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 University of Illinois Library 
 
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 7 ^(c 
 
 i%
 
 HERMANN AGHA: 
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. GIFFORD PALGRAVE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ARABIA," 
 Ett. 
 
 " I ran it through, even from my boyish days, 
 To the verj' moment that he bade me tell it ; 
 Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances. 
 Of moving accidents by flood and field. 
 Of hair-breadth 'scapes, — 
 Of being taken by the insolent foe 
 And sold to slavery ; of my redemption thence 
 And portance in my travels' history." 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 VOL I. 
 
 London : 
 
 Henry S. Kixg & Co., 65, Corxhill. 
 1872.
 
 [A// Rights Reserved.
 
 V,/ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Tales called '' Eastern," are very generally 
 characterised by an extravagance In plot and 
 in detail, an exaggeration In sentiment and In 
 expression, which bear a hardly nearer resem- 
 ^ blance to the realities of Eastern life, than the 
 iv^^Cato" of Addison or the "Count Robert" 
 of Scott do to the times and persons they 
 ^profess to represent Even the current ver- 
 sions — not Lane's — or rather paraphrases, of 
 the " Arabian Nights," belong In great measure 
 ^- to this class ; while Hope's inimitable '' Ana- 
 " staslus," so perfect in Its Levantine delineations, 
 -> becomes unreal when venturing into the regions 
 '^ of unalloyed Oriental existence. 
 ^ This is a thing to be regretted ; for false 
 potions, though on subjects of comparatively 
 4 remote interest, never fail to be ultimately, In 
 
 4
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 some way or other, injurious ; and whatever 
 is worth knowing at all, is worth knowing 
 rightly. 
 
 In the following narrative, I have accordingly 
 endeavoured to lay open before Western eyes 
 a page, one page only, from the great volume 
 of Eastern life. Its characters are all the better 
 legible through the light thrown by the reflex 
 or subjective European intellect on the more 
 spontaneous and objective ways and habits of 
 Asia, especially when the two natures are 
 brought, as they are in this narrative, into 
 intimate contact. The result of such contact 
 is often a strange one ; it was so in the present 
 instance ; so strange, indeed, that some apology 
 might seem requisite for its publication. 
 
 Be its apology then, that it is not fiction, but 
 reality ; not invention, but narration. Hence 
 also, like whatever is true, it has its moral, or 
 indeed its many morals ; they may be found 
 by those who seek them, in the incidents them-
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 selves, of the manifold loom of life that weaves 
 the chequer-work of colour and race in the 
 lands where, as some think, all races and all 
 colours had oriorin. 
 
 The narrator, and at the same time the 
 principal character, of this story is Hermann 
 Wolff, a Saxon, native of the village of 
 Rosenau, near Torzberg, on the south-eastern 
 frontier of Transylvania. Hermann had, while 
 yet a boy, in the year 1762, been carried oif 
 into slavery by a band of Turkish marauders. 
 But at the time here chronicled, that is, in the 
 month of June nine years later, he was already 
 an officer of high trust In the service of the 
 famous 'Alee Beg Baloot-Kapan, the Georgian, 
 then for a short space independent ruler of 
 Egypt ; and as such, he held rank in the conquer- 
 ing fleet that sailed from Egypt to Syria in 1 771. 
 It is well known how 'Alee Beg threw off, in 
 1768, the allegiance of the Porte; and, in the
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 fourth year of his rebellion, commissioned his 
 lieutenant Mohammed-Beg Aboo-Dahab to in- 
 vade and subdue Syria, with an army that 
 anticipated the exploits of Ibraheem Pasha and 
 his soldiers in the nineteenth century ; meet- 
 ing with like success at first, followed by similar 
 but even more crushing ruin, both to the troops 
 and to him who sent them, at the close. 
 However, in 1771, 'Alee Beg was at the height 
 of his good-fortune ; and his young favourite 
 and brother-in-law Hermann, then known as 
 Ahmed Beg en-NImsawee, or the German, 
 might well be proud of the flag under which 
 he sailed. And then it was, on board of an 
 Egyptian vessel, that he related what follows 
 to his intimate friend and associate the Arab 
 Tantawee Beg, so called after his native village 
 of Tantah, in Lower Egypt, one of the chief 
 leaders in the Syrian expedition, the right arm 
 of 'Alee Beg in life, and the faithful companion 
 of his downfall and death, in 1773, in the forty-
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 fifth year of his age. I should here add, that 
 Hermann's younger sister Mary, entitled by 
 Egyptian chroniclers '* the beautiful," had been, 
 like her brother, kidnapped from Rosenau while 
 yet a child ; and, after many vicissitudes, was 
 at this epoch the favourite wife of 'Alee Beg 
 himself, and mother of his only daughter, the 
 dearly beloved Khadeejah. 
 
 It was in the Mosque called after Mohammed 
 Aboo-Dahab, the lieutenant, murderer, and 
 successor of 'Alee Beg, in the north-east 
 quarter of Cairo, that, under the guidance of 
 a learned Sheykh of the town, I found and 
 studied the manuscript records of the great 
 Egyptian revolt, and of those concerned in it. 
 And thence I extracted the main facts, among 
 which the present tale forms an episode. 
 The rest was drawn by me from other sources, 
 for the authenticity of which I can vouch, but 
 need not here specify more particularly. 
 
 The attempt to transfer an Eastern picture
 
 VIU TREFACE. 
 
 to a Western canvas, has necessitated the 
 adoption of a certain hberty of phrase and 
 expression, unusual perhaps, among Orientalists ; 
 but due to the impossibility of giving to a 
 literal translation of Arab word and thought, 
 the vividness required for the reproduction of 
 the imaged sense in European minds. By so 
 doing, I have in a measure sacrificed philology 
 to truth ; perhaps, an advantageous sacrifice. 
 Nor does this in reality detract from the exact- 
 ness of the rendering. Youth, energy, and 
 love, have a language of their own more 
 ancient than Babel ; a tongue still common 
 and unconfused by tribe or clime.
 
 HERMANN AGHA. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Late or early, dusk or clear, 
 Spring-tide comes but once a year ; 
 Joy or sorrow, lost or won, 
 Heart's first love is once alone. 
 
 Summer seasons may be fair. 
 But sweet spring-tide is not there. 
 Later loves right dear may prove, 
 Yet they liken not first love. 
 
 '' And now," said Tantawee Beg to his 
 friend, as they sat together near the stern 
 bulwarks of the ship, somewhat apart from 
 the others on board, ''let me hear what next 
 happened to you after your capture." 
 
 Hermann complied, and thus continued his 
 story. 
 
 ''After about a fortnight of stupefaction, 
 rather than of positive suffering, passed in 
 
 VOL. I. B •'
 
 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 the village, — I forget its name, — where the 
 marauders stopped to take stock of, and to 
 portion out their booty, my wounds, which 
 were not dangerous, had healed sufficiently 
 to permit of my accompanying my captors 
 on their seemingly interminable round of 
 march and halt, across what I afterwards 
 learned to be the province of Roumelia. 
 Afterwards, I say; for at the time Itself I 
 paid little attention either to the country we 
 traversed, or to any other circumstance of the 
 journey, except my own miserable condition 
 my ruined past, my unhappy present, and my 
 worse than uncertain future. At last, when 
 God willed, we reached Constantinople. 
 
 ''As we approached It, the actual view of 
 that vast capital, known to me in my native 
 town only by vague and fabulous description, 
 its far-reaching crown of walls and towers, 
 its domes and minarets, its cypress groves
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 and gilded pinnacles, aroused me for the first 
 time from the half-lethargy in which I was 
 plunged. I gazed with a sense of admiration 
 and curiosity, not unmixed even then with a 
 sort of boyish eagerness to be there, and to 
 take my part in that unknown world ; till I 
 felt almost a desire to begin my new life, 
 whatever that might be, in good earnest, 
 though I could not so soon forget all that I 
 had left behind me in the old. 
 
 " But my spirits sank again when once 
 within the town, where I could then see 
 absolutely nothing beyond the narrow and 
 uneven streets which we slowly threaded, 
 till, after many windings and turnings, we 
 stopped before a low stone portal, crossed 
 by an iron chain. Here our band alighted ; 
 and I soon found myself within, lodged, or, 
 to use a more fitting term, stabled, in company 
 with a score of fellow-captives, mostly Geor-
 
 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 gians and Circassians, in the vault of a large 
 and gloomy khan/ situated, as I subsequently 
 discovered, in the very heart of the city. 
 Three days after, days of discomfort and de- 
 gradation that I gladly pass over in memory 
 as in recital, I was a purchased slave. 
 
 ** The master whom my fate assigned 
 me was a wealthy Beg, of an old Koordish 
 family, resident for some generations past 
 in the city of Bagdad. There he had been 
 born and brought up ; and now, after a long 
 course of intriguing to be appointed Pasha 
 over his natal town and district, had at length 
 attained the scope of his persevering ambition. 
 This he had effected by presenting himself in 
 person at Constantinople, along with such good 
 store of costly shawls and carpets, of coin and 
 
 ^ A large, unfurnished building, generally quadran- 
 gular in form, and containing vaults and rooms for the 
 accommodation of goods or travellers.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 jewellery, of Persian tumbakee/ and Khor- 
 assan sabres, that he had effectually convinced 
 all the Stambool officials who were anywise, 
 directly or indirectly, concerned in the nomi- 
 nation to that important post, from the Sadr- 
 ul-'Aazem, or Grand Vizier, downwards, that 
 he, Kara-Mustapha-Oghloo Beg,^ was, alone 
 of all candidates present or possible, rightly 
 qualified to fill it. 
 
 " Business however, even when conducted 
 by those best of agents, gifts, is slow work 
 at Constantinople ; and Kara-Mustapha-Ogh- 
 loo had already, I was told, passed six 
 entire months of attendance and present- 
 making at the capital ; and he was now, 
 not unnaturally, anxious to bring so expen- 
 sive a stay to an end. However, before 
 
 ^ A kind of tobacco, used for the water-pipe, or 
 hooka ; the best is grown at Shiraz. 
 2 The son of black Mustapha.
 
 HERMANN AGUA : 
 
 quitting the scene of his hard-earned diplo- 
 matic, or rather financial, triumph, the new- 
 made Pasha had prudently determined to 
 surround his person with a select number of 
 attendants, strangers to the jealousies and 
 plots of Irak^ and Bagdad. But at the same 
 time, and for analogous reasons, he was un- 
 willing to take with him, as the future 
 inmates of his palace, any who had been 
 themselves long enough at Constantinople 
 to form over close and, possibly, dangerous 
 connections there ; lest by so doing he 
 should, instead of a body-servant, get hold 
 of a spy, perhaps an assassin. Hence his 
 choice fell by preference on new arrivals 
 from distant lands, such as mvself. 
 
 ^ * Irak' is the extreme south-east province of the 
 Turkish Empire, comprising the lower course of the 
 Tigris and Euphrates down to the Persian Gulf; 
 its inhabitants have been at all times ill-famed for 
 fickleness and treachery.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 7 
 
 " Kara-Mustapha-Oghloo, when I was 
 first brought before him, was sitting in 
 an apartment of the Yenee-Khan/ near 
 the mosque called that of Bayazeed, after 
 its founder, the sultan second of that 
 name. My conductors had provided me 
 for the occasion with decent though coarse 
 clothing, of Turkish fashion, and had be- 
 sides given me the benefit of a bath, v/hich, 
 while it improved my general appearance, 
 refreshed and made me feel after a man- 
 ner disposed to meet my new lot with equa- 
 nimity, if not with cheerfulness. 
 
 "We entered. The Pasha was installed 
 on a divan which his attendants had ex- 
 temporized for him out of mattresses and 
 carpets ; some of these he had brought 
 with him all the weary way from Bagdad, 
 
 1 a 
 
 New Khan;" a portion of it still remains.
 
 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 as might be reasonably conjectured from the 
 travel -stains ; others were fresh, and appa- 
 rently of recent purchase. All around in 
 the large square room was a confusion of 
 brass ewers and basins, of pipes, and drink- 
 ing cups, of coffee services and cooking 
 utensils, of saddlery and saddle-bags, of 
 arms various in size, form, and use ; guns, 
 swords, daggers, pistols, some brass, some 
 Iron or steel, some short, some long, plain 
 and inlaid, old and new. Bales of cloth 
 were piled up in one corner ; saddlery, 
 thickly studded, one set with brass, another 
 with silver; housings of rich but faded vel- 
 vets, red and blue, broadly worked with 
 tarnished gold ; and horse-cloths of which 
 the colour and material were scarcely dis- 
 tinguishable, through the wear and tear of 
 road and weather, lay chaotically heaped 
 together in another ; while half a dozen
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 lances, four tufted and two tasselled, stood 
 propped up in a third ; all bespoke journey 
 done and yet to do. 
 
 " As disordered a medley were the persons 
 to whom these articles belonged. A dozen 
 of the Pasha's retinue, wild, olive-complexioned 
 fellows in long Arab dresses, where all the 
 colours of the rainbow were dashed with all 
 the colours of the soil, sat or lounged in the 
 courtyard below ; while on the landing-place 
 ac the head of the stairs several better-class 
 attendants, attired in the clothes of rough silk 
 proper to the townsmen of the South, and 
 seemingly from Bagdad itself or its immediate 
 neighbourhood, stood chatting together in 
 groups ; their fair complexions contrasting 
 strongly with the brown or black of about 
 an equal number of Abysslnians and negroes ; 
 one of these last, a stout African fully armed, 
 guarded the chamber door. As for the newly-
 
 lO HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 made Pasha himself, a handsome black-eyed, 
 black-browed, hook-nosed man, every inch a 
 Koorde, with a thick black beard slightly 
 sprinkled with gray, but no other mark of ad- 
 vancing age on his dusky face, he was dili- 
 gently smoking a nargheelah,^ a very grand one, 
 fantastically enamelled about Its silver stem, 
 and shaped Into a lily-flower, also of silver ; 
 while at the same time he was attentively 
 looking over scraps and jottings of accounts 
 with his kahlya.^ This latter was a Christian, 
 native of a hamlet near Bagdad, plainly dressed 
 in dark colours. 
 
 ''When I had been Introduced Into the room, 
 the Pasha, raising his head, reconnoitred me 
 from top to toe, and In every possible light 
 and angle. When however my conductors 
 
 1 A water-pipe, of metal or glass; the smoke is 
 inhaled through a long flexible tube. 
 
 2 Head-writer, or clerk.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. II 
 
 proposed, by way of a certificate, some still 
 closer and minuter inspections, — so at least I 
 conjectured from their manner, but, as the 
 conversation was held mostly in Arabic, a 
 language with which I was yet unacquainted, 
 I could only guess, — the Pasha, much to my 
 satisfaction, checked them ; having already, as 
 it appeared, sufficiently made up his mind. 
 
 *' After some remarks addressed, but still in 
 Arabic, to his Bagdadee followers, whose 
 curiosity had led them, unbidden into the 
 apartment, an intrusion which, however, their 
 master did not in the least appear to resent, 
 he put to me a few questions in Turkish, 
 with the colloquial forms of which I was, 
 thanks to previous intercourse with the 
 peasants from the other side of our own 
 frontier, and the not unfrequent arrivals of 
 muleteers and salesmen through the pass of 
 Torzberg, and in the village of Rosenau itself,
 
 12 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 — already fairly well acquainted. How old 
 was I ? Of what nationality ? How had I 
 been made a prisoner ? Was I a good rider ? 
 A practised shot ? and the like. My answers 
 must, on the whole, have been satisfactory ; 
 for, after some chaffering, chiefly conducted by 
 the kahiya, who no doubt secured for himself 
 a very respectable profit on the bargain, five 
 full purses^ of silver, a considerable sum, were 
 paid for me that very day ; and I was enrolled 
 amonof the slaves in the Pasha's suite. 
 
 The household was a transitionary one, 
 and no very special duty in it was at first 
 assigned me ; occasionally I filled and pre- 
 sented a pipe, or served guests with lemonade 
 and coffee, or scoured arms and harness. 
 
 1 A " purse " is five hundred piastres, the piastre 
 was equivalent to about eighteen-pence, EngUsh; it 
 has now sunk to twopence; the sum here indicated 
 must have been about £iS6.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 This done, I was free to lounge away three- 
 fourths of my time in a fine suit of clothes, 
 with which I was from the first becomingly 
 rigged-out by my master's liberality. And 
 really I felt almost, — not to say quite, — vain 
 of the unlimited silk sash, the silver-em- 
 broidered selahlik,^ the long blue silk tassel 
 to my cap, and the shiny red boots, but 
 these last I always took off when I came into 
 the Pasha's presence ; not to mention the 
 loose trousers and open jacket of stout dark- 
 green cloth, the wearing of which first taught 
 me by experience how much more comfort- 
 able and serviceable Asiatic garments are, 
 in most respects, than European. 
 
 "About this same time Kara-Mustapha- 
 Oghloo made some further purchases of live 
 and intelligent stock, in addition to the dozen 
 
 ^ Anns-belt.
 
 14 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 Circassians, Abyssinians, and negroes, with 
 whom he had already provided himself while 
 here. These new acquisitions were two 
 Greek lads, natives of some island or other 
 in the Archipelago, and a Croatian; the former 
 sly supple fellows, up to any cleverness or 
 villainy ; the latter a rough raw-boned crea- 
 ture, but true as steel, and good at all kinds 
 of work. 
 
 ''We remained yet a month longer at Con- 
 stantinople, during a week of which I was 
 laid up by the ceremonies, — or rather the cere- 
 mony, for there is, you know, only one in fact, 
 but it is a serious affair, performed to make 
 me a chartered Mussulman. This inconveni- 
 ence over, I enjoyed myself considerably ; 
 visiting, along with my fellows, the world, then 
 new to me, of countless kahwahs,^ baths, and 
 
 ^ Places where coffee, and often strong drink is sold ; 
 they are the common resort of Eastern idleness and 
 gossip, occasionally vice.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. T5 
 
 Other places of town-amusement, gazing round 
 me in the solemn gloom of Agia Sophia,^ or 
 the dazzling splendour of the Soleymaneeyah,^ 
 that unrivalled dome of brilliancy." 
 
 " I should like to see It, and hope to do 
 so one day, uninvited," here interrupted 
 Tantawee Beg, '' though, from what I hear, 
 Agia Sophia must bear a nearer resemblance 
 to our own Egyptian style." 
 
 " Please God you shall, and I be with 
 you," replied Hermann, then continued ; — 
 " sauntering amid the cypresses and sycamores 
 of Eyoob,^ or threading In a caique, — novel 
 pleasure, — the emerald windings of the 
 
 1 Justinian's cathedral, now the mosque of that 
 name. 
 
 2 The great mosque built by Soleyman the ^Magnifi- 
 cent, and the finest specimen of Turkish architecture 
 in the world ; it is also called " Kubbet-en-Noor," or 
 " the cupola of light." 
 
 3 A well-kno-wTi mosque and cemetery of that 
 name on the Golden Horn.
 
 1 6 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 Bosphorus ; sometimes also riding, slowly and 
 deferentially, with my master on his visits of 
 ceremony or friendship, now within the limits 
 of the city, now without. 
 
 '' On one of these occasions, the Pasha 
 happened to be accompanied by four attend- 
 ants only, myself, two Bagdadees, and the 
 negro whom I had seen acting doorkeeper 
 on the day of my purchase, a good-natured 
 thickset Darfooree,^ Sa'eed by name ; the place 
 we were bound for was somewhat distant, and 
 the ride long. While on the way, I observed 
 a figure, a familiar one I thought, that slipped 
 quietly, and, as It were, furtively, out of a 
 small side-door in the wall of a large inclosure, 
 where stood, half-visible through the foliage 
 of the trees, now thinned by advancing 
 
 ^ i.e. Native of Darfoor, a negro kingdom of Cen- 
 tral Africa, not far from Kordofan ; its inhabitants 
 are distinguished for strength and courage.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 7 
 
 autumn, a spacious and handsome house, 
 adorned with quaint arabesques of many 
 colours under its projecting eaves. Looking 
 more attentively I recognized Yoosuf, one of our 
 master's lately adopted Greeks, and pointed 
 him out to my companions. But while I was 
 so doing, the sound either of our voices, or of 
 the approaching tread of our horses, caught 
 his ear ; he looked up a moment, then turning 
 sharp off took the direction of a side-alley that 
 soon withdrew him from our sieht. 
 
 " ' What on earth can Yoosuf have to do all 
 alone here in this part of the town ?' said 
 one of the Bagdadees in our party. 
 
 " ' Some intrigue or other rascality of his 
 own, I suppose ; no good for certain ; what 
 good ever did a Greek go after ? ' answered 
 the other, who was by no means in love with 
 the new arrivals. 
 
 " Almost instinctively I looked back towards 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 1 8 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 the spot where I had seen him first emerge, 
 and inquired to whom the garden and the 
 house over the wall belonged. Sa'eed the 
 negro looked also, and having recognised 
 it, informed us that it was the house of one 
 Eyas Beg, a wealthy member of the 
 Defterdar^ Government department ; the Beg 
 was of Armenian origin, though now a pro- 
 fessed Muslim. Meanwhile the Pasha, deep 
 in his own thoughts, had ridden on ; and took, 
 or seemed to take, no notice of the occurrence 
 or of our talk ; nor could a mere attendant, 
 like one of ourselves, have ventured un- 
 questioned to broach to him this, or indeed any 
 other subject. As for myself, I hardly gave 
 it a second thought at the time ; but somehow 
 the name of Eyas Beg stuck in my mind ; 
 from its novelty perhaps. 
 
 ^ The Financial.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. TQ 
 
 " Some days later It was my duty to form 
 part of my master's suite, on a visit which 
 he paid to the NIshanjee Pasha ; ^ who, at the 
 Sultan's behoof, had signed and sealed the 
 freshly issued diploma of government for the 
 province of Bagdad. This dignitary kept 
 state in a handsome open kiosk on the sea- 
 shore, near the harbour point, just beyond the 
 outer wall of the great Serey'.^ 
 
 "While at my ordinary post of waiting on 
 occasions like these, by the open door of the 
 kiosk, I could see, looking in, many persons of 
 the highest rank and importance assembled 
 there. Of their number was the quondam 
 Armenian, Eyas Beg ; he was pointed out to 
 me by the negro Sa'eed, who happened to be 
 
 ^ An official of high and often misplaced trust, who 
 used to affix the facsimile of the imperial signature 
 to documents of importance. The post has since 
 been aboHshed. 
 
 ^ Palace.
 
 20 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 at my side. The expression of the Begs eye 
 a dull, heavy eye, when he turned it, as he 
 often did, on our master, was remarkable and 
 unpleasing ; and he kept ever and anon 
 whispering, between glances and winks, to 
 his next-hand neighbour. This was a pale 
 thin-faced man, evidently of southern and 
 provincial origin, dressed in the simple white 
 turban usually worn by those of the Molla^ 
 class ; his eye was, if possible, more sinister yet 
 than that of Eyas Beg himself. This man 
 had the eye of the serpent, the other that of 
 the wolf. I asked Sa'eed what his name might 
 be ; he answered — 
 
 " ' I do not know ; but his face shows him 
 to be from Bagdad or thereabouts ; it is 
 an unlucky face ; curse him.' 
 
 '''There is mischief at work somewhere,' 
 
 1 A legist ; often, but erroneously, rendered, a priest.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 21 
 
 thought I ; but neither my position nor other 
 circumstances permitted my communicating 
 my suspicions to anybody, leastways to our 
 master. 
 
 " At last all formalities were completed ; and 
 about a week after our visit to the Nishanjee 
 Pasha, we set out on our way for Bagdad. 
 We crossed over to Scutari in boats ; thence, 
 passing through Ismid, Angora, Keer-Shahr, 
 and many other towns, we pursued a long, 
 and at times, a difficult route, till we reached 
 Keysareeyah.^ Winter had now fairly set 
 in, and the highlands which we traversed 
 were often covered with snow. Indeed at 
 Keysareeyah itself we came to a dead halt ; 
 the mountains between that place and Khar- 
 
 ^ The Csesarea of the Byzantine Empire ; a central 
 town in Asia Minor, and still of importance. The 
 inhabitants have been of all times noted for turbulence 
 and sedition.
 
 2 2 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 poot^ being, so the country people said, 
 almost impassable. 
 
 "In Keysareeyah accordingly, we remained 
 rather more than a month. We were lodged 
 all together in a huge, straggling house, 
 belonging to one of the turbulent city-Aghas, 
 close by the old castle ; and had little to do 
 but to warm our hands over pans of charcoal, 
 wander listlessly and well muffled up through 
 the covered labyrinth of the interminable 
 market place, and wish for the return of milder 
 weather. 
 
 " The cold tried us all much, though not 
 equally ; the Pasha, wrapped in double furs, 
 scarcely stirred from the fireside ; the 
 Bagdadees, negroes, and their like, kept 
 the doors closed, huddled together, and 
 whined. One, indeed, of the Bagdadees fell 
 
 ^ The next large town easterly, on the Bagdad road.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 ill and died. We buried him a bow-shot 
 outside the town walls, in the old Turkoman 
 cemetery, then deep in snow ; I pitied him 
 for having to lie in so cold a resting-place. 
 The Dalmatian, — Michael had been his 
 original name, but this had subsequently 
 been changed to Ghalib, — and I, felt the 
 climate least of all ; Istrian and Carpathian 
 winters had seasoned our boyhood to that 
 which seemed to most of our comrades an 
 unbearable severity of temperature. This cir- 
 cumstance proved a lucky one for me ; as it 
 enabled me to secure to myself, for ever after, 
 the devoted friendship of the negro Sa'eed, by 
 means of an opportune present which I here 
 made him, of my sheepskin overcoat. True, 
 the Pasha had provided each of us with one 
 for the road ; but Sa'eed, with the innate 
 recklessness of his kind, had lost or sold, — 
 he said the former, but I believe it was the
 
 24 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 latter, — that given to him before he was out 
 of Constantinople ; for me, I could make 
 tolerable shift without one. 
 
 "So passed our time, dully enough on the 
 whole, till February brought a somewhat 
 milder air, and we resumed our journey. So 
 far as roads went, this second stage of our 
 journey was, however, the roughest and the 
 worst ; the mountains were high, the paths 
 desperate, and our beasts well nigh worn 
 out with work and scarcity of provender. 
 March was far advanced before we reached 
 Diar-Bekr,^ its walls stood out particularly 
 black against the mountains of Koordistan 
 beyond, still streaked with snow. 
 
 " More than three months had now elapsed 
 since we left Constantinople, six, since I had 
 
 ^ Anciently Amida, a large and busy town on the 
 right bank of the Tigris ; the great valley leading 
 down to the Persian Gulf commences here.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 25 
 
 seen my last of Transylvania; and I had by 
 this time really got to like my new life. Not 
 that I had wholly lost the memory of my father 
 and the rest of my family ; on the contrary I 
 often thought of them, and of my sister Mary 
 in particular, with regret and anxiety. Still 
 I was young; and all my homeward thoughts' 
 did not hinder me from taking very hearty 
 interest and pleasure in the countries w^e 
 traversed ; in the noble scenery, the wooded 
 crags, the rushing torrents, the wide plains, 
 the dense forests, in the quaint quiet villages, 
 the frequent ruins of unknown date, the 
 vegetation and tillage, — such of it, that is, as 
 was apparent even at this season of the year 
 in sheltered spots, — new to my eyes ; also in 
 the strange customs and unwonted manners 
 of the men ; occasionally too, — but that was 
 a rare good fortune, — in the pretty faces of 
 the peasant girls. Now and then also we
 
 26 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 got a chance shot at a hare, a woodcock, or 
 the like ; we quarrelled with some villagers, 
 and were friendly with others. One day, 
 the weather was fine and the sky, in spite of 
 the wintry season, quite startling to me in its 
 clearness, the air pure and brisk ; another day, 
 'heavy showers of rain and sleet, with driving 
 wind and mist, would give us something of 
 an adventure in hunting after a shelter ; in a 
 word, I enjoyed the journey much more than, 
 not half a year before, I could have thought 
 possible for me. 
 
 "With most of my fellow-travellers, however, 
 matters went otherwise. The Bagdadees, 
 annoyed by the cold, and little used to rough- 
 ing, were frequently out of humour ; the 
 Circassians took occasion from every accident 
 or Inconvenience of the route to quarrel with 
 all around them In general, and with each 
 other In particular ; while the two Greeks
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 27 
 
 seemed to be always on the look out for some- 
 thing that they could not find. 
 
 *' Not caring for squabbles and intrigues, I 
 preferred associating with the better-humoured 
 ones of our party ; that is, with the semi- 
 Koordish Arab horsemen — men accustomed 
 to adventure and fatigue, wild daring fellows, 
 w^hose courage seemed to rise with every 
 hardship and difficulty. I derived much 
 amusement, too, from our half-dozen blacks, 
 who, when not in a state of violent but short- 
 lived passion about some very inadequate cause, 
 were normally in excellent spirits, and sociable 
 enough. The Croatian, Ghalib, kept along 
 with us, but was no talker ; besides, he knew 
 neither Turkish nor Arabic, and only a few 
 words of German ; of this last language he 
 availed himself when hard pressed to com- 
 municate with me, and through me with the 
 others. I was, on the contrary, quick at
 
 28 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 learning, and had, in addition to my Turkish, 
 already picked up a fair amount of low 
 Arabic, for which I was chiefly indebted to 
 my African companions. With our master, 
 the Pasha, we had little converse ; he rode 
 apart, none being habitually near him but his 
 kahiya, and two other men of similar rank ; 
 one of these was a distant relation, and his 
 private secretary. 
 
 '' We remained twenty days at Diar-Bekr. 
 All had need of repose — Pasha and slaves, 
 attendants and horses. The genial spring 
 warmth, so different from the lifeless heat of 
 autumn, invited us to rest and to repair our 
 strength ; and the town, unlike Keysareeyah, 
 abounded in attractions for visitors of what- 
 ever sort, besides those more especially pre- 
 pared for or reserved to ourselves. It was 
 a pleasant time. 
 
 " During our stay here, I more than once
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 29 
 
 helped to escort my master on his frequent 
 visits to an intimate friend of his, one Rustoom 
 Beg, a Koord of old family, wealthy, and 
 influential. The Begs house was agreeably 
 situated among the gardens without the 
 town walls, not far from the river; on every 
 side of it rose a perfect forest of fruit-trees 
 of every kind, now in the fullest of their 
 blossom and the greenest of their leaf When 
 I had once been recognised as a favourite 
 attendant of the great man of the day, the 
 newly-appointed governor of Bagdad, I was 
 admitted as a chartered lounger wherever I 
 chose to go. I took, as it happened, a pecu- 
 liar fancy to Rustoom Beg's garden, in the 
 quiet seclusion of which I found fitter oppor- 
 tunity than elsewhere for the solitude that, 
 naturally enough, I often desired ; and no 
 hindrance was put to my entering it and 
 remaining there at any time or hour of the
 
 30 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 day. And thus it came about in this very 
 garden that — but what good would there be 
 in relating it ? Lost is lost, to me at least, — 
 let it rest." Here Hermann stopped short 
 in his narration and looked down, with a 
 flushed and troubled face. 
 
 Less intelligence than Tantawee possessed 
 might, under the circumstances of the story 
 and its teller, have sufficed to divine in a 
 general way the nature both of the occurrence 
 and of the loss thus alluded to by his young 
 friend. He considered a moment, and then 
 said, in a tone of studied cheerfulness, — 
 
 " What was it that happened to you there ? 
 Tell me, my dear fellow; you may rely on 
 my keeping the knowledge of it to myself; 
 and I for my part cannot consent to remain 
 in ignorance of anything that so nearly 
 concerns you, as, by your manner, this would 
 seem to do."
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 Having said this, he put his hand gently 
 on Hermann's shoulder, adding, " And then ? " 
 The request was, perhaps, dictated in part by 
 curiosity, but more by the sincere sympathy 
 which is proper to all large minds. Hermann 
 felt and valued it, yet could scarcely even 
 then bring himself to comply. 
 
 '' Let me alone," he answered without 
 looking up. " I shall certainly break down and 
 make a fool of myself if I try to tell it. 
 Besides it is useless to recur to it now; — that 
 cord has been cut for ever." 
 
 " How are you so certain that it has been 
 indeed so cut ? Surely, she is not dead ? " 
 rejoined the Arab Beg, aiming a conjectural 
 arrow in the dark. 
 
 Hermann suddenly raised his head. *'Dead? 
 no, I trust ! God forbid that. But how did 
 you come to say ' she ' ? who told you about 
 her ? Have you then heard any news of her ?
 
 3 2 HERMANN AGHA *. 
 
 If SO, for God's sake let me know it at once," 
 he added with almost painful eagerness of 
 voice and manner. Tantawee smiled. 
 
 " As if I needed," said he, " to be told in 
 so many words that there was a woman of 
 some sort in the affair ; or to hope, for your 
 sake any how, that she is yet alive and well. 
 More how should I know ? I who am ig- 
 norant of her very name and parentage, that 
 is, till you choose to tell me. Why, your 
 own expressions, boy, have as good as ac- 
 knowledged that you fell in love ; and yet, 
 from your tone in speaking of it, I see no 
 reason why I should not hope that the ob- 
 ject of your love is now alive." He then 
 continued in a more serious manner, '' Come, 
 my brother ; now that you have let me this 
 far into the secret, you may as well make 
 me your confidant for the rest. God is 
 merciful ; perhaps I may be of use to you
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 33 
 
 even in this ; * Help cometh from whence thou 
 knowest, and from whence thou knowest 
 not'; must I," — with a slight smile, — "quote 
 the Koran to you, who are so much better a 
 Mahometan than myself ? " 
 
 The German's face brightened up a little, 
 but he made no direct reply. He looked 
 silently over the ship's side, first towards 
 the distant blue outline of the Syrian coast, 
 then just coming into sight above the low- 
 lying haze of noon ; next he gazed into the 
 dark-blue water close at hand under the ship; 
 at last, with an altered and somewhat thick- 
 ened voice, which however cleared as he 
 continued, he resumed his narrative. 
 
 *' More than a week had already passed 
 since our first arrival at Diar-Bekr, when, one 
 lovely morning, I felt Irresistibly inclined to 
 spend an idle hour or two in the garden I just 
 now mentioned, there to enjoy at leisure the 
 
 VOL. 1. D
 
 34 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 bright sun and the fresh air, of both of which 
 there was a grievous deficiency in the khan 
 where we lodged within the town. Sa'eed, 
 who was always willing to do me a friendly 
 turn, had promised that he would be ready 
 at hand to attend the Pasha's cal 1, and replace 
 me in case my services were required during 
 my absence ; and our master's easy temper 
 might safely be relied on to take no serious 
 notice of so immaterial a substitution. 
 
 " This arrangement made, I went out alone 
 in 'the town ; and, passing under the high- 
 arched town gates, followed a narrow paved 
 lane, fenced in by blind walls on either side, 
 and dark with overhanging trees, till I reached 
 a low door which gave a private and 
 scarcely observable entrance into Rustoom 
 Beg's garden. 
 
 " Here I wandered about in search of a quiet 
 corner to sit in, and soon perceived at the
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 35 
 
 farther end of the inclosure, a good way off 
 the beg's own house, a pretty little kiosk, two 
 storeys high. The green shutters of the 
 windows were closed, and the entrance-door 
 locked; but, on looking up, I perceived that 
 half the lower or ground storey was covered 
 by a flat plaster roof, the other half only 
 being crowned by the upper room. It now 
 occurred to me that this open piece of roof, 
 which was, I should say, some twelve or 
 thirteen feet only distant from the ground, 
 would of all others be the place best fitted for 
 my present purpose, namely, the combined 
 enjoyment of solitude, laziness, and fresh 
 air ; while its seclusion seemed likely to 
 secure me against any untimely disturbance. 
 One difficulty only remained ; the inside was 
 shut, and there were no steps on the outside 
 by which to get up ; but, for my good luck, 
 there grew not far from the wall of the kiosk
 
 36 HERMANN AGHA *. 
 
 a tall pear-tree, and the branches sloped 
 most conveniently towards the building. So, 
 clambering up the tree till I came to the 
 nearest point of approximation, I half dropped, 
 half sprang on the terrace. Once there, I took 
 a survey of my position. 
 
 "It commanded a lovely though not an 
 extensive view. The height of the roof itself, 
 joined to the slightly rising ground on which 
 the summer-house was built, enabled me just 
 to overlook the low fruit-trees and their 
 tangled branches, which now formed a mottled 
 network of bursting spring : white, pink, and 
 tender green, all over the garden. Close by 
 me, one great tree, — I fancy I see it yet, — a sort 
 of Persian acacia, towered far up above the 
 rest, and thrust forth heavy spikes of lilac 
 flowers amid its exuberant leaves ; elsewhere 
 a few aspiring boughs started up at random 
 between me and the farther horizon, but did 
 not wholly conceal it.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 37 
 
 " On one side, the left, I could distinguish, a 
 good hundred yards off, the lattices and 
 painted walls of Rustoom Beg s house, partially 
 visible through the openings in the foliage; 
 but by a little care In selecting my post, I 
 found that I could put the impenetrable mass 
 of the acacia-tree between myself and any 
 danger of observation from that quarter. On 
 the other side, near my right, was the brow^n 
 stone and earth wall of another garden, even 
 more thickly planted, it seemed, than that 
 In which I was ; and from thence, through a 
 screen of vigorous evergreens, mingled with 
 rose-bushes and other shrubs, and full of 
 chirping fluttering birds, I could hear Issuing 
 the fitful plash of a running fountain. 
 Beyond this second garden stretched a long 
 house- roof, just showing a range of windows 
 apparently belonging to a haram, for all were 
 closely latticed. A small white minaret, that
 
 o 
 
 8 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 of some suburban mosque, peeped over the 
 roof-line ; there were no other signs of build- 
 ings in that quarter. 
 
 " But in front of where I stood, looking 
 towards the south-east, a break among the 
 rounded clusters of the tree-tops, indicated 
 where flowed the rapid Tigris, ^ now in 
 its spring-flood ; and farther on I caught 
 silvery gleams of the river-windings here 
 and there ; more distant rose on the extreme 
 plain the blue summits of the Karajah-Dagh 
 range, bare and sharp from out the dark 
 thickets that patched the mountain-sides. Of 
 the town itself hardly anything was visible ; 
 the small upper room, against the wall of 
 which I leaned, but into which I could not 
 obtain entrance, shut it out from view." 
 
 Here Hermann abruptly broke off Then, 
 
 ^ The Arab name is Dijleh, but I substitute the other, 
 because better known.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 39 
 
 " You may wonder, perhaps," he said, " I almost 
 do so myself, at my minute remembrance of all 
 these objects and circumstances ; but the fact is 
 that I have so often re-pictured them every one 
 in my imagination, that forgetfulness of the 
 smallest detail would be much more difficult to 
 me than memory." 
 
 He paused ; but Tantawee said nothing, 
 awaiting in silence till the narrator should of 
 himself resume his tale, which, though not 
 without an evident effort, at last he did. 
 
