Azala, with blanched face and clasped hands uplifted in supplication,
sank upon her knees before the gigantic Chief of the Black Eunuchs, whom
she addressed as Khazneh, beseeching him with arguments, persuasive,
forcible and passionate, to spare my life.
"All blame be upon my head!" she cried, in earnest appeal. "He fell
wounded at the fight of Sabo-n-Gari, and I tended him and brought him
hither. Spare him! Let not the keen arrow of sorrow enter the soul of
the daughter of thy Master, the Sultan."
"Thy servant hath already received his orders," the high and potent
official replied with imperturbable coolness, resting his hand on the
bejewelled hilt of his great scimitar, looking down at her upturned and
agitated countenance.
"From whom?"
"From my Imperial Master, thine august father."
"May the curse of Eblis rest upon our betrayer!" she cried, with a quick
setting of her mouth. "The stranger hath done no harm, but by me, it
seemeth, he hath been brought unto his doom."
"He is thy lover. Thou wert suspected two days ago," the eunuch
answered gruffly, standing statuesque and immovable while my captors
held me, apparently reluctant to move, because they desired to overhear
the argument between the beautiful Azala and their master.
"I deny thine accusation," she replied, rising to her feet quite calmly.
"Thou, Khazneh, who art powerful here in the harem, shall learn a
lesson in politeness thou wilt not easily forget. Lies and insults may
fall from thy lips, but they neither injure nor distress the daughter of
thy Master, 'Othman."
"Silence, woman!" he cried fiercely, shaking his fat fist in the face of
the trembling, indignant girl, and showing his white teeth. "Thinkest
thou that thou canst save a man whom thou bringest unto thine apartment
in secrecy, dressed in woman's garments?"
"If thou darest remove him hence I will appeal in person unto my
father."
"Already his Majesty hath full knowledge of this affair," the great
negro eunuch answered, treating her threat with calm indifference. "By
his order a watch hath been placed upon thee. We saw the accursed son
of offal caress and kiss thee."
"May Allah cut out thy heart! Am I a slave, that spies should be set to
report upon my doings?" she asked, her eyes flashing with indignation.
Then, turning to the negroes who held me in iron grip, she said, "I,
Azala Fathma, Princess of Sokoto, order ye to release him."
"And I, Khazneh, Aga of the Eunuchs, order ye to remove him hence. He
is a Dervish from Omdurman, a traitor, and an enemy of thy Sultan. Away
with him!" cried the black-faced man with big, blood-shot eyes. His
gaze was ever on Azala, unless it were fixed on me with a sullen gleam
of hate.
But she rushed across to the heavy silken curtain that hid the secret
door, and, standing boldly before it, uplifted her long, white arm, and
pointing to the towering eunuch, cried,--
"Zafar-Ben-A'Ziz, whom I have long known by report, is not an enemy, but
a firm friend of his Majesty, whose despicable slave thou art.
Therefore I forbid thee to lay hands upon him. Even though thou findest
him here in the place forbidden; nevertheless, I, as Princess of Sokoto,
claim for him the protection of the Sultan."
In silence, unable to extricate myself, I stood while my fate was thus
discussed. A spasm wrenched my soul--one of those agonies which leave
their trace, mental or physical, forever.
"Knowest thou not the punishment meted out to those who dare to pass the
Janissaries and tread the sacred courts of the harem?" asked the Aga,
impatiently.
"The punishment is death," she answered. Her thin nostrils palpitated.
She crushed her finger-nails against the jewels on her bosom. "But if
Zafar, my friend, suffereth the penalty, I warn thee that thine head
shall be struck off and thy body be given to the dogs as offal before
the going down of the sun."
"Be it so," laughed the hulking brute, insolently, his fingers playing
with the long, keen _jambiyah_ in his belt. Then, turning to my
captors, he said, "Come, away with him quickly."
Next second the hangings were raised, disclosing an open door, through
which I was unceremoniously hurried, and as I was dragged out into the
dark, inter-mural passage, I heard the Aga of the Eunuchs exclaim
tauntingly,--
"Seek his Majesty if thou wilt, but I may tell thee that he set out for
Katsena at sunrise, and ere his return thy lover's bones will lie
bleaching in the sun."
