The Arab's Pledge Part 16

and taking him between them they swung him over the side, and the body went cras.h.i.+ng through the boughs to the bottom of the pit.

It was now getting late, and Ali promising to meet Ha.s.san at his house after dark, they parted.

CHAPTER XIV.

RETRIBUTION.

Ha.s.san returned to his home, a prey to remorse. Azora had escaped this time, but the final scene awaited her. Men's motives are of a mixed nature, and difficult to a.n.a.lyse. I do not a.s.sume that he was solely moved by the stings of conscience, or that he had any great horror of perjury in the abstract; but, however the customs of a country may modify the modes of expressing the feelings, and of acting under their guidance, there is no doubt that he entertained for Azora a pure and ardent love. Prompted by his false friend and urged on by his pa.s.sion, he had adopted the only course which appeared to him capable of compa.s.sing his end, without calculating the obstacles which might arise, and which he could not foresee, and when the full view of the consequences of his act was forced upon him he was appalled. Not only to lose one he loved so deeply, but to feel that he, who would willingly have sacrificed his life for her, had been the means of bringing her to an awful and cruel death; it was more than his mind could bear. Azora's forgiveness was no relief to him in the bitterness of his grief; the more he felt the innocence and purity of her nature, the deeper he felt the enormity of his own guilt, in devoting such an angel to destruction; reproaches, even curses, he could have borne, her gentleness and forgiveness were intolerable.

To-night, as he entered his dwelling, he felt a gloomy foreboding, as if some heavy retribution were hanging over him. His little sister,--a bright creature with hazel eyes and a laughing face,--ran to meet him.

The care of this child had devolved upon him since the death of his parents, and she was now coming to the age when her playful and affectionate manners began to reward him for his care and protection; his little darling sprang joyfully into his arms, and kissed his cold lips; he clasped her to his breast, and felt a transient feeling of relief.

"Oh, how happy we might have been," he said, half aloud,--"lost!--lost!"

and the conviction of his misery overpowered every other sensation. He smoothed back the silken tresses from her fair forehead, and gazed on her sweet face, talking almost involuntarily. "Once I was like you,--innocent,--but now--"

"Are you ill, brother dear?" said the child, putting its arms round his neck. "Brother, don't play with me, but brother is pale,--not well, and I don't want to play. If you are sick, I shall cry all night."

"No, love," said Ha.s.san, shrinking from her innocent scrutiny, "I am not sick, but very tired; and now it is time for you to go to bed; is it not late?"

The child allowed itself to be put to bed quietly, in the adjoining room, the door of which was left ajar, that Ha.s.san might hear if she wanted anything during the night. He was now alone, he tried in vain to make light of the weight, and cast off the gloom which oppressed his spirits, and he sat with his hands pressed to his forehead harrowed with inward suffering; presently a ghastly smile overspread his features, as a horrible thought presented itself to his mind, and he drew his dagger with a convulsive start. "Thus, then, I can escape this load of misery,"

said he, gazing at its keen tapering point. "Why should man live and suffer with such an antidote as this?--But stop! will not this add another crime to my account? And I may yet be of service to Azora. O Azora, Azora! what woe has not your love brought upon me? And alas! upon you. And who, when I am gone, will take care of this sweet child?" As these thoughts succeeded each other, his resolution gradually gave way, and with a shudder he hurled the weapon of death to the other end of the room. A shrill, prolonged scream of infant agony instantly burst on his ears; and as he sprang aghast to the spot, his little sister fell writhing at his feet transfixed by the deadly steel. The child had been impressed with the idea that her brother was ill; and when she heard him talking to himself, and so uneasy, with child-like curiosity she crept quietly from her bed, and had just entered the half-open door, when she was struck by the fatal dagger, and fell deluged in blood.

Ha.s.san remained fixed to the spot, paralysed with horror, his eyes starting from their sockets, his mouth open, his hands clenched, a petrified image of despair. For some minutes he seemed not to breathe; presently he dropped on his knees, he raised the child's head, and pressed his lips to hers; the blood oozed from the pressure and ran a crimson stream down her neck, staining her silken hair; his lips were damp with her blood; his brain, already shaken, could no longer bear up against the shock, gasping for breath he fell senseless on the floor.

