The Beg felt absolutely obliged to rush forthwith upon Haji Baba and pummel him right and left for daring to utter a word to put him off buying the damsel.

The slave-dealer patiently endured his kicks and cuffs, and when the jest was over, he said once more:

"And again I have to counsel you not to take the damsel for your master."

"What's amiss with her, then, thou big owl? Speak sense, or I'll hang thee up at thine own masthead."

"I'll tell you, sir, if only you will listen. That damsel has not belonged to one master only, for I know for certain that five have had her. All five, sir, have perished miserably by poison, the headman's sword, or the silken cord. She has brought misfortune to every house she has visited, and she has dwelt with Tartars, Turks, and Magyars. Against the Iblis that dwells within her, prophets, messiahs, and idols have alike been powerless; ruin and destruction breathe from her lips; he who embraces her has his grave already dug for him, and he who looks at her had best have been born without the light of his eyes. Therefore I once more implore you, sir, to let this damsel go to some poor mushir, whose head may roll off without anybody much caring, and do not convey danger to so high a house as the palace of Hassan Pasha."

The Beg shook his head.

"I thought thee a sharper, and I have found thee a blockhead," said he, and he signified to the damsel to wrap herself in her mantle and follow him.

"Allah is my witness that I warned you; I wash my hands of it," stammered Haji Baba.

"The girl will follow me; send thou for the money to my house."

"The Prophet seeth my soul, sir. If you are determined to take the damsel, I will not give her to you for money, lest so great a man may one day say that he bought ruin from me. Take her then as a gift to your master."

"But I have forgotten to ask the damsel's name?"

"I will tell you, but forget not every time that name passes your lips to say: 'Mashallah!' for that woman's name is the name of the devil, and doubtless she does not bear it without good cause, nor will she ever be false to it."

"Speak, and chatter not!"

"That damsel's name is Azrael ... Allah is mighty!"

CHAPTER IX.
THE AMAZON BRIGADE.

Then Yffim Beg arose, pressed the hand of Haji Baba, and said, just as he was moving off:

"They were the favourite damsels of Hassan Pasha, who had been sewn up in leathern sacks and flung into the water."

Haji Baba shook his head, which signifies with a Turk: I anticipated that.

Not long afterwards the whole host began to assemble below Pesth, encamping on the bank of the Danube; a bridge suddenly sprang into sight, and across it passed army corps, heavy cannons and wagons. First there arrived from Belgrade the Vizier Aga, with a bodyguard of nine thousand men, and pitched their tents on the Rákás; after him followed Ismail Pasha, with sixteen thousand Janissaries, and their tents covered the plain. The Tartar Khan's disorderly hordes, which might be computed at forty thousand, extended over the environs of Vácz; and presently Prince Ghyka also arrived with six thousand horsemen, and along with him the picked troops of the Vizier of Buda; the whole army numbered about one hundred thousand.

So Haji Baba did a roaring trade. There were numerous purchasers among so many Turkish gentlemen; there was something to suit everyone, for the prices were graduated; and Haji thought he might perhaps order up a fresh consignment from his agents at Belgrade, hoping to sell this off rapidly so long as the camp remained. But he very much wanted to know how long the concentration would go on, and how many more gentlemen were still expected to join the host, and with that object he sought out Yffim Beg.

The Beg answered straightforwardly that nearly everyone who had a mind to come was there already. The Prince of Transylvania had treacherously absented himself from the host, and only Kucsuk Pasha and young Feriz Beg's brigades were still expected; without them the army would move no farther.

At the mention of these names Haji Baba started.

"You have as good as made me a dead man, sir. I must now go back to Stambul with my whole consignment."

"Art thou mad?"

"No, but I shall become bankrupt, if I wait for these gentlemen. Never, sir, can I live in the same part of the world, sir, with those fine fellows, whom may Allah long preserve for the glory of our nation! I have two houses on the opposite shores of the Bosphorus, so that when these noble gentlemen are in Europe I may be in Asia, and when they come to Asia I may sail over to Europe."

"Thou speakest in riddles."

"Then you have not heard the fame of Feriz Beg?"

