Part 25 (2/2)
”May Allah increase thy s of our Lord Mahomet upon thee! Allah send thee more victories!” were the benedictions that showered upon him on every hand
He returned them as became a man as supremely pious and devout
”The peace of Allah upon the Faithful of the Prophet's House,” he would murmur in response froates There he bade Tsaars--for is it not written in the Most Perspicuous Book that of alms ye shall bestohat ye can spare, for such as are saved froive in al the face of Allah shall be doubled unto you?
Submissive to the laws as the meanest of his subjects, Asad dismounted and passed on foot into the sok He ca the curtained penthouse, he blessed the kneeling crowd and commanded all to rise
He beckoned Sakr-el-Bahr's officer Ali--as in charge of the slaves of the corsair's latest raid and announced his will to inspect the captives At a sign fro aside the caht beat in upon those pent-up wretches; they were not only the captives taken by Sakr-el-Bahr, but some others ere the result of one or two lesser raids by Biskaine
Asad beheld a huddle of h the proportion of woes, races, and conditions; there were pale fair-haired men from France or the North, olive-skinned Italians and swarthy Spaniards, negroes and half-castes; there were oldmen and mere children, sos In the hopeless dejection of their countenances alone was there any uniformity But it was not a dejection that could awaken pity in the pious heart of Asad They were unbelievers ould never look upon the face of God's Prophet, accursed and unworthy of any tenderness frolance was held by a lovely black-haired Spanish girl, who sat with her locked hands held fast between her knees, in an attitude of intense despair and suffering--the glory of her eyes increased and nified by the dark brown stains of sleeplessness surrounding the her for a little while; then his glance travelled on
Suddenly he tightened his grasp of Tsamanni's arm and a quick interest leapt into his sallow face
On the upperlory of womanhood, such a woman as he had heard tell existed but the like of which he had never yet beheld She was tall and graceful as a cypress-tree; her skin hite as olden that seeht it She was dressed in a close gown of white, the bodice cut low and revealing the immaculate loveliness of her neck
Asad-ed-Din turned to Ali ”What pearl is this that hath been cast upon this dung-heap?” he asked
”She is the woland”
Slowly the Basha's eyes returned to consider her, and insensible though she had dee under the cold insult of his steady, insistent glance The glow heightened her beauty, effacing the weariness which the face had worn
”Bring her forth,” said the Basha shortly
She was seized by two of the negroes, and to avoid being roughly handled by thenity whateverard and stubbled with a beard of sorowth, looked up in alarroan, he made as if to clutch her, but a rod fell upon his raised arhtful It was Fenzileh who had bidden him come look at the infidel maid wholand, suggesting that in her he would behold soainst the corsair leader He beheld the wons as Fenzileh had suggested he must find, nor indeed did he look for any Out of curiosity had he obeyed her prootten now in the contemplation of this noble ensample of Northern womanhood, statuesque almost in her terrible restraint
He put forth a hand to touch her arers were of fire
He sighed ”How inscrutable are the ways of Allah, that He should suffer so luscious a fruit to hang fro him craftily, aupon his master's moods, made answer:
”Even so perchance that a Faithful of the Prophet's House s are possible to the One!”
”Yet is it not set down in the Book to be Read that the daughters of the infidel are not for True-Believers?” And again he sighed
But Tsa full well how the Basha would like to be answered, trireat, and what hath befallen onceeyes flashed a glance at his wazeer
”Thou meanest Fenzileh But then, by the htenment”
”It ain, my lord,”
in his mind than the mere desire to play the courtier noixt Fenzileh and hiotten of the jealousy which each inspired in the other where Asad was concerned Were Fenzileh rerow and spread to his own profit It was a thing of which he had often dreamed, but a dream he feared that was never like to be realized, for Asad was ageing, and the fires that had burned so fiercely in his earlier years seeht of wo and so diverse froht, that plainly she had acted as a charm upon his senses
”She is white as the snows upon the Atlas, luscious as the dates of Tafilalt,” heher what time she stood immovable before him Suddenly he looked about hi charged with anger