The Lion of Janina; Or The Last Days of the Janissaries: A Turkish Novel Read online

  CHAPTER III

  A TURKISH PARADISE

  Ali Pasha himself had built the whole citadel of Janina, and had beenwise enough, as soon as the fortress was finished, to at once andquietly remove out of the way all the builders and architects who hadhad anything to do with it, so that he only knew all the secrets ofthe place. There were secret exits and listening-galleries in everypart of the building, and each single group of redoubts which, viewedfrom the outside, seemed quite isolated, was really so well connectedtogether by means of subterranean passages, that one could go backwardand forward from one to the other without being observed in the least.At a later day Ali Pasha's enemies were to have very bitter experienceof these architectural peculiarities.

  One could go right round the palace of the three Beys, both above andbelow, by means of a secret corridor, and not one of the inhabitantsof the building had the least idea of the existence of this corridor.It was in the midst of the fathom-thick wall between two rows ofwindows, and within this space invisible doors opened into everyapartment, either between windows, or behind mirrors, or beneath theceiling between two stories, and these doors could not be opened bykeys, but turned upon invisible hinges set in motion by hiddenscrews, and they closed so hermetically as to leave not the slightestorifice behind them.

  Ali Pasha stood there in the banqueting-chamber unobserved by any one.He stood beside a huge Corinthian column, and here hung a black boardindicating the direction in which Mecca lay. He had no fear that anyone would look thither. That place, towards which every trulybelieving Mussulman must turn when he prays, was carefully avoided byevery eye, for fear it should encounter the golden letters whichsparkle on the walls of the Kaaba.[6]

  [Footnote 6: The chief sanctuary of the Mussulmans standing in themidst of the great mosque at Mecca.]

  For now is the time for enjoyment. There is no need of a heavenlyParadise, for Paradise is already here below. There is no need toinquire of either Muhammad or the angel Izrafil concerning the winewhich flows from the roots of the Tuba-tree; far more fiery, far morestimulating, is the wine which flashes in glass and goblet. The hourismay hide their white bosoms and their rosy faces, for what are theycompared with the earthly angels whose mundane charms intoxicate thehearts of mortals? Truly Muhammad was but an indifferent prophet, hedid not understand how to arrange paradise; let him but regard thearrangements of Mukhtar Bey--they will show him how that sort of thingought to be managed.

  Muhammad imagined that the embraces of seven and seventy houris wouldmake an enraptured Moslem eternally happy. Why, the bungler forgot thebest part of it. Would it not be more satisfactory if now and then,say once in a thousand years or so, the Moslems were to exchange theirown houris for those of their neighbors? In this way the aroma ofbrand-new kisses would prevent their raptures from growing stale, andthe Paradise of Muhammad would be worth something after all. With alleternity before him, a man would scarcely mind waiting for his ownwives for a paltry millennium or two while he enjoyed the wives of hisneighbors, and when he returned to his seven and seventy originaldamsels again, what a pleasant reunion it would be!

  Now the Prophet had forgotten to introduce this novelty into his ownParadise, and Mukhtar Bey was the happy man to whom the fairy MalachTaraif whispered the idea during the fast preceding the Feast ofBairam while he slept, and he immediately proceeded to discuss thematter with his kinsmen.

  All three brothers lived under one roof, each of the three had his ownspecial harem, and each of them possessed in their harems beauties farsurpassing what the angels Monkar and Nakir could promise them in thenext world. After the Feast of Bairam, when Mukhtar Bey had well pliedhis brethren with good wine, he said to them, "Let us exchangeharems!"

  Sulaiman Bey immediately gave his hand upon it; Vely Bey laughed at itas a good idea at first, but afterwards drew back. The other twoworthies laughed uproariously at his simplicity, made fun of him, andproceeded at once to transfer to each other their respective damsels,and on the morrow and the following days aggravated Vely by extollingbefore him the exchanged odalisks, each of them confiding to him whatnovel attractions he had discovered in this or that bayadere. ThusSulaiman could not sufficiently extol the extraordinary brilliance ofthe eyes of Mukhtar Bey's favorite damsel, while Mukhtar protestedthat the languishing Jewish maiden he had got in exchange fromSulaiman quivered in his arms like a dancing flame.

