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The Standard Reciter. ROBERT W. WOODRUFF LIBRARY headings, rcot. Hesba Stretton. the Marquess. Theodore Hook. fl Hood. ife. Beauty. Mrs. Crowe. few. Sue. :h Book. Cockton. The Parson's Daughter. Mysteries of Paris. RAILWAY LIBRARY. Price 2s. 6d. each. (Postage 4d.) The Clockmaker. I The Viscount de Bragelonne. 2 Sam Slick. | vols. Dumas. By Arthur Sketchley. Price Ij. each. (Postage2d.) Mrs. Brown in the Highlands. Mrs. Brown's Christmas Box. Mrs. Brown Up the Nile. Mrs. Brown in London. Mrs. Brown in Paris. Mrs. Brown at the Sea-side. Miss Tomkins' Intended. Published by George Rout ledge and Sons. 3 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." BY JAMES GRANT, AUTHOR OF " ROMANCE OF WAE," "THE WHITE COCKADE," "SBCO>*D TO N'OXS," ETC. ETC. NEW EDIT TON LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE. NEW YORK: 416, BROOME STREET. BY JAMES GRANT- Price 2s. each, Fancy Boards. THE ROMANCE OF M AR. THE AIDE-DE-CAMP. THE SCOTTISH CAVALIERS. BOTHWELL. JANE SETON ; OR, THE KING'S ADVOCATE. PIIILir ROLLO. LEGENDS OF THE BLACK MATCH. MARY OF LORRAINE. OLIVER ELLIS; OR, THE FUSILIERS. LUCY ARDEN ; OR, HOLLYWOOD HALL. FRANK HILTON; OR, THE QUEEN'S OWN. THE YELLOW FRIGATE. IIARRY OGILVIE ; OR, THE BLACK DRAGOONS- ARTHUR BLANE. LAURA EVERINGIIAM ; OR, THE HIGHLANDERS OF GLENORA. THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD. LETTY HYDE'S LOVERS. THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. SECOND TO NONE. THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE. THE THAIS'TOM REGIMENT. THE GIRL HE MARRIED. FIRST LOVE AND LAST LOVE. DICK RODNEY. THE WHITE COCKADE. THE KING'S OWN BORDERERS. GEGKGE KOUTLEDGE AND SONS, THE BROADWAY, LVD GATE. FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." CHAPTER I. the detachment. Five years ago, we were quartered in the barracks at Berwick-upon- Tweecl, and were under orders for foreign service—cue rumour said for Gibraltar, another for the Mauritius, and a third for the East ladies again. I remember an evening of one of the last days of April, when the sun was setting the warning dram had just been beaten for mess, and I was putting on my best uniform, for it was Eriday, a day when strangers are nsnally invited. A smart single knock rang on the door of my room. " Come in," said I; " who is there ?" "The regimental orders, sir," said a sergeant, appearing, and raising one hand to his forage cap, while, with the other, he prof- fered the vellum-bound order book of my company. " Why the deuce did you not come sooner, Edmond ? I am just going to mess." "I beg.pardon, sir! bnt when in the major's quarters, Mr. Langley turned the key outside, and I might have been there yet, if the major had not hailed the mainguard from his window." " Mr. Langley is always performing some absurd prank," said I, pettishly, while continuing my toilet ; "but is there anything fresh to-day ?" "Nothing extra, sir, except that you are detailed for detachment to-morrow, and I am told off for it too." "Eor detachment—the devil I am! I am not the first for duty. Lamrley, de Lancy, and Montague are before me on the roster." " Yes, sir," replied the sergeant, who was ten years older than me, and had smelt powder in Burmah, and at Eerozshah; "but the colonel always wishes to send the very smartest officers on de» tachment." In no way mollified by the compliment, I seized the order book and read — 4 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QTJEEN'S OWN." " R.O. Lieutenant Francis Hilton will command the detachment, consisting of one sergeant, two corporals, a drum, fife, and thirty privates, ordered to march to the village of Aikendean, to assist the civil authori- ties in the preservation of the public peace." " Thank you, Edmond, that will do," said I, as he received the book, saluted again, and withdrew. " To Aikendean!" thought I; " strange, that of all the twelve lieutenants of the regiment, I should be chosen to go there." It was my native place, this village of Aikendean, but a place of sad and bitter memories to me! "Well—I must march, and there is no help for it, Buff," said I, to my servant, a stolid Shropshireman, as I descended the stairs from my quarters towards the mess-room, " pack up my baggage as fast as possible—we are for detachment to-morrow, and leave this by daylight." Buff raised his hand to his forehead, and heard me with the most per- feet imperturbability, for it was quite the same to him, whether we were ordered to Aikendean inBerwickshire, or to Acklin's Island h the Bahamas. At the mess, I ascertained from O'Hara, our senior major (who was still somewhat wroth for the trick Ered Langley had played him), that in consequence of the riotous proceedings of certain navvies (or navigators) who were employed on a railway in the neighbourhood of Aikendean, the presence of a military force had became necessary for a time. " I hope you wont find your detachment dull, Hilton," lisped the Honourable Mr. de Lancy, the lieutenant of our grenadiers. " He is a Berwickshire man," said Montague, " and will be sure to find some one he knows." "Is it a coursing country?" asked Langley, who was a great sportsman; "do the Buccleugh or Elcho hounds meet in that neighbourhood ?" "You will get a medal with a railway truck on it," said O'Hara, before I had time to reply: " and the thanks of the civil authorities —the constable and the parish clerk: pass the sherry, Laugley." " If there are any nice girls in the neighbourhood, when found make a note of," said Langley, pushing the decanter slides along the table. "And send their names to the mess for consideration," added De Lancy, whose inveterate lisp completed his blase air. " Be sure to add the amount of money, funded or otherwise," said the major, in the same bantering style; "and we may leave the evening parade to take care of itself, and canter across the country to see you, Hilton." This insipid nonsense continued during dinner, for lack of some- thing better to talk about. I was somewhat dull that evening, and endured many a joke from Langley and O'Hara on my abstraction. I filled my glass every time the decanters passed me. and in tK«> THE DETACHMENT. 5 usual light-hearted merriment of the mess-room strove to drown the old memories that were stealing thick and fast upon me. This was soon observed, and created a fresh source of laughter among the smaller wits of our mess, who undertook to discover which fair damoselle in our country quarters had fascinated me, and I was fined twro bottles of claret for being, as they termed it, "absent without leave." After quitting the mess-room, a few of us repaired, as usual in the routine of that dissipated life which, on such an evening as this, wearied and annoyed me, to a well-known tavern which then stood outside the barrack gate, where we had an oyster supper, and smoked cigars and played at billiards until two in the morning, when they all bade me farewell in the barrack square, with much mock solemnity, for by that time, De Lancy and others were, as Ered Langley phrased it, " at half cock." In due time, the sweet low notes of the reveillie, as the sound of the fifes and roll of the drums stole upon the morning wind, and woke the echoes of the darkened barrack-yard, aroused me, ami Buff entered, just as dawn was stealing through the single window of my little room. He was already accoutred, and carried a lighted candle, which he placed on the bare barrack-room table, and, without the least remorse, stood by till I should leave my warm couch after a two hours' sleep. " The warning bugle has blown, sir." "I thought I heard it. What like is the morning, Buff—ah —eh ?" " Grey, and very cold, sir." (Another weary yawn.) "The men are falling in, sir," he added, looking between the opened shutters. I sprang from the bed, on which Buff forthwith laid violent hands, and proceeded to roll it completely up in a portable black canvas cover, which had my name and the number of the regiment painted in white letters on the outside. I was soon dressed, even to my sash and belt, and giving a last glance at my scantily-furnished apartment, which contained little more than the orthodox Ordnance allowance of one hardwood table, two ditto chairs, an iron coal- scuttle, fire-irons, bellows, and candlestick, in addition to various chests and iron-bound trunks, I hurried to the mess-room, swallowed a cup of hot coffee by candle-light, lit a cigar, and repaired to the parade-ground, where Sergeant Edmond, and old Allen, our sergeant- major, an indefatigable non-commissioned officer, who never seemed to sleep, either by day or by night, were parading my detachment in the cold grey dawn, under the shadow of the governor's house (which is used as officers' quarters), and just as the clock of a church which stands opposite struck the hour of four. The men were all in heavy marching order, with coats rolled or the top° ttipi'r knansacks and every man carried in his pouch forty 6 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." rounds of ball ammunition, for the benefit of the obstreperous Paddies who were at present located in Aikendean. With a cart for our baggage, which was entrusted to Buff and a lance-corporal, we marched out, and with our single drum and fife before us, making all the music they might, left the town by the Scottish gate, and passing the liberties of Berwick, took the road towards Boulden. We had before us a twenty-miles' march across the Merse, almost to the borders of Haddingtonshire, near which lay the place of our destination. On ieaving the town, the fifer slipped his pipe into the leathern case that hung beside his sword; the little drummer slung his brass drum on his back; I gave the order to " March at easeand conversing and singing, my light-hearted men trod as merrily on as if all the fertile Merse was their own; while the bright sun came up from the sea behind us, and tipped with yellow light the spires and towers of Berwick, with its castle, a mass of ruins now, with a windmill rising from their centre. Prom among the rich meadows the flowers lifted up their dewy heads, and the fresh earth glistened in the bordering fields; on hedge-row and poplar the red buds were bursting into bright green leaves; the rivulets and " wee burnies" by the roadside gurgled along in limpid purity; the black crows were wheeling aloft m circles ; the ploughmen, in their blue bonnets and vests of scarlet plush, were whistling along the rigs; the voice of the merle came out of the leafless woods, and the honey-bee floated over the dewy grass, or buried itself in the " craw-flower's early bell." Everything spoke to me of home, of spring, and joys departed— " Departed to return raze mair" as I marched along in rear of my detachment, and welcomed, but with a sigh, each well-known and old familiar feature of that dear landscape, on which I had not looked for six long years; and this made me remember that I was then four and twenty. On leaving in our rear the fertile Merse, with its cultivated enclosures and rich fertility, which make it so like one vast and beautiful garden, those pastoral hills through which the Whitadder wanders to the Tweed, began to rise before us, and the features of the country became still more familiar to me. I knew every nook of yonder tower that crowned the height which the sheep were dotting, and had often risked my life to rob the owl's nest at that shattered window, from which the dark green ivy hung like a curtain of leaves. I knew the cairn that lay in the hollow below, beside the whimpling burn, for there a brave mosstrooper slept; and I knew the grey Standing-stone on the Corn-rigs, that marked where the fairies danced at Halloween, and where a Scottish victory had been won. I recognised the deep dark pool of the lonely "Whit- adder, where the water-kelpie beguiled to death a weary traveller; and the lonelier glen where the six martyrs lay, among the purple moss and waving fern; for many a time and oft had my poor mother taken me illf; detachment. / to see where the gowan and the blue-bell grew above the covenanters1" graves—the graves of those brave hearts who diedfcr Scotland's kirk and liberty. On the wind that waved the feathery ash and birchen trees old voices came back to my ear, and the kind faces of those who had loved me rose in fancy before my eye; but in fancy only! for never more would those kind faces turn to mine, or their voices bid me welcome. My only friends were the green hills, where the sheep and the kyloes grazed under the eyes of the plaided shepherds; the rocky bank where the thick coppice overhung the brawling ford; the green holly lanes, that led to old thatched cottages, to ruined towers, or haunted chapels, and all that spoke to me of home, and my own Scottish borderland. This is but a melancholy beginning for a rambling story of military loves and adventures, so I must hasten on, lest my readers become impatient. As I had given my men a long halt by the way, that they might dine with ease and comfort, the sun was setting when we approached the pretty village of Aikendean, lying in a deep and secluded hollow, through which there flows a tributary of the TVhitadder. The ruthless engineers of the railway (it was some great junction line) had destroyed much of its seclusion, and rifled it of half its rural charms. In one place a horrid skew bridge, of red bricks and yellow stone, spanned the beautiful glen; in another, the lovely hazel banks had been irreparably ruined by a deep and rugged cutting, the earth from which had been hurled into the glen, to form a mound beside the martyrs' graves; and near the moss-trooper's tower clustered the wigwams of the Irish colony Ave had come to keep in order. But far doAvn that wooded hollow, embosomed among the oaks from wliich it took its name—old patriarchal oaks, whose drooping branches swept the stream they darkened—lay Aikendean, with its little street of thatched or red-tiled cottages; its ancient bridge and inn, with the sign of a " Bold Dragoon" creaking on an iron rod; its pretty manse, with yellow blinds and blue slates, and with the wood- bine and china roses clambering up its chimneys; the little school- house, with its copper bell still dangling at the gable, and the hum of small voices stealing through its windoivs; and last of all, the venerable kirk, which good King David built in the days of old—® with its black pulpit, in which Eenwick preached and Peden prophe ■ sied, and its stone spire and little burying-ground, where all the " rude forefathers of the hamlet" slept. The voices of the children were as familiar as the clear clink of the smith's anvil, and I could almost have cried " Halt /" as a turn of the long green village lane brought all this before us; for in that manse I was born; under its dear roof my father and mother had died, and they Avere sleeping uoav in that kirkyard, where many a good minister lay; in that school-house I had first spelled my av&y, with the aid of a forefinger, through the " Child's Ladder,", and learned to steal the old dominie's jargonelles s frank hilton; or, "the queen's own." that grew in the garden behind; over that bridge I had fished for many a year; ana by that inn door I had heard the old Scots Grey, its landlord, tell many a tale of Picton and of Ponsonby—of the shout of "Scotland for ever!" that rang among the towers of Hougo- mont, and of the last grand charge at Waterloo, till the young blood boiled within me. The drummer slung his drum, the hum ceased in the ranks, and the muskets were sloped, as we marched down the lane into the little village, where our arrival created a tremendous sensation. The smith forsook his hammer, the weaver his loom, and the gudewives their knitting-needles and spinning-wheels. The school where the dominie was teaching the children the Auld Hundredth was evacuated in an instant; and the younger fry forsook their occupation of kneading mud pies and dancing in the gutter, to stare at the soldiers. I saw the venerable dominie standing at the half-door of his school-house, with horn spectacles on nose, and the old landlord of the " Scots Grey" hurrying out, bareheaded, for he had pricked up his ears at the rattle of the drum, and his eyes glistened with a kindly expres- sion at the sight of the old red coat, as I drew up the forces before his door, and, halting my command of thirty rank and file, turned to look for the civil authority we had come to " assist,"—the village constable. He approached me, bonnet in hand; and I knew him well—old Roger Baillie—though he now wore the blue uniform of the Scottish rural police,—but without recognition; for five years' service in India had deeply browned and sorely altered me. I was taller and stouter; my hair had become darker, almost black; and then my uniform was a complete disguise. He never recognised me; yet many a time I had ridden on Roger's back, and thrown kail castocks down his chimney, robbed his solitary apple-tree, and almost smoked him to death on a Hallow een night. I did not make myself known to any one, for reasons which will be shown in the sequel; and yet every gazing face was as familiar to me as my own. CHAPTER IL the dominie. The soldiers were billeted on the villagers, who all made them welcome with that friendship for military men which the Scots have ever evinced; and the great parochial authority, Roger Baillie, offered me free quarters at the inn, but I declined, preferring, for the sake of the landlord and other times, to sojourn there at my own expense. "Well, landlord," said I, as old Crupper ushered me along the sanded passage towards his best parlour, with smiles of welcome on his weatherbeaten face, " I suppose you seldom have soldiers among you here in Aikendean." THE DOMINIE. "No, sir, yours are the first I've seen, for many a long year, and triad I am to see them, sir. I have worn the red-coat, myself, sir,—been in the auld Scots Greys, and fought in Sir William Ponsonby's brigade, the second corps at Waterloo. A het day that, sir; there is onr last charge, and Sergeant Ewart, of my troop, taking the Eagle," he added, pointing to an old engraving, which I remembered well. Opposite hung two other engravings of local celebrities, Sir John Hope of Pinkey, in yeomanry uniform, holding his horse by the bridle, and Ramsay of Earnton, the M.P., with whip in hand, and. that peculiar hat on his head now known in Scotland as a " Barnton scraper." Old Crupper dusted the chairs and tables with his apron, blew up the newly lighted fire ; visits of guests were evidently as scarce as those of angels at Aikenhead, and, on my hinting that it seemed so, " True, sir," said Crupper, with a sigh, " it's all the doing of that devilish railway that takes everything past the village, and has brought the vaiue of property down to the worth of a day's pay." " What can I have for supper," I asked, unbuckling sword and sash, which Crupper received, and viewed with lively satisfaction and respect. " I havena had a sword in my hand, sir, these four and twenty years and mair! Supper, sir? we have a cold beefsteak-pie, some nice salmon, fresh frae the Tweed." " Bravo, Crupper," said I, " then let me have both, with a couple of bottles of your best sherry; and I should like the favour of your company to supper, and pray ask the old dominie whether he will join us, if not better engaged." "Your honour is most,—is most exceedingly kind," said the pensioner, raising a hand to his wrinkled brow. "Not at all, my friend, but I hate being alone in the evening." "Aye, after being used to the splendid mess, sir, I daresay it wont come natural," replied Crupper, who seemed overwhelmed by "the honour done him, and hurried away to invite the dominie, and have supper prepared, while Edmond, my sergeant, appeared at the door to report that " the men were in their billets, and that all was right." " Yery good," said I, "let them parade before the inn at the usual hour to-morrow, eleven; see that none leave the village without permission, and that all are ready to turn out by day or night at a moment's notice." I remembered well this parlour of the village inn, with its old- fashioned and well-kept furniture, which had been made "when George the Third was kingthe eight-day clock still ticked mono- tonously in a corner, everything was just as I had seen it last, and Brown's Self-interpreting Family Bible, with Cruden's Concordance, Baxter's Saint's Rest, and the Cloud of Witnesses (four books to be found in every Scottish cottage), were still upon the sideboard, surmounted by the cracked punch-bowl, and stucco parrot painted 10 FEANK MILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." red and yellow. Tlie fire burned cheerfully in the grate, two wax- candles were placed on a spotless tablecloth, a servant lass, clad in a ■blue skirt and clean red-striped jacket, with short sleeves and'braided hair, laid the supper-table, with a coy expression on her rosy face, as if she fully expected some "daffin" or gallant speeches from the yonng officer, whose brilliant trappings glittered brightly to her unaccustomed eyes; but far other thoughts were in my mind, and I was only roused from my long reverie by a shuffling of heavy shoes and gaitered feet, together with the voice of Crupper, saying, " Sir, it is the dominie." Hastening from my chair, I grasped the old man's proffered hand. I think that I see him yet, no he stood before me there, poor old Dominie Denholm, with his hat raised from his bald head, which was edged by a few white hairs, and with a kind and gratified expression on his anxious and somewhat careworn face. He had donned his Sunday coat and a clean white cravat, in honour of my unexpected invitation, and I saw with sorrow that the good man's garments were rather the worse of the wearing; for the whole allowance he received, though a finished classical scholar, was somewhere about thirty pounds per annum, the rent of his little cottage, a cow's mailing, and the use of half an acre, which of old had been gifted to light the lamps at the shrine of St. David in the adjacent kirk. The many tricks I had played him in other times floated before me, and I remembered how often I had imitated his learned quotations and quaint mode of giving out the psalms when my father preached in the pulpit above his precentor's desk. He was my first and best preceptor, and a kind old man, to whom my heart warmed; but I still resolved to preserve my incognito. "Welcome, Mr. Denholm," said I, "be seated, and landlord please to be seated also." "Many, many thanks, sir, for this kind invitation," replied the dominie, seating himself, without recognising me, for his eyes wan- dered over the gold epaulettes, blue facings, and gold lace of the "Queen's Own," such trappings, or "frippery," as he no doubt deemed them, being strange and unusual to a man of peace like him. " Wont you take a glass of wine before supper, Mr. Denholm." "I thank ye kindly, sir—no; I never taste wine but at sacrament time, or whiles at a baptism." (How could he otherwise, poor man, on thirty pounds per annum ?) " I take a cup of milk dashed wi' whiskey for supper, as I sup early." " Like the old Romans, eh ?" said I, with a smile "Even sae, sir, but not for the reason given by Pliny and Juvenal, that it was esteemed luxurious to sup early." " Then you will take a nip of our native mountain dew ?" " Thank you, sir, but not yet. Our native, said ye; then you are x Scotsman, sir ?" " My name might tell you that, Dominie, if my tongue did not." THE DOMINIE. u " But ye speak like an Englishman, sir." " Custom, Dominie, all custom. Landlord, will youf'— "Thank you, sir, the smallest drop in life." This measure meant a full glass, which the old Grey tossed off, without once winking, saying, " Your very good health, sir, ' the Queen's Own,' too, and quick promotion, sir." I returned the compliment, by drinking to his health, with that oi the old Scots Greys, and then we sat down to supper, like old friends, as we were, though they knew it not. The salmon was excellent, the cold pie unexceptionable, the sherry ditto, and pure as amber; but whether it was the dominie's natural reserve and diffidence, or whether it was that my uniform impressed the landlord with respect, I know not; but I had most of the talking to myself, until the wine began to loosen their tongues. The cloth was then removed by Jeanie, and more sherry was ordered, with the more favoured whiskey toddy and clay pipes for the dominie and landlord. The latter had made several inquiries about my regiment, when it had returned from foreign service, when it expected to go abroad again, and then he remembered that he " had seen them last in solid square at Waterloo." The dominie hinted about the advantage of schoolmasters for the army, and told me the doleful and well-remembered story of his son's enlistment in the Auld Black Watch, and what a heart-breaking affair it was to him and his gudewife; in short, neither said a syllable or told a story that I had not heard a hundred times before; et it was strange the interest with which all these little nothings ecame invested now. " Pray, landlord," said I, " make yourself at home,—fill, here is sherry, and there the native ; assist me in making the dominie fu'" "En'!" responded Mr. Crupper; "I've kent the dominie for fifty years now, and never saw him fu', or a hair of his coat turned, yet." "What, is Mr. Denholm so seasoned a cask ?" " Na, na, but he is owre wary a carl," replied the landlord, whose natural Scottish came more ana more upon him as the hot toddy .oosened his tongue. " Your health, sir," said the schoolmaster, drinking to me. " I am most happy to see you here, Captain—Captain " "Hilton," I suggested;—thinking, 'the devil's in it, if the old man does not know me now!'—"but, unfortunately, I am not a captain yet." " Captain Hilton, (ye are a' captains in Scotland), most happy in- deed I am to see you, in mair ways than one; for we have had a terrible time of it here wi' these weary Irish creatures, since that ill- advised railroad came through this peaceable country." "Pine men, the Irish, though, Dominie," said the landlord; "did you ever see the Connaught Bangers in heavy marching order ? We mce Lad an Irishman, a trumpeter " 12 FRANK HILTON; OR, "TIIE QUEEN'S OWN." "They are wild, camstrairy creatures," continued the dominie; '• and every wage-day has been a day o' riot and bloodshed that bring disgrace on this Christian country, sir; for they make love to the lasses in open daylight, and iick their sweethearts, and auli Roger Baillie, the constable, too; they burned down their whiskey- booth on St. Patrick's day, and now they are swearing to set botli kirk and manse in a blaze next, because it pleased our minister, the Reverend Mr. Maclatter,—rashly, I must say,—to preach a bitter sermon last Sabbath anent the mass, and make an offer of the kirk for a night to a certain Rather Gavazzi for a lecture anent the English cardinal." "There have been many changes here of late, I presume, Mr. Denholm ?" " Ca' me dominie, if you please, sir; for naebody Maisters me here," replied the schoolmaster, while brewing his third tumbler, and while the landlord, who was bursting with impatience to say something more about the Greys and "Waterloo, was smoking with great vigour, and sitting very erect. " Changes! aye, changes there have been, indeed, since I was a halfling callant, in Aikendean. The auld minister, Maister John Hilton (worthy man!); my faither, his first precentor; the auld sexton, and two cottars who wore blue bonnets, grey coats with great square skirts and cuffs, and knee- breeks, with their wives and bairns, were all the population in the kirk-town, though, like many another place, it was a thriving burgh- town, with its provost and council, before that ill-advised Union. But now it is thriving again; for there are four-and-twenty families in it. In my young days there was but one shop, where everything was sold, from a penny whistle to a cart-saddle; the smith was our doctor and dentist; we had neither grocer, innkeeper, nor baker; flesher nor haberdasher; for then we supped porridge to breakfast, kail at dinner, and sowans at supper. We baked our ain bannocks and scones; we were contented wi' little and canty wi' inair, while illness and anger were kent but by name: now, we maun hae loaf- bread, and tea or coffee twice daily, wi' roast and boiled for dinner. Then, we wore our ain bonnets, mauds, and galligaskins, and home- spun coats o' hoddengrey; but now, sir, ye see another sight! for nothing will serve us but broadcloth of the best kind, hats like chimney cans, wi' pantaloons and blucher boots. In those days, there never came a letter but twice a year to the minister, one being frae the Presbytery of Dunse or Synod of Teviotdale, anent the Assembly; and another for him to dine wi' the laird when he came from Edinburgh: now, we have a penny-stamped bushel of then? every week. A man in those days became a ploughman or a smith, like his father before him; but now, sir, they are brought up to ba gentlemen, and must be advocates and writers to the Signet; so, sii; at the present hour, we have more than one puir shopkeeper's son a senator of the College of Justice; but wi' a' that, there are mair evil, discontent, devilry, and drunkenness, even in this wee glen, in THE E0MIN1E. 13 three days,, than would have served for a' Teviotdale fifty years ago. All the plagues o' Egypt are among us now! But the times are changing fast, and puir degraded auld Scotland maun e'en change wi' the times. Truly, as Cowper saith, ' God made the countiy, and man made the toien.' " The dominie sighed as he thought of other years, and the landlord ?ras just beginning— " I mind, sir, when I enlisted in the Greys " " That was the first gude the parish saw for many a long day, John," said the Dominie, smiling. " You are an impudent auld body to say so; but I mind, Dominie, "hat you were the first to welcome me back." " Because, although my wildest scholar, John, you had become a brave Scots dragoon, and fought for your country; because I am aye glad to see the face of an auld friend, and loe a' the countryfolk as though they were my ain bairns. But, Captain " " I assure you, I am only a lieutenant, Mr. Denholm." "Just sae, sir; but may I take the liberty of asking if you are any relation of the late worthy minister here, Maister John Hilton ?" " A very near relation, indeed," said I, while my heart beat fast at the question. " I was just about to ask you for some information. I believe the poor old geutleman is dead ?" "Yea, sir," said the dominie, sighing again, and bowing his white and venerable head, even to his own thoughts, with something of that religious reverence which is so beautiful among the Scottish peasantry; " yea, sir, gone the way we must all go; for, as the blessed Psalmist sayeth, ' Man's days are as grass—as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more.' Many a time and oft have 1 heard him expound on those beautifiil lines; but nothing remains to us of our auld minister now, but his grave beside the kirkyard wa', and even that seemed flat and sunken when I looked on it yesterday." There was something so pathetic in this good man's attachment to my father's memory, that it moved me deeply, and my heart swelled as he spoke. After a pause, he added— " He was the last of the Hilltounes of that ilk." "Who dwelt in the auld Peel, at the Braeheid, yonder," said the ■old Grey. "A reiving set they were, i' their time. There was a Comet Hilton, of our's, shot at Waterloo, just after Sergeant Ewart " "Hoot, gudeman," said the dominie, testily, "the gentleman wants to hear about our old minister, and not that weary charge and the eagle that a' the world, forbye the countryside, ken o'." "Had not Mr. Hilton a scampish son—called Francis or Frank?" he asked, with the utmost confidence. "Dinna miscall the young man, sir," replied the pedagogue, "for lie was a good lad—there was not a better in the parish o' Aikendeatv "B lit prank. hilton; or, " the queen's own." nor in St. Batlians nor Buncle to boot; but alack, sir, as Sir Walter Scott sayeth, 'women and gear are at the bottom o' a' the mischief in this world;' and thus it was by one of these sources of evil that the parish lost puir Mr. Frank, and that his father's heart was broken." " Indeed ! landlord, fill your glass and pass tire bottle ; dominie, make another browst, and pray let me hear this terrible story." "Well, sir," replied the old schoolmaster, as he fixed his eyes first on the sanded floor and then on a crack in the ceiling, while en- deavouring to recal all the stray fragments of a narrative; " I can iell you all about poor Mr. Frank's misadventure, for I heard it partly from the lad himself, partly from the butler at Fairy Bank, and partly from the minister before he died." "You saw old Mr. Hilton die ?" said I, making a violent effort to control my emotion. " Yes, sir—rest and bless him, God! I saw him die, and these two hands helped to lower him into his narrow bed—but of that more anon." I listened, while the story of my early life and first love was thus related, and with marvellous accuracy, by my old friend, the dominie. CHAPTER. IH. the minister's son. " It was in the church of St. Clair, at Avignon, at the hour of six in the morning, that Petrarch first beheld the sweet face of Laura, with all her locks of gold—so it was in our auld kirk down the glen, at the evening sermon, that my young friend, Mr. Frank, first saw Miss Cecil Marchmont." " This is a most poetical beginning, Dominie!" said I, almost amused by the inflated style adopted by the old village pedagogue. " Well sir, it was just about the evening service, and I was giving out that beautiful psahn which beginneth— ' How lovely is thy dwellingplace, O Lord of Hosts, to me'— when I saw in one of the pews a grey-haired, military-lookmu gentleman, about fifty years of age, dressed in a blue surtout, froggea with black braid, with his grizzled whiskers trimmed into the corners of his mouth, and his hair cut short; his gait stiff, upright, and his bearing somewhat haughty. By his side was a fair young creature, evidently his daughter, and just turned of seventeen years, if she was indeed so much; she was dressed in the prettiest of little summer bonnets with white roses within it, and round her black and braided hair. Her face was pale, but pure and healthy, and there was a soft tinge like a pink-rose leaf, stole over her cheek at times. Her eyes were a deep dark blue, with a sweet and modest expression, THE MINISTER'S SON. 15 Verily sir, there was r divine grace in every feature and over all he/ form; her hands, ca^a in their yellow kid gloves, were small and pretty ; her voice when she joined in the psalm charmed me like that of a little bird. Oh sir, she was all that a Burns might sing of, as> Wilkie might paint, or a lover could wish!" "Bravo, Dominie!" cried the old Grey, permitting a loud laugh and a volume of smoke to leave his wide mouth together ; " spur liini on, captain, spur him on!" " The whole parish were on tiptoe to learn who they were; and the gossips at the post-house were not long in discovering that the military stranger was a Colonel Marchmont, of the Bombay Army, who had returned to Berwickshire, after a long res'dmce m the sickly East; and that when there, between fighting with the Burmes^ plundering the rajahs and planting indigo, he had realized a splendid fortune, and taken a life-long lease of the manor house at Dairy Bank, about a mile up the glen; one of the sweetest places in ths Merse, where the river banks in summer are sheeted with the blossoms of the white gueldre roses, and where the gnarled oaks grew thick and dark over rock and scaur. " The minister dined with the colonel at Dairy Bank; and then the colonel dined with the minister at the manse ; but though they were the only persons in the parish who by station and education were fitted to become companions, their acquaintanceship went little farther; for the colonel could speak of nothing but Bombay, Sepoys, and Bajcputes, curries, long marches, elephants, tigers, howitzers and camel batteries; and having been all his life accustomed to bully the poor black fellows, he was a terror to all the servitors of Dairy Bank, and all the parish weans to boot. And moreover, though he had come to kirk on his first arrival, it was mere unholy curiosity, for he had a horror of Presbyterianism and was aye foretelling its downfall, though he was born where its greatest pillar first saw the light, in. the Giffordgate of Haddington; and so being nothing in particular, the colonel concluded that he was an episcopalian. "Now since the death of his wife, our minister, douce man ! had led a life of the utmost quietness and seclusion, and spent his whole leasure time in rearing and educating his only son Drank for the kirk of Scotland, in the hope that he would become his assistant in his old age, and his successor, when it pleased the Lord to give him a call to the Land of Promise ; thus the stormy conversation of the Sepoy colonel was as displeasing as his curries and Indian pickles, which were hot as living coals; and he swore at his black servants; in English, Scottish and Hindostanee, after a fashion that made every silver hair in our poor minister's head arise on end.'.' " He was a fine man the colonel; and knew well the points of & horse," said the landlord, refilling his pipe. " Had he kent the leaves of his Bible, it might have been better for him noo, John ! Our minister was an incarnation of all human kindness and virtue; yet when hi* ,rirk or kirk matters were in- 16 FRANK. HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." terfered with, he was pugnacious as the great Knox himself; thus, after having a peppery argument with the colonel anent state-kirks, their friendship was nipped in the bud, and then there ensued between them a coolness that ended in positive dislike, on the colonel's side, at least. "In this unhappy state of matters the young people—Master .Frank and the sweet Miss Cecil—had no share as you may readily imagine; and the colonel finding that unlike the quiet old minister, his son could clear the highest fences in the country at a flying leap, and reduce to submission the most unruly horses; that he was a good shot, and knew all the mysteries of bait and fly-fishing, and could lead him to the deepest salmon pools in the Tweed, and the best trout holes in the Whitadder, made him always a welcome guest at Fairy Bank, where for hours in the evening he endured the colonel's prosy stories, of how with a squadron of Bombay cavalry and two camel guns he had plundered all the Rajah of Curriebad's territory; how Ensign Augustus Algernon Giblets, of the First Native Infantry, had been gobbled up, bones and all, by an alligator; how forty men had died under one stroke of the sun on the march to Shalapour, and as many more were devoured by three hundred tigers that rushed out of a jungle at once; of lacs of rupees, of punkahs, palanquins and Heaven knows what more; together with the nightly account of the great siege of Bhurtpore, and his desperate hand to hand encounter with Durjan Sal the usurping Rajah, from whose cimitar he got ' this damnable cut over the right ear,' and won the grand cross ot the Bath, with the order of the Dooranee Empire. " All these everlasting stories told in the same way and nearly in the same words, were listened to and endured by Mr. Frank with cheerfulness, for he always deemed himself more than rewarded by the intervals which permitted him to sit beside Cecil at the piano, to turn over the leaves of her music and join her in a song; to assist the gardener in training her roses, and in botanizing with her along the river side; for the young lady was a great collector of plants, and had brought home with her from Bombay a fine collection, for wnich Mr. Frank (with my assistance) gave her all the Latin names. " Now, sir, you may easily guess the end of this kind of friendship between a fine enthusiastic and high spirited youth verging on nine- teen, and a beautiful young girl who had received every accomplish- ment that wealth, talent, and natural grace could give her. As Dryden saith— ' In hell, and earth, and seas, and heaven above, Love conquers all, and we must yield to love !' " In this sweet intercourse a year stole away, and the young pair were as deeply in love with each other as it is possible for a pair of young dreamers to be at the gentle dawn of life, when all the world is new and bright and fair to look upon. They were en- gaged; they had exchanged rings, locks of hair and the prettiest THE MINISTER'S SON. 17 .elters (for it was my good fortune to see some of them), ana all this time, although the whole village was assured they would ' be man and wife and that Fairy Bank with its lawn, stables, garden, hothouse, plate, wine-cellar, horses, carriages and fine furniture, would be a grand dounsitting for our minister's son, the auld minister himself never suspected the matter, and still less did the colonel; who, when be was not fishing in the Tweed or besieging Bhurtpore, was generally reading the 'East India Gazette' and the ' Stock Lists,' or dozing a way his time with the amber tube of a hookah in his mouth. "Iam considered a good performer on the violin, so when the colonel gave a ball, which he always did 011 the anniversaries of Bhurtpore or that other desperate business at Curriebad, I was invited to assist in making sweet music for the dancers. Then it was a sight indeed, when the magnificently furnished double-drawing- room at Fairy Bank was lighted, to see the beautiful Cecil in her rich ball dress, resplendent with loveliness, youth, vivacity and costly jewels; and none who saw her thus would have believed in. Milton's opinion of beauty when unaided being 'adorned the most.' "A crowd of gay but hollow-hearted and empty-headed young fellows followed her, as moths follow the light, while one timid but truer lover—yea, one who would have laid his life at her feet, Mr. Frank, stood at a distance, and sighed when reflecting that he waa only a poor minister's son, and would soon have to return to college and resume the prosy study of divinity for which he had neither taste nor vocation; he sighed, with anger too, when she leant on another's arm, or when another's hand encircled her in that volup- tnous waltz, which by the way of Italy hath come down to us from the unholy orgies of Bacchus, and should be banished from the kingdom of Scotland and every Christian country, as only fit for Russians and Turks. " Master Frank adored her! he loved that lassie's very shadow— yea, the perfume that floated about her presence was to him intoxi- cation; he would kiss the fan that hung at her wrist, and gather up the flowers that had fallen from her bouquet—yea, though they were faded and withered, for his passion had reached that degree when it becometh a species of delightful idolatry. We cannot apply a cold rule to the warm impulses of a young and ardent heart, and 'tis well; for assuredly it hath many a charm for its votaries this same unhappy thing called love. " For a year and more they had lived in a realm of dreams, for this indeed is the purest of love, when the heart is young and guileless and the object of its adoration seems the first being on earth, and second only to its Maker! But it is the old story of true love, and' its crooked and thorny ways, for their dark hour of evil was at hand. " The colonel conceived the idea of turning a wing of the mansion at Fairy Bank into a Puseyite chapel- an innovation which set the 18 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." whole countryside astir, and caused a meeting of the synod of Teviotdale. He brought a certain Mr. Priestly, a clerical dandy from Oxford, to officiate there; and this person prayed in white lawn sleeves, and preached in black, and had twa wee laddies with shirts over their clothes to follow him from the door to the pulpit, and from the pulpit to the door; he had two candles set upon an altar, and an oaken eagle to bear up his Bible stood on one side of the chancel, and a stone font for holy water stood on the other; a cross, which we called Beelzebub's Hammer, stood on the rood screen; Mr. Priestly turned to the east .when he prayed, and to the west when he hid his face in his perfumed pocket-handkerchief; there were many who averred he made the sign of the cross; Miss Cecil played the organ, the colonel puffed with the bellows, and Ali Baba, the black servant, jowed the bell that hung in the gable neuk. The whole parish of Aikendean declared that such ongoings had not been seen in the realm of Scotland since popery and prelacy were dung down by the Revolution Settlement, and that farce called the Treaty of Union. "Parish meetings were held in my school-house anent this new and startling innovation, and the jangling of the chapel bell at Eairy Bank morning and evening sounded as an abomination in the ears of all in Aikendean, when a climax was put to the intrusion by a polite letter arriving from the colonel's chaplain, addressed to the Rev. Mr. Hilton, begging that the bell in the parish church might not be rung so very long on Sunday, as it disturbed his congregation, which consisted only of the colonel's household and a few of the neighbour- ing lairds, who, deserting the church of their fathers, had folio wed the fashionable creed that Renwick, Peden, and Cameron preached against in the ages of darkness and trouble. But the impudence of this request coming, as it did, direct from the enemy's camp was not to be borne, sir—we were Scotsmen—we were Presbyterians, and resolved to grapple with the foe! " John, the minister's man, dressed in his best black, was imme- diately dispatched from the manse to assemble the elders and kirk session in the vestry, where, after prayer, we held a solemn council anent what was to be done; and it was resolved on the motion of Mr. Wadset, the writer, our ruling elder, to apply to the sheriff, in form of law, under an act of the Scottish Parliament, for a warrant to remove the bell from Mr. Priestly's chapel. The warrant was of course granted, and as no bells but those of the Presbyterian Estab- lished Kirk can be rung lawfully in this our auld kingdom of Scotland, armed with all the powers of the law, Roger Baillie the constable, with the whole village at his heels, marched boldly to Pairy Bank, and with the help of Geordie Trowel the mason, and Bauldy Brume the sweep, unhooked the obnoxious bell from the gable neuk ; and it was carried in triumph to the Market-cross of Greenlaw, and there sold in public roup, by tuck of drum, to pay Mr. Wadset's fees and expenses I THE MINISTER'S SON. 19 *' It was a glorious victory for our minister, but a terrible affront to the colonel! He swore like a pagan that he would burn the parish kirk to the ground-stone, that he would never forget or forgive it; he dismissed the porter who admitted us, and in his rage flung Ali Baba's turban into the fire. It was worse a thousand tunes than being sabred by Durjan Sal, or being dinner for an alligator like Ensign Giblets. " The sins of fathers were visited on the children. "Poor Mr. Erank was forbidden the house, and then by his daughter's grief and dejection, the colonel discovered her secret; he ransacked her desk as he had done the territories of Curriebad; and the result was, that all Mr. Erank's presents, letters, locks of hair and other etcetera were returned to the manse with a cold and con* temptuous note in Cecil's handwriting. This note was no doubt written by the puir lassie to her father's dictation, for I am assured that she was all candour, goodness, and innocence—yea, she was cha- ritable even to a fault, otherwise she could never have submitted to the million whimwhams of the old nabob her father; but every word of that compulsory letter sank like a stab from a Hielandman's dirk into the poor lad's heart. He became wretched and miserable. Wounded pride and disappointed love struggled hardly and bitterly for mastery over the more tender convictions of his heart; and he wandered day and night near Eairy Bank, like an Adam near his Eden, in the hope of meeting Cecil and hearing his fate from her own dear lips; but Cecil was never to be seen beyond the precincts of the garden, the conservatory, or the lawn. " At last we heard that the Honourable Charles Eetlock, a captain of Dragoon Guards, from the barracks at Piershill, was residing at Fairy Bank, and now everybody said that he was to be Miss Cecil's in- tended spouse. Through my services as violinist, I had many oppor- tunities of seeing this young son of Mars. " He was a handsome and dashing fellow, with a well bronzed face, a heavy thick moustache and a gallant air; but, oh, he had a devilish grey-eye, that all our village shrunk from. He dressed in the newest and most exquisite fashion; he had a fortune far above mediocrity and an intellect far below it; but if he had a small amount of brains, he had at least plenty of well curled hair over them. He was a great judge of horseflesh, and attended the Duke of Buccleugh's hounds at every meet; he could play on the piano and guitar, and sang only Italian songs, for he had a proper contempt for everything Scottish and English too ; he shone in the polka, and was supreme in Smalltalk, for he could converse, as he believed, on everything, from bombarding a city, to the fashion of the newest bonnet. " This superb fellow could never have conceived it possible that a young provincial like our minister's son could be his rival, and of course the suspicion would never have entered his well curled head, had not his long-bodied and short-legged groom, English Bill, heard the secret at the alehouse, and mentioned it. The captain then 20 FRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." remembered that he had seen a young fellow prowling about the avenue and other places near Fairy Bank. "' Does he wear a short plaid shooting-jacket, a blue-silk necktie, a Glengarry bonnet and leathern gaiters ?' " ' Yes, sir,' answered Bill, ' with a shot-belt over his shoulder and double-barrelled gun.' " ' Then whip the fellow off, and if that wont make him march, Bill, come for me.' < "c Yes, sir,' replied Bill, who thought of the double-barrelled gun, and resolved, as he walked away like a pair of crooked compasses, to leave the matter in the captain's own hands. " The dragoon guardsman had asked Miss Cecil some questions concerning this prowler, and the confusion visible in her pretty face and in her manner, proved that English Bill's intelligence had been true; and though the captain (as the event proved) was only amusing himself during his visit to the colonel, he resolved to punish ' the demmed provincial for his impertinence!' " Some of the villagers thought that the captain wished only Miss Cecil's fine fortune, for we all knew the colonel to be reputed very rich; but English Bill indignantly vowed that his master was rich enough to buy all the colonel's property thrice over, and that he was only making a little love to lighten the time, that it was all fun and the captain's way, for he had that peculiar fluency of speech which is ever a sign of little feeling and great poverty of thought. " Whether or not Miss Cecil had changed, and forgotten the poor lad, who was well nigh breaking his heart about her, I was unable then to say. ' Woman's a changeful and a various thing,' saith Dryden; variurn et mutabile semper femina. But Mr. Frank's ' d—ned good-natured friends' in the village daily brought him tidings of how Miss Cecil and the captain were always together; how sweetly she smiled when he spoke; how they played and sang like two laverocks together, and sat for hours in the bonny bower which he knew so well, and over which his own hands had trained and twined the roses to please her. Some kind people even went the length of fixing the very wedding-day, the colour of the bride's dress, and knew to a bodle the sum which the colonel was to bestow upon her when the Reverend Mr. Priestly had made Miss Cecil bone of the the captain's bone and flesh of his flesh. These evil tidings were as gall and wormwood to the poor suffering lad at the manse; and though he never spoke of it, none knew his misery better than I; and when his father, the old minister, who was then well up hi the vale of years and sinking under a complication of diseases, asked my advice anent his son, I urged that he should be sent back to college; and back he would have gone instanter, by the Edinburgh railway, but for the following unfortunate mischance. "Stung to the very heart by some of the wicked information •tlEE MINISTERS SON". 21 volunteered by you, John Crupper,—for, being an auld dragoon, you had a species of fellow-feeling for the ne'er-do-weel captain,—one evening, Mr. Prank, with a breast full of desperate thoughts, threw his gun over his shoulder, and clearing the colonel's park-dyke by one bound, entered the lawn in search of his lost Cecil. As fate would have it, he had not gone ten yards when he was met face to face by the Honourable Charles Petlock, who was smoking a cigar under the old lime-trees, and arranging his hair and moustachios, by using the polished back of his gold watch for a mirror. " ' Ah, the deuce !' said he, looking up; ' I have been looking for you, my fine fellow, for some days past.' '"I am always found by those who really want me, Captain Pet- lock; any message sent to the manse would have reached me.' " ' Message ! what do you mean, eh ?—ah—I merely wished to- know why yon are constantly on the prowl about Pairy Bank, with that gun,—it is so poacher-like ! and yet you have not the air of a poacher, I think.' "' Leave these inquiries to Colonel Marchmont. You, sir, have- at least no right to question me.' "' I have every right, my dear fellow,' replied the captain, with the most provoking nonchalance, as he lit a fusee, and applied it to a- fresh cigar; ' but do not be excited; perhaps you are a lover of some of the girls about the house ? That maid of Miss Marchmont's is a deuced fine creature! You redden. Ah! it is she. Well, I shall speak to little May for you; be composed, now, young man, do; it's all right. Will you have a cigar, or some sherry and soda-water ?' " Prank snatched away the captain's silver cigar-case, the gift of the Caledonian United Service Club, and dashed it on the ground. "' Hallo ! what the deuce—are you mad, fellow ?' cried the cap- tain, as he picked it up; ' who the devil are you ? Oh! I remem- ber—Mr. Prank Hilton, son of the old boy who lives down at the manse, yonder. Oho ! I begin to perceive the game ! Did not the- impertinent gossips and idle scandalmongers of your hamlet very oddly couple your name and Miss Marchmont's together ? answer me in a straightforward manner, if you please.' "'They did so, justly, Captain Petlock,' said Prank, with the deepest emotion; 'we have loved each other for a year and more—' " ' Eh ?—ah! you have loved each other for a year and more,' re- iterated the captain, elevating his eyebrows. ' You have mistaken friendship for love, young man; no uncommon thing. Besides, I have heard that you are not very rich, and should think it barely possible that Miss Marchmont could love you. But, ah—there is the dinner-bell ringing. I wonder your irritable paternal parent has- not sent a mob to deprive us of that too!' "' I am poor, sir, it is true,' said Prank, while the bitter tears* came unbidden to his eyes; ' I am very poor; yet Cecil loves me— or at least, she loved me once.' "' Oh, my dear fellow, absurd, absurd!' continued the captain, 22 FRANK. HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." with the most impertinent composure. ' Seriously, now, you do not think it possible that she can have loved you,—since I came here, at least.' " The superlative vanity of this remark would have made Frank laugh, had he not been choking with grief and passion. " c Captain Fetlock, you are a fool and a coward!' said the bold lad, with sudden rage. " ' Sir!' said the captain, who was paralysed with astonishment. "' You are a fool and a coward; for you have trifled with my honest confidence, and insulted my affliction with a smile on your face.' "' ITush! you insolent bov,' said the captain, as footsteps were heard on the gravel walk; ' ITush! and begone! but remember that my groom shall chastise this insolence, as it deserves to be, with a horsewhip.' " c You are a fool and a coward, sir!' repeated Frank, for the third time, raising his voice as the footsteps approached nearer behind a privet-hedge; ' I am old enough to maintain my character as a man, and, in spite of the law, can level a pistol with you or any one; and give me but the opportunity, and I will soon rid the world of such a blockhead ■' " These were awfu' words, sir, to come from a Christian mouth, but the poor lad was beside himself with passion; he erred, and let us hope he has been forgiven, for, as Pope saith— • To err is human—to forgive, divine.' " ' Begone, sir,' said the captain, with great contempt, and with a melodramatic floarish of his cigar, as he turned on his heel and went away; but he had not stepped ten yards before Mr. Frank's gun, which' had been cocked by some mischance as he climbed over the park wall, went off, and—oh! doleful, yea, horrible to relate—a charge of buck-shot was lodged in the body of the captain, who uttered a faint cry, wildly threw up his hands, and fell senseless on the gravel path. " He bled profusely from a wound in the side, and for a time his voice was gone. Full of horror, Frank went down on his knees beside him. The colonel, who had been behind the hedge, and had heard these last ominous words, I will soon rid the world of such a blockhead, seized Ms*. Frank by the throat, and loudly and coarsely accused him of murder. Gude save us! it was an awfu' thing to nappen in a Christian country, and in a peaceful and God-fearing Scottish village. " Stunned for a moment by this dire calamity, poor Frank per- mitted the furious colonel to hold him; but no sooner did he see Miss Cecil and all the servants, whom the shot had alarmed, come •ashing from the portico of the house, than he shook off the old man like a bairn, knocked over Ali Baba (who tried to intercept him) the minister's son. 2S like a nine-pin, and vaulting over the park wall, came down to me, told me his story, and craved advice and shelter. " I hid him in a great meal-girnel, and, taking my bonnet and staff, set out in quest of intelligence." CHAPTER IV. story oe the minister's son, concluded. " Bent on being now revenged for the affront about the bell, the colonel sent to Roger Baillie immediate orders to arrest the mur■ derer (an awfu' word that! and well may you grow pale, sir); but though the nabob was in the commission of the peace, auld Roger loved the lad, as we all did, and complained of a grievous stitch in his side, vowing that he could not stir from his own ingle that night. The puir captain was in a terrible state of mind and body, and believing himself to be dying, dictated to that officious fellow, the Reverend Mr. Priestly, a circumstantial account of the interview in the avenue, with a statement to the effect that the moment his back was turned, his rival had levelled the gun and shot him. In all this there was a terrible air of probability, and everybody whispered it would go very hard with puir Mr. Frank, for the sheriff was a bosom friend of the colonel's, and an episcopalian too. " The poor lad was wretched beyond all human wretchedness, the more so that he dared not see his auld father, and heard that Miss Cecil was so overcome by all these events, that she was seized by a deadly fever, and was dangerously ill. Some said this was because of the captain's perilous condition; but I thought otherwise. " On the very night that Roger the constable received a positive mandate from the sheriff to arrest Mr. Frank, he lent him his own horse, and to get clear of the law he fled the kingdom, by crossing the Border into England, and went by the railway to London; so, sir, from that time to this—six, yea,, nearly seven long years ago—I have never heard of him; but I say, with my heart as full as this tumbler, may God bless him if he be in life, and rest him if in death, for he was a good and leal lad as any in all braid Scotland ! " The captain, instead of dying, as everybody expected and feared he would, grew well soon after, for the proverb saith, it is lang iefore the De'il dies; and after proposing to Miss Cecil and being refused—for so it was confidently reported—he rejoined his regiment ftt Piershill, where the report had gone before him that he had fought a desperate duel about a young lady—a report which the captain did not find it necessary to contradict. But, alas! sir, these terrible passages broke our poor minister's heart. From the day his son left Aikendean for ever, he never raised his head, and never smiled, save once, again; and after lingering on for a few months in a helpless state, he passed away from among us to the place of his reward. ' 24f FRANK HILTON; OB, M THE QUEEN'S OWN." Sorely he mourned and wept for his son—yea, even as David wept for Absalom, did he mourn and weep—for he was the firstborn of she who slept beside her younger little ones in the auld kirkyard. " As if it were yesterday, I remember the sad day of his departure. It was a bright May morning, and everything iooked sweet and smiling. I was the ruling elder, and John, the minister's man, came to me with tears in his eyes, and said, in a low whisper— "' Oh, Maister Denholm, come awa—the minister is deeing, and would like to see the elders before he departs,' and then the auld man sobbed heavily. "' Bairns, you have a holiday,' said I, running out bare-headed from the school. "We soon gathered and surrounded his bed in that chamber of death, where he who had ministered unto us in godliness for more than half a century lay speechless and pale, and able only to indi- cate by a wave of his wasted hand, and a last smile on his sad face, that he knew us as we knelt around his bed. "I gave a short prayer; my heart was full, and my words were few, because my thoughts were many; and then, with tremulous voices, we sang that beautiful hymn, which saith— ' I come, I come, at Thy command, I give my spirit to Thy hand; Stretch forth Thine everlasting arms, And shield me in the last alarms. The hour of my departure's come, I hear the voice that calls me home! Now, O my God, let trouble cease— Now let Thy servant die in peace!' " Slowly he waved his hand as we sung, and so the hymn pro- ceeded; ilka wave sank lower and lower, until at last that hand which was never closed against the poor and the portionless lay still, to move no more. "The summer morning was bright and sunny; the perfume of the hawthorn came through the open windows of the auld manse with the hum of the honey-bees, the glad voices of the village bairns, and the brawl of the rushing burn, as I closed his eyes, and the elders bowed their white heads lower yet in prayer. " Our hearts were sad—yea, exceeding sorrowful!" The poor dominie drew his cuff across his eyes as he spoke, and I covered my face with my hands, for I knew the chamber well, and the whole of that awful scene arose before me like a picture. "We buried him beside his gudewife and their three dead bairns, in the sunny corner of the auld kirkyard, and on that dreich funeral day there was not a dry eye in the whole parish. But just before we left the manse, at the uplifting of the coffin, who should appear, both clad in the deepest mourning, with white weepers on their cuffs, but the fiery auld devil of a colonel and the highflying episcopal Mr. Priestly. Uninvited, they came to pay the last THE MINISTER'S SON. 25 tribute to the man they had quarrelled with in life, but respected in death. The colonel craved permission to hold the ribbon at the foot of the pall, and his chaplain begged leave (after the minister of St. Bathans) to offer up a prayer, which he did in the most beautiful language, and made such an eulogium on our dear auld minister, as won every heart in the parish; and by universal subscription, we bought him a handsome bell to hang up in his gable, in place of that we had taken; and were the best of good friends ever after." " And Cecil ?" said I; the words caused a quivering on my lips as I said them. "She never married, and the greater is the cause of pity, puir thing! For, a year after these events, by the failure of a bank in Calcutta, and other mischances, the colonel lost every shilling he had in the world but his half-pay- He was a proud man, and the change broke his spirit, for he died in the fall of the year; and as his income died with him, Miss Cecil was left penniless, and all alone in the world. "There is a time, captain, when undeserved evils come upon us so quickly and so heavily, that the impious may well believe—even as the fool saith in his heart—that there is no protecting Pro- vidence. " A rich burgess of Berwick bought the house and furniture; Mr. Wadset, the writer (after having such pretty pickings that he set up his son as an advocate in Edinburgh), handed over the small residue to Miss Cecil, and she left this place, naebody kens for where. Even Wadset knows not, and it was little that he cared, though I inquired of him often, having a fatherly affection for the sweet young lady that was loved by Frank Hilton; but these things are all past—yea, they are as a tale that is told." " My poor Cecil!" I exclaimed, clasping my hands, as a hundred visions of sorrow, poverty, and mortification, crowded upon my imagination. " Yours— yours, sir—sir!" said the dominie, looking under, over, and through his horn spectacles, while honest John Crupper, the landlord, laid down his pipe to stare at me. " Well, Dominie, I will give you a sequel to your story. Young Prank, by the death of his father, had two or three hundred pounds left to him, which was all he possessed in the world; and believe me, many a worthy fellow often has less. He received a letter of recommendation from an old general officer to the senior lieutenant* colonel of a regiment serving in India. He joined it as a gentle- man volunteer, and served in Cabul against the Affghans; he was there when four thousand five hundred British troops, with twelve thousand camp-followers, commenced that disastrous retreat, on which, after being nearly annihilated in the passes of the mountains, they gave their best officers and all the ladies, as hostages for the evacuation of Jellalabad by General Sale. The cold was intense! The breath froze in icicles on the moustaches of 26 FRaNK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." the soldiers and the bridles of the horses. From rocks a thousand feet in height, overshadowing the narrow gorge for miles, the fero. cions Affghans poured down a deadly fire upon the terrified and disorganized mass, and the slaughter was fearful—the 44th ltegi- ment, in particular, was well nigh exterminated. Frank Hilton was one of the fortunate few who escaped to join General Pollock (a countryman of ours, Dominie), who crossed the Punjaub, dispersed the Affghans before Jellalabad, and relieved General Sir Robert Sale. There Frank received his ensigncy, and was complimented in general orders for his bravery at the storming and destruction of the Balahissa1*, or citadel of Cabul, where all the horrors of that awful retreat lan such splendid routs, such pic-nies and regattas " At that moment the rascal of a servant, who had probably fo> gotten me, put his powdered-head into the lower door of the consei • vatory, and gave my card on a silver salver to Blanche, who im- mediately shook cut the well-flounced skirt of her barege dress, smoothed her braids, and put on her sweetest smile to greet me. "Whispering something to Letty, who left the conservatory by the lower door, Blanche ascended the steps and entered the drawing- room, where I—who had not been altogether flattered by the conver- sation, which I had been half compelled to overhear—rose from a down-fauteuil, and laid aside the daily-paper, over which my eyes had been wandering. The usual compliments, and the invariable and insipid "hope that she had not been fatigued by the dancing of last night /' a few jesting remarks on the flirtations and probable conquests we had ob- served, were soon dismissed; we gradually conversed on other topics, and I took her hand in mine. When I remembered the joy ex- pressed by Blanche, when the thoughtless Letty's proposal for afford- mg her brother one more chance assigned me to her favour; when I saw how bright and beautiful she looked; when I reflected that I might have such a dazzling creature, for the mere ceremony perhaps of asking—a warm-hearted girl (as I hoped), who would cling to me, and love me, when I had no other relation on earth that I knew of; I must own, that I felt every way inclined to unite my fate with hers, and lay my heart at her feet: and in contemplating the splendour of her beautiful smile, the turn of her soft cheek, to which the thick braids of her perfumed hair formed such a contrast—together with her seducing and brilliant manner, the mess-room banter of such fops as De Lancy, and more earnest advice of such honest friends as Bred Langley, were completely forgotten in the charms of the place, the hour and the person of Blanche; and after considerable hesitation, and some of those anxious pauses which the beatings ot the heart alone fill up, I told how I loved her—dearly loved her! She heard me in silence and with a sweet vague and averted smile—for, alas! too many had told her the same thing, for the avowai to startle her now; but she did not offer the slightest resistance, as I drew a pearl-ring from her finger, and replaced it by one of my own—• as I did so imprinting on her hand, the kiss I dared not yet transfer to her cheek, for the bantered Popkins, at that moment could not have been more timid than Prank Hilton. I did not linger long after this, and my nag was brought round to she door. " Good-bye, Prank," said she. It was the first time she had caiied me so, and my heart beat fast. " Adieu, dearest Blanche—I shall see you at the review—our regi- ment will be on the right of the line." 44 ■wr.att K hilton; ob, the queen's own" "And you will find our carriage a good place near the salut- ing-post," "The best, if possible. Drive through the Barracks, anil past St. Mary's Guard-house to avoid the crush, and I shall see you pro- oerly placed. Will you have the close carriage. " At this season ? Oh no—the phaeton with the cream-coloured ponies—I shall drive myself." " Then I shall easily recognise you—" "Yes—adieu, dear." She kissed her pretty hand from the drawing-room window as I -ode down the slope, and entered the avenue of dahlias and shrub- bery which led to the Stroud road, and as I crossed the long bridge of Rochester, I was not without hope that her dear blue-eyes were still watching me. I had now to open the trenches with old Palmer, who I feared had been somewhat imposed upon by Buff's resplendent livery and plush breeches, and byLangley's fine blood-mare, which I rode every day as if she was my own; for Fred had several fine nags, and gave me the " run" of his stable, while he was kind enough moreover to set off my " great expectations" in the most approved form, and Buff (for whom old Palmer's cook had conceived a kindness) was no way behind him, as the reader may easily believe. CHAPTER IX. the mess. I had not an opportunity of telling Langley what I had been aboLi as I did not see him until we met at the mess-table in the evening, and then we were at different ends of the room. The rowing-match down the river to Upnor, and old Palmer's rout, with its consequent flirtations, formed the staple subjects for discussion during dinner; and amid much banter, absurdity, and raillery, the names of half the ladies within ten miles were mentioned without reserve, in the hearing of Buff and ten or fifteen other soldiers in livery. " What is—or was old Palmer ?" asked O'Hara. " A retired cheesemonger from the City, I presume," lisped De Lancy, who was insufferably vain and a roue; "but here is Hilton —he is always there, and must know best." " She is a charming girl, his daughter," said Montague, the lieu- tenant of our seventh company; " Popkins has been long over head and ears in love with her. You asked her to dance last night, of course, Phil?" " Yes," simpered Popkins, " but on consulting her card, she found nerseif engaged a dozen deep, and said I should always engage hei at least the day before." THE MESS. 45 I felt very much inclined to punch the head of the supercilious De Lancy. His father had made a splendid fortune in India, and aftei obtaining a peerage as the reward of serving the Government, died leaving a widow, who was the stoutest, and withal the gayest dowager in all Mayfair. Of the Honourable Jocelyn de Lancy, I wit only say that he was one of those dissipated fellows, who imagme the chief glories of life consist in playing away vast sums at billiards and rouge et noir; in settling every dispute, however absurd, by a bet; in following every pretty woman he saw, and in squandering several hundreds per annum on actresses and ballet girls, in breaking windows and knocking down an occasional policeman; in having a heavy book on the Derby or the St. Leger; in knowing the point of every noted horse in the three kingdoms, and in keeping a beaut- ful yacht at Cowes. He believed the pinnacle of human happiness and vanity might be achieved by driving a four-in-hand drag filled with ladies, with his servant wearing a scarlet hat, and his friend, the Hon. Bill Boxley—the famous gentleman rider, blowing a trumpet behind; supping at three in the morning; breakfasting on a cigar and coffee between parades; dining at eight o'clock, and spend- ing the night in every species of folly—such was the life of De Lancy —and such is the life of too many of " England's honourable misters." I was considering whether it was worth while to retort his impertinence about his hospitable entertainer, when just as a servant put some pigeon-pie before me, he said, " You will be sorry, Hilton, for what has happened to my pool dog, Albert—he broke a leg under my horse this morning, and I had him flrfng into the river. A first-rate brute he was ! killed a hundred rats in nine minutes last week." "Ah!—what was the bet?" "A cool hundred—won by Bill Boxley, and thereupon, De Lancy, who was vulgar enough to patronize prize-fighters, and lost no small sum yearly in seeing them pound each other to jelly, entertained me (while dining on pigeon-pie) with a minute account of one of the fancy, whom he had seen in London, where with his hands tied behind, lie had worried so many rats per hour with his teeth, to the great delight of many civilized Englishmen. I saw Langley, who was listening, smiling with something like contempt for the narrator, and I need scarcely say, that as my mind was occupied with very dif- ferent subjects, the frivolous conversation around me was a bore. " Were you at our match against the Marines and Rifles to-day, Frank ?" asked Montague. " No—neither at the rowing nor the cricket." "A thousand pities," lisped De Lancy; "the rowing on the river was only equalled by the batting and balling on the Lines." "Yes, with the Rifles," said Popkins; "but most of the salt-water fellows were quite out of practice; besides, the ground was rough and the runs were difficult." "Have you heprd how the Prince of Wales' Yacht-club match D 46 < FRANK HILTON; OE, M THE QUEEN'S OWN." came off yesterday, De Lancy ?" asked the Honourable Mr. Moruhew, an ensign who had just joined us. " Admirably well! from Erith, round the Chapman Head and back again. But I have brought my yacht to the hammer. She won. the Queen's gold cup last year." "And you have sold her ?" said the simple Popkins, who loved ts imitate that reckless air which was only suited to De Lancy; "what a pity!" " Deuce! you don't think I could take her out in the CanAahar —eh?" "I will buy her," said Morphew, " if my exchange into the Guards is permitted." Mr. Morphew was the son of an Anglo-Irish peer, whose proper name was Murphy and O'Flannigan, who was a sterling Irishman of the right kind, had consequently a great contempt for our last addition, who had come to us fresh from Cambridge, and oil his saying, " O'Plannigan, can I assist you to anything ?" " Thank you, Mr. Morphew," said the captain, with one of his most impudent Irish leers, "I'll tro-uble you for one of those gentle- manly murphies in the side-dish, that never change their names." The fashionable ensign gave him a spiteful glance, and assisted him to a potato in silence. "Nice girl, she you danced with at old Palmer's, Montague," said De Lancy. "Oh—ah—the dean's daughter—yes, only waltzed with her thrice though." " Take care, Montague," said Langley, " for three round dances are equal to one engagement—pass the wine, O'Flannigan." " The girl is dying with affectation," said Montague, who was one of the most sensible men at the table- " Poor Popkins was deeply •smitten (see, he blushes as red as his coat!) Yet she is a mere bundle of white muslin and lace, and could speak only of the opera, the last new novel and piece of music. You would have ridden ten miles to have seen her dancing the mazurka with Popkins, when the work of the evening had become even hotter than snipe shooting in India. She promised to teach you crochet, I think, Popkins, did she not ?" The ensign's indignant dissent was interrupted by the captain of our Grenadiers, saying that he had seen her brother, " who was in the Boyal Irish, drowned in the Hooghley, and aiten up alive by the alligators." Then some one asked, " Has Lumley of the Fusileers returned from leave yet ?" "Returned !" reiterated O'Plannigan; "he went to be married tc J&5000 a year—and it is his honey-moon he is on!" " Ah!" lisped De Lancy, " that usually lasts longer in the country than in town. He was seriously engaged either to Letty Howard THE MESS. 4? or Blanche Palmer, but it was broken off when they tired each other." "He retires, I presume," observed Langley. "Probably," said the colonel, "a fine fellow, Lumiey! knew him well at Poonah, when we were in the East." (Considering what had passed in the forenoon all this was pleasant for me to listen to). "Well," said Popkins, "may I be shot if I would give up the service for £5000 a year!" Phil Popkins, a Londoner, was one of the best natured souls in ex- istence, for he allowed the Irish captain of our Grenadiers to make perpetual fun of him, to borrow his money, smoke his cigars, and drink the cherry-tipple which his mother sent to him from her villa near Peckham iiye; and was moreover one of those kind souls who take all the trouble and responsibility of pic-nic and aquatic excur- sions; who take disagreeable partners off one's hands with the best grace possible; who would pass word to the bandmaster what polka or waltz you wished, and walked with the mother, or talked on mis- sionary schemes to the aunt, when you wished to have the pretty daughter or flirting niece all to yourself. Popkins was invaluable! He played on the flute, was very sentimental, and sang a good song, generally of the very warlike cast; but his chief, weakness was to imitate De Lancy. Thus, when that personage took it into his head to praise two nags which belonged to his esteemed friend Bill.Boxley, Popkins said, rashly, " I will bet fifty guineas that neither Lady Eanny nor Bay Mid- dleton could trot a mile in the time mentioned!" -'Done, my boy! I take you—double if you like," drawled De Lancy, producing his betting-book, and poor Popkins, whose great ambition was to be thought a " fast man," (abominable phrase!) found himself obliged next day to hand over a check for the amount, a half year's pay, to the better informed De Lancy. Just as Popkins was aboutto sing his invariable "Cigars and cognac," De Lancy and Montague rose to retire, having an engagement. "Where away," said Langley; "why do you leave us so soon?" "We are going to the Lumleys—they give a party to-night." "Are those girls still in the market?" asked an officer, who had joined us from the Sixty-second; " faith! they were coquetting and iilting, backing and filling, when I was here eight years ago on my way to Madras." " Don't half like these girls, though I go there," said De Lancy, who was always supercilious, "they are ever angling for husbands, and whenever one looks at them, they cast down their eyes, as if they wished to blush but could not do it." " They tried hard to mesh poor Popkins," said O'Elannigan. " Did I not catch you in the very act of writing the prettiest of little notes on the very pinkest of paper, and like a wise man, put it in the fire, and saved vour life, Popkins, you ungrateful bogtrotter.'5 48 FRANK HILTON; Oil, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." "It is a thousand pit'es,"lisped De Lancy, "you should have allowed it to go." from a species of reverie into which I had fallen—if it was indeed possible to subside amid so much rattling and gaiety, I was roused by the voice of Langley, saying to an officer next him, "Blanche Palmer is indeed a very fine girl, and has hair and skin which even the Empress Eugenie might envy; but yet, I do not think she can be compared to Lady Montressor, with her fine blue eyes and inimitable air. She was at the commandant's party on the night before last, and she and Blanche were twice vis-a-vis in the «ame quadrille. Their styles are altogether different." I felt my heart stand still as he spoke, for I had been invited tc ihe commandant's, but duty interfered, and thus I lost an oppor- tunity of solving the grand mystery. At that moment, Ered's servant, who was dressed in very showy livery, approached with a salver, on which lay a very small note sealed with white wax. He opened, read, and pushed it across the table to me. It was an invitation to a conversazione at Lady Montressor's on the following evening, with an apology for the shortness of the invitation, and stating that it was quite an impromptu affair, and that she would be so happy if he would bring a friend. " You will go of course, Erank," said Langley, as he stuck the note in his sash. " With pleasure," I replied, while with a beating heart, and a head that almost swam, I rose from the mess-table, and sought the then deserted terrace, where I sauntered long alone, smoking a cigar under the old beech-trees, and thinking of Blanche, my engagement —my old love for the sweet, calm Cecil of my boyish days, and the task I had undertaken of besieging old Palmer on his return from London, where he had gone to attend a civic banquet. CHAPTER X. the review—the cream-coloured ponies. Unlike the most of review-days (which the fates generally ordain to be showery) the next morning, when we were to be inspected and reviewed by the commandant on the lines, was one of the finest of the month. The sky was without a cloud, and a little shower which had fallen before sunrise, brightened the hue of the summer grass, and drew a fragrance from the earth. Bently, our adjutant, was indisposed, and begged that I would take his duty, offering me at the same time the use of his horse with its trappings and holsters; but I had still the control of Langley's blood mare, that fine animal which had produced so favourable an. impression upon our elder!v friend • Mr. Palmer. Poor Bently! he THE REVIEW—TUB CREAM-COLOCJKED 10NIES. 49 his since fallen in the Crimea, but I remember how we used to quiz him, and style his order book, " Bently's Miscellany." I paraded the staff and formed the regiment in the Barrack-square^ from which the colonel marched us out by the road that leads to Spur Battery, to St. Mary's Guard, and to the Lines, as those exten- sive fortifications which enclose a great tract of levex ground and grassy sward are named. These lines are all well defended by strong ramparts, casemated and palisadoed, with drawbridges, ravelines, ana deep ditches, which make Chatham (with the exception of Ports mouth) one of the most complete and regular fortresses in South Britain. The scene was surpassingly gay and animated ! The ground was kept clear for us by five hundred marines, who made free use of the butts of their muskets on the toes of those who pressed too far forward; the commandant and his staff had not yet appeared ; but the regiment was formed in line, with the colours, band, and pioneers in the centre, the arms were " ordered," and the command given to " stand at ease." O'Hara was on horseback at our head, for he was now lieutenant-colonel, his predecessor, a very old officer (severely wounded in the Punjaub), having retired by the sale of his com- mission, when we received orders to hold ourselves in readiness for foreign service again. The aspect of" the Queen's Own" was uncommonly fine. The cloth- ing of the men was all new, and their lace was as spotless as their belts, while the long line of black knapsacks was so uniform and straight, that a long rod might have been laid over the tops of them all, and never have missed one; for it seemed as if every soldier, ac- coutrements and all, had been cast, like bullets, in the same mould. Our band was strong, and gaily dressed in white, faced and lapelled with red; their instruments were all new and of the brightest brass. "We had a tall drum-major clad in gorgeous uniform with a bear- skin cap and scarlet feather, which (together) were nearly three feet high. Popkins, who was enchanted to find so many ladies among the spectators, carried one colour, and the Honourable Mr. Morphew the other. The bright sun of a meridian in June, poured down its unclouded lustre upon that flat but charming English landscape which spreads before the lines—a long expanse of fertile fields, with the pretty village of Gillingham, the Medway with its hulks, and the faint blue Thames afar off in the distance; and on the mass of glittering carriages and gaily dressed ladies, the various colours of whose bonnets, dresses, and "asols gave the extremity of the common the aspect of a long anu brilliant flower border. It was a holiday in the dockyards, and these, with Chatham, Brompton, Gillingham, and Bochester, had united their thousands to see the review of " the Queen's Own," which was rather a favourite regiment—thus the crowd was beyond all conception dense, and the crush of carriages and horses about the saluting-post endangered the lives of all who 5 2 Er.ANK. HILTON; Oa, "THE QUEEN'S OWN," mounted in the Barrack-square, her " tiger " a smart little fellow ■clad in a grey surtout, breeches, boots, and waistbelt, put into my hand a note, evidently hurriedly pencilled on the leaf of a note book. " Note from Miss Palmer, sirsaid the young jackanapes, • touching his laced hat—" a small rod in pickle for you, sir, I think." It ran thus: " Dearest Prank.—What do you—what can you mean by your conduct to-day ? Is this the way you mean to love and to attend me ? dome this instant and make an apology! You saw Lady Montressor's carriage plainly enough—then why not mine ? Oh it was such an affront—before those odious Lumleys too ! I am positively very much incensed, and you shall find that to-night at Gillingham, &c. "Blanche Palmer." I immediately despatched Buff on horseback with a suitable reply, and the most beautiful bouquet he could procure. These I would have borne myself, but the horrid general had to be accompanied round the soldiers' rooms, where he inspected all their kits, shirts, and brushes &c., with the minuteness of an appraiser. " I am glad you were so attentive to Lady Montressor," said Fred Langley, when this duty was over; " I was delighted to see you give her so distinguished a position beside the commandant and the staff." " Fred, pray tell me who is this Lady Montressor ?" " A charming young widow—plenty of money, and a fine estate. I would rather invest myself on her than on Blanche Palmer." " All taste, my dear fellow," said I, drily. " Her husband, who has been buried in Rochester Cathedral for four years and more, left her a jointure of £10,000 a-year." " And she is a widow—ah, my heavens, should she prove to be Cecil after all!" " What ?" asked Fred, perplexed. " Who was she, before marriage ?" " Some one's daughter in the North." "The North—that is a relative term. You Englishmen call York- shire the North, and we in Scotland place it further off still." "Don't know 'pon my honour—are you smitten? we shall inquire about her to night—but remember Blanche Palmer will be at Gillingham." I had scarcely a moment, left me for reflection, and perhaps it was fortunate, for my duties as acting adjutant fully occupied my time until the meeting of mess, where the commandant and garrisou staff dined with us ; so that the evening was considerably advanced before we left the dinner table; however, Langley and I excused ourselves and stole away; gave a finishing touch to our toilet, and as the evening was fine, we walked across the Lines—only a mile and a half—to Gillingham, near which lay the fine old mansion of Lady Montressor. As we approached it, how my heart beat for the issue of the coming introduction! Situated among ancient copsewood the mansion was also very old, lady m0ntres5gk. with mullioned windows and clustered chimney-stacks. The walls were, as usual in England, of brick, with the corners and lintels of stone; but as the thick ivy clambered over the porch of carved oak and up the steep gables, a venerable and pleasing aspect was im« parted to the old house which is said to have been the summer residence of the last catholic primate of all England, the ruined foundations of whose elder archiepiscopal palace are still visible not far from it. The mansion was pleasantly situated on an eminence, having on one side a view of the Thames and Medway with theii oanks of rich pasture land, and on the other the clean and pretty village of Gillingham (which is principally occupied by persona retired from dockyard service) and its fort, built by King Charles L for defence of the river—without much utility, however, as the Dutch proved, in his son's time—and its ancient harbour, which was a place of some naval importance before England swelled up into Great Britain, when Chatham was in its infancy, and was but a cluster of little cottages—the Cett-ham of the Saxons. CHAPTER XI. lady montressor. Through an oak hall, floored with variegated tiles (after the indis- pensable ceremony of drinking coffee in a pretty little parlour), we were ushered upstairs into the outer drawing-room, the atmosphere of which was redolent of perfume and the fragrance of pastilles, and where the company were nearly all assembled, and conversing in groups, or hanging over books, prints, and little articles of virtu and bijouterie, to pass the time. The piano was open; a lady occupied the music stool, and near her was another who was touching and proving the strings of a magnificent harp. At a glance I perceived the former was Blanche Palmer, in a rich yellow satin dress laced with black, colours which well became her brilliant complexion and fine dark hair; the other was Letty Howard, all robed in snow-white muslin. Near them stood an officer in uniform with buff facings and a head of well curled hair. This was Letty's brother—Howard of the Third Buffs, or East Kent Regiment. A number of pretty women, whom we had been meeting every night at different places since we marched into Chatham, and several officers in full uniform, with a few fashionable looking men in plain clothes formed the party. " Here is Lady Montressor," whispered Langley, as he took my arm, and hurried me through the folding door. I felt giddy, con- fused, most unhappy, and scarcely dared to raise my eyes, for I believed that those of Cecil and Blanche were both upon me. "Lady Montressor," said Ered, in his blandest tone, "allow me to introduce my friend. Mr. Erank Hilton, of curs." 5 2 rr^nk. hilton; ok, "the queen's own." mounted in the Barrack-square, her " tiger " a smart little fellow clad in a grey surtout, breeches, boots, and waistbelt, put into my hand a note, evidently hurriedly pencilled on the leaf of a note book. " Note from Miss Palmer, sir said the young jackanapes, touching his laced hat—" a small rod in pickle for you, sir, I think." It ran thus: " Dearest Prank.—What do you—what can you mean by your conduct to-day ? Is this the way you mean to love and to attend me ? dome this instant and make an apology! You saw Lady Montressor's carriage plainly enough—then why not mine ? Oh it was such an affront—before those odious Lumleys too ! I am positively very much incensed, and you shall find that to-night at Gillingham, &c. "Blanche Palmer." I immediately despatched Buff on horseback with a suitable reply, and the most beautiful bouquet he could procure. These I would have borne myself, but the horrid general had to be accompanied round the soldiers' rooms, where he inspected all their kits, shirts, and brushes &c., with the minuteness of an appraiser. " I am glad you were so attentive to Lady Montressor," said Pred Langley, when this duty was over; " I was delighted to see you give her so distinguished a position beside the commandant and the staff." " Pred, pray tell me who is this Lady Montressor ?" " A charming young widow—plenty of money, and a fine estate. I would rather invest myself on her than on Blanche Palmer." " All taste, my dear fellow," said I, drily. " Her husband, who has been buried in Rochester Cathedral for four years and more, left her a jointure of £10,000 a-year." " And she is a widow—ah, my heavens, should she prove to be Cecil after all!" " What ?" asked Pred, perplexed. " Who was she, before marriage ?" " Some one's daughter in the North." "The North—that is a relative term. You Englishmen call York- shire the North, and we in Scotland place it further off still." "Don't know 'pon my honour—are you smitten? we shall inquire about her to night—but remember Blanche Palmer will be at Gillingham." I had scarcely a moment left me for reflection, and perhaps it was fortunate, for my duties as acting adjutant fully occupied my time until the meeting of mess, where the commandant and garrison staff dined with us ; so that the evening was considerably advanced before we left the dinner table ; however, Langley and I excused ourselves and stole away; gave a finishing touch to our toilet, and as the evening was fine, we walked across the Lines—only a mile and a half—to Gillingham, near which lay the fine old mansion of Lady Montressor. As we approached it, how my heart beat for the issue of the coming introduction! Situated among ancient copsewood the mansion was also very old, lady montressok. 53 with mullioned windows and clustered chimney-stacks. The walls were, as usual in England, of brick, with the corners and lintels of stone; but as the thick ivy clambered over the porch of carved oak and up the steep gables, a venerable and pleasing aspect was im> parted to the old house which is said to have been the summer residence of the last catholic primate of all England, the ruined foundations of whose elder archiepiscopal palace are still visible not far from it. The mansion was pleasantly situated on an eminence, having on one side a view of the Thames and Medway with theii oanks of rich pasture land, and on the other the clean and pretty village of Gillingham (which is principally occupied by persons retired from dockyard service) and its fort, built by King Charles L for defence of the river—without much utility, however, as the Dutch proved, in his son's time—and its ancient harbour, which was a place of some naval importance before England swelled up into Great Britain, when Chatham was in its infancy, and was but a cluster of little cottages—the Cett-ham of the Saxons. CHAPTER XI. lady montressor. Through an oak hall, floored with variegated tiles (after the indis- pensable ceremony of drinking coffee in a pretty little parlour), we were ushered upstairs into the outer drawing-room, the atmosphere of which was redolent of perfume and the fragrance of pastilles, and where the company were nearly all assembled, and conversing in groups, or hanging over books, prints, and little articles of virtu and bijouterie, to pass the time. The piano was open; a lady occupied the music stool, and near her was another who was touching and proving the strings of a magnificent harp. At a glance I perceived the former was Blanche Palmer, in a rich yellow satin dress laced with black, colours which well became her brilliant complexion and fine dark hair; the other was Lettv Howard, all robed in snow-white muslin. Near them stood an officer in uniform with buff facings and a head of well curled hair. This was Letty's brother—Howard of the Third Buffs, or East Kent Regiment. A number of pretty women, whom we had been meeting every night at different places since we marched into Chatham, and several officers in full uniform, with a few fashionable looking men in plain clothes formed the party. " Here is Lady Montressor," whispered Langley, as he took my arm, and hurried me through the folding door. I felt giddy, con- fused, most unhappy, and scarcely dared to raise my eyes, for I believed that those of Cecil and Blanche were both upon me. "Lady Montressor," said Fred, in his blandest tone, "allow me to introduce mv friend. Mr. Frank Hilton, of ours." 54 FRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." " Most happy to see you, Mr. Hilton, and hope to have you often at Gillingha a," replied the lady, with a very sweet voice, but with a very insipid manner. Prom the little hand and arm of the most faultless form, which she had extended to me, with a trembling heart, I raised my eyes to meet those of Lady Montressor. She was a beautiful woman, of a most impressive presence", verging on thirty years of age, but she was not Cecil Marchmont! I was thunder- struck, but had no time given me for reflection; as she immediately added, "I owe you a thousand thanks my dear sir, for your great kindness, in procuring my carriage so good a position to-day. Oh the review was charming!" " Thanks—Oh, Lady Montressor, you owe me none!" (none indeed, if she knew all!) " But for you, Mr. Hilton, I don't know what my friend and I should have done—it was too kind!" I bowed—got up a bland smile for the occasion, and mentally wondered who her friend was. " And you like Chatham ?" Her eyes always sparkled, and she showed her fine teeth when speaking. " Like it—oh, exceedingly." " Of course—all young officers do." "Except those in the Provisional Battalion, who are the garrison slaveys," said Howard, looking over his shoulder; " ah—how are you, Hilton—glad to see you again." " And the maids of Kent, are, you know, the prettiest in all England. Miss Palmer is at the piano." With this remark (which the said maids are careful to make to all who dance or flirt with them) our hostess moved away, with her bright sweet smile, her sparkling diamonds, and white satin rustling, to greet a more recent arrival in that warm manner with which she greeted all. In her face I could discern little, if any, resemblance to Cecil. She was a larger and darker woman, with more aquiline features, and a greater tendency to the most charming embonpoint than I could imagine Cecil to possess. Confounded by all this, I turned to ask some explanation of Ered Langley; but he had discovered a fair friend with, long ringlets, and believing that after intro- ducing me to our hostess, I was fairly off his hands, was carry- ing on a very animated conversation with her, in the recess of a window. A conversazione is generally a stupid affair at best, and to young men in particular is not to be compared to a well assorted dancing party. At Lady Montressor's there was everything to attract. The drawing-rooms were magnificently furnished after an Indian fashion; the wax-lights in the crystal chandeliers and gilded girandoles shed a flood of lustre on the rich uniforms and epaulettes ; the many bright complexioned and beautiful women, all radiant with pleasure and jewellery, and the hum of whose pleasantly modulated voices was so different from the noisy flirtations — the scene of fun, sack, LADY MONTRESSOR. 55 and destruction—the din and confusion of old Palmer's supper- room. I now drew near Blanche with a very penitent air, though no way pleased to see Howard of the Buffs so busy about her, as our three names had been perpetually jingled together in that gossiping locality: but he turned away with a knowing smile as I approached the piano, on which she was performing one of those incompre- hensible musical extravaganzas with which all well-bred people profess themselves enchanted, now-a-days, to the utter exclusion of all our good old Scots " and ancient English melodies," which of course "are banished out of doors." I made several apologies to her, for my mistake in the morning;, and although she knew very well that little was required, owing to the close resemblance her phaeton and ponies bore to those of our hostess, yet she was coquette enough never to honour me with any other reply than a slight nod of her pretty head, or a shrug of her white shoulders, as she turned away her face to conceal the smiles that dimpled it, and played her piece out to the end in silence, while I turned over the leaves for her. On its conclusion, and the usual low hum of applause being given, she rose from the piano, and passed her hand confidingly through my proffered arm in token that she had forgiven me. "Now, Erank," said she, "you must be very good and attentive to me to-night, and thus make amends for your public affront and cruel neglect this morning." " Dear Blanche—I have so often already expressed the regret I feel for my absurd mistake!" I was not a little proud of her. She was decidedly the finest woman in the room, and the most splendid diamonds were sparkling on her breast and brow. She far surpassed our hostess, except in style, for there was a certain inimitable something in the bearing of the charming widow which, certainly, Blanche with all her loveliness could not attain. Miss Palmer was reputed to be enormously rich; it was said, moreover, that for me she had jilted poor Jack Howard of the Buffs; yet it did not seem as if Jack's heart was broken is coa- sequence, for he was the gayest man in the room except Bred Langley. A certain piece of German music—a quartette—for four voices, was now proposed, and the ladies were all interrogated in turn, as to who could perform; three only were found; Lady Montressor, Blanche, and her friend and gossip Letty. " What is the name of this composition ?" I asked. " I'll be hanged if I know," said Langley; " but I would a thousand times rather have a waltz with little Letty Howard. Yery slow, all this sort of thing—it does not suit me at all!" " How provoking!" said Lady Montressor, giving another sweep with her eye-glass round the ladies ; we just require one voice, ana my whole mind is set upon having this song to-night." O'E.-annigan, who had just come in, offered to do his best in Irish; 56 MANX HILTON; OH, "THE QUEEN'S OWN.59 but none save Letty Howard would accept his services. During tne {>ause which ensued the Honourable Mrs. Howard, a very haugaty ooking old dowager, wearing a most peculiar cap and rich oiack dress of enormous amplitude, observed to our hostess, "Perhaps your Scotch governess sings in German?" " Oh yes—admirably, indeed—as she does both in French, ana Italian; but " " Oh, then, do desire her to come in, and accompany the young ladies." "I do not think she will like the invitation," said Lady Mon- tressor, hesitating; "she is very gentle and retiring, and always avoids company." " Of course; it is only becoming that she should do so—thougn some of those young persons are insufferably pert. I have never been able to retain one for Letty's little sister longer than a quarter, and frequently not so long. How fortunate you are, Lady Montressor! I always make my governesses very useful, if possible." Lady Montressor, a most amiable woman, still hesitated, and all the ladies turned towards her. "Bring in the girl, please," continued the obnoxious dowager, with a superb inclination of her short fat neck; " that is, if you do not think it too great an honour for her." I think there was something in this remark that chilled every one present. " Ah, my heavens—no! you quite mistake me, said our hostess, as she abruptly rang the bell, and a servant appeared. " Give my love to Miss (I did not catch the name), and say, John, that I will esteem it as the greatest favour if she will accompany me in a quartette, as we cannot perform it without her." The man bowed and disappeared. The ladies idled away over the piano, tinkling the keys, while the poor governess, thus commanded—for the invitation was but a com- mand, however gently worded—was no doubt putting herself in ■order, to appear before so many brilliant guests. "I am astonished that you keep a Scotch governess!" continued Letty's odious mother. " And I have heard a Scotch lady express the same surprise at -another for keeping an English one," replied Lady Montressor, with her quiet smile. "But then her hideous patois—it will quite spoil your little girl." "I have judged otherwise," said Lady Montressor, coldly, "and •beside the poor thing leaves me in two days to sail by the Farnham Castle for India, where a more lucrative, and I sincerely hope, better •situation, awaits her, for she has ever been to me a dear and affec- tionate friend. My little girl is going into a French convent for two years." " Hark you, Frank," said Lansley, as we passed into the next LADY MONTRLSSOK. 