THE SCAPEGOAT

By Hall Caine

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

 PREFACE 1. ISRAEL BEN OLIEL 2. THE BIRTH OF NAOMI 3. THE CHILDHOOD OF NAOMI 4. THE DEATH OF RUTH 5. RUTH'S BURIAL 6. THE SPIRIT-MAID 7. THE ANGEL IN ISRAEL'S HOUSE 8. THE VISION OF THE SCAPEGOAT 9. ISRAEL'S JOURNEY 10. THE WATCHWORD OF THE MAHDI 11. ISRAEL'S HOME-COMING 12. THE BAPTISM OF SOUND 13. NAOMI'S GREAT GIFT 14. ISRAEL AT SHAWAN 15. THE MEETING ON THE SOK 16. NAOMI'S BLINDNESS 17. ISRAEL'S GREAT RESOLVE 18. THE LIGHT-BORN MESSENGER 19. THE RAINBOW SIGN 20. LIFE'S NEW LANGUAGE 21. ISRAEL IN PRISON 22. HOW NAOMI TURNED MUSLIMA 23. ISRAEL'S RETURN FROM PRISON 24. THE ENTRY OF THE SULTAN 25. THE COMING OF THE MAHDI 26. ALI'S RETURN TO TETUAN 27. THE FALL OF BEN ABOO 28. "AT ALLAH-U-KABAR"

PREFACE

_Within sight of an English port, and within hail of English ships asthey pass on to our empire in the East, there is a land where the waysof life are the same to-day as they were a thousand years ago; a landwherein government is oppression, wherein law is tyranny, whereinjustice is bought and sold, wherein it is a terror to be rich and adanger to be poor, wherein man may still be the slave of man, and womenis no more than a creature of lust--a reproach to Europe, a disgrace tothe century, an outrage on humanity, a blight on religion! That land isMorocco!_

_This is a story of Morocco in the last years of the Sultan Abder-Rahman. The ashes of that tyrant are cold, and his grandson sits inhis place; but men who earned his displeasure linger yet in his noisomedungeons, and women who won his embraces are starving at this hour inthe prison-palaces in which he immured them. His reign is a story ofyesterday; he is gone, he is forgotten; no man so meek and none so meanbut he might spit upon his tomb. Yet the evil work which he did in hisevil time is done to-day, if not by his grandson, then in his grandson'sname--the degradation of man's honour, the cruel wrong of woman's, theshame of base usury, and the iniquity of justice that may be bought! Ofsuch corruption this story will tell, for it is a tale of tyranny thatis every day repeated, a voice of suffering going up hourly to thepowers of the world, calling on them to forget the secret hopes andpetty jealousies whereof Morocco is a cause, to think no more of anyscramble for territory when the fated day of that doomed land has come, and only to look to it and see that he who fills the throne of Abder-Rahman shall be the last to sit there. _

_Yet it is the grandeur of human nature that when it is trodden downit waits for no decree of nations, but finds its own solace amid thebaffled struggle against inimical power in the hopes of an exaltedfaith. That cry of the soul to be lifted out of the bondage of thenarrow circle of life, which carries up to God the protest and yearningof suffering man, never finds a more sublime expression than wherehumanity is oppressed and religion is corrupt. On the one hand, the hardexperience of daily existence; on the other hand, the soul crying outthat the things of this world are not the true realities. Savage vicesmake savage virtues. God and man are brought face to face. _

_In the heart of Morocco there is one man who lives a life that is likea hymn, appealing to God against tyranny and corruption and shame. Thisgreat soul is the leader of a vast following which has come to him fromevery scoured and beaten corner of the land. His voice sounds throughoutBarbary, and wheresoever men are broken they go to him, and wheresoeverwomen are fallen and wrecked they seek the mercy and the shelter of hisface. He is poor, and has nothing to give them save one thing only, butthat is the best thing of all--it is hope. Not hope in life, but hopein death, the sublime hope whose radiance is always around him. Man thatveils his face before the mysteries of the hereafter, and science thatreckons the laws of nature and ignores the power of God, have no placewith the Mahdi. The unseen is his certainty; the miracle is all in allto him; he throngs the air with marvels; God speaks to him in dreamswhen he sleeps, and warns and directs him by signs when he is awake. _

_With this man, so singular a mixture of the haughty chief and the joyouschild, there is another, a woman, his wife. She is beautiful with abeauty rarely seen in other women, and her senses are subtle beyond thewonders of enchantment. Together these two, with their ragged fellowshipof the poor behind them, having no homes and no possessions, passfrom place to place, unharmed and unhindered, through that land ofintolerance and iniquity, being protected and reverenced by virtue ofthe superstition which accepts them for Saints. Who are they? What havethey been?_

CHAPTER I

ISRAEL BEN OLIEL

Israel was the son of a Jewish banker at Tangier. His mother wasthe daughter of a banker in London. The father's name was Oliel; themother's was Sara. Oliel had held business connections with the house ofSara's father, and he came over to England that he might have a personalmeeting with his correspondent. The English banker lived over hisoffice, near Holborn Bars, and Oliel met with his family. It consistedof one daughter by a first wife, long dead, and three sons by a secondwife, still living. They were not altogether a happy household, and thechief apparent cause of discord was the child of the first wife in thehome of the second. Oliel was a man of quick perception, and he saw thedifficulty. That was how it came about that he was married to Sara. Whenhe returned to Morocco he was some thousand pounds richer than when heleft it, and he had a capable and personable wife into his bargain. 

Oliel was a self-centred and silent man, absorbed in getting andspending, always taking care to have much of the one, and no more thanhe could help of the other. Sara was a nervous and sensitive littlewoman, hungering for communion and for sympathy. She got little ofeither from her husband, and grew to be as silent as he. With the peopleof the country of her adoption, whether Jews or Moors, she made noheadway. She never even learnt their language. 

Two years passed, and then a child was born to her. This was Israel, andfor many a year thereafter he was all the world to the lonely woman. Hiscoming made no apparent difference to his father. He grew to be a talland comely boy, quick and bright, and inclined to be of a sweet andcheerful disposition. But the school of his upbringing was a hard one. AJewish child in Morocco might know from his cradle that he was not borna Moor and a Mohammedan. 

When the boy was eight years old his father married a second wife, his first wife being still alive. This was lawful, though unusual inTangier. The new marriage, which was only another business transactionto Oliel, was a shock and a terror to Sara. Nevertheless, she supportedits penalties through three weary years, sinking visibly under them dayafter day. By that time a second family had begun to share her husband'shouse, the rivalry of the mothers had threatened to extend to thechildren, the domesticity of home was destroyed and its harmony was nolonger possible. Then she left Oliel, and fled back to England, takingIsrael with her. 

Her father was dead, and the welcome she got of her half-brothers wasnot warm. They had no sympathy with her rebellion against her husband'ssecond marriage. If she had married into a foreign country, she shouldabide by the ways of it. Sara was heartbroken. Her health had long beenpoor, and now it failed her utterly. In less than a month she died. On her deathbed she committed her boy to the care of her brothers, andimplored them not to send him back to Morocco. 

For years thereafter Israel's life in London was a stern one. If he hadno longer to submit to the open contempt of the Moors, the kicks andinsults of the streets, he had to learn how bitter is the bread that oneis forced to eat at another's table. When he should have been still atschool he was set to some menial occupation in the bank at Holborn Bars, and when he ought to have risen at his desk he was required to teach thesons of prosperous men the way to go above him. Life was playing an evilgame with him, and, though he won, it must be at a bitter price. 

Thus twelve years went by, and Israel, now three-and-twenty, was atall, silent, very sedate young man, clear-headed on all subjects, and amaster of figures. Never once during that time had his father writtento him, or otherwise recognised his existence, though knowing of hiswhereabouts from the first by the zealous importunities of his uncles. Then one day a letter came written in distant tone and formal manner, announcing that the writer had been some time confined to his bed, anddid not expect to leave it; that the children of his second wife haddied in infancy; that he was alone, and had no one of his own fleshand blood to look to his business, which was therefore in the hands ofstrangers, who robbed him; and finally, that if Israel felt any dutytowards his father, or, failing that, if he had any wish to consult hisown interest, he would lose no time in leaving England for Morocco. 

Israel read the letter without a throb of filial affection; but, nevertheless, he concluded to obey its summons. A fortnight later helanded at Tangier. He had come too late. His father had died the daybefore. The weather was stormy, and the surf on the shore was heavy, andthus it chanced that, even while the crazy old packet on which he sailedlay all day beating about the bay, in fear of being dashed on to theruins of the mole, his father's body was being buried in the littleJewish cemetery outside the eastern walls, and his cousins, andcousins' cousins, to the fifth degree, without loss of time or waste ofsentiment, were busily dividing his inheritance among them. 

Next day, as his father's heir, he claimed from the Moorish court therestitution of his father's substance. But his cousins made the Kadi, the judge, a present of a hundred dollars, and he was declared to be animpostor, who could not establish his identity. Producing his father'sletter which had summoned him from London, he appealed from the Kadito the Aolama, men wise in the law, who acted as referees in disputedcases; but it was decided that as a Jew he had no right in Mohammedanlaw to offer evidence in a civil court. He laid his case before theBritish Consul, but was found to have no claim to English intervention, being a subject of the Sultan both by birth and parentage. Meantime, hisdispute with his cousins was set at rest for ever by the Governor of thetown, who, concluding that his father had left neither will nor heirs, confiscated everything he had possessed to the public treasury--that isto say, to the Kaid's own uses. 

Thus he found himself without standing ground in Morocco, whether as aJew, a Moor, or an Englishman, a stranger in his father's country, andopenly branded as a cheat. That he did not return to England promptlywas because he was already a man of indomitable spirit. Besides that, the treatment he was having now was but of a piece with what he hadreceived at all times. Nothing had availed to crush him, even as nothingever does avail to crush a man of character. But the obstacles andtorments which make no impression on the mind of a strong man often makea very sensible impression on his heart; the mind triumphs, it isthe heart that suffers; the mind strengthens and expands after everybesetting plague of life, but the heart withers and wears away. 

So far from flying from Morocco when things conspired together tobeat him down, Israel looked about with an equal mind for the means ofsettling there. 

His opportunity came early. The Governor, either by qualm of conscienceor further freak of selfishness, got him the place of head of theOomana, the three Administrators of Customs at Tangier. He held the postsix months only, to the complete satisfaction of the Kaid, but amid themuttered discontent of the merchants and tradesmen. Then the Governor ofTetuan, a bigger town lying a long day's journey to the east, hearingof Israel that as Ameen of Tangier he had doubled the custom revenues inhalf a year, invited him to fill an informal, unofficial, and irregularposition as assessor of tributes. 

Now, it would be a long task to tell of the work which Israel did inhis new calling: how he regulated the market dues, and appointed aMut'hasseb, a clerk of the market, to collect them--so many moozoonahsfor every camel sold, so many for every horse, mule, and ass, so manyfloos for every fowl, and so many metkals for the purchase and sale ofevery slave; how he numbered the houses and made lists of the trades, assessing their tribute by the value of their businesses--so much forgun-making, so much for weaving, so much for tanning, and so on throughthe line of them, great and small, good and bad, even from the tradesof the Jewish silversmiths and the Moorish packsaddle-makers down to thecallings of the Arab water-carriers and the ninety public women. 

All this he did by the strict law and letter of the Koran, whichentitled the Sultan to a tithe of all earnings whatsoever; but it wouldnot wrong the truth to say that he did it also by the impulse of a sourand saddened heart. The world had shown no mercy to him, and he needshow no mercy to the world. Why talk of pity? It was only a name, anidea a mocking thought. In the actual reckoning of life there was nosuch name as pity. Thus did Israel justify himself in all his dealings, whatever their severity and the rigour wherewith they wrought. 

And the people felt the strong hand that was on them, and they cursedit. 

"Ya Allah! Allah!" the Moors would cry. "Who is this Jew--this son ofthe English--that he should be made our master?"

They muttered at him in the streets, they scowled upon him, and atlength they insulted him openly. Since his return from England he hadresumed the dress of his race in his country--the long dark gabardineor kaftan, with a scarf for girdle, the black slippers, and the blackskull-cap. And, going one day by the Grand Mosque, a group of thebeggars; who lay always by the gate, called on him to uncover his feet. 

"Jew! Dog!" they cried, "there is no god but God! Curses on yourrelations! Off with your slippers!"

He paid no heed to their commands, but made straight onward. Then oneblear-eyed and scab-faced cripple scrambled up and struck off his capwith a crutch. He picked it up again without a look or a word, andstrode away. But next morning, at early prayers, there was a place emptyat the door of the mosque. Its accustomed occupant lay in the prison atthe Kasbah. 

And if the Muslimeen hated Israel for what he was doing for theirGovernor, the Jews hated him yet more because it was being done for aMoor. 

"He has sold himself to our enemy, " they said, "against the welfare ofhis own nation. "

At the synagogue they ignored him, and in taking the votes of theirpeople they counted others and passed him by. He showed no malice. Onlyhis strong face twitched at each fresh insult and his head was heldhigher. Only this, and one other sign of suffering in that secret placeof his withering heart, which God's eye alone could see. 

Thus far he had done no more to Moor and Jew than exact that tenth partof their substance which the faiths of both required that they shouldpay. But now his work went further. A little group of old Jews, all heldin honour among their people--Abraham Ohana, nicknamed Pigman, son ofa former rabbi; Judah ben Lolo, an elder of his synagogue; and ReubenMaliki, keeper of the poor-box--were seized and cast into the Kasbah forgross and base usury. 

At this the Jewish quarter was thrown into wild hubbub. The hand thatwas on their people was a daring and terrible one. None doubted whosehand it was--it was the hand of young Israel the Jew. 

When the three old usurers had bought themselves out of the Kasbah, theyput their heads together and said, "Let us drive this fellow out of theMellah, and so shall he be driven out of the town. " Then the owner ofthe house which Israel rented for his lodging evicted him by a poorexcuse, and all other Jewish owners refused him as tenant. But theconspiracy failed. By command of the Governor, or by his influence, Israel was lodged by the Nadir, the administrator of mosque property, in one of the houses belonging to the mosque on the Moorish side of theMellah walls. 

Seeing this, the usurers laid their heads together again and said, "Letus see that no man of our nation serve him, and so shall his life be aburden. " Then the two Jews who had been his servants deserted him, andwhen he asked for Moors he was told that the faithful might not obey theunbeliever; and when he would have sent for negroes out of the Soudan hewas warned that a Jew might not hold a slave. But the conspiracy failedagain. Two black female slaves from Soos, named Fatimah and Habeebah, were bought in the name of the Governor and assigned to Israel'sservice. 

And when it was seen at length that nothing availed to disturb Israel'smaterial welfare, the three base usurers laid their heads together yetagain, that they might prey upon his superstitious fears, and theysaid, "He is our enemy, but he is a Jew: let the woman who is namedthe prophetess put her curse upon him. " Then she who was so called, oneRebecca Bensabbot, deaf as a stone, weak in her intellect, seventy yearsof age, and living fifty years on the poor-box which Reuben Maliki kept, crossed Israel in the streets, and cursed him as a son of Beelzebubpredicting that, even as he had made the walls of the Kasbah to echowith the groans of God's elect, so should his own spirit be brokenwithin them and his forehead humbled to the earth. He stood while heheard her out, and his strong lip trembled at he words; but he onlysmiled coldly, and passed on in silence. 

"The clouds are not hurt, " he thought, "by the bark of dogs. "

Thus did his brethren of Judah revile him, and thus did they torturehim; yet there was one among them who did neither. This was the daughterof their Grand Rabbi, David ben Ohana. Her name was Ruth. She was young, and God had given her grace and she was beautiful, and many youngJewish men, of Tetuan had vied with each other in vain for he favour. OfIsrael's duty she knew little, save what report had said of it, thatit was evil; and of the act which had made him an outcast among hisown people, and an Ishmael among the sons of Ishmael she could formno judgment. But what a woman's eyes might see in him, without help ofother knowledge, that she saw. 

She had marked him in the synagogue, that his face was noble and hismanners gracious; that he was young, but only as one who had beencheated of his youth and had missed his early manhood, the when he wasignored he ignored his insult, and when he was reviled he answered notagain; in a word, the he was silent and strong and alone, and, above allthat he was sad. 

These were credentials enough to the true girl's favour, and Israel soonlearnt that the house of the Rabbi was open to him. There the lonely manfirst found himself. The cold eyes of his little world had seen him ashis father's son, but the light and warmth of the eyes of Ruth sawhim as the son of his mother also. The Rabbi himself was old, veryold--ninety years of age--and length of days had taught him charity. And so it was that when, in due time, Israel came with many excuses andasked for Ruth in marriage, the Rabbi gave her to him. 

The betrothal followed, but none save the notary and his witnesses stoodbeside Israel when he crossed hands over the handkerchief; and, whenthe marriage came in its course, few stood beside the Chief Rabbi. Nevertheless, all the Jews of the quarter and all the Moors of Tetuanwere alive to what was happening, and on the night of the marriage agreat company of both peoples, though chiefly of the rabble among them, gathered in front of the Rabbi's house that they might hiss and jeer. 

The Chacham heard them from where he sat under the stars in his patio, and when at last the voice of Rebecca the prophetess came to him abovethe tumult, crying, "Woe to her that has married the enemy of hernation, and woe to him that gave her against the hope of his people!They shall taste death. He shall see them fall from his side and die, "then the old man listened and trembled visibly. In confusion and fierceanger he rose up and stumbled through the crooked passage to the door, and flinging it wide, he stood in the doorway facing them that stoodwithout. 

"Peace! Peace!" he cried, "and shame! shame! Remember the doom of himthat shall curse the high priest of the Lord. "

This he spoke in a voice that shook with wrath. Then suddenly, his voicefailing him, he said in a broken whisper, "My good people, what is this?Your servant is grown old in your service. Sixty and odd years he hasshared your sorrows and your burdens. What has he done this day thatyour women should lift up their voices against him?"

But, in awe of his white head in the moonlight, the rabble that stood inthe darkness were silent and made no answer. Then he staggered back, andIsrael helped him into his house, and Ruth did what she could to composehim. But he was woefully shaken, and that night he died. 

When the Rabbi's death became known in the morning, the Jews whispered, "It is the first-fruits!" and the Moors touched their foreheads andmurmured "It is written!"

CHAPTER II

THE BIRTH OF NAOMI

Israel paid no heed to Jew or Moor, but in due time he set about thebuilding of a house for himself and for Ruth, that they might live incomfort many years together. In the south-east corner of the Mellahhe placed it, and he built it partly in the Moorish and partly in theEnglish fashion, with an open court and corridors, marble pillars, and amarble staircase, walls of small tiles, and ceilings of stalactites, butalso with windows and with doors. And when his house was raised he putno haities into it, and spread no mattresses on the floors, but sent fortables and chairs and couches out of England; and everything he did inthis wise cut him off the more from the people about him, both Moors andJews. 

And being settled at last, and his own master in his own dwelling, outof the power of his enemies to push him back into the streets, suddenlyit occurred to him for the first time that whereas the house he hadbuilt was a refuge for himself, it was doomed to be little better than aprison for his wife. In marrying Ruth he had enlarged the circle of hisintimates by one faithful and loving soul, but in marrying him she hadreduced even her friends to that number. Her father was dead; if she wasthe daughter of a Chief Rabbi she was also the wife of an outcast, thecompanion of a pariah, and save for him, she must be for ever alone. Even their bondwomen still spoke a foreign dialect, and commerce withthem was mainly by signs. 

Thinking of all this with some remorse, one idea fixed itself onIsrael's mind, one hope on his heart--that Ruth might soon bear a child. Then would her solitude be broken by the dearest company that a womanmight know on earth. And, if he had wronged her, his child would makeamends. 

Israel thought of this again and again. The delicious hope pursued him. It was his secret, and he never gave it speech. But time passed, and nochild was born. And Ruth herself saw that she was barren, and she beganto cast down her head before her husband. Israel's hope was of longerlife, but the truth dawned upon him at last. Then, when he perceivedthat his wife was ashamed, a great tenderness came over him. He had beenthinking of her; that a child would bring her solace, and meanwhile shehad thought only of him, that a child would be his pride. After that henever went abroad but he came home with stories of women wailing at thecemetery over the tombs of their babes, of men broken in heart for lossof their sons, and of how they were best treated of God who were givenno children. 

This served his big soul for a time to cheat it of its disappointment, half deceiving Ruth, and deceiving himself entirely. But one day thewoman Rebecca met him again at the street-corner by his own house, andshe lifted her gaunt finger into his face, and cried, "Israel ben Oliel, the judgment of the Lord is upon you, and will not suffer you to raiseup children to be a reproach and a curse among your people!"

"Out upon you, woman!" cried Israel, and almost in the first delirium ofhis pain he had lifted his hand to strike her. Her other predictionshad passed him by, but this one had smitten him. He went home and shuthimself in his room, and throughout that day he let no one come near tohim. 

Israel knew his own heart at last. At his wife's barrenness he was nowangry with the anger of a proud man whose pride had been abased. Whatwas the worth of it, after all, that he had conquered the fate that hadfirst beaten him down? What did it come to that the world was at hisfeet? Heaven was above him, and the poorest man in the Mellah who wasthe father of a child might look down on him with contempt. 

That night sleep forsook his eyelids, and his mouth was parched andhis spirit bitter. And sometimes he reproached himself with a thousandoffences, and sometimes he searched the Scriptures, that he mightpersuade himself that he had walked blameless before the Lord in theordinances and commandments of God. 

Meantime, Ruth, in her solitude, remembered that it was now three yearssince she had been married to Israel, and that by the laws, both oftheir race and their country, a woman who had been long barren mightstraightway be divorced by her husband. 

Next morning a message of business came from the Khaleefa, but Israelwould not answer it. Then came an order to him from the Governor, butstill he paid no heed. At length he heard a feeble knock at the door ofhis room. It was Ruth, his wife, and he opened to her and she entered. 

"Send me away from you!" she cried. "Send me away!"

"Not for the place of the Kaid, " he answered stoutly; "no, nor thethrone of the Sultan!"

At that she fell on his neck and kissed him, and they mingled theirtears together. But he comforted her at length, and said, "Look up, mydearest! look up! I am a proud man among men, but it is even as the Lordmay deal with me. And which of us shall murmur against God?"

At that word Ruth lifted her head from his bosom and her eyes were fullof a sudden thought. 

"Then let us ask of the Lord, " she whispered hotly, "and surely He willhear our prayer. "

"It is the voice of the Lord Himself!" cried Israel; "and this day itshall be done!"

At the time of evening prayers Israel and Ruth went up hand in handtogether to the synagogue, in a narrow lane off the Sok el Foki. AndRuth knelt in her place in the gallery close under the iron grating andthe candles that hung above it, and she prayed: "O Lord, have pity onthis Thy servant, and take away her reproach among women. Give her gracein Thine eyes, O Lord, that her husband be not ashamed. Grant her achild of Thy mercy, that his eye may smile upon her. Yet not asshe willeth, but as Thou willest, O Lord, and Thy servant will besatisfied. "

But Israel stood long on the floor with his hand on his heart and hiseyes to the ground, and he called on God as a debtor that will notbe appeased, saying: "How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord? My enemiestriumph over me and foretell Thy doom upon me. They sit in thelurking-places of the streets to deride me. Confound my enemies, O Lord, and rebuke their counsels. Remember Ruth, I beseech Thee, that she ispatient and her heart is humbled. Give her children of Thy servant, andher first-born shall be sanctified unto Thee. Give her one child, andit shall be Thine--if it is a son, to be a Rabbi in Thy synagogues. Hearme, O Lord, and give heed to my cry, for behold, I swear it before Thee. One child, but one, only one, son or daughter, and all my desire isbefore Thee. How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord?"

The message of the Khaleefa which Israel had not answered in his troublewas a request from the Shereef of Wazzan that he should come withoutdelay to that town to count his rent-charges and assess his dues. Thisrequest the Governor had transformed into a command, for the Shereefwas a prince of Islam in his own country, and in many provinces thebelievers paid him tribute. So in three days' time Israel was readyto set out on his journey, with men and mules at his door, and camelspacked with tents. He was likely to be some months absent from Tetuan, and it was impossible that Ruth should go with him. They had never beenseparated before, and Ruth's concern was that they should be so longparted, but Israel's was a deeper matter. 

"Ruth, " he said when his time came, "I am going away from you, but myenemies remain. They see evil in all my doings, and in this act alsothey will find offence. Promise me that if they make a mock at you foryour husband's sake you will not see them; if they taunt you that youwill not hear them; and if they ask anything concerning me that you willanswer them not at all. "

And Ruth promised him that if his enemies made a mock at her she shouldbe as one that was blind, if they taunted her as one that was deaf, andif they questioned her concerning her husband as one that was dumb. Thenthey parted with many tears and embraces. 

Israel was half a year absent in the town and province of Wazzan, and, having finished the work which he came to do, he was sent back to Tetuanloaded with presents from the Shereef, and surrounded by soldiers andattendants, who did not leave him until they had brought him to the doorof his own house. 

And there, in her chamber, sat Ruth awaiting him, her eyes dim withtears of joy, her throat throbbing like the throat of a bird, and greatnews on her tongue. 

"Listen, " she whispered; "I have something to tell you--"

"Ah, I know it, " he cried; "I know it already. I see it in your eyes. "

"Only listen, " she whispered again, while she toyed with the neck of hiskaftan, and coloured deeply, not daring to look into his face. 

Their prayer in the synagogue had been heard, and the child they hadasked for was to come. 

Israel was like a man beside himself with joy. He burst in upon themessage of his wife, and caught her to his breast again and again, and kissed her. Long they stood together so, while he told her of thechances which had befallen him during his absence from her, and shetold him of her solitude of six long months, unbroken save for the poorcompany of Fatimah and Habeebah, wherein she had been blind and deaf anddumb to all the world. 

During the months thereafter until Ruth's time was full Israel sat withher constantly. He could scarce suffer himself to leave her company. Hecovered her chamber with fruits and flowers. There was no desire of herheart but he fulfilled it. And they talked together lovingly of how theywould name the child when the time came to name it. Israel concludedthat if it was a son it should be called David, and Ruth decided that ifit was a daughter it should be called Naomi. And Ruth delighted to tellof how when it was weaned she should take it up to the synagogue andsay, "O Lord: I am the woman that knelt before Thee praying. For thischild I prayed, and Thou hast heard my prayer. " And Israel told of howhis son should grow up to be a Rabbi to minister before God, and howin those days it should come to pass that the children of his father'senemies should crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel ofbread. Thus they built themselves castles in the air for the future ofthe child that was to come. 

Ruth's time came at last, and it was also the time of the Feast ofthe Passover, being in the month of Nisan. This was a cause of joy toIsrael, for he was eager to triumph over his enemies face to face, andhe could not wait eight other days for the Feast of the circumcision. Sohe set a supper fit for a king: the fore-leg of a sheep and the fore-legof an ox, the egg roasted in ashes, the balls of Charoseth, the threeMitzvoth, and the wine, And by the time the supper was ready the midwifehad been summoned, and it was the day of the night of the Seder. 

Then Israel sent messengers round the Mellah to summon his guests. Onlyhis enemies he invited, his bitterest foes, his unceasing revilers, andamong them were the three base usurers, Abraham Pigman, Judah ben Lolo, and Reuben Maliki. "They cursed me, " he thought, "and I shall look ontheir confusion. " His heart thirsted to summon Rebecca Bensabbot also, but well he knew that her dainty masters would not sit at meat with her. 

And when the enemies were bidden, all of them excused themselves andrefused, saying it was the Feast of the Passover, when no man shouldsit save in his own house and at his own table. But Israel was not to begainsaid. He went out to them himself, and said, "Come, let bygones bebygones. It is the feast of our nation. Let us eat and drink together. "So, partly by his importunity, but mainly in their bewilderment, yetagainst all rule and custom, they suffered themselves to go with him. 

And when they were come into his house and were seated about his tablein the patio, and he had washed his hands and taken the wine and blessedit, and passed it to all, and they had drunk together, he could not keepback his tongue from taunting them. Then when he had washed again anddipped the celery in the vinegar, and they had drunk of the wine oncemore, he taunted them afresh and laughed. But nothing yet had theyunderstood of his meaning, and they looked into each other's faces andasked, "What is it?"

"Wait! Only wait!" Israel answered. "You shall see!"

At that moment Ruth sent for him to her chamber, and he went in to her. 

"I am a sorrowful woman, " she said. "Some evil is about to befall--Iknow it, I feel it. "

But he only rallied her and laughed again, and prophesied joy on themorrow. Then, returning to the patio, where the passover cakes had beenbroken, he called for the supper, and bade his guests to eat and drinkas much as their hearts desired. 

They could do neither now, for the fear that possessed them at sight ofIsrael's frenzy. The three old usurers, Abraham, Judah, and Reuben, roseto go, but Israel cried, "Stay! Stay, and see what is come!" and underthe very force of his will they yielded and sat down again. 

Still Israel drank and laughed and derided them. In the wild torrent ofhis madness he called them by names they knew and by names they did notknow--Harpagon, Shylock, Bildad, Elihu--and at every new name he laughedagain. And while he carried himself so in the outer court the slavewoman Fatimah came from the inner room with word that the child wasborn. 

At that Israel was like a man distraught. He leapt up from the table andfaced full upon his guests, and cried, "Now you know what it is; and nowyou know why you are bidden to this supper! You are here to rejoicewith me over my enemies! Drink! drink! Confusion to all of them!" And helifted a winecup and drank himself. 

They were abashed before him, and tried to edge out of the patio intothe street; but he put his back to the passage, and faced them again. 

"You will not drink?" he said. "Then listen to me. " He dashed thewinecup out of his hand, and it broke into fragments on the floor. Hislaughter was gone, his face was aflame, and his voice rose to a shrillcry. "You foretold the doom of God upon me, you brought me low, you mademe ashamed: but behold how the Lord has lifted me up! You set your womento prophesy that God would not suffer me to raise up children to be areproach and a curse among my people; but God has this day given me ason like the best of you. More than that--more than that--my son shallyet see--"

The slave woman was touching his arm. "It is a girl, " she said; "agirl!"

For a moment Israel stammered and paused. Then he cried, "No matter!She shall see your own children fatherless, and with none to show themmercy! She shall see the iniquity of their fathers remembered againstthem! She shall see them beg their bread, and seek it in desolateplaces! And now you can go! Go! go!"

He had stepped aside as he spoke, and with a sweep of his arm he wasdriving them all out like sheep before him, dumbfounded and with theireyes in the dust, when suddenly there was a low cry from the inner room. 

It was Ruth calling for her husband. Israel wheeled about and went into her hurriedly, and his enemies, by one impulse of evil instinct, followed him and listened from the threshold. 

Ruth's face was a face of fear, and her lips moved, but no voice camefrom them. 

And Israel said, "How is it with you, my dearest joy of my joy and prideof my pride?"

Then Ruth lifted the babe from her bosom and said "The Lord has countedmy prayer to me as sin--look, see; the child is both dumb and blind!"

At that word Israel's heart died within him, but he muttered out of hisdry throat, "No, no, never believe it!"

"True, true, it is true, " she moaned; "the child has not uttered a cry, and its eyelids have not blinked at the light. "

"Never believe it, I say!" Israel growled, and he lifted the babe in hisarms to try it. 

But when he held it to the fading light of the window which opened uponthe street where the woman called the prophetess had cursed him, theeyes of the child did not close, neither did their pupils diminish. Thenhis limbs began to tremble, so that the midwife took the babe out of hisarms and laid it again on its mother's bosom. 

And Ruth wept over it, saying, "Even if it were a son never could itserve in the synagogue! Never! Never!"

At that Israel began to curse and to swear. His enemies had now pushedthemselves into the chamber, and they cried, "Peace! Peace!" And oldJudah ben Lolo, the elder of the synagogue, grunted, and said, "Is itnot written that no one afflicted of God shall minister in His temples?"

Israel stared around in silence into the faces about him, first intothe face of his wife, and then into the faces of his enemies whom hehad bidden. Then he fell to laughing hideously and crying, "What matter?Every monkey is a gazelle to its mother!" But after that he staggered, his knees gave way, he pitched half forward and half aside, like afalling horse, and with a deep groan he fell with his face to the floor. 

