Book 19 - The Hundred Days

by Patrick O'Brian

  'This is Ahmed ben Hanbal, the Vizier's under-secretary,' said Jacob. Stephen bowed: the under-secretary bowed, putting his hand to his forehead and heart. 'The chief secretary is with the Dey. Shall we walk in?'

  Inside the curious pillared patio, enclosed with elaborate wrought-iron screens, Jacob said something to Ahmed, who nodded and hurried away. 'Here is the letter,' said Jacob, passing it, 'and here is the little Western box.'

  Stephen clicked it open, gazed with admiration at the splendid blue, the size and shape of an egg cut in two lengthways: he smiled at Jacob, who said, 'I shall leave you now. The—what shall I say?—the announcer will come through that door'—nodding at it—'in a minute or two, and announce you to the Vizier.'

  The minute tended to be a long one, and Stephen looked secretly at the stone again: he had rarely seen so true an azure; and the gold rim echoed the golden specks within the stone quite admirably. But a most unwelcome comparison welled up in his mind. Diana had possessed an extraordinary blue diamond—she was buried with it—a blue of an entirely different nature, of course, but he felt the familiar chill grip him, the sort of frigid indifference to virtually everything; and he welcomed the opening door. It showed a cross-looking very tall greybeard, his height increased by a lofty white turban, who beckoned imperiously and walked before him into a room where a middle-aged man in white clothes was sitting cross-legged on a low couch, smoking a hookah.

  'The Christian,' said Greybeard, in a loud, official voice: he bowed very low and walked out backwards.

  'Good day to you, sir,' said Stephen in French. 'I have an introduction to His Highness the Dey from His Britannic Majesty's consul in Algiers, but before delivering it to him and carrying out the rest of my mission, I thought it proper to pay my respects to you, and perhaps, if it is customary, to show you the letter. Since I have been told that you speak perfect French, I have left my interpreter behind.'

  The Vizier rose, bowed, and said, 'You are very welcome, sir. Pray sit down'—patting the couch—'Like you, I do in fact speak French currently: it is my mother-tongue, since one of my father's wives came from Marseilles. And it is indeed customary to show any document intended for the Dey to his chief minister. Pray smoke, if you feel so inclined, while I read it.'

  Rarely had Stephen's sense of politeness been put to such a test, but choosing the least worn of the hookah's mouthpieces, he smoked away with every appearance of composure. Not for very long, however, for the Vizier skipped the opening formulae and the even more elaborate ending, and said, 'The letter speaks of a private and confidential mission: since the Dey invariably discusses matters of this kind with me, perhaps it would save time and many weary journeys—for I am afraid you had but a strenuous ride of it today—if you were to tell me its general nature.'

  'By all means. But first may I beg you to accept this trifling token of my personal esteem.'

  He laid the box within hand's reach: the Vizier opened it, and his face changed: he carefully took the brooch out and carried it to a shaft of sunlight. 'What a stone!' he exclaimed. 'I have never seen its like for perfection. Many, many thanks indeed, my dear sir. I shall wear it in my turban on Friday.'

  Stephen made the proper belittling murmurs and gestures, and reverting to their day's ride he said that although physically it was wearisome, as an amateur naturalist he was amply repaid by the plants, birds, and if not animals then at least the trace of animals, large animals, that he had seen.

  'Perhaps you are a hunter, sir?'

  'As far as my feeble powers allow me, yes, sir.'

  'So am I: though nothing in comparison with His Highness, who, as you may know, is at present hunting the lion in the Khadna valley. But perhaps, when we have discussed this matter and when you are rested, we might go shooting together. But now, sir'—with a last look at his blue stone—'may we turn to the reason for your presence, your very welcome presence, in this wilderness?'

