by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER X
THE AVENGER
And what now is old Ali Tepelenti about in his nest at Janina? Is hecontent with a state of things which results in this--that he musteither perish or pass the brief remainder of his days in constantfighting? Is he satisfied with this sea of blood over which thetempest rages, and whose shores he cannot see?
Not yet has he surrendered to fate. His country has declared waragainst him, the Sultan has pronounced his death-sentence, his familyhave abandoned and turned against him; but Ali has not suffered hissword to be broken in twain. For eight and seventy years he has beenthe scourge of his enemies, the defence of his country, the Sultan'sright hand, the patriarch of his family, and in his nine andseventieth year the Sultan and his relations say to him, "Die! thouhast lived long enough!" And he, by way of reply, set his country inflames, shook the throne of the Sultan, and extirpated his ownkinsfolk.
The Greeks, whose tyrant he once was, are now his allies. Tepelentiprovides them with arms and money, and with good and bad counsel,whichever they want most.
Three armies were sent out against him, and he has annihilated allthese.
His enemy, Gaskho Bey, has lost his army in a battle against therebels without anything to show for it, and now only holds thefortresses round about Janina, to wit: Arta, Prevesa, Lepanto,Tripolizza, and La Gulia. The Hellenes are besieging every one of themday by day. One day Ali proclaims that in Tripolizza there are fivehundred eminent Greeks whom the Turks compel to fight along with them.At this report the besiegers attack the fortress with redoubled fury.Now these five hundred Greeks Ali himself got together whileTripolizza was still in his possession. When he was obliged to leavethe fortress, he cast these Greeks down into a well, placed threeloads of stones upon them, and covered the spot with grass. This hedid himself.
Exhausted by furiously fighting against superior numbers, the Turkssurrendered in three days to Kleon, who conducted the siege, simplystipulating that they might be allowed to go free, and this waspromised them. When, however, the fortress was surrendered to theGreeks, their first question was, "Where are the hostages, ourbrethren?" The Turks were amazed. They knew not what to reply, forthey had no hostages in their hands.
Then a Suliote warrior discovered the pit which had been sown overwith grass, and what a sight presented itself when they broke it open!
Thirsting for blood and vengeance, the Greeks flung themselvesforthwith on the disarmed garrison, and despatched them to the verylast man, nay, they did not leave a living woman or child remainingin the fortress--they threw them all down headlong from the bastions.
But Ali Pasha smiled to himself in the fortress of Janina.
He himself had destroyed more Turks than the whole Greek host haddone.
When Demetrius Yprilanti captured Lepanto, he allowed the garrison afree exit from the citadel. Demetrius himself signed the terms of thesurrender. But when the Turks emerged from the fortress, Ali Pasha'sSuliotes rushed upon them and cut them all to pieces. Yprilanti, fullof indignation, threw himself in the midst of them, exhibiting thedocument in which he had promised the Turks their lives. But Kleononly laughed--he had learned that brutal, scornful laugh from Ali.
"Don't trouble yourself about them," cried he. "We are only killingthose whose names are not written in the agreement."
Yprilanti turned from the butchery in disgust, and immediatelyembarking his army, set sail for Chios again.
Ah, the Greeks had learned a great deal from Ali. Woe to thoseMussulmans who fall alive into their hands, or who are not so brave orso cunning as they themselves are! The Turkish general, Omar Vrione,along his whole line of advance, marched between rows of high gibbetson which bleached the bones of horribly tortured Turks. Here andthere, by way of variety, nailed by the hands to upright planks, werethe bodies of dead Jews, half flayed and singed--a ghastly spectacle.
Verily the descendants of the heroes of Marathon have diverged veryfar indeed from their forefathers, and the experienced Turkishcommander knew right well that he is a bad soldier who even descendsto cutting off the head of his slain foe on the battle-field.
At Pulo, Omar Vrione encountered the army of Odysseus. Now Omar was atone time one of the best of Ali Pasha's lieutenants. Ali promoted himto the rank of general, and he had begun life as a shepherd-boy. Alihad taught him how to use his weapons, and now he turned them againsthis master.
The Sultan had intrusted to him a fine army with which he had assistedGaskho Bey to beleaguer Ali. It consisted of eight thousand gallantAsiatic infantry, two thousand Spahis, and eight guns. The leader ofthe Spahis was Zaid, the Bey of Kastorid, Ali's favorite grandson,whom, twenty years before, he had rocked upon his knee, and whom,while still a child, he had carried in front of him on his saddle, andtaught him to ride. Zaid himself had asked, as a favor, that he mightlead a division of cavalry against his grandfather. He had promisedhis mother to seize that sinful old head by its gray beard and bringit home to her.
