“Oh, I know he will,” cried Ina. “For he dearly loves me.”
“Our father, Ina, is as good as he is brave; and it shall be my grateful charge to plead your cause with him. I will tell him, that my friend is of a noble and princely race, who were chiefs in their own country before Russian swords overwhelmed them. As for wealth, we want it not here. We have abundance for all.”
Thus conversing, those three young beings sat beneath the trees of the sacred grove, till the rising moon warned them to return home.
In the fervid climes of the East, smiles and laughter succeed tears and grief, as rapidly as sunshine follows the showers of spring. Life is more full of excitement and danger; the pulse beats quicker; the passions are more easily aroused, whether of sorrow or pleasure. There is, perhaps, more to enjoy in life; but it is held by even a more frail tenure than in the colder regions of the north.
On the following morning the inhabitants of the anderoon were in a state of great agitation, while old Kahija bustled about to array Zara in her bridal vestments; for her betrothed was anxiously waiting her arrival at his father’s house. The old nurse, with tears streaming from her eyes, was busily employed in enveloping her in a long white robe, fastened at her head; which, when drawn round, completely concealed her figure.
“My dear Ina,” said the blushing girl, “Alp yesterday evening was persuading me to leave you. He says that he must soon return to that horrid warfare, and that his mother is anxiously waiting me at his home. He will be alarmed if I do not come; he used many other arguments, till I consented at last, in spite of all my kind nurse’s persuasions to the contrary.”
“It will make me sad to lose you, dear one; but it would be wrong to disappoint your brave Alp’s mother,” said Ina, smiling and kissing her cheek. “So you must yield to your fate: a dreadful one, indeed, to become the wife of so wild and handsome a youth as Alp!”
“I wonder when young Ali Bey will be here. Alp said that he would come early; but I dread that terrible gallop to his home.”
“We will go to the gate and see if he is coming,” said Ina. “Are you ready, dear one?”
Zara signified that she was prepared for the worst that could happen; so the two maidens sallied forth followed by old Kahija. They had not long to wait when the young bridegroom galloped up, attired in his bravest suit, followed by a gay and gallant train. They reined in their steeds at a short distance; when, all dismounting, he alone respectfully advanced, and courteously saluted the two fair girls, drawing his sword as he knelt at Zara’s feet, and swearing solemnly to protect her, for his friend’s sake, with his life. Then, after she had bestowed an affectionate kiss on Ina and on old Kahija, he lifted her, with the tenderest care, before him on his steed, and galloped off towards the domain of Hadji Guz Beg.