 *' The sun was warm as well as brieht. I 
 drew back from the heat of its rays into the 
 shade afforded by the acacia on my right 
 hand, seated myself comfortably with my back 
 against the upper chamber wall, lighted a 
 small travelling-pipe which I usually carried 
 about with me, and felt, — for one who had so 
 lately been a European and a Christian, — very 
 Mahometan, Oriental, and imaginative.
 
 40 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 " Through the light curls of blue smoke 
 that hung before me slowly widening in the 
 still warm air, the world seemed to lie open 
 at my feet. I was young, strong, healthy, 
 and, — at any rate I thought so, smile as you 
 may, — handsome, clever, and perfectly fear- 
 less. Why should not I, as so many others 
 had already done, make the East my home, 
 its customs my customs, its people my people, 
 its prophet my prophet, and its God my 
 God ? — [here Tantawee smiled in good 
 earnest, but with a very sarcastic smile,] — 
 why not win its fortunes, and live its best 
 and most prosperous life ? To have com- 
 menced my career as a slave, was, I already 
 knew, no obstacle; a help, rather, to the 
 highest success. 
 
 '* Then my mood changed, though why I 
 could not tell, and another train of thought 
 succeeded. It carried me back to the Saxon
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 4 1 
 
 townlet of my birth, and my father's old house 
 near the gate ; the half- wild garden around 
 me recalled to my mind, as though in bitter 
 irony, the careful cultivation of our commonest 
 fields ; the crumbling plaster of the kiosk 
 walls at my side contrasted with the memory 
 of the well-maintained neatness of our 
 poorest dwellings ; the Karajah mountains 
 conjured up before me the Carpathians ; the 
 Tigris brought back the Danube. How 
 loved and lovely those ! how weary these ! 
 I remembered, too, the intelligent converse, 
 the prudent forethought, the steady diligence 
 of our German townsmen, the busy honesty, 
 the healthful home-life of our villagers ; and 
 all the bright visions of but a minute past 
 were dimmed and faded away as I sadly 
 thought how one hour of such life, now mine 
 no longer, one acre of Europe, were in truth 
 worth more than long years of dreamy
 
 42 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 Eastern listlessness, and a whole kingdom of 
 unfertilized unprofitable Asia. 
 
 '' This mood, also, as the former had done, 
 passed over me like the swell of a deep ocean 
 wave on a calm day, and did not return. I 
 knew not that it was the death-throe of a past 
 life, the birth-throb of a new one. 
 
 " Meanwhile, two hours must have elapsed, 
 during which time I had filled and smoked 
 three pipes, and had finally settled down into 
 a state of mind neither precisely desponding 
 nor cheerful, but calm, somewhat serious, and, 
 on the whole, inclining to a not ungrateful 
 melancholy. I was, in a manner, at home, 
 yet a stranger ; I had many hopes, but many 
 reofrets also. 
 
 . " Noon drew on ; the sun mounted higher 
 and higher ; the birds were silent under the 
 leaves ; the shadow of my acacia-tree narrowed 
 up against the wall, and the hot glare was
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 43 
 
 fast encroaching on the shelter in which I 
 sat. I becran to think that it was time for 
 me to return to matter-of-fact life, and to see 
 what my companions were after, and whether 
 the Pasha might not have discovered and 
 been displeased at my absence ; but I felt too 
 lazy to do so at once, and half wished that some 
 one would come to fetch me off, and so give 
 me an immediate motive for quitting my 
 retreat. 
 
 " While thus undecided, and idly lingering 
 on from one minute to another, I heard a 
 sound as of several voices in the orarden : not 
 
 o 
 
 Rustoom Begs garden, but that on the other 
 side of the wall, on my right. At first I 
 scarcely gave them any attention ; but they 
 continued, and sounded so lively and cheer- 
 ful, that my curiosity was ultimately awakened. 
 So I rose, and coming forward to the extreme 
 edge of the roof, gazed over the nearer fruit-
 
 44 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 trees into the dense mass of green spread out 
 beyond, whence the voices, which by their 
 tone did not seem to be those of men, nor 
 even of women, but rather of girls at play, 
 proceeded distincter than before. A kind 
 of furrow-like depression in the bough-tops 
 indicated that the trees thereabouts were 
 parted into a narrow avenue, and a thick 
 clump at the hither end looked like the leafy 
 dome of a natural arbour. 
 
 " Gazing down where the Toliage was thin- 
 ner, and the boughs interlaced less jealously 
 over the path beneath, I discerned, much to 
 my satisfaction, the glance of figures, female 
 beyond a doubt, — in light-coloured dresses, 
 moving to and fro ; while, from the rapid 
 changes in their posture, and the frequency 
 of their bright sudden laugh, I conjectured 
 them, and rightly, to be engaged in some 
 girlish sport. Whoever the players might
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 45 
 
 be, they were certainly quite unconscious of 
 being overlooked ; and I had full leisure to 
 watch their game as best I might, — not 
 without a growing eagerness for a better 
 view. It was some time before I obtained 
 it; at last, through a gap in the leaves, I 
 caught sight of a face, a tolerably pretty one, 
 but — oh ! disappointment — of a dusky brown 
 colour, — an Abyssinian's, it seemed. As it 
 happened, the eyes were fortunately directed 
 elsewhere, and did not take cognizance of 
 me. * Girls,' said I to myself, ' and, beyond 
 question, belonging to the big house yonder ; 
 they have, I suppose, come out of the haram for 
 a romp in the garden : only slave-girls after 
 all ; that dark-skinned young lady is evidently 
 one of the category. Best so, perhaps, 
 since thus I run no serious risk by prying.' 
 
 ^The rooms allotted exclusively to female and 
 domestic uses.
 
 46 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 " With somewhat abated interest I con- 
 tinued to watch the leafy openings ; not, 
 however, in hopes of seeing through them 
 anything much superior to what had already 
 appeared, and intending soon to descend 
 from my look-out, and return as I had come. 
 I was mistaken, — fatally mistaken, some would 
 say, — you for one, perhaps. I will not say 
 so. 
 
 '' The very next face that came, as though 
 in a framework of foliage and flowers, before 
 me, was as fair as the first had been dark, — 
 only the hair, the eyebrows, and the eyes 
 were deep brown, almost black, and the 
 cheeks ruddy with health. Round the white 
 forehead, and noosing the long tresses behind, 
 ran a slender band of crimson velvet, sealed 
 with gold ; gold ornaments also were tangled 
 in the glossy hair. Of form and stature I 
 could at the moment distinguish nothing,
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 47 
 
 except a few gleams of a white dress, indis- 
 tinctly seen through the net-like boughs ; 
 but I felt sure that the beauty unseen fully 
 corresponded to that on which I now for the 
 first happy time fed my eyes, — they had 
 never been so fed before. 
 
 ** Everything else disappeared around me. 
 I was still gazing, — and how could a lad of 
 scarcely eighteen years of age refrain from 
 gazing ? — on that perfect face, — praise be to 
 Him who created it, — forgetful in my eager- 
 ness alike of caution and concealment ; when 
 by chance, — if, indeed, chance it was, and not 
 rather destiny, hers and mine, — the girl's 
 eyes turned in the direction where I half 
 stood, half crouched forward on the narrow 
 roof, and looked full into mine. An instant 
 after she had moved away, and was hidden 
 from my sight among the trees. A pause 
 followed ; then I heard a voice, her voice I
 
 48 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 was sure, — a clear, bright voice like that of 
 a singing bird, — calling out something, but 
 what I could not understand, to the com- 
 panions of her play. Whatever the words 
 may have been, their meaning was soon 
 made evident by the result ; for, after a few 
 moments of seemingly capricious hurry and 
 bustle, betrayed by the Irregular movements 
 of the shaken sprays overhead, there was 
 a pattering sound as of many footsteps re- 
 treating in the direction of the house. 
 
 " When every one else was gone, and all 
 was quiet around, she, the same, came 
 gently, almost stealthily, forward to an open- 
 ing among the trees, and fixed her gaze 
 steadily on me, scanning me with calm, 
 deliberate Inquiry ; while I, emboldened by 
 I knew not what hope, leaned towards her 
 from the low roof-parapet, with a look un- 
 doubtedly expressive of the admiration I felt.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 49 
 
 When she had well surveyed me, she 
 smiled, — not passingly, but with a purposed 
 smile of satisfied good -will ; then waited till 
 I, recovering in a measure my dazed per- 
 ceptions, acknowledged with look and gesture 
 the meaning of her smile. She then turned 
 her face upwards, and pointing with her 
 finger, slowly moved it along the sky till it 
 indicated the quarter of the afternoon sun ; 
 raised both hands a little to each side of 
 the head,^ and looked inquiringly towards 
 me. Love's guesses are quick, but sure; I 
 understood that she meant to designate the 
 period of 'Asr,^ and that she and I might 
 then have an opportunity of meeting : gladly 
 I nodded intelligence and assent. Once more 
 
 1 The position assumed by those who make the 
 Mahometan call to prayer. 
 
 2'Asr is half-way between noon and sunset; it is 
 the third of the five times appointed for daily prayer 
 among Mahometans. 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 she smiled, — a smile of joyous cheerfulness 
 that would alone have sufficed to enslave a 
 heart much more difficult of conquest than 
 mine, — and instantly after disappeared amid 
 the grove. I waited, without thought or 
 motion, till the last real or fancied indication 
 of her presence had vanished from sight and 
 hearing ; even then I remained where I was 
 standing for a few minutes longer on my 
 now lonely watching place, dazzled with sun- 
 light, hope, and love. 
 
 " Rousing myself at last by the remem- 
 brance of the promised afternoon, I scrambled 
 down to the ground, and, carefully avoiding 
 the risk of observation, crept back out of 
 the enclosure, whence, with superfluous cir- 
 cuitousness, I made my homeward way to 
 the khan. There I learnt from Sa eed that 
 no inquiries had been made about me during 
 my three hours of absence : so far all was
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 well. Next followed an interval of strange 
 
 o 
 
 unreality, most like a waking dream ; in 
 which my outer self was conversing with my 
 travelling comrades about their morning 
 doings, and saying as little as possible about 
 my own, while with the others I par- 
 took of our customary noonday curds, bread, 
 and white cheese ; and afterwards sat with 
 them idly smoking a nargheelah, during the 
 dead time of day between noon and 'Asr, 
 in a room that seemed to me like a closed 
 prison, and hours that would not come to 
 an end. Inwardly I was occupied all the 
 time in devising some plausible pretext 
 for slipping away again alone unobserved ; 
 Pasha, master, journey, comrades, and the 
 rest had suddenly become for me mere un- 
 meaning phantoms ; and the only truth of 
 life seemed to be in that garden, across 
 that wall. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF llUNOfS
 
 52 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 " Unable to bear it longer, I made some 
 unmeaning excuse for my restlessness, and 
 left the khan a good half hour before 
 the appointed moment. Traversing town and 
 gardens I reached the inclosure, which I 
 entered, not by the door as hitherto, but 
 through a broken-down aperture in the wall, 
 near the kiosk. No need to say how 
 guardedly, how cautiously, I crept on between 
 bush and tree, how I dreaded to meet 
 some servant, some gardener, anybody ; a 
 dog even would have alarmed me. Luckily 
 everything lay hushed and quiet in the 
 warm sleepy afternoon ; neither men nor dogs 
 were stirring. 
 
 "With greater circumspection than I had 
 used the time before, I clomb the pear-tree 
 by the kiosk side, dropped warily on the 
 roof, and waited with anxious impatience 
 the call to the prayers of 'Asr ; though not
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 53 
 
 exactly, I allow, in the intention of taking 
 part in them myself. One moment I feared 
 that they must somehow be over, and have 
 passed unobserved : the next, that by some 
 strange and unprecedented chance they would 
 never be announced that day. So I sat, 
 my eyes riveted on the upper gallery of 
 the minaret just visible above the roof- 
 line of the house, — her house, as I now 
 was aware ; till, after what appeared to me 
 an endless delay, I saw a figure, dark-cloaked 
 and white-turbaned. Issue slowly from the 
 little side door of the tower, and pause 
 awhile ; then It raised Its hands and uttered 
 the 'Idan,^ the welcome cry, that burst almost 
 simultaneously out, from distance to distance, 
 over the entire town where it lay hidden 
 
 ^ The call, " God is most great," and the rest, 
 with which Mahometans preface every act of 
 public worship.
 
 54 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 behind me. But minaret, crier, and prayers, 
 were no longer anything to me ; I had now 
 neither ears nor eyes, except for the well- 
 noted spot in the adjoining garden ; and in 
 its direction sight and hearing were stretched, 
 but at first to no purpose. 
 
 " Five minutes, hours I thought then, 
 passed ; then some way off to the left, I 
 heard a faint rustle, a footfall ; next a small 
 white pebble was thrown over the garden- 
 wall from the same direction ; an instant 
 later, a second pebble followed ; and a low 
 chirp, resembling the call of a wood-bird, 
 was thrice repeated. Without hesitation, I 
 crept softly down from the terrace, and re- 
 gained the ground ; then went crouching 
 along close under the wall towards the spot 
 designated by the fall of the pebbles ; the 
 earth was damp in shadow, and the high 
 reedy grass, and spreading bramble bushes
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 55 
 
 that sprung up here, would have sufficed 
 to screen me from view had there been 
 spies at hand ; but there were none. 
 
 " Following on I came unexpectedly on 
 what must once have been a gateway of 
 communication between the two gardens, but 
 had since been roughly blocked up with 
 large unmortared stones ; one of these had 
 been recently displaced, and a fresh green 
 spray had been thrust through the crevice, 
 so as to cross my path, and compel my 
 notice. I stopped, removed the bough, and, 
 peeping through the narrow aperture, dis- 
 covered the peculiar whiteness of a female 
 dress on the other side ; while I heard an 
 encouraging ' Bismillah ' ^ gently whispered, in 
 a tone that to my ears gave it the more 
 
 ^ " In the name of God," a phrase with which Ma- 
 hometans inaugurate every action, whether intending 
 to perform it themselves, or inviting others to do so.
 
 56 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 special meaning of * Come, I am here wait- 
 ing for you/ 
 
 "To wrench out and to lay aside, noise- 
 lessly though quickly, a few more of the 
 uncemented fragments, was the work of 
 hardly a couple of minutes. A sufficient 
 opening was formed. I crept through, found 
 myself on the inner side, regained my feet, 
 and at the same instant, by my very first 
 forward movement, held her whom I sought 
 in my arms. She had drawn her veil over 
 her face, and was standing quiet and wholly 
 unexpectant of so impetuous a greeting But 
 my passionate curiosity, now wrought up by 
 protracted expectation to its highest pitch, gave 
 no time for check or parley; and all her 
 laughing resistance did not hinder my raising 
 the light gauze from her features, and salut- 
 ing her, — as any lad of eighteen would have 
 saluted any girl under like circumstances.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 57 
 
 ** On my life, Tantawee, believe me or not, 
 I had thus far intended nothing more. I did 
 not know my own heart ; I knew hers still 
 less. A boyish freak, an adventure, a stolen 
 kiss, a laugh, a short hours pleasant chat, 
 perhaps another kiss at parting, and so 
 home; if I had anything in my mind, that 
 was all. But when, hastily disentangling 
 herself from my hold, she drew back with a 
 gesture of disapproval, and I saw her there 
 before me, her unveiled face all in a glow, 
 and looking half astonished reproof, half 
 smiling pardon, I was at once abashed, over- 
 come, entranced, enslaved, and," — Hermann 
 added slowly and in an undertone — " en- 
 slaved, come what may, for ever. I blushed 
 till I felt my very scalp burn ; and stood 
 mute and helpless in her presence, like one 
 waiting his award of death or life from a 
 word, a sign ; without thought, will, or being
 
 58 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 of my own but what she might herself please 
 to give me." 
 
 " Very lover-like, if not very wise," inter- 
 posed Tantawee ; *' and good proof that 
 either you were very susceptible, or she 
 very beautiful ; or both, perhaps. Can you 
 describe her to me ?" 
 
 Hermann replied, — "I have already 
 told you that she was fair, bright-com- 
 plexioned, dark-haired, and dark-eyed ; fur- 
 ther, she was tall, nearly of my height ; 
 her age about two years less than mine, 
 that is, scarce sixteen. God ! " he added 
 with a vehement outburst, " what shall I 
 say of her, what should I say ? Words can 
 only dishonour that perfect beauty. 
 
 '-' With a look that at once implied command 
 and imposed caution, and putting her finger 
 on her lips, she made me sign to follow her. 
 We went on through a thick tangle of laurel-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 59 
 
 bushes, she leading the way, and always 
 keeping close to the wall, till we reached a 
 sort of recess, formed by the ruin of what 
 must once have been a small outhouse, now 
 more than half unroofed, and branched over 
 by garden-trees on every side ; a little clam- 
 bering over a fragment of wall brought us 
 into the interior : it was an absolute hiding- 
 place. Once within, my guide seated herself, 
 and indicated to me a place close beside her. 
 I sat down, but did not venture to speak 
 first. 
 
 '''You are one of Kara-Mustapha-Oghloo's 
 men, are you not ? ' she asked. 
 " I answered, ' Yes.' 
 
 " ' Tell me, then, your history ; who you 
 are, whence you came, and how you were 
 brought into his service. I have heard,' she 
 continued, ' the strangest stories about you, 
 and I wish to know the truth from yourself
 
 60 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 Speak out, my brother, fear nothing. I am 
 your sister, and will not betray you to harm ; 
 do you doubt me ?' 
 
 " She spoke gently, affectionately ; every 
 word of hers, but most * brother,' and ' sister,' 
 thrilled me with a flow of life unknown to 
 me before. Yet there was in her manner 
 a something of decision and authority, which 
 would have of itself obliged me, even had 
 I been less inclined than I was, to give her, 
 as I now unhesitatingly did, an exact though 
 concise account of my past years, and more 
 particularly of the circumstances which had 
 resulted in bringing me to Diar-Bekr. 
 
 '' When I had finished, she smiled her 
 own sweet smile ; said * I knew already from 
 your looks that you could not fail to be of 
 good race and family ;' and gave me her 
 hand. 
 
 " I kissed it, this time not less respectfully
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 6 1 
 
 than lovingly; and, still holding it in mine, 
 for she did not withdraw it, said, ' And now, 
 my sister, I have told you all about myself; 
 but who are you ?' 
 
 " ' I am,' she answered, * the daughter of the 
 Sheykh^ Asa ad the Sheybanee. They call me 
 Zahra ; and my father is by marriage con- 
 nected, though he hardly likes to own it, 
 with Rustoom Agha, the very same on the 
 roof of whose kiosk I saw you this noon. The 
 house and the garden in which you now are 
 belong to us ; but the greater portion of our 
 land lies westerly, all along the river, below 
 the bridge. And,' she added laughingly, 
 ' that your curiosity may be fully satisfied, 
 I have two elder brothers, but no sister.' 
 
 " * Asa'ad the Sheybanee,* I repeated ; * that 
 is not a Turkish sounding name.' 
 
 ^ A title given to any elderly and respectable man 
 of a tribe, but not necessarily implying authority.
 
 62 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 " ' Certainly it is not,' she replied, with a 
 look almost of contempt ; 'it is Arab, and 
 of the best of the Arabs. Our family,' she 
 went on, ' is a principal one among the great 
 tribe of Benoo-Sheyban ; a branch, if you know 
 it not, of the famous Rabeea'h Clan, settled 
 here from the oldest times, long before the 
 Prophet ; and of whom a few families yet 
 survive in these northern lands, untainted 
 by Turkish or Persian blood ; and of such 
 are we.' 
 
 '' ' Dearest Zahra, my sister, my love,' said 
 I, 'be of what race and family you may, 
 you are for me the noblest as the loveliest 
 upon earth.' 
 
 " She laughed again. * My little brother 
 Ahmed, you are yet a stranger in these our 
 countries ; wait a few years more, and you 
 will begin to understand the true value of 
 blood, and what is noble, what base. Mean-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATRT. 63 
 
 while, to our family pride you are already 
 indebted for thus much, that I am here on 
 the present day to meet you ; otherwise,' 
 with something of a sigh, ' it might not have 
 been so.' 
 
 " Eagerly I inquired her meaning. After 
 some reserve on her part, which yielded 
 only to the impetuosity of my questioning, 
 she told me that she had been for a long 
 while past repeatedly demanded in marriage 
 by Begs and Aghas,^ of the land ; but that 
 the Sheykh, her father, holding all these 
 visitors for little better than 'Ajem,- had 
 rejected them, and instead had betrothed 
 her to a distant cousin from among their own 
 tribe of Benoo-Sheyban, now among lances 
 
 ^ The former of these titles corresponds more or less 
 to our " Sir," and is most often hereditary ; the latter 
 to our " Esquire," and is personal ; both have a semi- 
 military significance. 
 
 2 Barbarians.
 
 64 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 and camels in the uplands of Nejd.^ In 
 a word, to a well-to-do young Bedouin 
 chief, by name the Emeer ^ Daghfel ; who 
 was on some future day to come and 
 claim her for his own, and take her with 
 him back to the south. For the moment, 
 a family feud, no rare occurrence in the 
 tribe, had delayed the favoured cousin's 
 arrival at Diar-Bekr ; but he was expected 
 there towards the end of the year, or, at 
 furthest, in the following spring. 
 
 " All this she explained to me in a very 
 simple matter-of-fact way, yet hesitatingly at 
 times, and with an evident reluctance that 
 appeared to have for object quite as much the 
 facts themselves, as the recounting of them. 
 While she was speaking I remained silent, 
 
 1 Central Arabia, the word means " highlands." 
 
 2 This is a title of authority given to the head or 
 leader of a clan.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 65 
 
 Stupidly gazing at the chequered sunlight 
 on the wall of the shed, but inwardly in 
 a tumult of passion that increased every 
 moment. A thousand projects crossed my 
 mind, countless plans and chances ; all alike 
 fatal to the hopes of my Arab rival, — for 
 such I already considered the Emeer Daghfel, 
 God curse him, — and favourable to my own ; 
 and all alike impossible. After a pause she 
 turned towards me. 
 
 '* ' My dear brother,' she re-commenced in a 
 more cheerful, yet a tender tone; 'what are 
 you so deep in thought about ? why do you 
 torment yourself with these things ? What 
 will be, will be. Let the present suffice, the 
 future belongs to God.' 
 
 *' As she spoke I leaned somewhat forward, 
 and looked her full in the face. There was 
 a new glow on her cheek, a brightness in 
 her eye. I could not, all inexperienced as I 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 was, consciously read their meaning, but I 
 felt it ; and I knew within myself that which 
 my reasoned thoughts could neither compre- 
 hend nor reach. 
 
 " * The present ! ' I exclaimed, * let it suffice ! 
 you tell me. But, O my sister, answer me, 
 in God's name answer me, what is then the 
 present ? ' I choked as I said it. 
 
 "* It is yours, all yours, Ahmed, my brother.' 
 She dropped her look with the words. Her 
 hand, white, slender, yet firmly knit, lay in 
 mine ; I pressed it ; the pressure was re- 
 turned. 
 
 " ' Zahra ! ' She raised her head ; her eyes 
 met mine. * Zahra', do you love me ? ' Both 
 her hands were clasped between mine as I 
 said it. 
 
 '' * I do,' she answered. 
 
 '' All was still ; the head of each leaned 
 on the other's neck. Hope, fear, thought, past.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 67 
 
 future, everything had vanished from before 
 me ; I only knew that I was loved — that I 
 loved, and was happy. 
 
 " The sun-rays at our feet moved upwards, 
 and glowed full on us where we sat. Again, 
 but now with greater freedom of feeling and 
 speech, we were engaged in talk and laugh, 
 in question and answer ; we seemed to be 
 really brother and sister brought up together 
 from childhood. You smile incredulously, 
 Tantawee ; but I tell you that such was the 
 entire excellence of her maiden purity, such 
 the simple dignity of her undoubting frank- 
 ness, that instead of being tempted to presume 
 on her avowed affection, I now became more 
 than ever ashamed of my own first boyish 
 coarseness of demeanour ; and imagined her, 
 or anyhow thought that I imagined her, a 
 newly-acquired sister, in whom I felt, revived 
 and intensified tenfold, all the long-repressed
 
 6S HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 affections and memories of family and home. 
 It was not only thus, it was far more, but 
 I did not know it then ; I knew it after- 
 wards, but not that hour nor that day." 
 
 " Jameel and Botheynah, or Mejnoon- 
 'Aamir and Leyla^ over again," remarked 
 Tantawee. " To make love with much 
 warmth, yet more self-restraint; to be con- 
 tent to give and receive the assurance of 
 longing love alone, without hope of attain- 
 ment, as though the mind were everything 
 and the body nothing ; and thus to remain 
 through every vicissitude of life, constant 
 to honour in spite of opportunity, to virtue 
 in spite of passion, and to attachment in 
 spite of separation, however prolonged ; and 
 all this till the hour of death itself, an 
 hour welcomed as the seal of inviolable 
 
 1 Celebrated Arab lovers; Jameel and Mejnoon were 
 both first-rate poets.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 69 
 
 fidelity. This is a thing, I beheve, of no 
 rare occurrence among Arab youths and 
 maidens ; at least It was so before the gross 
 lessons of Mahometan materialism. Indeed 
 those lessons have been but partially learnt 
 even now, thank Heaven, by the Arab tribes 
 in their own native land ; though thoroughly 
 appreciated and practised by Turks, Koordes, 
 Persians, and their like. The wonder to me 
 is, not that your Zahra should have been 
 such, but how her refinement and self-com- 
 mand communicated themselves to, or at least 
 subdued, your coarser European nature." 
 
 Hermann listened thoughtfully ; then con- 
 tinued. 
 
 " All this I understood afterwards, and I felt 
 it even then, indistinctly indeed, yet enough 
 to impose on me a sense of bashfulness, 
 mixed with a kind of awe, as for a superior 
 being, which intensified while it repressed the
 
 70 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 daring of more passionate desire. But I was 
 less disposed to analyse than to enjoy. Enough ; 
 we remained thus, forgetful, I at least, of the 
 world and all belonging to it outside of our 
 happy hiding-place ; till the lengthening sun- 
 beams, breaking in more and more level 
 .through the leafy screen around us, warned 
 us of approaching evening. She was the 
 first to give the sign of parting. 
 
 '' ' And when again, dearest Zahra ?' said 
 I, as I clasped her hands within mine. 
 
 '"Not to-morrow,' she answered; 'there 
 might be danger ; but the day after, early in 
 the morning, at the first call to prayer^ you 
 will find me here.' 
 
 " I pleaded hard for a meeting the very 
 next day ; but she instead repeated her 
 cautioning, and warned me against rashness 
 
 ^ About an hour and a quarter before sunrise.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 7 1 
 
 and the perils that it might bring upon us 
 both ; while I could not but admit that she 
 knew best. Reluctantly I assented to the 
 more distant date. We rose ; she held out 
 her hand ; I kissed it ; then, urged by a 
 sudden impulse which I could not resist, 
 I clasped her once more in my arms. She 
 sighed, then smiled, and returned my em- 
 brace. Stooping down, I snatched a small 
 blue flower from the ground close by, and 
 thrust it into the breast-fold of her dress. 
 She looked round an instant for something 
 to reciprocate the pledge ; then hastily de- 
 tached a thin gold coin from among the 
 many plaited in her long dark hair, and 
 gave it me : I shall carry it to my grave, if 
 I ever have one." 
 
 Hermann broke off, and, with a half-in- 
 stinctive movement, put his hand to his 
 breast, paused, and then more deliberately
 
 72 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 drew out a little leather pouch, black and 
 embroidered with gold ; it was carefully sewn 
 up, and a slender silver chain secured it about 
 his neck. In silence he kissed it, and slowly- 
 returned it to its place ; then looked down 
 over the ship's side, and drew his hand twice 
 or thrice across his face. 
 
 " Poor boy !" said Tantawee. 
 
 Both were silent for a few minutes. Her- 
 mann then looked up again, and resumed. 
 
 *' I could go on for ever with the story of 
 those days, the twelve days that followed, — 
 so fresh in my memory is every incident, 
 every word, every look ; but it would do me 
 little good, and would interest you still less. 
 A dream, however vivid, remains, when told, a 
 dream only, at least for the hearers ; and who 
 cares for another man's dreams ? Let me 
 then pass over in words that which never can 
 pass from my heart : — it is my heart.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. ']2i 
 
 " We met five times more, always in the 
 same place, and each time with increasing, 
 deepening love ; yet in outward demon- 
 stration we were always true to ourselves, she 
 naturally and of herself, I from her influence ; 
 and we never overpassed the self-imposed 
 limits of our first hour. She was my sister, 
 I her brother, — she my queen, I her slave. 
 Such was my dream, hers too perhaps ; the 
 hour of waking had not arrived yet, certainly 
 not for me. 
 
 "But the future } How were we to main- 
 tain mutual knowledge of each other's state, 
 and even of our whereabouts ? My own 
 departure was near ; and, besides, her be- 
 trothed suitor might arrive sooner than 
 expected } What assurance was there then of 
 our meeting again ? and under what circum- 
 stances should we meet, — she and I ? and 
 what would be in the end of it ? We dis-
 
 74 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 cussed many plans, — most of them of my 
 imagining rather than hers, — but could ar- 
 range nothing feasible. We could only refer 
 ourselves to chance, destiny, Providence, — 
 what you will, — and agree to be satisfied in 
 the meantime as best we might with remem- 
 brance, and with the unshaken assurance 
 that no separation, no change, could diminish 
 our love. I, for my part, bore it much worse 
 than she did, or outwardly seemed to do. 
 Whatever may have been, — were, indeed, as 
 I afterwards learnt too well, — her feelings, 
 she veiled their intensity under a calm that 
 was wholly beyond me. Had I been less sure 
 of her heart, I might almost have imagined 
 her indifferent to our parting. Grievously 
 should I have wronged her ; it was only 
 the quiet composure of a strong, deep nature, 
 too sure of itself to acknowledge the possi- 
 bility of being influenced by circumstance
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 75 
 
 and change. Of the two I was much the 
 less manly, and continued to suggest many 
 wild and impracticable schemes, which she 
 gently put aside. 
 
 " ' Till my cousin, the Emeer, arrives,' said 
 she, ' I shall have no difficulty in keeping 
 my own ; and while here, I am to all intents 
 mistress of myself and of my doings ; nor 
 do I think that there is much likelihood of 
 his coming this year. It is certain that 
 summer will have set in before matters can 
 have quieted down among the clans in Nejd, 
 and then Daghfel and his party must needs 
 defer their journey hitherward till the cooler 
 season. They will not be at Diar-Bekr, I 
 can vouch for it, till next spring, at soonest. 
 Meanwhile, you, Ahmed, — clever, brave, hand- 
 some, likely lad that you are, — ought, if all 
 goes right, to have got your freedom before 
 the year is out, and then — *
 
 "J^ HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 " She paused, and continued in a lower 
 voice, — ' No lock, you know, but patience has 
 the key. You will, in one way or other, find 
 out where I am ; and be well assured that, 
 tide what may, I shall ever be the same for 
 you, Ahmed, my brother ! my love ! ' 
 
 " She broke off, as if unwilling to trust 
 herself longer to words. She had already 
 given me, and I had noted down, the names 
 of some Arab kinsmen of hers in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bagdad, from whom I might, by 
 inquiry, get such general information about 
 her people as would, united with the know- 
 ledge previously acquired, suffice to keep me 
 acquainted with the leading circumstances of 
 the family, and thus indirectly with her own. 
 
 '"I shall cry often and bitterly till we 
 meet again,' said I. ' Will you cry for me, 
 Zahra' ? I do not think you will.' 
 
 '' * Yes, I shall ; not much, perhaps, for I
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. "]"] 
 
 am not usually given to crying,' — the tone 
 of her words was cheerful, almost sportive, 
 and I felt half ashamed of myself, — ' but I 
 shall always think of you, day and night. 
 We shall meet again yet' 
 
 " I could not answer her ; my words, my 
 breath itself, were stifled In my throat. One 
 last embrace, and we had parted. Under the 
 broad gray dawn, now rapidly brightening 
 into sunrise, I crept back through the garden 
 and along the well-known lane ; but all 
 around me looked changed and strange. It 
 seemed to me that at every step my very 
 soul was being wrenched out of me, — as 
 though it had been fixed there where I left 
 her, and I had to pass on, moving, yet 
 dead, soulless, lifeless." 
 
 " Poor fellow ! " again interjected Tantawee. 
 And then — ** Love at first sight, as in the 
 stories."
 
 7^ HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 '' I have often since thought that over," 
 said Hermann, *'and wondered whether the 
 common saying, — * Who ever loved, that 
 loved not at first sight ? ' — be true in the 
 ordinary run of cases, as it certainly was in 
 mine. I know that in popular tales, such as 
 are nightly recited to the audience of the 
 kahwah, or at daytime in the street, the 
 first meeting of those whom pre-existent 
 sympathy in some former state of being, as 
 you, I suppose, would explain it, or, to my 
 thinking, the more matter-of-fact bias of mind, 
 or matter, or both, in this world of ours, has 
 determined for lovers, is of course a very 
 important event, a sort of turning-point in 
 life (though, indeed, life is, to say truth, all 
 turning-points, only most often unremarked), 
 not to be lightly passed over or feebly 
 sketched in story. 
 
 " My own instance," he continued, ** did
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 79 
 
 certainly correspond with the favourite ro- 
 mance-type, that of 'Antarah, or Ghareeb/ 
 and other heroes of tradition and the 
 ' Thousand and One Nights.' Only I cannot 
 but observe that all these are made-up 
 histories ; and in such it becomes necessary 
 to introduce the lovers and their love, not 
 less to the hearers, than to each other ; a 
 thing best done by a sudden and startling 
 surprise, — a passion flaring up into full blaze 
 the instant it has been kindled ; and to this 
 necessity of the narrator, rather than to the 
 truth, I set down the wonderful efficacy 
 which they attribute to first sight in almost 
 every romance. But in real life I imagine that 
 the whole matter is often very common- place, 
 and so gradual that it is hardly noticed by 
 the persons themselves, or even by those 
 
 ^ Two well-known Arab characters, famous in 
 stories of love and war.
 
 8o HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 about them. And thus it may happen, — does, 
 I suspect, happen in four instances out of 
 five, — that Mejnoon and Leyla^ have met 
 and conversed together some ten, twenty, 
 fifty times even before the first dream of 
 love interrupts the previously total slumber 
 of that capricious passion." 
 
 Tantawee listened patiently ; tjien said, 
 " You are getting as far out of my depth 
 as, thank God, out of my experience ; still, 
 so far as I can manage to understand your 
 theory, I do not agree with it. On the 
 contrary, what happened to you is, from all 
 I hear on these matters, much the more 
 common order of things, anyhow where love 
 is concerned ; marriage, as every one knows, 
 is quite a different affair." 
 
 ^The names of these two have become pro- 
 verbial in the East for sudden and passionate 
 love.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 8 1 
 
 "In these countries/' replied Hermann, 
 '' you may very likely be right ; but I was 
 thinking of the subject in a more general 
 way. Though I was only a lad when kid- 
 napped from Rosenau, I had already lived 
 there long enough to see and to understand 
 much of what went on about me, and to 
 form a tolerably distinct idea of our own 
 country manners and social condition; besides, 
 it is a topic on which I have often reflected 
 since. 
 
 *' Now in Europe, you may perhaps have 
 heard, there is no fixed barrier, or at most 
 only a very slight one, between the every-day 
 intercourse of the sexes ; they inhabit the 
 same rooms, sit at the same table, eat to • 
 gether, work together, play together ; they are 
 familiar with each others' faces even before 
 they have learned to think, let alone to love; 
 and the sight of a pretty girl has nothing 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 in it to startle or overpower a youth of 
 seventeen; unless, indeed, the beauty be very 
 uncommon, or the circumstances exceptional. 
 He and she, if of similar rank and station, 
 have been trained at long hand to look on 
 each other, first as playmates, then, it may 
 be, as fellow scholars, as every- day compan- 
 ions, as friends ; and thus the transition from 
 acquaintance to love is imperceptible, step 
 after step ; it follows on thought and trial ; 
 nay, the intention of falling in love often, 
 I believe, precedes the fact itself. Prosaic, 
 you will say. It is not the less true though ; 
 and from my remembrances, however boyish, 
 of Rosenau, Kronstadt, and the rest, I can 
 assure you that what I have just described 
 is generally the fact, at least among us 
 Saxons." 
 
 " Very sensible, no doubt, though a 
 trifle flat," rejoined Tantawee ; ''you, Ahmed,
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 however, seem to have behaved Hke any- 
 thing but a genuine Saxon in this respect, 
 nor do I fancy that you would find many 
 such prudent lovers as you make out those 
 of your kith and kin to be, along the banks 
 of the Tigris or among the palm-groves of 
 Nejd." 
 
 " It is custom of life, not coldness of 
 blood, that makes the difference with us," 
 answered Hermann, not wishing his friend 
 to form too low an estimate of the national 
 heart, or of his in particular. "And it is, I 
 think, precisely owing to the dissimilarity of 
 social usage and Intercourse that love here, 
 in these Eastern regions, takes a different 
 course." 
 
 " How do you mean ? " asked his friend. 
 
 " I mean," said Hermann, " that in lands 
 like those around us, or rather, alongside of 
 us/' — giving a glance towards the Syrian
 
 84 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 coast, the low purple outline of which had all 
 that morning rimmed the sea-margin on the 
 right, and now grew distincter every hour, — 
 '' In lands, I mean, where religion, or custom 
 rather, has made social separation between 
 man and woman the law, and intercourse the 
 exception, one of two extremes must ordinarily 
 follow. Either love cannot properly be said 
 to exist at all from first to last, but is 
 represented after a fashion by a passive 
 acquiescence in the pre-arranged ordinances 
 of parents and relatives, with now and then 
 a tolerable attachment, more often absolute 
 indifference, very rarely actual love, for its 
 ultimate result; or the passion, dormant 
 before, suddenly opens its eyes to find itself 
 full-grown in presence of some fortuitous hap. 
 This may easily happen where a youth and 
 a girl, having already reached an age capable 
 of love in its fullest sense, and having never
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 85 
 
 before loved or even met, — because never 
 intended so much as to see each other, far 
 less to love, — do yet by unforeseen circum- 
 stances come to meet. Then it is that the 
 one meeting, by the very fact of its being 
 unpremeditated and first, makes its entire 
 impression at a blow, and becomes in good 
 earnest the opening scene in a love romance, 
 to end, not unfrequently, in a tragedy. For 
 while the former, that is, the family contract 
 proceeding, may be called the legitimate 
 and regular method among you, — I mean us, 
 — Muslims, the latter, is, on the contrary, 
 unauthorized, and in a manner illegal, love ; 
 nor is its course likely to run smoothly. Were 
 it indeed all smooth, it would hardly be worth 
 the following. And thus it fell out with 
 Jameel and Botheyna, for instance, thus with 
 Mejnoon-'Aamir and Leyla ; and thus, coo, it 
 was with me."
 