  Vely laughed a good deal over the business, but still continued toshake his head, confessing at last that the reason why he did notexchange his harem was because it contained an Albanian damsel whom hehad neither purchased nor captured, but who had come to him of her ownaccord, and whom he had promised long ago never to abandon, and her hewould not give for both their harems put together; nay, he said hewould not give her up for a whole world full of damsels. The twobrethren thereupon assured Vely that if he loved this particulardamsel so very much, he might exclude her from the others and keep herfor himself, and it need make no difference. Then Vely Bey alsoacceded to this fraternal division of delights, and transferred hisharem also, with the exception of Xelianthe.

  Mukhtar Bey had fixed the last night of the great Bairam feast for theentertainment that was to rival Paradise, inviting his brethren andthe Prophet Muhammad himself, in order that he might learn from themhow to be happy, and might regulate heaven accordingly. To this endthey had a fourth divan added to their three, with its ownwell-appointed table in front of it, and bade the attendant odalisksbe diligent in keeping the fourth goblet well filled, and do theirbest to entertain the invited guest. Mockery of religious subjects wasno unusual thing with Turkish magnates in those days. Blasphemy hadgone so far as to become an open scandal; popular fanaticism andofficial orthodoxy made it all the more glaring.

  So the sons of Ali Pasha invited the Prophet to be their guest, andhad made up their minds that if he did appear among them he would notbe bored.

  All the odalisks danced and sung before them in turn, and the brethrendiverted themselves by judging which of the damsels was the sweetestand loveliest.

  In every song, in every dance, Rebecca, Mukhtar Bey's beautiful Jewishdamsel, and the blue-eyed bayadere Lizza, who was Sulaiman Bey'sfavorite, equally excelled. It was impossible to decide which of thetwain deserved the palm. At last they were made to dance together.

  "Look!" cried Mukhtar, his eyes sparkling with delight, "look! didstever behold a more beautiful figure? Like the flowering branch of theBan-tree she sways to and fro. How proudly she throws her head back,and looks at thee so languishingly that thou meltest away for veryrapture! Would that her light feet might dance all over me; would thatshe might encompass every part of me like the atmosphere!"

  "She really is charming," admitted Sulaiman, "and if the other werenot dancing by her side, she would be the first star in the firmamentof beauty. But ah! one movement of the other one is worth all the lifein her body. She is but a woman, the other is a sylph. She kills youwith rapture, the other raises you from the dead."

  "Thou are unjust, Sulaiman," said Mukhtar; "thou dost judge only withthine eyes. If thou wouldst take counsel of thy lips, they would speakmore truly. Taste her kisses, and then say which of them is thesweeter."

  With that he beckoned to the two odalisks. Rebecca, the lovely Jewishdamsel, sank full of amorous languor on Sulaiman's breast, whileLizza, with sylph-like agility, sat her down upon his knee, and theintoxicated Bey, in an access of rapture, kissed first one and thenthe other.

  "Rebecca's lips are more ardent," he cried, "but the kisses of Lizzaare sweeter. The kiss of Rebecca is like the poppy which lulls youinto sweet unconsciousness, but Lizza's kiss is like sweet wine whichmakes you merry."

  "Lizza's kiss may perchance be like sweet wine," interrupted Mukhtar,"but Rebecca's kiss is like heavenly musk which only the Blessed maypartake of, and those who partake thereof _are_ blessed."

  And with that Mukhtar caught up both the odalisks in his arms, that hemight pronounce judgment as to the sweetness of their lips. It was anenviable process. T
he contending parties themselves were in doubt asto which of themselves should obtain a verdict. At length they calledupon Vely Bey to decide--Vely, who was now lying blissfully asleepbeside them on the divan, overcome with wine, his head in Xelianthe'sbosom. His two brethren awoke him that he might judge between them asto the sweetness of rival kisses.

  It took a good deal of trouble to make the stupidly fuddled Beyunderstand what was required of him, and when he did understand, theonly answer he made was, "Xelianthe's kisses are the sweetest;" andwith that he embraced his favorite damsel once more and, reclining hishead on her bosom, went off to sleep again.

  Then cried Mukhtar, "Wherefore dost thou ask for _his_ judgment, whenamongst us sits the Prophet himself? Let him judge between us."

  With these words he pointed to the empty place which had been left fora fourth person. Rich meats were piled up there on gold and silverplate, and wine sparkled in transparent crystal.

  "Come, Muhammad!" exclaimed Mukhtar, addressing the vacant place;"thou in thy lifetime didst love many a beauteous woman, and in thyParadise there is enough and to spare of beauty. I summon thee toappear before us. Here is a dispute between us two as to whose damselis the sweeter and the lovelier. Thou hast seen them dance, thou hastheard them sing; now taste of their kisses!"

