CHAPTER VIII.
A TOPSY-TURVY WORLD.
Halil Patrona was already the master of Stambul.
The rebel leaders had assembled together in the central mosque, and fromthence distributed their commands.
At the sixth hour (according to Christian calculation ten o'clock in theevening) the ship arrived bearing the Sultan, the princes, the magnates,and the sacred banner, and cast anchor beside the coast kiosk at theGate of Cannons.
Inside the Seraglio none knew anything of the position of affairs. Allthrough the city a great commotion prevailed with the blowing of horns,in the cemetery bivouac fires had been everywhere lighted.
"Why cannot I send a couple of grenades among them from the sea?" sighedthe Kapudan Pasha, "that would quiet them immediately, I warrant."
As the Kizlar-Aga, Elhaj Beshir, came face to face with the newlyarrived ministers in the ante-chamber where the Mantle of the Prophetwas jealously guarded, he rubbed his hands together with an enigmaticalsmile which ill became his coarse, brutal countenance and cloven lips,and when the Padishah asked him what the rebels wanted, he replied thathe really did not know.
That smile of his, that rubbing of the hands, which had been robbed oftheir thumbs by the savage cruelty of a former master for some piece ofvillainy or other--these things were premonitions of evil to all theofficials present.
Elhaj Beshir Aga had now held his office for fourteen years, duringwhich time he had elevated and deposed eight Grand Viziers.
And now, how were the demands of the rebels to be discovered?
Damad Ibrahim suggested that the best thing to do was to summon SulaliHassan, a former cadi of Stambul, whose name he had heard mentioned bythe town-crier along with that of Halil Patrona.
They found Sulali in his summer house, and at the first summons heappeared in the Seraglio. He declared that the rebels had been playingfast and loose with his name, and that he knew nothing whatever of theirwishes.
"Then take with you the Chaszeki Aga and twenty bostanjis, and go insearch of Halil Patrona, and find out what he wants!" commanded thePadishah.
"It is a pity to give worthy men unnecessary trouble, most gloriousSultan," said Abdi Pasha bitterly. "I am able to tell you what therebels want, for I have seen it all written up on the walls. They demandthe delivery of four of the great officers of state--myself, the ChiefMufti, the Grand Vizier, and the Kiaja. Surrender us then, O Sultan! yetsurrender us not alive! but slay us first and then their mouths will bestopped. Let them glut their appetites on us. You know that no wildbeast is savage when once it has been well fed."
The Sultan pretended not to hear these words. He did not even look upwhen the Kapudan spoke.
"Seek out Halil Patrona!" he said to the Chaszeki Aga, "and greet him inthe name of the Padishah!"
What! Greet Halil Patrona in the name of the Padishah! Greet that pettyhuckster in the name of the master of many empires, in the name of thePrince of Princes, Shahs, Khans, and Deys, the dominator of GreatMoguls! Who would have believed in the possibility of such a thing threedays ago?
"Greet Halil Patrona in my name," said the Sultan, "and tell him that Iwill satisfy all his just demands, if he promises to dismiss his forcesimmediately afterwards."
The Chaszeki Aga and Sulali Hassan, with the twenty bostanjis, forcedtheir way through the thick crowd which thronged the streets till theyreached the central mosque. Only nine of the twenty bostanjis werebeaten to death by the mob on the way, the eleven others were fortunateenough to reach the mosque at least alive.
There, on a camel-skin spread upon the ground, sat Halil, the rebelleader, like a second Dzhengis Khan, dictating his orders andnominations to the softas sitting before him, whom he had appointed histeskeredjis.
When the Janissaries on guard informed him that the Sultan's ChaszekiAga had arrived and wanted to speak to him, he drily replied:
"He can wait. I must attend to worthier men than he first of all."
And who, then, were these worthier men?
Well, first of all there was the old master-cobbler, Suleiman, whom theyhad dragged by force from his house where he had been hiding under thefloor. Halil now ordered a document to be drawn up, whereby he elevatedhim to the rank of Reis-Effendi.
