CHAPTER XXII.
Who's there!--Approach--'tis kindly done-- My learned physician and a friend. SIR EUSTACE GREY.
Our narrative retrogrades to a period shortly previous to the incidentslast mentioned, when, as the reader must remember, the unfortunateKnight of the Leopard, bestowed upon the Arabian physician by KingRichard, rather as a slave than in any other capacity, was exiledfrom the camp of the Crusaders, in whose ranks he had so often and sobrilliantly distinguished himself. He followed his new master--for sohe must now term the Hakim--to the Moorish tents which contained hisretinue and his property, with the stupefied feelings of one who, fallenfrom the summit of a precipice, and escaping unexpectedly with life, isjust able to drag himself from the fatal spot, but without the power ofestimating the extent of the damage which he has sustained. Arrived atthe tent, he threw himself, without speech of any kind, upon a couch ofdressed buffalo's hide, which was pointed out to him by his conductor,and hiding his face betwixt his hands, groaned heavily, as if his heartwere on the point of bursting. The physician heard him, as he was givingorders to his numerous domestics to prepare for their departure the nextmorning before daybreak, and, moved with compassion, interrupted hisoccupation to sit down, cross-legged, by the side of his couch, andadminister comfort according to the Oriental manner.
"My friend," he said, "be of good comfort; for what saith the poet--itis better that a man should be the servant of a kind master than theslave of his own wild passions. Again, be of good courage; because,whereas Ysouf Ben Yagoube was sold to a king by his brethren, even toPharaoh, King of Egypt, thy king hath, on the other hand, bestowed theeon one who will be to thee as a brother."
Sir Kenneth made an effort to thank the Hakim, but his heart was toofull, and the indistinct sounds which accompanied his abortive attemptsto reply induced the kind physician to desist from his prematureendeavours at consolation. He left his new domestic, or guest, inquiet, to indulge his sorrows, and having commanded all the necessarypreparations for their departure on the morning, sat down upon thecarpet of the tent, and indulged himself in a moderate repast. After hehad thus refreshed himself, similar viands were offered to the Scottishknight; but though the slaves let him understand that the next day wouldbe far advanced ere they would halt for the purpose of refreshment, SirKenneth could not overcome the disgust which he felt against swallowingany nourishment, and could be prevailed upon to taste nothing, saving adraught of cold water.
He was awake long after his Arab host had performed his usual devotionsand betaken himself to his repose; nor had sleep visited him at thehour of midnight, when a movement took place among the domestics, which,though attended with no speech, and very little noise, made him awarethey were loading the camels and preparing for departure. In the courseof these preparations, the last person who was disturbed, excepting thephysician himself, was the knight of Scotland, whom, about three in themorning, a sort of major-domo, or master of the household, acquaintedthat he must arise. He did so, without further answer, and followed himinto the moonlight, where stood the camels, most of which were alreadyloaded, and one only remained kneeling until its burden should becompleted.
A little apart from the camels stood a number of horses ready bridledand saddled, and the Hakim himself, coming forth, mounted on one of themwith as much agility as the grave decorum of his character permitted,and directed another, which he pointed out, to be led towards SirKenneth. An English officer was in attendance, to escort them throughthe camp of the Crusaders, and to ensure their leaving it in safety; andall was ready for their departure. The pavilion which they had left was,in the meanwhile, struck with singular dispatch, and the tent-poles andcoverings composed the burden of the last camel--when the physician,pronouncing solemnly the verse of the Koran, "God be our guide, andMohammed our protector, in the desert as in the watered field," thewhole cavalcade was instantly in motion.
In traversing the camp, they were challenged by the various sentinelswho maintained guard there, and suffered to proceed in silence, or witha muttered curse upon their prophet, as they passed the post of somemore zealous Crusader. At length the last barriers were left behindthem, and the party formed themselves for the march with militaryprecaution. Two or three horsemen advanced in front as a vanguard;one or two remained a bow-shot in the rear; and, wherever the groundadmitted, others were detached to keep an outlook on the flanks. In thismanner they proceeded onward; while Sir Kenneth, looking back on themoonlit camp, might now indeed seem banished, deprived at once of honourand of liberty, from the glimmering banners under which he had hopedto gain additional renown, and the tented dwellings of chivalry, ofChristianity, and--of Edith Plantagenet.