The midwife and the slave lifted him up and moistened his lips withwater; but his enemies turned and left him, muttering among themselves, "The Lord killeth and maketh alive, He bringeth low and lifteth up, andinto the pit that the evil man diggeth or another He causeth his foot toslip. "

CHAPTER III

THE CHILDHOOD OF NAOMI

Throughout Tetuan and the country round about Israel was now an objectof contempt. God had declared against him, God had brought him low, God Himself had filled him with confusion. Then why should man show himmercy?

But if he was despised he was still powerful. None dare openly insulthim. And, between their fear and their scorn of him, the shifts of therabble to give vent to their contempt were often ludicrous enough. Thus, they would call their dogs and their asses by his name, and the dogswould be the scabbiest in the streets, and the asses the laziest in themarket. 

He would be caught in the crush of the traffic at the town gate or atthe gate of the Mellah, and while he stood aside to allow a line ofpack-mules to pass he would hear a voice from behind him crying huskily, "Accursed old Israel! Get on home to your mother!" Then, turning quicklyround, he would find that close at his heels a negro of most innocentcountenance was cudgelling his donkey by that title. 

He would go past the Saints' Houses in the public ways, and at the soundof his footsteps the bleached and eyeless lepers who sat under the whitewalls crying "Allah! Allah! Allah!" would suddenly change their cry to"Arrah! Arrah! Arrah!" "Go on! Go on! Go on!"

He would walk across the Sok on Fridays, and hear shrieks and peals oflaughter, and see grinning faces with gleaming white teeth turned in hisdirection, and he would know that the story-tellers were mimicking hisvoice and the jugglers imitating his gestures. 

His prosperity counted for nothing against the open brand of God'sdispleasure. The veriest muck-worm in the market-place spat out at sightof him. Moor and Jew, Arab and Berber--they all despised him!

Nevertheless, the disaster which had befallen his house had not crushedhim. It had brought out every fibre of his being, every muscle of hissoul. He had quarrelled with God by reason of it, and his quarrel withGod had made his quarrel with his fellow-man the fiercer. 

There was just one man in the town who found no offence in either formof warfare. The more wicked the one and the more outrageous the other, the better for his person. 

It was the Governor of Tetuan. His name was El Arby, but he was knownas Ben Aboo, the son of his father. That father had been none otherthan the late Sultan. Therefore Ben Aboo was a brother of Abd er-Rahman, though by another mother, a negro slave. To be a Sultan's brother inMorocco is not to be a Sultan's favourite, but a possible aspirant tohis throne. Nevertheless Ben Aboo had been made a Kaid, a chief, in theSultan's army, and eventually a commander-in-chief of his cavalry. In that capacity he had led a raid for arrears of tribute on the BeniHasan, the Beni Idar, and the Wad Ras These rebellious tribes inhabitthe country near to Tetuan, and hence Ben Aboo's attention had beenfirst directed to that town. When he had returned from his expedition heoffered the Sultan fifteen thousand dollars for the place of its Bashaor Governor, and promised him thirty thousand dollars a year as tribute. The Sultan took his money, and accepted his promise. There was a Bashaat Tetuan already, but that was a trifling difficulty. The good manwas summoned to the Sultan's presence, accused of appropriating theShereefian tributes, stripped of all he had, and cast into prison. 

That was how Ben Aboo had become Governor of Tetuan, and the story ofhow Israel had become his informal Administrator of Affairs is noless curious. At first Ben Aboo seemed likely to lose by his dubioustransaction. His new function was partly military and partly civil. Hewas a valiant soldier--the black blood of his slave-mother had countedfor so much; but he was a bad administrator--he could neither read norwrite nor reckon figures. In this dilemma his natural colleague wouldhave been his Khaleefa, his deputy, Ali bin Jillool, but because thisman had been the deputy of his predecessor also, he could not trust him. He had two other immediate subordinates, his Commander of Artillery andhis Commander of Infantry, but neither of them could spell the lettersof his name. Then there was his Taleb the Adel, his scribe the notary, Hosain ben Hashem, styled Haj, because he had made the pilgrimage toMecca, but he was also the Imam, or head of the Mosque, and the wilyBen Aboo foresaw the danger of some day coming into collision with thereligious sentiment of his people. Finally, there was the Kadi, Mohammedben Arby, but the judge was an official outside his jurisdiction, and hewanted a man who should be under his hand. That was the combination ofcircumstances whereby Israel came to Tetuan. 

Israel's first years in his strange office had satisfied his masterentirely. He had carried the Basha's seal and acted for him in allaffairs of money. The revenues had risen to fifty thousand dollars, sothat the Basha had twenty thousand to the good. Then Ben Aboo's ambitionbegan to override itself. He started an oil-mill, and wanted Israel toselect a hundred houses owned by rich men, that he might compel eachhouse to take ten kollahs of oil--an extravagant quantity, at sevendollars for each kollah--an exorbitant price. Israel had refused. "It isnot just, " he had said. 

Other expedients for enlarging his revenue Ben Aboo had suggested, butIsrael had steadfastly resisted all of them. Sometimes the Governorhad pretended that he had received an order from the Sultan to impose agross and wicked tax, but Israel's answer had been the same. "There isno evil in the world but injustice, " he had said. "Do justice, and youdo all that God can ask or man expect. "

For such opposition to the will of the Basha any other person would havebeen cast into a damp dungeon at night, and chained in the hot sun byday. Israel was still necessary. So Ben Aboo merely longed for the dawnof that day whereon he should need him no more. 

But since the disaster which had befallen Israel's house everythinghad undergone a change. It was now Israel himself who suggested dubiousmeans of revenue. There was no device of a crafty brain for turningthe very air itself into money--ransoms, promissory notes, and falsejudgments--but Israel thought of it. Thus he persuaded the Governor tosend his small currency to the Jewish shops to be changed into silverdollars at the rate of nine ducats to the dollar, when a dollar wasworth ten in currency. And after certain of the shopkeepers, havingchanged fifty thousand dollars at that rate, fled to the Sultan tocomplain, Israel advised that their debtors should be called together, their debts purchased, and bonds drawn up and certified for ten timesthe amounts of them. Thus a few were banished from their homes in fearof imprisonment, many were sorely harassed, and some were entirelyruined. 

It was a strange spectacle. He whom the rabble gibed at in the publicstreets held the fate of every man of them in his hand. Their dogs andtheir asses might bear his name, but their own lives and liberty mustanswer to it. 

Israel looked on at all with an equal mind, neither flinching at hisindignities nor glorying in his power. He beheld the wreck of familieswithout remorse, and heard the wail of women and the cry of childrenwithout a qualm. Neither did he delight in the sufferings of them thathad derided him. His evil impulse was a higher matter--his faith injustice had been broken up. He had been wrong. There was no such thingas justice in the world, and there could, therefore, be no such thingas injustice. There was no thing but the blind swirl of chance, and thewild scramble for life. The man had quarrelled with God. 

But Israel's heart was not yet dead. There was one place, where he whobore himself with such austerity towards the world was a man of greattenderness. That place was his own home. What he saw there was enough tostir the fountains of his being--nay, to exhaust them, and to send himabroad as a river-bed that is dry. 

In that first hour of his abasement, after he had been confounded beforethe enemies whom he had expected to confound, Israel had thought ofhimself, but Ruth's unselfish heart had even then thought only of thebabe. 

The child was born blind and dumb and deaf. At the feast of life therewas no place left for it. So Ruth turned her face from it to the wall, and called on God to take it. 

"Take it!" she cried--"take it! Make haste, O God, make haste and takeit!"

But the child did not die. It lived and grew strong. Ruth herselfsuckled it, and as she nourished it in her bosom her heart yearned overit, and she forgot the prayer she had prayed concerning it. So, littleby little, her spirit returned to her, and day by day her soul deceivedher, and hour by hour an angel out of heaven seemed to come to her sideand whisper "Take heart of hope, O Ruth! God does not afflict willingly. Perhaps the child is not blind, perhaps it is not deaf, perhaps it isnot dumb. Who shall ye say? Wait and see!"

And, during the first few months of its life, Ruth could see nodifference in her child from the children of other women. Sometimes shewould kneel by its cradle and gaze into the flower-cup of its eye, anthe eye was blue and beautiful, and there was nothing to say that thelittle cup was broken, and the little chamber dark. And sometimes shewould look at the pretty shell of its ear, and the ear was round andfull as a shell on the shore, and nothing told her that the voice of thesea was not heard in it, and that all within was silence. 

So Ruth cherished her hope in secret, and whispered her heart and said, "It is well, all is well with the child. She will look upon my face andsee it, and listen to my voice and hear it, and her own little tonguewill yet speak to me, and make me very glad. " And then an ineffableserenity would spread over her face and transfigure it. 

But when the time was come that a child's eyes, having grown familiarwith the light, should look on its little hands, and stare at itslittle fingers, and clutch at its cradle, and gaze about in a peacefulperplexity at everything, still the eyes of Ruth's child did not openin seeing, but lay idle and empty. And when the time was ripe thata child's ears should hear from hour to hour the sweet babble of amother's love, and its tongue begin to give back the words in lispingsounds, the ear of Ruth's child heard nothing, and its tongue was mute. 

Then Ruth's spirit sank, but still the angel out of heaven seemed tocome to her, and find her a thousand excuses, and say, "Wait, Ruth; onlywait, only a little longer. "

So Ruth held back her tears, and bent above her babe again, and watchedfor its smile that should answer to her smile, and listened for theprattle of its little lips. But never a sound as of speech seemed tobreak the silence between the words that trembled from her own tongue, and never once across her baby's face passed the light of her tearfulsmile. It was a pitiful thing to see her wasted pains, and most pitifulof all for the pains she was at to conceal them. Thus, every day atmidday she would carry her little one into the patio, and watch if itseyes should blink in the sunshine; but if Israel chanced to come uponher then, she would drop her head and say, "How sweet the air is to-day, and how pleasant to sit in the sun!"

"So it is, " he would answer, "so it is. "

Thus, too, when a bird was singing from the fig-tree that grew in thecourt, she would catch up her child and carry it close, and watch ifits ears should hear; but if Israel saw her, she would laugh--a littleshrill laugh like a cry--and cover her face in confusion. 

"How merry you are, sweetheart, " he would say, and then pass into thehouse. 

For a time Israel tried to humour her, seeming not to see what he saw, and pretending not to hear what he heard. But every day his heart bledat sight of her, and one day he could bear up no longer, for his verysoul had sickened, and he cried, "Have done, Ruth!--for mercy's sake, have done! The child is a soul in chains, and a spirit in prison. Hereyes are darkness, like the tomb's, and her ears are silence, like thegrave's. Never will she smile to her mother's smile, or answer to herfather's speech. The first sound she will hear will be the last trump, and the first face she will see will be the face of God. "

At that, Ruth flung herself down and burst into a flood of tears. The hope that she had cherished was dead. Israel could comfort her nolonger. The fountain of his own heart was dry. He drew a long breath, and went away to his bad work at the Kasbah. 

The child lived and thrived. They had called her Naomi, as they hadagreed to do before she was born, though no name she knew of herself, and a mockery it seemed to name her. At four years of age she wasa creature of the most delicate beauty. Notwithstanding her Jewishparentage, she was fair as the day and fresh as the dawn. And if hereyes were darkness, there was light within her soul; and if her earswere silence, there was music within her heart. She was brighter thanthe sun which she could not see, and sweeter than the songs which shecould not hear. She was joyous as a bird in its narrow cage, and neverdid she fret at the bars which bound her. And, like the bird that singsat midnight, her cheery soul sang in its darkness. 

Only one sound seemed ever to come from her little lips, and it was thesound of laughter. With this she lay down to sleep at night, and roseagain in the morning. She laughed as she combed her hair, and laughedagain as she came dancing out of her chamber at dawn. 

She had only one sentinel on the outpost of her spirit, and that was thesense of touch and feeling. With this she seemed to know the day fromthe night, and when the sun was shining and when the sky was dark. Sheknew her mother, too, by the touch of her fingers, and her father bythe brushing of his beard. She knew the flowers that grew in the fieldsoutside the gate of the town, and she would gather them in her lap, as other children did, and bring them home with her in her hands. Sheseemed almost to know their colours also, for the flowers which shewould twine in her hair were red, and the white were those which shewould lay on her bosom. And truly a flower she was of herself, wheretothe wind alone could whisper, and only the sun could speak aloud. 

Sweet and touching were the efforts she sometimes made to cling to themthat were about her. Thus her heart was the heart of a child, and sheknew no delight like to that of playing with other children. But herfather's house was under a ban; no child of any neighbour in Tetuan wasallowed to cross its threshold, and, save for the children whom she metin the fields when she walked there by her mother's hand, no child didshe ever meet. 

Ruth saw this, and then, for the first time, she became conscious ofthe isolation in which she had lived since her marriage with Israel. Sheherself had her husband for companion and comrade, but her little Naomiwas doubly and trebly alone--first, alone as a child that is the onlychild of her parents; again, alone as a child whose parents are cut offfrom the parents of other children; and yet again, once more, alone as achild that is blind and dumb. 

But Israel saw it also, and one day he brought home with him from theKasbah a little black boy with a sweet round face and big innocent whiteeyes which might have been the eyes of an angel. The boy's name wasAli, and he was four years old. His father had killed his mother forinfidelity and neglect of their child, and, having no one to buy him outof prison, he had that day been executed. Then little Ali had been leftalone in the world, and so Israel had taken him. 

Ruth welcomed the boy, and adopted him. He had been born a Mohammedan, but secretly she brought him up as a Jew. And for some years thereafterno difference did she make between him and her own child that other eyescould see. They ate together, they walked abroad together, they playedtogether, they slept together, and the little black head of the boy laywith the fair head of the girl on the same white pillow. 

Strange and pathetic were the relations between these little exiles ofhumanity I One knew not whether to laugh or cry at them. First, on Ali'spart, a blank wonderment that when he cried to Naomi, "Come!" she didnot hear, when he asked "Why?" she did not answer; and when he said"Look!" she did not see, though her blue eyes seemed to gaze full intohis face. Then, a sort of amused bewilderment that her little nervousfingers were always touching his arms and his hands, and his neck andhis throat. But long before he had come to know that Naomi was not ashe was, that Nature had not given her eyes to see as he saw, and ears tohear as he heard, and a tongue to speak as he spoke, Nature herself hadoverstepped the barriers that divided her from him. He found that Naomihad come to understand him, whatever in his little way he did, andalmost whatever in his little way he said. So he played with her as hewould have played with any other playmate, laughing with her, callingto her, and going through his foolish little boyish antics before her. Nevertheless, by some mysterious knowledge of Nature's own teaching, heseemed to realise that it was his duty to take care of her. And when thespirit and the mischief in his little manly heart would prompt him tosteal out of the house, and adventure into the streets with Naomi by hisside, he would be found in the thick of the throng perhaps at the heelsof the mules and asses, with Naomi's hand locked in his hand, trying topush the great creatures of the crowd from before her, and crying in hisbrave little treble, "Arrah!" "Ar-rah!" "Ar-r-rah!"

As for Naomi, the coming of little black Ali was a wild delight to her. Whatever Ali did, that would she do also. If he ran she would run; if hesat she would sit; and meanwhile she would laugh with a heart of glee, though she heard not what he said, and saw not what he did, and knew notwhat he meant. At the time of the harvest, when Ruth took them out intothe fields, she would ride on Ali's back, and snatch at the ears ofbarley and leap in her seat and laugh, yet nothing would she see of theyellow corn, and nothing would she hear of the song of the reapers, andnothing would she know of the cries of Ali, who shouted to her whilehe ran, forgetting in his playing that she heard him not. And at night, when Ruth put them to bed in their little chamber, and Ali knelt withhis face towards Jerusalem, Naomi would kneel beside him with a reverentair, and all her laughter would be gone. Then, as he prayed his prayer, her little lips would move as if she were praying too, and her littlehands would be clasped together, and her little eyes would be upraised. 

"God bless father, and mother, and Naomi, and everybody, " the black boywould say. 

And the little maid would touch his hands and hi throat, and pass herfingers over his face from his eyelids to his lips, and then do as hedid, and in her silence seem to echo him. 

Pretty and piteous sights! Who could look on them without tears? Onething at least was clear if the soul of this child was in prison, nevertheless it was alive; and if it was in chains, nevertheless itcould not die, but was immortal and unmaimed and waited only for thehour when it should be linked to other souls, soul to soul in the chainsof speech. But the years went on, and Naomi grew in beauty and increasedin sweetness, but no angel came down to open the darkened windows of hereyes, and draw aside the heavy curtains of her ears. 

CHAPTER IV

THE DEATH OF RUTH

For all her joy and all her prettiness, Naomi was a burden which onlylove could bear. To think of the girl by day, and to dream of her bynight, never to sit by her without pity of her helplessness, and neverto leave her without dread of the mischances that might so easilybefall, to see for her, to hear for her, to speak for her, truly thetyranny of the burden was terrible. 

Ruth sank under it. Through seven years she was eyes of the child'seyes, and ears of her ears, and tongue of her tongue. After that herown sight became dim, and her hearing faint. It was almost as if she hadspent them on Naomi in the yearning of dove and pity. Soon afterwardsher bodily strength failed her also, and then she knew that her time hadcome, and that she was to lay down her burden for ever. But her burdenhad become dear, and she clung to it. She could not look upon the childand think it, that she, who had spent her strength for her from thefirst, must leave her now to other love and tending. So she betookherself to an upper room, and gave strict orders to Fatimah and Habeebahthat Naomi was to be kept from her altogether, that sight of the child'shelpless happy face might tempt her soul no more. 

And there in her death-chamber Israel sat with her constantly, settlinghis countenance steadfastly, and coming and going softly. He was moreconstant than a slave, and more tender than a woman. His love was great, but also he was eating out his big heart with remorse. The root of histrouble was the child. He never talked of her, and neither did Ruthdwell upon her name. Yet they thought of little else while they sattogether. 

And even if they had been minded to talk of the child, what had they tosay of her? They had no memories to recall, no sweet childish sayings, no simple broken speech, no pretty lisp--they had nothing to bring backout of any harvest of the past of all the dear delicious wealth thatlies stored in the treasure-houses of the hearts of happy parents. Thatway everything was a waste. Always, as Israel entered her room, Ruthwould say, "How is the child?" And always Israel would answer, "She iswell. " But, if at that moment Naomi's laughter came up to them from thepatio, where she played with Ali, they would cover their faces and besilent. 

It was a melancholy parting. No one came near them--neither Moornor Jew, neither Rabbi nor elder. The idle women of the Mellah wouldsometimes stand outside in the street and look up at their house, knowing that the black camel of death was kneeling at their gate. Othercompany they had none. In such solitude they passed four weeks, and whenthe time of the end seemed near, Israel himself read aloud the prayerfor the dying, the prayer Shema' Yisrael, and Ruth repeated the words ofit after him. 

Meantime, while Ruth lay in the upper chamber little Naomi sported andplayed in the patio with Ali, but she missed her mother constantly. Thisshe made plain by many silent acts of helpless love that knew no way tospeak aloud. Thus she would lay flowers on the seats where her motherhad used to sit, and, if at night she found them untouched where shehad left them, her little face would fall, and her laughter die off herlips; but if they had withered and some one had cast them into the oven, she would laugh again and fetch other flowers from the fields, untilthe house would be full of the odour of the meadow and the scent of thehill. 

And well they knew, who looked upon her then, whom she missed, and whatthe question was that halted on her tongue; yet how could they answerher? There was no way to do that until she herself knew how to ask. 

But this she did on a day near to the end. It was evening, and shewas being put to bed by Habeebah, and had just risen from her innocentpantomime of prayer beside Ali, when Israel, coming from Ruth's chamber, entered the children's room. Then, touching with her hand the seatwhereon Ruth had used to sit, Naomi laid down her head on the pillow, and then rose and lay down again, and rose yet again and rose yet againlay down, and then came to where Israel was and stood before him. And atthat Israel knew that the soul of his helpless child had asked him, asplainly as words of the tongue can speak, how often she should lie tosleep at night and rise to play in the morning before her mother came toher again. 

The tears gushed into his eyes, and he left the children and returned tohis wife's chamber. 

"Ruth, " he cried, "call the child to you, I beseech you!"

"No, no, no!" cried Ruth. 

"Let her come to you and touch you and kiss you, and be with you beforeit is too late, " said Israel. "She misses you, and fills the house withflowers for you. It breaks my heart to see her. "

"It will break mine also, " said Ruth. 

But she consented that Naomi should be called, and Fatimah was sent tofetch her. 

The sun was setting, and through the window which looked out to thewest, over the river and the orange orchards and the palpitating plainsbeyond, its dying rays came into the room in a bar of golden light. Itfell at that instant on Ruth's face, and she was white and wasted. Andthrough the other window of the room, which looked out over the Mellahinto the town, and across the market-place to the mosque and to thebattery on the hill, there came up from the darkening streets below theshuffle of the feet of a crowd and the sound of many voices. The Jewsof Tetuan were trooping back to their own little quarter, that theirMoorish masters might lock them into it for the night. 

Naomi was already in bed, and Fatimah brought her away in hernightdress. She seemed to know where she was to be taken, for shelaughed as Fatimah held her by the hand, and danced as she was led toher mother's chamber. But when she was come to the door of it, suddenlyher laughter ceased, and her little face sobered, as if something in theclose abode of pain had troubled the senses that were left to her. 

It is, perhaps, the most touching experience of the deaf and blind thatno greeting can ever welcome them. When Naomi stood like a little whitevision at the threshold of the room, Israel took her hand in silence, and drew her up to the pillow of the bed where her mother rested, and insilence Ruth brought the child to her bosom. 

For a moment Naomi seemed to be perplexed. She touched her mother'sfingers, and they were changed, for they had grown thin and long. Thenshe felt her face, and that was changed also, for it was become witheredand cold. And, missing the grasp of one and the smile of the other, shefirst turned her little head aside as one that listens closely, and thengently withdrew herself from the arms that held her. 

Ruth had watched her with eyes that overflowed, and now she burst intosobs outright. 

"The child does not know me!" she cried. "Did I not tell you it wouldbreak my heart?"

"Try her again, " said Israel; "try her again. "

Ruth devoured her tears, and called on Fatimah to bring the child backto her side. Then, loosening the necklace that was about her own neck, she bound it about the neck of Naomi, and also the bracelets that wereon her wrists she unclasped and clasped them on the wrists of the child. This she did that Naomi might remember the hands that had been kind toher always. But when the child felt the ornaments she seemed only toknow, by the quick instinct of a girl, that she was decked out bravely, and giving no thought to Ruth, who waited and watched for the grasp ofrecognition and the kiss of joy, she withdrew herself again from hermother's arms, and bounded into the middle of the room, and suddenlybegan to laugh and to dance. 

The sun's dying light, which had rested on Ruth's wasted face, nowglistened and sparkled on the jewels of the child, and glowed onher blind eyes, and gleamed on her fair hair, and reddened her whitenightdress, while she danced and laughed to her mother's death. Nothingdid the child know of death, any more than Adam himself before Abel wasslain, and it was almost as if a devil out of hell had entered into herinnocent heart and possessed it, that she might make a mock of the dyingof the dearest friend she had known on earth. 

On and on she danced, to no measure and no time, and not with a child'suncertain step which breaks down at motion as its tongue breaks downat speech, but wildly and deliriously. The room was darkening fast, butstill across the nether end, by the foot of the bed, streamed the dullred bar of sunlight with the little red figure leaping and prancing andlaughing in the midst of it. 

With an awful cry Ruth fell back on the pillow and turned her eyes tothe wall. The black woman dropped her head that she might not see. AndIsrael covered his face and groaned in his tearless agony, "O Lord God, long hast Thou chastised me with whips, and now I am chastised withscorpions!"

Ruth recovered herself quickly. "Bring her to me again!" she faltered;and once more Fatimah brought Naomi back to the bedside. Then, embracingand kissing the child, and seeming to forget in the torment of hertrouble that Naomi could not hear her, she cried, "It's your mother, Naomi! your mother, darling, though so sick and changed! Don't you knowher, Naomi? Your mother, your own mother, sweet one, your dear motherwho loves you so, and must leave you now and see you no more!"

Now what it was in that wild plea that touched the consciousness of thechild at last, only God Himself can say. But first Naomi's cheeks grewpale at the embrace of the arms that held her, and then they reddened, and then her little nervous fingers grasped at Ruth's hands again, andthen her little lips trembled, and then, at length, she flung herselfalong Ruth's bosom and nestled close in her embrace. 

Ruth fell back on her pillow now with a cry of Joy; the black womanstood and wept by the wall and Israel, unable to bear up his heart anylonger was melted and unmanned. The sun had gone down, and the room wasdarkening rapidly, for the twilight in that land is short; the streetswere quiet, and the mooddin of the neighbouring minaret was chanting inthe silence, "God is great, God is great!"

After awhile the little one fell asleep at her mother's bosom, and, seeing this, Fatimah would have lifted her away and carried her backto her own bed; but Ruth said, "No; leave her, let me have her with mewhile I may. "

"No one shall take her from you, " said Israel. 

Then she gazed down at the child's face and said, "It is hard to leaveher and never once to have heard her voice. "

"That is the bitterest cup of all, " said Israel. 

"I shall not return to her, " said Ruth, "but she shall come to me, andthen, perhaps--who knows?--perhaps in the resurrection I shall hear it. "

Israel made no answer. 

Ruth gazed down at the child again, and said, "My helpless darling! Whowill care for you when I am gone?"

"Rest, rest, and sleep!" said Israel. 

"Ah, yes, I know, " said Ruth. "How foolish of me! You are her father, and you love her also. Yet promise me--promise--"

"For love and tending she shall never lack, " said Israel. "And now lieyou still, my dearest; lie still and sleep. "

She stretched out her hand to him. "Yes, that was what I meant, " shesaid, and smiled. Then a shadow crossed her face in the gloom. "But whenI am gone, " she said, "will Naomi ever know that her mother who is deadhad wronged her?"

"You have never wronged her, " said Israel. "Have done, oh, have done!"

"God punished us for our prayer, my husband, " said Ruth. 

"Peace, peace!" said Israel. 

"But God is good, " said Ruth, "and surely He will not afflict our childmuch longer. "

"Hush! Hush! You will awaken her, " said Israel, not thinking what hesaid. "Now lie still and sleep, dearest. You are tired also. "

She lay quiet for a time, gazing, while the light remained, into theface of the sleeping child, and listening, when the light failed, to hergentle breathing. Then she babbled and crooned over her with a childishjoy. "Yes, yes, father is right, and mother must lie quiet--very quiet, and so her little Naomi will sleep long--very long, and wake happy andwell in the morning. How bonny she will look! How fresh and rosy!"

She paused a moment. Her laboured breathing came quick and fast. "Butshall I be here to see her? shall I?"

She paused again, and then, as though to banish thought, she began tosing in a low voice that was like a moan. Presently her singing ceased, and she spoke again, but this time in broken whispers. 

"How soft and glossy her hair is! I wonder if Fatimah will remember towash it every day. She should twist it around her fingers to keep it inpretty curls. . . . Oh, why did God make my child so beautiful?. . . . Dear me, her morning frock wanted stitching at the sleeves, it's achance if Habeebah has seen to it. Then there's her underclothing. . . . Will she be deaf and blind and dumb always? I wonder if I shall see herwhen I. . . . They say that angels are sent. . . . Yes, yes, that's it, when I am there--there--I will go to God and say, 'O Lord! my littlegirl whom I have left behind, she is. . . . You would never think, OLord, how many things may happen to one like her. Let me go--only let mewatch over her--O Lord, let me be her guar--'"

Her weakness had conquered her, and she was quiet at last. Israel sat insilence by the post of the bed. His heart was surging itself out of hischoking breast. The black woman stood somewhere by the wall. After atime Ruth seemed to awake as from sleep. She was in great excitement. 

"Israel, Israel!" she cried in a voice of joy, "I have seen a vision. Itwas Naomi. She was no longer deaf and blind and dumb. She was grown tobe a woman, but I knew her instantly. Not a woman either, but a youngmaiden, and so beautiful, so beautiful! Yes, and she could see and hearand speak. "

Israel thought Ruth had become delirious, and he tried to soothe her, but her agitation was not to be overcome. "The Lord hath seen ourtears at last, " she cried. "He has put our sin beneath His feet. We areforgiven. It will be well with the child yet. "

Israel did not try to gainsay her, and at sight and sound of her joy, seeing it so beautiful, yet thinking it so vain, he could not help atlast but weep. Presently she became quiet again, and then again, after alittle while, she woke as from a sleep. 

"I am ready now, " she said in a whisper, "quite ready, sweet Heaven, quite, quite ready now. "

Then with her one free hand she felt in the darkness for Israel, wherehe sat beside her, and touching his forehead she smoothed it, and saidvery softly, "Farewell, my husband!"

And Israel answered her, "Farewell!"

"Good-night!" she whispered. 

And Israel drew down her hand from his forehead to his lips and sobbed, and said, "Good-night, beloved!"

Then she put her white lips to the child's blind eyes, and at thatmoment the spirit of the Lord came to her, and the Lord took her, andshe died. 

When lamps had been brought into the room, and Fatimah saw that the endhad come, she would have lifted Naomi from Ruth's bosom, but the childawoke as she was being moved, and clasped her little fingers about thedead mother's neck and covered the mouth with kisses. And when she feltthat the lips did not answer to her lips, and that the arms which hadheld her did not hold her any longer, but fell away useless, she clungthe closer, and tears started to her eyes. 

CHAPTER V

RUTH'S BURIAL

The people of Tetuan were not melted towards Israel by the depth of hissorrow and the breadth of shadow that lay upon him. By noon of the dayfollowing the night of Ruth's death, Israel knew that he was to be leftalone. It was a rule of the Mellah that on notice being given of a deathin their quarter, the clerk of the synagogue should publish it at thefirst service thereafter, in order that a body of men, called the HebraKadisha of Kabranim, the Holy Society of Buriers, might straightway makearrangements for burial. Early prayers had been held in the synagogueat eight o'clock that morning, and no one had yet come near to Israel'shouse. The men of the Hebra were going about their ordinary occupations. They knew nothing of Ruth's death by official announcement. The clerkhad not published it. Israel remembered with bitterness that noticeof it had not been sent. Nevertheless, the fact was known throughoutTetuan. There was not a water-carrier in the market-place but had takenit to each house he called at, and passed it to every man he met. Littlegroups of idle Jewish women had been many hours congregated in thestreets outside, talking of it in whispers and looking up at thedarkened windows with awe. But the synagogue knew nothing of it. Israel had omitted the customary ceremony, and in that omission lay theadvantage of his enemies. He must humble himself and send to them. Untilhe did so they would leave him alone. 

Israel did not send. Never once since the birth of Naomi had he crossedthe threshold of the synagogue. He would not cross it now, whether inbody or in spirit. But he was still a Jew, with Jewish customs, if hehad lost the Jewish faith, and it was one of the customs of the Jewsthat a body should be buried within twenty-four hours, at farthest, fromthe time of death. He must do something immediately. Some help must besummoned. What help could it be?

It was useless to think of the Muslimeen. No believer would lend a handto dig a grave for an unbeliever, or to make apparel for his dead. Itwas just as idle to think of the Jews. If the synagogue knew nothing ofthis burial, no Jew in the Mellah would be found so poor that he wouldhave need to know more. And of Christians of any sort or condition therewere none in all Tetuan. 

The gall of Israel's heart rose to his throat. Was he to be left alonewith his dead wife? Did his enemies wish to see him howk out her gravewith his own hands? Or did they expect him to come to them with bowedforehead and bended knee? Either way their reckoning was a mistake. They might leave him terribly and awfully alone--alone in his hour ofmourning even as they had left him alone in his hour of rejoicing, whenhe had married the dear soul who was dead. But his strength and energythey should not crush: his vital and intellectual force they shouldnot wither away. Only one thing they could do to touch him--they couldshrivel up his last impulse of sweet human sympathy. They were doing itnow. 

When Israel had put matters to himself so, he despatched a messageto the Governor at the Kasbah, and received, in answer, six Stateprisoners, fettered in pairs, under the guard of two soldiers. 

The burial took place within the limit of twenty-four hours prescribedby Jewish custom. It was twilight when the body was brought down fromthe upper room to the patio. There stood the coffin on a trestle thathad been raised for it on chairs standing back to back. And there, too, sat Israel, with Naomi and little black Ali beside him. 