"Farewell, Azala," I shouted. "Be thou of good cheer. Remember that in
my heart the tree of affection hath struck root. I am thy friend
always--always--even though our enemies may thus part us."
"We will never part," she cried, rushing across to me; but the Aga,
catching her roughly by the arm, dragged her away by sheer brute force.
"Whither he goeth there also will I go," she gasped, struggling to elude
his grasp, overturning one of the little mother-of-pearl coffee stools
in her frantic efforts to reach and embrace me.
"Tarry no longer," cried Khazneh, in anger, addressing my captors. "Let
the Sultan's will be obeyed."
"Farewell, Azala! Farewell," I cried, paralysed with fury as I saw her
bow her head upon her arms and weep.
But she answered not, for, as I was dragged fiercely from her sight, I
saw her struggling with the chief eunuch, endeavouring to follow us.
With brutal disregard of her sex, the big, gaudily-attired brute had
seized her by the throat. Her dress was torn, her hair dishevelled, and
her jewels lay scattered and trodden under foot. Suddenly a scream
sounded, dull and muffled, and, just as I was dragged away into the dark
passage, I witnessed the woman who had entranced me hurled backward. I
saw her reel, stagger, and fall senseless upon her divan.
The grinning negroes who held me laughed aloud, and hurried me along the
short, close passage, and down flight after flight of broken, time-worn
steps, while Khazneh, closing the small, heavy door, barred and bolted
it securely. Then he followed us, biting his finger-nails in deep
thought. Whither they were conducting me I knew not, neither did I
care. Azala and I had, by the treachery of some unknown slave, been
torn asunder, perhaps never again to meet. Only death would, I knew,
expiate the crime of being found in disguise in the Sultan's harem, and
towards the bourne whence none return was I being conveyed.
My anticipations of immediate death were not, however, realised. Deep
down into the foundations of the ancient palace the eunuchs conducted
me, along a labyrinth of gloomy passages that showed the great extent of
the Fada, until we came to a long, subterranean corridor where, on
entering, I saw, behind iron bars, the lean, emaciated figure of a man,
haggard, unkempt, with the gleam of madness in his eyes. Shaking the
bars wildly with the strength of a wild beast, he cried as we passed,--
"Strangers! Have compassion. Have pity. In the name of Allah, who
both heareth and knoweth, remove these fetters which for fourteen long
years have held me captive."
"_Na'al abuk_!" (Curse thy father) growled Khazneh, lifting his
trailing scimitar in its scabbard and striking the wretched prisoner a
heavy blow as he passed. But the man tearing at the bars shrieked and
howled in his madness,--
"May the venom of vipers consume thy vitals, and may the kisses of thy
women poison thee, thou black-faced son of offal! I recognise thee,
thou fiend. Thou art the Aga of the Eunuchs; the incarnation of Eblis
himself. May thy body be cast upon a dungheap and thy soul be delivered
unto the tortures of Al-Hawiyat!"
Leaving the wretched man hurling his horrible imprecations, we passed
onward along the dark corridor of filthy dens, each protected with
strong bars of iron, several being occupied by men, lean, wild-haired
and half-clad, who looked more like animals than human beings crouching
on their heaps of dirty, mouldy straw. No sunlight ever penetrated
there, and the only air or light admitted entered between the crevices
of the massive paving stones of the court above. The walls of this
Dantean dungeon were black with damp and age, the floor was encrusted
with all kinds of filth, and the air was hot, foetid, and so
overpowering that Khazneh himself was compelled to take the corner of
his silken robe and hold it to his nostrils.
At length, however, on arrival at the further end of the passage, a
small door with an iron grating swung open and I was thrust in and there
left, the door being immediately closed and secured. In the almost
impenetrable darkness I could distinguish nothing, but when I heard the
footsteps of my captors receding, my heart sank within me. Noises
sounded weirdly in the cavernous blackness; the groans, curses and
prayers of my fellow-prisoners. Who were these emaciated, half-starved
wretches? What, I wondered, had been their crimes?