 86 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 To this somewhat lengthy exposition, Tan- 
 tawee Beg made no direct reply ; his mind 
 had, while Hermann talked, been running on 
 from thought to thought in quite an opposite 
 direction, and while thus engaged he had 
 dropped his tobacco-pouch, so that he was 
 just then busied in scraping together the 
 tobacco from the deck, and returning it to 
 its proper place. Hermann, for his part, made 
 no attempt to continue his social or psycho- 
 logical speculations ; but quietly filled his own 
 pipe, lighted it, and smoked awhile in silence. 
 
 The ship drifted lazily on before a gentle, 
 southerly breeze, over a sea of oily calm. With 
 the exception of the two friends, almost every 
 one, crew and passengers alike, lay stretched 
 upon the planks in afternoon sleep. 
 
 Tantawee was the first to speak. *' These 
 topics," said he, " lie rather out of my line ; 
 and I fear that even your Zahra herself, — do
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 87 
 
 not scowl SO, my dear boy, I meant nothing 
 personal, — would not have produced much 
 effect on me ; though I own that a pretty girl, 
 in a pleasant garden, on a bright spring morn- 
 ing, must be something very seductive. But 
 every man has his way. However, it is not 
 her, but your own story and adventures that 
 I care about, so pray go on with them. I am 
 hungry and thirsty to learn all that befell you 
 at Bagdad, and how you escaped safe thence, 
 when the Pasha was killed. I heard of it at the 
 time, of course ; It was talked of ever}'where ; 
 but I know no more of the real motives and 
 circumstances of that dark affair than other 
 people do, that Is to say, next to nothing. 
 You, I should think, must be more In the 
 secret." 
 
 " Unhappily I am," answered Hermann with 
 a heav}^ sigh ; and continued his narration. 
 
 " During the three weeks we spent at Diar-
 
 SS HERMANN AGHa'i 
 
 Bekr, I noticed a great change in everything 
 connected with our master, the Pasha. While 
 a supphant In Constantinople, he had affected a 
 modest, almost a humble, appearance : his dress 
 was plain, his lodgings not much better than 
 those of any ordinary traveller ; and the num- 
 ber of the attendants with whom he arrived at 
 the capital scarcely amounted to twenty. It is 
 true that the additions made there raised his 
 suite to forty or so before we left ; but till the 
 last, his men were for the most part purposely 
 dispersed in out-of-the-way khans, and in dis- 
 tant quarters of Stambool ; nor did they at any 
 time, appear all together, till we had already 
 left behind us some hours of the road between 
 Scutari and Ismid, on the other side of the 
 water. Even during the long winter-journey 
 through Anatolia, he seemed rather to avoid 
 than to court notice ; and more than once we 
 observed that he compelled our village guides
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 89 
 
 to take us, much to our annoyance, by cir- 
 cuitous and fatiguing bye-paths, simply in 
 order the better to elude the ostentatious 
 hospitalities of sundry Begs, Pashas, Governors, 
 and the like, whose residence happened to be 
 situated at such or such localities on the main 
 road. 
 
 '' Now all was changed. Before we had 
 been three days housed in Diar-Bekr, a troop 
 of fifty horsemen, very dusty, Koordes by 
 their faces, but dressed and equipped after 
 Arab fashion, with lances, swords, matchlocks, 
 and pistols, arrived from Bagdad, to meet 
 their lord the Pasha ; and the profound obse- 
 quiousness of their manner toward him enabled 
 me to conjecture, and not inaccurately, the 
 importance of the position he had already 
 occupied in his native town, no less than the 
 brilliancy of that which he was now on his 
 way to assume.
 
 90 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 *' But besides this, he seemed in Diar-Bekr 
 itself, judging by the demeanour of the in- 
 habitants of the place, to be, during his stay 
 there, the only person of note in the town. 
 Visits, invitations, cavalcades, every mark ot 
 honour and respect were the order of the day. 
 The higher the local dignitaries, the more eager 
 they seemed to court his favour ; and even 
 the common people, ranged in self-formed 
 lines before the shops or along the roadside 
 as he passed, saluted him with scarcely less 
 reverence than they would have done the 
 Sultan himself. 
 
 " It is a fine thing to be governor of a 
 province in the East, thought I, as I recalled 
 to mind the comparative simplicity and scant 
 attendance of our own more restricted officials. 
 Yet I had when a child seen an Archduke 
 of the Roman Empire make his public entry 
 at Kronstadt, amid troops, music, triumphal
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 9 1 
 
 arches, and all manner of rejoicings. But 
 the pomp which surrounded the Austrian 
 Prince seemed after a fashion less personally 
 his own ; and the respect shown him by our 
 Saxons and Hungarians could In intensity 
 bear no comparison with that manifested by 
 the Arabs and Koordes of Diar-Bekr for the 
 representative of the Ottoman Government. 
 
 " As to the Pasha himself, his manner, 
 courteous, staid, and distant, was that of a 
 man who receives nothinof more than his 
 natural and fully-expected due. When in 
 public, his eyes were generally cast down- 
 ward, and he seldom turned his head ; but 
 if spoken to, he raised it, looked the speaker 
 full in the face, and paused a little before 
 answering, In a voice that effectually precluded 
 any approach to familiarity. But although 
 he conducted himself towards the outside 
 world with so much reserve, not to say
 
 92 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 haughtiness, to us, his personal attendants, and 
 to me in particular, he was on the whole 
 more affable and even good-natured than 
 before ; though not always easily pleased, and 
 apt at times to fall into a violent passion, when 
 things were not to his liking. 
 
 " At last, one forenoon, amid much horse- 
 careering, pistol-firing, and wild tumult, and 
 with a countless escort of respectful valedic- 
 tory attendances, made up of Begs, Aghas, 
 Sipahees,^ Mollas, and what not, who all 
 politely insisted on accompanying us for the 
 first five miles of the way, we left Diar-Bekr. 
 Of my own individual feelings that day, known 
 then to myself alone, I need not speak ; 
 fhey left me but little heart for the share 
 that I, perforce, outwardly took In the joyous 
 
 ^ The word here denotes land-owners on military- 
 tenure.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 93 
 
 demonstrations and horsemanly freaks of my 
 light-minded comrades. The pain which I 
 now experienced was a different one from 
 that which I had suffered when torn from 
 house and home the year before ; it was more 
 intense ; yet there was something inexpressibly 
 delightful mingled with it ; and I cherished 
 it, as I have seen a wounded panther hug 
 the spear that transfixed him." 
 
 " Where did you see that ? " interrupted 
 Tantawee. 
 
 "In the valley of Nejran, on the frontiers 
 of Yemen," briefly answered Hermann ; then 
 went on. 
 
 '' For a short time we skirted the Tigris ; 
 then the river wound away on our left, 
 and we rode forward over gently undulating 
 meadows, till the last minaret of Diar-Bekr 
 had sunk behind the dark tree-line in the 
 distance, undiscernible even to my lingering
 
 94 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 gaze. When our courtesy-escort had quitted 
 us too, and our own band drew somewhat 
 closer together, I observed that we now 
 amounted to about a hundred horsemen. 
 Before sunset we had reached the first entry 
 of the long winding pass, or valley rather, 
 leading to Mardeen ; and here, by a clear 
 spring of cool water, we pitched our tents ; 
 which, backed up by a considerable pile of 
 baggage unloaded from the camels, — for a 
 whole string of these ugly but useful beasts 
 had been taken into our service at Diar- 
 Bekr, — formed an imposing encampment. 
 
 " Next morning we were on our road again ; 
 but it took us four entire days to reach 
 Mardeen, our marching-time being in general 
 from sunrise till afternoon only ; the evening 
 and night we rested, while the Pasha's 
 Koordish or Arab horsemen kept guard by 
 turns. Nor was this by any means a super-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 95 
 
 fluous precaution ; for the peasants of these 
 lands are mostly robbers also whenever they 
 have an opportunity of becoming so. This 
 we ourselves experienced ; for one moonless 
 night, the very last before our arrival at 
 Mardeen, a whole band of these extemporised 
 marauders came prowling about us in the 
 darkness, till they had almost found, unper- 
 ceived, an entrance among the tents. Luckily 
 the alarm was given in time, and the robbers 
 met a suitable reception; several shots were 
 fired and returned almost at random ; two 
 only of our people were slightly hurt. Pro- 
 bably our assailants had suffered more severely, 
 for they scrambled off, under cover of the 
 night, through the rocks and brushwood, 
 and we heard no more of them. But next 
 morning we found thick trails of blood on 
 the grass. The wounded or dead had been, 
 we supposed, carried away by their associates ;
 
 96 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 less, perhaps, from mutual fidelity than from 
 fear of detection. Much indignation was 
 expressed on the occasion by the sub- Governor 
 of Mardeen, where we arrived a few hours 
 later ; and many were his proffers of search 
 after the culprits. But our Pasha did not 
 think it worth while to have any Investigation 
 made ; and I now see clearly that he was 
 right ; though in my Ignorance of the country, 
 I then wondered at what I esteemed his 
 unaccountable apathy on the subject. 
 
 " I was much Interested, — Indeed It was 
 the first sight that gave me any pleasurable 
 interest after our leaving Diar-Bekr, — with the 
 giant crag of Mardeen, and Its wonderful 
 castle crowning the summit ; with the quaint 
 stair-built town clinging to the yellow rock, 
 and the heaped-up emerald foliage of the 
 orchard below. Yet, fair as these scenes 
 were, the comparatively monotonous view.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 97 
 
 now open for the first time, of the boundless 
 plain beyond, and the sensation that I was 
 entering on a land entirely new, brought me, 
 by its very novelty, more relief than all the 
 rest from the clinging thoughts which thus 
 far had haunted me by day and night on 
 my way. The keenness, too, of first im- 
 pressions must needs wear off by degrees, 
 especially under the influence of a total change 
 in all that surrounds." 
 
 '' And more especially still in boyish youth," 
 interposed Tantawee. 
 
 "True," replied Hermann, ''but only in 
 part; youth is not the same for every one." 
 He continued, — 
 
 " Anyhow, there was nothing in the grassy 
 expanse before us, broken only by the grey 
 earth walls and dust heaps of some chance 
 half-Arab village, or the mounded ruins of 
 more populous ages past, that could in the 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 ■ HERMANN AGHA 
 
 least recall to eye or mind the varied land- 
 scape of Diar-Bekr, as we slowly traced our 
 way by the lower or Nisibeen^ road to the 
 battlemented fortress of Jezeerah,^ and rejoined 
 the Tigris. 
 
 " Turbid and full, the river eddied here 
 round the precipitous spur of the Joodee 
 rocks ^ on its left shore ; and we had some 
 trouble about crossing, a feat accomplished 
 by means of the keleks, or jar-supported rafts, 
 proper to these regions. Our next prolonged 
 halt (for at Mardeen we had only remained 
 a day and a half) was Mosool, where we 
 arrived two days later, and where, [for the 
 
 ^The ancient Nisibis. 
 
 2 Also called Jezeerat-'Omar; a small town on the 
 right bank of the Tigris, half-way between Diar-Bekr 
 and Mosool. 
 
 ^ The mountain-range eastward is called " Joodee," 
 and is often, in Mahometan ideas, confounded with 
 Mount Ararat, which bears the same name in the 
 Koran.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 99 
 
 first time in my life, I learnt what heat 
 meant; for the Shelook^ happened to be 
 blowing, and clouds of fine warm dust filled 
 the air. 
 
 *' At Mosool ^ our reception was even more 
 ceremonious than it had been at Diar-Bekr ; 
 and during eight days the uninterrupted 
 honours of flattering, not to say servile, 
 hospitality, hardly left us any repose. From 
 the pasha down to the negroes, all of us 
 were made much of, each by his set and 
 after his fashion ; in fact, every townsman, 
 great or small, was ready to devote himself 
 to our acquaintance and entertainment 
 
 " Yet it was on the whole a heavy time 
 
 ^The Arab name for Sirocco, sometimes, but 
 erroneously, confounded with the "Semoom," or 
 " poison-^vind," which is pecuHar to the desert. 
 
 2 A large town, on the left of the Tigris, opposite 
 the ruins supposed of Nineveh, and well-known to 
 Europeans since Mr. Layard's researches in this neigh- 
 bourhood.
 
 lOO HERMANN AGIIA : 
 
 for me ; for no sooner was I In compara- 
 tively quiet quarters, and deprived of the 
 immediate excitement and bustle of the 
 journey, than the recollection of Diar-Bekr 
 encompassed and shut me in ; while an 
 image, — her image, — stood before me, sad 
 and half-reproachful, I thought, that I had 
 left her thus alone ; though, in very deed, I 
 do not know how I could have done other- 
 wise. In the midst of my merry companions, 
 in street and kahwah, in mosque and khan, 
 this image haunted me ; till I was fain to 
 get out alone among the grass-mounds with- 
 out the town ; and there, under the shadow 
 of some broken cottage wall, the fleckless 
 sky glowing overhead, and the lone waste 
 before me, express to myself in such verse 
 as I could the feelings which else I knew 
 not how to utter." 
 
 " Let me hear your verses,— that is, if you
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. lOI 
 
 remember them," said Tantawee. " I am 
 aware that you are something of a poet; and 
 I daresay that the genuineness of your feel- 
 ings gave you skill to render them less in- 
 adequately than is ordinarily the case with 
 rhymers. Love poetry in general seems to 
 me pitifully artificial ; perhaps yours may have 
 at any rate the merit, — if merit it be in such 
 a matter, — of truth." 
 
 " Be it so," said Hermann, " here are some 
 I have not forgotten ; judge them as you 
 will." And, in a low voice, he recited the 
 following lines : — 
 
 " She spoke no word, she made no sign : 
 Nor word nor sign was needed there. 
 
 I kissed the face upturned to mine, 
 I clasped that bosom passing fair, 
 I smoothed aside the tangled hair 
 
 That wandered o'er her forehead white ; 
 And drunk with love and pleasure then, 
 
 The sunshine on the wall was bright, 
 And happiest I of living men.
 
 I02 HERMANN AGHA ! 
 
 " ' Love, say thou lov'st me.' * Is not this 
 
 Proof of my love ? What wouldst thou more ?' 
 And smile on smile, and kiss on kiss, 
 
 The sudden treasures of love's store, 
 
 And passion unsurmised before. 
 And joys that have no name on earth, 
 
 And the great ocean without shore, 
 Whence life and love and all has birth. 
 
 " And is it thou ? and can it be ? 
 
 How have I won so rare a prize ? 
 How bloomed this flower, unsought by me, 
 
 Self-offered to unheeding eyes? 
 
 How rose this star on clouded skies 
 To usher in love's better day ? 
 
 O dearest joys, for ever last ! 
 O loving heart, beside me stay ! 
 
 O clasping arms, entwine me fast ! " 
 
 *' Passion enough, anyhow," commented 
 Tantawee, when Hermann had ended; "and 
 more pity for you. A nature capable of 
 intense happiness, — and that yours was such 
 I do not doubt, — is capable also of much 
 misery. But continue your story." Hermann 
 complied. 
 
 ''While at Mosool, an incident occurred,
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. IO3 
 
 trifling in appearance, but important in its 
 sequel. Sauntering one afternoon, idle and 
 purposeless, through the narrow sook^ of the 
 town, I fell in with an Arab, — a Bedouin ; he 
 was strolling, like one half-astray, down the 
 street in a direction opposite to mine, swinging 
 his mihjan,^ and turning his head about from 
 side to side with the furtive air proper to his 
 race when within the circuit of brick-walls, 
 where they seem to suspect a trap in every 
 house-door, and an enemy in every citizen. 
 
 " Suddenly he stopped, with a * Hulloa, 
 child!' evidently addressed to me. 
 
 "*What do you want of me .'^' I repHed, in 
 such Arabic, — not overmuch, then, nor over 
 correct, — as I could muster. 
 
 ^ An Arab market-place, or rather the quarter of a 
 town occupied by shops. 
 
 2 A hght switch, generally of almond-tree, used by 
 camel-riders in lieu of a horse-whip; a Bedouin is 
 scarcely ever without one in his hands.
 
 I04 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 " His answer, or rather his next query, was 
 unintelligible to my ears, accustomed at best 
 to the phrases and pronunciation of city life, — 
 both, as you know, very different from those of 
 the desert. Turning to a bystander, a Mosool 
 tradesman apparently, I begged him to act 
 interpreter between us ; and by his help 
 learned, after patiently waiting out what 
 seemed more like a quarrel than a dialogue, 
 that my Arab was one of the Benoo-Sheyban 
 tribe, recently arrived here on cattle business ; 
 that he was now on his way to Diar-Bekr, 
 where he had sheep to dispose of; and, that 
 having conjectured me, from my style and 
 equipments, to be one of the newly-arrived 
 Pasha's attendants, and fresh from Diar-Bekr, 
 he wished to obtain from me the latest news of 
 his kinsman, the Sheykh Asa ad, to whom he 
 was the bearer of family tidings and greetings 
 from Nejd.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. IO5 
 
 " Through my improvised interpreter, I 
 replied that I had indeed come from Diar- 
 Bekr ; that I had heard of his cousin, — uncle, 
 it might be, — Sheykh Asa'ad ; that I had seen 
 him myself, in the divan of his neighbour, 
 Rustoom Beg ; and had left him, with all of 
 his, thriving and in good health. 
 
 " I longed to make some counter-inquiries 
 regarding the Emeer Daghfel and his move- 
 ments ; but the Bedouin, with the uncere- 
 monious abruptness usual among his like, was 
 already turning away, satisfied with the infor- 
 mation he had got ; and to have detained him 
 with questions that would have implied a 
 strangely intimate acquaintance with family 
 affairs, might give rise to dangerous suspicion. 
 So I let him go ; and remained the rest of that 
 day more anxious and abstracted than ever. 
 
 " Yet there was much around to occupy 
 and divert my thoughts. Mosool is a curious
 
 I06 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 place ; it Is the portal where North and South 
 meet ; and a more motley set than its inhabi- 
 tants I never saw, — Arabs, Turks, Koordes, 
 Jews, Persians, Indians, Mahometans, Pagans, 
 Yezeedees, Christians, Shemseeyeh, — " 
 
 *' What do you mean by Shemseeyeh ? " 
 interposed Tantawee. 
 
 " I do not exactly know myself," was the 
 answer ; " they are a class of people much 
 resembling the ordinary Christians of these 
 parts In outward appearance, men and women ; 
 like them heavy-looking, and partial to heavy 
 clothing. However they do not claim any 
 kinship of blood or creed with the Christians 
 of the place any more than with the Mo- 
 hametans, but keep equally aloof from either ; 
 nor do they ever marry except from among 
 their own sect. I was told that they worship 
 the sun, and thence their name ;^ but I myself 
 
 ^ " Shems " is the Arabic for sun.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. IO7 
 
 never saw them at their prayers, if they have 
 any. Their principal dealings are with the 
 Bedouins of the plain, who act as sheep- 
 breeders and drivers on their account ; some 
 of them own in this way considerable flocks 
 and herds, and are rich enough." 
 
 "Well; that will do for the Shemseeyeh," 
 replied Tan ta wee ; " and now, pray resume 
 your own journey to Bagdad ; I am impatient 
 to hear what happened there.'* 
 Hermann went on. 
 
 " We were soon on the road again, and 
 our faces turned towards our ultimate destina- 
 tion, Bagdad. At Mosool we had been joined 
 by a fresh score of the Pashas personal re- 
 tainers ; our horses had rested ; we were all in 
 excellent condition, and, — except perhaps my- 
 self, — in first-rate spirits. But it took us nearly 
 four weeks yet to reach our goal. The track, a 
 wearisome one at any season of the year,
 
 I08 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 had now become doubly so from the daily 
 increasing heat ; indeed, when once arrived 
 among the hillocks of Kerkook,^ we betook 
 ourselves to night travelling, by the light of 
 the moon ; or, if that failed us, guided by the 
 white shimmer, never wholly absent from 
 the trodden ways, amid the darkness around. 
 '' Our greatest difficulty was, however, in 
 crossing the river Zab,^ now at its highest rise, 
 swollen from bank to bank, and rushing down 
 snow cold from the Persian mountains to 
 mingle its waters with the warmer Tigris. 
 Some of our baggage-beasts were lost here ; 
 and even our own rough-riders, though not 
 new to exploits of this kind, had considerable 
 
 1 A small town at about one-third distance on this 
 stage of the high road. 
 
 2 A very rapid river subject to great inundations in 
 the spring, it flows from east to west, and falls into the 
 Tigris, not far above Irbeel, the ancient Arbela of 
 history.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. IO9 
 
 difficulty in keeping themselves and their 
 horses from being svN^ept away by the flood 
 which swirled and eddied around them, to 
 the confusion alike of foot and hand and 
 eye. 
 
 " Though I had never been in the like 
 position before, I took kindly to it, and earned 
 the applause of all, and the envy of many, 
 by the unexpected boldness with which I 
 dashed foremost into the water, and tracked 
 out a fordable way ; while the others were 
 more cautiously feeling out their depth, and 
 bewildering themselves in the search after 
 the shallower patches of the current. My 
 horse was a good one, and bore me bravely. 
 Yet certainly, when our master himself com- 
 mended my daring, and praised me in presence 
 of all as we stood once more gathered and 
 dripping wet on the southern bank, neither 
 he nor any one else guessed to what my
 
 no HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 courage was due. I had pictured to myself 
 Zahra on the opposite shore, and ridden 
 straight for her." 
 
 " Nonsense," exclaimed Tantawee. 
 
 " Nonsense it may have been," replied 
 Hermann ; " but nonsense of this kind is 
 often the truest sense, and so it proved on 
 this occasion. 
 
 " My master s good-will, already inclined 
 towards me, was fairly acquired for ever 
 after that day; and the sturdy negro 
 Sa'eed, who had followed me closely into 
 the water more from anxiety for my safety 
 than from any other motive, and had 
 emerged almost abreast with me out of the 
 foaming ripple on the further bank, rendered 
 rhe from that time forward the homage , of 
 an esteem sincere, because unalloyed by 
 jealousy. So on we rode; till the mounded 
 heaps of Kerkook lay behind us, and we
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. Ill 
 
 entered on the great alluvial plain of the 
 lower Tigris, the famed 'Irak of history. 
 
 ** Meanwhile, our band kept on steadily- 
 augmenting by the accession of little de- 
 tachments of the Pashas men, who were in 
 waiting for us here and there upon the 
 road. We could not have been much less 
 than two hundred persons in all before our 
 journey's end. By this time the differences 
 of temper, formerly frequent causes of 
 quarrel, arising from our varied nationalities, 
 Bagdadee, Koorde, Arab, Greek, Croatian, 
 German, or Negro, had been tolerably 
 rubbed off by the mutual friction of travel ; 
 and, with few exceptions, we were a merry 
 lot. Illuminated by the rays of our master's 
 splendour, each one of us shone a miniature 
 sun, in his own eyes at least. The Pasha's 
 own immediate attendants, though most of 
 them, like myself, purchased slaves, con-
 
 I I 2 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 sidered themselves much superior personages 
 to the crowd of free horsemen ; and were 
 indeed looked up to by the others as such. 
 " Like my companions I soon learned to 
 regard the toiling peasants and shop-keeping 
 townsmen among whom we passed, with the 
 patronising contempt due from a superior to 
 an inferior caste. We graciously accepted 
 their offerings ; sometimes too, I must allow, 
 we took them by anticipation. However, 
 the strict discipline generally maintained 
 among us by the Pasha, — who, on the oc- 
 currence of any dispute between his men 
 and the inhabitants had a habit, perhaps 
 from a desire of popularity, perhaps from a 
 sense of justice, of almost invariably decid- 
 ing in favour of the latter, — kept us within 
 reasonable bounds. Though fond of flattery 
 and presents, and by no means incorruptible, 
 subject to occasional outbreaks of severity,
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 not to say cruelty, when irritated, Kara- 
 Mustapha-Oghloo was steadily averse to 
 unprovoked insult and wanton oppression of 
 the weak, even where Christians, Jews, and 
 such-like were in the case." 
 
 Tantawee looked at the narrator and 
 smiled, ironically somewhat, but said nothing. 
 Hermann continued. 
 
 '' There was great stir at Bagdad on our 
 arrival ; and an endless procession, horse and 
 foot, came forth from the city to meet and 
 greet us while we were yet a good ten 
 miles distance from the walls. 
 
 '' The kadee ^ preceded ; grave, white- 
 bearded, and white-turbaned, a model of 
 decorum ; his very horse looked virtuous. 
 The riders slightly uplifted hand displayed 
 
 ^ Judge : the word is often \vritten kazee, or 
 
 kazi, in compliance with Turkish or Levantine 
 pronunciation. 
 VOL. I. I
 
 1 14 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 a small Koran ; to insinuate, no doubt, what 
 the new Pasha and himself were supposed 
 to regulate their conduct by. A long train 
 of city dignitaries and grandees, mounted 
 on high-blooded gaily caparisoned horses, 
 more or less restive, followed in the rear. 
 Coming up to us, all dismounted, the kadee 
 the first ; our master, — whose stirrup I had 
 the honour of holding, — did the same, and 
 embraced, with great demonstration of re- 
 spectful affection, the venerable judge ; who 
 had been, as I afterwards learned, and the 
 Pasha already well knew, a main intriguer 
 against him ; but who now prudently acted 
 up to the wise Arab adage, ' Kiss the hand 
 you cannot cut off.' 
 
 ~ " The same hand-kissing, and, I dare say, 
 equally sincere, not to mention osculations 
 of hem of robe and foot, was next per- 
 formed by a long sequence of minor
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 functionaries and chiefs. Followed gun-firing, 
 pistol-firing, rocket-firing, squib-firing, to any 
 amount, till I wondered what could be the 
 price of powder in the Bagdad market ; and 
 the horses, already over excited by the 
 crowd and noise, grew almost unmanageable. 
 Some of them bolted ; and more than one 
 townsman was tumbled off in the thick dust, 
 to the detriment of his gay silk robes, and 
 the great diversion of the firmer-seated lookers 
 on. In conclusion, what wdth all these in- 
 troductory ceremonies, halts, and other delays, 
 instead of reaching the city gates at the 
 lucky hour of noon, as had been intended, 
 we did not pass under them till the crier 
 proclaimed from the minarets the unpropi- 
 tious hour of 'AsP late in the afternoon; 
 
 ^ This time of day is of all others considered 
 the most unfavourable for the commencement of 
 any undertaking; hence the current Arab proverb,
 
 I 1 6 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 an ill-looking circumstance, and to which 
 our poor master's subsequent tragic fortunes 
 were by many sagaciously ascribed — after 
 date. 
 
 " Of Bagdad itself, its noble situation be- 
 tween great river and boundless plain, of its 
 gardens and palm-groves, its gilded mosques, 
 vast market-place, stately mansions, and state- 
 lier ruins, I need not tell you, Tantawee ; 
 you must have repeatedly had a full account 
 of them from others. Though no longer the 
 city of Mansoor,^ Haroon-er-Rasheed, and 
 the Thousand and One Nights, it is not un- 
 worthy, even in its present decadence, to be 
 the capital of an empire. As we passed 
 along from street to street, the tall houses 
 
 "Better the evil of the morning than the good of 
 the afternoon." 
 
 ^The CaHph, founder of Bagdad, about the year 
 760 a.c.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. I I 7 
 
 overshadowing us above, and the bustling 
 crowd around us, I felt at first rather small, 
 the more so from my being regarded as a 
 mere unit, merged in the general denomina- 
 tion of attendants, or rather slaves. 
 
 " This feeling, however, did not long weigh 
 me down ; for when the hurry and confusion 
 of our arrival was over, and we were all settled 
 down in the Pasha's splendid quarters, his 
 own ancestral palace on the east bank of the 
 Tigris, I speedily became, — within those walls 
 at any rate, — a person of some importance. 
 I was allowedly my master's favourite at- 
 tendant, taking the lead in pipe and coffee- 
 serving when guests of distinction had to be 
 received ; besides, I was often sent on con- 
 fidential messages, such as are only entrusted 
 to bearers whose fidelity and skill alike are 
 reckoned at a high rate. 
 
 " This promotion of mine was much facili-
 
 1 1 8 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 tated by my aptitude at learning- languages. 
 Already, during the varied intercourse of the 
 past months, I had, partly thanks to the lively 
 gossip of the Bagdadees, and even more of 
 the Africans around me, partly to a quick 
 and attentive ear of my own, picked up 
 sufficient Arabic for ordinary conversational 
 purposes, in addition to great improvement 
 in my Turkish. But at Bagdad the Pasha 
 had me put to school, under the charge of a 
 regular fakeeh,^ who instructed me to such 
 good purpose, that within a few more months 
 I was able not only to talk and read Arabic 
 correctly, but even to write a tolerable hand ; 
 besides, — which last accomplishment my in- 
 structor seemed to value most highly of all, 
 though, I confess, I then did not, — retaining 
 by heart a round half of the Koran. On the 
 
 ^ A learned man, a teacher, a schoolmaster.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. IIQ 
 
 whole, my life was far from unhappy, and 
 my condition not a bad one, even in my own 
 eyes ; in the eyes of those around me it was 
 very enviable. 
 
 "My friend Michael, now Ghalib, the 
 Croatian, could at last make himself tolerably 
 understood in Turkish ; and had, besides, 
 developed into a good rider, a capital shot, 
 and a model of moustachios, — remaining all 
 the while the same honest, thick-witted, short- 
 spoken fellow that he was from the first. 
 The negro Sa'eed continued, however, to be, 
 in every place and under every circumstance, 
 my best and steadiest friend ; we were close 
 confidants on all subjects but one — the one 
 too near my heart to find its way to my 
 tongue. But Sa'eed, unlike myself and most 
 of my comrades in serfdom, never had the 
 least care to rise to personal independence, — 
 a fine horse to ride, gay clothes, and silver-
 
 I20 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 mounted pistols and daggers in abundance 
 formed the ultimate horizon of his aspira- 
 tions ; having now reached this, he was 
 perfectly content, and never allowed more 
 ambitious dreams to trouble the repose of 
 present satisfaction. 
 
 " Not thus the two Greeks, Yoosuf and 
 Dimitri, whose supple servility thinly covered, 
 but did not veil, their restless longing for 
 power, and yet more for money ; to this they 
 joined a capacity for intrigue unequalled even 
 by the cunningest native of false 'Irak. Yet, 
 though untrustworthy fellows, they were de- 
 cidedly clever; and as such they stood high 
 in the good graces of the Pasha, who was 
 of an. unsuspicious, and, indeed, of an over- 
 confiding nature. 
 
 " The rogues had early noticed our trio, — 
 I mean the negro, the Croatian, and myself, 
 and they made many indirect efforts to be
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 12 1 
 
 admitted amongst us, but we distrusted and 
 kept them aloof. I, too, had not forgotten 
 the shght but ill-seeming incidents observed 
 at Constantinople — Yoosufs conduct in par- 
 ticular. With a Syrian, formerly a Christian 
 of the description called Maronite,^ I be- 
 lieve, they succeeded better. This man had, 
 a couple of years before, fled from Syria on 
 account, it was said, of some crime committed 
 there, and had found his way to Bagdad, 
 where, under the assumed name of Mansoor, 
 he passed for a Mahometan, and being a 
 good writer, had insinuated himself into the 
 Pasha's service. These three formed on their 
 side a close alliance of their own ; felt, rather 
 than declared, antagonistic to ours. 
 
 ''It happened one day, when I had gone by 
 my master's order, as bearer of some immediate 
 
 ^ A sect of Syro-Chaldean origin ; their head- 
 quarters are in jSIount Lebanon, near Beyroot.
 
 122 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 message of his to the kadee, that the honour- 
 able judge, after many demonstrations of more 
 than paternal amiability and special interest 
 in my welfare, inquired in a seemingly casual 
 manner, whether, during our stay at Constan- 
 tinople, I had become acquainted with the 
 Defterdar, Eyas Beg ? A moment's consider- 
 ation convinced me that a negative answer 
 would be the most prudent one. I gave it 
 accordingly ; on which he changed the subject 
 of conversation, and I shortly after left him. 
 
 " But the question, and the manner of putting 
 it, connected with previous events, startled me ; 
 and I determined, without saying anything at 
 the palace, to inquire further into the matter, 
 in my own way and on my own account. 
 
 -'* Now so it was that an Arna oot^ of the 
 town guard had married a girl once belonging 
 
 ^ An Albanian.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 to the identical kadee's haram ; and in so doing 
 had, in place of obtaining the advantages he 
 expected, been sold a regular bargain. The 
 girl herself proved to be not particularly good- 
 looking ; that, however, was a disappointment 
 for which he might, without much difficulty 
 have consoled himself ; but there was also a far 
 more serious cause of dissatisfaction, namely, 
 that she did not bring with her one half, — no, 
 nor one fourth even, — of the money and jewels 
 expected by the bridegroom Agha, on the 
 kadee's own assurance. Besides, there were 
 valid reasons for suspecting that the deficient 
 dowry was all the while lying stored in some 
 corner of her former masters strong box. 
 Lastly, the new khanum^ assumed high and 
 mighty airs, on the score of her old connec- 
 tions ; was exacting and extravagant ; and 
 
 1 Lady ; a title used by Turks, Albanians, and the 
 like.
 
 f24 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 treated her soldier-husband with as little de- 
 ference as if he had been her servant, or less. 
 
 " Such a condition of things naturally led to 
 ill-humour, ill-humour to quarrels, and quarrels 
 to divorce. Well for the Arna'oot if the affair 
 had ended there. But the lady, sure of 
 support in the quarter where she wanted it, 
 laid before her former patron, the kadee, a 
 counter-claim against the luckless town-guards- 
 man for a very considerable sum, the esti- 
 mated equivalent of imaginary jewellery and 
 ornaments, which she, boldly, though without a 
 vestige of proof, accused him of having taken 
 from her by force or fraud, and disposed of 
 to his own advantage. The kadee, of course, 
 gave sentence in her favour ; it was a gross 
 injustice ; the ex-husband had to pay, and was 
 furious. 
 
 *' From this man, thought I, it will be easy 
 to learn everything I want regarding my
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 25 
 
 mealy-mouthed kadee. Now In a quiet nook 
 of an alley, In the back-slums of the town, was 
 a kahwah, small In frontage, but spacious 
 within, where not coffee only, but wine, spirits, 
 dice, and other things too, were to be had at 
 will. It was a favourite resort of the divorcing 
 Arna'oot, in company with certain others of 
 his kind and race, whose Islam hung rather 
 lightly on them. Though not myself one of 
 that category, I knew the place well. 
 
 " Thither I went one night, and, as I had 
 expected, found the Agha beguiling his 
 troubles with gambling and drink. I sat 
 down by him. We shared a glass or two of 
 rakee,^ and a throw or two of the dice. 
 Before an hour had passed, my friend became 
 quite confidential. I then put him on the 
 
 ^ The favourite spirituous drink of Christians, and 
 of lax Mahometans, in the East. It is distilled from 
 wine.
 
 126 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 subject of the kadee ; and he, nothing loth, 
 told me of that functionary all the harm he 
 knew, and a great deal more too, I daresay. 
 The catalogue of vices was a comprehensive 
 one: enough to have hanged ten ordinary 
 criminals, at the least. 
 
 '' There was much in what he related which 
 I cared little to hear; but listened to it 
 patiently on account of what else, more to my 
 present purpose, might incidentally be intro- 
 duced. *Of this nature was what I now learnt 
 for the first time regarding the ex- Armenian 
 Eyas Beg ; namely, that he was — though this 
 I had already conjectured — a native of Bagdad, 
 or rather of the village of Kelwad,^ in its im- 
 mediate neighbourhood ; that in his early days 
 he had been intimately connected — more in- 
 
 1 A small town on the Tigris, south of Bagdad. 
 The inhabitants are mainly Christians, and noted for 
 vice and meanness.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 27 
 
 timately, indeed, than honourably — with the 
 kadee; and that he was still, in a manner, 
 the agent of the latter at Constantinople. 
 
 " Next he told how, when the late governor 
 of Bagdad had been deposed and imprisoned 
 by order of the Porte, the kadee intrigued far 
 and wide to obtain the vacant post for a 
 brother-in-law of his own, one 'Alee-Riza 
 Effendee,^ and had spent much money to that 
 end; but that, having failed, he was using 
 every endeavour to undermine the successful 
 candidate, Kara-]\Iustapha-Oghloo, our master. 
 Lastly, that the kadee's brother-in-law, 'Alee- 
 Riza, had lately quitted Bagdad ; ostensibly 
 on a visit to Damascus, but really, it was 
 thought, for Constantinople. 
 
 '''Let the Pasha look to himself,' concluded 
 the Arna'oot, ' and see that he holds his own 
 
 1 A title given only to civilians ; in its current appli- 
 cation it denotes no special rank.
 
 I 25 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 when 'Alee-Riza returns. The Persian fac- 
 
 f 
 
 tion^ of the town, with many of the principal 
 Bagdadees themselves, are discontented, and 
 will side with any one who can hold out to 
 them the smallest prospect of a change in the 
 present order of things. The kadee will help 
 them underhand ; there will be traitors cheaply 
 bought within the palace itself ; and as to the 
 Ottomans of Stambool, what Is a Koorde 
 more or less to them ? Indeed, I fancy that 
 they would be by no means sorry at Con- 
 stantinople to see Kara-Mustapha-Oghloo 
 tripped up. The Turks are, I hear, jealous 
 of his connections and influence in 'Irak ; be- 
 sides. It suits them well to make 'Alee-Riza 
 disburse pretty largely for the permission to 
 do what, If he did not, they would themselves 
 sooner or later pay to have done for them.' 
 
 1 This is a large one in Bagdad.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. I 29 
 
 " Such was the tenor of the soldier's reve- 
 lations. I imparted them next day to my two 
 privy-counsellors, black and white, and we 
 agreed to watch the two Greeks and their 
 ally, the Maronite Mansoor, closer than ever, 
 convinced that whatever mischief migrht be 
 preparing withoutside of our master's resi- 
 dence, they were sure to be acquainted with 
 it, and to be ready to lend a helping hand 
 within. 
 
 " They on their side fought shy, and avoided 
 us all they could, though we, perforce, met 
 continually, both on duty and off it ; not only 
 within the precincts of our common residence, 
 the serey',^ but almost every\vhere else, in 
 town and garden ; for the fellows, especially 
 the Greeks, seemed to have quicksilver in 
 their veins, and were always on the move. 
 
 Palace : official residence of a pasha or governor. 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 
 
 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 But 'hearts have eyes,' as the proverb says, 
 and we were mutual and deadly antagonists, 
 though never a word, other than friendly, 
 had passed between us. 
 
 " Externally everything went on smoothly 
 as yet. The Pasha, though not without his 
 secret enemies, those chiefly of whom I had 
 heard a sample that night in the tavern, 
 was, with the town and province at large, 
 highly popular, and deserved to be so. He 
 was certainly a rough governor, and too much 
 addicted, perhaps, to summary measures, which 
 he termed ready justice, and others called in- 
 discriminating severity ; but on the other hand 
 the better qualities which I mentioned before, 
 and which rendered him a good master, rendered 
 him also a more than ordinarily good ruler. 
 
