EMINAH
And now for a story, a marvellous story, that would not be out of
place in a fairy tale! Away to another clime where the very sunbeams
and blossoms, where the very beating of loving hearts, differ from
what we are accustomed to.
* * * * *
In whichever direction we look around us, we shall see the land of the
gods rising up before us in classical sublimity, the mountains of
Hellas, the triumphal home of sun-bright heroes. There is the mountain
whence Zeus cast forth his thunderbolts, the grove where the thorns of
roses scratched the tender feet of Aphrodite, and perchance a whole
olive grove sprung from the tree into which the nymph, favored and
pursued by Apollo, was metamorphosed. The sunlit summits of snowy OEta
and Ossa still sparkle there when the declining sun kindles his
beacons upon them, and Olympus still has its thunderbolts; yet it is
no longer Zeus who casts them, but Ali Tepelenti, Pasha of Albania and
master of half the Turkish Empire, and the rose which the blood of
Venus dyed crimson blooms for him, and the laurel sprung from the love
of Apollo puts forth her green garlands for him also.
The poetic figures of the bright gods are seen no more on the quiet
mountain. With a long gun over his shoulder, a palikár walks hither
and thither, who has built his hut in a lurking-place where Ali Pasha
will not find it. The high porticos lie level with the ground; the
paths of Leonidas and Themistocles are covered with sentry-boxes, that
none may pass that way.
From the summit of the mighty Lithanizza you can look down upon the
fairy-like city which dominates Albania. It is Janina, the
historically renowned Janina.
Beside it stands the lake of Acheruz, in whose green mirror the city
can regard itself; there it is in duplicate. It is as deep as it is
high. The golden half-moons of the minarets sparkle in the lake and in
the sky at the same time. The roofless white houses, rising one above
another, seem melted into a compact mass, and they are encircled by
red bastions, with exits out of eight gates.
But what have we to do with the minarets, the bazaars, the kiosks of
the city? Beyond the city, where Cocytus, rippling down from the
wooded mountain, forms, with the lake into which it flows, a
peninsula, there, on an isthmus, stands the strong fortress of Ali
Pasha, with vast, massive bastions, a heavy, iron-plated drawbridge,
and a ditch in front of the walls full of solid sharp-pointed stakes
in two fathoms of water. From the summits of the ramparts the throats
of a hundred cannons gape down upon the town--iron dogs, whose barking
can be heard four miles off. On the walls an innumerable multitude of
armed men keep watch, and in front of the gate the guns look out upon
each other from the port-holes of the steep bastions on both sides of
it. Woe to those who should attempt to make their way into the citadel
by force! The gate, fastened with a huge chain, is defended by three
heavy iron gratings, and from close beneath the lofty projecting roof
circular pieces of artillery shine forth, in front of which are
pyramidal stacks of bombs.
The court-yard forms a huge crescent, in which nothing is visible but
instruments of warfare, engines of destruction. In the lower part of
the semicircular barracks stand the sentry-boxes, while in the
opposite semicircle a long pavilion cuts the fortress in two,
extending from the end of one semicircle to the end of the other, and
here are three gates, which lead into the heart of the fortress.
In all this long building there are no windows above the court-yard,
only two rows of narrow embrasures are visible therein. All the
windows are on the other side overlooking the garden, and there dwell
the odalisks of Ali Pasha's three sons. The three sons, Omar, Almuhán,
and Zaid, inhabit the building with the three gates. The back of this
building looks out upon the garden, in which the harems of the pasha's
sons are wont to disport themselves.
Here again a long bastion barricades the garden, a bastion also
protected by trenches full of water, across whose iron bridge you gain
admission into the pasha's inmost fortress.
And what is that like? Nobody can tell. The brass gates, covered with
silver arabesques, seem to be eternally closed, and none ever comes in
or goes out save Ali and his dumb eunuchs, and those captives whose
heads alone are sent back again. The bastion surrounding this central
fortress is so high that you cannot look into it from the top of the
citadel outside; but if any one could peep down upon it from the
summit of the lofty Lithanizza he would perceive inside it a fairy
palace, with walls of colored marble protected by silver trellis-work,
with blue-painted, brazen cupolas, with golden half-moons on their
pointed spires. One tower there, the largest of all, has a roof of red
cast-iron, and this one roof stands out prominently from among all the
other buildings of the inner fortress. The colored kiosks are
everywhere wreathed with garlands of flowers, and the spectator
perched aloft would plainly discern cradles for growing vines on the
top of the bastion. He might also, in the dusk of the summer evenings,
distinguish seductive shapes bathing in the basins of the fountains,
and lose his reason while he gazed; or it might chance (which is much
more likely) that Ali Pasha's patrols might come upon him unawares and
cast him down from the mountain-top.
