Hajji and the mollah make plans suited to their critical situation,
showing that no confidence can exist between rogues.
The mollah Nadân having finished his narrative, I endeavoured to
persuade him that the same destiny which had presided over his success
in life, and afterwards over his misfortunes, would no doubt serve him
again, and restore him to his lost situation: for, said I, we both
of us have seen enough of life in Persia to have ascertained its extreme
instability. When events depend upon the will of one man, he may with as
much consistency order you back from exile, as he did the plucking your
beard and the thrusting you forth from the city. There is a reaction in
misfortune which frequently produces increased prosperity. Thus when the
smith sprinkles water upon his burning charcoal, it is extinguished
for a moment, and smoke takes the place of flame; but again, at the
slightest blast of his bellows, the fire breaks out with redoubled
brilliancy.
That is precisely the thought with which I was consoling myself, said
my companion, and which set me singing, when you overtook me on the
road. The Shah most probably thought it necessary to make an exhibition
of justice, by way of ingratiating himself with the Christian merchants;
but the day will come when he will feel the necessity of making friends
of the upholders of the Mohamedan religion, and then the good opinion of
such a man as I, who am beloved by my people, will be of consequence to
him. I had some thoughts, I confess, of relinquishing priestcraft, and
becoming a merchant; but, all things considered, I shall continue to
follow my original destiny. I have now an opportunity of setting up for
a martyr, and _that_, now I recollect it, is worth more than the loss
of my worldly goods, my house, my furniture, my white ass, and even my
mûties.
Then what do you propose doing? said I. Will you accompany me to
Bagdad, or will you wait the tide of events in Persia?
My plan, said he, is to proceed to my native place, Hamadan, where my
father, who is still alive, enjoys considerable reputation: through his
means I will set negotiations on foot for my readmission to the capital,
and ultimately for my restoration to the situations of which I have been
deprived. But you,--what road do you intend to pursue? When, inshallah,
please God, I am restored, I shall require your talents to make my mûti
establishment prosper. You had better remain at Hamadan with me, and
follow my fortunes.
Ah, my friend, said I, with all my present apparent prosperity, I am
more of an exile than you. Events have played wickedly into my lap, and
here am I (God knows how unwillingly) an avowed thief. I could not do
otherwise than follow my destiny, which has clothed me with the garments
of the chief priest, enriched me with his money, and mounted me upon the
finely caparisoned steed of the executioner in chief. That same destiny
compels me to fly my country: I cannot remain in it to run the chance of
being discovered and cut into quarters, to grace the gates of the city.
No, before many days are expired, I hope to have reached the Turkish
frontier, and then only shall I call myself in safety.
Upon this I made him an offer of part of my acquired spoils, by which I
hoped to secure his secrecy, and happy was I to find him nothing loth.
He accepted of ten tomauns (leaving me ninety-five in hand), which he
said would be enough for present purposes, and which he promised to
repay whenever his fortunes should be reestablished. But upon taking
them from me, he again urged me to proceed with him to Hamadan. He
represented in the strongest colours the danger I ran of being seized
before I could escape from the Shahs territories, and even when I
should have quitted them. For, said he, the moment the death of the
mollah bashi is known, and as soon as the chief executioner shall have
discovered the loss of his horse, he will not fail to dispatch officers
throughout the country in search of you, and you are too conspicuous a
character now not to be easily traced. It will be much better for you to
take refuge with me, who will not fail to avert any inquiries, until the
event has blown over, when you will be at liberty to follow your plans
in safety. My father owns a village at some distance from Hamadan, where
you can live unsuspected; and as for your horse and trappings, we
may dispose of them in such a manner that they cannot lead to your
discovery. Hamadan is not very far distant. If you depart hence at
midnight, we shall reach it early to-morrow; and this we can easily do
by making your horse carry us both. Consider that the journey is long to
the Turkish frontier; and should the beast fail you, what is to hinder
your being taken?
His words gave a new turn to my thoughts, and I saw that he spoke the
language of reason. Totally ignorant of this part of Persia, and feeling
how necessary it was for my safety not only to be acquainted with the
high roads, but also with the unfrequented paths, I looked upon a rapid
flight to the frontier as an undertaking not so easily performed as
imagined. If the mollah was inclined to betray me, he would as easily
do so whether I fled or whether I adopted his plan; and of the two, it
appeared to me a safer line of conduct to confide in than to distrust
him: and accordingly I agreed to accompany him.