"I have heard him mentioned as a valiant warrior."

"And how about the brigade of damsels which is wont to follow him into battle?"

Yffim Beg burst out laughing at these words.

"It is easy for you to laugh, sir, for you have never dealt in damsels like me. But you should know that what I tell you is no jest, and Feriz Beg is as great a danger to every man who trades in women as plague or small-pox."

"I never heard of this peculiarity of his."

"But I have. I tell you this Feriz Beg is a youth with magic power, in whose eyes is hidden a talisman, whose forehead is inscribed with magic letters, and from whose lips flow sorcery and magic spells, so that whenever he looks upon a woman, or whenever she hears his words even through a closed door, that woman is lost for ever. Just as he upon whom the moon shines when he is asleep is obliged to follow the moon from thenceforth, so, too, this young man draws after him with the moonbeams of his eyes all the women who look upon him. Ah! many is the great man who has cursed the hour in which Feriz Beg galloped past his windows and thereby turned the heads of the most beauteous damsels. Even the Grand Vizier himself has wept the loss of his favourite bayadere Zaida, who descended from his windows by a silken cord into the sea, and swam after the ship which bore along Feriz Beg; and one night my kinsman, Kutub Alnuma, who is a far greater slave merchant than I am, was, while he slept, tied hand and foot by his own damsels to whom he heedlessly had pointed out Feriz Beg, and the whole lot incontinently ran after him."

"And what does the youth do with all these women?"

"Oh, sir, that is the most marvellous part of the whole story. For if he culled all the fairest flowers of earth for the sake of love, I would say that he was a wise man, who tasted the joys of Paradise beforehand. But it is quite another thing, sir. You will be horrified when I tell you that he at whose feet all the beauties of earth fling themselves, never so much as greets one of them with a kiss."

"Is he sick, then, or mad?"

"He loves another damsel, a Christian girl, who is far from here, and for whom he has pined from the days of his childhood. At the time of his first battle he saw this girl for the first time, and as often as he has gone to war since, it is always with her name upon his lips that he draws his sword."

"And what happens to the girls he takes away?"

"When the first of these flung themselves at his feet, offering him their hearts and their very lives and imploring him to kill them if he would not requite their love, to them he replied: 'You have not been taught to love as I love. Your love awoke in the shadows of rose-bushes, mine amidst the flashing of swords; you love sweet songs, and the voice of the nightingale, I love the sound of the trumpet. If you would love me, love as I do; if you would be with me, come whither I go; and if Allah wills it, die where I die.' Ah, sir, there is an accursed charm on the lips of this young man. He destroys the hearts of the damsels with his words so that they forget that Allah gave them to men as playthings and delightful toys, and they gird swords upon their tender thighs, fasten cuirasses of mail round their bosoms, and expose their fair faces to deadly swords."

"And do these women really fight, or is it all a fable?"

"They do wonders, sir. No one has ever seen them fly before the foe, and frequently they are victorious; and if they have less strength in their arms than men, they have ten times more fire in their hearts. And if at any one point the fight is most dogged, and the enemy collecting together his most valiant bands has tired out the hardly-pressed spahis and timariots, then the youth draws his sword and plunges into the blackest of mortal peril. And then the wretched women all plunge blindly after him, and each one of them tries to get nearest to him, for they know that every weapon is directed against him, and they ward off with their bosoms the bullets which were meant for him. And so long as the youth remains there, or presses forward, they never leave him, the whole battalion perishes first. And at last, if he wins the fight and remains master of the field, the youth dismounts from his horse, collects the bodies of the slain who have fallen fighting beside him, kisses them one by one on their foreheads, sheds tears on their pale faces, and with his own hands lays them in the grave. And, believe me, sir, these bewitched, enchanted damsels are mad after that kiss, and their only wish is to gain it as soon as possible."

"And is there none to put an end to this scandal? Have the generals no authority to abolish this abomination? Do not the outraged owners demand back their slave-girls?"

