to pass on account of the darkness.
+
+With his foot the leading adventurer felt the way down to a floor; and
+when his assistants came to him, he took from a pocket in his gown a
+small case filled with a chemical powder which he poured at his feet;
+then he produced a flint and steel, and struck them together. Some
+sparks dropped upon the powder. Instantly a flame arose and filled the
+place with a ruddy illumination. Lighting the lamps by the flame, the
+party looked around them, the slaves with simple wonder.
+
+They were in a vault--a burial vault of great antiquity. Either it was
+an imitation of like chambers in Egypt, or they were imitations of it.
+The excavation had been done with chisels. The walls were niched,
+giving them an appearance of panelling, and over each of the niches
+there had been an inscription in raised letters, now mostly defaced.
+The floor was a confusion of fragments knocked from sarcophagi, which,
+massive as they were, had been tilted, overturned, uncovered,
+mutilated, and robbed. Useless to inquire whose the vandalism. It may
+have been of Chaldeans of the time of Almanezor, or of the Greeks who
+marched with Alexander, or of Egyptians who were seldom regardful of
+the dead of the peoples they overthrew as they were of their own, or of
+Saracens, thrice conquerors along the Syrian coast, or of Christians.
+Few of the Crusaders were like St. Louis.
+
+But of all this the master took no notice. With him it was right that
+the vault should look the wreck it was. Careless of inscriptions,
+indifferent to carving, his eyes ran rapidly along the foot of the
+northern wall until they came to a sarcophagus of green marble. Thither
+he proceeded. He laid his hand upon the half-turned lid, and observing
+that the back of the great box--if such it may be termed--was against
+the wall, he said again:
+
+"No one has been here since"--
+
+And again the sentence was left unfinished.
+
+Forthwith he became all energy. The negro brought the crowbar, and, by
+direction, set it under the edge of the sarcophagus, which he held
+raised while the master blocked it at the bottom with a stone chip.
+Another bite, and a larger chip was inserted. Good hold being thus had,
+a vase was placed for fulcrum; after which, at every downward pressure
+of the iron, the ponderous coffin swung round a little to the left.
+Slowly and with labor the movement was continued until the space behind
+was uncovered.
+
+By this time the lamps had become the dependencies for light. With his
+in hand, the master stooped and inspected the exposed wall.
+Involuntarily the slaves bent forward and looked, but saw nothing
+different from the general surface in that quarter. The master beckoned
+the negro, and touching a stone not wider than his three fingers, but
+reddish in hue, and looking like mere chinking lodged in an accidental
+crevice, signed him to strike it with the end of the bar.
+Once--twice--the stone refused to stir; with the third blow it was
+driven in out of sight, and, being followed vigorously, was heard to
+drop on the other side. The wall thereupon, to the height of the
+sarcophagus and the width of a broad door, broke, and appeared about to
+tumble down.
+
+When the dust cleared away, there was a crevice unseen before, and wide
+enough to admit a hand. The reader must remember there were masons in
+the old time who amused themselves applying their mathematics to such
+puzzles. Here obviously the intention had been to screen an entrance to
+an adjoining chamber, and the key to the design had been the sliver of
+red granite first displaced.
+
+A little patient use then of hand and bar enabled the workman to take
+out the first large block of the combination. That the master numbered
+with chalk, and had carefully set aside. A second block was taken out,
+numbered, and set aside; finally the screen was demolished, and the way
+stood open.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE HIDDEN TREASURE
+
+
+The slaves looked dubiously at the dusty aperture, which held out no
+invitation to them; the master, however, drew his robe closer about
+him, and stooping went in, lamp in hand. They then followed.
+
+An ascending passage, low but of ample width, received them. It too had
+been chiselled from the solid rock. The wheel marks of the cars used in
+the work were still on the floor. The walls were bare but smoothly
+dressed. Altogether the interest here lay in expectation of what was to
+come; and possibly it was that which made the countenance of the master
+look so grave and absorbed. He certainly was not listening to the
+discordant echoes roused as he advanced.
+
+The ascent was easy. Twenty-five or thirty steps brought them to the
+end of the passage.
+
+They then entered a spacious chamber circular and domed. The light of
+the lamps was not enough to redeem the ceiling from obscurity; yet the
+master led without pause to a sarcophagus standing under the centre of
+the dome, and when he was come there everything else was forgotten by
+him.
+
+The receptacle of the dead thus discovered had been hewn from the rock,
+and was of unusual proportions. Standing broadside to the entrance, it
+was the height of an ordinary man, and twice as long as high. The
+exterior had been polished smoothly as the material would allow;
+otherwise it was of absolute plainness, looking not unlike a dark brown
+box. The lid was a slab of the finest white marble carven into a
+perfect model of Solomon's Temple. While the master surveyed the lid he
+was visibly affected. He passed the lamp over it slowly, letting the
+light fall into the courts of the famous building; in like manner he
+illuminated the corridors, and the tabernacle; and, as he did so, his
+features trembled and his eyes were suffused. He walked around the
+exquisite representation several times, pausing now and then to blow
+away the dust that had in places accumulated upon it. He noticed the
+effect of the transparent whiteness in the chamber; so in its day the
+original had lit up the surrounding world. Undoubtedly the model had
+peculiar hold upon his feelings.
+
+But shaking the weakness off he after a while addressed himself to
+work. He had the negro thrust the edge of the bar under the lid, and
+raise it gently. Having thoughtfully provided himself in the
+antechamber with pieces of stone for the purpose, he placed one of them
+so as to hold the vantage gained. Slowly, then, by working at the ends
+alternately, the immense slab was turned upon its centre; slowly the
+hollow of the coffin was flooded with light; slowly, and with seeming
+reluctance, it gave up its secrets.
+
+In strong contrast to the plainness of the exterior, the interior of
+the sarcophagus was lined with plates and panels of gold, on which
+there were cartoons chased and beaten in, representing ships, and tall
+trees, doubtless cedars of Lebanon, and masons at work, and two men
+armed and in royal robes greeting each other with clasped hands; and so
+beautiful were the cartoons that the eccentric medalleur, Cellini,
+would have studied them long, if not enviously. Yet he who now peered
+into the receptacle scarcely glanced at them.
+
+On a stone chair seated was the mummy of a man with a crown upon its
+head, and over its body, for the most part covering--the linen
+wrappings, was a robe of threads of gold in ample arrangement. The
+hands rested on the lap; in one was a sceptre; the other held an
+inscribed silver tablet. There were rings plain, and rings with jewels
+in setting, circling the fingers and thumbs; the ears, ankles, even the
+great toes, were ornamented in like manner. At the feet a sword of the
+fashion of a cimeter had been laid. The blade was in its scabbard, but
+the scabbard was a mass of jewels, and the handle a flaming ruby. The
+belt was webbed with pearls and glistening brilliants. Under the sword
+were the instruments sacred then and ever since to Master Masons--a
+square, a gavel, a plummet, and an inscribing compass.
+
+The man had been a king--so much the first glance proclaimed. With him,
+as with his royal brethren from the tombs along the Nile, death had
+asserted itself triumphantly over the embalmer. The cheeks were
+shrivelled and mouldy; across the forehead the skin was drawn tight;
+the temples were hollows rimmed abruptly with the frontal bones; the
+eyes, pits partially filled with dried ointments of a bituminous color.
+The monarch had yielded his life in its full ripeness, for the white
+hair and beard still adhered in stiffened plaits to the skull, cheeks,
+and chin. The nose alone was natural; it stood up thin and hooked, like
+the beak of an eagle.
+
+At sight of the figure thus caparisoned and maintaining its seat in an
+attitude of calm composure the slaves drew back startled. The negro
+dropped his iron bar, making the chamber ring with a dissonant clangor.
+
+Around the mummy in careful arrangement were vessels heaped with coins
+and pearls and precious stones, cut and ready for the goldsmith.
+Indeed, the whole inner space of the sarcophagus was set with basins
+and urns, each in itself a work of high art; and if their contents were
+to be judged by what appeared overflowing them, they all held precious
+stones of every variety. The corners had been draped with cloths of
+gold and cloths embroidered with pearls, some of which were now falling
+to pieces of their own weight.
+
+We know that kings and queens are but men and women subject to the same
+passions of common people; that they are generous or sordid according
+to their natures; that there have been misers amongst them; but this
+one--did he imagine he could carry his amassments with him out of the
+world? Had he so loved the gems in his life as to dream he could
+illumine his tomb with them? If so, O royal idiot!
+
+The master, when an opening had been made sufficiently wide by turning
+the lid upon the edge of the sarcophagus, took off his sandals, gave a
+foot to one of his slaves, and swung himself into the interior. The
+lamp was then given him, and he surveyed the wealth and splendor as the
+king might never again. And as the king in his day had said with
+exultation, Lo! it is all mine, the intruder now asserted title.
+
+Unable, had he so wished, to carry the whole collection off, he looked
+around upon this and upon that, determining where to begin. Conscious
+he had nothing to fear, and least of all from the owner in the chair,
+he was slow and deliberate. From his robe he drew a number of bags of
+coarse hempen cloth, and a broad white napkin. The latter he spread
+upon the floor, first removing several of the urns to obtain space;
+then he emptied one of the vessels upon it, and from the sparkling and
+varicolored heap before him proceeded to make selection.
+
+His judgment was excellent, sure and swift. Not seldom he put the large
+stones aside, giving preference to color and lustre. Those chosen he
+dropped into a bag. When the lot was gone through, he returned the
+rejected to the vessel, placing it back exactly in its place. Then he
+betook himself to another of the vessels, and then another, until, in
+course of a couple of hours, he had made choice from the collection,
+and filled nine bags, and tied them securely.
+
+Greatly relieved, he arose, rubbed the benumbed joints of his limbs
+awhile, then passed the packages out to the slaves. The occupation had
+been wearisome and tensive; but it was finished, and he would now
+retire. He lingered to give a last look at the interior, muttering the
+sentence again, and leaving it unfinished as before:
+
+"No one has been here since"--
+
+From the face of the king, his eyes fell to the silver tablet in the
+nerveless hand. Moving close, and holding the lamp in convenient
+position, he knelt and read the inscription.
+
+I.
+
+"There is but one God, and He was from the beginning, and will be
+without end.
+
+II.
+
+"In my lifetime, I prepared this vault and tomb to receive my body, and
+keep it safely; yet it may be visited, for the earth and sea are always
+giving up their secrets.
+
+III.
+
+"Therefore, O Stranger, first to find me, know thou!
+
+"That in all my days I kept intercourse with Solomon, King of the Jews,
+wisest of men, and the richest and greatest. As is known, he set about
+building a house to his Lord God, resolved that there should be nothing
+like it in the world, nothing so spacious, so enriched, so perfect in
+proportions, so in all things becoming the glory of his God. In
+sympathy with him I gave him of the skill of my people, workers in
+brass, and silver, and gold, and products of the quarries: and in their
+ships my sailors brought him the yield of mines from the ends of the
+earth. At last the house was finished; then he sent me the model of the
+house, and the coins, and cloths of gold and pearl, and the precious
+stones, and the vessels holding them, and the other things of value
+here. Ad if, O Stranger, thou dost wonder at the greatness of the gift,
+know thou that it was but a small part of what remained unto him of
+like kind, for he was master of the earth, and of everything belonging
+to it which might be of service to him, even the elements and their
+subtleties.
+
+IV.
+
+"Nor think, O Stranger, that I have taken the wealth into the tomb with
+me, imagining it can serve me in the next life. I store it here because
+I love him who gave it to me, and am jealous of his love; and that is
+all.
+
+V.
+
+"So thou wilt use the wealth in ways pleasing in the sight of the Lord
+God of Solomon, my royal friend, take thou of it in welcome. There is
+no God but his God!
+
+"Thus say I--HIRAM, KING OF TYRE."
+
+"Rest thou thy soul, O wisest of pagan kings," said the master, rising.
+"Being the first to find thee here, and basing my title to thy wealth
+on that circumstance, I will use it in a way pleasing in the sight of
+the Lord God of Solomon. Verily, verily, there is no God but his God!"
+
+This, then, was the business that brought the man to the tomb of the
+king whose glory was to have been the friend of Solomon. Pondering the
+idea, we begin to realize how vast the latter's fame was; and it ceases
+to be matter of wonder that his contemporaries, even the most royal,
+could have been jealous of his love.
+
+Not only have we the man's business, but it is finished; and judging
+from the satisfaction discernible on his face as he raised the lamp and
+turned to depart, the result must have been according to his best hope.
+He took off his robe, and tossed it to his slaves; then he laid a hand
+upon the edge of the sarcophagus preparatory to climbing out. At the
+moment, while giving a last look about him, an emerald, smoothly cut,
+and of great size, larger indeed than a full-grown pomegranate, caught
+his eyes in its place loose upon the floor. He turned back, and taking
+it up, examined it carefully; while thus engaged his glance dropped to
+the sword almost at his feet. The sparkle of the brilliants, and the
+fire-flame of the great ruby in the grip, drew him irresistibly, and he
+stood considering.
+
+Directly he spoke in a low voice:
+
+"No one has been here since"--
+
+He hesitated--glanced hurriedly around to again assure himself it was
+not possible to be overheard--then finished the sentence:
+
+"No one has been here _since I came a thousand years ago_."
+
+At the words so strange, so inexplicable upon any theory of nature and
+common experience, the lamp shook in his hand. Involuntarily he shrank
+from the admission, though to himself. But recovering, he repeated:
+
+"Since I came a thousand years ago."
+
+Then he added more firmly:
+
+"But the earth and the sea are always giving up their secrets. So saith
+the good King Hiram; and since I am a witness proving the wisdom of the
+speech, I at least must believe him. Wherefore it is for me to govern
+myself as if another will shortly follow me. The saying of the king is
+an injunction."
+
+With that, he turned the glittering sword over and over admiringly.
+Loath to let it go, he drew the blade partly from the scabbard, and its
+clearness had the depth peculiar to the sky between stars at night.
+
+"Is there anything it will not buy," he continued, reflectively. "What
+king could refuse a sword once Solomon's? I will take it."
+
+Thereupon he passed both the emerald and the sword out to the slaves,
+whom he presently joined.
+
+The conviction, but a moment before expressed, that another would
+follow him to the tomb of the venerated Tyrian, was not strong enough
+to hinder the master from attempting to hide every sign which might aid
+in the discovery. The negro, under his direction, returned the lid
+exactly to its former fitting place on the sarcophagus; the emerald and
+the sword he wrapped in his gown; the bags and the tools were counted
+and distributed among the slaves for easy carriage. Lamp in hand, he
+then walked around to see that nothing was left behind. Incidentally he
+even surveyed the brown walls and the dim dome overhead. Having reached
+the certainty that everything was in its former state, he waved his
+hand, and with one long look backward at the model, ghostly beautiful
+in its shining white transparency, he led the way to the passage of
+entrance, leaving the king to his solitude and stately sleep, unmindful
+of the visitation and the despoilment.
+
+Out in the large reception room, he paused again to restore the wall.
+Beginning with the insignificant key, one by one the stones, each of
+which, as we have seen, had been numbered by him, were raised and
+reset. Then handfuls of dust were collected and blown into the slight
+crevices till they were invisible. The final step was the restoration
+of the sarcophagus; this done, the gallery leading to the real vault of
+the king was once more effectually concealed.
+
+"He who follows, come he soon or late, must have more than sharp eyes
+if he would have audience with Hiram, my royal friend of Tyre," the
+adventurer said, in his meditative way, feeling at the same time in the
+folds of his gown for the chart so the object of solicitude on the
+ship. The roll, the emerald, and the sword were also safe. Signing the
+slaves to remain where they were, he moved slowly across the chamber,
+and by aid of his lamp surveyed an aperture there so broad and lofty it
+was suggestive of a gate rather than a door.
+
+"It is well," he said, smiling. "The hunter of spoils, hereafter as
+heretofore, will pass this way instead of the other."
+
+The remark was shrewd. Probably nothing had so contributed to the long
+concealment of the gallery just reclosed the second time in a thousand
+years as the high doorway, with its invitation to rooms beyond it, all
+now in iconoclastic confusion.
+
+Rejoining his workmen, he took a knife from the girdle of one of them,
+and cut a slit in the gurglet large enough to admit the bags of
+precious stones. The skin was roomy, and received them, though with the
+loss of much of the water. Having thus disposed of that portion of the
+plunder to the best advantage both for portage and concealment, he
+helped swing it securely upon the negro's shoulder, and without other
+delay led from the chamber to the great outdoors, where the lamps were
+extinguished.
+
+The pure sweet air, as may be imagined, was welcome to every one. While
+the slaves stood breathing it in wholesome volumes, the master studied
+the stars, and saw the night was not so far gone but that, with
+industry, the sea-shore could be made in time for the ship.
+
+Still pursuing the policy of hiding the road to the tomb much as
+possible, he waited while the men covered the entrance as before with
+stones brought up from the bank. A last survey of the face of the rock,
+minute as the starlight allowed, reassured him that, as to the rest of
+the world, the treasure might remain with its ancient owner undisturbed
+for yet another thousand years, if not forever; after which, in a
+congratulatory mood, he descended the mountain side to the place of
+bivouac, and thence in good time, and without adventure, arrived at the
+landing by the sea. There the negro, wading far out, flung the tools
+into the water.
+
+In the appointed time the galley came down from the city, and, under
+impulsion of the oars, disappeared with the party up the coast
+northward.
+
+The negro unrolled the pallet upon the deck, and brought some bread,
+Smyrna figs, and wine of Prinkipo, and the four ate and drank heartily.
+
+The skipper was then summoned.
+
+"You have done well, my friend," said the master. "Spare not sail or
+oar now, but make Byzantium without looking into any wayside port. I
+will increase your pay in proportion as you shorten the time we are
+out. Look to it--go--and speed you."
+
+Afterward the slaves in turn kept watch while he slept. And though the
+coming and going of sailors was frequent, not one of them noticed the
+oil-stained water-skin cast carelessly near the master's pillow, or the
+negro's shaggy half-cloak, serving as a wrap for the roll, the emerald,
+and the sword once Solomon's.
+
+The run of the galley from the nameless bay near Sidon was without stop
+or so much as a headwind. Always the blue sky above the deck, and the
+blue sea below. In daytime the master passenger would occasionally
+pause in his walk along the white planks, and, his hand on the gunwale,
+give a look at some of the landmarks studding the ancient Cycladean
+Sea, an island here, or a tall promontory of the continent yonder,
+possibly an Olympian height faintly gray in the vaster distance. His
+manner at such moments did not indicate a traveller new to the highway.
+A glance at the points such as business men closely pressed give the
+hands on the face of a clock to determine the minute of the hour, and
+he would resume walking. At night he slept right soundly.
+
+From the Dardanelles into the Hellespont; then the Marmora. The captain
+would have coasted, but the passenger bade him keep in the open. "There
+is nothing to fear from the weather," he said, "but there is time to be
+saved."
+
+In an afternoon they sighted the great stones Oxia and Plati; the
+first, arid and bare as a gray egg, and conical like an irregular
+pyramid; the other, a plane on top, with verdure and scattering trees.
+A glance at the map shows them the most westerly group of the Isles of
+the Princes.
+
+Now Nature is sometimes stupid, sometimes whimsical, doing
+unaccountable things. One gazing at the other isles of the group from a
+softly rocking caique out a little way on the sea divines instantly
+that she meant them for summer retreats, but these two, Oxia and Plati,
+off by themselves, bleak in winter, apparently always ready for
+spontaneous combustion in the heated months, for what were they
+designed? No matter--uses were found for them--fitting uses. Eremites
+in search of the hardest, grimmest places, selected Oxia, and pecking
+holes and caves in its sides, shared the abodes thus laboriously won
+with cormorants, the most gluttonous of birds. In time a rude convent
+was built near the summit. On the other hand, Plati was converted into
+a Gehenna for criminals, and in the vats and dungeons with which it was
+provided, lives were spent weeping for liberty. On this isle, tears and
+curses; on that, tears and prayers.
+
+At sundown the galley was plying its oars between Oxia and the European
+shore about where St. Stephano is now situated. The dome of Sta. Sophia
+was in sight; behind it, in a line to the northwest, arose the tower of
+Galata. "Home by lamplighting--Blessed be the Virgin!" the mariners
+said to each other piously. But no! The master passenger sent for the
+captain.
+
+"I do not care to get into harbor before morning. The night is
+delicious, and I will try it in the small boat. I was once a rower, and
+yet have a fancy for the oars. Do thou lay off and on hereabouts. Put
+two lamps at the masthead that I may know thy vessel when I desire to
+return. Now get out the boat."
+
+The captain thought his voyager queer of taste; nevertheless he did as
+told. In a short time the skiff--if the familiar word can be
+pardoned--put off with the negro and his master, the latter at the oars.
+
+In preparation for the excursion the gurglet half full of water and the
+sheepskin mantle of the black man were lowered into the little vessel.
+The boat moved away in the direction of Prinkipo, the mother isle of
+the group; and as the night deepened, it passed from view.
+
+When out of sight from the galley's deck, the master gave the rowing to
+the negro, and taking seat by the rudder, changed direction to the
+southeast; after which he kept on and on, until Plati lay directly in
+his course.
+
+The southern extremity of Plati makes quite a bold bluff. In a period
+long gone a stone tower had been constructed there, a lookout and
+shelter for guardsmen on duty; and there being no earthly chance of
+escape for prisoners, so securely were they immured, the duty must have
+been against robbers from the mainland on the east, and from pirates
+generally. Under the tower there was a climb difficult for most persons
+in daylight, and from the manoeuvring of the boat, the climb was
+obviously the object drawing the master. He at length found it, and
+stepped out on a shelving stone. The gurglet and mantle were passed to
+him, and soon he and his follower were feeling their way upward.
+
+On the summit, the chief walked once around the tower, now the merest
+ruin, a tumbledown without form, in places overgrown with sickly vines.
+Rejoining his attendant, and staying a moment to thoroughly empty the
+gurglet of water, on his hands and knees he crawled into a passage much
+obstructed by debris. The negro waited outside.
+
+The master made two trips; the first one, he took the gurglet in; the
+second, he took the mantle wrapping the sword. At the end, he rubbed
+his hands in self-congratulation.
+
+"They are safe--the precious stones of Hiram, and the sword of Solomon!
+Three other stores have I like this one--in India, in Egypt, in
+Jerusalem--and there is the tomb by Sidon. Oh, I shall not come to
+want!" and he laughed well pleased.
+
+The descent to the small boat was effected without accident.
+
+Next morning toward sunrise the passengers disembarked at Port St.
+Peter on the south side of the Golden Horn. A little later the master
+was resting at home in Byzantium.
+
+Within three days the mysterious person whom we, wanting his proper
+name and title, have termed the master, had sold his house and
+household effects. In the night of the seventh day, with his servants,
+singular in that all of them were deaf and dumb, he went aboard ship,
+and vanished down the Marmora, going no one but himself knew whither.
+
+The visit to the tomb of the royal friend of Solomon had evidently been
+to provide for the journey; and that he took precious stones in
+preference to gold and silver signified a journey indefinite as to time
+and place.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+THE PRINCE OF INDIA
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A MESSENGER FROM CIPANGO
+
+
+Just fifty-three years after the journey to the tomb of the Syrian
+king--more particularly on the fifteenth day of May, fourteen hundred
+and forty-eight--a man entered one of the stalls of a market in
+Constantinople--to-day the market would be called a bazaar--and
+presented a letter to the proprietor.
+
+The Israelite thus honored delayed opening the linen envelope while he
+surveyed the messenger. The liberty, it must be remarked, was not a
+usual preliminary in the great city, the cosmopolitanism of which had
+been long established; that is to say, a face, a figure, or a mode, to
+gain a second look from one of its denizens, had then, as it has now,
+to be grossly outlandish. In this instance the owner of the stall
+indulged a positive stare. He had seen, he thought, representatives of
+all known nationalities, but never one like the present visitor--never
+one so pinkish in complexion, and so very bias-eyed--never one who
+wrapped and re-wrapped himself in a single shawl so entirely, making it
+answer all the other vestments habitual to men. The latter peculiarity
+was more conspicuous in consequence of a sack of brown silk hanging
+loosely from the shoulder, with leaves and flowers done in dazzling
+embroidery down the front and around the edges. And then the slippers
+were of silk not less rich with embroidery, while over the bare head a
+sunshade of bamboo and paper brilliantly painted was carried.
+
+Too well bred to persist in the stare or attempt to satisfy his
+curiosity by a direct question, the proprietor opened the letter, and
+began reading it. His neighbors less considerate ran together, and
+formed a crowd around the stranger, who nevertheless bore the
+inspection composedly, apparently unconscious of anything to make him
+such a cynosure.
+
+The paper which the removal of the envelope gave to the stall-keeper's
+hand excited him the more. The delicacy of its texture, its softness to
+the touch, its semi-transparency, were unlike anything he had ever
+seen; it was not only foreign, but very foreign.
+
+The lettering, however, was in Greek plainly done. He noticed first the
+date; then, his curiosity becoming uncontrollable, and the missive
+being of but one sheet, his eyes dropped to the place of signature.
+There was no name there--only a seal--an impression on a surface of
+yellow wax of the drooping figure of a man bound to a cross.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+At sight of the seal his eyes opened wider. He drew a long breath to
+quiet a rising feeling, half astonishment, half awe. Retreating to a
+bench near by, he seated himself, and presently became unmindful of the
+messenger, of the crowd, of everything, indeed, except the letter and
+the matters of which it treated.
+
+The demand of the reader for a sight of the paper which could produce
+such an effect upon a person who was not more than an ordinary dealer
+in an Eastern market may by this time have become imperious; wherefore
+it is at once submitted in free translation. Only the date is
+modernized.
+
+"ISLAND IN THE OVER-SEA. FAR EAST. _May_ 15, A.D. 1447.
+
+"Uel, Son of Jahdai.
+
+"Peace to thee and all thine!
+
+"If thou hast kept faithfully the heirlooms of thy progenitors,
+somewhere in thy house there is now a duplication of the seal which
+thou wilt find hereto attached; only that one is done in gold. The
+reference is to prove to thee a matter I am pleased to assert, knowing
+it will at least put thee upon inquiry--I knew thy father, thy
+grandfather, and his father, and others of thy family further back than
+it is wise for me to declare; and I loved them, for they were a
+virtuous and goodly race, studious to do the will of the Lord God of
+Israel, and acknowledging no other; therein manifesting the chiefest of
+human excellences. To which, as more directly personal to thyself, I
+will add that qualities of men, like qualities in plants, are
+transmissible, and go they unmixed through many generations, they make
+a kind. Therefore, at this great distance, and though I have never
+looked into thy face, or touched thy hand, or heard thy voice, I know
+thee, and give thee trust confidently. The son of thy father cannot
+tell the world what he has of me here, or that there is a creature like
+unto me living, or that he has to do with me in the least; and as the
+father would gladly undertake my requests, even those I now reveal unto
+thee, not less willingly will his son undertake them. Refusal would be
+the first step toward betrayal.
+
+"With this preface, O Son of Jahdai, I write without fear, and freely;
+imparting, first, that it is now fifty years since I set foot upon the
+shores of this Island, which, for want of a name likely to be known to
+thee, I have located and described as 'In the Over-Sea. Far East.' Its
+people are by nature kindly disposed to strangers, and live simply and
+affectionately. Though they never heard of the Nazarene whom the world
+persists in calling the Christ, it is truth to say they better
+illustrate his teachings, especially in their dealings with each other,
+than the so-called Christians amongst whom thy lot is cast. Withal,
+however, I have become weary, the fault being more in myself than in
+them. Desire for change is the universal law. Only God is the same
+yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow eternally. So I am resolved to seek
+once more the land of our fathers and Jerusalem, for which I yet have
+tears. In her perfection, she was more than beautiful; in her ruin, she
+is more than sacred.
+
+"In the execution of my design, know thou next, O Son of Jahdai, that I
+despatch my servant, Syama, intrusting him to deliver this letter. When
+it is put into thy hand, note the day, and see if it be not exactly one
+year from this 15 May, the time I have given him to make the journey,
+which is more by sea than land. Thou mayst then know I am following
+him, though with stoppages of uncertain duration; it being necessary
+for me to cross from India to Mecca; thence to Kash-Cush, and down the
+Nile to Cairo. Nevertheless I hope to greet thee in person within six
+months after Syama hath given thee this report.
+
+"The sending a courier thus in advance is with a design of which I
+think it of next importance to inform thee.
+
+"It is my purpose to resume residence in Constantinople; for that, I
+must have a house. Syama, amongst other duties in my behalf, is charged
+to purchase and furnish one, and have it ready to receive me when I
+arrive. The day is long passed since a Khan had attractions for me.
+Much more agreeable is it to think my own door will open instantly at
+my knock. In this affair thou canst be of service which shall be both
+remembered and gratefully recompensed. He hath no experience in the
+matter of property in thy city; thou hast; it is but natural,
+therefore, if I pray thou bring it into practice by assisting him in
+the selection, in perfecting the title, and in all else the project may
+require doing; remembering only that the tenement be plain and
+comfortable, not rich; for, alas! the time is not yet when the children
+of Israel may live conspicuously in the eye of the Christian world.
+
+"Thou wilt find Syama shrewd and of good judgment, older than he
+seemeth, and quick to render loyalty for my sake. Be advised also that
+he is deaf and dumb; yet, if in speaking thou turn thy face to him, and
+use the Greek tongue, he will understand thee by the motion of thy
+lips, and make answer by signs.
+
+"Finally, be not afraid to accept this commission on account of
+pecuniary involvement. Syama hath means of procuring all the money he
+may require, even to extravagance; at the same time he is forbidden to
+contract a debt, except it be to thee for kindness done, all which he
+will report to me so I may pay them fitly.
+
+"In all essential things Syama hath full instructions; besides, he is
+acquainted with my habits and tastes; wherefore I conclude this writing
+by saying I hope thou wilt render him aid as indicated, and that when I
+come thou wilt allow me to relate myself to thee as father to son, in
+all things a help, in nothing a burden.
+
+"Again, O Son of Jahdai, to thee and thine--Peace!"
+
+[Seal.]
+
+The son of Jahdai, at the conclusion of the reading, let his hands fall
+heavily in his lap, while he plunged into a study which the messenger
+with his foreign airs could not distract.
+
+Very great distance is one of the sublimities most powerful over the
+imagination. The letter had come from an Island he had never heard
+named. An Island in the Over-Sea which doubtless washed the Eastern end
+of the earth, wherever that might be. And the writer! How did he get
+there? And what impelled him to go?
+
+A chill shot the thinker's nerves. He suddenly remembered that in his
+house there was a cupboard in a wall, with two shelves devoted to
+storage of heirlooms; on the upper shelf lay the _torah_ of immemorial
+usage in his family; the second contained cups of horn and metal, old
+phylacteries, amulets, and things of vertu in general, and of such
+addition and multiplication through the ages that he himself could not
+have made a list of them; in fact, now his attention was aroused, he
+recalled them a mass of colorless and formless objects which had ceased
+to have history or value. Amongst them, however, a seal in the form of
+a medallion in gold recurred to him; but whether the impression upon it
+was raised or sunken he could not have certainly said; nor could he
+have told what the device was. His father and grandfather had esteemed
+it highly, and the story they told him about it divers times when he
+was a child upon their knees he could repeat quite substantially.
+
+A man committed an indignity to Jesus the pretended _Christ_, who, in
+punishment, condemned him to linger on the earth until in the fulness
+of time he should come again; and the man had gone on living through
+the centuries. Both the father and grandfather affirmed the tale to be
+true; they had known the unfortunate personally; yet more, they
+declared he had been an intimate of the family, and had done its
+members through generations friendlinesses without number; in
+consequence they had come to consider him one of them in love. They had
+also said that to their knowledge it was his custom to pray for death
+regularly as the days came and went. He had repeatedly put himself in
+its way; yet curiously it passed him by, until he at last reached a
+conviction he could not die.
+
+Many years had gone since the stall-keeper last heard the tale, and
+still more might have been counted since the man disappeared, going no
+one knew whither.
+
+But he was not dead! He was coming again! It was too strange to
+believe! It could not be! Yet one thing was clear--whatever the
+messenger might be, or presuming him a villain, whatever the lie he
+thought to make profitable, appeal could be safely and cheaply made to
+the seal in the cupboard. As a witness it, too, was deaf and dumb; on
+its face nevertheless there was revelation and the truth.
+
+Through the momentary numbness of his faculties so much the son of
+Jahdai saw, and he did not wait. Signing the messenger to follow, he
+passed into a closet forming part of the stall, and the two being
+alone, he spoke in Greek.
+
+"Be thou seated here," he said, "and wait till I return."
+
+The messenger smiled and bowed, and took seat; thereupon Uel drew his
+turban down to his ears, and, letter in hand, started home.
+
+His going was rapid; sometimes he almost ran. Acquaintances met him on
+the street, but he did not see them; if they spoke to him, he did not
+hear. Arrived at his own door, he plunged into the house as if a mob
+were at his heels. Now he was before the cupboard! Little mercy the
+phylacteries and amulets, the bridle-spanglery of donkeys, the
+trinketry of women, his ancestresses once famous for beauty or many
+children--little mercy the motley collection on the second shelf
+received from his hands. He tossed them here and there, and here and
+there again, but the search was vain. Ah, good Lord! was the medalet
+lost? And of all times, then?
+
+The failure made him the more anxious; his hands shook while he essayed
+the search once more; and he reproached himself. The medal was valuable
+for its gold, and besides it was a sacred souvenir. Conscience stung
+him. Over and over he shifted and turned the various properties on the
+shelf, the last time systematically and with fixed attention. When he
+stopped to rest, the perspiration stood on his forehead in large drops,
+and he fairly wrung his hands, crying, "It is not here--it is lost! My
+God, how shall I know the truth now!"
+
+At this pause it is to be said that the son of Jahdai was wifeless. The
+young woman whom he had taken as helpmeet in dying had left him a girl
+baby who, at the time of our writing, was about thirteen years old.
+Under the necessity thus imposed, he found a venerable daughter of
+Jerusalem to serve him as housekeeper, and charge herself with care of
+the child. Now he thought of that person; possibly she knew where the
+seal was. He turned to seek her, and as he did so, the door of an
+adjoining room opened, and the child appeared.
+
+He held her very dear, because she had the clear olive complexion of
+her mother, and the same soft black eyes with which the latter used to
+smile upon him in such manner that words were never required to assure
+him of her love. And the little one was bright and affectionate, and
+had prettinesses in speech, and sang low and contentedly the day long.
+Often as he took her on his lap and studied her fondly, he was
+conscious she promised to be gentle and beautiful as the departed one;
+beyond which it never occurred to him there could be superior
+excellences.
+
+Distressed as the poor man was, he took the child in his arms, and
+kissed her on the round cheek, and was putting her down when he saw the
+medal at her throat, hanging from a string. She told him the
+housekeeper had given it to her as a plaything. Untied at last--for his
+impatience was nigh uncontrollable--he hurried with the recovered
+treasure to a window, to look at the device raised upon it; then, his
+heart beating rapidly, he made comparison with the impression sunk in
+the yellow wax at the foot of the letter; he put them side by
+side--there could be no mistake--the impression on the wax might have
+been made by the medallion!
+
+Let it not be supposed now that the son of Jahdai did not appreciate
+the circumstance which had befallen. The idea of a man suffering a doom
+so strange affected him, while the doom itself, considered as a
+judgment, was simply awful; but his thought did not stop there--it
+carried him behind both the man and the doom. Who was He with power by
+a word, not merely to change the most fixed of the decrees of nature,
+but, by suspending it entirely, hold an offending wretch alive for a
+period already encroaching upon the eternal? One less firmly rooted in
+the faith of his fathers would have stood aghast at the conclusion to
+which the answer as an argument led--a conclusion admitting no escape
+once it was reached. The affair in hand, however, despite its
+speculative side, was real and urgent; and the keeper of the stall,
+remembering the messenger in half imprisonment, fell to thinking of the
+practical questions before him; first of which was the treatment he
+should accord his correspondent's requests.
+
+This did not occupy him long. His father, he reflected, would have
+received the stranger cordially, and as became one of such close
+intimacy; so should he. The requests were easy, and carried no
+pecuniary liability with them; he was merely to aid an inexperienced
+servant in the purchase of a dwelling-house, the servant having plenty
+of funds. True, when the master presented himself in person, it would
+be necessary to determine exactly the footing to be accorded him; but
+for the present that might be deferred. If, in the connection, the son
+of Jahdai dwelt briefly upon possible advantages to himself, the person
+being presumably rich and powerful, it was human, and he is to be
+excused for it.
+
+The return to the market was less hurried than the going from it. There
+Uel acted promptly. He took Syama to his house, and put him into the
+guest-chamber, assuring him it was a pleasure. Yet when night came he
+slept poorly. The incidents of the day were mixed with much that was
+unaccountable, breaking the even tenor of his tradesman's life by
+unwonted perplexities. He had not the will to control his thoughts;
+they would go back to the excitement of the moment when he believed the
+medallion lost; and as points run together in the half-awake state on
+very slender threads, he had a vision of a mysterious old man coming
+into his house, and in some way taking up and absorbing the life of his
+child. When the world at last fell away and left him asleep, it was
+with a dread tapping heavily at his heart.
+
+The purchase which Uel was requested to assist in making proved a light
+affair. After diligent search through the city, Syama decided to take a
+two-story house situated in a street running along the foot of the hill
+to-day crowned by the mosque Sultan Selim, although it was then the
+site of an unpretentious Christian church. Besides a direct eastern
+frontage, it was in the divisional margin between the quarters of the
+Greeks, which were always clean, and those of the Jews, which were
+always filthy. It was also observed that neither the hill nor the
+church obstructed the western view from the roof; that is to say, it
+was so far around the upper curve of the hill that a thistle-down would
+be carried by a south-east wind over many of the proudest Greek
+residences and dropped by the Church of the Holy Virgin on Blacherne,
+or in the imperial garden behind the Church. In addition to these
+advantages, the son of Jahdai was not unmindful that his own dwelling,
+a small but comfortable structure also of wood, was just opposite
+across the street. Everything considered, the probabilities were that
+Syama's selection would prove satisfactory to his master. The
+furnishment was a secondary matter.
+
+It is to be added that in course of the business there were two things
+from which Uel extracted great pleasure; Syama always had money to pay
+promptly for everything he bought; in the next place, communication
+with him was astonishingly easy. His eyes made up for the deficiency in
+hearing; while his signs, gestures, and looks were the perfection of
+pantomime. Of evenings the child never tired watching him in
+conversation.
+
+While we go now to bring the Wanderer up, it should not be forgotten
+that the house, completely furnished, is awaiting him, and he has only
+to knock at the door, enter, and be at home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PILGRIM AT EL KATIF
+
+
+The bay of Bahrein indents the western shore of the Persian Gulf. Hard
+by the point on the north at which it begins its inland bend rise the
+whitewashed, one-story mud-houses of the town El Katif. Belonging to
+the Arabs, the most unchangeable of peoples, both the town and the bay
+were known in the period of our story by their present names.
+
+The old town in the old time derived importance chiefly from the road
+which, leading thence westwardly through Hejr Yemameh, brought up,
+after many devious stretches across waterless wastes of sand, at El
+Derayeh, a tented capital of the Bedouins, and there forked, one branch
+going to Medina, the other to Mecca. In other words, El Katif was to
+Mecca on the east the gate Jeddo was to it on the west.
+
+When, in annual recurrence, the time for the indispensable Hajj, or
+Pilgrimage, came, the name of the town was on the lips of men and women
+beyond the Green Sea, and southwardly along the coast of Oman, and in
+the villages and dowars back of the coast under the peaks of Akdar,
+only a little less often than those of the holy cities. Then about the
+first of July the same peoples as pilgrims from Irak, Afghanistan,
+India, and beyond those countries even, there being an East and a Far
+East, and pilgrims from Arabia, crowded together, noisy, quarrelsome,
+squalid, accordant in but one thing--a determination to make the Hajj
+lest they might die as Jews or Christians.
+
+The law required the pilgrim to be at Mecca in the month of Ramazan,
+the time the Prophet himself had become a pilgrim. From El Katif the
+direct journey might be made in sixty days, allowing an average march
+of twelve miles. By way of Medina, it could be made to permit the
+votary to be present and participate in the observances usual on the
+day of the Mysterious Night of Destiny.
+
+The journey moreover was attended with dangers. Winds, drouth, sand
+storms beset the way; and there were beasts always hungry, and robbers
+always watchful. The sun beat upon the hills, curtained the levels with
+mirage, and in the _fiumuras_ kindled invisible fires; so in what the
+unacclimated breathed and in what they drank of the waters of the land
+there were diseases and death.
+
+The Prophet having fixed the month of Ramazan for the Hajj, pilgrims
+accustomed themselves to assemblage at Constantinople, Damascus, Cairo
+and Bagdad. If they could not avoid the trials of the road, they could
+lessen them. Borrowing the term caravan as descriptive of the march,
+they established markets at all convenient places.
+
+This is the accounting for one of the notable features of El Katif from
+the incoming of June till the caravan extended itself on the road, and
+finally disappeared in the yellow farness of the Desert. One could not
+go amiss for purveyors in general. Dealers in horses, donkeys, camels,
+and dromedaries abounded. The country for miles around appeared like a
+great stock farm. Herds overran the lean earth. Makers of harness,
+saddles, box-houdahs, and swinging litters of every variety and price,
+and contractors of camels, horses, and trains complete did not wait to
+be solicited; the competition between them was too lively for dignity.
+Hither and thither shepherds drove fatted sheep in flocks, selling them
+on the hoof. In shady places sandal merchants and clothiers were
+established; while sample tents spotted the whole landscape. Hucksters
+went about with figs, dates, dried meats and bread. In short, pilgrims
+could be accommodated with every conceivable necessary. They had only
+to cry out, and the commodity was at hand.
+
+Amongst the thousands who arrived at El Katif in the last of June,
+1448, was a man whose presence made him instantly an object of general
+interest. He came from the south in a galley of eight oars manned by
+Indian seamen, and lay at anchor three days before landing. His ship
+bore nothing indicative of nationality except the sailors. She was
+trim-looking and freshly painted; otherwise there was nothing uncommon
+in her appearance. She was not for war--that was plain. She floated too
+lightly to be laden; wherefore those who came to look at her said she
+could not be in commercial service.
+
+Almost before furling sail, an awning was stretched over her from bow
+to stern--an awning which from the shore appeared one great shawl of
+variegated colors. Thereupon the wise in such matters decided the owner
+was an Indian Prince vastly rich, come, like a good Mohammedan, to
+approve his faith by pilgrimage.
+
+This opinion the stranger's conduct confirmed. While he did not himself
+appear ashore, he kept up a busy communication by means of his small
+boat. For three days, it carried contractors of camels and supplies
+aboard, and brought them back.
+
+They described him of uncertain age; he might be sixty, he might be
+seventy-five. While rather under medium height, he was active and
+perfectly his own master. He sat in the shade of the awning
+cross-legged. His rug was a marvel of sheeny silk. He talked Arabic,
+but with an Indian accent. His dress was Indian--a silken shirt, a
+short jacket, large trousers, and a tremendous white turban on a red
+tarbousche, held by an aigrette in front that was a dazzle of precious
+stones such as only a Rajah could own. His attendants were few, but
+they were gorgeously attired, wore _shintyan_ swung in rich belts from
+their shoulders, and waited before him speechless and in servile
+posture. One at his back upheld an umbrella of immense spread. He
+indulged few words, and they were strictly business. He wanted a full
+outfit for the Hajj; could the contractor furnish him twenty camels of
+burden, and four swift dromedaries? Two of the latter were to carry a
+litter for himself; the other two were for his personal attendants,
+whom he desired furnished with well-shaded _shugdufs_. The camels he
+would load with provisions. While speaking, he would keep his eyes upon
+the person addressed with an expression uncomfortably searching. Most
+extraordinary, however, he did not once ask about prices.
+
+One of the Shaykhs ventured an inquiry.
+
+"How great will his Highness' suite be?"
+
+"Four."
+
+The Shaykh threw up his hands.
+
+"O Allah! Four dromedaries and twenty camels for four men!"
+
+"Abuser of the salt," said the stranger calmly, "hast thou not heard of
+the paschal charity, and of the fine to the poor? Shall I go empty
+handed to the most sacred of cities?"
+
+Finally an agent was found who, in concert with associates, undertook
+to furnish the high votary with all he asked complete.
+
+The morning of the fourth day after his arrival the Indian was pulled
+ashore, and conducted out of town a short distance to where, on a
+rising ground, a camp had been set up provisionally for his inspection.
+There were tents, one for storage of goods and provisions; one for the
+suite; one for the chief Shaykh, the armed guards, the tent pitchers,
+and the camel drivers; and a fourth one, larger than the others, for
+the Prince himself. With the dromedaries, camels, and horses, the camp
+was accepted; then, as was the custom, the earnest money was paid. By
+set of sun the baggage was removed from the ship, and its partition
+into cargoes begun. The Prince of India had no difficulty in hiring all
+the help he required.
+
+Of the thirty persons who constituted the train ten were armed
+horsemen, whose appearance was such that, if it were answered by a
+commensurate performance, the Prince might at his leisure march
+irrespective of the caravan. Nor was he unmindful in the selection of
+stores for the journey. Long before the sharp bargainers with whom he
+dealt were through with him, he had won their best opinion, not less by
+his liberality than for his sound judgment. They ceased speaking of him
+sneeringly as the _miyan_. [Footnote: Barbarous Indian]
+
+Soon as the bargain was bound, the stranger's attendants set about the
+furnishment of the master's tent. Outside they painted it green. The
+interior they divided into two equal compartments; one for reception,
+the other for a _maglis_ or drawing-room; and besides giving the latter
+divans and carpets, they draped the ceiling in the most tasteful manner
+with the shawls which on the ship had served for awning.
+
+At length, everything in the catalogue of preparation having been
+attended to, it remained only to wait the day of general departure; and
+for that, as became his greatness, the Prince kept his own quarters,
+paying no attention to what went on around him. He appeared a man who
+loved solitude, and was averse to thinking in public.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE YELLOW AIR [Footnote: The plague is known amongst Arabs as "the
+Yellow Air."]
+
+
+One evening the reputed Indian sat by the door of his tent alone. The
+red afterglow of the day hung in the western sky. Overhead the stars
+were venturing timidly out. The camels were at rest, some chewing their
+cuds, others asleep, their necks stretched full length upon the warm
+earth. The watchmen in a group talked in low voices. Presently the cry
+of a muezzin, calling to prayer, flew in long, quavering, swelling
+notes through the hushed air. Others took up the call, clearer or
+fainter according to the distance; and so was it attuned to the feeling
+invoked by the conditions of the moment that no effort was required of
+a listener to think it a refrain from the sky. The watchmen ceased
+debating, drew a little apart from each other, spread their _abbas_ on
+the ground, and stepping upon them barefooted, their faces turned to
+where Mecca lay, began the old unchangeable prayer of Islam--_God is
+God, and Mahomet is His Prophet_.
+
+The pilgrim at the tent door arose, and when his rude employes were
+absorbed in their devotions, like them, he too prayed, but very
+differently.
+
+"God of Israel--my God!" he said, in a tone hardly more than speaking
+to himself. "These about me, my fellow creatures, pray thee in the hope
+of life, I pray thee in the hope of death. I have come up from the sea,
+and the end was not there; now I will go into the Desert in search of
+it. Or if I must live, Lord, give me the happiness there is in serving
+thee. Thou hast need of instruments of good; let me henceforth be one
+of them, that by working for thy honor, I may at last enjoy the peace
+of the blessed--Amen."
+
+Timing his movements with those of the watchmen, he sank to his knees,
+and repeated the prayer; when they fell forward, their faces to the
+earth in the _rik'raths_ so essential by the Mohammedan code, he did
+the same. When they were through the service, he went on with it that
+they might see him. A careful adherence to this conduct gained him in a
+short time great repute for sanctity, making the pilgrimage enjoyable
+as well as possible to him.
+
+The evening afterglow faded out, giving the world to night and the
+quiet it affects; still the melancholy Indian walked before his tent,
+his hands clasped behind him, his chin in the beard on his breast. Let
+us presume to follow his reflections.
+
+"Fifty years! A lifetime to all but me. Lord, how heavy is thy hand
+when thou art in anger!"
+
+He drew a long breath, and groaned.
+
+"Fifty years! That they are gone, let those mourn to whom time is
+measured in scanty dole."
+
+He became retrospective.
+
+"The going to Cipango was like leaving the world. War had yielded to
+contentions about religion. I wearied of them also. My curse is to
+weary of everything. I wonder if the happiness found in the affection
+of women is more lasting?"
+
+He pursued the thought awhile, finishing with a resolution.
+
+"If the opportunity comes my way, I will try it. I remember yet the
+mother of my Lael, though I did not understand the measure of the
+happiness she brought me until she died."
+
+He returned then to the first subject.
+
+"When will men learn that faith is a natural impulse, and pure religion
+but faith refined of doubt?"
+
+The question was succeeded by a wordless lapse in his mind, the better
+apparently to prolong the pleasure he found in the idea.
+
+"God help me," he presently resumed, "to bring about an agreement in
+that definition of religion! There can be no reform or refinement of
+faith except God be its exclusive subject; and so certainly it leads to
+lopping off all parasitical worships such as are given to Christ and
+Mahomet.... Fifty years ago the sects would have tortured me had I
+mentioned God as a principle broad and holy enough for them to stand
+upon in compromise of their disputes; they may not be better disposed
+now, yet I will try them. If I succeed I will not be a vulgar monument
+builder like Alexander; neither will I divide a doubtful fame with
+Caesar. My glory will be unique. I will have restored mankind to their
+true relations with God. I will be their Arbiter in Religion. Then
+surely"--he lifted his face appealingly as to a person enthroned amidst
+the stars--"surely thou wilt release me from this too long life.... If
+I fail"--he clinched his hands--"if I fail, they may exile me, they may
+imprison me, they may stretch me on the rack, but they cannot kill me."
+
+Then he walked rapidly, his head down, like a man driven. When he
+stopped it was to say to himself uncertainly:
+
+"I feel weak at heart. Misgivings beset me. Lord, Lord, how long am I
+to go on thus cheating myself? If thou wilt not pardon me, how can I
+hope honor from my fellow men? Why should I struggle to serve them?"
+
+Again he clinched his hands.
+
+"Oh, the fools, the fools! Will they never be done? When I went away
+they were debating, Was Mahomet a Prophet? Was Christ the Messiah? And
+they are debating yet. What miseries I have seen come of the dispute!"
+
+From this to the end, the monologue was an incoherent discursive
+medley, now plaintive, now passionate, at times prayerful, then
+exultant. As he proceeded, he seemed to lose sight of his present aim
+at doing good in the hope of release from termless life, and become the
+Jew he was born.
+
+"The orators called in the sword, and they plied each other with it
+through two hundred years and more. There were highways across Europe
+blazoned with corpses.... But they were great days. I remember them.
+remember Manuel's appeal to Gregory. I was present at the Council of
+Clermont. I heard Urban's speech. I saw Walter, the beggar of Burgundy,
+a fugitive in Constantinople; but his followers, those who went out
+with him--where were they? I saw Peter, the eremite and coward, dragged
+back, a deserter, to the plague-smitten camps of Antioch. I helped vote
+Godfrey King of Jerusalem, and carried a candle at his coronation. I
+saw the hosts of Louis VII and Conrad, a million and more, swallowed up
+in Iconia and the Pisidian mountains. Then, that the persecutors of my
+race might not have rest, I marched with Saladin to the re-conquest of
+the Holy City, and heard Philip and Richard answer his challenge. The
+brave Kurd, pitying the sorrows of men, at last agreed to tolerate
+Christians in Jerusalem as pilgrims; and there the strife might have
+ended, but I played upon the ambition of Baldwin, and set Europe in
+motion again. No fault of mine that the knight stopped at
+Constantinople as King of the East. Then the second Frederick presumed
+to make a Christian city of Jerusalem. I resorted to the Turks, and
+they burned and pillaged it, and captured St. Louis, the purest and
+best of the crusaders. He died in my arms. Never before had I a tear
+for man or woman of his faith! Then came Edward I., and with him the
+struggle as a contest of armies terminated. By decision of the sword,
+Mahomet _was_ the Prophet of God, and Christ but the carpenter's
+son.... By permission of the Kaliphs, the Christians might visit
+Jerusalem as pilgrims. A palmer's staff in place of a sword! For
+shield, a beggar's scrip! But the bishops accepted, and then ushered in
+an age of fraud, Christian against Christian.... The knoll on which the
+Byzantine built his church of the Holy Sepulchre is not the Calvary.
+That the cowled liars call the Sepulchre never held the body of Christ.
+The tears of the millions of penitents have but watered a monkish
+deceit.... Fools and blasphemers! The Via Dolorosa led out of the
+Damascus gate on the north. The skull-shaped hill beyond that gate is
+the Golgotha. Who should know it better than I? The Centurion asked for
+a guide; I walked with him. Hyssop was the only green thing growing
+upon the mount; nothing but hyssop has grown there since. At the base
+on the west was a garden, and the Sepulchre was in the garden. From the
+foot of the cross I looked toward the city, and there was a sea of men
+extending down to the gate.... I know!--I know!--I and misery know!...
+When I went out fifty years ago there was an agreement between the
+ancient combatants; each vied with the other in hating and persecuting
+the Jew, and there was no limit to the afflictions he endured from
+them.... Speak thou, O Hebron, city of the patriarchs! By him who sits
+afar, and by him near unto thee, by the stars this peaceful night, and
+by the Everlasting who is above the stars, be thou heard a witness
+testifying! There was a day when thou didst stand open to the children
+of Israel; for the cave and the dead within it belonged to them. Then
+Herod built over it, and shut it up, though without excluding the
+tribes. The Christian followed Herod; yet the Hebrew might pay his way
+in. After the Christian, the Moslem; and now nor David the King, nor
+son of his, though they alighted at the doors from chariots, and beat
+upon them with their crowns and sceptres, could pass in and live....
+Kings have come and gone, and generations, and there is a new map from
+which old names have been dropped. As respects religion, alas! the
+divisions remain--here a Mohammedan, there a Christian, yonder a
+Judean.... From my door I study these men, the children of those in
+life at my going into exile. Their ardor is not diminished. To kiss a
+stone in which tradition has planted a saying of God, they will defy
+the terrors of the Desert, heat, thirst, famine, disease, death. I
+bring them an old idea in a new relation--God, giver of life and power
+to Son and Prophet--God, alone entitled to worship--God, a principle of
+Supreme Holiness to which believers can bring their creeds and
+doctrines for mergence in a treaty of universal brotherhood. Will they
+accept it? ... Yesterday I saw a Schiah and a Sunite meet, and the old
+hate darkened their faces as they looked at each other. Between them
+there is only a feud of Islamites; how much greater is their feud with
+Christians? How immeasurably greater the feud between Christian and
+Jew? ... My heart misgives me! Lord! Can it be I am but cherishing a
+dream?"
+
+At sight of a man approaching through the dusk, he calmed himself.
+
+"Peace to thee, Hadji," said the visitor, halting.
+
+"Is it thou, Shaykh?"
+
+"It is I, my father's son. I have a report to make."
+
+"I was thinking of certain holy things of priceless worth, sayings of
+the Prophet. Tell me what thou hast?"
+
+The Shaykh saluted him, and returned, "The caravan will depart
+to-morrow at sunrise."
+
+"Be it so. We are ready. I will designate our place in the movement.
+Thou art dismissed."
+
+"O Prince! I have more to report."
+
+"More?"
+
+"A vessel came in to-day from Hormuz on the eastern shore, bringing a
+horde of beggars."
+
+"Bismillah! It was well I hired of thee a herd of camels, and loaded
+them with food. I shall pay my fine to the poor early."
+
+The Shaykh shook his head.
+
+"That they are beggars is nothing," he said. "Allah is good to all his
+creatures. The jackals are his, and must be fed. For this perhaps the
+unfortunates were blown here by the angel that rides the yellow air.
+Four corpses were landed, and their clothes sold in the camp."
+
+"Thou wouldst say," the Prince rejoined, "that the plague will go with
+us to the Kaaba. Content thee, Shaykh. Allah will have his way."
+
+"But my men are afraid."
+
+"I will place a drop of sweetened water on their lips, and bring them
+safe through, though they are dying. Tell them as much."
+
+The Shaykh was departing when the Prince, shrewdly suspecting it was he
+who feared, called him back.
+
+"How call ye the afternoon prayer, O Shaykh?"
+
+"El Asr."
+
+"What didst thou when it was called?"
+
+"Am I not a believer? I prayed."
+
+"And thou hast heard the Arafat sermon?"
+
+"Even so, O Prince."
+
+"Then, as thou art a believer, and a hadji, O Shaykh, thou and all with
+thee shalt see the Khatib on his dromedary, and hear him again. Only
+promise me to stay till his last _Amin_."
+
+"I promise," said the Shaykh, solemnly.
+
+"Go--but remember prayer is the bread of faith."
+
+The Shaykh was comforted, and withdrew.
+
+With the rising of the sun next day the caravan, numbering about three
+thousand souls, defiled confusedly out of the town. The Prince, who
+might have been first, of choice fell in behind the rest.
+
+"Why dost thou take this place, O Prince?" asked the Shaykh, who was
+proud of his company, and their comparative good order.
+
+He received for answer, "The blessings of Allah are with the dying whom
+the well-to-do and selfish in front have passed unnoticed."
+
+The Shaykh repeated the saying to his men, and they replied:
+"Ebn-Hanife was a Dervish: so is this Prince--exalted be his name!"
+
+Eulogy could go no further.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+EL ZARIBAH
+
+
+"I will be their Arbiter in Religion," said the Indian Mystic in his
+monologue.
+
+This is to be accepted as the motive of the scheme the singular man was
+pursuing in the wastes of Arabia.
+
+It must be taken of course with his other declaration--"There can be no
+reform or refinement of faith except God be its exclusive subject; and
+so certainly it leads to lopping off all parasitical worships such as
+are given to Christ and Mahomet."
+
+Fifty years prior, disgusted with the endless and inconsequential
+debates and wars between Islam and Christianity, he had betaken himself
+to Cipango, [Footnote: Supposably Japan.] wherever that might be.
+There, in a repentant hour, he had conceived the idea of a Universal
+Religious Brotherhood, with God for its accordant principle; and he was
+now returned to present and urge the compromise. In more distinct
+statement, he was making the pilgrimage to ascertain from personal
+observation if the Mohammedan portion of the world was in a consenting
+mood. It was not his first visit to Mecca; but the purpose in mind gave
+the journey a new zest; and, as can be imagined, nothing in the least
+indicative of the prevalent spirit of the Hajj escaped him. Readers
+following the narrative should keep this explanation before them.
+
+From El Derayah the noble pilgrim had taken the longer route by way of
+Medina, where he scrupulously performed the observances decreed for the
+faithful at the Mosque of the Prophet. Thence he descended with the
+caravan from Damascus.
+
+Dawn of the sixth of September broke over the rolling plain known as
+the Valley of El Zaribah, disclosing four tents pitched on an eminence
+to the right of a road running thence south-west. These tents,
+connected by ropes, helped perfect an enclosure occupied by horses,
+donkeys, camels and dromedaries, and their cumbrous equipments. Several
+armed men kept watch over the camp.
+
+The Valley out to the pink granite hills rimming it round wore a fresh
+green tint in charming contrast with the tawny-black complexion of the
+region through which the day's journey had stretched. Water at a
+shallow depth nourished camel grass in patches, and Theban palms, the
+latter much scattered and too small to be termed trees. The water, and
+the nearness of the Holy City--only one day distant--had, in a time
+long gone, won for El Zaribah its double appointment of meeting place
+for the caravans and place of the final ceremony of assumption of the
+costume and vows _El Ihram_.
+
+The Prophet himself had prescribed the ceremony; so the pilgrims in the
+camp on the eminence, the better to observe it and at the same time get
+a needful rest, had come up during the night in advance of the
+caravans. In other words, the Prince of India--the title by which he
+was now generally known--might, at the opening hour of the day, have
+been found asleep in the larger of the four tents; the one with the
+minaret in miniature so handsomely gilded and of such happy effect over
+the centre pole.
+
+Along the roadsides and on the high grounds of the Valley other tints
+were visible, while faint columns of smoke arising out of the hollows
+told of preparations for breakfast. These signified the presence of
+hucksters, barbers, costume dealers, and traders generally, who, in
+anticipation of the arrival of the caravans, had come from the city to
+exercise their callings. Amongst them, worthy of special attention, was
+a multitude of professional guides, [Footnote: _Mutawif_.] ready for a
+trifling hire to take charge of uninitiated pilgrims, and lead them
+regardfully through the numerous ceremonies to which they were going.
+
+Shortly after noon the Prince called in a guide, and several barbers,
+men with long gowns, green turbans, brass basins, sharp knives, and
+bright bladed scissors. The assumption of the real pilgrimage by his
+people was then begun. Each man submitted his head, mustaches, and
+nails to the experts, and bathed and perfumed himself, and was dusted
+with musk. Next the whole party put off their old garments, and attired
+themselves in the two white vestments _El Ihram_.[Footnote: A mantle
+and skirt of white cloth unsewn.] The change of apparel was for the
+better. Finally the votaries put on sandals peculiar in that nothing
+pertaining to them might cover the instep; then they stood up in a row
+faced toward Mecca, and repeated the ancient formula of dedication of
+the _Ihram_ to the Almighty slowly intoned for them by the guide.
+
+The solemn demeanor of the men during the ceremony, which was tedious
+and interspersed with prayers and curious recitals, deeply impressed
+the Prince, who at the end of the scene retired into his tent, with his
+three mute attendants, and there performed the vows for himself and
+them. There also they all assumed the indispensable costume. Then, as
+he well might do, the law permitting him to seek the shade of a house
+or a tent, he had a rug spread before his door, where, in the fresh
+white attire, he seated himself, and with a jar of expressed juice of
+pomegranates at his side made ready to witness the passing of the
+caravans, the dust of which was reported visible in the east.
+
+Afterwhile the cloud of dust momentarily deepening over in that
+direction was enlivened by a clash of cymbals and drums, blent with
+peals of horns, the fine, high music yet cherished by warriors of the
+Orient. Presently a body of horsemen appeared, their spear points
+glistening in the sunlight. A glance at them, then his gaze fixed upon
+a chief in leading.
+
+The sun had been hot all day; the profiles of the low hills were dim
+with tremulous haze lying scorchingly upon them; the furred hulks of
+the camels in the enclosure looked as if they were smoking; the sky
+held nothing living except two kites which sailed the upper air slowly,
+their broad wings at widest extension; yet the chief persisted in
+wearing his arms and armor, like the soldiers behind him. Ere long he
+rode up and halted in front of the Prince, and near by.
+
+His head was covered with a visorless casque, slightly conical, from
+the edge of which, beginning about the temples, a cape of fine steel
+rings, buckled under the chin, enveloped the neck and throat, and fell
+loosely over the neck and shoulders, and part way down the back. A
+shirt of linked mail, pliable as wool, defended the body and the arms
+to the elbows; overalls of like material, save that the parts next the
+saddle were leather, clothed the thighs and legs. As the casque and
+every other link of the mail were plated with gold, the general effect
+at a distance was as if the whole suit were gold. A surcoat of light
+green cloth hung at the back half hiding a small round shield of
+burnished brass; at the left side there was a cimeter, and in the right
+hand a lance. The saddle was of the high-seated style yet affected by
+horsemen of Circassia; at the pommel a bow and well-filled quiver were
+suspended, and as the stirrups were in fact steel slippers the feet
+were amply protected by them.
+
+At sight of the martial figure, the Indian, in admiration, arose to a
+sitting posture. Such, he thought, were the warriors who followed
+Saladin! And when the stranger, reaching the summit of the eminence,
+turned out of the road coming apparently to the door of the tent, he
+involuntarily sprang to his feet ready to do him honor.
+
+The face, then plainly seen, though strong of feature, and thoroughly
+bronzed, was that of a young man not more than twenty-two or three,
+dark-eyed, mustached and bearded, and of a serious though pleasant
+expression. He kept his seat with ease and grace; if he and the
+broad-chested dark-bay horse were not really one, they were one in
+spirit; together they wrought the impression which was the origin of
+_majesty_, a title for kings.
+
+While the Prince was turning this in his mind, the soldier pulled rein,
+and stopped long enough to glance at him and at the camp; then, turning
+the horse, he looked the other way, making it apparent he had taken
+position on the rise to overlook the plain, and observe the coming and
+dispersion of the caravans.
+
+Another mounted man ascended the hill, armed and armored like the first
+one, though not so richly, and bearing a standard of dulled yellow silk
+hanging from a gilded staff. The ground of the standard was filled with
+inscriptions in red lettering, leaving the golden crescent and star on
+the point of the staff to speak of nationality. The bearer of the flag
+dismounted, and at a sign planted it in the ground.
+
+Seeing his Shaykh, the Prince called him:
+
+"Who is the warrior yonder?--He in the golden armor?"
+
+"The Emir El Hajj, [Footnote: Chief officer of the Pilgrimage. The
+appointment was considered the highest favor in the Sultan's gift.] O
+Prince."
+
+"He the Emir El Hajj!--And so young?--Oh! a hero of the Serail. The
+Kislar Aga extolled him one day."
+
+"Thy remark and common report, O excellent Prince, could not journey
+together on the same camel," said the Shaykh. "In the Khan at Medina I
+heard his story. There is a famous enemy of the Turks, Iskander Bey, in
+strength a Jinn, whose sword two men can scarcely lift. He appeared
+before the army of the Sultan one day with a challenge. He whom thou
+seest yonder alone dared go forth to meet him. The fought from morning
+till noon; then they rested. 'Who art thou?' asked Iskander. 'I am a
+slave of Amurath, the Commander of the Faithful, who hath commissioned
+me to take thee to him dead or alive.' Iskander laughed, and said, 'I
+know by thy tongue now thou art not a Turk; and to see if the Commander
+of the Faithful, as thou callest him, hath it in soul to make much of
+thy merit as a warrior, I will leave thee the honors of the combat, and
+to go thy way.' Whereat they say he lifted his ponderous blade as not
+heavier than the leaf of a dead palm, and strode from the field."
+
+The Prince listened, and at the end said, like a man in haste:
+
+"Thou knowest Nilo, my black man. Bring him hither."
+
+The Shaykh saluted gravely, and hurried away, leaving his patron with
+eyes fixed on the Emir, and muttering:
+
+"So young!--and in such favor with the old Amurath! I will know him. If
+I fail, he may be useful to me. Who knows? Who knows?"
+
+He looked upward as if speaking to some one there.
+
+Meantime the Emir was questioning the ensign.
+
+"This pilgrim," he said, "appears well provided."
+
+And the ensign answered:
+
+"He is the Indian Prince of whom I have been hearing since we left
+Medina."
+
+"What hast thou heard?"
+
+"That being rich, he is open-handed, making free with his aspers as
+sowers with their seed."
+
+"What more?"
+
+"He is devout and learned as an Imam. His people call him Malik. Of the
+prayers he knows everything. As the hours arrive, he lifts the curtains
+of his litter, and calls them with a voice like Belal's. The students
+in the mosque would expire of envy could they see him bend his back in
+the benedictions."
+
+"_Bismillah!_"
+
+"They say also that in the journey from El Katif to Medina he travelled
+behind the caravan when he might have been first."
+
+"I see not the virtue in that. The hill-men love best to attack the
+van."
+
+"Tell me, O Emir, which wouldst thou rather face, a hill-man or the
+Yellow Air?"
+
+"The hill-man," said the other decidedly.
+
+"And thou knowest when those in front abandon a man struck with the
+disease?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"The vultures and the jackals have their rights."
+
+"True, O Emir, but listen. The caravan left El Katif three thousand
+strong. Three hundred and more were struck with the plague, and left to
+die; of those, over one hundred were brought in by the Indian. They say
+it was for this he preferred to march in the rear. He himself teaches a
+saying of the _Hadis_, that Allah leaves his choicest blessings to be
+gathered from amidst the poor and the dying."
+
+"If he thou describest be not a Prince of India as he claims, he is a"--
+
+"A _Mashaikh_." [Footnote: Holier than a Dervish.]
+
+"Ay, by the Most Merciful! But how did he save the castaways?"
+
+"By a specific known only to kings and lords in his country. Can he but
+reach the plague-struck before death, a drop on the tongue will work a
+cure. Thou heardst what he did at Medina?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The Masjid El Nabawi [Footnote: Tomb of the Prophet.] as thou knowest,
+O Emir, hath many poor who somehow live in its holy shade."
+
+"I know it," said the Emir, with a laugh. "I went in the house rich,
+and come out of it poorer than the poorest of the many who fell upon me
+at the doors."
+
+"Well," the ensign continued, not heeding the interruption, "he called
+them in, and fed them; not with rice, and leeks, and bread ten days
+sour, but with dishes to rejoice a Kaliph; and they went away swearing
+the soul of the Prophet was returned to the world."
+
+At this juncture a troop of horsemen ascending the hill brought the
+conversation to a stop. The uniformity of arms and armor, the furniture
+of the steeds, the order and regularity of the general movement,
+identified the body as some favorite corps of the Turkish army; while
+the music, the bristling lances, the many-folded turbans, and the
+half-petticoated trousers threw about it a glamor of purest orientalism.
+
+In the midst of the troop, a vanguard in front, a rearguard behind
+them, central objects of care and reverence, moved the sacred camels,
+tall, powerful brutes, more gigantic in appearance because of their
+caparisoning and the extraordinary burdens they bore. They too were in
+full regalia, their faces visored in silk and gold, their heads
+resplendent with coronets of drooping feathers, their ample neck cloths
+heavy with tasselled metallic fringing falling to the knees. Each one
+was covered with a mantle of brocaded silk arranged upon a crinoline
+form to give the effect somewhat of the curved expansion on the rim of
+a bell. On the humps rose pavilions of silk in flowing draperies, on
+some of which the entire _Fatihah_ was superbly embroidered. Over the
+pavilions arose enormous aigrettes of green and black feathers. Such
+were the _mahmals_, containing, among other things of splendor and
+fabulous value, the _Kiswah_ which the Sultan was forwarding to the
+Scherif of Mecca to take the place of the worn curtains then draping
+the Tabernacle or House of God.
+
+The plumed heads of the camels, and the yet more richly plumed
+pavilions, exalted high above the horsemen, moved like things afloat.
+One may not tell what calamities to body and soul would overtake the
+Emir El Hajj did he fail to deliver the _mahmals_ according to
+consignment.
+
+While the cavalry came up the hill the musicians exerted themselves; at
+the top, the column turned and formed line left of the Emir, followed
+by strings of camels loaded with military properties, and a horde of
+camp-followers known as _farrash_. Presently another camp was reared
+upon the eminence, its white roofs shining afar over the plain, and in
+their midst one of unusual dimensions for the Sultan's gifts.
+
+The caravans in the meantime began to emerge from the dun cloud of
+their own raising, and spread at large over the land; and when the
+young Emir was most absorbed in the spectacle the Prince's Shaykh
+approached him.
+
+"O Emir!" the Arab said, after a salaam.
+
+A wild fanfare of clarions, cymbals, and drums drowning his voice, he
+drew nearer, almost to the stirrup.
+
+"O Emir!" he said again.
+
+This time he was heard.
+
+"What wouldst thou?"
+
+There was the slightest irritation in the tone, and on the countenance
+of the speaker as he looked down; but the feeling behind it vanished at
+sight of a negro whose native blackness was intensified by the spotless
+white of the Ihram in which he was clad. Perhaps the bright platter of
+beaten copper the black man bore, and the earthen bottle upon it,
+flanked by two cups, one of silver, the other of crystal, had something
+to do with the Emir's change of manner and mind.
+
+"What wouldst thou?" he asked, slightly bending towards them.
+
+The Shaykh answered:
+
+ "The most excellent Hadji, my patron, whom thou mayst see reclining at
+the door of his tent, sends thee greeting such as is lawful from one
+true believer to another travelling for the good of their souls to the
+most Holy of Cities; and he prays thou wilt accept from him a draught
+of this water of pomegranates, which he vouches cooling to the tongue
+and healthful to the spirit, since he bought it at the door of the
+House of the Prophet--to whom be prayer and praise forever."
+
+During the speech, the negro, with a not unpractised hand, and
+conscious doubtless of the persuasion there was in the sound and
+sparkle of the beverage, especially to one not yet dismounted from a
+long ride on the desert, filled the cups, and held them up for
+acceptance.
+
+Stripping the left hand of its steel-backed gauntlet, the Emir lifted
+the glass, and, with a bow to the pilgrim then arisen and standing by
+the tent-door, drank it at a draught; whereupon, leaving the ensign to
+pay like honor to the offered hospitality, he wheeled his horse, and
+rode to make acknowledgment in person.
+
+"The favor thou hast done me, O Hadji," he said, dismounted, "is in
+keeping with the acts of mercy to thy fellow-men with which I hear thou
+hast paved the road from El Katif as with mother-of-pearl."
+
+"Speak not of them, I pray," the Wanderer answered, returning the bow
+he received. "Who shall refuse obedience to the law?"
+
+"I see plainly thou art a good man," the Emir said, bowing again.
+
+"It would not become me to say so. Turning to something better, this
+tent in the wilderness is mine, and as the sun is not declined to its
+evening quarter, perhaps, O gallant Emir, it would be more to thy
+comfort were we to go within. I, and all I have, are at thy command."
+
+"I am grateful for the offer, most excellent Hadji--if the address be
+lower than thy true entitlement, thou shouldst bring the Shaykh yonder
+to account for misleading a stranger--but the sun and I have become
+unmindful of each other, and duty is always the same in its demands at
+least. Here, because the valley is the _micath_, [Footnote: Meeting
+place.] the caravans are apt to run wild, and need a restraining hand.
+I plead the circumstance in excuse for presuming to request that thou
+wilt allow me to amend thy offer of courtesy."
+
+The Emir paused, waiting for the permission.
+
+"So thou dost accept the offer, amend it as thou wilt," and the Prince
+smiled.
+
+Then the other returned, with evident satisfaction: "When our brethren
+of the caravans are settled, and the plain is quiet, and I too have
+taken the required vows, I will return to thee. My quarters are so
+close to thine it would please me to be allowed to come alone."
+
+"Granted, O Emir, granted--if, on thy side, thou wilt consent to permit
+me to give thee of the fare I may yet have at disposal. I can promise
+thou shalt not go away hungry."
+
+"Be it so."
+
+Thereupon the Emir remounted, and went back to his stand overlooking
+the plain, and the coming of the multitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE PASSING OF THE CARAVANS
+
+
+From his position the Wanderer could see the advancing caravans; but as
+the spectacle would consume the afternoon, he called his three
+attendants, and issued directions for the entertainment of the Emir in
+the evening; this done, he cast himself upon the rug, and gave rein to
+his curiosity, thinking, not unreasonably, to find in what would pass
+before him something bearing on the subject ever present in his mind.
+
+The sky could not be called blue of any tint; it seemed rather to be
+filled with common dust mixed with powder of crushed brick. The effect
+was of a semi-transparent ceiling flushed with heat from the direct
+down-beating action of the sun, itself a disk of flame. Low mountains,
+purplish black in hue, made a horizon on which the ceiling appeared
+set, like the crystal in the upper valve of a watch. Thus shut in, but
+still fair to view east and south of the position the spectator
+occupied, lay El Zaribah, whither, as the appointed meeting place, so
+many pilgrims had for days and weeks ever wearier growing been "walking
+with their eyes." In their thought the Valley was not so much a garden
+or landscape of beauty as an ante-chamber of the House of Allah. As
+they neared it now, journeying since the break of day, impatience
+seized them; so when the cry sped down the irregular column--"It is
+here! It is here!" they answered with a universal _labbayaki_,
+signifying, "Thou hast called us--here we are, here we are!" Then
+breaking into a rabble, they rushed multitudinously forward. To give
+the reader an idea of the pageant advancing to possess itself of the
+Valley, it will be well to refresh his memory with a few details. He
+should remember, in the first place, that it was not merely the caravan
+which left El Katif over on the western shore of the Green Sea, but two
+great caravans merged into one--_El Shemi_, from Damascus, and _Misri_,
+from Cairo. To comprehend these, the region they drained of pilgrims
+should be next considered. For example, at Cairo there was a
+concentration from the two Egypts, Upper and Lower, from the mysterious
+deserts of Africa, and from the cities and countries along the southern
+shore of the Mediterranean far as Gibraltar; while the whole East,
+using the term in its most comprehensive sense, emptied contingents of
+the devout into Damascus. In forwarding the myriads thus poured down
+upon them the Arabs were common carriers, like the Venetians to the
+hordes of western Europe in some of the later crusades; so to their
+thousands of votaries proper, the other thousands of them engaged in
+the business are also to be computed. El Medina was the great secondary
+rendezvous. Hardly could he be accounted of the Faithful who in making
+the pilgrimage would turn his back upon the bones of the Prophet; of
+such merit was the saying, "One prayer in this thy mosque is of more
+virtue than a thousand in other places, save only the Masjid El Haram."
+Once at Medina, how could the pilgrim refuse his presence, if not his
+tears, at El Kuba, forever sacred to the Mohammedan heart as the first
+place of public prayer in Islam? Finally, it should not be forgotten
+that the year we write of belonged to a cycle when readers of the Koran
+and worshippers at Mecca were more numerous than now, if not more
+zealous and believing. And it was to witness the passing of this
+procession, so numerous, so motley, so strangely furnished, so
+uncontrolled except as it pleased, the Prince of India was seated at
+the door of his tent upon the hill. Long before the spectacle was
+sighted in the distance, its approach was announced by an overhanging
+pillar of cloud, not unlike that which went before the Israelites in
+their exodus through similar wastes. Shortly after the interview with
+the Emir, the Prince, looking under the pillar, saw a darkening line
+appear, not more at first than a thread stretched across a section of
+the east.
+
+The apparition was without a break; nor might he have said it was in
+motion or of any depth. A sound came from the direction not unlike that
+of a sibilant wind. Presently out of the perspective, which reduced the
+many to one and all sizes to a level, the line developed into unequal
+divisions, with intervals between them; about the same time the noise
+became recognizable as the voices fiercely strained and inarticulate of
+an innumerable host of men. Then the divisions broke into groups, some
+larger than others; a little later individuals became discernible;
+finally what had appeared a line resolved itself into a convulsing
+mass, without front, without wings, but of a depth immeasurable.
+
+The pilgrims did not attempt to keep the road; having converted their
+march into a race, they spread right and left over the country, each
+seeking a near way; sometimes the object was attained, sometimes not;
+the end was a confusion beyond description. The very inequalities of
+the ground helped the confusion. A group was one moment visible on a
+height; then it vanished in a hollow. Now there were thousands on a
+level; then, as if sinking, they went down, down, and presently where
+they were there was only dust or a single individual.
+
+Afterwhile, so wide was the inrolling tide, the field of vision
+overflowed, and the eye was driven to ranging from point to point,
+object to object. Then it was discernible that the mass was mixed of
+animals and men--here horses, there camels--some with riders, some
+without--all, the burdened as well as unburdened, straining forward
+under urgency of shriek and stick--forward for life--forward as if of
+the two "comforts," Success beckoned them in front, and Despair behind
+plied them with spears. [Footnote: In the philosophy of the Arabs
+Success and Despair are treated as comforts.]
+
+At length the eastern boundary of the Valley was reached. There one
+would suppose the foremost of the racers, the happy victors, would rest
+or, at their leisure, take of the many sites those they preferred; but
+no--the penalty attaching to the triumph was the danger of being run
+down by the thousands behind. In going on there was safety--and on they
+went.
+
+To this time the spectacle had been a kind of panoramic generality; now
+the details came to view, and accustomed as he was to marvels of
+pageantry, the Prince exclaimed: "These are not men, but devils fleeing
+from the wrath of God!" and involuntarily he went nearer, down to the
+brink of the height. It seemed the land was being inundated with
+camels; not the patient brutes we are used to thinking of by that name,
+with which domestication means ill-treatment and suffering--the
+slow-going burden-bearers, always appealing to our sympathy because
+always apparently tired, hungry, sleepy, worn-out--always reeling on as
+if looking for quiet places in which to slip their loads of whatever
+kind, and lie down and die; but the camel aroused, enraged, frightened,
+panic-struck, rebellious, sending forth strange cries, and running with
+all its might--an army of camels hurling their gigantic hulks along at
+a rate little less than blind impetus. And they went, singly, and in
+strings, and yonder a mass. The slower, and those turned to the right
+or left of the direct course, and all such as had hesitated upon coming
+to a descent, were speedily distanced or lost to sight; so the ensemble
+was constantly shifting. And then the rolling and tossing of the
+cargoes and packages on the backs of the animals, and the streaming out
+of curtains, scarfs, shawls, and loose draperies of every shape and
+color, lent touches of drollery and bright contrasts to the scene. One
+instant the spectator on the hill was disposed to laugh, then to
+admire, then to shiver at the immensity of a danger; over and over
+again amidst his quick variation of feeling, he repeated the
+exclamation: "These are not men, but devils fleeing from the wrath of
+God!"
+
+Such was the spectacle in what may be called the second act; presently
+it reached a third; and then the fury of the movement, so inconsistent
+with the habits and patient nature of the camel, was explained. In the
+midst of the hurly-burly, governing and directing it, were horsemen, an
+army of themselves. Some rode in front, and the leading straps on which
+they pulled with the combined strength of man and horse identified them
+as drivers; others rode as assistants of the drivers, and they were
+armed with goads which they used skilfully and without mercy. There
+were many collisions, upsets, and entanglements; yet the danger did not
+deter the riders from sharing the excitement, and helping it forward to
+their utmost. They too used knotted ropes, and stabbed with sharpened
+sticks; they also contributed to the unearthly tumult of sounds which
+travelled with the mob, a compound of prayers, imprecations, and
+senseless screams--the medley that may be occasionally heard from a
+modern mad-house.
+
+In the height of the rush the Shaykh came up.
+
+"How long," said the Prince--"in the Prophet's name, how long will this
+endure?"
+
+"Till night, O most excellent Hadji--if the caravans be so long in
+coming."
+
+"Is it usual?"
+
+"It has been so from the beginning."
+
+Thereupon the curiosity of the Prince took another turn. A band of
+horsemen galloped into view--free riders, with long lances carried
+upright, their caftans flying, and altogether noble looking.
+
+"These are Arabs. I know by their horses and their bearing," said he,
+with admiration; "but possibly thou canst give me the name of their
+tribe."
+
+The Shaykh answered with pride: "Their horses are gray, and by the
+sign, O lover of the Prophet, they are the Beni-Yarb. Every other one
+of them is a poet; in the face of an enemy, they are all warriors."