 " His popularity was naturally reflected on 
 his men ; and while it lasted we had a pleasant 
 time of it. Work was light, and leisure plenty.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 131 
 
 Indeed, except a short winter expedition 
 towards the desert on the south-west, whither 
 a party of us was sent to repress the plunder- 
 inor Muntefik Bedouins, and the result of 
 which was one man wounded on our side, 
 and three or four on theirs, beside a round 
 thousand of camels driven off, and the country 
 in general rather more impoverished than 
 before ; and an occasional hunting-party, when 
 we had to accompany the Pasha on a week's 
 uncomfortable camping-out among the marshes 
 and ditches of the Tigris lowlands, we re- 
 mained at ease at Bagdad. There, what 
 between friends, rivals, little intrigues, amuse- 
 ments, days in the gardens, evenings on the 
 river, nights in the kahwahs, or at the 
 Kara-guz,^ and money in plenty to spend, the 
 
 ^ A kind of Eastern Punch. It is the ordinary sup- 
 plement for theatrical exhibitions, of which there are 
 none, strictly speaking, in the Levant ; not always a 
 very decent one.
 
 132 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 hours went quickly and cheerily by. Nor 
 did I allow even the remembrance of my 
 own German home to trouble me much ; so 
 thoroughly another was the world I now lived 
 in, so vivid in its varied newness, that the old 
 faded daily away more and more into a 
 confused dream, and its persons into shadows. 
 ** But it was not so with the one memory I 
 had carried with me from Diar-Bekr; that 
 was to me an abiding, ever-present reality. 
 There they were, the garden, the form, the face, 
 the voice, — my Zahra ! And often did I lie 
 awake at night, till the first sharp call to 
 prayer spoke the coming dawn, thinking and 
 thinking about her till I thought I should 
 go mad. For the first hopeful excitement, 
 the stirring reaction that followed close on 
 the agony of parting, had now, under the 
 pressure of time and fact, subsided into a 
 weary despondency, to which even the memory
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 133 
 
 of her calm hopefulness, the assurance of her 
 unchanging love, brought little relief; and 
 turn and twist my probable or possible future 
 as I might, I could make out no tangible 
 chance of our meeting again till it would, 
 reason whispered, be too late for meeting to 
 avail except for despair. Of her truth, her 
 constancy, I never doubted in these moments ; 
 I could as soon have doubted the sun at 
 noon-day ; but could even she escape the 
 steady onward march of pre-arranged events ? 
 or could I have time or power to change 
 their course ? Hope I might ; but what 
 grounds had I for my hope ? it was all 
 mere idle self-deceit. Better to acknowledge 
 the truth at once, however dreary, and give 
 It over. No ; for her sake I would not, I 
 could not, succumb. 
 
 '' So I tossed and turned. Now she seemed 
 near at hand ; now far off In interminable
 
 134 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 distance. Then a wild imagination would 
 come over me that she might, — heaven 
 knows how, — have without my knowledge 
 arrived at Bagdad, and be now there. And 
 in this mood I would, for days together, turn 
 round almost involuntarily to look after every 
 woman, veiled, half-veiled, or even unveiled, 
 that I met in the streets and lanes, as if I 
 really expected to see her ; though perfectly 
 sure, so far as reason went, that it could not 
 be she. Till I returned to myself, and said, — 
 though the saying of it profited me little, 
 except to realize my own craving want : — 
 
 " Betwixt us lies a sundering space 
 Of sunlight and of storm ; 
 Yet in each face I seek thy face, 
 In every form thy form. 
 
 '' Full well I know thou art not nigh, 
 I know thou canst not be; 
 Yet gather proof from every eye, 
 I may not hope for thee." 
 
 " God in His mercy preserve me from fall-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 135 
 
 ing in love," ejaculated Tantawee. Hermann 
 took no notice, but continued : — 
 
 "The short winter of 'Irak came and 
 passed ; the early spring followed ; and I 
 was still servant and slave in the serey' ; 
 though my master, who grew fonder of me 
 every day, often talked of giving me my 
 liberty ; sometimes of making me his khazneh- 
 dar ; ^ sometimes also, more often indeed 
 than I at all relished, of providing me with 
 a wife. I, on my side, was now more dili 
 gent than ever at my various duties ; hoping 
 by such conduct to win more quickly the 
 opportunity and the means requisite for the 
 much-longed-for return to Diar-Bekr. That 
 return was to be, and soon ; but how dif- 
 erently from what I had planned ! how unlike 
 all I had imagined ! 
 
 Head steward, or treasurer.
 
 136 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 *' It was in the month of Rejeb/ when 
 'Alee-Riza-Effendee actually arrived in Bagdad. 
 He came very quietly, without any pomp of 
 retinue, almost unobserved as it were ; and 
 when, three days later, he paid his first visit 
 of politeness to the Pasha, his bearing was 
 humble and deferential, almost subservient. 
 
 " Yet rumours soon got abroad of myste- 
 rious messengers, and of nightly meetings at 
 his or the kadee's house, in which men of 
 the first importance in the town had a share; 
 and even I, though, as you may suppose, not 
 admitted into confidence on matters like 
 these, witnessed more comings and goings, 
 more underhand signs and half-whispers be- 
 tween the Effendee's followers and certain of 
 our own palace, than I could explain by any 
 
 ^ The seventh month in the Mahometan year, and 
 the second before the annual fast of Ramadan. These 
 months, being lunar, coincide with all the seasons of 
 the solar period successively.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 137 
 
 justifiable cause. Sa'eed and some others 
 shared my anxiety, and gave utterance to it. 
 What the Pasha himself thought, or even 
 how much he knew, remained for ever a 
 secret to us. I suppose that his over-confi- 
 dence in himself, and his haughty contempt 
 for the intrigue and the intriguers alike, 
 made him neglect, over-carelessly as it proved, 
 the information that latterly can hardly have 
 failed to be given him. 
 
 " Meanwhile spring advanced, an earlier 
 spring than usual ; the Tigris was swollen, 
 and running down like a torrent close under 
 our garden wall ; the trees were, some in full 
 flower, some, the apricots especially, already 
 bore promise of fruit ; the weather was grow- 
 ing hotter day by day. In compliance with 
 the custom of the country, we were now all 
 actively preparing to exchange the upper- floor 
 rooms that we had hitherto inhabited, for
 
 138 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 the underground cellar existence of a Bagdad 
 summer. 
 
 '* It was a glorious morning, and I was 
 busy in the arrangement of the principal 
 sirdab^ for the accommodation of my master, 
 who intended to take up his abode there in 
 a few days. While I placed in order the 
 cushions on the divan, and calculated the 
 vacant space to be left for pipes, writing 
 implements, and the like, I had leisure to 
 relish the cool feel and the subdued greenish- 
 yellow light that filled the cellar ; giving the 
 idea, I thought, of a semi-transparent vault 
 under the sea, shone upon by the sun through 
 some twenty feet depth of water. I was 
 enjoying the originality of the place, and 
 
 1 A long, low, vaulted room, at some depth below the 
 ground-storey of the house. All the large dwellings in 
 Bagdad are provided with such, as a retreat from the 
 heat of the outer air in summer.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 39 
 
 the ideas which it suggested, when Saeed 
 entered in a stealthy manner. 
 
 " ' Are you here, Ahmed Agha ? ' said he. 
 * I have been looking for you all over the 
 palace this half-hour.' 
 
 " ' What is the matter ? ' I asked. 
 
 " * Nothing,' answered the black ; ' but I 
 was uneasy, and wanted your company. 
 Then, too, I have just seen Dimitri, the 
 second Greek, — God curse the whole lot of 
 them I — in the sook, talking very familiarly 
 with one of 'Alee-Riza's men. When they 
 noticed me they left off talking, and separated, 
 but when I had got to the other end of the 
 street, I turned round, and saw them at it 
 again.' 
 
 '' ' There has been a ereat deal too much 
 of this afoot lately,' I replied. ' Shall we 
 speak about it to the Pasha ? ' 
 
 ** * No,' said Sa'eed, * better not now ; I
 
 140 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 am afraid he might take it ill on our part. 
 Let us wait a little, and see what comes 
 next. Should there be symptoms of any- 
 thing dangerous, we will try and give him a 
 hint.' 
 
 *' Two days later, the negro, mounted on a 
 powerful horse of the Pashas that he had 
 taken out for exercise, was passing under 
 the high wall of a garden immediately out- 
 side the town, when he saw 'Alee-Riza 
 Effendee himself, and a troop of attendants, 
 coming along the lane in an opposite direc- 
 tion, also on horseback. After the customary 
 salutations, barely given and returned, Sa eed 
 drew up against the garden-wall to let them 
 go by. They did so ; but hardly had they 
 ridden away a distance of twenty paces when 
 one of them turned back, with a ' Hallo ! 
 my black brother ! ' 
 
 '' ' What do you want ? ' answered Sa'eed.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. I41 
 
 " * You have dropped your purse on the 
 way, — there it is, at your feet,' called out 
 the other : and Sa'eed, looking down to 
 where he pointed on the ground, saw, in fact, 
 a small knotted purse, almost buried by its 
 own weight in the dust, on which it had 
 evidently been just let fall. 
 
 " How it had really come there, and why, 
 there could be no mistake; and Sa'eed was 
 not the man to be purchased at that price. 
 With the crooked end of a long switch that 
 he had plucked a few minutes before from 
 a plum-tree across the wall, he hooked up 
 the heavy little pouch, and taking it in his 
 hand rode quickly up to the speaker, — a 
 Damascene; then, tossing it rather at than to 
 him, said, — ' In your teeth, and in your 
 master's.'^ The Damascene drew his sword 
 
 ^The current Arab phrase here used will not bear 
 literal translation.
 
 142 HERMANN AGHA ! 
 
 in a rage, and aimed a blow at him, but 
 missed. 'Alee-Riza himself hastened to in- 
 terfere and stop the quarrel ; and Sa eed, 
 having, negro fashion, uttered many violent 
 things about their fathers, mothers, and so 
 forth, rode away. 
 
 " This happened near evening ; and on 
 the negro's arrival at the serey', in a state of 
 the greatest excitement, he related the whole 
 affair to me. It seemed to us both much 
 too serious for concealment ; and we deter- 
 mined that either he or I should next morn- 
 ing tell the Pasha. Unhappily, before the 
 morning broke there was no need to tell, 
 and no Pasha to tell it to. 
 
 " According to the order established in the 
 household, my customary resting-place for the 
 night was on a carpet spread in the ante- 
 room, whence a door opened into the Pasha's 
 own private apartment: that, namely, which
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 43 
 
 he occupied when he slept out of the haram, 
 as it was his practice to do twice, thrice, or 
 even oftener in the week. The Croatian, 
 GhaHb (whom our master trusted more 
 thoroughly, I think, than he did any one 
 else, even myself), used to lie on the floor 
 within the Pashas sleeping-room itself, just 
 across the entrance on the inside, his dagger 
 and pistols arranged under the pillow at his 
 head. There was no other door leading into 
 the room ; but the windows on one side 
 opened out upon a gallery running round 
 the interior of the centre-court, and were 
 often only half-closed, particularly during the 
 hot season of the year, — a fatal circumstance 
 as it proved. Sa'eed's night quarters were 
 with the other negroes and guardsmen, — near 
 the great gate of the court-yard, whence a 
 broad flight of low steps led up to the first 
 floor."
 
 1 44 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 '' I thought you had all moved down into 
 the underground vaults," said Tantawee. " You 
 spoke of your having put them in order for 
 the summer." 
 
 ''They are only for use in the day-time," 
 answered Hermann; '^at night, the open air, 
 or at any rate the upper storeys, are the 
 only tolerable resting-places in the climate of 
 Bagdad. However great the heat may have 
 been from sunrise to sunset, the hours of 
 darkness seldom fail to bring on a refreshing 
 change, and the free air is then a thing to 
 be sought, not to be avoided. The upstairs 
 rooms of our serey were spacious ; and 
 though liable to be overheated by the glare 
 of a summer sun, soon cooled down after 
 evening, and became very pleasant ; hence 
 my master generally preferred remaining in 
 them from the night prayers^ till morning. 
 
 ^ Nearly two hours after sunset.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 45 
 
 The haram formed a distinct wing of the 
 building, and Kara - Mustapha - Oghloo, who 
 set little store by feminine society, was a 
 comparatively scant visitor there." 
 
 " Enough," answered Tantawee. " I under- 
 stand It all now ; so pray continue your story." 
 Hermann resumed. 
 
 '* That night (it was dark and cloudy, an 
 unusual thing for the time of year), the Pasha, 
 who had been detained on business till late, 
 and was tired out by the occupations of a 
 more than ordinarily wearisome day, chose to 
 take his rest not In the haram, but in his 
 own apartment. I followed him, and assisted 
 him as usual in undressing and preparing for 
 sleep. I then left him for a moment, and 
 returned, bringing the jug of rose-flavoured 
 water which always stood close at his bed- 
 side for him to drink from if he felt thirsty 
 during the night. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 '''Ahmed,' said he, looking up, 'you are 
 a good youth, and have served me well and 
 faithfully from the day I first took you. I 
 will give you your liberty, please God, at the 
 Lesser Beyram ;^ and you shall then take duty 
 as my Khaznehdar, for I can trust you. What 
 do you say to it ?' 
 
 " I kissed his hand in answer, and wished 
 him long life. 
 
 " Suddenly he started. ' Did you hear 
 that?' he exclaimed, sitting right up, and 
 turning very pale. 
 
 "'What?' said I. 
 
 "'Listen!' 
 
 " Dead silence reigned within the room and 
 
 1 The festival immediately following on the yearly 
 Ramadan fast. This must have been then exactly 
 two months distant ; for I find that the Pasha's death 
 took place on the night of the first of Sha'aban, the 
 month preceding Ramadan, in the year of the story.
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. I4J 
 
 without ; an occasional gust of wind sighing 
 against the windows was all I heard. 
 
 '' The Pasha drew a deep breath ; then re- 
 peated to himself, half-aloud, the customary 
 verses of the Koran. ^ 
 
 "'There was nothing/ I remarked; 'it was 
 only the noise of the wind. God turn it to 
 good.' 
 
 "'To good,' he repeated ; then called Ghalib, 
 and bade him fetch fresh water. When it had 
 been -brought, he made his ablutions and said 
 his prayers, at which he remained longer than 
 usual. 
 
 "But hardly had he completed the second 
 salutation at their close, than again he started, 
 looked round, and listened. 
 
 "'The summoner!'^ he said in a low voice; 
 
 ^ These are contained in the two last chapters of the 
 Koran, and are recited to avert impending e\il. 
 2 The "hatif" or banshee of the Arabs.
 
 148 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 'the summoner of our family/ And then to 
 Ghalib and myself, ' Did you not hear It ?' 
 
 "We both answered In the negative. The 
 wind had now dropped ; all around the house 
 was utterly still. A shiver came over me. 
 
 ''*I take refuge with God,' said the Pasha; 
 and added, ' Be near to-night, both of you. 
 Ghalib, take care that the doors of the outer 
 room are safely closed ; but first give the men 
 at the lower entrance notice that some of them 
 should remain on the look-out till morning. 
 You, too, Ahmed Agha, before lying down, go 
 all round the serey, and see that every one 
 is in his place.' 
 
 *'We promised to do so, and he seemed, 
 after giving these orders, to regain his ordi- 
 nary quiet of mind ; but as I left the room, 
 I heard a deep sigh. I visited the rooms 
 and galleries ; there was nothing in them to 
 excite suspicion : silence and darkness reigned
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 49 
 
 everywhere. I then shook off the vague feel- 
 ing of dread that had been creeping over me, 
 and went to sleep. 
 
 "It must have been somewhat after mid- 
 night when I was wakened up by a hand, a 
 cool moist hand, laid on my arm. I looked 
 up by the light of a candle left burning in 
 the room ; it was Sa'eed stood over me. 
 
 "'What now?' said I, surprised. 
 
 "*A horrible dream,' answered Sa'eed, who 
 was trembling all over. ' I have just seen 
 hivi. God's curse on him!' 
 
 "'Whom?' I answered, almost inclined to 
 laugh at the excessive alarm in his manner. 
 
 '''HimT replied Sa'eed; 'the Evil One. 
 He was exactly as when I first saw him in 
 my own country, the night before they at- 
 tacked our village : he was standing up to his 
 knees in blood ; his face was smeared with 
 it; and there were red horns on his head.'
 
 150 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 "'Donkey of a negro!' said I; * is that 
 all you have wakened me about ? ' and went 
 on bantering him as best I could about his 
 dream ; but in an undertone, for fear of dis- 
 turbing the Pasha in the next room. 
 
 '' But Sa'eed was thoroughly frightened, and 
 continued to repeat, now phrases of anti-dia- 
 bolical efficacy, I suppose, in his own Dar- 
 fooree language, now scraps of the Koran. 
 I felt very uncomfortable myself, and wished 
 the night over. Sa'eed begged and prayed 
 me to let him remain close by me till morn- 
 ing. ' We had better watch,' he said. I con- 
 sented, and we sat together talking in a low 
 voice (I, on my part, feigning an easy 
 security which I was in reality far from en- 
 joying), for an hour or so. 
 
 ** What next startled us both was a deep- 
 drawn, half-snorting, half-gurgling noise from 
 the Pasha's apartment on the other side. We
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. I5I 
 
 remained silent, and listened. The noise con- 
 tinued a short Avhile, then lessened, then 
 ceased altogether. Dead stillness followed. 
 
 "'What can that be?' said I to Sa'eed, 
 who was now sitting up, his mouth open, his 
 eyes staring and fixed as if moonstruck. 
 While I was yet speaking, the door was 
 gently pushed aside from within a little, then 
 a little more ; the light of the candle placed 
 on a chest in my sleeping-room struck through 
 the opening. I could not see in from where 
 I sat, but Sa'eed could. He sprang up with 
 a horrible yell, and dashed the door wide 
 back, throwing the person who stood behind 
 It violently to the ground. I followed. 
 
 '' By the dull glimmer of a lamp on the 
 floor I could indistinctly see Kara-]^Iustapha- 
 Oghloo- Pasha lying in his night-dress on the 
 couch where I had so lately left him, as if 
 asleep ; but his head seemed strangely thrown
 
 152 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 back, and there was a broad streak of some- 
 thing dark and shining from the bed to and 
 along the ground. It was blood, still flowing. 
 The Croatian lay, not on his carpet, but at 
 a little distance on one side of it ; his knees 
 were drawn up, and his hands spread out, but 
 motionless. 
 
 ''' The Greeks, Yoosuf and Dimitri, were in 
 the room ; so also was Hoseyn, a tall, strong- 
 built Koorde, one of the Pasha's own suite, 
 and a bosom friend, as every one knew, of 
 Mansoor the Syrian. Yoosuf had been knocked 
 down by the sudden opening of the door ; 
 the other two were standing between the 
 divan and the bed on which the Pasha was 
 stretched out. The three murderers had nothing 
 on them except their under linen dress, stoutly 
 girded ; but each one had about him a couple 
 of knives, — crooked knives and sharp, ready 
 for further use if requisite.
 
 AX EASTERN NAKRATIVE. I 53 
 
 " I, too, had, by good luck, my yataghan 
 with me. I had stuck it into my belt while 
 sitting up with Sa'eed ; he, for his part, was 
 armed with a short two-edged kama.^ Draw- 
 ing this he fell, rather than leapt, upon the 
 still prostrate Yoosuf, and began stabbing him 
 in every direction. The Greek, taken utterly 
 by surprise, made no effort at resistance, but 
 gasped under the blows. The Koorde observ- 
 ing me, rushed at me, a knife in each hand. 
 I caught up the cushion that a few minutes 
 before had pillowed poor Ghalib's head, and 
 with it struck my adversary full on the breast 
 and face ; he cast his arms up, and, at the 
 same instant, I ran him through and through 
 with my yataghan. 
 
 " Meanwhile a deadly struggle was going 
 on between Sa'eed and Dimitri, now the sole 
 
 ^ A broad-bladed dagger, often worn by Turks.
 
 I 54 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 surviving Greek, for Yoosuf already lay stone- 
 dead. Dimitri cut Sa'eed deep in the arm 
 and thigh ; while Sa'eed, whose dagger had 
 dropped on the floor, grappled with the 
 enemy, and fixing his sharp white teeth in 
 his throat, flung him about as a stag-hound 
 would a deer he was worrying, receiving all 
 the time fresh but random slashes. Free of 
 the Koorde, I now came up to my com- 
 panion's help ; and seizing the Greek's left 
 arm from behind, struck my knife in home 
 under his ribs ; he groaned, and would have 
 fallen to the ground, but the negro's teeth 
 kept him up. Sa'eed had torn open the 
 veins of his throat, and was literally sucking 
 his blood. 
 
 '" Let go,' said I, ' he is dead.' 
 
 " Sa'eed obeyed, grinding his teeth, and 
 drawing in his breath with a sound between 
 a hiss and a moan ; his face was frightful
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 55 
 
 to look on, it was that of a wild beast. The 
 corpse of the Greek dropped on the floor ; 
 he kicked it with his foot. 
 
 "'Come,' said I, 'and let us see how it 
 has gone with our master.' 
 
 "Sa'eed gave a start, and with a wild 
 scared look accompanied me to the bedside. 
 We trimmed the lamp, the same which the 
 murderers, no doubt, had lighted for com- 
 pleting their evil purpose ; it showed us 
 nothing but death. The Pasha's throat had 
 been cut right through ; he must have died 
 instantaneously. The Croatian's neck was 
 bruised, and the spine broken. Of the 
 three assassins two had already breathed 
 their last ; the third, it was the Koorde 
 Hoseyn, still groaned a little. The negro 
 put his foot on the dying man's breast, and 
 stamped till all was over. 
 
 " 'They have not been quite quick enough
 
 156 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 for us/ said he. 'They would have killed us too, 
 — you at all events, and reported robbers, or 
 God knows what. The swine, — curse their 
 fathers ! — would have had a famous reward 
 from 'Alee-Riza and his friends, and have 
 been themselves made away with also soon 
 after, — no,— that dog Yoosuf at least would 
 have been too sharp for his employers. The 
 fellow meant to have been far enough away 
 from Bagdad before dawn ; — look here ! ' and 
 he pulled out a quantity of gold coin, seals, and 
 jewellery from the blood-stained pockets of the 
 dead Greek's linen trousers. 
 
 " Then suddenly throwing himself all along 
 on the Pasha s corpse, and kissing the dead 
 hand as though he would have devoured it, 
 'O my master!' he sobbed; 'O loss! O 
 misery! O God, — misery!' 
 
 '' I could bear up no longer ; the excitement 
 of the struggle, and all the savage feelings
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. I57 
 
 that had accompanied it, revenge, hatred, self- 
 defence, fury, were now passing away fast as 
 the passing moments. I gazed on the death- 
 pale face of Kara-Mustapha-Oghloo, — he had 
 been throughout a kind and Hberal master and 
 patron to me ; at the distorted and swollen 
 features of Ghalib the Croatian, — he had been 
 my earliest companion in my captivity, and a 
 steady affectionate friend ; and sitting down by 
 the dead body of my poor comrade on the 
 floor, I burst into an agony of grief. 
 
 " Sa'eed looked up. ' What are you after 
 crying there ?' he said. ' Up ; take some of 
 this along with you,' tossing me a handful of 
 the plunder of the helpless Greek ; ' up, and be 
 off, and far away hence before daylight, or you 
 are a lost man. You will be made answerable 
 for all this ; and impalement is the very least 
 that the kadee and 'Alee-Riza between them, 
 will adjudge you to.'
 
 158 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 '' What he said was the truth ; there was no 
 doubting that it would be even so. ' But you, 
 Sa'eed,' I answered, ' are you not coming too ? 
 Up, and along ; we shall live to take more 
 revenge for our master yet.' 
 
 '' * I have done, and am done for,' was his 
 reply, as he pointed to his side, from which 
 the blood was running fast and thick ; another 
 stream, bright red on the black skin, trickled 
 by jets down his arm from the shoulder to the 
 elbow. 
 
 " I cannot leave you thus, my brother,' said 
 I. * Let me tie it up ; we can then go on to- 
 gether, and I will take care of you by the way 
 till we reach some quiet hiding-place not far 
 off. Come along.' 
 
 " * No, Ahmed Agha,' he answered ; ' the 
 time for all that is gone by. If I were to try 
 and accompany you, it would not save me, — it 
 would only put you in danger of being caught.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 59 
 
 Go, my brother ; go in God's guard, and leave 
 me alone. I will join my master.' 
 
 " Thus saying, he settled himself down, all 
 bleeding as he was, at the foot of the bed, and 
 leant his head against the knees of the corpse 
 on it. I tried to rouse him, — he was panting 
 quick and hard. As I touched him he shrank 
 away impatiently, and buried his face in the 
 bed-covering. Soon his breathing slackened 
 and stopped. Gently I took his hand : it 
 was icy cold, the fingers closed firm on mine ; 
 he looked up at me, a look of strange tender- 
 ness, pitifully earnest, and smiled. An instant 
 after, his eyeballs rolled inwards and upwards, 
 — his hand stiffened in my hold, — he was dead." 
 
 Hermann was silent a minute. 
 
 " I have often heard," said Tantawee, " that 
 negroes have a secret for dying at will ; curious 
 fellows, those blacks. May God have mercy 
 on him."
 
 l6o HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 Hermann repeated the phrase with much 
 feeling, but added nothing ; he seemed far 
 away In thought. 
 
 *** How lonely you must have felt, poor 
 boy ! " continued Tantawee, wishing to rouse 
 him from his reverie. '' I can fancy your 
 dreariness when all was over, and you were 
 left alone, with only the dead around you. 
 Did you ever hear what happened next 
 day, and what became of the corpses?" 
 
 Hermann roused himself. 
 
 *' When next I visited Bagdad, almost 
 three years later, I found that the Pasha, 
 — God have mercy on him ! — had received 
 honourable and costly 'sepulture amid the 
 tombs of his family close by the Mosque of 
 the Sallheeyah, In the Koordlsh quarter of 
 the city ; an open cupola had been erected 
 over his grave, which was popularly revered 
 as that of a martyr : for no one of the towns-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. l6l 
 
 people doubted that infidels, — that is the 
 two Greeks, — had done the deed. Their 
 corpses had been gibbeted for a few days, 
 then taken down and thrown into the river. 
 Hoseyn, who came in for the benefit of the 
 doubt whether he had not, perhaps, met his 
 fate in defending his master, and Sa'eed, had 
 been buried, but apart from each other ; the 
 former in the Koordish cemetery, the latter 
 in the great general burying-ground outside 
 the city walls, on the south side. 
 
 ** No stone marked the spot where my poor 
 negro friend was laid ; but it was pointed 
 out to me by some townsmen, who, in accord- 
 ance with the common beHef, called Sa'eed, 
 like his master, * martyr,' and spoke of the 
 murder with the fresh horror of a recent 
 occurrence. When alone afterwards, I often 
 went there, — you may wonder, — but I had 
 reasons for doing so which I cannot tell even 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 1 62 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 to you. Take in exchange the verses of my 
 lament ; I recited them over the grave. 
 
 " When the waning moon is high, 
 
 And the dawn is on her track, 
 
 And the cypress shadows black 
 On the turbaned tombstones He ; 
 And the sudden call is loud 
 
 That the faithful bids to prayer, 
 Thou shalt stir thee in thy shroud, 
 
 Wakeful mid the slumbers there. 
 
 " Thou wast faithful in thy life ; 
 
 Thou wast faithful in thy end ; 
 
 Faithful follower, faithful friend, 
 Faithful found in rest and strife. 
 Ever ready to my call. 
 
 Ever present at my side ; 
 Now thou cora'st not, — silent all ; 
 
 Is the severing gulf so wide ? 
 
 *' God of faithful hearts and brave, 
 
 God of loving hearts and true, 
 
 Fresher than the morning dew 
 Be thy mercies on that grave. 
 Be thy mercies on the head 
 
 That was bowed to none but Thee ; 
 Be thy mercies on the dead, 
 
 Yet not wholly dead to me." 
 
 " Why, our celebrated poetess, Tomadir
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 63 
 
 the Khansa/ herself, could hardly have 
 lamented Sakhr more feelingly ; you deserve 
 a place among the bards of the ' Hamasah,' "^ 
 said Tantawee. ''Not that I quite follow the 
 meaning of your last line." 
 
 This was spoken inquiringly ; but Her- 
 mann's face gave no promise of explanation, 
 or even of answer. Tantawee saw it, and 
 changed the subject. 
 
 " And what," added he, " was the current 
 idea in Bagdad regarding the assassination 
 itself ? to whose instigation was it ascribed ? 
 I know thus much only, that neither 'Alee- 
 Riza Effendee nor any of his faction profited 
 by it." 
 
 1 A pre-Islamite authoress of note ; her verses of 
 mourning over her brother Sakhr, who died of wounds 
 received in battle, have come do^vn to us, and are 
 ranked among the best elegies of Arab literature. 
 
 2 The classical " Golden Treasury " of Arab poetry ; 
 it was compiled by Aboo Temman, himself a poet of 
 the first order, about 820 a.c.
 
 164 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 " They certainly did not," replied Hermann. 
 *' The Investigation, I was told, was secret ; 
 but measures accompanied It, or followed, 
 which proved that the mystery did not remain 
 uncleared In the councils of Constantinople at 
 least. Such were the sudden and total dis- 
 appearance of 'Alee-RIza ; the disgrace and 
 downfall of the too-powerful kadee ; and the 
 appointment of the stern and despotic Tahir 
 Kubrooslee Pasha, formerly an Intimate 
 friend of Kara-Mustapha-Oghloo's, to the 
 government of the province. 
 
 " In Bagdad Itself," he continued, " no one 
 ventured to speak openly, even then ; but public 
 opinion, though whispered only, hit the mark, 
 or very near It. I Indeed thought It prudent, 
 during my short stay, to avoid personal recog- 
 nition, — no difficult business, so changed was 
 I In look and bearing from the comely light- 
 hearted lad of scarce three years before ; but
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 65 
 
 if I had instead openly announced myself for 
 who I was in the mid-market place, there 
 would have been, I believe, no real risk in so 
 doing." 
 
 " It is wonderful," remarked Tantawee, 
 musingly, and speaking rather to himself than 
 to his friend, "how those dogs of Osmanlees 
 contrive to become acquainted, — usually a little 
 after time, it is true, — with whatever occurs 
 throughout the vast straggling empire; and 
 how, sitting still themselves, and seeming to 
 take no notice, they get into their fat hands the 
 strings of every intrigue, from the Danube to 
 the Tigris, and pull them to their own advan- 
 tage. God knows best, but I almost fear 
 they may in the end prove too much even for 
 us. But now," he said, addressing himself 
 directly to Hermann, '' pray resume your story, 
 and tell me how you got off safe." The other 
 continued, —
 
 1 66 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 " After a few paralysed minutes of intense 
 depression and horror, I awoke to my own 
 Immediate and personal danger. What Sa'eed, 
 poor fellow, had said, I knew to be strictly 
 correct ; if I was found within Bagdad next 
 morning, there was nothing for me but torture 
 and death. I must make haste. 
 
 " Turning my attention first to the corpses 
 of the Pasha, the negro, and the Croatian, I 
 arranged and covered them as decently as I 
 could, but without altering their respective 
 positions ; thus, I thought, they would best 
 tell their own story. Next I took one of the 
 Koorde Hoseyn's knives, — they were sharper 
 than my dagger, — and with it severed the 
 heads of the three murderers, putting each 
 head between Its owner s feet, where they lay 
 in blood on the floor — the curse of God on 
 them all. This done, I crammed some loose 
 coin into my pockets, threw the jewellery on
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 67 
 
 the Greek Yoosufs treacherous face, and 
 made for the door ; whence however, I turned 
 again to kiss the hands of my late master, and 
 of my faithful friend Sa'eed once more, and to 
 put out the light. 
 
 " From the chamber of death, through the 
 ante-room, along the passage, down the dark 
 steps, I felt my way, till the cool night air 
 blew on me from the open, and I stood in the 
 courty^ard. Everywhere around in the serey' 
 was silence ; the mortal struggle, too fierce in 
 its short duration for shout or cry, had given no 
 alarm. Sa'eed's unrepeated yell of horror, if 
 heard, had passed unnoticed. 
 
 "My first thought now was to try and get 
 one of the Pasha's horses out of the stable, 
 but the grooms were sleeping there ; and the 
 fear lest the animal should neigh and wake 
 them up prevented me ; besides, how could I 
 contrive to open the large folding doors of the
 
 1 68 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 palace and pass the guards there, unnoticed ? 
 So I abandoned that scheme, and began look- 
 ing about for a place in the walls where I could 
 conveniently climb over. This I was lucky 
 enough soon to find ; in a couple of minutes 
 more I had dropped noiselessly into a narrow 
 lane behind the building. 
 
 " Without once turning to bid farewell to 
 the home thus left, I passed down the alley, 
 carefully looking around, but seeing no one 
 except the silent stars above me, till I came 
 full on the river. The deep stream was flow- 
 ing calmly and rapidly by in all its mighty life, 
 — the great hfe in which we all share, and which 
 takes no heed of our coming or of our going ; 
 a few dim lights glimmered on the far-off oppo- 
 site shore ; some black boats lay moored In 
 darkness close under the bank, but there was 
 no one in them keeping watch ; the very town- 
 dogs were fast asleep curled up in the dust ;
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 69 
 
 it was the stillest hour of the night, that which 
 immediately precedes the dawn. Quietly as 
 might be, I went on till I reached the point 
 where the city walls and towers come sheer 
 down upon the water. In I plunged, swam 
 with the current round the corner, and a good 
 hundred yards lower down the stream ; until, 
 taking advantage of a grassy slope at the edge, 
 I managed to scramble out, and found myself 
 in a field somewhat to the south of the town, 
 on the east side of the Tigris. 
 
 " To what particular point of the compass 
 I should next turn was a consideration for 
 which I had no leisure as yet ; all I thought 
 of was how to get away, and that the quickest 
 and the farthest possible, in any direction. 
 Looking round by the grey light of early 
 morning, now spreading over river and plain, 
 I distinguished a dark heap, — it was the 
 night-encampment of some travellers, I know
 
 I 70 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 not who, sleeping on the ground not far off; 
 probably they had arrived the evening before, 
 too late for admittance within the gates. 
 Most of their horses were picketed close by 
 them, but two stood at a tempting distance 
 from their owners, behind the baggage. 
 
 " One of these I resolved to appropriate 
 for my own use. So I crept cautiously up ; 
 the men were sound asleep, and their heads 
 hid beneath the cloaks which covered them 
 all over from the night air. Gently, — for my 
 life was at stake, — I drew away a saddle and 
 bridle from out the heap of travelling-gear 
 to which these articles belonged, and carried 
 them to the farthermost horse, — a light bay. 
 I stroked the beast, breathed up his nostrils, 
 put some grass to his mouth to keep him 
 occupied ; next placed the saddle on his back, 
 and fastened the girths ; slipped the bridle 
 over his head, and the bit Into his mouth ;
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATWE. I7I 
 
 then cautiously undoing the foot-ropes, led 
 him a little way on one side, preparatory to 
 mounting him, when, to my intense disgust, 
 the brute gave a long whinnying neigh. It 
 was answered by a whole chorus of the other 
 quadrupeds where they stood by their owners, 
 as if on purpose to arouse the slumberers, and 
 'stop thief/ But the alarm-signal had been 
 deferred till too late ; that very Instant I 
 had leapt Into the saddle, and was off into the 
 uncertain twilight, just In time to elude the 
 pursuit which my now awakened friends 
 hurriedly prepared to make after me. ' A 
 lucky hit,' thought I, as off I galloped, ' some- 
 body will have to get a new horse to-day, 
 but It shall not be from me.' 
 
 *' Away I went, by plain and palm-grove, 
 taking no heed whither my course led, except 
 to keep well clear of the town-walls, and of 
 the many villages In their neighbourhood.
 
 172 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 As the bright sun flashed upon the horizon, I 
 drew bridle for a moment, and looked round ; 
 far off glittered the gilt domes of the Kazim 
 mosque ;^ and smaller yet, because in remoter 
 distance, the cupola of the Gheelanee,^ several 
 miles to the south-west. I had, without in- 
 tending it, taken the direction of Kerkook. 
 
 " What, meantime, became of my pursuers, 
 and of the rightful owner of the horse I 
 bestrode, I never ascertained ; probably they 
 missed my track from the very first. Any- 
 how, there was no one in sight but a stray 
 peasant here and there, come out to his 
 morning work, and the trooping birds that 
 flew over or settled on the parched fields. I 
 
 1 A celebrated sanctuary of the Shee'ah, or Persian- 
 izing sect, at Bagdad. It is built over the tomb of one ^ 
 of their twelve Imams. 
 
 2 A mosque, bearing the name of the famous 'Abd-el- 
 Kadir el Gheelanee, a well-known saint of Mahometan 
 hagiology.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 73 
 
 was acquainted with this part of the country, 
 having traversed it more than once on my 
 late master's errands to the neighbourhood ; 
 and I had then remarked a large and deep- 
 cut canal, which I now guessed to be not 
 far off. This I sought for ; and, having dis- 
 covered it, I next rode along It, hoping to 
 find a convenient spot where I could conceal 
 myself close to its banks. At last, I came on 
 a large shell-like hollow, — down Into which 
 I led my horse, tethered him, and then took 
 a thorough survey of my person and dress. 
 The first view reassured me somewhat : I 
 was much less besmeared with blood than I 
 had imagined In the dark. 
 
 " Taking off my clothes I walked knee- 
 deep into the water, washed myself all over, 
 and then scrubbed hard at the streaks and 
 stains on my apparel and accoutrements. 
 The marks would not come out altogether, — if
 
 1 74 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 ever you try, you will find how hard blood is 
 to get rid of, — but, at all events, they took a 
 different and less damning appearance ; es- 
 pecially when, after a thorough soaking and 
 rinsing, I rubbed a considerable quantity of 
 the brown canal-dust into every part of my 
 dress. Then I sat down again by the side 
 of my horse, and drew out my gold pieces 
 with a heavy sigh, remembering how they had 
 come into my possession ; I counted them, — 
 they were eighty-seven in all. These things 
 over, I tried forcibly to drive away the black 
 swarm of thoughts which, like the mosquitoes 
 of the canal, were ever ready to settle on 
 me the first instant of leisure, and applied 
 my whole mind to consider what I had best 
 do next, and whither go. 
 
 ** North ? — that it must be. It was, though 
 at an immense distance, the way to my 
 own home; and it was also, — which I allow
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. I 75 
 
 was a much more urgent motive to my mind 
 now quite unhinged from that old home by 
 the many events and violent changes that 
 had occurred since I left It, — the way to 
 DIar-Bekr, to the home of Zahra' ! At that 
 name life returned, and for half a second I 
 felt as though I could be almost glad at the 
 result of a night which had put me so suddenly 
 on the way back to her, just when I was 
 beginning to lose all hope of a second meeting. 
 But reflection made me Immediately ashamed 
 of so egotistical a feeling, and I denied It to 
 myself; wishing on the contrary, expressly 
 and deliberately, that I had been, not on 
 the road DIar-Bekrwards, safe and sound, 
 but lying dead In the Inner chamber of the 
 serey', alongside of my good negro friend, 
 and my noble trusting master. 
 
