CHAPTER LV.
Night brought little sleep to the Turkish host. Though danger waspast, a sense of humiliation and chagrin was shared by officers andmen, as they realized that their defeat was due to their own follymore than to the strength of their foe. In every tentless group themen disturbed the quiet of the night with their ceaseless quarrels.Members of the different commands, hopelessly confused in the generalflight, rivalled one another in the rancor and contempt of theirmutual recriminations as much as they ever emulated one another in thecourage and prowess of a well fought field. Among those of highestrank bitter and insulting words were followed by blows, as if thegeneral disgrace could be washed out by a gratuitous spilling of theirown blood.
But a different interest kept Ballaban waking. Beneath the great tree,which had been designated as the headquarters of the Janizaries, andfrom a limb of which was suspended the symbolic kettle, his prisonerhad been awaiting the Chief Aga. The glimpse of his face at the timeof the capture had awakened in the Janizary more than a suspicion ofthe personality of the captive; while the name of Ballaban, which hehad heard from the soldiers, revealed to the Albanian that of hiscaptor. With impatience the Aga conversed with the various commanderswho thronged him, and as soon as possible dismissed them. When theywere alone Constantine rose, and, without completing his salam,exclaimed,
"You play more roughly, Michael, than when last we wrestled togetheramong the rocks of Slatiza."
"Ah, my brother Constantine, I thought of you when you gripped me inthe fight to-day; for it was the same old hug with which we rolledtogether long ago. I would have known you, had you only given me timeto think, without your raising the visor."
The brothers stood for a moment in half embrace, scanning each other'sface and form. An onlooker would have noted that their mutualresemblance was not in the details of their features, so much as incertain marked peculiarities; such as the red and bristling hair,square face, prominent nose and chin. Constantine's forehead washigher than Michael's, which had more breadth and massiveness acrossthe brows. In speaking, Constantine's eye kindled, and his plasticlips gave expression to every play of sentiment: while Michael's facewas as inflexible as a mask; the deep light of his glance asthoroughly under control of his will as if it were the flash of a darklantern; his appearance revealing not the shadow of a thought, not theflicker of an emotion, beyond that he chose to put into words. Thisphysiognomical difference was doubtless largely due to the training ofyears. The Janizary's habit of caution and secretiveness evolved, asit were, this invisible, but impenetrable, visor. The custom ofunquestioning obedience to another, and that of the remorselessprosecution of whatever he regarded as politic for the service, gaverigidity to the facial muscles; set them with the prevalent purpose;stereotyped in them the expression of determination. A short beardadded to the immobile cast of his countenance. Thus, though whenseparated the two men might readily be taken the one for the other,when together their resemblance served to suggest as wide contrasts.
The entire night was spent by the brothers in mutual narrations oftheir eventful lives. Though their careers had been so distinct, indifferent lands, under rival civilizations, in the service ofcontending nations, and inflamed by the incentives of antagonisticreligions, yet their roads had crossed at the most important points ineach. They learned to their astonishment that the most significantevents, those awakening the deepest experience in the one life, hadbeen due to the presence of the other. As Michael told of his raidupon the Albanian village, Constantine supplied the key to the mysteryof the escape of his fair captive, and the arrest of Michael forhaving at that time deserted his command. Then Michael in turnsupplied the key to Constantine's arrest by Colonel Kabilovitsch's menas a Turkish spy. Constantine solved the enigma of Amesa's overturesto Michael in reference to the Dodola Elissa; and Michael solved thatof Constantine's rough handling by the garrison of Sfetigrade forhaving dropped the dog into the well. Constantine unravelled thediabolical plot which had nearly been tragic for Michael in the oldreservoir at Constantinople; and Michael as readily unravelled that ofthe serio-comic drama in the tent of Mahomet, when Constantine's lifewas saved through the assumption that he was his lunatic brother.Constantine supplied to Michael the missing link in the story ofMorsinia's escape from Constantinople; and Michael supplied thatwhich was wanting of Constantine's knowledge of the story of herescape from death in the horrors of the scene in St. Sophia after thecapture of the city. They had, under the strange leadings of what boththeir Christian and Moslem faith recognized as a Divine Providence,been more to each other than they could have been had their livesdrifted in the same channel during all these years. In the old boyhoodconfidence, which their strange meeting had revived, Michael did notwithhold the confession of Morsinia's influence upon him, though shehad been to him more of an ideal than a real person, a beautifuldevelopment to his imagination out of his childhood memory of hislittle playmate in the Balkans. Nor did Constantine hesitate todeclare the love and betrothal by which he held the charming realityas his own. He told, too, of her real personality as the ward ofScanderbeg, and the true heir of the splendid estates until recentlyheld by Amesa.
