MAHOMMED HEARS FROM THE STARS
The second recall of the Emir Mirza departing with the appointment for
the Prince of India was remarkable, considering Mahommed's usual
quickness of conclusion and steadiness of purpose; and the accounting
for it is noteworthy.
So completely had the young Turk been taken up by study and military
service that leisure for love had been denied him; else he either
despised the passion or had never met a woman to catch his fancy and
hold it seriously.
We have seen him make the White Castle by hard galloping before the
bursting of the storm. While at the gate, and in the midst of his
reception there, the boats were reported making all speed to the river
landing; and not wishing his presence at the Castle to be known in
Constantinople, he despatched an under officer to seize the voyagers,
and detain them until he had crossed the Bosphorus _en route_ to
Adrianople. However, directly the officer brought back the spirited
message of the Princess Irene to the Governor of the Castle, his mind
underwent a change.
"What," he asked, "sayst thou the woman is akin to the Emperor
Constantine?"
"Such is her claim, my Lord, and she looks it."
"Is she old?"
"Young, my Lord--not more than twenty."
Mahommed addressed the Governor:
"Stay thou here. I will take thy office, and wait upon this Princess."
Dismounting, then, in the capacity of Governor of the Castle, he
hastened to the landing, curious as well as desirous of offering refuge
to the noble lady.
He saw her first a short way off, and was struck with her composed
demeanor. During the discussion of his tender of hospitality, her face
was in fair view, and it astonished him. When finally she stepped from
the boat, her form, delicately observable under the rich and graceful
drapery, and so exquisitely in correspondence with her face, still
further charmed him.
Before the chairs were raised, he sent a messenger to the Castle with
orders to place everybody in hiding, and for his Kislar-Aga, or chief
eunuch, to be in the passage of entrance to receive and take charge of
the kinswoman of the Emperor and her attendant. By a further order the
Governor proper was directed to vacate his harem apartments for her
accommodation.
In the Castle, after the Princess had been thus disposed of, the
impression she made upon him increased.
"She is so high-born!--so beautiful!--She has such spirit and
mind!--She is so calm under trial--so courageous--so decorous--so used
to courtly life!"
Such exclamations attested the unwonted ferment going on in his mind.
Gradually, as tints under the brush of a skilful painter lose
themselves in one effect, his undefined ideas took form.
"O Allah! What a Sultana for a hero!"
And by repetition this ran on into what may be termed the chorus of a
love song--the very first of the kind his soul had ever sung.
Such was Mahommed's state when Mirza received the turquoise ring, and,
announcing the Prince of India, asked for orders. Was it strange he
changed his mind? Indeed he was at the moment determining to see again
the woman who had risen upon him like a moon above a lake; so, directly
he had despatched the Emir to the Prince of India with the appointment
for midnight, he sent for an Arab Sheik of his suite, arrayed himself
in the latter's best habit, and stained his hands, neck, and
face-turned himself, in brief, into the story-teller whom we have seen
admitted to amuse the Princess Irene.
At midnight, sharply as the hour could be determined by the uncertain
appliances resorted to by the inmates of the Castle, Mirza appeared at
his master's door with the mystical Indian, and, passing the sentinel
there, knocked like one knowing himself impatiently awaited. A voice
bade them enter.
The young Turk, upon their entrance, arose from a couch of many
cushions prepared for him under a canopy in the centre of the room.
"This, my Lord, is the Prince of India" said Mirza; then, almost
without pause, he turned to the supposed Indian, and added more
ceremoniously: "Be thou happy, O Prince! The East hath not borne a son
so worthy to take the flower from the tomb of Saladin, and wear it, as
my master here--the Lord Mahommed."
Then, his duty done, the Emir retired.
Mahommed was in the garb used indoors immemorially by his race--sharply
pointed slippers, immense trousers gathered at the ankles, a yellow
quilted gown dropping below the knees, and a turban of balloon shape,
its interfolding stayed by an aigrette of gold and diamonds. His head
was shaven up to the edge of the turban, so that, the light falling
from a cluster of lamps in suspension from the ceiling, every feature
was in plain exposure. Looking into the black eyes scarcely shaded by
the upraised arching brows, the Prince of India saw them sparkle with
invitation and pleasure, and was himself satisfied.
He advanced, and saluted by falling upon his knees, and kissing the
back of his hands laid palm downward on the floor. Mahommed raised him
to his feet.
"Rise, O Prince!" he said--"rise, and come sit with me."
From behind the couch, the Turk dragged a chair of ample seat, railed
around except at the front, and provided with a cushion of camel's
hair--a chair such as teachers in the Mosques use when expounding to
their classes. This he placed so while he sat on the couch the visitor
would be directly before him, and but little removed. Soon the two were
sitting cross-legged face to face.