A precious grandson, truly!
So Omar Vrione reached Pulo. Looking down from the hill-tops there, hediscerned the army of Odysseus. He saw him planting his white bannersin rows upon the heights, and without giving his forces a moment'srest, he set his own martial chimneys a-smoking and attacked theGreeks with all his might.
After an hour's combat, in which they fought man to man, the Greekswere driven from their intrenchments, and began slowly descending intothe valley.
The Timariotes remained behind, and Zaid began to send forward hisSpahis to attack the retreating army in the rear. Odysseus slowlyretraced his steps till he came to Pulo. There his war-path stopped.His banner was no longer white, but red; it was sprinkled with theblood of the many heroes who had died in its defence.
Suddenly, from the heights of Pindus above them resounded thetempestuous melody of the "Marseillaise," which the Greeks had adoptedas their war-song, and rapid as a storm-swollen mountain torrent theSuliotes, with Kleon and Artemis in the van, hurled themselves uponthe Turks.
Omar Vrione was caught between two fires. It was too late to turnback, too late to reform his order of battle. His guns were useless,his cavalry could not move forward, and his infantry columns were socompletely isolated that they could not render each other anyassistance.
The general saw that he could not save his army, but he was at leastdetermined not to save himself, so he hastened to where the fight wasraging most furiously.
A wild, merciless _melee_ was proceeding between the inextricablyintermingled foes. Forcing his way along, Omar Vrione suddenlyencountered, in the midst of reeking powder and streaming blood, atall youth with a blackened face, whom he at once recognized as Kleon.There, then, they stood, face to face. Three years before, when Alihad sent Omar Vrione to threaten the Suliotes, Kleon fled before him,and then he had called after the fugitive, "Stand, I would send thyhead to Ali Tepelenti!"
And there, indeed, Omar Vrione fell, combating, and Kleon cut off hishead.
How strange is fate!
The fall of Omar Vrione sealed the fate of his army. The Turks fledwherever they saw the chance, leaving all their guns, all their flags,and all their officers in the lurch. The cavalry had no chance ofescaping. Half of it fell, the other half surrendered.
Zaid, in the moment of extremest danger, took his silver aigrette outof his turban and threw it away; then he changed caftans with hisservant, and mingled with the rank-and-file, so that none mightrecognize him. It would have been much better for a child like him tohave remained at home than to have gone hunting that old lion, hisaged grandfather.
The Suliotes surrounded Zaid's company. "Dismount from your horses!"exclaimed the clear voice of Kleon.
The Spahis, full of shame, dismounted.
"Which is your leader, Zaid?" cried Kleon, advancing. The edge of hissword was dripping with blood.
"I am," said the servant who had changed clothes with Zaid, and heapproached Kleon.
"Bow down before me, thou slave!" cried Kleon, kicking him.
The s
ervant bowed his head before the victor, and he never raised itagain, for Kleon chopped it off with his bloody sword, and sticking iton the point thereof, raised it on high and cried to his bloodthirstycomrades: "Here is their second general, Zaid, who came to subdue us!Hallelujah!" and the victorious host repeated after him, "Hallelujah!Hallelujah!"
And then they stuck the heads of the two generals on the points of twolances, and carried them through the streets of Pulo in the sight ofthe crowds of women and children on the housetops, bellowing, "We haveconquered! We have conquered! These are the heads of the enemy'sleaders: one of them is Omar Vrione, and the other is Zaid Bey! Kyrieeleison?"
And what face was ever so pale as Zaid's when he heard his name calledout and saw how they mocked and jeered at the head they took for his?
The Suliotes returned to Janina with the captives and the emblems ofvictory. Tepelenti, hearing that they had decapitated Zaid, went downinto the camp and demanded his head.
Kleon was sitting in front of his tent _en deshabille_. He was notdisposed to part with the symbol of victory, but wanted it to dazzlethe eyes of the host for some little time longer.
But Ali was ready at once with a good idea: "Cut off the head ofanother prisoner," said he, "in its stead; none will notice thedifference."
Kleon acted upon the advice, and immediately sent forth hismen-at-arms to take the exhibited head to Ali. But Ali shook his ownhead when he saw it, and wagging his finger at Kleon, he said: "Thouart over-young, my son, to try and impose upon Ali. Thou wouldst turnmy counsel to my own hurt, and give me the head of another instead ofZaid's!"