  'Well, sir, in the first place I must tell you that it has come to the knowledge of the British Ministry that several numerous Shiite confederacies and brotherhoods along the Adriatic and lonian coasts and inland to Serbia who support Bonaparte have combined to intervene in his favour by doing all they can to prevent or at least to hinder and delay the junction of the Russian and Austrian armies on their march to join the Allies. But to make their intervention effective they need still greater numbers of armed men: the mercenaries are well-armed, formidable, and willing; but they will not act without payment. The very large sum of money necessary has been sought throughout this part of the world and at last it has been found. A Moroccan ruler is willing to lay down two months' pay in gold, and messengers were sent to Algiers from Durazzo very recently, begging the Dey to have this treasure sent across so that they might take the field immediately. The weather has been of such a kind that they might not have arrived: but in any event His Britannic Majesty's government would be very deeply grieved indeed if any help were given to these people.'

  The Vizier gazed at him with a wondering benevolence. 'Surely, my dear sir,' he said at last, 'a man of your egregious perspicacity cannot believe these wild tales? His Highness is a most orthodox Sunnite, while the agitators in Herzegovina and those parts, of whom I have heard quite often, are violent Shiites; and they have turned to a notorious Shiite sheikh in Morocco. For them to ask the orthodox Dey to help them at this point passes belief: it is as though a band of Calvinists were to beg for the assistance of the Vatican. Can it be supposed that our Dey would advance their cause, even if he had not hated Bonaparte ever since his vile conduct at Jaffa, Acre and Aboukir, and even if he were not an admiring friend of King George, whose Royal Navy has recently been so successful in the Adriatic—a King whom no Dey of Algiers would ever voluntarily offend? He will tell you so himself, when you see him; and I believe his bluff, soldier-like frankness will be even more deeply convincing than anything I can say. But come, let me call for a soothing bath and my own masseur to restore the suppleness of your limbs; and then when you are quite recovered we will have a simple meal and go shooting. I have two London guns, very beautiful, and there are plenty of palm-doves here, quite tame. Then early tomorrow I will mount you and your dragoman on decent horses and confide you to one of the Dey's huntsmen, who will take you by His Highness' private road across the mountain and down through the forest on the other side to the Arpad river that feeds the Shatt el Khadna, showing you all manner of birds, beasts and flowers, or their tracks. It is a vast game-preserve—no ordinary people are allowed into it without a pass; and those who do adventure are impaled. The last Dey had five youths and a hermaphrodite impaled in one session: he thought it a powerful deterrent.'

  Very early in the morning Stephen and Amos Jacob rode southward across the oasis, following the very narrow paths between the crops (mostly barley, with some chick-peas). There were still many palm-doves, but this had been an exceptionally dewy night—the dawn itself was still hazy—and the birds preferred to sit tight, with their bosoms fluffed out. Still many, many doves, for the Vizier had no notion of shooting flying, and as soon as Stephen understood this, he too waited for the occasional bird to perch, peering and gazing down at the sportsmen.

  The parting had been quite cordial, although it was so very early and although the Vizier looked so very worn (he had three wives, and an appiicant for high office had recently sent him a Circassian concubine). He told Stephen that he had given the huntsman particular instructions to show everything that might interest a natural philosopher, including 'le club des lions'; and he sent the Dey all possible expressions of loyal devotion.

  They rode on through the damp and even misty dawn, Stephen and Jacob on strong capable geldings, past mark of mouth, the young huntsman on a serviceable pony. At the beginning of the scrub country that came with striking abruptness immediately after the green of the oasis, a spar now flew from a thorn-bush. Ibrahim wheeled his pony and called out, 'Bird! Bird!'

  'He says there is a bird,' said Jacob.

  'It is un
reasonable to expect him to know what is common to Arklow and Algiers,' said Stephen. 'Could you perhaps desire him to take notice only of reptiles, quadrupeds, and their tracks?'

  This Jacob did, but very kindly: and before they were ten minutes from the oasis, young Ibrahim had shown them the footprints of several jackals, a hyena, and the trace of a very considerable serpent, five to six feet long. 'I am almost certain that it was malpolon monspessulanus. I had one as a pet when I was a boy.'

  'Was it a satisfactory pet?'

  'There was a degree of recognition, and a certain tolerance: nothing more.'

