The Prince of India, Volume II

in the fewest words, his business is to keep the city in observation, and furnish reports which will be useful to his master in the

ian appellative in full or abbreviated. Before forsaking the old name, there is lively need of information, whether as he now stands on the deck of

ntain just before him and not see it; he may be in the vortex of a battle deaf to its voices; a thought or a feeling can occupy him in the crisis of his life to the exclusion of every sense. If perchance it be so with the Emir now, he must have undergone a change which only a powerful cause could have brought about. He ha

of the Bosphorus, resolved to skirt the eastern shore of the Marmora and Hellespont, from which the Greek population had been almost entirely driven by the Turks, and at the Dardanelles take ship for Italy direct as possible-a long route and trying-yet there was in it the total disappearance from the eyes of acquaintances needful to success in his venture. His disguise insured him from interruption on th

za provided himself with an Italian suit, adopted the Italian tongue, and became Italian. He borrowed a cha

ver the description he himself had given the Prince of the house or castle from which he had been taken in childhood. A woman had borne him outdoors, under a blue sky, along a margin of white sand, an orchard on one hand, the sea on the other. He remembe

o get a warrant for the character he was to assume in Constantinople; that is, to obtain some knowledge of the country, its geography, political divisions, cities, rulers, and present conditions gene

genuine care to have them solved. What a suppression of the most ordinary instincts of nature! How could it have been accomplished so completely? As a circumstance, its tendency is to confirm the theory that men are creatures of education and association.... Was his mother living? Did she remember him? Had she wept for him? What

o bring the beloved object back, and the former to surround it with sweetest circumstances. They wrought with Mirza as with everybody else. The yearning

ill in the memory of persons living. Finding the place of its occurrence was the difficulty. If in the vicinity of Brindisi-we

south of Brindisi a little way, and the castle he wanted to hear of might have been situated between those cities. Who could tell? Besides, as an Italian nobleman, to answer inquiry in Con

well, and affected religious circles. It was the day when Italy was given over to the nobles-the day of robbers, fighting, intrigues and usurpations-of free l

habitue of a library belonging to one of the monasteries. It came out ere long that the vene

ir galleys, the depredators burned habitations, slew the men, and carried off such women as they thought would fetch a price. They even assaulted castles. At last we were dr

inquiry. He asked the old man if he

orti, a few leagues beyond Brindisi. The

e a fa

and a bo

ecame o

fete; she escaped, of course. The boy, two or three years

tion seiz

Countess

castle, and clearing a room in the ruins, turned it into a chapel. Every morning and eveni

ince the poor lad

d, and replied: "Twen

castle

es

ou been

y ti

as it

unt-Il Castil

omething o

h a covered gate one looks out, and all is water. Standing on the tower, all landward is orchard and orchard-olive and almond trees intermixed. A great

tory of the Corti family, honorable as it was old-

e care had been about him in childhood-a good woman, gentle and tender-was after all but a representative of the mother who had giv

ance. The Countess was still living, and the coast road northwardly would br

ction was so dependent upon conditions impossible of foresight, that he resolved to set out on foot. To this course

cap, light blue camail, pointed buskins, and close-fitting hose the color of the camail, sword at his side, and javelin in hand, stayed t

t, for he was in the mood by no means uncommon, when the spirit is prophesying evil unto itself. He was sensible of the feeling, and for shame would catch the javelin in the middle and wh

d while he ate and drank, she stared at him in respectful admiration; and when he paid her in gold, she said, courtesying low: "A glad life to my Lord! I wi

tured better than usual, the figures were covered with flowers in wreath and bouquet. A dressed slab in front of the structure, evidently for the accommodation of worshippers, invited him to rest, and he took the seat, and looking up at the mother, she appeared to be looking at him. He continued his gaze, and presently the face lost its stony appearance-

t increased as silence laid its velvet finger with a stronger compress on all other pulsations. Here and there a

f a bed in the woods, and worse yet, he wanted the fast-going daylight to help him decide if the castle when he came to it were indeed t

and on the sea darkness, except where ghostly lines of light s

lted. Was it of the earth? A hush deeper of the sound-and he was wo

ck of the monks in Otrant

d the road brought him to a stone wall heavily coped. On further, a blacken

"the embattled gate!-and here the beach!-and, O Allah

a lapse apparently intended to be final as the grave-tolled solemnly, as if his were the soul being rung into the next life. A rush of forebodings threaten

he sword, if it were loose in the scabbard, and then, advancing the point of his javelin, entered

am not going to prayer-I am seeking"-he stopped, for very oddly, the face of the Virgin in the stone box back in the angle of the road presented itself to

his mouth now? Who prompted them? And while he was hastily pondering the effect upon her of the discovery that he himself was an Islamite, the image in the box reoccurred to him, this time

aged him so he failed to see the other severer and more lasting struggle inevitable if the Countess were indeed the being to whom he owed the

and its incidents recurred to him, he had never a doubt of his relationship to the Countess. Indeed, not only was she thenceforward his mother, but all the ground wit

bery in clumps. The road he was on, although blurred, was serviceable as a guide, and he pursued it until brought to a building so masked by night the details were invisible. Following its upper line, relieved against the gray sky, he made out a broken front and one

to issue from the yawning portal, leaving him to fancy the interio

castle, he would go around it; and in doing so, he borrowed from the distance traversed a conceptio

lights apparently gleaming through windows, from which he inferred a hamlet pitched on a broken site. Then he hea

s bareheaded and white frocked. As they began to descend the height, a bevy of friars succeeded them, their round faces and tonsured crowns glistening in ruddy contrast with their black habits. A choi

