And with these words he sprang from his horse, and was crossing the threshold, when Andrew plucked up sufficient courage to stammer--"But, most gracious sir ..." The Turk turned savagely upon him. "It were better, my son, if you did not chatter so much!" said he, and forthwith he plunged into the vestibule. At that very moment Apafi, startled by the clatter of the sabres, came out of his wife's chamber. He was not a little alarmed when he found himself face to face with this unexpected guest. "Are you Michael Apafi?" asked the Turk wrathfully. "The same, at your service, gracious sir," returned Apafi meekly. "Good! My master, his Highness, the famous Ali Pasha, commands you to instantly get into your carriage, and come to my lord's camp at Kis-Selyk without a single attendant." "This is a pretty go," murmured Apafi to himself. "Pardon me, worthy Aga," added he aloud; "just now it is quite impossible for me to comply with your wish. My wife lies in the pangs of child-birth; the issues of life and death depend on the next five minutes. I cannot leave her now." "Send for a doctor if your wife is ill; and recollect that to bring down the wrath of the illustrious Pasha on your head is not the proper way to cure _her_." "Grant me but one day, and then I don't care if I lose my head." "You won't lose your head if you obey instantly; but otherwise I'll not answer for the consequences. Come! don't be a fool." Anna heard in her chamber the dialogue that was going on outside, and anxiously called her consort. Apafi quitted the Aga and hastened to his wife. "What is it?" asked the sufferer, much disturbed. How pale she was at that moment! "Nothing, nothing, my darling! Some one has sent for me, but I don't mean to go." But Lady Apafi had perceived the points of the Turkish lances through the rifts of the window-curtains, and she cried despairingly-- "Michael, they want to carry you off!" Then she clasped her husband convulsively to her heart. "I won't let you go, Michael! I won't lose you again. You shall not be dragged off into captivity. Rather let them kill me." "Calm yourself, dear child," said Apafi soothingly. "I really don't know what they want me for. I have certainly done nothing to offend these good people. I suppose it is an attempt to levy black-mail. I'll satisfy them." "Alas! I have an evil foreboding. My heart fails me. Some calamity threatens you," stammered the sick woman; then, bursting into a violent fit of sobbing, she threw herself on her husband's bosom. "Michael, I shall never see you again." Meanwhile, the Aga outside began to feel bored, so he fell to hammering at the door, and cried-- "Apafi! hi! Apafi! come out! I may not enter your wife's chamber, for that would be an abomination to a servant of Allah; but if you don't come out at once I'll burn your house down."