This wondrous retreat was Ali's paradise. Here he grouped together the
most beautiful flowers of the round world--flowers sprung from the
earth or from a human mother. For maidens also are flowers, and may be
plucked and enjoyed like other flowers. But the most beautiful among
so many beautiful flowers was Eminah, Tepelenti's favorite damsel, the
sixteen-years-old daughter of the Pasha of Delvino, who gave her to
Ali just as so many eminent Turks are wont to give their daughters. On
the day of their birth they promise to give them to some powerful
magnate, and by the time the _fiancée_ is marriageable the _fiancé_
has already one foot in his grave.
A pale, blue-eyed flower was she, looking as if she had grown up
beneath the light of the moon instead of the light of the sun; her
shape, her figure, was so delicate that it reminded one of those
sylphs of the fairy world that fly without wings. Her voice was
sweeter, more tender, than the voices of the other damsels; and, wiser
than they, she could speak so that you felt rather than heard what she
said. Ali loved to toy with her light hair, unwind the long folds of
her tresses, cover his face with their silken richness, and fancy he
was reposing in the shades of paradise.
And the child loved the man. Ali was a handsome old fellow. His beard
was as glossy and as purely white as the wing of a swan; the roses of
his cheeks had not yet faded; when he smiled he was no longer a tiger,
but revealed a row of teeth even handsomer than her own. And, in
addition to that, he was valiant--a hero. Even in old men love is no
mere impotent desire when accompanied with all the vigorous passion of
youth.
And Eminah knew not that there were such beings as youths in the
world. Excepting her father and her husband, she had never seen a man,
and therefore fancied that other men also had just such white beards
and silvery eyelashes as they. Brought up from the days of her
childhood in the midst of a harem, among women and eunuchs, she had
not the remotest idea of the romantic visions which the hearts of
love-sick girls are wont to form from the contemplation of their
ideals; to her her husband was the most perfect man for whom a
woman's heart had ever beaten, and she clung to him as if he had been
a supernatural being.
In her heart Eminah pictured Ali as one of those beneficent genii who
in the marvellous tales of the Arabs rise up from the bowels of the
earth and the depths of the sea, a hundred times greater than ordinary
men, ten times younger, and a thousand times more powerful, who are
wont to give talismanic rings to their earthly favorites, appearing
before them when they turn this ring in order to instantly gratify
their desires, their wishes; to transport them from place to place
with their huge muscular hands, to make them ride a cock-horse on
their middle fingers, play hide-and-seek with them in the thousand
corners of their vast palaces, watch over them when they sleep,
overwhelm them with heaps and heaps of gifts and treasures, and yet
are gentle and complacent in spite of their immense power. They need
but take one step to crush the towers and bastions of the mightiest
fortress in the dust, and yet they walk so warily as not even to graze
the tiny ant they meet upon their path. Why, once Ali had waded into
the lake up to his waist to rescue two amorously fluttering
butterflies that had fallen into it! Oh! Ali has such a sensitive soul
that he weeps over the bird that has accidentally beaten itself to
death against the bars of its cage; whenever he plucks a flower from
its stalk he always raises it to his lips to beg its pardon; and when
they told him how at the siege of Kilsura all the poor doves were
burned, the tears sparkled in his eyes!
Eminah does not fully know the meaning of a siege; she only grieves
for the poor doves. How they would hover above the burning town in
white clusters amid the black smoke, and fall down into the fire
below!
In reality the matter stood thus: Ali was besieging Kilsura, but could
not take it; the besiegers fought valiantly, and the natural
advantages of the place prevented him from drawing near enough to it.
So he signified to the inhabitants that he would make peace with them
and depart from their town, and desired them, in earnest of their
pacific intentions, to send him a number of white doves. The besieged
fell in with his proposal, and collecting together all the white doves
in the town they could lay they hands upon, sent them to Ali. He
immediately withdrew his siege artillery, with which he had already
wrought no small mischief, but at night, when every one was asleep, he
fastened fiery matches by long wires to the feet of the doves, and
then set them free. The natural instincts of the doves made them fly
back to their old homes, the familiar roofs where their nests were,
and in a moment the whole town was in flames, the doves themselves
carrying the combustible material from roof to roof and perishing
themselves among the falling houses.
