The Lion of Janina Part 3

One evening Eminah accompanied Ali right up to the bra.s.s door, and as he went in she dexterously thrust a little pebble between the door and the threshold. Thus the door not being completely closed, the catch of the lock, despite a double turn of the key, shot back again; so instead of closing the door behind him, as Ali fondly imagined, he left it ajar.

Eminah waited till the sound of her husband's footsteps had quite ceased. Then she softly opened the door, and at first contented herself with peeping in. Perceiving nothing to frighten her back, she ventured right in, cautiously peering around at every step lest any angry spirit should suddenly rise up before her.

Before her lay a long corridor, and she went right to the very end of it. Then she came upon a spiral staircase, which was so dark that she had to painfully grope her way along. A fatal curiosity goaded her on in spite of the darkness, and presently she found herself in a large, round room, dimly lit by a hanging lamp.

All round the walls of this room were arranged marble benches, pitchers of water, funnels, and curious instruments of iron, leather, and wood, of all shapes and sizes, looking all the more incomprehensible in the semi-darkness. These were, no doubt, the implements with which Ali was in the habit of making gold, thought Eminah to herself, and, discovering a convenient niche at the head of the staircase, she squeezed herself into it so that she could see everything from thence without being seen herself.

A few moments afterwards the door at the opposite end of the room opened, and Ali and twelve dumb eunuchs entered with torches. The room was illuminated at once, the eunuchs thrusting the torches into large iron sconces; one of them then proceeded to light the fire and pile up various instruments around it; some sort of liquid also began bubbling in a caldron. Ali meanwhile was sitting down on a camp-stool and distributing his commands in a low voice. "Now we shall see how Ali makes gold," thought Eminah.

But now at a sign from Ali two of the eunuchs entered a trap-door, and a few moments afterwards the rattling of chains was audible; the trap-door opened again, and in came two old men, peculiar-looking creatures, with long gray hair, closely cropped beards, and strange garments, the like of which Eminah had never seen before.

"Ah! no doubt these are the spirits which help Ali to make gold,"

thought Eminah to herself. "Well, at any rate, they are in chains, so I need not be afraid of them." And, like the timid spectator of some strange drama, she looked out from her hiding-place at the scene which followed.

The two old men were led up to Ali, who, smiling and rubbing his hands, stood up before them, and for a long time did not speak, but only smiled. At last he gently stroked the face of the younger of the two.

"Merchant of Naples, thou still dost not know, then, where thy treasures lie hidden?" said he, gently.

"My lord," replied the other, with desperate obsequiousness, "I have given up everything that was mine. I am indeed a beggar."

"Merchant of Naples! how canst thou say so? Let me refresh thy memory!

Thou didst go to Toulon with a full cargo of Indian goods, and there sold it all. When we met together on thy return journey thou didst offer me a thousand ducats, which I also took. But where is the remainder? A profit of twelve thousand ducats appears entered in thy trading-books."

"Those books are false, my lord," said the merchant, in a tearful voice. "I made those totally fict.i.tious entries simply to preserve my credit."

"Merchant of Naples, thou dost calumniate thyself. Thou dost want to make me believe that thou art not an honest man. Forgive me if I enliven thy memory a little."

With that he beckoned to the eunuchs, and they, undressing the merchant, laid him on the torturing slab and tortured him for two mortal hours. It would be too horrible to say what they did to him.

Oh, that curious woman amply atoned for her curiosity! She was obliged to look upon tortures which made her limbs shake and s.h.i.+ver as if she were in the grip of an ague. She covered her face, but the howls of the tortured wretch penetrated to her very soul, and her sensitive nerves suffered almost as much as if she had felt these torments herself. Gradually, however, a curious sort of torpor seemed to stop the beating of her heart; her limbs ceased to tremble, she opened her eyes and, motionless as a statue, watched the h.e.l.lish scene to the very end.

Ali was evidently a past-master in this horrible science. He himself elaborately graduated the whole process, indicating briefly when and how long the thumb-screws, the Spanish boot, the boiling oil, and the water funnel were to be used. Last of all came the culminating torment. They wrapped the merchant round in a raw buffalo-skin and laid him down before the fiercely blazing fire. As the fire began to compress the raw hide, and slowly press together the tortured limbs, the limit of the poor wretch's endurance was reached, and he confessed that his treasures were concealed in an iron chest, fastened by a chain to the bottom of the s.h.i.+p.

Then they freed him from the torturing hide; in a state of collapse, with foaming lips, a bleeding body and dislocated limbs, he flopped down upon the cold marble.

"Thou seest now, my dear," observed Ali, gently, "what trouble thou mightest have saved thyself and me also." Then he beckoned to the eunuchs to remove the merchant.

So this was the way in which Ali made gold! A very simple sort of alchemy, certainly!

And now it was the turn of the second man. And a haughty, broad-shouldered fellow he was, who had regarded the torments of his comrade without moving a muscle of his face.