  With that he beckoned to the two damsels, and they sat down, one oneach side of the empty divan, and made as if they were embracing ashape sitting between them, and filled the air with their burning,fragrant kisses.

  "Well, let us hear thy verdict, Muhammad!" cried Mukhtar, with drunkenbravado; and, taking the crystal goblet from the empty place andraising it in the air, looked around him with a flushed, defiant face,and exclaimed, "Come! drink of the wine of this goblet her health towhom thou awardest the prize!"

  Ali Pasha, shocked and filled with horror at the shamelessly impudentwords he heard from his hiding-place, drew a pistol from his girdleand softly raised the trigger.

  "Drink, Muhammad!" bellowed Mukhtar, raising the goblet on high,"drink to the health of the triumphant damsel! Which shall it be,Rebecca or Lizza?"

  At that same instant a loud report rang through the room, and theupraised crystal goblet was shivered into a thousand fragments inMukhtar's hand. Every one leaped from his place in terror. Butwhichever way they looked there was nothing to be seen. The onlypersons in the room were the three brothers and the damsels. Only atthe spot from whence the shot had proceeded a little round cloud ofbluish smoke was visible, which sluggishly dispersed. Nobody presentcarried weapons, and there was no door or window there by which anyone could have got in.

  From the minarets outside the muezzins proclaimed the prayer of dawn:"La illah il Allah! Muhammad razul Allah!"--"There is no God but God,and Muhammad is His Prophet!"

  * * * * *

  Ali Pasha did not pursue the fugitives. That day he was praying allthe morning. He locked himself up in his inmost apartments, thatnobody might see what he was doing. He now did what he had not donefor seventy years--he wept. For a whole hour his inflexible soul wasbroken. So that woman whom he had loved better than life itself, sheforsooth had given the first signal of approaching misfortune, thefirst sign of the coming struggle! Let it come! Let her veil be thefirst banner to lead an army against Janina! Tepelenti would notattempt to stay her in her flight. For one long hour he thought ofher, and this hour was an hour of weeping; and then he bethought himof the approaching tempest which the prophetic voice had warned himof, and his heart turned to stone at the thought. Ali Pasha was notthe man to cringe before danger; no, he was wont to meet it face toface, and ask of it why it had tarried so long. He used even to sendoccasionally for the _nimetullahita_ dervish who had been living along time in the fortress, and question him concerning the future. Itmust not be supposed, indeed, that Tepelenti ever took advice fromanybody; but he would listen to the words of lunatics and soothsayers,and liked to learn from magicians and astrologers, and their sayingswere not without influence upon his actions.

  The dervish was a decrepit old man. Nobody knew how old he really was;it was said that only by magic did he keep himself alive at all. Everyevening they laid him down on plates of copper and rubbed invigoratingbalsam into his withered skeleton, and so he lived on from day to day.

  Two dumb eunuchs now brought him in to Tepelenti, and, bending hislegs beneath him, propped him up in front of the pasha.

  "Sikham," said Ali to the dervish, "I feel the approach of evil days.My sword rusted in its sheath in a single night. My buckler, which Icovered with gold, has cracked from end to end. A severed head, whichhid itself away from me so that I could not find it, came forth to meat night and spoke to me of my death; and in my dreams I see my sonsmake free with the Prophet. I ask thee not what all these thingssignify. That I know. Just as surely as in winter-time the hosts ofrooks and crows resort to the roofs of the mosques, so surely shallmy sworn enemies fall upon me. I am old compared with them, and it isa thing unheard of among the Osmanlis that a man should reach the ageof nine and seventy and still be rich and mighty. Let them come! Butone thing I would know--who will be the first to attack me? Tell mehis name."

  The dervish thereupon caused a wooden board to be placed before him onwhich meats were wont to be carried; then he put upon it an emptyglass goblet, and across the glass he laid a thin bamboo cane. Next hewrote upon the wooden board the twenty-nine letters of the Turkishalphabet, and then, thrice prostrating himself to the ground withwide-extended arms, he fixed his eyes steadily upon the centre of thegoblet.

  In about half an hour the goblet began to tinkle as if some one wererubbing his wet finger along its rim. This tinkling grew stronger andstronger, louder and louder, till at last the goblet moved up and downon the wooden board, and began revolving along with the light caneplaced across it, revolving at last so rapidly that it was impossibleto discern the cane upon it at all.

