The Arab's Pledge: A Tale of Marocco in 1830

by Edward Ledwich Mitford

"Nothing, O Sheik! The procession passes on."

"And in the distance?—your eyes were wont to be good," said Ali.

"Nothing, O Sheik! The plain is white;—the procession has arrived;—the green flag of Islam is planted near a tree.—Two vultures have risen from the woods, on the south of the plain.—The woman is being taken towards the pile of wood."

"Mount!" said Ali, becoming desperate, and every man was in his saddle.

"A jackal has broken from the wood," resumed the scout, "it crosses the plain—looking back.—Now I think I see our people;—they emerge from the woods;—they are forming outside;—a body is left in reserve;—I see the Chief at the head of his band! Lo! they come!"

And the next minute he had slid to the ground.

Azora stood on the pile, in relief against the clear sky; one of the executioners was preparing the ropes to attach her to the stake, while the other stood by with the torch awaiting the order from the Cadi to fire the pile. Suddenly there was a movement of alarm among the crowd, and Azora's eye brightened, as, looking across the plain in the direction in which they swayed, she saw a cloud of dust approaching from the south; immediately afterwards a cry was raised, "El Aarb! El Aarb! Fly! fly! The Arabs! the Arabs!" and in a few minutes the whole crowd was flying across the plain which separated them from the town, and streaming towards the gates like frightened cattle. Down came the dark mass of cavalry charging at full speed; the earth shook, and from three hundred voices rose above the noise and screams of the crowd the wild shout, "Allaw ho Ackbar!" Onward came the Arabs, in every variety of costume, turbans, and burnooses, from the marauding expedition, put over their blue shirts; their guns poised, they swept over the comparatively abandoned space, separating as they passed the pile; they trampled on or struck down the affrighted stragglers, and wheeling, brought up beyond. The Chief, with Sheik Ayoub, were in the centre of the charge, and checking their speed as they came up, Ayoub sprang from his saddle to the top of the pile, and cutting with his ataghan the cords with which he had already begun to bind his victim, he dashed the executioner to the earth; the dogged villain, enraged at losing his prey, was up the next minute, and climbing the wood pile on the other side, dagger in hand to rush on Azora, when he was confronted by the glaring eye of Hassan the maniac, who with one blow of his mace shattered his skull, and hurled him, this time, lifeless to the ground. In the meantime, the other executioner, inspired by the hate of fanaticism, before he attempted to escape, threw his torch into the prepared pile, which was instantly in a blaze; he was cut down and trampled under foot; but there was no time to be lost, and Azora, half fainting, was lowered down and placed in the litter, which had been sent forward by Ali.

Ali, while this had been going on, had not been idle; emerging from the grove, with a plume of black ostrich-feathers carried on a spear, to distinguish him to his tribesmen, he galloped down and surrounded the party of cavalry round the Cadi. Being dressed as Moors, these at first supposed they were friends come to their assistance, until they found themselves each with a double-barrel at his breast, and before they could recover from their surprise, they were all disarmed, and their horses hobbled; the Cadi and his scribes wondering whether it was written that their throats were to be cut by the Arabs.

"Resistance is useless," said Ali to the soldiers.

"You have seen me before, O my lord the Cadi!" and Al Maimon's face was as white as his beard at finding himself in the power of one who was looked on as an afreet, and who had so often escaped from his sentences.