 " Having reiterated this wish two or three 
 times to make sure of It," —
 
 I ^(i HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 *' You were very glad all the same," inter- 
 posed Tantawee, '' that It was not so ; and 
 had there been the slightest possibility of 
 such an exchange, you would hardly have 
 wished It so freely." 
 
 " No, not so," rejoined* Hermann ; *' I was 
 quite sincere ; I wished It with all my heart 
 then and there, — I know I did." He con- 
 tinued, — 
 
 '' Rising, I led my horse up the bank again 
 out of the hollow, crossed a small bridge, and 
 put the canal between myself and Bagdad, 
 now lost from view. 
 
 "• DIar-Bekr was, then, to be my goal ; but 
 by what route ? Three things were evident ; 
 first, that I must lose no time In getting clear 
 of the risk of being caught and led back ; 
 secondly, that I must shape my way so as 
 to Include the necessary opportunities for ob- 
 taining food and shelter ; thirdly, that I could
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. I 77 
 
 not venture to show either myself, my clothes, 
 or my horse. In any village too near Bagdad. 
 The alarm might have already spread to a 
 distance, or, if not, it was sure soon to be so ; 
 and my appearance and recognition might 
 lead either to immediate arrest, or lend a 
 clue to subsequent inquiry and following up. 
 On the other hand, though a stranger-born, 
 I was by this sufficiently acquainted with the 
 narrow range of localization in the East to 
 know that If once at a reasonable distance 
 from the scene of action, I was comparatively 
 secure from being Involved In its conse- 
 quences ; and that If once clear of the limits 
 of the Pashalik Itself, I had little or nothing 
 to fear. 
 
 " The result was, that, instead of retracing 
 the direct road to Kerkook, that by which I 
 had come the year before, I struck out more 
 to the east, and made my way for three 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 weeks of incessant riding and roughing it 
 through a broken and thinly-peopled country. 
 Most often I journeyed by night, for the heat 
 of the sun was intense, and I ill able to bear 
 it, wearied out as I was by excitement and 
 privations ; my days I passed where and how 
 I could. Many were the vicissitudes of hos- 
 pitality and of churlishness that I experienced 
 among the villagers, peasants, and shepherds ; 
 frequently hungry, sometimes in danger ; for 
 the population hereabouts is scant and law- 
 less ; every man carries arms, and uses them 
 as he thinks fit. At last I arrived on the 
 banks of the Zab, at the so-called Kanjar 
 ford, considerably above the spot where I had 
 so gaily dashed across the torrent before 
 Pasha and comrades a twelvemonth since. 
 
 "After many attempts and failures I tra- 
 versed the furious rush of waters, and set my 
 face for Mosool, three days' distance, as some
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. I 79 
 
 shepherds who were driving their flocks to 
 drink at a reach on the northern bank, in- 
 formed me. Far away from Bagdad, beyond 
 the utmost Hmit of its jurisdiction, I now felt 
 tolerably safe ; and while slowly measuring 
 out the three days of road that the weariness 
 alike of horse and rider protracted to four, I 
 had ample leisure to reflect on the utter lone- 
 liness of my actual condition in the world. 
 
 " Lonely indeed. True, I was no longer 
 a prisoner or a slave ; but so long as I had 
 been one or the other, I had, at all events, 
 some one to hold by, some one who had an 
 interest in me ; now there was no one. I 
 was my own master, but in a strange land ; 
 among men and languages still in a measure 
 strange ; no friend, no adviser, no companion, 
 no stay, — strangers all. Zahra' herself, her 
 lovely face, her gentle voice, her sweet con- 
 verse, with whatever had occurred at Diar-
 
 l8o HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 Bekr, the garden, the terrace, the house, the 
 place of meeting, the whole episode, seemed 
 to me to fade somehow into a dream, and 
 that all the more as I approached my one 
 haven of hope. I could not get myself to 
 think steadily that it had been, and might 
 still be, a reality. 
 
 "In vain I strove to recall it. That place, 
 the place of reality, was now occupied in my 
 mind by Bagdad, — by its streets, its market, 
 its gardens, by the palace, by my kind master 
 the Pasha, by my cheery friend the negro, 
 by my staunch ally the Croatian ; again and 
 aeain the horrible death-scene came before 
 me, or, rather, it was never absent. I saw 
 the faces I had known and loved, now ghastly 
 and disfigured as when the lamp gleamed on 
 them in that fatal room ; now, but as if 
 through a haze or mask, bearing their old 
 wonted appearance ; at times I could not per-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. l8l 
 
 suade myself but that one or other of them 
 was actually near me, so real they seemed. 
 
 " The country around me, too, — do you 
 know it ? — no ; you were never there your- 
 self, — increased the sense of desolation ; dull 
 slabby rocks, bare slopes, dry chalk hill-sides, 
 and, over all, a monotonous cloudless sky, in 
 which the very sun appeared to stand still 
 for heaviness ; now and then some broken 
 wall of an old abandoned fortress, telling no 
 history in its unmeaning fragments, except 
 that of decay and ruin, — " 
 
 " For God's sake, my good fellow, get out 
 of this," answered Tantawee ; " my hair is 
 growing grey to hear you ; your account is 
 more dreary than the croak of the unluckiest 
 raven." 
 
 "What must the thing itself have been 
 to me who went through it all?" said Hermann; 
 then continued, —
 
 l82 HERMANN AGHA ! 
 
 " But youth and health were mine yet, and 
 they do wonders. I felt, even in my most 
 melancholy moments, an elasticity, as it were, 
 that nothing could crash, and a determination 
 to go through or tread down whatever diffi- 
 culties might cross my way. 
 
 " Thus I rode on ; till after coming out 
 from among the huge earth-heaps, — what heaps 
 are they ? — one would say that some vast city 
 must lie burled underneath them, — on the 
 eastern bank of the Tlofrls. I saw the river 
 Itself, the rock of Nebee Yoonas,^ and the town 
 of Mosool before me, though still at a con- 
 siderable distance. 
 
 " The sight dissipated my day-dreams, bright 
 and gloomy alike, and aroused me to the 
 
 ^ A large isolated rock on the left shore of the 
 Tigris, opposite Mosool; the prophet Jonas is sup- 
 posed to have taken up his station here when an- 
 nouncinsf the destruction of Nineveh.
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 83 
 
 realities and cares of actual life. Dismountine 
 from my horse, I bestowed a general survey 
 on my person and weapons, furbished up with 
 earth the silver mountings of the latter, re- 
 arranged the saddle and other accoutrements, 
 and counted over again my diminished stock 
 of wealth. Then taking advantage of a clear 
 brook that was hastening close by over the 
 pebbles to join the great river of the plain, 
 I performed my long- neglected ablutions, and 
 said my prayers, with late and almost penitent 
 gratitude to the God who had brought me 
 safe and sound thus far through so man}^ 
 dangers, and with increased hope and trust 
 in Him for the future. This duty performed, 
 I remounted, and began to traverse at a 
 foot-pace the wide stony level that marks the 
 old water-bed, and out of which rises the 
 strange isolated rock of Xebee Yoonas, like 
 a giant watch-tower over river and town.
 
 184 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 "It was the Friday of the last week in 
 Shaaban,^ a festive season, and, besides, a 
 day of commemoration in honour of I know 
 not what Welee,^ in the suburbs of the town. 
 On my way alongside of the huge rock, and 
 down the gradual slope to the river, I fell in 
 with group after group of citizens, gaily dressed 
 in their best clothes ; some were on horseback, 
 some on foot, and all equally bent on enjoying 
 to the utmost a daylight holiday, before the 
 approaching month of Ramadan, should limit 
 the pleasures of existence to the short summer 
 nights. '"^ 
 
 ^ The month which immediately precedes the fast of 
 Ramadan ; hence it assumes something of a carnival 
 character, particularly towards the end. Friday, among 
 Mahometans, takes the place of Sunday among 
 Christians. 
 
 2 Saint. 
 
 ^ During that month, all eating, drinking, smoking, 
 and every kind of pleasure and amusement is prohibited 
 from the first streak of dawn till after sunset.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 8; 
 
 '' Noon had passed, but the sun was yet 
 high in the bright west ; and the river with 
 its broad marginal tract of stones and gravel 
 glittered before me in dazzling light ; the 
 very mud walls of Mosool looked golden [in 
 the gleam. For myself, I was growing hungry, 
 having tasted no food since a platter of sour 
 clotted milk shared with a shepherd that 
 morning among the now far-off hills. Instinct- 
 ively I looked hard at every one I met, in 
 the vague idea of recognising a friend or 
 acquaintance ; while I also thought in what 
 khan of the town I had best put up, should 
 nobody claim me as a subject for the hospitality 
 of which my horse, poor jaded brute, so un- 
 ceremoniously pressed into hard service, stood 
 scarcely less in need than myself. 
 
 " Just as I reached the water, and halted 
 hesitating on its edge, a large flat-bottomed 
 boat crossed over from the town-side to the
 
 I 86 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 place where I had drawn rein, and half a 
 dozen Koordes, well dressed, and armed In 
 full travelling equipment, stepped out on the 
 stones. I looked at them ; they looked at 
 me. 
 
 '''Ahmed Agha ! Is it you?' said one of 
 them ; while another exclaimed, ' By God ! it 
 is he.' All eyes were now on me ; and after 
 a short effort of memory, I recognised in the 
 first speaker, one Makan Agha, a horseman 
 In the service of Ak-Arslan Beg, governor of 
 the town of Jezeerah, half-way between 
 Mosool and Diar-Bekr. Our acquaintance 
 dated from a day's halt that my old master 
 the Pasha had made In that place when on 
 his ill-starred journey to Bagdad ; and had 
 been a very hearty one on both sides, though 
 based only on a casual meeting In a pleasant 
 little kahwah near the river, and cemented 
 with nothincr firmer than the smoke of a
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 187 
 
 nargheelah, a cup or two of Indifferent coffee, 
 and a glass of yet more Indifferent rakee. 
 
 " But Makan Agha was a sociable fellow, 
 bright and cheerful, with a keen black eye, 
 quick to observe, coarse but handsome features, 
 and a friendly expression of face which cor- 
 responded with his good-hearted disposition. 
 Thus, though a }'ear had elapsed since our 
 first and only meeting, he knew me again at 
 once, and hastened to welcome me. I need 
 hardly say how glad I was to feel the hand 
 of a friend in mine once more. His five 
 comrades, Avho all belonged to the same 
 service as himself, were unremembered by me, 
 that is, distinctly, though I was not so by 
 them ; a circumstance ordinary with strangers 
 In all countries. 
 
 " ' And what brings 3'ou here alone ?' con- 
 tinued Makan Agha, with a queer side-glance 
 at my dress, and another at my drooping
 
 HERMANN AGHA. 
 
 horse, after the preliminary stereotyped greet- 
 ings, salutations, and inquiries had been duly 
 interchanged between us. 
 
 "'The chances of the times,' answered I, 
 unwilling to enter there and then into what, 
 I thought, might yet be the dangerous details 
 of adventure and escape. ' And you, where 
 are you bound for ?' I added. 
 
 "* For Jezeerah,' he replied; 'one and all 
 of us. The Beg wishes to be there before 
 the beginning of Ramadan ; we shall get to 
 Zakoo^ to-morrow, and the day after be, please 
 God, at home.' 
 
 " ' And where is the Beg ?' 
 
 '' ' Coming as soon as he has done taking 
 leave of his friends. Look ! there he is.' 
 
 " I turned in the direction indicated, and 
 saw, on the farther side of the river, a group 
 
 ^ A large village, more than half way from MoSool 
 to Jezeerah.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 89 
 
 of caparisoned horses in the act of being led 
 down by grooms to the bank. Near them, 
 but on foot, were several persons, seemingly 
 of rank and wealth, slowly moving onward 
 in close conversation, to the water, where a 
 boat was in waiting. When they had reached 
 it, they remained a short time standing 
 gathered together ; then followed a great 
 deal of embracing and other demonstrations 
 of respectful and affectionate leave-taking. 
 At last the Beg, for it was he, stepped, with 
 a few attendants, into the boat, and seated 
 himself gravely on the carpet spread for him 
 at the stern ; the horses were meanwhile 
 being part coaxed, part forced, into a clumsy 
 barge some yards distant. 
 
 " With no formed purport in my mind, but 
 
 " merely as a looker-on, I loitered among my 
 
 newly-found acquaintance, till the Beg and 
 
 his servants arrived at our side of the water,
 
 1 90 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 and prepared to quit the boat. I then drew 
 off on one side, and waited till the barge, 
 which was now also near, should have dis- 
 charged its restless freight, and be ready to 
 convey my horse and myself over to the town. 
 
 " But Makan Agha stepped up to the Beg 
 his chief, and whispered something to him. 
 Having received an answer in the same 
 undertone, he next approached me, and said, 
 ' Ahmed, brother, he calls you.' 
 
 '' On the summons I came forward, leading 
 my drooping beast by the bridle, and saluted 
 Ak-Arslan with the respect due to his birth 
 and importance. My famished way-worn 
 appearance, ungroomed horse, and scanty 
 belongings, must have presented a curious 
 contrast to the well-dressed, well-fed, well- 
 mounted figures that crowded inquisitively 
 about me. 
 
 " The Beg fixed his look attentively on me,
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. IQI 
 
 while he returned my salutation with marked 
 but patronizing kindness of manner. He was 
 a small, clean-built man, dark haired, and dark 
 complexioned, bearing a general resemblance 
 to a handsome hawk ; his age could not have 
 much exceeded thirty ; and his features would 
 have been good-looking, had not frequent 
 exposure to sun and wind, with hard work, 
 mental no less than bodily, drawn and wrinkled 
 them into a certain harshness of line. His 
 eye too was restless, and its glance furtive. 
 He was evidently what is called a dangerous 
 man ; yet one whom his followers might, on 
 the whole, like, and still more, perhaps, obey. 
 Such was my impression of him at first sight. 
 " ' No need, Agha, to tell your story,' 
 said he. ' I had heard before that you were 
 missing on the morning after that night from 
 the palace ; and I guessed that you had 
 managed to get safe off, — how, we will hear
 
 192 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 from you afterwards at leisure. May God 
 have mercy on Kara-Mustapha-Oghloo. I 
 anticipated long since that some snare or 
 other was being set for him, and gave him 
 a hint or two on the subject when he came 
 through Jezeerah last year. I had then my 
 especial doubts about the Greeks in his com- 
 pany ; one of them was, I know, a pick-up 
 of that hypocrite Eyas- Beg, — may God curse 
 him and them ! But, to what purpose ? — 
 when what has been predestined approaches, 
 the eyesight becomes blind ; no man can 
 escape from that which has been written. 
 And you ? ' he continued, in a brisker tone 
 of voice, — -' where are you going next ? or 
 have you any friends whom you are looking 
 after here ? ' 
 
 '' ' None,' I answered ; * God grant the 
 Beg a long life. I am travelling where God 
 may direct ; perhaps a way may open some-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 93 
 
 where.' And with difficulty I smothered 
 a sigh as I thought of Zahra . But I could 
 not help the downcast expression of my face, 
 and the Besf remarked It. 
 
 "'Assuredly after difficulty comes relief,'^ 
 said he. ' Better come along with me ; God 
 Is generous. I will see to all you want when 
 we reach Jezeerah.' 
 
 " These words were spoken with genuine 
 kindness, yet with a certain air of authority 
 too, as by one accustomed to be obeyed. 
 Hesitation on my part would have been 
 mere folly. I thankfully embraced the In- 
 vitation, leaving its conditions to be settled 
 afterwards. Besides, would it not anyhow 
 bring me nearer to DIar Bekr ? 
 
 '' By the Beg's order I was on the spot pro- 
 vided with a fresher horse, and took my place 
 
 1 A quotation from the Koran. 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 among the riders in his suite. The animal 
 that had served me so well I handed over to 
 Makan Agha, who sold it at the first village 
 we reached — at what price I never asked. 
 
 " We went briskly forwards, — a compact 
 band, — by the hilly, grass-grown tract that 
 borders the left bank of the Tigris. That 
 night we halted at a small village, — Tell- 
 Keyf, I think, by name ; the second after- 
 noon brought us to Zakoo, a pretty little 
 town and market-place, close by the rapid 
 Khaboor;^ the river-ford delayed us some- 
 what, and we did not reach Jezeerah till 
 the third night-fall. 
 
 '' During the march the Beg often called 
 me up to his side, and asked me many 
 questions concerning my life at Bagdad, and 
 my escape thence ; more often his inquiries 
 
 ^ A river that joins the Tigris hereabouts from the east.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 95 
 
 regarded my former master, his government, 
 his conduct, the intrigues formed against him, 
 and the circumstances of his violent death. 
 My answers must have pleased him ; for, 
 when I had finished, he said, — 
 
 " ' Ahmed, I might fairly claim you as a 
 slave, for such, indeed, you yet are by con- 
 dition, but I will not do so. You are a fine 
 youth, and I do not doubt that Kara- 
 Mustapha-Oghloo, — may God have mercy on 
 him ! — really intended to have given you 
 your freedom. It Is only just that I should 
 comply with his wishes, — may it be put to 
 the account of his good deeds, not of mine. 
 When we arrive, please God, at Jezeerah, I 
 will have your certificate-paper of emanci- 
 pation made out In full, and you shall become 
 one of my horsemen. Are you content?' 
 I kissed his hand, and thanked him. ' Thank 
 God, not me,' he replied.
 
 196 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 " Good fortune, like bad, has a habit of 
 coming double or triple. On the very 
 day, — it was the second after leaving Mo- 
 sool, — that Ak-Arslan gave me a near and 
 assured hope of becoming a free man, I 
 made an acquisition, pleasant indeed at the 
 time, but the full value of which I was only 
 to know later on. 
 
 *' It was the friendship of a youth, a mere 
 
 lad in age, an Arab of the Benoo-Riah clan, 
 
 whom I met in the principal kahwah of the 
 
 village of Zakoo, where we had halted for 
 
 the night The lad, Moharib by name, had 
 
 left his companions in the pasture-grounds 
 
 below Mosool, and had come thus far in 
 
 quest of some sheep, strayed a month before, 
 
 and not yet accounted for. With a daring 
 
 and intelligence beyond his years, though 
 
 not rarely found among young Bedouins, he 
 
 had penetrated alone and unaided to Zakoo;
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 97 
 
 had there discovered part of the objects of 
 his search ; and was, when we fell in with 
 him, engaged in hot dispute with two huge 
 Koordes, whom he accused of keeping back 
 the remainder. 
 
 " The lad's handsome features, the active 
 energy displayed in every lithe limb of his 
 spare frame, but above all, his self-possessed, 
 undaunted air, and coal-black eye that 
 sparkled with fire, attracted my notice ; and 
 my double knowledge of Turkish and of 
 Arabic enabled me to take his part with 
 such good effect, that a satisfactory equivalent 
 for the missing animals was at length offered 
 and accepted. 
 
 " This incident led, as was natural, to further 
 conversation between us ; he told me his own 
 name, descent, and the circumstances of his 
 clan. I, on my side, recounted my story and 
 adventures, without, however, as I thought,
 
 igS HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 giving, by what I said, any clue to the secret 
 of my soul at Diar-Bekr, a secret thus far 
 kept by me from all others ; yet the pleasure 
 I experienced in talking Arabic for the first 
 time since I had left Bagdad, and the very 
 copiousness of that language where feeling 
 is concerned, betrayed me, as I subsequently 
 reflected, into certain words and phrases that 
 might, to one who was on the look-out for it, 
 afford a general insight into my real state of 
 mind. However, I did not then think that I 
 had done so, and Moharib, after listening with 
 great attention, and even asking a few ques- 
 tions, the purport of which I could not entirely 
 follow, made no direct allusion to my un- 
 guarded expressions. Only, when all had 
 been said, he manifested for me a degree of 
 interest and attachment scarcely, to my mind, 
 justified by the easy service that I had ren- 
 dered him an hour before. He would devote
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 1 99 
 
 himself, body and soul, to the furtherance of 
 my wishes ; he would stand by me in every 
 danger ; he would be my follower, my compa- 
 nion, my brother ; in fine, he gave me no rest 
 till I had consented to go through with him 
 that very evening the ceremony of ' Khoo'wat,' \ 
 according to the custom of his tribe. 
 
 " More from curiosity than from any other 
 motive I consented. So, after sunset, Moharib 
 and I left the village, and retired together into 
 a little grassy dell not far distant, shut in by 
 hill and rock. There we recited the Fatihah ;^ 
 and, after solemn pledges of mutual and in- 
 
 1 "Brotherhood:" the ceremony itself is described 
 further on. It is not rarely practised among the 
 Bedouins of the interior, and is sometimes called 
 Mushatibah. Its performance imposes the strictest 
 obligations of mutual fidelity and assistance during 
 life; and should one of the "brothers" happen to be 
 killed, the other is bound to avenge his death. 
 
 2 The opening chapter of the Koran ; it is the in- 
 variable preface to all contracts, engagements and the 
 like, among Mahometans.
 
 2 CO HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 violable faith, each of us opened a vein of his 
 left arm, somewhat above the elbow, letting 
 the blood run down and mingle in a brass 
 cup which, under one pretext or other, I 
 had borrowed for the occasion from the keeper 
 of the kahwah. Out of this cup we drank, 
 each a full draught, becoming thus, according 
 to Bedouin usage, ' brothers ' for life and death. 
 The stars were out, pale in the dark sky, as 
 we re-entered the village. 
 
 " For that night and next morning, till with 
 the rest I crossed the Khaboor ford, my new- 
 found Bedouin friend never left me. He ac- 
 companied me through the water; on the 
 further side we embraced and separated ; but 
 when, after we had made a considerable dis- 
 tance on the road, I turned and looked back, 
 I saw his slender form still standing where I 
 had left him, watching to the last moment his 
 newly- ad opted brother.
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 20I 
 
 "My courage rose at the sight : I was no 
 longer alone and single-handed. True, it was 
 not till a later period that I knew how stead- 
 fast an ally I had gained in this young Arab ; 
 but even then it seemed to me that more had 
 been restored to me in Moharib than I had 
 lost in Sa'eed ; and in Ak-Arslan a better 
 master — though this was not, as it proved, 
 truly the case — than in the ill-fated Kara- 
 Mustapha-Oghloo. Might not, — would not, 
 Zahra' also be restored, given me ? I Avas 
 full of hope ; my boat had got into the flow- 
 ing current once more ; my winter blossomed 
 into spring. I thanked Providence and wor- 
 shipped in my heart." 
 
 " A likely, spirited young fellow," here inter- 
 posed Tantawee, as Hermann paused awhile 
 in his narrative, " is often, when all is said, 
 the best Providence for himself, if he will 
 only keep his eyes well open and his heart
 
 202 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 well up. .Success in life follows, like every 
 thing else, the great laws of Nature; under 
 certain conditions it must necessarily result, 
 just as failure is inevitable under others. How 
 the conditions themselves are determined is, I 
 admit, another question." 
 
 " And what, pray," asked Hermann, " is your 
 own opinion on that point ?" 
 
 *^ The proper thing to say," rejoined Tan- 
 tawee, "would be, of course, that God deter- 
 mines them. My own answer, if you must 
 have it, would be rather differently worded, 
 though, after all, its meaning is, in reality, 
 pretty much the same as that of the other. 
 I hold, then, that these conditions, whether of 
 person or of circumstance, of will, passion, 
 choice, country, associates, and the rest, 
 are nothing else than the pre-defined and 
 necessary results of that which has gone 
 before; and that they and all besides them
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 enter Into and centre in the eternal self- 
 developing existence of the universe. It is 
 all one, spirit be it or matter: spirit is the 
 cause, the life; matter, the form, the mani- 
 festation; each under unnumbered modifica- 
 tions, and the whole uniting In the measureless 
 general life and existence which always have 
 been and will always be. 
 
 "There now," he continued, ''you have, in 
 a few words, the opinion of our own 'Omar 
 Ebn-el-Farid,^ and of all others worth naming 
 for thought in all lands, East or West ; when, 
 that is, they know how to express themselves. 
 " Not an aimless world," he went on, with 
 more animation than usual in his manner, as 
 Hermann remained listening and silent; "not 
 a centreless circle, an eyeless socket, a hope- 
 
 1 A mystic poet of great beauty, native of Cairo in 
 Egypt. His works are to this day the text-book of 
 Mahometan metaphysicians. He flourished about 
 A.c. 1060.
 
 204 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 less ' it is, and so must be,' without above or 
 beneath, behind or before, without purpose, 
 direction, or goal ; no, nor a no less aimless 
 Deity, creating or destroying, protecting or 
 ruining, feeding or letting starve, life-giving 
 or slaying, by the mere caprice of ' I can, and 
 I choose to do so,' — a way of acting disgrace- 
 ful in a man, let alone in a God such as they 
 suppose Him; nor an autocrat God, occupied 
 with Himself only, ordering all for His own 
 glory, His own good pleasure. His own selfish 
 will. No, none of these ; but an intelligent 
 and all-pervading Life, Thought, Act, under 
 countless modes and forms, working on every- 
 where to higher existence and enjoyment ; and 
 perfecting, while it pervades them, the mani- 
 festations it assumes and the matter which it 
 vivifies ; not as things separate or distinct 
 from itself, but ultimately One, One only with 
 it in the great All of Being."
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 20 = 
 
 ''You have said it," replied Hermann, "and 
 well, I daresay ; though I cannot quite follow 
 out your meaning. But what, meanwhile, 
 becomes of the prophets, their books, their 
 systems, and their creeds, with all their set 
 prayers, their fasts, festivals, and religions of 
 dogma and ceremony ? What place do you 
 leave for them ?" 
 
 " Symbols, formulas, — nothing more," an- 
 swered Tantawee. " Mere approximations, — 
 some completer, some more defective, — to the 
 one and only truth that all aim at and none 
 attain, except It be by a rare occasional point 
 of contact, nor always even that. How, In- 
 deed, can a measured circle coincide with the 
 'infinite?' Still, they may pass muster as 
 formulas. If held for such alone, not for the 
 things they are meant to denote ; and in this 
 view they are well and good enough for 
 those who like them. But a sensible man.
 
 206 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 while putting up with one of them, that, for 
 instance, which best suits his nationahty, educa- 
 tion, employment, turn of mind, and so forth, 
 will really and inwardly bind himself to none." 
 He paused. For reply Hermann recited 
 the well-known distich of Aboo-l-'Ola .^ 
 
 " Muslims and Christians are equally blind, 
 
 The Jews and the Pagans in error no doubt. 
 All over the world but two classes we find, — 
 Fools with religion, and wise men without." 
 
 He repeated these verses with something 
 of a sarcastic bitterness in his voice, that 
 showed him far from approving of them. 
 Tantawee readily caught his meaning. 
 
 "Why, boy," said he, " if Aboo-l-'Ola meant, 
 as I do not doubt he did, for he was no shallow 
 thinker, — by religion, set forms and dogmas, 
 he was right enough, and I, for one, am of his 
 
 ^ A poet, native of Ma'arrah in the north of Syria ; 
 he flourished about the year a.c. iooo. His works 
 are still extant and popular in the East.
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 207 
 
 school. Can you not see that forms while they 
 include exclude also, and that dogmas narrow 
 while they define ? Or do you not perceive 
 that the only absolutely true religion, — were 
 such possible, — must be one that by limiting 
 itself to none, takes in all; formless, because 
 larger than any form ? " 
 
 Hermann heard, waited, looked down upon 
 the deck and thought, smoked hard at his pipe, 
 which had nearly gone out, to get it well alight 
 again ; then at last said, 
 
 ''In matters of this kind, Tantawee, I prefer 
 contenting myself with what lies clear and 
 unmistakable before me, and try to make the 
 best I can of present life and duty ; what else 
 is beyond and above me, I leave to Him 
 who is above me, and He will, I do not 
 question, take care of it. ' The day-dawn 
 dispenses with the star,' as the Arab proverb 
 says, — the certain with the uncertain. And I
 
 2o8 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 for my part find occupation enough, and 
 pleasure, too, In what surrounds me, to care 
 little about trying to peep over the hedge 
 and see what lies or does not lie outside the 
 garden. We shall get to that outside soon 
 enough, and then there will be time plenty 
 and to spare for thinking about it. I did not 
 trouble myself about this world before coming 
 into it; nor do I see any use in troubling 
 myself about the next either before I reach 
 it. He who has taken good care of me in the 
 one, can and doubtless will, take equally good 
 care of me in the other, without my having to 
 make bargains with Him, or to anticipate 
 arrangements." 
 
 " A very practical way of looking at the 
 subject," laughed Tantawee ; " and in the 
 meanwhile, what were your next adventures ?" 
 
 '^ Such as you will hardly believe when you 
 hear them," answered Hermann; ''but believe
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 2O9 
 
 or not, I can only tell you what happened ; and 
 if you choose to suppose me romancing, the 
 fault is not mine, but yours, who asked me 
 to tell the tale." 
 
 VOL I.
 
 PART II. 
 
 O lost, and found, and lost again ! 
 I cannot speak in prose or verse 
 This grief; yet fain would I rehearse, 
 
 As though rehearsal lessened pain. 
 
 Drear without thee the glittering day. 
 
 Though dawned on Carmel's purple height ; 
 And drear the star-bespangled night 
 
 Upon the sea of Africa. 
 
 The moon was up over the quiet waters, 
 and the ship, scarcely impelled by a faint land- 
 breeze, too gentle to ruffle the glassy surface 
 of the sea, and only just catching in the upper 
 sails, drifted slowly along with the coast 
 current. High alongside rose the dark mass 
 of Carmel ; and about its base a few scattered 
 and twinkling lights, indicative of quiet land- 
 homes and Syrian life on shore, could, even 
 at that distance, be discerned. 
 
 Hermann and Tantawee had separated for 
 a time after their lengthened conversation, and
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 211 
 
 had busied themselves the latter part of the 
 afternoon — Hermann In looking over the arms 
 and accoutrements of his men on board, with 
 whom he was a great favourite; Tantawee 
 in animate discussion of the coming Syrian 
 campaign, with some of the elder officers of 
 the expedition. They had, however, met again 
 for supper on the quarter-deck, drank their 
 coffee together, and smoked their pipes, but 
 without again touching on the topics of their 
 noontide discourse. 
 
 At last, when the red western streak had 
 wholly disappeared from the clear sky, and the 
 " wolf's tail," as Arabs term the zodiacal light, 
 alone marked the quarter of the heavens where 
 the sun had set, Hermann rose, and standing 
 on his carpet facing the kibleh,^ now almost 
 
 1 The direction of the Ka'abeh, or sacred building of 
 Mecca; Mahometans, wherever they may be, turn 
 thither in prayer.
 
 212 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 exactly astern of the vessel, went through the 
 night prayers, — a ceremony which, whether at 
 home or on a journey, he rarely neglected. 
 This done, he moved forward, and sat, silent and 
 alone, near the prow of the ship, apparently 
 observant of nothing but the shining ripple 
 at the cutwater. Tantawee watched him for 
 awhile across the dark figures of sailors and 
 soldiers, already the most part wrapped up in 
 their cloaks asleep, and laid like chance bundles 
 about the deck ; but thought it best to leave 
 him just then quiet to his own reflections, and 
 not hurry him in renewing a story which evi- 
 dently pained while it soothed the narrator, — 
 like a hand laid, however gently, on a sore. 
 
 But when the moon, now in her third quarter, 
 was up and shining over sea and ship, and 
 Hermann still continued seated where he was, 
 motionless and regardless of everything around, 
 as if charmed, — X^ntawee thought it time to
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 213 
 
 try and break the spell that seemed to have 
 fallen on him. Night might else go by thus ; 
 the morning would come with all its cares of 
 landing and disembarkment, of turmoil and 
 bustle, of fighting, perhaps, and how then, in 
 so busy a present, find leisure or inclination for 
 stories of the past ? So he, too, rose and went 
 to the fore part of the ship ; as he approached, 
 he heard Hermann humming over to himself 
 what sounded like the words of a song, which 
 he ceased on noticing Tantawee close beside 
 him. 
 
 " What was that you were repeating so ? 
 verses ? or what else ?" asked Tantawee ; as, 
 after a brief salutation, he took his place by 
 his friend on the deck. 
 
 " Nothing ; never mind," replied Hermann ; 
 " mere nonsense. I will tell you another time, 
 perhaps." 
 
 Tantawee looked him full in the face ; the
 
 214 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 moonlight showed it ghstening with fresh- 
 shed tears. Hermann turned his head aside. 
 The Arab Beg took his friend's hand gently 
 in his own, and holding it, said, '' Your thoughts 
 were with her, and so were your verses ; Is 
 it not so ?" 
 
 The pressure of Hermann's hand was the 
 only answer he received ; but It sufficed. 
 
 '' You met again, I am sure," continued 
 Tantawee, taking advantage of this sign, such 
 as it was, for re-opening the subject about 
 which he longed to hear. 
 
 "We did," answered Hermann, In a strangely 
 toneless voice ; " and — O God ! — I could 
 almost wn'sh that we never had, at least that 
 last time. God only knows how it may have 
 ended with her ; — for me, would — " He broke 
 off with a short bitter sob, and drew away his 
 hand. 
 
 " Bear up ; be a man, my dear fellow/' said
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 215 
 
 Tantawee. " And, for our friendship's sake, 
 for your own, for hers, perhaps, tell me how it 
 ended. You have now been sitting here alone 
 these two hours, brooding over these things, 
 and freshening them up in your mind ; it -will 
 do you good, believe me, to speak out once 
 for all. If you keep thoughts of this kind 
 close locked up in yourself, you will go mad 
 some day." 
 
 *' I am mad already, or nearly so," rejoined 
 Hermann, ''but you are right, I think. Sit 
 down, then," — for Tantawee had risen and was 
 standing before him, — '' sit down, and I will 
 tell you the whole, come what may. But first," 
 he added, '' swear to me by all you fear and all 
 you hope, that you will never by word or sign 
 recall anything of what you are about to learn 
 of my miserable story — not even to myself" 
 
 The Beg gave the desired pledge, and 
 Hermann, having brushed the tears from his
 
 2l6 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 eyes and assumed an easier posture, thus con- 
 tinued his narrative : — 
 
 "' On our arrival at Jezeerah, Ak-Arslan 
 Beg took me into his dwelling, the huge 
 battlemented building of black stone on the 
 right-hand bank of the Tigris, near the 
 landing-place, and gave me employment in 
 his retinue, no more as a slave, but as a free- 
 man among his outriders or guards. My 
 paper of manumission was duly made out 
 before the Kadee of the place and witnesses; 
 I have it still. This done I was the equal 
 of my fellows ; and soon, thanks to the Beg s 
 favour, came to be looked on as a person of 
 some consideration amongst them. Besides, 
 I soon proved myself to be a good rider, a 
 sure marksman, and, in the athletic sports, 
 which formed our ordinary recreation, inferior 
 to none, superior to many. The Pashas 
 service — may God have mercy on him ! — had
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 217 
 
 been an excellent training-school for me, and 
 I had profited by it 
 
 "Two months passed before I could get 
 any information of the kind that my whole 
 heart longed for from Diar-Bekr. Twice, 
 indeed, during this period, the pursuit of 
 thievish Koordes from the mountains, who 
 had driven off some of Ak-Arslan's cattle, — 
 for he was a great proprietor of live stock, 
 and very knowing about it, — took myself and 
 the companions of my band almost up to 
 Mardeen. But even then I could elicit from 
 no one tidings about the Sheykh Asa'ad the 
 Sheybanee by my indirect questions, and I 
 was afraid to put direct ones. Nor did my 
 young Bedouin, Moharib, re-appear, though I 
 expected him day by day, and often looked 
 for him ; till I began to think that something 
 must have happened to him, or that he had 
 forgotten his promises. Not that I cared
 
 2 1 8 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 much in truth whether I ever saw him again 
 or not ; but to my over-wrought fancy every 
 disappointment took a form of exaggerated 
 dimensions ; and my sky, after a moment's 
 brightening, seemed now overclouding anew. 
 " But at last, towards the beginning of the 
 month of Doo-l-Ka'adeh,^ when the days were 
 growing on to their longest, and the summer 
 heat to its hottest, came a joyful change. A 
 messenger arrived, not from this place or 
 that, but from Diar-Bekr itself He was 
 sent by a relative of my new master's ; and 
 the letter which he bore requested the honour 
 of the Beg's presence at a family wedding, 
 fixed for one of the weeks following the 
 festival of Doheyya,^ now not far off. The 
 
 1 The eleventh month in the Mahometan year, and 
 the second after the fast of Ramadan. 
 
 2 This festival, also called "El-'Eyd," or "The Festival," 
 by pre-eminence, occurs annually on the twelfth day
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 219 
 
 relative In question was old and wealthy, 
 and the degree of kinsmanship a tolerably 
 near one ; so that, after some deliberation 
 and delay, — during which I, who knew how 
 nearly the result would in all likelihood 
 concern me, endured torments of anxiety little 
 guessed by those around me, — the Beg 
 determined to comply with the invitation." 
 
 " A prudent look-out, I suppose, for con- 
 tingent reversions of something worth taking 
 trouble for. Hang these strict observers ! the 
 Beg was one of them, I conclude, by what 
 you repeated of his conversation ; they always 
 have an eye to the main chance. I declare, 
 Ahmed, I was myself quite alarmed to see 
 the business-like way in which you went about 
 your prayers a couple of hours since." This 
 Tantawee said, not seriously, but Intending 
 
 of the month Doo-l-Hajjeh, the last of the Mahometan 
 year, immediately following Doo-l-Ka'adeh.
 
 2 20 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 to procure a diversion to his comrade's melan- 
 choly. Hermann, however, let the banter go 
 by apparently unnoticed ; only he paused half 
 a minute and then resumed : 
 
 "What followed exceeded my hopes. Ak- 
 Arslan called me to him, and — oh happiness ! 
 — ordered me to start at once with two 
 others, and precede him to Diar-Bekr, there 
 to announce his coming ; he himself would 
 follow more at leisure in a week or so. At 
 the same time he gave me in charge some 
 letters, with directions to whom I was to 
 deliver them, and some valuable ornaments 
 of Bagdad gold-work, intended as a present 
 for the future bride. 
 