5 7 drawing-room, " you cannot imagine how an exhibition, such as we are to have, pains me. On my honour, I would rather face a fire of musketry tnan, lor one moment, be in the shoes of this poor governess. To be paraded thus, at old Dame Howard's suggestion too!" -* A demmed old squaw," said Popkins. " I agree with you, Langley," said Montague, who was a fine- looking fellow, with deep thoughtful eyes, and firmly compressed hps; Hilton, is it not a strange contradiction in our nature, that with all our boasted humanity and civilization we choose an accomplished woman to train up our children in the way they should go, and expect, her to instil into them the highest principles of honour, de- licacy, and morality, and yet, like Mrs. Howard, we treat her as one inferior to ourselves in all things." " Do not say we, Montague," said Langley, " for I never had any children, that I know of, and believe that if I had a governess, I should be very kind to her." "Of course, if young and pretty," added O'Plannigan, "and so would I, and by my troth, I'll have a governess the moment I marry. I had an uncle who was so mighty kind to one, that he ran clean off with her, and never was heard of again!" " I will tell you a rascally story of how one of the dragoons from Maidstone treated this poor girl," said Pred. "I heard it from Howard who had it from his sister Letty, and in the affair, Jack, notwithstanding his curled hair and his vanity, acted most nobly! Last year, Lady Montresscr gave a splendid rout, and insisted on her governess, of whom she makes a friend, being present, and the * girl being uncommonly pretty attracted a number of gay fellows about her; but she is proud enough and reserved enough to be a duchess—but these are additional incentives to some men. Among those who danced with her was a certain dragoon guardsman, whom she had known in other, and it would seem, in happier and better times. (Jack Howard told me the story very well.) " The tears came into her eyes when she greeted him with all the warmth and kindness of an honest heart, for she had known him in other days when she had a home, and he had been an honoured and welcome guest at her father's house and table; and she thought that he, who had never known a bitter hour or endured the stings of poverty and mortification, would feel as she did at the meeting. " But it was otherwise, for this guardsman was a thorough-paced libertine and cold man of the world; and if he betrayed satisfaction at meeting her, it was because she was in humble circumstances and reduced fortune, which placed her more at the disposal of such men as he. In other times he had been her lover and been twice rejected; Dut still her heart yearned to him as to a friend, and on seeing his face it seemed to be a gleam of home—the face of a friend—a brother, urnoiig* ah the cold ones who knew her not, or knew her only as a poor dependant on the purse and emulovment of others. We.U, our 58 FRANK HILTON; OB, "the queen's own." dragoon guardsman renewed his acquaintance, and dropped in here at Gillingham, frequently—so frequently indeed, that Lady Mon- tressor advised Miss Marchmont " " Marclmont!" I repeated in a breathless voice, as I felt a choking sensation in my throat, and a terrible foreboding came over me " and his name ?" " Fetlock—the Honourable Charles Fetlock—a fashionable block- head, and great friend of De Lancy of ours," said Montague. " Miss Marchmont was advised to be on her guard against the ad- vances of such a person, unless his intentions were strictly ho- nourable, when they might, to one in her situation, be worth con- sidering; but she shrunk from them now, as she had done in better times. Fetlock craved an explanation with her, and they had an interview in this very drawing-room. "With great cruelty and no small amount of art, he laid before her, and dilated on, all the mortifications, the real and imaginary dis- comforts of her position in life, with the probabilities of an unfriended old age, and poverty of which none could foresee the depth, the results, or the end; and thus artfully he succeeded in filling her mind with vague but terrible apprehensions, while he drowned the poor girl in a passion of tears. "' What would you have me to do, Captain Fetlock—what would you advise me to do?' she asked, 'you knew me when I had a splendid and a happy home, where I was sole mistress, and when I had a father who loved and protected me. Be now the friend you were then, and teach me how to shun the perils and sorrows you predict.' "' Come with me, Cecil—come to my arms—for I love you now, as I loved you then!' " She sat still and immoveable, but wept bitterly, while he placed an arm round her, and in her helpless sorrow she did not repel the freedom. "' I am rich, Cecil,' he continued, ' my uncle, the earl, has left me a large fortune (ay—these were Fetlock's very words!) and it shall be shared with you. I will give you one of the handsomest houses in Kent—here beside us, or anywhere else you please. I will settle such a sum upon you as must render you for ever indepen- dent, if—if—' "He paused, and tremblingly, she looked at him, and with- drew a little, for there was in his eye a libertine glance, such as no honourable man would have given at such a critical time—and there he sat, like a tempter, holding wealth in one hand and woe in the other! "' I can never marry you,' said she, weeping still. "'Well—people need not marry,' he replied, 'and without mar- riage, dearest Cecil, I still place myself and fortune at your disposal.' "He said a few words more, which soon convinced the poor THE quartette. 69 crushed girl, that nothing was further from his thoughts than marry- ing her, and that now his proposals were such as in her father's time he never would have dared to conceive! Poverty and dependence had somewhat crushed her pride of bearing, but not her spirit of honour or purity of soul. She drew herself up to her full height; she gave the recreant a glance of scorn that made him quail before her, and clenching her little hands in silent agony, as if she would have struck him to the earth, left the room, with the air of an insulted empress. " This affair soon reached the ears of Jack Howard, and as he nad been the medium of introduction, he considered himself insulted—or generously wished to punish the fellow, for affronting so noble a girl, and so he called Eetlock out. Though the General Order consequent to Munro's duel with Pawcett of the Pifty-fifth, was fresh in all our minds, they were to have fought in the fields behind Port Pitt, when, luckily, a sudden route came! Jack was dispatched to Tilbury, and Petlock had to embark for Bengal, on obtaining his majority and a staff appointment—and if an Indian bullet ends his career, he will be no loss to the Dragoon Guards, believe me." CHAPTER XII. THE QUAETETTE. 1 leave my reader to imagine all I felt while Pred Langley related, and with considerable tact and animus, this story, in the back draw- ing-room, where we were almost alone. Just as he concluded, a door opened, and a young lady entered, who with a slightly indicated bow to us as guests of the house, passed through the gilded folding- doors into the brilliant inner room, where Lady Montressor took her by the hand and led her towards the beautiful group which clustered about the open piano. She was Cecil Marchmont! It were vain to analyse all I thought, and all I felt at that moment. My voice was gone, and my heart seemed ready for burst- ing; the atmosphere was close and stifling, and I seated myself upon a sofa, while Langley, Montague, and O'Plannigan drew nearer the piano and the fair performers. Blanche and Letty Howard were seated at the instrument. Lady Montressor and Cecil stood behind them, and were preparing to sing. I shall never forget the impression made upon me by the face and form of poor Cecil, as she passed before me like a spirit, without even a glance of recognition. Her pure profile and pale, very pale complexion, made her deep-blue eyes, black brows and lashes, and her rich brown hair seem almost black; her forehead was sad, but the expression of her finely formed mouth was as sweet,, perhans sweeter 60 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." than ever. Her hair was plainly braided, with a single white rose, Ifiaced there, no doubt, hurriedly, and her dress of black satin, with a ow body and short sleeves, showed the fair proportion and white- ness of her delicate arms and shoulders. She seemed fuller, even taller than when last I saw her; yet she was the Cecil of my early days, and my young heart went back to its first love and the beloved times of old with a sad, a sorrowful, and sickening emotion. And there beside her was Blanche Palmer, so beautiful, so brilliant, and so happy! I felt that all my sudden passion for Tier had subsided in five minutes down to mere friendship at the sight of Cecil; and that she, and she only, was the love, the light, and guiding star of my heart, and no other woman in England or in Scotland either: and now they were all singing together, and the melody of their beautiful voices as they rang along the gilded ceilings and wainscoted rooms of that old English hall was charming, but Cecil's was the sweetest to me; and I was impatient when for a moment it was drowned by the singing of others, and I thought of what the emotions of the proud old colonel—he who was so vain of his beautiful daughter and vaunted so much of her accomplislrments—would have been, could he have seen her reduced to the necessity of " making herself useful," as old Dame Howard phrased it; and that to those very accomplish- ments she was to owe her daily bread; and I thought it well that the passionate old man was sleeping far away, in his green grave in the old kirk-yard at Aikendean. When the quartette was concluded, Lady Montressor kissed Cecil, and Blanche and Letty Howard, the frankest of all frank girls, warmly praised her execution of her part, and then they insisted upon her singing something alone, to which she at once conceded. As her fingers ran over the ivory keys, I knew by the prelude that she was about to give them one of our native Scottish songs which I had often heard her sing in other times ; and as she progressed, every note and word, with her dear familiar voice, called up the past and obliterated the present. It was one of poor Motherwell's, and is half forgotten already. " The bloom hath left thy cheek, Mary, As the spring's ripe blossoms die; And sadness hath o'ershadowed now Thy once bright hazel eye: But look on me—the prints of grief Still deeper lie.—Farewell!" As she sang with inexpressible tenderness the six verses of this sad and beautiful song, I thought that at times her voice grew tre- mulous, and I was deeply—oh! how deeply moved. " Would that our love had been the love That merest worldlings know; When passion's draught to our doomed lips Turns all to utter woe, And our poor dream of happiness Has vanished so.—Farewell 1 THE QTJAKTE1TE. bl M But in the wreck of all our hopes There's yet some touch of bliss, Since fate robs not our wretchedness Of this last parting kiss: Despair and love and sadness meet, My Mary, dear, in this.—Farewell!" Tlie whole room was hushed as she concluded this sad, low, wailing air, and then a burst of applause louder than good breeding usually accords was awarded to her, and none were more loud than Lady Montressor and O'Flannigan, who sprang forward to offer his arm, and told her that she was " a perfect jewel." "This young person is very accomplished," said Mrs. Howard, to a lady beside her, "but with a daughter growing up, I would not like a governess half so young or half so pretty. It sometimes proves very inconvenient." I drew near, and it seemed so strange that I should be beside Cecil in the same room and breathing the same air with her—to be almost touching her dress, and yet, that we were not as we were once, when we rambled in the woods of Fairy Bank, and when many a time I had borne her in my arms through the deepest part of the mountain stream, to save her the trouble of a circuit to the Fairy- bridge, when we had loitered too long and heard the bell ringing for dinner, or the old colonel holloing for us in the lawn. She glancei at me once or twice in the same casual manner that she did on other guests, but without the least recognition, for she could not even know that I was in existence; but no doubt my uniform, the gold medal and green ribbon I had received for the war in India—my service there, which had bronzed my face and given a strength and. compactness to my altered figure, had made me seem altogether different from what I was. The conversation became general, and though I longed to address her—yea, as if my life depended upon it ■—I had not the courage to do so. I dreaded that, a scene might, ensue; besides, I felt that, by the mere force of circumstances over which I had no control, I was now acting dishonourably to Blanche, and was even then, by total neglect, using her very ill; and so she seemed to think, for she looked at me once or twice with an expres- sion of anything but pleasure, while rambling over the keys of the piano and maintaining an idle and gay conversation with Howard and another officer of the Buffs. "Why are you avoiding me ?" she asked, sharply, as I drew to her side. " Avoiding you—I—Blanche ?" "You have never been near me to-night. Have you nothing to say to me, after your conduct this morning ?" " I was just about to remark, how beautifully Miss Marchmont sang!" " Is that all you have to say to me ? How tiresome and how silent you have become 1" <*9 frank hilton; ob, "the queen's own.'' " Silence is often reverence, dear Blanche," said Letty Howard. "And reverence in love is most commendable," added Lady Montressor. " Dumb reverence is all bosb and folly," said Blanche, pettishly, as she took Jack Howard's proffered arm for a promenade round the room, gave him her fan and bouquet to carry, and left me without a nod or smile. When supper was announced, I stood like one bewildered; I was CiOoS by the side of Cecil, when duty required that I should be with Blanche. In such cases, and with such attractive girls, to loiter for a moment is to lose them! Howard offered his arm; O'Elannigan led the graceful hostess; every one conducted some one else, and Lady Montressor on seeing me standing thus irresolutely, said in passing, with an introductory bow, "Mr. Hilton of 'the Queen's Own'—Miss Marchmont—supper waits us." Cecil placidly took my trembling arm, and timidly made some com- monplace remark, and I know not what answer I returned as we descended to the supper-table in the dining-room below. CHAPTER XIII. cecil ! x. seated myself beside her at a comer of the supper-table, and not far from O'Elannigan of ours, who generally contrived to slide into the position of acting host in the houses of all widows—and a most efficient one he made. I assisted Cecil to various things and filled her glass with wine, for Lady Montressor was somewhat old- fashioned, and this duty was not left to servants. It was evident, by the perfect ease of Cecil's manner, that she never recognised or even thought of me. This became quite insufferable! so taking ad- vantage of the buzz of gay unmeaning nonsense around us, a running fire of conversation on the last novels, routs to come, fashionable music, races, and balls, with flirtation in all its phases and stages, I said, close in her ear, and in a low but agitated voice, " Miss Marchmont—oh, Cecil! have six years and this uniform so changed me, that you have quite forgotten poor Erank Hilton—the manse of Aikendean, and the bonnie braes of Bairy Bank ?" She dropped her silver fruit knife and turned to me with an air which I shall never forget, for I never saw a face which so suddenly and so powerfully expressed the varying emotions of astonishment, joy, profound sadness, and then perplexity, as that of Cecil; astonish- ment to hear an old familiar voice uttering her name, and joy to see a once beloved face; sadness to reflect on all that was passed away, and the relation in which we then stood to each other, with some- thing of timid perplexity lest she might cause that, of which we well- cil! 69 bred Britons have such an innate horror—a scene ; but I pressed her band to re assure her. As the shadow of a cloud passes from the bosom of a lake, or the breath from the purer surface of a mirror, these expressions passed from her face as the emotions subsided in her breast, and her eyes resumed their wonted sadness, not unmingled with a keenness of gaze, as she asked in a low voice, tinged with somewhat of reproach, after some broken exclamations— " Oh, Frank, and are you the Mr. Hilton who is to marry Miss Blanche Palmer ?" " I—Miss Palmer—marry—oh, Cecil!" "Hush, for here are many listening ears and observant eyes. And you are in the army, too ! Oh, Mr. Hilton, how I long to learn all that has befallen you since—since—" " Since I left dear Aikendean," said I, becoming rather more com- posed, for the admirable and ladylike placidity of her manner soon .impressed me; "a few words, dearest Cecil, will soon do all that." I briefly sketched out my career, from the time of the unfortunate: incident which involved me so seriously with the Honourable Captain Petlock; my volunteering, and service in India; and her eyes filled, with tears of mingled sorrow and affectionate pleasure when I con- eluded. My low earnest voice had not failed to attract the ears of one whom, in the gush of other thoughts and the memory of other times, I had altogether forgotten; and just as I brought my short story to a close, I discovered that the bright keen eyes of Blanche Palmer had been fixed upon me from time to time with an expression of a. somewhat doubtful cast, which gradually assumed that of disdain and inquiry; and it was a great relief to me when some of the company had their carriages announced, and others began to reascend to the drawing-room, whither we followed them. I fingered with Cecil in the library beyond the folding door; love,, interest, pity, and compassion, all united to chain me to her side, and I cared not a straw for what any one thought. The accents of her soft and sweetly modulated voice fell like old. music on my listening ear, and the sobs she could ill repress at times- made all she said the more mournfully impressive. " Mr. Hilton " " For the love of Heaven, dearest Cecil, at a time like this, do- call me as of old—Frank—I am Frank Hilton—to you the same Frank Hilton as ever!" My heart was trembling, and brimful. Oh, how easily an old love' like this revives in all its strength and purity! "When my dear father died, Frank, I felt that I was indeed! alone; that among all the myriads of the earth there was not one- heart that mourned with me ; not a hand that would clasp mine not a home that would receive me! I felt that I was poor—very,, very poor ! Even that English clergyman whom my father's interest had raised to a place in the Scottish Episcopal Church, turned fronv 64 FRANK Hill-row; OK, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." me, and was cold, cutting, supercilious, and ungrateful, because I was poor; and your good old father's successor at the manse was equally so, because I was, as he said, a sheep that belonged unto another fold. A melancholy, a terrible prospect was now before me, for I had been reared in the midst of luxury and wealth, affec- tion and ease. A creditor of my father, out of mere charity—" " Charity—oh, Cecil—such a word!" ~ little child which appeared to have been born into the world in tnat horrible place, and without seeing the light., to have perished with its hapless mother. The bodies had not been above three minutes on deck, when Sergeant Edmonds, who had been in the back part of the crowd, impelled by some terrible presentiment, forced his way through, and THE STOWAWAY—TliB STOBIJ. 81 oil obtaining one glance of the remains, uttered a groan, and wem down on his knees beside them. "Mary! Mary! oh, Mary!" was all he could utter, as he covered his face with his hands ; for although the sunken eyes, relaxed jaws, and fallen nose of the aead rendered her no longer recognisable, but awful to look upon, yet, by her dress and figure, the sergeant knew at once his wife, the young wife whom he thought was fai away in England with her other two little ones, and for whom he had looked in vain on the busy beach and among the crowded boats at Gravesend. To end this painful scene as soon as possible, O'Hara, our colonel, who was a kindhearted Irishman, and like all his countrymen a fine soldier, led Edmonds away, and desired that the funeral should take place as soon as possible. The bodies were hastily rolled up in canvas and a thirty-two pound shot attached to them. The drum was beaten, and the boatswain's pipe summoned all on board to the interment. Montague read the Burial Service according to the ritual of the English Church, and I have seldom witnessed a finer or a more impressive scene than was presented; that great ship on the wide open sea, with her flag half hoisted, and upwards of 1200 soldiers and seamen standing bareheaded round the corpse upon the grating. The splash soon announced that we had com- mitted it to the deep, and all crowded to look over at the ring of foam in which it had vanished for ever; all save the poor sergeant, who covered his eyes and his ears to shut out the mournful sound. "Pipe down!" cried the captain. Again the shrill whistle rang through the ship, and all was over. Thus, with all the solemnity of an ocean funeral, we launched both child and parent into their watery grave in little more than half-an-hour after their discovery. The unhappy sergeant was excused from duty; but he seemed like a man about to lose his senses; that events so terrible should have passed within so brief a space seemed incredible: and his comrade was desired to keep a strict watch over him, for by the peculiarity of his manner, we feared he might commit suicide by shooting himself or going overboard in the night. He met with sincere sympathy, and from none so much as those poor fellows who had left at home those wives and little ones they might never see again. After the funeral the sharks disappeared. An old sailor told me gravely, that " they had all along been aware we had a dead body on board, and now they had gone after itbe this as it may, we could no longer see their black fins by day, or their glittering scales by night, following steadily in the white foamy wake of the stately Candahar. " Talking of sharks," said O'Elannigan, " I will tell you a story about one, which is worth making a note of. You know that I was once, for my sins* a lieutenant in the 2nd West India Regiment, 82 JRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." where I grew sick of sangaree, Manilla cheroots, and yellow girls, and marsh fever, the ague, and the Lord knows all what more, till I was on the point of being settled for ever where the headstones are stored thick as the hairs on your head, by Uphill Park, in the island of Jamaica. Well—to recruit my health, I got a few months' leave, and went with a friend of mine, Lieutenant Bagot, who commanded her Majesty's schooner Pickle, on the look-out "for Spanish, siavers, and a pleasant cruise we had off the Isle of Pines. One line even ing we were lying in sight of Cape Prancisco, and the sun was fringing with gold its yellow sands, and the long green groves of palm, date, orange, and lemon trees, when word was passed from the watch, that a large schooner was steering inside the Keys of San Julian. "' Pipe the Pickles to quarters,' said Bagot, e and make all sail in chase.' "There was a fine breeze; every stitch of canvas was crowded on her Majesty's schooner, and we very soon convinced the other craft that she had not the shadow of a chance of escape. We soon overhauled her, though she bore right away before the wind, and chose dangerous channels among the sandy Keys, for her draught of water was light. Heavy odds were taken that she was a slaver, for she was taut rigged, with a heavy foremast and bowsprit, and a long mainmast, that tapered away aloft like a fishing-rod. She carried the Spanish flag, but had no pennant, though her sides were full of men, her ports were open, and we could make out two large guns. With all our men at quarters, and our cannon loaded with round and cartridge shot, we crossed her stern, and hailed her to lie to, which she immediately did, seeing the futility of further flight. Bagot and I went on board to examine her, in a boat crowded with seamen and marines, armed to the teeth; the skipper, a strong muscular and swarthy Spaniard, with his face all whiskers, and gold rings in his ears, wearing a brown jacket braided, a broad hat and cotton drawers, received us very sullenly, and submitted his papers, log, ■ and charts for examination on the capstanhead. She proved to be the Cadiz schooner, La Senora Carlotta, bound from Santa Martha for the Havannah, -with a crew of fifty men, and carrying two twenty-four pounders. On deck were a vast number of ringbolts 5tnd water-casks, which, together with her peculiar odour, made us strongly suspect she was a slaver, but we could find nothing on board to warrant her detention, so after a horn of the real Old Tom, we separated, when the Spaniards filled their head sails, and with shouts of derisive laughter bore away. " ' May I never see dry land again,' said Bagot, c if these rascals have not just landed their cargo, and cheated us of a splendid prize.' " That night, about two bells in the middle watch, a fishing line which I had left trolling overboard, contrary to orders, was observed to be jumping about in a very remarkable way. A quartermaster THE STOW AT? AY—THE STORM. 8 d and I hauled it in, hand over hand, and lo! there was a jack-shark, about five feet long, grinning like Satan, and dashing his tail about till the stroke of a hatchet settled his spinal marrow for ever. Our black cook cut him up, and what do you think we found in his rapacious maw? the whole of the private signals of La Senora Carlotta, and all her papers, which had been flung over to starboard at the very moment we boarded her to larboard, and which on examination proved that just four hours before we descried her, she had landed two hundred and ninety-three slaves ;* and very much disappointed we were at the manner in which we had let her slip through our fingers." After touching at St. Helena, amid boisterous weather, we rounded the stormy Cape of Good Hope, and without being favoured by even a glimpse of the famous Table Mountain, or being over- hauled by the still more famous Flying Dutchman, on having attained the necessary parallel of longitude, we began to haul up for the Indian Ocean, and to our great satisfaction fell in with the south- west monsoon, which generally lasts from the middle of April to the middle of October, throughout the whole extent of that mighty sea, which rolls between.the shores of Africa, Arabia, and Japan; and after altering our course, for some days we were surrounded by a greater number of gigantic albatrosses than I remember to have ever seen collected together. Notwithstanding that every means were resorted to for the laudable purpose of killing time, and lightening the tedium of our voyage, to a landsman it was excessively monotonous, and the longer we were at sea, the less we liked it. We grew weary of sky and wave, and thought our voyage would never have an end. I watched our progress on the chart from point to point, and hailed with pleasure each successive object in the Mosambique channel, where we passed a number of homeward-bound American whalers, and then we came in view of those strong fortifications which our allies, the French, are erecting on the Island of Mayota, a territory obtained by them in 1843. I recollected with something of sur- prise, that there was a time when I had never tired of gazing at the ocean, but this was when its crested waves were rolling on the shore ; and the length of the voyage was the more provoking when we considered the narrow Isthmus of Suez, which barred the shorter passage by the Red Sea. All the transport regulations were strictly adhered to. We had a daily parade when the weather was fine, and in accordance with the general orders, all the soldiers appeared barefooted; every day the whole of the bedding was brought on deck; all the soldiers' lights were extinguished at eight o'clock, when the bugle sounded, and the officers' at ten at night. Once a week we pa*aded in complete marching order, and this was a pleasure, for it smacked of the land; * Montreal Gazette, May, 1834. 84 FRANK HILTON; OB, THE QUEEN'S OWN." on Sunday we had divine service, when Montague, who had been educated for the Church of England, always acted as our chaplain, and a most efficient one he made. The men were all in excellent health during the voyage, four excepted, who had fever and flux, occasioned by sleeping on the deck, in that hot, breathless, and burning atmosphere, the fiery nature of which seemed to be in- creasing with every day's progress. Our band played on the calm eveningsmost of us took to completing ourselves in the sword exercise; we were all at it every day, often in a general melee for an. hour at a time, until we became perfect in the use of our weapons; and this perfection was afterwards of great service to us, in our more serious encounters with the treacherous Arabs of Aden; I finished successfully my study of the Arabic, and Popkins achieved one complete air on the flute! After a delightful run along the western coast of Africa, the monsoon accompanying us the whole way, on the morning of the 27th September, we found ourselves rounding Ras-Assere, that bold promontory which forms the most eastern point of the mighty. African continent, and the end of that long chain of beautiful mountains which lie along the coast of Ajan. Eor two days we carried on with a fine nine-knot breeze upon our quarter, but on the 29th it increased towards evening; the atmo- sphere became dense, the breeze increased to a gale, and we took in the mainsail s then the rain fell in such torrents as can only fall out of tropical skies, where every drop is the size of a musket ball, and this ceaseless shower plashed and hissed as it sowed that black and tumbling sea. The wind came in sudden and furious gusts, and the old Candahar laboured heavily; we lowered the main-topsail, furled the fore and mizen-topsails, clewed up the foresail, doubled the watch on deck, and scudded on in the darkness and obscurity of that troubled ocean, till the increasing gale compelled us to have everything furled fore and aft, and the ship was laid almost under bare poles. I shall never forget the fury of this storm, as it appeared at one period of the night, when I stood by the weather rigging of the mizenmast, and saw the stupendous mountains of ink that rolled towards us, black, heaving, crested and terrible, with the pale green lightning bursting behind them and revealing the sharp outline of their ridges, as it shot through the cloudy sky; then the thunder followed peal on peal, as if its very sound would have ploughed the ocean up; and then came another deluge of blinding rain, while the wind blew in one unceasing and unvarying tempest. The dead- lights were shipped, and the hatches battened down till our people below were almost suffocated; the pumps were kept at work, and the s+rong ship rose and fell like a cork on the stormy sea, one moment pitching with bows under water, and the next, rolling till her channels were buried and her yard-arms dipping in the foam. piece oe wkeck-wood. 85 Bolt after bolt of lightening shot athwart the sky—bright, oroad, and blinding—from the poop we could see the faces of those who were in the waist—the drenched rigging, and the masts and yards all dripping with rain and bitter spray; the atmosphere continued as dense as ever; and the horror or interest of this midnight tern- pest was increased by De Lancy (who being a yachtsman was about the best seaman in the regiment) affirming, that by one of those brilliant flashes, he had seen a large ship go doum to leeward of us! Witf morning the gale subsided, but the yellow and discoloured ocean was flecked with the foam of its last night's turmoil; the atmo- stifling, and the bright lightning yet hatches, after which the people between decks were able to respire freely, and were freed from the chance of being stifled. The storm of the night had changed the aspect of the Candahar; her paint was nearly all washed off; huge splinters had been torn from her, and the wood was covered with the red rust of eyebolts and other ironwork. A spar or two had been carried away, but I forget which they were. From Cape Guardafui to Aden we had yet before us a run of three hundred miles, in that sea of strong and rapid currents that roll along the shores of the land of myrrh and incense; but after the vast distance we had traversed, three hundred miles seemed as 110- thing, and we expected in another day to see our long wished for destination rising from the deep. The second day after the storm was clear, bright, and beautiful; there was not a trace of cloud in the pure blue sky; not a trace of foam on the blue Arabian sea, which shone around us hot, waveless, and still as an ocean of molten crystal. Its surface seemed to vibrate in the rays of the sun, though the season was that which in Britain is most temperate; and under the burning glare we thought of the cool autumn days, the shady trees, and stubble-fields at home, when the frain is gathered on the breezy uplands, and the bordering coppice ecomes tinged with russet brown. "We were gliding along under easy sail, and the eyes of all loungers on deck were fixed on Abdul-Kuria, a high and rugged isle of granite, which was visible about ten miles distant oil our starboard bow, when our attention was arrested by a sailor who was at work in the mizen-crosstrees hailing the officer of the watch, and reporting that he saw a piece of wood, part of a ship apparently, floating about a mile off. This announcement excited the curiosity and interest of all on board; and as Popkins kept a journal, and was most anxious CHAPTER XYIII. the piece op wreck-wood. Now we were able to unclose the 86 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." for some occurrence to insert in it, he proposed that we should ascer. tain what it was; and as it was almost a calm, O'Hara consented; a boat was lowered, and Langley, Montague, De Lancy, Popkiris, several other officers, with one oi the ship's mates and myself, pulled in great glee straight towards the island; for the piece of drift-wood lay in a line between it and the ship. Drifting fast on the current that runs round Ras-Assere, we had a longer puil after it than had been calculated on; and as the wind was springing up, a gun was fired from the ship as a signal for us to return; but we paid no attention, and pulled vigorously on for ten minutes more, until we reached the object of our expedition, around which a cloud of Mother Cary's chickens were hovering. It proved to be the carved figurehead of a large vessel, to which one of the headrails was attached, and both were considerably chafed and worn by the action of the water. " This must be the headrail of a ship of not less than eight hundred tons," said the officer of the Candahar, who held the tiller-ropes, and stood up as we approached the fragment. " I told you all that I saw a large ship go down on the night Gf the storm," said De Lancy, looking at the drifting wood with that kind of expression in his face, as if he would implore it to tell its own story. " Let us turn it over and see the name," said the mate; " put your hands to it, gentlemen—heave, and together." At that moment bang went another cannon from the ship; it sounded like a popgun, for she was nearly two miles off by this time, and the report reached us long after the smoke had cleared away. " Another shot from the Candahar," said Langley; "what a deuced hurry O'Hara is in." With no small trouble we turned the mass of framed-work over in in the water; and as it fell heavily with a splash on the other side, the terrible words, " Farnham: Castle" appeared in large capital letters before me! " The Farnham Castle ?" cried every one in the boat. " She was bound for Bengal, and sailed a day or so before lis." said the mate; " but what would she be about between the African coast and the Isles of Socotora ?" " But headrails are often unshipped by a sea," said Montague. "And quite as often are torn off when a foundering ship goes plunging down, head foremost, in the sea," said the mate, as the oars were shipped for our return; " and this seems like a sad corrobora- fcion of what Mr. De Lancy told us on the night of the storm. Give way now, gentlemen, if you please; stretch out!" " A large ship," said De Lancy. " Quite certain, she went down between us and the flashing lightning " THE PIECE OE WKECK-"WOOD. 87" " On—on for the ship, for the wind freshens fast," said Langley. uFrank, my dear fellow, you look weary; give me your oar." Fred had given me a glance full of commiseration when the name- was discovered; for he knew the ship in which Cecil had sailed, and the terrible field for dark and sorrowful conjectures this piece of Seating wreck would open up before me. i shall not attempt to paint the agonies of sorrow, anxiety, and reproach 1 endured—sorrow that Cecil should have departed on that distant and disastrous voyage unfriended and alone, and that perhaps she had died, believing me untrue; anxiety, stinging and bitter, to discover the actual fate of her ship (and I knew that months must elapse before I could do so); reproach, for the apparent unkindness of which I had been guilty in my thoughtless flirtation with Blanche Palmer, and but for which my dear Cecil might have been my wedded wife, and safe on board the Candahar, and sailing with us ail on that beautiful Arabian sea, whose waters were now perhaps rolling oyer her! Langley, who was among the best of good-hearted fellows, cited a hundred real or imaginary instances in which pieces of wreck had been found, and been considered quite conclusive as to the loss of ships, which, months after, came sailing merrily into port; and he left nothing unsaid to convince me that the first Inoian steamer, with the overland mail (after our arrival), would bring us good tidings of the Farnham Castle; but though his friendship soothed, it could not allay the dire apprehensions which filled my breast during the remainder of this tedious voyage, which (thank Heaven) came to a close on the 3rd day of October. On the evening of that day, after several shore birds had perched on our rigging, and long dark tangles of strange-looking seaweed had been swept past us, a joyful cry from the mast-head announced that the coast of Aden was in sight, and three hearty cheers responded from the crowded decks below. There was an immediate rush to the starboard side and bow; but hours elapsed before the faint blue wavy line, which rose slowly from the azure sea, and darkened as the night descended, assumed the aspect of terra firma, and ^before we could assure ourselves that the scorched shores of Arabia were indeed before us, after a voyage of nearly four months from the time of our leaving Gravesend; and never were sounds more welcome to human ears than the clank of the chain cables, as they were bent to the ponderous ancho' and the noise which accompanied the un- stowing of the latter. Already we began to pack our trunks, while the soldiers strapped their knapsacks, and with delight made all their little preparations for disembarkation. Langley, Montague, and I—for we were thr&e " chums"—walked long on the deck that night, watching the rising coast—the Cape of Aden, which is discernible at the distance of twenty leagues—and through the open hatches we heard the buzz of happy tongues, and an occasional scrap of a song, as our soldiers, instead of sleeping,. 88 frank. hilton; or, "the queen's own," were all awake in'their births and hammocks, and waiting with impa- tience for the coming day. CHAPTER XIX, aden. I was on deck next morning before sunfise; we were then almost alon£- side the Steamer Point, and nothing that I have seen since impressed me so mnch as the appearance of Aden. The harbour is picturesque and beautiful, and across its glassy surface the morning sun threw the cool shadow of the dark Jebel Shamsan, which rises one thousand and seven hundred feet in height above the peninsula it crowns—a vast, black and fissured mass of rocks starting sheer from the waters of the gulf that roll in long and swelling ridges to its base. The whole of the promontory of Aden measures only six miles one way by three the other, and is situated three days' journey by camel, i.e., a hundred miles, from the mouth of the Red Sea—aland journey rendered all but impracticable by the ferocity of the Subbeihi Arabs, who possess all the country between, and like the wild Abdali, to whom Aden more immediately belongs, and the sultans of Sana and Lahadj, are the avowed enemies of the unbelieving Earingis, who have seized upon the cape for no better reason than that it is necessary as a depot for coaling our Red Sea steamers, and forwarding the overland mail from India. John Bull wanted it—and that is enough. The peninsula is of volcanic origin, and its spires of calcined rock, which shoot up into a hundred fantastic cones and shattered pinnacles, are in some places twelve hundred feet high, presenting a sharp and jagged outline against the pure blue, cloudless sky, and showing how tremendous must have been the eruption and the throes of nature which filled them with those cells and endless galleries by which they are perforated, and which cleft its hills of basalt into abrupt and precipitous caverns. Through these mighty torrents of water have once poured into the gulf. By the same convulsion was formed that volcano through which came the mountain of lava and ashes that formed the isthmus; and the volume of fire which created the yellow porpyhry and the white crystals that sparkle when the slanting sunbeam lights up its cyclopean walls. But the reader will find all this in the works of Welsted and others. These shattered rocks in many places assume the aspect of caste! lated ruins and crumbling walls, and these I supposed to be the remains of that ancient splendour possessed by Aden, when it was the centre of trade with India, Africa, and Syria; or of those fortifi cations which daunted the adventurous Albuquerque; or of those wars, when it was surprised by the barbarous Osmanli, who hung its king from the mast of a sKiv* but, on after examination, those fancied A.DEIT. 89 castles dwindled down to masses of crumbling lava, sprinkled with sand and ashes. We had arrived during the cold or north-west monsoon, which there lasts from the beginning of October till March. The sun was yet below the horizon when we assembled on deck; the unclouded sky was clear, cool, and dewy; the waves, which rolled round the bases of the volcanic rocks, were pellucid and trans- parent as the air itself. Near us lay the Isle of Serah, a rock five hundred feet in height, which is crowned by a line of ruined ram- parts, from which, in the days of the Turks, forty pieces of enormous cannon swept the waters of the gulf: and we could see the subter- ranean foundations of this gigantic rock, and those of the surround- ing shore, far down beneath the water-line, where a myriad snow- white shells were clustering, and where the bright green ocean plants were waving their long, slimy blades and fibres on beds of yellow sand and crimson coral, all of which we saw as through a green-glazed window. With great alacrity, but with no pleasant anticipations of enjoying much gaiety or amusement, we disembarked on Steamer Point, where our soldiers rejoiced once more to find their knapsacks on their backs, and their feet on firm ground, and gave O'Hara a hearty hurrah as he came ashore. We formed in close column of companies, preparatory to marching off. A crowd, of wild-looking Arabs, wearing only turbans and cummer- bunds, and leading donkeys, ponies, and even camels, offered them to us in broken English, at the hire of one rupee. Among the spec- tators were many officers and soldiers of the rifles, whom we had come half-way round the world to relieve; some of her Majesty's artillery, a few swarthy soldiers of a Bombay infantry regiment, and a multitude of Simalee fishermen, Peons, or Indian policemen, and lazy, wolf-like natives, half-naked, or clad in blue or brown tunics, and who viewed us with eyes of sullen scorn and distrust. Here and there ap- appeared a Jewis'h artisan, anxious to sell the little wares in which he dealt, and exhibiting thegreatest eagerness to make himself understood. Among this heterogeneous crowd I observed one very handsome young Arab, who remained somewhat aloof, smoking his chibouqne, and watching us with the greatest interest; indeed, I detected him counting our files with his finger. He wore a scarlet turban, the gold-fringed ends of which drooped upon his shoulders; he had long moustaches, and a straight sword, having a crimson-velvet sheath, covered with silver filigree ornaments of the most exquisite workman- ship. In short, he seemed an Arab dandy of the first water. Our soldiers were merry and loquacious as the parade was formed, for the satisfaction with which they found themselves again on mother-earth could not be restrained; but the late event of the Earnham Castle oppressed me with gloom, and the novel aspect of everything around me—the odd-looking buildings, the ill-made barges, the wonderful foliage and olants. the arid rocks, the uncouth people, 90 FKANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." had all a strange and unpleasant character, and I turned from each feature in this new land to the next in quiet astonishment; but when I surveyed the squalid Arabs, the dirty Simalees, and long- bearded Jews, the scorched sand and sun-burnt rocks of naked basalt, or the wigwams that clustered near the shore, how difficult it was to believe that we were really in the fertile kingdom of Yemeh, and treading on the sands of Araby the Blest—the cradle of Islam. The regiment broke into sections; our noble band struck up thf "British Grenadiers." Inspired by the music, all the Arabs began to caper and dance, as we marched from the landing place toward* the intrenched camp, which is occupied by those troops who have the misfortune to be stationed in this remote corner of the uncivilized world. The road is a tolerable one, and merrily rang the sharp brass drums and the notes of our splendid band, as we marched through a chasm (in the black and stupendous bluff which juts into the gulf), and from thence descended a steep path which skirts the margin of the open bay, where the waves rolled in white foam on the sandy shore, or dashed their silver spray and snowy shells against the mouths of those uncounted caverns that make the rock resemble a gigantic honey-comb. The romance of this beautiful scenery, which resembled the abode of a fairy in a pantomime, was somewhat taken away by O'Elannigan making the whole Grenadier company sing in chorus to the band; and the effect of a hundred voices echoed with countless reverberations in the unfathomed caverns, as we passed the mouth of each, was as sublime as the words of the song are ridiculous. > "Together, now, my lads, together!" criedOTlannigan, clapping his hands; " together, you rapparees!" " Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules; Of Conan and Lysander, and one Miltiades; But of all the world's great heroes, there's none that can compare, Tow, row, row, row, row, row de dow, With the British Grenadier! ** Thundering Jove applauds them, and Great Bellona smiles, To see those warlike heroes, the flower of our British Isles; And all the Gods Celestial, are bending from their spheres, At the tow, row, row, row, row de dow, Of the British Grenadiers!" " Alas !" said Langley, with a tragi-comic air, "alas! for the girls we have left behind us !—the gas-lighted ball-room, the polka, the deux-temps; the flirtation at supper — blancmange and cold chicken —ices and champagne—the race-course and the promenade ! for we are now in the land of our banishment." " God knows we have had enough of it," said a bronzed officer of the Bifles, laughing; " your tum has now come for a few years. Heaven be thanked, that in a day or two, we tum our backs on Aden for ever." "We ascended a steep path, and passed a gate in the fortifications hagar and ishmael. 91 ffliere a rifleman stood on sentry under a sunshade. On leaving ffiis behind, we entered the crater of a defunct volcano, where, in an amphitheatre of burned rocks—as in a basin or hollow—among masses of old walls and ravines, or dried-up rivulets, stood the Aden of the present age, with its cement-coated houses, about a hundred in number, covered with ornamental wood-work and sentences from the Koran; its four brick minarets, each about sixty feet high, but ruined, and deserted, and tottering, for now the voice of the Muezzin summons the sons of Islam no more from their shattered galleries; its tombs and mounds of rubbish, its roofless mosque, its empty market-place, and deserted palace. Iron cannon peered through batteries of turf and stone; here stood the canvas tents of the. British camp, bleached whiter than snow by the tropical sun; there, tiie traveller's bungalow, where Mirza Kufa, a Parsee, made a brave effort to produce occasional entertainment for man and horse. The dwellings of the natives were constructed of wooden uprights, having the intervals filled in with a species of gigantic field reed, which grows twenty-four feet high, and is to be found in perfection at Gholeib, near Suez ; the roofs were matted over with date leaves and thatched with sedges; but a few good houses, built by the Europeans, stood conspicuous among these wigwams. Poor Popkins, whose mind was full of mosques with golden domes, seraglios with marble peristyles, gilded cupolas, kiosks of silver wire, with roses trained over them—brilliant carpets, sweet sherbet, turbans and cimitars, Arab maids, and all the glories of the " Thousand and One Nights," was quite crest-fallen on beholding this desolate place; and I must own that many of us shared his disappointment. Not a blade of grass, not a shrub was to be seen; and one solitary rui-" mosa tree, which spread its prickly foliage from a cleft of the lava, seemed even scorched and withered up, as if the breath of a furnace had passed over it. The few trees that had adorned this hollow of ashes, had long since been converted into firewood by the soldiers who preceded us. The sun came above the horizon as we halted in the British can tonrnent; it shed a flood of yellow light upon the arid rocks, the roofs and walls, the tents and bungalows of Aden, while a glorious flush of golden radiance lit up the caverned shore and the rippling waves that rolled away towards the West, where, afar off, the Straits of Bab-el-mandib—the Gate of Tears—opened from the Indian Ocean into the waters of the Red Sea. CHAPTER XX. hagar and ishmaed. The officers of a regiment of Bombay Infantry, those of the Rifles, and a company of Artillery who had been stationed at Aden for some time, related to us many stirring stories of their daily and 92 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." nightly encounters with the Arabs, who had sworn, by every vow which can bind a Mussulman, we should never retain in peace the wretched rock we had taken from them. The hotel of Mirza, the Parsee, was our daily rendezvous, for it con- tained a kind of reading-room, where we had the London and Bom- bay papers, about a month old, of course. The host, a cunning fellow, belonging to that tribe which is scattered over all our Indian posses- sions, and the members of which are always merchants or traders and never soldiers, generally greeted a new visitor in the blandest manner. " How you do, sahib," said he, with a grin from ear to ear, the first day I visited him; " me hope you very well—glad to see you again—me remember you at Cudaalore." "Never was there, sir," said I, briefly. "Hoyou do, sahib—hope you very well," he added to O'Flanni- gan; "me remember you at Tehran." " At Tyrone ? the blazes you do!" "Oh, yes; and the moonfaced girl, and the purse of rupees—aha! sahib." He remembered having seen us all—even Popkins—somewhere. It would appear, as we were informed by Major Dreghorn, of the Artillery (a tall, powerful and red-whiskered countryman of mine from Midlothian), a daily frequenter of Mirza's bungalow, that the coast had become infested by pirates, who captured every vessel and often murdered their crews. This was particularly the case with the unfortunate sailors of the Sylph ana of the Minerva, whose throats were deliberately cut at the capstan-head by the captors, who, incited by the Santon Nouvcddin, at every slash of their jambeas, exclaimed "God is great!" and so perished all who refused to embrace Islamism. This brought on the storming of the fortress of Has-el-Khaimah by the British troops under Colonel Smith; then followed the attack on poor Captain Thompson's small party of {800 men, who garrisoned Kishm in 1821, when, after a most disastrous expedition, his troops were nearly all cut off—650 being slain by the wild Arab horsemen. The Sultan was no better than a common marauder until 1837, when the destruction of a valuable British ship bound for Madras brought us into immediate contact with the chiefs of the Abdali and other Arabian tribes. As a coaling statical for the overland communication with Europe was necessary, the aged Ma- hassan Sultan of Aden and Lahadj was offered 8000 dollars annually for the old crater, which he accepted; but influenced by the Santon Noureddin, his sultanship changed his sublime mind, and acted with great cruelty and deceit, until 1839, when a force consisting of 300 men of the 1st Bombay European Regiment, 310 of the 21th ditto, her Majesty's ship Yolage of 28 guns, the Cruiser of 16, and the Honourable Company's ships Coote and Mahi sailed into the Gulf of Aden one fine morning in January, and threw a shower of shot and shell into the mosque, palace, and market-place, stormed the old HAGAfi. AND 1SHMAEL. 93 Turkish wall, and at the point of the bayonet drove out the Arabs, who made a desperate resistance, especially Lie tribe of the Abdali, who killed eleven British soldiers, and of whom no less than 140 were shot among the rocks. " Though many years have now elapsed since its capture," con- tinued the major, as we sat sipping some claret in the Parsee's bun- galow, " we have been at incessant war with these rascally Abdali, who are about ten thousand strong, and occupy six hundred square miles of country. They come when we least expect them—generally in the night—climbing these steep rocks like squirrels, swimming through the water like eels, with their pistols in their turbans, and their sharp sabres in their teeth; gliding on, by twos and threes, till they gather in a multitude; then their shrill tecbir, or war-cry, pierces the stillness of the night like the yell of a hyaena ! Our sentinels are massacred, our picquets attacked, and a barbarous conflict ensues, where quarter is neither given nor asked by Briton or Arab; for theAbdali will not take life at our hands even after we have disarmed him, but will rush upon the bayonet to obtain the glorious paradise which has been promised by that cunning fellow Mahomet. And all these fine things are acted here for weeks together, without the good people at home ever hearing a word about them." "And the sultans ?" I asked. " Por Lahadj we care little; but as for he of Sana, he is a cunning and a barbarous tyrant to boot," continued the major, who had been stationed there for seven years, and found a great pleasure in seeing new white faces, and especially in having a countryman to converse with; for Scotchmen have so many topics of common interest when abroad. " He resides far off, at Sanaa, the capital of his kingdom of Yemen, the walls of which are constantly guarded by a thousand horse and four thousand foot; and he instigates the Abdali, the Puthalis, and the Subbeihi Arabs (for they are all divided into tribes like our Scottish clans) to wage a perpetual war with us—a war that is blackened by every atrocity which the cruel imagination of these orientals can suggest." "I begin to hate these Abdali before I know them," said "LanMey. "Hate ! that is a gentle word for them. Why, sir, they cut off heads as you would slice the top of an egg; they hang men on iron hooks by the backbone, and leave them to be eaten by eagles and hyaenas He is the most savage of all savages, the Emir Moham'ed !" " What is an emir ?" asked Popkins, who had listened to all this with open mouth and staring eyes. " It's Arabic for a blood-thirsty villain, who rides half-naked on horseback, and slays men, as you would shrimps, by the score. He has a strong castle, called Jebel Ahmer, about forty miles from this. We would have demolished it long ago, but feared to be cut off. I have known them to crucify a poor commissary's clerk who fell inh their hands. What think you of that ?" S4 FRANK HILTON; OR, " TIIE QUEEN S OWN." " That was done by certain Jews of Mocha, who owed him money," said a soft, deep voice, in a corner of the room, where we had not been aware that any one was sitting. So intently had we listened to the relations of the energetic major, that unnoticed by us, the handsome young Arab, whom I observed on the day of our land- ing, had spread a carpet on the floor, seated himself crosslegged, and was alternately sipping coffee from a crystal cup and taking a whiff from the amber mouthpiece of a hookah. "Can you swear that Arabs did not do it?" asked Dreghorn, twisting his moustache and knitting his brows. "I will not swear to pleaseyou," retorted the young Arab,quietly; "I have said they were Jews." The tall major shrugged his broad shoulders, with that expression of contempt -which, by a long residence in India, most of our officers, unfortunately and improperly, imbibe for all people of colour. "Are you the merchant of Mocha who has for some days past been selling coffee among the bungalows,and buying powder in exchange?" asked Dreghorn, with stern hauteur. " I am Yussef, the merchant of Mocha," replied the Arab, with an immovable aspect, though his eyes were shining like fire. " The nakib of the white cannoniers should not be angry because brave men fight against him. Arabia is the land which God gave of old to the Arab, and why should he not fight for it against the Faringis?" " 0, very well, master Yussef; but did not Victoria, the queen of the Faringis, offer yearly eight thousand dollars for this beautiful place—the crater of an old volcano—and your sultan of Lahadj would uot sell it, though I was sent to tell him in the best of Arabic that she wanted it to coal her steamers, and must have it whether he would or uot." "Neither the sultans of Yemen or Lahadj could sell one foot of the land that was given to the sons of Ishmael, for it is theirs, and everything thereon, even to the white shells which the sea casts upon its shore, and the ripe dates that fall and wither in the desert. If the Faringis can keep it by the sword, then let them keep it; but if the Arab can retake it, let him do so. The Faringi is brave, but is the poor Arab less so ? _ Let them not throw their dirt on each other's beards, and use epithets like angry women." " When did these Abdali beat up your auarters last ?" asked Fred Langley, to change the subject. "About two months ago—they have been wonderfully quiet; but smooth water runs deep. Their old chief (who was a veritable1 ogre) took himself off to Paradise a short time ago, and his hopeful son and heir (one of the four nakibs who command the cavalry of Yemen) has now assumed his pipe and carpet, and is said to be urave as a lion." "He has sworn by every oath in Islam, to drive the Faringis into ♦he Gulf of Aden," said the young Arab, " and he will do so." HAGAR AND ISHMAEL. 95 "Let him try it," said the major, drily; "I have just put some very pretty thirty-two pounders on their patent carriages this morn- ing, and my fellows are busy day and night at Mount St. Thomas, making up service charges of powder; and you may tell him so, master Yussef." " Mohamed of the Abdali is brave beyond all brave men!" said the Arab; " at least so say his tribe, who love him, and have named him the Just; and fromHejaz and Hadramaut—yea from the deserts of Oman, he will bring against you as many horsemen and spears as there are drops in a shower of rain." The Arab smiled pleasantly, and as he sat near • the open window of the bungalow, in the light of the setting sun, with his fine olive features—so handsome in their regularity, and so expressive, with his soft dark eyes—his aquiline nose and long silky moustache; his scarlet turban, with its golden fringes, hanging down his back; his vest of crimson velvet laced with gold, his spotless white breeches, rich sword and hookah, I thought he would have made an admirable subject for a sketch by Wilkie or Allan, the chiefs of our National Academy. "Now, master Yussef, answer me this," said the haughty major, who seemed to be in a pugnacious and argumentative mood; " have not we Paringis done unto you Arabs a vast deal of good ? When' I was first quartered here, the population consisted of a thousand poor devils, who were almost mad, and who lived upon fish and dates. Now they are trebled in number, and we find them food, work, and raiment." "Work!" reiterated the merchant, now for the first betraying a little warmth; " yea, in making fortifications against the faithful, and in return teaching them to lie and cheat; to wear hats instead of turbans; to live in houses of stone instead of tents like their fathers; to eat food forbidden by the Holy Koran; to curse the blessed Prophet; to break the feast of Ramadan, to drink wine, to become slaves, porters, and brayers of mortar, and to bring disgrace on the blood of Ishmael, whose home should be in the desert; but 1 have said enough. Had I the learning of Geber and of Abdallah Ibn Sin (Avicenna), I would fail to convince you that the Arab is happier without that civilization which you Paringis would thrust down our throats by the bayonet." " Happier in the desert—as Ahl el Wabar (dwellers in-tents)," said I, in Arabic, and his eyes kindled as he gave me a bright smile, for I spoke the language pretty purely. " You might as well speak to him about table-turning, spirit- rapping, or the electric telegraph," said the major, "as speakt# him about civilization—and I am wasting more wind than a bag- piper." "You think us a strange people, because you understand us not,:' said the Arab, in his slow broken English. "We are proud of our country, which once conquered nearly all the Kafir world; we are 96 FRANK HILTON J OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." proud of our Sheikhs, for the oldest nobility of Erangistan are bu» the moths of yesterday when compared to the long descended sons of Ishmael. It is rash to mock ana taunt us; and I tell thee, proud nakib," he added, addressing Dreghorn, " that the Emir Mohamed hath made a row to hew thy head off with his own hands." "Mine," said Dreghorn, lighting a cigar very quietly; "the devil he has ? When I was in China, an old mandarin swore the same oath, yet we became very good friends after, and have often Vobbed and nobbed over a bow-wow pie." " The emir will keep his vow, by the grot of Mount Hara, he will!" resumed the Arab, with sparkling eyes; then turning to me, he added, " in the black tent or in the yellow desert, or on the green mountain only is the Arab at home, and true to the fate ordained him by the Most High (bowing his head). Listen, and you also, nakib," he continued, sternly addressing the major, "and I will tell you how the desert became the inheritance of the Arab." Then he paused, as if he thought a holy legend would be thrown away on such an audience, but, after being pressed by me, he began as follows "We are told in the traditions of the Santons, and in many sacred writings, that after Isaac was born unto Abraham in his old age, when Sarah saw his other son—the child of Hagar, the beau- tiful Egyptian slave—she mocked her bitterly, and urged the patri- arch to cast forth the poor bondwoman, whom she had bestowed upon him, vowing that her child should never be equal to, or heir with, Isaac. Ana though the request was grievous in the sight of Abraham, yet he promised that she should be expelled from his tents and dwelling-place. " This was at an early hour of the morning, when the sun was yet below the eastern hills, and the newly-gathered waters of the Dead Sea were rolling in darkness at the base of the desert mountains. Undeterred by the memory of that awful morning, when he saw the sun rising for the last time above the cities of the plain, and when he saw the smoke of the country arise like that of an enormous furnace, he approached the black tent where Hagar—whom Sarah had bestowed upon him—slept with his child in her bosom, and awaking her, he put a loaf of bread in her hand, hung a leathern bottle of water upon her shoulder, and told her to take up the child and go forth. And so she departed weeping, and in great grief. " She wandered for many days through the land of Edom, passing within sight of Mount Hor, where Aaron died, and those bare moun tains, under which our Santons say the river which watered the Garden of Paradise has hidden its current since the deluge; and further on—on—a mighty distance for one poor, weak woman to travel, through palm forests, over black rocks and burning sands, till she passed into Hejaz, the land of the pilgrimage, on the shores of the Red Sea, and there her miraculous bottle became exhausted; for the soil which belonged to the Jorhamites was without wells, and on HAGAK ANT) ISHMAEL. 97 every slcre or ner was sand only, where no blade of green grass grew, and nothing lived or moved but the vultures that hovered over her in mid air. " Above her head the sky was as blue as the ocean in winter; but to the west, where the flat desert stretched away towards the then nameless hills of that vast sea of sand which lies between the shores of Kolzom and the Persian Gulf, it was flushed with the red blaze of the sun that had set; and amid that blaze one lonely star was twinkling; but it brought no hope to the poor mother who was dying of want and of despair. A palm-tree stood between her and the evening sky; it was aged ana withered, and the white dust of the scorching day that was gone, lay upon its long and pendant leaves, which were drooping and unwaven, for there was not even a breath of wind to fan her wasted cheek. "And under that desolate tree, Hagar laid her little Ishmael down, and retiring from him about the distance of a bowshot, she covered her weeping face with her scanty raiment, and with her long black hair, saying,— " 'Let me not see the death of my child!' " "Then she lifted up her voice as all the mother gushed forth in her heart, and she wept bitterly. But at that moment, one of the good geni had pity upon her, and touching her gently, said,— " 'Weep not, 0 Hagar, for here is a well of water, which at this moment hath risen from the sand.' And he told her, in such words as I dare not repeat to the unbelieving, that the descendants of her little Ishmael would become a mighty people; that he would become a wild man and a strong warrior, with his sword and spear against every man, and every man's sword and spear against him. "So there Hagar dwelt in the desert of the Jorhamftes, and Ishmael took to wife an Egyptian girl, and they had twelve sons, all valiant princes, whose descendants became numerous as the shells on the shore of the Bed Sea; and there by the miraculous well, the blessed well of Zem-zem, so called from the soft murmur of its waters, he buried his mother when her time came, and there to this hour they show her grave, the grave of Hagar the poor bondwoman. Over that tomb and well Eather Abraham was commanded to build a temple in memory of Ishmael's miraculous preservation by the good geni; and so he raised the house of the Holy Kaaba, con- secrated to the Eather of all the Eaithful; and therein he placed'the balance stone, which came from heaven white as new milk; but since then, the sins of men have rendered it blacker than the rocks of Mount Horeb. "The twelve sons of Ishmael married the black eyed daughters of the Jorhamites, and in time became good Arabs; while there grew around the temple and the well, which still flows from its eastern side, a stately city which men called Mecca; and the land around it became fertile and plfasant; but the strong sons of Ishmael have still lived in the desert,, a race of wanderers and dwellers in tents, 98 frank hilton; or, "the queen's own." with all men's hands against them, and their hands raised against all mankind, for snch was the prophecy that was made of old, and such is the law of fate; and in that spirit the Emir Mohamed al Raschid and his Abdali will die rather than submit to the Queen of the Earingis; but let those fight and fall who may; a time is coming, Nakib, when, in fulfilment of the prophecy which was made to our fathers, the tribes of Ishmaelwill conquer and exult before Him who hath heard me this night!" And bowing his haughty head with a profound salaam as he con- eluded, the young merchant took up his sword and withdrew from the bungalow. " Well," said Dreghorn, "what think you of this long yam? It sounded mighty like a sermon." " I like the way he told it," I replied: " yet it is quite at variance with Scripture, the last part especially; but I thought it better not to make comments." "You were quite right; they are such slippery villains these Arabs, that he would have thought no more of putting his jambea into you, than I do of tossing off this glass of claret. But after I get the rest of our twenty-four and thirty-two pounders mounted on the fieldworks, neither Hagar nor Ishmael, nor all them rascally brood, will make much of us here in Aden! But there goes the drum for mess." CHAPTER XXI. ytjssee the merchant. A few days after our landing, the Rifles embarked in the Candahar for Bombay. We gave them a parting salute from Steamer Point, as the old ship, every corner of which we knew so well, cleft the clear waters ot the gulf, and, favoured by a land breeze, bore away under a press to sail towards the Indian Ocean. After this, the whole force in Aden consisted of our regiment, a battalion o! Bombay Native Infantry, two companies of artillery, a few sappers and the police of the place; one Jemidhar, one Duffidhar, anc. thirty-three Peons, an Indian word for foot soldier, though the nana is originally derived from a class of vagabonds who were wont to visit the Spanish islands, and engage in every disorder that afforded & prospect of plunder. O'Hara, our lieutenant-colonel, being the senior officer, com? manded the whole garrison. We had re-established our mess in a comfortable and commodious house; there was no sickness, for this was the cool season; supplies of fresh provisions, grain, vegetables, poultry, &c., were brought through the Turkish wall on the backs of camels; we had Aden cows from the neighbourhood, and from Barbura, an African town in the Somanli territory, a constant YUSSEF THE MERCHANT. 99 supply of sheep of the heavy-tailed species. The colony was evidently thriving, for in consequence of the provisions required by the garrison, by the inhabitants, and by the overland steamers, there were not less than two hundred laden camels entered Aden daily. Yussef the merchant supplied us with coffee, and came and went at all times between the garrison and interior, having a written pass signed by O'Hara, ana a firman under the seal of the despot of Sana, procured by the interest of his friend the chief strangler, Booli Baba. The constant rumours of the great preparations making against us by the warlike young emir of the Abdali, at the instigation of his sovereign, the cruel and treacherous Solyman, caused O'Hara to keep strong guards, and restrain Langley, De Lancy, and others, from wandering beyond the lines to shoot the small hyaenas and beautiful foxes, with which the place abounds. Moonlight rambles in the little town were also forbidden, for the women hated us as much as the men- the bazaars were full of peril, and if one spoke to a female, a poniard was displayed before the words' had well left one's lips. This state of matters, together with the warning given by the rig Mocha merchant to Major Dreghorn, made that officer and gunners work indefatigably in repairing the old Turkish wall; in having the square towers and arrow holes, built by the Sultan Selim, put in service order, and having cannon mounted on the eminence of Dhurub-el-Hosh, and every other available place, that would enable us to sweep the narrow neck of land which unites Aden to the coast. This was formed only by a concretion of shells thrown on a ledge of rocks by the tides of the eastern and western bays, which met at the back of what had been an island, and united with the debris swept down by mountain torrents in the rainy season. But Yussef, who said he knew the, emir well, smiled at ail our preparations, which he predicted would be futile, and almost lost his temper when I asserted that, under our flag, Aden might become what it was of old, before its destruction by the Emperor Claudius—the centre of traffic between India and the lied Sea. "No, no," said he; "Aden belonged to Ishmael, and his sons must have it or perish!" This handsome and intelligent young dealer in Mocha interested me extremely. He often came to my bungalow and smoked a pipe, or partook of his own coffee; but I never could get him to enter the quarters of any other officer, or come to our mess, thuugh repeatedly invited. Neither would he break bread or drink water with any other man in Aden; for I had won his regard by mv knowledge of his native language, and the trifling admission that I had rend the Koran, which I perused pretty much as I had done the " Thousand and One Nights." A week after our arrival, the first steamer from Bombay arrived with the mails for Britain, and, I believe, every officer except myself 100 FRANK HILTON; OR, ftTIl£ QUEEN'S OWN.** had some dear friend at home, to whom he sent with her tidings of our prosperous voyage and safe arrival in Arabia Felix; but I had none to address, unless it had been my good old friend the dominie of Aikendean, whose kind heart, I have no doubt, a letter from me would have gladdened. But I thought not of him then, for I had other and dearer interests ; and after questioning the captain of the steamer repeatedly, as to whether there was any intelligence of the Farnham Castle, and what might be the chances of her safety, I gathered little hope from his replies, though I trusted that some pleasant tidings might come by the next steamer. But week sue- ceeded week, and month succeeded month, till I grew weary and sick of inquiry, for noticing whatever had been heard of the missing ship after the time of her touching at the Cape. The insurance had been paid on her cargo, and there was no doubt that she must have founder ed in the Indian Sea, and that my poor Cecil and her sorrows were buried together in the deep ! Grief and suspense hung over me like a cloud of evil, saddening and embittering the first months of my service at Aden; and though I strove to thrust the incubus from my heart by attending energeti- cally to the arduous duties of that solitary garrison, the gnawing thoughts would still return, and it was long before the bitterness of unavailing regret began to subside, and time brought with it some- thing of content and calm. But I am anticipating. I hired a native servant named Jaffer, between whom and Buff there were continual brawls and quarrels; for he was a strange fellow, who took sullen fits, and when desired to saddle a horse or pipeclay a belt, would mutter under his beard, " Allah! to-day I obey, but to-morrow I may command thee!" This man afterwards proved to be a professional assassin, and staunch follower of the emir. One day I was subaltern of the guard which .finished the senti- nels for the Turkish wall—an ancient rampart, built of large flat stones, strengthened at intervals by towers having numerous loop- holes, and cemented with chalk and fine gravel instead of lime. Humours being still current of an expected rising among the Abdali, and of Arab horsemen hovering near us, O'Hara had increased the number of sentinels towards the mainland; and all the officers carried pistols or revolvers in their sashes. We had only been in Aden a fortnight, when three of our men were found killed, with their heads cut completely off, apparently by one slash of the Arabian >ambea, or crooked dagger; and as I had to visit my sentinels, for one of my periodical rounds I chose the hour before sunrise, which is always so pleasant in the East, especially for a ride or ramble. The dew, which falls so heavily at Aden, was lying on the ground like newly fallen rain, refreshing those pretty flowers which grow in the crannies of the lava, especially in the cold season. The smart little monkeys were 'eaping from rock to roek - and under that ciear VUSSEF THE MERCHANT. 101 blue sky the beautiful bay was like one bright mirror, which reflects only the purity of another, save where the gigantic crest of Serah threw its long black shadow between the yellow sands. As 1 approached the post of the most advanced of our sentinels—a stone tower, on a pinnacle of the cliffs, near which an enormous old brass gun, covered with Turkish letters, lay half-sunk in the turf—I saw "Cwo Arabs conversing together, far down in the hollow beneath me; and there was something so picturesque and striking in their aspect, that I paused for a moment to observe them. One of them, by his scarlet turban, rich vest, and sword, I thought was Yussef, the hand- iome merchant; but the other, unlike the indolent Arabs of Aden, who do little else than bask half-nude in the sunshine, smeared with oil as a protection against its heat, smoking hemp-seed, living on oysters, the dregs of coffee, and the charity of the British and Simalees, was a true sou of Ishmael. A turban of spotless white encircled his head, and contrasted with the darkness of his sunburned visage; a blue garment, like a large shirt, with the loose sleeves tied behind him, and a scarlet sash, were the principal parts of his attire, for his nut-brown legs were bare, and his sandalled feet were in his wooden stirrups. A sheepskin pelisse dangled from his shoulder by a cord; he sat on a magnificent horse, with limbs as slender as a young girl's arm; a sabre hung at his saddlebow, a long gun was slung at his back, and a tall, reedy lance, with a tassel under its steel head, was in his right hand, and its bright point glittered like a star in the gleam of the rising sun. They were hi earnest conversation, and I saw the horseman receive from the other a paper, which he kissed, and placed carefully in the folds of his turban. The place of their meeting was a secluded hollow, a chasm among the rocks, forming a long vista, the end of which terminated in the open country, andfar beyond those fortifications. which Selim built for four miles along the mountain ridges. In all this there was an air of secrecy which I did not like, and I was abov'^ to halloo to Yussef when his companion detected me. His first inr pulse was to unsling his long musket, his second, to relinquish it, and dash spurs into his horse, which shot away like the wind, striking fire from the rocks with its hoofs, and both steed and rider vanished from the ravine, almost as speedily as the sparks. When I turned to look for his companion, I could see nothing of him—he had dis- appeared. Many vague suspicions now occurred to me; and though I was not certain that the Arab in the red turban was my friend Yussef, yet 1 resolved to see him without delay. I now missed my sentinel, whose duty it was to have prevented any such meetings .lear his post. I quickened my pace, and on drawing near the •$ntry-box, saw the poor soldier, muffled in his grey greatcoat, lying in his back, half in, and half o-ut of it, quite dead, for his head was completely severed from his body, and lay beside his shako, about a yard from him. The cat-like assassin had stolen upon him in the dark, and the thick folds of the coat and leather stock had alike 102 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." failed as a protection against the slash of the deadly jamb eat The floor of the box was flooded with blood, some of which had trickled among the sand and ashes which form the soil of Aden. This' was the fourth assassination which had occurred, and it made us regard our Arabian neighbours with feelings of a very dubious nature. Though I had heard much of their treachery, I felt an emotion of disappointment and regret, that one who had prepossessed me so much as Yussef should prove a party in this affair. When hastening back to the guardhouse, by the nearest way, I was met by Yussef himself! He approached me with a smiling and unconcerned face, and I observed that he had a jambea in his sash, but that his turban was blue, and his attire was otherwise quite different from that of the Arab I had seen half-an-hour before. He wore a loose white shirt, over drawers of yellow cotton; a vest of yellow silk, with sleeves cut straight, the whole covered by an ample surcoat of pala blue cloth. The ends of his turban were fringed with silver, and hung down his back; a girdle of gold cloth sustained his dagger, and from its crooked ivory hilt hung a chaplet of those amber beads which the Mohamedans use in prayer. "Peace be with you!" said he, greeting me in his usual manner, with a profound salutation, and expressed much astonishment and indignation at the murder of my poor sentinel; but he only smiled scornfully when O'Plannigan, who was captain of the guard, burst into a fit of rage, like a hot-headed Irishman, and swore at the Arabs as a race of cowardly Thugs and assassins. " The nakib is rather hasty," he said, quietly, to me, as O'Flan- nigan despatched the corporal with a party of the guard to post another sentinel and bring in the dead man's body; " but the main man was only a private soldier, and they die easily, especially by the sword. And what said the Prophet ? The sword is alike the key to heaven and to hell." "Oh, d—n your prophet," said O'Plannigan, buckling on his sword; "he seems to have some thriving followers." The glittering eyes of Yussef flashed with fire, and he laid a hand on the hilt of his jambea—one of those crooked daggers which are made in Hadramaut. " Just keep your hand off that, if you please, for my temper is maybe as short as your own," said O'Plannigan. "I was wrong, perhaps, to swear at your religion, for I do not think that any creed inculcates evil." "But the recorded blasphemy will one day appear against you in letters of fire," replied Yussef, sullenly. " Maybe it will, and maybe it wont," replied 0'Flannigan, in his off-hand way; " and, by the powers, I'll tell you why. I once had an uncle who commanded a regiment of cut-throats, in the service of the sultan; and in the war against Russia, he sent so many hampers ol pickled heads to Constantinople, that, in return, he was presented TTTSSEF THE MERCHANT. W3 ■with two beautiful Circassian damsels, and thus he was—as he wrote home to his mother, in Kerry—created a pacha of two tails, with two wives, the equal of whom s'»-~ would not find in Tralee, Tyrone, nor Tipperary; and he turned Mussulman in a minute, for he was an old rapparee. So, Yussef, if I give 'the Queen's Own' the slip here, and go the wrong way, maybe I'll find a friend at court—do you perceive ?" This was somewhat unintelligible to Yussef, who could only under- stand that O'Flannigan's uncle had been an Aga of Janissaries, and a true believer, which increased his estimation of the nephew. In the forenoon of this day, after the guards were relieved, Lang- ley, Montague, and a number of ours, were sitting in the smoking- room of the Parsee's bungalow, listening to the accounts he gave us. of the atrocities of the Abdali, when Yussef came noiselessly among us, spread a carpet near the sofa on which I was reclining in my white-duck undress, lighted his pipe, and listened in'silence, but with an inflamed cheek and a sparkling eye. Whatever the Parsee said was corroborated by the Jemidhar or black Lieutenant of the Peons, who chanced to be present; and tales of murder, robbery, cruelty, and abduction, each more revolting than the last, followed each other in rapid succession. " What say you to all this ?" some one asked of Yussef. "Merely that they are liars and dogs," he replied in his calm, de- liberate way. " The Peon is a pagan, and the Parsee a hypocrite, though he pretends to be a devout Mussulman, and I wish he would repay the 4000 rupees he owes me. Once in three years he goes regularly a haji to the Holy City, and acting as guide or delil to'some substantial widow, passes in ease and comfort through the long, sandy deserts of the sacred territory; then, after transacting (in lieu of praying) a little profitable business with the coffee-dealers and date-merchants of Mecca, he is regularly divorced by his companion, and pockets his fee; for these delils are only temporary husbands, whose services end with the pilgrimage." "I should like a little trip of that kind," said O'Flannigan. "Do you know of any nice widow hereabout in want of a gentleman usher , lor Mecca?" The Arab, who had not any idea of jesting, gave a cold smile, and said, gravely,— " If you embrace Islam, and submit to the necessary process, it might be done—we shall see about it. But you would make the most strange of hajis, I fear me." "I am very sorry you have to sit here, while your countrymen are so much abused," said I; " shall I desire the old Parsee to stop ?" _ "Let the black dog bark, if it pleases him—he is old. If it annoyed me, I would take mv coffee and my pipe elsewhere; but I shall punish that pitiful Jemidhar of your Peons, ere long." "Axe you an Arab of Yemen?" asked Langley, who had been observing the handsome young man with no small interest. 104 IBANK HILTON; OK, " THE Q'JEEN's OlfN." "I un" said he, proudly, "al Arab el Araba—an Arab of the Arabs! Do not judge of us by those dogs and sons of dogs here in Aden and around it, who serve the Earingis for rice and rupees. A little time, and you shall see the bright spears and the white turbans of the Emir Mohamed at your gates !" he continued, for the first time becoming excited, and sliding from broken English into fluent Arabic. "A storm is gathering in the deserts! The hundred free sheikhs of Sabber will come with all their lances; the tribes will gather from the green coffee mountains of Yemen—from the greener plains of Tehama, and the yellow sands of Hejaz. They will come upon you like the cloud of descending night—like the whirling dust ol the desert, before which strong horsemen bow their lieads or die! And on that night, when the tecbir of the Arab rings by the Turkish wall, it will be well for the pale Franks if, like the wicked tribe of Ad, they could lose the form of man! But, first, I must speak with yonder black liar," he added, following the Jemidhar, who had become, perhaps, alarmed by this angry outburst of the usually placid Arab, and had quietly slunk out of the bungalow. Yussef bounded after him, in has haste overturning one of the Parsee's servants, an abominable Chinaman, who was skinning, and otherwise preparing for his own repast, a dead cat, which had been thrown out of one of the barrack-rooms. " Come, gentlemen, out with your books," said De Lancy, knock- ing the ashes from his cigar; " we must have a regular set-to between the blackie and the darkie, both stripped to the waist." " But what happened to the wicked tribe of King Ad ?" asked I, filling up a sparlding glass of pale India ale, of which we drank enormous quantities. " Ad," said the Parsee, " was king ob Aden in time ob old; his tribe were idolaters—bad—very bad, and for their wickedness turned into dose monkeys dat skip from rock to rock—dat it, sahib." " What a fine specimen of an Oriental that fiery young Arab is," said Montague. " I have asked him to our mess a dozen of times," said I, " but he invariably declines." " You know de reason why, sahib ?" asked the Parsee, leering through his almond-shaped eyes. "No—not I." "Because, if he eats with you, or touches salt beside any of you, he will not be able to kill you with a clear conscience—dat it, sahib." " Oho." "Me warrant you, sahib, he know better how to handle de spear and mace, dan tell how dates sell at Mecca, or coffee at Medina; and de price of sabre at Damascus better dan bottles of Etejaz •'"Dffee, vit fourteen cup to de bottle. Booh!" he added, dancing with terror, " vat be dat, sahib ?" At that moment we heard a loud cry, followed by the clash of YUSSEE THE MERCHANT- 106 sabres, and on hurrying out of the bungalow, found that the young merchant, after upbraiding the Jemidhar, had smote him on the beard, and drawn fas jambea to defend himself, for the police officer bad immediately unsheathed his own sword, and, aided by three of his armed Peons, who were passing, assailed the brave coffee dealer. The latter defended himself with great resolution, receiving their cuts on the crooked blade of his long dagger or short sabre, for the jambea is a compound of both these weapons. Being tripped up from behind and hurled to the earth, his weapon broke just as we came out of Kufa's bungalow, and four sabres were flourished above him at once. Already the black hand of the furious Jemidhar, his heart boiling with such rage as Indians only feel, was tearing off the turban of the fallen man that he might have one fair slash at his naked throat, when I grasped his uplifted arm, drove away the Peons, and raised my Arab friend. He was panting with passion; his black eyes shone hke two red coals, his sunburned cheek glowed with mantling blood; but the fierce mental tumult soon subsided, as he adjusted the muslin of his turban and smoothed his black moustaches. He still gazed, however, with wild but sub- lued wrath at the four Indians, who leaned on their sabres, and stood a little in the background. " Go, go," said he, with inexpressible dignity and pride, "a time is coming when Yussef may repay this insolence. Hearken, Jemidliar: thou seest this piece of wood," he cried, snatching up a branch of a withered mhnosa tree; "by God, and by the life of Him who withered up this piece of wood, I will never forget the insult of to-day; and, by the same oath," he added, turning to me, and grasp- ing both my hands in his, " I swear, that were I to live beyond the years of Lokman, yea, longer than the lives of seven eagles, I will never forget that you have been my friend and preserver." The black visage of the Jemidar grew almost sky-blue on hearing the oath of the Arab, for it is the most sacred and terrible sworn by a people who seldom swear, and never take the name of the Creator in vain. I desired him to retire and leave the merchant in peace; and in one hour after, though the atmosphere was oppres- sively close and sultry, I saw Yussef leave Aden ffiy the passage in the Turkish wall, and many weeks elapsed before he appeared among us again. Next morning the body of the Jemidhar, minus the head and left hand, and with a slash across the stomach, the invariable finishing cut of an Arab jambea, was found by the patrol, not three yards from the door of his own bungalow; and on remembering his quarrel with Yussef, I began to have again some very unpleasant suspicious concerning that person's character; but these were removed when* after a diligent inquiry made by O'Hara, we proved, on examining our chain of sentinels, that after passing through the barriers on his camel, the young coffee-dealer had not again been seen, consequently we had only to look among the indolent Arabs of the town for the 106 FRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN.1' author of those barbarous assassinations, the frequency of -which were enough to make us suppose we had got into the territories of the Old Man of the Mountain. And our sentinels were now ordered to shoot dead every one who approached their posts at night with- out answering their challenge in our own language. Next day the steamer from Suez brought the mails for India, and O'Hara and Major Dreghorn received orders to spare no pains in having Aden put in an efficient state of defence, especially towards the land side, as Mohamed, the daring emir of the Abdali, through the agency of a wandering santon, named Noor-ad-Deen, or Noureddin, was endeavouring to unite the sultans of Sana, Shugra, and Lahadj against us, and was striving to include in the league the sheikhs of aD. the Arab tribes; and that so unremitting was he in activity 'and hostility to the Franks, that he had been applying to the Pacha of Egypt, to the Schah of Persia, and to his people (the Dogs of Omar), and even to the distant Afghans, for his policy, cunning, and bravery were without a parallel in these cold modern times. These orders, together with intelligence brought in by the camel- drivers and others, who conveyed provisions to us through the Turkish wall, made Colonel O'Hara strengthen our guards and out- lying and inlying pickets; the officers had their swords sharpened, and they practised daily with pistols and revolvers; the regiments received a full supply of sixty rounds of ball-cartridge per man; and the camion on the various batteries, especially those in the neigh- bourhood of Dhurub-el-Hosh, were kept in service order. For Arab horsemen fully accoutred, some of them from the distant hills, as we might know by the ancient fashion of their steel caps, shirts of mail, and bamboo lances; others with the wide sleeves of their white overshirts tied behind (an infallible sign of coming strife), had been seen gal- loping singly from village to village on the plains of Beitel-Fakih, and a whole cloud of horsemen, with spears and turbans and a red banner displayed, had passed through a gorge of the Coffee moun- tains near the ancient ruins of Dhafar. Though we remained day and night in a state of suspense, the excitement occasioned by the expected attack was something new and pleasant after the monotony of our long sea-voyage, and the un- broken current of the sunny weeks we had spent since our landing. A considerable time passed away, and we heard nothing of the Emir and his Arabs; we drank our claret in peace, and all our care ended in the smoke of cheroots—but the time was coming! CHAPTER XXIL THE TECBIR! One dusky and cloudy night, in the middle of November, about an hour after our drummers had beaten tattoo, several of us were in the colonel's bungalow; we had a good supply of claret and cigars, THE TECBIB. 107 and having adjourned there from the mess-room were very merry, and amid the lively conversation of my brother officers, I strove to drown the thoughts of other times, and the certainty that two steamers from Bombay had now passed up the Red Sea, without having heard aught of the missing Indiaman; honest Poplcins was just screwing up his flute, at O'Plannigan's quizzical suggestion, to favour us with something of his own composition, when the distant report of a musket, ringing among the mountain peaks, arrested him, and we all started, and looked at each other's faces inquiringly. O'Plannigan paused in the act of lighting his cigar; De Lancy closed an old number of a sporting journal; Poplcins tarried in screwing his flute, the colonel in cutting a pine-apple, and liis ser- vant in drawing a cork. Another shot, another, and another followed! We all rushed out, and each hurried to his quarters for his sword and pistols. Then we heard the voices of O'Hara, of Bently the adjutant, and the Sergeant-major Allan; the drum beating the long roll, and a bugle sounding the "turn out" double quick! while " The Arabs! the Arabs!" went from mouth to mouth in English or the guttural Hindostanee of the Bombay infantry. The two regiments, the Artillery and the small party of Sappers, stood to their arms, and as the dew was falling thick as rain, the soldiers had on their great coats, with pouches and belts above; but this was no advantage, for such was the heat of the atmosphere, even then, in the month of November, that they felt as if in a vapour bath. The officer in command of the out-pickets (which had fallen back) now reported, that, so far as he could judge, the place was assailed by not less than five thousand Arabs. As these Mussulmans have no shipping or boats in the neighbourhood of Aden, and the sea around it swarms with sharks, O'Hara looked mainly to the defence of the isthmus, which is about thirteen hundred feet broad, and across which he had thrown up a fieldwork, or redoubt, with a few light guns, opposite the only approaches. A wing of the regiment under the major and O'Plannigan hurried to defend this narrow and important passage, the only mode of access from the mainland. All the rocks, angles, and points, which led to it, were manned by musketry, while Hreghorn's field-pieces, loaded with grape and cannister, were prepared to sweep the whole neck of land from bay to bay. With a subdivision of my company, I was stationed in a species of crow's-nest, formed of turf, on the pinnacle of a lofty basaltic rock, and as the dim crescent moon shone afar off through the silvery haze that rose from the hollows, I could see distinctly the splintered neaks that started up abruptly from the sea beneath, and the level sands with rough masses of rock jutting amid them, and round these the dark Arabs, clad only in their snow-white turbans and cummer- Sands, stealing in small parties of two and three; or, despite th6 108 FRANK lllLTOft ; UK, "THE QUEEN*S OWN." sharks' teeth, the pointed muskets, and threatening bayonets, swim« ing like madmen against a strong current, each with his brass pistols in his turban, and his jambea or cimitar hi his teeth, while a dense body of horsemen, with brandished spears, hovered on the mainland, and by the Turkish wall, joining their shrill unearthly yells with those of their comrades, who strove to reach and storm our batteries by close conflict. A fire of grape, canister, and musketry was immediately opened upon them in every direction; those in the water ducked and dived like seals to avoid the showers of lead and iron that lashed the ocean into foam or made it start aloft into spouts and columns from its bed of shell and coral. Drenched, and all but breathless, they rushed up the slopes of the fieldwork, and when facing the flaming muzzles of our cannon, were thrust back by the levelled bayonet, or beaten down by the clubbed musket; in hundreds they continued to swarm through the water, up the glacis and the rocks, from which we securely shot them down and hurled them into the seething waves below. The rattle of the musketry, the cracking of Minie rifles from our Light company, and the deep hoarse boom of the cannon, especially from the high battery on Dhurub-el-Hosh, from whence the shot came whistling over our heads every moment, mmgled with the shouts, wild cries, and dying yells of the frantic Arabs, were repeated with a thousand reverberations by the innumerable caverns of the shore, by the splintered pinnacles of Aden, and the hollow crater ill which the village that represents that ancient city, lies cradled in ashes and the ruins of itself. Incited by religious fury and native ferocity, drugged with opium till all sense of danger was lost, and blinded by desire for vengeance if victorious, and their hopes of Paradise if slain, they continued to pour up the glacis of the redoubt, climbing over piles of their own killed and wounded, and throwing themselves like tigers in the smoke, mist, and moonlight against our bayonets—grasping blade or muzzle with one hand while hewing or stabbing with the other—or firing and flinging their pistols right into the faces and breasts of our soldiers, many of whom were killed or severely wounded, shot, bitten, and even strangled; but all the Arabs who thus forced a passage into the place were bayonetted or brained by our rear rank men. The silence, coolness, and steadiness with which the right wing of lt the Queen's Own" stood shoulder to shoulder and poured their running fire over the embankment, formed a strong contrast to the gelling, the energy, the fury, and scrambling of the turbanned hordes, whose shouts of "Death to the Faringis!" were incessant; "Al- fcamlah! aihamlah (Fight! fight) ! Alijannah ! Alijannah (Paradise! Paradise /)" Such were the cries by which they animated each other, while shrill beyond all others rose the incessant Tecbir— "Allah Ackbar!" "Load the four centre guns with cartridge shot, for the darkies Tflfi TBCBiJK. 