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
As she opened the door, the roar of death and murder rose like the roar
of the sea, and yet the dread of loneliness to one bred in a chattering
harem was hardly less terrible. Whither should she go on her desperate
attempt? Looking up the street to the main road leading to the square,
there suddenly came into sight a woman running distractedly with shrill
cries towards the western gate, and, even as she passed, a Greek coming
up from the opposite direction ran her through the body, and wiping
his sword on her dress, passed on. Cold fear rushed like a river round
her heart, yet she would not give it admittance. She must be brave;
she would be brave. There was no safety within, that was sure; among
the rest of the Turkish women how should she be spared? To the south
a column of black smoke rose from a quarter already burning; flame
and sword were around her. Then for fear she should lose her courage
altogether if she delayed, she drew one deep breath and stepped out
into the street, terrible to her in its emptiness, more terrible still
in the thought that at any moment it might sing and roar with death.
Now it was so that the moment after Suleima stepped out of the doorway
Father Andréa, only thirty yards off, got up with a heart that was one
red flame of anger. He had wrapped a rough bandage round his bleeding
temple, and that blow had stung him to madness, while in his hand,
so thought the wild, revengeful man, he held the sword of the Lord,
dripping with the blood of the ungodly. Man, woman, and child, they
were all one accursèd brood. With this thought whirling in his brain
like some mad, dervis thing he looked down the street and saw a Turkish
woman walking towards him, and "The sword of the Lord!" he cried again.
The woman fled not, but ran towards him, crying out "Save me; I am of
your blood!" And seeing by the long, black robe and hair that streamed
over his shoulders that he was a priest, "Save me, father!" she cried
again, "I am of your blood!"
"Mother of devils! mother of devils!" muttered Andréa; but then stopped
suddenly, with arm uplifted, not ten yards off, for over his wild brain
there came the astonished thought that she had spoken Greek. At the
sight of that red knife, and at those fierce words, Suleima uttered a
little low cry of despair; but in a moment her strength came back to
her redoubled, and she flung aside her bernouse, showing the lines of
her figure.
"Would you slay me, father?" she cried again, "I who am of your blood?
and see, I am with child!"
Father Andréa paused, stricken out of thought for a moment, and wiped
his blade against his cassock. "Greek, she is Greek," he said to
himself, "yet from the house of the Turk."
Suleima stood as still as a marble statue and as white. The black
bernouse had fallen to the ground, and her silk robe flowed loosely
round her figure. He moved a step nearer.
"You are Greek," he said to her. "How came you here?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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