  Then, quite suddenly, the dervish raised his fingers from the table,and the goblet immediately stopped. The point of the cane stoodopposite the letter _ghain_--G.[7]

  [Footnote 7: The marvels of our modern table-turning and table-tappingspirits, and all the wonders of this sort, were known to the Arabdervishes long ago.--JOKAI.]

  "That signifies the first letter of his name," said the dervish--"G!"

  And then the mysterious operation was repeated, and the magic stickspelled out the name letter by letter: "G--a--s--k--h--o B--e--y." Atthe last letter the goblet stopped short and would move no more.

  "I know no man of that name," said Ali, amazed that he whose name wasso world-renowned was to tremble before one whose name he had neverheard before.

  "Where does the fellow live?" he inquired of the dervish.

  The magic jugglery was set going again, and now the dancing gobletspelled out the name, "Stambul."

  That was enough. Ali beckoned to the eunuchs to take the dervish awayagain.

  Ali thereupon summoned forty Albanian soldiers from the garrison, andgave to each one of them twenty ducats.

  "This," said he, "is only earnest money. I want a man put to deathwhose name and dwelling-place I know. His name is Gaskho Bey, and helives in Stambul. This man's head is worth as many gold pieces asthere are miles between him and me. He who brings the head can measurethe distance and be paid for it. The first who brings but the reportof his death shall receive two hundred ducats; he who slays him, athousand."

  The Albanians consulted together for a brief moment, and thenintimated that if a bey of the name of Gaskho really existed, he wasas good as dead already.

  Towards mid-day Ali sent for his sons. He said not a word to them ofthe anxieties, the visions, and the apparitions of the night before,but made them, after they had respectfully kissed his hands, sit downall around him. Mukhtar Bey he invited to sit down on his left hand,Vely on his right, and Sulaiman directly opposite.

  He addressed himself first of all to Sulaiman.

  "Thou art the youngest and boldest," said he. "To-morrow thou must goto sea and take
three ships with thee. These ships thou must take toSicily, load them there with sulphur, and return without losing aninstant."

  "Oh, my father!" replied Sulaiman, "the tempest is now abroad upon thesea. Who would venture now with a ship upon the billows? All themonsters of the ocean are now running upon the surface seeking whomthey may devour, and the phantom ship, with her shadowy rigging andher shadowy crew, pursues her zigzag course across the waters."

  Ali Pasha said no more, but turned towards Mukhtar Bey.

  "Thou art the most crafty," said he; "go then to the captains of theSuliotes and invite them to assemble with their forces at Janina withall despatch. Spare neither promises nor assurances nor fair winds."

  Mukhtar Bey's face turned quite angry, and, wagging his head, stillheavy from his overnight debauch, he answered, sullenly: "In themountains the snow is now thawing; every stream is swollen into ariver; naught but a bird can find a place for its foot on the dryground; how, then, can armies move hither and thither? Wait for aweek, till the inundations have subsided. Truly there is no enemy onthy borders. In thy whole realm there is not so much as a rat tonibble at thy walls. What dost thou want now with chariots and armedmen?"

  Ali now turned to Vely, who was sitting on his right hand. "Go thouover to Misrim," said he, "and purchase for me two thousand horses; athousand of them shall be meet for war-chargers, and a thousand fordrawing guns."

  "Oh, my father!" answered Vely, who was the eldest and wisest of Ali'ssons, "I will not object to thy command that the simoon has now begunin Misrim, before whose burning, suffocating breath every livingcreature is forced to fly. I reck little of that, but the horses, thyprecious horses, will perish. And, moreover, I would ask of thee onequestion. Wherefore dost thou get together a host, and horses andguns, without cause, and with no danger threatening thee? Will not allthese warlike preparations excite the rage of the Padishah againstthee, and so thy preparing against an imagined peril will saddle theewith a real war?"

  Ali Pasha laughed aloud--a very unusual habit with him.

  "Well," said he, "it is for me to prove to you, I suppose, that youare all wrong in your calculations. Dine with me and be merry. Afterdinner you shall see that the sea is not stormy, that the rivers arenot in flood, and that the simoon is not suffocating. I have atalisman which will convince you thereof."

