A country Blacksmith coming into a farmer’s yard with a hammer in his
hand, was suddenly surprised by a severe bite from a snarling dog, which
so irritated him, that he immediately retaliated upon his enemy with his
heavy weapon, with the sharp end of which, he killed him on the spot.
“You might,” said the person that owned the animal, “have struck him
with the other end of the hammer.” “That I would,” answered the other,
“If he had only bit me with the other end of his teeth.”
An ingenious politician, meeting with a gentleman of his acquaintance,
immediately began to harrangue upon his favourite theme, and positively
affirmed, that, “after the late events in France, the actual government
of that country will not be acknowledged by any power in Europe, _except
America_.”
The author of an old book called the Theatre of the World, supposes,
that if a person who died of love were to be opened and anatomized, we
should find all his entrails gone, his heart burnt up, his liver smoaked
and dried, and all the dependencies of the brain spoiled: and he
believes, that the poor soul (as he calls the lover) was scorched, and,
as it were roasted upon a fire, with the vehement, ardent, and excessive
heat that it endured, since first the fury of love surprised him.
* * * * *
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ALI AND ORASMIN;
Or, the Effects of Envy.
(Concluded from our last.)
Flattered by the hopes of possessing Almeria, but more through fear at
the threats of Orasmin, Ibrahim sat down, without a thought of the
consequences which might ensue to imitate the treasonous scroll. The
monster who compelled him to the action, was delighted with his
performance: and calling for sherbet, he drank, telling Ibrahim to
pledge him; then, bidding him good night with a sarcastical smile, and
securing the door when he went, left him in a most painful reverie.
Repairing to the walls of the seraglio, he entered by a private passage,
through which the Emperor always passed when wont to survey the royal
city in disguise; and which, by having been vizier, he was well
acquainted with: and having, while in office, procured false keys to the
various doors, he easily found admission to the secret audience-chamber,
where none but the vizier can enter, on pain of death, without
permission of the Sultan; and there leaving the letter, he returned to
his house, exulting in the hope that Mustapha would discover it, when he
retired there alone, as was his custom every night, to inspect such
dispatches as the vizier in the day prepared for his approbation:
trusting the success of his plan on the extreme credulity and
impetuosity of that monarch, which hurried him into actions that
provided him the most severe repentance for his moments of reflection.
The event justified his most sanguine expectations; and, before the
first watch of the night was passed, a hasty messenger summoned him to a
secret audience in the palace. The sultan presented him with the letter;
he read it, and appeared petrified with astonishment; compared the
writing with some of Ali’s he had purposely brought with him, to satisfy
himself of it’s identity; then, bemoaning the defalcation of his friend,
in accents of the most artfully counterfeited grief, and after an
apparent struggle between duty and friendship--“Glory,” said he, “to God
and his prophet! Long life to the Commander of the Faithful! and
destruction to his enemies! The profound duty every Mussulman owes to
the vicegerent of Alla, obliges me to dispense with the scruples of an
ill-placed friendship; and declare, that the conduct of Ali has long
appeared to me as involved in the veil of mystery; the plausible manner
in which he has ever demeaned himself, I have discovered, beyond a
doubt, has been only a bait for popularity; too ardent a love for which
is a certain criterion of unwarrantable ambition.
“I once had the mortification to witness the shameful defeat of the
Ottoman arms, under his command: I had then many reasons to suspect
treachery; but the implicit confidence I, with the empire at large, put
in him, made me discredit my own senses; and it was the same infatuation
which induced me to be the foremost in declaring him the most eligible
for the viziership, when returned from meeting the rebel Ismoul.
