Egypt -- History -- Mohammed Ali, 1805-1849 -- Fiction; Muhammad Ali Basha, Governor of Egypt, 1769-1849 -- Fiction
For many days he remained entirely unconscious of all that was going
on around him. He lay there coffined in his grief, as in living
death. They cooled his feverish brow, and poured strengthening
cordials between his lips. The magi cians and sorcerers, as well as
the physicians of Cavalla and the neighboring cities, were summoned
to his assistance by the tschorbadji and his son. But neither
amulets nor talismans, neither medicines nor herbs, could heal the
wounds which did not bleed, or cool the burning pain of his soul.
He lay there motionless, his eyes gazing fixedly at vacancy, and yet
they constantly saw the one fearful yet blissful picture, the Flower
of Praousta, the white dove, as she lay there in the early dawn, her
large eyes fixed on him tenderly ; and saw, too, the fearful, the
never-to-be-forgotten event. As the dark body sank beneath the
waves, a shudder would course through his whole being, and a
scarcely-audible cry escape his lips. The ear of his listening
friend Osman would catch the word that escaped him, and this word
was "Revenge! revenge!"
With time all things pass away. There is a limit to the profoundest
pain, to the profoundest torpor. One day Mohammed raised his hand
and in a low voice called for water.
Consciousness had returned. He now felt the torment that glowed in
his soul. When a man has become conscious of his suffering, there is
a possibility of relief.
The water at least cooled his lips; and the tender, affectionate
words of his friend, and the tears of sympathy that fell upon his
countenance, at last cooled the fire that burned in his soul.
Happy is be who can impart his grief to others, whom Fate does not
compel to confine it within his own bosom, and let it gnaw at his
vitals. Happy is he who can pour out the burden of his sorrow and
suffering in the ear of a friend! That grief of which one can speak
is not mortal.
But there is another kind of grief and suffering more bitter than
that--it is deep, like the grave. Black like the night is the grief
that can find no utterance, that is chained to the heart by a sense
of duty.
Are such the grief and suffering that burden the breast of the pale
man who stands there on the shore gazing out at the sea? Are such
the grief and suffering that sometimes break in upon the solitude
and stillness of the night in low sobs from the lips of the man who,
but ten years ago, was so full of the courage, energy, and
joyousness of youth?
Osman had not nursed his friend alone. A woman had stood at his
side; the beautiful Ada, of whom Osman some times whispered to his
friend that she loved him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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