 ''With difficulty I restrained the agitation 
 of excessive joy, and took his commands with 
 an outward calmness which was far from my 
 real feelings. Had a sceptre been • placed In 
 my hands, I should have received It with
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 221 
 
 less exultation of heart than I did those 
 letters. My horse and weapons were soon 
 ready, and I set out, with many feigned com- 
 plaints to the companions assigned me about 
 the annoyance of so long a journey in the 
 heat, and a great affectation of ignorance 
 regarding Diar-Bekr, and everything there. I 
 might have spared my dissimulation ; for two 
 thicker-witted Koordes than my two fellow- 
 horsemen I never saw ; eating, sleeping, and 
 hectoring it over every one we met on the 
 road, was all they seemed to understand doing. 
 *' For myself, however boisterously disposed 
 I often was at other times, I now cared 
 little, or nothing rather, for these things. 
 Our road was to Diar-Bekr, and its sole 
 goal, so far as I was concerned, was Zahra'. 
 Like one benumbed by the very excess of 
 feeling, I went on mechanically though 
 eagerly ; lending, indeed, a sort of forced
 
 222 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 attention to the way and its incidents, but 
 really as indifferent to such surroundings as 
 though I had been bodily in a desert land, 
 a thousand miles away. Now that after so 
 long an absence, such cruel delay, such 
 anxious waiting, a hope of meeting, a cer- 
 tainty almost, — and that within a few days 
 only, — was actually present, the whole hidden 
 under- current of desire, fear, and love, came 
 suddenly up from the depths where it had 
 always been flowing, though most times but 
 half perceived, and in an instant overran 
 the whole surface of my existence. One 
 moment I pictured to myself the best that 
 love could anticipate from the meeting of 
 long-parted lovers ; another, I experienced 
 in imagination all the agony of arriving and 
 finding her gone, or inaccessible to me, or 
 dead ; inconstant I could not dream her. 
 *' In this state of mind every circumstance
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 223 
 
 of the journey, however unimportant or un- 
 meaning in itself, took colour from my wild 
 fancy. I am not superstitious — " 
 
 " Indeed ! " remarked Tantawee, half aloud ; 
 " are you quite sure of that ? " The other 
 went on — 
 
 " But now, the flight of a hoopoe or a 
 yellow-hammer across the road, the unex- 
 pected sight of a gay flower, the meeting 
 of a cheerful face, became an augury of 
 happiness awaiting me ; while a mottled 
 crow, ^ a dead branch, or an ugly cripple 
 by the wayside, darkened my mind with the 
 shadow of omened evil. All this, however, 
 resolved itself ultimately into one question 
 undecided after a thousand idle conjectures 
 and superfluous self-tortures : was she still 
 where I had left her, in her father s house ? 
 
 ^ A bird reckoned by Arab superstition of specially 
 evil prognostic for lovers.
 
 2 24 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 or had the expected Bedouin suitor, — Ill-luck 
 betide him, — ^arrived, and borne her away to 
 regions whither to follow might In reason 
 appear a hopeless effort, and to discover her 
 when there still more hopeless ? These 
 doubts were, however, destined to be dis- 
 pelled before I reached DIar-Bekr. 
 
 *' The sun was already half-way down be- 
 tween noon and setting; we had, for speed's 
 sake, taken the shorter road and by the 
 hills, instead of the easier but circuitous track 
 across the plain of Nisibeen ; and were now 
 on the second day of our departure from 
 Jezeerah, between Medlad^ and Mardeen. 
 We had just descended by a narrow winding 
 path down a steep slope, so thick set with 
 underwood, then in Its thickest of green leaf, 
 that it was impossible to see even a few 
 
 ^A large village in a defile of Karajah-Dagh, the 
 mountain-range south of Diar-Bekr.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 225 
 
 yards before our horses' heads ; and emerg- 
 ing at the base of the dedlvity, we found 
 ourselves in a small, treeless plain, perfectly 
 level, and carpeted with green grass, where 
 a stream, winding along the midmost of the 
 valley, maintained freshness and moisture 
 around it, even in the heat of summer. 
 About a quarter of a mile in front rose the 
 opposite range, exactly resembling that which 
 we had just passed, and, like it, covered with 
 dwarf oak and bush, amid which our way 
 was next to lead ; while on either side, to 
 right and left, as we rode along, the valley 
 stretched far away in a thwart direction. 
 
 " Arrived on the open flat, I Instinctively 
 looked round about me to enjoy the com- 
 paratively free view, and saw a figure rapidly 
 approaching, — almost at a running pace, — 
 from the far end of the valley. As It neared 
 us I recognised my adopted brother of Zakoo, 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 2 26 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 young Moharib ; he was accoutred after the 
 ordinary Bedouin fashion, and carried in his 
 hand the Invariable switch ; his only weapon 
 was a sheath-knife stuck in his girdle. Though 
 on foot he soon came up with our band, saluted 
 us In general with the ' Ah ! welcome/ of 
 the desert ;i and then making for my horse's 
 side, kissed the hand which I held out and 
 laid in his. 
 
 " ' Welcome to you, too, my brother ! where 
 do you come from ? and where have you 
 been all this while ?' said I. 'I had almost 
 given up hope of seeing you again.' 
 
 "'I was with the men of my tribe,' answered 
 he, while he returned my greeting, * not far 
 from this, in the plain to the south,' pointing 
 
 ^ The regular "Salam aleykum," or "peace be on 
 you," of orthodox Mahometan use, is more often 
 reserved by Bedouins for, so to speak, state 
 occasions.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 227 
 
 with his switch towards that quarter. I heard 
 that a party of you were going to Diar-Bekr; 
 and, thinking that you might probably be 
 one, I came by a cross-track to meet and 
 accompany you a part of the way." 
 
 " ' You have no horse,' said I, looking at 
 his sandalled feet, ' and we are mounted : 
 how can you keep up with us ? ' 
 
 " ' Some footmen may outstrip horsemen,' - 
 rejoined Moharib. Then, drawing closer up, 
 he made me a sign to fall back behind my 
 companions. I did so. 
 
 " ' I have news for you, brother,' continued 
 he. ' You know all about the Sheykh Asa'ad, 
 and his family, and the Sheybanees of Diar- 
 Bekr, — is it not so ? ' 
 
 " ' What of them ? ' I interrupted hastily ; 
 then, recollecting myself, — ' What have I to 
 
 2 Arab proverb.
 
 2 28 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 do with them ? or what- Interest have I In 
 their news ? ' 
 
 " Moharib checked and quieted me. * Never 
 mind,' he said, ' do not be alarmed, and do 
 not try to disguise yourself from me, my 
 brother ; there Is no cause ; besides, I know 
 your story. What, however, I now have to 
 tell you Is this : that the Emeer Daghfel, 
 the Sheybanee, Is already on his way north- 
 ward, and will be here In a month or so at 
 most, — he and his men, fifty or sixty of them. 
 There Is no need to ask what his errand Is.' 
 
 " I remained silent ; denial would, It was 
 clear, avail me nothing. The lad was cer- 
 tainly In possession, if not of the whole, at any 
 rate of the chief part, of what I had fancied 
 my secret. What then ? Could I trust In 
 his fidelity — his discretion ? Yet everything 
 In his manner gave me to understand that I, 
 or rather that Zahra' — for to her my thoughts
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 229 
 
 turned instantly far more than to myself — ^vas 
 in no danger of inconsiderate disclosure where 
 he was concerned. But how had he come 
 to know it ? What had he to do in the 
 matter ? 
 
 " Moharib easily divined my thoughts, and 
 with his hand still on my bridle, continued, 
 ' All is right, brother ; but the roadside is no 
 place for talk like this. I will explain it to 
 you in the evening at Azkah,^ where you will 
 halt for a few hours ; after that I shall leave 
 you, but we shall meet again at Diar-Bekr.' 
 
 '' I thanked him, and agreed to what he 
 said. We then pressed forward, I trotting 
 my horse, he running alongside with the light- 
 ness of foot peculiar to the Bedouins of the 
 South, till we overtook my t^vo companions, 
 with whom we joined in vague conversation. 
 
 ^ A small village on the Mardeen track.
 
 230 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 A load was off my mind, and my tongue, tied 
 up hitherto, was now loosened. The Koordes, 
 on their part, saw nothing in the lad to arouse 
 suspicion. They were accustomed to Bedouins 
 of his class, and Moharib gave, before long, 
 what was, in their mind, a fully sufficient 
 reason for his, or any other Arab^s, wishing 
 to keep alongside of us, by a broad hint of 
 his expectation to share in our supper that 
 evening : an ordinary Bedouin manoeuvre. 
 To this I added further plausibility by a story, 
 invented to hand, of my having, some months 
 previous, passed a night under the tents of 
 his clansmen, the Benoo-Riah, and having 
 been hospitably entertained by them. The 
 Koordes were satisfied, and inquired no 
 more. 
 
 " At sunset, we entered the long Inclosures 
 and single dirty street or lane of Azkah, where 
 we took up our quarters in the rubble-built
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 cottage of the village mukhtar/ While supper 
 was preparing, Moharib found opportunity to 
 talk with me in private, and gave me many 
 particulars regarding my Nejdee rival, and his 
 late movements. 
 
 *' The sum of what he told me was this. 
 Dao^hfel had, it seems, been detained in the 
 uplands of Zulfeh - during the whole of the 
 autumn and winter seasons, by prolonged feuds 
 between his tribe and their neighbours. With 
 the arrival of spring, a settlement had at last 
 been effected, and the Emeer put at liberty 
 to make his own preparations, and finally to 
 set out on his long-concerted journey. 
 
 '' I was much too ignorant then of any 
 Eastern geography, except that of the lands 
 over which I had myself travelled, to be able 
 
 1 The head man of a hamlet ; or, in towns, of a 
 street-quarter. 
 
 2 A to^\'n on the north-east of Xejd.
 
 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 to follow Moharib In his minute catalogue of 
 the localities by which the Sheybanee caravan 
 would have passed, or were about to pass ; 
 but this much was clear even to my appre- 
 hension, that the Emeer had already made 
 more than half the distance, and would within 
 a few weeks be in person at Diar-Bekr. His 
 stay there, said my informant, might be ex- 
 pected to last a fortnight or somewhat more ; 
 after which he and his men would return to 
 their ordinary quarters below Zulfeh, taking 
 his bride — my Zahra — along with him. 
 
 '' My heart sunk at the thought ; I could not 
 even speak ; but Moharib cheered me, and en- 
 couraged me to believe that my chances were 
 not so very desperate after all ; the contrary ra- 
 ther. But to my many inquiries as to the means 
 by which I might succeed, the plan of action 
 which I should follow when the time came, I 
 could for the moment obtain no distinct answer.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 233 
 
 '"Do not trouble yourself about that yet,' 
 he said ; ' be prudent, keep quiet, and wait ; 
 to each time its counsel ; the night is long, 
 and the moon up ;^ when the moment comes, 
 I will not be wanting. My brother,' he added, 
 with the warmth of evident sincerity in his 
 words, ' trust me ; may I be your ransom, 
 but I will help you to obtain what you desire, 
 or I will die at your feet.' We both wept. 
 
 " ' But how did you become aware of my 
 love ?' I asked. 
 
 " ' Hearts have eyes,' he answered. ' Your 
 face, the tone of your voice, everything about 
 you told me that you were a lover the first 
 moment I saw you. My cousin too, he whom 
 you met a year ago in the market-place at 
 Mosool, and there questioned you about the 
 Sheykh Asa ad, said that you seemed to have 
 
 ^ A Bedouin proverb, implying that there is no hurry.
 
 2 34 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 some special knowledge of the sheykh and 
 his family; and from this I was led to con- 
 jecture who was the object of your love. The 
 rest I learnt in Diar-Bekr, where I was last 
 month ; — do not be alarmed : it was not told 
 me by any one outside, but by a girl of the 
 house Itself, a maid of the haram ; and she, 
 too, knew very little, nothing indeed. But 
 what she said served me to understand 
 more ; the dawn is evident to him who has 
 eyes.^ No one else, I am sure, has guessed 
 anything; and as to the girl, I will engage 
 for her silence. However,' he added, with 
 the stealthy glance around peculiar to his race, 
 ' one cannot be over cautious in affairs of this 
 sort; and when you get to Diar-Bekr, do not 
 forget to remain perfectly quiet at first ; go 
 nowhere, and wait till I come.' 
 
 1 Arab proverb.
 
 AX EASTERN XARRATR'E. 235 
 
 *' We had renewed our conversation after 
 supper ; It was a murky starless night, and 
 we were standinsf behind a cowshed outside 
 the house. Again and again I begged him 
 not to delay his arrival in the town ; again 
 and again he renewed his promise, and advised 
 caution. He then bade me fare\vell, and dis- 
 appeared in the darkness. I re-entered the 
 room where we had taken our meal, and 
 found the red orlow of the wood- embers on 
 the hearth its only light, and my two Koordes 
 fast asleep and snoring on the dais near by. 
 How changed they, the room, everything, 
 looked in my eyes ! 
 
 " Next morning we reached Mardeen ; and 
 after a short halt galloped on again. The 
 third day before noon we came in sight of 
 the well-known gardens and the black walls 
 behind, passed the gates, and entered Diar- 
 Bekr. I could have thrown myself on the
 
 236 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 ground and kissed the pavement of the streets 
 as we went along. 
 
 *' Without loss of time, we inquired for the 
 abode of Afsheen Beg ; that was the name 
 of my master's kinsman. To reach it we had 
 to traverse the whole length of the sook. It 
 was market day, and the crowded state of the 
 narrow and crooked thoroughfares nearly put 
 me beside myself with impatience at our fre- 
 quent delays. After the sook followed a few 
 more turnings, till at last we arrived at the 
 outer gate of a large and well-built house ; 
 the portal was prettily carved in stone. Here 
 we alighted ; my comrades remained with the 
 horses in the courtyard below, and I, after 
 being properly announced, went upstairs with 
 my letters and presents. 
 
 " Afsheen Beg was snugly seated in a corner 
 of his large divan, well cushioned around, and, 
 though it was the hottest time of the day,
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 237 
 
 and almost of the year, wrapped in a wide 
 mantle of choice furs. His beard was white, 
 his shoulders bent, his face wrinkled, and his 
 whole form shrunk with age. As I respectfully 
 saluted and stood before him, I thought to my- 
 self, ' And is it to such as these that crirls sell 
 themselves for money, or are sold ?'" 
 
 "Yes," here interposed Tantawee, "precisely 
 to such as these, and are very glad of their 
 bargain too. Men and w^omen alike, though 
 perhaps, on the whole, women more than 
 men ; that which they call love is most often, 
 excuse me for saying it, mere selfishness under 
 a fine name. The object, I admit, is apt to 
 differ, since the man's side of the bargain is 
 commonly the gratification of sensual passion ; 
 the woman's, money, rank, and ornament." 
 
 " Did I think so — ," broke in Hermann, — 
 " but no, it is your own cynical nature that 
 speaks, not the truth of fact."
 
 238 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 " Fact and truth too," answered Tantawee. 
 *' Look around you. Yet I admit there are 
 some rare exceptions ; a few among men, a 
 fewer still among women ; still there are 
 some." 
 
 " My experience is wholly contrary," said 
 Hermann. " I have found much true friend- 
 ship among men, much deep love in women. 
 I too myself have loved, do yet love ; and 
 I can no more question the sincerity of my 
 love where I give it, than I can that of my 
 hatred where I feel it ; and I judge of others 
 by myself. Unloving natures are, to my mind, 
 the exception ; loving ones the rule ; whether 
 East or West, Asiatic or European, men or 
 women. Race has little to do with this, 
 climate less, sex nothing at all. The manner 
 and the manifestation may and do vary; but 
 the nature is the same in all, and love is no 
 less essential to it than life."
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 239 
 
 " Well, may you never have cause to alter 
 your opinion," replied his friend. '' But re- 
 member, I admitted that there are exceptions ; 
 and it is exactly because you yourself are one 
 of them that you think as you do." 
 
 " How so ?" asked Hermann. 
 
 '' I mean," replied the other, with a half- 
 laugh, " you allowed that you judge of others 
 by yourself Of course you do : every one 
 does. Now hear me : the man who can forget 
 his own interests, he can love, so can the 
 woman also ; but such are rare, Ahmed Beg 
 — rarer than you imagine. I am willing to 
 believe," he added, " that your Zahra' was 
 one of these ; so too, if his professions were 
 genuine, was your IMoharib. But, then, it is 
 not every one that would have met them, or 
 to whom they would have turned. Like to 
 like holds good in these things as in most : 
 you are unselfish yourself, and naturally meet
 
 .240 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 with unselfishness In others, — that Is, where 
 It can possibly be met with.'* 
 
 " Is that your opinion of me ? " said Her- 
 mann, In a doubting tone of voice. Tantawee 
 now laughed outright, and laid his hand ca- 
 ressingly on his young friend's shoulder. 
 
 "For all your twenty- five years you are only 
 a silly boy," said he ; *' and boys are generally 
 unselfish till they learn better, — or worse. 
 Well for you If you never learn, and remain 
 a boy all your life. Now go on with your 
 story." Hermann complied. 
 
 '' The old Beg was overjoyed at our arrival ; 
 and the presents, which were In truth very 
 handsome, — I longed to set aside a few of 
 these ornaments for my Zahra', but that was 
 impossible, — completed his delight. He gave 
 orders to have us lodged In the most comfort- 
 able quarters, and set the best of his house 
 before us. His hospitality was lost on me,
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 24 1 
 
 who was too preoccupied to appreciate its 
 advantages; not so on my companions, who 
 revelled heartily in the good cheer set before 
 them, besides giving themselves airs of im- 
 portance in proportion to the studied courtesy 
 of our host. My own feeling was one of 
 satisfaction too, but arising from a very dif- 
 ferent cause, — namely, the liberty left me to 
 pursue my own plans and objects, by the 
 eagerness of my fellows in enjoying their 
 animal comforts. 
 
 " Dinner over, an hour yet remained before 
 sunset. I had not forgotten INIoharib s advice ; 
 but thouofht there could be no harm in usinof 
 this time for looking a little about me. So I 
 strolled out, and sauntered from street to street, 
 from kahwah to kahwah, joining freely in con- 
 versation with all I met. INIy dress, which now 
 was that of an ordinary Koordish horseman, and 
 totally unlike the cut of my former clothes ; my 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 increased height and breadth ; my bearing and 
 face, which now showed aHke the^ impress of 
 fatigues and danger endured, and of freedom 
 won ; in fine, a general air of manliness, — 
 though you do call me a boy, Tantawee, — dis- 
 guised me awhile from many who would have 
 at once recognised the smooth-featured, well- 
 dressed, silver-ornamented slave-lad of fifteen 
 months before. 
 
 ''But a/ew of the keener-sighted townsfolk 
 knew me again, in spite of change ; the news of 
 my arrival quickly passed from them to others, 
 and a crowd of questioners and listeners 
 gathered around me. Many were the inquiries 
 about what had happened at Bagdad, how I 
 came to have left that place, what I was doing 
 at present, how I had acquired my liberty, etc., 
 etc. In return I found out, that which most I 
 wanted to learn, that no change had occurred 
 in the circumstances of the Sheykh Asa ad and
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 243 
 
 his household ; all was, at least in common 
 town-talk and belief, on the old footing; nor 
 did any one by word, hint, or gesture, so much 
 as imply the least consciousness of my having 
 any particular interest in that quarter. Satis- 
 fied so far, I returned to the house, and slept 
 on an easy mattress more comfortably than I 
 had done for many nights past. 
 
 '' But next morning my old restlessness re- 
 turned. So near the aim of all my longings, 
 and yet debarred from their possession ; so near 
 Zahra', yet not only unable to see her, but even 
 to acquaint her with my nearness! For two or 
 three hours I roamed up and down, here and 
 there, hoping every moment to meet Moharib ; 
 but no Moharib appeared. Time passed ; the 
 shadows shortened, and my impatience, once 
 indulged, grew and became uncontrollable, like 
 water that has begun its way through a dam by 
 degrees, then strengthens every minute, and
 
 244 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 bursts down all before it. In an evil hour, I 
 resolved to try my fortune myself, and single- 
 handed." 
 
 Tantawee shook his head. "You ought to 
 have waited. The young fellow had his 
 reasons, and good ones I am sure, in the 
 advice he gave you. The caution of these long- 
 headed Bedouins is seldom at fault, but it is 
 never superfluous ; I have often experienced it 
 when dealing with them." 
 
 *T now see that I was wrong," said Hermann; 
 " but I was then in a state of mind incapable of 
 right reasoning ; and, as matters turned out, 
 had I acted otherwise, the result would have 
 been much the same. My folly was, however, 
 none the less. But this is useless self-re- 
 proach ; let me continue my story. 
 
 " Blessing inwardly the length of the summer 
 day, I turned my steps in a well-known direc- 
 tion, and soon found myself before the gate of
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 245 
 
 my former master's chief friend, the proprietor 
 of the dear-loved garden and kiosk, Rustoom 
 Beg. I entered the house ; the Beg received 
 me with all the profusion of affectionate wel- 
 come, that an elderly and childless man often 
 shows to a young one ; to which was besides 
 added a special tenderness of feeling towards 
 me. Induced by the memory of pleasant by- 
 gone times, and of poor Kara-Mustapha-Oghloo 
 Pasha, then so often his guest. He too, was 
 Insatiate of hearing; and I had again to recount 
 in their fullest detail all the sad events of the 
 winter and the spring ; and next to follow them 
 up w^ith the narrative of my own escape, my 
 meeting with Ak-Arslan Beg at Mosool ; how 
 I had entered his service, how come to Dlar- 
 Bekr. 
 
 " But this was not enough ; the whole house- 
 hold naturally Imitated the example of their 
 lord, In demonstrations of undiminished friend-
 
 246 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 ship, and In endless questions, alternating with 
 equally endless civilities. Coffee followed 
 pipes, and pipes coffee ; then came a copious 
 noonday meal, with relays of sliced cucumbers, 
 fruits, melons, and the rest ; then more pipes 
 and more coffee, till I began to fear I should 
 never find leisure for getting away, and enjoy- 
 ing the run, now mine once more, of the gar- 
 den. Besides the Beg and his men each one 
 thought, — a slight mistake on their part, — that 
 my only object In coming was to see them. 
 God bless them ! I really felt half-ashamed of 
 my own forced double-dealing with them, and 
 my intense Inward Impatience to be rid of their 
 well-meant kindnesses ; but ' behind the hillock 
 there is what there Is,'^ as my friend Moharib 
 might have said." 
 
 ** I remember the saying," interposed Tan- 
 
 ^ Arab proverb.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 247 
 
 tawee ; " only In this instance the relative 
 positions of the maid and the youth were, it 
 seems, reversed." 
 
 '' However," Hermann continued, " some 
 dropped off at last one way, and some another; 
 till, when the afternoon was tolerably advanced, 
 I was able to steal into the garden unobserved 
 and alone. 
 
 " You may imagine how warily, how quickly 
 I skulked along among the trees ; how nimbly 
 I climbed the pear-tree ; how excitedly I gazed 
 across the wall as I stood on my old look-out. 
 To no purpose ; except the plash of the run- 
 ning fountain and the occasional rustle of a 
 bird, silence reigned over the neighbouring 
 shrubbery. I could trace, as I had before, 
 the avenue running through it ; but neither 
 black face nor white greeted my view. It 
 might be, thought I, — it was more probable, — 
 that tidings of my arrival had not yet pene-
 
 248 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 trated to the Sheykh's haram ; yet, again, it 
 was just possible that they might ; if so, surely 
 she would devise means to make me some 
 signal, and where should she expect me but 
 here ? 
 
 " In vague and, as I could not but acknow- 
 ledge to myself, almost groundless hope, I 
 waited for about half an hour ; every minute 
 convincing me more and more of the useless- 
 ness of my staying, yet unable to leave the 
 spot so full of my happiest remembrances. 
 Then, suddenly, — O despair! — I heard the 
 sound of steps and the buzz of many voices 
 approaching from the house, in the garden. 
 I strained ear and eye. No ; there was no 
 mistaking ; it was old Rustoom Beg himself, 
 with a whole suite of attendants, come out to 
 take the air and drink their afternoon coffee. 
 In the kiosk ? Yes ; evidently they were 
 making for the kiosk. Unsuspecting ? or had
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 249 
 
 they guessed — God forbid it ! — who was there 
 before them ? 
 
 ***HaRg it!' groaned I to myself, * it is 
 summer, and now that they have once thought 
 of this place, they will always be coming here. 
 What is to be done ?' 
 
 " Recollecting myself, however, I slid quietly 
 but expeditiously down from my post, took a 
 round among the trees behind, and, a few 
 minutes later, re-appeared on the main-path, 
 lookinof as innocent as I could, and with the 
 air of having come by chance from a different 
 part of the grounds, just in time to meet the 
 Beg and his party, who, sauntering leisurely 
 up, then reached the kiosk. 
 
 " I saluted them with assumed surprise ; then 
 joined them. One of them who had the key 
 with him, opened the creaking door. Its 
 hinges gave notice by their stiffness of not 
 having been turned for many a day. We
 
 250 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 entered a bare, dusty room, foul with cobwebs, 
 and ascended a narrow inside staircase. It 
 led us out by a second door, also not easy to 
 open from long disuse, right on the roof, pre- 
 cisely on the very spot where I had, not five 
 minutes before, been stationed on my worse 
 than useless watch. 
 
 "The brown dust of Diar-Bekr lay thick 
 on the plaster, and an attentive eye could 
 detect the places where my tread had recently 
 disturbed it. A like careful inspection might 
 reveal something ruffled and broken in the 
 small twigs and foliage of the pear-tree along- 
 side. 
 
 " ' Look here ; somebody has been on the 
 roof to-day ; he must have clambered up from 
 the outside,' remarked one of the suite. 
 
 "'How could that have been?' asked I, 
 trying to seem very ignorant and surprised. 
 
 ** Whether the Beg heard the remark or not.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 25 I 
 
 I do not know ; certainly he said nothing about 
 it ; but seating himself gravely on the carpet 
 which his servants spread for him, took in 
 hand his pipe ready lighted, and leaned com- 
 posedly back against the cushions, enjoying 
 the view, and talking with the nearest of the 
 attendants about him, and especially with me. 
 If he suspected any one in particular of being 
 the trespasser, his manner did not indicate that 
 I was the one. 
 
 " * We must have a parapet raised on the 
 right-hand side of this roof,' said Rustoom Beg 
 when after an hour and a half of smoke and 
 chat he got up to leave his carpet. Just then, 
 the declining rays of the sun, soon about to dis- 
 appear behind the trees, reddened the latticed 
 windows and the long wall of the haram oppo- 
 site, on which the shadow of the upper part 
 of the kiosk itself, and of our heads too, 
 showed with admirable distinctness. * A para-
 
 252 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 pet must be built and the garden wall height- 
 ened, too. Why, — I beg pardon of God ! — 
 this roof looks right into Sheykh Asa'ad's 
 haram. Strange that none of us should have 
 noticed this before; but to be sure, it is now 
 only four years since the haram was built, and 
 the kiosk has been shut up all that time. 
 God reminded me of it only this day.' 
 
 ** ' Health and safety to our master ; may 
 God ever remember him for good, and keep 
 him from all ill-fortune ; no one certainly has 
 been here on the roof of the kiosk for the 
 last four years,' compliantly subjoined one of 
 the chibookjees. ^ I could have hugged the 
 fellow for saying so ; it gave me breath again. 
 J had been in a perfect agony lest any one 
 should make a contrary remark. But in my 
 
 ^ The term chibookjee, properly denotes one whose 
 duty it is to look after his master's pipe ; hence it has 
 become synonymous with our " valet " in general.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 253 
 
 agitation I could not help stealing a glance, — 
 though against my will, — towards the other 
 servant, a kahwajee, ^ a man of about thirty, 
 who had attempted to draw observation to 
 the step-prints on the roof when we first 
 came up. I saw him now, though silent, 
 looking hard at me. Our eyes met, — mine 
 must have had a guilty expression in them ; 
 I felt that they had, and was heartily sorry 
 for having turned my face in that direction. 
 Again I remembered, — but now in bitterness 
 of spirit, — Moharib's reiterated advice to 
 attempt nothing before his arrival, and 
 repented when repentance was too late. 
 
 " ' See to it,' said the Beg to his kahiya, 
 as they slowly descended the staircase, 'that 
 the parapet be built, and the wall properly 
 
 ^ This term literally means one who has care of the 
 coffee for the household ; but in common acceptance 
 is nearly equivalent with our " butler."
 
 2 54 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 heightened to-morrow.' * It shall be done, 
 please God,' answered the other. Had the 
 proposed constructions, with all their stone and 
 mortar, been raised then and there upon my 
 breast, I could not have felt more suffocated. 
 
 " We followed the Beg ; I was the last of 
 the party to leave the roof, but at the very 
 moment that I turned to enter the narrow 
 door leading to the steps, I heard what 
 sounded like the cry of a wood-bird from 
 precisely that quarter of the adjoining garden 
 whence a similar sound had first reached 
 me so long before. It was the same sound, 
 yet not altogether the same, as then ; I could 
 not tell. None but myself heard or remarked 
 it, and I, though with great difficulty, re- 
 strained myself from any outward sign ; but 
 the steps swam round with me, and I had to 
 steady myself against the staircase- wall. 
 
 '' ' The Beg will go early to-morrow morn-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 255 
 
 ing on a visit to the Sheykh Asa'ad, to 
 explain and apologise about the kiosk/ said 
 one of the retinue, a native of Diar-Bekr, to 
 me, as we sat together in a kahwah of the 
 market-place, over a nargheelah, that evening. 
 '' To have pretended ignorance as to who 
 Sheykh Asa'ad was would have been awk- 
 ward, and indeed, in my then state of feeling, 
 impossible for me. So I contented myself 
 by asking, — ' Was that large reddish building 
 the Sheykh's haram ? and does the garden 
 next yours belong to it ? ' with a certain off- 
 hand air of careless curiosity. 
 
 " * Exactly so ; the garden,' answered he, 
 * belongs to the haram, and both of them to 
 Sheykh Asa'ad. There will be grand doings 
 in his house before long ; though with what 
 result God best knows.' He sunk his voice 
 at the latter part of the sentence. 
 
 " * What do you mean ? ' I inquired, my
 
 256 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 curiosity now really excited by his change 
 of tone. 
 
 " ' Nothing/ he said, ' only' that the Sheykh, 
 men say, has promised his only daughter, 
 a miracle of beauty if report be true, — praise 
 be to Him who created her, — to a Bedouin 
 cousin of theirs from Nejd. They are all 
 Sheybanees, and much too proud for marry- 
 ing here among us. Well, if they like to 
 fancy themselves great folks, why, it pleases 
 them and hurts nobody, — they will not be 
 the richer for it, nor we the poorer. But 
 the upshot is that the Bedouin will soon 
 be here, and fetch her away to his tents 
 and camels.' 
 
 " ' Perhaps,' I suggested tentatively, * no 
 better offer was made for the girl that her 
 family could have accepted.' 
 
 '' ' No ! ' answered he, ' there are fifty Begs 
 and Aghas would any one of them have
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 257 
 
 been glad to get her ; and she might have 
 now been living comfortably in one of the 
 finest houses here, with all she could wish. 
 But her father, — curse him for an Arab, — 
 would hear of no one but this cousin, and 
 so he is to have her after all.' 
 
 '* ' All right ; it is much the same to her, I 
 suppose,' said I, desirous indeed to prolong 
 the conversation, yet scarcely knowing how 
 to do so. 
 
 " ' No,' he replied ; ' they say, on the con- 
 trary, that she does not like it at all ; her 
 family have settled it in spite of her. But 
 let the Bedouin look to it when he does 
 marry her, or the Jinnee^ may be too much 
 for him in the end.' 
 
 " ' The Jinnee ! ' I exclaimed, ' what is that ? 
 Tell me about it, brother.' 
 
 * A well-known spirit of common Eastern superstition. 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 " ' Why/ answered he, * people say, — God 
 knows the truth, ^ — that last spring, about 
 the same time that the Bagdad Pasha and 
 the rest of you were here, — or soon after, — 
 the Sheykh's daughter was snatched away 
 by a Jinnee, — God preserve us from the like. 
 It is certain that the maid-servants of the 
 haram noticed her going out at early 
 dawn into the garden ; then she disappeared 
 entirely. They sought her everywhere and 
 could not find her ; at last, about noon, they 
 discovered her lying on her face in a spot 
 which everybody knows has always been 
 haunted, — an old bit of ruin, close under the 
 garden-wall. She did not move when they 
 came up, nor give any sign of life. So they 
 
 ^ This, and similar devout-sounding interpolations, 
 occur so frequently in the conversation of the lower 
 orders especially throughout the East, that they cannot 
 be entirely omitted, even in a free translation like the 
 present.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 259 
 
 carried her as she was into the house, and 
 read the Ku'ran over her^ till she came to 
 herself, which she soon did. But for all they 
 questioned her, she would never say a word 
 on what had happened to her. Only from that 
 day forward her cheeks, which had been like 
 Damascene roses, faded ; and her stature 
 drooped, like a bough without water. 
 
 " * Besides, she would often get up in the 
 dead of the night, and go on the haram roof ; 
 where she would remain till morning looking 
 towards the south, whence, there is no doubt, 
 the Jinnee, — may God confound him, — was 
 wont to come and visit her. 
 
 '' ' Her father, the Sheykh, called in the most 
 learned Ku'ran-readers in the town and neigh- 
 bourhood to drive away the Jinnee from her, 
 but they could do nothing. At last, a month 
 
 1 The ordinary ^lahometan receipt for such cases.
 
 26o HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 ago, she suddenly vanished a second time, 
 how nobody knows, for a whole day. When 
 she re-appeared at home her face was red, 
 her eyes were bright, her stature erect ; — God 
 bless and keep her. From that hour since 
 she has been just as she was before the Jinnee, 
 curse him, visited her. They think he has left 
 her alone ; but her maids say that she is 
 afraid to marry, lest the evil one, — God guard 
 us all, — should break her bridegroom's neck, 
 or transform him into a dog, or some other 
 shape, on the wedding night.' 
 
 ''Here my friend stopped, and 'took refuge 
 with God,' in the customary formula. 
 
 " I repeated it after him, for appearance' 
 sake ; thinking all the while what a different 
 interpretation I could give to the Jinnee and 
 the rest of it ! But, ah, Zahra ' ! what have 
 you not endured on my account ; and which 
 is greatest, your courage or your love ? And
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 26 T 
 
 I — how can I ever requite your love ! O God, 
 give us good for all this misery. 
 
 *' Little heart was left me for continuing the 
 talk ; but I felt that it would not do to break 
 off too abruptly, so I said : 
 
 " ' Very singular that the kiosk roof should 
 have been left without a parapet, and that no 
 one should have noticed it before till this 
 afternoon.' 
 
 '**I will bet you anything you like,' answered 
 the man, with a laugh which, however, had no 
 personal meaning for myself in it, ' that it has 
 been often noticed already, and made use of 
 too, by some of those on either side of the 
 wall, only they took good care to say nothing 
 about it. As for the Beg, I cannot for my life 
 imagine what brought him to the kiosk to-day ; 
 I am sure he had not been there for years : 
 it was a curious fancy. The haram buildings 
 are modern ; that is true.'
 
 262 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 ''What further talk we had I do not re- 
 member, but I well remember my sleepless- 
 ness that night ; indeed, what between hope, 
 fear, regret, anxiety, and love, I was little 
 likely to sleep. She was there ; she had heard 
 of my arrival ; else how that signal ? Was it 
 she herself? No ; of that I could not feel sure ; 
 yet it must have been by her order, if not her 
 own giving. 
 
 " Moharib too ; I now understood that he 
 had at least been no idle boaster; he had 
 undoubtedly, though how I could not imagine, 
 established some kind of communication be- 
 tween her and intelligence from the outer 
 world : so much was clear from the story I 
 heard that evening, and taken in connection 
 with, had rightly explained, what the lad him- 
 self had told me at Azkah. 
 
 " But, more than all, she was still the same 
 for me, still faithful, still resolved that nothing
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 263 
 
 should separate between her and me ; still 
 mistress, in a manner, of her own lot, and 
 determined to remain so. The thought of 
 what her constancy must have cost her was 
 torture to my heart ; but the hopeful assur- 
 ance of future meeting and happiness almost 
 changed that torture to delight. 
 
 " Thus far everything was well beyond my 
 expectations, almost beyond my hopes. But 
 Rustoom Beg s visit to the kiosk, for the first 
 time, and exactly when I was there ; his re- 
 marks about the roof, the wall ; and the sub- 
 sequent order given, — could these be the result 
 of mere accident ? or was it not rather design ? 
 and by what instigation ? to what end ? I 
 would not credit it ; it could not be; impossible 
 that he should have guessed anything about 
 me or her ; yet, if it was not for that, for 
 what else was it ? Then, again, the remark 
 made about the footmarks, how unlucky ! and
 
 264 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 my own looks, they must have told against 
 me. No ; — it was all my own imagination ; 
 — yet no ; I was really under suspicion ; if 
 not before, now at least the kahwahjee, con- 
 found him, would talk me over to his master ; 
 and what might the consequences be, what 
 might they not be, for myself — for her ? Then, 
 too, what was I to do next day ? The kiosk ? 
 that was at an end. The garden ? it would be 
 full of workmen, of spies perhaps. And what if 
 she, unaware of these events, of these changes, 
 were to wait hour after hour on the other 
 side ? Worse yet if she attempted any fresh 
 signal ; might not the look-out discover her 
 also ? Could I manage to give her timely 
 warning ? And, again, if I did not come what 
 would she think — she watching for me in vain ? 
 Insupportable thought ! Yet how prevent It ? 
 " Out of this labyrinth I could see no clue 
 except Moharlb. He had told me to expect
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 265 
 
 him ; how then if he failed to appear ? True, 
 were he once in the town, I could trust his 
 sagacity for finding me out ; but a Bedouin's 
 movements are uncertain : he might be at this 
 very moment far away ; he might be detained 
 by his clansmen's affairs ; and how was I to 
 know how long to wait ? To attempt any- 
 thing was dangerous ; to attempt nothing was, 
 I knew, for me impossible. 
 
 "Well, whatever might be on the morrow, 
 a few hours' sleep would perhaps settle my 
 mind, and put me in a condition to devise 
 something reasonable. I lay down ; I might 
 as well have tried to sleep on an ant's nest ; 
 I turned this way, and that way, covered my 
 face and uncovered it ; no sleep was to be had 
 at any price ; and the morning, when it came, 
 found me more tired, but even more wakeful, 
 than when I lay down." 
 
 ** You ought to have consoled yourself,"
 
 266 HERMANN AGHA 
 
 remarked Tantawee, *'by recalling to mind, 
 since you have a taste that way, all the pretty 
 verses of amatory poets, proclaiming sleep to 
 be absolutely out of the question for a genuine 
 lover ; in fact, I am not clear whether you have 
 not forfeited your claim to that honourable title 
 by wishing and trying to go to sleep." 
 
 *' That may be well enough in poetry," 
 answered Hermann ; " but in practice it is very 
 disagreeable ; and I doubt if even Ebn-el- 
 Farid or Mejnoon-'Aamir really liked it when 
 they experienced it ; unless indeed, which I 
 think much the more probable, what they say 
 on this subject, as on many others, is mere 
 poetic fiction. ' They say what they do not,' 
 as the Ku'ran has it of them." 
 
