University of Virginia Library

11. CHAPTER XI.

The story now leaps over three years from
the conclusion of the last chapter. The scene
and the country change. It is at the close of a
delicious tropical day, and in the palm shaded
court of a Moorish palace that the thread of the
narrative is resumed.

A Moorish prince is seated upon his divan
surrounded by his guards, and glittering with all
the splendors of his rank. Before him stands a
venerable man, wita a beard like snow in whiteness
descending to his breast. He wore a close
fitting cap or fez, of red cloth, and a long black
robe girdled at the waist with a green silk sash,
the sacred color of his faith. His chain bound
hands were folded upon his breast, and he seemed
to be awaiting the judgment of the pacha.

No eye was turned upon him with commiseration
or feeling save those of a handsome male
slave, who stood at prince's right hand, his
cup-bearer. His gentle, dark eyes were fixed
upon the old man with sorrow, strangely contrasting
the appearance of his haughty master's.

“So, Selim,” said the pacha, speaking to him
as to a favorite, “so thou hast pity on this vile
charlatan by thy looks!”

“I reverence, my lord prince, his venerable
air and his benign aspect. I hope he has done
nothing worthy of death that he is brought before
my lord this morning,”

“Thou shalt know,” answered the prince,
with a slight smile passing over his dark features.
“Speak, dervish, what is thy crime?”

“May it please your highness,” answered the
old man, “I could not heal the disease of the
princess, thy favored wife.”

“This is not all! This were not a crime, caitiff;
hadst thou not professed to be a healer of discases,
and pretendedst to powers medicinal that
would restore her, without the discase leaving a
mark! But lo, her face is not only pitted with the
vile plague, but she is threatened with blindness.
By Allah, she scarce knew when the sun rose to-day!”

“The physician can only use remedies: the
result is in the hands of Heaven,” answered the
old man, calmly.

“Thou art worthy of death! Let thy skill
restore thy head to thy shoulders, when it shall
fall soon at thy feet!”

“Mercy, my lord prince! If your highness
will spare my aged head—for old men cling most
closely to life—I will prepare thee a cosmetic
that will, not without pain, but will effectually
remove all trace of the disease from the princess's
skin, and—”

“Doubtless restore her sight,” interrupted
the pacha, mockingly. “Go to! Thou art an
impostor!”

“Nay, my lord, but this I will do!”

“What, restore her sight?” demanded the
pacha with incredulous surprise.

“No—but her complexion by my cosmetic!”

“Without eyes she will never know whether
she be fair or blemished, old man! Thy want of
skill has deprived her of her sight, and daily her
soul is being sealed up in darkness. She knows
me now only by my voice and step. Thou shalt
die! Commend thy soul to the Prophet's keeping,
for thou hast not another five minutes to
live!”

“If my lord will have mercy and spare his
servant, I will tell my lord of a great physician
in the city of Algiers, who has power even to restore
sight! He will come to thee if thou wilt
send me for him!”

“Thou seekest but excuse to prolong thy miserable
existence, old man! Thou hopest to escape
in the desert on the way! Let his head be
taken off! We have other matters to judge this
morning.”

The captain of the guard, at the signal of a
raised finger by his master, stepped forward
with a drawn sword, and was in the act of
swinging it round to sever the head of the unsuccessful
oriental chirurgeon, when the page Selim
impulsively sprang towards him, and catching
him by the arm, held it firmly, while he
turned his face imploringly towards the pacha.

“Spare him! oh, spare him, my noble master!”

“And why dost thou care for him, Selim?”

“He may know a man who can help the princess;
and, if he perish, this knowledge perishes
with him! Spare his life, my good lord! Thou
canst always have him in thy power to do with
him as thou wilt. A few days will make no
great matter, that thou shouldst not grant it!”

“It is granted—but not for him—but to thee,
Selim. Sheathe thy scimitar, captain.”

The young man bent his knee, gratefully, before
the prince, and kissed his hand.

“Art thou not of kin to this old man, Selim?”
asked the prince.

“Nay—I never saw him until he came to the
palace a few days ago to heal the princess.”

“Thou owest thy life to this youth,” said the
pacha to the old man, whose looks expressed his
joy at his escape from present death, and his
gratitude to the young man, slave as he was, who
had such influence as to save his head. “Now,
what is the name of this man in Algiers, whom
thou sayest can restore sight to the blind?”

