AZORA.
The time allowed to Azora to give a definite answer to the Sultan's
proposal had quickly passed away. She had not been allowed much time for
preparation for the awful fate that menaced her in case of
non-compliance, on account of the intrusive officiousness of the inmates
of the hareem, who with childish kindness did all in their power to
alleviate her distress, which they attributed to her regret at leaving
her relations and friends; never for a moment imagining that she could
have courage to relinquish the pleasures of life, and brave death in its
most revolting shape, when it might be avoided by what appeared to them
so slight a sacrifice; and they already looked upon her as a future
companion. Some of the ladies of the hareem had handsome features which
the absence of expression rendered valueless. They were the fair faces
of women who are born, brought up, and die with scarcely (except in very
childhood) any communication with their kind,--whose whole world from
birth to death is comprised within three or four rooms with blank walls.
This sedentary existence is conducive to the obesity, which to Moorish
taste is considered the perfection of female beauty; and the women
adopt every means to encourage this natural tendency; one of these is
the same as the plan adopted with us for fattening turkeys. A paste
composed of new bread and oleaginous seeds, is formed into balls, the
size of a pigeon's egg, and a certain number of these are swallowed
whole, washed down with water; this is done daily until the required
standard of deformity is reached. The inmates of the Sultan's hareem had
the advantage of gardens, into which their rooms opened. These gardens
were planted with fruit-trees and vines on trellis; and in the centre of
the one they now looked on, was a basin and fountain, that threw its
spray on high and cooled the air, confined as it was within high walls.
One of the ladies was about Azora's own age, and had become very much
attached to her, she had claims to beauty of face and form, which the
fattening process, at her age, had not yet destroyed. Her black hair was
ornamented with pearls and beads of fine gold; her flashing eye was
brightened by the kohal, with which her lids were tinged; a latent smile
played round a mouth which should have been lovely; she was a creature
of mere life with no thought but for such trivial happiness as she might
snatch in her contracted sphere on earth, and for anything beyond,
probably never thought of it at all! She wore an embroidered green
velvet jacket, fitted to the form, and flowing muslin trousers, over
this dress was wound a fine hayk. Her name was Oom-el-Zin. While some of
them were swallowing balls, and others staining their feet and hands in
patterns with henna, or employed in other ways, Azora and her friend
wandered out, following one of the grape-walks, till they came to a
secluded bower formed by the foliage, and furnished with carpets and
cushions. Here they sat down.
"This day will seal my fate, O my sister!" said Azora, mournfully. Her
friend said nothing in reply, but her habitual smile forsook her now
sorrowful face, and tears stood in her eyes.
"Why are you so kind to me?" Azora continued, embracing her. "To part
from you will more embitter the cup that I must drink."
"Oh, say not you will leave me," said Oom-el-Zin, throwing her arms
around Azora, "you make me shudder when you talk of death, and yet I
begin to believe you are in earnest. But no! you can not--you dare
not--die!"
"The God of Israel will support me in death," said Azora, solemnly. "A
few short years, and who, of all those who now behold my doom, will be
alive to tell how died the Hebrew girl?--and shall I barter an eternity,
compared to which centuries are but as those glittering drops of water
to the firmament they mock, for power to drag out my few remaining years
in guilt and infamy? What can I not dare for the love of God, to whom I
owe all? and when His hand is heavy upon me, shall I not say, with the
Arabian patriarch--'The Lord hath given--the Lord hath taken--blessed be
the Lord.'"
"Talk not so, O dear, dear Azora! I would rather live out my life in a
prison, without the light of day, only I would not die. Oh, we will be
so happy here together! Oh, you cannot sacrifice yourself--you, so
young, so beautiful; you make me so miserable. Oh, live! and stay with
us." But in vain the tearful eye of the affectionate girl looked for a
kindred feeling in the face of the enthusiastic Jewess.
"Alas! for you, my dear girl," she said; "did you possess the hope of a
glorious future, you would not dread that which must, sooner or later,
come to all.--But lo! we are called. The hour is come."
They arose to return, as one of the women attendants had come to summon
Azora to the Sultan's presence.
"I almost distrust my own weak heart," she continued; "but the Lord of
Hosts is my strength, the God of Israel is my refuge."
