The second recall of the Emir Mirza departing with the appointment for the Prince of India was remarkable1, considering Mahommed's usual quickness of conclusion and steadiness of purpose; and the accounting2 for it is noteworthy.
So completely had the young Turk been taken up by study and military service that leisure for love had been denied him; else he either despised the passion or had never met a woman to catch his fancy and hold it seriously.
We have seen him make the White Castle by hard galloping4 before the bursting of the storm. While at the gate, and in the midst of his reception there, the boats were reported making all speed to the river landing; and not wishing his presence at the Castle to be known in Constantinople, he despatched an under officer to seize the voyagers, and detain them until he had crossed the Bosphorus en route to Adrianople. However, directly the officer brought back the spirited message of the Princess Irene to the Governor of the Castle, his mind underwent a change.
"What," he asked, "sayst thou the woman is akin5 to the Emperor Constantine?"
"Such is her claim, my Lord, and she looks it."
"Is she old?"
"Young, my Lord--not more than twenty."
Mahommed addressed the Governor:
"Stay thou here. I will take thy office, and wait upon this Princess."
Dismounting, then, in the capacity of Governor of the Castle, he hastened to the landing, curious as well as desirous of offering refuge to the noble lady.
He saw her first a short way off, and was struck with her composed demeanor6. During the discussion of his tender of hospitality, her face was in fair view, and it astonished him. When finally she stepped from the boat, her form, delicately observable under the rich and graceful7 drapery, and so exquisitely8 in correspondence with her face, still further charmed him.
Before the chairs were raised, he sent a messenger to the Castle with orders to place everybody in hiding, and for his Kislar-Aga, or chief eunuch, to be in the passage of entrance to receive and take charge of the kinswoman of the Emperor and her attendant. By a further order the Governor proper was directed to vacate his harem apartments for her accommodation.
In the Castle, after the Princess had been thus disposed of, the impression she made upon him increased.
"She is so high-born!--so beautiful!--She has such spirit and mind!--She is so calm under trial--so courageous--so decorous--so used to courtly life!"
Such exclamations9 attested10 the unwonted ferment11 going on in his mind. Gradually, as tints12 under the brush of a skilful13 painter lose themselves in one effect, his undefined ideas took form.
"O Allah! What a Sultana for a hero!"
And by repetition this ran on into what may be termed the chorus of a love song--the very first of the kind his soul had ever sung.
Such was Mahommed's state when Mirza received the turquoise14 ring, and, announcing the Prince of India, asked for orders. Was it strange he changed his mind? Indeed he was at the moment determining to see again the woman who had risen upon him like a moon above a lake; so, directly he had despatched the Emir to the Prince of India with the appointment for midnight, he sent for an Arab Sheik of his suite15, arrayed himself in the latter's best habit, and stained his hands, neck, and face-turned himself, in brief, into the story-teller whom we have seen admitted to amuse the Princess Irene.
At midnight, sharply as the hour could be determined16 by the uncertain appliances resorted to by the inmates17 of the Castle, Mirza appeared at his master's door with the mystical Indian, and, passing the sentinel there, knocked like one knowing himself impatiently awaited. A voice bade them enter.
The young Turk, upon their entrance, arose from a couch of many cushions prepared for him under a canopy18 in the centre of the room.
"This, my Lord, is the Prince of India" said Mirza; then, almost without pause, he turned to the supposed Indian, and added more ceremoniously: "Be thou happy, O Prince! The East hath not borne a son so worthy3 to take the flower from the tomb of Saladin, and wear it, as my master here --the Lord Mahommed."
Then, his duty done, the Emir retired19.
Mahommed was in the garb20 used indoors immemorially by his race--sharply pointed21 slippers22, immense trousers gathered at the ankles, a yellow quilted gown dropping below the knees, and a turban of balloon shape, its interfolding stayed by an aigrette of gold and diamonds. His head was shaven up to the edge of the turban, so that, the light falling from a cluster of lamps in suspension from the ceiling, every feature was in plain exposure. Looking into the black eyes scarcely shaded by the upraised arching brows, the Prince of India saw them sparkle with invitation and pleasure, and was himself satisfied.