“Yet, when I reflect, in sober reason, on the nature of that action, and
behold the insurgents, though greatly superior in force, throwing down
their arms almost without the shadow of resistence, and their leader
suffered to escape, it impresses me as a strong confirmation of the
authenticity of his treason.” “Thou art right, Orasmin!” interrupted the
enraged Mustapha: “convey him instantly to a dungeon; and to-morrow’s
sun shall behold inflicted on him the reward of his treachery!”--“Will
it please the gracious emblem of Alla,” replied Orasmin, “to listen a
moment longer, without anger, to his slave; while he offers, as Alla
himself can witness, the counsel only dictated by that unshaken
attachment ever evinced by his house to the renowned family of the
Othmans!”--“Speak on, and fear not,” returned Mustapha. Orasmin
proceeded--“Thou knowest well, O glory of thy race! that Ali is the idol
of the deluded multitude; and, should they behold him going forth to
execution, what desperate steps may not their blind attachment induce
them to take for his preservation? And a commotion once begun, as we
know not how far the treason has spread, may encourage hundreds of
accomplices in the guilt to come forward; and, led by Nadar who
doubtless is at hand, induce the populace to join the compact of
treason, release Ali, and shake perhaps even the foundation of the
Ottoman throne? Let policy, then, bid Justice strike this night; so, the
root of the confederacy being cut away, the branches shall necessarily
wither; and when to-morrow’s sun shall expose the traitor’s head,
branded with his crime, to the trembling people, thy subjects shall be
more firmly fixed in their obedience--taught by the awful lesson, that
the most exalted enemies of Mustapha are the fated victims of
destruction!” He ceased.
“By Mahomet, I swear,” rejoins the Sultan, “thy reasons are just! See
him instantly dispatched! Be this,” presenting his ring, “thy warrant.
Begone!”
Orasmin wanted not urging: he seized Ali; but appeared not before him,
till he beheld him extended on the floor of a loathsome dungeon, secured
by the pondrous manacles of injustice. On entering, having ordered the
guard to withdraw--“Mahomet!” said he, “is it my noble friend Ali I am
commissioned to guard? Can any wretch have accused thee of a crime
meriting such dishonour! thou, whose name scandal had not even dared to
prophane? Alas! my friend! where will Oppression finish his
career!”---“I know not, my dear Orasmin!” replied the injured Ali, half
raising himself, “my crime, nor mine accuser: innocence, however, is my
support; and, while thou art my gaoler, I shall find pleasure even in a
prison!”---“Generous, noble Ali,” rejoind the brute, “what is it I do
not feel for thee! Yet it were unkind to keep thee in suspence. Know,
then, that the abandoned wretch, who was the occasion of the foul
disgrace thou endurest, is no other than thy dear, thy beloved friend,
Orasmin!”---“Orasmin! Orasmin!” with an accent of doubting horror,
inquired the victim. “Yes!” returned the fiend, “thy Orasmin!” Ali sunk
down senseless. On his recovering, Orasmin continued, “From the hour
that early youth submitted me to the scourgings of a pedagogue, thou
hast been my rival, and the name of Orasmin has shrunk before that of
All. Thinkest thou, that I could have a spirit, and bear it? No! the
childish weaknesses of friendship I soon got rid of; and, from the
moment thou deprived me of all hope of possessing the sorceress Amine,
I determined on a revenge--not a common revenge, that was always at
hand--I waited, with all the patience of deliberate malignance, for a
revenge worthy my hatred, and I have obtained it! I have accused thee of
treason; and, behold, this ring is my warrant for thy private murder!
Murder! I say; for--O it delights my soul to pronounce it--thou art
innocent!”
“And must I die innocent?” exclaimed the devoted Ali. “Yet thy will,
O Alla! be done. What more have I to wish for on earth? I have lost my
friend, my wife, and my child!”--“Friend,” interrupted Orasmin, “thou
never hadst! Thy wife and child----But, hold! I came to torment, not to
satisfy thee!”--“Oh! Orasmin, what a conflict hast thou raised in my
bosom! My wife and child! knowest thou any thing of them?” Orasmin
smiled contemptuously. “Speak, only say if thou knowest aught of
them!”---“I will say nothing,” replied he; “uncertainty will increase
thy pangs. Prepare for death!---Slaves!” The door of the dungeon burst
open, and presented to their view Mustapha, Ibrahim, and Amine! “Secure
that fiend!” cried the Sultan; and instantly Orasmin was loaded with
chains. Ali and Amine were lying senseless in each other’s arms; Orasmin
assumed a desperate sullenness; the Sultan and Ibrahim surveyed the
whole in silence. “Alla! Alla! Alla!” repeated the reviving Ali; “thou
art merciful! thou art merciful!”