Tenderly embracing her weeping and disconsolate companion, she
accompanied the messenger, and was conducted to the same apartment that
had been the scene of her previous trial.
The short period that had intervened--but which to her had been an age
of mental suffering--showed its influence on her frame; her pale cheeks
witnessed to the anguish that had preyed on her soul; but now they
flushed with a hectic glow, from the strong temporary excitement of her
position, and her beauty was not the less transcendent.
The Sultan was reclining on the cushions when she entered, but rose to
meet her.
"Welcome, O beautiful one!" said he; "how long to me has been the time,
deprived of your presence! If it has changed your resolution, I am
content. Come you now to enjoy with me life, happiness, and triumph,
or--" His brow darkened as she stood silent and motionless, and he could
perceive no signs of acquiescence. There was a pause.
"Finish, O my lord!" said Azora, at length, "'or death,' you would
say,--God's will be done!--Yet, O my lord!" and she threw herself at his
feet, "pause ere you pronounce my doom. Oh, throw not away the high
privilege of mercy. If in truth you loved me, could your tongue consign
me to death? Impossible! To torture? Oh, the thought is horrible! Save
me! O king, save me! though not for my sake, for your own, for the sake
of your undying fame. Oh, will you for a caprice forego the satisfaction
of doing a noble deed, and tarnish with blood the annals of a beneficent
reign? What will be said among the nations when it is known that the
Sultan Mulai Abd Er Rahman has shed the innocent blood of a woman? Oh,
be merciful, and spare me!"
The Sultan was moved by this appeal, seconded by her imploring action
and anguished face, but was too intent on his purpose to give way to
more than a passing emotion.
"Arise," he said, "why kneel to me; are you not the arbitress of your
own fate? 'Tis I that implore you to save yourself and have pity on me.
That I wish not your death, which is forfeit to the law, witness my
patience, and the efforts I have made to change your mad resolve. But
that I love you, rather would I see you die, than given to the arms of
another. What! shall I see a vile slave possess that which his sovereign
sued for in vain? But what is this strange infatuation? Oh, change but
your faith, and I will raise you from your base state, exposed to insult
and persecution, to be the favourite of a Sultan, with slaves to obey
your every wish--power to protect your friends--in short, all, all that
a king can offer, shall be yours! Why will you thus madly persist in
throwing away your life? Speak but the word--"
"All this, O my lord," said Azora, firmly, "shall not bribe me to betray
my God; I ask mercy, but I ask it unconditionally. What law have I
broken? what crime have I committed, for which to sue for pardon? yet
the mercy you offer is more cruel than your unjust sentence of death!
Were you a just king, my false accusers--for you know them false--would
ere this have paid the penalty of their perjury. I am in your power, and
may God help me! I will endure all you can inflict rather than save my
innocent life by a dishonourable and criminal compromise. But oh, how
shall this black deed sully the brightness of your reign to all
posterity! We shall meet again before the tribunal of the Lord of kings,
and before whom Sultans will tremble."
She had drawn herself up to her full height while thus speaking, and her
bosom heaving, and her eyes flashing with enthusiasm, she stood like an
inspired prophetess, but with a martyr's calm resolve. The Sultan had
thus far endeavoured to stifle his feelings, but now his rage became
ungovernable.
"It is thus, then, that you defy me," he said: "now hear the
alternative. If the thought is dreadful, how will you bear the reality?
How will you bear to be the gaze and scoff of a ruffian rabble--to be
stripped by the rude hands of the executioner? How will your delicate
frame bear the agony when thrown alive into the burning pile? Then, when
the hot fire slowly seizes on each writhing limb, and every scorched
nerve overwhelms your soul with agonising torments, then--when too late,
you will repent your refusal of my proffered mercy. Then--when too late,
you will wish to recall this lost opportunity, and your tender limbs
will fall a lifeless corse among the smouldering ashes. This is your
doom! I have said!"
With his face and frame agitated by his passion, and casting a malignant
look on the lovely but trembling girl, he rushed from the apartment.
