ZULEIKA
"Man to man, and in the desert, I had but little to fear, yet when I saw
Achmet's face, my heart turned to water within me. He was a brave
warrior. I had ridden by his side many a time in deadly strife; but I
had never seen him look like this before. When I turned to confront
him, my horse was jaded and worn out--I felt that my life was in the
hand of mine enemy.
"'Achmet,' I said, 'let me go in peace; the maiden has made her
choice--she is mine.'
"His only answer was a lance-thrust that passed between Zuleika's body
and my own. The girl clung fainting to my bosom, and encumbered my
sword-arm. My horse could not withstand the shock of Achmet's charge,
and rolled over me on the sand. In endeavouring to preserve Zuleika
from injury, my yataghan dropped out of its sheath; my lance was already
broken in the fall, and I was undermost, with the gripe of my adversary
on my throat. Twice I shook myself free from his hold: and twice I was
again overmastered by my rival. His eyes were like living coals, and the
foam flew from his white lips. He was mad, and Allah gave him strength.
The third time his grasp brought the blood from my mouth and nostrils.
I was powerless in his hold. His right arm was raised to strike; I saw
the blade quivering dark against the burning sky. I turned my eyes
towards Zuleika; for even then I thought of _her_. The girl was a true
Arab, faithful to the last. Once, twice, she raised her arm quick and
deadly as the lightning. She had seized my yataghan when it dropped
from its sheath, and she buried it in Achmet's body. I rose from the
ground a living man, and I was saved by her.
"Effendi, we took the bay mare, and left my jaded horse with the dead
man. For days we journeyed on, and looked not back, nor thought of the
past, for we were all in all to each other; and whilst our barley lasted
and we could find water we knew that we were safe: so we reached Cairo,
and trusted in Allah for the future. I had a sword, a lovely wife, and
the best mare in the world; but I was a soldier, and I could not gain my
bread by trade. I loathed the counters and the bazaar, and longed once
more to see the horsemen marshalled in the field. So I fed and dressed
the bay mare, and cleaned my arms, and leaving Zuleika in the bazaars,
placed myself at the gate of the Pasha, and waited for an audience.
"He received me kindly, and treated me as a guest of consideration; but
he had a cunning twinkle in his eye that I liked not; and although I
knew him to be as brave as a lion, I suspected he was as treacherous as
the fox; nevertheless, 'the hungry man knows not dates from bread,' and
I accepted service under him willingly, and went forth from his presence
well pleased with my fate. 'Zuleika,' I thought, 'will rejoice to hear
that I have employment, and I shall find here in Cairo a sweet little
garden where I will plant and tend my rose.'
"I thought to rejoin my love where I had left her, in the bazaar; but
she was gone. I waited hours for her return; she came not, and the
blood thickened round my heart. I made inquiries of the porters and
water-carriers, and all the passers-by that I could find: none had seen
her. One old woman alone thought she had seen a girl answering my
description in conversation with a black, wearing the uniform of the
Pasha; but she was convinced the girl had a fawn-coloured robe, or it
might have been lilac, or perhaps orange, but it certainly was not
green: this could not then be Zuleika, for she wore the colour of the
Prophet. She was lost to me--she for whom I had striven and toiled so
much; my heart sank within me; but I could not leave the place, and for
months I remained at Cairo, and became a Yuz-Bashi in the Guards of the
Pasha. But from that time to this I have had no tidings of Zuleika--my
Zuleika."
The Beloochee's face was deadly pale, and his features worked with
strong emotion: it was evident that this fierce warrior--man of blood
though he had been from his youth upward--had been tamed by the Arab
girl. She was the one thing on earth he loved, and the love of such
wild hearts is fearful in intensity. After a pause, during which he
seemed to smother feelings he could not command, he proceeded in a
hoarse, broken voice with his tale.
"The days have never been so bright since I lost her, Effendi; but what
would you? it was my kismet, and I submitted; as we must all submit when
it is fruitless to struggle. Day by day I did my duty, and increased in
the good opinion of the Pasha; but I cared for nothing now save only the
bay mare, and I gave her the name of one whom I should never see again.
