CHAPTER V.
When the Arab was at last admitted to the governor's presence hisattendants unfolded a hanging before him. The giant Masdakite did thechief share of the work; but as soon as the Mukaukas caught sight of thebig man, with his bushy, mane-like hair, and a dagger and a battle-axestuck through his belt, he cried out:
"Away, away with him! That man--those weapons--I will not look at thehanging till he is gone."
His hands were trembling, and the merchant at once desired his faithfulRustem, the most harmless of mortals, to quit the room. The governor,whose sensitive nerves had been liable to such attacks of panic eversince an exiled Greek had once attempted to murder him, now soonrecovered his composure, and looked with great admiration at the hanginground which the family were standing. They all confessed they had neverseen anything like it, and the vivacious Dame Susannah proposed to sendfor her daughter and her visitors; but it was already late, and herhouse was so far from the governor's that she gave that up. The fatherand son had already heard of this marvellous piece of work, which hadformed part of the plunder taken by the Arab conquerors of the PersianEmpire at the sack of the "White Tower"--the royal palace of Madam, thecapital of the Sassanidze. They knew that it had been originally 300ells long and 60 ells wide, and had heard with indignation that theKhaliff Omar, who always lived and dressed and ate like the chief of acaravan, and looked down with contempt on all such objects of luxury,had cut this inestimable treasure of art into pieces and divided itamong the Companions of the Prophet.
Haschim explained to them that this particular fragment had been theshare of the booty allotted to Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law. Haschimhimself had seen the work before its dismemberment at Madain, where ithung on the wall of the magnificent throne-room, and subsequently, atMedina.
His audience eagerly requested him to describe the other portions; he,however, seemed somewhat uneasy, looking down at his bare feet whichwere standing on the mosaic pavement, damp from the fountain; for, afterthe manner of his nation, he had left his shoes in the outer room. Thegovernor had noticed the old man's gestures as he repeatedly puthis hand to his mouth, and while his wife, Orion, and the widow werebesieging the merchant with questions, he whispered a few words toone of the slaves. The man vanished, and returned bringing in, by hismaster's orders, a long strip of carpet which he laid in front of theArab's brown and strong but delicately-formed feet.
A wonderful change came over the merchant's whole being as this wasdone. He drew himself up with a dignity which none of those presenthad suspected in the man who had so humbly entered the room and sodiligently praised his wares; an expression of satisfaction overspreadhis calm, mild features, a sweet smile parted his lips, and his kindeyes sparkled through tears like those of a child unexpectedly pleased.Then he bowed before the Mukaukas, touching his brow, lips and breastwith the finger-tips of the right hand to express: "All my thoughts,words and feelings are devoted to you,"--while he said: "Thanks, Son ofMenas. That was the act of Moslem."
"Of a Christian!" cried Orion hastily. But his father shook his headgently, and said, slowly and impressively: "Only of a man."
"Of a man," repeated the merchant, and then he added thoughtfully: "Of aman! Yes, that is the highest mark so long as we are what we ought to beThe image of the one God. Who is more compassionate than He? And everymother's son who is likewise compassionate, is like him."
"Another Christian rule, thou strange Moslem!" said Orion interruptinghim.
"And yet," said Haschim, with tranquil dignity, "it corresponds wordfor word with the teaching of the Best of men--our Prophet. I am one ofthose who knew him here on earth. His brother's smallest pain filledhis soft heart with friendly sympathy; his law insists on charity, eventowards the shrub by the wayside; he pronounces it mortal sin to injureit, and every Moslem must obey him. Compassion for all is the commandof the Prophet...." Here the Arab was suddenly and roughly interrupted;Paula, who, till now, had been leaning against a pilaster, contemplatingthe hanging and silently listening to the conversation, hastily steppednearer to the old man, and with flaming cheeks and flashing eyes pointedat him wrathfully, while she exclaimed in a trembling voice-heedlessalike of the astonished and indignant bystanders, and of the little dogwhich flew at the Arab, barking furiously:
"You--you, the followers of the false prophet--you, the companions ofthe bloodhound Khalid--you and Charity! I know you! I know what you didin Syria. With these eyes have I seen you, and your bloodthirsty women,and the foam on your raging lips. Here I stand to bear witness againstyou and I cast it in your teeth: You broke faith in Damascus, and thevictims of your treachery--defenceless women and tender infants as wellas men--you killed with the sword or strangled with your hands. You--youthe Apostle of Compassion?--have you ever heard of Abyla? You, thefriend of your Prophet--I ask you what did you, who so tenderly sparethe tree by the wayside, do to the innocent folk of Abyla, whom youfell upon like wolves in a sheepfold? You--you and Compassionate!" Thevehement girl, to whom no one had ever shown any pity, and on whosesoul the word had fallen like a mockery, who for long hours had beensuffering suppressed and torturing misery, felt it a relief to give freevent to the anguish of her soul; she ended with a hard laugh, and wavedher hand round her head as though to disperse a swarm of gadflies.