Azora's heart sickened within her, as she listened, with suspended
breath, to the description of the torture that awaited her. It was a
fearful trial, and she had well-nigh sunk under it. Finding herself
alone, her firmness forsook her; she threw herself on the cushions, and
burst into an agony of tears, and convulsive sobs shook her frame; but
this was a luxury, compared to the horrible feeling that came over her,
when, after a time, she raised her deadly pale face, from which all
traces of tears had passed away, and remained with her eyes fixed on
vacancy, while an icy chill seemed to curdle her heart's blood, and a
tightness in the throat oppressed her almost to suffocation, as she
realized the appalling picture of an ignominious death thus presented to
her as the alternative of her resistance. Was it surprising that, at
such a trying moment, her existence suspended trembling on the verge of
the tomb, and failing nature standing terror-struck on the brink of the
awful abyss that separated her from eternity,--she, so young, should
shrink from taking the fatal plunge. Already was she beginning to parley
with conscience,--already was her resolution wavering, and the bright
crown of martyrdom, which seemed on the point of encircling her brow,
was ascending from whence it was offered, as the love of life, and the
enjoyments of the world, were resuming their dominion over her young
heart, when, suddenly, overcoming herself with an almost supernatural
effort, she fell on her knees, and poured out her anguished soul before
God, imploring Him to take the love of the world from her heart, and
strengthen her to support the trials that awaited her for her attachment
to her faith. The struggle was past, her prayer was heard. She arose
from her knees, a radiant smile lighting up her angel face, and she
could now calmly contemplate death, as a passage from her sufferings
here to everlasting life in the presence of her Redeemer.
A stranger, unacquainted with the peculiar character and customs of this
people, might naturally be disposed to ask, why the Sultan should be so
scrupulous in his conduct towards a Jewess, of a race, moreover,
described to be in a state of semi-servitude. It was exactly in the fact
of her being a Jewess, that the obstacles the Sultan had to contend with
lay.
If it had been possible that a Moorish woman could have made an
objection to becoming a Sultana, the same compulsion would have been
used, as is used in two-thirds of the marriages among them, in which the
parties have no previous knowledge of each other. Moorish women are only
too ready to become inmates of the Sultan's hareem. But in the case of a
Jewess, of a despised religion, the Sultan dare not avow his real
object. To have taken Azora, as a Jewess, would have raised a fanatical
insurrection. There is, moreover, among the higher classes of the Moors,
much of that chivalric spirit which distinguished them in Spain, if,
indeed, it is not of Arabian origin, and which invested woman with a
sacred character,--indeed the very word hareem implies sanctity. Again,
it is the policy of the Sultan to encourage the Jews, who alone of his
subjects engage in foreign commerce, from which he derives the greater
part of his revenue, and his only hold on them consists in the
protection afforded to their religion. Interfere with their observances
deliberately, and he is apprehensive of their abandoning these pursuits,
and endeavouring to remove their wealth from the country. So long as
Azora asserted her Jewish faith, he might take her life, but she was in
no danger of any other indignity; and it is probably owing to the
unswerving attachment of the Jews to their faith, even to martyrdom, and
its consequent want of success, that this false accusation is so rarely
resorted to. The enraged despot, incapable of admiring the heroic
fortitude of his helpless captive, was incensed beyond measure by the
failure of all his attempts to intimidate, or persuade her into
compliance. Vacillating between his passion and his fears, he was
tempted to violate the commands of the Koran, which forbids a Moslem to
marry an infidel; deterred, on the other hand, by the danger of the
experiment, especially at the present juncture, when the principal Arab
chiefs were in rebellion, and it behoved him to secure the fidelity of
his troops, whose attachment might be entirely alienated by any
sacrilegious breach of the laws of religion. As a last resource, he
determined to put in execution a plan he had often thought of in his
moments of rage and disappointment. He resolved to expose her to the
wild beasts, of which there were several in his menagerie; he doubted
not that her terror would then overcome what he considered her
obstinacy, and should this fail, her death was decreed. Among the wild
beasts was a magnificent lion, this animal was comparatively tame, being
kept well fed, and under his keeper's control. Trusting to his docility,
the keeper had ventured to lead him about the town by a rope, he had on
one occasion destroyed a child, and on another struck down and killed an
unfortunate donkey with one blow of his enormous paw, by way of
practice, and to show what he could do. It was to this enormous brute,
that the lovely and fragile girl was to be exposed, and the Sultan could
hardly believe that she would not at once embrace the Koran, to escape
the horrible fate of being torn to pieces. Moody and slow he took his
way to the M'Shouar, and ordered the keeper to attend and receive his
commands. Here he found the principal Wezeer, Talb Jelool, who, after
the usual obeisance, informed him that he had matters of importance to
communicate. The Sultan took his seat, and gave his acquiescence with an
emphatic "Bism' Illah." And the Wezeer producing his papers, sat at the
foot of the carpet, and, waving his hand to the attendants, they
immediately withdrew.
