Tales and Novels — Volume 02: Popular TalesEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 02: Popular Tales
Edgeworth, Maria
Fiction
“For my part, I was not suffered to do any thing; the captain ordered
that I should be bound to the mast; and, when at last the flames were
extinguished, the passengers, with one accord, besought him to keep me
bound hand and foot, lest I should be the cause of some new disaster.
All that had happened was, indeed, occasioned by my ill luck. I had laid
my pipe down, when I was falling asleep, upon the bale of cotton that
was beside me. The fire from my pipe fell out, and set the cotton
in flames. Such was the mixture of rage and terror with which I had
inspired the whole crew, that I am sure they would have set me ashore
on a desert island, rather than have had me on board for a week longer.
Even my humane master, I could perceive, was secretly impatient to get
rid of Murad the Unlucky, and his evil fortune.
“You may believe that I was heartily glad when we landed, and when I was
unbound. My master put a purse containing fifty sequins into my hand,
and bade me farewell. ‘Use this money prudently, Murad, if you can,’
said he, ‘and perhaps your fortune may change.’ Of this I had little
hopes, but determined to lay out my money as prudently as possible.
“As I was walking through the streets of Grand Cairo, considering how I
should lay out my fifty sequins to the greatest advantage, I was stopped
by one who called me by my name, and asked me if I could pretend to
have forgotten his face. I looked steadily at him, and recollected to my
sorrow that he was the Jew Rachub, from whom I had borrowed certain
sums of money at the camp at El Arish. What brought him to Grand Cairo,
except it was my evil destiny, I cannot tell. He would not quit me; he
would take no excuses; he said he knew that I had deserted twice,
once from the Turkish and once from the English array; that I was not
entitled to any pay; and that he could not imagine it possible that my
brother Saladin would own me, or pay my debts.
“I replied, for I was vexed by the insolence of this Jewish dog, that I
was not, as he imagined, a beggar; that I had the means of paying him
my just debt, but that I hoped he would not extort from me all that
exorbitant interest which none but a Jew could exact. He smiled, and
answered that, if a Turk loved opium better than money, this was no
fault of his; that he had supplied me with what I loved best in the
world; and that I ought not to complain, when he expected I should
return the favour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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