Tancred - Benjamin Disraeli (little readers txt) 📗

much in their cause.'

'You are not a prisoner here, like myself?'

'No, I am here, seeking some assistance for those sufferers who should be my subjects, were I not deprived of my sceptre, and they of a prince whose family has reigned over and protected them for more than seven centuries. The powerful tribe of which Sheikh Amalek is the head often pitch their tents in the great Syrian desert, in the neighbourhood of Damascus, and there are affairs in which they can aid my unhappy people.'

'It is a great position, yours,' said Tancred, in an animated tone, 'at the same time a Syrian and a Christian prince!'

'Yes,' said the young Emir, eagerly, 'if the English would only understand their own interests, with my co-operation Syria might be theirs.'

'The English!' said Tancred, 'why should the English take Syria?'

'France will take it if they do not.'

'I hope not,' said Tancred.

'But something must be done,' said the Emir. 'The Porte never could govern it. Do you think anybody in Lebanon really cares for the Pasha of Damascus? If the Egyptians had not disarmed the mountain, the Turks would be driven out of Syria in a week.'

'A Syrian and a Christian prince!' said Tancred, musingly. 'There are elements in that position stronger than the Porte, stronger than England, stronger than united Europe. Syria was a great country when France and England were forests. The tricolour has crossed the Alps and the Rhine, and the flag of England has beaten even the tricolour; but if I were a Syrian prince, I would raise the cross of Christ and ask for the aid of no foreign banner.'

'If I could only raise a loan,' said the Emir, 'I could do without France and England.'

'A loan!' exclaimed Tancred; 'I see the poison of modern liberalism has penetrated even the desert. Believe me, national redemption is not an affair of usury.'

At this moment there was some little disturbance without the tent, which it seems was occasioned by the arrival of Tancred's servants, Freeman and True-man. These excellent young men persisted in addressing the Arabs in their native English, and, though we cannot for a moment believe that they fancied themselves understood, still, from a mixture of pride and perverseness peculiarly British, they continued their valuable discourse as if every word told, or, if not apprehended, was a striking proof of the sheer stupidity of their new companions. The noise became louder and louder, and at length Freeman and Trueman entered.

'Well,' said Tancred, 'and how have you been getting on?'

'Well, my lord, I don't know,' said Freeman, with a sort of jolly sneer; 'we have been dining with the savages.'

'They are not savages, Freeman.'

'Well, my lord, they have not much more clothes, anyhow; and as for knives and forks, there is not such a thing known.'

'As for that, there was not such a thing known as a fork in England little more than two hundred years ago, and we were not savages then; for the best part of Montacute Castle was built long before that time.'

'I wish we were there, my lord!'

'I dare say you do: however, we must make the best of present circumstances. I wanted to know, in the first place, whether you had food; as for lodging, Mr. Baroni, I dare say, will manage something for you; and if not, you had better quarter yourselves by the side of this tent. With your own cloaks and mine, you will manage very well.'

'Thank you, my lord. We have brought your lordship's things with us. I don't know what I shall do to-morrow about your lordship's boots. The savages have got hold of the bottle of blacking and have been drinking it like anything.'

'Never mind my boots,' said Tancred, 'we have got other things to think of now.'

'I told them what it was,' said Freeman, 'but they went on just the same.'

'Obstinate dogs!' said Tancred.

'I think they took it for wine, my lord,' said Trueman. 'I never see such ignorant creatures.'

'You find now the advantage of a good education, Trueman.'

'Yes, my lord, we do, and feel very grateful to your lordship's honoured mother for the same. When we came down out of the mountains and see those blazing fires, if I didn't think they were going to burn us alive, unless we changed our religion! I said the catechism as hard as I could the whole way, and felt as much like a blessed martyr as could be.'

'Well, well,' said Tancred, 'I dare say they will spare our lives. I cannot much assist you here; but if there be anything you particularly want, I will try and see what can be done.'

Freeman and Trueman looked at each other, and their speaking faces held common consultation. At length, the former, with some slight hesitation, said, 'We don't like to be troublesome, my lord, but if your lordship would ask for some sugar for us; we cannot drink their coffee without sugar.'


CHAPTER XXXII.


Suspense


'I WOULD not mention it to your lordship last night,' said Baroni; 'I thought enough had happened for one day.'

'But now you think I am sufficiently fresh for new troubles.' 'He spoke it in Hebrew, that myself and Sheikh Hassan should not understand him, but I know something of that dialect.'

'In Hebrew! And why in Hebrew?' 'They follow the laws of Moses, this tribe.' 'Do you mean that they are Jews?' 'The Arabs are only Jews upon horseback,' said Baroni. 'This tribe, I find, call themselves Rechabites.'

