CHAPTER IX.

THE FALCON CAGED.

It was about eight days after the arrest of the Jewess that Hassan mounted his horse and rode out of the town by the south gate. He rode onwards, engrossed by his own bitter reflections, almost unconscious that the moon had risen and that he was now far from the city. At the time that he found his plans frustrated by Azora's appeal he was overcome by rage and disappointment; as these feelings subsided, his conscience upbraided him for his useless perjury, by which he had brought Azora into imminent peril without in the slightest degree promoting his own guilty plans; he was merely a jackal to a lion.

Having bitterly repented of his crime, his mind was now constantly haunted with the dread of the consequent death to Azora, with which he himself had threatened her. One image pictured on his mind seemed to have effaced and taken the place of all others. A beautiful figure, on a pyre, with the flames leaping around her, looked on him with a look of reproachful agony! Sleeping or waking it was the same, wherever he looked those sad eyes met his; there was no escape; he was becoming a monomaniac. His life was lonely, the only other inmate of his home being a little orphan sister of five years old, to whom he was much attached, but who was hardly old enough as a companion to divert his mind; and at night he was quite alone.

He now dismounted and sat down on a bank, under the trees. The evening breeze brought to his ear the modulated murmurs of a neighbouring rivulet; they sounded to him as the moan of suffering. The moon poured her beams through the foliage of olive that overshadowed him, painting the ground with a tracery of waving leafage, that seemed to him as flames. The image faded for a time, as the silence of the night soothed his harassed mind, and he felt himself more immediately in the presence of God amid the calm scenes of nature. The lessons of childhood, and the principles of youth, which had not been wholly extinguished, rose up to accuse him; and overcome by shame and remorse, he leaned his head on his clasped hands and wept bitterly, until his heart was seared and his eyes were dry. Alas! man's tears harrow, but are no relief.

"Salemo Alikoom," said a clear voice near him; and remembering the lateness of the hour he started to his feet.

"And on you peace," he returned to the stranger, who now stood by his side. By the moonlight he could see that he was tall, with an aquiline nose, and short black beard, and dressed in the slovenly hayk and turban of a peasant. He had stopped to water his horse at the brook which flowed at a short distance, and Hassan was so absorbed in his reverie that he had approached him almost unperceived on the turf, and had been a partial witness to his emotion.

"Peace to the believer!" said the stranger; "you sit here so quietly enjoying the moonlight and the running water, that I suppose the town gates are shut for the night. This is a good place to camp under the sky, and we shall be better in each other's company. I am from Duquela, and not knowing the country, I have rather lost my way." Saying which he pulled a small carpet from his horse's saddle, and got out his hobbles to tie up his horse.

"Not so fast," said Hassan, won by his frank address, "I knew not it was so late; I do not sleep here when the town is so close. Certainly you must have lost your way, for Duquela is to the north. But are there not more ways of entering a town than by the gates?"

"By scaling the walls? You are a townsman, but if I were caught at that I might shorten my shadow, from which God preserve me!"

"God forbid!" said Hassan; "but I like you--promise secrecy, and I will show you a way in; I discovered it by accident."

"On the faith of a Moslim," said Ali el Bezz, for it was he; and mounting their horses they rode on to the town. Ali had been despatched by the Chief, to Marocco, to watch over the safety of Azora, and to act as circumstances might require for her deliverance. He had received a minute description of the Moors, her accusers, from Yusuf, and he felt assured that one of them was now before him. This adventure promising him an entrance into the town without passing the gates, he saw at once would prove of immense advantage to him hereafter for purposes of escape. If he was not yet satisfied of his companion's identity, it was not long before he had evidence of the fact.

"What brings you to Marocco, O Moslim?" said Hassan as they rode side by side.

Ali fixed his eyes on his face, on which the moon shone, and answered indifferently,--

"I heard there was an infidel to be burnt for wishing to recant."

Hassan started, and turned round on the speaker, who had thus given a wrench to the weapon that rankled in his wounded spirit, and who appeared quite unconscious of the effect his words had produced as he continued,--

"We heard the news in our province, and I came to see the sight. It will be a grateful sacrifice to the Prophet. God is merciful! The Sultan is too indulgent to the infidels."

