by Lew Wallace
CHAPTER XIII
MAHOMMED HEARS FROM THE STARS
The second recall of the Emir Mirza departing with the appointment forthe Prince of India was remarkable, considering Mahommed's usualquickness of conclusion and steadiness of purpose; and the accountingfor it is noteworthy.
So completely had the young Turk been taken up by study and militaryservice that leisure for love had been denied him; else he eitherdespised the passion or had never met a woman to catch his fancy andhold it seriously.
We have seen him make the White Castle by hard galloping before thebursting of the storm. While at the gate, and in the midst of hisreception there, the boats were reported making all speed to the riverlanding; and not wishing his presence at the Castle to be known inConstantinople, he despatched an under officer to seize the voyagers,and detain them until he had crossed the Bosphorus _en route_ toAdrianople. However, directly the officer brought back the spiritedmessage of the Princess Irene to the Governor of the Castle, his mindunderwent a change.
"What," he asked, "sayst thou the woman is akin to the EmperorConstantine?"
"Such is her claim, my Lord, and she looks it."
"Is she old?"
"Young, my Lord--not more than twenty."
Mahommed addressed the Governor:
"Stay thou here. I will take thy office, and wait upon this Princess."
Dismounting, then, in the capacity of Governor of the Castle, hehastened to the landing, curious as well as desirous of offering refugeto the noble lady.
He saw her first a short way off, and was struck with her composeddemeanor. During the discussion of his tender of hospitality, her facewas in fair view, and it astonished him. When finally she stepped fromthe boat, her form, delicately observable under the rich and gracefuldrapery, and so exquisitely in correspondence with her face, stillfurther charmed him.
Before the chairs were raised, he sent a messenger to the Castle withorders to place everybody in hiding, and for his Kislar-Aga, or chiefeunuch, to be in the passage of entrance to receive and take charge ofthe kinswoman of the Emperor and her attendant. By a further order theGovernor proper was directed to vacate his harem apartments for heraccommodation.
In the Castle, after the Princess had been thus disposed of, theimpression she made upon him increased.
"She is so high-born!--so beautiful!--She has such spirit andmind!--She is so calm under trial--so courageous--so decorous--so usedto courtly life!"
Such exclamations attested the unwonted ferment going on in his mind.Gradually, as tints under the brush of a skilful painter losethemselves in one effect, his undefined ideas took form.
"O Allah! What a Sultana for a hero!"
And by repetition this ran on into what may be termed the chorus of alove song--the very first of the kind his soul had ever sung.
Such was Mahommed's state when Mirza received the turquoise ring, and,announcing the Prince of India, asked for orders. Was it strange hechanged his mind? Indeed he was at the moment determining to see againthe woman who had risen upon him like a moon above a lake; so, directlyhe had despatched the Emir to the Prince of India with the appointmentfor midnight, he sent for an Arab Sheik of his suite, arrayed himselfin the latter's best habit, and stained his hands, neck, andface-turned himself, in brief, into the story-teller whom we have seenadmitted to amuse the Princess Irene.
At midnight, sharply as the hour could be determined by the uncertainappliances resorted to by the inmates of the Castle, Mirza appeared athis master's door with the mystical Indian, and, passing the sentinelthere, knocked like one knowing himself impatiently awaited. A voicebade them enter.
The young Turk, upon their entrance, arose from a couch of manycushions prepared for him under a canopy in the centre of the room.
"This, my Lord, is the Prince of India" said Mirza; then, almostwithout pause, he turned to the supposed Indian, and added moreceremoniously: "Be thou happy, O Prince! The East hath not borne a sonso worthy to take the flower from the tomb of Saladin, and wear it, asmy master here--the Lord Mahommed."
Then, his duty done, the Emir retired.
Mahommed was in the garb used indoors immemorially by his race--sharplypointed slippers, immense trousers gathered at the ankles, a yellowquilted gown dropping below the knees, and a turban of balloon shape,its interfolding stayed by an aigrette of gold and diamonds. His headwas shaven up to the edge of the turban, so that, the light fallingfrom a cluster of lamps in suspension from the ceiling, every featurewas in plain exposure. Looking into the black eyes scarcely shaded bythe upraised arching brows, the Prince of India saw them sparkle withinvitation and pleasure, and was himself satisfied.
He advanced, and saluted by falling upon his knees, and kissing theback of his hands laid palm downward on the floor. Mahommed raised himto his feet.
"Rise, O Prince!" he said--"rise, and come sit with me."
From behind the couch, the Turk dragged a chair of ample seat, railedaround except at the front, and provided with a cushion of camel'shair--a chair such as teachers in the Mosques use when expounding totheir classes. This he placed so while he sat on the couch the visitorwould be directly before him, and but little removed. Soon the two weresitting cross-legged face to face.
