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

  CHAPTER II

  EMINAH

  And now for a story, a marvellous story, that would not be out ofplace in a fairy tale! Away to another clime where the very sunbeamsand blossoms, where the very beating of loving hearts, differ fromwhat we are accustomed to.

  * * * * *

  In whichever direction we look around us, we shall see the land of thegods rising up before us in classical sublimity, the mountains ofHellas, the triumphal home of sun-bright heroes. There is the mountainwhence Zeus cast forth his thunderbolts, the grove where the thorns ofroses scratched the tender feet of Aphrodite, and perchance a wholeolive grove sprung from the tree into which the nymph, favored andpursued by Apollo, was metamorphosed. The sunlit summits of snowy OEtaand Ossa still sparkle there when the declining sun kindles hisbeacons upon them, and Olympus still has its thunderbolts; yet it isno longer Zeus who casts them, but Ali Tepelenti, Pasha of Albania andmaster of half the Turkish Empire, and the rose which the blood ofVenus dyed crimson blooms for him, and the laurel sprung from the loveof Apollo puts forth her green garlands for him also.

  The poetic figures of the bright gods are seen no more on the quietmountain. With a long gun over his shoulder, a palikar walks hitherand thither, who has built his hut in a lurking-place where Ali Pashawill not find it. The high porticos lie level with the ground; thepaths of Leonidas and Themistocles are covered with sentry-boxes, thatnone may pass that way.

  From the summit of the mighty Lithanizza you can look down upon thefairy-like city which dominates Albania. It is Janina, thehistorically renowned Janina.

  Beside it stands the lake of Acheruz, in whose green mirror the citycan regard itself; there it is in duplicate. It is as deep as it ishigh. The golden half-moons of the minarets sparkle in the lake and inthe sky at the same time. The roofless white houses, rising one aboveanother, seem melted into a compact mass, and they are encircled byred bastions, with exits out of eight gates.

  But what have we to do with the minarets, the bazaars, the kiosks ofthe city? Beyond the city, where Cocytus, rippling down from thewooded mountain, forms, with the lake into which it flows, apeninsula, there, on an isthmus, stands the strong fortress of AliPasha, with vast, massive bastions, a heavy, iron-plated drawbridge,and a ditch in front of the walls full of solid sharp-pointed stakesin two fathoms of water. From the summits of the ramparts the throatsof a hundred cannons gape down upon the town--iron dogs, whose barkingcan be heard four miles off. On the walls an innumerable multitude ofarmed men keep watch, and in front of the gate the guns look out uponeach other from the port-holes of the steep bastions on both sides ofit. Woe to those who should attempt to make their way into the citadelby force! The gate, fastened with a huge chain, is defended by threeheavy iron gratings, and from close beneath the lofty projecting roofcircular pieces of artillery shine forth, in front of which arepyramidal stacks of bombs.

  The court-yard forms a huge crescent, in which nothing is visible butinstruments of warfare, engines of destruction. In the lower part ofthe semicircular barracks stand the sentry-boxes, while in theopposite semicircle a long pavilion cuts the fortress in two,extending from the end of one semicircle to the end of the other, andhere are three gates, which lead into the heart of the fortress.

  In all this long building there are no windows above the court-yard,only two rows of narrow embrasures are visible therein. All thewindows are on the other side overlooking the garden, and there dwellthe odalisks of Ali Pasha's three sons. The three sons, Omar, Almuhan,and Zaid, inhabit the building with the three gates. The back of thisbuilding looks out upon the garden, in which the harems of the pasha'ssons are wont to disport themselves.

  Here again a long bastion barricades the garden, a bastion alsoprotected by trenches full of water, across whose iron bridge you gainadmission into the pasha's inmost fortress.

  And what is that like? Nobody can tell. The brass gates, covered withsilver arabesques, seem to be eternally closed, and none ever comes inor goes out save Ali and his dumb eunuchs, and those captives whoseheads alone are sent back again. The bastion surrounding this centralfortress is so high that you cannot look into it from the top of thecitadel outside; but if any one could peep down upon it from thesummit of the lofty Lithanizza he would perceive inside it a fairypalace, with walls of colored marble protected by silver trellis-work,with blue-painted, brazen cupolas, with golden half-moons on theirpointed spires. One tower there, the largest of all, has a roof of redcast-iron, and this one roof stands out prominently from among all theother buildings of the inner fortress. The colored kiosks areeverywhere wreathed with garlands of flowers, and the spectatorperched aloft would plainly discern cradles for growing vines on thetop of the bastion. He might also, in the dusk of the summer evenings,distinguish seductive shapes bathing in the basins of the fountains,and lose his reason while he gazed; or it might chance (which is muchmore likely) that Ali Pasha's patrols might come upon him unawares andcast him down from the mountain-top.

