LIBRARY OF THE U N IVER.5ITY Of ILLI NOIS c^ ^ur^/l^^:/ t yA■e^^A.^^ ^C^> r^^^h^^ •■Y^yf.t^::JK&s -Xs3Sf>j»>> '^'^S^ '^^^^^^^kjm^ '^^^^^-*»i»sias*B».> ■■ ' ,>.^f>i_^>-8^^^ The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN L161 — O-1096 "^^ W-^AA. //^'. /^r ^y^^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Ch^mpaign http://www.archive.org/details/romanceofharem01pat THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. MISS PARDOE, AUTHOR OF "THE CITY OF THE SULTAN. "the river and the dbsart," &c. " 'Mid many things most new to ear and eye, The pilgrim rested here his weary feet, And gazed around on Moslem luxury." By RON. IN THREE VOLUMES, VOL. I. LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1839. LONDON : F. SHOBERI. JUN., 51, RUPBUT STREET. HAVMARKET. 4 PREFACE. ^ The flattering success of my late work on *: Turkey has induced me to offer to the Public the present collection of Oriental Fictions ; which are genuine tales related by the profes- ^' sional Massaldjhes, or Story-tellers of the East, in the Harems of the wealthy Turks during seasons of festivity, and particularly in that of the Ramazan. In the selection which I have made, I have, throughout the whole work, carefully avoided the supernatural, save in one solitary instance, where the allegory was so talented and tempting that I felt it would require no apology with any class of readers; IV PREFACE. preferring, in every other case, a life-like and probable chain of circumstances, to a brilliant and impossible picture. Hence my fictions neither borrow power from the Genii, terror from the Ghouls, nor grace and beauty from the Peris ; they treat only of ordinary men and women ; but individuals placed in posi- tions, and actuated by feelings, almost unknown in Europe. In order to localise the different tales, I have endeavoured to adopt to a certain degree the florid and figurative style of language in which the Orientals so much delight, and so constantly indulge ; while I have been careful neither to caricature their habits nor their opinions; but to confine myself as closely as possible to the actions and feelings of every-day Turkish life ; and to fling off*, if I may so express it, all idea of authorship, to identify myself for the time with the individuals of whom I wrote. How far I may have succeeded in my attempt to follow up, through the medium of these fie- PREFACE. V tions, my former task of delineating Turkish manners, it is not for me to determine ; but I put them forth in the full confidence that those readers to whom the usages of the East are fa- miliar, will admit the fidelity of the pictures; and in the hope that those to whom they are comparatively unknown, will find sufficient at- traction in their novelty and peculiarity, to carry them pleasantly through the volumes. Bradenhain Lodge, Jan. 1838. CONTENTS OP THE FIRST VOLUME. PAGE Part the First 1 The Diamond Merchant 24 Part the Second 110 The Seven Doors 132 Part the Third 269 The Tatar's Tale 287 ^ THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. tinople, and so little visited by the wandering giaours, who of late years have overrun the East, that there was no hope of obtaining the advice of a Frank Hakeem, or doctor, who would, as a matter of course, have cured the Hanoum on his first visit ; and the wise men and the wise women of the province had long fairly given up the case as desperate. As time wore on, things grew worse and worse : and the Pasha waxed more moody and melan- choly. The Hanoum, wearied alike of her dia- monds, her birds, her slaves, and her husband, sighed for some new and hitherto untasted plea- sure ; but how was this to be procured ? Her apartments had long been filled with the rarest flowers, and her languid palate tempted by the choicest fruits. Every satellite of the Pasha (and they were many !) lost himself in efforts to gratify her fancies ; and still there was no satis- fying them. Carimfil Hanoum was a Circassian, lovely as a houri, and quite conscious of her power over the Pasha ; gorgeous in her beauty, as the tulip after which she had been named ; and capricious THE ROMAN'CE OF THE HAREM. 6 enough to have supphed all the harem of the Grand Seigniour with whims. Some of her women even went so far as to say that their fair mistress affected more indisposition than she felt, in order to satisfy her love of power and change ; and certain it is, that if the little beauty possessed the tact to do this, it completely an- swered her hopes, for the more exacting she became, the more the Pasha appeared to hang upon her smiles. After this explanation of the state of affairs in the palace of the Pashalik, it may be believed with what delight the intelligence was received that a travelling slave-merchant on his way to Stamboul had halted in the city ; and that among his slaves there was a Greek girl of in- comparable beauty and great talent, whom he hoped to sell to the Sultan. The Satrap,* preceded by two kavasses,-f- and followed by four of his chaoushes, ^ threw a purse to the pipe-bearer who brought him the news ; and, thrusting his feet into his slippers, * Governor of a Province. f Police. I Officers. b2 4 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. too anxious to entrust the mission to an officer of his household, he hastened to the caravanserai, which was the temporary abode of the merchant Tahiz. An idea had instantly suggested itself, which he determined to realize. What were a few thousand piastres when put in competition with the happiness of his adored Carimfil ? He would purchase this wonderful slave, and her talents should serve to beguile the ennui of his beautiful young wife. The merchant prostrated himself to the earth as the shadow of the Pasha fell across his thresh- old ; what evil might not this unexpected visit portend to his fortunes ? But he was soon re- assured by the bland " Khosh Bulduk — well found," which met his ear ; and, after having tra- versed the floor on his knees to the feet of his vi- siter, and pressed the hem of his garment to his lips and brow, he meekly crossed his hands upon his breast, and ventured to raise his eyes. " You have with you slaves of price, is it not so?" asked the Pasha, as he took possession of the low sofa. " It is so, my lord ;" was the reply. THE ROMA^XE OF THE HAREM. O " Whence are they ? and are there any among them who are worthy that I should look upon them ?" " What shall I say to my lord ? They are from many lands, and some of them are worthy even of his gracious notice, which will be to them as a light from Paradise."" " I will see them," said Saifula Pasha, as his chibouque-bearer knelt and presented to him his costly pipe of cherry wood lipped with amber; while his cafeghe approached with the tiny cup of porcelain, in its fillagree stand, redo, lent of the perfumed mocha : " I will see them — if I may find pleasure in looking on them, Allah l^ihr — Allah only knows. Bakalum — we shall see." " Bashustun— on my head be it!" replied the merchant, as he performed the graceful salam aleikum,* and left the apartment. One by one the veiled beauties were led to the presence of the Satrap. There were gorgeous Georgians, with their large, deep, flashing eyes, and their sparkling teeth, their finely-moulded * Eastern salutation. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. figures, and jetty hair ; languid Circassians, with their dreamy, dove-like glances, their snowy skins, and their exquisitely rounded limbs ; and beauties from the Islands, with their languishing listless grace, and sweetly-toned voices. But the fair Greek girl did not appear ; and as the last of the bright train withdrew, and the merchant again prostrated himself before the Pasha, he asked calmly — " Are there no more V " None, may it please my lord. Evallah f there are a few Kurdish women, but they are bosh — nothing." " Kiupek — dog T said the Satrap sternly : " Do you lie to my beard ! Where is the young Greek whom you have held back ?"" The affrighted merchant bent his head to the earth : " Surely my lord jests with his slave — the girl is a giaour — an infidel — a haremzadeh — an ill-born. Nothing, and less than no- thing.^' "Ouf! ouf! — peace, peace!'' said the Pasha, impatiently, " or your head shall answer for your presumption. Is it for you, and such as you, to decide upon my pleasure ? Tchapouk THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. / — quick — bring hither the young Greek, or the bowstring shall give your slaves a new master."' *' Astaferallah — Heaven forbid ! " faltered out the merchant: "will my lord hear his ser- vant ? The young giaour has already been seen by a Yuzbashi — a captain of soldiers, who is now on his way to the capital, and who has promised to talk of her to the Kislar Agha* of the Sultan, (whom may Allah prosper!) How, then, can the slave of my lord, who is but as a dog in his sight, dispose of this Greek woman until he has learnt the pleasure of the Padishah P^-f- " Kelb — cur !'' exclaimed the Pasha, enraged at this new difficulty ; " do you dare to eat dirt; and to pour out your words, as though they were the words of wisdom, w^hen they are but the promptings of Sheitan, and the instigations of the Evil One ? I spit upon the grave of your father, and blacken the face of your mother ! Who am I that I should listen to you, when ray foot is on your head ? Bak — see ! the slave is mine, and the gold is ready — bring her hither * Chief of the Eunuchs. f Sovereign. » THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. with speed ; or, by the beard of the Prophet, your neck shall be fitted with a bowstring !" " Allah buyuk der — Allah is great !" mur- mured the merchant, as he prepared to obey; " Who can withstand his fate !" During the brief interval that ensued, the Pasha smoked on in silence; his curiosity was aroused, and his anger excited ; and yet he en- joyed the scene, for it had afforded him a new sensation, and restrung his nerves, which had latterly been terribly shattered by his anxiety for Carimfil Hanoum. Thus he was in no un- gracious mood, when, with much parade, and with a most unwilling expression of countenance, the merchant slowly returned, leading in a figure ostentatiously muffled in close and heavy dra- pery. " Ey vah ! this pearl beyond price is at least well guarded ;" said the Pasha, endeavouring to conceal his interest beneath an affectation of scorn ; " but we waste time ; and I have occupa- tion of more moment than sitting to witness the unveiling of a woman." " Sen ektiar der — you are the master;" re- THE ROMA^-CE OF THE HAREM. 9 plied the merchant, as he cast aside the mantle of the female : " be it as my lord wills." For a moment the Pasha was silent; for it was truly a vision of surpassing beauty which had been so suddenly revealed to him. The fair Greek was scarcely sixteen years of age, slight as a willow wand, and graceful as an antelope. The bewildered Sa'ifula Pasha had never beheld such eyes, save in his dreams ; and then only when he had dreamt of paradise. Of the deepest blue that had ever caught their dye from heaven, they were fringed with lashes as black as night ; and the long silky hair, which fell in a score of rich braids about her ivory shoulders, was of the same hue. Her slight figure was habited in a tight jacket of emerald- coloured velvet, laced with gold ; and the cymar that veiled her throat was white as the bosom upon which it rested. Her small feet were partially covered with embroidered slippers of crimson, sprinkled with small pearls ; and the short full petticoat of white linen revealed an ankle of exquisite symmetry. The Pasha drew a long breath. What, indeed, b5 10 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. was gold, when weighed against a houri like this ? But he did not, in that moment, think of the beautiful Carimfil — his idolized wife ! " And her price is — what?'"* was his first question. " How shall I answer my lord ? '' said the merchant, warily. " The slave is his." " Chok chay — that is much ;^' smiled the Pasha, as he removed the chibouque from his mouth, and threw out a slender thread of smoke: "but the piastres are ready — how far shall they be counted ? " " The slave plays on the zebec, and sings the songs of her own land ; " was the reply : " nay, should my lord care to listen, she can tell tales like a massaldjhe.'''* " Allah kerim — Allah be praised !" ejaculated the Pasha, as, for the first time since the veil of the slave had been withdrawn, his thoughts were forced back to his absent beauty ; " the Prophet has heard my prayer. Once more I tell you to name your price, and that the slave is mine." " Ne bilirim — what can I say.''" replied the merchant meekly ; " I have given much for her * Professional story-teller. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 1 1 — ajaibder — she is a wonder! She speaks Turkish like a daughter of paradise ; and her voice is as the voice of the bulbul in the gardens of Nish- apor." " Mashallah ! there has been enough, and too much of this;" impatiently broke in the Pasha: " for the last time, what ask you for the girl?" The merchant cast down his eyes, and hesitated for a moment ; but he had been shrewd enough to detect the effect which the extreme beauty of the maiden had produced upon the Pasha; and he consequently summoned courage to name a price which he could never hope to obtain, under other circumstances. " Y' Allah — in the name of the Prophet, that is much!" said the startled Pasha; "Fifty thousand piastres! A hundred purses! Lives there a woman between Stamboul and Paradise, who is worth a hundred purses ? " The merchant was silent. " Give him sixty thousand, and bring hither the araba to convey the slave to my harem ;" pursued the Pasha, turning to his principal 12 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. chaoush ; and, as the officer withdrew, he shuffled off the sofa, resumed his sHppers, and, passing the prostrate merchant without a glance, slowly walked out of the caravanserai. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 13 CHAPTER 11. The most difficult portion of the arrange- ment was yet to be accomplished ; for the Pasha could not conceal from himself that it was just possible that the beautiful Carirafil might not altogether approve of the means which he had now adopted for her gratification ; and he therefore resolved to take her by surprise, and to regale her with the vaunted minstrelsy of the fair slave, before she was introduced into her presence. The morning meal had accordingly scarcely terminated on the morrow, ere the Pasha found it necessary to summon the young Greek, who had been kept carefully con- cealed, in order that he might explain to her the suffering state of her new mistress, and his own anxiety for her amusement. She en- tered slowly, and with her white arms folded 14 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. meekly upon her bosom : her eyes were heavy, and the Pasha saw that she had been weeping. The languor of grief added a new charm to her beauty ; and as she bent her forehead to the earth on the threshold of the chamber, the Satrap welcomed her with a gentle *•' Khosh geldin — you are welcome." Her prostration performed, the slave stood with bent head, one pace within the room, and awaited the orders of the Pasha. " Korkma — fear not ;" was his next address ; " your home beneath my roof shall be a happy one. How are you called ? " " Katinka,'" murmured out a low soft voice. " Nay, nay," said the Satrap gaily; "your's is but an infidel name for such a houri. How say you.'' shall we call you Beyaz.^* 'Tis a more fitting appellation for such a lily ! " " Sen ektiar der, agam — you are the master, my lord,'"* was the reply. " Beyaz be it then," pursued the Pasha : " and now, hear me. Your talents have been extolled, and I doubt not that they are worthy * White. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 15 of all the praise which has been lavished on them. I have a fair wife, beautiful enough to have been the daughter of a peri, and born of a sunbeam, but she languishes beneath a cruel malady, and we cannot restore to her eyes the light that has fled from them. Be this task yours; it will require a gentle hand, and a bright spirit." " My heart will be in the task ;'" said the fair Greek softly, " even now I am ready."" " Taib,janum — well said, my soul!'"* exclaimed the Pasha ; " you shall be the hakeem, to whom she will owe her recovered bloom, and to whom I shall be indebted for a renewal of the hap- piness to Avhich I have long been a stranger. Khosh geldin — you are welcome, fair Beyaz, to the harem of Saifula Pasha." " And how wills my lord that I should enter upon my office ?"" demanded Katinka, somewhat hastily : " shall I take my zebec, and sing to the Hanoum EfFendi one of our mountain melodies ?*" " That were well done, " said the Satrap ; " but I would not that she should see the min- strel while she listens to her voice : that were too 16 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. much !"" and the Pasha looked patronizingly, and almost tenderly, towards the young Greek. But the glance feU like a sunbeam upon marble — the maiden did not raise her eyes ; and, after a short silence, she asked humbly — "What wills my lord that I should sing.? Shall the strain be sad, like the heart of the beau- tiful listener; or joyous as the mood in which he loves to see her .?" " Be it even as you will;" said the Pasha; and clapping his hands, he gave orders to an attendant that Katinka should be conducted to an apart- ment contiguous to that inhabited by the Buyuk Hanoum, where she could be heard unseen. This command uttered, the slave awaited no further bidding to withdraw ; but, once more prostrating herself, she performed her salam aleikum, and followed the attendant from the apartment. Carimfil Hanoum sat moodily on her sofa, heedless of the efforts of her maidens to arouse her from her reverie. She had cast aside her costly tusbee* of gems, and flung her feather- * Rosary. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 17 framed anali * from her in disgust. Costly per- fumes were burning in a vase of silver on a small table near her, and at intervals she passed her hand through the scented vapour as if uncon- sciously. Jewels of price were scattered over her cushions, and a few flowers were strown among them; but they were alike unheeded. Yet it seemed not hke the languor of disease which weighed her down ; but rather bore the character of deep and settled melancholy, fed by regretful thought. Suddenly she raised her head, as a low strain of music broke upon her ear : it was a wild gushing melody, half hope, half sadness ; and, by whatever spell it wrought, it fastened at once upon the spirit of the fair Carimfil Hanoum, who sat entranced among her cushions, and listened breathlessly even to its close. SONG OF THE GREEK SLAVE. Joy is a bird ! Catch it as it springs ; It will return no more When once it spreads its wings. ♦ Hand -mirror. 18 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. Its song is gay, but brief, The voice of sunny weather ; But ah ! the bird and leaf Vanish both together ! Joy is a flower ! Pluck it in its bloom ; 'Twill close its petals up If darker skies should gloom. It is a lovely thing, And formed for sunny weather ; But ah ! the flower and spring Vanish both together ! Joy is a child! Seize it in its mirth ; For soon its lip will know The withering taint of earth. Its eye is bright as truth, A type of sunny weather ; But ah ! the smile and youth Vanish both together ! The song ceased, but for a long interval the beautiful Circassian remained motionless. The strain had evidently awakened memories which she sought not to dispel ; and, when at length a deep sigh relieved her overcharged heart, she impatiently commanded that the invisible musi- cian should be brought before her. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 19 At her desire the curtain of tapestry was raised, and the Greek girl stood on the threshold with her zebec in her hand. " Ajaib — wonderful !'' broke from the lips of both, as they gazed earnestly on each other ; and Katinka had bounded half way across the floor, and the wife of the Pasha had sprung from her sofa, ere the slave remembered that she who had once been her friend had now become her mis- tress ; and she stopped suddenly with the indig- nant blood mantling her brow, and would have turned aside, but the delighted young Hanoum caught her to her heart. " Sister of my soul !" she murmured, as the first rush of joyful surprise was succeeded by a calmer and more assured delight : " Whence come you ? Welcome are you, as the first roses that gem the gardens of the peris — dear have you ever been, as the memory of the loved and lost !" " I come from your own fair land — from the mountains where we were wont to wander toge- ther;" was the reply : " but when you were gone the flowers of the valley hung their heads ; and the wind on the hill-tops murmured only sadness. 20 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. But I have found you once more, and the sor- rows that have fallen upon me since we parted are forgotten."" " One of them at least is overpast;'' hastily in- terposed the Circassian : " from this hour, be- loved of my spirit, you are free." And as she spoke she led the maiden to the sofa, and seated her by her side. The news soon reached the Pasha that, in the person of the Greek slave, his wife had found a long-lost friend ; and he learnt the fact with a bewilderment of feeling which he did not seek to analyse ; but when he again visited the beautiful Hanoum, and saw that the light danced in her eye, and that her lip was wreathed with smiles, he almost persuaded himself that he was satisfied with the event. Had the worthy Satrap been more conversant with the mysteries of a woman's heart, he might perchance have suspected that even the meeting with one whom she had loved in her own land with the love of a sister, would be insufficient to produce so sudden and so great a change in the temper of his wife ; but Saifula Pasha was nq THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 21 wizard in the lore of love ; the effect delighted him ; and, sensible as he himself was to the beauty of the fair Greek, he looked no deeper for the cause, but smoked the chibouque of con- tent, and occupied the divan of justice, as well satisfied with himself and all that appertained to him, as though neither mystery nor jealousy ex- isted in the world. It was on a fair evening in summer that the two friends sat together, conversing in low whis- pers of past years and vanished happiness. The draperies of the portal were drawn back ; and beyond the threshold of the apartment stretched away the garden and groves of the palace, far as the eye could reach. Fountains of delicate white marble threw their sparkling waters into the air; and, as the volume descended, touched by the colours of the setting sun, it fell back upon the lotus blossoms in the basin like a tide of gems. Birds of gorgeous plumage were suspended in golden cages from the branches of the tall trees, or wandered among the rainbow-tinted flowers ; while the sweet breath of the lime-buds and the Persian jasmine came soothingly upon the wind. 22 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. It was a lovely hour; but there was a saddening influence in its luxurious calm which the fair Circassian felt in every pulse ; tears stood in her deep eyes ; and the unbidden sigh rose at inter- vals, as if to rebuke the effort which she made to smile. The gentle Greek gazed fondly on her for a moment; and then, flinging her white arms about her neck, she said playfully — " Ai, guzum— my eyes! when Saifula Pasha paid sixt}^ purses for a certain slave whom he purchased not many months back, it was in the hope that she might be able to w^iile his wayward wife from her sadness. How say you ? shall we try her skill ? My first tale I have told you, as the rose avows her love to the bulbul, in secret — the rest may be more openly delivered — the Prophet grant that, like the bul- buFs answer to his blossom-love, they may be sweet, even although perchance somewhat sad. Speak, Eff'endimou — my mistress, shall it be so ?" *' Janum — my soul !" answered her com- panion ; " I live but to listen." And, having placed herself more commodiously among her THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 23 cushions, and possessed herself of the fair hand which was wandering lovingly among her tresses, the Pasha's wife, surrounded by her slaves, pre- pared to hearken to the tale of her new-found friend. The Greek remained silent for a moment, with her open palm pressed upon her brow in deep thought; and then, suddenly smihng upon the young beauty at her side, she struck a few notes upon her zebec, and commenced her narrative. 24 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER III. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. tN the reign of Sultan Mourad the Second, there dwelt in Stamboul a young man whose name was Hassan. His father, who had been a merchant of some reputation, died while his son was yet a child ; and his mother had lived through the subsequent years of her widowhood without an interest or an affection which did not centre in her boy. Well had the youth repaid the loving care of his last parent ; and often did the aged Yusnu-gul bless the Prophet who had spared such a treasure to her grey hairs. Hassan Effendi was ardent, imaginative, and high-hearted, and was as remarkable for his moral qualities as for his personal attractions. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 25 As he is the hero of my story, I must be excused if I attempt his description ; and I will give it in as few words as Dossible. To a stature so lofty that, had it not been tempered by extreme grace, it might have been considered almost as a defect, he united the advantages of a noble ex- pression of countenance, and features of the most classical beauty. His dark eyes had a depth whence, in moments of excitement, the living fire flashed forth with meteoric briUiancy ; and his lip had that curve of mingled scorn and softness which betrays the workings of the spirit without the aid of words. The turban never bound a nobler brow than that of Hassan Ef- fendi ; nor was the girdle of cachemire ever folded above a more generous heart. Constituted as I have here described him, it will not be matter of surprise to any that Has- san created for himself a surpassing interest in the breast of the Defter-dar, or Treasurer to the Crown, who soon felt for the young man the affection of a father. His love was gratefully re- turned ; and it was the more valuable to Hassan because he had never known a father's fondness. VOL. I. c 26 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. To the affection of a son he added the reverence of a protege, and thus deepened the feehng which shed a glow of happiness over his existence ; while his brightest moments, despite his youth and his enthusiasm, were spent in the society of his powerful and partial friend. Thus were things situated, when one of those diplomatic avalanches, which descend no where so suddenly nor so fatally as in the East, over- whelmed the Defter-dar, and he found himself dispossessed of all his honours at a period when they had become habitual to him. Nor was his interest at court the only loss which accompanied his dismission from office — true, his fortune, which was ample, remained intact and unin- vaded by the hand of power ; he was still sur- rounded by luxury and indulgence ; but his antechamber was no longer thronged with those troops of friends who had been wont to crowd it, and whose attendance had ever been considered overpaid by his smiles : he awoke on the mor- row after his dismissal, wearied by a night of fitful and uneasy dreams, only to find himself alone. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 27 There is something strange and startling to one who has been accustomed to a bevy of adulators — to a herd of suppliants — to a throng of obsequious sycophants — in finding his altar suddenly abandoned by the incense-breathing worshippers who were wont to encircle it ; and thus felt the Defter-dar. He wandered list- lessly and sadly through his spacious apart- ments ; he laid his pipe aside, and left his coffee untasted ; and, after a while, he passed into the harem ; but even the smiles of Nefzi-Sabah, his wife, failed to awaken him to joy. And yet she was the wife of only a few short months, and beautiful as a houri. Gentle as the "Morn- ing Zephyr," whose name she bore, dark-eyed as the gazelle, and graceful as a fawn, Nefzi- Sabah found the spell of her loveliness for the first time powerless. As she flung herself upon a pile of cushions beside the sofa of the Defter-dar, and looked up tenderly in his face, a coldness fell upon her heart, and she remained for a while silent ; yet even that availed her nothing, for her si- lence passed unheeded ; no fond gaze lin, c2 28 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. gered upon her beauty ; and a tinge of bitter and regretful surprise mingled with the sigh that heaved her bosom, as she stretched her jewelled hand towards her zebec, and swept the cords with fingers as light as the breath of evening among roses. The spirit of the Defter-dar was softened by the strain, and he sighed in his turn ; but, alas ! the sigh was not for Nefzi-Sabah ; for, as his troubled thoughts resolved themselves into calm, he remembered Hassan ; and, while the beautiful Circassian was breathing out a lay of love, he was mentally expatiating on the delights of friendship. " Of what avail, " he asked himself, " have been the toils and the intrigues of years? Of what value have been the false vows of the time- serving herd who have followed in my path ? The toils have withered me — the intrigues have blighted me — the flatterers have proved false — the gaud and the glitter of court favour were the sunhght in which they basked, and they have no time to shiver in the shade of disappointment. Now is the moment to revenge myself on fate. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 29 and to make the lure of ambition yield to the calm impulse of friendship. I am no longer the favourite of Mcurad, but I am still the friend of Hassan ; and what is the possession of power compared to that of one honest heart ? When the storm rages, the surf is scattered upon the shore; but the jewel which is hidden in the depths of ocean is unmoved by the tumult of the bil- lows." With this consolatory reflection the Defter- dar concluded his reverie ; and, as the smile of recovered complacency rose to his lip, Nefzi- Sabah ceased her song, and smiled in her turn at the success of her fond experiment. Nor was the stoical composure of the ex- courtier subject of surprise to those around him. Every Turk is aware that the same hand which beckons him to a Pashalik can also twine the bowstring about his neck ; and he accepts the one with as much outward composure as he sub- mits to the other. Even beggary, suddenly as it may come upon him, fails to wring a murmur from his lips. He looks upon worldly ad- vancement and worldly possessions as mere 30 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. transitory benefits, and the grave as the great and certain end of all ; and, unlike the theo- retical European, who, admitting the same be- lief, nevertheless acts as though the}^ were the supreme good — the Alpha and Omega of all created beings — the Musselmaun, instead of ter- minating his reverses with a pistol or a razor, or supporting them at best with a dogged and sullen despair which places him beyond the pale of future exertion, and atrophises the energies of all who are dependent on him, calmly resigns himself to a fate which he had not power to control, and makes the best of that which still remains. The Defter-dar was wealthy ; he yet possessed the means of tranquil, and even costly enjoyment ; the substance was untouched, it was the shadow only which had passed away; and, under such circumstances, no Turk would arrogate to himself the right of complaint ; or deem that he could be an object of commisera- tion. It was a time of festival, the Ramazan was waning to a close — the morrow was the feast of the Bairam ; and the Defter-dar ere long quitted THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 31 the women''s apartments, in order to prepare the presents which, at this period, it is customary to distribute among the members of the house- hold. As the ex-courtier turned a hasty glance on the many gifts that lay around him, each en- veloped in the boksha or handkerchief in which the offering is made, he could not repress the rising scorn which grew out of the memory of past years, and the conviction that the link that now united him to those who were about to share his bounty, was one of interest, not love. But the feeling passed away, as his eye lingered on the costly gifts prepared for Hassan ; and, widi unwonted earnestness, he once more unfolded the boksha to assure himself that the present was worthy of his love. A shawl from the looms of Cachemire, whose price would have ransomed a province, con- cealed amid its folds a Damascus dagger, and a pair of diamond studded pistols ; and, as the Defter-dar replaced the weapons, and refolded the handkerchief, he put into the hand| of a trusty slave the precious offering of friendship, 32 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. and turned away with a calm brow and a cheer- ful spirit. But the cup of disappointment was not yet drained to the dregs, and the Defter-dar was fated to imbibe the draught even to the last drop. Eager to expedite the work of bounty, the slave loaded himself with as many packages as he could conveniently carry, and hastened on his errand. Numerous were the greetings which awaited him as he passed on ; and each chance- passenger whom he encountered on his way grasped his hand in fellowship and con- gratulation, as is customary at this solemn feast; cannon boomed along the Bosphorus; the dis- tant sound of music came upon the wind ; and the good Musselmaun, excited and preoccupied, hastily placed in the possession of one of the im- patient expectants the sumptuous gift destined for Hassan ; and then unconsciously pursued his way to the dwelling of the young Effendi. Hassan, meanwhile, suffered far more at the misfortunes of his friend than the Defter-dar himself. The ex-courtier was no longer in the THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 33 first rush of youth ; he had attained the age when, despite all circumstances, a certain degree of philosophy is forced upon every man. He had sufficient experience to perceive and to ap- preciate the hollowness and uncertainty of worldly honours, and a mind energetic enough to turn to nobler means of consolation. But Hassan was yet in the fresh years when the dew of hope falls plentifully on the wayside of ex- istence, and calls up a thousand bright tints from the wilding flowers which blossom there. He had not yet learnt the useful and care- taught lesson of self-examination and self-go vernment. He could not comprehend the pos- sibility of casting aside worldly distinctions, and replacing their glitter by the -more social possessions of fellowship and regard. He had ever looked upon the Defter-dar as upon one born to authority and trust ; and he could not, in the first rush of feeling, disentangle those attributes which had so long been blent in his imagination. To say that he pitied the indi- vidual were an error — he only mourned the evil ; for he regarded his friend with the sam.e c 5 34 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. honouring eyes as when he moved in pride and power. " The sun," said Hassan, in reply to some observation of Yusnu-gul, his mother ; " is still the sun, though clouds may have passed before it. Who shall dare to lift an irreverent look to the glorious orb, or to deride its want of light, because the vapours of the morning have overshadowed it ?''"' " The Defter-dar," retorted the aged woman, as she resumed her pipe, and deposited beside her cushions the bag of embroidered cachemire containing the scented tobacco with which she had just replenished it ; " the Defter-dar has still the heart and the hand of a prince ; and fear not " "What should I fear?" exclaimed Hassan, his dark eyes flashing scorn at the inference of his more worldly-minded mother ; " Mashallah ! have I loved him only for the riches with which he has loaded me ? Have I been bought at a price ? Do not even i^ou know me better ? I tell you, mother, that the world holds not the being who shall ever rend away my heart from the Defter-dar ; he has been a father to me in THE DIAMOND 3IERCHANT. 35 affection, a friend in trust, a protector in munifi- cence. He only can undo the work of his own kindness ; and while he still loves me, nothing shall part us, though all the ills of life should accumulate around him." The words had scarcely passed the lips of the excited young man, when a slave of Yusnu- guFs harem stood slipperless at the door of the apartment, holding in her hand an embroidered boksha, which she laid at the feet of Hassan as the gift of the Defter-dar ; and then, retreating a few paces, she crossed her hands before her, and awaited in silence the orders of her lord. With an eager hand and a throbbing heart, Hassan prepared to unfold the handkerchief; and Yusnu-gul raised herself from her recum- bent position to feast her eyes on the costly present which her son was about to reveal. It was not the expectation of acquiring a new and valuable possession which agitated Hassan as he threw back the folds of the boksha : it was the consciousness that the gift offered on the oc- casion of the Bairam is always in proportion to the desree of reo-ard in which the indi- 36 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. vidual to whom it is offered is held by the donor; and his dismay may consequently be conceived when the handkerchief delivered up its contents. The blood mounted to his brow, and the fire flashed from his deep eyes, as he dis- covered their nature — a shirt of the stuff worn by the boatmen on the Eosphorus ; pantaloons of the common material used by the peasantry ; a shawl whose coarse folds were meet only to bind the forehead of a ghez-metkian, or domestic slave. Such was the present which had been tendered to the hitherto favourite friend of the Defter-dar ! For a few moments the young man remained speechless; and that brief space sufficed for a thousand comments from Yusnu-gul. " She- kiur Allah — Praise be to God !" she exclaimed ; " we are not yet so sunk as to need such courtesy as this ! Is the Defter-dar become a divane, an idiot, or does he take you for the son of a baghdjee,^ that he sends you garments fitting only for a slave ! Sen chok adam, you are much of a man, if you bear this without com- plaint!" * A labourer. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 37 But Hassan answered not. He sat with his head bowed down upon his breast, lost in thought ; until, as the indignation of his mother became gradually more loud and less measured, he roused himself, and replied in a broken tone : " Enough of this. I have read the meaning of the Defter-dar — he is lord of his own will, and I have no right to condemn him for its exercise. All the world has changed to him ; and he is free in his turn to change to me. It is his own fiat which separates us. ^lay he find another heart that will cling to him as fondly and as faithfully as that of Hassan would have done had he not spurned it from him !'' A gush of tears followed the words; and hastily flinging from him the wadded covering of the tandour* beneath which he had been sitting, the young man folded his pelisse about him, and rushed into the street. He had need of the keen cold air that was blowing from the Bosphorus to relieve his laboured and painful breathing, for his agony suffocated him. * A wooden frame, containing a brazier of heated charcoal, and overlaid with silken coverlets. 