109 are coming down by the Turkish wall," cried Major Dreghorn, who had hurried breathlessly from Dhurub-el-Hosh; "look sharp there, bombardiers, or they will spear you at your guns." At that moment the haze cleared a little; the moon shone out more brightly, and I saw the cloud of white-robed horsemen defiling through a gap in the ruined rampart of Selim, and descending the steep lava rocks from thence with miraculous precision and head- long speed. They were led by the Emir of Abdali—Mohamed al Raschid, or, The Just—as we knew by the little red banner which one of them bore on his spear; and nothing could be more pictu- resque or gallant than the appearance of this Arab chief, as his fleet horse glided like a shadow towards the scene of strife; his steel cap, with a tippet or flap of mail hanging over his neck, and a bird of Paradise plume floating above it; his mail shirt of fine iron rings, that glittered like frost on moonlit leaves, and his brandished lance with a tuft of ostrich feathers 'around its steel point, and a light round shield on his bridle arm. Accoutred thus, he led on his troop of not less than a thousand horsemen, who spurred in a wild and ' confused mob against the glacis of the redoubt. The voice of the emir was rich and harmonious, and it ascended at times to the cliff where I was posted; and twice I heard him cry, in the purest Arabic— " Porward! let us cut a path to Paradise through these red Faringis ! let us overthrow and hurl them from Aden, even as All threw the idols of Khozaites from the summit of the Kaaba!" " Alliamlah! alhamlah 1" yelled the white-turbaned horde, as with all their snOrting horses and flashing spears, they essayed what none but Arabs would attempt against a rampart. Like a river that has burst its banks, they rushed with fearless audacity up the glacis, and boldly and frantically, but fruitlessly, strove to reach its summit, and slay us at our cannon, by thrusting their long spears over the parapet, or through the wide splays of the embrasures; and in this attempt their half-naked foot soldiers were all mingling with them. For a moment there was a terrible struggle, and our hearts beat quick, for if O'Flannigan's men gave way, nothing but the most barbarous extermination awaited us; but the shower from the four field pieces, loaded with musket shot, when aided by the manner in which my subdivision from the crow's nest enfiladed the Arabs by a sweeping flank fire, completely routed them, though the emir made the most desperate attempts to leap his horse over the breastwork, and, after exchanging several blows with Major Dreghorn, at whom he seemed to have a special animosity, was forced to retire, when his men fled with the utmost precipitation, leaving the narrow path to the Turkish wall, and the reedy salt marsh which lies on the landward side of the peninsula, strewn with dead and dying men and horses, and with lances, bucklers, pistols, and sabres; while the water around us was covered with the corpses of those who were shot, u 110 FRANK. HILTON; OR, **THE QUEEN'S OWN." drowned, or bitten by sharks, when falling wounded from the rocks. In this encounter,_ Major Dregborn disdained tbe ordinary regulation sword, and bad wielded a ponderous handspike. We had not an officer hit in the body; O'Hara had the pompon of his shako shred away by a sabre; Captain Maule had a lance run through his coat, and Langley's sword-hilt was broken by a pistol shot; but we had twelve privates and eight sepoys killed, and about thrice that number wounded, while not less than four hundred Arabs were left behind, killed and wounded, in the course of an hour's conflict, during which many must have been hit who escaped. We hailed the daylight with joy, for we were drenched with perspiration, and the demand for fluids—water, sherry, claret, and pale Bass—would have made one suppose we had been swallowing fire. Aware that it would not be at all conducive to our health to leave the dead Arabs and their horses to swelter under a noonday sun, exposed to the reflected heat which is thrown from the surrounding rocks, and renders the temperature there so much freater than the thermometer usually indicates, we buried a number efore sunrise in a deep chasm, which tradition averred to have been made in the Turkish war, by an emir of the Abdali, by one blow of his cimitar, when hewing down a gigantic aga, through "whom the blade passed and split the rocks below! It was near the sea, and there we covered them up with loads of lava, earth, and rubbish. As for their comrades who floated in the bay, the sharks so soon disposed of them, that before next morning not a vestige of one was visible. The wounded Arabs, of whom Dr. Splint and our surgeons took every care, seemed in no way grateful for their attention, but repeatedly mocked and spat at them, and tore off their dressings, as they- wished to die and reach that promised Paradise of the brave Moslem, from which such benighted pagans as "the Queen's Own" regiment of infantry were totally excluded. " Our lives are in the hands of Allah!" they exclaimed; " with Him we trust them rather than with the Pranks." After this night we had no more alertes from the Abdali for a considerable time; but as we knew that their daring emir, who was intriguing with the sultan of Jaffa, Sheik Ibrahim, and other powerful leaders, would never rest, O'Hara and Major Dregliom left nothing undone to render Aden as strong as possible by sea and land, and many new defences were projected. Among these were a strong wall flanked by piers of obstruction, running into deep water; the erection of batteries on the coal depot at Flint Island, and also on the rocky isle of Serah, to protect the eastern bay, and gunboats to defend the west; for all of which a larger sum of money was required than our parsimonious government at home were willing to spend. Incited by the example of O'Hara, we worked at these new tortincations with great ardour, for his personal activity was remark- the emiel 311 able. An hour before daylight every morning he paraded the working parties, and went from point to point of the works, remaining mounted sometimes for four hours; all the labour was conducted under his own eye, and he added many valuable suggestions to that able plan which was drawn up for the defence of Aden by Lieutenant S , a talented officer of the Royal Artillery. CHAPTER XXIII. THE EMIR. In these events I found a species of relief from the bitter thoughts which had so long haunted me, for my mind had always reverted painfully to the most minute items of my last meeting with Cecil—• the place and her words—the time and her features; and then, the piece of silent wreck-wood that lay floating on that sunny eastern sea. To punish the Abdali for their attack, two companies of ours, with a fieldpiece, the whole commanded by Major Dreghorn, K.H., of the Royal Artillery, passed out of Aden next day, to burn some of their wretched villages and destroy their growing crops of wheat and barley, which are generally sown in October, and reaped by the roots in April. It was my fortune to form one of this party, which was in light marching order, with shell jackets and forage-caps; we filed through the Turkish wall, passed the salt marsh, ana entered the open country an hour before daylight, on the second morning after the night attack. When dressing for this duty, I missed my native servant, Jaffer, and was not without suspicions that the fellow might have left the garrison to warn the Arabs of our foray; and this ultimately proved to be the case, for he avoided our sentinels by daringly swimming to the nearest landing place, and rousing the country people, as we afterwards learned. We marched in the direction of Abiin, keeping somewhat inland, with the fieldpiece in our centre. The country seemed to be totally deserted, and after proceeding about ten miles, and burning a few Arab houses of canes and reeds, and setting a match to the ripening crops of rice and maize, so that the fields were soon sheeted with a flame that rolled before the wind, and scathed them to blackened stubble, we halted, and prepared to retrace our steps, thinking that we had done mischief enough among the poor Yemenees for one morning. Dreghorn gave the command to wheel about, and we retired in the same order, with the fieldpiece and its tumbril in the centre. Langley had command of the advanced guard, consisting of twelve privates, and when we entered a defile, where the withered sugar* 112 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." canes and the wild date-trees grew thickly on the sloping banks, he suddenly heard the sound of a timbrel, and the notes of this gaspah, or reed flute, used by the Arabs, on which he halted; then, observing the head of a spear to glitter above the cane tufts, he desired a soldier to discharge his musket in that direction, and a cry arose of " the darkies ! the darkies are on us !" In a moment we saw a red flag with a golden crescent, and the heads of a host of spears, all tasselled with silk or tufted with feathers, flashing among the trees, while the wild shrill tecbit reverberated from side to side in the hollow pass. " Allah ackbar! Allah ackbar! Alhamlah!" Langley, with his little party, had barely time to reach the main body, when not less than a thousand furious Arabs rushed upon both our flanks at the full speed of their swift and nobly trained horses. Most of our assailants were sons of the desert, sinewy, and dark- eyed; fiery in spirit and resolute in aspect, and all clad in white or blue shirts, with their breasts bare. They were armed with lances twelve feet long, or iron maces with wooden handles; all had round targets of wild bulls hide, crossed by bars of iron, with pistols at their saddles and swords at their girdles. " Square against cavalry!" cried Major Dreghorn; "form square, my brave lads, as you best may, and down with this Arabian Bcum!" The two companies speedily threw themselves into a kind of hollow square, and opened a sharp fire on the Arabs, many of whom were tumbled from their saddles, while the rest were swept up the hill-side, 011 which we got into motion again, and continued to retreat in square as fast as the rugged nature of the ground and our awkward formation would permit; but again and again the wild Yemenees rushed upon us with their light lances, right up to our flashing muzzles, and many a severe thrust was given and deadly shot returned. "Shoot that rascal in the steel jacket!" cried Dreghorn, who towered in his stirrups above us all. " Down with him. He is the Emir Mohamed!" Through gaps in the smoke I could see this dashing warrior leading on his horsemen, lance in hand, with his burnished shirt of mail, his steel cap inlaid with rich Damascene work, surmounted by a plume, and encircled by a roll of muslin; his black waving beard, his dark eyes full of fire, and with his proud horse arching its beautiful head lower than the silver buckler which shone oiT the rider's arm. Eour or five times he dashed furiously at us, but was always driven back, and nearly unhorsed, and as our men always fired at him with their bayonets fixed, never a ball went near him, until private Philip Massenger, of my Company, shattered his lance to pieces, on which he drew his sword, and crying, " Alijannah! alijannah! death to the Paringis !" rode again up to our vei;y muzzles, THE EMIR. and tried to hew the strong steel bayonets off the musket- barrels The perspiration rose like hazy steam from our men, who had all relinquished their leather stocks, and opened their jackets fo* greater freedom. An old Arab, with a beard as white as his turban, rode constantly by Mohamed's side, and vied with him in his efforts to break our brave little square. " Frank," said Langley, " 'pon my soul, I should know the face of that old chowderhead with the beard!" " So should I, and may I be shot," I exclaimed, " if he is not Jaffer, my servant! the scoundrel—the spy, he has informed the Abdali of our march, and hence this ambusn in the pass !" "Lend me your musket, Massinger," said Langley, taking the weapon from the soldier the moment he had rammed a cartridge down; "I should like to have a pop at that fellow." Fred took a deliberate aim—fired, and I saw the wliite turban sink and vanish in the crowd; but whether it was the horse or man, or both, that had fallen I knew not. However, his fate seemed to excite the emir anew, for we again saw the gleam of his sword as it rasped along our ridge of steel, and heard his voice close to our ranks. "Bismillah!" I could hear him crying, "forty cotton turbans have been this day exchanged for crowns of glory in Paradise! forty leather saddles for the laps of the houris! On—on, for the sword is the key of heaven, and battle the path to it! Kill—kill! Alhamlah!" Fired by his words and example, the Arab horsemen rushed again to meet the death and havoc they coveted, and as their bravery exceeded all rational valour, they actually forced the front face of our retreating square, and a terrible smashing with clubbed muskets ensued. Several of our soldiers were speared and trodden under hoof and heel; the gunners stood upon their now useless cannon, and hewed at the Arabs with their sabres, shredding off the heads of their lances, or wrenching them from their grasp by main strength of arm. " Keep together, my lads—together for your lives!" cried Dreg- norn, whose blue artillery uniform made him conspicuous among our red coats; " I have not the honour to belong to you, but I have the honour to command you. Keep shoulder to shoulder, and show that you are men of ' the Queen's Own!' " Finding the square almost broken, the brave Dreghom, in great fury, spurred his horse right against the emir, and a gallant hand tc hand combat ensued between them. The Arab was active as a lynx, and an able swordsman; the Scot was not less so, but he had neither the advantage of a shield nor a well-trained horse; thus the emir, with keen fiery eyes, and a Damascus blade edged like a razor, rode warily three times round liirn. As I had more than enough to do in defending myself, and keeping the Arabs from breaking quite into the heart of us and slaying the gunners, I could only obtain at times 9 114 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE qCEEN's OWN." glimpse of poor Dreghorn, as he was driven several yards off among the sugar canes; but animated by something of the old Arab chivalry, no other lance or sabre gave a thrust or blow to aid the emir's single hand, and thus for nearly three minutes they continued fighting, while our soldiers sent shot after shot, and the'officers emptied then revolvers, without effect at the chief of the Abdali. The words of Yussef, when he said that the emir had sworn to have Dreghorn's head, flashed upon my memory, as I heard Mohamed suddenly cry, and in English, too— " Dog! I had vowed by the Prophet's beard to have your head, so you may as well yield it in peace!" "Not if lean keep it, you blackavised loon!" said Dreghorn, with a laugh, as he dealt at the Arab a blow which would infallibly have slain nim, had not the sword to which he trusted his life been one of the regulation rubbish which are forged at Sheffield. It turned in his hand, and broke like a glass rod on the polished helmet of the emir, whose eyes shone with a satanic glare as he raised his arm, and dropped his long straight Arab sword behind his head for the purpose of dealing one deadly backhanded blow at Dreghorn's neck, but suddenly he lowered his better weapon, saying, nobly,— " Go—though Mohamed has sworn to have thy head, thou hast yet one chance for life—for it were a pity that a soldier so valiant should be hurled at once to hell. Go—but remember, that the next time we meet, by the camel of Mecca, we shall not part thus!" Meanwhile, we had been pushing rapidly along the pass, and were goon within sight of the hign pinnacles of Aden, from whence our sentinels could see the smoke of the musketry. An alarm was soon given, and O'Hara, with the rest of the regiment, and four field- pieces, came out, double-quick, to our assistance. We had several men lolled, but left no wounded behind us, for the Arabs beheaded them all. Thrice I nearly lost my life in this infernal melee : first, from a dismounted Arab, who seized me by his teeth and hands as he lay writhing on the ground with a bayonet wound in his breast; but a wheel of the fielapiece as it passed over his body freed me from him; the second escape was from a pistol shot, which was turned by my belt plate, and the third was from the lance of a horseman who had forced his way between the files of our front rank. I caught the long slender weapon by the tuft of scarlet silk which adorned its head, and broke the shaft; then the Arab grasped me by the throat and raised his iron mace to dash out my brains, when his own were blown in his comrades' faces, by private Massinger, who had placed the muzzle of his musket close to the Mussulman's ear. Twenty similar encounters took place during that contest, wliieh lasted nearly half-an-hour, under a hot and brilliant morning sun, and which extended over more than a mile of ground, that was strewn with killed and wounded Arabs in their white over-shirts, or JAFFEE. 115 by their black liorses rolling and kicking in the agonies of death. Here and there lay the headless trunk of a poor red coat, but for- tunately these were few and far between. In their dying tortures many of the Arabs grasped the muskets of our men, and thrust the bayonets further into their writhing bodies, that, with their iron maces or the keener jambea they might deal one last blow for ven- geance and the Prophet, and so expired with the groan of death, the tecbir, and their blood all mingling together on their lips. Captain Maule and Lieutenant Montague were severely wounded; Popkins lost the tip of an ear, and many other officers suffered from sword-cuts and lance thrusts, before the appearance of O'Hara and his welcome reinforcement made our assailants decamp, by suddenly drawing off towards the mountains; and then, as they retired, we wheeled round our hit tierto unused fieldpiece, and sent a few round- shot after them. We gave them a shout of defiance as they dis- appeared among the green coffee groves which crowned a neighbour- ing hill, and the last horseman, before he descended on the opposite side of the summit, raised himself in his stirrups, and we saw his bright sword flash in the sunshine, as he waved it thrice in bravado. Then the distant sound of the terrible tecbir was wafted towards us, as he disappeared. This last horseman was the valiant Mohamed—the emir himself. From the two preceding chapters, which contain little more than may be found in the columns of our Indian papers for that month, I now turn to my own adventures. "Well, a braver or a more generous fellow than the emir never drew a sword," said Dreghorn, as the whole force, breathless and weary with their exertions under a hot sun, halted in the town of Aden. " Gladly would I make him aware that I think so, by pre- senting him with a handsome pair of pistols, or a silver pipe, Arab though he be. What say you, O'Hara?" " I expect to see your passage of arms faithfully delineated in the next Illustrated News that comes by Suez," said our colonel; " and a mighty fine sketch it would make, with plenty of smoke and spears in the background. But take my advice, and keep the pistols for your saddle and the pipe for your friends." " How many officers of our party are wounded ?" asked Dreghorn of Sergeant Edmonds, who was making up the list. "All except Mr. de Lancy," rephed Edmonds, advancing his fusee. " 1 " said he, with his inveterate lisp, "then CHAPTER XXIV. JAFFER. 116 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." "Put liii'i down, slightly," said Doctor Splint, drily; "Mr. de Lancy, slightly wounded. It will sound all the same in the Gazette ." " And help me with a hill I mean to draw on my old gentleman at home. Thank you, doctor." The soldiers were at once dismissed; the wounded to the hospital and the others to clean their arms and to dine. The first person who met me at the door of my bungalow was Jaffer, my native servant, with a broad grin on his swarthy visage. " You here, Jaffer ?" I exclaimed. " Where would I be, master ?" he asked. "I could have sworn that I saw you amongst the Arabs who attacked us." " Pull my beard, if I was ! I have not been out of Aden." " These fellows are as much alike as eggs, sir," said Buff, as he received my sword and belt; " they are all the same, with crooked noses and hawk-eyes. The Albert steamer has come in from Suez, and there are several letters and papers for you and Mr. Langley." The former were for Fred, and one of the latter for me; we hurried into my bungalow, ordered Buff to prepare a luncheon of cold fowl, the invariable claret and pale Indian ale. We then threw off our jackets, and with nothing on but our shirts and trowsers, lounged each on a sofa, with the covered table between us, Ered perusing nis letters and I my paper, which had been sent by some garrison friend from Chatham. After lunch, any one who had seen me laughing over Punch, and Ered wandering through the closely printed mazes of the Times and Chronicle, would have supposed that we had just returned—not from a deadly conflict with the wild warriors of the desert—but from a quiet morning ride in some green lane at home. Suddenly Ered raised his voice, with the accent of one who sees something important. "Halloo!" said I, "what is the matter? have the Russians broken into India, or taken Constantinople?" "By Jove, here is the marriage of Jack Howard, of the Buffs, to Blanche Palmer, by the Right Reverend the Bishop of London, at St. George's, Hanover Square." " Ha! ha!" said I, " after running off to Gretna, and having a led-hot marriage over the anvil, they have had the affair done in .style, to satisfy the scrupulous." "I suppose that Jack, although checkmated, will touch a round sum by this move." "I should not wonder—old Palmer was worth a mint in money." "And the coal-pits, too," added Fred; "perhaps Letty is married also by this time. She was a dear girl at a deux temps and galope —back her against all Britain for both! I would give the world lor a round dance with Letty now—but, alas! we have no such girls in Aden!" JAFFER. 117 " Please, Fred, put that paper—I was about to say in the fire." " I wish, with all my heart, that we were where one is necessary." "Tear it in pieces then. Some of my good-natured friends in Chatham have sent it here." " Specially—for there is a cross at the paragraph—and the address looks very like Letty's pink invitation notes." "As the mess have forgotten all about Blanche, I have no wish to remind them of her now." "I should not be surprised to see her here," said Langley; "another wing of that fowl, please—thank you. Jack may join his regiment by the overland route." "If Jack knows, as we do, what it is to broil under a tropical sun, he will stay at home and look after his pretty wife and her funded property." " I will cut out the passage, for London papers are more precious than banknotes here." "Were I Jack, I should be sorry to see so charming a girl as Blanche turned yellow as a buttercup by the swamps of Calcutta or the sun of Bombay." " Ah—yes—pass the claret; when a man marries he should cut the service—sell out and be off." Luncheon over, Buff and Jaffer were removing the cloth, when Langley, who was looking through the Venetian window-blind, said, "Here comes an Arab dandy perched between the humps of a camel. What a figure we would cut at Epsom or the Derby with cavalry of that kind ! What a joke it would be !" "Who is he, Buff—is he coming here ?" " Mr. Yussef, the coffee-man, sir." "Well, 'pon my soul," said Fred, "he is a devilish cool fellow to venture into Aden after our late affair, and with all the suspicions we have against him about those assassinations." Yussef rode straight to the door of my bungalow, where he dis- mounted, and gave the bridle of his camel to Jaffer, who received him with an Arabic salutation and the most profound respect. He entered with a low salaam; I received him as usual, proffered him a pipe, a place on the sofa, and a cup of coffee, of which he said he had many packages to sell. I told him somewhat coldly that I did not think he acted wisely in entering Aden, while our feeling against the people of his country was so bitter; and hinted, that several of our men had been slain, and that he was suspected of knowing the murderer, or at least of being a friend of the black- bearded Mohamed. He stroked his own, which wlv fine reddish brown, with great impatience, and repeatedly took the pipe from his mouth to stare at ine, with eyes expressive of quiet scorn, at the suspicions to which I referred. " A friend of Mohamed-al-Raschid—a friend of the emir ? I am indeed a friend, but in heart only, for he fights for his country. I 118 KEtANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEERS OWN." aave not the honour to be more than known to him. I am a humble dealer in packages of Mocha and bottles of Hejaz coffee. A warrior only can be the friend of Mohamed. They who suspect me of assassination think falsely." " It has been said so, friend Yussef," said Ered, bluntly. " 'Tis a lie! a fable of Tasm, the father of dark history!" cried the Arab, passionately; " but I know the murderer of your men." " You do ?" I exclaimed; " then who is he ?" " One who in cunning equals the sorcerers of Oman, and whose valour excels his cunning. Call Jaffer." " Do you think the assassin is Jaffer ?" I asked, somewhat startled to find those acts of blood so nearly concerned myself. " I do not say so, but I will be content to renounce Paradise and bequeath myself to Eblis, if I do not find the slayer of your soldiers." " Another of our Peons was murdered yesterday." " Summon your servant, nakib." Jaffer was soon brought in by Buff, who had no great love for him, and he stood before us, with a hang-dog expression in his deep stealthy eyes and on his swarthy visage. Yussef said something to him, which was spoken forcibly and rapidly in Arabic, and which I did not understand; but I saw that Jaffer gave him a glance full of reproach, that he trembled and almost grew pale. He then placed his hands upon his head, crossed them on his breast, and bent his eyes on the carpet. "Jaffer!" said the merchant, solemnly, "by the truth of the blessed Koran—by the blackness of the Kaaba—and by the bones of the Prophet, I conjure you to tell us (if you know) who committed those assassinations which have seven times reddened Aden with the blood of the Eranks ?" " It was I—Jaffer," he replied immovably. " You ?" I exclaimed, snatching up my sword, which lay on a side table; " you, Jaffer ?" " By the Grot of Mount Hara, it was." " And at whose command ?" " The emir's; besides, the precept of the Prophet requires us to destroy all Kafirs." " Rascal; you might have destroyed me in my sleep !" " Yea, at any time; but you speak my tongue, and have been kind to me; Jaffer is an Arab—he never forgets a friend, or forgives an enemy." " And you fought against us this morning ?" " Yes; beside the bridle of Mohamed," he replied, while his eyes filled with a wolfish glare ; " and th&jiks to the Prophet, who gave me ears to hear, eyes to see, and a tongue to tell, there is not a soldier m your ranks, or a bullet in your pouches, but the emir knows their number; an order is scarcely issued by your Dola, but it is known in his tents, and there is not a cannon on your batteries without its weight and position beins; known to him; but I wit I become an ambassador. 119 slay no more of the Earingis here, for I have completed seven, the mystical number, and now my task is ended." I sprang towards Jaffer, whose eyes flashed savagely, as he grasped his jambea, but Yussef flung down his pipe and interposed with a smile. "Buff, call the main guard—Langley, this man is both a spy and assassin 1" "Begone—fly!" cried the merchant, raising the green blind. Jaffer bounded through the open window and rushed across the barrack-yard, with his jambea in his hand, like a Malay running g muck. On seeing him approaching thus, the sentinel at the gate charged his bayonet to stop him, but he passed through the barriel like a flash of lightning. Langley (who had not understood the balf of what passed) feed my pistols after him, but both balls missed. "The devil!" said he, "my hand shakes after this morning's work." On seeing this, one of our advanced sentinels levelled at Jaffer, and feed. The bullet knocked off his turban. The eyes of Yussef glared, for his sympatliies were evidently with the fugitive. " On, on!" he cried, clapping his hands, though Jaffer could no longer hear him; " to the hills, to the hills! on, on—may the scor- pions of Cashan sting thee if thou art taken!" He took the road which led directly to the main pass, and escaping several musket shots, disappeared among the Munsoorie range of hills, where the Duffadhar with his black Peons hunted for him until nightfall, but in vain; and this savage Mussulman, who was well worthy of being a follower of the " Old Man of the Mountain," or Prince of the Assassins, was seen in Her Britannic Majesty's garrison of Aden no more. CHAPTER XXY. in which i become an ambassador. Though the discovery that the assassin of so many of our men was my own servant was very unpleasant, to say the least of it, and calculated to raise suspicions against every Arab in Aden, I was gra- tified that all doubts regarding the honour and probity of my friend Yussef were removed; and he now invited Langley and me to the bungalow of the Parsee to have a glass of ginger-beer from his cool deep cellars, which were dug far below the foundations of the hotel; for however humble that beverage may seem at home, we deemed it no ordinary luxury in a climate where during the south-west monsoon, the thermometer rises to 104° in the shade; where scarlet cloth will fade into pinkish white, and the blade of a drawn sword grows hot even under the shadow of a tree. 120 FRANK HILTON; OB, ''THE QUEEN'S OWN." " I see dark looks on all sides of me here," said Yussef, as we pro^ ceeded to the hotel; " all ties are now for ever broken between you •and the Arabs—I can come to Aden no more." " I am amazed you could venture in after our late affairs with your people !" said Langley; "you are indeed a bold fellow." " 1 have my pass or protection; besides, Kufa, the Parsee, owes me a great sum of money—4000 rupees, which he must pay me to-day." After our beer was quaffed in the cool shady room, where the sea- breeze passed in through the Venetian blinds on one side and out at those on the other, we bad quite a scene between the Parsee and the Arab, of whose loan the former cunningly and basely denied all knowledge or remembrance; and for a time, Yussef preserved has temper with admirable equanimity. " I beseech you to consider again," said he, for the fifth or sixth •time; " thou mayst perhaps have forgotten—such things will happen. Believe me, 0 Mirza Kufa, that the paltry 4000 rupees are nothing •to me, but I abhor being doubted. Think again—it was at Mocha, on the 10th day of Moharram—that is the 3rd of May according to the Christian year—1 lent you the money to aid in building this bungalow." But the Parsee answered invariably and doggedly, "It all one fable, sahib; me never borrow, nor require to borrow, .and I am ready to gib my sowgund (oath) before the Kadi or the •commandant." "By my hopes of never losing milk or winter provision, yea, by •every stone in the walls of Mecca, I swear thou didst!" cried the young merchant, passionately, as his hand trembled about the carved ivory hilt of his jambea; a motion which did not escape the quick glittering eyes of the Parsee, who then said, "Sahib will have a receipt, an acknowledgment, for so mosh money ?" " Dog and wretch, there is dirt on your turban!" cried the merchant, who could no longer govern his fury. " I have the acknowledgment, but I am an Arab of the Arabs, and believed that my word would have sufficed for thee, thou wretched Guebre; yet, since thou wilt •have it so, here is thy precious receipt." The Parsee grew a little pale as Yussef drew from a species of -pocket-book which was stuck in his girdle, a slip of paper, on seeing which he also changed colour, and grew pale as ashes. Lo ! the writing had vanished from the white paper like the mira- •culous verse which the Prophet wrote before Abdallah Ebn Masud, and which disappeared from his tablets in a night. It was blank, •and scarcely a vestige of writing remained upon it; for it had been written with that species of ink which is only sold by Jews, and which begins to fade away from the moment of writing until it passes •from the paper and leaves no trace behind. The honest Arab was thunderstruck! he examined his note-book again and again; but I BECOME AN AMBASSADOR. 121 the face of the vile Parsee was radiant with joy and malignant triumph. " Aha, sahib—who lie now ? who have dirt on him turban ? who right, eh ?" he asked, adjusting his long gown, while he grinned like a baboon. "Guebre," said the Arab, nobly, "if thou hadst pled poverty, I would have given thee these 4000 rupees, which to me are about as valueless as a handful of desert sand; hadst thou asked for longer grace, yea, until my beard was grey as thine own, it had been given thee; but thou hast most infamously deceived me; yet a time for vengeance will come, 0 wretch! and when Azrael, the angel of death touches thee with one hand, in the other he will hold the receipt of Yussef. You do not think I have lied !" he asked, suddenly turning to those officers who had witnessed this strange scene. "On my honour, Yussef, I do not," said I. "Nor I," added Langley; "but I believe our Parsee to be a thorough-bred rogue." " Good, good," said Yussef, carefully folding the now blank and useless receipt, and replacing it in his repository, while the Parsee slunk out of the coffee-room ; " this testimony to the truth of Yussef of Mocha will bring good fruit." At that moment, Buff, erect as a post, presented himself, saying that the colonel wished to see Mr. Langley and me in the Orderly Room. Desiring Yussef to wait for me at my quarters, we hurried to the colonel, with whom we found a number of officers assembled. O'Hara, who was smoking a handsome hubble-bubble, the tobacco in which was mixed with apple paste, informed us, that by instruc- tions received from government, he was to form an alliance, if possible, with the Sultan of Sana, who was also lord of the wealthy and fortified city of Mocha, for the purpose of obtaining his aid, by means of gold, against the Abdali, the Puthali Arabs, and other Shiekhs, who were hostile to us, and thus to put in operation the old —and, I am sorry to say it—wicked policy of England, by setting the people of the country against each other, so that we might have a safe opportunity for further encroachment. But the chief object was to repress the emir and a mad santon, who styled himself Regenerator of the Eaith, and was secretly organizing a more com- bined attack on Aden. " I must send at least one officer as an envoy to this Sultan of Sana, whose capital is distant many days' journey. The mission is fraught with danger, gentlemen," continued the colonel, " for the Abdali and other tribes lie between us and the hills in one direction, and the Subbeihi Arabs between us and Mocha in another. We know suffi- cient of both to believe that any attempt to pass through their territories is all but impossible, unless with a strong armed force; and to crown all, the Sultan or Imaum is one of the most abominable tyrants that ever encumbered the earth—an intractible old monster, who never passes a day without having the sabre, the bowstring, or 122 THANK HILTON; OK, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." poison in operation. Yet his people look upon him as lord of all the world, and a great deal more; so, yon see, the prospect is not a very imitiag one. I would go in person, but to what end, for I know not his gibberish, unless a little of the Choctaw, which I learned in America, would suit. My envoy must be thoroughly master of the language, and a cunning fellow, who will flatter old Bluebeard into a treaty with us." "I am ready to be off in a minute," said O'Flannigan. "But you don't speak Arabic, Pat," said O'Hara, with surprise. " What's the odds ? Arabic ? No; I heard enough of it the other night to serve me a life time, when these Abdali were all yelling like the devils of a climate hotter even than Aden." " The Imaum does not speak English, it appears." " Then maybe the ould baste speaks Irish, and if so, I am his man. I hear them always swearing by the Holy Grot of Mount Hara, and if that has not a very Irish sound, I know not what has. It might pass for a shooting-box on your estate, Colonel; it should belong to the O'Hara family, at least." " By the way," asked some one, "what does that mean, Hilton ?" " The cavern where Mahomet usually secluded himself, and had his pretended visions with the angel Gabriel." " You long-headed Scotsmen know everything." " I should not wonder," added Montague, " if this old Sultan proves to be a countryman of yours; I have heard of one who became viceroy of Egypt." " I am sorry to select any of you, gentlemen, for a dangerous duty," said O'Hara; "but, upon my honour, I don't know of any man among Us better able to perform this service than Hilton. Will you undertake it ?" " Cheerfully," said I. " But some one must accompany you." Langley, O'Flannigan, and Montague offered themselves; but as the latter was suffering from a wound, the Irish captain was too reckless, and as Fred was my old " chum," I found myself compelled to make a choice in his favour. "Then there are those devilish Abdali," said the Colonel; "how are they to be outflanked ?" " There are military shiekhs who will guard a traveller from town to town for a handsome consideration," said I; "but how are we to communicate with them ?" " Ask advice from your friend the coffee merchant," said Montague; "he is an intelligent fellow, and may, I think, be trusted." The orderly-room sergeant, or clerk, was despatched to my bun- galow for Yussef, who soon appeared among us, and bowed to all, with a respect that was somewhat tinged with excitement, but it im- mediately vanished when he was informed that I wished an escort to Sana, through those terrible Abdali and other frontier tribes who were the curse of bur new settlement. I BECOME AN AMBASSADOR. 123 "j 11,55 sai(* ^e' "^as *>een the friend of Yussef; tinder the hand and seal of the emir, he will procure for him a letter of protec- tion, and his other friend, the shiekh Abdulmelik of Dhafar, will escort him to the city of the Imaum and back again in safety, with the hundred spears of his tribe." "Hilton, consider well," said the colonel, seriously; "can you rely on this man ?" " Cursed be he who misleadeth the stranger or diggeth a pit for the blind!" said the Arab, with inexpressible dignity, for he under- stood what O'Hara had said; " I will travel with the nakib (he has ever been my friend!) towards the city of the Imauni, or I will bring him a letter from Mohamed, and remain here in Aden a hostage tifi his return." "Nothing could be fairer; I beg your pardon; but I do not quite understand you Arabs yet." Yussef gave honest O'Hara a covert smile of scorn, as he said, "At all times difficult of access from the majesty and grandeur which surrounded him, the sultan was never more inaccessible than now; for he has immured himself in his Castle of Delights, where he basks in the smiles of a beautiful slave, whose charms have weaned him from all the cares of state, so that Rabd-al-Hoosi, the vizier, and the people, the slaves of his will, murmur among themselves, and urge that she should be slain to cure him of his passion." " Is this woman so handsome ?" " She is said to be the most beautiful of several hundreds who adorn his seraglio." "Several hundreds! what an unconscionable old Bluebeard!" said O'Elannigan. " I would give a month's pay to have the over- hauling of that place." " Achieve for us the extinction of these Abdali," said O'Hara; " secure the alliance_ of the Sultan of Sana, and you will have a fair claim to the everlasting gratitude of the British government—" " Such as it is," muttered OTlannigan, dubiously. " And what is better—on the Horse Guards for promotion." " But he may cut our heads off." " Then we'll put up a fine monument to your memory somewhere j in Westminster, maybe." " Bravo," said I; " I'll risk it—I am off!" " I will seek Mohamed," said the merchant, " and if I do not re- turn in the first hour after sunset with his letter, do not expect it— for I will return no more—a good evening — may Gocf protect you all." With one of his profound salutes, this interesting Arab withdrew; and while O'Hara, with Montague's aid, prepared a highfiown epistle to his high mightiness the Imaum of Sana, Langley and I hurried to our quarters to select clothes, pack our portmanteaux, prepare our horses, our pistols, and a good store of ball-cartridgea I waited im- natiently for the return of Yussef with the letter of protection from 124 frank hilton; or, "the queen's owh." the deadliest enemy of the British government; and I was not without fears that he would never procure it; for our projected mission, though a dangerous one, in the adventures which it promised us, had a singular charm for two such spirits as Langley and me. At nightfall Yussef returned, with an ample letter of protection, signed and sealed by the emir. On being untied and unrolled (for Musselmans do not fold their letters), it ran somewhat thus:— "Bismtllah, &c., &c. In the name of the most Holy Prophet, We Mohamed, surnamed Al Raschid, Emir of all the Abdali, com- mand the people of our tribe, and their friends the Euthalis of Aden, to abstain from plundering or molesting the persons, horses, or camels of the most excellent and esteemed nakibs, Hilton and I jangle j, who are proceeding on a mission to that divine Master ot the Throne of Gold, the most admirable of Imaums, Solyman Sultan of Sana. Given at the request of our excellent friend Yussef of Mocha, and written on the last day of Ramadan, in the year of the Hegira, 1264. " Mohamed Emir." " Between this and Sana, the roads are most unsafe," said Yussef, after I had thanked him, " but this letter will sufficiently protect you from the Bedouins, who have lately been seen among the coffee mountains. On reaching the camp of the Sheikh Abaulmelik, his band, all brave and determined men, will be your escort to Sana. Are you going with your master?" he asked of Buff, who was oiling my pistols. " No, sir; journeys and furloughs are not for poor fellows like me." " Come with us," said the Arab, " and I will find you a bride from the desert, whose dowry will be a tent and a spear—a bosom of down and two bright eyes." "I thank you, sir; but I could never keep a wife on my clearings, unless she washed for the company," said honest Buff, shaking his head, while I laughed at his practical reply to Yussef's poetical invitation. By the recommendation of the latter, Langley and I provided a number of shawls, handsome pipes, and a drinking cup, as presents for Abdulmelik. We bade adieu to the mess overnight, with more than usual regret (for our mission was not destitute of great danger), and prepared to take the road betimes on the morrow. CHAPTER XXVI. our departure. Our merry drums and fifes were making the splintered crater and caverned rocks of Aden ring to the reveille, when we mounted two Arabian horses of Langley's choosing—fine animals, which, to the proverbial fleetness and symmetry of their race, added somewhat more OUR DEPARTURE. 125 of the strength of the jtfuropean breeds. Our cloaks, valises, with my double-barrelled percussions, and Fred's revolver, were strapped to the saddles. Our regimental waistbelts and swords were all that we retained of our own dress, for, by the advice of Yussef, we hat' procured from the bazaar full Arab suits, nearly alike; ample yellow cotton drawers, and vests of blue cloth laced with silver; red tar- booshes, surrounded by a roll of muslin, embroidered with gold, and wrought over with texts of the Koran, and over this was a sash, the long floating fringes of which were silk and gold. The soldiers of our mainguard, who concluded that we had some frolic in hand, laughed on seeing us mounted and attired in this cos- tume; but poor Buff looked very grave, and viewed our departure with no small anxiety, and tears glistened in his eyes, as he received the keys of my baggage. " Good-bye, my lads," said O'Flannigan, who was captain of the mainguard; " and now, as you are going on your thravels, I'll give you the advice my father gave me, when I was turning my back on Ballinamara to join the Royal County Down; ' Never dthrink water, Pat, when you can get betther; and never kiss the maid, when you can kiss the misthress.'" " Good-bye, Buff, I'll soon be back," said I. "Faith, sir, I'm afraid we'll be getting you both back salted in a hamper, if you ever come back at all." Yussef accompanied us, perched between the humps of a fine camel, which ambled easily along, as the rider had got rid of the mountain of coffee packages, with which he had entered Aden yes- terday; and together we took the path through the Turkish wall. Enjoying the pleasure of freedom from the trammels of duty and the dull routine of hard garrison life, with the excitement of an- ticipated adventures, mingled perhaps with dangers, we left the aria promontory and its Turkish towers behind, and turned our horses' heads towards the bright green hills of Yemen. Of Aden we were long since heartily sick, never having ventured far beyond the chain of heights that overlook the narrow isthmus; for, in conse- quence of the continual hostility waged against us by the Arabs, and their proneness to assassination, the general order, that no officer or soldier, on pain of disobedience, should go beyond two miles from Camp or quarters, had been strictly enforced by O'Hara. We had barely got clear of the Main Pass, before we were joined 6y a fourth traveller—a fat and well-fed, but dusky-looking person- age, wearing an enormous white turban, and loose over-coat of thin cloth; he bestrode a stout donkey, which he whipped and spurred with great energy. " By the camel of the Prophet, it is the false dog who keeps the caravanserai—the Parsee !" said Yussef, with a glance of anger. "Well, son of an unbelieving mother, art thou come to pay me those 4000 rupees ?" " No, sahib," said he, skilfully placing his donkey between Lanp- 126 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." ley's horse and mine; "me am going to Sana, under de white officers' protection (if poor Parsee be allowed), to buy fruit an/) raisins." " Art thou not afraid that I will kill thee in the desert or on thr mountains ?" "Yes, Kojah Yussef, so me no trust you," replied the Parsee grinning and spurring to keep up with us. " Upon my word, sir," said I, no way pleased by this absurd ad- dition to our party, " I think you had better return while your skir is whole, for after your treatment of my friend, I must decline—" "No, no," said Langley, "let him come, by all means, we'll have some fun with him:—come, get on in front, old fellow," he added, giving the donkey a lash with his whip, which made it scamper be- fore us, and we laughed immoderately at the fat Parsee, whose body, perched far back upon the donkey, loomed from side to side, and seemed to have no other legs than those of the animal he rode. "He may come," said Yussef, with a dark smile; "ere long Munkir and Nakir will demand from him an account of my rupees." " Munkir and Nakir—who are they ?" " Two frightful spirits," he replied, lowering his voice, " who in- terrogate the corpses of the departed, which are forced to sit upright and answer them; and if they maintain when dead the lies they told when living, then they are beaten with iron mallets and gnawed by the teeth of ninety-nine dragons, each having seven heads, for such is the law of the Prophet." "We poor Kafirs will find ourselves in a bad way when we come under their hands ; they will be worse than our friends the AbdaL" " The souls of infidels, unhappy that they are!" replied Yussef, in the same grave tone, " are inclosed in a pit in the wilderness of Hadramaut—the adjacent province, where they must remain for ever—for so it was revealed at Medina." We now passed the rocky defile, the scene of our recent conflict, of which not a vestige remained, save one or two dead horses, half devoured by vultures. Prom these, the flies in black clouds as we passed them. We struck off by a path known to Yussef, and which he said, would bring us to the road leading directly from Mocha to Sana, and which, by being the most frequented, was the most safe. The morning air was pure and extremely pleasant, the unclouded sun was rising in our rear; the green hills were spreading before us; the dew lay heavy on the grass; on the beautiful foliage of the fig, melon, peach, and plum-tree, or the broader branches of the date-palm, for every mile we traversed, brought us into a richer country tnan—from my previous impression of sun-burned Aden— I could have believed Arabia to be; but Yemen is the finest and most fertile portion of that vast peninsula. It is the true Arabia Felix—the Land of Incense in the times of old; for though its coasts are barren sands, or rude volcanic rocks, its hills and valleys •a'Hjs ABDALI. 127 teem with wealth, and are rich in all the foliage and all the fruit of the tropics, flourishing in a usually temperate atmosphere and under a genial sun. Yussef was a most agreeable companion. He told us innumerable stories of valiant sheikhs and beautiful fairies, of genii, giants, and seven-headed monsters; but he treated the Parsee with an amount of scorn, which, to that personage, however, was not a matter of the smallest consequence. CHAPTER XXYH. THE ABDAIil! Avoiding all villages, where, as Yussef said, we ran a great risk o! being robbed, stoned, or perhaps shot at, especially if the people were Euthalis, after passing through a long woody tract, we halted during the heat of noon in a beautiful valley or wadi, about twenty miles from Aden, in a plain where a little brook stole through the rich grass between two thickets of tall and sombre date-palms, gum, and wild coffee-trees, the slender branches of which were bending under their evergreen leaves, and shrouded by the statelier foliage of the fig and almond. Above the narrow vale, on a fragment of rock, were the ruins of an ancient building, which Yussef said, " was old as the days of King Ad," but which in later times had been the- habitation of a giant of incredible stature, who had two great horns on his head, with the eyes of a horse and the tail of a cow; and who had been slain in combat by the enchanted sword of an Abdali emir, an ancestor of Mohamed, on the very ground where we were- then halted. Groves of varied green shrouded each end of the valley, and mountains mellowed in the sunny haze closed the landscape far be- yond them. Antelopes were gliding and partridges whirring around' us, and the fear of bringing more troublesome visitors, alone re- strained us from trying a shot at them with Pred's revolver before ■ lunching. We unbitted our horses, and in the Arabian fashion picquetted them to trees by the fetlock, and thanking our stars that we had got so far on our way without seeing any of those obnoxious Abdali, we gradually resigned ourselves to a short nap, while Yussef kindly offered to keep watch for the wandering Arabs, who, he said,. " were such adroit thieves, that they would steal the beard off one's chin without being discovered." We had not dozed for half an hour, when a sudden yell of terror- from the fat Parsee awoke us, and mechanically we grasped our swords and pistols, which lay at hand. "We are betrayed!" I exclaimed, on seeing that not less than- five hundred Abdali horsemen were around us, all mounted on theic 328 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." fleet and fiery horses, and clad in their white turbans and linen shirts, with their maces, lances, cimitars, and pistols bristling. "Yussef—Kojah Yussef!" cried Langley. "He has disappeared—the villain!" said I, drawing my sword. " But you have his letter—the letter of the emir." " These wretches could never read it." " Then let us die game, Hilton—good bye—God bless yon, Frank, —it is all up with us—we shall be hewed to pieces !" But the Abdali sat motionless on their horses, with the bright points of their long reedy lances glittering in the sunshine, and seeing no attempt made to assail us, I drew from my breast-pocket the real or pretended letter of protection, to which the name of their emir was attached. A brilliantly accoutred Arab, mounted on a magnifi- cent horse, came forward from the dense group, and though the red- ness of his beard had disappeared, under the turbaned helmet, with its bird of paradise plume, I recognised, in the face of the terrible emir, the mild features of Yussef, the coffee merchant, who had so often hobbed and nobbed with me at Aden over a cup of his Mocha, and a whiff from my hubble-bubble. He had now reappeared in his proper costume, with that love of effect which is peculiar to the Orientals. Having great doubts of the treatment we might ex- perience, Fred and I stood somewhat on our guard as he approached, while the poor Parsee grovelled on the earth Before him, burying his face and head among the long grass in token of abject humility. The emir smiled, as he said to me, " You trusted to me, and protected me as poor Yussef, the coffee trader—I will not betray that trust as the Emir Mohamed." " How can we be assured of that ?" I asked. " Have you not de- Reived me and others under this assumed character of a dealer from Mocha ?" " Stratagems are fair in war," he answered, loftily, " and war has ibeen made upon us by the unwelcome presence of your soldiers on ihe Cape of Aden. The Abdali have come from Ishmael, and the fertile plains as well as the deserts of Arabia are their inheritance, of which none but God can deprive them. The land belongs to the people. What right have the Faringis to demand a portion of it ? The green hills of lemen and the white rocks of Aden have been invaded manj times, and there the crescent waned and shrank before Abrahah the Abyssinian, and the Persian dogs of Omar; but never have hostile bands found a path through the wilds of Nejed or the barren sands of Hejaz. No; Allah Ackbar! It is the proudest boast of Ishmael's outcast children that they have never been conquered ! Sheathe your sword, and desire the young nakib, your friend, to do so likewise. He, too, is my friend, for he believed in the word of poor Yussef. I have sworn to exterminate the Faringis; but I have eaten bread and salt in your tents, and have not forgotten the day when I vowed by Him who withered up the once green wood, never to forget my TtLJli AJJliAlU, 129 friend! But as for thee, thou infamous Parsee—thou very Jew,— thou child of Sarah! what is the punishment a cowardly robber merits ?" The Parsee grovelled lower yet, if possible, on the earth; but the emir brushed him across the head with the ostrich feathers which adorned his lance, and then gave him a prick with its sharp steel point, saying, " Stand up, oh wretch! and listen to me. For every rupee I lent thee—but for no other end than to gain a footing among the simple Paringis as Yussef, the red-bearded merchant—I can bring into the field a fleet horse and a well-armed man. Thinking me a poor Arab among the Paringis—a foe among many foes—thou didst cheat, and accuse me of lying." A hollow groan escaped the poor Parsee, who was drenched in. perspiration, as he lay prostrate before the terrible emir. "Parsee, lookup," said the Arab ; "I said, that when Azrael, the angel of death, spread his cold wings over thee, he would hold before thy greedy eyes the blank receipt of Yussef;" and, forofng the groveller to look up, ne held before his sky-blue visage and rolling eyes the strip of paper, from which the prepared ink had, as he intended, faded away; and a half stifled cry for mercy left the tongue of tha poor hotel-keeper. " Jaft'er! how should we punish this son of Eblis r" "Strip, and bind him hand and foot, and leave him in a date thicket, so that the vultures and hysenas may eat him without trouble or resistance." " What sayest thou, Kior Ibn Kogia ?" " Hang him up by the shoulder-blades on a couple of iron hooks, and jerk him over the wall of Jebel Ahmer," suggested this amiable personage, who wore a species of Bedouin keffie or yellow head-dress, the lower part of which concealed all his face but the eyes. " Bend down a couple of young pines, and bind a heel to each," said old Jaffer, who gave me, from time to time, a grim and malicious smile, " then let the saplings spring erect with all their strength." " Make him give a new receipt, and then bore out his eyes with a hot iron," suggested a third. "Uponmy honour, we have got into pleasant company," said Fred, scanning the speakers with his eve-glass, while the Parsee, between each of their propositions, uttered a most mournful groan. "I will do none of these things," said the emir, who saw, of course, the strong repugnance expressed in our faces. "Then whip off his head by one stroke," said Jaffer, towards whom X could not resist making one forward stride, on seeing him unsheathe the jambea which had already slain so many of our men. "No," said the emir, "hear the sentence of Mohamed! Cut nff—" "His head ?" cried a dozen, as they drew their thirsty weapons. 130 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." "No—his beard; let him be painted red, and led through the streets of Lahadj." Jaffer, Kior Ibn Kogia, and several others sprung out of their high saddles, and in a few seconds the almost inanimate Parsee had Ms beard rent from his chin, and his body stripped nude as when he came into the world. A jar of red dye was then brought, and he was smeared over with it from head to heel. His tormentors then placed him upon his donkey with his face to the tail, and below its belly his ankles were tied with his own turban; but the crowning disgrace was the loss of Ms beard — the deepest dishonour an Oriental, espe- cially an Arab, can suffer; for they deem it so sacred, that the Mors wMch are detached by combing it are carefully collected and buried in the earth. Disfigured thus, with all the Arab horsemen spurring, prancing, laughing, and jesting around Mm, he was led off towards Laliadj, wMch was close by, at the foot of the valley; and Langley and I found ourselves compelled to mount and follow. Crossing the Meidam, a river of Yemen, which, after traversing a hundred miles, pours its waters into the Indian Ocean far west of Aden—we entered upon a fertile and well-cultivated plain, and, or the right bank of the river, beheld the white walls and flat-roofed habitations of Lahadj, contrasting so pleasantly with that emerald verdure, to which, in Aden, we had so long been strangers. They were tinted by the warm glow of the sun, the rays of which glittered on the bright matcMock barrels and lanceheads of the armed guards who watched the old Turkish walls of the town, the em- Rattled gate of wMch they closed at the approach of the Abdali; for Aahadj is the seat of a petty sultan of its own. On seeing this demonstration the emir halted, and sent forward Kior Ibn Kogia, who led the bridle of the ass on wMch was tied the wo-begone Parsee, whom the guards of Lahadj received with shrill cries of delight. He was thrust through the gates; and as we rode off towards the mountains, we heard the shouts and bursts of laughter which greeted his appearance in the streets and bazaars of the little city. " Frank," said Langley, "I do not half like the aspect of this ad- venture; do me the favour to ask your friend in the iron jacket where he is taking us to—whether we are prisoners, and be sure to adopt your most dulcet Arabic." I put the queries to Mohamed, and heard his answer with anxiety. "NotMng astonishes me more," said he, "than the credulity of youFaringis, and your ignorance of the land of Yemen and its people. None would have respected my letter save the Abdali and tne old Shiekh Abdulmelik; thus, long before you could have reached his village, it would have been spat upon, torn to shreds, and trampled under foot by the Futhalis, the men of Lahadj, or other wanderers, who are always prowling for travellers approaching Mocha. You are not my prisoners, but, at present, are my guests. Hear me," he continued, adopting that Oriental style which would tavp so THE ABDA11. l3i pleasant to listen to, but for the doubt that hovered in my mind; " when the Good Maker of heaven and earth gave to the children of Sarah the riches of Judea, and to those of Hagar the desert, to the latter He added four precious gifts; a turban in lieu of a crown, a tent in lieu of a castle, swords in lieu of walls, and songs instead of those laws which make men slaves. Hence the free green mountains of Yemen, or the Yellow desert, whose waves of sand spread far away towards the Persian Gulf, are to us a thousand times dearer than the white walled cities and the spicy regions of the south. Yet have I a castle among the hills—the towers of Jebel Ahmer—of which even the sultan of Sana might be proud, and there, for this night, you shall both tarry-with me." Descending from the hills, we entered upon a broad flat valley, at the extremity of which rose a mass of pillared basalt. The sky was without a cloud; and though the sun had long since sunk below the horizon, the orange blaze of its setting yet spread over all the west, where one bright star was twinkling. At the foot of the sombre rocks that overhung this flat and fertile valley, a few groups of lonely palm trees drooped over the little runnels that were glittering in the light of the west; near these were browsing a few long-bearded goats. The dew was falling fast on rock and valley, and, as it fell, a sweet fragrance rose from the aromatic flowers that grew in this desert place, and mingled with the rich perfume of the orange and citron groves. As we rode on, a portion of what appeared to be basaltic rocks gradually assumed the appearance of a castle, having strong round towers of antique form, with curtain walls between; these became more and more defined, and as we crossed the valley, a clear bright light, which, when viewed from the darkened hollow below, seemed like a splendid star in the sky, was burned upon the summit of the loftiest tower. By this time the horsemen were all singing a wild but lively air, while one beat on an Arab dram; and nothing could be more pleasing, or more like a scene in a drama or novel, than the picturesque aspect of the scenery and the troop, — the darkened valley with its solemn palm trees, the darker castle on its lofty rock; the last flash of the day that had gone; the group of horsemen in their flowing eastern costume, with their regular features, their dark, expressive eyes, so full of fire and animation, and their bushy eyebrows, denoting keen intelligence; their beautiful horses, and tall slender spears adorned with tassels and feathers; their wild but harmonious chant—and, chief of all, the gallant young emir, whose shining shirt of mail* round shield, and floating dress, brought back to our memory the stories we had read of the Alhambra, and of the chivalry and glory of that brave Arab race, whose valour spread the terror of their name through Egypt, Erance. and Spain, through India, Persia, and Greece. 132 prank hilton; or, "the queen's own." CHAPTER XXVIII. the battle op jebel aiimer, or the red mot/nTAIN. Emir, which in Syria and Turkey is similar to the Ameer of the people of Scinde, is a vague appellation given equally to the com- mander of five hundred horse, and to him who may lead ten times that number; throughout Arabia, where a form of government some- thing like that patriarchal system which so long existed in the north of Scotland still remains, they are sometimes styled sheeriffs, but the petty chiefs of the Abdali retained the more ancient oriental term for their superior. In Yemen every district has its governor, who is termed a Dola, if of royal blood; an Emir, if not. Each city has its Kadi, and village of houses or tents, its Sheikh. Like a pure Arab of noble lineage, the young Emir Mohamed was about the middle height; though very swarthy, he had fine and regular features, through which a ruddy glow appeared at times. His hair was thick and of the deepest black; his nose aquiline, and his forehead prominent, with eyebrows almost meeting; his mouth was handsome, his teeth white as pearls; his beard and moustaches dark as coal, though I had generally seen them dyed red, as a dis- guise—a tint sometimes adopted by the Arabs as a charm against magic. He had a quick ear, a sonorous voice, and a smile that was very captivating. Though it is not the usual custom for Arabian sheikhs and emirs to dress themselves more richly than their followers, his shirt of mail was of exquisite workmanship, and resembled those of the Mahratta horsemen; the steel casque around which his turban was twisted, was inlaid with Damascene work, while the velvet sheath of his sword (which was straight and three feet long) was covered with the richest carving in silver. The blade was Persian; it rang like a silver bell, and had a verse of the Koran upon it, in letters of gold; his buckler hung on the hilt, and on his right side dangled a gorgeous poniard. Even the workmanship of his sandals was minute, and they were covered with little studs of gold. He frequently drew my attention to his horse, of which he was very fond and proud. It had a small head, with tapering ears and large eyes full of fire; wide nostrils and an arched neck; muscular legs and short pasterns; high round flanks and small hoofs; docile and without vice, it was a part of the household, and ate from the white hand of Mohamed's favourite mistress. He knew its gene- llogy as well as his own for four hundred years, and assured me that it contained " all the noble qualities of the eastern horse, of Persia the warlike, Hejaz the handsome, Yemen the strong, and Nejed the noble, Syria the rich-skinned, Egypt the fleet, and Mesopotamia thr docile." It was a perfect horse ! As we rode up to the winding oath which led to his castle gatft THE CASTLE OF JEBEL A11MEK, OB THE BED MOUNTAIN. 133 and along which our Arabian horses glided with the ease and security of goats, all seemed to me a dream. I could scarcely believe that I was riding beside that bloodthirsty emir, who had waged so barba- rous a war with our people, and who was accused of so wickedly slaying so many of our poor seamen, whose ships had been captured by the armed boats of those Abdali who lived upon the coast, and trade with Africa. So strong was this sentiment that I could not refrain making some remark indicative of what passed in my mind, at which he laughed with very good humour. " Rumour says that you are forming an extensive and ramified league against us," said I, " uniting even the Pacha of Egypt and the Schah of Persia in it." "Rumour greatly overrates the aims and the influence of the poor Emir of the Abdali," said he; " yet I would that it were as you say. I committed a great error in attacking you the other night, nor did I mean to do so until other sheikhs had joined me; but I was blinded hy anger against those villanous Peons, and assailed Aden unaided by a single ally." "Nothing surprised me more than your sparing the life of the nakib of our artillery." " I presume that you Eranks think our Arab a mere destroyer— incapable of generosity or mercy ? The nakib fought well—he was defenceless and weaponless; thus, I could not slay him with honour,, and send his hapless soul to the pit of the Kafirs—the dark well of Borhut, in Hadramaut; yet I have sworn to have his head for his abuse of the Abdali, and I never swore in vain; but here is the- house of strength my father left me." The gate of this Arabian fortress was open, and on a platform before it stood six pieces of iron ordnance, three on each side, skil- fully placed so as to sweep the steep and winding approach; and they had a very suspicious resemblance to British ship cannon. The castle consisted of several broad and strongly built towers, alter- nately round and square, connected by a dilapidated curtain wall. These formed a zone round the summit of the rock, and were of con- siderable antiquity, having been built by the Turks soon after they stormed Aden in 1538 ; though I afterwards heard a story related which assigned them a more fanciful origin than the wars of the Arabs and the bold Timariots of the Sultan Selim. The doors and deep-mouthed windows were all spanned by elegant arches, pointed like those in old Moorish mosques, and ornamented by zigzag fret work in the Saracenic style of decoration. Between two of the- towers there projected a gallery, which was enclosed by a screen of woodwork, and within this we heard a patter of slippers, and the- sound of several female voices laughing and talking; for the ladies of the emir's household were rejoicing as they saw his train sweeping, through the wide quadrangle of the stronghold, which had been won by one of his ancestors, who joined the king of Mocha—a descendan" of the Prophet—in his revolt aoainst the Osmanlies. 134 FRANK HILTON; OR, "TtttL tyJisfiA'-S OWN." Tlie Turkish portion of the fortress exhibited considerable remains of taste and magnificence; but the more modern additions, built by the Jew and Arab tradesmen from Mocha, were rude and uncouth, having dark, narrow and crooked passages, awkward stairs and massive doors, with floors and roofs of hard and white chunam. My mind was filled with stories of the Moors of Granada, and recollections of the delightful " Thousand and One Nights," as we halted in the quadrangle; nor was it until I heard the heavy and clumsy gates of this Arab stronghold closed and barred, that any suspicion of the emir's intentions, or any anxiety as to the future, occurred to me. As for honest Fred Langley,' he had no thoughts on the matter, but was quietly smoking a cigar, and seemed wholly intent on examining, with all the critical acuteness of an English jockey, the different points of the Arab horses, so far as he could see them, by the clear starlight of the evening. The emir resigned his beautiful horse to his followers, some of whom were quartered in the various desolate-looking towers of the " ' ' 1 icupied black tents and huts to the gate. Through several crooked passages in the boijy of the edifice we were led by an Abyssinian female slave, who bore a lamp, and wore a long dress of scarlet cotton, a linen veil, rings of latten on her fingers, and glass bracelets on her bare and shining arms, till we reached a kind of hall, where the taste of the Turks had achieved for their Beglerbeg what the simpler Yemenees could never have done for themselves. This hall had many slender pillars which upheld its painted roof, and the capitals of these were adorned by stones of blue alabaster, the bright spars, the onyxes and coarse emeralds, which are found in the neighbouring rocks. A number of perfumed lamps were now lighted by some pretty Abyssinian slaves, all remarkable for their graceful figures ana deli- cate features; and soft carpets were spread, and pipes and coffee prepared for us; for though our host, the emir, was a devout Mussulman, who never omitted, if possible, to turn his face towards Mecca five times in the twenty-four hours, to offer up his orisons at sunset, midnight, and other times set apart for prayer, he was not, like some I have met, so strict as to forbid even the use of coffee. A cool and delicious bath in the heart of the rocks refreshed us after •our long and toilsome ride. Though all the men in the place usually messed together, by the •emir's desire, on this night only Kior Ibn Kogia, and tnat atrocious old rogue, Jaffer, joined us. Eor the ladies of his house a repast was laid in another apartment, separated from the hall by a grating of thick brass wire, through which we could see their black eyes glistening as they scrutinized us, and heard their lively and harmo- nious voices, and their exclamations of astonishment at all we said and did—for the arrival of two real live Franks was indeed a start- near the pathway which led THE CASTLE OF JEBEL AHMER, OR THE RED MOUNTAIN. 135 ling incident in the monotony of their everyday lives—for ar occasional fight with the Futhalis was a mere trifle. We unbuckled our swords, lighted our pipes, and sat in a circle, with a supper of stewed mutton cut into small pieces, a bowl of rice, bread and cheese spread before us. Those who had knives prepared them; forks we had none, save those of Father Adam; and at the words of Mohamed,." Bismillah, begin!" we all being hungry as Kites, dived our hands into the platters, and fished up whatever we could get. It was not without great repugnance that I dipped my fingers into the same mess with Jaffer—a fellow who had been my own-servant, and whom I knew to be an assassin. Supper over, the Abyssinian slaves brought ewers and iavers of rose-water, with which they bathed our hands and faces, and plenti- fully besprinkled the obstinate beards of the emir and his two com- Eanions. Then they placed two brass tripods near us; threw a ghted match into each; smoke ascended, and the hall became per- fumed by the odour of the wood of aloes. We drank sherbet, which, to the evident discomposure of our companions, Fred tempered with a dash of brandy from his hunting-flask, for we had each one at our waist-belts. "Humbug !" said he to me, in a low voice; "the idea of these fellows, who would cut our throats without the smallest scruple, turning up the whites of their eyes at a nip of brandy. Harkee, Jaffer, will you have some, old boy ?" But Jaffer shook his head with strong disgust. There was but little conversation, for the emir was thoughtful, and we were weary. Jaffer and Kior, his followers, were fierce sons of the neighbouring wilderness, who had long lived there by the fruit of their spears—by violence and plunder; slaying alike the timid merchants of Mocha, the ferocious Wahabees, and the worn- out pilgrims, whose city of refuge was Mecca; sparing none whom they found in the desert. Their powers of conversation were some- what limited, consequently, after smoking for a time, and after the opium in their pipes had given to their dark and closing eyes a wild and smoky glare, they gradually fell asleep ; and the emir was nearly in the same dozing condition. Langley looked at his watch, saying, " Pleasant company, this ! nine o'clock ; how our fellows will be enjoying themselves at the mess about this very time; Popkins will be giving his first song, and O'Flamnigan the invariable story about his uncle's horses ; and here you and I are hobnobbing in the land of the Philistines. Do these brass doors open ? I think I'll join the ladies." " Don't think of it, pray," said I. "Why did not our friend in the chain jacket bring them in to supper ?" "I assure you, it is as much as the soles of their feet are worth 136 FRANK HILTON ; OR, " THE QUEEN'S OWN." Co be seen bj a man without the emir's permission, and more than a man's life is worth to 100k upon them." "What stuff! why now, if we were at home, with a piano, and all those fine girls—I suppose they are fine ones (of course they are!)—we should finish off to-night with a galop or deux-temps. He is a regular buck, this Mohamed! Only think, Frank; that fellow Jaffer, who has a head like a cigar-shop sign, but who has picked up some English at Aden—" " The scoundrel!—" "Told me that he had ten beautiful women under lock and key, and that the large tower, near which we enter, is the seraglio—" " Harem, Ered—only sultans have seraglios." " Well, well; harem or seraglio, it comes to the same thing in the end. They are guarded by six Darfur eunuchs, ferocious fellows whom Mohamed bought so far off as Muskat, at the great slave market, where those pretty Abyssinians are sold. How graceful these girls are ! 'Pon my honour, I should not care about investing a few pounds in that way myself. I would give a handful of rupees to have one peep through that grating ? Do you think these fellows are asleep ?" "I trust you will do no such thing," said I, grasping his arm; "our lives might pay for it." " And then we should lose our promotion; but just for something to tell at mess." " Well, tell that you spent the evening among them, and danced with them all—for none but simple Popkins will believe you; but hark ; how merrily they laugh !" " One much louder than the rest—his sister, probably." " Has he a sister?" said I. " So Jaffer told rne." "What a communicative old Thug he must be! Well, judging from the brother, I should like very much to see her." " We shall be introduced of course," said Ered, again diluting his sherbet with brandy. " Introduced! well, Ered, you have the most original ideas of these Orientals!" " I was once among them as far as the Dardanelles. We had a fine run inDe Lancy's yacht, from Cowes ; rather expensive though." Beds of carpets and cushions being prepared for us, by two of the prettiest of the Abyssinian girls, when the time came for retiring, we were led away by them, and on committing our heads to the pillow, had no reason in any way to complain of our treatment, oil '.his night, the first we had passed, in the chief stronghold of the oloodthirsty Abdali amis a. 137 CHAPTER XXIX. amina. Somewhat monotonously and listlessly two days slipped away at this castle of Jebel Ahmer, or the Red Mountain, so named from the colour of its rocks. In hospitality none could exceed the Emir Mohamed, whose character, during this half-compulsory visit, exhi- bited the true traits of the noble Arab, who, when war is over, is ever the friend of those confiding in him; and whose word, when once pledged, is irrevocable as fate. He never referred to the war maintained against us at Aden, lest it might lead to unpleasant sub- jects, but spoke regretfully of its departed glory, and told, that in the days of his father, Eerradeen, Aden, under its own sultan, had been a place of wealth and splendour, as the ruins of its spacious baths still testify. Then they were lined with marble and jasper, adorned with lofty pillars and galleries, and surmounted by a gilded dome. Now they are but a heap of stones. On the strength of our former acquaintance, Jaffer, who seemed a man of some importance in his tribe, made many advances to me; but I felt only repugnance and abhorrence for him, and my mind always went back to that morning when I found my poor sentry lying murdered on his post, with his head a yard from his body. Langley spent some hours of each morning in shooting at the plovers and partridges which whirred about the thorny mimosa trees, or at the hyaenas that lurked among the brushwood under the castle wall. I employed myself with the emir in throwing the lance at a target while riding at full gallop on the sward inclosed by the ram- parts ; I also made some little sketches of the fortress on the blank leaves of my pocket-book. These Mohamed begged permission to show to his wives and sister, who occupied the tallest and most grim of the Turkish towers, and all the windows of'.which, most pro- vokingly, opened to the valley without. My small artistic efforts were received with cries of delight and astonishment by the im- prisoned fair ones, whose anxiety to obtain an interview with the JFrankish visitor was greatly increased, and their clamours became so high, that the gallant emir resolved to gratify their whim; for the Arabs do not subject their women to the same restraint inflicted on them by other Orientals; indeed, many of the tribes permit them to go unveiled, to appear before strangers, and to bathe in the rivers without garments or guards. Lieut. Welsted, I think, mentions an instance of the latter having come under his own observation. The emir, after giving Kior Ibn Kogia a hint to find some object of interest among the horses for Ered Langley, of whom he felt somewhat dubious, having caught him winking with a remarkably knowing expression at some of the Abyssinian girls, and laughing with Kior himself, who passed for a roue among the Abdali, he lea 138 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S CWN." me through several long passages which were floored and ceiled with chunam, to the large tower of the harem, at the double doors of which were two repulsive looking black eunuchs on guard, each resembling the darkest of all bronze figures, with his ample red turban on his head, a cloth swathed round his body, sandals on his feet, and a crooked jambea in his girdle. Here, just as we passed the second door, which was inscribed by a peculiar verse from the Koran, Fred (who had suspected something of our mission) hurriedly joined us, and, somewhat to the emir's annoyance, passed his arm through mine, and entered also. We traversed a beautiful apartment, the walls of which were covered with those ornaments of network and mosaic which so fre- quently decorate the mosques and palaces of the East, but in which no figures of any kind are introduced, save those of plants, flowers, and foliage. Tnis arabesque work was pale and faded now, for it was doubtless the production of some artist who had come hither under the protection of the old Turkish Beglerbegs. Low cushions, vases, and flowers were the only furniture; and a few slaves, who were in attendance upon the ladies, loitered about, or sat sewing in corners. Between the festoons of a curtain we saw their mistresses, sitting in a group, in an apartment beyond, where they were laughing and talking, for they seemed always happy and gay. From the tower of the harem there projected over the precipitous red rocks, an elaborately carved balcony, the roof of which was sup- ported by eight slender arches of woodwork, so fine as to resemble interlaced willow wands; four of these were closed by sashes glazed with a thin transparent stone, which is found in the mountain quarries of Sana; the others were open, and here in the warm evening the sister of the emir and the ladies of the household (among whom were three of his wives) sat on soft cushions, embroidering, chatting, and fanning each other with large feather fans, unseen by all, and enjoy- ing the prospect of the glorious valley that stretched afar off between rocks and mountains, dotted with dark palms and shady walnut trees, until its perspective became mellowed and lost in that hot and sunny iaze; but in that ample valley seldom a living creature was seen, save some poor haji visiting afoot the little domed tomb of the Emir Ferradeen, a wandering Bedouin on his camel, or a wild Futhali on his fleet barb, witli his lance of reed, sixteen feet long, flashing in the sun, and his loose, uncombed locks streaming in the wind, as he rushed across the plain, intent on outrage and rapine; for more than all the descendants of Yarab and Ishmael, have the Futhalis had their hands uplifted against mankind. On our entrance, the quick white hands so instantaneously dropped the thick veils over their faces that nothing was visible of the ladies but their bright black eyes, to which their corpse-like head-dress lent an unnatural lustre. Their voices and laughter became hushed, and their occupations suspended, as we entered, and seated ourselves AMINA. 139 unbidden. Four, who sat round a little tripod stool, playing a game with pretty Persian cards, immediately covered up their hands in their flowing dresses. Other two were playing with a graceful little gazelle; their arms were bare, and, from all I could see, I should not have supposed that any one of them was, as Fred whispered, a degree darker than a pretty Parisian brunette; but two of the female slaves who attended them, had tattooed hands and faces, so dyed with henna, as to be beyond description frightful. By their richness of dress and their perfumes, the three wives were easily distinguished from the mere slaves. In their forms, in their air, and in the very indolence with which the Odalisques reclined among their soft cushions there was something classical and beau- tiful, though every part of their figures was shrouded by their veils, flowing vests, and short skirts of bright coloured Indian silk, and by their large striped trousers, which reached to their ankles, and were embroidered with silver fringes. All wore Indian bangles or bracelets, necklaces, and anklets of ductile gold. Their bright eves were fixed on us in silent wonder: and by their whispers, I could perceive that they were disappointed to find the two Faringis attired like—two very respectable Mahometans, and not, as their imagination had hitherto conceived, in some barbarous and unheard-of costume. I had warned Langley to be reserved, so, with a low bow, we seated ourselves in silence beside the emir, who addressed something of kindness or compliment to all, but chiefly to the. slightest of the shrouded fair ones, whom we ascertained to be his sister Amina. " In Frangistan," said he, " I have been told by merchants I have met at Mocha, that you teach your women all things; more than the men of our deserts or mountains can dream of. Amina has only two accomplishments—story-telling and embroidery; with the first she will be able to entertain her husband, when she is bestowed upon him; by the second, she will decorate her children, if the Prophet bestows them upon her; and what more does an Arab maid require, except the arts of grinding corn and making bread ?" I looked with much interest at Amina. She was evidently of an age which, in our northern clime, would have made her but a girl; but, like the full-grown fruits of her native land, she had ripened under the hot vertical sun of the tropics. She was a child of nature, and the proportions of her half-hidden form seemed as beautiful as her actions were graceful. The wives of her brother were full, vo- luptuous, and indolent-like women; but it was difficult to say which among the group of-veiled ladies had the brightest the blackest, the softest, or most Oriental eyes, as they all beamed alike through the embroidered holes in the top of their veils. "I brought the Franks here to amuse you Amina, Zeinab, and the others, so it is but fair that you should tell us a story to amuse ihem. The Arab has no written books," he added, turning to me, 140 franic hilton; or, -the queen's own." "but the Prophet gave him stories to tell and songs to sing; and there is no man among the Abdali who can tell a tale like the daughter of Ferradeen." "What shall it be?" asked the gentlest of voices, under the muslin veil, while two soft black eyes turned inquiringly from Langlej to me, and from me to her brother. "Tell us about the destruction of King Ad," said Zeinab, tho emir's first wife. "'No, no," said two ladies together, "we have heard that before —so often, too." " The Fountain of Life that flowed in the Land of Darkness,'1 suggested the emir, as a slave lighted his long hubble-bubble. " It is so short," said the sweet voice again; " you are determined not to be wearied by me. Will my voice tire you ?" " Your voice will never tire us," said Fred, being the first sen- tence he had ever put together in Arabic, and for which I contrived to give him an admonitory poke in the ribs. "Tell us of the geni who haunted the Red Mountain in the times of old," said Zeinab. "Yes, yes," cried they all, clapping their hands; "the Geni and the Daughter of the Sheikh al Jebel Ahmer." And after bending her beautiful eyes on the rich carpet for a few moments, Arnina, in her soft, harmonious Arabic, told us the following story; and I give it in ber own words, as nearly as I can remember them. CHAPTER XXX. story of the sheikh's daughter who married. A geni. " Once upon a time, long before the Turks anchored their galleys at Aden, or displayed their banners in Yemen, there was a sheikh of Johasmi named Zama, who dwelt in this castle of Jebel Ahmer, for it was a fortress of the Arabs before the kings of Egypt came through the Gate of Tears, having been built by the pagan sons of ishmael; and they buried alive, under each of its towers, two of the youngest virgins of the sixty tribes which are descended from Yarab, the son of Kahtan, the founder of Yemen. " In the days of the old Sheikh Zama, Jebel Ahmer had thirty towers; now it hath but ten. "'Though the sheikh had many wives, he had only one child, a daughter, who was named Zarela, and sometimes Gazella, her eyes being large, soft, and lustrous as those of the gazelle. In beauty she surpassed the maids of many tribes, for they could not produce a virgin to vie with Zarela. Her teeth were as two rows of little pearls; her eyebrows were as two black slender arches, and so fine that they required no touch of kohel; her breath was sweet as the incense of Sheba; she was called the Fifth perfect woman; and STORY OP THE SHEIKH'S DAUGHTER WHO MARRIED A GENT. 141 many a brave warrior's soul became a captive in tlie net of her glossy aair; but the chief of these were the Sheikh Ali Mustapha of Dhafar, who was dying for her sake, and the Emir Osman of the Abdali, who loved her with all his heart, and was so wasted by pining, that he was scarcely the shadow of a man. " The venerable Zama doted on his daughter, and never tired of gazing on her, for she was so beautiful; and by her desire he refused all the bribes of her lovers; flocks of fat-tailed sheep and goats: droves of camels and beautiful horses; gilded tents, tufted spears, sharp timetars, gold and jewels, for none of the young sheikhs would Zareia marry, saying that she wished to end her days in her father's towers, on the Jebel Ahmer; but the truth was, that her soul was intoxicated with the incense of praise, and she thought that in all the sixty tribes of Yarab, there was not an emir who was worthy to tie the latchets of her sandals. " Yet she had a heart that was not without susceptibility, for in her lonely thoughts and secret heart, she longed for something that was more beautiful and more perfect than it has pleased Heaven to create in the form of man. " She had also, unknown to all, an invisible lover, who heard all her wishes, and divined all those secret longings; for every wish was gratified the moment she conceived it. If she wanted a rose from the distant brooks of the valley, it lay in her lap ; if she wished for the flowers of midsummer, even in winter, they clambered, without fading, among the red rocks of Jebel Ahmer; if she longed for richer dresses than her father's wealth, or his people's valour, could procure, lo ! the bright silks of Angora, the soft shawls of Cashmere, the yellow beads of Bokhara, the snow-white pearls of Oman, the sparkling diamonds of Ormuz, the sweet incense of Hadramaut, the golden slippers of the west, the silver muslins of the east, and the richest jewels of Persia, lay around her; and thus every thought was anticipated and every wish fulfilled. "Then Zareia knew that she had a geni for a lover; and while her heart trembled with mingled terror ana pleasure, she implored him to come before her. The words had scarcely left her hps when there appeared, at the edge of the bright carpet on which she sat, a man, or rather, a youth, who in bloom and beauty, in stature and raiment, surpassed all the men she had ever seen, and to whom the handsome Emir Osman and the Sheikh Mustapha were as dusky Nubians when compared to an Arab of the Arabs. Then the bright geni told how he loved and how he worshipped her, and begged only her gratitude for his favours, with her fidelity in time to come, but more than all, he prayed her to be secret and sincere. Eull of gratitude for the magnificent presents he had heaped upon her, proudly anticipating that she would now command all that every quarter of the world con- tained, and dazzled by the wondrous beauty, the soft voice, and win- ning manner of the awful spirit, she fatally consented to love and obey him in all things; to yield herself up to him in body and in 14:2 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE Q.UEEN's OWN." soul; to be bis, and bis only! never to hear the words of love from other lips, and never to love another. "Now it may he necessary to tell these Franks something of the nature of the genii, that they may know why the faithful* believe in them. " They inhabited the world ages before Adam was created, and were governed by princes who bore the name of Suleiman; and this spirit told Zarela, that on being driven by Eblis into remote parts of the earth, these genii, after a long war with Tamurath, king of Persia, were now inhabiting the barren mountains of Kaf, but that a time was coming when men would be destroyed, and all the world would be again then own. "We are told, moreover, by the blessed Koran, that there is created an intermediate order of beings who are partly angels and partly demons. There are genii who are created of fire, and are of a grosser fabric than the angels, for they eat, drink, marry and have little genii; and for their conversion, as well as the saving of man- kind, the Holy Prophet came among us; for they heard him read the Koran by night in the valley of Alnakla; and we are told in the Merciful chapter which was revealed at Mecca, that on the last terrible day, when heaven shall be rent asunder and the sky become red as a rose; and when the earth shall melt beneath our feet, that both men and genii shall be judged according to their works; that the bad genii shall be taken by their feet and forelocks, and flung headlong into hell; but that the good shall have shady gardens to inhabit, and shall repose upon couches, the linings whereof shall be of silk interwoven with the finest gold; and therein shall be agreeable and beautiful damsels, having fine black eyes, all kept in pavilions secluded from the public view; and therein shall they lie on green cushions and soft carpets, rich with intoxicating perfumes.* " Now the spirit who loved the beautiful Zarela, and to whom she had vowed her fidelity and love, was the king of those wicked genii, who had scoffed at the voice of the Prophet, when he was on his re- treat to Altayif, and read the Koran in the night; he was the demon who tempted Solyman Ibn Daood, and buried scrolls of magic under his throne, that they might be found there, and so defame him; and though his eyes were usually bright and beautiful, Zarela observed, that when she spoke of men or of aught that was holy, they assumed a fiendish glare which terrified her; for the geni knew that he was doomed, and could never pass the bridge of A1 Sirat, so in time she learned to avoid speaking of such things; her mind became full of evil; and there, in her tower of Jebel Alimer, she passed her time with the spirit, amid such delights, splendour, and happiness as no mortal should share out of paradise, and she rarely left the apart- ment which was assigned her by the good old sheikh, to whose eyes the gorgeous presents of the geni remained invisible even to tbo minutest thread. * See Koran, chapter lv. STORY OP THE SHEIKH'S DAUGHTER WHO MARRIED A GENI. 14:3 " At last the Sheikh Zama began to weary of his daughter's obsti- liacy in refusing the bravest young men of the tribes, and commanded her to choose between the Emir Osman and the Sheikh Mustapha, for he was very desirous of seeing her sons at the head of his people, but she resolutely refused, and in great perplexity he sought the advice of a learnea dervish who dwelt in yonder valley, ' for,' said he, 'her obstinacy in the matter of marriage is altogether strange, and was never heard of among all the women of the sixty tribes; they usually begin to look for husbands through the holes in their veils as soon as they pass their tenth year.' "' She is perhaps enchanted by a wicked magician,' suggested the dervish, ' or influenced by certain spirits of the air.' "' Dost thou think so ?' asked the sheikh, every hair of whose beard trembled with terror. "' Alas, have we not heard of such things ?' replied the other. " 'But how shall I know this, O dervish ?' asked Zama, unsheathe ing his cimitar in the impulse of anger, for he loved his daughter even as his own soul. "' Anoint thine eyes with this ointment, which dropped from the golden spout of the Kaaba,' replied the dervish; ' and if there are spirits about her, thou shalt see them plainly as I now see thee.' " The aged sheikh thanked the dervish and gave him a camel which was as white as a new-laid egg, and after praying long with his face towards Mecca, and after fasting and bathing himself many times, he touched his eyes with the holy ointment, and lo ! he saw all things with a wonderful distinctness; the most distant parts of yonder far- stretching valley seemed close at hand; he could see every fibre and leaf of the palms that grew at the horizon, the insects that crawled thereon, and the spider that spun under the shade of the creeping vines'. He could discern a thousand wonderful animals, even the little drops of dew that distilled from the way-side flowers, and the smallest blade of grass appeared to have as many fibres as the thorny mimosa. " He went straight to the tower where his daughter dwelt, and leaving his slippers at the door, that he might tread with greater softness, ascended unheard to her chamber, on entering which, he could no longer recognise it, for the plain woollen stuffs of her own and her mother's spinning had disappeared, and in their place were gorgeous hangings of silk and gold, Persian carpets such as' the wives of the Prophet might have envied,—for these had been col- lected by the genii from the uttermost points of the earth for their king's palace, which lay in the mountains of Kaf. But what were the emotions of the aged sheikh, when he saw his beautiful daughter asleep, and locked in the embraces of a wicked geni, who, instead 01 the angelic form in which he appeared to her, bore his real aspect— for the miraculous ointment of the Kaaba made all plain to Zama, and it was more hideous than one of the tribes of Ad—more fright- fu1 than the form of Eblis after the fail. 144 PRANK. HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." "With his sharp cimitar Zama made a blow, which would have slain them both, but the wakeful demon caught the descending blade in his long bony claws, snatched it from the hand of the sheikh, and vanished into the air with a cry which rent the solid walls of the tower, though to the ears of Zarela it seemed but as a soft and whispered adieu. " The mind of the poor sheikh was distracted by grief and terror; but he kept all this secret, and wept while he tied round his deluded daughter's neck a precious stone which had been in the hilt of the Prophet's sword, when he cleft the moon in twain, and gave a symbol to the faithful, by placing her in two halves in the darkened sky at noon. This stone had been dipped in the Fountain of Life, and on it were inscribed certain words from the holy Koran. This was to protect her from the touch of the geni; then he anointed her eyes that she might see him in all his native deformity when again he approached her; and when he did so, how great was her horror— how deep her disgust and loathing! " Then she repulsed him, and the wrath of the spirit was great. He would have strangled her with his long talons—for his hands were as the claws of an eagle—but she was guarded by the holy talisman of the Prophet; and he could only gaze upon her in rage, and tauntingly remind her of promises given, and vows she had broken. "' I vowed to love a beautiful spirit—not a fiend like Eblis, more hideous than the gods of the Adites; to him I gave my promise, not, 0 wretch, to thee.' " And she placed the Koran in her bosom as a safeguard against him; upon this the spirit disappeared, and in his rage he split the tower in which she dwelt to the lower foundations, rending it so, that the white bones of the virgins, on which they had been laid in the old times, were visible to all; and all the splendour and luxuries with which he had surrounded Zarela vanished like a sunbeam from before her. "' Happy were the Arabs of old, and wise too,5 said the sheikh; 8 for when a son was born5 they killed a kid and rejoiced that one more herdsman and soldier was added to the tribe; but when a daughter came, they mourned lest she might disgrace the stock she sprang from, even as thou, 0 Zarela, hast disgraced thy aged father and the whole tribe of Johasmi! Yerily the Prophet saw clearly when he looked into hell, and saw that the greater number there were women.5 " A sentiment hovering between shame and fear subdued the heart of Zarela, and (though she would rather have had Osman of the Abdali) at her father's request she consented to receive the young Sheikh of Dhafar as her. husband, and a day was fixed when they should appear before the kadi; but Zarela was visited again by the king of the wicked genii, who although invisible, had been constantly hovering about her, watching for a moment when she might perhaps 8T0RY OP THE SHEIKH'S DAUGHTER "WHO MARRIED A GENI. 145 relinquish the talisman of the prophet, in bathing or in dressing, but she guarded it as the saviour of her life. " Again his face and form were beautiful, for he appeared as he had done at first; but the heart of Zarela was steeled against decep- tion, for she knew that he had another and a true form. His face was reddened by passion, and his inflamed eyes shone like two car- buncles, while he swore by his hopes of paradise (which, as he was one of the evil genii, were very small indeed), that he would have vengeance; and after reminding her that the Prophet had declared, how at the last day, those who like her had indulged their passions would become corrupt even as an old corpse; and how those who like her had been false, proud, and vainglorious, would be clothed in a garment of pitch, he vanished as usual like a rushing blast, and with a wild cry. " She was sorely disturbed, but strove to forget him, and busied herself in the assortment of her bridal garments, and sat here—in this very gallery—looking far down yonder valley for the galloping horses and glittering spears of the young sheikh, and the youths of his tribe. " She looked long and wearily, but he never came; then Zarela remembered the threats of the wicked geni, and wept bitterly for her absent bridegroom. " Before his marriage the young sheikh had gone on a pilgrimage to a tomb in the desert of Oman, where he said all his prayers like a good Mussulman, with his face towards the Keblah, and thereafter set out on his homeward journey over that sea of sand, where the only living animals were the long-legged ostriches, the fleet antelopes, the wild asses and bustards. But lo! scarely had he left the precincts of the holy place, when a stupendous column of sand appeared at the horizon pursuing them, and it was in the form of a man! "Now the camel which the sheikh rode was descended from that which bore the Prophet in his flight from Mecca, and there was none like it in all Oman, Yemen, or Nejed, for speed or beauty. Por three days the young sheikh rode like the wind of the desert, and for three days the mighty column of sand followed, drawing nearer and more near, loftier and more lofty, until it was close behind him. On the night of the third it overwhelmed him, and he was buried there for ever, even as the giants who dwelt of old inNeied were swallowed urn and one only of all his train escaped to Jebel Ahmer, where the old Sheikh Zama rent his beard and cast ashes on his head, when he heard the evil tidings. But there was no time to be lost, and know- ing that the Emir of the Abdali was preferred by his daughter, and had moreover a talisman which had adorned the turban of Omar, he sent for him, and though the emir had never seen more of Zarela than her eyes, and loved her only for her gentleness and the beauty she was rumoured to possess, he was overwhelmed with joy, and at the head of a gallant train departed from his black tents near the river of Meidam, and arrived at Jebel Ahmer, untouched by the genii. 146 FitANK HILTON; OK, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." Thrice, however, had the latter appeared to Zarela, with liis eyes yet more crimsoned with rage, for the talisman of Omar was too powerful for his wickedness ; and the third time poor Zarela trembled, for he was accompanied by another geni of prodigious stature, whom she had never seen before, but whom, by his terrible eyes and huge mis- shapen hands, she knew to be Ifrit, the most cruel of all the wicked spirits. v " Meanwhile the whole tribe of Johasmi were making merry in and around JebelAhmer; the horses were haltered and bows unstrung; the tents were pitched without the walls, and a feast prepared within them; the young kids of the flock were killed; rice, milk and dates, honey and sherbet formed the repast; and there were Egyptian almas or dancing girls, story-tellers and musicians, with their pipes, gaspahs, and timbrels. "Three days they rejoiced on the summit of the Red Mountain; on the evening of the third the young emir and his bride (whose beautiful face he had never seen) were left for the first time alone together. Trembling with all a lover's impatience, he hastened to raise her veil (the last piece of attire the daughters of Johasmi laid aside), but timidly she shrank back, and by this motion his hand detached the holy talisman from her neck, and it fell upon her couch! At that moment, when the ardent lover was throwing his arms around his trembling bride, a roar, as if the rocks were splitting, was heard; a thick vapour encircled them, and when it cleared away Zarela was gone! " At the same instant of time the aged dervish, her father's friend, was praying beside yonder well that flows through the valley; and lifting up Ins eyes beheld something like a cloud rise from the towers of JebelAhmer. 'It crossed the starry sky towards the red light at the horizon, which marked where the sun had set, and then vanished in the direction of the vast desert which lies between Mecca and Oman; for the sandy waste is a favourite resort of the genii, and of all wicked spirits. "The rocks of Jebel Ahmer were rent on one side by the cry oi the triumphant geni, and there yet remains the chasm into which no man can enter without being struck dead by a burning wind; and near its mouth are found those wonderful Arabian stones, which when once heated, will never more grow cold. " Zarela was never seen again ; in that dark cloud she had passed away from the side of her terrified husband, and no trace of her remained but her bridal garments, which were strewn about the chamber, and a jewel which glittered among the pillows of their nuptial couch. "It was her broken necklace, with the talisman oi the Prophet! Such is the story of the lady who married a wicked geni." "Mashallah!" said Zeinab, and all the ladies clapping their hands in admiration as Amina concluded, for the cry of " admirably well," is the invariable tribute of praise awarded to the Eastern story-teller STORY or THE SHEIKH'S DAUGHTER TOO MARRIED A GEM. 14? In the most choice terms I could command, I thanked her for fhe legend which she had favoured us, and Langley added his thanks to mine; but as this condescension was unnecessary, the emir somewhat impatiently gave a long and angry pull at the amber mouth of his hubble-bubble, which made the rose-water gurgle in the glass vase. There was something inexpressibly winning in the soft voice and sweet intonations of this young Arab girl, and her fine eyes, (the only features visible) shaded by their long lashes, and very slightly, if at all, touched with kohel, gave additional point and expression to the various parts of her story; on concluding which she relapsed into timid silence; and after plates of figs and hulwah, or sweet-meats composed of honey, sugar and almonds, together with a preparation of milk in cups, were served round by the Abyssinians, we retired, leaving behind us the emir, who mani- fested no desire of departing. " Six months—nay, a week ago, Frank, who could have imagined that you and I would have been in the heart of an Oriental sane- turn sanctorum—a harem, or what-do-you-call-it ?" said Langley, as we walked to and fro in the evening, before the gate of the fort, smoking cigars of our own making. "In truth, I know not where we shall find ourselves next," said I. " Now you may tell the mess with a clear conscience." " But will they believe us ?" "Not one; I think I hear O'Flannigan laughing at it as a bounce got up for the occasion.' "But only think," continued Fred after a pause : "only think of this gay fellow of an emir having all those fine women to him- self! I wonder what he paid for them a-head, and where he got them. By the shape of their hands I could see they were all handsome, or at least, delicate women. I am sure that little Amina must be a beauty. Faith, I feel quite interested in her '" " But what do you think of her story, Fred ?" " I understood only one word in three; but I think it is deuced iucky for us that those genii and giants have gone out of fashion, for if our friends, the Abdali, had a few such troops to aid them, neither 'the Queen's Own,' nor the Native Infantry, would keep Aden long, Gem—I had a devilish fine horse of that name; he won the best plate at the Oaks for three consecutive years ; but I sold him to De Lancy for only five hundred pounds, and lost every shilling of them next day, on a stupid bet with Howard of the Buffs. 