Gradually, after some time, sensation returned, but when it did, his reason had left him. He sat up, and looked round the room with a vacant stare, till his eye rested on the body of the child; this recalled the lost thread of his thoughts; s.n.a.t.c.hing the dagger from the wound, he sprang to his feet with a heart-freezing yell, as he brandished it aloft.

"Ha! ha! ha! fiends, are ye content? No! I come! I come! Shower down upon me the burning rafters of h.e.l.l!--O Azora, you are avenged! G.o.d, how my heart burns, it is like a ball of fire in my bosom, and this red-tempered steel will fuse, ere it pierce it. Lo, I come!"

His hand was already raised to accomplish his purpose, when Ali, who had just entered, rushed forward and wrenched the dagger from his grasp, in doing which he stumbled against the child.

"Ha.s.san! what mean you? Whose work is this? Are you mad?"

Ha.s.san sprang frantically forward--

"Mad, did you say?" he yelled; "mad! aye, mad! mad! mad!" and he dashed himself on the earth and howled hideously in a paroxysm of fury. Ali perceived at once that his reason had given way, and supposed that he had destroyed his sister in the blindness of his rage. Leaving him to exhaust himself where he lay, Ali removed the body to the adjoining room, and having washed away the stains from the floor, he sat down to consider the best course to adopt to prevent harm to Ha.s.san or himself on account of the crime of the former. He was fearful of exciting Ha.s.san by asking an explanation; but from this he was saved by Ha.s.san himself, who now rose slowly from the ground, and looked with a long searching glance round the room. His appearance was frightful; his turban had fallen off, exposing his shaven head; his pallid face, stained with blood, contrasted with his black moustaches and glittering eyes; the veins in his neck and temples were swollen to bursting,--his whole face distorted. The stout heart of the Arab could not divest him of a superst.i.tious misgiving, as he looked on the figure of his friend; he, lately so calm, now the prey of insanity.

Ha.s.san pressed his hands to his eyes, to try and realise the past, and then stood wreathing and winding his fingers together.

"Horrid dream! what art thou?" he said, in a hollow voice, and turning to Ali, "O Moslem, let me remember; yes, she is safe. O Azora, thou art safe! Methought I returned home--home? My destiny was darkened--clouds and darkness were over me. Methought my little darling flew into my arms--I kissed her. Ha! again! is it blood? No! no! I dream still! I laid her in her bed--she sleeps--no noise--she sleeps! I laid my burning brow on the table; I thought it would have burnt into it. When I lifted my eyes, Iblis stood before me. My dagger was in my hand. 'Strike!' he said." Here Ha.s.san twisted his hands more eagerly, and his whole frame was trembling. "The keen blade glittered like a lambent moonbeam; I sprang to my feet. Satan avaunt! I cast it from me. Ha! what do I hear?

the demoniac laugh of the retreating fiend, and the agonized cry of my murdered child. There she is, see, at my feet--bleeding--dead!"

Large drops followed one another down the brow and face of Ha.s.san, but he was deadly calm, and seemed to repeat the words from memory, but to have no feeling of their meaning.

Ali, finding he did not relapse, took advantage of the pause to soothe his spirits and divert his thoughts--it was needless. His memory just recollected the bare outline of the scene, but without consciousness, and he did not even ask for his sister.

"G.o.d has smitten the oppressors of the innocent," muttered Ali, while Ha.s.san fell into an apathetic stupor; reaction of the violent emotions which had so shaken him. Ali had now to consider what was best to be done; Ha.s.san could no further co-operate with him, and for him to present himself to the authorities under any circ.u.mstances would ensure his destruction. Ali wrote on a piece of paper, "Ha.s.san Ibn Ibrahim, possessed with an evil spirit, slew his sister," and after removing Ha.s.san's dagger, and everything he might make use of to injure himself, he took the child's body, and, during the night, left it with the billet at the gate of the Cadi, knowing that, when discovered in the morning, inquiry would be made, the truth be apparent, and the affair hushed up.