The widow of the murdered count had cleared a room in the castle, and fitted it up as a chapel, and every

ly uncertainty; wherefore they are not a reason for the ab

the Countes

ion of which we are not aware-occasions bring

iled, slow-marching figure. And in habiliment, movement, air, with what telling force it

up or around-a little stooped, yet tall and of dignified c

n reached the foot of the ascent; then the boys a

he exclaimed. "Am I not to see

or while on the way. To say truth, he had been all the while intent on the one partial obje

elf to her? Is she never

tle. He divined at once that the Countess was coming to the chapel for the usual evening service, and that, by advancing to the side of the road, he

e been the work of a revelation of quick and powerful consequence-and it was, although the first mention may excite a smile. In the gleam of

rza, with whom we have been well pleased, is now to become another person in name a

if but to thank God for mercies-to what joyful accident his return was owing? And then? Alas! with her kiss on his brow, could he stand silent? More grievous yet, could he deceive her? If nothing is so murderous of self-respect as falsehood, a new life begun with a lie needs no prophet to predict its end. No, he must answer the truth. This conviction was the ghost which set him trembling. An admission that he was a Moslem would wound her, yet the hope of his conversion would remain-nay, the labor in making the hope good might even renew her interest in life; but to tell her he was in Italy to assist in the overthrow of a Christian Emperor for the exaltation of an infidel-God help him! Was

Emir had been bred a soldier, and he loved war for itself and for the glory

f conditions. He has found his mother. She is coming down the road-there, behind the dancing lights, behind the friars, she is coming to pray for him. Should he fly her recognition or betray his confiding master?

nd a friar, in the black vestments usual in masses for the dead, came out to receive the Countess. The interior behind him was dully illuminated. A fe

e friars, in Dominican cassocks, stared at him also. Then the choir took its turn. The linkman at sight of him stopped an instant, then marched on. The Emir really

white. Two or three times the right hand, in signing the cross, uncovered a ring upon the left-the wedding ring prob

eart was ful

ther-if I may not say, mother, mother, behold, I am thy son come back-still, as thou art the Mo

low, lie heard these words: "Oh, sweet Mother! By the Blessed Son of thy love and passion, reme

d her, he fell upon his knees, then upon his face; and that the face was in the dust, he never mind

enter the door first. The friar received her; she we

inkman, peremptori

mir awoke from his daze-awoke

of Otranto,

s thy p

e to the

the service is private.

N

anst no

unearthly pleading, and completely subdued, he began arguing with himself.... She had not seen him while he was in the dust at her side, and now this repulse at the door-how were they to be taken except as expressions of the will of Heaven?... There was plenty of time-better go away, and return-per

e painting o

mourned for him! Her love was deep as the sea! Tears again-and wi

burned by pirates, was it

es

w the Cou

es

ried off

es

other ch

N

the name o

go

didst not well in shutti

Emir walked re

apel-a second time he heard it, more a moan than a shriek-and thinking the linkman

scene in the chapel-the distress of the Countess-the breaking up of the service-the hurry of question-a consultation, and possibly search for him. Ever

t be sent out on the road. There is terrible energy in mother-love. These reflections stimulated the Emir to haste. Sometimes he even ran; on

decision. He would proceed with the duty assigned him by the young master;

ould there be to the ceaseless contention of fears and hopes now hers? Oh, if she had only seen him when he was so near her in the road! That she did not, was the will of Allah, and the fatalistic Mohammedan teaching brought him a measure of comfort. In further

box, and pushing aside a heap of faded floral offerings, kissed the foot of the taller image, saying: "Thus would I have done to my mother." And when he had climbed down, and was in the road, it seemed some one answered him: "Go thy way! God and Allah are the same." We may now urge the narrative. From Brindisi the Emir sailed to Venice. Two weeks in "the glorious city in the sea" informed him of it thoroughly. While there, he found, on the "ways" of an Adriatic builder, the galley in which we have seen him at anchor in the Golden Horn. Leaving an order for the employment of a sailing-master and crew when the vessel was complete, h

ands, first of all t

d from one of his officers,

next,

ians. Give me, I pray, thy commission to make w

s grant

t ne

and a certificate in good form, and under

nd the blessing w

f costumes such as were in vogue with the gay gallants along the Grand Canal. Crossing to Tripoli, he boarded a Moorish merchantman, and made prisoners of the crew and rowers. The prize he gave

h the purpose of procuring Arab horses; and having purchase

ck of the new arrival in the Golden Horn viewing with melancholy interest the cities on eit

dly for him, however, he had made a fourth finding, of itself sufficient to dash all the others-in briefest term, he was not in condition to acknowledge either of them. Unable to still the cry heard while retiring from his father's ruined castle, he surrendered himself more and