Israel's manner was composed; his face was as firm as a rock, andhis dress was more costly than Tetuan had ever seen him wear before. Everything that related to the burial he had managed himself, down tothe least or poorest detail. But there was nothing poor about it inthe larger sense. Israel was a rich man now, and he set no value on hisriches except to subdue the fate that had first beaten him down and toabash the enemies who still menaced him. Nothing was lacking that moneycould buy in Tetuan to make this burial an imposing ceremony. Only onething it wanted--it wanted mourners, and it had but one. 

Unlike her father, little Naomi was visibly excited. She ran to and fro, clutched at Israel's clothes and seemed to look into his face, claspedthe hand of little Ali and held it long as if in fear. Whether she knewwhat work was afoot, and, if she knew it, by what channel of soul orsense she learnt it, no man can say. That she was conscious of thepresence of many strangers is certain, and when the men from the Kasbahbrought the roll of white linen down the stairway, with the two blackwomen clinging to it, kissing its fringe and wailing over it, she brokeaway from Israel and rushed in among them with a startled cry, and herlittle white arms upraised. But whatever her impulse, there was no needto check her. The moment she had touched her mother she crept back indread to her father's side. 

"God be gracious to my father, look at that, " whispered Fatimah. 

"My child, my poor child, " said Israel, "is there but one thing in lifethat speaks to you? And is that death? Oh, little one, little one!"

It was a strange procession which then passed out of the patio. Four ofthe prisoners carried the coffin on their shoulders, walking in pairsaccording to their fetters. They were gaunt and bony creatures. Hungerhad wasted their sallow cheeks, and the air of noisome dungeons hadsunken their rheumy eyes. Their clothes were soiled rags, and over them, and concealing them down to their waists and yet lower, hung the deep, rich, velvet pall, with its long silk fringes. In front walked the tworemaining prisoners, each bearing a great plume in his left hand--theright arm, as well as the right leg, being chained. On either side was asoldier, carrying a lighted lantern, which burnt small and feeble in thetwilight, and last of all came Israel himself, unsupported and alone. Thus they passed through the little crowd of idlers that had congregatedat the door, through the streets of the Mellah and out into themarketplace, and up the narrow lane that leads to the chief town gate. 

There is something in the very nature of power that demands homage, andthe people of Tetuan could not deny it to Israel. As the procession wentthrough the town they cleared a way for it, and they were silent untilit had gone. Within the gate of the Mellah, a shocket was killing fowlsand taking his tribute of copper coins, but he stopped his work and fellback as the procession approached. A blind beggar crouching at the otherside of the gate was reciting passages of the Koran, and two Arabs closeat his elbow were wrangling over a game at draughts which they wereplaying by the light of a flare, but both curses and Koran ceased as theprocession passed under the arch. In the market-place a Soosi jugglerwas performing before a throng of laughing people, and a story-tellerwas shrieking to the twang of his ginbri; but the audience of thejuggler broke up as the procession appeared, and the ginbri of thestoryteller was no more heard. The hammering in the shops ofthe gunsmiths was stopped, and the tinkling of the bells of thewater-carriers was silenced. Mules bringing wood from the country weredragged out of the path, and the town asses, with their panniers full ofstreet-filth, were drawn up by the wall. From the market-place and outof the shops, out of the houses and out of the mosque itself, the peoplecame trooping in crowds, and they made a long close line on either sideof the course which the procession must take. And through this avenueof onlookers the strange company made its way--the two prisonersbearing the plumes, the four others bearing the coffin, the two soldierscarrying the lanterns, and Israel last of all, unsupported and alone. Nothing was heard in the silence of the people but the tramp of the feetof the six men, and the clank of their chains. 

The light of the lanterns was on the faces of some of them, and everyone knew them for what they were. It was on the face of Israel also, yethe did not flinch. His head was held steadily upward; he looked neitherto the right nor to the left, but strode firmly along. 

The Jewish cemetery was outside the town walls, and before theprocession came to it the darkness had closed in. Its flat whitetombstones, all pointing toward Jerusalem, lay in the gloom like a flockof sheep asleep among the grass. It had no gate but a gap in the fence, and no fence but a hedge of the prickly pear and the aloe. 

Israel had opened a grave for Ruth beside the grave of the old rabbiher father. He had asked no man's permission to do so, but if no one hadhelped at that day's business, neither had any one dared to hinder. Andwhen the coffin was set down by the grave-side no ceremony did Israelforget and none did he omit. He repeated the Kaddesh, and cut the notchin his kaftan; he took from his breast the little linen bag of the whiteearth of the land of promise and laid it under the head; he locked apadlock and flung away the key. Last of all, when the body had beentaken out of the coffin and lowered to its long home, he stepped inafter it, and called on one of the soldiers to lend him a lantern. Andthen, kneeling at the foot of his dead wife, he touched her with bothhis hands, and spoke these words in a clear, firm voice, looking downat her where she lay in the veil that she had used to wear in thesynagogue, and speaking to her as though she heard: "Ruth, my wife, mydearest, for the cruel wrong which I did you long ago when I sufferedyou to marry me, being a man such as I was, under the ban of my people, forgive me now, my beloved, and ask God to forgive me also. "

The dark cemetery, the six prisoners in their clanking irons, the twosoldiers with their lanterns the open grave, and this strong-heartedman kneeling within it, that he might do his last duty, according to thecustom of his race and faith, to her whom he had wronged and should meetno more until the resurrection itself reunited them! The traffic of thestreets had begun again by this time, and between the words which Israelhad spoken the low hum of many voices had come over the dark town walls. 

The six prisoners went back to the Kasbah with joyful hearts, foreach carried with him a paper which procured his freedom on the dayfollowing. But Israel returned to his home with a soured and darkenedmind. As he had plucked his last handful of the grass, and flung it overhis shoulder, saying, "They shall spring in the cities as the grass inthe earth, " he had asked himself what it mattered to him though all theworld were peopled, now that she, who had been all the world to him, wasdead. God had left him as a lonely pilgrim in a dreary desert. Only oneglimpse of human affection had he known as a man, and here it was takenfrom him for ever. 

And when he remembered Naomi, he quarrelled with God again. She wasa helpless exile among men, a creature banished from all humanintercourse, a living soul locked in a tabernacle of flesh. Was it agood God who had taken the mother from such a child--the child from sucha mother? Israel was heart-smitten, and his soul blasphemed. It was notGod but the devil that ruled the world. It was not justice but evil thatgoverned it. 

Thus did this outcast man rebel against God, thinking of the child'sloss and of his own; but nevertheless by the child itself he was yet tobe saved from the devil's snare, and the ways wherein this sweet flower, fresh from God's hand, wrought upon his heart to redeem it were verystrange and beautiful. 

CHAPTER VI

THE SPIRIT-MAID

The promise which Israel made to Ruth at her death, that Naomi shouldnot lack for love and tending, he faithfully fulfilled. From that timeforward he became as father and mother both to the child. 

At the outset of his charge he made a survey of her condition, and foundit more terrible than imagination of the mind could think or words ofthe tongue express. It was easy to say that she was deaf and dumb andblind, but it was hard to realise what so great an affliction implied. It implied that she was a little human sister standing close to the restof the family of man, yet very far away from them. She was as much apartas if she had inhabited a different sphere. No human sympathy couldreach her in joy or pain and sorrow. She had no part to play in life. Inthe midst of a world of light she was in a land of darkness, and she wasin a world of silence in the midst of a land of sweet sounds. She was aliving and buried soul. 

And of that soul itself what did Israel know? He knew that it hadmemory, for Naomi had remembered her mother; and he knew that it hadlove, for she had pined for Ruth, and clung to her. But what were loveand memory without sight and speech? They were no more than a magnetlocked in a casket--idle and useless to any purposes of man or theworld. 

Thinking of this, Israel realised for the first time how awful was theaffliction of his motherless girl. To be blind was to be afflicted once, but to be both blind and deaf was not only to be afflicted twice, buttwice ten thousand times, and to be blind and deaf and dumb was notmerely to be afflicted thrice, but beyond all reckonings of humanspeech. 

For though Naomi had been blind, yet, if she could have had hearing, herfather might have spoken with her, and if she had sorrows he must havesoothed them, and if she had joys he must have shared them, and in thisbeautiful world of God, so full of things to look upon and to love, hemust have been eyes of her eyes that could not see. On the other hand, though Naomi had been deaf, yet if she could have had sight her fathermight have held intercourse with her by the light of her eyes, and ifshe felt pain he must have seen it, and if she had found pleasure hemust have known it, and what man is, and what woman is, and what theworld and what the sea and what the sky, would have been as an open bookfor her to read. But, being blind and deaf together, and, by fault ofbeing deaf, being dumb as well, what word was to describe the desolationof her state, the blank void of her isolation--cut off, apart, aloof, shut in, imprisoned, enchained, a soul without communion with othersouls: alive, and yet dead?

Thus, realising Naomi's condition in; the deep infirmity of her nature, Israel set himself to consider how he could reach her darkened andsilent soul. And first he tried to learn what good gifts were left toher, that he might foster them to her advantage and nourish them to hisown great comfort and joy. Yet no gift whatever could he find in her butthe one gift only whereof he had known from the beginning--the gift oftouch and feeling. With this he must make her to see, or else her lightshould always be darkness, and with this he must make her to hear, orsilence should be her speech for ever. 

Then he remembered that during his years in England he had heard strangestories of how the dumb had been made to speak though they could nothear, and the blind and deaf to understand and to answer. So he sentto England for many books written on the treatment of these childrenof affliction, and when they were come he pondered them closely and wasthrilled by the marvellous works they described. But when he came topractise the precepts they had given him, his spirits flagged, for theimpediments were great. Time after time he tried, and failed always, to touch by so much as one shaft of light the hidden soul of the childthrough its tenement of flesh and blood. Neither the simplest thoughtnor the poorest element of an idea found any way to her mind, so densewere the walls of the prison that encompassed it. "Yes" was a mysterythat could not at first be revealed to her, and "No" was a problembeyond her power to apprehend. Smiles and frowns were useless to teachher. No discipline could be addressed to her mind or heart. Except merebodily restraint, no control could be imposed upon her. She was swayedby her impulses alone. 

Israel did not despair. If he was broken down today he strengthened hishands for tomorrow. At length he had got so far, after a world of toiland thought, that Naomi knew when he patted her head that it was forapproval, and when he touched her hand it was for assent. Then hestopped very suddenly. His hope had not drooped, and neither had hisenergy failed, but the conviction had fastened upon him that such effortin his case must be an offence against Heaven. Naomi was not merely aninfirm creature from the left hand of Nature; she was an afflicted beingfrom the right hand of God. She was a living monument of sin that wasnot her own. It was useless to go farther. The child must be left whereGod had placed her. 

But meanwhile, if Naomi lacked the senses of the rest of the humankind, she seemed to communicate with Nature by other organs than theypossessed. It was as if the spiritual world itself must have taught her, and from that source alone could she have imbibed her power. To tell ofall she could do to guide her steps, and to minister to her pleasures, and to cherish her affections, would be to go beyond the limit ofbelief. Truly it seemed as if Naomi, being blind with her bodily eyes, could yet look upon a light that no one else could see, and, being deafwith her bodily ears, could yet listen to voices that no one else couldhear. 

Thus, if she came skipping through the corridor of the patio, she knewwhen any one approached her, for she would hold out her hands and stop. Nay; but she knew also who it would be as well as if her eyes or earshad taught her; for always, if it was her father, she reached out herhands to take his left hand in both of hers, and then she pressed itagainst her cheek; and always, if it was little Ali, she curved her armsto encircle his neck; and always, if it was Fatimah, she leapt up toher bosom; and always, if it was Habeebah, she passed her by. Did she gowith Ali into the streets, she knew the Mellah gate from the gate ofthe town, and the narrow lanes from the open Sok. Did she pass the loftymosque in the market-place, she knew it from the low shops that nestledunder and behind and around. Did a troop of mules and camels come nearher, she knew them from a crowd of people; and did she pass where twostreets crossed, she would stand and face both ways. 

And as the years grew she came to know all places within and aroundTetuan, the town of the Moors and the Mellah of the Jews, the Kasbahand the narrow lane leading up to it, the fort on the hill and the riverunder the town walls, the mountains on either side of the valley, andeven some of their rocky gorges. She could find her way among them allwithout help or guidance, and no control could any one impose upon herto keep her out of the way of harm. While Ali was a little fellow he washer constant companion, always ready for any adventure that her unquietheart suggested; but when he grew to be a boy, and was sent to schoolevery day early and late, she would fare forth alone save for a tinywhite goat which her father had bought to be another playfellow. 

And because feeling was sight to her, and touch was hearing, and thecrown of her head felt the winds of the heavens and the soles of herfeet felt the grass of the fields, she loved best to go bareheadedwhether the sun was high or the air was cool, and barefooted also, fromthe rising of the morning until the coming of the stars. So, casting offher slippers and the great straw hat which a Jewish maiden wears, andclad in her white woollen shawl, wrapped loosely about her in folds ofairy grace, and with the little goat going before her, though she couldneither see nor hear it, she would climb the hill beyond the battery, and stand on the summit, like a spirit poised in air. She could seenothing of the green valley then stretched before her, or of the whitetown lying below, with its domes and minarets, but she seemed to exultin her lofty place, and to drink new life from the rush of mighty windsabout her. Then coming back to the dale, she would seem, to those wholooked up at her, with fear and with awe, to leap as the goat leaptin the rocky places; and as a bird sweeps over the grass with wingsoutstretched, so with her arms spread out, and her long fair hair flyingloose, she would sweep down the hill, as though her very tiptoes did nottouch it. 

By what power she did these things no man could tell, except it werethe power of the spiritual world itself; but the distemper of the mind, which loved such dangers, increased upon her as she grew from a childinto a maid, and it found new ways of strangeness. Thus, in the spring, when the rain fell heavily, or in the winter, when the great winds wereabroad, or in the summer, when the lightning lightened and the thunderthundered, her restless spirit seemed to be roused to sympathetictumults, and if she could escape the eyes that watched her she would runand race in the tempest, and her eyes would be aglitter, and laughterwould be on her lips. Then Israel himself would go out to find her, and, having found her in the pelting storm without covering on her head orshoes on her feet, he would fetch her home by the hand, and as theypassed through the streets together his forehead would be bowed and hiseyes bent down. 

But it was not always that Naomi made her father ashamed. More often herjoyful spirit cheered him, for above all things else she was a creatureof joy. A circle of joy seemed to surround her always. Her heart in itsdarkness was full of radiance. As she grew her comeliness increased, though this was strange and touching in her beauty, that her face didnot become older with her years, but was still the face of a child, witha child's expression of sweetness through the bloom and flush of earlymaidenhood. Her love of flowers increased also, and the sense of smellseemed to come to her, for she filled the house with all fragrantflowers in their season, twining them in wreaths about the white pillarsof the patio, and binding them in rings around the brown water-jarsthat stood in it. And with the girl's expanding nature her love of dressincreased as well; but it was not a young maid's love of lovely things;it was a wild passion for light, loose garments that swayed and swirledin native grace about her. Truly she was a spirit of joy and gladness. She was happy as a day in summer, and fresh as a dewy morning in spring. The ripple of her laughter was like sunshine. A flood of sunshine seemedto follow in the air wheresoever she went. And certainly for Israel, herfather, she was as a sunbeam gathering sunshine into his lonely house. 

Nevertheless, the sunbeam had its cloud-shapes of gloom, and if Israelin his darker hours hungered for more human company, and wished thatthe little playfellow of the angels which had come down to his dwellingcould only be his simple human child, he sometimes had his wish, andmany throbs of anguish with it. For often it happened, and especiallyat seasons when no winds were stirring, and blank peace and a dolefulsilence haunted the air, that Naomi would seem to fall into a sicklonging from causes that were beyond Israel's power to fathom. Then hersweet face would sadden, and her beautiful blind eyes would fill, andher pretty laughter would echo no more through the house. And sometimes, in the dead of the night, she would rise from her bed and go throughthe dark corridors, for darkness and light were as one to her, until shecame to Israel's room, and he would awake from his sleep to find her, like a little white vision, standing by his bedside. What she wantedthere he could never know, for neither had he power to ask nor she toanswer, whether she were sick or in pain, or whether in her sleep shehad seen a face from the invisible world, and heard a voice that calledher away, or whether her mother's arms had seemed to be about her onceagain and then to be torn from her afresh, and she had come to him onawakening in her trouble, not knowing what it is to dream, but thinkingall evil dreams to be true fact and new sorrow. So, with a sigh, hewould arise and light his lamp and lead her back to her bed, and morescalding than the tears that would be standing in Naomi's eyes would bethe hot drops that would gush into his own. 

"My poor darling, " he would say, "can you not tell me your trouble, thatI may comfort you? No, no, she cannot tell me, and I cannot comfort her. My darling, my darling. "

Most of all when such things befell would Israel long for some miracleout of heaven to find a way to the little maiden's mind that she mightask and answer and know, yet he dared not to pray for it, for stillgreater than his pity for the child was his fear of the wrath of God. And out of this fear there came to him at length an awful and terriblethought: though so severed on earth, his child and he, yet before thebar of judgment they would one day be brought together, and then howshould it stand with her soul?

Naomi knew nothing of God, having no way of speech with man. Would Godcondemn her for that, and cast her out for ever? No, no, no! God wouldnot ask her for good works in the land of silence, and for labour in theland of night. She had no eyes to see God's beautiful world, and no earsto hear His holy word. God had created her so, and He would not destroywhat He had made. Far rather would He look with love and pity on Hislittle one, so long and sorely tried on earth, and send her at last tobe a blessed saint in heaven. 

Israel tried to comfort himself so, but the effort was vain. He was aJew to the inmost fibre of his being, and he answered himself out of hisown mouth that it was his own sinful wish, and not God's will, thathad sent Naomi into the world as she was. Then, on the day of the greataccount, how should he answer to her for her soul?

Visions stood up before him of endless retribution for the soul thatknew not God. These were the most awful terrors of his sleepless nights, but at length peace came to him, for he saw his path of duty. It was hisduty to Naomi that he should tell her of God and reveal the word of theLord to her! What matter if she could not hear? Though she had senses asthe sands of the seashore, yet in the way of light the Lord alone couldlead her. What matter though she could not see? The soul was the eyethat saw God, and with bodily eyes had no man seen Him. 

So every day thereafter at sunset Israel took Naomi by the hand and ledher to an upper room, the same wherein her mother died, and, fetchingfrom a cupboard of the wall the Book of the Law, he read to her ofthe commandments of the Lord by Moses, and of the Prophets, and of theKings. And while he read Naomi sat in silence at his feet, with his onefree hand in both of her hands, clasped close against her cheek. 

What the little maid in her darkness thought of this custom, whatmystery it was to her and wherefore, only the eye that looks intodarkness could see; but it was so at length that as soon as the sun hadset--for she knew when the sun was gone--Naomi herself would take herfather by the hand, and lead him to the upper room, and fetch the bookto his knees. 

And sometimes, as Israel read, an evil spirit would seem to come to him, and make a mock at him, and say, "The child is deaf and hears not--goread your book in the tombs!" But he only hardened his neck and laughedproudly. And, again, sometimes the evil spirit seemed to say, "Why wasteyourself in this misspent desire? The child is buried while she is stillalive, and who shall roll away the stone?" But Israel only answered, "Itis for the Lord to do miracles, and the Lord is mighty. "

So, great in his faith, Israel read to Naomi night after night, and whenhis spirit was sore of many taunts in the day his voice would be hoarse, and he would read the law which says, "_Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind. _" But when his heart wasat peace his voice would be soft, and he would read of the child Samuelsanctified to the Lord in the temple, and how the Lord called him and heanswered--

"_And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; and ere the lampof God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the Ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel, and heanswered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I, for thoucalledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went andlay down. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel rose andwent to Eli and said, Here am I for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not my son; lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know theLord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him. _"

And, having finished his reading, Israel would close the book, and singout of the Psalms of David the psalm which says, "It is good for me thatI have been in trouble, that I may learn Thy statutes. "

Thus, night after night, when the sun was gone down, did Israel readof the law and sing of the Psalms to Naomi, his daughter, who was bothblind and deaf. And though Naomi heard not, and neither did she see, yetin their silent hour together there was another in their chamber alwayswith them--there was a third, for there was God. 

CHAPTER VII

THE ANGEL IN ISRAEL'S HOUSE

When Israel had been some twenty years at Tetuan, Naomi being thenfourteen years of age, Ben Aboo, the Basha, married a Christian wife. The woman's name was Katrina. She was a Spaniard by birth, and hadfirst come to Morocco at the tail of a Spanish embassy, which travelledthrough Tetuan from Ceuta to the Sultan at Fez. What her belongingswere, and what her antecedents had been, no one appeared to know, nordid Ben Aboo himself seem to care. She answered all his present needs inher own person, which was ample in its proportions and abundant in itscharms. 

In marrying Ben Aboo, the wily Katrina imposed two conditions. The firstwas, that he should put away the full Mohammedan complement offour Moorish wives, whom he had married already as well as the manyconcubines that he had annexed in his way through life, and now keptlodged in one unquiet nest in the women's hidden quarter of the Palace. The second condition was, that she herself should never be banishedto such seclusion, but, like the wife of any European governor, shouldopenly share the state of her husband. 

Ben Aboo was in no mood to stand on the rights of a strict Mohammedan, and he accepted both of her conditions. The first he never meant toabide by, but the second she took care he should observe, and, as aprelude to that public life which she intended to live by his side, sheinsisted on a public marriage. 

They were married according to the rites of the Catholic Church by aFranciscan friar settled at Tangier, and the marriage festival lastedsix days. Great was the display, and lavish the outlay. Every morningthe cannon of the fort fired a round of shot from the hill, everyevening the tribesmen from the mountains went through their feats ofpowder-play in the market-place, and every night a body of Aissawa fromMequinez yelled and shrieked in the enclosure called the M'salla, nearthe Bab er-Remoosh. Feasts were spread in the Kasbah, and relays ofguests from among the chief men of the town were invited daily topartake of them. 

No man dared to refuse his invitation, or to neglect the tribute of apresent, though the Moors well knew that they were lending the lightof their countenance to a brazen outrage on their faith, and thoughit galled the hearts of the Jews to make merry at the marriage of aChristian and a Muslim--no man except Israel, and he excused himselfwith what grace he could, being in no mood for rejoicing, but sick withsorrow of the heart. 

The Spanish woman was not to be gainsaid. She had taken her measure ofthe man, and had resolved that a servant so powerful as Israel shouldpay her court and tribute before all. Therefore she caused him to beinvited again; but Israel had taken his measure of the woman, and withsome lack of courtesy he excused himself afresh. 

Katrina was not yet done. She was a creature of resource, and havingheard of Naomi with strange stories concerning her, she devised achildren's feast for the last day of the marriage festival, andcaused Ben Aboo to write to Israel a formal letter, beginning "To ourwell-beloved the excellent Israel ben Oliel, Praise to the one God, "and setting forth that on the morrow, when the "Sun of the world" should"place his foot in the stirrup of speed, " and gallop "from the kingdomof shades, " the Governor would "hold a gathering of delight" for all thechildren of Tetuan and he, Israel, was besought to "lighten it with therays of his face, rivalled only by the sun, " and to bring with himhis little daughter Naomi, whose arrival "similar to a spring breeze, "should "dissipate the dark night of solitude and isolation. " Thisdespatch written in the common cant of the people, concluded withquotations from the Prophet on brotherly love and a significant andmore sincere assurance that the Basha would not admit of excuses "of thethickness of a hair. "

When Israel received the missive, his anger was hot and furious. Heleapt to the conclusion that, in demanding the presence of Naomi, theSpanish woman, who must know of the child's condition desired only tomake a show of it. But, after a fume, he put that thought from him asuncharitable and unwarranted, and resolved to obey the summons. 

And, indeed, if he had felt any further diffidence, the sight of Naomi'sown eagerness must have driven it away. The little maid seemed to knowthat something unusual was going on. Troops of poor villagers from everymiserable quarter of the bashalic came into the town each day, beatingdrums, firing long guns, driving their presents before them--bullocks, cows, and sheep--and trying to make believe that they rejoiced andwere glad. Naomi appeared to be conscious of many tents pitched inthe marketplace, of denser crowds in the streets, and of much bustleeverywhere. 

Also she seemed to catch the contagion of little Ali's excitement. Thechildren of all the schools of the town, both Jewish and Moorish, hadbeen summoned through their Talebs to the festival; there was to bedancing and singing and playing on musical instruments and Ali himself, who had lately practised the kanoon--the lute, the harp--under histeacher, was to show his skill before the Governor. Therefore, greatwas the little black man's excitement, and, in the fever of it, he wouldtalk to every one of the event forthcoming--to Fatima, to Habeebah, andoften to Naomi also, until the memory of her infirmity would come tohim, or perhaps the derisive laugh of his schoolfellows would stop him, and then, thinking they were laughing at the girl, he would fall on themlike a fury, and they would scamper away. 

When the great day came, Ali went off to the Kasbah with his school andTaleb, in the long procession of many schools and many Talebs. Everychild carried a present for the rich Basha; now a boy with a goat, thena girl with a lamb, again a poor tattered mite with a hen, all cuddlingthem close like pets they must part with, yet all looking radiantlyhappy in their sweet innocency, which had no alloy of pain from the treeof the knowledge of good and evil. 

Israel took Naomi by the hand, but no present with either of them, andfollowed the children, going past the booths, the blind beggars, thelepers, and the shrieking Arabs that lay thick about the gate, throughthe iron-clamped door, and into the quadrangle, where groups of womenstood together closely covered in their blankets--the mothers andsisters of the children, permitted to see their little ones pass intothe Kasbah, but allowed to go no farther--then down the crooked passage, past the tiny mosque, like a closet, and the bath, like a dungeon, andfinally into the pillared patio, paved and walled with tiles. 

This was the place of the festival, and it was filled already with agreat company of children, their fathers and their teachers. Moors, Arabs, Berbers, and Jews, clad in their various costumes of whiteand blue and black and red--they were a gorgeous, a voluptuous, and, perhaps, a beautiful spectacle in the morning sunlight. 

As Israel entered, with Naomi by the hand, he was conscious that everyeye was on them, and as they passed through the way that was madefor them, he heard the whispered exclamations of the people. "Shoof!"muttered a Moor. "See!" "It's himself, " said a Jew. "And the child, "said another Jew. "Allah has smitten her, " said an Arab "Blind anddumb and deaf, " said another Moor "God be gracious to my father!" saidanother Arab. 

Musicians were playing in the gallery that ran round the court, andfrom the flat roof above it the women of the Governor's hareem, not yetdispersed, his four lawful Mohammedan wives, and many concubines, weregazing furtively down from behind their haiks. There was a fountain inthe middle of the patio, and at the farther end of it, within analcove that opened out of a horseshoe arch, beneath ceilings hung withstalactites, against walls covered with silken haities, and on Rabatrugs of many colours, sat Ben Aboo and his Christian bride. 

It was there that Israel saw the Spaniard for the first time, and atthe instant of recognition he shivered as with cold. She was a handsomewoman, but plainly a heartless one--selfish, vain, and vulgar. 

Ben Aboo hailed Israel with welcomes and peace-blessings, and Katrinadrew Naomi to her side. 

"So this is the little maid of whom wonderful rumours are so rife?" saidKatrina. 

Israel bent his head and shuddered at seeing the child at the woman'sfeet. 

"The darling is as fair as an angel, " said Katrina, and she kissedNaomi. 

The kiss seemed to Israel to smite his own cheeks like a blow. 

Then the performances of the children began, and truly they made apretty and affecting sight; the white walls, the deep blue sky, theblack shadows of the gallery, the bright sunlight, the grown peoplemassed around the patio, and these sweet little faces coming and goingin the middle of it. First, a line of Moorish girls in their embroideredhazzams dancing after their native fashion, bending and rising, twistingand turning, but keeping their feet in the same place constantly. Then, a line of Jewish girls in their kilted skirts dancing after the Jewishmanner tripping on their slippered toes, whirling and turning aroundwith rapid motions, and playing timbrels and tambourines held high abovetheir heads by their shapely arms and hands. Then passages of theKoran chanted by a group of Moorish boys in their jellabs, purple andchocolate and white, peaked above their red tarbooshes. Then a psalm bya company of Jewish boys in their black skull-caps--a brave old songof Zion sung by silvery young voices in an alien land. Finally, littleblack Ali, led out by his teacher, with his diminutive Moorish harp inhis hands, showing no fear at all, but only a negro boy's shy looks ofpleasure--his head aside, his eyes gleaming, his white teeth glinting, and his face aglow. 

Now down to this moment Naomi, at the feet of the woman, had beenagitated and restless, sometimes rising, then sinking back, sometimesplaying with her nervous fingers, and then pushing off her slippers. It was as though she was conscious of the fine show which was goingforward, and knew that they were children who were making it. Perhapsthe breath of the little ones beat her on the level of her cheeks, orperhaps the light air made by the sweep of their garments was wafted toher sensitive body. Whatsoever the sense whereby the knowledge came toher, clearly it was there in her flushed and twitching face, which wasfull of that old hunger for child-company which Israel knew too well. 

But when little Ali was brought out and he began to play on his kanoon, his harp, it was impossible to repress Naomi's excitement. The girlleaped up from her place at the woman's feet, and with the utmostrapidity of motion she passed like a gleam of light across the patio tothe boy's side. And, being there, she touched the harp as he played it, and then a low cry came from her lips. Again she touched it, and hereyes, though blind, seemed for an instant to flame like fire. Then, withboth her hands she clung to it, and with her lips and her tongue shekissed it, while her whole body quivered like a reed in the wind. 

Israel saw what she did, and his very soul trembled at the sight withwild thoughts that did not dare to take the name of hope. As well as hecould in the confusion of his own senses he stepped forward to draw thelittle maiden back but the wife of the Governor called on him to leaveher. 

"Leave her!" she cried. "Let us see what the child will do!"

At that moment Ali's playing came to as end, and the boy let the harppass to Naomi's clinging fingers, and then, half sitting, half kneelingon the ground beside it, the girl took it to herself. She caressed it, she patted it with her hand, she touched its strings, and then a faintsmile crossed her rosy lips. She laid her cheek against it and touchedits strings again, and then she laughed aloud. She flung off herslippers and the garment that covered her beautiful arms, and laidher pure flesh against the harp wheresoever her flesh might cling, andtouched its strings once more, and then her very heart seemed to laughwith delight. 

Now, what is to follow will seem to be no better than a superstitioussaying, but true it is, nevertheless, and simple sooth for all it soundsso strange, that though Naomi was deaf as the grave, and had never yetheard music, and though she was untaught and knew nothing of the notesof a harp to strike them yet she swept the strings to strange soundssuch as no man had ever listened to before and none could follow. 

It was not music that the little maiden made to her ear, but only motionto her body, and just as the deaf who are deaf alone are sometimes foundto take pleasure in all forms of percussion, and to derive from themsome of the sensations of sound--the trembling of the air after thunder, the quivering of the earth after cannon, and the quaking of vast wallsafter the ringing of mighty bells--so Naomi, who was blind as well andhad no sense save touch, found in her fingers, which had gathered up theforce of all the other senses, the power to reproduce on this instrumentof music the movement of things that moved about her--the patter of theleaves of the fig-tree in the patio of her home, the swirl of the greatwinds on the hill-top, the plash of rain on her face, and the ripplingof the levanter in her hair. 

This was all the witchery of Naomi's playing, yet, because every emotionin Nature had its harmony, so there was harmony of some wild sort in themusic that was struck by the girl's fingers out of the strings of theharp. But, more than her music, which was perhaps, only a rhapsody ofsound, was the frenzy of the girl herself as she made it. She liftedher head like a bird, her throat swelled, her bosom heaved, and as sheplayed, she laughed again and again. 

There was something fascinating and magical in the spectacle of thebeautiful fair face aglow with joy, the rounded limbs (visible throughthe robes) clinging to the sides of the harp, and the delicate whitefingers flying across the strings. There was something gruesome andawful, as well, for the face of the girl was blind, and her ears heardnothing of the sounds that her fingers were making. 

