At the place where we reposed the first night, Selim, the Mameluke, met with a misfortune. We were scarcely arrived, and had tethered our horses, when his showed symptoms of colic. To cure him, he resorted to the means used in Syria and in Egypt, which, in my opinion, hastened his death. He mounted him and rode him in furious and short gallops backward and forward until the poor steed was covered with lather. His sufferings were evidently increased by this violent exercise. A decoction of cummin and aniseed, a remedy of the country, was then administered. He lingered in great pain until morning, and then died.
CHAPTER XIII.
Preparations for leaving Acre—Anecdotes of Gezzàr Pasha—Intrigues of his Women in his absence with the Mamelukes—Suspicions and plans of Gezzàr—Slaughter of the Women—Alarm and Rebellion of the Mamelukes—They take refuge in a tower and threaten to blow up the powder magazine—They escape in the night—General defection of the troops, who storm Tyre, but are routed before Acre—Further vengeance of Gezzàr.
Active preparations were now made for continuing our journey along the coast. Horses were purchased for the servants,[58] and camels hired for the baggage. But, before dismissing the subject of Acre altogether, it will not be amiss to relate one or two anecdotes touching that extraordinary man, Hadj Ahmed el Gezzàr, a pasha, whose ferocious character seems to partake more of the brute than of human nature, but whose vices have in some measure been redeemed by his patronage of literary men and by the many useful buildings which he erected and establishments which he founded. Still, amongst the tyrants whom we read of in the history of the Turks, whose annals are fruitful in such monsters, few appear to have been more sanguinary than El Gezzàr. Although he had at this time been dead some years, yet his name was perpetually the theme of conversation; and traits of great vice and great virtue were everywhere recorded of him in a way to leave an impression on the mind that he was a man of no common stamp. The following is an imperfect narrative of the Mameluke sedition, an important event in his government, and which, arising from the suspicious jealousy of a lustful disposition, had nearly brought his career to an early termination.
El Gezzàr was, from causes which it is not necessary here to detail, appointed Pasha both of Damascus and Acre. His power was at this time at its height, and his cruelties were supposed to have reached their acmè also. It would seem, however, that the hitherto known scale of human tyranny was deficient with respect to him. As Pasha of Damascus, he was obliged to conduct the pilgrims to Mecca: he left behind him a harým full of white beauties; it was said nearly one hundred. Of his Mamelukes, the whole number of whom was four hundred, half was thought unnecessary on the long journey on which he was gone, and therefore remained at Acre.
No sooner had El Gezzàr departed on the pilgrimage, than the eunuchs of the harým relaxed somewhat in their accustomed severity. At certain hours of the day, when the officers and attendants of the palace were moving about in the court below, the ladies would coax their black Arguses for permission to repair to the blinds of the windows to look at them. As they disputed on the respective merits of the gentlemen who passed, each would be led to select her favourite, and, by an easy transition, would feel desirous of informing him of her preference. Writing was dangerous, and a message still more so; but the language of flowers is understood in the East; and the present of a budding rose, a pink, or a carnation, is the billet-doux of the country.
Thus several intimations were given from those within to those without; and the agas and Mamelukes no doubt communicated their good fortune, each to his friend. Four or five of them entered into a secret resolution to attempt an entrance to the harým. One was the khasnadár, or treasurer of the Pasha, and brother of Selim, newly appointed pasha of two tails, the seraskier of El Gezzàr, and who had been left kekhyah, or vicegerent, in his absence.
The black eunuchs, who are the keepers of the harým, have each a key of the outer door. Whether by bribes or otherwise, the paramours contrived to obtain admission. After midnight, when all was quiet, the khasnadár and his companions opened the door; and, we may suppose, previously apprized where they were to go, found their expecting mistresses.
In the mean time the arduous and painful track of the Desert was traced and retraced, and El Gezzàr re-entered Acre. On his first visit to the harým, his keen eye soon told him that all was not as it used to be. To their submissive and servile manners was added something which showed him that other thoughts reigned in their bosoms besides dress and ornaments. He asked himself what it could be, and soon found a clue to guide his suspicions.
Sitting, one day, at a window that looked on the outer door of the harým, he observed a Christian, named Nummum, with a nosegay in his hand, knock at the door and deliver it to a slave. At night, when he retired to his harým, he thought he saw the same nosegay stuck carelessly under the tarbûsh[59] of one of his Sereahs, the lovely Zulyka, with the flowers hanging down and the stalks upwards according to the Eastern manner. “Come hither, girl: where did you get that nosegay?” said the Pasha. She readily answered, “Out of the garden.” He put on a smiling look—“Come, come, I know better than that: I saw Nummum, the Nazareen, with it. Tell me, my girl, who your admirer is, and I’ll see if I cannot give you to him in marriage. I have intended to find you a husband for some time.” The foolish Zulyka believed him to be in earnest, and told him she thought it came from the khasnadàr.