The Hakim, who rode by his side, observed, in his usual tone ofsententious consolation, "It is unwise to look back when the journeylieth forward;" and as he spoke, the horse of the knight made such aperilous stumble as threatened to add a practical moral to the tale.
The knight was compelled by this hint to give more attention to themanagement of his steed, which more than once required the assistanceand support of the check-bridle, although, in other respects, nothingcould be more easy at once, and active, than the ambling pace at whichthe animal (which was a mare) proceeded.
"The conditions of that horse," observed the sententious physician, "arelike those of human fortune--seeing that, amidst his most swift and easypace, the rider must guard himself against a fall, and that it is whenprosperity is at the highest that our prudence should be awake andvigilant to prevent misfortune."
The overloaded appetite loathes even the honeycomb, and it is scarcea wonder that the knight, mortified and harassed with misfortunes andabasement, became something impatient of hearing his misery made, atevery turn, the ground of proverbs and apothegms, however just andapposite.
"Methinks," he said, rather peevishly, "I wanted no additionalillustration of the instability of fortune though I would thank thee,Sir Hakim, for the choice of a steed for me, would the jade but stumbleso effectually as at once to break my neck and her own."
"My brother," answered the Arab sage, with imperturbable gravity, "thouspeakest as one of the foolish. Thou sayest in thy heart that the sageshould have given you, as his guest, the younger and better horse, andreserved the old one for himself. But know that the defects of the oldersteed may be compensated by the energies of the young rider, whereas theviolence of the young horse requires to be moderated by the cold temperof the older."
So spoke the sage; but neither to this observation did Sir Kennethreturn any answer which could lead to a continuance of theirconversation, and the physician, wearied, perhaps, of administeringcomfort to one who would not be comforted, signed to one of his retinue.
"Hassan," he said, "hast thou nothing wherewith to beguile the way?"
Hassan, story-teller and poet by profession, spurred up, upon thissummons, to exercise his calling. "Lord of the palace of life," he said,addressing the physician, "thou, before whom the angel Azrael spreadethhis wings for flight--thou, wiser than Solimaun Ben Daoud, upon whosesignet was inscribed the REAL NAME which controls the spirits of theelements--forbid it, Heaven, that while thou travellest upon the trackof benevolence, bearing healing and hope wherever thou comest, thine owncourse should be saddened for lack of the tale and of the song. Behold,while thy servant is at thy side, he will pour forth the treasures ofhis memory, as the fountain sendeth her stream beside the pathway, forthe refreshment or him that walketh thereon."
After this exordium, Hassan uplifted his voice, and began a tale of loveand magic, intermixed with feats of warlike achievement, and ornamentedwith abundant quotations from the Persian poets, with whose compositionsthe orator seemed familiar. The retinue of the physician, such exceptedas were necessarily detained in attendance on the camels, thronged upto the narrator, and pressed as close as deference for their masterpermitted, to enjoy the delight which the inhabitants of the East haveever derived from this species of exhibition.
At another time, notwithsta
nding his imperfect knowledge of thelanguage, Sir Kenneth might have been interested in the recitation,which, though dictated by a more extravagant imagination, andexpressed in more inflated and metaphorical language, bore yet a strongresemblance to the romances of chivalry then so fashionable in Europe.But as matters stood with him, he was scarcely even sensible that aman in the centre of the cavalcade recited and sung, in a low tone, fornearly two hours, modulating his voice to the various moods of passionintroduced into the tale, and receiving, in return, now low murmurs ofapplause, now muttered expressions of wonder, now sighs and tears,and sometimes, what it was far more difficult to extract from such anaudience, a tribute of smiles, and even laughter.
During the recitation, the attention of the exile, however abstracted byhis own deep sorrow, was occasionally awakened by the low wail of a dog,secured in a wicker enclosure suspended on one of the camels, which, asan experienced woodsman, he had no hesitation in recognizing to be thatof his own faithful hound; and from the plaintive tone of the animal, hehad no doubt that he was sensible of his master's vicinity, and, in hisway, invoking his assistance for liberty and rescue.
"Alas! poor Roswal," he said, "thou callest for aid and sympathy uponone in stricter bondage than thou thyself art. I will not seem to heedthee or return thy affection, since it would serve but to load ourparting with yet more bitterness."
