Morsinia's fears, and her horror at the anticipated life in the harem,
were not confirmed by its actual scenes. Except for the constant
surveillance of the Nubian eunuchs and female attendants, there was no
restriction upon her liberty. She passed through the familiar
corridors, and rested upon the divan in what had been her own chamber
in better days. Other female captives became her companions; but among
them were none of those belonging to Constantinople. Suburban
villages were represented; but most of the odalisks[84] were
Circassian beauties, whose conduct did not indicate that they felt any
shame in their condition. They indulged in jealous rivalry, estimating
their own worth by the sums which the agents of the Sultan had paid
their parents for their possession; or bantering one another as to who
of their number would first meet the fancy of their royal master.
There were several Greeks, who, with more modesty of speech, spared
none of the arts of the toilet to prepare themselves to better their
condition in the only way that was now open to them. A Coptic girl had
been sent by Eenal, the Borghite Khalif of Egypt, as a present to the
Sultan. Her form was slight, and without the fullness of development
which other races associate with female beauty, but of wonderful grace
of pose and motion; her face was broad; eyes wide and expressionless;
mouth straight. Yet her features had that symmetry and balance which
gave to them a strange fascination. The Turcoman Emir who had already
given his daughter to Mahomet--the nuptials with whom he was
celebrating when called to the throne--exercised still further his
fatherly office in presenting to his son-in-law as fine a pair of
black eyes as ever flashed their cruel commands to an amative heart.
To study this physiognomical museum afforded Morsinia an entertaining
relief from the otherwise constant torture of her thoughts.
To her further diversion one was introduced into the harem who spoke
her own Albanian tongue. This new comer was of undoubted beauty, so
far as that quality could be the product of merely physical elements.
It was of the kind that might bind a god on earth, but could never
help a soul to heaven. Her lower face, with full red lips arching the
pearliest teeth, and complexion ruddy with the glow of health, shading
into the snowy bosom, might perhaps serve to make a Venus; but her
upper features, the low forehead and dilated nostrils, could never
have been made to bespeak the thoughtful Minerva in this retreat of
those, who, to the Moslem imagination, are the types of heavenly
perfection. Her eyes were bright, but only with surface lustre. Her
nature evidently contained no depths which could hold either noble
resentment or self sacrificing love; either grand earthly passion or
heavenly faith.
This woman's vanity did not long keep back the story of her life. She
told of her conquest of the village swains who fought for the
possession of her charms; of the devotion of an Albanian prince who
took her dowerless in preference to the ladies of great family and
fortune, and would have bestowed upon her the heirship to his estates:
of how she was stolen away from the great castle by a company of
Turkish officers, who afterward fought among themselves for the
privilege of presenting her to the Validé Sultana;[85] for it was
about the time of the Ramedan feast when the Sultan's mother made an
annual gift to her son of the most beautiful woman she could secure.
The vain captive declared that the jealousy of the odalisks at
Adrianople had led the Kislar Aga to send her here to Constantinople.
"And who was the Albanian nobleman whose bride you had become?" asked
Morsinia.
"Oh, one who is to be king of Albania one day, the Voivode Amesa."
"Ah!" said Morsinia, "this is news from my country. When was it
determined that Amesa should be king?"
"Oh! every one speaks of it at the castle as if it were well
understood. And when he becomes king then he will claim me again from
Mahomet, though he must ransom me with half his kingdom. Yes, I am to
be a queen; and indeed I may be one already, for perhaps Lord Amesa is
now on the throne. And that is the reason I wear the cord of gold in
my hair; for one day my royal lover will put the crown here."
The bedizened beauty rose and paced to and fro through the great
salôn. The pride which gave the majestic toss to her head, however it
would have marred that ethereal form which the inner eye of the
moralist or the Christian always sees, and which is called character,
only gave an additional charm to her;--as the delicate yet stately
comb of the peacock adds to the fascination of that bird. Her carriage
combined the gracefulness of perfect anatomy and health with the
dignity which conceit, thoroughly diffused in muscle and nerve, lent
to all her movements. With that step upon it no carpet beneath a
throne would have been dishonored. Her dress was in exquisite keeping
with her person. The close fitting zone or girdle about her waist left
the bust uncontorted; a model which needed no device to supplement
the perfection of nature. A robe of purple velvet trailed luxuriantly
behind; but in front was looped so as to display the loose trousers of
white silk which were gathered below the knee and fell in full ruffles
about the unstockinged ankles, but not so low as to conceal the rings
of silver which clasped them, and the slippers of yellow satin, ending
in long and curved points, which protruded from beneath.
As the other women gazed at this self-assumed queen of the harem the
green fire of jealousy flashed alike from black eyes and blue. The
straight thin noses of the Greeks for the moment forgot their classic
models, and dilated as if in rivalry of that flattened feature of the
Egyptian; while the straight mouth of the daughter of the Nile writhed
in indescribable curves, indicative of commingled wrath, hatred, pique
and scorn.