Ali wept sore as he told to Eminah the story of the doves of Kilsura;
yes, Ali was certainly a sensitive soul!
The beautiful woman had everything that eye could covet or heart
desire. In her apartments were mirrors as high as the ceiling,
masterpieces of Venetian crystal, and the floor was covered with
Persian carpets embroidered with flowers. Blossoming flowers and
singing birds were in all her windows, and a hundred waiting-women
were at her beck and call. From morn to eve Joy and Pleasure were her
attendants, and each day presented her with a fresh delight, a fresh
surprise.
Thirty rooms, opening one into another, each more magnificent than the
last, were hers, and hers alone. The eye that feasted on one splendid
object quickly forgot it in the contemplation of a still more splendid
marvel, and by the time it had taken them all in was eager to begin
again at the beginning.
But there was one thing which did not please Eminah. When one had got
to the end of all the thirty rooms, it was plain that they did not end
there, for then came a round brass door; and this door was always
closed against her--never was she able to go through it. Now this door
led into that huge tower with the red cast-iron roof, which could be
seen such a distance off.
The inquisitive woman very much wanted to know what was inside this
door through which she was never suffered to go, though Ali himself
used it frequently, always closing it most carefully behind him, and
wearing the key of it fastened to his bosom by a little cord.
Now and then she had asked Ali what was in this tower that she was not
allowed to see, and what he did when he remained there all night
alone? At such times Ali would reply that he went there to consort
with spirits who were teaching him how to find the stone of the wise,
how to become perpetually young, how to foresee the future, and make
gold and other marvels--all of which it was easy to make a woman
believe who did not even know that all men do not wear white beards.
After all such occasions Eminah, when she was alone again, would
conjure up before her all sorts of marvellous blue and green denizens
of fairyland appearing before Ali in the elements of air, fire, and
water, to teach him how to make gold. And Ali always proved to Eminah
that what he told her was no idle tale, for whenever he returned the
next day he was followed by a whole procession of dumb eunuchs
carrying baskets filled with gold and precious stones. Thus Ali not
only knew how to make gold, but also those things that are made of
gold--that is to say, coined money and filigreed ornaments, which he
piled up before her; and to Eminah it seemed a very nice thing, and
quite natural that if these peculiar spirits could manufacture gold
from nothing, they should also be able to make necklaces and bracelets
out of smoke, as Ali told her they did without any difficulty at all.
Now any one would have been curious to get to the bottom of such
mysteries, especially if they were close at hand; how much more, then,
a spoiled and pampered young woman, who frequently was not able to
sleep for the joy which the presents heaped upon her by Ali excited in
her breast. How much she would have loved to see these benevolent
spirits who had given her so much pleasure!
Frequently she implored Ali to take her with him when he went into the
red tower; but the pasha always tried to frighten her by saying that
these spirits were most cruel to strangers in general, and women in
particular, whom they would be ready to tear limb from limb, so that
Eminah always had to abandon her desire.
But when once a woman has made up her mind to do a thing, do it she
will, though a seven-headed dragon were to stand in the way; and if
fear is a great power in this world, curiosity is a still greater.
One evening Eminah accompanied Ali right up to the brass door, and as
he went in she dexterously thrust a little pebble between the door and
the threshold. Thus the door not being completely closed, the catch of
the lock, despite a double turn of the key, shot back again; so
instead of closing the door behind him, as Ali fondly imagined, he
left it ajar.
Eminah waited till the sound of her husband's footsteps had quite
ceased. Then she softly opened the door, and at first contented
herself with peeping in. Perceiving nothing to frighten her back, she
ventured right in, cautiously peering around at every step lest any
angry spirit should suddenly rise up before her.
Before her lay a long corridor, and she went right to the very end of
it. Then she came upon a spiral staircase, which was so dark that she
had to painfully grope her way along. A fatal curiosity goaded her on
in spite of the darkness, and presently she found herself in a large,
round room, dimly lit by a hanging lamp.
