Chapter XVI

They shall not drink wine with a song; the drink
shall be bitter to them that drink it.

THE ROYAL PROPHET.

While the emperor, Auzeem, and Kazim, were still in consultation as to the course which they ought to pursue, several discharges of fire-arms were heard from the lower parts of the city, followed by loud shoutings.

“If I rightly recollect, sire,” continued the minister, “there is an entrance somewhere in this part of the seraglio to the canal, that was formerly used for supplying the large marble bath, constructed by Acbar.”

“Let me remember. Yes, there is a door leading to the sluices. The sluices are hard by--are they not?”

“They are in a small creek--just near the foot of this tower.”

“Then the door--”

“Oh! yes, yes--I know where it is,” said Nourmahal. “I noticed it when we were arranging the drapery on the wall. It was almost covered with cobwebs.”

“The bath, I believe, would contain a hundred of us, if we were so many,” continued Auzeem.

“Five hundred have banqueted there occasionally,” said the emperor, “when the heats were violent.”

“The door is here,” cried out Nourmahal, pressing with her hand against a part of the drapery, with which the walls of her own and her handmaids’ bed-chamber were hung. “Shall we cut through the silk?”

“If we do,” said Auzeem, “it may lead to our immediate detection. Loosen it at the bottom, and at the extreme ends of the wall, and let it be lifted up altogether, while I try the door.”

His directions were speedily executed, the emperor and Kazim busily helping in the operation. The door was easily found, but it was strongly locked.

“Perhaps the key will be found amongst these,” said Auzeem, producing an iron chain, to which several keys, amongst them the key of the door by which he and the emperor entered, were appended.

After trying one or two, he found the third readily admitted into the lock, but it was so rusty that it was with great difficulty he was enabled to force back the bolt. The door yielded to his pressure, and, taking the lamp from Nourmahal’s hand, he looked into the hollow space below, to which he discovered a descent, by means of stone steps inserted in the wall.

While Auzeem and the emperor explored the entrance to the canal sluices, Kazim suggested to Nourmahal the expediency of collecting their money and precious stones, as quickly as possible.

These were speedily put into small rice-bags, and Auzeem having felt assured that they might escape through the canal, (from which water had been long excluded), to the marble bath, suggested that they should lose no time in flying thither, until the result of the tumult should be known.

The whole party descended safely into the canal, the drapery was then permitted to fall down as it was before, and the door having been locked on the inside, by Auzeem, he preceded them, holding the lamp in his hand.

They had not advanced many paces, when they heard the trampling of feet in the corridors above their head, and then a loud knocking. Auzeem concealed the lamp under his cloak, and prayed his companions, in a low voice, to remain as they were for a few moments. The knocking still continued. It was evidently at the outer door of their late prison. Orders were issued repeatedly to open the door, and threats were uttered to force it, if these orders were not instantly obeyed. A loud crash followed soon after, and a crowd of persons were heard rushing into the apartments.

Kazim could not help feeling strange suspicions passing through his mind, while this scene was going on. Auzeem had by no means as yet won his entire confidence. The acts of that minister, during the two years of the usurpation which had just elapsed, were all in favour of the success of the Persian. His coolness, at the present arduous moment,--his knowledge of the subterraneous localities of that part of the seraglio,--his possession of the keys, which he could only have procured from the governor by a special order from Bochari,--all tended to excite his alarm, not only for himself and his family, but for the emperor.

“It is obvious,” Kazim thought to himself, “that we are all, at this moment, in the power of any person who has admission to the sluices. If they were opened, a body of water would be in upon us in a moment from the Jumna, from which it would be impossible for us to effect our deliverance. Can it be that we have been brought here by the instrumentality of this man, in order that, after being sacrificed, no trace might remain, by which the deed should be brought home to Bochari?”

Labouring under these apprehensions, to which the circumstances appeared to give probability, but which, however, he ventured not to breathe to any of his companions, he asked Auzeem to let him have the lamp for a moment, to look for some article which he had purposely dropped.

“Hush, my dear friend,” said Auzeem,--“hush! Hear you not these voices;--they are the rajaputs,--they are in the prison we have just quitted. Be cautious, or we shall be betrayed.”

“There is nobody here,” exclaimed several voices at once,--“it must be all a trick,--this is no prison,--these are apartments equal to the palace itself.”

“It is a trick,” others repeated. “Bochari never meant us to find prisoners here. He told us that we should meet not merely with the chancellor, but also with Auzeem and the emperor.”

“They must be somewhere here,” said a rajaput,--“we shall soon find them, if we set fire to the drapery.”

“No; no;” said another,--“if we set fire to the drapery, we may burn down the whole seraglio. Pull down every hanging and curtain, and leave no nook unexplored.”

“It is all idle,” observed a third. “We have been manifestly dispatched here on a wrong scent. These rooms are so splendidly furnished, that it is absurd to suppose they were ever used as a prison. They belong to some special favourite of the harem.”

The rajaputs remained for some time in the apartments, exploring every corner, and venting their anger, in the most violent expressions, against Bochari, who had, as they said, debarred them of their prey. They forthwith proceeded to plunder the rooms of every thing costly they could find in them, and to divide the spoil amongst themselves. This was an operation of no small difficulty, and attended by loud and passionate contentions, during which the clashing of sabres was frequently heard by the fugitives below.