He advanced, and saluted23 by falling upon his knees, and kissing the back of his hands laid palm downward on the floor. Mahommed raised him to his feet.
"Rise, O Prince!" he said--"rise, and come sit with me."
From behind the couch, the Turk dragged a chair of ample seat, railed around except at the front, and provided with a cushion of camel's hair--a chair such as teachers in the Mosques24 use when expounding25 to their classes. This he placed so while he sat on the couch the visitor would be directly before him, and but little removed. Soon the two were sitting cross-legged face to face.
"A man devout26 as the Prince of India is reported to me," Mahommed began, in a voice admirably seconding the respectful look he fixed27 upon the other, "must be of the rightly guided, who believe in God and the Last Day, and observe prayer, and pay the alms, and dread28 none but God--who therefore of right frequent the temples."
"Your words, my Lord, are those of the veritable messenger of the most high Heaven," the Wanderer responded, bending forward as if about to perform a prostration29. "I recognize them, and they give me the sensation of being in a garden of perpetual abode30, with a river running beneath it." Mahommed, perceiving the quotation31 from the Koran, bent32 low in turn, saying: "It is good to hear you, for as I listen I say to myself, This one is of the servants of the Merciful who are to walk upon the earth softly. I accost33 you in advance, Welcome and Peace."
After a short silence, he continued: "A frequenter of mosques, you will see, O Prince, I have put you in the teacher's place. I am the student. Yours to open the book and read; mine to catch the pearls of your saying, lest they fall in the dust, and be lost."
"I fear my Lord does me honor overmuch; yet there is a beauty in willingness even where one cannot meet expectation. Of what am I to speak?"
Mahommed knit his brows, and asked imperiously, "Who art thou? Of that tell me first."
Happily for the Prince, he had anticipated this demand, and, being intensely watchful34, was ready for it, and able to reply without blenching35: "The Emir introduced me rightly. I am a Prince of India."
"Now of thy life something."
"My Lord's request is general--perhaps he framed it with design. Left thus to my own judgment36, I will be brief, and choose from the mass of my life."
There was not the slightest sign of discomposure discernible in the look or tone of the speaker; his air was more than obliging--he seemed to be responding to a compliment.
"I began walk as a priest--a disciple37 of Siddhartha, whom my Lord, of his great intelligence, will remember as born in Central India. Very early, on account of my skill in translation, I was called to China, and there put to rendering38 the Thirty-five Discourses39 of the father of the Budhisattwa into Chinese and Thibettan. I also published a version of the Lotus of the Good Law, and another of the Nirvana. These brought me a great honor. To an ancestor of mine, Maha Kashiapa, Buddha40 happened to have intrusted his innermost mysteries--that is, he made him Keeper of the Pure Secret of the Eye of Right Doctrine41. Behold42 the symbol of that doctrine."
The Prince drew a leaf of ivory, worn and yellow, from a pocket under his pelisse, and passed it to Mahommed, saying, "Will my lord look?"
Mahommed took the leaf, and in the silver sunk into it saw this sign:
[Illustration]
"I see," he said, gravely. "Give me its meaning."
"Nay43, my Lord, did I that, the doctrine of which, as successor of Kashiapa, though far removed, they made me Keeper--the very highest of Buddhistic44 honors--would then be no longer a secret. The symbol is of vast sanctity. There is never a genuine image of Buddha without it over his heart. It is the monogram45 of Vishnu and Siva; but as to its meaning, I can only say every Brahman of learning views it worshipfully, knowing it the compression of the whole mind of Buddha."
Mahommed respected the narrator's compunction, and returned the symbol, saying simply, "I have heard of such things."
