She sunk like a stone! * * * * * *
On the black waves of that midnight sea there rose a few bubbles, and a ripple or two, that widened round us, and then all was over! A voice broke the stillness; it was that of the Moolah praying. He was repeating the first chapter of the Koran; a short chapter held in great veneration by the Mohammedans, who use it us a prayer, and deem it the quintessence of the whole writings of the Prophet.
'Allah latif magid!' (Allah is gracious!) he exclaimed, with a loud voice: 'the Lord of all creatures—the most merciful the King of the day of judgment! Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right way—in the way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious—not of those against whom Thou art incensed and who go astray.'
'Amaun! amaun!' muttered all the ruffians, bowing their heads, as they shipped their oars again, and now the huge and lumbering koehamba was slowly pulled away from the place; from that hideous grave—the inky wafers that had swallowed up Iola Vidimo.
In the morning I was beloved by a beautiful woman—at night by an immortal but scarcely purer spirit; and with eyes full of tears for her who had passed away, I gazed upward on the starlit sky of Greece.
The passages of that night seemed all a hideous and incredible dream.
Iola was the most artless of all earthly beings, for in many things she was a mere child, and can aught be nearer angels, or more akin to heaven, than a child? But so perished this unhappy one; so pure, so unstained and beautiful—the victim of a pitiless destiny!
CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE TURKISH BOAT.
Our craft had been for some time in motion before I became aware that a large lateen sail was hoisted on it, and was filled to the extremity of its long and tapering yard; and that our course was directed, not to Rodosdchig, but up the sea of Marmora, towards the north-east.