The poet returns from captivity--the consequences of it for Hajji Baba.
I took my road towards the poets house, in the hope of gaining some
intelligence about him. From the head of the street, I perceived a crowd
surrounding the gate, and I was soon informed that he had just arrived,
and had gone through the ceremony of making his entrance over the roof
instead of through the door; for such is the custom when a man who has
been thought dead returns home alive.
I immediately pushed through the crowd, made my way into the room
where the poet was seated, and with every demonstration of great joy,
congratulated him upon his safe arrival. He did not recognize me, and
even when I had explained who I was, he could scarcely believe that one
so trim and smart as I then was could be the same dirty ragged ruffian
whom he had known before.
The apartment was filled with all sorts of people, some happy at his
return, others full of disappointment. Among the latter, and those who
paid him the finest compliments, was Mirza Fûzûl, the man who had
been nominated to succeed him in his situation, and who did not cease
exclaiming, Your place has been empty, and our eyes are enlightened,
as long as he remained in the room. At length, a great bustle was heard,
the doors were opened, and an officer from the king was announced, who
commanded the poet forthwith to repair to the presence, which he did in
the very clothes, boots, dust and all, in which he had travelled.
The party then broke up, and I left the house in the determination of
returning the next day; but as I was going out of the yard, I met the
Nazir, with whom I had had a conversation as before related. He did not
appear to me to be among the happy ones. In the name of Allah, said I,
you see that my words have proved true: the Khan is alive!
True enough, answered he, with a sigh; he is alive; and may his life
be a long one! but God is great! and then making two or three more
similar exclamations, he left me, apparently full of care and misery.
I passed the remainder of the day in strolling about, and building
castles in the air. I walked through the bazaars, went to the mosques,
and lounged among the idlers, who are always to be found in great
numbers about the gate of the royal palace. Here, the news of the day
was the poets return, and the reception which he had met with from
the Shah. Some said, that his majesty, upon hearing of his arrival had
ordained that it could not be; that he was dead, and must be so. Others,
that, on the contrary, the king was happy at the intelligence, and had
ordered ten tomauns to be given to the bearer of it. The truth, however,
was this; the king had been disappointed at the poets resurrection,
because it destroyed the arrangements he had made with respect to his
house and effects, and he was not disposed to give him a good
reception; but Asker who well knew his majestys passion for poetry, and
particularly of that kind which sings the royal praises, had long since
foreseen the event, and had provided himself with an impromptu, which he
had composed even when he was living an exile among the Turcomans.
This he repeated at the proper moment; and thus the tide of the kings
favour, which was running full against him, he entirely turned, and made
it flow to his advantage. In short, he had his mouth filled with gold
for his pains, was invested with a magnificent dress, and was reinstated
in his situation and his possessions.
I lost no time in again congratulating my adopted patron, and did
not miss a single morning in attending his levee. Finding that he was
favourably inclined towards me, I made known to him my situation,
and entreated him either to give me a place in his household, or to
recommend me as a servant to one of his acquaintance. I had found out
that the Nazirs despondency at his masters return proceeded from the
fear of being detected in certain frauds which he had committed on
his property; and, as I hoped that I might eventually succeed to his
situation, I expressed the greatest zeal for the poets interest, and
disclosed all that I knew concerning the delinquency of his servant.
However, I did not succeed; for whether he had a clearer insight into
characters than I gave him credit for, or whether the Nazir managed to
prove his innocence, and make me suspected, I know not; but the fact
was, that he kept his place, and I continued to be an attendant at the
levees.
At length, one morning Asker called me to him, and said, Hajji, my
friend, you know how thankful I have always expressed myself for your
kindness to me when we were prisoners together in the hands of the
Turcomans, and now I will prove my gratitude. I have recommended you
strongly to Mirza Ahmak, the kings _Hakîm Bashi_, or chief physician,
who is in want of a servant; and I make no doubt, that if you give
him satisfaction, he will teach you his art, and put you in the way
of making your fortune. You have only to present yourself before him,
saying that you come from me, and he will immediately assign you an
employment.
I had no turn for the practice of physic, and recollecting the story
which had been related to me by the dervish, I held the profession in
contempt: but my case was desperate; I had spent my last dinâr, and
therefore I had nothing left me but to accept of the doctors place.
Accordingly, the next morning I proceeded to his house, which was
situated in the neighbourhood of the palace; and as I entered a dull,
neglected court-yard, I there found several sick persons, some squatted
against the wall, others supported by their friends, and others again
with bottles in their hands, waiting the moment when the physician
should leave the womens apartments to transact business in public.
I proceeded to an open window, where those who were not privileged to
enter the room stood, and there I took my station until I should be
called in. Within the room were several persons who came to pay their
court to the doctor (for every man who is an officer of the court has
his levee), and from remarking them, I learnt how necessary it was, in
order to advance in life, to make much of everything, even the dog or
the cat, if they came in my way, of him who can have access to the ear
of men in power. I made my reflections upon the miseries I had already
undergone, and was calculating how long it would take me to go through
a course of cringing and flattery to be entitled to the same sorts of
attention myself, when I perceived, by the bows of those near me, that
the doctor had seated himself at the window, and that the business of
the day had commenced.
The Hakîm was an old man, with an eye sunk deep in his head, high cheek
bones, and a scanty beard. He had a considerable bend in his back, and
his usual attitude, when seated, was that of a projecting chin, his
head reclining back between his shoulders, and his hands resting on his
girdle, whilst his elbows formed two triangles on each side of his body.
He made short snappish questions, gave little hums at the answers, and
seemed to be thinking of anything but the subject before him. When he
heard the account of the ailments of those who had come to consult him,
and had said a few words to his little circle of parasites, he looked at
me, and after I had told him that I was the person of whom the poet had
spoken, he fixed his little sharp eyes upon me for a second or two, and
then desired me to wait, for that he wished to speak to me in private.
Accordingly, he soon after got up, and went out of the room, and I was
called upon to attend him in a small separate court, closely walled
on all sides, except on the one where was situated the _khelwet_, or
private room, in which the doctor was seated.