38 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " All, save this, I could have borne ;'■* he mur- mured to himself; " but to be ranked among his menial servants — to be put upon a footing with his slaves — to be tacitly taught that he holds me as lightly as any other varlet whom he has bought with his gold — this only I cannot bear. Ill-fated Hassan ! to have but one friend, and to lose him thus !" For hours did the young man wander about the city : he heard not the busy hum of the streets ; he heeded not the bright eyes which flashed upon him as he passed, from beneath the jealous yashmac ;* he returned not the greetings that were addressed to him by his acquaintance, nor the idle jests of which he was the subject. His mind was absorbed by one engrossing idea ; and at intervals he mentally repeated, " Ill-fated Hassan ! to have but one friend, and to lose him thus !" In this dark mood of mind the young Effendi turned aside from the streets, just as twilight was beginning to thicken around him ; and en- tered one of the cemeteries of the city. The * Veil worn by Turkish females in the street. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 39 night-wind was already sighing among the tall cypresses that overshadowed the graves, and the turbaned head-stones gleamed cold and ghastly through the gloom. In the distance the illu- minated minarets looked like fairy palaces hung in mid-air ; the world without was brightened by festivity, and loud with revel — Hassan felt as though it were a bitter mockery ; —and while he lingered among the damp graves, he congra- tulated himself in the darkness of his spirit that he was alone ; and, in the fervour of the feeling he exclaimed aloud, *' Yes ; they too must run the same career of cheating affection ; but as yet they are happy — for them the veil is still unrent, and they deem that all men are truth — but / am undeceived. Inshallah — I trust in God ! I have drained my draught of bitterness, and the cup is empty. Ill-fated Hassan ! to have but one friend, and to lose him thus ! " " And what avails friendship at your bright age, Effendim ?'''' murmured out a low voice close beside him, as a small hand was laid lightly on his arm : " Bosh der — it is nothing. Friendship is for the grey-beard and the 40 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. dotard ; but your beard is yet black as the mid- night cloud, and your wit keen as the dagger in your girdle — friendship is but the dregs which hfe offers to the aged when youth has drained the draught— friendship is the cold resting-place of satiety, when passion has extinguished the flames of its fiery car, and swept onward on dusky wings into irrecoverable darkness. You are not formed for friendship — the spring sun does but light up the flowers: the fruits of autumn require a fiercer beam. You are like one who hungers at a feast, because he lacks energy to stretch forth his hand." " Who are you ? and what would you with me .f*" asked Hassan, gloomily. " I am called Felech-so, " was the reply ; " and I ask of you only to be just to yourself; the bulbul amid its sorrows has its rose — it mur- murs not to the winds of heaven without one fond ear to listen ; there is a charm even in grief where it awakens sympathy. But the brightest eye will grow dim with tears, and the smoothest brow become furrowed by bitter thought ; and thus the young and the quick-hearted do well to THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 41 trample care beneath their feet, ere it becomes too strong to be overmastered." " Your's is joyous philosophy ; affiet oUah — much good may it do you ;" said Hassan with a scornful smile, as he bent down to take a closer view of his companion, interested in spite of himself in the singularity of the adventure : " but a man must be a fop or a stoic who pro- fesses it."" " And wherefore ?" asked the low, soft, but somewhat mocking voice : " the stoic of three- and-twenty bids fair to change his creed at fifty for one less stern. Hassan EfFendi, if you could only look on me, you would beheve me." " You know me, then ?^ said the young man, with astonishment. " Know you ?^ was the laughing rejoinder : " who in Stamboul knows you not ? Those who may not gather the rose are, nevertheless, not forbidden to look upon it." Hassan listened more complacently. " I have tracked you for the last hour : I would fain save you from yourself. You are cursing your felech,* * Constellation. 42 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. when you are, in truth, your own worst enemy. Move a few paces onward, into yonder spot, where the reflection of a cluster of blazing minarets almost cheats the eye into a belief of daylight. I will detain you but a moment, and you shall then be free to act as you deem best." Hassan involuntarily obeyed ; and, as he fol- lowed closely on the footsteps of his strange guide, he was struck with the lightness of her movements, and the graceful undulations of her slight figure; but when they had at length reached the spot which she indicated, and that she withdrew her yashmac, and revealed to him the loveliest face on which he had ever looked, his breath came quicker, and he demanded hur- nedly : — " How said you that you were called ?'' " Felech-so" — murmured the low voice. " And you are rightly named !" exclaimed the excited young man ; " for your constellation must, indeed, be ever in the ascendant. Speak ! What would you .?" " Effendim, I have told you all my errand. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 43 I would fain call back the smile to your lip, and the light to your eye. Our moullahs may prate to you of prayer — our Pashas of power — our merchants of gold — I promise you all these, if you care to mend your fortune. And now, follow me on the instant, if you will ; or bid me farewell at once, for, if we part to-night, we part for ever. I am a Turkish woman ; the sun has set, and I am yet abroad : none, save yourself, must look upon, or dog me. How say you ? Will you confide in me ? Can my smile lighten your grief.? sen bilirsen — you know best — it is for you to decide; will you trust to me ?" " Instantly — eternally." " It is well ;'' said Felech-so, as she readjusted her yashmac, and drew her heavy cloak more closely about her : — " I shall lead you by bye- paths and unfrequented streets : follow me at a distance ; and when you see me enter the dwel- ling whither I am about to conduct you, the door will be left ajar, and you may safely pass the threshold. " Stay yet a moment" — murmured Hassan. " And, wherefore, Effendim ? When once we 44 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. have left the public streets, and that the same roof covers us, shall I not be free to fill your pipe, to hand your slippers, and to serve your coffee ? Will not the music of my zebec be softer than the distant murmurs of the city ? and the glances of your slave be more dazzling than the glare of many torches ?" Hassan insisted no farther; and in the next instant he was following the short and rapid steps of his new acquaintance through byeways hitherto unknown to him. At times he caught glimpses of the Bosphorus, basking in the reflec- tion of the myriad lamps of the hill-seated city : at times he left it far behind him, to follow the ascent of some steep and narrow street — but he hesitated no longer: and, after the hurried walk of an hour, during the whole of which time he never once lost sight of his mysterious guide, he saw her pause an instant at the portal of a stately building whose vast shadow lay long upon the earth, and then disappear across the threshold. In the next moment he stood on the same spot : the door, as he had been forewarned, remained ajar ; he pushed it gently back, strode through THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 45 the portal, and found himself in a spacious and covered court, lighted only by one dim and flickering lamp. Hassan stood for a while in some perplexity, and not without a passing suspicion that treachery was intended towards him ; when suddenly a black slave, habited in a rich costume, who had evidently been awaiting his arrival, seized him by the hand, and drew him forward. Hassan was neither of an age nor a temperament to yield slavishly to fear, yet, as he was hurried onward through dark passages, and dragged up one flight of steps and down another, where the deep silence was broken only by his own footfalls and those of his conductor, a vague apprehension of evil grew upon him ; but it was by this time too late to recede, for, even could he have escaped from his companion, and had no resistance been offered to his retreat, he was conscious that he should be totally unable to retrace his path : and under these circumstances he resolved quietly to follow up the adventure, terminate as it might. Having come to this decision, he bestowed 46 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. undivided attention on the movements of the slave who conducted him ; and soon became convinced that, although the building into which he had been introduced was extremely spacious, he had, nevertheless, trodden the same ground more than once : a circumstance which proved that, whatever might be the motive of its owner, the intention was evidently to mystify him as to its formation and extent. Not a glimpse of light had he encountered since he quitted the court ; and, as a door immediately in front of him sud- denly fell back, Hassan involuntarily pressed his open palm upon his eyes to shield them from a glare which almost blinded him. Peals of ring- ing laughter, and the glad sounds of many zebecs, mingled with the joyous voices of women, burst upon his ear ; and, as he hastily withdrew his hand, the light form of Felech-so detached itself from a group of young beauties, as fair and bright as houris, and approached him with a bounding step. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 47 CHAPTER IV. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT — Continued. Hour after hour sat Yusnu-gul in her apart- ment, hstening to the footfalls of every passing slave, and deeming that each in turn heralded the return of Hassan ; but Hassan came not ! Daylight had passed away; and the illuminated minarets shot high into the air, like fiery shafts, their graceful columns of light, while the bosom of the Channel glowed like molten metal beneath the blaze. Music was soft in the distance, and, at intervals, a light laugh or a merry song rang upon the wind — and still Hassan came not ! As yet, however, Yusnu-gul rather marvelled than mourned at his delay: all the youth of StambouL were abroad in the glad city, and 48 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. Hassan, gentle as he was, ever loved to be the first in every festival. The aged woman, there- fore, quietly replenished her pipe, and sipped her coffee, and lost herself in conjectures as to the motive of the extraordinary conduct of the Defter-dar, and mental repinings at the un- merited mortification of her high-hearted son. Another hour was filtered through the lap of time, and the loud cannon boomed along the Bosphorus in rapid succession, while the flitting fires of the festival ran skimmering along the dark face of night, like mimic lightning; glancing over the tops of the tall cedars, and spreading in sheets of transient flame a mantle of golden glory about the city. At length the cold grey light of morning broke pale and chilly in the east ; the dusky rocks of the Asiatic coast loomed out, stern and sterile; the white buildings of Pera gleamed blank and bleak in the faint sky ; and the distant minarets of Scutari looked like giant-spirits, as the first beams of day revealed their shadowy outline. It was the morrow of the Bairam — and still Hassan returned not ! Yusnu-gul, who loved her son with a devotion THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 49 as untiring as it was profound, had watched throughout the night without a sensation of weariness. Hassan was young and high-spirited, and had, doubtlessly, been detained by his associates; and the heart of the mother was soothed by the belief that, amid the dissipation of the festival, he would forget his recent morti- fication. But with the chilly, cheerless dawn came other and more anxious thoughts. Alike to the pain-worn patient and to the weary watcher — to the sick and to the sorrowing — there are no moments so sad and so depressing as those in which day and night stand together on the threshold of time, as though each were reluctant to yield up its empire. When the light broke around her, Yusnu-gul began to fear she knew not what ! Hassan was impetuous, haughty, and uncompromis- ing; of what rashness might he not have been guilty, in the first rush of his resent- ment ? True, he had loved the Defter-dar as a father; but Yusnu-gul was woman enough to be aware that outraged aff'ection is the very foundation on which may be erected the firmest superstructure of hatr. His altach- VOL. I. D 50 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. ment to the Ex-Treasurer had been divested of every taint of worldliness and self-interest — a spontaneous outpouring of reverence and regard — ^but it is ever the most generous spirit which is the quickliest stung ; and the mother found no consolation for her soUtude in the suggestions of her awakened fancies. The slaves of Yusnu-gul removed her morning meal untouched. Hassan was yet absent ; and the tearless eyes of the grey and faded woman burnt with the fever of her throbbing brain. It was thus that she was found by Nefzi- Sabah, the favourite wife of the Defter-dar, who, on the day succeeding that of the Bairam, entered the harem of Yusnu-gul, followed by a couple of her slaves ; and, casting aside her yashmac, turned towards the mother of Hassan a brow as moody as her own. " Hai, hai — so, so, you are tardy with your welcome, Effendim ;" commenced the beautiful Circassian, for the aged woman had uttered no greeting to her visitor ; " nor do I ask from you more speedy courtesy. Mashallah ! the wrongs that I have suffered from the son are fitly followed by the coldness of the mother." THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 51 " If you are coDie to tell of Hassan, speak !'' said Yusnu-gul, earnestly. " If I am come to tell of Hassan ! '^ was the retort ; " think you that I can tamely suffer the rivalry of a stripling in the affections of the Defter-dar? Are my eyes dim, or my cheeks faded,, that I should be overlooked because he has a smooth tongue and a ready wit ? Is he not a sakil-siz — a no-beard ? "" " Is Hassan indeed with the Defter-dar ? "" asked Yusnu-gul, while a gleam of joy lit up her faded brow. " What avails it that he is not; " demanded Nefzi-Sabah peevishly ; " when even the ingra- titude and discourtesy of his absence during the festival of yesterday have not yet opened the eyes of the Defter-dar. Ne var — what is this? Am I to listen to no discourse more flattering to my self-love than repinings at the non-appearance of an in grate ? "" " Talk not of ingratitude, Effendim ;"" said the mother indignantly ; '' after the bokshalik* with which the Defter-dar honoured my son, * Gift. D 2 UMMRY l!N!VE1?SrTY OF HUNOIS 52 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. he could scarcely have expected thanks at his hands — Inshallah ! Hassan Effendi is no slave;^ " Were he a Pasha he could not desire one more costly ! " exclaimed the Circassian ; " but perchance the spoiled favourite forgot the friend, when he no longer looked upon the Defter-dar." "A shirt suited to a caiquejhe I '"** said the mother, scornfully. " Pistols for his woman-hand, of which the diamond-hilts can alone be valuable to the troubler of the peace of harems-—" followed up the Circassian. " Schalvar,-j- fitting only for a peasant '' pursued Yusnu-gul. " A Damascus dagger whose fellow would be sought in vain, even throughout the golden city of Stamboul " persisted Nefzi-Sabah. "A shawl '''' commenced the aged woman. " Worthy to have covered the loins of the camel which carried the Prophet " broke in hev companion. Yusnu-gul clapped her hands with a gesture * Boatman. f Trowsers. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 53 of contemptuous indifference, and hastily com- manded that the boksha of the Defter-dar should be unfolded before the visitor ; when the surprise of the Circassian was extreme, on seeing the coarse and unseemly garments which had been tendered to Hassan as the gift of his protector. Rapidly and energetically did Nefzi-Sabah enumerate and describe the contents of the hand- kerchief which had been prepared by the hands of the Defter-dar for his favourite ; and, forget- ful of her own fancied subject of complaint against Hassan, she was soon engaged as anxiously as Yusnu-orul herself in a thousand contradic- tory and improbable conjectures as to the cause of his unwonted absence. But, alas ! in vain did they surmise, and consult, and explain — Hassan returned not ! Months wore painfully away. The heart of Yusnu-gul was a widowed heart; and, as she looked upon the sparkling waters of the Bos> phorus during the sunny days of summer, she saw not their beauty, she felt not their charm : to her those waters ever seemed to be the grave of Hassan. 54 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " Yes," would she murmur to herself in her bereavement ; " there — beneath that smiling and treacherous wave, lies my manly boy — my only one — the light of my eyes, the moon of my evening sky, the bulbul whose voice is hushed ; the joy of my old age, Hassan the high- hearted ! " Nor did the Defter-dar mourn less deeply the disappearance of his favourite. Of his death, his violent or self-inflicted death, it was impossible to doubt, as every endeavour to discover his fate had proved abortive; and the first anguish of despair had slowly yielded to the calmer but no less heart-felt grief of resignation, when a letter was one morning placed in the hands of the Defter-dar, who started with a surprise which almost amounted to incredulity, on recognizing the well-known character of Hassan. " Bismillah ! — In the name of the most merciful Allah ; " such were the contents of the paper ; " I am lost to you, and to the world ; I am lost even to myself; and, having told you this, I dare not add any thing in elucidation of a mystery which must have bewildered, and. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. DO I do even hope, have grieved you. I think of you often — fondly — your memory dwells with me as the remembrance of lost light lingers with the tenant of a dungeon ; or as the vision of departed liberty comes back upon the spirit of the de- spairing captive. I love to remember that I was dear to you ; I have forgotten all that wounded alike my pride and my affection. I retain jealously and fondly the gentler reminis- cences which are wound about my heart too closely ever to be rent asunder ! I parted from you proudly ; all the kindness that you had la- vished upon me ; every token of affection, every proof of regard, had been the spontaneous offering of your own generous nature. Alas ! I now appeal to your memory as a suppliant. If you ever loved — if you still love me — if you would save me from misery, from suffering, from death — a speedy and painful death — cherish no doubt, admit no suspicion ; seek not to penetrate a mystery too dense ever to be fathomed. Do not despise nor refuse me; but remembering only the loving trust of our earlier and happier communion, bestow out of the wealth which Allah has poured into 56 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. your lap sufficient to save me from destruction! Deposit, at the waning of the moon, a purse, containing twenty thousand piastres, on the tall turbaned head-stone to the riffht of the great avenue of the Cemetery of Scutari ; one will be there to secure it; but, as you love me, linger not to assure yourself of this fact, nor to palter with the messenger. In doing either you will destroy me. I dare add no more — pity and pray for the lost Hassan." The Defter-dar read and re-read the letter; there could be no doubt but that the hand- writing was that of him whom he had loved so well — of the son of Yusnu-gul ; and, although with a sick heart, and a throbbing pulse, he hesitated not to obey the bidding. The dawn was spreading faintly in the sky, and the moon was waning into a pale and sickly white, when the Defter-dar, leaving his caique at the pier of Scutari, slowly wound his way through the hushed and slumbering city, and thence passed alone into its stately necropolis. Long sweeps of wind were heaving the heavy cypress boughs, like spirit-sighs ; but the Defter- THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 57 dar quailed not in his purpose. He plunged into the deep gloom of the grave-forest, and soon stood before the tall stone which had been indicated. At its base was one of those small reservoirs, hollowed in the marble for the use of the birds and the wandering dogs, so common in Turkish burial-places ; the httle basin was dried up : and in this spot the generous friend deposited the sum which had been required of him, turned a long, searching look into the gloom around him, and then slowly moved away. But it was difficult to depart without one re- trospective glance ; and the Defter-dar had not progressed more than a few yards, ere he paused, and looked back. A dusky figure flitted across the path, and lingered an instant beneath the tall tomb — a deep voice murmured, " It is well !" and then the ex-courtier was once more alone in the midst of the deep stillness. d5 58 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER V. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT — continued. A year went by — a long and dreary year — and the memory of Hassan became to the Defter- dar like the indistinct vision of a painful dream ; but the mystery was yet to deepen, and the fact of his existence was once more to arouse all the pain-fraught sympathies of those who had loved him. A second letter, written Hke the first in agony of spirit, was placed in the hands of the Defter-dar at the expiration of that period by one of his slaves ; and the bearer, unmoved by the peril of his mission, had cast off his slippers on the threshold of the Ex-Treasurer, and there awaited a reply. " Once,'" thus ran the missive; "once I was dear to you ; you were to me as a father, and THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 59 1 loved you as a son. That I still hold you in my heart, be this my witness ! I may be for- gotten — may have been so long ; yet I pray you in mercy to recall my memory. I am in danger — imminent, instant danger — and you alone can save me. You are wealthy, you are generous — a trusty slave will deliver this letter. Should you deny my prayer, or detain my messenger, I shall soon be beyond help. If, however, you would once more save me from destruction, let him be the bearer of twenty thousand piastres. I dare not doubt that you will preserve me; Inshallah ! you are the last hope of the miserable Hassan !" The Defter-dar summoned the strange slave into his presence ; he bribed him with gold and soft words ; he threatened him with the basti- nado and the bowstring ; but he could extort no intelligence of the present position or the threatened peril of Hassan. " Destroy, or even detain me, and he is lost ;" was the only answer to every threat. " Dog me ; and, while I am eluding your pursuit, his fate will be accomplished." To the more gentle argument of bribe and 60 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. entreaty he was equally invulnerable. '' If yoQ grant the request of which I am the bearer," he said, " Hassan is saved ; and for myself, in that case, my reward is sure. Effendim, I ask of you nothing save dispatch." Without the hesitation of a moment, the Defter-dar placed the required sum in the hands of the messenger ; and accompanied it with a letter, replete with friendship and anxiety, to Hassan, and expressions of the most affectionate and sorrowing interest. He besought him to unveil his melancholy mystery to his best friend, for melancholy it must assuredly be, when it could thus sever him from the mother of his youth and the companion of his manhood ; he promised, should he have placed his life in jeopardy by some act of violence or folly, to exert for him all the interest which he yet possessed at court ; and concluded by drawing a miserable picture of the wretched Yusnu-gul, withering away into a solitary and unregretted grave. But when the letter was concluded, and the money delivered into the keeping of the slave, it was not so easy to suffer him to depart un watched; THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 61 and a trusty servant was put upon his track, who followed for hours the intricate course of the stranger; but he followed in vain — the inat- tention of a moment sufficed to render abortive the exertions of a day ; and he returned to the palace of the Defter-dar, defeated and baffled. Once more months passed away ; and, even as it had been foretold to Hassan, the disconsolate Yusnu-gul died. She had mourned her son, when she believed him to be lost to her for ever, with the calm, deep grief of resignation ; but her feeble frame and excited mind could not contend with the irritation of this new mystery, this unfathomable secret ; and she bent beneath the shock as the forest tree bends to the tempest breath ; and as the overstrained branches, bowed beyond their powers of resistance, rend the trunk from which they sprang, so did the feelings of Yusnu-gul, indulged and encouraged in the solitude of the harem, break the heart that could sustain the pressure no longer. There were moments, when in thinking of Hassan, and in weaving strange fancies on his fate, the Defter-dar almost hoped that he should 62 THE ROMANCE OP THE HAREM. hear of him no more. That his letter had re- mained unanswered rather grieved than sur- prised him ; for \ie felt that, had Hassan been free to act, he would long ere this have returned to his home, and to those whom he had loved from his boyhood ; and he, consequently, visited his silence upon the same system of coercion which had forbidden his re-appearance among his friends. Could he have disentangled the ravelled skein of secresy in whose meshes the poor youth was bound, the Defter-dar would have exerted every energy, and strained every nerve to restore him to the world ; but to hear of him only to earn the miserable privilege of knowing him to be beyond human help, was a torment rather than a blessing to liis anxious affection. His mother was no more ; his former associates had dmost forgotten him. He, alone, remembered him with regret ; and yet he would have thanked the messenger who brought the tidings of his death. But this was not to be: a third time came a scroll from Hassan — a voice from his living grave — a record of his jeopardy — an appeal to the friend who had cherished him ; — THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 63 " For the last time,"" he wrote, " Hassan the son of Said, pours forth his grief before the Defter-dar of the Sultan Mourad. I have a vague dream that a shadow had passed over your brightness, ere from me light was altogether shut out. It may have been so — I know not if it were — I heed it not, though you proclaim it to be truth. The sky is full of stars: the sage alone marks the quenching of those which fade from the galaxy : to the common gaze all is un- changed — I shall trouble you no more — this is my last appeal. Save me, or I am lost — gold alone can serve me : you have gold, and your heart is large : to none else can I apply. I write to you like a madman, but it is only the madness of desperation. I care not what may be the consequence, I will write to you no more. Friend ! father ! protector ! — save me again on this occasion — place the same sum as before at the disposal of my messenger ; and then pity and forget the lost Hassan." The Defter-dar replied to the missive by silently putting a purse of gold into the hands of the expectant slave, and coldly telling him that 64 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. he was free to depart when he listed* The man looked steadily in the face of the courtier, made a respectful obeisance, and withdrew. As he left the house, he glanced stealthily back to note if he were pursued, but the street was empty ; and the manner of the Defter-dar had been suf- ficiently indifferent to convince him that the ex- istence and well-being of Hassan were rapidly becoming unimportant to his former friend. Thus assured, the messenger made few digres- sions from his direct path ; and, after half an hour of rapid walking, beat upon the door of a stately mansion, and was instantly admitted. But the Defter-dar had learnt a lesson of self- reliance from the failure of the attendant whom he had on a previous occasion intrusted with the discovery of a secret which he was morbidly anxious to unravel ; and, suffering the messenger of Hassan to leave the house by the main portal, unpursued and unimpeded, he hastily changed his turban and pelisse, and passed out by a side door opening into his own garden, and thence into a cross path terminating in the main street, along which he shrewdly conjectured that the THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 65 slave, whose person he was confident of recog- nizing on the instant, must ultimately pass. Nor was he deceived in his conjecture ; for, having by this less circuitous route arrived in the great thoroughfare before the person whom he was anxious to observe, and having, moreover, by his own change of costume, prevented all sus- picion save that which might be created by his subsequent want of caution, he had ere long the satisfaction of seeing the slave turn the corner of the lane, and make his way towards the great square of the Atmeidan. The Defter-dar was careful, as they crossed the large open space, and passed beside its stately columns, to shroud himself among the crowd ; and, when they entered the street beyond it, to leave such a distance between the stranger and himself as to set suspicion at defiance. He re- marked that the slave looked back at intervals, like one who cared not to trust altogether to his seeming impunity ; but whenever this happened, the Defter-dar craftily paused, as though he were entering some house beside his path ; or fairly swung himself round, and made a few backward 66 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. steps, as though his route crossed that of his fellow passenger: thus preventing the perfect view of his person which would have betrayed his continued identity. And thus it was that the Defter-dar tracked the messenger of Hassan to the dwelling which he entered ; and he even ventured to linger for a while in its immediate neighbourhood to mark whether he would re-appear : but he came not forth again ; and the Defter-dar finally bent his steps homeward, with the feeling of one who is just awakening from a perplexed and painful dream. On the morrow he caused strict but guarded inquiries to be made, and soon learnt the history of the house and its inhabitants. It was the abode, said the neighbours, of a stern and pious matron, Hemdoune Hanoum by name, whose harem was invisible as that of the Grand Seigniour himself: who gave alms largely to the poor; and who welcomed with courtesy every wandering dervish or fakeer who claimed her hospitality, and deemed her cares amply repaid by their prayers and blessings. In vain did the Defter-dar endeavour by subtle THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 67 questionings to elicit information of a more mys- terious and exciting nature ; the whole day was spent in useless efforts to shake, or at least to throw a doubt upon, this well-connected story ; and, when evening fell, he became more than ever perplexed as to the measures which he should adopt to penetrate so closely- woven a mystery. The hour of rest came, and the Defter-dar retired to his bed, but not to sleep. He lay re- volving a thousand schemes, each less feasible than the last, until suddenly a new idea burst upon him ; when, with a prayer to Allah and the Prophet, he composed himself quietly upon his cushions with a smile upon his lip, and slept. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER VI. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT — COntinved Early in the morning, the purse-bearer of the Defter-dar bent his way to the great Tcharchi of the city, and was absent nearly an hour ; and during this time, his master more than once re- moved the chibouque from his hps, and leant forward in the attitude of listening. When at length he returned, he passed at once to the pi'esence of the Effendi ; and, having made his obeisance, and carefully let fall behind him the heavy screen of tapestry which veiled the door of the apartment, he drew from beneath his ample robe a handkerchief, from which he took the flowing garments of a Bektachy, or Mountain THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. by Dervish. There was the wadded cap of cloth with its binding of crimson wool ; the buffalo- horn with its leathern sling ; the broad belt of untanned leather clasped with a clasp of metal ; the scarlet slippers, the heavy rosary, the iron lamp suspended from the girdle, and the ample robe and mantle of serge. The metamorphosis was speedily completed ; and only a few moments had passed since the return of the purse-bearer, ere the ex-courtier Stood before him in the full garb of a mountain devotee. But the Defter-dar, however excellent he admitted the disguise to be, would not venture to trust it to the prying eye of day ; and the garments were accordingly laid aside until the twilight came to aid, with its long shadows, the enterprise of the adventurous friend. At length the favourable hour arrived ; and when the Defter-dar passed out into the street in the midst of his own slaves, not a prostration was made, though many an eye turned on him in wonder, as none had seen him enter. Satis- fied with this unceremonious proof of his suc- cessful transformation, the heart of the EfFendi 70 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. beat high with hope as he pressed forward to the dwelling of the mysterious Hemdoune Hanoum ; nor did he allow his hand to falter as he beat upon the well-remembered door. A weary interval elapsed ere his summons was answered ; but ultimately a sturdy slave appeared, who seemed desirous to veil the inte- rior of the dwelling from the gaze of the in- truder, as he scarcely opened the portal suffici- ently to enable the suppliant dervish to per- ceive that the hall beyond was of vast extent and magnificent proportions, although scantily lighted from the gallery which ran round its lofty walls. The Defter-dar was not, however, to be di- verted from his purpose by the surliness of a porter ; and he told his tale of travel and weari- ness in a tone which at once insured to it the ample credence of his listener. " The Hanoum Effendi cares not to open her doors after sunset ;"" said the slave coldly ; " she is a widow, and deems it not seemly. But you are a holy man, and you are travel-spent ; I will tell her of your arrival, and shall be speedy THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 71 with my answer. Bashustun, upon my head be it ! she shall know that you are at her thresh- old." And, without awaiting the reply of the Defter-dar, he hastily closed the door, and the sound of his rapidly retreating footsteps soon died away in the distance. After a brief interval he returned, and with civil words welcomed the stranger to the roof of his mistress, as he stood aside to give him en- trance ; and the Defter-dar found himself in a stately hall, paved with marble, around which ran a wide gallery, whence opened a range of apartments. But he had little time to acquaint himself with the locality, for he was hastily hurried forward a considerable distance down one or two dark passages ; and, finally, into a second saloon of incomparable beauty, sur- rounded, like the outer hall, by a gallery, whose heavy balustrades were richly wrought and gilded, and to which access was afforded by a noble flight of marble steps that swept downward on either side of the stately apartment ; he cast a hasty glance around as he was about to fol- low his conductor to a chamber on the ground 72 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. floor, when a shuffling of slippers was heard, and the slave paused, and bowed reverently before a tall muffled figure which hastily ap- proached him. " Is this the holy man ?" asked a voice which would have been harsh, had not time softened in some degree its asperity ; " Ne bilirim — what can I say ? Is this the dervish who claims shelter for the night beneath my roof.'