"A man devout as the Prince of India is reported to me," Mahommedbegan, in a voice admirably seconding the respectful look he fixed uponthe other, "must be of the rightly guided, who believe in God and theLast Day, and observe prayer, and pay the alms, and dread none butGod--who therefore of right frequent the temples."
"Your words, my Lord, are those of the veritable messenger of the mosthigh Heaven," the Wanderer responded, bending forward as if about toperform a prostration. "I recognize them, and they give me thesensation of being in a garden of perpetual abode, with a river runningbeneath it." Mahommed, perceiving the quotation from the Koran, bentlow in turn, saying: "It is good to hear you, for as I listen I say tomyself, This one is of the servants of the Merciful who are to walkupon the earth softly. I accost you in advance, Welcome and Peace."
After a short silence, he continued: "A frequenter of mosques, you willsee, O Prince, I have put you in the teacher's place. I am the student.Yours to open the book and read; mine to catch the pearls of yoursaying, lest they fall in the dust, and be lost."
"I fear my Lord does me honor overmuch; yet there is a beauty inwillingness even where one cannot meet expectation. Of what am I tospeak?"
Mahommed knit his brows, and asked imperiously, "Who art thou? Of thattell me first."
Happily for the Prince, he had anticipated this demand, and, beingintensely watchful, was ready for it, and able to reply withoutblenching: "The Emir introduced me rightly. I am a Prince of India."
"Now of thy life something."
"My Lord's request is general--perhaps he framed it with design. Leftthus to my own judgment, I will be brief, and choose from the mass ofmy life."
There was not the slightest sign of discomposure discernible in thelook or tone of the speaker; his air was more than obliging--he seemedto be responding to a compliment.
"I began walk as a priest--a disciple of Siddhartha, whom my Lord, ofhis great intelligence, will remember as born in Central India. Veryearly, on account of my skill in translation, I was called to China,and there put to rendering the Thirty-five Discourses of the father ofthe Budhisattwa into Chinese and Thibettan. I also published a versionof the Lotus of the Good Law, and another of the Nirvana. These broughtme a great honor. To an ancestor of mine, Maha Kashiapa, Buddhahappened to have intrusted his innermost mysteries--that is, he madehim Keeper of the Pure Secret of the Eye of Right Doctrine. Behold thesymbol of that doctrine."
The Prince drew a leaf of ivory, worn and yellow, from a pocket underhis pelisse, and passed it to Mahommed, saying, "Will my lord look?"
Mahommed took the leaf, and in the silver sunk into it saw this sign:
"I see," he said, gravely. "Give me its meaning."
"Nay, my Lord, did I that, the doctrine of which, as su
ccessor ofKashiapa, though far removed, they made me Keeper--the very highest ofBuddhistic honors--would then be no longer a secret. The symbol is ofvast sanctity. There is never a genuine image of Buddha without it overhis heart. It is the monogram of Vishnu and Siva; but as to itsmeaning, I can only say every Brahman of learning views itworshipfully, knowing it the compression of the whole mind of Buddha."
Mahommed respected the narrator's compunction, and returned the symbol,saying simply, "I have heard of such things."
"To pursue," the Prince then said, confident of the impression he wasproducing: "At length I returned to my own country enriched beyondevery hope. A disposition to travel seized me. One day, passing thedesert to Baalbec, some Bedouin made me prisoner, and carrying me toMecca, sold me to the Scherif there; a good man who respected mymisfortune and learning--may the youths ever going in Paradise forgetnot his cup of flowing wine!--and wrought with me over the Book of theOne God until I became a believer like himself. Then, as I hadexchanged the hope of Nirvana for the better and surer hope of Islam,he set me free.... Again in my native land, I betook myself toastrologic studies, being the more inclined thereto by reason of theyears I had spent in contemplating the abstrusities of Siddhartha. Ibecame an adept--something, as my Lord may already know, impossible tosuch as go about unknowing the whole earth and heavens, and the powerssuperior, those of the sky, and those lesser, meaning Kings, Emperors,and Sultans."
"How!" exclaimed Mahommed. "Is not every astrologer an adept?"
The Prince answered softly, seeing the drift was toward the professorin the young Turk's service. "There is always a better until we reachthe best. Even the stars differ from each other in degree."
"But how may a man know the superior powers?"
"The sum of the observations kept by the wise through the ages, andrecorded by them, is a legacy for the benefit of the chosen few. Had myLord the taste, and were he not already devoted by destiny, I couldtake him to a college where what is now so curious to him is simplereading."
The hard and doubting expression on Mahommed's face began to soften,yet he persisted: "Knowing the superior, why is it needful to know theinferior powers?"
