Chapter V

Sing, sing them forth
Songs of the past-away,
To mingle with the woe and mirth,
And music of to-day:
Legends of other hours,
Stray leaves of faded flowers,
Sing, sing them forth!

Hush! breathe ye low
The quaint love words;
The whisper-voice of long ago,
Fond, old records
Of dreamy hopes and fears,
And hearts of other years,
Oh! breathe them low!

YSSEB.

The display of the imperial standard upon the principal pavilion, announced the arrival of Jehangire at the encampment of his troops, which was established at the distance of little more than a league from the subah’s castle. Attended by Bochari and Auzeem, he was on horseback at the dawn of the day, and approaching the castle as nearly as he could, without danger of being observed, he convinced himself that the account given by Chunder, of the impregnable character of that fortress, was by no means exaggerated. He was, therefore, the more disposed to attend to the counsel of Bochari, who recommended that the high chancellor should exert his influence with the subah to surrender the castle upon reasonable conditions.

The question then was, what those conditions should be. Chusero’s submission to the imperial authority could, under no circumstances, be dispensed with. He must place himself absolutely at the disposal of his father, upon whose indulgent consideration, however, he might confidently rely. His right of succession to the throne was to be preserved to him in case he should accept the terms now proposed.

It was resolved also that Shere Afkun should resign Cashmere, but that, instead of it, he should be presented with Bengal. Kazim, who was present at the council, during the discussion of these propositions, fully approved of them. He only wondered at the moderate character by which they were pervaded. Auzeem listened in silence to the very conciliatory language held by Bochari on the occasion, who professed to think that he knew of no other means of terminating the civil war, seeing that the subah might hold out against them to an indefinite period.

Nothing, therefore, added Bochari, could have been more opportune than the arrival of the messengers, who were charged with letters from the subah and his consort for Kazim. An answer might be returned forthwith on his part, accepting their invitation, and if it were not inconvenient to him, he might depart from the camp in the course of the evening for the castle. The high chancellor having signified his assent to this arrangement, Bochari observed that it was due to the dignity of the exalted office held by Kazim that he should proceed to the castle with all the outward circumstances of honour which could be devised for that purpose, and with an abundance of presents for his daughter, as was usual on such occasions. Jehangire fully approved of this course, and directed that twenty palanquins filled with gold and silver cloths of Persia, carpets, and shawls, and silks, should be despatched in Kazim’s train. Bochari took it upon himself to arrange all the necessary pageantry.

Shere Afkun’s messengers having received letters in answer to those which he and Nourmahal had addressed to Kazim and Mangeli, and also communications under the hand of the emperor, embracing the proposals which had been agreed upon in council, they set out upon their return to the castle. Upon dismounting within the gates they speedily diffused the intelligence, with which Bochari took care they should have been made fully acquainted, that the high chancellor was coming thither in the evening, for the purpose of negotiating a peace upon terms that could hardly fail to be acceptable to all parties. These tidings were received with unbounded joy by the great mass of the inmates of the fortress, who, however secure they deemed themselves from any immediate danger, felt by no means free from alarm when they observed from the eminences the powerful force by which the emperor was attended.

The ladies of the harem especially, relieved from the trepidations with which that spectacle filled their minds, looked forward with more than ordinary interest to the agreeable office of preparing for the reception of Nourmahal’s beloved parents. The news reached them while they were assembled in the general bath-room; and never, perhaps, before did they enjoy with more intense delight the luxuries of that scene. Perfumed waters were poured over them from silver vases by black slaves, well experienced in all the arts by which the delicious languor of exhaustion may be prolonged to the very verge of visionary existence. Reclining on marble slabs, heated to the exact degree that most favours repose, they were each wrapped in loose robes, which when saturated might be said no longer to conceal the forms beneath them, they presented the appearance of beings scarcely belonging to this world. Surrounded by a hazy atmosphere of variable fragrance, the slaves standing by the flowing fountains, and collecting the tempered element in their vases, or pouring it with a gentle grace upon the almost slumbering nymph below, seemed so many magicians empowered to detain in forgetfulness all the beauteous victims entrusted to their care.

