Sebastian’s sake, did not venture to disobey,--she detailed her
father’s resolution with many sighs and expressions of deep regret: the
King turned pale: and an exclamation of grief escaped him; not for
himself he grieved, but for the less healthy Gaspar, who had so long
been accustomed to receive from him comfort and assistance.--
The distress painted on his manly features, was visible to Kara Aziek
through her transparent veil--she hastened to efface it--“I must not
detain thee here,” she said blushing, “even now my heart trembles for
fear, I have done wrong in admitting thee into these apartments--but I
could not deny myself the gratification of telling thee that I will not
lose sight of thy poor friend; if money may avail, Gaspar shall regain
his freedom, and return to Portugal to prepare the way for thee.--Go
Prince! (for I cannot call thee Fabian now) go, and believe that Kara
Aziek knows no other bliss on earth than that of trying to resemble the
ministering spirits of Heaven. Thy rare example first taught her, that
it is noble to live solely for others.”
Sebastian’s heart made a more animated reply to this speech than he
suffered to flow from his lips: her disinterested goodness was exalted
in his eyes from the very circumstance which threatened to weaken its
force: if she loved him, and felt that her peculiar happiness was only
to be found in his presence, what heroic generosity was it, thus to
sacrifice every selfish consideration, by seeking to procure for him the
means of withdrawing to a rival and a distant land.
After expressing some part of his feelings, and tenderly assuring her of
his deep concern at her increased illness, he once more wrapped himself
in the mantle, and passed with Benzaide through the outer chambers.
On quitting that side of the Cassavee, Sebastian proceeded to see and
thank Hafiz, to whom he owed the prompt interference of Aziek: his
acknowledgements were received with a mixture of kindness and anger; for
Hafiz was to lose his services a whole month, and could not comprehend
what he wanted with liberty, when so indulged by him and the Almoçadem.
From the gardens the unfortunate monarch proceeded to the scene of new
labour; there he toiled under a sky like burning brass, without shelter,
almost without sustenance; but his mind was too full of interesting
thoughts to leave him time for noticing bodily suffering: Gaspar and far
distant freedom, tortured remembrance.
Though the strict command of her father deterred Kara Aziek from
attempting to see Sebastian while he wore out his days of penance remote
from Hafiz, she contrived to send him every night various refreshments,
accompanied sometimes by short billets: in one of these she gave him the
unexpected information of Gaspar’s being free, and now on his way to
Portugal.
After a cautious negociation through the means of a Jew merchant, she
had purchased the poor fellow’s liberty by the sale of a few jewels, and
now wrote to animate Sebastian into hopes for himself:--ardent were the
hopes her letter awakened! The King could not doubt but that Gaspar, who
knew in common with every other Portuguese, his engagements with Donna
Gonsalva, would immediately repair to her with the news of his life and
captivity, and that consequently her fond zeal would quicken the
exertions for his release.
It was not in man, however disinterested, to lament the act which would
thus convey to his ministers and his friends the knowledge of his
existence: sincere as was his determination of never calling upon his
subjects for that succour he had a right to demand of them, he was not
insensible to the joy of finding that another was gone to tell the tale
of his sufferings, and to plead for his return. If the people of
Portugal loved their King well enough to tax themselves for his ransom,
he was well inclined to receive that obligation from their affection,
which both pride and principle had forbidden him to extort from their
duty. Not doubting the general sentiment, he surrendered himself up to
delightful anticipations.
But a little while, and he would be free again! As his heart throbbed
high at this blissful thought, it naturally turned with warmer gratitude
to the generous friend from whom it proceeded. Kara Aziek, still dearer
than ever, from her unwearied goodness, was however to be abandoned, and
never more beheld! As well might a brother have contemplated the
prospect of eternally quitting a beloved sister; Sebastian _would_ not
dwell on it, but formed in fancy many romantic plans, each of which had
for its foundation the religious conversion of Kara Aziek.
Towards this new and pleasing project, now suddenly conceived, he
determined to direct the whole force of his heart, that heart which had
never ceased to glow with its original zeal: from this period he devoted
his leisure moments to the recollection and arrangement of such
arguments in favour of Christianity, as appeared to him the most
convincing, and when again brought into the gardens, was enabled to
press them upon Aziek in the interviews she frequently afforded him.
