The Sultan did not seem to hear the request at all. The idea that Alan and his crew should thus deliberately devote themselves and their beautiful vessel to annihilation in the event of their orders being disobeyed appalled and unnerved him. He knew nothing, save by tradition, of the heights of heroism to which men can rise under the stimulus of war, and he looked upon the man who had so calmly pronounced the provisional death sentence of himself and his companions as something more than human, as beings of a higher order, to fight against whom would be impious rashness rather than courage.
It was a situation that would have shaken the nerves of the sternest and most experienced soldier of the nineteenth century, and so it was no wonder that his spirit, unbraced by the discipline of war, shrank from facing its terrors. He saw, too, that there was literally no choice save between submission and destruction. To save, not only the lives of himself and his people, but also those of his guests and allies, he and they must submit and obey this imperious mandate.
“It is the will of God!” he said, bowing his head slightly towards Alan as he spoke. “They who cannot fight must yield. Hereafter we may meet upon more equal terms, and then to-day’s humiliation shall not be forgotten.”
Alan inclined his head in reply, and said—
“So be it! As your Majesty has seemingly decided to involve the world in the horrors of war, it is not for me to say any more. When the day of battle comes, let the fortune of war decide between us. Meanwhile, Orloff Lossenski, it is time that you took the Council’s message to your mistress.”
“Give it to me,” said the Sultan, stepping forward with outstretched hands, “and I will take it to her, if she has risen yet.”
“There is no need for that,” said a voice a few yards beyond Alan. “I am here, and I will take it.”
As the sweet, low, even tones, now so hatefully familiar, reached Alan’s ears he turned sharply round, with a blaze of ungovernable anger in his eyes, and saw Olga, calm and self-possessed in all the pride of her imperial beauty, walking towards the group from an arched doorway that led up from the interior of the palace.