CHAPTER XV.

THE PLEDGE REDEEMED.

As soon as they arrived at the cultivated districts, which they did by rapid marches, the Arabs spread themselves over the country, plundering in all directions. For this purpose they dispersed by tribes, the whole body uniting for the night at a rendezvous previously fixed upon. The peasants fled everywhere on their approach, securing what property they had time to remove, into the towns and walled villages. These, the Arabs being all hors.e.m.e.n, left unmolested. They carried off all the grain that could be discovered, and even reaped what was on the ground, compelling the peasants to a.s.sist in thres.h.i.+ng it out; they also gathered the dates from the trees. Their plunder was loaded on camels and mules, seized on their route. Wherever they bivouacked, their horses were picketed in the standing corn, and very soon changed their appearance from the bony, game-looking animals that they were at starting, to rounded, sleek chargers. The cultivated tracts they pa.s.sed over were left as if a swarm of locusts had swept over the land. After issuing the necessary orders to the Sheiks left in command, and directing their course on the province of Rahamna, Sheik Hamed selected five hundred of his best hors.e.m.e.n, and started by forced marches for Marocco, having received an urgent message from Ali that no time was to be lost if he wished to be a.s.sured of redeeming his word. About fifty miles south of the city, the Chief knew that he would find a tribe of Arabs, who, although settled in the province, kept up a friendly intercourse with the original desert stock. From the douar of this tribe, he could march by a straight course much faster than any messenger who might be on his way to give notice of their approach; and by avoiding any molestation of the peasants on the march, through a spa.r.s.ely populated and thickly-wooded country, very little alarm would be excited. It was the day before the execution that the Chief arrived at this place, called Ras el Ain, early in the morning. He did not inform his hosts of the object of his visit, but as rumours of the irruption of the tribes had reached even to Marocco, they were supposed to be a reconnoitring party. After resting all day, hospitably entertained by the tribe, the Chief called to horse at sunset, and made a night march of forty miles, stopping in the woods, within ten miles of the town, where were some springs, among ma.s.ses of rock. The forest trees were high, and interspersed with glades; but in a place so utterly unfrequented, that any number of hors.e.m.e.n might have been easily concealed. By travelling single file from this spot, the band could debouch on the plain within two miles of the gates of the town. Yusuf was sent on at once from here, to apprise Rachel of the approaching succour, as, whether the plans of the Chief succeeded or failed, it would not be safe for either of them to remain within the Sultan's power; they were therefore to repair to this place, where one hundred hors.e.m.e.n would be left in reserve. Yusuf was also to communicate with Ali, who was waiting impatiently for tidings of the Chief. In case of his failing to arrive, Ali would certainly have attempted the rescue, with his small band; but then there was the danger of being pursued by the Moors, who would have been encouraged by the weakness of his numbers, whereas, against a larger force, they would not venture to leave the protection of their walls, until after tedious preparation and the collection of an army.

The day appointed for the accomplis.h.i.+ng of the martyrdom of Azora had arrived. The Sultan was sitting in the M'Shouar, attended by his guards, while on carpets near him sat the Wezeer and scribes,--one of these was preparing the warrant of execution for the Sultan's seal. The order set forth that she was to be taken outside the gates, at the hour of mid-day prayer, and to be burnt alive at the stake as an apostate from the faith of Islam. The audience-hall, which was supported by pillars, opened in front on a large public place, to which the people had access, and here a considerable crowd was collected, attracted by the novelty of the case. As a mob, they were eager for the excitement of an execution; this, in the present instance, was enhanced by their fanaticism, and they looked forward to the burning of an infidel with peculiar gratification. The crowd, however, maintained a respectful distance, and any breach of order brought on them an indiscriminate shower of blows from the sticks of the black soldiers. Those who came on business of importance, or had causes to be heard, were allowed to enter the hall, one at a time. While the preliminaries of this judicial murder were being effected, there was a movement among the crowd, and a man, in a hooded burnoose, walked slowly into the audience-hall; he held a staff in his hand, and from his wrist hung, by a thong, a mace headed by an iron ball, studded with spikes, such as is often carried by mendicant fakeers.