At the appointed moment, however, the fountains ceased to flow, otherwise the spell might know no limit. The vapours cleared away, the humid garments were exchanged for ample well-aired wrappers, and all hastened to the saloon, where the hair, after being thoroughly dried, was anointed with fragrant oils, plaited in long folds, and tied at the extremity with golden cords, from which tassels of the same material depended. A painted handkerchief was intertwined with it on the top of the head, the ends of which, fringed with gold, fell gracefully on the shoulders. The hair in front, drawn down a little over the forehead, was parted and braided over the ear, and decorated by a few simple flowers, such as the geranium, or the monthly white rose, according to the complexion or fancy of the wearer. A light sleep, such as the houris enjoy when lulled to repose by the bulbul of Paradise, restored the energies which the bath had almost stolen away; and coffee, followed by viands of every description, confectionery, ices, sherbets, and Kabul nectar, which the prophet himself could not have rejected if offered to his lips, prepared for the further labours of the toilet.

Fine lawn chemisettes, edged with lace, tunics of green or ruby-coloured silk, descending below the knee, confined at the waist by cinctures of gold or silver tissue, having in front clasps of emerald or diamond, trowsers of snow-white lawn, necklaces of pearl, armlets and bracelets of variegated precious stones, and tiny slippers richly flowered with gold, generally completed the costume of the harem.

The operations of the toilet having been concluded, the ladies waited the presence of Nourmahal, before they set about arranging the series of amusements with which they resolved to entertain the expected guests. She seldom passed a day of which she did not devote some portion to her fair companions. She taught most of them to read, and accustomed them, by her own example, to derive pleasure from the writings of the most popular poets, which she put into their hands. To her instruction also several of them were indebted for a knowledge of embroidery. Before the commencement of the civil war, when all was at peace in the castle, and before the happiness of Afkun received its death-blow, he seldom claimed his privilege of entry into the harem with more pleasure, than during the hours when he was likely to find Nourmahal there, presiding over the operations of the frame, upon which numbers of fairy fingers were busy, animating the canvass stretched out before them with landscapes copied from her sketches, or scenes of real or mimic war, dictated by her copious knowledge, or suggested by her splendid imagination.

Mainuna, a Mingrelian, always took care that the hours usually devoted to industry should not encroach upon those which belonged to pleasure. At the first touch of her tambourine, which she flung up in the air and then caught upon her fingers, while its silver bells resounded of joy, a general clatter of merriment was raised, and all adjourned to the music saloon.

Sometimes Nourmahal found herself surrounded by a mob of petitioners, who would take no refusal, and bore her with them into the apartment, from which there was no escape until she awoke for them those sounds from the lyre which they all confessed they never could find in it by any exertion of their own. They unanimously declared that the modulations which she elicited, must have come from some viewless chords, created for the moment by her enchanting power.

On the present occasion, however, her mind was not in a mood to assist in the preparation of festivities. She hardly knew whether she should experience more of pleasure or of sorrow from the visit of her parents, to whom she would probably deem it necessary to disclose the interview she had with the emperor, and the decisive confession she had made to Afkun. To bare her whole heart to her mother--to hide in that affectionate bosom her tears, her blushes, her exalted anticipations, her agony for the sufferings she had inflicted on the subah, was the only course by which she could relieve her heart from the accumulated burthens by which it was oppressed.

To Mainuna, therefore, she delegated the office of arranging the amusements of the harem, during the sojourn of the high-chancellor and his attendants at the castle--an office which that light-hearted girl undertook with measureless delight, as she was full of all sorts of projects, masqued balls, fancy fairs, dramatic interludes, musical concerts, and new dances, for the realization of which she had long been importuning her stars.