"May my lord's throne be exalted!" he said. "I have heard that the Arabs
are marching northward; they have already passed through Suse and Draha,
and menace the province of Rahamna; and behold here is a letter from the
Kaïd of Teradant, which I will read to my lord the Sultan.
"'Praise be to the one God. To the great and mighty lord, the Khalifa of
the Prophet, &c., &c., Mulai Abd Er Rahman, from his slave Abdallah Ibn
Sadek, governor of Teradant. Be it known to my lord, that his rebel
slave, Hamed Ibn Ishem, at the head of the tribes of Abu Sebah, Tuwat,
Al Harib, and others, amounting to about ten thousand Arabs, have
entered and overrun the province of Suse, carrying off flocks and
camels, and levying tribute in the realm of our sovereign lord. Having
only fifty horsemen, besides the militia of the town, my lord's servant
was unable to take the field, against such large forces, and would
humbly urge the necessity of sending a body of the black troops to stop
their further depredations, and protect this town, the walls of which
are not strong enough to keep the enemy out, should they attack it.
Peace! This 10th day of Saffer, 1248.'"
The Sultan could hardly keep patience during the perusal of this letter.
"And has the slave dared," said he, "to attack our territories, as well
as refuse us tribute? By the holy Prophet's tomb, the death of every dog
of his tribe would ill atone for such an insult. Summon the Berebber
tribes of the mountains. Send troops to the assistance of the Kaïd of
Teradant! And as soon as we are in a position to take the field, we will
scatter their hordes, and drive the remnants to their barren sands."
A soldier here entered, and prostrating himself, rose for permission to
speak, and then said, "May it please my lord, the keeper of the wild
beasts is in attendance."
"Let him appear," said the Sultan.
And he was immediately dragged in by two soldiers, who threw him
violently on his face, and then allowing him to rise to his knees, left
him to receive his orders. The keeper of the wild beasts was a Jew, for
the Moors say, although they do not believe it, that a lion is of too
noble a nature to injure a Jew. He was a brutal-looking fellow, with a
cast in his eye,--this had procured him the name of Ain ed Djin, or
"Demon-eye;" he was short and square, with a stunted grey beard, he wore
the black cap, but had put on a white cloak, and had also fortified
himself with copious libations of brandy to appear before the Sultan.
"Have you obeyed my orders, dog?" demanded the Sultan.
"May my lord live for ever!" said Demon-eye, "the lion has been without
food nearly four-and-twenty hours, which (may my lord be preserved!) is
a long fast, seeing he was accustomed to two sheep daily. If my lord
(may he be exalted!) had seen him the other day knock down the donkey,
and suck its blood, and afterwards crunch its bones, with as much ease
as my lord (exalted of God) would a roasted quail." He had got thus far,
with a grin of delight and intoxication on his inhuman countenance.
"Peace, infidel dog!" thundered the Sultan, "lest you forthwith share
the same fate. Have we nought better to occupy us but to listen to thy
misbegotten speech? I would fain try the truth of the proverb on thy
vile carcase, and see whether a lion will eat a Jew. Keep the lion
fasting, and have him taken to-morrow to the old Serai, inside the south
wall."
"My lord shall be obeyed," said Ain ed Djin, in whom the first part of
the Sultan's speech had caused a shudder, regaining his assurance, he
continued, "When he has fasted forty-eight hours, he will give my lord
(whose throne be exalted) satisfaction, and a fat infidel will be to him
as a pistachio nut."
"Slave! Son of a cursed race," exclaimed the Sultan, "what dog's son art
thou, that darest to pollute our ears with thy drunken words? Ho! the
guards!" and making a sign to them as they entered, Demon-eye was seized
and dragged out, perfectly sobered, and was soon taught by a severe and
well-merited bastinado, administered with the leather thongs the
soldiers wear for the purpose, to be more chary of his words in future;
and when he arose writhing from his stripes, he was glad to make his
escape and execute his orders.