Thus passed the hours of night and the space of dim hazy dawn whichforms the twilight of a Syrian morning. But when the very first line ofthe sun's disk began to rise above the level horizon, and when the veryfirst level ray shot glimmering in dew along the surface of the desert,which the travellers had now attained, the sonorous voice of El Hakimhimself overpowered and cut short the narrative of the tale-teller,while he caused to resound along the sands the solemn summons, which themuezzins thunder at morning from the minaret of every mosque.
"To prayer--to prayer! God is the one God.--To prayer--to prayer!Mohammed is the Prophet of God.--To prayer--to prayer! Time is flyingfrom you.--To prayer--to prayer! Judgment is drawing nigh to you."
In an instant each Moslem cast himself from his horse, turned his facetowards Mecca, and performed with sand an imitation of those ablutions,which were elsewhere required to be made with water, while eachindividual, in brief but fervent ejaculations, recommended himself tothe care, and his sins to the forgiveness, of God and the Prophet.
Even Sir Kenneth, whose reason at once and prejudices were offended byseeing his companions in that which he considered as an act of idolatry,could not help respecting the sincerity of their misguided zeal, andbeing stimulated by their fervour to apply supplications to Heaven in apurer form, wondering, meanwhile, what new-born feelings could teachhim to accompany in prayer, though with varied invocation, thosevery Saracens, whose heathenish worship he had conceived a crimedishonourable to the land in which high miracles had been wrought, andwhere the day-star of redemption had arisen.
The act of devotion, however, though rendered in such strange society,burst purely from his natural feelings of religious duty, and had itsusual effect in composing the spirits which had been long harassed byso rapid a succession of calamities. The sincere and earnest approach ofthe Christian to the throne of the Almighty teaches the best lesson ofpatience under affliction; since wherefore should we mock the Deity withsupplications, when we insult him by murmuring under His decrees?or how, while our prayers have in every word admitted the vanity andnothingness of the things of time in comparison to those of eternity,should we hope to deceive the Searcher of Hearts, by permitting theworld and worldly passions to reassume the reins even immediately aftera solemn address to Heaven! But Sir Kenneth was not of these. He felthimself comforted and strengthened, and better prepared to execute orsubmit to whatever his destiny might call upon him to do or to suffer.
Meanwhile, the party of Saracens regained their saddles, and continuedtheir route, and the tale-teller, Hassan, resumed the thread of hisnarrative; but it was no longer to the same attentive audience. Ahorseman, who had ascended some high ground on the right hand ofthe little column, had returned on a speedy gallop to El Hakim, andcommunicated with him. Four or five more cavaliers had then beendispatched, and the little band, which might consist of about twenty orthirty persons, began to follow them with their eyes, as men from whosegestures, and advance or retreat, they were to augur good or evil.Hassan, finding his audience inattentive, or being himself attracted bythe dubious appearances on the flank, stinted in his song; and themarch became silent, save when a camel-driver called out to his patientcharge, or some anxious follower of the Hakim communicated with his nextneighbour in a hurried and low whisper.
This suspense continued until they had rounded a ridge, composed ofhillocks of sand, which concealed from their main body the object thathad created this alarm among their scouts. Sir Kenneth could now see,at the distance of a mile or more, a dark object moving rapidly on thebosom of the desert, which his experienced eye recognized for a party ofcavalry, much superior to their own in numbers, and, from the thick andfrequent flashes which flung back the level beams of the rising sun, itwas plain that these were Europeans in their complete panoply.
The anxious looks which the horsemen of El Hakim now cast upon theirleader seemed to indicate deep apprehension; while he, with gravity asundisturbed as when he called his followers to prayer, detached two ofhis best-mounted cavaliers, with instructions to approach as closely asprudence permitted to these travellers of the desert, and observemore minutely their numbers, their character, and, if possible, theirpurpose. The approach of danger, or what was feared as such, was likea stimulating draught to one in apathy, and recalled Sir Kenneth tohimself and his situation.
"What fear you from these Christian horsemen, for such they seem?" hesaid to the Hakim.
"Fear!" said El Hakim, repeating the word disdainfully. "The sage fearsnothing but Heaven, but ever expects from wicked men the worst whichthey can do."
"They are Christians," said Sir Kenneth, "and it is the time oftruce--why should you fear a breach of faith?"