This parade would have produced in Morsinia the feeling of contempt,
were it not for that sisterly interest which was awakened by the fact
that she was her own country-woman. Morsinia's face, usually calm in
its great dignity and reserve, now flushed with the struggle between
indignation and pity for the girl.
At this moment the purple hangings which separated the salôn from the
open court were held aside by the silver staff of the eunuch in
charge; and the young Padishah stood as a spectator of the scene.
"Ah! Tamlich," cried he, addressing the black eunuch, "you were right
in saying that the great haremlik at Adrianople, with its thousand
goddesses, could not rival this temporary one for the fairness of the
birds you have caged in it."
The women made the temineh--a salutation with the right hand just
sweeping the floor, and then pressed consecutively to the heart, the
lips and the forehead; a movement denoting reverence, and, at the same
time, giving field for the display of the utmost grace of motion.
The Padishah passed among these his slaves with the license which
betokened his absolute ownership; stroking their hair and toying with
their persons according to his amiable or insolent caprice. Morsinia,
however, was spared this familiarity. The Sultan himself colored
slightly as he addressed her a few words in Greek, of which language,
in common with several others, he knew enough to act as his own
interpreter. His questions were respectful, all limited to her comfort
in her new home. With Elissa, the queenly Albanian, he was at once on
terms of intimacy. Her manner betokened that she gave to him only too
willingly whatever he might be disposed to take.
As the Sultan withdrew, the eunuch Tamlich remarked to him:
"My surmise of your Excellency's judgment was verified. Said I not
that the two Arnaouts were the fairest? And did I not behold your
Majesty gaze longest upon them?"
"I commend your taste, Tamlich," replied Mahomet. "But those two are
as unlike as a ruby and a pearl."
"But as fair as either, are they not? The chief hamamjina[86] declares
that the blue-eyed one has the most perfect form she ever saw; and
that it is a form which will improve with years. Morsinia Hanoum[87]
will be more fit for Paradise, while Elissa Hanoum may lose the grace
of the maiden as a matron. But the cherry is ripe for the plucking
now."
"I like the ruby better than the pearl," said the Sultan. "I cannot
quite fathom the deep eye of the latter. She thinks too much. I would
not have women think. They are to make us stop thinking. The problems
of state are sufficiently perplexing: I want no human problem in my
arms."
"But one who thinks may have some skill in affording amusement. Have I
not heard thee say, Sire, 'Blessed is the one who can invent a new
recreation?' That requires thinking."
"Right, Tamlich! can she sing?"
"Ay! your Majesty, to the Greek cythera; and such songs that, though
they know not a word of them--for the songs are in her own Arnaout
tongue--the odalisks all fall to weeping."
"I like not such singing," said Mahomet. "To make people think with
her thoughtful eyes is bad enough in a woman. To make them weep with
her voice is wicked, is Christian. I will give her away to some one
who wants a wife that thinks. There is Hamed Bey, one of the
muderris[88] who is to be put at the head of my new chain of
Ulemas.[89] He will want a wife who thinks; and his eyes are that
blind with dry study that it will do him good to weep. But who is the
woman? I think I saw her face in St. Sophia the day of our entry."
"She belonged to the house-hold of Phranza, the Chamberlain, who
possessed this very house," replied the eunuch. "And I think, from its
goodly size and decoration, he must have used the treasury of the
empire freely."
"To Phranza! Why, I have a daughter of his in the nursery at
Adrianople. His wife I have given to the Master of the Horse.[90] His
son I have this day sent to hell for his insolence. But she is an
Arnaout; therefore not of kin to Phranza. Search out her story,
Tamlich! For a member of the family of Phranza, and not of his blood,
may be of some political consequence. I will keep her. But get her
story, Tamlich, get her story!"
"I have it already, Sire," replied the eunuch.
"Ah!"
"She is a ward of Scanderbeg, the Arnaout traitor, sent to
Constantinople to escape the danger of capture by thine all-conquering
arms. But the bird fled from the fowler into the snare."
"Perhaps a child of Scanderbeg! Eh, Tamlich? One at least whose life
is of great value to him, and was to the Greek empire. I will inform
Scanderbeg that she is in my possession. By the dread of what may
happen to her I shall the easier force that ravening brute to make
terms; for I am tired of battering my sword against his rocks, trying
to prick his skin. Keep her close, Tamlich, keep her close!"
FOOTNOTES:
[84] Odalisk; the title of a childless inmate of the harem.
[85] Mother of the Sultan.
[86] Hamamjina; bath attendant.
[87] Hanoum; a title given to matrons.
[88] Muderris; professors in the high schools.
[89] Chain of Ulemas; a renowned system of colleges.
[90] Gibbon; Chapter LXVIII.