during the hot hours of noon, and only moved when the air was tempered
by morning or evening breezes: Sebastian had a thousand times to
recollect that Tefza was old and sick ere he could prevent himself from
impatiently urging a quicker method; his soul was already at the cave of
Abensallah. Imagination had placed him in the embrace of Kara Aziek;
that timid, ardent embrace, to which Love at one moment gave the most
transporting character, and the next instant changed it into tremors of
apprehension and shame: he fancied her pitying tears over the grave of
his friend; at that sad image, passion’s intoxicating reveries suddenly
fled, Sebastian’s thoughts assumed a severer cast, and many were the
pangs of self-reproach which now tyrannised over him.
Reflections like these happily abstracted some portion of his anxiety
about Aziek, and the attentions required by his feeble companion
completed their effect.
They reached the extremity of Mounts Benzeroel on the evening of the
ninth day.
At sight of Abensallah’s tranquil abode, where Sebastian had experienced
so much goodness, where he had performed the last melancholy duties to
Stukeley, where so many hopes and wishes (now annihilated,) had once
agitated his heart, where at length he was come to seek the most
faithful and tender of women, he was inexpressibly moved; a variety of
feelings melted him; he stopt, gazed wistfully on the rock, and
precipitately concealed his face in his garment.
He was roused by the well-remembered voice of Ismael, now at the mouth
of the cave, who was praying the travellers to alight: as the Hadgé
entered first, Sebastian had an opportunity of discovering himself to
Ismael, and charging him not to mention their former acquaintance before
Tefza or his servants; after this precaution, he entered.
On passing the threshold he cast a trembling glance round the narrow
cell; no one was there but Tefza and Abensallah: his heart died away;
yet, did he expect to behold Kara Aziek? no, she must be secured in the
interior apartment which Abensallah reserved as an asylum for persecuted
persons.
Occupied with the most frightful anxiety (for his inconsistent heart
could not recover from its first shock,) he scarcely saw the reverend
dervise who was folding him to his breast and saving; him his
benediction; an observation from Tefza roused him, and faultering out a
few grateful words, he sat down opposite to the chamber he longed to
penetrate.
His eyes now searched those of Abensallah, but extreme earnestness
blunted his perception, for he knew not whether it was comfort or
commiseration he read in that gently-expressive face: his own looks were
only too distinct a transcript of his disturbed soul: the alternate
flushings and mortal paleness of his cheeks, could not escape the notice
of Tefza, he believed that they were occasioned by the workings of a
mind which began to feel the true religion.
In fact the Hadgé was now diffusely detailing his errand to Benzeroel,
and calling upon Abensallah to assist the great work he had humbly taken
in hand: Abensallah bestowed many sincere encomiums upon his pious
intention of visiting Mecca, but required to hear the Christian’s
sentiments ere he could properly pronounce his own opinion.
“Speak to him alone if thou wilt; said the triumphant Tefza, I will
yield him every advantage, he shall confess at least, that I am solely
actuated by affection for his soul.”
At this acceptable proposal, Ismael was called to lead the Hadgé up a
flight of steps cut in the rock which led to another cell where lay the
Koran and other holy books, and which the dervise denominated his
mosque.
Sebastian started up on their departure, and stood trembling with
repressed eagerness, till the echo of their feet above, was no longer
distinct, he then grasped Abensallah’s arm with one hand, while he
stretched out the other towards the spring of the secret door.--“She is
here? my father?” he said, in a voice that half-demined and half asked
the question.
“No my son, she is not: prepare thy spirit for still further trials:
she is with the servants of the Basha, on the road to Syria.”
Abensallah’s first words were sufficient for Sebastian; his soul,
already enfeebled by an extreme indulgence of delightful anticipations,
had not strength to bear this shock, he staggered a few paces, and fell
apparently lifeless against the wall of the cell.
On loosening his unhappy friend’s vest, Abensallah perceived Babec, whom
he hastily shut into a basket, then returned to the King, and sprinkled
his face with water: he revived at length; but with every breath he
drew, repeated sighs seemed rending life a second time away.
