Halil the Pedlar: A Tale of Old Stambul by Mór Jókai (most important books to read .TXT) 📗

With such words did he trouble them. They were always relieved when, at last, he would creep into a corner and fall asleep from sheer weariness, for his anxiety made him more and more somnolent as he grew older.

But again the door opened, and there entered the Kadun-Kiet-Khuda, the guardian of the ladies of the Seraglio, accompanied by two slave-girls carrying a splendid porcelain pitcher, which they deposited at the sick woman's bed with this humble salutation:

"The Sultana Validé greets thee and sends thee this sherbet!"[Pg 244] The Sultana Validé, or Dowager, used only to send special messages to the Sultan's favourite wives when they lay in child-bed; this, therefore, was a great distinction for the wife of Halil Patrona—or a great humiliation for the Sultana.

And a great humiliation it certainly was for the latter.

It was by the command of Sultan Mahmud that the Sultana had sent the sherbet.

"You see," said Halil, "the great ones of the earth kiss the dust off your feet. There are slaves besides those in the bazaars, and the first become the last. Rejoice in the present, my princess, and catch Fortune on the wing."

"Fortune, Halil," said his wife with a mournful smile, "is like the eels of the Bosphorus, it slips from your grasp just as you fancy you hold it fast."

And Halil believed that he held it fast in his grasp.

The highest officers of state were his friends and colleagues, the Sultan himself was under obligations to him, for indeed Halil had fetched him from the dungeon of the Seven Towers to place him on the throne.

And at that very moment they were digging the snare for him into which he was to fall.

The Sultan who could not endure the thought that he was under a debt of gratitude to a poor oppressed[Pg 245] pedlar, the Sultana who could never forget the humiliation she had suffered because of Gül-Bejáze, the Kizlar-Aga who feared the influence of Halil, the Grand Vizier who had been compelled to eat humble pie—all of them had long been waiting for an occasion to ruin him.

One day the Sultan distributed thirty wagon-loads of money among the forty thousand Janissaries and the sixteen thousand Topadshis in the capital because they had proposed to be reconciled with the Seraglio and reassemble beneath the banner of the Prophet. The insurgent mob, moreover, promised to disperse under two conditions: a complete amnesty for past offences, and permission to retain two of their banners that they might be able to assemble together again in case anything was undertaken against them. Their requests were all granted. Halil Patrona, too, was honoured by being made one of the privy councillors of the Divan.

Seven-and-twenty of the popular leaders were invited at the same time to appear in the Divan and assist in its deliberations. Halil Patrona was the life and soul of the lot.

He inspired them with magnanimous, enlightened resolutions, and when in his enthusiastic way he[Pg 246] addressed them, the worthy cobblers and fishermen felt themselves turned into heroes, and it seemed as if they were the leaders of the nation, while the pashas and grandees sitting beside them were mere fishermen and cobblers.

Everyone of his old friends and his new colleagues looked up to and admired him.

Only one person could not reconcile himself with the thought that he owed his power to a pedlar who had risen from the dust—and this man was Kaplan Giraj, the Khan of the Crimea.

He was to be Halil's betrayer.

He informed the Grand Vizier of the projects of Halil, who wished to persuade the Sultan to declare war against Russia, because Russia was actively assisting Persia. Moldavia and the Crimea were the starting points of the armies that were to clip the wings of the menacing northern foe, and thereby nullify the terrible prophecies of the "Takimi Vekai."

Kaplan Giraj informed Kabakulak of these designs, and they agreed that a man with such temerarious projects in his head ought not to live any longer—he was much too dangerous.

They resolved that he should be killed during the deliberations at the house of the Grand Vizier. For this purpose they chose from among the most daring of the Janissaries those officers who had a grudge[Pg 247] against Halil for enforcing discipline against them, and were also jealous of what they called his usurpation of authority. These men they took with them to the council as members of the Divan.

It was arranged thus. When Halil had brought forward and defended his motion for a war against Russia, then Kaplan Giraj would argue against the project, whereupon Halil was sure to lose his temper. The Khan thereupon was to rush upon him with a drawn sword, and this was to be the signal for the Janissary officers to rise in a body and massacre all Halil's followers.

So it was a well-prepared trap into which Halil and his associates were to fall, and they had not the slightest suspicion of the danger that was hanging over their heads.

The Grand Vizier sat in the centre of the councillors, beside him on his right hand sat Kaplan Giraj, while the place of honour on his left was reserved for Halil Patrona. All around sat the Spahi and Janissary officers with their swords in their hands.

The plot was well contrived, the whole affair was bound to be over in a few minutes.

The popular deputies arrived; there were seven-[Pg 248]and-twenty of them, not including Halil Patrona. The Janissary officers were sixty in number.

Kabakulak beckoned to Halil to sit on his left hand, the others were so arranged that each one of them sat between a couple of Janissary officers. As soon as Kaplan Giraj gave the signal by drawing his sword against Halil, the Janissaries were to fall upon their victims and cut them down.

"My dear son," said the Grand Vizier to Halil, when they had all taken their places, "behold, at thy desire, we have summoned the council and the chief officers of the Army; tell them, I pray thee, wherefore thou hast called them together!"