"They are the priestly soldiers of the Temple," answered El Hakim,"whose vow limits them to know neither truce nor faith with theworshippers of Islam. May the Prophet blight them, both root, branch,and twig! Their peace is war, and their faith is falsehood. Otherinvaders of Palestine have their times and moods of courtesy. The lionRichard will spare when he has conquered, the eagle Philip will closehis wing when he has stricken a prey, even the Austrian bear will sleepwhen he is gorged; but this horde of ever-hungry wolves know neitherpause nor satiety in their rapine. Seest thou not that they aredetaching a party from their main body, and that they take an easterndirection? Yon are their pages and squires, whom they train up in theiraccursed mysteries, and whom, as lighter mounted, they send to cut usoff from our watering-place. But they will be disappointed. I know thewar of the desert yet better than they."
He spoke a few words to his principal officer, and his whole demeanourand countenance was at once changed from the solemn repose of an Easternsage accustomed more to contemplation than to action, into the promptand proud expression of a gallant soldier whose energies are roused bythe near approach of a danger which he at once foresees and despises.
To Sir Kenneth's eyes the approaching crisis had a different aspect,and when Adonbec said to him, "Thou must tarry close by my side," heanswered solemnly in the negative.
"Yonder," he said, "are my comrades in arms--the men in whose society Ihave vowed to fight or fall. On their banner gleams the sign of ourmost blessed redemption--I cannot fly from the Cross in company with theCrescent."
"Fool!" said the Hakim; "their first action would be to do thee todeath, were it only to conceal their breach of the truce."
"Of that I must take my chance," replied Sir Kenneth; "but I wear notthe bonds of the infidels an instant longer than I can cast them fromme."
"Then will I compel thee to follow me," said El Hakim.
"Compel!" answered Sir Kenneth angrily. "Wert thou not my bene
factor,or one who has showed will to be such, and were it not that it is tothy confidence I owe the freedom of these hands, which thou mightst haveloaded with fetters, I would show thee that, unarmed as I am, compulsionwould be no easy task."
"Enough, enough," replied the Arabian physician, "we lose time even whenit is becoming precious."
So saying, he threw his arm aloft, and uttered a loud and shrill cry, asa signal to his retinue, who instantly dispersed themselves on the faceof the desert, in as many different directions as a chaplet of beadswhen the string is broken. Sir Kenneth had no time to note what ensued;for, at the same instant, the Hakim seized the rein of his steed,and putting his own to its mettle, both sprung forth at once with thesuddenness of light, and at a pitch of velocity which almost deprivedthe Scottish knight of the power of respiration, and left him absolutelyincapable, had he been desirous, to have checked the career of hisguide. Practised as Sir Kenneth was in horsemanship from his earliestyouth, the speediest horse he had ever mounted was a tortoise incomparison to those of the Arabian sage. They spurned the sand frombehind them; they seemed to devour the desert before them; miles flewaway with minutes--and yet their strength seemed unabated, and theirrespiration as free as when they first started upon the wonderfulrace. The motion, too, as easy as it was swift, seemed more like flyingthrough the air than riding on the earth, and was attended with nounpleasant sensation, save the awe naturally felt by one who is movingat such astonishing speed, and the difficulty of breathing occasioned bytheir passing through the air so rapidly.
It was not until after an hour of this portentous motion, and when allhuman pursuit was far, far behind, that the Hakim at length relaxed hisspeed, and, slackening the pace of the horses into a hand-gallop, began,in a voice as composed and even as if he had been walking for the lasthour, a descant upon the excellence of his coursers to the Scot, who,breathless, half blind, half deaf, and altogether giddy; from therapidity of this singular ride, hardly comprehended the words whichflowed so freely from his companion.
"These horses," he said, "are of the breed called the Winged, equal inspeed to aught excepting the Borak of the Prophet. They are fed on thegolden barley of Yemen, mixed with spices and with a small portion ofdried sheep's flesh. Kings have given provinces to possess them, andtheir age is active as their youth. Thou, Nazarene, art the first, savea true believer, that ever had beneath his loins one of this noblerace, a gift of the Prophet himself to the blessed Ali, his kinsman andlieutenant, well called the Lion of God. Time lays his touch so lightlyon these generous steeds, that the mare on which thou now sittest hasseen five times five years pass over her, yet retains her pristine speedand vigour, only that in the career the support of a bridle, managed bya hand more experienced than thine, hath now become necessary. May theProphet be blessed, who hath bestowed on the true believers the means ofadvance and retreat, which causeth their iron-clothed enemies to beworn out with their own ponderous weight! How the horses of yonder dogTemplars must have snorted and blown, when they had toiled fetlock-deepin the desert for one-twentieth part of the space which these bravesteeds have left behind them, without one thick pant, or a drop ofmoisture upon their sleek and velvet coats!"