"To pursue," the Prince then said, confident of the impression he was producing: "At length I returned to my own country enriched beyond every hope. A disposition46 to travel seized me. One day, passing the desert to Baalbec, some Bedouin made me prisoner, and carrying me to Mecca, sold me to the Scherif there; a good man who respected my misfortune and learning--may the youths ever going in Paradise forget not his cup of flowing wine!--and wrought47 with me over the Book of the One God until I became a believer like himself. Then, as I had exchanged the hope of Nirvana for the better and surer hope of Islam, he set me free.... Again in my native land, I betook myself to astrologic studies, being the more inclined thereto by reason of the years I had spent in contemplating48 the abstrusities of Siddhartha. I became an adept49--something, as my Lord may already know, impossible to such as go about unknowing the whole earth and heavens, and the powers superior, those of the sky, and those lesser50, meaning Kings, Emperors, and Sultans."
"How!" exclaimed Mahommed. "Is not every astrologer an adept?"
The Prince answered softly, seeing the drift was toward the professor in the young Turk's service. "There is always a better until we reach the best. Even the stars differ from each other in degree."
"But how may a man know the superior powers?"
"The sum of the observations kept by the wise through the ages, and recorded by them, is a legacy51 for the benefit of the chosen few. Had my Lord the taste, and were he not already devoted52 by destiny, I could take him to a college where what is now so curious to him is simple reading."
The hard and doubting expression on Mahommed's face began to soften53, yet he persisted: "Knowing the superior, why is it needful to know the inferior powers?"
"My Lord trenches54 now upon the forbidden, yet I will answer as his shrewdness deserves. Never man heard from the stars in direct speech-- that were almost like words with God. But as they are servants, they also have servants. Moreover what we have from them is always in answer. They love to be sought after by the diligent55. Some ages ago an adept seeking this and that of them conjecturally56, had reply, 'Lo! A tribe of poor wanderers in the East. Heed57 them, for they shall house their dominion58 in palaces now the glory of the West, and they shall dig the pit to compass the fall of the proud.' Is it this tribe? Is it that? But the seeker never knew. The children of Ertoghrul were yet following their herds59 up and down the pastures they had from Ala-ed-din, the Iconian. Not knowing their name, he could not ask of them from the decree-makers?"
The Mystic beheld60 the blood redden Mahommed's open countenance61, and the brightening of his eyes; and as he was speaking to his pride, he knew he was not amiss.
"The saying of the stars," he went on, "descended62 to succeeding adepts63. Time came to their aid. When at length your fathers seated themselves in Broussa, the mystery was in part revealed. Anybody, even the low-browed herdsman shivering in the currents blowing from the Trojan heights, could then have named the fortunate tribe. Still the exposure was not complete; a part remained for finding out. We knew the diggers of the pit; but for whom was it? To this I devoted myself. Hear me closely now--my Lord, I have traversed the earth, not once, but many times--so often, you cannot name a people unknown to me, nor a land whither I have not been--no, nor an island. As the grandson of Abd-el-Muttalib was a Messenger of God, I am a Messenger of the Predicting Stars--not their prophet, only their Interpreter and Messenger. The business of the stars is my business." Mahommed's lips moved, and it was with an effort he kept silent.
The Prince proceeded, apparently64 unconscious of the interest he was exciting: "Here and there while I travelled, I kept communication with the planets; and though I had many of their predictions to solve, I asked them oftenest after the unnamed proud one for whom thy Ottomanites were charged to dig a pit. I presented names without number--names of persons, names of peoples, and lest one should he overlooked, I kept a record of royal and notable families. Was a man-child horn to any of them, I wrote down the minute of the hour of his birth, and how he was called. By visitations, I kept informed of the various countries, their conditions, and their relations with each other; for as the state of the earth points favorably or unfavorably to its vegetation, so do the conditions of nations indicate the approach of changes, and give encouragement to those predestined to bring the changes about. Again I say, my Lord, as the stars are the servants of God, they have their servants, whom you shall never know except as you are able to read the signs their times offer you for reading. Moreover the servants are sometimes priests, sometimes soldiers, sometimes kings; among them have been women, and men of common origin; for the seed of genius falls directly from God's hand, and He chooses the time and field for the sowing; but whether high or low, white or black, good or bad, how shall a Messenger interpret truly for the stars except by going before their elect, and introducing them, and making their paths smooth? Must he not know them first?"
