Orloff and his Wife

Khan Mosola?ma el Asvab, and he

the palace of the khans, destroyed by time, sat a group of Tatárs in gay-colored kaftans and flat caps embroidered with gold. It was evening, and the sun was sinking softly into the sea; its red rays penetrated the dark mass of verdure around the ruins, and fel

wrinkles nothing except repose; the words he had learned by heart flowed on, one after the

deal of strength and fire, and his caresses soothed and burned, and women[Pg 178] will always love those who know how to caress strongly, be

m, his great harem, where there were three hundred women from divers lands, and they were all as beautiful as the flowers of spring, and they all lived well. Many

precious stones of all colors, and music, and rare birds from distant countries, and the fiery caresses of the amorous Khan. In this tower he amused himself with her for whole days together, resting from the cares of his life, and knowing that hi

rom their bows into the eyes of the prisoners, testing their strength of arm, and again they drank, lauding the valor of Alhalla, the terror of enemies, the mainstay of the Khanate. And the[Pg 179] old Khan rej

s son the strength of his love, he said to him, in the presence of a

! Glory be to Allah, and glorif

the prophet in a chorus of mi

em,-and when the worms shall devour my breast,-I shall still live on in my son! Great is Allah, and Mahomet is his true prophet! I have a good son, his arm is strong, and

ola?k Alhalla rose to his feet, and said, with flashing eyes, black

sian prisoner, my

o long as was required to crush the shudder in his hea

ish the feast, and the

lashed[Pg 180] with the greatness of his joy; he ro

I know ... I am thy slave-thy son. Take my blood,

wed his gray head, crowned with the glory o

, and the two went silently, side b

r stars were visible for the clouds whic

walk through the darkness, an

there of fire in my breast. The fervent caresses of the kazák woman have been the light and warmth of my life.

a made no repl

my life,-that Russian girl. She knows me, she loves me,-who will love me now, when

a said

r or son, Tola?k! To a woman, we are all men, my son.... Painful will it be for me to live[Pg 181] out my days.... Bather let

heads on their breasts, they stood long before it. Gloom was round about them, and clouds race

long, father!,' s

w that she does not lo

rent when I

is my aged hea

y fell silent.

s her, and she delivers her husband over to the pangs of jealousy; when she is ugly, her husband, envying others, suffers from envy; but if die is neither

ine for an aching hea

passion on each o

is head, and gazed

ill her,'

her and me,-' said the Khan soft

is the same

n they fe

g

he Khan mournfully. He had

hall we k

up to thee, I cann

any longer-tear out my he

n made n

her into the sea f

mountain,' the Khan repeated his son's

the old Khan's eyes upon his silvery beard and gleamed in it like pearls, but his son stood with flashing eyes, and gnashing his teeth, to restrain his passion. He aroused the kazák

me, old

must come with us,'-

s in the eyes of her eagle, and she

the one nor to the other-is that what you have decided

he sea. Through narrow ways they went, and

g

wearied soon, but she was proud

rved that she did not keep pa

thou a

ng glance, and showed

ms, like a feather, and carried her; and she, as she sat in his arms, thrust aside the boughs of the trees from his face, fearing that they would strike his e

r I want to stab thee in

y desire, or forgive thee-as he wills,-but I, thy

shoreless. Its waves chanted dully at the very base of the

d the Khan, as h

Alhalla, and bow

ves were singing, and staggered back

!' she sai

took her in his arms, pressed her close to his breast, kissed he

g

nd distance, where the sea merged into the clouds, whence noisily floated the dull beating of the billows, whence flew the wind which fluttered the Khan's gray beard. Tola?k stood over him, covering his face with his hands, mot

, father,'

he Khan, as though l

the waves beat below, and the wind flew

s go, f

little lo

ce did Tola?k

s go, f

t from the place, where he had

e, strong and proud, rose, knitted

t us

ut the Khan s

I live now, when all my life was in her? I am old, no one will love me

g

lory and rich

e. There is no such love, there is no life in a man, a beggar is he, and pitiful are his days. Farewell, my son, the bles

s nothing that one can say to a man on whom death smiles, and nothing

me g

lah

knows

him back, there was no time for that. And again nothing was audible from the sea-neither shrie

alla gaze below, and

also, as stout a

t forth into the

svab, and Tola?k Alhalla became Kh