"Woe to thee, O Moslim!" said Hassan in an excited tone. "Think you the pangs and shrieks of a son of Adam in torture can be grateful to a merciful God? Think you the diabolical spirit of the murderers can be pleasing to a beneficent Creator? In the infancy of the faith the Prophet's policy allowed this; now it is useless, barbarous! And this is a woman! O God! O God!" And he pressed his hands to his eyes as though the flames blasted them.

Ali gazed on him with unfeigned surprise; at first he thought he was counterplotting to mislead him, but sincerity was too plainly marked on his haggard face to admit of a doubt.

"From you, this!" he said; "is it possible? Even as the tongue of the Cadi is before, while his hand is behind for the bribe; so men act one thing and speak another."

"And who am I?" said Hassan; "and who is your father's son that you reflect on me as double-faced? When have we met before?"

"Never! and yet I am not wrong," said Ali, fixing on his face a stern and inquiring glance; "I am not wrong in thinking I speak to the accuser of this woman. Do I not speak to the principal cause of her sufferings and death? Hassan, son of Ibrāhim, do I not know you?"

Hassan's blood rushed to his brow and then left his face ashy pale, as he said in a low voice,--

"Just God! is the brand of blood already on my brow that even strangers know the murderer? The guilt of innocent blood is even now beginning to fall on my head."

"You repent?" said Ali; "then why have you done nothing to save her?"

"Too late! Oh, that I could! But how do I know," said Hassan, checking himself, "that I am not trusting to an enemy? What matter? It is known! What have I to fear? I would give my life--a life that is hateful to me, if it would save hers. And you,--you have travelled far to see this scene of horror?--I see it now!"

"I spoke to gain your confidence," said Ali; "knowing you as the destroyer of the innocent, I was your foe; now,--we are friends, and I can trust you. But however little value you place upon your own life, when I entrust you with a secret which would be no less fatal to mine, you must swear to confide it to no other. I come to save her!"

"I swear by my father's head never to betray you," said Hassan; his spirit rising with the hope of being able to co-operate in any way towards undoing his evil work. "But how?"

"We shall find a way, if it please God," said Ali, "when the time comes. I have met you in a fortunate hour; I see by the leather thong that you wear that you belong to the Palace guards, this will give you the opportunity of letting the Jewess know that help is at hand. You must see her yourself or bribe some of the eunuchs or women. Tell her to seek delay, and profit by any occasion we may be able to devise to save her."

"I will do it," said Hassan; "at the risk of my life I will do it."

The plain around the city of Marocco is very dangerous to ride over at night, being intersected by long lines of pits, extending from the walls towards the mountains; these pits are connected with underground canals by which the town is watered; and these again are connected with each other by tunnels. The pits are twenty and thirty feet deep; and from their sides fig and other trees, and even date-palms, shoot up above the surface of the plain, while beneath is heard the rushing of the buried streams.

The horsemen were now obliged to follow each other cautiously in single file till they came to a fondak, or caravanserai, outside the town walls, near one of the closed gates. The keeper of this let them in, cursing to himself at being disturbed from his sleep. Within, all was silent except the creaking of the camels' teeth, as they lay ruminating and waving their gaunt necks in the moonlight; their drivers lay around rolled up in their hayks. After securing their horses they let themselves out. Hassan then led the way for about half-a-mile, until he stopped on the brink of one of the pits above described, and, telling his companion to follow cautiously, he lowered himself down through the branches of a spreading tree, and then, by holding on to roots and shrubs, came by an easy declivity to the bottom of the pit. Being joined by Ali, they found themselves in one of the tunnelled passages, in which there was merely a run of water; following this for some distance in a stooping posture, they came to a nearly dry well, which they ascended with ease by the projecting stones left in its sides, and emerged, through a thicket of tangled brambles and flowering shrubs, into the court-yard of a large abandoned building about a hundred feet square, surrounded by colonnades of massive stone pillars.