Halil thereupon arose, and turning towards the assembly thus addressed it:

"Mussulmans! faithful followers of the Prophet! If any one of you were to hear that his house was on fire, would he need lengthy explanations before hastening away to extinguish it? If ye were to hear that robbers had broken into your houses and were plundering your goods—if ye were to hear that ruffians were throttling your little children or your aged parents, or threatening the lives of your wives with drawn swords, would you wait for further confirmation or persuasion before doing anything, or would you not rather rush away of your own accord to slay these robbers and murderers? And lo! what[Pg 249] is more than our houses, more than our property, more than our children, our parents, or our wives—our Fatherland, our faith is threatened with destruction by our enemy. And this enemy has all the will but not yet the power to accomplish what he threatens; and his design is never abandoned, but is handed down from father to son, for never will he make peace, he will ever slay and destroy till he himself is destroyed and slain—this enemy is the Muscovite. Our fathers heard very little of that name, our sons will hear more, and our grandsons will weep exceedingly because of it. Our religion bids us to be resigned to the decrees of fate, but only cowards will be content to sit with their hands in their laps because the predestined fate of the Ottoman Empire is written in Heaven. If the prophecy says that a time must come when the Ottoman Empire must fall to pieces because of the cowardice of the Ottoman nation, does it not depend upon us and our children whether the prophecy be accomplished, or whether its fulfilment be far removed from us? Of a truth the signification of that prophecy is this: We shall perish if we are cowards; let us not be cowards then, and never shall we perish. And if the foe whose sword shall one day deal the nations of Muhammad the most terrible wounds, and whose giant footsteps shall leave on Turkish soil the bloodiest and most shameful imprints[Pg 250]—if I say this foe be already pointed out to us, why should we not anticipate him, why should we wait till he has grown big enough to swallow us up when we are now strong enough to destroy him? The opportunity is favourable. The Cossacks demand help from us against the Muscovite dominion. If we give them this help they will be our allies, if we withhold it they will become our adversaries. The Tartars, the Circassians, and Moldavians are the bulwarks of our Empire, let us join to them the Cossacks also, and not wait until they all become the bulwarks of our northern foe instead, and he will lead them all against us. When he built the fortress of Azov he showed us plainly what he meant by it. Let us also now show that we understood his intentions and raze that fortress to the ground."

With these words Halil resumed his place.

As pre-arranged Kaplan Giraj now stood up in his turn.

Halil fully expected that the Tartar Khan, who was to have played such an important part in his project, inasmuch as his dominions were directly in the way of an invading enemy, and therefore most nearly threatened, would warmly support his proposition. All the greater then was his amazement when Kaplan Giraj turned towards him with a contemptuous smile and replied in these words:[Pg 251]

"It is a great calamity for an Empire when its leading counsellors are ignorant. I will not question your good intentions, Halil, but it strikes me as very comical that you should wish us, on the strength of the prophecy of a Turkish recluse, to declare war against one of our neighbours who is actually living at peace with us, is doing us no harm, and harbours no mischievous designs against us. You speak as if Europe was absolutely uninhabited by any but ourselves, as if there was no such thing as powerful nations on every side of us, jealous neighbours all of them who would incontinently fall upon us with their banded might in case of a war unjustly begun by us. All this comes from the simple fact that you do not understand the world, Halil. How could you, a mere petty huckster, be expected to do so? So pray leave in peace Imperial affairs, and whenever you think fit to occupy your time in reading poems and fairy-tales, don't fancy they are actual facts."

The representatives of the people regarded the Khan with amazement. Halil, with a bitter look, measured him from head to foot. He knew now that he had been betrayed. And he had been betrayed by the very man to whom he had assigned a hero's part!

With a smiling face he turned towards him. He had no thought now that he had fallen into a trap.[Pg 252] He addressed the Khan as if they were both in the room together alone.

"Truly you spoke the truth, Kaplan Giraj, when you reproached me with the shame of ignorance. I never learnt anything but the Koran, I have never had the opportunity of reading those books which mock at the things which are written in the Koran; I only know that when the Prophet proclaimed war against the idolators he never inquired of the neighbouring nations, Shall I do this, or shall I not do it? and so he always triumphed. I know this, too, that since the Divan has taken to debating and negociating with its enemies, the Ottoman armies have been driven across the three rivers—the Danube, the Dnieper, and the Pruth—and melt away and perish in every direction. I am a rough and ignorant man I know, therefore do not be amazed at me if I would defend the faith of Mohammed with the sword when, perhaps, there may be other means of doing so with which I am unacquainted. I, on the other hand, will not be astonished that you, a scion of the princely Crimean family, should be afraid of war. You were born a ruler and know therefore that your life is precious. You embellish the deeds of your enemy that you may not be obliged to fight against him. You say 'tis a good neighbour, a peaceful neighbour, he does no harm, although you very well know that[Pg 253] it was the Muscovite guns which drove our Timariots out of Kermanshan, and that the Persians were allowed to march through Russian territory in order to fall upon our general Abdullah Pasha