  The road grew steeper, winding up in curves laboriously cut into the rock and embanked: as the sun climbed the men and their horses tired, and at one particular left-handed corner pointed out by Ibrahim they were happy to turn off the road to a small platform where one of those improbable springs sometimes found in limestone flowed from a cleft, its water making a green stripe down the slope for a hundred yards and more. As they rested they saw another horseman, very well-mounted, toiling up where they had toiled; and while they were still staring, eating dates as they did so, they heard the sound of hoofs on the road higher up. The two riders passed the corner at almost the same moment: they shouted a greeting but did not draw rein. It was evident that they were the Dey's messengers.

  On. Up and up, this time to the very top of the ridge, where the forest began, a fine open forest, and although the trees were somewhat wind-stunted on the brow itself, the road had not descended five minutes before it was winding through noble oaks, with beeches here and there, and chestnuts and sometimes an incongruous yew. And presently, where the path narrowed to thread between tall crags on either side there was a gate with huts for soldiers right and left: a small open plain beyond it.

  Ibrahim rode forward and showed the Vizier's pass. The guards opened the gate, saluting in the elegant Muslim fashion. On the little plain—ten acres or so of grass—the riders stopped to gaze down over the sea of tree-tops to the vast expanse of the Shatt el Khadna. The valley of the stream that fed it was hidden from view by the mountain range, rising and falling in irregular waves; but the lake itself was a noble sight, and its splendour was increased by the presence of birds quite close at hand and overhead, which added a great deal to the sense of height, distance and immobility on the one hand, and to that of a totally different essence on the other. The birds—vultures for the most part, with two more distant eagles and some trifling black kites—were far above, wholly free in the limitless sky; and the nearer group (all griffons) were in constant smooth motion, mounting and mounting in spirals on a current rising from the warm mountain-side.

  'Ibrahim says that these are the stakes used for impaling,' said Jacob.

  'Certainly,' replied Stephen. 'And since vultures are in general very faithful to their sources of supply, I have been wondering whether any of those wheeling above us will drop down for leavings. Not the griffons, I think: they are too cautious. But there is a bearded vulture, a friend of my boyhood, and very glad I am to see him here, together with two black vultures, those bold rapacious creatures. Do you see them?'

  'They all look much the same to me,' said Jacob. 'Huge dark creatures sailing round and round.'

  'The bearded vulture is the one on the far right-hand side of the round,' said Stephen. 'See, he scratches his head. In Spanish he is called the bone-breaker.'

  'You have an unfair advantage with your perspective-glass.'

  'He is considering. Yes, yes. He loses height. He drops, he drops!'

  And indeed the great bird settled among the scattered bones beneath the stakes, pulled some bare ribs aside, seized a battered sacrum, grasped it in its powerful claws and took off with a leap, wings beating strongly, with the clear intent of dropping it from a great height onto a rock. But he was not fairly airborne before the two black vultures were upon him, one striking his back and the other brushing across his face. The sacrum dropped into an impenetrable thicket, hopelessly and entirely lost.

  'That is perfectly typical of your black vulture: greedy, precipitate, grasping,' cried Stephen. 'And stupid. A bird with as much sense as a pea-hen would have hit him fifty feet up, and a handy mate would have caught the bone in mid-air.'

  Ibrahim understood not a word, but he did catch Stephen's disappointment and frustration, and pointing away and away to the north-east he showed another high-circling flight a great way off. Jacob translated: 'He says there are two or three score mothers of filth over there, waiting for the Dey's men to finish skinning what he shot yesterday evening: but first he will show you the Shatt, which has countless red birds on it. We are obliged to go down that way, along the edge of the lake and so up the river-bank, partly because the direct slopes are very severe, and partly to avoid disturbing the deer, wild boars, lions and leopards which the Dey preserves entirely for himself.'

  'Would a devout Muslim eat wild boar?' asked Stephen as they rode on.

  'Oh dear me, yes,' said Jacob. 'The Beni Mzab have no hesitation whatsoever in eating him: many the exquisite civet de sanglier have I eaten among them. But he must be wild, you know, wild and hairy, otherwise he would certainly be unclean. And for that matter they do not observe Ramadan, either, or . . .'

  'There is a Barbary falcon!' cried Stephen.

  'Very well,' said Jacob, not quite pleased at having his account of the Beni Mzab neglected for the sake of a bird; and not at all pleased either by the way his saddle kept pinching the inside of his thighs.