 "What God and his prophet say is the 
 truth," ^ answered Tantawee, with mock 
 
 ^ The stereotype phrase of orthodox Mahometans 
 whenever the Koran is quoted in their presence.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 267 
 
 gravity. '' But please remember that I, for 
 one, am not in love, nor have the smallest 
 intention of being so, and I should like to get 
 a little sleep some hour of this quiet night, 
 if for nothing else, in view of the hard work 
 before us to-morrow ; so be a good fellow, 
 and let me hear how the affair ended ; because, 
 if you do not tell me before I lie down, I 
 might remain aAvake for thinking about it." 
 
 Hermann went on. 
 
 " It ended according to the ordinary rule 
 of life, that where one anticipates many diffi- 
 culties, one finds few ; just as where one anti- 
 cipates few, one finds many. Next morning, 
 I had to go early into the town on some busi- 
 ness of my master's which there was no shirk- 
 ing. It would occupy me, I calculated, till 
 nearly mid-day, and my greatest fear was lest 
 the Koordes, my travelling-companions, should 
 propose, one or both of them, accompanying
 
 268 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 me ; but they, installed at their ease in a large 
 apartment of the superannuated bridegroom's 
 house near the outer door, resolutely declined 
 to take part in any occupation except those 
 of smoking, eating, drinking, sleeping, and the 
 like sedentary or recumbent enjoyments, to 
 which, for my part, they were perfectly wel- 
 come. 
 
 " Well pleased to be alone, I set out on my 
 way to the sook, vainly looking to right and 
 left as I went along for a square inch of Mo- 
 harib's brown-red cloak, and puzzling myself 
 as to what I should do when noon left me at 
 liberty. But before reaching the market-place, 
 just as I was turning out of a by-way into the 
 main-street leading to the bridge, a small 
 blackamoor in a very dirty shirt for his sole 
 dress, and with a bare woolly head, trotted 
 up alongside of me, and with a knowing grin, 
 put something into my hand. It was a piece
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 269 
 
 of paper closely folded up. I opened It ; Inside 
 was written in Arabic, * After mid-day; the 
 door with the red mark ; come.' 
 
 " There was nothing else ; neither name nor 
 address ; they would, indeed, have been 
 merely superfluous. However, I would gladly 
 have asked a question or two of the imp 
 who had brought the message ; but while my 
 attention was occupied In unfolding and read- 
 ing the paper, he was already off like a shot, 
 and on my making a hasty step after him, only 
 grinned the more and ran the faster. There 
 was no one else by In the street. 
 
 '' Refolding the precious document, and 
 hiding it carefully in my breast-pocket, I 
 went, light of heart, to my work. The hours 
 went by, slowly enough to my eager impa- 
 tience. At last they brought the time ap- 
 pointed. 
 
 ** Noon, a still, burning noon, under a sky
 
 270 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 dim and drowsy with the southerly wind, was 
 proclaimed from the seventy-five tall minarets 
 of Diar-Bekr. Prayers were said, and the in- 
 habitants, issuing from the mosques, went to 
 doze away the hot hours or, at all events, shut 
 themselves up in their darkened rooms. The 
 shops were closed, the kahwahs empty, the 
 streets dusty and deserted. I remained a little 
 while seated on a stone bench in the courtyard 
 of a small mosque from which the last wor- 
 shipper except myself had departed. The sun 
 blazed silently on the clean white- washed walls 
 before me, and sparkled in the little fountain 
 and its overflowing water-troughs. I was im- 
 patient to be about my search after the door 
 so vaguely indicated, yet almost reluctant to 
 move ; like a man on the edge of a pool, 
 stripped for plunging, and hesitating before 
 the plunge. The heat, too, and the heavy 
 air, combined to oppress me.
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 271 
 
 " But now or never ; I must be up and 
 doing. The moment was favourable ; no eye 
 watched me ; only a beggar at the mosque 
 door laid fast asleep on the flags of the yard ; 
 the very dogs had retreated to their coolest 
 and darkest haunts. My first object was to 
 get, unnoticed by unseasonable friends and 
 acquaintances, to the quarter of the town 
 where stood the house of Sheykh Asa'ad. 
 This was soon done; I had not twenty minutes 
 to walk, and needed no guide. The next 
 task, one not equally easy, was to discover 
 the outside wall, if such there was, of the 
 haram, or at any rate of some building 
 immediately connected with it : since it was 
 evident that the door indicated by the message 
 could be looked for nowhere else. 
 
 " I reached the place, and began reconnoi- 
 tring it with the exactest possible scrutiny. 
 The dwelling of the Sheykh stood not far
 
 272 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 beyond the old town walls on the east; on 
 three sides it was surrounded by garden ; the 
 fourth side was free, and overlooked a narrow 
 shady path, leading down to the river. A 
 long brick wall, behind which, so far as I 
 could make out, ran a covered gallery, con- 
 nected the house itself in this direction with 
 the haram buildings. These last formed 
 an oblong block, which presented one only 
 of its four faces, and that one of the two 
 narrower, to the road ; at its angle the garden 
 wall turned, and continued to run on, very 
 high in this part, and built with jealous care 
 to exclude all chance prying into what was 
 behind it; till, after a considerable distance, 
 it joined the inclosure and grounds of old 
 Rustoom Beg. Thus the haram stood, so 
 far as its front and two sides were concerned, 
 entirely in its own garden. On one end it 
 was connected with the Sheykh's dwelling-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 273 
 
 house ; what outlet or communication it 
 might have on the other I did not know ; 
 the back of the building was on the public 
 road. 
 
 " I began at the further extremity, where 
 Sheykh Asa'ad's own house and garden bordered 
 the way. Here were indeed the indications of 
 three entrances : one was blocked up and dis- 
 used ; the other two, a greater and a lesser, 
 were open; but I saw no mark near them, 
 nor did I expect to see any ; it was the men's 
 quarter. Leaving these, I came opposite to 
 the connecting wall, and the haram itself 
 Here, passing leisurely along, I surveyed door 
 after door, and even, in a sort of desperate 
 self-delusion, window after window; but on 
 none could I perceive the slightest trace of a 
 red mark, or what could be construed into 
 such, and give reasonable warrant for a trial 
 of any kind. Marks enough there were, no 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 2 74 HERMANN AGHA: 
 
 doubt; but they were unquestionably mere 
 weather-stains, nothing more ; besides, they 
 were marks of long standing, not less than of 
 self-formed shape ; whereas, the one that I 
 was directed 'to look for, would, in every pro- 
 bability, be fresh ; and of a kind to draw at 
 once the attention of a person seeking for it 
 by pre-concerted agreement. No token of the 
 sort was on this side certainly. 
 
 " Anxious and depressed I turned the 
 angle ; here at first it was worse. All down 
 the corner from top to bottom was neither 
 door nor window of any sort, size, or shape 
 whatsoever. Remained the furthermost and 
 high-built part ; under the shadow of this I 
 now went, till, when I had surveyed full 
 half its length, still finding nothing, and with 
 disappointment deepening at every step into 
 despondency, my eyes were cheered by the 
 sight of a low door, on one side of which
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 275 
 
 was a slight but clear red mark, an oblique 
 dash, as though made by a finger dipped 
 in paint. It was evidently quite fresh, and 
 if anticipated, could not fail to be noticed ; 
 scarcely otherwise. 
 
 " With a long-drawn breath, and a heart 
 beating fit to burst the numerous buttons of 
 my tight upper dress, I stopped, and looked 
 around. On my right hand to the front was 
 a narrow barren patch of stone-strewed ground ; 
 beyond it a field of maize, now green and tall ; 
 further on yet, an irregular indentation of lines 
 caused by mounded banks and scrag tufts of 
 brushwood, marked the course of a stream, 
 winding downwards to the Tigris ; but on 
 that side there led neither road nor lane, 
 only a small footpath ; the blackish ranges 
 of Karajah Dagh closed the view. Behind 
 me where I stood, tall trees shut everything 
 in ; on my left was the wall.
 
 276 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 "No human being appeared in sight : a 
 sparrow-hawk wheeling high in the air, and 
 uttering now and then a plaintive cry, gave 
 the only sound and motion to the dead calm 
 of summer noon. I turned and faced the 
 wall : it was very high, three times the stature 
 of a man or rather more ; and, except this 
 one entrance, offered no break in its dingy 
 continuity. Yet a moment I lingered in a 
 last hesitation ; and then, saying * in the name 
 of God,' rapped gently, and once only, at the 
 door. 
 
 "It opened on the instant, no key had to 
 be turned or bolt withdrawn ; the person 
 within was clearly expectant, and perhaps 
 afraid of anything that might occasion un- 
 necessary noise or delay. That person was 
 a black eunuch ; tall, raw-boned, and ugly 
 enough to have on that score alone disarmed 
 the most suspicious jealousy. He beckoned
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 277 
 
 me in. I entered. ' Under thy veil, O Veiler/^ 
 he muttered, as he reclosed the door behind 
 me ; but this time he bolted it carefully. 
 
 " I took a survey of the place. It was a 
 moderate-sized room, lighted by one close, 
 latticed window immediately below the ceiling. 
 The earth-floor was partly covered with coarse 
 matting ; the walls were indifferently plastered, 
 and a country-made carpet, its gaudy colour- 
 bands much faded, was spread on a raised 
 and plaistered dais to represent furniture : 
 of which, if I except a small oil-lamp in a niche 
 above the dais, there was none else. Some 
 red pitchers and coils of rope in one corner 
 of the room, and a balta,^ thrown in another, 
 announced that these were the quarters of 
 some menial employed in the wood-hewing 
 
 ^ A title under which the Deity is often invoked 
 among Mahometans. 
 2 A rough country axe.
 
 278 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 and water-drawing line for the service of the 
 Sheykh's haram. This was indeed the 
 Soodanee who stood before me, his quaUty 
 of eunuch permitting him such close proximity 
 to the female section of the household ; for 
 the room belonged to the haram itself, though 
 not reckoned among the regular apartments. 
 
 '' The old fellow, for old the deep wrinkles 
 on his hideous beardless face announced 
 him to be, bade me welcome in a low voice, 
 and assured me that I had nothing to fear; 
 all was right. Then checking the questions 
 I was about to ask, and ordering me, rather 
 than telling, to remain perfectly still and quiet 
 where I was, he left me ; passing out by 
 another door which led whither I did not 
 yet know, and cautiously shutting it after 
 him by a bolt on the outside. 
 
 "In a couple of minutes more, — a couple 
 of hours I deemed them, — the bolt was with-
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 279 
 
 drawn, and the door opened gently. But this 
 time it was no negro that passed through it ; 
 it was she, Zahra' herself, in a light in-door 
 dress ; over her head was cast a thin white 
 veil, which she removed from her face as she 
 came forward ; a gold-embroidered girdle and 
 a braid of pearls in her long dark hair were 
 the only ornaments she wore that day. Calm, 
 self-possessed, as I ever remembered her, 
 but, to my eyes, somewhat taller and statelier 
 and even lovelier than before, she entered with 
 a smile brighter than the sunlight without, 
 and, holding out her hand, welcomed me. 
 
 *' You, Tantawee, are not and never were, 
 I believe, a lover." 
 
 " No, thank Heaven," said the other : 
 "never was, and hope never to be. I am not 
 disposed to purchase a lump of sugar with a 
 mountain of gall." 
 
 '' Be it as you will," continued Hermann ;
 
 28o HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 "but I hold that the sugar is the mountain 
 and the gall a very small lump indeed com- 
 pared with it. I will not, — I need not, — say- 
 how I answered her greeting ; how the first 
 minutes passed, nor how the first half hour. 
 Enough, — you asked me what I was humming 
 over to myself when you first came up ; now 
 hear : — 
 
 " Such love as hers I ne'er have found : 
 
 Such love as hers I ne'er shall find. 
 The chain in one our hearts that wound 
 
 Round other hearts may hardly wind. 
 I called it love : 't was more than love ; 
 
 I called it passion : vain the word. 
 Nor depths below, nor heights above, 
 
 Such passion knew, such joys averred. 
 
 " 'Tis past, 'tis gone, — a weight there Hes 
 
 Within the heart ; a want is there ; 
 The ceaseless longing of blind eyes 
 
 To read some page of lettered care. 
 The page is blank ; nor keenest sight 
 
 Could ought avail, — but sight is none ; 
 While all around day's cheerful light 
 
 Beams, cheerless to those eyes alone." 
 
 And saying this he threw his two arms
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 28 1 
 
 across the bulwark of the ship, leant down 
 his head between them, and exclaiming " O 
 God ! O God ! " burst out into an agony of 
 grief, painful alike to witness and to endure. 
 
 Tantawee looked at him with deep con- 
 cern, and could hardly restrain his own tears, 
 but did not say a word, or move from where 
 he was ; judging it better for his friend to 
 come round by himself, and on coming round 
 find sympathy close by to comfort him. Five 
 minutes passed thus ; then Hermann slowly 
 raised his head, his eyes were swollen, but 
 were now tearless, — he drew his sleeve across 
 his face. 
 
 *' Do not mind me," he said in a low voice, 
 but steady, though without looking up. " It is 
 over now, — only hand me the water-jug." 
 
 Tantawee did so in silence. Hermann 
 washed his face with a sort of violence^ swal- 
 lowed a large draught of water, righted him-
 
 282 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 self, and then, of his own accord and quickly, 
 as if fearing lest his companion should say 
 anything, resumed his story. 
 
 " We remained for about two hours in con- 
 versation. I was impatient to hear at once 
 all about herself from her own lips ; how the 
 time had passed with her since our separa- 
 tion, — with what fears, what hopes, what 
 pleasures, what pains, what cares for the 
 present, what plans for the future, how she 
 had contrived this very meeting, how screened 
 herself, and me too, from danger and dis- 
 covery. But before she would satisfy my 
 curiosity on any of these points, she Insisted 
 on my relating to her, one after another, the 
 events, strange or sad, which had varied my 
 life during the time of our separation. The 
 narrative was brief, for her quick intelligence 
 seemed to divine beforehand whatever I told, 
 and to anticipate my words. While I was
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 283 
 
 Speaking she remained still and listening, her 
 eyes fixed on my face with a look in which 
 it would have been hard to say whether at- 
 tention, sympathy, or love predominated ; and 
 when I had finished she put her hand in 
 mine, — we were seated as in the old days, 
 side by side, — ^and said, ' My dearest, my only 
 love ; dearest Ahmed.' 
 
 *' I gazed in her face, — it was the same as 
 I had first known it, except that the light 
 cheerfulness of its former expression, though 
 still there, was now tempered with a graver 
 look of settled resolve and will ; her eyes 
 seemed larger, too ; her forehead whiter ; her 
 cheeks, now indeed flushed with pleasure, 
 were habitually paler than before ; there was 
 even a something in her features that told of 
 pain endured, till its endurance had become 
 in a manner usual to her. She was thinner 
 also, and, with a slight increase of height, had
 
 284 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 acquired a new dignity of demeanour ; the 
 almost childlike quickness of movement that 
 she displayed a year before, had now calmed 
 and steadied . itself Into perfect grace. I was 
 in a mist of happiness. 
 
 " ' Zahra', ah, dearest Zahra'/ said I, 'all 
 these things that I have related are nothing 
 to me, — less than nothing. Slavery, danger, 
 wounds, hunger, want, weariness, the heat of 
 the day, the night chill, — I do not account 
 them, I do not feel them, I do not know them 
 if they are or not, so your love, yours only, 
 be mine. Ah, might I be dead, so you would 
 but visit my grave ; might I be dust, so your 
 foot trod on me. Ah ! I do not know what 
 I say : you are my heart, my soul, my life. 
 I have no life, no soul, but you.' 
 
 " She smiled ; a smile to make winter spring, 
 and spring paradise. * Believe me, Ahmed, 
 my brother,' she said, * whatever is in you, is
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 285 
 
 in me twofold. If your love is strong, mine is 
 stronger yet ; you may know it one day.' 
 
 " * Ah, love,' I answered ; * your love needs 
 no further proof. When I heard of how you had 
 waited, of all you had suffered, my very heart 
 was broken. I can never forgive myself for 
 having been the cause : — can you forgive me ? 
 A hundred times have I cursed my own self- 
 ishness for having even been content, been 
 happy, a single moment while parted from you, 
 and you in such grief.' 
 
 " She was evidently surprised, and asked 
 what I meant. I then told her what I had 
 heard the evening before from Rustoom Begs 
 man, about the Jinnee, and the rest She saw 
 that I had understood all, and was pained and 
 confused that it should be so. She blushed 
 crimson to her very neck, and covered her face 
 .with her hands. I sat silent before her, feeling 
 guilty and distressed.
 
 286 HERMANN AGHA: 
 
 '' Looking up at last, she said, ' I beg pardon 
 of God. The true and noble-minded only- 
 ought to be entrusted with secrets. My secret, 
 which I thought hid, has been disclosed ; it is 
 in your keeping, Ahmed. Hide it anew with 
 you, O my brother ; let me not be ashamed 
 before you.' 
 
 " She added no more ; but I perceived her 
 meaning. * You are my sister, ZahraV I said ; 
 ' your honour and the honour of your parents is 
 mine also.' 
 
 " ' I trust you ; but, as you would ever see 
 me again,' said she, earnestly, though tenderly, 
 ' let no allusion to what you have just repeated 
 ever pass your lips again ; promise me, Ahmed.' 
 
 " I promised ; she grew calm again. One 
 only sigh escaped her ; she repressed a second. 
 * But now, my sister,' added I, ' tell me how 
 you came to know all so exactly about my ar- 
 rival ; who gave you the news ?*
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 287 
 
 " ' You may thank your brother Moharib, 
 the Riahee, for that. Ahmed, you do not 
 enough value that lad ; he is worth a king's 
 treasure to you.' 
 
 "She then went on to explain; the facts were 
 as follows, — 
 
 '* After my departure the year before, with 
 my master the Pasha, none but the vaguest 
 reports reached her for many months concern- 
 ing those with whom I then was. It had been 
 a long and dreary period of blank for her as for 
 me. Only the general news of the assassina- 
 tion at Bagdad had travelled up to Diar-Bekr ; 
 magnified as is the wont of such news. One 
 account had placed me among the killed. She 
 had steadily refused, said she, to believe it ; yet 
 knew not how to expect ever to see me 
 again alive. Meanwhile, her father pressed 
 her Bedouin cousin, the Emeer Daghfel's, suit, 
 more determinately than ever ; hoping in it to
 
 28§ HERMANN AGHA*. 
 
 see the end of the preternatural influences to 
 which he and others at large attributed the de- 
 pression of spirits and loss of health under 
 which she manifestly laboured. She, on her 
 side, tacitly encouraged their belief in a de- 
 lusion which, while it misled, concealed. 
 
 " One morning early, a month since, she had 
 gone into the garden, as she often did, to sit 
 alone near the spot where we had bidden each 
 other farewell, when an Arab girl in her service 
 came softly up, and said in a low voice, * Be 
 happy in him who arrives.* Surprised, she asked 
 the meaning ; and learnt that the girl, having 
 gone abroad at early dawn to fetch fresh water 
 for the haram from a favourite spring half an 
 hour distant, had there met one of her own 
 clan ; the description she gave of him identified 
 Moharib. He had made many and minute 
 inquiries of her regarding her mistress, and 
 about the affairs of the family in general during
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 289 
 
 the last year. He had then, continued the girl, 
 talked of other things ; but on parting had said, 
 'Meet me here again; and meanwhile say to the 
 Shekyh's daughter, "be happy in him who 
 arrives."' 
 
 " * I understood without explanation who was 
 meant,' continued Zahra', 'and that was enough. 
 From that hour I lived again.' 
 
 " ' But the maid,' interposed I, not without 
 anxiety. 
 
 " ' No fear about her,' she replied ; * when 
 she brought the message, she neither knew who 
 was meant by it, nor much cared to know ; her 
 whole mind,' with a light laugh, ' was taken up 
 with her cousin whom she had just met. 
 
 *' ' How often she and Moharib saw each 
 other afterwards, I cannot tell ; but it was 
 through this maid that I was informed of your 
 having actually arrived here the day before yes- 
 terday; and as I guessed whereabouts you would 
 
 VOL. I. u
 
 290 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 first think of looking for me, — the heart often 
 sees further than the eye, you know, — I com- 
 missioned her to wait under the garden-wall, 
 and, if you were near, to make the signal which 
 I was sure you would recognise. By this, she 
 must, I fancy, have a tolerably clear idea. But 
 she is attached to me ; and her cousin has, no 
 doubt, enjoined her secrecy ; and she will be 
 faithful to a secret of the clan. The threat of 
 death itself would not make a girl of Benoo- 
 Riah betray.' 
 
 " ' And, sister, the doorkeeper ?' said I, 
 ' the old black ? can he be trusted ? ' 
 
 "'Oh! Jowhar,' laughed she, * our host; he 
 in whose room we now are. He is a Nubian, 
 and faithful as Nubians always are ; besides 
 he has, after a fashion, had charge of me from 
 a child ; and my intercession has saved him 
 I do not know how often from many a beating 
 which his awkwardness would otherwise have
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 29 1 
 
 earned him. The old man is devoted to me. 
 Of course when I saw that this den of his 
 was the only safe and manageable place for 
 us, I could not avoid, while giving him his 
 orders, to confide to him your name and all 
 about you. But that need not dwell on your 
 mind ; be easy on his score. However, do 
 not forget to be kind and liberal to him ; he 
 deserves it; and he may be very useful to 
 you yet. 
 
 '' ' As to the little negro,' she added, ' who 
 brought you the message, he is, I suppose, 
 a slave-child belonorlno^ to some one of Mo- 
 harib's own tribe, the Benoo-RIah ; he will 
 tell no tales.' 
 
 " ' But while my servant girl was hidden 
 behind the garden wall, she overheard old 
 Rustoom Beg say something about building 
 a parapet to the kiosk. I was puzzled, and 
 thought it best to send at once for your brother
 
 292 HERMANN AGHA: 
 
 Moharib, — a handsome youth he is too,^ — how- 
 ever, you need not be jealous, — and try to 
 arrange a different plan for meeting.' 
 
 '* Fain would I have asked her, while she 
 related all these things, some question relative 
 to her own thoughts and feelings ; but from 
 this topic she had warned me already, nor 
 did she ever approach it of her own accord. 
 She seemed in her conversation wholly to 
 have forgotten what concerned her, and to 
 think only of me. What then needed I to 
 seek ? Had she in the longest and most 
 eloquent discourse laid bare to me her :whole 
 soul, that had borne less witness to her entire 
 absolute love, than did this self-forgetful 
 silence on everything else. I knew her mine, 
 — mine only. 
 
 " How happy I was, — and, oh God, how 
 wretched now ! — in the look of her eye, in the 
 presence of her smile, in the pressure of her
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 293 
 
 hand, in 'the sound of her voice, in the hour 
 of which every moment assured me of what 
 alone I valued upon earth, her love, I could 
 not see beyond my own intense happiness. 
 
 ** Yet between our talk I said some words 
 expressive of my uneasiness lest any suspicion 
 regarding us and our former interviews^ any 
 notion regarding the uses made of the kiosk 
 and the garden, might have entered Rustoom 
 Begs mind ; or, if not his, that of some of his 
 attendants. 
 
 "'How should it?' answered she quickly; 
 * by what means ? That is most unlikely, 
 impossible indeed : besides I am certain that 
 nothing of the kind has got abroad, or I 
 should myself have heard about it long ago. 
 Depend on it, my brother, the Begs after- 
 noon visit to the kiosk was a mere chance, 
 and his remark on the position of the kiosk 
 followed as a matter of course.'
 
 294 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 '' Her quiet courage gave me heart. ^ I gladly 
 put aside my fears, — alas ! too well founded 
 though they were,-^and agreed in her view 
 of the incident. Had I told her all — ? yet 
 what would it have profited ? So, changing 
 discourse, I asked her whither led the door 
 through which she had entered. 
 
 '' ' On a passage,' was her answer ; ' and 
 thence along some half-empty store-rooms, to 
 a staircase ; by which one has access to the 
 haram. It is seldom used however ; the maids 
 rarely pass this way ; and should any person 
 happen to be coming, Jawhar, who is now 
 waiting esconced on the other side of the 
 door, would give me timely notice.' 
 
 ''We continued our conversation, now 
 serious with the past, now gay and bright 
 with the present, now hopeful with the future, 
 till noon had long declined, and the 'Asr, now 
 as unwelcome as once it had been longed
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 295 
 
 for, drew on. She rose to leave me ; I rose 
 too, scarcely knowing where I was, or what 
 I did. As at our first meeting, she gave me 
 her hand. I held and kissed It ; then for an 
 instant her head leant on my breast, — oh! why 
 do I remember all this ! — then she drew her 
 veil across her face, and turned to the door. 
 * Zahra ! and when again ? ' was all I could 
 say. ' Ahmed, brother, love ! soon, if it please 
 God ; — you shall know.' With these words 
 she drew her veil once more a little apart, 
 and smiled : but her eyes were glistening with 
 tears ; mine were wholly dim. She was gone. 
 '* A minute after old Jawhar re-entered the 
 room, uglier by contrast, I thought than ever, 
 in spite of the friendly expression on his 
 wrinkled face, which was as amiable as a 
 eunuch could make it. Aware that those of 
 his condition are apt to transfer* to money 
 the affection which men bestow on other
 
 296 HERMANN AGHA I 
 
 objects, and mindful of Zahras hint, I had 
 already a good-sized silver piece loose in the 
 side-pocket of my jacket; this I put into the 
 black hand, which closed on it eagerly enough. 
 I should have liked to have talked a little with 
 him, but he allowed me no time ; over-pro- 
 longation of my stay might have been fully 
 as dangerous to his neck as to mine. So 
 with a * God be your guard, my white brother,' 
 he gently opened the outer door, and through 
 it dismissed me. 
 
 " A deluge of sunshine poured on the road, 
 and dazzled my eyes ; my thoughts were even 
 more dazzled, and my feet scarcely aware of 
 the ground on which they trod. Mechanically 
 I turned, and, without rightly knowing what 
 I was about, took a few steps in the direction 
 by which I had come. Had I, in this be- 
 wilderment of ideas, fallen in with any of. my 
 comrades or town acquaintance, it is more
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 297 
 
 than probable that I should have betra3'ed 
 myself by gesture or word ; a fortunate inter- 
 ruption prevented the danger. A pebble, 
 thrown by some one behind, struck me sharply 
 on the shoulder. Looking round I became 
 aware that the thrower was no other than 
 Moharib himself, who had taken this means 
 of attracting my attention ; he was standing 
 at the further edge of the stony patch of 
 ground opposite the haram, close to the maize 
 field, and now beckoned me to follow him. 
 I did so. He went before me through the 
 tall screen of maize till he reached the hollow 
 of the water-course beyond, and descended 
 into it ; in silence I did the same, and we 
 were soon seated together on a dry bank of 
 rounded pebbles ; the height of the bank 
 above us, and its windings concealed us from 
 observation. 
 
 '' Hardly giving time for the ordinary salu-
 
 298 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 tations, I seized his hand, and kissed it : I 
 would have kissed his feet had he allowed 
 me. ' I have heard all,' I said ; ' she has told 
 me. O, my brother, how can I ever requite 
 you for what you have done ? ' 
 
 " ' Do not thank me,' he answered, ^ I have 
 done nothing. But, Ahmed Agha, you should 
 not have gone to the garden ; you should 
 have waited for me. Why did you break 
 your word ? ' 
 
 ^' In truth I had no available excuse to offer, 
 so I entreated his pardon. He laughed. 
 
 " ' Love is madness,' said he ; 'I know it, 
 and will not be one of those who censure a 
 lover. But, brother, for God's sake, be careful, 
 now more than ever, or everything will go 
 wrong.' 
 
 " I renewed my former promise : I would 
 do nothing, attempt nothing, except at his 
 advice and under his guidance. We then
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATRTE. 
 
 held long discussion, for each of us had much 
 to say and to hear. 
 
 '' To be brief : he told me that, under pre- 
 text of a change of pasturage, he had man- 
 aged to bring some sheep belonging to the 
 tribe up to this neighbourhood, where he had 
 arrived almost immediately after myself; that 
 the Sheykh's daughter had sent for him the 
 evening before, and had explained to him the 
 difficulties of her actual position, now aggra- 
 vated by those arising from Rustoom Beg's 
 orders regarding the kiosk. He had promised 
 her, he added, to remain in or near Diar-Bekr 
 till the Emeer Daghfel's arrival, of which he 
 made sure to have intelligence at least a week 
 in advance ; then, said he, we can best see 
 what has to be done. 
 
 "In return I explained to him more fully 
 what I had seen or heard. ' But, Moharib,' 
 I concluded, ' tell me one thing in simple
 
 300 HERMANN AGHA: 
 
 truth, — what has led you, almost a stranger 
 as you were, thus to interest yourself In my 
 behalf ? ' 
 
 " ' Nothing,' he replied, ' but that you are 
 a true lover; and such a one deserves help 
 from every other true lover. I have no other 
 motive ; your success is all I want now.' 
 
 " ^ Since it is so,' I rejoined, ' you have by 
 what you have said avowed yourself a lover 
 also. Tell me, then, who it is that you love ; 
 whom I love you know.' 
 
 ** * She whom I love is far away,' said he 
 with a sigh. ' For months we have not seen 
 each other, nor shall till this summer be ended. 
 But I will give you my story some other day, 
 Ahmed. This is now your hour, and the hour 
 of your good fortune ; mine has not come yet. 
 When it does I shall rely on you, as you at 
 present on me.' 
 
 " Gladly I promised, and again we pledged
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 
 
 our faith to stand by each other In life and 
 to the death : a pledge destined, alas ! to be 
 kept better by him than by me." 
 
 " You are, indeed, a fortunate young fellow," 
 here interrupted Tantawee, " or you are a 
 magician, in spite of your innocent looks. To 
 have won the heart of a girl of Sheyban, and 
 the brotherhood of a lad of Benoo-Riah, is 
 something that few can boast. Turks, 
 Koordes, Georgians, Albanians, and, so far as 
 my experience of them goes, Europeans, are 
 each well enough in their way ; but what race 
 of man can compare with the Arab in gene- 
 rosity of friendship, in warmth of love, in 
 constancy above all ? Nor do I say this be- 
 cause I am myself an Arab, and of the Arabs, 
 but because, looking around me, I see that 
 such is the truth, and truth is truth whoever 
 says it." 
 
 " You are right," answered Hermann, " and
 
 302 HERMANN AGHA: 
 
 I, a stranger by birth, have found among them 
 all that you say, and more. In these respects 
 they stand alone; none can compare with them. 
 In war, in counsel, in poetry, in eloquence, in 
 enterprise, in courtesy of manners, in the beauty 
 of life, as companions, as friends, as lovers, I 
 have tried them in all, and found them wanting 
 in none. My happiest days have been amongst 
 them ; and amongst them my happiest days 
 will yet be, if God has any such in store for 
 me," 
 
 " And next after the Arabs ?" asked Tan- 
 tawee ; " I am curious to know your opinion ; 
 you ought to be an impartial judge." 
 
 '' You will think it strange," said Hermann ; 
 but the race that I have found the most like the 
 Arab in constancy of attachment, and the best 
 sympathising, too, with Arabs in many other 
 ways, is one very unlike in several respects, 
 both of body and mind : I mean the negro.
 
 AX EASTERN NARRATIVE. 303 
 
 Sometimes I fancy that the two must derive 
 from a common origin ; and yet again, the 
 difference is too great for that. How could they 
 ever have been one ?" 
 
 "Certainly;" laughed his friend, " if, like a 
 good Muslim, you give credit to the pedigree 
 drawn up by Hejaz chroniclers, and all their 
 nonsense, — do not make a wr}' face, it is non- 
 sense, and you know that it is as well as I do, — 
 — about Kahtan,^ Abraham, Isma'eel, and the 
 rest, you can indeed ^nd no place for the negro 
 in your genealogical tables. Nor do I myself 
 w^ell perceive how the dissimilarity in type and 
 colour can be satisfactorily accounted for, even 
 by difference of climate, or lapse of time. Still, 
 if not a ^brotherhood it is a cousinship ; though 
 
 ^ Supposed by Mahometan annalists to be the same 
 as the Joktan of Genesis, son of Heber, and to be the 
 ancestor of the southern Arabs, as Ishmael of the 
 northern.
 
 304 HERMANN AGHA ! 
 
 the common Adam of both must, I think, have 
 been very far back on the list of the six thou- 
 sand successive Adams and their descendants 
 whom the Prophet,-^God's blessing on him for 
 it, — had the good sense to admit before the 
 extremely recent Adam and Eve of ordinary 
 story." 
 
 " Be it so," replied Hermann ; " I can only 
 say that I have had a wide experience of 
 both races, and have found both true, each in 
 its own way. Nor — when among Arabs at 
 least — have I ever regretted the absence of 
 other men and women; certainly I did not 
 then." 
 
 " But now," continued Tantawee ; " have you 
 now no longings to return to your German 
 village, — I have forgotten its name, — and to 
 the life of those there ? or has it lost its charm 
 for you ? Does no image of the place, or of 
 its people haunt you still ? or have you given
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATIVE. 305 
 
 Up every wish to be with them and of them 
 agam r 
 
 Hermann was silent a minute or two, as 
 though collecting his thoughts. *' No," at last 
 he answered, '' I have no such wish or longing 
 now. While I was among them, I loved them 
 dearly, God knows ; but here in the East I 
 have known truer love, freer breath, a manlier 
 creed, and a wider scope ; nor have I the heart 
 to squeeze myself painfully again into the more 
 regular and better polished, but narrower 
 grooves of European life and thought. Be- 
 sides, what should I do there now ? I have 
 learnt a different estimate of things ; their in- 
 terests would no longer be mine. European 
 ways and manners, occupations and talk, would 
 jar on me every hour of the day ; and I should 
 at last either wither under the self-imposed 
 constraint, or break through into extravagances 
 of word and deed injurious alike to myself and 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 HERMANN AGHA : 
 
 to those around me. No, Tantawee, as an 
 Eastern and a Muslim I have passed the 
 brightest days, the pleasantest years, of my life ; 
 as an Eastern and a Muslim I will drink what 
 remains to me of the cup, though it be the 
 dregs only." 
 
 Tantawee laughed again. " There spoke 
 the boy ! Not thirty years old yet, and talking 
 about the dregs of life ! Well, keep to your 
 resolution, carry it out. Of all follies, — and 
 men's lives are at the most nothing more, — it 
 is perhaps the least foolish. Or rather," in a 
 lower tone, ''of all wisdoms, — and there is a 
 deep wisdom in every man's life, if not in the 
 man himself, — it is, I truly think, the wisest. 
 Scarce one man in a thousand knows what is 
 really his proper element, or what is not ; and 
 if you are that one, as it seems by what you 
 say, you are not only fortunate, but far-sighted. 
 
 " However, please remember that if human
 
 AN EASTERN NARRATR^. 307 
 
 existence, as you hint, is short, summer nights 
 are not very long, either ; and, unless some 
 strange crisis intervenes, your tale is not yet, 
 for what I can conjecture, near its end ; though 
 hear it out I must and will, and this night, too. 
 To-morrow, God knows how we may be occu- 
 pied, both you and I." 
 
 *' It was you that interrupted me yourself," 
 said Hermann, and resumed his narrative. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
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 Michael A ngelo,'' etc.). With a beautiful Autotype Portrait of the 
 Countess. Medium 8vo. [Immediately. 
 
 LIVES OF ENGLISH POPULAR LEADERS. No. i. 
 
 STEPHEN LANGTON. By C. Edmund Maurice. Crown 
 8vo. [Shortly. 
 
 BRAVE MEN'S FOOTSTEPS. A Book of Example and 
 Anecdote for Young People. By the Editor of " Men who have 
 Risen." With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. [In the press. 
 
 Josiah "Wedgwood— the Man of Energy. Granville Sharpe— 
 
 the Negro's earliest Friend. Richard Cobden — the International 
 Man. Dr. "William Smith— the Father of Enghsh Geology. 
 Andrew Reed — the Stay of the Plopeless. Michael Faraday 
 — the Refined Philosopher. Thomas "Wright — the Prison Philan- 
 thropist. Joseph Paxton — the Gardener Architect. The Early 
 Life of the late Prince Consort, etc., etc. 
 
 ALEXIS DE TOCaUEVILLE. Correspondence and Con- 
 versations with Nassau W. Senior, from 1833 to 1859. Edited 
 by Mrs. M. C. M. Simpson. Two Vols., Large Post 8vo. 
 
 [In the press.
 
 New Books Published by Henry S. King o^ Co. 3 
 
 CABINET PORTRAITS. Sketches of Statesmen. By 
 T. Wemyss Reid. One Vol., Cro\\'n 8vo. 
 
 \Shortly. 
 
 Contents, 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE. 
 
 MR. DISRAELI. 
 
 THE EARL OF DERBY. 
 
 MR. LOWE. 
 
 MR. HARDY. 
 
 MR. BRIGHT. 
 
 EARL GRANVILLE. 
 
 LORD CAIRNS. 
 
 LORD HATHERLEY. 
 
 MR. HENLEY. 
 
 THE DUKE OF ARGYLL. 
 
 SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE. 
 
 EARL GREY. 
 
 THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 
 
 THE DUKE OF RICHMOND. 
 
 LORD WESTBURY. 
 
 WITH SEVERAL OTHERS. 
 
 BRIEFS AND PAPERS. Being Sketches of the Bar and 
 
 the Press. By Two Idle Apprentices. CroA^Ti 8vo. 
 
 Our Leading Columns. 
 
 Our Special Correspondent. 
 
 Our Own Reporter. 
 
 In the Galler}'. 
 
 Our Special Wire. 
 
 The Stor}' of the Fogborough 
 
 EngHshman. 
 In the Temple. 
 
 Westminster Hall. 
 On Circuit. 
 Scissors and Paste. 
 A Rising Junior. 
 Country Sessions. 
 An Eminent Leader. 
 Lincoln Inn. 
 At the Old Bailey. 
 
 \_Shortly, 
 
 SOLDIERING AND SCRIBBLING. By Archibald 
 
 Forbes, of the Daily A'rci's, Author of ' ' My Experience of the 
 War between France and Germany." 
 
 A Penny a Day. 
 
 The Christmas Cattle Market. 
 
 Soldiers' Wives. 
 
 The Story of the Megaera. 
 
 In a Mihtary Prison. 
 
 German War Prayers. 
 
 Flogged. 
 
 Sunday Afternoon at Guy's. 
 
 Butcher Jack's Story. 
 
 Bummarees. 
 
 A Deserter's Story. 
 
 Lions and Lion-Tamers. 
 
 Our March on Brighton. 
 
 Catsmeat. 
 
 Army Crimes and Punishments. 
 
 Whisky. 
 
 Furs. 
 
 Some Christmases. 
 
 BOKHARA : ITS HISTORY AND CONQUEST. By Pro- 
 fessor Arminius Vambery, of the University of Pesth, Author of 
 " Travels in Central Asia," etc. Two Vols., Demy 8vo. 
 
 \In the press.
 
 4 New Books Published by Henry S. Xing &» Co. 
 
 THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. By Walter Bagehot. 
 