Kara Aziek listened with attention and pleasure, for she loved to hear
him talk upon any subject, more especially upon one which interested her
deeply; but though she afforded Sebastian frequent opportunities for
conversation, and almost wished to believe, as he did, her clear reason
could not blind itself to the monstrous system of Popery: unhappily the
young monarch was not qualified to remove this veil from the simple
beauty of Christianity: he had been educated a devoted son of the Romish
church, and was incapable of perceiving, that but from its unscriptural
authority, and intolerant tenets, Kara Aziek would have ceased to be a
Mahometan.
These constant interviews only tended to fix Sebastian more firmly in
the heart of the gentle Moor; she felt that they did so, but with an
excess of generosity refused to purchase peace for herself, by the
sacrifice of his enjoyments: her society was evidently his chief solace,
and to her unremitting attention he owed every personal comfort; could
she then afflict him by sudden or gradual coldness, by long absences,
and assumed indifference? Sebastian knew her only as his friend, and to
that disinterested character she was resolved never to lose a claim.
Consonant to this resolution, she accustomed herself to talk with him of
Donna Gonsalva, yet at his lover-like description of her rival’s
enchantments, she could not controul those tumultuous feelings, of which
a love so hopeless and so powerful was but too susceptible.
“Happy, happy creature!” she would often exclaim to herself, “could I
believe that _thou_ lovest him, that _any one_ can love him as I do,
what should I lament? but who has seen him like Kara Aziek, a prisoner
and a slave, alternately the object of terror and admiration,
interesting even in his moments of wildest passion, who therefore will
ever learn to forget herself and the whole world in him? Alas! how shall
I live, when he who is become the very soul of my life, is far from me.”
From that painful question Kara Aziek always turned without delay,
striving to be indeed as indifferent as she believed herself, to her own
happiness: love, ingenious at deceit, fondly persuaded her that in
sighing after the bliss of being united to Sebastian she was actuated
solely by this idea, that no one’s affection could equal hers,
consequently that no one would ever watch so attentively over his
conduct and his comfort.
The King himself, hurried away by an earnest desire for her conversion,
no longer saw or thought of her attachment, but dwelt with grateful
enthusiasm upon the joy she might bestow on him, would she yield her
heart to the doctrines of the church, renounce her infidel country, and
consent to become like a sister to his adored Gonsalva. At length he
found that no arguments of his availed to convince her of the fallacy of
her own religion, she had many specious ones to urge in its defence, but
still more to urge against papal Christianity; sorrowing and reluctant
therefore, he relinquished his attempt.
Sebastian now counted the days as they passed, welcoming each on its
arrival, as the day of freedom: Gaspar had been absent above a month;
Kara Aziek had learned at the Moorish court that the Prior of Crato was
alive and in Lisbon, therefore the King; reckoned still more confidently
upon his release: time, however, wore away; days, weeks, months elapsed;
as they fled, still they bore with them some health and spirit from
Sebastian; the excuses he mentally made for his people’s delay and
hesitation hourly decayed, apprehension and indignation took their
place.
Was he to expect succour from his grand uncle, Don Henry? That uncle now
knew the gratifications of absolute power, and might not perhaps feel
willing to resign them: was he to hope for freedom from the voluntary
sacrifices of his people!--those people were the descendants of that
pitiless generation who a century before had basely suffered the infant
Don Ferdinand to die in captivity. Ferdinand had offered himself to the
Moors as a pledge for the fulfilment of a certain treaty, the Portuguese
refused to ratify it, and left him to languish out his youth in
confinement. Such a precedent might but too fatally influence the
present conduct of Portugal.
At this piercing thought, the unhappy monarch lost all self-command, and
no longer restrained the expression of his fears. Sometimes Kara Aziek
would behold him given up to the bitterest grief, imagining his beloved
Gonsalva torn from him by death; at others, she would witness the
whirlwinds of his character, while he conceived himself abandoned by his
subjects, or his relations: resentment and sorrow then swayed him by
turns; and it was only at the sound of her pitying voice, or at the gaze
of her imploring eyes, that he would rein in his anger, or check the
tide of lamentation.