Every eye was on her, and in the wide circle around every mouth wasagape. And when those who looked on and listened had recovered fromtheir first surprise, very strange and various were the whispered wordsthey passed between them. "Where has she learnt it?" asked a Moor. "From her master himself, " muttered a Jew. "Who is it?" asked the Moor. "Beelzebub, " growled the Jew. "God pity me, the evil eye is on her, "said an Arab. "God will show, " said a Shereef from Wazzan. "They sayher mother was a childless woman, and offered petitions for Hannah'sblessing at the tomb of Rabbi Amran. " "No, " said the Arab; "she sent hergirdle. " "Anyhow, the child is a saint, " whispered the Shereef. "No, buta devil, " snorted the Jew. 

"Brava, brava, brava!" cried the new wife of Ben Aboo, and she cheeredand laughed as the girl played. "What did I tell you?" she said, lookingtoward her husband. "The child is not deaf, no, nor blind either. Oh, it's a brave imposture! Brava, brave!"

Still the little maiden played, but now her brow was clouded, her headdropped, her eyelashes were downcast, and she hung over the harp andsighed audibly. 

"Good again!" cried the woman. "Very good!" and she clapped herhands, whereupon the Arabs and the Moors, forgetting their dread, feltconstrained to follow her example, and they cheered in their wilder way, but the Jews continued to mutter, "Beelzebub, Beelzebub!"

Israel saw it all, and at first, amid the commotion of his mind and theconfusion of his senses, his heart melted at sight of what Naomi did. Had God opened a gateway to her soul? Were the poor wings of her spiritto spread themselves out at last? Was this, then, the way of speechthat Heaven had given her? But hardly had Israel overflowed with thetenderness of such thoughts when the bleating and barking of the facesabout him awakened his anger. Then, like blows on his brain, came thecries of the wife of the Governor, who cheered this awakening ofthe girl's soul as it were no better than a vulgar show; and at thatIsrael's wrath rose to his throat. 

"Brava, brava!" cried the woman again; and, turning to Israel, she said, "You shall leave the child with me. I must have her with me always. "

Israel's throat seemed to choke him at that word. He looked at Katrina, and saw that she was a woman lustful of breath and vain of heart, whohad married Ben Aboo because he was rich. Then he looked at Naomi, and remembered that her heart was clear as the water, and sweet as themorning, and pure as the snow. 

And at that moment the wife of the Governor cheered again, and again thepeople echoed her, and even the women on the housetops made bold totake up her cry with their cooing ululation. The playing had ceased, thespell had dissolved, Naomi's fingers had fallen from the harp, her headhad dropped into her breast, and with a sigh she had sunk forward on toher face. 

"Take her in!" said the wife of Ben Aboo, and two Arab soldiers steppedup to where the little maiden lay. But before they had touched herIsrael strode out with swollen lips and distended nostrils. 

"Stop!" he cried. 

The Arabs hesitated, and looked towards their master. 

"Do as you are bidden--take her in!" said Ben Aboo. 

"Stop!" cried Israel again, in a loud voice that rang through the court. Then, parting the Arabs with a sweep of his arms, he picked up theunconscious maiden, and faced about on the new wife of Ben Aboo. 

"Madam, " he cried, "I, Israel ben Oliel, may belong to the Governor, butmy child belongs to me. "

So saying, he passed out of the court, carrying the girl in his arms, and in the dead silence and blank stupor of that moment none seemed toknow what he had done until he was gone. 

Israel went home in his anger; but nevertheless, out of this event hefound courage in his heart to begin his task again. Let his enemiesbleat and bark "Beelzebub, " yet the child was an angel, though sufferingfor his sin, and her soul was with God. She was a spirit, and the songsshe had played were the airs of paradise. But, comforting himself so, Israel remembered the vision of Ruth, wherein Naomi had recovered herpowers. He had put it from him hitherto as the delirium of death, butwould the Lord yet bring it to pass? Would God in His mercy some daytake the angel out of his house, though so strangely gifted, so radiantand beautiful and joyful, and give him instead for the hunger of hisheart as a man this sweet human child, his little, fair-haired Naomi, though helpless and simple and weak?

CHAPTER VIII

THE VISION OF THE SCAPEGOAT

Israel's instinct had been sure: the coming of Katrina proved to bethe beginning of his end. He kept his office, but he lost his power. Nolonger did he work his own will in Tetuan; he was required to work thewill of the woman. Katrina's will was an evil one, and Israel got theblame of it, for still he seemed to stand in all matters of tribute andtaxation between the people and the Governor. It galled him to take thewoman's wages, but it vexed him yet more to do her work. Her work was toburden the people with taxes beyond all their power of paying; her wageswas to be hated as the bane of the bashalic, to be clamoured againstas the tyrant of Tetuan, and to be ridiculed by the very offal of thestreets. 

One day a gang of dirty Arabs in the market-place dressed up a blindbeggar in clothes such as Israel wore, and sent him abroad through thetown to beg as one that was destitute and in a miserable condition. Butnothing seemed to move Israel to pity. Men were cast into prison for noreason save that they were rich, and the relations of such as were therealready were allowed to redeem them for money, so that no felon sufferedpunishment except such as could pay nothing. People took fright and fledto other cities. Israel's name became a curse and a reproach throughoutBarbary. 

Yet all this time the man's soul was yearning with pity for the people. Since the death of Ruth his heart had grown merciful. The care of thechild had softened him. It had brought him to look on other childrenwith tenderness, and looking tenderly on other children had led him tothink of other fathers with compassion. Young or old, powerful or weak, mighty or mean, they were all as little children--helpless children whowould sleep together in the same bed soon. 

Thinking so, Israel would have undone the evil work of earlier years;but that was impossible now. Many of them that had suffered weredead; some that had been cast into prison had got their last and longdischarge. At least Israel would have relaxed the rigour whereby hismaster ruled, but that was impossible also. Katrina had come, and shewas a vain woman and a lover of all luxury, and she commanded Israel totax the people afresh. He obeyed her through three bad years; but manya time his heart reproached him that he dealt corruptly by the poorpeople, and when he saw them borrowing money for the Governor's tributeson their lands and houses, and when he stood by while they and theirsons were cast into prison for the bonds which they could not pay to theusurers Abraham or Judah or Reuben, then his soul cried out against himthat he ate the bread of such a mistress. 

But out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forthsweetness, and out of this coming of the Spanish wife of Ben Aboo camedeliverance for Israel from the torment of his false position. 

There was an aged and pious Moor in Tetuan, called Abd Allah, who wasrumoured to have made savings from his business as a gunsmith. Going tomosque one evening, with fifteen dollars in his waistband, he unstrappedhis belt and laid it on the edge of the fountain while he washed hisfeet before entering, for his back was no longer supple. Then a youngerMoor, coming to pray at the same time, saw the dollars, and snatchedthem up and ran. Abd Allah could not follow the thief, so he went to theKasbah and told his story to the Governor. 

Just at that time Ben Aboo had the Kaid of Fez on a visit to him. "Askhim how much more he has got, " whispered the brother Kaid to Ben Aboo. 

Abd Allah answered that he did not know. 

"I'll give you two hundred dollars for the chance of all he has, " theKaid whispered again. 

"Five bees are better than a pannier of flies--done!" said Ben Aboo. 

So Abd Allah was sold like a sheep and carried to Fez, and there castinto prison on a penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars imposed uponhim on the pretence of a false accusation. 

Israel sat by the Governor that day at the gate of the hall of justice, and many poor people of the town stood huddled together in the courtoutside while the evil work was done. No one heard the Kaid of Fez whenhe whispered to Ben Aboo, but every one saw when Israel drew the warrantthat consigned the gunsmith to prison, and when he sealed it with theGovernor's seal. 

Abd Allah had made no savings, and, being too old for work, he had livedon the earnings of his son. The son's name was Absalam (Abd es-Salem), and he had a wife whom he loved very tenderly, and one child, a boy ofsix years of age. Absalam followed his father to Fez, and visited him inprison. The old man had been ordered a hundred lashes, and the flesh washanging from his limbs. Absalam was great of heart, and, in pity of hisfather's miserable condition he went to the Governor and begged that theold man might be liberated, and that he might be imprisoned instead. His petition was heard. Abd Allah was set free, Absalam was cast intoprison, and the penalty was raised from two hundred and fifty dollars tothree hundred. 

Israel heard of what had happened, and he hastened to Ben Aboo, in greatagitation, intending to say "Pay back this man's ransom, in God's name, and his children and his children's children will live to bless you. "But when he got to the Kasbah, Katrina was sitting with her husband, andat sight of the woman's face Israel's tongue was frozen. 

Absalam had been the favourite of his neighbours among all the gunsmithsof the market-place, and after he had been three months at Fez theymade common cause of his calamities, sold their goods at a sacrifice, collected the three hundred dollars of his fine, bought him out ofprison, and went in a body through the gate to meet him upon his returnto Tetuan. But his wife had died in the meantime of fear and privation, and only his aged father and his little son were there to welcome him. 

"Friends, " he said to his neighbours standing outside the walls, "whatis the use of sowing if you know not who will reap?"

"No use, no use!" answered several voices. 

"If God gives you anything, this man Israel takes it away, " saidAbsalam. 

"True, true! Curse him! Curse his relations!" cried the others. 

"Then why go back into Tetuan?" said Absalam. 

"Tangier is no better, " said one. "Fez is worse, " said another. "Whereis there to go?" said a third. 

"Into the plains, " said Absalam--"into the plains and into themountains, for they belong to God alone. "

That word was like the flint to the tinder. 

"They who have least are richest, and they that have nothing are bestoff of all, " said Absalam, and his neighbours shouted that it was so. 

"God will clothe us as He clothes the fields, " said Absalam, "and feedour children as He feeds the birds. "

In three days' time ten shops in the market-place, on the side of theMosque, were sold up and closed, and the men who had kept them were goneaway with their wives and children to live in tents with Absalam on thebarren plains beyond the town. 

When Israel heard of what had been done he secretly rejoiced; but BenAboo was in a commotion of fear, and Katrina was fierce with anger, forthe doctrine which Absalam had preached to his neighbours outside thewalls was not his own doctrine merely, but that of a great man latelyrisen among the people, called Mohammed of Mequinez, nicknamed by hisenemies Mohammed the Third. 

"This madness is spreading, " said Ben Aboo. 

"Yes, " said Katrina; "and if all men follow where these men lead, whowill supply the tables of Kaids and Sultans?"

"What can I do with them?" said Ben Aboo. 

"Eat them up, " said Katrina. 

Ben Aboo proceeded to put a literal interpretation upon his wife'scounsel. With a company of cavalry he prepared to follow Absalam and hislittle fellowship, taking Israel along with him to reckon their taxes, that he might compel them to return to Tetuan, and be town-dwellersand house-dwellers and buy and sell and pay tribute as before, or elsedeliver themselves to prison. 

But Absalam and his people had secret word that the Governor was comingafter them, and Israel with him. So they rolled their tents, and fled tothe mountains that are midway between Tetuan and the Reef country, andtook refuge in the gullies of that rugged land, living in caves of therock, with only the table-land of mountain behind them, and nothing buta rugged precipice in front. This place they selected for its safety, intending to push forward, as occasion offered, to the sanctuaries ofShawan, trusting rather to the humanity of the wild people, called theShawanis, than to the mercy of their late cruel masters. But the valleywherein they had hidden is thick with trees, and Ben Aboo tracked themand came up with them before they were aware. Then, sending soldiersto the mountain at the back of the caves, with instructions that theyshould come down to the precipice steadily, and kill none that theycould take alive, Ben Aboo himself drew up at the foot of it, andIsrael with him, and there called on the people to come out and deliverthemselves to his will. 

When the poor people came from their hiding-places and saw that theywere surrounded, and that escape was not left to them on any side, theythought their death was sure. But without a shout or a cry they knelt, as with one accord, at the mouth of the precipice, with their backsto it, men and women and children, knee to knee in a line, and joinedhands, and looked towards the soldiers, who were coming steadily down onthem. On and on the soldiers came, eye to eye with the people, and theirswords were drawn. 

Israel gasped for his breath, and waited to see the people cut in piecesat the next instant, when suddenly they began to sing where they kneltat the edge of the precipice, "God is our refuge and our strength, avery present help in trouble. "

In another moment the soldiers had drawn up as if swords from heavenhad fallen on them, and Israel was crying out of his dry throat, "Fearnothing! Only deliver your bodies to the Governor, and none shall harmyou. "

Absalam rose up from his knees and called to his father and his son. And standing between them to be seen by all, and first looking upon bothwith eyes of pity, he drew from the folds of his selham a long knifesuch as the Reefians wear, and taking his father by his white hair heslew him and cast his body down the rocks. After that he turned towardshis son, and the boy was golden-haired and his face was like themorning, and Israel's heart bled to see him. 

"Absalam!" he cried in a moving voice; "Absalam, wait, wait!"

But Absalam killed his son also, and cast him down after his father. Then, looking around on his people with eyes of compassion, as seemingto pity them that they must fall again into the hands of Israel and hismaster, he stretched out his knife and sheathed it in his own breast, and fell towards the precipice. 

Israel covered his face and groaned in his heart, and said, "It is theend, O Lord God, it is the end--polluted wretch that I am, with theblood of these people upon me!"

The companions of Absalam delivered themselves to the soldiers, whocommitted them to the prison at Shawan, and Ben Aboo went home incontent. 

Rumour of what had come to pass was not long in reaching Tetuan, andIsrael was charged with the guilt of it. In passing through the streetsthe next day on his way to his house the people hissed him openly. "Allah had not written it!" a Moor shouted as he passed. "Take care!"cried an Arab, "Mohammed of Mequinez is coming!"

It chanced that night, after sundown, when Naomi, according to her wont, led her father to the upper room, and fetched the Book of the Law fromthe cupboard of the wall and laid it upon his knees, that he read thepassage whereon the page opened of itself, scarce knowing what he readwhen he began to read it, for his spirit was heavy with the bad doingsof those days. And the passage whereon the book opened was this--

"_Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the Lord, andthe other lot for the scapegoat. . . . Then shall he kill the goat ofthe sin-offering that is for the people, and bring his blood within thevail. And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because ofthe uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of theirtransgressions in all their sins. . . . And when he hath, made an end ofreconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, andthe altar, he shall bring the live goat: and Aaron shall lay both hishands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all theiniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions inall their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall sendhim away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goatshall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited. _"

That same night Israel dreamt a dream. He had been asleep, andhad awakened in a place which he did not know. It was a great aridwilderness. Ashen sand lay on every side; a scorching sun beat down onit, and nowhere was there a glint of water. Israel gazed, and slowlythrough the blazing sunlight he discerned white roofless walls like theruins of little sheepfolds. "They are tombs, " he told himself, "and thisis a Mukabar--an Arab graveyard--the most desolate place in the worldof God. " But, looking again, he saw that the roofless walls covered theground as far as the eye could see, and the thought came to him thatthis ashen desert was the earth itself, and that all the world oflife and man was dead. Then, suddenly, in the motionless wilderness, asolitary creature moved. It was a goat, and it toiled over the hot sandwith its head hung down and its tongue lolled out. "Water!" it seemedto cry, though it made no voice, and its eyes traversed the plain as ifthey would pierce the ground for a spring. Fever and delirium fell uponIsrael. The goat came near to him and lifted up its eyes, and he saw itsface. Then he shrieked and awoke. The face of the goat had been the faceof Naomi. 

Now Israel knew that this was no more than a dream, coming of thepassage which he had read out of the book at sundown, but so vivid wasthe sense of it that he could not rest in his bed until he had firstseen Naomi with his waking eyes, that he might laugh in his heart tothink how the eye of his sleep had fooled him. So he lit his lamp, andwalked through the silent house to where Naomi's room was on the lowerfloor of it. 

There she lay, sleeping so peacefully, with her sunny hair flowing overthe pillow on either side of her beautiful face, and rippling in littlecurls about her neck. How sweet she looked! How like a dear bud ofwomanhood just opening to the eye!

Israel sat down beside her for a moment. Many a time before, at suchhours, he had sat in that same place, and then gone his ways, and shehad known nothing of it. She was like any other maiden now. Her eyeswere closed, and who should see that they were blind? Her breath camegently, and who should say that it gave forth no speech? Her face wasquiet, and who should think that it was not the face of a homely-heartedgirl? Israel loved these moments when he was alone with Naomi while sheslept, for then only did she seem to be entirely his own, and he was notso lonely while he was sitting there. Though men thought he was strong, yet he was very weak. He had no one in the world to talk to save Naomi, and she was dumb in the daytime, but in the night he could hold littleconversations with her. His love! his dove! his darling! How easily hecould trick and deceive himself and think, She will awake presently, andspeak to me! Yes; her eyes will open and see me here again, and Ishall hear her voice, for I love it! "Father!" she will say. "Father--father--"

Only the moment of undeceiving was so cruel!

Naomi stirred, and Israel rose and left her. As he went back to his bed, through the corridor of the patio, he heard a night-cry behind him thatmade his hair to rise. It was Naomi laughing in her sleep. 

Israel dreamt again that night, and he believed his second dream to be avision. It was only a dream, like the first; but what his dream would beto us is nought, and what it was to him is everything. The vision as hethought he saw it was this, and these were the words of it as he thoughthe heard them--

It was the middle of the night, and he was lying in his own room, whena dull red light as of dying flame crossed the foot of the bed, and avoice that was as the voice of the Lord came out of it, crying "Israel!"

And Israel was sorely afraid, and answered, "Speak, Lord, Thy servantheareth. "

Then the Lord said, "Thou has read of the goats whereon the high priestcast lots, one lot for the sin offering and one lot for the scapegoat. "

And Israel answered trembling, "I have read. "

Then the Lord said to Israel, "Look now upon Naomi, thy child, forshe is as the sin-offering for thy sins, to make atonement for thytransgressions, for thee and for thy household, and therefore she isdumb to all uses of speech, and blind to all service of sight, a soulin chains and a spirit in prison, for behold, she is as the lot that iscast for justice and for the Lord. "

And Israel groaned in his agony and cried, "Would that the lot hadfallen upon me, O Lord, that Thou mightest be justified when thouspeakest, and be clear when Thou judgest, for I alone am guilty beforeThee. "

Then said the Lord to Israel, "On thee, also, hath the lot fallen, eventhe lot of the scapegoat of the enemies of the people of God. "

And Israel quaked with fear, and the Lord called to him again, and said, "Israel, even as the scapegoat carries the iniquities of the people, socost thou carry the iniquities of thy master, Ben Aboo, and of his wife, Katrina; and even as the goat bears the sins of the people into thewilderness, so, in the resurrection, shalt thou bear the sins of thisman and of this woman into a land that no man knoweth. "

Then Israel wrestled no longer with the Lord, but sweated as it weredrops of blood, and cried, "What shall I do, O Lord?"

And the Lord said, "Lie unto the morning, and then arise, get thee tothe country by Mequinez and to the man there whereof thou hast heardtidings, and he shall show thee what thou shalt do. "

Then Israel wept with gladness, and cried, saying, "Shall my soul live?Shall the lot be lifted from off me, and from off Naomi, my daughter?"

But the Lord left him, the red light died out from across the bed, andall around was darkness. 

Now to the last day and hour of his life Israel would have taken oath onthe Scriptures that he saw this vision, and he heard this voice, not inhis sleep and as in a dream, but awake, and having plain sight of allcommon things about him--his room and his bed; and the canopy thatcovered it. And on rising in the morning, at daydawn, so actual was thesense of what he had seen and heard, and so powerful the impression ofit, that he straightway set himself to carry out the injunction it hadmade, without question of its reality or doubt of its authority. 

Therefore, committing his household to the care of Ali, who was nowgrown to be a stalwart black lad his constant right hand and helpmate, Israel first sent to the Governor, saying he should be ten days absentfrom Tetuan, and then to the Kasbah for a soldier and guide, and to themarket-place for mules. 

Before the sun was high everything was in readiness, and the caravan waswaiting at the door. Then Israel remembered Naomi. Where was the girl, that he had not seen her that morning? They answered him that she hadnot yet left her room, and he sent the black woman Fatimah to fetchher. And when she came and he had kissed her, bidding her farewell insilence, his heart misgave him concerning her, and, after raising hisfoot to the stirrup, he returned to where she stood in the patio withthe two bondwomen beside her. 

"Is she well?" he asked. 

"Oh yes, well--very well, " said Fatimah, and Habeebah echoed her. Nevertheless, Israel remembered that he had not heard the only languageof her lips, her laugh, and, looking at her again, he saw that her face, which had used to be cheerful, was now sad. At that he almost repentedof his purpose, and but for shame in his own eyes he might have goneno farther, for it smote him with terror that, though she were sick, nothing could she say to stay him, and even if she were dying she mustlet him go his ways without warning. 

He kissed her again, and she clung to him, so that at last, with manywords of tender protest which she did not hear, he had to break awayfrom the beautiful arms that held him. 

Ali was waiting by the mules in the streets, and the soldier and guideand muleteers and tentmen were already mounted, amid a chattering throngof idle people looking on. 

"Ali, my lad, " said Israel, "if anything should befall Naomi while I amaway, will you watch over her and guard her with all your strength?"

"With all my life, " said Ali stoutly. He was Naomi's playfellow nolonger, but her devoted slave. 

Then Israel set off on his journey. 

CHAPTER IX

ISRAEL'S JOURNEY

MOHAMMED of Mequinez, the man whom Israel went out to seek, had been aKadi and the son of a Kadi. While he was still a child his father died, and he was brought up by two uncles, his father's brothers, both men ofyet higher place, the one being Naib es-sultan, or Foreign Minister, atTangier, and the other Grand Vizier to the Sultan at Morocco. Thus in aland where there is one noble only, the Sultan himself, where ascent anddescent are as free as in a republic, though the ways of both aremired with crime and corruption, Mohammed was come as from the highestnobility. Nevertheless, he renounced his rank and the hope of wealththat went along with it at the call of duty and the cry of misery. 

He parted from his uncles, abandoned his judgeship, and went out intothe plains. The poor and outcast and down-trodden among the people, theshamed, the disgraced, and the neglected left the towns and followedhim. He established a sect. They were to be despisers of riches andlovers of poverty. No man among them was to have more than another. Theywere never to buy or sell among themselves, but every one was to givewhat he had to him that wanted it. They were to avoid swearing, yetwhatever they said was to be firmer than an oath. They were to beministers of peace, and if any man did them violence they were never toresist him. Nevertheless they were not to lack for courage, but to laughto scorn the enemies that tormented them, and smile in their pains andshed no tear. And as for death, if it was for their glory they were toesteem it more than life, because their bodies only were corruptible, but their souls were immortal, and would mount upwards when releasedfrom the bondage of the flesh. Not dissenters from the Koran, butstricter conformers to it; not Nazarenes and not Jews, yet followers ofJesus in their customs and of Moses in their doctrines. 

And Moors and Berbers, Arabs and Negroes, Muslimeen and Jews, heard thecry of Mohammed of Mequinez, and he received them all. From the streets, from the market-places, from the doors of the prisons, from the serviceof hard masters, and from the ragged army itself, they arose in hundredsand trooped after him. They needed no badge but the badge of poverty, and no voice of pleading but the voice of misery. Most of them broughtnothing with them in their hands, and some brought little on their backssave the stripes of their tormentors. A few had flocks and herds, whichthey drove before them. A few had tents, which they shared with theirfellows; and a few had guns, with which they shot the wild boar fortheir food and the hyena for their safety. Thus, possessing little anddesiring nothing, having neither houses nor lands, and only consideringthemselves secure from their rulers in having no money, this company ofbattered human wrecks, life-broken and crime-logged and stranded, passed with their leader from place to place of the waste country aboutMequinez. And he, being as poor as they were, though he might have beenso rich, cheered them always, even when they murmured against him, asAbsalam had cheered his little fellowship at Tetuan: "God will feedus as He feeds the birds of the air, and clothe our little ones as Heclothes the fields. "

Such was the man whom Israel went out to seek. But Israel knew hispeople too well to make known his errand. His besetting difficultieswere enough already. The year was young, but the days were hot; apalpitating haze floated always in the air, and the grass and the broomhad the dusty and tired look of autumn. It was also the month of thefast of Ramadhan, and Israel's men were Muslims. So, to save himself thedouble vexation of oppressive days and the constant bickerings of hisfamished people, Israel found it necessary at length to travel in thenight. In this way his journey was the shorter for the absence of someobstacles, but his time was long. 

And, just as he had hidden his errand from the men of his own caravan, so he concealed it from the people of the country that he passedthrough, and many and various, and sometimes ludicrous and sometimesvery pitiful were the conjectures they made concerning it. While he waspassing through his own province of Tetuan, nothing did the poor peoplethink but that he had come to make a new assessment of their lands andholdings, their cattle and belongings, that he might tax them afresh andmore fully. So, to buy his mercy in advance, many of them came out oftheir houses as he drew near, and knelt on the ground before his horse, and kissed the skirts of his kaftan, and his knees, and even his footin his stirrup, and called him _Sidi_ (master, my lord), a title neverbefore given to a Jew, and offered him presents out of their meagresubstance. 

"A gift for my lord, " they would say, "of the little that God has givenus, praise His merciful name for ever!"

Then they would push forward a sheep or a goat, or a string of hens tiedby the legs so as to hang across his saddle-bow, or, perhaps, at the twotrembling hands of an old woman living alone on a hungry scratch of landin a desolate place, a bowl of buttermilk. 

Israel was touched by the people's terror, but he betrayed no feeling. 

"Keep them, " he would answer; "keep them until I come again, " intendingto tell them, when that time came, to keep their poor gifts altogether. 

And when he had passed out of the province of Tetuan into the bashalicof El Kasar, the bareheaded country-people of the valley of the Kooshastened before him to the Kaid of that grey town of bricks and storksand palm-trees and evil odours, and the Kaid, with another notion of hiserrand, came to the tumble-down bridge to meet him on his approach inthe early morning. 

"Peace be with you!" said the Kaid. "So my lord is going again to theShereef at Wazzan; may the mercy of the Merciful protect him!"

Israel neither answered yea nor nay, but threaded the maze ofcrooked lanes to the lodging which had been provided for him nearthe market-place, and the same night he left the town (laden with thepresents of the Kaid) through a line of famished and half-naked beggarswho looked on with feverish eyes. 

Next day, at dawn, he came to the heights of Wazzan (a holy city ofMorocco), by the olives and junipers and evergreen oaks that grow at thefoot of the lofty, double-peaked Boo-Hallal, and there the young grandShereef himself, at the gate of his odorous orange-gardens, stoodwaiting to give audience with yet another conjecture as to the intentionof his journey. 

"Welcome! welcome!" said the Shereef; "all you see is yours until Allahshall decree that you leave me too soon on your happy mission to ourlord the Sultan at Fez--may God prolong his life and bless him!"

"God make you happy!" said Israel, but he offered no answer to thequestion that was implied. 

"It is twenty and odd years, my lord, " the Shereef continued, "since myfather sent for you out of Tetuan, and many are the ups and downs thattime has wrought since then, under Allah's will; but none in the pasthave been so grateful as the elevation of Israel ben Oliel, and none inthe future can be so joyful as the favours which the Sultan (God keepour lord Abd er-Rahman!) has still in store for him. "

"God will show, " said Israel. 

No Jew had ever yet ridden in this Moroccan Mecca; but the Shereefalighted from his horse and offered it to Israel, and took Israel'shorse instead and together they rode through the market-place, and pastthe old Mosque that is a ruin inhabited by hawks and the other mosqueof the Aissawa, and the three squalid fondaks wherein the Jews livelike cattle. A swarm of Arabs followed at their heels in tattered greasyrags, a group of Jews went by them barefoot and a knot of bedraggledrenegades leaning against the walls of the prison doffed the caps fromtheir dishevelled heads and bowed. 

That day, while the poor people of the town fasted according to theordinance of the Ramadhan, Israel's little company of Muslimeen--guestsin the house of the descendants of the Prophet--were, by specialShereefian dispensation, permitted as travellers to eat and drink attheir pleasure. And before sunset, but at the verge of it, Israel andhis men started on their journey afresh, going out of the town, withthe Shereef's black bodyguard riding before them for guide and badge ofhonour, through the dense and noisome market-place, where (like a clockthat is warning to strike) a multitude of hungry and thirsty people withfierce and dirty faces, under a heavy wave of palpitating heat, and amidclouds of hot dust, were waiting for the sound of the cannon that shouldproclaim the end of that day's fast. Water-carriers at the fountainsstood ready to fill their empty goats' skins, women and children sat onthe ground with dishes of greasy soup on their knees and balls of grainrolled in their fingers, men lay about holding pipes charged with keef, and flint and tinder to light them, and the mooddin himself in theminaret stood looking abroad (unless he were blind) to where the red sunwas lazily sinking under the plain. 

Israel's soul sickened within him, for well he knew that, lavish as werethe honours that were shown him, they were offered by the rich out oftheir selfishness and by the poor out of their fear. While they thoughtthe Sultan had sent for him, they kissed his foot who desired no homage, and loaded him with presents who needed no gifts. But one word out ofhis mouth, only one little word, one other name, and what then of thislip-service, and what of this mock-honour!

Two days later Israel and his company reached before dawn the snake-likeramparts of Mequinez the city of walls. And toiling in the darkness overthe barren plain and the belt of carrion that lies in front of the town, through the heat and fumes of the fetid place, and amid the furiousbarks of the scavenger dogs which prowl in the night around it, theycame in the grey of morning to the city gate over the stream called theFather of Tortoises. The gate was closed, and the night police that keptit were snoring in their rags under the arch of the wall within. 

"Selam! M'barak! Abd el Kader! Abd el Kareem!" shouted the Shereef'sblack guard to the sleepy gate-keepers. They had come thus far inIsrael's honour, and would not return to Wazzan until they had seen himhoused within. 

From the other side of the gate, through the mist and the gloom, cameyawns and broken snores and then snarls and curses. "Burn your father!Pretty hubbub in the middle of the night!"

"Selam!" shouted one of the black guard. "You dog of dogs! Your fatherwas bewitched by a hyena! I'll teach you to curse your betters. Quick!get up, --or I'll shave your beard. Open! or I'll ride the donkey on yourhead! There!--and there!--and there again!" and at every word the buttof his long gun rang on the old oaken gate. 

"Hamed el Wazzani!" muttered several voices within. 

"Yes, " shouted the Shereef's man. "And my Lord Israel of Tetuan on hisway to the Sultan, God grant him victory. Do you hear, you dogs? SidiIsrael el Tetawani sitting here in the dark, while you are sleeping andsnoring in your dirt. "

There was a whispered conference on the inside, then a rattle of keys, and then the gate groaned back on its hinges. At the next moment twoof the four gatemen were on their knees at the feet of Israel's horse, asking forgiveness by grace of Allah and his Prophet. In the meantime, the other two had sped away to the Kasbah, and before Israel hadridden far into the town, the Kaid--against all usage of his class andcountry--ran and met him--afoot, slipperless, wearing nothing but selhamand tarboosh, out of breath, yet with a mouth full of excuses. 

"I heard you were coming, " he panted--"sent for by the Sultan--Allahpreserve him!--but had I known you were to be here so soon--I--thatis--"

"Peace be with you!" interrupted Israel. 

"God grant you peace. The Sultan--praise the merciful Allah!" the Kaidcontinued, bowing low over Israel's stirrup--"he reached Fez fromMarrakesh last sunset; you will be in time for him. "

"God will show, " said Israel, and he pushed forward. 

"Ah, true--yes--certainly--my lord is tired, " puffed the Kaid, bowingagain most profoundly. "Well, your lodging is ready--the best inMequinez--and your mona is cooking--all the dainties of Barbary--andwhen our merciful Abd er-Rahman has made you his Grand Vizier--"

Thus the man chattered like a jay, bowing low at nigh every word, untilthey came to the house wherein Israel and his people were to rest untilsunset; and always the burden of his words was the same--the Sultan, theSultan, the Sultan, and Abd er-Rahman, Abd er-Rahman!

Israel could bear no more. "Basha, " he said "it is a mistake; the Sultanhas not sent for me, and neither am I going to see him. "

"Not going to him?" the Kaid echoed vacantly. 

"No, but to another, " said Israel; "and you of all men can best tell mewhere that other is to be found. A great man, newly risen--yet a poorman--the young Mahdi Mohammed of Mequinez. "

Then there was a long silence. 