^"' And, as the question was uttered, a lean and withered arm emerged from the mass of drapery, and a bony hand held a lamp close to the face of the pretended devotee. The Defter-dar bent low before the speaker, and answered humbly in the affirmative. A shrill, mocking laugh, that rung pain- fully in his ears, was the result of the assurance; and, ere he had recovered from its effects, the mantle in which the female was enveloped was cast off; the lamp that she held transferred to the slave who still stood silently beside her; and, as she clapped her hands, the doors along the gallery were flung back, disclosing a glare of liglit by which the Defter-dar was momentarily blinded, THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 73 while, like a flight of summer birds, forth flocked a troop of maidens as fair as the morn- ing, whose ringing and yet musical laughter created in an instant an atmosphere of joy about them, as they rapidly descended the marble stairs into the hall. " Ajaib — wonderful ! here is one, " half croaked, half shrieked the withered crone who appeared to be the mistress of the revels, "■ one who comes to us with a chaplet of beads and the robe of a dervish, and thinks to cheat us into a belief of his sanctity ! Look to it, all of you, for there must be treachery here." And, as she ceased speaking, the slave put the lamp into the hand of the foremost of the young beauties, who, with a gesture half mocking, half curious, raised it to the face of the merchant as the old woman had previously done, and then passed it, with a silent shake of the head, to her neigh- bour. When each had played her part in this sin- gular pantomime, and that all had disclaimed any knowledge of the stranger's identity, he stood in the centre of the group, utterly unable VOL. T. E 74 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. to conjecture the meaning of a scene such as assuredly he had never before witnessed ; and so bewildered were his senses bv the loveliness around him, that no fear for his personal safety mingled with his surprise. That the character for piety borne by Hemdoune Hanoura in the neighbourhood, was not altogether merited, he at once perceived ; and, as he glanced towards the lean and withered beldame who stood glaring at him with keen and eager eyes, as though she would read his secret on his brow, strange thoughts and fancies crowded upon him, and he almost began to regret that he had un- dertaken the adventure. But repentance came too late : he was now utterly in her power, and he felt that firmness alone could save him from its effects. " Our holy guest faints with travel," once more burst forth the acrid voice of the old woman ; " he has toiled all day beneath a hot sun, and there is neither soil nor dust upon his garments ; he has left his slippers on the threshold, and the crimson is yet unfaded. Let him, however, blow us one blast upon his buf- THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. Jb falo-horn, and we will crave the benefit of his prayers. How now, EfFendim, is your breath spent, that you refuse me this courtesy ? "' It was, however, no part of the Defter-dar's purpose to refuse, though he hesitated for a moment ere he complied, being perfectly igno- rant of his own capabilities in this new science ; and when at last he raised the primitive instru- ment to his lips, he blew so discordant and un- measured a blast as threw the lauonhing maidens into a convulsion of merriment, and perfectly satisfied Hemdoune Hanoum that her ordinary sagacity had not forsaken her. " Gel, gel — come, come ;" she exclaimed, " we will trouble cur pious guest for no more moun- tain music. He has, however, done his best to amuse us, and we are bound to repay his good- will in kind. Felech-so, my daughter, to your care I confide him ; shew him the wonders of our fairy-palace, and tend him carefully until he has overmastered his fatigue — I will be with you anon ;" and, with another fiendish laugh, she shuffled from the hall. Felech-so gazed upon the stranger for an 76 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. instant, as though some faint and far-off memory were shaping itself into tangibility in her mind ; but she did not long indulge so dangerous a mood, and, in the next moment, she was busily engaged in assisting her companions to replace the coarse head-gear of the Defter-dar with a turban of consummate cost and beauty, and to throw over his robe of serge a pelisse richly lined and overlaid with sables. When this was done, they led him to a sofa, and established him among the yielding cushions, whose golden embroidery shewed gorgeously on its ground of pale blue satin ; and, while one filled his chi- bouque of jasmin wood, and another handed to him on her knees the minute cup of mocha, in its precious setting of fillagreed gold, lipped with jewels, Felech-so established herself on a Persian carpet at his feet, and, with her graceful zebec and powerful voice, regulated the move- ments of a group who had ranged themselves in the centre of the floor, to dance the dance of the harem. The Defter-dar was dazzled, but he was not blinded. He felt at once that all this was part THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 77 of a system intended to bewilder and throw him off his guard; but he was no longer young enough to yield up his reason captive to the fascinations of the moment. Dark eyes were flashing round him, white arms were wreathing gracefully in air, and long jetty tresses were falling in rich masses on shoulders as white and smooth as ivory. The Defter-dar saw all, and felt its beauty : but, as he gazed about him, he remembered a tale, which had once been told to him by a giaour, of one of the diversions of the far West, where crowds flock together, and seat themselves under pavilions of crim- son, to listen to soft music, and to see fair women and graceful men mimic the adventures of every-day life, and live through a long and eventful existence in the course of one brief night. Even thus looked the Defter-dar on the scene around him. He felt that it was a hollow and deceitful pageant, which must ere long fade before sterner and colder realities ; and when the bright shapes which had flitted past him in the dance ultimately grouped themselves about him, as if to await his pleasure, he thanked them 78 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. for their courtesy in a voice as steady as its wont. The dance had not long ceased when Hem- doune Hanoum entered the apartment, and, as she crossed the threshold, every fair head bent low before her. " It is well, " she said, as she glanced towards her visiter ; " my lord has cast off his disguise, and has now only to tell us his name and rank, ere we devise new modes of amusement to divert his leisure hours." " Ne bilirim — what can I say ? You do your slave too much grace, Effendim," said the Defter-dar quietly; " that I am not that which I would fain have seemed, is true, and I will not wrong your sagacity by attempting longer to conceal the fact. But neither am I that which your courtesy would suggest. Your reception has been so much beyond my poor deserts, that I am bound in gratitude to tell you all " As the Defter-dar paused for a moment, he accidentally caught the bright eye of Felech-so fixed eagerly,* and, as it seemed, deprecatingly, upon him ; but it might have been only fancy THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. /9 that there was warning in her earnest gaze, and he had no opportunity to convince himself of the fact, as her head was hastily averted when their eyes had met. '•' I am a merchant, EfFendim, trading from a port in the Black Sea to the fair city of Stamboul, and I have just freighted an outward- bound brig with the whole produce of ten years of industry, leaving myself so scantily provided as to be utterly unable to meet the daily outlay necessary to my existence, until the arrival of a brother merchant, for whom I am anxiously watching from hour to hour ; and who has pro- mised me a share in a venture of so profitable a character, that, should he hold to his word, my fortune is made. In this straight, being un- willing to lodge myself in a khan without the present means of paying fairly for the accommo- dation, I exchanged my usual dress "with a dealer in the Tcharchi for the costume of a moun- tain dervish, well knowing that in that guise I should be certain to profit by the alms of the pious. The fame of the holy and charitable Hemdoune Hanoum reached me as I stood in 80 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. one of the great thoroughfares of the city, uncertain towards which quarter I should first bend my steps, and decided me at once. I have now confessed myself to be an impostor, Ef- fendim, and should you put me forth, I shall submit to the justice of your fiat without a murmur." As he ceased speaking the Defter-dar glanced towards Felech-so, and this time there could be no mistake. An expression of unutterable re- lief had passed over her features, but she sat with her face turned slightly aside, and her hands folded upon her bosom, as though she felt no interest in the narration of the stranger. " And you are then really too poor to lodge yourself in a public caravanserai ?"" said Hem- doune Hanoum interrogatively. " You have said it," was the concise reply. " Do you not rather mock us with a new fable .?" asked the old woman angrily, " when you amuse us with the tale of your poverty, while you wear upon your finger a diamond which would well nigh ransom a province ! Ey vah ! we are not to be cheated twice.'' THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 81 For a moment the Defter-dar did not reply — for a second his ready wit deserted him — and the blood rushed in a volume to his brow, as he stood self-convicted of a carelessness which, for aught he knew, might perhaps cost him his life. That the aged fiend who sat with her keen eyes fixed upon him, evidently gloating over his discomposure, would suffer him to depart after having laid bare before him, for some hidden purpose of her own, the secrets of her house- hold, he was not weak enough to believe even for an instant ; and that she would not scruple to rid herself, by the most effectual means, of so profitless a guest, he was equally assured ; and, in this dilemma, he resolved to make one more attempt, ere he resigned himself tamely to a fate at which it was not difficult to guess. '' What blossom shall be hidden from the sun ? and what sand-rift shall resist the billow ?" exclaimed he, as if in admiration of the shrewd- ness of his hostess. *' Is it not in vain that I would conceal even a portion of my secret from Hemdoune Hanoum, to whom it is given to e5 82 THE ROIVUNCE OF THE HAREM. know all things. This ring, Eifendim ;" and, as in obedience to a gesture of the old woman, he withdrew it from his finger, and placed it in her hand, he remembered with a pang that the precious jewel had been the gift of the Sultan in his days of court favour, and that it was now, in all probability, lost to him for ever ! — " this ring is a portion of the mystery. Look on it well, and then tell me if it be not a diamond of sur- passing beauty." The aged woman readily obeyed : she passed the glorious jewel on her own bony finger, and, having examined it near the light, and ascer- tained that it was without spot or blemish ; and that, as she slowly moved her hand to and fro, it gave out a thousand rainbow tints, she with- drew with it into a far corner of the saloon, and there, shading it from the glare of the tapers, she admired the sparks which, with every move- ment that she made, it flung out into the dark- ness. " It is a rare stone !" she said, more blandly than she had yet spoken, as she returned to the side of the Defter-dar ; " the Sultan himself THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 83 hath not a finer. I would fain hear its history ere I restore it to you." '^ That shall you not do, EfFendim," replied her crafty guest, " if its possession give you pleasure — nay, offer me no acknowledgments, I pray you ;'" he added hastily, as his hostess was about to speak ; " keep the bauble, and I will tell you all. I have already stated that I am awaiting in Stamboul a merchant of my acquaintance ; but I played you false when I pleaded poverty as an extenuation of my dis- guise. I am about to confide to you a secret upon which hangs my life, but you will not betray me ; and brief shall be the period which intervenes ere I repay you a hundred fold for all the courtesies that you have lavished on me. Effendim, the trinket on your finger is a mere toy — the jewel is counterfeit — I came to the city with many such for sale, and I have parted from them all at a heavy sum, save this, which I retained in a weak fit of sentiment, because it had been given to me by my friend ere he admitted me to a share in his adventurous traffic. Many 84 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. of the stones with which I came laden to Stam- boul have found their way into the treasury of the Padishah,=* others are in the harems of our wealthiest Pashas, while a few of the meanest are at this moment the boast and wonder of the bezenstein. Were my secret discovered, the bowstring would be my portion ; but, mean- while, so long as I continue unbetrayed, I coin piastres faster than the Taraf-hane-f- himself." A deep thoughtfulness settled like a cloud on the stern brow of Hemdoune Hanoum, and she did not immediately reply to the communication of her guest; but, after a while, she looked up, and said anxiously ; " Do I understand that you have no other jewel of the same sort in your possession ?"" *'At this moment, none ;*" answered the guest, readily; " but my friend and principal, Mech- med Cadire Ishmael, who himself manufactures them, should arrive in the city to-morrow evening at the latest ; and if it be permitted to him to share in the smiles which have lit up my * Sovereign. f Inspector of the Mint. THE DIAMOND MERCHAXT. 85 own existence since sunset, I will answer for the readiness with which he will repay the debt of hospitality, by permitting the Hanoum Ef- fendi to select a dozen of the stones, ere he ofiPers them for public sale in the bezenstein, as a memorial of her own charity and our grati- tude." " But he will not know where to find you f suggested the Hanoum. " Doubtlessly, should I not myself seek and conduct him hither, he will pursue me in vain f replied the Defter-dar ; " for he will scarcely look to find his comrade Ibrahim in the palace of a Pasha's wife." " You shall describe the good merchant to my trusty slave Emin ;" said the old w^oman ; " and you can write a few words of greeting and invitation, which will be his warrant with your friend." " You say well, Effendim," was the ready answer; " but I know not the colour of his vest, nor the tint of his turban. ]\Iechmed is from the desert, and only leaves the caravan to pass over to the Golden City. There are many 86 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. of his name in the bezenstein, and your slave may miss him until his fairest merchandise is bartered to the dealers in diamonds, and he has no longer any stones to offer to the Hanoum Effendi, or her ladies/' " It is true," said the crone, after another pause of thought ; "I would have kept you here as a surety for his coming, but the jewel which you leave with me convinces me of your good faith. You shall depart then to-morrow at break of day, and at sunset I shall expect you back, accompanied by your friend. It will please me to see his merchandise, and to hear from him the tale of his desert-pilgrimage." She then clapped her hands, and a slave, habited in a flowing robe of crimson and gold, hastily obeyed the signal, and prostrated himself to the earth before her. " Saduk," slie said with peculiar emphasis ; " conduct Ibrahim Effendi, my honoured guest, to a chamber near the hall of entrance. At day- break he will depart — hinder him not — I have told you my pleasure." " To hear is to obey" — was the brief reply ; THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 87 but, as the slave glanced towards the Defter- dar, he could not wholly conceal the astonish- ment which the words of his raistress had elicited. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER VII. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. — continued. In a short time all was silence in that house of mystery. The Defter- dar, greatly to his satis- faction, found himself lodged in a mean apart- ment opening beside the door of entrance ; and, having narrowly searched his chamber to ascer- tain that he could not be intruded upon from any other outlet, threw himself upon his bed to think over the occurrences of the evening. That he was still in considerable danger he was fully aware : for he comprehended at once that he was indebted to the cupidity of his hostess for even the questionable chance of escape which now offered itself. He had marked the sparkle of THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 89 her eye when she first detected the jewel : he had observed her inward struggle, ere, in the hope of greater gain, she had compelled herself to permit his departure : even yet she might re- pent ! And, as this last fearful reflection crossed his mind, the Defter-dar became uneasy and restless — - fearing he knew not what ; and at in- tervals imagining that he detected through the deep stillness the stealthy tread of feet and the rustling of drapery. Hours passed over him thus — hours which appeared to his excited ima- gination as interminable : when suddenly he be- came aware that his fancy no longer cheated him, but that some one was beside him, whose deep and hurried breathing came hot and troubled to his brow. The Defter-dar sprang instantly into a sitting posture, and would have spoken : but a small soft hand was pressed heavily upon his mouth, as the voice of Felech-so murmured in his ear : " Khosh bulduk ! — well found ! Be calm — be silent — or you are lost — Hassan is lost — and I shall myself become the sacrifice of your indis- cretion. We have no time to lose — listen to me W THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. then attentively. Hassan is here, bowed by chains in a loathsome dungeon, where he will be suffered to exist until his friend the Defter-dar, to whom he has been compelled to apply for vast sums, refuses further to assist him. When the slave who bears his letter first returns empty- handed, Saduk and his comrade will at once end his sorrows with the bowstring : and I need not tell you, Effendim, that the grave betrays no secret. He is one of many who are wasting away their bright youth not a hundred feet beneath the spot where I now stand. Thrice have I saved the Ufe of Hassan, when his hours were numbered by his refusal to write those letters to his friend. The accursed love of gold is the impulse of the vile mistress of this impious house. We, her slaves, the creatures whom she has bought at a price, and tutored in her wicked- ness, are taught to make our miserable beauty the means of whiling to her roof the young and the wealthy ; and here they are compelled to drag on a despairing existence, so long as their prayers for gold are answered by their friends. But, Hassan ! Hassan ! can you not save him THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 91 from this living death ? I have watclied over his existence as though my own hung upon its duration, for I have learnt to love him in his misery. I it was who whiled him hither ; but now, now," she continued as her voice became stifled with agony : " now I would gladly lay down my blighted and unhappy life, to know that he was once more free." " Tchapouk, tchapouk, — Haste ! haste ! let me know all," urged the Defter-dar. " I trembled for you a few hours back,"' pur- sued Felech-so, struggUng to controul her an- guish ; " I know not why, but, from the moment of your entrance here, a strange wild hope grew in my heart that you were fated to save Hassan — and I trembled lest your own tale should des- troy you. But you acted wisely, and for the mo- ment you are saved. Think not, however, that I am duped by your fiction of the false diamond — trust not that Hemdoune Hanoum, when in the solitude of her chamber her fiendish avarice yields to her fear of detection and exposure, will not also awaken to a conviction of its falsehood ; and suspicious of your motive, place you at once 92 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. beyond all power of treachery. Walt not for the dawn, or you will never see the rise of ano- ther sun. I have drugged the sherbet of Saduk with opium ; he should keep the door, but even now he sleeps a sleep as deep as that of the grave. Take the key from his girdle, and fly — return speedily, but be it with help and arms — away. I dare not linger another moment — fare- well, and remember Felech-so.^' As the last words passed her hps, the Defter- dar was conscious that she had left his side ; and an instant afterwards a cold stream of air, entering through a concealed opening in the wall of his apartment, assured him of her departure. Not a moment was to be lost, and, hastily seizing the turban and pelisse which lay beside his bed, the excited courtier strode silently into the hall. An expiring lamp still flung a dim and uncertain light on the surrounding objects, and by its assistance he at once distinguished the form of Saduk, stretched on his mat in a heavy sleep. For one instant, and but one, the Defter- dar hesitated. Should this nocturnal visit be only a part of the plot, to induce him to exhibit THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 93 suspicion, and thus afford a plausible pretext for violence? but immediately came the reflection that, if violence were indeed, intended, no action of his own would be required as an apology for its exercise — and had not Felech-so told him that Hassan yet lived — in misery, and suffering, and chains ? The Defter-dar despised himself that he had yielded even momentarily to the prompt- ings of his cowardice; and, bending over Saduk for an instant to assure himself that his slumber was not feigned, he possessed himself of the huge key that was hidden amid the folds of the shawl which bound his waist, and ere long found him- self beneath the broad moonlight in the open street. The Defter-dar stopped not to admire the beautiful effects of light and shade which pre- sented themselves as he hurried on, but hastily pursued his way to his own habitation ; feeling as though he had been absent from his home for months : so much had he been impressed by the rapid and extraordinary events of the evening. Morning was just beginning to break over the Asian hills when he reached his own door, and 94 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. beat loudly for admittance : and he had traversed his accustomed chamber more than once, and examined minutely the rich pelisse, and the costly cachemire that composed his turban, ere he could quite convince himself that he had not just awakened from a troublous dream. As his thoughts unravelled themselves slowly from the chaos of memories in which they were involved, the Defter-dar was glad that he had retained these vouchers for his story, for the more he mused upon the night's adventure, the more he felt its apparent improbability and romance ; and, conscious of the imperative necessity of speedy and powerful measures, in order to pre- serve the life of Hassan, he knew that he had but one line of conduct to pursue ; and that, painful and humiliating as it was, he could not hope for success through any other means. Never since his dismission from office had the ex-courtier sought the presence of the Sultan ; he felt that he had been wronged for a new favourite, and he had too much self-respect to expostulate, where he was conscious that expos- tulation would avail him nothing. And now, THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 95 when years had gone by, and, it raight be, that his very name was forgotten by Mourad, he was about to present himself at the foot of the throne as a suppliant — as an actor in a wild and ques- tionable drama — as a mad and fool-hardy adven- turer. The resolution of the Defter-dar did not falter for an instant, but his pride revolted, and he sickened under his task, as he bent his way 10 the Sublime Porte to supplicate an audi- ence of the Sultan. Well was it for him that he came in a fortunate hour; for the court astro- loger had predicted that every undertaking of his Imperial master during this auspicious moon , should prosper to his heart's content; and, as it chanced that it had hitherto offered little save satiety to the high-hearted monarch, he at once consented to receive his discarded courtier, and to lend a favourable ear to his petition, be it what it might. But Sultan Mourad, when he so graciously signified his pleasure, looked not to be repaid by a tale so wild and strange as that of the Ex-Trea- surer : and he had scarcely heard it to an end 96 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. ere he exclaimed earnestly : — " Be hey ! — what's this? Why, it surpasses our most sanguine hopes ! There is still adventure to be found in our good city ! Why have you been so long ab- sent from our presence, my lord Ex-Treasurer ? We have always respected the man, though we dismissed the minister. And you are to return to the haunts of these young Houri, said you not so ? and your friend is to be admitted on your responsibility ?"" " Light of the World !'' replied the Defter-dar, as he still remained prostrate before the Sultan ; " I was compelled to the promise in order to save •my life ; for myself, I have resolved to keep my word ; and it is to crave your sublime approval and assistance that I am now a supphant in the dust before you — but the fable is at an end : the rest of the adventure must be achieved by force ; for none would venture to share with me the risk of further deception." " Bakalum — we shall see. You forget to whom you speak," said the excited Mourad ; " you shall yet play your part, even to the end — you shall still be Ibrahim EfFendi, and I will per- THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 97 sonate Mechmed Cadire Ishmail, the manufac- turer of diamonds I Mashallah, it is a good trade, and one that were well worth the learning ! We shall pave our palaces with gold-dust when we have mastered the mystery ! And now, withdraw, EfFendim : we have of late had some defalcations in the public treasury, and you bring us a secret so unlooked-for and so wel- come, that we owe you an instant demonstration of our gratitude: retire then, Defter-dar, and at sunset return hither, for we shall look for you, and be prepared to start upon our expedi- tion." The Minister, reinstated at once in the favour of the Sultan and in his long-forfeited dignities, kissed the hem of the sacred garment, and with- drew from the presence to muse over his un- expected good fortune. It was to Nefzi-Sabah that he first confided it ; but gradually the happy intelligence spread through the household, and thence to the world beyond ; and long ere the setting sun warned the restored favourite that the hour had arrived when he was once more to set forth in pursuance of an adventure VOL. I. F 98 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. which had already so deeply benefited his for- tunes, his ante-room was filled with long-oblivious friends, who were suddenly seized with eager and earnest anxiety for his social and bodily wel- fare ! On arriving at the palace, the Defter-dar was immediately ushered with much ceremony to a private apartment, which he had scarcely entered when he perceived an individual, plainly clad in the common garb of a merchant, advancing to- wards him ; and he had barely time to bend his forehead to the earth, when the Sultan exclaimed gaily : — " Rise, Ibrahim, my brother ; with this coarse and somewhat inconvenient garb I have for a time doffed the Padishah. We should now be on our way ; and I can acquaint you as we traverse the city with the plans which I have formed to ensure the success of our undertaking. To our task, then, Ibrahim ! The sun will set ere long ; and you were pledged to return to the hospitable halls of Hemdoune Hanoum ere night- fall." The word of Mourad was law ; and the god of day had scarcely dipped his golden hair in the THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 99 blue waters of the Bosphorus, when the two dis- guised merchants beat upon the door of Hassan's prison-house. F .9 100 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER VIII. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT — continued. They were evidently not expected ; for, as on the occasion of the Defter-dar's former visit, they were detained for a considerable time ere the door was cautiously opened ; but, at sight of the well-remembered face of the merchant Ibra- him, the slave hastily bade them enter, and as hastily closed the door behind them. The words of his greeting were courteous, but its manner struck both the Sultan and his companion, as dark and threatening; and it was without regret that they obeyed his bidding, and remained alone together in the hall, while he hastened to apprise his mistress of their arrival. If they had been detained in the street, they THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 101 had no cause to complain of delay on the part of the old woman. Only a few seconds had elapsed, ere the rapid shuffling of her shppers was heard in the distance, and the two merchants bent low before her, as she emerged from the long gallery, and stood beside them. " Khosh geldin — you are welcome ;" she ex- claimed hastily. " Khosh bulduk — well found,"' was the ready reply of her visiters, as they repeated the salam aleikum. " Why, this is well, Ibrahim, my son T" she said, with a smile whose fierceness she could not wholly conceal ; " after having played the truant in such unseemly style, as to give us room to doubt at once your truth and your honesty, you re-appear, according to your promise, when we had abandoned all hope of again receiving you as a guest. And this, then, is the honourable merchant your friend, Mechmed Cad'ire Ish- mael ? He is welcome to my house ; and the more so that you are his companion. But come, come ;'" she added, somewhat impatiently ; " the hall is chilly, and we waste time." Then, as she 102 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. moved slowly on before them, attended by the slave bearing a lamp, she muttered in a low- voice, which distinctly reached the ear of the Sultan, who was immediately behind her : " And I am to select a score of stones — a score ! poor fools, poor fools — are they not all mine — aZZ?" and a fiendish chuckle and a clenching of the thin bony hands filled up the measure of her meaning. " But tell me, Effendim, tell me," she said, a moment afterwards ; " you, Ibrahim, my friend, it is to you I speak, and the excellent merchant, your associate, will pardon me that I neglect him for a while — tell me, I pray you, wherefore you fled from my dwelling last night, like one who apprehended evil ? Did any offer you insult or annoyance? Did any wild suspicion, or weak alarm, prompt your flight? Tell me honestly, for I hate mystery." " Surely the Hanoum EfFendi jests with her slave ;*' was the reply of the Defter-dar ; " the cause Was too simple to need long seeking. I had an ill dream, which somewhat ruffled me, and, to rid myself of its effects, I passed from THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 103 my chamber into the hall, that I might breathe more freely, when I was attracted by the sight of the slothful Saduk. I knew at once that he should keep the door, and I remembered that the safety of Hemdoune Hanoumand her whole house- hold depended on the vigilance of this snoring slave. I did not awaken him, for the thought struck me that I could teach him a lesson more likely to produce amendment than any reproaches ; and accordingly, I resolved, even at some incon- venience to myself, to depart without his as- sistance, in order to prove to him that his sluggishness might, under some circumstances, have been the cause of mischief. If I did wrong, the Hanoum Effendi will pardon me— as to the slaves who slumber when they should watch, what are they? haivan der — they are animals ! " " 'T was shrewdly done," said the old crone ; " a deed after my own heart. I have myself finished the work which you began so bravely ; and there is now no fear that the slave Saduk will ever sleep upon his post again." As she uttered the words, the party emerged 104 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. from the dark passage along which they had been slowly advancing, and found themselves in a superb saloon, brilliantly lighted, and occupied by half a score of young beauties, among whom the Defter-dar instantly recognized Felech-so. But ere he made his salutation to the bright band, he gave one hurried glance at the old woman, and remarked with satisfaction that every shade of suspicion had vanished from her hag- gard countenance. The guests were soon seated on the sumptuous divan, beside their hostess, and supplied with chibouques and coffee by the fair hands of her attendant maidens ; and then the impatience of Hemdoune Hanoum became uncontroulable, and she abruptly desired the merchant Mechmed Cad'ire Ishmael to display his diamonds. The Sultan bowed low, and thrust his hand amid the folds of his girdle, but suddenly with- drew it, and pressed it upon his brow with an expression of acute pain. " Air ! air ! "" he ex- claimed convulsively ; " Ibrahim, air, or I faint r " Quick ! quick ! " shouted the hostess in her turn ; " look that the lattices be firm, and throw THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 105 up the casement; see ye not that the Effendi labours for breath." Felech-sG was the first to obey the bidding ; she sprang upon the divan with the rapidity of Hghtning, and flung the wide casement back to its fullest extent ; and, as the sweet breath of evening came softly into the apartment, the mer- chant slowly revived. A goblet of water, ten- dered to him by one of the ladies, completed his recovery, and he lost no time in gratifying the curiosity of his hostess. The joy of Hemdoun^ Hanoum amounted almost to insanity, as her guest spread before her some of the costliest jewels of the Imperial Treasury. Her wasted fingers opened and shut, as though she were already clutching them in spirit ; and her eager eyes fastened on them as if she feared their instant disappearance, and would thrall them with a look. " Gulu * — Zembrut -f- — Maitap I — Felech- so — **' she exclaimed, addressing the individuals on whom her glance chanced to fall ; " we have made a precious harvest to-night ! The ransom * Rose. t Emerald. J Moonlight. F 5 106 THE ROMANCE OP THE HAREM. of an Emperor ! And now we will waste no more time upon these simple idiots, who have brought their own necks to the bow-string ; " and she was aoout to clap her hands, to summon some one without, when the Defter-dar seized her forcibly by the arm, as she shouted, " Fools I Maniacs ! close the casement, if you would not have the kavashlir* upon us, and call hither Memish and Ferhat; are we to be frightened by the impotent violence of two hair-brained madmen ? " One of the maidens sprang to the window, but she was held back by Felech-so, who had already stationed herself beside it ; and the pro- gress of the others towards the door was arrested by the Sultan, who, as he flung himself across their path, drew a pistol from his girdle, and fired it through the open casement. The report of the shot was answered by a shrill cry from the minaret of a neighbouring mosque ; and the Sultan had scarcely wrenched from the hand of the fiendish old woman a dagger which she had aimed at him, ere the room was full of armed ♦ City Police. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 107 men. Thick and fast they poured in through the shivered casements on all sides of the dwelling ; and the clatter of their arms, and their shrill cries, as they pursued each other through the intricate passages of the house, sounded fearfully through the silence of the night. The saloon in which the Sultan stood in this dwelling of darkness presented a singular spec- tacle as the Janissaries prostrated themselves before him. Strown over the rich Persian carpet were the costly jewels which had been scattered during the struggle of the Defter-dar with the old woman ; in the centre of the floor stood the Sultan, his brow dark, and his eye bright with a terrible meaning. In one corner of the apart- ment were clustered together a group of lovely girls, splendidly attired, and wan with fear ; while, on the rich sofa of gold and azure, lay the graceful form of Felech-so, one round white arm falling over the edge of the divan, and a slender stream of blood flowing from her bosom to the floor. The signal shot of the Sultan had been fired 108 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. in haste, and the ball had terminated the life of the fair and gentle Felech-so. My tale is almost told. The wretched Hem- doune Hanoum was bow-strung by two of her own slaves, who had been made captive by the Janissaries. Coldly and sternly, Mourad, as they were brought trembling before him, in- quired of each his name ; and then, selecting from the number, Memish and Ferhat, who had been destined to the honour of terminating his own existence, he stood by to see his will ac- complished. The victim uttered no cry — made no supplication — ^but submitted to her fate with a recklessness worthy of her impious life; and, as her quivering body was flung down by her executioners, the Sultan bade them conduct him to the prison of Hassan. The report of Felech-so to the Defter-dar was true in every particular. The vaults beneath the house had been converted into dungeons ; where, surrounded by squalour, filth, and wretchedness, loaded with chains, and attenuated by hunger, the Sultan found not only Hassan, but a score of other victims, all young men of wealth or THE DIAMOND MERCHANT. 109 rank, many of whom had been lost to their families for years. The joy of the miserable prisoners may be imagined, when they recognized their deliverers. Hassan fell on the neck of the Defter-dar, and wept ; and, as his chains were struck oflP, he mingled with his gratitude an inquiry for Felech- so ; and his tears only flowed the faster when he learnt that she had perished in the service of her affection. Of the fate of her companions there is no record ; but, as they were Eastern women who had come under the ban of the law, it is not difficult to imagine it ; while it is certain that, in many of the state documents subsequent to this adventure, mention is made of a certain Hassan Pasha, who held a high office of State during the latter part of the reign of Sultan Mourad the Second.* * Wild, romantic, and improbable, as this tale will appear to European readers, it is nevertheless strictly true ; having been drawn from the archives of the Turkish Empire, and related by Perousse Hanoum, the Lady Secretary of the Sultana Azme, for the purpose of being communicated to me, during my residence at Constantinople, in the year 1836. Mourad, or, as he is styled in England, Amurath H., was a prince devoted to adventure, and of great personal courage. 1 10 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. PART II, CHAPTER IX. *' Taib ! taib ! — well done, well done !" ex- claimed Carimfil Hanoum^ as the fair Mas- saldjhe ceased speaking ; " Y'Allah ! 'tis a wondrous tale, and my ears have drank it in like soft music ; but, truly, as you forewarned me, it is somewhat of the saddest. The calam* which traced it must have grown beside a swift river, and been fanned by the breeze of even- ing ; and, ne bilirim — what can I say ? me- thinks that I better love a tale of happier issue." * Pen made from a reed. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. HI The young Greek only replied by lifting her instrument from the cushion on which she had laid it when she commenced her narrative, and smiling archly at her friend, as, with rapid utterance, she poured forth the following bal- lad. THE LOST ONE. " The winds of our mountains, how gladsome they are ; But the voice of my lov'd one is sweeter by far, As on his swift Arab, as bright as the day, He comes from my bondage to bear me away. " They have wreath'd my dark tresses with blossom and gem, But my heart has no fondness to lavish on them; I was sought by a stranger — they made me his bride, And my free spirit pines in its passionate pride. " Speed ! speed ! to the rider who comes like the wind ; Whom no peril can daunt, and no fetter can bind ;" — So sang the sweet voice which we welcome no more, For the bride of the stranger has fled with the giaour I " Enough, khatoun — darling ; " said the fair Circassian in a low whisper, as a deep blush mantled her brow and bosom ; " I like your ballad even less than your history, for it tells a tale to which it is sin to hsten."