  This wondrous retreat was Ali's paradise. Here he grouped together themost beautiful flowers of the round world--flowers sprung from theearth or from a human mother. For maidens also are flowers, and may beplucked and enjoyed like other flowers. But the most beautiful amongso many beautiful flowers was Eminah, Tepelenti's favorite damsel, thesixteen-years-old daughter of the Pasha of Delvino, who gave her toAli just as so many eminent Turks are wont to give their daughters. Onthe day of their birth they promise to give them to some powerfulmagnate, and by the time the _fiancee_ is marriageable the _fiance_has already one foot in his grave.

  A pale, blue-eyed flower was she, looking as if she had grown upbeneath the light of the moon instead of the light of the sun; hershape, her figure, was so delicate that it reminded one of thosesylphs of the fairy world that fly without wings. Her voice wassweeter, more tender, than the voices of the other damsels; and, wiserthan they, she could speak so that you felt rather than heard what shesaid. Ali loved to toy with her light hair, unwind the long folds ofher tresses, cover his face with their silken richness, and fancy hewas reposing in the shades of paradise.

  And the child loved the man. Ali was a handsome old fellow. His beardwas as glossy and as purely white as the wing of a swan; the roses ofhis cheeks had not yet faded; when he smiled he was no longer a tiger,but revealed a row of teeth even handsomer than her own. And, inaddition to that, he was valiant--a hero. Even in old men love is nomere impotent desire when accompanied with all the vigorous passion ofyouth.

  And Eminah knew not that there were such beings as youths in theworld. Excepting her father and her husband, she had never seen a man,and therefore fancied that other men also had just such white beardsand silvery eyelashes as they. Brought up from the days of herchildhood in the midst of a harem, among women and eunuchs, she hadnot the remotest idea of the romantic visions which the hearts oflove-sick girls are wont to form from the contemplation of theirideals; to her her husband was the most perfect man for whom awoman's heart had ever beaten, and she clung to him as if he had beena supernatural being.

  In her heart Eminah pictured Ali as one of those beneficent genii whoin the marvellous tales of the Arabs rise up from the bowels of theearth and the depths of the sea, a hundred times greater than ordinarymen, ten times younger, and a thousand times more powerful, who arewont to give talismanic rings to their earthly favorites, appearingbefore them when they turn this ring in order to instantly gratifytheir desires, their wishes; to transport them from place to placewith their huge muscular hands, to make them ride a cock-horse ontheir middle fingers, play hide-and-seek with them in the thousandcorners of their vast palaces, watch over them when they sleep,overwhelm them with heaps and heaps of gifts and treasures, and yetare gentle and complacent in spite of their immense power. They needbut take one step to crush the towers and bastions of the mightiestfortress in the dust, and yet they walk so warily as not even to grazethe tiny ant they meet upon their path. Why, once Ali had waded intothe lake up to his waist to rescu
e two amorously flutteringbutterflies that had fallen into it! Oh! Ali has such a sensitive soulthat he weeps over the bird that has accidentally beaten itself todeath against the bars of its cage; whenever he plucks a flower fromits stalk he always raises it to his lips to beg its pardon; and whenthey told him how at the siege of Kilsura all the poor doves wereburned, the tears sparkled in his eyes!

  Eminah does not fully know the meaning of a siege; she only grievesfor the poor doves. How they would hover above the burning town inwhite clusters amid the black smoke, and fall down into the firebelow!

  In reality the matter stood thus: Ali was besieging Kilsura, but couldnot take it; the besiegers fought valiantly, and the naturaladvantages of the place prevented him from drawing near enough to it.So he signified to the inhabitants that he would make peace with themand depart from their town, and desired them, in earnest of theirpacific intentions, to send him a number of white doves. The besiegedfell in with his proposal, and collecting together all the white dovesin the town they could lay they hands upon, sent them to Ali. Heimmediately withdrew his siege artillery, with which he had alreadywrought no small mischief, but at night, when every one was asleep, hefastened fiery matches by long wires to the feet of the doves, andthen set them free. The natural instincts of the doves made them flyback to their old homes, the familiar roofs where their nests were,and in a moment the whole town was in flames, the doves themselvescarrying the combustible material from roof to roof and perishingthemselves among the falling houses.