Israel did not rest in Mequinez until sunset of that day. Soon aftersunrise he went out at the gate at which he had so lately entered, andno man showed him honour. The black guard of the Shereef of Wazzan hadgone off before him, chuckling and grinning in their disgust, and behindhim his own little company of soldiers, guides, muleteers, and tentmen, who, like himself, had neither slept nor eaten, were dragging along indudgeon. The Kaid had turned them out of the town. 

Later in the day, while Israel and his people lay sheltering withintheir tents on the plain of Sais by the river Nagar, near thetent-village called a Douar, and the palm-tree by the bridge, therepassed them in the fierce sunshine two men in the peaked shasheeah ofthe soldier, riding at a furious gallop from the direction of Fez, andshouting to all they came upon to fly from the path they had to passover. They were messengers of the Sultan, carrying letters to the Kaidof Mequinez, commanding him to present himself at the palace withoutdelay, that he might give good account of his stewardship, or elsedeliver up his substance and be cast into prison for the defalcationswith which rumour had charged him. 

Such was the errand of the soldiers, according to the country-people, who toiled along after them on their way home from the markets atFez; and great was the glee of Israel's men on hearing it, for theyremembered with bitterness how basely the Kaid had treated them at lastin his false loyalty and hypocrisy. But Israel himself was too nearlytouched by a sense of Fate's coquetry to rejoice at this new freak ofits whim, though the victim of it had so lately turned him from hisdoor. Miserable was the man who laid up his treasure in money-bags andbuilt his happiness on the favour of princes! When the one was takenfrom him and the other failed him, where then was the hope of that man'ssalvation, whether in this world or the next? The dungeon, the chain, the lash, the wooden jellab--what else was left to him? Only the wailof the poor whom he has made poorer, the curse of the orphan whom hehas made fatherless, and the execration of the down-trodden whom he hasoppressed. These followed him into his prison, and mingled their crieswith the clank of his irons, for they were voices which had never yetdeserted the man that made them, but clamoured loud at the last when hisend had come, above the death-rattle in his throat. One dim hour waitedfor all men always, whether in the prison or in the palace--one lonelyhour wherein none could bear him company--and what was wealth andtreasure to man's soul beyond it? Was it power on earth? Was itglory? Was it riches? Oh! glory of the earth--what could it be but awill-o'-the-wisp pursued in the darkness of the night! Oh! riches ofgold and silver--what had they ever been but marsh-fire gathered in thedusk! The empire of the world was evil, and evil was the service of theprince of it!

Then Israel thought of Naomi, his sweet treasure--so far away. Thoughall else fell from him like dry sand from graspless fingers, yet if byGod's good mercy the lot of the sin-offering could be lifted away fromhis child, he would be content and happy! Naomi! His love! His darling!His sweet flower afflicted for his transgression. Oh! let him loseanything, everything, all that the world and all that the devil hadgiven him; but let the curse be lifted from his helpless child! For whatwas gold without gladness, and what was plenty without peace?

Israel lit upon the Mahdi at last in the country of the verbena and themusk that lies outside the walls of Fez. The prophet was a young man ofunusual stature, but no great strength of body, with a head that droopedlike a flower and with the wild eyes of an enthusiast. His people werea vast concourse that covered the plain a furlong square, and includedmultitudes of women and children. Israel had come upon them at an evilmoment. The people were murmuring against their leader. Six months agothey had abandoned their houses and followed him They had passed fromMequinez to Rabat, from Rabat to Mazagan, from Mazagan to Mogador, fromMogador to Marrakesh, and finally from Marrakesh through the treacherousBeni Magild to Fez. At every step their numbers had increased buttheir substance had diminished, for only the destitute had joined them. Nevertheless, while they had their flocks and herds they had borne theirprivations patiently--the weary journeys, the exposure, the long rainsof the spring and the scorching heat of summer. But the soldiers of theKaids whose provinces they had passed through had stripped them of bothin the name of tribute. The last raid on their poverty had been madethat very day by the Kaid of Fez, and now they were without goats orsheep or oxen, or even the guns with which they had killed the wildbear, and their children were crying to them for bread. 

So the people's faces grew black, and they looked into each other's eyesin their impotent rage. Why had they been brought out of the cities tostarve? Better to stay there and suffer than come out and perish! Whatof the vain promises that had been made to them that God would feed themas He fed the birds! God was witness to all their calamities; He wasseeing them robbed day by day, He was seeing them famish hour by hour, He was seeing them die. They had been fooled! A vain man had thought toplough his way to power. Through their bodies he was now ploughing it. "The hunger is on us!" "Our children are perishing!" "Find us food!""Food!" "Food!"

With such shouts, mingled with deep oaths, the hungry multitude in theirmadness had encompassed Mohammed of Mequinez as Israel and his companycame up with them. And Israel heard their cries, and also the voice oftheir leader when he answered them. 

First the young prophet rose up among his people, with flashing eyes andquivering nostrils. "Do you think I am Moses, " he cried, "that I shouldsmite the rock and work you a miracle? If you are starving, am I full?If you are naked, am I clothed?"

But in another instant the fire of anger was gone from his face, and hewas saying in a very moving voice, "My good people, who have followedme through all these miseries, I know that your burdens are heavier thanyou can bear, and that your lives are scarce to be endured, and thatdeath itself would be a relief. Nevertheless, who shall say but thatAllah sees a way to avert these trials of His poor servants, and that, unknown to us all, He is even at this moment bringing His mercy to pass!Patience, I beg of you; patience, my poor people--patience and trust!"

At that the murmurs of discontent were hushed. Then Israel rememberedthe presents with which the Kaid of El Kasar and the Shereef of Wazzanhad burdened him. They were jewels and ornaments such as are sometimesworn unlawfully by vain men in that country--silver signet rings andearrings, chains for the neck, and Solomon's seal to hang on the breastas safeguard against the evil eye--as well as much gold filagree of thekind that men give to their women. Israel had packed them in a boxand laid them in the leaf pannier of a mule, and then given no furtherthought to them; but, calling now to the muleteer who had charge ofthem, he said, "Take them quickly to the good man yonder, and say, 'Apresent to the man of God and to his people in their trouble. '"

And when the muleteer had done this, and laid the box of gold and silveropen at the feet of the young Mahdi, saying what Israel had bidden him, it was the same to the young man and his followers as if the sky hadopened and rained manna on their heads. 

"It is an answer to your prayer, " he cried; "an angel from heaven hassent it. "

Then his people, as soon as they realised what good thing had happenedto them, took up his shout of joy, and shouted out of their own parchedthroats--

"Prophet of Allah, we will follow you to the world's end!"

And then down on their knees they fell around him, the vast concourse ofmen and women, all grinning like apes in their hunger and glee together, and sobbing and laughing in a breath, like children, and sent up a greatbroken cry of thanks to God that He had sent them succour, that theymight not die. At last, when they had risen to their feet again, everyman looked into the eyes of his fellow and said, as if ashamed, "I couldhave borne it myself, but when the children called to me for bread. Iwas a fool. "

CHAPTER X

THE WATCHWORD OF THE MAHDI

Early the next day Israel set his face homeward, with this old word ofthe new prophet for his guide and motto: "Exact no more than is just; doviolence to no man; accuse none falsely; part with your riches and giveto the poor. " That was all the answer he got out of his journey, and ifany man had come to him in Tetuan with no newer story, it must have beenan idle and a foolish errand; but after El Kasar, after Wazzan, afterMequinez, and now after Fez, it seemed to be the sum of all wisdom. "I'll do it, " he said; "at all risks and all costs, I'll do it. "

And, as a prelude to that change in his way of life which he meantto bring to pass he sent his men and mules ahead of him, emptied hispockets of all that he should not need on his journey, and prepared toreturn to his own country on foot and alone. The men had first gaped inamazement, and then laughed in derision; and finally they had gone theirways by themselves, telling all who encountered them that the Sultanat Fez had stripped their master of everything, and that he was comingbehind them penniless. 

But, knowing nothing of this graceless service. Israel began hishomeward journey with a happy heart. He had less than thirty dollars inhis waistband of the more than three hundred with which he had set outfrom Tetuan; he was a hundred and fifty miles from that town, or fivelong days' travel; the sun was still hot, and he must walk in thedaytime. Surely the Lord would see it that never before had any man doneso much to wipe out God's displeasure as he was now doing and yet woulddo. He had said nothing of Naomi to the Mahdi even when he told him ofhis vision; but all his hopes had centred in the child. The lot of thesin-offering must be gone from her now, and in the resurrection he wouldmeet her without shame. If he had brought fruits meet to repentance, then must her debt also be wiped away. Surely never before had any childbeen so smitten of God, and never had any father of an afflicted childbought God's mercy at so dear a price!

Such were the thoughts that Israel cherished secretly, though he darednot to utter them, lest he should seem to be bribing God out of his loveof the child. And thus if his heart was glad as he turned towards home, it was proud also, and if it was grateful it was also vain; but vanityand pride were both smitten out of it in an hour, before he went throughthe gates of Fez (wherein he had slept the night preceding), by threesights which, though stern and pitiful, were of no uncommon occurrencein that town and province. 

First, it chanced that as he was passing from the south-east of the newtown of Fez to the gate that is at the north-west corner, going by thehigh walls of the Sultan's hareem, where there is room for a thousandwomen, and near to the Karueein mosque that is the greatest in Moroccoand rests on eight hundred pillars, he came upon two slaveholdersselling twelve or fourteen slaves. The slaves were all girls, and allblack, and of varying ages, ranging from ten years to about thirty. Theyhad lately arrived in caravans from the Soudan, by way of Tafilet andthe Wargha, and some of them looked worn from the desert passage. Otherswere fresh and cheerful, and such as had claims to negro beauty wereadorned, after their doubtful fashion, or the fancy of their masters, with love-charms of silver worn about their necks, with their fingerspricked out with hennah, and their eyelids darkened with kohl. Thus theywere drawn up in a line for public auction; but before the sale of themcould begin among the buyers that had gathered about them in the street, the overseers of the Sultan's hareem had to come and make a selectionfor their master. This the eunuchs presently did, and when two of themnicknamed Areefahs--gaunt and hairless men, with the faces of evil oldwomen and the hoarse voices of ravens--had picked out three fat blackmaidens, the business of the auction began by the sale of a negro girlof seventeen who was brought out from the rest and passed around. 

"Now, brothers, " said the slave-master, "look see; sound of wind andlimb--how much?"

"Eighty dollars, " said a voice from the crowd. 

"Eighty? Well, eighty to start with. Look at her--rosy lips, fit for thekisses of a king, eh? How much?"

"A hundred dollars. "

"A hundred dollars offered; only a hundred. It's giving the girl away. Look at her teeth, brothers, white and sound. "

The slave-master thrust his thumb into the girl's mouth and walked herround the crowd again. 

"Breath like new-mown hay, brothers. Now's the chance for truebelievers. How much?"

"A hundred and ten. "

"A hundred and ten--thanks, Sidi! A hundred and ten for this jewel of agirl. Dirt cheap yet, brothers. Try her muscles. Look at her flesh. Nota flaw anywhere. Pass her round, test her, try her, talk to her--shespeaks good Arabic. Isn't she fit for a Sultan? She's the best thingI'll offer to-day, and by the Prophet, if you are not quick I'll keepher for myself. Now, for the third and last time--seventeen years ofage, sound, strong, plump, sweet, and intact--how much?"

Israel's blood tingled to see how the bidders handled the girl, and tohear what shameless questions they asked of her, and with a long sigh hewas turning away from the crowd, when another man came up to it. The manwas black and old and hard-featured, and visibly poor in his torn whiteselham. But when he had looked over the heads of those in front of him, he made a great shout of anguish, and, parting the people, pushed hisway to the girl's side, and opened his arms to her, and she fell intothem with a cry of joy and pain together. 

It turned out that he was a liberated slave, who, ten years before, had been brought from the Soos through the country of Sidi Hosain benHashem, having been torn away from his wife, who was since dead, andfrom his only child, who thus strangely rejoined him. This story hetold, in broken Arabic; to those that stood around, and, hard as werethe faces of the bidders, and brutal as was their trade; there was notan eye among them all but was melted at his story. 

Seeing this, Israel cried from the back of the crowd, "I will givetwenty dollars to buy him the girl's liberty, " and straightway anotherand another offered like sums for the same purpose until the amount ofthe last bid had been reached, and the slave-master took it, and thegirl was free. 

Then the poor negro, still holding his daughter by the hand, came toIsrael, with the tears dripping down his black cheeks, and said in hisbroken way: "The blessing of Allah upon you, white brother, and if youhave a child of your own may you never lose her, but may Allah favourher and let you keep her with you always!"

That blessing of the old black man was more than Israel could bear, and, facing about before hearing the last of it, he turned down thedark arcade that descends into the old town as into a vault, and havingcrossed the markets, he came upon the second of the three sights thatwere to smite out of his heart his pride towards God. A man in a bluetunic girded with a red sash, and with a red cotton handkerchief tiedabout his head, was driving a donkey laden with trunks of light treescut into short lengths to lie over its panniers. He was clearly aSpanish woodseller and he had the weary, averted, and downcast look ofa race that is despised and kept under. His donkey was a bony creature, with raw places on its flank and shoulders where its hide had been wornby the friction of its burdens. He drove it slowly; crying "Arrah!" toit in the tongue of its own country, and not beating it cruelly. Atthe bottom of the arcade there was an open place where a foul ditch wascrossed by a rickety bridge. Coming to this the man hesitated a moment, as if doubtful whether to drive his donkey over it or to make the beasttrudge through the water. Concluding to cross the bridge, he cried"Arrah!" again, and drove the donkey forward with one blow of his stick. But when the donkey was in the middle of it, the rotten thing gave way, and the beast and its burden fell into the ditch. The donkey's legs werebroken, and when a throng of Arabs, who gathered at the Spaniard's cry, had cut away its panniers and dragged it out of the water on to thepaving-stones of the street, the film covered its eyes, and in a momentit was dead. 

At that the man knelt down beside it, and patted it on its neck, andcalled on it by its name, as if unwilling to believe that it was gone. And while the Arabs laughed at him for doing so--for none seemed to pityhim--a slatternly girl of sixteen or seventeen came scudding down thearcade, and pushed her way through the crowd until she stood where thedead ass lay with the man kneeling beside it. Then she fell on theman with bitter reproaches. "Allah blot out your name, you thief!" shecried. "You've killed the creature, and may you starve and die yourself, you dog of a Nazarene!"

This was more than Israel could listen to, and he commanded the girlto hold her peace. "Silence, you young wanton!" he cried, in a voiceof indignation. "Who are you, that you dare trample on the man in histrouble?"

It turned out that the girl was the man's daughter, and he was arenegade from Ceuta. And when she had gone off, cursing Israel and hisfather and his grandfather, the poor fellow lifted his eyes to Israel'sface, and said, "You are very kind, my father. God bless you! I may notbe a good man, sir, and I've not lived a right life, but it's hard whenyour own children are taught to despise you. Better to lose them intheir cradles, before they can speak to you to curse you. "

Israel's hair seemed to rise from his scalp at that word, and he turnedabout and hurried away. Oh no, no, no! He was not, of all men, the mostsorely tried. Worse to be a slave, torn from the arms he loves! Worse tobe a father whose children join with his enemies to curse him!

He had been wrong. What was wealth, that it was so noble a sacrificeto part with it? Money was to give and to take, to buy and to sell, and that was all. But love was for no market, and he who lost it losteverything. And love was his, and would be his always, for he lovedNaomi, and she clung to him as the hyssop clings to the wall. Let himwalk humbly before God, for God was great. 

Now these sights, though they reduced Israel's pride, increased hischeerfulness, and he was going out at the gate with a humbler yetlighter spirit, when he came upon a saint's house under the shadow ofthe town walls. It was a small whitewashed enclosure, surmounted by awhite flag; and, as Israel passed it, the figure of a man came out tothe entrance. He was a poor, miserable creature--ragged, dirty, and withdishevelled hair--and, seeing Israel's eyes upon him, he began to talkin some wild way and in some unknown tongue that was only a fiercejabber of sounds that had no words in them, and of words that had nomeaning. The poor soul was mad, and because he was distraught he wascounted a holy man among his people, and put to live in this place, which was the tomb of a dead saint--though not more dead to the ways oflife was he who lay under the floor than he who lived above it. Theman continued his wild jabber as long as Israel's eyes were on him, andIsrael dropped two coins into his hand and passed on. 

Oh no, no, no; Naomi was not the most afflicted of all God's creatures. And yet, and yet, and yet, her bodily infirmities were but the type andsign of how her soul was smitten. 

On the hill outside the town the young Mahdi, with a great company ofhis people, was waiting for him to bid him godspeed on his journey. And then, while they walked some paces together before parting, and theprophet talked of the poor followers of Absalam lying in the prison atShawan (for he had heard of them from Israel), Israel himself mentionedNaomi. 

"My father, " he said, "there is something that I have not told you. "

"Tell it now, my son, " said the Mahdi. 

"I have a little daughter at home, and she is very sweet and beautiful. You would never think how like sunshine she is to me in my lonely house, for her mother is gone, and but for her I should be alone, and so she isvery near and dear to me. But she is in the land of silence and in theland of night. Nothing can she see, and nothing hear, and never hasher voice opened the curtains of the air, for she is blind and dumb anddeaf. "

"Merciful Allah!" cried the Mahdi. 

"Ah! is her state so terrible? I thought you would think it so. Yes, forall she is so beautiful, she is only as a creature of the fields thatknows not God. "

"Allah preserve her!" cried the Mahdi. 

"And she is smitten for my sin, for the Lord revealed it to me in thevision, and my soul trembles for her soul. But if God has washed me withwater should not she also be clean?"

"God knows, " said the Mahdi. "He gives no rewards for repentance. "

"But listen!" said Israel. "In a vision of death her mother saw her, andshe was afflicted no more. No, for she could see, and hear, and speak. Man of God, will it come to pass?"

"God is good, " said the Mahdi. "He needs that no man should teach Himpity. "

"But I love her, " cried Israel, "and I vowed to her mother to guard her. She is joy of my joy and life of my life. Without her the morning hasno freshness and the night no rest. Surely the Lord sees this, and willhave mercy?"

The Mahdi held back his tears, and answered, "The Lord sees all. Go yourway in trust. Farewell!"

"Farewell!"

CHAPTER XI

ISRAEL'S HOME-COMING

ISRAEL'S return home was an experience at all points the reverse of hisgoing abroad. He had seven dollars in the pocket of his waistband onsetting away from Fez, out of the three hundred and more with which hehad started from Tetuan. His men had gone on before him and told theirstory. So the people whom he came upon by the way either ignored him orjeered at him, and not one that on his coming had run to do him honournow stepped aside that he might pass. 

Two days after leaving Fez he came again to Wazzan. Women were goinghome from market by the side of their camels, and charcoal-burners wereriding back to the country on the empty burdas of their mules. Itwas nigh upon sunset when Israel entered the town, and so exactlywas everything the same that he could almost have tricked himself andbelieved that scarce two minutes had passed since he had left it. Thereat the fountains were the water-carriers waiting with their water-skins, and there in the market-place sat the women and children with theirdishes of soup; there were the men by the booths with their pipes readycharged with keef, and there was the mooddin in the minaret, lookingout over the plain. Everything was the same save one thing, and thatconcerned Israel himself. No Grand Shereef stood waiting to exchangehorses with him, and no black guard led him through the town. Footsoreand dirty, covered with dust, and tired, he walked through thestreets alone. And when presently the voice rang out overhead, and thebreathless town broke instantly into bubbles of sounds--the tinklingof the bells of the water-carriers, the shouts of the children, and thecalls of the men--only one man seemed to see him and know him. This wasan Arab, wearing scarcely enough rags to cover his nakedness, who wasbathing his hot cheeks in water which a water-carrier was pouring intohis hands, and he lifted his glistening face as Israel passed, andcalled him "Dog!" and "Jew!" and commanded him to uncover his feet. 

Israel slept that night in one of the three squalid fondaks of Wazzaninhabited by the Jews. His room was a sort of narrow box, in a squarecourt of many such boxes, with a handful of straw shaken over the earthfloor for a bed. On the doorpost the figure of a hand was painted inred, and over the lintel there was a rude drawing of a scorpion, with animprecation written under it that purported to be from the mouth ofthe Prophet Joshua, son of Nun. If the charm kept evil spirits from theplace of Israel's rest, it did not banish good ones. Israel slept inthat poor bed as he had never slept under the purple canopy of his ownchamber, and all night long one angel form seemed to hover over him. It was Naomi. He could see her clearly. They were together in a littlecottage somewhere. The house was a mean one, but jasmine and marjoramand pinks and roses grew outside of it, and love grew inside. And Naomi!How bright were her eyes, for they could see! Yes, and her ears couldhear, and her tongue could speak!

Two days after Israel left Wazzan he was back in the bashalic of Tetuan. Each night he had dreamt the same dream, and though he knew each morningwhen he awoke with a sigh that his dream was only a reflection of hisdead wife's vision, yet he could not help but think of it the long daythrough. He tried to remember if he had ever seen the cottage with hiswaking eyes, and where he had seen it, and to recall the voice of Naomias he had heard it in his dream, that he might know if it was the sameas he used to think he heard when he sat by her in his stolen watches ofthe night while she lay asleep. Sometimes when he reflected he thoughthe must be growing childish, so foolish was his joy in looking forwardto the night--for he had almost grown in love with it--that he mightdream his dream again. 

But it was a dear, delicious folly, for it helped him to bear thetroubles of his journey, and they were neither light nor few. Afterpassing through El Kasar he had been robbed and stripped both of hissmall remaining moneys and the better part of his clothes by a gang ofruffians who had followed him out of the town. Then a good woman--theold wife, turned into the servant of a Moor who had married a youngone--had taken pity on his condition and given him a disused Moorishjellab. His misfortune had not been without its advantage. Being forcedto travel the rest of his way home in the disguise of a Moor, he hadheard himself discussed by his own people when they knew nothing of hispresence. Every evil that had befallen them had been attributed to him. Ben Aboo, their Basha, was a good, humane man, who was often driven todo that which his soul abhorred. It was Israel ben Oliel who was theircruel taxmaster. 

When Israel was within a day's journey of Tetuan a terrible scourge fellupon the country. A plague of locusts came up like a dense cloud fromthe direction of the desert, and ate up every leaf and blade of grassthat the scorching sun had left green, so that the plain over which ithad passed was as black and barren as a lava stream. The farmerswere impoverished, and the poorer people made beggars. Even this lastdisaster they charged in their despair to Israel, for Allah was nowcursing them for Israel's sake. They were the same people that hadthrust their presents upon him when he was setting out. 

At the lonesome hut of the old woman who had offered him a bowl ofbuttermilk Israel rested and asked for a drink of water. She gave hima dish of zummetta--barley roasted like coffee--and inquired if hewas going on to Tetuan. He told her yes, and she asked if his home wasthere. And when he answered that it was, she looked at him again, andsaid in a moving way, "Then Allah help you, brother. "

"Why me more than another, sister?" said Israel. 

"Because it is plain to see that you are a poor man, " said the oldwoman. "And that is the sort he is hardest upon. "

Israel faltered and said, "He? Who, mother? Ah, you mean--"

"Who else but Israel the Jew?" said she, and then added, as by a suddenafterthought, "But they say he is gone at last, and the Sultan hasstripped him. Well, Allah send us some one else soon to set right thispoor Gharb of ours! And what a man for poor men he might have been--sowise and powerful!"

Israel listened with his head bent down, and, like a moth at the flame, he could not help but play with the fire that scorched him. "Theytell me, " he said, "that Allah has cursed him with a daughter that hasdevils. "

"Blind and dumb, poor soul, " said the old woman; "but Allah has pity forthe afflicted--he is taking her away. "

Israel rose. "Away?"

"She is ill since her father went to Fez. "

"Ill?"

"Yes, I heard so yesterday--dying. "

Israel made one loud cry like the cry of a beast that is slaughtered, and fled out of the hut. Oh, fool of fools, why had he been dallyingwith dreams--billing and cooing with his own fancies--fondling andnuzzling and coddling them? Let all dreams henceforth be dead and damnedfor ever; for only devils out of hell had made them that poor men'ssouls might be staked and lost! Oh, why had he not remembered the paleface of Naomi when he left her, and the silence of her tongue that hadused to laugh? Fool, fool! Why had he ever left her at all?

With such thoughts Israel hurried along, sometimes running at hisutmost velocity, and then stopping dead short; sometimes shouting hisimprecations at the pitch of his voice and beating his fist against thesharp aloes until it bled, and then whispering to himself in awe. 

Would God not hear his prayer? God knew the child was very near and dearto him, and also that he was a lonely man. "Have pity on a lonely man, O God!" he whispered. "Let me keep my child; take all else that I have, everything, no matter what! Only let me keep her--yes, just as she is, let me have her still! Time was when I asked more of Thee, but now I amhumble, and ask that alone. "

On his knees in a lonesome place, with the fierce sun beating down onhis uncovered head, amid the blackened leaves left by the locust, heprayed this prayer, and then rose to his feet and ran. 

When he got to Tetuan the white city was glistening under the settingsun. Then he thought of his Moorish jellab, and looked at himself, andsaw that he was returning home like a beggar; and he remembered withwhat splendour he had started out. Should he wait for the darkness, andcreep into his house under the cover of it? If the thought had occurredan hour before he must have scouted it. Better to brave the looks ofevery face in Tetuan than be kept back one minute from Naomi. But nowthat he was so near he was afraid to go in; and now that he was so soonto learn the truth he dreaded to hear it. So he walked to and fro on theheath outside the town, paltering with himself, struggling with himself, eating out his heart with eagerness, trying to believe that he waswaiting for the night. 

The night came at length, and, under a deep-blue sky fast whitening withthick stars, Israel passed unknown through the Moorish gate, which wasstill open, and down the narrow lane to the market square. At the gateof the Mellah, which was closed, he knocked, and demanded entrance inthe name of the Kaid. The Moorish guards who kept it fell back at sightof him with looks of consternation. 

"Israel!" cried one, and dropped his lantern. 

Israel whispered, "Keep your tongue between your teeth!" and hurried on. 

At the door of his own house, which was also closed, he knocked again, but more fearfully. The black woman Habeebah opened it cautiously, and, seeing his jellab, she clashed it back in his face. 

"Habeebah!" he cried, and he knocked once more. 

Then Ali came to the door. "What Moorish man are you?" cried Ali, pushing him back as he pressed forward. 

"Ali! Hush! It is I--Israel. "

Then Ali knew him and cried, "God save us! What has happened?"

"What has happened here?" said Israel. "Naomi, " he faltered, "what ofher?"

"Then you have heard?" said Ali. "Thank God, she is now well. "

Israel laughed--his laugh was like a scream. 

"More than that--a strange thing has befallen her since you went away, "said Ali. 

"What?"

"She can hear!"

"It's a lie!" cried Israel, and he raised his hand and struck Ali tothe floor. But at the next minute he was lifting him up and sobbing andsaying, "Forgive me, my brave boy. I was mad, my son; I did not knowwhat I was doing. But do not torture me. If what you tell me is true, there is no man so happy under heaven; but if it is false, there is nofiend in hell need envy me. "

And Ali answered through his tears, "It is true, my father--come andsee. "

CHAPTER XII

THE BAPTISM OF SOUND

WHAT had happened at Israel's house during Israel's absence is a storythat may be quickly told. On the day of his departure Naomi wanderedfrom room to room, seeming to seek for what she could not find, and inthe evening the black women came upon her in the upper chamber where herfather had read to her at sunset, and she was kneeling by his chair andthe book was in her hands. 

"Look at her, poor child, " said Fatimah. "See, she thinks he will comeas usual. God bless her sweet innocent face!"

On the day following she stole out of the house into the town and madeher way to the Kasbah, and Ali found her in the apartments of the wifeof the Basha, who had lit upon her as she seemed to ramble aimlesslythrough the courtyard from the Treasury to the Hall of Justice, and fromthere to the gate of the prison. 

The next day after that she did not attempt to go abroad, and neitherdid she wander through the house, but sat in the same seat constantly, and seemed to be waiting patiently. She was pale and quiet andsilent; she did not laugh according to her wont, and she had a look ofsubmission that was very touching to see. 

"Now the holy saints have pity on the sweet jewel, " said Fatimah. "Howlong will she wait, poor darling?"

On the morning of the day following that her quiet had given place torestlessness, and her pallor to a burning flush of the face. Her handswere hot, her head was feverish, and her blind eyes were bloodshot. 

It was now plain that the girl was ill, and that Israel's fears onsetting out from home had been right after all. And making his ownreckoning with Naomi's condition, Ali went off for the only doctorliving in Tetuan--a Spanish druggist living in the walled lane leadingto the western gate. This good man came to look at Naomi, felt herpulse, touched her throbbing forehead, with difficulty examined hertongue, and pronounced her illness to be fever. He gave some homelydirections as to her treatment--for he despaired of administering drugsto such a one as she was--and promised to return the next day. 

About the middle of that night Naomi became delirious. Fatimah stoodconstantly by her bed, bathing her hot forehead with vinegar and water;Habeebah slept in a chair at her feet; and Ali crouched in a corneroutside the door of her room. 

The druggist came in the morning, according to his promise; butthere was nothing to be done, so he looked wise, wagged his head verysolemnly, and said, "I will come again after two days more, when thefever must be near to its height, and bring a famous leech out ofTangier along with me!"

Meantime, Naomi's delirium continued. It was gentle as her ownspirit tent there was this that was strange and eerie about herunconsciousness--that whereas she had been dumb while her mind in itsdark cell must have been mistress of itself and of her soul, she spokewithout ceasing throughout the time of her reason's vanquishment. Notthat her poor tongue in its trouble uttered speech such as those thatheard could follow and understand, but only a restless babble of emptysounds, yet with tones of varying feeling, sometimes of gladness, sometimes of sorrow, sometimes of remonstrance, and sometimes ofentreaty. 

All that night, and the next night also, the two black women sattogether by her bedside, holding each other's hands like little childrenin great fear. Also Ali crouched again like a dog in the darknessoutside the door, listening in terror to the silvery young voice thathad never echoed in that house before. This was the night when Israel, sleeping at the squalid inn of the Jews of Wazzan, was hearing Naomi'svoice in his dreams. 

At the first glint of daylight in the morning the lad was up and gone, and away through the town-gate to the heath beyond, as far as to thefondak, which stands on the hill above it, that he might strain hiswet eyes in the pitiless sunlight for Israel's caravan that should sooncome. On the first morning he saw nothing, but on the second morning hecame upon Israel's men returning without him, and telling their lyingstory that he had been stripped of everything by the Sultan at Fez, andwas coming behind them penniless. 

Now, Israel was to Ali the greatest, noblest, mightiest man among men. That he should fall was incredible, and that any man should say he hadfallen was an affront and an outrage. So, stripling as he was, the ladfaced the rascals with the courage of a lion. "Liars and thieves!"he cried; "tell that story to another soul in Tetuan, and I will gostraight to the Kaid at the Kasbah, and have every black dog of you allwhipped through the streets for plundering my master. "

The men shouted in derision and passed on, firing their matchlocks as amock salute. But Ali had his will of them; they told their tale nomore, and when they entered Tetuan, and their fellows questioned themconcerning their journey, they took refuge in the reticence that sits byright of nature on the tongues of Moors--they said and knew nothing. 

While Ali was on the heath looking out for Israel, the doctor out ofTangier came to Naomi. The girl was still unconscious, and thewise leech shook his head over her. Her case was hopeless; she wassinking--in plain words, she was dying--and if her father did not comebefore the morrow he would come too late to find her alive. 

Then the black women fell to weeping and wailing, and after that tospiritual conflict. Both were born in Islam, but Fatimah had secretlybecome a Jewess by persuasion of her mistress who was dead. She was, therefore, for sending for the Chacham. But Habeebah had remained aMuslim, and she was for calling the Imam. "The Imam is good, the Imamis holy; who so good and holy as the Imam?" "Nay, but our Sidi holdsnot with the Imam, for our lord is a Jew, and our lord is our master, ourlord is our sultan, our lord is our king. " "Shoof! What is Sidi againstparadise? And paradise is for her who makes a follower of Moosa into afollower of Mohammed. Let but the child die with the Kelmah on herlips, and we are all three blest for ever--otherwise we will burneverlastingly in the fires of Jehinnum. " "But, alack! how can the poorgirl say the Kelmah, being as dumb as the grave?" "Then how can she saythe Shemang either?"

