CHAPTER XIV.
AN EFFORT FOR FREEDOM.
Two or three nights afterward the old woman again came to Cuthbert, andasked him, in her mistress' name, if in any way he could suggest amethod of lightening his captivity, as his extreme youth and bravery ofdemeanor had greatly pleased her.
Cuthbert replied that nothing but freedom could satisfy his longings;that he was comfortable and not over-worked, but that he pined to beback again with his friends.
The old woman brought him on the following night a message to the effectthat his mistress would willingly grant him his liberty, but as he wassent to her husband by the sultan, it would be impossible to free himopenly.
"From what she said," the old woman continued, "if you could see someplan of making your escape, she would in no way throw difficulties inyour path; but it must not be known that the harem in any way connivedat your escape, for my lord's wrath would be terrible, and he is not aman to be trifled with."
Looking round at the high walls that surrounded the garden, Cuthbertsaid that he could think of no plan whatever for escaping from such aplace; that he had often thought it over, but that it appeared to him tobe hopeless. Even should he manage to scale these walls, he would onlyfind himself in the town beyond, and his escape from that would bealtogether hopeless. "Only," he said, "if I were transported to somecountry palace of the governor could I ever hope to make my escape." Thenext night the messenger brought him the news that his mistress wasdisposed to favor his escape in the way he had pointed out, and that shewould in two or three days ask the governor for permission to pay avisit to their palace beyond the walls, and that with her she would takea number of gardeners--among them Cuthbert--to beautify the place.Cuthbert returned the most lively and hearty thanks to his patroness forher kind intentions, and hope began to rise rapidly in his heart.
It is probable, however, that the black guards of the harem heardsomething of the intentions of their mistress, and that they feared theanger of the governor should Cuthbert make his escape, and should it bediscovered that this was the result of her connivance. Either throughthis or through some other source the governor obtained an inkling thatthe white slave sent by the sultan was receiving unusual kindness fromthe ladies of the harem.
Two nights after Cuthbert had begun to entertain bright hopes of hisliberty, the door of the cell was softly opened. He was seized by fourslaves, gagged, tied hand and foot, covered with a thick burnous, andcarried out from his cell. By the sound of their feet he heard that theywere passing into the open air, and guessed that he was being carriedthrough the garden; then a door opened and was closed after them; he wasflung across a horse like a bale of goods, a rope or two were placedaround him to keep him in that position, and then he felt the animal putin motion, and heard by the trampling of feet that a considerable numberof horsemen were around him. For some time they passed over the rough,uneven streets of the city; then there was a pause and exchange ofwatchword and countersign, a creaking of doors, and a lowering of adrawbridge, and the party issued out into the open country. Not for verylong did they continue their way; a halt was called, and Cuthbert wastaken off his horse.
On looking round, he found that he was in the middle of a considerablegroup of men. Those who had brought him were a party of the governor'sguards; but he was now delivered over to a large band of Arabs, all ofwhom were mounted on camels. One of these creatures he was ordered tomount, the bonds being loosed from his arms and feet. An Arab driver,with lance, bows, and arrows, and other weapons, took his seat on theneck of the animal, and then with scarcely a word the caravan marchedoff with noiseless step, and with their faces turned southward.
It seemed to Cuthbert almost as a dream. A few hours before he had beenexalted with the hope of freedom; now he was being taken away to aslavery which would probably end but with his life. Although he couldnot understand any of his captors, the repetition of a name led him tobelieve that he was being sent to Egypt as a present to some man in highauthority there; and he doubted not that the Governor of Jerusalem,fearing that he might escape, and dreading the wrath of the sultanshould he do so, had determined to transfer the troublesome captive to amore secure position and to safer hands.
For three days the journey continued; they had now left the fertilelowlands of Palestine, and their faces were turned west. They wereentering upon that sandy waste which stretches between the southerncorner of Palestine and the land of Egypt, a distance which can betraveled by camels in three days, but which occupied the children ofIsrael forty years.
