dominion and to happiness, he could no longer deny himself the
gratification of confessing his faults, expressing his gratitude, and
intreating forgiveness. “Jealous love,” he concluded, “is stronger than
friendship: I saw Maimuna with you, I believed you a seducer and a
dissembler; for I would not believe the woman I worshipped afar off like
some sacred star, whom I trembled to address till I could lay such
laurels at her feet as her father had been accustomed to gather--I could
not believe this woman capable of following into a camp the man who
either slighted or was ignorant of her passion. How could the timid mind
of the most timid of lovers divine, that it was to be near _him_ she
entered the service of another? swept away by a tempest of fury, I
forgot those virtues, those benefits”--
Sebastian interrupted this speech by a warm embrace; he conjured his
friend to bury all thought of the past, and presenting to him Kara
Aziek, (who had modestly retired, but now re-appeared at her hero’s
voice) he requested an apartment for her in the palace of the Princess
of Persia.
Overjoyed to have anything in his power to grant, Abbas immediately
ordered the royal litter, and had the Moorish lady conveyed to his
sister’s residence.
There Kara Aziek beheld herself once more in the society of women, whose
minds and hearts somewhat resembled her own: the interesting Maimuna,
and her young likeness Princess Zelide, by turns soothed and amused her.
Maimuna discoursed of Sebastian; (for she loved, and she knew therefore
the theme that would be most delightful) Zelide alternately painted the
late horrors, and the smiling prospects of futurity, and with her
April-like discourse, gave wings to the passing hours.
While these new associates reposed on their divans, the Christian knight
and the Sophi unwillingly left them for consultation on state affairs.
The new monarch sought the advice of a friend, whose opinions he
received as oracles, and considered like inspiration he knew not the
complicated machine of government, which had once been moved by that
powerful hand!
Having decided on means for concluding the war with the campaign, and
forcing the enemy into restitution, they discussed several abuses in the
Persian state, which only peace could enable the Sophi to reform: much
salutary change was suggested by Sebastian, and eagerly embraced by
Abbas, whose heart, nobly superior to his genius, required but the sight
of a benevolent scheme, to welcome and to employ it.
Prompted by gratitude and affection he now offered his friend the choice
of any rank or station throughout Persia, with the exercise of his own
religion, and the extraordinary permission of protecting Christians, and
building for them a place of worship: he drew a seducing picture of
their social happiness when united to the women they loved, forming one
family of affection.
Sebastian grieved that he must destroy this agreeable illusion: nothing
could exceed the distress of Abbas, when he heard that the friend by
whose great qualities he intended henceforth to model his own
character, was drawn by some strong though secret tie, to another
quarter of the globe.
Sebastian had requested an escort for himself and Kara Aziek to the port
of Cairo, from whence he meant to transport themselves to some maritime
town of Italy, whence they might embark in one of those vessels which
carried on a contraband trade with Brazil. Arguments were in vain to
combat a resolution which duty commanded him to keep inviolate:
Sebastian believed himself called on to seek the recovery of those
rights, with which Providence had originally invested him; and drawn by
a more powerful, because more grateful friendship for Gaspar, than that
which Abbas excited, reined in with difficulty an expression of his in
patience to be gone.
Finding persuasions and intreaties equally useless, and convinced by the
strong emotion of his deliverer, that no common motive impelled his
conduct, the Sophi yielded to necessity and promised him the
escort,--while reluctantly pronouncing this promise, he tried to console
himself by thinking that some little time must be allowed for the
preparation of suitable marks of the Persian empire’s esteem and regret:
the nuptials too of its sovereign ought to be graced by his friend’s
appearance; and if that friend meant to make Kara Aziek his own by the
forms of the Christian church, he must delay yet longer. The hope of
thus detaining him awhile, revived the Sophi, and dismissing his
saddened looks, he prepared to enjoy present happiness while it lasted.
From this period Good Fortune might be said to place her throne at
Ispahan. The Turks were driven out of Syria and forced to sue for peace,
which Abbas insured to his people, by granting on liberal terms to the
humbled enemy: success and cheerful obedience followed the acts of his
new government; his marriage was solemnized with every demonstration of
joy by his subjects: and the nuptials of Sebastian, though performed
almost secretly in the chapel of the ambassador, were so far from
displeasing the Persians, that they celebrated them with acclamations of
pleasure.
