Iskander bowed a.s.sent.
"Have you got your talisman? You know the terms? Cure this Christian girl and you shall name your own reward; fail, and I shall claim your forfeit head."
"The terms are well understood, mighty Prince," said Iskander, for the young man was no less a personage than the son of Amurath, and future conqueror of Constantinople; "but I am confident there will be no necessity for the terror of Christendom claiming any other heads than those of his enemies."
"Kaflis will conduct you at once to your patient," said Mahomed. "For myself, I cannot rest until I know the result of your visit. I shall wander about these gardens, and destroy the flowers, which is the only pleasure now left me."
Kaflis motioned to his companions to advance, and they entered the Seraglio.
At the end of a long gallery they came to a great portal, which Kaflis opened, and Iskander and Nicaeus for a moment supposed that they had arrived at the chief hall of the Tower of Babel, but they found the shrill din only proceeded from a large company of women, who were employed in distilling the rare atar of the jasmine flower. All their voices ceased on the entrance of the strangers, as if by a miracle; but when they had examined them, and observed that it was only a physician and his boy, their awe, or their surprise, disappeared; and they crowded round Iskander, some holding out their wrists, others lolling out their tongues, and some asking questions, which perplexed alike the skill and the modesty of the adventurous dealer in magical medicine. The annoyance, however, was not of great duration, for Kaflis so belaboured their fair shoulders with his official baton, that they instantly retreated with precipitation, uttering the most violent shrieks, and bestowing on the eunuch so many t.i.tles, that Iskander and his page were quite astounded at the intuitive knowledge which the imprisoned damsels possessed of that vocabulary of abuse, which is in general mastered only by the experience of active existence.
Quitting this chamber, the eunuch and his companions ascended a lofty staircase. They halted at length before a door. "This is the chamber of the tower," said their guide, "and here we shall find the fair captive."
He knocked, the door was opened by a female slave, and Iskander and Nicaeus, with an anxiety they could with difficulty conceal, were ushered into a small but sumptuous apartment. In the extremity was a recess covered with a light gauzy curtain. The eunuch bidding them keep in the background, advanced, and cautiously withdrawing the curtain slightly aside, addressed some words in a low voice to the inmate of the recess.
In a few minutes the eunuch beckoned to Iskander to advance, and whispered to him: "She would not at first see you, but I have told her you are a Christian, the more the pity, and she consents." So saying, he withdrew the curtain, and exhibited a veiled female figure lying on a couch.
"n.o.ble lady," said the physician in Greek, which he had ascertained the eunuch did not comprehend; "pardon the zeal of a Christian friend.
Though habited in this garb, I have served under your ill.u.s.trious sire.
I should deem my life well spent in serving the daughter of the great Hunniades."
"Kind stranger," replied the captive, "I was ill prepared for such a meeting. I thank you for your sympathy, but my sad fortunes are beyond human aid."
"G.o.d works by humble instruments, n.o.ble lady," said Iskander, "and with his blessing we may yet prosper."
"I fear that I must look to death as my only refuge," replied Iduna, "and still more, I fear that it is not so present a refuge as my oppressors themselves imagine. But you are a physician; tell me then how speedily Nature will make me free."
She held forth her hand, which Iskander took and involuntarily pressed.
"n.o.ble lady," he said, "my skill is a mere pretence to enter these walls. The only talisman I bear with me is a message from your friends."
"Indeed!" said Iduna, in an agitated tone.
"Restrain yourself, n.o.ble lady," said Iskander, interposing, "restrain yourself. Were you any other but the daughter of Hunniades I would not have ventured upon this perilous exploit. But I know that the Lady Iduna has inherited something more than the name of her great ancestors--their heroic soul. If ever there were a moment in her life in which it behoved her to exert all her energies, that moment has arrived. The physician who addresses her, and his attendant who waits at hand, are two of the Lady Iduna"s most devoted friends. There is nothing that they will not hazard, to effect her delivery; and they have matured a plan of escape which they are sanguine must succeed. Yet its completion will require, on her part, great anxiety of mind, greater exertion of body, danger, fatigue, privation. Is the Lady Iduna prepared for all this endurance, and all this hazard?"
"n.o.ble friend," replied Iduna, "for I cannot deem you a stranger, and none but a most chivalric knight could have entered upon this almost forlorn adventure; you have not, I trust, miscalculated my character. I am a slave, and unless heaven will interpose, must soon be a dishonoured one. My freedom and my fame are alike at stake. There is no danger, and no suffering which I will not gladly welcome, provided there be even a remote chance of regaining my liberty and securing my honour."