'Ah!' exclaimed Tancred, and he began to muse. 'I have heard of that name before. Is it possible,' thought he, 'that my visit to Bethany should have led to this captivity?'

'This affair must have been planned at Jerusalem,' said Baroni; 'I saw from the first it was not a common foray. These people know everything. They will send immediately to Besso; they know he is your banker, and that if you want to build the Temple, he must pay for it, and unless a most immoderate ransom is given, they will carry us all into the interior of the desert.'

'And what do you counsel?'

'In this, as in all things, to gain time; and principally because I am without resource, but with time expedients develop themselves. Naturally, what is wanted will come; expediency is a law of nature. The camel is a wonderful animal, but the desert made the camel. I have already impressed upon the great Sheikh that you are not a prince of the blood; that your father is ruined, that there has been a murrain for three years among his herds and flocks; and that, though you appear to be travelling for amusement, you are, in fact, a political exile. All these are grounds for a reduced ransom. At present he believes nothing that I say, because his mind has been previously impressed with contrary and more cogent representations, but what I say will begin to work when he has experienced some disappointment, and the period of re-action arrives. Re-action is the law of society; it is inevitable. All success depends upon seizing it.'

'It appears to me that you are a great philosopher, Baroni,' said Tancred.

'I travelled five years with M. de Sidonia,' said Baroni. 'We were in perpetual scrapes, often worse than this, and my master moralised upon every one of them. I shared his adventures, and I imbibed some of his wisdom; and the consequence is, that I always ought to know what to say, and generally what to do.'

'Well, here at least is some theatre for your practice; though, as far as I can form an opinion, our course is simple, though ignominious. We must redeem ourselves from captivity. If it were only the end of my crusade, one might submit to it, like Coeur de Lion, after due suffering; but occurring at the commencement, the catastrophe is mortifying, and I doubt whether I shall have heart enough to pursue my way. Were I alone, I certainly would not submit to ransom. I would look upon captivity as one of those trials that await me, and I would endeavour to extricate myself from it by courage and address, relying ever on Divine aid; but I am not alone. I have involved you in this mischance, and these poor Englishmen, and, it would seem, the brave Hassan and his tribe. I can hardly ask you to make the sacrifice which I would cheerfully endure; and therefore it seems to me that we have only one course--to march under the forks.'

'With submission,' said Baroni, 'I cannot agree with any of your lordship's propositions. You take an extreme view of our case. Extreme views are never just; something always turns up which disturbs the calculations formed upon their decided data. This something is circumstance. Circumstance has decided every crisis which I have experienced, and not the primitive facts on which we have consulted. Rest assured that circumstance will clear us now.'

'I see no room, in our situation, for the accidents on which you rely,' said Tancred. 'Circumstance, as you call it, is the creature of cities, where the action of a multitude, influenced by different motives, produces innumerable and ever-changing combinations; but we are in the desert. The great Sheikh will never change his mind any more than his habits of life, which are the same as his ancestors pursued thousands of years ago; and, for an identical reason, he is isolated and superior to all influences.'

'Something always turns up,' said Baroni.

'It seems to me that we are in a _cul-de-sac_,' said Tancred.

'There is always an outlet; one can escape from a _cul-de-sac_ by a window.'

'Do you think it would be advisable to consult the master of this tent?' said Tancred, in a lower tone. 'He is very friendly.'

'The Emir Fakredeen,' said Baroni.

'Is that his name?'

'So I learnt last night. He is a prince of the house of Shehaab; a great house, but fallen.'

'He is a Christian,' said Tancred, earnestly.

'Is he?' said Baroni carelessly; 'I have known a good many Shehaabs, and if you will tell me their company, I will tell you their creed.'

'He might give us some advice.'

'No doubt of it, my lord; if advice could break our chains, we should soon be free; but in these countries my only confidant is my camel. Assuming that this affair is to end in a ransom, what we want now is to change the impressions of the great Sheikh respecting your wealth. This can only be done from the same spot where the original ideas emanated. I must induce him to permit me to accompany his messenger to Besso. This mission will take time, and he who gains time gains everything, as M. de Sidonia said to me when the savages were going to burn us alive, and there came on a thunder-storm which extinguished their fagots.'

'You must really tell me your history some day, Baroni,' said Tancred.

'When my mission has failed. It will perhaps relieve your imprisonment; at present, I repeat, we must work for a moderate ransom, instead of the millions of which they talk, and during the negotiation take the chance of some incident which will more agreeably free us.'

'Ah! I despair of that.'

'I do not, for it is presumptuous to believe that man can foresee the future, which will be your lordship's case, if you owe your freedom only to