  Ali wept sore as he told to Eminah the story of the doves of Kilsura;yes, Ali was certainly a sensitive soul!

  The beautiful woman had everything that eye could covet or heartdesire. In her apartments were mirrors as high as the ceiling,masterpieces of Venetian crystal, and the floor was covered withPersian carpets embroidered with flowers. Blossoming flowers andsinging birds were in all her windows, and a hundred waiting-womenwere at her beck and call. From morn to eve Joy and Pleasure were herattendants, and each day presented her with a fresh delight, a freshsurprise.

  Thirty rooms, opening one into another, each more magnificent than thelast, were hers, and hers alone. The eye that feasted on one splendidobject quickly forgot it in the contemplation of a still more splendidmarvel, and by the time it had taken them all in was eager to beginagain at the beginning.

  But there was one thing which did not please Eminah. When one had gotto the end of all the thirty rooms, it was plain that they did not endthere, for then came a round brass door; and this door was alwaysclosed against her--never was she able to go through it. Now this doorled into that huge tower with the red cast-iron roof, which could beseen such a distance off.

  The inquisitive woman very much wanted to know what was inside thisdoor through which she was never suffered to go, though Ali himselfused it frequently, always closing it most carefully behind him, andwearing the key of it fastened to his bosom by a little cord.

  Now and then she had asked Ali what was in this tower that she was notallowed to see, and what he did when he remained there all nightalone? At such times Ali would reply that he went there to consortwith spirits who were teaching him how to find the stone of the wise,how to become perpetually young, how to foresee the future, and makegold and other marvels--all of which it was easy to make a womanbelieve who did not even know that all men do not wear white beards.

  After all such occasions Eminah, when she was alone again, wouldconjure up before her all sorts of marvellous blue and green denizensof fairyland appearing before Ali in the elements of air, fire, andwater, to teach him how to make gold. And Ali always proved to Eminahthat what he told her was no idle tale, for whenever he returned thenext day he was followed by a whole procession of dumb eunuchscarrying baskets filled with gold and precious stones. Thus Ali notonly knew how to make gold, but also those things that are made ofgold--that is to say, coined money and filigreed ornaments, which hepiled up before her; and to Eminah it seemed a very nice thing, andquite natural that if these peculiar spirits could manufacture goldfrom nothing, they should also be able to make necklaces and braceletsout of smoke, as Ali told her they did without any difficulty at all.

  Now any one would have been curious to get to the bottom of suchmysteries, especially if they were close at hand; how much more, then,a spoiled and pampered young woman, who frequently was not able tosleep for the joy which the presents heaped upon her by Ali excited inher breast. How much she would have loved to see these benevolentspirits who had given her so much pleasure!

  Frequently she implored Ali to take her with him when he went into thered tower; but the pasha always tried to frighten her by saying thatthese spirits were most cruel to strangers in general, and women inparticular, whom they would be ready to tear limb from limb, so thatEminah always had to abandon her desire.

  But when once a woman has made up her mind to do a thing, do it shewill, though a seven-headed dragon were to stand in the way; and iffear is a great power in this world, curiosity is a still greater.

  One evening Eminah accompanied Ali right up to the brass door, and ashe went in she dexterously thrust a little pebble between the door andthe threshold. Thus the door not being completely closed, the catch ofthe lock, despite a double turn of the key, shot back again; soinstead of closing the door behind him, as Ali fondly imagined, heleft it ajar.

  Eminah waited till the sound of her husband's footsteps had quiteceased. Then she softly opened the door, and at first contentedherself with peeping in. Perceiving nothing to frighten her back, sheventured right in, cautiously peering around at every step lest anyangry spirit should suddenly rise up before her.

  Before her lay a long corridor, and she went right to the very end ofit. Then she came upon a spiral staircase, which was so dark that shehad to painfully grope her way along. A fatal curiosity goaded her onin spite of the darkness, and presently she found herself in a large,round room, dimly lit by a hanging lamp.

  All round the walls of this room were arranged marble benches,pitchers of water, funnels, and curious instruments of iron, leather,and wood, of all shapes and sizes, looking all the moreincomprehensible in the semi-darkness. These were, no doubt, theimplements with which Ali was in the habit of making gold, thoughtEminah to herself, and, discovering a convenient niche at the head ofthe staircase, she squeezed herself into it so that she could seeeverything from thence without being seen herself.

