Volume I Part 43 (2/2)

”No.”

”In one of their poems--the Bhagavad Gita, I think--it is described as having its roots above and its branches downward; thus drawing life from the sky and offering its fruit most conveniently, it is to me the symbol of a good and just king. It rose to my mind when thy kinsman--may Allah be thrice merciful to him!--pa.s.sed me with his speech of forgiveness, and this gift ”--he raised his hand, and looked at the ring on one of the fingers-”in place of which I was more deserving burial in the Bosphorus, as the black-browed Admiral said.”

A frown dark as the Admiral's roughened his smooth brow.

”Why so?” she inquired.

”The tales I told were of a kind to be spared a Greek, even one who may not cover his instep with the embroidered buskin of an Emperor.”

”Nay, Sheik, they did not ruffle him. On the tongue of a Turk, I admit, the traditions had been boastful, but you are not a Turk.”

The remark might have been interrogative; wherefore with admirable address, he replied: ”An Ottoman would see in me an Arab wholly unrelated to him, except as I am a Moslem. Let it pa.s.s, O Princess--he forgave me. The really great are always generous. When I took the ring, I thought, Now would the young Mahommed have so lightly pardoned the provocation?”

”Mahommed!” she said.

”Not the Prophet,” he answered; ”but the son of Amurath.”

”Ah, you know him?”

”I have sat with him, O Princess, and at table often helped him to meat and bread. I have been his cupbearer and taster, and as frequently shared his outdoor sports; now hunting with hawk, and now with hound.

Oh, it were worth a year of common days to gallop at his right hand, and exult with him when the falcon, from its poise right under the sun, drops itself like an arrow upon its enemy! I have discoursed with him also on themes holy and profane, and given and taken views, and telling him tales in prose and verse, have seen the day go out, then come again.

In knightly practice I have tilted with him, and more than once, by his side in battle, loosened rein at the same cry and charged. His Sultana mother knows him well; but, by the lions and the eagles who served Solomon, I know him, beginning where her knowledge left off--that is, where the horizon of manhood stretched itself to make room for his enlarging soul.”

The awakening curiosity of his listener was not lost upon the Sheik.

”You are surprised to hear a kindly speech of the son of Amurath,” he said.

She flushed slightly.

”I am not a person, Sheik, whose opinions are dangerous to the peace of States, and of whom diplomacy is required; yet it would grieve me to give offence to you or your friend, the Prince Mahommed. If now I concede a wish to have some further knowledge of one who is shortly to inherit the most powerful of the Eastern Kingdoms, the circ.u.mstance ought not to subject me to harsh judgment.”

”Princess,” the Sheik said, ”nothing so becomes a woman as care where words may be the occasion of mischief. As a flower in a garden, such a woman would rank as the sovereign rose; as a bird, she would be the bulbul, the sweetest of singers, and in beauty, a heron with throat of snow, and wings of pink and scarlet; as a star, she would be the first of the evening, and the last to pale in the morning--nay, she would be a perpetual morning. Of all fates what more nearly justifies reproach of Allah than to have one's name and glory at the mercy of a rival or an enemy? I am indeed Mahommed's friend--I know him--I will defend him, where sacred truth permits defence. And then”--his glance fell, and he hesitated.

”And what then?” she asked.

He gave her a grateful look, and answered: ”I am going to Adrianople.

The Prince will be there, and can I tell him of this audience, and that the Princess Irene regrets the evil reported of him in Constantinople, and is not his enemy, straightway he will number himself of those the most happy and divinely remembered, whose books are to be given them in their right hands.”

The Princess looked at the singer, her countenance clear, serene, fair as a child's, and said:

”I am the enemy of no one living. Report me so to him. The Master I follow left a law by which all men and women are neighbors whom I am to love and pray for as I love and pray for myself. Deliver him the very words, O Sheik, and he will not misunderstand me.”

A moment after she asked:

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