"A man devout as the Prince of India is reported to me," Mahommed
began, in a voice admirably seconding the respectful look he fixed upon
the other, "must be of the rightly guided, who believe in God and the
Last Day, and observe prayer, and pay the alms, and dread none but
God--who therefore of right frequent the temples."
"Your words, my Lord, are those of the veritable messenger of the most
high Heaven," the Wanderer responded, bending forward as if about to
perform a prostration. "I recognize them, and they give me the
sensation of being in a garden of perpetual abode, with a river running
beneath it." Mahommed, perceiving the quotation from the Koran, bent
low in turn, saying: "It is good to hear you, for as I listen I say to
myself, This one is of the servants of the Merciful who are to walk
upon the earth softly. I accost you in advance, Welcome and Peace."
After a short silence, he continued: "A frequenter of mosques, you will
see, O Prince, I have put you in the teacher's place. I am the student.
Yours to open the book and read; mine to catch the pearls of your
saying, lest they fall in the dust, and be lost."
"I fear my Lord does me honor overmuch; yet there is a beauty in
willingness even where one cannot meet expectation. Of what am I to
speak?"
Mahommed knit his brows, and asked imperiously, "Who art thou? Of that
tell me first."
Happily for the Prince, he had anticipated this demand, and, being
intensely watchful, was ready for it, and able to reply without
blenching: "The Emir introduced me rightly. I am a Prince of India."
"Now of thy life something."
"My Lord's request is general--perhaps he framed it with design. Left
thus to my own judgment, I will be brief, and choose from the mass of
my life."
There was not the slightest sign of discomposure discernible in the
look or tone of the speaker; his air was more than obliging--he seemed
to be responding to a compliment.
"I began walk as a priest--a disciple of Siddhartha, whom my Lord, of
his great intelligence, will remember as born in Central India. Very
early, on account of my skill in translation, I was called to China,
and there put to rendering the Thirty-five Discourses of the father of
the Budhisattwa into Chinese and Thibettan. I also published a version
of the Lotus of the Good Law, and another of the Nirvana. These brought
me a great honor. To an ancestor of mine, Maha Kashiapa, Buddha
happened to have intrusted his innermost mysteries--that is, he made
him Keeper of the Pure Secret of the Eye of Right Doctrine. Behold the
symbol of that doctrine."
The Prince drew a leaf of ivory, worn and yellow, from a pocket under
his pelisse, and passed it to Mahommed, saying, "Will my lord look?"
Mahommed took the leaf, and in the silver sunk into it saw this sign:
[Illustration]
"I see," he said, gravely. "Give me its meaning."
"Nay, my Lord, did I that, the doctrine of which, as successor of
Kashiapa, though far removed, they made me Keeper--the very highest of
Buddhistic honors--would then be no longer a secret. The symbol is of
vast sanctity. There is never a genuine image of Buddha without it over
his heart. It is the monogram of Vishnu and Siva; but as to its
meaning, I can only say every Brahman of learning views it
worshipfully, knowing it the compression of the whole mind of Buddha."
Mahommed respected the narrator's compunction, and returned the symbol,
saying simply, "I have heard of such things."
"To pursue," the Prince then said, confident of the impression he was
producing: "At length I returned to my own country enriched beyond
every hope. A disposition to travel seized me. One day, passing the
desert to Baalbec, some Bedouin made me prisoner, and carrying me to
Mecca, sold me to the Scherif there; a good man who respected my
misfortune and learning--may the youths ever going in Paradise forget
not his cup of flowing wine!--and wrought with me over the Book of the
One God until I became a believer like himself. Then, as I had
exchanged the hope of Nirvana for the better and surer hope of Islam,
he set me free.... Again in my native land, I betook myself to
astrologic studies, being the more inclined thereto by reason of the
years I had spent in contemplating the abstrusities of Siddhartha. I
became an adept--something, as my Lord may already know, impossible to
such as go about unknowing the whole earth and heavens, and the powers
superior, those of the sky, and those lesser, meaning Kings, Emperors,
and Sultans."
"How!" exclaimed Mahommed. "Is not every astrologer an adept?"
The Prince answered softly, seeing the drift was toward the professor
in the young Turk's service. "There is always a better until we reach
the best. Even the stars differ from each other in degree."
"But how may a man know the superior powers?"
"The sum of the observations kept by the wise through the ages, and
recorded by them, is a legacy for the benefit of the chosen few. Had my
Lord the taste, and were he not already devoted by destiny, I could
take him to a college where what is now so curious to him is simple
reading."
The hard and doubting expression on Mahommed's face began to soften,
yet he persisted: "Knowing the superior, why is it needful to know the
inferior powers?"
