"Laila rushed between
To save--.
She met the blow, and sank into his arms."
_Thalaba_.
Meanwhile Leila mused much over the death of Manoel. The dim visions of
her childhood were too far away to be attractive. Even Nella, though a
tender thought to her, was vague compared to the maidens by whose side
she had played for years. The notion of a father was utterly strange to
her--too strange to be attractive. She loved the princess, who had been
on the whole kind to her, with the devotion of a loving nature; and she
shrank timidly from the unknown world without the palace walls.
"To be a Christian" hardly came before her in the light of an
obligation; she knew nothing of Christianity but a few words of prayer,
which she did not understand, and the sign of the cross, made
instinctively, to which she could scarcely attach a meaning. She was
frightened by the call to become something so new and strange. Her
feelings were dormant and uncultivated. She was happy enough; why
should she change?
Then there rose up before her the one figure who had come to her out of
the mists of darkness, the enslaved prince. _Her_ friends oppressed
_him_, and she thought with a shudder of the ill-treatment she had
witnessed. If she was a Christian too, was it not a shame to lie there
on her soft couch, to eat sweetmeats, and play with flowers, while he
suffered such cruel pangs! Strange contradiction!--it was not freedom,
a father or a sister's love, that made her feel that she was a
Christian, but the stripes and the fetters of her fellow-slave.
Still this was but a feeling; and this poor child was no heroine, no
deliverer of her race, but a little soft, spoiled, tender creature, who
had lived all her days on sweetmeats and caresses.
But a great desire possessed her to hear what the prince would say to
her about that unknown world of which she had been lately thinking; and
with a view to getting an interview with him, she set herself to watch
the slaves as closely as possible. She soon perceived that it was a bad
time for the Portuguese. The mild Hassan had been succeeded by an
overseer named Jussuf, whose cruelties were frightful, and the poor
prisoners could do nothing so as to escape his blows.
One day, as she stood by the garden-wall watching, with a fascination
that grew every moment more painful and more intense, Fernando detached
himself a little from the others, and, unobserved for a moment, rested
the heavy load under which he staggered against the wall. The little
gate was unfastened, for some work had been going on within; and, with
sudden courage, Leila, pulling her veil over her face, pushed it open,
and touched the prince's arm.
"They are not looking. Come inside and rest," she said.
Fernando was almost fainting; he yielded unthinkingly, and putting down
his burden of heavy stones, dropped down on the grass.
"Oh, you will die, as the other slave did," cried Leila, in terror.
"No, lady," said Fernando, recovering himself; "this rest has revived
me. I have sought to speak with you to tell you that I have been
enabled to send home a message to your father, telling him of your
safety; and I doubt not that he will find means to offer such a ransom
as may restore you to your friends."
Leila trembled.
"My lord," she said, "I am afraid to be a Christian."
"Ah, do not think," said Fernando, "that the cross would bring on you
such suffering as you see in these poor slaves; or, if so, it is in the
service of a Master Who endured infinitely more for His followers."
"Like you," said Leila.
"Nay," said Fernando, "yet if I could reach that likeness--"
The prince had risen to his feet, and stood leaning against the gateway.
Leila sat on the grass. She had pushed aside her veil, and was looking
up at him with her clear blue eyes shining through half-shed tears.
Suddenly Jussuf's heavy hand fell on Fernando's shoulder, striking him
down to the ground again.
"Dog of a Christian!--what do you here?" he cried, striking blow after
blow.
With a sudden impulse Leila rushed forward, and threw herself on her
knees beside them.
"I too am a Christian!" she cried, and before Jussuf could stay his
hand, the heavy blow intended for his victim, fell on Leila's head, and
stretched her senseless on the grass.
"Coward and villain!" cried the prince, all his knightly manhood roused,
as with sudden strength he sprang up, and for once returned the blow.
All passed in a moment. Leila's screams had brought both the other
women and the slaves and overseers without to the spot, and Fernando's
hands were pinioned, and he was dragged away before he had time to see
whether Leila's senses returned to her. He bitterly blamed himself for
having yielded to her proposal, for the incident brought far severer
restrictions on himself and his companions, and he feared much suffering
on the poor maiden herself; and many were the prayers he offered that
she who had been impelled to so brave a confession might not be forced
into denying the Faith which she scarcely knew, and that this tender,
innocent child might not have to endure such suffering as tried the
uttermost strength of grown men. Leila, when she revived from the
stunning blow, was dizzy and faint; but when her princess questioned
her, she answered boldly, that she knew the slave Selim to be the Prince
of Portugal, and that she herself was a Christian lady--she could not
bear to see him beaten.
Whereat the princess angrily reminded Leila that she too was but a
slave, and sentenced her to a whipping--not very severe--for her
disobedience and folly. Leila _was_ a slave, and she took the stripes
as her due, and cried at their smart, then kissed her mistress's hand,
and begged for pardon; and the princess indolently forgave her, and bade
her go and work at her cushion.
"But do not weep," said she, "for Ayesha is growing prettier than you,
and if you cannot laugh and sing to amuse me, I shall let Jussuf marry
you as he wishes. I told him you entertained me, and I would not spare
you."
"Oh, princess!" cried Leila in an agony, "I love you; let me stay with
you."
"Well, sing then, and learn some pretty dances; you are tiresome when
you cry."
But Leila's efforts failed to please. She was no longer a little
soulless plaything. Thoughts of her distant home, of her prince's
sufferings, yearnings after that unknown Saviour, Whom he followed,
filled her heart, and her eyes grew absent and her lips sad. She
fretted, and her feet were less light, her voice less ringing.
"I shall let Jussuf have her," thought Zarah; "they are not so pretty
and amusing as they grow older. Ayesha is only fourteen."
In the meantime Harry Hartsed left Fez in company with Paolo, and before
many weeks were over found himself on the stormy promontory of Sagres,
telling his tale to Dom Enrique himself.
There Enrique had retired, and amid plans for navigation, observations
of the heavens, and constant efforts to improve the mathematical
instruments with which they were carried out, endeavoured to forget the
distracting disputes between Dom Pedro's party and that of the queen.
Nevertheless he was never deaf to the call of duty, and succeeded on the
whole in keeping unimpaired both his brotherly love and his loyalty to
his young nephew, through all the petty spite and false accusation of
that miserable time.