"My Lord trenches now upon the forbidden, yet I will answer as hisshrewdness deserves. Never man heard from the stars in directspeech--that were almost like words with God. But as they are servants,they also have servants. Moreover what we have from them is always inanswer. They love to be sought after by the diligent. Some ages ago anadept seeking this and that of them conjecturally, had reply, 'Lo! Atribe of poor wanderers in the East. Heed them, for they shall housetheir dominion in palaces now the glory of the West, and they shall digthe pit to compass the fall of the proud.' Is it this tribe? Is itthat? But the seeker never knew. The children of Ertoghrul were yetfollowing their herds up and down the pastures they had fromAla-ed-din, the Iconian. Not knowing their name, he could not ask ofthem from the decree-makers?"
The Mystic beheld the blood redden Mahommed's open countenance, and thebrightening of his eyes; and as he was speaking to his pride, he knewhe was not amiss.
"The saying of the stars," he went on, "descended to succeeding adepts.Time came to their aid. When at length your fathers seated themselvesin Broussa, the mystery was in part revealed. Anybody, even thelow-browed herdsman shivering in the currents blowing from the Trojanheights, could then have named the fortunate tribe. Still the exposurewas not complete; a part remained for finding out. We knew the diggersof the pit; but for whom was it? To this I devoted myself. Hear meclosely now--my Lord, I have traversed the earth, not once, but manytimes--so often, you cannot name a people unknown to me, nor a landwhither I have not been--no, nor an island. As the grandson ofAbd-el-Muttalib was a Messenger of God, I am a Messenger of thePredicting Stars--not their prophet, only their Interpreter andMessenger. The business of the stars is my business." Mahommed's lipsmoved, and it was with an effort he kept silent.
The Prince proceeded, apparently unconscious of the interest he wasexciting: "Here and there while I travelled, I kept communication withthe planets; and though I had many of their predictions to solve, Iasked them oftenest after the unnamed proud one for whom thyOttomanites were charged to dig a pit. I presented names withoutnumber--names of persons, names of peoples, and lest one should beoverlooked, I kept a record of royal and notable families. Was aman-child horn to any of them, I wrote down the minute of the hour ofhis birth, and how he was called. By visitations, I kept informed ofthe various countries, their conditions, and their relations with eachother; for as the state of the earth points favorably or unfavorably toits vegetation, so do the conditions of nations indicate the approachof changes, and give encouragement to those predestined to bring thechanges about. Again I say, my Lord, as the stars are the servants ofGod, they have their servants, whom you shall never know except as youare able to read the signs their times offer you for reading. Moreoverthe servants are sometimes priests, sometimes soldiers, sometimeskings; among them have been women, and men of common origin; for theseed of genius falls directly from God's hand, and He chooses the timeand field for the sowing; but whether high or low, white or black, goodor bad, how shall a Messenger interpret truly for the stars except bygoing before their elect, and introducing them, and making their pathssmooth? Must he not know them first?"
A mighty impulsion here struck Mahommed. Recurring rather to what hehad heard from Mirza of the revelation dropped by the strange personmet by him during the pilgrimage, he felt himself about to be declaredof the elect, and unable to control his eagerness, he asked abruptly:
"Knowest thou me, O Prince?"
The manner of the Mystic underwent a change. He had been deferential,even submissive; seldom a teacher so amiable and unmasterful; now heconcentrated his power of spirit, and shot it a continuing flash fromhis large eyes.
"Know thee, Lord Mahommed?" he answered, in a low voice, but clear andsearching, and best suited to the conflict he was ushering in--theconflict of spirit and spirit. "Thou knowest not thyself as well."
Mahommed shrank perceptibly--he was astonished.
"I mean not reference to thy father--nor to the Christian Princess, thymother,--nor to thy history, which is of an obedient son and bravesoldier,--nor to thy education, unusual in those born inheritors ofroyal power--I mean none of these, for they are in mouths everywhere,even of the beggars nursing their sores by the waysides.... In thyfather's palace there was a commotion one night--thou wert about to beborn. A gold-faced clock stood in the birth chamber, the gift of aGerman King, and from the door of the chamber eunuchs were stationed.Exactly as the clock proclaimed midnight, mouth and mouth carried thecry to a man on the roof--'A Prince is born! A Prince is born! Praisedbe Allah!' He on the roof was seated at a table studying a paper withthe signs of the Zodiac in the usual formulary of a nativity. At thecoming of the cry, he arose, and observed the heavens intently; then heshouted, 'There is no God but God! Lo, Mars, Lord of theAscendant--Mars, with his friends, Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter in happyconfiguration, and the moon nowhere visible. Hail the Prince!' Andwhile his answer was passing below, the man on the roof marked theplanets in their Houses exactly as they were that midnight betweenMonday and Tuesday in the year 1430. Have I in aught erred, my lord?"
"In nothing, O Prince."
"Then I proceed.... The nativity came to me, and I cast and recast itfor the aspects, familiarities, parallels and triplicities of the hour,and always with the same result. I found the sun, the angles and thequality of the ambient signs favorable to a career which, when run, isto leave the East radiant with the glory of an unsetting sun."
Here the Jew paused, and bowed--"Now doth my Lord doubt if I know himbest?"