"The Pasha was a haughty old warrior, lavish in his expenses,
magnificent in his apparel, and above all, proud of his horses. Some of
the swiftest and noblest steeds of the desert had found their way into
his stables; and there were three things in the world which it was well
known he would not refuse in the shape of a bribe, these were gold,
beauty, and horse-flesh. Ere long he cast a wistful look on my bay mare
Zuleika.
"It is well known, Effendi, that an Arab mare of pure race is not to be
procured. The sons of the desert are true to their principles, and
although gold will buy their best horses, they are careful not to part
with their mares for any consideration in the world. For long the Pasha
would not believe that Zuleika was a daughter of that wonderful line
which was blessed so many hundred years ago by the Prophet, nor was I
anxious that he should learn her value, for I knew him to be a man who
took no denial to his will. But when he saw her outstripping all
competitors at the jereed; when he saw her day after day, at work or at
rest, in hardship or in plenty, always smooth and sleek and mettlesome
as you see her now, he began to covet so good an animal, and with the
Pasha to covet was in one way or another to possess.
"Many a hint was given me that I ought to offer him my bay mare as a
present, and that I might then ask what I would; but to all these I
turned a deaf ear; now that _she_ was gone, what had I in the world but
Zuleika? and I swore in my soul that death alone should part us. At
length the Pasha offered me openly whatever sum I chose to name as the
price of my mare, and suggested at the same time that if I continued
obdurate, it might be possible that he should obtain the animal for
nothing, and that I should never have occasion to get on horseback
again. My life was in danger as well as my favourite. I determined, if
it were possible, to save both.
"I went to the Pasha's gate and demanded an audience, presenting at the
same time a basket of fruit for his acceptance. He received me
graciously, and ordered pipes and coffee, bidding me seat myself on the
divan by his side.
"'Ali,' said he, after a few unmeaning compliments, 'Ali, there are a
hundred steeds in my stable. Take your choice of them and exchange with
me your bay mare, three for one."
"'Pasha!' I replied, 'my bay mare is yours and all that I have, but I am
under an oath, that never in my life am I to _give_ or _sell_ her to any
one.'
"The Pasha smiled, and the twinkle in his eye betokened mischief. 'It
is said,' he answered, 'an oath is an oath. There is but one Allah!'
"'Nevertheless, Highness,' I remarked, 'I am at liberty to LOSE her.
She may yet darken the door of your stable if you will match your best
horse against her, the winner to have both. But you shall give me a
liberal sum to run the race.'
"The Pasha listened eagerly to my proposal. He evidently considered the
race was in his own hands, and I was myself somewhat surprised at the
readiness with which he agreed to an arrangement which he must have
foreseen would end in the discomfiture and loss of his own steed without
the gain of mine. I did not know yet the man with whom I had to deal.
"'To-morrow, at sunrise,' said the Pasha, 'I am willing to start my
horse for the race; and, moreover, to show my favour and liberality, I
am willing to give a thousand piasters for every ten yards' start you
may choose to take. If my horse outstrips your mare you return me the
money, if you win you take and keep all.'
"I closed with the proposal, and all night long I lay awake, thinking
how I should preserve Zuleika in my own possession. That I should win I
had no doubt, but this would only expose me to fresh persecutions, and
eventually I should lose my life and my mare too. Towards sunrise a
thought struck me, and I resolved to act upon it.
"I would hold the Pasha to his word; I would claim a start of fifty
yards, and a present of five thousand piasters. I would take the money
immediately, and girth my mare for the struggle. With fifty yards of
advantage, where was the horse in the world that could come up with
Zuleika? I would fly with her once more into the desert, and take my
chance. Better death with her, than life and liberty deprived of my
treasure. I rose, prayed, went to the bath, and then fed and saddled my
favourite, placing a handful of dates and a small bag of barley behind
the saddle.