All round the walls of this room were arranged marble benches,
pitchers of water, funnels, and curious instruments of iron, leather,
and wood, of all shapes and sizes, looking all the more
incomprehensible in the semi-darkness. These were, no doubt, the
implements with which Ali was in the habit of making gold, thought
Eminah to herself, and, discovering a convenient niche at the head of
the staircase, she squeezed herself into it so that she could see
everything from thence without being seen herself.
A few moments afterwards the door at the opposite end of the room
opened, and Ali and twelve dumb eunuchs entered with torches. The room
was illuminated at once, the eunuchs thrusting the torches into large
iron sconces; one of them then proceeded to light the fire and pile up
various instruments around it; some sort of liquid also began bubbling
in a caldron. Ali meanwhile was sitting down on a camp-stool and
distributing his commands in a low voice. "Now we shall see how Ali
makes gold," thought Eminah.
But now at a sign from Ali two of the eunuchs entered a trap-door, and
a few moments afterwards the rattling of chains was audible; the
trap-door opened again, and in came two old men, peculiar-looking
creatures, with long gray hair, closely cropped beards, and strange
garments, the like of which Eminah had never seen before.
"Ah! no doubt these are the spirits which help Ali to make gold,"
thought Eminah to herself. "Well, at any rate, they are in chains, so
I need not be afraid of them." And, like the timid spectator of some
strange drama, she looked out from her hiding-place at the scene which
followed.
The two old men were led up to Ali, who, smiling and rubbing his
hands, stood up before them, and for a long time did not speak, but
only smiled. At last he gently stroked the face of the younger of the
two.
"Merchant of Naples, thou still dost not know, then, where thy
treasures lie hidden?" said he, gently.
"My lord," replied the other, with desperate obsequiousness, "I have
given up everything that was mine. I am indeed a beggar."
"Merchant of Naples! how canst thou say so? Let me refresh thy memory!
Thou didst go to Toulon with a full cargo of Indian goods, and there
sold it all. When we met together on thy return journey thou didst
offer me a thousand ducats, which I also took. But where is the
remainder? A profit of twelve thousand ducats appears entered in thy
trading-books."
"Those books are false, my lord," said the merchant, in a tearful
voice. "I made those totally fictitious entries simply to preserve my
credit."
"Merchant of Naples, thou dost calumniate thyself. Thou dost want to
make me believe that thou art not an honest man. Forgive me if I
enliven thy memory a little."
With that he beckoned to the eunuchs, and they, undressing the
merchant, laid him on the torturing slab and tortured him for two
mortal hours. It would be too horrible to say what they did to him.
Oh, that curious woman amply atoned for her curiosity! She was obliged
to look upon tortures which made her limbs shake and shiver as if she
were in the grip of an ague. She covered her face, but the howls of
the tortured wretch penetrated to her very soul, and her sensitive
nerves suffered almost as much as if she had felt these torments
herself. Gradually, however, a curious sort of torpor seemed to stop
the beating of her heart; her limbs ceased to tremble, she opened her
eyes and, motionless as a statue, watched the hellish scene to the
very end.
Ali was evidently a past-master in this horrible science. He himself
elaborately graduated the whole process, indicating briefly when and
how long the thumb-screws, the Spanish boot, the boiling oil, and the
water funnel were to be used. Last of all came the culminating
torment. They wrapped the merchant round in a raw buffalo-skin and
laid him down before the fiercely blazing fire. As the fire began to
compress the raw hide, and slowly press together the tortured limbs,
the limit of the poor wretch's endurance was reached, and he confessed
that his treasures were concealed in an iron chest, fastened by a
chain to the bottom of the ship.
Then they freed him from the torturing hide; in a state of collapse,
with foaming lips, a bleeding body and dislocated limbs, he flopped
down upon the cold marble.
"Thou seest now, my dear," observed Ali, gently, "what trouble thou
mightest have saved thyself and me also." Then he beckoned to the
eunuchs to remove the merchant.
So this was the way in which Ali made gold! A very simple sort of
alchemy, certainly!
And now it was the turn of the second man. And a haughty,
broad-shouldered fellow he was, who had regarded the torments of his
comrade without moving a muscle of his face.
"Then thou wilt not tell me thy name, valorous warrior?" inquired Ali.
"I will tell thee thine--Devil, Belial, Satan!"
"I thank thee! Thou dost me too much honor. But it is thy name I
should like to know. I suppose thou art some wealthy Venetian noble,
whose whereabouts his kinsmen are rather anxious to discover, and who
would not be ungrateful if any one sent thee back to them. For I
value thee very highly."