+
+The camps on the hill, with the yellow flag giving notice of the Emir's
+station, had effect upon others besides the Yarbis; all who wished to
+draw out of the _melange_ turned towards them, bringing the spectacle
+in part to the very feet of the Wanderer; whereas he thought with a
+quicker beating of the heart, "The followers of the Prophet are coming
+to show me of what they are this day composed." Then he said to the
+Shaykh, "Stand thou here, and tell me as I shall ask."
+
+The conversation between them may be thus summarized:
+
+The current which poured past then, its details in perfect view,
+carried along with it all the conditions and nationalities of the
+pilgrimage. Natives of the desert on bare-backed camels, clinging to
+the humps with one hand, while they pounded with the other--natives on
+beautiful horses, not needing whip or spur--natives on dromedaries so
+swift, sure-footed, and strong there was no occasion for fear. Men, and
+often women and children, on ragged saddle-cloths, others in
+pretentious boxes, and now and then a person whose wealth and rank were
+published by the magnificence of the litter in which he was borne,
+swinging luxuriously between long-stepping dromedaries from El Sbark.
+
+"By Allah!" the Prince exclaimed. "Here hath barbarism its limit!
+Behold!"
+
+They of whom he spoke came up in irregular array mounted on dromedaries
+without housing. At their head rode one with a white lettered green
+flag, and beating an immense drum. They were armed with long spears of
+Indian bamboo, garnished below the slender points with swinging tufts
+of ostrich feathers. Each carried a woman behind him disdainful of a
+veil. The feminine screams of exultation rose high above the yells of
+the men, helping not a little to the recklessness with which the latter
+bore onward.
+
+Woe to such in their way as were poorly mounted. In a twinkling they
+were ridden down. Nor did those fare better who were overtaken
+struggling with a string of camels. The crash of bursting boxes, the
+sharp report of rending ropes, the warning cry, the maddening cheer; a
+battle of men, another of beasts--and when the collision had passed,
+the earth was strewn with its wreck.
+
+"They are Wahabbas, O Hadji," said the Shaykh. "Thou seest the tufts on
+their spears. Under them they carry _Jehannum_."
+
+"And these now coming?" asked the Prince. "Their long white hats remind
+me of Persia."
+
+"Persians they are," replied the Shaykh, his lip curling, his eyes
+gleaming. "They will tear their clothes, and cut their shaven crowns,
+and wail, 'Woe's me, O Ali!' then kiss the Kaaba with defilement on
+their beards. The curse of the _Shaykaim_ is on them--may it stay
+there!"
+
+Then the Prince knew it was a Sunite speaking of Schiahs.
+
+Yet others of the Cafila of Bagdad passed with the despised sons of
+Iran; notably Deccanese, Hindoos, Afghans, and people from the
+Himalayas, and beyond them far as Kathay, and China, and Siam, all
+better known to the Prince than to his Shaykh, who spoke of them,
+saying, "Thou shouldst know thine own, O Hadji! Thou art their father!"
+
+Next, in a blending that permitted no choice of associates, along swept
+the chief constituents of the caravans--Moors and Blackamoors,
+Egyptians, Syrians, Turks, Kurds, Caucasians, and Arabs of every tribe,
+each a multitude of themselves, and their passing filled up the
+afternoon.
+
+Towards sundown the hurry and rush of the movement perceptibly
+slackened. Over in the west there were signs of a halt; tents were
+rising, and the smoke of multiplying fires began to deepen the blue of
+the distance. It actually appeared as if settlement for the night would
+creep back upon the east, whence the irruption had burst.
+
+At a moment when the Prince's interest in the scene was commencing to
+flag, and he was thinking of returning to his tent, the rearmost
+divisions of the pilgrims entered the Valley. They were composed of
+footmen and donkey-riders, for whom the speed of the advance bodies had
+been too great. High-capped Persians, and Turks whose turbans were
+reduced to faded fezes, marched in the van, followed closely by a
+rabble of Takruris, ragged, moneyless, living upon meat of abandoned
+animals. Last of all were the sick and dying, who yet persisted in
+dragging their fainting limbs along as best they could. Might they but
+reach the Holy City! Then if they died it would be as martyrs for whom
+the doors of Paradise are always open. With them, expectants of easy
+prey, like the _rakham_ [Footnote: Vultures.] sailing in slow circles
+overhead, flocked the beggars, thieves, outcasts and assassins; but
+night came quickly, and covered them, and all the things they did, for
+evil and night have been partners from the beginning.
+
+At last the Prince returned to his tent. He had seen the sun set over
+El Zaribah; he had seen the passing of the caravans. Out there in the
+Valley they lay. They--to him, and for his purposes, the Mohammedan
+world unchanged--the same in composition, in practice, in creed--only
+he felt now a consciousness of understanding them as never before.
+Mahomet, in his re-introduction of God to man, had imposed himself upon
+their faith, its master idea, its central figure, the superior in
+sanctity, the essential condition--the ONE! Knowingly or unknowingly,
+he left a standard of religious excellence behind him--Himself. And by
+that standard the thief in the wake of the mighty caravans robbing the
+dead, the Thug strangling a victim because he was too slow in dying,
+were worthy Paradise, and would attain it, for they believed in him.
+Faith in the Prophet of God was more essential than faith in God. Such
+was the inspiration of Islam. A sinking of spirit fell upon the unhappy
+man. He felt a twinge of the bitterness always waiting on failure,
+where the undertaking, whatever it be, has enlisted the whole heart. At
+such times instinctively we turn here and there for help, and in its
+absence, for comfort and consolation; what should he do now but advert
+to Christianity? What would Christians say of his idea? Was God lost in
+Christ as he was here in Mahomet?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE PRINCE AND THE EMIR
+
+
+In the reception room of the Prince's tent the lamps are lighted; one
+fastened to the stout centre pole, and five others on as many palings
+planted in the ground, all burning brightly. The illumination is
+enriched by the admirable blending of colors in the canopy of shawls.
+Within the space defined by the five lamps, on a tufted rug, the Mystic
+and the Emir are seated, both in _Ihram_, and looking cool and
+comfortable, though the night outside still testifies to the heat of
+the day.
+
+A wooden trencher, scoured white as ivory, separates the friends,
+leaving them face to face. In supping they have reached what we call
+the dessert.
+
+On the trencher are slender baskets containing grapes, figs, and dates,
+the choicest of the gardens of Medina. A jar of honey, an assortment of
+dry biscuits, and two jugs, one of water, the other of juice of
+pomegranates, with drinking cups, complete the board.
+
+At this age, Orientals lingering at table have the cheer of coffee and
+tobacco; unhappily for the two of whom we are writing, neither of the
+great narcotics was discovered. Nevertheless it should not be supposed
+the fruits, the honey, and the waters failed to content them. Behind
+the host is the negro we already know as Nilo. He is very watchful of
+his master's every motion.
+
+As guest and host appear now the formalism of acquaintanceship just
+made has somewhat disappeared, and they are talking easily and with
+freedom. Occasionally a movement of one or the other brings his head to
+a favorable angle, whereat the light, dropping on the freshly shaven
+crown, is sharply glinted back.
+
+The Emir has been speaking of the plague.
+
+"At Medina I was told it had run its course," the host remarked.
+
+"True, O Hadji, but it has returned, and with greater violence. The
+stragglers were its victims; now it attacks indiscriminately. Yesterday
+the guard I keep in the rear came to a pilgrim of rank. His litter was
+deserted, and he was lying in it dead."
+
+"The man may have been murdered."
+
+"Nay," said the Emir, "gold in large amount was found on his person."
+
+"But he had other property doubtless?"
+
+"Of great value."
+
+"What disposition was made of it?"
+
+"It was brought to me, and is now with other stores in my tent; a law
+of ancient institution vesting it in the Emir El Hajj."
+
+The countenance of the Jew became serious.
+
+"The ownership was not in my thought," he said, waving his hand. "I
+knew the law; but this scourge of Allah has its laws also, and by one
+of them we are enjoined to burn or bury whatever is found with the
+body."
+
+The Emir, seeing the kindly concern of his host, smiled as he answered:
+
+"But there is a higher law, O Hadji."
+
+"I spoke without thinking danger of any kind could disturb thee."
+
+The host drew forward the date basket, and the Emir, fancying he
+discerned something on his mind besides the fruit, waited his further
+speech.
+
+"I am reminded of another matter, O brave Emir; but as it also is
+personal I hesitate. Indeed I will not speak of it except with
+permission."
+
+"As you will," the other replied, "I will answer--May the Prophet help
+me!"
+
+"Blessed be the Prophet!" said the Prince, reverently. "Thy confidence
+doeth me honor, and I thank thee; at the same time I would not presume
+upon it if thy tongue were less suggestive of a land whose name is
+music--Italy. It is in my knowledge, O Emir, that the Sultan, thy
+master--may Allah keep him in countenance!--hath in his service many
+excellent soldiers by birth of other countries than his own, broad as
+it is--Christians, who are none the less of the true faith. Wherefore,
+wilt thou tell me of thyself?"
+
+The question did not embarrass the Emir.
+
+"The answer must be brief," he answered, without hesitation, "because
+there is little to tell. I do not know my native country. The
+peculiarity of accent you have mentioned has been observed by others;
+and as they agreed with you in assigning it to Italy, I am nothing
+loath to account myself an Italian. The few shreds of circumstance
+which came to me in course of time confirmed the opinion, and I availed
+myself of a favorable opportunity to acquire the tongue. In our further
+speech, O Hadji, you may prefer its use."
+
+"At thy pleasure," the host replied; "though there is no danger of our
+being overheard. Nilo, the slave behind me, has been a mute from birth."
+
+Then, without the slightest interruption, the Emir changed his speech
+from Greek to Italian.
+
+"My earliest remembrance is of being borne in a woman's arms out of
+doors, under a blue sky, along a margin of white sand, an orchard on
+one hand, the sea on the other. The report of the waves breaking upon
+the shore lives distinctly in my memory; so does the color of the trees
+in the orchard which has since become familiar to me as the green of
+olives. Equally clear is the recollection that, returning in-doors, I
+was carried into a house of stone so large it must have been a castle.
+I speak of it, as of the orchard, and the sea, and the roar of the
+breakers, quite as much by reference to what I have subsequently seen
+as from trust in my memory."
+
+Here the host interrupted him to remark:
+
+"Though an Eastern, I have been a traveller in the west, and the
+description reminds me of the eastern shore of Italy in the region of
+Brindisi."
+
+"My next recollection," the Emir resumed, "is a child's fright,
+occasioned by furious flames, and thick smoke, and noises familiar now
+as of battle. There was then a voyage on the sea during which I saw
+none but bearded men. The period of perfect knowledge so far as my
+history is concerned began when I found myself an object of the love
+and care of the wife of a renowned Pacha, governor of the city of
+Brousa. She called me _Mirza_. My childhood was spent in a harem, and I
+passed from it into a school to enter upon my training as a soldier. In
+good time I became a Janissary. An opportunity presented itself one
+day, and I distinguished myself. My master, the Sultan, rewarded me by
+promotion and transfer to the _Silihdars_, [Footnote: D'Oheson.] the
+most ancient and favored corps of the Imperial army, it being the
+body-guard of the Padisha, and garrison of his palace. The yellow flag
+my ensign carries belongs to that corps. As a further token of his
+confidence, the Sultan appointed me Emir El Hajj. In these few words, O
+Hadji, you have my history."
+
+The listener was impressed with the simplicity of the narrative, and
+the speaker's freedom from regret, sorrow, or passion of any kind.
+
+"It is a sad story, O Emir," he said, sympathetically, "and I cannot
+think it ended. Knowest thou not more?"
+
+"Nothing of incident," was the reply. "All that remains is inferential.
+The castle was attacked at night by Turks landed from their galleys."
+
+"And thy father and mother?"
+
+"I never knew them."
+
+"There is another inference," said the Prince, suggestively--"they were
+Christians."
+
+"Yes, but unbelievers."
+
+The suppression of natural affection betrayed by the remark still more
+astonished the host.
+
+"But they believed in God," he said.
+
+"They should have believed Mahomet was his Prophet."
+
+"I fear I am giving you pain, O Emir."
+
+"Dismiss the fear, O Hadji."
+
+Again the Jew sought the choicest date in the basket. The indifference
+of his guest was quick fuel to the misgivings which we have already
+noticed as taking form about his purpose, and sapping and weakening it.
+To be arbiter in the religious disputes of men, the unique consummation
+called for by his scheme, the disputants must concede him room and
+hearing. Were all Mohammedans, from whom he hoped most, like this one
+born of Christians, then the two conditions would be sternly refused
+him. By the testimony of this witness, there was nothing in the
+heredity of faith; and it went to his soul incisively that, in
+stimulating the passions which made the crusades a recurrence of the
+centuries, he himself had contributed to the defeat now threatening his
+latest ambition. The sting went to his soul; yet, by force of will,
+always at command in the presence of strangers, he repressed his
+feeling, and said:
+
+"Everything is as Allah wills. Let us rejoice that he is our keeper.
+The determination of our fate, in the sense of what shall happen to us,
+and what we shall be, and when and where the end shall overtake us, is
+no more to him than deciding the tint of the rose before the bud is
+formed. O Emir, I congratulate you on the resignation with which you
+accept his judgment. I congratulate you upon the age in which he has
+cast your life. He who in a moment of uncertainty would inform himself
+of his future should not heed his intentions and hopes; by studying his
+present conditions, he will find himself an oracle unto himself. He
+should address his best mind to the question, 'I am now in a road; if I
+keep it, where will I arrive?' And wisdom will answer, 'What are thy
+desires? For what art thou fitted? What are the opportunities of the
+time?' Most fortunate, O Emir, if there be correspondence between the
+desire, the fitness, and the opportunity!"
+
+The Emir did not comprehend, and seeing it, the host added with a
+directness approaching the abrupt:
+
+"And now to make the reason of my congratulations clear, it is
+necessary that thou consent to my putting a seal upon your lips. What
+sayest thou?"
+
+"If I engage my silence, O Hadji, it is because I believe you are a
+good man."
+
+The dignity of the Emir's answer did not entirely hide the effect of
+the Prince's manner.
+
+"Know thou then," the latter continued, with a steady, penetrating
+gaze--"know thou then, there is a Brahman of my acquaintance who is a
+Magus. I use the word to distinguish him from the necromancers whom the
+Koran has set in everlasting prohibition. He keeps school in a chapel
+hid away in the heart of jungles overgrowing a bank of the Bermapootra,
+not far from the mountain gates of the river. He has many scholars, and
+his intelligence has compassed all knowledge. He is familiar with the
+supernatural as with the natural. On my way, I visited him.... Know
+thou next, O Emir, I too have had occasion to make inquiries of the
+future. The vulgar would call me an astrologer--not a professional
+practising for profit, but an adept seeking information because it
+lifts me so much nearer Allah and his sublimest mysteries. Very lately
+I found a celestial horoscope announcing a change in the status of the
+world. The masterful waves, as you may know, have for many ages flowed
+from the West; but now, the old Roman impetus having at last spent
+itself, a refluence is to set in, and the East in its turn pour a
+dominating flood upon the West. The determining stars have slipped
+their influences. They are in motion. _Constantinople is doomed!_"
+
+The guest drew a quick breath. Understanding was flooding him with
+light.
+
+"And now, O Emir, say, if the revelation had stopped there--stopped, I
+mean, with the overthrow of the Christian capital--wouldst thou have
+been satisfied with it?"
+
+"No, by Allah, no!"
+
+"Further, Emir. The stars being communicable yet, what wouldst thou
+have asked them next?"
+
+"I would not have rested until I had from them the name of him who is
+to be leader in the movement."
+
+The Mystic smiled at the young man's fervor.
+
+"Thou hast saved me telling what I did, and affirmed the logic of our
+human nature," he said. "Thy imperial master is old, and much worn by
+wars and cares of government, is he not?"
+
+"Old in greatness," answered the Emir, diplomatically.
+
+"Hath he not a son?"
+
+"A son with all the royal qualities of the father."
+
+"But young--not more than eighteen."
+
+"Not more."
+
+"And the Prophet hath lent him his name?"
+
+"Even so."
+
+The host released the eager face of the Emir from his gaze, while he
+sought a date in the basket.
+
+"Another horoscope--the second"--he then said, quietly, "revealed
+everything but the hero's name. He is to be of kingly birth, and a
+Turk. Though a lad, he is already used to arms and armor."
+
+"Oh! by Allah, Hadji," cried the guest, his face flushed, his words
+quick, his voice mandatory. "Release me from my pledge of silence. Tell
+me who thou art, that I may report thee, and the things thou sayest.
+There was never such news to warm a heroic heart."
+
+The Prince pursued his explanation without apparently noticing the
+interruption noticing the interruption.
+
+"To verify the confidences of the stars, I sought the Magus in his
+chapel by the sacred river. Together we consulted them, and made the
+calculations. He embraced me; but it was agreed between us that
+absolute verity of the finding could only be had by re-casting the
+horoscopes at Constantinople. Thou must know, O Emir, there is an
+astral alphabet which has its origin in the inter-relations of the
+heavenly bodies, represented by lines impalpable to the common eye;
+know also that the most favored adept cannot read the mystic letters
+with the assurance best comporting with verity, except he be at the
+place of the destined event or revolution. To possess myself of the
+advantage, I shall ere long visit the ancient capital. More plainly, I
+am on the way thither now."
+
+Instead of allaying the eagerness of the Emir, the words excited it the
+more.
+
+"Release me from my pledge," he repeated, entreatingly, "and tell me
+who thou art. Mahommed is my pupil; he rides, carries shield, lays
+lance, draws arrow, and strikes with sword and axe as I have taught
+him. Thou canst not name a quality characteristic of heroes he does not
+possess. Doth Allah permit me safe return from the Hajj, he will be
+first to meet me at his father's gate. Think what happiness I should
+have in saluting him there with the title--Hail Mahommed, Conqueror of
+Constantinople!"
+
+The Jew answered:
+
+"I would gladly help thee, O Emir, to happiness and promotion; for I
+see what afterwhile, if not presently, they would follow such a
+salutation of thy pupil, if coupled with a sufficient explanation; but
+his interests are paramount; at the same time it becomes me to be
+allegiant to the divinatory stars. What rivalries the story might
+awaken! It is not uncommon in history, as thou mayst know, that sons of
+promise have been cut off by jealous fathers. I am not accusing the
+great Amurath; nevertheless precautions are always proper."
+
+The speaker then became dramatic.
+
+"Nay, brave Emir, the will to help thee has been already seconded by
+the deed. I spoke but now of lines of correspondence between the
+shining lights that are the life of the sky at night. Let me illustrate
+my meaning. Observe the lamps about us. The five on the uprights.
+Between them, in the air, two stars of interwoven form are drawn. Take
+the lamps as determining points, and use thy fancy a moment."
+
+The Emir turned to the lamps; and the host, swift to understand the
+impulse, gave him time to gratify it; then he resumed:
+
+"So the fields of Heaven between the stars, where the vulgar see only
+darkness, are filled with traceries infinite in form yet separable as
+the letters of the alphabet. They are the ciphers in which Allah writes
+his reasons for every creation, and his will concerning it. There the
+sands are numbered, and the plants and trees, and their leaves, and the
+birds, and everything animate; there is thy history, and mine, and all
+of little and great and good and bad that shall befall us in this life.
+Death does not blot out the records. Everlastingly writ, they shall be
+everlastingly read--for the shame of some, for the delight of others."
+
+"Allah is good," said the Emir, bending his head.
+
+"And now," the Mystic continued, "thou hast eaten and drunk with me in
+the Pentagram of the Magii. Such is the astral drawing between the five
+lamps. Henceforth in conflicts of interest, fortune against fortune,
+influences undreamt of will come to thy assistance. So much have I
+already done for thee."
+
+The Emir bowed lower than before.
+
+"Nor that alone," the Jew continued. "Henceforth our lives will run
+together on lines never divergent, never crossing. Be not astonished,
+if, within a week, I furnish, to thy full satisfaction, proof of what I
+am saying."
+
+The expression could not be viewed except as of more than friendly
+interest.
+
+"Should it so happen," the Emir said, with warmth, "consider how
+unfortunate my situation would be, not knowing the name or country of
+my benefactor."
+
+The host answered simply, though evasively:
+
+"There are reasons of state, O Emir, requiring me to make this
+pilgrimage unknown to any one."
+
+The Emir apologized.
+
+"It is enough," the host added, "that thou remember me as the Prince of
+India, whose greatest happiness is to believe in Allah and Mahomet his
+Prophet; at the same time I concede we should have the means of
+certainly knowing each other should communication become desirable
+hereafter."
+
+He made a sign with his right hand which the negro in waiting responded
+to by passing around in front of him.
+
+"Nilo," the master said in Greek, "bring me the two malachite
+rings--those with the turquoise eyes."
+
+The slave disappeared.
+
+"Touching the request to be released from the promise of secrecy,
+pardon me, O Emir, if I decline to grant it. The verification to be
+made in Constantinople should advise thee that the revolution to which
+I referred is not ripe for publication to the world. A son might be
+excused for dishonoring his parents; but the Magus who would subject
+the divine science to danger of ridicule or contempt by premature
+disclosure is fallen past hope--he would betray Allah himself."
+
+The Emir bowed, but with evident discontent. At length the slave
+returned with the rings.
+
+"Observe, O Emir," the Jew said, passing them both to his guest, "they
+are rare, curious, and exactly alike."
+
+The circlets were of gold, with raised settings of deep green stone,
+cut so as to leave a drop of pure turquoise on the top of each,
+suggestive of birds' eyes.
+
+"They are exactly the same, O Prince," said the Emir, tendering them
+back.
+
+The Jew waved his hand.
+
+"Select one of them," he said, "and I will retain the other. Borne by
+messengers, they will always identify us each to the other."
+
+The two grew more cordial, and there was much further conversation
+across the board, interspersed with attentions to the fruit basket and
+pomegranate water. About midnight the Emir took his departure. When he
+was gone, the host walked to and fro a long time; once he halted, and
+said aloud--"I hear his salute, 'Hail Mahommed, Conqueror of
+Constantinople!' It is always well to have a store of strings for one's
+bow."
+
+And to himself he laughed heartily.
+
+Next day at dawn the great caravan was afoot, every man, woman, and
+child clad in _Ihram_, and whitening the pale green Valley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AT THE KAABA
+
+
+The day before the pilgrimage.
+
+A cloud had hung over the valley where Mecca lies like drift in the bed
+of a winding gorge. About ten o'clock in the morning the cloud
+disappeared over the summit of Abu Kubays in the east. The promise of
+rain was followed by a simoom so stifling that it plunged every
+breathing thing into a struggle for air. The dogs burrowed in the shade
+of old walls; birds flew about with open beaks; the herbage wilted, and
+the leaves on the stunted shrubs ruffled, then rolled up, like drying
+cinnamon. If the denizens of the city found no comfort in their houses
+of stone and mud, what suffering was there for the multitude not yet
+fully settled in the blistering plain beyond the bluffs of Arafat?
+
+The zealous pilgrim, obedient to the law, always makes haste to
+celebrate his arrival at the Holy City by an immediate visit to the
+Haram. If perchance he is to see the enclosure for the first time, his
+curiosity, in itself pardonable, derives a tinge of piety from duty.
+The Prince of India but illustrated the rule. He left his tents pitched
+close to those of the Emir El Hajj and the Scherif of Mecca, under the
+Mountain of Mercy, as Arafat was practically translated by the very
+faithful. Having thus assured the safety of his property, for
+conveniency and greater personal comfort he took a house with windows
+looking into the Mosque. By so doing, he maintained the dignity of his
+character as a Prince of India. The beggars thronging his door
+furnished lively evidence of the expectations his title and greatness
+had already excited.
+
+With a guide, his suite, and Nilo shading his head with an umbrella of
+light green paper, the Prince appeared in front of the chief entrance
+to the sacred square from the north. [Footnote: The Bab el Vzyadeh.]
+
+The heads of the party were bare; their countenances becomingly solemn;
+their _Ihram_ fresh and spotlessly white. Passing slowly on, they were
+conducted under several outside arches, and down a stairway into a
+hall, where they left the umbrella and their shoes.
+
+The visitor found himself then in a cloister of the Mosque with which
+the area around the Kaaba is completely enclosed. There was a pavement
+of undressed flags, and to the right and left a wilderness of tall
+pillars tied together by arches, which in turn supported domes. Numbers
+of people, bareheaded and barefooted, to whom the heat outside was
+insupportable, were in refuge there; some, seated upon the stones,
+revolved their rosaries; others walked slowly about. None spoke. The
+silence was a tribute to the ineffable sanctity of the place. The
+refreshing shade, the solemn hush, the whiteness of the garments were
+suggestive of sepulchres and their spectral tenantry.
+
+In the square whither the Prince next passed, the first object to
+challenge his attention was the Kaaba itself. At sight of it he
+involuntarily stopped.
+
+The cloisters, seen from the square, were open colonnades. Seven
+minarets, belted in red, blue and yellow, arose in columnar relief
+against the sky and the mountains in the south. A gravelled plot
+received from the cloisters; next that, toward the centre, was a narrow
+pavement of rough stone in transverse extension down a shallow step to
+another gravelled plot; then another pavement wider than the first, and
+ending, like it, in a downward step; after which there was a third
+sanded plot, and then a third pavement defined by gilded posts
+upholding a continuous row of lamps, ready for lighting at the going
+down of the sun. The last pavement was of gray granite polished
+mirror-like by the friction of millions of bare feet; and upon it, like
+the pedestal of a monument upon a plinth, rested the base of the Holy
+House, a structure of glassy white marble about two feet in height,
+with a bench of sharp inclination from the top. At intervals it was
+studded with massive brass rings. Upon the base the Kaaba rose, an
+oblong cube forty feet tall, eighteen paces lengthwise, and fourteen in
+breadth, shrouded all in black silk wholly unrelieved, except by one
+broad band of the appearance of gold, and inscriptions from the Koran,
+of a like appearance, wrought in boldest lettering. The freshness of
+the great gloomy curtain told how quickly the gift of the Sultan had
+been made available, and that whatever else might betide him, the young
+Emir was already happily discharged of his trust.
+
+Of the details, the only one the Jew actually coupled with a thought
+was the Kaaba. A hundred millions of human beings pray five times every
+day, their faces turned to this funereal object! The idea, though
+commonplace, called up that other always in waiting with him. In a
+space too brief for the formulation of words, he felt the Arbitership
+of his dreams blow away. The work of the founder of Islam was too well
+done and now too far gone to be disturbed, except with the sanction of
+God. Had he the sanction? A writhing of the soul, accompanied with a
+glare, like lightning, and followed, like lightning, by an engulfing
+darkness, wrung his features, and instinctively he covered them with
+his hands. The guide saw the action, and misjudged it.
+
+"Let us not be in haste," he said. "Others before you have found the
+House at first sight blinding. Blessed be Allah!"
+
+The commiseration affected the Prince strangely. The darkness, under
+pressure of his hands upon the eyeballs, gave place to an atmosphere of
+roseate light, in the fulness of which he saw the House of God
+projected by Solomon and rebuilt by Herod. The realism of the
+apparition was absolute, and comparison unavoidable. That he, familiar
+with the glory of the conception of the Israelite, should be thought
+blinded by this _Beit Allah_ of the Arab, so without grace of form or
+lines, so primitive and expressionless, so palpably uninspired by
+taste, or genius, or the Deity it was designed to honor, restored him
+at once: indeed, in the succeeding reaction, he found it difficult to
+keep down resentment. Dropping his hands, he took another survey of the
+shrouded pile, and swept all the square under eye.
+
+He beheld a crowd of devotees at the northeast corner of the House, and
+over their heads two small open structures which, from descriptions
+often heard, he recognized as praying places. A stream of worshippers
+was circling around the marble base of the Most Holy, some walking,
+others trotting; these, arriving at the northeast corner, halted--the
+Black Stone was there! A babel of voices kept the echoes of the
+enclosure in unremitting exercise. The view taken, the Jew said, calmly:
+
+"Blessed be Allah! I will go forward."
+
+In his heart he longed to be in Constantinople--Islam, it was clear,
+would lend him no ear; Christendom might be more amenable.
+
+He was carried next through the Gate of the Sons of the Old Woman;
+thence to the space in front of the well Zem-Zem; mindful of the
+prayers and prostrations required at each place, and of the dumb
+servants who went with him.
+
+The famous well was surrounded by a throng apparently impassable.
+
+"Room for the Royal Hadji--for the Prince of India!" the guide yelled.
+"There are no poor where he is--make way!"
+
+A thousand eyes sought the noble pilgrim; and as a path opened for him,
+a score of _Zem-Zemis_ refilled their earthen cups with the bitter
+water afresh. A Prince of Hind did not come to them every day.
+
+He tasted from a cup--his followers drank--and when the party turned
+away there were jars paid for to help all the blind in the caravan back
+to healthful vision.
+
+"There is no God but Allah! Be merciful to him, O Allah," the crowd
+shouted, in approval of the charity.
+
+The press of pilgrims around the northeastern corner of the Kaaba, to
+which the guide would have conducted the Prince next, was greater than
+at the well. Each was waiting his turn to kiss the Black Stone before
+beginning the seven circuits of the House.
+
+Never had the new-comer seen a concourse so wrought upon by fanaticism;
+never had he seen a concourse so peculiarly constituted. All
+complexions, even that of the interior African, were a reddish desert
+tan. Eyes fiercely bright appeared unnaturally swollen from the
+colirium with which they were generally stained. The diversities the
+penitential costume would have masked were effectually exposed whenever
+mouths opened for utterance. Many sang, regardless of time or melody,
+the _tilbiye_ they had hideously vocalized in their advance toward the
+city. For the most part, however, the effort at expression spent itself
+in a long cry, literally rendered--"Thou hast called me--I am here! I
+am here!" The deliverance was in the vernacular of the devotee, and low
+or loud, shrill or hoarse, according to the intensity of the passion
+possessing him.
+
+To realize the discordancy, the reader must recall the multiplicity of
+the tribes and nations represented; then will he fancy the agitation of
+the mass, the swaying of the white-clad bodies, the tossing of bare
+arms and distended hands, the working of tearful faces turned up to the
+black-curtained pile regardless of the smiting of the sun--here men on
+their knees, there men grovelling on the pavement--yonder one beating
+his breast till it resounds like an empty cask--some comprehension of
+the living obstruction in front of the Jew can be had.
+
+Then the guide, calling him, tried the throng.
+
+"The Prince of India!" he shouted, at the top of his voice. "Room for
+the beloved of the Prophet! Stand not in his way--Room, room!"
+
+After much persistence the object was achieved. A pilgrim, the last one
+in front of the Prince, with arms extended along the two sides of the
+angle of the wall where the curtain was looped up, seemed struggling to
+embrace the House; suddenly, as in despair he beat his head frantically
+against the sharp corner--a second thrust more desperate than the
+first--then a groan, and he dropped blindly to the pavement. The guide
+rejoicing made haste to push the Prince into the vacant place.
+
+Without the enthusiasm of a traveller, calmly as a philosopher, the
+Jew, himself again, looked at the Stone which more nearly than any
+other material thing commanded idolatrous regard from the Mohammedan
+world. He had known personally most of the great men of that world--its
+poets, lawmakers, warriors, ascetics, kings--even the Prophet. And now
+they came one by one, as one by one they had come in their several
+days, and kissed the insensate thing; and between the coming and going
+time was scarcely perceptible. The mind has the faculty of compressing,
+by one mighty effort, the incidents of a life, even of centuries, into
+a flash-like reenactment.
+
+As all the way from the first view of the sanctuary to arrival at the
+gate, and thence to this point, the Jew had promptly followed his
+guide, especially in recitation of the prescribed prayers, he was about
+to do so now; already his hands were raised.
+
+"Great God! O my God! I believe in Thee--I Believe in thy Book--I
+believe in thy Word--I believe in thy Promise," the zealous prompter
+said, and waited.
+
+For the first time the votary was slow to respond. How could he, at
+such a juncture, refuse a thought to the Innumerables whose ghosts had
+been rendered up in vain struggles to obey the law which required them
+to come and make proof of faith before this Stone! The Innumerables,
+lost at sea, lost in the desert--lost body and soul, as in their dying
+they themselves had imagined! Symbolism! An invention of men--a
+necessity of necromancers! God had his ministers and priests, the
+living media of his will, but of symbols--nothing!
+
+"Great God! O my God!" the guide began again. A paroxysm of disgust
+seized the votary. The Phariseeism in which he was born and bred, and
+which he could no more outlive than he could outlive his body asserted
+itself.
+
+In the crisis of the effort at self-control, he heard a groan, and,
+looking down, saw the mad devotee at his feet. In sliding from the
+shelf of the base, the man had been turned upon his back, so that he
+was lying face upward. On the forehead there were two cruel wounds; and
+the blood, yet flowing, had partially filled the hollows of the eyes,
+making the countenance unrecognizable.
+
+"The wretch is dying," the Prince exclaimed.
+
+"Allah is merciful--let us attend to the prayers," the guide returned,
+intent on business.
+
+"But he will die, if not helped."
+
+"When we have finished, the porters will come for him."
+
+The sufferer stirred, then raised a hand.
+
+"O Hadji--O Prince of India!" he said faintly, in Italian.
+
+The Wanderer bent down to get a nearer view.
+
+"It is the Yellow Air--save me!"
+
+Though hardly articulate, the words were full of light to the listener.
+
+"The virtues of the Pentagram endure," he said, with absolute
+self-possession. "The week is not ended, and, lo!--I save him."
+
+Rising to his full stature, he glanced here and there over the throng,
+as if commanding attention, and proclaimed:
+
+"A mercy of the Most Merciful! It is the Emir El Hajj."
+
+There was a general silence. Every man had seen the martial figure of
+the young chief in his arms and armor, and on horseback; many of them
+had spoken to him.
+
+"The Emir El Hajj--dying," passed rapidly from mouth to mouth.
+
+"O Allah!" burst forth in general refrain; after which the ejaculations
+were all excerpted from prayers.
+
+"'O Allah! This is the place of him who flies to thee from
+fire!--Shadow him, O Allah, in thy shadow!--Give him drink from the cup
+of thy Prophet!'"
+
+A Bedouin, tall, almost black, and with a tremendous mouth open until
+the red lining was exposed between the white teeth down to the larynx,
+shouted shrilly the inscription on the marble over the breast of the
+Prophet--"In the name of Allah! Allah have mercy upon him!"--and every
+man repeated the words, but not one so much as reached a hand in help.
+
+The Prince waited--still the _Amins_, and prayerful ejaculations. Then
+his wonder ceased. Not a pilgrim but envied the Emir--that he should
+die so young was a pity--that he should die at the base of the
+sanctuary, in the crowning act of the Hajj, was a grace of God. Each
+felt Paradise stooping low to receive a martyr, and that its beatitude
+was near. They trembled with ecstasy at hearing the gates opening on
+their crystal hinges, and seeing light as from the robe of the Prophet
+glimmering through them. O happy Emir!
+
+The Jew drew within himself. Compromise with such fanaticism was
+impossible. Then, with crushing distinctness, he saw what had not
+before occurred to him. In the estimation of the Mohammedan world, the
+role of Arbiter was already filled; that which he thought of being,
+Mahomet was. Too late, too late! In bitterness of soul he flung his
+arms up and shouted:
+
+"The Emir is dying of the plague!"
+
+He would have found satisfaction in seeing the blatant crowd take to
+its heels, and hie away into the cloisters and the world outside; not
+one moved!
+
+"By Allah!" he shouted, more vehemently than before. "The Yellow Air
+hath blown upon the Emir--is blowing upon you--Fly!"
+
+"_Amin! Amin!_--Peace be with thee, O Prince of Martyrs! O Prince of
+the Happy! Peace be with thee, O Lion of Allah! O Lion of the Prophet!"
+Such the answers returned him.
+
+The general voice became a howl. Surely here was something more than
+fanaticism. Then it entered his understanding. What he beheld was Faith
+exulting above the horrors of disease, above the fear of death--Faith
+bidding Death welcome! His arms fell down. The crowd, the sanctuary,
+the hopes he had built on Islam, were no more to him. He signed to his
+three attendants, and they advanced and raised the Emir from the
+pavement.
+
+"To-morrow I will return with thee, and complete my vows;" he said to
+his guide. "For the present, lead out of the square to my house."
+
+The exit was effected without opposition.
+
+Next day the Emir, under treatment of the Prince, was strong enough to
+tell his story. The plague had struck him about noon of the day
+following the interview in the tent at El Zaribah. Determined to
+deliver the gifts he had in keeping, and discharge his trust to the
+satisfaction of his sovereign, he struggled resolutely with the
+disease. After securing the Scherif's receipt he bore up long enough to
+superintend the pitching his camp. Believing death inevitable, he was
+carried into his tent, where he issued his final orders and bade his
+attendants farewell. In the morning, though weak, half-delirious, his
+faith the strongest surviving impulse, he called for his horse, and
+being lifted into the saddle, rode to the city, resolved to assure
+himself of the blessings of Allah by dying in the shadow of the
+sanctuary.
+
+The Prince, listening to the explanation, was more than ever impressed
+with the futility of attempting a compromise with people so devoted to
+their religion. There was nothing for him but to make haste to
+Constantinople, the centre of Christian sentiment and movement. There
+he might meet encouragement and ultimate success.
+
+In the ensuing week, having performed the two pilgrimages, and seen the
+Emir convalescent, he took the road again, and in good time reached
+Jedda, where he found his ship waiting to convey him across the Red Sea
+to the African coast. The embarkation was without incident, and he
+departed, leaving a reputation odorous for sanctity, with numberless
+witnesses to carry it into every quarter of Islam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE ARRIVAL IN CONSTANTINOPLE
+
+
+Uel, the son of Jahdai, was in the habit of carrying the letter
+received from the mysterious stranger about with him in a breast
+pocket. How many times a day he took it out for reexamination would be
+difficult to say. Observing the appearance of signs of usage, he at
+length wrapped it in an envelope of yellow silk. If he had thought less
+of it, he would have resorted to plain linen.
+
+There were certain points in the missive which seemed of greater
+interest to him than others. For example, the place whence it had been
+addressed was an ever recurring puzzle; he also dwelt long upon the
+sentence which referred so delicately to a paternal relationship. The
+most exigent passages, however, were those relative to the time he
+might look for the man's coming. As specially directed, he had taken
+note of the day of the delivery of the letter, and was greatly
+surprised to find the messenger had arrived the last day of the year
+permitted him. The punctuality of the servant might be in imitation of
+a like virtue of the master. If so, at the uttermost, the latter might
+be expected six months after receipt of the letter. Or he might appear
+within the six months. The journeys laid out were of vast distances,
+and through wild and dangerous countries, and by sea as well. Only a
+good traveller could survive them at all; to execute them in such brief
+space seemed something superhuman.
+
+So it befell that the son of Jahdai was at first but little concerned.
+The months--three, four, five--rolled away, and the sixth was close at
+hand; then every day brought him an increase of interest. In fact, he
+found himself looking for the arrival each morning, and at noon
+promising it an event of the evening.
+
+November was the sixth and last month of the time fixed. The first of
+that month passed without the stranger. Uel became anxious. The
+fifteenth he turned the keeping of his shop over to a friend; and
+knowing the passage from Alexandria must be by sea, he betook himself,
+with Syama, to the port on the Golden Horn known as the Gate of St.
+Peter, at the time most frequented by Egyptian sailing masters. In
+waiting there, he saw the sun rise over the heights of Scutari, and it
+was the morning of the very last day. Syama, meantime, occupied himself
+in final preparation of the house for the reception. He was not
+excited, like Uel, because he had no doubt of the arrival within the
+period set. He was also positively certain of finding his master, when
+at length he did appear, exactly as when he separated from him in
+Cipango. He was used to seeing Time waste itself upon the changeless
+man; he had even caught from him a kind of contempt for what other men
+shrank from as dangers and difficulties.
+
+The site of the house has been described; it remains to give the reader
+an idea of its interior. There were four rooms on the ground floor
+furnished comfortably for servants, of whom the arrangement indicated
+three besides Syama. The first floor was of three apartments
+communicable by doorways with portieres of camel's hair. The furniture
+was Roman, Greek, and Egyptian mixed. Of the three the middle chamber
+was largest, and as its fittings were in a style of luxury supposed to
+be peculiar to princes, the conclusion was fair that it was designed
+for the proprietor's occupancy during his waking hours. A dark blue rug
+clothed the floor. In the centre, upon a shield of clear copper, arose
+a silver brazier. The arms and legs of the stools here and there on the
+rug were carven in grotesque imitation of reptiles and animals of the
+ultra dragonish mode. The divans against the walls were of striped
+silk. In each corner stood a tall post of silvered bronze, holding at
+the end of a graceful crook several lamps of Pompeiian model. A wide
+window in the east end, filled with plants in bloom, admitted ample
+light, which, glancing through the flowers, fell on a table dressed in
+elegant cloth, and bearing a lacquered waiter garnished with cups of
+metal and glass, and one hand-painted porcelain decanter for drinking
+water. An enormous tiger-skin, the head intact and finished with
+extraordinary realism, was spread on the floor in front of the table.
+The walls were brilliant with fresh Byzantine frescoing. The air of the
+room was faintly pervaded with a sweet incense of intoxicating effect
+upon one just admitted to it. Indeed the whole interior partook of this
+sweetness.
+
+The care of the faithful servant had not been confined to the rooms; he
+had constructed a summer house upon the roof, knowing that when the
+weather permitted his master would pass the nights there in preference
+to the chambers below. This structure looked not unlike a modern
+belfry, except that the pillars and shallow dome of the top were of
+Moorish lightness. Thence, to a familiar, the heavens in the absence of
+the sun would be an unrolled map.
+
+When the last touch of the preparation had been given, and Syama said
+to himself, "He may come now," one point was especially
+noticeable--nowhere in the house was there provision for a woman.
+
+The morning of the last day Syama accompanied Uel to the port
+reluctantly. Feeling sure his master had not arrived in the night, he
+left his friend on the watch, and returned home early.
+
+The noise and stir of business at the ancient landing were engaging.
+With a great outcry, a vessel would be drawn up, and made fast, and the
+unloading begun. A drove of donkeys, or a string of camels, or a mob of
+porters would issue from the gate, receive the cargo and disappear with
+it. Now and then a ship rounded the classic Point, its square sail bent
+and all the oars at work: sweeping past Galata on the north side of the
+Horn, then past the Fish Market Gate on the south, up it would come
+gracefully as a flying bird; if there was place for it at the quay,
+well; if not, after hovering around awhile, it would push out to a
+berth in the open water. Such incidents were crises to Uel. To this one
+and to that he would run with the question:
+
+"Where is she from?"
+
+If from the upper sea, he subsided; but if from the Marmora, he kept
+eager lookout upon her, hoping to recognize in every disembarkee the
+man he was expecting.
+
+That he had never seen the person was of little consequence. He had
+thought of him so much awake, and seen him so repeatedly in dreams, he
+was confident of knowing him at sight. Imagining a stranger's
+appearance is for the most part a gentle tribute of respect; the
+mistakes we make are for the most part ludicrous.
+
+No one answering the preconception came. Noon, and still no one; then,
+cast down and disappointed, Uel went home, ate something, held the
+usual childish dialogue with his little girl, and about mid afternoon
+crossed the street to the new residence. Great was his astonishment at
+finding a pyramid of coals glowing in the silver brazier, and the chill
+already driven from the sitting-room. Here--there--upstairs,
+downstairs--the signs were of present occupancy. For a moment he
+thought the master had slipped by him or landed at some other port of
+the city.
+
+"Is he here? Has he come?" he asked, excitedly, and Syama answered with
+a shake of the head.
+
+"Then why the fire?"
+
+Syama, briefly waving his hand as if following the great Marmorean
+lake, turned the finger ends into the other palm, saying plainly and
+emphatically:
+
+"He is coming--he will be here directly."
+
+Uel smiled--faith could not be better illustrated--and it was so in
+contrast with his own incredulity!
+
+He lingered awhile. Restlessness getting the mastery, he returned home,
+reflecting on the folly of counting so implicitly upon the conclusion
+to a day of a tour so vast. More likely, he thought, the traveller's
+bones were somewhere whitening the desert, or the savages of Kash-Cush
+had eaten him. He had heard of their cannibalism.
+
+Want of faith, however, did not prevent the shopkeeper from going to
+his friend's house after supper. It was night, and dark, and the
+chilling moisture of a winter wind blowing steadily from the Black Sea
+charged the world outside with discomfort. The brazier with its heap of
+living coals had astonished him before; now the house was all alight!
+He hastened upstairs. In the sitting-room the lamps were burning, and
+the illumination was brilliant. Syama was there, calm and smiling as
+usual.
+
+"What--he is here?" Uel said, looking from door to door.
+
+The servant shook his head, and waved his hand negatively, as to say:
+
+"Not yet--be patient--observe me."
+
+To indulge his wonder, Uel took seat. Later on he tried to get from
+Syama an explanation of his amazing confidence, but the latter's
+substitute for speech was too limited and uncertain to be satisfactory.
+
+About ten o'clock Syama went below, and presently returned with food
+and drink on a large waiter.
+
+"Ah, good Lord!" Uel thought. "He is making a meal ready. What a man!
+What a master!"
+
+Then he gave attention to the fare, which was of wheaten wafers, cold
+fowl, preserved fruits, and wine in a stoneware bottle. These Syama set
+on a circular table not higher than the divan in front of which it was
+drawn. A white napkin and a bowl for laving the fingers completed the
+preparation, as Uel supposed. But no. Syama went below again, and
+reappeared with a metal pot and a small wooden box. The pot he placed
+on the coals in the brazier, and soon a delicate volume of steam was
+pouring from the spout; after handling the box daintily as if the
+contents were vastly precious, he deposited it unopened by the napkin
+and bowl. Then, with an expression of content upon his face, he too
+took seat, and surrendered himself to expectancy. The lisping of the
+steam escaping from the pot on the fire was the only sound in the room.
+
+The assurance of the servant was contagious. Uel began to believe the
+master would come. He was congratulating himself upon the precaution he
+had taken in leaving a man at the port to conduct him rightly when he
+heard a shuffling of feet below stairs. He listened startled. There
+were several men in the company. Steps shook the floor. Uel and Syama
+arose.
+
+The latter's countenance flushed with pleasure; giving one triumphal
+glance at his friend, much as to say, There--did I not tell you so? he
+walked forward quickly, and reached the head of the steps just as a
+stranger finished their ascent. In a moment Syama was on his knees,
+kissing the hand held out to him. Uel needed no prompter--it was the
+master!
+
+If only on account of the mutuality of affection shown between the two,
+the meeting was a pleasant sight. That feature, however, was lost to
+the shopkeeper, who had no thought except of the master's appearance.
+He had imagined him modelled after the popular conceptions of kings and
+warriors--tall, majestic, awe-inspiring. He saw instead a figure rather
+undersized, slightly stoop-shouldered, thin; at least it seemed so
+then, hid as it was under a dark brown burnoose of the amplitude
+affected by Arab sheiks. The head was covered by a woollen handkerchief
+of reddish tint, held by a scarlet cord. The edge of the handkerchief
+projected over the forehead enough to cast the entire face in shade,
+leaving to view only a mass of white beard overflowing the breast.
+
+The master ended the reception at the head of the stairs by gently
+raising Syama to his feet. Then he subjected the room to a swift
+inspection, and, in proof of satisfaction, he patted the happy retainer
+on the shoulder. Invited by the fire, and the assurance of comfort in
+its glow, he advanced to the brazier, and while extending his hands
+over it, observed Uel. Without surprise or hesitation he walked to him.
+
+"Son of Jahdai!" he said, offering his hand.
+
+The voice was of exceeding kindness. As an overture to peace and
+goodwill, it was reenforced by very large eyes, the intense blackness
+of which was softened by a perceptible glow of pleasure. Uel was won on
+the instant. A recollection of the one supreme singularity of the new
+acquaintance--his immunity from death--recurred to him, and he could
+not have escaped its effect had he wished. He was conscious also that
+the eyes were impressing him. Without distinct thought, certainly
+without the slightest courtierly design, he obeyed the impulse of the
+moment, and stooped and touched the extended hand with his lips. And
+before rising he heard the beginning of further speech:
+
+"I see the truth of my judgment. The family of my ancient friends has
+trodden the ways of righteousness under the commandments of the Lord
+until it has become a kind unto itself. I see too my trust has been
+verified. O Son of Jahdai, you did assist my servant, as I requested,
+and to your kindness, doubtless, I am indebted for this home full of
+comforts after a long absence among strangers. I hold you my creditor."
+
+The tendency of the speech was to relieve Uel of embarrassment.
+
+"Do not thank me," he answered. "The business was ordinary, and
+strictly within Syama's capacity. Indeed, the good man could have
+finished it without my help."
+
+The master, rich in experience, noticed the deferential manner of the
+reply, and was agreeably assured on his side.
+
+"Very well. There will be no harm in reserving an opinion," he said.
+"The good man, as you call him, is making ready a drink with which he
+has preceded me from his country, and which you must stay and share, as
+it is something unknown in the West."
+
+"Let me first welcome you here," Uel returned.
+
+"Oh, I saw the welcome in your face. But let us get nearer the fire.
+The night is chilling. If I were owner of a garden under whatever hill
+along the Bosphorus, verily I should tremble for my roses."
+
+Thus briefly, and in such simple manner, the wise Mystic put the
+shopkeeper perfectly at ease.
+
+At the brazier they watched Syama in the operation since become of
+universal knowledge under title of "drawing tea." The fragrance of the
+decoction presently filled the room to the suppression of the incense,
+and they drank, ate, and were sociable. The host outlined his travels.
+Uel, in return, gave him information of the city. When the latter
+departed, it was with a light heart, and an elastic step; the white
+beard and patriarchal manner of the man had laid his fears, and the
+future was to him like a cloudless sky.
+
+Afterwhile the master signified a wish to retire; whereupon his
+household came, as was their wont, to bid him good-night. Of these
+there were two white men. At sight of Syama, they rushed to embrace him
+as became brethren of old acquaintance long in the same service. A
+third one remained at the door. Syama looked at him, and then at the
+master; for the man was a stranger. Then the Jew, with quick intuition
+of the requirement of the time, went, and took him by the hand, and led
+him to the others. Addressing Syama, he said gravely:
+
+"This is Nilo, son of the Nilo whom you knew. As you held the father in
+love, so you shall hold the son."
+
+The man was young, very black, and gigantic in stature. Syama embraced
+him as he had the others.
+
+In the great city there was not a more united household under roof than
+that of the shopkeeper's friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE PRINCE AT HOME
+
+
+A wise man wishing to know another always attends him when he is in
+narrative. The reader may be familiar with the principle, and a
+believer in it; for his better satisfaction, therefore, a portion of
+the Prince's conversation with Uel over the tea-table the night of his
+arrival in Constantinople shall be reported nearly as possible in his
+own words. It will be found helpful to the story as well as an expose
+of character.
+
+"I said in my letter, as thou mayst remember, O son of Jahdai"--the
+voice of the speaker was low, but earnest, and admirably in harmony
+with the sentiment, "that I hoped thou wouldst allow me to relate
+myself to thee as father to son. Thou hast not forgotten it, I am sure."
+
+"I recall it distinctly," Uel answered, respectfully.
+
+"Thou wilt remember not less clearly then that I added the words, 'in
+all things a help, in nothing a burden.'"
+
+Uel assented.
+
+"The addition I thought of great importance," the Prince continued;
+"for it was very desirable that thou shouldst not imagine me coming to
+sit down upon thee, and in idleness fatten upon the fruits of thy
+industry. As something of even greater importance, thou shouldst know
+now, at this earliest moment of our intercourse, that I am abundantly
+able from what I have of goods and treasure to keep any condition I may
+choose to assume. Indeed thou shouldst not be too much astonished did I
+practise the style and manner of the nobles who are privileged in the
+palaces of thy Caesar. At home I shall be as thou seest me now, thy
+friend of simplest habits, because my tastes really incline to them;
+when I go abroad, the officials of the Church and State whom I chance
+to encounter shall be challenged to comparison of appearance, and be
+piqued to inquire about me. Then when the city observes thou art
+intimate with me, the demand for thy wares will increase; thou mayst
+even be put to stress to keep apace with it. In speaking thus, I trust
+thy natural shrewdness, sharpened as it must have become by much
+dealing as a merchant."
+
+He paused here to give his cup to Syama for replenishment; whereupon
+Uel said: "I have followed thy discourse with interest, and I hope with
+understanding; yet I am conscious of a disadvantage. I do not know thy
+name, nor if thou hast a title."
+
+"Yes, and thou mightest have set down in the table of defaults," the
+Wanderer began pleasantly in reply, but broke off to receive the cup
+smoking hot from the servant, and say--"Thanks, Syama. I see thy hand
+hath not lost its deftness; neither has the green leaf suffered from
+its long journey over the sea."
+
+Uel noticed with what intentness Syama watched the master's lips while
+he was speaking, and the gratification that beamed from his face in
+answer to the compliment; and he thought, "Verily this must be a good
+man to be so beloved by his dependents."
+
+"I was saying, O son of Jahdai, that thou mightest have set down the
+other points of information equally necessary to our
+intercourse--Whence I come? And why? And I will not leave thee in the
+dark respecting them. Only let me caution thee--It is not required that
+the public should be taken into our confidence. I have seen a flower
+good to look upon, but viscous, and with a scent irresistible to
+insects. That flower represents the world; and what is the folly of its
+victims but the madness of men who yield themselves with too easy faith
+to the seductions of the world? Nay, my son--observe thou the term--I
+use it to begin the relationship I seek--observe also I begin the
+relationship by confidences which were unwisely given without the
+injunction that they are intended to be put away in thy
+inner-conscience. Tell me if I am understood."
+
+The question was emphasized by a look whose magnetism thrilled Uel's
+every nerve.
+
+"I believe I understand you," he replied.
+
+Then, as if the Prince knew the effect he had wrought, and that it
+relieved him from danger of betrayal, he returned to his former easy
+manner.
+
+"And yet, as thou shalt see, my son, the confidences are not
+crimes--But thy cup is empty, and Syama waiting for it."
+
+"The drink is new to me," Uel replied, yielding to the invitation.
+
+"New? And wilt thou not also say it is better than wine? The world of
+which we are talking, will one day take up the admission, and be
+happier of it."
+
+Turning then to serious matter:
+
+"Afterwhile," he said, "thou wilt be importuned by the curious to know
+who I am, and thou shouldst be able to answer according to the fact--He
+is a Prince of India. The vulgar will be satisfied with the reply.
+Others will come demanding more. Refer them to me. As to thyself, O son
+of Jahdai, call me as I have instructed thee to speak of me--call me
+Prince. At the same time I would have thee know that on my eighth day I
+was carried into a temple and registered a son of a son of Jerusalem.
+The title I give thee for my designation did not ennoble me. The
+birthright of a circumcised heritor under the covenant with Israel is
+superior to every purely human dignity whatever its derivation."
+
+"In other words, O Prince, thou art"--Uel hesitated.
+
+"A Jew!" the other answered promptly--"A Jew, as thy father was--as
+thou art."
+
+The look of pleasure that appeared on the shopkeeper's face was swiftly
+interpreted by the Prince, who felt he had indeed evoked a tie of
+blood, and bound the man with it.
+
+"So much is despatched," he said, with evident satisfaction; then,
+after a draught from the tea-cup, and a re-delivery to Syania for more,
+he continued: "Possibly thou wilt also remember my letter mentions a
+necessity for my crossing from India to Mecca on the way to Kash-Cush,
+and that, despite the stoppage, I hoped to greet thee in person within
+six months after Syama reported himself. How stands the time?"
+
+"This is the last day of the six months," Uel answered.
+
+"Yes, there was never man"--the Prince paused, as if the thought were
+attended with a painful recollection--"never a man," he presently
+resumed, "who kept account of time more exactly than myself."
+
+A copious draught of tea assuaged the passing regret.
+
+"I wrote the letter while in Cipango, an island of the great eastern
+sea. Thirty years after I set foot upon its shore, theretofore
+unvisited by a white man, a countryman of ours from this city, the sole
+survivor of a shipwreck, joined me. From him I heard of thy father's
+death. He also gave me thy name.... My life on the island was
+comparatively untroubled. Indeed, for thy perfect comprehension, my
+son, it is best to make an explanation now; then thou wilt have a key
+to many things in my conduct to come as well as conduct gone which
+would otherwise keep thee in doubtful reflection. The study of greatest
+interest is religion. I have travelled the world over--I mean the
+inhabited parts--and in its broad extent there is not a people without
+worship of some kind. Wherefore my assertion, that beyond the arts,
+above the sciences, above commerce, above any or all other human
+concernments, religion is the superlative interest. It alone is divine.
+The study of it is worship. Knowledge of it is knowledge of God. Can as
+much be said of any other subject?"
+
+Uel did not answer; he was following the speech too intently, and the
+Prince, seeing it, drank again, and proceeded:
+
+"The divine study took me to Cipango. Fifty years thou mayst say to
+thyself was a long term in such a country. Not so, my son. I found
+there two faiths; the one Sin-Siu, which I turned my back upon as
+mythologic, without the poetry of the Greek and Roman; the other--well,
+a life given to the laws of Buddha were well spent. To say truth, there
+is such similitude between them and the teachings of him we are in the
+habit of calling the carpenter's son that, if I did not know better, it
+were easy to believe the latter spent the years of his disappearance in
+some Buddhistic temple.... Leaving explanation to another time, the
+same study carried me to Mecca. The binding of men, the putting yokes
+about their necks, trampling them in the dust, are the events supposed
+most important and therefore most noticeable in history; but they are
+as nothing in comparison with winning belief in matters indeterminable
+by familiar tests. The process there is so mysterious, the achievement
+so miraculous that where the operator is vastly successful one may well
+look under them for the permission of God. The day was when Islamism
+did but stir contemptuous laughter; now it is the faith acceptable to
+more men than any other. Is it not worthy the vigils of a student? And
+then it happens, my son, that in the depths of their delusion, people
+sometimes presume to make their own gods, and reform them or cast them
+out. Deities have been set up or thrown down by their makers in the
+changes of a moon. I wanted to see if such calamity had befallen the
+Allah of Mahomet.... My going to Kash-Cush was on what thou wouldst
+call business, and of it I will also tell thee. At Jedda, whither I
+betook myself after making the pilgrimages at Mecca, I regained my
+ship, and descended the Red Sea, landing at a village on the extreme
+inland shore of the bay of Tajurrah, below the Straits of
+Bab-el-Mandel. I was then in Kash-Cush. From the village on the coast,
+I passed into the interior, travelling in a litter on the shoulders of
+native porters, and, after many days, reached my destination--a
+collection of bungalows pitched on the bank of a tributary of the Blue
+Nile called the Dedhesa. The journey would have been difficult and
+tedious but that one of my attendants--a black man--had been king of
+the tribe I sought. His name was Nilo, and his tribe paramount
+throughout the uncivilized parts of Kash-Cush. More than fifty years
+before,--prior, in fact, to my setting out for Cipango,--I made the
+same tour, and found the king. He gave me welcome; and so well did he
+please me that I invited him to share my wanderings. He accepted the
+proposal upon condition that in his old age he should be returned home,
+and exchanged for a younger man of his blood. I agreed, provided one
+younger could be found who, besides the requisite physique and the
+virtues of intellect and courage, was also deaf and dumb, like himself.
+A treaty was thus perfected. I call it a treaty as distinct from a
+purchase, for Nilo was my friend and attendant--my ally, if you
+please--never my slave. There was a reception for us the like of which
+for feasting and merriment was without mention in the traditions of the
+tribe. A grandson filled my friend's throne; but he gave it back to
+him, and voluntarily took his place with me. Thou shalt see him
+to-morrow. I call him Nilo, and spend the morning hours teaching him to
+talk; for while he keeps me reminded of a Greek demi-god--so tall,
+strong and brave is he--he is yet deaf and dumb, and has to be taught
+as Syama was. When thou hast to do with him be gentle and courteous. I
+wish it kept in mind he is my friend and ally, bound to me by treaty as
+his grandfather was.... The only part of the tour given thee in my
+letter which I omitted was the descent of the Nile. Having performed it
+before, my curiosity was sated, and I allowed my impatience to be in
+thy city here to determine my course. I made way back to the village on
+the bay of Tajurrah where, in anticipation of such a change, my vessel
+was held in detention. Thence, up the sea and across the Isthmus, I
+proceeded to Alexandria, and to-night happily find myself at home, in
+hope of rest for my body and renewal of my spirit."
+
+With this, the explanation appeared concluded; for the Prince notified
+Syama that he did not desire more tea, and lapsed into a thoughtful
+silence. Presently Uel arose, saying: "You must be weary. With
+permission I will take my leave now. I confess you have given me much
+to think over, and made me happy by taking me into your confidence. If
+it be agreeable, I will call at noon to-morrow."
+
+The Prince went with him to the head of the stairs, and there bade him
+peace and good-night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE ROSE OF SPRING
+
+
+The Prince, as the Jew preferred to be called, kept his house closely
+quite a month, resting, not hibernating. He took exercise daily on the
+flat roof; and walking to and fro there, found three objects of
+attraction: the hill to the southwest with the church upon it, the
+Palace of Blacherne off further in the west, and the Tower of Galata.
+The latter, across the Golden Horn in the north, arose boldly, like a
+light-house on a cliff; yet, for a reason--probably because it had
+connection with the subject of his incessant meditations--he paused
+oftenest to gaze at the Palace.
+
+He was in his study one day deeply absorbed. The sun, nearing meridian,
+poured a stream of white light through the south window, flooding the
+table at which he sat. That the reader may know something of the paths
+the Mystic most frequented when in meditation, we will make free with
+one of the privileges belonging to us as a chronicler.
+
+The volume directly in front of him on the table, done in olive wood
+strengthened at the corners with silver, was near two feet in length,
+and one and a half in width; when closed, it would be about one foot
+thick. Now he had many wonderful rare and rich _antiques_, but none so
+the apple of his eye as this; for it was one of the fifty Holy Bibles
+of Greek transcription ordered by Constantine the Great.
+
+At his right, held flat by weights, were the _Sacred Books_ of China,
+in form a roll of broad-leafed vellum.
+
+At his left, a roll somewhat similar in form and at the moment open,
+lay the _Rig-Veda_ of the Aryans in Sanscrit.
+
+The fourth book was the _Avesta_ of Zoroaster--a collection of MSS.
+stitched together, and exquisitely rendered by Parse devas into the
+Zend language.
+
+A fifth book was the _Koran_.
+
+The arrangement of the volumes around the Judean Bible was silently
+expressive of the student's superior respect; and as from time to time,
+after reading a paragraph from one of the others, he returned to the
+great central treasure, it was apparent he was making a close
+comparison of texts with reference to a particular theme, using the
+Scriptures as a standard. Most of the time he kept the forefinger of
+his left hand on what is now known as the fourteenth verse of the third
+chapter of Exodus--"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he
+said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent
+me unto you." If, as the Prince himself had declared, religion were
+indeed the study of most interest to the greatest number of men, he was
+logically consistent in comparing the definitions of _God_ in the
+Bibles of theistic nations. So had he occupied himself since morning.
+The shrewd reader will at once discern the theme of his comparative
+study.
+
+At length he grew weary of bending over the books, and of the
+persistent fixedness of attention required for the pursuit of fine
+shades of meaning in many different languages. He threw his arms up in
+aid of a yawn, and turned partly around, his eyes outrunning the
+movement of his body. The half-introverted glance brightened with a
+gleam, and remained fixed, while the arms dropped down. He could only
+look in wonder at what he saw--eyes black and almost large as his own
+gazing at him in timid surprise. Beholding nothing but the eyes, he had
+the awesome feeling which attends imagining a spirit suddenly risen;
+then he saw a forehead low, round, and white, half shaded by fluffs of
+dark hair; then a face of cherubic color and regularity, to which the
+eyes gave an indefinable innocency of expression.
+
+Every one knows the effect of trifles on the memory. A verse or a word,
+the smell of a flower, a lock of hair, a turn in music, will not merely
+bring the past back, but invest it with a miraculous recurrency of
+events. The Prince's gaze endured. He stretched his hand out as if
+fearful lest what he saw might vanish. The gesture was at once an
+impulse and an expression. There was a time--tradition says it was the
+year in which he provoked the curse--when he had wife and child. To one
+of them, possibly both, the eyes then looking into his might have
+belonged. The likeness unmanned him. The hand he stretched forth fell
+lightly upon the head of the intruder.
+
+"What are you?" he said.
+
+The vagueness of the expression will serve excellently as a definition
+of his condition; at the same time it plunged the child addressed into
+doubt. Presently she answered:
+
+"I am a little girl."
+
+Accepting the simplicity of the reply as evidence of innocency too
+extreme for fear, he took the visitor in his arms, and sat her on his
+knee.
+
+"I did not mean to ask what you are, but who?" he said.
+
+"Uel is my father."
+
+"Uel? Well, he is my friend, and I am his; therefore you and I should
+be friends. What is your name?"
+
+"He calls me Gul Bahar."
+
+"Oh! That is Turkish, and means Rose of Spring. How came you by it?"
+
+"My mother was from Iconium."
+
+"Yes--where the Sultans used to live."
+
+"And she could speak Turkish."
+
+"I see! Gul Bahar is an endearment, not a real name."
+
+"My real name is Lael."
+
+The Prince paled from cheek to brow; his lips trembled; the arm
+encircling her shook; and looking into his eyes, she saw tears dim
+them. After a long breath, he said, with inexpressible tenderness, and
+as if speaking to one standing just behind her--"Lael!" Then, the tears
+full formed, he laid his forehead on her shoulder so his white hair
+blent freely with her chestnut locks; and sitting passively, but
+wondering, she heard him sob and sob again and again, like another
+child. Soon, from pure sympathy, unknowing why, she too began sobbing.
+Several minutes passed thus; then, raising his face, and observing her
+responsive sorrow, he felt the need of explanation.
+
+"Forgive me," he said, kissing her, "and do not wonder at me. I am
+old--very old--older than thy father, and there have been so many
+things to distress me which other men know nothing of, and never can. I
+had once"--
+
+He stopped, repeated the long breath, and gazed as at a far object.
+
+"I too had once a little girl."
+
+Pausing, he dropped his eyes to hers.
+
+"How old are you?"
+
+"Next spring I shall be fourteen," she answered.
+
+"And she was just your age, and so like you--so small, and with such
+hair and eyes and face; and she was named Lael. I wanted to call her
+_Rimah_, for she seemed a song to me; but her mother said, as she was a
+gift from the Lord, she wanted in the fulness of days to give her back
+to him, and that the wish might become a covenant, she insisted on
+calling her Lael, which, in Hebrew--thy father's tongue and mine--means
+To God."
+
+The child, listening with all her soul, was now not in the least afraid
+of him; without waiting, she made the application.
+
+"You loved her, I know," she said
+
+"How much--Oh, how much!"
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"At Jerusalem there was a gate called the Golden Gate. It looked to the
+east. The sun, rising over the top of Mount Olivet, struck the plates
+of gold and Corinthian brass more precious than gold, so it seemed one
+rosy flame. The dust at its rocky sill, and the ground about it are
+holy. There, deep down, my Lael lies. A stone that tasked many oxen to
+move it covers her; yet, in the last day, she will be among the first
+to rise--Of such excellence is it to be buried before that Golden Gate."
+
+"Oh! she is dead!" the child exclaimed.
+
+"She is dead;" and seeing her much affected, he hastened to say, "I
+shed many tears thinking of her. Ah, how gentle and truthful she was!
+And how beautiful! I cannot forget her. I would not if I could; but you
+who look so like her will take her place in my heart now, and love me
+as she did; and I will love you even as I loved her. I will take you
+into my life, believing she has come again. In the morning I will ask
+first, Where is my Lael? At noon, I will demand if the day has been
+kind to her; and the night shall not be half set in except I know it
+has brought her the sweetness of sleep. Will you be my Lael?"
+
+The question perplexed the child, and she was silent.
+
+Again he asked, "Will you be my Lael?"
+
+The earnestness with which he put the question was that of a hunger
+less for love than an object to love. The latter is not often accounted
+a passion, yet it creates necessities which are peremptory as those of
+any passion. One of the incidents of the curse he was suffering was
+that he knew the certainty of the coming of a day when he must be a
+mourner for whomsoever he should take into his heart, and in this way
+expiate whatever happiness the indulgence might bring him. Nevertheless
+the craving endured, at times a positive hunger. In other words, his
+was still a human nature. The simplicity and beauty of the girl were
+enough to win him of themselves; but when she reminded him of the other
+asleep under a great rock before the gate of the Holy City, when the
+name of the lost one was brought to him so unexpectedly, it seemed
+there had been a resurrection, making it possible for him to go about
+once more as he was accustomed to in his first household. A third time
+he asked, "You will be my Lael?"
+
+"Can I have two fathers?" she returned.
+
+"Oh, yes!" he answered quickly. "One in fact, the other by adoption;
+and they can both love you the same."
+
+Immediately her face became a picture of childish trust.
+
+"Then I will be your Lael too."
+
+He clasped her close to his breast, and kissed her, crying:
+
+"My Lael has come back to me! God of my fathers, I thank thee!"
+
+She respected his emotion, but at length, with her hand upon his
+shoulder, said:
+
+"You and my father are friends, and thinking he came here, I came too."
+
+"Is he at home?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"Then we will go to him. You cannot be my Lael without his consent."
+
+Presently, hand in hand, they descended the stairs, crossed the street,
+and were in the shopkeeper's presence.
+
+The room was plainly but comfortably furnished as became the
+proprietor's fortune and occupation. Closer acquaintance, it is to be
+said, had dissipated the latent dread, which, as has been seen, marked
+Uel's first thought of intimacy between the stranger and the child.
+Seeing him old, and rich, and given to study, not to say careless of
+ordinary things, the father was beginning to entertain the idea that it
+might in some way be of advantage to the child could she become an
+object of interest to him. Wherefore, as they entered now, he received
+them with a smile.
+
+Traces of the emotion he had undergone were in the Prince's face, and
+when he spoke his voice was tremulous.
+
+"Son of Jahdai," he said, standing, "I had once a wife and child. They
+perished-how and when, I cannot trust myself to tell. I have been
+faithful to their memory. From the day I lost them, I have gone up and
+down the world hunting for many things which I imagined might renew the
+happiness I had from them. I have been prodigal of gratitude,
+admiration, friendship, and goodwill, and bestowed them singly and
+together, and often; but never have I been without consciousness of
+something else demanding to be given. Happiness is not all in
+receiving. I passed on a long time before it came to me that we are
+rich in affections not intended for hoarding, and that no one can be
+truly content without at least one object on which to lavish them.
+Here"--and he laid his hand on the child's head--"here is mine, found
+at last."
+
+"Lael is a good girl," Uel said with pride.
+
+"Yes, and as thou lovest her let me love her," the Prince responded.
+Then, seeing Uel become serious, he added, "To help thee to my meaning,
+Lael was my child's name, and she was the image of this one; and as she
+died when fourteen, thy Lael's age, it is to me as if the tomb had
+miraculously rendered its victim back to me."
+
+"Prince," said Uel, "had I thought she would not be agreeable to you, I
+should have been sorry."
+
+"Understand, son of Jahdai," the other interposed, "I seek more of thee
+than thy permission to love her. I want to do by her as though she were
+mine naturally."
+
+"You would not take her from me?"
+
+"No. That would leave thee bereft as I have been. Like me, thou wouldst
+then go up and down looking for some one to take her place in thy
+heart. Be thou her father still; only let me help thee fashion her
+future."
+
+"Her birthrights are humble," the shopkeeper answered, doubtfully; for
+while in his secret heart he was flattered, his paternal feeling
+started a scruple hard to distinguish from fear.
+
+A light shone brightly in the eyes of the elder Jew, and his head arose.
+
+"Humble!" he said. "She is a daughter of Israel, an inheritor of the
+favor of the Lord God, to whom all things are possible. He keeps the
+destinies of his people. He--not thou or I--knows to what this little
+one may come. As we love her, let us hope the happiest and the highest,
+and prepare her for it. To this end it were best you allow her to come
+to me as to another father. I who teach the deaf and dumb to
+speak--Syama and Nilo the elder--will make her a scholar such as does
+not often grace a palace. She shall speak the Mediterranean tongues.
+There shall be no mysteries of India unknown to her. Mathematics shall
+bring the heavens to her feet. Especially shall she become wise in the
+Chronicles of God. At the same time, lest she be educated into
+unfitness for the present conditions of life, and be unsexed, thou
+shalt find a woman familiar with society, and instal her in thy house
+as governess and example. If the woman be also of Israel, so much the
+better; for then we may expect faithfulness without jealousy. And
+further, son of Jahdai, be niggardly in nothing concerning our Lael.
+Clothe her as she were the King's daughter. At going abroad, which she
+shall do with me in the street and on the water, I would have her
+sparkle with jewels, the observed of everybody, even the Emperor. And
+ask not doubtingly, 'Whence the money for all this?' I will find it.
+What sayest thou now?"
+
+Uel did not hesitate.
+
+"O Prince, as thou dost these things for her--so far beyond the best I
+can dream of--take her for thine, not less than mine."
+
+With a beaming countenance, the elder raised the child, and kissed her
+on the forehead.
+
+"Dost hear?" he said to her. "Now art thou my daughter."
+
+She put her arms about his neck, then held them out to Uel, who took
+her, and kissed her, saying:
+
+"Oh my Gul Bahar!"
+
+"Good!" cried the Prince. "I accept the name. To distinguish the living
+from the dead, I too will call her my Gul Bahar."
+
+Thereupon the men sat, and arranged the new relation, omitting nothing
+possible of anticipation.
+
+Next day the Prince's house was opened with every privilege to the
+child. A little later on a woman of courtly accomplishment was found
+and established under Uel's roof as governess. Thereupon the Mystic
+entered upon a season during which he forgot the judgment upon him, and
+all else save Gul Bahar, and the scheme he brought from Cipango. He was
+for the time as other men. In the lavishment of his love, richer of its
+long accumulation, he was faithful to his duty of teacher, and was
+amply rewarded by her progress in study.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III
+
+THE PRINCESS IRENE
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MORNING ON THE BOSPHORUS
+
+
+Our narrative proceeds now from a day in the third year after Lael, the
+daughter of the son of Jahdai, dropped into the life of the Prince of
+India--a day in the vernal freshness of June.
+
+From a low perch above the mountain behind Becos, the sun is delivering
+the opposite European shore of the Bosphorus from the lingering shades
+of night. Out on the bosom of the classic channel vessels are swinging
+lazily at their anchorages. The masthead of each displays a flag
+bespeaking the nationality of the owner; here a Venetian, there a
+Genoese, yonder a Byzantine. Tremulous flares of mist, rising around
+the dark hulls, become entangled in the cordage, and as if there were
+no other escape, resolve themselves into air. Fisher boats are bringing
+their owners home from night-work over in the shallows of Indjerkeui.
+Gulls and cormorants in contentious flocks, drive hither and thither,
+turning and tacking as the schools of small fish they are following
+turn and tack down in the warm blue-green depths to which they are
+native. The many wings, in quick eccentric motion, give sparkling life
+to the empurpled distance.
+
+The bay of Therapia, on the same European shore over against Becos, was
+not omitted from rescue by the sun. Within its lines this morning the
+ships were in greater number than out in the channel--ships of all
+grades, from the sea going commercial galley to the pleasure shallop
+which, if not the modern _caique_, was at least its ante-type in
+lightness and grace.
+
+And as to the town, one had but to look at it to be sure it had
+undergone no recent change--that in the day of Constantine Dragases it
+was the same summer resort it had been in the day of Medea the
+sorceress--the same it yet is under sway of the benignant Abdul-Hamid.
+
+From the lower point northwardly jutting finger-like into the current
+of the channel, the beach swept in a graceful curve around to the base
+of the promontory on the south. Then as now children amused themselves
+gathering the white and black pebbles with which it was strewn, and
+danced in and out with the friendly foam-capped waves. Then as now the
+houses seemed tied to the face of the hill one above another in
+streetless disarrangement; insomuch that the stranger viewing them from
+his boat below shuddered thinking of the wild play which would ensue
+did an earthquake shake the hill ever so lightly.
+
+And then as now the promontory south served the bay as a partial
+land-lock. Then as now it arose boldly a half mountain densely
+verdurous, leaving barely space enough for a roadway around its base.
+Then as now a descending terrace of easy grade and lined with rock pine
+trees of broadest umbrella tops, slashed its whole townward front.
+Sometime in the post-Medean period a sharp-eyed Greek discerned the
+advantages it offered for aesthetic purposes, and availed himself of
+them; so that in the age of our story its summit was tastefully
+embellished with water basins, white-roofed pavilions, and tessellated
+pavements Roman style. Alas, for the perishability of things human! And
+twice alas, that the beautiful should ever be the most perishable!
+
+But it is now to be said we have spoken thus of the Bosphorus, and the
+bay and town of Therapia, and the high promontory, as accessories
+merely to a plot of ground under the promontory and linked to it by the
+descending terrace. There is no word fitly descriptive of the place.
+Ravine implies narrowness; gorge signifies depth; valley means width;
+dell is too toylike. A summer retreat more delicious could not be
+imagined. Except at noon the sun did but barely glance into it.
+Extending hundreds of yards back from the bay toward the highlands west
+of the town, it was a perfected garden of roses and flowering vines and
+shrubs, with avenues of boxwood and acacias leading up to ample
+reservoirs hidden away in a grove of beeches. The water flowing thence
+became brooks or was diverted to enliven fountains. One pipe carried it
+in generous flow to the summit of the promontory. In this leafy Eden
+the birds of the climate made their home the year round. There the
+migratory nightingale came earliest and lingered longest, singing in
+the day as well as in the night. There one went regaled with the breath
+of roses commingled with that of the jasmine. There the bloom of the
+pomegranate flashed through the ordered thicket like red stars; there
+the luscious fig, ripening in its "beggar's jacket," offered itself for
+the plucking; there the murmur of the brooks was always in the
+listening ear.
+
+Along the whole front of the garden, so perfectly a poet's ideal,
+stretched a landing defended from the incessant swash of the bay by a
+stone revetment. There was then a pavement of smoothly laid flags, and
+then a higher wall of dark rubble-work, coped with bevelled slabs. An
+open pavilion, with a bell-fashioned dome on slender pillars, all of
+wood red painted, gave admission to the garden. Then a roadway of gray
+pebbles and flesh-tinted shells invited a visitor, whether afoot or on
+horseback, through clumps of acacias undergrown with carefully tended
+rosebushes, to a palace, which was to the garden what the central jewel
+is to the cluster of stones on "my lady's" ring.
+
+Standing on a tumulus, a little removed from the foot of the
+promontory, the palace could be seen from cornice to base by voyagers
+on the bay, a quadrangular pile of dressed marble one story in height,
+its front relieved by a portico of many pillars finished in the purest
+Corinthian style. A stranger needed only to look at it once, glittering
+in the sun, creamy white in the shade, to decide that its owner was of
+high rank--possibly a noble--possibly the Emperor himself.
+
+It was the country palace of the Princess Irene, of whom we will now
+speak.[Footnote: During the Crimean war a military hospital was built
+over the basement vaults and cisterns of the palace here described. The
+hospital was destroyed by fire. For years it was then known as the
+"Khedive's Garden," being a favorite resort for festive parties from
+the capital. At present the promontory and the retreat it shelters
+pertain to the German Embassy, a munificent gift from His Majesty,
+Sultan Abdul-Hamid.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PRINCESS IRENE [Footnote: This name is of three syllables, and is
+pronounced as if spelled E-ren-ay; the last syllable to rhyme with day,
+say, may.]
+
+
+During the reign of the last Manuel, in 1412, as a writer has placed
+the incident--that is to say, about thirty-nine years prior to the
+epoch occupying us--a naval battle occurred between the Turks and
+Christians off Plati, one of the Isles of the Princes. The issue was of
+interest to all the peoples who were in the habit of commercial resort
+in the region, to the Venetians and Genoese as well as the Byzantines.
+To the latter it was of most vital moment, since defeat would have
+brought them a serious interruption of communication with the islands
+which still remained to the Emperor and the powers in the West upon
+which their dependency grew as year after year their capacity for
+self-defence diminished.
+
+The Turkish ships had been visible in the offing several days. At last
+the Emperor concluded to allow his mariners to go out and engage them.
+His indecision had been from a difficulty in naming a commander. The
+admiral proper was old and inexperienced, and his fighting impulses,
+admitting they had ever really existed, had been lost in the habitudes
+of courtierly life. He had become little more than a ceremonial marker.
+The need of the hour was a genuine sailor who could manoeuvre a
+squadron. On that score there was but one voice among the seamen and
+with the public--
+
+"Manuel--give us Manuel!"
+
+The cry, passing from the ships to the multitude in the city, assailed
+the palace.
+
+The reader should understand the Manuel wanted was not the Emperor, but
+one of his brothers who could lay no claim to birth in the purple. His
+mother had not been a lawful spouse; yet the Manuel thus on the tongues
+of the many had made a hero of himself. He proved his temper and
+abilities in many successful affairs on the sea, and at length became a
+popular idol; insomuch that the imperial jealousy descended upon him
+like a cloud, and hid him away. Nor could his admirers say he lived; he
+had a palace and a family, and it was not known that any of the
+monasteries in the city or on the Isles of the Princes had opened to
+receive him.
+
+On these shreds of evidence, affirmative and negative, slender as they
+may appear, it was believed he was yet alive. Hence the clamor; and
+sooth to say it sufficed to produce the favorite; so at least the
+commonalty were pleased to think, though a sharper speculation would
+have scored the advent quite as much to the emergency then holding the
+Empire in its tightening grip.
+
+Restored to active life, Manuel the sailor was given a reception in the
+Hippodrome; then after a moment of gladness with his family, and
+another in which he was informed of the situation and trial before him,
+he hurried to assume the command.
+
+Next morning, with the rising of the sun, the squadron under oar and
+sail issued gallantly from its retreat in the Golden Horn, and in order
+of battle sought the boastful enemy of Plati. The struggle was long and
+desperate. Its circumstances were dimly under view from the seaward
+wall in the vicinity of the Seven Towers. A cry of rejoicing from the
+anxious people at last rose strong enough to shake the turrets massive
+as they were--"Kyrie Eleison! Kyrie Eleison!" Christ had made his cause
+victorious. His Cross was in the ascendant. The Turks drew out of the
+defeat as best they could, and made haste to beach the galleys
+remaining to them on the Asiatic shore behind the low-lying islands.
+
+Manuel the sailor became more than a hero; to the vulgar he was a
+savior. All Byzantium and all Galata assembled on the walls and water
+along the famous harbor to welcome him when, with many prizes and a
+horde of prisoners, he sailed back under the sun newly risen over the
+redeemed Propontis. Trumpets answered trumpets in brazen cheer as he
+landed. A procession which was a reminder of the triumphs of the
+ancient and better times of the Empire escorted him to the Hippodrome.
