In two hours we arrived at a magnificent pile, which bespoke the wealth
and ancestry of the owner; and I had the pleasure of carrying in my
arms, up the long flight of steps by which we ascended to the entrance,
the beautiful girl, muffled up as she was in the cloak. As soon as I
had laid her down upon a sofa, I left her to the care of the females who
were in attendance, and quitted the room. The marquis had retired to
his own apartment, to supply the deficiencies in his attire, and for a
short time I was left alone to my own reflections. What is to be the
result of all this? thought I. Is there to be no end of my assumption
of the clothes and titles of other people,--this continual
transmigration before death? Yet how much more has it depended upon
circumstances than upon myself!
After much reflection, I determined upon letting things take their own
course, trusting to my own ready invention and good fortune for the
issue. I felt it to be impossible to tear myself from the sweet
creature whose personal charms had already fascinated me, and I vowed
that there was no risk, no danger, that I would not brave to obtain her
love.
In an hour we met at the breakfast-table, and I was more than ever
enchanted;--but I will not detain your highness by dwelling too long
upon the subject.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No, don't, yaha bibi, my friend," said the pacha, yawning, "your story
gets very dry already. We'll suppose the cypress waist, the stag's
eyes, and full moon of her face. We Musselmen don't talk so much about
women; but I suppose as you were a Frenchman, and very young then, you
knew no better. Why you talk of women as if they had souls!" The
renegade did not think it advisable to express his opinion in
contradiction to that of his highness, and the assertions of the
Prophet. "It cannot be said that I behaved to them as if they had,"
replied he; "and before I changed my religion, I was often smitten with
remorse for my selfish and unfeeling conduct towards Marie; but all that
is passed, I am now a Turk;" and the renegade passed his hand over his
brow; for some long, smothered feelings of virtue had been conjured up
by remorse, as he was reminded of the career of guilt which he had run
through, and which he had climaxed by the denial of his Redeemer. After
a short pause he continued--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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