“My dear lord,” interrupted Amine, “dreary have been the hours since we
parted! O hear my justification! While walking by the seaside, a band of
men, masked, beset me; and, forcing me on a horse, carried me,
blind-folded, I knew not where; for when suffered to remove the bandage,
I was alone, in a mean, gloomy apartment, the door of which was secured.
There have I remained, in vain lamenting my fate; ignorant of my
oppressor; and seeing no one, except a slave, who put my food through a
lattice daily, but never spoke; till this night I heard the voice of
Orasmin in a tone of threatening.
“I listened; and discovered, that he was compelling that generous youth,
Ibrahim, to write a treasonous letter in characters like yours. When I
found Orasmin was gone, I entreated the youth to liberate me: instantly
he opened a door into my apartment, so artfully contrived, that I had
never before observed it. I told him who I was, and begged him again to
deliver me. He was shocked; confirmed what I had over-heard, and
promised to protect me.
“He discovered, with indignation, that he himself was also a prisoner.
After a long deliberation, and many fruitless attempts to force the
door, at the peril of our lives, we escaped by a window into the garden.
Here we had fresh difficulties to encounter, and the fourth watch passed
before we were quite at liberty.
“We soon learned that you was imprisoned. Flying to the palace, our
gracious Sultan admitted us to an audience, when we convinced him of the
villainy of thy false friend.” “And, behold me,” interrupted the Sultan,
“ready to do thee justice, Ali; and inflict on that wretch the
punishment which he had prepared for thee! for, by Alla’s self I swear,
this night is his last!” “My fate is just!” said Orasmin, in a tone of
penitence. “But, before I die, let me make what reparation is in my
power to the man I have injured.
“Behold, Ali, in Ibrahim, I restore thee thy long-lost son!” Extreme was
the astonishment of all; and the rapture of Ali and Amine induced them
to kneel for a pardon for the culprit. “Ask not pardon,” said Orasmin,
“which must soon be repented! I stole thy child solely for the purposes
of revenge; though fortune never, till now, gave me an opportunity of
making use of him equal to my wishes; and, to make him the source of his
father’s death, was a stroke worthy the noblest policy of vengeance.
Thou hast escaped me; but, to give him thus kindly, were an inequality
of soul, poor indeed! No I have pangs for thee yet in store, the thought
of which makes the contemplation of death and tortures pleasant to me.
“I only revealed him to thee, to make thee feel the curses of lasting
separation. The mother once disdained the offer I made of my hand; it
was my intention, therefore, to have kept her ignorant of her
persecutor, languishing till grief and despair removed her from my
reach; but the boy had answered the end I designed him for: I wanted him
no more; and, at liberty, he might have betrayed me. For security,
I gave him poison in sherbet; and thought, even had he got free, so
strong it was, that it would have worked faster than his conscience!”
“The vengeance be on thine own head!” cried Ibrahim; “for it was thyself
who drank the poison. I saw thee drop something in the draught intended
for me; and unseen by thee, changed the cups.”
“I feel it! I feel it!” exclaimed the frantic Orasmin. “Curse on thee,
Mahomet! thou hast frustrated all!” “Hence with him!” said Mustapha. And
then led Amine and Ibrahim out of the prison. By permission of the
Sultan, Ibrahim was united to Almeria; and the participation of her
husband’s honours, who was restored to his viziership, amply recompenced
Amine for all her sorrows.
An exemplary instance of gratitude towards Alla and the Sultan---towards
the latter, by faithful counsel, and steady attachment to his interest;
and, towards the former, by an uniform course of piety, and a
conscientious dispensation of justice and benevolence to his fellow
subjects. Ali lived long beloved, and happy. As it is written in the
sacred tablets of truth---“The righteous shall dwell in the tents of
gladness, and the merciful in the gardens of peace: while the wicked
shall be covered with shame; and the envious man shall be consumed in
the fire which he kindleth for his neighbour.”
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_For the +New-York Weekly Magazine+._
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