  They rode for a while in silence, always going downhill, which aggravated Jacob's discomfort. But abruptly Ibrahim stopped, and with one finger to his lips, pointed silently at two fresh round footprints on the muddy edge. He whispered into Jacob's ear; and Jacob, leaning over to Stephen, murmured, 'Leopard.'

  And there indeed he was, the lovely spotted creature, sprawling insolently along a horizontal mossy branch: he watched them with a fine unconcern for quite a time, but when Stephen made a motion, a very cautious motion, towards his telescope, the leopard slipped off his branch on the far side without a sound, and wholly vanished.

  On: and now that the slope was easier by far Jacob's saddle hurt him less: his good humour returned, at least in part. Yet he could still say, 'My dear colleague, you may think me crass, but where birds, beasts and flowers are concerned all I mind about is are they dangerous, are they useful, are they good to eat.'

  'My dear colleague,' cried Stephen, 'I do most sincerely ask your pardon. I fear I must have been an everlasting bore.'

  'Not at all,' said Jacob, ashamed of himself. And away on the left hand, at a distance they could not determine, a lion uttered what might be called a roar—a very deep lowing repeated four or perhaps five times before dying away—which gave the impression not indeed of menace, but of enormous power.

  'That is what I mean,' said Jacob, after a moment's silence. 'I like to know about him, rather than a curious and possibly nondescript nuthatch.'

  The ground was now levelling, and shortly after this they wound through a grove of high, well-grown tamarisks to the shore of the lake. And when they had pushed through the last of this screen there before them, quite close to, were countless flamingos, most of them up to their knees in the water with their long-necked heads deeply immerged, but others staring about or gossiping with a sound like geese. Those within twenty yards of the horsemen rose into the air with a most glorious show of black and above all scarlet, and flew, heads and legs stretched out, to the middle. Those that remained—the majority—carried on sieving nourishment from the Shatt. Stephen was entranced. With his glass, far over, he made out the mounds of their innumerable nests, raised mounds of mud sometimes with sitting bird, and a crowd of awkward, long-legged, pale fledglings. He also saw some crested coots and a cruising marsh-harrier—a hen bird—and a few egrets; but he was uneasily aware of having prated away interminably about his treecreeper earlier in the day, and now he said no more.

  But Jacob turned a beaming face towards him and cried, 'If tha
t unspeakably glorious spectacle is ornithology, then I am an ornithologist. I had no idea that such splendour existed. You must tell me much, much more.'

  Ibrahim asked Jacob whether the gentleman had seen the red birds; and when this was relayed, Stephen smiled at the youth, made appropriate gestures, and after some fumbling produced one of the few guineas he kept in a waistcoat pocket.

  When Stephen had finished his disquisition on the anatomy of the flamingo's bill, on the intricate processes that enabled the bird to gain its living—its very exact requirements where salinity and temperature were concerned—its apparent neglect of its offspring, herded in groups looked after and fed by the entire community—the need for much more work, for much more information, exact information—when he had finished, Ibrahim came closer and spoke to Jacob, pointing towards the head of the lake with great earnestness.

  'He says that if we do not mind making a rather muddy detour he will show you a sight that you will appreciate: he very rightly looks upon you as a creature of a finer essence.'

  'Long may he live. Let us by all means see his sight.'

  Its probable nature became evident as they approached the part of the lake where it received the river, a little delta of mud and sand that retained footmarks with admirable clarity on either side: and footmarks there were in extraordinary numbers, this being so convenient a fresh-water drinking place—jackals, deer of various sizes, hyenas, leopards, a single bear, but above all those of lions, large and even very large tracks from different directions all converging towards the deep pool where the stream ran fast between bare rocky sides to plunge into the Shatt. Here the tracks were almost wholly lions', in great profusion, mingling and crossing.

  'Ibrahim says that on some evenings the lions from our side of the river come down here to drink and to meet the lions from the other side, those that live in the plain country southwards. And when they are all assembled, each side roars at the other: all of one side, then all of the other. He has watched them from that tree. He says it is extraordinarily moving.'