'Pon my soul, I would sicken of Aden, but for the opportunity now afforded to my factors and attorney of repairing all the damage a few years of fast-life have done to my exchequer." After another long pause, he said, "Are you not inclined to fall in love with this girl, Amina ? (Pretty name, is it not ?)" " In love with her ?" said I, while at the word my thoughts rushed 148 IRANK HILTON j OR, THE " QUEEN'S OW' with a pang to the memory of my lost Cecil; " in love with a girl 1 never saw—an Arab—not very probably !" " Well—I am—very much!" "Why?" " I never saw such soft—such glorious eyes !" " But her nose, Bred; it may be shaped like a powder-horn; and her mouth may be front ear to ear." "I will bet a thousand it is not; no mouth but a pretty one could speak so sweetly; and from the delicacy of her hand and arm, I am sure she must be perfect. Nothing charms me more than a beautiful hand; it indicates a great deal; what is more seductive in our Englishwomen than their finely tapered hands and white rounded arms ?" " Believe me, Fred, if you saw a fashionable English girl appear just now—say one like Letty Howard—" " Or Blanche Palmer!" "Well—or Blanche, since you will have it so,—your admiration for this wild flower of Arabia would die in a moment." "Perhaps so—but at present I am inclined to fall in love with her." " Having nothing else to do—eh, Ered ?" At that moment we saw the veiled figure of a female appear on the crumbling wall of the old fort, just above where we were loung- ing, and the identical rounded arm and beautiful hand, which Langley was praising, was stretched towards us. The white fingers opened, and there fell a little bouquet of freshly culled flowers, as a re- ward, not to me for my praise of her story, but—as it afterwards proved—to Langley, whose broken Arabic had strangely captivated the ear of Amina. "Bravo !" said Ered, kissing the flowers as she disappeared, "here are violets—the emblem of modesty, white rosebuds—purity; a sprig of cypress for silence—an Oriental love letter!" CHAPTER XXXI. the euthalis. When 1 thought of the fierce and barbarous conflicts which had taken place between our garrison at Aden and the Abdali, and when I remembered the many cruel and hostile acts they had perpetrated, I could scarcely realize the circumstance of Ered and I being guests of their emir, hobbing and nobbing every day over the same bowls of beans and dhourra, or the same pillau of fowl and rice—enjoying ourselves at dinner as much as Christian men could do, in a land where people had breakfast, dinner, and supper, sans knives and forks, chairs and tables. " I know nothing of the customs of other countries," said Mo< THE EUTHALIS. 149 named, " for I have never been further from Yemen than Mecca; for he who hathnot made the pilgrimage to that mother of cities and region of the Faithful, may as well die a Jew or a—Christian. Yet, as every nation of Frangistan, like every tribe of our desert, has its own. manners, I cannot but be a stranger to yours; so that I trust, while yon do me the favour to tarry in Jebel Ahmer, you will follow your own wishes and inclination in all things—for, in the tent and in the house, the Arab's guest is the Arab's lord and master." To this handsome speech I replied in proper terms; but in courtesy and the art of complimenting, the emir was infinitely our superior. We had now been so long at Jebel Ahmer that one morning, as we strolled on the sward before the gate of the fortress, while the emir was at prayer, Fred and I were just concluding that it was high time we were on for Sana, as O'Hara, though one of the best fellows in the service, was not to be trifled with, when our attention was arrested by seeing my old rascal Jaffer and several Arabs, all mounted and armed, issuing from the gate were the brass cannon stood. The ends of their red turbans and voluminous beards floated together on the wind. They were guarding four of the Emir ladies, who were mounted on white camels. Though every vestige of their figures (their quick, expressive eyes excepted) were enveloped in ample shawls, we could easily recognise Amina, and supposed her three companions were the emir's wives. Before they came forth from the gate we had seen them mount at the door of the harem, when each of these patient and docile, but somewhat unshapely animals, knelt down to receive its load; but before seating herself, Amina gave to her camel a few mouthfuls of sweet cake from the hollow of her white hands ; then, opening her veil, she kissed its rough nose, and lightly springing on the hump where her saddle was placed, it immediately rose with her, and began to move away; for neither the camel nor dromedary—two species of the same animal—require to be touched by whip or spur. The soft wind lifted the light muslin dress of Amina, and revealed to us her left ankle, which was white as a lily, encased in an open sandal of yellow leather, but without any stocking. The whole four had the gayest of Chinese parasols, adorned by little feathers and long silky iringes, but no gloves. Though it is not customary in the East to recognise females, as tins interesting group passed us, guarded by the slender lances of the Abdali horsemen, we bowed very low, which only had the effect of making the ladies quicken their speed, and in doing so, Amina's bridle dropped from her hand. Jaffer awkwardly tried to regain it by using the point of his spear, and, in doing so, pricked the camel on the nose. Alarmed and snorting with pain, the animal swerved furiously round and plunged backwards to the edge of the narrow path, where the sheer rocks overhung the valley below. Amina uttered a shrill cry of terror ' 150 FRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." We both sprang forward, but Langley, who was, as he said, "more used to cattle" than me, recovered the fallen bridle in a moment, reduced the heavy animal to subjection, stroked it on the head, and placed the reins in the hands of Amina, who, in her terror, had dis- turbed the complication of her head-dress, and just as Ered was with- drawing, a puff of wind lifted the frail muslin screen, and revealed to us (but for one instant only) a very lovely face—eyes full of the most beautiful animation, a pretty nose, and the dearest little mouth and chin that ever were hidden by one of those hideous veils. " I knew that girl was divine!" said Langley, triumphantly, as the train wound down the narrow path into the wadi or valley below; " for her voice is like the sweetest notes of an iEolian harp, and I know that none but a charming girl could so modulate her tones. You saw her ? Is she not quite enchanting ?" "But think of such a girl," said he, after a pause, "one who might ornament any European court, wasting all her sweetness here ' on the desert air,' and being presented, perhaps, to some beast of a bashaw by her liberal brother, just as he would bestow a horse, a cow, a tent, or a hookah!" he added, dashing the remains of a cigar against the wall; " how many girls have we heard extolled at home as beauties, and who turned the heads of a whole mess-table, yet had not a thousandth part of the piquancy, beauty, or artlessness of this Abdali girl!" "The deuce!" said I, "you are quite enraptured! But take care," I added, as the emir joined us, "you will end by nursing yourself into a fit of love for this black-eyed Arab; and I believe you may as well fall in love with the moon." " Why so ? She is a woman—is she not ? and therefore may be • wooed and won,' as some one says somewhere." "True, Ered; but the wooing and winning, the fun and flirtation that suited our field-days and rowing-matches, our balls and pic-nics, at Chatham and Canterbury, wont pass muster at all here in Jebe Ahmer, on the other side of the world." Perceiving that we were observing the ladies and Jaffer's escort, as they wound through the green valley between tufts of sugar-cane, f etches of growing wheat, and the fallow-fields where the dhourra of the last season had been reaped, Mohamed told us that this day being their holy one, Eriday, or Yawm al jama, the anniversary of the Prophet's arrival at Medina, four of the household had gone to pray at the tomb of his father, the brave and good Emir Eerradeen, who had long maintained a disastrous war with the Euthalis. It stood about two miles distant, in the prettiest part of the valley, and was a square edifice, having a dome with four little minarets that glittered with their copper gilding amid the drooping palms and thick dark cypresses, which formed a grove around it. There many lamps were burning constantly, and the four ladies had gone to visit the grave and to pray, for some of the Mahomedans believe that the dead can hear their voices as well as the living, for THE FUTHALIS. 151 \ is. affirmed that the Prophet was wont to salute the departed, when he stood by their resting-places; and for a time we continued to observe the little party of pilgrims with their guards, until they all disappeared among the trees which surrounded the tomb of Perradeen. During the heat of noon we retired to a vaulted chamber in the oldest part of the fortress, where a well or marble basin stood in the centre, lending a coolness to the atmosphere, and there, near an arched opening, or unglazed window, facing the ridges of green hills which stretched away towards the north, we smoked and dozed through the sultry hours, lounging on folded carpets and soft cushions. The emir had an immense hookah; Pred and I had each a long chibouque with a cherry stick. The coolness of the place was delightful, while the fragrance of the orange and the citron trees, wafted from the valley below, mingled with perfume that smouldered in a small silver vessel depending ..from the ceiling of the vault above us. The shadows of the mountains were beginning to lengthen, and the increasing coolness of the atmosphere made me think that the time was approaching when we should mount and ride in the prosecution of our mission to Sana, when a wild but distant cry arose to our ears from the valley below. The emir's eyes lighted up, he dropped the amber mouthpiece of his pipe, and placed his hands upon his carpet in readiness to spring to his feet. "Allah Ackbar!" It came distinctly enough the second time—the terrible war-cry of the Abdali, and our ears tingled as we heard it. Then the hoarse winding of a crooked horn and the dull rolling of an Arabian drum, the usual summons to arms, or to horse, immediately followed, and we rushed from the vault to the esplanade, or yard of the fortress, there all was confusion, hurrying, mounting, saddling and arming; fpears were assumed and matchlocks loaded, while cries of "the Puthalis ! the Puthalis!—Allah il allah!" went from mouth to mouth. Spurring up the steep and winding pathway, Jaffer, alone, of all the escort, with the three wives of the emir, returned at full speed from the valley, covered with blood from a wound on the head; his turban cleft, his over-shirt torn, his spear broken, his jambea between his teeth, and his swarthy visage turned to leaden grey by rage and terror, while his gleaming; eyes were wild and bloodshot. He related that a band of the Puthalis had suddenly swept down the valley and surrounded the tomb of Perradeen, where, after a desperate combat, they had slain all the escort but himself, and after maltreating the wives of Mohamed, had borne away his sister, a prisoner towards the mountains. That fiery gleam of rage which can only shine in the eyes of an Oriental, filled those of the emir at these startling tidings; yet con- trolling his passion in a masterly manner, he heard him with appa- rent coolness to the end. " God is great!" said he, raising his hands and eyes upward, " but 152 XJUANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." by His house, the holy Kaaba! by the Zemzen well and by the City of the Prophet, I will fearfully avenge this attack on the Sultan Ahmed! Now then—the women to their prayers and spindles—the men to their saddles and spears ! The young shall mount and ride with me; the old men and boys shall prepare to defend the fort, and let them see, on peril of their heads and feet, that every match- lock and ginjaul are loaded and in order. Ibn Kogia, bring me my arms." The emir subdued his passion, and assuming an aspect of placidity, domed his chain shirt, steel cap, and brilliant arms, while we re- mained idle spectators of the bustle and confusion around us, having but vague ideas of who these obnoxious Futhalis were; and when I attempted to condole with the emir on the loss he had sustained, he stopped me by a verse of the Koran, and replied, that "it was Amina's fate, which nothing could avert, turn aside, or anticipate, for the destinies of all mankind were bound about their necks." By this time nearly three hundred men were on horseback. " Come, Frank," said Langley, who was considerably excited, "let us mount and ride with the emu*—I should like to have a shot at those devilish Futhalis with this revolver." " If I was my own master, Fred, I should gladly go, but duty must be done; we have already lost four days, and to involve our- selves in this expedition, the end of which we cannot foresee—" " True—true," said he, impatiently; " but I don't think you saw this poor girl's face—it is so beautiful! and to think of her being carried off by those Futhalis, who are, I suppose, only greater bar- barians than'her own people—" "Hush—I only fear that her brother will not understand the manner in which our duty fetters us, and why we must not engage in any casual quarrel." " He understands it perfectly," said the emir, who overheard me, " and brave as the Faringis may be, two of them (even such as you) would be but an incumbrance to us in our fleet pursuit. For days and days we may track these robbers, over mountains where you might sink with fatigue, through sandy deserts wheie you might die of thirst; so pursue your own path in peace, and God be pleased, we shall yet meet again. Kior Ibn Kogia will guide you to the tents of the Sheikh Abdulmelik, to whom you will give this letter, and he will guard you to Sana, for the love he bears me, being a food old man who has no quarrel with any one, even the accursed uthalis." " Why have they wronged you ?" The Arabian emir smiled bitterly, as he put his foot in the wooden stirrup of his high silver-mounted saddle, and leaped on his beau- tiful horse. " The gold of Arabia," said he, " the ivory and the riches which were here of old, when the galleys of Hiram and of Solomon ploughed the Sea of Kolzom, the Gulf of Persia, and the Bay of Onnuz, are THE FUTHALIS. IB 3 no more to be found among us than the sweet incense of Sheba or the treasures of Ophir. All have passed away! the green moun- tains of Yemen, the yellow sands of Nejed and of Oman only remain, and these, like our dwellers in the tents, are unchanged. Since the days of Ishmael the outcast, our race of the desert—ahl el Wahbar—have had their hands upraised against mankind, as it was prophesied of old, and all men's hands are armed against them; for it is too true that rancour, prejudice, and barbarity have formed an impassable gulf between the wild Arab and the man of Fran- gistan. I know this—I am an Arab, for I have dwelt in cities ; thus, the Futhalis in warring against me, are but fulfilling' their destiny; and in destroying them, if I am able, I am but fulfilling mine. God is great! Set forward, Jaffer, and let Kior Ibn Kogia follow with all he can collect, after leaving the camp of Ab- dulmelik. Tell the Abdali that I will not count those who follow me to battle, but that fearfully will I reckon them cowards who remain behind—if, indeed, there be a coward in the desert! This unhappy event," he added, turning again to us, " has shortened my duty of hospitality, and I regret it the more, because I may never again (for fate is in the hand of God) have an opportunity of making up the loss within the walls of Jebel Ahmer." I hastened to assure him that we must, of necessity, have that day bidden him adieu. "Farewell, then, and peace be with you. You are going to Sana to influence a powerful sultan against me, his most faithful friend and ally. Any other in my place would have decoyed and slain you, but we have eaten salt together, and once you saved my life. Should the Sultan Solyman become my enemy, I have still the un- bounded desert—my horse and my spear, the last, the best, and never-lost inheritance of Hagar's desolate son." " What a famous hero for a romance this emir would make!" said I to Fred, as Mohamed left us, and I secured in a safe place his letter which he had marked on one corner with the word Kutimir, being the name of the dog of the seven sleepers, which many of the Arabs inscribe on their letters as a charm to prevent miscar- riage; for this beatified cur was taken up into Paradise, where, no doubt, he has had all the enjoyment a dog could wish for. The emir, with nearly five hundred men, left the strong fortress and the miserable hamlet beside it; and nothing could be more striking than the appearance of so many turbaned Abdali in their flowing garments, with the barrels of their matchlocks, their long Arab swords, and the bright points of their tasseled spears flashing ji the light of the setting sun, as their proud, graceful, and beau- tiful horses descended the narrow and dangerous path which wound by the sheer edge of the giddy precipices from Jebel Ahmer into the wadi below. As soon as they reached the level ground, every man uttered the shrill tecbir, brandished his long lance, urged on his horse to its utmost speed, and in an incredibly short space of time 154 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." the whole train vanished into the warm golden haze, which shrouded the lower end of the valley. While a number of old Abdali, whose snow-white beards and eye- brows gave their nut-brown visages a most venerable aspect, loaded the brass guns before the gate, and the ginjauls, or long Indian muskets, that were fixed in iron rests along the half-dismantled towers (a task in which they were assisted by a mob of half-naked youths, wearing only turbans and cummerbunds, or with their hair knotted up behind — a fashion of the Yemenees), Langley and I mounted, and after a last examination of our arms, set forth under the guidance of Kior Ibn Kogia, a fine and intelligent young Abdali warrior, to reach the village of the Sheikh Abdulmelik. As we descended the steep side of the Red Mountain, the sun appeared to sink fast behind the distant hills, and when we reached the deep and lonely valley, it dipped below the horizon, which was steeped in a gorgeous flood of yellow light, against which the solemn palms and sombre cypresses surrounding the little dome of old Eerradeen's shrine were strongly defined in black outline; while behind us, the rugged rocks of Jebel Ahmer, and the towers of the ancient fort that crowned its summit, were all bathed in a warm and ruddy glow. As we rode on, the orange and citron trees which mingled with the growing corn and green cane tufts, shed a rich fragrance on the dewy air; but not a sound broke the silence of the vast valley we were traversing, save the voice of a solitary Arab shepherd, sum- moning his sheep and goats to the milking, and a wild monotonous air, which was chanted by Ibn Kogia, to please the animal he rode and wile the tedious way. CHAPTER XXXII. THE ALMA. As the hamlet of Shugra, with its old fort, which was the principal residence of the Sultan Ahmed, a wild Bedouin sheikh of the vm- dictive Euthalis, lay to the eastward of Aden, and at a considerable distance from our line of march, I did not think we ran much risk of encountering his people, especially if we pursued our old intention of reaching the Mocha road, and thus we crossed the hills which girt the southern side of the valley. Before leaving the latter, we passed traces of the recent outrage, for near the tomb of Eerradeen lay two of the ladies' escort quite dead; one was pierced by a lance, which had beeu driven through his bare and bronzelike bosom; the other was disfigured by a sword cut which extended from his brow to his bushy beard. This had slain him on the spot, but the other had bled slowly to death, for he lay against a palm-tree with his beads in his hand, and his ghastly visage turned towards the keblah. THE ALMA. 15?- A little further on lay a gay parasol and one of the little slippers or sandals which had been on the pretty and otherwise naked feet of Amina. Langley sprung from his horse, and for some time regarded the relic with sorrowful interest not unmixed with anger. "Poor Amina! poor girl!" said he, as we rode on. " Perhaps this quarrel may prove a fortunate occurrence for us at Aden," said I; " for if these wild men fall out among themselves, our soldiers will be allowed to sleep at night, unharnessed and m quiet." "But you forget the engaging girl who has been carried off." "I do not forget her," said I; "but I suppose the girls here are used to that sort of thing; and believe me, Pred, that had duty permitted us, I would gladly have ridden by her brother's side to her rescue. As it is, we must keep clear of all such Arab broils." As the daylight faded away, and softly and gradually gave place to the lustre of the moon, nothing in nature could exceed the richness and beauty of the lovely scenery; we rode between steep and lofty mountains, where, in the rainy season, cascades sheeted with foam poured over pillars of basalt which supported their green terraces, or, in some places, upheld the tufts of green and mingled foliage, in the recesses of which the nightingale was singing as it can only be heard to sing in the woods of Yemen. As we ascended the hills from which we could see the red rocks of Jebel Ahmer, and its white Turkish towers shining afar off in the softened moonlight, Kior told us many a wild story of the ferocity of the Puthalis, mingled with others of a more pleasing kind, for the belief in talismans, genii, fairies, and transformation of men into horses, goats, and camels, is yet as strong among the Arabs as it was when the lady who had a hundred lovers was shut up in the wonderful box by the giant her husband, which, as every one knows, was in the days when Schahriar was king of all the Indies. As we descended into a thickly-wooded valley on the other side of the mountain range, the dew fell so fast and heavily that the muslins of our caps and our benishes were quite moist, and it hung like raindrops on the thick manes of our horses. Ibn Kogia was just announcing that he did not know where we should pass the night, when my horse neighed, which, to the Arabs, is an invariable sign that a camp or something is near. "Halt! hush! hush!" said Kior, as he reined up, sprang from his saddle, and laying his ear close to the ground, listened intently. He heard nothing to excite suspicion, but requiring us to proceed with caution, blew the match of his musket; we each took a pistol in our hands and moved forward in silence, following Kior, who led the way, keeping as much as possible under the shadow of the thick and magnificent walnut-trees which overhung a narrow and almost dried-up brooklet, that threaded its way through the green but thirsty wadi. 158 FRANK HILTON; ~OB, " THE QUEEN'S OWN." A loud barking of dogs and the glare of a fire informed us that a small party of Bedouin Arabs were encamped, as we could perceive^ under the brow of a steep basaltic rock, where they sat in a circle round the red flame which revealed their brightly coloured costumes, their swarthy visages, and those bright weapons, to which every man immediately betook himself as we approached. " They are wandering Bedouins of Roba-el-Khaly, or the Abode of Emptiness, a desolate place in Nejed," said Kior; "but Ibrahim, their sheikh, is in alliance with the widow of the late prince of Kaa-el-Bun, a man who was more cruel and avaricious than a Persian satrapa, and received from them a yearly tribute of horses and women. They are a wild people and we must be cautious, for they can steal the beard from a man's chin, and will commit a murder for the value of the smallest hair. Peace be with thee, O Sheikh Ibrahim!" cried our guide, with a loud voice, on perceiving that several muskets were levelled at us by the red-turbaned Bedouins who knelt down behind their packsaddles, which usually form the rampart of a bivouac. "In the name of the Prophet, who are ye?" asked the sheikh, who was sitting by the fire, smoking and reclining against a pack- saddle, with his lance stuck into the earth beside him, and who had, doubtless, been listening to some story-teller, for he was in a very bad humour on our appearance. " Eranks, travellers," I replied, riding boldly up; " but seeking only fellowship, bread and salt for one night." "Eranks, Kafirs," muttered the wild Bedouins as they crowded round us, about a hundred in number, all proud, erect, athletic, and savage-looking men, with their dusky legs, breasts and arms bare, their rough barracans and leather-girdles sustaining their poniards and long double-edged swords, and wearing large and red shawl turbans, the ends of which floated over their brawny shoulders. "I don't admire these fellows overmuch," said Bred, suspiciously. "Neither do I; but, as they are robbers by profession, nothing but a bold bearing and great circumspection will save us frcm them." " Bather unpleasant," muttered Ered; " I wish the colonel had come on this devilish errand himself." The Sheikh Ibrahim, a cunning and, for an eastern, dirty-looking old man, wearing a voluminous Damascus shawl of striped stuff, received us with undisguised reluctance; but so sacred is the law of hospitality, and so scrupulous are the Arabs with regard to its rights, that he dared not refuse us a place by the Are, though, for reasons of his own, he was extremely reluctant that we should break bread with himself or his people, for then we could not be destroyed afterwards, as it is their invariable custom never to molest the man with whom they have eaten bread or drunken water, for, by me fourth chapter of the Koran, kindness and hospitality are THE aLMA. 157 specially recommended to be shown to all orphans and poor people, to neighbours, strangers, and travellers. I showed Ibrahim the letter of Mohamed-al-Raschid, but he spat upon it, and treading it under foot, said, " The emir was a dog and the son of a dog, who had made war upon his friend the Sultan of Shugra." I snatched a pistol from my girdle, thrust the sheikh aside, and recovered the letter with difficulty. While the boldness of this action delighted Kior lbn Kogia, who was enraged at such treatment of his chief's letter, it startled the scowling Bedouins, and impressed them with the necessity either of respecting us, or coming to blows at once. "This to me, thou pitiful Kafir!" said the old sheikh, witli unutterable scorn; but almost immediately dissembling his anger— for he had other intentions regarding us—he invited us to share with hfm a supper of dates and honey, with milk and pure water drawn from a well close by. These were placed before us by women who were unveiled, for the wives of the Bedouins are the most free of all the Arabians. Believing that we were now safe, we all sat down together, and lest I should offend the sulky old bashaw, our host, I never looked once towards the red and yellow screens which hung from the lower branches of the trees, to conceal the sleeping-place of his wives, whose tawny visages stained with henna ana daubed with kohel, were incessantly peeping forth at us, and laughing to see men in tarbooshes with close-shaven chins. Among the women were several Almas, or female dancers of Oman, who had paid the sheikh to convey them in safety from Sana to Mocha. It is scarcely possible to conceive a scene more picturesque than this Bedouin camp, as we then saw it by the wavering gleam? of the watchfire, the occasional blaze of winch shot up redly and brightly every time dry wood was heaped upon it. On one side rose a mass of pillared basalt, from the clefts of which hung the rich fes- toons of the copper-plant, the wild fig, the oleander, and the tama- risk; on the other was the thick dark foliage of the walnut-tree, and the broad heavy leaves of the date-palm. Near us stood the ruined enclosure of a deep and ancient well, and all around were the varied costumes, the brown limbs and bearded visages of the well-armed Bedouins, reclining on their pack-saddles, smoking opium and hemp, seed, while in the background appeared the noble heads of their hardy horses and the misshapen outline of their still-laden camels and dromedaries, resting on their knees; while afar off, at the hori- zon's utmost verge, between the stems of the grove on which the firelight fell with sudden flashes, there was visible the black wavy outline of the distant hills, clearly defined against the russet yellow that yet marked in what quarter of the sky the sun had set beyond the Land of the Pilgrimage. I was anxious to see the Almas dance; but the sheikh told me ldS FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." surlily, as he smoked away with a most imperturbable air, and with his legs folded under the skirts of his wide-sleeved robe, that " they were weary, especially Haura, the finest of them, and for that night they could not be disturbed." He then expatiated greatly on the military power and splendour of the Sultan of Sana, whom we were about to visit, and mentioned the wonderful beauty of the damsel whom he had placed in the Castle of the Graces. " I remember of Mohamed-al-Raschid telling me something Gf ner, and of the great power she exercised over Solyman," " Upbraided by his court for neglecting all affairs of state, and allowing the unbelieving Franks to take Aden from the Abdali (for he forgets everything in his passion for this new beauty), he had resolved on strangling her; but his heart relented for once, and she still adorns the Hesn-al-Mouhabib, his Castle of the Graces, or of Delights, as it is named by some. I might have kept her for myself--" " Yov.—was she once yours ?" " Yes, by the faith of the Prophet, she was! I gave Jaffer and a party of the Abdali two she-camels, each great with foal, for her; she was worth far more, but I could not have got it without fight- ing, and the Abdali were stronger by ten spears. It is not every day we pick up such a flower in the desert; but she was over- damty for our Bedouin fashions, so I gave her to the sultan for sixty matchlocks, a bundle of matches and ball, of which we stood more in need than of women." " By what right did you either take or dispose of her ?" "Ignorant Frank," said he, with a contemptuous frown, "knowest thou not that a valiant sheikh hath but to draw his sword to fill his purse? The woman was a captive. My blessing on thee, my good blade," said the sheikh, brandishing his sabre within an inch of Fred's nose; " thou art the best friend of the poor sons of Ishmael!" " I told you these men were mere robbers," whispered Ibn Kogia. " If I could but reach this lady's ear, as she influences the proud sultan so much, my mission might be easily accomplished." " Reach her ear!" reiterated the sheikh, taking his pipe from his mouth, and staring at me in blank astonishment; "dost thou not know that she is in that part of Hesn-al-Mouhabib into which no man but the sultan can enter and live ? Faringi! if a man even looked upon her his life would be forfeited! But has your friend lost his tongue that he does not speak ?" " You are very quiet, Fred," said I. " 1 cannot get the remembrance of that poor girl out of my head." " What girl—Amina ?" "Yes." " She is among her own amiable countrymen; an^ x wish that we were among ours," said I, rather pettishly. THE ALMA. 159 "You jest; you did not see her face—ah, if you had! But I agree with you that we would he safer with 'the Queen's Own' than among these cut-throat Arabs." The old sheikh now bade us good night, and retired behind the curtain or screen which was suspended from spear-heads and branches of the trees, for,sueh like have been the habitations of the Bedouins without change since the days of Abraham, for they trace their descent from one of the twelve sons of Ishmael; and having never possessed houses or homes, they sleep in the sand, under the trees, or wherever night finds them. Fresh brands were heaped on the fire; meat was thrown to the watchdogs; and the whole camp prepared for repose. Those Bedouins who possessed helpmates crept into the nests they had formed among the packsaddies; those who had none were huddled together in recumbent groups, with no other covering than their thick dark barracans of brown wool, which invariably form their dress by day and their couch by night. " Can we sleep among these fellows in safety ?" said Langlev; " or shall we sleep and keep guard by turns ?" " For that there is no necessity," said I, as we rolled ourselves in our cloaks at the foot of a walnut-tree, a little apart from the rest; " for, as Kior says, we have a long ride before us to-morrow, and may rest in peace. The laws of hospitality are so sacred, that after having once given us food, none who have eaten with us will molest us." " You feel certain of this ? "Well, I am too much of an Englishman ever to trust foreigners." " Did you ever read the story which Don Pedro de la Badia tells us of their hospitality ?" " Don Pedro de—who the deuce is he ? and what was the story ?" " He relates a tale of a Bedouin whose wife had unwittingly given shelter and food to his most deadly enemy, who had craved charity at the door of his tent in the wilderness." "Well, and what said her accomplished spouse?" "' I should have slain my enemy had I found, him here; but assuredly should not have spared thee, 0 my wife, hadst thou forgotten the sacred law of hospitality.'" "All very fine, but I like this sort of sentiment better at the Opera House, or Princess's, than being at its mercy here, and would infi- nitely prefer the hospitality of a comfortable English hotel," grumbled Fred, as he placed his revolver conveniently under his cloak. I kept v pistols in my girdle, and thus ready for any unpleasant emer- gency, we resigned ourselves to that friendly sleep which soon sealed the eyes of all around us; and as for our companion Ibn Kogia, he lay beside us on his back, snoring like a trombone, in a manner that very ill consorted with the picturesque aspect of bis costume, and the romantic nature of the episode that was to follow. I had slept for, perhaps, two hours; the whole camp was buried in sleep, even the watchdogs had coiled themselves up head and tail, 160 FRANK. HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." and resigned themselves to slumber, whea a baud was lightly and timidly laid upon my shoulder. This awoke me; I started, and looked up. The fire was yet smouldering and burning in gleams, which were reflected by the glistening stems of the trees and their dew-dripping leaves; and close beside me, with her hand upon my shoulder, I saw a woman—a young girl—nearly nude; at least, her sole garment was a short skirt, which reached from her slender waist to a little below her knees; on her feet were a pair of red sandals. Her bare bust, the contour of her neck and shoulder, and her tapered legs and arms, all were beautiful. Her skin had much of that dark creamy tint, or rich golden hue, which some of the Roman women possess, and vet, when contrasted with the purple blackness of her thick and heavy hair, amid which a string of sequins and dinars glittered, it seemed almost fair. Rings of shining gold glittered on her wrists and ankles, and strings of white pearls encircled her neck, and hung below her fine bosom almost to her girdle. Her features were classic and regular, but rendered somewhat too keen by the death-like blackness of her brilliant eyes and their silky fringes, and by the whiteness of her teeth. Her skirt was woven of gold threads, which shone in the light of the fire, though she strove to conceal herself behind some gigantic plants that grew at the root of the walnut tree; she looked like the beautiful spirit of an Arabian romance, but by the castanets at her girdle I knew her to be one of the dancers, the Almas, whom our mercenary sheikh was escorting, and whom he would not have cared a rush to betray, or sell to some other tribe, if any person would buy women so depraved as the posture-girls of Oman. On seeing this fairy-like form, half nude in her scanty and shining skirt my first thought was that one of the Almas wished to engage me hf an amour or adventure, but I was soon undeceived. " Who are you ?" I asked. " Hush—not so loud," she answered, softly, in the dialect peculiar to Oman; "lama dancer—Haura." " Haura—the Bright-eyed Girl?" " Yes," said she, smiling as she knelt down and placed her pretty Nlouth so close to my ear, that I felt her breath glow on my cheek. " Listen: this barbarous sheikh, Ibrahim, has formed a plan to slay you and your two friends, that he may possess himself of your horses, arms, and property. His desire to have a pair of English pistols has excited him to make the attempt. An ambush of Bedouins, who have neither eaten nor drank here to-night, awaits you, so avoid the narrow path that crosses the wood at the end of the valley, and take that which leads straight over the hills to Taas—to the left band—do you understand me ? Ah, I hope you do !" "Perfectly," I replied, in anger and perplexity. " And you will remember ?" added this kind girl. "Even had it been of less consequence to myself and friends* 1 THE ALMA. 161 would never forget a word that fell from your beautiful lips," said I, drawing her towards me, and kissing her cheek. " But how shall I reward you ?" " Hallo!" said Bred, looking up from under his cloak. " Oho!— what is this you're about?" At the sound of his voice she sprang lightly away, and dis- appeared. "A most agreeable undress—deshabille all over," said Bred, waggishly. " 1 beg pardon Brank,—hope I have not spoiled some- thing pleasant." "I wish there was something pleasant to spoil. That girl is our guardian angel!" "Has she wings ?" "No." "Nor petticoats either, it would appear," said he. "She is a Bedouin angel—'faugh!" " But what do you think she has just told me ?" " Can't say, for the life of me;—that she wanted some money, perhaps ?" "Money! No, no," said I, with some displeasure. " That she loved you, then ? Baith, I'll watch for the next 1" "Not at all." " Then I have no idea; but what did she say ?" " Only that we are to be murdered in the morning." " Indeed! After your fine parable about Don Pedro I would have expected something better. Had we not better give these rascals the slip to-night, or this morning, rather?—two o'clock by my watch, so daylight cannot be far off." " To leave now might only be to anticipate our destruction. Hos- pitality prevents them from falling upon us here; but others, their comrades, await us in the woods that terminate the valley, and the ^irl has directed me how to avoid them by wheeling off to the " By Jove, this is a devil of an adventure!" "We must pay the girl well," said I; " only conceive from what she has saved us." " Being butchered by fellows as savage as Cape Caffres. D—n it, Brank, the service makes no allowance for such risks, and the Horse Guards as little. Perhaps the girl will go with us." " She is very pretty." " Hence my suggestion; but I'll bet a hundred to one, she is not to be compared to that poor pet, Amina." " Besides, what could we do with her ?" " True; and now, good bye to sleep, for we must wake and watch till sunrise." " Our betrayers still remained in deep slumber, and we heard no sound save the occasional cry of a distant jackal, and the responsive growl of the dogs that guarded the camp. Under our cloaks, we IG2 shank hilton; oh, "the queen's own." re-examined our pistols, tried the caps and charges, then our belts and swords, and the moment the first man of the camp awoke, and the brightening east gave token of the coming day, we arose, shook the dew from our clothes, groomed our horses, strapped our cloaks to the saddles, scrutinizing every strap and buckle with the care of men whose lives were that day to be lost or won. During these preparations, I imparted the discovery of the past night to Kior Ibf Kogia, who did not betray the smallest emotion or surprise, bit. expressed only his perfect readiness to avoid the ambuscade, or fad ana fight it, whichever I pleased. " You take this very coolly," said I. " Master, how should I receive it ?" he replied. " The Blessed Prophet hath inscribed upon your forehead and upon mine, the year, the day, the hour—yea, the moment, when we shall perish. There it is written, although we see it not, with the death we shall die, and nothing human can alter our destiny. If we are to die to-day, we must die, if we are to escape, then we shall escape. So, fight or fly, it is all one to Kior, the son of Kogia; for in flying, we may only be rushing upon a more certain and terrible death elsewhere." " This may be Moslem philosophy, but I'll be hanged if it suits me," said I. " Thank heaven, this girl was here; I was just speaking about her before I fell asleep. IV hat says your Arabian proverb? Speak of an angel and you icill see her wings!" " Angel—faugh ! Dost thou, 0 Earingi, call that painted harlot an angel ?" asked the Arab, with strong disgust. While the women prepared a breakfast of coffee, boiled rice, and herbs, the wicked old sheikh came forth from his squalid nest among the screens, and before deigning to notice us, uttered aloud the in- variable expression of the Mohamedan faith: "There is no God but one, and Mohamed is his Prophet." Then Uurning his face towards Mecca, he began to say his prayers, like an old hypocrite as he was. CHAPTER XXXHX a dip into ftttukity. The whole of the women, including the Almas, squatted on the grass with us to share the simple repast, which was soon over, and then I asked Haura, my pretty friend of the preceding night, to afford us a specimen of her talent, at the same time slipping a few coins into her hand. A space was cleared for her, and to the sound of the Arab bagpipe, which has only one reed, the gaspah, which resembles the German flute, the tambourine, the Turkish zil—two brass basons, which are clashed together, and the rattle of castanets, she and other dancers began a species of performance such as I had never seen before, and have no wish to see again. A. DIP INTO FUTUMTJf. 163 Full of lightness, beauty, and elasticity, and possessing figures of matchless symmetry, in the floating ease of their motions, the hideous combination of discord to which they danced was forgotten, though the strange, fantastic, and not over-delicate symbolism of their ges- tures, startled and' dumbfoundered Fred and me. Their half-closed eyes and inviting postures, as they almost fell back and then recovered themselves, were full of grace and lan- guor; and certes, those officers of his Neapolitan Majesty's garrison who, in conjunction with the students of the University, burned down the Opera House at Naples, because the ballet-girls were ordered to assume certain under-garments indispensable to modesty, would have found no reason to complain of our new acquaintances in the matter of over-clothing. Even Fred, who was not very nice in such things, and who had been wont, night after night in London and elsewhere, to level a double-barrelled lorgnette from the omnibus box of the Opera, was somewhat aghast, and, while seated beside me on the grass, gazed upward at the dancers with an expression of waggery mingling with blank astonishment in one eye—for his glass was stuck in the other, a circumstance which made the Bedouins suppose that he was partly blind. Though in eastern countries none can dance without dishonour, and the profession of a dancer (especially in Egypt and Arabia) is adopted only by women who are consequently branded with shame, the impassioned air, the extended arms, the inviting smiles, and bright knowing glances of these beautiful Almas, charmed and be- wildered the savage-looking Bedouin robbers, who leaned on their long muskets, and, in the pleasure with which they beheld the per- formance, I believe they forgot, for a time, the treacherous project of their sheikh, who was also looking on, seated on a carpet, smoking an immense pipe, with his tawny helpmates clustered behind him. When the dance was over, Haura, flushed and almost breathle; s, whispered to me that she could show whatever Fate had in store for myself and friend, which made me suppose that perhaps these Arabian Almas had something of the gipsy or Bohemian in their blood; but tradition and history show that the sorcerers and fortune- tellers of Oman* with much of quackery, mingle something of a higher art, and have studied natural magic, and brought legerdemain to perfection. " You wish to know the truth ?—of course, we all do," said she, shaking back with her slender fingers the thick black tresses of wavy hair from her olive brow, and bending her bright speaking eyes on mine. "I can show you the form of the person you love most on earth, and for a dinar will change it into the form of she you will be wedded to." " How, pretty one ?" said I, gravely; for her thoughtless banter brought back my drowned Cecil to my mind. " If I wed at all, I would hope to have the one I love best—or none." 164 EKANK HILTON; OK, "THE QUEEN0S OWN." " Then, if these two are one, the figure will remain unchanged. Dost thou remember where a proverb says that truth lies hidden ?" " Yes; at the bottom of a well." " Then, if ye would learn tidings of the absent, come hither, and look boldly down. Be it father, or mother, or bride, you wish to see, look down; but turn not towards me till the figures dis- appear." She led me to the low ruined wall, which enclosed a deep well, formed doubtless in the olden time of Selim for the travellers between Aden and Sana; and though I mistrusted her skill, I had heard so much of the sorcery of Oman, and magic of the Egyptians in the present day, that I was prepared to expect something at least inte- resting, if not unusual. I gazed down into the clear depth of the well, and at first saw only my own face, and the bright blue vault above, reflected there; but the pretty and half nude enchantress shook a powder into the water, which made it bubble up and effervesce like champagne, and while it did so she cried in a shrill voice, and in the language of Oman, which is one of the innumerable dialects of Arabia,— " Spirit of Eblis!—spirit of Eblis ! my master salutes thee, and commands thee to bring before us the person he desires most to see!" As the agitation of the water subsided, and its quiet ripples ran from the centre to the sides of the well, I could distinguish there the small outline of a female figure, with her air dishevelled and her face concealed from me, for she seemed to be weeping. The figure had on a turban, and was dressed as an Arab girl. I gazed stead- fastly with astonishment—ay, with something of awe—at this strange vision. " She whom thou lovest is before thee," said the Alma, in her strange Oman dialect; " let us see if it is she thou wilt wed, for the Earingis wed but one." Again the powder fell into the fountain, and I must confess to feeling my heart beat quicker; but this time there was no efferves- cence, and the little figure remained unchanged, save that it seemed to rock to and fro, as one might do in deep grief; but whether this was the effect of some strange human art, or the mere ripple of the water, I could not learn. " It is the figure of an Arab woman, but the face is concealed from me! She weeps—it is Amina, the Abdali girl! I love Amina? nonsense!" Such were my thoughts, expressed aloud, as I stooped nearer the water, and, in my anxiety to solve the mystery of this strange vision, awkwardly disengaged a stone from the parapet of the fountain, and it plunged into its glassy depth, dashing up the water. Haura uttered a cry as the vision fled for ever! This effort of Haura's skill astonished me, and, resolving to watcb whether by means of a picture or a painted glass she had thus A DIP INTO ETttUBITY. 165 imposed upon me, I urged Ered to see what the well had in store for him. " It is all bosh/' said he, " I would rather give a crown to the girl for a kiss than for such a ridiculous purpose." " Give her a crown for both. Try—I saw—who do you imagines'" "Me, probably." "Amina." "The deuce you did!" said he, springing up. " A pretty girl, in a turban and trowsers, weeping as if her heart would break." "Well, I shall have a peep into the fountain, and, by Jove! I'll jump in heels foremost if Amina is there. Give our pretty friend another fee, and tell her I wish to dive " "Into the well?" "No, no—into futurity, and see what is in store for me. Render that into choice Arabic, please." I did as Ered desired. Haura beckoned him to approach and look down; again, like Aladdin's wicked uncle, she shook the magic pow- der from her pretty hand, and again she summoned twice her pre- tended familiar. Meanwhile Ered was gazing down with all his might. " Earingi, do not speak," said Haura; " be silent till I have made the sign." "Well, Ered," said I, keeping a close watch on every movement of Haura, who was, indeed, an enchantress in more ways than one, " what do you see ?" "The deuce ! I see nothing but my own face; stay—there's some- thing now." "Amina, is it ?" " No, two men chained together—what the devil! My girl, that is not very pleasant, they are in rags, and bearded like a couple of goats. One is standing, and the other lying at length on the ground." "Those are yourselves—was it not the future you wished to see?" said Haura, sorrowfully and haughtily, as she dashed a handful of nuts into the well, and the vision disappeared like the former one. "Nonsense," said Ered, looking angrily about him, "she must think us very verdant youths indeed, Erank. You had a picture hidden somewhere, my pretty Arab." " She had not," said I. "Well, then, a reflecting glass of some kind." "I had not" replied Haura, pettishly, and somewhat sadly, too. " These figures were yourself and your friend, and one was dead, as you might see by the paleness of his face." "Which?" said Ered, a little aghast at this intelligence. " Time will prove, and Azrael show when he comes; at present Haura knows no more." "Nonsense; nonsense, my pretty brunette," said Ered, tossing 166 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QTJEEN's OWN." his cigar inadvertently right into the vast beard of Sheikh Ibrahim, and going again to the well, he looked down, but nothing was seen there, save the sky reflected in a blue circle, at the lower rim of which appeared his own good-humoured and handsome English face. Perceiving him rather thoughtful, our young Arab soldier and guide approached him. " Let not the lies of a juggler delude thee," said he; " for we have heard of A1 Mokanna, who pretended to be a prophet, and made a moon rise out of a well for many nights together, in view of the people of Kash. Moreover, sorcery was forbidden by the pro- phet ever since the daughters of Lobeid the Jew bewitched him by tying nine knots upon a cord which they hid in a well, where it was found by Ali." Ered laughed the affair away, and soon dismissed it altogether from his mind. As a Scotsman I was naturally superstitious, or, at least, more apt to be impressed by our adventure with the girl of Oman than one of Fred Langley's country and temperament could possibly be; for I could discover no visible agency by which such visions were brought about; but "use lessens marvel," and we saw so many strange things during our service in Arabia, that I soon ceased to feel surprise at anything. For a time, however, I was left pretty much in the same state of perplexity as Mr. Lane, when the Egyptian magician conjured up a vision of Lord Nelson and others, m a little ink, poured into the hollow of a boy's hand. We now mounted, and that we might part friends, I presented to the old rogue Sheikh Ibrahim, a red silk scarf, which he received with a grin, expressing as much as to say, " I would soon have had it, at all events," and then we took our departure, riding at a hard pace, for the morning air was yet cool, even sharp, as the winter season was now approaching. We were no sooner clear of the robbers' camp and their herds of horses, cattle, coarse Abyssinian, short-tailed Arabian sheep and brown goats that were browsing in the vicinity, then we held a council of war on the necessity of avoiding the ambuscades which awaited us at the foot of the valley, and of taking the path over the hill to the left. " Suppose the dancer hath unwittingly deceived us, and that the ambuscade is on the mountain path, and not at the foot of the wadi ?" said ICior Ibn Kogia, quietly. This was a startling and somewhat perplexing suggestion, but Fred and I were inclined to trust the dancer, so after riding on until the trees hid us from the Bedouin scouts, who (we had no doubt) were watching us, we entered a dense thicket that covered the face of the hill, and dismounting, led our horses through it by their bridles for nearly two miles, a slow and tedious mode of progression, which the wily and cautious Ivior rendered yet more so by following us backwards, brushing the long grass with a mango THE pursuit—the santon's grot. k>7 branch, to obliterate every trace of our horses hoofs and of our own feet. We had not proceeded thus for more than half-an-hour, when we heard several horsemen galloping down the valley to our right; then the sound of musket shots rose sharply up from the echoing eopsewood in the hollow below us. We had no idea what all this meant, but continued our journey with all speed, and afterwards learned that Sheikh Ibrahim, Khale'd Ibn Khobaid, and two other Bedouins, had ridden down the valley to ascertain the success of the ambush, and were fired upon by their concealed comrades, who had smoked themselves into a comfortable state of stupidity with opium and hempseed; and thus the old vagabond fell into his own trap, the deadly snare he had prepared for us; two of his companions were shot dead, and his horse, a valuable animal, for which Rabd, the vizier of Sana, had offered him five hundred pieces of gold, was slain by three matchlock bullets. CHAPTER XXXIV. the PURSUIT—THE SANTON'S grot. By this detour we had somewhat lost our way, and for several hours had to traverse a wild wood, where the old mangoes, the cotton-tree and the light feathery foliage of the tamarind mingled above our heads, while the fig-bushes and the long sword-grass matted the ground we trod on. Here we heard only the scream of the wild eagle, the hiss of the snake as we roused him from his lair with flistening eye and forky tongue; the cries of the owl and raven, t was a luxuriant and beautiful wilderness. "YVe persevered in pushing our way through the grove of mangoes and cotton trees, by steering towards a basaltic cliff, which appeared at times in the distance, tinted with a roseate glow by the western sun, till we were clear of the wood and found ourselves on the verge Df another long and winding valley, beyond which rose a long line of basaltic rocks, rising into mountains—steep, pillared, rugged and inaccessible. Their splintered summits were bathed in warm sun- light, and rose above eopsewood of the most beautiful and brilliant green. Kior Ibn Ivogia knew at once where we were, and said that the dwelling of the Sheikh Abdulmelik lay just beyond these mountains, which rose like a wall between us and his valley, and that conse- quently we would have to ride several miles round, to turn their flank, as there was no path over them, save for monkeys and hyaenas. While we breathed our horses for a few minutes, and cleared their legs and breasts of the thorns and brambles adhering to them, 168 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." and gave their smooth coats a dry rub down with tufts of withered grass, a shrill cry startled us, and drew our attention towards the Verge of the wood, at an angle where it approached some rocks that overhung the valley, and there we saw a Bedouin, clad in his rough brown barracan and red turban, curvetting his horse along the narrow path, and brandishing his long lance as a signal to otheis behind. " An Arab of Sheikh Ibrahim!" said I, drawing my sword. " The curse of the twelve Imaums be on him!" said Kior, un- slinging his musket in great wrath; " his comrades will not be far off." Over the saddle of his steed he levelled the long heavy barrel foi an instant in deadly aim, and fired! The wind swept the cry of the Bedouin past us, like the scream of a wild bird, as he tossed up his arms and fell from his horse, but whether killed or wounded, we took no heed to see, but at once plunged into the bosky woods again, aware that there would be a keen pursuit, for now the longings for vengeance would be added to the hope of plunder, and that innate love of outrage to which the wild men of the desert have ever been prone, for twenty ages and more. We heard the discordant cries of the diminutive hyaenas as we scared them, and saw the chattering monkeys leaping from branch to branch, as we hastened on. We had been in motion during the whole heat of the day, and though our route had hitherto lain in the shady woods, our horses were now becoming somewhat exhausted; thus, if pursued by the Bedouins, most of whom were mounted on camels, we had no chance of escape, unless we could conceal from them our trail, which they would assuredly follow for days, with the most undeviating accuracy. Kior now took the lead, and soon found a narrow brook which stole through the grove under the thick herbage and sword-grass, and this he knew would effectually conceal our route, while its grate- ful coolness refreshed our jaded animals, as they trod fetlock deep at every step. Eor several miles we followed its tortuous windings through a narrow and wooded ravine, which led us to the base of those rocky mountains which we had seen from a distance, but now the red sunlight had died away from their jagged pinnacles, and blue twilight, with the bright stars, were stealing over the sky. " Allah !" exclaimed Kior, pointing skyward with his lanee, as a star fell from its place, " lo! an angel has darted it at some evil geni, who has come too near him." The groves of plum and walnut trees looked black as if of cypress; the rocky hills were all a russet brown, and the runnel that stole among the verdure resembled a silver thread drawn through a black velvet pall. The dew was falling fast, and as neither Bred nor I had any wish to risk the deadly ague from which our troops suffer so much at Aden, we asked Kior, somewhat impa- THE PURSUIT—THE SANTON's GROT. 169 tiently, if it was here we were to halt for the night, or if we had any chance of reaching a hospitable village. The taciturn Mussulman informed us, that a few miles further travelling would bring us either to the plain of Taas on one hand, or the village of Jennade on the other; but, that in both places we ran a great chance of being cut off by the Subbeihi Arabs, who were always on the prowl, and would not value the emir's letter a withered date. " Pleasant!" said I, shrugging my shoulders. "And how far is Jennade from Sana, our city of refuge ?" asked Fred. "About a hundred and twenty miles," said I: "The devil it is !" he exclaimed; "that is a fortnight's travelling at this race, for we have got on at anything but railway speed to- day: and then what between snakes and hysenas, musquitoes and beetles, starving on dates and cold water, with the constant prospect of fighting and being murdered, with many other disagreeables, we may, with a safe conscience, wish the colonel's mission m a very hot locality. If I had only my legs under the mess mahogany once more, I would not leave the regiment to turn knight errant again." I was beginning to apologize for being the involuntary means of bringing him on this unpleasant duty,— " Oh, Hilton! my dear fellow," said he, "I was only jesting, how could you imagine me to be in earnest ?" " You Englishmen are all such systematic grumblers at everything out of your own country," said I. " Unpleasant though this duty may be, I assure you that I find it quite a relief, after the turgid monotony of our lives at Aden.' "Well, Ibn Kogia, you have not answered my question; where shall we pass the night ?" "The Haji Noureddin, a santon who lives at the foot of these hills, will afford us shelter, even from the men of Sheikh Ibrahim, for I have thrice taken refuge with him before." "Is this the Regenerator of the Faith?" I asked, startled by a name wliich recalled my last conversation with O'Hara. " The same—the glory of Yemen! He is the Lamp of Religion, who promises to regenerate the faith of Islam." _ "Ered," said I, "there is some fatality in this. The santon, like the emir, is one of the very men against whom we are to seek the sultan's alliance." "But what shall we do ? to remain here is impossible!" " Can we trust him, Kior ?" I asked. " H not, there is no Arab in the land worthy of trust. You have trusted me, and you trusted Mohamed, who but three days before would have slain you all. Then why not also trust the good Haji Noureddin ?" "Lead on, then, mv bov." 170 FRANK. HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." "Already we are close upon his grot—it is here." As he spoke we found ourselves in a little spot between, the basaltic walls which propped the hills and the woods that spread over their summits, and before us stood the dwelling of the santon. On three sides lay that beautiful forest which we had just traversed, and where the palm, the plantain, the walnut, and the plane tree all flourished together in the most glorious luxuriance, mingled with aromatic shrubs that formed the home of a thousand birds, who had long since ceased to sing; along the border of a little pool, formed by the brook, were innumerable bright flowers, the cups of which after being expanded to the hot sun all day, were now folded and bowed down by the dew of the soft Arabian night. Erom the craggy mountains and steep rocks that overhung the vale, and were scorched to the whiteness of chalk, a stream gushed in the form of a snowy cascade, and the plash of its waters alone woke the echoes of the place. Between the pillared basalt that upheld the rifted peaks, the wild fig, the pomegranate, the date, and. the melon, all bloomed together, while around the mouth of the grotto, which was the retreat of the santon, and wliich might have formed an appropriate home for the genius of the solitude, the bright grape, the glowing peach, the fragrant citron, the golden orange, and the pink wild-rose, all clustered and clambered together, woven and matted into a mass of luxuriance. It was such a place as Milton might have conceived for the dwelling of our first parents; and tc complete the peaceful illusion, a few bearded goats and. pretty little sheep cropped the velvet sward that encircled the starlit pool of this Arabian Eden. Such was the dwelling-place of the famous Noureddin (i.e., the Lamp of Religion), the Regenerator of the Eaith, whose name has more than once found its way into the London and Indian papers. He occupied the cavern into which a celebrated dervish had re- tired in the days of the Prophet, and where he had slept for two hundred years, waking in the reign of Abdallah III., the conqueror of Greece, to find beside him the last remains of his ass's skeleton, its bridle-bit andiron shoes; while his basket of dates and figs, with his 1'ar of water, stood beside him -untouched and undecayed, as when le fell asleep, two hundred long years before, like Ozair among the ruins of Jerusalem; hence, it was named the Cave of the Sleeper, and before its door there grew, as Kior informed me in a wliisper, a sprout of that identical tree, which miraculously sprang up in full foliage, and loaded with fruit, in five minutes after the Prophet had placed the kernel in the earth. " But in these mountains," he added, " are many such grottoes, for there dwelt the idolatrous tribe of Thamud, who inhabited Aden before the days of the wicked King Ad; their dwellings in the rocks were to be found in great numbers in the land of Hejr, till a storm from heaven destroyed them." After making many pilgrimages to Mecca, where he had kissed the THE LAMP op religion. 171 Black Stone, flung pebbles at the Devi], and quaffed of the Zemzem well, till he rolled on the ground from sheer distension, like a true Haii; after having rubbect his forehead on the Sacred Camel, and made a journey as far as Khorasan, the Land of the Sun, to visit the tomb of AliRiza; after procuring a bottle of the wonderful Water of Immortality, and narrowly escaping death, when, in a religions frenzy, he ran a moqua (or a muck, which is not confined alone to the Malays), when he rushed about the streets of Sana with a jambea, in the haft of which were united the hair of his parents, stabbing Jews, Simalees, Christians, Guebers, and all who were not Mahomc- rans—after all' this active novitiate, the sainted Noureddin had re- tired to this beautiful wilderness, where, unlike the majority of Arabian santons, who are mere hypocrites that live on the credulity of the people, he passed a harmless life, but indulging in visions of exterminating all the enemies of Islam, and chiefly the red-coated Faringis who had ensconced themselves at Aden. By the gravity of his manner, the simplicity and asceticism of his life, he ingratiated himself with the wild tribes who traverse Yemen. Thus, the venera- tion he enjoyed was great, and the Emir Mohamed, the neighbouring sheikhs, even the petty monarchs of Sana, Shugra, Jaffa, and Lahadj, as well as their people, sought his blessing or advice on every emer- gency; while, in secret, he was leaving nothing undone by the exertion of his mighty influence to mould them all into one fiery focus of war against the unbelieving Faringis, whose presence pol- luted the land where the Koran was written. Such was the person on whom we were about to intrude, uu- bidden. CHAPTER XXXV. the lamp op religion. We knocked repeatedly at his door (which was rudely formed of rough stems pegged upon a cross-rail,) before a solemn /oice within summoned us to enter. We had heard so much of this formidable Santon Noureddin, that I must own it was with emotions of considerable interest we ap- proached him. Kior opened the door, and within we saw a spacious grotto, the roof of which was a horizontal muss of lava, supported by pentagonal columns of basalt, all formed as regularly by nature as if they had been hewn by a mason's hammer. From the roof there hung by a chain, a lamp of brass, having two lighted wicks. At one side of the grotto was a species of altar, at the other, a recess hidden by a curtain, beneath which appeared a sandalled foot upon a stool of stone. Kior told us to " wait without," until he had removed the scruples of Noureddin, whose hatred of Faringis bordered at times on insanity. 17!2 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." Ibn Kogia took off his slippers, and approaching the curtain, kissed the foot that appeared belojv it, and after a brief prayer, with his face towards the keblah, an offering of some small trifle, and a long explanation, amid which-1 frequently heard the name of Emir Mohamed, he implored the holy santon " if he was pleased to show his face." On this, the tattered curtain was dashed violently aside, and rising from his seat, with a staff like a war-club in his hand, the Lamp of Religion approached us, with angry scrutiny in his deep- set eyes. In figure, he was tall and thin; a snow-white beard of great volume, and never profaned by steel, spread over his breast and below his girdle ; his shaggy eyebrows were equally white, and so long that they mingled with the hair which waved around his temples, in tangled masses, like a lion's mane; his eyes were full of restless animation, and though sunken and hollow, gazed upon us with that keen and fiery expression which only the eye of an Arabian santon can wear. He was, indeed, a strange and unearthly, but impressive specimen of that class of religious mendicants who, under the various denomi- nations of santons, dervishes, and fakirs, are so greatly venerated by the men, and (of course) still more so by the "pious sex," throughout all Persia, Turkey, and Arabia. He was clad in an ihram, or pilgrim's mantle, consisting of two pieces of woollen cloth, without seam or decoration; these were wrapped round the loins and over the neck and shoulders, but left the right arm bare. His turban was of green, the sacred colour.. " Thou hast not done well, 0 Kior Ibn Kogia, in bringing here those Kafirs of Aden," said he, in a rich and harmonious voice, to which his broad vowels and guttural Arabic gave a fuller power. "I respect the letter of the Emir Mohamed, and I respect more the laws of hospitality, but is there no other place, in all this vale of Kaa-el-Bun, where these men might find shelter ?" " Holy santon," replied Kior, in the same grave manner, and with something of alarm, "they are pursued by the tribe of Sheikh Ibra- him, and with my life I must answer for theirs to my master the Emir. It is far from here to the tents of Abdulmelik, and farther still to Jennade, and I know of no safer place for them than the Grot of the Sleeper." " Kior," continued the santon, with greater gravity, and with a darker frown at us, as we stood on foot holding our horses at the door, "in the first place, I am not to be deceived by the attire they have assumed; in the second, they will only pollute my cell by their presence ; in the third, Sheikh Ibrahim is my friend; in the fourth, they know not even the holy passage revealed on the night of A1 Kadr, by which I am impelled to offer them protection." "We do, most reverend Noureddin; ana more than that," Ire- plied, assuming his own inflated style, as, luckily for us all, a THE LAMP OF RELIGION. 173 moment's reflection brought the passages to my memory, "' Let not those who are covetous of what God 'in his bounty hath given them, imagine that their avarice is better'for them; nay, rather for them it is worse, for that which they have covetously reserved, shall be bound as a collar about their necks at the last day—and this collar shall be a twisted serpent.' " The mingled expression of scorn and religious hatred which darkened the brow of the santon, passed away when he heard this quotation, which, thanks to my stud-ies when on board the Candahar, T brought out all at a breath. As he prided himself on knowing all the hundred and fourteen chapters of the Koran by heart, he was greatly pleased, and opening wider his door, said, blandly: "We are all sons of dust and children of care; the true believer who is bound for Paradise, and the poor benighted Earingi, whose doom is the Pit of Borhut. Por this night, Noureddin will protect you—enter; though Kafirs, you are welcome." " But the horses, holy santon," said Kior, " what shall we do with them; for the dew falls fast, and some of Sheikh Ibrahim's men may pass through the valley." "Lead the horses into the inner grotto," said the santon, "and there they will be safe, warm, and unseen." " A door of rough wands entwined with palm-leaves gave entrance to an inner and more spacious cavern, the end of which was buried in obscurity; but it seemed of great extent, and to have another outlet, if I might judge by the cool wind that came through it and stirred the soft tamarisk leaves of which the poor santon made his bed, and among which Kior prepared to stable the horses, but being awrare that we might be roused in the night, and have perhaps to make a sally, he removed neither saddles nor bridles, but only relaxed a buckle or two, after which he went out barefooted, and with a branch brushed carefully all the dewy grass, to obliterate every trace of our horses' hoofs. While Bred and I groomed our own nags, we were struck by the superior manner of our Arab comrade, when similarly engaged. The tenderness of a mother to her infant could not surpass that ot Ibn Kogia to his horse. He kissed it repeatedly on the nose and forehead, and gently wiped its fine large hazel eyes with the soft muslin of his turban, saying again and again,— "My life, and dearer to me than life; my sweet, my beautiful Gazelle ! May Allah, and his holy Prophet, keep thee from -weariness and wounds, from sickness and the eyes of evil!" Por nearly half-an-hour he continued to talk thus, as I have some- times heard our dragoons do to their chargers; and the noble barb seemed sensible of his kind caresses, for he rubbed his head against Kior's bronzed cheek and breast, and licked his hand like a good and faithful dog. " Prank," said Langley, who had been observing him with some ►hing of admiration; " in England such «vroom would be invaluable • M 174 FRANK HILTON J OR, " THE QUEEN'S OWN." But I hope our friend with the beard has something better for us to sup on than dates and cold water." " Seasoned with scraps of the Koran ?" " I have no fancy for supping with such a hermit, unless, like Scott's clerk of Copmanhurst, he has a corps de reserve, in the shape of cold pie and a bottle of wine." The poor santon had no such substantial fare to offer us; but he produced a wooden dish, in which were a quantity of rice, beans, and flour, all boiled into a mess, which, after he had said, " Bismillah!" we supped with butter and milk; and thereafter, to his great annoy- ance, we each took a jorum of brandy, from the large hunting flasks which hung at our waist-belts. " God forgive me for eating with infidels who believe not in the Koran," said" he, in a low voice, as he bent his head towards the keblali. Like all the mollahs and dervishes of the East who are anxious to engage strangers, especially the Christians, in polemics, our santon interlarded his whole conversation with scraps of the Koran and references to marvellous and sacred traditions, but 1 gave the good man his own way, and freely subscribed " yea, and amen," to whatever he advanced, no matter how absurd. Kior was so pleased by the favourable position I seemed to hold in estimation of the santon, that I am certain that he would have gone to the cannon's mouth for me, or done anything but sell his horse Gazelle, with which he shared his supper; for it was his rule to give it a piece of everything he took, even were it the wing of a fojvl or a slice of roasted meat. "By Jove," said Langley, "nothing astonishes me more than the love of those Arabs for their horses, when contrasted with their barbarity to men." " If you love your wife, Kior, but half so well as you do that fine horse," said I, " she will be the happiest woman among the Abdali." " When I had one, I loved her even better than Gazelle—but God is great!" " How! is she dead ?" "No; but I put her away—divorced her!" " She behaved ill, then ?" " 111 ?" said the Arab, clenching his teeth; " No; oh, no! Zoraida Was pure as the lily that grows by the Holy Well, and spotless as Eatima; but in an evil hour I divorced her because she had no children, and then came repentance—but, alas, too late! When all her jewels were sold, Zoraida was in want, and she married Jaffer; then, when I saw her in the tent of another, all my old love returned, and I was on the point of stabbing myself for grief, and would have done so, but for the advice and consolation of the holy Noureddin, who reminded me, that in slaying myself, she would assuredly di the water oe immortality., 175 before me, and I wished net to injure a hair of her beloved head, though now it was pillowed on the bosom of another!" " I erish before you. But how, Kior ?" " Because, on the night we were wedded, she was the first who slept, and we all know that they who sleep first on the nuptial night will go first to the grave; thus I could not die before Zoraiaa! Dost thou understand ?" Ered smiled at the solemnity of Kior, and pulled out his cigar-case, which the santon looked at with considerable interest, evidently regarding it as a talisman or reliquary. "I'll offer the old boy a cigar.—Will you have one?" said he, opening the case before the santon, whose face (although he had no objection to a chibouque), expressed the greatest repugnance as he pushed it aside; but Ered, with his usual coolness, scraped a fusee on the side of a jar close by him, lighted a cigar, and puffed away with the utmost composure, arranging his hair, in a pocket-mirror, and making himself quite at home. CHAPTER XXXVI. the water op immortality. The jar against which Ered Langley had so irreverently applied his patent Vesta was of copper and contained water brought from the Zem-zem Well at Mecca, for the santon had of course been repeatedly a haji, and regularly returned from every pilgrimage with a fresh supply of this blessed liquid. Close by it hung his keffin (Anglice, coffin), or the shroud in which he was to be wrapped when dead, and which had been dipped in the same holy fountain, and thereafter dried in the sun on the gable of the Kaaba. Among various relics and mysterious odds and ends, which lay in the keblah, or niche, that was hewn in the wall of the grot to mark the direction of Mecca, I observed a well-used copy of the Koran, and a small crystal phial, which contained a bright and glittering liquid. I begged permission to examine the Koran, which proved to be a MS. copy, written in the pure and beautiful dialect of the Koreish, the true Arabic tongue, and the Bismillah preceding every chapter was flourished in green and gold. "Thou hast read this book, 0 Earingi," said the santon, im- pressively; " and yet thou wilt not, or cannot, see its meaning!" I was silent; for with such a man, one who had run a moqua, this was dangerous ground. "Thou art like one," he continued, "before whom a glorious light is unfolded, and yet must close his eyes because of the brightness thereof, and will not, or dare not, see! Is it not so, 0 Kafir ? But a day shall come to the Earingis, when, as with the 176 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OW* Israelites of old, Mount Sinai will be torn up by the roots, and shaken above their heads to terrify the unbelieving." As he spoke, the glare of fanaticism mingled in his eyes with what I thought the gleam of incipient insanity., and, desirous of changing the subject, I asked what the phial contained " Only one drop of the Fountain of Life; but lo ! that drop hath filled the bottle." "Is this the fountain that was guarded by Khizer the sageP" I asked, astonished at his credulity. " That is guarded, thou meanest. Right, Faringi. It is the same; and I received it from the Seyd Ammer Ibn Yaser, a haji, who had come from a distant pilgrimage, and who averred that it was the Water of Life from the Land of Darkness. Poor Ibn Yaser! he was slain by your Kafirs, when they first polluted Aden with their unsainted presence. Thou hast heard of how Iskander went in search of this miraculous water, in the times of old ?" I professed that I had not. "Then listen, O Faringi!" resumed the santon, seating himself cross-legged, and lighting his long pipe; "Iskander, the son of Philip, the tamer of Bucephalus, after conquering the Thebans and Persians, the Syrians and Egyptians; after building the city which he vainly named from himself Iskandriek, and which he placed so skilfully near the Mediterranean, the Nile, and the blue waves of Kalzom, resolved to visit the temple of the pagan god. Jupiter Ammon, which stood afar off amid sandy deserts, beyond the frontier of the Land of Darkness. And he set out with a chosen band of his bravest warriors, for he had resolved that, though all should perish of fatigue and thirst but two, that they should hear him proclaimed what he averred himself to be, the son—not of Philip—but of the marble god ! "The hardy warriors who followed him, Greeks who had conquered half the world, were overcome by terror, when far from all human habitation, they found themselves traversing the vast Lybian deserts, which spread around them like a yellow sea, where there was not the smallest vestige of verdure, nor the visible footprint of any living thing. Many perished of thirst, many of hunger, and many more sank under exhaustion and were left to die, and be overwhelmed by the moving columns of sand, while the air became as the breath of a furnace, or the hot vapour that is spanned by the bridge of A1 Sirat. "Even the proud Iskander al Rumi was about to lose all courage, and his spirit sank at the* terrible, prospect of being, perhaps, the last survivor of his band, for they were dying fast; when lo! the heavens began to grow dark, and the clouds to gather; the rain fell in torrents, and the sinking soldiers gladly opened their parched mouths to catch the grateful shower that sowed the barren desert is if it fell upon a trackless sea. "Multitudes of croaking ravens aopeared, and these flew before THE WATER Of IMMORTALITY. 177 them as guides, screaming as the gloom deepened, and it deepened fast, till the desert air became so black that they could not see each other's faces, for now they were in the Land of Darkness. " Seven days and seven nights they journeyed in this region of gloom, marching over a desolate track, aud when fatigue came upon them, they slept on the sand, the hue of which they could not discern. " At length, afar off, they descried a faint green light, like that of an emerald, and Iskander urged them on, for he knew that it came from the raiment of Khizer, the Giver of Youth to the animal and vegetable worlds, the Guardian of the Well of Life, which stands on the utmost verge of this awful region of gloom. As they approached, the garments of the venerable sage became more ana more resplendent, until the green light thereof shone on their polished helmets, their brazen shields, and beamy weapons, and on their Eallid faces; for when they stood beside him, his raiment glittered ke a column of emeralds, diamonds, and green jaspers. "' Hail, most holy of sages,' said Iskander, dismounting from his horse, while his proud heart trembled with mingled awe and joy; ' give me to drink of the waters of everlasting youth and unfading immortality.' " Khizer smiled sadly, and dipped a golden cup into the verdant Water of Life, which sparkled like green crystal, and held it towards Iskander, who trembled yet more with eagerness; and so impatient was he to quaff the bitter but intoxicating draught, that alas ! he spilled the whole contents of the cup; they were drunk by the thirsty sand, and not a drop remained! " He implored the sage to refill it. " 'Nay,' replied Khizer, with grave severity, 'the toil of so many days and nights, the terror of the long gloom, and those vast deserts of burning sand, where so many valiant men have perished of hunger and thirst, of heat and toil, might have taught thee, at least —-patience—but they have not, and the stern law of Kate will not permit me to fill this cup a second time to any mere mortal man.' " With these words the venerable face and shining figure of tne sage faded away, and, as they disappeared, so was the darkness dis- pelled, and the bright sun shone joyously upon the thick shady grove, and the mighty peristyle of the temple of Jupiter Ammon, where, by bribing the mercenary priests of the false god, the vain- glorious Iskander was declared to be the son of a marble block, and was ever after known as Iskander al Rumi, for the idol had on its temples the horns of a ram ; yet how far happier would he have been if one drop of Khizer's blessed fountain—even so much as this phial contains—had but touched the tip of his tongue !" As the santon concluded this strange story, which, like every Arab tradition, referred to a very remote antiquity, he held before me the glittering liquid, which had been imposed upon him by 178 .FRANK HILTON J OR, "THE QUEEN's OWN." some cunning liaji, or dervish, more gullible, perhaps, than him self. Meanwhile, Fred Langley was teaching—not very wisely, as I thought—Kior Ibn Kogia, the platoon exercise with his long musket, and he picked it up with wonderful readiness; thus, while the wild- eyed santon, seated cross-legged before me, pursued with great vehemence, an exordium on the true faith, the words of command, which Fred vociferated as if he had been drilling his company in the cavern, most absurdly filled up the pauses between, every sentence. "Poor deluded Kafir," I remember the santon saying, among " 1 1 e all the joys of your promised para- the Tartar winter, when compared to the fruit and flowers of summer in Arabia the Happy. There will be gardens greater than those of Irem, fairer than those of our first parents, watered by the crystal waters of life, and shaded by trees covered with golden leaves; crowns of glorious lustre and robes of the finest silk that Persian fingers ever wove, adorned with diamonds and other precious stones; tents and palaces of gold and emeralds, with floors of shining marble •—for so saith the Koran! There we shall have the most fragrant coffee and the sweetest sherbets, cooled with ice; girls beautiful as summer, their fine persons redolent of delicious perfumes, with black eyes of more than mortal softness, and hair whose length alone will hide their unclothed loveliness—for so saith the Koran! Of these, each true believer •will have seventy-two, with eighty thousand servants : three hundred to attend when he eats, and they will serve him with three hundred dishes of gold, each containing three hun dred kinds of food; and he shall eat without ever being filled, ana drink without ever being intoxicated — for so saith the Koran! And in those gardens of everlasting joy, standeth the Toaba—the Tree of Happiness, around the stem of which, even thy fleet horse, 0 Kior Ibn Kogia, could not gallop in a hundred years; it beareth all the fruits of the earth, and all its leaves are tongues, whose melody will mingle with the choirs of angels and the sweeter voices of our dazzling houri. Such are a few of the celestial joys promised by Mohamed Pesoul Allah—the only true Prophet—to the faith- ful!" " And the women, santon, what of them ? for I remember to have read, that when one who was aged asked the Prophet what she should do to reach paradise, he told her, bluntly, to save herself all trouble on that score, as no old women were admitted there." " A woman is but the moiety of a man—yet in the other world they shall have their own place of delight." " And spouses well perfumed too ?" "The Koran saith not" replied the santon, with something of a scowl; " but for such as thee another place is assigned, and from the lowest depths of the Seventh Hell, where thou shalt be shod They are like the frost and snow of an alakm. 179 with shoes of fire, fettered by the chains of error and obstinacy, and where thy skull shall boil hke a pot of rice, and where serpents shall sting and vultures gnaw thee, thou shalt see the glories none can ever taste but the faithful! Millions upon millions of years shall roll away; cur life here will he looked back upon but as a speck upon the horizon, as a grain of sand in the desert, as one wave in the ocean of time, but that happiness shall never decay; the houri will never be less blooming, or less loving; the desires will never die, or the sweets of Paradise he less alluring, for an appetite that never palls; for there, by the shores of the River of Life, youth, love, and light, and joy, can never fade, can never— 0 Bismillah! never die !" " Stand at ease!" shouted Bred; " well done, old fellow—here endeth the first lesson." There is an Arabian proverb, which says, "It is wise to show but one eye, in the land of the one-eyed." Thus, I allowed the old santon, who was evidently half demented, to have all the conversa- tion and exordiums to himself, and the result was, that we all parted, or rather, resigned ourselves to sleep for the remainder of the night, in the highest possible good humour with each other; and I have no doubt that it was with some difficulty that the fanatical Regene- rator of the Baith reconciled himself to the idea, that he was shelter- ing under the roof of his sacred grotto two of the hated Baringis, who disbelieved the Koran, drank wine, ate pork, neglected the fast of Ramadan, and were the committers of many other enormities. Bor an hour he retired behind his curtain to read the Koran, although he knew every verse of it as well as the features of his own remarkable face. Meanwhile, Bred sang a song, and to banish our adventure with the Alma, and the unpleasant revelation of the well, conned over a somewhat tattered Punch, and Kior told me wonderful anecdotes of the speed, docility, and bravery of his horse Gazelle, which could do everything, and was scarcely surpassed by those elephants, which, as Plutarch tells us, danced upon a tight rope, or the patriotic parrots, which, after the battle of Actium, shouted, " Yictory to Caesar." My watch, however, warned me that the hour for repose was come, and, soldierlike, we slept in our cloaks, and Kior Ibn Kogiain his henish, among the withered leaves and reeds. CHAPTER XXXVII. an at.aum ! About fcur in the morning I was wakened from a sound sleep by Ibn Kogia. The cavern, with its sharp angles and deep shadows, the iron cruise, the figures of the sleeping santon and Bred Langley, with our horses in the background, made up a novel and striking ecene. 380 IBANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." " Hist!" said the Arab, fixing his piercing eye on me; " do you not hear something ?" "No; do you?" fC Armed horsemen are passing down the wadi—they are approach- ing!" he added, snatching his sword, and springing to the rough door of the hermitage, through the many orifices of which he pierced into tlie cold blue atmosphere of the starlit morning; and, on following him, I could perceive a number of men in white turbans and brown barracans, armed with long muskets and longer lances, and all mounted on horses or camels, defiling from the wood, and passing round the margin of the pool, which lay before the santon's dwelling. "Up—up, Fred, those rascally Bedouins are upon us," said I; " and the foreshadowing of fate in yonder well may yet come true, after all! Look to your pistols, and rouse the old santon." Langley was up in a moment; he placed his revolver in his belt, and assisted us to roll a large stone (on which the santon was wont to kneel in prayer) behind the slender door, as a temporary security. "Wallah! they are passing!" said Kior, joyfully, as he peeped through the crevices again; " but I am assured they are after us, for see, they thrust their spears into every bush and. thicket—now they halt!" " They dare not look here, I presume ?" As the devil would have it, at that moment the horse of our guide, being instinctively aware that others were near, uttered a loud neigh. On this infallible signal that horsemen were not far off, the Bedouins, who, to avoid an alarm, seldom ride mares on their secret expeditions, all drew together, and, after a moment's conference, with a loud yell and brandished lances, dashed towards the hermitage. " Away, O Faringis," said the santon, " for these are wild men, who may neither respect me nor my dwelling." " Away ?" I repeated, angrily, while grasping my horse's bridle; " must we sally out upon them, and sell our lives as dearly as possible before the door?" " Bismillah—no! The inner grotto is a mere chasm in the moun- tain; it penetrates to the opposite valley. Take down the lamp to light your way; go—go, and peace be with you. Quick, Kior Ibn Kogia, thou knowest the path; thou art a Believer, and strong in heart. Set these poor Kafirs an example!" At that moment the butts of twenty spears came thundering on the frail door, and the caves beyond it rang with a thousand echoes. Our pursuers were true Bedouins, of that ferocious species whose daily struggle with nature for food, and with man for clothing, arms, and powder, kept them in a state of perpetual warfare, to defend what they possessed, and wrest from others that which they required ■—men who never lie down under their only roof, a tree, but with their horse and spear beside them, lest the tecbir of some hostile tribe, on a midnight inroad, should rouse them to battle. For, in A» ALARM. VI the desert, it is a maxim, that he who cannot protect his life, his women, and cattle, deserves them not. Now, in the East, as santons are so venerated that, like the Jesuits elsewhere, they at times have swayed the fate of empires and ot kings, the Haji Noureddin was wroth at the treatment of his door. " Open, santon," cried the voice ot Sheikh Ibrahim; " open, for thou hast Kafirs here—Kafirs, who have slain the brother of my kinsman Khaled Ibn Khobaid, and we have sworn by the Kaaba to tear the life out of their hearts. Open, I tell thee, santon; I am thy friend, the Sheikh Ibrahim." " Begone, do^ of a sheikh!" exclaimed Noureddin; " begone, lest I make the earth open and swallow you up! There is dirt upon your beard, and your turban is awry." " I tell thee, open," said the shiekh, hoarsely, " and thou shalt have three she-camels, each ten months gone with young." " Thou wouldst tempt me to sin, even as the devil tempted Cain to slay his brother, by crushing the head of a sparrow between two stones. Yield them, sayest thou? I will not; for the Faringis have eaten bread and salt with me." " Allah hu! they are here !" cried several Bedouins, with savage j°y- " Art thou, 0 santon, that Noureddin who hast sworn to exter- minate the Kafirs ?" " I am, and fearfully shall I keep my vow." " Mayest thou live for ever!" " I am sorry I cannot return the wish," replied the santon, spitefully. " Wallah! open; for I have sworn to have the life of him who slew my brother on the mountain," cried the Bedouin Khaled Ibn Khobaid. " Wouldst thou have had him die in his bed, like a woman or a fakir ?" asked Noureddin. " Santon, this is folly," said the sheikh, in a low voice, as he applied his lips to a crevice of the door; " thou art mad, and hast forgotten that he who lendeth succour to the oppressor shall, ere long, fall under his subjection. I must have the heads of the strangers and the Abdala, for I have sworn it." " If thou hadst sworn by every hair in the holy beards of the three hundred and thirteen apostles, and the two hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets of Islam,—yea, and by every hair of the dog that begot thee, thou shalt not." We heard no more of this very strange, and, for us, very unplea- sant altercation, as the Abdala had now unhooked the lamp, and, holding it in one hand, while grasping his horse's bridle with the other, led the way through the cavern. As fast as we could, Fred and I followed, each leading his horse by one hand, and holding a cocked pistol in the other; for every second of time we expected to 182 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." near the frail barrier which lay between us and the now dismounted Bedouins dashed to pieces. But for the eminent peril in which we were placed, I could have admired the striking ana picturesque aspect of the wonderful cavern we were threading. It seemed to penetrate the very heart of the mountain range, on each side of which lay a vertile wadi, or vale. The walls were entirely formed of pentagonal stone-columns, or shafts, all placed in vertical clusters, and supporting a mighty superincum- bent mass of horizontal rock, from the face of which depended thou- sands of glittering stalactites. Leading his beautiful Arab horse, with its crimson saddle, at which hung his musket and spear, Ibn Kogia, led the way, holding up the flaring oil-lamp, the lurid and smoky gleam of which fell on his scarlet turban, swarthy face, and flashing eyes, and on his bright sword and shield, pistol and jambea; on those long ranges of volcanic pillars, vanishing away into terrible obscurity, and those masses of shining rock, through which the grotto wound, with their varied tints of red and grey, with crimson, yellow, violet-coloured, or snow-white pendants, that hung so low in some places that we could scarcely pass, and the head of Kior's jarring spear struck fire among them, though, in other places, the roof was so high that we could scarcely see it in the gloom, as we stumbled onward over masses of fallen stone, half leading and half dragging our startled horses. All this formed a scene like the chapter of a novel, and I shall never forget it! We had not penetrated above a hundred yards when a wild yelb or rather the roar of many mingled voices, burst upon our ear, as it pealed along the roof of the natural vault, and woke its farthest echoes, announcing that the Bedouins had burst in the frail barrier, and passing the outer grotto, or chapel of the santon, were after us in full pursuit. "Bismillah, come on!" cried Kior, "for here are the spears of Sheikh Ibrahim." " Yelling like a pack of hungry hounds when the game is in view," said Bred. " D—n them, here go all the balls of my revolver!" " Wait a little—let them come to closer quarters," said I, looking back, but in the obscurity behind being totally unable to perceive anything, though the light we carried directed them how to follow us; and but for the incessant winding of the chasm, we must assuredly have been shot down, for they fired repeatedly, but at ran- dom; and while the reports of their long muskets, drowning even then- fierce cries, rang like thunder in that tremendous vault, their bullets frequently hissed past us, and were flattened out like silver stars on the slimy rocks beyond. I was in the rear, and close behind me heard one, who, outstripping all other pursuers, was almost within arm's length of us; turning, with a heart full of fury, I levelled my pistol to shoot lfim dead, when I discovered the excited face of the wild santon. AN ALARM. 183 " On, on," said He, "breathlessly ; " Kafirs, Faringis, unbelievers though ye be, I would not have ye perish here ; one act alone wilt save you, and I will risk it. though the whole hill of Djobla should descend upon us," and with wonderful agility he sprang on before us, dragging an iron crowbar, and disappeared in the obscurity in front. "Here they are," said Fred; " Hilton, for God's sake, let us turn and give them one volley !" Bang went the heavy musket of Kior, and ping—ping—ping, fol- lowed the bullets of Fred's revolver with those of my rifled pistols. We fired nine sharp shots point blank into the mass of white turbans and barracans behind us; a frightful yell followed, and tnen there was a moment's stillness; they had received a decided check, for nine shots from three men terrified them, and on we went, stumbling forward so fast that our horses were almost cantering. At an angle of the chasm I saw the long silver beard of the santon waving, and the bony limbs of his half-naked figure straining, as he worked like a madman, in disengaging and hurling down the basaltic columns to form a barrier between us and the foe. We passed, and, on looking back, I saw him insert the lever between two vast masses of basalt; then came a crash, as if an earthquake had rent the mountain, and a mighty ruin of rock and earth descended like a curtain in our rear, closing up that avenue for ever, and forming an impenetrable barrier between us and the Bedouins. Their yells were hushed in a moment, and we heard no sound but our own hard breathing and the rapid clank of our horses' hoofs. " Good Heaven!" said Fred, "has that old fanatic buried himself to save us ?" Kior grew pale at the idea, for the Santon Noureddin was all but a god in Yemen; but we had no time for reflection, as we were not without fear that the whole of this Cyclopean edifice might de- scend upon us, or that, perhaps, it might not have another outlet than that which the hermit had closed. As Langley hinted something of this kind, a perspiration burst over me, and a pang shot through my heart; but as Kior said that the lamp was failing us, most of the oil having been spilled, we con- tinued to press on, after reloading our arms and examining our horses' knees. In a minute after, the Abdala uttered a cry. The lamp had gone out! The darkness of the grave was around us, and my horse reared so fiercely that I feared he would break my legs, or his own, and all my strength was required to hold down his head. To be brief: after nearly half-an-hour more of anxious and arduous groping through that dark and wonderful chasm, breaking our shins every minute against pieces of rock, and cutting our hands upon jagged fragments of crystals and spars, a faint glimmer became discernible before us. It brightened fast, and was reflected on the slimy walla of the grotto, 184 FKANK HILTON, OK, **THB QUEEN'S OWN." or passage; then we could see, but far off, as at the bottom of the well, a sunny haze, and green leaves waving; then wr could find whereon to place our feet with confidence; and at last, with our hearts beating joyfully, we issued from an arch in the side of the rocky hills, fringed round by wild vines and thorny mimosa trees, to find ourselves in a green and beautiful valley, in the blaze of a cloudless morning sun, which tinged with the hue of burnished gold the jagged summits of those volcanic cliffs under which we had passed, and which now rose like a mighty barrier between us and the enemy—hills so steep and high, that the Bedouins would have to ride at least twenty miles before they could turn their flank and reach the valley. We had been some hours in traversing this cavern, and our feet and hands were in a woful condition by cuts and bruises; but we were most concerned for the knees of our nags, which had re- ceived several wounds and scrapes. Kior found some green leaves, like those of the acanthus, and bruising them to a pulp, applied it to the legs of the horses, and from this application they seemed to receive immediate relief. " And now," said he, " I must leave you, for I shall have many a mile to ride before I can overtake our Emir Mohamed on the frontier of Shugra. You see the smoke which curls yonder in the sunshine, from amid a grove of palms," he added, pointing down the beautiful and luxuriant valley, to where I could distinguish, among the tail, and graceful date trees, a number of white cottage walls and black dusky tents—"there lies the village of the good Sheikh Abdulmelik; and now, 0 nakibs, you are safe, and it is time that Ibn Kogia was beside his master." " My brave fellow," said I, full of admiration and gratitude, as I drew out my purse, " how shall we reward your faith—your bravery in our service ?" " By leaving for ever the land of the Abdali, with all your soldiers and great cannon. I am an Arab of the Arabs," he added, disdain- fully, as he pushed my purse aside, and sprang into his crimson saddle; " had I the riches of Khoosroo the Persian, I would give them all to see the land of my fathers freed from the Earingis ! But alas and bismillah! the poor son of Ishmael hath only his heart and his spear!" I was about to make another essay, but the soul of Kior Ibn Kogia was above a reward so pitiM: he let the reins fall on the neck of his fleet horse, waved aloft his round buckler and long tasseled spear, as he sprang from our side like an arrow from a bow. In one minute, he was out of our sight. 