"What is his business?" said the Sultan, as he stood before him.

The stranger allowed the hood of his cloak to fall from his head, and discovered the pale, wild features of Ha.s.san. He fixed his eyes, glittering with the fire of insanity, on the Sultan.

"Dost thou know me?" said he, slowly, whilst all present trembled for his life, "I am Ha.s.san Ibn Ibrahim: but where is my father? He died in the tyrant's prison. Where is my father's house? I--I alone, remain, and I care not how soon you send me to their graves: but first I have an errand. Hear, O Moslemin!" he said, raising his voice, "I come here to confess my perjury. That woman, that child of G.o.d, that you are here a.s.sembled to murder, is innocent--I (may I be accursed!) accused her falsely. I retract--I demand her freedom. Let the law judge my crime."

Maniacs are looked upon by the Moors with reverential awe, and allowed to roam at large. They are believed to be possessed by spirits, by whose inspiration they speak. The Sultan quailed under the gaze of the madman; but, though boiling with rage at being thus thwarted in his sanguinary purpose, he controlled himself; and, more to justify himself to the people, than supposing the maniac could understand him, he said, mildly,--

"It is too late; your accusation was written and sworn: and supposing you were guilty of perjury, as you say, but which is to be doubted, yet the other witness maintaining his word, your present falsehood is useless."

The maniac's features worked wildly, and his eyes flashed, while the Sultan was speaking. The mildness of his reception had inspired him with greater boldness.

"Ha! ha! ha!" he yelled. "Iblis whispered me this, and told me to come prepared."

He threw open his cloak, and produced a bundle, enveloped in the embroidered scarf lately given by the Sultan to Abdslem.

"Dost thou know that scarf?" he continued, "did it not belong to the false witness? And if he does not admit himself a perjured slave and confess the innocence of Azora, his accursed tongue will never again say that she is guilty.--Behold!" and unrolling the scarf with a jerk, the ghastly head of Abdslem fell on the Sultan's carpet.

The eyes of the maniac literally blazed with rapture, on beholding the effect he had produced, he ground his teeth, and the foam flew from his mouth.

"There!--there!" he shouted, rus.h.i.+ng towards the Sultan, then suddenly stopping and pointing to it with his staff--"ask him--behold your witness--does he accuse her? then I must answer for him," said he, raising his voice to the highest pitch. "I swear that she is innocent, and every fiend in h.e.l.l re-echoes, 'She is innocent!'"

The Sultan, though restrained by superst.i.tion, hardly considered himself safe in such close proximity to the madman, yet did not wish to evince his alarm, but his hand went mechanically into his vest for a pistol or dagger. This movement did not escape the eye of the maniac--he yelled a hideous laugh, that thrilled the hearts of his hearers.

"Ha! he fears me, he is a Sultan--but guilt always fears. You slew my father, why should you not fear me? My sister!"

His brain seethed as the horrid vision of her death flashed on his broken intellect, and he gazed an instant at his clenched hands.

"Yes! her blood is upon them."

The vision pa.s.sed as it came, and he spoke again in calm tones as of reason.

"I warn you that you are in danger; I devote you to human vengeance and divine wrath! For the last time I demand Azora's liberation."

The Sultan's patience was at length exhausted, "Seize him, and off with his head!" he thundered springing up.

Frenzy again blazed in the eye of Ha.s.san: "Stop!" he shouted, as he dropped on his knee; "and may the curse of Mohammed and the Seven Sleepers cleave to the man that lays a hand on me!" then, springing to his feet, and swinging his mace round his head, he uttered a prolonged yell of triumph, and rushed through the crowd that recoiled terror-struck to open him a pa.s.sage, and his shouts of vengeance rang in their ears until they died away in the distance.