“He is, my lord, a great alchymist and astrologer;
and by his wisdom he has found out many
secrets important to man's happiness. One of
these is, the restoration to sight of those who
have once seen and lost it.”

“Sayest thou he gives new eyes, man?”
asked the prince, incredulously, with a look of
contempt.

“No, my lord prince; but if the eye remain
untouched, the sight can be recovered by means
of his art and skill.”

“Doubtless equal to thy own, dotard!”

“My lord, may his skill be tested?” asked
the page, earnestly.

“This wise man of Algiers shall be sent for,
old man; but thou goest not for him thyself. I
will have thy head within reach of my lieutenant's
good blade! What is his name?”

“Aldebrac, my lord pacha.”

“The Arabian magician! I have heard of
his fame. Sayest thou he dwellest in Algiers?”

“I left him there, your highness, no less than
four weeks ago. He will be found there yet—for
he casteth the horoscope of the Royal House at
Algiers, and it will take two moons yet to complete
the year's circle, ten months of which he
has been at work.”

“He must come at our bidding.”

“If I went, my lord, and saw him—and—”

“You go not! You leave not Morocco, old
man! I will take good care you escape not your
deserts, if the magician come not up to your
praise of him. Selim?”

“My good lord,” answered the handsome
page, who had manifested by his countenance
the deepest interest in all that passed.

“I shall despatch you on this errand to Algiers.”

“Yes, your highness, I will gladly go.”

“You will start an hour before sun-down, taking
the cool of the day, and ride all night. An
officer, with a guard of sixty horse shall escort
you. In five days you will reach Algiers! You
will bring the magician with you! I will give
you a letter to the pacha, who will send him at
my request. Delay not to return. By the twelfth
day hence I shall expect to see you return.”

The young man bowed low in sign of obedience,
while his dark eyes betrayed a secret joy
at heart.

“By the beard of the Prophet, Selim, thou
carest more for the princess, thy mistress, than I
believed,” said the pacha, whose quick glance
nothing escaped.

“She has always been gentle and good to me,
my lord.”

“And, by Allah! have I not?”

“Too kind, my lord! Only—”

“Only — what? What femains behind unsaid?”

“Only, my lord, that thou withholdest my
freedom.”

“Thou art the pearl of my eye, Selim! I
could not live without thee! Thou hast more
wisdom, and judgment, and devotion in thee
than all my other slaves put together.”

“These qualities, my prince, if they exist,
ought surely to give me a title to the record of
freedom rather than seal more firmly my bondage.”

“Callest thou thy condition bondage, Selim?”
said the prince, smiling, and looking pleasantly
upon his page. “Have I not made thee, though
thou hast not yet seen more than twenty-one
years, my companion and confidant?”

“True, my lord—but—”

“If thou wilt bring this magician with thee,
and he restore sight to the princess Fatima, I
will restore thee thy freedom!”

“In twelve days, your highness, the astrologer
shall stand before you, if he be alive,” answered
Selim with animation, his eyes sparkling
with joy.

“Go, old man! Guard him safely, but give
him leave to walk in the out courts of the palace.”

With this command to the officers of his guard,
the prince moved his hand for their departure.
Other matters were brought before him for
judgment; but Selim immediately left the presence
of the prince, to prepare for his departure.

A few hours later in the day the princess Fatima
was seated in her apartment, with the lattice
open towards the gate of the city. By her
side was the young pacha, her idolizing husband.

“Nay, tell me not, fair wife, you cannot see
that party of horsemen passing?” he said sorrowfully,
and almost as it were reproachfully.

“I perceive a moving mist—nothing more!”

“It is the party with Selim, who goes to Algiers
to bring hither the astrologer Aldebrac, to
try his skill upon thine eyes!”

“Nay, my lord! If my beauty be gone—I
wish not sight to see my ugliness.”

“But this chirurgeon sweareth by the Prophet
he can prepare a cosmetic which will give thee
a child's skin for fairness and smoothness. I
have set him to his task. He promises in three
days to have it prepared. If he fail, goes his
head, and his carcase to the dogs!”

“Seest thou not the palm tree waving above
us?”

“Only a shadow moving in a deep night!”

The pacha gazed sadly down upon her and
sighed; and turning sorrowfully away followed
with his eyes the party of horse as it trotted out
of the gate of the city and took its way across
the sandy plain.