Kazim still persevered, until he obtained the lamp from Auzeem, when, having picked up the article he had dropped, he moved forward a little way, and, carefully examining the walls of the canal, observed that in one part some repairs had been made, evidently of a recent character. Pieces of timber, and chips, freshly cut, were on the floor, and near them a saw, and an axe, quite bright, as if the workman had only just left them there. These appearances tended not a little to increase his suspicions.

“If I recollect right,” said Jehangire, “there is somewhere hereabout a small bath, which I have sometimes used myself. The walls, I perceive, have been falling in here. Somebody has been at work propping them up.”

“These timbers seem fresh from the saw,” remarked Kazim. “There is a recess here, which evidently leads into the small bath you mention, sire. But I cannot conceive for what purpose these repairs have been made at this moment. The baths, I presume, have not been recently used?”

“Not to my knowledge,” said Jehangire.

“Give me the lamp; let me cover it,” said Auzeem. “See, there is a light advancing towards us. Let us withdraw into the recess.”

This fresh occurrence gave new strength to Kazim’s suspicions. He was determined to watch very closely. Looking out from the recess, he observed a light advancing rapidly from the further end of the canal, and behind it a figure that seemed almost a shadow. As the figure hastened onward, Kazim retired with the whole party into the small bath, in order to elude observation.

“I think it will now do,” said the person to himself, whoever he was, that held the light. “Any obstruction falling in this direction might have been fatal to the whole scheme. These timbers will prevent the wall here from falling in, at least for the present. For the future, it is no concern of mine. Let me now go on to the sluices. I fear they will hardly yield to the spring, unless the wheels be thoroughly oiled; it is so long since they have been worked.”

“Here,” thought Kazim, “is a revelation of the very design which has crossed my mind. The man, however, seems unaccompanied. It would not be difficult for us to master him.”

Pulling the emperor by the cloak, Kazim whispered into his ear, “Have you no fears, Sire. Is not all this very strange?”

“Hush!” said Jehangire; “he is only going to examine the sluices. Something, no doubt, is meditated; but let us be prudent.”

The figure passed on to the sluices. Kazim observed him carefully oiling the wheels, and examining every part of the machinery belonging to them. They were composed of two iron gates, one of which, being on a level with the usual height of the river, was capable of being let down as low as the surface of its bed, to admit the water into the baths either gradually, or in a volume sufficient to fill them in a moment, as might be required. The other gate was fitted to be drawn upward, so as to allow a boat to proceed from the Jumna to the larger bath, that bath having been, in former days, occasionally used by the ladies of the harem as a sort of haven, where they landed from their covered boats, or embarked in them, when they chose to take excursions on the river. The immediate entrance into the bath was guarded by a gate of bronze, richly gilt, and cut through in arabesque designs, to admit the cool air from the river on those occasions, when the bath was converted into a banqueting hall.

Kazim looked anxiously for the return of the figure which he had observed. At length it did retrace its steps, and carrying away the saw and axe, and other tools which had been upon the floor, disappeared.

After remaining in the recess for some time, Auzeem proposed to advance alone, with a view to discover some place of safety for the party, and also to communicate, if he could, with Zeinedeen, from whom he now became extremely anxious to learn the progress of events in the city. The hermit also, had promised to see the merchant at midnight, and to obtain from him information as to the purpose for which the poison, prepared with so much care, was intended. To Kazim, whose suspicions were far from being as yet lulled, it appeared better that they should all go forward together, at least as far as the bath. Jehangire was of the same opinion. He added, that there was a secret staircase near the bronze gate, which led to the dome, and it struck him that in no place could they be more assured of safety than within the gallery by which the dome was surrounded.

The party, therefore, proceeded forward, until they approached near the bronze gate, through the apertures in which they perceived a light moving about in the marble bath. Again concealing the lamp beneath his cloak, Auzeem stepped stealthily to the gate, followed by Kazim, who recognized the figure he had already seen, standing in the middle of the bath, and holding up his torch so as to flash its glare around him as far as he could.

Much to their astonishment, they saw that tables were laid out all round the chamber, laden with candelabras and gold vases, sherbet, ices, and confectionery, and every preparation made, necessary for the entertainment of a large number of guests. A separate table was placed near the centre, and before it a divan covered with cloth of gold, evidently intended as a throne for the master of the feast. Upon this table were seen several small phials. While Auzeem and Kazim were observing this scene, with the greatest anxiety, a second figure, wrapped up in a cloak, was observed descending into the bath by the marble stairs that led into it from the palace. Advancing towards the person who held the light, the new visitor grasped him by the throat: snatching the torch out of his hand, he held it up in his face, and asked in a fierce, broken voice:--

“Why are you here at this hour? I have been in search of you at your own apartment. I found that cursed Dervish there. What is the meaning of all this? This saw and axe, what are they for? Tell me instantly, or your life is not worth this torch.”

The voice in which these words were uttered, and the face unveiled by his cloak falling on the floor, at once announced the angry interrogator. It was Bochari.