Calling all her companions together in her own apartment, they sat on the carpet in a circle, and as she developed her plans, they discussed them one by one, with all due gravity. The parts which each was to perform in the approaching exhibitions, were assigned in a way to create no jealousies, and it having been settled that the first evening was to be dedicated to the concert and the masquerade ball, the fair senators dispersed for the purpose of selecting their most sumptuous dresses and ornaments, that nothing might be wanted which could tend to the gratification of their distinguished guests.

As the sun was setting, the sentinels on the watch-tower observed a long train of palanquins winding down from the hill upon which the imperial tents were erected. Orders were immediately given to let the draw-bridge down. A veteran officer who happened to be in the watch-tower when the palanquins first appeared in sight, was struck by their number; he counted no less than five-and-twenty; and as to each palanquin there were four bearers, his cautious habits of garrison discipline suggested, that it was not in conformity with ordinary rules, that so many men from the ranks of the enemy should be admitted at once within the walls. He directed, therefore, that only one palanquin should be suffered to enter at a time; and that the bearers, after setting it down in a spacious hall, generally used for that purpose, should immediately re-cross the drawbridge, and return to the camp.

As the procession approached the gate, Zeinedeen made his appearance in the plain, walking hastily towards it. Kazim and Mangeli, who had been anxiously gazing on the windows of the castle, hoping that they might discern, in some of them, the figure of her in whom all their affections were concentrated, did not perceive the hermit until they heard him ordering their bearers, in a peremptory tone, to stop for a moment. Kazim, surprised, and by no means pleased, that his progress should be retarded at such a moment, opening the curtain of the palanquin, demanded the cause of the interruption. Zeinedeen made no answer, but looking steadily at Kazim, smiled with a look of recognition, which, to Mangeli, was altogether incomprehensible. The palanquin, however, was immediately let down by order of her companion, who, going forth, threw himself into the arms already wide extended to receive him.

“My best of benefactors! my more than friend! my father! for such, indeed, you have been to me! do I behold you once more?”

“You recollect the poor dervish, then, Kazim?”

“Recollect! Never has left my heart the impression of that face, which came to my humble stall all wreathed in those smiles which are now again upon your countenance, and announced to me those destinies, which have ever since been fortunate.”

“You see my ambition was no mean one. A poor, despised dervish, a mere mendicant; nevertheless, from the moment I saw you at Samarcand, and witnessed the proofs of your genius, I resolved that you should not pine in obscurity. The boy, in whom I delighted as a scholar, I now behold as the high chancellor of Hindostan! Welcome, dear Kazim, to my heart!”

Mangeli needed no explanation of this occurrence. Often had the dervish--their good genius as they loved to call him--been the subject of their conversation, when walking together in their garden, apart from all the world, they talked over the steps of their chequered career, from their hut on the Ilamish, to their palace on the Jumna. She too would have gladly followed her husband’s example, and embraced the kind old man; but Zeinedeen prevented her from rising.

“No,” he said, “Mangeli; for I shall know you by no other name. I shall keep you no longer from the pleasure you are about to enjoy, in beholding your beloved child. It is but a few days since I have seen her, and gladdened her heart with the tidings of your speedy arrival in the camp.”

“But you shall not part from us again,” said Mangeli, pressing the arm of the dervish with both her hands. “You must come with us to our Nourmahal.”

“You must, indeed,” added Kazim. “If the chancellor have any authority, he shall use it in this instance.”

“And it shall be obeyed, provided the subah will admit me. I have some things to say to you, which will demand instant attention. Allah, bless you both! I shall walk beside your palanquin to the castle.”

As they were now, however, but a short distance from the draw-bridge, Kazim would not permit the hermit to proceed thither alone. Closing the curtains of the palanquin, he resigned Mangeli to the care of the bearers; and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Zeinedeen, who urged the chancellor not to descend from his state by walking, side by side, with an humble dervish, he proceeded on foot, having, he said, a thousand questions to put to his friend, which he could not begin too soon.