The Arab's Pledge: A Tale of Marocco in 1830. Edward Ledwich Mitford

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СКАЧАТЬ this time the return of Abdslem, with the Cadi's soldiers, to summon Azora to the presence of that functionary, put an end to her lamentations; and forgetting her caution and the usual respect to be shown to a Moslem, she endeavoured to assuage her grief by uselessly aggravating their oppressors.

      "Oh! may a mother's curse light on you and yours! May your children be fatherless, and your wife a widow. Had your eye (sleepless be it ever) no pity? Could you not spare my innocent child? Perjured slave! reprobate scum of the children of Edom—may every curse that ever came out of the mouth of man be poured in one appalling mass on your devoted head! O Lord of Hosts! hear me!"

      These curses were poured out, half in Hebrew half in Arabic, as she stood with one arm round her daughter, and the other raised to heaven! She looked an inspired prophetess expecting the thunderbolt to seal her denunciation.

      "Listen!" exclaimed Abdslem to the appalled bystanders—"be witness to her curses, and to me,—a Moslem!—Woman, your curses be on your own head. What is written will happen! If the Prophet, (on whom peace,) has enlightened your daughter's mind with the truth of Islam, and she wishes to leave your worn-out religion, what is it to me? The praise be to God, what is written must be!"

      "A lie! he knows it a lie," said Azora. "I was born a Jewess, and so I will die! and I go not except by force!"

      "Then force it shall be;" and with the help of the soldiers, and in spite of her screams and resistance, they tore her from her mother, who, overcome with anguish, swooned in the arms of the women who had collected and looked on in terror. Abdslem then threw her hayk over Azora (for he would not take a woman through the streets unveiled) and led her off in triumph, the crowd that followed chanting as they went along—

      "La illaw il Allaw—

       Mohammed er rasool Allaw!"

      Azora had often heard this chanted at the Moorish funerals, and she now felt it as the knell of death.

      The Cadi was sitting in the gate of the town, where he usually administered justice; these gates have side arched recesses where the guards are quartered and are very convenient for the transaction of such business. The Cadi was a fine-looking old man, his white turban was without a plait, and he was enveloped in a fine woollen hayk. The crowd had been beaten off by the guards, and Azora stood before the Cadi almost unconscious of what was passing around her. The oaths of Hassan and Abdslem were carefully written down with a reed pen, and sworn on the Koran, which was reverently held above the waist, and then restored to the case in which it was kept. "God be praised!" said the Cadi, "God be praised. For you, my daughter, my heart is joyful for your conversion. Ya Mohammed—glory to the Prophet, he has saved you from Djehennem, your name shall be changed;—and Hassan, he is a good youth, Hassan,—and a good Moslem,—he shall take charge of you, and instruct you in the Koran,—a good sponsor."

      Hassan's countenance was beaming with satisfaction, and he already congratulated himself on his success; he little knew the heroic spirit that dwelt in that fair form.

      "But I forget," said the Cadi, "we must go through the forms of the law,—I grow old. Sidi Abd el Kader Jilelly, protect me. Come, my daughter, and repeat the profession of faith, 'La illaw—'"

      Azora had stood motionless while her accusers gave in their lying witness, and an appalling sense of the danger of her position crept over her, as she found herself, a helpless girl, in such ruthless hands; but at this point she summoned resolution to speak.

      "What these perjured men lay on my head," she said solemnly, "is false—utterly false, and never will I be guilty of becoming an apostate from the faith of my fathers!"

      "May evil be averted!" ejaculated the Cadi, pushing his spectacles upon his forehead; "this is another story, and alters the case." And here he cast a glance of scrutiny at the witnesses, whose involuntary confusion showed him at once that the charge was false; but he was a Moor, and a fanatic, and covetous withal, and with such adepts at bribery, it required very little by-play to make him see his profit in the transaction. "Daughter," said he, severely, "they have sworn; they are Moslem—you cannot retract when you have once said it. Hear the law,"—and he again took the Koran from its case, and turning over the leaves, intoned a long passage in Arabic, "'If any shall confess the faith of Islam, and afterwards relapse, the infidel shall be burnt,' &c., &c. That is the penalty of obstinacy. Are you prepared to forfeit your life? Speak! I await your decision." But Azora remained stunned. "Away with the Infidel!" cried the Cadi. "To prison with her!" and the guards advanced to obey his orders. Just then a ray of hope flashed on her mind.

      "Stop! my lord judge," said she; "I will not submit to your unjust decision. I hereby appeal to our Lord the Sultan; he will see justice done to the helpless and oppressed."

      This was her last resource. An appeal to the Sultan, publicly made, cannot be passed over, and she thus removed herself and her cause from the hands of her persecutors. Hassan was foiled, but, unwilling to expose his feelings in public, he hastily left the place, in no very enviable state of mind, followed by Abdslem. The Cadi, though feeling his dignity offended, was obliged to put a good face on the matter. Muttering some unscriptural phrases against the protection given by the Sultan to the infidels, he directed Azora to be consigned to the women of his own hareem until her cause could be submitted to the Sultan.

CHAPTER III.

       THE PLEDGE.

       Table of Contents

      s soon as Rachel recovered her consciousness, the poor mother looked round in vain for her child, and felt almost crushed by her desolation, but soon, with that elasticity of feeling so providentially given to her race, she began to turn over in her mind the means of rescuing Azora from what she could not conceal from herself was most imminent danger. She pondered long and deeply. The first object was to raise money; for, in a country like this, she knew that bribery was the first, if not, the first and last, means of success; and she at once began collecting all their little articles of jewellery, and what money was in her possession. While turning out the contents of one or two small trunks, in which she kept what she possessed of value, her eye was arrested by the sight of a small green velvet pouch, four or five inches square, ornamented with tarnished embroidery, such as is commonly used for carrying flint and steel.

      "The Pledge!" exclaimed Rachel, her face brightening with hope; "as my soul liveth, this is not sent to me for nought in my hour of peril. The Arab's Pledge! Oh! he will save us! But where to find him? Alas! he may be a month's journey in the Desert—but no! now I remember I heard that he was marching with the tribes against the south, and was already at Tafilelt."

      She immediately sent to call her daughter's betrothed, who was already on his way to the house, the intelligence of this outrage having quickly spread. These betrothals take place at an early age, and as young people, among the Jews, see a great deal of each other, their marriages, as a rule, are cemented by great affection, and attended with much happiness. Yusuf was a young man engaged in trade, who had been in the habit of travelling with small ventures in the provinces; he was strongly built, and accustomed to fatigue, and possessed considerable talent, with a large amount of caution and common sense. He was almost in a state of frenzy, which was aggravated by his knowledge of its impotence, as he listened to Rachel's description of the occurrence.

      "O mother! dear mother! this is horrible, to be deprived at a blow of all that is dear to me. And oh! what must her sufferings be? Why are we such СКАЧАТЬ