Munza, driven, no doubt, to desperation, suddenly sprang to his feet in a paroxysm of rage and clapped his hands to summon his officers, ever ready to assist him in case of emergency. These appeared at once, the King said a few words to them in a low tone, and, ten minutes afterwards, in walked all the royal wives. Miss Poles, meanwhile, expecting every moment that the King would fall on his knees at her feet.
As soon as ever the women were assembled, the King, pointing to Miss
Beatrice, said to them—
"This white woman has the impertinence to propose living here in this Palace, and taking your place by my side. Do what you like to her, I hand her over to you."
He disappeared, leaving our Englishwoman to fight it out with his eighty wives.
The scene which followed may easily be imagined. The women looked at each other, hesitating, still undecided, and altogether non-plussed. If their master had not been their informant they would not have believed their ears! This extraordinary looking creature, the jest and by-word of the harem ever since the day of the presentation, this woman, by herself, to pretend to oust them all, to supplant them, to monopolize their beloved Monza, their idol, and their God!
By degrees their anger rose, their eyes flashed, from eighty mouths flowed simultaneous torrents of abuse in the Monbuttoo tongue, and a perfect shower of invective fell like hail upon the unfortunate Englishwoman. She was powerless to reply, her presence of mind had deserted her; upright and motionless, she might have been taken for a lifeless image of resignation and grief.
To insults succeeded open menace, each urged on her neighbour, the timid ones took example by their bolder sisters, the most self-possessed became furious, and at last the whole band of furies advanced against Miss Poles, bent upon tearing her to pieces. The sense of her danger brought back her wonted coolness and bravery, and extricated her from her very ludicrous fix. She pulled her famous revolver out of her pocket, and thus keeping at bay her nearest enemies, she gained an outlet and took to flight.
The women pursued her with frenzied cries of rage, but none of these termagants, fed, well fed, in the seraglio, and weighed down by fat, could struggle at all successfully against the long legs and feet of Miss Poles. They would never have caught her up, if she had been able to get inside our doors without knocking.
Alas! our only door was shut, and Miss Beatrice soon found herself, like a stag at bay, obliged to put her back against the palisading, and face the pack of women who had, by means of this contretemps, come up with her. In spite of the firm stand she made, she would assuredly have been hurled to the ground, trodden under foot, eaten perhaps, if Nassar had not roused me to open the door, rescue our companion, and put to flight the furies let loose upon her.
As soon as Miss Beatrice's escapade was recounted to us in all its details, Madame de Guéran, Delange, and I could not help laughing. De Morin alone, instead of joining in our mirth, declared that, by virtue of the powers we had given him, he intended to administer a sharp reprimand to the culprit, and to forbid her for the future to take any step not previously authorized by us.