Halil Patrona, by the way, was still wearing his old Janissary uniform,the blue dolman with the salavari reaching to the knee, leaving thecalves bare. The only difference was that he now wore a white heron'sfeather in his hat instead of a black one, and by his side hung thesword of the Grand Vizier, whose palace in the Galata suburb he hadlevelled to the ground only an hour before.
It was with the signet in the hilt of this sword that Halil was nowsealing all the public documents issued by him.
After Suleiman came Muhammad the saddle-maker. He was a sturdy, muscularfellow, who could have held his own against any two or three ordinarymen. Him Halil appointed Aga.
Then came a ciaus called Orli, whom he made chief magistrate. Ibrahim, awhilom schoolmaster, who went by the name of "the Fool," he made chiefCadi of Stambul, and then catching sight of Sulali, he beckoned himforth from among the ciauses and said to him:
"Thou shalt be the Governor-General of Anatolia."
Sulali bowed to the ground by way of acknowledgment of suchgraciousness.
"I thank thee, Halil! Make of me what thou wilt, but listen, first ofall, to the message of the Padishah which he has entrusted to me, for Iam in very great doubt whether it be thou or Sultan Achmed who is nowLord of all the Moslems. Tell me, therefore, what thou dost require ofthe Sultan, and if thy demands be lawful and of good report they shallbe granted, provided that thou dost promise to disperse thy following."
Then Halil Patrona stood up before the Sulali, and with a severe andmotionless countenance answered:
"Our demands are few and soon told. We demand the delivery to us of thefour arch-traitors who have brought disaster upon the realm. They arethe Kul Kiaja, the Kapudan Pasha, the Chief Mufti, and the GrandVizier."
Sulali fell to shaking his head.
"You ask much, Halil!"
"I ask much, you say. To-morrow I shall ask still more. If you agree tomy terms, to-morrow there shall be peace. But if you come again to meto-morrow, then there will be peace neither to-morrow nor any othermorrow."
Sulali returned to the Sultan and his ministers who were still allassembled together.
Full of suspense they awaited the message of Halil.
Sulali dared not say it all at once. Only gradually did he let the catout of the bag.
"I have found out the demands of the insurgents," said he. "They demandthat the Kiaja Beg be handed over to them."
The Kiaja suddenly grew paler than a wax figure.
"Such a faithful old servant as he has been to me too," sighed Achmed."Well, well, hand him over, and now I hope they will be satisfied."
With tottering footsteps the Kiaja stepped among the bostanjis.
"They demand yet more," said Sulali.
"What! more?"
"They demand the Kapudan Pasha."
"Him also. My most valiant seaman!" exclaimed Achmed sorrowfully.
"Mashallah!" cried the Kapudan cheerfully, "I am theirs," and with alook of determined courage he stepped forth and also joined thebostanjis. "Weep not on my account, oh Padishah! A brave man is alwaysready to die a heroic death in the place of danger, and shall I not,moreover, be dying in your defence? Hale us away, bostanjis; do nottremble, my sons. Which of you best understands to twist the string?Come, come, fear nothing, I will show you myself how to arrange thesilken cord properly. Long live the Sultan!"
And with that he quitted the room, rather leading the bostanjis thanbeing led by them, he did not even lay aside his sword.
"Then, too, they demanded the Grand Vizier and the Chief Mufti," saidSulali.
The Sultan, full of horror, rose from his place.
"No, no, it cannot be. You must have heard their words amiss. He fromwhom you required an answer must needs have been mad, he spoke in his
wrath. What! I am to slay the Grand Vizier and the Chief Mufti? Slaythem, too, for faults which I myself have committed--faults againstwhich they wished to warn me? Why, their blood would cry to Heavenagainst me. Go back, Sulali, and say to Halil that I beg, I implore himnot to insist that these two grey heads shall roll in the dust. Let itsuffice him if they are deprived of their offices and banished from therealm, for indeed they are guiltless. Entreat him, also, for the Kiajaand the Kapudan; they shall not be surrendered until you return."