So tossed by various passions, so agitated with many a fond fear, so
surrounded and touched by the ill-disguised tenderness of Kara Aziek,
there were moments in which Sebastian felt her excellence so
exquisitely, that he doubted whether he could be quite happy even in
Portugal with Gonsalva, unless she were there to complete it: his
imprudently-ingenuous nature spoke the sentiment as it arose, fatally
flattering the young and inexperienced Aziek with ideas she was
scarcely conscious of indulging.
The different emotions of each, soon produced a visible effect:
Sebastian lost his strength and his looks; Kara Aziek suddenly became
languid, sick, and sad: when with the King, her eyes no longer dwelt on
him with an apparent forgetfulness of every thing but of that soul whose
movements she was tracing through the eloquent countenance; they were
tearful and downcast, and that irresistible meltingness which used to
make love visible in their floating orbs, was displaced by an expression
of troubled anxiety.
Her careless attire, and unusual fits of abstraction, at length led the
King to suppose that some domestic distress had a principal share in so
painful a change; he interrogated Kara Aziek: as they walked together
with Benzaide under the starry sky, while others slept, he gently strove
to win from her the secret of her affliction; Kara Aziek alternately
blushed and turned pale, sighed and wept, but refused to satisfy him.
Such conduct only stimulated the efforts of a friend whose tenderness
was increased by this first call upon its sympathy; but Aziek, mildly
inflexible, constantly left him at the usual hour in doubt and
conjecture.
CHAP. III.
Sebastian’s suspence did not continue long: one night he was summoned to
meet Aziek in the labyrinth.
It was nearly midnight when his listening ear caught the sound of her
unsteady and hurried steps; she came leaning on her confidential maid:
her veil was down, and he could not therefore behold any peculiar
emotion in her countenance, but he perceived it in her air and voice.
She answered his salutation in broken accents, then sitting down at some
distance from him, was awhile silent.
The green, and now fading lamps, with which the subterraneous passage
was illuminated, cast a melancholy light over the veiled figure of Kara
Aziek; her silence, and the rapidly apprehensive mind of Sebastian
contributed to agitate him beyond measure: he approached her with
extreme solicitude.
“Allow me a little emotion,” she said faintly, averting her head, “I
believe we are about to part for ever! thou art the only friend Kara
Aziek ever had reason to esteem and to regret--ah! if thou shouldest
forget her entirely!”
She stopped, momentarily overcome, affording the King an opportunity for
uttering an exclamation of surprize and of affectionate reproach:
“Prince! she faultered out, thou art free; tomorrow thou mayest return
to Portugal.”
Uncertain whether he had heard aright, Sebastian repeated her words,
conjuring her to say if his senses had deceived him: her answer
transported him to throw himself at her feet; he did not speak, but joy
triumphed on his face, and burnt in the kiss which he imprinted on her
trembling hands.
This excess of joy was what Aziek had thought herself prepared to meet,
yet now it distracted her resolutions, and half-maddened her to exclaim,
“Ah, ungrateful man, is it thus that my friendship is returned!”
Liberty, home, happiness, every dear and oft-remembered object was now
present to the ardent imagination of Sebastian; the names of his country
and of his mistress were the only sounds that escaped his lips: they
penetrated the heart of Kara Aziek: she strove to extricate herself from
the transports of his gratitude and rapture, for, alas! their
impassioned expressions glowed more from anticipated emotions, than from
any that she herself excited.--Faultering and tearful, she besought him
to let her depart.
“Depart!” he repeated, (roused from his selfish delirium) “depart so
soon, when we are to meet no more! Do not poison the felicity you give,
by making me fear that you think me indifferent to the future fate of my
benefactress! You tell me, Aziek, that it is to your intreaties I am
indebted for this blessing, but you do not say how it was
granted--whether you did not incur some wrath.”
Aziek hastened to assure him that she had secured her father’s assent
without incurring his displeasure: “Thy freedom was unexpectedly
offered, upon a condition which I need not detail, as it does not relate
to thee. Take thy liberty, prince! and be convinced that though these
eyes shall never more behold thee, thine image--the memory of thy
misfortunes--thy virtues--thy delightful converse, will exist in my
heart, while life and memory--”
Tears interrupted the sentence, and she cast herself back upon the bosom
of Benzaide.
