At the door of that hall I was separated from Heliodore and Martina and led to some house or prison, where I was given a large room with servants to wait upon me. Here I slept that night, and on the morrow asked when we sailed for Beirut on our way to Baghdad. The chief of the servants answered that he did not know. During that day I was visited by Yusuf, the officer who had captured us on board the _Diana_. He also told me that he did not know when we sailed, but certainly it would not be for some days. Further, he said that I need have no fear for the lady Heliodore and Martina, as they were well treated in some other place.
Then he led me into a great garden, where he said I was at liberty to walk whenever I pleased.
Thus began perhaps the most dreadful time of waiting and suspense in all this life of mine, seeing that it was the longest. Every few days the officer Yusuf would visit me and talk of many matters, for we became friends. Only of Heliodore and Martina he could or would tell me nothing, nor of when we were to set out on our journey to Baghdad.
I asked to be allowed to speak with the Patriarch Politian, but he answered that this was impossible, as he had been called away from Alexandria for a little while. Nor could I have audience with the Emir Obaidallah, for he too had been called away.
Now my heart was filled with terrors, for I feared lest in this way or in that Heliodore had fallen into the hands of the accursed Musa. I prayed Yusuf to tell me the truth of the matter, whereon he swore by the Prophet that she was safe, but would say no more. Nor did this comfort me much, since for aught I knew he might mean she was safe in death.
I was aware, further, that the Moslems held it no crime to deceive an infidel. Week was added to week, and still I languished in this rich prison. The best of garments and food were brought to me; I was even given wine. Kind hands tended me and led me from place to place. I lacked nothing except freedom and the truth. Doubt and fear preyed upon my heart till at length I fell ill and scarcely cared to walk in the garden. One day when Yusuf visited me I told him that he would not need to come many more times, since I felt that I was going to die.
"Do not die," he answered, "since then perchance you will find you have done so in vain," and he left me.
On the following evening he returned and told me that he had brought a physician to see me, a certain Mahommed, who was standing before me.
Although I had no hope from any physician, I prayed this Mahommed to be seated, whereon Yusuf left us, closing the door behind him.
"Be pleased to set out your case, General Olaf," said Mahommed in a grave, quiet voice, "for know that I am sent by the Caliph himself to minister to you."
"How can that be, seeing that he is in Baghdad?" I answered. Still, I told him my ailments.
When I had finished he said:
"I perceive that you suffer more from your mind than from your body. Be so good, now, as to repeat to me the tale of your life, of which I have already heard something. Tell me especially of those parts of it which have to do with the lady Heliodore, daughter of Magas, of your blinding by Irene for her sake, and of your discovery of her in Egypt, where you sought her disguised as a beggar."
"Why should I tell you all my story, sir?"
"That I may know how to heal you of your sickness. Also, General Olaf, I will be frank with you. I am more than a mere physician; I have certain powers under the Caliph"s seal, and it will be wise on your part to open all your heart to me."
Now I reflected that there could be little harm in repeating to this strange doctor what so many already knew. So I told him everything, and the tale was long.
"Wondrous! Most wondrous!" said the grave-voiced physician when I had finished. "Yet to me the strangest part of your history is that played therein by the lady Martina. Had she been your lover, now, one might have understood--perhaps," and he paused.
"Sir Physician," I answered, "the lady Martina has been and is no more than my friend."
"Ah! Now I see new virtues in your religion, since we Moslems do not find such friends among those women who are neither our mothers nor our sisters. Evidently the Christian faith must have power to change the nature of women, which I thought to be impossible. Well, General Olaf, I will consider of your case, and I may tell you that I have good hopes of finding a medicine by which it can be cured, all save your sight, which in this world G.o.d Himself cannot give back to you. Now I have a favour to ask. I see that in this room of yours there is a curtain hiding the bed of the servant who sleeps with you. I desire to see another patient here, and that this patient should not see you. Of your goodness will you sit upon the bed behind that curtain, and will you swear to me on your honour as a soldier that whatever you may hear you will in no way reveal yourself?"
"Surely, that is if it is nothing which will bring disgrace upon my head or name."
"It will be nothing to bring disgrace on your head or name, General Olaf, though perhaps it may bring some sorrow to your heart. As yet I cannot say."
"My heart is too full of sorrow to hold more," I answered.
Then he led me down to the guard"s bed, on which I sat myself down, being strangely interested in this play. He drew the curtain in front of me, and I heard him return to the centre of the room and clap his hands.
Someone entered, saying,
"High Lord, your will?"
"Silence!" he exclaimed, and began to whisper orders, while I wondered what kind of a physician this might be who was addressed as "High Lord."
The servant went, and, after a while of waiting that seemed long, once more the door was opened, and I heard the sweep of a woman"s dress upon the carpet.
"Be seated, Lady," said the grave voice of the physician, "for I have words to say to you."
"Sir, I obey," answered another voice, at the sound of which my heart stood still. It was that of Heliodore.
