They surveyed him doubtfully, and then turned to Hadifah and his men, tall, imperturbable looking, their dark faces visible through their open hoods of steel. They looked at their shields also, and at their bare cimeters resting points to the floor.
"Why do you ask?" the man returned.
"Because, as thou mayst see, we also are of the Faithful, and do not wish harm to any whose mothers have taught them to begin the day with the Fah-hat."
The fellow was impressed.
"Who art thou?"
"I am the Emir Mirza, of the household of our Lord the Padishah--to whom be all the promises of the Koran! These are slaves I selected for him-- all these thou seest in bonds. I am keeping them till he arrives. He will be here directly. He is now coming."
A man wearing a b.l.o.o.d.y tarbousche joined the pillagers, during this colloquy, and pressing in, heard the Emir"s name pa.s.sing from mouth to mouth.
"The Emir Mirza! I knew him, brethren. He commanded the caravan, and kept the _mahmals,_ the year I made the pilgrimage.... Stand off, and let me see." After a short inspection, he continued: "Truly as there is no G.o.d but G.o.d, this is he. I was next him at the most holy corner of the Kaaba when he fell down struck by the plague. I saw him kiss the Black Stone, and by virtue of the kiss he lived.... Ay, stand back--or if you touch him, or one of these in his charge, and escape his hand, ye shall not escape the Padishah, whose first sword he is, even as Khalid was first sword for the Prophet--exalted be his name!... Give me thy hand, O valiant Emir."
He kissed the Count"s hand.
"Arise, O son of thy father," said Corti; "and when our master, the Lord Mahommed, hath set up his court and harem, seek me for reward."
The man stayed awhile, although there was no further show of interference; and he looked past the Princess to Lael cowering near her.
He took no interest in what was going on around him--Lael alone attracted him. At last he shifted his sheepskin covering higher upon his shoulders, and left these words with the Count:
"The women are not for the harem. I understand thee, O Mirza. When the Lord Mahommed hath set up his court, do thou tell the little Jewess yonder that her father the Prince of India charged thee to give her his undying love."
Count Corti was wonder struck--he could not speak--and so the Wandering Jew vanished from his sight as he now vanishes from our story.
The selection among the other refugees in the chancel proceeded until there was left of them only such as were considered not worth the having.
A long time pa.s.sed, during which the Princess Irene sat with veil drawn close, trying to shut out the horror of the scene. Her attendants, clinging to the throne and to each other, seemed a heap of dead women.
At last a crash of music was heard in the vestibule--drums, cymbals, and trumpets in blatant flourish. Four runners, slender lads, in short, sleeveless jackets over white shirts, and wide trousers of yellow silk, barefooted and bareheaded, stepped lightly through the central doorway, and, waving wands tipped with silver b.a.l.l.s, cried, in long-toned shrill iteration: "The Lord Mahommed--Mahommed, Sultan of Sultans."
The spoilsmen suspended their hideous labor--the victims, moved doubtless by a hope of rescue, gave over their lamentations and struggling--only the young children, and the wounded, and suffering persisted in vexing the floor and galleries.
Next to enter were the five official heralds. Halting, they blew a triumphant refrain, at which the thousands of eyes not too blinded by misery turned to them.
And Mahommed appeared!
He too had escaped the Angel of the false monks!
When the fighting ceased in the harbor, and report a.s.sured him of the city at mercy, Mahommed gave order to make the Gate St. Romain pa.s.sable for hors.e.m.e.n, and with clever diplomacy summoned the Pachas and other military chiefs to his tent; it was his pleasure that they should a.s.sist him in taking possession of the prize to which he had been helped by their valor. With a rout so const.i.tuted at his back, and an escort of _Silihdars_ mounted, the runners and musicians preceding him, he made his triumphal entry into Constantinople, traversing the ruins of the towers Bagdad and St. Romain.
He was impatient and restless. In their ignorance of his pa.s.sion for the Grecian Princess, his ministers excused his behavior on account of his youth [Footnote: He was in his twenty-third year.] and the greatness of his achievement. Pa.s.sing St. Romain, it was also observed he took no interest in the relics of combat still there. He gave his guides but one order:
"Take me to the house the _Gabours_ call the Glory of G.o.d."
"Sancta Sophia, my Lord?"
"Sancta Sophia--and bid the runners run."
His Sheik-ul-Islam was pleased.
"Hear!" he said to the dervishes with him. "The Lord Mahommed will make mosques of the houses of Christ before sitting down in one of the palaces. His first honors are to G.o.d and the Prophet."
