CHAPTER XXXV.
MISSION TO BAGDAD.
AFTER the assassination of Touran Chah at Pharescour, the Mamelukes werevery much at a loss on whom to bestow the crown so long worn by thechiefs of this family of Saladin. In their perplexity they elevatedChegger Edour to the throne, and proclaimed her 'Queen of theMussulmen.' But the affairs of the sultana did not go smoothly. Moslemswere aroused at the elevation of a woman to sovereignty; and the Caliphof Bagdad, when asked to send the rich robe which the caliphs were inthe habit of sending by way of investiture to the Sultans of Egypt,demanded with indignation if a man capable of reigning could no longerbe found. Every day the confusion increased and the troubles multiplied.
In order to make matters more pleasant, the sultana associated aMameluke named Turcoman with her in the government, and evencondescended so far as to unite herself with him in marriage. But theaspect of affairs became gradually more alarming, and Chegger Edour,yielding to the prevailing discontent, abdicated in favour of herhusband. Turcoman, however, found that his crown was somewhat thorny;and at a critical period he aroused the jealousy of his wife by aspiringto wed an oriental princess.
The sultana vowed vengeance, and hastened to execute it by causingTurcoman to be assassinated in his bath. One night an emir, hastilysummoned to the palace, found Chegger Edour seated on a couch with herfeet resting on the dead body of her husband. The emir uttered anexclamation of horror; but she calmly stated that she had sent for himto offer her hand and her crown. The emir fled in terror, and next daythe mother of the murdered man had the sultana put to death by herslaves, and caused her corpse to be thrown into a ditch.
A Mameluke named Koutouz was now elevated to the throne, and signalisedhimself by a victory over the Moguls or Tartars, hordes of wanderingwarriors who were now making themselves terrible both to Europe andAsia. Unfortunately for Koutouz, however, he at that time renewed atruce with the Christians of Syria, and raised the anger of his soldiersto such a height that his death was decreed. Accordingly, one day, whenhe had ridden out from Sallhie to hunt, a Mameluke chief suddenlyspurred into the camp, his garments stained with blood.
'I have slain the sultan,' said he.
'Well, then, reign in his stead,' replied the bystanders.
The Mameluke chief was Bibars Bendocdar; and, having been proclaimed assuccessor to the man he had murdered, he ascended the throne, and, assultan of Egypt and Syria, began to govern with despotic power.
Meanwhile, Louis was anxious to redeem from captivity the Crusaders whohad been left in Egypt, and sent ambassadors to Cairo with the moneythat had been agreed on as their ransom. But the ambassadors couldhardly get a hearing. At length they did obtain the release of fourhundred of the Christian prisoners, most of whom had paid their ownransom; but when they pressed for the liberation of the others, theywere plainly told that the King of France might deem himself fortunatethat he had regained his own liberty; and that if he gave more trouble,he might expect the Mamelukes to besiege him at Acre. On hearing thisLouis was much perplexed, and consulted his nobles, especially the Lordof Joinville.
'Sire,' said Joinville, after some consideration, 'this is a seriousquestion, and one not to be hastily disposed of; for I remember thatwhen I was on the eve of leaving home, my cousin, the Seigneur deBollaincourt, said to me, "Now you are going beyond the seas, but takecare how you return; no knight, either rich or poor, can come backwithout shame, if he leaves behind him, in the hands of the Saracens,any of the common people who leave home in his company." Now,' added theseneschal, 'these unhappy captives were in the service of the king, aswell as the service of God, and never can they escape from captivity ifthe king should abandon them.'
On hearing this Louis was more perplexed than ever. In his anxiety,however, he bethought him of the caliph, and resolved, great as was thedistance, to send ambassadors to Bagdad, where reigned Musteazem theMiser, the thirty-seventh of his dynasty.
