The Vintage: A Romance of the Greek War of IndependenceBenson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
History
The Vintage: A Romance of the Greek War of Independence
Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
Greece -- History -- War of Independence, 1821-1829 -- Fiction
But after three or four days her mood changed, and from her eyes
looked out the soul of some timid, frightened animal. Why did he not
come--by night or in peace or in the shout of war? What meant this
sudden increase in their food, for now for more than a week they had
lived but on sparing rations? Yet the fresh meat and new bread revolted
her; she was hungry, yet she could not eat. The women were kind to her,
and Zuleika used to make her soup and force her with firm kindness to
drink it; they were always plaguing her, so she thought, not to prowl
about so much, to rest more and to eat more, and when she understood
why, she obeyed them. For a few nights before she had slept but
lightly, and her sleep was peopled with vivid things--now she would be
moving in a crowd of flying fiery globes, she one of them; now the dark
was full of gray shapes that glided by her windily with a roar of the
remote sea, but at the end they would disperse and leave her alone, and
out of the darkness came Mitsos, and with that she would dream no more.
But waking and the hours of the day changed place with the night, and
it seemed that she moved in a nightmare until she slept again.
But when she understood the reason for which they pressed her to rest
and eat, she quickly regained the serenity of her health, and during
the last two days of waiting, though her fears and anxieties crouched
in the shade ready to spring on her again, they lay still, and the
claws and teeth spared her.
But one morning--it was the 3d of October--there was suddenly a tumult
in the streets, and cries that the Greeks had come in, and Suleima
went up to the house-top to see if she could find out where they were
entering, prepared to run out into the street to meet them, crying to
them as her deliverers, as Mitsos had told her. In the brightness
of that sudden hope that the end had come, she felt no longer weary
or ill, and she looked out over the town with expectant eyes. But by
degrees the tumult died down again, and, bitterly disappointed, she
crept back to the room of the harem where the women were sitting to ask
what this meant. None knew, but in a little time they heard a renewed
noise from the street, and running to look out, they saw a small body
of Turkish soldiers advancing, and in the middle a very stout lady
riding a horse. Behind her came two servants driving horses with big
panniers slung on each side, and the stout lady talked in an animated
manner to the soldiers, pointing now to one house and then to another.
Then looking up at the window of Abdul Achmet's house, out of which
Suleima was leaning, she shouted some shrill question in Turkish,
which Suleima did not catch, and the procession turned up into the
main street, seeming to halt opposite the door leading into the front
court-yard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account