Vehemently agitated by her emotion, Sebastian pressed her to trust
herself to his honour, and to quit Africa with him: he promised her the
friendship of his Gonsalva, and protection in the exercise of her own
religion; he urged to her the delights of polished society; and perhaps
Aziek would not have resisted his pleadings had they been seconded by
vows of love; but now she was able to feel and to avow the strong claim
of filial obligation.
Her refusal to desert her father was grounded on arguments which the
King wished, but was not able to shake; “Yet I will not say _farewel for
ever_!” he said, “were I able to do so, Kara Aziek, I should abhor
myself: you are dear to me as a sister, you are the object of the
tenderest and truest gratitude that ever penetrated a human heart,--how
then can I consent to forego all thought of beholding you again? If
Providence permit me to regain my former power, the Moors will no longer
find me their enemy: for your sake I will court their friendship, and
when in amity with their Xeriff, may tempt my Gonsalva to cross the sea
in search of her Sebastian’s guardian angel.”
Kara Aziek did not reply; she was overcome by recollection of the price
she must pay for his deliverance, a price which would remove her far
from the seducing prospect he pictured; formed with all the weakness and
strength of woman’s mixed character, she could command her actions but
not her emotions; she could constrain every selfish consideration for
the sake of another, though she knew not how to conceal the grief such
sacrifices cost her: her fast-falling tears now fell without
interruption.
Shocked and afflicted at her excess of sorrow, the young monarch
scarcely knew how to suppose that it originated solely in the regret of
parting from him; indeed he wished to believe otherwise, and suffering
his imagination to take a new direction, importuned her to say whether
she had not heard distressing intelligence of Gaspar, or of some of his
dearest friends in Portugal.
Aziek hastened to relieve his apprehensions, and by exerting herself to
do so, gradually recovered her own composure.
Having succeeded in calming him, she held out a letter, conjuring him
not to open it till he should be restored to Donna Gonsalva; “In it thou
wilt find a braid of Kara Aziek’s jetty hair;” she said, striving to
smile, “thou wilt sometimes look at it, and remember her who gave it
thee: perhaps thou wilt contrast it with the golden tresses and ivory
skin of thy beloved; ah! tell her, as thou dost so, that the heart of
Kara Aziek is fairer than her face.”
As she spoke, she lifted her veil, and fixed on Sebastian her lovely
eyes, now swimming in tears; the look they gave entered his soul:
neither time nor distance ever effaced their impression.--Thrilled with
pity, admiration, and regret, he could only faulter out a repetition of
his hope that they were not parting for the last time; Aziek faintly
repeated that hope, adding, they must now separate, to allow him some
repose ere he began his journey.
“Hafiz is instructed to provide for thy accommodation,”
she continued, “he has my father’s commands.--Adieu,
Prince!--friend!--instructor!--light of my once dark mind!--may thy
prophet, may my prophet conduct thee, not merely to thy throne, but to
the hearts of thy people!”
She turned aside her head while she spoke, and stretched out her hands
to him; the half-distracted and bewildered Sebastian made a movement as
if he would have thrown himself at her feet, but the feelings of nature
triumphed over every idea of established customs, and he found that he
had pressed her to his heart, instead of distantly saluting her hand.
In a tumult of new emotions, Kara Aziek gently pushed him from her,
“Leave me, leave me, Prince!” she exclaimed faintly,--“think of me in
Portugal--remember me there, as the mutual friend of thee and thy
Gonsalva.”
At that name the agitated monarch recovered from a moment’s oblivion; he
fixed his eyes earnestly upon her lovely figure, then lifted them to
heaven, as if invoking blessings on her, and hurried from the grotto.
Occupied with contradictory feelings, the King reached his own
apartment: to sleep was impossible; he walked up and down, watching the
dawn of that day which was either to restore him to liberty, or to crush
him with disappointment. The capriciousness of the Moorish character
made him dread some change in the sentiments of El Hader; yet hope
preponderated, and the joyful tone now given to his mind, dissipated
those fears for Gaspar and Gonsalva which had before tormented him.