+The overhanging gallery reserved for the Emperor there was crowded with
+the dignitaries of the court; the factions were out with their symbols
+of blue and green; the scene was gorgeous; yet the public looked in
+vain for Manuel the Emperor; he alone was absent; and when the
+dispersion took place, the Byzantine spectators sought their homes
+shaking their heads and muttering of things in store for their idol
+worse than had yet befallen him. Wherefore there was little or no
+surprise when the unfortunate again disappeared, this time with his
+whole family. The victory, the ensuing triumph, and the too evident
+popularity were more than the jealous Emperor could overlook.
+
+There was then a long lapse of years. John Palaeologus succeeded Manuel
+on the throne, and was in turn succeeded by Constantine, the last of
+the Byzantine monarchs.
+
+Constantine signalized his advent, the great Greek event of 1448, by
+numerous acts of clemency, for he was a just man. He opened many prison
+doors long hopelessly shut. He conferred honors and rewards that had
+been remorselessly erased from account. He condoned offences against
+his predecessors, mercifully holding them wanting in evil against
+himself. So it came to pass that Manuel, the hero of the sea fight off
+Plati, attained a second release, or, in better speech, a second
+resurrection. He had been all the years practically buried in certain
+cells of the convent of St. Irene on the island of Prinkipo, and now he
+came forth an old man, blind and too enfeebled to walk. Borne into
+private audience, he was regarded by Constantine with tender sympathy.
+
+"And thou art that Manuel who made the good fight at Plati?"
+
+"Say rather I am he who was that Manuel," the ancient replied. "Death
+despises me now because he could not call my decease a victory."
+
+The inquisitor, visibly affected, next spoke in an uncertain voice.
+
+"Is what I have heard true, that at thy going into the Monastery thou
+hadst a family?"
+
+The eyes of the unfortunate were not too far gone for tears; some
+rolled down his cheeks; others apparently dropped into his throat.
+
+"I had a wife and three children. It is creditable to the feeling
+called love that they chose to share my fate. One only survives,
+and"--he paused as if feebly aware of the incoherency--"and she was
+born a prisoner."
+
+"Born a prisoner!" exclaimed Constantine. "Where is she now?"
+
+"She ought to be here."
+
+The old man turned as he spoke, and called out anxiously:
+
+"Irene--Irene, where art thou, child?"
+
+An attendant, moved like his master, explained.
+
+"Your Majesty, his daughter is in the ante-room."
+
+"Bring her here."
+
+There was a painful hush in the chamber during the waiting. When the
+daughter appeared, all eyes were directed to her--all but the father's,
+and even he was instantly aware of her presence; for which, doubtless,
+the sensibility known only to the long-time blind was sufficiently
+alive.
+
+"Where hast thou been?" he asked, with a show of petulance.
+
+"Calm thee, father, I am here."
+
+She took his hand to assure him, and then returned the look of the
+Emperor; only his was of open astonishment, while hers was
+self-possessed.
+
+Two points were afterwards remembered against her by the courtiers
+present; first, contrary to the custom of Byzantine women, she wore no
+veil or other covering for the face; in the next place, she tendered no
+salutation to the Emperor. Far from prostrating herself, as immemorial
+etiquette required, she did not so much as kneel or bow her head. They,
+however, excused her, saying truly her days had been passed in the
+Monastery without opportunity to acquire courtly manners. In fact they
+did not at the time notice the omissions. She was so beautiful, and her
+beauty reposed so naturally in an air of grace, modesty, intelligence,
+and purity that they saw nothing else. Constantine recovered himself,
+and rising from his seat, advanced to the edge of the dais, which in
+such audiences, almost wholly without state, raised him slightly above
+his guests and attendants, and spoke to the father:
+
+"I know thy history, most noble Greek--noble in blood, noble in
+loyalty, noble by virtue of what thou hast done for the Empire--and I
+honor thee. I grieve for the suffering thou hast endured, and wish
+myself surrounded with many more spirits like thine, for then, from my
+exalted place, I could view the future and its portents with greater
+calmness of expectation, if not with more of hope. Perhaps thou hast
+heard how sadly my inheritance has been weakened by enemies without and
+within; how, like limbs lopped from a stately tree, the themes
+[Footnote: Provinces.] richest in their yield of revenue have been
+wrested from the body of our State, until scarce more than the capital
+remains. I make the allusion in apology and excuse for the meagreness
+of what I have to bestow for thy many heroic services. Wert thou in the
+prime of manhood, I would bring thee into the palace. That being
+impossible, I must confine myself to amends within my power. First,
+take thou liberty."
+
+The sailor sunk to his knees; then he fell upon his hands, and touched
+the floor with his forehead. In that posture, he waited the further
+speech. Such was the prostration practised by the Greeks in formally
+saluting their Basileus.
+
+Constantine proceeded.
+
+"Take next the house here in the city which was thine when the judgment
+fell upon thee. It has been tenantless since, and may be in need of
+repairs; if so, report the cost they put thee to, and I will charge the
+amount to my civil list." Looking then at the daughter, he added: "On
+our Roumelian shore, up by Therapia, there is a summer house which once
+belonged to a learned Greek who was the happy possessor of a Homer
+written masterfully on stainless parchment. He had a saying that the
+book should be opened only in a palace specially built for it; and,
+being rich, he indulged the fancy. He brought the marble from the
+Pentelic quarries; nothing grosser was permitted in the construction.
+In the shade of a portico of many columns of Corinthian model he passed
+his days reading to chosen friends, and living as the Athenians were
+wont to live in the days of Pericles. In my youth I dwelt much with
+him, and he so loved me that at dying he gave me the house, and the
+gardens and groves around it. They will help me now to make partial
+amends for injustice done; and when will a claimant appear with better
+right than the daughter of this brave man? In speaking but now, did he
+not call thee Irene?"
+
+A flush overspread her neck and face, but she answered without other
+sign of feeling:
+
+"Irene."
+
+"The house--it may be called a palace--and all that pertains to it, are
+thine," he continued. "Go thither at will, and begin thy life anew."
+
+She took one step forward, but stopped as suddenly, her color coming
+and going. Never had Constantine seen wife or maid more beautiful. He
+almost dreaded lest the spell she cast over him would be broken by the
+speech trembling upon her lips. She moved quickly to the dais then, and
+taking his hand, kissed it fervently, saying:
+
+"Almost I believe we have a Christian Emperor."
+
+She paused, retaining the hand, and looking up into his face.
+
+The spectators, mostly dignitaries of high degree, with their
+attendants, were surprised. Some of them were shocked; for it should be
+remembered the court was the most rigidly ceremonial in the world. The
+rules governing it were the excerpt of an idea that the Basileus or
+Emperor was the incarnation of power and majesty. When spoken to by
+him, the proudest of his officials dropped their eyes to his
+embroidered slippers; when required to speak to him, they fell to their
+knees, and kept the posture till he was pleased to bid them rise. Not
+one of them had ever touched his fingers, except when he deigned to
+hold them out to be most humbly saluted. Their manner at such times was
+more than servility; in appearance, at least, it was worship. This
+explanation will enable the reader to understand the feeling with which
+they beheld the young woman keep the royal hand a prisoner in hers.
+Some of them shuddered and turned their faces not to witness a
+familiarity so closely resembling profanation.
+
+Constantine, on his part, looked down into the eyes of his fair
+kinswoman, knowing her speech was not finished. The slight inclination
+of his person toward her was intended for encouragement. Indeed, he
+made no attempt to conceal the interest possessing him.
+
+"The Empire may be shorn, even as thou hast said," she resumed
+presently, in a voice slightly raised. "But is not this city of our
+fathers by site and many advantages as much the capital of the world as
+ever? A Christian Emperor founded it, and his name was Constantine; may
+it not be its perfect restoration is reserved for another Constantine,
+also a Christian Emperor? Search thy heart, O my Lord! I have heard how
+noble impulses are often prophets without voices."
+
+Constantine was impressed. From a young person, bred in what were
+really prison walls, the speech was amazing. He was pleased with the
+opinion she was evidently forming of himself; he was pleased with the
+hope she admitted touching the Empire; he was pleased with the
+Christian faith, the strength of mind, the character manifested. Her
+loyalty to the old Greek regime was unquestionable. The courtiers
+thought she might at least have made some acknowledgment of his
+princely kindness; but if he thought of the want of form, he passed it;
+enough for him that she was a lovely enthusiast. In the uncertainty of
+the moment, he hesitated; then, descending from the dais, he kissed her
+hand gracefully, courteously, reverently, and said simply:
+
+"May thy hope be God's will."
+
+Turning from her, he helped the blind man to his feet, and declared the
+audience dismissed.
+
+Alone with his secretary, the Grand _Logothete_, he sat awhile musing.
+
+"Give ear," he at length said. "Write it, a decree. Fifty thousand gold
+pieces annually for the maintenance of Manuel and Irene, his daughter."
+
+The secretary at the first word became absorbed in studying his
+master's purple slippers; then, having a reply, he knelt.
+
+"Speak," said Constantine.
+
+"Your Majesty," the secretary responded, "there are not one thousand
+pieces in the treasury unappropriated."
+
+"Are we indeed so poor?"
+
+The Emperor sighed, but plucking spirit, went on bravely:
+
+"It may be God has reserved for me the restoration, not only of this
+city, but of the Empire. I shall try to deserve the glory. And it may
+be that noble impulses _are_ speechless prophets. Let the decree stand.
+Heaven willing, we will find a way to make it good."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE HOMERIC PALACE
+
+
+The reader is now informed of the history of Irene, which is to he
+remembered as of an important personage in the succeeding pages.
+Knowing also how she became possessed of the palace we have been at
+some pains to describe, he is prepared to see her at home.
+
+The night has retreated from the European shore of the Bosphorus,
+although the morning is yet very young. The sun in the cloudless sky
+beyond Becos, where it appears standing as if to rest from the fatigue
+of climbing the hills, is lifting Therapia bodily out of its sparkling
+waters. In the bay moreover there are many calls of mariner to mariner,
+and much creaking of windlasses, and clashing of oars cast loose in
+their leather slings. To make the scene perfectly realistic there is a
+smell of breakfast cooking, not unpleasant to those within its waftage
+who are yet to have their appetites appeased. These sights, these
+sounds, these smells, none of them reach the palace in the garden under
+the promontory opposite the town. There the birds are singing their
+matin songs, the flowers loading the air with perfume, and vine and
+tree drinking the moisture borne down to them from the unresting sea so
+near in the north. [Footnote: The Black Sea.]
+
+Under the marble portico the mistress is sitting exactly in the place
+we can imagine the old Greek loved most what time he read from his
+masterful copy of Homer. Between columns she saw the Bosphorean expanse
+clear to the wooded Asiatic shore. Below was a portion of the garden
+through which the walk ran, with a graceful curve, to the red kiosk by
+the front gate. Just beyond it the landing lay. Around her were palm
+and rose trees in painted tubs, and in their midst, springing from a
+tall vase carven over with mythologic figures, a jasmine vine affected
+all the graces of its most delicate nature. Within reach of her right
+hand there were platters of burnished brass on a table of ebony, its
+thin, spider legs inlaid with silver in lines. One of the platters bore
+a heap of white biscuits such as at this day are called crackers; the
+others supported pitchers, and some drinking cups, all of silver.
+
+The mistress sat in an arm-chair very smooth in finish despite the
+lineations sunk into its surfaces, and so roomy as to permit her to
+drop easily into a half-reclining posture. A footstool dressed in dark
+stamped leather was ready to lend its aid to gracefulness and comfort.
+
+We will presume now to introduce the reader to the Princess Irene,
+though, as the introduction must be in the way of description, our
+inability to render the subject adequately is admitted in advance.
+
+At the moment of first sight, she is sitting erect, her head turned
+slightly to the left shoulder, and both hands resting on the dog's head
+garnishing the right arm of the chair. She is gazing abstractedly out
+at the landing, as if waiting for some one overdue. The face is
+uncovered; and it is to be said here that, abhorring the custom which
+bound her Byzantine sisterhood to veils, except when in the retiracy of
+their chambers, she was at all times brave enough to emphasize the
+abhorrence by discarding the encumbrance. She was never afraid of the
+effects of the sun on her complexion, and had the art of moving
+modestly and with composure among men, who, on their side, were used in
+meeting her to conceal their admiration and wonder under cover of grave
+respect.
+
+Her figure, tall, slender, perfectly rounded, is clad in drapery of the
+purest classic mode. Outwardly it consists of but two garments--a robe
+of fine white woollen stuff, and over it a mantle of the same texture
+and hue, hanging from a yoke of close-fitting flesh-colored silk richly
+embroidered with Tyrian floss. A red rope loosely twisted girdles her
+body close under the breasts, from which, when she is standing, the
+gown in front falls to the feet, leaving a decided train. The mantle
+begins at a point just in front of the arm, under which, and along the
+sides, it hangs, like a long open sleeve, being cut away behind about
+half down the figure. The contrivance of the yoke enabled the artist,
+by gathering the drapery, to determine the lines in which it should
+drop, and they were few but positive. In movement, the train was to
+draw the gown to the form so its outlines could be easily followed from
+the girdle.
+
+The hair, of the tint of old gold, is dressed in the Grecian style; and
+its abundance making the knot unusually ample, there was necessity for
+the two fillets of pink silk to keep it securely in place.
+
+The real difficulty in the description is now reached. To a reader of
+sharp imagination it might be sufficient to say the face of the
+Princess Irene, seen the morning in question, was perfectly regular,
+the brows like pencilling, the nose delicate, the eyes of violet
+shading into blackness, the mouth small with deep corners and lips
+threads of scarlet, the cheeks and brow precisely as the received law
+of beauty would have them. This would authorize a conception of
+surpassing loveliness; and perhaps it were better did we stop with the
+suggestions given, since the fancy would then be left to do its own
+painting. But patience is besought, for vastly more than a face of
+unrivalled perfection, the conjuration is a woman who yet lives in
+history as such a combination of intellect, spirit, character, and
+personal charm that men, themselves rulers and conquerors, fell before
+her at sight. Under necessity therefore of going on with the
+description, what words are at command to convey an idea of the
+complexion--a property so wholly unartificial with her that the veins
+at the temples were as transparent shadows on snow, and the coloring of
+the cheeks like a wash of roses? What more is there than to point to
+the eyes of the healthful freshness peculiar to children of tender
+nurture; the teeth exquisitely regular and of the whiteness of milk and
+the lustre of pearls; the ears small, critically set, and tinted pink
+and white, like certain shells washed ashore last night? What more? Ah,
+yes! There are the arms bare from the shoulder, long and round as a
+woman's should be, and terminating in flexile wrists, and hands so
+gracefully modelled we shrink from thought of their doing more than
+making wreaths of flowers and playing with harp strings. There too is
+the pose of the head expressive of breeding and delicacy of thought and
+feeling, of pride and courage--the pose unattainable by effort or
+affectation, and impossible except where the head, itself faultless, is
+complemented by a neck long, slender, yet round, pliant, always
+graceful, and set upon shoulders the despair of every one but the
+master who found perfection of form and finish in the lilies of the
+Madonna. Finally there is the correspondence, in action as well as
+repose, of body, limbs, head, and face, to which, under inspiration of
+the soul, the air and manner of lovely women are always referable.
+
+The Princess was yet intensely observing the stretch of water before
+her, and the rapid changes of the light upon its face, when a boat,
+driven by a single oarsman, drew up to the landing, and disembarked a
+passenger. That he was not the person she was expecting became
+instantly apparent. She glanced at him once, and then, satisfied he was
+a stranger in whom she had no interest, resumed study of the bay. He,
+however, after dropping something in the boatman's hand, turned, and
+walked to the gateway, and through it towards the palace.
+
+Ere long a servant, whose very venerable appearance belied the
+steel-pointed javelin he carried, hobbled slowly along the floor of the
+portico marshalling a visitor. She touched the golden knot at the back
+of her head to be assured of its arrangement, arose, shook out the
+folds of her gown and mantle, and was prepared for the interruption.
+
+The costume of the stranger was new to the Princess. A cassock of mixed
+white and brown wool that had gone through a primitive loom with little
+of any curative process except washing, hung from his neck to his
+heels. Aside from the coarseness of warp and woof, it fitted so closely
+that but for a slit on each side of the skirt walking would have been
+seriously impeded. The sleeves were long and loose, and covered the
+hands. From the girdle of untanned skin a double string of black horn
+beads, each large as a walnut, dropped to his knees. The buckle of the
+girdle, which might have been silver deeply oxidized, was conspicuously
+large, and of the rudest workmanship. But withal much the most curious
+part of the garb was the cowl, if such it may be called. Projecting
+over the face so far as to cast the features in shadow, it carried on
+the sides of the head broad flaps, not unlike the ears of an elephant.
+This envelope was hideous, yet it served to exalt the man within to
+giantesque proportions.
+
+The Princess surveyed the visitor with astonishment hardly concealed.
+What part of the world could produce a creature so utterly barbarous?
+What business could he have with her? Was he young or old? Twice she
+scanned him from head to foot. He was a monk; so much the costume
+certified; and while he stopped before her with one foot advanced from
+the edge of the skirt, and resting lightly in the clasp of the thongs
+of a very old-fashioned sandal, she saw it was white, and blue veined,
+and at the edges pink, like a child's, and she said to herself, "He is
+young--a young monastic."
+
+The stranger drew from his girdle a linen package carefully folded,
+kissed it reverently, and said:
+
+"Would the Princess Irene be pleased if I open the favor for her?"
+
+The voice was manly, the manner deferential.
+
+"Is it a letter?" she asked.
+
+"A letter from the Holy Father, the Archimandrite of the greatest of
+the northern Lavras." [Footnote: Monasteries.]
+
+"Its name?"
+
+"Bielo-Osero."
+
+"The Bielo-Osero? Where is it?"
+
+"In the country of the Great Prince." [Footnote: Russia.]
+
+"I knew not that I had an acquaintance in so distant a region as the
+north of Russia. You may open the letter."
+
+Unmindful of the indifferent air of the Princess, the monk removed the
+cloth, leaving its folds hanging loosely from his hand. A sheet of
+vellum was exposed lying on the covered palm.
+
+"The Holy Father bade me when I delivered the writing, O Princess, to
+deliver his blessing also; which--the saying is mine, not his--is of
+more worth to the soul than a coffer of gold for the wants of the body."
+
+The pious comment was not lost; but without a word, she took the
+vellum, and resuming her seat, addressed herself to the reading. First,
+her eyes dropped to the signature. There was a look of
+surprise--another of uncertainty--then an exclamation:
+
+"Hilarion! Not my Father Hilarion! He is but a sacred memory! He went
+away and died--and yet this is his hand. I know it as I know my own."
+
+The monk essayed to remove the doubt.
+
+"Permit me," he said, then asked, "Is there not an island hereabouts
+called Prinkipo?"
+
+She gave him instant attention.
+
+"And on the side of the island over against the Asiatic coast, under a
+hill named Kamares, is there not a convent built centuries ago by an
+Empress?"
+
+"Irene," she interposed.
+
+"Yes, Irene--and was not Father Hilarion for many years Abbot of the
+convent? Then, on account of his fame for learning and piety, did not
+the Patriarch exalt him to attendance on his own person as Doctor of
+the Gospels? Still later, was he not summoned to serve the Emperor in
+the capacity of Warden of the Purple Ink?"
+
+"From whom have you all these things?" she asked.
+
+"Excellent Princess, from whom could I have them save the good Father
+himself?"
+
+"Thou art then his messenger?"
+
+"It becomes me better to refer you to what he has there written."
+
+So saying, the monk stepped backward, and stood a little way off in a
+respectful attitude. She raised the missive, and kissed the signature
+several times, exclaiming:
+
+"Now hath God taken care of his own!"
+
+Then she said to the monk, "Thou art indeed a messenger with good
+tidings."
+
+And he, accepting the welcome, uncovered his head, by raising the
+hideous _klobouk_, [Footnote: Cowl.] and letting it fall back pendant
+from his shoulders. The violet eyes of the Princess opened wider,
+brightening as with a sudden influx of light. She could not remember a
+finer head or a face more perfect in manly beauty, and at the same time
+so refined and gentle.
+
+And he was so young--young even as herself--certainly not more than
+twenty. Such was her first general impression of him. For the pleasure
+there was in the surprise, she would not allow it to be observed, but
+said:
+
+"The Father in his letter, no doubt, tells me thy name, but since I
+wish to reserve the reading, I hope thou wilt not be offended if I ask
+it directly."
+
+"The name my mother gave me is Andre; but when I came to be a deacon in
+our Bielo-Osero, Father Hilarion, who presided at the raising, asked me
+how I wished to be known in the priesthood, and I answered him,
+Sergius. Andre was a good christening, and serves well to remind me of
+my dear mother; but Sergius is better, because at hearing it I am
+always reminded that by vows and solemn rites of ordination I am a
+servant of God."
+
+"I will endeavor to remember thy preference," the Princess said; "but
+just now, good Sergius, it is of next importance to know if thou hast
+yet had breakfast?"
+
+A smile helped his face to even more of pleasantness.
+
+"No," he answered, "but I am used to fasting, and the great city is not
+more than two hours away."
+
+She looked concerned.
+
+"Thy patron Saint hath not deserted thee. Here is a table already set.
+He for whom I held it is long on the road; thou shalt take his place,
+and be not less welcome." To the old servant she added: "We have a
+guest, not an enemy, Lysander. Put up thy javelin, and bring a seat for
+him; then stand behind him, lest it happen one service of the cups be
+not enough."
+
+Directly the two were at the table opposite each other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE RUSSIAN MONK
+
+
+Sergius took a glass of red wine from the old attendant, and said:
+
+"I should like your permission, O Princess, to make a confession."
+
+His manner was that of one unused to the society of women. He was
+conscious she was studying him, and spoke to divert her. As she was
+slow answering, he added: "That you may not think me disposed to abuse
+the acquaintance you honor me with, especially as you have not yet read
+the letter of the good Father Hilarion upon which I rely for your
+better regard, I ask the permission rather to show the degree of your
+kindness to me. It may interest you also to learn of the confirmation
+of a certain faith you are perhaps unwittingly lending a novice in the
+ways of the world."
+
+She had been studying him, and her first impression was now confirmed.
+His head in shape and pose was a poet's; the long, wavy, flaxen hair,
+parted in the middle, left small space for the forehead, which was
+nevertheless broad and white, with high-arched, well-defined brows for
+base. The eyes were gray. In repose they had a dreamy introspectional
+expression. The mustache and beard, the first growth of youth spent
+entirely indoors, were as yet too light to shade any part of the face.
+The nose was not enough _retrousse_ to be irregular. In brief, the monk
+was of the type now well known as Russian. Aside from height and
+apparent muscularity, he very nearly realized the Byzantine ideal of
+Christ as seen in the cartoons excellently preserved in a mosque of
+Stamboul not far from the gate anciently San Romain now _Top Kapoussi_.
+
+The appearance of the young monk, so strikingly suggestive of the being
+most sacred in the estimation of the Princess, was at the moment less
+curious to her than a certain habit observable in him. The look of
+brightness attendant upon the thought he was putting into form would,
+when the utterance was through, suffer a lapse which, for want of
+strictly definite words, may be described as a sombering of the eyes
+when they were widest open, a gazing beyond at something else than the
+opposite speaker; implying that the soul was become mysteriously
+occupied apart from the mind. The effect was as if she had before her
+two widely different characters making themselves present at the same
+time in one person. Unquestionably, though rarely, there is a duality
+of nature in men, by which, to put it extremely, a seeming incapable
+may be vastly capable, outward gentleness a mask for a spirit of
+Neronian violence, dulness a low-lying cloud surcharged with genius.
+What shall be done with such a nature? When may it be relied upon? Who
+shall ever come to really know it?
+
+Occupied with the idea, the Princess heard but the conclusion of the
+monk's somewhat awkward apology, and she answered:
+
+"The confession must be of something lighter than a sin. I will listen."
+
+"A sin!" he exclaimed, with a blush. "Pardon me, O Princess. It was a
+trifle of which I spoke too seriously. I promise thou shalt take from
+it nothing worse than a laugh at my simplicity. See thou these things?"
+
+He gave her a glance full of boyish humor, and from a breast pocket of
+his cassock drew a bag of coarse yellow silk; thrusting a hand into its
+mouth, he then brought out a number of square leathern chips stamped
+with sunken letters, and laid them on the table before her.
+
+"This you must know is our money." The Princess examined the pieces,
+and said:
+
+"I doubt if our tradesmen would accept them."
+
+"They will not. I am a witness to the fact. Nevertheless they will
+carry a traveller, go he either way, from one end of our Great Prince's
+realm to the other. When I left the Lavra, setting out on my journey,
+Father Hilarion gave me the bag, saying, as he put it into my hand,
+'Now upon coming to the port where the ship awaits thee, be sure to
+exchange the money with the merchants there for Byzantine gold; else,
+unless God come to thy aid, thou wilt be turned into a mendicant.' And
+so I fully meant to do; but when I reached the port, I found it a city
+large, and full of people and sights wonderful to me, demanding to be
+seen. I forgot the injunction. Indeed I never thought of it until this
+morning."
+
+Here he laughed at himself, proving he was not yet seriously alive to
+the consequences of his negligence. Presently he resumed:
+
+"I landed only last night, and sick from the tossing of the sea, put up
+at an inn in the town yonder. I ordered breakfast, and, according to a
+custom of my people, offered to pay before tasting. The master of the
+house looked at my money, and told me to show him coin of gold; if not
+that, then copper or brass, or even iron, in pieces bearing the name of
+the Emperor. Being told I had only this, he bade me look elsewhere for
+breakfast. Now I had designed going to the great city to kiss the hand
+of the Patriarch, of whom I have always heard as the wisest of men,
+before coming to thee; but the strait I was in was hard. Could I expect
+better of the innkeepers there? I had a button of gold--a memorial of
+my entry into the Lavra. That day Father Hilarion blessed it three
+times; and it bore a cross upon its face which I thought might make it
+acceptable as if it were lettered with the name of Constantine. A
+boatman consented to take it for rowing me to thy landing. Behold! Thou
+hast my confession!"
+
+His speech to this time had been in Greek singularly pure and fluent;
+now he hesitated, while his eyes, open to the full, sombered, as if
+from a field in the brain back of them a shadow was being cast through
+his face. When next he spoke it was in his native tongue.
+
+The Princess observed her guest with increasing interest; for she was
+wholly unused to such artlessness in men. How could Father Hilarion
+have intrusted business of importance to an envoy so negligent? His
+confession, as he termed it, was an admission, neither more nor less,
+that he had no money of the country into which he was come. And
+further, how could the habit of lapsing in thought, or more simply, of
+passing abruptly from the present subject, be explained except on the
+theory of something to which he had so given himself it had become
+overmastering and all absorbent? This, she saw intuitively, would prove
+the key to the man; and she set about finding it out.
+
+"Your Greek, good Sergius, is excellent; yet I did not understand the
+words with which you concluded."
+
+"I beg pardon," he replied, with a change of countenance. "In my
+mother's tongue I repeated a saying of the Psalmist, which you shall
+have voice and look as Father Hilarion has given it to me oftener than
+I am days old." Then his voice lowered into a sweet intensity fitting
+the text: "'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.' Those were the
+words, Princess; and who shall say they do not comprehend all there is
+of religion?"
+
+The answer was unexpected, the manner affecting; never had she heard
+conviction and faith more perfectly affirmed. More than a monk, the
+young man might be a preacher! And Father Hilarion might have grown
+wiser of his years! Perhaps he knew, though at a vast distance, that
+the need of the hour in Constantinople was not a new notable--a bishop
+or a legate--so much as a voice with power of persuasion to still the
+contentions with which her seven hills were then resounding. The idea,
+though a surmise, was strong enough to excite a desire to read the holy
+man's letter. She even reproached herself for not having done so.
+
+"The worthy priest gave me the same saying in the same words," she
+said, rising, "and they lose nothing of their meaning by thy
+repetition. We may speak of them hereafter. For the present, to keep
+thee from breakfast were cruel. I will go and make terms with my
+conscience by reading what thou hast brought me from the Father. Help
+thyself freely as if thou wert the most favored of guests; or rather
+"--she paused to emphasize the meaning--"as though I had been bidden to
+prepare for thy coining. Should there be failure in anything before
+thee, scruple not to ask for more. Lysander will be at thy service. I
+may return presently."
+
+The monk arose respectfully, and stood until she disappeared behind the
+vases and flowers, leaving in his memory a fadeless recollection of
+graciousness and beauty, which did not prevent him from immediately
+addressing himself as became a hungry traveller.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A VOICE FROM THE CLOISTER
+
+
+While the Princess Irene traversed the portico, she repeated the words,
+The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; and she could see how the
+negligent, moneyless monk, turned away at the inn, was provided for in
+his moment of need, and also that she was the chosen purveyor; if so,
+by whom chosen? The young man had intended calling on the Patriarch
+first; who brought him to her? The breakfast was set for an invited
+guest; what held him back, if not the power that led the stranger to
+her gate?
+
+In saying now that one of the consequences of the religious passion
+characteristic of the day in the East--particularly in
+Constantinople--a passion so extreme as to induce the strongest minds
+to believe God, and the Son, and even the Holy Mother discernible in
+the most commonplace affairs--our hope is to save the Princess from
+misjudgment. Really the most independent and fearless of spirits, if
+now and then she fell into the habit of translating the natural into
+the supernatural, she is entitled to mercy, since few things are harder
+to escape than those of universal practice.
+
+Through a doorway, chiselled top and jambs, she entered a spacious hall
+nude of furniture, though richly frescoed, and thence passed into a
+plain open, court coolly shaded, having in the centre a jet of water
+which arose and fell into a bowl of alabaster. The water overflowing
+the bowl was caught again in a circular basin which, besides the
+ornamental carving on the edge and outside, furnished an ample pool for
+the gold fish disporting in it.
+
+In the court there were also a number of women, mostly young Greeks,
+sewing, knitting, and embroidering vestments. Upon her entrance they
+arose, let their work drop on the spotless white marble at their feet,
+and received her in respectful silence. Signing them to resume their
+labor, she took a reserved chair by the fountain. The letter was in her
+hand, but a thought had the precedence.
+
+Admitting she had been chosen to fulfil the saying quoted, was the call
+for the once only? When the monk went up to the city, was her ministry
+to end? Would not that be a half-performance? How much farther should
+she go? She felt a little pang of trouble, due to the uncertainty that
+beset her, but quieted it by an appeal to the letter. Crossing herself,
+and again kissing the signature, she began the reading, which, as the
+hand was familiar to her, and the composition in the most faultless
+Greek of the period, was in nowise a perplexity.
+
+"BIELO-OSERO, 3_d June_, 1452.
+
+"From Hilarion, the Hegumen, to Irene, his well-beloved daughter.
+
+"Thou hast thought of me this longtime as at rest forever--at rest with
+the Redeemer. While there is nothing so the equivalent of death as
+silence, there is no happiness so sweet as that which springs upon us
+unexpectedly. In the same sense the resurrection was the perfect
+complement of the crucifixion. More than all else, more than the sermon
+on the mount, more than His miracles, more than His unexampled life, it
+lifted our Lord above the repute of a mere philosopher like Socrates.
+We have tears for His much suffering; but we sing as Miriam sang when
+we think of His victory over the grave. I would not compare myself to
+Him; yet it pleases me believing these lines, so unexpected, will give
+thee a taste of the feeling the Marys had, when, with their spices in
+hand, they sought the sepulchre and found only the Angels there.
+
+"Let me tell thee first of my disappearance from Constantinople. I
+repented greatly my taking from the old convent by the Patriarch;
+partly because it separated me from thee at a time when thy mind was
+opening to receive the truth and understand it. Yet the call had a
+sound as if from God. I feared to disobey it.
+
+"Then came the summons of the Emperor. He had heard of my life, and, as
+a counteraction of vice, he wanted its example in the palace. I held
+back. But the Patriarch prevailed on me, and I went up and suffered
+myself to be installed Keeper of the Purple Ink. Then indeed I became
+miserable. To such as I, what is sitting near the throne? What is power
+when not an instrument of mercy, justice and charity? What is easy
+life, except walking in danger of habits enervating to the hope of
+salvation? Oh, the miseries I witnessed! And how wretched the sight of
+them, knowing they were beyond my help! I saw moreover the wickedness
+of the court. Did I speak, who listened except to revile me? Went I to
+celebrations in this or that church, I beheld only hypocrisy in
+scarlet. How often, knowing the sin-stains upon the hands of the
+celebrants at the altar in Sta. Sophia, the house in holiness next to
+the temple of Solomon--how often, seeing those hands raise the blood of
+Christ in the cup before the altar, have I trembled, and looked for the
+dome above to let consuming vengeance in upon us, the innocent with the
+guilty!
+
+"At last fear filled all my thoughts, and forbade sleep or any comfort.
+I felt I must go, and quickly, or be lost for denial of covenants made
+with Him, the ultimate Judge, in whose approval there is the peace that
+passeth understanding. I was like one pursued by a spirit making its
+presence known to me in sobs and plaints, stinging as conscience stings.
+
+"Consent to my departure was not to be expected; for great men dislike
+to have their favors slighted. It was not less clear that formal
+resignation of the official honor I was supposed to be enjoying would
+be serviceable to the courtiers who were not so much my enemies
+personally as they were enemies of religion and contemners of all holy
+observances. And there were so many of them! Alas, for the admission!
+What then was left but flight?
+
+ "Whither? I thought first of Jerusalem; but who without abasement can
+inhabit with infidels? Then Hagion Oras, the Holy Hill, occurred to me;
+the same argument applied against it as against return to the convent
+of Irene-I would be in reach of the Emperor's displeasure. One can
+study his own heart. Holding mine off, and looking at it alive with
+desires holy and unholy, I detected in it a yearning for hermitage. How
+beautiful solitude appears! In what condition can one wishing to change
+his nature for the better more certainly attain the end than without
+companionship except of God always present? The spirit of prayer is a
+delicate minister; where can we find purer nourishment for it than in
+the silence which at noon is deep as at midnight?
+
+"In this mood the story of the Russian St. Sergius reverted to me. He
+was born at Rostoff. Filled with pious impulses more than dissatisfied
+with the world, of which he knew nothing, with a brother, he left his
+father's house when yet a youth and betook himself to a great woods in
+the region Radenego; there he dwelt among savage beasts and wild men,
+fasting and praying and dependent like Elijah of old. His life became a
+notoriety. Others drew to him. With his own hands he built a wooden
+church for his disciples, giving it the name of Troitza or Thrice Holy
+Trinity. Thither I wandered in thought. A call might be there for me,
+so weary of the egotism, envy, detraction, greed, grind and battle of
+the soulless artificiality called society.
+
+"I left Blacherne in the night, and crossing the sea in the north--no
+wonder it is so terrible to the poor mariner who has to hunt his daily
+bread upon its treacherous waves--I indulged no wait until, in the
+stone church of the Holy Trinity, I knelt before the remains of the
+revered Russian hermit, and thanked God for deliverance and freedom.
+
+"The Troitza was no longer the simple wooden church of its founder. I
+found it a collection of monasteries. The solitude of my dreams was to
+be sought northward further. Some years before, a disciple of
+Sergius--Cyrill by name, since canonized--unterrified by winters which
+dragged through three quarters of the year, wandered off to a secluded
+place on the shore of the White Lake, where he dwelt until, in old age,
+a holy house was required to accommodate his following. He called it
+Bielo-Osero. There I installed myself, won by the warmth of my welcome.
+
+"Now when I departed from Blacherne, I took with me, besides the
+raiment I wore, two pieces of property; a copy of the Rule of the
+Studium Monastery, and a _panagia_ given me by the Patriarch--a
+medallion portrait of the Blessed Mother of our Lord the Saviour,
+framed in gold, and set in brilliants. I carry it hanging from my neck.
+Even in sleep it is always lying just above my heart. The day is not
+far now when my need of it will be over; then I will send it to thee in
+notice that I am indeed at rest, and that in dying I wished to lend
+thee a preservative against ills of the soul and fear of death.
+
+"The Rule was acceptable to the Brotherhood. They adopted it, and its
+letter and spirit prevailing, the house came in time to be odorous for
+sanctity. Eventually, though against my will, they raised me their
+Hegumen. And so my story reaches its end. May it find thee enjoying the
+delight of the soul's rest I have been enjoying without interruption
+since I began life anew in this retreat, where the days are days of
+prayer, and the nights illuminated by visions of Paradise and Heaven.
+
+"In the next place, I pray thou wilt take the young brother by whom
+this will be delivered into friendly care. I myself raised him to a
+deaconship of our Monastery. His priestly name is Sergius. He was
+scarcely out of boyhood when I came here; it was not long, however,
+before I discovered in him the qualities which drew me to thee during
+thy prison life at the old convent of Irene--a receptive mind, and a
+native proneness to love God. I made his way easy. I became his
+teacher, as I had been thine; and as the years flew by he reminded me
+more and more of thee, not merely with respect to mental capacity, but
+purity of soul and aspiration as well. Need I say how natural it was
+for me to love him? Had I not just come from loving thee?
+
+"The brethren are good men, though unmannerly, and for the most part
+the Word reaches them from some other's tongue. Filling the lad's mind
+was like filling a lamp with oil. How precious the light it would one
+day shed abroad! And how much darkness there was for it to dispel! And
+in the darkness--Mercy, Mercy! How many are in danger of perishing!
+
+"Never did I think myself so clearly a servant of God as in the time
+Sergius was under my instruction. Thou, alas! being a woman, wert like
+a strong-winged bird doomed at best to a narrow cage. The whole world
+was before him.
+
+"Of the many notes I have been compelled to take of the wants of
+religion in this our age, none so amazes me as the lack of preachers.
+We have priests and monks. Their name is Legion. Who of them can be
+said to have been touched with the fire that fell upon the faithful of
+the original twelve? Where among them is an Athanasius? Or a
+Chrysostom? Or an Augustine? Slowly, yet apace with his growth, I
+became ambitious for the young man. He showed quickness and astonishing
+courage. No task appalled him. He mastered the tongues of the
+nationalities represented around him as if he were born to them. He
+took in memory the Gospels, the Psalms, and the prophetic books of the
+Bible. He replies to me in Greek undistinguishable from mine. I began
+to dream of him a preacher like St. Paul. I have heard him talking in
+the stone chapel, when the sleet-ridden winds without had filled it
+with numbing frost, and seen the Brotherhood rise from their knees, and
+shout, and sing, and wrestle like madmen. It is not merely words, and
+ideas, and oratorical manner, but all of them, and more--when aroused,
+he has the faculty of pouring out his spirit, so that what he says
+takes hold of a hearer, making him calm if in a passion, and excited if
+in a calm. The willing listen to him from delight, the unwilling and
+opposite minded because he enchains them.
+
+"The pearl seemed to me of great price. I tried to keep it free of the
+dust of the world. With such skill as I possess, I have worn its stains
+and roughnesses away, and added to its lustre. Now it goes from me.
+
+"You must not think because I fled to this corner of the earth, there
+is any abatement of my affection for Constantinople; on the contrary,
+absence has redoubled the love for it with which I was born. Is it not
+still the capital of our holy religion? Occasionally a traveller comes
+this way with news of the changes it has endured. Thus one came and
+reported the death of the Emperor John, and the succession of
+Constantine; another told of justice finally done thy heroic father,
+and of thy prosperity; more lately a wandering monk, seeking solitude
+for his soul's sake, joined our community, and from him I hear that the
+old controversy with the Latins has broken out anew, and more hotly
+than ever; that the new Emperor is an _azymite_, and disposed to adhere
+to the compact of union of the churches east and west made with the
+Pope of Rome by his predecessor, leaving heart-blisters burning as
+those which divided the Jews. Indeed, I much fear the likeness may
+prove absolute. It certainly will when the Turk appears before our holy
+city as Titus before Jerusalem.
+
+"This latest intelligence induced me at last to yield to Sergius'
+entreaties to go down to Constantinople, and finish there the courses
+begun here. It is true he who would move the world must go into the
+world; at the same time I confess my own great desire to be kept
+informed of the progress of the discussion between the churches had
+much to do with my consent to his departure. He has instructions to
+that effect, and will obey them. Therefore I pray thee receive him
+kindly for his own sake, for mine, and the promise of good in him to
+the cause of Jesus, our beloved Master.
+
+"In conclusion, allow me, daughter--for such thou wert to thy father,
+to thy mother, and to me--allow me to recur to circumstances which,
+after calm review, I pronounce the most interesting, the most
+delightful, the most cherished of my life.
+
+"The house under the Kameses hill at Prinkipo was a convent or refuge
+for women rather than men; yet I was ordered thither when thy father
+was consigned to it after his victory over the Turks. I was then
+comparatively young, but still recollect the day he passed the gate
+going in with his family. Thenceforward, until the Patriarch took me
+away, I was his confessor.
+
+"Death is always shocking. I remember its visits to the convent while I
+was of its people; but when it came and took thy sisters we were doubly
+grieved. As if the ungrateful Emperor could not be sufficiently cruel,
+it seemed Heaven must needs help him. The cloud of those sad events
+overhung the community a long time; at length there was a burst of
+sunshine. One came to my cell and said, 'Come, rejoice with us--a baby
+is born in the house.' Thou wert the baby; and thy appearance was the
+first of the great gladnesses to which I have referred.
+
+"And not less distinctly I live over the hour we met in the chapel to
+christen thee. The Bishop was the chief celebrant; but not even the
+splendor of his canonicals--the cope with the little bells sewn down
+the sides and along the sleeves, the ompharium, the _panagia_, the
+cross, the crozier--were enough to draw my eyes from the dimpled pink
+face half-hidden in the pillow of down on which they held thee up
+before the font. And now the Bishop dipped his fingers in the holy
+water--'By what name is this daughter to be known?' And I answered,
+'Irene.' Thy parents had been casting about for a name. 'Why not call
+her after the convent?' I asked. They accepted the suggestion; and when
+I gave it out that great day--to the convent it was holiday--it seemed
+a door in my heart of which I was unknowing opened of itself, and took
+thee into a love-lined chamber to be sweet lady at home forever. Such
+was the second of my greatest happinesses.
+
+"And then afterwhile thy father gave thee over to me to be educated. I
+made thy first alphabet, illuminating each letter with my own hand.
+Dost thou remember the earliest sentence I heard thee read? Or, if ever
+thou dost think of it now, be reminded it was thy first lesson in
+writing and thy first in religion--'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall
+not want.' And thence what delight I found in helping thee each day a
+little further on in knowledge until at length we came to where thou
+couldst do independent thinking.
+
+"It was in Sta. Sophia--in my memory not more than an occurrence of
+yesterday. Thou and I had gone from the island up to the holy house,
+where we were spectators of a service at which the Emperor, as
+Basileus, and the Patriarch were celebrants. The gold on cope and
+ompharium cast the space about the altar into a splendor rich as
+sunshine. Then thou asked me, 'Did Christ and His Disciples worship in
+a house like this? And were they dressed as these are?' I was afraid of
+those around us, and told thee to use eye and ear, but the time for
+questions and answers would be when we were back safely in the old
+convent.
+
+"When we were there, thou didst renew the questions, and I did not
+withhold the truth. I told thee of the lowliness and simple ways of
+Jesus--how He was clothed--how the out-doors was temple sufficient for
+Him. I told thee of His preaching to the multitude on the shore of the
+Galilean sea--I told of His praying in the garden of Gethsemane--I told
+of the attempt to make a King of Him whether He would or not, and how
+He escaped from the people--of how He set no store by money or
+property, titles, or worldly honors.
+
+"Then thou didst ask, 'Who made worship so formal?' And again I
+answered truthfully, there was no Church until after the death of our
+Lord; that in course of two hundred years kings, governors, nobles and
+the great of the earth were converted to the faith, and took it under
+their protection; that then, to conform it to their tastes and dignity,
+they borrowed altars from pagans, and recast the worship so sumptuously
+in purple and gold the Apostles would not have recognized it. Then, in
+brief, I began telling thee of the Primitive Church of Christ, now
+disowned, forgotten or lost in the humanism of religious pride.
+
+"Oh, the satisfaction and happiness in that teaching! At each lesson it
+seemed I was taking thee closer to the dear Christ from whom the world
+is every year making new roads to get further away--the dear Christ in
+search of whom I plunged into this solitude.
+
+"How is it with thee now, my daughter? Dost thou still adhere to the
+Primitive Church? Do not fear to speak thy mind to Sergius. He too is
+in the secret of our faith, believing it best to love our Lord from
+what our Lord hath Himself said.
+
+"Now I bring this letter to a close. Let me have reply by Sergius, who,
+when he has seen Constantinople, will come back to me, unless He who
+holds every man's future in keeping discovers for him a special use.
+
+"Do not forget me in thy prayers.
+
+"Blessings on thee! HILARION."
+
+The Princess read the letter a second time. When she came to the
+passage referring to the Primitive Church, her hands dropped into her
+lap, and she thought:
+
+"The Father planted right well--better than he was aware, as he himself
+would say did he know my standing now."
+
+A glow which might have been variously taken for half-serious,
+half-mocking defiance shone in her eyes as the thought ran on:
+
+"Ay, dear man! Did he know that for asserting the Primitive Church as
+he taught it to me in the old convent, the Greeks and the Latins have
+alike adjudged me a heretic; that nothing saves me from the lions of
+the Cynegion, except my being a woman--a woman forever offending by
+going when and where I wist with my face bare, and therefore harmless
+except to myself. If he knew this, would he send me his blessing? He
+little imagined--he who kept his opinion to himself because he could
+see no good possible from its proclamation--that I, the prison-bred
+girl he so loved, and whom he helped make extreme in courage as in
+conviction, would one day forget my sex and condition, and protest with
+the vehemence of a man against the religious madness into which the
+Christian world is being swept. Oh, that I were a man!"
+
+Folding the letter hastily, she arose to return to her guest. There was
+fixedness of purpose in her face.
+
+"Oh, that I were a man!" she repeated, while passing the frescoed hall
+on the way out.
+
+In the portico, with the white light of the marble whitening her whole
+person, and just as the monk, tall, strong, noble looking, despite the
+grotesqueness of his attire, was rising from the table, she stopped,
+and clasped her hands.
+
+"I have been heard!" she thought, trembling. "That which it refused to
+make me, Heaven has sent me. Here is a man! And he is certified as of
+my faith, and has the voice, the learning, the zeal and courage, the
+passion of truth to challenge a hearing anywhere. Welcome Sergius! In
+want thou camest; in want thou didst find me. The Lord _is_ shepherd
+unto us both."
+
+She went to him confidently, and offered her hand. Her manner was
+irresistible; he had no choice but to yield to it.
+
+"Thou art not a stranger, but Sergius, my brother. Father Hilarion has
+explained everything."
+
+He kissed her hand, and replied:
+
+"I was overbold, Princess; but I knew the Father would report me
+kindly; and I was hungry."
+
+"It is my part now to see the affliction comes not back again. So much
+has the Shepherd already determined. But, speaking as thy sister,
+Sergius, thy garments appear strange. Doubtless they were well enough
+in the Bielo-Osero, where the Rule of the Studium is law instead of
+fashion; but here we must consult customs or be laughed at, which would
+be fatal to the role I have in mind for thee." Then with a smile, she
+added, "Observe the dominion I have already assumed."
+
+He answered with a contented laugh: whereupon she went on, but more
+gravely:
+
+"We have the world to talk over; but Lysander will now take you to your
+room, and you will rest until about mid-afternoon, when my boat will
+come to the landing to carry us to the city. The cowl you must exchange
+for a hat and veil, the sandals for shoes, the coarse cassock for a
+black gown; and, if we have time, I will go with you to the Patriarch."
+
+Sergius followed Lysander submissively as a child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WHAT DO THE STARS SAY?
+
+
+The sun which relieved the bay of Therapia from the thraldom of night
+did the same service for the Golden Horn; only, with a more potential
+voice, it seemed to say to the cities which were the pride of the
+latter, Awake! Arise! And presently they were astir indoor and out.
+
+Of all the souls who, obedient to the early summons, poured into the
+street, and by the south window of the study of the Prince of India,
+some going this direction, some that, yet each intent upon a particular
+purpose, not one gave a thought to the Prince, or so much as wondered
+if he were awake. And the indifference of the many was well for him; it
+gave him immunity to pursue his specialty. But as we, the writer and
+the reader, are not of the many, and have an interest in the man from
+knowing more about him than they, what would have been intrusion in
+them may be excused in us.
+
+Exactly at midnight the Prince, aroused by Syama, had gone to the roof,
+where there was a table, with a lamp upon it which he could shade at
+pleasure, an hour-glass, and writing materials. An easy chair was also
+set for him.
+
+The view of the city offered for his inspection was circumscribed by
+the night. The famous places conspicuous in daytime might as well have
+been folded up and put away in a closet; he could not see so much as a
+glimmer of light from any of them. Pleased thereby, and arguing that
+even the wicked are good when asleep, he swept the heavens with a
+glance so long and searching there could be no doubt of the purpose
+which had brought him forth.
+
+Next, according to the habit of astrologers, he proceeded to divide the
+firmament into Angles and Houses, and taking seat by the table,
+arranged the lamp to suit him, started the hour-glass running, and drew
+a diagram familiar to every adept in divinatory science--a diagram of
+the heavens with the Houses numbered from one to twelve inclusive.
+
+In the Houses he then set the mystic symbols of the visible planets as
+they were at the moment in position, mindful not merely of the
+parallels, but of the degrees as well. Verifying the correctness of the
+diagram by a second survey of the mighty overarch more careful even
+than the first, he settled himself in the chair, saying complacently:
+
+"Now, O Saturn, thou, the coldest and highest! Thy Houses are
+ready--come, and at least behold them. I wait the configurations."
+
+Thereupon, perfectly at ease, he watched the stellar hosts while, to
+their own music, they marched past the Thrones of the Most High Planets
+unchallenged except by him.
+
+Occasionally he sat up to reverse the hour-glass, though more
+frequently he made new diagrams, showing the changes in position of the
+several influential bodies relatively to each other and to the benefic
+or malific signs upon which so much of result depended; nor did his
+eyes once weary or his zeal flag.
+
+Finally when the sun, yet under the horizon behind the heights of
+Scutari, began to flood the sky with a brilliance exceeding that of the
+bravest of the stars, he collected the drawings, extinguished the lamp,
+and descended to his study, but not to rest.
+
+Immediately that the daylight was sufficient, he addressed himself to
+mathematical calculations which appeared exhaustive of every rule and
+branch of the disciplinary science. Hours flew by, and still he worked.
+He received Syama's call to breakfast; returning from the meal, always
+the simplest of the day with him, he resumed the problem. Either he was
+prodigiously intent on a scheme in mind, or he was occupying himself
+diligently in order to forget himself.
+
+About noon he was interrupted.
+
+"My father."
+
+Recognizing the voice, he pushed the proofs of labor from him almost to
+the other side of the table, turned in his seat, and replied, his face
+suffused with pleasure:
+
+"Thou enemy to labor! Did not some one tell thee of what I have on
+hand, and how I am working to finish it in time to take the water with
+thee this afternoon? Answer, O my Gul-Bahar, more beautiful growing as
+the days multiply!"
+
+The Lael of the son of Jahdai, the Gul-Bahar of the mysterious Prince,
+was much grown, and otherwise greatly changed since we saw her last.
+Each intervening year had in passing left her a benediction. She was
+now about sixteen, slight, and Jewish in eyes, hair, and complexion.
+The blood enriched her olive cheeks; the lips took a double freshness
+from health; the smile resting habitually on the oval face had a tale
+it was always telling of a nature confiding, happy, satisfied with its
+conditions, hopeful of the future, and unaware from any sad experience
+that life ever admitted of changes. Her beauty bore the marks of
+intelligence; her manner was not enough self-contained to be called
+courtly; yet it was easy, and carried its own certificate of culture;
+it yielded too much to natural affection to deserve the term dignified.
+One listening to her, and noticing the variableness of her mood, which
+in almost the same instant could pass from gay to serious without ever
+reaching an extreme, would pronounce her too timid for achievement
+outside the purely domestic; at the same time he would think she
+appeared lovable to the last degree, and might be capable of loving in
+equal measure.
+
+She was dressed in Byzantine fashion. In crossing the street from her
+father's house, she had thrown a veil over her head, but it was now
+lying carelessly about her neck. The wooden sandals with blocks under
+them, like those yet worn by women in Levantine countries to raise them
+out of the dust and mud when abroad, had been shaken lightly from her
+feet at the top of the stairs. Perfectly at home, she advanced to the
+table, and put one of her bare arms around the old man's neck,
+regardless of the white locks it crushed close down, and replied:
+
+"Thou flatterer! Do I not know beauty is altogether in the eye of the
+beholder, and that all persons do not see alike? Tell me why, knowing
+the work was to be done, you did not send for me to help you? Was it
+for nothing you made me acquainted with figures until--I have your
+authority for the saying--I might have stood for professor of
+mathematics in the best of the Alexandrian schools? Do not shake your
+head at me--or"--
+
+With the new idea all alight in her face, she ran around the table, and
+caught up one of the diagrams.
+
+"Ah, it is as I thought, father! The work I love best, and can do best!
+Whose is the nativity? Not mine, I know; for I was born in the glad
+time when Venus ruled the year. Anael, her angel, held his wings over
+me against this very wry-faced, snow-chilled Saturn, whom I am so glad
+to see in the Seventh House, which is the House of Woe. Whose the
+nativity, I say?"
+
+"Nay, child--pretty child, and wilful--you have a trick of getting my
+secrets from me. I sometimes think I am in thy hands no more than
+tawdry lace just washed and being wrung preparatory to hanging in the
+air from thy lattice. It is well for you to know there are some things
+out of your reach--for the time at least."
+
+"That is saying you will tell me."
+
+"Yes--some day."
+
+"Then I will be patient."
+
+Seeing him become thoughtful, and look abstractedly out of the window,
+she laid the diagram down, went back, and again put her arm around his
+neck.
+
+"I did not come to interrupt you, father, but to learn two things, and
+run away."
+
+"You begin like a rhetorician. What subdivisions lie under those two
+things? Speak!"
+
+"Thank you," she replied, quickly. "First, Syama told me you were at
+some particular task, and I wanted to know if I could help you."
+
+"Dear heart!" he said, tenderly.
+
+"Next--and this is all--I did not want you to forget we are to go up
+the Bosphorus this afternoon--up to Therapia, and possibly to the sea."
+
+"You wish to go?" he asked.
+
+"I dreamt of it all night."
+
+"Then we will; and to prove I did not forget, the boatmen have their
+orders already. We go to the landing directly after noon."
+
+"Not too soon," she answered, laughing. "I have to dress, and make
+myself gorgeous as an empress. The day is soft and kind, and there will
+be many people on the water, where I am already known quite as well as
+here in the city as the daughter of the Prince of India."
+
+He replied with an air of pride:
+
+"Thou art good enough for an emperor."
+
+"Then I may go and get ready."
+
+She withdrew her arm, kissed him, and started to the door, but
+returned, with a troubled look.
+
+"One thing more, father."
+
+He was recovering his work, but stopped, and gave her ear.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"You have said, good father, that as my studies were too confining, it
+would be well if I took the air every day in my sedan. So, sometimes
+with Syama, sometimes with Nilo, I had the men carry me along the wall
+in front of the Bucoleon. The view over the sea toward Mt. Ida is there
+very beautiful; and if I look to the landward side, right at my feet
+are the terraced gardens of the palace. Nowhere do the winds seem
+sweeter to me. For their more perfect enjoyment I have at moments
+alighted from the chair, and walked; always avoiding acquaintances new
+and old. The people appear to understand my preference, and respect it.
+Of late, however, one person--hardly a man--has followed me, and
+stopped near by when I stopped; he has even persisted in attempts to
+speak to me. To avoid him, I went to the Hippodrome yesterday, and
+taking seat in front of the small obelisks in that quarter, was
+delighted with the exhibition of the horsemen. Just when the
+entertainment was at its height, and most interesting, the person of
+whom I am speaking came and sat on the same bench with me. I arose at
+once. It is very annoying, father. What shall I do?"
+
+The Prince did not answer immediately, and when he did, it was to ask,
+suggestively:
+
+"You say he is young?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"His dress?"
+
+"He seems to be fond of high colors."
+
+"You asked no question concerning him?"
+
+"No. Whom could I ask?"
+
+Again the Prince reflected. Outwardly he was unconcerned; yet his blood
+was more than warm--the blood of pride which, as every one knows, is
+easily started, and can go hissing hot. He did not wish her to think of
+the affair too much; therefore his air of indifference; nevertheless it
+awoke a new train of thought in him.
+
+If one were to insult this second Lael of his love, what could he do?
+The idea of appeal to a magistrate was irritating. Were he to assume
+punishment of the insolence, from whom could he hope justice or
+sympathy--he, a stranger living a mysterious life?
+
+He ran hastily over the resorts at first sight open to him. Nilo was an
+instrument always ready. A word would arouse the forces in that loyal
+but savage nature, and they were forces subject to cunning which never
+slept, never wearied, and was never in a hurry--a passionless cunning,
+like that of the Fedavies of the Old Man of the Mountain.
+
+It may be thought the Prince was magnifying a fancied trouble; but the
+certainty that sorrow _must_ overtake him for every indulgence of
+affection was a haunting shadow always attending the most trifling
+circumstance to set his imagination conjuring calamities. That at such
+times his first impulse was toward revenge is explicable; the old law,
+an eye for an eye, was part of his religion; and coupling it with
+personal pride which a thought could turn into consuming heat, how
+natural if, while the anticipation was doing its work, his study should
+be to make the revenge memorable!
+
+Feeling he was not entirely helpless in the affair, he thought best to
+be patient awhile, and learn who was the offender; a conclusion
+followed by a resolution to send Uel with the girl next time she went
+to take the air.
+
+"The young men of the city are uncontrolled by respect or veneration,"
+he said, quietly. "The follies they commit are sometimes ludicrous.
+Better things are not to be looked for in a generation given to dress
+as a chief ambition. And then it may be, O my Gul-Bahar"--he kissed her
+as he uttered the endearment--"it may be he of whom you complain does
+not know who you are. A word may cure him of his bad manners. Do not
+appear to notice him. Have eyes for everything in the world but him;
+that is the virtuous woman's defence against vulgarity and insult under
+every circumstance. Go now, and make ready for the boat. Put on your
+gayest; forget not the last necklace I gave you--and the bracelets--and
+the girdle with the rubies. The water from the flying oars shall not
+outflash my little girl. There now--Of course we will go to the landing
+in our chairs."
+
+When she disappeared down the stairs, he went back to his work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE PRINCE OF INDIA MEETS CONSTANTINE
+
+
+It is to be remembered now, as very material to our story, that the day
+the Prince of India resolved on the excursion up the Bosphorus with
+Lael the exquisite stretch of water separated the territorial
+possessions of the Greek Emperor and the Sultan of the Turks.
+
+In 1355 the utmost of the once vast Roman dominions was "a corner of
+Thrace between the Propontis (Marmora) and the Black Sea, about fifty
+miles in length and thirty in breadth." [Footnote: Gibbon.]
+
+When Constantine Dragases--he of whom we are writing--ascended the
+throne, the realm was even more diminished.
+
+Galata, just across the Golden Horn, had become a Genoese stronghold.
+
+Scutari, on the Asiatic shore almost _vis-a-vis_ with Constantinople,
+was held by a Turkish garrison.
+
+With small trouble the Sultan could have converted the pitiful margin
+between Galata and the Cyanean rocks on the Black Sea.
+
+Once indeed he set siege to Constantinople, but was beaten off, it was
+said, by the Mother of God, who appeared upon the walls of the city,
+and in person took part in the combat. Thereafter he contented himself
+with a tribute from the Emperors Manuel and John Palaeologus.
+
+The relations of the Christian and Moslem potentates being thus
+friendly, it can be seen how the Princess Irene could keep to her
+palace by Therapia and the Prince of India plan jaunts along the
+Bosphorus.
+
+Still there is a point to be borne in mind. Ships under Christian flags
+seldom touched at a landing upon the Asiatic shore. Their captains
+preferred anchoring in the bays and close under the ivy-covered heights
+of Europe. This was not from detestation or religious intolerance; at
+bottom there was a doubt of the common honesty of the strong-handed
+Turk amounting to fear. The air was rife with stories of his treachery.
+The fishermen in the markets harrowed the feelings of their timid
+customers with tales of surprises, captures, and abductions.
+Occasionally couriers rushed through the gates of Constantinople to
+report red banners in motion, and the sound of clarions and drums,
+signifying armies of Moslems gathering for mysterious purposes.
+
+The Moslems, on their part, it is but fair to say, were possessed of
+the same doubts of the Christians, and had answers to accusations
+always ready. The surprises, captures, and abductions were the
+unlicensed savageries of brigands, of whom they never knew one not a
+Greek; while the music and flags belonged to the militia.
+
+Six or seven miles above Scutari a small river, born in the adjacent
+highlands, runs merrily down to meet and mingle with the tideless
+Bosphorus. The water it yields is clear and fresh; whence the name of
+the stream, The Sweet Waters of Asia. On its south side there is a
+prairie-like stretch, narrow, but green and besprent with an orchard of
+sycamores old and gnarled, and now much frequented on Mohammedan
+Sundays by ladies of the harems, who contrive to make it very gay. No
+doubt the modest river, and the grass and great trees were just as
+attractive ages before the first Amurath, with an army at his heels,
+halted there for a night. From that time, however, it was banned by the
+Greeks; and for a reason.
+
+On the north bank of the little river there was a fortress known as the
+White Castle. An irregular, many-angled pile of undressed stone heavily
+merloned on top, its remarkable feature was a tall donjon which a dingy
+white complexion made visible a great distance, despite its freckling
+of loopholes and apertures for machine artillery. Seeing its military
+importance, the Sultan left a garrison to hold it. He was also pleased
+to change its name to Acce-Chisar.
+
+The blood-red flag on this donjon was, at the era engaging us, the
+disenchanter of the Greeks; insomuch that in passing the Sweet Waters
+of Asia they hugged the opposite shore of the Bosphorus, crossing
+themselves and muttering prayers often of irreligious compound. A stork
+has a nest on the donjon now. As an apparition it is not nearly so
+suggestive as the turbaned sentinel who used to occupy its outlook.
+
+The popular imagination located dungeons under the grim old Castle,
+whence, of the many Christian men and women immured there, it was said
+none ever came forth alive.
+
+But for these things, whether true or false, the Prince of India cared
+little. He was not afraid of the Turks. If the Asiatic shore had been
+festooned with red flags from the City of the Blind down by the Isles
+of the Princes to the last of the gray fortresses overlooking the
+Symplegades, it would not have altered a plan of his jot or tittle.
+Enough that Lael wanted and needed an outing on the glorious Bosphorus.
+
+Accordingly, shortly after noon two chairs were brought and set down in
+his house. That is to say, two upright boxes fixed centrally on poles,
+and differing in nowise from the sedans still the mode of carriage
+affected by ladies of Constantinople unless it might be in their richer
+appointments. Inside, all was silk, lace and cushions; outside, the
+inlaying of mother of pearl and vari-colored woods was suggestive of
+modern papier-mache. The entrance was by a door in the front. A window
+in the door, and lesser ones on the sides, afforded the inmate air and
+opportunity for speech. Not wanting to be seen, she had only to draw
+the curtains together. In this instance it must be said the decoration
+of the carriages had been carried to an extreme.
+
+Soon as the chairs were set down in the house, the Prince and Lael
+descended the stairs. The latter was attired in a semi-Greek costume,
+very rich and becoming; to embroidery of gold, she added bracelets, and
+a necklace of large pearls strung between spheres of gold equally
+large. A coronet graced her head, and it was so bejewelled that in
+bright light it seemed some one was sprinkling her with an incessant
+shower of sparkles.
+
+The two took their seats. The carriers, two to each litter, stalwart
+men, uniformly clad in loose white garments, raised the poles on their
+shoulders. Syama threw the door of the house open, and at a signal from
+the Prince the procession sallied into the street. The crowd, in
+expectant waiting there, received it in silent wonder.
+
+It is due the truth to say now that the common eye was attracted by the
+appearance of Nilo as much as by the rarities wrought in the panelling
+of the carriages. He strode ten or twelve feet in advance of Lael who,
+in the place of honor, was completely under the Prince's observation.
+The negro's costume was of a King of Kash-Cush. The hair stood on end
+in stiff cues, sharply pointed, and held by a chain of silver medals;
+an immense ring of silver hung from the cartilage of his nose. The neck
+was defended by a gorget of leather bristling with the fangs and claws
+of tigers in alternating rows. A robe of scarlet cloth large enough to
+envelop the man was thrown behind the massive shoulders. The body,
+black as polished ebony, was naked to the waist, whence a white skirt
+fell to the knees. The arms and legs were adorned with bracelets and
+anklets of ivory, while the straps of the heavy sandals were bordered
+with snail-shells. On the left arm he bore a round shield of rhinoceros
+hide embossed in brass; in the right hand, a pointless lance. Towering
+high above the heads of the crowd which opened before him with
+alacrity, the admiration received by the Prince's ally and friend was
+but a well-deserved tribute.
+
+"A tiger-hunter!" said one, to a friend at his elbow.
+
+"I should call him king of the tiger-hunters," the friend replied.
+
+"Only a Prince of India would carry such a pensioner with him," another
+remarked.
+
+"What a man!" said a woman, half afraid.
+
+"An infidel, no doubt," was the answer.
+
+"It is not a Christian wish, I know," the first added; "still I should
+like to see him face a lion in the Cynegion."
+
+"Ay, him they call Tamerlane, because he is shorn of two toes."
+
+The Prince, casting a glance of scarce concealed contempt over the
+throng, sighed, as he muttered, "If now I could meet the Emperor!"
+
+The exclamation was from his heart.
+
+We have seen the idea which lured him to Mecca, and brought him to
+Constantinople. In the years since flown, it was held subordinate to
+his love of Lael--subordinate merely. Latterly it had revived with much
+of its original force, and he was now for the first time seriously
+scheming for an interview with the Emperor. No doubt a formal request
+would have secured the honor; but it was in his view better policy to
+be sought than seek, and with all his wealth, there was nothing he
+could so well afford to pay for success as time. In his study, he was
+continually saying to himself:
+
+"It cannot be that the extravagances to which I am going will fail. He
+will hear of me, or we may meet--then the invitation!--And then I will
+propose the Brotherhood--God help me! But it is for him to invite me.
+Patience, O my soul!"
+
+Extravagances!
+
+The exclamation helps us to an understanding of the style he was
+carrying before the public--the silvering on his own black velvet robe,
+the jewels in Lael's coronet bursting with light, the gorgeous finish
+of the sedans, the barbaric costuming of Nilo. They were not
+significant of his taste. Except for what they might bring him, he did
+not care for jewels. And as for Lael, he would have loved her for her
+name's sake, and her honest, untarnished Jewish blood. Let us believe
+so at least until we find otherwise.
+
+Nilo, by this time familiar with every quarter of the city, was told
+the boat was in readiness for the party at a landing near the Grand
+Gate of Blacherne; to make which, it being on the Golden Horn well up
+in the northwest, he must turn the hill back of the Prince's residence,
+and pursue one of the streets running parallel with the wall. Thither
+he accordingly bent his steps, followed by the porters of the sedans,
+and an increasing but respectful assemblage of curious citizens.
+
+Scarcely had the progress begun before the Prince, watching through his
+front window, saw a man approach the side of Lael's chair, and peer
+into it. His wit served him well and instantly.
+
+"'Tis he--the insolent!--Close up!" he cried, to his porters.
+
+The intruder at the sound of his voice looked at him once, then
+disappeared in the throng. He was young, handsome, showily dressed, and
+beyond question the person of whom Lael had complained. Though smarting
+under the insult, and a suspicion, suddenly engendered, of a watch kept
+over his house, the Prince concluded the stranger was of noble
+connection, and that the warrant for his boldness was referable to
+family influence. While his subtle mind was pothering with schemes of
+detection, the affair presented itself in another light, and he laughed
+at his own dulness.
+
+"'Tis nothing," he reflected--"nothing! The boy is in love, and
+allowing his passion to make a fool of him. I have only to see my
+pretty Gul-Bahar does not return the madness."
+
+Deciding then to make inquiry and satisfy himself who the young admirer
+was, he dismissed the subject.
+
+Presently Nilo turned into a street of some width compared with the
+generality of thoroughfares in the city. On the left hand were shops
+and pretentious houses; on the right, towered the harbor wall. The
+people attending the procession increased instead of dispersing; but as
+they continued in good nature, they gave him no concern. Their comments
+amongst themselves were about equally divided between Nilo and Lael.
+
+"Beautiful, beautiful!" one said, catching sight of the latter through
+the windows of the chair.
+
+"Who is she?"
+
+"A daughter of a Prince of India."
+
+"And the Prince--Who is he?"
+
+"Ask some one who knows. There he is in the second chair."
+
+Once a woman went close to Lael, snatched a look, and stepped back,
+with clasped hands, crying:
+
+"'Tis the Sweet Mother herself!"
+
+Without other incident, the procession passed the gate of St. Peter,
+and was nearing that of Blacherne, when a flourish of trumpets
+announced a counter pageant coming down the street from the opposite
+direction. A man near by shouted:
+
+"The Emperor! The Emperor!"
+
+Another seconded him.
+
+"Long live the good Constantine!"
+
+The words were hardly uttered before they were answered:
+
+"The _azymite_! The _azymite_! Down with the betrayer of Christ!"
+
+In less than a minute the Prince was being borne along in the midst of
+two howling factions. Scarcely knowing whether to take Lael into a
+house or go on, he tried to communicate with Nilo; but in
+unconsciousness of the tempest so suddenly risen, that grandson of a
+king marched on in unremitted stateliness, until directly a band of
+trumpeters in magnificent livery confronted him.
+
+The astonishment was mutual. Nilo halted, dropping his headless lance
+in defence; the trumpeters quit blowing, and, opening order, filed
+hastily by him, their faces saying with a distinctness words could not
+have helped:
+
+"A son of Satan! Beware!"
+
+The chairs were also brought to a halt.
+
+Thereupon the people, now a mob apparently ready to tear each other
+into bloody ribbons, refused to give way to the trumpeters. Nilo
+finally comprehending the situation returned to Lael just as the Prince
+on foot came up to her. She was pale and trembling with fear.
+
+The deadlock between the musicians and the mob was brought to an end by
+the appearance of a detachment of the Imperial guard. A mounted
+officer, javelin in hand, rode up and shouted:
+
+"The Emperor! Make way for the Emperor!"
+
+While he was speaking, the horsemen behind him came on steadily. There
+was irresistible persuasion in the glitter of their spears; besides it
+was matter of universal knowledge that the steel panoply of each rider
+concealed a mercenary foreigner who was never so happy as when riding
+over a Greek. One yell louder and more defiant than any yet
+uttered--"The azymite, the azymite!"--and the mob broke and fled. At a
+signal from the officer, the guards, as they came on, opened right and
+left of the chairs, and passed them with scarce notice.
+
+A few words from the Prince to Lael dispelled her fears.
+
+"It is an every-day affair," he said, lightly; "an amusement of the
+people, the Roman factionists against the Greek. Nobody is ever hurt,
+except in howling he opens his jaws too wide."
+
+The levity was affected, but mastering the irritation he really felt,
+the Prince was about to make acknowledgment to the officer for his
+timely intervention, when another personage appeared, claiming his
+attention. Indeed his heart began beating unusually fast, and in spite
+of himself his face flushed--he knew he had his wish--the meeting with
+Constantine was come!
+
+The last Emperor of the Byzantines sat in an open chair borne upon the
+shoulders of eight carriers in striking livery--a handsome man in his
+forty-sixth year, though apparently not more than thirty-eight or
+forty. His costume was that of Basileus, which was a religious dignity.
+
+A close-fitting cap of red velvet covered his head, with a knot of
+purple silk triply divided on the top; while a pliable circlet of
+golden scales, clearing the brows, held the cap securely in place. On
+each scale a ruby of great size sparkled in solitaire setting. The
+circlet was further provided with four strings of pearls, two by each
+ear, dangling well down below in front of the shoulders. A loose drab
+robe or gown, drawn close at the waist, clothed him, neck, arms, body
+and nether limbs, answering excellently as ground for a cope the color
+of the cap, divided before and behind into embroidered squares defined
+by rows of pearls. Boots of purple leather, also embroidered, gave
+finish to the costume. Instead of sword or truncheon, he carried a
+plain ivory crucifix. The people staring at him from the doors and
+windows knew he was going to Sancta Sophia intent on some religious
+service.
+
+While the Emperor was thus borne down upon the Prince, his dark eyes,
+kindly looking, glanced from Nilo to Lael, and finally came to rest
+full upon the face of the master. The officer returned to him. A few
+paces off, the imperial chair stopped, and a conversation ensued,
+during which a number of high officials who were of the sovereign's
+suite on foot closed up in position to separate their Lord from a
+mounted rear guard.
+
+The Prince of India kept his mind perfectly. Having exchanged glances
+with the Emperor, he was satisfied an impression was made strong enough
+to pique curiosity, and at the same time fix him in the royal memory.
+With a quick sense of the proprieties, he thereupon addressed himself
+to moving his carriages to the left, that when the conference with the
+officers was concluded the Emperor might have the right of way with the
+least possible obstruction.
+
+Presently the Acolyte--such the officer proved to be--approached the
+Prince.
+
+"His Imperial Majesty," he said, courteously, "would be pleased could I
+inform him the name and title of the stranger whose progress he has
+been so unfortunate as to interrupt."
+
+The Prince answered with dignity:
+
+"I thank you, noble sir, for the fair terms in which you couch the
+inquiry, not less than the rescue I and my daughter owe you from the
+mob."
+
+The Acolyte bowed.
+
+"And not to keep his Imperial Majesty waiting," the Prince continued,
+"return him the compliments of a Prince of India, at present a resident
+of this royal and ancient capital. Say also it will give me happiness
+far beyond the power of words when I am permitted to salute him, and
+render the veneration and court to which his character and place
+amongst the rulers of the earth entitle him."
+
+At the conclusion of the complex, though courtierly reply, the speaker
+walked two steps forward, faced the Emperor, and touched the ground
+with his palms, and rising, carried them to his forehead.
+
+The answer duly delivered, the Emperor responded to the salaam with a
+bow and another message.
+
+"His Imperial Majesty," the Acolyte said, "is pleased at meeting the
+Prince of India. He was not aware he had a guest of such distinction in
+his capital. He desires to know the place of residence of his noble
+friend, that he may communicate with him, and make amends for the
+hindrance which has overtaken him to-day."
+
+The Prince gave his address, and the interview ended.
+
+It is of course the reader's privilege to pass judgment upon the
+incidents of this rencounter; at least one of the parties to it was
+greatly pleased, for he knew the coveted invitation would speedily
+follow.
+
+While the Emperor was borne past, Lael received his notice more
+especially than her guardian; when they were out of hearing, he called
+the Acolyte to his side.
+
+"Didst thou observe the young person yonder?" he asked.
+
+"The coronet she wears certifies the Prince of India to be vastly
+rich," the other answered.
+
+"Yes, the Princes of India, if we may judge by common report, are all
+rich; wherefore I thought not of that, but rather of the beauty of his
+daughter. She reminded me of the Madonna on the Panagia in the transept
+of our church at Blacherne."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+RACING WITH A STORM
+
+
+One who has seen the boats in which fishermen now work the eddies and
+still waters of the Bosphorus will not require a description of the
+vessel the Prince and Lael stepped into when they arrived at the Grand
+Gate of Blacherne. He need only be told that instead of being
+pitch-black outside and in, it was white, except the gunwale which was
+freshly gilt. The untravelled reader, however, must imagine a long
+narrow craft, upturned at both ends, graceful in every line, and
+constructed for speed and beauty. Well aft there was a box without
+cover, luxuriously cushioned, lined with chocolate velvet, and wide
+enough to seat two persons comfortably; behind it, a decked space for a
+servant, pilot or guard. This arrangement left all forward for the
+rowers, each handling two oars.
+
+Ten rowers, trained, stout, and clad in white headkerchiefs, shirts and
+trousers of the same hue, and Greek jackets of brilliant scarlet,
+profusely figured over with yellow braid, sat stolidly, blades in hand
+and ready dipped, when the passengers took their places, the Prince and
+Lael in the box, and Nilo behind them as guard. The vessel was too
+light to permit a ceremonious reception.
+
+In front of the party, on the northern shore of the famous harbor, were
+the heights of Pera. The ravines and grass-green benches into which
+they were broken, with here and there a garden hut enclosed in a patch
+of filbert bushes--for Pera was not then the city it now is--were of no
+interest to the Prince; dropping his eyes to the water, they took in a
+medley of shipping, then involuntarily turned to the cold gray face of
+the wall he was leaving. And while seeing in vivid recollection the
+benignant countenance of Constantine bent upon him from the chair in
+the street, he thought of the horoscope he had spent the night in
+taking and the forenoon in calculating. With a darkened brow, he gave
+the word, and the boat was pushed off and presently seeking the broader
+channel of the Bosphorus.
+
+The day was delightful. A breeze danced merrily over the surface of the
+water. Soft white summer clouds hung so sleepily in the southwest they
+scarce suggested motion. Seeing the color deepen in Lael's cheeks, and
+listening to her questions, he surrendered himself to the pleasures of
+the situation, not the least being the admiration she attracted.
+
+By ships at anchor, and through lesser craft of every variety they
+sped, followed by exclamations frequently outspoken:
+
+"Who is she? Who can she be?"
+
+Thus pursued, they flew past the gate of St. Peter, turned the point of
+Galata, and left the Fish Market port behind; proceeding then in
+parallelism with the north shore, they glided under the great round
+tower so tall and up so far overhead it seemed a part of the sky. Off
+Tophane, they were in the Bosphorus, with Scutari at their right, and
+Point Serail at their backs.
+
+Viewed from the harbor on the sea, the old historic Point leaves upon
+the well informed an impression that in a day long gone, yielding to a
+spasm of justice, Asia cast it off into the waves. Its beauty is
+Circean. Almost from the beginning it has been the chosen place in
+which men ran rounds gay and grave, virtuous and wanton, foolish and
+philosophic, brave and cowardly--where love, hate, jealousy, avarice,
+ambition and envy have delighted to burn their lights before
+Heaven--where, possibly with one exception, Providence has more
+frequently come nearer lifting its veil than in any other spot of earth.
+
+Again and again, the Prince, loth to quit the view, turned and refilled
+his eyes with Sancta Sophia, of which, from his position, the wall at
+the water's edge, the lesser churches of the Virgin Hodegetria and St.
+Irene, and the topmost sections far extending of the palaces of
+Bucoleon seemed but foundations. The edifice, as he saw it then,
+depended on itself for effect, the Turk having not yet, in sign of
+Mohammedan conversion, broken the line of its marvellous dome with
+minarets. At length he set about telling stories of the Point.
+
+Off the site of the present palace of Dolma-Batchi he told of
+Euphrosyne, the daughter of the Empress Irene; and seeing how the
+sorrowful fortune of the beautiful child engaged Lael's sympathies, he
+became interested as a narrator, and failed to notice the unusual
+warmth tempering the air about Tchiragan. Neither did he observe that
+the northern sky, before so clear and blue, was whitening with haze.
+
+To avoid the current running past Arnoot-Kouy, the rowers crossed to
+the Asiatic side under the promontory of Candilli.
+
+Other boats thronged the charming expanse; but as most of them were of
+a humbler class sporting one rower, the Prince's, with its liveried
+ten, was a surpassing attraction. Sometimes the strangers, to gratify
+their curiosity, drew quite near, but always without affronting him;
+knowing the homage was to Lael, he was happy when it was effusively
+rendered.
+
+His progress was most satisfactory until he rounded Candilli. Then a
+flock of small boats came down upon him pell-mell, the rowers pulling
+their uttermost, the passengers in panic.
+
+The urgency impelling them was equally recognized by the ships and
+larger vessels out in the channel. Anchors were going down, sails
+furling, and oars drawing in. Above them, moreover, much beyond their
+usual levels of flight troops of gulls were circling on rapid wings
+screaming excitedly.
+
+The Prince had reached the part of greatest interest in the story he
+was telling--how the cruel and remorseless Emperor Michel, determined
+to wed the innocent and helpless Euphrosyne, shamelessly cheated the
+Church and cajoled the Senate--when Nilo touched his shoulder, and
+awoke him to the situation. A glance over the water--another at the
+sky--and he comprehended danger of some kind was impending. At the same
+moment Lael commenced shivering and complaining of cold. The air had
+undergone a sudden change. Presently Nilo's red cloak was sheltering
+her.
+
+The boat was in position to bring everything into view, and he spoke to
+the rowers:
+
+"A storm is rising."
+
+They ceased work, and looked over their shoulders, each for himself.
+
+"A blow from the sea, and it comes fast. What we shall do is for my
+Lord to say," one of them returned.
+
+The Prince grew anxious for Lael. What was done must be for her--he had
+no thought else.
+
+A cloud was forming over the whole northeastern quarter of the sky,
+along the horizon black, overhead a vast gray wave, in its heart
+copper-hued, seething, interworking, now a distended sail, now a sail
+bursted; and the wind could be heard whipping the shreds into fleece,
+and whirling them a confusion of vaporous banners. Yet glassy, the
+water reflected the tint of the cloud. The hush holding it was like the
+drawn breath of a victim waiting the first turn of the torturous wheel.
+
+The Asiatic shore offered the Prince a long stretch, and he persisted
+in coasting it until the donjon of the White Castle--that terror to
+Christians--arrested his eye. There were houses much nearer, some of
+them actually overhanging the water; but the donjon seemed specially
+inviting; at all events, he coolly reflected, if the Governor of the
+Castle denied him refuge, the little river near by known as the Sweet
+Waters of Asia would receive him, and getting under its bank, he might
+hope to escape the fury of the wind and waves. He shouted resolutely:
+
+"To the White Castle! Make it before the wind strikes, my men, and I
+will double your hire."
+
+"We may make it," the rower answered, somewhat sullenly, "but"--
+
+"What?" asked the Prince.
+
+"The devil has his lodgings there. Many men have gone into its accursed
+gates on errands of peace, and never been heard of again."
+
+The Prince laughed.
+
+"We lose time--forward! If there be a fiend in the Castle, I promise
+you he is not waiting for us."
+
+The twenty oars fell as one, and the boat jumped like a steed under a
+stab of the spur.
+
+Thus boldly the race with the storm was begun. The judgment of the
+challenger, assuming the Prince to be such, may be questioned. The
+river was the goal.
+
+Could he reach it before the wind descended in dangerous force?--That
+was the very point of contest.
+
+The chances, it is to be remembered next, were not of a kind to admit
+weighing with any approach to certainty; it was difficult even to
+marshal them for consideration. The distance was somewhat less than
+three-quarters of a mile; on the other part, the competing cloud was
+wrestling with the mountain height of Alem Daghy, about four miles
+away. The dead calm was an advantage; unfortunately it was more than
+offset by the velocity of the current which, though not so strong by
+the littoral of Candilli as under the opposite bluffs of
+Roumeli-Hissar, was still a serious opposing force. The boatmen were
+skilful, and could be relied upon to pull loyally; for, passing the
+reward offered in the event of their winning, the dangers of failure
+were to them alike. Treating the contest as a race, with the storm and
+the boat as competitors, the Prince was not without chances of success.