At first the watch had been very sharply kept over the captive; but nowthat they had entered the desert the Arabs appeared to consider thatthere was no chance of an attempt to escape. Cuthbert had in every wayendeavored to ingratiate himself with his guard. He had most willinglyobeyed their smallest orders, had shown himself pleased and grateful forthe dates which formed the staple of their repasts. He had assumed soinnocent and quiet an appearance that the Arabs had marveled much amongthemselves, and had concluded that there must have been some mistake inthe assertion of the governor's guard who had handed the prisoner overto them, that he was one of the terrible knights of King Richard's army.
Cuthbert's heart had not fallen for a moment. He knew well that if heonce reached Cairo all hope of escape was at an end; and it was beforereaching that point that he determined if possible to make an effort forfreedom. He had noticed particularly the camel which appeared to be thefleetest of the band; it was of lighter build than the rest, and it waswith difficulty that its rider had compelled it to accommodate itself tothe pace of the others. It was clear from the pains he took with it, bythe constant patting and the care bestowed upon its watering andfeeding, that its rider was extremely proud of it; and Cuthbertconcluded that if an escape was to be made, this was the animal on whichhe must accomplish it.
Upon arriving at the end of each day's journey the camels were allowedto browse at will, a short cord being tied between one of their hind andone of their fore-feet. The Arabs then set to work to collect sticks andto make a fire--not for cooking, for their only food was dried dates andsome black bread, which they brought with them--but for warmth, as thenights were damp and somewhat chilly, as they sat round the fire,talked, and told stories. Before finally going off to rest each went outinto the bushes and brought in his camel; these were then arranged in acircle around the Arabs, one of the latter being mounted as sentry toprevent any sudden surprise--not indeed that they had the smallest fearof the Christians, who were far distant; but then, as now, the Arabs ofthe desert were a plundering race, and were ever ready to drive off eachother's camels or horses. Cuthbert determined that if flight waspossible, it must be undertaken during the interval after the arrival atthe halting-place and before the bringing in of the camels. Therefore,each day upon the halt he had pretended great fatigue from the roughmotion of the camel, and had, after hastily eating the dates handed tohim, thrown himself down, covered himself with his Arab robe, andfeigned instant sleep. Thus they had in the three days from startingcome to look upon his presence sleeping close to them as a matter ofcourse.
The second day after entering the desert, however, Cuthbert threwhimself down by the side of an uprooted shrub of small size and abouthis own length. He covered himself as usual with his long, dark-bluerobe, and pretended to go to sleep. He kept his eyes, however, on thealert through an aperture beneath his cloth, and observed particularlythe direction in which the camel upon which he had set his mind wanderedinto the bushes. The darkness came on a very few minutes after they hadhalted, and when the Arabs had once settled round their fire Cuthbertvery quietly shifted the robe from himself to the long low bush nearhim, and then crawled stealthily off into the darkness.
He had no fear of his footfall being heard upon the soft sand, and wassoon on his feet, looking for the camels. He was not long in findingthem, or in picking out the one which he had selected. The bushes weresucculent, and close to the camping-ground; indeed, it was for this thatthe halting-places were al
ways chosen. It was not so easy, however, toclimb into the high wooden saddle, and Cuthbert tried several times invain. Then he repeated in a sharp tone the words which he had heard theArabs use to order their camels to kneel, striking the animal at thesame moment behind the fore-legs with a small switch. The camelimmediately obeyed the order to which he was accustomed, and knelt down,making, however, as he did so, the angry grumble which those creaturesappear to consider it indispensable to raise when ordered to doanything. Fortunately this noise is so frequently made, and the camelsare so given to quarrel among themselves that although in the still airit might have been heard by the Arabs sitting a short hundred yardsaway, it attracted no notice, and Cuthbert, climbing into the seat,shook the cord that served as a rein, and the animal, rising, set off ata smooth, steady swing in the direction in which his head wasturned--that from which they had that day arrived.
Once fairly away from the camping-ground, Cuthbert, with blows of hisstick, increased the speed of the camel to a long shuffling trot, andthe fire in the distance soon faded out into the darkness.
Cuthbert trusted to the stars as guides. He was not unarmed, for as hecrawled away from his resting-place he had picked up one of the Arabs'spears and bow and arrows, and a large bag of dates from the spot wherethey had been placed when their owner dismounted. He was already clad inEastern garb, and was so sunburnt and tanned that he had no fearwhatever of any one at a distance detecting that he was a white man.