"Know, then, that I _am_ a rich noble, and that at home I have a
palace and treasures, but not a para of my property shalt thou ever
see, for I have taken poison. Dost thou not see the blue spots upon my
hand? Presently thou wilt see them on my face. In five minutes' time I
shall be dead."
And so indeed it fell out. The haughty noble died, while Ali, furious
with passion, cursed the Prophet.
And Eminah, from her hiding-place, looked intently upon Ali's face.
What must have been her thoughts at that moment?
The eunuchs removed the dead body, and Ali beckoned once more to them,
whereupon they brought in through the opposite doors a wondrously
beautiful damsel and a handsome youth. When the youth and the damsel
beheld each other the tears gushed from their eyes. They were lovers,
and lovers meet for each other.
Eminah now perceived with amazement that there were other kinds of men
besides those who wore gray beards. The captive youth, with his frank
and comely countenance and long black locks, so rejoiced her eyes that
she could not take them off him. She had never seen anything of the
sort before.
Ali approached the pair and smiled upon them both, and each of them
said to him, "I curse thee!"
He said to the youth, "Renounce thy bride and thou shalt live!" and
the youth replied, "I curse thee!"
He said to the damsel, "Love me, be mine, and thy betrothed shall
live!" and the girl replied, "I curse thee!"
And Eminah unconsciously murmured after them each time, "I curse
thee!" without knowing what she was saying.
Then Ali forced the youth down on his knees, and the eunuchs stripped
off his robe. One of them then seized him by his beautiful long black
hair, and raised him up into the air thereby, while the other stood
behind him with a large sharp sword.
"Thy beloved shall die this instant," roared the infuriated Ali, "if
thou dost not set him free! Embrace either me or his headless body."
Eminah turned her loathing eyes from the vile face of Ali, which, in
that moment, was deformed out of all recognition.
And the young couple replied with one voice, "We curse thee!" It was
as though they had taken an oath to say nothing else. The same instant
the sword flashed around the youth. His beautiful head bounded into
the air, then rolled along the floor to the foot of the spiral
staircase, and stood still before the very niche where Eminah was
concealed--at her very feet, in fact. The headless body, convulsed by
a final spasm, rent its fetters in twain, and then falling prone,
stretched out its hands towards the terror-stricken girl, while the
severed head, which had rolled up to Eminah's feet, seemed to be
murmuring something--anyhow the lips moved. Eminah bending down
towards it, put her ears close to the quivering mouth and whispered,
"I hear! I hear what thou sayest!" And she really believed she heard
something. Perhaps it was only her heart that was speaking.
After that she wrapped the head in her shawl, and hastened away from
the tower back into her own room, concealing the ghastly but still
beautiful trophy beneath the pillows of her sofa. Then she commanded
her odalisks to appear before her, that they might dance and sing.
Dawn was now not far distant, and still the entertainment was going
on. Then Ali returned from the red tower--his face was gentle and
smiling--and after him came two eunuchs carrying gold and treasure in
large baskets; and they emptied them all at Eminah's feet. The damsel
rejoiced, laughed at the sight of the treasures, and, throwing herself
on Ali's neck, repaid him with kisses, and dragged him down to her on
the sofa.
"Behold, the _dzhins_ have sent thee treasures," said Ali. "But a
strange thing hath befallen me; one of my treasures rolled away upon
the floor, and, search where I will, I cannot find it."
Eminah laughed, and fell a-teasing him. "Perchance the _dzhins_ have
stolen it from thee," cried she. Suppose she had said, "Thou art
sitting upon it, Ali Pasha?"
Ali Pasha took the damsel upon his lap, and rejoiced in her innocent,
artless eyes and her childlike smile. He fancied he could look through
those eyes down to the very depths of her heart. If only he _could_
have seen into it!
And while he was thus toying with her, the kadun-keit-khuda entered
the room of the odalisks, bringing with him a veiled damsel.
"Gracious lady," said he to Eminah, "I bring thee a Greek maiden, who
hath heard the fame of thy benevolence, and hath come of her own
accord to bask in the light of thy countenance, and gather fresh
strength from my smiles;" and he drew the maiden forward towards
Eminah, who immediately recognized the girl whose lover Ali Pasha had
decapitated, and said, playfully, to the guardian of the harem:
"Lo, kadun-keit-khuda, the damsel is trembling! If thou dost not
support her she will fall!"