"You must know, sir, that Feriz Beg stands high in the favour of the Sultan. He is never prominent anywhere but on the battlefield, but there he gives a good account of himself; and if anybody who came to his tents to try and recover his slave-girls by force, he might easily be sent about his business minus his nose and ears. Besides, who could say that these warriors of Feriz are women? Do they not dispense thrusts and slashes instead of kisses? Do you ever hear them sing or see them dance and smile so long as they are under canvas? Oh, sir, I assure you that you would do well if you told all those who buy slave-girls from me to guard the damsels from the enchanting dark eyes of this man, for there is a talisman concealed in them. And, in particular, forget not to tell your master to conceal his damsel, for you know not what might happen if a magician caused a female Iblis15 to enter into her. If an enamoured woman is terrible, what would an enamoured she-devil be? You bought her, take care that she does not sell you! The day before yesterday you threw his favourite women into the water, the day after to-morrow you might——but Allah guard my tongue, I will not say what I would. Watch carefully, that's all I'll say. Yet to keep a watch upon women is the most difficult of sciences. If you want to get into a beleagured fortress, hide an enamoured woman in it, and she'll very soon show you the way in. Take heed to what I say, sir, for if you forget my words but for half an hour, I would not give my little finger-nail for your head."

Whereupon Yffim Beg arose without saying a word and withdrew, deeply pondering the words of the slave-dealer. But Haji Baba that same night drew up his anchors, and at dawn he had vanished from the Danube, none knew whither.

CHAPTER X.
THE MARGARET ISLAND.

Oh, that woman is a veritable dream! Since he possessed her Hassan Pasha is no longer a man, but a piece of wax which receives the impression of her ideas. He hears nothing but her voice, and sees nothing but her. Already they are beginning to say that Hassan Pasha no longer recognizes a man ten feet off, and is no longer able to distinguish between the sound of the drum and the sound of the trumpet. And it is true, but whoever said so aloud would be jeopardizing his head, for Hassan would conceal his failings for fear of being deprived of the command of the army if they became generally known.

All the better does Yffim Beg see and hear, Yffim Beg who is constantly about Azrael; if he were not such an old and faithful favourite of Hassan Pasha he might almost regret that he has such good eyes and ears. But Azrael's penetrating mind knows well enough that Yffim Beg's head stands much more firmly on his shoulders than stand the heads of those whom Hassan Pasha sacrifices to her whims, so she flatters him, and it is all the worse for him that she does flatter.

Hassan Pasha, scarce waiting for the day to end and dismissing all serious business, sat him down in his curtained pinnace, known only to the dwellers on the fairy island, and had himself rowed across to his hidden paradise, where, amidst two hundred attendant damsels, Azrael, the loveliest of the living, awaits him in the hall of the fairy kiosk, round whose golden trellis work twine the blooms of a foreign sky.

Yffim Beg alone accompanies the Pasha thither.

The Governor, after embracing the odalisk, strolled thoughtfully through the labyrinth of fragrant trees where the paths were covered by coloured pebbles and a whole army of domesticated birds made their nests in the trees. Yffim Beg follows them at a little distance, and not a movement escapes his keen eyes, not so much as a sigh eludes his sharp ears; he keeps a strict watch on all that Azrael does and says.

In the midst of their walk—they hadn't gone a hundred paces—a falcon rose before them from among the trees and perched on a poplar close by.

"Look, sir, what a beautiful falcon!" cried Yffim Beg.

Azrael laughed aloud and looked back.

"Oh, my good Beg, how canst thou take a wood-pigeon for a falcon? why it was a wood-pigeon."

"I took good note of it, Azrael, and there it is sitting on that poplar."

"Why, that's better still—now he calls a nut-tree a poplar. Eh, eh! worthy Beg, thou must needs have been drinking a little to see so badly."

"Well, that was what I fancied," said the Beg, much perplexed, and for the life of him not perceiving the point of the jest. Why should the odalisk make a fool of him so?

"But look then, my love," said Azrael, appealing to the Pasha; "thou didst see that bird fly away from the tree yonder, was it not a wood-pigeon flying from a nut-tree?"

Hassan saw neither the tree nor the bird, but he pretended he did, and agreed with the odalisk.

"Of course it was a wood-pigeon and a nut-tree."

Yffim Beg did not understand it at all.