Having heard the verdict of the doctor, Ali returned in hot haste andsilenced both the bondwomen: "The Imam is a villain, and the Chacham isa thief. " There was only one good man left in Tetuan, and that was hisown Taleb, his schoolmaster, the same that had taught him the harpin the days of the Governor's marriage. This person was an old negro, bewrinkled by years, becrippled by ague, once stone deaf, and stillpartially so, half blind, and reputed to be only half wise, a liberatedslave from the Sahara, just able to read the Koran and the Torah, andwilling to teach either impartially, according to his knowledge, for hewas neither a Jew nor a Muslim, but a little of both, as he used to say, and not too much of either. For such a hybrid in a land of intolerancethere must have been no place save the dungeons of the Kasbah, but thatthis good nondescript was a privileged pet of everybody. In his darkcellar, down an alley by the side of the Grand Mosque in the Metamar, he had sat from early morning until sunset, year in year out, throughthirty years on his rush-covered floor, among successive generationsof his boys; and as often as night fell he had gone hither and thitheramong the sick and dying, carrying comfort of kind words, and often meatand drink of his meagre substance. 

Such was Ali's hero after Israel, and now, in Israel's absence and hisown great trouble, he tried away for him. 

"Father, " cried the lad, "does it not say in the good book that theprayer of a righteous man availeth much?"

"It does, my son, " said the Taleb "You have truth. What then?"

"Then if you will pray for Naomi she will recover, " said Ali. 

It was a sweet instance of simple faith. The old black Taleb dismissedhis scholars, closed down his shutter, locked it with a padlock, hobbledto Naomi's bedside in his tattered white selham, looked down at herthrough the big spectacles that sprawled over his broad black nose, andthen, while a dim mist floated between the spectacles and his eyes, anda great lump rose at his throat to choke him, he fell to the floor andprayed, and Ali and the black women knelt beside him. 

The negro's prayer was simple to childishness. It told God everything;it recited the facts to the heavenly Father as to one who was far awayand might not know. The maiden was sick unto death. She had been threedays and nights knowing no one, and eating and drinking nothing. She wasblind and dumb and deaf. Her father loved her and was wrapped up in her. She was his only child, and his wife was dead, and he was a lonely man. He was away from his home now, and if, when he returned, the girl weregone and lost--if she were dead and buried--his strong heart would bebroken and his very soul in peril. 

Such was the Taleb's prayer, and such was the scene of it--the dumbangel of white and crimson turning and tossing on the bed in an aureoleof her streaming yellow hair, and the four black faces about her, eagerand hot and aflame, with closed eyelids and open lips, calling downmercy out of heaven from the God that might be seen by the soul alone. 

And so it was, but whether by chance or Providence let no man dare totell, that even while the four black people were yet on their knees bythe bed, the turning and tossing of the white face stopped suddenly andNaomi lay still on her pillow. The hot flush faded from her cheeks; herfeatures, which had twitched, were quiet; and her hands, which had beenrestless, lay at peace on the counterpane. 

The good old Taleb took this for an answer to his prayer, and he shouted"El hamdu l'Illah!" (Praise be to God), while the big drops coursed downthe deep furrows of his streaming face. And then, as if to completethe miracle, and to establish the old man's faith in it, a strange andwondrous thing befell. First, a thin watery humour flowed from one ofNaomi's ears, and after that she raised herself on her elbow. Her eyeswere open as if they saw; her lips were parted as though they werebreaking into a smile; she made a long sigh like one who has sleptsoftly through the night and has just awakened in the morning. 

Then, while the black people held their breath in their first momentof surprise and gladness, her parted lips gave forth a sound. It wasa laugh--a faint, broken, bankrupt echo of her old happy laughter. Andthen instantly, almost before the others had heard the sound, and whilethe notes of it were yet coming from her tongue, she lifted her idlehand and covered her ear, and over her face there passed a look ofdread. 

So swift had this change been that the bondwomen had not seen it, andthey were shouting "Hallelujah!" with one voice, thinking only thatshe who had been dead to them was alive again. But the old Taleb criedeagerly, "Hush! my children, hush! What is coming is a marvellous thing!I know what it is--who knows so well as I? Once I was deaf, my children, but now I hear. Listen! The maiden has had fever--fever of the brain. Listen! A watery humour had gathered in her head. It has gone, it hasflowed away. Now she will hear. Listen, for it is I that know it--whoknows it so well as I? Yes; she will be no longer deaf. Her ears will beopened. She will hear. Once she was living in a land of silence; nowshe is coming into the land of sound. Blessed be God, for He has wroughtthis wondrous work. God is great! God is mighty! Praise the merciful Godfor ever! El hamdu l'Illah!"

And marvellous and passing belief as the old Taleb's story seemed to be, it appeared to be coming to pass, for even while he spoke, beginning ina slow whisper and going on with quicker and louder breath, Naomi turnedher face full upon him; and when the black women in their ready faith, joined in his shouts of praise, she turned her face towards them also;and wherever a voice sounded in the room she inclined her head towardsit as one who knew the direction of the sounds, and also as one who wasin fear of them. 

But, seeing nothing of her look of pain, and knowing nothing but onething only, and that was the wondrous and mighty change that she who hadbeen deaf could now hear, that she who had never before heard speech nowheard their voices as they spoke around her, Ali, in his frantic delightlaughing and crying together, his white teeth aglitter, and his roundblack face shining with tears, began to shout and to sing, and to dancearound the bed in wild joy at the miracle which God had wrought inanswer to his old Taleb's prayer. No heed did he pay to the Taleb'scries of warning, but danced on and on, and neither did the bondwomensee the old man's uplifted arms or his big lips pursed out in hushes, so overpowered were they with their delight, so startled and so joydrunken. But over their tumult there came a wild outburst of piercingshrieks. They were the cries of Naomi in her blind and sudden terrorat the first sounds that had reached her of human voices. Her facewas blanched, her eyelids were trembling, her lips were restless, hernostrils quivered, her whole being seemed to be overcome by a vertigo ofdread, and, in the horrible disarray of all her sensations her brain, on its wakening from its dolorous sleep of three delirious days, wastottering and reeling at its welcome in this world of noise. 

Then Ali ended suddenly his frantic dance, the bondwomen held theirpeace in an instant, and blank silence in the chamber followed theclamour of tongues. 

It was at this great moment that Israel, returning from his journey inthe jellab of a Moor, knocked like a stranger at his outer door. When heentered the chamber, still clad as a torn and ragged man, too eager toremove the sorry garments which had been given to him on the way, Naomiwas resting against the pillar of the bed. He saw that her countenancewas changed, and that every feature of her face seemed to listen. Nolonger was it as the face of a lamb that is simple and content, neitherwas it as the face of a child that is peaceful and happy; but it was hotand perplexed. Fear sat on her face, and wonder and questioning; andas Fatimah stood by her side, speaking tender words to comfort her, nocheer did she seem to get from them, but only dread, for she drew awayfrom her when she spoke, as though the sound of the voice smote her earswith terror of trouble. All this Israel saw on the instant, and thenhis sight grew dim, his heart beat as if it would kill him, a thickmist seemed to cover everything, and through the dense waves ofsemi-consciousness he heard the dull hum of Fatimah's muffled voicecoming to him as from far away. 

"My pretty Naomi! My little heart! My sweet jewel of gold and silver!It is nothing! Nothing! Look! See! Her father has come back! Her dearfather has come back to her!"

Presently the room ceased to go round and round, and Israel knew thatNaomi's arms surrounded him, that his own arms enlaced her, and that herhead was pressed hard against his bosom. Yes, it was she! It was Naomi!Ali had told him truth. She lived! She was well! She could hear! The oldhope that had chirped in his soul was justified, and the dear deliciousdream was come true. Oh! God was great, God was good, God had given himmore than he had asked or deserved!

Thus for some minutes he stood motionless, blessing the God of Jacob, yet uttering no words, for his heart was too full for speech, onlyholding Naomi closely to him, while his tears fell on her blind face. And the black people in the chamber wept to see it, that not more dumbin that great hour of gladness was she who was born so than he to whosehouse had come the wonderful work that God had wrought. 

No heed had Israel given yet to the bodeful signs in Naomi's face, injoy over such as were joyful. When he had taken her in his arms she hadknown him, and she had clung to him in her glad surprise. But when shecontinued to lie on his bosom it was not only because he was her fatherand she loved him, and because he had been lost to her and was found, itwas also because he alone was silent of all that were about her. 

When he saw this his heart was humbled; but he understood her fears, that, coming out of a land of great silence, where the voice of manwas never heard, where the air was songless as the air of dreams anddarkling as the air of a tomb, her soul misgave her, and her spirittrembled in a new world of strange sounds. For what was the ear but alittle dark chamber, a vault, a dungeon in a castle, wherein the soulwas ever passing to and fro, asking for news of the world without?Through seventeen dark and silent years the soul of Naomi had beenpassing and repassing within its beautiful tabernacle of flesh, cryingdaily and hourly, "Watchman, what of the world?" At length it had foundan answer, and it was terrified. The world had spoken to her soul andits voice was like the reverberations of a subterranean cavern, strangeand deep and awful. 

In that first moment of Israel's consciousness after he entered theroom, all four black folks seemed to be speaking together. 

Ali was saying, "Father, those dogs and thieves of tentmen and muleteersreturned yesterday, and said--"

And the bondwomen were crying, "Sidi, you were right when you wentaway!" "Yes, the dear child was ill!" "Oh, how she missed you whenyou were gone. " "She has been delirious, and the doctor, the son ofTetuan--"

And the old Taleb was muttering, "Master, it is all by God's mercy. Weprayed for the life of the maiden, and lo! He has given us this gatewayto her spirit as well. "

Then Israel saw that as their voices entered the dark vault of Naomi'sears they startled and distressed her. So, to pacify her, he motionedthem out of the chamber. They went away without a word. The reason ofNaomi's fears began to dawn upon them. An awe seemed to be cast over herby the solemnity of that great moment. It was like to the birth-momentof a soul. 

And when the black people were gone from the room, Israel closed thedoor of it that he might shut out the noises of the streets, for womenwere calling to their children without, and the children were stillshouting in their play. This being done, he returned to Naomi and restedher head against his bosom and soothed her with his hand, and she puther arms about his neck and clung to him. And while he did so his heartyearned to speak to her, and to see by her face that she could hear. Let it be but one word, only one, that she might know her father'svoice--for she had never once heard it--and answer it with a smile. 

"Daughter! My dearest! My darling. "

Only this, nothing more! Only one sweet word of all the unspokentenderness which, like a river without any outlet, had been seventeenyears dammed up in his breast. But no, it could not be. He must notspeak lest her face should frown and her arms be drawn away. To see thatwould break his heart. Nevertheless, he wrestled with the temptation. It was terrible. He dared not risk it. So he sat on the bed in silence, hardly moving, scarcely breathing--a dust-laden man in a ragged jellab, holding Naomi in his arms. 

It was still the month of Ramadhan, and the sun was but three hours set. In the fondak called El Oosaa, a group of the town Moors, who had fastedthrough the day, were feasting and carousing. Over the walls of theMellah, from the direction of the Spanish inn at the entrance to thelittle tortuous quarter of the shoemakers, there came at intervals ahubbub of voices, and occasionally wild shouts and cries. The day wasWednesday, the market-day of Tetuan, and on the open space called theFeddan many fires were lighted at the mouths of tents, and men andwomen and children--country Arabs and Barbers--were squatting around thecharcoal embers eating and drinking and talking and laughing, while theruddy glow lit up their swarthy faces in the darkness. But presently thewing of night fell over both Moorish town and Mellah; the traffic of thestreets came to an end; the "Balak" of the ass-driver was no more heard, the slipper of the Jew sounded but rarely on the pavement, the fires onthe Feddan died out, the hubbub of the fondak and the wild shouts of theshoemakers' quarter were hushed, and quieter and more quiet grew the airuntil all was still. 

At the coming of peace Naomi's fears seemed to abate. Her clinging armsreleased their hold of her father's neck, and with a trembling sigh shedropped back on to the pillow. And in this hour of stillness shewould have slept; but even while Israel was lifting up his heart inthankfulness to God, that He was making the way of her great journeyeasy out of the land of silence into the land of speech, a storm brokeover the town. Through many hot days preceding it had been gathering inthe air, which had the echoing hollowness of a vault. It was loud andlong and terrible. First from the direction of Marteel, over the fourmiles which divide Tetuan from the coast, came the warning which the seasends before trouble comes to the land--a deep moan as of waters fallingfrom the sky. Next came the moan of the wind down the valley that openson the gate called the Bab el Marsa, and along the river that flows tothe port. Then came the roll of thunder, like a million cannons, downthe gorges of the Reef mountains and across the plain that stretchesfar away to Kitan. Last of all, the black clouds of the sky emptiedthemselves over the town, and the rain fell in floods on the roof of thehouse and on the pavement of the patio, and leapt up again in great louddrops, making a noise to the ear like to the tramp, tramp, tramp of ahidden multitude. Thus sound after sound broke over the darkness of thenight in a thousand awful voices, now near, now far, now loud, nowlow, now long, now short, now rising, now falling, now rushing, nowrunning--a mighty tumult and a fearsome anarchy. 

At last Naomi's terror was redoubled. Every sound seemed to smite herbody as a blow. Hitherto she had known one sense only, the sense oftouch, and though now she knew the sense of hearing also, she continuedto refer all sensations to feeling. At the sound of the sea she put outher arms before her; at the sound of the wind she buried her face inher palms; and at the sound of the thunder she lifted her hands as if toprotect her head. 

Meanwhile, Israel sat beside her and cherished her close at his bosom. He yearned to speak words of comfort to her, soft words of cheer, tenderwords of love, gentle words of hope. 

"Be not afraid, my daughter! It is only the wind, it is only the rain;it is only the thunder. Once you loved to run and race in them. Theyshall not harm you, for God is good, and He will keep you safe. There, there, my little heart! See, your father is with you. He will guard you. Fear not, my child, fear not!"

Such were the words which Israel yearned to speak in Naomi's ears, but, alas! what words could she understand any more than the wind whichmoaned about the house and the thunder which rolled overhead? And againand again, alas! as surely as he spoke to her she must shrink from thesolace of his voice even as she shrank from the tumult of the voices ofthe storm. 

Israel fell back helpless and heartbroken. He began to see in itsfulness the change which had befallen Naomi, yet not at once to realiseit, so sudden and so numbing was the stroke. He began to know that withthe mighty blessing for which he had hoped and prayed--the blessing of apathway to his daughter's soul--a misfortune had come as well. What wasit to him now that Naomi had ears to hear if she could not understand?And what was this tempest to the maiden new-born out of the land ofsilence into the world of sound, yet still both blind and dumb, buta circle of darkness alive with creatures that groaned and cried andshrieked and moved around her?

Thus nothing could Israel do but watch the creeping of Naomi's terror, and smooth her forehead and chafe her hands. And this he did, until atlength, in a fresh outbreak of the storm, when the vault of the heavensseemed rent asunder, a strong delirium took hold of her, and she fellinto a long unconsciousness. Then Israel held back his heart no longer, but wept above her, and called to her, and cried aloud upon her name--

"Naomi! Naomi! My poor child! My dearest! Hear me! It is nothing!nothing! Listen! It is gone! Gone!"

With such passionate cries of love and sorrow; Israel gave vent to hissoul in its trouble. And while Naomi lay in her unconsciousness, he knewnot what feelings possessed him, for his heart was in a great turmoil. Desolate! desolate! All was desolate! His high-built hopes were inashes!

Sometimes he remembered the days when the child knew no sorrow, and whengrief came not near her, when she was brighter than the sun which shecould not see and sweeter than the songs which she could not hear, whenshe was joyous as a bird in its narrow cage and fretted not at thebars which bound her, when she laughed as she braided her hair and camedancing out of her chamber at dawn. And remembering this, he looked downat her knitted face, and his heart grew bitter, and he lifted up hisvoice through the tumult of the storm, and cried again on the God ofJacob, and rebuked Him for the marvellous work which He had wrought. 

If God were an almighty God, surely He looked before and after, andforesaw what must come to pass. And, foreseeing and knowing all, why hadGod answered his prayer? He himself had been a fool. Why had he cravedGod's pity? Once his poor child was blither than the panther of thewilderness and happier than the young lamb that sports in springtime. Ifshe was blind, she knew not what it was to see; and if she was deaf, sheknew not what it was to hear; and if she was dumb, she knew not what itwas to speak. Nothing did she miss of sight or sound or speech any morethan of the wings of the eagle or the dove. Yet he would not be content;he would not be appeased. Oh! subtlety of the devil which had broughtthis evil upon him!

But the God whom Israel in his agony and his madness rebuked in thismanner sent His angel to make a great silence, and the storm lapsed to abreathless quiet. 

And when the tempest was gone Naomi's delirium passed away. She seemedto look, and nothing could she see; and then to listen, and nothingcould she hear; and then she clasped the hand of her father that layover her hand, and sighed and sank down again. 

"Ah!"

It was even as if peace had come to her with the thought that she wasback in the land of great silence once again, and that the voiceswhich had startled her, and the storm which had terrified her, had beennothing but an evil dream. 

In that sweet respite she fell asleep, and Israel forgot the reproacheswith which he had reproached his God, and looked tenderly down at her, and said within himself, "It was her baptism. Now she will walk theworld with confidence, and never again will she be afraid. Truly theLord our God is king over all kingdoms and wise beyond all wisdom!"

Then, with one look backward at Naomi where she slept, he crept out ofthe room on tiptoe. 

CHAPTER XIII

NAOMI'S GREAT GIFT

With the coming of the gift of hearing, the other gifts with which Naomihad been gifted in her deafness, and the strange graces with which shehad been graced, seemed suddenly to fall from her as a garment when shedisrobed. 

It seemed as though her old sense of touch had become confused by hernew sense of hearing, She lost her way in her father's house, and thoughshe could now hear footsteps, she did not appear to know who approached. They led her into the street, into the Feddan, into the walled lane tothe great gate, into the steep arcades leading to the Kasbah; and nomore as of old did she thread her way through the people, seeming to seethem through the flesh of her face and to salute them with the laugh onher lips, but only followed on and on with helpless footsteps. They tookher to the hill above the battery, and her breath came quick as she trodthe familiar ways; but when she was come to the summit, no longer didshe exult in her lofty place and drink new life from the rush of mightywinds about her, but only quaked like a child in terror as she faced theworld unseen beneath and hearkened to the voices rising out of it, andheard the breeze that had once laved her cheeks now screaming in herears. They gave Ali's harp into her hands, the same that she had playedso strangely at the Kasbah on the marriage of Ben Aboo; but never againas on that day did she sweep the strings to wild rhapsodies of soundsuch as none had heard before and none could follow, but only touchedand fumbled them with deftless fingers that knew no music. 

She lost her old power to guide her footsteps and to minister to herpleasures and to cherish her affections. No longer did she seem tocommunicate with Nature by other organs than did the rest of the humankind. She was a radiant and joyous spirit maid no more, but only abeautiful blind girl, a sweet human sister that was weak and faint. 

Nevertheless, Israel recked nothing of her weakness, for joy at the lossof those powers over which his enemies throughout seventeen evil yearshad bleated and barked "Beelzebub!" And if God in His mercy had takenthe angel out of his house, so strangely gifted, so strangely joyful, He had given him instead, for the hunger of his heart as a man, a sweethuman daughter, however helpless and frail. 

Thus in the first days of Naomi's great change Israel was content. Butday by day this contentment left him, and he was haunted by strangesinkings of the heart. Naomi's frailty appeared to be not only of thebody but also of the spirit. It seemed as if her soul had suddenlyfallen asleep. She betrayed neither joy nor sorrow. No sound escaped herlips; no thought for herself or for others seemed to animate her. Sheneither laughed nor wept. When Israel kissed her pale brow, she did notstretch out her arms as she had done before to draw down his head to herlips. Calmly, silently, sadly, gracefully, she passed from day to day, without feeling and without thought--a beautiful statue of flesh andblood. 

What God was doing with her slumbering spirit then, only He Himselfknows; but the time of her awakening came, and with it came her firstdelight in the new gift with which God had gifted her. 

To revive her spirits and to quicken her memory, Israel had taken her towalk in the fields outside the town where she had loved to play in herchildhood--the wild places covered with the peppermint and the pink, thethyme, the marjoram, and the white broom, where she had gathered flowersin the old times, when God had taught her. The day was sweet, for it wasthe cool of the morning, the air was soft, and the wind was gentle, andunder the shady trees the covert of the reeds lay quiet. And whitherNaomi would, thither they had wandered, without object and withoutdirection. 

On and on, hand in hand, they had walked through the winding pathsof the oleander, between the creeping fences of the broom, and thesprawling limbs of the prickly pear, until they came to a stream, atributary of the Marteel, trickling down from the wild heights of theAkhmas, over the light pebbles of its narrow bed. And there--but by whatimpulse or what chance Israel never knew--Naomi had withdrawn her handfrom his hand; and at the next moment, in scarcely more time than ittook him to stoop to the ground and rise again, suddenly as if she hadsunk into the earth, or been lifted into the sky, Naomi disappeared fromhis sight. 

Israel pushed the low boughs apart, expecting to find her by his side, but she was nowhere near. He called her by her name, thinking she wouldanswer with the only language of her lips, the old language of herlaugh. 

"Naomi! Naomi! Come, come, my child, where are you?"

But no sound came back to him. 

Again he called, not as before in a tone of remonstrance, but with avoice of fear. 

"Naomi, Naomi! Where are you? where? where?"

Then he listened and waited, yet heard nothing, neither her laugh northe rustle of her robe, nor the light beat of her footstep. 

Nevertheless, she had passed over the grass from the spot where she hadleft him, without waywardness or thought of evil, only missing his handand trying to recover it, then becoming afraid and walking rapidly, until the dense foliage between them had hidden her from sight anddeadened the sound of his voice. 

Opening a way between the long leaves of an aloe, Israel found her atlength in the place whereto she had wandered. It was a short bend of thebrook, where dark old trees overshadowed the water with forest gloom. She was seated on the trunk of a fallen oak, and it seemed as if she hadsat herself down to weep in her dumb trouble, for her blind eyes werestill wet with tears. The river was murmuring at her feet; an oldolive-tree over her head was pattering with its multitudinous tongues;the little family of a squirrel was chirping by her side, and one tinycreature of the brood was squirling up her dress; a thrush was swingingitself on the low bough of the olive and singing as it swung, and asheep of solemn face--gaunt and grim and ancient--was standing andpalpitating before her. Bees were humming, grasshoppers were buzzing, the light wind was whispering, and cattle were lowing in the distance. The air of that sweet spot in that sweet hour was musical with everysweet sound of the earth and sky, and fragrant with all the wild odoursof the wood. 

"My darling, " cried Israel in the first outburst of his relief, and thenhe paused and looked at her again. 

The wet eyes were open, and they appeared to see, so radiant was thelight that shone in them. A tender smile played about her mouth; herhead was held forward; her nostrils quivered; and her cheeks wereflushed. She had pushed her hat back from her head, and her yellow hairhad fallen over her neck and breast. One of her hands covered one ear, and the other strayed among the plants that grew on the bank beside her. She seemed to be listening intently, eagerly, rapturously. A rare andradiant joy, a pure and tender delight, appeared to gush out of herbeautiful face. It was almost as though she believed that everything sheheard with the great new gift which God had given her was speaking toher, and bidding her welcome and offering her love; as if the garrulousold olive over her head were stretching down his arms to sport with herhair, and pattering; "Kiss me, little one! kiss me, sweet one! kissme! kiss me!"--as if the rippling river at her feet were laughing andcrying, "Catch me, naked feet! catch me, catch me!" as if the thrushon the bough were singing, "Where from, sunny locks? where from? wherefrom?"--as if the young squirrel were chirping, "I'm not afraid, notafraid, not afraid!" and as if the grey old sheep were breathing slowly, "Pat me, little maiden! you may, you may!"

"God bless her beautiful face!" cried Israel. "She listens with everyfeature and every line of it. "

It was the awakening of her soul to the soul of music, and from that dayforward she took pleasure in all sweet and gentle sounds whatsoever--inthe voices of children at play--in the bleat of the goat--in thefootsteps of them she loved--in the hiss and whirr of her mother's oldspinning-wheel, which now she learned to work--and in Ali's harp, whenhe played it in the patio in the cool of the evening. 

But even as no eye can see how the seed which has been sown in theground first dies and then springs into life, so no tongue can tell whatchange was wrought in the pure soul of Naomi when, after her baptism ofsound, the sweet voices of earth first entered it. Neither she herselfnor any one else ever fully realised what that change was, for it was abeautiful and holy mystery. It was also a great joy, and she seemed togive herself up to it. No music ever escaped her, and of all human musicshe took most pleasure in the singing of love songs. These she listenedto with a simple and rapt delight; their joy seemed to answer to herjoy, and the joyousness of a song of love seemed to gather in the airwheresoever she went. 

There were few of the kind she ever heard, and few of that few werebeautiful, and none were beautifully sung. Fatimah's homely ditties wereall she knew, the same that had been crooned to her a thousand timeswhen she had not heard. Most of these were songs of the desert and thecaravan, telling of musk and ambergris, and odorous locks and dancingcypress, and liquid ruby, and lips like wine; and some were warm taleswhich the good soul herself hardly understood, of enchanting beautieswhose silence was the door of consent, and of wanton nymphs whose lovetore the veil of their chastity. 

But one of them was a song of pure and true passion that seemed to bethe yearning cry of a hungering, unfilled, unsatisfied heart to calldown love out of the skies, or else be carried up to it. This had been afavourite song of Naomi's mother, and it was from Ruth that Fatimah hadlearned it in those anxious watches of the early uncertain days when shesang it over the cradle to her babe that was deaf after all and did nothear. Naomi knew nothing of this, but she heard her mother's song atlast, though silent were the lips that first sang it, and it was herchief and dear delight. 

 O, where is Love? Where, where is Love? Is it of heavenly birth? Is it a thing of earth? Where, where is Love?

In her crazy, creechy voice the black woman would sing the song, whenIsrael was out of hearing; and the joy Naomi found in it, and the simplesilent arts she used, being mute and blind, to show her pleasure whileit lasted, and to ask for it again when it was done, were very sweet andtouching. 

And so it came about at last, that even as the human mother lovesthat child most among many children that most is helpless, so theearth-mother of Naomi made her ears more keen because her eyes wereblind. Thus she seemed to hear many things that are unheard by the restof the human family. It is only a dim echo of the outer world that theears of men are allowed to hear, just as it is only a dim shadow of theouter world that the eyes of men are allowed to see; but the ears ofNaomi seemed to hear all. 

There is one hearing of men, and another hearing of the beasts, and athird of the birds, and one hearing differs from another in keennesseven as one sight differs from another in strength. And all the earthis full of voices, and everything that moves upon the face of it has itssound; but the bird hears that which is unheard of the beast, and thebeast hears that which is unheard of men. But Naomi appeared to hear allthat is heard of each. 

Listening hour after hour, listening always, listening only, withnothing that she could do but listen, nothing moved on the ground butshe dropped her face, and nothing flew in the sky but she lifted hereyes. And whereas before the coming of her great gift her face had beenall feeling, and she seemed to feel the sunset, and to feel the sky, andto feel the thunder and the light, now her face was all hearing, andher whole body seemed to hear, for she was like a living soul floatingalways in a sea of sound. 

Thus, day after day, she was busy in her silence and in her darkness, building up notions of man and of the world by the new gift with whichGod had gifted her; but what strange thing the earth was to her then, what the sun was with its warmth, and what the sea was with its roar, and what the face of man was, and the eyes of woman, none could know, and neither could she tell, for her soul was not linked to othersouls--soul to soul, in the chains of speech. 

And for all that she could not answer; yet Israel did not forget that, beside the sounds of earth and sky, Naomi was hearing words, and thatwords had wings, and were alive, and, for good or ill, made their markon the soul that listened to them. So he continued to read to her out ofthe Book of the Law, day after day at sunset, according to his wont andcustom. And when an evil spirit seemed to make a mock at him, and tosay, "Fool! she hears, but does she understand?" he remembered how hehad read to her in the days of her deafness, and he said to himself, "Shall I have less faith now that she can hear?"

But, though he turned his back on the temptation to let go of Naomi'ssoul at last, yet sometimes his heart misgave him; for when he spoke toher it seemed to him that he was like a man that shouts into a cavernand gets back no answer but the sound of his own voice. If he told herof the sky, that it was broad as the ocean, what could she see of thegreat deeps to measure them? And if he told her of the sea, that it wasgreen as the fields, what could she see of the grass to know its colour?And sometimes as he spoke to her it smote him suddenly that the wordsthemselves which he used to speak with were no more to Naomi than thenotes which Ali struck from his dead harp, or the bleat of the goat ather feet. 

Nevertheless, his faith was great, and he said in his heart, "Let theLord find His own way to her spirit. " So he continued to speak withher as often as he was near her, telling her of the little things thatconcerned their household, as well as of the greater things it was goodfor her soul to know. 

It was a touching sight--the lonely man, the outcast among his people, talking with his daughter though she was blind and dumb, telling her ofGod, of heaven, of death and resurrection, strong in his faith that hiswords would not fail, but that the casket of her soul would be openedto receive them, and that they would lie within until the great day ofjudgment, when the Lord Himself would call for them. 

Did Naomi hear his words to understand them, or did they fall dead onher ear like birds on a dead sea? In her darkness and her silence wasshe putting them together, comparing them, interpreting them, ponderingthem, imitating them, gathering food for her mind from them, and solacefor her spirit? Israel did not know; and, watch her face as he would, he could never learn. Hope! Faith! Trust! What else was left to him? Heclung to all three, he grappled them to him; they were his sheet-anchorand his pole-star. But one day they seemed to be his calenture also--thefalse picture of green fields and sweet female faces that rises beforethe eye of the sailor becalmed at sea. 

It was some three weeks after his return from his journey, and thefierce blaze of the sun continued. The storm that had broken over thetown had left no results of coolness or moisture, for the ground hadbeen baked hard, and the rain had been too short and swift to penetrateit. And what the withering heat had spared of green leaf and shrub adeadlier blight had swept away. The locusts had lately come up fromthe south and the east, in numbers exceeding imagination, millions onmillions, making the air dark as they passed and obscuring the bluesky. They had swept the country of its verdure, and left a trail ofdesolation behind them. The grass was gone, the bark of the olives andalmonds was stripped away, and the bare trees had the look of winter. 

The first to feel the plague had been the cattle and beasts of burden. Without food to eat or water to drink they had died in hundreds. AMukabar, a cemetery, was made for the animals outside the walls of thetown. It was a charnel yard on the hill-side, near to one of the town'ssix gates. The dead creatures were not buried there, but merely cast onthe bare ground to rot and to bleach in the sun and the heated wind. Itwas a horrible place. 

The skinny dogs of the town soon found it. And after these scavengersof the East had torn the putrefying flesh and gnawed the multitude ofbones, they prowled around the country, with tongues lolling out, insearch of water. By this time there was none that they could come atnearer than the sea, and that was salt. Nevertheless, they lapped it, soburning was their thirst, and went mad, and came back to the town. Thenthe people hunted them and killed them. 

Now, it chanced that a mad dog from the Mukabar was being hunted todeath on a day when Naomi, who had become accustomed to the tumult ofthe streets, had first ventured out in them alone, save for her goat, that went before her. The goat was grown old, but it was still herconstant companion and also it was now her guide and guardian, for thelittle dumb creature seemed to know that she was frail and helpless. Andso it was that she was crossing the Sok el Foki, a market of the town, and hearkening only to the patter of the feet of the goat going infront, when suddenly she heard a hundred footsteps hurrying towards her, with shouts and curses that were loud and deep. She stood in fear on thespot where she was, and no eyes had she to see what happened next, andshe had none save the goat to tell her. 

But out of one of the dark arcades on the left, leading downward fromthe hill, the mad dog came running, before a multitude of men and boys. And flying in its despair, it bit out wildly at whatever lay in its way, and Naomi, in her blindness, stood straight in front of it. Then shemust have fallen before it, but instantly the goat flung itself acrossthe dog's open jaws, and butted at its foaming teeth, and sent up shrillcries of terror. 