^ 1 12 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " I have done ;*" smiled her companion, " and now we will hearken to the fall of the fountains, the murmuring of the wind in the mimosa trees, and the song of the caged birds ; for, truly, they make sweet music." Not long, however, had the fair friends re- signed themselves in silence to the calm beauty of the hour, and the train of thought which it engendered, when a slave approached with inti- mation that the Pasha purposed paying a visit to the harem after the evening meal ; and. his wife having signified her readiness to receive him, the ladies shortly afterwards removed to another apartment, in which the supper had been spread by their attendants. Cushions of delicate pink satin, sprinkled with golden stars, were placed beside the silver tray on which the meal was to be served ; napkins of muslin, as white and fine as gossamer, exqui- sitely embroidered and fringed with coloured silks and silver, were laid carefully across their knees and over their arms ; tepid rose-water, poured from a richly gilded vase into a basin of the same material, was showered upon their THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 113 white and taper fingers, and the repast com- menced. A hne of slaves, extending from the low tray to the door of the apartment, passed the dishes, which were served singly, from hand to hand ; the one nearest to her mistress setting it down before her upon her knees. Not a word was spoken as the meal pro- ceeded, which was accompanied by the voices of half a dozen slave-girls grouped together at the extreme end of the room. There were the de- licate keftas, balls of highly seasoned force-meat ; tchalva, a dish made of flour, honey, and oil ; kaimack, an exquisite preparation of thickened cream ; moalibe, a species of inferior blanc mange, much prized by the Orientals, and eaten with powdered sugar and rose-water ; kibaubs of lamb, served up on skewers of jasmine wood ; kubeh, spiced meat, minced, and rolled in vine- leaves, baked crisp ; dolmas, a similar prepa- ration stewed in cream ; tchorba, or soup of several descriptions ; dried beef, prepared with garlick, the Turkish substitute for ham ; and all the various provocatives to appetite which fill 114 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. up the measure of an Oriental repast; and, lastly, the national pillauf, richly coloured with tomato juice, and flavoured with quails. Sherbets and coffee succeeded : and, having once more bathed their fair hands in perfumed water, Carimfil Hanoum and her Greek friend re- turned to the garden saloon to await the coming of the Pasha. The sun was just setting, and the tall syca- mores which bounded the view were gleaming in gold and orange ; while, as the rays fell upon the noble sheet of water immediately below the casement, they shed a soft pink tint upon the marble basin, and over the pale blossoms of the lotus flowers. " How fair must this sweet evening close upon the mountains of my beloved land !" sighed out the beautiful Circassian ; " can you not picture to yourself, Katinka mou, the glory of this rich light flung over the blessed valley, where " But the kadeun* had no time to localise her picture ; for, as she was speaking, the tapestry * Lady. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 115 curtain of the inner door was lifted by a couple of negro slaves, and the Pasha entered the apartment. " Salam aleikum," said the Satrap, as the ladies rose to receive him. " Aleikum Salam," replied his wife, as he advanced towards the sofa ; while the Greek, retiring a few paces, stood silent in an attitude of deep respect. " Keifiniz ayi me — is your humour good ? " asked the Pasha, as his young wife bent her knee, and pressed his hand to her lips and brow. '* Guzel — good f "" was the answer ; •' my lord has brought joy to the heart of his slave, for he has restored to her the sister of her soul.'' The Satrap glanced for the first time towards Katinka : " Approach, kizem — my daughter ;" he said kindly ; " I have much to thank you for, when I see the bloom and the hght restored to this jewel of my existence ; you have been a skilful physician : every hakeem whom I have hitherto consulted has been an ass and the father of asses ; but you have brought back joy 1 16 THE ROMANCE OF THE HARIEM. to my harem, as the dawn brings back Hght. Who has taught you a skill valuable as the pre- cepts of the Koran, and sure as the Paradise of the Prophet ? How is it that, while the wise men of the land have heaped upon my head the dirt of disappointment, you have spread for my feet the carpet of content ? " "Allah buyuk der — the Kadeun Hanoum has rejoiced in my minstrelsy, and we have broken together the spiced bread of memory ;" was the reply. " The heart, when it is sad, ever loves to fall back upon the past ; the river may flow through many valleys, but its waters have all been fed from the same source, and they cannot change their nature." "And yet, what is the past?" said the Satrap philosophically, as he took from the hand of an attendant his richly ornamented chibouque, of which the boudaka, or bowl, was curiously gilt and painted ; " is it not bosh — nothing ! The song that has been sung, the tale that has been told, the sherbet that has been drank, what avail they ? Bashustun — On my head be it ! They are even less than nought— I have said it." THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. I IJ " Otour, janum — Sit, my soul ;" was his next exclamation, as he withdrew for an instant the chibouque from his lips, and turned towards his wife; and when, profiting by this gracious permission, she had placed herself on the ex- treme edge of the sofa on which he was com- fortably established, a motion of the hand im- plied a similar command to the young Greek, who obeyed it by taking her place on a pile of cushions at the feet of her friend. " Beyaz ;" said the Satrap a moment after as he looked up ; "I have been searching for the cause of your vaunted cleverness, and I find not in the chambers of my brain one with which I can feel satisfied. Hai — true, you are a Greek, and the women of your nation are content to turn over the leaves of knowledge, and to trace the characters of communication themselves, while the fair inmates of our harems — Alhemdullilah — praise be to Allah ! sit quietly upon their sofas, and, for a few piastres, pur- chase the labours of others ; but you do more than this — you are as a daughter of Frangistan — as a sister of the Unbelievers, who walk the 118 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. Streets with their faces naked, and pour dust upon the heads of the karabashes, the wise men of our country, who double up their feet upon the sofa of science, and pour the sherbet of study into the goblet of learning. Mashallah ! Frangi domous — the Franks are hogs — and their women are the sisters of Sheitan, and the hand- maidens of Eblis !" and the Pasha spat upon the carpet, overcome at once by indignation and fatigue. ** The women of the Franks, what are they, that we should talk of them ?" asked the Cir- cassian. " Do not their own husbands hold them so lightly that they may come and go as they list, and receive strange men in their harems, and sit at meat with them unrebuked ? Are they not giaours and unbelievers ?" " Taib — well said ; why should we talk of them, guzum, my eyes !" replied the Pasha ; *' are they not as alme,* wandering from house to house unveiled, and smiling upon every beyzadeh*!- who smokes from the chibouque of their husband ? Ajaib ! — wonderful !" * Dancing girls, f Son of a Lord, THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 119 " Have you ever looked upon one of these unhappy ones ? " asked the Hanoum anxi- ously. " But once, janum, and that was at Stamboul, before I took possession of my pashalik ; and, ouf ! " — and again he assumed an expression of intense disgust. •' She had neither turban upon her head, nor henna upon her hands ! When I peered at her from behind a curtain, for I would not enter her apartment, she had a Prankish calam in her hand, and she was tracing upon the leaf of an open volume a knot of flowers that was lying before her ; and I swear by the Koran that I could scarcely tell the precise blossom to which the prophet had given life. Who could breathe the breath of peace in a harem where his women could laugh at him to his beard ?" " Mashallah ! who indeed?'' murmured the young wife; and for a time there was si- lence. Katinka, whose zebec lay beside her, wearied of the dull common-places to which she had been so long compelled to listen, swept her 120 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. hand across the strings of her instrument, and at once changed the current of the Pasha's thoughts. " Pekahi — very well," he said, smilingly, " be it so — ^we will have music." And, without fur- ther bidding, the maiden poured forth one of the wild melodies of her country. " I have been thinking of you as you sang ;" said the Satrap, as the strain ceased, and the young Greek remained with her head bent over the zebec, to conceal the large tears that were standing in her eyes ; " and as I have no more important occupation than to listen, I would fain hear your history, and terminate a perplexity of which it fatigues me to at- tempt the solution. Do I say well, Carim- fil, janum, shall she tell us the tale of her life ?" '^ As my lord wills ;" said the Circassian in a low melancholy accent; " she lives but tq obey you." The young Greek passed her hand before her eyes, flung back the clustering braids which had fallen over her face, and, after having THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 121 continued silent for a moment, turned a long speaking look upon her friend, and commenced her story. VOL. I. 122 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER X. " T AM a native of Scio, of that delicious island which, mirrored in the clear waters of the Egean, and rich in all the prodigal gifts of nature, appeared to have sprung from the blue depths of ocean to give to man a renewed glimpse of the forfeited but unforgotten Eden. I dare not detail to my lord, as my Greek heart would dictate, all the horrors to which my birth- place became a prey. Again the serpent stole upon the calm happiness of innocence ; and again man was driven out into the wilderness of the world ; but this time it was with blood and tears '' " Mashallah !**' broke in the Pasha ; " if you THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 123 put SO many words to the firing of a town and the murder of a few thousand revolted Greeks, your narrative is likely to last to the next Rama- zan ! But go on ; it may perchance mend as you proceed — Bakalum — we shall see." " The cry of blood rose to Heaven ;" pursued Katinka, heedless of the interruption, and rathei- speaking to herself than addressing the Pasha ; " and in Heaven's good time it will be answered ! How many happy ones did a brief day make orphans ! Shrieks and groans rang through the groves which had so lately re- sounded with laughter and music ; and the graceful hmbs that had led the romaika under the shade of the tall sycamore and the drooping safsaf,* lay maimed and bleeding by the way- side. All was terror and dismay; and my affrighted mother, seizing with frantic haste my brother and myself by the hand, hurried us along by-paths little frequented, and quite unknown to our enemies, to a cavern in the rock, which had already afforded refuge to a score of other fugitives. Meanwhile the flames of * Egyptian willow. g2 124 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. the burning villages rose into the air in volumes, and the occasional discharge of musketry con- tinued throughout the night. My mother sat upon the ground, with her head buried on her knees, my brother was beside her, and I lay at her feet, and slept, overcome by fatigue and terror. " Through the agency of a relative, who lost his wife and children during the massacre, after four tedious and miserable days spent in the cavern, during which we subsisted on shell-fish and wild berries, collected by the boldest of the wretched company during the night ; we escaped in the frail bark of a fisherman^ whom the hope of gain had induced to hover about the island, and who landed us ere the day was spent on a bleak rock, where we continued until we could safely transport ourselves to Athens; our faithful fisherman supplying us with food, and ulti- mately informing the friends to whom we were anxious to be conveyed, of our destitute and miserable condition, " Landed in Greece, we were in comparative security ; and the uncle of my mother, a wealthy merchant, without any nearer relatives than THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 125 ourselves, lavished upon us every luxury which his affection could procure or devise ; but my poor mother's heart was broken ; and, while I was yet a child, she was laid beneath an acacia tree to rest. " We were now wholly dependent on Age Aneste, our uncle, and we became to him as children ; all the advantages that gold could secure he poured forth upon us ; but even that effort would not satisfy his love. We were about to be transported to Frangistan, to a sea- port of the Gauls, touching on the gulf of Genoa, and there *" " Y' Allah '. — in the name of the Prophet, how say you ? Have you been in the land of the infidel ?" exclaimed the Pasha, suddenly aroused from his indifference ; " know you not that the country of the Unbelievers is but a menzil khaneh, a post-house, on the road to Je- hanum ?'''' '* Shekiur Allah ! — heaven be praised, the sole of my foot has never been polluted by treading the soil of the giaour ;" replied the young Greek, with a quiet smile. " I was about to inform your 126 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. highness that the felucca was at anchor before the city, when a Frank stranger arrived with his only child at the house of one whom Age Aneste loved, and in whose company he passed a great portion of his time. When they landed in Greece, it was evident to all who looked upon the stranger that he had come there only to die. His eye burnt with a fierce light which was almost dazzling, and there was a bloom upon his cheek better suited to a stripling than to one whose head was white with the snows of age. The Frank was devoured by the disease which is the plague of his country ; and the hakeems of his own land had sent him forth in despair from the fogs and snows of his unhappy clime to our more genial East ; he had passed rapidly from one fair island to another, with the restless- ness of his disease and of his people ; until, feel- ing that the angel Azrael was rapidly folding his wings about him, he resolved to visit Greece, though well he knew that it must be his burial- place. " I have spoken of his child— it was a daughter, with eyes like the blue heaven that floods the THE ROMANXE OF THE HAREM. 127 world with beauty, and hair as golden as the last rays of the setting sun. Alas ! she hoped on to the last ; and, when Allah at length re- called the breath that he had given, and she was left alone, she prayed in her anguish that the same stone might cover them. She lived on, how- ever, for the prayer of the bursting heart was set aside in mercy ; and she became an inmate of my uncle's house. From her I learnt the lore of the Franks, and, when she at length followed her father to the grave — for the poisoned shaft which had struck down the strono^ man lurked also in the veins of the golden-haired child of his love — we mourned for her as though she had been of our own blood. " Affairs of commerce calling Age Aneste to Circassia, he determined, in order to remove the melancholy which had fastened vampire-like upon my heart, to carry my brother and myself with him upon his interesting expedition. Then and there it was, your highness, that, for a few brief and happy months I enjoyed the friendship of the beautiful Carimfil Hanoum, whom may Allah long preserve in loveliness ! When his 128 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. affairs were settled, my uncle pined for his own land, and the familiar comforts of his own roof; but my brother's bolder spirit had become enamoured of the mountain life, and the ge- nerous hospitality of Circassia, and he resolved to follow out his fortunes in the war which the brave mountaineers were waging against the Muscovites. Heaven was merciful, for, on our return to Athens, our felucca was taken by a Turkish vessel ; my unhappy uncle died hke a brave Greek, with his weapon in his hand ; and, for myself," — and the voice of the maiden faltered, and the bitter tears of anguish fell upon her bosom — " I am pursuing my destiny — nursed in blood, and reared in exile, I am now wearing away my youth in slavery " " Nay, not so, khatoun ; " exclaimed the Cir- cassian, throwing her white arms about her friend, heedless of the presence of the Pasha; " your sorrows now are ended, your life shall be one of sunshine, and they who oppress or injure you shall be the enemies of the Satrap."" " Taib — well said:" echoed Saifula Pasha; " I will pluck out their beards, and fill their THE ROMAN'CE OF THE HAREM. 129 nostrils with ashes. But we have liad enoufi:h of grief — let your slaves be summoned, EfFen- di mou, that the dance may dry up your tears, which are pouring out like the fountains of the desert. Inshallah ! I would rather see the flowers when the sunshine rests upon them, than when the shower falls heavy on their heads, and bends them earthward/** Carimfil Hanoum clapped her hands, and the dancing girls of her harem speedily entered, greatly to the satisfaction of the Satrap ; who, when he commanded the narration of Katinka, had by no means anticipated so gloomy a history ; and who was far better amused by the monotonous twanging of the wiry Turkish mandolins, and the meaningless movements of the slaves, than he would have been by all the fables of the wily Scheherazade herself. To the dance succeeded a shrill chorus of voices, sufficient to have cracked the drums of any ears save those of an Osmanli ; and, when the musicians had performed their prostrations, and quitted the apartment, Carimfil Hanoum, anxious to reinstate her friend in the good g5 130 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. graces of her husband, whose favour had evi- dently been much lessened by the saddening nature of her story, by which he had nearly been put to sleep, and, at the same time to diminish its effect upon her own spirits, roused herself by a violent effort, and said laughingly — " The moon is as bright to-night as the sword of the Padishah — 'tis an hour for a love- tale; aye, and one of happy issue. Have you none such, guzum ? Bak — see ! you have but to look at those threads of silver flung over the leaves like a net-work, in order to weave a thou- sand gladsome fancies, and to dispel at once the gloom of the Satrap, who has done nought but sigh since the singing women left the apartment."' " Guzel ! guzel ! — good, good ! " smiled the Pasha, "'tis a good thought, januni — my soul : but we will have no more revolts, nor pirates, nor Frank women wandering into far lands to die, instead of waiting quietly upon their sofas the coming of Azrael ; as they would have done, had they covered their faces, and not eaten dirt from their childhood. But first " — and he clapped his hands, and said gravely to the negro THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 131 who answered the summons, " Chibouque, cah- veh getir — bring pipes and coffee ; " ere he turned gaily towards the young Greek, and added, with a self-gratulatory chuckle at his own wit. " First pass the sponge of oblivion over the parchment of memory, and fold your feet upon the cushion of delight ; for if you fail to make me laugh ere I leave the harem, I will condemn you to prepare your pillauf with green rice ; so let your words be your slaves, that they may make smiles as plentiful in my harem' as roses in the gardens of Nishapor." The fair Greek bowed her head, and laid her hand upon her heart and lips; and, when the cafejhis had retired, prepared to obey the Pasha by relating the story of — 132 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER XI. THE SEVEN DOORS. Not above a hundred years ago, there hved in the city of Stamboul, near the mosque of Sultan Bajazet, a shawl merchant named Sulei- man, to whom the Prophet had been auspicious, and who had consequently accumulated immense wealth. For sixty-five years he had been con- tent to see his harem occupied onl}^ by his very aged mother and her slaves ; but at the termination of that period, as he was one day sitting in the Shawl Bazar, his attention was attracted by the stately form and graceful car- riage of a female, who paused for a moment beside his carpet to examine a magnificent cachemire of Lahore, which he was in the act of THE SEVEN DOORS. 133 displaying to a Frank customer, and then hastily passed on, attended by a slave. The Frank purchased the shawl, and the bright eyes of the fair pedestrian had so far favoured him, that he did not pay above a thousand piastres more than its value ; Suleiman having, in his temporary bewilderment of spirit, named to the Giaour the very sum which he would have demanded of a True Believer ; and, when the merchant had carefully deposited the gold in his tobacco purse instead of the more legitimate receptacle destined for his gains, and had inhaled in silence the aroma of a newly- replenished chibouque, he was aroused from his fit of musing by the voice of his neighbour Najib, an Adrianopolitan by birth, and, like him- self, a shawl merchant by profession, who had witnessed the bargain with some surprise ; but with that quiet philosophy of non-interference common in the East. " Allah mouteyemmin eileye — Allah grant that it may be of good omen to you :^ he said calmly. " The dog of an infidel was ready with his gold, and paid it fairly ; but you, me- 134 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. thinks, were somewhat over-hasty on your side, or you might have counted it up to a heavier sum. Even the light-footed daughter of old Ab- dullah, the silversmith, stopped for a moment as she passed, in wonder at your fair dealing with a Giaour." " Mashallah — Allah be praised — the eye must be keen that pierces the folds of a y ash- mac,''* retorted the other, thoroughly aroused by the subject ; " How know you, EfFendim, that Abdullah has a daughter ? or that the girl who just w^alked through the bazar was his child ?" " To your first question, I answer that my wife asked her for our son Hafiz, but it was not his kismet — his fate — to be pleasing in the eyes of the old man ; and to the second, that the negress who followed her was reared in my own harem, and bade ' God guard me,' as she stepped beside my carpet." Suleiman smoked on after this short dialogue in silence : a new idea had sprung into existence in his mind ; and he remained quietly revolving the subject until an hour before sunset, at which * Veil worn by Turkish women. THE SEVEN DOORS. 135 period the tcharchi* closes; when, having ex- hausted his last pipe, he rolled up his carpet, secured his costly merchandise, and walked slowly homeward. " It is my felech — my constellation'' — he murmured to himself, as he cast off his slippers at the door of the harem, and proceeded to pay a visit to his mother ; " What is to be, will be !'' And having indulged in this consolatory and soothing reflection, Suleiman the shawl mer- chant philosophically resigned himself to his fate ! " Allah kerim — Allah is mercifuP — he said quietly, as he took possession of a cushion near the sofa on which his aged and widowed parent sat supported by pillows : " Allah kerim — my home has hitherto been one of sohtude, and the hair of my mother has grown gray with years ; and as yet she has had no daughter to pour water into her goblet, nor coffee into her cup — but this must not be for ever — I have said it." " Allah kerim !" echoed the old woman in her turn : " the Prophet has heard my prayer. I * Great Exchange, 136 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAEEM. will see Harnet the slave-merchant, before the set of to-morrow's sun." " Nay, not so ;" was the reply ; " I have heard that Abdullah the silversmith, he who wrought the mangal* for the Sultan's new pa- lace, hath a daughter ; men speak well of him, and his beard is white. I will marry the girl." " Pekahi — very well " answered the aged crone : " then will I see the Hanoum, her mother; the Imaum shall be warned ; and next week her foot shall be on your threshold." " Abdullah hath refused her to Hafiz, the son of Najib;" observed the suitor with a sudden misgiving. " And what of that ? " asked his mother sharply ; " is it not bosh — nothing ? Hafiz is a mere boy, and the camel is not yet foaled which will carry him to Mecca." Even on the morrow did Gunduz Hanoum (for thus was the mother of Suleiman called — Gunduz signifying Daylight, though the sun of her mortal sky had long been set, and her ex- istence dwindled away into a mere gloaming; * A brazier for holding heated chaixoal. THE SEVEN DOORS. 137 and Hanoum, being translated, reading as lady or mistress :) even on the morrow did she set forward upon her interesting errand. Nor had the aged ambassadress the most remote doubt as to the success of her mission : true, the silver- smith had refused to give the maiden to Hafiz, the first-born of Najib, the Adrianopolitan ; but Najib was not a man of substance, and the son fed only upon his father's fortunes ; while Suleiman It was at this point of her musing that the araba, or latticed carriage, of Gunduz Hanoum stopped before the harem of the mother of Hafiz ; and when the arabajhe had beaten upon the door, and it had been opened by some in- visible means from within, her slaves slowly lifted her from her cushions, and bore her into the hall of Abdullah's house, whence she was supported up stairs; and, having traversed a wide corridor surrounded by the women's apartments, she was ushered into the principal room of the harem, and the presence of its mistress. " Bouroum — you are welcome ; " said the lady, rising courteously from her sofa, as the 138 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. guest entered ; and she motioned the decrepid old woman to the place of honour ; " You are welcome, though I know not whence you are, nor on what errand you come." And while the visiter, having put off her slippers, settled her- self comfortably at the upper end of the divan, she clapped her hands, and a slave entered with coffee. Long sat the two women side by side in si- lence; and, when the coffee had disappeared, the wife of Abdullah prepared a chibouque for her guest, and, having duly placed on the summit of the tobacco a small piece of lighted charcoal, she offered the pipe to her visiter with her own hands, who received it with a courteous salam aleikum.* " You are the wife of Abdullah the silver- smith"" — commenced the old woman at length, after she had imbibed the aroma of the tobacco, and that the raised circle of light white ashes had formed round the bowl of the chibouque, which betrays that the virtue of the ' scented weed ' is well nigh evaporated ; " you are the * Eastern salutation. THE SEVEN BOORS. 139 wife of Abdullah the silversmith, and I am the mother of Suleiman the shawl merchant, who lives within the shadow of the mosque of Sultan Bajazet — you have a fair daughter ; and my son is one who can well afford to flavour his pillauf with spices do I speak clearly?" " You speak clearly;" responded her auditor without the slightest gesture of surprise, and drawing as she spoke a longer stream of vapour through the slender pipe of jasmine wood which she was herself smoking. " I would see the girl ;" followed up the old woman. "And why not?" readily rejoined her new acquaintance ; " AlhemduUilah — Praise be to Allah — she has eyes like oysters, and lips as ruddy as the dye of Khorasan — why should I bid her hide herself when a mussaflr — a guest, desires to look upon her ?" And again she clapped her hatids, and, on the entrance of an attendant, bade her summon Helmas Hanoum to her presence. The maiden obeyed without delay ; and even as she made her graceful obeisance at the thresh- 140 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. old, ere she advanced deeper into the apart- ment, the keen eye of the old woman had de- tected in her intended daughter-in-law all the charms which she had silently settled in her own mind to be imperative and indispensable in the wife of her son. She was indeed, as her name implied, a " diamond " among women ; she had the height and grace of her Georgian mother, but her eye and brow were those of her Turkish father. It may seem somewhat apocryphal to dilate on eyes which her own parent had just likened to so utterly unsentimental an object in natural history as an oyster ; but the simile will nevertheless bear analysis as well as most — her eyes were full, and round, and clear, and, more- over, deeply fringed with lashes as black as night — she was pale, very pale ; but ere the visit of Suleiman's mother ended, her cheek had flushed into a dye that would have shamed the roses of Gurgistan ; her long dark hair fell in masses upon shoulders as white and polished as ivory : and she moved with a grace that lent a new charm to her beauty. " Inshallah — I trust in Allah — she is no THE SEVEN DOORS. 141 Kurd ;" said the wife of Abdullah, as the lovely Helmas Hanoum raised the withered hand of the visiter to her lips : " she is worthy to be the wife of a True Believer." " She is worthy" — echoed the other high con- tracting party, without removing her sharp gray eyes from the countenance of the fair girl ; " she shall be the wife of Suleiman, even of my own son.'' The maiden started painfully, and raised her downcast eyes with an expression of acute suf- fering ; her lip trembled, but she did not venture to give voice to the words that quivered there ; and she almost bounded from the room as her mother bade her retire. The declaration of Gunduz Hanoum was fulfilled to the letter ; one short week beheld the young and lovely daughter of Abdullah the wife of Suleiman the shawl merchant. She wept bitterly as she was borne into the harem ; and she closed her eyes as the dancing girls moved along before her, and turned aside her head as the singing women pealed forth her bridal song. In short, it avails not to make a 142 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. secret of that which her husband was not slow to discover; the peerless Helmas Hanoum had given away her heart ere the aged mother of Suleiman went on her matrimonial mission to the harem of Abdullah the silversmith. But who was the favoured lover ? Who should say ? In taking a wife, the worthy Shawl-mer- chant had secured at once a misery and a mys- tery. He sought to win the secret by tender- ness ; but the sentiment of sixty-five long years, written in wrinkles on the brow of a new made husband, is no key to open the heart of a young, and pretty, and pre-occupied wife. The Ha- noum, his mother, endeavoured to gain her point by taunts and menaces, but she was only answered by tears, from which nothing could be learned save that there was a secret 5 and this only made the matter worse. How many sleepless nights did the unhappy Suleiman pass in vain endeavours to remedy an evil whose exact cause he could not even fathom ! And how often did he swear to himself by the beard of the Prophet that he would outmatch in cunning every lover in Stamboul, though they THE SEVEN DOORS. 143 should be leagued with Sheitan to do him wrong. For one whole weary month he sat in the bazar, apparently gazing on the passers-by, but in reality with his eyes turned inward, and his thoughts plotting treason against his liege lady and wife. At length the electric spark was struck, and the luminous atom grew into breadth and form — it is true that for a time the breath of the loving husband came thick and hard as he revolved the different bearings of his scheme, but the more he reflected, the more he became reconciled to the idea ; and when, in a private conference with his mother, it had received her sanction and approval, he hesitated no longer to prepare an effectual remedy against all lover-like stratagems on the part of his unknown rival. Beneath the house of Suleiman was excavated a vault of some extent, which, with considerable labour, was fashioned by the jealous merchant into a spacious and comfortable apartment, save that the light of heaven could not penetrate its gloom ; and this subterranean was approached by a long vaulted passage, along which, for bet- 144 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. ter security, he placed, at regular distances, seven doors strongly plated with iron and fastened with locks, each different from the other, and to be opened only by the key that appertained to it. The surprize of the young wife may be ima- gined when she was introduced into this living grave, and told that it was to be thenceforward her abiding place. She wept, she knelt, she even shrieked in her anguish, but the heart of Su- leiman was steeled by jealousy, and tardily- awakened love. Nor, as he took some trouble to explain, would she be so much to be pitied as she seemed to apprehend, for, with the exception of light, liberty, and fresh air, nothing in reason would be denied to her. But the young beauty was deaf to all his rhetoric ; she saw only in the subterranean, in which she was to be immured with the faithful negress who had followed her from her father's house, at once a prison and a tomb ; nor did the passionate protestations of her husband reconcile her in the slightest degree to his very original arrangement. Never were the inconveniences of excessive attachment more strongly developed ; and after an hour uselessly THE SEVEN DOORS. 145 expended in sententious consolation, the mer- chant was fain to ascend to the level of the earth, leaving his lovely victim bathed in tears of most sincere distress. Now it so chanced, that the house adjoining that of Suleiman the shawl merchant had long been uninhabited, and was likely to continue so, for the window panes were shivered, the roof had fallen in, in many places, and the suns of summer and the rains of winter had combined to render it as forlorn and uninviting as any tenement could well be ; and the Merchant congratulated himself that it was so, for the grief and terror of his young wife had been more vociferous and de- monstrative than he had anticipated ; and he felt all the inconvenience which might have ac- crued to himself from a possible interference on the part of a neighbour. AVere this the time or place for moralizing, or were the habit of so doing more popular than it is, I might be tempted at this pe- riod of my story to pause a little, and to remark on the proneness of purblind human nature to exult over the very circumstances which are VOL. I. H 146 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. frequently the most inimical to the success of its projects ; but as it is, I will not indulge my- self with digression ; and this resolution brings me back at once to the prison-chamber of the fair and ill-fated Helmas Hanoum. " What care I for my beauty !" she exclaimed peevishly, cutting short the anxious exhortations of her attendant, who sat on a cushion at her feet ; " I detest the very atmosphere he breathes. TchifFut — wretch ! Shall I braid my hair for him, and stain my hands with henna to give him pleasure ? If I am mad, let him send me to the Timerhaze ;* there at least I shall feel the breath of Heaven, and look on the blue sky — And soon, soon ;" she added, with a fresh burst of passionate grief; " I shall befitted only for such a home." Time wore on heavily enough in the subterra- nean, though Suleiman rarely failed to visit each day the lady of his heart, who met his affection either in sullen silence, or with vehement re- proach ; but a Turkish husband cares httle for a storm of words — it is only a woman — she must * Lunatic Asylum. THE SEVEN DOORS. 147 be suffered to say all that she lists — her anger is bosh, nothing — she is better when she has poured forth her dissatisfaction ; and upon this principle listened the husband of the incarcerated fair one, without swerving one iota from his pur- pose ; and upon this principle he bore the tem- pest meekly; and consoled himself by double locking each of the seven doors, as he re-ascended to the light, and never suffering the precious keys to be deposited elsewhere than amid the folds of the shawl that he wore about his waist. h2 148 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER XII. THE SEVEN DOORS. — continued. Six weary weeks had passed since Helmas Hanoum first became the tenant of the vault, when, as she sat one day listlessly passing the beads of her chaplet through her slender fingers, she detected a strange noise in a corner of the subterranean ; and so much was she perplexed to define its cause, that she awoke her companion, who lay sleeping peacefully upon a mat thrown on the floor, not half a dozen paces from her sofa: " Wake, Zeinip ! wake, I say !" she cried impatiently ; " Ne var — what is that ? some one is in the apartment."" " Affiet oUah — much pleasure attend you — we shall then see a new face ;"" said the negress quietly, as she passed her hand over her eyes, and rose to a sitting posture ; " But where, Ef- THE SEVEN DOORS. 149 fendim, is the mussafir?* Birchey yok — there is nothing ; we are still alone as when I lay down to sleep." " Yavash, yavash — softly, softly ;" whispered the imprisoned beauty, pressing her finger on her lip ; " hear you nothing ?" " Nothing, save a rat who has lost his way in the dark, and would fain take a short cut through our under-ground harem. Hahi ! the Prophet pardon you, Effendim, for you have spoiled the sweetest dream that has gladdened my sleeping hours since ^"^ " Hist ! I tell you, 'tis no rat ; now Allah shield us ! what can it mean ?" The slave, seeing the terror of her mistress, and being by this time wide awake, listened in her turn. In five seconds she decided that her first guess had been a correct one, but in five minutes she confessed that such could not be the case. And, in truth, it was not wonderful that the two incarcerated women should instinctively draw closer together, and throw their whole souls — for the Turks have always allowed that their women have souls, whatever it may have pleased Euro- * Guest. 150 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. peans to declare to the contrary — and throw their whole souls into their ears, as the myste- rious noise continued with scarcely any intermis- sion. It was not precisely a knocking, nor quite a scratching, nor altogether a grinding ; it was a strange irregular compound of each and all of these ; and the only decision to which Helmas Hanoum and her ebony-coloured attendant could come on the subject, was, that some person or thing was striving to make a way into the vault. Having arrived at this conclusion, their terror began after a time to grow into curiosity. What could it be ? What could it mean ? The young beauty looked towards her slave, and murmured out " If it should be my father ! — "" and the slave in her turn looked towards her mistress, and in a tone as low as the last whispering of the wind on the ocean-ripple, replied to the suggestion by slowly saying " If it should be your lover !" The sentence was no sedative, for the cheek of the young wife crimsoned, and her heart began to beat painfully; and meanwhile the knocking, scratching, and grinding went on with an inde- fatigability which did infinite credit to the per- THE SEVEN DOORS. 151 severance of the operator. The upper end of the vault, where it touched the subterranean of the adjoining dwelUng, was secured by some of those huge blocks of stone which are frequently to be seen in the most ancient quarters of Stam- boul, and seem to have been hewn by the Titans; they were, moreover, united by that mysterious, and almost indestructible cement, of which the secret is now supposed to be lost ; and, altogether, no jealous husband could possibly have devised a more solid or satisfactory species of partition between his own house and that of his neighbour. But what avail even blocks of stone, or Roman cement, against the resolute determination of headstrong passion? The complicated noise went on day after day, until the two prisoners became so thoroughly accustomed to it, that it was no longer a cause of fear, though, amid the monotony of their existence, it still remained a subject of curiosity and conversation. It was somewhat remarkable that the invisible workman, as though gifted with the power of seeing through the stone that he found it so dif- 152 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. ficult to penetrate, never continued his labours during the daily visits of the Merchant ; the in- stant that the key of Suleiman turned in the lock of the seventh door, all was as still as the grave ; and perhaps it was equally strange, that neither of the women ever volunteered to the Merchant the slightest mention of the circum- stance. It might be that in the excitement of his reception it escaped their memory : or it might be that they considered the incident to be alto- gether insignificant, and therefore unworthy of attention. I cannot take upon myself to explain their motive, but, be it what it would, it shrouded itself in silence. It will readily be believed by those who have the advantage of Suleiman, and who are in possession of the secret, that the noise became gradually louder as the work advanced ; and that, when once a huge stone was displaced from its legitimate position, the two trembling women — for they did tremble more violently than ever when they saw the loosened mass actually yield to some external force — were " all eyes," as they had long been '* all ears,*" to discover the cause THE SEVEN DOORS. 