Alone and unconnected, far from her country, and voluntarily abandoning
it for ever, Kara Aziek saw in the husband to whom she gave herself, her
world, and her felicity! It was sweet to her tender heart to find no
object share it with him! Wanted she other affection? O no!--was it not
sufficient to concentrate upon one being, every sentiment which weakens
by diffusion?
When Sebastian received her into his arms as the ambassador’s chaplain
closed the book of prayer, when he held her against his heart that
throbbed with the conviction of their eternal union, what a sacred joy
stilled all those tumultuous feelings with which he had counted the
moments, and hurried on the ceremony!
The same soft and delightful emotion gently agitated each; they spoke
but in sighs, and with their tears. Eloquent silence! needed ye a
tongue?
Sebastian would not delay his departure; he hastened its preparations,
and at length reached the moment he wished.
Loaded with presents of treasure and costly attire, with which the
magnificent court of Persia endeavoured to express its gratitude, and
which Sebastian in vain attempted to refuse, the Christian knight and
his bride prepared to quit a country they could not hope to see again.
Kara Aziek had transferred all her women except one, to the Princess of
Persia; and Sebastian retained only the faithful Barémel as his
attendant to the new world.
The escort appointed to attend the travellers was more than sufficient
for security; but the Sophi willed it should distinguish his preserver
by its magnificence.
The palace resounded with lamentation when their last embraces were
exchanged, the Sophi rent his garments, and threw himself on the ground
in a passion of grief; he remained there without raising his head, till
the sound of his friend’s departing steps no longer reached him; he then
arose, and shut himself into a solitary chamber, where not even his
beloved Maimuna ventured to disturb his sorrow.
Equally moved, but long disciplined in self-controul, the King of
Portugal concealed as sad a heart under a calmer aspect; his gentle
Aziek wept uninterruptedly. In the hall of the palace they met Sir
Anthony Shirley, whom they were going to seek: his adieus were less
agitating, but as impressive as those of Abbas.
“You go, brave Portuguese!” he said, “and I dare not ask whither: what
destiny may that be which authorizes so much mystery; are the friends
your virtue acquires to remain for ever in this ignorance?--I ask not
where you go, but I would ask if you believe we shall ever meet again?”
“I hope it--nay I believe it,” replied Sebastian, brightening into
animation, “you will hear of me in Europe some day; and I charge you by
our friendship, to recal at that period what I owe to you now.--To you,
I owe my present happiness; to you, I owe what I may have regained then:
was it not to your generous reliance on my integrity that I am indebted
for having acquired the power to benefit Persia?--Forget not the Knight
of the Cross--forget not those lineaments by which you may remember him:
the hour may come when these lineaments will present themselves to your
eye under a very different garb, and when the wandering adventurer may
give you a signal proof of his gratitude.--Farewel!”
As he spoke, he exchanged rings with Shirley, who, cheered by this
assurance, yet bewildered by the conjectures to which it led, embraced
him in silence, and kissed the hand of Kara Aziek.
The travellers then mounted the commodious carriage which had been
constructed for them by order of the Sophi, and attended by a troop of
horsemen and loaded camels, departed from Ispahan.
CHAP. VI.
Let me pass lightly over the period in which the King of Portugal and
his Aziek journeyed from Ispahan to Cairo. They embarked there in a
vessel bound for Venice; sojourned at Venice only till they procured a
passage in a ship going to India; the captain of which engaged to stop
at Massignan, where Brazil-traders usually watered, and where he might
then transfer his passengers according to their wishes.
As the Venetian bark sailed between the shores of Spain and of Africa,
and leaving the smiling waves of the Mediterranean, entered upon the
stern Atlantic, emotions of awe, of apprehension, of gratitude,
springing from the memory of former days, grew upon the hearts of
Sebastian and Kara Aziek.
After so many vicissitudes, so many anxieties, they were united
inseparably;
“The world was all before them where to chuse
“Their place of rest; and Providence their guide!”