  A few moments afterwards the door at the opposite end of the roomopened, and Ali and twelve dumb eunuchs entered with torches. The roomwas illuminated at once, the eunuchs thrusting the torches into largeiron sconces; one of them then proceeded to light the fire and pile upvarious instruments around it; some sort of liquid also began bubblingin a caldron. Ali meanwhile was sitting down on a camp-stool anddistributing his commands in a low voice. "Now we shall see how Alimakes gold," thought Eminah.

  But now at a sign from Ali two of the eunuchs entered a trap-door, anda few moments afterwards the rattling of chains was audible; thetrap-door opened again, and in came two old men, peculiar-lookingcreatures, with long gray hair, closely cropped beards, and strangegarments, the like of which Eminah had never seen before.

  "Ah! no doubt these are the spirits which help Ali to make gold,"thought Eminah to herself. "Well, at any rate, they are in chains, soI need not be afraid of them." And, like the timid spectator of somestrange drama, she looked out from her hiding-place at the scene whichfollowed.

  The two old men were led up to Ali, who, smiling and rubbing hishands, stood up before them, and for a long time did not speak, butonly smiled. At last he gently stroked the face of the younger of thetwo.

  "Merchant of Naples, thou still dost not know, then, where thytreasures lie hidden?" said he, gently.

  "My lord," replied the other, with desperate obsequiousness, "I havegiven up everything that was mine. I am indeed a beggar."

  "Merchant of Naples! how canst thou say so? Let me refresh thy memory!Thou didst go to Toulon with a full cargo of Indian goods, and thereso
ld it all. When we met together on thy return journey thou didstoffer me a thousand ducats, which I also took. But where is theremainder? A profit of twelve thousand ducats appears entered in thytrading-books."

  "Those books are false, my lord," said the merchant, in a tearfulvoice. "I made those totally fictitious entries simply to preserve mycredit."

  "Merchant of Naples, thou dost calumniate thyself. Thou dost want tomake me believe that thou art not an honest man. Forgive me if Ienliven thy memory a little."

  With that he beckoned to the eunuchs, and they, undressing themerchant, laid him on the torturing slab and tortured him for twomortal hours. It would be too horrible to say what they did to him.Oh, that curious woman amply atoned for her curiosity! She was obligedto look upon tortures which made her limbs shake and shiver as if shewere in the grip of an ague. She covered her face, but the howls ofthe tortured wretch penetrated to her very soul, and her sensitivenerves suffered almost as much as if she had felt these tormentsherself. Gradually, however, a curious sort of torpor seemed to stopthe beating of her heart; her limbs ceased to tremble, she opened hereyes and, motionless as a statue, watched the hellish scene to thevery end.

  Ali was evidently a past-master in this horrible science. He himselfelaborately graduated the whole process, indicating briefly when andhow long the thumb-screws, the Spanish boot, the boiling oil, and thewater funnel were to be used. Last of all came the culminatingtorment. They wrapped the merchant round in a raw buffalo-skin andlaid him down before the fiercely blazing fire. As the fire began tocompress the raw hide, and slowly press together the tortured limbs,the limit of the poor wretch's endurance was reached, and he confessedthat his treasures were concealed in an iron chest, fastened by achain to the bottom of the ship.

  Then they freed him from the torturing hide; in a state of collapse,with foaming lips, a bleeding body and dislocated limbs, he floppeddown upon the cold marble.

  "Thou seest now, my dear," observed Ali, gently, "what trouble thoumightest have saved thyself and me also." Then he beckoned to theeunuchs to remove the merchant.

  So this was the way in which Ali made gold! A very simple sort ofalchemy, certainly!

  And now it was the turn of the second man. And a haughty,broad-shouldered fellow he was, who had regarded the torments of hiscomrade without moving a muscle of his face.

  "Then thou wilt not tell me thy name, valorous warrior?" inquired Ali.

  "I will tell thee thine--Devil, Belial, Satan!"

  "I thank thee! Thou dost me too much honor. But it is thy name Ishould like to know. I suppose thou art some wealthy Venetian noble,whose whereabouts his kinsmen are rather anxious to discover, and whowould not be ungrateful if any one sent thee back to them. For Ivalue thee very highly."