"My Lord trenches now upon the forbidden, yet I will answer as his
shrewdness deserves. Never man heard from the stars in direct
speech--that were almost like words with God. But as they are servants,
they also have servants. Moreover what we have from them is always in
answer. They love to be sought after by the diligent. Some ages ago an
adept seeking this and that of them conjecturally, had reply, 'Lo! A
tribe of poor wanderers in the East. Heed them, for they shall house
their dominion in palaces now the glory of the West, and they shall dig
the pit to compass the fall of the proud.' Is it this tribe? Is it
that? But the seeker never knew. The children of Ertoghrul were yet
following their herds up and down the pastures they had from
Ala-ed-din, the Iconian. Not knowing their name, he could not ask of
them from the decree-makers?"
The Mystic beheld the blood redden Mahommed's open countenance, and the
brightening of his eyes; and as he was speaking to his pride, he knew
he was not amiss.
"The saying of the stars," he went on, "descended to succeeding adepts.
Time came to their aid. When at length your fathers seated themselves
in Broussa, the mystery was in part revealed. Anybody, even the
low-browed herdsman shivering in the currents blowing from the Trojan
heights, could then have named the fortunate tribe. Still the exposure
was not complete; a part remained for finding out. We knew the diggers
of the pit; but for whom was it? To this I devoted myself. Hear me
closely now--my Lord, I have traversed the earth, not once, but many
times--so often, you cannot name a people unknown to me, nor a land
whither I have not been--no, nor an island. As the grandson of
Abd-el-Muttalib was a Messenger of God, I am a Messenger of the
Predicting Stars--not their prophet, only their Interpreter and
Messenger. The business of the stars is my business." Mahommed's lips
moved, and it was with an effort he kept silent.
The Prince proceeded, apparently unconscious of the interest he was
exciting: "Here and there while I travelled, I kept communication with
the planets; and though I had many of their predictions to solve, I
asked them oftenest after the unnamed proud one for whom thy
Ottomanites were charged to dig a pit. I presented names without
number--names of persons, names of peoples, and lest one should be
overlooked, I kept a record of royal and notable families. Was a
man-child horn to any of them, I wrote down the minute of the hour of
his birth, and how he was called. By visitations, I kept informed of
the various countries, their conditions, and their relations with each
other; for as the state of the earth points favorably or unfavorably to
its vegetation, so do the conditions of nations indicate the approach
of changes, and give encouragement to those predestined to bring the
changes about. Again I say, my Lord, as the stars are the servants of
God, they have their servants, whom you shall never know except as you
are able to read the signs their times offer you for reading. Moreover
the servants are sometimes priests, sometimes soldiers, sometimes
kings; among them have been women, and men of common origin; for the
seed of genius falls directly from God's hand, and He chooses the time
and field for the sowing; but whether high or low, white or black, good
or bad, how shall a Messenger interpret truly for the stars except by
going before their elect, and introducing them, and making their paths
smooth? Must he not know them first?"
A mighty impulsion here struck Mahommed. Recurring rather to what he
had heard from Mirza of the revelation dropped by the strange person
met by him during the pilgrimage, he felt himself about to be declared
of the elect, and unable to control his eagerness, he asked abruptly:
"Knowest thou me, O Prince?"
The manner of the Mystic underwent a change. He had been deferential,
even submissive; seldom a teacher so amiable and unmasterful; now he
concentrated his power of spirit, and shot it a continuing flash from
his large eyes.
"Know thee, Lord Mahommed?" he answered, in a low voice, but clear and
searching, and best suited to the conflict he was ushering in--the
conflict of spirit and spirit. "Thou knowest not thyself as well."
Mahommed shrank perceptibly--he was astonished.
"I mean not reference to thy father--nor to the Christian Princess, thy
mother,--nor to thy history, which is of an obedient son and brave
soldier,--nor to thy education, unusual in those born inheritors of
royal power--I mean none of these, for they are in mouths everywhere,
even of the beggars nursing their sores by the waysides.... In thy
father's palace there was a commotion one night--thou wert about to be
born. A gold-faced clock stood in the birth chamber, the gift of a
German King, and from the door of the chamber eunuchs were stationed.
Exactly as the clock proclaimed midnight, mouth and mouth carried the
cry to a man on the roof--'A Prince is born! A Prince is born! Praised
be Allah!' He on the roof was seated at a table studying a paper with
the signs of the Zodiac in the usual formulary of a nativity. At the
coming of the cry, he arose, and observed the heavens intently; then he
shouted, 'There is no God but God! Lo, Mars, Lord of the
Ascendant--Mars, with his friends, Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter in happy
configuration, and the moon nowhere visible. Hail the Prince!' And
while his answer was passing below, the man on the roof marked the
planets in their Houses exactly as they were that midnight between
Monday and Tuesday in the year 1430. Have I in aught erred, my lord?"
"In nothing, O Prince."
"Then I proceed.... The nativity came to me, and I cast and recast it
for the aspects, familiarities, parallels and triplicities of the hour,
and always with the same result. I found the sun, the angles and the
quality of the ambient signs favorable to a career which, when run, is
to leave the East radiant with the glory of an unsetting sun."
Here the Jew paused, and bowed--"Now doth my Lord doubt if I know him
best?"