Meanwhile, all was consternation and mutiny amongst the shattered
remnant of the Moorish army. Ali had collected the fugitives from the
bloody day of Ceuta; and attempted to re-organise them into some line
of defence. But, fearful of being led a second time against their
conquerors, they resisted every law of discipline, and spread the same
refractory spirit to the camp of Adelmelek. The Hadge had undesignedly
prepared his legions for this excess of disobedience, by impressing
them with a belief that the conversion of the Duke de Ripperda to the
Ottoman faith, was only a master-stroke of Christian policy, to acquire
the Emperor Abdallah's confidence; and then, as he had done, betray the
whole of the Moorish host to the sword of Spain. The people of the
country at large were made to believe the same. Their credulity was
easy, as their masters seldom consulted any counsellor but caprice;
and, secure in their poverty, but bold in the use of their tongues,
they clamoured against the court, for putting such implicit trust in
a renegado; who, it was manifest, repaid the Emperor by betraying his
army to the Christians; and had withdrawn himself from punishment, by
shutting himself up, with the embezzled treasures of Abdallah, within
the bulwarks of Tetuan.
At this juncture, Muley Hamet having been secretly apprised of the
disaster which had befallen his former vanquisher, re-appeared upon the
plains of Marmora; and, at the head of an armed multitude of Moors and
Arabs, marched towards Mequinez.
Sidi Solyman, his near kinsman and secret partisan, was then in the
capital. He was ready on any promising occasion to blow the flame of
sedition; and, with great industry and dispatch, prepared the way for
Muley Hamet, by publishing the reverses of the campaign. He accused the
great officers of state of mal-administration; their chief agent, the
renegade Duke, as an infamous trafficker of his faith; and urged, that
Abdallah, having introduced the Christian impostor into the councils of
the empire, had rendered himself obnoxious to the prophet's vengeance;
the people, at present, lay under the same curse; and their first
act must be to appease the heavenly power, by the deposition of the
Emperor, and the delivery of Aben Humeya to the expiation of the laws!
The ever discontented and tumultuous rabble of Mequinez listened to
these suggestions in the very spirit that was desired. They set fire
to the imperial palace, and marched out of the town, headed by the
incendiary, Solyman, to meet his kinsman on the plain.
Abdallah, at that time, was with a few chosen troops, winding his way
through the Habad mountains, to support the joint authority of Ali and
Adelmelek with his presence; and also to ameliorate the fury of those
two commanders against the Spanish Basha, whom he still believed to be
as true as he was brave.
Adelmelek was so well aware of the consequence to him of the Emperor's
arrival, should he hear from Ali that the battle of Ceuta was lost by
the disobedience of the army of the interior to the summons of Aben
Humeya; that on the very day he was told of Abdallah's approach, he
caused Ali to be assassinated, and detached a body of troops to escort
the Emperor with honour to his camp. But an honest Moor, who knew the
designs of the Hadge, made his escape into the mountains, and informed
the Emperor, not merely of the murder of the Sidi, but that Adelmelek
intended his sovereign the same fate; after which he would march upon
Tetuan, where the Basha was shut up, utterly helpless from his numerous
wounds; and storming the place, deliver the whole with the empire, into
the hands of Muley Hamet. Other information more than corroborated this
statement; and Abdallah soon saw that temporary flight was his only
resource. He called his few faithful followers together, and taking
a circuit through the mountains, made a safe retreat into the desert
regions of his empire.
Muley Hamet was declared Emperor by Sidi Solyman and Adelmelek; and
the troops of the latter rejoicing in any change, readily obeyed his
orders for a mere shew of discipline, while he dispatched his second
ambassador to Ceuta, to make peace at any rate with the Spanish King.
By the information of this Moor, Santa Cruz learnt, that when Ripperda
fell in the battle of the camp, it was the last stroke of many wounds,
and had been supposed mortal. But his immediate followers, snatching
him from the crowd of slain, laid him on a camel, and disappeared with
him from the field. It was some days before Adelmelek knew what was
become of the fugitive party; and then a messenger from Ismail Cheriff,
chief of his Arabian guards, brought information to Ali, that he had
borne the wounded Aben Humeya to the safe hold of his own fortress of
Tetuan. Ali lost no time in sending the courier back to the faithful
Arab, with a full account of Adelmelek's intentions to give the Basha
up to the resentment of the turbulent soldiery, or to influence the
Emperor to order his immediate death.
