THE CHAOUSH
The four soldiers who were leading Armenouhi and Vassinag away were
rough peasants from the distant interior. They were unable to see any
refinement or delicacy in their captives; for them such things did
not exist; and they were acting in obedience to the Prophet. What the
great Padishah bade, or what the religion of the Prophet sanctioned,
could be no crime. Moreover, woman had no soul; she was made for man;
and what mattered it who the man might be? As for those giaours, those
Christian women, who were not even worthy of being the slaves of the
soulless Moslem wives, what difference did it make what became of them?
The Koran and the state were indulgent; they placed no restraint on
the passions of their subjects. Such would have been the soldiers’
thoughts, if they had had any. But why should they think? The foolish
Franks might do that; but for a good Moslem to think,--the Padishah
forbade it.
The chaoush was of a somewhat better type of man than were his
soldiers, for he came from an old family which could trace its history
back to the conqueror Mohammed’s time, when Brusa was the Turkish
capital. He began his active life in a regiment of the Imperial Guard
at Yildiz. There he had an opportunity to see something outside the
life of the ordinary Turkish soldier. Fridays, when the Sultan went to
Selamlik, he had stolen glances at the distinguished foreigners and the
beautiful women who were on the ambassadors’ stand. When on guard, he
had often seen the ladies of the royal harem driving about the park;
and sometimes, when their veils were thrown aside, he had glanced at
their faces. Eight years in Constantinople had taught him to think.
He envied the position and wealth of his superiors; he would compare
the large houses on the Bosphorus with his own big ruin in Brusa;
and he often dreamed of doing the Sultan some great favor, that with
the baksheesh which he was sure to receive in return he might restore
the old house, and, like his forefathers, live the life of an idle
country pasha. But when his regiment was disbanded, he was as far from
being a pasha as ever, and returned home almost penniless. Two objects
militated against his life of ease and idleness,--his mother and his
poverty; and forced by them both, he enlisted as a chaoush in command
of the military patrol which guarded the country roads about Ak Hissar.