The dog stopped a moment, for such love was human, and it seemed as ifthe madness of the monster shrank before it. But the people came downwith their wild shouts and curses, and the dog sprang upon the goat andfelled it, and fled away. The people followed it, and then Naomi wasalone in the market-place, and the goat lay at her feet. 

Ali found her there, and brought her home to her father's house in theMellah, and her dying champion with her. And out of this hard chance, and not out of Israel's teaching, Naomi was first to learn what life isand what is death. She felt the goat with her hands, and as she did soher fingers shook. Then she lifted it to its feet, and when they slippedfrom under it she raised her white face in wonder. Again she lifted it, and made strange noises at its ear; but when it did not answer with itsbleat her lips began to tremble. Then she listened for its breathing, and felt for its breath; but when neither the one came to her ear, northe other to her cheek, her own breath beat hot and fast. At length shefondled it in her arms, and kissed it with her lips; and when it gaveback no sign of motion nor any sound of voice, a wild labouring roseat her heart. At last, when the power of life was low in it, the goatopened its heavy eyes upon her and put forth its tongue and licked herhand. With that last farewell the brave heart of the little creaturebroke, and it stretched itself and died. 

Israel saw it all. His heart bled to see the parting in silence betweenthose two, for not more dumb was the goat that now was dead than thehuman soul that was left alive. He tried to put the goat from Naomi'sarms, saying, "It was only a goat, my child; think of it no more, "though it smote him with pain to say it, for had not the creature givenits life for her life? And where, O God, was the difference betweenthem? But Naomi clung to the goat, and her throat swelled and her bosomfluttered, and her whole body panted, and it was almost as if her soulwere struggling to burst through the bonds that bound it, that she mightspeak and ask and know. 

"Oh, what does it mean? Why is it? Why? Why?"

Such were the questions that seemed ready to break from her tongue. And, thinking to answer her, Israel drew her to him and said, "It is dead, mychild--the goat is dead. "

But as he spoke that word he saw by her face, as by a flash of light ina dark place, that, often as he had told her of death, never until thathour had she known what it was. Then, if the words that he had spokenof death had carried no meaning, what could he hope of the words thathe had spoken of life, and of the little things which concerned theirhousehold? And if Naomi had not heard the words he had said of these--ifshe had not pondered and interpreted them--if they had fallen on her earonly as voices in a dark cavern--only as dead birds on a dead sea--whatof the other words, the greater words, the words of the Book of the Lawand the Prophets, the words of heaven and of the resurrection and of God?

Had the hope of his heart been vanity? Did Naomi know nothing? Was hergreat gift a mockery?

Israel's feet were set in a slippery place. Why had he boasted himselfof God's mercy? What were ears to hear to her that could not understand?Only a torment, a terror, a plague, a perpetual desolation! When Naomihad heard nothing she had known nothing, and never had her spirit askedand cried in vain. Now she was dumb for the first time, being no longerdeaf. Miserable man that he was, why had the Lord heard his supplicationand why had He received his prayer?

But, repenting of such reproaches, in memory of the joy that Naomi's newgift had given her, he called on God to give her speech as well. 

"Give her speech, O Lord!" he cried, "speech that shall lift her abovethe creatures of the field, speech whereby alone she may ask and know!Give her speech, O God my God, and Thy servant will be satisfied!"

CHAPTER XIV

ISRAEL AT SHAWAN

AFTER Israel's return from his journey he had followed the precepts ofthe young Mahdi of Mequinez. Taking a view of his situation, that by hishardness of heart in the early days, and by base submission to the willof Katrina, the Kaid's Christian wife, in the later ones, he had filledthe land with miseries, he now spared no cost to restore what he hadunjustly extorted. So to him that had paid double in the taxings he hadreturned double--once for the tax and once for the excess; and if anyman, having been unjustly taxed for the Kaid's tribute, had givenbond on his lands for his debt and been cast into the Kasbah anddied, without ransoming them, then to his children he had returnedfourfold--double for the lands and double for the death. Israel had donethis continually, and said nothing to Ben Aboo, but paid all charges outof his own purse, so that from being a rich man he had fallen withina month to the condition of a poor one, for what was one man's wealthamong so many? Yet no goodwill had he won thereby, but only pity andcontempt, for the people that had taken his money had thanked the Kaidfor it, who, according to their supposals, had called on him to correctwhat he had done amiss. And with Ben Aboo himself he had fared nobetter, for the Basha was provoked to anger with him when he heard fromKatrina of the good money that he had been casting away in pity for thepoor. 

"What have I told you a score of times?" said the woman. "That man hasmints of money. "

"My money, burn his grandfather, " said Ben Aboo. 

Thus, on every side Israel had fallen in the world's reckoning. When helifted his hand from off that plough wherewith he had done the devil'swork, he had made many enemies, and such as he had before he had mademore powerful. People who had showed him lip-service when he was thoughtto be rich did not conceal the joy they had that he was brought downso near to be a beggar. Upstarts, who owed their promotion to hisintercession, found in his charities an easy handle given them to beinsolent, for, by carrying to Katrina their secret messages of his mercyto the people, they brought things at length to such a pass between himand the Kaid that Ben Aboo openly upbraided Israel for his weakness, notonce or twice but many times. 

"And pray what is this I hear of your fine charities, master Israel?"said Ben Aboo. "Ah, do not look surprised. There are little birds enoughto twitter of such follies. So you are throwing away silver like bonesto the dogs! Pity you've got too much of it, Israel ben Oliel; pityyou've got too much of it, I say. "

"The people are poor, Lord Basha, " said Israel; "they are famishing, andthey have no refuge save with God and with us. "

"Tut!" cried Ben Aboo. "A famine in my bashalic! Let no man dare to sayso. The whining dogs are preying upon your simpleness, mistress Israel. You poor old grandmother! I always suspected, " he added, facing aboutupon his attendants, "I always suspected that I was served by a woman. Now I am sure of it. "

Israel felt the indignity. He had given good proof of his manhood in thepast by standing five-and-twenty years scapegoat for Ben Aboo betweenhim and his people, making him rich by his extortions, keeping him safein his seat, and thereby saving him from the wooden jellab which Abder-Rahman, the Sultan, kept for Kaids that could not pay. But Israelmastered his anger and held his peace. 

Word went through the town that Israel had fallen from the favour ofthe Basha, and then some of the more bold and free laughed at him inthe streets when they saw him relieve the miseries of the poor, thinkinghimself accountable to God for their sufferings. He could have crushedthe better part of his insulters to death in his brawny arms, but he wasslow to anger and long-suffering. All the heed he paid to their insultswas to do his good work with more secrecy. 

Remembering his Moorish jellab, and how effectually it had disguisedhim on the night of his return home, he had recourse to it in thisdifficulty. When darkness fell he donned it again, drawing the hood welldown over his black Jewish skull-cap and as far as might be over hisface. In this innocent disguise he went out night after night for manynights among the poorer Moors that lived in the dismal quarters of thegrain markets near the Bab Ramooz. How he bore himself being there, with what harmless deceptions he unburdened his soul by stealth, whatguileless pretences he made that he might restore to the poor the moneythat had been stolen from them, would be a long story to tell. 

"Who are you?" he was asked a hundred times. 

"A friend, " he answered

"Who told you of our trouble?"

"Allah has angels, " he would reply. 

Often, on his nightly rambles, he heard himself reviled, and saw thevery children of the streets spit over their fingers at the mentionof his name. And sometimes as he passed he heard blind people whispertogether and say, "He is a saint. He comes from the Kabar at nightfall. Allah sends him to help poor men who have been in the clutches of Israelthe Jew. "

Nevertheless, Israel kept his secret. What did the word of man avail forgood or evil? It would count for nothing at the last. Do justice and asknought; neither praise, for it was a wayward wind, nor gratitude, for itwas the breath of angels. 

One day, about a month after his return from his journey, when hewas near to the end of his substance, a message came to him that thefollowers of Absalam were perishing of hunger in their prison at Shawan. Their relatives in Tetuan had found them in food until now, but theplague of the locust had fallen on the bread-winners, and they had nomore bread to send. Israel concluded that it was his duty to succourthem. From a just view of his responsibilities he had gone on to amorbid one. If in the Judgment the blood of the people of Absalam criedto God against him, he himself, and not Ben Aboo, would be cast out intohell. 

Israel juggled with his heart no further, but straightway began to takea view of his condition. Then he saw, to his dismay, that little as hehad thought he possessed, even less remained to him out of the wreck ofhis riches. Only one thing he had still, but that was a thing so dear tohis heart that he had never looked to part with it. It was the casketof his dead wife's jewels. Nevertheless, in his extremity he resolved tosell it now, and, taking the key, he went up to the room where he keptit--a closet that was sacred to the relics of her who lay in his heartfor ever, but in his house no more. 

Naomi went up with him, and when he had broken the seal from thedoorpost, and the little door creaked back on its hinge, the ashy odourcame out to them of a chamber long shut up. It was just as if the buriedair itself had fallen in death to dust, for the dust of the years layon everything. But under its dark mantle were soft silks and delicateshawls and gauzy haiks, and veils and embroidered sashes and light redslippers, and many dainty things such as women love. And to him thatcame again after ten heavy years they were as a dream of her that hadworn them when she was young that now was dead when she was beautifulthat now was in the grave. 

"Ah me, ah me! Ruth! My Ruth!" he murmured. "This was her shawl. Ibrought it from Wazzan. . . . And these slippers--they came from Rabat. Poor girl, poor girl! . . . . This sash, too, it used to be yellow andwhite. How well I remember the first time she wore it! She had put itover her head for a hood, pretending to be a Moorish woman. But herbrown curls fell out over her face, or she could not imprison them. Andthen she laughed. My poor dear girl. How happy we were once in spite ofeverything! It is all like yesterday. When I think Ah no, I must thinkno more, I must think no more. "

Israel had little heart for such visions, so he turned to the casket ofthe jewels where it stood by the wall. With trembling hands he took itand opened it, and here within were necklaces and bracelets, and ringsand earrings, glistening of gold and rubies under their covering ofdust. He lifted them one by one over his wrinkled fingers, and looked atthem while his eyes grew wet. 

"Not for myself, " he murmured, "not for myself would I have sold them, not for bread to eat or water to drink; no, not for a wilderness ofworlds!"

All this time he had given little thought to Naomi, where she stoodby his side, but in her darkness and silence she touched the silks andlooked serious, and the slippers and looked perplexed, and now at thejingling of the jewels she stretched out her hand and took one ofthem from her father's fingers, and feeling it, and finding it to be anecklace, she clasped it about her neck and laughed. 

At the sound of her laughter Israel shook like a reed. It brought backthe memory of the day when she danced to her mother's death, decked inthat same necklace and those same ornaments. More on this head Israelcould not think and hold to his purpose, so he took the jewels fromNaomi's neck and returned them to the casket, and hastened away with itto a man to whom he designed to sell it. 

This was no other than Reuben Maliki, keeper of the poor box of theJews; for as well as a usurer he was a silversmith, and kept his shopin the Sok el Foki. Israel was moved to go to this person by theremembrance of two things, of which either seemed enough for hispreference--first, that he had bought the jewels of Reuben in thebeginning, and next, the Reuben had never since ceased to speak ofthem in Tetuan as priceless beyond the gems of Ethiopia and the gold ofOphir. 

But when Israel came to him now with the casket that he might buy, heeyed both with looks of indifference, though it was more dear to hiscovetous and revengeful heart that Israel should humble himself in hisneed, and bring these jewels, than almost any other satisfaction thatcould come to it. 

"And what is this that you bring me?" said Reuben languidly. 

"A case of jewels, " said Israel, with a downward look. 

"Jewels? umph! what jewels?"

"My poor wife's. You know them, Reuben See!"

Israel opened the casket. 

"Ah, your wife's. Umph! yes, I suppose I must have seen them somewhere. "

"You have seen them here, Reuben. "

"Here?--do you say here?"

"Reuben, you sold them to me eighteen years ago. "

"Sold them to you? Never. I don't remember it. Surely you must bemistaken. I can never have dealt in things like these. "

Reuben had taken the casket in his hands, and was pursing up his lips inexpressions of contempt. 

Israel watched him closely. "Give them back to me, " he said; "I can goelsewhere. I have no time for wrangling. "

Reuben's lip straightened instantly. "Wrangling? Who is wrangling, brother? You are too impatient, Sidi. "

"I am in haste, " said Israel. 

"Ah!"

There was an ominous silence, and then in a cold voice Reuben said, "The things are well enough in their way. What do you wish me to do withthem?"

"To buy them, " said Israel. 

"_Buy_ them?"

"Yes. "

"But I don't want them. "

"Are they worth your money?--you don't want that either. "

"Umph!"

A gleam of mockery passed over Reuben's face, and he proceeded toexamine the casket. One by one he trifled with the gems--the rich onyx, the sapphire, the crystal, the coral, the pearl, the ruby, and thetopaz, and first he pushed them from him, and then he drew them backagain. And seeing them thus cheapened in Reuben's hairy fingers, theprecious jewels which had clasped his Ruth's soft wrist and her whiteneck, Israel could scarcely hold back his hand from snatching them away. But how can he that is poor answer him that is rich? So Israel put histwitching hands behind him, remembering Naomi and the poor people ofAbsalam, and when at length Reuben tendered him for the casket one halfwhat he had paid for it, he took the money in silence and went his way. 

"Five hundred dollars--I can give no more, " Reuben had said. 

"Do you say five hundred--five?"

"Five--take it or leave it. "

It was market morning, and the market-square as Israel passed throughwas a busy and noisy place. The grocers squatted within their narrowwooden boxes turned on their sides, one half of the lid propped up as ashelter from the sun, the other half hung down as a counter, whereon layraisins and figs, and melons and dates. On the unpaved ground the bakerscrouched in irregular lines. They were women enveloped in monstrousstraw hats, with big round cakes of bread exposed for sale on rush matsat their feet. Under arcades of dried leaves--made, like desert graves, of upright poles and dry branches thrown across--the butchers lay attheir ease, flicking the flies from their discoloured meat. "Buy! buy!buy!" they all shouted together. A dense throng of the poor passedbetween them in torn jellabs and soiled turbans, and haggled and bought. Asses and mules crushed through amid shouts of "Arrah!" "Arrah!" and"Balak!" "Ba-lak!" It was a lively scene, with more than enough ofbustle and swearing and vociferation. 

There was more than enough of lying and cheating also, both practisedwith subtle and half-conscious humour. Inside a booth for the sale ofsugar in loaf and sack a man sat fingering a rosary and mumbling prayersfor penance. "God forgive me, " he muttered, "_God forgive me, Godforgive me, _" and at every repetition he passed a bead. A customerapproached, touched a sugar loaf and asked, "How much?" The merchantcontinued his prayers and did his business at a breath. "(_God forgiveme_) How much? (_God forgive me_) Four pesetas (_God forgive me_), " andround went the restless rosary. "Too much, " said the buyer; "I'll givethree. " The merchant went on with his prayers, and answered, "(_Godforgive me_) Couldn't take it for as much as you might put in your tooth(_God forgive me_); gave four myself (_God forgive me_). " "Then I'llleave it, old sweet-tooth, " said the buyer, as he moved away. "Here!take it for nothing (_God forgive me_), " cried the merchant after theretreating figure. "(_God forgive me_) I'm giving it away (_God forgiveme_); I'll starve, but no matter (_God forgive me_), you are my brother(_God forgive me, God forgive me, God forgive me_). "

Israel bought the bread and the meat, the raisins and the figs which theprisoners needed--enough for the present and for many days to come. Thenhe hired six mules with burdas to bear the food to Shawan, and a man twodays to lead them. Also he hired mules for himself and Ali, for he knewfull well that, unless with his own eyes he saw the followers of Absalamreceive what he had bought, no chance was there, in these days offamine, that it would ever reach them. And, all being ready for hisshort journey, he set out in the middle of the day, when the sun washighest, hoping that the town would then be at rest, and thinking toescape observation. 

His expectation was so far justified that the market-place, when he cameto it again, with his little caravan going before him, was silent anddeserted. But, coming into the walled lane to the Bab Toot, the gateat which the Shawan road enters, he encountered a great throng and astrange procession. It was a procession of penance and petition, askingGod to wipe out the plague of locusts that was destroying the land andeating up the bread of its children. A venerable Jew, with long whitebeard, walked side by side with a Moor of great stature, enshrouded inthe folds of his snow-white haik. These were the chief Rabbi of the Jewsand the Imam of the Muslims, and behind them other Jews and Moorswalked abreast in the burning sun. All were barefooted, and such as wereBerbers were bareheaded also. 

"In the name of Allah, the Compassionate and Merciful!" the Imam cried, and the Muslims echoed him. 

"By the God of Jacob!" the Rabbi prayed, and the Jews repeated the wordsafter him. 

"Spare us! Spare the land!" they all cried together. "Send rain todestroy the eggs of the locust!" cried the Rabbi. "Else will theyrise on the ground in the sunshine like rice on the granary floor; andneither fire nor river nor the army of the Sultan will stop them; and weourselves will die, and our children with us!"

And the Jews cried, "God of Jacob, be our refuge. "

And the Muslims shouted, "Allah, save us!"

It was a strange sight to look upon in that land of intolerance--thehaughty Moor and the despised Jew, with all petty hatreds sunk out ofsight and forgotten in the grip of the death that threatened both alike, walking and praying in the public streets together. 

Israel drew close to the wall and passed by unobserved. And being comeinto the open road outside the town, he began to take a view of themotives that had brought him away from his home again. Then he saw that, if he was not a hypocrite like Reuben, no credit could he give himselffor what he was doing, and if he was poor who had before been rich, nomerit could he make of his poverty. 

"Naomi, Naomi, all for her, all for her, " he thought. Naomi was his hopeand his salvation. His faith in God was his love of the child. Hewas only bribing God to give her grace. And well he knew it, while hejourneyed towards the prison behind his six mules laden with bread forthem that lay there, that, much as he owed them, being a cause of theirmiseries, the mercy he was about to show them was but as mercy shown tohimself. So the nearer he came to it the lower his head sank into hisbreast, as if the sun itself that beat down so fiercely upon his headhad eyes to peer into his deceiving soul. 

The town of Shawan lies sixty miles south of Tetuan in the northern halfof the territory of the tribe of Akhmas, and the sun was two hours setwhen Israel entered its beautiful valley between the two arms ofthe mountain called Jebel Sheshawan. Going through the orchards andvineyards that were round it, he was recognised by certain Jews; tannersand pannier-makers, who in the days of his harder rule had fled fromTetuan and his heavy taxings. 

"It's Israel ben Oliel, " whispered one. 

"God of Jacob, save us!" whispered another. 

"He has followed us for the arrears of taxes. "

"We must fly. "

"Let us go home first. "

"No time for that. "

"There is Rachel--"

"She's a woman. "

"But I must warn my son--he has children. "

"Then you are lost. Come on. "

Before he reached the rude old masonry that had once been the fortressand was now the prison, the poor followers of Absalam, who lay within, had heard that he was coming, and, in their despair and the wilddisorder of all their senses, they looked for nothing but death from hisvisit, as if they were to be cut to pieces instantly. Men and womenand young children, gaunt with hunger and begrimed with dirt, somewith faces that were hard and stony, some with faces that were weak andsimple, some with eyes that were red as blood, all weary with waitingand wasted with long pain, ran hither and thither in the gloom of thefoul place where they were immured together. Shedding tears, beatingtheir flesh, and crying out with woeful clamour, these unhappy creaturesof God, who had been great of soul when they sang their death-song withthe precipice behind them and the soldiers in front, now quaked forthe miserable lives which they preserved in hunger and cherished inbitterness. 

By help of the seal of his master, which he always carried, Israel foundhis way into the courtyard of the prison. The prisoners, who had beengathered there for his inspection, heard his footsteps, and by oneimpulse, as if an angel from heaven had summoned them, they fell totheir knees about the door whereby he must enter, men behind and womenin front, and mothers holding out their babes before their breasts sothat he might see them first, and have mercy upon them if he had a heartmade for pity. 

Then the door of the place was thrown open, and Israel entered. His headwas bowed down, and his feet were bare. The people drew their breath inwonder. 

"Arise, " he said; "I mean you no harm! See! Here is bread! Take it, andGod bless you!"

So saying, he motioned with his trembling hand to where Ali and themuleteer brought in the burden of food behind him. 

And when the poor souls could believe it at last, that he whom they hadlooked for as their judge had come as their saviour, their hearts surgedwithin them. Their hunger left them, and only the children could eat. For a moment they stood in silence about Israel, and their tears stainedtheir wasted faces. And Israel, in their midst, tasted a new joy in hisnew poverty such as his riches had never brought him--no, not once inall the days of his old prosperity. 

At length an old man--he was a Muslim--looked steadily into Israel'sface and said, "May the God of Jacob bless thee also, brother!"

After that they all recovered their voices and began to thank him out oftheir blind gratitude, falling to their knees at his feet as before, yetwith hearts so different. 

"May the Father of the fatherless requite thee!"

"May the child of thy wife be blessed!"

"Stop, " he cried; "stop! you don't know what you are saying. "

He turned away from them with a look of pain, as if their words hadstung him. They followed him and touched his kaftan with their lips;they pushed their children under his hands for his blessing. 

"No, no, " he cried; "no, no, no!"

Then he passed out of the place with rapid steps and fled from the townlike one who was ashamed. 

CHAPTER XV

THE MEETING ON THE SOK

Although Israel did not know it, and in the hunger of his heart he wouldhave given all the world to learn it, yet if any man could have peeredinto the dark chamber where the spirit of Naomi had dwelt seventeenyears in silence, he would have seen that, dear as the child was to thefather, still dearer and more needful was the father to the child. Sinceher mother left her he had been eyes of her eyes and ears of her ears, touching her hand for assent, patting her head for approval, and guidingher fingers to teach them signs. 

Thus Israel was more to Naomi than any father before to any daughter, more to her than mother or sister or brother or kindred; for he was hersole gateway to the world she lived in, the one alley whereby her spiritgazed upon it, the key that opened the closed doors of her soul; andwithout him neither could the world come in to her, nor could she go outto the world. Soft and beautiful was the commerce between them, mute onone side of all language save tears and kisses, like the commerce of amother with her first-born child, as holy in love, as sweet in mysteryas pure from taint, and as deep in tenderness. While her father was withher, then only did Naomi seem to live, and her happy heart to be full ofwonder at the strange new things that flowed in upon it. And when he wasgone from her, she was merely a spirit barred and shut within her body'sclose abode, waiting to be born anew. 

When Israel made ready to go to Shawan, Naomi clung to him to hinderhim, as if remembering his long absence when he went to Fez, andconnecting it with the illness that came to her in his absence; oras seeming to see, with those eyes that were blind to the ways of theworld, what was to befall him before he returned. He put her from himwith many tender words, and smoothed her hair and kissed her forehead, as though to chide her while he blessed her for so much love. But herdread increased, and she held to him like a child to its mother's robe. And at last, when he unloosed her hands and pushed them away as if inanger, and after that laughed lightly as if to tell her that he knew hermeaning yet had no fear, her trouble rose to a storm and she fell to afit of weeping. 

"Tut! tut! what is this?" he said. "I will be back to-morrow. Do youhear, my child?--tomorrow! At sunset to-morrow. "

When he was gone, the terror that had so suddenly possessed her seemedto increase. Her face was red, her mouth was dry, her eyelids quivered, and her hands were restless. If she sat she rose quickly; if she stoodshe walked again more fast. Sometimes she listened with head aside, sometimes moaned, sometimes wept outright, and sometimes she muttered toherself in noises such as none had heard from her lips before. 

The bondwomen could find no-way to comfort her. Indeed, the trouble ofher heart took hold of them. When she plucked Fatimah by the gown, andwith her blind eyes, that were also wet, seemed to look sadly into theblack woman's face, as if asking for her father, like a dog for itsmaster that is dead, Fatimah shed tears as well, partly in pity of herfears, and partly in terror of the unknown troubles still to come whichGod Himself might have revealed to her. 

"Alas! little dumb soul, what is to happen now?" cried Fatimah. 

"Alack! girl, " said Habeebah, "the maid is sickening again. "

And this was all that the good souls could make of her restlessagitation. She slept that night from sheer exhaustion, a deep lethargicslumber, apparently broken once or twice by troubled dreams. When sheawoke in the morning at the first sound of the voice of the mooddin, theevil dreams seemed to be with her still. She appeared to be moving alongin them like one spell-bound by a great dread that she could not utter, as if she were living through a nightmare of the day. Then long hourfollowed long hour, but the inquietude of her mood did not abate. Herbosom heaved, her throat throbbed, her excitement became hysterical. Sometimes she broke into wild, inarticulate shouts, and sometimes theblack women could have believed, in spite of knowledge and reason, thatshe was muttering and speaking words, though with a wild disorder ofutterance. 

At last the day waned and the sun went down. Naomi seemed to know whenthis occurred, for she could scent the cool air. Then, with a freshintentness, she listened to the footsteps outside, and, having listened, her trouble increased. What did Naomi hear? The black women could hearnothing save the common sounds of the streets--the shouts of childrenat play, the calls of women, the cries of the mule-drivers, and now andagain the piercing shrieks of a black story-teller from the town ofthe Moors--only this varied flow of voices, and under it the indistinctmurmur of multitudinous life coming and going on every side. 

Did other sounds come to Naomi's ears? Was her spiritual power, whichwas unclogged by any grosser sense than that of hearing, conscious ofsome terrible undertone of impending trouble? Or was her disquietude nomore than recollection of her father's promise to be back at sunset, andmere anxiety for his return? Fatimah and Habeebah knew nothing and sawnothing. All that they could do was to wring their hands. 

Meantime, Naomi's agitation became yet more restless, and nothing wouldserve her at last but that she should go out into the streets. And theblack women, seeing her so steadfastly minded, and being affected by herfears, made her ready, and themselves as well, and then all three wentout together. 

"Where are we going?" said Habeebah. 

"Nay, how should I know?" said Fatimah. 

"We are fools, " said Habeebah. 

It was now an hour after sunset, the light was fading, and the trafficwas sinking down. Only at the gate of the Mellah, which, contrary tocustom, had not yet been closed, was the throng still dense. A group ofJews stood under it in earnest and passionate talk. There was a strangeand bodeful silence on every side. The coffee-house of the Moors beyondthe gate was already lit up, and the door was open, but the floor wasempty. No snake-charmers, no jugglers, no story-tellers, with theircircles of squatting spectators, were to be seen or heard. Theseprofessors of science and magic and jocularity had never before beenabsent. Even the blind beggars, crouching under the town walls, weresilent. But out of the mosques there came a deep low chant as of manyvoices, from great numbers gathered within. 

"The girl was right, " said Fatimah; "something has happened. "

"What is it?" said Habeebah. 

"Nay, how should I know that either?" said Fatimah. 

"I tell you we are a pair of fools, " said Habeebah. 

Meantime Naomi held their hands, and they must needs follow where sheled. Her body was between them; they were borne along by her feebleframe as by an irresistible force. And pitiful it would have seemed, and perhaps foolish also, if any human eye had seen them then, thesehelpless children of God, going whither they knew not and wherefore theyknew not, save that a fear that was like to madness drew them on. 

"Listen! I hear something, " said Fatimah. 

"Where?" said Habeebah. 

"The way we are going, " said Fatimah. 

On and on Naomi passed from street to street. They were the same streetswhereby she had returned to her father's house on the day that hergoat was slain. Never since then had she trodden them, but she neitheraltered not turned aside to the right or the left, but made straightforward, until she came to the Sok el Foki, and to the place where thegoat had fallen before the foaming jaws of the dog from the Mukabar. Then she could go no farther. 

"Holy saints, what is this?" cried Habeebah. 

"Didn't I tell you--the girl heard something?" said Fatimah. 

"God's face shine on us, " said Habeebah. "What is all this crowd?"

An immense throng covered the upper half of the market-square, andoverflowed into the streets and arched alleys leading to the Kasbah. Itwas not a close and dense crowd of white-hooded forms such as gatheredon that spot on market morning--a seething, steaming, moving mass ofhaiks and jellabs and Maghribi blankets, with here and there a bareshaven head and plaited crown-lock--but a great crowd of dark figuresin black gowns and skull-caps. The assemblage was of Jews only--Jews ofevery age and class and condition, from the comely young Jewish butcherin his blood-stained rags to the toothless old Jewish banker with goldbraid on his new kaftan. 

They were gathered together to consider the posture of affairs in regardto the plague of locusts. Hence the Moorish officials had suffered themto remain outside the walls of their Mellah after sunset. Some of theMoors themselves stood aside and watched, but at a distance, leaving avacant space to denote the distinction between them. The scribes sat intheir open booths, pretending to read their Koran or to write with theirreed pens; the gunsmiths stood at their shop-doors; and the countryBerbers, crowded out of their usual camping ground on the Sok, squattedon the vacant spots adjacent. All looked on eagerly, but apparentlyimpassively, at the vast company of Jews. 

And so great was the concourse of these people, and so wild theircommotion, that they were like nothing else but a sea-broken bytempestuous winds. The market-place rang as a vault with the sounds oftheir voices, their harsh cries, their protests, their pleadings, theirentreaties, and all the fury of their brazen throats. And out of theirloud uproar one name above all other names rose in the air on everyside. It was the name of Israel ben Oliel. Against him they werebreathing out threats, foretelling imminent dangers from the hand ofman, and predicting fresh judgments from God. There was no evil whichhad befallen him early or late but they were remembering it, andreckoning it up and rejoicing in it. And there was no evil which hadbefallen themselves but they were laying it to his charge. 

Yesterday, when they passed through the town in their procession ofpenance, following their Grand Rabbi as he walked abreast of the Imam, that they might call on God to destroy the eggs of the locust, they hadexpected the heavens to open over their heads, and to feel the rainfall instantly. The heavens had not opened, the rain had not fallen, thethick hot cake as of baked air had continued to hang and to palpitate inthe sky, and the fierce sun had beaten down as before on the parchedand scorching earth. Seeing this, as their petitions ended, whilethe Muslims went back to their houses, disappointed but resigned, andmuttering to themselves, "It is written, " they had returned to theirsynagogues, convinced that the plague was a judgment, and resolved, likethe sailors of the ship going down to Tarshish, to cast lots and to knowfor whose cause the evil was upon them. 

They were more than a hundred and twenty families, and had thought theywere therefore entitled to elect a Synhedrin. This was in defianceof ceremonial law, for they knew full well that the formation of aSynhedrin and the right to try a capital charge had long been forbidden. But they were face to face with death, and hence the anachronism hadbeen adopted, and they had fallen back on the custom of their fathers. So three-and-twenty judges they had appointed, without usurers, orslave-dealers, or gamblers, or aged men or childless ones. 

The judges had sat in session the same night, and their judgment hadbeen unanimous. The lot of Jonah had fallen on Israel. He had soldhimself to their masters and enemies, the Moors, against the hope andinterest of his own people; he had driven some of the sons of his raceand nation into exile in distant cities; he had brought others to theKasbah, and yet others to death: he was a man at open enmity with God, and God had given him, as a mark of His displeasure, a child who wascursed with devils, a daughter who had been born blind and dumb anddeaf, and was still without sight and speech. 

Could the hand of God's anger be more plain if it were printed in fireupon the sky? Israel was the evil one for whose sin they suffered thisdevastating plague. The Lord was rebuking them for sparing him, even asHe had rebuked Saul for sparing the king and cattle of the Amalekites. Seventeen years and more he had been among them without being of them, never entering a synagogue, never observing a fast, never joining in afeast. Not until their judgment went out against him would God's angerbe appeased. Let them cut him off from the children of his race, and theblessed rain would fall from heaven, and the thirsty earth would drinkit, and the eggs of the locust would be destroyed. But let them putoff any longer their rightful task and duty before God and before thepeople, and their evil time would soon come. Within eight-and-twentydays the eggs would be hatched, and within eight-and-forty otherdays the young locust would have wings. Before the end of thoseseventy-and-six days the harvest of wheat and barley would be yellow tothe scythe and ripe for the granary, but the locust would cover the faceof the earth, and there would be no grain to gather. The scythe would beidle, the granaries would be empty, the tillers of the ground would comehungry into the markets, and they themselves that were town-dwellersand tradesmen would be perishing for bread, both they and their childrenwith them. 