153 of the mystery. Helmas Hanoum was the first to recover from her panic, as a very handsome head appeared in the chasm, which was quickly succeeded by a tall, slight, graceful figure, that, having passed the narrow space with some diffi- culty, started suddenly into a standing posture ; and then, quick as thought, was prostrate once more at the feet of the young beauty. " Hafiz !'"* murmured the low voice of the merchant's wife. " My fair, my loved, my long-lost houri !' answered the youth, as he covered her small hand with kisses : " Sultana of my soul ! Was it for this that they refused you to me — to bury you beneath the earth ere the Prophet had beck- oned back your spirit? Was it for this.''" and tears of mingled joy and bitterness swelled in his large dark eyes. "It is my fate!" said Helmas Hanoum mournfully : " it is my fate ; and you have done ill, Hafiz, to seek me out. Was I not sad enough in my lonehness that you bring me a deeper grief.? Ne bilirim — what can I say ? You are a madman !" H 5 154 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " The nightingale sings to the rose when the sun has set ;'' was the meek reply : " I have learnt a lesson of a silly bird ; and shall I be chidden by the flower which has won my wor- ship ?" " If I chid you not in brighter days ;" said the weeping beauty ; " how could I chide you now ? And yet, Hafiz ''^ " Ai guzum ! janum ! — oh, my eyes ! my soul!" commenced the lover " Enough, enough of this;" interposed the slave abruptly : " we lose time — you love each other — a way of escape is open ; let us fly to the mountains." "Peace, Zeinip!" said her mistress sternly: " am I not the wife of Suleiman ? " " You are a child" — retorted the negress un- ceremoniously ; " see you not that the young Effendi is your felech — your constellation ? Will you put out the light of your own star ? Will you blacken your face because your father sold you to a greybeard's gold ? and eat dirt with him when you may share the pillauf of one who loves you ?" THE SEVEN DOORS. 155 And as the energetic Zeinip paused for breath, Hafiz looked up at the trembhng girl, and whis- pered ; "She says well — will you indeed do this?'^ " Listen to me ! " said Helmas Hanoum, who at once perceived that she should have to contend with the pleadings of her own heart, as well as those of both her com- panions ; and who w^as anxious to gain time, lest, in this first moment of happy emotion, she might be induced to take a step, against which reason and propriety alike revolted ; and, with the ready tact of her sex in all countries, and under all circumstances, she adopted at once the tone and manner best fitted to win her lover to a compliance with her conditions. Like the evil enchanters of the East, and the spoiled beauties of every land, she insisted on the per- formance of feats which she affected to believe impossible, but on whose accomplishment she bound herself to unite her fate with that of Hafiz, and to fly with him from Stamboul for ever. In vain did the young man argue, expostulate, and plead ; he wasted alike his time and his elo- 156 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. quence, for Helmas Hanoum was firm. " I have said it, Hafiz, and thus only may you hope to win me ; remember, too, for how many weary weeks I have been buried here, and shall I not be revenged upon my tormentor ? Between the entrance of the vault and this apartment there are seven doors, and so many times must you de- ceive Suleiman in some wise, so thoroughly that he may believe himself the sport of a foul fiend without having power to free himself from the thrall; and you must, moreover, so conduct your machinations as to make me a party in every plot. You need not doubt but I shall play my part well, and my faithful Zeinip also ''"' " Have I not grown up with him from a child?'' interposed the negress; " and will not my heart be with him while he walks the earth ? Inshallah — I shall not mar his plotting." After a time Hafiz became more reconciled to the whim of his mistress : for, with the sanguine and joyous spirit of youth, he anticipated only a successful issue to each adventure, be it as wild as it might ; and the two thoughtless and happy lovers — happy in spite of all the dangers and THE SEVEN DOORS 157 difficulties by which they were surrounded — laughed heartily, ere they parted, at the mere anticipation of the discomfort they were prepar- ing for the Merchant. Prudence, however, pointed at length to the displaced fragment of wall, which must, to insure the success of their schemes, be carefully re-ad- justed ere the next visit of Suleiman ; and as Hafiz prepared to depart, Helmas Hanoum un- clasped from her slender wrist a costly bracelet well known to her husband, whose bridal gift it had been, and tendered it to her lover; " I need not tell you how to use it;" she said smihngly ; " Zeinip and I will not fail in our parts — the stone shall be sufficiently loosened, as soon as the Effendi departs, to enable you to re- move it by a slight effiart, and to restore the jewel ere he can turn the keys in his seven locks ; and now, farewell." Hafiz obeyed, and left the vault ; the stone was rolled back into its place ; the rubbish that he had flung into the apartment carefully swept away ; and then the wary slave stretched across that portion of the wall the silken cord on which 158 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. hang the embroidered napkins used by Turkish females in their ablutions after each meal. They had scarcely terminated their task, when the echoes of the subterranean betrayed the ap- proach of the Shawl Merchant, who came to pay his daily visit ere he departed for the Tcharchi. He found his young wife languidly reclining on her cushions, and complaining of indisposition, which she attributed to the unwholesome atmos- phere of her prison-chamber. Suleiman endea- voured to soothe her, but she only became more silent and sullen ; and he left her with a promise that she should not be much longer an occupant of this gloomy abode, since neither the luxu- riousness of its arrangements, nor his own argu- ments, had power to win her to an approval of her position. " Mashallah ! what have I done ? " she fal- tered, when she was once more left alone with her attendant ; " should he indeed now yield to the prayer to which he has so long continued deaf, I shall have ruined my own cause, and broken the heart of Hafiz." " Dry your tears, Effendim, and assist me to THE SEVEN DOORS. 159 remove the stone;" answered Zeinip calmly; " bir chey yok — there is nothing to fear — the Effendi only seeks to amuse you with words ; and, even were it otherwise, the son of Najip must use your jewel with less wit than I take him to possess, if he does not make your jealous jailor look closer than ever to the locks of his seven doors." Satisfied of the truth of the remark, the pretty prisoner rose from her sofa to aid the efforts of her more far-seeing companion, and they readily rolled back the friendly stone sufficiently for their purpose; and then, with beating hearts and attentive ears, awaited impatiently the ter- mination of the first adventure of Hafiz with the Merchant. 160 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER XIII. THE SEVEN DOORS — continued. Suleiman was squatted on his carpet, gravely knocking the ashes of an exhausted chibouque from the bowl of moulded red clay in which they had burnt away, and was preparing to renew the luxury, when the young and handsome son of Najip, the AdrianopoHtan, who occupied the ad- joining counter to that of the worthy husband of Helmas Hanoum, lounged slowly up to the sta- tion of his father, and conversed with him for a while on the merits of some merchandise which he had been displaying without success to a de- parted customer ; or, rather, to one who he had hoped would have become such. " I have done nothing to-day, nothing ;" said THE SEVEN DOORS. 161 Najib, in reply to the inquiry of his son ; " save fold and unfold to no purpose. I must surely have been smitten by the Evil Eye, for the Kis- lar Agha, who purchased cachemires of me last year to the amount of two hundred and sixty thousand piastres, passed through the bazar this morning, without turning a glance towards me as I sat among my merchandise ; and when his pipe-bearer, who had good reason to remem- ber the bargain, approached him with ' EfFen- dim, this is Najib of Adrianople/ — he answered, hastily, ' What of that ? do I owe him gold that I am not free to pass on as I list ? ' and in half an hour I saw him depart, followed by the ne- phew of Namik the one-eyed, almost staggering under the weight of his burthen. The Chi- bouquejhe gave me a look as he passed, which I translated easily into an avowal that Namik had not acted by him as generously as I had done, and that he was by no means satisfied with the change. But what do I say ? Am I a woman that I vent my disappointment in words ? Is not my beard white ? " 162 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " Wish me better fortune ;'' said Hafiz ; " I have a jewel to sell. " And he drew from beneath the folds of the shawl that girdled his waist a bag of gold-embroidered cachemire, whence he took a small parcel containing a bracelet. The ornament was a peculiar one ; it was a chain of fine gold, curiously worked, its links being wrought to resemble the minute scales of a serpent, and each at its point being tipped with a ruby ; while the head of the reptile was formed of one large emerald, into which two brilliant drops had been introduced to repre- sent the eyes. " Mashallah ! " murmured Najib, fixing his gaze intently on the costly stone that clasped the jewel, with all the discriminating admiration bestowed in the East on gems of price ; " Mash- allah ! ^tis a drop of light on a spring leaf ! 'tis a gaud for a Sultana!" And without a mo- ments delay he stretched the hand which held it towards his neighbour, saying earnestly ; " How think you, EiFendim ? Is it not a noble gem ?" Suleiman received the jewel calmly, but he THE SEVEN DOORS. 163 did not long look on it with a placid brow ; the blood rushed in a volume to his cheeks and forehead, the fire flashed from his eyes, he thrust back his turban, and gasped for breath ; " You would sell this bauble, young man ;" he said, in the cold deep accent of concentrated passion ; "and I, perchance, would become a purchaser; but honest men do not pay away their gold for things like these without first learning somewhat of their history — I would fain know ■" " What would you have me tell you ?" asked Hafiz, with a smile which roused, as he believed that it must do, every suspicious pang of the jealous husband, who had at once recognised the jewel ; " Should I say that it was given to me by a woman, were it not bosh — nothing ! You must see that it is a woman's toy, and, as such, useless to me ; and you would hold me as a vain boaster — a sakal-siz, a no-beard." Again Suleiman gasped for breath. " I will buy the jewel ;" he said hoarsely ; " yes, I will buy it ; leave it with me for to-night that I may ascertain its value, and to-morrow I will pay you the gold." 164 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. '•• That may not be, Effendim ;" calmly replied Hafiz ; " I will trust no one with the trinket until it ceases to be my property. Shall I heap dirt on my own head ?" " But I have not wherewithal to purchase it until I return to mine own house — " urged the merchant. " To-morrow then I will treat with you, should no one ease me of it meanwhile;" and Hafiz stretched forth his hand to resume pos- session of the bracelet. For a moment, how- ever, Suleiman did not relax his hold, his fingers had instinctively closed over the treasure as he marked the action of the youth ; but suddenly a thought appeared to strike him, and he sur- rendered it up with a mien of as much indif- ference as he could assume. '' Pek ahi, pek ahi — well, well, to-morrow be it then — to-morrow, or the next day, or at the opening of the coming week, as may best suit your leisure. Nay, how know I," and he forced a grim and ghastly smile, " how know I that I may not have outworn my fancy when we next meet?" THE SEVEN DOORS. 165 " Even as you will ;" replied the youth, taking his place beside his father, and affecting to occupy himself with a mercantile calculation, while he was in fact narrowly watching every motion of his excited neighbour ; '' I shall fold my feet upon the carpet of patience — what is written will come to pass I" Suleiman filled a fresh pipe, and strove to be composed, but the effort was beyond his strength; there was a nervous quivering of the eyelids and twitching of the upper lip, which betrayed the w^orkings of his spirit. Turk though he was, there is a boundary beyond which even a Turk's apathy cannot hold out, and at length he reached it ; a cold dew stood on his forehead, a chill came over his heart, a thousand frightful phan- tasms danced across his brain, and he fairly gave up the struggle. After uttering a few hurried and almost inaudible directions to the lad who attended his commands, he rose slowly from his carpet, and, carefully putting aside his chi- bouque, he resumed his slippers, and offered his farewell greeting to Najib and his son. " I have business with the Algerine Hussein;" he said, as 168 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. he slowly moved away ; " the bazar is dull to- day, and I will profit by the opportunity." Hafiz returned his parting salutation with an air of preoccupation admirably acted ; and when Suleiman suddenly stopped at the distance of a hundred paces, and looked back, there still sat the son of Najib, the pen in his hand, the paper resting upon his knee, and his head bent down over his occupation. But there were eagle eyes under that ample turban which were otherwise employed than in decyphering the intricate cha- racters of the scroll before them; and no sooner had Suleiman turned into another branch of the Tcharchi, than Hafiz, springing from his seat, and oversetting in his haste a pile of bright patterned shawls, that in their fall made a rainbow-like confusion on the narrow path, rushed hastily round a neighbouring corner, and flew, as rapidly as his slippered feet would carry him, to the empty house adjoining that of the jealous husband. He had not been deluded by the subterfuge of his victim, and he knew that he had not a moment to lose. Accordingly he turned the key which he carried in his girdle, THE SEVEN DOORS. 167 without the delay of an instant, in the half-rusted lock, and drew the door after him, threw off bis encumbering slippers in the passage, and, bound- ing down the steps that led to the vault three or four at once, had just time to fling the bracelet through the aperture in the wall, and to force back the stone, ere the approach of the Merchant became audible. The young wife, on her side, was not idle ; she hastily clasped the jewel on her arm, and, folding herself closely in a shawl that enveloped her head and shoulders, laid herself along the sofa like one suffering from indisposition ; while Zeinip, as expert in deception as her mistress, squatted on the floor, busied in the manufacture of lemon sherbet. As the Merchant entered the vault, he raised the lamp that he carried above his head, and glared suspiciously around ; but all was calm, and still, and undisturbed ; so calm and so still indeed, that it smote upon the heart of Suleiman from its contrast to the heat and hurry of his own emotions; " Khosh geldin — you are wel- come 3'' whispered the negress, affecting to de- 1G8 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. precate the sound of the husband's approaching step ; "but tread softly, EfFendim, for she has just fallen asleep."" " Sister of Sheitan ! " said the merchant in reply ; " what treason are you hatching here to fit your neck for the bowstring ? Do you take me for a divane — an idiot ?" The imperturbable Zeinip only answered by raising her ebony hands in wonder, and rolling her eyes until nothing save the whites were visible. " Tell me — ^ persisted Suleiman in the same subdued voice in which he had before spoken ; " tell me, mother of a dog, who has been here?" " Here ?" echoed the slave stupidly. " Aye, here, in the boudroum — the subter- ranean ! a man — a young man — a devil I" "Holy Prophet! has a devil been here?" exclaimed the negress in her turn, with a look and accent of horror ; " and a young man too ? Did they come together ?''"' This was too much — the patience of the Mer- chant could hold out no longer — it was too THE SEVEN DOORS. 169 palpable — his suspicions were but too well founded — he had been duped — he — Suleiman ! — he, who had even buried his wife in the bowels of the earth from the eyes of the whole world — ^ had been played upon — cheated by a couple of false plotting women, one of them a mere child ! He required only the evidence of his eyes to be fully, fatally, convinced of his misfortune — the sleeping beauty, whom his entrance had failed to rouse from her slumber, no longer wore the jewel which he had clasped upon her arm when he had welcomed her to his house — she would not venture to tell him that she had lost it ; for was not that subterranean her world ? — and thus she would be the instrument of her own de- struction. For a moment the heart of the Mer- chant quailed — she was so young, so fair, so sad ; but he remembered the half exulting, half supercilious smile of the son of Najib when he spoke of the jewel, and he hastily approached the sofa, and flung back the shawl in which she was enveloped. Still the young Hanoum slept, or appeared to sleep ; nor could the excited Merchant satisfy VOL. I. I 170 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. himself of her treachery without awakening her, for her head was pillowed upon the very arm that should have worn the bracelet. For another moment he paused ; and it was not sur- prising that he should do so, for a prettier pic- ture than that beneath his eye it had never been bis lot to look upon. Her arms, from which the long open sleeves had fallen back, were as white and smoothly-moulded as marble ; and the long dark hair that was scattered over her shoulders formed a strong contrast from the pure pale beauty of her complexion. A bright crimson spot was upon her cheek, deeper than mere sleep would have called up; but she had already stilled the beating of her heart, and she breathed gently and calmly like one to whom slumber was indeed repose. The various tints of her gaudy costume shewed gaily in the light of the lamp ; and the little naked foot that peeped from be- neath the ample tchalva, or pantaloon, of party- coloured chintz, gleamed out like a snow- flake. " Guzel — pek guzel — pretty, very pretty !"" murmured the Merchant involuntarily; but at THE SEVEN DOORS. IJl the instant the image of Hafiz, and his insulting triumph, once more rose up before him, and steeled his heart. " Wake, Helmas ! " he cried sternly; " wake, 'tis your husband calls you/' " Mashallah ! " exclaimed the young wife opening her deep eyes, but without altering her position ; " are you returned ? you had been here already to-day, and now you come only to awaken me from a dream in which I had quite forgotten vou and your tyranny." " And is this the fashion of your reception .?" demanded the enraged Merchant ; " but I will endure your woman-whims no longer. With your childish follies, your idle tears, I could have borne with patience — I have borne them — but you have become a dog, and the mother of dogs — you have eaten dirt — you have blackened your face, and defiled the grave of your father !" " Ne biUrim ? — what can I say ? What have I done ?" asked the young Hanoum, who, secure as she knew herself to be in the possession of her bracelet, yet quailed beneath the deep stern pas- sion of the Merchant ; " How can 1 answer upbraidings that I am unable to comprehend ? Tell me at least " i2 172 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. "Rather tell me" — burst forth Suleiman, goaded to madness by the placidity of the cul- prit ; " rather tell me, sister of the Evil One, to whom have you given the jewel that I placed upon your arm when I was fool enough to take you to my home?" "Given it!" said his wife in well-counter- feited astonishment, as she calmly withdrew her arm from beneath her head, and extended it, encircled by the bracelet, towards her husband, while the negress, raising her spread palms in the air, groaned audibly as though she were mourning over the departed intellects of her master ; " Ajaib — wonderful ! Given it ? " she repeated, as if doubting that she had really comprehended the question. " To whom could I give it, even were I disposed to part with the pretty bauble, save to my faithful Zeinip, who has as little occasion as myself to wear gems where no one can see them ?" The Merchant could not believe his eyes ; but yes — there was the jewel — and that which Hafiz had offered for sale, clearly, therefore, could not have been his wife's ; he took it from THE SEVEN DOORS. 173 her arm ; he examined it narrowly — had not the thing been impossible, he could have sworn — and yet, he should palpably have been a per- jured man, for he had never parted from his seven keys — the locks had assuredly not been tampered with, and there was no other outlet from the vault. It was with a deep and almost hysterical respiration that Suleiman once more fastened on the ornament, fully persuaded that he must have been acting under some delusion of witchcraft, and keenly conscious of the full ridi- cule of his position. At that moment he would almost have rejoiced had his suspicions been confirmed, for then, at least, he would have been justified in his own eyes for the violence with which he had acted towards his young and inno- cent wife ; as it was, he felt that he must make a very sorry figure, and he could not imme- diately decide upon his best mode of action. Nor did the Hanoum and her handmaiden afford him much space for reflection ; they were conscious of their advantage, and resolved to avail them- selves of it to the utmost, and the poor Shawl- merchant was consequently assailed with such a 174 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. tempest of reproach, vituperation, and tears, as had well nigh driven him mad, ere he was allowed once more to hear the sound of his own voice, and permitted to pour forth his regrets for an intemperance into which he had been betrayed by circumstances that he was alike unable to fathom or to explain. Peace was, however, ultimately proclaimed, for the females, conscious that they were not altogether so blameless in the affair as they were now beheved to be, and remembering that the purgatorial suff'erings of the ill-fated merchant were only commencing, were graciously pleased to be pacified by slow degrees, and to accept the promises of their victim that he would never again offend by hinting that his wife was a family connexion of the Evil One, or polluting the grave of her unoffending parent. Enough of doubt, nevertheless, remained upon the mind of Suleiman, though he could not have shaped it into a tangible form, amid all this mystification, to induce him, ere he departed, to steal another long wary look round the vault ; and, after lock- ing each of the seven doors, to hold his lamp THE SEVEN DOORS. IJo close to the key- hole, and to examine most nar- rowly the mechanism of the fastening, about which it must, however, be admitted that he knew nothing whatever ; but it is a satisfaction to investigate closely and carefully, and to form our own judgment, even of things on which we are profoundly ignorant ; and so the Merchant found it, as, after closing the last door, he re- tired to his own apartment, perfectly satisfied of the utter impossibihty of any entrance into the prison-chamber, save by means of his own pre- cious keys. But one undertaking had been successfully accomplished, and Hafiz had now only to con- tend against six of the seven doors ! It needs not to be told that, on his next meet- ing with the Merchant, he replied to his inquiries by asserting that he had disposed of his jewel to another purchaser, nor that the answer added to the bewilderment of Suleiman. He knew not why, but he had assuredly never expected to see it again in the hands of the young man, nor to be urged a second time to make it his own pro- perty ; on the contrary, he had felt a most un- 176 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. pleasant presentiment that such would not be the case; and yet, when his expectations were realised, fresh doubts, and pangs, and wonderings as- sailed him. But be it as it might, what could he do more than he had already done? What locality could be more secure than that in which he had immured his wife. Ergo, he must forget the mysterious resemblance of the two bracelets, for it could of course be nothing more; and dismiss the subject from his mind altogether. Now this was perhaps the wisest conclusion to which the worthy Merchant had ever come in his life, and it is probable that in time, had nothing occurred to renew the impression of the incident, his practice might have rivalled his theory ; but his kismet — his fate — had ordained otherwise. THE SEVEN DOORS. 177 CHAPTER XIV. THE SEVEN DOORS — continued. Suleiman had a friend who was Perfume- merchant to the Sultan. A man of mark was Saidomer Nourren Atem, and well skilled in the composition of sweet and subtle scents. Every flower of the East had in turn given up its delicious breath in his crucibles and pipkins ; but there were certain secrets whose results were reserved for the exclusive use of the Imperial Harem. No slave in the tcharchi wore a gayer vest or a more elaborate turban than the Abys- sinian confidant of Saidomer Nourren Atem, or filled with a better grace the minute essence- boxes of ivory into which the more costly perfumes were compressed. No Musselmaun i5 J 78 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. smoked a more princely chibouque, or cinctured his brows with a more magnificent cachemire than Saidomer Nourren Atem himself ; he looked around him calmly on the rival establishments of the tcharchi, and defied competition. Now it so chanced, that, about a week after the adventure of the bracelet, the skilful Scent- merchant made a discovery which, Turk though he was, well nigh turned him mad with delight. Never was so exquisite a perfume as that which, after a score or two of costly experiments, he succeeded in producing. The Attar-gul itself was fetid beside it ! The Abyssinian slave who had assisted in the work flung himself along the floor in a paroxysm of extacy, and rolled his huge eyes, and clasped his ebony hands like a lunatic ; while even the stately, and ordinarily imperturbable Saidomer Nourren Atem himself apostrophised Allah and the Prophet as though he had succeeded in converting all the Christian raiahs of the Empire to Mohammedanism. It was at this moment that Suleiman, a pri- vileged person at all times, entered the spicy laboratory of the excited Scent-dealer; and, in the THE SEVEN DOORS. 17^ first moment of exultation, nothing could be more simple than that Saidomer Nourren Atem should introduce to his friend the delicate com- position which he was at that moment ready to believe would go far to immortalize him. The Orientals love perfumes beyond all other lux- uries ; and it is therefore not surprising that, as the exquisite aroma entered his nostrils, Sulei- man the shawl merchant should stroke down his beard, draw a long- breath, and stagger to the sofa, as though overwhelmed by its sweet- ness. " "Y'allah ! — in the name of the Prophet, whence comes it.^*'' he murmured, when he could again command his voice ; " He who distilled it must have been born of a rose, and nursed in the flower-garden of Paradise ! I would give a cachemire of Lahore for a gilded flagon of that surpassing essence." " What shall I say ? "" was the reply of the flattered Saidomer Nourren Atem ; "I it was who caught the breath of the Houri, and impri- soned it in this liquid for the gratification of our Imperial master; and until the Sultan hath 180 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. quaffed it in his sherbet, how may I dispose of even the lightest drop to one of his slaves." " And when he shall have inhaled its match- less sweetness ;" followed up Suleiman ; " if he does justice to its wise inventor, he will forbid that it should be purchased at will in the tchar- chi, and thus " " You are right, my friend f said the Scent- merchant, " and you, at least, shall forestall the prohibition. Your felech hath guided you here in a happy moment — I will give you some of these drops of my soul — Bacarac ;"" and the attentive slave bent forward to receive his in- structions ; " give to the Effendi of this pre- cious perfume as much as will fill the smallest box in the fourth drawer on the right hand. Have a care that the wool on which it is poured be of the finest and softest quality, and that the cover of the box fit to a nicety, for the essence is subtle, and I would not that he should perfume the tcharchi as he passes along." The slave bent low, and prepared reverently to obey. The box indicated was most minute, curiously turned, and could be hermetically THE SEVEN DOORS. 181 closed ; the wool was with some difficulty intro- duced, and the precious liquid poured slowly, drop by drop, as though it had been blood wrung from the heart. Suleiman received it as it beseemed him to accept so costly a gift ; and while the delighted Saidomer Nourren Atem listened to his profuse and hyperbolical expres- sions of admiration, and gave directions for the security of the wondrous production of his genius, the Shawl-merchant was inwardly in- dulging a feeling of self-gratulation at the for- tunate chance which would enable him to offer to his yet sullen wife a gift that must at once insure his favour. It was consequently with a lighter step than usual that Suleiman bent his way homeward on the closing of the tcharchi, and, when his even- ing meal was ended, descended to the subter- ranean. Helmas Hanoum laid aside her zebec as he entered. It was no part of her system to allow him to think that she passed a single mo- ment of the twenty-four hours in seeking to divert her thoughts from his tyranny and her own misfortune; and she was only more cold. 182 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. and sullen, and ungracious, than her wont when he approached her. But what Eastern woman would not have been melted by such an offering as that of Suleiman ? A new and delicious perfume — to be forbidden, moreover, to all save the Imperial family ! How doubly charmed was the young wife of the Shawl-merchant when she had learnt the history of her treasure ! Was ever husband so assiduous to torment himself? This was indeed a two-edged scimitar ! Nay, so glad and gay was her spirit, as she deposited the essence-box carefully amid the folds of the shawl that girdled her waist, that she yielded at once to a desire which he had often expressed, and she had as constantly refused to gratify, by resuming her instrument, and playing and sing- ing until Suleiman fancied himself in the seventh heaven ! In a few hours the essence-box was in the pos- session of Hafiz. It must surely have been through the agency of some imp of darkness that Najib the Adria- nopolitan and the husband of the pretty Helmas Hanoum chanced to be neighbours in the tchar- THE SEVEN DOORS. 183 chi, for it gave to the plots of Hafiz all the effect of chance. Nothing could be more simple than that he should afford to his father the op- portunity of sharing his enjoyments; and ac- cordingly there was no appearance of design in his hurried address, as he seated himself beside Najib, and drew forth his new treasure. " Mahomet be praised ! " he said smilingly ; " new stars and new flowers spring to life about us each day of our existence." " Would that they were new customers ! it would be more profitable to the merchants of the city ;" replied Najib drily ; " stars and flowers are pretty things enough, but they will neither turn to pillauf nor piastres."" " Of the stars it is true that nothing can be made ;"" pursued the young man in the same joyous tone in which he had commenced the conversation ; " but flowers boast not only brightness and beauty " " Pshaw ! are you going to talk in verse, like your Persian namesake ?" asked his father, whose temper had been somewhat ruffled by a morning of idleness. 184 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " Would that I might, do I exclaim in my turn ;'' said his son ; " but I am simply going to prove to you, better than by words, that flowers are not to be considered as mere toys. I will not talk of the sighs of roses, caught and changed into attar-gul, nor the sweet scents of jasmine, and a score of other blossoms, prisoned in mi- nute flagons, and making summer wherever their breath is suffered to escape. I will rather con- found you at once by an argument into which is crushed the combined perfume of a world of flowers — and here it is — " and he placed in the hand of his father the small ivory box that had been confided to him by the wife of the Shawl- merchant. " There is but one Allah, and Mahomet is his prophet !" murmured Najib, slowly swing- ing himself backward, as he inhaled the odour of the new essence. " Ne bilirim — what can I say ? This it is to live in the country of the True Believers. They talk to us of Frangistan — is my face blackened, that I should believe that the dogs of Giaours have joys like these in their own lands, where they never see the sun .'' THE SEVEN DOORS. 189' H — a — a — " and again he stroked down his beard as he drew in the sweet savour of the essence ; " what are the gums of Araby or the roses of Gurgistan beside this ?" So well indeed did the worthy Adrianopolitan appreciate the enjoyment, that he did not appear likely to offer a portion of his pleasure to Sulei- man, who sat enveloped in the scented fumes of his Salonica tobacco, apparently quite unmoved by the raptures of his neighbour. Suddenly, however, Najib remembered that a gratification, of whatever description, is greatly enhanced by participation and sympathy ; and upon this principle he bent towards the rival Shawl-mer- chant, and proffered to him the little box. " Tchabouk, tchabouk— -quick, quick ! close it carefully as you restore it ;" cautioned Hafiz, with an air of extreme anxiety : " I would not, for all the riches on the shelves of Saidomer Nourren Atem, the Sultan's scent-dealer, that a breath of this precious compound should escape." But the petrified shawl-merchant heeded him not ; he sat gazing from Hafiz to the ivory 186 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. box, and from the ivory box back again to Hafiz, like one who is not quite certain that he does not dream. He unscrewed the lid, he bent down his head, and hurriedly inhaled the pre- cious perfume, and again he fixed his large, dark, flashing eyes on the son of Najib. " Is it not a breathing of Paradise T'' asked the young man, with a self-gratulatory smile. " And you obtained it, where ? "" gasped out Suleiman. " Yok, yok — no, no — I am not bound to name the houri who paid me so richly for a light flattery ;" was the reply ; " but this much I may confess, that where I won the bracelet, there also I gained the essence." Suleiman ground his teeth, but he did not articulate a syllable. " Beware, Hafiz ;" said his father, depre- catingly ; " where the rose grows, there does the thorn flourish ; and the jewelled hilt ever be- tokens the keen weapon." " But what if I secure the gems, and defy the blade V" asked the young man. " It is ill making your horse's bridle out of a THE SEVEN DOORS. 187 bowstring ;"" followed up the anxious parent ; " let this gift be the last." Hafiz only smiled again, and, as he did so, his eyes met those of the agitated Suleiman ; '' What shall I give you for this toy .'*" he de- manded hurriedly. " Ne bilirim — what can I say ? Not all the silks in the tcharchi of Broussa should buy it of me ; shall I fill my own mouth with ashes ?" and, as he spoke, the youth extended his hand to re- gain possession of the treasure. " Only let me shew it to Saidomer Nourren Atem;" urged Suleiman ; " I know not its name, and I would fain become the possessor '' " Hay, hay ! — so, so ! Think you that I will suffer it to be hawked through the bazar like some villain merchandise ?" asked Hafiz angrily; " jNIashallah, I am not so base." The discomfited Suleiman only sighed, and relinquished the fairy box to its owner : this time there could be no mistake — there was not its fellow in Stamboul — he had been too slow in detecting the first artifice of his plotting help- mate; but now — now — he should confront her on 188 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. the instant, ere she had time or opportunity to dupe him twice — he was bewildered, mystified — there must be witchcraft in it ; but, strong in his sense of wrong, he would defy the Evil One himself to-day to cheat him with a lie ! And with this laudable conviction he shuffled off his carpet, thrust his feet into his slippers, and, without the courtesy of a parting word to his companions, hurriedly proceeded towards his dwelling. But, alas for the worthy Merchant ! the very precaution which should have secured his safety, proved his bane, for he was so long engaged in unlocking his seven doors, that the ivory box arrived in the prison-chamber before him ; and, as he turned the last key to the accompaniment of the high clear voice of his wife, who was warbling out a love-ballad, he had the gratifi- cation of finding her engaged at a game of ball with the box itself, which she was dropping from one hand to the other in regular time with the strain; her delicate little fingers closing and unclosing over it, and her fair round arms gleam- ing out in the lamp-light like water-lilies. THE SEVEN DOORS. 