Abensallah meanwhile gently spoke of resignation to Heaven’s decrees, of
those unexpected turns in our destiny which so often make light spring
out of darkness; Sebastian smiled sadly, and again sighed heavily: the
dervise then pressed upon him the peculiar mercies which had already
been shewn him by the Great Being who thought fit to cloud his sunshine
awhile. The young Monarch at that moment despised thrones and courts,
too certain, that with Kara Aziek would go all his happiness; ashamed of
his weakness he looked aside with a flushed cheek; “O my father!” he
said, “think not that I am thus vanquished by selfish regret, no, I call
Heaven to witness it is for _her_ my heart is wrung so sorely.”
The compassionate Abensallah hastened to alleviate this pain, he
informed him that Kara Aziek had but just dispatched her last letter to
Riffa, when a numerous cavalcade of camels, horsemen, and presents,
headed by an officer of the Basha’s army, had arrived at El Hader’s
mansion: the Basha himself was in Syria, where he was detained by a war
with the Persians, and having learned from the uncle of Aziek that she
still lived, had sent his people to claim her.
Callous to her tears, intreaties, and protestations of being released by
her father from this hated engagement, her relentless uncle insisted
upon her immediate departure; she could not doubt that he was actuated
by avarice, as he would inherit that fortune the proud Basha refused to
accept, were she to quit Barbary, and she therefore offered to resign
every thing into his hands: but her kinsman persisted in his commands,
for he mistrusted her sincerity.
Narrowly watched, and so precluded from escaping, the unhappy victim
could only steal into Benzaide’s hand as she embraced her at parting, a
letter for Abensallah, and some directions for her own conduct; the
latter enjoined her to dispatch her brother-in-law to Benzeroel with the
billet for Abensallah, and the young brood of Babec. Aziek’s tender
heart could not disregard even the instincts of a bird; and she well
knew that if Sebastian believed her journeying towards the cave of the
dervise, he would not release the dove, nor lose sight of it, till he
had brought it thither. Babec therefore would come to Benzeroel; to
whom then could she bequeath her pretty favorite with its little
nestlings, so cheerfully as to Abensallah?
She wrote to tell him so, and to intreat that he would soften to
Sebastian the dreadful blow which her forced departure must inflict. In
the most solemn manner she besought her lover to believe that she would
perish rather than yield herself to the Basha; that wherever she might
be conveyed, however oppressed or threatened, she would consider her
heart and her person equally the property of her absent Sebastian, and
that he might be certain, that whether Aziek lived or died, she lived or
died worthy of his love. She coupled this declaration with an earnest
entreaty that he would follow her into Syria, where during the months
sacred to mourning in those countries, she might find some mode of
escaping to him, were he near enough to aid and to receive her.
Many tears had blotted the characters traced by her hand, but the
feelings of Sebastian instructed him in hers, and he was obliged to turn
away from Abensallah, that his weakness might not again be visible: when
he came to that passage which announced her future intention, and
required him to follow her, his emotions were suddenly changed; the
Phœnix hope sprung from her own ashes, and made him now as impatient to
fly with Tefza into the vicinity of Syria, as he had before been
solicitous to avoid it.
Strange vicissitude of human affairs! how often do the changes of a
single hour convert events from curses into blessings! Sebastian had
considered the Hadgé’s pilgrimage as the most fatal mischance that could
have arisen, now it seemed only a kind interposition of Providence in
his favour.
The re-appearance of Tefza abruptly terminated the discourse which his
absence had permitted: Abensallah then pronounced the decision required
of him, and became the witness of that compact which bound Tefza to give
his slave freedom in three days after their arrival at Mecca, should he
still require it.
The lively satisfaction which this decision afforded to Sebastian’s
master, was somewhat damped by hearing sentiments from Abensallah
different from his own: that excellent old man mildly tried to moderate
the other’s flaming zeal, and at last convinced him that it is not given
to fallible man to tyrannise over the consciences of his brethren.
But see the inconsistency of human nature! Tefza had not resolution to
act conformably with this conviction; he still adhered to the plan of
leading his slave over desolate and dangerous tracts of country for the
mere chance of converting him by the imposing spectacle of Mahomet’s
crouded tomb. The piety and wisdom of Abensallah he could not doubt, but
he secretly complimented himself upon greater fervour in the same
faith.
While the two Mussulmen were earnestly conversing on the life and
doctrines of their prophet, Sebastian went out to visit the grave of
Stukeley. He found it piously adorned with evergreens, which the dervise
had planted round it: nearly two years had now elapsed since that
period, and the myrtles and box were expanded into perfect luxuriance.
