Part 19 (1/2)
CHAPTER V THE LION OF THE FAITH
Asad-ed-Din, the Lion of the Faith, Basha of Algiers, walked in the evening cool in the orchard of the Kasbah upon the heights above the city, and at his side, stepping daintily, cahteen years ago he had carried off in his e above the Straits of Messina which his followers had raided
She had been a lissom maid of sixteen in those far-off days, the child of hu to the arms of her swarthy ravisher To-day, at thirty-four, she was still beautiful, more beautiful indeed than when first she had fired the passion of Asad-Reis--as he then was, one of the captains of the famous Ali-Basha
There were streaks of red in her heavy black tresses, her skin was of a soft pearliness that seeleam with sombre fires, her lips were full and sensuous
She was tall and of a shape that in Europe would have been accounted perfect, which is to say that she was a thought too slender for Oriental taste; she race, gently stirring her fan of ostrich pluo naked of face more often than was seemly, which is but the least of the many undesirable infidel hich had survived her induction into the Faith of Islam--a necessary step before Asad, as devout to the point of bigotry, would consent to make her his wife He had found her such a wife as it is certain he could never have procured at ho of his idle hour, insinuated herself into affairs, demanded and obtained his confidences, and exerted over hiht exert over her consort
In the years during which he had lain under the spell of her ripening beauty he had accepted the situation willingly enough; later, when he would have curtailed her interferences, it was too late; she had taken a firrip of the reins, and Asad was in no better case than eous condition this for a Basha of the Prophet's House It was also a dangerous one for Fenzileh; for should the burden of her at any time become too heavy for her lord there was a short and easy way by which he could be rid of it Do not suppose her so foolish as not to have realized this--she realized it fully; but her Sicilian spirit was daring to the point of recklessness; her very dauntlessness which had enabled her to seize a control so unprecedented in a Muslied her to maintain it in the face of all risks
Dauntless was she now, as she paced there in the cool of the orchard, under the pink and white petals of the apricots, the flaroves where the golden fruit glowed and areen She was at her eternal work of poisoning the ainst Sakr-el-Bahr, and in her ers of such an undertaking, fully aware of how dear to the heart of Asad-ed-Din was that absent renegade corsair
It was this very affection of the Basha's for his lieutenant that was the fomenter of her own hate of Sakr-el-Bahr, for it was an affection that transcended Asad's love for his own son and hers, and it led to the coh destiny of succeeding Asad in the Bashalik
”I tell thee thou'rt abused by him, O source of my life”
”I hear thee,” answered Asad sourly ”And were thine own hearing less infirm, woman, thou wouldst have heard ainst his deeds Words hts; deeds are ever the expression of them Bear thou that in mind, O Fenzileh”
”Do I not bear in mind thine every word, O fount of wisdom?” she protested, and left him, as she often did, in doubt whether she fawned or sneered ”And it is his deeds I would have speak for him, not indeed my poor words and still less his own”
”Then, by the head of Allah, let those same deeds speak, and be thou silent”
The harsh tone of his reproof and the scowl upon his haughty face, gave her pause for a moment He turned about
”Come!” he said ”Soon it will be the hour of prayer” And he paced back towards the yellow huddle of walls of the Kasbah that overtopped the green of that fragrant place
He was a tall, gaunt htly at the shoulders under the burden of his years; but his eagle face was lowed in his dark eyes
Thoughtfully, with a jewelled hand, he stroked his long white beard; with the other he leaned upon her soft pluorous still
High in the blue overhead a lark burst suddenly into song, and froentleof the great heat now that the sun was sinking rapidly towards the world's edge and the shadoere lengthening
Caain, more musical than either, yet laden ords of evil, poison wrapped in honey
”O ered with lory as my heart prompts me, but I must earn thy coldness”
”Abuse not him I love,” said the Basha shortly ”I have told thee so full oft already”
She nestled closer to hi of the doves ”And do I not love thee, O master of my soul? Is there in all the world a heart more faithful to thee than mine? Is not thy lifeof thine happiness? And wilt thou then frown upon me if I fear for thee at the hands of an intruder of yesterday?”
”Fear for ly ”What shouldst thou fear for me from Sakr-el-Bahr?”
”What all believers must ever fear from one who is no true Muslim, from one who ain advancement”