He was instantly obeyed. The soldiers surrounded their commander, and hurried him off, followed by the panting Priest; and in ten minutes more the whole party stood before the Seraskier.
The fateful moment had arrived; and the heart of the young man beat high with a thousand conflicting feelings as the Emir told his tale, and implored vengeance on the miscreant who had dared to beard him beneath his own roof, and to attempt a violation of his harem; but he was re-assured by the tone of the Pasha, as he turned towards him, when the angry father had ceased speaking, and bade him explain his motives for such unheard-of violence.
“Noble Pasha,” said the lover, “may your days be many!—I will hide nothing from you. I love this old man’s daughter; and I have asked her of him for a wife. I have won her heart, no matter where nor how; but may my hours be numbered if I pollute your ears with falsehood. He has spurned me with insult because I am a soldier—He has declared the uniform of the glorious Sultan (May his shadow ever lie long upon the earth!) to be the brand of obloquy and disgrace; and had I not loved the girl more than perhaps it is altogether seemly for a True Believer to love a woman, I should have given him back scorn for scorn. But I could not do this without regret; and it is through my own agency that I now stand before your Excellency, to plead my cause, and to teach this hoary Priest that the soldier of the Sultan is not to be taunted to his teeth, even by a white-turbaned Emir. I could not force myself into your presence, noble Pasha, to talk to you of a woman; and thus I played the part of a madman in order that I might be dragged hither as a culprit, and learn from your own lips whether the crescent upon my breast is to make me an outcast from society.”
“Did he indeed demand your daughter for his wife?” asked the Seraskier, as he removed the chibouk from his lips, and glanced towards the Priest. He was answered doggedly in the affirmative.
“Take heed, then, Emir”—pursued the Pasha, “This looks like disaffection to his Highness: (May his end be glorious!) See that the girl become the wife of this young man ere many days roll over your head, or the holy turban that you wear shall not protect you. What? is it for you, and such as you, to sow divisions among the subjects of the most gracious Sultan? Look to this ere it be too late.”
And as the baffled Emir turned away, the Seraskier bade one of his officers take steps to secure to the victorious suitor the rank of Captain; and to pay to him five thousand piastres from his (the Pasha’s) own purse, as a marriage present.
The step was a bold one, for it was the first instance in which an Emir’s daughter had ever been permitted to become the wife of a soldier. A thousand long-existing prejudices had hitherto rendered such an alliance impossible; and it was a great stroke of policy to break down the strong barrier of habit and fanaticism, and to create a bond of union between two jarring and jealous portions of the population.