189 Suleiman was petrified ! He rubbed his eyes, and pinched himself to ascertain whether he really was awake — he darted forward, and seized the toy from the hands of his pretty captive, for which he was rewarded with a frown and a pout — he examined it narrowly, and there it was— the very same — a small rose in the centre of the lid, three rings round the outside, and a flaw in the ivory about the size of a pin's head ! He had seen all this in the tcharchi — he had almost walked himself into a fever to prove that he had been played upon and cheated, and here was the box ! In the agony of his amazement he seated him- self beside the young Hancum, and, as soon as he had recovered his breath, he told her all. When the tale was ended, the happy husband was glad that he had done so, for never were two women more overwhelmed with wonder. His wife cast up her bright eyes, and crept closer to him as she murmured something about demons and magic ; and Zeimp whispered that the victim of this dark sorcery would do well to summon a dervish of the sect of the Mevlavies, 190 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. and be exorcised. Suleiman listened to the counselling of his trembling prisoners, and pro- mised to think seriously of their advice. Never since their incarceration in the vault had they been so gentle and so courteous ; and, although a pang and a doubt would now and then cross the mind of the Merchant as he lent a willing ear to their surmises, and suffered himself to be soothed by their suggestions, he soon banished all mistrust ; for was it not worse than folly to believe that a jewelled bracelet and a box of essence could escape through stone walls ? and, more absurd still, be in two places at once ? And yet — but what availed it to dwell upon the subject ? There were the locks, the walls, and the doors ; and, consequently, however strange, and unaccountable, and bewildering such coincidences undoubtedly were, they could be only coincidences after all. Suleiman was a wise man in his own way, a man of fore- thought and precaution, with an energy of self- confidence which always made him wind up his reflections with the comfortable and self-gratu- latory mental apostrophe of — " It cannot be THE SEVEN DOORS. 191 otherwise ; I am not the person to be taken in — I have lived too long to be duped by fools :" and this was the murmured accompaniment to the echo of his footsteps as he slowly ascended from the vault on the present occasion 5 and scarcely could he have extinguished his lamp on arriving at the head of the stair, ere the stone was rolled away that gave ingress to the prison- chamber of the pretty Hanoum, and a chorus of laughter, where a deep bass blended with an harmonious tenor, rang through the subterra- nean. The joy of Hafiz was great — he had opened a second lock — he had flung back two of the seven doors ! J 92 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER XV. THE SEVEN DOORS — continued, Suleiman denied no enjoyment save that of light and liberty to his young wife. Those well-beloved luxuries of Turkish women, shawls and diamonds, he lavished on her with as much profusion as though she possessed the oppor- tunity of exhibiting them to the admiration and envy of her acquaintance : and it was but a few days after the adventure of the essence-box that he carried with him, on his visit to the vault, a cachemire of a new and rare description, the first which had been seen in the tcharchi of Constantinople. All shawls of price in the East being woven in pairs, Suleiman, as he made the purchase THE SEVEN DOORS. 193 of a stranger with whom he had never be- fore traded, inquired eagerly for its fellow, when he was informed that, the pecuniary means of the Merchant having become impaired by a long and unsuccessful speculation, he had been permitted, through the courtesy of a friend, to possess himself of one of these costly pieces of merchandise, although he was unable to pay down the sum necessary to make him the owner of both ; and that, in consequence of this arrange- ment, none could be found in the city of the same pattern and texture. Groups of minute and finel}^- wrought flowers were 'scattered over a ground of faint yellow, and a few threads of green were woven into a border of crimson, of so rich a dye that it looked as though the wool had been stained with the juice of the pomegranate blossom. The Mer- chant added his private mark to those which were already impressed on the paper ticket, re- garded in the East as an additional ornament, and always conspicuously displayed in token of the freshness of the shawl, ere he unfolded it VOL. I. K 194 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. before the admiring eyes of his wife and her attendant. The pretty Hanoum smiled her thanks for the costly gift, and in five minutes it was gracefully folded about her waist ; the rich crimson border in strong relief on the sky-blue tchalva, and the pale yellow centre rendered still more delicate in tint as it contrasted with the deep purple vest. The interior of the vault would have been at that moment a study for the orientalised pencil of Pickersgill ; the languid beauty of the young wife, who sat upon her cushions on the ground, beside the sofa honoured by the occupation of the Merchant, in his flowing robes of ruby-co- loured cloth, ample turban, and amber-lipped chibouque, was softened into deeper loveliness by the faint light of the distant tapers, grouped to- gether on a small stand at the extremity of the apartment ; while, immediately in their broadest glare, squatted the negress in an antery * of white cotton, with her long hair falling over her shoul- ders in a score of minute braids, and her large eyes fixed earnestly upon her mistress. The sofa glittered with gold fringe, and the cushions * Outer dress. THE SEVEN DOORS. 195 were gay with embroidered flowers ; all the showy toys of a Turkish harem were lavishly strown in every direction ; and, as the large deep eyes of the Hanoum wandered over the chamber, a smile rose to her lip, which, by whatever feel- ing it might have been summoned there, added to the brightness of her pure and pallid beauty. No wonder that the Merchant, as he gazed upon her childlike loveliness, congratulated himself upon his sagacity and caution ; no wonder that as he looked upon her languid grace, and the dove-like dreaminess that dwelt in her dark eyes, he felt at once the folly of his passing doubts. She had not energy to plot against his peace ! It was with a somewhat coxcombical swing in his gait that Hafiz, a day or two subsequently to that of which I have just spoken, approached the husband of Helmas Hanoum as he sat in his usual place in the tcharchi ; and, after saluting him with infinite politeness, begged him to take the trouble of examining the cachemire that formed his turban, as he had been desired to purchase a similar one for a friend who was about to depart for Smyrna, and who was ready to 196 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. pay down the price which might be agreed upon between them. " I would have sought it among the bales of my father ;"*' pursued the young man, as he un- folded it from his brow before the fascinated eyes of the astonished Merchant ; " but I should only have wasted time, for well know I that he halh not such a cachemire, though it might be paid for by all the piastres in the Imperial treasury. ' No,' said I, as I passed the threshold of my home ; * I will away at once to Suleiman EfFendi, he only can be the owner of such a shawl as mine, for has he not the newest and the richest goods in the tcharchi.?' Have I said well, Ef- fendim ? Can you pair me my cachemire ? " But the merchant answered not ; his gaze was riveted — not by the fine and delicate texture of the costly shawl — not by the deep rich tints of its gorgeous border — but on the little ticket where-he recognised his own private mark f Suleiman was right when he resolved this time, whatever might be the consequence, not to re- store the shawl to Hafiz until he had assured himself beyond all possibility of deception, that THE SEVEN DOORS. 19? it was not his own property. Yes — let the consequence be what it might ! he armed himself resolutely against reproaches, threats, and vio- lence, for he was prepared for all these ; and, gradually recovering his self-possession as he formed this doughty resolution, he affected for a time to be carefully examining the quality of the cachemire, in order to collect his ideas, and to determine on his mode of action. A few mo- ments sufficed for this ; and keeping, without apparent design, his hold of the prize, he raised his eyes to those of the young man, and, slowly removing the chibouque from his lips, said quietly. "Is the Effendi, your friend, prepared to pay down a heavy sum for the good's ? " " Haveit — yes ;^ answered the youth calmly. " Then to-morrow I may perchance be ready to deliver it up ;'' and again Suleiman examined the ticket ; " Ey vah ! 'tis not often that I have seen so costly a shawl. Did you purchase it in the tcharchi ?" " Purchase it ! '' echoed Hafiz, with another of those mocking smiles which had already mad- 198 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. dened the Merchant on a former occasion ; " where was the son of Najib to find piastres enough to buy such a cachemire as that ? Mash- allah ! I should be long in counting them."" " But it is your property, since you have just untwisted it from your brow ?"' " Alhemdullilah ! praise be to Allah ! You have said well, EfFendim ; it is mine — but that is not my errand ; to-morrow then you will pair it, and tell me your price ? " And, as he spoke, he took hold of the shawl, and would have drawn it from under the hand of the Merchant, but Sulei- man's fingers closed over it with a firm grasp, as he prepared himself to contend with the in- dignation and anger of its declared owner. " Yavash, yavash — softly, softly, Effendim ;" he said, in a grave and stately tone ; " this is not a question of matching a porcelain cup, nor a clay chibouque-bowl ; many things are to be considered and ascertained. Learned as I am in the lore, I cannot carry away with me the exact texture of the cachemire, the quality of the wool, nor even the intricacies of the pattern, and the shades of the dyes — you must leave the shawl THE SEVEN DOORS. 199 with me, in order that I may compare it with that to which I have already likened it in my mind ; and to-morrow I will bring you the two together." Hafiz laughed a light laugh. "' You jest with me, EfFendim ;" he said tauntingly ; " I know you to be a rich man, and I believe you to be an honest one, but I will not therefore part from my property as though I cared not "^ " I will deposit its value with you in gold;" interposed Suleiman ; " and when I return the shawl, you can restore the piastres — otour — sit." •' Be it so ;" said the young man calmly ; and, throwing off his slippers, he seated himself be- side the merchant ; and, having lighted his chi- bouque, smoked on in silence, while the more than ever bewildered Suleiman counted out the deposit money on the carpet between them. " Pek ahi — it is well — "" were the next words he uttered, as the golden and glittering pile of coin was transferred to his purse ; "• Fail not, I pray you, at this hour to-morrow with the fellow shawl, and I have no fear that we shall cavil for 200 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. the price." Then, shaking the ashes from his pipe, he put up the money, resumed his slippers, and walked away, leaving Suleiman in possession of the cachemire. Long sat the merchant gazing at the rainbow- like subject of his new mystification. He was more perplexed than ever. He could vow upon the Koran that this was his own shawl — the present that he had made to his wife — the costly piece of merchandise to which he had proudly affixed his private mark — and there was the mark — there was no mistaking his mis- fortune — the father of evil was assuredly mixed up with the transaction, for the shawl must have been conveyed to Hafiz, either through the bowels of the earth, or on the bosom of the air ; be that as it might, and he could not attempt the solution of the problem, he now held the shawl ; and he resolved not to relax his grasp for a mo- ment, until he confronted his wife with her per- fidy, and forced from her a confession of the truth. Acting upon this determination, Suleiman carefully folded the cachemire, and lodged it THE SEVEN DOORS. 201 safely beneath his ample robe ; and, having seen his merchandise duly secured by his attendant, bent his steps homeward, with visions of bow- strings, sacks, and overwhelming waters, chasing each other, like the spectre-hounds of the Arabian fiction, across his over-heated brain. It is a sin- gular fact, and one which it would be difficult to explain, but it is nevertheless true, that, as he moved slowly through the crowded streets, and exchanged salutations with his acquaintance, he could not decide whether he wished to prove his wife unworthy of the extraordinary indulgence with which he had treated her, or not. It was vexatious, certainly, to lose the idea of being, if not quite loved, at least reverenced and feared, and, above all, obeyed — while, on the other hand, it was provoking to be duped, and mysti- fied, and pursued by constantly-recurring doubts. This day must, however, decide all ; and he magnanimously resolved to proportion the pu- nishment of his wife to her apparent contrition, and to his own conviction of her repentance and probable amendment. Kindly thoughts and relenting feelings were K 5 202 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. creeping over him as he descended the stair to the vault. Helmas Hanoum was so young, so pretty, and so graceful, it would be ten thou- sand pities to drown or to exile her; and he had arrived at a firm determination to push his forbearance to the extremest limit, when, on arriving at the fifth door, his ear caught the distant echo of a female voice, and he became conscious that his intriguing and false-hearted helpmate was actually at that very moment — that awful moment, freighted as it was with the chances of life or death — when he held in his hand the scales of severe and rigid justice, which his single breath would suffice to turn against her — actually singing to her zebec, as though neither doubt nor danger existed in the world ! This was too much even for a Turk's philo- sophy, and he accordingly flung back the two remaining doors with a more rapid hand ; and his brow was crimson as he stood before the pretty culprit, prepared to overwhelm her with cutting reproaches, and indisputable proofs of her unequalled guilt. But, ere the first sentence THE SEVEN DOORS. 203 had passed his lips, his words were arrested in the utterance ; for, as the young Hanoum, ac- cording to custom, laid aside her instrument on his entrance, he at once discovered that her waist was girdled with the shawl — the shawl that was even yet hidden beneath the folds of his robe — the shawl whose counterpart had never been seen in Stamboul ! The Merchant gasped for breath, and the lamp fell from his hand upon the snowy Indian matting that covered the floor, amid the laughter of his wife, and the reproachful ejaculations of her more thrifty attendant ; but he heeded neither the one nor the other as he rushed for- ward, and, seizing a corner of the cachemire, looked eagerly for his own private mark upon the ticket. His search proved successful : there it was — and his next action was to tear the shawl which he bore about him from its hiding- place ; a second sufficed to draw it forth ; and who shall describe the astonishment of Suleiman when he found himself unable to distinguish between the two — they were alike to a thread — to a shade — and to crown all — his mark — his 204 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. own private and peculiar mark — was upon each. " What means this ?" asked the young beauty, as she possessed herself of the newly- arrived cachemire ; " Did you not tell me that Stamboul held not the fellow-shawl to mine? And are not these two as hke as twin roses ? Chok chay — that is much — do I speak clearly?" "You say truly — you say truly ;'' gasped the Merchant : " they are alike, quite alike ; woven in the same loom — dyed in the same copper — marked by the same — but no, no ; if I really live, and do not dream, they cannot have been marked by the same hand. It is an invention of Satan — a plot hatched by the Evil One." "Sen ektiar der — you are the master; but what new mystification is this ?"* demanded Helmas Hanoum pettishly ; " Is it not enough that you should vaunt your own generosity in giving me a shawl of which even the Sultan himself (may his shadow never be less !) might be proud, and which he could not purchase in Stamboul — but you must come to place another precisely similar under my very eyes, to prove THE SEVEN DOORS. 205 that you had made me an easy dupe ? Unhappy woman that I am, to be first buried ahve, and then treated like a wayward child by my own husband [^ " Peace — peace,"— exclaimed the Merchant, impatiently : " Woman ! you do not know — you cannot guess "^ — " I do not wish to know, and I will not guess !" broke in his wife in a higher key : " Affiet ollah — much good may it do you — you are a divane — an idiot — you do not speak Turkish — your words are dark, and your face is blackened — Who am I that you should have made me your wife ?" Suleiman only sighed ; he was too wise to answer the revilings of a woman ; and he folded up the mysterious shawl with a steady eye, though his heart beat more tumultuously than usual. He stayed not to apologize for his abruptness, nor to explain his perplexity ; but, taking his lamp from the hand of Zeinip, who had busied herself in retrimming it after its fall, he walked silently out of the subterranean. Long and loud was the laughter that followed 205 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. closely on his departure, and the last key was not turned in its lock ere Hafiz was seated at the feet of his mistress, detailing to her the scene of the morning. " I would have given a thousand piastres to have seen him when you so readily consented to leave the cachemire in his hands," said the Ha- noum gaily : " and to watch him as he counted out his darling gold, and placed it before you ! But, now tell me, Hafiz, how your friend be- came possessed of this rare shawl, and left you only the task of counterfeiting Suleiman's mark upon the ticket.'^ " 'Tis a simple tale, my Sultana :" replied the youth, as he looked into her laughing eyes ; " and requires no khoja — no scribe, to record it. My friend Noureddin fell from his camel as he was journeying to Stamboul, and was grievously bruised : when a certain merchant, who travelled in his company, tended him like a brother, and bore with him through all his hours of suffering. Noureddin was not one to forget such kindness : he reads the Koran daily, and gives freely to the poor ; how much more readily then did he open THE SEVEN DOORS. 207 his hand to the friend of his sickness ! He only hesitated as to the means of serving him, when, as if guided by the Prophet, the Merchant himself suggested the method, by thus ad- dressing him as they rode side by side together through the gate of Scutari : — 'EfFendim,' said the merchant, ' you are a wealthy man, and a pious one : you are ever ready to help the needy, and to uphold the weak — I pray you do me a grace — I know that your bales are precious ; and I have heard that among your merchandise are shawls of so fine a fabric, that they seem to Jbave been woven by the Houri. Sell me, I pray you, one of these at an easy price, that I may on my arrival in Stamboul dispose of it in the tcharchi, at a rate that may help to defray the cost of my voyage ; for my affairs have not prospered, and I am loth to return to the house of my father, and render up so poor an account of my venture.' — ' Be it so,' answered Noureddin cheerfully ; and, when they reached the khan where he had resolved to house his goods, he opened a bale of shawls, containing among others that which you now wear, and the one that I borrowed and carried to your husband. 208 THE ROMANCE Of THE HAREM. " The Merchant was struck with the splendour of the cacheniires, but even although Noureddin offered them to him at the price that they had cost in the loom, he yet wanted gold to make up the sum ; and it was at last arranged that he should become the possessor of one of these only, taking with the remainder of his piastres another of inferior value. On arriving in Stamboul he disposed of it, doubtlessly with great advantage, to Suleiman ; while I chanced to remark its fellow when examining the merchandise with which Noureddin proposed to trade at Se- vastopol, whither he was bound when he had arranged his affairs in this country. The rest of the tale is not worth telling ; and you are bound from this instant to confess that I have opened three of the seven doors !'' THE SEVEN DOORS. 209 CHAPTER XVI. THE SEVEN DOORS — continued. About a week elapsed after the adventure of the shawls, when, as Suleiman was one morning sitting in the saleraliek, * or man's wing of the house, smoking his last pipe previously to re- pairing to the tcharchi, a slave informed him that a negress, who refused to tell her errand, craved to see him for a few moments. The Merchant " pished," and " pshawed," and con- tracted his brows with impatient annoyance, for he had quite enough to do to arrange his own affairs, without interfering in those of others ; but he nevertheless consented, after a moment's delay, to receive the applicant, be she whom she might ; and accordingly, leaving her slippers at * Literally, " where the man is honoured."' 210 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. the extremity of the passage, the stranger ap- proached with a succession of lowly prostrations, as far as the door of Suleiraan'*s apartment. Every one knows that the y ash mac worn by the Turkish women in the streets conceals the whole of the face save the eyes, and that the ample feridjhe of cloth envelops the form so closely as to disguise the whole of its outline ; but those who have resided in the East for any length of time are quite aware that it is possible, despite all these precautions, to give something more than a guess at the identity of the wearer : and thus, as the negress stood before him, the Mer- chant started, for he thought he traced a singular likeness in the stranger to the slave who shared the prison-harem of his wife. " There is but one Allah ! ^' commenced the intruder, as soon as she found herself alone with the Merchant ; " Do I stand before Suleiman, the son of Gunduz Hanoum ?" " You stand before him ;" answered the host. " I have a message for Suleiman Effendi ;" pur- sued the slave ; " and ekhi kateti — there is some- THE SEVEN DOORS. 211 thing in it ; a message from a young and anxious beauty, who craves of him a grace, which, if he be the beyzadeh that men deem him, he will not refuse." " What you say is idle :" interposed the Mer- chant ; *' bosh der — it is nothing ; I am a grave man, and my beard is white." " May it never be plucked out ! '"* said the negress solemnly. *' What shall I reply to my mistress P^Shall I " " Who is the Hanoum EfFendi, and who are you yourself .'*" demanded the irritated Suleiman, whose suspicions were strengthened by the voice of his strange visiter, even muffled as it was beneath her yashmac. " I shall give no pledge until I know with whom I have affair. Mash- allah ! I am too old to be cheated by a woman." "May my face be blackened:" urged the slave earnestly, using in her energy an ejacu- latory sentence which savoured strongly of super- erogation : " may my face be blackened if I seek to deceive so pious and worthy a Mussel- maun — Kiefiniz ayi me — is your humour good ? Etfendim, I was told not to betray to you the 212 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. liame of the young beauty, nor even to mention my own ; but who shall disobey your bidding ? Inshallah ! I am not so bold, when my foot is on your floor, and my slippers are at your threshold." "Speak then;" said the Merchant, " I lis- ten." " Hassan is a man of substance :** commenced the negress ; " he has goods in the tcharchi, and gold in the salemliek ; a caique on the Bosphorus, and an araba in the city streets. If affection could have been bought like un wrought silk, and fashioned into form like beaten silver, the wife of Hassan might have loved him ; but love, EfFendim is like the wind : it comes and goes as it lists, and no man can buy it with treasure, nor fetter it with bonds — nay, had Hassan buried his young wife in the bowels of the earth, and robbed her of the glorious day- light which Allah gave alike to all, he must know little of the sex who is not quite aware that she would have cheated him at last. But why do I say this to you, Effendim ? to you, who need no words of mine to convince you of the THE SEVEN DOORS. 213 fact ? Am I a divane — an idiot — that I talk thus to Suleiman the son of Gunduz Hanoum, who knows all things ? Ne apalura — what can I do?" Something between a sigh and a groan es- caped from the Merchant, but he did not utter a syllable. *' Let not the Effendi imagine, however,"" resumed the negress, " that Hassan did so bury his fair young wife — Shekiur Allah ! he was too good a Musselraaun thus to provoke the wrath of the Prophet ; no, no, he knew better. Are there not laws in Stamboul ? Is there not a strong cord, and a swift current, if a man really wishes to sell himself to Sheitan, and to defile his own grave ? Why then should he act like a madman, and be laughed at to his beard r" " All this is then bosh — nothing :" said the Merchant angrily ; " why do you tire my ears, and devour my time with empty tales ; say your errand, and leave me to my thoughts."" " You are a wise man, EfFendim ; and I am but a woman, " was the reply ; " Allah bilir — God alone knows ; as for me, I was only en- deavouring to explain '* 214 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " A wise head spareth its tongue;" said the host sententiously ; " few words make wisdom — you waste time." The slave folded her arms before her, and bowed her head meekly on her bosom as she continued ; " Hassan brought a wife into his harem, but she never gave him her heart. How could she ? Hassan suspected that she loved another. He was a wise man in this at least, for she did. Why did the Prophet plant roses in the gardens of Paradise, save that they should be gathered ?"' " And who is this Hassan of whom you speak ?" again demanded the Merchant, as he suffered the smoke from his chibouque to escape, and roll away in dense curls over his mustache : " who is this Hassan who mated himself so ill ?"" *' He sits on the fourth carpet in the Bezen- stein ;" said the slave, " and he is kinsman to the Cadi." " And his wife.? '^ " Was the daughter of Hakif the sekeljhe,* * Confectioner. THE SEVEN DOORS. 215 near the Atmeidan ; Gul-siiy* Hanoum, the prettiest girl in that quarter of the city.'' " And what would she ask of me.'*" inquired the Merchant, somewhat mollified by the elabo- rate candour of his companion. " The churl her husband has refused to give her a new cachemire for the feast of the Bairam, because, forsooth, he suspects her of " " Yok, yok — no, no ! I will assist no plotting wife to deceive her husband ! '' broke forth Suleiman in a transport of virtuous indignation. " Get you gone — there are easy dupes in the tcharchi who, having been fooled themselves, will be glad to aid in the good work of hood- winking others : but I am not of these, woman ! I am not of these. Return to your hght mis- tress, and tell her " " Yavash, yavash — not so fast, EfFendim, not so fast;"*' interposed the pertinacious slave; " I have as yet told but half my tale. In the shawl-bazar sits a worthy merchant named Najib, an Adrianopolitan by birth, who has a son called '' * Rosewater. 216 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " Hafiz/' — exclaimed her listener, aroused at once into attention. " You have said well, EiFendim ; he is indeed named Hafiz, and it would seem that you know him. If it be the same of whom I speak, he is a tall youth, with large dark eyes, and a smile like daybreak " The Merchant made a gesture of impatience, and knocked the ashes from a pipe which was but newly replenished — *' And what of this young man ?" he asked peevishly. " He has seen the Hanoum Effendi, and loves her :" was the quiet reply ; " He has learnt that she desires a new cachemire, and he has offered to procure for her the richest shawl in the city if she will buy it with a smile." " Kiupek — dog ! and the son of dogs ! his beard is not yet grown ;" muttered Suleiman beneath his breath ; but the quick ear of the negress caught the words, and she answered readily, " Even so said my mistress ; — ' Semsi,'* whispered she as he spoke ; ' am I a child to be won by a stripling — shall I sell myself to a boy, * Parasol. THE SEVEN DOORS. 217 when I have only to ask the love of a man, and win it.' " " She said well," murmured Suleiman, sen- tentiously ; " the wife of Hassan is a wise woman, and deserves to eat her pillauf in peace. Bashustun ! on my head be it !" " She has set her heart on a new cache- mire," pursued the slave, heedless of the inter- ruption ; " but she has no gold, and Hafiz has resolved to tempt her to-morrow with the choicest in the tcharchi : she must have a shawl, or she will fall sick, and, should she fall sick, she will lose her beauty, and then the brightest carnation in Stamboul will be withered for lack of a few hundred piastres; unless, indeed, the Effendi before whom I stand will consent to receive in exchange some jewels, for which her fancy is outworn, and which will sell well in the bezen stein." " And why not?" asked Suleiman, who had forgotten his suspicions in the joy that he felt from the hope of outwitting Hafiz ; " Show me the diamonds, and I will tell you at once if I can venture on the traffic." VOL. I. h 218 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " Astaferallah — Heaven forbid ! Does the Effendi imagine that the young Hanoum would intrust me with the jewels before she learnt his determination ! Or that she will not desire to select her own cachemire ? No, no, — if the Effendi consents to effect the exchange, he will have an opportunity of making his own bargain with the fair wife of Hassan, who has already looked upon him from behind her lattices, and selected him from among all the merchants in the tcharchi, because she saw him with pleasure. Shall it be so, Effendim ?" The fluttered and flattered Suleiman did not immediately reply — a thousand suspicions of foul play rose up before him ; and, as his long gaze fastened on the negress, and his ear drank in her accents, he could not divest himself of the belief that it was really Zeinip who stood before him, or Sheitan himself in her likeness; but then again all was uncertainty, and Hafiz — what would he not give to circumvent the plottings of his arch-enemy ? for as such he could not forbear considering him — " Do you take me for a fool — a madman ? " he asked quietly ; " that I THE SEVEN DOORS. 219 should set my foot in the harem of Hassan the jeweller, and bring my neck to the bowstring ? Am I a boy, like the son of Najip, that I should do this thing ? '' " And is the daughter of Hakif an idiot, that she should share her pillauf with dogs, and blacken her own face?" asked the negress in her turn ; " Are there no harems in Stamboul save that of Hassan her husband ? Allah buyiik der — Allah is great — the Effendi is as a man who dreams." The Merchant started. He had never com- mitted the folly of compromising his personal safety, even in his youth ; and that he should now voluntarily encounter an almost certain peril for the mere gratification of thwarting a vain and froward boy, was an excess of rashness and in- discretion from which he shrank with very natu- ral repugnance. " I will answer you to-morrow on this point; " he said, at last ; " let me see you before the noon -tide prayer in the bazar, and I will tell you my decision." " Ere that hour the shawl of Hafiz will be in the harem of Hassan's wife; but be it as you l2 220 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. will — ■" and, as the slave spoke, she pressed her fingers to her lips and brow, and moved to de- part. " Listen to me" — exclaimed the Merchant sternly, as he rose suddenly from the sofa, and laid his hand upon her arm ; " I am no longer to be cheated like a child — you are Zeinip, the slave of Helmas Hanoum my wife — how you came here I know not, but it must have been by the agency of some devilish magic — I have watched you narrowly — Deny it not — you are the plotting sister of Sheitan to whom I owe the miseries of months, and hence you depart not until I have visited the vault. Should my suspicions be correct, make your peace with Allah while you may, for you have not long to live — " and, as he spoke, he pointed with his outstretched finger to the window, through which might be seen, in the distance, the bright ripple of the Bosphorus dancing in the sunlight ; '' but if I have deluded myself, I shall not detain you long ; and I swear to you, by the beard of the Prophet, to follow you whithersoever you list." "And why should I wish it othervvibe ? " THE SEVEN DOORS. 221 asked the negress, shaking off his grasp ; " Am I not your slave ? and are there not still many hours to sunset ? I have told you that my name is Semsi, and that I serve Gul-siiy Hanoum, the wife of Hassan the jeweller/' "And I have told you, in mv turn," retorted the Merchant ; "that I am no longer to be fooled. What I have said is said." "It is said;" echoed the visiter, as she calmly squatted dovvn upon a cushion which chanced to be near her, with an unmoved gesture of at-home- ness, that more than ever convinced the angry Suleiman of her identitv. " But the EfFendi will do well to return quickly, as my mistress may require my services ; meanwhile, I will tell my tusbee, and wish good speed to his errand/' The Merchant did not vouchsafe a reply, but contented himself with desiring two of his ser- vants, who were lounging in the lower hall of the house, not to suffer the negress to escape ; and, after this very natural precaution, he lighted a lamp, and proceeded as fast as his agitation would permit to the prison of his wife. 222 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. As the last door flew back, the irritated hus- band became instantly aware, even through the unusual gloom of the subterranean, that it was tenanted as usual by two individuals. On the sofa sat Helmas Hanoum with a circular mirror in her hand, staining her eyebrows with the juices of a nut which she had been burning on the candle that stood on a small table beside her ; and immediately beneath the lamp, at the other extremity of the vault, expiring at the very mo- ment of his entrance, as it appeared from lack of oil, was spread the prayer-carpet of the slave, who, with the long white cloth twined about her head and face, without which the Musselmaun women never repeat their orisons, was devoutly engaged in her namaz.* The Merchant actually trembled with rage and mystification — there she was ! — at intervals pressing her ebony- coloured hands upon her knees ; and her naked feet showing like two lumps of charcoal on the crimson ground of the carpet ; piously indiffer- ent to his entrance ; and wholly unconscious of * Devotions. THE SEVEN DOORS. 223 the absurd error into which she had been the in- nocent means of betraying him. So earnest was her devotion, moreover, that, as she bent down in the pauses of the prayer, sundry low groans escaped her, which, had she been otherwise en- gaged, would have appeared rather to be hyste- rical efforts to subdue a movement of mirth, than conscience-stricken demonstrations of holy suf- fering ; as it was, however, the worthy Merchant saw at once that he had committed a new folly ; and, even while he sustained a disjointed and un- satisfactory conversation with his wife, his thoughts were with the captive negress in the salemliek ; who, on her return to the harem of the daughter of Hakif, would not fail to make merry at the expense of the jealous husband. He was also conscious of having betrayed a se- cret not altogether calculated to decrease the ri- dicule ; and thus he deemed it expedient to make a hasty retreat from the prison-chamber, in order to liberate his new captive, whom each added moment of restraint could not fail to ex- asperate into a resolution of more determined revenge. He accordingly informed Helmas 224 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. Hanoum, whose eyebrows had by this time been taught to form a curved line all across her fore- head, that he had pressing business at the tchar- chi ; and, after bidding her console herself in her captivity with her zebec, and leaving beside her a small basket containing a pillauf made of quails, he resumed his lamp, turned another last, un- loving look on the devout negress, and was soon on his way through the vaulted passage to the salemliek. The key had turned in the third door which parted him from his prisoners, when the kneeling figure sprang lightly into an upright attitude ; and, flinging aside the prayer-cloth that had bound its head, stood before the laughing Hel- mas Hanoum, at least a foot too tall for the ne- gress Zeinip. The shaven skull, with its one long lock of silky black hair, was soon concealed beneath an ample turban ; the dye washed from the face, hands, and feet of the impostor ; the trailing antery exchanged for a tight vest and girdle of shawl ; and the pretty Helmas Hanoum and the adventurous Hafiz busied, amid their merriment, in preparing, over the glowing char- THE SEVEN DOORS. 225 coal of the brazier, the savoury piilauf of the mystified Suleiman ; who, on his arrival at the apartment in which he had left the negress, found her still squatted quietly on the cushion, and with more haste than courtesy bade her summon him on the morrow to fulfil his pledge. The slave rose, bowed humbly before him, and, without uttering a syllable, passed into the street. But she was conscious that she was dogged by one of the household of the Merchant ; and it was, moreover, so long since she had enjoyed a sight of the sun and the bustle of the city streets, that she arrived at the empty house beside that of her master by as many turnings and windings as a Greek pirate in the Archipelago ; and the piilauf had been heated, and the fair fingers of the pretty Hanoum had dipped with those of her lover in the dish so often, that, ere the entrance of Zeinip had been effected through the agency of Hafiz, the feast was at an end ; and the fatigued and hungry negress was fain to content herself with the relics of the yesterday's meal. But this was no misfortune to one who had so merry a tale to tell ; and heartily did the three l5 226 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. plotters laugh ere the lover departed, at the bold device by which they had unlocked the fourth door of the prison-chamber. THE SEYEX DOORS. 227 CHAPTER XVII. THE SEVEN DOORS — continued. On the morrow, Suleiman was seated among his merchandize in the tcharchi an hour before his usual time ; but his brow was dark, and his mood more than ordinarily taciturn. He re- membered, and, remembering, he deeply re- gretted, the pledge that he had given to the negress. He had, moreover, passed a wretched night ; he had dreamt of bright eyes and ruby lips, it is true, but he had unfortunately dreamt of them in conjunction with dark-browed negroes, and darker-browed husbands. He had enjoyed a vision of a more than earthly beauty, who had welcomed him to her presence with the assurance that he stood before the favourite wife of the 228 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. Sultan ; but, while he gazed in wondering admi- ration, mingled with a very powerful degree of respectful terror, he had been surrounded by armed slaves, thrown on the ground, bowstrung with the rapidity of lightning, and finally had awoke just as the rapid current of the Bosphorus was consigning him to the tender mercies of the Black Sea. Now Suleiman was not a man of prowess, but a man of peace — he despised the Jews, and hated the Janissaries: he had neither taste for adventures, nor affection for danger; and, when he raised his head from the pillow, he thanked Allah and the Prophet, from the very depths of his spirit, that it was all a dream ; and a moment afterwards he shuddered at the recollection of the perils to which he had actually subjected himself through his own headstrong and cause- less jealousy. It was, consequently, to escape from his unquiet thoughts and self-reproach, that he hurried to the tcharchi with such un- wonted diligence, in the hope of finding amuse- ment in the passing scene; but ever and anon, as he saw the gleam of a yashmac in the dis- THE SEVEN DOORS. 