Boy, let you liquid ruby flow,
And bid thy pensive heart be glad.
Whate’er the frowning zealots say,
Tell them their Eden cannot show
A stream so clear as Rocnabad,
A bower so sweet as Mosellay.
HAFIZ.
When the eunuchs in waiting went to announce to the emperor, at the
usual hour after sunset, that the evening meal was ready, they found
him still prostrate on the carpet, occasionally talking to himself in a
low whispering voice, of his father, of Nourmahal, Chusero, Afkun, and
Abul Fazeel, in an incoherent manner; to which, however, they had been
long accustomed.
“It was wrong--very wrong--that marriage. My father ought never to
have permitted it, knowing, as he must have known, my feelings towards
her. And yet he was the most affectionate of parents--the most upright
of rulers. He would not offend against the laws which, unhappily, gave
her to Afkun. Fazeel favoured that marriage. He is gone--whither? His
blood is upon me. It trickles down my face with the icy coldness of
death! Oh, no--it was Bochari’s act, not mine! Had I any hand in the
mutilation of his limbs? It was the Rajaputs. For this crime they shall
be exterminated. That head, crowned with silver hairs--full of all
wisdom--the reproaches it breathes upon me, are poisoned arrows that
enter my very soul! Oh, that those early days could be renewed, when I
first looked upon the world and found it so beautiful--the air perfumed
with spicy fragrance--full of the melody of birds--when seated beneath
a mulberry-tree my heart was innocent--and poetry, and Arabian tales,
and sweet music, constituted all my delight--days of bliss I shall know
no more.”
“Is it your majesty’s pleasure,” asked one of the eunuchs, “that the
banquet should be delayed?”
“Bring hither my son Chusero--bring him here instantly--say I must see
him--his father must see him.”
The eunuch went to the harem, and leading forth a cherub boy, with
golden hair flowing on his head in natural ringlets, eyes of the
colour of the nutshell as to the pupil, the remainder of the orb
a pearl beyond all price,--full cheeks, roseate with the glow of
health; eyebrows arched and penciled as the first crescent of the
moon; a mouth exquisitely sculptured, and smiling with intelligence
and gentleness, placed him on the carpet near Jehangire. The child,
in playful affection, passed his hand round the emperor’s neck, and
that well-known word, “Papa!” breathed in a voice of the sweetest
tenderness, at once recalled the monarch’s wandering thoughts to their
more wholesome channels.
“Purveiz! my charming boy! I had indeed forgotten myself, when I
commanded them to bring me Chusero. Ah, my beloved! that you may
never know the pangs which your brother has cost me! These beauteous
hands--they are fair as the primrose. When, as you are wont to do,
you twine with these slender tapering fingers your favourite ringlet,
and, notwithstanding all your mother’s prohibitions, draw this tiny
thumb far within your lips, deeming it an inexhaustible fountain of
nectar, there is no picture of innocence and happiness on earth like
to thine! What would I not give to exchange with thee at this moment!
No--not exchange--Heaven forbid you should know half the griefs I have
suffered!”
Jehangire’s mind having been calmed down to a reasonable temperature
by the prattle of his child, permitted his turban to be re-arranged,
and proceeded to the evening meal, where, as usual, he found Bochari
and several of the favourite officers of the household waiting for
his presence. A few cups of Cabul wine soon altered the tenor of his
thoughts. Having learned that his orders had been executed as to the
preparations for advancing towards the insurgents on the following
morning, he talked only of the vengeance which he hoped to inflict upon
the author of the revolt and his confederates.
“Let it be fully explained,” he said, “to all my omrahs, that no man
is to fail in the application of the sources placed at his disposal.
In the concerns of sovereign power there is neither child nor kin. The
alien who exerts himself in my cause, is of more worth to me than a
thousand sons or kindred. The son who, in the presumption of his heart,
forgets the duty which he owes to his father, and the unnumbered marks
of royal bounty bestowed upon him, is to me, in every sense, a stranger.
“Have we not, in this respect, in Islam, a distinguished example
prescribed, in the domestic policy of the monarchs of the house of
Othman, who, for the stability of their royal authority, of all their
sons preserve but one, considering it expedient to destroy all the
rest? What, then, if, for the preservation of the state, if, to prevent
the disorders that might otherwise interrupt the peace of the world, I
should think it necessary to extinguish the mischief, though it shews
itself in the bosom of my own family? Little, indeed, should I have to
boast of my capacity for the exercise of the power entrusted to me, if,
after such a flagrant proof of his total disregard of filial duty, with
my eyes open, I should ever again be tempted to entrust this wretched
fugitive with the slightest share of delegated authority.”
“Spoken like Acbar!” cried out Bochari.
“Safeguard of the world!--Sovereign splendour of the faith!” exclaimed
the omrahs, “the victory is already yours.”