Buried in profound thought, they sat together with their eyes fixed on
the two coasts that recalled such various remembrances. Kara Aziek gazed
on Africa, thinking of her father and Abensallah: Sebastian regarded the
Spanish shore, gradually turning his reflections from remote events to
such as had been lately detailed to him at Venice.--He had learned there
several important facts, upon which he now ruminated in serious silence.
Since his departure from Portugal, and after sojourning in Persia, much
change had taken place. Cardinal Henry was dead, the succession to his
throne had been hotly contested by a croud of pretenders: Don Antonio
was proclaimed by one party, Philip II. by another; the streets of
Lisbon had been filled with assassination and tumults; her prisons
alternately thronged with the adherents of the Braganzas and the
d’Aveyros. Finally Spain prevailed: Antonio had escaped with difficulty
beyond sea, thrown himself on the protection of England, embarked in a
vain expedition, lost all hope again, and was now wandering through
France, mocking poverty with the title of King, which his rank and
vicious conduct rendered but a seal of infamy.
Seated on his throne of Spain, Philip made the neck of Portugal his
footstool: she felt her new sovereign only by the weight of his tyranny:
her nobles were torn from her, her court filled with the greedy
followers of a Castilian Regent; her treasures were wafted into Spanish
ports, and her halls of justice transported to the capital of her
oppressor.--Crushed with accumulating burthens, her people lost their
strength to resist; and terrified by the bloody vengeance which Philip
took on them for yielding to the delusion of two impostors who had
successively started up proclaiming themselves Don Sebastian, they
thought no more of their rights; they crouched under his iron sceptre,
appearing to believe themselves fortunate if but permitted to breathe.
With her towns garrisoned by foreign troops, her arms wrested from her
grasp, her treasury rifled, her fleet dismantled, what could wretched
Portugal do but sit sullenly in her chains, desperate of relief? Could
the hand of one man, even though the hand of her lawful King, hope to
break those bonds? The thought was madness.
Sebastian saw that to follow his heart’s impulse, and fly immediately to
the succour of his subjects, would be only to offer himself up an
useless victim; he would be only exciting fresh blood to flow, fresh
horrors to arise: unless acknowledged and assisted by other powers, and
that at some critical moment of Spanish weakness, he could not expect
to regain or to restore his people to liberty. There was no path for him
but that he was now in: he must seek the advice of Don Emanuel De
Castro, and try through him the temper of his trans-atlantic subjects.
The bitterness of his regret for having originally caused all this
suffering to Portugal, was like the anguish of a father who beholds his
only son plunged into crime and misery through his own faulty
indulgence.
Sebastian’s heart might be said to weep blood, while he enumerated the
enormities of Philip, and the wrongs of the Portuguese: the gloom of his
looks saddened Kara Aziek, and when tenderly inquiring his thoughts, she
learnt their painful nature, it cost her some effort to conquer her
sympathy, and exert herself to argue away his excess of self-reproach.
By gentle degrees she changed the current of his reflections, though
they turned into one not so smooth as the hand of wedded love would
willingly have made it.
Sebastian had frequently conversed with his wife on the subject of her
new religion; but in the hurry of land-travelling, those conversations
had been short and unsatisfactory: sufficient however to shew the
afflicted husband that the wife of his bosom nourished what he believed
a fatal system of error, denounced by the church, and abhorred of God.
It was in the leisure of a long voyage that he hoped to eradicate these
pernicious doctrines.
Having fortunately encountered a Brazil-trader at Massignan and procured
a passage in her to St. Salvador, he began now to make the attempt: Kara
Aziek met his scrutiny with frankness and confidence. All other opinions
she would have hoped and wished to find yield to his sounder reasoning;
but over this important point, the weakness of fond woman dared not
usurp any influence.
In converting her friend from Mahometanism to Christianity, Emilia had
gone back to the source whence alone man can expect to draw pure
doctrine: she had taught her from the sacred book itself, such as it
appears to an attentive, inquiring, and docile mind:--She had stripped
herself of every prejudice, even in favor of the great Reformer to whom
so many souls stand indebted for an example of mental courage; and
perhaps in dictating the creed which she thus formed out of the commands
of our Lord, and the exhortations of his apostles, she taught a purer
religion than Luther himself.