What a woman!
Orion's gaze was fixed on her in horror--but in enchantment. Yes, hismother had judged her rightly. No gentle, tender-hearted woman laughedlike that; but she was grand, splendid, wonderful in her wrath. Shereminded him of the picture of the goddess of vengeance, by Apelles,which he had seen in Constantinople. His mother shrugged her shouldersand cast a meaning glance at the widow, and even his father was startledat the sight. He knew what had roused her; still he felt that he couldnot permit this, and he recalled the excited girl to her senses byspeaking her name, half-reproachfully and half-regretfully, at firstquite gently but then louder and more severely.
She started like a sleep-walker suddenly awaked from her trance, passedher hand over her eyes, and said, as she bowed her head before thegovernor:
"Forgive me, Uncle, I am sorry for what has occurred--but it wastoo much for me. You know what my past has been, and when I amreminded--when I must listen to the praises even of the wretches to whommy father and brother...."
A loud sob interrupted her; little Mary was clinging to her and weeping.Orion could hardly keep himself from hastening to her and clasping herin his arms. Ah, how well her woman's weakness became the noble girl!How strongly it drew him to her!
But Paula soon recovered from it; even while the governor was soothingher with kind words she mastered her violent agitation, and said gently,though her tears still quietly flowed: "Let me go to my room, I beg...."
"Good-night, then, child," said the Mukaukas affectionately, and Paulaturned towards the door with a silent greeting to the rest of the party;but the Moslem detained her and said:
"I know who you are, noble daughter of Thomas, and I have heard thatyour brother was the bridegroom who had come to Abyla to solemnize hismarriage with the daughter of the prefect of Tripolis. Alas, alas! Imyself was there with my merchandise at the fair, when a maddened hordeof my fellow-believers fell upon the peaceful town. Poor child, poorchild! Your father was the greatest and most redoubtable of our foes.Whether still on earth or in heaven he yet, no doubt honors our swordas we honor his. But your brother, whom we sent to his grave as abridegroom--he cursed us with his dying breath. You have inherited hisrancor; and when it surges up against me, a Moslem, I can do no morethan bow my head and do penance for the guilt of those whose blood runsin my veins and whose faith I confess. I have nothing to plead--no,noble maiden, nothing that can excuse the deed of Abyla. There--therealone it was the fate of my grey hairs to be ashamed of myfellow-Moslems--believe me, maiden, it was grievous to me. War, andthe memory of many friends slain and of wealth lightly plundered hadunchained men's passion; and where passion's pinions wave, whether inthe struggle for mine and thine or for other possessions, ever s
ince thedays of Cain and Abel, it is always and everywhere the same."
Paula, who till now had stood motionless in front of the old man, shookher head and said bitterly:
"But all this will not give me back my father and brother. You yourselflook like a kind-hearted man; but for the future--if you are as just asyou are kind--find out to whom you are speaking before you talk of thecompassion of the Moslems!"
She once more bowed good-night and left the room. Orion followed her;come what might he must see her. But he returned a few minutes after,breathing hard and with his teeth set. He had taken her hand, had triedto tell her all a loving heart could find to say; but how sharply, howicily had he been repulsed, with what an air of intolerable scorn hadshe turned her back upon him! And now that he was in their midst againhe scarcely heard his father express his regrets that so painful a sceneshould have occurred under his roof, while the Arab said that he couldquite understand why the daughter of Thomas should have been betrayed toanger: the massacre of Abyla was quite inexcusable.
"But then," the old man went on, "in what war do not such things takeplace? Even the Christian is not always master of himself: youyourself I know, lost two promising sons--and who were the murderers?Christians--your own fellow-believers..."
"The bitterest foes of my beliefs," said the governor slowly, and everysyllable was a calm and dignified reproof to the Moslem for supposingthat the creed of those who had killed his sons could be his. Ashe spoke he opened his eyes wide with the look of those hard,opaquely-glittering stones which his ancestors had been wont to set foreyes in their portrait statues. But he suddenly closed them again andsaid indifferently:
"At what price do you value your hanging? I have a fancy to buy it. Nameyour lowest terms: I cannot bear to bargain."
"I had thought of asking five hundred thousand drachmae," said thedealer. "Four hundred thousand drachmae, and it is yours."
The governor's wife clasped her hands at such a sum and made warningsignals to her husband, shaking her head disapprovingly, when Orion,making a great effort to show that he too took an interest in thisimportant transaction, said: "It may be worth three hundred thousand."