Again Sulali sought out Halil. He durst not say a word concerning theKiaja and the Kapudan. He knew that it was the Kapudan who had seizedupon Halil's wife when she was attempting to escape by sea, and that itwas the Kiaja who had had her shut up in the dungeon set apart forshameless women. He confined himself therefore to pleading for the GrandVizier and the Chief Mufti.
Halil reflected. The incidents which had happened in the palace by theSweet Waters all passed through his mind. He bethought him how DamadIbrahim had forced his embraces upon Guel-Bejaze, and compelled her toresort to the stratagem of the death-swoon, and he gave no heed to whatSulali said about sparing Ibrahim's grey beard.
"The Grand Vizier must die," he answered. "As for Abdullah, he mayremain alive, but he must be banished." After all, Abdullah had done noharm to Guel-Bejaze.
Sulali returned to the Seraglio.
"Halil permits the Chief Mufti to live, but he demands death for thethree others," said he.
At these words Achmed sprang from the divan like a lion brought to bayand drew his sword.
"Come hither, then, valiant rebels, as ye are!" cried he. "If you wantthe heads of my servants, come for them, and take them from me. No, nota drop of their blood will I give you, and if you dare to come for themye shall see that the sword of Mohammed has still an edge upon it.Unfurl the banner of the Prophet in front of the gate of the Seraglio.Let all true believers cleave to me. Send criers into all the streets toannounce that the Seraglio is in danger, and let all to whom thecountenance of Allah is dear hasten to the defence of the Banner! I willcollect the bostanjis and defend the gates of the Seraglio."
The two grey beards kissed the Sultan's hand. If this manly burst ofemotion had only come a little earlier, the page of history would haveborne a very different record of Sultan Achmed.
The Banner of Danger was immediately hung out in the central gate of theSeraglio, and there it remained till early the next evening.
At dawn the criers returned and reported that they had not been able toget beyond the mosque of St. Sophia, and that the people had respondedto their crying with showers of stones.
The Green Banner waved all by itself in front of the Seraglio. Nobodyassembled beneath it, even the wind disdained to flutter it, languidlyit drooped upon its staff.
The unfurling of the Green Banner on the gate of the Seraglio is a rareevent in history. As a rule it only happens in the time of greatestdanger, for it signifies that the time has come for every true Mussulmanto quit hearth and home, his shop and his plough, snatch up his weapons,and hasten to the assistance of Allah and his Anointed, and accursedwould be reckoned every male Osmanli who should hesitate at such a timeto lay down his life and his estate at the feet of the Padishah.
Knowing this to be so, imagine then the extremity of terror into whichthe dwellers in the Seraglio were plunged when they saw that not asingle soul rallied beneath the exposed banner. The criers promised agratuity of thirty piastres to every soldier who hastened to rangehimself beneath the banner, and two piastres a day over and above theusual pay. And some five or six fellows followed them, but as many ascame in on one side went away again on the other, and in the afternoonnot a single soul remained beneath the banner.
Towards evening the banner was hoisted on to the second gate beneathwhich were the dormitories of the high officers of state. The generalsmeanwhile slept in the Hall of Audience, Damadzadi lay sick in theapartment of Prince Murad, and the Mufti and the Ulemas remained in thebarracks of the bostanjis. Sultan Achmed did not lie down all nightlong, but wandered about from room to room, impatiently inquiring afternews outside. He asked whether anyone had come from the host to hisassistance? whether the people were assembling beneath the Sacred GreenBanner? and the cold sweat stood out upon his forehead when, in reply toall his questions, he only received one crushing answer after another.The watchers placed on the roof of the palace signified that the bivouacfires of the insurgents were now much nearer than they had been thenight before, and that in the direction of Scutari not a singlewatch-fire was visible, from which it might be suspected that the armyhad broken up its camp, returned to Stambul, and made common cause withthe insurgents.
