Selim's apartment was off from the common barracks of the Janizaries.
It was luxuriantly furnished in its way. Elegant rugs lay upon the
marble floor. A divan, with silken covering, filled one end of the
room. The walls were hung with a variety of richly wrought weapons and
armor:--short swords, long crescent-shaped cimeters, spears of
polished wood headed with glistening steel, helmets, breastplates,
greaves. Badges and honorary decorations shone among costly robes
which had accumulated since the days when he had been a page to the
Sultan Amurath I.
Upon a low table, reaching to the edge of the divan, had been placed
salvers holding cups and open dishes of silver. A woinak entered with
basins of scented water in which to wash the hands and bathe the face.
Selim placed his little guest by his side upon the divan. Mustapha
also appeared, and, removing his shoes, made a profound and dignified
salâm--quite in contrast with his usual rough and badgering manner
when with Selim--then placed himself beside his comrade upon the
cushions. An excellent repast was served. There was hare's flesh
chopped and rolled with rice into balls, made more savory with curry
sauce. Sweet cakes, pastry of figs and candied orange blossoms excited
a thirst for the sweetened water, which was so strongly flavored with
the juices of fruits that the more scrupulous Moslems refused to drink
it, lest they should disobey the command of the Koran prohibiting the
use of wine.
The two old men vied with each other in telling thrilling stories of
adventure in battle and on secret service; of the romance of castles
and courts; of how they won their honors and got their scars; of the
favors of princes and princesses; and of exploits in which, though the
rules of their order forbade their marrying, they retaliated the
captivity of the maiden's eye by capturing her person. The burden of
every story was the praise of the Janizary organization, which alone
enabled them to attain such glories and joys. The close brotherhood,
which gave to each the help of all the ten thousand, was commended by
incidents illustrating it. They told of their Aga or chief, who was
more powerful than the Grand Vizier--for sultans made these latter by
a word, and unmade them with equal caprice, often with the stroke of
the sword; but to touch a hair of the Aga would be for the Sultan to
lose the favor of the entire band, whom he regarded as the main
support of his throne, as their hands had won it for his fathers. Did
not the word of Mustapha and Selim, at the fox-hunt, cow the pride of
Yusef, who was next to the Capee Aga or chief of the white eunuchs?
Yet Selim and Mustapha were but captains in the Janizaries. No general
in any other arm of the service would have dared to antagonize the
eunuch as they did.
As Michael listened, his cheeks flushed and chilled by turns with the
excitement of his martial ambition. The dreams he used to have in his
mountain home, of being a soldier and coming back covered with badges
of honor to claim Morsinia as his bride, seemed to be dissolving into
the reality. Nor was his ardor damped when he learned from Selim that
the first step toward all this was the total surrender of himself to
the service of the brotherhood, in pledging and keeping obedience to
its rules; as a part of the body, like the hand, must never be severed
from the rest, but keep the contact perfect in every muscle and nerve,
in order to have the strength which only the health of the whole body
can give to it. Selim explained to him how wrong it had been for him
to seize the fox, no matter how excited he was, or how much daring it
showed to do so, since he had not been ordered to seize, but only to
turn the beast toward the Prince. Besides, to raise a hand against the
prince was treason--unless it were ordered by the chief of the
Janizaries. Therefore he had been punished according to the Janizary
discipline; though they would not have allowed any one else to touch
him--no not even the Padishah himself.
Michael's spirit was fully healed with such words. His depression gave
way to a hotter ambition and pride of expectation than he had ever
felt before, when Selim put upon his head the whitish gray cap, like
that worn by the dervishes, and differing from it only in having upon
the back a strip of wool which the old man thus explained, as he told
the story of the organization of the Janizary corps.
"The death angel, Azrael, has reaped the earth more than five times
since the mighty Othman,[36] who founded our empire, entered paradise.
His queen, Malkhatoon, the most beautiful of women, had given him two
sons. Never since Khalif Omar followed the Prophet was nobler
successor than would have been either Alaeddin or Orchan to Othman.
The stars shone not with deeper lustre than did the wisdom of
Alaeddin. The storm never burst more resistlessly on your Balkan
mountains than did the bravery and strength of Orchan beat down the
foe. To Orchan the empire came by will of Allah and Othman. But to
Alaeddin the new king said, 'Thou art wise, my brother, above all men.