Kleon leaped to his feet. "Do you mean to say that is not Zaid'shead?"
"Of a truth it is not. Dost thou suppose I do not know the youth--Iwho used to dandle him on my knee ever since he was a child, and wasthe first to place a sword in his hand?"
"But, indeed, he himself told me," cried Kleon, pointing at the head,"that he was Zaid, and he was wearing a general's uniform."
"'Tis a slave," said Tepelenti, regarding the head more closely. "Dostthou not see? His ears have been cropped, so that he may not wearear-rings in them, which only great lords may do."
"Then Zaid has gone free!"
"Zaid will be among the captives," said Tepelenti. "I would recognizehim amongst a thousand. He was my favorite grandson. His image evennow is engraved in my heart."
Then they went down amongst the captives. Ali had scarce cast a glanceat them when he pointed with his finger.
"There he is! Dost thou not perceive how much paler his face is thanthe faces of the others?"
Kleon wrathfully drew his sword and would have rushed upon the personindicated, but Ali held his hand.
"What doest thou? Wouldst thou slay my grandson before my very eyes?"
"Thou didst ask for his head, and it shall be thine."
"But now I ask for his life, Kleon. Zaid is my favorite grandson. Ibrought him up. I loved him better than his dear mother--better thanall my children. Look now, I share with thee all the booty, and all Iask of thee is mine own--flesh of my flesh."
The unhappy youth, hearing these words, fell at Ali's feet andembraced his knees, wept, covered his hands with kisses, and imploredhim to release him--he would be a good and dutiful son to him everafterwards.
"Thou seest, too, how much he loves me," said Ali, looking withtearful eyes at Zaid and covering the cowering fugitive with his longgray beard. "Well, Zaid," said he, "so thou dost now fly for refugebeneath the shadow of that same gray beard, by grasping which thouwert minded to take Ali's head to thy mother, eh?"
Kleon looked at Ali Pasha with a contemptuous smile. Then Ali wastender, Ali had a heart, Ali's heart ached at the slaying of hiskinsfolk! The Greek felt a cruel satisfaction in tormenting the pasha.
"If thou dost not wish to see Zaid die," said he, "depart from hence.Alive thou shalt not have him!"
"What!" cried Ali, and, standing erect, he drew his sword. "Because mybeard is long dost thou think thou canst trample upon me? I willdefend my blood with my blood, and will perish myself rather than lethim be slain. Let us see, mad youth, wouldst thou lop off thine ownright hand?"
Kleon was so surprised that he did not know what to do. It was in hispower to slay Ali; but then that would be a greater triumph forStambul than all the victories of the campaign.
At that moment a herald arrived from Odysseus with a command for Kleonto send all the Turkish officers captured at the battle of Pulo toPrevesa, that they might be exchanged against the youths of thesacred army who had been captured in Moldavia.
Kleon's pride was wounded by this direct command. He consideredhimself just as good a general as Odysseus or Yprilanti, and did notrecognize orders sent from them.
Turning from the herald to Tepelenti, he thus replied:
"Tell Odysseus that I and my soldiers are in the habit of killing theenemy's officers on the battle-field. Only one of them, and he indisguise, remains. He, however, is Tepelenti's grandson, who hasrecognized him and ransomed him from me for a hundred thousandpiastres, which he has engaged to pay me within an hour. Is it not so,Tepelenti?"
"It is so," said Ali; "within an hour the hundred thousand piastresshall be in thy hands."
Zaid, with a shriek of joy, kissed the hem of his grandfather's robe,and Kleon gave his hand upon the bargain. An hour later the moneyarrived in little hogsheads, and he had it weighed in the presence ofhis captains. Ali, however, binding his grandson by the left arm, andgiving him his own caftan, had him conducted into the fortress ofJanina.
Kleon looked contemptuously after him. So the old man had becomesoft-hearted! How he had wept and supplicated and paid for this youth,who was his favorite grandson!
An hour later the roll of drums was heard on the bastions of Janina,and when the Greeks looked in that direction they saw the stake ofexecution erected there. Four black executioners were carrying Zaid,who had his hands tied behind his back, and was wearing the self-samecaftan which Ali had given him. Ali himself, mounted on a black horse,rode right up to the stake. At a signal from him the executionershoisted Zaid into the air, and a moment later Tepelenti's favoritegrandson, whom he had dandled so often on his knee, was done to deathby the most excruciating torments!