+
+But whatever the outcome of the venture, Lael would be put to
+discomfort. His care of her was so habitually marked by tender
+solicitude one cannot avoid wondering at him now.
+
+After all he may have judged the affair more closely than at first
+appears. The sides of the boat were low, but danger from that cause
+might be obviated by the skill of the rowers; and then Alem Daghy was
+not a trifling obstacle in the path of the gale. It might be trusted to
+hold the cloud awhile; after which a time would be required by the wind
+to travel the miles intervening.
+
+Certainly it had been more prudent to make the shore, and seek refuge
+in one of the houses there. But the retort of the spirited Jew of that
+day, as in this, was a contemptuous refusal of assistance, and the
+degree to which this son of Israel was governed by the eternal
+resentment can be best appreciated by recalling the number of his days
+on earth.
+
+At the first response to the vigorous pull of the oarsmen, Lael drew
+the red cloak over her face, and laid her head against the Prince. He
+put his arm around her, and seeing nothing and saying nothing, she
+trusted in him.
+
+The rowers, pulling with strength from the start, gradually quickened
+the stroke, and were presently in perfect harmony of action. A short
+sough accompanied each dip of the blades; an expiration, like that of
+the woodman striking a blow with his axe, announced the movement
+completed. The cords of their brawny necks played fast and free; the
+perspiration ran down their faces like rain upon glass. Their teeth
+clinched. They turned neither right nor left; but with their straining
+eyes fixed upon him, by his looks they judged both their own well-doing
+and the progress of their competitor.
+
+Seeing the boat pointed directly toward the Castle, the Prince watched
+the cloud. Occasionally he commended the rowers.
+
+"Well done, my men!--Hold to that, and we will win!"
+
+The unusual brightness of his eyes alone betrayed excitement. Once he
+looked over the yet quiet upper field of water. His was the only vessel
+in motion. Even the great ships were lying to. No--there was another
+small boat like his own coming down along the Asiatic shore as if to
+meet him. Its position appeared about as far above the mouth of the
+river as his was below it; and its three or five rowers were plainly
+doing their best. With grim pleasure, he accepted the stranger as
+another competitor in the race.
+
+The friendly heights of Alem, seen from the Bosphorus, are one great
+forest always beautifully green. Even as the Prince looked at them,
+they lost color, as if a hand out of the cloud had suddenly dropped a
+curtain of white gauze over them. He glanced back over the course, then
+forward. The donjon was showing the loopholes that pitted its southern
+face. Excellent as the speed had been, more was required. Half the
+distance remained to be overcome--and the enemy not four miles away.
+
+"Faster, men!" he called out. "The gust has broken from the mountain. I
+hear its roaring."
+
+They turned involuntarily, and with a look measured the space yet to be
+covered, the distance of the foe, and the rate at which he was coming.
+Nor less did they measure the danger. They too heard its warning, the
+muffled roar as of rocks and trees snatched up and grinding to atoms in
+the inner coils of the cloud.
+
+"It is not a blow," one said, speaking quick, "but a"--
+
+"Storm."
+
+The word was the Prince's.
+
+"Yes, my Lord."
+
+Just then the water by the boat was rippled by a breath, purring,
+timorous, but icy.
+
+The effect on the oarsmen was stronger than any word from the master
+could have been. They finished a pull long and united; then while the
+oars swung forward taking reach for another, they all arose to their
+feet, paused a moment, dipped the blades deeper, gave vent to a cry so
+continuous it sounded like a wail, and at the same time sunk back into
+their seats, pulling as they fell. This was their ultimate exertion. A
+jet of water spurted from the foot of the sharp bow, and the bubbles
+and oar eddies flew behind indistinguishably.
+
+"Well done!" said the Prince, his eyes glowing.
+
+Thenceforward the men continued to rise at the end of a stroke, and
+fall as they commenced delivery of another. Their action was quick,
+steady, machine-like; they gripped the water deep, and made no slips;
+with a thought of the exhilaration an eagle must feel when swooping
+from his eyrie, the Prince looked at the cloud defiantly as a
+challenger might. Each moment the donjon loomed up more plainly. He saw
+now, not merely the windows and loopholes, but the joinery of the
+stones in their courses. Suddenly he beheld another wonder--an army of
+men mounted and galloping along the river bank toward the Castle.
+
+The array stretched back into the woods. In its van were two flags
+borne side by side, one green, the other red. Both were surrounded by a
+troop in bright armor. No need for him to ask to whom they belonged.
+They told him of Mecca and Mahomet--on the red, he doubted not seeing
+the old Ottomanic symbols, in their meaning poetic, in their simplicity
+beautiful as any ever appropriated for martial purposes. The riders
+were Turks. But why the green flag? Where it went somebody more than
+the chief of a sanjak, more than the governor of a castle, or even a
+province, led the way.
+
+The number trailing after the flags was scarcely less mysterious. They
+were too many to be of the garrison; and then the battlements of the
+Castle were lined with men also under arms. Not daring to speak of this
+new apparition lest his oarsmen might take alarm, the Prince smiled,
+thinking of another party to the race--a fourth competitor.
+
+He sought the opposing boat next. It had made good time. There were
+five oarsmen in it; and, like his own, they were rising and falling
+with each stroke. In the passengers' place, he could make out two
+persons whom he took to be women.
+
+A roll of thunder from the cloud startled the crew. Clear, angry,
+majestic, it filled the mighty gorge of the Bosphorus. Under the sound
+the water seemed to shrink away. Lael looked out from her hiding, but
+as quickly drew back, crowding closer to the Prince. To calm her he
+said, lightly,
+
+"Fear nothing, O my Gul Bahar! A pretty race we are having with the
+cloud yonder; we are winning, and it is not pleased. There is no
+danger."
+
+She answered by doubling the folds of the gown about her head.
+
+Steadily, lithely, and with never an error the rowers drove through the
+waves--steadily, and in exact time, their cry arose cadencing each
+stroke. They did their part truly. Well might the master cry them,
+"Good, good." But all the while the wind was tugging mightily at its
+cloudy car; every instant the rattle of its wheels sounded nearer. The
+trees on the hills behind the Castle were bending and bowing; and not
+merely around the boat, but far as could be seen the surface of the
+ancient channel was a-shirr and a-shatter under beating of advance
+gusts.
+
+And now the mouth of the Sweet Waters, shallowed by a wide extended
+osier bank, came into view; and the Castle was visible from base to
+upper merlon, the donjon, in relief against the blackened sky, rising
+more ghostly than ever. And right at hand were the flags, and the
+riders galloping with them. And there, coming bravely in, was the
+competing boat.
+
+Over toward Roumeli-Hissar the sea birds congregated in noisy flocks,
+alarmed at the long line of foam the wind was whisking down the
+current. Behind the foam, the world seemed dissolving into spray.
+
+Then the boats were seen from the Castle, and a company of soldiers ran
+out and down the bank. A noise like the rushing of a river sounded
+directly overhead. The wind struck the Castle, and in the thick of the
+mists and flying leaves hurled at it, the donjon disappeared.
+
+"We win, we win, my men!" the Prince shouted. "Courage--good
+spirit--brave work--treble wages! Wine and wassail to-morrow!"
+
+The boat, with the last word, shot into the little river, and up to the
+landing of the Castle just as the baffled wind burst over the refuge.
+And simultaneously the van of the army galloped under the walls and the
+competing boat arrived.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+IN THE WHITE CASTLE
+
+
+The landing was in possession of dark-faced, heavily bearded men, with
+white turbans, baggy trousers, gray and gathered at the ankles, and
+arms of every kind, bows, javelins, and cimeters.
+
+The Prince, stepping from his boat, recognized them as Turkish
+soldiers. He had hardly time to make the inspection, brief as it was,
+before an officer, distinguished by a turban, kettle-shaped and
+elaborately infolded, approached him.
+
+"You will go with me to the Castle," he said.
+
+The official's tone and manner were imperative. Suppressing his
+displeasure, the Prince replied, with dignity:
+
+"The Governor is courteous. Return to him with my thanks, and say that
+when I decided to come on in the face of the storm, I made no doubt of
+his giving me shelter until it would be safe to resume my journey. I
+fear, however, his accommodations will be overtaxed; and since the
+river is protected from the wind, it would be more agreeable if he
+would permit me to remain here."
+
+The response betrayed no improvement in manner:
+
+"My order is to bring you to the Castle."
+
+Some of the boatmen at this raised their eyes and hands toward heaven;
+others crossed themselves, and, like men taking leave of hope, cried
+out, "O Holy Mother of God!"
+
+Yet the Prince restrained himself. He saw contention would be useless,
+and said, to quiet the rowers: "I will go with you. The Governor will
+be reasonable. We are unfortunates blown to his hands by a tempest, and
+to make us prisoners under such circumstances would be an abuse of one
+of the first and most sacred laws of the Prophet. The order did not
+comprehend my men; they may remain here."
+
+Lael heard all this, her face white with fear.
+
+The conversation was in the Greek tongue. At mention of the law, the
+Turk cast a contemptuous look at the Prince, much as to say, Dog of an
+unbeliever, what dost thou with a saying of the Prophet? Then dropping
+his eyes to Lael and the boatmen, he answered in disdain of argument or
+explanation:
+
+"You--they--all must go."
+
+With that, he turned to the occupants of the other boat, and raising
+his voice the better to be heard, for the howling of the wind was very
+great, he called to them:
+
+"Come out."
+
+They were a woman in rich attire, but closely veiled, and a companion
+at whom he gazed with astonishment. The costume of the latter perplexed
+him; indeed, not until that person, in obedience to the order, erected
+himself to his full stature upon the landing, was he assured of his sex.
+
+They were the Princess Irene and Sergius the monk.
+
+The conversation between them in the Homeric palace has only to be
+recalled to account for their presence. Departing from Therapia at
+noon, according to the custom of boatmen wishing to pass from the upper
+Bosphorus, they had been carried obliquely across toward the Asiatic
+shore where the current, because of its greater regularity, is supposed
+to facilitate descent. When the storm began to fill the space above
+Alem Daghy, they were in the usual course; and then the question that
+had been put to the Prince of India was presented to the Princess
+Irene. Would she land in Asia or recross to Europe?
+
+The general Greek distrust of the Turks belonged to her. From infancy
+she had been horrified with stories of women prisoners in their hands.
+She preferred making Roumeli-Hissar; but the boatmen protested it was
+too late; they said the little river by the White Castle was open, and
+they could reach it before the storm; and trusting in their better
+judgment, she submitted to them.
+
+Sergius, on the landing, pushed the cowl back, and was about to speak,
+but the wind caught his hair, tossing the long locks into tangle.
+Seeing him thus in a manner blinded, the Princess took up the speech.
+Drawing the veil aside, she addressed the officer:
+
+"Art thou the Governor of the Castle?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Are we to be held guests or prisoners?"
+
+"That is not for me to say."
+
+"Carry thou then a message to him who may be the Governor. Tell him I
+am the Princess Irene, by birth near akin to Constantine, Emperor of
+the Greeks and Romans; that, admitting this soil is lawfully the
+property of his master the Sultan, I have not invaded it, but am here
+in search of temporary refuge. Tell him if I go to his Castle a
+prisoner, he must answer for the trespass to my royal kinsman, who will
+not fail to demand reparation; on the other hand, if I become his
+guest, it must be upon condition that I shall be free to depart as I
+came, with my friend and my people, the instant the wind and waves
+subside. Yes, and the further condition, that he wait upon me as
+becomes my station, and personally offer such hospitality as his Castle
+affords. I shall receive his reply here."
+
+The officer, uncouth though he was, listened with astonishment not in
+the least disguised; and it was not merely the speech which impressed
+him, nor yet the spirit with which it was given; the spell was in the
+unveiled face. Never in his best dream of the perfected Moslem Paradise
+had he seen loveliness to compare with it. He stood staring at her.
+
+"Go," she repeated. "There will be rain presently."
+
+"Who am I to say thou art?" he asked.
+
+"The Princess Irene, kinswoman of the Emperor Constantine."
+
+The officer made a low salaam to her, and walked hurriedly off to the
+Castle.
+
+His soldiers stood in respectful remove from the prisoners--such the
+refugees must for the present be considered--leaving them grouped in
+close vicinity, the Prince and the monk ashore, the Princess and Lael
+seated in their boats.
+
+Calamity is a rough master of ceremonies; it does not take its victims
+by the hand, and name them in words, but bids them look to each other
+for help. And that was precisely what the two parties now did.
+
+Unsophisticated, and backward through inexperience, Sergius was
+nevertheless conscious of the embarrassing plight of the Princess. He
+had also a man's quick sense of the uselessness of resistance, except
+in the way of protest. To measure the stranger's probable influence
+with the Turks, he looked first at the Prince, and was not, it must be
+said, rewarded with a return on which to found hope or encouragement.
+The small, stoop-shouldered old man, with a great white beard, appeared
+respectable and well-to-do in his black velvet cap and pelisse; his
+eyes were very bright, and his cheeks hectic with resentment at the
+annoyance he was undergoing; but that he could help out of the
+difficulty appeared absurd.
+
+Having by this time rescued his hair from the wind, and secured it
+under his cowl, he looked next at Lael. His first thought was of the
+unfitness of her costume for an outing in a boat under the quietest of
+skies. A glance at the Princess, however, allayed the criticism; while
+the display of jewelry was less conspicuous, her habit was quite as
+rich and unsubstantial. It dawned upon him then that custom had
+something to do with the attire of Greek women thus upon the water.
+That moment Lael glanced up at him, and he saw how childlike her face
+was, and lovely despite the anxiety and fear with which it was
+overcast. He became interested in her at once.
+
+The monk's judgment of the little old man was unjust. That master of
+subtlety had in mind run forward of the situation, and was already
+providing for its consequences.
+
+He shared the surprise of the Turk when the Princess raised her veil.
+Overhearing then her message to the Governor, delivered in a manner
+calm, self-possessed, courageous, dignified, and withal adroit, he
+resolved to place Lael under her protection.
+
+"Princess," he said, doffing his cap unmindful of the wind, and
+advancing to the side of her boat, "I crave audience of you, and in
+excuse for my unceremoniousness, plead community in misfortune, and a
+desire to make my daughter here safe as can be."
+
+She surveyed him from head to foot; then turned her eyes toward Lael,
+sight of whom speedily exorcised the suspicion which for the instant
+held her hesitant.
+
+"I acknowledge the obligation imposed by the situation." she replied;
+"and being a Christian as well as a woman, I cannot without reason
+justifiable in sight of Heaven deny the help you ask. But, good sir,
+first tell me your name and country."
+
+"I am a Prince of India exercising a traveller's privilege of
+sojourning in the imperial city."
+
+"The answer is well given; and if hereafter you return to this
+interview, O Prince, I beg you will not lay my inquiry to common
+curiosity."
+
+"Fear not," the Prince answered; "for I learned long ago that in the
+laws prescribed for right doing prudence is a primary virtue; and
+making present application of the principle, I suggest, if it please
+you to continue a discourse which must be necessarily brief, that we do
+so in some other tongue than Greek."
+
+"Be it in Latin then," she said, with a quick glance at the soldiers,
+and observing his bow of acquiescence, continued, "Thy reverend beard,
+O Prince, and respectable appearance, are warranties of a wisdom
+greater than I can ever attain; wherefore pray tell me how I, a feeble
+woman, who may not be able to release herself from these robbers,
+remorseless from religious prejudice, can be of assistance to thy
+daughter, now my younger sister in affliction."
+
+She accompanied the speech with a look at Lael so kind and tender it
+could not be misinterpreted.
+
+"Most fair and gentle Princess, I will straight to the matter. Out on
+the water, midway this and the point yonder, when too late for me to
+change direction or stay my rowers, I saw a body of horsemen, whom I
+judged to be soldiers, moving hurriedly down the river bank toward the
+Castle. A band richly caparisoned, carrying two flags, one green, the
+other red, moved at their head. The former, you may know, has a
+religious signification, and is seldom seen in the field except a
+person of high rank be present. It is my opinion, therefore, that our
+arrest has some reference to the arrival of such a personage. In
+confirmation you may yet hear the musical flourish in his honor."
+
+"I hear drums and trumpets," she replied, "and admit the surmise an
+ingenious accounting for an act otherwise unaccountable."
+
+"Nay, Princess, with respect to thyself at least, call it a deed
+intolerable, and loud with provocation."
+
+"From your speech, O Prince, I infer familiarity with these faithless
+barbarians. Perhaps you can make your knowledge of them so far
+serviceable as to tell me the great man's name."
+
+"Yes, I have had somewhat to do with Turks; yet I cannot venture the
+name, rank or purpose of the newcomer. Pursuing the argument, however,
+if my conjecture be true, then the message borne the Governor, though
+spirited, and most happily accordant with your high degree, will not
+accomplish your release, simply because the reason of the capture in
+the first place must remain a reason for detaining you in the next. In
+brief, you may anticipate rejection of the protest."
+
+"What, think you they will hold me prisoner?"
+
+"They are crafty."
+
+"They dare not!" and the Princess' cheek reddened with indignation. "My
+kinsman is not powerless--and even the great Amurath"--
+
+"Forgive me, I pray; but there was never mantle to cover so many crimes
+as the conveniences kings call 'reasons of state.'"
+
+She looked vaguely up the river which the tempest was covering with
+promiscuous air-blown drifting; but recovering, she said: "It is for me
+to pray pardon, Prince. I detain you."
+
+"Not at all," he answered. "I have to remark next, if my conjecture
+prove correct, a lady of imperial rank might find herself ill at ease
+and solitary in a hold like this Castle, which, speaking by report, is
+now kept to serve some design of war to come more particularly than
+domestic or social life."
+
+The imagination of the Princess caught the idea eagerly, and, becoming
+active, presented a picture of a Moslem lair without women or
+apartments for women. Her mind filled with alarm.
+
+"Oh, that I could recall the message!" she exclaimed. "I should not
+have tempted the Governor by offering to become his guest upon any
+condition."
+
+"Nay, do not accuse yourself. The decision was brave and excellent in
+every view," he said, perceiving his purpose in such fair way. "For
+see--the storm increases in strength; yonder"--he pointed toward Alem
+Daghy--"the rain comes. Not by thy choice, O Princess, but the will of
+God, thou art here!"
+
+He spoke impressively, and she bent her head, and crossed herself twice.
+
+"A sad plight truly," he continued. "Fortunately it may be in a measure
+relieved. Here is my daughter, Lael by name. The years have scarcely
+outrun her childhood. More at mercy than thyself, because without rank
+to make the oppressor careful, or an imperial kinsman to revenge a
+wrong done her, she is subject to whatever threatens you--a cell in
+this infidel stronghold, ruffians for attendants, discomforts to cast
+her into fever, separation from me to keep her afraid. Why not suffer
+her to go with you? She can serve as tirewoman or companion. In villany
+the boldest often hesitate when two are to be overcome."
+
+The speech was effective.
+
+"O Prince, I have not words to express my gratitude. I am thy debtor.
+Heaven may have brought this crisis, but it has not altogether deserted
+me--And in good time! See--my messenger, with a following! Let thy
+daughter come, and sit with me now--and do thou stand by to lend me of
+thy wisdom in case appeal to it become necessary. Quick! Nay, Prince,
+Sergius is young and strong. Permit him to bring the child to me."
+
+The monk made haste. Drawing the boat close to the shore, he gave Lael
+his strong hand. Directly she was delivered to the Princess, and seated
+beside her.
+
+"Now they may come!"
+
+Thus the Princess acknowledged the strength derivable from
+companionship. The result was perceptible in her voice once more clear,
+and her face actually sparkling with confidence and courage.
+
+Then, drawn together in one group, the refugees awaited the officer.
+
+"The Governor is coming," that worthy said, saluting the Princess.
+
+Looking toward the Castle, the expectants beheld a score or more men
+issuing from the gate on foot. They were all in armor, and each
+complemented the buckler on his arm with a lance from which a colored
+pennon blew out straight and stiff as a panel. One walked in front
+singly, and immediately the Prince and Princess fixed upon him as the
+Governor, and kept him in eye curiously and anxiously.
+
+That instant rain in large drops began to fall. The Governor appeared
+to notice the premonition, for looking at the angry sky he halted, and
+beckoned to his followers, several of whom ran to him, received an
+order, and then hastily returned to the Castle. He came on in quickened
+gait.
+
+Here the Prince, with his greater experience, noticed a point which
+escaped his associates; and that was the extraordinary homage paid the
+stranger.
+
+At the landing the officer and soldiers would have prostrated
+themselves, but with an imperious gesture, he declined the salutation.
+
+The observers, it may be well believed, viewed the man afar with
+interest; when near, they scanned him as persons under arraignment
+study the judge, that from his appearance they may glean something of
+his disposition. He was above the average height of men, slender, and
+in armor--the armor of the East, adapted in every point to climate and
+light service. A cope or hood, intricately woven of delicate steel
+wire, and close enough to refuse an arrow or the point of a dagger,
+defended head, throat, neck, and shoulders, while open at the face; a
+coat, of the same artistic mail, beginning under the hood, followed
+closely the contour of the body, terminating just above the knees as a
+skirt. Amongst Teutonic and English knights, on account of its
+comparative lightness, it would have been distinguished from an
+old-fashioned hauberk, and called _haubergeon_. A sleeveless _surcoat_
+of velvet, plain green in color, overlaid the mail without a crease or
+wrinkle, except at the edge of the skirt. _Chausses_, or leggins, also
+of steel, clothed the nether limbs, ending in shoes of thin lateral
+scales sharply pointed at the toes. A slight convexity on top, and the
+bright gold-gilt band by which, with regular interlacement, the cope
+was attached, gave the cap surmounting the head a likeness to a crown.
+
+In style this armor was common. The preference Eastern cavaliers showed
+it may have been due in part at least to the fact that when turned out
+by a master armorer, after years of painstaking, it left the wearer his
+natural graces of person. Such certainly was the case here.
+
+The further equipment of the man admits easy imagining. There were the
+gauntlets of steel, articulated for the fingers and thumbs; a broad
+flexible belt of burnished gold scales, intended for the cimeter, fell
+from the waist diagonally to the left hip; light spurs graced the
+heels; a dagger, sparkling with jewels, was his sole weapon, and it
+served principally to denote the peacefulness of his errand. As there
+was nothing about him to rattle or clank his steps were noiseless, and
+his movements agile and easy.
+
+These martial points were naturally of chief attraction to the Prince
+of India, whose vast acquaintanceship with heroes and famous warriors
+made comparison a habit. On her side, the Princess, to whom
+accoutrement and manner were mere accessories, pleasing or otherwise,
+and subordinate, sought the stranger's face. She saw brown eyes, not
+very large, but exceedingly bright, quick, sharp, flying from object to
+object with flashes of bold inquiry, and quitting them as instantly; a
+round forehead on brows high-arched; a nose with the curvature of a
+Roman's; mouth deep-cornered, full-lipped, and somewhat imperfectly
+mustached and bearded; clear, though sunburned complexion--in brief, a
+countenance haughty, handsome, refined, imperious, telling in every
+line of exceptional birth, royal usages, ambition, courage, passion,
+and confidence. Most amazing, however, the stranger appeared yet a
+youth. Surprised, hardly knowing whether to be pleased or alarmed, yet
+attracted, she kept the face in steady gaze.
+
+Halting when a few steps from the group, the stranger looked at them as
+if seeking one in especial.
+
+"Have a care, O Princess! This is not the Governor, but he of whom I
+spoke--the great man."
+
+The warning was from the Prince of India and in Latin. As if to thank
+him for a service done--possibly for identifying the person he
+sought--the subject of the warning slightly bowed to him, then dropped
+his eyes to the Princess. A light blown out does not vanish more
+instantly than his expression changed.
+Wonder--incredulity--astonishment--admiration chased each other over
+his face in succession. Calling them emotions, each declared itself
+with absolute distinctness, and the one last to come was most decided
+and enduring. Thus he met her gaze, and so ardent, intense and
+continuous was his, that she reddened cheek and forehead, and drew down
+the veil; but not, it should be understood, resentfully.
+
+The disappearance of the countenance, in effect like the sudden
+extinguishment of a splendor, aroused him. Advancing a step, he said to
+her, with lowered head and perceptible embarrassment:
+
+"I come to offer hospitality to the kinswoman of the Emperor
+Constantine. The storm shows no sign of abatement, and until it does,
+my Castle yonder is at her order. While not sumptuous in appointment as
+her own palace, fortunately there are comfortable apartments in it
+where she can rest securely and with reserve. The invitation I presume
+to make in the name of my most exalted master Sultan Amurath, who takes
+delight in the amity existing between him and the Lord of Byzantium. To
+lay all fear, to dispel hesitation, in his name again, together with
+such earnest of good faith as lies in an appeal to the most holy
+Prophet of God, I swear the Princess Irene shall be safe from
+interruption while in the Castle, and free to depart from it at her
+pleasure. If she chooses, this tender of courtesy may, by agreement,
+here in the presence of these witnesses, be taken as an affair of
+state. I await her answer."
+
+The Prince of India heard the speech more astonished by the
+unexceptional Latin in which it was couched than the propriety of the
+matter or the grace of its delivery, though, he was constrained to
+admit, both were very great. He also understood the meaning of the look
+the stranger had given him at the conclusion of his warning to the
+Princess, and to conceal his vexation, he turned to her.
+
+That moment two covered chairs, brought from the Castle, were set down
+near by, and the rain began to fall in earnest.
+
+"See," said the Governor, "the evidence of my care for the comfort of
+the kinswoman of the most noble Emperor Constantine. I feared it would
+rain before I could present myself to her; nor that alone, fair
+Princess--the chair must convict me of a wholesome dread of accusation
+in Constantinople; for what worse could be said than that I, a faithful
+Moslem, to whom hospitality is an ordination of religion, refused to
+open my gates to women in distress because they were Christians. Most
+noble and fair lady, behold how much I should esteem acceptance of my
+invitation!"
+
+Irene looked at the Prince of India, and seeing assent in his face,
+answered:
+
+"I will ask leave to report this courtesy as an affair of state that my
+royal kinsman may acknowledge it becomingly."
+
+The Governor bowed very low while saying:
+
+"I myself should have suggested the course."
+
+"Also that my friends"--she pointed to the Prince of India, and the
+monk--"and all the boatmen, be included in the safeguard."
+
+This was also agreed to; whereupon she arose, and for assistance
+offered her hand to Sergius. Lael was next helped from the boat. Then,
+taking to the chairs, the two were carried into the Castle, followed by
+the Prince and the monk afoot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE ARABIAN STORY-TELLER
+
+
+The reader will doubtless refer the circumstance to the jealousy which
+is supposed to prompt the Faithful where women are required to pass
+before men; yet the best evidence of the Governor's thoughtfulness for
+his female guests met them at their approach to the Castle. There was
+not a man visible except a sentinel on the battlement above the gate,
+and he stood faced inwardly, making it impossible for him to see them
+when they drew near.
+
+"Where are the horsemen of whom you spoke? And the garrison, where are
+they?" Sergius asked the Prince.
+
+The latter shrugged his shoulders, as he answered:
+
+"They will return presently."
+
+Further proof of the same thoughtfulness was presented when the two
+chairs were set down in the broad stone-paved passage receiving from
+the front door. The sole occupant there was a man, tall as the monk,
+but unnaturally slender; indeed, his legs resembled those of a lay
+figure, so thin were they, while the residue of his person, although
+clad in a burnoose gorgeously embroidered, would have reminded a modern
+of the skeletons surgeons keep for office furniture. Besides blackness
+deep as the unlighted corner of a cellar, he had no beard. The Prince
+of India recognized him as one of the indispensables of an Eastern
+harem, and made ready to obey him without dissent--only the
+extravagance of the broidery on the burnoose confirmed him in the
+opinion that the chief just arrived outranked the Governor. "This is
+the Kislar Aga of a Prince," he said to himself.
+
+The eunuch, like one accustomed to the duty, superintended the
+placement of the chairs; then, resting the point of a very bright
+crescent-shaped sword on the floor, he said, in a voice more incisive
+than the ordinary feminine tenor:
+
+"I will now conduct the ladies, and guard them. No one will presume to
+follow."
+
+The Prince replied: "It is well; but they will be comforted if
+permitted to abide together."
+
+He spoke with deference, and the black responded:
+
+"This is a fort, not a palace. There is but one chamber for the two."
+
+"And if I wish to communicate with them or they with me?"
+
+"_Bismillah!_" the eunuch replied. "They are not prisoners. I will
+deliver what thou hast for them or they for thee."
+
+Thereupon the Princess and Lael stepped from the chairs, and went with
+their guide. When they were gone, word sped through the Castle, and
+with clamor and clangor, doors opened, and men poured forth in
+companies. And again the Prince reflected: "Such discipline pertains to
+princes only."
+
+Now the office of eunuch was by no means an exclusive pagan
+institution; time out of mind it had been a feature of Byzantine
+courts; and Constantine Dragases, the last, and probably the most
+Christian of Greek emperors, not only tolerated, but recognized it as
+honorable. With this explanation the reader ought not to be surprised
+if the Princess Irene accepted the guidance offered her without fear or
+even hesitation. Doubtless she had been in similar keeping many times.
+
+Climbing a number of stairways, the eunuch brought his fair charges
+into a part of the Castle where there were signs of refinement. The
+floors were swept; the doors garnished with rugs; a delicate incense
+lingered in the air; and to rescue the tenants, whoever they might be,
+from darkness, lighted lamps swung from the ceiling, and were affixed
+to the walls. Stopping finally before a portiere, he held it aside
+while saying:
+
+"Enter here, and be at home. Upon the table yonder there is a little
+bell; ring, and I will answer."
+
+And seeing Lael clinging closely to the Princess, he added: "Be not
+afraid. Know ye rather that my master, when a child, heard the story of
+Hatim, a warrior and poet of the Arabs, and ever since he has lived
+believing hospitality a virtue without which there can be no godliness.
+Do not forget the bell."
+
+They entered and were alone.
+
+To their amazement the room was more than comfortably furnished. What
+may be termed a chandelier swung from the ceiling with many lamps ready
+for lighting; under it there was a circular divan; then along the four
+sides a divan extended continuously, with pillows at the corners in
+heaps. Matting covered the floor, and here and there rugs of gay dyes
+offered noticeable degrees of warmth and coloring. Large trays filled
+the deep recesses of the windows, and though the smell of musk
+overpowered the sweet outgivings of the roses blooming in them, they
+sufficed to rouge the daylight somewhat scantily admitted. The
+roughness and chill of the walls were provided against by woollen
+drapery answering for arras.
+
+They went first to one of the windows, and peered out. Below them the
+world was being deluged with fiercely driven rain. There was the
+Bosphorus lashed into waves already whitened with foam. The European
+shore was utterly curtained from sight. Gust after gust raved around
+the Castle, whistling and moaning; and as she beheld the danger
+escaped, the Princess thought of the saying of the Prince of India and
+repeated it in a spirit of thanksgiving: "By the will of God thou art
+here."
+
+The reflection reconciled her to the situation, and led on till
+presently the face and martial figure of the Governor reproduced
+themselves to her fancy. How handsome he appeared--how courteous--how
+young!--scarcely older than herself! How readily she had yielded to his
+invitation! She blushed at the thought.
+
+Lael interrupted the revery, which was not without charm, and for that
+reason would likely return, by bringing her a child's slipper found
+near the central divan; and while examining the embroidery of
+many-colored beads adorning it, she divined the truth.
+
+Isolated as the Castle was on a frontier of the Islamic world, and
+crowded with men and material of war, yet the Governor was permitted
+his harem, and this was its room in common. Here his wives, many or
+few, for the time banished to some other quarters, were in the habit of
+meeting for the enjoyment of the scant pleasantries afforded by life
+like theirs.
+
+Again she was interrupted. The arras over one of the walls was pushed
+aside, and two women came in with refreshments. A third followed with a
+small table of Turkish pattern which she placed on the floor. The
+viands, very light and simple, were set upon the table; then a fourth
+one came bringing an armful of shawls and wraps. The last was a Greek,
+and she explained that the Lord of the Castle, her master, was pleased
+to make his guests comfortable. In the evening later a more substantial
+repast would be served. Meantime she was appointed to wait on them.
+
+The guests, assured by the presence of other women in the Castle,
+partook of the refection; after which the table was removed, and the
+attendants for the present dismissed. Wrapping themselves then in
+shawls, for they had not altogether escaped the rain, and were
+beginning to feel the mists stealing into the chamber through the
+unglazed windows, they took to the divan, piling the cushions about
+them defensively.
+
+In this condition, comfortable, cosey, perfectly at rest, and with the
+full enjoyment of the sensations common to every one in the midst of a
+novel adventure, the Princess proceeded to draw from Lael an account of
+herself; and the ingenuousness of the girl proved very charming,
+coupled as it was with a most unexpected intelligence. The case was the
+not unusual one of education wholly unsupported by experience. The real
+marvel to the inquisitor was that she should have made discovery of two
+such instances the same day, and been thrown into curious relation with
+them. And as women always run parallels between persons who interest
+them, the Princess was struck with the similarities between Sergius and
+Lael. They were both young, both handsome, both unusually well informed
+and at the same time singularly unsophisticated. In the old pagan
+style, what did Fate mean by thus bringing them together? She
+determined to keep watch of the event.
+
+And when, in course of her account, Lael spoke of the Prince of India,
+Irene awoke at once to a mystery connected with him. Lacking the full
+story, the narrator could give just enough of it to stimulate wonder.
+Who was he? Where was Cipango? He was rich--learned--knew all the
+sciences, all the languages--he had visited countries everywhere, even
+the inhabited islands. To be sure, he had not appeared remarkable;
+indeed, she gave him small attention when he was before her; she
+recalled him chiefly by his eyes and velvet pelisse. While she was
+mentally resolving to make better study of him, the eunuch appeared
+under the portiere, and, coming forward, said, with a half salaam to
+the Princess:
+
+"My master does not wish his guests to think themselves forgotten. The
+kinswoman of the most august Emperor Constantine, he remembers, is
+without employment to lighten the passage of a time which must be
+irksome to her. He humbly prays her to accept his sympathy, and sends
+me to say that a famous story-teller, going to the court of the Sultan
+at Adrianople, arrived at the Castle to-day. Would the Princess be
+pleased to hear him?"
+
+"In what tongue does he recite?" she asked.
+
+"Arabic, Turkish, Greek, Latin, Hebrew," was the reply.
+
+"Oh, a most wise man!"
+
+Irene consulted Lael, and thinking to offer her amusement, assented to
+the suggestion, with thanks to the Governor.
+
+"Have the veils ready," the eunuch said, as he retreated backward to
+the door. "The story-teller is a man, and he will come directly."
+
+The story-teller was ushered in. He walked to the divan where his
+auditors sat, slowly, as if he knew himself under close observation,
+and courted it.
+
+Now caravans were daily shows in Constantinople. The little bell of the
+donkey leading its string of laden camels through the narrow streets
+might be heard any hour, and the Shaykh in charge was almost invariably
+an Arab. So the Princess had seen many of the desert-born, and was
+familiar with their peculiarities; never, however, had chance brought a
+nobler specimen of the race before her. As he approached, stepping as
+modern stage heroes are wont, she saw the red slippers, the white shirt
+falling to the ankles and girdled at the waist, its bosom a capacious
+pocket, the white and red striped cloak over the shoulders. She marked
+the material of which they were made, the shirt of selected Angora
+wool, the cloak of camel's hair, in its fineness iridescent and soft as
+velvet. She saw in the girdle an empty scabbard for a yatagan
+elaborately covered with brilliants. She saw on the head a kerchief of
+mixed silk and cotton, tasselled, heavily striated red and yellow, and
+secured by the usual cord; but she scarcely more than noticed them--the
+air of the man, high, stately, king-like, was a superior attraction,
+and she gazed at his face unconscious that her own was uncovered.
+
+The features were regular, the complexion sunburned to the hue of
+reddish copper, the beard thin, the nose sharp, the cheeks hollow, the
+eyes, through the double shade of brows and kerchief, glittered like
+balls of polished black amber. His hands were crossed above the girdle
+after the manner of Eastern servants before acknowledged superiors; his
+salutation was expressive of most abject homage; yet when he raised
+himself, and met the glance of the Princess, his eyes lingered, and
+brightened, and directly he cast off or forgot his humility, and looked
+lordlier than an Emir boasting of his thousand tents, with ten spears
+to each, and a score of camels to the spear. She endured the gaze
+awhile; for it seemed she had seen the face before--where, she could
+not tell; and when, as presently happened, she began to feel the
+brightness of the eyes intenser growing, the sensation reminded her of
+the Governor at the landing. Could this be he? No, the countenance here
+was of a man already advanced in life. And why should the Governor
+resort to disguise? The end, nevertheless, was the same as on the
+landing--she drew down the veil. Then he became humble again, and
+spoke, his eyes downcast, his hands crossed:
+
+"This faithful servant"--he pointed to the eunuch "my friend"--the
+eunuch crossed his hands, and assumed an attitude of pleased
+attention--"brought me from his master--may the most Merciful and
+Compassionate continue a pillow to the good man here and to his soul
+hereafter!--how a kinswoman of the Emperor whose capital is to the
+earth a star, and he as the brightness thereof, had taken refuge with
+him from the storm, and was now his guest, and languishing for want of
+amusement. Would I tell her a story? I have a horde of parables, tales,
+and traditions, and many nations have contributed to it; but, alas, O
+Princess! they are simple, and such as beguile tentmen and tentwomen
+shut in by the desert, their fancies tender as children's. I fear your
+laughter. But here I am; and as the night bird sings when the moon is
+risen, because the moon is beautiful and must be saluted, even so I am
+obedient. Command me."
+
+The speech was in Greek, with the slightest imperfection of accent; at
+the conclusion the Princess was silent.
+
+"Knowest thou"--she at length said--"knowest thou of one Hatim,
+renowned as a warrior and poet of the Arabs?"
+
+The eunuch saw the reference, and smiled. Asking of Hatim now was only
+another form of inquiry after his master; not merely had the latter
+been in her mind; she wished to know more about him. On his part, the
+story-teller arose from his servile posture, and asked with the
+animation of one to whom a favorite theme is presented:
+
+"Noble lady, know you aught of the desert?"
+
+"I have never been there," the Princess answered.
+
+"Though not beautiful, it is the home of mysteries," he said, with
+growing enthusiasm. "When he whom in the same breath you worship as God
+and the Son of God--an opposition beyond the depth of our simple
+faith--made ready to proclaim himself, he went for a time into the
+Wilderness, and dwelt there. So likewise our Prophet, seeing the dawn
+of his day, betook himself to Hiva, a rock, bleak, barren, waterless.
+Why, O Princess, if not for purification, and because God of preference
+has founded his dwelling there, wasting it indeed the better to nurse
+his goodness in a perfected solitude? Granting this, why may I not
+assert without shocking you that the sons of the desert are the noblest
+of men?--
+
+"Such was Hatim!
+
+"In the Hijaz and the Nejd, they tell of him thus:
+
+"In the day the Compassionate set about world-making, which is but a
+pastime with him, nor nearly so much as nest-building to a mother-dove,
+he rested. The mountains and rivers and seas were in their beds, and
+the land was variegated to please him, here a forest, there a grassy
+plain; nothing remained unfinished except the sand oceans, and they
+only wanted water. He rested.
+
+"Now, if, with their sky, a sun-field in the day, a gallery of stars at
+night, and their winds, flying from sea to sea, but gathering no taint,
+the deserts are treeless, and unknowing the sweetness of gardens and
+the glory of grass, it was not by accident or forgetfulness; for with
+him, the Compassionate, the Merciful, there are no accidents or lapses
+of any kind. He is all attention and ever present. Thus the Throne
+verse--'Drowsiness overcomes him not nor sleep.... His firmament spans
+the Heaven and the Earth, and the care of them does not distress him.'
+
+"Why then the yellowness and the burning, the sameness and solitude,
+and the earth intolerant of rain and running stream, and of roads and
+paths--why, if there was neither accident nor forgetfulness?
+
+"He is the High and the Great! Accuse him not!
+
+"In that moment of rest, not from weariness or overburden, but to
+approve the work done, and record the approval as a judgment, he said,
+speaking to his Almightiness as to a familiar: 'As it is it shall stay.
+A time will come when with men I, and the very name of me, shall go out
+utterly like the green of last year's leaf. He who walks in a garden
+thinks of it only; but he who abides in a desert, wanting to see the
+beautiful, must look into the sky, and looking there he shall be
+reminded of me, and say aloud and as a lover, 'There is no God but him,
+the Compassionate, the Merciful.... The eyes see him not, but he seeth
+the eyes; and He is the Gracious, the Knowing'.... So also comes a time
+when religion shall be without heart, dead, and the quickening of
+worship lost in idolatry; when men shall cry, God, my God, to stones
+and graven images, and sing to hear their singing, and the loud music
+it goes with. And that time shall be first in lands of growth and
+freshness, in cities where comforts and luxuries are as honey in hives
+after the flowering of palms. Wherefore--Lo, the need of deserts. There
+I shall never be forgotten. And out of them, out of their hardness and
+heat, out of their yellow distances and drouth, religion shall arise
+again, and go forth purified unto universality; for I shall be always
+present there, a life-giver. And against those days of evil, I shall
+keep men there, the best of their kind, and their good qualities shall
+not rust; they shall be brave, for I may want swords; they shall keep
+the given word, for as I am the Truth, so shall my chosen be; there
+shall be no end to charity among them, for in such lands charity is
+life, and must take every form, friendship, love of one another, love
+of giving, and hospitality, unto which are riches and plenty. And in
+their worship, I shall be first, and honor next. And as Truth is the
+Soul of the World, it being but another of my names, for its salvation
+they shall speak with tongues of fire, this one an orator, that one a
+poet; and living in the midst of death, they shall fear me not at all,
+but dishonor more. Mine are the Sons of the Desert--the
+Word-Keepers!--the Unconquered and Conquerless! For my name's sake, I
+nominate them Mine, and I alone am the High and the Great.... And there
+shall be amongst them exemplars of this virtue and that one singly; and
+at intervals through the centuries standards for emulation among the
+many, a few, in whom all the excellences shall be blent in indivisible
+comeliness.'
+
+"So came Hatim, of the Bene-Tayyi, lustrous as the moon of Ramazan to
+eager watchers on high hilltops, and better than other men, even as all
+the virtues together are better than any one of them, excepting charity
+and love of God.
+
+"Now Hatim's mother was a widow, poor, and without relations, but
+beloved by the Compassionate, and always in his care, because she was
+wise beyond the men of her time, and kept his laws, as they were known,
+and taught them to her son. One day a great cry arose in the village.
+Everybody rushed to see the cause, and then joined in the clamor.
+
+"Up in the north there was an appearance the like of which had never
+been beheld, nor were there any to tell what it was from hearsay. Some
+pooh-poohed, saying, contemptuously:
+
+"'Tis only a cloud.'
+
+"Others, observing how rapidly it came, in movement like a bird sailing
+on outspread motionless wings, said:
+
+"'A roc! A roc!'
+
+"When the object was nearer, a few of the villagers, in alarm, ran to
+their houses, shrieking:
+
+"'Israfil, Israfil! He is bringing the end of time!'
+
+"Soon the sight was nearly overhead; then it was going by, its edge
+overhead, the rest of it extending eastwardly; and it was long and
+broad as a pasture for ten thousand camels, and horses ten thousand. It
+had no likeness earthly except a carpet of green silk; nor could those
+standing under describe what bore it along. They thought they heard the
+sound of a strong wind, but as the air above far and near was full of
+birds great and small, birds of the water as well as the land, all
+flying evenly with the carpet, and making a canopy of their wings, and
+shade deeper than a cloud's, the beholders were uncertain whether the
+birds or the wind served it. In passing, it dipped gently, giving them
+a view of what it carried--a throne of pearl and rainbow, and a crowned
+King sitting in majesty; at his left hand, an army of spirits, at his
+right, an army of men in martial sheen.
+
+"While the prodigy was before them, the spectators stirred not; nor was
+there one brave enough to speak; most of them with their eyes devoured
+it all, King and throne, birds, men and spirits; though afterwards
+there was asking:
+
+"'Did you see the birds?'
+
+"'No.'
+
+"'The spirits?'
+
+"'No.'
+
+"'The men?'
+
+"'I saw only the King upon His throne.'
+
+"In the passing, also, a man, in splendor of apparel, stood on the
+carpet's edge and shouted:
+
+"'God is great! I bear witness there is no God but God.'
+
+"The same instant something fell from his hand. When the marvel was out
+of sight in the south, some bethought them, and went to see what it was
+which fell. They came back laughing, 'It was only a gourd, and as we
+have much better on our camel-saddles, we threw it away.'
+
+"But the mother of Hatim, listening to the report, was not content. In
+her childhood she heard what was tradition then; how Solomon, at the
+completion of his temple in Jerusalem, journeyed to Mecca upon a carpet
+of silk wafted by the wind, with men, spirits, and birds. Wherefore,
+saying to herself, 'It was Solomon going to Mecca. Not for nothing
+threw he the gourd,' she went alone, and brought it in, and opened it,
+finding three seeds--one red, like a ruby; a second blue, like a
+sapphire; the third green, like an emerald.
+
+"Now she might have sold the seeds, for they were beautiful as gems cut
+for a crown, and enriched herself; but Hatim was all the world to her.
+They were for him, she said, and getting a brown nut such as washes up
+from vines in the sea, she cut it, put the treasures into it, sealed
+them there, and tied them around the boy's neck.
+
+"'Thanks, O Solomon,' she said. 'There is no God but God; and I shall
+teach the lesson to my Hatim in the morning, when _al hudhud_ flies for
+water; at noon, when it whistles to itself in the shade; and at night,
+when it draws a wing over its head to darken the darkness, and sleep.'
+
+"And from that day through all his days Hatim wore the brown nut with
+the three seeds in it; nor was there ever such an amulet before or
+since; for, besides being defended by the genii who are Solomon's
+servants, he grew one of the exemplars promised by God, having in
+himself every virtue. No one braver than he; none so charitable; none
+so generous and merciful; none so eloquent; none on whose lips poetry
+was such sweet speech for the exalting of souls; above all, never had
+there been such a keeper of his word of promise.
+
+"And of this judge you by some of the many things they tell of him.
+
+"A famine fell upon the land. It was when Hatim had become Sheik of his
+tribe. The women and children were perishing. The men could no more
+than witness their suffering. They knew not whom to accuse; they knew
+no one to receive a prayer. The time predicted was come--the name of
+God had gone out utterly, like the green of last year's leaf. In the
+Sheik's tent even, as with the poorest, hunger could not be
+allayed--there was nothing to eat. The last camel had been
+devoured--one horse remained. More than once the good man went out to
+kill him, but the animal was so beautiful--so affectionate--so fleet!
+And the desert was not wide enough to hold his fame! How much easier to
+say, 'Another day--to-morrow it may rain.'
+
+"He sat in his tent telling his wife and children stories, for he was
+not merely the best warrior of his day; he was the most renowned poet
+and storyteller. Riding into battle, his men would say, 'Sing to us, O
+Hatim--sing, and we will fight.' And they he loved best, listening to
+him, had nigh forgot their misery, when the curtain of the tent was
+raised.
+
+"'Who is there?' he asked.
+
+"'Thy neighbor,' and the voice was a woman's. 'My children are
+anhungred and crying, and I have nothing for them. Help, O Sheik, help
+or they die.'
+
+"'Bring them here,' he said, rising.
+
+"'She is not worse off than we,' said his wife, 'nor are her children
+more hungry than ours. What will you do?'
+
+"'The appeal was to me,' he answered.
+
+"And passing out, he slew the horse, and kindled a fire; then, while
+the stranger and her children were sharing piece by piece with his own,
+'Shame, shame!' he said, 'that ye alone should eat;' and going through
+the dowar, he brought the neighbors together, and he only went hungry.
+There was no more of the meat left. Was ever one merciful like Hatim?
+In combat, he gave lives, but took none. Once an antagonist under his
+foot, called to him: 'Give me thy spear, Hatim,' and he gave it.
+
+"'Foolish man!' his brethren exclaimed.
+
+"'What else was there?' he answered. 'Did not the poor man ask a gift
+of me?'
+
+"Never a captive besought his help vainly. On a journey once, a
+prisoner begged him to buy his liberty; but he was without the money
+required, and on that account he was sorely distressed. To his
+entreaties, the strangers listened hard-heartedly; at last he said to
+them:
+
+"Am not I--Hatim--good as he? Let him go, and take me.'
+
+"And knocking the chains from the unfortunate, he had them put on
+himself, and wore them until the ransom came.
+
+"In his eyes a poet was greater than a king, and than singing a song
+well the only thing better was being the subject of a song.
+Perpetuation by tombs he thought vulgar; so the glory unremembered in
+verse deserved oblivion. Was it wonderful he gave and kept giving to
+story-tellers, careless often if what he thus disposed of was another's?
+
+"Once in his youth--and at hearing this, O Princess, the brown-faced
+sons of the desert, old and young, laugh, and clap their hands--he gave
+of his grandfather's store until the prudent old man, intending to cure
+him of his extravagance, sent him to tend his herds in the country.
+Alas!
+
+"Across the plain Hatim one day beheld a caravan, and finding it
+escorting three poets to the court of the King of El-Herah, he invited
+them to stop with him, and while he killed a camel for each of them,
+they recited songs in his praise, and that of his kin. When they wished
+to resume the journey, he detained them.
+
+"'There is no gift like the gift of song,' he said. 'I will do better
+by you than will he, the King to whom you are going. Stay with me, and
+for every verse you write I will give you a camel. Behold the herd!'
+
+"And at departing, they had each a hundred camels, and he three hundred
+verses.
+
+"'Where is the herd?' the grandfather asked, when next he came to the
+pasture.
+
+"'See thou. Here are songs in honor of our house,' Hatim answered,
+proudly--'songs by great poets; and they will be repeated until all
+Arabia is filled with our glory.'
+
+"'Alas! Thou hast ruined me!' the elder cried, beating his breast.
+
+"'What!' said Hatim, indignantly. 'Carest thou more for the dirty
+brutes than for the crown of honor I bought with them?'"
+
+Here the Arab paused. The recitation, it is to be remarked, had been
+without action, or facial assistance--a wholly unornate delivery; and
+now he kept stately silence. His eyes, intensely bright in the shadow
+of the _kufiyeh,_ may have produced the spell which held the Princess
+throughout; or it may have been the eyes and voice; or, quite as
+likely, the character of Hatim touched a responsive chord in her breast.
+
+"I thank you," she said, adding presently: "In saying I regret the
+story ended so soon, I pray you receive my opinion of its telling. I
+doubt if Hatim himself could have rendered it better."
+
+The Arab recognized the compliment with the faintest of bows, but made
+no reply in words. Irene then raised her veil, and spoke again.
+
+"Thy Hatim, O eloquent Arab, was warrior and poet, and, as thou hast
+shown him to me, he was also a philosopher. In what age did he live?"
+
+"He was a shining light in the darkness preceding the appearance of the
+Prophet. That period is dateless with us."
+
+"It is of little consequence," she continued. "Had he lived in our day,
+he would have been more than poet, warrior and philosopher--he would be
+a Christian. His charity and love of others, his denial of self, sound
+like the Christ. Doubtless he could have died for his fellow-men. Hast
+thou not more of him? Surely he lived long and happily."
+
+"Yes," said the Arab, with a flash of the eyes to denote his
+appreciation of the circumstance. "He is reported to have been the most
+wretched of men. His wife--I pray you will observe I am speaking by the
+tradition--his wife had the power, so dreadful to husbands, of raising
+Iblis at pleasure. It delighted her to beat him and chase him from his
+tent; at last she abandoned him."
+
+"Ah!" the Princess exclaimed. "His charities were not admirable in her
+eyes."
+
+"The better explanation, Princess, may be found in a saying we have in
+the desert--'A tall man may wed a small woman, but a great soul shall
+not enter into bonds with a common one.'"
+
+There was silence then, and as the gaze of the story-teller was again
+finding a fascination in her face, Irene took refuge behind her veil,
+but said, presently:
+
+"With permission, I will take the story of Hatim for mine; but here is
+my friend--what hast thou for her?"
+
+The story-teller turned to Lael.
+
+"Her pleasure shall be mine," he said.
+
+"I should like something Indian," the girl answered, timidly, for the
+eyes oppressed her also.
+
+"Alas! India has no tales of love. Her poetry is about gods and
+abstract religions. Wherefore, if I may choose, I will a tale from
+Persia next. In that country there was a verse-maker called Firdousi,
+and he wrote a great poem, _The Shah Nameh_, with a warrior for hero.
+This is how Rustem, in single combat, killed Sohrab, not knowing the
+youth was his son until after the awful deed was done."
+
+The tale was full of melancholy interest, and told with singular grace;
+but it continued until after nightfall; of which the party was
+admonished by the attendants coming to light the lamps. At the
+conclusion, the Arab courteously apologized for the time he had wrested
+from them.
+
+"In dealing with us, O Princess," he said, "patience is full as lovely
+as charity."
+
+Lifting the veil again, she extended her hand to him, saying, "The
+obligation is with us. I thank you for making light and pleasant an
+afternoon which else had been tedious."
+
+He kissed her hand, and followed the eunuch to the door. Then the
+supper was announced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE TURQUOISE RING
+
+
+The Prince of India, left in the passage of the Castle with Sergius,
+was not displeased with the course the adventure appeared to be taking.
+In the first place, he felt no alarm for Lael; she might be
+uncomfortable in the quarter to which she had been conducted, but that
+was all, and it would not last long. The guardianship of the eunuch was
+in his view a guaranty of her personal safety. In the next place,
+acquaintance with the Princess might prove serviceable in the future.
+He believed Lael fitted for the highest rank; she was already educated
+beyond the requirements of the age for women; her beauty was
+indisputable; as a consequence, he had thought of her a light in the
+court; and not unpleasantly it occurred to him now that the fair
+Princess might carry keys for both the inner and outer doors of the
+royal residence.
+
+Generally the affair which was of concern to Lael was an affair of
+absorbing interest to the Prince; in this instance, however, another
+theme offered itself for the moment a superior attraction.
+
+The impression left by the young master of ceremonies in the reception
+at the landing was of a kind to arouse curiosity. His appearance,
+manner, speech and the homage paid him denoted exalted rank; while the
+confidence with which he spoke for Sultan Amurath was most remarkable.
+His acceptance of the terms presented by the Princess Irene was little
+short of downright treaty-making; and what common official dared carry
+assumption to such a height? Finally the Prince fell to thinking if
+there was any person the actual governor of the Castle would quietly
+permit to go masquerading in his authority and title.
+
+Then everything pointed him to Prince Mahommed. The correspondence in
+age was perfect; the martial array seen galloping down the bank was a
+fitting escort for the heir-apparent of the gray Sultan; and he alone
+might with propriety speak for his father in a matter of state.
+
+"A mistake cannot be serious," said the Prince to himself, at the end
+of the review. "I will proceed upon the theory that the young man is
+Prince Mahommed."
+
+This was no sooner determined than the restless mind flew forward to an
+audience. The time and place--midnight in the lonesome old Castle--were
+propitious, and he was prepared for it.
+
+Indeed it was the very purpose he had in view the night of the repast
+in his tent at El Zaribah where he so mysteriously intrusted the Emir
+Mirza with revelations concerning the doom of Constantinople.
+
+Once more he ran over the scheme which had brought him from Cipango. If
+Islam could not be brought to lead in the project, Christendom might be
+more amenable to reason. The Moslem world was to be reached through the
+Kaliph whom he expected to find in Egypt; wherefore his contemplated
+trip down the Nile from Kash-Cush. If driven to the Christian,
+Constantine was to be his operator. Such in broadest generality was the
+plan of execution he had resolved upon.
+
+But to these possibilities he had appended another of which it is now
+necessary to speak.
+
+Enough has been given to apprise the reader of the things to which the
+Prince preferably devoted himself. These were international affairs,
+and transcendently war. If indeed the latter were not the object he had
+always specially in mind, it was the end to which his management
+usually conducted. For mere enjoyment in the sight of men facing the
+death which strangely passed him by, he delighted in hovering on the
+edge of battle until there was a crisis, and then plunging into its
+heated heart.
+
+He had also a peculiar method of bringing war about. This consisted in
+providing for punishments in case his enterprises miscarried.
+Invariably somebody suffered for such failures. In that way he soothed
+the pangs of wounded vanity.
+
+When he was inventing the means for executing his plots, and forming
+the relations essential to them, it was his habit to select instruments
+of punishment in advance.
+
+Probably no better illustration of this feature of his dealings can be
+given than is furnished by the affair now engaging him. If he failed to
+move the Kaliph to lead the reform, he would resort to Constantine; if
+the Emperor also declined, he would make him pay the penalty; then came
+the reservation. So soon after his arrival from Cipango as he could
+inform himself of the political conditions of the world to which he was
+returning, he fixed upon Mahommed to avenge him upon the offending
+Greek.
+
+The meeting with Mirza at El Zaribah was a favorable opportunity to
+begin operating upon the young Turk. The tale the Emir received that
+night under solemn injunctions of secrecy was really intended for his
+master. How well it was devised for the end in view the reader will be
+able to judge from what is now to follow.
+
+The audience with Mahommed determined upon by the Prince of India, our
+first point of interest is in observing how he set about accomplishing
+it. His promptness was characteristic.
+
+Directly the ladies had disappeared with the eunuch, the soldiers
+poured from their hiding places in the Castle, and seeing one whom he
+judged an officer, the Prince called to him in Turkish:
+
+"Ho, my friend!"
+
+The man was obliging.
+
+"Present my salutations to the Governor of the Castle, and say the
+Prince of India desires speech with him."
+
+The soldier hesitated.
+
+"Understand," said the Prince, quickly, "my message is not to the great
+Lord who received me at the landing. But the Governor in fact. Bring
+him here."
+
+The confident manner prevailed.
+
+Presently the messenger returned with a burly, middle-aged person in
+guidance. A green turban above a round face, large black eyes in
+muffling of fleshy lids, pallid cheeks lost in dense beard, a drab gown
+lined with yellow fur, a naked cimeter in a silk-embroidered sash,
+bespoke the Turk; but how unlike the handsome, fateful-looking
+masquerader at the river side!
+
+"The Prince of India has the honor of speech with the Governor of the
+Castle?"
+
+"God be praised," the Governor replied. "I was seeking your Highness.
+Besides wishing to join in your thanks for happy deliverance from the
+storm, I thought to discharge my duty as a Moslem host by conducting
+you to refreshments and repose. Follow me, I pray."
+
+A few steps on the way, the Governor stopped:
+
+"Was there not a companion--a younger man--a Dervish?"
+
+"A monk," said the Prince; "and the question reminds me of my
+attendant, a negro. Send for him--or better, bring them both to me. I
+wish them to share my apartment."
+
+In a short time the three were in quarters, if one small room may be so
+dignified. The walls were cold gray stone; one oblong narrow port-hole
+admitted scanty light; a rough bench, an immense kettle-drum shaped
+like the half of an egg-shell, and propped broadside up, some piles of
+loose straw, each with folded sheepskins on it, constituted the
+furnishment.
+
+Sergius made no sign of surprise or disappointment. Possibly the
+chamber and its contents were reproductions of his cell up in
+Bielo-Osero. Nilo gave himself to study of the drum, reminded,
+doubtless, of similar warlike devices in Kash-Cush. The Prince alone
+expostulated. Taking a stand between the Governor and the door, he said:
+
+"A question before thou goest hence."
+
+The Turk gazed at him silently.
+
+"To what accommodations have the Princess Irene and her attendant been
+taken? Are they vile as these?"
+
+"The reception room of my harem is the most comfortable the Castle
+affords," the Governor answered.
+
+"And they?"
+
+"They are occupying it."
+
+"Not by courtesy of thine. He who could put the hospitality of the
+Prince Mahommed to shame by maltreating one of his guests."
+
+He paused, and grimly surveyed the room.
+
+"Such a servant would be as evil-minded to another guest; and that the
+other is a woman, would not affect his imbruited soul."
+
+"The Prince Mahommed!" the Governor exclaimed.
+
+"Yes. What brings him here, matters not; his wish to keep the Romans in
+ignorance of his near presence, I know as well as thou; none the less,
+it was his royal word we accepted. As for thee--thou mightest have
+promised faith and hospitality with thy hand on the Prophet's beard,
+yet would I have bidden the Princess trust herself to the tempest
+sooner."
+
+Sergius was now standing by, but the conversation being in Turkish, he
+listened without understanding.
+
+"Thou ass!" the Prince continued. "Not to know that the kinswoman of
+the Roman Emperor, under this roof by treaty with the mighty Amurath,
+his son the negotiator, is our guardian! When the storm shall have
+spent itself, and the waters quieted down, she will resume her journey.
+Then--it may be in the morning--she will first ask for us, and then thy
+master will require to know how we have passed the night. Ah, thou
+beginnest to see!"
+
+The Governor's head was drooping; his hands crossed themselves upon his
+stomach; and when he raised his eyes, they were full of deprecation and
+entreaty.
+
+"Your Highness--most noble Lord--condescend to hear me."
+
+"Speak. I am awake to hear the falsehood thou hast invented in excuse
+of thy perfidy to us, and thy treason to him, the most generous of
+masters, the most chivalrous of knights."
+
+"Your Highness has greatly misconceived me. In the first place you have
+forgotten the crowded state of the Castle. Every room and passage is
+filled with the suite and escort of"--
+
+He hesitated, and turned pale, like a man dropped suddenly into a great
+danger. The shrewd guest caught at the broken sentence and finished it:
+
+"Of Prince Mahommed!"
+
+"With the suite and escort," the Governor repeated.... "In the next
+place, it was not my intention to leave you unprovided. From my own
+apartments, light, beds and seats were ordered to be brought here, with
+meats for refreshment, and water for cleansing and draught. The order
+is in course of execution now. Indeed, your Highness, I swear by the
+first chapter of the Koran"--
+
+"Take something less holy to swear by," cried the Prince.
+
+"Then, by the bones of the Faithful, I swear I meant to make you
+comfortable, even to my own deprivation."
+
+"By thy young master's bidding?"
+
+The Governor bent forward very low.
+
+"Well," said the Prince, softening his manner--"the misconception was
+natural."
+
+"Yes--yes."
+
+"And now thou hast only to prove thy intention by making it good."
+
+"Trust me, your Highness."
+
+"Trust thee? Ay, on proof. I have a commission"--
+
+The Prince then drew a ring from his finger.
+
+"Take this," he said, "and deliver it to the Emir Mirza."
+
+The assurance of the speech was irresistible; so the Turk held out his
+hand to receive the token.
+
+"And say to the Emir, that I desire him to thank the Most Compassionate
+and Merciful for the salvation of which we were witnesses at the
+southwest corner of the Kaaba."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Governor. "Art thou a Moslem?"
+
+"I am not a Christian."
+
+The Governor, accepting the ring, kissed the hand offering it, and took
+his departure, moving backward, and with downcast eyes, his manner
+declarative of the most abject humility.
+
+Hardly was the door closed behind the outgoing official, when the
+Prince began to laugh quietly and rub his hands together--quietly, we
+say, for the feeling was not merriment so much as self-gratulation.
+
+There was cleverness in having doubted the personality of the
+individual who received the refugees at the landing; there was greater
+cleverness in the belief which converted the Governor into the Prince
+Mahommed; but the play by which the fact was uncovered--if not a stroke
+of genius, how may it be better described? The Prince of India thought
+as he laughed:
+
+"Not long now until Amurath joins his fathers, and then--Mahommed."
+
+Presently he stopped, a step half taken, his gaze upon the floor, his
+hands clasped behind him. He stood so still it would not have been
+amiss to believe a thought was all the life there was in him. He
+certainly did believe in astrology. Had not men been always ruled by
+what they imagined heavenly signs? How distinctly he remembered the age
+of the oracle and the augur! Upon their going out he became a believer
+in the stars as prophets, and then an adept; afterwhile he reached a
+stage when he habitually mistook the commonest natural results, even
+coincidences, for confirmations of planetary forecasts. And now this
+halting and breathlessness was from sudden recollection that the
+horoscope lying on his table in Constantinople had relation to Mahommed
+in his capacity of Conqueror. How marvellous also that from the meeting
+with Constantine in the street of the city, he should have been blown
+by a tempest to a meeting with Mahommed in the White Castle!
+
+These circumstances, trifling to the reader, were of deep influence to
+the Prince of India. While he stands there rigid as a figure marbleized
+in mid action, he is saying to himself:
+
+"The audience will take place--Heaven has ordered it. Would I knew what
+manner of man this Mahommed is!"
+
+He had seen a handsome youth, graceful in bearing, quick and subtle in
+speech, cultivated and evidently used to governing. Very good, but what
+an advantage there would be in knowing the bents and inclinations of
+the royal lad beforehand.
+
+Presently the schemer's head arose. The boyish Prince was going about
+in armor when soft raiment would be excusable--and that meant ambition,
+dreams of conquest, dedication to martial glory. Very good indeed! And
+then his manner under the eyes of the girlish Princess--how quickly her
+high-born grace had captivated him! Something impossible were he not of
+a romantic turn, a poet, sentimentalist, knight errant.
+
+The Prince clapped his hands. He knew the appeals effective with such
+natures. Let the audience come.... Ah, but--
+
+Again he sunk into thought. Youths like Mahommed were apt to be wilful.
+How was he to be controlled? One expedient after another was swiftly
+considered and as swiftly rejected. At last the right one! Like his
+ancestors from Ertoghrul down, the young Turk was a believer in the
+stars. Not unlikely he was then in the Castle by permission of his
+astrologer. Indeed, if Mirza had repeated the conversation and
+predictions at El Zaribah, the Prince of India was being waited for
+with an impatience due a master of the astral craft. Again the Wanderer
+cried, "Let the audience come!" and peace and confidence were
+possessing him when a loud report and continuous rumble in the room set
+the solid floor to quaking. He looked around in time to see the big
+drum quivering under a blow from Nilo.
+
+From the negro his gaze wandered to Sergius standing before the one
+loophole by which light and air were let into the dismal chamber; and
+recalling the monk as the sole attendant of the Princess Irene, he
+thought it best to speak to him.
+
+Drawing near, he observed the cowl thrown back, and that the face was
+raised, the eyes closed, the hands palm to palm upon the breast.
+Involuntarily he stopped, not because he was one of those who always
+presume the most Holy Presence when prayer is being offered--he
+stopped, wondering where he had seen that countenance. The delicate
+features, the pallid complexion, the immature beard, the fair hair
+parted in the middle, and falling in wavy locks over the shoulders, the
+aspect manly yet womanly in its refinement, were strangely familiar to
+him. It was his first view of the monk's face. Where had he seen it?
+His memory went back, far back of the recent. A chill struck his heart.
+The features, look, air, portrait, the expression indefinable except as
+a light of outcoming spirit, were those of the man he had helped
+crucify before the Damascus gate in the Holy City, and whom he could no
+more cast out of mind than he could the bones from his body. His feet
+seemed rooting into the flinty flags beneath them. He heard the
+centurion call to him: "Ho, there! If thou knowest the Golgotha, come
+show it." He felt the sorrowful eyes of the condemned upon him. He
+struck the bloody cheek, and cried as to a beast: "Go faster, Jesus!"
+And then the words, wrung from infinite patience at last broken:
+
+"I am going, but do thou TARRY TILL I COME."
+
+For relief, he spoke:
+
+"What dost thou, my friend?"
+
+Sergius opened his eyes and answered simply, "I am praying."
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"To God."
+
+"Art thou a Christian?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"God is for the Jew and the Moslem."
+
+"Nay," said Sergius, looking at the Prince without taking down his
+hands, "all who believe in God find happiness and salvation in Him--the
+Christian as well as the Jew and the Moslem."
+
+The questions had been put with abrupt intensity; now the inquisitor
+drew back astonished. He heard the very postulate of the scheme to
+which he was devoting himself--and from a boy so like the dead Christ
+he was working to blot out of worship he seemed the Christ arisen!
+
+The amazement passed slowly, and with its going the habitual shrewdness
+and capacity to make servants of circumstances apparently the most
+untoward returned. The youth had intellect, impressiveness, aptitude in
+words, and a sublime idea. But what of his spirit--his courage--his
+endurance in the Faith?
+
+"How came this doctrine to thee?"
+
+The Prince spoke deferentially.
+
+"From the good father Hilarion."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"The Archimandrite of Bielo-Osero."
+
+"A monastery?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How did he receive it?"
+
+"From the Spirit of God, whence Christ had his wisdom--whence all good
+men have their goodness--by virtue of which they, like Him, become sons
+of God."
+
+"What is thy name?"
+
+"Sergius."
+
+"Sergius"--the Prince, now fully recovered, exerted his power of
+will--"Sergius, thou art a heretic."
+
+At this accusation, so terrible in those days, the monk raised the
+rosary of large beads dangling from his girdle, kissed the cross, and
+stood surveying the accuser with pity.
+
+"That is," the Prince continued with greater severity, "speak thou thus
+to the Patriarch yonder"--he waved a hand toward Constantinople--"dare
+repeat the saying to a commission appointed to try thee for heresy, and
+thou wilt thyself taste the pangs of crucifixion or be cast to the
+beasts."
+
+The monk arose to his great height, and replied, fervently:
+
+"Knowest thou when death hath the sweetness of sleep? I will tell
+thee"--A light certainly not from the narrow aperture in the wall
+collected upon his countenance, and shone visibly--"It is when a martyr
+dies knowing both of God's hands are a pillow under his head."
+
+The Prince dropped his eyes, for he was asking himself, was such
+sweetness of sleep appointed for him? Resuming his natural manner, he
+said: "I understand thee, Sergius. Probably no man in the world, go
+thou East or West, will ever understand thee better. God's hands under
+my head, welcome death!--Let us be friends."
+
+Sergius took his offered hand.
+
+Just then there was a noise at the door, and a troop of servants
+entered with lighted lamps, rugs, a table, stools, and beds and
+bedding, and it was not long until the apartment was made habitable.
+The Prince, otherwise well satisfied, wanted nothing then but a reply
+from Mirza; and in the midst of his wonder at the latter's delay, a
+page in brilliant costume appeared, and called out:
+
+"The Emir Mirza!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE RING RETURNS
+
+
+The Prince, at the announcement of Mirza, took position near the centre
+of the room where the light was ample. His black velvet pelisse
+contrasting strongly with his white hair and beard, he looked a
+mysterious Indian potentate to whom occult Nature was a familiar, and
+the stars oracular friends.
+
+Mirza's cheeks were scarcely so sun and sand stained as when we first
+beheld him in conduct of the caravan to Mecca; in other respects he was
+unchanged. His attire, like the lord Mahommed's at the reception on the
+landing, was of chain mail very light and flexible. He carried a dagger
+in his belt, and to further signify confidence in the Prince, the flat
+steel cap forming his headgear was swinging loosely from his left arm;
+or he might have intended to help his friend to a more ready
+recognition by presenting himself bareheaded. He met his survey with
+unaffected pleasure, took the hand extended in greeting, and kissed it
+reverentially.
+
+"Forgive me, O Prince, if my first greeting have the appearance of a
+reproach," Mirza said, as he gave up the hand. "Why have you kept us
+waiting so long?"
+
+The Prince's countenance assumed a severe expression.
+
+"Emir, I gave you confidence under seal."
+
+The Emir flushed deeply.
+
+"Was it knightly to betray me? To whom have you told the secret? How
+many have been waiting for my coming?"
+
+"Be merciful, I pray."
+
+"But the stars. You have made me culprit with them. I may pardon you;
+can you assure me of their pardon?"
+
+The Emir raised his head, and with an expostulatory gesture, was about
+to reply, when the Prince continued, "Put thy words in the tongue
+coinage of Italy, for to be overheard now were to make me an offender
+like unto thyself."
+
+Mirza glanced hastily at Sergius, still praying before the loophole,
+and at Nilo; then he surveyed the cell critically, and said, in
+Italian, "This is the prison of the Castle--and thou--can it be I see
+thee a prisoner?"
+
+The Prince smiled. "The Governor led me here with my friends; and what
+you behold of accommodations he sent in afterwards, saying the better
+rooms were filled with soldiery."
+
+"He will rue the deed. My Lord is swift at righting a wrong, and trust
+me, O Prince, to make report. But to return"--Mirza paused, and looked
+into the Prince's eyes earnestly--"Is your accusation just? Hear me;
+then by the motive judge. When I stood before my master, Prince
+Mahommed, a returned pilgrim, if not taller in fact, his bearing was
+more majestic. I kissed his hand wondering if some servant of the
+Compassionate, some angel or travelling Jinn, had not arrived before
+me, and whispered him of what you told me, speaking for the stars. And
+when we were alone, he would have account of the countries journeyed
+through, of the people met, of Medina and Mecca, and the other holy
+places; nor would he rest until he had from me the sayings I had heard
+on the way, everything from calls to prayer to the Khatib's sermon.
+When I told him I had not heard the sermon, nor seen the preacher or
+his camel, he demanded why, and--what else was there to do, O
+Prince?--I related how we had been pursued by the terrible Yellow Air;
+how it had overtaken me; how I fell down dying at the corner of the
+Kaaba, and by whom I was saved even as the life was departing. This
+last directed him to you. My efforts to put him off but whetted his
+desire. He would not be diverted or denied. He
+insisted--urged--threatened. At last I told him all--of your joining us
+with the Hajj from El Khatif--your rank and train--your marches in the
+rear--the hundreds of miserables you saved from the plague--of our
+meeting at Zaribah, your hospitality, your learning in all that
+pertains to the greatest of the prophets, your wisdom above the wisdom
+of other men. And you grew upon him as I proceeded. 'Oh, a good man
+truly!' 'What courage!' 'What charity!' 'The Prophet himself!' 'Oh,
+that I had been you!' 'O foolish Mirza, to suffer such a man to
+escape!' With such exclamations he kept breaking up my story. It was
+not long until he fastened upon our meeting in the tent. He plied me to
+know of what we talked--what you said, and all you said. O Prince, if
+you did but know him; if you knew the soul possessing him, the
+intellectual things he has mastered, his sagacity, his art, his will,
+his day-dreams pursuing him in sleep, the deeds he is prepared to do,
+the depth and strength of his passions, his admiration for heroes, his
+resolve to ring the world with the greatness of his name--Oh, knew you
+the man as I do, were you his lover as I am, his confidant--had you,
+for teaching him to ride and strike with sword and spear, his promise
+of a share in the glory beckoning him on, making his mighty
+expectations a part of you even as they are of him, would you--ah,
+Prince, could you have withheld the secret? Think of the revelation!
+The old East to awake, and march against the West! Constantinople
+doomed! And he the leader for whom the opportunity is waiting! And to
+call my weakness betrayal! Unsay it, unsay it, Prince!"
+
+The face of the auditor as Mirza proceeded with his defence would have
+been a profitable study. He saw himself succeeding in the purpose of
+his affected severity; he was drawing from Mahommed's intimate the
+information he most desired; and thus advised in advance, his role in
+the interview coming would be of easy foresight and performance. Not to
+appear too lightly satisfied, however, he said gravely, "I see the
+strain you underwent, my gallant friend. I see also the earnestness of
+your affection for your most noble pupil. He is to be congratulated
+upon the possession of a servant capable of such discernment and
+devotion. But I recall my question--How many are there waiting for me?"
+
+"Your revelations, O Prince, were imparted to my master alone; and with
+such certainty as you know yourself, you may believe them at rest in
+his bosom. No one better than he appreciates the importance of keeping
+them there under triple lock. More than one defeat--I think he would
+permit the confession--has taught him that secrecy is the life of every
+enterprise."
+
+"Say you so, Emir? I feel warmth returning to my hope. Nay, listening
+to you, and not believing in improvised heroes, I see how your course
+may have been for the best. The years gone since you yielded to his
+importunities, wisely used, have doubtless served him providentially."
+
+The Prince extended his hand again, and it was ardently taken; then, on
+his part, more than pleased, Mirza said, "I bring you a message from my
+Lord Mahommed. I was with him when the Governor came and delivered your
+ring to me--and, lest I forget a duty, Prince, here it is--take it at
+some future time it may be serviceable as today."
+
+"Yes, well thought!" the Jew exclaimed, replacing the signet on his
+finger, and immediately, while looking at the turquoise eye, he dropped
+his tone into the solemn, "Ay, the obligations of the Pentagram
+endure--they are like a decree of God."
+
+The words and manner greatly impressed Mirza.
+
+"My Lord Mahommed," he said, "observed the delivery of the ring to me
+by the Governor; and when we were alone, and I had recounted the story
+of the jewels, 'What!' my Lord cried, quite as transported as myself.
+'That wonderful man--he here--here in this Castle! He shall not escape
+me. Send for him at once. I brook no delay.' He stamped his foot. 'Lest
+he vanish in the storm--go!' When I was at the door, he bade me come
+back. 'The elder man with the white beard and black eyes, said you? It
+were well for me to begin by consulting his comfort. He may be tired,
+and in want of repose; his accommodations may be insufficient;
+wherefore go see him first, and ascertain his state and wishes.' And as
+I was going, he summoned me to return again. 'A moment--stay!' he
+said.'The circumstance enlarges with thought. Thou knowest, Mirza, I
+did not come here with a special object; I was drawn involuntarily; now
+I see it was to meet him. It is a doing of the stars. I shall hear from
+them!' O Prince"--Mirza's eyes sparkled, arid he threw up both his
+hands--"if ever man believed what he said, my master did."
+
+"A wise master truly," said the Jew, struggling with his exultation.
+"What said he next?"
+
+"'While I am honoring their messenger'--thus my Lord continued--'why
+not honor the stars? Their hour is midnight, for then they are all out,
+from this horizon and that calling unto each other, and merging their
+influences into the harmony the preachers call the Will of the Most
+Merciful. A good hour for the meeting. Hear, Mirza--at midnight--in
+this room. Go now.' And so it is appointed."
+
+"And well appointed, Emir."
+
+"Shall I so report?"
+
+"With my most dutiful protestations."
+
+"Look for me then at midnight."
+
+"I shall be awake, and ready."
+
+"Meantime, Prince, I will seek an apartment more in correspondence with
+the degree of my Lord's most honored guest."
+
+"Nay, good Mirza, suffer me to advise in that matter. The bringing me
+into this place was a mistake of the Governor's. He could not divine
+the merit I have in your master's eyes. He took me for a Christian. I
+forgive him, and pray he may not be disturbed. He may be useful to me.
+Upon the springing of a mischance--there is one such this instant in my
+mind's eye--I may be driven to come back to this Castle. In such an
+event, I prefer him my servant rather than my enemy."
+
+"O Prince!"
+
+"Nay, Emir, the idea is only a suggestion of one of the Prophets whom
+Allah stations at the turns in every man's career."
+
+"But every man cannot see the Prophets."
+
+The Jew finished gravely: "Rather than disturb the Governor further,
+soothe him for me; and when the Lord Mahommed goes hence, do thou see
+an instruction is left putting the Castle and its chief at my order.
+Also, as thou art a grateful friend, Mirza, serve me by looking into
+the kettles out of which we are to have our refreshment, and order
+concerning them as for thyself. I feel a stir of appetite."
+
+The Emir backed from the apartment, leaving a low salaam just outside
+the door.
+
+If the reader thinks the Prince content now, he is not mistaken. True
+he paced the floor long and rapidly; but, feeling himself close upon a
+turn in his course, he was making ready for it perfectly as possible by
+consulting the Prophet whom he saw waiting there.
+
+And as the Lord Mahommed failed not to remember them what time he
+betook himself to supper, the three guests up in the prison fared well,
+nor cared for the howling of the wind, and the bursting and beating of
+the rain still rioting without the walls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MAHOMMED HEARS FROM THE STARS
+
+
+The second recall of the Emir Mirza departing with the appointment for
+the Prince of India was remarkable, considering Mahommed's usual
+quickness of conclusion and steadiness of purpose; and the accounting
+for it is noteworthy.
+
+So completely had the young Turk been taken up by study and military
+service that leisure for love had been denied him; else he either
+despised the passion or had never met a woman to catch his fancy and
+hold it seriously.
+
+We have seen him make the White Castle by hard galloping before the
+bursting of the storm. While at the gate, and in the midst of his
+reception there, the boats were reported making all speed to the river
+landing; and not wishing his presence at the Castle to be known in
+Constantinople, he despatched an under officer to seize the voyagers,
+and detain them until he had crossed the Bosphorus _en route_ to
+Adrianople. However, directly the officer brought back the spirited
+message of the Princess Irene to the Governor of the Castle, his mind
+underwent a change.
+
+"What," he asked, "sayst thou the woman is akin to the Emperor
+Constantine?"
+
+"Such is her claim, my Lord, and she looks it."
+
+"Is she old?"
+
+"Young, my Lord--not more than twenty."
+
+Mahommed addressed the Governor:
+
+"Stay thou here. I will take thy office, and wait upon this Princess."
+
+Dismounting, then, in the capacity of Governor of the Castle, he
+hastened to the landing, curious as well as desirous of offering refuge
+to the noble lady.
+
+He saw her first a short way off, and was struck with her composed
+demeanor. During the discussion of his tender of hospitality, her face
+was in fair view, and it astonished him. When finally she stepped from
+the boat, her form, delicately observable under the rich and graceful
+drapery, and so exquisitely in correspondence with her face, still
+further charmed him.
+
+Before the chairs were raised, he sent a messenger to the Castle with
+orders to place everybody in hiding, and for his Kislar-Aga, or chief
+eunuch, to be in the passage of entrance to receive and take charge of
+the kinswoman of the Emperor and her attendant. By a further order the
+Governor proper was directed to vacate his harem apartments for her
+accommodation.
+
+In the Castle, after the Princess had been thus disposed of, the
+impression she made upon him increased.
+
+"She is so high-born!--so beautiful!--She has such spirit and
+mind!--She is so calm under trial--so courageous--so decorous--so used
+to courtly life!"
+
+Such exclamations attested the unwonted ferment going on in his mind.
+Gradually, as tints under the brush of a skilful painter lose
+themselves in one effect, his undefined ideas took form.
+
+"O Allah! What a Sultana for a hero!"
+
+And by repetition this ran on into what may be termed the chorus of a
+love song--the very first of the kind his soul had ever sung.
+
+Such was Mahommed's state when Mirza received the turquoise ring, and,
+announcing the Prince of India, asked for orders. Was it strange he
+changed his mind? Indeed he was at the moment determining to see again
+the woman who had risen upon him like a moon above a lake; so, directly
+he had despatched the Emir to the Prince of India with the appointment
+for midnight, he sent for an Arab Sheik of his suite, arrayed himself
+in the latter's best habit, and stained his hands, neck, and
+face-turned himself, in brief, into the story-teller whom we have seen
+admitted to amuse the Princess Irene.