"Four hundred thousand," repeated the merchant coolly. "Your fatherwished to know the lowest price, and I am asking no more than isright. The rubies and garnets in these grapes, the pearls in the myrtleblossoms, the turquoises in the forget-me-nots, the diamonds hangingas dew on the grass, the emeralds which give brilliancy to the greenleaves--this one especially, which is an immense stone--alone are worthmore."
"Then why do you not cut them out of the tissue?" asked Neforis.
"Because I cannot bear to destroy this noble work," replied the Arab. "Iwill sell it as it is or not at all." At these words the Mukaukasnodded to his son, heedless of the disapprobation his wife persisted inexpressing, asked for a tablet which lay near the chessboard, and on itwrote a few words.
"We are agreed," he said to the merchant. "The treasurer, Nilus, willhand you the payment to-morrow morning on presenting this order."
A fresh emotion now took possession of Orion, and crying: "Splendid!Splendid!" he rushed up to his father and excitedly kissed his hand.Then, turning to his mother, whose eyes were full of tears of vexation,he put his hand under her chin, kissed her brow, and exclaimed withtriumphant satisfaction: "This is how we and the emperor do business!When the father is the most liberal of men the son is apt to look small.Meaning no harm, worthy merchant! As far as the hanging is concerned,it may be more precious than all the treasures of Croesus; but you havesomething yet to give us into the bargain before you load your camelswith our gold: Tell us what the whole work was like before it wasdivided."
The Moslem, who had placed the precious tablet in his girdle, at onceobeyed this request.
"You know how enormous were its length and breadth," he began. "The hallit decorated could hold several thousand guests, besides space fora hundred body guards to stand on each side of the throne. As manyweavers, embroiderers and jewellers as there are days in the yearworked on it, they say, for the years of a man's life. The woven picturerepresented paradise as the Persians imagine it--full of green trees,flowers and fruits. Here you can still see a fragment of the sparklingfountain which, when seen from a distance, with its sprinkling ofdiamonds, sapphires and emeralds, looked like living water. Here thepearls represent the foam on a wave. These leaves, cut across here,belonged to a rose-bush which grew by the fountain of Eden before theevil of the first rain fell on the world.
"Originally all roses were white, but as the limbs of the first womanshone with more dazzling whiteness they blushed for shame, and sincethen there are crimson as well as white roses. So the Persians say."
"And this--our piece?" asked Orion.
"This," replied the merchant, with a pleasant glance at the young man,"was the very middle of the hanging. On the left you see the judgmentat the bridge of Chinvat. The damned were not represented, but only thewinged, Fravashi, Genii who, as the Persians believe, dwell one witheach mortal as his guardian angel through life, united to him butseparable. They were depicted in stormy pursuit of the damned--themiscreant followers of Angramainjus, the evil Spirit, of whom you mustimagine a vast multitude fleeing before them. The souls in bliss, thepure and faithful servants of the Persian divinity Auramazda, enter withsongs of triumph into the flower-decked pleasure-garden, while at theirfeet the spirits were shown of those who were neither altogether cursednor altogether blessed, vanishing in humble silence into a dusky grove.The pure enjoyed the gifts of paradise in peace and contentment.--Allthis was explained to me by a priest of the Fire-worshippers. Here, yousee, is a huge bunch of grapes which one of the happy ones is about topluck; the hand is uninjured--the arm unfortunately is cut through; buthere is a splendid fragment of the wreath of fruit and flowers whichframed the whole. That emerald forming a bud--how much do you think itis worth?"
"A magnificent stone!" cried Orion. "Even Heliodora has nothing to equalit.--Well, father, what do you say is its value?"
"Great, very great," replied the Mukaukas. "And yet the wholeunmutilated work would be too small an offering for Him to whom Ipropose to offer it."
"To the great general, Amru?" asked Orion.
"No child," said the governor decidedly. "To the great, indivisible anddivine Person of Jesus Christ and his Church."
Orion looked down greatly disappointed; the idea of seeing this splendidgem hidden away in a reliquary in some dim cupboard did not please him:He could have found a much more gratifying use for it.
Neither his father nor his mother observed his dissatisfaction, forNeforis had rushed up to her husband's couch, and fallen on her kneesby his side, covering his cold, slender hand with kisses, as joyful asthough this determination had relieved her of a heavy burden of dread:"Our souls, our souls, George! For such a gift--only wait--you will beforgiven all, and recover your lost peace!"
The governor shrugged his shoulders and said nothing; the hanging wasrolled up and locked into the tablinum by Orion; then the Mukaukas bidthe chamberlain show the Arab and his followers to quarters for thenight.