"Then thou wilt not tell me thy name, valorous warrior?" inquired Ali.

"I will tell thee thine--Devil, Belial, Satan!"

"I thank thee! Thou dost me too much honor. But it is thy name I should like to know. I suppose thou art some wealthy Venetian n.o.ble, whose whereabouts his kinsmen are rather anxious to discover, and who would not be ungrateful if any one sent thee back to them. For I value thee very highly."

"Know, then, that I _am_ a rich n.o.ble, and that at home I have a palace and treasures, but not a para of my property shalt thou ever see, for I have taken poison. Dost thou not see the blue spots upon my hand? Presently thou wilt see them on my face. In five minutes' time I shall be dead."

And so indeed it fell out. The haughty n.o.ble died, while Ali, furious with pa.s.sion, cursed the Prophet.

And Eminah, from her hiding-place, looked intently upon Ali's face.

What must have been her thoughts at that moment?

The eunuchs removed the dead body, and Ali beckoned once more to them, whereupon they brought in through the opposite doors a wondrously beautiful damsel and a handsome youth. When the youth and the damsel beheld each other the tears gushed from their eyes. They were lovers, and lovers meet for each other.

Eminah now perceived with amazement that there were other kinds of men besides those who wore gray beards. The captive youth, with his frank and comely countenance and long black locks, so rejoiced her eyes that she could not take them off him. She had never seen anything of the sort before.

Ali approached the pair and smiled upon them both, and each of them said to him, "I curse thee!"

He said to the youth, "Renounce thy bride and thou shalt live!" and the youth replied, "I curse thee!"

He said to the damsel, "Love me, be mine, and thy betrothed shall live!" and the girl replied, "I curse thee!"

And Eminah unconsciously murmured after them each time, "I curse thee!" without knowing what she was saying.

Then Ali forced the youth down on his knees, and the eunuchs stripped off his robe. One of them then seized him by his beautiful long black hair, and raised him up into the air thereby, while the other stood behind him with a large sharp sword.

"Thy beloved shall die this instant," roared the infuriated Ali, "if thou dost not set him free! Embrace either me or his headless body."

Eminah turned her loathing eyes from the vile face of Ali, which, in that moment, was deformed out of all recognition.

And the young couple replied with one voice, "We curse thee!" It was as though they had taken an oath to say nothing else. The same instant the sword flashed around the youth. His beautiful head bounded into the air, then rolled along the floor to the foot of the spiral staircase, and stood still before the very niche where Eminah was concealed--at her very feet, in fact. The headless body, convulsed by a final spasm, rent its fetters in twain, and then falling p.r.o.ne, stretched out its hands towards the terror-stricken girl, while the severed head, which had rolled up to Eminah's feet, seemed to be murmuring something--anyhow the lips moved. Eminah bending down towards it, put her ears close to the quivering mouth and whispered, "I hear! I hear what thou sayest!" And she really believed she heard something. Perhaps it was only her heart that was speaking.

After that she wrapped the head in her shawl, and hastened away from the tower back into her own room, concealing the ghastly but still beautiful trophy beneath the pillows of her sofa. Then she commanded her odalisks to appear before her, that they might dance and sing.

Dawn was now not far distant, and still the entertainment was going on. Then Ali returned from the red tower--his face was gentle and smiling--and after him came two eunuchs carrying gold and treasure in large baskets; and they emptied them all at Eminah's feet. The damsel rejoiced, laughed at the sight of the treasures, and, throwing herself on Ali's neck, repaid him with kisses, and dragged him down to her on the sofa.

"Behold, the _dzhins_ have sent thee treasures," said Ali. "But a strange thing hath befallen me; one of my treasures rolled away upon the floor, and, search where I will, I cannot find it."

Eminah laughed, and fell a-teasing him. "Perchance the _dzhins_ have stolen it from thee," cried she. Suppose she had said, "Thou art sitting upon it, Ali Pasha?"

Ali Pasha took the damsel upon his lap, and rejoiced in her innocent, artless eyes and her childlike smile. He fancied he could look through those eyes down to the very depths of her heart. If only he _could_ have seen into it!

And while he was thus toying with her, the kadun-keit-khuda entered the room of the odalisks, bringing with him a veiled damsel.

"Gracious lady," said he to Eminah, "I bring thee a Greek maiden, who hath heard the fame of thy benevolence, and hath come of her own accord to bask in the light of thy countenance, and gather fresh strength from my smiles;" and he drew the maiden forward towards Eminah, who immediately recognized the girl whose lover Ali Pasha had decapitated, and said, playfully, to the guardian of the harem:

"Lo, kadun-keit-khuda, the damsel is trembling! If thou dost not support her she will fall!"

"It is by reason of her great shyness, gracious lady."

"But how pale she is!"

"Thy beauty casteth a shadow upon her."

"But look!--she weeps!"

"They are tears of joy, lady."