At its head rode the noble looking page. He
was armed like a warrior; and his manly mustache
and bright, black eyes, and tall figure,
were in harmony with his soldierly apparelling.

On the morning of the fifth day, as the dawn
broke, they came in sight of the Mediterranean
and of the walls and towering mosques of the
city of their destination, laying in the morning
light between them and the shining sea. They
arrived at the gate as the sun gilded its minarets,
and Selim presenting his order from the
Prince of Morocco, was received by the captain
of the walls with great honor, and escorted to
the palace of the bey.

After the first receptions and salutations were
over, the Bey, reading the letter of the prince,
courteously signified his willingness to send him
the magician.

“Call him into our presence,” he commanded
his attendant. “It is a sad calamity, the loss of
eyes to the wife of our princely friend of Morocco,”
he added, turning to Selim, whose noble
air and rich costume attracted his attention.—
But if there be skill in man to aid her, it is in
the hand of the great astrologer. Art thou a
slave?” he suddenly asked.

“I am, your highness,” answered the page.
“A Christian slave.”

“Of what nation—Greece or Ispania?”

Before a reply could be made, a slave entered
and said:

“The mighty magician sends word to your
highness that he may not leave his calculations
until the ninth hour of the day.”

“We must submit to the stars,” said the bey.
“I will send thee to him in his tower where he
casteth his horoscopes. He at least can see thee
there and know thy message. Return hither
when thou hast spoken with him thy prince's
word.”

Selim being conducted across the court of the
palace, came to a terrace, which he ascended,
following his conductor to a tower. Up the stairs
of this he wound his way, and entered a small

upper room, where sat the astrologer, surrounded
by strange instruments and telescopes, and all
the paraphernalia of a magician's occult profession.
He was a tall, dark man, with a long
black beard and gray hair profusely covering his
shoulders. He wore a blue gown and a green
turban. The lines of his face were deep, and
marked advanced age; his features were strongly
cast and expressive of intelligence; his air was
haughty and his look imperative.

He raised his piercing eyes from a piece of
parchment on which he was making calculations,
and seeing Selim enter, he said sternly
to the attendant:

“Said I not I must be undisturbed?”

“My lord,” said Selim, calmly, “I am come
on business most urgent, and time is precious,
each moment!”

“Speak! what wouldst thou?”

“I am the page of the Emperor of Morocco.
His fair bride was taken ill with the small pox.
A physician offered to cure her without leaving
a scar, but failed—and—”

“Who was he?”

“Abdel of Fez.”

“I know him—he has great skill! But diseases
are in the hands of Allah! Men are not
infallible.”

“My master would have slain him, but he
spoke of you.”

“I can do nothing. If her beauty is impaired,
let her use cosmetics,—those Abdel prepares,—
not I!”

“So he promises to do. But, my lord, the
empress is blind! The fell disease destroyed her
sight,” added the page, with extraordinary emotion.
When the sword was hanging over his
head, he said if the prince would spare his life
he would send him one who could give her back
her vision. He named you. His life depends on
my success in taking you to Morocco and your
skill there! Speak, my lord! Can you restore
sight to the blind?” he added, with an earnestness
that made the magician fix upon him his
penetrating look with surprise.

“If the eye be not broken. I have learned the
skill to restore an uninjured eye; but I obtained
it with a life's toil and great treasure expended.
I found the art in India!”

“Then thou canst restore the sight of the
empress?”

“Not until I see her, can I answer thee!”

“Thou must go with me. It is the command
of the bey.”

“I yield obedience. To-morrow I will start
with thee. To-night I must watch a certain
occulation.”

“The emperor, my master, will well reward
thee!” said the page, with trembling joy and hope.

“Thou lovest her well, young man.”

“She is kind, my lord. She was very fair
before this happened. It would make her so
happy; and also the prince.”

“To-morrow, at early dawn, I will depart
with thee. So I return by the beginning of the
circle of the next coming month, as it enters the
zodiac, I shall not mar my horoscopes! At the
end of the year I depart for Gibraltar, a while to
be present to watch the eclipse of one of Jupiter's
moons. The motions of the heavens are our
volumes, where we read written the destinies of
the princes of the earth.”

It was moonlight when the escort of horse,
which had twelve days before left Morocco, reentered
the city, and took its weary, slow, and
dusty way toward the palace.

When the prince heard of Selim's return, he
sent for him to come immediately into his presence.

“Welcome! Hast thou succeeded?”