“Delicious wine!” said Jehangire, holding out his large silver cup
to be replenished. “The prophet, when he forbade his followers the
generous element, certainly could not have visited Cabul.”
“Very fortunate for us,” observed Bochari, “that the Koran is so
express on that point, otherwise the Cabulites would doubtless have
kept their wine at home.”
“I doubt,” rejoined Auzeem, one of the omrahs, whom the emperor, in
his convivial moments, honoured by the title of _uncle_, “whether the
prophet was himself so abstemious as his laws ordain. I have heard it
said, that in his own case, at least, he admitted certain cases of
exception--such as illness--when he took a cup as medicine--or fatigue
from a day’s hunting--when he claimed a cup for refreshment--or if
the rains prevented him from going abroad--when he found a cup or
two necessary in lieu of exercise--or if he was employed in writing
the Koran--when the juice of the grape, he acknowledged, heightened
his inspirations. If he married a young wife, he demanded a bowl to
signalize his joy--if he lost an old wife, he took three or four bowls
to enable him to sustain his sorrow.”
“Uncle, uncle, as great an infidel as ever! your pilgrimage to Mecca, I
see, has done you no good.”
“And yet,” said Bochari, “if rumour may be believed, no pilgrim ever
performed the sacred ceremonies with a greater appearance of zeal and
devotion.”
“It was the pleasure of the late emperor that I should visit Mecca,”
said Auzeem, “and being once there, really one could not help being
religious. However, I am, once for all, about to repent. New laws, I
hear, have been lately made against wine-drinking.”
“True--true--and they must be obeyed,” the emperor declared, as he
emptied his cup. “As soon as I can see how they operate upon the mass
of my subjects, whose happiness it is my first duty to consult, I shall
begin to submit to them myself, and live on Ganges water.”
An attendant, who heard only the last words, conceived that Jehangire
had asked for water, which he began to pour into his cup.
“Slave!” exclaimed the sovereign, “what is this?”
“Ganges water, sire.”
“Fool! to waste the sacred stock in this manner, keep it for the day of
battle--wine--nothing but wine to-night.”
Auzeem could not repress his laughter. He was privileged. The laugh was
contagious. It went round the circle, until the “splendor of the faith”
joining in it, the apartment became a scene of uproar.
“How happens it,” asked Jehangire, “that there is no person about my
court who reads the Koran with more elegant enunciation than my uncle;
and yet no man, in my empire perhaps, pays so little regard to its
precepts?”
“The truth is,” answered Auzeem, “that I am very diffident of my own
judgment. I have often recited it to your majesty since you left the
harem, and I am still waiting to discover the result of my exertions.”
“Is there no excuse for me? Encompassed as I have always been with
youthful associates of congenial minds, breathing the air of a
delicious climate, ranging through lofty and splendid saloons, every
part decorated with all the graces of painting and sculpture, and the
floors bespread with the richest carpets of silk and gold,--would
it not have been a species of folly to have rejected the aid of an
exhilarating cordial--and what cordial can surpass the essence of the
grape?”
“Besides,” rejoined Bochari, “the laws against wine-drinking are
absolutely necessary for the good of the people, who are made irritable
and furious against each other, by excessive indulgence, to which their
ignorance makes them subject; whereas, the person who makes laws for
them, must be supposed to possess a degree of knowledge that enables
him to ascertain the limit to which he ought to go for the benefit
of his health, and to act accordingly. It is no slight labour to be
constantly sounding the great drum of sovereign power over an empire
like Hindostan, two years’ journey in compass.”
“Well said! Bochari,” observed Jehangire, shewing his empty cup once
more to the attendants; “there is no repose for crowned heads. Hours,
such as these, amongst old friends, are the only hours of happiness I
now enjoy. Alas! for the jewels of this world, which have been poured
in such profusion on my head; they bear no longer any value in my
sight. There is not on this side of the grave any permanent felicity.
All is fleeting, vain, perishable. In the twinkling of an eye shall we
see the enchantress, which enslaves the world and its votaries, seize
another and another victim; and so exposed is man to be trodden down by
the calamities of life, that one might be almost persuaded to affirm
that he never had existence.”
Auzeem began to fear that the emperor’s next words would be an order
for the production of the Koran, which he often had read to him
when over-heated with wine. Strange to say, on those occasions, he
frequently prostrated himself in prayer, while Auzeem read to him from
the volume of the prophet. The melodious sound of a flageolet, however,
being heard outside the pavilion, Jehangire started up from his divan,
and bade the attendants see who was the musician.
“If Oustad Nâë be in Hindostan,” said Auzeem, “he must be the man--the
first player on the flageolet in the world.”
“Bring him in,” said the emperor; “I hold excellence in every science
and art to be the true ornament of an empire.”