Be thou the eyes of the throne, and I will be its arm!' So Alaeddin
was the great minister of the mighty Orchan. To Prince Alaeddin we owe
our best laws, our system of drilling and marching in all the Ottoman
armies.
"But two lights are better known than one. And in a dream the Angel
Gabriel, who knows the secrets of Allah regarding men, said to
Alaeddin, 'Go look into the eyes of Kara Khalil Tschendereli. We have
given him a thought for thee and thy people.' And Kara Khalil said,
'Know, O wise and virtuous Prince Alaeddin, I have been permitted in
my dreams to stand upon the wall Al Araf, that runs between paradise
and hell. In the third story of the seven which divide perdition I saw
the ghosts of the Giaours. But while I watched their torments the
spirit of Othman, the Blessed, came to me, and, pointing to a gate in
the wall, said, in a voice so sweet that all the birds in paradise
echoed it, but so strong that it shook the mighty wall Al Araf as if
it would fall, "I charge thee, as thou art a true believer in Mahomet,
open that gate that some of the believers in Jesu, Son of Mary, may
escape into paradise."
"'"What power have I for such a miracle, O Othman," I cried. But
Othman said:
"'"Thou shalt save the souls of the boys among the captives Allah
gives thee in battle. Is it not written in the Koran that all the
children are at their birth gifted with the true faith. Believe this,
and teach the captive boys to trust the Prophet, to breathe the holy
Islam of Father Abraham, and to draw the sword for Allah. So shalt
thou be a saviour of many souls. And such valor will Allah send these
rescued ones, and such blessings shall follow them, that the Giaour
children shall conquer for thee the Giaour nations."'
"And so, Michael," added Selim, "the wisdom of earth and heaven
appointed our order. We are still the Yeni Tscheri,[37] though a
century has gone by since we were founded; for the vigor of perpetual
youth is ours.
"When Orchan, at such advice of Alaeddin and Kara Khalil enrolled the
first of the new troop--bright Christian boys like yourself,
Michael--they were led to the old dervish, Hadji Beytarch, whose
sanctity was as the fragrance of paradise itself. The face of the holy
man caught the lustre of the prophecy from heaven. As he drew the
sleeve of his mantle over each bowed head--and the strip of wool on
our cap is the sign of his sleeve--he uttered this benediction: 'Thy
face shall be white and shining; thy right arm shall be strong; thy
sabre shall be keen; and thine arrows sharp. Thou shalt be fortunate
in fight, and thou shalt never leave the battle-field save as a
conqueror.'"
"And have they never been conquered?" asked Michael with incredulity.
"Never!" cried Selim.
"Except," added Mustapha, "that they might prepare themselves for some
greater victory. Allah sometimes makes known to us his will that we
should retreat; then we take up our kismet as joyfully as we would
shout the advance. That we may make sure of Allah's will, before
retreating we always assault the enemy thrice. If at that sacred
number we cannot conquer we know that the victory has been reserved,
still held for us, but in the closed hand of Fate."
"But what of those who were killed? I certainly saw many Janizaries
lying dead in the snows of the Balkans the day of the fight. Are they
not conquered?" asked the boy.
"Nay, more than conquerors," said Mustapha. "If one falls in battle
paradise flings wide its gates, and troops of angels and houris come
to lead his soul in a triumphal procession into that beautiful land
where the earth is like purest musk, and where the great Tuba tree
grows--a branch of which shades the kiosk of every believer, and bends
down to place its luscious fruit into his hand, if he so much as
desires it; where are grapes and pomegranates, and such as for spicy
sweetness have never been tasted on earth; where are streams of water
and milk and wine and honey, whose bottoms are pebbled with pearls and
emeralds and rubies; where the houris, the fairest of maidens, dwell
close beside the believer in pavilions of hollow pearls, and serve
every wish of the faithful even before he can utter it."[38]
But Michael's eyes were heavy; and as the old veterans diverted the
conversation to some matter of business between them, his excited
imagination reproduced the description of paradise in his dreams.
Only, the pavilion of pearl was shaped like good Uncle Kabilovitsch's
cot on the mountains, and the houris were all fair-haired Morsinias.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Whence the word Ottoman. Also written Osman, whence the Osmanlis.
[37] Yeni Tscheri; new troop; corrupted in Janizary.
[38] _Vide_ Koran.