"It is by reason of her great shyness, gracious lady."
"But how pale she is!"
"Thy beauty casteth a shadow upon her."
"But look!--she weeps!"
"They are tears of joy, lady."
Eminah gave the guardian of the harem a handful of ducats for his good
answers, and allowed the bashful damsel to stand before her. Then she
sent for sweetmeats, golden bread-fruits, wine with the lustre of
garnets, and her opium narghily; and, cradling Ali's gray head in her
bosom, seized her mandolin and sang to him Arab love-songs--hot,
burning, rose-scented, dew-besprinkled love-songs--and the pasha drew
over his face the long silken tresses of the damsel, as if he would
envelop himself in the cool shade of Paradise, and sleep a sleep of
sweet melody, intoxicating rapture, and soothing opium.
When the ivory stem of the narghily dropped from the hands of the
pasha, Eminah sent from the room all the damsels; only the newly
arrived Greek maiden remained behind. She made her sit down before her
on a cushion, and, putting into her hands a large silk fan to fan the
pasha with, she asked the damsel her name.
The damsel shook her head--she would not say.
"Why wilt thou not tell me?"
"Because I have still a sister at home."
Eminah understood the answer. "Come nearer," said she. "Last night I
had a dream. Methought I was in a large tower, the interior of which
was illuminated by twelve torches. Whichever way my eyes turned they
lit upon horrors--strange, terrifying objects appeared before me; and,
although, twelve torches were burning, darkness was still all around.
And it seemed to me as if this darkness was not vapor or thick smoke,
but a black mass of human beings all wedged together, who raised their
eyelids every now and then. After that I saw Ali Pasha sitting in a
red velvet chair with golden tiger feet, and as he sat cross-legged,
after the Turkish manner, it looked as if the tiger feet were his own
feet. Many terrifying shapes passed before me, and at last a young man
and a young woman were all who remained in the room, and to every
question put to them they replied, 'I curse thee!' Ali Pasha said to
the damsel, 'Love me!' and she replied, 'I curse thee!' And
immediately the head of the youth began rolling from one end of the
marble floor to the other, right up to my feet; and a drop of blood
dripped from it on to my slipper, and, strange to say, the drop of
blood was still there when I awoke. Look, is that really a drop of
blood, or is it only my imagination?"
And therewith Eminah put out her pretty little foot, which hitherto
she had kept hidden beneath the folds of her garment, and showed it to
the Greek girl. Then the girl fell weeping at her feet and kissed the
slipper. But it was not the foot of her mistress that she kissed--no,
no; what she kissed was the drop of blood that had dropped upon the
slipper.
"Look! that drop of blood has burned right through the morocco leather
of my shoe! What will it do, then, to the soul on which it has
fallen?"
And with that she withdrew her hair from the pasha's face and looked
at him with loathing. Yet he slept as calmly as if he were sleeping
the sleep of the just.
For nine and seventy years he had lived happily, joyously,
triumphantly, beloved by angels; and all the curses, all the murders,
that were upon his aged head were unable to carve one wrinkle on his
forehead, or distort a feature of his face, or cut off one day of his
life, or even to disturb one of his dreams; and there he lies on one
and the same couch with the head of his victim, the only difference
being that his head lies on the pillow, while the head of the murdered
man lies beneath it.
Eminah bent over him and bared the breast of the sleeper, who slept
calmly and regularly all the time.
"On that table lies an enamelled dagger," said she to the girl; "bring
it hither."
The girl darted away for the dagger, and came back with it. There she
stood, grasping it convulsively in her hand, as if she only awaited a
signal to drive it home.
"No, not so," said Eminah. "Cut not off his life, but cut through this
cord!" and, taking the key which Ali wore round his neck, she cut it
from its cord with the dagger. "This key opens the red tower. When
they pitched the dead bodies through the trap-door I heard the roar
of falling water. It is certain, therefore, that one can get through
the torture-chamber to the lake of Acheruz. We can get down to it by
ropes. I can swim, and thou canst also, I am sure; for art thou not a
Hydriot girl?[5] When we have reached the heights of Lithanizza we
shall find a safe refuge in the midst of the forests. Wherever it is,
it will be all one to me. Better to be among wolves and lynxes than
near Ali Pasha. Will you do what I say?"
[Footnote 5: An inhabitant of the isle of Hydra. The Hydriots were
remarkable for their enterprise and daring.]