+
+At midnight, sharply as the hour could be determined by the uncertain
+appliances resorted to by the inmates of the Castle, Mirza appeared at
+his master's door with the mystical Indian, and, passing the sentinel
+there, knocked like one knowing himself impatiently awaited. A voice
+bade them enter.
+
+The young Turk, upon their entrance, arose from a couch of many
+cushions prepared for him under a canopy in the centre of the room.
+
+"This, my Lord, is the Prince of India" said Mirza; then, almost
+without pause, he turned to the supposed Indian, and added more
+ceremoniously: "Be thou happy, O Prince! The East hath not borne a son
+so worthy to take the flower from the tomb of Saladin, and wear it, as
+my master here--the Lord Mahommed."
+
+Then, his duty done, the Emir retired.
+
+Mahommed was in the garb used indoors immemorially by his race--sharply
+pointed slippers, immense trousers gathered at the ankles, a yellow
+quilted gown dropping below the knees, and a turban of balloon shape,
+its interfolding stayed by an aigrette of gold and diamonds. His head
+was shaven up to the edge of the turban, so that, the light falling
+from a cluster of lamps in suspension from the ceiling, every feature
+was in plain exposure. Looking into the black eyes scarcely shaded by
+the upraised arching brows, the Prince of India saw them sparkle with
+invitation and pleasure, and was himself satisfied.
+
+He advanced, and saluted by falling upon his knees, and kissing the
+back of his hands laid palm downward on the floor. Mahommed raised him
+to his feet.
+
+"Rise, O Prince!" he said--"rise, and come sit with me."
+
+From behind the couch, the Turk dragged a chair of ample seat, railed
+around except at the front, and provided with a cushion of camel's
+hair--a chair such as teachers in the Mosques use when expounding to
+their classes. This he placed so while he sat on the couch the visitor
+would be directly before him, and but little removed. Soon the two were
+sitting cross-legged face to face.
+
+"A man devout as the Prince of India is reported to me," Mahommed
+began, in a voice admirably seconding the respectful look he fixed upon
+the other, "must be of the rightly guided, who believe in God and the
+Last Day, and observe prayer, and pay the alms, and dread none but
+God--who therefore of right frequent the temples."
+
+"Your words, my Lord, are those of the veritable messenger of the most
+high Heaven," the Wanderer responded, bending forward as if about to
+perform a prostration. "I recognize them, and they give me the
+sensation of being in a garden of perpetual abode, with a river running
+beneath it." Mahommed, perceiving the quotation from the Koran, bent
+low in turn, saying: "It is good to hear you, for as I listen I say to
+myself, This one is of the servants of the Merciful who are to walk
+upon the earth softly. I accost you in advance, Welcome and Peace."
+
+After a short silence, he continued: "A frequenter of mosques, you will
+see, O Prince, I have put you in the teacher's place. I am the student.
+Yours to open the book and read; mine to catch the pearls of your
+saying, lest they fall in the dust, and be lost."
+
+"I fear my Lord does me honor overmuch; yet there is a beauty in
+willingness even where one cannot meet expectation. Of what am I to
+speak?"
+
+Mahommed knit his brows, and asked imperiously, "Who art thou? Of that
+tell me first."
+
+Happily for the Prince, he had anticipated this demand, and, being
+intensely watchful, was ready for it, and able to reply without
+blenching: "The Emir introduced me rightly. I am a Prince of India."
+
+"Now of thy life something."
+
+"My Lord's request is general--perhaps he framed it with design. Left
+thus to my own judgment, I will be brief, and choose from the mass of
+my life."
+
+There was not the slightest sign of discomposure discernible in the
+look or tone of the speaker; his air was more than obliging--he seemed
+to be responding to a compliment.
+
+"I began walk as a priest--a disciple of Siddhartha, whom my Lord, of
+his great intelligence, will remember as born in Central India. Very
+early, on account of my skill in translation, I was called to China,
+and there put to rendering the Thirty-five Discourses of the father of
+the Budhisattwa into Chinese and Thibettan. I also published a version
+of the Lotus of the Good Law, and another of the Nirvana. These brought
+me a great honor. To an ancestor of mine, Maha Kashiapa, Buddha
+happened to have intrusted his innermost mysteries--that is, he made
+him Keeper of the Pure Secret of the Eye of Right Doctrine. Behold the
+symbol of that doctrine."
+
+The Prince drew a leaf of ivory, worn and yellow, from a pocket under
+his pelisse, and passed it to Mahommed, saying, "Will my lord look?"
+
+Mahommed took the leaf, and in the silver sunk into it saw this sign:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I see," he said, gravely. "Give me its meaning."
+
+"Nay, my Lord, did I that, the doctrine of which, as successor of
+Kashiapa, though far removed, they made me Keeper--the very highest of
+Buddhistic honors--would then be no longer a secret. The symbol is of
+vast sanctity. There is never a genuine image of Buddha without it over
+his heart. It is the monogram of Vishnu and Siva; but as to its
+meaning, I can only say every Brahman of learning views it
+worshipfully, knowing it the compression of the whole mind of Buddha."
+
+Mahommed respected the narrator's compunction, and returned the symbol,
+saying simply, "I have heard of such things."
+
+"To pursue," the Prince then said, confident of the impression he was
+producing: "At length I returned to my own country enriched beyond
+every hope. A disposition to travel seized me. One day, passing the
+desert to Baalbec, some Bedouin made me prisoner, and carrying me to
+Mecca, sold me to the Scherif there; a good man who respected my
+misfortune and learning--may the youths ever going in Paradise forget
+not his cup of flowing wine!--and wrought with me over the Book of the
+One God until I became a believer like himself. Then, as I had
+exchanged the hope of Nirvana for the better and surer hope of Islam,
+he set me free.... Again in my native land, I betook myself to
+astrologic studies, being the more inclined thereto by reason of the
+years I had spent in contemplating the abstrusities of Siddhartha. I
+became an adept--something, as my Lord may already know, impossible to
+such as go about unknowing the whole earth and heavens, and the powers
+superior, those of the sky, and those lesser, meaning Kings, Emperors,
+and Sultans."
+
+"How!" exclaimed Mahommed. "Is not every astrologer an adept?"
+
+The Prince answered softly, seeing the drift was toward the professor
+in the young Turk's service. "There is always a better until we reach
+the best. Even the stars differ from each other in degree."
+
+"But how may a man know the superior powers?"
+
+"The sum of the observations kept by the wise through the ages, and
+recorded by them, is a legacy for the benefit of the chosen few. Had my
+Lord the taste, and were he not already devoted by destiny, I could
+take him to a college where what is now so curious to him is simple
+reading."
+
+The hard and doubting expression on Mahommed's face began to soften,
+yet he persisted: "Knowing the superior, why is it needful to know the
+inferior powers?"
+
+"My Lord trenches now upon the forbidden, yet I will answer as his
+shrewdness deserves. Never man heard from the stars in direct
+speech--that were almost like words with God. But as they are servants,
+they also have servants. Moreover what we have from them is always in
+answer. They love to be sought after by the diligent. Some ages ago an
+adept seeking this and that of them conjecturally, had reply, 'Lo! A
+tribe of poor wanderers in the East. Heed them, for they shall house
+their dominion in palaces now the glory of the West, and they shall dig
+the pit to compass the fall of the proud.' Is it this tribe? Is it
+that? But the seeker never knew. The children of Ertoghrul were yet
+following their herds up and down the pastures they had from
+Ala-ed-din, the Iconian. Not knowing their name, he could not ask of
+them from the decree-makers?"
+
+The Mystic beheld the blood redden Mahommed's open countenance, and the
+brightening of his eyes; and as he was speaking to his pride, he knew
+he was not amiss.
+
+"The saying of the stars," he went on, "descended to succeeding adepts.
+Time came to their aid. When at length your fathers seated themselves
+in Broussa, the mystery was in part revealed. Anybody, even the
+low-browed herdsman shivering in the currents blowing from the Trojan
+heights, could then have named the fortunate tribe. Still the exposure
+was not complete; a part remained for finding out. We knew the diggers
+of the pit; but for whom was it? To this I devoted myself. Hear me
+closely now--my Lord, I have traversed the earth, not once, but many
+times--so often, you cannot name a people unknown to me, nor a land
+whither I have not been--no, nor an island. As the grandson of
+Abd-el-Muttalib was a Messenger of God, I am a Messenger of the
+Predicting Stars--not their prophet, only their Interpreter and
+Messenger. The business of the stars is my business." Mahommed's lips
+moved, and it was with an effort he kept silent.
+
+The Prince proceeded, apparently unconscious of the interest he was
+exciting: "Here and there while I travelled, I kept communication with
+the planets; and though I had many of their predictions to solve, I
+asked them oftenest after the unnamed proud one for whom thy
+Ottomanites were charged to dig a pit. I presented names without
+number--names of persons, names of peoples, and lest one should be
+overlooked, I kept a record of royal and notable families. Was a
+man-child horn to any of them, I wrote down the minute of the hour of
+his birth, and how he was called. By visitations, I kept informed of
+the various countries, their conditions, and their relations with each
+other; for as the state of the earth points favorably or unfavorably to
+its vegetation, so do the conditions of nations indicate the approach
+of changes, and give encouragement to those predestined to bring the
+changes about. Again I say, my Lord, as the stars are the servants of
+God, they have their servants, whom you shall never know except as you
+are able to read the signs their times offer you for reading. Moreover
+the servants are sometimes priests, sometimes soldiers, sometimes
+kings; among them have been women, and men of common origin; for the
+seed of genius falls directly from God's hand, and He chooses the time
+and field for the sowing; but whether high or low, white or black, good
+or bad, how shall a Messenger interpret truly for the stars except by
+going before their elect, and introducing them, and making their paths
+smooth? Must he not know them first?"
+
+A mighty impulsion here struck Mahommed. Recurring rather to what he
+had heard from Mirza of the revelation dropped by the strange person
+met by him during the pilgrimage, he felt himself about to be declared
+of the elect, and unable to control his eagerness, he asked abruptly:
+
+"Knowest thou me, O Prince?"
+
+The manner of the Mystic underwent a change. He had been deferential,
+even submissive; seldom a teacher so amiable and unmasterful; now he
+concentrated his power of spirit, and shot it a continuing flash from
+his large eyes.
+
+"Know thee, Lord Mahommed?" he answered, in a low voice, but clear and
+searching, and best suited to the conflict he was ushering in--the
+conflict of spirit and spirit. "Thou knowest not thyself as well."
+
+Mahommed shrank perceptibly--he was astonished.
+
+"I mean not reference to thy father--nor to the Christian Princess, thy
+mother,--nor to thy history, which is of an obedient son and brave
+soldier,--nor to thy education, unusual in those born inheritors of
+royal power--I mean none of these, for they are in mouths everywhere,
+even of the beggars nursing their sores by the waysides.... In thy
+father's palace there was a commotion one night--thou wert about to be
+born. A gold-faced clock stood in the birth chamber, the gift of a
+German King, and from the door of the chamber eunuchs were stationed.
+Exactly as the clock proclaimed midnight, mouth and mouth carried the
+cry to a man on the roof--'A Prince is born! A Prince is born! Praised
+be Allah!' He on the roof was seated at a table studying a paper with
+the signs of the Zodiac in the usual formulary of a nativity. At the
+coming of the cry, he arose, and observed the heavens intently; then he
+shouted, 'There is no God but God! Lo, Mars, Lord of the
+Ascendant--Mars, with his friends, Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter in happy
+configuration, and the moon nowhere visible. Hail the Prince!' And
+while his answer was passing below, the man on the roof marked the
+planets in their Houses exactly as they were that midnight between
+Monday and Tuesday in the year 1430. Have I in aught erred, my lord?"
+
+"In nothing, O Prince."
+
+"Then I proceed.... The nativity came to me, and I cast and recast it
+for the aspects, familiarities, parallels and triplicities of the hour,
+and always with the same result. I found the sun, the angles and the
+quality of the ambient signs favorable to a career which, when run, is
+to leave the East radiant with the glory of an unsetting sun."
+
+Here the Jew paused, and bowed--"Now doth my Lord doubt if I know him
+best?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+DREAMS AND VISIONS
+
+
+Mahommed sat awhile in deep abstraction, his face flushed, his hands
+working nervously in their own clasp. The subject possessing him was
+very pleasurable. How could it be else?
+
+On his side the Prince waited deferentially, but very observant. He was
+confident of the impression made; he even thought he could follow the
+young Turk's reflections point by point; still it was wisest to let him
+alone, for the cooling time of the sober second thought would come, and
+then how much better if there were room for him to believe the decision
+his own.
+
+"It is very well, Prince," Mahommed said, finally, struggling to keep
+down every sign of excitement. "I had accounts of you from Mirza the
+Emir, and it is the truth, which neither of us will be the worse of
+knowing, that I see nothing of disagreement in what he told me, and in
+what you now tell me of yourself. The conceptions I formed of you are
+justified: you are learned and of great experience; you are a good man
+given to charity as the Prophet has ordered, and a believer in God. At
+various times in the world's history, if we may trust the writers,
+great men have had their greatness foretold them; now if I think myself
+in the way of addition to the list of those so fortunate, it is because
+I put faith in you as in a friendly Prophet."
+
+At this the Prince threw up both hands.
+
+"Friendly am I, my lord, more than friendly, but not a Prophet. I am
+only a Messenger, an Interpreter of the Superior Powers."
+
+Much he feared the demands upon him if he permitted the impression that
+he was a Prophet to go uncontradicted; as an astrologer, he could in
+need thrust the stars between him and the unreasonable. And his
+judgment was quickly affirmed.
+
+"As you will, O Prince," said Mahommed. "Messenger, interpreter,
+prophet, whichever pleases you, the burden of what you bring me is
+nevertheless of chiefest account. Comes a herald, we survey him, and
+ask voucher for his pretensions; are we satisfied with them, why then
+he gives place in our interest, and becomes secondary to the matter he
+bears. Is it not so?"
+
+"It is righteously said, my Lord."
+
+"And when I take up this which you have brought me"--Mahommed laid a
+hand upon his throat as if in aid of the effort he was making to keep
+calm and talk with dignity--"I cannot deny its power; for when was
+there an imaginative young man who first permitted ambition and love of
+glory to build golden palaces for their abiding in his heart, with
+self-control to stop his ears to promises apparently from Heaven? O
+Prince, if you are indeed my friend, you will not laugh at me when you
+are alone!... Moreover I would not you should believe your tidings
+received carelessly or as a morsel sweet on my tongue; but as wine
+warms to the blood coursing to the brain, it has started inquiries and
+anxieties you alone can allay. And first, the great glory whose running
+is to fill the East, like an unsetting sun, tell me of it; for, as we
+all know, glory is of various kinds; there is one kind reserved for
+poets, orators, and professors cunning in the arts, and another for
+cheer of such as find delight in swords and bossy shields, and armor
+well bedight, and in horses, and who exult in battle, and in setting
+armies afield, in changing boundary lines, and in taking rest and
+giving respite in the citadels of towns happily assaulted. And as of
+these the regard is various, tell me the kind mine is to be."
+
+"The stars speak not doubtfully, my Lord. When Mars rises ascendant in
+either of his Houses, they that moment born are devoted to war, and,
+have they their bent, they shall be soldiers; nor soldiers merely, but
+as the conjunctions are good, conquerors, and fortunate, and Samael,
+his angel, becomes their angel. Has my Lord ever seen his nativity?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then he knows whereof I speak."
+
+Mahommed nodded affirmatively, and said, "The fame is to my taste,
+doubt not; but, Prince, were thy words duly weighed, then my glory is
+to be surpassing. Now, I am of a line of heroes. Othman, the founder;
+Orchan, father of the Janissaries; Solyman, who accepted the crescent
+moon seen in a dream by the sea at Cyzicus as Allah's bidding to pass
+the Hellespont to Tzympe in Europe; Amurath, conqueror of Adrianople;
+Bajazet, who put an end to Christian crusading in the field of
+Nicopolis--these filled the East with their separate renowns; and my
+father Amurath, did he not subdue Hunyades? Yet, Prince, you tell me my
+glory is to transcend theirs. Now--because I am ready to believe
+you--say if it is to burst upon me suddenly or to signalize a long
+career. The enjoyment of immortality won in youth must be a pleasant
+thing."
+
+"I cannot answer, my Lord"
+
+"Cannot?"
+
+And Mahommed's eagerness came near getting the better of his will.
+
+"I have nothing from the stars by which to speak, and I dare not assume
+to reply for myself."
+
+Then Mahommed's eyes became severely bright, and the bones of his hands
+shone white through the skin, so hard did he compress them.
+
+"How long am I to wait before the glory you promise me ripens ready for
+gathering? If it requires long campaigns, shall I summon the armies
+now?"
+
+A tone, a stress of voice in the question sent a shiver through the
+Prince despite his self-command. His gaze upon Mahommed's countenance,
+already settled, intensified, and almost before the last word passed he
+saw the idea he was expected to satisfy, and that it was the point to
+which his interrogator had been really tending from the commencement of
+the interview. To gain a moment, he affected not to clearly understand;
+after a repetition, he in turn asked, with a meaning look:
+
+"Is not thy father, O Prince, now in his eighty-fifth year?"
+
+Mahommed leaned further forward.
+
+"And is it not eight and twenty years since he began reigning wisely
+and well?"
+
+Mahommed nodded assent.
+
+"Suffer me to answer now. Besides his age which pleads for him, your
+father has not allowed greatness and power to shade the love he gave
+you heartily the hour he first took you in his arms. Nature protests
+against his cutting off, and in this instance, O Prince, the voice of
+Nature is the voice of Allah. So say I speaking for myself."
+
+Mahommed's face relaxed its hardness, and he moved and breathed freely
+while replying: "I do not know what the influences require of me."
+
+"Speak you of the stars, my Lord," the other returned, "hear me, and
+with distinctness. As yet they have intrusted me with the one
+prediction, and that you have. In other words, they are committed to a
+horoscope based upon your nativity, and from it your glory has been
+rightly delivered. So much is permitted us by the astrologic law we
+practise. But this now asked me, a circumstance in especial, appertains
+to you as chief of forces not yet yours. Wherefore--heed well, my
+Lord--I advise you to make note of the minute of the hour of the day
+you gird yourself with the sword of sovereignty which, at this
+speaking, is your great father's by sanction of Heaven; then will I
+cast a horoscope for Mahommed the Sultan, not Mahommed, son of Amurath
+merely--then, by virtue of my office of Interpreter of the Stars,
+having the proper writing in my hand, I will tell you this you now
+seek, together with all else pertaining to your sovereignty intrusted
+me for communication. I will tell you when the glory is open to you,
+and the time for setting forward to make it yours--even the dawning of
+the term of preparation necessarily precedent to the movement itself.
+Now am I understood? Will my Lord tell me I am understood?"
+
+An observation here may not be amiss. The reader will of course notice
+the clever obtrusion of the stars in the speech; yet its real craft was
+in the reservations covered. Presuming it possible for the Prince to
+have fixed a time to Mahommed's satisfaction, telling it would have
+been like giving away the meat of an apple, and retaining the rind. The
+wise man who sets out to make himself a need to another will carefully
+husband his capital. Moreover it is of importance to keep in mind
+through this period of our story that with the Prince of India
+everything was subsidiary to his scheme of unity in God. To which end
+it was not enough to be a need to Mahommed; he must also bring the
+young potentate to wait upon him for the signal to begin the movement
+against Constantinople; for such in simplicity was the design scarcely
+concealed under the glozing of "the East against the West." That is to
+say, until he knew Constantine's disposition with respect to the
+superlative project, his policy was delay. What, in illustration, if
+the Emperor proved a friend? In falconry the hawk is carried into the
+field hooded, and cast off only when the game is flushed. So the Prince
+of India thought as he concluded his speech, and looked at the handsome
+face of the Lord Mahommed.
+
+The latter was disappointed, and showed it. He averted his eyes, knit
+his brows, and took a little time before answering; then a flash of
+passion seized him.
+
+"With all thy wisdom, Prince, thou knowest not how hard waiting will
+be. There is nothing in Nature sweeter than glory, and on the other
+hand nothing so intolerably bitter as hungering for it when it is in
+open prospect. What irony in the providence which permits us to harvest
+greatness in the days of our decline! I dream of it for my youth, for
+then most can be made of it. There was a Greek--not of the Byzantine
+breed in the imperial kennel yonder"--he emphasized the negative with a
+contemptuous glance in the direction of Constantinople--"a Greek of the
+old time of real heroes, he who has the first place in history as a
+conqueror. Think you he was happy because he owned the world? Delight
+in property merely, a horse, a palace, a ship, a kingdom, is vulgar:
+any man can be owner of something; the beggar polishes his crutch for
+the same reason the king gilds his throne--it belongs to him.
+Possession means satiety. But achieve thou immortality in thy first
+manhood, and it shall remain to thee as the ring to a bride or as his
+bride to the bridegroom.--Let it be as you say. I bow to the stars.
+Between me and the sovereignty my father stands, a good man to whom I
+give love for love; and he shall not be disturbed by me or any of mine.
+In so far I will honor your advice; and in the other matter also, there
+shall be one ready to note the minute of the hour the succession falls
+to me. But what if then you are absent?"
+
+"A word from my Lord will bring me to him; and His Majesty is liable to
+go after his fathers at any moment"--
+
+"Ay, and alas!" Mahommed interposed, with unaffected sorrow, "a king
+may keep his boundaries clean, and even extend them thitherward from
+the centre, and be a fear unto men; yet shall death oblige him at last.
+All is from God."
+
+The Prince was courtier enough to respect the feeling evinced.
+
+"But I interrupted you," Mahommed presently added. "I pray pardon."
+
+"I was about to say, my Lord, if I am not with you when His Majesty,
+your father, bows to the final call--for the entertainment of such was
+Paradise set upon its high hill!--let a messenger seek me in
+Constantinople; and it may even serve well if the Governor of this
+Castle be instructed to keep his gates always open to me, and himself
+obedient to my requests."
+
+"A good suggestion! I will attend to it. But"--
+
+Again he lapsed into abstraction, and the Prince held his peace
+watchfully.
+
+"Prince," Mahommed said at length, "it is not often I put myself at
+another's bidding, for freedom to go where one pleases is not more to a
+common man than is freedom to do what pleases him to a sovereign; yet
+so will I with you in this matter; and as is the custom of Moslems
+setting out on a voyage I say of our venture, 'In the name of God be
+its courses and its moorings.' That settled, hearken further. What you
+have given me is not all comprehensible. As I understand you, I am to
+find the surpassing glory in a field of war. Tell me, lies the field
+far or near? Where is it? And who is he I am to challenge? There will
+be room and occasion for combat around me everywhere, or, if the
+occasion exist not, my Spahis in a day's ride can make one. There is
+nothing stranger than how small a cause suffices us to set man against
+man, life or death. But--and now I come to the very difficulty--looking
+here and there I cannot see a war new in any respect, either of
+parties, or objects, or pretence, out of which such a prodigious fame
+is to be plucked. You discern the darkness in which I am groping.
+Light, O Prince--give me light!"
+
+For an instant the mind of the Jew, sown with subtlety as a mine with
+fine ore, was stirred with admiration of the quality so strikingly
+manifested in this demand; but collecting himself, he said, calmly, for
+the question had been foreseen:
+
+"My Lord was pleased to say a short while ago that the Emir Mirza, on
+his return from the Hajj, told him of me. Did Mirza tell also of my
+forbidding him to say anything of the predictions I then intrusted him?"
+
+"Yes," Mahommed answered, smiling, "and I have loved him for the
+disobedience. He satisfied me to whom he thought his duty was first
+owing."
+
+"Well, if evil ensue from the disclosure, it may be justly charged to
+my indiscretion. Let it pass--only, in reporting me, did not Mirza say,
+Lord Mahommed, that the prohibition I laid upon him proceeded from a
+prudent regard for your interests?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And in speaking of the change in the status of the world I then
+announced, and of the refluent wave the East was to pour upon the
+West"--
+
+"And of the doom of Constantinople!" Mahommed cried, in a sudden
+transport of excitement.
+
+"Ay, and of the hero thou wert to be, my Lord! Said he nothing of the
+other caution I gave him, how absolute verity could only be had by a
+recast of the horoscope at the city itself? And how I was even then on
+my way thither?"
+
+"Truly, O Prince. Mirza is a marvel!"
+
+"Thanks, my Lord. The assurance prepares me to answer your last demand."
+
+Then, lowering his voice, the Prince returned to his ordinary manner.
+
+"The glory you are to look for will not depend upon conditions such as
+parties to the war, or its immediate cause, or the place of its
+wagement."
+
+Mahommed listened with open mouth.
+
+"My Lord knows of the dispute long in progress between the Pope of Rome
+and the Patriarch of Constantinople; one claiming to be the head of the
+Church of Christ, the other insisting on his equality. The dispute, my
+Lord also knows, has been carried from East to West, and back and back
+again, prelate replying to prelate, until the whole Church is falling
+to pieces, and on every Christian tongue the 'Church East' and the
+'Church West' are common as morning salutations."
+
+Mahommed nodded.
+
+"Now, my Lord," the Prince continued, the magnetic eyes intensely
+bright, "you and I know the capital of Christianity is yonder "--he
+pointed toward Constantinople--"and that conquering it is taking from
+Christ and giving to Mahomet. What more of definition of thy glory wilt
+thou require? Thus early I salute thee a Sword of God."
+
+Mahommed sprang from his couch, and strode the floor, frequently
+clapping his hands. Upon the passing of the ecstasy, he stopped in
+front of the Prince.
+
+"I see it now--the feat of arms impossible to my father reserved for
+me."
+
+Again he walked, clapping his hands.
+
+"I pray your pardon," he said, when the fit was over. "In my great joy
+I interrupted you."
+
+"I regret to try my Lord's patience further," the Prince answered, with
+admirable diplomacy. "It were better, however, to take another step in
+the explanation now. A few months after separating from Mirza in Mecca,
+I arrived in Constantinople, and every night since, the heavens being
+clear, I have questioned the stars early and late. I cannot repeat to
+my Lord all the inquiries I made of them, so many were they, and so
+varied in form, nor the bases I laid hold of for horoscopes, each
+having, as I hoped, to do with the date of the founding of the city.
+What calculations I have made--tables of figures to cover the sky with
+a tapestry of algebraic and geometrical symbols: The walks of astrology
+are well known--I mean those legitimate--nevertheless in my great
+anxiety, I have even ventured into the arcana of magic forbidden to the
+Faithful. The seven good angels, and the seven bad, beginning with
+Jubanladace, first of the good, a celestial messenger, helmeted,
+sworded with flame, and otherwise beautiful to behold, and ending with
+Barman, the lowest of the bad, the consort and ally of witches--I
+besought them all for what they could tell me. Is the time of the
+running of the city now, to-morrow, next week--when? Such the burden of
+my inquiry. As yet, my Lord, no answer has been given. I am merely bid
+keep watch on the schism of the Church. In some way the end we hope has
+connection with that rancor, if, indeed, it be not the grand result.
+With clear discernment of the tendencies, the Roman Pontiff is striving
+to lay the quarrel; but he speaks to a rising tide. We cannot hasten
+the event; neither can he delay it. Our role is patience--patience. At
+last Europe will fall away, and leave the Greek to care of himself;
+then, my Lord, you have but to be ready. The end is in the throes of
+its beginning now."
+
+"Still you leave me in the dark," Mahommed cried, with a frown.
+
+"Nay, my Lord, there is a chance for us to make the stars speak."
+
+The beguiler appeared to hesitate.
+
+"A chance?" Mahommed asked.
+
+"It is dependent, my Lord."
+
+"Upon what?"
+
+"The life of the Sultan, thy father."
+
+"Speak not in riddles, O Prince."
+
+"Upon his death, thou wilt enter on the sovereignty."
+
+"Still I see not clearly."
+
+"With the horoscope of Mahommed the Sultan in my hand, then certainly
+as the stars perform their circuits, being set thereunto from the first
+morning, they must respond to me; and then, find I Mars in the
+Ascendant, well dignified essentially and accidentally, I can lead my
+Lord out of the darkness."
+
+"Then, Prince?"
+
+"He may see the Christian capital at his mercy."
+
+"But if Mars be not in the Ascendant?"
+
+"My Lord must wait."
+
+Mahommed sprang to his feet, gnashing his teeth.
+
+"My Lord," said the Prince, calmly, "a man's destiny is never
+unalterable; it is like a pitcher filled with wine which he is carrying
+to his lips--it may be broken on the way, and its contents spilled.
+Such has often happened through impatience and pride. What is waiting
+but the wise man's hour of preparation?"
+
+The quiet manner helped the sound philosophy. Mahommed took seat,
+remarking, "You remind me, Prince, of the saying of the Koran,
+'Whatsoever good betideth thee, O man, it is from God, and whatsoever
+evil betideth, from thyself is it.' I am satisfied. Only"--
+
+The Prince summoned all his faculties again.
+
+"Only I see two periods of waiting before me; one from this until I
+take up the sovereignty; the other thence till thou bringest me the
+mandate of the stars. I fear not the second period, for, as thou
+sayest, I can then lose myself in making ready; but the first, the
+meantime--ah, Prince, speak of it. Tell me how I can find surcease of
+the chafing of my spirit."
+
+The comprehension of the wily Hebrew did not fail him. His heart beat
+violently. He was master! Once more he was in position to change the
+world. A word though not more than "now," and he could marshal the
+East, which he so loved, against the West, which he so hated. If
+Constantinople failed him, Christianity must yield its seat to Islam.
+He saw it all flash-like; yet at no time in the interview did his face
+betoken such placidity of feeling. The _meantime_ was his, not
+Mahommed's--his to lengthen or shorten--his for preparation. He could
+afford to be placid.
+
+"There is much for my Lord to do," he said.
+
+"When, O Prince--now?"
+
+"It is for him to think and act as if Constantinople were his capital
+temporarily in possession of another."
+
+The words caught attention, and it is hard saying what Mahommed's
+countenance betokened. The reader must think of him as of a listener
+just awakened to a new idea of infinite personal concern.
+
+"It is for him now to learn the city within and without," the Jew
+proceeded; "its streets and edifices; its halls and walls; its strong
+and weak places; its inhabitants, commerce, foreign relations; the
+character of its ruler, his resources and policies; its daily events;
+its cliques and clubs, and religious factions; especially is it for him
+to foment the differences Latin and Greek."
+
+It is questionable if any of the things imparted had been so effective
+upon Mahommed as this one. Not only did his last doubt of the man
+talking disappear; it excited a boundless admiration for him, and the
+freshest novitiate in human nature knows how almost impossible it is to
+refuse trust when once we have been brought to admire. "Oh!" Mahommed
+cried. "A pastime, a pastime, if I could be there!"
+
+"Nay, my Lord," said the insidious counsellor, with a smile, "how do
+kings manage to be everywhere at the same time?"
+
+"They have their Ambassadors. But I am not a king."
+
+"Not yet a king"--the speaker laid stress upon the
+adverb--"nevertheless public representation is one thing; secret agency
+another."
+
+Mahommed's voice sank almost to a whisper.
+
+"Wilt thou accept this agency?"
+
+"It is for me to observe the heavens at night, while calculations will
+take my days. I trust my Lord in his wisdom will excuse me."
+
+"Where is one for the service? Name him, Prince--one as good."
+
+"There is one better. Bethink you, my Lord, the business is of a long
+time; it may run through years."
+
+Mahommed's brow knit darkly at the reminder.
+
+"And he who undertakes it should enter Constantinople and live there
+above suspicion. He must be crafty, intelligent, courtly in manner,
+accomplished in arms, of high rank, and with means to carry his state
+bravely, for not only ought he to be conspicuous in the Hippodrome; he
+should be welcome in the palace. Along with other facilities, he must
+be provided to buy service in the Emperor's bedroom and council
+chamber--nay, at his elbow. It is of prime importance that he possesses
+my Lord's confidence unalterably. Am I understood?"
+
+"The man, Prince, the man!"
+
+"My Lord has already named him."
+
+"I?"
+
+"Only to-night my Lord spoke of him as a marvel."
+
+"Mirza!" exclaimed Mahommed, clapping his hands.
+
+"Mirza," the Prince returned, and proceeded without pause: "Despatch
+him to Italy; then let him appear in Constantinople, embarked from a
+galley, habited like a Roman, and with a suitable Italian title. He
+speaks Italian already, is fixed in his religion, and in knightly
+honor. Not all the gifts at the despot's disposal, nor the
+blandishments of society can shake his allegiance--he worships my Lord."
+
+"My servant has found much favor with you, O Prince?"
+
+Accepting the remark as a question, the other answered:
+
+"Did I not spend the night with him at El Zaribah? Was I not witness of
+his trial of faith at the Holy Kaaba? Have I not heard from my Lord
+himself how, when put to choice, he ignored my prohibition respecting
+the stars?"
+
+Mahommed arose, and again walked to and fro.
+
+"There is a trouble in this proposal, Prince," he said, halting
+abruptly. "So has Mirza become a part of me, I am scarcely myself
+without him."
+
+Another turn across the floor, and he seemed to become reconciled. "Let
+us have done for to-night," he next said. "The game is imperative, but
+it will not be harmed by a full discussion. Stay with me to-morrow,
+Prince."
+
+The Prince remembered the Emperor. Not unlikely a message from that
+high personage was at his house, received in course of the day.
+
+"True, very true, and the invitation is a great honor to me," he
+replied, bowing; "but I am reminded that the gossips in Byzantium will
+feast each other when to-morrow it passes from court to bazaar how the
+Princess Irene and the Prince of India were driven by the storm to
+accept hospitality in the White Castle. And if it get abroad, that
+Mahommed, son of the great Amurath, came also to the Castle, who may
+foretell the suspicions to hatch in the city? No, my Lord, I submit it
+is better for me to depart with the Princess at the subsidence of the
+waters."
+
+"Be it so," Mahommed returned, cordially. "We understand each other. I
+am to wait and you to communicate with me; and now, morning comes
+apace, good night."
+
+He held his hand to the Jew; whereat the latter knelt and kissed the
+hand, but retained it to say:
+
+"My Lord, if I know him rightly, will not sleep to-night; thought is an
+enemy to sleep; and besides the inspiration there is in the destiny
+promised, its achievement lies all before him. Yet I wish to leave
+behind me one further topic, promising it is as much greater than any
+other as the Heavens are higher than the earth."
+
+"Rise, Prince," said Mahommed, helping him to his feet. "Such
+ceremonious salutation whether in reception or at departure may be
+dispensed with hereafter; thou art not a stranger, but more than a
+guest. I count thee my friend whom everything shall wait upon--even
+myself. Speak now of what thou callest the greater scheme. I am most
+curious."
+
+There was a silence while one might count ten slowly. The Jew in that
+space concentrated the mysterious force of which he was master in great
+store, so it shone in his eyes, gave tone to his voice, and was an
+outgoing of WILL in overwhelming current. "Lord Mahommed," he said, "I
+know you are a believer in God."
+
+The young Turk was conscious of a strange thrill passing through him
+from brain to body.
+
+"In nature and every quality the God of the Jew, the Christian, and the
+Moslem is the same. Take we their own sayings. Christ and Mahomet were
+witnesses sent to testify of Him first, highest and alone--Him the
+universal Father. Yet behold the perversity of man. God has been
+deposed, and for ages believers in Him have been divided amongst
+themselves; wherefore hate, jealousies, wars, battle and the smoke of
+slaughter perpetually. But now is He at last minded to be restored.
+Hear, Lord Mahommed, hear with soul and mortal ear!"
+
+The words and manner caught and exalted Mahommed's spirit. As Michael,
+with a sweep of his wings, is supposed to pass the nether depths, an
+impulsion bore the son of Amurath up to a higher and clearer plane. He
+could not but hear.
+
+"Be it true now that God permits His presence to be known in human
+affairs only when He has a purpose to justify His interposition; then,
+as we dare not presume the capital of Christendom goes to its fall
+without His permission, why your designation for the mighty work? That
+you may be personally glorified, my Lord? Look higher. See yourself His
+chosen instrument--and this the deed! From the seat of the Caesars, its
+conquest an argument, He means you to bring men together in His name.
+Titles may remain--Jew, Moslem, Christian, Buddhist--but there shall be
+an end of wars for religion--all mankind are to be brethren in Him.
+This the deed, my Lord--Unity in God, and from it, a miracle of the
+ages slow to come but certain, the evolution of peace and goodwill
+amongst men. I leave the idea with you. Good night!"
+
+Mahommed remained so impressed and confounded that the seer was
+permitted to walk out as from an empty room. Mirza received him outside
+the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+DEPARTURE FROM THE WHITE CASTLE
+
+
+The storm continued till near daybreak. At sunrise the wind abated, and
+was rapidly succeeded by a dead calm; about the same time the last
+cloud disappeared, leaving the sky an azure wonder, and the shores of
+the Bosphorus far and near refreshed and purified.
+
+After breakfast, Mirza conducted the Prince of India to another private
+audience with Mahommed. As the conference had relation to the subjects
+gone over in the night, the colloquy may be dispensed with, and only
+the conclusions given.
+
+Mahommed admitted he had not been able to sleep; in good spirits,
+however, he agreed, if the Prince were accountable for the wakefulness,
+he was to be forgiven, since he had fairly foretold it, and, like other
+prophets, was entitled to immunity. The invitation to remain at the
+Castle was renewed, and again declined.
+
+Mahommed next conceded the expediency of his waiting to hear what
+further the stars might say with respect to the great business before
+him, and voluntarily bound himself to passive conduct and silence; in
+assuagement of the impatience he knew would torment him, he insisted,
+however, upon establishing a line of couriers between his place of
+residence, wherever it might be, and the White Castle. Intelligence
+could thus be safely transmitted him from Constantinople. In
+furtherance of this object the Governor of the Castle would be
+instructed to honor the requests of the Prince of India.
+
+Mahommed condescended next to approve the suggestion of a secret agency
+in Constantinople. Respecting a person for the service, the delicacy of
+which was conceded, he had reached the conclusion that there was no one
+subject to his control so fitted in every respect as Mirza. The
+selection of the Emir might prove troublesome since he was a favorite
+with the Sultan; if investigations consequent on his continued absence
+were instituted, there was danger of their resulting in disagreeable
+exposure; nevertheless the venture was worth the while, and as time was
+important, the Emir should be sent off forthwith under instructions in
+harmony with the Prince's advice. Or more clearly, he was to betake
+himself to Italy immediately, and thence to the Greek capital, a
+nobleman amply provided with funds for his maintenance there in
+essential state and condition. His first duty when in the city should
+be to devise communication with the White Castle, where connection with
+the proposed line of couriers should be made for safe transmission of
+his own reports, and such intelligence as the Prince should from time
+to time consider it advisable to forward.
+
+This of course contemplated recognition and concert between the Emir
+and the Prince. In token of his confidence in the latter, Mahommed
+would constitute him the superior in cases of difference of opinion;
+though from his knowledge of Mirza's romantic affection acquired in
+Mecca and on the road thither, he had little apprehension of such a
+difference.
+
+Mahommed and the Prince were alike well satisfied with the conclusions
+between them, and their leave-taking at the end of the audience was
+marked with a degree of affection approaching that of father and son.
+
+About mid-afternoon the Prince and Sergius sallied from the Castle to
+observe the water, and finding it quiet, they determined to embark.
+
+The formalities of reception in the Castle were not less rigidly
+observed at the departure. In care of the eunuch the Princess and Lael
+descended to the hall of entrance where they were received by the
+supposed Governor, who was in armor thoroughly cleansed of dust and
+skilfully furbished. His manner was even more gallant and dignified. He
+offered his hand to assist the Princess to seat in the chair, and upon
+taking it she glanced furtively at his face, but the light was too
+scant for a distinct view.
+
+In the Castle and out there were no spectators.
+
+Passing the gate, the Princess bethought her of the story-teller, and
+looked for him well as she could through the narrow windows. At the
+landing, when the Governor had in silence, though with ease and grace,
+helped her from the carriage, the porters being withdrawn, she
+proceeded to acknowledgments.
+
+"I am sorry," she said, through her veil, "that I must depart without
+knowing the name or rank of my host."
+
+"Had I greater rank. O Princess," he returned, gravely. "I should have
+pleasure in introducing myself; for then there would be a hope that my
+name supported by a title of dignity, would not be erased from your
+memory by the gayeties of the city to which you are going. The White
+Castle is a command suitable to one of humble grade, and to be saluted
+Governor, because I am charged with its keeping, satisfies my pride for
+the present. It is a convenient title, moreover, should you ever again
+honor me with a thought or a word."
+
+"I submit perforce," she said. "Yet, Sir Governor, your name would have
+saved me from the wonder of my kinsman, if not his open question, when,
+as I am bound to, I tell him of the fair treatment and high courtesy
+you have shown me and my friends here while in refuge in your Castle
+walls. He knows it natural for the recipient of bounty to learn who the
+giver is, with name and history; but how amazed and displeased he will
+be when I barely describe your entertainment. Indeed, I fear he will
+think me guilty of over description or condemn me for ingratitude."
+
+She saw the blood color his face, and noticed the air of sincerity with
+which he replied. "Princess, if payment for what you have received at
+my hands were worthy a thought, I should say now, and all my days
+through, down to the very latest, that to have heard you speak so
+graciously is an overprice out of computation."
+
+The veil hid her responsive blush; for there was something in his voice
+and manner, possibly the earnestness marking them, which lifted the
+words out of the commonplace and formal. She could not but see how much
+more he left implied than actually expressed. For relief, she turned to
+another subject.
+
+"If I may allude to a part of your generous attention, Sir Governor,
+distinguishing it from the whole, I should like to admit the pleasure
+had from the recitation of the Arabian story-teller. I will not ask his
+name; still it must be a great happiness to traverse the world with
+welcome everywhere, and everywhere and all the time accompanied and
+inspired by a mind stored with themes and examples beautiful as the
+history of El Hatim."
+
+A light singularly bright shone in the Governor's eyes, significant of
+a happy idea, and with more haste than he had yet evinced, he replied:
+
+"O Princess, the name of the Arab is Aboo-Obeidah; in the desert they
+call him the Singing Sheik, and among Moslems, city bred and tent born
+alike, he is great and beloved. Such is his sanctity that all doors he
+knocks at open to him, even those of harems zealously guarded. When he
+arrives at Adrianople, in his first day there he will be conducted to
+the Hanoum of the Sultan, and at her signal the ladies of the household
+will flock to hear him. Now, would it please you, I will prevail on him
+to delay his journey that he may visit you at your palace."
+
+"The adventure might distress him," she replied.
+
+"Say not so. In such a matter I dare represent and pledge him. Only
+give me where you would have him come, and the time, O Princess, and he
+will be there, not a star in the sky more constant."
+
+"With my promise of good welcome to him then," she said, well pleased,
+"be my messenger, Sir Governor, and say in the morning day after
+to-morrow at my palace by Therapia. And now thanks again, and farewell."
+
+So saying she held her hand to him, and he kissed it, and assisted her
+into the boat.
+
+The adieux of the others, the Prince of India, Sergius and Lael, were
+briefer. The Governor was polite to each of them; at the same time, his
+eyes, refusing restraint, wandered to where the Princess sat looking at
+him with unveiled face.
+
+In the mouth of the river the boats were brought together, and, while
+drifting, she expressed the pleasure she had from the fortunate meeting
+with the Prince; his presence, she doubted not, contributed greatly to
+the good conclusion of what in its beginning seemed so unpromising.
+
+"Nor can I convey an idea of the confidence and comfortable feeling I
+derived from the society of thy daughter," she added, speaking to the
+Prince, but looking at Lael. "She was courageous and sensible, and I
+cannot content myself until she is my guest at Therapia."
+
+"I would be greatly pleased," Lael said, modestly.
+
+"Will the Princess appoint a time?" the Wanderer asked.
+
+"To-morrow--or next week--at your convenience. These warm months are
+delightful in the country by the water side. At Therapia, Prince--thou
+and thine. The blessing of the Saints go with you--farewell."
+
+Then though the boats kept on down toward Constantinople, they
+separated, and in good time the Prince of India and Lael were at home;
+while the Princess carried Sergius to her palace in the city. Next day,
+having provided him with the habit approved by metropolitan Greek
+priests, she accompanied him to the patriarchal residence, introduced
+him with expressions of interest, and left him in the holy keeping.
+
+Sergius was accepted and rated a neophyte, the vanity of the Byzantine
+clergy scorning thought of excellence in a Russian provincial. He
+entered upon the life, however, with humility and zeal, governed by a
+friendly caution from the Princess.
+
+"Remember," she said to him, as they paused on the patriarchal
+doorsteps for permission to enter, "remember Father Hilarion is
+regarded here as a heretic. The stake, imprisonment in darkness for
+life, the lions in the Cynegion, punishment in some form of approved
+cruelty awaits a follower of his by open avowal. Patience then; and
+when endurance is tried most, and you feel it must break, come to me at
+Therapia. Only hold yourself in readiness, by reading and thought, to
+speak for our Christian faith unsullied by human inventions, and bide
+my signal."
+
+And so did he observe everything and venture nothing that presently he
+was on the road to high favor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+AN EMBASSY TO THE PRINCESS IRENE
+
+
+When the Princess Irene returned to Therapia next day, she found
+awaiting her the Dean of the Court, an official of great importance to
+whom the settlement of questions pertinent to rank was confided. The
+state barge of fifteen oars in which he arrived was moored to the
+marbles of the quay in front of her palace, a handsomely ornamented
+vessel scarcely needing its richly liveried rowers to draw about it the
+curious and idle of the town in staring groups. At sight of it, the
+Princess knew there was a message for her from the Emperor. She lost no
+time in notifying the Dean of her readiness to receive him. The
+interview took place in the reception room.
+
+The Dean was a venerable man who, having served acceptably through the
+preceding reign, was immensely discreet, and thoroughly indurate with
+formalism and ceremony; wherefore, passing his speech and manner, it is
+better worth the while to give, briefly as may be, the substance of the
+communication he brought to the Princess.
+
+He was sure she remembered all the circumstances of the coronation of
+His Majesty, the Emperor, and of His Majesty's entry into
+Constantinople; he was not so certain, however, of her information
+touching some matters distinguishable as domestic rather than
+administrative. Or she might know of them, but not reliably. Thus she
+might not have heard authentically that, immediately upon his becoming
+settled in the imperial seat, His Majesty decided it of first
+importance to proceed to the selection of a spouse.
+
+The Dean then expatiated on the difficulty of finding in all the world
+a woman suitable for the incomparable honor. So many points entered
+into the consideration--age, appearance, rank, education, religion,
+dowry, politics--upon each of which he dwelt with the gravity of a
+philosopher, the assurance of a favorite, and the garrulity of age.
+Having at length presented the problem, and, he thought, sufficiently
+impressed the Princess with its unexampled intricacies and perils, he
+next unfolded the several things resolved upon and attempted in the way
+of solution.
+
+Every royal house in the West had been searched for its marriageable
+females. At one time a daughter of the Doge of Venice was nearly
+chosen. Unfortunately there were influential Greeks of greater pride
+than judgment to object to the Doge. He was merely an elective chief.
+He might die the very day after celebrating the espousals, and
+then--not even the ducal robes were inheritable. No, the flower to deck
+the Byzantine throne was not in the West.
+
+Thereupon the East was explored. For a time the election trembled
+between a Princess of Trebizond and a Princess of Georgia. As usual the
+court divided on the question, when, to quiet the factions, His Majesty
+ordered Phranza, the Grand Chamberlain, a courtier of learning and
+diplomatic experience, who held the Emperor's confidence in greater
+degree than any other court official, unless it might be the Dean
+himself, to go see the rivals personally, and report with
+recommendation. The ambassador had been gone two years. From Georgia he
+had travelled to Trebizond; still nothing definite. The embassy, having
+been outfitted in a style to adequately impress the semi-barbarians,
+was proving vastly expensive. His Majesty, with characteristic wisdom,
+had determined to take the business in his own keeping. There were many
+noble families in Constantinople. Why not seek a consort among them?
+
+The scheme had advantages; not least, if a Byzantine could be found,
+the Emperor would have the happiness of making the discovery and
+conducting the negotiations himself--in common parlance, of doing his
+own courting. There might be persons, the Dean facetiously remarked,
+who preferred trusting the great affair of wife-choosing to
+ambassadors, but he had never seen one of them.
+
+The ground covered by the ancient in his statement is poorly
+represented by these paragraphs, ample as they may seem to the reader.
+Indeed, the sun was falling swiftly into the lap of night when he
+thought of concluding. Meantime the Princess listened silently, her
+patience sustained by wonder at what it all meant. The enlightenment at
+last came.
+
+"Now, my dear Princess," he said, lowering his voice, "you must know
+"--he arose, and, as became one so endued with palace habits, peered
+cautiously around.
+
+"Be seated, my Lord," she said; "there are no eyes in my doors nor ears
+in my walls."
+
+"Oh, the matter is of importance--a state secret!" He drew the stool
+nearer her.
+
+"You must know, dear Princess, that the Grand Chamberlain, Phranza, has
+been negligent and remiss in the time he has consumed, saying nothing
+of his lavishment of treasure so badly needed at home. Notaras, the
+Admiral, and the Grand Domestic, are both pursuing His Majesty
+vigorously for funds and supplies; worse still, the Patriarch lets slip
+no opportunity to bid him look at the furniture of the churches going
+to ruin. The imperial conscience being tender in whatever pertains to
+God and religion, he has little peace left for prayers. Wherefore,
+there are of us who think it would be loyalty to help secure a bride
+for His Majesty at home, and thus make an end to the wasteful and
+inconclusive touring of Phranza."
+
+The Dean drew yet nearer the Princess, and reduced his voice to a tone
+slightly above a whisper.
+
+"Now you must know further--I am the author and suggestor of the idea
+of His Majesty's choosing an Empress from the many noble and beautiful
+dames and maidens of this our ancient city of Byzantium, in every
+respect the equals, and in many points mentionable the superiors of the
+best foreigner possible of finding."
+
+The Dean pursed his white-bearded mouth, and posed himself proudly; but
+his auditor still holding her peace, he leaned forward further, and
+whispered, "My dear Princess, I did more. I mentioned you to His
+Majesty"--
+
+The Princess started to her feet, whiter than whitest marble in the
+Pentelic panelling of the room; yet in total misapprehension of her
+feeling, the venerable intriguant went on without pause: "Yes, I
+mentioned you to His Majesty, and to-morrow, Princess--to-morrow--he
+will come here in person to see you, and urge his suit."
+
+He dropped on his knees, and catching her hand, kissed it.
+
+"O Princess, fairest and most worthy, suffer me first of all the court
+to congratulate you on the superlative honor to which you will he
+invited. And when you are in the exalted position, may I hope to be
+remembered"--
+
+He was not permitted to finish the petition. Withdrawing her hand with
+decisive action, she bade him be silent or speak to her questions. And
+he was silent through surprise.
+
+In such manner she gained an interval for thought. The predicament, as
+she saw it, was troublesome and unfortunate. Honor was intended her,
+the highest in the imperial gift, and the offer was coming with never a
+doubt of its instantaneous and grateful acceptance. Remembering her
+obligations to the Emperor, her eyes filled with tears. She respected
+and venerated him, yet could not be his Empress. The great title was
+not a sufficient inducement. But how manage the rejection? She called
+on the Virgin for help. Directly there was a way exposed. First, she
+must save her benefactor from rejection; second, the Dean and the court
+must never know of the course of the affair or its conclusion.
+
+"Rise, my Lord," she said, kindly though with firmness. "The receiver
+of great news, I thank you, and promise, if ever I attain the throne to
+hold you in recollection. But now, so am I overwhelmed by the prospect,
+I am not myself. Indeed, my Lord, would you increase my indebtedness to
+its utmost limit, take every acknowledgment as said, and leave
+me--leave me for preparation for the morrow's event. God, his Son and
+angels only know the awfulness of my need of right direction and good
+judgment."
+
+He had the wit to see her agitation, and that it was wisest for him to
+depart.
+
+"I will go, Princess," he said, "and may the Holy Mother give you of
+her wisdom also." She detained him at the door to ask: "Only tell me,
+my Lord, did His Majesty send you with this notice?"
+
+"His Majesty honored me with the message."
+
+"At what hour will he come?"
+
+"In the forenoon."
+
+"Report, I pray you then, that my house will be at his service."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE EMPEROR'S WOOING
+
+
+About ten o'clock the day following the extraordinary announcement
+given, a galley of three banks of oars, classed a _trireme_, rounded
+the seaward jut of the promontory overhanging the property of the
+Princess Irene at Therapia.
+
+The hull of the vessel was highly ornate with gilding and carving. At
+the how, for figure-head, there was an image of the Madonna of the
+_Panagia_, or Holy Banner of Constantinople. The broad square sail was
+of cherry-red color, and in excellent correspondence, the oars, sixty
+to a side, were painted a flaming scarlet. When filled, the sail
+displayed a Greek cross in golden filament. The deck aft was covered
+with a purple awning, in the shade of which, around a throne, sat a
+grave and decorous company in gorgeous garments; and among them moved a
+number of boys, white-shirted and bare of head, dispensing perfume from
+swinging censers. Forward, a body guard, chosen from the household
+troops and full armed, were standing at ease, and they, with a corps of
+trumpeters and heralds in such splendor of golden horns and tabards of
+gold as to pour enrichment over the whole ship, filled the space from
+bulwark to bulwark. The Emperor occupied the throne.
+
+This galley, to which the harmonious movement of the oars gave a
+semblance of life, in the distance reminding one of a great bird
+fantastically feathered and in slow majestic motion, was no sooner hove
+in sight than the townspeople were thrown into ferment. A flotilla of
+small boats, hastily launched, put out in racing order to meet and
+escort it into the bay, and before anchorage was found, the whole shore
+was astir and in excited babblement.
+
+A detachment of the guard was first landed on the quay in front of the
+Princess' gate. Accepting the indication, thither rushed the populace;
+for in truth, since the occupation of the Asiatic shore of the
+Bosphorus by the Turks, the Emperor seldom extended his voyages far as
+Therapia. Then, descending the sides by carpeted stairs, the suite
+disembarked, and after them, amidst a tremendous flourish from the
+trumpet corps, Constantine followed.
+
+The Emperor, in his light boat, remained standing during the passage to
+the shore that he might be seen by the people; and as he then appeared,
+helmed and in close-fitting cuirass, his arms in puffed sleeves of red
+silk, his legs, below a heavily embroidered narrow skirt, clothed in
+pliant chain mail intricately linked, his feet steel-shod, a purple
+cloak hanging lightly at the back from neck to heel, and spurred and
+magnificently sworded, and all agleam with jewels and gold, it must be
+conceded he justified his entitlement.
+
+At sight of his noble countenance, visible under the raised visor, the
+spectators lifted their voices in hearty acclamations--"God and
+Constantine! Live the Emperor!"
+
+It really seemed as if the deadly factiousness of the capital had not
+reached Therapia. In the lifted head, the brightened eyes, the gracious
+though stately bows cast right and left, Constantine published the
+pleasure the reception was giving him.
+
+A long flourish timed his march through the kiosk of the gate, and
+along the shell-strewn, winding road, to the broad steps leading to the
+portico of the palace; there, ascending first, he was received by the
+Princess.
+
+Amid a group of maids in attendance, all young, fair, high-born, she
+stood, never more tastefully attired, never more graceful and
+self-possessed, never more lovely, not even in childhood before the
+flitting of its virginal bloom; and though the portico was garden-like
+in decoration, vines, roses and flowering shrubs everywhere, the
+sovereign had eyes for her alone.
+
+Just within the line of fluted pillars he halted, and drew himself up,
+smiling as became a suitor, yet majestic as became a king. Then she
+stepped forward, and knelt, and kissed his hand, and when he helped her
+to her feet, and before the flush on her forehead was gone, she said:
+
+"Thou art my sovereign and benefactor; nor less for the goodnesses thou
+hast done to thy people, and art constantly doing, welcome, O my Lord,
+to the house thou didst give me."
+
+"Speak not so," he replied. "Or if it please thee to give me credit, be
+it for the things which in some way tried me, not those I did for
+reward."
+
+"Reward!"
+
+"Ay, for such are pleasure and peace of mind."
+
+Then one by one, she naming them as they advanced, her attendants
+knelt, and kissed the floor in front of him, and had each a pleasant
+word, for he permitted none to excel him in decorous gallantry to good
+women.
+
+In return, he called the officers of his company according to their
+rank; his brother, who had afterward the grace to die with him; the
+Grand Domestic, general of the army; the Grand Duke Notaras, admiral of
+the navy; the Grand Equerry (_Protostrator_); the Grand Chancellor of
+the Empire (_Logothete_); the Superintendent of Finance; the Governor
+of the Palace (_Curopalate_); the Keeper of the Purple Ink; the Keeper
+of the Secret Seal; the First Valet; the Chief of the Night Guard
+(_Grand Drumgaire_); the Chief of the Huntsmen (_Protocynege_); the
+Commander of the Body Guard of Foreigners (_Acolyte_); the Professor of
+Philosophy; the Professor of Elocution and Rhetoric; the Attorney
+General (_Nornophylex_); the Chief Falconer (_Protojeracaire_) and
+others--these he called one by one, and formally presented to the
+Princess, not minding that with many of them she was already acquainted.
+
+They were for the most part men advanced in years, and right well
+skilled in the arts of courtiership. The _empressement_ of manner with
+which they saluted her was not lost upon her woman's instinct;
+infinitely quick and receptive, she knew without a word spoken, that
+each left his salute on her hand believing it the hand of his future
+Empress. Last of those presented was the Dean of the Court. He was
+noticeably formal and distant; besides being under the eye of his
+master, the wily diplomat was more doubtful of the outcome of the day's
+visit than most of his colleagues.
+
+"Now," the Princess said, when the presentation was finished, "will my
+most noble sovereign suffer me to conduct him to the reception room?"
+
+The Emperor stepped to her side, and offered his hand. "Pardon, Sire,"
+she added, taking the hand. "It is necessary that I speak to the Dean."
+
+And when the worthy came to her, she said to him: "Beyond this, under
+the portico, are refreshments for His Majesty's suite. Serve me, I
+pray, by leading thy colleagues thither, and representing me at the
+tables. Command the servants whom thou wilt find there."
+
+Now the reader must not suppose he is having in the foregoing
+descriptions examples of the style of ceremonials most in fashion at
+the Greek court. Had formality been intended, the affair would have
+been the subject of painstaking consideration at a meeting of officials
+in the imperial residence, and every point within foresight arranged;
+after which the revolution of the earth might have quickened, and
+darkness been unnaturally precipitated, without inducing the slightest
+deviation from the programme.
+
+When resolving upon the visit, Constantine considerately thought of the
+Princess' abhorrence of formality, and not to surprise her, despatched
+the Dean with notice of the honor intended. Whereupon she arranged the
+reception to suit herself; that is, so as to remain directress of the
+occasion. Hence the tables under the portico for the entertainment of
+the great lords, with the garden open to them afterward. This
+management, it will be perceived, left Constantine in her separate
+charge.
+
+So, while the other guests went with the Dean, she conducted the
+Emperor to the reception room, where there were no flowers, and but one
+armless chair. When he was seated, the two alone, she knelt before him,
+and without giving him time to speak, said, her hands crossed upon her
+bosom: "I thank my Lord for sending me notice of his coming, and of his
+purpose to invite me to share his throne. All night I have kept the
+honor he intended me in mind, believing the Blessed Mother would listen
+to my prayers for wisdom and right direction; and the peace and
+confidence I feel, now that I am at my Lord's feet, must be from
+her.... Oh, my Lord, the trial has not been what I should do with the
+honor, but how to defend you from humiliation in the eyes of your
+court. I wish to be at the same time womanly and allegiant. How gentle
+and merciful you have been to me! How like a benignant God to my poor
+father! If I am in error, may Heaven forgive me; but I have led you
+here to say, without waiting for the formal proposal, that while you
+have my love as a kinswoman and subject, I cannot give you the love you
+should have from a wife."
+
+Constantine was astonished.
+
+"What!" he said.
+
+Before he could get further, she continued, sinking lower at his feet:
+
+"Ah me, my Lord, if now thou art thinking me bold and forward, and
+outcast from natural pride, what can I but plead the greater love I
+bear you as my benefactor and sovereign? ... It may be immodest to thus
+forestall my Lord's honorable intent, and decline being his wife before
+he has himself proposed it; yet I pray him to consider that with this
+avowal from me, he may go hence and affirm, God approving the truth,
+that he thought better of his design, and did not make me any overture
+of marriage, and there will be no one to suffer but me.... The
+evil-minded will talk, and judge me punished for my presumption.
+Against them I shall always have a pure conscience, and the knowledge
+of having rescued my Lord from an associate on his throne who does not
+love him with wifely devotion."
+
+Pausing there, the Princess looked into his face, her own suffused. His
+head drooped; insomuch that the tall helmet with its glitter, and the
+cuirass, and fine mail reenforced by the golden spurs and jewelled
+sword and sword-harness, but deepened the impression of pain bewrayed
+on his countenance.
+
+"Then it is as I have heard," he said, dejectedly. "The rustic hind may
+have the mate of his choice, and there is preference allowed the bird
+and wild wolf. The eye of faith beholds marriages of love in meeting
+waters and in clouds brought together from diverse parts. Only Kings
+are forbidden to select mates as their hearts declare. I, a master of
+life and death, cannot woo, like other men."
+
+The Princess moved nearer him.
+
+"My Lord," she said, earnestly, "is it not better to be denied choice
+than to be denied after choosing?"
+
+"Speakest thou from experience?" he asked.
+
+"No," she answered, "I have never known love except of all God's
+creatures alike."
+
+"Whence thy wisdom then?"
+
+"Perhaps it is only a whisper of pride."
+
+"Perhaps, perhaps! I only know the pain it was intended to relieve goes
+on." Then, regarding her moodily, not angrily, nor even impatiently, he
+continued: "Did I not know thee true as thou art fair, O Princess, and
+good and sincere as thou art brave, I might suspect thee."
+
+"Of what, my Lord?"
+
+"Of an intent to compass my misery. Thou dost stop my mouth. I may not
+declare the purpose with which I came--I to whom it was of most
+interest--or if I do, I am forestopped saying, 'I thought better of it,
+and told her nothing.' Yet it was an honorable purpose nursed by sweet
+dreams, and by hopes such as souls feed upon, strengthening themselves
+for trials of life; I must carry it back with me, not for burial in my
+own breast, but for gossips to rend and tear, and make laughter of--the
+wonder and amusement of an unfeeling city. How many modes of punishment
+God keeps in store for the chastening of those who love Him!"
+
+"It is beggarly saying I sympathize"--
+
+"No, no--wait!" he cried, passionately. "Now it breaks upon me. I may
+not offer thee a seat on my throne, or give a hand to help thee up to
+it; for the present I will not declare I love thee; yet harm cannot
+come of telling thee what has been. Thou hadst my love at our first
+meeting. I loved thee then. As a man I loved thee, nor less as an
+Emperor because a man. Thou wast lovely with the loveliness of the
+angels. I saw thee in a light not of earth, and thou wert transparent
+as the light. I descended from the throne to thee thinking thou hadst
+collected all the radiance of the sun wasting in the void between
+stars, and clothed thyself in it."
+
+"Oh, my Lord"--
+
+"Not yet, not yet"--
+
+"Blasphemy and madness!"
+
+"Be it so!" he answered, with greater intensity. "This once I speak as
+a lover who was--a lover making last memories of the holy passion, to
+be henceforth accounted dead. Dead? Ah, yes!--to me--dead to me!"
+
+She timidly took the hand he dropped upon his knee at the close of a
+long sigh.
+
+"It may rest my Lord to hear me," she said, tearfully. "I never doubted
+his fitness to be Emperor, or if ever I had such a doubt, it is no
+more. He has conquered himself! Indeed, indeed, it is sweet to hear him
+tell his love, for I am woman; and if I cannot give it back measure for
+measure, this much may be accepted by him--I have never loved a man,
+and if the future holds such a condition in store for me, I will think
+of my Lord, and his strength and triumph, and in my humbler lot do as
+he has so nobly done. He has his Empire to engage him, and fill his
+hours with duties; I have God to serve and obey with singleness. Out of
+the prison where my mother died, and in which my father grew old
+counting his years as they slowly wore away, a shadow issued, and is
+always at hand to ask me, 'Who art thou? What right hast thou to
+happiness?' And if ever I fall into the thought so pleasant to woman,
+of loving and being loved, and of marriage, the shadow intervenes, and
+abides with me until I behold myself again bounden to religion, a
+servant vowed to my fellow creatures sick, suffering, or in sorrow."
+
+Then the gentle Emperor fell to pitying her, and asked, forgetful of
+himself, and thinking of things to lighten her lot, "Wilt thou never
+marry?"
+
+"I will not say no, my Lord," she answered. "Who can foresee the turns
+of life? Take thou this in reply--never will I surrender myself to
+wedlock under urgency of love alone. But comes there some great
+emergency, when, by such sacrifice, I may save my country, or my
+countrymen in multitude, or restore our holy religion overthrown or in
+danger, then, for the direct God-service there may be in it, I could
+give myself in contract, and would."
+
+"Without love?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, without loving or being loved. This body is not mine, but God's,
+and He may demand it of me for the good of my fellow-men; and, so there
+be no tarnishment of the spirit, my Lord, why haggle about the husk in
+which the spirit is hidden?"
+
+She spoke with enthusiasm. Doubt of her sincerity would have been
+blasphemous. That such fate should be for her, so bright, pure and
+heroic! Not while he had authority! And in the instant he vowed himself
+to care of her by resolution strong as an oath. In thought of the
+uncertainties lowering over his own future, he saw it was better she
+should remain vowed to Heaven than to himself; thereupon he arose, and
+standing at her side, laid a hand lightly upon her head, and said
+solemnly:
+
+"Thou hast chosen wisely. May the Blessed Mother, and all the
+ministering angels, in most holy company, keep guard lest thou be
+overtaken by calamity, sorrow and disappointment. And, for me, O
+Irene!"--his voice shook with emotion--"I shall be content if now thou
+wilt accept me for thy father."
+
+She raised her eyes, as to Heaven, and said, smiling: "Dear God! How
+Thou dost multiply goodnesses, and shower them upon me!"
+
+He stooped, and kissed her forehead.
+
+"Amen, sweet daughter!"
+
+Then he helped her to her feet.
+
+"Now, while thou wert speaking, Irene, it was given me to see how the
+betrothal I was determined upon would have been a crime aside from
+wresting thee from the service of thy choice. Phranza is a true and
+faithful servant. How know I but, within his powers, and as he lawfully
+might, he has contracted me by treaty to acceptance of the Georgian?
+Thou hast saved me, and my ancient Chamberlain. Those under the portico
+are conspirators. But come, let us join them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE SINGING SHEIK
+
+
+IT was about ten o'clock when the Emperor and Princess Irene appeared
+on the portico, and, moving toward the northern side, wended slowly
+through the labyrinth of flowers, palms, and shrubs. The courtiers and
+dignitaries, upon their approach, received them in respectful silence,
+standing in groups about the tables.
+
+A chair, with arms, high back, and a canopy, looking not unlike a
+sedilium, had been set in an open space. The reservation was further
+marked by a table in front of the chair, and two broad-branched palm
+trees, one on each side. Thither the Princess conducted the sovereign;
+and when he was seated, at a signal from her, some chosen attendants
+came bearing refreshments, cold meats, bread, fruits, and wines in
+crystal flagons, which they placed on the table, and retiring a little
+way, remained in waiting, while their mistress, on a stool at the left
+of the board, did the honors.
+
+The introduction of a queen into a palace is usually the signal for a
+change of the existing domestic regime. Old placeholders go out; new
+favorites come in; and not seldom the revolution reaches the highest
+official circles of the government. The veterans of the suite, to some
+of whom this bit of knowledge had come severely home, were very
+watchful of the two superior personages. Had His Majesty really exposed
+his intent to the Princess? Had he declared himself to her? Had she
+accepted? The effect was to trebly sharpen the eyes past which the two
+were required to go on their way to the reserved table.
+
+Mention has been made of Phranza, the Grand Chamberlain, at the moment
+absent on a diplomatic search for an imperial consort. Of all attaches
+of the court, he was first in his master's regard; and the distinction,
+it is but just to say, was due to his higher qualities and superior
+character. The term _favorite_, as a definition of relationship between
+a despot and a dependent, is historically cloudy; wherefore it is in
+this instance of unfair application. Intimate or confidante is much
+more exactly descriptive. But be that as it may, the good understanding
+between the Emperor and his Grand Chamberlain was amply sufficient to
+provoke the jealousy of many of the latter's colleagues, of whom Duke
+Notaras, Grand Admiral, and the most powerful noble of the Empire, was
+head and front. The scheme for the elevation of the Princess to the
+throne originated with him, and was aimed malevolently at Phranza, of
+whom he was envious, and Constantine, whom he hated on religious
+grounds. Interest in the plot brought him to Therapia; yet he held
+himself aloof, preferring the attitude of a spectator coldly polite to
+that of an active partisan in the affair. He declined sitting at a
+table, but took position between two of the columns whence the view of
+the bay was best. There were numbers of the suite, however, who
+discredited the motive with which he chose the place.
+
+"See Notaras," said one of a group, whispering to friends drinking wine
+a little way off. "The scene before him is charming, but is he charmed
+with it as he appears?"
+
+"There was an old demi-god with an eye in his forehead. Notaras' best
+orb just now is in the back of his head. He may be looking at the bay;
+he is really watching the portico"--such was the reply.
+
+"Out! He cares nothing for us."
+
+"Very true--we are not the Emperor."
+
+"My Lord Duke is not happy to-day," was remarked in another coterie.
+
+"Wait, my dear friend. The day is young."
+
+"If this match should not be made after all"--
+
+"He will know it first."
+
+"Yes, nothing from the lovers, neither smile nor sigh, can escape him."
+
+The Professor of Philosophy and his brother the Professor of Rhetoric
+ate and drank together, illustrating the affinity of learning.
+
+"Our Phranza is in danger," said the latter, nervously. "As thou art a
+subscriber to the doctrine of the _Phaedon_, I wish we could disembody
+our souls, if only for an hour."
+
+"Oh, a singular wish! What wouldst thou?"
+
+"Tell it not; but"--the voice dropped into a whisper--"I would despatch
+mine in search of the wise Chamberlain to warn him of what is here in
+practice."
+
+"Ah, my brother, thou didst me the honor to read and approve my
+treatise on the Philosophy of Conspiracy. Dost thou remember the
+confounding elements given in the thesis?"
+
+"Yes--Goodness is one."
+
+"Under condition; that is, when the result is dependent upon a party of
+virtuous disposition."
+
+"I remember now."
+
+"Well, we have the condition here."
+
+"The Princess!"
+
+"And therefore the Duke, not our Phranza, is in danger. She will
+discomfit him."
+
+"May Heaven dispose so!" And the Rhetorician almost immediately added,
+"Observe thou. Notaras has established himself within easy hearing of
+the two. He has actually invaded the space reserved for them."
+
+"As if to confirm my forecast!"
+
+Then the Philosopher raised a cup.
+
+"To Phranza!"
+
+"To Phranza!" the Rhetorician responded.
+
+This episode hardly concluded when the Emperor's brother sauntered to
+the Duke's side; and on the appearance of the Emperor and the Princess,
+he exclaimed, enthusiastically:
+
+"Come of it what may, my Lord, the damsel is comely, and I fear not to
+compare her with the best of Trebizond or Georgia."
+
+The Duke did not answer. Indeed, the lords were all intent upon exactly
+the same subject. Whether there had been an overture and an acceptance,
+or an overture and a declination, they believed the principals could
+not conceal the result; a look, a gesture, or something in the manner
+of one or both of them, would tell the tale to eyes of such practical
+discernment. By the greater number the information would be treated as
+news for discussion merely; a few had hopes or fears at stake; none of
+them was so perilously involved as Notaras; in his view, failure meant
+the promotion of Phranza, of all consequences, not excepting his own
+loss of favor and prestige, the most intolerable.
+
+On the other part, Constantine was not less concerned in misleading his
+court. At the proper time he would give out that he had changed his
+mind at the last moment; before engaging himself to the Princess, he
+had concluded it best to wait and hear from Phranza. Accordingly, in
+passing along the portico, he endeavored to look and behave like a
+guest; he conversed in an ordinary tone; he suffered his hostess to
+precede him; and, well seconded by her, he was installed in the state
+chair, without an argument yes or no for the sharp reviewers. At the
+table he appeared chiefly solicitous to appease an unusual hunger,
+which he charged to the early morning air on the Bosphorus.
+
+Notaras, whom nothing of incident, demeanor or remark escaped, began
+very early to be apprehensive. Upon beholding his master's unlover-like
+concession to appetite, he remarked sullenly, "Verily, either his
+courage failed, and he did not submit a proposal, or she has rejected
+him."
+
+"My Lord Duke," the Emperor's brother replied, somewhat stung, "dost
+thou believe it in woman to refuse such an honor?"
+
+"Sir," the Duke retorted, "women who go about unveiled are above or
+below judgment."
+
+The Princess, in her place at the table, began there to recount her
+adventure at the White Castle, but when far enough in the recital to
+indicate its course the Emperor interrupted her.
+
+"Stay, daughter," he said, gently. "The incident may prove of
+international interest. If not objectionable to you, I should be
+pleased to have some of my friends hear it." Then raising his voice, he
+called out: "Notaras, and thou, my brother, come, stand here. Our fair
+hostess had yesterday an astonishing experience with the Turks on the
+other shore, and I have prevailed on her to narrate it." The two
+responded to the invitation by drawing nearer the Emperor at his right
+hand.
+
+"Proceed now, daughter," the latter said.
+
+"Daughter, daughter, indeed!" the Duke repeated to himself, and so
+bitterly it may be doubted if his master's diplomacy availed to put him
+at rest. The paternalism of the address was decisive--Phranza had won.
+
+Then, presently overcoming her confusion, the Princess succeeded in
+giving a simple but clear account of how she was driven to the Castle,
+and of what befell her while there. When she finished, the entire suite
+were standing about the table listening.
+
+Twice she had been interrupted by the Emperor.
+
+"A moment!" he said to her, while she was speaking of the Turkish
+soldiery whose arrival at the ancient stronghold had been so nearly
+simultaneous with her own. Then he addressed himself to the Grand
+Domestic and the Admiral. "My Lords, in passing the Castle, on our way
+up, you remember I bade the pilot take our ship near the shore there.
+It seemed to me the garrison was showing unusually large, while the
+flags on the donjon were strange, and the tents and horses around the
+walls implied an army present. You remember?"
+
+"And we have now, Sire, the justification of your superior wisdom," the
+Grand Domestic replied, rising from a low salutation.
+
+"I recall the circumstance, my Lords, to enjoin you not to suffer the
+affair to slip attention when next we meet in council--I pray pardon,
+daughter, for breaking the thread of your most interesting and
+important narrative. I am prepared to listen further."
+
+Then, after description of the Governor, and his reception of the
+fugitives on the landing, His Majesty, with apologies, asked permission
+to offer another inquiry.
+
+"Of a truth, daughter, the picture thou hast given us under the title
+of Governor beareth no likeness to him who hath heretofore responded to
+that dignity. At various times I have had occasion to despatch
+messengers to the commandant, and returning, they have reported him a
+coarse, unrefined, brutish-looking person, of middle age and low rank;
+and much I marvel to hear the freedom with which this person doth
+pledge my august friend and ally, Sultan Amurath. My Lords, this will
+furnish us an additional point of investigation. Obviously the Castle
+is of military importance, requiring an old head full of experience to
+keep it regardful of peace and clear understanding between the powers
+plying the Bosphorus. We are always to be apprehensive of the fire
+there is in young blood."
+
+"With humility, Your Majesty," said the Grand Domestic, "I should like
+to hear from the Princess, whose loveliness is now not more remarkable
+than her courage and discretion, the evidence she has for the opinion
+that the young man is really the Governor."
+
+She was about to reply when Lysander, the old servant, elbowed himself
+through the brilliant circle, and dropped his javelin noisily by her
+chair.
+
+"A stranger calling himself an Arab is at the gate," he said to her,
+with the semblance of a salutation.
+
+The simplicity of the ancient, his zeal in the performance of his
+office, his obliviousness to the imperial presence, caused a ripple of
+amusement.
+
+"An Arab!" the Princess exclaimed, in momentary forgetfulness. "How
+does the man appear?"
+
+Lysander was in turn distraught; after a short delay, however, he
+managed to answer: "His face is dark, almost black; his head is covered
+with a great cloth of silk and gold; a gown hides him from neck to
+heels; in his girdle there is a dagger. He has a lordly air, and does
+not seem in the least afraid. In brief, my mistress, he looks as if he
+might be king of all the camel drivers in the world."
+
+The description was unexpectedly graphic; even the Emperor smiled,
+while many of the train, presuming license from his amusement, laughed
+aloud. In the midst of the merriment, the Princess, calmly, and with
+scarce a change from her ordinary tone, proceeded to an explanation.
+
+"Your Majesty," she said, "I am reminded of an invitation left with the
+person whose identity was in discussion the instant of this
+announcement. In the afternoon, while I was sojourning in the White
+Castle, an Arab story-teller was presented to me under recommendation
+of my courteous host. He was said to be of great professional renown in
+the East, a Sheik travelling to Adrianople for the divertisement of the
+Hanoum of the Sultan. In the desert they call him endearingly the
+_Singing Sheik_. I was glad to have the hours assisted in their going,
+and he did not disappoint me. So charmed was I by his tales and manner
+of telling them, by his genius, that in taking my departure from what
+proved a most agreeable retreat, and in acknowledging the hospitable
+entertainment given me, I referred to the singer, and requested the
+Governor to prevail on him to extend his journey here, in order to
+favor me with another opportunity to hear him. Had I then known it was
+in my Lord's purposes to visit me with such a company of most noble
+gentlemen, or could I have even anticipated the honor, I should not
+have appointed to-day for the audience with him. But he is in
+attendance; and now, with full understanding of the circumstances, it
+is for Your Majesty to pronounce upon his admission. Perhaps"--she
+paused with a look of deprecation fairly divisible share and share
+alike between the Emperor and the Lords around her--"perhaps time may
+hang heavy with my guests this morning; if so, I shall hold myself
+obliged to the Singing Sheik if he can help me entertain them."
+
+Now, was there one present to attach a criticism to the favor extended
+the Arab, he dismissed it summarily, wondering at her easy grace. The
+Emperor no doubt shared the admiration with his suite; but concealing
+it, he said, with an air of uncertainty, "Thy recommendation, daughter,
+is high; and if I remain, verily, it will be with expectation wrought
+up to a dangerous degree; yet having often heard of the power of the
+strolling poets of whom this one is in probability an excellent
+example, I confess I should be pleased to have thee admit him."
+
+Of the Admiral, he then asked, "We were to set out in return about
+noon, were we not?"
+
+"About noon, Your Majesty."
+
+"Well, the hour is hardly upon us. Let the man appear, daughter; only,
+as thou lovest us, contrive that he keep to short recitals, which,
+without holding us unwillingly, will yet suffice to give an idea of his
+mind and methods. And keep thyself prepared for an announcement of our
+departure, and when received, mistake it not for discontent with
+thyself. Admit the Arab."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+TWO TURKISH TALES
+
+
+The situation now offered the reader is worth a pause, if only to fix
+it in mind.
+
+Constantine and Mahommed, soon to be contestants in war, are coming
+face to face, lovers both of the same woman. The romance is obvious;
+yet it is heightened by another circumstance. One of them is in danger.
+
+We of course know Aboo-Obeidah, the Singing Sheik, is Prince Mahommed
+in disguise; we know the Prince also as heir of Amurath the Sultan, a
+very old man liable to vacate place and life at any moment. Suppose now
+the rash adventurer--the term fits the youth truly as if he were
+without rank--should be discovered and denounced to the Emperor. The
+consequences can only be treated conjecturally.
+
+In the first place, to what extremities the Prince would be put in
+explaining his presence there. He could plead the invitation of the
+Princess Irene. But his rival would be his judge, and the judge might
+find it convenient to laugh at the truth, and rest his decision on the
+prisoner's disguise, in connection with his own presence--two facts
+sufficiently important to serve the most extreme accusation.
+
+Constantine, next, was a knightly monarch who knew to live nobly, and
+dared die as he lived; yet, thinking of what he might do with Mahommed
+fallen into his hands under circumstances so peculiar, there was never
+a Caesar not the slave of policy. In the audience to Manuel the sailor,
+we have seen how keenly sensitive he was to the contraction the empire
+had suffered. Since that day, to be sure, he had managed to keep the
+territory he came to; none the less, he felt the Turk to whom the
+stolen provinces invariably fell was his enemy, and that truce or
+treaty with him did not avail to loosen the compression steadily
+growing around his capital. Over and over, daytime and night, the
+unhappy Emperor pondered the story of the daughter of Tantalus; and
+often, starting from dreams in which the Ottoman power was a serpent
+slowly crawling to its victim, he would cry in real agony--"O
+Constantinople--Niobe! Who can save thee but God? And if He will
+not--alas, alas!" The feeling thus engendered was not of a kind to
+yield readily to generosity. Mahommed once securely his, everything
+might be let go--truth, honor, glory--everything but the terms of
+advantage purchasable with such an hostage.
+
+The invitation to the imaginary Sheik had been a last act of grace by
+Irene, about to embark for the city. Mahommed, when he accepted, knew
+Therapia by report a village very ancient historically, but decaying,
+and now little more than a summer resort and depot of supplies for
+fishermen. That its proverbial quietude would be disturbed, and the
+sleepy blood of its inhabitants aroused, by a royal galley anchoring in
+the bay to discharge the personnel of the empire itself, could have had
+no place in his anticipations. So when he stepped into a boat, the
+Aboo-Obeidah of his eulogy, and suffered himself, without an attendant,
+to be ferried across to Roumeli-Hissar; when he there took an humble
+wherry of two oars, and bade the unliveried Greeks who served them pull
+for Therapia, it was to see again the woman who was taking his fancy
+into possession, not Constantine and his court bizarre in splendor and
+habitude. In other words, Mahommed on setting out had no idea of
+danger. Love, or something very like it, was his sole inspiration.
+
+The trireme, with the white cross on its red sail, its deck a martial
+and courtly spectacle, had been reported to him as the hundred and
+twenty flashing scarlet blades, in their operation a miracle of unity,
+whisked it by the old Castle, and he had come forth to see it. Where
+are they going? he asked those around him; and they, familiar with the
+Bosphorus, its shipping and navigation, answered unanimously, To
+exercise her crew up in the Black Sea; and thinking of the breadth of
+the dark blue fields there, the reply commended itself, and he
+dismissed the subject.
+
+The course chosen by his boatmen when they put off from Roumeli-Hissar
+kept him close to the European shore, which he had leisure to study.