Achmed himself ascended to the roof to persuade himself of the truth ofthese assertions, and wandered in a speechless agony of grief fromapartment to apartment, constantly looking to see whether the Kiaja,the Kapudan, and the Grand Vizier were asleep or awake. Only the KapudanPasha was able to sleep at all. The Kiaja was all of an ague withapprehension, and the Grand Vizier was praying, not for himself indeed,but for the Sultan. At last even the Kapudan was sorry for the Sultanwho was so much distressed on their account.
"Why dost thou keep waking us so often, oh, my master?" said he, "we arestill alive as thou seest. Go and sleep in thy harem and trouble not thysoul about us any more, it is only the rebels who have to do with usnow. Allah Kerim! Look upon us as already sleeping the sleep ofeternity. At the trump of the Angel of the Resurrection we also shallarise like the rest."
And Achmed listened to the words of the Kapudan, and at dawn of dayvanished from amongst them. When they sought him in the early morning hehad not yet come forth from his harem.
The four dignitaries knew very well what that signified.
Early in the morning, when the dawn was still red, Sulali Effendi andIspirizade came for the Chief Mufti, and invited him to say the morningprayer with them.
The Ulemas were already all assembled together, and at the sight of themAbdullah burst into tears and sobs, and said to them in the midst ofhis lamentations:
"Behold, I have brought my grey beard hither, and if it pleases you notthat it has grown white in all pure and upright dealing, take it now andwash it in my blood; and if ye think that the few days Allah hath givenme to be too many, then take me and put an end to them."
Then all the Ulemas stood up and, raising their hands, exclaimed:
"Allah preserve thee from this evil thing!"
Then they threw themselves down on their faces to pray, and when theyhad made an end of praying, they assembled in the kiosk of Erivan in theinner garden where the Grand Vizier already awaited them. Not longafterwards arrived the Kiaja and the Kapudan Pasha also, last of allcame the sick Damadzadi and the Cadi of Medina, Mustafa Effendi, andSegban Pasha.
"Ye see a dead man before you," said the Grand Vizier, Damad Ibrahim, tothe freshly arrived dignitaries. "I am lost. We are the four victims.The Chief Mufti perhaps may save his life, but we three others shall notsee the dawn of another day. It cannot be otherwise. The Sultan must besaved, and saved he only can be at the price of our lives."
"I said that long ago," observed the Kapudan Pasha. "Our corpses oughtto have been delivered up to the rebels yesterday, I fear it is alreadytoo late, I fear me that the Sultan is lost anyhow. The Banner ofAffliction ought never to have been exposed at all, we should have beenslain there and then."
"You three withdraw into the Chamber of the Executioners," said theGrand Vizier to his colleagues, "but wait for me till the Kizlar-Agaarrives to demand from me the seals of office, till then I must performmy official duties."
The three ministers then took leave of Damad Ibrahim, embraced eachother, and were removed in the custody of the bostanjis.
It was now the duty of the Grand Vizier to elect a new Chief Mufti fromamong the Ulemas. The Ulemas, first of all, chose Damadzadi, but hedeclining the dignity on the plea of illness, they chose in his steadthe Cadi of Medina, and for want of a white mantle invested him with agreen one.
&
nbsp; After that they elected from amongst themselves Seid Mohammed andDamadzadi, to receive the secret message of the Sultan from theKizlar-Aga and deliver it to Halil Patrona.
Damad Ibrahim was well aware of the nature of this secret message, andthanked Allah for setting a term to the life of man.
* * * * *
Meanwhile Sultan Achmed was sitting in the Hall of Delectation with thebeautiful Adsalis by his side, and in front of him were the four tulipswhich Abdi Pasha had presented to him the day before.
The four tulips were now in full bloom.
Adsalis had thrown her arms round the Sultan's neck, and was kissing hisforehead as if she would charm away from his soul the thoughts whichsuffered him not to rest, or rejoice, or to love.
He had an eye for nothing but the tulips before him, which he could notprotect or cherish sufficiently. He scarce noticed that Elhaj Beshir,the Kizlar-Aga, was standing before him with a long MS. parchmentstretched out in his hand.