 A New Edition, revised and corrected, with an Introductory Dis- 
 sertation on recent changes and events. Crown 8vo, 7^. 6d. 
 
 [Shortly. 
 Contents. 
 
 The House of Lords. 
 The House of Commons. 
 
 The Cabinet. 
 
 The Pre-requisites of Cabinet Go- 
 vernment, and the Pecuhar 
 Form which they have assumed 
 in England. 
 
 The Monarchy. 
 
 The Monarchy {contintied). 
 
 On Changes of Ministry. 
 
 Its Supposed Checks and Balances. 
 
 Its History, and the Effects of that 
 
 History, 
 Conclusion. Appendix. 
 
 STREAMS FROM HIDDEN SOURCES. By B. Mont- 
 
 GOMERiE Ranking. Crown 8vo. 
 
 Shortlv. 
 
 The Seven Streams are : 
 
 Cupid and Psyche. 
 The Life of St. Eustace. 
 Alexander and Lodowick. 
 
 Sir Urre of Hungary. 
 Isabella; or. The Pot of Basil. 
 The Marriage of Belphegor. 
 
 Fulgencius. 
 
 ' ' Out of all old lore I have chosen seven books as setting forth seven 
 following stages of time, and from each of these have taken what seemed to 
 me the best thing, so that any man may judge, and if it please him trace 
 it to its source." — Extract from Preface. 
 
 THOUGHTS FOR 
 
 Haweis, Author of 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 I. The Liberal Clergy. 
 
 God, 
 
 II. Conception. 
 III. Experience. 
 
 Christianity. 
 
 IV. Character. 
 V. History. 
 
 The Bible. 
 
 VI. Essence. 
 VII. Doctrine. 
 
 Henry S. King & Co., 65, 
 
 THE TIMES. By the Rev. H. R. 
 
 " Music and Morals," etc. Crown 8vo. 
 
 IShortly. 
 The Articles. 
 
 VIII. The Trinity. 
 
 
 Original Sin. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Predestination. 
 
 
 The Church. 
 
 Life. 
 
 
 X. 
 
 Pleasure. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 WORSfllP 
 
 
 XII. 
 
 The Lord's Day. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Preaching. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The Law of Progress. 
 
 CoRNHiLL, London.
 
 London, May, 1872. 
 
 Catalogue of Books, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Henry S. King & Co., 
 
 65, CORNHILL. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rev. F. W. Robertson's Life and \Vorks . cover p. 2 
 The International Scientific Series ..... i 
 Important German Official Works on the Franco-Prussian 
 
 War 10 
 
 The Comhill Library of Fiction . . . . .11 
 
 Sermons by the Rev. Stopford A. Brooke . . .17 
 Books on Indian Subjects . . . . . .18 
 
 Poetry .......... 20 
 
 Recently Published Novels . . . . . .21 
 
 Forthcoming Novels ....... 23
 
 IsT O T I O E 
 
 >:•«€ 
 
 Life and W< 
 
 IFE AND WORKS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Rev. FRED. W. ROBERTSON. 
 
 NEW AND CHEAPER EDITIONS. 
 
 LIFE AND LETTERS OF THE LATE REV. FRED. W. 
 
 ROBERTSON, M.A. Edited by Stopford Brooke, M.A., 
 Hon, Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. Library Edition, in 
 demy 8vo, with Steel Portrait. I2s. 
 
 A Popular Edition, in one vol., is nearly ready. 
 
 SERMONS -.—Price 3^. 6cf. per vol. 
 
 First Series .... Small crown 8vo. 
 
 Second Series . . . Small crown 8vo. 
 
 Third Series .... Small crown Svo. 
 
 Fourth Series . . . Small crown Svo. 
 
 EXPOSITORY LECTURES ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO 
 
 THE CORINTHIANS. Small crown Svo. 5^. 
 
 LECTURES AND ADDRESSES ON LITERARY AND 
 
 SOCIAL TOPICS. Small crown Svo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 AN ANALYSIS OF MR. TENNYSON'S "IN MEMORIAM." 
 
 (Dedicated by permission to the Poet-Laureate.) Fcap. Svo. 2s. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE HUMAN RACE. Translated 
 from the German of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Fcap, Svo. 
 
 2s. 6d. 
 
 A LECTURE ON FRED. W. ROBERTSON, M.A. By the 
 
 Rev. F. A. Noble, delivered before the Young Men's Christian 
 Association of Pittsburgh, U.S. is. 6d.
 
 65, CORNHILL, 
 
 May, 1872. 
 
 LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 Henry S. King & Co 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES. 
 
 Messrs. Henry S. King & Co. have the pleasure to announce that 
 under the above title they intend to issue a Series of Popular 
 Treatises, embodying the results of the latest investigations in the 
 various departments of Science at present most prominently before the 
 world. 
 
 The character and scope of the Series will be best indicated by a 
 reference to the names and subjects included in the following List ; 
 fi-om which it v.-ill be seen that the co-operation of many of the most 
 distinguished Professors in England, America, Germany, and France 
 has been already secured. 
 
 Although these Works are not specially designed for the instruction 
 of beginners, still, as they are intended to address the fton-scieniific 
 public, they will be, as far as possible, explanatory in character, and 
 free from technicalities. The object of each author will be to bring his 
 subject as near as he can to the general reader. 
 
 The Series will also be published simultaneously in New York by 
 Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. ; in Paris by M. Germer Bailliere ; and in 
 Leipzig by Messrs. Brockhaus. The volumes will be crown 8vo size, 
 well printed on good paper, strongly and elegantly bound, and will sell 
 in this country at a price tioi exceeding Five Shillings. 
 
 A first List of Authors and Subjects is appended ; but several of the 
 titles are provisional. The first volume, by Professor JNO. TYNDALL, 
 F.R.S., entitled "THE FORMS OF WATEil IN RAIN AND 
 RIVERS, ICE AND GLACIERS," is now in the Press, and will 
 be published in May. It is impossible at present to give a definite 
 announcement of the order of publication ; but it is expected that 
 besides Professor Tyndall's book the following M'ill be issued during 
 the present year: — 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF 
 MENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 By Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 BODILY MOTION AND 
 CONSCIOUSNESS. By 
 
 Professor Huxley, F.R.S. 
 
 PHYSICS AND POLITICS. 
 
 By Walter Bagehot. 
 
 FOOD AND DIETS. By Dr. 
 
 Edward Smith, F.R.S.; and 
 
 EARTH-SCULPTURES. By 
 
 Professor R-\MSAY, F.R.S.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King 6^ G?., 
 
 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES:— 
 
 Professor T. H. HUXLEY, LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 BODILY MOTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 Dr. W. B. CARPENTER, LL.D., P.R.S. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF MENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart., F.R.S. 
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 
 
 Professor RUDOLPH VIRCHOW (of the University of Berlin). 
 MORBID PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION. 
 
 Professor ALEXANDER BAIN, LL.D. 
 
 RELATIONS OF MIND AND BODY. 
 
 Professor BALFOUR STEWART, LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. 
 
 WALTER BAGEHOT, Esq. 
 PHYSICS AND POLITICS. 
 
 Dr. H. CHARLTON BASTIAN, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 THE BRAIN AS AN ORGAN OF MIND. 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER, Esq. 
 
 THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 
 
 Professor WILLIAM ODLING, F.R.S. 
 
 THE NEW CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Professor W. THISELTON DYER. B.A., B.Sc. 
 
 FORM AND HABIT IN FLOWERING PLANTS. 
 
 Dr. EDWARD SMITH, F.R.S. 
 
 FOOD AND DIETS, 
 
 Professor W. KINQDON CLIFFORD, M.A. 
 
 THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF THE EXACT SCIENCES 
 EXPLAINED TO THE NON-MATHEMATICAL. 
 
 Mr. J. N. LOCKYER, F.R.S. 
 
 SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. 
 
 W. LAUDER LINDSAY, M.D., F.R.S.E. 
 
 MIND IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
 
 65, Cornhili, London.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King &^ Co., 3 
 
 FIRST LIST OF AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS. 
 
 Dr. J. B. PETTIGREW, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 WALKING, SWIMMING, AND FLYING. 
 
 Professor A. C. RAMSAY, LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 EARTH SCULPTURE: Hills, Valleys, MountaiBS, Plains, 
 Rivers, Lakes ; how they were Produced, and how they have been 
 Destroyed. 
 
 Professor JOHN TYNDALL, LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 THE FORMS OF WATER IN RAIN AND RIVERS, ICE 
 AND GLACIERS. 
 
 Dr. HENRY MAUDSLEY. 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY IN DISEASE. 
 
 Professor W. STANLEY JEVONS. 
 
 THE LOGIC OF STATISTICS. 
 
 Professor MICHAEL FOSTER, M.D. 
 
 PROTOPLASM AND THE CELL THEORY. 
 
 Rev. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S. 
 
 FL'NGI : their Nature, Influences, and L^ses. 
 Professor CLAUDE BERNARD (of the College of France). 
 
 PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF 
 
 LIFE. 
 Professor A. dUETELET (of the Brussels Academy of 
 Sciences). 
 
 SOCIAL PHYSICS. 
 
 Professor H. SAINTE CLAIRE DEVILLE. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 Professor WURTZ. 
 
 ATOMS AND THE ATOMIC THEORY. 
 Professor D. QUATREFAGES. 
 
 THE NEGRO RACES. 
 Professor LACAZE-DUTHIERS. 
 
 ZOOLOGY SINCE CUVIER. 
 Professor BERTHELOT. 
 
 CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS. 
 Professor J. ROSENTHAL (of the University of Berlin). 
 
 (Subject not yet received). 
 
 65, Coni/ii//, Londofi.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King 6^ Co., 
 
 I. 
 
 One volume, crown %vo, <^s. 
 
 SEPTIMIUS. 
 
 A Romance. 
 
 By Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 Author of " The Scarlet Letter," " Transformation," etc. 
 
 A peculiar interest attaches to this work. It M^as the last thing the 
 author ever wrote, and he may be said to have died as he finished it. 
 
 \I1n7nediately . 
 
 II. 
 
 A New Work for Children.^ 
 
 THE LITTLE WONDER-HORN. 
 
 By Jean Ingelow. 
 
 A Second Series of " Stories told to a Child." 
 15 Illustrations. Cloth gilt, 3^. 6^. 
 
 \_Immediately. 
 
 III. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF MRS. LCETITIA BOOTHBY 
 
 Written by herself in the year 1775. 
 Crown 8vo. 
 
 \In the press. 
 
 IV. 
 
 HERMANN AGHA: 
 
 An Eastern Narrative. 
 
 By W. GiFFORD Palgrave, 
 
 Author of " Travels in Central Arabia," etc. 
 
 2 vols., Crown 8vo. 
 
 Cloth, extra gilt, i Zs. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE FORMS OF WATER IN RAIN AND RIVERS, 
 ICE AND GLACIERS. 
 
 With 32 Illustrations. By Professor J. Tyndall, LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 Being Vol. I. of The Biternatiojial Scientific Series. 
 
 [In the press. 
 
 J8®" Prospectuses of the series may be had of the pubhshers. 
 65, Cortihill, London.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King c^' Cc?., 5 
 
 vr. 
 CHANGE OF AIR AND SCENE ; 
 
 A Physician's Hints about 
 
 Doctors, Patients, Hygiene, and Society ; 
 
 with Notes of Excursions for Health, in the Pyrenees, and 
 
 amongst the Watering-places of France (inland and seaward), 
 
 Switzerland, Corsica, and the Mediterranean. 
 
 From the French of Dr. Alphonse Donne. 
 
 Large post 8vo. 
 
 Utility of Hygiene. — The Hygiene of the Four Seasons. — Exercise 
 and Travels for Health. — Mineral Waters. — Sea Baths. — Hydro-The- 
 rapeutics. — Hygiene of the Lungs. — Hygiene of the Teeth. — Hygiene 
 of the Stomach. — Hygiene of the Eyes. — Hygiene of Nervous Women. 
 — The Toilet and Dress. — Notes on Fever. \Sho7'tly. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE CREATION: 
 
 Being a Series of Popular Scientific Lectures on the General 
 Theory of Progression of Species ; with a Dissertation on the 
 Theories of Darwin, Goethe, and Lamarck ; more especially 
 applying them to the Origin of Man, and to other fundamental 
 questions of Natural Science connected therewith. 
 By Professor Ernst H^ckel, of the University of Jena. 
 
 With Woodcuts and Plates. [Shortly. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 CONTEMPORARY EN.GLISH PSYCHOLOGY. 
 
 From the French of Professor Th. Ribot. 
 An Analysis of the views and opinions of the following Meta- 
 physicians, as expressed in their writings. 
 James Mill. — A. Bain.— John Stuart Mill. — George H, Lewes. — 
 Herbert Spencer. — Samuel Bailey. 
 
 Large post 8vo. \In the press. 
 
 IX. 
 
 From the Aiithor''s latest Stereotyped Edition^ 
 
 MISS YOUMANS' FIRST BOOK OF BOTANY. 
 
 Designed to cultivate the observing powers of children. New 
 and Enlarged Edition, wdth 300 Engravings. Crown 8vo, 5i". 
 
 [/« the press. 
 
 65, Corn hill ^ Londo?i.
 
 6 Books Published by Henry S. Kif^g &> Co., 
 
 X. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE CULTURE OP THE OBSERVING 
 POWERS OP CHILDREN, 
 
 Especially in connection with the Study of Botany. 
 
 By Eliza A. Youmans, of New York. 
 
 Edited, with Notes and a Supplement on the Extension of the 
 
 Principle to Elementary Intellectual Training in General, 
 
 By Joseph Payne, 
 
 Fellow of the College of Preceptors : 
 
 Author of " Lectures on the Science and Art of Education," etc. 
 
 Crown 8vo. {Ready. 
 
 XI. 
 PHYSIOLOGY POR PRACTICAL USE. 
 
 By various eminent writers. 
 
 Edited by James Hinton, 
 
 with 50 Illustrations. 
 
 XII. 
 
 A TREATISE ON RELAPSING FEVER. 
 
 By R. T, Lyons, 
 
 Assistant Surgeon, Bengal Army. 
 
 Small Post 8vo. \In the press. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LEONORA CHRISTINA, 
 
 Daughter of Christian IV. of Denmark. 
 
 Written during her imprisonment in the Blue Tower of the 
 
 Royal Palace at Copenhagen, 1663-1685. 
 
 Translated by F. E. Bunnett, 
 
 {Translator of Grimm'' s '^ Life of Michael Angela,'''' etc.) 
 
 With a beautiful Autotype Portrait of the Countess. 
 
 Medium Bvo. {Immediately. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 LIVES OF ENGLISH POPULAR LEADERS. 
 
 No. I. Stephen Langton. 
 By C. Edmund Maurice. {Shortly. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 
 
 65, Cornhill, London.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King ^^ Co., 7 
 
 XV. 
 
 ALEXIS DE TOCaUEVILLE. 
 
 Correspondence and Conversations with Nassau W. Senior 
 
 from 1833 to J 859. 
 
 Edited by :\Irs. M. C. M. SiMPSON. 
 
 Two Vols., Large Post 8vo. {^Immediately. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 BRAVE MEN'S FOOTSTEPS. 
 
 A Book of Example and Anecdote for Young People. 
 By the Editor of" Men who have Risen." 
 
 With Illustrations. Crown Svo. \In the press. 
 Josiah "Wedgwood — the Man of Energ}'. Granville Sharp — 
 the Negro's earliest Friend. Richard Cobden — the International 
 Man. Dr. "William Smith— the Father of English Geology. 
 Andrew Reed — the Stay of the Hopeless. Michael Faraday 
 — the Refined Philosopher. Thomas ^Wright— the Prison Philan- 
 thropist. Joseph Paxton— the Gardener Architect. The Early 
 Life of the late Prince Consort, etc., etc. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ROBERT DUDLEY, 
 
 EARL OF LEICESTER, THE FAMOUS FAVOURITE OF 
 
 aUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 From the Private Correspondence of the great Earl of Leicester. 
 By ThO-MAS Wright, :vI.A., F.S.A., etc. [^Shortly. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 CABINET PORTRAITS. 
 
 Sketches of Statesmen. 
 By T. Wemvss Reid. 
 One Vol., CroMTL Svo. {Shortly. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone. — Mr. Disraeli. — The Earl of Derby. — Mr. Lowe. — 
 Mr. Hardy. — Mr. Bright. — Earl Granville. — Lord Cairns. — Marquis of 
 Hartington. — Mr. Wilson-Patten. — The Earl of Caman'on. — Earl 
 Russell. — Lord John Manners. — Mr. Cardwell. — Lord Hatherley. — 
 Mr. Henley. — The Duke of Argjll. — Sir Stafford Northcote. — Earl 
 Grey. — The Marquis of Salisbur}-. — The Duke of Richmond. — Lord 
 Westbury. — Mr. Forster. — Mr. Xewdegate. — Sir Roundell Palmer. — 
 Lord Lytton. — The Late Earl of Derby. — Late Earl of Clarendon. 
 
 65, Cornhillj Lo7idon.
 
 8 Books Published by Henry S. King 6^ Co., 
 
 XIX. 
 
 BRIEFS AND PAPERS. 
 
 Being Sketches of the Bar and the Press. 
 By Two Idle Apprentices. 
 
 Crown 8vo. \S1iorily. 
 
 Our Leading Columns. — Our Special Correspondent. — Our Own 
 Reporter. — In the Gallery. — Our Special Wire. — The Story of the 
 Fogborough Englishman. — In the Temple. — Westminster Hall. — On 
 Circuit. — Scissors and Paste. — A Rising Junior. — Country Sessions. — 
 An Eminent Leader. — Lincoln Inn.— At the Old Bailey. 
 
 XX. 
 
 SOLDIERING AND SCRIBBLING. 
 
 By Archibald Forbes, of the Daily News, author of 
 " My Experience of the War between France and Germany." 
 
 A Penny a Day. — The Christmas Cattle Market. — Soldiers Wives. — 
 The Story of the Megaera. — In a Military Prison. — German War 
 Prayers. — Flogged. — Sunday Afternoon at Guys. — Butcher Jack's Story. 
 — Bummarees. — A Deserter's Story. — Lions and Lion-Tamers. — Our 
 March on Brighton. — Catsmeat. — Army Crimes and Punishments. — 
 Whisky. — Furs. — Some Christmasses. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 BOKHARA: ITS HISTORY AND CONaUEST. 
 
 By Professor Arminius Vambery, of the University of Pesth. 
 Author of "Travels in Central Asia," etc. 
 
 Two vols., demy Svo. [7;^ the press. 
 
 XXII. 
 THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 By Walter Bagehot. A New Edition, revised and corrected, 
 
 with an Introductory Dissertation on recent changes and events. 
 
 Crown Svo, Js. 6d. [^Shortly. 
 
 Contents. — The Cabinet. — The Pre-requisites of Cabinet Govern- 
 ment, and the Peculiar Form which they have assumed in England. — 
 The Monarchy. — The Monarchy {co7itmued). — The House of Lords. — 
 The House of Commons. — On Changes of Ministry. — Its supposed 
 Checks and Balances. — Its History, and the Effects of that History. — 
 Conclusion. — Appendix. 
 
 65, Cor?t/iill, London,
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King &> Co., 9 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 STREAMS FROM HIDDEN SOURCES. 
 
 By B. AIoxTGOMERiE Raxkixg. [Shortly. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 
 The Seven Streams are : 
 
 Cupid and Psyche. 
 The Life of St. Eustace. 
 Alexander and Lodowick. 
 
 Sir Urre of Hungary. 
 Isabella ; or, The Pot of Basil. 
 The Marriage of Belphegor. 
 
 Fulgencius. 
 
 " Out of all old lore I have chosen seven books as setting forth 
 seven following stages of time, and from each of these have taken what 
 seemed to me the best thing so that any man may judge, and if it please 
 him trace it to its source." — Extract fro7n Preface. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 THOUGHTS FOR THE TIMES. 
 
 By the Rev. H. R. Haweis, M.A, 
 Author of " Music and Morals," etc. 
 
 Crown 8vo. ds. [Shortly. 
 
 Introductory. — I. The Liberal Clergy. God. — II. Conception. 
 III. Experience. Christianity. — IV. Character. V, History. The 
 Bible.— VI. Essence. VII. Doctrine. The Articles.— VIII. The 
 Trinity. Original Sin. IX. Predestination. The Church Life.— 
 X. Pleasuie. XL Sacrifice. Worship.— XII. The Lord's Day. 
 XIII. Preaching. Conclusion. — XIV. The Law of Progress. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 SIX PRIVY COUNCIL JUDGMENTS— 1850-1872. 
 
 Annotated by W. G. Brooke, ;M.A., Barrister-at-Law. 
 
 I. Gorham v. Bishop of Exeter. — 2. Westerton v. Liddell. — 3. 
 Williams v. Bishop of Salisbury, and Wilson v. Fendal. — 4. Martin v. 
 Mackonochie. — 5. Hibbert v. Purchas. — 6. Sheppard v. Bennett. 
 
 [hi the press. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 HOME-WORDS FOR WANDERERS. 
 
 Sermons by Arthur S. Thompson, B.D., 
 British Chaplain at St. Petersburg. 
 
 65, Cornhill, Lofidon.
 
 lo Books Published by Henry S. King 6^ Co.^ 
 
 Important German Official Works on the 
 Franco-Prussian War. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE OPERATIONS OP THE GERMAN ARMIES IN 
 FRANCE, 
 PROM SEDAN TO THE END OP THE WAR OP 1870-1. 
 
 With large Official Map. 
 
 From the Journals of the Head Quarters Staff. 
 
 By Major William Blume. 
 
 Translated by E. M. Jones, Captain 20th Foot, late Professor 
 
 of Military History, Sandhurst. 
 
 Demy 8vo. {Jtist out. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE OPERATIONS OF THE SOUTH ARMY, 
 
 IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1871. 
 
 By Count Wartensleben, of the Prussian General Staff. 
 Translated by Colonel Wright. 
 Demy 8vo. Uniform with the above. [/;z the press, 
 
 in. 
 TACTICAL DEDUCTIONS FROM THE WAR OF 1870-1. 
 
 By Capt. A. V. Boguslawski. 
 Translated by Col. Lumley Graham, 
 Late 1 8th (Royal Irish) Regiment. 
 Demy 8vo. Uniform with the above. \Just out. 
 
 "Above all should every infantry officer make these tactical conclu- 
 sions the object of his serious studies, about which there must be great 
 controversy. Out of these deductions alone can we get the lessons in 
 infantry operations for war, and' for training during peace. In all essen- 
 tial things according to our conviction, the author has rightly appre- 
 hended the lessons of the late war, and his views are a guide and 
 criterioa that will be of service to every officer." — Militair Wochenblatt. 
 
 IV. ■*•' 
 
 STUDIES IN TROOP-MARCHINGr 
 
 By Col. Von Verdy du Vernois. 
 
 Translated by Lieut. H. J. T. Hildyard, 71st Foot. 
 
 Demy 8vo. Uniform with the above. 
 
 {Parts I. and IT. are in the press. 
 
 65, Cornhill, Lo?idon.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King o^ Co., ii 
 
 The Cornhill Library of Fiction. 
 
 A^ow Publishing, each complete in one vol., croivn %vo, ivell 
 
 printed and tastefully boioid. With a Frontispiece, 
 
 Price 3^. (id. each. 
 
 I. 
 
 ROBIN GRAY. By Charles Gibbon. With a Frontispiece 
 
 by Hennessy. iReady. 
 
 Ilr 
 
 KITTY. By Miss M. Betham-Edwards. \In a feu days. 
 
 III. 
 HIRELL. By John Saunders, Author of "Abel Drake's 
 Wife." [Inwiediately. 
 
 IV. 
 
 ABEL DRAKE'S WIFE. By John Saunders, Author of 
 " HireU.'-' [Shortly. 
 
 V. 
 
 FOR LACK OF GOLD. By Charles Gibbon, Author of 
 "Robin Gray." 
 
 VI. 
 
 ONE OF TWO. By J. Hain Friswell, Author of "The 
 Gentle Life," &:c. 
 
 VII. 
 
 GOD'S PROVIDENCE HOUSE. By Mrs. G. Linn.€:us Banks. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 HALF A DOZEN DAUGHTERS. By J. Masterman. 
 
 Other Standard Novels to follow. 
 
 PANDURANG HARI. 
 
 A Tale of Mahratta Life, sixty years ago. 
 
 Edited, from the edition of 1826, 
 
 By Sir HENRY Bartle E. Frere, G.C.S.I., K.CB. 
 
 [Shortly. 
 AN ARABIC AND ENGLISH DICTIONARY OF THE 
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 By Major J. Penrice. Post 4to. [In the press. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF VILLIERSTOWN. 
 
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 65, Cornhill, London.
 
 12 Books Published by Henry S. Xing 6^ Co., 
 
 OVER VOLCANOES; OR, THROUGH FRANCE AND SPAIN 
 
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 IN aUEST OF COOLIES. A South Sea Sketch. By James 
 L. A. Hope. Crown 8vo, with 15 Illustrations from 
 Sketches by the Author. Price 6j-. Second Edition. 
 
 \Just out. 
 
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 ROUND THE WORLD IN 1870. A Volume of Travels, with 
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 " Delightfully written, as unpretentious and as entertaining a sketch 
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 Books Published by Henry S. King 6:^ Co., 13 
 
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 THE NILE WITHOUT A DRAGOMAN. (Second Edition.) 
 By Frederic Eden. In one vol., crown 8vo, cloth, js. 6d. 
 
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 " Gives, within moderate compass, a suggestive description of the 
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 Saturday Reviezu. 
 
 "We have in these pages the most minute description of life as it 
 appeared on the bank§ of the Nile ; all that could be seen or was worth 
 seeing in nature or in art is here pleasantly and graphically set do^^"n. 
 . . . It is a book to read during an autumn holiday." — Spectator. 
 
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 SCRIPTURE LANDS IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR 
 HISTORY. By G. S. Drew, :M.A., Rector of Avington, 
 Winchester, Author of "Reasons of Faith."' Second 
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 VI. 
 
 ECHOES OF A FAMOUS YEAR. By Harriet Parr. 
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 14 Books Published by Henry S. King 6n Co., 
 
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 JOURNALS KEPT IN FRANCE AND ITALY, FROM 1848 
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 IX. 
 
 JEAN JAROUSSEAU, THE PASTOR OF THE DESERT. 
 
 From the French of Eugene Pelletan. Translated by 
 
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 frontispiece, price 5^-. 
 
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 65, Cornhilly London.
 
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 DISCIPLINE AND DRILL. Four Lectures delivered to the 
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 " Capt. Page has something to say .... and in every case it is 
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 CATHOLICISM AND THE VATICAN. With a Narrative of 
 
 the Old CathoUc Congress at Munich. By J. Lowry 
 
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 •' We cannot follow the author through his graphic and lucid sketch 
 
 of the Catholic movement in Germany and of the Munich Congress, at 
 
 which he was present ; but we may cordially recommend his book to 
 
 all who wish to follow the course of the movement." — Saturday Review. 
 
 ' ' A valuable and philosophic contribution to the solution of one of 
 
 the greatest questions of this stirring age." — Church Times. 
 
 [Just out. 
 
 65, Corfi hilly Londo7i.
 
 1 6 Books Published by Henry S. King &= Co., 
 
 XIII. 
 
 NAZARETH : ITS LIFE AND LESSONS. In small 8vo, 
 cloth, 5^. By the Author of " The Divine Kingdom on 
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 " In Him zvas life, and the life was the light of menj^ 
 
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 graph. 
 
 "We would earnestly commend it for attentive perusal to those who 
 are proposing to undertake, or have just entered upon, the sacred 
 ministry in our church." — Morning Post. 
 
 " Perhaps one of the most remarkable books recently issued in the 
 whole range of English theology. ... . Original in design," calm 
 and appreciative iii language, noble and elevated in style, this book, we 
 venture to think, will live." — CJmrchman^ s Magazine. 
 
 \Just out. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE DIVINE KINGDOM ON EARTH AS IT IS IN 
 HEAVEN. In demy 8vo, bound in cloth. Price loj. dd. 
 " Our Commonwealth is in Heaven." 
 
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 authorship would not be a credit. . . . It is a remarkable book, 
 and indicates a great deal of vigour in the mind that conceived it. Not 
 the least of its beauties is the perfect simplicity and clearness conjoined 
 with a certain massive beauty of style." — Literary Chnrdwian. 
 
 "We cordially recognise the high purpose and devout spirit which 
 characterize this work. It is both thoughtful and eloquent." — BritisJi 
 Quarterly Revietv. 
 
 [Now ready. 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE FOUR-FOLD BOND. By Robert Carr. i2mo, 2s. 6d, 
 
 65, Cornhill, London.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. Khig o^ Co., 17 
 
 Sermons by the Rev. Stopford A. Brooke, M.A. 
 
 Honorary Chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen. 
 
 A FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE LATE REV. F. D. 
 MAURICE. Crown 8vo, sewed, i-r. 
 
 IT. 
 
 CHRIST IN MODERN LIFE. Sermons preached in St. 
 
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 Crown 8vo. 'js. 6d. 
 " Nobly fearless and singularly strong . . . carries our admir- 
 ation throughout." — British Quarterly Rrdrd). 
 
 III. 
 
 FREEDOM IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. (Second 
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 In One Volume. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3J-. 6d. 
 
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 full sympathy." — Spectator. 
 
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 SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. JAMES'S CHAPEL, YORK 
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 " Mr. Brooke's sermons are shrewd and clever, and always readable. 
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 says it." — Chiirchtnan^s Magazine. 
 
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 British Qicarterly. 
 
 65, Cor nil ill, London.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King &^ Co., 
 
 Books on Indian jSubjects, 
 
 I. 
 
 THE EUROPEAN IN INDIA. A Hand-book of practical 
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 MEDICAL GUIDE FOR ANGLO-INDIANS. Being 
 a compendium of Advice to Europeans in India, relating 
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 In one vol., post 8vo, 6s. 
 
 " Full of all sorts of useful information to the English settler or tra- 
 veller in India." — Standard. 
 
 " One of the most valuable books ever published in India — valuable 
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 everybody will at once recognise when once the contents of the book 
 have been mastered. The medical part of the work is invaluable." — 
 Calcutta Guardia n . 
 
 II. 
 
 EASTERN EXPERIENCES. By L. Bowring, C.S.L, Lord 
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 Commissioner of Mysore and Coorg. In 
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 timately connected with our own, should obtain for Mr. Lewin Bowring's 
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 A MEMOIR OF THE INDIAN SURVEYS. By Clement 
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 tary of State for India in Council. Imperial 8vo, los. 
 
 _ j_ 
 
 65, Cornhill^ London.
 
 Books PtihlisJied by Henry S. Ki?ig o:^ Co., 19 
 
 BOOKS ON INDIAN SJJB,J'E.CTS-{ccmtinued). 
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 WESTERN INDIA BEFORE AND DURING THE MUTI- 
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 " The legacy of a-svise veteran, intent on the benefit of his countrymen 
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 "Few men more competent than himself to speak authoritatively 
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 EXCHANGE TABLES OF STERLING AND INDIAN 
 RUPEE CURRENCY, upon a new and extended system, 
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 tion Co., Limited. Royal 8vo, loj-. ^d. 
 
 VI. 
 
 A CATALOGUE OF MAPS OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS 
 IN INDIA AND OTHER PARTS OF ASIA. Published 
 by Order of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India in 
 Council. Royal 8vo, sewed, is. 
 A continuation of the above, sewed, price 6*^., is now ready. 
 
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 eninnerated in this Catalogue. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE BENGAL aUARTERLY ARMY LIST. Sewed, i^s. 
 THE BOMBAY DO. DO. Sewed, 9^^. 
 
 THE MADRAS DO. DO. Sewed, lis. 
 
 65, Cornhili, London.
 
 20 Books Published by Henry S. King 6^ Co.^ 
 
 f 
 
 O E T R Y . 
 
 I. 
 SONGS OF LIFE AND DEATH. By John Payne, Author 
 of " Intaglios," " Sonnets," "The Masque of Shadows," etc. 
 Cr. 8vo. [Just out. 
 
 II. 
 THE LEGENDS OF ST. PATRICK, AND OTHER POEMS. 
 By Aubrey de Vere. Crown 8vo. [In the press. 
 
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 "The volume is marked both by lyrical feeling and lyrical art ... it 
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 writer ' must be a very old student, and a long-practised manipulator in 
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 V. 
 
 ASPROMONTE, AND OTHER POEMS. Second Edition, 
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 THE DREAM AND THE DEED, AND OTHER POEMS. 
 
 By Patrick Scott, Author of " Footpaths Between Two 
 Worlds," etc. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 5^. 
 
 VII. 
 
 EROS AGONISTES. By E. B. D. [In the press. 
 
 65, Cornhill, London.
 
 Books Published by Henry S, King o;^ Co., 21 
 
 Recently Published Novels, 
 
 I. 
 
 A GrOOD MATCH. By Amelia Perkier. Author of " :\Iea 
 Culpa.'' Two vols. {.7^^^^ out. 
 
 II. 
 
 THOMASINA. By the author of " Dorothy/' " De Cressy," 
 etc. Two vols., crown 8vo. \Jiist out. 
 
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 ment." — Daily Neios. 
 
 *' Very pleasant and lively reading." — Graphic. 
 
 *' This imdeniably pleasing story." — Pall Mall Gazelle. 
 
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 65, Conihilly London.
 
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 RECENTLY PUBLISHED NOVELS— (<rtf«/z«z/^^). 
 
 V. 
 
 PERPLEXITY. By Sydney Mostyn, a New Writer. Three 
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 *' Unquestionably a very powerful story. What may be called its 
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 author we shall experience no perplexity when others from his pen lie 
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 CRUEL AS THE GRAVE. By the Countess von Bothmer. 
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 " Jealousy is cruel as the Grave.''^ 
 
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 which has lately given the world many instances of old-fashioned 
 heroism ." — A thenceicm . 
 
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 and the brightest gaiety, — whether pathetic or satirical, is always natural 
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 "An agreeable, unaffected, and eminently readable novel." — Daily 
 Nexvs. 
 
 65, Cornhill, London.
 
 Books Published by Henry S. King o:^ Co., 23 
 
 RECENTLY PUBLISHED l<iO'VE.l^S—{co}timued). 
 
 vn. 
 HER TITLE OF HONOUR. By Holme Lee. One vol., 
 crown 8vo. (Second Edition.) 
 
 " It is unnecessary to recommend tales of Holme Lee's, for they are 
 well known, and all more or less liked. But this book far exceeds 
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 Thorney Hall, because with the interest of a pathetic story is united 
 the value of a definite and high purpose. "— ^^r^^^'^r. 
 
 " We need scarcely say of a book of Holme Lee's writing, that it is 
 carefully finished and redolent of a refined and beautiful soul. We 
 have no more accomplished or conscientious literary artist." — British 
 Quarterly. 
 
 "A most exquisitely written story." — Literary Churclwian. 
 
 Forthcoming Novels, 
 
 I. 
 
 THE PRINCESS CLARICE. A STORY OF 1871. By 
 
 Mortimer Collins. Two vols., crown 8vo. \Shortly. 
 
 II. 
 
 HONOR BLAKE; THE STORY OF A PLAIN WOMAN. 
 
 By ]Mrs. Keatixge, Author of " English Homes in India." 
 Two vols,, crown 8vo. \Nea7-ly ready. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA. By Hesba Strettox, 
 Author of " Little Meg," etc., etc. 
 
 IV. 
 
 HESTER MORLEY'S PROMISE. By Hesba Strettox, 
 Author of "Little Meg," "Alone in London," "David 
 Lloyd's Will." Three vols., crown 8vo. [/;^ the press. 
 
 V. 
 
 ISRAEL MORT, OVERMAN. THE STORY OF THE 
 
 MINE. By JOHX Sauxders, Author of " Hirell," "Abel 
 Drake's Wife," etc. Three vols., crown Svo. 
 
 \In the press. 
 
 65, Cornhill, London.
 
 2 4 Books Published by Henry S. King 6^ Co., 
 
 FORTHCOMING NOVELS— (cw/w/^^^f)- 
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 A NEW STOEY. By Alice Fisher, Author of " Too Bright 
 to Last." Three vols., crown 8vo. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE SPINSTERS OF BLATCHINGTON. By Mar 
 
 TRAVERS. 2 vols. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 A NEW WORK. By Col. Meadows Taylor, Author of 
 
 IX. 
 
 A LITTLE WORLD. By Geo. Manville Fenn, Author of 
 " The Sapphire Cross," " Mad," etc. 
 
 X. 
 
 THE 'HIGH MILLS. By Katherine Saunders, Author of 
 '' Gideon's Rock," " The Haunted Crust," etc. 
 
 XI. 
 OFF THE SKELLIGS. By Jean Ingelow. In three vols. 
 
 XII. 
 
 WHAT 'TIS TO LOVE. By the Author of " Flora Adair," 
 " The Value of Fosterstown," etc. 
 
 xin. 
 THROUGH LIFE. By Mrs. Newman. One vol., crown 8vo. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 LISETTE'S VENTURE. By Mrs. Russell Gray. Two 
 vols., crown 8vo. 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE SILCHESTERS. A New Novel. By Mortimer Col- 
 lins, Author of " Marquis and Merchant," etc. 
 
 65, Cornhin, London.
 
 PLEASURE : 
 
 A HOLIDAY BOOK OF PROSE AND VERSE. 
 
 Illustrated. Elegantly Bound in Ortiamental Cloth Cover, 
 
 with Gilt Edges afid Ilhnninated Frontispiece, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Illuminated Cover, sewed, \s. 
 
 Contents. 
 
 The Miserable Family Hain Friswell. 
 
 Sleep by the Sea. A Poem Tom Hood. 
 
 The New Pass Amelia B. Edwards. 
 
 A Regret. A Poem The Hon. Mrs. Norton. 
 
 The Echo of the BeUs Alice Fisher. 
 
 The Critical Spirit Rev. Canon Kingsley. 
 
 A Scene on Olympus Percival Keane. 
 
 Tristram and Iseult. A Poem .... Algernon C. Swinburne, 
 
 How Bayard Married his old Love . . . Holme Lee. 
 
 After Some Years Laura Leigh. 
 
 Love and Revenge Countess Von Bothmer. 
 
 Time : an Apologue Thomas Pumell. 
 
 A Tale of High Colour. A Poem . . . Godfrey Turner. 
 
 A New Lease of Life Thomas Archer. 
 
 The Gambling Hands The Hon. Mrs. Norton. 
 
 " An extraordinary shilling's worth. 'Tristram and Iseult' is alone 
 worth far more than the price of the publication, which is a very good 
 annual, and very creditable both to the editor and publisher. " — Standard. 
 
 Monthly, Price One Shilling. 
 
 THE MINING MAGAZINE 
 AND REVIEW. 
 
 A 
 
 RECORD OF MINING, SMELTING, QUARRYING, 
 
 AND ENGINEERING. 
 
 Ediied by NELSON BOYD, F.G.S.. Etc. 
 
 Henry S. King & Co., 65, Cornhill, London.