Steering his course by the stars, he rode all night without stopping. Hedoubted not that he would have at least three hours' start, for theArabs were sure to have sat that time round the fires before going outto bring in their camels. Even then they would suppose for some timethat the animal upon which he was seated had strayed, and no pursuitwould be attempted until it was discovered that he himself had made hisescape, which might not be for a long time, as the Arabs would not thinkof looking under the cloth to see if he were there. He hoped, therefore,that he would reach the cultivated land long before he was overtaken. Hehad little fear but that he should then be able to journey onwardwithout attracting attention.
A solitary Arab when traveling rides straight, and his communications tothose whom he meets are confined to the set form of two or three words,"May Allah protect you!" the regular greeting of Moslems when they meet.
When morning broke Cuthbert, even when ascending to the top of asomewhat lofty mound, could see no signs of pursuers in the vast stretchof desert behind him. In front the ground was already becoming dottedhere and there with vegetation, and he doubted not that after a fewhours' ride he should be fairly in the confines of cultivated country.He gave his camel a meal of dates, and having eaten some himself, againset the creature in motion. These camels, especially those of goodbreed, will go on for three or four days with scarcely a halt; and therewas no fear of that on which he rode breaking down from fatigue, for thejourneys hitherto had been comparatively short.
By midday Cuthbert had reached the cultivated lands of Palestine. Hereand there over the plain villages were dotted, and parties of men andcamels were to be seen. Cuthbert now arranged his robes carefully inArab fashion, slung the long spear across his shoulders, and went boldlyforward at a slinging trot, having little fear that a passer-by wouldhave any suspicion whatever as to his being other than an Arab bent uponsome rapid journey. He soon found that his hopes were justified. Severaltimes he came upon parties of men whom he passed with the salute, andwho scarcely raised their eyes as he trotted by them. The plain was anopen one, and though cultivated here and there, there were large tractslying unworked. There was no occasion therefore to keep to the road; soriding across country, and avoiding the villages as far as possible,stopping only at a stream to give his camel water, Cuthbert rode withoutceasing until nightfall. Then he halted his camel near a wood, turned itin to feed on the young foliage, and wrapping himself in his burnous wassoon asleep, for he ached from head to foot with the jolting motionwhich had now been continued for so many hours without an interval. Hehad little fear of being overtaken by the party he had left behind; theywould, he was convinced, be many hours behind, and it was extremelyimprobable that they would hit upon the exact line which he hadfollowed, so that even if they succeeded in coming up to him, they wouldprobably pass him a few miles either to the right or left.
So fatigued was he with his long journey that the next day he sleptuntil after the sun had risen. He was awakened suddenly by being seizedby a party of Arabs, who, roughly shaking him, questioned him as towhere he came from, and what he was doing there. He saw at a glance thatthey were not with the party from which he had escaped, and he pointedto his lips to make signs that he was dumb. The Arabs evidentlysuspected that something was wrong. They examined the camel, and thenthe person of their captive. The whiteness of his skin at once showedthem that he was a Frank in disguise, and without more ado orquestioning, they tied him hand and foot, flung him across the camel,and, mounting their own animals, rode rapidly away.
From the position of the sun Cuthbert saw that they were making theircourse nearly due east, and therefore that it could not be theirintention to take him to Jerusalem, which was to the north of the linethey were following. A long day's journey, which to Cuthbert seemedinterminable, found them on the low spit of sand which runs along by theside of the Dead Sea. Behind, lofty rocks rose almost precipitously, butthrough a cleft in these the Arabs had made their way. Cuthbert saw atonce that they belonged to some desert tribe over whom the authority ofSuleiman was but nominal. When summoned for any great effort, thesechildren of the desert would rally to his armies and fight for a shorttime; but at the first disaster, or whenever they became tired of thediscipline and regularity of the army, they would mount their camels andreturn to the desert, generally managing on the way to abstract from thefarms of those on their route either a horse, cattle, or some otherobjects which would pay them for the labors they had undergone.