  "Know, then, that I _am_ a rich noble, and that at home I have apalace and treasures, but not a para of my property shalt thou eversee, for I have taken poison. Dost thou not see the blue spots upon myhand? Presently thou wilt see them on my face. In five minutes' time Ishall be dead."

  And so indeed it fell out. The haughty noble died, while Ali, furiouswith passion, cursed the Prophet.

  And Eminah, from her hiding-place, looked intently upon Ali's face.What must have been her thoughts at that moment?

  The eunuchs removed the dead body, and Ali beckoned once more to them,whereupon they brought in through the opposite doors a wondrouslybeautiful damsel and a handsome youth. When the youth and the damselbeheld each other the tears gushed from their eyes. They were lovers,and lovers meet for each other.

  Eminah now perceived with amazement that there were other kinds of menbesides those who wore gray beards. The captive youth, with his frankand comely countenance and long black locks, so rejoiced her eyes thatshe could not take them off him. She had never seen anything of thesort before.

  Ali approached the pair and smiled upon them both, and each of themsaid to him, "I curse thee!"

  He said to the youth, "Renounce thy bride and thou shalt live!" andthe youth replied, "I curse thee!"

  He said to the damsel, "Love me, be mine, and thy betrothed shalllive!" and the girl replied, "I curse thee!"

  And Eminah unconsciously murmured after them each time, "I cursethee!" without knowing what she was saying.

  Then Ali forced the youth down on his knees, and the eunuchs strippedoff his robe. One of them then seized him by his beautiful long blackhair, and raised him up into the air thereby, while the other stoodbehind him with a large sharp sword.

  "Thy beloved shall die this instant," roared the infuriated Ali, "ifthou dost not set him free! Embrace either me or his headless body."

  Eminah turned her loathing eyes from the vile face of Ali, which, inthat moment, was deformed out of all recognition.

  And the young couple replied with one voice, "We curse thee!" It wasas though they had taken an oath to say nothing else. The same instantthe sword flashed around the youth. His beautiful head bounded intothe air, then rolled along the floor to the foot of the spiralstaircase, and stood still before the very niche where Eminah wasconcealed--at her very feet, in fact. The headless body, convulsed bya final spasm, rent its fetters in twain, and then falling prone,stretched out its hands towards the terror-stricken girl, while thesevered head, which had rolled up to Eminah's feet, seemed to bemurmuring something--anyhow the lips moved. Eminah bending downtowards it, put her ears close to the quivering mouth and whispered,"I hear! I hear what thou sayest!" And she really believed she heardsomething. Perhaps it was only her heart that was speaking.

  After that she wrapped the head in her shawl, and hastened away fromthe tower back into her own room, concealing the ghastly but stillbeautiful trophy beneath the pillows of her sofa. Then she commandedher odalisks to appear before her, that they might dance and sing.

  Dawn was now not far distant, and still the entertainment was goingon. Then Ali returned from the red tower--his face was gentle andsmiling--and after him came two eunuchs carrying gold and treasure inlarge baskets; and they emptied them all at Eminah's feet. The damselrejoiced, laughed at the sight of the treasures, and, throwing herselfon Ali's neck, repaid him with kisses, and dragged him down to her onthe sofa.

  "Behold, the _dzhins_ have sent thee treasures," said Ali. "But astrange thing hath befallen me; one of my treasures rolled away uponthe floor, and, search where I will, I cannot find it."

  Eminah laughed, and fell a-teasing him. "Perchance the _dzhins_ havestolen it from thee," cried she. Suppose she had said, "Thou artsitting upon it, Ali Pasha?"

  Ali Pasha took the damsel upon his lap, and rejoiced in her innocent,artless eyes and her childlike smile. He fancied he could look throughthose eyes down to the very depths of her heart. If only he _could_have seen into it!

  And while he was thus toying with her, the kadun-keit-khuda enteredthe room of the odalisks, bringing with him a veiled damsel.

  "Gracious lady," said he to Eminah, "I bring thee a Greek maiden, whohath heard the fame of thy benevolence, and hath come of her ownaccord to bask in the light of thy countenance, and gather freshstrength from my smiles;" and he drew the maiden forward towardsEminah, who immediately recognized the girl whose lover Ali Pasha haddecapitated, and said, playfully, to the guardian of the harem:

  "Lo, kadun-keit-khuda, the damsel is trembling! If thou dost notsupport her she will fall!"