They went on further, and presently Yffim Beg again spoke.

"Shall we not turn, my master, towards that beautiful arcade of rose-trees?"

Azrael clapped her hands together in amazement.

"What! an arcade of roses! Where is it?"

"Turn in that direction and thou wilt see it."

"These things! Why if he isn't taking some sumach trees full of berries for an arcade of rose-trees!"

Hassan Pasha laughed. As for Yffim Beg he was lost in amazement—why did this damsel choose to jest with him in this fashion?

At that moment a cannon shot resounded from the Pesth shore.

"Ah!" said the Pasha, stopping, "a cannon shot!"

"Yes, my master," said Yffim, "from the direction of Pesth."

"From Pesth indeed," said Azrael, "it was from Buda; it was the signal for closing the gate."

"I heard it plainly."

"Excuse me, my good Beg, but thy hearing is as bad as thy sight. I am beginning to be anxious about thee. How could it be from the direction of Pesth when the whole camp has crossed over to Buda?"

"Maybe a fresh host has arrived, which now awaits us."

"Come," cried Azrael, seizing Hassan's hand, "we will find out at once who is right;" and she hastened with them to the shore of the island.

On the further bank the camp of Feriz Beg was visible; they were just pitching their tents on the side of the hills. A company of cavalry was just going down to the water's-edge, at whose head ambled a slim young man whose features were immediately recognised, even at that distance, both by the favourite Beg and the favourite damsel.

Only Hassan saw nothing; in the distance everything was to him but a blur of black and yellow.

"Well, what did I say?" exclaimed Yffim Beg triumphantly; "that is the camp of Feriz Beg, and there is Feriz himself trotting in front of them."

The words were scarce out of his mouth when the terrible thought occurred to him that Azrael had no business to be looking upon this strange man.

The odalisk, laughing loudly, flung herself on Hassan's neck.

"Ha, ha, ha! the worthy Beg takes the water-carrying girls for an army!"

Then Yffim Beg began to tremble, for he perceived now whither this woman wanted to carry her joke.

"My master," said he, "forbid thy slave-girl to make a fool of me. The camp of Feriz Beg is straight in front of us, and thou wilt do well to prevent thy maid-servant from looking at these men with her face unveiled."

"Allah! thou dost terrify me, good Beg!" said Azrael, feigning horror so admirably that Hassan himself felt the contagion of it.

"Say! where dost thou see this camp?"

"There, on the water-side; dost thou not see the tents on the hillocks?"

"Surely it is the linen which these girls are bleaching."

"And that blare of trumpets?"

"I only hear the merry songs that the girls are singing."

In his fury Yffim Beg plucked at his beard.

"My master, this devilish damsel is only mocking us."

"Thou art suffering from deliriums," said Azrael, with a terrible face, "or thou art under a spell which makes thee see before thee things which exist not. Contradict me not, I beg; this hath happened to thee once before. Dost thou not remember when thou fleddest from Transylvania how, then also, thou didst maintain that the enemy was everywhere close upon thy heels! Thou also then wert under the spell of a hideous enchantment, for thy eunuch horseman who remained behind at Nagyenyed, and is now a sentinel on this island, hath told me that there was no sign of any enemy for more than twenty leagues around, and he remained waiting for thee for ten days and fancied thou wert mad. Most assuredly some evil sorcery made thee fly before an imaginary enemy without thy turban or tunic."

Yffim Beg grew pale. He felt that he must surrender unconditionally to this infernal woman.

"Was it so, Yffim?" cried Hassan angrily.

"Pardon him, my lord," said Azrael soothingly; "he was under a spell then, as he is now. Thou art bewitched, my good Yffim."

"Really, I believe I am," he stammered involuntarily.

"But I will turn away the enchantment," said the damsel; and tripping down to the water's-edge she moistened her hand and sprinkled the face of the Beg, murmuring to herself at the same time some magic spell. "Now look and see!"

The Beg did all that he was bidden to do.

"Who, then, are these walking on the bank of the Danube?"

"Young girls," stammered the Beg.

"And those things spread out yonder."

"Wet linen."

"Dost thou not hear the songs of the girls?"

