CHAPTER XLIX.
Imminent as was the danger still, the curiosity of both at thestrangeness of the Providence which had brought them back to eachother, as from the dead, was such that they must talk; and thefreshness of the newly-kindled love stole many a moment for endearingembrace. Indeed an hour passed, and the night might have flown whilethey loitered, were it not that the rising wind brought a distantsound which awakened them to the remembrance that they were stillfugitives.
Constantine at length insisted that his companion should lie upon thebottom of the boat, and take needed rest.
"If I had now my feridje!" said she.
"I have provided for that," replied Constantine. "Yours would berecognized. I have one belonging to the common women, which will bebetter." In addition to the feridje, the foresight of Constantine hadlaid in warm wraps and a store of provisions. These were packed inbundles that they might be carried conveniently on horses, in thehand, or in the boat, as necessity should compel.
"I cannot rest," said Morsinia, "when there is so much to say andhear."
"But you must lie down. I will tell you my story; then you can tell meyours."
"But can we not stop?"
"No. It will not be safe to do so yet."
"I have learned to trust your guidance as well as your love," saidshe, and reclined in the stern of the boat.
The moon rose near to midnight. The fog illumined by it made themclearly visible to each other, while it shut out the possibility oftheir being seen by any from a distance.
"It is the blessing of Jesu upon us," said Morsinia. "The same as whenHe stood upon the little lake in Galilee, like a form of light, andsaid, 'Be not afraid.'"
Constantine gave his story in hasty sentences and detached portions,breaking it by pauses in which he listened for pursuers, or gave hiswhole strength to the oars, or, more frequently, did nothing but gazeat his companion: more than once reaching out his hand to touch her,and see if she were not an apparition.
He told of his escape from the Turks, his arrest as a lunatic and thescene before the Sultan, his return to Constantinople after itscapture, and the apparent evidence he there had from the old beggar,of Morsinia's death: with all of which the reader is familiar. He alsorelated how he had gone to Albania. The report of Morsinia's death hadcaused the greatest grief to Kabilovitsch, and thrown General Castriotinto such a rage that he found easement for it in a special raid uponthe Turkish camp; which raid was remembered, and was still spoken ofby the soldiers, as the "Call of the Maiden." For as Castriot returnedfrom fearful slaughter, in which he had completely riddled the enemy'squarters, captured their commander and compelled them to break up thecampaign, the general was overheard to say, "The maiden's spiritcalled us and we have answered." Without knowing the meaning of thesewords the soldiers probably assumed that they were a reference to theHoly Virgin Mary, whose blessing Castriot had invoked upon theenterprise. After that Sultan Mahomet sent a special embassage andproposal of peace to Albania. In the royal letter he stated,
"She whom the Emperor of the Greeks was unable to keep for Scanderbegis now in the custody of the royal harem, safe and inviolate; to bedelivered into Scanderbeg's hand as a pledge of a treaty by whichScanderbeg shall agree to cease from further depredations and invasionof Macedonia, and to submit to hold his kingdom in fief to the Ottomanthrone."
The letter ended with a boastful reference to the Sultan's conquest ofConstantinople, Caramania and other countries, and the threat ofinvading Albania with a host so great as to cover all its territorywith the shadow of the camps.
Castriot's reply, when known, filled the Dibrians and Epirots withgreatest enthusiasm. It closed with the words,--
"What if you have subjugated Greece, and put into servitude them ofAsia! These are no examples for the free hearts of Albania!"[104]
The news contained in Mahomet's missive led Castriot to allowConstantine to go to Constantinople, that he might discover, ifpossible, whether Morsinia was really living, and was the personreferred to by the Sultan. On reaching the city, Constantine hadsought out the monk Gennadius, with whom he had been often thrownbefore and during the siege. From him he learned nothing of Morsiniaexcept the old story of her self-sacrifice by the side of thealtar;--which story had become so adorned with many additions inpassing from mouth to mouth, that the "Fair Saint of Albania" waslikely to be enrolled upon the calendar of the holy martyrs.Constantine was returning with the monk from the church of Baloukli,where they had gone to see the perpetuated miracle of the fishes whichleaped from the pan on hearing of the capture of the city, and whichare still, with one side black with the frying, swimming in the tankof holy water. He had just reached the little gate of the monk'slodging when Morsinia's message was put into his hand by a little oldwoman.
"But how did you know of my arrival in Constantinople?" Constantineasked, as he concluded his account.
The question led to Morsinia's story, and the revelation that hisbrother Michael was still living, an officer of the Sultan, as like toConstantine as one eye to the other; their mistaken identity by KalaHanoum having led to the present happy denouement. The mutualnarratives of the past grew into plans for the future, the chief partof which related to the restoration of Michael from the service of theMoslem.
While they talked, the day broke over the Asiatic coast. The faintglow of light rapidly changed into bars of gold, which weretransformed into those of silver, and melted again into a broad sheenof orange and purple tints. But for the shadowed slopes of the easternshore that lay between the water and the sky, this would have madeMarmora like an infinite sea of glory.
But there was a fairer sight before the eyes of Constantine; one moresuggestive of the heavenly. It was the face of his beloved, now firstclearly seen. It seemed to him that she could not have been moreenchanting if he had discovered her by the "River of the Water ofLife" in the Golden City, where only he had hoped ever again to gazeupon her.
FOOTNOTE:
[104] According to Knowles, this was a part of Scanderbeg's reply toAmurath II.
The Captain of the Janizaries Page 49