The Scottish knight, who had now begun to recover his breath and powersof attention, could not help acknowledging in his heart the advantagepossessed by these Eastern warriors in a race of animals, alike properfor advance or retreat, and so admirably adapted to the level and sandydeserts of Arabia and Syria. But he did not choose to augment the prideof the Moslem by acquiescing in his proud claim of superiority, andtherefore suffered the conversation to drop, and, looking around him,could now, at the more moderate pace at which they moved, distinguishthat he was in a country not unknown to him.
The blighted borders and sullen waters of the Dead Sea, the ragged andprecipitous chain of mountains arising on the left, the two or threepalms clustered together, forming the single green speck on the bosomof the waste wilderness--objects which, once seen, were scarcely to beforgotten--showed to Sir Kenneth that they were approaching the fountaincalled the Diamond of the Desert, which had been the scene of hisinterview on a former occasion with the Saracen Emir Sheerkohf, orIlderim. In a few minutes they checked their horses beside the spring,and the Hakim invited Sir Kenneth to descend from horseback and reposehimself as in a place of safety. They unbridled their steeds, El Hakimobserving that further care of them was unnecessary, since they would bespeedily joined by some of the best mounted among his slaves, who woulddo what further was needful.
"Meantime," he said, spreading some food on the grass, "eat and drink,and be not discouraged. Fortune may raise up or abase the ordinarymortal, but the sage and the soldier should have minds beyond hercontrol."
The Scottish knight endeavoured to testify his thanks by showing himselfdocile; but though he strove to eat out of complaisance, the singularcontrast between his present situation and that which he had occupied onthe same spot when the envoy of princes and the victor in combat,came like a cloud over his mind, and fasting, lassitude, and fatigueoppressed his bodily powers. El Hakim examined his hurried pulse, hisred and inflamed eye, his heated hand, and his shortened respiration.
"The mind," he said, "grows wise by watching, but her sister the body,of coarser materials, needs the support of repose. Thou must sleep; andthat thou mayest do so to refreshment, thou must take a draught mingledwith this elixir."
He drew from his bosom a small crystal vial, cased in silverfiligree-work, and dropped into a little golden drinking-cup a smallportion of a dark-coloured fluid.
"This," he said, "is one of those productions which Allah hath senton earth for a blessing, though man's weakness and wickedness havesometimes converted it into a curse. It is powerful as the wine-cup ofthe Nazarene to drop the curtain on the sleepless eye, and to relievethe burden of the overloaded bosom; but when applied to the purposes ofindulgence and debauchery, it rends the nerves, destroys the strength,weakens the intellect, and undermines life. But fear not thou to useits virtues in the time of need, for the wise man warms him by the samefirebrand with which the madman burneth the tent." [Some preparation ofopium seems to be intimated.]
"I have seen too much of thy skill, sage Hakim," said Sir Kenneth, "todebate thine hest;" and swallowed the narcotic, mingled as it was withsome water from the spring, then wrapped him in the haik, or Arab cloak,which had been fastened to his saddle-pommel, and, according to thedirections of the physician, stretched himself at ease in the shade toawait the promised repose. Sleep came not at first, but in her steada train of pleasing yet not rousing or awakening sensations. A stateensued in which, still conscious of his own identity and his owncondition, the knight felt enabled to consider them not only withoutalarm and sorrow, but as composedly as he might have viewed the storyof his misfortunes acted upon a stage--or rather as a disembodied spiritmight regard the transactions of its past existence. From this stateof repose, amounting almost to apathy respecting the past, his thoughtswere carried forward to the future, which, in spite of all that existedto overcloud the prospect, glittered with such hues as, under muchhappier auspices, his unstimulated imagination had not been able toproduce, even in its most exalted state. Liberty, fame, successful love,appeared to be the certain and not very distant prospect of the enslavedexile, the dishonoured knight, even of the despairing lover who hadplaced his hopes of happiness so far beyond the prospect of chance, inher wildest possibilities, serving to countenance his wishes. Graduallyas the intellectual sight became overclouded, these gay visions becameobscure, like the dying hues of sunset, until they were at last lost intotal oblivion; and Sir Kenneth lay extended at the feet of El Hakim, toall appearance, but for his deep respiration, as inanimate a corpse asif life had actually departed.