"Certainly I do."

"Look now, my master, what wonders there are beneath the sun!" said Azrael, turning towards Hassan Pasha; "is it not marvellous that Yffim should see armies when there is nothing but pretty peasant girls?"

"Miracles proceed from Allah, but methinks Yffim Beg must have very bad sight to mistake maidens for men of war."

Yffim Beg durst not say to Hassan Pasha that he also had bad sight; he might just as well have pronounced his own death sentence at once. Hassan wanted to pretend to see all that his favourite damsel pointed out, and she proceeded to befool the pair of them most audaciously in the intimate persuasion that Hassan would not betray the fact that he could not see, while Yffim Beg was afraid to contradict lest he should be saddled with that plaguy Transylvanian business.

Meanwhile, on the opposite bank, Feriz Beg in a sonorous voice was distributing his orders and making his tired battalions rest, galloping the while an Arab steed along the banks of the Danube. The odalisk followed every movement of the young hero with burning eyes.

"I love to hear the songs of these damsels; dost not thou also, my master?" she inquired of Hassan.

"Oh, I do," he answered hastily.

"Wilt thou not sit down beside me here on the soft grass of the river bank?"

The Pasha sat down beside the odalisk, who, lying half in his bosom, with her arm round his neck, followed continually the movements of Feriz with sparkling eyes.

"Look, my master!" said she, pointing him out to Hassan; "look at that slim, gentle damsel, prominent among all the others, walking on the river's bank. Her eyes sparkle towards us like fire, her figure is lovelier than a slender flower. Ah! now she turns towards us! What a splendid, beauteous shape! Never have I seen anything so lovely. Why may I not embrace her—like a sister—why may I not say to her, as I say to thee, 'I love thee, I live and die for thee?'"

And with these words the odalisk pressed Hassan to her bosom, covering his face with kisses at every word; and he, beside himself with rapture, saw everything which the girl told him of, never suspecting that those kisses, those embraces, were not for him but for a youth to whom his favourite damsel openly confessed her love beneath his very eyes!

And Yffim Beg, amazed, confounded, stood behind them, and shaking his head, bethought him of the words of Haji Baba, "Cast forth that devil, and beware lest she give you away!"

CHAPTER XI.
A STAR IN HELL.

The eunuchs steal softly along the banks of the Margaret Island with their long muskets, and stop still and watch for any suspicious skiff drawing near to the island; and the most wakeful of them is old Majmun, who, even when he is asleep, has one eye open, and in happier times was the guardian of the harem. He sits down on a hillock, and even a carrier-pigeon with a letter under its wings could not have eluded his vigilance. He has only just arrived on the island, having previously accompanied Yffim Beg into Transylvania, and therefore has only seen Azrael once.

His eyes roam constantly around, and his sharp ears detect even the flight of a moth or a beetle, yet suddenly he feels—some one tapping him on the shoulder.

He turns terrified, and behold Azrael standing behind him.

"Accursed be that singing over yonder. I was listening to it, so did not hear thee approach. What dost thou want? Why dost thou come hither in the darkness of night? How didst thou escape from the harem?"

"I prythee be quiet!" said the odalisk. "This evening I went a-boating with my master, and a gold ring dropped from my finger into the water; it was a present from him, and if to-morrow he asks: 'Where is that ornament?' and I cannot show it him, he will slay me. Oh, let me seek for it here in the water."

"Foolish damsel, the water here is deep; it will go over thy head, and thou wilt perish."

"I care not; I must look for it. I must find the ring, or lose my life for it."

And the odalisk said the words in such an agony of despair that the eunuch was quite touched by it.

"Thou shouldst entrust the matter to another."

"If only I could find someone who can dive under the water, I would give him three costly bracelets for it; I would give away all my treasures."

"I can dive," said Majmun, seized by avarice.

"Oh, descend then into the water for me," implored the damsel, falling on her knees before him and covering the horny hand of the slave with her kisses. "But art thou not afraid of being suffocated? For then in the eyes of the governor I should be twice guilty."

