Assisted by our new friend, we reached the house and bazaar of the Kadi Sohail Ebn Amru, who, on our uniforms, and hearing that we required two horses for the Sultan's service, after wonderfully little delay, ordered that they should be procured, i.e., taken, or forcibly pressed, from the first or nearest persons who were not included in the circle of his acquaintance. While the nags were being brought, the seller of pipe-sticks bustled about, and set before us a repast of mutton-ham, cheese, white bread, and Kirkissa wine, and we seated ourselves on some of those soft carpets of Irann, which are the pride of the Stambouli housewives.
The Kadi was not present, being closeted in an inner apartment with a stranger, a brother Hadjee, whom he appeared to treat with great reverence. Ere long he came out, and invited us to enter and 'partake of coffee with his friend, who had travelled a long way on foot and was weary.'
'A friend?' said I, hesitating.
'Yes, Aga.'
'A soldier?'
'No—a Moolah.'
'But a Moolah may not like us.'
'He is sure to do so.'
'But then we are soldiers,' I continued, still hesitating; 'and Moolahs hate all soldiers.'
'Mashallah!' said the Kadi; ''tis the famous Hadjee Moustapha, who has himself been a soldier, and a brave one too.'
We were both confounded by lighting on this devil of a Moolah even here! I scarcely dared now to whisper our danger to Callum, lest the visitor might overhear, as a partition formed of striped cloth, covered with sentences from the Koran alone separated us; and if discovered by him, all the wealth of Karoon (Crœsus) could not save us. While pondering what excuse to make, and finding that the more I pondered the more obstinate my invention became, luckily the horses—two fine Arabs—ready accoutred, with high demi-pique saddles, and having bridles and cruppers covered with brass knobs and long red tassels, were led up by grooms wearing each a red fez and voluminous blue breeches; then bidding the Kadi and his brother farewell, and hastily leaving a receipt and order on the regimental paymaster for the alleged value of the horses, if not safely returned, we trotted 'away,' as we said, 'for Stamboul;' and then, from the street corner, started at full gallop for Bodosdchig.
The town we left was garrisoned by two battalions of the Egyptian contingent, consisting entirely of one-eyed men. So great is the horror of military service in the land of Pharaoh in this age of steam, that the people mutilate themselves in such numbers to avoid soldiering, that the Pasha has been compelled to enrol those having right eyes in one regiment, and those having left eyes in another.
We rode at great speed, and when the sun was verging towards the long chain of the Tekir mountains, we saw before us the crenelated walls, the old castle, the flat roofs, the gilded mosques and white minars of Bodosdchig, with the tall, solemn cypresses, and the green City of the Silent, where I had first met Iola; and there lay the ruined hermitage of St. Basil amid its beautiful groves, and the Holy Well still sparkling in the setting sunshine. My heart filled with tender memories, and I shuddered when I saw her dreadful grave—the waves of the blue Propontis—gleaming far beyond the landscape; but I thrust away such thoughts, and gnawing my nether lip, strove to think only of Laura and the desperate task I had before me.
Laura and Iola!
The struggle is a sore one, when there is but one heart for two loves!
As we approached the castle, all heedless of the clamour excited among the usually inert and sullen Turks by our appearance when galloping through the muddy streets, Callum uttered a shout of satisfaction on seeing the red coat, the green tartans, and glittering bayonet of a Highland sentinel at the castle gate.
'Now God and Mary be thanked, our men are here yet!' exclaimed he, in Gaelic.
As we rode in, our comrades hurried forth to meet us, and in a trice we had Serjeant Mac Ildhui, Corporal Donald Roy, and every man of my little detachment around us with clamorous tongues, and hands outstretched in joyous congratulation, with many an inquiry, while the Turkish guard of Topchis looked on with a sullen and dogged stare from under their bushy eyebrows.
Roused by their clamour, an officer in a scarlet jacket and tartan trews, with a Turkish fez, a bearded chin, and a meerschaum in his mouth, jumped over a window on the ground-floor, and joined the group in the castle-yard.
'Mac Innon—Allan Mac Innon!' he exclaimed.
'Jack Belton!'
We shook hands warmly as I dismounted.
'By all the powers, where have you been? In the hands of the evil genii?'
'Where I cannot tell you, at present.'
'We all feared you had bid farewell——'
'To what?'
'The great scuffle of life.'
'Not at all—but how came you here?'
'To take command of your detachment, when Serjeant Mac Ildhui reported your lamentable demise, and we had the big drum covered respectably up with crape, and funeral knots tied on our sword-hilts. We are to march to-morrow, so had you been a few hours later, we had been off for Stamboul.'
'Fortunate!' said I, with a glance at Callum; 'but you must delay your march a little time, Jack. I have a small expedition cut out for you—'
'Of a warlike nature?'
'Yes.'
'And I have some news for you.'
'Indeed!'
'We are both gazetted Lieutenants, vice Cameron and Moray, dead—one of wounds at Sebastopol, the other of cholera at Scutari—poor fellows! So we have two commissions to wet—I, yours—and you, mine. I have another box of cheroots and some prime Cavendish, with a jar of Kirkissa wine. Come along—I'll hear all your news in my room—'
'And the Yuze Bashi—how is he?'
'Oh, a most unamiable old fellow—in the sick-list still, having been powdered and pilled by a Jew Hakim, till he cannot move.'
'Long may he remain so!' said I, revengefully, as we entered Jack's quarters.
In a few minutes I had refreshed myself, changed my attire, anil sat down to such a repast as Jack's servant could prepare in haste; we lighted our cigars; Jack drank his wine out of a tumbler, and I mine out of a cream-jug, as our utensils were meanly and in a dilapidated condition. Jack smoked in silence and patience, waiting to hear a story which I knew not how to begin, as I was loth—exceedingly loth—to account for that remarkable cruise undertaken by Callum and me at night; so there was a long silence, during which Jack whiffed away, and then he stared inquiringly at me.
'You sigh?' said he; 'what the deuce is the matter? Fill your cup with wine again—and drink, my boy. Remember the mess-room song—
'Since the chief end of life is to live and be jolly,
To be sad about trifles is trifling and folly.'
En avant! What have you been about, Allan? We heard that you had been making love to a Haidee—a flower of "the Isles of Greece," or some Turkish odalisque—but you lost her? Never mind, my boy—she'll soon prove, "though lost to sight, to memory queer," when we change quarters.'
I quieted Jack's raillery by a grave relation of my adventures; and his wonder, anger, and resentment were excited alternately by the horrors I had undergone, and by the heartless assassination of poor Clavering; but the moment I mentioned the danger of the yacht, he started to his feet, exclaiming—
'O hang it! this can never be permitted! We can't march for Heraclea to-morrow.'
'Of course not, with this devilish business on the tapis.'
'It is our duty—our bounden duty—to march at once with every man we have, and to save Sir Horace and his people from these butcherly Mohammedans.'
'March?—sail you mean!' said I.
'And we must get a craft to-night—it is not yet too late,' he exclaimed, looking at his watch.
'Callum! call Serjeant Mac Ildhui—our lads must all be in marching order, with haversacks and ammunition, an hour before daylight to-morrow.'
'Very well, sir.'
'Bravo!' added Jack; 'we shall cut a dash, and have a little war on our own account.'
'An entire column in the "Times" to ourselves.'
'And a sketch in the "Illustrated News," of course.'
'There go the pipes for tattoo—fill your wine-horn again, Allan! Here's success to our expedition in the morning!'