The musician was introduced. He appeared a cunning-faced fellow,
dressed in a pointed Persian cap, a shabby pelisse that had witnessed
better days, a vest of faded brocade covering an ample paunch,
which shewed that however wretched he now appeared, he had not been
unaccustomed to good living; and loose linen trowsers, more than the
half of which were devoted to the purposes of pockets. His forehead
was deeply furrowed by age, his cheeks were browned by much exposure
to the sun, and upon his chin there were a few short curly grey hairs
that seemed in no haste to require the discipline of the barber. The
sphere of one eye had altogether vanished from its place; and of the
other, so small a portion remained susceptible of light, that the
wonder was how he could see at all. His fingers were short and clumsy,
most marvellously ill adapted, one should have thought, to modulate
the tones of any instrument. Nevertheless, when he took the reed of
his flageolet in his mouth, and preluded to the air he was called upon
to perform, his face lighted up with a fire truly beautiful to behold;
and from beneath those ill-favoured fingers emanated notes of the most
enchanting clearness and harmony.
The emperor soon forgot, in the sprightly music of Oustad Nâë, the fit
of prayer to which the wine had elevated him. “Never before,” said
he, repeatedly, “have such melodies as these thrilled my ear. I could
listen to this piper for days together, and feel no desire for food or
drink.”
“Poor as ever, I perceive,” said Auzeem. “I thought, my friend, that
when I saw you at Shiraz, you were in a fair way to fortune.”
“So I was, my lord, but in coming back from her, I lost my path, and
have ever since been wandering to little purpose.”
“I was told that even then you were a rich man.”
“Alas, my lord! who can say he is rich that has fourteen wives?”
“Fourteen wives!” exclaimed the emperor, laughing aloud. “Can this be
true, uncle?”
“Quite true, sire. It is wonderful what a fancy Persian women have for
ugly men. This Oustad Nâë,” continued Auzeem, speaking in Hindostanee,
which the piper did not understand, “was absolutely idolized by the
ladies of the court. They said, and perhaps believed, that they were
beguiled by his unrivalled skill in music; but I have known some of
them to contend, with a degree of rivalry almost amounting to civil
war, for a single lock of that wool or hair, whichever it be, growing
on his chin.”
“Ha! ha! ha! It must be admitted that the Persian dames have a peculiar
taste. We must add him to our household band, but without his wives.
Nâë, what has become of all your consorts?”
“They led me such a life, sire, that I have been obliged to escape from
them all. My household now consists only of two dogs and a little girl,
and it is wonderful how easy I have been in my mind since, depending
entirely upon my flageolet, I have sought protection in the dominions
of the ‘Subduer of the world.’ To shew my gratitude for so great a
blessing, I have composed a melody in honour of your highness, which,
with your permission, I shall now play.”
“By all means--let us hear it. Give him a cup of wine.”
Nâë having, without any ceremony, drank off the generous beverage,
proceeded with his melody, still well known under the title of
“Sout-e-Jahangueiry,” a very beautiful composition, mingling great
tenderness of expression with a certain solemnity, which have given it
a high place amongst the national songs of Hindostan.
The emperor, enraptured, forgot even his wine, while the musician
repeated the air again and again. As soon as the performance was
concluded, Jehangire ordered a pair of scales to be brought in,
telling the piper that he knew of no mode of rewarding him except
that of presenting him with his weight in gold. Upon receiving this
information, Nâë, without uttering a syllable by way of thanks, ran out
of the pavilion, and immediately after returning with a dog stuffed
into each pocket of his trowsers, a piece of music fixed to one arm,
and a little girl of about six years old in the other, put himself,
thus burthened, into the scales! This ludicrous method of adding to
his own specific gravity, set the whole circle in a roar of laughter,
in which the emperor heartily joined.
“Upon what plea,” asked Auzeem, “are these appendages added to your
side of the scales, my friend?”
“Your lordship shall hear. When I composed this melody, I had this
little girl in my arms, and my two dogs were playing with her.”
“And so they formed, as it were, the sources of your inspiration, and
you claim their weight in addition to your own--not very complimentary
to his majesty.”
“No matter--no matter,”--said Jehangire--“let the man and his family
be placed in the balance.” Their weight having been duly ascertained,
an order was written upon the imperial treasurers for the same weight
in gold, which was to be given to the piper. The emperor then desired
that they should be weighed again, and the amount was ordered to be
paid to the little girl. Bochari held up his hands in rage at this
lavish liberality of the emperor, but he knew that he could not prevent
it, and that perhaps his resistance would only cause the piper to be
weighed again. The man was then dismissed; but he had scarcely gone a
few yards from the royal tent, when he retraced his steps, and asked
that while he staid with the army he should be supplied daily with a
camel-load of Ganges water. Auzeem could not tolerate such mingled
avarice and insolence as this, and the fellow, after receiving his
money, was turned out of the camp.