“Aldebrac, the magician, is within the palace,”
answered Selim, with an air of triumph.

“What says he? Can he restore sight?”

“He will give no answer, my prince, until he
beholds the royal patient,” he has said.

“Wisely forborne! To-morrow he shall see
her. To-night have him well taken care of.
But I did not tell thee, Selim, that the cosmetic
of Abdel promiseth to do all he said it would.
This is the ninth day that it has been applied,
and already Fatima has begun to recover her
beauty.”

“May the magician, my lord, be as successful
in restoring her to sight.”

“Allah grant it!”

The next day the astrologer was sent for, to
the presence of the empress. The prince was
with her, and Selim stood near.

“Art thou, then, the great magician, Aldebrac,
of whom fame speaks?” asked the prince,
as he bowed himself before him with stately
courtesy.

“I am Aldebrac, your highness's servant.”

“Hast thou skill to restore sight to the blind?”

“If not born blind, my lord prince, and if the
eye be not marred in appearance.”

“Here, then, is a case that will test thy skill,
sir magician. Behold this royal lady, the sharer

of my throne as of my heart. Her eyes seem, as
thou seest, without injury; but within the last
three days total blindness has sealed their vision.
If thou canst give her back her sight, I will pay
thee thine own weight in silver bars.”

“My lord prince, I will see what my skill can
do,” answered the magician.

He then drew near, and looked steadily into
the eyes of the empress. Selim watched him,
if possible, with more eagerness than the prince
himself. Bringing her eyes broadly to the full
sunlight, he several times pressed and closed the
lids, and then suddenly removed his thumb and
fingers, and asked her what colors she saw?”

“Blue and orange,” she answered.

“And when I press my hands upon the eyes?”

“Glittering stars!”

“Thy sight can be restored to thee?” answered
the magician, confidently. “But thou
must bear a moment's pain! It will be like fire.”

“So I see once more my husband's face, I
will bear whatever pain may be necessary.”

“Sir astrologer,” said the monarch, warningly,
“if you operate upon her eyes to injure their
appearance, or fail to restore her sight—”

“My head answers for it!” he interrupted.
“I know it; but I fear not the issue! In a few
minutes she shall behold your highness's face!”

The magician then drew from a pocket beneath
his black robe, a small casket. Opening it, he
took from it two crystal bottles. One contained
a crimson oil, the other a transparent fluid. He
opened both, and desired the empress to lay her
head back and open fully the eyes. He was
about to pour from the red vial into them, when
the emperor said, sternly:

“Beware! See that thou doest no evil; for
thy life shall presently answer it.”

“I know my art, your highness.”

“I have confidence, my lord!” said the empress,
and she placed her head back upon the
side of the ottoman; but the emperor removing
it, held it, while he fixed his fiery eyes upon the
magician.

The latter calmly, and with a steady hand,
poured from the red vial into both eyes an oily
liquid, which overrun them.

“There is no pain,” she said.

“Were it not for this oil thou couldst not endure
what I am now to pour into thine eyes,”
said the astrologer. “Be firm, and move not!”

“Guard well what thou art doing!” warned
the prince.

Without regarding his words, the magician
dropped slowly, drop by drop, the colorless liquid
upon the pupil of the eye. The empress
slightly screamed, and grew deadly pale. But
the operator immediately closed her eyes with
his fingers, and held them firmly for a moment.
He then took a silken bandage, and bound it
tightly over them.

“The pain was intense; but I can bear it
now,” said the empress to her husband's inquiries.

Selim had watched the process as eagerly and
with as breathless interest, as if she had been
his sister.

The astrologer held the handage upon her
eyes about five minutes, and then removing it,
bade her open her eyes. As she did so, he poured
into them an amber-colored fluid, and after a
moment called for water to bathe them. After
a free application of the water, the empress
was permitted by him to look about her, and say
if she saw ought.

“I see—I see you, my dear husband!” she almost
shrieked, and fell weeping with joy upon
his shoulders. By direction of the magician,
she was to be kept in a deeply-shaded room for
a day or two. The result was, that on the third
day, she saw perfectly, and her eyes appeared as
if they had never been dimmed.

The old physician, Abdel, was released from
his captivity, and rewarded with a purse of gold
for naming Aldebrac to the emperor; and the
magician himself received his own weight in
silver, duly weighed, out of the royal treasury,
and which took two camels to convey to Algiers.
But when Selim bent his knee before his royal
master, and craved the fulfilment of his promise,
to give him his freedom, if the empress were restored
to sight, the prince looked sorrowful.