"Lady," went on the physician, "as my robe will tell you, I am a doctor of medicine. Also, as it chances, I am something more, namely, an envoy appointed by the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid, having full powers to deal with your case. Here are my credentials if you care to read them," and I heard a crackling as of parchment being unfolded.
"Sir," answered Heliodore, "I will read the letters later. For the present I accept your word. Only I would ask one question, if it pleases you to answer. Why have not I and the General Olaf been conveyed to the presence of the Caliph himself, as was commanded by the Emir Obaidallah?"
"Lady, because it was not convenient to the Caliph to receive you, since as it chances at present he is moving from place to place upon the business of the State. Therefore, as you will find in the writing, he has appointed me to deal with your matter. Now, Lady, the Caliph and I his servant know all your story from lips which even you would trust.
You are betrothed to a certain enemy of his, a Northman named Olaf Red-Sword or Michael, who was blinded by the Empress Irene for some offence against her, but was afterwards appointed by her son Constantine to be governor of the Isle of Lesbos. This Olaf, by the will of G.o.d, inflicted a heavy defeat upon the forces of the Caliph which he had sent to take Lesbos. Then, by the goodness of G.o.d, he wandered to Egypt in search of you, with the result that both of you were taken prisoner.
Lady, it will be clear to you that, having this wild hawk Olaf in his hands, the Caliph would scarcely let him go again to prey upon the Moslems, though whether he will kill him or make of him a slave as yet I do not know. Nay, hear me out before you speak. The Caliph has been told of your wondrous beauty, and as I see even less than the truth. Also he has heard of the high spirit which you showed in the Coptic rising, when your father, the Prince Magas, was slain, and of how you escaped out of the hand of the Emir Musa the Fat, and were not afraid to dwell for months alone in the tombs of the ancient dead. Now the Caliph, being moved in his heart by your sad plight and all that he has heard concerning you, commands me to make you an offer.
"The offer is that you should come to his Court, and there be instructed for a while by his learned men in the truths of religion. Then, if it pleases you to adopt Islam, he will take you as one of his wives, and if it does not please you, will add you to his harem, since it is not lawful for him to marry a woman who remains a Christian. In either case he will make on you a settlement of property to the value of that which belonged to your father, the Prince Magas. Reflect well before you answer. Your choice lies between the memory of a blind man, whom I think you will never see again, and the high place of one of the wives of the greatest sovereign of the earth."
"Sir, before I answer I would put a question to you. Why do you say "the memory of a blind man"?"
"Because, Lady, a rumour has reached me which I desired to hold back from you, but which now you force me to repeat. It is that this General Olaf has in truth already pa.s.sed the gate of death."
"Then, sir," she answered, with a little sob, "it behoves me to follow him through that gate."
"That will happen when it pleases G.o.d. Meanwhile, what is your answer?"
"Sir, my answer is that I, a poor Christian prisoner, a victim of war and fate, thank the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid for the honours and the benefits he would shower on me, and with humility decline them."
"So be it, Lady. The Caliph is not a man who would wish to force your inclination. Still, this being so, I am charged to say he bids you remember that you were taken prisoner in war by the Emir Musa. He holds that, subject to his own prior right, which he waives, you are the property of the Emir Musa under a just interpretation of the law. Yet he would be merciful as G.o.d is merciful, and therefore he gives you the choice of three things. The first of these is that you adopt Islam with a faithful heart and go free."
"That I refuse, as I have refused it before," said Heliodore.
"The second is," he continued, "that you enter the harem of the Emir Musa."
"That I refuse also."
"And the third and last is that, having thrust aside his mercy, you suffer the common fate of a captured Christian who persists in error, and die."
"That I accept," said Heliodore.
"You accept death. In the splendour of your youth and beauty, you accept death," he said, with a note of wonder in his voice. "Truly, you are great-hearted, and the Caliph will grieve when he learns his loss, as I do now. Yet I have my orders, for which my head must answer. Lady, if you die, it must be here and now. Do you still choose death?"
"Yes," she said in a low voice.
"Behold this cup," he went on, "and this draught which I pour into it,"
and I heard the sound of liquid flowing. "Presently I shall ask you to drink of it, and then, after a little while, say the half of an hour, you will fall asleep, to wake in whatever world G.o.d has appointed to the idol worshippers of the Cross. You will suffer no pain and no fear; indeed, maybe the draught will bring you joy."
"Then give it me," said Heliodore faintly. "I will drink at once and have done."
Then it was that I came out from behind my curtain and groped my way towards them.
"Sir Physician, or Sir Envoy of the Caliph Harun," I said; but for the moment went no further, since, with a low cry, Heliodore cast herself upon my breast and stopped my lips with hers.
"Hush till I have spoken," I whispered, placing my arm about her; then continued. "I swore to you just now that I would not reveal myself unless I heard aught which would bring disgrace on my head or name. To stand still behind yonder curtain while my betrothed is poisoned at your hands would bring disgrace upon my head and name so black that not all the seas of all the world could wash it away. Say, Physician, does yonder cup hold enough of death for both of us?"