THE ACCUSERS.
The Jews living in the towns of Marocco occupy a walled quarter,
separated by gates from the rest of the town; physically they are a fine
race, many of them are very wealthy, and some of the best families show
high breeding, but the cringing and servile habits, to which they are
inured from infancy by oppression, have impressed their demeanour and
physiognomy with timidity and cunning, and effaced in a great measure
the higher and nobler feelings from their minds. There are partial
exceptions to this, as in the case of some of their priests and men
engaged in European trade, who are brought less into contact with their
masters, and feel themselves under more protection. The separate
quarter, although affording security in ordinary times, seems to enhance
the danger to its inhabitants in time of trouble or insurrection, for
the moment that the Sultan's authority is relaxed or in danger, the mob
and the soldiery break loose; urged on by fanaticism and cupidity, the
cry is, "To the Jews' quarter!" and the place is sacked, as by a foreign
enemy. It is wonderful that men who can afford it, will submit to live
with their families in this constant state of oppression and terror; but
such is the force of habit and the love of gain,--for I can hardly place
in the category the love of country,--that very few, or none, do leave
it. It is true that the law does not permit them to leave the country,
but they might easily escape or evade it.
The women, seldom leaving their houses, are less exposed to the
degrading influences which lower the character of the men; their
countenance is more open, and their bearing more independent; as a rule,
they are good-looking, and their manners and address are graceful and
ladylike. Although the prevailing colour of the race is Andalusian,
there are not wanting many possessing the clear and brilliant complexion
of northern climates, and even blue eyes are not uncommon.
In the Jewish quarter in Marocco, in a small house, distinguished only
from those which surrounded it, by its cleanliness of exterior and
neatness within, lived a Jewish matron with her only daughter; their
appearance and manners showed them to have belonged to a higher station,
though now reduced to the necessity of gaining a living by needle-work.
The mother was the widow of a priest, who had been esteemed for his
unostentatious charity, and who had bequeathed to his daughter little of
worldly goods, but instead, a well-grounded faith in the Scriptural
promises and a strong love for her ancestral religion. The child's
personal beauty as she grew up was looked on by her parents--as it
foolishly is by most parents--as a great blessing. How little did they
foresee, while doating on her loveliness, that they were fostering
serpents that would one day sting her to the soul, and prove her most
fatal curse. She was now about eighteen, a vision of grace and beauty.
Most descriptions of beauty have been failures, and I will not add
another to them by attempting it, but to see Azora, after her morning
occupation of reading the prophets, her perfect cheek resting on her
perfect hand, her large dark eyes cast upward, her lovely parted lips
partially revealing their translucent gems, while a glow of enthusiasm
lighted up her beautiful features; the only epithet by which to describe
her beauty is "heavenly." Her dress was an embroidered spencer of pink
damask, over a shirt of striped muslin, whose ample sleeves nearly
reached the ground, and a frock of dark green cloth edged with gold
lace. A crimson Algerian scarf encircled her waist, and silver anklets
and bracelets attracted admiration to the limbs they could not adorn. A
light green silk handkerchief was bound round her forehead, the ends
hanging loose behind, and confined her hair, which fell down her back in
long broad plaits. Her mother's dress was of a similar description, but
of different materials; and, instead of her hair, which their customs
will not allow married women to show, she wore the flat brush of black
ostrich feathers fastened on each side of the face, under the
head-dress. She was engaged in arranging the cushions of the divan and
their few articles of household equipment, preparatory to their morning
meal, when Azora tripped joyously in with several garments she was in
course of embroidering on her arm, and kissed her.
"My blessing on you, my rose of Paradise," said Rachel.
"May _you_ be blessed, O my mother!" returned Azora; "and see how much
work I have done. Is it not well done?" and her merry laugh rang out
musical, as she nestled down by her mother.
"Yes," said her mother, "we shall soon have earned enough for a dowry
worthy of your family, though your beauty is dowry for a queen!"
Suddenly the girl stood up in an attitude of terror; her eyes fixed, and
her hand pressed to her forehead.
"What is it, my child?" cried Rachel, "you frighten me; are you ill?"
"O my mother," said she, mournfully, "I had forgotten; I know not what
brought back to my mind horrible dreams, which last night visited me,
and which troubled me as the whisperings of evil spirits."
"You read too much, my child, and spoil your sleep; but let not dreams
trouble you, mere fanciful flights of the imagination while reason
sleeps."
"Yet it is written," she replied, "'In dreams, in visions of the night,
when deep sleep falleth upon man, the Lord showeth His will, and sendeth
warnings to His servants.'"
"May the evil be averted!" said her mother; "but cheer up, my child, and
let us put our trust in Him, the Holy One, who holds all under His
hand."
It was some time before Azora could shake off the indefinite dread of
impending evil which oppressed her; but she gradually recovered her
usual cheerfulness, and, after their frugal repast, they sat down to
their work.