Emilia had then compared this scriptural Christianity with the monstrous
system of Popery: how simple, how beautiful, how divine, was the one!
how complicated, how contradictory, how merely human, the other!
Kara Aziek found her hesitation and doubts vanish with the fantastic
mysteries which had given them birth: her spirit prostrated itself with
tears of joy, of love, of adoration, at the feet of the meek and
spotless Jesus! she acknowledged her Redeemer and her divine Master, in
him who spoke to the understanding as well as to the heart; and building
her faith upon examination and conviction, she built it upon a rock.
The readiness with which she met inquiry, and the attention she gave to
argument, at first inspirited Sebastian, but he soon found that to some
of her interrogatories he was unable to reply, and that several of her
observations startled his own faith.
Shocked, alarmed, afflicted, his soul recoiled from the sight of that
precipice, to which he believed himself on the point of being hurried:
he precipitately abandoned his enterprize, and for some days their
conversation flowed solely upon other subjects.
Vain was the attempt to banish from his mind the remembrance of those
remarks which troubled him; as vain the hope of being content to see
Aziek’s soul divided from his own. Tormenting apprehensions for her, or
doubts for himself, by turns distracted him, poisoning the sweet hours
of love and of confidence.
Irresolute, fearful, virtuously fearful of sinning by presumption, he
trembled to proceed in an investigation, which threatened the
destruction of his long-nursed superstitions; but at length a naturally
courageous mind shook off its fetters, and decided him to go on.
The first advantage was gained by Aziek; Sebastian allowed the fairness
of taking scripture for a guide: when he granted this to her reasoning,
he knew not to what important concessions it would lead. From the
instant he abandoned the popish stronghold of traditionary doctrine,
Kara Aziek triumphed.
With the sacred volume in her hand, and every faculty roused to
comprehend and to explain its dubious passages, she continued to subdue
one by one all the errors of Sebastian: the mists of prejudice, the
denser fog of superstition, gradually cleared away before her bright and
steady reason: conviction waited on judgment, and the amazed zealot
found himself at last walking in broad day, regarding with astonishment
those monstrous chimeras, which rolling afar off, disappeared like dark
clouds at the uprise of the sun.
Behold him then a convert to truth!--elevated to the noble consciousness
of worshipping the living God with a willing heart and a free mind;
exercising the powers of that mind in the delightful and purifying act
of meditation on the divine nature; no longer agitated by a dread of
meditating too much or too closely!
Far from damping the ardour of his piety, this change in some of his
opinions served but to encrease it. Satisfaction exists but with
conviction, and to be satisfied with any principle is to love it.
Sebastian felt affection animate him in his new religion, and formerly
only a vehement sense of duty had impelled his actions; he could not
love what he dared not examine and trembled to understand; but he would
have devoted himself and half the world to death in obedience to its
commands, because he believed blind submission necessary to salvation:
now Judgment and Will went together.
If it were precious to feel this honorable freedom of soul, this
sentiment of self-respect, which so far from rendering Christians
presumptuous, exalts their notions of that august Being who will not
accept brute worship from man, but invites him to study and to love his
creator, how sweet was it to live in complete sympathy with the heart of
Kara Aziek! how sweet to look upon her as the source of this inestimable
blessing.
Their days, unbroken by a single dissonant sentiment, now flowed on in
one soft stream of tender and tranquil enjoyment: occupied with each
other, elevated from earth by their recent studies, they forgot the past
and thought not of the future; for awhile the present only, filled and
satisfied their souls.
But soon the land of Brazil rising from the vast Atlantic, called back
emotions of friendship and solicitude; Sebastian’s heart rushed towards
Gaspar. Kara Aziek with feminine eagerness anticipated the beautiful
novelties of this unknown country; and an agreeable distraction followed
the former concentration of their thoughts.