How rarely does our reason behold any object uncoloured by the medium
of passion! not a single circumstance had arisen to warrant a change of
opinion, yet Sebastian now banished every suspicion of his people’s
infidelity and his relations unkindness; he recollected the timid spirit
of his uncle, which might have procrastinated, without wishing to
frustrate measures, and warm with present happiness, confidently
anticipated superior felicity in the future.
Giving himself up to the most gratifying anticipations, he rapidly
sketched out plans for times remote, and these still included Kara Aziek
and the benevolent Abensallah:--to Sebastian’s ardent romantic heart,
every thing it wished seemed probable.
An hour after sun-rise Hafiz appeared: he came to inform the Portuguese
that their illustrious master, Mahommed El Hader, had generously granted
his freedom, and that he might depart immediately. At this confirmation
of what he had been so long and apparently so confidently expecting,
Sebastian’s emotion rendered him speechless: meanwhile Hafiz poured
forth a most pathetic lamentation.
It was some time ere the King could comfort him sufficiently to obtain
information about his route: his sole aim was to travel expeditiously
and safely towards some Christian settlement; this was an object not
easily attained. Unless under the protection of natives or licensed
merchants, a liberated captive was but too likely to fall into a second
captivity: Hafiz knew no way for his friend to avoid such a mischance,
except by joining a party of travelling traders from Syria, who were
going that very day from Mequinez to a Moorish port, between Tangier and
Ceutah. From this port a passage might easily be obtained in one of
those vessels employed in carrying on a contraband trade with the coast
of Spain, or the King might hazard a short expedition alone, and strike
across to the Christian town.
The journey from Mequinez was indeed long and fatiguing, but it would be
performed leisurely, and as the road lay near Benzeroel, would afford
Sebastian an opportunity of ascertaining whether Abensallah were yet
alive. After settling this important point, a most momentous
consideration remained: how were the expences of this journey to be
defrayed! happily the Almoçadem had given orders that the Christian
should be conveyed whither he chose, at his cost, and therefore nothing
now remained but to take leave of his fellow prisoners.
Never before had the King; felt so acutely for his brethren in
affliction; the alteration in his own situation appeared to deepen the
misery of theirs: he parted from them with many expressions of sympathy,
charged with commissions to various quarters of the globe, and
promising faithfully to have them all executed.
From the slave-court Sebastian returned through the gardens, bidding a
joyful farewel to every structure and every plant that his labour had
formed or fostered: yet regret mingled with gladness, for these gardens
were the peculiar property of Kara Aziek, and her gentle image appeared
to rise at every turning to reproach him.
Hafiz had obtained permission to attend his favorite slave to Mequinez:
as they mounted their mules at the great gate of the Cassavee, Sebastian
recalled the last time he had passed those gates after his fruitless
attempt at escape; he was then returning he believed to eternal
thraldom; but four months had elapsed since, and as if by miracle his
chains were broken!
The mules were swift of foot, and well acquainted with their road; when
they had conveyed their riders to the top of an eminence leading from
the valley, Sebastian turned round to take a farewel look of the
habitation that contained Kara Aziek. The gilded pinnacles of her
apartment glittered above rows of tall cypress trees; he breathed
unnumbered blessings on her, fixed his eyes for some moments upon that
quarter of the Cassavee, then spurred his mule down the opposite side of
the declivity.
An arrangement with the merchants was quickly made by Hafiz, who paid
beforehand the charges of his companion’s journey; at parting, the
good-natured man shed tears, which Sebastian repaid by sincere
expressions of esteem and everlasting sense of obligation: he was
preparing to commence his journey, when one of the Syrians brought him a
packet which Hafiz had instructed him to deliver when he should be on
his return; the King took, and eagerly opened it.
Its contents were a purse containing several gold sequins, some valuable
jewels, and a number of those small shells which then passed current
through Africa, and are still known there by the name of Barbary money;
upon them lay a slip of vellum, with these words written on
it--“Unforeseen accidents may render this purse of use to the friend of
Kara Aziek.”