The consequence was, Aben Humeya closed the gates of Tetuan as firmly
against all the insidious advances of Adelmelek, as he would have done,
to repel an open attack of the outrageous Moors, "Ali is dead; and
Muley Hamet Emperor of Morocco,"--continued the ambassador, "Adelmelek
is alone powerful with the new sovereign; and the first judicial act
of the divan has been to declare Aben Humeya a traitor to the empire
and our prophet. Should the desperate state of his wounds fail of
proving his executioner, before the next moon Tetuan will be stormed by
Adelmelek, the inhabitants put to the sword, and the treacherous Basha,
die the death of a slave."
To these denunciations, Louis de Montemar, who was present at the
audience, paid no attention; all that he heard, and seized as the
renewal of life, was that his father yet survived; that he was accused
of irreverence towards the founder of the Ottoman faith; and that he
had taken refuge in a place not more than a day's journey from the
Spanish fortress.
When the Mussulman closed his communications, and withdrew to leave
their import to consultation, Louis imparted what were now his
designs. Indeed, it was hardly necessary to declare them; for the
existence of the Duke de Ripperda was no sooner affirmed, and his
occupation of Tetuan mentioned, than Santa Cruz read in the instant
blaze of his friend's countenance, the regeneration of hope; and the
enterprize to which the welcome visitant would give birth.
"But the hazard is so infinite!" rejoined the Marquis, "where are we
to find a person who would have the boldness to guide you through the
brigand parties of the rival Moors? And even should we be successful in
that object, and you arrive at Tetuan, consider the result. You may be
admitted to your father; but should he perish in his apostacy, where
would be your protection, and what would be your fate?"
"That I leave to providence!" replied Louis, "my course is clear:--to
seek my father; and make a last effort to share with him that
happiness in the world to come, he has for ever destroyed in this."
"But his wounds are mortal," returned Santa Cruz, "he may be dead
before you have reached this scene of peril. You will then have exposed
your life, and more than your life, in vain. Think of the horrors that
would befall you, should the infuriate Moors discover in you the son of
the man, his enemies have taught them to believe was their betrayer?"
"Nothing is terrible to me," replied Louis, "but the idea of my father
dying in his apostacy. Heaven appears to have opened his grave, to give
him for a short time to my prayers; and shall any thing prevent me
entering it, even if it should prove my own? I feel I have my errand!
It is to touch the dead with the recalling breath of his redeemer; it
is to see him rise again to life everlasting!"
Louis's soul was kindled into a holy flame. It was the ardent devotion
of a son, mingling with the fervour of a really pious spirit. The
enterprizing hope that was its offspring, might, by colder natures, be
termed romantic vanity, or fanatic enthusiasm; but the warm heart of
the Marquis saw religion in his zeal; and filial duty in the hazarded
self-immolation.
After discussing many plans, it was at last decided, that the safest
scheme was to pass from Ceuta by water; and that Louis should put on
the garb of a brother of Saint Philip, one of the _Orders of Mercy_,
then by licence scattered throughout the marine towns of Barbary.
As he passed into the chapel, to receive the vesture and holy
benediction from the superior of the Ceuta brethren, he found Santa
Cruz and his family kneeling before the altar, to unite their orisons
with that of the priest.
The supplications of the veteran were fervent, though silent; and as he
prayed, he often turned his eyes on his daughter, who knelt by him,
with her face concealed in her veil.
The abbot put his hands on the head of Louis. The Marchioness wept; for
she had no faith in this expedition, and thought within herself--"So
he sanctifies the youthful martyr! For from that den of infidelity, he
never will return!"
Ferdinand whispered something of the same import to his mother; and she
sobbed audibly.
Louis turned to her voice, and put her hand to his lips. The Marquis
and Ferdinand embraced him. Marcella had raised herself from her knees,
and held by the rails of the altar. Louis did not see her face, for
the veil yet hung before it; but the other hand that was laid upon her
breast trembled; and he thought he saw he was not less in her thoughts,
than in those of her parents. He wished, yet hesitated to approach
her. Santa Cruz observed the direction of his eyes, and his doubting
movement, but he did not speak. Louis's heart failed him; and blessing
her in its inward recesses, he turned away, and followed the abbot out
of the chapel.
Having received his credentials from the superior at Ceuta, to the
fraternity of the same order at Tetuan, who resided there for the
ransom of Christian slaves; Louis took his station in the open boat,
that was to convey him, through the dangers of the counter-current at
that season of the year, to the Moorish strong hold of the province of
Hadad.