And they dutifully responded: "Great are G.o.d and his Prophet! Great is Mahommed, who conquers in their names!"
The public edifices by which he was guided--churches, palaces, and especially the high aqueduct, excited his admiration; but he did not slacken the fast trot in which he carried his loud cavalcade past them until at the Hippodrome.
"What thing of devilish craft is here?" he exclaimed, stopping in front of the Twisted Serpents. "Thus the Prophet bids me!" and with a blow of his mace, he struck off the lower jaw of one of the Pythons.
Again the dervishes shouted: "Great is Mahommed, the servant of G.o.d!"
It was his preference to be taken to the eastern front of Sancta Sophia, and in going the guides led him by the corner of the Bucoleon. At sight of the vast buildings, their incomparable colonnades and cornices, their domeless stretches of marble and porphyry, he halted the second time, and in thought of the vanity of human glory, recited:
"The spider hath woven his web in the imperial palace; And the owl hath sung her watch-song on the towers of Afrasiab."
In the s.p.a.ce before the Church, as elsewhere along the route he had come, the hordes were busy carrying off their wretched captives; but he affected not to see them. They had bought the license of him, many of them with their blood.
At the door the suite dismounted. Mahommed however, kept his saddle while surveying the gloomy exterior. Presently he bade:
"Let the runners and the heralds enter."
Hardly were they gone in, when he spoke to one of his pages: "Here, take thou this, and give me my cimeter." And then, receiving the ruby-hilted sword of Solomon in exchange for the mace of Ilderim, without more ado he spurred his horse up the few broad stone steps, and into the vestibule. Thence, the contemptuous impulse yet possessing him, he said loudly: "The house is defiled with idolatrous images. Islam is in the saddle."
In such manner--mounted, sword in hand, shield behind him--clad in beautiful gold-washed chain mail, the very ideal of the immortal Emir who won Jerusalem from the Crusaders, and restored it to Allah and the Prophet--Mahommed made his first appearance in Sancta Sophia.
Astonishment seized him. He checked his horse. Slowly his gaze ranged over the floor--up to the galleries--up--up to the swinging dome--in all architecture nothing so nearly a self-depending sky.
"Here, take the sword--give me back my mace," he said.
And in a fit of enthusiasm, not seeing, not caring for the screaming wretches under hoof, he rode forward, and, standing at full height in his stirrups, shouted: "Idolatry be done! Down with the Trinity. Let Christ give way for the last and greatest of the Prophets! To G.o.d the one G.o.d, I dedicate this house!"
Therewith he dashed the mace against a pillar; and as the steel rebounded, the pillar trembled. [Footnote: The guides, if good Moslems, take great pleasure in showing tourists the considerable dent left by this blow in the face of the pillar.]
"Now give me the sword again, and call Achmet, my muezzin--Achmet with the flute in his throat."
The moods of Mahommed were swift going and coming. Riding out a few steps, he again halted to give the floor a look. This time evidently the house was not in his mind. The expression on his face became anxious. He was searching for some one, and moved forward so slowly the people could get out of his way, and his suite overtake him. At length he observed the half-stripped altar in the apse, and went to it.
The colossal Christ on the ceiling peered down on him through the shades beginning to faintly fill the whole west end.
Now he neared the brazen railing of the chancel--now he was at the gate--his countenance changed--his eyes brightened--he had discovered Count Corti. Swinging lightly from his saddle, he pa.s.sed with steps of glad impatience through the gateway.
Then to Count Corti came the most consuming trial of his adventurous life.
The light was still strong enough to enable him to see across the Church. Comprehending the flourish of the heralds, he saw the man on horseback enter; and the mien, the pose in the saddle, the rider"s whole outward expose of spirit, informed him with such certainty as follows long and familiar a.s.sociation, that Mahommed was come--Mahommed, his ideal of romantic orientalism in arms. A tremor shook him--his cheek whitened. To that moment anxiety for the Princess had held him so entirely he had not once thought of the consequences of the wager lost; now they were let loose upon him. Having saved her from the hordes, now he must surrender her to a rival--now she was to go from him forever.
Verily it had been easier parting with his soul. He held to his cimeter as men instantly slain sometimes keep grip on their weapons; yet his head sunk upon his breast, and he saw nothing more of Mahommed until he stood before him inside the chancel.
"Count Corti, where is"--
Mahommed caught sight of the Count"s face.