“If thou wilt take thy freedom and yet remain
with me in Morocco, I will make thee my
chief vizier, confer upon thee my second palace,
place at thy disposal a body guard, bestow upon
thee fourscore slaves, and thou shalt have thy
choice of the fairest maids of my realm for
wives! Gold and silver shall be thine without
measure; and only in the throne shall I be greater
than thou!”

“My noble master and prince,” answered Selim,
“these proofs of thy favor deeply touch me.
But I ask no more of thee than my freedom;
and leave to return to my century.”

“Thou sayest thou hast no father nor mother;
nay, that thou knowest not surely thy country!
But my words make thee sad! I will keep my

promise. Rise from thy knees! Thou art from
this moment free!”

Selim, with tears in his eyes, rose and kissed
his hand. The emperor then presented him with
many suits of raiment, and a heavy purse of gold,
and said: “Whither wilt thou go?”

“To the nearest European port, my prince.”

“I send a ship in four days to Gibraltar, with
bales of camels' hair and dates. Thou mayest
go in her if thou hast made up thy mind to
leave me.”

Early on the night following this interview
with the prince, Selim left the palace, and secretly
took his way towards the quarter of the
city where the magician had taken lodgings, in
order to be ready to leave the gates at midnight,
on his return to Algiers; for in the hot desert of
that torrid clime, travellers venture not forth
upon the road by day, but sleep in the shade,
moving only by night. The astrologer had
taken leave of the emperor before night, and not
only received his rich reward in silver ingots,
but the gratified empress placed upon his hand
a diamond of great value, in token of her appreciation
of his services.

Selim made his way through the horsemen of
the escort that was to accompany the magician
back to Algiers, who were in groups about the
house where he dwelt, some in the saddle, others
making ready their harness, others asleep.

He found the great Aldebrac alone in his
room. He was engaged in watching the stars
through his window, and was muttering to himself
his calculations. Upon seeing Selim enter,
he said, with a look of pleasure:

“Welcome, page! Thou hast come, I trust,
to say thou hast changed thy mind, and will escort
me back; for I like well thy company; and
thy conversation betokens a mind above thy
years. Go with me, and I will teach thee to
read the stars, and foretell the events that are to
happen on earth!”

“Mighty Aldebrac,” answered Selim, with
reverence, “I respect thy skill in reading the
stars; but I would rather possess ten drops of
the fluid in the three vials thou openedst to restore
sight to the princess, than all the stars of
heaven—were each a burning ruby!”

The astrologer fixed his star-penetrating gaze
upon his eyes, as if they would penetrate to the
very depths of his soul, and said, gravely:

“Young man, thou knowest not what thou
speakest. Man and God behold the stars at the
same instant! They are the link that unites the
Creator with his lower universe!”

“I love to gaze upon them, and from them
let my thoughts ascend to Him who hung them
in the skies. I shall revere them no less to possess
the boon I ask of thee! All my riches,
with which the emperor has loaded me, I will
give to purchase of thee a few drops from each
vial!”

“Nay—I love thee! Thou shalt have what
thou desirest, as a gift of my regard for thee.
On my journey hither, thou hast won my
heart.”

“O, wilt thou, indeed, bestow this treasure
upon me?” cried Selim, with emotion between
doubt and hope.

“Thou shalt have what thou askest of me;
but on one condition.”

“Name it, my lord.”

“That you return with me to Algiers! From
thence thou mayst sail for Spain. I will then
accompany thee to the Gibraltero of the Infidels,
once the rock of our fathers' dominion. I go to
restore sight to a Giaour maiden of high degree;
for my fame has reached even Ispania!”

“It shall fill the world if thou bestowest on
me my desire!” answered Selim.

“What wouldst thou do with it? But hark!
the bugle of the escort sounds! I must soon
be upon my camel. Wilt thou go with me, instead
of taking this vessel that may be more
weeks a sea than we shall be days?”

“If it is the only condition—”

“I make it the condition of granting thy wish,
for thy good company's sake,” answered the
magician, with a smile.

In an hour afterwards, the whole cavalcade,
with its guarded treasure, with Aldebrac, and
Selim riding at his side, left the city by starlight,
and took the way across the desert, northwardly,
guided in their course by the polar
star.