229 tance, a cold chill crept over him, and made his shaven head feel for an instant as though it were covered with bristles. Hour after hour wore on, however, and he began to nurse a vague and timidly indulged belief that the wayward beauty had repented her bold enterprize, and even to hope that she had suffered herself to relent in favour of Hafiz, and had accepted his offering ; when, as he was carefully readjusting the folds of a shawl which had been hastily put aside on the previous day, he saw the son of Najib approaching him with a rapid step. " Khosh geldin— you are welcome : " said the Merchant, as the young man stopped beside his carpet, wishing him, at the moment in which he uttered the greeting, safely deposited in the great cemetery of the city : " affiet ollah — much pleasure attend you ; can I serve you in aught ? or are you only whiling away the time until the mid-day prayer ? '^ " Nay, not so ; " replied Hafiz, as he returned the salutation. " I am hurried even more than my wont on this occasion ; and, therefore, pray 230 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. you to show me, with what speed you may, all the cachemires of Thibet on which you can lay your hand. My father's stock is exhausted, and I am commissioned to make a purchase for the wife of a rich Bey." " Of a Bey, said you ? '"' demanded the Merchant, as unconcernedly as he could, while he was in the act of taking down some mer- chandize from one of the shelves. " Are you sure that her husband is a Bey ? '' " Haveit — yes; she is the wife of Hassan Bey, who served for several years in Tripoli, and who now inhabits a house near the fortress of the Seven Towers. She desires a new shawl for the feast of the Bairam.**' " And she has commissioned you to select it for her — is it so ? " asked Suleiman, as he looked steadily towards the youth. " Mashallah ! that were a tale for a mas- saldjhe''* — laughed Hafiz; "'tis the good Bey himself who has charged me to make the bargain : and I must make a successful one, or it will fare ill with me, for Hassan is not a man * Professional story-teller. THE SEVEN DOORS. 231 to trifle with. He has been so many years accustomed to have every thing his own way, that he is not particular about the propriety of the manner in which he manifests his displeasure. I never look at him without fancying that I see a bowstring peeping from amid the folds of his girdle." Suleiman actually shivered with terror as he sat. " Just now," whispered Hafiz confidentially, as he bent towards the Merchant ; " all gives way before the beautiful young Gul-siiy Hanoum his new wife; but her favour is precarious, for it has been insinuated to the Bey that she is not so devoted to him as it behoves her to be. But who shall say ? " and he looked up archly into the face of his listener. " Wallah billah — by the Prophet ! are we Musselmauns that we thus talk together of a woman ! "" murmured Suleiman deprecatingly : " what is it to you or to me, Effendim, if it be so or no ? " Again Hafiz laughed. "You say well; to us it is indeed bosh — nothing. So now we will examine the shawls." 232 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. But the husband of Helnias Hanoum had heard too little or too much — too little as it regarded the unknown beauty herself, and too much as it regarded her husband, for a man who was bound hand and foot to risk his life in the furtherance of a woman''s caprice. Yet how to lead back the discourse to the point at which he wished to arrive, he knew not ; for the Turks, even among themselves, do not make their women a subject of conversation or comment ; and thus, with all the terrors of the uncom- promising Bey before his eyes, coupled with the consciousness that he was about to beard him in his very den, he was compelled to turn over shawl after shawl, and to expatiate on the beauties and qualities of each, while visions of fear, and peril, and jeopardy, were crowding across his brain. " What have I to do," he asked himself almost aloud, " with the light-headed and wilful wife of another man, and that man, moreover, a Bey and a soldier.? avret der — it is a woman. Have I not counted nearly seventy years since the Prophet first blew the breath of life into my THE SEVEN DOORS. 233 nostrils ? Is not my beard gray, and my hand weakened ? Is it for me to measure myself with boys?" But all these reflections availed nothing; and, just as Hafiz, after quarrelling with the quality of one shawl and the cost of another, had flung aside the last with a dis- sentient gesture, declaring that he should not dare to meet. the Bey if he made no better bargain than those offered to him by his father's friend, a negress, whose yashmac almost covered her eyes, walked quietly up to the Merchant, and, without noticing the vicinity of Hafiz, said in a calm tone, " The Effendi awaits you hard by — I am to conduct you to him."' And the paralyzed Suleiman, without a word, cast all his costly goods upon the floor of the little store- room behind him, locked the door, and, shuffling on his slippers, prepared to follow his ebony- coloured guide, like one under a spell. One glance, and but one, passed between the slave and Hafiz, and that was unnoticed by the Merchant, who was absorbed in the trembling discomfort of his own terrors ; and in the next instant the heavily-draped negress was threading 234 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. her way along the narrow streets of the tcharchi, followed at some distance by her victim. They moved onward very slowly, for the pathways were thronged with passengers ; but at length they emerged into the open streets of the city, and Suleiman remarked, with something like a sensation of joy, that their road did not lie in the direction of the Seven Towers, whence it was evident that the troublesome beauty could not purpose to receive him beneath the roof of her husband. On turning an abrupt corner, the Merchant found himself suddenly in a street little fre- quented, and, as it chanced, at that moment saw no human being near him except his mysterious conductress, who was standing a few paces from the opening, evidently awaiting his approach. He did not accelerate his pace, however, but rather walked more slowly, for he dreaded all communication with the dusky piece of mysti- cism who had beguiled him into his present pre- dicament ; while the slave, on her side, appeared perfectly indifferent to every thing save the object that she sought to attain, and contented THE SEVEN DOORS. 235 herself by exclaiming, when he at length reached her side ; " So far, so well — lightly falls the foot of him who is summoned by a Pasha's wife : aferin — well done, EfFendim ; the Hanoum will rejoice to find that her bidding has been so joyously obeyed." A cold dew rose to the brow of the worthy Suleiman, but he did not dare to ask a question, as the slave, having uttered her extraordinary address, again moved forward. The wife of Hassan the Jeweller had grown into the favourite of Hassan Bey, and again into the consort of a Pasha, within the twenty-four hours since he had first heard of her — There was but another step to take — he had now only to learn that she was an inmate of the Sultan's harem, and his doom would be sealed ! He remembered his dream, and trembled ; and, as the n egress from time to time looked back to assure herself that he followed, he each moment expected to have the dreaded intelligence poured into his quailing ears. But no such misfortune as this befel him; for his companion never addressed him again until they reached the narrow and squalid street 236 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. which terminates in the Tchernberle Tasch, or Burnt Pillar. This celebrated column was at that period nearly perfect ; the figure of Apollo, one of the masterpieces of Phidias, which had originally crowned it, was indeed gone ; but the delicate garlands of oak-leaves, that encircled it at regular distances from its base to its summit, were yet perfect ; and the marble was but slightly stained with fire-marks. About midway of the street the negress paused before the gate of a dreary-looking house ; and having fixed one long, significant gaze on the Merchant, beat upon the door, and was instantly admitted. Suleiman took several turns along the rude and rugged paving, and delayed as long as he safely could, ere he reluctantly followed her example, and then, with a trembling hand, he raised the ponderous knocker, and heard its harsh sound slowly die away in the void be- yond. He was not kept long in suspense. The door flew back, and, as he passed the threshold, closed slowly behind him ; his old acquaintance Serasi was in waiting, and he obeyed her silent THE SEVEN DOORS. 237 gesture, and followed her through a long and dusky passage, which looked as though the day- light had never penetrated its gloom. There was no matting upon the floor ; and, even stealthily as he moved along, the unfortunate Merchant could hear the echo of his own foot- steps, and almost the beatings of his heart. Every tale of terror to which he had ever lis- tened came fresh to his memory ; and he sub- mitted to his fate unquestioning, like one who fell that he had gone too far to recede, and that escape was now hopeless. The passage terminated at a door, before which hung a tapestried curtain, and the negress, havino; fluno- it aside, bade him enter without ceremony. For the first moment he could not distinguish anything, though he was conscious that the slave was still beside him ; but in the next, a strong glare burst forth from the upper end of the chamber, as a hand flung upon the brazier by which the apartment was heated a quantity of aromatic wood. When the smoke cleared away, Suleiman could just discover that a female, whose dress glittered with gold embroidery, lay reclined 238 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. upon a pile of cushions spread on the floor ; and, while he was yet employed in endeavouring to obtain a view of her features, she clapped her hands, and half a dozen slaves entered with lights. Suleiman rubbed his eyes, and fancied that he must be the sport of a dream. The whole apartment was the very embodyment of splen- dour and luxury. It was like awakening in the Prophet's paradise after the sleep of the grave. The floor was covered with Persian carpets ; the sofas were sprinkled with embroidered flowers, and looked like a petrified parterre — draperies of gorgeously tinted silk veiled the latticed windows — and, in the midst of this scene of costly com- fort reclined its unveiled mistress, in a vestment so resplendent with gold and jewels, that the dazzled Merchant cast down his eyes, like one who has inadvertently looked upon the sun. But he was not long suff*ered to remain in this attitude of silent wonder. A voice which sounded strangely famiUar to his ear bade him welcome, and invited him to approach ; and, as he advanced further into the apartment, his eye THE SEVEN DOORS. 239 fell on a group of splendidly-dressed slaves, who were standing near the couch of their mistress. Coffee was served to him in silence ; and then a chibouque of cherry-wood, with a mouth-piece of the finest and palest amber, was put into his hand by an attendant, young, beautiful, and graceful, who bore so strong a resemblance to his imprisoned wife, that he started as he took the pipe, and almost suffered it to escape his clasp. '' You have done me much grace, Effendim ;" said the lady of the revel, as soon as the proper ceremonies had been observed towards her guest : " khosh geldin — you are welcome ; and I am grateful to you for running so great a risk to indulge one of my idle caprices. The Pasha, my husband, is jealous and lynx-eyed, and we shall be fortunate if we contrive your departure without exciting suspicion. But we will not talk of him — My slave Semsi, by whom you were summoned, has doubtlessly told you that a new whim, on whose gratification I am, as usual, determinedly bent, has compelled me to apply to your generosity. Bana bak— . 240 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. look at me — am I one to be thwarted? I need not explain more ; I will merely put before you the toys which I desire to give in ex- change for one of your most costly cachemires. I know all the risk that I incur in order to work out my pleasure, and I am grateful to you for having so willingly shared it. Joy and fear are not more opposite in their effects than in the feeling which they excite towards those who are our partners in the emotion ; in joy, we find the pleasure doubled by participation ; while, in fear — oh, Effendim, you know not, you cannot guess, the sensation with which a young, and pretty, and idolised wife looks upon the indi- vidual, who, at the moment when he pays homage to her beauty, is conscious that, should his devotion be discovered, he can save her by offering himself up a willing sacrifice to her offended husband ! Could I not at this instant, were the Pasha to intrude into the harem, vow that I knew not your errand, and had never sanctioned your entrance ? Nothing could be more simple ; and as to the result of such a de- claration, it were vain to expatiate on it — Mash- THE SEVEN DOORS. 241 allah ! Hassan Pasha is too methodical to leave any one in doubt on such a subject. ' Gul-siiy Hanoum,' he will say to me, ' you are the hght of my eyes, and the sun of my sky, and rather would I put out the beam of the one, and miss the warmth of the other, than know that they had been shared by the Sovereign of the world — the Padishah of the most glorious empire of the earth ''' The Merchant wiped the gathering damps from his brow, and only groaned a reply. " Korkma — fear not ; what care I for all these love-sentences :^ pursued the lady, " will they buy me a cachemire, or give me a pleasant dream ? Are they not mere words ? Perhaps you have a fair wife in your harem, Effendim ; nay, I am sure you have, for your beard is white, and your days are numbered, and you would be a divane — an idiot — not to seek some solace for your age in bright smiles and gentle words; and if you have a wife, young, and pretty, and ready-witted, as women will be, though all good Musselmauns would fain see them otherwise, you must know that she would VOL. I. M 242 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. rather have one purse* than a score of compli- ments — from you at least. Yet wherefore waste your time with idle talk, when every instant may be fraught with danger ? Dilirani " — and, as she spoke, the slave who looked and moved like the Merchant's imprisoned wife, advanced, and bent meekly before her; " show to Sulei- man Effendi the toys which I desire to barter with him."" She was obeyed on the instant ; the attendant silently withdrew, and in a moment returned, bearing a tray, which she deposited at the feet of the visitor. It was covered with a gold-em- broidered napkin, which was hastily thrown aside, and the first object that met the eye of Sulei- man was a jewelled bracelet, whose form and setting were as familiar to him as the precepts of the Koran. Beside it lay an essence-box of ivory, small, and quaintly-fashioned ; and both were pillowed on a costly cachemire of pale yelloAV, with a border of green and crimson ! Let those who have writhed under the visita- * Generally containing 500 piastres (or ^5); all Imperial presents in specie are made in " purses." THE SEVEN DOORS. 243 tion of the night-mare picture to themselves the sensations of Suleiman ! He looked long and earnestly on the objects of barter as they were spread out before him — he handled them each in their turn, and they were all real and pal- pable — they were offered to him for sale, and he could sw^ar that they were his own ! In his bewilderment he turned towards the Pasha's wife, and gazed keenly and inquiringly upon her. The haughty beauty bore his steady look un- shrinkingly : not a blush, not a word escaped her ; and it was strange how the expression of those large dark eyes added to the mystification of the Merchant ; there was a mocking light in them that withered his very soul ! He had seen them before, he knew not where nor when : his memory played the traitor, and his senses reeled : and meanwhile there lay the bracelet, the es- sence-box, and the shawl — the ferocious Pasha in perspective — the imprudent beauty in pre- sence — and a cloud of phantoms, shapeless, in- definite, and mystical, writhing and winding through all the intricate angles of his imagi- nation. There too stood the slave, the young m2 244 THE ROMANCE OF THEHAREM . and mysterious slave, who looked and moved so like his own wife ! The Merchant instinc- tively buried his hand in his girdle — this at least must be a delusion, for there were the keys : and hence it was only fair to infer that he was under a spell — that the Evil Eye was on him — and that the bracelet, the essence-box, and the yellow cachemire, were all phantoms, en- gendered by the fever of his own over-heated brain. While he was yet abandoned to his bewilder- ment, the slaves, as if to increase it, struck up a wild, shrill concert of voices and zebecs, which rang through the saloon, and whistled in the ears of Suleiman like an east wind. Well nigh maddened by the noise, the mystification, and the terror, which grew deeper each moment from the necessity of its concealment, the unhappy Merchant began hurriedly to offer he scarce knew what, for the hated objects of barter; and anxious to escape from the scene of torment, swore to the dark-eyed lady of the revel that she should turn over every bale in his store, and select the shawl which pleased her, be its value what THE SEVEN DOORS. 245 it might. The offer was accepted on the instant; nor was an effort made to detain the liberal Suleiman when he had pledged himself to ob- serve, and faithfully to fulfil the compact ; while, on his part, he as willingly consented to leave behind him the valuable pledges that were to be given in exchange. He lost not a moment in descending from the sofa, and shuffling on his slippers; and having made his obeisance to the hostess, who was sunning herself in the light of her own eyes, as they were reflected from a cir- cular mirror set into a frame of ostrich fea- thers, he lifted the tapestry hanging that veiled the door of the gorgeous apartment, and passed into the void and echoing gallery be- yond. But no officious Semsi followed to guide him through the dark labyrinth — no companionship save that of a loud and mocking peal of laughter from the party whom he had just quitted, beguiled the difficulty of his progress ; and even that died away as suddenly as it had burst forth. Not a single lamp shed its protecting light to save him from yawning staircases and gloomy passages; and 246 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. he wandered on slowly and painfully, with fear and trembling, bewildering himself more and more in the intricacies of the building, in silence and in darkness, until after the lapse of an hour, when he distinguished in the distance the glim- mering of a sickly light, towards which he cautiously advanced, in the hope that it might afford him a mean of escape from his malicious enemies. Not a sound was to be heard as he neared the beacon, save the dull echo of his own footsteps ; and he consequently became suffi- ciently reassured to quicken his pace, and to pass without hesitation the threshold of the vast and apparently empty apartment in which the lamp was burning. But he had no sooner done so than the door closed with violence behind him, cutting off all hope of escape by the gal- lery along which he had passed, and the sickly lamp gave out one strong burst of light, and instantly expired. In that brief interval, however, momentary as it was, the trembling Merchant discovered the whole extent of his misfortune ; nor was any time permitted him for preparation : in an instant he was seized — fJung THE SEVEN DOORS. 247 on the ground — held down by powerful hands, amid low and mocking laughter — and in five minutes he had fainted beneath the bastinado. The sun was bright upon the domes and minarets of the city, when Suleiman the Shawl- merchant painfully stretching his limbs, and opening his haggard eyes, found himself ex- tended on a marble slab in the Armenian ceme- tery of Pera, beneath the light shade of a blossoming acacia. He might well have believed that all the scene through which he had lately passed w^as but a hag-ridden dream, had not the swollen and smarting soles of his dishonoured feet assured him to the contrary. He could not doubt the extent of his wrong ; and if he did not instantly lay his complaint before the Cadi, it was simply because he was unable to make his way to the Bosphorus, and to pass over to Stamboul unassisted. Several hours were consequently wasted, to the great disgust of the Merchant, among the Christian graves, ere he was gladdened by the approach of an Armenian jeweller, who came, as his wont was towards sunset, to smoke his 248 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. chibouque beside the grave of one of his relatives. Suleiman knew him well, as he had often traded with him in the bezenstein ; and to him, there- fore, he confided, without hesitation, the history of his discomfiture, taking care, however, as he subsequently did in his complaint before the Cadi, to conceal the fact of feminine agency ; and contenting himself with the declaration that he had been decoyed to this house of mystery for the purposes of commerce. By the agency of Takour-Oglou, the Arme- nian jeweller, a carriage was soon procured, in which the suffering Suleiman was safely de- posited on the wooden pier at Topp-hanne, and there embarked in a caique for Stamboul ; where, on his arrival at home, he lost no time in laying his case before the Cadi, and demanding justice. His description of the house was so circum- stantial, and he was so positive as to its accuracy, that the officers of justice found it at once, and thundered for admittance without a moment's hesitation ; but the sturdy strokes which they beat upon the door only produced a long-sus- tained echo as they died slowly away in the THE SEVEN DOORS. 249 distance ; and when at length their importunity excited the attention of the neighbours, an old crone, closely muffled in a scarf of blue and white checked linen, tottered forth from one of the most squalid-looking tenements of the wretched street, and delivered up the key of the empty house, with an assurance that it had been long uninhabited ; and that her son, who was pursuing his trade in one of the Archipelegan Islands, and whose patrimony it was, desired with all his heart to dispose of it, even at a loss. The followers of the Cadi left the withered woman to pour forth her information to the half dozen individuals whom the outcry in the street had attracted, and rushed through the entrance- court into the desolate gallery beyond. But they discovered no object in any one of the empty and mouldering apartments w^hich bore testimony to the truth of the Merchant's story. Weather-stained walls — faded frescoes, peel- ing from the neglected ceilings — doors hanging loosely upon broken hinges — and casements from which the perished lattices were dropping in M 5 250 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM* fragments — were about them in every direction, buvt not a trace of recent inhabitation was per- ceptible ; and, after having traversed the whole building, and searched every room and gallery, they were compelled to vacate the premises with a firm conviction that the Merchant had misled them, and had altogether mistaken the locality of his disgrace. But it was not so: and during the interval which succeeded ere the enraged and baffled Suleiman had regained the use of his feet, and was once more enabled to visit the subterranean, many a jest and jibe of which he was the subject, had lightened the tedium of the prison-harem ; and more than once had Hafiz twined about his head the costly calemkier,* in which he had enacted the Pasha's wife ; and practised before the anali (or hand-mirror) of the treacherous Helmas Hanoum the same languishing grimaces with which he had favoured her unhappy hus- band. Well might the youthful lover exult over the * Painted handkerchief. THE SEVEN DOORS. 251 success of his treacherous artifices — for five of the seven locks were now unloosed, and more than half his adventurous task was accom- plished ! 252 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER XVIII. THE SEVEN DOORS. — continued. Suleiman was one morning descending to the vault, when, as he was turning the key of the last door which separated him from the prison- chamber, he was startled by the sounds of violent contention ; and he paused for a few seconds ere he entered, in order to acquaint him- self with the cause of the outcry. High and shrill rose the voice of his young wife, but higher and shriller still were the tones of Zeinip ; and the amazement of the Merchant was extreme when he discovered that the gentle Helmas Hanoum was actually in anger against her long-favoured attendant ; and that the pam- pered negress, forgetful of all the indulgence and kindness of her mistress, was casting back THE SEVEN DOORS. 253 every reproach, and retorting every injurious epithet. Had Suleiman seen a purse of gold upon his path, he could not have been more re- joiced ! A quiet smile played about his lip, and he stroked down his beard with a gesture of complacency and self-gratulation truly enviable. Now every mystery would be unravelled ; if, indeed, as he was still sometimes inclined to sus- pect, the tenants of his pretty prison were privy to all his annoyances. A quarrel between the conspirators would necessarily involve discovery ; for what angry woman ever kept the secret of her adversary? Thus the Merchant Hstened with all his ears 3 and the contention continued long enough to convince him that the belligerents would show each other no quarter w^hen his ap- pearance afforded to them the opportunity of revenging their imaginary wrongs. But with all his powers of hearing on the stretch, Suleiman could not gather amid the violence of the quarrel a single sentence tending to throw any light upon the subject on which he was anxious to be better informed ; and, ac- cordingly, making a great rattling with the 254 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. Stupendous bunch of keys that he carried in his hand, he ultimately threw back the door, and stood before the flushed and furious women, who seemed well nigh exhausted by the violence of their contest. I shall not stop to detail the torrent of words by which the Merchant was assailed : suffice it, that one plucked him by the sleeve, and that the other twitched him by the robe — that one pulled him one way, and the other dragged him the other — that one screamed into his right ear, and the other into his left — that they teazed, tormented, and almost terrified him, ere he could produce the slightest appearance of peace, and make himself master of the very obscure and mystified cause of contention. Strange and startling inferences had escaped both from the lady and her attendant, as the war of words went on ; and ever and anon the Merchant imagined that he had glimpses of a mystery which he would fain have fathomed ; but even as he seemed about to grasp it, it eluded him, and he remained fully as bewildered as ever. THE SEVEN DOORS. 255 In vain did he attempt to pacify his fair and furious wife— she was resolved — she might be a prisoner — he might deprive her of the light of heaven, and the free air which was the heritage of the happy — but he should not compel her to share her dungeon with one who had become hateful to her. Nay more — if Suleiman per- sisted in retaining the obnoxious negress in his service, the determined little beauty threatened him with her enduring and unmeasured wrath. She should be sold — absolutely sold in the slave- market — disposed of to the best bidder — banished for ever from all chance of offending the eyes of her irate mistress ; and, despite his better reason — for, amid all the declamation and violence of his wife, Suleiman was quite unable to ascertain of what crime Zeinip had actually been guilty — he was compelled to acquiesce in all that was re- quired of him, and to promise that he would without delay, purchase a younger and more submissive attendant for his angry helpmate. With some difficulty he, however, prevailed on the young Hanoum to retain the negress until he had decided on her successor ; and, having 256 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. carried this point as an especial favour to him- self, he quitted the vault, leaving both the women silent and sulky. On the morrow the Merchant sauntered to the slave-market ; his brow was clouded, and his humour dark ; for he was too fully convinced of the powers of elocution possessed by Zeinip, not to feel painfully certain that his prison-harem would afford a fruitful topic for verbal display in the next family of which she became an inmate. Suleiman dreaded ridicule with a most holy dread ; and he actually shivered as he re- membered how legitimate a subject his jealousy had supplied to the discarded negress. But for this evil there was no remedy, save retaining the delinquent in his own service; and ere he reached the enclosure appropriated to the sale of Kurd and Abyssinian slaves, he accordingly de- termined to effect a purchase if possible, in order to pacify his wife ; and then to propose to her the luxurious alternative of retaining both the slaves in her service. The more the Merchant pondered on his scheme, the more feasible it ap- peared 5 for he deemed it only probable that a THE SEVEN DOORS. 257 Storm which had arisen so suddenly, might as suddenly be calmed ; and that the morrow might see the disgraced favourite reinstated in the good graces of her mistress. The thought was a plea- sant one ; and as Suleiman moved on into the centre of the market-court, he passed his hand caressingly down his beard ; for this transient tempest had at least proved to him beyond all further doubt, that the extraordinary and mys- terious annoyances which had lately ruffled him, had not originated in the vault. Slowly, therefore, and complacently, the Mer- chant stepped into the midst of the groupes who were squatted on their rugs and mats under the broad sun, and laughing out their thoughtless- ness as they waited to be purchased. Once or twice he paused, attracted by a merry face, or a bright eye ; but he resolved to make the tour of the court ere he committed himself by word or sign ; and accordingly he pursued his way until he stood beside a solitar}^ negress ; who, veiled, and clad more decently than the generality of those by whom she was surrounded, appeared to be wholly absorbed by her own thoughts. 258 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. Suleiman started as his eye fell upon her — he paused upon his path, and fastened his gaze on the apparently unconscious negress like one fas- cinated— and then he silently beckoned to an aged, coarse-looking Turk, who was quietly smoking his chibouque on a faded Persian carpet, a few paces from the slave. " She is yours ? "" said the Merchant en- quiringly, as the hoary dealer in human beings deliberately obeyed his summons. *' She is mine," was the brief reply. " I would see her," pursued the Merchant. " Allaha es marladek — Allah preserve you ! the EfFendi is lord, and I am his slave;" said the owner of the negress, as he pointed to the yashmac which she wore. *' Musna, unveil." Without the delay of a sncment he was obeyed. The woman unwound the scarf of fair white muslin which had concealed her face, and stood before him with a smile upon her lips. " Zeinip ! " exclaimed the excited Suleiman ; but his ejaculation was met by a stolid and un- conscious look from both the slave and her master. " Answer me. Sister of Sheitan !'• he THE SEVEN DOORS. 259 persisted, " answer me for your life, how came you here ? ^' " Aman ! " groaned out her owner ; but the negress did not move a muscle. " Ajaib chay — they are wonders both ! " cried the furious Suleiman, turning fiercely on the old man. *' Dog ! whence came this woman? In what hellish plot have you engaged, that you bring her here to laugh at me to my beard ? Are there no laws in Stamboul, that you dare to trifle thus with one who trades in the city, and spreads his prayer- carpet in the mosque of St. Sophia? Am I a giaour, that you thus defile the grave of my father ? " " Eh vah — mercy on us ! What means my lord ? "^ asked the slave-owner in his turn : '' Is not the woman an Abyssinian? and did I not buy her honestly at the market of Adrianople. When the sun rose this morning, four of them occupied my carpet: the day is well nigh spent, and Musna alone is left: the rest have found purchasers among the EfFendis of the city. Even she herself should have been provided with a new master ere this, had I not demanded 260 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. a heavy sum for one so well skilled in house- wifery. A young gallant cheapened her only an hour since for the harem of his mother, and we parted for a hundred pitiful piastres — Look at her, EfFendim ; if, indeed, you lack a slave to tend your daughters — and surely my lord, whose beard is white, hath daughters — for you will scarcel}^ meet with one so skilful in her duties.*" "Haif! haif! — shame! shame!" impatiently interposed Suleiman : " I tell you, rogue and juggler as you are, that the slave is already mine, and I dare her to deny it." " Aman ! aman ! — alas ! alas ! " sighed the old man in his turn, affecting a look of deep concern r " would that the stricken one could obey your bidding." " What mean you, hoary sinner .?" demanded his angry listener: " ne oldou — what has hap- pened? I am weary of this folly, and can bear no more." '' On my soul be it ; " answered the slave- dealer, with a gesture of deep humility, while the negress calmly and deliberately readjusted her veil: "Who shall murmur against the THE SEVEN DOORS. 261 decrees of Allah, and the will of the holy Prophet? Were it not so, the piastres had. been mine, and I had long ere this shaken the dust of the city streets from my feet — Musna is skilful in the harem, and ready at the bath ; but my lord bids her speak, and she cannot obey him — she is swift of foot, and willing of hand, but words are denied her — Musna is dumb!"'' - " The Merchant looked incredulous, and his resolution was taken at once . " Bosh der — it is nothing ;" he said hastily ; " even thus I will purchase her — name your price, and if you be neither a Jew nor a Giaour, the slave is mine." " The EiFendi will pardon me that I intrude on his privacy;'' said a detested voice close to the elbow of the exasperated Suleiman ; "I come but to pay over to Mustafa a few hundreds of piastres for an Abyssinian slave, and I will immediately retire. Inshallah ! the purses are true, and the negress is mine, is it not so, Mus- tafa ? " And Hafiz turned to the old man, who was engaged in counting the money which be had put into his hand. " She is your's ;" said Mustafa gravely ; and 262 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. motioning to the negress to follow her new master, he was about to address the Shawl- merchant, when he was interrupted by an angry exclamation, as Suleiman flung himself across the path of the slave, and dared her to follow the son of Najip. But the dumb woman, apparently unsuspicious of his meaning, merely moved aside, and made her way to the gate by a less direct line ; while Hafiz, with a light laugh, affected to treat the interference of Suleiman as a jest, and said gaily as he moved away ; " The EfFendi may be right in deeming my bargain a poor one ; but my mother hath already many about her who have the gift of speech, and to her it will be little drawback that I bring her one who cannot add to the outcry." The Shawl-merchant literally gasped for breath; he dared not offer any open violence, nor detain the woman by force, lest he should be seized by the kavashlir,* as a disorderly person, and hur- ried before the Cadi ; while, mingled with his rage, came an intrusive memory of his former * Police of the city. THE SEVEN DOORS. 263 mistake, when he made a prisoner of the slave Semsi, who had doubtlessly amused her mis- chievous mistress, and the whole harem, with an embellished version of his jealousy, and of the hints which in his anger he had inadvertently suffered to escape him. Under these circum- stances he considered it more expedient to permit the departure of the mysterious negress and her purchaser; and to endeavour, this time at least, to entrap them ere they had leisure to rejoice over the success of their new scheme, should they indeed be wound up in the web of his an- noyances. But the felech — the constellation of Suleiman was adverse. An araba, drawn up by the side of the street, received the slave; and the driver, having bent for an instant towards Hafiz, who gave his directions in so low a voice as to be in- audible to the bystanders, drove off at a pace as rapid as the defective pavement would permit. The result requires little explanation ; for the speed of the Merchant was no match for that of the carriage ; and when he at length reached the vault, he was more vexed than surprised to be 264 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. half deafened by the peals of laughter which resounded through the subterranean ; and to find the lady and her attendant, in the full flow of confidence and hilarity. " EfFendim," commenced the Merchant sternly ; " I have purchased for you a new slave, who will be with you to-morrow ; and I have transferred Ze'inip, at some pecuniary loss, to a Caesarian Merchant, who has been deputed to supply the wives of the Pasha of the Dardanelles with four attendants. To-night, therefore, she will remain in the vault, but at dawn her new master will be here to claim her." " Oghour ola — heaven speed you ! that were a tale worth telling ;" laughed his wife. " Know you so little of a woman's nature as to believe that she will nurse her wrath for so many hours? If you take Zeinip from me I shall fall sick ; I will neither touch my zebec, nor sing the ballads to which you love to listen. See then if you wish to part us.'' The Merchant ground his teeth, and all his doubts and suspicions came back upon him — but he was powerless ; and profiting by past e^^- THE SEVEN DOORS. 