+Then, as now, it was more favored than its Asiatic opposite. The winds
+from the sea, southward blowing, unloaded their mists to vivify its ivy
+and myrtle. The sunlight, tarrying longest over its pine-clad summits,
+coaxed habitations along the shore; here, a palace; there, under an
+overhanging cliff, a hamlet; yonder, a long extended village
+complaisantly adapting itself to the curvatures of the brief margin
+left it for occupancy. Wherever along the front of the heights and on
+the top there was room for a field the advantage had been seized. So
+the Prince had offered him the sight of all others most significant of
+peace among men--sight of farmers tilling the soil. With the lucid sky
+above him summer-laden, the water under and about him a liquid
+atmosphere, the broken mountain-face changing from lovely to lovelier,
+and occasionally awakening him with a superlative splendor, the abodes
+so near, and the orchards and strawberry and melon patches overhead,
+symbolizing goodwill and fraternity and happiness amongst the poor and
+humble--with these, and the rhythmic beating of the oars to soothe his
+spirit, fierce and mandatory even in youth, he went, the time divided
+between views fair enough for the most rapturous dreams, and the Greek,
+of whom, with all their brightness, they were but dim suggestions. Past
+the stream-riven gorge of Balta-Liman he went; past Emirghian; past the
+haven of Stenia, and the long shore-town of Yenikeui; then, half
+turning the Keuibachi bend, lo! Therapia, draggling down the stony
+steep, like a heap of bangles on a brown-red cheek. And there, in the
+soft embracement of the bay, a bird with folded wings asleep--the
+_trireme_!
+
+The sight startled the Prince. He spoke to the rowers, and they ceased
+fighting the current, and with their chins over their shoulders, looked
+whither he pointed. From ship to shore he looked; then, pursuing the
+curve inland to the bridge at the upper end; thence down what may be
+called the western side, he beheld people crowding between a quay and a
+red kiosk over which pended a wooded promontory.
+
+"There is a Princess living in this vicinity," said he to one of the
+rowers, slightly lifting the handkerchief from his face. "Where is her
+palace?"
+
+"In the garden yonder. You see the gate over the heads of the men and
+women."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"Princess Irene. She is known on this shore as the Good Princess."
+
+"Irene--a sound pleasant to the ear"--Mahommed muttered. "Why is she
+called good?"
+
+"Because she is an angel of mercy to the poor."
+
+"That is not usual with the great and rich," he said next, yielding to
+a charm in the encomiums.
+
+"Yes," the boatman responded, "she is great, being akin to the Emperor,
+and rich, too, though"--
+
+Here the man broke off to assist in bringing the boat back from its
+recession with the current, at this point boisterously swift.
+
+"You were saying the Princess is rich," Mahommed said, when the oars
+were again at rest.
+
+"Oh, yes! But I cannot tell you, my friend, how many are partners in
+her wealth. Every widow and orphan who can get to her comes away with a
+portion. Isn't it so?"
+
+His companion grunted affirmatively, adding: "Down yonder a man with a
+crooked back lives in an arched cell opening on the water. Perhaps the
+stranger saw it as he came up."
+
+"Yes," Mahommed answered.
+
+"Well, in the back part of the cell he has an altar with a crucifix and
+a picture of the Blessed Mother on it, and he keeps a candle burning
+before them day and night--something he could not do if we did not help
+him, for candles of wax are costly. He has named the altar after the
+Princess, Sta. Irene. We often stop and go in there to pray; and I have
+heard the blessings in the light of that candle are rich and many as
+the Patriarch has for sale in Sta. Sophia."
+
+These praises touched Mahommed; for, exalted as he was in station, he
+was aware of the proneness of the poor to berate the rich and grumble
+at the great, and that such had been a habit with them from the
+commencement of the world. Again the boat slipped down the current;
+when it was brought back, he asked: "When did the ship yonder come up?"
+
+"This morning."
+
+"Oh, yes! I saw it then, but thought the crew were being taken to the
+sea for practice."
+
+"No," the boatman replied, "it is the state galley of His Majesty the
+Emperor. Did you not see him? He sat on the throne with all his
+ministers and court around him."
+
+Mahommed was startled.
+
+"Where is the Emperor now?" he inquired.
+
+"I should say, seeing the crowd yonder, that His Majesty is in the
+palace with the Princess."
+
+"Yes," said the second rower, "they are waiting to see him come out."
+
+"Row out into the bay. I should like to have the view from that
+quarter."
+
+While making the detour, Mahommed reflected. Naturally he remembered
+himself the son of Amurath; after which it was easy to marshal the
+consequences of exposure, if he persisted in his venture. He saw
+distinctly how his capture would be a basis of vast bargaining with his
+father, or, if the sturdy old warrior preferred revenge to payment of a
+ruinous ransom, how the succession and throne might slip to another,
+leaving him a prisoner for life.
+
+Yet another matter presented itself to him which the reader may decide
+worthy a separate paragraph. Its mention has been waiting this
+opportunity. The Prince from Magnesia, his seat of government, was on
+the way to Adrianople, called thither by his father, who had chosen a
+bride for him, daughter of a renowned Emir. Regularly he would have
+crossed the Hellespont at Gallipoli; a whim, however, took him to the
+White Castle--whim or destiny, one being about as satisfactory as the
+other. Pondering silently whether it were not best to return, he
+thought, apropos the Princess Irene, of the nuptials to be celebrated,
+and of his bride expectant; and a Christian, pausing over the
+suggestion, may be disposed to condemn him for inconstancy.
+
+In countries where many wives are allowed the same husband he is not
+required to love any of them. Indeed, his fourth spouse may be the
+first to command him; hers the eyes for his enslavement; hers the voice
+of the charmer charming both wisely and forever. Mahommed did now think
+of the Emir's daughter, but not with compunction, nor even in
+comparison. He had never seen her face, and would not until after the
+wedding days. He thought of her but to put her aside; she could not be
+as this Christian was, neither so accomplished nor courtly; besides
+which, it was dawning upon him that there were graces of mind and soul
+as well as of person, while perfection was a combination of all the
+graces in equal degree. Gleams of the latter had visited him while
+gazing into the radiant face of the Emperor's kinswoman; and how, at
+such favoring times, his fancy had gone out to her and come back
+warmed, enlivened, glorified! There is a passion of the mind and a
+passion of the blood; and though one and one make two, two is still a
+multiple of one.
+
+Looking thus at the galley, Mahommed thought of the tales in the East
+not less common than in the West, and believed in them faithfully, for
+chivalry was merely on the wane--tales of beauteous damsels shut up in
+caves or adamantine castles, with guardian lions couchant at the gates,
+and of well-sworded heroes who marched boldly up to the brutes, and
+slew them, and delivered the captives always with reward. Of course, in
+making the application, the Princess was the prisoner, the ship the
+lion, and himself--well, in want of a sword, he laid hand upon his
+dagger, precisely as a liberating knight up to the ideal would do.
+
+Nor was this all. The revelations of the Prince of India were still
+fresh to him. He wished to see his competitor. How did he look? Was
+there enough of him to make battle? He smiled thinking of the pleasure
+there would be in slyly studying the Princess and the Emperor at the
+same time. He drew the handkerchief down, looked at his brown-stained
+hands, and adjusted the folds of his burnoose. The disguise was perfect.
+
+"Take me to the landing--there before the gate of the Good Princess,"
+he said, with the air of a traveller above suspicion.
+
+His resolution was taken. Challenging all chances, he would respond to
+the invitation of the Princess. And so completely were doubt and
+hesitation dismissed with our adventurer, that it was not Mahommed who
+stepped from the boat where the populace was in densest assemblage, but
+Aboo-Obeidah, the Singing Sheik, and as such we will speak of him.
+
+The guard at the gate, viewing him askance, detained him until he could
+be reported.
+
+A fair conception of the scene presented when the Sheik stood on the
+floor of the portico is probably in the reader's mind; yet a glance at
+it may be pardoned. It was at first like a sudden introduction to an
+oriental garden. There were the vines, flowering shrubs, fruiting
+trees, many-fronded palms, and the effect of outdoors derived from the
+shadows of the pillars, and the sunshine streaming brilliantly through
+the open intervals. The tables bore proofs of the collation served upon
+them. Overhead was the soft creaminess of pure marble in protected
+state mellowed by friendly touches of time. At the end of the vista,
+the company was indistinctly visible through the verdure of obtruding
+branches. Voices came to him from that part, and gleams of bright
+garments; and to get to them it seemed he must pass through a
+viridescent atmosphere flecked with blooms, and faintly sweet with
+odors. For in losing the masculinity of their race the Greeks devoted
+themselves more and more to refined effeminacies.
+
+Moving slowly forward under the guidance of Lysander, whose javelin
+beating the floor accentuated the rasping shuffle of his sandals, the
+Sheik came presently to a full view of the concourse.
+
+He stopped, partly in obedience to a fine instinct of propriety
+teaching him he was now subject to the pleasure of his hostess, and
+partly to single out the royal enemy against whom he believed he was
+about to be pitted by destiny.
+
+Constantine was sitting at ease, his left elbow resting on an arm of
+the sedilium, his forefinger supporting his cheek, his cloak across his
+lap. The attitude was reflective; the countenance exposed under the
+lifted visor of the helmet, was calm and benignant; except there was no
+suggestion of an evil revery holding the current of his thought, or
+casting a shade of uncertainty over his soul, he looked not unlike the
+famous Il Penseroso familiar to art-seekers in the Medici Chapel of
+Florence. Then the eyes of the rivals met. The Greek was in no wise
+moved. How it would have been with him could he have seen through the
+disguise of the Sheik may never be said. On the other part, the Sheik
+lifted his head, and seemed taking on increase of stature. A projecting
+fold of the head-kerchief overhung his face, permitting nothing to be
+seen but red-hued cheeks, a thin beard, and eyes black and glittering.
+The review he felt himself undergoing did not daunt him; it only sent
+his pride mounting, like a leap of flame. "By the Virgin!" said one of
+the courtiers to another, in a louder tone than the occasion demanded.
+"We may indeed congratulate ourselves upon having seen the king of
+camel drivers." There was a disposition to laugh amongst the
+lighter-minded of the guests, but the Princess checked it by rising.
+"Bid the Sheik approach," she said, to the old domestic; and, at a sign
+from her, the waiting-women drew closer about her chair. The figure of
+the Princess clad all in white, a bracelet of plain gold upon her left
+arm, fillets in her hair, one red, the other blue, a double strand of
+pearls about her neck--this figure, with the small head, perfect in
+turn, set matchlessly upon the sloping shoulders, the humid eyes full
+of violet light, the cheeks flushed with feeling--this figure so bright
+in its surroundings, admitted no rivalry in attention, none in
+admiration; the courtiers, old and young, turned from the Sheik, and
+the Sheik from the Emperor. In a word, every eye centred upon the
+Princess, every tongue bade hush lest what she said might be lost.
+Etiquette required the Sheik's presentation to the Emperor first, but
+seeing her about to comply with the rule, he prostrated himself at her
+feet. As he arose, she said: "When I invited you to come and give me
+more of the cheer there is in your art, O Sheik, I did not know my
+gracious kinsman, to whom every Greek is proud and happy to be
+allegiant, designed visiting me to-day. I pray you will not suffer too
+much from his presence, but regard him a royal auditor who delights in
+a tale well told, and in verses when the theme and measure go lovingly
+together. His Majesty, the Emperor!"
+
+"Hist! Didst hear?" whispered the Professor of Philosophy to the
+Professor of Rhetoric. "Thyself couldst not have spoken better."
+
+"Ay, truly," the other answered. "Save a trifle of stiffness, the
+speech might have served Longinus."
+
+With her last word, the Princess stepped aside, leaving Mahommed and
+Constantine front to front.
+
+Had the Sheik been observant of the monarch's dues, he would have
+promptly prostrated himself; but the moment for the salutation passed,
+and he remained standing, answering the look he received calmly as it
+was given. The reader and the writer know the reason governing him; the
+suite, however, were not so well informed, and they began to murmur.
+The Princess herself appeared embarrassed.
+
+"Lord of Constantinople," the Sheik said, seeing speech was his, "were
+I a Greek, or a Roman, or an Ottoman, I should make haste to kiss the
+floor before you, happy of the privilege; for--be the concession well
+noted"--he glanced deferentially around him as he spoke--"the report
+which the world has of you is of a kind to make it your lover. After a
+few days--Allah willing--I shall stand before Amurath the Sultan.
+Though in reverencing him I yield not to any one simply his friend, he
+will waive prostration from me, knowing what Your Majesty may not. In
+my country we cleanse the ground with our beards before no one but God.
+Not that we are unwilling to conform to the rules of the courts in
+which we find ourselves; with us it is a law--To kiss a man's hand
+maketh him the master; prostrate thyself to him, and without other act,
+thou becomest his subject. I am an Arab!"
+
+The Sheik was not in the least defiant; on the contrary, his manner was
+straightforward, simple, sincere, as became one interposing conscience
+against an observance in itself rightful enough. Only in the last
+exclamation was there a perceptible emphasis, a little marked by a lift
+of the head and a kindling of the eyes.
+
+"I see Your Majesty comprehends me," he said, continuing; "yet to
+further persuade your court, and especially the fair and high-born
+lady, whose guest, with all my unworthiness, I am, from believing me
+moved in this matter by disrespect for their sovereign, I say next, if
+by prostration I made myself a Roman, the act would be binding on the
+tribe whose Sheik I am by lawful election. And did I that, O thou whose
+bounties serve thy people in lieu of rain! though my hand were white,
+like the first Prophet's, when, to assure the Egyptian, he drew it from
+his bosom, it would char blacker than dust of burned willow--then, O
+thou, lovelier than the queen the lost lapwing reported to Solomon!
+though my breath were as the odor of musk, it would poison, like an
+exhalation from a leper's grave--then, O my lords! like Karoon in his
+wickedness, I should hear Allah say of me, O Earth, swallow him! For as
+there are crimes and crimes, verily the chief who betrays his brethren
+born to the practice of freedom, shall wander between tents all his
+days, crying, Oh, alas! oh, alas! Who now will defend me against God?"
+
+When the Sheik paused, as if for judgment, he was not only acquitted of
+intentional disrespect; the last grumbler was anxious to hear him
+further.
+
+"What astonishing figures!" the Philosopher whispered to the
+Rhetorician. "I begin to think it true that the East hath a style of
+its own."
+
+"I commend thy sagacity, my brother," the other replied. "His
+peroration was redolent of the Koran--A wonderful fellow nevertheless!"
+
+Presently the whole concourse was looking at the Emperor, with whom it
+rested whether the Sheik should be dismissed or called on for
+entertainment.
+
+"Daughter," said Constantine to the Princess, "I know not enough of the
+tribal law of thy guest to have an opinion of the effect upon him and
+his of the observance of our ancient ceremony; wherefore we are bound
+to accept his statement. Moreover it does not become our dignity to
+acquire subjects and dominion, were they ever so desirable, in a method
+justly liable to impeachment for treachery and coercion. Besides
+which--and quite as important, situated as we are--thy hospitality is
+to be defended."
+
+Here the Sheik, who had been listening to the Emperor, and closely
+observing him, thrice lightly clapped his hands.
+
+"It remains for us, therefore, to waive the salutation in this
+instance."
+
+A ripple of assent proceeded from the suite.
+
+"And now, daughter," Constantine pursued, "thy guest being present to
+give thee of his lore, it may be he will be pleased to have us of his
+audience as well. Having heard much of such performances, and
+remembering their popularity when we were in our childhood, we will
+esteem ourselves fortunate if now favored by one highly commended as a
+master in his guild."
+
+The Sheik's eyes sparkled brighter as he answered, "It is written for
+us in our Holiest, the very Word of the Compassionate,--'If ye are
+greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better greeting, or at
+least return it.' Verily my Lord dispenseth honor with so light a hand
+as not to appear aware of the doing. When my brethren under the black
+tents are told of my having won the willing ear of their Majesties of
+Byzantium and Adrianople, they will think of me as one who has been
+permitted to walk in the light of two suns simultaneous in shining."
+
+So saying, he bowed very low.
+
+"My only unhappiness now is in not knowing the direction in which my
+Lord's preferences run; for as a stream goes here and there, but all
+the time keeps one general course, seeking the sea, so with taste;
+though it yield a nod now, and then a smile, it hath always a deeper
+delight for the singer's finding. I have the gay and serious--history,
+traditions--the heroics of men and nations, their heart-throbs in verse
+and prose--all or any for the Lord of Constantinople and his kinswoman,
+my hostess,--may her life never end until the song of the dove ceases
+to be heard in the land!"
+
+"What say you, my friends?" asked Constantine, glancing graciously at
+those around him.
+
+Then they looked from him to the Princess, and in thought of the
+betrothal, replied, "Love--something of love!"
+
+"No," he returned, unflinchingly. "We are youths no longer. There is
+enlightenment in the traditions of nations. Our neighbors, the
+Turks--what hast thou of them, Sheik?"
+
+"Didst thou hear?" said Notaras to one at his elbow. "He hath recanted;
+the Empress will not be a Greek."
+
+There was no answer; for the Sheik, baring his head, hung the kerchief
+and cord upon his arm, preliminaries which gave him perfectly to view.
+A swarthy face; hair black, profuse, closely cut along the temples;
+features delicate but manly--these the bystanders saw in a general way,
+being more attracted by the repressed fire in the man's eyes, and his
+air high and severely noble.
+
+When the Princess caught sight of the countenance, she fell into a
+confusion. She had seen it, but where and when? The instant he was
+beginning he gazed at her, and in the exchange of glances she was
+reminded of the Governor bidding her adieu on the shore of the Sweet
+Waters. But he was youthful, while this one--could it be he was old?
+The feeling was a repetition of that she had in the Castle when the
+storyteller appeared the first time.
+
+"I will tell how the Turks became a Nation."
+
+Then, in Greek but a little broken, the Sheik began a recital.
+
+  ALAEDDIN AND ERTOGHRUL
+
+  I
+
+  A tale of Ertoghrul!--
+                        How when the Chief
+  Lay one day nooning with his stolen herds,
+  A sound of drumming smote him from the East,
+  And while he stood to see what came of it,
+  The West with like notes fainter, echo-like,
+  Made answer; then two armies rode in view,
+  Horses and men in steel, the sheen of war
+  About them and above, and wheeling quick
+  From column into line, drew all their blades,
+  Shook all their flags, and charged and lost themselves
+  In depths of dusty clouds, which yet they tore
+  With blinding gleams of light, and yells of rage,
+  And cheers so high and hoarse they well might seem
+  The rolling thunder of a mountain storm.
+  Long time the hosts contended; but at last
+  The lesser one began to yield the ground,
+  Oppressed in front, and on its flanks o'erwhelmed:
+  And hasted then the end, a piteous sight,
+  Most piteous to the very brave who know
+  From lessons of their lives, how seldom 'tis
+  Despair can save where valor fails to win.
+  Then Ertoghrul aroused him, touched to heart.
+
+  "My children, mount, and out with cimeter!
+  I know not who these are, nor whence they come;
+  Nor need we care. 'Twas Allah led them here,
+  And we will honor Him--and this our law;
+  What though the weak may not be always right,
+  We'll make it always right to help the weak.
+  Deep take the stirrups now, and ride with me,
+  _Allah-il-Allah!"_
+
+                     Thus spake Ertoghrul;
+  And at the words, with flying reins, and all
+  His eager tribe, four hundred sworded men,
+  Headlong he rode against the winning host.
+
+  II
+
+  Beneath the captured flags, the spoils in heaps
+  Around him laid, the rescued warrior stood,
+  A man of kingly mien, while to him strode
+  His unexpected friend.
+
+                         "Now who art thou?"
+  The first was first to ask.
+
+                              "Sheik Ertoghrul
+  Am I."
+
+         "The herds I see--who calls them his?"
+
+  Laughed Ertoghrul, and showed his cimeter.
+  "The sword obeys my hand, the hand my will,
+  And given will and hand and sword, I pray
+  Thee tell me, why should any man be poor?"
+
+  "And whose the plain?"
+
+                         "Comes this way one a friend
+  Of mine, and leaves his slippers at my door,
+  Why then, 'tis his."
+                       "And whose the hills that look
+  Upon the plain?"
+
+                   "My flocks go there at morn,
+  And thence they come at night--I take my right
+  Of Allah."
+
+             "No," the stranger mildly said,
+  "'Twas Allah made them mine."
+
+                                Frowned Ertoghrul,
+  While darkened all the air; but from his side
+  Full pleasantly the stranger took a sword,
+  Its carven hilt one royal emerald,
+  Its blade both sides with legends overwrought,
+  Some from the Koran, some from Solomon,
+  All by the cunning Eastern maker burned
+  Into the azure steel-his sword he took,
+  And held it, belt, and scabbard too, in sign
+  Of gift.
+
+           "The herds, the plain, the hills were mine;
+  But take thou them, and with them this in proof
+  Of title."
+
+             Lifted Ertoghrul his brows,
+  And opened wide his eyes.
+
+                            "Now who art thou?"
+  He asked in turn.
+
+                    "Oh, I am Alaeddin--
+  Sometimes they call me Alaeddin the Great."
+
+  "I take thy gifts--the herds, the plain, the hills,"
+  Said Ertoghrul; "and so I take the sword;
+  But none the less, if comes a need, 'tis thine.
+  Let others call thee Alaeddin the Great;
+  To me and mine thou'rt Alaeddin the Good
+  And Great."
+
+              With that, he kissed the good King's hand;
+  And making merry, to the Sheik's dowar
+  They rode. And thus from nothing came the small;
+  And now the lonely vale which erst ye knew,
+  And scorned, because it nursed the mountain's feet,
+  Doth cradle mornings on the mountain's top.
+
+                                   _Mishallah!_
+
+The quiet which held the company through the recitation endured a space
+afterwards, and--if the expression be allowed--was in itself a
+commentary upon the performance.
+
+"Where is our worthy Professor of Rhetoric?" asked Constantine.
+
+"Here, Your Majesty," answered the man of learning, rising.
+
+"Canst thou not give us a lecture upon the story with which thy Arabian
+brother hath favored us?"
+
+"Nay, sire, criticism, to deal justly, waiteth until the blood is cool.
+If the Sheik will honor me with a copy of his lines, I will scan and
+measure them by the rules descended to us from Homer, and his Attic
+successors."
+
+The eyes of the Emperor fell next upon the moody, discontented face of
+Duke Notaras.
+
+"My lord Admiral, what sayest thou of the tale?"
+
+"Of the tale, nothing; of the story-teller--I think him an insolent,
+and had I my way, Your Majesty, he should have a plunge in the
+Bosphorus."
+
+Presuming the Sheik unfamiliar with Latin, the Duke couched his reply
+in that tongue; yet the former raised his head, and looked at the
+speaker, his eyes glittering with intelligence--and the day came, and
+soon, when the utterance was relentlessly punished.
+
+"I do not agree with you, my Lord," Constantine said, in a melancholy
+tone. "Our fathers, whether we look for them on the Roman or the Greek
+side, might have played the part of Ertoghrul. His was the spirit of
+conquest. Would we had enough of it left to get back our own!--Sheik,"
+he added, "what else hast thou in the same strain? I have yet a little
+time to spare--though it shall be as our hostess saith."
+
+"Nay," she answered, with deference, "there is but one will here."
+
+And taking assent from her, the Sheik began anew.
+
+  EL JANN AND HIS PARABLE
+
+  _Bismillah!_
+
+                           Ertoghrul pursued a wolf,
+  And slew it on the range's tallest peak,
+  Above the plain so high there was nor grass
+  Nor even mosses more. And there he sat
+  Him down awhile to rest; when from the sky,
+  Or the blue ambiency cold and pure,
+  Or maybe from the caverns of the earth
+  Where Solomon the King is wont to keep
+  The monster Genii hearkening his call,
+  El Jann, vast as a cloud, and thrice as black,
+  Appeared and spoke--
+
+                      "Art thou Sheik Ertoghrul?"
+
+  And he undaunted answered: "Even so."
+
+  "Well, I would like to come and sit with thee."
+
+  "Thou seest there is not room for both of us."
+
+  "Then rise, I say, and get thee part way down
+  The peak."
+
+             "'Twere easier," laughed Ertoghrul,
+  "Madest thou thyself like me as thin and small;
+  And I am tired."
+
+                   A rushing sound ran round and up
+  And down the height, most like the whir of wings
+  Through tangled trees of forests old and dim.
+  A moment thus--the time a crisped leaf,
+  Held, armlength overhead, will take to fall--
+  And then a man was sitting face to face
+  With Ertoghrul.
+
+                  "This is the realm of snow,"
+  He said, and smiled--"a place from men secure,
+  Where only eagles fearless come to nest,
+  And summer with their young."
+
+                                The Sheik replied,
+  "It was a wolf--a gaunt gray wolf, which long
+  Had fattened on my flocks--that lured me here.
+  I killed it."
+
+                "On thy spear I see no blood;
+  And where, O Sheik, the carcass of the slain?
+  I see it not."
+
+                 Around looked Ertoghrul--
+  There was no wolf; and at his spear--
+  Upon its blade no blood. Then rose his wrath,
+  A mighty pulse.
+
+                  "The spear hath failed its trust--
+  I'll try the cimeter."
+
+                         A gleam of light--
+  A flitting, wind-borne spark in murk of night--
+  Then fell the sword, the gift of Alaeddin;
+  Edge-first it smote the man upon his crown--
+  Between his eyes it shore, nor staying there,
+  It cut his smile in two--and not yet spent,
+  But rather gaining force, through chin and chine,
+  And to the very stone on which he sat
+  It clove, and finished with a bell-like clang
+  Of silvern steel 'gainst steel.
+
+                                  "Aha! Aha!"--
+  But brief the shout; for lo! there was no stain
+  Upon the blade withdrawn, nor moved the man,
+  Nor changed he look or smile.
+
+                                "I was the wolf
+  That ran before thee up the mountain side;
+  'Twas I received thy spear as now thy sword;
+  And know thou further, Sheik, nor wolf nor man
+  Am I, nor mortal thing of any kind;
+  Only a thought of Allah's. Canst thou kill
+  A thought divine? Not Solomon himself
+  Could that, except with thought yet more divine.
+  Yield thee thy rage; and when thou think'st of me
+  Hereafter, be it as of one, a friend,
+  Who brought a parable, and made display
+  Before thee, saying--
+                       "Lo! what Allah wills."
+
+  Therewith he dropped a seed scarce visible
+  Into a little heap of sand and loam
+  Between them drawn.
+
+                     "Lo! Allah wills."
+
+                                        And straight
+  The dust began to stir as holding life.
+  Again El Jann--
+
+                 "Behold what Allah wills!"
+
+  A tiny shoot appeared; a waxen point
+  Close shawled in many folds of wax as white,
+  It might have been a vine to humbly creep--
+  A lily soon to sunward flare its stars--
+  A shrub to briefly coquette with the winds.
+  Again the cabalism--
+
+                      "Lo! Allah's will."
+
+  The apparition budded, leafed, and branched,
+  And with a flame of living green lit all
+  The barrenness about. And still it grew--
+  Until it touched the pillars of the earth,
+  And lapped its boundaries, the far and near,
+  And under it, as brethren in a tent,
+  The nations made their home, and dwelt in peace
+  Forever.
+
+           "Lo!"--
+
+                  And Ertoghrul awoke.
+
+                                      _Mishallah!_
+
+This recitation commanded closer attention than the first one. Each
+listener had a feeling that the parable at the end, like all true
+parables, was of continuous application, while its moral was in some
+way aimed at him.
+
+The looks the Sheik received were by no means loving. The spell was
+becoming unpleasant. Then the Emperor arose, as did the Princess, to
+whom, as hostess, the privilege of sitting had been alone conceded.
+
+"Our playtime is up--indeed, I fear, it has been exceeded," he said,
+glancing at the Dean, who was acting master of ceremonies.
+
+The Dean responded with a bow low as his surroundings admitted;
+whereupon the Emperor went to the Princess, and said, "We will take
+leave now, daughter, and for myself and my lords of the court, I
+acknowledge a most agreeable visit, and thank you for it."
+
+She respectfully saluted the hand he extended to her.
+
+"Our gate and doors at Blacherne are always open to you."
+
+The adieu was specially observed by the courtiers, and they
+subsequently pronounced it decorous for a sovereign, cordial as became
+a relative, but most un-loverlike. Indeed, it was a strong point in the
+decision subsequently of general acceptance, by which His Majesty was
+relieved of the proposal of marriage to the Princess.
+
+The latter took his offered arm, and accompanied him to the steps of
+the portico, where, when he had descended, the lords one by one left a
+kiss on her hand.
+
+Nor should it be forgotten, that as Constantine was passing the Sheik,
+he paused to say to him in his habitually kind and princely manner:
+"The tree Sheik Ertoghrul saw in his dream has spread, and is yet
+spreading, but its shadow has not compassed all the nations; and while
+God keeps me, it will not. Had not I myself invited the parable, it
+might have been offensive. For the instruction and entertainment given
+me, accept thou this--and go in peace."
+
+The Sheik took the ring offered him, and the gaze with which he
+followed the imperial giver was suggestive of respect and pity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+MAHOMMED DREAMS
+
+
+It was a trifle after noon. The trireme and the assemblage of admiring
+townspeople had disappeared, leaving the bay and its shores to their
+wonted quiet. The palace, however, nestling in the garden under the
+promontory, must be permitted to hold our interest longer.
+
+Aboo-Obeidah had eaten and drunk, for being on a journey, he was within
+the license of the law as respects wine; and now he sat with the
+Princess alone at the end of the portico lately occupied by the Emperor
+and his suite. A number of her attendants amused themselves out of
+hearing of the two, though still within call. She occupied the
+sedilium; he a seat by the table near her. Save a fine white veil on an
+arm and a fan which she seldom used, her appearance was as in the
+morning.
+
+It is to be admitted now that the Princess was finding a pleasure in
+the society of the Sheik. If aware of the fact, which was doubtful, it
+is still more doubtful if she could have explained it. We are inclined
+to think the mystery attaching to the man had as much to do with the
+circumstance as the man himself. He was polite, engaging, and handsome;
+the objection to his complexion, if such there were, was at least
+offset by a very positive faculty of entertaining; besides which, the
+unspeakable something in manner, always baffling disguises, always
+whispering of other conditions, always exciting suggestions and
+expectations, was present here.
+
+If she thought him the Bedouin he assumed to be, directly a word
+changed the opinion; did she see the Governor of the old Castle in his
+face, an allusion or a bit of information dropped by him unaware spoke
+of association far beyond such a subordinate; most perplexing, however,
+where got the man his intelligence? Did learning like his, avoiding
+cloisters, academies, and teachers of classical taste, comport with
+camel-driving and tent-life in deserts harried by winds and sand?
+
+The mystery, together with the effort to disentangle it, resolved the
+Princess into an attentive auditor. The advantages in the conversation
+were consequently with the Sheik; and he availed himself of them to
+lead as he chose.
+
+"You have heard, O Princess, of the sacred fig-tree of the Hindus?"
+
+"No."
+
+"In one of their poems--the Bhagavad Gita, I think--it is described as
+having its roots above and its branches downward; thus drawing life
+from the sky and offering its fruit most conveniently, it is to me the
+symbol of a good and just king. It rose to my mind when thy
+kinsman--may Allah be thrice merciful to him!--passed me with his
+speech of forgiveness, and this gift "--he raised his hand, and looked
+at the ring on one of the fingers-"in place of which I was more
+deserving burial in the Bosphorus, as the black-browed Admiral said."
+
+A frown dark as the Admiral's roughened his smooth brow.
+
+"Why so?" she inquired.
+
+"The tales I told were of a kind to be spared a Greek, even one who may
+not cover his instep with the embroidered buskin of an Emperor."
+
+"Nay, Sheik, they did not ruffle him. On the tongue of a Turk, I admit,
+the traditions had been boastful, but you are not a Turk."
+
+The remark might have been interrogative; wherefore with admirable
+address, he replied: "An Ottoman would see in me an Arab wholly
+unrelated to him, except as I am a Moslem. Let it pass, O Princess--he
+forgave me. The really great are always generous. When I took the ring,
+I thought, Now would the young Mahommed have so lightly pardoned the
+provocation?"
+
+"Mahommed!" she said.
+
+"Not the Prophet," he answered; "but the son of Amurath."
+
+"Ah, you know him?"
+
+"I have sat with him, O Princess, and at table often helped him to meat
+and bread. I have been his cupbearer and taster, and as frequently
+shared his outdoor sports; now hunting with hawk, and now with hound.
+Oh, it were worth a year of common days to gallop at his right hand,
+and exult with him when the falcon, from its poise right under the sun,
+drops itself like an arrow upon its enemy! I have discoursed with him
+also on themes holy and profane, and given and taken views, and telling
+him tales in prose and verse, have seen the day go out, then come
+again. In knightly practice I have tilted with him, and more than once,
+by his side in battle, loosened rein at the same cry and charged. His
+Sultana mother knows him well; but, by the lions and the eagles who
+served Solomon, I know him, beginning where her knowledge left
+off--that is, where the horizon of manhood stretched itself to make
+room for his enlarging soul."
+
+The awakening curiosity of his listener was not lost upon the Sheik.
+
+"You are surprised to hear a kindly speech of the son of Amurath," he
+said.
+
+She flushed slightly.
+
+"I am not a person, Sheik, whose opinions are dangerous to the peace of
+States, and of whom diplomacy is required; yet it would grieve me to
+give offence to you or your friend, the Prince Mahommed. If now I
+concede a wish to have some further knowledge of one who is shortly to
+inherit the most powerful of the Eastern Kingdoms, the circumstance
+ought not to subject me to harsh judgment."
+
+"Princess," the Sheik said, "nothing so becomes a woman as care where
+words may be the occasion of mischief. As a flower in a garden, such a
+woman would rank as the sovereign rose; as a bird, she would be the
+bulbul, the sweetest of singers, and in beauty, a heron with throat of
+snow, and wings of pink and scarlet; as a star, she would be the first
+of the evening, and the last to pale in the morning--nay, she would be
+a perpetual morning. Of all fates what more nearly justifies reproach
+of Allah than to have one's name and glory at the mercy of a rival or
+an enemy? I am indeed Mahommed's friend--I know him--I will defend him,
+where sacred truth permits defence. And then"--his glance fell, and he
+hesitated.
+
+"And what then?" she asked.
+
+He gave her a grateful look, and answered: "I am going to Adrianople.
+The Prince will be there, and can I tell him of this audience, and that
+the Princess Irene regrets the evil reported of him in Constantinople,
+and is not his enemy, straightway he will number himself of those the
+most happy and divinely remembered, whose books are to be given them in
+their right hands."
+
+The Princess looked at the singer, her countenance clear, serene, fair
+as a child's, and said:
+
+"I am the enemy of no one living. Report me so to him. The Master I
+follow left a law by which all men and women are neighbors whom I am to
+love and pray for as I love and pray for myself. Deliver him the very
+words, O Sheik, and he will not misunderstand me."
+
+A moment after she asked:
+
+"But tell me more of him. He is making the world very anxious."
+
+"Princess," the Sheik began, "Ebn Hanife was a father amongst
+Dervishes, and he had a saying, 'Ye shall know a plant by its flower, a
+vine by its fruit, and a man by his acts; what he does being to the man
+as the flower to the plant, and the fruit to the vine; if he have done
+nothing, prove him by his tastes and preferences, for what he likes
+best that he will do when left to himself.' By these tests let us
+presume to try the Prince Mahommed.... There is nothing which enthralls
+us like the exercise of power--nothing we so nearly carry with us into
+the tomb to be a motive there; for who shall say it has not a part in
+the promise of resurrection? If so, O Princess, what praise is too
+great for him who, a young man placed upon a throne by his father,
+comes down from it at his father's call?"
+
+"Did Mahommed that?"
+
+"Not once, O Princess, but twice."
+
+"In so much at least his balance should be fair."
+
+"To whom is the pleasant life in a lofty garden, its clusters always
+near at hand--to whom, if not to the just judges of their fellow-men?"
+
+The Sheik saluted her twice by carrying his right hand to his beard,
+then to his forehead.
+
+"Attend again, O Princess," he continued, more warmly than in the
+outset. "Mahommed is devoted to learning. At night in the field when
+the watches are set, the story-tellers, poets, philosophers, lawyers,
+preachers, experts in foreign tongues, and especially the inventors of
+devices, a class by themselves, supposed generally to live on dreams as
+others on bread--all these, finding welcome in his tent, congregate
+there. His palace in the city is a college, with recitations and
+lectures and instructive conversations. The objection his father
+recognized the times he requested him to vacate the throne was that he
+was a student. His ancestors having been verse makers, poetry is his
+delight; and if he does not rival them in the gentle art, he surpasses
+them in the number of his acquirements. The Arab, the Hebrew, the
+Greek, the Latin address him and have answers each in his mother's
+tongue. Knew you ever a scholar, O Princess, whose soul had utterly
+escaped the softening influence of thought and study? It is not
+learning which tames the barbarian so much as the diversion of mind
+from barbaric modes required of him while in the pursuit of learning."
+
+She interrupted him, saying pleasantly: "I see, O Sheik, if to be at
+the mercy of an enemy is sad, how fortunate where one's picture is
+intended if the artist be a friend. Where had the Prince his
+instructors?"
+
+There was a lurking smile in the Sheik's eyes, as he replied: "The
+sands in my country drink the clouds dry, and leave few fountains
+except of knowledge. The Arab professors in Cordova, whom the Moorish
+Kaliphs deemed themselves honored in honoring, were not despised by the
+Bishops of Rome. Amurath, wanting teachers for Mahommed, invited the
+best of them to his court. Ah--if I had the time!"
+
+Observing his sigh had not failed its mark, he continued: "I would
+speak of some of the books I have seen on the Prince's table; for as a
+licensed friend, I have been in his study. Indeed, but for fear of too
+greatly recommending myself, I would have told you earlier, O Princess,
+how he favoured me as one of his teachers."
+
+"Of poetry and story-telling, I suppose?"
+
+"Why not?" he asked. "Our history is kept and taught in such forms.
+Have we a hero not himself a poet, he keeps one.... Upon the Prince's
+table, in the central place, objects of his reverence, the sources to
+which he most frequently addresses himself when in need of words and
+happy turns of expression, his standards of comparison for things
+beautiful in writing and speech, mirrors of the Most Merciful,
+whispering galleries wherein the voice of the Most Compassionate is
+never silent, are the Koran, with illustrations in gold, and the Bible
+in Hebrew, copied from _torahs_ of daily use in the Synagogues."
+
+"The Bible in Hebrew! Does he read it?"
+
+"Like a Jewish elder."
+
+"And the Gospels?"
+
+The Sheik's face became reproachful.
+
+"Art thou--even thou, O Princess--of those who believe a Moslem must
+reject Christ because the Prophet of Islam succeeded him with later
+teachings?"
+
+Dropping then into the passionless manner, he continued:
+
+"The Koran does not deny Christ or his Gospels. Hear what it says of
+itself: 'And this Koran is not a forgery of one who is no God, but it
+hath been sent down as a confirmation of those books which have been
+before it, and an explanation of the Scriptures from the Lord of the
+Worlds.' [Footnote: The Koran] ... That verse, O Princess, transcribed
+by the Prince Mahommed himself, lies between the Bible and the Koran;
+the two being, as I have said, always together upon his table."
+
+"What then is his faith?" she asked, undisguisedly interested.
+
+"Would he were here to declare it himself!"
+
+This was said disconsolately; then the Sheik broke out:
+
+"The truth now of the son of Amurath! Listen!--He believes in God. He
+believes in the Scriptures and the Koran, holding them separate wings
+of the divine Truth by which the world is to attain righteousness. He
+believes there have been three Prophets specially in the confidence of
+God: Moses, the first one; Jesus, who was greater than Moses; Mahomet,
+the very greatest--not for speaking better or sublimer things, but
+because he was last in their order of coming. Above all, O Princess, he
+believes worship due to the Most High alone; therefore he prays the
+prayer of Islam, God is God, and Mahomet is his Prophet--meaning that
+the Prophet is not to be mistaken for God."
+
+The Sheik raised his dark eyes, and upon meeting them the Princess
+looked out over the bay. That she was not displeased was the most he
+could read in her face, the youthful light of which was a little shaded
+by thinking. He waited for her to speak.
+
+"There were other books upon the Prince's table?" she presently asked.
+
+"There were others, O Princess."
+
+"Canst thou name some of them?"
+
+The Sheik bowed profoundly.
+
+"I see the pearls of Ebn Hanife's saying were not wasted. Mahommed is
+now to be tried by his tastes and preferences. Let it be so.... I saw
+there, besides dictionaries Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, the Encyclopaedia
+of Sciences, a rare and wonderful volume by a Granadian Moor, Ibn
+Abdallah. I saw there the Astronomy and Astronomical Tables of Ibn
+Junis, and with them a silver globe perfected from the calculations of
+Almamon the Kaliph, which helps us to the geographical principle not
+yet acknowledged in Rome, that the earth is round. I saw there the Book
+of the Balance of Wisdom by Alhazan, who delved into the laws of nature
+until there is nothing phenomenal left. I saw there the Philosophy of
+Azazzali the Arab, for which both Christian and Moslem should be
+grateful, since it has given Philosophy its true place by exalting it
+into a handmaiden of Religion. I saw there books treating of trade and
+commerce, of arms and armor, and machines for the assault and defence
+of cities, of military engineering, and the conduct of armies in grand
+campaigns, of engineering not military, dealing with surveying, and the
+construction of highways, aqueducts, and bridges, and the laying out of
+towns. There, also, because the soul of the student must have rest and
+diversion, I saw volumes of songs and music loved by lovers in every
+land, and drawings of mosques, churches and palaces, masterpieces of
+Indian and Saracenic genius; and of gardens there was the Zebra,
+created by Abderrahman for the best loved of his Sultanas. Of poetry, O
+Princess, I saw many books, the lord of them a copy of Homer in Arabic,
+executed on ivory from the translation ordered by Haroun Al-Raschid."
+
+During this recital the Princess scarcely moved. She was hearing a new
+version of Mahommed; and the Sheik, like a master satisfied with his
+premises, proceeded to conclusions.
+
+"My Lord has a habit of dreaming, and he does not deny it--he believes
+in it. In his student days, he called it his rest. He used to say, when
+his brain reeled in overtask dreaming was a pillow of down and
+lavender; that in moments of despair, dreaming took his spirit in its
+hands softer than air, and, nurse-like, whispered and sung to it, and
+presently it was strong again. Not many mornings ago he awoke to find
+that in a deep sleep some ministrant had come to him, and opened the
+doors of his heart, and let out its flock of boyish fantasies. He has
+since known but three visions. Would it please you, O Princess, to hear
+of them? They may be useful as threads on which to hang the Dervish
+father's pearls of saying."
+
+She re-settled herself, resting her cheek on her hand, and her elbow on
+the arm of the chair, and replied:
+
+"I will hear of them."
+
+"The visions have all of them reference to the throne he is soon to
+ascend, without which they would be the mere jingling of a jester's
+rattle.
+
+"First Vision.... He will be a hero. If his soul turned from war, he
+were not his father's son. But unlike his father, he holds war the
+servant of peace, and peace the condition essential to his other
+visions.
+
+"Second Vision.... He believes his people have the genius of the Moors,
+and he will cultivate it in rivalry of that marvellous race."
+
+"Of the Moors, O Sheik?" the Princess said, interrupting him. "Of the
+Moors? I have always heard of them as pillagers of sacred
+cities--infidels sunk in ignorance, who stole the name of God to excuse
+invasions and the spilling of rivers of blood."
+
+The Sheik lifted his head haughtily.
+
+"I am an Arab, and the Moors are Arabs translated from the East to the
+West."
+
+"I crave thy pardon," she said, gently.
+
+And calming himself, he rejoined: "If I weary you, O Princess, there
+are other subjects to which I can turn. My memory is like the box of
+sandal-wood a lady keeps for her jewelry. I can open it at will, and
+always find something to please--better probably because I have it from
+another."
+
+"No," she returned, artlessly, "a hero in actual life transcends the
+best of fancies--and besides, Sheik, you spoke of a third vision of
+your friend, the Prince Mahommed."
+
+He dropped his eyes lest she should see the brightness with which they
+filled.
+
+"War, my Lord says, is a necessity which, as Sultan, he cannot avoid.
+Were he disposed to content himself with the empire descending from his
+great father, envious neighbors would challenge him to the field. He
+must prove his capacity in defence. That done, he vows to tread the
+path made white and smooth by Abderrahman, the noblest and best of the
+Western Kaliphs. He will set out by founding a capital somewhere on the
+Bosphorus. Such, O Princess, is my Lord Mahommed's Third Vision."
+
+"Nay, Sheik--on the Marmora--at Broussa, perhaps."
+
+"I am giving the Vision as he gave it to me, Princess. For where else,
+he asks, has the spreading earth diviner features than on the
+Bosphorus? Where bends a softer sky above a friendlier channel by
+Nature moulded for nobler uses? Where are there seas so bridled and
+reduced? Does not the rose bloom here all the year? Yonder the East,
+here the West--must they be strangers and enemies forever? His capital,
+he declares, shall be for their entertainment as elder and younger
+brother. Within its walls, which he will build strong as a mountain's
+base, with gates of brass invulnerable, and towers to descry the clouds
+below the horizon, he will collect unselfishly whatever is good and
+beautiful, remembering he serves Allah best who serves his fellow-men."
+
+"All his fellow-men, Sheik?"
+
+"All of them."
+
+Then she glanced over the bay, and said very softly:
+
+"It is well; for 'if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than
+others?'"
+
+The Sheik smiled, saying:
+
+"And thus the latest Prophet, O Princess. 'Turn away evil by that which
+is better; and lo, he between whom and thyself was enmity, shall become
+as though he were a warm friend.'" [Footnote: Koran]
+
+She answered, "A goodly echo."
+
+"Shall I proceed?" he then asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I was speaking of the Third Vision.... To make his capital the centre
+of the earth, he will have a harbor where ships from every country, and
+all at once, can come and lie, oars slung and sails furled: and near by
+for trade, a bazaar with streets of marble, and roofed with glass, and
+broad and long enough for a city unto itself; and in the midst a khan
+for lodging the merchants and travellers who have not other houses. And
+as did Abderrahman, he will build a University of vast enclosure; here
+temples, there groves; nor may a study be named without its teacher,
+and he the most famous; so the votaries of Music and Poetry,
+Philosophy, Science, and the Arts, and the hundred-handed Mechanics
+shall dwell together like soldiers in a holy league. And comes that way
+one religious, of him but a question, Believest thou in God? and if he
+answer yes, then for him a ready welcome. For of what moment is it, my
+Lord asks, whether God bear this name or that? Or be worshipped with or
+without form? Or on foot or knee? Or whether the devout be called
+together by voice or bell? Is not Faith everything?"
+
+The picture wrought upon the Princess. Her countenance was radiant, and
+she said half to herself, but so the Sheik heard her:
+
+"It is a noble Vision."
+
+Then the Sheik lowered his voice:
+
+"If, with such schemes, excluding races and religions--hear me again, O
+Princess!--if with such schemes or visions, as thou wilt, the Lord
+Mahommed allows himself one selfish dream, wouldst thou condemn him?"
+
+"What is the selfish dream?" she asked.
+
+"He has an open saying, Princess, 'Light is the life of the world,
+while Love is the light of life.' Didst thou ever hear how Othman wooed
+and won his Malkatoon?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It is a Turkish tale of love. Mahommed had it from his mother when he
+was a lad, and he has been haunted ever since with a belief which, to
+his dreaming, is like the high window in the eastern front of a palace,
+outwardly the expression-giver, within the principal source of light.
+The idea is strongest what times the moon is in the full; and then he
+mounts a horse, and hies him, as did Othman, to some solitary place
+where, with imagination for cup-bearer, he drinks himself into happy
+drunkenness." The Sheik, bending forward, caught her eyes with his, and
+held them so not a glance escaped him.
+
+"He thinks--and not all the Genii, the winged and the unwinged, of the
+wisest of Kings could win him from the thought--that he will sometime
+meet a woman who will have the mind, the soul of souls, and the beauty
+of the most beautiful. When she will cross his vision is one of the
+undelivered scriptories which Time is bringing him; yet he is looking
+for her, and the more constantly because the first sight of her will be
+his first lesson in the mystery called love. He will know her, for at
+seeing her a lamp will light itself in his heart, and by it, not the
+glare of the sun, his spirit will make sure of her spirit. Therefore in
+his absoluteness of faith, O Princess, there is a place already
+provided for her in his promised capital, and even now he calls it this
+House of Love. Ah, what hours he has spent planning that abode! He will
+seat it in the Garden of Perfection, for the glorifying which, trees,
+birds, flowers, summer-houses, water, hill-tops and shaded vales shall
+be conquered. Has he not studied the Zehra of Abderrahman? And divided
+it as it was into halls, courts and chambers, and formed and
+proportioned each, and set and reset its thousand and more columns, and
+restored the pearls and gold on its walls, and over the wide Alhambran
+arches hung silken doors sheened like Paradisean birds? And all that
+when he shall have found her, his Queen, his Malkatoon, his Spirit of
+Song, his Breath of Flowers, his Lily of Summer, his Pearl of Oman, his
+Moon of Radjeb, monotony shall never come where she dwells nor shall
+she sigh except for him absent. Such, O Princess Irene, is the one
+dream the Prince has builded with the world shut out. Does it seem to
+you a vanity of wickedness?"
+
+"No," she returned, and covered her face, for the Sheik's look was
+eager and burning bright.
+
+He knelt then, and kissed the marble at her feet.
+
+"I am Prince Mahommed's ambassador, O Princess," he said, rising to his
+knees. "Forgive me, if I have dared delay the announcement."
+
+"His ambassador! To what end?"
+
+"I am afraid and trembling."
+
+He kissed the floor again.
+
+"Assure me of pardon--if only to win me back my courage. It is
+miserable to be shaken with fear."
+
+"Thou hast done nothing, Sheik, unless drawing thy master's portrait
+too partially be an offence. Speak out."
+
+"It is not three days, Princess, since you were Mahommed's guest."
+
+"I his guest--Mahommed's!"
+
+She arose from her chair.
+
+"He received you at the White Castle."
+
+"And the Governor?"
+
+"He was the Governor."
+
+She sunk back overcome with astonishment. The Sheik recalled her
+directly.
+
+"Prince Mahommed," he said, "arrived at the Castle when the boats were
+discovered, and hastened to the landing to render assistance if the
+peril required it.... And now, O Princess, my tongue falters. How can I
+without offending tell of the excitement into which seeing you plunged
+him? Suffer me to be direct. His first impression was supported by the
+coincidences--your coming and his, so nearly at the same instant--the
+place of the meeting so out of the way and strange--the storm seemingly
+an urgency of Heaven. Beholding and hearing you, 'This is she! This is
+she! My Queen, my Malkatoon!' he cried in his heart. And yesterday"--
+
+"Nay, Sheik, allow the explanation to wait. Bearest thou a message from
+him to me?"
+
+"He bade me salute thee, Princess Irene, as if thou wert now the Lady
+of his House of Love in his Garden of Perfection, and to pray if he
+might come and in person kiss thy hand, and tell thee his hopes, and
+pour out at thy feet his love in heartfuls larger than ever woman had
+from man."
+
+While speaking, the Sheik would have given his birthright to have seen
+her face.
+
+Then, in a low voice, she asked:
+
+"Does he doubt I am a Christian?"
+
+The tone was not of anger; with beatings of heart trebly quickened, he
+hastened to reply:
+
+"'That she is a Christian'--may God abandon my mouth, if I quote him
+unfaithfully!--'That she is a Christian, I love her the more. For see
+you, Sheik'--by the faith of an Arab, Princess, I quote him yet, word
+for word--'my mother was a Christian.'"
+
+In the morning of this very day we have seen her put to like question
+by Constantine, and she did not hesitate; now the reply took a time.
+
+"Say to Prince Mahommed," she at length returned, "that his message
+presents itself honorably, for which it is deserving a soft answer. His
+fancy has played him false. I cannot be the woman of his dream. She is
+young; I am old, though not with years. She is gay; I am serious. She
+is in love with life, hopeful, joyous; I was born to sorrow, and in
+sorrow brought up, and the religion which absorbed my youth is now
+life's hold on me. She will be delighted with the splendors he has in
+store for her; so might I, had not the wise man long since caught my
+ear and judgment by the awful text, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
+While her charms endure she will keep him charmed with the world; I
+could not so much, for the world to come has possession of me, and the
+days here are but so many of a journey thither. Tell him, O Sheik,
+while he has been dreaming of palaces and gardens in rivalry of
+Abderrahman the Kaliph, I have been dreaming of a house in splendor
+beyond the conception of architects; and asks he more about it, tell
+him I know it only as a house not made with hands. Tell him I speak not
+in denial of possibilities; for by the love I have never failed to
+accord the good and noble, I might bend my soul to his; to this hour,
+however, God and His Son the Christ, and the Holy Mother, and the
+Angels and deserving men and women have taken up my heart and
+imagination, and in serving them I have not aspired to other happiness.
+A wife I might become, not from temptation of gain or power, or in
+surrender to love--I speak not in derision of the passion, since, like
+the admitted virtues, it is from God--nay, Sheik, in illustration of
+what may otherwise be of uncertain meaning to him, tell Prince Mahommed
+I might become his wife could I by so doing save or help the religion I
+profess. Then, if I brought him love, the sacrifice would rescue it
+from every taint. Canst thou remember all this? And wilt thou deliver
+it truly?"
+
+The Sheik's demeanor when she ended was greatly changed; his head was
+quite upon his breast; his attitude and whole appearance were
+disconsolate to the last degree.
+
+"Alas, Princess! How can I carry such speech to him, whose soul is
+consuming with hunger and thirst for thy favor?"
+
+"Sheik," she said in pity, "no master, I think, had ever a more
+faithful servant than thou hast proved thyself. Thy delivery of his
+message, could it be preserved, would be a model for heralds in the
+future."
+
+Thereupon she arose, extended her hand to him, and he kissed it; and as
+she remained standing, he arose also.
+
+"Be seated," she then said, and immediately that they were both in
+their chairs again, she took direction of the interview.
+
+"You asked me, Sheik, if I had heard how Othman wooed and won his
+Malkatoon, and said it was a Turkish romance. The Othman, I take it,
+was founder of Prince Mahommed's house. Now, if thou art not too weary,
+tell me the story."
+
+As the recital afforded him the opportunities to give poetic expression
+to his present feeling, he accepted the suggestion gladly, and, being
+in the right mood, was singularly effective. Half the time listening
+she was in tears. It was past three o'clock when he finished. The
+audience then terminated. In no part of it had her manner been more
+gracious than when she conducted him along the portico, or her
+loveliness so overwhelming as when she bade him adieu at the head of
+the steps.
+
+Standing between columns near the sedilium, she saw him gain his boat,
+take something from the sitting-box, step ashore again, and return to
+her gate, where he remained awhile pounding with a stone. The action
+was curious, and when he was out of sight rounding the water front of
+the promontory, she sent Lysander to investigate.
+
+"The infidel has fixed a brass plate to the right-hand post of the
+kiosk," the ancient reported, in bad humor. "It may be a curse." The
+Princess then called her attendants, and went with them to see the
+brass plate. There it was, an arm's reach overhead, and affixed firmly
+to the post, the corners turned down to serve the tacking. Graven on
+its polished surface was the following:
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Wholly unable to decipher it, she sent for a Dervish, long resident in
+the town, and returned to the portico.
+
+"Princess," the old man said, having viewed the mysterious plate, "he
+who did the posting was a Turk; and if he were aged, I should say thou
+hast entertained unaware the great Amurath, Sultan of Sultans."
+
+"But the man was young."
+
+"Then was he the son of Amurath, Prince Mahommed."
+
+The Princess turned pale.
+
+"How canst thou speak so positively?" she asked.
+
+"It is a _teukra_; in the whole world, O Princess, there are but two
+persons with authority to make use of it."
+
+"And who are they?"
+
+"The Sultan, and Mahommed, next him in the succession."
+
+In the silence which ensued, Lysander officiously proposed to remove
+the sign. The Dervish interposed.
+
+"Wilt thou hear me, O Princess," he said, with a low reverence,
+"whether the plate proceeded from Amurath or Mahommed, or by the order
+of either of them, the leaving it behind signifies more than friendship
+or favor--it is a safeguard--a proclamation that thou and thy people
+and property here are under protection of the master of all the Turks.
+Were war to break out to-morrow, thou mightest continue in thy palace
+and garden with none to make thee afraid save thine own countrymen.
+Wherefore consider well before acceding to the rancor of this ancient
+madman."
+
+Thus the truth came to the Princess Irene. The Singing Sheik was Prince
+Mahommed!
+
+Twice he had appeared before her; in the White Castle once, and now in
+her palace; and having announced himself her lover, and proposed
+marriage, he intended her to know him, and also that he was not
+departing in despair. Hence the plate on the gate! The circumstance was
+novel and surprising. Her present feelings were too vague and uncertain
+for definition: but she was not angry.
+
+Meantime Mahommed, returning to the old Castle, debated with himself.
+He loved the Princess Irene with the passion of a soul unused to denial
+or disappointment, and before he reached the Roumelian Hissar he swore
+a Moslem oath to conquer Constantinople, less for Islam and glory, than
+for her. And from that hour the great accomplishment took hold of him
+to the exclusion of all else.
+
+At Hissar he ascended the mountain, and, standing on the terreplein of
+the precipice in front of what is now Robert College, he marked the
+narrowness of the Bosphorus below, and thinking of the military
+necessity for a crossing defended on both shores, he selected a site
+for a castle on the European side opposite the White Castle in Asia. In
+due time we will have occasion to notice the creation of the walls and
+towers of the stupendous fortification yet standing between Bebek and
+Hissar, a monument to his energy and sagacity more imposing than
+anything left by him in Constantinople.
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV
+
+THE PALACE OF BLACHERNE
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PALACE OF BLACHERNE
+
+
+The Prince of India was not given to idle expectations. He might
+deceive others, but he seldom deceived himself. His experience served
+him prophetically in matters largely dependent on motives ordinarily
+influential with men. He was confident the Emperor would communicate
+with him, and soon.
+
+The third day after the adventure at the White Castle, a stranger,
+mounted, armed, and showily caparisoned, appeared at the Prince's door
+under guidance of Uel. In the study, to which he was hidden, he
+announced himself the bearer of a complimentary message from His
+Majesty, concluding with an invitation to the palace of Blacherne. If
+agreeable, His Majesty would be pleased to receive the Indian dignitary
+in the afternoon at three o'clock. An officer of the guard would be at
+the Grand Gate for his escort. The honor, needless to say, was accepted
+in becoming terms.
+
+When the Prince descended to the hall of entry on the ground floor to
+take the sedan there, the unusual care given his attire was apparent.
+His beard was immaculately white. His turban of white silk, balloon in
+shape, and with a dazzle of precious stones in front, was a study. Over
+a shirt of finest linen, with ruffles of lace at the throat and breast,
+there was a plain gown of heavy black velvet, buttoned at the neck, but
+open down to a yellow sash around the waist. The sash was complemented
+by a belt which was a mass of pearls in relief on a ground of gold
+embroidery. The belt-plate and crescented sword scabbard were aflame
+with brilliants on blue enamelling. His trousers, ample as a skirt,
+were of white satin overflowing at the ankles. Pointed red slippers,
+sparkling with embroidery of small golden beads, completed the costume.
+
+The procession in the street was most striking. First Nilo, as became a
+king of Kash-Cush, barbarously magnificent; the sedan next, on the
+shoulders of four carriers in white livery; at the rear, two domestics
+arrayed _a la Cipango_, their strange blue garments fitting them so
+close as to impede their walking; yet as one of them bore his master's
+paper sunshade and ample cloak, and the other a cushion bloated into
+the proportions of a huge pillow, they were by no means wanting in
+self-importance. Syama, similarly attired, though in richer material,
+walked at the side of the sedan, ready to open the door or answer such
+signal as he might receive from within.
+
+The appearance of this retinue in the streets was a show to the idle
+and curious, who came together as if rendered out of the earth, and in
+such numbers that before fairly reaching the thoroughfare by which the
+Grand Gate of Blacherne was usually approached from the city side, the
+gilded box on the shoulders of its bearers looked, off a little way,
+not unlike a boat rocking in waves.
+
+Fortunately the people started in good humor, and meeting nothing to
+break the mood, they permitted the Prince to accomplish his journey
+without interruption. The companionship of the crowd was really
+agreeable to him; he hardly knew whether it were pleasanter to be able
+to excite such respectful curiosity than to gratify it successfully. It
+might have been otherwise had Lael been with him.
+
+The Very High Residence, as the Palace of Blacherne was generally
+spoken of by Greeks, was well known to the Prince of India. The
+exclamation with which he settled himself in the sedan at setting out
+from his house--"Again, again, O Blacherne!"--disclosed a previous
+personal acquaintance with the royal property. And over and over again
+on the way he kept repeating, "O Blacherne! Beautiful Blacherne! Bloom
+the roses as of old in thy gardens? Do the rivulets in thy alabaster
+courts still run singing to the mosaic angels on the walls?"
+
+As to the date of these recollections, if, as the poets tell us, time
+is like a flowing river, and memory a bridge for the conveniency of the
+soul returning to its experiences, how far had this man to travel the
+structure before reaching the Blacherne he formerly knew? Over what
+tremendous spaces between piers did it carry him!
+
+The street traversed by the Prince carried him first to the Grate of
+St. Peter on the Golden Horn, and thence, almost parallel with the city
+wall, to Balat, a private landing belonging to the Emperor, at present
+known as the gate of Blacherne.
+
+At the edge of an area marble paved, the people stopped, it being the
+limit of their privilege. Crossing the pavement, the visitor was set
+down in front of the Grand Gate of the Very High Residence. History,
+always abominating lapses, is yet more tender of some places than
+others. There, between flanking towers, an iron-plated valve strong
+enough to defy attack by any of the ancient methods was swung wide
+open, ready nevertheless to be rolled to at set of sun. The guard
+halted the Prince, and an officer took his name, and apologizing for a
+brief delay, disappeared with it. Alighting from his sedan, the worthy
+proceeded to take observation and muse while waiting.
+
+The paved area on which he stood was really the bottom of a
+well-defined valley which ran off and up irregularly toward the
+southeast, leaving an ascent on its right memorable as the seventh hill
+of Constantinople. A stone wall marked here and there by sentinel
+boxes, each with a red pennon on its top, straggled down along the foot
+of the ascent to the Grand Gate. There between octangular towers
+loopholed and finished battlement style was a covered passage
+suggestive of Egypt. Two Victories in high relief blew trumpets at each
+other across the entrance front. Ponderous benches of porphyry,
+polished smooth by ages of usage, sat one on each side for the guards;
+fellows in helmets of shining brass, cuirasses of the same material
+inlaid with silver, greaves, and shoes stoutly buckled. Those of them
+sitting sprawled their bulky limbs broadly over the benches. The few
+standing seemed like selected giants, with blond beards and blue eyes,
+and axes at least three spans in length along their whetted edges. The
+Prince recognized the imperial guards--Danes, Saxons, Germans, and
+Swiss--their nationalities merged into the corps entitled _Varangians_.
+
+Conscious, but unmindful of their stare, he kept his stand, and swept
+the hill from bottom to top, giving free rein to memory.
+
+In 449 A. D.--he remembered the year and the circumstance well--an
+earthquake threw down the wall then enclosing the city. Theodosius
+restored it, leaving the whole height outside of this northwestern part
+a preserve wooded, rocky, but with one possession which had become so
+infinitely sanctified in Byzantine estimation as to impart the quality
+to all its appurtenances, that was the primitive but Very Holy Church
+of Blacherne, dedicated to the Virgin.
+
+Near the church there was a pleasure house to which the Emperors,
+vainly struggling to escape the ceremonies the clergy had fastened upon
+them to the imbitterment of life, occasionally resorted, and down on
+the shore of the Golden Horn a zoological garden termed the Cynegion
+had been established. The latter afterwhile came to have a gallery in
+which the public was sometimes treated to games and combats between
+lions, tigers, and elephants. There also criminals and heretics were
+frequently carried and flung to the beasts.
+
+Nor did the Prince fail to recall that in those cycles the sovereigns
+resided preferably in the Bucoleon, eastwardly by the sea of Marmora.
+He remembered some of them as acquaintances with whom he had been on
+close terms--Justinian, Heraclius, Irene, and the Porphyrogentes.
+
+The iconoclastic masters of that cluster of magnificent tenements, the
+Bucoleon, had especial claims upon his recollection. Had he not incited
+them to many of their savageries? They were incidents, it is true,
+sadly out of harmony with his present dream; still their return now was
+with a certain fluttering of the spirit akin to satisfaction, for the
+victims in nearly every case had been Christians, and his business of
+life then was vengeance for the indignities and sufferings inflicted on
+his countrymen.
+
+With a more decided flutter, he remembered a scheme he put into effect
+just twenty years after the restoration of the wall by Theodosius. In
+the character of a pious Christianized Israelite resident in Jerusalem,
+he pretended to have found the vestments of the Holy Mother of Christ.
+The discovery was of course miraculous, and he reported it
+circumstantially to the Patriarchs Galvius and Candidus. For the glory
+of God and the exaltation of the Faith, they brought the relics to
+Constantinople. There, amidst most solemn pomp, the Emperor assisting,
+they were deposited in the Church of Saints Peter and Mark, to be
+transferred a little later to their final resting-place in the holier
+Church of the Virgin of Blacherne. There was a world of pious propriety
+in the idea that as the vestments belonged to the Mother of God they
+would better become her own house. The _Himation_ or _Maphorion_, as
+the robe of the Virgin was called, brought the primitive edifice in the
+woods above the Cynegion a boundless increase of sanctity, while the
+discoverer received the freedom of the city, the reverence of the
+clergy, and the confidence of the Basileus.
+
+Nor did the prodigious memory stay there. The hill facing the city was
+of three terraces. On the second one, half hidden among cypress and
+plane trees, he beheld a building, low, strong, and, from his
+direction, showing but one window. Some sixteen years previous, during
+his absence in Cipango, a fire had destroyed the Church of the Virgin,
+and owing to the poverty of the people and empire, the edifice had not
+been rebuilt. This lesser unpretentious structure was the Chapel of
+Blacherne which the flames had considerately spared. He recognized it
+instantly, and remembered it as full of inestimable relics--amongst
+them the _Himation_, considered indestructible; the Holy Cross which
+Heraclius, in the year 635, had brought from Jerusalem, and delivered
+to Sergius; and the _Panagia Blachernitissa_, or All Holy Banner of the
+Image of the Virgin. Then rose another reminiscence, and though to
+reach him it had to fly across a chasm of hundreds of years, it
+presented itself with the distinctness of an affair of yesterday. In
+626, Heraclius being Emperor, a legion of Avars and Persians sacked
+Scutari, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, and laid siege to
+Constantinople. The Byzantines were in awful panic; and they would have
+yielded themselves had not Sergius the Patriarch been in control. With
+a presence of mind equal to the occasion, he brought the _Panagia_
+forth, and supported by an army of clerics and monks, traversed the
+walls, waving the All Holy Banner. A volley of arrows from invisible
+archers fell upon the audacious infidels, and the havoc was dreadful;
+they fled, and their prince, the Khagan, fled with them, declaring he
+had seen a woman in shining garments but of awful presence on the
+walls. The woman was the Holy Mother; and with a conceit easily
+mistaken for gratitude, the Byzantines declared their capital
+thenceforward guarded by God. When they went out to the Church in the
+Woods and found it unharmed by the enemy, they were persuaded the
+Mother had adopted them; in return, what could they else than adopt
+her? Pisides, the poet, composed a hymn, to glorify her. The Church
+consecrated the day of the miraculous deliverance a fete day observable
+by Greeks forever. The Emperor removed the old building, and on its
+site raised another of a beauty more expressive of devotion. To secure
+it from ravage and profanation, he threw a strong wall around the whole
+venerated hill, and by demolishing the ancient work of Theodosius, made
+Blacherne a part of the city.
+
+By and by the Church required enlargement, and it was then cruci-formed
+by the addition of transepts right and left. Still later, a Chapel was
+erected specially for the relics and the All Holy Banner. This was
+contiguous to the Church, and besides being fireproof, it covered a
+spring of pure water, afterwards essential in many splendid ceremonies
+civil as well as religious. The Chamber of Relics was prohibited to all
+but the Basileus. He alone could enter it. By great favor, the Prince
+of India was once permitted to look into the room, and he remembered it
+large and dimly lighted, its shadows alive, however, with the glitter
+of silver and gold in every conceivable form, offered there as the Wise
+Men laid their gifts before the Child in the Cave of the Nativity.
+
+Again and again the Church was burned, yet the Chapel escaped. It
+seemed an object of divine protection. The sea might deliver tempests
+against the Seven Hills, earthquakes shake the walls down and crack the
+hanging dome of St. Sophia, cinders whiten paths from the porphyry
+column over by the Hippodrome to the upper terrace of Blacherne; yet
+the Chapel escaped--yet the holy fountain in its crypt flowed on purer
+growing as the centuries passed.
+
+The Prince, whose memories we are but weaving into words, did not
+wonder at the increase of veneration attaching to the Chapel and its
+precious deposits--manuscripts, books, bones, flags, things personal to
+the Apostles, the Saints, the Son and His Mother, parings of their
+nails, locks of their hair, spikes and splinters of the Cross
+itself--he did not wonder at it, or smile, for he knew there is a
+devotional side to every man which wickedness may blur but cannot
+obliterate. He himself was going about the world convinced that the
+temple of Solomon was the House of God.
+
+The guards sprawling on the benches kept staring at him; one of them
+let his axe fall without so much as attracting the Prince's attention.
+His memory, with a hold on him too firm to be disturbed by such
+trifles, insisted on its resurrectionary work, and returned him to the
+year 865. Constantinople was again besieged, this time by a horde from
+the Russian wilderness under the chiefs Dir and Askold. They had passed
+the upper sea in hundreds of boats, and disembarking on the European
+shore, marched down the Bosphorus, leaving all behind them desolate.
+Photius was then Patriarch. When the fleet was descried from the walls,
+he prevailed on the Emperor to ask the intervention of the Virgin. The
+_Maphorion_ or Sacred Robe was brought out, and in presence of the
+people on their knees, the clergy singing the hymn of Pisides, the holy
+man plunged it into the waves.
+
+A wind arose under which the water in its rocky trough was as water in
+a shaken bowl. The ships of the invaders sunk each other. Not one
+survived. Of the men, those who lived came up out of the vortexes
+praying to be taken to the Church of Blacherne for baptism. This was
+two hundred years and more after the first deliverance of the city, and
+yet the Mother was faithful to her chosen!--Constantinople was still
+the guarded of God!--The _Penagia_ was still the All Holy! Having
+repulsed the Muscovite invasion, what excuse for his blasphemy would
+there be left the next to challenge its terrors?
+
+The Prince of India saw the blackened walls of the burned Church, an
+appealing spectacle which the surrounding trees tried to cover with
+their foliage, but could not; then he lifted his eyes to the Palace
+upon the third terrace.
+
+To the hour decay sets in the touches of Time are usually those of an
+artist who loves his subject, and wishes merely to soften or ennoble
+its expression. So had he dealt with the Very High Residence.
+
+It began in the low ground down by the Cynegion, and arose with the
+city wall, which was in fact its southwestern front. Though always
+spoken of in the singular, like the Bucoleon, it was a collection of
+palaces, vast, irregular, and declarative of the taste of the different
+eras they severally memorialized. The spaces between them formed courts
+and _places_ under cover; yet as the architects had adhered to the idea
+of a main front toward the northeast, there appeared a certain unity of
+design in the structures.
+
+This main front, now under the Prince's view, was frequently broken,
+advancing here, retreating there; one section severely plain and
+sombre; another relieved by porticos with figured friezes resting on
+tall columns. The irregularities were pleasing; some of them were
+stately; and they were all helped not a little by domes and pavilions
+without which the roof lines would have been monotonous.
+
+Lifting his gaze up the ascent from the low ground, it rested presently
+on a Tower built boldly upon the Heraclian wall. This was the highest
+pinnacle of the Palace, first to attract the observer, longest to hold
+his attention. No courier was required to tell its history to him
+through whose eyes we are now looking--it was the tower of Isaac
+Angelus. How clearly its outlines cut the cloudless sky! How strong it
+seemed up there, as if built by giants! Yet with windows behind
+balconies, how airy and graceful withal! The other hills of the city,
+and the populated valleys between the hills, spread out below it, like
+an unrolled map. The warders of the Bucoleon, or what is now Point
+Serail, the home-returning mariner shipping oars off Scutari, the
+captain of the helmeted column entering the Golden Gate down by the
+Seven Towers, the insolent Genoese on the wharves of Galata, had only
+to look up, and lo! the perch of Isaac. And when, as often must have
+happened, the privileged lord himself sat midafternoons on the
+uppermost balcony of the Tower, how the prospect soothed the fever of
+his spirit! If he were weary of the city, there was the Marmora, always
+ready to reiterate the hues of the sky, and in it the Isles of the
+Princes, their verdurous shades permeated with dreamful welcome to the
+pleasure-seeker as well as the monk; or if he longed for a further
+flight, old Asia made haste with enticing invitation to some of the
+villas strewing its littoral behind the Isles; and yonder, to the eye
+fainting in the distance, scarce more than a pale blue boundary cloud,
+the mountain beloved by the gods, whither they were wont to assemble at
+such times as they wished to learn how it fared with Ilium and the sons
+of Priam, or to enliven their immortality with loud symposia. A
+prospect so composed would seem sufficient, if once seen, to make a
+blind man's darkness perpetually luminous.
+
+Sometimes, however, the superlative magnate preferred the balcony on
+the western side of the Tower. There he could sit in the shade, cooled
+by waftures from a wide campania southward, or, peering over the
+balustrade, watch the peasantry flitting through the breaks of the
+Kosmidion, now the purlieus of Eyoub.
+
+Again the Prince was carried back through centuries. It had been
+determined to build at Blacherne; but the hill was steep. How could
+spaces be gained for foundations, for courts and gardens? The
+architects pondered the problem. At last one of bolder genius came
+forward. We will accept the city wall for a western front, he said, and
+build from it; and for levels, allow us to commence at the foot of the
+height, and rear arches upon arches. The proposal was accepted; and
+thereafter for years the quarter was cumbered with brick and skeleton
+frames, and workingmen were numerous and incessantly busy as colonized
+ants. Thus the ancient pleasure house disappeared, and the first formal
+High Residence took its place; at the same time the Bucoleon, for so
+many ages the glory of Constantinople, was abandoned by its masters.
+
+Who was the first permanent occupant of the Palace of Blacherne? The
+memory, theretofore so prompt, had now no reply. No matter--the Prince
+recalled sessions had with Angelus on the upper balcony yonder. He
+remembered them on account of his host one day saying: "Here I am
+safe." The next heard of him he was a captive and blind.
+
+Passing on rapidly, he remembered the appearance of Peter the Hermit in
+the gorgeous reception room of the Palace in 1096. Quite as distinctly,
+he also remembered the audience Alexis I. tendered Godfrey of Bouillon
+and his Barons in the same High Residence.
+
+What a contrast the host and his guests presented that day! The latter
+were steel clad from head to foot and armed for battle, while Alexis
+was a spectacle of splendor unheard of in the barbarous West. How the
+preachers and eunuchs in the silk-gowned train of the one trembled as
+the redoubtables of the West mangled the velvet carpets with their
+cruel spurs! How peculiarly the same redoubtables studied the pearls on
+the yellow stole of the wily Comnene and the big jewels in his Basilean
+mitre--as if they were counting and weighing them mentally, preliminary
+to casting up at leisure a total of value! And the table ware--this
+plate and yon bowl--were they really gold or some cunning deception?
+The Greeks were so treacherous! And when the guests were gone, the
+Greeks, on their part, were not in the least surprised at the list of
+spoons and cups subtly disappeared--gifts, they supposed, intended by
+the noble "Crosses" for the most Holy Altar in Jerusalem!
+
+Still other remembrances of the Prince revived at sight of the
+Palace--many others--amongst them, how the Varangians beat the boastful
+Montferrat and the burly Count of Flanders in the assault of 1203,
+specially famous for the gallantry of old Dandolo, operating with his
+galleys on the side of the Golden Horn. Brave fellows, those
+Varangians! Was the corps well composed now as then? He glanced at the
+lusty examples before him on the stone benches, thinking they might
+shortly have to answer the question.
+
+These reminiscences, it must not be forgotten, were of brief passage
+with the Prince, much briefer than the time taken in writing them. They
+were interrupted by the appearance of a military official whose uniform
+and easy manner bespoke palace life. He begged to be informed if he had
+the honor of addressing the Prince of India; and being affirmatively
+assured, he announced himself sent to conduct him to His Majesty. The
+hill was steep, and the way somewhat circuitous; did the Prince need
+assistance? The detention, he added, was owing to delay in getting
+intelligence of the Prince's arrival to His Majesty, who had been
+closely engaged, arranging for certain ceremonies which were to occur
+in the evening. Perhaps His Majesty had appointed the audience
+imagining the ceremonies might prove entertaining to the Prince. These
+civilities, and others, were properly responded to, and presently the
+cortege was in motion.
+
+The lower terrace was a garden of singular perfection.
+
+On the second terrace, the party came to the ruined Church where,
+during a halt, the officer told of the fire. His Majesty had registered
+a vow, he said, at the end of the story, to rebuild the edifice in a
+style superior to any former restoration.
+
+The Prince, while listening, observed the place. Excepting the Church,
+it was as of old. There the grove of cypresses, very ancient, and tall
+and dark. There, too, the Chapel of purplish stone, and at one side of
+it the sentry box and bench, and what seemed the identical detail of
+Varangians on duty. There the enclosed space between the edifices, and
+the road across the pavement to the next terrace only a little deeper
+worn. There the arched gateway of massive masonry through which the
+road conducted, the carving about it handsome as ever; and there,
+finally, from the base of the Chapel, the brook, undiminished in volume
+and song, ran off out of sight into the grove, an old acquaintance of
+the Prince's.
+
+Moving on through the arched way, the guide led up to the third and
+last terrace. Near the top there was a cut, and on its right embankment
+a party of workmen spreading and securing a canopy of red cloth.
+
+"Observe, O Prince," the officer said. "From this position, if I
+mistake not, you will witness the ceremony I mentioned as in
+preparation."
+
+The guest had time to express his gratification, when the Palace of
+Blacherne, the Very High Residence, burst upon him in long extended
+view, a marvel of imperial prodigality and Byzantine genius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE AUDIENCE
+
+
+The sedan was set down before a marble gate on the third terrace.
+
+"My duty is hardly complete. Suffer me to conduct you farther," the
+officer said, politely, as the Prince stepped from the box.
+
+"And my servants?"
+
+"They will await you."
+
+The speakers were near the left corner of a building which projected
+considerably from the general front line of the Palace. The wall, the
+gateway, and the building were of white marble smoothly dressed.
+
+After a few words with Syama, the Prince followed his guide into a
+narrow enclosure on the right of which there was a flight of steps, and
+on the left a guard house. Ascending the steps, the two traversed a
+passage until they came to a door.
+
+"The waiting-room. Enter," said the conductor.
+
+Four heavily curtained windows lighted the apartment. In the centre
+there were a massive table, and, slightly removed from it, a burnished
+copper brazier. Bright-hued rugs covered the floor, and here and there
+stools carven and upholstered were drawn against the painted walls. The
+officer, having seen his charge comfortably seated, excused himself and
+disappeared.
+
+Hardly was he gone when two servants handsomely attired came in with
+refreshments--fruits in natural state, fruits candied, sweetened bread,
+sherbet, wine and water. A chief followed them, and, with much humility
+of manner, led the Prince to a seat at the table, and invited him to
+help himself. The guest was then left alone; and while he ate and drank
+he wondered at the stillness prevalent; the very house seemed in awe.
+
+Ere long another official entered, and after apologizing for
+introducing himself, said: "I am Dean of the Court. In the absence of
+my lord Phranza, it has fallen to me to discharge, well as I can, the
+duties of Grand Chamberlain."
+
+The Prince, observant of the scrutinizing glance the Dean gave his
+person, acknowledged the honor done him, and the pleasure he derived
+from the acquaintance. The Dean ought to be happy; he had great fame in
+the city and abroad as a most courteous, intelligent, and faithful
+servant; there was no doubt he deserved preeminently the confidence his
+royal master reposed in him.
+
+"I am come, O Prince," the old functionary said, after thanks for the
+friendly words, "to ascertain if you are refreshed, and ready for the
+audience."
+
+"I am ready."
+
+"Let us to His Majesty then. If I precede you, I pray pardon."
+
+Drawing the portiere aside, the Dean held it for the other's passage.
+
+They entered an extensive inner court, surrounded on three sides by a
+gallery resting on pillars. On the fourth side, a magnificent staircase
+ascended to a main landing, whence, parting right and left, it
+terminated in the gallery. Floor, stairs, balustrading, pillars,
+everything here was red marble flooded with light from a circular
+aperture in the roof open to the sky.
+
+Along the stairs, at intervals, officers armed and in armor were
+stationed, and keeping their positions faced inwardly, they seemed like
+statues. Other armed men were in the galleries. The silence was
+impressive. Coming presently to an arched door, the Prince glanced into
+a deep chamber, and at the further end of it beheld the Emperor seated
+in a chair of state on a dais curtained and canopied with purple velvet.
+
+"Take heed now, O Prince," said the Dean, in a low voice. "Yonder is
+His Majesty. Do thou imitate me in all things. Come."
+
+With this kindly caution the Dean led into the chamber of public
+audience. Just within the door, he halter, crossed hands upon his
+breast, and dropped to his knees, his eyes downcast; rising, he kept on
+about halfway to the dais, and again knelt; when near his person's
+length from the dais, he knelt and fully prostrated himself. The Prince
+punctiliously executed every motion, except that at the instant of
+halting the last time he threw both hands up after the manner of
+Orientals. A velvet carpet of the accepted imperial color stretched
+from door to dais greatly facilitated the observances.
+
+A statuesque soldier, with lance and shield, stood at the left of the
+dais, a guard against treachery; by the chair, bare-headed,
+bare-legged, otherwise a figure in a yellow tunic lightly breastplated,
+appeared the sword-bearer, his slippers stayed with bands of gold, a
+blade clasped to his body by the left forearm, the hilt above his
+shoulder; and spacious as the chamber was, a row of dignitaries civil,
+military, and ecclesiastical lined the walls each in prescribed
+regalia. The hush already noticed was observable here, indicative of
+rigid decorum and awful reverence. "Rise, Prince of India," the Emperor
+said, without movement.
+
+The visitor obeyed.