"Master," cried the Kizlar-Aga, "deign to read the answer which theUlemas are sending to Halil Patrona, and if it be according to thy willgive it the confirmation of thy signature."
"What do they require?" asked the Sultan softly, withdrawing, as hespoke, a tiny knife from his girdle, with the point of which he beganpicking away at the earth all round the tulips in order to make itlooser and softer.
"The rebels demand a full assurance that they will not be persecuted inthe future for what they have done in the past."
"Be it so!"
"Next they demand that the Kiaja Aga be handed over to them."
The Sultan cut off one of the tulips with his knife and handed it to theKizlar-Aga.
"There, take it!" said he.
The Aga was astonished, but presently he understood and took the tulip.
"Then they want the Kapudan Pasha."
The Sultan cut off the handsomest of the tulips.
"There you have it," said he.
"They further demand the banishment of the Chief Mufti."
The Sultan tore up the third tulip by the roots and cast it from him.
"There it is."
"And the Grand Vizier they want also."
The last tulip Achmed threw violently to the ground, pot and all, andthen he covered his face.
"Ask no more, thou seest I have surrendered everything."
Then he gave him his signet-ring in which his name was engraved, and theKizlar-Aga stamped the document therewith, and then handed back thesignet-ring to the Sultan.
The Grand Vizier, meanwhile, was walking backwards and forwards in thegarden of the Seraglio. The Kizlar-Aga came there in search of him, andwith him were the envoys of Halil Patrona, Suleiman, whom he had madeReis-Effendi, Orli, and Sulali. Elhaj Beshir approached him in theirpresence, and kissing the document signed by the Sultan, handed it tohim.
Damad Ibrahim pressed the writing to his forehead and his lips, and,after carefully reading it through, handed it back again, and takingfrom his finger the great seal of the Empire gave it to the Kizlar-Aga.
"May he who comes after me be wiser and happier than I have been," saidhe. "Greet the Sultan from me once more. And as for you, tell HalilPatrona that you have seen the door of the Hall of the Executionersclose behind the back of Damad Ibrahim."
With that the Grand Vizier looked about him in search of someone toescort him thither, when suddenly a kajkji leaped to his side and beggedthat he might be allowed to lead the Grand Vizier to the Hall ofExecution.
This sailor-man had just such a long grey beard as the Grand Vizierhimself.
"How dost thou come to know me?" inquired Damad Ibrahim of the old man.
"Why we fought together, sir, beneath Belgrade, when both of us wereyoung fellows together."
"What is thy name?
"Manoli."
"I remember thee not."
"But I remember thee, for thou didst release me from captivity, anddidst cherish me when I was wounded."
"And therefore thou wouldst lead me to the executioner? I thank thee,Manoli!"
All this was spoken while they were passing through the garden on theirway to the fatal chamber into which Manoli disappeared with the GrandVizier.
The Kizlar-Aga and the messengers of the insurgents waited till Manolicame forth again. He came out, covering his face with his hands, nodoubt he was weeping. The Grand Vizier remained inside.
"To-morrow you shall see his dead body," said the Kizlar-Aga to the newReis-Effendi, and with that he sent him and his comrade back to Halil.
"We would rather have had them alive," said the ex-ciaus, so suddenlybecome one of the chief dignitaries of the state.
That same evening Halil sent back Sulali with the message that the ChiefMufti might go free.
The old man quitted his comrades about midnight, and day had scarcedawned when he was summoned once more to the presence of the GrandSeignior.
All night long the Kizlar-Aga tormented Achmed with the saying of theReis-Effendi: "We would rather have them alive!"
"No, no," said the Sultan, "we will not have them delivered up alive. Itshall not be in the power of the people to torture and tear them topieces. Rather let them die in my palace, an easy, instantaneous death,without fear and scarce a pang of pain, wept and mourned for by theirfriends."
"Then hasten on their deaths, dread sir, lest the morning come and theybe demanded while still alive."