Ali watched his death-agony with the utmost _sang-froid_, and, whenall was over, he shouted down from the bastions with a strong, firmvoice, "So perish all those of Tepelenti's kinsfolk who draw the swordagainst him! For them there is no mercy!"
Kleon felt his heart's blood grow cold. Ah! he had much, very much tolearn from the agonized cries of the dying before he could overtakeAli, that old man who weeps, prays, and pays, in order to rescue hisfavorite grandson for the sole purpose of killing him himself withrefined tortures!
Of all Ali's large family only two sons now remained, Sulaiman andMukhtar. They were the first who had betrayed their father, and it wastheir treachery that had wounded him most. For a whole year Alicarried that wound about in his heart. During that time nobody wasallowed to mention the names of his sons in his presence. Everything,absolutely everything, which reminded him of them was removed from thefortress. If any one was weary of life, he had only to mention thename of Mukhtar before Ali, and death was a certainty.
Meanwhile the two apostate sons were living in great misery atAdrianople; for the Sultan, though he paid them for their treachery,would have nothing more to do with them. The first instalment of themoney which they were to receive as the price of their father's bloodmelted away very rapidly in merry banquets, pretty female slaves, finesteeds, and precious gems; and when it was all gone the secondinstalment never made its appearance. Far different and far moreimportant personages had still stronger claims upon the Sultan'spurse. Tepelenti's vigorous resistance, the innumerable lossessuffered by the Sultan's armies, buried in forgetfulness the servicesof the good sons whose betrayal of their father had profited theSultan nothing. They were already beginning to bitterly repent theiroverhasty step when the rumor of Ali's victories reached them; and asthe d
ays of necessity began to weigh heavily upon them, as money andwine began to fail them, as they found themselves obliged to sell, oneby one, their horses, their jewels, and, at last, even their beautifulslave-girls, it became quite plain to them that no help could belooked for from any quarter, unless perhaps it was from wonder-workingfairies, or from the genii of the _Thousand and One Nights_.
But let none say that, in the regions of the merry Orient, fairies andwonders do not still make their home among men.
Just when the beys had consumed the price of the last slave they hadto sell, such wealth poured in upon them, in heaps, in floods, as weonly hear of in old fairy tales; and fairy tales, as we all know verywell, have no truth in them at all.
* * * * *
One day, as Ali Pasha was walking to and fro on the bastions ofJanina, he perceived among the garden-beds in the court-yard below agardener engaged in planting tulips.
Tepelenti knew all the servants in the fortress thoroughly, down tothe very lowest. He not only knew them by name, but he knew what theyhad to do and how they did it.
The name of this gardening slave was Dirham, and he was so namedbecause, many years before Mukhtar had purchased him when a child froma slave-dealer for a dirham, and although his master often plaguedhim, he nevertheless cared for him well, and brought him up andprovided him with all manner of good things. Thus Dirham, whenever hismaster's name was mentioned, bethought him how little he was worthwhen Mukhtar Bey bought him, and how many more dirhams he was worthnow, and for all this he could not thank Mukhtar enough.
Ali Pasha for a long time watched from the bastions this man plantinghis tulips. Some of them he pressed down into the ground verycarefully, strewing them with loose powdery earth, preparing a properplace for the bulbs beforehand, and moistening them gently with wateryspray; others he plumped down into the earth anyhow, covering them upvery perfunctorily, and never looking to see whether he watered themtoo much or too little.
Ali carefully noted those bulbs which Dirham had bestowed the greatestpains upon, and then went down and entered into conversation with him.
"What are the names of these tulips?"
Dirham ticked them all off: King George, Trafalgar, AdmiralGruithuysen, Belle Alliance, etc., etc. But at the same time heskipped over one or two here and there, and these were the very oneswhich he had covered up with the greatest care.
"Then thou dost not know the names of those others?" inquired Ali.
"I have lost my memoranda, my lord, and I cannot remember all thenames among so many."
"Look, now, I know the names of these flowers. This is Sulaiman, thatover there is Mukhtar Bey."
Dirham cast himself on his face before the pasha. Ali had guessedwell. Dirham remembered the two gentlemen just as a good dog remembershis master--they were ever in his mind.
The wretched man fully expected that Ali would immediately tear thesebulbs out of the ground and plant his own head there in their place.