185 CHAPTER XXXVHL THE SHEIKH ABDULMELIK. The morning sun was bright, the sky, as usual, without a cloud, and every herb and flower, rock and tree, were glittering in the silver dew of the night that had passed away. Near a blue stream that wound over yellow sands ana among light green foliage, we saw upon a gentle slope the village of Abdulmelik, which consisted of a few white-walled cottages and many black canvas tents or wild-looking wigwams. Close to these grazed the flocks of his tribe. The village or camp—for it partook of both—was about half a mile distant, and as we rode down from the hills, crossed the stream, and trotted up, our spirits rose, and, after the excitement of the past night, we felt almost happy. " 'Pon my honour, I don't half like this kind of work!" said Ered. " You are better read in Arabic than I am, Hilton, and may under- stand the queer ways of these copper-coloured devils; but I must own that, to me, whose ideas of the East are based on the memories of the lively lady, who was shut up in the glass box by her husband the giant—the spouse and the parrot—the young King of the Black Isles, whose nether man was made of black marble—the three calcn- ders and the five ladies of Bagdad—Prince Ahmed and the sweet fairy Pari Banou—this reality is anything but pleasant. However, I suppose wc shall have ' Arabia' on our colours, as well as Her Majesty's 65th, or 2nd York North Riding, which will be very con- solatory to our friends should they never hear of us again." As Ered never reflected very long on any subject, and as I did not propound anything in reply, he stroked the mane of his horse, and broke into a scrap of a hunting song, the burden of which was, • Old fellow, hold on—head up, and hand low, Over ditch, and smash through the hot-house we go! For when saddle galls sore, and the spurs his sides goad, The high-mettled racer's a hack on the road. Yoick! Sing hey fal de ral, tally-ho! tally-ho f I was very well pleased when the stream was placed between us and those whom I expected to appear every moment on the rocky ridge of hills that rose in our rear; but no white turbans or bright lance-heads arose between their outline and the clear blue sky; and with no small anxiety—on my part, at least, for Ered Langley was the most heedless of all thoughtless fellows—we drew near the village of the Sheikh Abdulmelik, i.e., " the Servant of the King." The sun was shining with dazzling splendour on its little dwel- lings, and on the luxuriant foliage which overshadowed them. With a few houses which were roughly built of hewn stones, covered by a terrace, or flat roof, and rising above each other like steps on the 186 FRANK .HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." green sispe of the verdant valley, the village consisted chiefly of coarse black tents and rrmd hovels, thatched with grass and clustered round the tomb of a santon. For doors and windows they had only square openings, hung with curtains or coarse mats, and the hum of gathering voices mingled with the bellowing of camels, the neighing of horses, and the bleating of sheep, as we entered. ■ Doubtful what manner of Mussulmen we were, by the fairness of our complexions, the length of our stirrups, and the fashion of our swords, the dark-looking men crowded about us noisily, and with a mingled expression of hostility and inquisitiveness in their quick eyes, "the women had all their faces unveiled, and their fine black orbs were smiling with a kinder interest and wonder. Some of the men were beginning to hoot and handle their weapons, when I resolutely brandished a cocked pistol, and demanded to be shown the residence of the Sheikh, and we had not been led twenty yards when we found ourselves before it. It was one of the flat-roofed houses; and at its door we found the venerable chief, in accordance with the custom of ages, on his knees at prayer, with his face turned towards Mecca. In respect for his rank, his reverend aspect, and present occupation, we dismounted and held our horses by the bridle until his orisons were ended, be- fore which we had a good opportunity of observing him. He was muffled in one of those shawls of Bagdad cloth, which are striped alternately with red and white; his eyes were full of expression and vivacity; his eyebrows were thick and protruding, and his beard hung down in a broad volume of silver, that reached to his girdle, and almost covered the carved ivory hilt of his jambea. Prayer over, he arose, and after gazing at us for a moment, in keen scrutiny, he made a profound salaam. "Peace be unto you," said he. "Unto you be peace," I replied, in the usual manner. " Under God's protection, who are ye ?" he asked. " This letter from the Emir Mohamed al Raschid will show," said I, drawing from my breast our missive of credence. " Good; the Abdala is the friend of old Abdulmelik," replied the sheikh, as he hastily read over the document, which he kissed, and then passed a high eulogium on the valour and virtues of the young emir, whom he affectionately called " his son." He led us into an apartment which was cool and pleasant, for the hangings of the open windows were dark, and the perfume of the morning flowers was wafted through them. The walls were plastered with white stucco, and on the four sides were painted, in green Arabic characters, a startling verse from the third chapter of the Koran. "Whosoever followeth any other religion than Islam, shall not be accepted, and in the next life he shall be of those who perish!" Soft carpets with cushions were spread around the chamber with amber pipes on them, and vases of fresh flowers stood between. THE SHEIKH ABDTJLMELIK. 187 Here we deposited our valises and bolsters, for we left our horses with their harness only, to the care of the Arabs; and here a repast was laid before us, for, fortunately, the venerable Abdulmelii£ had not yet breakfasted. He was the husband of only one wife. She was now fifty years old and wrinkled to the last degree, but then the good sheikh had never loved any other. Their seven sons had all been slain in battle by the Futhalis, but a number of biacic-eyed grandchildren peeped at us from time to time through a brass-wire grating, which opened into another apartment. For these little Arabs, Fred drew a number of race-horses and four-in-hand drags on the blank leaves of my note-book, and by doing so, quite won the heart of the white-bearded patriarch. After hearing my account of our pursuit and escape from Sheikh Ibrahim, he replied, " It was very daring of him to come so near my village, for he knoweth well that for each of his spears I have ten, and for each of his matchlocks, twenty. Had he crossed those mountains, few of his people had ever returned to Rob a el Khaly. He is a wretch so avaricious, that he would not throw a bone, even to the dog of the Seven Sleepers." Our repast consisted of kischer, a hot infusion of coffee-beans, camels'-miik and butter, which was served to each of us in coarse clay cups by women who were unveiled, as Fred hinted, because they had nothing worth concealing. We had also slices of wheaten bread and millet-cake, with honey. This, with a pipe, was our breakfast, after which the sheikh dipped his hands in a laver of water, for the strict Mussulman immerses his face and digits five times daily, and immediately after every meal, a necessary ablution in a land where, as yet, knives, and forks, and gloves are in the lap of futurity. We were to march for Sana after noon had passed, and the sheikh said, that as the Futhalis, the Bedouins, and the Arabs of Kaa-el-Bun, lay between us and the capital, he would escort us in person, with at least two hundred mounted men. As our funds were limited to what the regimental paymaster had advanced, and as we had no means of replenishing them until our return to the garrison, I was somewhat alarmed at the prospect of maintaining two squadrons of cavalry, and frankly said so to the sheikh; he laughed, and replied that the land through which we marched, would provide food, and he would be amply compensated by the generous Yizier Rabd al Hoosi, for conveying two ambassadors to the footstool of the Imaum. Moreover that, mounted and accoutred as we were, we would not find he had a lance too many in his escort, as Christians were not at all times allowed to ride on either horses or camels in the kingdom of Yemen. The sheikh now made every preparation for the march, by cleaning the blade of his long Arab sword, loading his pistols, and accurately examining his harness, several of the buckles and straps of which he repaired with his own 188 fRASK II[LION; OK, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." hand, saying to us with a smile, " I never rely on another for doing that which I can do for myself." After a dinner of soUp, stewed mutton, and hulwah, or sweetmeats, which were served upon little trays to each of us, and placed upon a small tripod stool beside each person, we discussed a jar of very good wine. Abdulmelik allowed his wife to eat with us, but politely apologized for doing so, saying that she was his " Lily of delight, and nutmeg of comfort; that he had married her, not for her beauty, but because she was skilful in casting bullets and making bread." "This jolly old sheikh drinks like a rector," said Fred. " Of course; in obedience to the Koran," said I. " How! I thought it forbade wine, in this world—at least ?" " But we may take whatever is good for us, and doubtless the sheikh considers that wine is good for him." Abdulmelik asked me a number of questions concerning the settlement at Aden by the Ingleez, to whom he seemed not over partial; but I gained a great step in his favour by acquainting him that I was not one of the Ingleez, but came from a kingdom that lay to the north of them; which had of old its own Imaums, and had yet its own laws and religion, in both of which it differed as much from the said Ingleez as any two nations of Frangistan could do, and added, that it was the country from whence came the gallant Ibrahim Aga, who was commander of the Mamelukes and Governor of Medina under the late Pacha of Egypt.'::<' He then asked me a number of questions concerning this country, which lay to the north of the Ingleez, who he always conceived to have lived in ships; whether our women were handsome, moonfaced and round hipped, and how much they sold for a-head; if we forged good swords and bred fine horses. " Is it true that yonr jockeys can charm them by looking into their mouths, as I have seen some of the Ingleez do at Mocha 'r—and can they tell whether they are enchanted by the brown rings on their teeth ?" To save explanations, I answered that it was quite true. " Wallah, your jockeys must beat the sorcerers of Oman!" said the sheikh. His wife then asked me if we permitted our women to eat with us, and if we took off our turbans to them in the street; and, on my replying in the affirmative, she screamed with laughter till 1 was ashamed of the admission. "Do your men and women sit in the mosque together?" " Invariably." " But have they not other ideas in their heads than holy ones, on seeing so many women unveiled ?" * This was Thomas Keith, a private of the 72d, or Albany Highlanders, and son of a gunsmith in Edinburgh. THE SHEIKH ABDTJLMELIK. 189 " Sometimes," replied Fred; " I have known a very happy mar. tiage result from a love-making in church." "The Kafirs! — marriage — what desecration!" muttered _ the sheikh. Many other questions followed, for he was very inquisitive about this kingdom, which lay so far on the verge of the world, as to be beyond even the Ingleez ; but all my answers seemed so impro- bable, that, fearing to be deemed a mere coiner of fables, I left Fred to reply, and, certes, he gave such an account of it, by mingling truth with absurdity, as made the old sheikh's eyebrows bristle with astonishment. " Do they live in tents or houses ?" " In houses, built like great castles," said Fred; " some of them are twenty stories high; they always commence to build at the chimney pots, and so work downwards to the foundations." " God is great! Are the roofs flat like ours, for sleeping on in hot weather ?" " There is nc hot weather there — nothing but mist" (" as I may remember," added Fred, parenthetically, " when I had a few weeks' shooting in Lorn.") " What! doth not the sun shine in that country ?" " Oh no," replied Fred, lighting his chibouque, " the moon only, and a very dim one too! My friend never saw the sun till he landed at Aden." "Allah ackbar!" ejaculated the sheikh, "is the dark country of these Kafirs an island ?" "No, but it is surrounded by walls of enormous height, having many gates." "Do they worship idols?" "Yes," replied Fred; "many of them adore a certain spirit called Mammon, and a golden calf, too,—a worship in which many of my own countrymen, the Ingleez, devoutly join at times." The sheikh, who understood everything literally, took his pipe from his mouth in amazement. " What is this thou tellest me, 0 Kafir ? A calf! is it like that which was cast by A1 Sameri, who made it from the rings and brace- lets of gold and silver, which the Israelites borrowed, after their own fashion, from the Egyptians ?" Fred, without a moment's hesitation, declared that it was the very identical calf, and this spirit, which was generally worshipped in secret and reviled in public, was a useful one withal, as it aided the Kafirs of the island to make those smoking ships which come on wheels to the sea of Kolzom, to make roads and bridges of iron, and chariots which were drawn by twenties at a time at the tail of a screaming iron horse, whose speed was so great that an arrow, shot Irom the strongest bow, could not overtake him. It was now Fred's turn —when he told the truth — to be looked upon as a "father of fables." "Wallah." the simole-minded sheikh; "either thouliest, C N 190 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN.*11 Faringi, or it is a land of magicians, who beat the enchanters of Oman in our day, and those of Pharaoh in the times of old! Neither Ghadur, Jaath, nor Mosfa, with all their wonder-working rods, could achieve such miracles, though they could turn their staffs into bark- tng serpents, which guarded them while they slept." Indeed the Sheikh Abdulmelik would have believed anything we chose to tell him, for he was as credulous as the Sultan of Malwa, who five times gave fifty thousand tungas for the five hoofs of the ase on which cur Saviour rode into Jerusalem. Amid such conversation noon passed; the time for departure arrived, and we gave a last look at our pistols and horses. The sheikh's wife brought him a pair of short riding-boots and his fur riding cloak, and respectfully received from him his pipe and slippers, Then he kissed her withered cheek, hooked on his sword, ana we came forth, to find the whole population of the straggling village assembled to see the cavalcade, but chiefly us, depart. The sheikh took liis lance from the turf where it was usually stuck before the door; this was the signal for mounting, and two hundred active and swarthy fellows, dressed in red turbans, with blue shirts and parti-coloured shawls, and all armed with tufted lances and long matchlocks, many of which were inlaid with silver, targets, daggers, maces, and swords, mounted their horses or camels; and I observed that the best accoutred generally rode dromedaries, a smaller species of the same animal, but having two humps. Beneficent nature has admirably fitted those uncouth animals for travelling over the vast plains and arid deserts of Arabia, where they can proceed for six and even eight days without water, carrying six hundredweight as an ordinary load; of this we are assured both by Sandys and Major Remiell. This load is never removed on a journey, as they kneel down at night, and repose with their burden unstrapped; while their stomachs are so peculiarly formed, that they can retain water, and from time to time gurgle it up into their hot and parched throats. The French army, during their campaign in Egypt, had a drome- dary regiment, which was able to perform as many evolutions as a corps of dragoons; when attacked, it formed a hollow square, and the dromedaries knelt down to form a breastwork before their riders, who dismounted to defend this living rampart with their muskets and bayonets; and their speed made them of the greatest service in pur- suing or retreating, In the history of Morocco, we are told of a young Arab who travelled from Mogadore to that city and bach again in one day, to procure some oranges for his mistress, a beautiful firl, who was sick, and whom he loved passionately. Morocco is one undred and twenty-five miles from the sea; thus, between dawn and sunset, this brave lover travelled two hundred and fifty miles on his swift heirie to gratify the longings of his lady. The gates were shut at night, wiien he reached the walls of Souerah, but he sent the oranges to Zenobia by one of the soldiers who guarded the barriers. THE SHEIKH ABDULMELIK. 191 Our journey occupied two or three days, as we took it very easily, and the good sheikh wished to show us the splendid scenery and foliaged landscapes of a land " where," as he said, " the sun shone." We halted wherever the heat of noon or the shade of night found us, spread our carpets, lit a fire and our pipes; told or heard stories of the magic mirror cf King Giamschid, which showed all things; or of the giant Og, the son of Anak, who escaped the Flood by swimming till the waters subsided; and then we would doze over hot coffee and roasted dates, while our horses were picketted beside us, and the camels fed on barley cakes and a handful of beans, or nibbled the tender branches of the tamarisk, the green stems of the jowrie, or the hard, prickly, spear-headed plants that grew in the sandy plain. As the Sheikh Abdulmelik, though brave as a lion, was a peaceful old man, and no way desirous of coming to blows if he could avoid it, he made various detours to avoid the tribes and towns whose people were predatory or quarrelsome. Thus we passed within view of Djobla, or Job-el-ala, the capital of a little principality, and saw little more than the smoke of its soap manufactories and the white walls of its palace, where, the sheikh said, the Princess Giuhara lived —a cruel but beautiful woman (of whom more anon); and now we found ourselves among peasantry, all of whom had their heads closely shaven. We saw Abb, a small town clustered on the summit of a mountain, surrounded by a strong wall, and behind its broken outline the morning sun was rising clear and brightly; then Jerim, with all its flat-roofed houses, nestling under a rock, which is crowned by the Turkish castle of its dola or governor. At Damar, in the mountains, near which the Arabs find the Ayek- Jremani or red cornelian, on which they set such value, we were fol- owed through the streets by noisy crowds, who hooted and threw mud at us, " as dogs. Pranks, and Kafirs!" This is a large town de- fended by a well-built fortress; it has a college of Zeites, several mosques, bazaars, and khans; but to halt there was impossible, for one of the Zeites, as we passed along the principal thoroughfare, threw thrice in my face a handful of al zakuni, the almond-shaped fruit of a bitter and thorny tree, which is considered accursed, for tradition avers that Mahomet transplanted it from Arabia to hell; and each time the malicious Zeite cried, while the people applauded, "May this, 0 dog, be thy food forever!" The third time my face smarted sorely. I lost all patience, and oy one blow of my whip across his face levelled the fanatic on the pavement. It was a rash deed: a yell rose from the people, and stones were thrown; but our escort brandished their spears, unslung their matchlocks; we soon got clear of the place, and ere nightfall saw before us the walls of Sana. 152 FRANK HILTON; Oil, *' THE QUEEN'S OWN. CHAPTER XXXIX, the city op the imatjm. Entering 'a broad and stony valley, the barren area of which was encircled by an amphitheatre of green and lofty mountains, we saw before us the capital city of Yemen, encircled by its walls, having innumerable turrets, with the domes of its twenty mosques glittering in the morning sun, which imparted to them a golden and purple radiance that formed a pleasant contrast to the streets of snow-white plaster, and to the brilliant green of those luxuriant orchards and gardens which cover the great slope that Sana crowns, and border the banks of the Shab, a river which takes its source near the steep Mount Nikkum. This hill overshadows the town, at an elevation, which is said by some to be four thousand feet above the level of the Red Sea; however, that has little to do with my story. While our long and picturesque cavalcade of two hundred turbaned Arabs, with their slender lances and round bucklers glittering in the sun, wound, in double file on their horses, camels, and dromedaries, down the valley, its white stony sides seemed to vibrate and palpi- tate in the morning beams as they poured between the fresh green mountain peaks in flaky showers of light and haze. Ered and I rode by the side of our protector, the Sheikh Ahdul- melik, and he relatea such stories of the sultan's tyranny and bar- barity, as made us by no means sanguine of success in our mission, and we could not refrain from expressing our desire that the duty was over, and that we were once more safe among the fine fellows of "the Queen's Own," at Aden. As we drew near the principal gate of this large and wealthy city, which is considered one of the handsomest in Asia, and is averred, by some travellers, to be larger than Bristol, from the space occupied by its bazaars, gardens, baths, and fountains, the picturesque aspect- of its long and shady avenue of lime and palm trees was enlivened in one place by a long caravanladen with coffee, dried fruit, and raisins, depart- ing for Mocha, under a guard of nearly three hundred armed Arabs; but the scene was darkened in other places by the hideous remains of several unfortunates, who had been impaled by the road-side and by the many grisly heads that grinned from the ramparts. Though bricks and mud, hardened and baked in the sun, are the material of which these defences are principally composed, they are of great strength and enormous thickness, as Dreghorn's gunners afterwards found; and I remember that an old topographer, Sanson, mentions, that in his time, the walls of Sana measured ten cubits in height, with towers of twenty. The Sultan Solyman, called frequently the Imaum, or King of Yemen, is the most influential of the Arab princes, and the erection of his power is coeval with the downfall of the Turkish authority, in THE CITY OP THE IMAUM. 193 1630, when lus ancestor, Khassim the Great, descended with his warriors from the hills of Lolieia, that look down on the Sea ol Kalzom, and freed all Yemen from the tyrannical sway of the Otto- man Pachas. Since then, the throne of Sana has been hereditary in the family of Solyman, whose whole kingdom is well organized, for each city has its kadi; each village its sheikh, each district its do!a; each port its emir bahr, or inspector, and he maintains a royal body- guard of one thousand horse and four thousand foot, commanded by sheikhs of rank; and we had no small trouble in overcoming the scruples and satisfying the cupidity of a party of the soldiers who guarded the gate—and savage-looking fellows they were; but all uniformly accoutred, with bucklers, sabres, lances, and slung match- locks. I cannot add that they were uniformly clad, as they only wore cloths round their loins, and turbans on their close-shaven crowns. The sun of noon was at its height when we entered the town, through a gate defended by brass cannon; the people were all within doors, and the narrow streets, in which were many handsome and massive houses of stone and of brick, khans and caravanserais of carved and painted wood, with windows of stained Venetian glass, seemed quite deserted; and we saw none abroad save a few houseless beggars who loitered under the arched peristyles of the mosques ; and undeterred by our formidable escort, reviled us bitterly on discover- ing who we were, by saying, " Wallah ! why should we who are true believers be on foot and in rags, while those beardless Kafirs are on horseback, and clad in fine garments ? Is this just, 0 Mahmoud resoui Allah ?" With the sheikh and his retinue we rode straight to the principal caravanserai, a large square building of brick, in the centre of which was a spacious court, surrounded by an arched piazza supported on columns of wood, painted green. Under this arcade ran a long seat like the terre pleine of a ravelin; on this a number of travellers and dealers in coffee, raisins, silks, &c., were sitting and smoking their pipes in silence, with their camels or horses near them. In the centre a beautiful marble fountain, surrounded by pots of brilliant flowers, threw up its water in pure jets of crystal. Here were no powdered waiters dressed in accurate black, with white vests and matchless ties, full of officious alacrity; no blooming chambermaids, with pretty caps and winning smiles; no portly land- lord with his amplitude of waistcoat to bow beneficently, while the ostlers unstrap the imperial from the carriage top, and bring your portmanteau and hat-box from under the rumble. Every one was left to shift for himself, and to groom his own cattle. The apartments for those who wished them were over the entrance, and to these Ered and I immediately repaired, while the sheikh and his train, who in the Eastern fashion had brought in with them all their provender for horse and man, squatted themselves under the arcade, lit '.heir pipes, and praised the prophet they were, there. 194 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN.*" The charity of the Mohammedan has erected those inns for the reception of strangers; and there even the accursed Jew and the infidel are safe from insult or pillage, for the injunctions of the Koran on the score of hospitality, have imparted somewhat of a sacred cha- racter to the caravanserai, and in many places the keepers are loth to admit unmarried men, being of opinion that he who is without a wife, is a more dangerous guest than he who has one or more. However, we were not long in Sana before Ered Langley was in a fair way to have the reputation of being a safe gentleman lodger i? any caravanserai under the sun. To refresh us after our long ride, we were bathed, anointed, rubbed, shampooed, and so attained that delightful sensation of coolness which an Eastern bath can only impart; and as we left the place with our loaded pistols in our girdles, and our swords buckled on (for it was unsafe to relinquish our arms for a moment), our kind old friend the sheikh brought us a written protection from the grand vizier, who, he informed us, was the most pious Mussulman in the kingdom, and had just gone to the mosque; but would receive us on the morrow, as the sultan was absent, sunning his imperial person in the smiles of the beautiful slave at his Castle of the Graces ; mean- time, that we had full leave to visit every part of the capital, while in possession of this missive, which was signed Rabd-al-Hoosi, and would afford us every protection. Armed with this new, and, in such a place, most necessary creden- tial (for the hatred of the Eranks extended far beyond Aden), we set forth for a ramble, and idled away an hour or two among those immense bazaars, which were the true precursors of the Great Indus- trial Exhibitions, of which we now hear so much, and endured less annoyance from the people than many of our officers have had from our allies at Constantinople. As we were returning— "What the deuce can that fellow want with us ?" said Ered, point- ing to an Arab, who had been narrowly observing and following us from place to place. "A thief, probably." "Nay, he looks rather too respectable for that. Speak to him, Frank." This Arab, who wore a plain cotton gown with wide sleeves all of spotless white, tied with a red silk scarf, in which he wore a fine Persian sabre, a blue cotton turban with red, green and yellow ends approached us, on seeing that we observed him; and making a pro found reverence, announced himself as " a slave merchant." Ered burst into a loud laugh, which made the Arab's grey moustaches—he was middle-aged—bristle with anger; but being less needless, I said, with cold politeness, that " we did not require any servants." " It is not servants, eunuchs, or water-carriers that I have now for sale," replied the merchant, with another salaam; "but if my lord wished to purchase a damsel, I could show him a pure virgin, TILE CITY OF THE IMATJJtt. 195 who in beauty is not to be surpassed by the most beautiful woman, in the seraglio of the sultan; nay, not by that boasted slave, who is believed to have enchanted him." Curiosity, pity, and contempt, were the emotions I felt at this announcement; Fred smiled knowingly, and said to me with a wink, " Are you inclined to invest a small sum in this jockey's cattle P" "Not very likely," said I. " 'Pon my honour, I should like to see the girl he speaks of, and know what he asks for her. .It is worth while learning how such ware usually sells." " Shall we go, then ?" "With pleasure. Come along; tell the old fellow to lead the way. What a joke!" " She is a miracle of loveliness," resumed the dealer, as we walked on together; " and even the Sublime Porte hath nothing like her at Istamboul. Her skin is fair, pure, and white, as the egg of an ostrich; her hair is black as night, and thick and massy; her eyes are brighter than the gems of Golcondah." "This fellow sets off his goods like a Newmarket jockey," said I; " but with a most insinuating sing-song." " She tells tales like the beautiful Scheherazade," continued the dealer, "and plays the lute like Isaac of Bagdad; but you shall judge, 0 my lords, for yourselves." "I am all impatience to see this divine odalisque," said Fred; " I have my purse with me; yes, all right." "You have quite got over your fancy for the emir's sister." "Well, I think I have. Poor girl! Where would be the use of moping about her ? But here we are; what an odd looking shop it is!" Fred, a matter-of-fact fellow, and thorough man of the world, had no other idea in going to see this girl than merely that we were en- gaged in a frolic, which, with a few additions, would make a fine bouncing story for the mess; but other thoughts were in my mind, and all the memories of the " Arabian Nights," of Moorish maids of Granada, and all that I had read of the poetry and romance of the East,—tales of beautiful women and of wild or seducing adventure, were thronging fast upon me, as the merchant in his white flowing robe led us onward. Opening with a copper key a door which was covered with elaborate brass ornaments, he ushered us into his house, and led us through several dark and narrow passages to a chamber which overlooked a gloomy little court, and the furniture of which consisted only of the usual cushions, carpets, and little stools, which are used as tables by the Arabs and Egyptians. Here he left us for a short time. Across one end of the apartment hung a chintz curtain, which I supposed t o conceal a bed-place, or inner chamber, and in this last conjecture I was correct. 196 IBANK HILTON; OK, " JETS QUPKN's OWN." CHAPTER XL. an ELIGIBLE INVESTMENT. In a few minutes the merchant re-appeared and drew back the curtain, beyond which appeared a small closet or aicove hung with crimson silk and lighted by a cupola, from which a flood of sunny lustre fell upon the unfortunate creature who was now exposed for sale, after a fashion such as Mrs. Stowe has never seen, or even conceived. She was completely veiled in a large mellaye or cloak, but the merchant coarsely withdrew it, and then we were startled to see a beautiful Arab girl nearly nude; at least, she had around her only a thin white robe or cymar of muslin, so fine that it resembled a gossamer web; being so transparent that while it imparted, if pos- sible, a greater whiteness to her beautiful form, the latter lost none of its adorable roundness, or curving outline. The poor little maid strove to veil herself, and buried her face in Iter " quick small hands," and among the thick wavy masses of that jong hair which contrasted so powerfully with the whiteness of her dazzling back and rounded shoulders, while she wept aloud at the cruel humiliation to which hard fate had subjected her. Never was a more lovely form profaned by the eyes of man ! " Are you her father ?" I sternly asked the merchant. "No; she was taken in Avar by a hostile tribe, and I bought her from a sheikh in the plain of Mamaara. You may have her for one hundred and fifty zechins. She has not yet been taught to dance, but she can sing the sweet songs of Amrou and Hareth, and in the words of Zohair can tell of the wars of the tribes of old, and the deeds of their valiant men, who have long since gone to the joys of paradise." The girl sobbed violently, and the glass fell from Langley's quiz- zical eye. We felt pained by this degrading exhibition, and were about to Avithdraw, a movement which made the eyes of the armed dealer flash fire (for he rightly conjectured that we had merely been gratifying our curiosity), Avhen the voice of the poor captive arrested us, and Langley changed colour. " Amina!" he cried, springing forward, while the startled merchant laid a hand on his brass pistol. She looked up, hope, surprise, and shame, all mingling in her fine black eyes, as she asked, " Who called me Amina ? Oh—the friends of my brothei Mohamed! You have eaten bread and salt with him at Jebel Ahmei —save me—save me from this man !" She stretched her fine arms towards us imploringly, and the merchant, who became more and more alarmed by this unexpected recognitm" crrapped the mellaye round her. AN ELIGIBLE INVESTMENT. 197 "Fellow, where was it you stole this girl?" I asked, grasping also the butt of a pistol. " Stole ? I am an honest trader, and such a question was never asked of me before." " Come—come; no trifling. Speak!" "I bought her from four Futhalis in the plain of Mamaara. Wallah! but she has cost a world of trouble, for I never had a damsel so unwilling to be sold before, though in one day at Mocha I ha 11 1 1 11 1 s." awaits those who lie, and those who will appear in the forms of swine at the last day ?" "I do not require a Nassari to inform me on those points," replied the merchant, sullenly. "Then answer me truly; what did you pay to those villanous " Forty zechin's, with two pairs of Indian pistols, and a package of tobacco—worth together about thirty more." " A Venetian zechin is worth about nine shillings; and you demanded one hundred and fifty! ample profit!" " I am not in a hurry," said the merchant, leading the way towards the door; "hasty purchases are seldom worth the money we pay for them; but be assured it is not every day a damsel like this is offered to you for a sum so small." "You are well aware, fellow," I continued, grasping in a threaten- ing manner the handle of my riding whip, " that this girl is not a lawful prize, and oould scarcely have been offered for sale to a Yemenee." " She is a lawful prize! Are her people not the wild Abdali who rob the caravans of Oman ?" " By reporting this matter to the kadi, we might have you bas- tinadoed till your toes dropped off." " The kadi would perhaps send her to the Castle of the Graces as an offering to the sultan, and we should all have our heads chopped off for having looked upon her. I have known such orders given by Solyman before now." "We are friends of the grand vizier," said Fred, beginning to wax wroth, " and—and—;" but his Arabic failed him, and he eyed the dealer with a hostile aspect, while Amina continued to sob under the mantle which enveloped her. To shorten the transaction, the merchant informed us that he was anxious to depart that night for Mocha, and would sell us the girl for forty zechins; so we closed the bargain at once. He sat down cross-legged, and with a slit cane wrote in the Arab fashion, the reverse way, a receipt in full, and Fred handed him twenty of our British guineas, which made forty shillings more than he was entitled to. " Twenty guineas!" said Langiey, as we loitered in the ante punishment does the Koran tell us Futhalis?" 198 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." room, •waiting until Amina was brouglit to us; "twenty guineas for such a girl! By Jove, I have paid twenty times the sum for a very ordinary bit of horse-flesh !" " Hush," said I, as we heard the tinkle of those anklets which the Arabian women wear; "here comes our purchase." " Ours—mine, you mean," said Fred, as he merrily switched his wide pantaloons ; " but if the regiment heard that our first proceed ing on arriving in Sana was to buy this very captivating Odalisque, we should never have the end of it. I think I hear the lisping of De Lancy, the banter of O'Flannigan, and the shouts of O'Hara." Enveloped in a mellaye of black silk striped with red, which covered her whole figure, head and face, leaving visible only the ends of her wide trowsers, which were gathered about her slender ankles by rings of flexible gold, and her white instep, which the pretty slipper of velvet partly hid, Amina was brought again before us by the merchant. She threw back the top of the mellaye, below which she had a thin muslin veil that revealed only the upper part of her face, and I shall never forget the volume of expression which filled her imploring eyes as she gazed upon us by turns. Timidity, hope, reliance and embarrassment, were all mingled in her manner, as she asked in a low voice— " Who is my master ?" " None here, Amina," said I; "we are both your friends, and you shall be our mistress." " Then who has bought me ?" she asked bitterly. " It was I," replied Fred, who seemed almost as frightened as herself. " In pity then convey me back to Jebel Ahmer, to my brother, and he wall repay you a thousandfold, with gratitude and with joy!" " Speak to her, Frank," said Langley, " for upon my honour, her eyes confuse me." I hastened to assure her, with the utmost sincerity, and with all the eloquence I was master of, that we— " We again," grumbled Fred; " come, come, Frank—I hope the fellow has made out his receipt in my name." —That we had freed her from the trader with no other view than to save her from insult; to protect and restore her to her brother that gallant emir, to whom, although an enemy, we owed so many favours, and from whom we had received so much attention ani hospitality. I begged her to believe our plighted words, as hone^ men, though Christians, for this—for to have spoken to her oi the faith or honour of British officers or gentlemen, would have sounded to her only as an unintelligible jargon. " You have done a good action !" said Amina, clasping her pretty hands ; "a great, a noble deed; and your better angel," she added tc Fred, " will write it ten times down." " I have no better angel than yourself, Amina," said he gal lantly. ahina again. 109 "ThanI, alas! I am only a woman. But tliou hast one ever on thy right hand," she added, sinking her voice; "and on thy left a bad and wicked angel; Oh! listen always to the whispers of the other." " Odd this," muttered Fred; " for in the way of signing bills, boxing, fencing, or fighting, all the mischief I do is achieved by my right hand." " And whence do you convey me first ?" she asked, while her tears fell fast. " To the caravanserai where we lodge; there a chamber will be provided for you, and such attention shown as our own sister would receive." " Adieu," said the merchant, under his thick white beard, as he ushered us into the narrow and gloomy street; " adieu, and may your end and your omens be good." In ten minutes after, we had Amina lodged safely in the caravan- serai, in an apartment not far from our own, and in the range of chambers which overlooked the gate. We sent the wife of the keeper to a bezestein, where silks, &c., were sold, to purchase a few suitable dresses and other habiliments for our ward. We then in- quired for the good sheikh Abdulmelik, and were informed, that after receiving a present from the vizier Rabd-al-Hoosi, he had de- parted with all his train, and thus we were left to our own devices in Sana. This was somewhat perplexing intelligence, when we considered the distance and the dangers that lay between us and the regiment, and that our mission was not yet fulfilled. Fearing there had been some mistake, we sent to the palace of AlHoosi, to ask when we could be received; and our messenger was informed that the vizier was again gone to mosque, to say his Salat al Moghreb, or fourth prayer in the evening, and that it was impos- sible we could be received before the following day. CHAPTER XLI. AMINA AGAIN. Amina was barely sixteen, but in the tropics the fulness of woman- hood is attained even before that early age. When we visited her, she looked charming in the costume we had procured from the bezestein. She was seated on a pile of soft cushions, and on our entrance gracefully placed her fine hands on her breast, and timidly bowed to us. Her little vest with its loose sleeves and row of minute pearl buttons, her trowsers of soft white cotton, girt about the waist by a cymar of the finest muslin, were all of the prettiest and most graceful fashion; and after a time we prevailed upon her to lay aside 200 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." the veil, urging that it was not the custom for the women of Fran, gistan to conceal their faces from their friends; but such is the force of habit, that our little Arab blushed and trembled, like one committing a crime, as she withdrew the muslin screen. We are generally averse to admit the great beauty of one whom we have heard highly extolled, and we find, or imagine that we find, the reality fall short of our previous conception; thus many a woman whom we have considered lovely from hearsay, has appeared plain on introduction; but had you seen Amina, the sister of the emir, you would have found realized in her all that we have heard of Oriental grace and loveliness. Her face was soft and feminine, her lips were distinctly and beautifully formed; her shoulders, neck, ana arms, which were dis- played by the open fashion of her vest, and her feet and ankles which were stockingless, though encircled by gold bangles, were perfect symmetry, and now you must suppose the rest. She was very sad, reserved, and timid; but being reassured by the respect with which we treated her, and the promises we reiterated, of conveying her back to Jebel Alrmer, her courage rose; her natural liveliness came forth, and then nothing could be more merry or winning than the bursts of laughter in which she indulged at times, especially at the mistakes of Fred, who would speak Arabic, and in his headlong efforts, courageously spoke gibberish when nothing better occurred to him; but I could soon perceive when he ad- dressed her, how her cheek blushed, how her long eyelashes drooped, and her shore upper lip quivered, as a sigh escaped; and ere long Master Frederick Langley detected all this too. The free, unfettered society of men, especially of men who treated her with such profound respect, was new and charming to her; for the Arabs are wont to treat their horses with greater regard and ad- miration than their women, who are considered little better than objects of barter, pleasure, or tribute. The memory of the service and the trifling attention she had re- ceived at Jebel Ahmer had dwelt powerfully in her mind. Thus assisted by a warm and lively imagination, the young girl had con* jured up a lover in the person of Langley; and though T rejoiced that by a singular chance, we had been the means of rescuing her from a life of degradation, perhaps of misery, and that we would ultimately restore her to her tribe and family, I foresaw something unpleasant in futurity ; for with one so beautiful in our 'society daily, ana a heart wholly unoccupied, it would be impossible for Fred Langley to remain ignorant of the conquest that awaited him. We took our coffee and our sweetmeats with her, an act of conde- scension which astonished the keeper of the caravanserai; but he placed it, no doubt, to the account of our barbarous ignorance as Kafirs and Faringis. 1 am assured that the gallantry natural to Europeans, the delicate AMT11A A SAIN. 201 attention to every trifle, and the thoughtful anticipation of every wish, which she received from us, must have made a deep impression on the simple but noble mind of this Arabian girl; and have formed a strong contrast to the manner of those men, to whom she had been hitherto accustomed. We passed the whole evening with her, and though she was wholly unlettered and untaught, there was a charming simplicity, candour, and innocence, in all she said or did, and in all she thought; for in her ideas of the world she was a mere child, and knew of nothing beyond the hills and palms that bounded the valley of the Red Mountain. "I must begin to teach this girl something," said Fred, when we returned to our own rooms; " but how the deuce am I to set about it?" I burst into a fit of laughter. "Hallo !" said he; "what is the matter?" "Excuse me, but I was laughing at the idea of you turning tutor." "Well, many a gentleman's son has done worse." " She will be more likely to teach you a little Arabic, than to re- ceive much of the Queen's English instead." " She has taught me the Arabic for love, already," said he, making a pirouette. " Weil, what is it ?" " I meant in the language of the eyes. Oh! hers are glorious! What is it Byron says ?" " Don't know, really, he says so many good things." " ' 'Tis pleasant to be schooled in a strange tongue, By female lips and eyes—this is, I mean, When both the teacher and the taught are young.' "You understand ? I have not quoted Byron since our last water- party, with Blanche Palmer and Letty Howard, on the Medway, and now here we are buying pretty girls in Sana; by Jove, what a change!" These words brought the memory of Cecil back to my heart; a cloud came over my brow, and I could not repress a bitter sigh. "What are you thinking of, Frank," asked my friend, after a pause. " I was revolving all the means by which we might communicate with the old santon." " The santon be hanged ! I think one night with that fellow was more than enough!" " Or with the Sheikh Abdulmelik, then ?" "For what purpose." " To send Amina home." " You are in a remarkable hurry," said Fred, as he laid aside his sword and pistols; " the sheikh is a shabby old fellow, who left us 202 frank hilton; or, "the queen's own." here, more abruptly than politely. No, no; we'll take the girl back ourselves. She is safer with us than with any one else. How in- fernally hot it is ! Oh! for a bottle of our prime mess claret, out of the iced cooleri" CHAPTER XLH. the vizier oe sana. Next morning we breakfasted with our beautiful charge (I had almost said, purchase) and found her more conversable and enchant- ing than ever; but leaving her when the shrill voice of the muezzin rang from the minaret of a neighbouring mosque, to say her prayers to the Keblah, and crave from Fatima, daughter of the Prophet, that protection and incession which Catholics seek from the Yirgin Mary, we repaired to the house of the vizier, and were again informed that he was at the mosque. " The devil!" said I, impatiently; " this fellow is never out of the mosque, I think!" "He is pious as the holy Prophet, and fasts like the santon Nou- reddin," said the keeper of the caravanserai, who had acted as our guide, and partly understood my remark by the angry expression of my eye. " During the thirty days of Ramadan, between the first appearance of the two new moons, he abstains from all food, drink, erfumes, and bathing, from sunrise to sunset, and even should the ot wind of the desert be blowing, he will not touch so much as the tip of his tongue -with the smallest drop of water, even were it no larger than the eye of a midge; neither will he comb his beard (though he usually inters the combings thereof every morning) nor will he look upon his wives, though they are said to be beautiful as the Hur al Oyn of Paradise. Allah! he is quite a miracle of a man, our vizier, Rabd-al-Hoosi!" " Such a model of abstinence and piety will give but a cold recep- tion to such a Kafir as you, Fred," said I, " for you have a comical fvirn in your eye that these Mussulmen don't like." " But you must soften him with a verse of the Koran. Come, shall we go to the mosque and meet him there ?" " As you please—let us go then." Zepporah, the wife of the caravanserai keeper, was very inquisitive to know who Amina was, and why we treated her with so much respect. " She is not your wife, of course," she said to Fred. " No." " Is she your slave, then ?" "No." "Sister?" " No—no—no." THE VIZIER OF SANA. 20H "Then in the name of the Prophet what is she ?" " Just whatever you please, old lady," said Fred, in his off-hand way; but I gave the woman a piece of gold, for I dreaded her officious tongue raising some clamour against us, as it is not lawful for Kafirs to purchase, or have about them, female slaves in Yemen, and this may seem somewhat odd to those who only know the East through the free and easy mode of Indian military life. A few minutes walking brought us to the mosque of the Imaum Solyman, the ample size of which promised a magnificent interior. " Will it please you to leave your slippers here, effendi ?" said our f^iide. " Effendi!" repeated Fred, as reluctantly he drew off his boots; " well, 'pon my honour, that sounds immensely better than our plain esquire, or plainer mister—Frederick Powerscourt Langley, Effendi, 'Queen's Own;' I'll sign my next draft so on Cox and Co." Leaving our boots at the door, but keeping our heads covered, we entered the mosque, for the magnificence of which I was in no way prepared. Rising from horse-shoe-shapen Moorish arches that sprung from more than eighty gilded columns, the roof was of great height, and like all these oval arches, was painted in the most brilliant colours ; from the apex of every arch hung a splendid lamp of silver; while the lustre in the mehrab, or secret oratory, was of pure gold. As the chastened light stole through the openings in the lofty dome at distant intervals, a solemn gloom pervaded the vast vista of arcades that vanished off in dim perspective, whichever way we turned; and on every arabesqued panel, and the rich impost of every pointed arch, were sentences of the Koran inscribed in brilliant green and shining gold. On the north, and enclosed by seven gates of glitter- ing brass—symbolical of the seven heavens and the seven paths thereto—was an aisle where stood the marble fountains for the pur- pose of ablution; around them grew orange and citron trees, with gorgeous flowers in gilded vases, while shoals of gold and silver fish played amid the bright and gushing water. To these fountains admission was given by the silver portal of pardon. In the centre, under oval arches, painted in the most brilliant arabesques of gold and sacred green, black and red, and under a niche, the roof of which was a vast escallop-shell of burnished gold, studded with precious stones, and lighted by golden lamps, which shed delicious perfumes, was the maksura, whereon lay the Koran, on a table of the purest crystal. Afraid we were intruding and risking insult, Fred and I remained somewhat aloof, yet imitating those about us by crossing our hands on our breasts, placing them behind our ears, and so forth; while our guide prostrated himself on the mosaic pavement, along which Tim fines of wavering fight stole from the golden lamps of the central shrine, while all between was gloomy obscurity, but producing a most beautiful effect; and before this light, which indicated the direction °04 FRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." of the Prophet's city, a group of turbaned believers were kneeling in prayer, without the rail of fretted silver that enclosed A1 Mehrab round. These were the vizier, Rabd-al-Hoosi, and the officers of his household. I knew Rabd by the magnificent diamond which shone on the top of his turban, and for the possession of which he was celebrated, as it was the sultan's gift; but all his attire otherwise was plain; for like a good Mussulman, lie never addressed himself to heaven in sumptuous apparel, lest he should be deemed guilty of pride and arrogance. He finished repeating aloud the first chapter of the Koran as we entered, and then resting his hands upon his knees, with his body bent forward, he cried, with a loud voice, " Allah Ackbar!" and all his train responded. He went through seven positions of the body, with an invocation at each, and then told over his rosary of ninety oeads, making a distinct ejaculation as each dropped through his fingers; he then stroked his beard thrice, and thrice said " Praise be to God!" and I felt very much inclined to say the same thing when his tedious orisons were over. I was much impressed, however, by the piety of this good Mussul- man, and augured well of the coming interview, if he did not prove a bigot. As he came forth from the mosque, preceded by his katib and pipe-bearer, we placed ourselves in a sufficiently conspicuous place to attract his attention; but whether he was puffed up with earthly vanity, or had his eyes fixed on something beyond our sub- lunary sphere, I know not; he never deigned to look on us, but mounted his richly caparisoned horse, and surrounded by a party of lancers of the sultan's guard, rode hastily off. He seemed a strongly-built man, and very fair complexioned for an Arab, with a square face, and quick, cunning grey eyes, an enor- mous beard, of a chestnut colour, shaggy eyebrows, and a hooked nose; his appearance was not very prepossessing, yet all the people bowed before him with the most abject humility. We had to follow him to his house. It stood near the great bezestein, and was a plain square edifice, having a multitude of pinnacles and grotesque stucco ornaments along the edge of the roof, the successive decorations of several viziers of Sana, all of whom had been beheaded, bowstrung, or blown from a mortar, until the present one, who had been raised to that great office from obscurity, and had held it for the wonderful period of fifteen years, by his skill at court, his cunning in the divan, and his courage in the field. Along the front projected a wooden balcony, on which the small and irregular windows opened; those of the sitting rooms were glazed by Venetian glass, or by the transparent crystals from the mountains. By well-armed slaves, some of whom were tongueless mutes, or beardless eunuchs, we were ushered along a narrow passage and up a steep but beautifully arabesqued staircase, roofed by an open lantern, and shown into an apartment furnished with the usuai THE VIZIER Oil bA-NA. 205 couches, cushions, and carpets, pipes, vases, and flowers. The walls were decorated bv arras from Anatolia, festooned shawls, and largs Cashmerian kerchiefs, by stars of matchlocks, cimitars, daggers., pistols, lances, bucklers, and the old horse-tailed standard of the Turkish Timariots. Here the katib, or secretary of the vizier, i most venerable and benign old Arab, informed us that "his excellency would soon appear." Soon after Babd-al-Hoosi came in, wearing a large benish, or upper cloak of yellow cloth, over a gown of brilliant silk which was girt by a Cashmere shawl, wherein were stuck his dagger and pistol, which were of exquisite workmanship : his turban was of the finest muslin; his slippers were of yellow leather. He said something by way of welcome, and mingled with it, as he did with everything, a verse of the Koran; but he constantly kept his keen grey eyes fixed inquisitively, and as I thought, somewhat anxiously, upon us. These cunning eyes had withal that eagle aspect which an iris surrounded by a white circle always imports. I stated the object of our mission—to deliver into the sultan's hand, letters from the British officer commanding at Aden, craving his alliance and assistance against the unruly Abdali, the Euthalis, and the Subbeihi Arabs, and to repress their turbulent attacks. "The Subbeihi Arabs have united with the Emir Mohamed against the Euthalis," replied the vizier; "and tidings have just come in of a desperate encounter on the plains of Beitel Eakih, where he has routed the Sultan Ahmed, destroyed his camp, and besieged him in a castle until he was forced to eat ilhiz, a wretched mess composed of blood and camel's hair, used only by the poorest Arabs in the time of famine. Our lord, the sultan," he continued, as he seated himself cross-legged, and motioned us to do the same, " is not now in Sana. Eor three months he has been at Hesn-al-Mouhabib, a castle on the other side of the Hargiah river, where, concealing himself from all, this sun of Yemen and light of wisdom has given himself up to the useless adoration of a beautiful slave—the rose and diamond of the seraglio." I murmured a reply, to the effect of having repeatedly heard as much before. " Her beauty or her power must be altogether marvellous, for our sublime master is somewhat advanced in years, and has never been so enchanted before, although the most beautiful women of Arabia, and the most pleasant of Egypt, adorn his castle of Mouhabib." "Does he wish to marry her?" " Yes; though he has four wives already; like the Prophet, ho may wed as many as he pleases, as he is the maker of his own laws; but the people dare to grumble under their beards, and swear this woman has enchanted him; and they name her 'the daughter of a Jew and a Jewess,5 our bitterest reproach." " You have seen this slave, I presume ?" " W ho; I? God and the Prophet forbid! I am not worthy to 206 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QTJEEN's OWjn. xook upon that whicli delights the eye and heart of Solyman the Magnificent. Save his, no man's eye has seen her, since she was purchased; nor shall any man behold her from thenceforward." "Will she never weary ?" asked Langley. " She—weary! the woman's a slave, and dare not be weary. It the Holy Prophet would but light up the darkness of thy soul, 0 Kafir, with one ray of knowledge, thou wouldst know that—that—" and here, as I suppose, having no idea with which to close his sen- tence, he scratched his red beard, placed the amber tube of his pipe in his mouth, and nodded to me, as much as to say, " you com- prehend." "Then I presume this lady is supremely happy in being the object .of so much love in the heart of this great prince." " No ; wilt thou credit me, when I say she is not; but such is the 'perversity of human nature, and such is the obstinacy of women, that though Solyman, who is the centre of wisdom, deigns to turn his -sublime eyes upon her in admiration, she has never once favoured {him with a smile; and I have frequently advised him to punish her contumacy." " But how ?" asked Langley. " The sultan is the axis of all human knowledge! thus when the ladies of the seraglio displease him, he punishes them in a mode which affords himself supreme amusement." " In what manner ?" said 1. " By filling their hair with wasps, or putting a couple of lively rats into their cotton drawers for a day or so, till the gambols of the animals nearly drive the lady distracted. I have recommended him to try this with the obdurate slave, for I assure you that the little word rat makes the whole seraglio tremble!" "Do you believe that the sultan will view the object of my •despatches with favour ?" " It is impossible to say, for the stupendous Solyman—the soul of all wisdom — is seldom two days in the same mind. I have known him cut the heads off a couple of favourite wives one day, and then rend his beard with grief for them the next. Lately having over- •eaten himself with hulwah, and believing he was dying, he asked three aged dervishes, who had just come from the Land of the Pilgrimage,' if they believed the Holy Prophet would forgive all his iniquities.' Each dervish answered ' No; for those iniquities were of too black a character.' ' Then I may do as I please,' roared the Brother of the ■Sun and Moon; 'Worms, begone to Eblis !' and then he made the sign to the chief executioner, by whom the three rash dervishes were im- mediately strangled. But, alas ! our lord, the sultan, grew worse, and then he sent for the venerable santonNoureddin, who dwells in the Cave of the Sleeper, and put the same question to him; but the santon, whom the fate of his predecessors made wary, replied, ' that if he would build a noble mosque on the ruins of the Christian church which was built by Abraha al Ashram, the Slit-nosed King of Yemen, THE VIZIER OF SANA. 207 before even the days of the Prophet, he might taste the joys of Paradise.' 'Go; thou art a sensible haji; I shall build the mosque, and repent after,' replied the Giver of Crowns; and so he built thai beautiful mosque which you saw this morning." "And he repented ?" " Who can tell ?" said the vizier, puffing vigorously. " The mind of the mighty Solyman is profound as the Well of Borhut, so what mortal can fathom its thoughts ! But Noureddin slew the evil spirit that tormented him. He called thrice on the name of the Pro- phet, and shot seven arrows into the air. As the seventh rose, a cry was heard; when it fell, the shaft was covered with blood, and then the sultan was cured," A slave now set wine and cake before us, but of course the vizier turned aside with repugnance when we drank, so I set down my silver cup without intending to finish it, and turned, with Ered, to the window to see a marriage procession pass; and when I looked again, the cup was empty. Such anecdotes as those of the vizier were not calculated to im- press us favourably with the character of the sultan, to whose Castlo of the Graces he offered to conduct us on the morrow, and in the meantime press us to dine with him. Though Langley was anxious to return to his Arabic lessons, and I found no great pleasure in con- templating the cunning face, or in listening to the bombast of this vizier, we were constrained to accept, for the heat of noon had now arrived. He threw off his benish and upper garment, and, ordering fresh wine for us, fell asleep for half an hour. After this, he awoke, bathed himself, prayed devoutly, and then we sat down to a very fair repast, which was served up after the fashion of the country, and at which the katib and Mahmoud Ali Badr, a nakib or captain of the sultan's horseguard, joined us. The latter was a fine looking young Arab, clad in a steel cap and chain shirt. Ered was in excellent humour, and believing, of course, that none there knew English but myself, handed me a kabob of meat on the end of a wooden skewer, saying, " Will you have soup or fish, before the boiled turkey comes ?" a. which Rabd-al-Hoosi laughed aloud, which increased my suspicion of him. Wines were set before Ered and me, but our host and his friends drank pure water; and though those of Sana, like its fruit and coffee, are both good and plentiful, I cannot say that we enjoyed our bottle, owing to the glances of loathing with which the vizier, the katib, and the captain regarded us, while breaking that law of the Koran which forbids the use of all strong and inebriating liquors. A drop fell upon A1 Hoosi's hand as Langley passed the crystal jug to me, and he uttered a cry of disgust which made me feel rather discomposed, and Ered twirled his moustache, and fairly put his glass into his eye, on hearing a slave summoned, with an ewer and laver, to wash the pollu- tion away. 208 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." " Excuse me," said the vizier; " but I would not for all the riches of Karun have this stain upon me !" Almost immediately afterwards the poor old katib had a narrow escape from death, for as a slave filled the pipe of the officer of the guard, a spark fell upon the pan of the pistol in his girdle, and the charge exploded, sending the ball right through the dish of sweets from which the secretary was regaling himself. This never discom- posed the three Arabs in the slightest degree; another plate was brought, and the accident was dismissed from memory. Soon after the secretary and the Captain Mahmoud Ali withdrew together, but the vizier insisted on our remaining; and the moment the Arabs were gone and the doors closed upon them, he produced from behind his cushion three bottles of admirable port and one of brandy, and with a cunning leer in his grey eyes extracted the corks, and filled up his silver drinking-horn, which he drained to our healths. " What says the Koran ?" said I. " That we may take whatever is good for us, and wine (if dashed with brandy) is very good for me." " I remember Abdulmelik said the same thing." "He is a wise man." " Until now, I believed that you shuddered at everything but pure water." "Water be ! I never take it when I can get better, or when I am alone; and now that those humbugs the katib and nakib are gone, let us drink and be merry." He seemed to be a happy and lively fellow, and troubled us no more with quotations from the Koran for that night, but overwhelmed us with questions about our own country and Aden; but we were on our guard, and gave him very reserved answers when asked the strength and number of our troops, guns, &c., as we knew not to what use the information might be turned. He laughed on hearing the story of our adventures with Amina, and said he knew the mer- chant well, having bought several women, mutes and eunuchs from liim; and he rallied Ered smartly on his " investment," as he named her. We spent a merry afternoon with him, and the muezzins were again crying " Prayer is better than sleep!" from the minarets of the mosques at sunset, before we returned to the caravansera, having made arrangements for setting out next day with the vizier for thf famous Hesn-al-Mouhabib. CHAPTER XLHI. the rose garden of irem. The winning Amina welcomed us with the brightest of smiles; she heard with pride how her tribe had punished the Euthalis; and then she sorrowed for the poor Sultan Ahmed and his people. THE ROSE WARDEN OE IREM. 209 " Why so," I asked; " are thev not a band of wretches ?" "But hatred and anger should never continue after a wrong is atoned for." Love, like fruit, soon ripens under the warm sun of the tropics,1 and already had Amina learned to love Fred Langlev. The interest which that politeness and kindness natural to gentlemen caused us both to take in her friendless position, had stirred a chord in the depth of her ardent heart, though neither of us, and honest Fred least of all, for a time suspected it. But a fount had been opened up in her breast, and in her young affectionate heart; a fount of deep, sincere and quiet joy, such as she had never known before; and when Fred addressed her, I began to perceive how her small hands became tremulous, and her eyelids heavy with the tears of this newborn happiness. Having never learned to reflect, she saw no shadow resting on the pictured future; and knowing nothing of the world, she was all can- dour and innocence itself. She was always fearful, timid, and sad when we left her; but in our presence, especially that of Langley, perfect happiness imparted a splendid beauty to her fine eyes, to her sweet pretty mouth, and soft pale features. " Oh, I am now so happy—so very happy !" she said, with a sigh, after one of her thoughtless bursts of laughter. "May you ever remain so," said Fred, contemplating her with admiration, as she reclined among the soft cushions; " it is my dearest wish." " You are both most kind and good to your poor Amina; but then she loves you both so well!" This was addressed to me in her soft harmonious language ; but ner eye fell upon Fred, who changed colour as he fanned her with a tuft of soft ostrich feathers, and playfully lifted the braids of her thick black hair. He took her hand in his, and she permitted it to linger there for a minute. He pressed it, and for that minute she was passive and palpitating like a little bird. I observed all this over the top of an Arabic book which I was endeavouring to decipher, and on perceiving how master Fred reddened from time to time, I began to wish that our lovely Amina was in the safe keeping of her brother before worse came to pass. I turned over leaf after leaf of those monotonous pothooks, crooks, and dots which make up the sum of Arabic writing; but my com- panions had now become silent. They sat long thus, and yet I was assured it was not altogether silence, because nothing was said; for Amina had her beautiful eyes, and they were full of quiet thoughts and voiceless words. The result of all this was, that next morning when the vizier sent the Arab Captain Mahmond to invite us to see a troop of horse practising with their matchlocks and tossing the jereid at a target, Fred took care to have an overpowering headache, and declared him- self quite unable to mount his nag. He assured me it was caused 310 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." by Rabd-al-Hoosi's bad wine; but I knew better, and that he was only " malingering " to enjoy the society of our seductive little Arab, and I felt somewhat provoked in consequence. I was obliged to leave them alone, and that forenoon confirmed all the mischief. Amina's timid and wavering trust soon ripened into complete con- fidence and love, and the hitherto repressed affections of her warm heart were poured forth at the altar of this new idol; a glance had kindled the spark, and the spark soon blew up the magazine. And who was the object of this love ? Not a wild Arab warrior, the Kior Ibn Kogia; not a bold emir, like her brother; nor a hand- some prince, like one of those in the " Arabian Nights ;" it was none of these, but a young Englishman, a dashing devil-may-care fellow in a regiment of the Line; a man of fashion and pleasure; yet, with all his off-hand style, I knew Langley to be so strictly a man of honour, that I believed with confidence that this poor and half bar- barian girl would not have reason to repent the love she was nursing in her bosom. When I returned to announce that after the heat of noon was past we should set out for Hesn-al-Mouhabib, I found them still together, and that Ered had made great progress in the language of the Prophet. It was evident that without reflecting he had given himself up to "the intoxication of the affair," as he afterwards said, " to the romance of flirting with a real live Arabian in that rich oriental dress, which so greatly enhanced her dangerous beauty." " But surely, Ered," said I, as we left her, to load our pistols and prepare for the road, " you are not growing tender with this girl ?" " I fear that I am—in fact, I have fallen in love at last." "Then, for Heaven's sake, fall out again!" " Impossible, my dear fellow." " You are not in love; it is only a fancy, a penchant, and yon must conquer it, or there will be the devil to pay." "But love begets love—is your brandy-flask empty?—and the poor girl loves me." " Are you sure it is not a purer and perhaps more angelic senti- ment she entertains ?" " More angelic than love! now my philosophical Scot, what may that be?'; " Gratitude—how many cartridges have you ?" " Thirteen, a baker's dozen. Gratitude, oh, she may feel that for us both, but I don't think she minds you very much, in any way, my boy," said Ered, with one of his merry laughs. "Love often dies, but pure gratitude lives for ever." " How you talk! 'pon my soul, you are becoming infected by those Arab fellows who always speak as it were on stilts, and never come down " " Would you like to marry her ?" THE HOSE GABJDEN OE IEEM. 211 " Hum—why not ? Some of c the Queen's Own' have perhaps done worse ere now." " Take her to England, and you will lay your head on a pillow of thorns." "Beside those sweet eyes and all those magnificent braids of hair!" " She is only an uneducated, unaccomplished—" (" But assuredly charming ?")— " Barbarian!" Ered winced at this word, for he felt its truth. "Alas ! yes," said he, "but it is so evident that she is all confi- dence and expectation—a mere child, and may be taught anything; a ehild, and in her perfect guilelessness never doubts my loving her for ever. When I was eighteen, Erank, I used to dream of such a love as this." " And you are now—" " Seven-and-twenty," said Langley, putting the last cap on his revolver. " Ah! the realities of seven-and-twenty are very different from the visions of eighteen." " Especially after being nine years with c the Queen's Own;' but this reality is charming indeed!" replied my heedless comrade, while I could not repress a little sigh, as this turn in our conversation brought to memory many things I would fain have forgotten. " Come, come, Erank, my dear fellow," said Ered, in his blunt English way, " don't get into the blues, here, at all events, when we are so far from the regiment, and have only each other to rely on for encouragement and camaraderie. I know all about it—poor Cecil Marchmont! Once in his life, at least, you know, every man must expect to be thwarted in love; but now dinner, or lunch, which you will, is ready, and we must not keep our pretty companion waiting." We rejoined her again, and during our repast, she was as usual all smiles and radiance, especially for Langley; I began to find I was little better than "nobody," now, and a species of bore, per haps; but when I gazed on her large black eyes, which had all the softness of the most languid blue, and on the engaging smile that was always playing like sunlight on her little face, I could not wonder that Ered's unoccupied heart had yielded to the en- chantment of a love which, under happier auspices, might have won and dazzled me too. She had seen us read, for I had two small shilling volumes in my valise, and she gazed anxiously and inquisitively at the books, as if she fain would have deciphered them too, and believing, doubt- less, that Ered should then love her more. Then to please us, she offered to exert her principal accomplishment, and relate one of those little traditionary stories which form the staple of Arabian literature. 212 FKANK HILTON; OK, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." " What shall it be ?" she asked. " Whatever pleases you will delight us," said Langley. " Then I will tell you about the Rose Garden of Irem, and how it came to pass that destruction fell upon it." " It will please us the more," said I, "because we have just come from Aden, the place where it stood." "Ah! you know that," said Amina; "well, save the Cities of the Plain, there is no spot of earth whereon the wrath of Heaven has fallen more heavily than yonder blighted place; at least, so the Santon Noureddin told me, for I never was beyond the Yale of Jebel Ahmer. It is a spot where even the mimosa tree can scarcely find soil for its slender root, and yet it was an Eden in the times of old." " Indeed, Amina!" said I, pleased with her prattling manner, and charmed by her musical voice, " but how came a change so mournful to pass ?" " My brother told me you had read our Koran." "Well, Amina," (she had it all by rote.) " Do you remember the eighty-ninth chapter thereof, which was revealed to the only Prophet at Mecca ?" " I must confess that I do not." " Do you f' she asked Pred, with a winning smile. Poor Ered shook his head; he knew the contents of the " Army List," " Pacing Calendar," and the " Peerage," much better. " It relates how Heaven dealt with Ad," continued Amina, rolling her black eyes with awe, and lowering her voice, " and how it chas- tised the people of Irem, the worshippers of the dog-star. Listen to me. "Then Aden was Irem, a mighty rose garden, like unto the Garden of Paradise, and therein was great plenty, with rich fruits and lovely flowers, that gave forth perfume without fading. The Addites were then a great people, in every sense of the word, for the smallest among them was at least sixty cubits high, and the tallest a hundred; and they adorned the place with many lofty buildings; and their women were beautiful as the Houris of Heaven; but alas ! they were wicked beyond all earthly wickedness. Ad was the fourth in descent from Noah; so this, you observe, was very long ago; yet he founded this beautiful city, and his tribe spread throughout AI Alikif, the winding sands of Hadramaut, while his son became khalif of Shedad, which extended from the golden beach of Alaj, to the pleasant green groves of Oman, wherein the ffondrous phoenix was wont to build its nest. " Ad built unto himself a palace in the midst of the garden, and adorned it with precious stones ; the walls were covered with plates of gold, and a thousand lamps lighted the room of thrones by night. If had four times that number of pinnacles, .each of which was tipped by a pomgranate of pure gold. Around it were trees, the leaves of which were emeralds from the mines of Mount Zaharah, an island in the Red Sea; and the fruits of which were shining THE ROSE GARDEN OE IREM. 313 pearls, or bunches of brilliant rubies, while the walks between were strewed with powdered musk and amber, to be soft under the naked feet of the beautiful odalisques who dwelt in them. On this palace Ad spared no labour, neither spared he any cost, to make it like a terrestrial paradise. "Now, puffed up with inordinate vanity, he took upon himself the character of a god; but to punish this, and the exceeding wickedness of his luxurious people, after they had refused to hear the preaching of his brother, tne Prophet Hud, there came upon Aden a long drought, that lasted for many years, during which the scorching sun seemed to draw nearer and more near every day, till the earth became burning hot, and turned to yellow sand; while the rocks rent and split, the sea shrank, and all vegetable life died, for the beautiful rose garden of Irem became scorched up, and withered away as if a tongue of flame had passed over it, and nothing remained but the emerald trees with their ruby fruit. " In great misery, the people of Ad sent their only good man, Kajl Ibn Saad, with seventy of their wisest and best elders, to the City of the Faithful, to pray for rain; but, lo ! they plunged into all maimer of sin, forgetting their mission of prayer, until some words which fell from the hps of a wanton dancer of Oman, who said she was athirst, and wanted more wine, recalled the sufferings of their people; then they implored Heaven to send them rain; upon which, even while they prayed, there appeared in the firmament three clouds—a red, a white, and a black one. " Then a terrible voice summoned Kajl to choose one for the people of Irem, and after long and mature deliberation, he chose the third, or dark one; being assured it must contain the greatest supply of rain; and the Addites hailed with joy the shadow of this cloud as it passed over their scorched plains and sunburnt valleys, ^Lo! this is the traversing cloud which bringeth rain—the bounty of heaven.' "'Nay,' answered Hud, 'it is what ye chose, a cloud, verily, but it containeth only the wind of sure vengeance.' "Then they mocked him with loud laughter; but, alas! for the shortsightedness of mortals! "That black cloud was charged with all the wrath of heaven; for fire, smoke, and ashes came out of its dusky bosom, with a burning wind from the sands of the west, and in three days the people of Ad and Irem had passed away! They were no longer men or women. " They shrunk, withered, and became monkeys, for the greatness of their sins, and in that shape they yet dwell in Aden."* " And what became of the stately city of those giants ?" I asked, somewhat amused by the legend, which contained a good moral, how- * See Sale's Koran. 214 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." ever, and smiling as I remembered the reed-covered wigwams adjoin* ing our barrack at Aden. "It still exists." "Exists ! but where ?" " In the deserts of Aden," replied Amina, with the most implicit good faith, " yet it has never been seen save once. In the reign of the Khalif Moawijah, a traveller, named Abdalla Ibn Kalila, having lost his way at the foot of the Coffee Mountains, journeyed on in great fear, lest the Subbeihi Arabs should rob and slay him; and gladly he urged his weary dromedary towards the gates of a noble city which appeared before him in the light of the rising moon. The portals, which were of vast height, with gates of polished brass, stood open, as if inviting him to enter. " The streets were formed by long lines of mighty structures that stretched away in far and dim perspective—columns and arcades of marble and jasper, with gilded domes, and tall and slender minarets, white as snow, with gilded vanes and pinnacles that glittered in the liquid moonlight, while thousands of coloured lamps lit up every long vista and magnificent peristyle. " But everywhere there reigned a dread, a solemn, and an awful silence—yea, the silence of the deepest grave—for the terrified traveller heard only the footfalls of his own dromedary echoing under each stupendous colonnade and empty vault, or the spash of the lonely fountains that sparkled in the solitude of the market-places. " In all that wondrous city's vast extent—for it was a city to which Mocha and Medina were but hamlets, and even Mecca, the mother of cities, was but an Arab camp—not even a spider moved, or the smallest insect crept! "Eor hours this weary son of Kalilah wandered on in terror and affright, as one in a wild and appalling dream, for these colossal streets were apparently without end, and seemed to multiply themselves before him; at last he beheld a lofty gate higher than the dome of the Kaaba, and beyond it lay the green Coffee Mountains. " Gladly he issued forth, and calling upon the blessed name of the Prophet, in his joy, looked back; but lo ! not a vestige, not a stone of that silent city was visible! He saw only the far extent of a green plain, where the rice and maize were waving their long stalks in the Bright moonlight, and the dense groves of orange and citron that clothed the sides of the bordering hills; and never since then has the doomed city of the transformed Addites been visible to mortal eyes; for he who rides through what seems a fertile valley or a barren desert, may be close to its echoing walls, and yet be unable to oenoid tne smallest trace thereof." The end of this story brought us to the time for marching, and after the necessary arrangements we ieft the caravansera, and joined the escort of the vizier, at the street of the great bazaar, where fruit, bread, salt, and butter are sold, and opposite to which is another, where new garments are bartered for ola—or vice versa. 215 oHAPTER XL1Y. adventures on the road. Langley and I rode our own horses, but Amina, and a female atten- iant procured for her through the kindness of the old katib, were mounted on a stout and handsome dromedary. They were muffled jo. their veils and black silk mellayes, and rode under the shade of a oroad umbrella. The vizier was magnificently armed and mounted, and was attended by a brilliant train of horsemen, with long lances, under the Arab captain, Mahmoud Ali Badr, who on the previous day had been friendly enough to inform me (though an infidel) that it would be very unsafe to leave Amina alone at the caravansera, until our return from the Castle of the Graces—a measure first proposed by Langley, who wished to remain with her. We passed a straggling suburb, occupied by nearly three thousand . Jews, and entered on the beautiful plain of Rodda. The sun was verging towards the west, and its golden gleam was falling on mosque and spire, on each embattled tower, and on the three great brick palaces of the Imaum Mahedi, as we rode from Sana, and saw the long shadow of Mount Nikkum falling far across the stony vale in which the city stands. The vizier looked so frequently at Amina, as we rode by his side, that my suspicions were excited, and I began to surmise that she might have been quite as safe if left, as Ered had proposed, in his care at the caravansera. " So her name is Amina," said the grey-eyed vizier (the Arabs have a great prejudice against grey eyes), " a pretty name enough, and the first wWbore it was the mother of our Prophet. And this damsel is an Abdala ? Ah; they are always handsome, the women of the Abdali. Is she young ?" " Just sixteen," said I, briefly. "And beautiful?" "Beyond conception!" said the unwary proprietor. " Excuse me; but not being true believers, I may speak to you about her. Sixteen, and beautiful ? By the blacked-eyed maids of Paradise, you were wise to purchase her, for young damsels are charming! Old ones are all humbug—a blot on creation and a mis- take from the beginning; but we keep few about us here, where the faithful are allowed a promiscuous supply." " I can assure you, my lord," said Ered, " you can form no idea or Amina's loveliness and winning manner!" "Have you married her ?" asked Rabd-al-Hoosi, drily, while I gave Ered a warning glance. "Married her—what a question—why?" 2]6 FRANK HILTON; OK, "THE QUEEN'S OWN.'' " Well—never praise a woman until you have done so," replied the vizier, with one of his hearty laughs, in which the young nakib and the old secretary of course joined. " Present her to our lord, the sultan, and should she find favour in his sight, your mission will be achieved." " I thank you," replied Pred, suppressing^ his anger at the sugges 'fcion, " but I should as soon think of presenting my own head." " By making one sign with his sublime finger, the Imauin might take both in a moment," replied Rabd, looking Pred calmly in the face; " but presenting handsome women to Solyman, is like carrying pepper to Hindustan; for the silent slave, whom he loves at present, is said to surpass all the roses in his garden of love." We rode by a path among the mountains, the sides of which were teeming with fertility; for there grew the coffee plant, the olive, and the wild sugar-cane, the date, the grape, and the pomegranate, while the green melon and the soft pulpy gourd, with their fibrous creepers, were woven and matted together by the side of the narrow path. The golden gleam yet lingered on the mountain slopes, and a warm ■cream-tint rested on the glittering city we had left. It was evening now, but all the vale of Sana, where the Shab was winding towards the Indian Sea, was palpitating in the sunny glow. In our front and rear rode the horsemen of Ali Badr, all pure Arabs of the old race, as their large black eyes, jet hair, high foreheads, and bushy beards de- clared; while .their bright flowing garments, scarlet turbans, lances, bucklers, and horses, so richly caparisoned, reminded me of the old Spanish ballads about the Cid Rodrigo, and his battles with the Moors -of Granada. We made a temporary halt near a well between two green hills, for the Mohamedan prayer, as the sun dipped below the horizon; and then a simple refreshment was taken — cakes of dhourra, or coarse millet seed, kneaded with camel's milk, and then a draught of water into which there was shaken a little ginger powder, a spice in which the Yemenees delight. " One of those hills whereon thou seest a grove of palms," said the vizier, who, when addressing us generally, used that mode which is now obsolete in our language, " was crowned by one of the seven temples which the ancient Arabs dedicated to the seven planets. It was in honour of Yenus, but was destroyed by the Khalif Osman; and when the foundation-stone was raised, there was found graven upon it a prophecy, that he who destroyed, the temple would be slain /" " And was it fulfilled ?" " When Osman saw it, he rent his beard and garments in great fear, and prayed to Heaven for protection, but none was given, and he perished in Medina, where, while holding the Koran in his aged hands, he was hewn to pieces by the cimeters of Ayesha, the fire i>rand of Islam. On the other hill, where the desert wind has scathed the coffee groves, Solyman Ibn Daood rested, on the noon of that day when he set out from Medina." ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD. 217 "How," said I, in astonishment; "Medina is nearly six. hundred Arabian miles distant." "Well," continued the vizier, dipping his hands in the fountain tnd sprinkling his beard, " that mattered little to Solyman, for he possessed a carpet of green silk, woven more curiously than those of the Guebres —the fire-worshippers of our own day, — and it was so large that it held his throne with all his court and army, horse, foot, ana chariots; thus, by one word he could transport the whole to any part of the world; and thus it was he passed over Sana about noon, canopied by a thousand eagles, whose outspread wings protected him from the sunbeams. And m the valley between those hills stood the palm grove which the Prophet, by a miracle, destroyed in a night, because of the uncharitable hearts of its owners* Many such stories might I tell, for every rock and hill, every ruined wall and wayside well hath its history; but, alas ! thine ears are sealed up like those of the five scoffers of the Koreish, against the divine truths of Islam, and the time-honoured traditions which corroborate them. La Allah il Allah! Mahmouda rusoul Allah !" he added, turning up his eyes, and beating his breast seven times; " let us mount and depart!" Though this was said and done with the greatest fervour and devo- tion, I remembered the sudden production of the bottles of wine and brandy on the preceding evening, and felt, I know not why, a renewed suspicion of this great personage Ilabd-al-Hoosi, who made himself so friendly and facetious with entire strangers, and whose cunning grey eyes seemed to glitter with an incessant leer or twinkle. I mentioned my thoughts to Amina as we mounted again and set forth; she assured me that the Vizier of Sana was esteemed as a very mirror of truth and wisdom; but of the Imaum Solyman, the Sheikh of sheikhs, Slave of the Prophet, and Giver of Crowns, &c. &c. &c.—for so this tremendous little potentate styled himself,— she gave a most appalling account, and as the horsemen were consi- derably in advance and rear of us, and as her female slave was a mute, she spoke without reserve or fear. "He is treacherous, remorseless, and tyrannical," said Amina, whose eyes seemed to speak as they flashed under her veil; " my brother Mohamed has told me that none dare approach him, even to kiss his slippers, save on their knees, with their beards on the carpet. His cruelties have made him dread his own sons, so he has banished them to remote and distant castles. He has more than thirty daughters, all of whom he has wedded to sheikhs and emirs- in some instances forcing them to divorce or destroy wives of their Own choice. He has borrowed vast sums from Jews and Parsees, whose heads were struck off "when they importuned for payment When he becomes jealous of the power or popularity of any warlike sheikh, he heaps honours upon him in public, and orders him the * Koran. 218 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." bowstring in private—or despatches him openly npon some splendid embassy, and sends secretly a party of Bedouins to waylay and murder him. Three of his own brothers, all brave and good men, who had interceded for three old dervishes whom he condemned to die, were strangled also—bat with cords of silk, as the blood of an imaum cannot be shed. He put all his father's wives to death on his succession, lest any of them might have children; and he fre- quently seizes and marries the wives of others, his scruples being entirely removed by the cunning Santon Noureddin, who said, that though there was no law for snch things, yet there was one whici said that the mighty Sultan of Sana, the Shadow of the Prophet npon earth, might do as he pleased; and Solyman has invariably done so." Such was the wise potentate on whom I was to urge the advan- tages of an alliance with her Majesty! "Ha! ha!" laughed the vizier, as Amina concluded; "by the beard of Ali! there has never been such a biography given since the devils shaved the Queen of Saba!" Amina uttered a cry of terror; for, unseen by us, Babd-al-Hoosi had ridden close up on the other side of her dromedary, and thus heard all that the innocent girl had told me in confidence. I could make no reply; for a moment my soul seemed in my month, and I trembled for the punishment which, in such a land of barbarians, might await this freedom of expression. But after a time she smiled again, and remained perfectly placid; for the strong conviction that it is completely futile to attempt averting one's destiny imparts a desperate self-possession to the Moslem under any circumstances. " Bred," said I, checking my horse a little, " what do you think of this account of his majesty the sultan—flattering, is it not ?" " I think he is an unparalleled old brute, and might run in a cur- ricle with Bluebeard, or Henry VIII. It would be well for us to be safe again with the regiment, in whole skins. Ah, if the sultan should see or hear of Amina, and attempt to seize her!" "Well?" "Well!" reiterated Bred, with rising anger; "can you think of such a thing with patience ?" " She is his subject." " Were she ten times his subject, I would give him the contents of this revolver, and shall do so, even were he greater than the Khalif Haroun, instead of being merely the petty tyrant of this most petty kingdom." " Then you love this Arab girl, Bred ?" " You ask a very plain question—it deserves as plain an answer— I do love her. Well ?" " Ho yon love her wisely ?" " That is another, and an unpleasant consideration. Look at the dear fairy, Hilton, as she sits bustled up on the hump of that honest old dromedary, with her black eyes peering through her veil, and ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD. 219 her pretty hand playing with, the fringe of her parasol! I love her in spite of myself'; for the purest, dearest, and most tender emotions swell up in my heart every time she addresses me." " Of course—these are only the premonitory symptoms of a regular lcrve-fit—even Di* Splint could not cure you." "Be assured, my dear Frank, there is something both enchanting and painful in the conviction that this charming girl loves me," said Bred, urging his horse nearer mine; " but what am I to do with her ? It is really very perplexing!" "You cannot have the smallest idea of marriage?" I suggested. " To tell you the truth, I have too much regard for the girl to think ever of marrying her." "How flattering to the future Mrs. Langley, whoever she may be!" " Could I take her to the regiment, or, worse still, home to my family ? An uneducated yet beautiful Arab—what would my mother —what would my fashionable and highly-accomplished sisters say ? And what would all my pretty, flirting, and, it may be, disappointed cousins* say and think too ?" " That you were mad, likely." " She thinks not of marriage after our mode, because she has no idea of so indissoluble a tie; but I, who know better, would be a rascal to contemplate it after hers ; and it would, indeed, be painful and humiliating to her, if she knew how I, one on whom she has lavished all her heart, and founded all her hopes, regard her; a poor and unlettered barbarian, whom it would, as you say with bitter truth, be thought a madness to marry. Yet, she is the daughter of an emir, whose race goes back to the days of Ishmael, and beats hollow the longest pedigree of our English, or even your Scottish families, who have no Norman Conquest to date their honours from." "I am glad that your ideas on this subject are so sensible. This Arab love is all very romantic, and so forth; but in a marriage with Amina, where would be the chariot-and-four, the bride in her pretty nuptial bonnet—all fair beauty and blonde lace, white flowers ana pink blushes—the dean in his lawn sleeves—the—" "The devil! Oh, no; but I have been going a little too far Why the deuce did you leave me with her for a whole forenoon P' "Why the deuce did you stay?" "I made amazing progress in my Arabic during your absence. "' Then there were sighs the deeper for suppression, And stolen glances sweeter for the theft '" Here I burst into a fit of laughter. _" I have heard you quote those lines twenty times, to twenty different girls." "Where?" asked Ered. "At Berwick, York, Canterbury " 220 frank. hilton ; or, " the queen's own." " And now here, at Sana," said he, laughing too; " what strange lives we lead—we fellows who follow the drum!" CHAPTER XLV. the castle of the graces. We crossed a river, and the clear, cold night, with its brilliantly spangled sky, and chilly dew that dropped from every broad palm- leaf, and every blade 01 grass, had set in ere we saw before us, on the summit of a steep eminence, the lights of Hesn-al-Mouhabib, or the Castle of the Graces, the residence of the imaum, whom his vizier never mentioned but with the deepest respect, and in the most absurd terms of Oriental hyperbole, especially when the nakib Ali Badr was in hearing. Near the path by which we approached it, we perceived the bodies of several Euthalis, who had been hung alive by the shoulder-blades on iron hooks, and allowed to remain there until they perished under the beaks and claws of jackals and vultures. These served as pleasant fingerposts to the sultan's abode of delights. This fortress is built of unburned brick and stone, with massive battlements, and presented a number of those arched galleries and arcades which we see represented in views of the Alhambra, and great masses of beautiful arabesque fretwork intricately detailed. The great portal was of marble, ornamented by many dozens of Chinese vases, and defended by two large brass guns. The gates jarred heavily as they were closed behind us. I found myself gazing wistfully at them, and I know not how, or why it was, but there stole over me a strange melancholy, an undefined anxiety, when I found that we were fairly among the guards, and behind the gates of Solyman. Could X have seen the future ! The building was surrounded by a high fortified wall, pierced with loopholes. It was divided into two great masses; one was the resi- dence of the officers of state, the guards, and attendants; the other was the sacred quarter of the seraglio, where the sultan resided with no less than seven hundred ladies. Many of the apartments were floored with marble, and decorated by innumerable knots, stars, crescents, and festoons of stucco, with inscriptions from the Koran, painted in gold and green; the ceilings were of carved walnut-wood; orange, lemon, and citron trees spread their branches round the windows without, while innumerable little fountains, playing in basins of white marble, imparted a delightful coolness within. The whole fortress occupied a piece of tabular rock, and in the foundations of it, his father, inspired by some heathenish spirit, had built alive the most beautiful virgin of his seraglio. A long range of stables occupied one side of the quadrangle, ana THE CAST IE OP THE GRACES. 221 there were kept the horses of the guards and the camels of the ladies, who, when they ventured abroad, were enclosed in large cages covered with hangings of crimson silk, and stuffed with cushions of down. The entrance to these enclosures was a small opening, con- cealed by a linen curtain, and any man attempting to raise it would have been slain on the instant by Osman, chief of the eunuchs, even were he the sultan's only son. To these stables our horses were led, and the vizier's secretary procured us a suite of apartments, with baths and fountains for our own use. He politely offered to lodge Amina in the harem of his own women; on this suggestion I turned to Fred, whom I concluded it would most interest. "No, no—say no," said he, pulling my sleeve. "I mistrust all these fellows, and this one only a little less than his master." I had only to hint my friend's reluctance, when a chamber was at once procured, with slaves to attend her, and with strict injunctions to remember her old custom now, and show her charming face to none, we bade her adieu, for the night was now far advanced, and our benishes were dripping wet with moisture. The luxuries of the most magnificent house at home dwindled intc nothingness when compared to those of our bedchambers. We weri lighted to them by Nubian boys, dressed in white, and bearing tapers Serfumed with musk and amber; the richest carpets covered the oors ; the walls were hung with silk, and the low, square beds were canopied by cloth of silver; the pillows were of white velvet, woven with foliage of gold and silver, and the corner tassels were clusters of turquoises round a ruby. The vases and ewers were of the most beautiful china, and beside each bed there lay on a low tabourette, a Damascened sabre, and a silver drinking-cup filled with sherbet, lest we should be thirsty in the night. My chamber adjoined Fred's. " No one will believe all this, Hilton, when we tell them about it," said he. "Then let those who doubt, come to Hesn-al-Mouhabib, and prove it for themselves," said I. The walls were inscribed as usual with moral and pious sentences from the Koran. By these, a train of salutary reflections may be started, a current of happy thought awakened, an act of goodness inspire d, or one of wickedness arrested. The doorways were hung with Persian silk, dyed into figures of scarlet birds, fruit and gold flowers, on a pale blue ground ; the coverlets were of green Persian velvet, having flowers of silver and gold gummed on them. Every, thing was, as Langley said. " sinfully luxurious." " Adieu, and may yaw dreams be happy!" said the venerable katib, as he bade us good night; "to-morrow you will be received in the Hall of the Twenty-four Windows, by the Light of the World and Star of the Seraglio." " Who the deuce is she ?" asked Fred. n 222 FRANK HILTON; OH, "THE QUEEN's OWN." " She," reiterated the katib, with indignant surprise, " I mean his Sublime Majesty the Imaum Solyman !" And the old man abruptly retired before my friend could apologize. CHAPTER XL'VT. the head and the heart. Next morning, at an early hour, while the old katib took me, after breakfast, round this fortress of which the Yemenees are very vain, Ered begged to be excused, and repaired to the apartment of Amina, to continue his study of Arabic, no doubt; and so he said; but I had great reason to dread that this addition to the finishing touch he had received at old Trinity College, might play the very devil with us both, if it came to the knowledge of the fiery Abdala Mohamed. As I afterwards discovered, his studies made great progress that morning, and the hackneyed aphorism, that " women have more heart and less head than men," explains all poor Amina's folly, though it affords no excuse for Ered Langley encouraging her to love him. The bright morning sun shone through the festooned curtains of An arched window, ana in the full glow of its radiance she sat on a pile of cushions, in her pretty Oriental dress, and quite unveiled. Old instinct made her hasten to assume her screen, when Langley threw himself on one knee beside her, and gently drew it aside. She looked imploringly and lovingly at him; her fine eyes were full of the joyous tears which dared not fall, and her pretty lips trembled with the words she knew not how to utter. She was too enchanting to be resisted or avoided by one whose heart, like Ered's, was full of her. " I beseech you to give me my veil," said she, trembling. "Dear, dear Amina," said Langley, "why would you hide your features from one who loves you as I do ? Ah, if you could but love me in return—" " I do love you!" said little Amina, with surprise, while, blushing and palpitating, she stretched out her hands, and gazed with her black eyes full upon him; " yea, so dearly, that you will find none in all the world who will love you more !" Giddy with pleasure at this startling but artless avowal, Ered pressed her to his heart, and she shed a shower of happy tears. " And will you love me always ?" asked Ered, without considering whether he would reciprocate to the same extent. "Oh! I will love thee for ever—yea, as Kadijah—as Ayesha loved the Prophet, will I love thee. My heart is full of thee. I am but a poor and ignorant Arab girl compared with thee, yet my brother is a great emir ! and I promise—oh, what can I promise thee, for thou art a—Kafir, and believest in nothing!" THE HEAD AHD THE HEAET. 