  "It is by reason of her great shyness, gracious lady."

  "But how pale she is!"

  "Thy beauty casteth a shadow upon her."

  "But look!--she weeps!"

  "They are tears of joy, lady."

  Eminah gave the guardian of the harem a handful of ducats for his goodanswers, and allowed the bashful damsel to stand before her. Then shesent for sweetmeats, golden bread-fruits, wine with the lustre ofgarnets, and her opium narghily; and, cradling Ali's gray head in herbosom, seized her mandolin and sang to him Arab love-songs--hot,burning, rose-scented, dew-besprinkled love-songs--and the pasha drewover his face the long silken tresses of the damsel, as if he woulde
nvelop himself in the cool shade of Paradise, and sleep a sleep ofsweet melody, intoxicating rapture, and soothing opium.

  When the ivory stem of the narghily dropped from the hands of thepasha, Eminah sent from the room all the damsels; only the newlyarrived Greek maiden remained behind. She made her sit down before heron a cushion, and, putting into her hands a large silk fan to fan thepasha with, she asked the damsel her name.

  The damsel shook her head--she would not say.

  "Why wilt thou not tell me?"

  "Because I have still a sister at home."

  Eminah understood the answer. "Come nearer," said she. "Last night Ihad a dream. Methought I was in a large tower, the interior of whichwas illuminated by twelve torches. Whichever way my eyes turned theylit upon horrors--strange, terrifying objects appeared before me; and,although, twelve torches were burning, darkness was still all around.And it seemed to me as if this darkness was not vapor or thick smoke,but a black mass of human beings all wedged together, who raised theireyelids every now and then. After that I saw Ali Pasha sitting in ared velvet chair with golden tiger feet, and as he sat cross-legged,after the Turkish manner, it looked as if the tiger feet were his ownfeet. Many terrifying shapes passed before me, and at last a young manand a young woman were all who remained in the room, and to everyquestion put to them they replied, 'I curse thee!' Ali Pasha said tothe damsel, 'Love me!' and she replied, 'I curse thee!' Andimmediately the head of the youth began rolling from one end of themarble floor to the other, right up to my feet; and a drop of blooddripped from it on to my slipper, and, strange to say, the drop ofblood was still there when I awoke. Look, is that really a drop ofblood, or is it only my imagination?"

  And therewith Eminah put out her pretty little foot, which hithertoshe had kept hidden beneath the folds of her garment, and showed it tothe Greek girl. Then the girl fell weeping at her feet and kissed theslipper. But it was not the foot of her mistress that she kissed--no,no; what she kissed was the drop of blood that had dropped upon theslipper.

  "Look! that drop of blood has burned right through the morocco leatherof my shoe! What will it do, then, to the soul on which it hasfallen?"

  And with that she withdrew her hair from the pasha's face and lookedat him with loathing. Yet he slept as calmly as if he were sleepingthe sleep of the just.

  For nine and seventy years he had lived happily, joyously,triumphantly, beloved by angels; and all the curses, all the murders,that were upon his aged head were unable to carve one wrinkle on hisforehead, or distort a feature of his face, or cut off one day of hislife, or even to disturb one of his dreams; and there he lies on oneand the same couch with the head of his victim, the only differencebeing that his head lies on the pillow, while the head of the murderedman lies beneath it.

  Eminah bent over him and bared the breast of the sleeper, who sleptcalmly and regularly all the time.

  "On that table lies an enamelled dagger," said she to the girl; "bringit hither."

  The girl darted away for the dagger, and came back with it. There shestood, grasping it convulsively in her hand, as if she only awaited asignal to drive it home.

  "No, not so," said Eminah. "Cut not off his life, but cut through thiscord!" and, taking the key which Ali wore round his neck, she cut itfrom its cord with the dagger. "This key opens the red tower. Whenthey pitched the dead bodies through the trap-door I heard the roarof falling water. It is certain, therefore, that one can get throughthe torture-chamber to the lake of Acheruz. We can get down to it byropes. I can swim, and thou canst also, I am sure; for art thou not aHydriot girl?[5] When we have reached the heights of Lithanizza weshall find a safe refuge in the midst of the forests. Wherever it is,it will be all one to me. Better to be among wolves and lynxes thannear Ali Pasha. Will you do what I say?"

  [Footnote 5: An inhabitant of the isle of Hydra. The Hydriots wereremarkable for their enterprise and daring.]