+
+The last of the Palaeologae was in Basilean costume; a golden circlet
+on his head brilliantly jewelled and holding a purple velvet cap in
+place; an overgown of the material of the cap but darker in tint, and
+belted at the waist; a mantle stiff with embroidery of pearls hanging
+by narrow bands so as to drop from the shoulder over the breast and
+back, leaving the neck bare; an ample lap-robe of dark purple cloth
+sparkling with precious stones covering his nether limbs. The chair was
+square in form without back or arms; its front posts twined and
+intricately inlaid with ivory and silver, and topped each with a golden
+cone for hand-rest. The bareness of the neck was relieved by four
+strings of pearls dropped from the circlet two on a side, and drawn
+from behind the ears forward so as to lightly tip the upper edge of the
+mantle. The right hand rested at the moment on the right cone of the
+chair; the left was free. The attitude of the figure thus presented was
+easy and unconstrained, the countenance high and noble, and altogether
+the guest admitted to himself that he had seldom been introduced to
+royalty more really imposing.
+
+There was hardly an instant allowed for these observations. To set his
+guest at ease, Constantine continued: "The way to our door is devious
+and upward. I hope it has not too severely tried you."
+
+"Your Majesty, were the road many times more trying I would willingly
+brave it to be the recipient of honors and attentions which have made
+the Emperor of Constantinople famous in many far countries, and not
+least in mine."
+
+The courtierly turn of the reply did not escape the Emperor. It had
+been strange if he had not put the character of his guest to question;
+indeed, an investigation had proceeded by his order, with the
+invitation to audience as a result; and now the self-possession of the
+stranger, together with his answer, swept the last doubt from, the
+imperial mind. An attendant, responding to a sign, came forward.
+
+"Bring me wine," and as the servant disappeared with the order,
+Constantine again addressed his visitor. "You maybe a Brahman or an
+Islamite," he said, with a pleasant look to cover any possible mistake:
+"in either case, O Prince, I take it for granted that the offer of a
+draught of Chian will not be resented."
+
+"I am neither a Mohammedan, nor a devotee of the gentle son of Maya. I
+am not even a Hindoo in religion. My faith leads me to be thankful for
+all God's gifts to his creatures. I will take the cup Your Majesty
+deigns to propose."
+
+The words were spoken with childlike simplicity of manner; yet nowhere
+in these pages have we had a finer example of the subtlety which,
+characteristic of the speaker, seemed inspiration rather than study. He
+knew from general report how religion dominated his host, and on the
+spur of the moment, thought to pique curiosity with respect to his own
+faith; seeing, as he fancied, a clear path to another audience, with
+ampler opportunity to submit and discuss the idea of Universal
+Brotherhood in God.
+
+The glance with which he accompanied assent to the cup was taken as a
+mere accentuation of gratitude; it was, however, for discovery. Had the
+Emperor noticed the declaration of what he was not? Did his
+intelligence suggest how unusual it was for an Indian to be neither a
+Mohammedan, nor a Brahman, nor even a Buddhist in religion? He saw a
+sudden lifting of the brows, generally the preliminary of a question;
+he even made an answer ready; but the other's impulse seemed to spend
+itself in an inquiring look, which, lingering slightly, might mean much
+or nothing. The Prince resolved to wait.
+
+Constantine, as will be seen presently, did observe the negations, and
+was moved to make them the subject of remark at the moment; but
+inordinately sensitive respecting his own religious convictions, he
+imagined others like himself in that respect, and upon the scruple, for
+which the reader will not fail to duly credit him, deferred inquiry
+until the visitor was somewhat better understood.
+
+Just then the cupbearer appeared with the wine; a girlish lad he was,
+with long blond curls. Kneeling before the dais, he rested a silver
+platter and the liquor sparkling on it in a crystal decanter upon his
+right knee, waiting the imperial pleasure.
+
+Taking the sign given him, the Dean stepped forward and filled the two
+cups of chased gold also on the platter, and delivered them. Then the
+Emperor held his cup up while he said in a voice sufficiently raised
+for general hearing:
+
+"Prince of India, I desired your presence to-day the rather to
+discharge myself of obligations for important assistance rendered my
+kinswoman, the Princess Irene of Therapia, during her detention at the
+White Castle; a circumstance of such late occurrence it must be still
+fresh in your memory. By her account the Governor was most courteous
+and hospitable, and exerted himself to make her stay in his stronghold
+agreeable as possible. Something truly extraordinary, considering the
+forbidding exterior of the house, and the limited means of
+entertainment it must have to offer, she declared he succeeded in
+converting what threatened to be a serious situation into an adventure
+replete with pleasant surprises. A delegate is now at the Castle
+assuring the Governor of my appreciation of his friendly conduct. By
+her account, also, I am bounden to you, Prince, scarcely less than to
+him."
+
+The gravity of the visitor at hearing this was severely attacked. Great
+as was his self-control, he smiled at thought of the dilemma the
+Governor was in, listening to a speech of royal thanks and receiving
+rich presents in lieu of his young master Mahommed. When the envoy
+returned and reported, if perchance he should describe the Turk whom he
+found in actual keeping of the Castle, the discrepancy between his
+picture of the man and that of the Princess would be both mysterious
+and remarkable.
+
+"Your Majesty," the Prince returned, with a deprecating gesture, "the
+storm menaced me quite as much as the Princess, and calls for
+confession of my inability to see wherein I rendered her service free
+of regard for myself. Indeed, it is my duty to inform Your Majesty, all
+these noble witnesses hearing me, that I am more beholden to your noble
+kinswoman for help and deliverance in the affair than she can be to me.
+But for the courage and address, not to mention the dignity and force
+with which she availed herself of her royal relationship, resolving
+what was at first a simple invitation to refuge into a high treaty
+between the heads of two great powers, I and my daughter"--
+
+"Daughter, said you?"
+
+"Yes, Your Majesty--Heaven has so favored me--I, my daughter, and my
+frightened boatmen would have been committed to the river near the
+Castle, without recourse except in prayer to Heaven. Nay, Your Majesty,
+have I permission to say on, Charity had never a sweeter flowering than
+when the Princess remembered to take the stranger under her protection.
+I am past the age of enthusiasm and extravagance--my beard and dimming
+eyes prove the admission--yet I declare, weighing each word, she has
+the wit, the spirit, the goodness, the loveliness to be the noblest of
+queens to the best of kings; and fails she such choice, it will be
+because destiny has been struck by some unaccountable forgetfulness."
+
+By this time the courtiers, drawn in from the walls, composed a very
+brilliant circle around the throne, each one curious to hear the
+stranger as he had been to see him; and they were quick to point his
+last sentence; for most of them had been with the Emperor in the voyage
+to Therapia, which was still a theme of wager and wrangle scarcely less
+interesting than in its first hour. By one impulse they ventured a
+glance at the royal face, seeking a revelation; but the countenance was
+steady as a mask.
+
+"The encomium is well bestowed, and approves thy experience, Prince, as
+a reader of women," Constantine said, with just enough fervor.
+"Henceforth I shall know the degree of trust to repose in thy judgment,
+other problems as difficult being in controversy. Nevertheless, is the
+lady to be believed, then, O Prince, I repeat my acknowledgment of
+indebtedness. It pleases me to greatly estimate thy influence and good
+judgment happily exerted. Mayst thou live long, Prince of India, and
+always find thyself as now among friends who charge themselves to be
+watchful for opportunities to befriend thee."
+
+He raised the cup.
+
+"It is Your Majesty's pleasure," the guest replied, and they drank
+together.
+
+"A seat for the Prince of India," the Emperor next directed.
+
+The chair, when brought, was declined.
+
+"In my palace--for at home I exercise the functions of a king--it often
+falls to me to give audiences; if public, we call them _durbars;_ and
+then an inferior may not sit in my presence. The rule, like all
+governing the session, is of my own enactment. I see plainly how
+greatly Your Majesty designs to heap me with honors; and if I dare
+decline this one, it is not from disposition to do a teacher's part,
+but from habit which has the sanction of heredity, and the argument
+self addressed: Shall I despise my own ordinances? God forbid!"
+
+A murmur from the concourse was distinctly audible, which the Dean
+interpreted by repeated affirmative nods. In other words, by this
+stroke the able visitor won the court as he had already won its head;
+insomuch that the most doubting of the doubters would not have refused
+to certify him on belief the very Prince of India he claimed to be. The
+Emperor, on his part, could not but defer to scruples so cogently and
+solemnly put; at the same time, out of his very certainty respecting
+the guest, he passed to a question which in probability the reader has
+been for some time entertaining.
+
+"The makers of a law should be first to observe it; for having done so,
+they then have God's license to exert themselves in its enforcement;
+and when one is found observant of a principle which has root so
+perceptibly in conscience, to deny him his pleasure were inexcusable.
+Have thy will, Prince."
+
+The applause which greeted the decision of His Majesty was hardly out
+of ear when he proceeded:
+
+"Again I pray you, Sir Guest--I greatly misapprehend the travellers who
+tell of India, if the people of that venerable country are not given to
+ceremonials religious as well as secular. Many of our own observances
+of a sacred nature are traceable to study and discernment of the good
+effects of form in worship, and since some of them are unquestionably
+borrowed from temples of the Pagan gods, yet others may be of Hindoo
+origin. Who shall say? Wherefore, speaking generally, I should fear to
+ask you to any of our Church mysteries which I did not know were purely
+Greek. One such we have this evening. We call it _Pannychides_. Its
+principal feature is a procession of monastic brethren from the holy
+houses of the city and Islands--all within the jurisdiction of our
+Eastern Church, which, please God, is of broader lines than our State.
+The fathers have been assembling for the celebration several days. They
+will form in the city at set of sun, throwing the march into the night.
+Here, within our grounds, more particularly at the door of the Chapel
+of our Holy Virgin of Blacherne, I will meet them. They will pass the
+night in prayer, an army on bended knees, sorrowing for the pains of
+our Saviour in Gethsemane. I was uncertain what faith you profess; yet,
+Prince, I thought--forgive me, if it was an error--a sight of the
+spirit of our Churchmen as it will be manifested on this occasion might
+prove interesting to you; so I have taken the liberty of ordering a
+stand erected for your accommodation at a position favorable to
+witnessing the procession in movement up the terraces. No one has seen
+the spectacle without realizing as never before the firmness of the
+hold Christ has taken upon the souls of men." The last words startled
+the Prince. Christ's hold upon the souls of men! The very thing he
+wanted to learn, and, if possible, measure. A cloud of thoughts fell
+about him; yet he kept clear head, and answered quietly:
+
+"Your Majesty has done me great kindness. I am already interested in
+the Mystery. Since we cannot hope ever to behold God with these mortal
+eyes, the nearest amend for the deprivation is the privilege of seeing
+men in multitudes demonstrating their love of Him."
+
+Constantine's eyes lingered on the Prince's face. The utterances
+attracted him. The manner was so artfully reverential as not to leave a
+suspicion of the guile behind it. Going down great galleries, every one
+has had his attention suddenly arrested; he pauses, looks, and looks
+again, then wakes to find the attraction was not a picture, but only a
+flash within his own mind. So, with the guest before him, the Emperor
+was thinking of the man rather than seeing him--thinking of him with
+curiosity fully awakened, and a desire to know him better. And had he
+followed up the desire, he would have found its source in the idea that
+India was a region in which reflection and psychological experiment had
+been exhausted--where if one appeared with a thought it turned old ere
+it could be explained--where wisdom had fructified until there was no
+knowledge more--where the teaching capacity was all there was
+remaining. That is to say, in the day of the last Byzantine Emperor,
+centuries ago, humanity in India was, as now, a clock stopped, but
+stopped in the act of striking, leaving a glory in the air imaginable
+like the continuing sound of hushed cathedral bells.
+
+"Prince," he at length said, "you will remain here until the procession
+is announced at the Grand Gate. I will then give you a guide and a
+guard. Our steward has orders to look after your comfort." Turning then
+to the acting Chamberlain, he added: "Good Dean, have we not a little
+time in which to hear our guest further?"
+
+"Your Majesty, an hour at least."
+
+"You hear, O Prince? Provided always that it be not to your
+displeasure, tell me what I am to understand by the disclaimer which,
+broadly interpreted, leaves you either a Jew or a Christian?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE NEW FAITH PROCLAIMED
+
+
+The question came earlier than the Prince expected, and in different
+form. Those in position to observe his face saw it turn a trifle pale,
+and he hesitated, and glanced around uneasily, as though not altogether
+assured of his footing. This might have been by-play; if so, it was
+successful; every countenance not sympathetic was serious.
+
+"Your Majesty's inquiry must be for information. I am too humble for an
+unfriendly design on the part of one so exalted as the Emperor of
+Constantinople. It might be otherwise if I represented a church, a
+denomination, or a recognized religion; as it is, my faith is my own."
+
+"But bethink thee, Prince, thou mayst have the truth--the very God's
+truth," Constantine interposed, with kindly intent. "We all know thy
+country hath been the cradle of divine ideas. So, speak, and fear not."
+
+The glance the Emperor received was winsomely grateful.
+
+"Indeed, Your Majesty, indeed I have need of good countenance. The
+question put me has lured more men to bloody graves than fire, sword
+and wave together. And then why I believe as I believe demands time in
+excess of what we have; and I am the bolder in this because in limiting
+me Your Majesty limits yourself. So I will now no more than define my
+Faith. But first, it does not follow from my disclaimer that I can only
+be a Jew or a Christian; for as air is a vehicle for a multitude of
+subtleties in light, faith in like manner accommodates a multitude of
+opinions."
+
+While speaking, the Prince's voice gradually gained strength; his color
+returned, and his eyes enlarged and shone with strange light. Now his
+right hand arose, the fingers all closed except the first one, and it
+was long and thin, and he waved it overhead, like a conjuring wand. If
+the concourse had been unwilling to hear him, they could not have
+turned away.
+
+"I am not a Hindoo, my Lord; because I cannot believe men can make
+their own gods."
+
+The Father Confessor to the Emperor, at the left of the dais in a stole
+of gold and crimson cloth, smiled broadly.
+
+"I am not a Buddhist," the Prince continued; "because I cannot believe
+the soul goes to nothingness after death."
+
+The Father Confessor clapped his hands.
+
+"I am not a Confucian; because I cannot reduce religion to philosophy
+or elevate philosophy into religion."
+
+The blood of the audience began to warm.
+
+"I am not a Jew; because I believe God loves all peoples alike, or if
+he makes distinctions, it is for righteousness' sake."
+
+Here the chamber rang with clapping.
+
+"I am not an Islamite; because when I raise my eyes to Heaven, I cannot
+tolerate sight of a man standing between me and God--no, my Lord, not
+though he be a Prophet."
+
+The hit was palpable, and from hate of the old enemy, the whole
+assemblage broke into an uproar of acclamation. Only the Emperor kept
+his gravity. Leaning heavily on the golden cone at the right of his
+chair, his chin depressed, his eyes staring, scarcely breathing, he
+waited, knowing, that having gone so far, there was before the speaker
+an unavoidable climax; and seeing it in his face, and coming, he
+presently aroused, and motioned for silence.
+
+"I am not"--
+
+The Prince stopped, but when the hush was deepest went on--"I am not a
+Christian; because--because I believe--God is God."
+
+The Father Confessor's hands were ready to clap, but they stayed so;
+the same spell took hold of the bystanders, except that they looked at
+the Emperor, and he alone seemed to comprehend the concluding phrase.
+He settled back easily in his seat, saying, "Thy Faith then is--"
+
+"God!"
+
+The monosyllable was the Prince's.
+
+And with clear sight of the many things reprobated--Images, Saints, the
+Canonized, even the worship of Christ and the Holy Mother--with clear
+sight also of the wisdom which in that presence bade the guest stop
+with the mighty name--at the same time more curious than ever to hear
+in full discourse the man who could reduce religion to a single word
+and leave it comprehensible, Constantine drew a breath of relief, and
+said, smiling, "Of a surety, O Prince, there was never a Faith which,
+with such appearance of simplicity in definition, is capable of such
+infinity of meaning. I am full of questions; and these listening, my
+lords of the court, are doubtless in a similar mood. What sayest thou,
+O my most orthodox Confessor?" The Father bowed until the hem of his
+blazing stole overlaid the floor.
+
+"Your Majesty, we too are believers in God; but we also believe in much
+beside; so, if but for comparison of creeds, which is never
+unprofitable while in good nature, I should like to hear the noble and
+fair speaking guest further."
+
+"And you, my Lords?"
+
+The throng around answered, "Yes, yes!"
+
+"We will have it so then. Look, good Logothete, for the nearest day
+unoccupied."
+
+A handsome man of middle age approached the dais, and opening a
+broad-backed book, evidently the record of the royal appointments,
+turned a number of leaves, and replied: "Your Majesty, two weeks from
+tomorrow."
+
+"Note the same set aside for the Prince of India.-Dost hear, Prince?"
+
+The latter lowered his face the better to conceal his pleasure.
+
+"All days are alike to me," he answered.
+
+"In this our palace, then--two weeks from to-morrow at the hour of
+noon. And now"--the rustle and general movement of the courtiers was
+instantly stayed--"and now, Prince, didst thou not speak of exercising
+the functions of a king at home? Thy capital must be in India, but
+where, pray? And how callest thou thyself? And why is this city so
+fortunate as to have attracted thy wandering feet? It is not every king
+so his own master as to turn traveller, and go about making study of
+the world; although, I admit, it would be better could every king do
+so."
+
+These questions were rapidly put, but as the Prince was prepared for
+them, he responded pleasantly:
+
+"In answering the questions Your Majesty now honors me with. I am aware
+how serious the mistake would be did I think of your curiosity alone. A
+most excellent quality in a great man is patience. Alas, that it should
+be one of the most abused! ... Among the oldest of Hindoo titles is
+_Rajah_. It means King rather than Prince, and I was born to it. Your
+Majesty may have heard of Oodeypoor, the bosom jewel of Rajpootana, the
+white rose just bloomed of Indian cities. At the foot of a spur of the
+Arawalli mountains, a river rises, and on its right bank reposes the
+city; from which, southeast a little way, a lake lies outspread, like a
+mirror fallen face upward. And around the lake are hills, tall and
+broken as these of the Bosphorus; and seen from the water the hills are
+masses of ivy and emerald woods thickly sprinkled with old fortresses
+and temples, and seven-roofed red pagodas, each the home of a great
+gold-decked Buddha, with lesser Buddhas in family. And in the lake are
+islands all palaces springing from the water line in open arches, and
+sculptured walls, and towered gates; and of still days their wondrous
+cunning in the air is renewed afresh in the waveless depths below them.
+If they are glorious then, what are they when reconstructed for festal
+nights in shining lamps? For be it said, my Lord, if a stranger in the
+walls of this centre of empire may speak a word which has the faintest
+savor of criticism, the Indian genius analyzed beauty before there was
+a West, and taking suggestions from spark and dewdrop, applied them to
+architecture. Smile not, I pray, for you may see the one in the lamp
+multiplied for outline traceries, and the other in the fountain, the
+cascade, and the limpid margin at the base of walls. Or if still you
+think me exaggerating, is not the offence one to be lightly forgiven
+where the offender is telling of his birthplace? In one of the palaces
+of that Lake of Palaces I was born, the oldest son of the Rajah of
+Meywar, Oodeypoor his capital. In these words, which I hope may be
+kindly judged, Your Majesty will find answers to one, if not two of the
+questions you were pleased to ask me--Why I am here? And why making
+study of the world? Will Your Majesty pardon my boldness, if I suggest
+that a reply to those inquiries would be better at the audience set for
+me next? I fear it is too long for telling now."
+
+"Be it so," said Constantine, "yet a hint of it may not be amiss. It
+may set us to thinking; and, Prince, a mind prepared for an idea is
+like ground broken and harrowed for seed."
+
+The Prince hesitated.
+
+"Your Majesty--my Lord"--he then said firmly, "the most sorrowful of
+men are those with conceptions too great for them, and which they must
+carry about with nothing better to sustain their sinking spirits than a
+poor hope of having them one day adopted; for until that day they are
+like a porter overladen and going from house to house unknowing the
+name of the owner of his burden or where to look for him. I am such an
+unfortunate.... Oodeypoor, you must understand, is more than comely to
+the eye of a native; it is a city where all religions are tolerated.
+The Taing, the Brahman, the Hindoo, the Mohammedan, the Buddhist live
+together there, protected and in peace, with their worship and houses
+of worship; nor is there any shutting of mouths, because controversy
+long since attained finality amongst them; or perhaps it were better
+saying, because opinions there have now their recognized grooves, and
+run in them from generation to generation--opinions to which men are
+born as to their property, only without right of change or
+modification; neither can they break away from them. There is no excuse
+if an intelligent man in such a situation does not comprehend all the
+religions thus in daily practice; or if one does comprehend them he
+should not flatter himself possessed of any superior intellect.... The
+Rajah, my father, died, and I mounted his silver throne, and for ten
+years administered justice in the Hall of Durbars to which he had been
+used, he and his father's father, Children of the Sun, most pure of
+blood. By that time I was of mature mind, and having given myself up to
+study, came to believe there is but one doctrine--principle--call it
+what you will, my Lord--but one of heavenly origin--one primarily
+comprehensible by all--too simple indeed to satisfy the egotism of men;
+wherefore, without rejecting, they converted it into a foundation, and
+built upon it each according to his vanity, until, in course of ages,
+the foundation was overlaid with systems of belief, childish,
+unnatural, ridiculous, indecent, or else too complicated for common
+understanding"--
+
+"This principle--what is it, Prince?" Constantine asked nervously.
+
+"Your Majesty, I have already once named it."
+
+"Mean you God?"
+
+"And now, my Lord, thou hast pronounced it."
+
+The stillness in the chamber was very deep. Every man seemed to be
+asking, what next?
+
+"One day, Your Majesty--it was in my tenth year of government--a
+function was held in a tent erected for the purpose--a _shamiana_
+vastly larger than any hall. I went up to it in state, passing through
+lines of elephants, an hundred on either hand, covered with cloth of
+gold and with houdahs of yellow silk roofed with the glory of peacocks.
+Behind the mighty brutes soldiery blotted out the landscape, and the
+air between them and the sky was a tawny cloud of flaunting yak-tails;
+nor had one use for ears, so was he deafened by beat of drums and
+blowing of brazen horns twice a tall man's height. I sat on a throne of
+silver and gold, all my ministers present. My brother entered, he the
+next entitled. Halfway down the aisle of chiefs I met him, and then led
+him to my seat, and saluted him Rajah of Meywar. Your Majesty, so I
+parted with crown and title--laid them down voluntarily to search the
+world for men in power in love with God enough to accept him as their
+sum of faith. Behold why I travel making the earth a study! Behold why
+I am in Constantinople!"
+
+Constantine was impressed.
+
+"Where hast thou been?" he at length asked--"where before coming here?"
+
+"It were easier did Your Majesty ask where I have not been. For then I
+could answer, Everywhere, except Rome."
+
+"Dost thou impugn our devotion to God?"
+
+"Not so, not so, my Lord! I am seeking to know the degree of your love
+of Him."
+
+"How, Prince?"
+
+"By a test."
+
+"What test?"
+
+No man listening could have said what mood the Emperor was in; yet the
+guest replied with an appearance of rising courage: "A trial, to find
+all the other things entering into Faith which Your Majesty and Your
+Majesty's lords and subjects are willing to lay down for God's sake."
+
+With a peremptory gesture Constantine silenced the stir and rustle in
+the chamber. "It is right boldly put," he said.
+
+"But none the less respectfully. My Lord, I am striving to be
+understood."
+
+"You speak of a trial. To what end?"
+
+"One Article of Faith, the all-essential of Universal Brotherhood in
+Religion."
+
+"A magnificent conception! But is it practicable?"
+
+Fortunately or unfortunately for the Prince, an officer that moment
+made way through the courtiers, and whispered to the Dean, who at once
+addressed himself to the Emperor.
+
+"I pray pardon, but it pleased Your Majesty to bid me notify you when
+it is time to make ready for the Mystery to-night. The hour is come;
+besides which a messenger from Scholarius waits for an interview."
+
+Constantine arose.
+
+"Thanks, worthy Dean," he said; "we will not detain the messenger. The
+audience is dismissed."
+
+Then descending from the dais, he gave his hand to the Prince. "I see
+the idea you have in mind, and it is worthy the bravest effort. I shall
+look forward to the next audience with concern. Forget not that the
+guestship continues. My steward will take you in charge. Farewell."
+
+The Prince, sinking to his knees, kissed the offered hand, whereupon
+the Emperor said as if just reminded: "Was not your daughter with my
+kinswoman in the White Castle?"
+
+"Your Majesty, the Princess on that occasion most graciously consented
+to accept my daughter as her attendant."
+
+"Were she to continue in the same attendance, Prince, we might hope to
+have her at court some day."
+
+"I lay many thanks at Your Majesty's feet. She is most honored by the
+suggestion." Constantine in lead of his officers then passed out,
+while, in care of the steward, the Prince was conducted to the
+reception room, and served with refreshments. Afterwhile through the
+windows he beheld the day expiring, and the first audience finished,
+and the second appointed, he was free to think of the approaching
+Mystery.
+
+Be it said now he was easy in feeling--satisfied with the management of
+his cause--satisfied with the impression he had made on the Emperor and
+the court as well. Had not the latter applauded and voted to hear him
+again? When taken with the care habitually observed by leading
+personages in audiences formal as that just passed, how broadly
+sympathetic the expressions of the monarch had been.
+
+In great cheerfulness the Prince ate and drank, and even occupied the
+wine-colored leisure conning an argument for the occasion in
+prospect--noon, next day two weeks! And more clearly than ever his
+scheme seemed good. Could he carry it through--could he succeed--the
+good would be recognized--never a doubt of that. If men were sometimes
+blind, God was always just.
+
+In thought he sped forward of the coming appointment, and saw himself
+not only the apostle of the reform, but the chosen agent, the
+accredited go-between of Constantine and the young Mahommed. He
+remembered the points of negotiation between them. He would not require
+the Turk to yield the prophetic character of Mahomet; neither should
+the Byzantine's faith in Christ suffer curtailment; he would ask them,
+however, to agree to a new relation between Mahomet and Christ on the
+one side and God on the other--that, namely, long conceded, as having
+existed between God and Elijah. And then, an article of the utmost
+materiality, the very soul of the recast religion, he would insist that
+they obligate themselves to worship God alone, worship being His
+exclusive prerogative, and that this condition of exclusive worship be
+prescribed the only test of fraternity in religion; all other worship
+to be punishable as heresy. Nor stopped he with Mahommed and
+Constantine; he doubted not bringing the Rabbis to such a treaty. How
+almost identical it was with the Judaism of Moses. The Bishop of Rome
+might protest. What matter? Romanism segregated must die. And so the
+isms of the Brahman and the Hindoo, so the Buddhist, the Confucian, the
+Mencian--they would all perish under the hammering of the union. Then,
+too, Time would make the work perfect, and gradually wear Christ and
+Mahomet out of mind--he and Time together. What if the task did take
+ages? He had an advantage over other reformers--he could keep his
+reform in motion--he could guide and direct it--he could promise
+himself life to see it in full acceptance. In the exuberance of
+triumphant feeling, he actually rejoiced in his doom, and for the
+moment imagined it more than a divine mercy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE PANNYCHIDES
+
+
+An invitation from the Emperor to remain and view the procession
+marching up the heights of Blacherne had been of itself a compliment;
+but the erection of a stand for the Prince turned the compliment into a
+personal honor. To say truth, however, he really desired to see the
+Pannychides, or in plain parlance, the Vigils. He had often heard of
+them as of prodigious effect upon the participants. Latterly they had
+fallen into neglect; and knowing how difficult it is to revive a dying
+custom, he imagined the spectacle would be poor and soon over. While
+reflecting on it, he looked out of the window and was surprised to see
+the night falling. He yielded then to restlessness, until suddenly an
+idea arose and absorbed him.
+
+Suppose the Emperor won to his scheme; was its success assured? So used
+was he to thinking of the power of kings and emperors as the sole
+essential to the things he proposed that in this instance he had failed
+to concede importance to the Church; and probably he would have gone on
+in the delusion but for the Mysteries which were now to pass before
+him. They forced him to think of the power religious organizations
+exercise over men.
+
+And this Church--this old Byzantine Church! Ay, truly! The Byzantine
+conscience was under its direction; it was the Father Confessor of the
+Empire; its voice in the common ear was the voice of God. To cast
+Christ out of its system would be like wrenching a man's heart out of
+his body. It was here and there--everywhere in fact--in signs,
+trophies, monuments--in crosses and images--in monasteries, convents,
+houses to the Saints, houses to the Mother. What could the Emperor do,
+if it were obstinate and defiant? The night beheld through the window
+crept into the Wanderer's heart, and threatened to put out the light
+kindled there by the new-born hope with which he had come from the
+audience.
+
+"The Church, the Church! It is the enemy I have to fear," he kept
+muttering in dismal repetition, realizing, for the first time, the
+magnitude of the campaign before him. With a wisdom in wickedness which
+none of his successors in design have shown, he saw the Christian idea
+in the bosom of the Church unassailable except a substitute
+satisfactory to its professors could be found. Was God a sufficient
+substitute? Perhaps--and he turned cold with the reflection--the
+Pannychides were bringing him an answer. It was an ecclesiastical
+affair, literally a meeting of Churchmen _en masse_. Where--when--how
+could the Church present itself to any man more an actuality in the
+flesh? Perhaps--and a chill set his very crown to crawling--perhaps the
+opportunity to study the spectacle was more a mercy of God than a favor
+of Constantine.
+
+To his great relief, at length the officer who had escorted him from
+the Grand Gate came into the room.
+
+"I am to have the honor," he said, cheerfully, "of conducting you to
+the stand His Majesty has prepared that you may at ease behold the
+Mysteries appointed for the night. The head of the procession is
+reported appearing. If it please you, Prince of India, we will set out."
+
+"I am ready."
+
+The position chosen for the Prince was on the right bank of a cut
+through which the road passed on its ascent from the arched gateway by
+the Chapel to the third terrace, and he was borne thither in his sedan.
+
+Upon alighting, he found himself on a platform covered by a canopy,
+carpeted and furnished with one chair comfortably cushioned. At the
+right of the chair there was a pyramid of coals glowing in a brazier,
+and lest that might not be a sufficient provision against the damps of
+the hours, a great cloak was near at hand. In front of the platform he
+observed a pole securely planted and bearing a basket of inflammables
+ready for conversion into a torch. In short, everything needful to his
+well-being, including wine and water on a small tripod, was within
+reach.
+
+Before finally seating himself the Prince stepped out to the brow of
+the terrace, whence he noticed the Chapel below him in the denser
+darkness of the trees about it like a pool. The gleam of armor on the
+area by the Grand Gate struck him with sinister effect. Flowers saluted
+him with perfume, albeit he could not see them. Not less welcome was
+the low music with which the brook cheered itself while dancing down to
+the harbor. Besides a cresset burning on the landing outside the Port
+entrance, two other lights were visible; one on the Pharos, the other
+on the great Galata tower, looking in the distance like large stars.
+With these exceptions, the valley and the hill opposite Blacherne, and
+the wide-reaching Metropolis beyond them, were to appearances a blacker
+cloud dropped from the clouded sky. A curious sound now came to him
+from the direction of the city. Was it a rising wind? Or a muffled roll
+from the sea? While wondering, some one behind him said:
+
+"They are coming."
+
+The voice was sepulchral and harsh, and the Prince turned quickly to
+the speaker.
+
+"Ah, Father Theophilus!"
+
+"They are coming," the Father repeated.
+
+The Prince shivered slightly. The noise beyond the valley arose more
+distinctly.
+
+"Are they singing?" he asked.
+
+"Chanting," the other answered.
+
+"Why do they chant?"
+
+"Knowest thou our Scriptures?"
+
+The Wanderer quieted a disdainful impulse, and answered:
+
+"I have read them."
+
+The Father continued:
+
+"Presently thou wilt hear the words of Job: 'Oh, that thou wouldst hide
+me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me in secret, until thy wrath
+be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me.'"
+
+The Prince was startled. Why was one in speech so like a ghost selected
+his companion? And that verse, of all to him most afflicting, and which
+in hours of despair he had repeated until his very spirit had become
+colored with its reproachful plaint--who put it in the man's mouth?
+
+The chant came nearer. Of melody it had nothing; nor did those engaged
+in it appear in the slightest attentive to time. Yet it brought relief
+to the Prince, willing as he was to admit he had never heard anything
+similar--anything so sorrowful, so like the wail of the damned in
+multitude. And rueful as the strain was, it helped him assign the
+pageant a near distance, a middle distance, and then interminability.
+
+"There appear to be a great many of them," he remarked to the Father.
+
+"More than ever before in the observance," was the reply.
+
+"Is there a reason for it?"
+
+"Our dissensions."
+
+The Father did not see the pleased expression of his auditor's face,
+but proceeded: "Yes, our dissensions. They multiply. At first the jar
+was between the Church and the throne; now it is the Church against the
+Church--a Roman party and a Greek party. One man among us has
+concentrated in himself the learning and devotion of the Christian
+East. You will see him directly, George Scholarius. By visions, like
+those in which the old prophets received the counsel of God, he was
+instructed to revive the _Pannychides._ His messengers have gone hither
+and thither, to the monasteries, the convents, and the eremitic
+colonies wherever accessible. The greater the presence, he says, the
+greater the influence."
+
+"Scholarius is a wise man," the Prince said, diplomatically.
+
+"His is the wisdom of the Prophets," the Father answered.
+
+"Is he the Patriarch?"
+
+"No, the Patriarch is of the Roman party--Scholarius of the Greek."
+
+"And Constantine?"
+
+"A good king, truly, but, alas; he is cumbered with care of the State."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the Prince. "And the care leads to neglect of his
+soul. Kings are sometimes to be pitied. But there is then a special
+object in the Vigils?"
+
+"The Vigils to-night are for the restoration of the unities once more,
+that the Church may find peace and the State its power and glory again.
+God is in the habit of taking care of His own."
+
+"Thank you, Father, I see the difference. Scholarius would intrust the
+State to the Holy Virgin; but Constantine, with a worldlier
+inspiration, adheres to the craft held by Kings immemorially. The
+object of the Vigils is to bring the Emperor to abandon his policy and
+defer to Scholarius?"
+
+"The Emperor assists in the Mystery," the Father answered, vaguely.
+
+The procession meantime came on, and when its head appeared in front of
+the Grand Gate three trumpeters blew a flourish which called the guards
+into line. A monk advanced and held parley with an officer; after which
+he was given a lighted torch, and passed under the portal in lead of
+the multitude. The trumpeters continued plying their horns, marking the
+slow ascent.
+
+"Were this an army," said Father Theophilus, "it would not be so
+laborious; but, alas! the going of youth is nowhere so rapid as in a
+cloister; nor is age anywhere so feeble. Ten years kneeling on a stony
+floor in a damp cell brings the anchorite to forget he ever walked with
+ease."
+
+The Prince scarcely heard him; he was interested in the little to be
+seen crossing the area below--a column four abreast, broken into
+unequal divisions, each division with a leader, who, at the gate,
+received a torch. Occasionally a square banner on a cross-stick
+appeared--occasionally a section in light-colored garments; more
+frequently a succession of heads without covering of any kind;
+otherwise the train was monotonously rueful, and in its slow movement
+out of the darkness reminded the spectator on the height of a serpent
+crawling endlessly from an underground den. Afterwhile the dim white of
+the pavement was obscured by masses stationary on the right and left of
+the column; these were the people stopping there because for them there
+was no further pursuit of the spectral parade.
+
+The horns gave sonorous notice of the progress during the ascent. Now
+they were passing along the first terrace; still the divisions were
+incessant down by the gate--still the chanting continued, a dismal
+dissonance in the distance, a horrible discord near by. If it be true
+that the human voice is music's aptest instrument, it is also true that
+nothing vocalized in nature can excel it in the expression of diabolism.
+
+Suddenly the first torch gleamed on the second terrace scarce an
+hundred yards from the Chapel.
+
+"See him now there, behind the trumpeters--Scholarius!" said Father
+Theophilus, with a semblance of animation.
+
+"He with the torch?"
+
+"Ay!--And he might throw the torch away, and still be the light of the
+Church."
+
+The remark did not escape the Prince. The man who could so impress
+himself upon a member of the court must be a power with his brethren of
+the gown generally. Reflecting thus, the discerning visitor watched the
+figure stalking on under the torch. There are men who are causes in
+great events, sometimes by superiority of nature, sometimes by
+circumstances. What if this were one of them? And forthwith the
+observer ceased fancying the mystical looking monk drawing the
+interminable train after him by the invisible bonds of a will mightier
+than theirs in combination--the fancy became a fact. "The procession
+will not stop at the Chapel," the Father said; "but keep on to the
+palace, where the Emperor will join it. If my Lord cares to see the
+passage distinctly, I will fire the basket here."
+
+"Do so," the Prince replied.
+
+The flambeau was fired.
+
+It shed light over the lower terraces right and left, and brought the
+palace in the upper space into view from the base of the forward
+building to the Tower of Isaac; and here, close by, the Chapel with all
+its appurtenances, paved enclosure, speeding brook, solemn cypresses,
+and the wall and arched gateway at the hither side stood out in almost
+daytime clearness. The road in the cut underfoot must bring the frocked
+host near enough to expose its spirit.
+
+The bellowing of the horns frightened the birds at roost in the
+melancholy grove, and taking wing, they flew blindly about.
+
+Then ensued the invasion of the enclosure in front of the
+Chapel--Scholarius next the musicians. The Prince saw him plainly; a
+tall man, stoop-shouldered, angular as a skeleton; his hood thrown
+back; head tonsured; the whiteness of the scalp conspicuous on account
+of the band of black hair at the base; the features high and thin,
+cheeks hollow, temples pinched. The dark brown cassock, leaving an
+attenuated neck completely exposed, hung from his frame apparently much
+too large for it. His feet disdained sandals. At the brook he halted,
+and letting the crucifix fall from his right hand, he stooped and
+dipped the member thus freed into the water, and rising flung the drops
+in air. Resuming the crucifix, he marched on.
+
+It cannot be said there was admiration in the steady gaze with which
+the Prince kept the monk in eye; the attraction was stronger--he was
+looking for a sign from him. He saw the tall, nervous figure cross the
+brook with a faltering, uncertain step, pass the remainder of the
+pavement, the torch in one hand, the holy symbol in the other; then it
+disappeared under the arch of the gate; and when it had come through,
+the sharp espial was beforehand with it, and waiting. It commenced
+ascending the acute grade--now it was in the cut--and now, just below
+the Prince, it had but to look up, and its face would be on a level
+with his feet. At exactly the right moment, Scholarius did look up,
+and--stop.
+
+The interchange of glances between the men was brief, and can be
+likened to nothing so aptly as sword blades crossing in a red light.
+
+Possibly the monk, trudging on, his mind intent upon something which
+was part of a scene elsewhere, or on the objects and results of the
+solemnities in celebration, as yet purely speculative, might have been
+disagreeably surprised at discovering himself the subject of study by a
+stranger whose dress proclaimed him a foreigner; possibly the Prince's
+stare, which we have already seen was at times powerfully magnetic,
+filled him with aversion and resentment; certain it is he raised his
+head, showing a face full of abhorrence, and at the same time waved the
+crucifix as if in exorcism.
+
+The Prince had time to see the image thus presented was of silver on a
+cross of ivory wrought to wonderful realism. The face was dying, not
+dead; there were the spikes in the hands and feet, the rent in the
+side, the crown of thorns, and overhead the initials of the
+inscription: This is the King of the Jews. There was the worn,
+buffeted, bloodspent body, and the lips were parted so it was easy to
+think the sufferer in mid-utterance of one of the exclamations which
+have placed his Divinity forever beyond successful denial. The swift
+reversion of memory excited in the beholder might have been succeeded
+by remorse, but for the cry:
+
+"Thou enemy of Jesus Christ--avaunt!"
+
+It was the voice of Scholarius, shrill and high; and before the Prince
+could recover from the shock, before he could make answer, or think of
+answering, the visionary was moving on; nor did he again look back.
+
+"What ails thee, Prince?"
+
+The sepulchral tone of Father Theophilus was powerful over the benumbed
+faculties of His Majesty's guest; and he answered with a question:
+
+"Is not thy friend Scholarius a great preacher?"
+
+"On his lips the truth is most unctuous."
+
+"It must be so--it must be so! For"--the Prince's manner was as if he
+were settling a grave altercation in his own mind--"for never did a man
+offer me the Presence so vitalized in an image. I am not yet sure but
+he gave me to see the Holy Son of the Immaculate Mother in flesh and
+blood exactly as when they put Him so cruelly to death. Or can it be,
+Father, that the effect upon me was in greater measure due to the
+night, the celebration, the cloud of ministrants, the serious objects
+of the Vigils?"
+
+The answer made Father Theophilus happy as a man of his turn could
+be--he was furnished additional evidence of the spiritual force of
+Scholarius, his ideal.
+
+"No," he answered, "it was God in the man."
+
+All this time the chanting had been coming nearer, and now the grove
+rang with it. A moment, and the head of the first division must present
+itself in front of the Chapel. Could the Wanderer have elected then
+whether to depart or stay, the _Pannychides_ would have had no further
+assistance from him--so badly had the rencounter with Scholarius shaken
+him. Not that he was afraid in the vulgar sense of the term. Before a
+man can habitually pray for death, he must be long lost to fear. If we
+can imagine conscience gone, pride of achievement, without which there
+can be no mortification or shame in defeat, may yet remain with him, a
+source of dread and weakness. The chill which shook Brutus in his tent
+the evening before Philippi was not in the least akin to terror. So
+with the Prince at this juncture. There to measure the hold of the
+Christian idea upon the Church, it seemed Scholarius had brought him an
+answer which finished his interest in the passing Vigils. In brief, the
+Reformer's interest in the Mystery was past, and he wished with his
+whole soul to retreat to the sedan, but a fascination held him fast.
+
+"I think it would be pleasanter sitting," he said, and returned to the
+platform.
+
+"If I presume to take the chair, Father," he added, "it is because I am
+older than thou."
+
+Hardly was he thus at ease when a precentor, fat, and clad in a long
+gown, stepped out of the grove to the clear lighted pavement in front
+of the Chapel. His shaven head was thrown back, his mouth open to its
+fullest stretch, and tossing a white stick energetically up and down in
+the air, he intoned with awful distinctness: "The waters wear the
+stones. Thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the
+earth, and Thou destroyest the hopes of man."
+
+The Prince covered his ears with his hands.
+
+"Thou likest not the singing?" Father Theophilus asked, and continued:
+"I admit the graces have little to do with musical practice in the holy
+houses of the Fathers." But he for whom the comfort was meant made no
+reply. He was repeating to himself: "Thou prevailest forever against
+him, and he passeth."
+
+And to these words the head of the first division strode forward into
+the light. The Prince dropped his hands in time to hear the last verse:
+"But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall
+mourn."
+
+For whom was this? Did the singers know the significancy of the text to
+him? The answer was from God, and they were merely messengers bringing
+it. He rose to his feet; in his rebellious passion the world seemed to
+melt and swim about him. He felt a longing to burn, break, destroy--to
+strike out and kill. When he came to himself, Father Theophilus, who
+thought him merely wonder struck by the mass of monks in march, was
+saying in his most rueful tone: "Good order required a careful
+arrangement of the procession; for though the participants are pledged
+to godly life, yet they sometimes put their vows aside temporarily. The
+holiest of them have pride in their establishments, and are often too
+ready to resort to arms of the flesh to assert their privileges. The
+Fathers of the Islands have long been jealous of the Fathers of the
+city, and to put them together would be a signal for riot. Accordingly
+there are three grand divisions here--the monks of Constantinople,
+those of the Islands, the shores of the Bosphorus and the three seas,
+and finally the recluses and hermits from whatever quarter. Lo! first
+the Fathers of the Studium--saintly men as thou wilt see anywhere."
+
+The speech was unusually long for the Father; a fortunate circumstance
+of which the Prince availed himself to recover his self-possession. By
+the time the brethren eulogized were moving up the rift at his feet, he
+was able to observe them calmly. They were in long gowns of heavy gray
+woollen stuff, with sleeves widening from the shoulders; their cowls,
+besides covering head and visage, fell down like capes. Cleanly,
+decent-looking men, they marched slowly and in order, their hands
+united palm to palm below their chins. The precentor failed to inspire
+them with his fury of song.
+
+"These now coming," Father Theophilus said of the second fraternity,
+"are conventuals of Petrion, who have their house looking out on the
+harbor here. And these," he said of the third, "are of the Monastery of
+Anargyres--a very ancient society. The Emperor Michael, surnamed the
+Paphlegonian, died in one of their cells in 1041. Brotherhood with them
+is equivalent to saintship."
+
+Afterwhile a somewhat tumultuous flock appeared in white skirts and
+loose yellow cloaks, their hair and beard uncut and flying. The
+historian apologized.
+
+"Bear with them," he said; "they are mendicants from the retreats of
+Periblepte, in the quarter of Psammatica. You may see them on the
+street corners and quays, and in all public places, sick, blind, lame
+and covered with sores. They have St. Lazarus for patron. At night an
+angel visits them with healing. They refuse to believe the age of
+miracles is past."
+
+The city monastics were a great host carrying banners with the name of
+their Brotherhoods inscribed in golden letters; and in every instance
+the Hegumen, or Abbot, preceded his fraternity torch in hand.
+
+A company in unrelieved black marched across the brook, and their
+chanting was lugubrious as their garb.
+
+"Petra sends us these Fathers," said Theophilus--"Petra over on the
+south side. They sleep all day and watch at night. The second coming
+they say will happen in the night, because they think that time most
+favorable for the trumpeting herald and the splendor of the
+manifestations."
+
+Half an hour of marching--men in gray and black and yellow, a few in
+white--men cowled--men shorn and unshorn--barefooted men and men in
+sandals--a river of men in all moods, except jovial and happy, toiling
+by the observing stand, seldom an upturned face, spectral, morose,
+laden body and mind--young and old looking as if just awakened after
+ages of entombment;--a half hour of dismal chanting the one chapter
+from the book of the man in the land of Uz, of all utterances the most
+dismal;--a half hour of waiting by the Prince for one kindly sign,
+without discovering it--a half hour, in which, if the comparison be not
+too strong, he was like a soul keeping watch over its own abandoned
+body. Then Father Theophilus said:
+
+"From the cloisters of St. James of Manganese! The richest of the
+monasteries of Constantinople, and the most powerful. It furnishes
+Sancta Sophia with renowned preachers. Its brethren cultivate learning.
+Their library is unexcelled, and they boast that in the hundreds of
+years of their society life, they had never an heretic. Before their
+altars the candles are kept burning and trimmed forever. Their numbers
+are recruited from the noblest families. Young men to whom the army is
+open prefer God-service in the elegant retirement of St. James of
+Manganese. They will interest you, Prince; and after them we will have
+the second grand division."
+
+"Brethren of the Islands?"
+
+"Yes, of the Islands and the sea-shores."
+
+Upon the pavement then appeared a precentor attired like a Greek priest
+of the present day; a rimless hat black and high, and turned slightly
+outward at the top; a veil of the same hue; the hair gathered into a
+roll behind, and secured under the hat; a woollen gown very dark,
+glossy, and dropping in ample folds unconfined from neck to shoe. The
+Hegumen followed next, and because of his age and infirmities a young
+man carried the torch for him. The chanting was sweet, pure, and in
+perfect time. All these evidences of refinement and respectability were
+noticed by the Prince, and looking at the torch-bearer again, he
+recognized the young monk, his room-mate in the White Castle.
+
+"Knowest thou the youth yonder?" he asked, pointing to Sergius.
+
+"A Russian recently arrived," the Father replied. "Day before yesterday
+he was brought to the palace and presented to the Emperor by the
+Princess Irene. He made a great impression."
+
+The two kept their eyes on the young man until he disappeared ascending
+the hill.
+
+"He will be heard from;" and with the prediction the Prince gave
+attention to the body of the Brotherhood.
+
+"These men have the bearing of soldiers," he said presently.
+
+"Their vows respecting war are liberal. If the _panagia_ were carried
+to the walls, they would accompany it in armor."
+
+The Prince smiled. He had not the faith in the Virgin of Blacherne
+which the Father's answer implied.
+
+The St. James' were long in passing. The Prince kept them in sight to
+the last four. They were the aristocracy of the Church, prim, proud; as
+their opportunities were more frequent, doubtless they were more wicked
+than their associates of the humbler fraternities; yet he could not
+promise himself favor from their superior liberality. On the contrary,
+having a great name for piety to defend, if a test offered, they were
+the more certain to be hard and vindictive--to send a heretic to the
+stake, and turn a trifling variation from the creed into heresy.
+
+"Who is this?" the Prince exclaimed, as a noble-looking man in full
+canonicals stepped out of the cypress shadows, first of the next
+division.
+
+"Master of Ceremonies for the Church," Father Theophilus replied. "He
+is the wall between the Islanders and the Metropolitans."
+
+"And he who walks with him singing?"
+
+"The _Protopsolete_--leader of the Patriarch's Choir."
+
+Behind this singer the monks of the Isles of the Princes! In movement,
+order, dress, like their predecessors in the march--Hegumen with their
+followers in gray, black and white--hands palm to palm
+prayerfully--chanting sometimes better, sometimes worse--never a look
+upward but always down, as if Heaven were a hollow in the earth, an
+abyss at their feet, and they about to step into it.
+
+The Prince was beginning to tire. Suddenly he thought of the meeting of
+pilgrims at El Zaribah. How unlike was the action there and here! That
+had been a rush, an inundation, as it were, by the sea, fierce, mad, a
+passion of Faith fostered by freedom; this, slow, solemn, sombre,
+oppressive--what was it like? Death in Life, and burial by programme so
+rigid there must not be a groan more or a tear less. He saw Law in it
+all--or was it imposition, force, choice smothered by custom, fashion
+masquerading in the guise of Faith? The hold of Christ upon the Church
+began to look possible of measurement.
+
+"Roti first!" said the Father. "Rocky and bare, scarce a bush for a
+bird or grass for a cricket. Ah, verily he shall love God dearly or
+hate the world mortally who of free will chooses a cloister for life at
+Roti!"
+
+The brethren of the three convents of the Island marched past clad in
+short brown frocks, bareheaded, barefooted. The comments of the
+historian were few and brief.
+
+"Poor they look," he said of the first one, "and poor they are, yet
+Michael Rhangabe and Romain Lacapene were glad to live and die with
+them." Of the second: "When Romain Diogenes built the house these
+inhabit, he little dreamed it would shelter him, a refugee from the
+throne." Of the third: "Dardanes was a great general. In his fortunate
+days he built a tower on Roti with one cell in it; in an evil hour he
+aspired to the throne--failed--lost his eyes, retired to his lonesome
+tower--by his sanctity there drew a fraternity to him, and died. That
+was hundreds of years ago. The brethren still pray for his soul. Be it
+that evil comes of good; not less does good come of evil--and so God
+keeps the balances."
+
+In the same manner he descanted on the several contingents from
+Antigone as they strode by; then of those from God's houses at Halki,
+the pearl of the Marmora; amongst them the monastery of John the
+Precursor, and the Convents of St. George, Hagia Trias, and lastly the
+Very Holy House of the All Holy Mother of God, founded by John VIII.
+Palaeologus. After them, in turn, the consecrated from Prinkipo,
+especially those from the Kamares of the Basilissa, Irene, and the
+Convent of the Transfiguration.
+
+The faithful few from the solitary Convent on the Island of Oxia, and
+the drab-gowned abstinents of the monastery of Plati, miserables given
+to the abnormity of mixing prayer and penance with the cultivation of
+snails for the market in Constantinople, were the last of the Islanders.
+
+Then in a kind of orderly disorganization the claustral inculpables
+from holy houses on Olympus down by the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus, and
+the Bithynian shore behind the Isles of the Princes, and some from
+retreats in the Egean and along the Peloponnesus, their walls now dust,
+their names forgotten.
+
+"Where is the procession going?" the Prince now asked.
+
+"Look behind you--up along the front of the palace."
+
+And casting his eyes thither, the questioner beheld the ground covered
+with a mass of men not there before.
+
+"What are they doing?"
+
+"Awaiting the Emperor. Only the third grand division is wanting now;
+when it is up His Majesty will appear."
+
+"And descend to the Chapel?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+For a time a noise more like the continuous, steady monotone of falling
+water than a chant had been approaching from the valley, making its
+darkness vocal. It threatened the gates awhile; now it was at the
+gates. The Prince's wonder was great, and to appease it Father
+Theophilus explained:
+
+"The last division is at hand."
+
+In the dim red light over the area by the gate below, the visitor
+beheld figures hurriedly issuing from the night--figures in the
+distance so wild and fantastic they did not at first seem human. They
+left no doubt, however, whence the sound proceeded. The white sand of
+the road up the terraces was beaten to dust under the friction and
+pressure of the thousands of feet gone before; this third division
+raised it into an attending cloud, and the cloud and the noise were
+incessant.
+
+Once more the Prince went out to the brink of the terrace. The monotony
+of the pageant was broken; something new was announcing itself.
+Spectres--devils--gnomes and jinn of the Islamitic Solomon--rakshakas
+and hanumen of the Eastern Iliads--surely this miscellany was a
+composition of them all. They danced along the way and swung themselves
+and each other, howling like dervishes in frenzy. Again the birds took
+wing and flew blindly above the cypresses, and the end of things seemed
+about to burst when a yell articulate yet unintelligible shook the
+guarded door of the venerable Chapel.
+
+Then the demoniacs--the Prince could not make else of them--leaping the
+brook, crowding the pent enclosure, hasting to the arched exit, were
+plainly in view. Men almost naked, burned to hue of brick-dust; men in
+untanned sheepskin coats and mantles; men with every kind of headgear,
+turbans, handkerchiefs, cowls; men with hair and beard matted and
+flying; now one helped himself to a louder yell by tossing in air the
+dirty garment he had torn from his body, hirsute as a goat's; now one
+leaped up agile as a panther; now one turned topsy-turvy; now groups of
+them swirled together like whimsical eddies in a pool. Some went
+slowly, their arms outspread in silent ecstasy; some stalked on with
+parted lips and staring eyes, trance-like or in dead drunkenness of
+soul; nevertheless the great majority of them, too weary and far spent
+for violent exertion, marched with their faces raised, and clapping
+their hands or beating their breasts, now barking short and sharp, like
+old hounds dreaming, then finishing with long-drawn cries not unlike
+the ending of a sorrowful chorus. Through the gate they crowded, and at
+sight of their faces full of joy unto madness, the Prince quit pitying
+them, and, reminded of the Wahabbees at El Zaribah, turned to Father
+Theophilus.
+
+"In God's name," he said, "who are these?"
+
+"A son of India thou, and not know them at sight?"
+
+There was surprise in the question, and a degree of unwarranted
+familiarity, yet the Father immediately corrected himself, by solemnly
+adding: "Look there at that one whirling his mantle of unshorn skin
+over his head. He has a cave on Mt. Olympus furnished with a stool, a
+crucifix, and a copy of the Holy Scriptures; he sleeps on the stone;
+the mantle is his bedding by night, his clothing by day. He raises
+vegetables, and they and snow-water seeping through a crevice in his
+cavern subsist him.... And the next him--the large man with the great
+coat of camel's hair which keeps him scratched as with thorns--he is
+from the Monastery of St. Auxentius, the abode of a powerful fraternity
+of ascetics. A large proportion of this wing of the celebrants is of
+the same austere house. You will know them by the penitential,
+dun-colored garment--they wear no other.... Yonder is a brother
+carrying his right arm at a direct angle above his shoulder, stiff and
+straight as a stick of seasoned oak. He is of a colony of Stylites
+settled on this shore of the upper Bosphorus overlooking the Black Sea.
+He could not lower the arm if he wished to; but since it is his
+certificate of devoutness, the treasures of the earth laid at his feet
+in a heap would be insufficient to induce him to drop it though for an
+instant. His colony is one of many like it. Spare him thy pity. He
+believes the clinch of that hand holds fast the latch of Heaven.... The
+shouters who have just entered the arch in a body have hermitaries in
+close grouping around the one failing monastery on Plati, and live on
+lentils and snails; aside from which they commit themselves to Christ,
+and so abound in faith that the Basileus in his purple would be very
+happy were he true master of a tithe of their happiness.... Hast thou
+not enough, O Prince? Those crossing the brook now?--Ah, yes! They are
+anchorites from Anderovithos, the island. Pitiable creatures looked at
+from the curtained windows of a palace--pitiable, and abandoned by men
+and angels! Be not sure. Everything is as we happen to see it--a bit of
+philosophy, which, as they despise the best things secularly considered
+of this life, steels them to indifference for what you and I, and
+others not of their caste, may think. They have arrived at a summit
+above the corrupting atmosphere of the earth, where every one of them
+has already the mansion promised him by our Blessed Lord, and where the
+angels abide and delight to serve him.... For the rest, O Prince, call
+them indifferently recluses, hermits, anticenobites, mystics, martyrs,
+these from Europe, those from isolations deep somewhere in Asia. Who
+feeds them? Did not ravens feed Elijah? Offer them white bread and
+robes of silk, yesterday's wear of a king. 'What!' they will ask.
+'Shall any man fare better than John the Forerunner?' Speak to them of
+comfortable habitations, and they will answer with the famous saying,
+'Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of
+Man hath not where to lay His head.' What more is there to be said?
+Thou seest them, thou knowest them."
+
+Yes, the Prince knew them. Like the horde which stood by the Black
+Stone envious of Mirza's dying, these were just as ready to die for
+Christ. He smiled grimly, and thought of Mahommed, and how easy the
+Church had made the conquest of which he was dreaming.
+
+It was with a sense of relief he beheld the tail of the division follow
+its body up to the palace.
+
+Then, last of all, came the dignitaries of the Church, the Cartulaire,
+least in rank, with many intermediates, up to the Cyncelle, who, next
+to the absent Patriarch, represented him. If what had preceded in the
+procession was poor and unpretentious, this part was splendid to
+excess. They were not more than eighteen or twenty in number, but they
+walked singly with considerable intervals between them; while on the
+right and left of each, a liveried servant carried a torch which gave
+him to be distinctly seen. And the flashing of gold on their persons
+was wonderful to the spectator. Why not? This rare and anointed body
+was the Church going in solemnity to assist the Basileus in a high
+ceremony.
+
+Afterwhile the Emperor appeared descending to the Chapel.
+
+To the Prince's amazement, he was in a plain, priestly black frock,
+without crown, sword, sceptre or guard; and so did his guise compare
+with the magnificence of the ecclesiastics surrounding him, he actually
+seemed in their midst a prisoner or a penitent. He passed his visitor
+like one going from the world forgetting and forgot.
+
+"An explanation, Father," said the Prince. "The Church is in its robes,
+but my august friend, the Emperor, looks as if he had suffered
+dethronement."
+
+"Thou wilt presently see His Majesty enter the Chapel alone. The legend
+supposes him there in presence directly of God; if so, what merit would
+there be in regalia? Would his sword or sceptre make his supplication
+more impressive?"
+
+The Prince bowed.
+
+And while he watched, the gold-clad escort halted before the Holy
+House, the door opened, and Constantine went in unattended. Then, the
+door being shut behind him, the clergy knelt, and remained kneeling.
+The light from the torches was plenteous there, making the scene
+beautiful.
+
+And yet further, while he stood watching, the trumpeting and chanting
+on the level in front of the palace behind him ceased, and a few
+minutes afterwards, he was aware of the noise of many feet rushing in a
+scramble from all directions to the Chapel. Here and there flambeaux
+streamed out, with hundreds of dark-gowned excited figures speeding
+after them as best they could.
+
+The bank the Prince occupied was overrun, like other contiguous spaces.
+The object of the invaders was to secure a position near the revered
+building as possible; for immediately on attaining it they dropped to
+their knees, and began counting their rosaries and mumbling prayers. At
+length it befell that the terraces far and near were densely crowded by
+monks in low recitation.
+
+"My Lord," said Father Theophilus, in a tone of reserved depth, "the
+Mystery is begun. There is no more to be seen. Good-night!" And without
+ado, he too knelt where he stood, beads in hand, eyes fixed upon the
+one point of devotional interest.
+
+When the sedan was brought, the Prince gave one last glance at the
+scene, feeling it was to be thenceforward and forever a burden on his
+memory. He took in and put away the weather-stained Chapel, centre of
+so much travail; the narrow court in front of it brilliantly lighted
+and covered with priests high and low in glittering vestments; the
+cypresses looming skyward, stately and stiff, like conical monuments:
+the torches scattered over the grounds, revealing patches of men
+kneeling, their faces turned toward the Chapel: the mumbling and
+muttering from parts unlighted telling of other thousands in like
+engagement. He had seen battle-fields fresh in their horrors; decks of
+ships still bloody; shores strewn with wreckage and drowned sailors,
+and the storm not spent; populous cities shaken down by earthquakes,
+the helpless under the ruins pleading for help; but withal never had he
+seen anything which affected him as did that royal park at mid of
+night, given up to that spectral multitude!
+
+It seemed he could not get away from the spectacle soon enough; for
+after issuing from the Grand Gate, he kept calling to his carriers,
+impatiently: "Faster, my men, faster!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PLAGUE OF CRIME
+
+
+Sergius' life in Constantinople had been almost void of incident. His
+introduction to the Patriarch by the Princess Irene started him well
+with that reverend official, whose confidence and love she commanded to
+a singular degree. His personal qualities, however, were very helpful.
+The gentleness of his nature, his youth, his simplicity,
+respectfulness, intelligence and obvious piety were all in his favor;
+at the same time the strongest attraction he possessed with the
+strangers amongst whom he found himself was his likeness according to
+the received Byzantine ideal to Christ. He had a habit, moreover, of
+walking slowly, and with a quiet tread, his head lowered, his hands
+clasped before him. Coming in this mood suddenly upon persons, he often
+startled them; at such times, indeed, the disturbed parties were
+constrained to both observe and forgive him--he reminded them so
+strikingly of the Nazarene as He must have looked while in solitary
+walks by the sea or along the highways of Galilee. Whatever the cause,
+it is very certain His Serenity, the Patriarch, from mere attention to
+the young Russian, passed speedily to interest in him, and manifested
+it in modes pleasant and noticeable. By his advice, Sergius attached
+himself to the Brotherhood of the Monastery of St. James of Manganese.
+This was the first incident in his city life out of the usual. The
+second was his presentation at court, where he was not less successful
+with the Emperor than he had been with the Patriarch. Yet Sergius was
+not happy. His was the old case of a spirit willing, even anxious, to
+do, but held in restraint. He saw about him such strong need of saving
+action; and the Christian plan, as he understood it, was so simple and
+efficacious. There was no difference in the value of souls. Taking
+Christ's own words, everything was from the Father, and He held the
+gates of Heaven open for the beggar and the emperor alike. Why not
+return to the plan devised, practised, and exemplified by the Saviour
+Himself? The idea bore heavily upon his mind, and accounted for the
+bent head and slow step fast becoming habitudes. At times the insurgent
+impulses seemed beyond control. This was particularly when he walked in
+crowded places; for then the people appeared an audience summoned and
+ready to hear him; he had only to go into their midst, call to them,
+and begin speaking; but often as he beheld the calm, patient, pleading
+face of the Princess Irene, and heard her say ever so gently: "Wait,
+wait! I know the situation--you do not. Our object is the most good.
+God will send the opportunity. Then martyrdom, if it come, is going to
+Heaven. Wait--I will give you the signal. You are to speak for me as
+well as yourself. You are to be my voice"--so often he grew reconciled.
+
+There was another trouble more difficult of comprehension and
+description. Under its influence the sky did not look so blue as
+formerly; the breeze was less refreshing; the sun where it scattered
+its golden largesse over the sea failed to relieve it of dulness; and
+in all things, himself included, there was something wanting--exactly
+what he could not tell. However, as he had been indulging comparisons
+of life in Constantinople with life in Bielo-Osero, and longing for the
+holy quiet of the latter, he concluded he was homesick, and was
+ashamed. It was childishness! The Great Example had no home! And with
+that thought he struggled manfully to be a man forever done with such
+weaknesses.
+
+It became his wont of afternoons when the weather was tolerable to seek
+the city wall opposite the old Chalcedonian point. In going thither, he
+sometimes passed through the Hippodrome and Sta. Sophia, both in such
+contact to the collection of palaces known as the Bucoleon that each
+might have been fairly considered an appurtenance of the other. The
+exercises in the spacious palaestrae had small interest for him; there
+was always such evident rancor between the factions Blue and Green. The
+dome of the great Church he regarded man's best effort at construction,
+beyond which there was nothing more attainable; but how it dwindled and
+faded when from the wall he looked at the sky, the sea, and the land,
+the handiworks of God!
+
+On the wall, at a point marked by a shallow angle, there was a cracked
+stone bench, offering seawardly a view of the Isles of the Princes, and
+the Asian domain beyond Broussa to the Olympian heights; westwardly,
+the Bucoleon and its terraced gardens were near by, and above them in
+the distance the Tower of Isaac Angelus arose over Blacherne, like a
+sentinel on guard against the opposing summits of Galata and Pera. From
+the bench, the walk, besides being wide and smooth, extended, with a
+slight curvature northward to the Acropolis, now Point Serail, and on
+the south to the Port of Julian. The airy promenade thus formed was
+reached by several stairs intermediate the landmarks mentioned; yet the
+main ascent was near the Imperial stables, and it consisted of a flight
+of stone steps built against the inner face of the wall, like a broad
+buttress. This latter was for the public, and of sunny days it was used
+incessantly. Everybody in the category of invalids affected it in
+especial, since litters and sedans were not inhibited there. In short,
+the popularity of this mural saunter can be easily imagined.
+
+The afternoon of the day the Prince of India was in audience by the
+Emperor's invitation, Sergius was the sole occupant of the stone bench.
+The hour was pleasant; the distant effects were perfect; birds and
+boats enlivened the air and water; and in listening to the swish of
+waves amongst the rocks and pebbles below, so like whisperings, he
+forgot where he was, and his impatience and melancholy, and the people
+strolling negligently past. One of his arms lay along the edge of the
+bulwark before him, and he was not thinking so much as simply enjoying
+existence. To such as noticed him he appeared a man in the drowsy stage
+next to sleep.
+
+Afterwhile a voice aroused him, and, without moving, he became aware of
+two men stopped and talking. He could not avoid hearing them.
+
+"She is coming," said one.
+
+"How do you know?" the other asked.
+
+"Have I not told you I keep a spy on the old Prince's house? A
+messenger from him has just reported the chair arrived for her; and
+this being her favorite stroll, she will be here presently."
+
+"Have you considered the risks of your project?"
+
+"Risks? Pah!"
+
+The exclamation was with a contemptuous laugh.
+
+"But they have grown since last night," the other persisted. "The
+Indian is now at the Palace, His Majesty's guest."
+
+"Yes, I had report of that also; but I have studied the game, and if
+you fear to join me, I will see it through alone. As an offence against
+law, it is abduction, not murder; and the penalty, imprisonment, can be
+easily changed to banishment, which with me means at the utmost a short
+absence to give friends an opportunity to prepare for my return.
+Consider, moreover, the subject of the offence will be a woman. Can you
+name an instance in which the kidnapper of a woman has been
+punished?--I mean in our time?"
+
+"True, women are the cheapest commodity in the market; therefore"--
+
+"I understand," the first speaker interposed, a little impatiently,
+"but Princes of India are not common in Constantinople, while their
+daughters are less so. See the temptation! Besides, in the decadence of
+our Byzantine empire, the criminal laws fail worse and worse of
+execution. Only last night my father, delivering a lecture, said
+neglect in this respect was one of the reasons of the Empire's going.
+Only the poor and degraded suffer penalties now. And I--pah! What have
+I to fear? Or thou? And from whom? When the girl's loss is
+discovered--you observe I am viewing the affair in its most malignant
+aspect--I know the course the Prince will take. He will run to the
+palace; there he will fall at the Emperor's feet, tell his tale of woe,
+and"--
+
+"And if thou art denounced?"
+
+The conspirator laughed again. "The worse for the Prince," he at length
+replied. "The Hegumen, my honored father, will follow him to the
+palace, and--but let the details go! The relations between the Basileus
+and the Church are strained to breaking; and the condition is not
+sanable while the quarrel between the Patriarch and Scholarius waxes
+hotter."
+
+"The Patriarch and Scholarius quarrelling? I had not heard of that."
+
+"Openly, openly! His Majesty and the Patriarch are tenderly
+sympathetic. What more is wanting to set the Prophet scolding? The
+Patriarch, it is now known, will not be at the _Pannychides_ to-night.
+His health began failing when, over his objection, it was decided to
+hold the Mystery, and last week he betook himself to the Holy Mountain.
+This morning the Prophet"--
+
+"Thou meanest Scholarius?"
+
+"Scholarius denounced him as an _azymite_, which is bad, if true; as
+unfaithful to God and the Church, which is worse; and as trying to
+convert the Emperor into an adherent of the Bishop of Rome, which,
+considering the Bishop is Satan unchained, will not admit of a further
+descent in sin. The Mystery tonight is Scholarius' scheme in
+contravention of His Serenity's efforts. Oh, it is a quarrel, and a big
+one, involving Church and State, and the infallibility of our newly
+risen Jeremiah. Thus full-handed, thinkest thou in a suit the Prince of
+India against the venerable Hegumen of all the St. James', His Majesty
+will hesitate? Is thy opinion of him as a politician so
+uncomplimentary? Think again, I say--think again!"
+
+"Thy father's Brotherhood are His Majesty's friends!"
+
+"Ah, the very point! They despise Scholarius now, and what an ado, what
+a political display, to drive them into his arms! The Princes of India,
+though they were numerous as the spectre caravan, could not carry
+influence that far."
+
+Here there was a rest in the conversation.
+
+"Well, since thou wilt not be persuaded to let the enterprise go," the
+protesting friend next said, "at least agree with me that it is
+indiscreet to speak of it in a place public as this."
+
+The laugh of the conspirator was heartier than before.
+
+"Ah, hadst thou warned me not to speak of it to the"--
+
+"Enough of that! The Prince of India is nothing to me--thou art my
+friend."
+
+"Agree with me then that thou hast ears, while the public"--
+
+"Have not, thou wouldst say. Still there are things which may not be
+whispered in a desert without being overheard."
+
+"The Pagans who went before us had a god of wisdom, and they called him
+Hermes. I should say thou hast been to school to him. 'Twas he,
+doubtless, who taught outlaws to seek safety in crowded cities. By the
+same philosophy, where can one talk treason more securely than on this
+wall? Afraid of discovery! Not I, unless thou mumblest in thy sleep. We
+go about our good intents--the improvement of our fortune for
+instance--with awful care, and step by step, fortifying. The practice
+is applicable to wickedness. I am no bungler. I will tell thee a
+tale.... Thou knowest the Brotherhood of the Monastery of St. James of
+Manganese is very ancient, and that the house in which it is quartered
+is about as old as the Brotherhood. Their archives are the richest in
+the empire. They have a special chamber and a librarian. Were he of the
+mind, he might write a history of Constantinople by original data
+without leaving his library. Fortunately the mere keepers of books
+seldom write books.... My father's office is in the Monastery, and I
+frequently find myself in his company there. He never fails to improve
+the opportunity to lecture me, for he is a good man. One day, by
+invitation, I accompanied the librarian to his place of keeping, and
+saw it, and wondered how he could be willing to give his days--he is
+now an old man--to such a mass of rot and smells. I spare you mention
+of the many things he showed me; for there was but one of real ado with
+what we are considering, an old document illuminated with an
+untarnished chrysobula. 'Here,' said he, 'is something curious.' The
+text was short--writers in those days knew the tricks of condensation,
+and they practised them virtuously. I asked him to give it to me--he
+refused--he would sooner have given me the last lock on his head, which
+is a great deal, seeing that hair grows precious exactly as it grows
+scantier. So I made him hold the lamp while I read.... The document was
+dated about A.D. 1300--a century and a half gone, and proved to be a
+formal report by the Patriarch to a council of Bishops and Hegumen....
+Thou knowest, I am sure, the great cistern; not the Philoxenus, but the
+larger one, with an entrance west of Sta. Sophia, sometimes called the
+Imperial, because built by the first Constantine and enlarged by
+Justinian."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"Well, there was a great ceremony there one day; the same with which
+the report was concerned. The clergy attended in force and panoply led
+by His Serenity in person--monks, nuns, deacons and deaconesses--in a
+word, the Church was present. The cistern had been profaned. A son of
+Satan, moved by a most diabolical ingenuity, had converted it into a
+den of wickedness surpassing sinful belief; and the procession and
+awful conclave were to assist His Serenity in restoring the water to
+wholesomeness, impossible, in the belief of consumers, except by solemn
+exorcism.... Heed now, my friend--I am about to tap the heart of my
+story. A plague struck the city--a plague of crime. A woman
+disappeared. There was search for her, but without success. The affair
+would have been dismissed within the three days usually allotted
+wonders of the kind, had not another like it occurred--and then
+another. The victims, it was noticed, were young and beautiful, and as
+the last one was of noble family the sensation was universal. The whole
+capital organized for rescue. While the hunt was at its height, a
+fourth unfortunate went the way of the others. Sympathy and curiosity
+had been succeeded by anxiety; now the public was aroused to anger, and
+the parents of handsome girls were sore with fear. Schemes for
+discovery multiplied; ingenuity was exhausted; the government took part
+in the chase--all in vain. And there being then a remission in the
+disappearance, the theory of suicide was generally accepted. Quiet and
+confidence were returning, when, lo! the plague broke out afresh! Five
+times in five weeks Sta. Sophia was given to funeral services. The ugly
+women, and the halt, and those long hopeless of husbands shared the
+common terror. The theory of suicide was discarded. It was the doing of
+the Turks, everybody said. The Turks were systematically foraging
+Constantinople to supply their harems with Christian beauty; or if the
+Turks were innocent, the devil was the guilty party. On the latter
+presumption, the Church authorities invented a prayer of special
+application. Could anything better signify the despair of the
+community? A year passed--two years--three--and though every one
+resolved himself into a watchman and hunter; though heralds cried
+rewards in the Emperor's name three times each day on the street
+corners, and in every place of common resort; though the fame of the
+havoc, rapine, spoliation, or whatsoever it may please thee to call the
+visitation, was carried abroad until everybody here and there knew
+every particular come to light concerning it, with the pursuit, and the
+dragging and fishing in the sea, never a clew was found.
+One--two--three years, during which at intervals, some long, some
+short, the ancient Christian centre kept on sealing its doors, and
+praying. Finally the disappearances were about to be accepted as
+incidents liable to happen at any time to any young and pretty woman.
+They were placed in the category with death. There was mourning by
+friends--that was about all. How much longer the mystery would have
+continued may not be said.... Now accidents may not have brought the
+world about, yet the world could not get along without accidents. To
+illustrate. A woman one day, wanting water for her household, let a
+bucket down one of the wells of the cistern, and drew up a sandal
+slippery and decaying. A sliver buckle adhered to it. Upon inspecting
+the prize, a name was observed graven on its underside. The curious
+came to see--there was discussion--at length an examiner blessed with a
+good memory coupled the inscription with one of the lost women. It was
+indeed her name! A clew to the great mystery was at last obtained. The
+city was thrown into tumult, and an exploration of the cistern
+demanded. The authorities at first laughed. 'What!' they said. 'The
+Royal reservoir turned into a den of murder and crime unutterable by
+Christians!' But they yielded. A boat was launched on the darkened
+waters--But hold!"
+
+The voice of the speaker changed. Something was occurring to stop the
+story. Sergius had succumbed to interest in it; he was listening with
+excited sense, yet kept his semblance of sleep.
+
+"Hold!" the narrator repeated, in an emphatic undertone. "See what
+there is in knowing to choose faithful allies! My watchman was right.
+She comes--she is here!"
+
+"Who is here?"
+
+"She--the daughter of the old Indian. In the sedan to my left--look!"
+
+Sergius, catching the reply, longed to take the direction to himself,
+and look, for he was comprehending vaguely. A blindfolded man can
+understand quite well, if he is first informed of the business in
+progress, or if it be something with which he is familiar; imagination
+seems then to take the place of eyes. A detective, having overheard the
+conversation between the two men, had not required sight of them; but
+the young monk was too recently from the cloisters of Bielo-Osero to be
+quick in the discernment of villanies. He knew the world abounded in
+crime, but he had never dealt with it personally; as yet it was a
+destroying wolf howling in the distance. He yearned to see if what he
+dimly surmised were true--if the object at the moment so attractive to
+his dangerous neighbors were indeed the daughter of the strange Indian
+he had met at the White Castle. His recollection of her was wonderfully
+distinct. Her face and demeanor when he assisted her from the boat had
+often reverted to his thought. They spoke to him so plainly of
+simplicity and dependence, and she seemed so pure and beautiful! And
+making the acknowledgment to himself, his heart took to beating quick
+and drum-like. He heard the shuffle and slide of the chairmen going;
+when they ceased a new and strange feeling came and possessed itself of
+his spirit, and led it out after her. Still he managed to keep his head
+upon his arm.
+
+"By the saintly patron of thy father's Brotherhood, she is more than
+lovely! I am almost persuaded."
+
+"Ah, I am not so mad as I was!" the conspirator replied, laughing; then
+he changed to seriousness, and added, like one speaking between
+clinched teeth--"I am resolved to go on. I will have her--come what
+may, I will have her! I am neither a coward nor a bungler. Thou mayst
+stay behind, but I have gone too far to retreat. Let us follow, and see
+her again--my pretty Princess!"
+
+"Stay--a moment."
+
+Perception was breaking in on Sergius. He scarcely breathed.
+
+"Well?" was the answer.
+
+"You were saying that a boat was launched in the cistern. Then what?"
+
+"Of discovery? Oh, yes--the very point of my argument! A raft was found
+moored between four of the great pillars in the cistern, and there was
+a structure on it with furnished rooms. A small boat was used for going
+and coming."
+
+"Wonderful!"
+
+"Come--or we will lose the sight of her."
+
+"But what else?"
+
+"Hooks, such as fishermen use in hunting lobsters were brought, and by
+dragging and fishing the missing women were brought to light--that is,
+their bones were brought to light. More I will tell as we go. I will
+not stay longer."
+
+Sergius heard them depart, and presently he raised his head. His blood
+was cold with horror. He was having the awful revelation which sooner
+or later bursts upon every man who pursues a walk far in life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A BYZANTINE GENTLEMAN OF THE PERIOD
+
+
+Sergius kept his seat on the bench; but the charm of the glorious
+prospect spread out before it was gone.
+
+Two points were swimming in his consciousness, like motes in a mist:
+first, there was a conspiracy afoot; next, the conspiracy was against
+the daughter of the Prince of India.
+
+When at the door of the old Lavra upon the snow-bound shore of the
+White Lake, he bade Father Hilarion farewell and received his blessing,
+and the commission of an Evangel, the idea furthest from him was to
+signalize his arrival in Constantinople by dropping first thing into
+love. And to be just, the idea was now as distant from him as ever; yet
+he had a vision of the child-faced girl he met on the landing at the
+White Castle in the hands of enemies, and to almost any other person
+the shrinking it occasioned would have been strange, if not suspicious.
+His most definite feeling was that something ought to be done in her
+behalf.
+
+Besides this the young monk had another incentive to action. In the
+colloquy overheard by him the chief speaker described himself a son of
+the Hegumen of the St. James'. The St. James'! His own Brotherhood! His
+own Hegumen! Could a wicked son have been born to that excellent man?
+Much easier to disbelieve the conspirator; still there were traditions
+of the appearance of monsters permitted for reasons clear at least to
+Providence. This might be an instance of the kind. Doubtless the
+creature carried on its countenance or person evidences of a miracle of
+evil. In any event there could be no harm in looking at him.
+
+Sergius accordingly arose, and set out in pursuit of the conspirators.
+Could he overtake the sedan, they were quite certain to be in the
+vicinity, and he doubted not discovering them.
+
+The steps of the sedan-carriers, peculiarly quick and sliding, seemed
+in passing the bench to have been going northwardly toward Point
+Demetrius. Thither he first betook himself.
+
+In the distance, over the heads of persons going and coming, he shortly
+beheld the top of a chair in motion, and he followed it rapidly,
+fearing its occupant might quit the wall by the stairs near the stables
+of the Bucoleon. But when it was borne past that descent he went more
+leisurely, knowing it must meet him on the return.
+
+Without making the Point, however, the chair was put about toward him.
+Unable to discover any one so much as suggestive of the plotters, and
+fearing a mistake, he peered into the front window of the painted box.
+A woman past the noon of life gave him back in no amiable mood the
+stare with which he saluted her.
+
+There was but one explanation: he should have gone down the wall
+southwardly. What was to be done? Give up the chase? No, that would be
+to desert his little friend. And besides he had not put himself within
+hearing of the design against her--it was a doing of Providence. He
+started back on his trace.
+
+The error but deepened his solicitude. What if the victim was then
+being hurried away?
+
+At the head of the stairway by the stables he paused; as it was
+deserted, he continued on almost running--on past the cracked
+bench--past the Cleft Gate. Now, in front, he beheld the towers of the
+imperial residence bearing the name Julian, and he was upbraiding
+himself for indecision, and loading his conscience with whatever grief
+might happen the poor girl, when he beheld a sedan coming toward him.
+It was very ornate, and in the distance shone with burnishments--it was
+the chair--hers. By it, on the right hand, strode the gigantic negro
+who had so astonished him at the White Castle. He drew a long breath,
+and stopped. They would be bold who in daylight assailed that king of
+men!
+
+And he was taking note of the fellow's barbaric finery, the solemn
+stateliness of his air, and the superb indifference he manifested to
+the stare of passers-by, when a man approached the chair on the
+opposite side. The curtain of the front window was raised, and through
+it, Sergius observed the inmate draw hastily away from the stranger,
+and drop a veil over her face.
+
+Here was one of the parties for whom he was looking. Where was the
+other? Then the man by the left window looked back over his shoulder as
+if speaking, and out of the train of persons following the sedan, one
+stepped briskly forward, joined the intruder, and walked with him long
+enough to be spoken to, and reply briefly; after which he fell back and
+disappeared. This answered the inquiry.
+
+Assured now of one of the conspirators in sight, the monk resolved to
+await the coming up. Through the front window of the carriage, which
+was truly a marvel of polish and glitter, the girl might recognize him;
+perhaps she would speak; or possibly the negro might recall him; in
+either event he would have an excuse for intervention.
+
+Meantime, calmly as he could--for he was young, and warm blooded, and
+in all respects a good instrument to be carried away by righteous
+indignation--he took careful note of the stranger, who kept his place
+as if by warrant, occasionally addressing the shrinking maiden.
+
+Sergius was now more curious than angry; and he cared less to know who
+the conspirator was than how he looked. His surprise may be imagined
+when, the subject of investigation having approached near enough to be
+perfectly observed, instead of a monster marked, like Cain, he appeared
+a graceful, though undersized person, with an agreeable countenance.