Ali's quick eye was not slow in calculating the advantages of such a mode of exit from a hostile town, and he treasured every mark in his mind for future use in case of need. Crossing a paved court, they went out by an unfastened gate studded with iron nails, and found themselves in an open space within the town; here they separated; Ali being well acquainted with the interior of the town; after arranging where to meet each other, without the necessity of public recognition. It happened that Ali had been very unwisely intrusted by the Sheik with the money for Abdslem; and this, as we shall see, was very nearly the means of upsetting all their plans, and at the same time of finishing the "Falcon's" career.

Abdslem was beginning to feel very impatient at the delay of the Sheik's emissary, whom he was now bent on betraying; to prove his assumed innocence, to the Sultan. Although he had with consummate assurance blinded the Sultan to the evidence of his guilt, this was wanting to restore his confidence, or ensure his safety. On this night he was standing at his open door, when he was accosted by a stranger muffled in a woollen hayk. "Peace be to you! Is your name Abdslem?"

"To you peace: my name is Abdslem! What would you with him?"

"I would speak with him in private!"

"Bismillah! come into your servant's house."

Abdslem could scarcely conceal his triumph; as they went into the room he closed the door, and lighted a three-cornered tin lamp; before doing which he had composed his features, and then sat down opposite his visitor.

"Have you received a letter from him to whom you wrote?"

"I have, and by water: it was a device of cunning."

"I acknowledge the token; have you seen the bearer since? He did not return."

"No! I understand he went on a long journey; his head was deranged as it seemed. But if you are not satisfied, behold the letter!"

"It is enough, it is the Sheik's seal; meet me to-morrow at dusk at the palm-grove inside the Duquela gate, there you shall receive it; you know your work."

Notwithstanding Abdslem's eagerness to secure his prize, his examination of the powerful frame of the Arab showed him that he had not a chance against him single-handed, and to take any step that would inspire him with alarm would be to lose him altogether; he therefore resolved to wait, and make sure of him, as well as secure the money. "Inshallah," he said, "I will not fail you: will you not share a soldier's supper?"

"May his blessing be with you, and increase your store: better that we be not seen together. Peace."

"And to you peace," echoed Abdslem, as he closed the door after him, "for to-night--but to-morrow!--half a quintal of iron on _your_ limbs shall partly avenge me for my sufferings."

He thought the next day would never pass, at length the evening wore on, and Abdslem having procured a dozen armed men from the Kaïd of the town, placed them in ambush close to the place of meeting; and anxiously awaited the arrival of Ali, who did not appear until it was quite dusk.

"This way," whispered Abdslem, drawing him into the date-grove. "Come more within the shade."

The feathery boughs above their heads sighed dismally in the night breeze, and one large columnar tree lay prostrate on the earth.

"Let us sit here: where is the money?"

"It is here," said Ali, producing the bag, the next minute he was startled by a movement amongst the bushes behind him, and, looking round, saw figures rising up in the dim light from their shelter.

"This for your treachery!" said he, dropping the bag, and making a blow at Abdslem with his dagger; but the other was on his guard, and avoided it by springing back, and Ali unfortunately stumbled over the fallen tree: the soldiers rushed upon him, and he was overpowered by numbers, disarmed and bound, whilst the traitor stood looking on with folded arms, congratulating himself on his success.

"Inshallah! you shall live to repent of this night's work," said Ali, "if it please God."

"Your days will not be long enough to see it," replied Abdslem, sneeringly.

"You will not be the first that Ali el Bezz has lived to be revenged on."

"What!" said Abdslem, "have I been so fortunate as to capture that notorious robber Ali el Bezz? God be praised."

"The day may not be so propitious to you as you suppose," said Ali: "'tis your turn to-day--but to-morrow--beware the 'Falcon's Swoop.'"

And Abdslem quailed before his prisoner, although bound and in his power; his triumph was also embittered by the dread of retribution, which, if Ali escaped, would inevitably fall on him, and even if he did not, would sooner or later overtake him at the hands of the Arab's family. Taking up the bag of money he accompanied the soldiers to the prison, and, after seeing Ali secured, returned to his own house intending to make his report to the Sultan in the morning.