"All Cairo turned out to see the struggle. The Pasha's troops were
under arms, and a strong party of his own guards, the very regiment to
which I belonged, was marshalled to keep the ground. We were to run a
distance of two hours[#] along the sand. Lances pointed out our course,
and we were to return and finish in front of a tent pitched for the
Pasha himself. His ladies were present, too, in their gilded _arabas_,
surrounded by a negro guard. As I led my mare up they waved their
handkerchiefs, and one in particular seemed restless and uneasy. I
imagined I heard a faint scream from the interior of her _araba_; but
the guard closed round it, and ere I had looked a second time it had
been driven from the ground. Just then the Pasha summoned myself and my
competitor to his tent. I cast my eye over my antagonist. He was
considerably lighter than I was, and led a magnificent chestnut
stallion, the best in the Pasha's stables; but when I looked at its
strong but short form, and thought of Zuleika's elastic gait and lengthy
stride, I had no fears for the result."
[#] About seven miles. The Asiatic always counts space by time, and an
hour is equivalent to something over a league.
"I saluted the Pasha, and made my request. 'Highness,' I said, 'I claim
a start of fifty yards and five thousand piasters. Let the money be
paid, that I may take it with me and begin.'
"'It is well,' replied the Pasha; '_Kiatib_,' he added, to his
secretary, 'have you prepared the "backshish" for Ali Mesrour? Bestow
it on him with a blessing, that he may mount and away,' and again the
cruel eye twinkled with its fierce grim humour. Effendi, my heart sank
within me when I saw two sturdy slaves bring out a sack, evidently of
great weight, and proceed to lay the burden on my pawing mare. 'What is
this?' I exclaimed, aghast; 'Highness, this is treachery! I am not to
carry all that weight!'
"'Five thousand piasters, oh my soul!' replied the Pasha, with his most
ferocious grin; 'and all of it _in copper_, too. Mount, in the name of
the Prophet, and away!'
"My adversary was already in his saddle; the sack was fastened in front
of mine. I saw that if I made the slightest demur, it would be
considered a sufficient excuse to deprive me of my mare, perhaps of my
life. With a prayer to Allah, I got into my saddle. Zuleika stepped
proudly on, as though she made but little of the weight; and I took my
fifty yards of start, and as much more as I could get. The signal-shot
was fired, and we were off. Zuleika sniffed the air of the desert, and
snorted in her joy. Despite of the piasters, she galloped on. Effendi,
from that day to this I have seen neither my antagonist in the race, nor
the negro guard, nor the gilded _arabas_, nor the Pasha's angry smile.
I won my mare, I won my life and freedom; also I carried off five
thousand piasters of the Pasha's money, and doubtless four times a day
he curses me in his prayers, but yonder is the dawn, and here is the
Danube. Sick and faint you must be, Tergyman! Yet in two hours more we
shall reach Omar Pasha's tent, for I myself placed a picket of our
soldiers on either bank at yonder spot, and they have a boat; so take
courage for a little time longer, and confess that the breath of the
morning here is sweeter than the air of a Russian prison. Who can
foretell his destiny? There is but one Allah!"
I had not the tough frame of my Beloochee friend; before we reached the
waterside I had fainted dead away. I remembered no more till I awoke
from my fever in an hospital tent at head-quarters. On that weary time
of prostration and suffering it is needless for me to dwell. Ere I could
sit upright in bed the winter had commenced, the season for field
operations was over, and the army established in cantonments. There was
a lull, too, before the storm. The Allies had not yet put forth their
strength, and it was far from improbable that the war might even then be
near its conclusion.
Victor had determined to return to Hungary, and insisted on my
accompanying him. Weak, maimed, and emaciated, I could be of no service
to my chief, or to the great General who had so kindly recognised me. I
had nothing to keep me in Turkey; I had nothing to take me to England.
No, no, anywhere but there. Had I but won a name, I should have
rejoiced to return into Somersetshire, to see Constance once again--to
repay her coldness with scorn--perhaps to pass her without speaking--or,
bitterer still, to greet her with the frankness and ease of a mere
acquaintance. But what was I, to dream thus? A mere adventurer, at best
a poor soldier of fortune, whose destiny, sooner or later, would be but
to fatten a battle-field or encumber a trench, and have his name
misspelt in a _Gazette_. No, no, anywhere but England, and why not
Hungary? Victor's arguments were unanswerable; and once more--but oh!
how changed from the quiet, thoughtful child--I was again at Edeldorf.