The damsel's bosom heaved violently; she hid her head on Eminah's
shoulder and kissed her.
"Freedom!" she whispered, full of rapture; "freedom above all things!
It is now my only joy."
"Nobody will observe us," said Eminah, spurning aside the jewels,
which she loathed now that she knew whence they came. "It is the last
night of the Feast of Bairam. Every one is hastening to compensate
himself for the privations of the Fast of Ramadan, every one is
sleeping or enjoying himself; the greater part of the garrison is
making merry in the apartments of the beys; even the sons of Ali
Pasha, all three of them, are feasting with Mukhtar Bey. We shall be
able to escape them, and then the whole world lies before us."
The Greek girl pressed the lady's hand. "We will go together!" she
cried. "My brother dwells among the mountains of Corinth; he is a
valiant warrior, and will give us an asylum."
"Then go thither! I shall seek refuge with my kinsmen at Stambul. Now
go into the apartments of the odalisks and ask for apparel. I have
already hatched a good plan. If they are all asleep come softly back
with thy clothes. The kadun-keit-khuda only sleeps with half an eye;
beware of him! If he ask thee whither thou art going, show him the
pasha's handkerchief, and he will fancy Ali awaits thee."
The face of the Greek girl blushed purple at these words; even to lie
on such a subject was a horrible thought to her. But Eminah beckoned
to her to be gone, and when she found herself alone she drew forth the
head she had concealed beneath the pillow and placed it on a round
table in front of her. For a long time she gazed at the sunken eyes,
the gaping mouth, and the long black tresses which rolled over the
table on both sides. The lady smoothed the raven-black tresses with
her soft hand, and passed her fingers right across the noble features
without a shudder at their icy coldness.
There she sat an hour long opposite the dead head; and beside her Ali
Tepelenti, the terror of the whole region, lay prone in a deep,
motionless slumber. It was a strange sight, this young girl alone
there between these two horrors. She had resolved to quit Ali and set
the Greek damsel free; but what she meant to do after that she herself
could not have said.
In an hour's time the Greek damsel returned. She came so softly that
nobody could have heard her; even Eminah did not perceive her till the
damsel stood before the severed head and uttered a cry of terror. Only
for an instant, only for the duration of a lightning-flash did this
cry last; the damsel stifled it at once, and if it awoke any one in
the palace he must have fancied he was dreaming or had dreamed it, and
would go on sleeping again. Then the damsel, in an agony of speechless
grief, bent over the head of her betrothed, and her tears flowed in
streams, though not a word escaped her lips.
At last Eminah grasped the girl's hand and bade her make haste. So she
dried her tears, and after placing the severed head in front of that
of the sleeping pasha so that they confronted each other, and cutting
off one of the locks from its temples, she covered the cold eyes with
bitter, burning kisses, and then, taking up her things, rapidly
followed Eminah through the long suite of rooms.
A few minutes later they were in the torture-chamber. It was quite
empty; the blood stains had been washed away, there was nothing to
recall the horrors of the night before.
They opened the trap-door through which the dead bodies were wont to
be cast. At the bottom of the deep black void there was a roaring
sound as if the lake were in a commotion. No doubt a tempest was
raging outside. How were these girls to escape by way of the
subterranean stream? Perhaps some of the headless corpses were also
swimming down yonder amidst the foaming waves. Would those who
ventured down into those depths ever see the light of day again? But
to them it was all one. Better to perish in the deep void than be
condemned to the embraces of Ali Pasha. How the two girls abominated
him!--the one because he had murdered her love, the other because he
had loved her.
"Don't be afraid," they said to each other; and fastening their
bundles to a long rope which was used in torturing, they let it down
into the deep well, with a lamp at the end of it, and when the water
put out the light they fastened the other end of the rope to the hinge
of the door, and each in turn let herself down by it.
And whether they lived or whether they died, Ali Pasha lost on that
day two talismans which he should have guarded more jealously than the
light of his eyes: one was the spirit of blessing, the other the
spirit of cursing, both of which he had held fast bound, and both of
which had now been let loose.
* * * * *
At the moment when the two damsels plunged into the lake of Acheruz
the slumber of tranquillity disappeared from the eyes of Ali Pasha,
and he began to see spectres.