  The damsel's bosom heaved violently; she hid her head on Eminah'sshoulder and kissed her.

  "Freedom!" she whispered, full of rapture; "freedom above all things!It is now my only joy."

  "Nobody will observe us," said Eminah, spurning aside the jewels,which she loathed now that she knew whence they came. "It is the lastnight of the Feast of Bairam. Every one is hastening to compensatehimself for the privations of the Fast of Ramadan, every one issleeping or enjoying himself; the greater part of the garrison ismaking merry in the apartments of the beys; even the sons of AliPasha, all three of them, are feasting with Mukhtar Bey. We shall beable to escape them, and then the whole world lies before us."

  The Greek girl pressed the lady's hand. "We will go together!" shecried. "My brother dwells among the mountains of Corinth; he is avaliant warrior, and will give us an asylum."

  "Then go thither! I shall seek refuge with my kinsmen at Stambul. Nowgo into the apartments of the odalisks and ask for apparel. I havealready hatched a good plan. If they are all asleep come softly backwith thy clothes. The kadun-keit-khuda only sleeps with half an eye;beware of him! If he ask thee whither thou art going, show him thepasha's handkerchief, and he will fancy Ali awaits thee."

  The face of the Greek girl blushed purple at these words; even to lieon such a subject was a horrible thought to her. But Eminah beckonedto her to be gone, and when she found herself alone she drew forth thehead she had concealed beneath the pillow and placed it on a roundtable in front of her. For a long time she gazed at the sunken eyes,the gaping mouth, and the long black tresses which rolled over thetable on both sides. The lady smoothed the raven-black tresses withher soft hand, and passed her fingers right across the noble featureswithout a shudder at their icy coldness.

  There she sat an hour long opposite the dead head; and beside her AliTepelenti, the terror of the whole region, lay prone in a deep,motionless slumber. It was a strange sight, this young girl alonethere between these two horrors. She had resolved to quit Ali and setthe Greek damsel free; but what she meant to do after that she herselfcould not have said.

  In an hour's time the Greek damsel returned. She came so softly thatnobody could have heard her; even Eminah did not perceive her till thedamsel stood before the severed head and uttered a cry of terror. Onlyfor an instant, only for the duration of a lightning-flash did thiscry last; the damsel stifled it at once, and if it awoke any one inthe palace he must have fancied he was dreaming or had dreamed it, andwould go on sleeping again. Then the damsel, in an agony of speechlessgrief, bent over the head of her betrothed, and her tears flowed instreams, though not a word escaped her lips.

  At last Eminah grasped the girl's hand and bade her make haste. So shedried her tears, and after placing the severed head in front of thatof the sleeping pasha so that they confronted each other, and cuttingoff one of the locks from its temples, she covered the cold eyes withbitter, burning kisses, and then, taking up her things, rapidlyfollowed Eminah through the long suite of rooms.

  A few minutes later they were in the torture-chamber. It was quiteempty; the blood stains had been washed away, there was nothing torecall the horrors of the night before.

  They opened the trap-door through which the dead bodies were wont tobe cast. At the bottom of the deep black void there was a roaringsound as if the lake were in a commotion. No doubt a tempest wasraging outside. How were these girls to escape by way of thesubterranean stream? Perhaps some of the headless corpses were alsoswimming down yonder amidst the foaming waves. Would those whoventured down into those depths ever see the light of day again? Butto them it was all one. Better to perish in the deep void than becondemned to the embraces of Ali Pasha. How the two girls abominatedhim!--the one because he had murdered her love, the other because hehad loved her.

  "Don't be afraid," they said to each other; and fastening theirbundles to a long rope which was used in torturing, they let it downinto the deep well, with a lamp at the end of it, and when the waterput out the light they fastened the other end of the rope to the hingeof the door, and each in turn let herself down by it.

  And
whether they lived or whether they died, Ali Pasha lost on thatday two talismans which he should have guarded more jealously than thelight of his eyes: one was the spirit of blessing, the other thespirit of cursing, both of which he had held fast bound, and both ofwhich had now been let loose.

  * * * * *

  At the moment when the two damsels plunged into the lake of Acheruzthe slumber of tranquillity disappeared from the eyes of Ali Pasha,and he began to see spectres.

  A peculiar feeling came over him. He whom phantoms avoided even whenhe slept, he who had never even dreamed of fear, he whom the angel ofsleep had never known to be a coward, now began to experience apeculiar sensation which was worse than any sickness and more painfulthan any suffering. He was afraid!

