Part 2 (2/2)
”Six or seven agatches” (an agatche is a little more than six and less than seven versts).
”What! is there no doctor nearer than that?” again asked Morphiliziy.
”Why should there not be one? We have a doctor in the village who is immediately at the side of the patient when required, but the other one is cleverer because he takes advantage of the sea tide in order to collect plants, sh.e.l.ls, insects, and little fishes, which our own doctors do not get a chance to use for their medicine.”
”Tell thy master that the owner of the Arab horse came to thank him for his favor, to pay his debt, and asks permission to come in.”
The peasant went off, but Morphiliziy ordered his warriors to return to the forest, and taking Noy with him, followed from afar the running laborer. He was very particular in explaining to Noy why he did not wish his name to be disclosed before the right time.
Bidandari came out to meet his guest and led him to some gorgeous apartments where a number of fas.h.i.+onably attired servants surrounded the newcomer, offering elegant clothes, aromatic soaps, and every kind of luxury customary in those times. Having washed and dressed, Morphiliziy came into an adjoining room where a dinner was set. The host met him at the door with two large horns filled with old wine, which, joining hands, they drank at the same time, as a sign of friends.h.i.+p. Notwithstanding that Morphiliziy had eaten almost nothing for more than two days, the rare and numerous dishes did not dazzle him. He had to make an effort in order to pretend that he was eating. At the end of the dinner the host offered him to take a rest, but Morphiliziy said that before that he would like to talk with him alone: then Bidandari, who had not even looked as though he had recognized his sovereign, respectfully fell down on one knee and kissed the edge of the royal coat.
”You recognized me, tavad?” said the surprised King.
”Yes, your Majesty, but I did not dare to say this before the rest, because I did not know the reason you had for not speaking openly.”
”I came hither to carry out my revenge and I cannot do it without your help.”
”Pray tell, what is it you order?”
”But this is against the laws of hospitality, in which your house has always glorified itself.”
”If it be impossible to receive satisfaction for being insulted otherwise--then give orders to kill me--in such a way at least I fulfil my duty as to you, like a faithful subject, obliged to defend the honor of his sovereign even to death and shall not be responsible for what occurs in my house after my death.”
”But, tavad, you forget that in such a case I fulfil my duty neither like a Tsar, nor like a guest, but of this let us speak later. The point of the affair is that in your own house my bride is hiding, disguised as a boy, and I want to take her immediately with me. It seems to me that by handing her over to me you do nothing offensive to the rules of hospitality; as to her companion, he has insulted my royal honor, and it is only natural that every true subject should himself chase him out of his house as soon as he learns about his crime.”
Bidandari sighed and his face took a sad expression.
”I ask a favor of you, sire; sooner order that I be killed than that my guest receiveth the merited punishment and let me now tell you all that weighs on me. Before death one is permitted to put aside every etiquette and to speak with one's sovereign without the customary court formalities, thereupon I take the liberty of treating you like a brilliant warrior.”
”You forget, tavad, that I am very much obliged to you, and that you therefore have the right to demand anything you like of me except to pardon my rival. You yourself are a young and unmarried man, is it possible you do not understand my thoughts?”
”Forgive me, sire, but I must again speak none but the bare truth! My meeting with your negro you already know about. Wis.h.i.+ng to come home by the very most direct way, I went on a trail which by chance brought me up to two boys. The younger of them was shaking from malaria, he was pale and lay upon a bourka, but the older one sat by him in despair and wrung his hands. On this same little meadow two saddled and tired horses were feeding; by their exhausted look it was perfectly clear that the travellers came a long way. I came up from behind, and when I greeted them, the elder brother quickly jumped up and seized a kinjall (Caucasian knife or rather dagger), while the younger boy simply sighed and looked at me in a terrified way; he was evidently either too ill or too exhausted to make any kind of a movement. 'Fear nothing,' I said, 'I came to offer you my hospitality, which you hardly have a right to refuse as you are on my lands.'
”'Excuse me,' suspiciously answered the older one--'before I accept your kind offer, I should like to ask you where you took this horse from, which yesterday was still the property of the monarch?'
”I explained it. The boy reflected. 'What dost thou think of, young man, accept quickly my offer, and together we shall carry the sick brother into a warm room, in which his illness will be over by morning, while here he may die from taking cold.'
”The boy got frightened.
”'Promise me not to hand us out to Morphiliziy alive or dead, and I will readily accept your invitation with grat.i.tude; otherwise we should both prefer to die.'
”I glanced at the sick boy, he evidently made an effort to smile and thus confirm his brother's words, but this smile lit up his face with such an inexpressible magnificence that I began to be very much puzzled--after all was it not a woman? I accorded the desired promise. We made litters of the branches of a soft coppice. I told them that I would send horses for their conveyance, but thy horse tied itself to the girdle and we safely brought our litter to the house. During the night the patient began to groan and constantly repeated:
”'Darling Cicero, if they discover us--kill me, I wish to be neither a Tsaritsa nor anything else except thy wife!'
”There was not the least doubt left by this time; this was a woman who had run away from some detested man together with her lover. Seeing that it was no longer possible to hide anything, Cicero related the whole story to me. They already loved each other, sire, when thou didst first see her. Perhaps thou wilt say that Cicero might perfectly well have conquered his attachment; taking into account that Nina was the object of this attachment--such a change was very improbable indeed. I say further that I myself was overtaken by such an extraordinary feeling of delight before this utmost perfection of beauty that I felt as though it was not worth living on earth if one could not possess Nina; and in consequence of all this, sire, thou dost partly fulfil my proper wish if thou dost order me to be executed as one bending down before thy will. To hand them out to you after my promise is beyond my powers.”
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