"Fear not on my account. In my youth I was a pearl-fisher in the Indian Ocean, and I can remain under water and look about me like a fish, even at night, while thou dost count one hundred. Only show me the place where the ring fell from thy finger."

Azrael drew a pearl necklace from her arm and casting it into the water, pointed at the place where it fell.

"It was on the very spot where I have cast that; if thou dost fetch up both of them for me, the second one shall be thine."

Majmun perceived that this was not exactly a joke, and laying aside his garment and his weapon, bade the damsel look after them, and quickly slipped beneath the water.

In a few seconds the eunuch's terrified face emerged above the water and he struck out for the shore with a horrified expression.

"This is an evil spot," said he; "at the bottom of the water is a heap of human heads."

"I know it," said the odalisk calmly.

The eunuch was puzzled. He gazed up at her, and was astounded to observe that in the place of the sensitive, supplicating figure so lately there, there now stood a haughty, awe-inspiring woman, who looked down upon him like a queen.

"Those heads there are the heads of thy comrades," said Azrael to the astounded eunuch, "whom last night and the preceding nights I asked to do me a service, which they refused to do. Next day I accused them to the governor and he instantly had their heads cut off without letting them speak."

"And what service didst thou require?"

"To swim to the opposite shore and give this bunch of flowers to that youth yonder."

"Ha! thou art a traitor."

"No such thing. All I ask of thee is this: dost thou hear those songs in that grove yonder? Very well, swim thither and give him this posy. If thou dost not, thy head also will be under the water among the heap of the others. But if thou dost oblige me I will make thee rich for the remainder of thy life. It is in thine own power to choose whether thou wilt live happily or die miserably."

"But I have a third choice, and that is to kill thee," cried the eunuch, gnashing his teeth.

Azrael laughed.

"Thou blockhead! Whilst thou wert still under the water it occurred to me to fill thy musket with earth and gird thy dagger to my side. Utter but a cry and thou wilt have no need to wait for to-morrow to lay thy head at thy feet."

At these words the damsel squeezed the eunuch's arm so emphatically that he bent down before her.

"What dost thou command?"

"I have already told thee."

"I am playing with my own head."

"That is not as bad as if I were playing with it."

"What dost thou want of me?"

"I want thee to row me across to the opposite shore."

"There is only one skiff on the island, and in that Yffim Beg is wont to fish."

"Oh, why have I never learnt to swim!" cried Azrael, collapsing in despair.

"What! wouldst thou swim across this broad stream?"

"Yes, and I'll swim across it now, this instant."

"Those are idle words. If thou art not a devil thou wilt drown in this river if thou canst not swim."

"Thou shalt swim with me. I will put one hand on thy shoulder to keep me up."

"Thou art mad, surely! Only just now thou didst threaten me with death, and now thou wouldst trust thy life to me! I need only hold thee under for a second or two to be rid of thee for ever. Water is a terrible element to him who cannot rule over it, the dwellers beneath the waves are merciless."

"By putting my life into thy hands I show thee that I fear thee not. Lead me through the water!"

"Thou art mad, but I still keep my senses. Go back to the Vizier's kiosk while he hath not noticed thy absence. I will not betray thee."

"Then thou wilt not go with me?" said the odalisk darkly.

"May I never see thee again if I do so," said Majmun resolutely, sitting down on a hillock.

"Wretched slave!" cried Azrael in despair, "then I will go myself."

And with that she cast herself into the water from the high bank. Majmun, unable to prevent her leap, plunged in after her and soon emerged with her again on the surface of the water, holding the woman by her long hair.

She suddenly embraced the eunuch with both arms, turned in the water so as to come uppermost and raising her head from the waves, cried fiercely to the submerged eunuch:

"Go to the opposite shore, or we'll drown together."

The eunuch, after a short, desperate struggle, becoming convinced that he could not free himself from the arms of the damsel who held him fast like a gigantic serpent, with a tremendous wrench contrived to bring his head above the water and cried unwillingly:

"I'll lead thee thither."

"Hasten then!" cried Azrael, releasing him from her arms and grasping the woolly pate of the swimmer with one hand; "hasten!"

The eunuch swam onwards. Nothing was to be seen but a white and a black head moving closely together in the darkness and the long tresses of the damsel floating on the surface of the waves.