The old cluster of locust-trees still cast its deep shadow along the
solitary mound; but the ground about it, was thickly set with flowers,
whose balmy breath incensed the honoured clay, and whose charming
colours gave beauty to the bed of death.
Night was approaching, and so gloomily, that the lanthorn Sebastian
carried, scarcely threw light enough around to discover more than
detached parts of the scene: soon however, flashes of pale lightning,
which begun to quiver at distant intervals among the clouds,
momentarily illuminated every object, and distinctly shewed the
fearfully-steep rocks, the grave at their feet, and the moss-grown
crucifix which surmounted it.
Sebastian’s heart was heavily oppressed; a mortal sadness weighed it
down, but he shed no tears; he knelt before the cross, and there poured
out his regrets, lamented his errors, prayed for Stukeley’s soul, and
implored a blessing on the desperate enterprize he was about to attempt.
What was that enterprize? he knew not--he considered not;--it must grow
out of circumstances: all he felt assured of was, that to rescue Kara
Aziek, he would attempt impossibilities, and meet destruction in any
shape.
Again his thoughts reverted to Stukeley, and again they retraced with
anguish, that happy period in which the gallant Englishman had become
known to him. O happy period indeed! for then the youth of Sebastian was
in its first gloss; then, he looked round upon nature, and saw in it
only the reflection of his own sweet and ingenuous spirit; all men
appeared to him just, benevolent, and faithful, and every thing he
possessed, secure and permanent: now, experience had swept away these
vain pageants; security was no more, doubt and apprehension had
succeeded.
As he leaned sadly against the cross, his reflections imperceptibly
assumed that form which a poetical mind so naturally gives to melancholy
subjects: as the ideas flowed, he cut them with the point of a moorish
knife upon the wooden base of the crucifix.
Rest, rest, ye ashes dear!
I come not here
Your peace to alter, nor remove you where
Honor and Pomp attend,
To wait the buried friend,
And yield his hov’ring shade, the choral prayer.
Singly I come, alas! with tears alone,
To mourn youth’s trusting hour, for ever flown!
O friend beloved! O brother of my soul!
How long shall time and fortune various roll,
Yet bear no pang away,
With which this honored clay,
Now rives the heart, that wrongs have turned to stone?
I think of thee--and with that dear-lov’d thought,
Comes many a melting thrill for human kind:
Thou wast of mortal make, yet I did find
Each grace celestial in thy fabric wrought.
O Genius! Friendship! Heav’n-attaining worth!
Ye once were joined on earth;
In Stukeley’s soul, by God’s own purpose fixed,
Ye once did dwell and grow,
Breathing e’en here below
The air of Eden pure, with dross unmixed.
Ah little understood!
That soul refined,
That ardent heart, that piercing mind,
Those views etherial, which his purer eye
Read in their native sky,
Were deem’d but fancies vain, by souls of grosser mood.
He lived to suffer, and to give
A noble lesson how to live;
On Glory’s bed, his latest sigh,
Was breathed to teach us how to die!--
At this sentiment, so long associated with all his feelings, Sebastian’s
imagination suddenly checked itself: troubled and confused doubts, as to
so general an application of the sentiment (however just, when applied
to him who acted from a strong impulse of conscience) succeeded to his
more passionate regrets: in the midst of them, Ismael appeared.
He came to say that his master was going to retire for the night, and
waited his Christian guest.
Sebastian arose, fixed a long look on the earth which covered the brave
Englishman, and turned away. He never saw it again.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
J. M‘CREERY, Printer,
Black-Horse-Court, Fleet-Street, London.
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
Many minor punctuation errors have been corrected.
first vist to Barbary=> first visit to Barbary {pg 17}
you may not not hereafter call me a base=> you may not hereafter call me
a base {pg 25}
she unconsciouly weave=> she unconsciously weave {pg 28}
scuccour for those=> succour for those {pg 37}
journey in desart regions=> journey in desert regions {pg 51}
from a side eminnence=> from a side eminence {pg 53}
rendered him speechles=> rendered him speechless {pg 104}
he was a Portugueze office=> he was a Portuguese office {pg 126}
figure, exclaming in a=> figure, exclaiming in a {pg 136}
aukward reckoning=> awkward reckoning {pg 144}
have shared his thone=> have shared his throne {pg 164}
fellow of an adverturous=> fellow of an adventurous {pg 197}
when addressing the the object=> when addressing the object {pg 275}