Refreshed both by food and rest, we departed at midnight, and made
great progress on the road to Hamadan ere the sun rose. Having reached a
rising ground which gave us a view of the city, we made a halt, in order
to decide upon our present operations. Nadân pointed with his hand to
a village about a parasang distant, and said, That is the village in
which you must take up your quarters, until the story of the mollah
bashis extraordinary death be blown over; but you cannot present
yourself in this magnificent garb, and mounted on this fine horse,
without creating suspicion. I propose that we exchange dresses, and
that, you surrender the horse up to me. By this means you will appear
in the character of a dependant of my father at his village, and I shall
keep up the respectability of mine, by returning to the paternal roof
properly equipped. This arrangement will advance our mutual as well as
our combined interests. You will be safe from suspicion, and I shall not
look the pauper that I do now. The history of my disgrace will no doubt
soon reach the ears of my family, and perhaps lower them in the eyes of
the world; but in this country, where so much depends upon the effect of
outward show, as soon as it is known that I returned to them mounted on
a horse with an enamelled bridle, a gold-pommelled saddle, and with a
Cashmerian shawl round my waist, they as well as I will be restored to
our proper places again. After I have enjoyed the advantage of these
things a few days, it will be easy to sell them under some plausible
pretext, and then you shall duly receive their amount.
I was rather startled by this proposal, for certainly my companion had
not inspired me with sufficient confidence to encourage me trusting him
with so much property without any other security than his word. But
I felt the truth of all he said. It was impossible for me to keep my
incognito at the village for ten days or a fortnight dressed as I was,
and the possessor of a fine horse, without creating suspicion. I was
now, tis true, completely in the power of the mollah; but by his
proposed arrangement he would have become such an accomplice in
my guilt, that he could never denounce me without at the same time
involving himself.
But, said I, suppose a nasakchi discovers the horse, what becomes of
us then? You will be seized as well as I.
God is great, answered the mollah; no one can have travelled as fast
as we, and before any officer can arrive at Hamadan I shall have reached
my fathers house, and produced all the sensation I require in the city.
It will be easy after that to secrete both the horse and his trappings.
I take all the risk upon myself.
Nothing more after this was to be said on my part. We immediately
stripped, and made an exchange of clothes. He got from me the deceased
mollah bashis under garment, his caba, or coat, his Cashmerian girdle,
and his outward cloak, made of a dark green broad cloth; and I, in
return, received his old clothes, which had been torn on his person the
day he had been thrust out of Tehran. I gave him my black cap, round
which he wound the chief priests head-shawl, which I had still
preserved; and, in return, he delivered over to me his skull-cap. I
preserved the mollah bashis purse, the remaining money, the watch and
seals; whilst I permitted him the use of the inkstand, the rosary, the
pocket looking-glass, and the comb. He then stuck the roll of paper in
his girdle; and when completely made up and mounted, he looked so much
like the deceased chief priest himself, that I quite started at the
resemblance.
We parted with great apparent affection: he promised that I should
hear from him immediately, and in the meanwhile gave me every necessary
information concerning his fathers village, leaving it to my own
ingenuity to make out as plausible a story for myself as I might be
able. He then rode away, leaving me with no very agreeable feelings,
on finding myself alone in the world, uncertain of the future, and
suspicious of my present fate.
I made the best of my road to the village; but was extremely puzzled in
what character to introduce myself to the inhabitants. In fact, I looked
like one dropped from the skies; for what could be possibly said for a
man, of good appearance, without a shawl to his waist, or an outer coat
to his back, with a pair of slippers to his feet, and a skull-cap on his
head? After much hesitation I determined to call myself a merchant, who
had been robbed and plundered by the Cûrds, and then sham a sickness,
which might be a pretext for remaining in the village until I could hear
from the mollah, who would no doubt furnish me with intelligence
which might enable me to determine how long I ought to remain in my
hiding-place.
In this I succeeded perfectly. The good people of the village, whom
Heaven for my good luck had endowed with a considerable share of
dullness, believed my story, and took me in. The only inconvenience I
had to endure was the necessity of swallowing prescriptions of an old
woman, the doctor of the community, who was called to show her skill
upon me.