"Is the bank far?" she presently asked the slave, for she was somewhat behind and could not see in front of her.

"Art thou afraid?"

"I fear that I may not be able to see it."

"We shall be at the other side directly. The stream is broad just now, for the Danube is in flood."

A few minutes later the negro felt firm ground beneath his feet, and the odalisk perceived the branch of a willow drooping above her face. Quickly seizing it, she drew herself out of the water.

Softly and tremulously she ran towards the grove of trees which concealed what she sought, and on perceiving the singer, whose enchanting tones had enticed her across the water, she stood there all quivering, holding back her breath, and with one hand pressed against her bosom.

The young singer was sitting on a silver linden-tree. He had just finished his song, and had placed the lute by his side, and was gazing sadly before him with his handsome head resting against his hand as if he would have summoned back the spirit which had flown far far away on the wings of his melody.

"Now thou canst speak to him," said Majmun to the damsel.

Azrael stood there, leaning against a weeping willow and gazing, motionless, at the youth.

"Hasten, I say. The night is drawing to an end and we have to get back again. Wherefore dost thou hesitate when thou hast come so far for this very thing?"

The odalisk sighed softly, and leant her head against the mossy tree trunk.

"Thou saidst thou wouldst rush to him, embrace his knees, and greet him with thy lips, and now thou dost stand as if rooted to the spot by spells."

The damsel slowly sank upon her knees and hid her face in her garment.

"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."

Majmun counted up to six hundred with a loud voice.

Meanwhile, Azrael ran along the dam of the river bank till she came to the sluice, which she raised by the exertion of her full strength. The liberated water began to flow through the opening with a mighty roar.

Then Azrael hastened back to the negro.

"And now for the island," said she.

And once more they traversed the dangerous way, Azrael lying on her back with a hand on the negro's head. In her bosom was a poplar leaf, which afforded her great satisfaction.

On reaching the island Azrael richly recompensed the negro, and said to him:

"To-morrow morning, at dawn, thy master, Yffim Beg, will seek thee and command thee to accompany him and Hassan Pasha across the bridge to the other side where stands the camp of Feriz Beg. Thou wilt find no one there, but look at the place where we were this night, and if thou shouldst find there a nosegay or a wreath, bring it to me!"

Majmun listened with amazement. How could Azrael have found out all about these things?

Azrael returned to the kiosk, where Hassan Pasha was still sleeping the deep sleep of opium. He awoke in the arms of his favourite, and he could not understand why her hands were so cold and her kisses so burning.

The odalisk told him she had been dreaming. She had dreamt that she swam across the river enticed by the singing of the Peris.

Hassan smiled.

"Go on sleeping, and continue thy dream," said he.

The sun was high in the heaven when Hassan Pasha quitted the kiosk. Yffim Beg was awaiting him.

"Wilt thou not ride to Pesth there to mark out the place for the camp of Feriz Beg, who has just arrived?"

Azrael shrewdly guessed that Yffim Beg was for leading the Governor to the Pesth shore to satisfy him as to the peasant girls whom he was said to have mistaken for soldiers by some evil enchantment. She also thought how convenient it would be for her that they should take Majmun with them for the whole day.

Hassan accordingly accepted Yffim's invitation, and galloped with him and Majmun over to the opposite shore, where Yffim was amazed to discover that not a soul of Feriz Beg's host was visible.

In the night the suddenly released water had covered the whole ground of their camp, and they had been obliged to retire farther away from the river and seek another encampment beyond Pesth.

Yffim Beg would have liked to have torn out his beard in his wrath if he had not been restrained by the general's presence.

But Majmun, under the pretext of clearing the way, reconnoitred the scene of yesterday's interview, and there, in the roots of the silver birch, he found that a wreath had been deposited. He concealed it beneath his burnush, and carried it home to Azrael.

The wreath was composed of two pieces—a branch of laurel and a spray of thorn.

The damsel bowed her head before this answer. She knew that it signified: "Suffer if thou wouldst prevail!"

CHAPTER XII.
THE BATTLE OF ST. GOTHARD.