265 perience he resolved to affect an indifFerence which he was far from feehng ; and to endeavour, by appearing unconscious that any mystification was intended, to throw the conspirators off their guard, and thus take them in their own toils. Acting upon this somewhat tardy resolution, Suleiman smoothed his ruffled brow, called a smile to his rigid lips, and gave a ready assent to his wife's new arrangement, to the no small astonishment of his tormentors, who were pre- pared for an obstinate opposition. And so long, indeed, did he linger in the vault, that the pretty Hanoum began to fear that the patience of Hafiz would fairly fail him ere the departure of her incomprehensible husband ! At length, however, Suleiman departed, quite unconscious of the next and final surprize which awaited him ; and when he was out of hearing, Hafiz sprang laughingly through the chasm, and bounded into the centre of the floor. " Joy ! joy ! '"* he exclaimed, as the young beauty rose from the sofa to receive him ; " six of the doors are conquered — six of the locks are shivered — six of the keys are lost — and for the VOL. I. N 266 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. seventh, my Sultana — for the seventh and the last, we have an easy remedy. The araba yet waits which brought our faithful Zeinip from the slave-market, where she played her part like the favourite of a Padishah* — the caique dances on the ripple at the pier that juts into the harbour beside ' the Gate of the Garden ' — that trusty caique which is to bear us across into Asia; there all is prepared for our flight; and when once we have reached the mountains, we may defy all the jealous husbands in Stamboul. But you weep, my houri ! Light of my eyes, and shadow of my existence — do you regret that your word is pledged ?" For a moment the weeping Hanoum made no reply : her woman-spirit quailed for an instant ; but her resolution was taken ; and, placing her hand in that of her lover, she turned on him a smile, in whose light her tears were forgotten. Zeinip, meanwhile, was busying herself among the wardrobe of her mistress, whence she brought a golden bracelet, a cachemire shawl, and a box of essence ; the prayer-cloth in which * An Emperor. THE SEVEN DOORS. 267 Hafiz had enacted the kneeling slave — the head- dress that he had worn as the Pasha's wife, and the dark feridjhe in which she had herself figured in the slave-market — and having laid them separately upon the table, she disturbed the tete-a-t^te of the lovers, to remind them that her portion of the comedy was concluded. " Mashallah ! our good Zeinip hath more prudence than we can boast, my Sultana;" ex- claimed Hafiz ; " we waste moments that we can ill spare — here are six of our successful engines — and here " — and as he spoke he took from amid the folds of his girdle seven keys, six of which he broke deliberately one after the other, and added to the separate heaps — one only remained entire, and that he laid alone and apart. " Sun of my sky !" he murmured, as the muffled Hanoum prepared to follow him through the subterranean ; " Tchabouk, tchabouk, gide- lim — quick, quick, let us go — our sands are gold until we have left Stamboul behind us — they must not run to waste ; and bak, janum — see, my soul ! he who was your husband at least n2 268 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. owes me one debt of gratitude — for I have left him a goodly key with which to secure the door of his pretty prison-cage, when his bird is flown !'^ THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 269 PART III. CHAPTER XIX. " By the soul of the Prophet 'tis a good story !" exclakned Saifula Pasha ; '• I know not when I have heard a better ! But was not Suleiman the Shawl-merchant an ass, and the father of asses, to let his beard be plucked out, handful by handful, by a pair of plotting wo- men, and a striphng ? Allah buyuk der — Allah is great ; he could have had no more wit than a dromedary." " And what became of the kiupek — the dog of a husband P""* demanded the laughing Carimfil Hanoum : " Did he keep his next harem above 270 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. the earth ? or did he try the same experiment a second time ?" " History makes no further mention of him ;" replied the young Greek, with assumed gravity. " What should it tell of a man who had placed his reliance on seven morsels of metal, when he might have been safer by far had he trusted to appearances from the first, and not taken to his house the promised wife of another ? There is a better moral in my story, kadeun ;" she con- tinued, turning towards the Circassian, " to those who look for it, than appears upon the surface. The gold-seekers do not carry away in their vessels the water of the stream, but they wash the sand when they would find the ore." " Yavash, yavash — softly, softly f said the Satrap : "we care not for any thing further than the fable itself — the moral is but beng*— it sets one to sleep."" " Your highness drinks of the mirage, like one who wanders in the desart;" interposed Katinka ; " the tale that I have told is no fable; and the lovers yet live.'' * A Narcotic. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 271 " Pek ahi— it is well done ;" said the Pasha yawning : " As for the Merchant, he was a domous — a hog ; and they spiced his dolmas for him after a wise fashion ; but you have mea- sured your tale with a mitkal,* and have filled it to overflowing, for the night has grown on us since you began it. Had it not been a good story, you would have been cramming our mouths with hashish ;-f' but it has truly been as light as the air-bag of a camel,J and our eyelids are scarcely yet weighed down." It was, as the Satrap had remarked, wearing deep into the night; and when sweetmeats and coffee had again been served, he descended from the sofa, resumed his papooshes, and returned to the salemliek, leaving the two friends once more together. " I cannot sleep, khatoun ;" said the Circas- sian : " your tale, merry as it was, has troubled me. Have we not been laughing at the Pasha to his beard ?"" ♦ Turkish measure. f A Narcotic. X When these animals are distressed on their passage through the desart, they blow from their mouths a light blood- tinted skin which preserves them from the floating sand. 272 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. " His highness would not listen to the moral, janum f' replied the laughing Greek ; " his wit, like the piety of a santon, sometimes sleeps, and he cares not to have it awakened. He will dream pleasant dreams on his sofa to-night — Care not for him, but rather let us pass into the garden, and breathe the sweet air of the lime- blossoms; for my brain throbs with fatigue, and the soft odours of the flowers will calm its pulses." A fond smile was the only answer, as the Circassian thrust her small feet into her embroi- dered slippers, and led the way to the palace- terrace. Thence they descended, by a flight of marble steps, into the parterre ; and having lingered awhile beside the basin, to see the scales of the gold fish with which it was filled glitter in the moonlight, they slowly entered the lime- avenue. The night wind was making gentle minstrelsy with the leaves, and the flowers were pouring themselves out in perfume, while the fall of the many fountains came soothingly to the ear, and completed the luxury of the hour. THE ROMAN'CE OF THE HAREM. 273 " It is in moments like these ;'' said Katinka, as the two ladies flung themselves down among the cushions which a slave who followed them heaped above a Persian carpet, under a stately tulip tree ; " moments of external calm, when the moonlight seems to slumber on the beautiful bosom of the earth, that the ashes of the past sweep in clouds over the soul. Carimfil, does not your spirit fall back upon the days when, loved and loving, as woman loves and is loved but once, your arm wreathed in that of Anas- tasius, you wandered, surrounded by an atmos- phere of delight, among the scented groves and beside the sparkling streams of your delicious land? When the words of your chosen one rose on the air like perfume ; and the light of his eyes outshone the watching moon ! Are the ties which bind you to the Moslem so holy as those which linked you to your first love ? The chains may be golden, but still they are mere fetters ; and the free spirit sickens beneath constraint.*" " Of what avail, sister of my soul, are such inquiries ? "" asked the Circassian in reply ; " kismet — it is my fate ! You have but to look n5 274 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. on my dim eye and my faded cheek, and to remember what I once was, to feel how little all this splendour has touched my heart, though I have been compelled to bow before the power of my constellation. Could I purchase with a year of this empty and profitless profusion one hour such as those to which you have just alluded, how gladly would I crush all my future life into a few short days, and live it out at once in hap- piness !" " Na to ne — there it is !" retorted the young Greek ; " your heart plays the rebel, and yet you affect to feel horror at the thought of eman- cipating yourself from your present thrall. Think you that, once more free, I would waste an hour in the harem of the Moslem, were it not from a conviction that the day is not far dis- tant, when ^" " Nay, nay, no more of this to-night ;" mur- mured the Hanoum, as she turned aside her head, and her tears glittered in the moonlight ; " my dreams are already evil, and yet I sorrow to awaken. The deep and hopeless grief to which I was a prey ere your arrival has been ex- THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 275 changed for an anguish far more acute, and yet to which I cUng as though it were a joy.'' Katinka smiled, and for a time there was silence, while the Circassian was left to her own thoughts, from which she started suddenly, and turning towards her companion, asked anxiously ; " How will you contrive to inform him that we are here ?" " Am I not a Greek ?" demanded Katinka ; " sorrow has taught me subtlety. Ere this he must be on his way."" A gush of tears from the beautiful Circassian repUed to the intimation, as she threw herself upon the bosom of her friend, and wept aloud. " Why, this is idle, khatoun V said the Greek soothingly ; " your fate is in your own hands ; you have but to bid me drive him hence, and he will obey you, and carry his broken heart to his own land." '*• He has perchance forgotten me" — sobbed out the fair Carimfil. " Do the flowers forget the sun, or the lake the moonlight ? Come they not at their appointed hour.'* Wherefore then should you, who are 276 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. brighter than the flowers, and fairer than the moonhght, doubt that your lover will fly to your feet when he is summoned there ?"" The argument was unanswerable ; for there is no consolation so satisfactory to a pretty woman as that which is deduced from her own beauty ; and although, in the present instance, the fair mourner asked no further assurance of her lover's probable advent, she began to consider it as less doubtful than it had appeared a mo- ment back ; and it was consequently with a bright smile that she listened to a thousand trifling, but, to her, interesting details, which her companion poured into her willing ear as the time went by unheeded. The attendant slaves, who occupied a mat a short distance from their mistresses, had long fallen asleep, lulled by the plashing waters and the sighing wind ; but the dreams of the two friends were waking dreams, rendered the more delightful from a sense of their reality. Katinka was the first to remark that the sha- dows were growing shorter and fainter, and the night almost spent. THE ROMANXE OF THE HAREM. 277 " We are playing truant strangely from our gilded cage ;" she said, as she pressed her lips to the brow of her companion ; " and may chance to prove our imprudence to-morrow by our suffering — and lest we should have already incurred this penalty, I will, ere we leave the garden, sing to you a song which you must well remember, for it was a tribute to your own bright eyes, in one of the laughing hours when our visions were only of joy. You cannot have forgotten it — for I, who did but smile be- cause you were happy, can yet see the minstrel, seated at your feet beneath a cedar-tree, his mandolin in his hand, and his gaze riveted on the brow of his beloved. Listen '^ and she swept the strings of her zebec, and sang her wild ballad to a melody which is some- times the accompaniment of the graceful Ro- maika. SONG OF THE GREEK LOVER. I've heard of isles beyond the sea Where summer neither fails nor fades. Where leaves are ever on the tree, Where verdure ever clothes the glades — 278 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. I've heard of birds so gay and bright. That as they hover round the bowers Whose blossoms v^roo the noonday light, They look like fair and flying flowers. I've heard of coral caves, beneath The heaving bosom of the ocean ; Where many a sea-nymph twines her wreath, And warbles out with tuneful breath, Her young and beautiful emotion — I've heard of mountains bleak and bare, Shaming with barrenness the vision, Which yet embosomed gems as rare As ever shone in halls Elysian. I've heard of fountain goddesses, With drooping head and flowing curls, Who, in their liquid boddices, Whene'er they wept, shed tears of pearls — I've heard of serial spirits, flitting In beauty through the summer beam; I've heard of river-nymphs, calm sitting Beside some leaf-embowered stream. In short, I've heard of many things, All beautiful, and bright, and free ; And 'mid these fond imaginings. Lady, ray thoughts have flown to thee ! I take the sunshine of the isles, Those homes of everlasting spring ; And as I coin them into smiles, Upon thy brow those smiles I fling. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 279 And the bright birds ! I lend their grace, Their buoyancy, and happy voices, To thy glad tones, and that fair face, Which every heart and eye rejoices ! But when I come to nymphs and fays, To goddesses, and sprites celestial, I drop all metaphoric lays, And thank the fates that thou'rt terrestrial 1 For in thy young and sparkling beauty Thou art to me more fair by far, Than if I tendered mere lip-duty To thee, in semblance of a star. Yes, rather would I wreathe around thee, A garland of each flower that blows, Than have to tell that I had found thee A sprite, soft sleeping in a rose — And 'twere far pleasanter with thee O'er gem-lined rocks to climb and clamber, Than thine enchanted form to see Enclosed within a wall of amber. Thus then, though idly I may dream. And liken thee to things celestial ; I say again — I love thy beam The better that it is terrestrial I " Ah ! well indeed do I remember it ! " ex- claimed Carimfil Hanoura, clasping her hands passionately; but it was now the turn of the young Greek to preach prudence, and to urge the necessity of returning to the house. 280 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. '' Sleepless eyes will be dim ; " she said, smilingly : " and late vigils make a dull harem ; there are yet some hours to the dawn : let us in, and to rest while we may, kadeun ; it is now too late alike for smiles or tears." In half an hour the harem of Saifula Pasha was buried in sleep. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 281 CHAPTER XX. Meanwhile, a more active scene was trans- acting elsewhere. A Tatar, who had been pro- fusely recompensed, was despatched to Circassia, to the dweUing of the young Merchant, Anas- tatius Maniolopolo, with a scroll of parchment, inscribed with delicate Greek characters. The missive was received with a delio^ht which won golden acknowledgments of his fidelity from the lover; who asked not by whom it had been intrusted to him, but retained his services as his own guide on his journey to the province of Saifula Pasha. A short time sufficed for the arrangement of his affairs, which he placed under the superintendence of a Greek friend : 282 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. and half wild with the joy of finding his sister still in life, when he had so long wept her as dead ; and of learning the undiminished affection of the beautiful girl to whom he had given his heart; he bade adieu to Circassia, accom- panied by Safii, his Tatar guide, without having framed one feasible plan for the regulation of his future proceedings; and contented, in the first rush of his delight, to breathe the same air as his loved ones, and to trust to his happy fate for the future. Anastatius Maniolopolo was, perhaps, in the most enviable frame of mind, as he galloped his fleet steed among the mountains^ to which man can attain in this world : careless of the past, enjoying the present, and without a fear for the future ! Had not the dead come to hfe, and the lost one been found? Why then should he dread what was to follow ? She would fly with him — she would leave her gilded prison, and once more live over again in his company those glorious hours which the horrors of war had terminated so abruptly. Such were his thoughts, as, followed by Safii THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 283 the Tatar, he reached on the second day of his journey a lovely valley, lying like a huge emerald at the mountain-foot, and traversed by a fair stream, which, fed by a spring in the higher lands, and falling in a natural cascade down the face of the rock, formed in the bottom a lovely river flowing above party-coloured pebbles and sparkling sand, and overarched at intervals by groups of forest-trees, among which the stately and umbrageous maple and the delicate weeping birch were conspicuous ; while tufts of mimosa and henna bushes, with their minute blossoms, as white and as sweet as the flowers of the jas- mine, made the air balmy with their fragrance. Storks and cranes flew over their heads, and numbers of pheasants rested among the branches of the tall trees, which were also vocal with singing birds. The wild vine flung its leafy gar- lands from stem to stem, and the grapes were hanging from it in blushing clusters, wooing the hand of the travellers. Numbers of the Jerhuah or leaping mice, * common in the country, were ♦ The Jerhuah (otherwise Gerboa) or leaping mouse of Circassia, is also a native of Northern Africa, Nubia, and 284 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. sporting on the banks of the river ; and the turf beneath the trees was enamelled with flowers. It was a scene that Benuzzeer, the Persian Claude, would have loved to paint; and here the travellers sprang from their saddles, in order to enjoy their noon-tide meal upon the grass; and while Safii was kindling a fire, and preparing their repast, the lover walked apart on the margin of the stream, and lost himself in visions of delight, such as could only be realized in Peristan. The sun, riding in mid course, fell brilliantly on every surrounding object, and rendered the freshness of the running water, and the coolness of the long grass beneath the trees, doubly re- freshing ; and it was not until he had been twice summoned by his hungry companion, that Ma- niolopolo abandoned his delicious reverie, to minister to the grosser necessities of existence. And even then, when the repast was spread Egypt; it is about the size of a squirrel, legged like a kangaroo, and has long ears ; it has a habit of laying its tail flat upon its back, and leaping to a considerable height or dis- tance; from which peculiarity it derives its name. THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. 285 out before him, the young Greek could scarcely withdraw his eyes from the glorious landscape ; his heart overflowed with happiness, and Nature seemed to sympathise in his joy ; while all around was so thoroughly in unison with the harmony and elasticity of his own feelings, that Maniolopolo did but scant justice to the meal, to which his companion was paying homage as de- vout as ever Ghebre lavished upon the sacred flame of his faith. It was almost with regret that the young Greek once more rose from his fair and fragrant resting- place, and prepared to resume his journey. But the remembrance of the beautiful Carimfil pierced through the mists of memory like a bright star ; and as he vaulted into his saddle, and struck the sharp spur into the flank of his fleet-footed Arab, the nam.e of his young love was on his lips, and hope again buoyant in his heart. " My lord loves this fair scene ;'' said Safii, as, after a brief space, the young lover once more checked his gallant horse, and gazed around him ; " and in truth it looks as though Joy had built her nest among its branches, and Love 286 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. rocked her first-born on the river-blossoms : and yet, I have heard a darker tale told of as smiling a valley as this : a tale in which the muddy tor- rent of misery overflowed the bright plain of youth, and the rude hand of violence clasped the mantle of helplessness : —but, after all, what are these fables of past times ? are they not bosh — nothing.*" " Nay, not so, Safii ;" replied Maniolopolo ; " there is much to be learnt from the legends of the massaldjhis, if we only read them aright. Tell me this tale as we ascend the mountain ; it will beguile the way." The Tatar smiled ; and having flung the bridle on the neck of his steed, at once complied, with the air of one who feels that he is confer- ring a benefit. THE TATAR'S TALE. 287 CHAPTER XXI. THE TATAR'S TALE. In the famous city of Schamachie, the capital of the province of Schirwan in Persia, lived a Merchant named Ali, who, from his immense wealth, was considered as a second Karoon.* He traded with the Franks in raw and wrought silks, and the wove cottons of the West ; with the Muscovite dealers in furs, leathers, and metals ; with the Tatars in horses ; and with the Jews — may their fathers' graves be defiled ! -- in gold and silver, brocades and weapons, woollen goods and tapestry: in short, there was no caravan passed in or out of the city in which the Mer- chant Ali had not a large venture ; and so favoured was he by the Prophet that he seemed * The Croesus of the East. 288 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. to live only to prove the fallacy of the proverb, which says that, for every pearl of price that sees the sun, the diver must descend a score of times to the bottom of the ocean. Certain it is that, as often as he dipped his right hand into the bowl of fortune, he drew up the gem from the depth. Moreover, the Merchant had a son — a youth of pride and promise; and of a disposition so gentle that it seemed as though he had been nursed by the Peris, and fed with the honey-dew that the early bee rifles from the rose. Even as the azure veil of the firmament hides the ten thousand houris who live amid the sunbeams, so did his modesty conceal from all, save a chosen few, the divine perfections of his nature. Mohammed, for that was his name, was one day walking in the pleasant and fertile environs of the city, musing over the ruined wall of the southern quarter which was demolished by Shah Abbas, and sighing in the gentleness of his spirit at the cruel effects of violence, when the slowly-sinking sun, pillowing its golden brow on its cushion of crimson and purple, warned him to THE TATAR'S TALE. 289 return to the house of his father in time for the evening meal. As he passed slowly along one of the nar- rowest and least-frequented streets of the city, his ear was suddenly outraged by the voice of anguish ; and advancing anxiously in the quarter whence it came, he saw an old man of stern as- pect, who, with ferocious gestures, was urging on the wall's guard to tear a young and beautiful female, whose veil had escaped in the struggle, from the arms of her aged parent, while she rent the vault of heaven with cries and sup- plications. Mahoramed sprang forward Hke the light- hoofed deer before the tread of the hunter, and at once inquired the cause of this iron-hearted, violence ; as the maiden turned aside her grace- ful head with a blush which threw a new sunlight over her beauty. The story was soon told. The father of the young houri was the debtor of the hoary sinner who stood by, en- forcing this deed of darkness ; and his child was about to be torn from him, and sold into slavery, in default of other payment. VOL. I. O 290 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. The voice of sorrow was soon turned into that of joy, and the happy father laid the fore- head of thanksgiving in the dust of gratitude, as Mohammed, out of the abundance of his generosity, paid down the required sum, and freed the beautiful Zohara * from the grasp of her captor. But, alas ! the son of HaU had but transferred the chain of slavery to his own heart; and when, in obedience to the old man's prayer, he passed the threshold of the father of Zohara, and saw her mother weeping at his knees, while the maiden herself stood by in her young loveli- ness, partially shrouding her face in the folds of her robe, he felt that the sun and moon of his earthly sky would hereafter be the eyes of the fair creature whom he had rescued. It was true that at present the mists of sorrow obscured the sunbeams of beauty, but Zohara was like the water-lily which is ever the loveliest in its tears : and as the young man quitted the roof to which he had now restored happiness, he felt that an arrow was in his heart which he sought not to pluck out. ♦ Morning Star. THE TATAR'S TALE. 291 Mohammed had studied like a moullah in the colleges for which Schamachie has so long been famous, and the boasted sciences of the Franks were no more than atoms in the beams of his knowledge ; but from this time forth he sheathed the bright spear of study in the breast of indo- lence, and wandered during whole days beside the streams of the valley, or beneath the sha- dows of the forest-boughs, weaving sweet fancies of which the fair Zohara was ever the brilliant subject. Such a passion as this could end only in marriage : and it was not long ere Mohammed, the son of the wealthy Hali, asked for his bride the daughter of the pennyless Timsah, whose worldly possessions would not have loaded the weakest-backed camel in the city. It is not dif- ficult to imagine how he was answered ; and while the mother of the young man was pre- paring to receive the wife of her son, he passed whole hours beside her, gazing on her fresh cheek, where nature had crushed its roses to paint the fairest skin that ever flushed at praise; and into her deep eyes, where the light seemed o2 292 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. to slumber, save when his smile called it forth in living fire. Graceful was she as the safsaf, and fawn-like as the light-footed maidens of Singol ; while her voice was low and sweet as the night- wind among the tombs of the early dead. Rechid Aga was the friend of Mohammed ; they clung together like double pomegranates ; and, in the exuberance of his joy, the unwary young man poured into the ear of his chosen associate the tale of his approaching happiness. Rechid listened, and a wild wish grew in his soul, and poisoned it like the breath of the upas. The painted wings of vanity were folded about his heart ; and, as he curled his dark and glossy beard over his fingers, he began to ask himself wherefore the felech of Mohammed had shed a light upon his path which had been denied to him ? If the maiden was so fair as the eyes of his friend had made her, she must be a banished peri, condemned to visit earth for a time, and to be won by a mortal — Why then should he not be that favoured one.? And as Ebhs thus prompted him, vague thoughts and hopes grew into shape and tangibility within his bosom ; and he re- THE TATAR'S TALE. 293 solved to learn all that the trusting friendship of Mohammed might lead him to reveal ; seizing, therefore, with the hand of sport, the skirts of confidence, he smilingly asked a thousand ques- tions, to which his friend replied with unsus- picious frankness ; and thus the poverty of Timsah, and the obscurity of his position be- came known to him, as well as the beauty of Zohara, and the story of her rescue. Rechid Aga left the presence of his friend with treachery in his heart. His fancy had been taken captive by the glowing picture of this peerless beauty so soon to be a bride, and he resolved that should she be but half as lovely as she had been painted to him, she should be his, if craft or violence could win her. As the steel-hearted leopard springs on the trembling chamois, so rushed the treacherous Aga on his prey ! The house of the slumbering Timsah was fired at midnight ; and the shrieking Zohara borne through the flames, only to be placed on a swift horse, encircled by the arm of its rider, and panting with affright. As day dawned the horseman reined up his 294 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. rapid steed, and springing to the earth, drew after him his pale and sinking burthen. It was a glorious morning ; and their halt was in a valley where happy hearts, blessed in each other, might have been content to dwell for ever. Much time was spent in restoring the maiden to consciousness, for her swoon was long and heavy ; and as Rechid Aga hung over her, and bathed her pale brow with the pure water of a mountain stream, and crushed in her small hands the aromatic blossoms of the henna-plant, he felt that the words of Mohammed had been weak in painting her beauty. He had laid her down beneath the tall boughs of a maple tree, at whose roots the fresh moss grew rankly, clus- tered with deep-blue violets ; and when the fair Zohara at length opened her eyes, and beheld beside her the friend of her affianced husband, she clasped her hands in a transport of joy and gratitude ; for she guessed not that he had stained the skirts of his honour with the defile- ments of treachery, but at once believed that he had preserved her from the flames in friendship for Mohammed. THE TATAR'S TALE. 295 As the Aga caught her meaning, he eagerly encouraged the delusion ; and, spreading before her some dried fruits, with which he had come provided, he urged her to partake of them ere thej pursued their way back to the city. The gentle Zohara, grateful for his care, smilingly obeyed ; and, as her false-hearted companion hastened to the stream to procure for her a draught of its refreshing water, she looked eagerly and admiringly about her, on the fair scene amid which she was seated. The clouds, those graceful cup-bearers of the sky, were riding like snow-flakes upon the clear blue bosom of space ; on every side bloomed clus- ters of bright and many-tinted flowers, worthy to be the envy of the constellations; the sun, a heaven-inspired painter ! had sketched a thousand beautiful designs on their leafy tablets; and sweeter than the musk of Tartary was the per- fume which accompanied his touch. The forest- boughs dropped honey, for the haunt of the wild-bee was among their leaves ; and the ruby cups of the bursting buds were each sealed with a diamond drop of dew. The distant mountains 296 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. bathed their brows in light; and the lesser heights were clothed in draperies of many co- loured vegetation ; the tall trees which overhung the stream looked like statel}/ beauties mirroring their gracefulness in the clear waters ; while the more flexible safsaf, the weeping willow, and the feathery birch, bent low into the wave, as though faint with enjoyment. The slender- hoofed hind at intervals bounded past, light as the wind that waved the branches ; and the bulbul nestled amid the leaves above her head, and not yet weary of his melodious griefs, was pouring out a song to which the peris might have loved to listen. As Zohara contemplated this fairy scene, her soul was steeped in the honey of dehght ; the thorns of care, and the gnawing caustic of sorrow, were alike shut out ; and when the Aga held the cup to her lips, sparkling with the cold rock water, she thanked him with a smile which spread the glossy feathers of hope over the black heart of falsehood. But ere long the serpent-tongue of guilt be- trayed its worthless purpose; and the affrighted THE TATAR'S TALE. 297 maiden learnt the unholy passion which had caused her to be thus borne away from the roof of her father, with a terror which denied her utterance. The vows breathed by her perfidious suitor did but rouse hatred in her bosom ; and as she became more calm, she wedded the name of Rechid Aga to every reproachful epithet with which her memory supplied her. She re- minded him of the heavy chain of gratitude that had been flung around her by the generous aid of Mahommed, ere yet she had learnt to love him ; and she vowed by the soul of the prophet, and by the grave of her father, that she would rather die by her own hand, than be the wife of another. The protestations of the Aga fell on her ear like water upon sand, and left no im- pression ; while the young man gnashed the sharp teeth of disappointment against the shivered weapon of defeat, as, with her small dagger in her hand, which she had drawn from amid the folds of her girdle, she threatened to sheathe the steel of death in her heart, if he did not leave her on the instant. The Aga urged and expostulated in vain. 298 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. He represented the impossibility of her return to the city, alone and unprotected; but the maiden spurned alike his threats and his en- treaties ; and she had raised her arm to strike, preferring death to further communion with her treacherous companion, when the tramp of horses was heard in the distance; and before Rechid Aga could warn her of the probable danger, a wild shriek from Zohara summoned to their side a party of predatory Arabs. The maiden had scarcely time to cover her face with her robe, when the foremost of the train checked his steed under the shadow of the tree beneath which she was sitting ; while in the next instant the Aga, who had drawn his scymitar on the first alarm, was wounded, overpowered, and bound to one of its branches. So unlooked-for a capture, almost in the vi- cinity of the city, was hailed with dehght by the Arabs, whose chief immediately claimed the maiden as his spoil ; and having looked upon her beauty, talked exultingly of the number of purses which would be freely paid down for so fair a purchase ; while others appropriated the THE TATAR'S TALE. 299 horse and weapons of the Aga, the whole of which, as their practised glance at once detected, were of great value. Having satisfied them- selves on this point, half a dozen of the most distinguished of the party seated themselves on the grass, and prepared to partake of the fruits which were still spread before the maiden ; while the rest, formed into separate groupes on the margin of the stream, drew from out of their travelling-bags their less delicate contents, and commenced a hurried meal. Zohara, meanwhile, looked on tremblingly, and vague projects of escape rolled across her mind ; but, like wreaths of vapour they left nothing tangible behind ; and as she turned aside from her captors, and her eye fell on the drooping and wounded Aga, the origin of all her sufferings, her heart froze within her, and her pulses stood still, as though Azrael had pressed his finger upon her brow. Coiled among the branches above her head, she beheld an enormous serpent, slowly moving along towards the bough to which the unhappy young man had been secured. The sunlight 300 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. fell flickering through the leaves, and touching at intervals the bright scales with which he was covered, turned them into jewels : his deep green eyes looked like emeralds, and his forked tongue protruded its poisoned lance from the blood-stained cavern of his yawning jaws. On, on he moved — and Zohara could not stir a limb, nor utter a cry for help — on, on, until his head rested on the shoulder of the wounded man, and his gleaming folds were coiled around his body. Here for awhile he remained, as though contem- plating the scene beneath ; and then gliding away into the thick foliage as noiselessly as he had stolen forth, he disappeared among the leaves. Again Zohara breathed freely ; and she would have warned her captors of the vicinity of their dangerous enemy, and besought of them to rescue the insensible Aga from so horrible a death ; but at this moment, the Arabs, having drunk too deeply from their wine-skins, began to wrangle among themselves, and never ceased their dispute until the slumber of inebriety stole upon them, when, one by one, they laid their beads upon the earth, and slept. THE TATAR'S TALE. 301 Now indeed the maiden began to let the wings of hope flutter about her heart ; but she yet felt the necessity of caution, for although the groupes by the river bank followed the example of their chiefs, and flung themselves into the attitude of repose, she knew that their's would be but the liorhter slumbers of fatio^ue, which an unguarded movement might serve to dissipate. While, therefore, she was carefully turning in her mind the most feasible means of success, her thoughts divided between her terror of the ser- pent, and her hope of escape from her enemies ; the mighty snake once more appeared above her head, and as her eye again rested upon it, she crouched down with clasped hands and clenched teeth, without power to withdraw herself from the danger. The serpent, however, glided down the tree, and passed her by unheeded, attracted by the scent of the wine-skins which yet lay beside the sleeping Arabs. Twice, thrice, he rearc^d his crested head high above them ; and then plung- ing it into the liquid, he drank deep, and flung back into the wine a few heavy black drops of the foul poison which hung about his jaws. 302 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. The noise of his retreat, as he again glided swiftly into the underwood with a rattling sound, accompanied by a shrill hissing noise, aroused the Arabs, who started from the earth, and clutched their weapons ; but when on look- ing around they could discover no cause of alarm, and saw one pale captive seated beneath the tree, and the other yet bound to its branches, they only muttered an imprecation ; and seizing the skins of wine, passed them one to the other, and resumed their rest. Now was the moment come when Zohara felt within her the courage which grows out of peril. She glided to the side of the Aga, but he did not unclose his eyes — she touched his hand, it was cold and nerveless — and the maiden started with a new terror, for she felt that she looked on death. A sudden impulse shook her, and she drew forth her dagger. Were not they who were sleeping but a few paces off, her enemies ? and might she not deliver herself from their grasp ? Those at her feet could injure her no further, for she knew that they had quaffed poison with THE TATAR'S TALE. 303 their last draught — She moved towards the mar- gin of the stream, but her heart grew sick ; she felt that, if w^hen the sword is in the hand of power, generosity is the scabbard of heroes, so much more should mercy be that of woman ! The steed of the Aga was standing, fastened to a mimosa bush, not fifty paces from her ; and with the speed of lightning she disengaged the bridle, and sprang upon his back ; but ere she could commence her flight, a second trampling of horses sounded through the valley, and at once the sleeping Arabs vaulted into their sad- dles, and, shouting to their chiefs, prepared to meet the coming enemy. But their chiefs answered not ; they lay prone and motionless upon the earth, their faces blackening in the wind, and the poison oozing from their parted lips : and the wondering tribe were yet busied in endeavouring to awaken them, when a band of horsemen, led by Mohammed the son of Hah, came like a thunder-cloud across the val- ley, sweeping down all before them. Zohara was saved! The " Morning- Star" once more lit up the sky of Mohammed's happi- 304 THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. ness ; and the dark-hearted Aga paid the forfeit of his treachery. But here we are on the mountain brow, EfFendim ; and, with the help of the prophet, we should be past the dark ridge which cuts against the clouds yonder, before sun-set ; so we have little time to waste." And as Safii ceased speaking he gave his good horse the rein, and, followed by Maniolopolo, was soon descending into the valley. END OF VOL. T. LONDON : F. SHOBERL, JUN., 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET. ^1^ re <;r,. a CO m-^^ A2 UNIVERSITY OF ILUN0I9-URBANA 3 0112 049678698