A mighty65 impulsion here struck Mahommed. Recurring66 rather to what he had heard from Mirza of the revelation dropped by the strange person met by him during the pilgrimage, he felt himself about to be declared of the elect, and unable to control his eagerness, he asked abruptly67:
"Knowest thou me, O Prince?"
The manner of the Mystic underwent a change. He had been deferential68, even submissive; seldom a teacher so amiable69 and unmasterful; now he concentrated his power of spirit, and shot it a continuing flash from his large eyes.
"Know thee, Lord Mahommed?" he answered, in a low voice, but clear and searching, and best suited to the conflict he was ushering70 in--the conflict of spirit and spirit. "Thou knowest not thyself as well."
Mahommed shrank perceptibly--he was astonished.
"I mean not reference to thy father--nor to the Christian71 Princess, thy mother,--nor to thy history, which is of an obedient son and brave soldier,--nor to thy education, unusual in those born inheritors of royal power--I mean none of these, for they are in mouths everywhere, even of the beggars nursing their sores by the waysides.... In thy father's palace there was a commotion72 one night--thou wert about to be born. A gold-faced clock stood in the birth chamber73, the gift of a German King, and from the door of the chamber eunuchs were stationed. Exactly as the clock proclaimed midnight, mouth and mouth carried the cry to a man on the roof--'A Prince is born! A Prince is born! Praised be Allah!' He on the roof was seated at a table studying a paper with the signs of the Zodiac in the usual formulary of a nativity. At the coming of the cry, he arose, and observed the heavens intently; then he shouted, 'There is no God but God! Lo, Mars, Lord of the Ascendant--Mars, with his friends, Saturn74, Venus, and Jupiter in happy configuration75, and the moon nowhere visible. Hail the Prince!' And while his answer was passing below, the man on the roof marked the planets in their Houses exactly as they were that midnight between Monday and Tuesday in the year 1430. Have I in aught erred76, my lord?"
"In nothing, O Prince."
"Then I proceed.... The nativity came to me, and I cast and recast it for the aspects, familiarities, parallels and triplicities of the hour, and always with the same result. I found the sun, the angles and the quality of the ambient signs favorable to a career which, when run, is to leave the East radiant with the glory of an unsetting sun."
Here the Jew paused, and bowed--"Now doth my Lord doubt if I know him best?"
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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attested
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| adj.经检验证明无病的，经检验证明无菌的v.证明( attest的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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turquoise
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| n.绿宝石；adj.蓝绿色的 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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inmates
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canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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mosques
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| 清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 ) | |
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expounding
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的现在分词 ) | |
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devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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prostration
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| n. 平伏, 跪倒, 疲劳 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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accost
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| v.向人搭话，打招呼 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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blenching
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| v.（因惊吓而）退缩，惊悸( blench的现在分词 )；（使）变白，（使）变苍白 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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Buddha
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| n.佛；佛像；佛陀 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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Buddhistic
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| adj.佛陀的，佛教的 | |
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monogram
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| n.字母组合 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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conjecturally
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| adj.推测的，好推测的 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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adepts
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| n.专家，能手( adept的名词复数 ) | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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67
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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68
deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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69
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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70
ushering
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的现在分词 ) | |
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71
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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72
commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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73
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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74
Saturn
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| n.农神，土星 | |
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75
configuration
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| n.结构，布局，形态，(计算机)配置 | |
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76
erred
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| 犯错误，做错事( err的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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