In the course of the forenoon, a knock at the door was answered with
some hesitation by Rachel, who gave admittance to our two acquaintances
of yesterday. With a lordly air of patronage they sat down, and reclined
on the cushions at the end of the room.
"Peace," said Abdslem; "peace to all true believers. Well, daughter, is
my caftan finished? I have waited for it long. To-morrow there is a
review and powder-burning. I _must_ have it."
"I trust it will be finished this evening," said Rachel; while Azora,
feeling their eyes fixed upon her, bent down over her work; "and I hope
my lord will be pleased with it."
"No doubt about that," said Abdslem: "and I hope you will be as pleased
with your pay!" he added sarcastically, with a look at Hassan; "but I
shall want more braiding in front; and you have not silk enough. Here,
Rachel," said he, in a commanding tone, "take this dollar, and go to
that enemy of God, Benjamin, and buy enough to complete it; and hear!
don't let him cheat you!"
It had been concerted between them to dismiss the mother, that they
might have a clear field to put their plot in execution; and she was no
sooner gone, than Abdslem, feigning business at a house in the vicinity,
and telling his friend to await his return, also departed. Thus left
alone with one, of whose feelings towards her she was well aware, Azora
naturally felt uneasy; her occupation had brought her into contact
occasionally with Moors of this description; but she had hitherto
managed, by the firmness of her behaviour, to keep them at a respectful
distance; but the importunate perseverance of Hassan had caused her much
misery and apprehension. Hassan arose; the struggle in his bosom was
fierce and short: he paused; but his better feelings succumbed to the
fire of his passion.
"Azora," he said, "Azora, I have poured out at your feet the love that
devours me; you have repulsed me with contempt. Can my undying love not
move you? Have you no pity? Can you see my anguish without one word of
hope? Oh, how I love you! Azora! Azora, have mercy!" and he clasped his
hands in supplication.
"This is folly," said Azora, who had risen to her feet. "You are a
Moslem; I, a Jewess; what love can there be between us? Go! and crush
out the wicked thoughts with which you insult me; but talk not of love;"
and a deep blush overspread her beautiful face.
"You will drive me mad," said Hassan, with concentrated feeling, and his
frame trembling with emotion. "Beware! for I will no longer be fooled; I
am come now for the last time. If I go hence this day without a ray of
hope, by the holy Koran I swear you shall live to find that Hassan's
spurned love can only be matched by his hatred and revenge!"
"And is it so?" said Azora, recovering from her alarm at his increasing
violence, but deadly pale. "Then know that I am no more to be
intimidated by your threats than deceived by your professions. I know
that I am exposed to your violence, but the Sultan's protection is
spread over the poorest of his subjects!"
"Think not," said Hassan, "that I intend to break the laws. No! but the
law itself shall place you in my power. And now decide," added he, in a
lower tone, through his clenched teeth, and seizing her wrist in his
grasp; "for, by the sword of the Prophet, I swear you shall be mine, or
perish at the stake!"
"God of Israel! help me!" exclaimed Azora, as the horrible design now
burst upon her mind. Regaining her self-possession, she replied in a
calm tone, "Then let me perish! There is a God above who will exact
fearful vengeance for innocent blood!"
"On my head be it," said Hassan, with unchecked rage; and seeing
Abdslem, who was now returning, he rushed out, shouting, "Bear witness,
O Moslmeen, this woman has professed the faith of Islam."
"I have heard it! I have heard it!" said Abdslem. "To the Cadi!" and
collecting a rabble as they proceeded, they all went off to the tribunal
of the Cadi, to seal by false witness their iniquitous plot.
On their departure, Azora stood riveted to the spot, scarcely able to
believe in the reality of what had occurred; but a sickening chill came
over her, as she began to recollect some part of the dreams which had so
unaccountably affected her. Presently her mother returned, and, seeing
her daughter pale and speechless, her hand pressed to her head, the
purchases dropped to the ground, and she clasped her child in her arms.
"My child! my child! what has happened? Oh, speak!"
"The dream! O my mother! The dream! We are lost--lost--and ruined!" and,
leaning her bursting head on her mother's shoulder, through sobs and
tears she told her, in broken sentences, the conspiracy of the Moors
against her honour and her life.
"Shall the curse cleave to our race for ever?" said Rachel. "But, no;
they shall not take you from me;" and she clasped the affrighted girl
more closely to her bosom, as they heard the sound of voices, and the
approach of a crowd in the street.
"They cannot--they dare not!"
By this time the return of Abdslem, with the Cadi's soldiers, to summon
Azora to the presence of that functionary, put an end to her
lamentations; and forgetting her caution and the usual respect to be
shown to a Moslem, she endeavoured to assuage her grief by uselessly
aggravating their oppressors.