22$ Oblivious of all, they sat there long and happily. Amina's head rested on Fred's shoulder, and his arms were around her; and thus they reclined, chin deep, among those delightful cushions on which the faithful are so fond of stretching their languid limbs. The distant hills shone in the warm sunshine, and the soft wind wafted the balmy fragrance of a thousand evergreen coffee groves down the open valley, and Fred was at least in the seventh heaven. "And you believe," said he, stroking the thick black wavy tressef of her ham, " that because you are an Arab, your love will never pass, away ?" "Yes," said Amina, looking up with her humid eyes, and euw bracing his arm, "I will love you when an old—old woman!" "Alas! dear Amina, listen to what a certain Frankish writer says. ' There is no passion which causes so strong an illusion as love, and its violence we construe into a sign of its duration. Overflowing with this sentiment, the heart extends to the future, and while this love lasts we think it will never end. But it is consumed by its own ardour; it decays with youth; it vanishes with beauty, and dies- with old age; for there never was, since the creation of the world, a pair of grey haired lovers who sighed for each other !' so said Rous- seau (whom I quote from memory), and is this not a sad conviction,. Amina?" The Arab girl was no casuist in these matters. "I will never believe it!" said she passionately, as she wept, for as Fred had translated slowly and laboriously, every word fell heavily on her light heart; "never! I love once and for ever. The Arab youth loves many, but the Arab maid can love only one ! I have been told that the king of Frangistan allows each man to have but one wife only. Oh, that must be delightful—and he must be a good king! Thou wilt take poor Amina to Frangistan ?" " Under its cloudy sky you would soon long for the sunny plains of Arabia the Happy." "Never, while with thee!" " Dear—dear Amina (kiss, for the twentieth time)!" "I should like so much to learn thy faith," said she, after a long pause. " My—my—what, Amina ?" "The faith of the Nassari—what thou lovest must be good for. Amina to know." " Upon my honour—really—" " Canst thou not teach me ?" "Not very well," quoth Fred, somewhat perplexed, for his idear, of theology and metaphysics were somewhat vague, and the soft, bright eyes that were tenderly fixed on his, were not calculated,' to concentrate his mind on such matters, and that time especially. " Thou canst, and wilt, teach me, for I love thee!" continued the Arab. " 'Pon my soul, I cannot—but why P" 224 FRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." " I sTiould like to be married by one of your moollahs, or dervishes ■—now thou understandest me," said Araina, hiding her beautiful but crimsoned face in his breast. "Ah, yes—of course—to be sure," said Fred, kissing her ten. derly, for his heart was wrung by the conflict between love and interest, duty and inclination. He loved Amina deeply, and at the same time, oddly enough, wished from his soul that he had never seen her! Was this love pure ? I have my doubts of it. But just at this critical moment he was summoned to accompany /ne to the presence of the sultan, and he obeyed with alacrity. CHAPTER XXVII. the hall op the twenty-pour windows. A grand procession was formed to conduct the sultan from the wing of the castle occupied by the seraglio to the hall of the twenty-four windows, where he usually sat in—what we would term—council; and where he was to receive us. This procession was the more imposing, because for the three preceding months, Solyman had, as the vizier said, " committed his kingdom to the care of Chance, or Eblis, and sunned himself in the eyes of the Silent One," for so had the people named this famous slave, who had not spoken since she was brought to the Castle of the Graces. Preceded by an aged emir, who bore the Koran in a bag of scarlet silk ; preceded also by his sword, pipe, and slipper bearers ; by fifty horses and as many camels, four abreast, all magnificently caparisoned with housings of velvet, gold, and silver, each having a battle-axe and Damascus sabre suspended at its saddle, and a plume of feathers on its head, and led by a hundred slaves in turbans and cummerbunds, the sultan appeared plainly apparelled, riding on a snow-white horse, which no other man dared mount. On one side of him rode the Vizier Rabd al Hoosi; on the other the katib, and over them was borne an enormous parasol of green silk, fringed with gold and surmounted by a pomegranate and crescent of silver. Osman Oglou, or black Osman, chief of the eunuchs, a hideous negro, and Baba Booli, the chief strangler, rode behind them, in gorgeous attire. Then came many banners of red, yellow, green, and white, the Moslem colours, charged with stars, crescents, and -the double-bladed sword of the Prophet; and a host of Arab drummers and players on cymbals, flutes, gaspahs, bells, timbrels, pipes, and gongs made a hideous medley of discord in the rear. " Compared to our fine band, is not this hubbub frightful ?" said Fred, as we saw the long procession wind round the spacious inner court and garden in coils like a snake, till the sultan alighted at the gilded door, through which he passed, with several of his officers and attendants. THE HALL OP THE TWENTY-FOUR WINDOWS, 225 • After a little time Ali Badr came to conduct us to the royal presence, and he led us through a crowd of richly dressed and well Armed Arab officers, guards, half-naked slaves, and grooms with black and shining faces, into a hall which might well have passed for the famous one in the palace of Aladdin, for it had twenty-four windows, all glazed with painted Venetian glass, a lofty-domed roof, painted blue, and starred with gold. From the centre hung a large ball of polished silver. Dark faces, fierce eyes, and richly sparkling dresses, jewels, poniards, pistols, cimitars, turbans, and shawls were on all sides of us. Before us we saw a pile of cushions and a canopied throne; beneath our feet were brilliant Persian carpets, and the whole air was perfumed; but though the hall was crowded, there was not a single sound heard, save the soft murmur of the fountains that played on each side of the throne, and gave an impressive solemnity to the scene. With his legs crossed and a pipe in his hand, we saw the sultan, an old and dignified, but irritable looking man, with quick, fierce, and restless eyes, seated on the throne of cushions. He was plainly attired in a light green robe laced with gold; his turban, like his beard, was of the whiteness of snow; the hilt of his poniard blazed with diamonds, and from it hung his chaplet, consisting of ninety-nine gigantic rubies of Serendib—(Ceylon); but his attire was the most simple in the hall, except our own. On each side of him stood 9 beardless eunuch, with a fan, to chase away the flies. An incident which occurred during our first interview was every way calculated to increase the growing fear and detestation we had oi him. On his knees before him, with his face resting on the lower step of the throne, and his hands bound by a cord, a prisoner was grovelling, in deadly fear. This was the Dola of Abb, who had been accused of being converted to Christianity by a Portuguese priest, ancl who had just acknowledged his crime, under the fierce lowering eyes of nearly five hundred indignant Mussulmen. " Let this wretch be ten times bastinadoed, and then be impaled in the usual way," said the Imanm, in the most placid manner. The usual way meant by the shoulder blades on hooks of hot steel, and the groan which escaped from the hapless Dola, as he was borne away, went through me like an electric shock. "Allah Ackbar!" murmured all the court. "Solyman is good!" said the vizier, looking round. " Such minds as his only can feel the true glory of dispensing justice; but as tc such unbelievers as the Dola of Abb, ' their works,' as the Korar> saith, c are like vapour in the plain, which the thirsty traveller seet; afar off, and thinketh to be water, until he cometh thereto, and findetf it to be nothing.'" The hypocritical vizier said this in a snuffling voice, and chanteo it as all Arabs and Egyptians do when quoting or reading the Koran.. The sultan now handed his chibouque to Ids pipe-bearer; but thai 226 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." nigh official being somewhat slow, received a blow on the month from the royal slipper, and a furious glance, under which he crawled away in the most abject manner. llabd-al-Hoosi now said, with the deepest respect, to avert the threatening storm,— " The dog of a moollah, who wrought this loss to Islam, was taken oy Sheikh Ibrahim, near the Cave of the Sleeper, and bound to a tree, when his horsemen shot him dead with their matchlocks, after firing for half-an-hour, as they practised at full gallop." " It is well, O vizier," growled Solyman; " there is no God but One, and Mohammed is his Prophet." " The Dola of the Faringis at Aden has sent two of his nakibs to sun themselves in the sublime presence of your majesty," said the vizier. " These slaves have craved permission to approach a sultan, whose goodness and grandeur overshadow the whole earth like a mighty umbrella; who permitteth the waters to ebb and to flow, the dhourra to ripen and the coffee to bloom; who doth justice in all things ; who is the soul of love, and the right hand of battle ; whose eyes, like the sun, see all things; who is proof to the weapons of war, and whose horses are as elephants with teeth of pearl and shoes of gold; whose wives are as chaste as Patima, and pure and beautiful as the brides of the holy and only Prophet! Lord of all the thrones of the earth, they crave leave to approach you ?" The imaum listened placidly to this tissue of bombast, which I give here as nearly as I can remember it; and had not his keen black eyes been fixed upon us, I am sure we must have laughed outright at its grave absurdity, had not its impiety chilled us. " They are Christians, no doubt," said the sultan. "Your majesty, who is the corner-stone of the house of wisdom and father of all excellence, conjectures rightly—they are Christians." " God and the Prophet deliver us from the devil!" said the sultan, in great discomposure. " What would they with us ?—but let them approach." We drew nearer, and kneeling down, as we had been previously instructed by the Katib, kissed the jewelled and dingy hand of his majesty. " In the name of our queen, and on a mission from the officer com- manding at Aden, we have presumed to approach Sana, the centre and capital of the universe," said I, taking a leaf out of the vizier's " guide" to court favour. "If your greatness, whose mind understandeth everything, and whose eyes soe the end of space and beyond it, will condescend to listen, I will read the letter of your slave the Dola of the Kafirs at Aden." The imaum waved his hand, and Rabd-al-Hoosi read the somewhat plain unflowery and matter-of-fact letter of O'Hara, who in the name of her Britannic Majesty begged to form an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Sultan of Sana and Lord of Mocha, for the benefit of commerce and trade, and the peace of Yemen, by uniting their arms for the total suppression of the Abdali, the Futhalis, and THE HAIL OF THE TWENTY-FOTTTt "WINDOWS. 227 other hostile tribes, who waged a constant war against the inoffensive garrison established at Aden by virtue of a treaty with the Sultan of Lahadj. The latter point was not quite true, lor we had established our- selves there at the point of tKe bayonet; but it was as much as our ears were worth to have hinted such a thing to Solyman of Sana. "Heaven be praised, the letter is ended," said he, with a vawn; then he asked, in a tone of displeasure, what maimer of Kafirs we were who allowed a woman to rule us ? and why this Queen, who had received her crown by his permission, did not come in person to visit him ? because, in that case, had she proved large- eyed, round-hipped, and moonfaced, he would have lodged her with all honour in the seraglio. I knew not what reply to make to these queries; but Habd-al- Hoosi came to my aid. "Heart and liver of the Prophet," said he; "the Paringi queen is a poor Kafir, a barbarian princess, who dwells afar off in a solitary island of the sea—beyond even Serendib or the isles of the Indian Ocean." The sultan was not disinclined to give me a favourable answer, and a glow of pleasure rose in my breast, for this mission had been a source of no ordinary anxiety to me; and now I hoped by its successful accomplishment that I might at least secure a strong recommendation for a company which I was totally unable to purchase, and which was vet far distant, for I was among our most junior lieutenants, of whom we had twenty-three, being on the Indian establishment. As for Pred Langley, who had £6000 per annum, I never thought about him or his prospects. "Let Yacoob the diviner be summoned," said Solyman, "and if the omen is favourable, 0 vizier, we will enter into a league with this Dola of Aden, against the wandering tribes of Yemen." Though divination by an arrow or other means is expressly forbidden by the Koran, the only code of law known to the Moslems, the pious Rabd-al-Hoosi made no comment when it was the Imaum's proposal, but summoned one of those impostors, who sit at street- corners in the cities of the East, and pretend to foretel the success of war, trade, marriage, or any undertaking. The diviner, a miserable-looking old Arab of Oman, in a turban and cummerbund, with his bare breast overgrown by hair as white as his beard, chose seven arrows (seven is a mystical number in all countries) from the quivers of so many soldiers, and took the barbf off them. Then he fixed to three of them a piece of paper inscribed " God and the Prophet require this /" On other three he wrote, "God and the Prophet forbid this!'* One arrow he left blank. The seven were then shaken in a quiver, and one was drawn forth by Mahmoud Ali Badr3 whose eyes were blindfolded by the diviner. 228 FRANK HILTON ; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN/* It was one of the first three arrows, to the unmistakeable disappoint- ment of the Yemenees, whose brows lowered as they turned to each other, and muttered whispers of hatred against the Paringees, while the diviner received a purse and retired. The tyrant of Sana was now pleased to give us a condescending smile, and waved his hand for all to retire, but the vizier and captain of the eunuchs, Ali Badr, and one or two of his more immediate attendants. Langley and I were also about to leave, when Rabd-al- lloosi, who had been whispering something to the sultan, and looked rather pointedly at me, now summoned us back. " The sultan, whose footstool is the keystone of earth, would speak with you." " It would seem," said this benign personage, " that thou knowest, 0 Kafir, the writings of our Prophet ?" I bowed. "And know that by the Koran we can make odalisques and wives of all women taken in war; even the wives of unbelieving husbands." I bowed again, while Solyman continued, but speaking very slow, for his mightiness was somewhat stout and pursy. "In the celestial purity of my seraglio, I have a silent slave; a w^man who has not spoken to me at least for the space of three moons, a miracle such as hath not happened since the days of King Ad; so we know not her language, or what manner of woman she is; but this we know, that she is distinguished for beauty and modesty above all the ladies of my household, (Mohammed forgive me for mentioning them to thee who can know nothing of such things!) but being ig ' T ot in any way make her thou art master of more tongues than one, while we (praised be God!) know only that in which the Koran was written. Mis well; thou wilt be permitted to approach this silent beauty " " This pearl of the world," murmured the cunning vizier; " this pure emerald of Zaharah!" " To tell her, if she understands thee, that I love her beyond all the seven hundred women in Hesn-al-Mouliabib, and that I am prepared to raise her to a place which will make her the envy of Arabia, by legalized marriage, the source of all delight! Achieve this, and I will send thee back to Aden, with such treasures, O nakib ! as the poor kafirs of thv native island never saw or conceived, even in their dreams; and I will march ten thousand horse and foot to aid the Dola O'Hara in his wars against the Emir Mohamed. Thou understandest me," he added, imperiously, on seeing that I stood with an air of indecision and perplexity on hearing this singular proposition. "He does, 0 Imaum," said Rabd-al-Hoosi, coming again to my aid; " who does not hear and understand when the ruler of Asia speaks? He will tell this foolish damsel, that Solyman, whose understand Our vizier saith that we sot "with the vizieb. m slaves are the princes, potentates, emperors, and khaliphs of the earth, and whose favour raises from the dust such as humble them- selves before him, has condescended to look upon her with pleasure, and her heart will become glad." " Exactly—thou hast said!" mumbled the dotard under his snowy beard. " Tell her of the sweet loves of Mujnoon and of Leila the bright-eyed; tell her of the passion that inspired the gal- lant Khosroo of Persia, and the beautiful Shireen. Say all that thou thinkest will incline her heart to love me, and I will send thee back with such presents as will make my gratitude live for ever in the annals of mankind." " Imaum," I began with hesitation—" but I may fail—" "Darest thou speak to me of failure?" asked the querulous- sultan, passionately. " Great Lord, before whom all the Elephants prostrate themselves, the unsainted kafir knows not what he says," said the vizier with alarm. i" Eail ?—wallah!" swore the monarch, growing purple in the face with increasing anger. " Eather of unnumbered believers !" said the poor vizier, whose imagination was beginning to fail him; " remember what the thirty- ninth chapter of the Koran sayeth on forgiveness, and forgive him." "Well, then, Kafir, I forgive thee for daring to express a doubt that my will is law; but remember, if thou failest, then will I have- thee whipped beyond the Coffee mountains, for having even thought of failure while 1 expressed my pleasure." Notwithstanding our isolated situation, my heart swelled with proper anger, and my pride revolted, while the pampered despot spoke in this lawless and petulant manner; but the politic Rabd-al- Hoosi hurried us away to our apartments, where we heard the clash of the cymbals, the vile discordance of the fifes, and the roaring of the gongs, as this infernal old " Turk" retired to his seraglio, like a lion to his den. I then threw myself upon a sofa to arrange my thoughts, and. determine on the course to pursue; but my eyes yet ached with the sunlighted glare of twenty-four painted windows and five hundred gorgeous dresses, and my ears yet tingled with the bombast of Rabd- al-Hoosi, who had invited us to sup with him on that evening. CHAPTER XLYIII. WE SUP WITH THE VIZIEE. M Well," he asked, after we had finished supper, which was served up. in very good style, " what do you think of your new task ?" " To make love for this venerable alligator ?" said Langley, in. English. " I detest the price of his alliance with us altogether," said I, remembering Solyman's insolence; " and, moreover, I do not think 230 FRANK. HILTON OH, "THE QTJEEN's OWN." that, as a British officer, I am in this bound to humour him—even as Sultan of Sana—" " Sheikh of Sheikhs," said the vizier, " and King of all the Elephants—" " Tigers and Hippopotamuses, Eather of unnumbered Sons, and many other little homunculi," said Langley, in a low voice, as he filled his crystal cup with wine, and gave me a knowing wink; "bat think of the reward, my boy!" " To the devil with the reward," said I; " but I am curious withal to know what it might be." "His majesty is always weeding out the faded flowers of his seraglio," said the vizier, " and he may bestow some of them upon you, for this is the greatest honour he can give a subject." I stared at the vizier, who said this with the utmost earnestness; but Ered shouted with laughter, and said,— " Take care, Hilton, that in making love for Solyman you may not do a little in that way for yourself; it's a way we have m the army, and especially in c the Queen's Own.' " At these words (though said in English) the vizier started from his cushions in great alarm, and hastened to see if the last slave, whom he had just dismissed, had closed the doors of walnut-wood, the panels of which were covered with beautiful brasswork. He further secured them by drawing the wooden bolts, and closing the rich damask hangings, which shrouded three sides of the room; but on the fourth, the large-arched windows overlooked the broad and moonlit valley, that stretched away towards Sana; and as rock and rampart descended sheer below them for many hundred feet, no prying eye or ear could reach us from that quarter. Nothing could be more oriental than the aspect of this chamber, lighted by its pendant lamps of ruby-coloured glass and gold, filled with perfumed oils; its domed roof and hangings of damask, silk, and silver; its Persian carpets and downy cushions; the chibouques and hookah, the flasks and glasses of Venetian crystal, and the gor- geous salvers of luscious fruit, with the bright and joyous moonlight mellowing all without, as we could see distinctly between the fes- tooned curtains and open arches of fretwork that overlooked the valley below. " As to making love for myself, Ered," said I, referring to his ■emark, " it will, no doubt, be the last thing I shall think of when in so dangerous a vicinity." " The thought were worthy of a thousand deaths," said the vizier. " Turn to your Keblah, and pray for strength to carry you through the task." "My Keblah?" "I forgot thou art but a Kafir; yet never did even a true be- liever see the form of one whose beauty had warmed the heart of Solyman, and live." WE SUP WITH THE "VIZIER. 231 "But what can. I tell, that he has not already told her, in better language ?" " I should think so," said Fred. "An old gentleman with seven hundred wives must always be in good training." " Say that he will love her as the Prophet did Kadijah the "widow; lhat he will he faithful to her, as the same Holy One was to Ayesha." " In neither case promising much, if history be true." The vizier laughed, and from under his rich Angora shawl pro- duced two very respectable black bottles, which he eyed affection- ately between him and the light, and then handed them to me. "Brandy—French brandy!" said I, looking at the seal. "It is admirable!" said he, in Arabic; "I gave a hundred piastres for some cases that were taken from the stranded ship Minerva, of London, for it is wicked to waste the good things of this earth while the Prophet permits us to enjoy them; so, out with the corks, and let us be merry." Fred produced one of those compendious pocket-knives, which, with a gunserew, horsepicker, boothook, &c., generally have a cork- screw; and with this the corks were out in a twinkling. Water was flowing like crystal from the mouth of a silver head into a maible basin in a corner of the apartment; our cups were soon filled, emptied, and filled again, while we lay at ease, "with our necks open and vests unbuttoned, among the soft cushions, chatting, laughing, and smoking our cool hookahs through crimson vases of perfumed water. As, on the former occasion, we had no more quotations from the Koran, and no more of Rabd-al-Hoosi's obtrusive piety, but we had jokes, stories, and wild legends of encounters with the Futhalis and the Bedouins, till, as the brandy diminished in the second bottle, the prime minister of the Corner-stone of Wisdom grew a little uproarious, and insisted on having a song, and in proposing it, made a speech, in which he mingled his guttural Arabic with an absurd sprinkling of English. Langley, who never required very much pressing for anything, commenced at once his favourite hunting song about "The High-mettled Racer," to which the vizier listened with eyes half-closed, as he lay back among his luxurious cushions, and beat time with the amber mouth of his hookah on the palm of his hand, and with the heel of his slipper on the floor. It was now Fred's turn to request, and he insisted vehemently on Rabd-al-Hoosi favouring us with an Arab ditty, and after brief pressing, and filling his glass, he wiped his beard, and while fixing upon me his keen eyes, the white iris of which dilated, to our un- bounded astonishment he began, in the purest native dialect, " 0 "Willie brewed a peck o' maut, And Rab and Allan cam to prie; Three blither lads, that lee-lang night. Ye wadna fand in Christendie. 232 FRANK HILTON; OH, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." We are na fou, we're na that fou, But just a wee drap in our e'e; The cock may craw, the day may daw, But aye we'll taste the barley bree! " Here are we met, three merry boys, Three merry boys I trow are we," &c. &c. While the vizier sung, it would be impossible to depict by pen or pencil the expression of blank astonishment, almost fright, which Fred's face reflected from mine, on hearing him sing thus, and sing with admirable spirit, too. We were too much wonder-struck to laugh ; but though the song was lively, tears filled the eyes of the pseudo-Moslem, and with the last line, a kind of sob burst from him, as he flung away the tube of his hookah, and grasping my hands, said, "I could conceal myself no longer—I am a Scotsman—your countryman—God bless you both ! 0 sirs ! there's nae place like hame, as the Deil said, when he got into the Court of Session." " And your name, Rabd-al-Hoosi ?" " Rabbie Dalhousie, I was called at home, in my native parish of Birkenshaw—the transition is easy." "But why conceal yourself so long?" I asked. " Because I thought you were both Englishmen, and I cared not to make myself known ; for the last to whom I spoke, and for whom I did many an act of kindness, abused and ridiculed my country, for which expression of gratitude I gave him three hundred blows of a cane on the soles of his feet. But I soon detected you, Mr. Hilton, by the broad sound of your «'s in the Arabic ; moreover, I heard you lilting an old ditty, which brought my heart to my head in a moment, for no tongue but a Scottish one can lilt." " Your story must be a very remarkable one." " A very sad one, too, Mr. Hilton, for I have known what it is to weep tne last tears of sorrow. Will you believe it, only a few years ago I was between the stilts of a plough turning up the fallow earth on the bonnie rigs of Birkenshaw, wearing a blue-bonnet on my brow, and on my breast the red plush waistcoat my sweetheart had flowered for me; and to-night I am prime minister to Solyman of Sana—the potent and the wise—God forgive me for saying so." "If we may inquire," said Langley, "what peculiar turn of the wheel of fortune threw you into this remote corner of the world ?" " You may, sir—you may; I care not if I tell you, for my story may be known one day, like that of Tommy Keith, the gunsmith, of Auld Reekie, who is now styled Ibrahim Aga, Governor of Medina, and a Pacha of Three Tails, being lord of one of the noblest territories in the Pachalick of Egypt. If there is another drop of brandy left, drain it off, and I will tell you how I, the ploughman Rabbie Dalhousie came to be Rabd-al-Hoosi, the envied Vizier of Yemen." 23S CHAPTER XLIX. THE HISTORY OF RABD-AL-HOOSI. "My father,honest old Davie Dalhousie, occupied the farm toun and mains of Dryburngrange, in the parish of Birkenshaw, through which flows the Tweed; and in all its long course of ninety miles from its source, it passes no sweeter spot than that dear place where first I saw the light, and learned to think the pastoral hills of Peebles and the broomy knowes of Traqnair the boundaries of this terrestrial World. We had farmed the mains for five generations under the noble house of Traqnair; my father was an elder of the kirk, and Had the reputation of being a quiet, discreet, and upright auld carle—• even as my good mother bore the character of being a kind and thrifty wife, and the best manager of kirn, spence, and byre between the Leithen and the Annan. I was an only son, and christened Robert, after poor Robbie Burns; and I am a little proud of my name, for it has been borne by seven of our Scottish poets, and by three of our kings,—one of them the bravest that ever drew a sword for God and a people's freedom! " It was the greatest ambition of my mother—puir body—to see me, her only son, a minister, whose head should wag in the pulpit of the parish kirk, for we had great hopes that way through the patron, our lord the earl, who, though he was a catholic noble, Lord of Linton and Caberston, Earl of Traquair, and I know not what more, was ever kind and. condescending—took a snuff from my father's mull when he met him, and asked anent the crops, and the calving of the last cow; but my father—gudeman—was resolved that his son should be a farmer like his ancestors before, and earn his bread as the blessed Koran—toots ! the Scripture, I mean—commanded, by the sweat of his brow, on the green mains and golden corn-rigs, which had been sown and reaped, as I have said, by five generations of the Dalhousies, —yea, ever since the time when the good Sir William Stuart of Caberston and Traquair brooked the Constabulary of Dumbarton under his Majesty James VI., as my poor mother has told me with honest pride many a time and oft; for I am come of that ' glorious Scottish peasantry5 who were ever ready to defend and die for the /and their titled lords have ever been the first to sell and to betray. Besides, he had many scruples anent the abomination of patronage; and two of our family, who, in the times of trouble, had engaged in the preaching line, ended their lives in great tribulation; for one died in the dungeons of the Bass Rock, and was flung into sea; the other testified at the Bowfoot of Edinburgh, and now he sleeps close by it, in that spot which no true Scotsmen ever looked on without feeling his heart stirred within him—the maiiyrs' tomb—in the Grey- friars' Yard, With all that, my father was near taking to the 234 FRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN.** preaching himself, when he joined the Free Kirk at the Disruption, and had the honour to become a correspondent even with the great Chalmers. After obtaining all that our village dominie could teach me—a plain Scottish education, with a smack of the humanities, astronomy, and algebra—I gave up all thought of the kirk, took to my ploughstilts and spade like a man, and our wee bit farm throve bravely under my care, with the assistance of a sturdy grieve, Jock Adamson—puir man!—many a night the schule-callants and I half smothered him and his gudewife, Mysie, by putting a divot on his lumheid when the gathering peat was a-low ! " I had a good saddle-horse, and had the reputation of being one of the smartest young lads on Tweed-side, when I rode to Peebles market with my red plush waistcoat that somebody had worked for me with her ain bonnie hands; my blue Sunday coat, and a bonnet of my mother's weaving, with a red cherry on the top, a bab of blue ribbons at my lug, where somebody had pinned them, and my silver- shanked whip, that had been left me as a dying gift by my uncle, a sergeant of our auld Scots Greys of glorious achievement, and which he had received on parade from his colonel, the gallant Sir James Stuart, the auld laird of Coltness. " I was ever fond of good company, and could handle a horse or a pack of cards as well as any man; could stand my pint stoup, sing a song, kiss a bonnie lass, and dance at a Kirn or Halloween with the best chield in the country; and a proud man was I when, at a ball on the green, the auld ground Bailie of Traquair brought me an invita- tion to dance with the countess herself, before the whole tenantry, while opposite stood the good old earl, with somebody the bonniest less in all Tweed-side or Teviotdale. " This was sweet wee Elsie Logan; my poor Elsie ! I think I see her now, in her short-striped gown and blue skirt; her brown hair smoothly snooded with a blue ribbon; her cheeks glowing, like peaches, and her hazel eyes that were ever so bright and merry. Her brother's farm was at the Moat of Ellon, on the opposite side of the burn, and we had loved each other long—ay, from the days when we sat on the same form and spelled over the same page at school, sharing our sweatmeats and Saturday-halfpence together. But my father, douce man! could never abide the thought of such an alliance; for though he readily admitted the beauty and worth of Elsie, he knew that her brother, who managed—or rather mismanaged—the small farm of Ellon, was over head and ears in debt; and that as we had enough to do to keep our own heads above the brae, I should look for a wife in another direction. " Elsie's brother Bingan was a careless, convivial, devil-may-care kind of fellow, who better loved to ramble over the lea with a gun in his hand and a pointer at his heels, than to plough up the heavy rigs of : and he was often found by the Tweed-side, with his salmon leister and tishmg-rod, or at the Traquair Arms, with dice and cards, THE HISTORY OF RABD-AL-HOOSI. 235 when there was com to stalk, potatoes to pit, and beans to thresh; and the upshot was, that he lost his lease; his stock was rouped by order of the sheriff, and a doleful day it was for me when I saw the auctioneer's red flag flying at the old Moat of Ellon. Everything was sold—bed and table, saut-kit and meal-ark, girdle and clock, pot and cruik—woe is me! every stick and stool of the plenishing. My father bought the horses and carts, and the very sight of them coming over the brig at the burn went to my heart like a rifle-shot, for it told me of the ruin that had come upon the lassie I loved—and I loved her brother Bingan, too, for he was a warm-hearted and well- meaning, hut fearfully reckless, chield. "'I aye said that prodigal callant's conduct would bring him to the husks and the swine-trough,' said my father, with a triumphant look at me, as he hung his whip and spats behind the parlour door • 'like a horse after a feed, he was gaeing owre fast to gang far !' "£ Eather,' said I, ' you are an elder of the kirk, and should be merciful.' "c Mercy, indeed; the ne'er-do-well! He has this day lost a farm whilk the Logans have brookit for four generations. Mv certie! it is weel that his father's head is below the grass in the auld kirkyard. The ruin of this day would have broken his heart—honest man.' "My mother said she was sorry for the puir lassie Elsie, but doubtless some kind friend would take her to service at the next Burrowtown. "cServicer " My heart was in my mouth at these cruei words, and drawing my bonnet on my brow, I strode away to the Pechtstane, our usual place of tryst. " This Pechtstane—a great rough obelisk of the Boman times, marking, as our dominie told me, the spot where the Scots defeated in battle the last of these invaders—formed the march between our farms, and stood on the muirland just midway from Dryburngrange to the old thatched house, that was built among the green mounds of the Moat of Ellon. Oh, I would give my inmost heart's blood for one glimpse of them now; but I see them all yet, in memory ! " Bound the grey Pechtstane the purple "blaeberry and the red /anherry spotted the moss and heather; laden with honey, the hee flummed on the soft air of evening; the saffron sun was sinking behind the brown hills of Peebles : the black muircock, the plover and curlew were wheeling aloft, while the dun partridge whirred far down below. The red rowan bunches, the green alders, and the sorrowful sauch-trees shaded the drowsy linn that gurgled at the brae- foot; and there, in that place sae sweet to think, ' o'love when the kye cam hame,' my dear lassie awaited me." The Vizier of Sana paused for a moment, as his eyes and his heart, filled together; and it is impossible lor me to convey an adequate idea of the strong contrast formed by the homely Scottish style into which 236 TRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." he had so suddenly and so naturally slid, and by his Eastern aspect and attire, his embroidered vest and diamond-hilted cimitar, his iewelled turban aud bearded visage. "As I approached," he resumed, "I saw that my dear Elsie was weeping bitterly, and that a man, who wore a sky blue bonnet, with a white tuft on it, was stealing stealthily away from beside her, and wendinc his way up the bank of the Quair, towards the slope of the Drae, where stand the fine old birchen trees so famed in song and love as the Bush aboon Traquair. " This was a rival—John Kippilaw—a water bailie, who watched the Tweed for poachers, and who had now presumed to offer himselt to Elsie, believing that in her adversity ana distress she might listen to him favourably; but she had repulsed him as he deserved, for these water baiiies were hated by all the country people, as a class of petty tyrants, informers, and infringers of the common rights of men, who by fine and imprisonment caused the total ruin of mony a poor lad for taking a salmon out of the river that flowed past his own cottage door. " My poor Elsie threw herself into my arms, and there she wept long ana sorrowfully. I said all I could think of to reassure her, and we arranged that I would endeavour to get a small farm of my own, or that I would hire myself as a grieve on a neighbouring estate, or do anything that would enable me to marry her in moderate com- fort; and that, come weal or woe, we should married be at Martinmas next. " And so communing together we walked over the muir, with my arm and my grey plaid about her, until the red glooming deepened on the hills, and the glow-worms glimmered in the moss, when I left her at the door of a small cottage, near the Quair—a place her brother had rented, as he said, ' until he could look about him.' " This he never did, but went from bad to worse, and almost broke the poor lassie's heart; and though my father and mother mourned for her, and did many a kind act, such as sending her a cheese, a pair of braxy hams, a basket of eggs, or a farl of barley cakes at an orra time, they were mail' opposed to our marriage than ever. Martinmas drew nigh, and I had not even a bodle in my pocket. I was almost demented, for the roses had now left the cheeks of my Elsie; her hazel eyes were sad and red, and her dear wee hands were soiled and sore with the menial work she had to perform. " Her brother Ringan drank to drown care, diced to make money, and usually kept the whole town in an uproar. He was suspected o leaguing with the poacher gangs of Innerleithen and elsewhere, antf was often accused of shooting the earl's deer and other game; o; netting the hares and dragging the Tweed, and was supposed to sell fish, fowl, and deer to the carriers who went north towards the capital, but such could never be proved, though the gamekeeper's dogs, and that sharp fellow, Kippilaw, the water bailie, had often tracked a man THE HISTORY OP RABD-AL-HOOSI. 237 who was mair like Eingan than his wraith could be, from the liver to the muirlands; but as country folk ever make common cause with poachers, he always eluded the fangs of the law, until one dolefui night which I shall never forget. "Enraged by Elsie's rejection of his suit, Kippilaw had sworn to be revenged, and kept a sharp eye upon the movements of her mis- guided and ill-starred brother; thus, on a night when he and some other enterprising lads, with their torches and salmon leisters, were caught in the act of spearing fish in one of the finest pools on the Leithen, Kippilaw blew his horn; a band of his myrmidons started out of bush and brake. Then Eingan Logan and four other despe- rate fellows flung their torches into the stream, and as the night was dark, they broke through the water-bailies with their spears, and fled towards the hills. They were soon pursued by more than twenty men, on horse and foot, county police, game-keepers, and water-bailies, armed with batons, cudgels, pistols and double • barrelled rifles. The chase was close and desperate. Thrice they took to the water and thrice to the hills, to baffle their pursuers but in vain, for the splendid bribes of the adjacent proprietors spurred their tormentors on, and at last they were driven into the town of St. Eonan, just about mid-day. Here most of the popula- tion sympathised with them, and a terrible riot ensued. The kirk bell tolled an alarm, the town drum was beaten, and the St. Eonan's men sallied out upon the water-bailies with whatever weapons came first to hand. "I had come into market that day with a load of grain, and shall never forget the hurly-burly. Coats, hats, bonnets, grey border mauds, all went to wreck and ruin; eyes were blackened, noses bled, and heads broken; women were skirling, bairns howling, dogs bark- ing, and men ,swearing; while sticks, batons, flails, ana pitchforks, were whirling in the air; and there, in the midst of it all, were Sanders Sneckdrawer, the auld baron-bailie of St. Eonan's, collared by his gold civic chain, and surrounded by the town officers, with their shining halberts, striving to keep the Queen's peace, and threatening to send to the lord advocate for the cavalry; but the halberts were broken, the Eiot Act torn, and the bailie was tumbled head foremost into a horse-trough that stood beside the market-cross. " In the midst of it all was Eingan Logan, drenched in blood that was flowing from his mouth and nose, with his clothes torn to rags, fighting like a Turk or a wild beast—yet like a brave fellow withal —to free himself from the iron grasp of the malignant Kippilaw, who soon lost all command of himself, and rashly drawing a pistol from his helt, fired! " I heard the report, and the yell from the mob that followed it; and when the smoke cleared away, the right arm of poor Eingan hung powerless by his side. "'Coward!' I cried, and by one blow of my cart-whip, mads 238 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." Kippilaw measure his length on the causeway. The people now be- came frantic, and swept all before them; the game-keepers and water-bailies, and the whole of the invaders were fain to fly for their ■ lives, and I carried off Ringan in my empty cart. The ball had passed through his arm, but the wound soon healed, and for a time he con- cealed himself by lurking in our barns and hay-lofts by night, and by day in the vaults of the old castle of Horseburgh; but as soon as his strength and health were fully restored, he began to take measures for vengeance upon Kippilaw, for he had sworn a terrible oath, ' to tear out his heart, and dash it in his face !' " Many warrants were out for his apprehension as a poacher and vagrant. X thought that word would have broken the heart of my poor forlorn Elsie. Sanders Sneckdrawer being a country writer was a fearfu' vindictive body, and he too had sworn a solemn oath—not upon the Gospels, for it was but little he cared for them, but upon 'Erskine's Institutes,'and 'Dirlton's Doubts,'—that he would be revenged for his unseemly drouking in the market-cross well, and for the riot within his burgh. "Erom the moment his blood had been drawn, Ringan sought every occasion to meet Kippilaw in some lonely place. He was a tall ana handsome fellow, Ringan, with a straight nose, deep dark eyes, and brows that met over them in one arched line; but oh! he had a frightful expression in them when angry, and when he gnashed his teeth at the name of Kippilaw. He had long imbibed a sworn vengeance against the game-laws, and was wont to say that the beasts of the forest, the birds of the air, and the fish of the streams, belonged to the people, for God had given to them the land they inhabited, and not to earls, lairds, or esquires; and that all the soil produced belonged to the people, who should just shoot their land- lords if they were not allowed to shoot the game. " I shook my head at this poacher logic; for I knew that he re- ■ferred to the earl's deer, the Laird of Horseburgh's grouse, the Gude- man of Pirn's pheasants, and the Bailie of St. Ronan's trout and 3almon. " 'Rents, revenue, and taxes, all go south to London,' he would say at times, ' and nothing returns to poor old Scotland; tyranny and centralization have robbed us of the best gifts of God; and we have nothing now but bungled acts of Parliament, insult, and neglect, poor-law, game-law, and police-law—' "' And a Kippilaw,' I added, pawkily; and then he got up with a oang, and snatching his salmon spear, went boldly out in open day to one of the pools on the Leithen. As he strode away, Elsie gave me an imploring glance, so much as to say, ' stay him, dear Robbie, if you can!' But Ringan was not a man to be stayed when the devil within him was roused, and so he proudly went his way to seek a supper, which he generally cooked, in pure spite, by the painted boards that were placed in every thicket, warning poachers and tres- passers with the terrors of the hateful law,- and close at his heels THE HISTORY OP RABD-AL-HOOSI. 239 went Ms faithful white pointer, for which he had various suits of black, spotted, and liver-coloured clothing, so that by game-keepers he was seldom seen, to all appearance, twice attended by the same dog ; and tMs sagacious quadruped had learned to poach too, for when he eyed a bright scaly salmon, in a smooth sandy place, he would plunge in, and come up with the fish in his mouth, and then run off, wagging Ms tail, to hide the quarry in a tMcket, or among the long grass for Ms errant and wandering master. " I sat beside my sad and sorrowful Elsie, with her head on my shoulder, my cheek on her cold white brow, and my arms mound her; ft grief oppressed us both that night; a dark foreboding of approach- ingevil; one of those solemn and superstitious presentiments ol coming dule to which .the minds of the Scots, like other large- brained-races, are subject at times. Erom what this mysterious emotion and influence sprung, God who creates us only knows. "We spoke little, and for hours remained with our thoughtful eyes fixed on the changing embers of the fire, that glowed on the cottage ingle. Martinmas had come and gone, and we were not yet married ! Elsie had grown thin and wan, for her health and spirits were broken, and both were failing her fast. " The night without was dark and dreary; the cold sky was inky- grey, and the clouds were gathering in huge masses on the distant hills; the wind whistled through the scroggy glen, and the red lightning gleamed behind the shattered peel of Horseburgh, wMle here and there large flakes of snow began to fall. " In the corner, an old wag-at-the-wa' struck eleven. "' Eleven /' said Elsie, bursting into tears; ' eleven, and Ringan's no cum hame yet. 0 Robbie, something dreadfu' maun hae hap- pened the nicht!' " At that moment a sound made me look towards the window, and there I saw a face whiter than the visage of a corpse peering into the half-darkened cottage; but by the faint gleam of the dying fire, and by the horseshoe eyebrow, I knew the face of Ringan. He made an impressive motion that meant silence, and then earnestE Beckoned to me. "' Oh, what can all tMs mean!' thought I. " Saying to Elsie, that I would just take my bonnet and rin dooi fhe loan to the Kailyard-end, and halloo on Ringan, I left her. and came out of the cottage with a beating heart and a spirit sorely troubled, for I was deeply concerned for Ringan, and my inmost soul mourned for my Elsie. "'Robbie, oh, Robbie! come this way—quick—for God's sake, quick!' said Ringan, in a hoarse whisper, as he seized me by the coat-neuck, and urged me along the road to where the dark figure of a man's body lay extended on the ground. My heart ceased to beat! my blood grew cold at the sight—the light seemed to go out of my eyes; and I grasped the divots of the fealdyke, to keep me from tailing, for the horror I experienced quite overcame me. 240 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." " Ringan had been wandering np the Leithen with his leister; he had speared three great salmon, and was just about to launch his weapon at a fourth, as, in the last flush of the red glooming that came down the long green glen, he saw its silver scales shining among the dark-brown pebbles, when a voice behind him shouted, " ' Surrender, ye fause loon !" " He turned, and saw the vindictive Kippilaw, with his well-known sky-blue bonnet, close by him, and levelling the same pistol straight at his head. "'Surrender!' said Ringan, with a fierce and scornful laugh; ' and in. whose name, I wad like to ken ?' " ' In the name of the Baron-bailie of St.Ronan, and the law which 1 represent.' " ' The laws were made by the rich to grind and oppress the poor, for that which is law for one is often not law for the other; but beware, John Kippilaw!' said Ringan, with one of his fearful scowls,' for ye may find c a man's a man for a' that,' and I would rather die ten times than yield to the law, or to such a dirty, paid- ling body as you, a false coward, who levelled a loaded pistol at a puir unarmed man.' " Kippilaw gave a wicked laugh, and drew nearer, with his pistol tocked. " ' Let him laugh loud who laughs last' said Ringan, as he charged nis salmon spear, and stood on his defence. Whether by design or mischance, I know not, but at that moment the pistol of Kippilaw exploded, and the ball passed through Ringan's bonnet. Wild with passion and fury he rushed upon the aggressor, and whirling his spear aloft, brought down its ponderous iron head in full swing upon the unfortunate Kippilaw. It struck him on the left temple ; he fell by the water-side as if shot, and never moved again. He was dead— slain by Ringan's hand—by the hand of Elsie's only brother ! " I will not attempt to describe his emotions when the gust of pas- sion passed away, though I could very well comprehend them by the terror, shame, and crushing bitterness of my own. " His first idea was to rush to St. Ronan's, and deliver himself up to the bailie—even to the cruel Sanders Sneckdrawer—as a murderer; or, at least, as one who had committed a slaughter in his own defence; but who would believe the story of the poor vagrant—of the outlawed poacher? None! It would be madness. " Then he thought of liis sweet sister, and of the shame and sorrow his trial and punishi ent would bring upon her; and then, last of all, lie thougiu of his personal safety — for the love of life is strong and instinctive within us; and thus, afraid to trust the body out of his sight, he had hidden it among the bracken bushes till the darkness set in, and then had carried it on his back almost to his cottage door, for his once strong mind was a mere chaos now; he knew little of what he did, and still less of what to do- THE HISTORY OF -aL-HOOSI. 241 "* Oh, speak to me, Robbie Dalhousie, speak to rne tor her sake,' said be, with one of those deep breast-bursting* sobs that can only come from a swollen heart; c where shall I hide tliis fearfu' load o' guilt ?' " I could scarcely reply, for my tongue had forgotten its office ; but Ringan proposed that we should bury the body in the old sand-pits that lay about half a mile distaut up the hill side. I got a shovel in the kailyard; we put the body into a plaid, and bore it away, and but for its weight, I would have thought myself in some fearful dream, as with tottering knees, a brow bathed in cold perspiration, and a deadly sickness in my heart, I staggered up the bleak and lone hill side—lone indeed, save when Ave roused the Avild fiumart from its lair among the waving bracken, or the Avilder gled, and the ravenous hoodiecraw from devouring their carrion among the sable broom; on —on we went to the old pits, around the mouths of Avhich the black- whin bushes waved in solemn and gloomy tufts, and there Ave buried him, batted doAvn the sods, and brushed them with a branch of sauch- tree, as we had seen the grave-diggers do in the kirkyard. " During these operations my bonnet fell off; I was half blind with terror, and had a search to recover it; but I put it on my head, slrad- dering as I did so, for it was wet with blood—cold and horrible—the blood of a murdered man. " To be brief, I advised poor Ringan to fly the kingdom and get into England; I gave him my purse, and pocket-book Avith a ten pound Bank of Scotland note in it; I gave him also my siller Avatch. He prayed me to comfort Elsie, and to protect her. I called Heaven to witness that I would do so faithfully. He wept like a child, and as strong men only weep, and then he struck across the hills to reach the railway that runs by Galasheils to Berwick. "As if it was an instrument of crime, I flung the shovel into a deep moss-hagg, and hurried back to the cottage and to Elsie. " She had fallen asleep—puir lassie—on the warm ingle seat. The fire had gone out. I Avould have kissed her; but though innocent, I felt as one steeped in guilt and crime, and dared not by a touch to profane one so pure and so sorrow-stricken. " Oh, that I had kissed her; for how little knew I then that this look of her was to be my last! I knelt doAvn in a dark corner, and taking off my bonnet, Avept Avhile I prayed God to comfort and pro- tect her—to strengthen and direct me; and thus grey morning, as it stole down the long and grassy glen, found me in that poor clay-floored cottage, wretched, sleepless, and Avan. Loath to leave the poor and sleeping girl, and dreading to be found absent from my father's farm when the stable lads took their horses to water in the morning, I looked to the hill-top, where the broom was Avaving, and shuddered, for he that I knew of, Avas lying there. " Had the crown and sceptre of Scotland been mine, I Avould have given them freely that this horrible night had never passed! 212 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." " I looked forward witli fear and anguish to Elsie's sorrow and my father's ungenerous triumph, or stern satisfaction, now, for having so steadily opposed our marriage. "Resolving to come back when I was more composed, I stole away, and, softly closing the latch, crossed the burn at the Pecntstone, vaulted over the feal-dykes, and was first among the stables. The morn- ing sun was yet grey, and I saw our carter lads whispering together, and looking at me from time to time in a strange and suspicious-like manner; but my heart was sunk — my spirit gone — and instead of laying my whip across their shoulders, as I would have done yester- day, I cowered before them like a beaten hound or collie-dog. " A cart of beans stood ready laden for the market, and as any em- ployment was preferable to remaining idle, I sprang upon the off- tram, whipped up the horse, and drove away towards the town just as the warm sun came up in his yellow splendour in the east. The morn- ing mist was rolling through the glens; the sparrow chirruped on the green hedges; but alake ! my heart was sad and timorous. " Several persons who passed me on the road looked at me, as our servants had done, in a manner which I thought very peculiar; but I reached St. Ronan's without molestation, and drew up my cart in uhe market-place, put up the tramstick, and took my horse to stable at the Traquair Arms, where, telling the landlady I was unwell, I called for a stoup of whisky, and drained the gill at a mouthful. " I now thought of taking a survey of myself in a mirror which hung over the mantelpiece; and then, how shall I describe the tremulous horror that came over me, to find that I had on my head the blood-stained bonnet—the well-known sky-blue bonnet—of the mur- dered Kippilaw, with its white worsted tuft! "I tore it from my head, and was standing like one transfixed, when the door of the room opened, and a sergeant of the county police—a man whom I knew well—appeared, and sternly he looked at me! His figure is yet before me, for deeply did the terrors of that hour impress it upon my memory. He was a burly, red-whiskered man, wearing a blue double-breasted surtout, with large brass buttons having thistles on them, and the earl's crest, a crow on a wreath, and three gold chevrons on each arm. "' Robert Daihousie,' said he ' give me that bonnet.' ' I gave it to him mechanically. "'It is John Kippilaw's bonnet, and covered with dried blcod, too! Ho ye ken this one ?' he added, sternly, shewing me my own, which had my name written on the lining —Rob. Daihousie, Farmer, hryburngrange. My tongue clove to the roof of my mouth! "Speak, ye dyvour loon!' said the sergeant, fiercely; 'did you tyne your bonnet on the hills last night ?' " ' I did,' said I. « ' Where ?' he asked, taking another step towards me. "' I dinna ken.' THE HISTORY OF RABD-AL-HOOSI. 24S "£ Shall I tell you ?' he asked, with a scowl. " X made 110 reply. "'At daylight this morning, I came across the muirland with two of our men and a collie-dog. As we passed a moss-hagg we found a spade, lying half sunk in the water, there were blood-spots on one side of the handle, and on the other, It. Logan, burned by an iron brand. Passing the sand-pits we found the bonnet—;yours—with spots of blood upon it too, and there were gouts of gore upon the trampled grass. The collie ran snuffing about, and then began to scrape and tear up the turf with his fore-paws; our suspicions were roused; we dug—the earth was loose and soft—a dead, human face appeared, and ye ken the rest owre weel, Robert Dalhousie.' "I groaned, and hid my face in my hands. "'We found the body of Kippilaw, the water bailie, murdered, bluidy, and covered with gore! Oh, ye vile rascal, to bring disgrace and sorrow on your father's grey hairs, and shame and slander on a' our quiet neighbourhood, by such an act as this !' "' He who says I slew John Kippilaw is a liar and a loon!' said X, furiously, while springing up and striving to break from the sergeant and his men; but many strong hands were laid upon me; I was secured with irons, and marched through the crowded market-place, exposed to the scornful, malignant, or pitying eyes of ■ all, as the 'hateful murderer o' puir John Kippilaw.' " That night I was an inmate of the Tolbooth; a precognition took place before the Procurator Fiscal, and I was fully committed to stand trial for murder, while the two bonnets were carefully sealed up in the office of Sanders Sneckdrawer, to be adduced against me on that awful day when the Lords of Justiciary came on the circuit. " My poor old father—that stern and upright, yet kind and vene- rable elder ol the kirk—came to see me in the Tolbooth, but he said only three word, 'ruin — disgrace — infamy!' and wept like a bairn the bitter tears of age, as he hid his face, so pale and wan with misery, in his broad blue bonnet. My gentle and tender mother was unable to come, she was too ill; and Elsie—dear, dear, desolate Elsie—she had been seized by a fever and was delirious; and who was consoling —who comforting her? None. " I thought my brain would turn! " Several years have passed since then; and for these years I have gone down the stream of time like rushes on a mountain flood; but never will the bitterness, the mortification, and anguish I endured while within the walls of that grim and old Tolbooth be forgotten. All believed me guilty save my parents and my poor feeble Elsie. I had been imprisoned a month, and now the eventful day of trial drew near, for I heard the trampling of horses, and the sounding of the Exchequer trumpets in the street as the Lords of the Circuit came; but I was determined, that though I should die in attempting to escape, never to brook the shame of a public trial; for, resolving that I would not criminate the brother of Elsie, I never explained 244 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." the affair of the honnets, or how the head gear of Kippilaw came to be worn by me. "At the hope of freedom and of baffling my persecutors (for so I viewed all connected with the prosecution), I took courage anew, and examined my prison. It was an arched cell, with a door of irou. The floor was of stone slabs, and one of these lay immediately under the before-mentioned iron door. I stamped with my feet, and the placed below seemed hollow! " On that night, after being inspected and locked up, the moment I was alone I set about the task of breaking up the floor. The only instrument I had to assist me was an iron heel, twisted off one of my boots; but by dint of picking out the mortar, I succeeded in com- pletely disengaging the ponderous slab. With a beating heart I drew it from ifs bed, and joyously—if such a heart as mine was then could feel a joyous glow — I found the cold air rushing on my face. The breach openecl into one of the large fresh-air funnels which were formed for conveying a pure current through the great hall into which the cells of all the prisoners opened. Into this trough, or diy drain, I crept, and, feet foremost, reached the outer wall, where it terminated in iron crossbars, the ends of which the effect of the weather and the poisonous nature of the lead by -which they were secured to the stone, had almost eaten through, then, by one vigorous blow of my feet I burst the grating out, and my heart died within me when I heard it fall with a clatter down below ; but no time was to be lost! Emerging, heels foremost, from the funnel, I dropped, from the points of my fingers, into a garden which belonged to the captain of the Tolbooth. This was fortunate! Had I fallen into the paved yard, I might have broken some bones, while the boundary wall was so high that, at all events, I must have remained there until daybreak, and been locked up more securely than ever. " I soon cleared the garden wall, dived up one close and down another, crossed the Back Wynd, and after pausing for a time, and debating whether or not to take shelter in the Templar Land, which was still a twenty-four hour's sanctuary (but for debtors only), just as the bell of St. Itonan's Kirk tolled twelve, I went through the burgb like a hunted todlowrie, and took the road directly to my father's house. " All I wished for w-as to see them—father, mother, and Elsie— once more, and then fly the country. " Hay dawned before I reached Dryburngrange, and stole into the garden like a thief. There I saw the poor old man sitting on a divot- seat in the sunshine, near the bees'-binks, looking sadly at the opening flowers, like one who pondered with himself whether he would be spared to see another spring. He concealed me among the hay in a loft, and there I lurked anxiously during the whole of that long, long day, trembling at every sound, and believing that every horse- man who galloped past, that every voice I heard in the field, and that every dog barking on the muirland, where in pursuit of me. THE HISTORY OP RAfcO-AL-HOOSI. " My Elsie was now asleep in the auld kirkyard, she had died— yea, died, sirs, of sorrow and of hunger—in a Christian and civilized country! " Night came at last, and under its friendly shadow I prepared to fly. I shaved off every vestige of whisker and beard; I cut short my eyebrows, which were somewhat shaggy. I shaved part of my temples, too, for I had grown somewhat cunning by associating with the hellicate inmates of the Tolbooth. I put on a suit of clean stable clothing, received five pounds from my poor father, and mount- ing the stoutest horse we had, after many tears and much sorrow, I rode off on my solitary way. " The night was bleak and rainy, and I galloped on in great fear, a moaning sound came over the lonely muirs upon the skirt of the gusty wind, and the sauch trees waved mournfully over every burn and linn. Then the rain fell in torrents ; but I knew every foot of the lonely Drove-road I travelled, and crossing the counties of Selkirk and Roxburgh, with daylight saw the brown hills of Northumberland rise before me. "With dawn the gloom passed away; the chirruping of the sparrows announced that the rain would soon cease, and the sunrise; and when it rose, my heart grew lightei. On a solitary moor, just on the borders of England, I dismounted, and gave the horse a lash with my whip, and he set off at full gallop on the road home. Dryburngrange was thirty miles distant, but I knew that Roger would go back every foot of the way to his stable, and my eyes and my heart followed the poor animal as he galloped over the path I could never more pursue! " I reached London, and being a good horseman, and having con- siderable veterinary skill, I soon obtained a situation as groom to an officer of cavalry whose regiment was stationed in India. We were two years in London, for my master was on leave, and when it ex- pired he set out to join, by the overland route, and took me with him; for he found me invaluable, and I purchased for him all the provisions, sherry, Madeira, brandy, hermetically sealed bouilli or ox- tail soup, candles, canteen, powder and shot, cooking utensils, camp- table, chairs, and apparatus, for the long and arduous journey over- land to India; not forgetting pistols and umbrellas for both of us, with green gauze goggles, blankets and cloaks, mizzapour rugs and travelling beds (double of course) with mosquito curtains. " We had as much baggage as if we wrere about to found a colony like William Penn, instead of merely joining a regiment of dragoons, and as we proceeded leisurely, the expense was enormous. " Erom London we proceeded to Rotterdam, from thence to Zurich, and travelled through the most beautiful scenery to Milan, and from thence-to Florence and Rome. Travelling by the Appian Way we reached Naples without having one adventure either with ladies or brigands, to the great disappointment of my master. Crossing Sicily, we arrived at Alexandria, and put up at the hotel of an Italian Jew. who bought all our dollars at ten piastres each, though 246 PRANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWM. they were worth eighteen. From thence we travelled by camels to the miserable clay built town of Suez. " On the night of our arrival this place was in a fearful state (ft uproar. A regiment of kilted Arnaouts in the service of the Pacha of Egypt had marched in, and being displeased with the arrangements of their commissary, the moment their tents were pitched outside the town, they made a clean sweep of everything eatable aid drinkable within it, bayoneting all in the shops and bazaars who were rash enough to oppose them. " They relieved our host of all his Spanish dollars, and were cany- ing off my master's canisters of ox-tail and cases of sherry and Madeira, when he madly drew a pistol from his belt and shot one dead. I now thought my life was forfeited; it was worse than the affair of Kippilaw, the water bailie! A dozen ferocious Arnaouts rushed upon us with bayonets charged, when a tall and stately officer, whose white kilt, blue velvet cap, jacket and sandals were blazing with gold and embroidery, dashed up their muskets with his sabre, and drove them back; and in this Greek officer, notwithstanding his voluminous black beard, and enormous moustaches, which were twisted up to his eyes, I recognised—whom think you ? Ringan Logan, the brother of my Elsie—and the source of all my troubles ! " He had gone to sea in a Berwick ship, and sailed for the Levant. There he quarreled with his captain, and after beating him almost to death with a handspike, had deserted to the coast of Greece and joined these Arnaouts, then just embarking for Egypt, where his reckless bravery had attracted the attention of Prince Mavrovuni, their colonel, who soon procured him the rank of captain. He wished me to remain with him, but I had seen too much of his new friends to care for seeing more, and bade him farewell. He restored to my master all that his soldiers had taken, and placed us in safety on board the Indian steamer. We sailed next day, but not without danger, for the rascally Arnaouts of Mavrovuni who rambled along the quay amused themselves by firing off their ball ammunition at the passengers as long as the steamer was within range of their rifles. " We encountered a tempest which broke our paddle-boxes in the Straits of Jubal, and reduced our speed to two miles an hour. The waves were frightful, and any who saw them on that day would have laughed at the old historian who says the Red Sea at Bab-el-Mandib was once closed by an iron chain; though he might not have scoffed at that more terrible tradition which avers, that when the wind is high and the waves are lashing on the Egyptian and the Arabian shores, the wild despairing cries of Pharoah's drowning host are yet heard floating on the tumult of the storm. " Off the desert isle of Jebel Zyghar we lost our rudder, and put into Mocha to refit. I went ashore with my master, who wished to see the town, but we found it in possession of a band of wild Arabs commanded by the Sheikh Ibrahim, who had seized and sacked it three days before. The bazaars were desolate and the streets empty, THE HISTORY OF RABD-AL-HOOSI. 247 for the people had all fled to the hills. The Bedouins fired on us, and we ran helter-skelter to reach our boats and regain the ship. Being somewhat behind the rest in gaining the beach, I was struck down by the butt-end of a matchlock, and taken prisoner, for my selfish master was in too great haste to take care of himself to think of a poor devil like me; sol was left in their hands a prisoner. " I was sold in the market-place for eleven hundred piastres to Mahmoud Ali Badr, who made me a kettledrummer in his troop of guards, and having the good fortune to distinguish myself in that encounter with the Prince of Kaa-el-Bun, the revolted Vizier of Sana, when we gave him battle on the plains of Beitel Pakih, and fought hand to hand among the dhaura in the month of August, when the stalks were nine feet high, I was created a Nakib of Horse. In our next battle I slew the rebellious prince, and on laying his head at the sultan's feet, was made on the instant grand vizier, and here for some years I have led a life of luxury, splendour, and indolence, though not without anxiety, and not unchequered by regrets." " And so you mean to end your days here ?" said Lang-ley, as Rabd- al-Hoosi concluded with a long and deep-drawn sigh. " God forbid!" said he, fervently; " when I have amassed a sufii- cient sum in gold and jewels, I shall pack my kit, and departing in the night without beat of drum, bid a long adieu to turban and to- harem, to the sultan and his viziership ; and sincerely will I thank heaven, if, with my poor head safe on my shoulders, I am again on the blue waves of the sea that bear me to the land of liberty—far from this torrid clime of sands and coffee-hills, flowers and precious stones, splendour and barbarity; for deeply in my heart is the senti- ment of that dear Scottish song, which says, ' Now if the lowly home he mine, In which my fathers dwelt; And I can worship at the shrine, Where they in fervour knelt; No glare of wealth, or honour high, Shall lure me from thy strand ; Oh ! may I yield my parting sigh, In thee—my native land !''' The vizier ceased; his eyes grew sad and dull, and he gazeu ear- nestly at us as if to read in our faces -what we thought of his narrative. We expressed the pleasure his confidence had given us, and our belief that his resolution to quit the perilous position he held at Sana was both wise and honourable. " By the bye," said I, " what was the name of the officer you accompanied from London, and who so cruelly left you to the mercy of the Bedouins ?" " Petlock—Captain the Honourable Charles Betlock." " Of the 8th Dragoon Guards, formerly ?" u The same—did you know him ?" 24-8 frank hilton, or, " tne queen's own. " I have met him," said I, with a sigh of anger at the name, while Fred, who knew the story, gave me a hasty glance, for the mention of Fetlock opened up a fountain of bitterness, mortification, and sorrow in my breast; for by his vanity and vindictive spirit I had first been separated from poor Cecil Marchmont. The night was now far advanced, and though Rabd-al-Hoosi pressed us to remain, saying, with a kind smile, that it was only " the wee short hour ayont the twal," we retired, for my mind was now occupied by contemplating the ticklish and arduous—and, as Fred called it, " very peculiar" task I had to perform on the morrow—to make love for the potent and magnificent Imaum of Sana; and I lay for a full hour awake, arranging sets of phrases in my mind, and translating from memory odds and ends of sonnets from Hafiz and others. CHAPTER L. the silent woman. It was with the utmost reluctance and without feeling the slightest curiosity to see this celebrated slave, or caring one rusli whether or not his Majesty the Imaum succeeded in gaining her esteem, that (after leaving Fred, of course, with Amina) I was conducted through the strong, massive, and polished brass gates which enclosed the rampart of the seraglio, and found myself traversing its intricate galleries and arched passages under the guidance of Osman Oglou, the chief of the black eunuchs, whose followers, clad in snow white robes and turbans, which contrasted strongly with their black shining features, appeared at every door and landing-place, armed with sabres; for this was what is figuratively named the Rose Garden of the Seraglio, where seven hundred of the finest fair and brown flowers the markets of Mocha, Mascat, and Medina could procure from Syria, Egypt, or elsewhere, awaited the smiles of his Terror, the sultan; but to the anger and mortification of the odd six hundred and ninety-nine, for the last three months, the said smiles and all the envied society of Solyman had been lavished on this silent slave, whose heart I was now about to essay in some language unknown, on behalf of her royal proprietor and lord. Up to this moment I had not the most remote idea of what I should say, how I should address her, or the arguments to adduce; hut rhymed over and over again a verse from the Persian. " Oh thou, my soul's beloved ! with thee The dragon's dungeon would to me But as a bower of roses, be All paved and beautified with bliss; Heart-plunderer ! whom I love too well, With thee I joyously could dwell, Even in the howling halls of hell, And from thy lips an Eden kiss T WIE SILENT WOMAN. "This," thought I, "must melt the most obdurate Arab maid!" Yet I had a feeling of doubt as to the propriety, and an unpleasant conviction of the absurdity of the task which had been thrust upon me; but I remembered that we would soon be out of Sana; that the success of my mission depended upon my humouring the whims of this pampered despot, and that my anticipated—nay, my promised recommendation to the favour and protection of the Horse Guards, depended upon the success of that mission, and the accomplishment of a friendly league and alliance with Solyman. The chief of the eunuchs drew back the silken screen of a door- way, and ushered me into a suite of apartments, at the extremity 01 which I perceived a female sitting 011 a pile of cushions. He pointed to her with one of those broad leering and half malevolent smiles which can only be seen on a negro's face, and saying "that he would wait at the and of the passage, as he wished to enjoy a chibouque," allowed the curtain half to close, and left me to follow my own devices. The lightness, loftiness, and splendour of those apartments im- pressed me. They were rather a suite of pavilions than of rooms, having on one side hangings of green cloth, stamped with silver flowers; on the other three sides were windows, having gilded sashes filled with painted Yenetian glass ; these were open, and revealed the hot hazy landscape without, and lying far down below; while close by them the brilliant roses, the convolvuli, an^. many climbing plants gave a freshness and beauty to the place. The floors were laid with soft Persian carpets. In the centre of each pavilion played a fountain with golden fish in a basin of marble, while a silver lamp hung from its dome which was painted white and starred with gold. There were ten of these pavilions, all exactly alike, and the effect of the long perspective of these gilded and horseshoe arches, with those brilliant hangings which were festooned under them, the painted lights and the line of fountains, was beyond description beautiful. The whole air was redolent of freshness and perfume, while the carpets were so soft that the tread of my slippered feet was quite unheard as I approached this secluded flower, whose pensive attitude, as she bowed her forehead on her hand, concealing all her face, impressed me as much as the snow-white beauty of her hand and arm and the grace of her figure as she reclined upon the soft and luxurious cusiuons, which, with folded carpets, were the staple articles of furniture in those apartments. In doubt what to say, I gazed upon her with glowing interest, and forgot my poetry, for the sad conviction forced itself upon me that she was—alas !—an European, and after the small Arab women to whom I had been lately accustomed, her reclining figure looked large, full-limbed, and round. Her dress was gorgeously rich; a low cut vest of pale blue velvet, cowered with silver, and having pearl buttons; it fitted exactly, and 250 FRANK mi TON; OB, " TIIE QUEEN'S OWN." showed the surpassing beauty of her bosom, neck, and shoulders, though these were all shrouded by a chemisette of'the finest muslin, her drawers (or wide trousers, rather) were of the whitest silk, am her slippers were of satin, embroidered with precious stones. Hei beautiful arms, of that full round form and snowy whiteness which never come with Eastern blood, were adorned by bracelets of emeralds, among which diamonds were sparkling. On her head was a small gauze turban, the end 01' which, like the braids of her long hair, hung over her back, and at the end of each braid hung a pearl pendant. All at once an emotion like a deadly palsy seemed to pass over my heart, as some memories of that sad, silent, and recumbent figure flashed upon me! "Cecil!" I exclaimed, in a husky voice of mingled joy and fear. She looked up, and never till my dying day shall I forget that startled look of joy, of sorrow and dismay. , My readers will imagine that I am making a romantic story for them, but alas! it is nothing of the kind; all was then sad, stern, and cruel reality. Rejoiced as I was to find her living, at first I forgot the situation and the circumstances under which we met, and that the impatient and perhaps inquisitive chief of the eunuchs was almost within ear-shot; and I wept like a child as I went down on my knees beside her, took both her dear, small hands in mine, and gazed fondly on the sweet sad eyes I had long thought should never more beam on me. She threw herself into my arms; twenty times I kissed her, and twenty times I held her at arms' length to contemplate her well-remembered face—the face that for so many long years had haunted me in dreams by night and reveries by day; and then came the crushing remembrance of what she was—a prisoner; and far beyond the reach of rescue or release! She was still, indeed, my own Cecil, but not half so beautiful as she had been, though the dazzling whiteness of her skin made her seem divine to the old rake Solyman. It was long before she be- came tolerably composed, and briefly but incoherently told me her eventful story. Driven by adverse winds into the Arabian Gulf, the Earaham Castle—the Indiaman in which she was a passenger—had foundered on that dangerous rock, which has since been so well known, and which lies twelve miles north of the Isle of Abdulcuria. The crew and passengers escaped in three boats. Dreading the barbarity of the Socotora Islanders, and having secured compasses, blankets, and provisions, they bore away for our settlement at Aden, four' hundred miles distant. Two boats perished in a storm. Cecil in the third— the only lady with twenty rough seamen—after enduring incredible misery by the heat of the sun at noon, the chill dews of night, scarcity of food, water, and raiment—reached the Arabian coast at Cape llargiah, sixty miles eastward of the British garrison. There THE SILENT "WOMAN. 251 every one of the poor fellows who had saved and protected her, as if she nad been their own sister, were murdered by a party of wander- ing Abdali and Bedouins under Sheikh Ibrahim. They seized and sold her to the Sultan of Sana, who had detained her for three months, during which, though surrounded by every luxury and mag- nificence, she had been wretched and miserable, suffering what is beyond the power of language to describe, in her terror and abhor- rence of her amorous lord and her longing for liberty or death. Thus it was that my dear, sensible, and loveable Cecil becamo transformed into a silent odalisque. Her voice, which had been heard so seldom, that Solyman con * eluded she was dumb, or nearly so, was "low and sweet" as ever; but the brightness of her smile had fled, and sadness—the most intense sadness, alone remeined. She made no reproachful inquiry about Blanche Palmer, but said to me, endearingly,— "And you have risked your life to free me ! "You heard I was here, and came to rescue your poor Cecil from this life of unspeak- able horror ?" I had now to undeceive her, and relate the mission on which I had been sent, the distance and the dangers that lay between us and our only friends, the brave fellows of "the Queen's Own;" the miraculous chance which had brought me to her presence in those sacred and secluded apartments which no believer, and still less an infidel, ever trod, and concluded by stating that the success of my embassy, the safety of my life, and the life of my friend, depended, perhaps, on my obtaining her love and esteem for the tyrant of Yemen! I soon regretted that I was so candid as to set all this before her, for it produced a wild hysterical fit of weeping, and embittered her hitherto calm despair. The jarring of rings upon a brass rod, as the chief of the eunuchs, whose patience an hour and half must have well nigh ex- nausted—and yet that hour and half were like ten minutes to me— startled us, and made me spring from Cecil's side in terror lest I Ead been discovered, and it would have doomed me to death to have been seen touching her; and with my life all hop©s of freedom would terminate for her. Between the parted curtains I could see the black, and as I at that time felt, infernal visage of this watchful guardian of the seraglio, with his shining eyes, his snow-white teeth and turban, eering at us. I waved my hand, so much as to say, " I will soon e with you," and he withdrew to resume his pipe. "Wild with grief, Cecil implored me not to leave her, or to take fier with me, and then wrung her hands and buried her face in the cushions without listening to my answer, for she knew that it was both impossible that I could remain or that she could go. The despe- rate circumstances in which we were placed imparted a calmness to my manner, voice, and air which I was far from feeling, for I knew how 252 FRANK HILTON; OR, " THE QUEEN'S OWN." necessary it was to act a part, in case the eyes of that Nubian dog whom I would gladly have pistoled, were upon us from some quiet nook. Indeed, 1 could not be certain whether the eyes of tkelmaum Solyman were not watching us from some secret eylet-hole; I had heard of such things. " 1'ou will save me now, my own beloved Frank ! You will take me with you, will you not ?" said Cecil, in a voice of sorrowful confidence. " I will, Cecil—I will, or die here with you! You shall go with me to Aden, or I will never leave Sana alive. Oh, Cecil," I con tinued, with my eyes full of tears, " it was God's blessed goodness that sent me here to comfort and to save you." " But, oh, Frank, be prudent—be wary, for a thousand dangers environ us among these detestable Arabs." "Dearest Cecil, I am old enough now to be prudent—to go warily. If I had only a hundred men of 'the Queen's Own,' here—" " How like a dream it is to hear your voice again. For some time past I have been dreading that madness was coming upon me." " Ah, calm yourself and collect all your energies, for be assured, Cecil, you will need them. I must leave you now—" There was a wild and imploring expression in her dark blue eyes, and I could perceive the veins of her forehead throbbing with emotion. " Measures will be concerted for your escape—take courage, for I have friends with me, here in Sana, Alas! dear Cecil, when we used to sit by the banks of the Aikenburn, with our young heads nestled in the same plaid, andr ead ' Le Diable Boiteux,' could we have imagined that a day would come when you would be situated like Theodora, and I like the poor Toledan—the captive of Algiers whom we pitied so much." Cecil's tears fell faster. "We had never, as yet, said one word of other days, or how we loved each other still, for the time and place were both unsuited for tender protestations or endearing memories. "My heart—my poor heart," said Cecil; "I never thought it could beat so fast as it does now." Again the rings ran sharply on the brass rod, as the curtain was withdrawn, and the chief of the eunuchs appeared. Aware of the imperative necessity for retiring, I hurriedly said all I could think of to reassure her, and advised her, as the best way of deceiving the sultan, to afford him some hope of her favour, and that on my second visit (if another was permitted) I would have a plan arranged for her escape. " Heaven give me strength, courage, and patience to await your return, and receive what fate has in store for us !" said she, stretch- ing her arms endearingly and imploringly towards me, as I hastened *hrough the long suite of gorgeous pavilions, looking back with the uall. of the banners. 253 eye ot one wno looks liis last on some beloved object, and without having the least conception of the course to be adopted. Osman Oglou, the chief eunuch, scrutinized me keenly, and somewhat insolently, as I rejoined him, for the minds of these officials are only actuated by one sentiment—malevolence; they become beings destitute of human feeling, and act alone under that despotic influence which destroys every principle of the heart and soul. I paid little attention to his remarks, and none whatever to the grins of his capacious mouth, as we passed through the seraglio, for I was carefully examining every nook, passage, and door, and their intricacy and security extinguished every spark of hope in my heart, and it sank into despondency when I heard the clank of the heavy brazen gate, which was closed behind us by the half-nude but well- armed Yemenees of the infantry guard, and the followers of the Chief Strangler. CHAPTER LI. the hall op the banners. Langley was the first person I inquired for on leaving the seraglio, for. I was trembling with impatience to relate my discovery, to rehearse the interview, and to obtain his advice; but he was absent with Amina, who was veiled and mounted on a dromedary, and accompanied by Mahmoud Ali Badr, to enjoy a ride round Hesn-al-Mouhabib. I had just drained a large cup of cool wine to give me courage and enable me to arrange the thoughts that whirled within me, when the venerable katib of Rabd-al-Hoosi made his appearance (after knocking deferentially at my door, in accordance with the strict injunctions of the Prophet), to say that the "Leader of the Paithful awaited me in the Hall of the Banners," and there I was constrained at once to accompany him, for the tempers of such personages do not brook much trifling. This hall was ornamented by many mirrors in gilded frames, and between each drooped a banner of brilliant silk covered with rich embroidery, and having massive fringes and tassels, while the poles were cased in ornaments of gold and silver. Above them hung a row of projecting crystal branches, holding green and white wax tapers, and from each of these depended festoons of freshly gathered flowers. The pillars were of that fresh-coloured granite, which, strange as it may seem, is to be found nowhere out of Arabia, save in the northern parish of Pordyce in Scotland. When lighted at night, the effect of this hall must have been very imposing. At the upper end was an open horseshoe arch, the casements of which stood wide open, revealing the beautiful garden of the seraglio, with its fountains and flowers, its myrtle and orange-trees, its shaded 254 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." seats and pretty kiosks, each of which was covered by a luxuriant mass of roses blooming in the radiance of the bright Arabian sun. On a pile of cushions which were placed in the centre of ? gorgeous carpet, Solyman sat alone in this superb apartment;, or, ai least, attended by a single slave. In his left hand he held the amber mouthpiece of his long hookah, which he smoked through a crystal globe full of rose-water. A little and almost nude Abyssinian girl, black as night, but with soft and pretty features, remained on her knees at the edge of the carpet, to attend to this prodigious pipe. Between his voluminous white turban, which was pressed down over his eyebrows, and his still whiter beard which grew up to his cheekbones, but little of Solyman's features were visible. He did not hear me approach, as he had subsided into one of those meditative fits of indolence and abstraction which are habitual to natives of the East, and mechanically he seemed to inhale the smoke from the long gilded coil, and then allowed it to ascend in spiral and fragrant columns into the domed roof of the saloon, where it played in wreaths among the festooned flowers and shining banners. Without one thought in my head, save of Cecil's danger and the fears which agitated her, I stood, as one in a dream, by the golden edge of this tyrant's carpet, which was one of the most brilliant efforts of the weaving Guebres, and nearly a minute elapsed before I caught his deep-set glittering eyes, which were almost hidden by the shaggy brows that overhung them like two short white icicles. " Wallah-el-nebi!" said he, " is it thee ? Thou art welcome to me, 0 Kafir, as dew to a flower at noon." I bowed with a humility which my heart was far from feeling. " Thou hast seen this silent slave ?" "Imaum," I replied, cautiously; "I beheld but her eyes." ' " Of course; it is not meet that more should be seen of those who find favour in the sight of a believer—of a sultan. Well, Kafir! is she not a glorious substitute for those celestial brides, the black- eyed girls of Paradise, awaiting me above ? They whose coral lips will give sweet kisses perfumed by the odour of immortality! Didst then tell her that, if I wished it, she should be there with me to share one of those wondrous couches which are hollowed from a single pearl ?" " I told her all that the Leader of the Eaithful commanded me." "Thou didst well. And what did she say at the mention of Khoroo of Persia, and the beautiful Shireen?" " She wept." s' Ah, her heart was touched, no doubt! Didst thou tell her that the Koran says we may have with us in heaven those wives we love well on earth ?" I muttered some absurd reply—I know not what. "Did she speak?" THE HALL OF THE BANNERS. 255 "Yes; repeatedly," said I, with a sigh of anger. "She spoke!" exclaimed Solyman, fire and joy flashing together in his basilisk eyes, as he tossed away his pipe, and half-raised himself by placing his hands on the cushions. "Daily, for three months, I have condescended to address to her the most endearing- terms, and have made her such offers as never were made to a woman since Kadij ah died, but never have I heard the sound of her voice in reply. Slave, thou hast done well! I swear to thee by the fig and the olive, thv reward will indeed be beyond thy poor con- ception magnificent!" " May the shadow of your favour increase!" mumbled the katiK, for my heart was too full of anger to reply. A passage in the Koran makes this oath, "by the fig," &c., 'peculiarly sacred, and the imaum never used it save when highly excited; but my hatred for him was now becoming insupportable. "Didst thou speak to her of marriage?" " When I did so, she wept bitterly." " Tears—tears—always tears; she will weary me, like that woman of Aleppo, whom Osman strangled. The condescension and splendour of my offers should surely appease the useless regrets of this mere infidel woman." " Great prince," said I, sadly, " we cannot presume to measure the depth of another's sorrow." " True. Yet it is strange that her presence here, which is the- source of joy to me, should occasion so much grief in her. 0 happy thou, who hast heard the sound of her voice! What was her language,, and what her answer?" " Her language is a barbarous dialect of Erangistan; her answer expressed a doubt that your love was rather the force of habit than an actual passion, as your majesty was old enough to be the father of her father." I repented deeply having said this, for it was my own thought, and. not poor Cecil's remark. The imaum crushed the amber mouth oi his hookah, and cried, in accents of rage,— "May our holy Prophet—whose name be exalted.—curse thee! Darest thou liken me to one dog who begot another ? If these were the words of this Kafir woman, were she beautiful as a houri, I shall have her tied in a bag, and flung—wallah—like a blind puppy into the Shab!" "Leader of the Eaithful (i.e., imaum), hear me to the end. This, woman is a Moslem." "A Moslem and I have never discovered it!" cried Solyman, whose' sudden anger gave place to surprise, while I blushed as I stumbled from one falsehood to another. " Well, and what then ?" "Thus she doubts that you can espouse her, having the full num- ber of wives already." "The devil, who begot all the Earingis, has put some very trouble* some scruples into this slave's head," said Solyman; " God is mercb 256 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THJ5 QUEEN'S OWN." 1 ul to us, for men are weak. By the fourth chapter of the Koran, we are permitted to wed all women, even those already married, ' if our right hand possess them as slaves,' and thus do I possess my hitherto silent one. But, by that most convenient and flexible chapter, it is also permitted to true believers to change one wife for another, by a legal divorce; thus, assure her that I have sworn by the Prophet's beard, and by the golden spout of the Kaaba, to put away my fourth wife, an Egyptian, named Zenobia Soupki, for I am wearied of her having only daughters, and that I shall bestow her upon my faithful Rabd-al-Iioosi, or thee, perhaps, O Kafir, for the glorious service thou hast done me." I have often smiled since at this offer; but then nothing was further from my thoughts than merriment. I would have given a good round sum for liberty to punch the old tyrant's head, or to have given his voluminous beard a wrench, in token of the contempt I felt. "Assure her that Zenobia, the Egyptian, shall be put away— would that I had the language of Erangistan, to tell her so myself! —and that I will take her—yea, she alone—to my bosom for ever! Tell her she must not delay much longer, as our vizier says that the people of Sana are daring to murmur one to another at my long seclu- sion here in Hesn-al-Mouhabib ; but they should remember the words of the Prophet—0, true believers, verily of your wives and your chil- dren you have an enemy ! for they distract men from their duty; thus, in contemplating the white skin and soft tresses of the silent one, I have forgotten my people, and omitted no less than three holy feasts !" " Imaum," I replied, " I have but the use of one tongue, and can- uot hope to succeed where you have failed." "Wallah, what dost thou mean now, Kafir?" he asked, while lowering his shaggy eyebrows. " That though! may convince her of the poor Egyptian being put away, I cannot teach her to love you." " Wretched dog! thou darest again to express these miserable doubts, and after raising the hopes of Solyman of Sana, to dash the cup of joy from his lips !" He said this hoarsely, for all unused to have a wish thwarted, the querulous old man was again choking with rage. " I know not what prevents me from ordering thee the bowstring at once, save that thy tongue may yet serve me, before it is torn out by Baba Booli. That tongue can reach the ear of this Erankish slave, and, through her ear, her heart; thus, if thou dost not teach her to love me, before this moon is out—now three days—by the ninety- nine names of God, I swear thou shalt repent it sorely !" " I came hither under the protection and by order of my com- manding officer," said I, making a terrible effort to suppress my rising passion. " I hold a commission in the service of " " Thou shalt be blown from the mouth of a mortar !" thundered olyman, in an ecstasy of wrath A COUNCIL—flvv NO*—OF WAR. 257 At that moment violent hands were laid upon me. I was half- dragged, half-led away, and found that the friendly vizier had just come in time to prevent some irreparable catastrophe; and he hurried ine to the apartments allotted to Langley and myself CHAPTER LH. A COUNCIL—BUT NOT—OF WAR. 'An unmitigated old bear!" were my first words on entering the room, and dashing my tarboosh to the other end of it, in un- governable rage. " Hallo!" exclaimed Ered, who was stretched on a sofa, in his trowsers and vest; " what the deuce is the matter now ?" " Matter!" I reiterated; " my brain will turn, I believe. Heaven direct me !" I added, throwing myself on a sofa opposite. " Hilton, my dear fellow, you are ill," said Ered, springing to his feet. " Ell—no—do you think I look so ?" "Yes, pale as death, upon my honour !—like a timid fellow who has just escaped from hanging, or a runaway horse. But I have some of our Scotch vizier's brandy here—where is my riding flask ? Oh, here; take a nip, it will put you all right." A glass of Rabd-al-Hoosi's eau de vie was produced, and the moment that august personage left us, I related my startling dis- covery of Cecil, and my subsequent interview with the passionate imaum. "Poor girl!" said Ered, commiseratingly; "and you, my poor fellow, no wonder it is you were pale and excited. Take another sip. What a fortunate—what a glorious discovery!" " Eortunate—glorious—Ered ?" " Of course; is it not most fortunate that you learned, and by the most slender chance in the world, that she is here ?" " It is likely to drive me mad!" "Joy never made any one mad, I believe," said the matter-of-fact Ered, mistaking my meaning. "You imagined she was drowned when we picked up the head-rail of the Earnham Castle. Now, has not fate willed it better ? While there is life, we have hope, and we shall soon set her free; and then how we shall laugh over Lady Montressor's evening parties and routes—Letty Howard, Blanche Pahner, and Jack of the Bulfs—the dowager, his mother—our pic- nics, sham-figlits, and regattas—we'll have them all canvassed again. A new European face ! it will be quite refreshing. And to think of that sad ana thoughtful governess, about whom I quizzed you at Gillingham—your first love and old flame—being here at the back of the habitable world, and turning the head of that venerable—vene- rable—" 258 FRANK. HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." " Beast," I suggested. " Solyman, cousin of the sun, moon, and stars, as that sly fellow his vizier -would say. In this matter he may be of great service to us." Fred's easy and lively manner somewhat reassured me. " As for the -vizier, I would rather not confide my secret or our intentions to him, for two good reasons," said I. " Firstly, though a countryman, he seems to be too subservient to Solyman; and, secondly, even were he disposed to assist us with heart and hand, I would be loth to compromise the poor man with such a devil of a fellow as the imaum, his master." " He seems full of candour and friendship—" " When he has a bottle of brandy under his belt; but since his story was told, you may perceive he has been very reserved." " Very," said Fred; " I am surprised that he has not invited us to see his wives." " He is too eastern now to think of such a thing." "Perhaps he thinks they wont bear a close inspection under British eyes ; but let us arrange our thoughts, and put on our con- sidering caps, to devise a mode of freeing Miss Marchmont forth- with." " Before this moon has waned, I am to win her love for Solyman, or lose my life." " Did the miserable old wretch say so ?" " He swore it, by a solemn oath." " Then within three days she must be free, or all is over." "Oh, Fred!" said I, after a pause, "when I saw the figure of Cecil before me, as I approached her through the long suite of pavi- lions, I immediately recognised the veiled figure which the dancer, Haura, showed me in the well, on that night we spent among the Bedouins; and thus her prediction, that the vision was of she I was to love, has come fearfully true." " But, if so, what are we to make of the two men chained together, and one dead?''' asked Fred, with a grave expression on. his handsome face. " What do you think of that?" " Don't mention it, pray," said I, with an involuntary shrug of my shoulders. "My dear, dear Cecil!" I exclaimed, with sudden grief; " it appears too like some horrible dream to realize, that she, the queen of my boyish heart, and of that bright fairyland it pic- tured, when at home among the braes and glens of Aikendean, should have passed through such sufferings and perils, and be now sur- rounded by so many dangers in this remote and barbarous country." Langley was moved by ray emotion, and patting me kindly on the shoulder, said, "Take courage, Frank, and another nip of the brandy, too: 'A good time is coming,' as the song says." "All O'Hara's wishes and warnings to avoid quarrels and disputes with the people are fresh in my recollection; and I am assured that A COUNCIL—BUT NOT—OF WAR. 259 any attempt to free Miss Marchmont, even if cuccessful, will cause us to lose our commissions, if not our lives, for an endless war with our garrison at Aden is sure to follow." " And what the deuce will it signify to us ?" said Fred, quietly lighting his chibouque. " If old O'TIara were here, he is the very man who would enter into our plot, with heart and soul, if the safety of all British India were perilled by the attempt, instead of a wretched rock, which seems intended for nothing +hat I know of, but to give coals and cholera to the passing steamers; and, I verily believe, there is not a soldier in the 'Queen's Own' ..Pao would not be ready to fight to the last gasp to free a countrywoman, or any woman, from sorrow, disgrace, and captivity; and, more than all, the daughter of a brave old officer, who fought like a hero in India. I wish we had a couple of companies here, my own and O'Plannigan's, we would soon beat in that brass seraglio gate, and make quick work of it, with old Bluebeard and his—what-do-ye-call-'ems—eunuchs; ay, and Ali Badrs blackamoor guards to boot." " One thing is evident, that from this time forward we must give up all hope of concluding the treaty which was the object of our perilous mission." "The treaty be—hanged! We must now bend all our energies to getting Cecil—see how your phraseology infects me—Miss March- mont out of the hands of these Philistines, and then quit this Castle of the Graces without beat of drum." " Fortunately, the nights are dark, for the rainy season is ap- proaching, and there is little moon visible. All we require to secure our flight will be three stout horses; or, what say you to drome- daries ? they are quite as fleet and more enduring." "I do not think so. But three, you say? How about Amina?" "Ah, I had quite forgotten her." "I thought so," said Pred, pettishly; "but her retreat must be cared for too." " Of course. I would not leave that poor little girl behind us, either. Oh, if we could but communicate with her brother, Mo- hamed, or were within sight of the red rocks of Jebel Ahmer!" "With our horses sinking and Solyman's rapscallions close upoi as," said Pred. "Well, when one is wishing, it would cost nothing more to wish oneself within Jebel Ahmer, or better still, beyond the Turkish wall at Aden." ' "A month ago, could we have believed a time would come when we would wish ourselves safe among the Abdali?" "Have you reconnoitred the seraglio wall, or thought of how we are to proceed ?" " I have revolved twenty modes in my mind, and have come to the resolution that there is but one way of getting Cecil out—by escalade." " Impossible!" "Walls, gates, guards, eunuchs, and the devil knows what more, 960 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." secure the seraglio on this side; on the other, we have the rocks and wall only to surmount. But some ruse must be adopted to draw the attention of the matchlockmen from that quarter, or we shall he discovered, as their rounds are incessant." " Let us set this end of the mansion on fire; that will attract their attention, surely." " The imaum will be so enraged for the loss of his slave, that the destruction of his beautiful castle will not make a straw of difference to us, if we are overtaken and made prisoners, which God forbid!" said I, shuddering at the contemplation of Cecil's probable fate Under these circumstances. " Come, we shall make a reconnoisance of the walls from the out- side, and lind what is necessary to be done. 