As their ship approached the new world, its majestic appearance roused
Sebastian into admiration: the magnificence, of its coasts, the towering
and brilliant verdure which crowned them; the gigantic scale of its
rivers and forests, the purity of its atmosphere, and the stately
elevation of St. Salvador, towards which they steered, stirred his
spirit and kindled some kingly exultation.
This wide and glorious land was his--this glowing Paradise, which
appeared created for the residence of Gods! While he contemplated it, a
proud glow mantled his cheek: Kara Aziek noted the flush, and divined
its meaning: she laid her hand gently upon his arm as he stood looking
from the deck upon the city. “With love, friendship, and competency, in
that enchanting region, shall we not be happy my Sebastian? Shall we not
_rest_?”
Sebastian turned his softened eyes on her with a look of tender regret:
“Would I had been born for thee only Aziek;--rest, alas! is not for a
man whom sacred duties bind to action; I belong to my suffering people.
But we _shall_ rest, sweetest! (he added soothingly, seeing tears gather
on her cheek) we _shall_ rest at least awhile.”
Only an eloquent smile replied to him; for now the vessel entered the
harbour of St. Salvador, and cast anchor amongst a wood of masts.
All was bustle and happy animation: the different voyagers hastened to
taste the pleasure of touching land and breathing the air of trees and
flowers. Sebastian conducted his Aziek and her attendant from the boat
to the quay; there he heard Portuguese tongues and saw Portuguese faces:
his heart yearned towards them. True to early impressions, his first
emotion at the sight of Monks and Convents, was an emotion of religious
gladness, he had to recollect that with their pageantry he had done for
ever. As he passed along, the grandeur of the city (then the capital of
Brazil) filled him with admiration, and while he contemplated its massy
edifices, he believed that he beheld the seat of his new empire.
Having inquired the name of the viceroy, and learned that De Castro
still held that powerful station, he led Aziek into a house provided
for travellers, where persuading her to repose herself on a couch, he
wrote to the viceroy: his letter contained these words.
“TO DON EMANUEL DE CASTRO,
“It is your King and your friend, Don Emanuel, who confides himself
to your honour; he comes to seek his country in Brazil: he reposes
his safety on your loyalty,--confident that neither the remembrance
of past injustice, nor the temptation to present revenge, can sway
a generous soul from its duty. Come hither privily, come and
counsel your fugitive prince.”
The interval which passed between the dispatch of this billet, and the
arrival of Don Emanuel’s reply, was one of great anxiety: Sebastian
thought less of his own reception than of Gaspar, of whom he hoped to
hear from De Castro. To see, to embrace that lowly but precious friend,
to demonstrate the constancy of his attachment, became the most lively
wish of his heart.
In a short time a letter was brought from the governor: an habitual
expectation of customary observances, made the proud monarch start when
he saw this paper.--What!--did De Castro also cease to consider him a
King!--should he not have hastened to evince his unabated respect, by
personally answering to his sovereign’s confidence?--Sebastian felt,
that between a complete abandonment of him, and that deeper devotedness
which generous pity inspires, there could be no medium:--he execrated
his own hasty reliance, and believing that it had betrayed him, he
opened the suspected billet.
How quickly did its contents dissipate this rash pre-judgment! they were
as follows:--
LETTER.
“SIRE!
“The first impulse of my heart is to fly to my sovereign’s feet,
there to entreat him to dispose of myself and of all that is mine,
but an important consideration checks me: it is this.--The
creatures of Philip surround us even here; if it were known that I,
the representative of that monarch, visited an unknown stranger,
suspicion would follow, and the august person of my King might be
endangered.
“I restrain, therefore, my impatience--I do violence to my duty and
my affection--I venture to risk his Majesty’s displeasure, by
supplicating him to accompany the bearer of this to my residence:
his loyalty, attested by months of zealous attention in Africa.”--
Sebastian dropt the letter at this sentence, and springing to the door
with a flush of joy, called out--“where, where is my friend?”
Gaspar was not far distant: he ran forward, and would have thrown
himself at the feet of his King, but Sebastian prevented him by falling
on his neck. What a sacred moment was that which re-united two friends
so variously endeared, and so long separated!--their hearts were big
with past events; they could not speak, but remained strained in each
other’s arms, without attempting to express any part of their feelings.