Instead of that Ali graciously raised him from the ground and said tohim in a tender, sympathetic voice, "Fear not, Dirham! Thou hast noneed to be ashamed of such noble sentiments. Thou art thinking of mysons. And dost thou suppose that I never think of them? I haveforbidden every one in the fortress to even mention their names; butwhat does that avail me if I cannot prevent myself from thinking ofthem? What avails it to never hear their names if I see their facesconstantly before me? The world says they have betrayed me; but I donot believe, I cannot believe it. What says Dirham? Is it possiblethat children can betray their own father?"
Dirham took his courage in both hands and ventured to reply:
"Strike off my head if you will, my lord, but this I say--they werenot traitors, but were themselves betrayed; for even if it werepossible for sons to betray their father, Tepelenti's children wouldnot betray Tepelenti."
Ali Pasha gave Dirham a purse of gold for these words, commanding him,at the same time, to appear before him in the palace that evening, andto bring with him, carefully transplanted into pots, those tulipswhich bore the names of Sulaiman and Mukhtar.
Dirham could scarcely wait for the evening to come, and the moment heappeared in Ali's halls he was admitted into the pasha's presence.Then Ali bade every one withdraw from the room, that they twain mightremain together, and began to talk with him confidentially.
"I hear that my sons are living in great poverty at Adrianople. As totheir poverty, I say nothing; but, worse still, they are living ingreat humiliation also. Nobody will have anything to do with them. Thewretched Spahis, who once on a time mentioned their names withchattering teeth, now mock at them when they meet them in the street,and when they go on foot to the bazaar to buy their bread, the womencry with a loud voice, 'Are these, then, the heroes at whom Stambulused to tremble?' Verily it is shameful, and Ali Pasha blushesthereat. I know that if once I ever place in their hands those goodswords which I bound upon their thighs they would not surrender themso readily to the enemies of Ali Pasha. What says Dirham?"
Dirham was only able to express his approval of Ali's words by a veryaudible sigh.
"Hearken, Dirham! I have known for a long time a secret, which I willventure to confide to thee."
"'Twill be as though you buried it under the earth, my master."
"In the Gulf of Durazzo there lies at anchor an English vessel, underthe command of Captain Morrison. On that ship I have deposited fivemillions of piastres in gold--not less than five millions. A largeamount, eh! At any moment I like I can blow the fortress of Janinainto the air, embark on board that ship, and sail away to England orSpain, and there I can live in a lordly fashion without care, just asI please. But to what purpose? My remaining days are but few. Whyshould I try to save them? Here I must perish. Here, where I havegrown great, it becomes me to die, and it is not for me to retreatbefore the advancing sword. This money must serve another design ofmine, which has been in my mind long since, but I seek a man capableof executing it.
"Thou shalt be that man. Falter not. Fate does great things withlittle ones. Thou shalt go from Janina and pass through Gaskho Bey'sarmy. When thou dost arrive at Durazzo, show Morrison this ring. Whenhe sees it he will do everything thou sayest to him, for he will knowthat these are my commands. Thou wilt have the anchor raised and sailwith the first favorable wind to Stambul. Sail not into the GoldenHorn, for it will be more difficult to get out of it again, but castthy anchor hard by Anadoli Hissar. There thou wilt land, and, takingwith thee a hundred thousand piastres, thou wilt put them in sacks ofchaff, the chaff being on the top, and lading sundry asses with thesacks, thou wilt take them to Adrianople. There thou wilt seek out mysons, and, humbly kissing the hem of their garments, give them tounderstand that I have sent thee. Then thou wilt tell them of thewarfare waged around Janina, all that thou thyself hast seen andheard. If from their faces thou seest that they receive thy wordscoldly, and show no ardor of soul, then measure out to them thehundred thousand piastres, and bid them buy and keep shop therewith,start a large wholesale business if they feel any disposition thatway, and apply themselves diligently to heap up riches upon riches, asit becomes honest men to do who have long years to live. But if thouseest their face aflame and the heroes' love of glory sparkle in theireyes; if they listen to thy words with parted lips and throbbinghearts; if they press thy hand warmly and frequently clutch the hiltsof their swords; if they ask thee to tell them again and again whatthou hast told them already--then tell them that the path of glory andTepelenti's arms are always open before them, that those one hundredthousand piastres are only for buying horses and weapons. I have fivetimes as much on board the English ship, and five hundred times asmuch in the red tower of Janina. With the five millions of piastresthey must get ships, and these ships they must fully equip in secret.And this will not be difficult, for all the Greek seamen have desertedthe Turkish fleet. These Greeks will offer their services gratis. Whenthe ships are ready, let them, through thee, inform thereof Bublinia,the heroic Greek amazon, who is cruising of
f Crete with thirty vesselsto divert the attention of the Turkish fleet, and then row out toBeikos. With favorable weather thou shouldst get to Durazzo in tendays. Simultaneously, I from one quarter, Kleon from a second, andOdysseus from a third will attack the army of Gaskho Bey, and if mysons are victorious at sea, in the evening of the same day we shall beable to rest in one another's arms."