  He dreamed that the head of the young Suliot, which had been cut offby his order, and which had rolled away and disappeared so that nobodycould find it, was now standing face to face with him on a table,staring at him fixedly with stony eyes, and repeatedly addressing thesleeper by name: "Ali Pasha! Ali Pasha!"

  The limbs of the sleeper shook all over in a strange tremor.

  "Ali Pasha!" he heard the head call for the third time.

  Groaning, writhing, and turning himself about, he contrived to knockthe head off the cushion, smearing all the bed with blood. And now hesaw and heard more terrible things than ever.

  "One, two," said the severed head. And Ali understood that this wasthe number of the years he had still to live. "Thy head hath no longereither hand or foot," continued the head; and Ali was obliged tolisten to what it said. "Two severed heads now stand face to face,mine and thine. Why dost thou not reply to me? Why dost thou not lookinto my eyes? Two headless trunks stand before the throne of God, mineand thine. How shall the Lord recognize thee? He inquires which isAli. For every soul there is a white garment laid up. And thou deniestthy name, with thy right hand on thy heart. Thou _art_ Ali, for on thywhite garment are five bloody finger-prints."

  Ali writhed in his sleep, and covered with his hand that part of hiscaftan which lay over his heart. And all the time the head neverdisappeared from before his eyes and its lips never closed. Presentlyit went on again.

  "Listen, Ali! Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin! The hand which guided theein the performance of thy mighty deeds is also bringing thine actionsto an end, and thou shalt no longer be a hero whom the world admires,but a robber whom it curses. Those whom thou lovedest will bless theday of thy death, but thine enemies will weep over thee. Moreover, Godhath ordained that thou shalt be the ruin of thine own nation."

  Ali tossed, sighing and groaning, upon his couch, and could not awake;a world of crime lay upon his breast. He felt the earth shake beneathhim, and the sky above his head was dark with masses of black cloud,and the thought of death was a terror to him.

  The head went on speaking. "Two birds quitted thy rocky citadel at thesame hour, a white dove and a black crow. The white dove is Peace,which has departed from thy towers; the black crow is Vengeance, whichwill return in search of carcasses at the scent of thy ruin. The whitedove is thy damsel, the black crow is mine; and woe to thee from themboth!"

  Ali, in the desperation of his rage, roared aloud in his sleep, andhis violent cry tore asunder the light fetters of sleep. He sprangfrom his couch and opened wide his eyes--and lo! the severed head wasstanding before him on the table.

  The pasha looked about him in consternation; he was not sufficientlymaster of himself at first to tell how much of all this was a dreamand how much reality. He still seemed to hear the terrible words whichhad proceeded from those open lips, and his hand involuntarilyclutched at his breast as if he would have covered there the fivebloody finger-marks. Then the cut cord from which the key was missingfell across his hand, and immediately his presence of mind returned.Drawing his sword, he rushed towards the brazen door, and discoveredthat the fugitives had had sufficient forethought to close the doorand leave the key in the lock outside, so that it could only be openedby force. He turned back and rushed to the end of the dormitories.Some of the odalisks were awakened by the sound of his heavyfootsteps, and perceiving his troubled face, plunged underneath theirbedclothes in terror; in front of the doors stood the dumb eunuchsentries, leaning on their spears like so many bronze statues.

  He rushed down into the garden to the end of the familiar walks, andwhen he came to the gate was amazed to perceive that the drawbridgewhich separated his palace from the dwellings of his sons had been letdown and nobody was guarding it. The topidshis, the negroes, knowingthat Ali always turned into his harem on the Feast of Bairam, had goneacross to the palace of Mukhtar Bey, who was giving a great banquet inhonor of Vely Bey and Sulaiman Bey, his brothers. All three hadbrought together their harems to celebrate the occasion, and while themasters were diverting themselves upstairs, their servants were makingmerry below. Music and the loud mirth of those who feast resoundedfrom the house; every gate of the citadel was open; slaves and guardslying dead drunk in heaps, victims of the forbidden fluid, cumberedthe streets. A whole hostile army, with drums beating and colorsflying, might easily have marched into the citadel over theirprostrate bodies.

  Wrath and the cold night air gradually gave back to Ali his soul ofsteel. Wary and alert, he entered the palace of Mukhtar Bey.