  So he entertained his sons till late in the evening, and immediatelyafter dinner he whispered to one of the dumb eunuchs, and then he tookhis sons with him into the red tower, the doors of which were leftwide open. He stopped short with them in one of the rooms, thesolitary semicircular window of which looked out upon the lake ofAcheruz. The window was guarded by an iron grating. Here he sat downwith them to smoke his narghily and sip his coffee. The sons wouldhave preferred to mount upon the roof of the tower, where the freshair and the fine view would have made their siesta perfect; but Alifacetiously observed that in the open air cold and hot winds were justthen blowing together at the same time, and he did not want the simoonto make them sweat or the trade-winds to make them shiver.

  As they were sipping their coffee there the splashing of oars wasaudible beneath the tower, and the sons beheld three large,flat-bottomed boats propelled upon the surface of the water, in whichsat the damsels of their harems; the boats were rowed by musculareunuchs.

  The faces of the three beys lighted up when they saw the damsels beingrowed on the water, and Mukhtar Bey whispered roguishly in Sulaiman'sear, "Shall we make the old man also one of our party?"

  Ali overheard the whisper, and replied, with a smile, "Truly yourdamsels are most beauteous"--here he stroked his white beard from endto end--"I am not surprised, therefore, that you like to stay at homehere and call the wind hot and cold, though it is nothing but thebreath of Allah, and what comes from God cannot be bad. But yourdamsels _are_ beautiful, of that there can be no doubt. Now, lastnight I dreamt a dream. Before me stood the Prophet, and he told mehow you had challenged him to say which of your damsels was thesweeter and the more beautiful." (Here the sons regarded each other,full of fear and amazement.) "The Prophet replied," continued Ali,"that it was not meet that he should come to your damsels; they shouldrather go to him. So I mean to send them to Paradise."

  "What doest thou?" cried all three sons, horror-stricken.

  The only answer Ali gave was to give a long shrill whistle, at whichsignal the eunuchs drew out the plugs from holes secretly bored at thebottom of the three boats, leaping at the same time into the water,and leaving the boats in the middle of the lake.

  The damsels shrieked with terror as the water began to rush into theboats from all sides. The air was filled with cries of agony.

  Mukhtar rushed madly to the door and found it locked. With impotentviolence he attempted to burst it open. Sulaiman meanwhile tore awayat the iron window-grating with both hands, as if he fancied himselfcapable of pulling down the whole of the vast building by the sheerstrength of his arms. The blue-eyed Albanian girl and the languishingJewish damsel, with the fear of death in their eyes, looked up at theclosed window; the waves had already begun to swallow their beautifullimbs.

  Only Vely Bey remained motionless. He, at any rate, had not sinned. Hehad not angered the Prophet in that orgie of amorous rivalry. He hadloved one only, by her only had he been loved, and she, yes, she wasperishing there among the others!

  The boats sank deeper and deeper; nothing could be heard but thecries of the drowning wretches in all the accents of despair. The twosons saw their damsels dying before their eyes, and were unable torush out and save them; not even one could be rescued. One more shriekof woe, and then the boats sank. For a few moments the surface of thewater was covered with bright gauze veils and shiny turbans and whitelimbs and dishevelled tresses, and then a few solitary turbans floatedon the water.

  Sulaiman, sobbing in despair, fell down in a heap close by the window,while Mukhtar fell madly on the door and kicked it with all his might,as if he would drown in the din the cries for help of the perishingdamsels. Only Vely Bey looked in bitter silence upon the detestablewaves, which within a minute had swallowed three heavens.

  Far, far away on the crest of the rising waves a black object appearedto be swimming. What was it? Perhaps one of the damsels. One moment itvanished in the wave-valleys, the next it appeared again on the top ofa high ridge of water. What could it be? But farther and farther itreceded. Perchance some one had escaped, after all. Greek girls aregood swimmers.

  And now Ali Pasha arose from his place and said, with a smile, to hissons:

  "Methinks that neither the storms of ocean, nor the swollen waters,nor the breath of the simoon will now appear so terrible to you asthey did a few hours ago. Depart now with all speed. When you returnyou will find new harems here, which will make you forget the oldones." And with that he quitted them.

  Sulaiman and Mukhtar immediately went their way. Woe to whomsoevershall now give them a pretext for wreaking their vengeance upon him!

  But Vely Bey remained there looking out upon the water, and as theevening grew darker he thought upon Ali Pasha. His brothers had loadedtheir father with curses; he had not said a word. They will soon maketheir peace with their father--he never will.[8]

  [Footnote 8: It is a fact that Ali drowned the harems of hissons in the lake of Acheruz because he feared their excessiveinfluence.--JOKAI.]