The dawn brought duties to the Aga which precluded further conferencewith Constantine.
"We must part, my dear brother," said Michael. "Our armies willprobably return through Macedonia, and abandon the campaign: for suchis the unwise determination of our commander Isaac. You must escapeinto your own lines. That can be easily arranged. We may not meetagain soon; but I swear to you, by the memory of our childhood, thatyour personal interest shall be mine. Aside from the necessities ofthe military service, we can be brothers still. And Morsinia, thatangel of our better natures; you must let me share with you, if nother affection, surely her confidence. I could not woo her from you ifI would; but assure her that, though wearing the uniform of an enemy,I shall be as true in my thoughts of her as when we played by the oldcot on the mountains; and as when I pledged my life to serve her whileshe was in the harem at Stamboul."
"But why must this war against Castriot continue? I would that ourcompact were that of the armies to which we belong," said Constantine.
"It is impossible for a Janizary to sheath the sword while Scanderbeglives," replied the Aga. "Our oath forbids it. He once was held by thevow of the Prophet's service, and deserted it. I know his temptationwas strong. In my heart I might find charity for him." The speakerhesitated as if haunted by some troublesome memory, thencontinued--"But a Janizary may show no charity to a renegade. Besides,he is the curse of Albania. But for his ambition, these twelve yearsof blood would have been those of peace and happiness through allthese valleys, under the sway of our munificent and wise Padishah."
"Your own best thoughts, Michael, should correct you. What are peaceand its happy indolence compared with the cause of a holy faith?"
"You speak sublimely, my brother," replied Michael, "but your faithgains nothing by this war. Under our Padishah's beneficence theGiaours are protected. The Greeks hold sufficient churches, even inStamboul, for the worship of all who remain in that faith. Indeed, Ihave heard Gennadius the monk of whom you were speaking awhileago--say that he would trust his flock to the keeping of the Moslemstranger sooner than to the Pope of Rome. I have known our Padishahdefend the Greek Giaours from the tyranny of their own bishops. Heasks only the loyalty of his people to his throne, and awaits the willof Allah to turn them to his faith; for the Book of the Prophet saystruly, Allah will lead into error whom he pleaseth and whom hepleaseth he will put in the right way.[109] Believe me, my brother,Albania's safety is only in submission. The Fate that directs allaffairs has indubitably decreed that all this vast peninsula betweenAdria and AEgea shall lie beneath the shadow of the Padishah's sceptre;for he is Zil-Ullah, the shadow of God. Who can resist the conquerorof the capital of your Eastern Christian Empire; the conqueror ofAthens, and of the islands of the sea?"
"Let us then speak no more of this," said Constantine. "Our traininghas been so different, that we can
not hope to agree. But we can beone in the kindliness of our thoughts, as we are of one blood. Jesubless you, my brother!"
"Allah bless you, Constantine!" was the hearty response, as the twograsped hands. Eyes which would not have shown bodily pain by so muchas the tremor of their lids, were moist with the outflow of thosesprings in our nature that are deeper than courage--springs ofbrotherly affection, fed by hallowed memories of the long ago.
Two Janizaries accompanied Constantine beyond the Turkish lines.
"What new scheme has the Aga hatched in his brain now?" said one ofthem, as they returned.
"He has twisted that fellow's brain so that he will never serveScanderbeg truly again," was the knowing reply. "The Aga is the verydevil to throw a spell over a man. They say that when he captured thefellow yesterday, he had only to squint into his face a moment, when,as quick as a turn of a foil, the man changed his looks, and was asmuch like the Aga as two thumbs."
FOOTNOTE:
[109] Koran, Chapter VI.
The Captain of the Janizaries Page 55