They were now near the confines of their own country, and apparently hadno fear whatever of pursuit. They soon gathered some of the dead woodcast on the shores of the sea, and with these a fire was speedilylighted, and an earthenware pot was taken down from among their baggage:it was filled with water from a skin, and then grain having been placedin it, it was put among the wood ashes. Cuthbert, who was weary andaching in every limb from the position in which he had been placed onthe camel, asked them by signs for permission to bathe in the lake. Thiswas given principally apparently from curiosity, for but very few Arabswere able to swim; indeed, as a people they object so utterly to waterthat the idea of any one bathing for his amusement was to them a matterof ridicule.
Cuthbert, who had never heard of the properties of the Dead Sea, wasperfectly astonished upon entering the water to find that instead ofwading in it up to the neck before starting to swim, as he wasaccustomed to do at home, the water soon after he got waist-deep tookhim off his feet, and a cry of astonishment burst from him as he foundhimself on rather than in the fluid. The position was so strange andunnatural that with a cry of alarm he scrambled over on to his feet, andmade the best of his way to shore, the Arabs indulging in shouts oflaughter at his astonishment and alarm. Cuthbert was utterly unable toaccount for the strange sensations he had experienced; he perceived thatthe water was horribly salt, and that which had got into his mouthalmost choked him. He was, however, unaware that saltness adds to theweight of water, and so to the buoyancy of objects cast into it. Thesaltness of the fluid he was moreover painfully conscious of by thesmarting of the places on his wrists and ankles where the cords had beenbound that fastened him to the camel. Goaded, however, by the laughterof the Arabs, he determined once more to try the experiment of enteringthis strange sheet of water, which from some unaccountable causeappeared to him to refuse to allow anybody to sink in it. This time heswam about for some time, and felt a little refreshed. When he returnedto the shore he soon re-attired himself in his Bedouin dress, and seatedhimself a little distance from his captors, who were now engaged indiscussing the
materials prepared by themselves. They made signs toCuthbert that he might partake of their leavings, for which he was not alittle grateful, for he felt utterly exhausted and worn out with hiscruel ride and prolonged fasting.
The Arabs soon wrapped themselves in their burnouses, and feelingconfident that their captive would not attempt to escape from them in aplace where subsistence would be impossible, paid no further attentionto him beyond motioning to him to lie down at their side.
Cuthbert, however, determined to make another effort to escape; foralthough he was utterly ignorant of the place in which he found himself,or of the way back, he thought that anything would be better than to becarried into helpless slavery into the savage country beyond the Jordan.An hour, therefore, after his captors were asleep he stole to his feet,and fearing to arouse them by exciting the wrath of one of the camels byattempting to mount him, he struck up into the hills on foot. All nighthe wandered, and in the morning found himself at the edge of a strangeprecipice falling abruptly down to a river, which, some fifty feet wide,ran at its foot. Upon the opposite side the bank rose with equalrapidity, and to Cuthbert's astonishment he saw that the cliffs werehoneycombed by caves.
Keeping along the edge for a considerable distance, he came to a spotwhere it was passable, and made his way down to the river bank. Here heindulged in a long drink of fresh water, and then began to examine thecaves which perforated the rocks. These caves Cuthbert knew had formerlybeen the abode of hermits. It was supposed to be an essentially sacredlocality, and between the third and fourth centuries of Christianitysome twenty thousand monks had lived solitary lives on the banks of thatriver. Far away he saw the ruins of a great monastery, called Mar Saba,which had for a long time been the abode of a religious community, andwhich at the present day is still tenanted by a body of monks. Cuthbertmade up his mind at once to take refuge in these caves. He speedilypicked out one some fifty feet up the face of the rock, andapproachable only with the greatest difficulty and by a sure foot. Firsthe made the ascent to discover the size of the grotto, and found thatalthough the entrance was but four feet high and two feet wide, itopened into an area of considerable dimensions. Far in the corner, whenhis eyes became accustomed to the light, he discovered a circle ofashes, and his conjectures that these caves had been the abode of menwere therefore verified. He again descended, and collected a largebundle of grass and rushes for his bed. He discovered growing among therocks many edible plants, whose seeds were probably sown there centuriesbefore, and gathering some of these he made his way back to the cavern.The grass furnished him with an excellent bed, and he was soon asleep.