'Pon my honour," added Fred, with a half smile, as he placed his tarboosh jauntily on one side of his head, " I like this sort of thing immensely! "When I used to read of such adventures, I longed to be the hero of one, and here we are among them, up to the eyes. I must furbish up my engineering, for when at Sandhurst I was taught ' The art of fortification, gunnery, And how to scale a fortress or a nunnery.' Seraglios were not taken into consideration; but generally, one wall is pretty much like another." The guard of matchlockmen at the strong gates of the castle turned out, after their own uncouth fashion, and gave us an unwil- ling salute, while a bunch of bells were jangled on a pole and a gong was beaten. Evening was closing; the dew lay deep on grass and flower, the shadows of every rock and solemn palm-tree were thrown far to the eastward, and the amber-coloured clouds were floating amid a sea of brilliance in the west; the stars were beginning to twinkle like little diamonds, and the waning moon's pale crescent was glim- mering afar off, and low in the sky, at the distant end of the long, flat vale, which is overlooked by the carved and turreted ramparts of Hesn-al-Mouhabib. "At such a time as this," said I, passing my arm through Lang- ley's, " I remember, with sincere remorse, my temporary regard for Blanche Palmer." " Pshaw 1 a mere flirtation en passant—no one remembers such things now-a-days." " It was more, I fear." "A combination of circumstances made it seem so; but what then ? You deserve immense credit for your steady attachment to Miss Marchmont." " My poor Cecil!" said I, gazing sadly at the rocks and ramparts, the projections of which were bathed in amber light or sunk in purple shadow, as they towered above us A COUNCIL—BUT NOT—OP WAR. 261 " How old were you when you joined the Queen's as a volunteer in India?" "Not very old, Fred—a mere boy." "My dear fellow, your constancy is miraculous! When I was eighteen, one love chased another away, just as shadow follows shadow across a corn-field. Moreover, unfortunately, I was always in love with girls who were older than myself, or worse still, with new married brides. When I was only a lad of fifteen, I remember how sorrowful and savage I felt when my beautiful cousin, Anna Jer- ningham, married young Montressor, of the Irish Hussars—you know, the 8th—yet neither my sorrow nor my anger prevented me from enjoying a large piece of bridecake, or from assisting to set off the fireworks in the lawn, and feeling immensely gratified by a fine gold- headed riding-whip, which I received from Anna's lover on the marriage morning." Honest, good-hearted Fred Langley! He saw that I was feverish and miserable, and rattled on in this fashion to keep up my spirit. After a long pause— " It is very singular," he added, " but I never knew any man who was married to the girl with whom he first fell in love; besides, I don't believe in first loves." " A bad augury for me," said I; " but you are a gay Englishman, Fred, and forget that, with the graver Scot, the first love of his heart is closely interwoven with his inborn love of country; one is often but a portion of the other. You might have remarked this in the story of the vizier. His love-interviews were always accompa- nied by a lively remembrance of the place and scene. But oh, Fred Langley, the adventures of to-day resemble witchcraft—a dream—a delusion—something that I cannot realize ! It seems too incredible to believe that Cecil is up there—enclosed—caged—confined in that embattled mansion; yet her voice is still in my ears—so plaintive and so sad!" " Poor girl—she must have endured much!" " Since her father's death—oh yes—in many, many ways. The proud old Indian colonel doated on her! Like yourself, Fred, I have flirted, danced, hunted, and driven with the belles of fifty garrison towns, and know them all from Calcutta to Canterbury," I continued, while the present fled and the past returned upon me. "I have sent books and bouquets, music, verses, and Heaven only knows what more, to girls like Blanche Palmer, and quarrelled with lively little elves like her cousin Letty—quarrelled to kiss and become friends again; I have had all the excitement of embarking for foreign ser- vice, the sulking and discomfort of crowded transports; the landing again, and hubbub of marching through bustling streets; orderea here, and fighting there. I have seen the horrors of the retreat from Cabid, and the blood and slaughter of its flaming Balahissar; but like my own shadow, the face and form of more peaceful and happier 262 frank hilton; or, "the queen's ow." times were ever with me; amid all the gaiety or uproar of such scenes as these, in the solitude of the lonely outpost, the dark guard- room, and the silent tent, the buzz of the lively barrack and the happiness of the splendid mess, I remembered the soft, kind eyes of Cecil, and the accents of her dear, seductive voice. They were with me in many a torturing dream, in many a voiceless reverie! And this day she was before me, in my arms, and my kiss was on her cheek—Cecil! Cecil! but where? In the seraglio of a king of Yemen! Is it credible?" My voice became tremulous; Fred blew his nose, curled up his moustachios, and walked very fast round the base of the rocks od which the castle stood, until we were under the seraglio, which overlooked a thick grove of giant citrons, the smallest of which wc- at least ten feet high. These beautiful evergreens are always thickly covered with leaves, and in the spring with clusters of rich flowers, while the fruit they yield is sometimes fourteen pounds in weight. To Ered I indicated the line of triple-faced windows which lighted the suite of pavilions adjoining the apartment of Cecil. They were at the summit of a high wall, and on the tower at each corner, about two hundred feet apart, we saw the turbans of the sentinels, who at that moment were no doubt on their knees at prayer, as the sun had just begun to dip behind the distant hills. "I could climb these rocks with ease," said I, " even were they ten times their present height. Many a time, at home, I have Cambered about St. Abb's head, and other rocks that hang over the clerman Sea, shooting sea-mews and harrying the nests of the Solan geese, clinging to their iron fronts, with the wild birds screaming above and the waves dashing below, and there, with the sling of my gun in my teeth and a game-bag on my back, I have clung like a spider to a wall; and with such a prize before me, shall I, a moun- taineer, shrink from such a molehill as these Arab rocks!" " But the wall—think of it," said Ered. " Ah, mercy me! that, indeed, seems inaccessible. It is at least fifty feet high, and the windows of the ten pavilions are on its summit." " One thing is evident; there are no human means to reach these pavilions from without. Thus, it must be from within, and, by a rope fastened to the wall, her escape is made." " A rope! Where shall we find snch a thing ?" " There is a strong one in the well near the gate; we must secure it, and trust to some pretence connected with the sultan's love making to have all arranged with Miss Marchmont; but for Heaven's sake, or rather your own, go surely and warily to work." " But there are the sentinels." "A new difficulty. We must fire the eastern wing of the castle about dusk to-morrow evening, and take advantage of the consequent confusion to achieve an escape. * It is a desperate act, but we are desperate men, and have no other resource. The consecrated A COUNCIL—BUT NOT—OF WAS. 265 standard of the Imaum Khassim, the founder of the kingdom of Yemen; the shirt of Mahomet; the veil of Ayesha, and her hair- brush, with other reliques and rubbish, are preserved in that eastern wing, and all the inmates will rush to secure their preservation; if not, and the sentinels should remain and handle their matchlocks, we must then trust to Providence and their bad firing. I'll bet a hundred to one they will never hit us. We can have our horses concealed at the tomb of Khassim, down in the valley, where there is a pretty grove and well, at which I watered my horse yesterday. .But how we are to get four horses conveyed out of the fort and con- cealed there, without exciting suspicion, is at present beyond my comprehension." Communing and planning thus, we slowly reascended to the for- tress, and desperate though the attempt we were about to make might be, our ardour was in no way damped by the aspect of the several ghastly and mutilated remains of poor men who had been impaled alive, or hung on iron hooks by the wayside, and around whose naked and half-skeleton figures the ravenous vultures flitted and the jackals prowled. We slept little that night, and dawn was stealing through the painted windows of our apartments before we separated, having finished Rabd-al-Hoosi's brandy, while considering and reconsidering our daring plans in every possible way, before we came to the con- elusion that they were unalterable, and that no human ingenuity could make them better. They were simply these;— To create a confusion by firing the east wing of the castle. To secure and conceal two horses of Mohamed Ali Badr's guards, in addition to our own. To release Cecil from the seraglio by stratagem, and fly on the spur for Aden. How we put these plans into operation, succeeding chapters will show; but considering the distance between our garrison and Hesn- al-Mouhabib, the time, the people, and the circumstances, nothing could be bolder or more rash and hazardous than the whole under- taking. We took advantage of the darkness of the night to appropriate the rope of a deep draw-well which lies (or lay) near the castle gate, and Fred brought it to our apartment, concealed in his ample Arab pantaloons. I borrowed, in the same fashion, three pieces of port- fire from the field pieces which stood in front of the same gate, to- gether with the slow match of a lintstock. From the iron portion of the latter I manufactured a species of hook, and firmly bound to it the end of the well-rope. After carefully examining every part, we found it, fortunately, sound and new, for not a strand was frayed or started. We passed some hours of that evening with Amina,, and, perceiving that I was sad, abstracted, and fretful, she kindly did all in her 264 frank nilton; or, "the queen's own." power to amuse me, by telling little eastern legends, by singing monotonous Arab melodies to the tinkling of her lute, and by the prettiest prattle that ever fell from a little cherub. mouth; but all this sweet girl's efforts were in vain. Cecil's safety alone could remove my anxiety! After excusing ourselves from visiting Rabd-al-Hoosi, who sent us an invitation, we retired to rest. I strove, but fruitlessly, to sleep, that I might be fresh in all my energies for the undertaking of to-morrow; but my head ached wit! my endeavours to probe the future. On the agony of my anxiety, the feverishness of my hope, to say nothing of the anticipation of arrest, reprimands, and perhaps a court-martial for the terrible cata- strophe of the coming day — a catastrophe which might, however, prove most fatal to us all—I need not expatiate. But the shades of night rolled away into eternity, and the bright morrow came with its blue skies and beaming sun, and I started from a couch on which I had barely closed an eye, to examine once more the rope and hook, on which my world depended. CHAPTER LTH. the tomb op khassim. "In this undertaking, I have but one regret," said I, on sitting down to breakfast of coffee, eggs, hulwah, bread, and wine. " And this regret ?" asked Fred. " Is your commission, Langley—for it may be lost to you, even if you escape with a whole skin." " I beg to differ from you, Hilton, as I do not conceive that by any clause of the Articles of War, or the Regulations either, our com- missions are compromised, for we are only doing our duty in freeing a British subject from an unwarrantable state of captivity." " I wonder that I can think of such trifles when so much is at stake; but this necessary stratagem of setting fire to the palace—" " It can never be known to be our work,* and we need not crimi- nate ourselves. But what the deuce do I care about a court-martial, supposing O'Hara was so absurd as to conceive one necessary ? I have £6000 a year—an estate in Essex, and expectations (' every one has expectation;,, you know,' as Letty Howard's mother used to say), and I would freely risk them all, as well as my Lieutenancy, in this young lady's cause." " God bless you, my dear Langley!" said I, with ardour; " I have only my commission and my life, and freely would I peril both a thousand times for the safety of poor Cecil!" " As for a court-martial," continued Ered, who breakfasted as if he • Subsequent events rendered our concealing this fact unnecessary.—F. H, THE TOMB OF XHA5SIM. 265 had come in from a fox-hunt, " I heartily wish we were within a mile of anything half so civilized. Only think of being under the same roof with a rascally old imaum, who, though he may he, as his Scotch vizier terms him,' the cornerstone of the earth, and acme of wisdom,' forced the envoy of the sultan of Lahadj to eat his own ears!—a prince whose greatest emirs and sheikhs deem it an honour to be called his most humble servants and slaves. 'Pon my word, I should like to see the old Bluebeard well trounced in a horse-pond. Oh, don't be alarmed," continued Fred, on perceiving that I glanced un- easily at the two Abyssinian slaves who attended us, " you forget that these poor devils can only speak their own language, which sounds, for all the world, like a monkey cracking nuts. But, thank Heaven, we shall soon be with the ' Queen's Own' again, and out of this red-hot region, where people shave their heads instead of their chins, prefer fingers to forks, and think it a greater honour to be strangled than shot." Amina gazed at us from time to time with an anxious expression in her quick, dark eyes, for her natural acuteness enabled her to per- ceive that something unusual was on the tapis; but notwithstanding her winning smiles and piquant little ways, Fred, though repeatedly asked what we were about to do, did not satisfy her, lest some un- wary exclamation or reply might reveal our intentions and frustrate them all. " You have often wished to visit the tomb of the Imaum Khassim," said he, taking her hands in his, as he awoke her from her forenoon siesta. " To pray to Fatima for my dear brother, Mohamed — oh, yes," replied Amina, whose eyes swam with delight; " and when will you take me there ?" "To-day—" "Just now," said she, throwing a veil over her head. " When the heat of noon has passed, Amina. Do you long so much to be with Mohamed again ?" " Can you ask me ?" she said, lifting up her eyes and her arms, which, though not quite so fair as those of a European beauty, were of the most perfect form ; " Oh, Allah only knows how much ! Mo- hamed loves his little sister with a mother's love, and yet he has the heart of a lion. He thinks often of poor, lost Amina—but I hope he does not weep for her. And shall she see him soon ?" "Yes, dearest—very soon." " And you will tell him how much you love me," said Amina, lowering her voice and eyes. "I will tell him, my little innocent one (a perilous task, perhaps!) how passionately I adore you, if, indeed, I have words enough to ex- press how much," said Fred, whose voice trembled with tenderness; tor he had now got over his qualms, and those absurd but innate English prejudices of race, and had given himself up to all the ternpta- tion of lovimr this desert flower. 266 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." After this, Amina was long silent, and sat among her cushions with her eyes cast down, and her thick black hair clustering over her brow as she leant it on her small and finely tapered hand. She re- mained long thus in happy reverie, during which her busy little head was thinking of Mohamed, and what he would say of her love for Langley—a Faringi—and of Langley's love for her; and bright smiles played about her red lips and soft features, as she filled up the shining future; but what that future was, kind Heaven and her own ardent heart alone knew. I could read the tenor of the young girl's thoughts, and envied the smiles of tranquil happiness that spread, from time to time, over her sunny face, as she played with her large fan, and be- tween its bright feathers stole glances at Fred, who had also given himself up to reverie, and was studying a pocket map of Yemen which Major Drcghorn, of the Artillery, had given me on leaving Aden. Noon passed slowly, hotly, and heavily on. The chief of the eunuchs presented himself, with his snow-white garments, black, shining visage, glittering eyes, and gold earrings, to ask if I was in readiness to visit the Frankish slave in obedience to the sultan's behest. Wishing that this visit, on which the fate of Cecil's life as well as mine must hinge, should be delayed at least until the evening, I begged to be excused for some time, assuring Osman Oglou that I felt indisposed, and would be unable to fulfil the sultan's orders until near sunset, when the atmosphere would be more cool, at which time he promised to come again, saying that ' whether ill or well, I must have an interview with her, and, in the language of her native country, announce that her tears and objec- tions had wearied the Leader of the Faithful, who had resolved to visit her to-night, after evening prayer." Here was a startling announcement! I felt inclined to cleave the negro's stolid visage as he made it! "An additional incentive for coolness, determination, and imme- diate action," said Fred; " I had an idea that if our plot failed to- night, and the soldiers, whom I hope to drug and so secure their horses, recovered, we should not be suspected, and have time to make another essay, but this is now denied us, and the sultan's resolution decides it all." " Yes—to-night we must all be clear of Hesn-al-Mouhabib, or we shall never leave it alive !" The sun was verging to the westward, and throwing the shadows of rock and tree far along the valley. " How slowly the time passes !" said I, with a sigh; "what is the hour?" " Past four," said Fred. " In three hours the crisis will be passed." "For good or for evil, Frank — three hours are only one hundred and eighty minutes." " Each of these minutes will seem an hour to me." THE TOMB OP KHASSIM. 26? We reloaded our arms with peculiar care, and made all our pre- parations, with (I am not ashamed to say) hearts beating high and anxiously. The three pieces of portfire, which were of the usual length, about twenty-one inches, and composed of saltpetre, sulphur, mealed powder, and antimony, we concealed in one of the wooden partitions of an apartment adjoining our own, placing them close to- gether, and tying to them the slow match, whicn we calculated would burn for at least an hour and a half, from the time of its being first lighted. These slow matches for artillery are made of hemp, slackly spun on the wheel, like a cord in three twists, and are boiled in the lees of old wine. When once ignited, they never go out, but slowly,, surely, and gradually burn on to the end, and this end we tied to- the inflammable portfire—thus a conflagration of some kind was cer- tain. We then secured about our persons our purses and the letters of protection granted by Mohamed-al-Baschid, and our new friend the vizier. Immediately after this, Ered departed with Amina on horseback to visit the tomb of the warlike Khassim (the founder of the throne of Yemen), which lay about two miles from the fort; and by his own request two of Mahmoud Ali Badr's mounted guardsmen accom- panied them. How my heart leaped, till I was almost sick with anxiety, as I watched them depart; and after scrutinizing the horses of the Arab soldiers, I was glad to perceive that they rode strong, active, and beautiful animals. The sun had now sunk lower, and as the gates were closed behind them, a hand laid familiarly on my shoulder made me start; I turned and met the hateful black visage and yellow eyeballs of Osman Oglou, the eunuch captain, who led me towards the brass portals of the seraglio. I excused myself for a moment—hurried to my apart- ment—coiled the rope under my benish, stuck my pistols in my belt,- fired the slow-match with a cigar fusee, the last of two I had left, and then rejoined the miserable instrument of Eastern tyranny and sensuality, who was to conduct me to the splendid prison of Cecil. Meanwhile, followed by the two soldiers of Ali Badr, Ered and Amina skirted the citron grove and rode to the tomb of the imaum Khassim, which consisted of a large and gilded dome, placed upon an. open colonftade of grotesquely carved columns. These were built upon a platform or basement of nine deep oval arches. The edifice closely resembled an enormous punch-bowl inverted upon nine gigantic candlesticks. Under the dome was an erect tablet, to incli- cate the true direction of Mecca, towards which all faces must be turned in the time of prayer; and beside it gurgled a fountain, for executing the ablutions required by the Mohamedan religion. It was once the resort of all the santons, fakirs, dervishes, pious enthusiasts, and cunning impostors in Arabia; but, having lost its repute, was- now crumbling into ruin, and little frequented. There Amina was left to dip her pretty hands and say her prayers, while Ered invited the two Arabs to dismount, seat themselves on 258 FRANK HILTON; OK, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." the grass and light their chibouques, for which he gave them a liberal supply of opium and bang, proffering some brandy also, well drugged, from his flask. This they soon drained, nathless the law ana the Prophet, for they were Bedouins, and, consequently, not very parti- cular. All unused to such potent liquor, their eyes began to roll fearfully; they talked, laughed, shouted the tecbir, and made such an irreverend noise, that Amina rose repeatedly from the marble Kebiah in alarm; but the opium they were chewing and smoking soon prostrated every faculty, and in the course of half an hour they sank perfectly insensible 011 the grass. Bred inwardly thanked Heaven for the success of his share of our schem e, and then, to the astonishment of Amina, he dragged the soldiers into the thicket, where he concealed, and tied them securely back to back by means of the loose sleeves of their overshirts and the cloth of their turbans. He then broke under foot their lances and sword blades; possessed himself of their ammunition, and carefully examined every buckle and strap of their horses' harness. He next turned to look at Hesn-al-Mouhabib, the Turkish towers, jagged ramparts, ara- besque-sculptured galleries and pavilions of which crowned the beetling rock above the rich citron grove, about two miles distant, all reddened to the hue of dusky saffron in the last flash of the sun that had set; but no sign of fire was rising yet. Hastily he informed Amina, whom his proceedings had considerably dismayed, with the circumstances of our plot; and when he had pointed to the wall of the ten pavilions, by which he expected Cecil and me to descend, she uttered a cry of terror, and, falling upon her knees, said, " Go—go, but return quickly; oh, how I long to see this Frankish lady, whom your friend loves P He is brave, and she must love him •well!" Suddenly a faint yellow light began to shoot upward above the gilded terraces which formed the roof of the eastern wing; it grew broader, and became a column of smoke and flame, while the sound of gongs, like the rumble of distant thunder, came down the wadi 011 the soft, mild, evening wind. Fred pressed Amina to his breast, kissed her brow, concealed her and her horse in one of the arches of the tomb, and imploring her, by all she held dear, to remain there till his return, he mounted his own horse, and, taking the other two by the bridle, dashed round the edge of the citron grove at full speed to the foot of the castle rock, ana re- mained among the foliage near the place from which he expected to see us descend. He waited long in feverish anxiety, but no one appeared. CHAPTER LIY. the waning moon. [ stood within the suite of pavilions, and as the setting sun shorn through them, the brilliant tints of their painted windows fell with a thousand rainbow hues on the sparkling fountains and tesselated floors. I glanced anxiously at our place of rendezvous, the tornb CP the Sultan Khassim, and far down the open valley saw its gilded dome above the citron trees shining in the sunbeams. Whether it had occurred to the chief of the eunuchs that he had not fulfilled his duty while waiting for me on the former occasion by spending his time in the curtained passage, or whether this sable guardian of the Graces believed he would pass an hour more agreeably in the pavilions, I know not; but however, as the father of miscbiei would have it, he accompanied me into the suite of rooms, and, squatting himself on a carpet, lit his chibouque, and seemed resolved to remain during my interview with Cecil. My breath came thick and fast, for I knew we could only be rid of him by desperate means. He was a gigantic and powerful negro, armed with a sabre; but to this, if necessary, I could oppose both sword and pistols. I found Cecii seated in a small alcove which opened off the inner pavilion, and the entrance to which was partly veiled by two festooned curtains of white silk. Above the arch was a turban, with a verse from the Koran. This little alcove was a kind of bed-closet; and notwithstanding the momentous crisis at which we had arrived, its magnificence reminded me of that gorgeous chamber which Plutarch describes in the palace of Persepolis; and, like the artificial vine which astonished Alexander, there was here a palm-tree, having a stalk of burnished gold with leaves of emeralds, and fruit of topazes from the island of Socotora. The posts of the bed were of ivory, carved as intricately as Chinese puzzle-balls; the carpets, hangings, cushions, and coverlets were all beautifully worked, and around it and over it were garlands of delicate flowers. Pale, trembling; and ghastly in appearance, Cecil came out of the alcove, and drew near me. She would have thrown herself into my arms, but the figure of the eunuch behind me at some distance appalled her, and she let fall her veil. Apprised of a visit from the sultan, she had been bathed, perfumed, ana decorated in the richest lace and most superb jewels by the women who had charge of the toilets and wardrobes. Alas ! she was like a beautiful corpse; and being long since past weeping, her eyes had around them dark circles which gave an expression of deep grief to her face; and her whole aspect frightened me. " Cecil, for the love of God—take courage! I am come to free you, and have here concealed a rope by which you must drop from 270 FRANK HILTON; OR, ~XfIE QUEEN'S OWN." the walls," said I, in a low whisper, which was needless, as I was noi understood by the listener; " be firm—oh, be courageous—life, love, and liberty are hanging by a hair." " But there are sentinels with loaded matchlocks on the walls that overlook these windows." "Work will soon be found for them elsewhere, and my friend Langley, with fresh and active horses, awaits us in the citron grove below." "My brave beloved Frank!—what perils—but that hateful eunuch is behind you." I trembled with anger and perplexity, for I knew not how to rid myself quietly of this dangerous bar to every attempt at flight. Of that terrible time I can write With coolness now; buk then, I lived, breathed, and moved as one in a dream ! I thought and acted mecha- nically, and fortunate it is that I thought and acted in the rational manner I did. For my own life I had no care; of my own danger I took no heed, for the peril of Cecil alone unmanned and terrified me. " This negro must be disposed of!" said I; " but how—I know not; kind Heaven ! oh, direct me!" I added, fervently. Cecil trembled and nearly fell, her emotions were so overpowering, and I dared not touch or support her while this man's eyes were upon us. "Dearest Cecil," said I, with irrepressible anxiety; "you are ill? Ah, mercy if it should be so; for in what we are about to undergo, your poor strength will be sorely overtasked." "No—no—I am well—quite well and strong; I will brave every- thing !" she said, and clasped her trembling hands. "We have far and fast to ride, without a guide, too; and this accursed negro—" " Would to Heaven we were only beyond this prison! But oil, Frank, by what mercy are you allowed to visit me again ?" " Sent once more by Solyman to assure you of his undiminished— love, and to describe the splendours he has in store for you—" Cecil wrung her hands and gazed at me with unspeakable agony, but to touch her was certain death, while the yellow eyes of the watchful negro were upon us. I walked to the window of the first pavilion; a casement was open, and I gazed anxiously down. It was at least fifty feet from the base of the wall, and a hundred from thence to the citrons at the foot of the rock. Cecil could never slide to the base of the rampart, for she had neither strength nor courage to retain the cord. Her delicate fingers would relax, and she was certain to fall Sentinels were still on the towers which flanked this curtain wall, but I hoped the bursting of the flames would soon attract them elsewhere. Another plan was necessary; what could it be! My head spun with excitement; the sun had set; the pale crescent the ten pavilions. 371 moon was glimmering at the end of the vale, and I remembered the woni3 of the pampered despot; now that moon was waning. The eumlcn coughed and struck his hands together, as a hint that he thought the time was come for retiring, and at that moment of sickly suspense and irresolution a distant noise struck my ear; I looked at my watch; three-quarters of an hour had elapsed since the slow-match had been lighted; could the conflagration have begun already ? The noise increased, and again Osman Oglou clapped his sable hands impatiently. I turned from the window with my head full of desperate thoughts, for this black eunuch was to be silenced in some way, or all was over. I dared not yet to fire a pistol, and with the sword his strength would no doubt overmatch mine, for his proportions were herculean. Silent, irresolute how to act, and terrified by my own delay, I stood midway between Cecil and the negro, who cried to me angrily— " It is time, 0 nakib, that we were retiring; dost thou not hear, the gongs ?" " I thought of firing a pistol to disable him, or of rushing on and cutting him down. In the first case I risked an alarm; in the second, both alarm and failure. "Oh, Heaven—Heaven! it is the imaum who comes already 1 Erank, if there is yet time—Frank, save me—save me !" cried Cecil,,, in despair, as she grasped my sword-arm. "It is impossible—I am mad!" said I, bursting into tears of rage and sorrow; for at that moment the angry eunuch laid his strong hands upon my sword-arm, and dragged me hastily away, while a number of negro airls ran nimbly past us through the pavilions, lighting the silver lamps in each; and then we heard the beating of gongs and drums, the discordance of fifes and bells, as Solyman was- conducted on foot from the baths, through the ponderous brass gates of the seraglio wall. All was over now! I heard Cecil's moan of despair; I saw her sink on the carpeted floor with the arms of the wondering and pitying Abyssinian girls thrown around her; and with a sigh of that voiceless bitterness which the human breast can feel but once, I thought of the leal-hearted Langley, who was no doubt waiting fruitlessly in the grove below with the horses of the drugged soldiers; and I cursed the miserable irresolution which prevented me from shooting the captain of the. eunuchs through the head half an hour before. CHAPTER LY. the ten pavilions. At.ahmed by his own delay, the eunuch hurried me through the pavilions, along the curtained gallery, and down the long and intricate passages which were all plastered with chunam, ornamented with 272 FRANK. HILTON; Of*, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." gilded stucco arabesques, and lighted by perfumed lamps having coloured globes. " Quick—quick," he cried, with undisguised alarm," for here comes the sultan!" In the desperation of the moment, one fortunate thought seized me; and in the crowd of attendants who accompanied the imaum to the inner door of the seraglio, I contrived to give Osman "the slip," to mingle with the guards and slaves, and then to conceal myself behind a painted column, where I saw Solyman pass, accompanied by Kabd-al-Hoosi with his jewelled turban, Ali Badr in his plumed headpiece, the katib with his snowy beard, and many others, and there they all bade him adieu for the night, with "hopes that plea-, sures awaited him—that his shadow might never be less," &c., andffJ with that mixture of mummery and respect which pervades all the" ceremonies connected with modem royalty, even in more civilised* places than the kingdom of Yemen, retired slowly backward. The inner doors, which were of cedar wood covered with oraiA ments of brass, were immediately closed by the guards, and I wasj within them! In his night robes, i. e., his drawers of fine cotton (all Eastern nations sleep thus), with a long gown of blue silk floating around him, his silvery beard spread over his bosom, and a fine caul on his head, I watched the old imaum, like a gliding spectre ascending the flight of marble steps which led to the pavilions, and my heart burned within me with anxiety and anger as I followed him. The bath from which this sensual dotard had just come, had been filled with rose-water, and thus the atmosphere around him was redolent of perfume. Unheard on the soft carpets of those silent pavilions, I followed him like a shadow, and the aspect of those pecu- i iair apartments was gorgeous, as seen then by the light of their' crystal lamps, which, however, were not of sufficient brightness to; eclipse the last flush of the west, or the paler light of the crescent j noon without; thus, while the sparkling of the marble fountains, the; splendour of the gilded cornices, and the richness of the flowers and ' painted arabesques were visible within, the brilliant hues of the stained Venetian casements, and the beaming of the stars without, mingled together to heighten the effect. On seeing the dreaded sultan approach, Cecil, who had been upon her knees in the imier pavilion, rose to her full height, which was greater even than his, tore aside her veil, and gazed upon him with flashing eyes, and a countenance of ashy whiteness. The whole ex- pression of her beautiful and usually sad features was changed, and a savage pride and determination pervaded them. I feared that she had possessed herself of some weapon; but she spread only her white "hands as a shield before her, and Solyman (somewhat startled by her firm aspect) stood in the curtained archway and gazed upon her in silence. In her terror, though she saw, she did not recognise me until! THE TEH PAVILIONS. 273 was close beside her; when, overcome by an excitement, of which 1 can conceive few parallels, she sprang past the imaum with a low cry, and fell senseless, as if dead, in my arms. Quick as lightning he turned and fixed his green basilisk eyes upon me with a terrible ex- pression! Fear was the first emotion of the tyrant, then rage and iury; and I almost laughed aloud in knowing that he and I were alone, beard to beard, in these lonely pavilions which none dared approach. "Wretch—Kafir—dog!—at such a time—how art thou here ?" he asked, in accents broken by the excitement which made him tremble; for to find a man alone and unwatched in the sacred precincts of the seraglio—and that man a Christian—to find that he had seen a woman there—a woman beloved by an imaum, and all unveiled—■ and had that woman hanging on his breast, encircled by his arms,—■ was a case so unparalleled, that Solyman could scarcely believe his own eyes; and unutterable wrath made them gleam like those of a serpent, while every hair of his beard and shaggy eyebrows seemed to bristle with the passion that convulsed him. "Wallah! And by the ninety-nine names of Allah! By the fig and the olive! both thou and she shall be torn to shreds by the teeth and limbs of wild horses !" cried tne sultan, striking a great gong, which for the purpose of alarm stood in this magnificent bedchamber; and like the report of a cannon it reverberated under the domed roofs of the ten pavilions. He then unsheathed his jewelled jambea, and with activity wonderful for his years, rushed upon me. But relinquish ing Cecil, whom he also intended to slay, I received the short crooked blade on the edge of my own sword, and grasped him by the throat and beard with a clutch so tenacious, that the jambea fell from his hand; his caul was torn off, and the aspect of his aged head, which, either by shaving or time, was quite bald and smooth as a cannon ball, alone prevented me from turning the point of my sword upon liim, for I was rendered blind by fury, and desperate by despair and insult. For a moment I contemplated him with a ferocious glance, and saw the veins swelling on his bare scalp, as my grasp tightened on his lean and tawny throat; for a moment more I swung him to and fro, then dashed him from me, and he lay on the floor stunned, sense- less, and perfectly still. In the excitement of the moment I h^d neither pity nor remorse. Cecil was almost in the same inanimate condition as her tormentor; and now I heard the roar of gongs and the din of many human voices. Had the sultan's note of alarm been heard ? Like pearls the perspira- tion rained over my burning forehead at the idea! but it was soon evident to me by the distant cries of terror and alarm that came through the open windows of the pavilions, with the unmistakeable odour of burning wood, that the conflagration had begun! There was not a moment to be lost. The matchlock men had dis- appeared from the tower-head, and preparatory to lowering down 274 frank hilton; ob, "the queen's own." Cecil, as I proposed to do by giving the rope a turn round the wooden mullion of a window, I flung tbe coil over tlie wall to assure myself that it was of sufficient length; and in doing so—horror!—it slipped from my hand and fell upon the rocks far down—a hundred feet below! I gazed after it in speechless terror, and my soul seemed rising to my throat. Our only chance of escape seemed gone—for ever gone! Prom the citron grove beneath I heard a faint hallo ascending, and knew that my brave friend was there awaiting us—no doubt in great anxiety—and had observed me; but how to reach him without a miracle being performed, I could not conceive. CHAPTER LVI. the conflagration. " Cecil, dearest Cecil," I exclaimed, rushing to her in unspeakable sorrow; " I have destroyed you ! The rope is gone, and I can no- where procure another now." "The place seems on fire—can we not escape in the confusion?" she asked, with pale calmness. "Any way it is death to us; come, Cecil, come. I have my sword and pistols, and if discovered, I will sell our lives dearly—four at least shall pay for the loss of two." I threw my ample blue benish over her shoulders, placed my -tarboosh on her head, concealing her luxuriant hair under it, and muffled up her pale, thin, and sorrowful face; I half carried, and half led her through the pavilions, down the marble steps, and reached the lower passages, which led to the brazen gate. All these were deserted, and the space beyond was filled with smoke; but here, like a storm of voices, we heard the clamours of the women in the saraglio and of their slaves, in all, more than nine hundred in num- ber, screaming in all the dialects of Arabia and Egypt, as they rushed in crowds upon the flat roofs of the palace, and in the utmost alarm, although it was impossible that the fire could reach that wing of the great palatial fortress. I had a cocked pistol in my hand, prepared to shoot dead the first man who attempted to obstruct us; but no soldier, eunuch, or slave appeared; all had evidently found ample occupation elsewhere. The double folds of the polished brass gates stood firm as a rock; there was no other mode of egress, and at the mouth of the pointed arch oeyond them, we could see the wavering gleams of the fire; the curl- ing smoke, and the bronze-like figures of the slaves, or the glittering ornaments of the soldiers, as they hurried to and fro in the quadrangle. " I feel very faint, dear Erank," said Cecil, half sinking as she spoke; " I have a frightful sense of suffocation, and my head seems as if about to rend!" Tufl COITSXAGIIATION. 275 " It is the smoke. Oh, Heaven! for one good blow of a hammer— one wrench with a crowbar!" said I, dashing myself fruitlessly against the gate. I was about to try the effect of a pistol-shot on one of the bars, when a crowd of eunuchs rushed tumultuously into the arch- way, headed by the chief, by Rabd-al-Hoosi, and Ali Badr, with loud cries of " The sultan, the holy imaum ! let us save the life of the holy imaum !" And I had barely time to drag Cecil behind the column—the same place where I had hidden before—when the pon- derous gates were flung back with a crash, and the sable guardians of the seraglio sprung up the marble steps towards the pavilions, while at the same moment a living flood of Arab, Egyptian, and Coptish women, the ladies of the household, attended by Abyssinian slaves and other negresses, rushed down the flight of steps, and issued forth. Cecil and I were borne out by the terrified throng, and, unnoticed, reached the quadrangle, where a scene of unexampled confusion and uproar was taking place. I retained her hand firmly in mine, for she was almost delirious with terror. " Courage—courage," said I, " we shall soon reach our horses; all depends upon coolness and bravery now. Oh! Cecil, we are almost free!" She made an incoherent reply. " Do you hear rne, my beloved Cecil ?" I asked, anxiously. "I am ill—ill. Oh, that I were dead and at rest!" "Eor Heaven's love, if not for the love of me, bear up a little yet," said I, imploringly. The dangers and sorrows of so many months had produced the most dire effects upon her mind and body. She was now almost helpless as a child, and I trembled lest she should swoon altogether. Erom the burning wing, or eastern front of the quadrangle, a flood of light was shed on all the rest of the castle. The whole of that side of the edifice, with its painted and gilded galleries, was now on fire; the flames flashed through the oval arches of the windows and licked the fretted carving of the battlements; ^through the doors below and the domes above, through the towers and round the gilded minarets, till they all united aloft in one blazing pyramid of solid and roaring fire. Ponderous beams, marble columns, rich cornices of white chunam, laden with pots of blooming flowers; showers of flat tiles and masses of mason-work fell thundering in at times; but the greedy flames rolled on from partition to partition, and leaped from floor to floor in such uncontrollable fury, that I feared it would soon reach to the seraglio, the most splendid and ancient portion of this far-famed castle of the Graces; and for an instant I was appalled by the destruction I had made. The Arabs gazed on it in apathetic consternation, neither knowing how or why to stop the flames; for the doctrine of fatality is so strongly impressed upon them by their religion, that believing, if the 2?3 ERANK HILTON; OR, " THE QTJEEN'S OWN." castle was ordained to be burned, all the efforts of the Moslemum could not save it, they chewed their quids of opium, stroked theii beards, and muttered from time to time— " Oh day of misfortune! Dogs that we are, why has this dust fallen upon our heads !" and so forth; and frequently they shouted, " Allah Ackbar!" when an unusually large mass fell down, or a greater flame shot up; but they did no more. Meanwhile the wild and wailing cries of the frightened inmates of the seraglio made up a startling medley of discord. Profiting by this general confusion and consternation, we reached the gates unnoticed, and passed them unseen, for all the guards were gone, and we hurried down the steep and winding path which led to the foot of the eminence. The starry sky was unusually brilliant and clear, even for Arabia, the land of the sun; on this night the transparent atmosphere rendered every object distinct to a vast dis- tance, and nothing could be more terrible and magnificent than the vast column of red and yellow light, which arose from the summit of Hesn-al-Mouhabib, lighting up the windings of the distant stream, its groves of lime and citron trees, the drooping palms that stood afar off, like funeral plumes, on the mountain sides, where the startled goats were browsing, and every leaf in the wooded vale below, where the gilded dome of Khassim's tomb gleamed as if tipped with liquid fire. " And all this frightful destruction has been for me!" said the pale Cecil, looking back, as we hurried breathlessly on. " What matters it," said I, almost gaily, " in this land of gold and precious stones; old Solyman, if he is not burned by this time, will soon repair the damage." We hastened round the base of the eminence to the citron wood, every stem and leaf of which were tipped with light, for the liquid dew lay heavy on them. Here I halloed aloud, and received a joyful reply. " Bravo! thank Heaven you have come at last," said Langlev, as he rode out from the thicket with two spare horses; " it is an hour past the time I calculated on, and I had given you both up for lost! Welcome to liberty, my dear Miss Marchmont—I am an old friend— Pred Langley of ' the Queen's Own,'—remember you well at Chat- ham. Mounc i mount! there is not a moment to lose now ! I have manufactured a kind of saddle for you by means of my knife, with a handkerchief and the branch of a tree." As Fred gave Cecil his hand she was so excited and overjoyed to hear another English tongue, that she actually kissed him, and burst into tears, as he lifted her at once on horseback. " Now," said Fred, who had no time to spare for surprise, " away for the tomb of Kliassim; I fear that Amina will be half dead of terror by this time, poor little thing !" "Hark!" said I, while leaping on horseback; "there is /bunder !'* the ghoule biaean. 27? "Oh, no, no," said Cecil, whipping up her horse in great alarm ; u it is the gong of the guards—our flight has been discovered." It sounded like a peal of thunder, as it rolled away over our heads on the clear and rarefied atmosphere. Again and again it roared on the calm night—the horrible note of this gigantic gong, and every stroke found an echo in our hearts. This was a somewhat sacred instrument, and only used on the most solemn and sacreb occasions. The flame on t'he summit of the rocks and towers was now sink- ing fast, and on looking back, I thought I could discern a cloud of white objects dotting the dark side of the hill; but whether these were large stones, a flock of sheep, or the guards of Ali Badr, it was impossible to say, for we were riding at full speed, and the twilight was deepening on the scenery. The pale moon rested on the edge of the distant mountains; a red light lingered in the west; a stupendous column of smoke over- hung the summit of Hesn-al-Mouhabih; and now the tomb of the imaum was close by; we had already ridden two miles. "Now, dear Cecil," said I, "we can talk of our escape, and laugh at its terrors." "Laugh at them! my beloved Prank, can you already think of such a thing ? oh, never, never!" she replied with a shudder. " Pshaw!" said I, with affected cheerfulness, for I was greatly alarmed lest an illness conduced by terror and over-excitement should incapacitate her for pursuing the long and arduous journey that lay before us; " the first and the worst of our dangers are past; com- pose yourself, my dear, good Cecil. Think of the lives kind Heaven has spared us, and of our future happiness. Oh, we shall have ten thousand questions to ask each other and to answer ! Dear, dear Cecil!" I added, with a sigh of joy, as we drew up our panting horses beside the tomb of Khassim. Pred dismounted, threw the bridle of his horse to me, and hastened to the arch where he had left Amina. She was not there; neither was her horse ! "Amina! Amina!" I heard him cry in great excitement. But there was no reply. The tomb was lonely and silent; save the gurgle of the fountain that flowed before its keblah, there was no sound within it. Amina and her horse had disappeared! CHAPTER LYII. the ghoule biaban. Left beside 'that ancient tomb, with the shadows of the mountains falling across the valley, and the trees growing darker as the day- light waned, Amina grew rather alarmed, as there came floating 278 HIANK HILTON; OB, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." before her, the memory of many a story of ravenous Ghoules, who disintered and devoured the bodies of the dead; of wicked genii,. who wrought all manner of mischief, and bore young maidens away; and if idolatrous Guebres, or worshippers of the sacred fire, who murdered' isolated wayfarers as offerings to their false god; and she remembered to have heard that the flat vale of Hesn-al-Mouhabib was the haunt of the Ghoule Biaban, or Spirit of the Waste, a lonely, frightful, and gigantic spectre, who formed the mirage of the desert, and devoured all who fell into his power. She had heard it also said, that the imaum Khassim, though invisible to mortal eyes, frequently sat at the head of his own tomb after sunset, inhaling the odour of the fresh garlands and perfumed offerings which were hung there. These terrible ideas hovered in the mind of poor Amina, till she became half-frozen with fear; while slowly and imperceptibly the saffron tints of evening deepened into the purple and sombre shadows of night. Every sound, even the whirl of a leaf, startled her, and from time to time, for lack of better companionship, she spoke to the beautiful Arab horse, which stood near the carpet on which she was seated, and with her pretty hand she stroked its slender legs and square quivering nostrils from time to time. The tomb and its vicinity were still as a house of death may be, and the evening wind sighed under the old gilded dome, and whistled through the fretted carving of the columns which supported it. Cattle lowed at times, and sheep bleated in the distance. The last flush of the faded eve shone down the valley, and Amina's tears were just beginning to fall, when an old Arab shepherd drew near to say his prayers. Amina, who feared every one, scarcely drew her breath, yet she hoped he would remain until Langley rejoined her. It was so dreary, that old tomb, with the dead imaum mouldering in bis sarcophagus close beside her! The aged Arab, being without a piece of carpet, knelt down on the grass, and there said the fifth prayer necessary in the twenty- four hours, being that which it is ordained every good Mussulman must say before the day closes in, and before the first watch of the night. Low, and lower still the old man bent his turbaned head in prayer, as the moon's pale crescent rose above the black ridge of the dusky and distant mountains. When his orisons were ended, this old man, who seemed a shepherd, by his crooked staff and leathern bottle, departed, and Amina re- gretted that she had not begged him to remain with her, for his aspect was both venerable and kind, and the time-worn tomb was lonelier now than ever. He had not been long away, when a sound reached her of voices conversing and singing a monotonous Arab ditty. The horse erected its ears, switched its tail, and pawed the earth. Amina thought again of the Ghoule Biaban, trembled, and prayed to Fa- THE GHOTJLE BIAEAN. 279 fcima; but this time tbe visitors were four ragged Bedouins, (robbers apparently,) of tbe tribe Sbeikb Ibrabim; fierce, lawless, and wild men, from Boba-el-Khaly, or tbe Abode-of-Emptiness. Tbey stopped at tbe well, yet neither to wasb nor pray, but to mix the water of the holy fountain with tbe fire-water of the Paringis—i. e., a quart bottle of potent eau-de-vie, which tbey-became possessed of. Tbey all wore turbans, of course; one bad a blue shirt, but tbe other three bad only a cummerbund; thus their brawny bosoms and muscular legs and arms were like those of oak statutes. Yeiling herself and trembling, Amina remained close and unseen in tbe arch of tbe basement; but unfortunately, the acute faculties of her Arab horse made it aware that one of the Bedouins carried a bag of corn, and as her evil geni would have it, tbe animal uttered a loud neigh of satisfaction. "Wallah!" swore a Bedouin, springing away from tbe fountain; " there is a horse in the tomb! didst thou hear it, Soupki ?" " It is the voice of the Ghoule Biaban," said one. " Perhaps it is the enchanted steed of the sultan Khassim," said another. "By the grot of Mount Hara, I care not a grain of sand, were it all three put together," said the fourth, unsheathing his jambea; " and I snail know what it is, though Eblis barred the way!" The bold fellow ran round the tomb, and soon discovered the trembling Amina. Eor a moment he conceived her to be a spirit, as her dress was white; but perceiving that she wept, he uttered a cry of triumph, seized her by one hand, and the horse's bridle by the other, and brought both out into the twilight, before his companions; —for these Arabs plunder and fight in the most civilized districts of Arabia and Egypt, just as they do in the wildest deserts. Amina was overcome by terror, and stood mute before them. One drew aside her veil, and her beauty charmed and excited them. At this insult her large black eyes filled with light; a flush came over her beautiful face, and her little bosom heaved with the liveliest indig- nation. " Stand back," she exclaimed; " I am the sister of Mohamed, the " If you were the sister of Solyman, the sultan," said one of the drunk Bedouins, " I will kiss your mouth. Barek Allah! It is like the incense of Hadramaut!" Though her small hands trembled like the leaves of the aspen-tree, she thrust back the Arab with no slight force; and then he who had discovered her interposed, saying, with a guttural oath, that she was his, as well as the horse, but that the three might have it with its housings, provided he was allowed to retain the damsel, without molestation, as his own prize—and his, he was resolved she should be, th< 1 1 11 Abdala!" Graces." escaped from the Castle of the 280 PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." _ " Let us take her there," said a second; " old Solyman, or his vizier, Rabd-al-Hoosi, will give us each a thousand piastres for such a damsel." "No—no," said a third; "Barek Allah! let us cast lots for her." "By God and the Prophet," cried the fourth, in great wrath, "what right hast thou, Mustapha, or thou Soupki, to a share of her value; or what right hast thou, Jelalodin, to require that lots be cast for her ? I tell you all," he continued, grasping Amina's right arm with his left hand, while he interposed his sharp, and yet unsheathed jambea, "that the woman is mine; and if I allow you to keep the horse, with his saddle and bridle, I allow too much. And rather than cast lots for her person or share her value, I will cut off her head— by the soul of Khaled the Blessed, I will!" "This is too much," said he whom they called Soupki; "what care I for a horse, which is not of pure breed, as one may see by its ears and fetlocks; so, may I die, if thou shalt have the damsel without a struggle." " Ana I, too," added Jelalodin. " Mustapha, thou hast a bow and arrows; let us each shoot one, and he whose shaft goeth farthest, shall have the damsel—the next the horse—the third the housings—and the fourth, or weakest, may well go without anything." " I will not shoot one shaft," said Ali, shaking with rage; " the Koran saith, ' that wine, lots, images, and divining arrows, are an abomination, and the work of Satan; therefore avoid them, that ye may prosper;' and I will avoid them, for I am not drunk, like the whole three of you; and so, will keep tills fair gift which the Prophet hath given me." Soupki rushed upon Amina, with his jambea, to slay her, and so defraud them all; but Ali, who was a powerful ruffian, nurled him to the earth by one blow. A desperate struggle was about to ensue, when a bright column of flame, that shot upward from Hesn-al- Mouhabib, arrested their attention, and for a time they gazed at it in astonishment, and heedless of Amina's tears and prayers that they would set her free. Suddenly the sound of a horse's hoofs were heard, and as a mounted man appeared, Amina uttered a cry of joy, for she believed he was Langley, returning. " Save me, save me, love of the most beloved!" she cried; "for I am in the hands of those who will destroy me. Alas ! alas !" she added, wringing her hands, as the horseman came up and proved to be neither Langley nor me, but a handsome and richly accoutred Arab gentleman, the harness of whose white charger was adorned by in- numerable tassels of scarlet silk and silver, and who wore a mail shirt of polished rings, a plumed skull-cap of steel, a sword slung on one side of him, a buckler on the other, and a long musket strapped across his back. how the robbers l>ost amina. 281 "Beware," muttered Ali; " it may be the Ghoule Biaban!" " Or the spirit of Khassim!" said Soupki; aud they all shrunk back with affright. CHAPTER LYIH. how the robbers lost amir a. " Barer Allah — praise be to God; I have arrived in time to pre- vent bloodshed, I think!" said this stately Arab, on seeing the Bedouins with their unsheathed jambeas glittering in the starlight; " allow me to be your umpire, my friends, for peacemakers are blessed. "What is all this strife about ?" " You will save me from these men, will you not ?" asked Amina, imploringly, of the stranger, who gazed upon her with silent admira- tion, as he urged his horse near her, and stooped from his high-peaked saddle inquiringly, till his plume almost brushed her charming face— for her veil had, by this time, been completely torn away. " Silence," said Ali, huskily, as his vice-like grasp tightened on her slender arm to the point of agony; " silence, or I will turn my iambea round your neck." " This woman," said Soupki, " belongs to the Abdali, with whom we are at war; we have taken her; she is the lawful prize of all, yet Ali claims her as his." "Is this just?" demanded Mustapha and Jelalodin, together. " It is just," said the stranger, " if Ali found her." Amina's heart sank at these words. " Alas!" thought she; " he will not save me!" " Thou art right, warrior," said Ali; " for it was I who found her." " But we were all present," added Soupki; " therefore let lots be cast, either by coins or shooting arrows, for I will not lose the damsel and content me with a share in a half-bred horse without a struggle." "Ali knows the injustice of his claim," said Jelalodin, "and will not trust to the wise decision of fate." "I have no fear of fate; but I fear God too much to be in dread of him favouring such a slave as thee!" "Wallah!" swore the other; "we shall soon see Wtiose Mood is reddest!" " Peace," said the stranger, with a lofty air of authority, as he roughly urged his horse between them. " And so, damsel, thou art an Abdala?" he added, gazing upon Amina with undisguised admiration. " But how come you to be straying here, like a lost dove ?" Amina made no reply, but her tears fell fast. " Hast thou escaped from Hesn-al-Mouhabib, which now we see 282 frank hilton; or, "the queen's own." flaming yoncler on the mountain-top! If so, all who have looked on thine unveiled face may tremble for the wrath of Solyman; it is like wind of the desert, overtaking all whom it pursues." At this remark, the Bedouins gazed on each other with something of alarm, and fearing to be deprived of their prey altogether, agreed to leave the whole power of decision in the hands of the stranger. After hearing all their arguments, during which Amina trembled, wept, and writhed like a poor bruised butterfly, in the iron grasp of Ali, he asserted that, as all their claims were equal and just, lots must be cast for the damsel. " But," said he, " though the Holy Prophet has expressly forbidden the use of arrows, he said nothing about musket-s/mtf, so the possession of this beautiful maiden shall fall to him who brings to me yonder bird the moment it falls." As he spoke, he unslung his musket, cocked the match, raised the Dutt to his shoulder, ana fired at a large eagle which had been scared from its eyry by the flames of the burning castle, and was now winging its way through the clear evening sky, about two hundred yards off. The moment this Arab discharged his musket, a faint cry was heard, the great eagle wheeled round in the air, and fell to the earth like a stone. The Bedouins uttered a shout of admiration at the skilful shot, and ran with the speed of hares to lift and bring the bird, which would secure to the producer thereof undisputed possession of Amina. "Allah Ackbar!" cried the handsome horseman, with a merry laugh; " God is great, and my aim is true." And while the four Bedouins rushed in one direction after the fallen eagle, he snatched up Amina, and galloped with her in the other, leaving the outwitted robbers to rend the bird, and their beards to boot, in their rage and disappointment. Aided by the flames of the burning castle, which brilliantly lighted all the valley, Messieurs Ali, Soupki, Mustapha, and Jelalodin, discharged all their abuse, and three shafts, after the mounted warrior; but his fleet Arab horse soon bore him and his beautiful prize far beyond the reach of taunts and of arrows. Binding themselves thus outwitted, they immediately made ofi with the horse, lest, by some sudden stroke of misfortune, they should be deprived of that too. CHAPTER LIX. the chief of the eunuchs. It would be difficult to describe the alarm and grief occasioned to poor Langley by the mysterious disappearance of Amina, or the sincere concern I felt in my own breast, which only a moment before nad been brimming with jo^ and ardour, excited by the THE CHIEF OF THE EUNUCHS. 233 successful escape of Cecil from the dangers which menaced and encompassed her. Twenty times Langley hastened round the tomb, and searched all the arcades of the basement; he examined all the thickets, but found only the two Arabs where he had left them, bound, gagged, and buried in their unnatural slumber; and now the double conviction, that she was indeed gone, and that we dared not stay, forced itself upon him, and he stood before us with an air of bewilderment. Until that time, I had no idea how deeply he loved her. I dared scarcely to say a word of encouragement or endearment to Cecil, lest, by doing so, I should*add to the poignancy of poor Fred's sorrow. A hasty examination of the grass near the tomb, proved by the marks of hoofs that horses had passed both eastward and westward of it; the one were those of the horse led away by the Bedouins—the former those of the horseman who bore off Amina. And, indeed, we soon discovered an indisputable trace of her, for the string of her large chaplet of those amber beads, ninety-nine in number, which all Moslem's use in prayer, had been broken as she was lifted from the ground, and these were sown along the grass in a direct line eastward on the path we were to pursue. This was fortunate. Fred picked up a number of these, and kissed them with the greatest affection, and with more of romance in his manner than I could have believed such a man of the world could exhibit. I had by this time made Cecil aware of whom he expected to have met, and of his loss and disappointment. Such was the force of old politeness and her natural kindness, that she expressed the deepest regret for having been, in some measure, the occasion of his calamity. "Do not upbraid yourself, my dear Miss Marchmont," said Fred, as he wiped from his pale and handsome face the perspiration wrung from him by this new cause for sorrow and alarm. " I now feel shame for my paltry English prejudices of race and religion; I now feel the full value of the pure jewel I have lost, and learn, in the torture of my heart, the love I bore Amina, my dear little Arabian girl! It is one of those passions we can feel but once in a lifetime. Oh, yes! once, and once only! Can you understand this ?" " Yes," faltered Cecil, while the tears fell fast over her pale and agitated face; " but, oh listen!" she added, with a shuddering expression of terror, as the wind brought towards us the noise of a gong and the patter of an Arab drum, with the conviction that, to delay a moment longer, would destroy us all; and as the last gleam of flame expired on the distant summit of Hesn-al-Mouhabib, we set off, at our horses' utmost speed, towards the East. Fred's only thought was to overtake Amina, and incessantly, until he was hoarse, he cried her name aloud, though such an action was fraught with danger to us all. My sole idea, then, was to cross the Hargiah, which forms a junction with the Shab, a few miles 284 FRANK HILTON; OR, **THE QTJEEN's OWN." below the small city of Mouab, after which their united waters roll together into the Indian Ocean, or rather, the Arabian Gulf. It was in vain that I endeavoured to account for the absence of Amina. In a wild and lawless country like Yemen, there could be no end to dark and terrible conjectures; and the circumstance of her broken chaplet being strewed along the ground, afforded painful evidence of a violent, at least a hurried departure from the tomb of Khassim. Langley's regrets were the more bitter, because he might so easily have taken her with him to the foot of the castle rock, hut had unfortunately deemed it better to spare her strength; and, more- over, he believed her to be perfectly safe in that sequestered and consecrated shrine. It was in vain also that we bade him take courage, and hope that we would soon discover some trace of her. "I thank you, Hilton," said he, with assumed calmness, as we paused a moment to breathe our horses and procure for Cecil a draught of water; " 1 thank you for your many kind efforts and soothing suppositions, but be assured they are offered in vain. By the events of to-night we have opened up an impassable gulf between ourselves and the people of Sana. As Christians, as Faringis, as fugitives, we must avoid every settlement and village, every Arab town and Bedouin tent; for in the most remote corner of Europe we should be safer than we are here. Then how shall I discover any trace of her ? And before we can reach the castle of the Abdak, and have Mohamed to prosecute another, perhaps, most fruitless search, what terrible events may not have happened to Amina, in a land like this, where women are pounced upon as lawful prizes—borne away, bought and sold, secreted and married, divorced pr murdered, at the caprice of their lawless husbands or masters. Oh, no; we shall never see Amina more. Would to Heaven, my dear fellow, I had never come to Sana—that I had never known or never seen her, and then I had not suffered all this misery !" I felt the truth and force of all Fred said, and could only sigh and be silent, as, after listening intently, without hearing any sound of pursuit, we once more spurred on our horses by the base of those green hills whose chain undulated away towards the country of Himiar. On this night the dew fell less heavily than usual, but the close- ness of the atmosphere was stifling, and though Cecil uttered no ■complaint, I could perceive by the mournful tone of her answers that she was sinking with lassitude, excitement, and fatigue. A halt for rest was absolutely necessary, as we had traversed at a hard pace nearly thirty miles of a wild and uncultivated tract of country. Inky clouds rolled slowly and heavily across the sky, obscuring the stars and shrouding its brilliant blue in a dusky pall; the scenery became—what one seldom sees it in Yemen—perfectly dark, and for a time I was pleased by the change, as I thought it favoured our flight, and knew not what that change portended. But we had no THE CHIEF OP THE EUNUCHS. 28k longer any guide as to tlie direction to be pursued, for the moon had sunk and the stars were completely hidden from us. Passing a deep and savage ravine, which had been formed partly by the winter storms, we found ourselves on the borders of what ap- peared to be an immense forest of lime, date, and palm-trees, where the low but massive ruins of some ancient walls were visible among the matted leaves and tendrils of the creeping plants—the fragrant senna, the wild figs and vines which, with a thousand luxuriant tropical weeds and flowers, were all twisted into a mass of green iungle, under which we heard the loud buzz of the wild honey-bees. Here a fountain bubbled under a broken arch, and we hastened to avail ourselves of it. In morbid silence, Pred seated himself on the ruined wall, with a hand on his horse's bridle. The excitement of riding, the idea of avoiding a pursuit, the hopes that we might be on Amina's track, or have a struggle at the sword's point, alone kept him from sinking under his sudden loss; but as he had ridden on, the bitter conviction became confirmed, that every pace of his horse was now bearing him further and further from that locality where, dead or alive, captive or free, Amina could only be found, and with this flight all hope of rescuing or recovering her died in his breast. Seated on this broken wall, with the dark ravine through which we had passed behind and the vast depth of the Arabian forest before us, Cecil drooped her head on my shoulder, and I placed one arm and hand around her; the other held the reins of our horses. " Can it be that your friend loved that fair Moslema so much ?" she asked me, softly, as we heard from time to time the sighs and ejaculations of Langley, who sat but a little apart from us on the ruined wall. " She was a very beautiful Arab girl, Cecil." " Ah !" said she, with a shudder, as she closed her eyes; " if he knew so much of Arabs as I do, he would never desire to see their faces more." "But Amina was artless, innocent, and winning as a little child, Cecil; besides, we cannot control our hearts at all times." She pressed my hand in hers, and as I kissed her upturned brow, it was throbbing, hot, and feverish. "Prank," said Langley, coming suddenly towards me, "this agony is insupportable! I trust Miss Marchmont will excuse my excited manner, and, pardon my determination, which is to leave you and her here—" 'To leave us!" I exclaimed. _ " To leave you," he reiterated, with sorrowful emphasis; " con- tinue your way to Aden. May God bless you, Prank Hilton, and may you b. happy together!" he added, putting a foot in the stirrup of his saddle. 286 EJEtAUK HILTON; OH, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." "Fred—FredLangley—this must not be!" said I, springing to the bridle of his horse. " How can I return alone—how leave you here ? What excuse could I make to O'Hara—to the regiment—to myself, for doing so ?" " Anything—anything you please. My dear Hilton, you cannot -accompany me, as Miss Marchmont's safety must be secured; hut for myself, alone I will return for Amina, as I have sworn never tc see Aden without her." " Stay," I cried, holding in his horse with all my strength—and at that moment my own snorted and neighed; " do you hear that ?" I added; " horsemen are near us, for this is an infallible sign." " Hah!—do you think so ?" said Langley, setting his teeth and unbuttoning his holsters, while he tried his horse's mouth with the ■bit to be ready for anything. I lifted Cecil into her saddle, and -sprung on horseback, for now the rush of galloping horses was echoed in the mountain pas^, and then in the stony ravines below. They were evidently on our track. Cecil uttered a half-stifled cry of terror as we leaped our horses sheer over the ruined wall, and forced a passage through the jungle by hewing it with our swords, as I rode in front and Fred by her side. Penetrating into the wood, we found a clear but narrow path, •formed by the passage of those torrents of water which, in the winter season, descend from the mountains to the Shab and the Hargiah. We were scarcely a musket-shot distant from our last halting- place by the fountain, when, amid the clang of hoofs, the neighing of horses, the rattle of chain-shirts and steel bucklers, and the clamour of many voices in guttural Arabic, we heard a half-human and half- infernal shout of triumph—such a shout as only a negro-throat can emit. " Protect us, Heaven!" exclaimed Cecil, almost paralysed, " we are lost! It is the voice of Osman Oglou, the chief of the eunuchs!" The marks of hoofs around the wall, the bruised grass, the crushed leaves and broken branches, announced that we had been there; thus we were discovered, even in the twilight, by the acute and ob- servant Arabs, and already they were close on our trail—but they /failed to follow it up. All that night, and all the next day, we remained in the recesses ■of the wood, without sustenance, and in great alarm; for occasional cries and shots in the distance announced that we were still ■ watched and followed. It was a long and dreary day of mental excitement and bodily inaction, and wearily we counted the lagging hours. Night came again; we mounted our horses, reached the forest- , path, and again set out on our perilous journey. m CHAPTER LX. hassan ali the dyer. The path soon brought us to the skirts of the wood again, and before us spread an open country, covered—so far as the gloom of the night enabled us to see—by enclosures of growing wheat and barley, and by great brown wastes, where the stubbles of the last crops of dhourra, maize and safra were remaining. The ground was soft, the country level, the boundaries, or fences, if there were any, undiscernible; and we rode furiously on, dashing tf)rough tufts of sugar-cane, coffee-trees, and balm-shrubs, and fre- quently our horses were nearly brought down by the creeping escu- lents that lay matted on the ground and seized their fetlocks, such as melons, gourds, and other plants, from under which the beautiful little gazelle, the jerboa, and the antelope, were startled, and fled from us in every direction. Several shots that were fired after us, now announced that we were seen, and that our chances of escape were lessening fast. We heard the crash of branches, shrubs, and bushes, as the horsemen came on, with that speed which the horses of Sana alone can display; and we heard, moreover, the shrill shouts of the Arab soldiers, ana the deep bass of Osman Oglou, as, full of particular vengeance against me, ho urged them in the pursuit. " Allah Ackbar!" the incessant exclamation and invariable teclir of the Arabs, rose up into the still night air; while solely intent on escaping the present pressing danger, we rode recklessly on, and in ignorance of the direction we pursued; and neither Ered nor I fired a shot in reply, knowing well that shot and powder would be wasted, as the aim of a horseman is seldom true. In the speed at which we rode, the excitement of the time, the dread I felt lest one of their random shots should strike Cecil, or lame one of our horses, I did not perceive the change that had taken place in the weather, and the lowering of the storm that was coming to save us from the foe. A range of hills now rose before us, and that range was cleft by a deep and narrow pass, which our horses seemed to approach instinctively. The dark but transparent blue of the sky became pale and livid; a watery mist arose from the hitherto aria soil, and a sulphureous odour was emitted with it; while the leaves of the trees trembled as the breath of the coming tempest passed over them. Suddenly a strange sound hurtled through the sky. " What is that ?" said Langley; " is it cannon ?" " It is thunder," I answered; " do you not see the lightning playing between these mountain-peaks ?" 288 FKANK HILTON; OE, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." "How close the atmosphere has become—good Heavens,-it is Btifling!" said Cecil, shortening her reins. "Rain!" I exclaimed, with astonishment, and not a little alarm, as one large and warm drop plashed upon my face; then I felt an- other, and another, as we dashed up the mountain pass. " There will be a storm, and a fearful one! Oh, Cecil, you may escape these Arabs, but how the storm—the storm ?" The dusky night suddenly became like a black and palpable vapour, shrouding the sky and the mountains, whose peaks could only he discerned when the lightning, either in broad red sheets or in forky and zigzag yellow bolts, shot along, as if dancing from one bare and rocky scalp to another. The warm and suffocating wind howled through the mountain gorge, and the hurtling thunder rolled along the thick, black sky over our heads. It was appalling! but anon it died away in the distance, reverberating as peak after peak gave back the sound, until comparative silence ensued, and then we heard and felt the rain, as it can only be heard and felt in the tropics, and especially in this corner of Arabia. It was an unusual season of the year for rain, which generally falls in Yemen during June and until September. In the adjacent Khalafat of Hadramaut, the rains begin in Febiuary, and cease entirely in April; but in the hot, scorched, arid promontory of Aden, it never falls but once in three years, and then it comes in such torrents as to remind us of the words of Scripture, and to make us suppose that again " the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of Heaven openedfor on the 29th of De- cember, 1842, in five hours there fell five inches of rain, and such a vast body of water poured down from the mountains, that tents and bungalows were swept away, the cantonments destroyed, and immense mischief occasioned; then the cholera followed, for there had been no fall of any consequence for fourteen years before. In one vast, broad, and united torrent, the hot, heavy, and sul- phureous rain descended on the mountains and the plain; in one second of time we were drenched, in the next, we were half-blinded and half-choked, and our horses, which, when terrified by the thunder, had increased their speed to a fearful swiftness, now relaxed it, and advanced slowly into that deep pass of the hills which led, we knew not where—it might be, back to Sana. The gorge was rapidly becoming like a mountain torrent, as the water from a thou- sand little runnels collected into a -broad stream and rolled past us in foam. Innumerable white spouts, cascades, and brooklets now poured down the hill sides and faces of the basaltic rocks; every rut, rent, and cranny became a channel—every channel a brook— every brook a torrent; and all this was visible every instant by the blue and ghastly gleams of lightning. So were every rock, herb, and tree, our flushed faces, and our panting horses, from which the steam arose in vapoury curls for they were drenched in foam before the HASSAN All THE DYEB. 289 rain fell, and the white froth from their bridles spotted the grass, the shrubs, and the deepening water. Buffeted by the gusts of wind that swept over these mountains, we rode blindly on. I know not what Fred Langley was thinking of; the fury of the storm was probably in unison with the tumult of his own thoughts; but my terror, on the one hand, lest Cecil should be recaptured, and my anxiety, on the other, for the hardships she underwent, afforded me sufficient occupation and caused me to endure additional misery; yet I never ceased encouraging her to ride on— an—and applauded the brave efforts she made to keep up with us, as we cantered on neck-and-neck together. Love makes us very selfish in some respects, I fear, for my sympathies were all for Cecil, while Fred's were doubtless nearly all for Amina. We soon cleared the mountain pass, and the current which flooded it having hitherto run against us now descended with us into the opposite plain or wadi, for we were unable to discern for a time which of the two we were traversing. The rain, which for three hours had fallen in a broad and united torrent, now ceased, and we heard only the roar of the cascades, and the hoarse gurgle of the waters through the choked-up runnels and rents in the ground; the lightning became fainter, and flashed farther off; the thunder ceased to roll overhead, it sounded on the verge of the horizon, and after a time we heard it no more. Thanks to this fearful storm, we had escaped our pursuers, and I hoped that a little rest and refreshment would restore the energies of Cecil, and enable us to continue our flight with ease and success. Like mighty veils of sombre gauze the clouds were drawn aside, and joyously we hailed the blue zenith with all its sparkling stars. Grey dawn stole along the summits of the drenched mountains, and then the saffron day spread a glow across the eastern sky, tinging with orange tints the moisture that glittered on every palm and shrub, and the foam-covered waters that rushed through the valley to join the Shab. The brightly plumaged birds came forth and shook their wings; a thin, white, silvery mist arose from the herbage, and everything announced the day would be one of intense heat—and such it proved. We rode on in silence, and it would be impossible to depict our miserable and wo-begone aspect, after that midnight ride under such a tempest of rain. I looked back towards the mountains we had left, but no pursuers appeared, and I devoutly hoped they had all tumbled into one of the water-courses and been swept away. We were traversing a green and fertile, but lonely valley, overlooked by high green hills; dense thickets closed its lower ena; a small tower, the abandoned strength of some departed tribe, crowned a fragment of rock on our left-hand; grim and tall, it resembled the peel of a Scottish baron, but we avoided it, and, dipping into the lowest part of the hollow, saw far off, at its extremity, a long string of camels passing, as I sup- posed, from Mocha towards Mareb. 290 FRANK. HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." The lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, and the howling or barking of watchdogs, among the sombre cypresses of a cemetery, announced that we were near an Arab village; and we soon saw the smoke of its fires curling through the air. This rendered the utmost circumspection necessary, and we retired into one of the palm thickets that grew on the slopes of the valley. Here Cecil lay down on a piece of rock, for all around was damp and wet as her own garments, and while Langley endeavoured to kindle a fire, I groomed the horses and prepared our pistols for any emergency. The absolute necessity of procuring some refreshment for Cecil, and also of ascertaining the direct way to Aden, compelled us to make an application at the village, and Fred being aware that I could acquit myself among these Orientals better than he, assented at once to my making an essay, against which my poor Cecil was too weak and too much prostrated in energy to make any opposition, otherwise than by the silent tears that coursed over her pale face and mingled with the moisture that clung to her dark and dis- he veiled hair, as with a farewell kiss I left her, and rode towards the village, which was built round a holy tomb and well. The hour was yet so early that few persons were abroad, and I rode up to a vener- able Arab, who was at work near the door of his flat-roofed cottage, and who appeared to be a dyer of those striped mantles generally worn by the Bedouins. To avoid exciting any unnecessary suspicion, I inquired the way to Sana, being well aware that our route must lie in the opposite direction. He told me without hesitation, adding, that this village was situated near the Shab, and not far from Alac. He then asked if I was a nakib of the imaum's cavalry? " I am," I replied, without hesitation; "but I am astonished that {rou could have guessed it, considering my present plight after the ast night's storm. Praised be the Prophet, it is passed." "And have you overtaken those of whom you were in pursuit?" he asked, while several men came from their doors and narrowly observed me. His question gave me a shock, and I replied, that having "just come from Aden, where I had been on a mission to the unsainted Faringis, I knew not to what he referred." "God is great!" said he, lifting up his hands; "but is it possible that thou livest, and art in ignorance of what occurred at Hesn-al-Mouhabib lately? Two of those accursed Kafirs came from that polluted place called Aden to the footstool of our holy imaum, the lord of all Arabia; and aided by a talisman that cast a cloud before the eyes of Osman Oglou, the chief eunuch, gained admittance to the sacred Rose Garden of the seraglio, profaned by their hands the person of Solyman, and bore away the beautiful slave whom our sultan—he who rules the world as it has never been ruled since the days of Jengiz Khan—received from Sheikh Ibrahim, and now they have fled towards Aden, leaving Hesn-al-Mouhabib, HASSAJSf ALI THE DYER. 291 the eighth wonder of the world, a pile of flaming ruins. But they cannot escape, for the sacred banner of Sana has been displayed and the great gong beaten! Everywhere the Yemenees are roused, and Ali Badr—thou knowest him ?" " Mahmoud Ali! I know him well; hooknosed, blackbearded, and tall: well?" " He, with black Osman and a troop of soldiers passed through our village not an hour since, in pursuit of them." I was thunderstruck by the tidings of this garrulous Arab! That our pursuers should have passed us on the stony mountains appeared almost incredible; yet the intelligence was too circumstantial to be doubted. My heart sank at the idea of the so-called sacred banner having been displayed. The palladium of Sana, it was composed of a piece of Mohammed's shirt, with a fragment of the curtain that hung before the chamber of his best-beloved wife Kadijah, and locks of their hair were said to be woven among its embroidery. It was most religiously guarded, and kept in the seraglio of Hesn-al- Mouhabib, from whence it was never taken but on the most pressing emergencies of war; for under it Khassim the Great had conquered Yemen, and when displayed, every Mussulman was bound, under the pains of hell, to rally round it! When this infernal standard was unfurled our escape seemed hopeless, and I sat on horseback, gazing at my informant, pale, weary, and irresolute as to what my next proceeding should be, while my hands wandered about my holsters, and the dark-visaged villagers crowded round, with wild and inquiring looks, that were not very encouraging. " He is very Eke a Earingi of Aden," said one. " So is the Yizier Rabd-al-Hoosi," said I, sharply, " and yet, Bismillah! there is no truer son of Islam." The information just given made me anxious to return to those I had left; but how to convey to them food from a place where none was sold, I knew not. However, as the danger of loitering was- apparent, I turned to the old dyer. " What is your name, my friend ?" I asked, firmly. " Hassan Ali Ibn Baba," he replied, evidently impressed by my pretending to make a note of it, in my soaked memorandum-book. "You are certain that Ali Badr passed through here within an hour ?" " Certain, as that my head, which is at your service, 0 nakib, is now upon my shoulders. He had eighteen horsemen, and ten dromedaries with shuternauls on their saddles." " Then I must turn back and endeavour to overtake them without a moment's delay." "Will the nakib not dismount and partake of the breakfast which my wife is preparing ?" " I thank you, good Hassan Ali," I replied; " but that is im- possible. Yet, as I am faint and sick, if you will bring me a flask of 292 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." wine and a loaf, I will pay you well, and the vizier shall hear of it when cloaks are required for the royal household." ^ Hassan Ali placed his hands upon his head, in token of obedience, entered his cottage, and almost immediately returned with the loaf required; hut the bottle of wine was not so easily procured in a place where its use was forbidden, and men were consequently unwilling to acknowledge that they possessed it. However, a flask was brought and paid for. I secured it, with the loaf, in the ample pockets of my benish, and turning my horse's head, with an Arabian salutation to the people, trotted out of the village, dipped into the thickets, and took my way to the grove where I had left Cecil and Fred Langley. A terrible suspicion flashed upon my mind that I might find them both gone just as Fred had missed Amina. This made me spur on my poor horse till the blood dropped from his flanks; nor was I assured till, on giving a loud halloo, I heard Langley's faint rejoinder from among the shady palms, on the broad leaves and jointed stems of which the morning beams were glistening. CHAPTER LXI. THE KHANJA. To my joy I found that Cecil had fallen asleep, being quite overcome by her fatigue and the late occurrences. Fred had lighted a fire, and partially dried her upper garments; but my information, and the imminent danger of our situation, made him immediately extinguish it. The sound of my voice awoke Cecil, and kneeling down by hei side, I tenderly raised her head. A slice of bread soaked in wine formed a repast for each of us, and, imitating the Arabs, I gave each of our horses the same, and then we looked narrowly at curb chain and saddle girth, for we had yet far and fast to ride, and the waters of a swollen river rolled between us and Aden. Langlev was very low in spirit, and when I begged him to take courage, and believe that, through the influence and power of her brother Mohamed the emir, we would yet recover Amina, he shook his head sadly, and said,— " To leave you here would be dangerous to myself and unjust to you; thus I will accompany you so far as the first tower of the Turkish wall at Aden—but not one step further. Then I will return to Sana, and even to the Castle of the Graces, in search of the poor girl I have lost. Come, let us be moving, if Miss Marchmont leels sufficiently refreshed; for we are in a dangerous vicinity, and the sun is yet far from its meridian. But let us take another glance at the pocket-map, and be sure of the direction we pursue." Our clothes were now nearly dry; the wine and bread had refreshed THE KHAN J A. 293 us, and Cecil -was greatly revived by our halt. Mounting, we de- parted about eight m the morning, and riding at an easy pace, made a detour to avoid the village which was so near us, and through which the foe had passed so recently. The sun soared into the blue and cloudless sky; the day became gradually and intensely hot. The silver vapour which (during the first hours of the morning) was exhaled from wood and valley, disap- peared, and the whole landscape around us seemed to palpitate and tremble under the clear hot splendour of the day. We now rode rapidly in that direction which we thought should bring us to the Shab; for, being on its left bank, we had to re-enter the kingdom of Yemen before we could reach the British settlement. Through fer- tile plains, where the sugar-cane, the cotton-tree, and the senna-plant grew in wild luxuriance, through groves where the golden-orange, the acid critron, and brown pomegranate wove their varied foliage together; over tracts of yellow sand bordered by mountains of bril- liant green, or by black scorched rocks of columnar basalt, we rode on, and hailed with pleasure the high meridian, wThen, without having seen a vestige of the foe, we cantered for rest and shelter towards a {file of ruins, that stood upon the shoulder of a hill before us, over- ooking a beautiful wadi which extended to the east and west. Adapted to the windings of the rocks, which were rent by many a gaping chasm and rugged rift, walls of mud and stones overgrown by creepers and wild grass, surrounded the steep, and were the remains of some old Turkish strength, formed, perhaps, by the viceroys, as a bulwark against the khalifs of Hadramaut. Within this mud rampart were four ruined towers, disfigured by many a rent and gap. To these ruins an archway, opening to a narrow path, gave admittance. We rode in, and dismounted among the long rank grass that grew within the walls, where the serpents were hissing and the owl and eagle sereaming, as we roused them from their lairs and nests. Off the court-yard there opened a number of shady arches, and around their mouths the wild figs and vines linag in long thick wavy screens. Into one of these recesses we led our horses, and removing their saddles, groomed them with the utmost care. Within the ruins flowed a fine well—the greatest of all luxuries in such a climate—and after procuring some water in the broad leaves of a wild plant, we all reclined among the long cool grass of the vault to rest ourselves for the longer journey which was yet be- fore us. I placed my cheek to Cecil's brow, and finding it hot and feverish, brought her more of the limpid water, and laved her pallid face and thin white hands; then we sat long in silence, for lassitude and deep thoughts were upon us. Poor Langley, who had not closed an eve since—I know not when—fell into a heavy but dreamy sleep. Cecil rested her head upon my shoulder, and also slept, for my arm was around her, and she felt secure—perhaps even happy._ I had placed her in the coolest earner of the ruined vault, and 294 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." tenderly adjusted lier torn dress over her. She opened her eyes for a moment, and smiling, drew my face towards her and kissed me; then she closed them, and as she resigned herself to sleep, somewhat of the former placid softness stole over her wan and wasted features. Supporting her, I gazed upon them as she slept—gazed upon her as a mother gazes on her first-born infant in its soft and innocent sleep. Our horses stood close by, looking at us from time to time, wit! their fine eyes shining and their nostrils quivering with that hot Arabian blood which is so famous in the annals of the stud. The vault we occupied was so cool and delightful that it was with the utmost difficulty I resisted an inclination to sleep; but I thanked heaven that Cecil was slumbering, for I knew how much her slender energies required repose, and I passed the time in contemplating her pale wan face, with its closed eyes and dark tresses—that dear soft face, every feature of which reminded me of other, of happier, and of younger day§. Visible through the thick natural screen of green leaves which hung before the bare and shattered vault, I could see the arched entrance of this old castle of the Turkish times, and far beyond it, mellowed in the haze, the sunny landscape we had yet to traverse before we reached the banks of the long-wished-for river. For nearly two hours my companions continued to sleep, though many a convulsive start and half-muttered exclamation evinced that in their dreams the dangers we had passed, and those yet to come, were floating before them. I believe I was just about to sleep too, for the abandonment, the cool repose, the secrecy and perfect soli- tude ctf the place, as contrasted with the burning heat withput, were delicious and alluring; my eyes were gradually closing, and uncon- sciousness was stealing over me, when I experienced something like an electric shock, on perceiving the sudden apparition of an Arab, mounted on a fine dromedary, with all his weapons sparkling in the sun, appear at the gateway of the ruin, where he was almost imme- diately joined by a second, and then by a third and fourth, all simi- larly accoutred and mounted. They were all clad in chain shirts, with shields, swords, match- locks and spears, and their animals were brilliantly caparisoned with tasselled harness. Two of these new-comers wore red turbans; one had a white head-dress of ample dimensions, though his face was black as ebony, for he was no other than Osman Oglou, captain of the eunuchs. In the fourth, by his swarthy visage, tippet of mail, and steel cap surmounted by a bird of paradise plume, I recognised Mahmoud Ali Badr, captain of the imaum's horse guard. We were beset! The slightest sound might betray us, and I expected to see them examine the grass for the usual indications of horses' hoofs, but they conversed quietly together, and looked repeatedly out of the arch- way into the plain or valley before it. They then rode into the THE KHANJA. 295 centre of the grass-grown court, and dismounting in the shade, seated themselves on the sward, and proceeded to light their pipes, within twenty feet of the place where I was breathlessly watching them, and where my unconscious companions slept. "It is said the Ghoule Biaban haunts these ruins," said Osman Oglou. " I hope those sons of burnt fathers, who yet loiter on the moun- tains, know that this is our muster place," said Ali Badr; " it is time they were all come in—wallah ! but I will not lay the bastinado lightly on the last who pickets his horse beside us." " There cannot be a doubt," said another, " it was one of those Kafirs who bought the bread and wine from Hassan Ali the dyer. " Ass that he was to throw dirt on his beard and bring the basti- nado on his feet by such an admission!" said Ali Badr, with a laugh. "We have ridden far and swiftly as yet, and to no purpose; but, wallah! and by the soul of the Prophet, if ever I have the fortune to come withm arm's length of those sacrilegious Pranks, they shall weep in tears of blood that black night's work at liesn-al- Mouhabib!" Makmoud said this with the most ferocious energy, and as he spoke a malicious brightness was kindled in the eyes of Osman Oglou, who added— " May their fathers' graves be defiled ! But we will soon over- take them, unless they have crossed the river, which may God avert!" By this time I had roused Cecil and Pred, and made them aware of our imminent danger. He was perfectly cool and collected; but when poor Cecil saw Osman Oglou, whose dreadful face reminded her of her past misery and captivity, her whole features became con- vulsed by a terror which froze her energies. "As yet there are only four," said I; "but as this is their muster- place, the whole troop will soon be here, so action—instant action alone can save us." "I could pick off the whole four by my revolver, like a covey of partridges, now, just as they sit," said Pred, with grim deliberation; " but that would be something very like assassinating them. Come, then, let us saddle the horses, and trust to their heels." "But to our own heads and hands, in the first place," I whis- pered, while drawing the girths tight, and scarcely knowing what was to be done; for my reader may easily imagine how I dreaded to expose Cecil to fresh terrors. "Pred," said I, "we must sally out, sword in hand, and cut our way through them." "But if there are more outside, which is very probable, what then?" " Trust to our swords and to Providence," said 1. "We will be fired on," he observed, "for they have shuternauk at their saddles." 296 FRANK HILTON; OB, THJB QUEEN'S OWN." "And Cecil!—to expose iier to the peril of shot." " Do not be alarmed for her," said Fred, " and cease to be alarmed for yourself, Miss Marchmont. Your life is of too much consequence to the imaum, the protector of the world—the d—ned old bear!— to be lightly risked; thus, perhaps, not one bullet will be fired." " You are right, Fred," said I, in a joyous whisper, " I did not think of that before; thank you, thank you for the idea." "Come, let us mount; the arch is high enough. We must make a bold dash for liberty." I besought Cecil to take courage, for now all depended upon that. "Oh! take pity on me, Frank," said she, imploringly, "and forgive my timidity, for I feel as if about to die. If you knew all the horror Black Osman's face has summoned up within me—" . " By Heaven, I will send a pistol shot through it!" I replied, with fiery bitterness, " I feel, dear, dear Frank, like one struck by palsy—I have neither thought nor feeling." I placed a hand upon her heart; it had almost ceased to beat, and her sweet, sad face became livid ; but suddenly she raised her head, and suppressing, or shaking off her terror, as she gathered fortitude from desperation, and from her fear for me, perhaps, rather than for herself, she grasped her reins, and working her horse up in hand a little, to be ready for the start, said,— " Now, Frank, lead on, I am ready." I took her horse by the bridle, and with a pistol in my own bridle hand, and my sword in my teeth, prepared to dash out of the vault at full speed by spurring and checking my horse. Fred did the same; and then tearing aside the foliage-screen with one hand, I gave Cecil's horse a smart stroke on the flank with the blade of my sword, on which it bounded out of the vault and across the grass-grown court like an arrow. Half a horse's length behind, we followed her at full gallop; and, partly in a spirit of bravado and partly revenge, I discharged my pistol full among the four Moslems, and then brandishing aloft its smoking barrel, uttered a reckless hurrah as we swept on through the archway and down the path from the ruins into the plain below. " Allah Ackbar! to horse—to arms, 0 Mahmoud 1" cried Black Osman, on seeing us. " The Kafirs—the unblest Kafirs, by the Holy Kaaba!" cried the others, as they rushed to their cattle. It was now evident that nothing but hard riding would save us, and where lay the Shab ? The sun was in the western quarter of the sky, the shadows of the hills and trees were lengthening; in all the far extent of the level vale which stretched away towards the east, I could perceive no trace of armed men, and we rode furiously on without exchanging a word or drawing a bridle, while the shrill cries of the two Arabs and the eunuchs, ivho were now mounted and galloping after us, were sweet past on the soft west wind. THE khanja. 237 Suddenly we heard two loud reports, and a ball hissed close by me. I looked back and perceived that two, who had far outstripped their companions, had dismounted from their dromedaries, which were kneeling down with their heads bent low, while their masters levelled at us their shuternauls, or swivel-guns, which were screwed to the back of their saddles. We were far beyond pistol-range; but as those arquebusses throw a much larger ball than a musket, they kill at a greater distance. Thrice Mahmoud Ali Badr and his two soldiers dismounted; thrice their living gun-carriages kneeled down, while their shuternauls were loaded, levelled, and fired; but happily the balls fell wide of their mark; and,as much time was lost by this diminutive cannonading, we soon placed a great distance between us and the foe. Ko pause, however, was made by the fierce and vindictive Osman Oglou, who, cimitar in hand, with his lance and buckler slung by his side, rode carefully, surely, and not overswiftly on, following us with savage coolness and deliberation; for he was resolved to husband the strength of his dromedary, and I was well aware that ultimately our horses would fail first, as their powers of activity and endurance were far inferior to those of the ship-of-the-desert, as the Arabs name those uncouth animals. The valley widened out into a spacious and uncultivated plain, bor- dered in the distance by green hills, and here and there, at long intervals, were clumps of the soft acacia, and the date-palm with its thick and sombre foliage. From one of these groves we heard the Arab tecbir ringing, and to our inexpressible confusion, saw a troop of about twenty horsemen, with turbans and uplifted spears, riding as the Arabs always ride, in a confused crowd, but spurring on like the wind to intercept us. " On—on," cried I; " there is yet hope that we may give these scoundrels the go-by in gallant style." " If our horses hold out," added Fred; and it was my principal fear that they would fail; for I had now seen that Cecil was an expert and daring horsewoman, and was under no apprehension of her sinking, save from excessive fatigue. We passed these new pursuers, who, after firing a pistol-shot or two, joined Ali Badr, and they all pushed on together; but still they were far behind the inde- fatigable Osman Oglou, whose long-legged dromedary, with its feet thrown well out, and its nose in the air, came gliding noiselessly and close behind us, like a shadow. The horsemen evidently belonged to Ali Badr's troop of the imaum's regular forces, for they were armed with long lances, sabres, pistols, and curved daggers; they were dressed according to fancy, but all had boots drawn over their bare legs, and wore turbans, the ends of which drooped on their shoulders. They rode the magnifi- cent horses of Sana, which are esteemed among the best in Arabia, We had passed them all; but still Osman stuck, like a black leech, to our skirts, and now Ali Badr was close behind him. "This is intolerable!" said I, wheeling round my horse, and 298 TRAXK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN.** drawing a second pistol from my holster; " if this fellow comes close enough to fire his shuternaul, one of us must go down." " I levelled and fired; but he threw himself flat on the drome- dary's back; the ball whistled harmlessly over his head, and he uttered a shout of triumph as he came on again, while I was obliged to turn and spur on without having time to reload. " The Shab—the river! here it rolls right in front of us," cried Fred. And suddenly, between an opening in the thick brushwood, sugar- canes, withered dhourra, and occasional date-palms, I perceived the broad expanse of the stream, flooded by the last night's rain, and swollen by a thousand tributary runnels, rolling in foam towards the east. Our jaded and sinking horses could never swim it; there was no bridge, for the country was all a wilderness, and despair began to seize me—for now we had death before and death behind us. Be- lieving our escape to be impossible, the Arabs rode more leisurely, all, at least, save Osman and Ali Badr, with a third, who were almost within musket-shot of us, when we drew up our horses on the river's margin, and gazed on each other with pale and inquiring faces. Cecil uttered a faint cry as her horse sank under her, lolled out its tongue, and turned back its bloodshot eyes. The animal was dying! Fred's ready arm adroitly caught her by the waist as the horse fell, and our tender charge was thus saved from some dreadful accident. I had reloaded my pistols, my mind was full of rage and bitterness, with sorrow and compassion for Cecil; for I anticipated that we would be cruelly slaughtered before her face, while she would be reserved for worse than a speedy death. A sickness came over my heart. "Dead beat!" groaned Langley, grasping his revolver; "dead beat, and they are coming up at a hard trot!" " Ah, if we could but reach yonder boat!" exclaimed Cecil, in the accents of despair. " Boat! my beloved Cecil—where ?" I asked. " Among the sugar-canes; do you not see its mast ?" "I do—I do. This way, Fred; it is a khanja; we are saved— we are saved!" I exclaimed, as I lifted Cecil to my saddle, and forced my floundering horse through the high reeds and matted iowlies towards a place where the low mast rose above them, with a little red streamer on its summit. It proved to be a khanja—one of the ordinary vessels of the trading Arabs on the coast, and was merely a large boat, without any deck, save at the bow, where there is usually a small covered place, lighted at one side; the cordage was composed of palm-tree rope, and the sails of coarsely-woven matting. Reining in his horse, and flinging its bridle to me, Fred rushed to the waist-belt among the soft slime and the jowlies, and grasping the warp, drew the khanja close in shore, and placed Cecil on board. THE KHANJA. 