"You are in the mind I counted on. Now, mark my words, dear lady. Seize an opportunity this evening of expressing to your gaolers that you have already experienced some benefit from my visit, and announce your rising confidence in my skill. In the meantime I will make such a report that our daily meetings will not be difficult. For the present, farewell. The Prince Mahomed waits without, and I would exchange some words with him before I go."
"And must we part without my being acquainted with the generous friends to whom I am indebted for an act of devotion which almost reconciles me to my sad fate?" said Iduna. "You will not, perhaps, deem the implicit trust reposed in you by one whom you have no interest to deceive, and who, if deceived, cannot be placed in a worse position than she at present fills, as a very gratifying mark of confidence, yet that trust is reposed in you; and let me, at least, soothe the galling dreariness of my solitary hours, by the recollection of the friends to whom I am indebted for a deed of friendship which has filled me with a feeling of wonder from which I have not yet recovered."
"The person who has penetrated the Seraglio of Constantinople in disguise to rescue the Lady Iduna," answered Iskander, "is the Prince Nicaeus."
"Nicaeus!" exclaimed Iduna, in an agitated tone. "The voice to which I listen is surely not that of the Prince Nicaeus; nor the form on which I gaze," she added, as she unveiled. Beside her stood the tall figure of the Armenian physician. She beheld his swarthy and unrecognised countenance. She cast her dark eyes around with an air of beautiful perplexity.
"I am a friend of the Prince Nicaeus," said the physician. "He is here.
Shall he advance? Alexis," called cut, Iskander, not waiting for her reply. The page of the physician came forward, but the eunuch accompanied him. "All is right," said Iskander to Kaflis. "We are sure of our hundred purses. But, without doubt, with any other aid, the case were desperate."
"There is but one G.o.d," said the eunuch, polishing his carbuncle, with a visage radiant as the gem. "I never repented patronizing men of science.
The prince waits without. Come along!" He took Iskander by the arm.
"Where is your boy? What are you doing there, sir?" inquired the eunuch, sharply, of Nicaeus, who, was tarrying behind, and kissing the hand of Iduna.
"I was asking the lady for a favour to go to the coffee-house with;"
replied Nicaeus, "you forget that I am to have none of the hundred purses."
"True," said the eunuch; "there is something in that. Here, boy, here is a piastre for you. I like to encourage men of science, and all that belong to them. Do not go and spend it all in one morning, boy, and when the fair captive is cured, if you remind me, boy, perhaps I may give you another."
CHAPTER 11
Kaflis and his charge again reached the garden. The twilight was nearly past. A horseman galloped up to them, followed by several running footmen. It was the prince.
"Well, Hakim," he inquired, in his usual abrupt style, "can you cure her?"
"Yes;" answered Iskander, firmly.
"Now listen, Hakim," said Mahomed. "I must very shortly leave the city, and proceed into Epirus at the head of our troops. I have sworn two things, and I have sworn them by the holy stone. Ere the new moon, I will have the heart of Iduna and the head of Iskander!"
The physician bowed.
"If you can so restore the health of this Frangy girl," continued Mahomed, "that she may attend me within ten days into Epirus, you shall claim from my treasury what sum you like, and become physician to the Seraglio. What say you?"
"My hope and my belief is," replied Iskander, "that within ten days she may breathe the air of Epirus."
"By my father"s beard, you are a man after my own heart," exclaimed the prince; "and since thou dealest in talismans, Hakim, can you give me a charm that you will secure me a meeting with this Epirot rebel within the term, so that I may keep my oath. What say you? what say you?"
"There are such spells," replied Iskander. "But mark, I can only secure the meeting, not the head."
"That is my part," said Mahomed, with an arrogant sneer. "But the meeting, the meeting?"
"You know the fountain of Kallista in Epirus. Its virtues are renowned."
"I have beard of it."
"Plunge your scimitar in its midnight waters thrice, on the eve of the new moon, and each time summon the enemy you would desire to meet. He will not fail you."
"If you cure the captive, I will credit the legend, and keep the appointment," replied Mahomed, thoughtfully.
"I have engaged to do that," replied the physician.
"Well, then, I shall redeem my pledge," said the prince
"But mind," said the physician, "while I engage to cure the lady and produce the warrior, I can secure your highness neither the heart of the one nor the head of the other."
""Tis understood," said Mahomed.
CHAPTER 12