Dirham wept like a child.
The pasha continued his directions:
"At every step be cautious. Accomplish everything amidst the greatestsecrecy. Don't let my sons scatter their money right and left, lesttheir wealth be suspected and give rise to envy and jealousy. It wouldbe better if they left the bulk of it on board ship, and only drewfrom it whatever may be necessary for the time being. When thou dostcommunicate with Bublinia, write on the parchment all sorts ofdifferent things higgledy-piggledy. Say, for instance, that thou artdisembarking wool in Crete, and will consign it to Argyrocantharides,who is friendly with the Sultan and all the pashas, and, at the sametime, an intermediary between us and the Greeks. But in the emptyspaces between the lines let Mukhtar write the message for Bublinia inspecial characters with oil of vitriol; then, when thou dost hand overthe documents, moisten these special rows of letters with a piece ofcitron. But stay, I will give thee a still better counsel. Melt somelunar caustic in water, and write therewith thy message on the shellof hard-boiled eggs. Then boil the eggs again; and when thou dostbreak them open thou wilt find the writing visible on the whitemembrane inside. Do that. Eggs are the least suspicious of cargoes."
Dirham made a careful mental note of all that was told him, secretlyamazed that Ali Pasha should have extended his attention to thesmallest details.
"One thing more," said Ali, and his voice trembled with emotion. "Iknow right well that I am giving my sons dangerous parts to play, andthe issue thereof is uncertain. Take, therefore, this ring; the stoneset in it contains a talisman. Give it to Mukhtar. Let him wear it onhis finger, and if ever he finds himself environed by a great danger,a very great danger--which Allah forfend!--then let him open the stoneof the ring and read the talisman engraved therein. But this he isonly to do if a great danger be at hand, when he trembles for hislife, when the lowest slave would not change heads with him; for whenonce it has been read the talisman loses all its virtue. And nowdepart, and bethink thee of all I have told thee."
Dirham kissed the hem of the pasha's garment and promised that hewould carefully perform everything. Ali accompanied him down into thegarden. On their way back to the place they had to cross the spotwhere Zaid was buried. As the hollow earth resounded beneath Ali'sfeet, he stopped for a moment and murmured to himself, "H'm! thoushalt not be the only one!"
* * * * *
Two weeks later Dirham met the sons of Ali in Adrianople. Morrison'sship had taken him on the way thither, and during the voyage Dirhamhad countless opportunities of convincing himself that the moneydeposited by Ali was safely guarded in the hold of the vessel. Therehe said everything which Ali had confided to him, and as it seemed tothe poor servant, through the medium of his tearful eyes, as if thebeys grew enthusiastic at the tidings of the war which their agedfather was waging, he told them, in this persuasion, that Ali had sentthem five million piastres, that they might buy ships and collect armsand unite their forces to his.
The beys rejoiced greatly at the tidings of the five millions, andembraced Dirham, who did his best to attribute all the merit of thedeed to Tepelenti for sending the money so magnanimously.
"The old man might have sent us still more," said Sulaiman. "What doeshe want with it in Janina? Sooner or later it will become the prey ofhis enemies."
"Pardon me, my lord!" objected Dirham. "It will become nobody's preyif only you unite with him."
"Ugh!" said Sulaiman; and at that moment the two brothers caught eachother's eye, and it was as though the same thought suddenly occurredto them both.
When Dirham delivered the ring to Mukhtar, the latter asked,suspiciously:
"Is there any poison in this ring?"
"What are you thinking of, my lord? I wore it on my finger the wholeway hither. There is a talisman in it."
At this both the brothers burst out laughing. They had often ridiculedAli for his absurd superstition. Nevertheless, Mukhtar kept the ring,for there was a splendid emerald in it.
But the secret of the eggs completely won the favor of the brothers.That was really a capital idea of Ali's. In this way the pashas couldsend secret messages even in their harems. Who would ever suspect anegg? They would put it to the proof at once. They would send adeclaration of love to the odalisks of the Seraskier, written in anegg.