"Tarry a while, I say, wait but for the morning. You would not surelykill them at night! At night the gates of Heaven are shut. At night thephantoms of darkness are let loose. You would not slay any livingcreature at night! Wait till the day dawns."
The first ray of light had scarce appeared on the horizon when theKizlar-Aga once more stood before the Sultan.
"Master, the day is breaking."
"Call hither the mufti and Sulali!"
Both of them speedily appeared.
"Convey death to those who are already doomed."
Sulali and the mufti fell down on their knees.
"Wherefore this haste, O my master?" cried the aged mufti, bitterlyweeping as he kissed the Sultan's feet.
"Because the rebels wish them to be surrendered alive."
"So it is," observed the Kizlar-Aga by way of corroboration, "the wholespace in front of the kiosk is filled with the insurgents."
The Sultan almost collapsed with horror.
"Hasten, hasten! lest they fall into their hands alive."
"Oh, sir," implored Sulali, "let me first go down with the Imam of theAja Sophia to see whether the street really is filled with rebels ornot!"
The Sultan signified that they might go.
Sulali, Hassan, and Ispirizade thereupon hastened through the gate ofthe Seraglio down to the open space before the kiosk, but not a livingsoul did they find there. Not satisfied with merely looking about them,they wished to persuade themselves that the insurgents were approachingthe Seraglio from some other direction by a circuitous way.
Meanwhile the Sultan was counting the moments and growing impatient atthe prolonged absence of his messengers.
"They have had time enough to cover the distance to the kiosk and backtwice over," remarked the Kizlar-Aga. "No doubt they have fallen intothe hands of the rebels who are holding them fast so that they may notbe able to bring any tidings back."
The Sultan was in despair.
"Hasten, hasten then!" said he to the Kizlar-Aga, and with that he fledaway into his inner apartments.
Ten minutes later Sulali and the Iman returned, and announced that therewas not a soul to be seen anywhere and no sign of anyone threatening theSeraglio.
Then the Kizlar-Aga led them down to the gate. A cart drawn by two oxenwas standing there, and the top of it was covered with a mat of rushes.He drew aside a corner of this mat, and by the uncertain light of dawnthey saw before them three corpses, the Kiaja's, the Kapudan's, and theGrand Vizier's.
* * * * *
Happy Guel-Bejaz
e sits in Halil's lap and dreamily allows herself to becradled in his arms. Through the windows of the splendid palacepenetrate the shouts of triumph which hail Halil as Lord, for themoment, of the city of Stambul and the whole Ottoman Empire.
Guel-Bejaze tremulously whispers in Halil's ear how much she would preferto dwell in a simple, lonely little hut in Anatolia instead of there inthat splendid palace.
Halil smooths away the luxuriant locks from his wife's forehead, andmakes her tell him once more the full tale of all those revoltingincidents which befell her in the Seraglio, in the captivity of theKapudan's house, and in the dungeon for dishonourable women. Why shouldhe keep on arousing hatred and vengeance?
The woman told him everything with a shudder. At her husband's feet,right in front of them, stood three baskets full of flowers. Halil hadgiven them to her as a present.
But at the bottom of the baskets were still more precious gifts.
He draws forward the first basket and sweeps away the flowers. A bloodyhead is at the bottom of the basket.
"Whose is that?"
Guel-Bejaze, all shuddering, lisped the name of Abdi Pasha.
He cast away the flowers from the second basket, there also was a bloodyhead.
"And whose is that?"
"That is the Kiaja Beg's," sobbed the terrified girl.
And now Halil brought forward the third basket, and dashing aside fromit the fresh flowers, revealed to the eyes of Guel-Bejaze a grey headwith a white beard, which lay with closed eyes at the bottom of thebasket.
"Whose is that?" inquired Halil.
Guel-Bejaze's tender frame shivered in the arms of the strong man whoheld her, as he compelled her to gaze at the bloody heads. And when sheregarded the third head she shook her own in amazement.
"I do not know that one."