+The most unfavorable criticism he provoked was the loudness--if the
+word can be excused--of his dress.
+
+A bright red cloak, hanging in ample folds from an exaggerated buckle
+of purple enamel on his left shoulder, draped his left side; falling
+open on the right, it was caught by another buckle just outside the
+right knee. The arrangement loosed the right arm, but was a serious
+hamper to walking, and made it inconvenient to get out the rapier, the
+handle of which was protrusively suggested through the cloak. A tunic
+of bright orange color, short in sleeve and skirt, covered his body.
+Where undraped, tight-fitting hose terminating in red shoes, flashed
+their elongated black and yellow stripes with stunning effect. A red
+cap, pointed at top, and rolled up behind, but with a long visor-like
+peak shading the eyes, and a white heron feather slanted in the band,
+brought the head into negligent harmony with the rest of the costume.
+The throat and left arm were bare, the latter from halfway above the
+elbow.
+
+This was the monk's first view of a Byzantine gentleman of the period
+abroad in full dress to dazzle such of the gentler sex as he might
+chance to meet.
+
+If Sergius' anticipation had been fulfilled; if, in place of the
+elegant, rakish-looking chevalier in florid garb, he had been
+confronted by an individual awry in body or hideous in feature, he
+would not have been confused, or stood repeating to himself, "My God,
+can this be a son of the Hegumen?"
+
+That one so holy could have offspring so vicious stupefied him. The
+young man's sins would find him out--thus it was written--and then,
+what humiliation, what shame, what misery for the poor father!
+
+Speeding his sympathy thus in advance, Sergius waited until the
+foremost of the sedan carriers gave him the customary cry of warning.
+As he stepped aside, two things occurred. The occupant of the box
+lifted her veil and held out a hand to him. He had barely time to
+observe the gesture and the countenance more childlike because of the
+distress it was showing, when the negro appeared on the left side of
+the carriage. Staying a moment to swing the javelin with which he was
+armed across the top of the buckler at his back, he leaped forward with
+the cry of an animal, and caught the gallant, one hand at the shoulder,
+the other at the knee. The cry and the seizure were parts of the same
+act. Resistance had been useless had there been no surprise. The Greek
+had the briefest instant to see the assailant--an instant to look up
+into the face blacker of the transport of rage back of it, and to cry
+for help. The mighty hands raised him bodily, and bore him swiftly
+toward the sea-front of the wall.
+
+There were spectators near by; amongst them some men; but they were
+held fast by terror. No one moved but Sergius. Having seen the
+provocation, he alone comprehended the punishment intended.
+
+The few steps to the wall were taken almost on the run. There, in
+keeping with his savage nature, the negro wished to see his victim
+fall, but a puff of wind blew the red cloak over his eyes, and he
+stopped to shake it aside. The Greek in the interval seeing the jagged
+rocks below, and the waves rolling in and churning themselves into
+foam, caught at his enemy's head, and the teeth of the gold-gilt iron
+crown cut his palms, bringing the blood. He writhed, and into Nilo's
+ears--pitiless if they had not been dead--poured screams for mercy.
+Then Sergius reached out, and caught him.
+
+Nilo made no resistance. When he could free his eyes from the cloak he
+looked at the rescuer, who, unaware of his infirmity, was imploring him:
+
+"As thou lovest God, and hopest mercy for thyself, do no murder!"
+
+Now, if not so powerful as Nilo, Sergius was quite as tall; and while
+they stood looking at each other, their faces a little apart, the
+contrast between them was many sided. And one might have seen the
+ferocity of the black visage change first with pleased wonder; then
+brighten with recognition.
+
+The Byzantine gained his feet quickly, and in his turn taken with a
+murderous impulse, drew his sword. Nilo, however, was quickest; the
+point of his javelin was magically promotive of Sergius' renewed
+efforts to terminate the affair. A great many persons were now present.
+To bring a multitude in hot assemblage, strife is generally more
+potential than peace, assume what voice the latter may. These rallied
+to Sergius' assistance; one brought the defeated youth his hat, fallen
+in the struggle; others helped him rearrange his dress; and
+congratulating him that he was alive, they took him in their midst, and
+carried him away. To have drawn upon such a giant! What a brave spirit
+the lad must possess!
+
+It pleased Sergius to think he had saved the Byzantine. His next duty
+was to go to the relief of the little Princess. A dull fancy would have
+taught how trying the situation must have been to her; but with him the
+case was of a quick understanding quickened by solicitude. Taking Nilo
+with him, he made haste to the sedan.
+
+If we pause here, venturing on the briefest break in the narrative, it
+is for the reader's sake exclusively. He will be sure to see how fair
+the conditions are for a romantic passage between Lael and Sergius, and
+we fear lest he fly his imagination too high. It is true the period was
+still roseate with knighterrantry; men wore armor, and did battle
+behind shields; women were objects of devotion; conversation between
+lovers was in the style of high-flown courtesy, chary on one side,
+energized on the other by calls on the Saints to witness vows and
+declarations which no Saint, however dubious his reputation, could have
+listened to, much less excused; yet it were not well to overlook one or
+two qualifications. The usages referred to were by no means prevalent
+amongst Christians in the East; in Constantinople they had no footing
+at all. The two Comneni, Isaac and Alexis, approached more nearly the
+Western ideal of Chivalry than any of the Byzantine warriors; if not
+the only genuine Knights of Byzantium, they were certainly the last of
+them; yet even they stood aghast at the fantastic manners of the
+Frankish armigerents who camped before their gates en route to the Holy
+Land. As a consequence, the language of ordinary address and
+intercourse amongst natives in the Orient was simple and less
+discolored by what may be called pious profanity. Their discourse was
+often dull and prolix, but never a composite of sacrilege and
+exaggeration. Only in their writings were they pedantic. From this the
+reader can anticipate somewhat of the meeting between Sergius and Lael.
+It is to be borne in mind additionally that they were both young; she a
+child in years; he a child in lack of worldly experience. Children
+cannot be other than natural.
+
+Approaching the sedan anxiously, he found the occupant pale and faint.
+Nilo being close at his side, she saw them both in the same glance, and
+reached her hand impulsively through the window. It was a question to
+which the member was offered. Sergius hesitated. Then she brought her
+face up unveiled.
+
+"I know you, I know you," she said, to Sergius. "Oh, I am so glad you
+are come! I was so scared--so scared--I will never go from home again.
+You will stay with me--say you will--it will be so kind of you.... I
+did not want Nilo to kill the man. I only wanted him driven off and
+made let me alone. He has followed and persecuted me day after day,
+often as I came out. I could not set foot in the street without his
+appearing. My father would have me bring Nilo along. He did not kill
+him, did he?"
+
+The hand remained held out during the speech, as if asking to be taken.
+Meanwhile the words flowed like a torrent. The eyes were full of
+beseechment, and irresistibly lovely. If her speech was innocent, so
+was her appearance; and just as innocently, he took the hand, and held
+it while answering:
+
+"He was not hurt. Friends have taken him away. Do not be afraid."
+
+"You saved him. I saw you--my heart was standing still in my throat.
+Oh, I am glad he is safe! I am no longer afraid. My father will be
+grateful; and he is generous--he loves me nearly as much as I love him.
+I will go home now. Is not that best for me?"
+
+Sergius had grown the tall man he was without having been so
+entreated--nay, without an adventure in the least akin to this. The
+hand lay in his folded lightly. He remembered once a dove flew into his
+cell. The window was so small it no doubt suggested to the poor
+creature a door to a nesting place. He remembered how he thought it a
+messenger from the Heaven which he never gave over thinking of and
+longing for, and he wanted to keep it, for afterwhile he was sure it
+would find a way to tell him wherewith it was charged. And he took the
+gentle stray in his hand, and nursed it with exceeding tenderness.
+There are times when it seems such a blessing that memories lie shallow
+and easy to stir; and now he recalled how the winged nuncio felt like
+the hand he was holding--it was almost as soft, and had the same
+magnetism of life--ay, and the same scarce perceptible tremble. To be
+sure it was merely for the bird's sake he kept hold of the hand, while
+he answered:
+
+"Yes, I think it best, and I will go with you to your father's door."
+
+To the carriers he said: "You will quit the wall at the grand stairs.
+The Princess wishes to be taken home."
+
+The sensation of manliness incident to caring for the weak was
+refreshingly delightful. While the chair was passing he took place at
+the window. The fingers of the little hand still rested on the silken
+lining, like pinkish pearls. He beheld them longingly, but a restraint
+fell upon him. The pinkish pearls became sacred. He would have had them
+covered from the dust which the whisking breezes now blew up. The
+breezes were insolent. The sun, sinking in gold over the Marmora, ought
+to temper the rays it let fall on them. Long as the orb had shone, how
+curious that it never acquired art enough to know the things which too
+much of its splendor might spoil. Then too he desired to speak with
+Lael--to ask if she was any longer afraid--he could not. Where had his
+courage gone? When he caught the young Greek from Nilo, the shortest
+while ago, he was wholly unconscious of timidity. The change was
+wonderful. Nor was the awkwardness beginning to hamper his hands and
+feet less incomprehensible. And why the embarrassment when people
+paused to observe him?
+
+Thus the party pursued on until the descent from the wall; he on the
+right side of the chair, and Nilo on the left. Down in the garden where
+they were following a walk across the terrace toward Sta. Sophia, Lael
+put her face to the window, and spoke to him. His eagerness lest a word
+were lost was remarkable. He did not mind the stooping--and from his
+height that was a great deal--nor care much if it subjected him to
+remark.
+
+"Have you seen the Princess lately--she who lives at Therapia?" Lael
+asked.
+
+"Oh, yes," he answered. "She is my little mother. I go up there often.
+She advises me in everything."
+
+"It must be sweet to have such a mother," Lael said, with a smile.
+
+"It is sweet," he returned.
+
+"And how lovely she is, and brave and assuring," Lael added. "Why, I
+forgot when with her to be afraid. I forgot we were in the hands of
+those dreadful Turks. I kept thinking of her, and not of myself."
+
+Sergius waited for what more she had to say.
+
+"This afternoon a messenger came from her to my father, asking him to
+let me visit her."
+
+The heart of the monk gave a jump of pleasure.
+
+"And you will go?"
+
+A little older and wiser, and she would have detected a certain urgency
+there was in the tone with which he directed the inquiry.
+
+"I cannot say yet. I have not seen my father since the invitation was
+received; he has been with the Emperor; but I know how greatly he
+admires the Princess. I think he will consent; if so, I will go up to
+Therapia to-morrow."
+
+Sergius, silently resolving to betake himself thither early next
+morning, replied with enthusiasm: "Have you seen the garden behind her
+palace?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, of course I do not know what Paradise is, but if it be according
+to my fancy, I should believe that garden is a piece of it."
+
+"Oh, I know I shall be pleased with the Princess, her garden--with
+everything hers."
+
+Thereupon Lael settled back in her chair, and nothing more was said
+till the sedan halted in front of the Prince's door. Appearing at the
+window there, she extended a hand to her escort. The pinkish pearls did
+not seem so far away as before, and they were now offered directly. He
+could not resist taking them.
+
+"I want you to know how very, very grateful I am to you," she said,
+allowing the hand to stay in his. "My father will speak to you about
+the day's adventure. He will make the opportunity and
+early.--But--but"--
+
+She hesitated, and a blush overspread her face.
+
+"But what?" he said, encouragingly.
+
+"I do not know your name, or where you reside."
+
+"Sergius is my name."
+
+"Sergius?"
+
+"Yes. And being a monk, I have a cell in the Monastery of St. James of
+Manganese. I belong to that Brotherhood, and humbly pray God to keep me
+in good standing. Now having told you who I am, may I ask"--
+
+He failed to finish the sentence. Happily she divined his wish.
+
+"Oh," she said, "I am called Gul-Bahar by those who love me dearest,
+though my real name is Lael."
+
+"By which am I to call you?"
+
+"Good-by," she continued, passing his question, and the look of doubt
+which accompanied it. "Good-by--the Princess will send for me
+to-morrow."
+
+When the chair was borne into the house, it seemed to Sergius the sun
+had rushed suddenly down, leaving a twilight over the sky. He turned
+homeward with more worldly matter to think of than ever before. For the
+first time in his life the cloister whither he was wending seemed
+lonesome and uncomfortable. He was accustomed to imagine it lighted and
+warmed by a presence out of Heaven--that presence was in danger of
+supersession. Occasionally, however, the girlish Princess whom he was
+thus taking home with him gave place to wonder if the Greek he had
+saved from Nilo could be a son of the saintly Hegumen; and the
+reflection often as it returned brought a misgiving with it; for he saw
+to what intrigues he might be subjected, if the claim were true, and
+the claimant malicious in disposition. When at last he fell asleep on
+his pillow of straw the vision which tarried with him was of walking
+with Gul-Bahar in the garden behind the Homeric palace at Therapia, and
+it was exceedingly pleasant.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A BYZANTINE HERETIC
+
+
+While the venerable Chapel on the way up the heights of Blacherne was
+surrounded by the host of kneeling monastics, and the murmur of their
+prayers swept it round about like the sound of moaning breezes, a
+messenger found the Hegumen of the St. James' with the compliments of
+the Basileus, and a request that he come forward to a place in front of
+the door of the holy house. The good man obeyed; so the night long,
+maugre his age and infirmities, he stayed there stooped and bent,
+invoking blessings upon the Emperor and Empire; for he loved them both;
+and by his side Sergius lingered dutifully torch in hand. Twelve hours
+before he had engaged in the service worshipfully as his superior, nor
+would his thoughts have once flown from the Mystery enacting; but
+now--alas, for the inconstancy of youth!--now there were intervals when
+his mind wandered. The round white face of the Princess came again and
+again looking at him plainly as when in the window of the sedan on the
+promenade between the Bucoleon and the sea. He tried to shut it out;
+but often as he opened the book of prayers which he carried in common
+with his brethren, trying to read them away; often as he shook the
+torch thinking to hide them in the resinous smoke, the pretty, melting,
+importunate eyes reappeared, their fascination renewed and unavoidable.
+They seemed actually to take his efforts to get away for encouragement
+to return. Never on any holy occasion had he been so negligent--never
+had negligence on his part been so obstinate and nearly like sin.
+
+Fortunately the night came to an end. A timid thing when first it
+peeped over the hills of Scutari, the day emboldened, and at length
+filled the East, and left of the torches alive on the opposing face of
+Blacherne only the sticks, the cups, and the streaming smoke. Then the
+great host stirred, arose, and in a time incredibly brief, silently
+gave itself back to the city; while the Basileus issued from his
+solitary vigils in the Chapel, and, in a chastened spirit doubtless,
+sought his couch in one of the gilded interiors up somewhere under the
+Tower of Isaac.
+
+The Hegumen of the St. James', overcome by the unwonted draughts upon
+his scanty store of strength, not to mention the exhaustion of spirit
+he had undergone, was carried home in a chair. Sergius was faithful
+throughout. At the gate of the monastery he asked the elder's blessing.
+
+"Depart not, my son; stay with me a little longer. Thy presence is
+comforting to me."
+
+The adjuration prevailed. Truth was, Sergius wished to set out for
+Therapia; but banishing the face of the little Princess once more, he
+helped the holy man out of the chair, through the dark-stained gate,
+down along the passages, to his apartment, bare and penitential as that
+of the humblest neophyte of the Brotherhood. Having divested the
+superior of his robes, and, gently as he could, assisted him to lay his
+spent body on the narrow cot serving for couch, he then received the
+blessing.
+
+"Thou art a good son, Sergius," the Hegumen said, with some cheer.
+"Thou dost strengthen me. I feel thou art wholly given up to the Master
+and His religion--nay, so dost thou look like the Master that when thou
+art by I fancy it is He caring for me. Thou art at liberty now. I give
+thee the blessing."
+
+Sergius knelt, received the trembling hands on his bowed head, and
+kissed them with undissembled veneration.
+
+"Father," he said, "I beg permission to be gone a few days."
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"Thou knowest I regard the Princess Irene as my little mother. I wish
+to go and see her."
+
+"At Therapia?"
+
+"Yes, Father."
+
+The Hegumen averted his eyes, and by the twitching of the fingers
+clasped upon his breast exposed a trouble at work in the depths of his
+mind.
+
+"My son," he at length said, "I knew the father of the Princess Irene,
+and was his sympathizer. I led the whole Brotherhood in the final
+demand for his liberation from prison. When he was delivered, I
+rejoiced with a satisfied soul, and took credit for a large part of the
+good done him and his. It is not to magnify myself, or unduly publish
+my influence that the occurrence is recalled, but to show you how
+unnatural it would be were I unfriendly to his only child. So if now I
+say anything in the least doubtful of her, set it down to conscience,
+and a sense of duty to you whom I have received into the fraternity as
+one sent me specially by God.... The life the Princess leads and her
+manners are outside the sanctions of society. There is no positive
+wrong in a woman of her degree going about in public places unveiled,
+and it must be admitted she does it most modestly; yet the example is
+pernicious in its effect upon women who are without the high qualities
+which distinguish her; at the same time the habit, even as she
+illustrates it, wears an appearance of defiant boldness, making her a
+subject of indelicate remark--making her, in brief, a topic for
+discussion. The objection, I grant, is light, being at worst an offence
+against taste and custom; much more serious is her persistence in
+keeping up the establishment at Therapia. A husband might furnish her
+an excuse; but the Turk is too near a neighbor--or rather she, a single
+woman widely renowned for beauty, is too tempting to the brutalized
+unbelievers infesting the other shore of the Bosphorus. Feminine
+timidity is always becoming; especially is it so when honor is more
+concerned than life or liberty. Unmarried and unprotected, her place is
+in a holy house on the Islands, or here in the city, where, aside from
+personal safety, she can have the benefit of holy offices. Now rumor is
+free to accuse her of this and that, which charity in multitude and
+without stint is an insufficient mantle to save her from. They say she
+prefers guilty freedom to marriage; but no one, himself of account,
+believes it--the constitution of her household forbids the taint. They
+say she avails herself of seclusion to indulge uncanonized worship. In
+plain terms, my son, it is said she is a heretic."
+
+Sergius started and threw up his hands. Not that he was surprised at
+the charge, for the Princess herself had repeatedly admitted it was in
+the air against her; but coming from the venerated chief of his
+Brotherhood, the statement, though a hearsay, sounded so dreadfully he
+was altogether unprepared for it. Knowing the consequences of heresy,
+he was also alarmed for her, and came near betraying himself. How
+interesting it would be to learn precisely and from the excellent
+authority before him, in what the heresy of the Princess consisted. If
+there was criminality in her faith, what was to be said of his own?
+
+"Father," he remarked, calmly as possible, "I mind not the other
+sayings, the reports which go to the Princess' honor--they are the
+tarnishments which malice is always blowing on things white because
+they are white--but if it be not too trying to your strength, tell me
+more. Wherein is she a heretic?"
+
+Again, the gaunt fingers of the Hegumen worked nervously, while his
+eyes averted themselves.
+
+"How can I satisfy your laudable question, my son, and be brief?" and
+with the words he brought his look back, resting it on the young man's
+face. "Give attention, however, and I will try.... I take it you know
+the Creed is the test of orthodoxy, and"--he paused and searched the
+eyes above his wistfully--"and that it has your unfaltering belief. You
+know its history, I am sure--at least you know it had issue from the
+Council of Nicaea over which Constantine, the greatest of ail Emperors,
+condescended to preside in person. Never was proceeding more perfect;
+its perfection proved the Divine Mind in its composition; yet, sad to
+say, the centuries since the august Council have been fruitful of
+disputes more or less related to those blessed canons, and sadder
+still, some of the disputes continue to this day. Would to God there
+was no more to be said of them!"
+
+The good man covered his face with his hands, like one who would shut
+out a disagreeable sight. "But it is well to inform you, my son, of the
+questions whose agitation has at last brought the Church down till only
+Heaven can save it from rupture and ruin. Oh, that I should live to
+make the acknowledgment--I who in my youth thought it founded on a rock
+eternal as Nature itself!... A plain presentation of the subject in
+contention may help you to a more lively understanding of the gravity
+and untimeliness of the Princess' departure.... First, let me ask if
+you know our parties by name. Verily I came near calling them
+_factions_, and that I would not willingly, since it is an opprobrious
+term, resort to which would be denunciatory of myself--I being one of
+them."
+
+"I have heard of a Roman party and of a Greek party; but further, I am
+so recently come to Constantinople, it would be safer did I take
+information of you."
+
+"A prudent answer, by our most excellent and holy patron!" exclaimed
+the Hegumen, his countenance relaxing into the semblance of a smile.
+"Be always as wise, and the St. James' will bless themselves that thou
+wert brought to us.... Attend now. The parties are Greek and Roman;
+though most frequently its enemies speak of the latter as _azymites_,
+which you will understand is but a nickname. I am a Romanist; the
+Brotherhood is all Roman; and we mind not when Scholarius, and his
+arch-supporter, Duke Notaras, howl _azymite_ at us. A disputant never
+takes to contemptuous speeches except when he is worsted in the
+argument."
+
+The moderation of the Hegumen had been thus far singularly becoming and
+impressive; now a fierce light gleamed in his eyes, and he cried, with
+a spasmodic clutch of the hands: "We are not of the forsworn! The curse
+of the perjured is not on our souls!"
+
+The intensity of his superior astonished Sergius; yet he was shrewd
+enough to see and appreciate the disclosures of the outburst; and from
+that moment he was possessed of a feeling that the quarrel between the
+parties was hopelessly past settlement. If the man before him, worn
+with years, and actually laboring for the breath of life, could be so
+moved by contempt for the enemy, what of his co-partisans? Age is
+ordinarily a tamer of the passions. Here was an instance in which much
+contention long continued had counteracted the benign effect. As a
+teacher and example, how unlike this Hegumen was to Hilarion. The young
+man's heart warmed with a sudden yearning for the exile of the dear old
+Lavra whose unfailing sweetness of soul could keep the frigid
+wilderness upon the White Lake in summer purple the year round. Never
+did love of man for man look so lovely; never did it seem so
+comprehensive and all sufficient! The nearest passion opposition could
+excite in that pure and chastened nature was pity. But here! Quick as
+the reflection came, it was shut out. There was more to be learned. God
+help the heretic in the hands of this judge at this time! And with the
+mental exclamation Sergius waited, his interest in the definition of
+heresy sharpened by personal concern.
+
+"There are five questions dividing the two parties," the Hegumen
+continued, when the paroxysm of hate was passed. "Listen and I will
+give them to you in naked form, trusting time for an opportunity to
+deal with them at large.... First then the Procession of the Holy
+Ghost. That is, does the Holy Ghost proceed from the Son, or from the
+Father and the Son? The Greeks say from the Son; the Romans say the
+Father and the Son being One, the Procession must needs be from both of
+them conjunctively.... Next the Nicene Creed, as originally published,
+did undoubtedly make the Holy Ghost proceed from the Father alone. The
+intent was to defend the unity of the Godhead. Subsequently the Latins,
+designing to cast the assertion of the identity of the Spirit of the
+Father and the Spirit of the Son in a form which they thought more
+explicit, planted in the body of the Creed the word _filioque_, meaning
+_from the Son._ This the Greeks declare an unwarranted addition. The
+Latins, on their part, deny it an addition in any proper sense; they
+say it is but an explanation of the principle proclaimed, and in
+justification trace the usage from the Fathers, Greek and Latin, and
+from Councils subsequent to the Nicene.... When we consider to what
+depths of wrangle the two themes have carried the children of God who
+should be brethren united in love, knowing rivalry only in zeal for the
+welfare of the Church, that other subjects should creep in to help
+widen the already dangerous breach has an appearance like a judgment of
+God; yet it would be dealing unfairly with you, my son, to deny the
+pendency of three others in particular. Of these we have first, Shall
+the bread in the Eucharist be leavened or unleavened? About six hundred
+years ago the Latins began the use of unleavened bread. The Greeks
+protested against the innovation, and through the centuries arguments
+have been bandied to and fro in good-natured freedom; but lately,
+within fifty years, the debate has degenerated into quarrel, and
+now--ah, in what terms suitable to a God-fearing servant can I speak of
+the temper signalizing the discussion now? Let it pass, let it pass!...
+We have next a schism respecting Purgatory. The Greeks deny the
+existence of such a state, saying there are but two places awaiting the
+soul after death--Heaven and Hell."
+
+Again the Hegumen paused, arrested, as it were, by a return of
+vindictive passion.
+
+"Oh, the schismatics!" he exclaimed. "Not to see in the Latin idea of a
+third place a mercy of God unto them especially! If only the righteous
+are admitted to the All Holy Father immediately upon the final
+separation of body and spirit; if there is no intermediate state for
+the purgation of such of the baptized as die sodden in their sins, what
+shall become of them?"
+
+Sergius shuddered, but held his peace.
+
+"Yet another point," the superior continued, ere the ruffle in his
+voice subsided--"another of which the wranglers have made the most; for
+as you know, my son, the Greeks, thinking themselves teachers of all
+things intellectual, philosophy, science, poetry, art, and especially
+religion, and that at a period when the Latins were in the nakedness of
+barbarism, are filled with pride, like empty bottles with air; and
+because in the light of history their pride is not unreasonable, they
+drop the more readily into the designs of the conspirators against the
+Unity of the Church--I speak now of the Primacy. As if power and final
+judgment were things for distribution amongst a number of equals! As if
+one body were better of a hundred heads! Who does not know that two
+wills equally authorized mean the absence of all will! Of the
+foundations of God Chaos alone is unorganized; and to such likeness
+Scholarius would reduce Christendom! God forbid! Say so, my son--let me
+hear you repeat it after me--God forbid:"
+
+With an unction scarcely less fervid than his chief's, Sergius echoed
+the exclamation; whereupon the elder looked at him, and said, with a
+flush on his face, "I fear I have given rein too freely to disgust and
+abhorrence. Passion is never becoming in old men. Lest you misjudge me,
+my son, I shall take one further step in explanation; it will be for
+you to then justify or condemn the feeling you have witnessed in me. A
+deeper wound to conscience, a grosser provocation to the divine
+vengeance, a perfidy more impious and inexcusable you shall never
+overtake in this life, though you walk in it thrice the years of
+Noah.... There have been repeated attempts to settle the doctrinal
+differences to which I have referred. A little more than a hundred
+years ago--it was in the reign of Andronicus III.--one Barlaam, a
+Hegumen, like myself, was sent to Italy by the Emperor with a proposal
+of union; but Benedict the Pope resolutely refused to entertain the
+proposition, for the reason that it did not contemplate a final
+arrangement of the question at issue between the Churches. Was he not
+right?"
+
+Sergius assented.
+
+"In 1369, John V. Palaeologus, under heavy pressure of the Turks,
+renewed overtures of reconciliation, and to effectuate his purpose, he
+even became a Catholic. Then John VI., the late Emperor, more
+necessitous than his predecessor, submitted such a presentation to the
+Papal court that Nicolos of Cusa was despatched to Constantinople to
+study and report upon the possibilities of a doctrinal settlement and
+union. In November, 1437, the Emperor, accompanied by Joseph, the
+Patriarch, Besserion, Archbishop of Nicaea, and deputies empowered to
+represent the other Patriarchs, together with a train of learned
+assistants and secretaries, seven hundred in all, set out for Italy in
+response to the invitation of Eugenius IV, the Pope. Landing at Venice,
+the Basileus was escorted to Ferrara, where Eugenius received him with
+suitable pomp. The Council of Basle, having been adjourned to Ferrara
+for the better accommodation of the imperial guest, was opened there in
+April, 1438. But the plague broke out, and the sessions were
+transferred to Florence where the Council sat for three years. Dost
+thou follow me, my son?"
+
+"With all my mind, Father, and thankful for thy painstaking."
+
+"Nay, good Sergius, thy attention more than repays me.... Observe now
+the essentials of all the dogmatic questions I named to you as to-day
+serving the conspiracy against the Unity of our beloved Church were
+settled and accepted at the Council of Florence. The primacy of the
+Roman Bishop was the last to be disposed of, because distinguishable
+from the other differences by a certain political permeation; finally
+it too was reconciled in these words--bear them in memory, I pray, that
+you may comprehend their full import--'The Holy Apostolic See and Roman
+Pontiff hold the Primacy over all the world; the Roman Pontiff is the
+successor of Peter, Prince of Apostles, and he is the true Vicar of
+Christ, the head of the whole Church, the Father and Teacher of all
+Christians.' [Footnote: Addis and Arnold's Catholic Die. 349.] In
+Italy, 1439--mark you, son Sergius, but a trifle over eleven years
+ago--the members of the Council from the East and West, the Greeks with
+the Latins--Emperor, Patriarchs, Metropolitans, Deacons, and lesser
+dignitaries of whatever title--signed a Decree of Union which we call
+the _Hepnoticon_, and into which the above acceptances had been
+incorporated. I said all signed the decree--there were two who did not,
+Mark of Ephesus and the Bishop Stauropolis. The Patriarch of
+Constantinople, Joseph, died during the Council; yet the signatures of
+his colleagues collectively and of the Emperor perfected the Decree as
+to Constantinople. What sayest thou, my son? As a student of holy
+canons, what sayest thou?"
+
+"I am but a student," Sergius replied; "still to my imperfect
+perception the Unity of the Church was certainly accomplished."
+
+"In law, yes," said the Hegumen, with difficulty rising to a sitting
+posture--"yes, but it remained to make the accomplishment binding on
+the consciences of the signatories. Hear now what was done. A form of
+oath was draughted invoking the most awful maledictions on the parties
+who should violate the decree, and it was sworn to."
+
+"Sworn to?"
+
+"Ay, son Sergius--sworn to by each and all of those attendant upon the
+Council--from Basileus down to the humblest catechumen inclusive, they
+took the oath, and by the taking bound their consciences under penalty
+of the eternal wrath of God. I spoke of certain ones forsworn, did I
+not?"
+
+Sergius bowed.
+
+"And worse--I spoke of some whose souls were enduring the curse of the
+perjured. That was extreme--it was passion--I saw thee shudder at it,
+and I did not blame thee. Hear me now, and thou wilt not blame me....
+They came home, the Basileus and his seven hundred followers. Scarcely
+were they disembarked before they were called to account. The city,
+assembled on the quay, demanded of them: 'What have you done with us?
+What of our Faith? Have you brought us the victory?' The Emperor
+hurried to his palace; the prelates hung their heads, and trembling and
+in fear answered: 'We have sold our Faith--we have betrayed the pure
+sacrifice--we have become Azymites.' [Footnote: _Hist. de l'eglise_
+(L'Abbe Rohrbacher), 3d ed. Vol. 22. 30. MICHEL DUCAS.] Thus spake
+Bessarion; thus Balsamon, Archdeacon and Guardian of the Archives; thus
+Gemiste of Lacedaemon; thus Antoine of Heraclius; thus spake they all,
+the high and the low alike, even George Scholarius, whom thou didst see
+marching last night first penitent of the Vigils. 'Why did you sign the
+Decree?' And they answered, 'We were afraid of the Franks.' Perjury to
+impiety--cowardice to perjury!... And now, son Sergius, it is said--all
+said--with one exception. Some of the Metropolitans, when they were
+summoned to sign the Decree, demurred, 'Without you pay us to our
+satisfaction we shall not sign.' The silver was counted down to them.
+Nay, son, look not so incredulous--I was there--I speak of what I saw.
+What could be expected other than that the venals would repudiate
+everything? And so they did, all save Metrophanes, the Syncelle, and
+Gregory, by grace of God the present Patriarch. If I speak with heat,
+dost thou blame me? If I called the recusants forsworn and perjured,
+thinkest thou the pure in Heaven charged my soul with a sin? Answer as
+thou lovest the right?"
+
+"My Father," Sergius replied, "the denunciation of impiety cannot be
+sinful, else I have to unlearn all I have ever been taught; and being
+the chief Shepherd of an honorable Brotherhood, is it not thy duty to
+cry out at every appearance of wrong? That His Serenity, the Patriarch,
+receives thy acquittal and is notably an exception to a recusancy so
+universal, is comforting to me; to have to cast him out of my
+admiration would be grievous. But pardon me, if from fear thou wilt
+overlook it, I again ask thee to speak further of the heresy of the
+Princess Irene."
+
+Sergius, besides standing with his back to the door of the cell, was
+listening to the Hegumen with an absorption of sense so entire that he
+was unaware of the quiet entrance of a third party, who halted after a
+step or two but within easy hearing.
+
+"The request is timely--most timely," the Hegumen replied, without
+regarding the presence of the newcomer. "I had indeed almost forgotten
+the Princess.... With controversies such as I have recounted raging in
+the Church, like wolves in a sheepfold, comes one with new doctrines to
+increase the bewilderment of the flock, how is he to be met? This is
+what the Princess has done, and is doing."
+
+"Still, Father, you leave me in the dark."
+
+The Hegumen faltered, but finally said: "Apart from her religious views
+and novel habits, the Princess Irene is the noblest nature in
+Byzantium. Were we overtaken by some great calamity, I should look for
+her to rise by personal sacrifice into heroism. In acknowledgment of my
+fatherly interest in her, she has often entertained me at her palace,
+and spoken her mind with fearless freedom, leaving me to think her
+pursued by presentiments of a fatality which is to try her with
+terrible demands, and that she is already prepared to submit to them."
+
+"Yes," said Sergius, with an emphatic gesture, "there are who live
+martyrs all their days, reserving nothing for death but to bring them
+their crowns."
+
+The manner of the utterance, and the thought compelled the Hegumen's
+notice.
+
+"My son," he said, presently, "thou hast a preacher's power. I wish I
+foreknew thy future. But I must haste or"--
+
+"Nay, Father, permit me to help you recline again."
+
+And with the words, Sergius helped the feeble body down.
+
+"Thanks, my son," he received, in return, "I know thy soul is gentle."
+
+After a rest the speech was resumed.
+
+"Of the Princess--she is given to the Scriptures; in the reading, which
+else would be a praiseworthy usage, she refuses light except it proceed
+from her own understanding. We are accustomed when in doubt--thou
+knowest it to be so--to take the interpretations of the Fathers; but
+she insists the Son of God knew what He meant better than any whose
+good intentions are lacking in the inspirations of the Holy Ghost."
+
+A gleam of pleasure flitted over the listener's countenance.
+
+"So," the Hegumen continued, "she hath gone the length of fabricating a
+creed for herself, and substituting it for that which is the foundation
+of the Church--I mean the Creed transmitted to us from the Council of
+Nicaea."
+
+"Is the substitute in writing, Father?"
+
+"I have read it."
+
+"Then thou canst tell me whence she drew it."
+
+"From the Gospels word and word.... There now--I am too weak to enter
+into discussion--I can only allude to effects."
+
+"Forgive another request"--Sergius spoke hastily--"Have I thy
+permission, to look at what she hath written?"
+
+"Thou mayst try her with a request; but remember, my son"--the Hegumen
+accompanied the warning with a menacious glance--"remember proselyting
+is the tangible overt act in heresy which the Church cannot
+overlook.... To proceed. The Princess' doctrines are damnatory of the
+Nicene; if allowed, they would convert the Church into a
+stumbling-block in the way of salvation. They cannot be tolerated.... I
+can no more--the night was too much for me. Go, I pray, and order wine
+and food. To-morrow--or when thou comest again--and delay not, for I
+love thee greatly--we will return to the subject."
+
+Sergius saw the dew gathering on the Hegumen's pallid forehead, and
+observed his failing voice. He stooped, took the wan hand from the
+laboring breast, and kissed it; then turning about quickly to go for
+the needed restoration, he found himself face to face with the young
+Greek whom he rescued from Nilo in the encounter on the wall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE ACADEMY OF EPICURUS
+
+
+"I would have a word with you," the Greek said, in a low tone, as
+Sergius was proceeding to the door.
+
+"But thy father is suffering, and I must make haste."
+
+"I will accompany thee."
+
+Sergius stopped while the young man went to the cot, removed his hat
+and knelt, saying, "Thy blessing, father."
+
+The Hegumen laid a hand on the petitioner's head.
+
+"My son, I have not seen thee for many days," he said; "yet in hope
+that thou hast heard me, and abandoned the associates who have been
+endangering thy soul and my good name, and because I love thee--God
+knows how well--and remember thy mother, who lived illustrating every
+beatitude, and died in grace, praying for thee, take thou my blessing."
+
+With tears starting in his own eyes, Sergius doubted not the effect of
+the reproof upon the son; and he pitied him, and even regretted
+remaining to witness the outburst of penitence and grief he imagined
+forthcoming. The object of his sympathy took down the hand, kissed it
+in a matter-of-fact way, arose, and said, carelessly: "This lamentation
+should cease. Why can I not get you to understand, father, that there
+is a new Byzantium? That even in the Hippodrome nothing is as it used
+to be except the colors? How often have I explained to you the latest
+social discovery admitted now by everybody outside the religious
+orders, and by many within them--I mean the curative element in sin."
+
+"Curative element in sin!" exclaimed the father.
+
+"Ay--Pleasure."
+
+"O God!" sighed the old man, turning his face hopelessly to the wall,
+"Whither are we drifting?"
+
+He hardly heard the prodigal's farewell.
+
+"If you wish to speak with me, stay here until I return."
+
+This Sergius said when the two passed out of the cell. Going down the
+darkened passage, he glanced behind him, and saw the Greek outside the
+door; and when he came back with the Hegumen's breakfast, and reentered
+the apartment, he brushed by him still on the outside. At the cot,
+Sergius offered the refreshment on his knees, and in that posture
+waited while his superior partook of it; for he discerned how the aged
+heart was doubly stricken--once for the Church, deserted by so many of
+its children, and again for himself, forsaken by his own son.
+
+"What happiness to me, O Sergius, wert thou of my flesh and blood!"
+
+The expression covered every feeling evoked by the situation.
+Afterwhile another of the Brotherhood appeared, permitting Sergius to
+retire.
+
+"I am ready to hear you now," he said, to the Greek at the door.
+
+"Let us to your cell then."
+
+In the cell, Sergius drew forth the one stool permitted him by the
+rules of the Brotherhood.
+
+"Be seated," he said.
+
+"No," the visitor returned, "I shall be brief. You do not know my
+father. The St. James' should relieve him of active duty. His years are
+sadly enfeebling him."
+
+"But that would be ungrateful in them."
+
+"Heaven knows," the prodigal continued, complainingly, "how I have
+labored to bring him up abreast of the time; he lives entirely in the
+past. But pardon me; if I heard aright, my father called you Sergius."
+
+"That is my monastic name."
+
+"You are not a Greek?"
+
+"The Great Prince is my political sovereign."
+
+"Well, I am Demedes. My father christened me Metrophanes, after the
+late Patriarch; but it did not please me, and I have entitled myself.
+And now we know each other, let us be friends."
+
+Sergius' veil had fallen over his face, and while replacing it under
+the hat, he replied, "I shall strive, Demedes, to love you as I love
+myself."
+
+The Greek, it should be remembered, was good featured, and of a
+pleasant manner; so much so, indeed, as to partially recompense him for
+his failure in stature; wherefore the overture was by no means
+repulsive.
+
+"You may wonder at my plucking you from my father's side; you may
+wonder still more at my presumption in seeking to attach myself to you;
+but I think my reasons good.... In the first place, it is my duty to
+acknowledge that but for your interference yesterday the gigantic
+energumen by whom I was unexpectedly beset would have slain me. In
+fact, I had given myself up for lost. The rocks at the foot of the wall
+seemed springing out of the water to catch me, and break every bone in
+my body. You will accept my thanks, will you not?"
+
+"The saving two fellow beings, one from murder, the other from being
+murdered, is not, in my opinion, an act for thanks; still, to ease you
+of a sense of obligation, I consent to the acknowledgment."
+
+"It does relieve me," Demedes said, with a taking air; "and I am
+encouraged to go on."
+
+He paused, and surveyed Sergius deliberately from head to foot, and the
+admiration he permitted to be seen, taken as a second to his continuing
+words, could not have been improved by a professed actor.
+
+"Are not flesh and blood of the same significance in all of us? With
+youth and health superadded to a glorious physical structure, may we
+not always conclude a man rich in spirit and lusty impulses? Is it
+possible a gown and priestly hat can entirely suppress his human
+nature? I have heard of Anthony the Anchorite."
+
+The idea excited his humor, and he laughed.
+
+"I mean no irreverence," he resumed; "but you know, dear Sergius, it is
+with laughter as with tears, we cannot always control it.... Anthony
+resolved to be a Saint, but was troubled by visions of beautiful women.
+To escape them, he followed some children of Islam into the desert.
+Alas! the visions went with him. He burrowed then in a tomb--still the
+visions. He hid next in the cellar of an old castle--in vain--the
+visions found him out. He flagellated himself for eighty and nine
+years, every day and night of which was a battle with the visions. He
+left two sheepskins to as many bishops, and one haircloth shirt to two
+favorite disciples--they had been his armor against the visions.
+Finally, lest the seductive goblins should assail him in death, he bade
+the disciples lose him by burial in an unknown place. Sergius, my good
+friend"--here the Greek drew nearer, and laid a hand lightly on the
+monk's flowing sleeve--"I heard some of your replies to my father, and
+respect your genius too much to do more than ask why you should waste
+your youth"--
+
+"Forbear! Go not further--no, not a word!" Sergius exclaimed. "Dost
+thou account the crown the Saint at last won nothing?"
+
+Demedes did not seem in the least put out by the demonstration;
+possibly he expected it, and was satisfied with the hearing continued
+him.
+
+"I yield to you," he said, with a smile, "and willingly since you
+convince me I was not mistaken in your perception.... My father is a
+good man. His goodness, however, but serves to make him more sensitive
+to opposition. The divisions of the Church give him downright
+suffering. I have heard him go on about them hours at a time. Probably
+his proneness to lamentation should be endured with respectful
+patience; but there is a peculiarity in it--he is blind to everything
+save the loss of power and influence the schisms are fated to entail
+upon the Church. He fights valorously in season and out for the old
+orthodoxies, believing that with the lapse of religion as at present
+organized the respectability and dominion of the holy orders will also
+lapse. Nay, Sergius, to say it plainly, he and the Brotherhood are fast
+keying themselves up to a point in fanaticism when dissent appears
+blackest heresy. To you, a straightforward seeker after information, it
+has never occurred, I suspect, to inquire how far--or rather how
+close--beyond that attainment lie punishments of summary infliction and
+most terrible in kind? Torture--the stake--holocausts in the
+Hippodrome--spectacles in the Cynegion--what are they to the enthused
+Churchmen but righteous judgments mercifully executed on wayward
+heretics? I tell you, monk--and as thou lovest her, heed me--I tell you
+the Princess Irene is in danger."
+
+This was unexpected, and forcibly put; and thinking of the Princess,
+Sergius lost the calmness he had up to this time successfully kept.
+
+"The Princess--tortured--God forbid!"
+
+"Recollect," the Greek continued--"for you will reflect upon
+this--recollect I overheard the close of your interview with my father.
+To-morrow, or upon your return from Therapia, be it when it may, he
+will interrogate you with respect to whatever she may confide to you in
+the least relative to the Creed, which, as he states, she has prepared
+for herself. You stand warned. Consider also that now I have in part
+acquitted myself of the obligation I am under to you for my life."
+
+The simple-mindedness of the monk, to whom the book of the world was
+just beginning to open, was an immense advantage to the Greek. It
+should not be surprising, therefore, if the former relaxed his air, and
+leaned a little forward to hear what was further submitted to him.
+
+"Have you breakfasted?" the prodigal asked, in his easy manner.
+
+"I have not."
+
+"Ah! In concern for my father, you have neglected yourself. Well, I
+must not be inconsiderate. A hungry man is seldom a patient listener.
+Shall I break off now?"
+
+"You have interested me, and I may be gone several days."
+
+"Very well. I will make haste. It is but justice to the belligerents in
+the spiritual war to admit the zeal they have shown; Gregory the
+Patriarch, and his Latins, on the one side, and Scholarius and his
+Greeks on the other. They have occupied the pulpits alternately, each
+refusing presence to the other. They decline association in the
+Sacramental rites. In Sta. Sophia, it is the Papal mass to-day;
+to-morrow, it will be the Greek mass. It requires a sharp sense to
+detect the opposition in smell between the incense with which the
+parties respectively fumigate the altars of the ancient house. I
+suppose there is a difference. Yesterday the parabaloni came to blows
+over a body they were out burying, and in the struggle the bier was
+knocked down, and the dead spilled out. The Greeks, being the most
+numerous, captured the labarum of the Latins, and washed it in the mud;
+yet the monogram on it was identical with that on their own. Still I
+suppose there was a difference."
+
+Demedes laughed.
+
+"But seriously, Sergius, there is much more of the world outside of the
+Church--or Churches, as you prefer--than on the inside. In the tearing
+each other to pieces, the militants have lost sight of the major part,
+and, as normally bound, it has engaged in thinking for itself. That is,
+the shepherd is asleep, the dogs are fighting, and the sheep, left to
+their individual conduct, are scattered in a hunt for fresher water and
+greener pasturage. Have you heard of the Academy of Epicurus?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I will tell you about it. But do you take the seat there. It is not
+within my purpose to exhaust you in this first conference."
+
+"I am not tired."
+
+"Well"--and the Greek smiled pleasantly--"I was regardful of myself
+somewhat in the suggestion. My neck is the worse of having to look up
+so constantly.... The youth of Byzantium, you must know, are not
+complaining of neglect; far from it--they esteem it a great privilege
+to be permitted to think in freedom. Let me give you of their
+conclusions. There is no God, they say, since a self-respecting God
+would not tolerate the strife and babble carried on in his name to the
+discredit of his laws. Religion, if not a deceit, is but the tinkling
+of brazen cymbals. A priest is a professor eking out an allowance of
+fine clothes and bread and wine; with respect to the multitude, he is a
+belled donkey leading a string of submissive camels. Of what account
+are Creeds except to set fools by the ears? Which--not what--_which_ is
+the true Christian Faith? The Patriarch tells us, 'Verily it is this,'
+and Scholarius replies, 'Verily the Patriarch is a liar and a traitor
+to God for his false teaching'--he then tells us it is that other thing
+just as unintelligible. Left thus to ourselves--I acknowledge myself
+one of the wandering flock--flung on our own resources--we resorted to
+counselling each other, and agreed that a substitute for religion was a
+social necessity. Our first thought was to revive Paganism; worshipping
+many gods, we might peradventure stumble upon one really existent:
+whether good or bad ought not to trouble us, provided he took
+intelligent concern in the drift of things. To quarrel about his
+qualities would be a useless repetition of the folly of our elders--the
+folly of swimming awhile in a roaring swirl. Some one suggested how
+much easier and more satisfactory it is to believe in one God than in
+many; besides which Paganism is a fixed system intolerant of freedom.
+Who, it was argued, would voluntarily forego making his own gods? The
+privilege was too delightful. Then it was proposed that we resolve
+ourselves each into a God unto himself. The idea was plausible; it
+would at least put an end to wrangling, by giving us all an agreeable
+object to worship, while for mental demands and social purposes
+generally we could fall back on Philosophy. Had not our fathers tried
+Philosophy? When had society a better well being than in the halcyon
+ages of Plato and Pythagoras? Yet there was a term of indecision with
+us--or rather incubation. To what school should we attach ourselves? A
+copy of the Enchiridion of Epictetus fell into our hands, and after
+studying it faithfully, we rejected Stoicism. The Cynics were proposed;
+we rejected them--there was nothing admirable in Diogenes as a patron.
+We next passed upon Socratus. _Sons of Sophroniscus_ had a lofty sound;
+still his system of moral philosophy was not acceptable, and as he
+believed in a creative God, his doctrine was too like a religion.
+Though the Delphian oracle pronounced him the wisest of mankind, we
+concluded to look further, and in so doing, came to Epicurus. There we
+stopped. His promulgations, we determined, had no application except to
+this life; and as they offered choice between the gratification of the
+senses and the practice of virtue, leaving us free to adopt either as a
+rule of conduct, we formally enrolled ourselves Epicureans. Then, for
+protection against the Church, we organized. The departure might send
+us to the stake, or to Tamerlane, King of the Cynegion, or, infinitely
+worse, to the cloisters, if we were few; but what if we took in the
+youths of Byzantium as an entirety? The policy was clear. We founded an
+Academy--the Academy of Epicurus--and lodged it handsomely in a temple;
+and three times every week we have a session and lectures. Our
+membership is already up in the thousands, selected from the best blood
+of the Empire; for we do not confine our proselyting to the city."
+
+Here Sergius lifted his hand. He had heard the prodigal in silence, and
+it had been difficult the while to say which dominated his
+feeling--disgust, amazement, or pity. He was scarcely in condition to
+think; yet he comprehended the despairing cry of the Hegumen, Oh, my
+God! whither are we drifting? The possibilities of the scheme flew
+about him darkly, like birds in a ghastly twilight. He had studied the
+oppositions to religion enough to appreciate the attractive power there
+was for youth in the pursuit of pleasure. He knew also something of the
+race Epicureanism had run in the old competitions of philosophy--that
+it had been embraced by more of the cultivated Pagan world than the
+other contemporary systems together. It had been amongst the last, if
+not in fact the very last, of the conquests of Christianity. But here
+it was again; nor that merely--here it was once more a subject of
+organized effort. Who was responsible for the resurrection? The Church?
+How wicked its divisions seemed to him! Bishop fighting Bishop--the
+clergy distracted--altars discredited--sacred ceremonies
+neglected--what did it all mean, if not an interregnum of the Word? Men
+cannot fight Satan and each other at the same time. With such
+self-collection as he could command, he asked: "What have you in
+substitution of God and Christ?"
+
+"A Principle," was the reply.
+
+"What Principle?"
+
+"Pleasure, the Purpose of this Life, and its Pursuit, an ennobled
+occupation."
+
+"Pleasure to one is not pleasure to another--it is of kinds."
+
+"Well said, O Sergius! Our kind is gratification of the senses. Few of
+us think of the practice of virtue, which would be dreaming in the
+midst of action."
+
+"And you make the pursuit an occupation?"
+
+"In our regard the heroic qualities of human nature are patience,
+courage and judgment; hence our motto--Patience, Courage, Judgment. The
+pursuit calls them all into exercise, ennobling the occupation."
+
+The Greek was evidently serious. Sergius ran him over from the pointed
+shoes to the red feather in the conical red hat, and said in accents of
+pity:
+
+"Oh, alas! Thou didst wrong in re-entitling thyself. Depravity had been
+better than Demedes."
+
+The Greek lifted his brows, and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"In the Academy we are used to taking as well as giving," he said,
+wholly unembarrassed. "But, my dear Sergius, it remains for me to
+discharge an agreeable commission. Last night, in full session, I told
+of the affair on the wall. Could you have heard my description of your
+intervention, and the eulogium with which I accompanied it, you would
+not have accused me of ingratitude. The brethren were carried away;
+there was a tempest of applause; they voted you a hero; and, without a
+dissent, they directed me to inform you that the doors of the Academy
+were open"--
+
+"Stop," said Sergius, with both hands up as if to avert a blow. After
+looking at the commissioner a moment, his eyes fiercely bright, he
+walked the floor of the cell twice.
+
+"Demedes," he said, halting in front of the Greek, a reactionary pallor
+on his countenance, "the effort thou art making to get away from God
+proves how greatly He is a terror to thee. The Academy is only a
+multitude thou hast called together to help hide thee from Christ. Thou
+art an organizer of Sin--a disciple of Satan"--he was speaking not loud
+or threateningly, but with a force before which the other shrank
+visibly--"I cannot say I thank thee for the invitation on thy tongue
+unfinished, but I am better of not hearing it. Get thee behind me."
+
+He turned abruptly, and started for the door.
+
+The Greek sprang after him, and took hold of his gown.
+
+"Sergius, dear Sergius," he said, "I did not intend to offend you.
+There is another thing I have to speak about. Stay!"
+
+"Is it something different?" Sergius asked.
+
+"Ay--as light and darkness are different."
+
+"Be quick then."
+
+Sergius was standing under the lintel of the door. Demedes slipped past
+him, and on the outside stopped.
+
+"You are going to Therapia?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The Princess of India will be there. She has already set out."
+
+"How knowest thou?"
+
+"She is always under my eyes."
+
+The mockery in the answer reminded Sergius of the Academy. The prodigal
+was designing to impress him with an illustration of the Principle it
+had adopted in lieu of God. The motto, he was having it thus early
+understood, was not an empty formula, but an inspiring symbol, like the
+Cross on the flag. This votary, the advertisement as much as said, was
+in pursuit of the little Princess--he had chosen her for his next
+offering to the Principle which, like another God, was insatiable of
+gifts, sacrifices, and honors. Such the thoughts of the monk.
+
+"You know her?" Demedes asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You believe her the daughter of the Prince of India?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you do not know her."
+
+The Greek laughed insolently.
+
+"The best of us, and the oldest can be at times as much obliged by
+information as by a present of bezants. The Academy sends you its
+compliments. The girl is the daughter of a booth-keeper in the
+bazaar--a Jew, who has no princely blood to spare a descendant--a dog
+of a Jew, who makes profit by lending his child to an impostor."
+
+"Whence hadst thou this--this--"
+
+The Greek paid no attention to the interruption.
+
+"The Princess Irene gives a fete this afternoon. The fishermen of the
+Bosphorus will be there in a body. I will be there. A pleasant time to
+you, and a quick awakening, O Sergius!"
+
+Demedes proceeded up the passage, but turned about, and said:
+"Patience, Courage, Judgment. When thou art witness to all there is in
+the motto. O Sergius, it may be thou wilt be more placable. I shall see
+to it that the doors of the Academy are kept open for thee."
+
+The monk stood awhile under the lintel bewildered; for the introduction
+to wickedness is always stunning--a circumstance proving goodness to be
+the natural order.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A FISHERMAN'S FETE
+
+
+The breakfast to which Sergius addressed himself was in strict
+observance of the Rules of the Brotherhood; and being plain, it was
+quickly despatched. Returning to his cell, he let his hair loose, and
+combed it with care; then rolling it into a glistening mass, he tucked
+it under his hat. Selecting a fresher veil next, he arranged that to
+fall down his back and over the left shoulder. He also swept the dark
+gown free of dust, and cleansing the crucifix and large black horn
+beads of his rosary, lingered a moment while contemplating the five
+sublime mysteries allotted to the third chaplet, beginning with the
+Resurrection of Christ and ending with the Coronation of the Blessed
+Virgin. In a calmness of spirit such as follows absolution, he finally
+sallied from the Monastery, and ere long arrived at the landing outside
+the Fish Market Gate on the Golden Horn. The detentions had been long;
+so for speed he selected a two-oared boat.
+
+"To Therapia--by noon," he said to the rower, and, dropping into the
+passenger's box, surrendered himself to reflection.
+
+The waterway by which the monk proceeded is not unfamiliar to the
+reader, a general idea of it having been given in the chapter devoted
+to the adventures of the Prince of India in his outing up the Bosphorus
+to the Sweet Waters of Asia. The impression there sought to be
+conveyed--how feebly is again regretfully admitted--was of a panorama
+remarkable as a composition of all the elements of scenic beauty blent
+together in incomparable perfection. Now, however, it failed the
+tribute customary from such as had happily to traverse it.
+
+The restfulness of the swift going; the shrinking of the flood under
+the beating of the oars; the sky and the wooded heights, and the
+stretches of shore, town and palace lined; the tearing through the blue
+veil hanging over the retiring distances; the birds, the breezes, the
+ships hither coming and yonder going, and the sparkles shooting up in
+myriad recurrence on the breaking waves--all these pleasures of the
+most delicate of the receiving senses were tyrannically forbidden him.
+
+The box in which he sat half reclining was wide enough for another
+passenger side by side with him, and it seemed he imagined the vacant
+place occupied now by Demedes, and now by Lael, and that he was
+speaking to them; when to the former, it was with dislike, and a
+disposition to avoid the touch of his red cloak, though on the sleeve
+ever so lightly; when to the latter, his voice would lower, his eyes
+soften, and the angry spots on his brow and cheeks go out--not more
+completely could they have disappeared had she actually exorcised them
+with some of the sweet confessions lovers keep for emergencies, and a
+touch of finger besides.
+
+"So," he would say, Demedes for the time on the seat, "thou deniest
+God, and hast a plot against Christ. Shameful in the son of a good
+father!... What is thy Academy but defiance of the Eternal Majesty? As
+well curse the Holy Ghost at once, for why should he who of preference
+seeketh a bed with the damned he disappointed? Or is thy audacity a
+blasphemous trial of the endurance of forgiveness?".... Exit Demedes,
+enter Lael.... "The child--she is a child! By such proof as there is in
+innocence, and in the loveliness of blushing cheeks, and eyes which
+answer the Heavenly light they let in by light as Heavenly let out, she
+is a child! What does evil see in her to set it hungering after her? Or
+is there in virtue a signal to its enemies--Lo, here! A light to be
+blown out, lest it disperse our darkness!".... Reenter Demedes....
+"Abduct her!--How?--When? To that end is it thou keepest her always
+under eye? The Princess Irene gives a Fisherman's Fete--the child will
+be there--thou wilt be there. Is this the day of the attempt? Bravos as
+fishermen, to seize her--boats to carry her off--the Bosphorus wide and
+deep, and the hills beyond a hiding-place, and in the sky over them the
+awful name Turk. The crime and the opportunity hand in hand! Let them
+prosper now, and I who have from the cradle's side despatched my soul
+faith in hand to lay it at Heaven's gate may never again deny a merit
+in the invocation of Sin virtuous as prayer".... To Lael in the
+seat.... "But be not afraid. I will be there also. I"... A sudden fear
+fell upon him. If the abduction were indeed arranged for the afternoon,
+to what might he not be led by an open attempt to defeat it?
+Bloodshed--violence! He whose every dream had been of a life in which
+his fellow-men might find encouragement to endure their burdens, and of
+walking before them an example of love and forbearance, submissive and
+meek that he might with the more unanswerable grace preach obedience
+and fraternity to them--Merciful Heaven! And he shuddered and drew the
+veil hastily over his face, as if, in a bloody tumult, the ideal life,
+so the ultimate happiness, were vanishing before his eyes. Taking the
+confessions of such as have been greatly tried, few men, few even of
+those renowned for courage and fine achievement, ever pass their
+critical moments of decision unassailed by alternative suggestions due
+to fear. Sergius heard them now. "Return to thy cell, and to thy beads,
+and prayer," they seemed to say. "What canst thou, a stranger in a
+strange land, if once the Academy of which thou wert this morning
+informed, becomes thy enemy? Ay, return to thy cell! Who is she for
+whom thou art putting thyself in the way of temptation? The daughter of
+a booth-keeper in the bazaar--a Jew, who hath no princely blood to
+spare a descendant--a dog of a Jew, who maketh profit by lending his
+child to an impostor."
+
+The suggestion was powerful. In the heat of the debate, however, an
+almost forgotten voice reached him, reciting one of the consolations of
+Father Hilarion: "Temptations are for all of us; nor shall any man be
+free of them. The most we can hope is to be delivered from them. What
+vanity to think we can travel threescore and ten years from our
+cradles, if so long we live, without an overture of some kind from the
+common enemy! On the other side, what a triumph to put his
+blandishments by! The Great Exemplar did not fly from Satan; he stayed,
+and overcame him."
+
+"Be not afraid," Sergius said, as if to Lael, and firmly, like one
+resolved of fear and hesitation. "I will be there also."
+
+Then looking about him, at his left hand he beheld the village of
+Emirghian, bent round a mountain's base, in places actually invading
+the water. In face of such a view a susceptible nature must needs be
+very sick of soul to go blindly on. The brightly painted houses cast
+tremulous reflections to a vast depth in the limpid flood, and where
+they ceased, down immeasurably, the vivid green of the verdure on the
+mountain's breast suggested the beginning of the next of the seven
+Mohammedan earths. Above this borrowed glory he seemed afloat; and to
+help the impression, the sound of many voices singing joyously was
+borne to him. He waved his hand, and the rowers, resting from their
+labor, joined him in listening.
+
+The little gulf of Stenia lies there landlocked, and out of it a boat
+appeared, skimming around the intervening promontory. In a mass of
+flowers, in a shade of garlands hanging from a low mast, its arms and
+shrouds wreathed with roses, the singers sat timing their song with
+their oars. The refrain was supported by zitheras, flutes and horns.
+The vessel turned northwardly when fairly out in the strait; and then
+another boat came round the point--and another--and another--and many
+others, all decorated, and filled with men, women and children making
+music.
+
+Sergius' boatmen recognized the craft, deep in the water, black and
+long, and with graceful upturned ends.
+
+"Fishermen!" they said.
+
+And he rejoined: "Yes. The Princess Irene gives them a fete. Make
+haste. I will go with them. Fall in behind."
+
+"Yes, yes--a good woman! Of such are the Saints!" they said, signing
+the cross on breast arid brow.
+
+The singing and the gala air of the party put Sergius in his wonted
+spirits; and as here and there other boats fell into the line,
+similarly decorated, their occupants adding to the volume of the
+singing, by the time Therapia was sighted the good-natured, happy
+fishermen had given him of their floral abundance, and adopted him.
+
+What a scene the Therapian bay presented! Boats, boats, boats--hundreds
+of them in motion, hundreds lining the shore, the water faithfully
+repeating every detail of ornature, and apparently a-quiver with
+pleasure. The town was gay with colors; while on the summit and sides
+of the opposite promontory every available point answered flaunt with
+flaunt. And there were song and shouting, gladsome cries of children,
+responses of mothers, and merriment of youth and maiden. Byzantium
+might be in decadence, her provinces falling away, her glory wasting;
+the follies of the court and emperors, the best manhood of the empire
+lost in cloisters and hermitages, the preference of the nobility for
+intrigue and diplomacy might be all working their deplorable
+results--nay, the results might be at hand! Still the passion of the
+people for fetes and holidays remained. Tastes are things of heredity.
+In nothing is a Byzantine of this day so nearly a classic Greek as in
+his delicacy and appreciation where permitted to indulge in the
+beautiful.
+
+The boatmen passed through the gay entanglement of the bay slowly and
+skilfully, and finally discharged their passengers on the marble quay a
+little below the regular landing in front of the red pavilion over the
+entrance to the Princess' grounds. The people went in and out of the
+gate without hindrance; nor was there guard or policeman visible. Their
+amiability attested their happiness.
+
+The men were mostly black-bearded, sunburned, large-handed, brawny
+fellows in breeches black and amply bagged, with red sashes and light
+blue jackets heavily embroidered. The legs below the knees were
+exposed, and the feet in sandals. White cloths covered their heads.
+Their eyes were bright, their movements agile, their air animated. Many
+of them sported amulets of shell or silver suspended by ribbons or
+silken cords around their bare necks. The women wore little veils
+secured by combs, but rather as a headdress, and for appearances. They
+also affected the sleeveless short jacket over a snowy chemise; and
+what with bright skirts bordered with worsted chenille, and sandal
+straps carried artfully above the ankles, they were not wanting in
+picturesqueness. Some of the very young amongst them justified the
+loveliness traditionally ascribed to the nymphs of Hellas and the fair
+Cycladean Isles. Much the greater number, however, were in outward
+seeming prematurely old, and by their looks, their voices ungovernably
+shrill, and the haste and energy with which they flung themselves into
+the amusement of the hour unconsciously affirmed that fishermen's wives
+are the same everywhere. One need not go far to find the frontiers of
+society--too frequently they are close under the favorite balcony of
+the king.
+
+Something on the right cheek of the gate under the pavilion furnished
+an attraction to the visitors. When Sergius came up, he was detained by
+a press of men and women in eager discussion; and following their eyes
+and the pointing of their fingers, he observed a brazen plate overhead
+curiously inscribed. The writing was unintelligible to him as to his
+neighbors. It looked Turkish--or it might have been Arabic--or it might
+not have been writing at all. He stayed awhile listening to the
+conjectures advanced. Presently a gypsy approached leading a bear,
+which, in its turn, was drawing a lot of noisy boys. He stopped,
+careless of the unfriendly glances with which he was received, and at
+sight of the plate saluted it with a low salaam several times
+unctuously repeated.
+
+"Look at the hamari there. He can tell what the thing means."
+
+"Then ask him."
+
+"I will. See here, thou without a religion, consort of brutes! Canst
+thou tell what this"--pointing to the plate--"is for? Come and look at
+it!"
+
+"It is not needful for me to go nearer. I see it well enough. Neither
+am I without a religion. I do not merely profess belief in God--I
+believe in Him," the bear-keeper replied.
+
+The fisherman took the retort and the laugh it occasioned
+good-humoredly, and answered: "Very well, we are even; and now perhaps
+thou canst tell me what I asked."
+
+"Willingly, since thou canst be decent to a stranger.... The young
+Mahommed, son of Amurath, Sultan of Sultans"--the gypsy paused to
+salute the title--"the young Mahommed, I say, is my friend." The
+bystanders laughed derisively, but the man proceeded. "He has resided
+this long time at Magnesia, the capital of a prosperous province
+assigned to his governorship. There never was one of such station so
+civil to his people, and much learning has had a good effect upon his
+judgment; it has taught him that the real virtue of amusement lies in
+its variety. Did he listen exclusively to his doctors discoursing of
+philosophy, or to his professor of mathematics, or to his poets and
+historians, he would go mad even as they are mad; wherefore, along with
+his studies, he hunts with hawk and hound; he tilts and tourneys; he
+plays the wandering minstrel; and not seldom Joqard and I--hey, fellow,
+is it not so?" he gave the bear a tremendous jerk--"Joqard and I have
+been to audience with him in his palace."
+
+"A wonderful prince no doubt; but I asked not of him. The plate,
+man--what of this plate? If nothing, then give way to Joqard."
+
+"There are fools and fools--that is, there are plain fools and wise
+fools. The wise fool answering the plain fool, is always more
+particular with his premises than his argument."
+
+The laugh was with the hamari again; after which he continued: "So,
+having done with explanation, now to satisfy you."
+
+From the breast of his gown, he brought forth a piece of bronze
+considerably less than the plate on the gate, but in every other
+respect its counterpart.
+
+"See you this?" he said, holding the bronze up to view.
+
+There was quick turning from plate to plate, and the conclusion was as
+quick.
+
+"They are the same, but what of it?"
+
+"This--Joqard and I went up one day and danced for the Prince, and at
+the end he dismissed us, giving me a red silk purse fat with gold
+pieces, and to Joqard this passport. Mark you now. The evil minded used
+to beat us with cudgels and stones--I mean among the Turk--but coming
+to a town now, I tie this to Joqard's collar, and we have welcome. We
+eat and drink, and are given good quarters, and sped from morning to
+morning without charge."
+
+"There is some magic in the plate, then?"
+
+"No," said the hamari, "unless there is magic in the love of a people
+for the Prince to be their ruler. It certifies Joqard and I are of
+Prince Mahommed's friends, and that is enough for Turks; and the same
+yonder. By the sign, I know this gate, these grounds, and the owner of
+them are in his protection. But," said the bear-keeper, changing his
+tone, "seeing one civil answer deserves another, when was Prince
+Mahommed here?"
+
+"In person? Never."
+
+"Oh, he must have been."
+
+"Why do you say so?"
+
+"Because of the brass plate yonder."
+
+"What does it prove?"
+
+"Ah, yes!" the man answered laughingly. "Joqard and I pick up many odd
+things, and meet a world of people--don't we, fellow?" Another furious
+jerk of the leading strap brought a whine from the bear, "But it is
+good for us. We teach school as we go; and you know, my friend, for
+every _solidus_ its equivalent in _noumia_ is somewhere."
+
+"I will give you a _noumia_, if you will give me an answer."
+
+"A bargain--a bargain, with witnesses!"
+
+Then after a glance into the faces around, as if summoning attention to
+the offer, the hamari proceeded.
+
+"Listen. I say the brass up there proves Prince Mahommed was here in
+person. Wishing to notify his people that he had taken in his care
+everything belonging to this property, the owner included, the Prince
+put his signature to the proclamation."
+
+"Proclamation?"
+
+"Yes--you may call it plain brass, if you prefer; none the less the
+writing on it is _Mahommed:_ and because such favors must bear his name
+on them, they are reserved for his giving. No other man, except the
+great Sultan, his father, would bestow one of them. Joqard had his from
+the Prince's hand directly; wherefore--I hope, friend, you have the
+_noumia_ ready--the brass on this post must have been fixed there by
+the Prince with his own hand."
+
+The fishermen were satisfied; and it was wonderful how interesting the
+safeguard then became to them. By report they knew Mahommed the
+prospective successor of the terrible Amurath; they knew him a soldier
+conspicuous in many battles; and from the familiar principle by which
+we admire or dread those possessed of qualities unlike and superior to
+our own, their ideas and speculations concerning him were wild and
+generally harsh. Making no doubt now that he had really been to the
+gate, they asked themselves, What could have been his object? To look
+at the plate was next thing to looking at the man. Even Sergius partook
+of the feeling. To get a better view, he shifted his position, and was
+beset by inquietudes not in the understanding of the fishermen.
+
+The Princess Irene, her property and dependents, were subjects of
+protection by the Moslem; that much was clear; but did she know the
+fact? Had she seen the Prince? Then the Hegumen's criticism upon the
+persistence with which she kept her residence here, a temptation to the
+brutalized unbeliever on the other shore, derived a point altogether
+new.
+
+Sergius turned away, and passed into the well-tended grounds. While too
+loyal to the little mother, as he tenderly called the Princess, to
+admit a suspicion against her, with painful clearness, he perceived the
+opportunity the affair offered her enemies for the most extreme
+accusations; and he resolved to speak to her, and, if necessary, to
+remonstrate.
+
+Traversing the shelled roadway up to the portico of the palace, he
+looked back through the red pavilion, and caught a glimpse of Joqard
+performing before a merry group of boys and elders male and female.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE HAMARI
+
+
+The love of all things living which was so positively a trait of
+character with the Princess Irene was never stinted in her dealings
+with her own country folk. On this occasion her whole establishment at
+Therapia was accorded her guests; yet, while they wandered at will
+merry-making through the gardens, and flashed their gay colors along
+the side and from the summit of the promontory, they seemed to have
+united in holding the palace in respectful reserve. None of them,
+without a special request, presumed to pass the first of the steps
+leading up into the building.
+
+When Sergius, approaching from the outer gate, drew nigh the front of
+the palace, he was brought to a stop by a throng of men and women
+packed around a platform the purpose of which was declared by its use.
+It was low, but of generous length and breadth, and covered with fresh
+sail-cloth; at each corner a mast had been raised, with yard-arms well
+squared, and dressed profusely in roses, ferns, and acacia fronds. On a
+gallery swung to the base of the over-pending portico, a troupe of
+musicians were making the most of flute, cithara, horn, and
+kettle-drum, and not vainly, to judge from the flying feet of the
+dancers in possession of the boards.
+
+Lifting his eyes above the joyous exhibition, he beheld the carven
+capitals of the columns, tied together with festoonery of evergreens,
+and relieved by garlands of shining flowers, and above the musicians,
+under a canopy shading her from the meridian sun, the Princess Irene
+herself. A bright carpet hanging down the wall enriched the position
+chosen by her, and in the pleasant shade, surrounded by young women,
+she sat with uncovered head and face, delighted with the music and the
+dancing--delighted that it was in her power to bring together so many
+souls to forget, though so briefly, the fretting of hard conditions
+daily harder growing. None knew better than she the rapidity of the
+national decadence.
+
+It was not long until the young hostess noticed Sergius, taller of his
+high hat and long black gown; and careless as usual of the
+conventionalities, she arose, and beckoned to him with her fan; and the
+people, seeing whom she thus honored, opened right and left, and with
+good-will made way for him. Upon his coming her attendants drew
+aside--all but one, to whom for the moment he gave but a passing look.
+
+The Princess received him seated. The youthful loveliness of her
+countenance seemed refined by the happiness she was deriving from the
+spectacle before her. He took the hand she extended him, kissed it
+respectfully, with only a glance at the simple but perfected Greek of
+her costume, and immediately the doubts, and fears, and questions, and
+lectures in outline he had brought with him from the city dropped out
+of mind. Suspicion could not look at her and live.
+
+"Welcome, Sergius," she said, with dignity. "I was afraid you would not
+come to-day."
+
+"Why not? If my little mother's lightest suggestions are laws with me,
+what are her invitations?"
+
+For the first time he had addressed her by the affectionate term, and
+the sound was startling. The faintest flush spread over her cheek,
+admonishing him that the familiarity had not escaped attention. Greatly
+to his relief, she quietly passed the matter.
+
+"You were at the _Pannychides?_" she asked.
+
+"Yes, till daybreak."
+
+"I thought so, and concluded you would be too weary to see us to-day.
+The Mystery is tedious."
+
+"It might become so if too frequently celebrated. As it was, I shall
+not forget the hillside, and the multitude of frocked and cowled
+figures kneeling in the dim red light of the torches. The scene was
+awful."
+
+"Did you see the Emperor?"
+
+She put the question in a low tone.
+
+"No," he returned. "His Majesty sent for our Hegumen to come to the
+Chapel. The good man took me with him, his book and torch bearer; but
+when we arrived, the Emperor had passed in and closed the door, and I
+could only imagine him on his knees alone in the room, except as the
+relics about him were company."
+
+"How unspeakably dismal!" she said with a shudder, adding in sorrowful
+reflection, "I wish I could help him, for he is a prince with a tender
+conscience; but there is no way--at least Heaven does not permit me to
+see anything for him in my gift but prayer."
+
+Sergius followed her sympathetically, and was surprised when she
+continued, the violet gray of her eyes changing into subtle fire. "A
+sky all cloud; the air void of hope; enemies mustering everywhere on
+land; the city, the court, the Church rent by contending
+factions--behold how a Christian king, the first one in generations, is
+plagued! Ah, who can interpret for Providence? And what a miracle is
+prophecy!"
+
+Thereupon the Princess bethought herself, and cast a hurried glance out
+over the garden.
+
+"No, no! If these poor souls can forget their condition and be happy,
+why not we? Tell me good news, Sergius, if you have any--only the good.
+But see! Who is he making way through the throng yonder? And what is it
+he is leading?"
+
+The transition of feeling, though sudden and somewhat forced, was
+successful; the Princess' countenance again brightened; and turning to
+follow her direction, Sergius observed Lael, who had not fallen back
+with the other attendants. The girl had been a modest listener; now
+there was a timid half smile on her face, and a glistening welcome in
+her eyes. His gaze stopped short of the object which had inspired his
+hostess with such interest, and dropped to the figured carpet at the
+guest's feet; for the feeling the recognition awakened was clouded with
+the taunt Demedes had flung at him in the hall of the monastery, and he
+questioned the rightfulness of this appearance. If she were not the
+daughter of the Prince of India, she was an--impostor was the word in
+his mind.
+
+"I was expecting you," she said to him, artlessly.
+
+Sergius raised his face, and was about to speak, when the Princess
+started from her seat, and moved to the low balustrade of the portico.
+
+"Come," she called, "come, and tell me what this is."
+
+Sergius left a friendly glance with Lael.
+
+Where the roadway from the gate led up to the platform an opening had
+been made in the close wall of spectators attracted by the music and
+dancing. In the opening, the hamari was slowly coming forward, his
+turban awry, his brown face overrun and shining with perspiration, his
+sharp gypsy eyes full of merriment. With the leading strap over a
+shoulder, he tugged at Joqard. Sergius laughed to see the surprise of
+the men and women, and at the peculiar yells and screams with which
+they struggled to escape. But everybody appearing in good nature, he
+said to the Princess: "Do not be concerned. A Turk or Persian with a
+trained bear. I passed him at the gate."
+
+He saw the opportunity of speaking about the brass plate on the post,
+and while debating whether to avail himself of it, the hamari caught
+sight of the party at the edge of the portico, stopped, surveyed them,
+then prostrated himself in the abjectest Eastern manner. The homage was
+of course to the Princess--so at least the assemblage concluded; and
+jumping to the idea that the bear-keeper had been employed by her for
+their divertisement, each man in the company resolved himself into an
+ally and proceeded to assist him. The musicians were induced to suspend
+their performance, and the dancers to vacate the platform; then, any
+number of hands helping them up, Joqard and his master were promoted to
+the boards, sole claimants of attention and favor.
+
+The fellow was not in the least embarrassed. He took position on the
+platform in front of the Princess, and again saluted her Orientally,
+and with the greatest deliberation, omitting no point of the
+prostration. Bringing the bear to a sitting posture with folded paws,
+he bowed right and left to the spectators, and made a speech in
+laudation of Joqard. His grimaces and gesticulation kept the crowd in a
+roar; when addressing the Princess, his manner was respectful, even
+courtierly. Joqard and he had travelled the world over; they had been
+through the Far East, and through the lands of the Frank and Gaul; they
+had crossed Europe from Paris to the Black Sea, and up to the Crimea;
+they had appeared before the great everywhere--Indian Rajahs, Tartar
+Khans, Persian Shahs, Turkish Sultans; there was no language they did
+not understand. The bear, he insisted, was the wisest of animals, the
+most susceptible of education, the most capable and willing in service.
+This the ancients understood better than the moderns, for in
+recognition of his superiority they had twice exalted him to the
+Heavens, and in both instances near the star that knew no deviation.
+The hamari was a master of amplification, and his anecdotes never
+failed their purpose.
+
+"Now," he said, "I do not care what the subject of discourse may be;
+one thing is true--my audience is always composed of believers and
+unbelievers; and as between them"--here he addressed himself to the
+Princess--"as between them, O Most Illustrious of women, my difficulty
+has been to determine which class is most to be feared. Every
+philosopher must admit there is quite as much danger in the man who
+withholds his faith when it ought to be given, as in his opposite who
+hurries to yield it without reason. My rule as an auditor is to wait
+for demonstration. So"--turning to the assemblage--"if here any man or
+woman doubts that the bear is the wisest of animals, and Joqard the
+most learned and accomplished of bears, I will prove it." Then Joqard
+was called on.
+
+"For attend, O Illustrious Princess!--and look ye, O men and women,
+pliers of net and boat!--look ye all! Now shall Joqard himself speak
+for Joqard."
+
+The hamari began talking to the bear in a jargon utterly unintelligible
+to his hearers, though they fell to listening with might and main, and
+were silent that they might hear. Nothing could have been more earnest
+than his communications, whatever they were; at times he put an arm
+about the brute's neck; at times he whispered in its ear; and in return
+it bowed and grunted assent, or growled and shook its head in refusal,
+always in the most knowing manner. In this style, to appearance, he was
+telling what he wanted done. Then retaining the leading strap, the
+master stepped aside, and Joqard, left to himself, proceeded to prove
+his intelligence and training by facing the palace, bringing his arms
+overhead, and falling forward. Everybody understood the honor intended
+for the Princess; the bystanders shouted; the attendants on the portico
+clapped their hands, for indeed never in their remembrance had the
+prostration been more profoundly executed. Arising nimbly the performer
+wheeled about, reared on his hind feet, clasped his paws on his head,
+and acknowledged the favor of the commonalty by resolving himself into
+a great fur ball, and rolling a somersault. The acclamation became
+tumultuous. One admirer ran off and returned with an armful of wreaths
+and garlands, and presently Joqard was wearing them royally.
+
+With excellent judgment the hamari proceeded next to hurry the
+exhibition, passing from one trick to another almost without pause
+until the wrestling match was reached. This has been immemorially the
+reliable point in performances of the kind he was giving, but he
+introduced it in a manner of his own.
+
+Standing by the edge of the platform, as the friend and herald of
+Joqard, he first loudly challenged the men before him, every one
+ambitious of honor and renown, to come up and try a fall; and upon
+their hanging back, he berated them. Wherever a tall man stood
+observable above the level of heads, he singled him out. Failing to
+secure a champion, he finally undertook the contest himself.
+
+"Ho, Joqard," he cried, while tying the leading strap around the
+brute's neck, "thou fearest nothing. Thy dam up in the old Caucasian
+cave was great of heart, and, like her, thou wouldst not quail before
+Hercules, were he living. But thou shalt not lick thy paws and laugh,
+thinking Hercules hath no descendant."
+
+Retiring a few steps he tightened the belt about his waist, and drew
+his leathern jacket closer.
+
+"Get ready!" he cried.
+
+Joqard answered promptly and intelligently by standing up and facing
+him, and in sign of satisfaction with the prospect of an encounter so
+to his taste, he lolled the long red tongue out of his jaws. Was he
+licking his chops in anticipation of a feast or merely laughing? The
+beholders became quiet; and Sergius for the first time observed how
+very low in stature the hamari seemed.
+
+"Look out, look out! O thou with the north star in the tip of thy tail!
+I am coming--for the honor of mankind, I am coming."
+
+They danced around each other watching for an opening. "Aha! Now thou
+thinkest to get the advantage. Thou art proud of thy fame, and cunning,
+but I am a man. I have been in many schools. Look out!"
+
+The hamari leaped in and with both hands caught the strap looped around
+Joqard's neck; at the same time he was himself caught in Joqard's ready
+arms. The growl with which the latter received the attack was angry,
+and lent the struggle much more than a mere semblance of danger. Round
+and about they were borne; now forward, then back; sometimes they were
+likely to tumble from the boards. The hamari's effort was to choke
+Joqard into submission; Joqard's was to squeeze the breath out of the
+hamari's body; and they both did their parts well.
+
+After some minutes the man's exertions became intermittent. A little
+further on the certainty of triumph inspired Joqard to fierce
+utterances; his growls were really terrible, and he hugged so
+mercilessly his opponent grew livid in the face. The women and children
+began to cry and scream, and many of the men shouted in genuine alarm:
+"See, see! The poor fellow is choking to death!" The excitement and
+fear extended to the portico; some of the attendants there, unable to
+endure the sight, fled from it. Lael implored Sergius to save the
+hamari. Even the Princess was undecided whether the acting was real or
+affected.
+
+Finally the crisis came. The man could hold out no longer; he let go
+his grip on the strap, and, struggling feebly to loose his body from
+the great black arms, shouted hoarsely: "Help, help!" As if he had not
+strength to continue the cry, he threw his hands up, and his head back
+gasping.
+
+The Princess Irene covered her eyes. Sergius stepped over the
+balustrade; but before he could get further, a number of men were on
+the stage making to the rescue. And seeing them come, the hamari laid
+one hand on the strap, and with the other caught the tongue protruding
+from Joqard's open jaws; as a further point in the offensive so
+suddenly resumed, he planted a foot heavily on one of his antagonist's.
+Immediately the son of the proud Caucasian dam was flat on the boards
+simulating death.
+
+Then everybody understood the play, and the merriment was heightened by
+the speech the hamari found opportunity to make his rescuers before
+they could recover from their astonishment and break up the tableau
+they formed. The Princess, laughing through her tears, flung the victor
+some gold pieces, and Lael tossed her fan to him. The prostrations with
+which he acknowledged the favors were marvels to behold.
+
+By and by, quiet being restored, Joqard was roused from his trance, and
+the hamari, calling the musicians to strike up, concluded the
+performance with a dance.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Prince of India, Volume I, by Lew. Wallace
+
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