Now, albeit Moslems were in the habit of paying great reverence to thecaliph as the successor of Mahomet, he exercised very little substantialpower over the fierce warriors who fought for Islamism. Nor, indeed, hadthe history of the caliphate been such as to add to the sacredness ofthe office, or to increase the superstitious veneration with which itwas regarded. For several centuries, the East witnessed the spectacle ofrival caliphs, both professing to be the representatives of the prophet,and each claiming all the privileges attaching to the character. Therivals were known as the Fatimites and the Abassides. The Fatimitesclaimed the caliphate as being the heirs of Ali, Mahomet's son-in-law,and established their throne at Cairo. The Abassides, who were Mahomet'smale heirs, maintained their state at Bagdad. At length, in 1170, thestruggle for supremacy was terminated by Saladin the Great, who killedthe Caliph of Cairo with his mace, and rendered the Caliph of Bagdadundisputed chief of all Moslems; and, from that time, the Abassides,though sunk in effeminacy, and much given to sensual indulgences,continued to exercise their vague privileges and their shadowyauthority.
Nevertheless, King Louis, bent on obtaining the relief of the captiveCrusaders, despatched ambassadors to Bagdad to treat with the caliph.The ambassadors were a Templar, and Bisset the English knight; and withthem, in their train, went Walter Espec, now, at length, hopeful ofascertaining something about his brother's fate.
It was not without encountering considerable danger, and having toendure much fatigue, that the Templar and the English knight, under theguidance of Beltran the renegade, who had opportunely appeared at Acre,and whom Bisset had pressed into the service, traversed the country;and, after many days' travel, drew nigh to the capital of the caliphate,which had been built, in the eighth century, by Al Mansour, one of theAbasside caliphs, out of the ruins of Ctesiphon, and afterwards enlargedand adorned by Haroun Alraschid, the great caliph of his dynasty.
But the journey had not been without its novelty and excitement; andWalter Espec was riding by the side of Beltran the renegade, towardswhom, in spite of his prejudices as a Crusader, he felt the gratitudedue to a man who had saved his life, when he was cut down at Mansourah.At present he was much interested with the account given by the renegadeof the ostriches or camel-birds, and eager to learn how they werehunted.
'And so, good Beltran,' said he, 'you have actually hunted this bird,whose height is gigantic, whose cry at a distance resembles the lion's,and which is to be found in parched and desolate tracts, deserted evenby antelopes and beasts of prey.'
'In truth have I,' replied Beltran.
'I envy you,' said Walter; 'nothing would please me more than such anenterprise.'
'Nevertheless,' rejoined the renegade, 'it is somewhat irksome, andrequires much patience. But the Arabs have a proverb, that patience isthe price that must be paid for all success, and act accordingly. Theyhave horses trained for the purpose; and, when they first start theostrich, they go off at an easy gallop, so as to keep the bird in view,without going so near as to alarm it. On discovering that it is pursued,the ostrich begins to move away, gently at first, but graduallyincreasing its speed, running with wings extended, as if flying, andkeeps doubling. It generally takes two days to run one down; but thehunter gets the best of the race at last; and, when the ostrich findsitself exhausted and beaten, it buries its head in the sand; and thehunters, coming up, kill it with their clubs, taking care not to spoilthe feathers.'
'On my faith,' said Walter, 'I do own that such a pursuit would beirksome; and I hardly think that my patience would brook so much delay.'
'However,' said Beltran, suddenly raising his hand and pointing forward,'there lies before you the city of the caliph.'
Bagdad, as the reader may be aware, is situated on the Tigris, at thedistance of two hundred miles above the junction of that river with theEuphrates, and the Tigris is here about six hundred feet in breadth. Thecity, which is of an oblong shape, and of which the streets are sonarrow that not more than two horsemen can ride abreast, is surroundedwith a high wall, flanked with towers, some of an immense size, built bythe early ca
liphs; and several old buildings remain to attest itsancient magnificence--such as the Gate of the Talisman, a loftyminaret, built in 785; the tomb of Zobeida, the most beloved of thewives of Haroun Alraschid; and the famous Madressa College, founded in1233 by the Caliph Mustenatser.
No traces, however, are left of the palace so long inhabited by thecaliphs; nor does anything mark the place where, though its glory wasabout to depart, it still stood in all its pride, with the black bannerof the Abassides floating over its portals, when the ambassadors of St.Louis reached Bagdad, and craved an audience of the heir of the prophet.It was a sight to impress even men accustomed to the wealth andsplendour of Acre; and they thanked God for having conducted them insafety to a place where there was a prospect of food and rest.
But Walter Espec was not thinking of such things; his whole mind wasoccupied with the question, whether or not his lost brother was acaptive within these walls.