"Not know it! Look again and more carefully. Perchance Death has changedthe expression of the features. That is Damad Ibrahim the Grand Vizier."
Guel-Bejaze regarded her husband with eyes wide-open with astonishment,and then hastened to reply:
"Truly it _is_ Damad Ibrahim. Of course, of course. Death hathdisfigured his face so that I scarce knew it."
"Did I not tell thee that thou shouldst make sport with the heads ofthose who made sport with thy heart? Dost thou want yet more?"
"Oh, no, no, Halil. I am afraid of these also. I am afraid to look uponthese dumb heads."
"Then cover them over with flowers, and thou wilt believe thou dost seeflower-baskets before thee."
"Let me have them buried, Halil. Do not make me fear thee also. Thouwouldst have me go on loving thee, wouldst thou not? If only thouwouldst come with me to Anatolia, where nobody would know anything aboutus!"
"What dost thou say? Go away now when the very sun cannot set because ofme, and men cannot sleep because of the sound of my name? Dost not thoualso feel a desire to bathe in all this glory?"
"Oh, Halil! the rose and the palm grow up together out of the sameearth, and yet the palm grows into greatness while the rose remainsquite tiny. Suffer me but gently to crouch beside thee, dispense but thylove to me, and keep thy glory to thyself."
Halil tenderly embraced and kissed the woman, and buried the threebaskets as she desired in the palace garden beneath three wide-spreadingrosemary bushes.
Then he took leave of Guel-Bejaze, for deputies from the people nowwaited upon their leader, and begged him to accompany them to the mosqueof Zuleima, where the Sultan's envoys were already waiting for ananswer.
In order to get to the mosque more easily and avoid the labour offorcing his way through the crowd that thronged the streets, Halilhastened to the water side, got into the first skiff he met with, andbade the sailor row him across to the Zuleima Mosque on the other side.
On the way his gaze fell upon the face of the sailor who was sittingopposite to him. It was a grey-bearded old man.
"What is thy name, worthy old man?" inquired Halil.
"My name is Manoli, your Excellency."
"Call me not Excellency! Dost thou not perceive from my raiment that Iam nothing but a common Janissary?"
"Oh! I know thee better than that. Thou art Halil Patrona, whom mayAllah long preserve!"
"Thou also dost seem very familiar to me. Thou hast just such a whitebeard as had Damad Ibrahim who was once Grand Vizier."
"I have often heard people say so, my master."
On arriving opposite the Zuleima Mosque, the boatman brought the skiffashore. Halil pressed a golden denarius into the old man's palm, the oldman kissed his hand for it.
Then for a long time Halil gazed into the old man's face.
"Manoli!"
"At thy command, my master."
"Thou seest the sun rising up yonder behind the hills?"
"Yes, my master."
"Before the shadows return to the side of yon hills take care to be wellbehind them, and let not another dawn find thee in this city!"
The boatman bent low with his arms folded across his breast, then hedisappeared in his skiff.
But Halil Patrona hastened into the mosque.
The Sultan's ambassadors were awaiting him. Sheik Suleiman came forward.
"Halil!" said he, "the bodies of the three dead men I have given to thepeople and their heads I have sent to thee."
"Who were they?" asked Halil darkly.
"The first was the corpse of the Kiaja Beg, his body was cast upon thecross-ways through the Etmeidan Gate."
"And the second?"
"The Kapudan Pasha, his body was flung down in front of the fountains ofKhir-Kheri."
"And the third?"
"Damad Ibrahim, the Grand Vizier. His body we flung out into the piazzain front of the Seraglio, at the foot of the very fountains which hehimself caused to be built."
Halil Patrona cast a searching look at the Sheik's face, and coldlyreplied:
"Know then, oh, Sheik Suleiman, that thou liest, the third corpse was_not_ the body of Damad Ibrahim the Grand Vizier. It was the body of asailor named Manoli, who greatly resembled him, and sacrificed himselfin Damad's behalf. But the Grand Vizier has escaped and none can tellwhere he is. Go now, and tell that to those who sent thee hither!"