Dirham shook his head and spoke seriously, and entreated the beys tofirst of all enter into a league with Bublinia, the amazon of Chios,who was even bold enough on occasions to make a dash at theDardanelles; for if they did not hasten, the money that had been sentto them would be of no use. It would be dangerous, he urged, to showthe people of Adrianople that they had received money. The Englishcaptain, moreover, was not disposed to render any other service thanthat of keeping safe custody of the money confided to him; but if anyharm happened to them because of it, he would neither defend them noreven convey them out of Turkish waters.
These wise remonstrances made some impression upon the beys. Just asif their thoughts were pursuing the same course, they both hastened tobeg Dirham to let them have at once the eggs, the lunar caustic,writing materials, and all other indispensable things. Moreover, theyforgot to give him money for these purchases, so the poor fellow hadto buy them out of his own purse.
Dirham's foot was scarcely out of the house when the two brotherslooked at each other and smiled.
"I have a good idea," began Sulaiman.
"And I also," said the other.
"I don't mean to return to Ali."
"Nor I. I bear in mind what happened to Zaid."
"I propose we buy a ship, on which we may hide our money."
"And we'll man her with a Greek crew."
"Then we will send Dirham with the messages written in the eggs toBublinia, and we'll write great things therein. We'll tell her that westand ready here with our fleets, and if she will attack the KapudanPasha in front we will attack him in the rear. The woman is mad. Shewill come forth from the Archipelago and fall upon the Turkish fleet.Then the Kapudan Pasha will assemble his forces against her, and shewill engage all his attention till we have nicely set sail, nor willwe stop till we reach Cadiz."
"Admirable! for that is the land of good wine and fair women."
"And then Ali Pasha may wait for us till the angel Izrafil blows histrumpet on the last day!"
"And Bublinia as well--not forgetting the Sultan! Let them worry eachother."
"Mashallah! Life is sweet!"
And so it chanced that the sons of Ali, like the princes in a fairytale, suddenly and marvellously came into the possession of greatriches, and were wise enough to profit by these riches in the merriestmanner in the world. The money was given to them for blood andweapons. They were going to lavish it on love and wine. And is notlife lovelier so?
When Dirham came back they immediately boiled the eggs hard, and wroteupon them every sort of magnificent message that occurred to theirminds. They promised to hasten to the assistance of the Greeks, bothby land and by sea; to cut their way through the fleets with theirfire-ships and blow the Turkish flag-ship into the air; to incite theJanissaries to rise against the Sultan and the Greeks to rise againstthe Janissaries; in all of which there was not a single word of truth.Only worthy Dirham believed these things, and trembled in body andsoul at the bare thought of the sublime deeds that his masters haddetermined to perform.
He himself hired a barge, loaded it with wool, and, hiding the eggsfull of secrets in a basket, set out for the Archipelago.
The good youths meanwhile laughed to their hearts' content. Theylaughed at worthy Dirham; they laughed at the worthy Bublinia, and atthe wise Kapudan Pasha; they laughed at this amusi
ng piece of goodfortune which brought them riches in heaps. But at nobody did theylaugh so much as at old Tepelenti, who was believing all along thathis sons were collecting war-ships for him.
But did he really believe it?
On the same day that Dirham quitted Adrianople, a fakir of theNimetullahita Order penetrated into the Seraglio and demanded anaudience of the Sultan. It was the self-same old soothsayer who hadexhibited his enchantments to Ali.
On being admitted to the presence of Mahmoud, he stood audaciouslyupright before him, bending his head no lower than it was alreadycrooked by the weight of years.
"Allah hath sent me to thee," said the dervish, in a deep, hollowvoice, which had lost all its sonorousness. "A great danger isapproaching thee. The storm hanging over thy head is at this momentcompressed within the skin of an egg, and thou couldst crush it in thepalm of thy hand; but if thou dost suffer it to come forth from theegg, thy whole realm will not be sufficient to contain it. This,therefore, is the word of Allah unto thee: This day and this night,and to-morrow and to-morrow night, stop every vessel which sails upthe narrow waters of the Golden Horn and search them, and whenever thyguards come upon an egg, let them seize it and bring it to thee; foramongst them are diverse cockatrice eggs which, if once they behatched, will swallow up both thee and thy realm."
Having said these words, the dervish turned him about, and without somuch as saluting the Padishah, without even taking off his slippersbefore him, he withdrew, not even asking for a reward.