299 This done, he had scarcely time to spring into his saddle, when our headmost pursuers, Ali Badr, Black Osman, and two of their com- rades, were upon us, with brandished lances and. levelled pistols. We were but two to four, and we were worn and faint, whereas they and their much-enduring dromedaries were comparatively fresh; and any- thing they lacked in strength they made up amply in rage and abuse. Moreover, all their weapons were as sharp as razors, and of that un- rivalled temper Damascus steel alone possesses. I remember a major of the Turkish artillery telling me that once, during a review lately in the valley of Khassim. Pasha (near Constan- tinople), he had seen Patima, the female Colonel of the Bashi Bozouks, ride at full gallop past a silver crown-piece, and cut it in two, as it lay on the ground, by one blow of her Damascus cimitar—but to resume. Two or three pistol-shots flew harmlessly past me, and at the same moment the four barrels of Pred's revolver rid us of two of the assailants, who fell severely "wounded; but then the chief of the eunuchs and captain of horse charged us with their heads stooped, their shields upon their breasts, and their long lances levelled before them. The rest of their troop were then about a mile distant. " Allah is gracious ! Thanks be to him we have got them all at last!" cried the gallant Ali Badr, as Pred engaged him hand to hand without delay, after cutting his lance in two by one fortunate blow. Osman Oglou then charged me. Avoiding the thrust by swerving round my horse, I arrested the passing shaft by my bridle hand, ana dealt him a furious and backhanded blow on the head; but my sword, though a heavy one, turned on the tempered links of a steel chain, which was twisted in the folds of his white cotton turban. Again and again I repeated the blow, while the powerful black eunuch strove frantically to tear away his spear; and side by side my snorting horse and his grunting dromedary splashed and swayed through the mud and thelong green jowlies. " Dog, and son of an unblest dog, may thy father burn! I spit upon thy beard!" cried the infuriated eunuch, the appendages of whose mouth resembled the whiskers of a cat; " and if 1 do not slay thee, may I never draw sword or breath again!" At these words we parted for a moment, as he relinquished the spear and drew his sword; and at that terrible crisis I heard the cries of Cecil rising faintly above the clashing of the swords and splashing of our animals among the weeds and slimy water; for she saw the rest of the troop advancing, and it was evident that unless we could rid ourselves of our present assailants instantly, we should be overborne and taken, or slain. I fought blindly and despairingly, raining blow after blow at the more wary eunuch, who was skilfully husbanding his great strength. My whole soul seemed to be in my head—every impulse of life nad rushed from my heart to my brain; I was giddy with the tumult of 300 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." dreadful thoughts that beset me—giddy with terror for Cecil; and I mentally vowed that dearly—dearly, indeed—should these slaves of Solyman paj for their victory. That inherent love of blood and slaughter which is a part of the eastern nature, made the aspect of Osman and Badr frightfully menacing and ferocious. Their curled upper lips showed their white teeth; their bloodshot eyes protruded and glared like those of a strangling dog; their countenances—one black, the other brown—became livid as, with all the fury of unflineh- ing bravery, and the courage that numbers and religious rancour always give even to cowards, they pressed on us; but there was not one drop of coward's blood in their fierce and gallant hearts. I had exchanged some nine or ten blows with Osman, and given him one severe cut across his nose (which was already flat enough) when he made the deadly but favourite thrust of the Arabs, at the pit of my stomach, with his short, crooked sword; again I caught his weapon, but this time by the hilt, and turning the point of my blade, made a lunge at his throat; but he threw his body aside, thus my sword was driven through his right arm, and I hurled him head- long from his dromedary among the jowlies, and then rushed to free Fred from Ali Badr, whose keen Damascus sabre had cut through his military regulation sword and left him quite at his mercy. They had grappled with each other, and were struggling for life ana death. Fred had grasped the Arab firmly by the sword-arm and his sacred beard, while the Arab had seized him in turn by the throat, and vainly strove to pierce him with his short and sharp-edged sabre; but just at the moment I approached, Langley snatched from Badr's silk girdle one of his long-barrelled Turkish pistols, and dealing him three tremendous blows upon the face and head with its heavy brass butt, threw him prone and senseless among the sedges. " Let us haul in the 'khanja, cut the rope, and be off!" cried I; but the active Langley had again quitted the saddle, and was already in the water hauling in the little vessel. We clambered on hoard; I slashed through the painter, which was of tough palm-tree rope, by repeated blows of my sword, and aided by its oars we shot the little vessel out into the stream, just as the sun set behind the mountains of Alac, and just as the whole band of Arabs—some on horseback and others on dromedaries—all armed with lances, swords, matchlocks, and shuternauls, came furiously down to the sedgy bank of jowlies and gave us a farewell volley of balls and abuse. Long before this, overcome by her horror of the combat on the river's bank, my unhappy Cecil had fainted, and lay at the bottom of the khanja perfectly inanimate and unconscious of everything. " Hurrah!" cried I—" out sweeps, Fred!—we shall soon be clear of Hadramaut!" We pulled vigorously, and shot after shot swept over us, while the light khanja was borne down the flooded stream like a straw or a reed. 301 CHAPTER LXII. AN ARAB LOVER. In spite ol' her tears and entreaties, her cries and threats, the gay horseman who had carried off Amina, rode at a speed which soon left the flaming summit of Hesn-al-Monhabib behind in the obscurity of night. He spurred for nearly ten miles without drawing his bridle, and during the whole of that time Amina wept and com- plained. At last he halted, and dismounting with great grace and agility, lifted her off, placed her on a grassy bank, picqueted his horse to the truncheon of his spear, which he stuck in the turf, and then seated himself beside her. The pale face of the moon rested on the ridge of a hill; the stars were bright, and the sky clear; and Amina could see around her distinctly to a great distance; but the whole place seemed a perfect solitude. There was no help nigh, and when reflecting for the thousandth time upon what the emotions l»f Langley would be, when he came to Khassim's tomb and found iter gone, she burst into an uncontrollable fit of weeping. The spot where they sat was beautiful; the delicate coffee-tree grew under the shade of the sturdy walnut and spreading lime, anc' the snow-white flowers and expanding berries of the cotton platf grew among the banks of rock which teemed with fragrant wil( flowers. The young horseman was very handsome, and in his air and aspec reminded Amina much of that dear brother, Mohamed, for whom sh( treasured in her heart a love that had something filial in it. Hit features were regular, noble, and strongly marked by the dark hue of his eyebrows, moustachios, and eyes; his skin was of a rich trans- parent yellow colour, and through it the blood flushed at times in crimson tints, but being embrowned by exposure, he was like a beautiful statue of the palest bronze when the sun shines on it. His arms, steel cap, and shirt-of-mail, his Damascus sword, his Turkish pistols, dagger, horn, and accoutrements were of the finest workman- ship. His manner was very winning, and he left nothing unsaid to soothe the fears and grief of Amina, and artfully urged, from time to time, the passion with which her youth and beauty had inspired him, and which her unfriended position had encouraged him to pursue. " Ah, unhappy me!" she exclaimed; " first I was stolen from my dear brother's home by the followers of a barbarian " "And this barbarian—who was he ?" asked the horseman. " A wretch, infamous alike for his cruelty and his crimes, and hideous ias the Ghoule Biaban!" _ " Tell me who is the man, and by the Prophet's head, I will lay his at your feet before another moon comes round." " Ahmed, the Sultan of Shugra." 302 FBANK HILTON; OB,, "THE QHEEN's OWN." Tlie Arab uttered a loud laugh, which shook all the rings of his mail shirt. " My beautiful, my beloved one! and so thou art the sister of Mohamed-al-llaschid ?" said he, taking Amina's hand in his. " Do not be alarmed when I tell you that I am Ahmed of Shugra, the sultan of all the Euthalis." "Thou—thou?" said poor Amina, recoiling in terror, "oh, it is impossible, for Ahmed is said to be frightful and ferocious as Soly- man of Sana." "I am, indeed, the Sultan Ahmed. Would I were a slave if I found more favour in those beautiful eyes. I heard much of thy beauty, Amina, yet until I saw thee had no more idea of its lustre than the poor Faringis of Aden had of the sun till they landed in Arabia. I laid a little plan to bear thee off, but the men to whom I entrusted it marred it all, and thou wert sold—sold to a Kafir! But the wretches are dead, so I need not heap dust on their beards. May thy favour increase, Amina ! Why should my face seem black before thee ? Mohamed and his wild Abdali have ruined Shugra, nor left my aged mother a roof wherewith to shelter her; I vowed to have sure vengeance, yet will I forgive both him and them, if thou wilt say, f Ahmed, I love thee.' " " Ahmed would not have me tell a he;" said Amina, "my heart is in the breast of another." "Mohamed's hands are red with the blood of my people—he has carried off our young maidens, and cut the throats of our old men." " Alas, alas !—for what ?" " The loss of thee. But it was their destiny, and what earthly power could avert it ? It is mine to love thee, and thine to be my bride, Amina. I have only known thee an hour, and already my whole heart worships thee." He attempted to place an arm round her, but Amina eluded him. " Shall I ride after the Bedouins, and restore thee to them," he asked, with a smile, " or whether will you remain with me ?" "Of the two evils, I would rather remain with thee," sobbed Amina, whose heart was swollen with grief at her apparently hope- less separation from us; for she knew well, that to avoid ruin and death, if we escaped from Hesn-al-Mouhabib, we would have to seek Aden without delay, and of the distance and locality of that place— having never been beyond the vale of Jebel Ahmer—she had a very vague idea. " Beneath the light of thine eyes my heart is melted," continued Ahmed, in the style of Oriental hyperbole so natural to the Arabs; " it has become a part of thine; love me, dearest Amina, and neve* again will I shoot shaft or shot against the Abdali of Mohamed— neither will I lift sword or spear against them. I will be their firm friend in peace, and the foe of their foes in war! and all this I swear, by the soul and seal of Solyman Ibn Daood." AN ARAB LOVER. 303 "Remember, O sultan, tliat I love another, and that to him my faith is pledged," said Amina, despairingly. 14 And who is this other ? askecf Ahmed, haughtily and gloomily, wliile his eyes gleamed and his cheek flushed. Amina trembled, but did not reply. 44 Speak—answer me," said he, grasping her slender wrist. "A gentleman of Frangistan," she replied, timidly, and with something of shame for the avowal; " a brave soldier of Aden, who saved me from disgrace, and would—but for thee, perhaps—have restored me to my people." The Arab stood for a moment, silent and confounded. 44 A Kafir—a Faringi!" said he, with scorn in his tone and anger in his air; " doth not the blessed Koran say to the faithful, 4 kill them, wherever you find them, and turn them out of that whereof they have dispossessed yousword of Ali! and a Kafir would dis- possess me of thee ? No, no, Amina—an eagle mates with an eagle,, and not with a common hen; thus, a true believer weds a true believer. Let the abhorred of the Prophet wed one who is equally abhorred, that they may tremble together when the 4 trumpet of con- sternation' rends yonder mountains with its blast; and that together they may drink boiling-water in the pit of Hell, as the sixth chapter of the Koran tells us. A Kafir! and wouldst love a poor Kafir, from the land where the sun never shines, where there is no food but fish, and whose kings live in a kliania ?" added Ahmed, with a loud laugh that savoured more of real amusement than anger;. "Wallah! my dear girl, either this is the wickedness of Eblis, or it is mere insanity, and must be thought of no more, for now Ahmed of the Futhalis lays his heart and his spear before- thee." " Oh ! what will my dear friend think when he finds that I am irrecoverably lost ?" " Let him think what he pleases, the accursed Kafir! I would, that all such were swept from the earth into their last home in the Well of Borhut." "He will think I have deserted him!" said Amina, wringing her hands and weeping, as her liveLy imagination drew a true and vivid picture of poor Fred's sorrow and perplexity at the tomb of the lmaum Khassim. " It is now midnight," said the roving prince, as he consulted the- stars; 44 the dew is falling like winter ram, and dost thou mean to. weep on thus till morning ? Will tears, even if thou sheddest aa- many as the tribe of Ad, bring thee nearer to this unbeliever, or him, nearer to thee F or will they wash thine image from my heart ? No< —they will not; so it would be wiser by far, my beautiful Amina* to creep under this mantle which I will hang as a canopy from the branch of a tree, and share with me this warm barracan, and m/ ample benish; the fur of one and the folds of the other will be more than a tent for us both, and thus protected we may sweetlv sleep. 304 FRANK HILTON; OH, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." till morning. Come, dearest Amina, come, for thou art the star of Ahmed's soul." But Amina only shrunk back, and her tears fell the faster. " Amina, I know that thy brother Mohamed is the idol and pride of thy heart—thy star of stars! fov he hath been father, mother, and brother to thee, all in one; and to him will I restore thee, if thou wilt only love me—and in this I ask but little from one who loves a Kafir!" he added, bitterly ; but still Amina only wept. The Sultan of the Futhalis said everything that the ample and forcible language of his country supplied, to illustrate the strength of his sudden and absurd passion; he made the most splendid pro- mises, and to fulfil them, vowed that he would sack the great Bezes- tien of Sana and the bazaars of Mocha; but Amina only answered by her tears, and seeing at last that nothing was to be made of her, and that he could not commit himself to sleep while she mourned and wept, the princely Arab threw over her his rich warm benish, and then struck a light with that apparatus which none of his people are ever without, prepared his chibouque, folded his legs under him, placed his back against a tree, and prepared for a long and quiet smoke, as a solace under past misfortunes and present disappoint- ment. In this primitive land of lawlessness and outrage, where, though all were free, the rights of common liberty were, curiously enougn, but little understood, and where the life of an immortal being was valued infinitely less than that of a horse, it can excite no wonder that Amina, with all her gentleness, affectionate spirit, and occasional timidity, had imbibed somewhat of firmness and courage with that energy which, under certain circumstances, might have made her a heroine—if one so very small in stature, and so child-like in her beauty—could indeed become a heroine. Thus, while the amorous Ahmed sat under the broad leaves of a date palm, smoking, and regarding her with that expression of satisfaction which we gene- tally bestow upon a new and pleasing purchase, present, or acquis! tion—such as a picture, a cabinet, or horse—Amina was revolving in her mind all the plans and modes of escape she could think of, and was not without a faint hope of being enabled to rejoin her beloved Faringi. But the sleepless night passed away; the east began to brighten as the circle of the dawn spread over the whole sky, and a rosy tint succeeded the clear cold grey ; the shadows of every shrub ana treo fell far along the earth, and still she sat there with the benish hang« ing loosely over her shoulders ; her pale cheek wet with tears, and her black tresses damp with dew; and now, after grooming his horse, preparatory to commencing his journey—Amina knew not where—the chief of the Futhalis turned to a fountain that flowed near them, for the purpose of performing those ablutions which are necessary before that morning prayc w»th which every good Mussulman begins the dav. THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 305 To lave his beard, he removed his steel cap, with its little tippet or flap of mail, and placed it on the low and rough stone parapet which enclosed the fountain, and then as his evil geni—or Amina's better angel—directed, the head-piece, which was surmounted by a valuable diamond, the palladium of his house, fell, by some unaccountable chance, plashing into the water. Ahmed uttered an exclamation of impatience, and stooping over the little wall, repeatedly endeavoured to recover it, but without success, for the well was deep; yet he was determined to have back his head-piece, for the diamond was a talisman which his father had received from the powerful Imaum of Muscat—the same opulent prince who, not long since, presented A line-of-battle ship to the Queen of Great Britain.* Now it seemed to Amina that her time was come! Invoking the protection of Eatima, the daughter of the Prophet, she stole towards the horse of Ahmed, leaped into its soft velvei saddle, and wrenched away the spear to which it was picqueted. At that moment the horse uttered a neigh, and Amina a cry of minded triumph and terror, as she urged the animal into a gallop. "Wallah, my horse!" cried Ahmed, rushing to his matchlock; "thou ridest like the female guards of Java, but come back, or I will fire!" But he immediately flung the weapon down, and ran after the fugitive, whistling and crying on his horse. The latter seemed somewhat inclined to obey its master's familiar voice, and was about to turn, when Amina, rendered desperate, drew a silver bodkin from her hair, and—while she grasped the great knob of the war saddle by her left hand—plunged it thrice into the glossy flank of the steed, which sprung away like an arrow, and left its breathless and bare-headed master, the sultan, far behind, minus both horse and head-piece. CHAPTER LXIII. THE PIRE-WORSHIPPERS, "Perpihiocs wretch!" thought Amina, "I have outwitted yot^ even as you outwitted those robber Bedouins, and I owe you neither thanks nor gratitude, for you were indeed the first bad cause of all my danger and misery. The saddle of the horse was similar to those generally used by, Turkish horsemen; it was covered with cloth ana had in front a high crooked peak, furnished with a knob like the butt of a large pistol, profusely adorned with gold and silver work. Though an expert horsewoman, Amina rode on this saddle with great difficulty; but fear and hope added to her natural energy, and she kept the fine steed at a hand gallop for many miles in the direction from which * The Imaum, of seventy-two guns. -306 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." she believed it had come overnight, and thus she expected every moment to see the blackened summit of Hesn-al-Mouhabib, or the gilded dome of Khassim's tomb appear before her, among the green orange and citron trees that clothed the whole landscape. But neither one nor the other appeared; the country gradually became desolate, the trees were left behind, and about noon she found herself in a bleak and open valley, surrounded by columnar masses of black basaltic rock, where the pale green gourds hung from their long pendants, and the castor-oil plant spread its tender leaves upon the sand. In some places the soil was torn by the brooks which had been swollen in the rains of the last winter; but no living thing was visible, save the little snakes that hissed through the grass, and the red-eyed monkeys that skipped from rock to tree. She paused and looked round her in fear, for she thought of the Ghoule Biaban— the Demon of the Waste—who was said to dwell in such places as this. Dismounting, she led her horse into a little thicket of citrons, and lifting up her eyes, knelt down innocently to pray and to compose hei thoughts. Hunger she felt none, and the fruits which the teeming earth supplied prevented her from feeling thirst. The sky was lowering and the atmosphere intensely close and sultry; thus, lassi- tude soon overpowered her, and at length sleep closed her eyes. The little green snakes crept through the grass and played with her fine black hair; the agile monkeys swung waggishly by their tails *rom the citron branches, and the great vultures of tne adjacent mountains and of the yellow desert that lay far beyond them, hovered about her, as if they marvelled whether that tender creature was dead or only sleeping; but the sweet girl dreamed on and undis- turbed until evening, when she started and awoke, to find that a sombre darkness was shrouding all the valley, that the shadows of the hills were growing black, that the wind with a murmuring sound shook the branches of the citrons, while the crescent of the moon glimmered with a fiery tint among the flying clouds. On awaking to tears and terror, her faculties became absorbed in contemplating a long procession, consisting of many hundreds of squalid looking men and women, winding through this otherwise lonely valley, and encircling a rude stone which stood in. the centre of it, but close to the grove where she lay, and which they were evidently about to use as an altar; for, to her horror, she perceived this was a pilgrimage of Guebres, or Eire-Worshippers—idolators who follow the strange creed of Zoroaster, and abhorring all Mos- lems, are by them abhorred and persecuted in turn. Many of these pagans exist in Arabia, though by far the greater -number will be found in our Indian possessions, under the name of Parsees, who in Bombay, Surat, and Barouch, on the western side of the Gulf of Cambay, are generally wealthy merchants and enter- prising traders. All these Guebres are descended from the ancient Persians, who in 651 fled from the soldiers of the Khalif Omar, and THE EIKE-WORSHIFFERS. 307 strange it is that, like the Jews, they still retain unchanged the blood, the colour, and the dark idolatry of their forefathers, the country- men of Cyrus and Darius. Their high priest still resides in Upper Armenia. The horror all true believers have of these pagans is very great; thus, language cannot describe the emotions of poor Amina when she beheld the circle of the Guebres narrowing as they drew nearer and more near to the rude altar, which was close to her place of concealment. She was appalled, too, by the shouts of wild laughter, which they uttered' 'simultaneously from time to time, in honour of Zoroaster, their prophet, the author of the Persian Magic, who is said to have laughed aloud the moment he came into the world, and who, more- over, brought them from Heaven seven hooks of laws, which taught the way to Paradise, seven which interpreted all dreams, and seven more which reVealed the secrets of physic; hut, unfortunately, these valuable productions were written in a language which no one knew, and the pagan Iskander burned fourteen of them. " Alas!" thought Amina, while her tears again flowed fast, " I had better have remained with the young sultan, for now, my beloved Paringi, I will never see thee more—the Guebres will sla me." Scarcely daring to breathe, she crept near her horse, as if its presence afforded her protection as well as company, and fearfully through the citron branches she gazed on the kneeling circle of idolaters, who were all adoring in silence the sacred fire, which had been brought, by the priest who presided, from the Great Altar, to which every Guebre must make a pilgrimage once in life, and which lay at a vast distance from Yemen, in the country of fire, where their chief temple stands, in the Persian province of Azerbijan, This portion of the celestial light burned pale and blue in a tripod, while the priest placed it upon the stone altar, and long the Guebres con- tinned to adore it in silence, which was broken only by those occa- sional shouts of wild laughter, which ran round the circle like a fire of musketry along a line. Then the priest, who was a very old man, with a snow-white beard that flowed before his shining girdle and which contrasted strongly with his sable robes, raised up his withered hands, and in the name of the God of Fire solemnly cursed his three greatest enemies—Iskander-al-Bumi, the son of Philip; Mohamed, the Camel-Driver of Mecca; and Schah Abbas, the great and cruel— for time makes no change in the hatred of the Guebres. At this malediction. Amina trembled, for as the priest concluded, the thunder rolled across the sky, and the gloom of the same storm which saved us from our pursuers was darkening fast the narrow vale of rocks, but as it lowered the celestial light of the Guebres seemed to blaze more brightly; and she remembered that the Koran -—which, like the Bible of the Christians, those people treat with the utmost indignity—compared them and other idolaters to brutes, ordained that they should not be prayed for—that their worship is S08 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN.** unpardonable, that their conches would be made in Hell, and that over them would be curtains and coverlets of fire; and then she muffled her head in her veil and turban, that she might neither see the ghastly blue fire which flickered on the altar, nor hear the thunder, which she confidently believed it excited in Heaven; but still the clear, shrill voice of the grim and aged priest reached her, as he summoned from amid the hushed multitude a renegade, who was about to be strangled for having, for a time, and for selfish ends, embraced the religion of Islam; and, though she knew him not, this was no other than Mirza Kufa, the hotel keeper—the Parsee who had accom- panied Pred and me from Aden, and who after being cast adrift by the Emir Mohamed, at Lahadj, had, unfortunately for himself, fallen among some of his old acquaintances and countrymen, the Guebres, who were now determined to punish his apostasy; and, urged by the powerful incentives of fear for herself and of curiosity, Amina looked once more. The gloom of the sombre evening had increased, the hills were almost black, and fitfully the light of the altar played upon the white turbans, the yellow visages and squalid forms of the Guebres, whose circle had become still narrower, to hear the voice of the priest and sentence of the culprit, who lay prostrate on the earth. " Unhappy being," said the priest, after seven prostrations, " thou wert reared in the pure principles of Zoroaster, and permitted to behold and to adore that sacred fire which is a part of the glorious sun, the most perfect and wonderful of all God's creations—the purest of elements—the realm of light, within whose hallowed sphere is Paradise; therefore those who now behold this flame see a portion of the eternal home of the holy and the good, the source of our present life and breath, and of the future reward of the faithful. Thou wert taught, 0 Mirza Kufa," continued the priest, in a tone of sorrowful upbraiding, "how Azer, the Frank—the sire of our wondrous prophet—journeyed from his own distant country to dwell in Babylon, where his wile became overspread by a celestial light, which blinded the eyes of many who beheld it, and made her seem unto others beautiful as a daughter of the sun; and thou wert taught how sage astrologers predicted that in due time there would be born a child, who would rend the diadem from the king's brow. Thereupon, he ordered all male children to be slain; but the wife of Azer escaped with her offspring—yet only for a time, for the king discovered them, and raised his sacrilegious sword to smite the holy infant, when, lo ! his arm was withered up to the shoulder, even as the hot wind shrivels the grass of the desert. Then he ordered the babe to be thrown into a blazing furnace, which instantly became a bed of roses; but the wicked king was tormented by a huge fly, which gave him no peace by day or night, for it buzzed continually in his eyes and at his ears, until life became a burden to him, ana be died in despair ! " All these wonders thou wert taught in youth, Mirza Kufa, and THF rrRE-vofiisaip^KS. 309 didst believe in them; how the miraculous child grew to man's estate, and of the miracles he performed; how he bathed in baths of liquid silver, and was thence named Zer Ateucht, or the Silver- washed; and how he preached and prophesied, and how, on being received up into Paradise, he foretold a general resurrection, when fire should descend upon the earth, while the vast hills and sinning; minerals of the world shall be melted down to fill up the dark chaos of hell, and destroy the mansions of the genii and of the demons, and when the earth itself shall be made level—yea, as the great desert of Oman! All this thou didst believe, Mirza Kufa, yet thou didst fling from thee the faith of thy father, and rush into the arms of the sensual Moslemuna! Thou hast married within the third degree; thou hast eaten the flesh of hogs that were fed by others than Guebres; thou hast abstained from wine in public, and drunk it like a drunkard and hypocrite in private; thou hast cut thy hair and paired thy nails, and yet neglected to commit the cuttings of the first and the pairings of the second to the earth without the city. Thou hast eaten of forbidden meats, and broken the thirty holydays —all of which thou hast confessed to me; and under the heel of Mohamed the Camel-Driver thou hast extinguished for ever the celestial flame in thy household. These are grievous things, 0 Mirza Kufa; and unless thou canst find one among those here assem- bled to perish in thy place, thou must die before the altar of the sacred fire!" Mirza Kufa, who had uttered deep groans during every pause in this curious harangue of the priest (who thus rapidly sketched the life and chief miracles of Zoroaster), now gave a convulsive sob as he grovelled on the earth, for he knew that he was utterly without hope, as in all that gathered multitude there was not one—even the most desperate or most poor—so tired of life as to yield it up to rescue, for a few years, a miserable apostate. In all this there was something terrible! The priest shook up the sacred fire, and the figures of its wor- shippers appeared like spectral shadows as they knelt around it. The dewy leaves of the citrons glittered like silver in its blue sepul- chral flame; and the floating beard, wild eyes, and drapery of the priest were visible to Amina, as she gazed with a species of stupor on this dark and gloomy worship which appalled her. Hunger and thirst—for she had been suffering from both—were alike for- gotten. The priest, after seven more prostrations towards the east, as tne quarter of the sun's appearance, and as many more towards the west as the quarter of its descent—prostrations in which he was imitated by all the multitude, whose fervour and passion became excited, and began to find vent in cries, now proceeded to bind up the eyes of Mirza Kufa with a fillet of white cotton, preparatory to putting him to death. Everv moment this excitement increased, and Amina, whom the 310 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." place, the unholy worship, and the dire preparations, completely appalled, covered her eyes with her veil, and resolved to look no more. For a time the groans, the laughter, and muttered prayers, continued, while the thunder rumbled at the horizon, and the hot sulphureous wind swept through the valley, with that low moaning sound which generally precedes a storm. Again Amina looked in the hope that all was over, and a half-stifled shriek burst from her; for now Mirza Kufa was writhing on the ground, and the priest was proceeding to draw the cord by which he was to be strangled. On hearing her cry he paused, and stretched forth one hand as if imposing silence; and then a stillness the most profound pervaded the whole multitude, for not a sound was heard but the tossing leaves as the wind swept through the citrons. " The sacred fire has been polluted by the presence of a pagan— by one whose eyes should never have beheld it!" exclaimed the priest. " Search those trees, and drag forth the unbeliever whose cry has disturbed us." " It is a victim sent in my place to appease thee, 0 Ephraim Zer Ateucht!" cried the half-strangled Parsee; " search, oh, search, and spare not! Find the lurker, and I will leave all I possess to the altar of Azerbijan. Save me—pardon me ! What more can I do? Save me, good people all! I kiss your feet—amaun! amaun!" A crowd of Guebres rushed through the grove of citrons; the unhappy Amina was discovered in a moment, and roughly dragged into the circle, where, from mere inability to stand and from excess of terror, she sank on her knees before the stern and inflexible dis- ciple of Zoroaster, whose keen eves, in which there beamed no ray of human kindness, fascinated and bewildered her like those of a snake " It is a victim sent in my place," whined the Parsee; " Ephraim Zer Ateucht is merciful; he would not have Mirza Kufa to die." " When he hath so much to leave to the holy temple of Azerbijan," interrupted the priest. "It is well; leave all thou hast, 0 Mirza, to the guardians of the sacred fire, and then hope that, after being purified by cold and heat, thy soul, when required of thee, may in the end be happy. Go—thou art saved; for lo! a victim has come in thy place." Almost before the priest had ceased, the Parsee had vanished among the crowd, exclaiming,— " Now, by the soul of him who was born in Babylon, but this is a fortunate hour!" " What art ihou, maiden ?" asked the priest; for this solemn and obsolete style is still used by the Orientals, as well as some of the western nations. Amina made no reply, but sobbed convulsively. " Quick, quick—answer," said the priest, drawing a jambea from the shining girdle which engirt his sable robe, "for the storm lowers heavily." " I am an Arab of the Arabs—the sister of Mohamed the Abdala," THE EIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 311 she replied, while Mirza Kufa gnashed his teeth with revenge and joy. "A Moslemah!" said the priest. " A true believer in the only Prophet of God—Mahomed resoul Allah!" exclaimed Amina. as she threw up her beautiful arms with a 1 1 '' if rapture and despair, for she knew this avowal A yell burst from the Guebres, who abhor the followers of the lAophet, who drove the last of their kings from the Land of Eire at the point of the sword; and in the most tumultuous manner they insisted upon her being immediately sacrificed. The priest waved his hand to impress silence, and again the most solemn stillness pre- voiled, while all the Guebres bowed their heads to listen. " The eyes which have seen the sacred fire without believing in its divine source, must never again behold the glorious sun; so let this believer in the accursed creed of the Camel-Driver be buried alive, like the daughters of the tribe of Kendah, that the dust and the darkness of earth may cover her for ever." This terrible sentence had no additional effect on Amina, for she had already reached that point or acme of terror where it passes to the other degree, and stolid apathy succeeds, as if all her senses were benumbed and dead. She muttered from time to time, " Holy Fatima, sole daughter of the Prophet, protect me!" But, alas for strong faith ! there was no protection given. Among the multitude present, there was not one who possessed a shovel; thus, many proceeded with their bare hands to tear up the turf and hollow out the earth. But the rescued Mirza Kufa dis- covered a deep fissure in the rocks close by, and proposed that she should be enclosed there—a suggestion which was at once adopted. The miserable and almost inanimate girl was slowly borne seven times round the altar, according to the sun's course, in a procession preceded by the priest bearing aloft his flaming tripod, and then they thrust her into the chasm, while the whole valley rang with the wild cries and seven successive bursts of laughter from the Guebres. At that moment the storm, which had been so long threatening, burst forth, but not yet in all its fury. The green lightning gleamed at the end of the wadi, the palms tossed their huge leaves, like spirits waving their arms, in the wind; the hoarse thunder hurtled peal after peal across the blackened sky, and those large, warm drops which are everywhere the invariable precursors of a torrent of rain, plashed heavily on the flushed faces of the pagans and the waving leaves of the plantains and citrons; but owing to the chemical pre- parations of which it was cunningly composed, the wind blew and the rain fell on the sacred fire in vain. Meanwhile more than a hundred ready hands were toiling to close up < he chasm. Trees were wrenched away by the roots, turf was ton. from one place, the earth brought and stones rent from another, thus speedily a mound of rubbish rose above that narrow aperture, 312 PRANK HILTON; OR, lilE cjUEEN's OWN." into which, the Guebres had thrust Amina. Five minutes suffice® to accomplish this work; but it was barely over when a thunderbolt shot from the parted clouds, struck the summit of the basaltic rocks above the mound they had just formed, and splintered it. For a moment the shrinking Guebres saw each other's yellow visages, as the sacred fire was eclipsed; but with the darkness a mighty mass of rock, which the bolt had dislodged, descended into the valley and rolled across it, the noise of its descent mingling with the peal of the thunder. The tornado uprooted the strongest palms, shook the basaltic cliffs, and piled the drifted sand in the fissur33 of the mountains. The rain, which now descended into the dark and nar- row vale like a second deluge, soon cooled the religious frenzy of the Fire-Worshippers, and they fled in every direction for shelter and for safety. CHAPTER LXIV. THE SUNKEN ROCK. We kept the khanja as much as possible on the Yemen side of the Shab, to be beyond the reach of shot; there was little or no wind, and the sails of matting were so torn as to be useless, therefore our only plan was to let this clumsy craft drift down the stream, which was flooded like a mountain torrent by the contributions of a thou- sand little runnels. In some places it was red as blood from the effects of the recent storm; in others, it was so pellucid and clear, that in its deepest pools we could see, amid beds of scarlet rock, of golden sand and snow-white shells, the little fish shooting to and fro on their silver coloured fins. The cool atmosphere of the river soon revived Cecil from her faint, and she rested with her head upon my knees. By this time Fred and I were pulling as men can only pull when life depends upon their exertions. Our speed was great, and our boat shot on like an arrow; bub the soldiers of Ali Badr urged their swifter drome- daries along the sedgy banks, and frequently got ahead of us. On this they dismounted, made their cattle kneel, and fired their bras3 shuternauls, but being ill-directed, the balls fell either astern or into the opposite bank, and for more than three miles down the foam- covered stream we held on our way untouched, at one time between banks of impending rock, at others, between groves of beautiful palms or sedges, where the jowlies, and wild sugar-cane were mingled together. Meanwhile, clouds floated across the blue sky, and the cool breeze shook the sombre palms and light-leaved orange groves; the nigh*, became dark, and the moon's silver crescent, diminished almost to thread, lingered on the verge of the landscape, as we swept on to- wards the Indian Ocean—then nearly seventy great Arabian miles distant. THE SUNKEN "ROCK. 313 The grunting of the swift dromedaries, the shrill tecbir, the "Allah Ackbar!" of their riders, the red blaze and sharp report of match- lock and shnternaul, as they followed ns along the northern bank of the stream, were incessant; bnt either by the goodness of Provi- dence or the badness of their aim the shot never yet came near us; and we were beginning to hope that we might tire them out—though we knew that dromedaries will sometimes travel for six days without rest—when, suddenly, there was a violent shock; the frail khanja parted in fragments beneath us, and I found myself struggling m the dark river, with one arm around Cecil and the other clinging to a fragment of the half-sunken rock, on which our boat had so fatally foundered. Langley was swept past us, but caught some of the long tough jowlies, and gained the solid bank of the stream, from whence hs called aloud—for he was only twelve yards off—to let Cecil cling to me, while I swam to the drooping sedges. "Quick," he added, "for the love of Heaven—they are not a pistol-shot from us, but we may conceal ourselves among the canes." I did as he desired, and flung myself off by my feet, swimming hard against the stream, while my precious burden clung to me, and while, for further security, I grasped a fold of her dress in my teeth. Fortunately, I had not to swim far, and I caught the green jowlies just when every energy was departing out of my limbs, and 1 could not have struck another stroke, even for Cecil! The hope of concealment was vain, for Fred had scarcely pulled us out of the stream, when the Arabs were around us with brandished weapons, and my throat was grasped by the left hand of Osman Oglou, while the other placed the point of his sabre to my neck. " 0 Cecil—my beloved Cecil!" said I, in despair, " spare her, in the name of your Prophet, spare her!" " Thou speakest of the Prophet!" said Osman Oglou, with scorn; " a dog who has dishonoured the holy imaum, cast dirt upon his beard, and violated the sanctity of the seraglio." " Hog," added Ali Badr, savagely smiting me on the mouth with the hilt of his sword, and covering me with blood; " call upon the false god of the Faringi, and see if he will save thee now !" The sublime resignation of Cecil was far from my breast at that bitter moment, ana my whole wash was to have a pair of loaded pistols at the service of these dark barbarians. "May the white leprosy of Naaman be on thee," added Ali Badr, administering a similar blow to Langley, who was strongly grasped by several Arabs, " for thou hast given us a long and arduous ride; but, oh, knave of a Kafir, thou shalt rue in bitterness the deeds of that night of fire at Hesn-al-Mouhabib! A terrible punishment awaits you both, and all men shall hear of it, from Sana to Istam- boul, for the sultan has sworn to become a drinker of. blood—the blood of the Faringis; and I know that in cruelty he will surpass even Adoni Bezek. who cut the thumbs off seventy kings of Asia, 314 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." and who boiled children alive in cauldrons. Thus, all the Kafirs at Aden shall share in the punishment of your crimes." " Mahmoud Ali Badr," said I, imploringly, as I pointed, to Cecil, who had now sunk in a stupor on the bank, " you are a soldier, and may know compassion, when this base negro who grasps my throat, gan know it not. Be kind to her, and may your house Be ever pros- porous in peace and valiant in war." CiShe is the slave of the sultan's pleasure," replied Mahmoud, sulkily, " and thus we are all the slaves of her; so be assured she will meet with kindness. Well would it be for thee and thy comrade were you but half as safe from peril or the chief strangler's fingers." " Should we not pick out their eyes, lest they escape ?" «said Osman, pricking his black paw with the point ol the swora. "Wallah, good advice, certainly," answered several of the Arabs, who were re-loading their matchlocks and pistols: " what sayest thou, Ali Badr ? It will save us all further trouble and care." " Captain Mahmoud," said I, while my heart sank at the terrible suggestion, " we have eaten bread and salt together—have you for- gotten that?" "Silence—Kafir—dog!" said Osman, shaking me furiously, "for thee it matters little; thy lamp will soon be out. Barek allah! thy star shall shine no more. But speak, nakib, shall we blind them?" "Not until the sultan has seen them," replied Badr; "we must show them whole and well, if possible, that they may the better endure whatever it is his pleasure to inflict." " Captain Mahmoud," said I, for I hoped that much might be won from the better feelings of this young Arab, " desire this ruffian to take his hand from my throat." " Silence," cried Osman Oglou, with a terrible frown ; " ruffian, indeed! thy mother was the mother of asses." " Release him, Osman," said Ali Badr, " but let them be bound together by cords; place the slave in her chest, and, in the name of the Prophet, let us depart for the first of cities, where their blood shall soon sprinkle the market-place of the universe. Lead onto Sana!" " So be it," growled Osman, sheathing his sword with undisguised reluctance; " bring cords and bind them, the misbegotten and the unblest; may their fathers' tombs be defiled and their homes be de- solate; but old Yacoob, the diviner, was right; we undertook this expedition in a lucky hour." " I would give a thousand guineas to be with this black scoundrel where none could separate us, and with only a good cane or a hunting-whip in my hand," said Bred, in a hoarse voice, as he wiped the blood from his lips; "it would be a glorious satisfaction to break every bone in his cowardly body." The Arabs now stripped and robbed us of everything, even to oul shirts and boots, leaving us only a wretched cummerbund. The sensibility conduced by civilization, and the natural repugnance to THE prediction op hatjra. 315 appearing almost in a state of nudity, became somewhat lessened in a country where all the slaves and peasants wear only the turban and cummerbund, but I had great fear that the change might have a fatal effect upon Langley, whose frame was not so strongly formed or so hardy as mine. During this barbarous stripping, the Arabs discovered in his breast a locket containing a miniature of his mother and the hair of his sisters, and notwithstanding his most touching entreaties that they would leave him this trinket, his wishes were treated with contempt, and Black Osman, who believed it was a talisman, thrust him back with his foot and spat in his face. The chest into which Cecil was placed was a covered seat, strapped upon the back of a camel, which our pursuers had brought for the especial purpose, as they had never believed for a moment we could escape them. In mute despair she stretched her hands to me, as the curtains were forcibly drawn around her by Osman's black eunuchs, who led the camel away, and my soul seemed to depart with its burden. Oh, how I trembled for her share in the escape from Hesn-al-Mouhabib; and for all she might yet endure before the death which I firmly believed awaited us all removed her from further pain. Langley and I had our hands tied by cords, and these were secured to the girth of Black Osman's saddle, allowing us a space of about six feet apart. As soon as this was done, the cavalcade was put in motion, and the march began about midnight, a retrograde, and to us most dreadful march towards the city of Sana. Fred and I were forced to proceed on foot, while our escort were all mounted, and compelled us by spurring and dragging our ropes, by blows from shafts of lances, or, as in three instances, sharp pricks from the points of them, to keep up with the speed at which they rode; but exhausted as their cattle happily were, by the long and arduous pur- suit, until after their first halt we found no great difficulty in walk- ing fast enough to please even those petty but malevolent tyrants, at whose caprice and mercy our evil fortune had placed us. CHAPTER LXY. the prediction op haura. Next day the hot unclouded sun came up in all his tropical splen- dour from the burning sands that lay beyond the hills of Saba; the warm wind of that desert tract floated through the valley of the Shab; the citron and orange groves shook their light foliage, and the heavy leaves of the solemn palm were lifted on their jointed stems; the monkeys (the tribe of Ad) skipped from rock to rock, and the brave eagle was soaring into the wide blue sky as we recommenced our melancholy march towards the capital of tlip imaum. . 316 FRANK. HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." Our hearts were sad and downcast, and oppressed by mournful fore- bo dings of the future. Fatigue and defeat had nearly broken our spirit, and even hope was leaving us. Langley and I trod on side by side in silpnce. We endured great thirst, conduced by our past excitement and present toil, having to march so fast to keep up with Arabs well- mounted on swift horses and ambling dromedaries; but I suffered yet greater misery when I thought of all that was to be endured by Cecil. Pang succeeded pang, till reflection became one con- tinued pain. I strove in vain to pierce the future, and believed that without doubt, as soon as we reached Sana, Fred's fate and mine were sealed, and that Cecil would be again consigned to that detestable seraglio, her prison. The blows and goadings, the taunts and maledictions we re- ceived from our captors were incessant; and nothing saved us from more severe maltreatment but the presence of Mahmoud Ali Badr, who rode at the head of the troop, and looked round from time to time to repress the more unusual ebullitions of re- ligious rancour. It was indeed a mercy that we were not left utterly to the care of Osman Oglou. For many miles Langley and I marched on thus, bareheaded, un- shaven, and denuded of clothing; we were silent, for each was full of his own bitter thoughts. Whether Fred was reflecting on the loss of Amina, on his friends at the regiment, on the happy and splendid English home, from which he was about to be cut off for ever, I know not, for I never inquired. I had no home to sorrow for—no far-away friends to regret, my comrades of " the Queen's Own" excepted, and they, I knew, might soon forget us amid other scenes and faces ; our names would disappear from the Army List, and our fate become a regimental tradition, to be recurred to casually at mess, or by our soldiers as they chatted at night round the guard-room fire. My whole thoughts, and all my interest—all my soul—were concentrated in the idea of Cecil and her danger; and my bosom swelled with a bitterness that has no parallel, as I thought of the present or the past, of all that was once, of all that was now, and, under a more fortunate star, of all that might have been. Though so many years had elapsed since first I loved and had been separated from her, years that were an eternity to a lover, my regard had never diminished, her image had never been for- gotten; and now, when we were crushed and encompassed by misfortune, no language can tell how I loved, how I revered her, my own Cecil! Her presence, her idea, and her name, were woven with every early wish and aspiration; thus Heaven only knows how deeply that dear love was impressed on my boyish heart, with the impress that could never fade while life remained. One alone knew, how in secrecy and solitude I had mused over many a pretty nothing and winning turn of maimer, over the sweetness of those 'dear dark eyes, and the kind accents of that remembered voice THE PREDICTION OP HAURA. Sif I once thought would never again gladden me in this weary world. ]\ow, for a third, and too probably the last time, we were about to be separated, and with the whirl of these terrible thoughts, and the hot fierce rays of the soaring sun darting on my uncovered head, I feared greatly that madness, a coup-de-soleil, or some equally frightful catastrophe might soon end all my woes and her most slender chance of escape together. These thoughts I could no longer suppress, and spoke to Langley of my early passion for Cecil, our separation twice before, and though he felt the loss of the innocent Arabian girl more keenly than I could have believed possible in one of his gay and volatile temperament, he kindly endeavoured to console and draw me from present affliction, by referring alternately to the past and to the future. " I always admired a pair of young lovers," said he ; " there is something so charming in a first passion, when a man is young, and 'womanhood is in the flush,5 in the love of a boy for a pretty girl." "Yes, believe me, dear Langley," said I sadly, "though often stigmatized as folly, it is more frequently the dearest and deepest of all loves, and the longest remembered, the love of a brother and a sister, or of a cousin for a cousin, with a keener tie, and being the first and most strongly impressed upon the young heart, is the most tender and most true. Ah, Fred, if you knew all the unspeakable tenderness stirred within me by the tone of Cecil's voice, after our long separation! It is like the old song that hushed us o sleep, long, long ago; it goes to my inmost heart; I have drunk n every word—I have closed my eyes when she spoke, and striven to believe that we were but a boy and girl again; that the woods of Aikendean shook their summer leaves above us, and that the mountain burn brawled beside them; that my old father's manse, with its ivied chimneys, and the village kirk with its grey walls were near, and that ten dreary years of sorrow and separation had never passed but in a hideous dream. God help us!—would that it were indeed a dream!" The heat became intense; we were drenched in perspiration; a mortal agony was conduced by thirst and lassitude; and when eagerly we reached a wayside well, we were not allowed to drink till every Arab, negro, horse and dromedary had quenched their thirst, and then we were permitted to stoop on our fettered hands to quaff the hot sandy puddle, till the butt-end of the lance was again em- ployed unsparingly to goad us on. I had one consolation, that Cecil travelled with more bodily ease, and that our sufferings were unknown to her. Heavens ! how my blood boils when I think of the cruelty and insults to which we were subjected, especially by the black eunuchs of Osman Oglou. The wound I had inflicted on his square nasal protuberance during our conflict on the bank of the river, was an SIS PRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN*S OWN." additional incentive for liim to hate me; and Ali Badr frequently gibed him by saying, " Poor Osman! now thou art stigmatized on the nose, like A1 Walid, who fought at the battle of Bedr." This reference to his wound (for a slash on the nose has been con- sidered a mark of ignominy ever since A1 Walid Ibn al Moghiera, -the inveterate foe of Mahomed, had his face disfigured at the fight of 'Bedr, thirteen hundred years ago,) always filled the black eunuch •with rage, and he ground his teeth while he surveyed me, and could •scarcely withhold the point of his spear from my breast. Anxiety for the fate of Amina, the recent excitement we had un- •dergone, our frequent immersions, and tne burning heat which now ■succeeded the recent rains, all acting together on the mind and body of Langley, produced a dangerous fever, which in three hours pros- Crated all his energies. He complained of acute pains in his head and loins, with an oppressive weariness in the limbs, and (notwith- standing the fiery state of the atmosphere) of a coldness in his hands and feet. Then came a great sickness, with shivering and fits that amounted to paroxysms. As each of these possessed him I thought he would have died, and implored Ali Badr to place some covering over him, as he lay on the arid plain near Alac, exposed to a burning sun, while the listless Arabs sat on their saddles gazing in -sullen curiosity on his sufferings. But no covering was given, not even a handkerchief or a shawl. One more merciful than his fellows placed a leathern bottle of water (milk-warm by the march) to his lips, and I spread the broad leaves of a wild plant that grew near over his face and breast, to shield them from the hot rays of the vertical sun; but I could only procure such as grew within arm's length, being secured to the sufferer by a strong rope. At this time I forgot my own sufferings ana danger, for it made my heart ache to see this highbred English gentleman—one reared in the lap of luxury and ease—my dear friend and brave brother officer, lying -writhing on the ground in this unheeded agony, and thus degraded and abused. After the second or third paroxysm had passed away and con- sciousness returned, the prick of a spear was again applied, as a Warning to march, and again our toil began; but now the dromedary which carried Cecil, and which was guarded by the eunuchs (for she was their peculiar care), was far in front. Langley moaned mourn- fully and clung to my arm for support; and I was happy that my harder culture or native strength enabled me to succour him, and thus for the incredible distance of twenty great Arabian miles we trod on till nightfall. About that time, when near a castle of the Arabs, he cried aloud, " Heaven help me, for now I can endure no more !" and throwing up his hands, fell to the ground in despair. Though I was scarcely able to stand, Osman Oglou forced me to take him on my back, and thus loaded to stagger into the fort, when delirium. 319 the rope which bound us, was replaced by a fetter of iron, that con- fined us within seven feet of each other, and thus secured, we were •thrust into a damp and naked vault, on the floor of which lay a little straw. I gathered it all into one place, and laying poor Langley down on it, placed his head upon my knees for a pillow, and setting my back against the hard stone wall, endeavoured to compose and arrange my thoughts, as the darkness deepened round us, and one by one the stars, each in succession new, peeped from the blue sky through the small grated aperture, which admitted air by night, and light and air by day. I knew not whether Cecil was in the same fortress, as I had lost sight of her dromedary about dusk. She was gone now, and I could feel the charm of her presence no more! Langley endeavoured to sleep, but the cold aguish shiverings which came over him were incessant, and I had no warm or soothing draught to offer him, nothing but the cold and half- stagnant water of a dirty jar; and now indeed I began to despair of his life. After a long and most melancholy silence, broken only by a long-drawn sigh, or his moanings, he said— " Hilton—my dear fellow, where are you ?" " Here, here, beside you, Fred; what can I do for you ?" "Nothing; you have done all you could; God bless you, poor Frank; I will not trouble you long now." "For Heaven's sake, dear Langley, do not say so !" said I, implor- ingly, while my heart swelled anew. " " member the figures we saw in the well ?" he asked in " Figures !" I repeated, as a terrible recollection flashed upon me. " Yes—two men chained together, and one of them lying dead. Oh, Hilton, that strange vision is about to be verified to-night." I cannot describe the horror with which these words inspired me. I took poor Langley's trembling hands in mine, and found them clammy and cold as icicles: but I could not see his face, for the vault was then as dark as the tomb to which he seemed fast hastening. This long, and seemingly interminable night of sorrow and horror passed away, and the grey light of morning began to struggle through the barred aperture of the vault. Notwithstanding the great fatigue we had endured, I had never closed an eye, nor felt inclined to do so ; and the morning sun when he rose from his bed beyond the Indian Sea, found me feverish and sleepless, as when he had sunk beyond the land of the pilgrimage. CHAPTER LXVI. DELIRIUM. 320 FRANK HILTON; CB, "THE QUEEN'S OWE." Poor Pred Langley was still alive; but sinking fast. The smallest attention to his comfort—the smallest medical aid, such as one may meet with among civilized men, might have saved him; but here the former was withheld, and the latter was not to be found, and as his disease was exasperated by agony of mind and the combined horrors of our situation, the life of my poor young friend was ebbing rapidly. By this time he had ceased to moan for water; but his mouth was black and parched, and his teeth were fearfully visible; his eyes were protruding and haggard; his cheek hot, pale, and hollow. Each succeeding paroxysm and cold shivering was more violent and more convulsive than the last; each continued longer, and consequently left him weaker and to all appearance nearer death. " My poor Hilton," said he, kindly, " from my soul I pity you—a {nisoner—Cecil gone—Amina lost—myself dying! You will be very onely when I am away; and who will tell my dear mother—my sisters;—and who the regiment of all this ?" My tears fell fast upon his cold hands, but I could make no reply. "My dear mother's miniature, and the locket too !" said he, inco- herently; " the locket with the hair of Lucy, Dora, and dear little Eanny—to be in possession of that black wolf! Hilton, if you are spared to reach the regiment, will you remember what I say ? Send my sword and epaulettes to my mother; keep my watch and ring to remind you of old times, and how Fred Langley loved you —(oh, what am I talking about; the Arabs have them both !) Give Montague my riding-whip with the gold handle; give Popkins my flute—(poor fellow, how often I have made fun with him !) and give every one something, not forgetting O'Hara, the colonel, for he is the best of good fellows; and I don't like my goods and chattels auctioned over the drum-head. Can you remember this ?" " I will endeavour to do so." "You must—you must! How strange that the prediction of that woman should com 3 true ?" Then his mind wandered again to Amina, for the dread of dying without freeing, saving, or once more beholding her, was as strong within him as his sorrow and reluctance to leave me alone in this land of privation and danger. After being long silent, a faint shiver passed over his face, the eyes turned upward, and the jaw fell! I covered my eyes with my hands, and my heart seemed rising to my mouth, as the terrible conviction came over me that he was dead, and I indeed—alone! most fearfully alone, for I was chained to his body. Springing up and crying for aid in English, I suddenly rushed towards the door, but in doing so dragged the body off the straw by the chain which secured us together. I beat with my bare hands on the strong barrier, and cried aloud for help, beseeching those who might hear me to come, and using every phrase and fashion of speech that might move an Arab heart. The noise I made found hearers, DELIRIUM. 821 for footsteps rang in the passages, and I heard the fastenings of the door undone. T 1 1 1 ds, and gazed alternately at the hateful barrier " Heaven be thanked," I thought, " aid comes, and it may not be too late, even yet!" The door opened, and the black face and shining eyes of Osman Oglou were before me. Had a cobra capella appeared, I could not have shrunk back with more aversion than I did irom this malignant negro, who, like all persons of his class and position, regarded other men with hatred, envy, and malevolence. He coldly surveyed the scene before him for a moment, as if gloating upon it; for we were then as. low as Oriental tyranny could wish us—confined in a bare vault—nude, or nearly so, and chained together—the living and the dead. " Art thou mad, fellow, to make all this hideous nt-ise ?" he asked; " knowest thou not that we slit the tongues of the noisy, and that nothing prevents me from slitting thine but the necessity of setting thee whole and sound before the sultan, to be the better able to endure what it may be his pleasure to inflict." " My friend is dying—" "Well?" " Nay, he is dead—yet I called for aid "Aid for the dead?" said Osman, with a grin that spread from ear to ear, as he stepped forward a pace ; " Kafir, thou art mad indeed. All the virtues in the three phials of Lckman would not restore him now. Hah! so the soul of this unbeliever is indeed in the pit of Borhut." As he said this, his square nostrils (across which there was a long black patch) distended, and his eyes rolled with rancorous hatred; he raised his foot to spurn the lifeless body, but I threw myself between, and cried, Dare to do so, scoundrel; dare to do this indignity, and I will strangle you where you stand !" He drew back, with his hand on his jambea; spat a mouthful of opium full in my face, and hastily retired, closing and securing the strong door behind him. The conflicting emotions that agitated me, the toil I had under- gone, the malaria of the place in which I was confined* the want of sleep, and total deprivation of all rest for mind and body, were now beginning to act upon me severely. I felt a giddiness coming over me, and it seemed as if the vault swam round, for I followed with my eye the circular motion of the grated window, as if fearing to lose sight of it. I lifted .Fred's body, which was yet warm, upon the heap of straw; I tore a shred from my cummerbund to bind up the head and jaw, and seated myself beside it. Then it seemed as if a dark- uess—a gloom—studded however by a thousand sparkling spots, 329 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." descended over me, and a stupor took possession of all my shattered faculties. I was delirious; I talked to poor Fred, and to myself. I saw before me old faces, ana the incidents of other times. I was with Cecil at home in the drawing-room at Fairy-bank; she was seated at the piano, and I turned over the leaves of her music; we laughed and talked gaily as we were wont to do, in those bright days of heed- less youth and cloudless happiness; I saw the pretty village of Aikendean, smiling among its woods in the sunlit glen below, as hand in hand and with our young hearts full of the purest joy, we rambled together by the brawling burn: anon the scene changed, and the wild sea whirled round me, dark, fierce, and strong; a piece of wreck floated past—it was that terrible fragment of the Farnham Castle which had caused such consternation in my heart, near the isle of Abdul Kuria. Then my company of soldiers hovered before me; I saw their well-known faces—their scarlet uniforms and white belts; and then came other visions, all wavering, vague, and indistinct. Day came, and night succeeded. Day came again, and still I was conscious of being chained to Langley's body; the limbs had become rigid, shrunken, white, and ghastly; muscle, bone, and sinew were fearfully visible, and hideous flies and creeping things rested in swarms alternately upon it, and the pot of rice that stood untouched between us. At times I thought that the body moved and the face smiled—that the eyes opened and shut; but I knew that my senses were leaving me! Ideas of the heat of the climate and of the rapid decomposition of all dead matter floated clearly enough before me, and I can never portray the new horror they occasioned. I sat with face averted from the dreadful sight of my decaying friend, and shuddered when some of those insects that hovered on his pallid face and limbs, crawled over mine. I lost all consciousness of time, for many days and nights seemed to pass, which, I am now con- scious, could not have passed; the air became as if loaded with So i son; a cloud was ever around me, and through that cloud black •sman's hateful visage grinned at times. An oppressive sense of poor dead Langley's presence was ever about me, and I now believed that his remains bad reached that awful stage of decay which living men can seldom, perhaps never behold; and now my brain seemed to turn, and a deep, deep sleep descended upon me I must have been long delirious, but cannot say for what length of time. On recovering, I was lying upon the straw in a corner of the vault, and on rising, found my chain was free and that it rattled loosely. Fearfully I looked round, but save myself the vault was empty. Langley's body had been removed, and I struggled in vain to arrange my thoughts—to separate reality from the wild visions of frenzy, and to ascertain whether or not the horrors of the past days and nights were veritable and real, or the mere results of an over- the vizier arrives. 323 heated fancy. No trace of my friend's body remained; the pure morning air streamed through the barred aperture into the bare bleak vault, and the rising wind stirred the straw on which I lay. I drew the loose chain towards me, and long and sadly pondered' over the circular fetter which had enclosed the wrist of as brave a- gentleman as ever wore the uniform of " the Queen's Own." I then wondered where his grave la*, i" it was in a green place, or among the yellow sand, and whether my . would be made beside it. But s he had never been entombed at all! Several days and nights passed wearily and monotonously on. I had counted every stone in the walls and every nail in the door that lay between me and Cecil—between me and exertion, liberty, anet I remembered the fate, or rather the mystery which involved the disappearance of those two enterprising officers, Stoddart and Conolly, in Boldiara. I remembered, too, a terrible story told me by a brother officer of the 62nd or Wiltshire Regiment, of his finding two British officers separately confined in the lowest dungeons of a hill fort in India after it had been stormed by our troops. There these captives, who were returned by the "Gazette" as "missing" in some old and for- gotten engagement, had been confined for years; one was a youth when he had been taken prisoner, and now he was a careworn and middle-aged man; the other had been a major in the prime of life, and now he was in extreme old age. They had almost forgotten.! their own language; they were reduced to living skeletons, and over- grown with hair. Tor forty long years no ray of hope had lighted' their solitude, or lessened their despair for the loss of the world, and' they gazed on the red uniforms of their deliverers with the astonish- ment and perplexity of savages, for their minds had become unhinged and their brains unsettled. Then the younger man wept, and the elder smiled with vacant apathy. Bis terrible relation was ever before me; yet I did not dread it, for I had a perfect conviction that I could never survive for years a& those poor men had done. One njorning the thunder of gongs (like the roaring of wild animals) and the clash of cymbals announced something unusual, and the old Arab, who kept the key of my prison, and who once in each dav brought me two jars—one filled with water, and the other with boiled rice or dhourra, which I ate by means of mv fingers, informed me that "the great Rabd-al-Hoosi—the friend and vizier of Solyman —the Light of Wisdom, and Star of Piety, had come to convey me Sana, ana to the feet of the holy imaum." And Cecil—where now was she ?— CHAPTER LXYH. the vizier arrives. 524 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QUEEN'S OTO." This sudden arrival of my countryman, the ex-ploughman of St. Ronan's, led me to hope that something might be done to ameliorate the excessive misery of mind and body I had endured and was still enduring; but I was speedily undeceived, and moreover Surprised and shocked, to find that a set of chains which he had brought on purpose, were linked upon me; and that without being led into his presence, I was acquainted by" ny old keeper that at daybreak next morning I was to be conveyed towards the capital. At that time I was too weak to feel much indignation at the ungenerous conduct of my countryman, but I still remember being sorry that he should be wicked enough to treat me so unworthily; of tnis, more anon. That night I prayed fervently for Cecil; in all my misery I do not think one selfish thought for myself occurred to me; and though I felt lonely—oh, lonely indeed!—since poor Langley's loss, on reflec: tion it seemed better that he had thus escaped the awful punishment to which the tyrant sultan was certain of subjecting me. By day- break next morning I was conveyed from the vault into the court of the fortress, which appeared very old and half in ruins ; and there were Ali Badr and Osman Oglou, with their mounted troop, and a little apart was the vizier, whom I knew by his rich turban and its sparkling jewel. He was magnificently armed and mounted, and a J "J' 11 ' horse guard was beside him, with their glitter- A beautiful camel, having plumes on its head and gorgeous housings and harness, was now brought forth. On its back was a curtained seat adorned with little pennons and streamers, and my heart leaped within me at the sight of it, for therein I knew Cecil was confined! Had a mountain of uncounted gold been mine, I would have given it all, every coin, for a moment by her side : despite guards and eunuchs, swords and lances it was with difficulty I could restrain my inclination to spring forward and tear the silken hangings down. Yet it was fortunate indeed that she could not see me, as I was then stripped of every article of clothing save a scanty linen girdle, with a beard of several weeks' growth; pale, emaciated, and loaded with heavy irons. On perceiving the prime minister of the sultan, I rushed up to him, and exclaimed, " Rabd-al-Hoosi—or Robert Dalhousie—whichever you will! you are our countryman—Cecil's and mine—will you save us—can you, will you not at least save her ? Tor the love of mercy, and the memory of that dear Scottish home, we never more may see—oh, hear me, for her sake, hear me !" "It is impossible," said he, gloomily; "as well might I hope to save you from the powers of heaven itself. I am without strength— without authority—in such, a matter, and supplications are in vain." He turned away, and, as he did so, my last hope vanished. I would have addressed him again, but anger'at the fetters with which he had loaded me, and the evident wish on his nart tn avoid all THE VIZIER ARRIVES* 325 further recognition, as lie never looked once again towards me, re- pelled the inclination, and after rejecting, with disdain, the mess of ooiled rice that was offered me, I was attached to a horse's girth, and the march began. Rabd-al-Hoosi rode at the head of the cavalcade, and near the camel, which—without being informed of it — I knew but too well bore all that was dear to me. Mahmoud Ali Badr, with a score of lances, protected the rear, and the rest of this picturesque band, with their garments flowing and weapons gleaming, rode by twos or threes, just as suited their fancy or convenience. In a town through which we passed, all the inhabitants were ordered to retire on pain of death, lest they should obtain even a glimpse of the " chosen slave of the sultanand one unfortunate fellow, being found asleep in the sunshine, was struck senseless by a blow of Black Osman's lance. This, however, did not prevent others from pressing around, and greeting me with shouts of opprobrium; and every petty missile that came to hand, such as decayed oranges, eggs, melons, and even pebbles, were showered upon me. " Show us the dog that defiled the imaum's beard!" cried one, " Throw dust upon his head!" cried a second. " Ah, Kafir—hell yawns for thee ! Thou daredst to steal the pearl of Hesn-al-Mouhabib—the slave who is queen of all slaves—the light of the seraglio." " Mayest thou eat dirt all the days of thy life, if he escapes thee, Osman Oglou." Osman grinned like a hungry shark at each of these remarks. It was a relief to me when this town, or collection of Arab hovels, with its roofs of reed, its walls of white chunam, and its yelling populace, were left behind; and when once more we rode over the grassy plain beyond it, though each step brought me nearer to Sana — nearer to greater misery, and nearer to death. As the sun was now approach- ing the meridian, I endured the greatest torture from the excessive heat, and large blisters were raised on my skin; while to protect my head, I had frequently to place upon it my heavily fettered liana. Perceiving this, Ali Badr, with something of his former kindness, gave me a horsecloth from his crupper, saying, "The Holy Prophet will remember the merciful, and tori ere enough is awaiting thee. Cover thyself with this, and remember Mahmoud Ali." After giving thanks, I earnestly besought him to inform me if the ibody of my friend had been buried, and it so, where it lay. " The body was flung over the castle wall at night. I tell you so, Faringi, with some reluctance and shame, for the dead man was a brave soldier; but it was done by the orders of Osman Oglou." "Thrown over the wall!" I ejaculated, clasping my hands. " It fell into the swamp below, and in the morning it had disap- peared; the wadi is full of wild animals." " Oh, what a burial!" thought I, turning away in disgust from the Arab. Two davs we continued travelling towards Sana, but still 326 FRANK HILTON; OR, "THE QTTNEN'S OWN." I could perceive no sign of its gilded domes and snow-white minars, when the evening of the second day was closing, and my tormenton halted near a wood, for the purpose of encamping for the night, not far from where I observed two bare human skulls appearing above the turf; these were the remains of two prisoners, who, after a bar- barous fashion of the Bedouins, had been buried alive, up to the neck in earth, and left thus to perish miserably. Until then, I had no idea that Langley and I had progressed so far eastward from the capital of Yemen. During those two days I had endured hardship, insult, and barbarity beyond expression and description — forced, though sinking under weakness of body and grief of heart, to travel on; forced by the point or butt-end of the lance, exposed, without proper raiment, to the scorching and blister- ing sun by day, and to the drenching and dangerous dews by night; forced to seek rest on the bare ground, and denied the use even of a pack-saddle whereon to lay my aching head, or a rug to cover me; having a handful of boiled rice thrown to me as to a dog, and being allowed to quench my insatiable thirst only after every Arab, horse, and dromedary had drunk to their own satisfaction; incessantly greeted with blows which I dare not return, and epithets which I treated with disdain. There was one dromedary laden with flowers in china vases for placing around Cecil during a halt; and all these flowers were care- fully watered at sunset before I was allowed to approach the fountain. Fettered, watched, and weary as I was then, an idea of escape never occurred to me. How could I attempt to escape and leave Cecil behind me ? The evening of the second day of toil had deepened into night; the stars were coming brilliantly out of the deep and dark-blue sky; and scarcely a bowshot from the dromedary which bore Cecil, and which was now kneeling down, under its sorrowful burden, to repose for the night—I was then lying among the long reedy grass, weeping in despair, broken in spirit, wrung in heart, and crushed in soul— weeping as I had never wept since I was a boy, many, many years ago. My agony was unseen or uncared for; drugged with opium and hempseed, the Arabs were all in a state of somnolency, all, at least, save their sentinels, five of whom were posted round the camp, and sat watchfully near their horses, with their muskets loaded. In the midst of my paroxysm of grief, some one touched me on the shoulder. I looked up, and beheld a figure muffled in a great rough barracan, and in the next moment became aware that it was no other than Rabd-al-HoosL 827 CHAPTER LXYIH. pree ! " Unfortunate man," said the vizier, in a voice of sincere compas- sion, as he forgot his Arabian, his Koran, and bombast together ; "the fate before you is terrible, for the imaurn has sworn, by the only oath that was ever known to bind him for good or for evil, to have yon flayed alive and then rolled in fine salt and vinegar." "I oare not," said I, gloomily; "no tortures that the most in- fernal imagination among you can conceive are equal to those I have already endured and am now enduring—mentally, at least." "Our stars cannot be for ever in the ascendant," he replied; "take courage—your guards are asleep — you are not yet dead, and while there is life there is hope." " And these ponderous chains ?" said I, reproachfully. " Are mere mockery," he replied, " for they are as brittle as glass,, and may be shattered on the first stone at hand. Thus it was I brought them for you—as a veil, as a blind. Conceal these in your cummer- bund — this purse, this pistol and poniard," he added, taking the three articles named from his rich silk girdle; " creep past the sen- tinels, and escape to the mountains. I can do no more nut say c God speed ye,' for auld lang syne; though I have a shaven head and a- long beard, a turban and benish, be assured there is more of the kindly Scot than the barbarous Arab in my heart." I had no voice to thank him, ana continued to linger irresolutely. " Away, away!" said he, in the same impressive whisper; " my head may answer for it, if we are discovered. I am risking my life, position, and fortune to save you." "But Miss Marchmont " "Alas! think not of her, sir," he replied, with somewhat of Ori- ental coolness; " if the sultan still continues to love her, she is lost to you; if he has learned to hate her, then is she not the less lost; for the Koran has ordained that the slave who is guilty of adultery shall suffer half the punishment of the free woman, and this elope- ment with you will be viewed as a breach of the commandments by the sultan and the Yemenees." My blood ran cold at these words, for I knew that by the old Ma- homedan law, such persons were brought to the door of a mosque, where their faces were blackened, and then they were scourged to death with rods, or stoned by the people. "I beseech you not to linger, Mr. Hilton," said my countryman;, " for if you were not immediately put to death when taken by Mah- moud Ali and the chief eunuch, it was merely because the sultan could not readily devise torments which come up to what he con- sidered the full measure of his wrath and your crime." 328 FRANK HILTON; OH, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." "But to leave Cecil!" I moaned. " Can you save her, situated as you now are ?" he asked, impa« tiently. I could only clasp my hands in mournful silence. " Away, then, I tell you—there is not a minute, not an instant to be lost. Seek Mohamed of the Abdali — the Sheikh Abdulmelik, or Eour friends at Aden. Remain, and to-morrow beholds you torn mb from limb in the streets of Sana." " And you—I compromise your honour and safety by this." "Fortunately Solyman believes you to be a magician; but away, I tell you — away!" he said, impatiently; and shaking my hand kindly, retired to his couch at the loot of a tree. In one hand I had the pistol, and in the other the poniard. I hesitated only a moment, to implore protection from Abcve, and then hastened to leave the place, though Cecil stifl was there! CHAPTER LXIX. BLACK OSMAN AGAIN. The night was dark now. There was no moon in the sky; a faint streak of reddish saffron light, blending with greenish blue, lingered in the west to mark the quarter of the sun's descent, and therein a few stars were twinkling. Three ruined columns and one dark droop- ing palm-tree stood between me and the west in strong black out- line. Above, the clouds were rolled in dusky masses, and from these the dew fell heavily. All was still, save the snorting of the sleeping guards, and the gurgling sound made by the dromedaries, which were reposing on their knees. I could perceive the dark figures of the sentinels, with their horses picketted to their long lances, the tips of which glimmered red in the flame of the sinking watch-fire. I knew that it would be no easy task to elude these men, who were accustomed to detect every unusual sound even at a great distance; but I had learned much of their own cunning and many of their wiles while among them, and with the pistol cocked, in my right hand, and the pomard in my teeth, I crept, with snake-like caution, on my face and knees through the long damp grass, chosing the most deep and shady places; and thus I passed unseen, though close to two who were engaged in the friendly act of giving and receiving a light prom the bowls of their Turkish pipes. Creeping thus for more than % hundred yards, at last I rose to my full height, and freely drew my hreath, while a glow of rage and hatred swelled up in my breast with something of fierce exultation to find myself free, and I clutched the brass butt of the pistol with fierce energy, and looked back to the Arab bivouac. To rid myself of the fetters was my first thought, and on looking about, I discovered among the reedy jowlies a mass of rock. Re BLACK OSMAN AGAIN. 329 inembering the words of the vizier, I dashed the heavy rings against its flinty face, and at the second stroke they fell from my wrists, and I tossed them away with disgust. A glow of hope spread through my heart, and I was about to continue my retreat from this dan- gerous vicinity, when the tall, white, figure of a man, whom the clatter of my irons "had startled, came hurriedly towards me. I at first thought he was a sentinel, but immediately after perceived that my interceptor was no other than—Osman Ogiou, who, either for prayer or sleep, had rolled himself up in his barracan beside this lonely rock. He recognised me in a moment; and in the dusk of midnight his aspect was terrible, for his turban was white as snow, and his pro- trading eyes glared as he surveyed me with astonishment and rage, which for a time deprived him of the power of utterance; and so we grimly surveyed each other. I feared to fire, for his people were close by; but perceiving at once that with a short poniard I was unequal to the task of encountering the heavy Arab sword, which he unsheathed, I shot him right through the jaws, and as he was falling backwards without a cry, tore from him a locket that hung at his neck, and dashed off with all the speed I could exert into the open country. The locket proved to be the same which my poor friend Langley had been deprived of, for it contained the bright brown English hair of his three fair sisters. Long and sadly I gazed upon it in my place of concealment next day, and resolved, as I secured it in my cummer- bund, if I was spared ever again to tread upon the free soil of happy Britain, that I would restore this relic to his family. I ran on until my bare, torn, and trembling limbs could carry me no further, and at every pace my heart upbraided me for placing such a distance between myself ami Cecil. On pausing and looking back towards the fire of the Arab bivouac, I could perceive it burn- ing dimly on the grassy plain aboir a mile distant; Dut from thence there came no sound, no halloo of pursuit or alarm, on the wind. Thus I knew well, that roused by the pistol report and the moans of the wounded eunuch—for Black Osman was only wounded and not killed—the entire party would be silently, softly, and surely scour- ing the whole vicinity to recapture me. Overpowering fatigue and past excitement rendered me incapable- of further exertion, and being aware of the necessity for recruiting my wasted strength, to enable me to follow the cavalcade next day, and make some effort to succour Cecil, I looked round for a place of concealment; and knowing that one near the bivouac might escape- discovery, while another more distant might be found, I took my measures accordingly. Finding a deep rent in the earth, caused either by the long draughts or the recent rain, fearless of snakes, adders, and poisonous insects, I crept in, and sought a place where- the long green jowlies, the wild dhourra, the leaves of the tamarisk, and other luxuriant weeds, formed a natural matting over me; and' 330 frank hli/ton; ob, "the queen's own." there, with a beating heart, an aching head, and a wearied body, I lay down to rest—to sleep and to dream—with a dagger in my hand. Rest never came, but a sleep—the slumber of exhausted nature— a sleep that refreshed me not, for it was disturbed by many a painful dream and convulsive start, descended on my eyelids; and the hot morning sun had come up in his brilliance from the hills of Yemen, the leaves of the tamarisks had unfolded, and the stalks of the jowlie had risen from the dew, before I awoke and raised my head from among them, like a fox from its lair. Starting, I looked anxiously towards where the vizier had bivouacked over-night; but the plain was empty. There remained no trace of those I sought! I rubbed my eyes to be assured that I was awake. The vast extent of a green plain, dotted by many a clump of palms and tuft of wild evergreens, and bounded by hills which swelled up softly in the hazy distance, was spread before me; but thereon I could perceive no ' 11' mi 1 1 1 1 1 J1 earliest dawn, and now they reached Sana—a desperate hope for one on foot to overtake men mounted on swift horses and dromedaries. A wild burst of grief eossessed me, and flinging myself despairingly on the ground, I uried my face in the grass, and ejaculated aloud. This fit was too painful to last long; but it relieved while it weakened me. After it passed away, I endeavoured to compose my thoughts, and resolved to follow the party of the vizier, if I could discover their route; but alas ! I was not Arab enough for that, or to detect those trifling indi- cations which mark the passage of their light-footed cattle over a grassy plain. The white ashes of the night-fire remained beneath the trees where I had seen it lighted; I saw the places where the grass had been bruised by the reposing dromedaries, and I knew where Cecil's had knelt. I saw the two bare skulls in the earth, and the spot on which I had flung myself down in despair, and where Rabd-al-Hoosi had given me his beautiful pistol and Damascus poniard. I recognised the fragment of rock (yet spotted by Black Osman's blood) on which I had dashed my chains; but nowhere could I perceive any trace of the route towards Sana, and I knew that the precautions usually taken by a secret party to obliterate their trail—such as brushing the grass with a branch for half a mile or so—would assuredly be taken by the vizier to prevent me follow- ing him, and that it was vain to attempt discovering it. I would have given the mines of Peru to possess that acuteness which enables the Arabs to track the feet of men and horses on the grass and sand. CHAPTER LXX. the men of roba el khali. overtake them before THE MEN OF EOBH EL KHALI. 331 So keen and sure is this gift of discernment, that they can tell whether or not such marks belong to their own tribe, and by their depth, whether or not the persons or animals were laden; whether they passed within an hour, a day, a week, or a month ago. This acuteness of vision, like their keenness of hearing, arises from the circumstance of their living so much, if not continually, in the open air. I had so often seen the frowns of fate, and found hope smile behind them, when my fortune seemed at the lowest ebb, that I mentally upbraided myself with unmanliness in shrinking thus; and controlling by an effort the choking swell of sorrow in my breast, sat down beside the deserted bivouac, and resting my head upon my hands endeavoured to arrange my thoughts and plans. Now, indeed, my position was most desolate! Far separated from my regiment, distant from Mohamed-al-Raschid and old Abdulmelik, (the only men who could succour me); my companion dead; my betrothed torn from me; stripped of clothing, destitute of protection and defence, I loitered in that Arabian solitude, a miserable and heart-broken outcast, and heedless of the hot unclouded sun, which soared above me into the clear and sparkling sky. I could scarcely realize the truth of my position and believe in my own identity. It seemed that the whirl of startling events into which I had been plunged for the last few years were all a hideous dream; that my present desolate situation was but a part of it; and that I would awake, to find myself in my small barrack-room, when the drums beat reveille and the morning gun was fired. But, alas, no drums beat merrily, and no waking came! The hot sunny plain with its drooping palms and waving cane tufts still remained before me, too palpably and too real; and it was over that plain Cecil had been conveyed from me! Bitter indeed were my self-upbraidings, for having closed an eye while she was near me, or while there lingered on one hand the shadow of a chance of freeing her, or, on the other, of being, as I was now, more surely separated from her. But enough of all this ! I must not tire my readers with these unavailing regrets, and by describing the endless current 01 wild thoughts that whirled through my mind, for more adventures are yet to be related and other difficulties overcome. After a time I endeavoured to judge by the position of the sun, where Sana stood, and regretting that I had been so long inert, departed from where the debris of the bivouac lay, with all the speed I could exert; but that was little, being under a burning sun, with- out covering for my head, save now and then a broad leaf spread over it, and while suffering the extremity of thirst. I felt 110 hunger, but the agony of this thirst became so great that I hailed with satis- faction the appearance of a large camp or village, the square black tents of which I discerned about a mile distant, dotting the sloping side of a hill, under the brow of a palm-tufted rock, from which a pure spring of water foamed into the hollow below. As I drew near, 332 IBANK HILTON J OR, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." I could perceive "all the beauties of the spot, for there the arbutus, the dwarf oak, and the soft acacia grew by the margin of the tiny stream that flowed through the camp, from which the grunting of the grazing camels, the bleating of sheep, and the clatter of millstones were borne towards me on the soft breeze of the valley. The yelling of the watch-dogs as I approached soon warned the Arabs of my presence; a crowd of gazing and clamorous boys soon came around me, and attracted by their shouts, the men quitted their tasks of grooming the horses and milking the cattle; the women left their daily occupation of grinding those handmills which are iden- tically the same as our ancient Scottish querns; and throwing up their veils of blue cloth which had each two holes worked for the eyes, they rushed into the street of black tents, to behold the white skinned wanderer—the Paringi—who had suddenly come among them. Amid the increasing crowd which surrounded me, and disregarded all my assertions that I came among them as a peaceful seeker of food and shelter, there was one ferocious-looking Bedouin, named Khaled Ibn Khobaid, whose face was like the profile of an eagle, and whose eyes were like those of a snake. Under his red turban, this man gazed at me for a few moments, and then rushing forward, grasped me by the hair (for I had on no garment that afforded so ready a handful), and while others deprived me of my poniard and now empty pistol, he exclaimed, with savage joy, " Praised be the Prophet! he is one of the Kafirs who came with Kior Ibn Kogia, the Abdala, to our camp near Jebel Ahmer, and after eating bread and salt with us, shot my brother on the moun- tains." " The shot was fired by the Abdala," said I, " and the Santon Noureddin said it was the judgment of heaven." " The santon is a presumptuous fool," retorted Khaled; " how should he be assured of that, and pretend to whether it was heaven's judgment, or not ?" "Peace," said another, named the Moolah Abu Beer, "andremem- ber the santon hath already reached the fifth degree of earthly perfection and sanctity." " Dog," said a third Bedouin, " we thought you were all three buried in the mountain by the falling rocks. Oh! thou lying santon, who hast cast dirt on our beards." " Away with him to the sheikh," cried several voices; " Sheikh Ibrahim awaits him." I now found to my dismay (if anything could dismay one so miserable) that I had fallen among our former acquaintances, the Bedouin robbers from Boba el Khali, the Abode of Emptiness. I was pushed and dragged along the streets of tents, which were made of black haircloth, and pitched by the margin of the rivulet. A lance, adorned by a plume of feathers, was stuck into the turf before a larger tent, and announced the residence of Sheikh Ibrahim, and there THE MEN OE KOBA EL KHALI. 333 I was immediately taken by a few or the leading Arabs, among whom was the fierce and clamorous brother of that man whom Kior, the Abdala, had shot. The tent of Ibrahim might have measured about twelve feet bj six and thirty, and was curtained off into two apartments by a Damascus carpet of green cloth, nailed on upright posts. The flooi of the outer chamber was covered with coarse carpeting, from the manufactories in the khalafat of Hadramaut. The furniture consisted of saddles, goatskin jars for holding milk and butter, large water- bottles of camel's skin, horse buckets, hand querns of stone, wooden dishes and coffee-pots, while some beautifully executed weapons, such as swords, muskets, and bucklers, with a steel skull-cap and shirt of mail hung from the principal pole of the tent. On a couch of pack- saddles sat old Sheikh Ibrahim, wearing a well-soiled turban, with a cloth tucked by one of his wives under his long beard, to save his striped shawl from grease spots, as he was at dinner; and with angrj astonishment he raised his quick small glittering eyes—every glance of which betrayed a volume of cunning and cruelty—from the tray oi cheese and curds before him, and with his right hand buried to the knuckles in a mess of boiled rice and pot herbs, asked— " In the name of all the devils, what is the meaning of this intru- sion ?" The Bedouin in the red turban soon made him aware. "Ahi—is it so?" said the old sheikh, with a malicious grin. "Art thou one of those of whom yonder santon cheated us? A Kafir of Aden—yet a friend of Mohamed, the Abdala ? Answer me truly, 0 dog, and. say wherefore thou hast thrust thy unclean and unholy person among us again ?" " In search of water, for I am perishing of thirst, and to find food, not having broke bread for many hours." "Men who are to die," said Khaled, "require neither." " Peace be with you, sheikh," said I, " and may your house be prosperous—all I have is yours." " Of course it is," said he, conveying a handful of rice to Ills mouth; " an old cummerbund is not much, however." Perceiving the danger in which I stood, I suddenly dipped my hand into the sheikh's dish and took a mouthful of the rice. " Mayest thou burn eternally, dog of a Prank !" said he, furiously flinging the bowl to the farthest corner of the tent. What does that act of daring mean ?" " That now we have eaten together and dipped our hands in the same dish, and I claim the protection due—by this tent (I added em- phatically, laying my hands on the centre pole),—by this tent, and the lives of its owners, I claim it!" Khaled Ibn Khobaid, the Bedouin in the red turban, uttered a growl of anger on finding himself outwitted, and said, while shaking nis clenched hand in my face, " Mayest thou writhe under the devil's jaw till the day of doom I Y 334 THANK HILTON; OH, "THE QUEEN'S OWN." Kafir, in this thou hast outwitted us all, but still thou art not beyond the reach of the Arabmeaning that though he could not slay ine while I remained among them, a time would come when the temporary protection which an old and time-honoured custom enforced, would cease. That my life and liberty, if preserved, might be serviceable to Cecil, was my only thought; yet I would have surrendered both cheerfully, if convinced that by such a sacrifice I could place her safely within the gates of our barracks at Aden, or anywhere else among civilized men. To be among these Bedouins was a peril as deadly as any I had yet encountered, for they are the wild men of the desert whom even the martial Prophet of the East could never tame, and who in the Koran are styled constantly rebels and infidels—men to whom danger was a pastime and human life a toy. Moreover, they are such expert thieves that they can almost steal the teeth out of one's head; thus I expected to be at once deprived of poor Langley's locket; but my appearance was so miserable and wo-begone that they never once thought of examining my cummerbund. When the anger of the sheikh, and clamour of the tribe on finding themselves cheated of my life (or rather of the atrocious scene of cruelty they anticipated) had subsided into silence, all were ordered to withdraw, the men to their milking and the women to their spinning, while Ibrahim consulted with his brother, who was named the Seyd, or Moolah Abu Beer, having once practised as a doctor, or quack man of science, at Mocha and Sana; and the result of their confab was this : that I should first receive refreshment, as they could not spill my blood; and thereafter, according to the barbarous fashion of the Bedouins, I should be buried to the neck in sand, and—unless I found a protector—be left there to die, when the tribe broke up from its camp next day. I had heard of such things in the tales which the Emir Mchamed (when we knew him only as Yussef, the coffee merchant) was wont to relate in the Parsee's bungalow at Aden; I remembered, also, the two bare white skulls which were visible above the green turf of the place where B.abd-al-Hoosi had halted, and my blood ran cold when the decision of the sheikh and Moolah was announced to me, for I knew that among all the tribe of Ibrahim, there was no man who would stoop to be my protector. However, I devoutly trusted that the same Divine power which had guarded me amid so many dangers would yet befriend me—if not for my own sake, at least for the sake of her whom I considered a thousand times more worthy of such pro- tection than myself. I partook of some goat's milk and bread, the flour of which was mixed with honey and baked on the embers, resolv- ing to husband all my strength for the means of escape, when these barbarians left me. The decision was hailed with noisy satisfaction by the tribe, but by none more so than the hook-nosed Bedouin, who had especially con- 8titv>fced himself m.y enemy and persecutor—Kinder! Ttm K"lmV>aid—a the thread of life. 33b name which still, though a few years have elapsed since then, excites anger within me. He dug a pit about five feet deep, and I was thrust into it, after my hands had been secured behind me by a cord; and thus they buried me up to the chin in the earth, which by their feet they trampled into a compact mass around me—so compact, indeed, that I could not breathe without difficulty. Around this living grave they piled a barricade of packsaddles and camp equipage, and after spitting at me, as an infidel and unbeliever, I was left, just as the sun was setting, to my own terrible reflections. The last person who reviled me was a woman, an old and frightful one, who still retained the barbarous Arabian custom of daubing her Drange-coloured visage with greenish paint, and her lips and teeth with a brick red tint; thus she looked like a veritable fiend, as, with "her eyes encircled by kohel, she grinned at me, and disappeared behind the packsaddles. This was the principal wife of Sheikh Ibrahim. Hope at last seemed sinking! The Bedouins troubled themselves no more about me; even the tawny urchins of the camp soon ceased to peep at me -with their dark faces and glittering eyes. The tasks of milking, grooming, and cheesemaking over, the men betook themselves to cleaning their weapons, playing at chess or draughts, singing, smoking, telling stories, and tossing the blunted spear. The earth in which I was imbedded felt cool, and it grew cooler as the shadows of evening deepened and the sun began to sink behind the hills. At times the horror of being left thus entombed alive, with my head exposed to the bleaching dews and scorching sun, or to the claws and beaks of ravenous birds, became strong within me, and my heart grew sick at the contemplation. I had only one reflection to soothe me -. that Cecil knew not of my danger; but when I thought of her from whom I seemed so hopelessly separated, a dreadful fear arose within me, that—sinking under all we had endured—she might be ill, or dying—nay, she might even then be dead, while I was far away and should never see her more. At these frightful suggestions I lost all recollection and sense of my own miseries, and a sleepy stupor stole over me. CHAPTER LXXI. the thread of life. When perfect consciousness returned, the bright moon of midnight was shining on the green plain, on the drooping palms, on the flower- tufted rocks, and the gurgling stream that meandered between the black tents of the Bedouins. Among them all was still, for the camp or village lay buried in sleep, and none were waking there, save their watchful mastiffs, which uttered an occasional growl at their posts,