"Oh! may a mother's curse light on you and yours! May your children be
fatherless, and your wife a widow. Had your eye (sleepless be it ever)
no pity? Could you not spare my innocent child? Perjured slave!
reprobate scum of the children of Edom--may every curse that ever came
out of the mouth of man be poured in one appalling mass on your devoted
head! O Lord of Hosts! hear me!"
These curses were poured out, half in Hebrew half in Arabic, as she
stood with one arm round her daughter, and the other raised to heaven!
She looked an inspired prophetess expecting the thunderbolt to seal her
denunciation.
"Listen!" exclaimed Abdslem to the appalled bystanders--"be witness to
her curses, and to me,--a Moslem!--Woman, your curses be on your own
head. What is written will happen! If the Prophet, (on whom peace,) has
enlightened your daughter's mind with the truth of Islam, and she wishes
to leave your worn-out religion, what is it to me? The praise be to God,
what is written must be!"
"A lie! he knows it a lie," said Azora. "I was born a Jewess, and so I
will die! and I go not except by force!"
"Then force it shall be;" and with the help of the soldiers, and in
spite of her screams and resistance, they tore her from her mother, who,
overcome with anguish, swooned in the arms of the women who had
collected and looked on in terror. Abdslem then threw her hayk over
Azora (for he would not take a woman through the streets unveiled) and
led her off in triumph, the crowd that followed chanting as they went
along--
"La illaw il Allaw--
Mohammed er rasool Allaw!"
Azora had often heard this chanted at the Moorish funerals, and she now
felt it as the knell of death.
The Cadi was sitting in the gate of the town, where he usually
administered justice; these gates have side arched recesses where the
guards are quartered and are very convenient for the transaction of such
business. The Cadi was a fine-looking old man, his white turban was
without a plait, and he was enveloped in a fine woollen hayk. The crowd
had been beaten off by the guards, and Azora stood before the Cadi
almost unconscious of what was passing around her. The oaths of Hassan
and Abdslem were carefully written down with a reed pen, and sworn on
the Koran, which was reverently held above the waist, and then restored
to the case in which it was kept. "God be praised!" said the Cadi, "God
be praised. For you, my daughter, my heart is joyful for your
conversion. Ya Mohammed--glory to the Prophet, he has saved you from
Djehennem, your name shall be changed;--and Hassan, he is a good youth,
Hassan,--and a good Moslem,--he shall take charge of you, and instruct
you in the Koran,--a good sponsor."
Hassan's countenance was beaming with satisfaction, and he already
congratulated himself on his success; he little knew the heroic spirit
that dwelt in that fair form.
"But I forget," said the Cadi, "we must go through the forms of the
law,--I grow old. Sidi Abd el Kader Jilelly, protect me. Come, my
daughter, and repeat the profession of faith, 'La illaw--'"
Azora had stood motionless while her accusers gave in their lying
witness, and an appalling sense of the danger of her position crept over
her, as she found herself, a helpless girl, in such ruthless hands; but
at this point she summoned resolution to speak.
"What these perjured men lay on my head," she said solemnly, "is
false--_utterly false_, and never will I be guilty of becoming an
apostate from the faith of my fathers!"
"May evil be averted!" ejaculated the Cadi, pushing his spectacles upon
his forehead; "this is another story, and alters the case." And here he
cast a glance of scrutiny at the witnesses, whose involuntary confusion
showed him at once that the charge was false; but he was a Moor, and a
fanatic, and covetous withal, and with such adepts at bribery, it
required very little by-play to make him see his profit in the
transaction. "Daughter," said he, severely, "they have sworn; they are
Moslem--you cannot retract when you have once said it. Hear the
law,"--and he again took the Koran from its case, and turning over the
leaves, intoned a long passage in Arabic, "'If any shall confess the
faith of Islam, and afterwards relapse, the infidel shall be burnt,'
&c., &c. That is the penalty of obstinacy. Are you prepared to forfeit
your life? Speak! I await your decision." But Azora remained stunned.
"Away with the Infidel!" cried the Cadi. "To prison with her!" and the
guards advanced to obey his orders. Just then a ray of hope flashed on
her mind.
"Stop! my lord judge," said she; "I _will_ not submit to _your_ unjust
decision. I hereby appeal to our Lord the Sultan; _he_ will see justice
done to the helpless and oppressed."
This was her last resource. An appeal to the Sultan, publicly made,
cannot be passed over, and she thus removed herself and her cause from
the hands of her persecutors. Hassan was foiled, but, unwilling to
expose his feelings in public, he hastily left the place, in no very
enviable state of mind, followed by Abdslem. The Cadi, though feeling
his dignity offended, was obliged to put a good face on the matter.
Muttering some unscriptural phrases against the protection given by the
Sultan to the infidels, he directed Azora to be consigned to the women
of his own hareem until her cause could be submitted to the Sultan.