The Sultan was profoundly impressed by this audacity. He immediatelysent orders to the wardens of the two watch-towers at the entrance ofthe Golden Horn to board and search thoroughly every vessel thatpassed between them, seize every egg they found on board and bringthem to him, at the same time detaining all the crews of such vessels.
Fate so willed it that Dirham's was the first vessel that fell intothe hands of the searchers.
When the unfortunate servant perceived that the guards seized theeggs, he leaped into the sea, and although he was a good swimmer, heallowed himself to be suffocated in the water lest he should becompelled to betray his masters.
The eggs they carried to the Sultan, and when he had opened them andhad read the writing written on their inner skins, he was horrified.Treachery and rebellion! The conspiracy was spreading from one end ofthe empire to the other. The complicated intrigue, one of whosethreads was in Janina and the other in the islands of the Archipelago,had its third in the very capital. This called for terrible reprisals.
The beys were seized the same night in the midst of their joys, anddragged from the paradise of their hopes to be thrown into a dungeon.
Who could have betrayed the secret of the eggs? they asked themselves.Why, who else but Tepelenti?
Fools! to fancy that they could make a fool of Tepelenti!
Sulaiman fainted when they informed him that the secret of the eggswas discovered. Mukhtar felt that the moment had come of which Ali hadsaid that the lowest slave would not then exchange heads with his twosons, and in that hour of peril he bethought him of the talismanicring which had been sent to him. Hastily he removed the emerald,believing that at least a quickly operative poison was containedtherein, by which he might be saved from a shameful death. There was,however, no poison inside the ring, but these words were engravedthereon, "Ye have fallen into the hands of Ali!"
Mukhtar dropped the ring; he was annihilated.
The hand of Ali, that implacable hand which reached from one end ofthe world to the other, which clutched at him even out of the tomb--henow felt all its weight upon his head.
Die he must, and his brother also.
The Reis-Effendi examined them, and both of them doggedly denied allknowledge of what was written on the eggs. But there was one thingthey could not deny--the five million piastres on the English ship;this was the most damaging piece of evidence against them, and provedto be their ruin.
The Sultan demanded from Morrison the money of the beys, and Morrisonhimself appeared before the Reis-Effendi to defend his consignment,which he maintained he was only bound to deliver to its lawful owner.
The Reis-Effendi replied that in the Ottoman Empire there was only onelawful owner of every sort of property, and that was the Sultan. Theproperty of every deceased person fell to the Grand Signior, andnobody could make a will without his permission.
Morrison objected, very pertinently, that as the beys were notdeceased the Sultan could scarcely be looked upon as their heir.
Instead of making any answer, the Reis-Effendi sent out his officerswith a little piece of parchment which he had previously subscribed,and a few moments later the severed heads of the beys stood in frontof Morrison on a silver trencher.
"If their not being dead was the sole impediment," remarked theMinister of Foreign Affairs, "you perceive that it has now beenremoved."
Morrison thereupon handed over all the gold and silver in hispossession as rapidly as possible, and quitted Constantinople thatvery hour; he had no great love of a place where every word cost thelife of a man.
But the heads of the beys were stuck on the gates of the Seraglio forthree days and three nights in the sight of all the people, andmounted heralds proclaimed, at intervals of an hour, "Behold the headsof the sons of the rebellious Ali Tepelenti, who would have devastatedStambul!"
And the people loaded the heads with curses each time the proclamationwas made.
* * * * *
A few days later the news reached Janina that Sulaiman Bey and MukhtarBey had been beheaded at Stambul.
Ali Pasha thrice bowed his face to the ground and gave thanks to Allahfor His mercies. And he caused to be proclaimed on the ramparts,amidst a flourish of trumpets, that his sons, the treacherous beys,had been decapitated at Stambul. Such is the reward of traitors!
After that, for three days and three nights--just as long a time asthe heads of the beys had been exposed on the gates of the Seraglio--abanquet, with music and dancing, was given in the fortress of Janina,and every morning a hundred and one volleys were fired from thebastions--the usual ceremony after great triumphs.
And when in the evening Ali took a promenade in his garden, and walkedup and down among his flowers, he would now and then trample the earthbeneath his feet. It was the grave of Zaid that he was trampling upon.There stood an old dahlia, the sole survivor of its extirpated family,and, levelling it to the ground with his foot, he trod it into thegrave, murmuring to himself, "No longer art thou alone--no longeralone!"