"The girl is really crazy," murmured the negro; "if thou hast come hither only to weep, thou couldst have done that just as well on the other side."
At that moment the voice of a bugle horn rang out from a distance through the silent night, whereupon the singer, suddenly transformed into a warrior, sprang to his feet. It was the first reveille from the camp of Buda to awake the sleepers, and Hariri disappeared to become Feriz Beg again, who, drawing his sword, quickly hastened away from among the willow-trees, and in his hurry forgot his lute beneath a silver birch.
"Thou seest he has departed from thee," cried the negro malevolently, seizing the damsel's hand. "Hasten back with me while yet there is time."
The girl arose—holding her breath as she gazed after the youth—and waited till he had disappeared among the bushes; then she drew forth the wreath of flowers which she had hidden in her bosom, and took a step forward, listening till the retreating footsteps had died away, and then suddenly rushed towards the abandoned lute, pressed it to her heart, covered it with kisses, and fell down beside it filled with agony and rapture.
Then she took the wreath and cast it round the lute, and the wreath was composed of these flowers: A rose. What does a rose signify in the language of love?—"I love thee, I am happy." Then a pomegranate-flower, which signifies: "I love none but thee!" Then a pink, which signifies: "I wither for love of thee." Then a balsam, which signifies: "I dare not approach thee." And, finally, a forget-me-not, which signifies: "Let us live or die together."
This wreath the odalisk fastened together with a lock of her own hair, which signifies: "I surrender my life into thy hands!" For a Turkish woman never allows a lock of her hair to pass into the hand of a stranger, believing, as she does, that whoever possesses it has the power to ruin or slay her, to deprive her either of her reason or her life.
Majmun gazed at her in astonishment. Was this all she had come for through so many terrible dangers?
"Hasten, damsel, with thine incantations," said he, "the camp is now aroused and the dawn is at hand."
Azrael cast a burning kiss with her hand in the direction whither Feriz had disappeared; then returning to the slave, she said, with her usual commanding voice:
"Remain here and count up to six hundred without looking after me, and by that time I shall have come back."