A peculiar feeling came over him. He whom phantoms avoided even when
he slept, he who had never even dreamed of fear, he whom the angel of
sleep had never known to be a coward, now began to experience a
peculiar sensation which was worse than any sickness and more painful
than any suffering. He was afraid!
He dreamed that the head of the young Suliot, which had been cut off
by his order, and which had rolled away and disappeared so that nobody
could find it, was now standing face to face with him on a table,
staring at him fixedly with stony eyes, and repeatedly addressing the
sleeper by name: "Ali Pasha! Ali Pasha!"
The limbs of the sleeper shook all over in a strange tremor.
"Ali Pasha!" he heard the head call for the third time.
Groaning, writhing, and turning himself about, he contrived to knock
the head off the cushion, smearing all the bed with blood. And now he
saw and heard more terrible things than ever.
"One, two," said the severed head. And Ali understood that this was
the number of the years he had still to live. "Thy head hath no longer
either hand or foot," continued the head; and Ali was obliged to
listen to what it said. "Two severed heads now stand face to face,
mine and thine. Why dost thou not reply to me? Why dost thou not look
into my eyes? Two headless trunks stand before the throne of God, mine
and thine. How shall the Lord recognize thee? He inquires which is
Ali. For every soul there is a white garment laid up. And thou deniest
thy name, with thy right hand on thy heart. Thou _art_ Ali, for on thy
white garment are five bloody finger-prints."
Ali writhed in his sleep, and covered with his hand that part of his
caftan which lay over his heart. And all the time the head never
disappeared from before his eyes and its lips never closed. Presently
it went on again.
"Listen, Ali! Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin! The hand which guided thee
in the performance of thy mighty deeds is also bringing thine actions
to an end, and thou shalt no longer be a hero whom the world admires,
but a robber whom it curses. Those whom thou lovedest will bless the
day of thy death, but thine enemies will weep over thee. Moreover, God
hath ordained that thou shalt be the ruin of thine own nation."
Ali tossed, sighing and groaning, upon his couch, and could not awake;
a world of crime lay upon his breast. He felt the earth shake beneath
him, and the sky above his head was dark with masses of black cloud,
and the thought of death was a terror to him.
The head went on speaking. "Two birds quitted thy rocky citadel at the
same hour, a white dove and a black crow. The white dove is Peace,
which has departed from thy towers; the black crow is Vengeance, which
will return in search of carcasses at the scent of thy ruin. The white
dove is thy damsel, the black crow is mine; and woe to thee from them
both!"
Ali, in the desperation of his rage, roared aloud in his sleep, and
his violent cry tore asunder the light fetters of sleep. He sprang
from his couch and opened wide his eyes--and lo! the severed head was
standing before him on the table.
The pasha looked about him in consternation; he was not sufficiently
master of himself at first to tell how much of all this was a dream
and how much reality. He still seemed to hear the terrible words which
had proceeded from those open lips, and his hand involuntarily
clutched at his breast as if he would have covered there the five
bloody finger-marks. Then the cut cord from which the key was missing
fell across his hand, and immediately his presence of mind returned.
Drawing his sword, he rushed towards the brazen door, and discovered
that the fugitives had had sufficient forethought to close the door
and leave the key in the lock outside, so that it could only be opened
by force. He turned back and rushed to the end of the dormitories.
Some of the odalisks were awakened by the sound of his heavy
footsteps, and perceiving his troubled face, plunged underneath their
bedclothes in terror; in front of the doors stood the dumb eunuch
sentries, leaning on their spears like so many bronze statues.
He rushed down into the garden to the end of the familiar walks, and
when he came to the gate was amazed to perceive that the drawbridge
which separated his palace from the dwellings of his sons had been let
down and nobody was guarding it. The topidshis, the negroes, knowing
that Ali always turned into his harem on the Feast of Bairam, had gone
across to the palace of Mukhtar Bey, who was giving a great banquet in
honor of Vely Bey and Sulaiman Bey, his brothers. All three had
brought together their harems to celebrate the occasion, and while the
masters were diverting themselves upstairs, their servants were making
merry below. Music and the loud mirth of those who feast resounded
from the house; every gate of the citadel was open; slaves and guards
lying dead drunk in heaps, victims of the forbidden fluid, cumbered
the streets. A whole hostile army, with drums beating and colors
flying, might easily have marched into the citadel over their
prostrate bodies.
Wrath and the cold night air gradually gave back to Ali his soul of
steel. Wary and alert, he entered the palace of Mukhtar Bey.