Thus in Israel's absence, while he was away at Shawan, thethree-and-twenty judges of the new Synhedrin of Tetuan had--contrary toJewish custom--tried and convicted him. God would not let them perishfor this man's life, and neither would He charge them with his blood. 

Nevertheless, judges though they were, they could not kill him. Theycould only appeal against him to the Kaid. And what could they say? Thatthe Lord had sent this plague of locusts in punishment of Israel's sin?Ben Aboo would laugh in their faces and answer them, "It is written. "That to appease God's wrath it was expedient that this Jew should die?Convince the Muslim that a Jew had brought this desolation upon the landof the Shereefs, and he would arise, and his soldiers with him, and thewhole community of the Jewish people would be destroyed. 

The judges had laid their heads together. It was idle to appeal to BenAboo against Israel on any ground of belief. Nay, it was more than idle, for it was dangerous. There was nothing in common between his faith andtheir own. His God was not their God, save in name only. The one wasAllah, great, stern, relentless, inexorable, not to be moved stridingon to an inevitable end, heedless of man and trampling upon him--thoughsometimes mocked with the names of the Compassionate and the Merciful. But the other was Jehovah, the father of His people Israel, caring forthem, upholding them, guiding the world for them, conquering for them;but visiting His anger upon them when they fell away from Him. 

The three-and-twenty judges in session in the synagogue up the narrowlane of the Sok el Foki had sat far into the night, with the light ofthe oil-lamps gleaming on their perplexed and ashen faces. Some otherground of appeal against Israel had to be found, and they could not findit. At length they had remembered that, by ancient law and custom thetrial of an Israelite, for life or death, must end an hour after sunset. Also they had been reminded that the day that heard the evidence in acapital case must not be the same whereon the verdict was pronounced. Sothey had broken up and returned home. And, going out at the gate, theyhad told the crowds that waited there that judgment had fallen uponIsrael ben Oliel, but that his doom could not be made known until sunseton the following day. 

That time was now come. In eagerness and impatience, in hot blood andanger, the people had gathered in the Sok three hours after midday. TheJudges had reassembled in the synagogue in the early morning. They hadnot broken bread since yesterday, for the day that condemned a son ofIsrael to death must be a fast-day to his judges. 

As the afternoon wore on, the doors of the synagogue were thrown open. The sentence was not ready yet, but the judges in council were nearto their decision. At the open door the reader of the synagogue hadstationed himself, holding a flag in his hand. Under the gate of theMellah a second messenger was standing, so placed that he could see themovement of the flag. If the flag fell, the sentence would be "death, "and the man under the gate would carry the tidings to the peoplegathered in the market-place. Then the three-and-twenty judges wouldcome in procession and tell what steps had been taken that the doompronounced might be carried into effect. 

Amid all their loud uproar, and notwithstanding the wild anger whichseemed to consume them, the people turned at intervals of a few minutesto glance back towards the Mellah gate. 

If the angels were looking down, surely it was a pitiful sight--thesechildren of Zion in a strange land, where they were held as dogs andvermin and human scavengers to the Muslim; thinking and speaking andacting as their fathers had done any time for five thousand yearsbefore; again judging it expedient that one man should die rather thanthe whole people be brought to destruction; again probing their craftyheads, if not their hearts, for an artifice whereby their scapegoatmight be killed by the hand of their enemy; children indeed, for allthat some of their heads were bald, and some of their beards weregrizzled, and some of their faces were wrinkled and hard and fierce;little children of God writhing in the grip of their great trouble. 

Such was the scene to which Naomi had come, and such had been the doingsof the town since the hour when her father left her. What hand had ledher? What power had taught her? Was it merely that her far-reachingears had heard the tumult? Had some unknown sense, groping in darkness, filled her with a vague terror, too indefinite to be called a thought, of great and impending evil? Or was it some other influence, some higherleading? Was it that the Lord was in His heaven that night as always, and that when the two black bondwomen in their helpless fear werefollowing the blind maiden through the darkening streets she in her turnwas following God?

When Fatimah and Habeebah saw what it was to which Naomi had led them, though they were sorely concerned at it, yet they were relieved as well, and put by the worst of the fears with which her strange behaviour hadinfected them. And remembering that she was the daughter of Israel, andthey were his servants, and neither thinking themselves safe fromdanger if they stayed any longer where his name was bandied about as areproach, nor fully knowing how many of the curses that were heaped uponhim found a way to Naomi's mind, they were for turning again and goingback to the house. 

"Come, " said Habeebah; "let us go--we are not safe. "

"Yes, " said Fatimah; "let us take the poor child back. "

"Come along, then, " said Habeebah, and she laid hold of Naomi's hand. 

"Naomi, Naomi, " whispered Fatimah in the girl's ear, "we are going home. Come, dearest, come. "

But Naomi was not to be moved. No gentle voice availed to stir her. She stood where she had placed herself on the outskirts of the crowd, motionless save for her heaving bosom and trembling limbs, and silentsave for her loud breathing and the low muttering of her pale lips, yetlistening eagerly with her neck outstretched. 

And if, as she listened, any human eye could have looked in on herdumb and imprisoned soul, the tumult it would have seen must have beenterrible. For, though no one knew it as a certainty, yet in her darknessand muteness since the coming of her gift of hearing she had beenlearning speech and the different voices of men. All that was spoken inthat crowd she understood, and never a word escaped her, and what otherssaw she felt, only nearer and more terrible, because wrapped in thedarkness outside her eyes that were blind. 

First there came a lull in the general clamour, and then a coarse, jarring, stridulous voice rose in the air. Naomi knew whose voice itwas--it was the voice of old Abraham Pigman, the usurer. 

"Brothers of Tetuan, " the old man cried, "what are we waiting for? Forthe verdict of the judges? Who wants their verdict? There is only onething to do. Let us ask the Kaid to remove this man. The Kaid is ahumane master. If he has sometimes worked wrong by us, he has beendriven to do that which in his soul he abhors. Let us go to him and say:'Lord Basha, through five-and-twenty years this man of our people hasstood over us to oppress us, and your servants have suffered and beensilent. In that time we have seen the seed of Israel hunted from thehouses of their fathers where they have lived since their birth. We haveseen them buffeted and smitten, without a resting-place for the solesof their feet, and perishing in hunger and thirst and nakedness andthe want of all things. Is this to your honour, or your glory, or yourprofit?'"

The people broke into loud cries of approval, and when they were oncemore silent, the thick voice went on: "And not the seed of Israelonly, but the sons of Islam also, has this man plunged in the depths ofmisery. Under a Sultan who desires liberty and a Kaid who loves justice, in a land that breathes freedom and a city that is favoured of God, our brethren the Muslimeen sink with us in deep mire where there is nostanding. Every day brings to both its burden of fresh sorrow. Atthis moment a plague is upon us. The country is bare; the town isoverflowing; every man stumbles over his fellow our lives hang in doubt;in the morning we say 'Would it were evening'; in the evening we say, 'Would it were morning'; stretch out your hand and help us!"

Again the crowd burst into shouts of assent, and the stridulous voicecontinued: "Let us say to him 'Lord Basha, there is no way of help butone. Pluck down this man that is set over us. He belongs to our own raceand nation; but give us a master of any other race and nation; any Moor, any Arab, any Berber, any negro; only take back this man of our ownpeople, and your servants will bless you. '"

The old man's voice was drowned in great shouts of "Ben Aboo!" "To BenAboo!" "Why wait for the judges?" "To the Kasbah!" "The Kasbah!"

But a second voice came piercing through the boom and clash of thosewaves of sound, and it was thin and shrill as the cry of a pea-hen. Naomi knew this voice also--it was the voice of Judah ben Lolo, the elder of the synagogue, who would have been sitting among thethree-and-twenty-judges but that he was a usurer also. 

"Why go to the Kaid?" said the voice like a peahen. "Does the Bashalove this Israel ben Oliel? Has he of late given many signs of suchaffection? Bethink you, brothers, and act wisely! Would not Ben Aboobe glad to have done with this servant who has been so long his master?Then why trouble him with your grievance? Act for yourselves, and theKaid will thank you! And well may this Israel ben Oliel praise the Lordand worship Him, that He has not put it into the hearts of His peopleto play the game of breaker of tyrants by the spilling of blood, as theraces around them, the Arabs and the Berbers, who are of a temper morewarm by nature, must long ago have done, and that not unjustly either, or altogether to the displeasure of a Kaid who is good and humane andmerciful, and has never loved that his poor people should be oppressed. "

At this word, though it made pretence to commend the temperance of thecrowd, the fury broke out more loudly than before. "Away with the man!""Away with him!" rang out on every side in countless voices, husky andclear, gruff and sharp, piping and deep. Not a voice of them all calledfor mercy or for patience. 

While the anger of the people surged and broke in the air, a third voicecame through the tumult, and Naomi knew it, for it was the harsh voiceof Reuben Maliki, the silversmith and keeper of the poor-box. 

"And does God, " said Reuben, "any more than Ben Aboo--blessings on hislife!--love that His people should be oppressed? How has He dealt withthis Israel ben Oliel? Does He stand steadfastly beside him, or has Hishand gone out against him? Since the day he came here, five-and-twentyyears ago, has God saved him or smitten him? Remember Ruth, his wife, how she died young! Remember her father, our old Grand Rabbi, David benOhana, how the hand of the Lord fell upon him on the night of theday whereon his daughter was married! Remember this girl Naomi, thisoffspring of sin, this accursed and afflicted one, still blind andspeechless!"

Then the voices of the crowd came to Naomi's ears like the neigh of abreathless horse. Fatimah had laid hold of her gown and was whispering. "Come! Let us away!" But Naomi only clutched her hand and trembled. 

The harsh voice of Reuben Maliki rose in the air again. "Do you say thatthe Lord gave him riches? Behold him!--he swallowed them down, but hashe not vomited them up? Examine him!--that which he took by extortionshas he not been made to restore? Does God's anger smoke against him?Answer me, yes or no!"

Like a bolt out of the sky there came a great shout of "Yes!" Andinstantly afterwards, from another direction, there came a fourth voice, a peevish, tremulous voice, the voice of an old woman. Naomi knew it--itwas the voice of Rebecca Bensabott, ninety-and-odd years of age, andstill deaf as a stone. 

"Tut! What is all this talking about?" she snapped and grunted. "ReubenMaliki, save your wind for your widows--you don't give them too much ofit. And, Abraham Pigman, go home to your money-bags. I am an old fool, am I? Well, I've the more right to speak plain. What are we waiting herefor? The judges? Pooh! The sentence? Fiddle-faddle! It is Israel benOliel, isn't it? Then stone him! What are you afraid of? The Kaid? He'lllaugh in your faces. A blood-feud? Who is to wage it? A ransom? Who isto ask for it? Only this mute, this Naomi, and you'll have to work hera miracle and find her a tongue first. Out on you! Men? Pshaw! You arechildren!"

The people laughed--it was the hard, grating, hollow laugh that sets theteeth on edge behind the lips that utter it. Instantly the voices of thecrowd broke up into a discordant clangour, like to the counter-currentsof an angry sea. "She's right, " said a shrill voice. "He deserves it, "snuffled a nasal one. "At least let us drive him out of the town, " saida third gruff voice. "To his house!" cried a fourth voice, that pealedover all. "To his house!" came then from countless hungry throats. 

"Come, let us go, " whispered Fatimah to Naomi, and again she laid holdof her arm to force her away. But Naomi shook off her hand, and mutteredstrange sounds to herself. 

"To his house! Sack it! Drive the tyrant out!" the people howled in ahundred rasping voices; but, before any one had stirred, a man riding amule had forced his way into the middle of the crowd. 

It was the messenger from under the Mellah gate. In their new frenzy thepeople had forgotten him. He had come to make known the decision of theSynhedrin. The flag had fallen; the sentence was death. 

Hearing this doom, the people heard no more, and neither did they waitfor the procession of the judges, that they might learn of the meanswhereby they, who were not masters in their own house, might carrythe sentence into effect. The procession was even then forming. Itwas coming out of the synagogue; it was passing under the gate of theMellah; it was approaching the Sok el Foki. The Rabbis walked in frontof it. At its tail came four Moors with shamefaced looks. They werethe soldiers and muleteers whom Israel had hired when he set out on hispilgrimage to that enemy of all Kaids and Bashas, Mohammed of Mequinez. By-and-by they were to betray him to Ben Aboo. 

But no one saw either Rabbis or Moors. The people were twisting andturning like worms on an upturned turf. "Why sack his house?" criedsome. "Why drive him out?" cried others. "A poor revenge!" "Kill him!""Kill him!"

At the sound of that word, never before spoken, though every ear hadwaited for it, the shouts of the crowd rose to madness. But suddenlyin the midst of the wild vociferations there was a shrill cry of "He isthere!" and then there was a great silence. 

It was Israel himself. He was coming afoot down the lane under the townwalls from the gate called the Bab Toot, where the road comes in fromShawan. At fifty paces behind him Ali, the black boy, was riding onemule and leading another. 

He was returning from the prison, and thinking how the poor followersof Absalam, after he had fed them of his poverty, had blest him outof their dry throats, saying, "May the God of Jacob bless you also, brother!" and "May the child of your wife be blessed!" Ah! thoseblessings, he could hear them still! They followed him as he walked. He did not fly from them any longer, for they sang in his ears and werelike music in his melted soul. Once before he had heard such music. It was in England. The organ swelled and the voices rose, and he was alonely boy, for his mother lay in her grave at his feet. His mother! Howstrangely his heart was softened towards himself and-all the world AndRuth! He could think of nothing without tenderness. And Naomi! Ah! thesun was nigh two hours down, and Naomi would be waiting for him at home, for she was as one that had no life without his presence. What wouldbefall if he were taken from her? That thought was like the sweeping ofa dead hand across his face. So his body stooped as he walked with hisstaff, and his head was held down, and his step was heavy. 

Thus the old lion came on to the market-place, where the people weregathered together as wolves to devour him. On he came, seeing nothingand hearing nothing and fearing nothing, and in the silence of the firstsurprise at sight of him his footsteps were heard on the stones. 

Naomi heard them. 

Then it seemed to Naomi's ears that a voice fell, as it were, out of theair, crying, "God has given him into our hands!" After that all soundsseemed to Naomi to fade far-away, and to come to her muffled and stifledby the distance. 

But with a loud shout, as if it had been a shout out of one greatthroat, the crowd encompassed Israel crying, "Kill him!" Israel stopped, and lifted his heavy face upon the people; but neither did he cry outnor make any struggle for his life. He stood erect and silent in theirmidst, and massive and square. His brave bearing did not break theirfury. They fell upon him, a hundred hands together. One struck at hisface, another tore at his long grey hair, and a third thrust him down onto his knees. 

No one had yet observed on the outer rim of the crowd the pale slightgirl that stood there--blind, dumb, powerless, frail, and so softlybeautiful--a waif on the margin of a tempestuous sea. Through thethick barriers of Naomi's senses everything was coming to her ugly andterrible. Her father was there! They were tearing him to pieces!

Suddenly she was gone from the side of the two black women. Like a flashof light she had passed through the bellowing throng. She had thrustherself between the people and her father, who was on the ground: shewas standing over him with both arms upraised, and at that instant Godloosed her tongue, for she was crying, "Mercy! Mercy!"

Then the crowd fell back in great fear. The dumb had spoken. No mandared to touch Israel any more. The hands that had been lifted againsthim dropped back useless, and a wide circle formed around him. In themidst of it stood Naomi. Her blind face quivered; she seemed to glowlike a spirit. And like a spirit she had driven back the people fromtheir deed of blood as with the voice of God--she, the blind, the frail, the helpless. 

Israel rose to his feet, for no man touched him again, and theprocession of judges, which had now come up, was silent. And, seeing howit was that in the hour of his great need the gift of speech had comeupon Naomi, his heart rose big within him, and he tried to triumph overhis enemies and say, "You thought God's arm was against me, but beholdhow God has saved me out of your hands. "

But he could not speak. The dumbness that had fallen from his daughterseemed to have dropped upon him. 

At that moment Naomi turned to him and said, "Father!"

Then the cup of Israel's heart was full. His throat choked him. So hetook her by the hand in silence and down a long alley of the people theypassed through the Mellah gate and went home to their house. Her eyeswere to the earth, and she wept as she walked; but his face was liftedup, and his tears and his blood ran down his cheeks together. 

CHAPTER XVI

NAOMI'S BLINDNESS

Although Naomi, in her darkness and muteness since the coming of hergift of hearing, had learned to know and understand the differenttongues of men, yet now that she tried to call forth words for herself, and to put out her own voice in the use of them, she was no more thana child untaught in the ways of speech. She tripped and stammered andbroke down, and had to learn to speak as any helpless little one mustdo, only quicker, because her need was greater, and better, becauseshe was a girl and not a babe. And, perceiving her own awkwardness, andthinking shame of it, and being abashed by the patient waiting of herfather when she halted in her talk with him, and still more humbled byAli's impetuous help when she miscalled her syllables, she fell backagain on silence. 

Hardly could she be got to speak at all. For some days after the nightwhen her emancipated tongue had rescued Israel from his enemies on theSok, she seemed to say nothing beyond "Yes" and "No, " notwithstandingAli's eager questions, and Fatimah's tearful blessings, and Habeebah'sbreathless invocations, and also notwithstanding the hunger and thirstof the heart of her father, who, remembering with many throbs of joy thevoice that he heard with his dreaming ears when he slept on the strawbed of the poor fondak at Wazzan, would have given worlds of gold, if hehad possessed them still, to hear it constantly with his waking ears. 

"Come, come, little one; come, come, speak to us, only speak, " Israelwould say. 

His appeals were useless. Naomi would smile and hang her sunny head, andlift her father's hairy hand to her cheek, and say nothing. 

But just about a week later a beautiful thing occurred. Israel wasreturning to the Mellah after one of his secret excursions in the poorquarter of the Bab Ramooz, where he had spent the remainder of the moneywhich old Reuben had paid him for the casket of his wife's jewels. Thenight was warm, the moon shone with steady lustre, and the stars werealmost obliterated as separate lights by a luminous silvery haze. It waslate, very late, and far and near the town was still. 

With his innocent disguise, his Moorish jellab, hung over his arm, Israel had passed the Mellah gate, being the only Jew who was allowedto cross it after sunset. He was feeling happy as he walked home throughthe sleeping streets, with his black shadow going in front. The magic ofthe summer night possessed him, and his soul was full of joy. 

All his misgivings had fallen away. The coming to Naomi of the gift ofspeech had seemed to banish from his mind the dark spirit of the past. He had no heart for reprisals upon the enemies who had sought to killhim. Without that blind effort on their part, perhaps his great blessinghad not come to pass. Man's extremity had indeed been God's opportunityand Ruth's vision was all but realised. 

Ah, Ruth! Ruth! It had escaped Israel's notice until then that he hadbeen thinking of his dead wife the whole night through. When he put itto himself so, he saw the reason of it at once. It was because therewas a sort of secret charm in the certainty that where she was shemust surely know that her dream was come true. There was also a kindof bitter pathos in the regret that she was only an angel now and not awoman; therefore she could not be with him to share his human joy. 

As he walked through the Mellah, Israel thought of her again: how shehad sung by the cradle to her babe that could not hear. Sung? Yes, hecould almost fancy that he heard her singing yet. That voice so soft, so clear even in its whispers--there had been nothing like it in allthe world. And her songs! Israel could also fancy that he heard herfavourite one. It was a song of love, a pure but passionate melodywherein his own delicious happiness in the earlier days, before thedeath of the old Grand Rabbi, had seemed to speak and sing. 

Israel began to laugh at himself as he walked. To think that the warmthand softness of the night, the sweet caressing night, the light andbeauty of the moon and the stillness and slumber of the town, couldbetray an old fellow into forgotten dreams like these!

He had taken out of his pocket the big key of the clamped door to hishouse, and was crossing the shadowed lane in front of it, when suddenlyhe thought he heard music coating in the air above him. He stopped andlistened. Then he had no longer any doubt. It was music, it was singing;he knew the song, and he knew the voice. The song was the song he hadbeen thinking of, and the voice was the voice of Ruth. 

 O where is Love? Where, where is Love? Is it of heavenly birth? Is it a thing of earth? Where, where is Love?

Israel felt himself rooted to the spot, and he stood some time withoutstirring. He looked around. All else was still. The night was as silentas death. He listened attentively. The singing seemed to come from hisown house. Then he thought he must be dreaming still, and he took a stepforward. But he stopped again and covered both his ears. That was of noavail, for when he removed his hands the voice was there as before. 

A shiver ran over his limbs, yet he could not believe what his soul wassaying. The key dropped out of his hand and rang on the stone. When theclangour was done the voice continued. Israel bethought him then thathis household must be asleep, and it flashed on his mind that if thiswere a human voice the singing ought to awaken them. Just at that momentthe night guard went by and saluted him. "God bless your morning!" theguard cried; and Israel answered, "Your morning be blessed!" That wasall. The guard seemed to have heard nothing. His footsteps were dyingaway, but the voice went on. 

Then a strange emotion filled Israel's heart, and he reflected that evenif it were Ruth she could have come on no evil errand. That thought gavehim courage, and he pushed forward to the door. As he fumbled the keyinto the lock he saw that a beggar was crouching by the doorway in theshadow cast by the moonlight. The man was asleep. Israel could hear hisbreathing, and smell his rags. Also he could hear the thud of his owntemples like the beating of a drum in his brain. 

At length, as he was groping feebly through the crooked passage, a newthought came to him. "Naomi, " he told himself in a whisper of awe. Itwas she. By the full flood of the moonlight in the patio he saw her. Shewas on the balcony. Her beautiful white-robed figure was half sitting onthe rail, half leaning against the pillar. The whole lustre of the moonwas upon her. A look of joy beamed on her face. She was singing hermother's song with her mother's voice, and all the air, and the sky, andthe quiet white town seemed to listen:--

 Within my heart a voice Bids earth and heaven rejoice Sings--"Love, great Love O come and claim shine own, O come and take thy throne Reign ever and alone, Reign, glorious golden Love. "

Then Israel's fear was turned to rapture. Why had he not thought of thisbefore? Yet how could he have thought of it? He had never once heardNaomi's voice save in the utterance of single words. But again, why hadhe not remembered that before the tongues of children can speak words oftheir own they sing the words of others?

The singing ended, and then Israel, struggling with his dry throat, stepped a pace forward--his foot grated on the pavement--and he calledto the singer--

"Naomi!"

The girl bent forward, as if peering down into the darkness below, butIsrael could see that her fixed eyes were blind. 

"My father!" she whispered. 

"Where did you learn it?" said Israel. 

"Fatimah, she taught me, " Naomi answered; and then she added quickly, as if with great but childlike pride, saying what she did not mean, "Ohyes, it was I! Was I not beautiful?"

After that night Naomi's shyness of speech dropped away from her, andwhat was left was only a sweet maidenly unconsciousness of all faultsand failings, with a soft and playful lisp that ran in and out among thesimple words that fell from her red lips like a young squirrel among thefallen leaves of autumn. It would be a long task to tell how her lispingtongue turned everything then to favour and to prettiness. On the comingof the gift of hearing, the world had first spoken to her; and now, onthe coming of the gift of speech, she herself was first speaking to theworld. What did she tell it at that first sweet greeting? She told itwhat she had been thinking of it in those mute days that were gone, whenshe had neither hearing nor speech, but was in the land of silence aswell as in the land of night. 

The fancies of the blind maid so long shut up within the beautifulcasket of her body were strange and touching ones. Israel took delightin them at the beginning. He loved to probe the dark places of the mindthey came from, thinking God Himself must surely have illumined itat some time with a light that no man knew, so startling were some ofNaomi's replies, so tender and so beautiful. 

One evening, not long after she had first spoken, he was sitting withher on the roof of their house as the sun was going down over thepalpitating plains towards Arzila and Laraiche and the great sea beyond. Twilight was gathering in the Feddan under the Mosque, and the lastlight of day, which had parleyed longest with the snowy heights of theReef Mountains, was glowing only on the sky above them. 

"Sweetheart, " said Israel, "what is the sun?"

"The sun is a fire in the sky, " Naomi answered; "my Father lights itevery morning. "

"Truly, little one, thy Father lights it, " said Israel; "thy Fatherwhich is in heaven. "

"Sweetheart, " he said again, "what is darkness?"

"Oh, darkness is cold, " said Naomi promptly, and she seemed to shiver. 

"Then the light must be warmth, little one?" said Israel. 

"Yes, and noise, " she answered; and then she added quickly, "Light isalive. "

Saying this, she crept closer to his side, and knelt there, and by herold trick of love she took his hand in both of hers, and pressed itagainst her cheek, and then, lifting her sweet face with its motionlesseyes she began to tell him in her broken words and pretty lisp what shethought of night. In the night the world, and everything in it, was coldand quiet. That was death. The angels of God came to the world in theday. But God Himself came in the night, because He loved silence, and because all the world was dead. Then He kissed things, and in themorning all that God had kissed came to life again. If you were to getup early you would feel God's kiss on the flowers and on the grass. Andthat was why the birds were singing then. God had kissed them in thenight, and they were glad. 

One day Israel took Naomi to the mearrah of the Jews, the littlecemetery outside the town walls where he had buried Ruth. And there hetold her of her mother once more; that she was in the grave, but alsowith God; that she was dead, but still alive; that Naomi must not expectto find her in that place, but, nevertheless, that she would see her yetagain. 

"Do you remember her, Naomi?" he said. "Do you remember her in the olddays, the old dark and silent days? Not Fatimah, and not Habeebah, butsome one who was nearer to you than either, and loved you better thanboth; some one who had soft hands, and smooth cheeks, and long, silken, wavy hair--do you remember, little one?"

"Y-es, I think--I _think_ I remember, " said Naomi. 

"That was your mother, my darling. "

"My mother?"

"Ah, you don't know what a mother is, sweetheart. How should you? Andhow shall I tell you? Listen. She is the one who loves you first andlast and always. When you are a babe she suckles you and nourishes youand fondles you, and watches for the first light of your smile, andlistens for the first accent of your tongue. When you are a young childshe plays with you, and sings to you, and tells you little stories, andteaches you to speak. Your smile is more bright to her than sunshine, and your childish lisp more sweet than music. If you are sick she isbeside you constantly, and when you are well she is behind you still. Though you sin and fall and all men spurn you, yet she clings to you;and if you do well and God prospers you, there is no joy like her joy. Her love never changes, for it is a fount which the cold winds of theworld cannot freeze. . . . And if you are a little helpless girl--blindand deaf and dumb maybe--then she loves you best of all. She cannot tellyou stories, and she cannot sing to you, because you cannot hear; shecannot smile into your eyes, because you cannot see; she cannot talk toyou, because you cannot speak; but she can watch your quiet face, andfeel the touch of your little fingers and hear the sound of your merrylaughter. "

"My mother! my mother!" whispered Naomi to herself, as if in awe. 

"Yes, " said Israel, "your mother was like that, Naomi, long ago, in thedays before your great gifts came to you. But she is gone, she has leftus, she could not stay; she is dead, and only from the blue mountains ofmemory can she smile back upon us now. "

Naomi could not understand, but her fixed blue eyes filled with tears, and she said abruptly, "People who die are deceitful. They want to goout in the night to be with God. That is where they are when they goaway. They are wandering about the world when it is dead. "

The same night Naomi was missed out of the house, and for many hours nosearch availed to find her. She was not in the Mellah, and thereforeshe must have passed into the Moorish town before the gates closed atsunset. Neither was she to be seen in the Feddan or at the Kasbah, oramong the Arabs who sat in the red glow of the fires that burnt beforetheir tents. At last Israel bethought him of the mearrah, and therehe found her. It was dark, and the lonesome place was silent. Thereflection of the lights of the town rose into the sky above it, and thedistant hum of voices came over the black town walls. And there, withinthe straggling hedge of prickly pear, among the long white stones thatlay like sheep asleep among the grass, Naomi in her double darkness, thedarkness of the night and of her blindness was running to and fro, andcrying, "Mother! Mother!"

Fatimah took her the four miles to Marteel, that the breath of the seamight bring colour to her cheeks, which had been whitened by the heatand fumes of the town. The day was soft and beautiful, the water wasquiet, and only a gentle wind came creeping over it. But Naomi listenedto every sound with eager intentness--the light plash of the bluewavelets that washed to her feet, the ripple of their crests whenthe Levanter chased them and caught them, the dip of the oars of theboatman, the rattle of the anchor-chains of ships in the bay, and thefierce vociferations of the negroes who waded up to their waists tounload the cargoes. 

And when she came home, and took her old place at her father's knees, with his hand between hers pressed close against her cheek, she told himanother sweet and startling story. There was only one thing in the worldthat did not die at night, and it was water. That was because water wasthe way from heaven to earth. It went up into the mountains and overthem into the air until it was lost in the clouds. And God and Hisangels came and went on the water between heaven and earth. That was whyit was always moving and never sleeping, and had no night and no day. And the angels were always singing. That was why the waters were alwaysmaking a noise, and were never silent like the grass. Sometimes theirsong was joyful, and sometimes it was sad, and sometimes the evilspirits were struggling with the angels, and that was when the waterswere terrible. Every time the sea made a little noise on the shore, anangel had stepped on to the earth. The angel was glad. 

Israel had begun to listen to Naomi's fancies with a doubting heart. Where had they come from? Was it his duty to wipe out these beautifuldream-stories of the maid born blind and newly come upon the joy ofhearing with his own sadder tales of what the world was and what lifewas, and death and heaven? The question was soon decided for him. 

Two days after Naomi had been taken to Marteel she was missed again. Israel hurried away to the sea, and there he came upon her. Alone, without help, she had found a boat on the beach and had pushed off onto the water. It was a double-pronged boat, light as a nutshell, madeof ribs of rush, covered with camel-skin, and lined with bark. In thisfrail craft she was afloat, and already far out in the bay not rowing, but sitting quietly, and drifting away with the ebbing tide. The windwas rising, and the line of the foreshore beyond the boat was white withbreakers. Israel put off after her and rescued her. The motionless eyesbegan to fill when she heard his voice. 

"My darling, my darling!" cried Israel; "where did you think you weregoing?"

"To heaven, " she answered. 

And truly she had all but gone there. 

Israel had no choice left to him now. He must sadden the heart of thiscreature of joy that he might keep her body safe from peril. Naomi wasno more than a little child, swayed by her impulses alone, but in moredanger from herself than any child before her, because deprived of twoof her senses until she had grown to be a maid, and no control could beimposed upon her. 

At length Israel nerved himself to his bitter task; and one eveningwhile Naomi sat with him on the roof while the sun was setting, andthere were noises in the streets below of the Jewish people shufflingback into the Mellah, he told her that she was blind. The word made noimpression upon her mind at first. She had heard it before, and it hadpassed her by like a sound that she did not know. She had been bornblind, and therefore could not realise what it was to see. To open a wayfor the awful truth was difficult, and Israel's heart smote him whilehe persisted. Naomi laughed as he put his fingers over her eyes thathe might show her. She laughed again when he asked if she could see thepeople whom she could only hear. And once more she laughed when the sunhad gone down, and the mooddin had come out on the Grand Mosque in theMetamar, and he asked if she could see the old blind man in the minaret, where he was crying, "God is great! God is great!"

"Can you see him, little one?" said Israel. 

"See him?" said Naomi; "why yes, you dear old father, of course I cansee him. Listen, " she cried, ceasing her laughter, lifting one finger, and holding her head aslant, "listen: God is great! God is great!There--I saw him then. "

"That is only hearing him, Naomi--hearing him with your ears--with thisear and with this. But can you see him, sweetheart?"

Did her father mean to ask her if she could _feel_ the mooddin in hisminaret far above them? Once more she laid her head aslant. There was apause, and then she cried impulsively--

"Oh, _I_ know. But, you foolish old father, how _can_ I? He is too faraway. "

Then she flung her arms about Israel's neck and kissed him. 

"There, " she cried, in a tone of one who settles differences, "I haveseen my _father_ anyway. "

It was hard to check her merriment, but Israel had to do it. He toldher, with many throbs in his throat, that she was not like othermaidens--not like her father, or Ali, or Fatimah, or Habeebah; that shewas a being afflicted of God; that there was something she had not got, something she could not do, a world she did not know, and had never yetso much as dreamt of. Darkness was more than cold and quiet, and lightwas more than warmth and noise. The one was day--day ruled by the fierysun in the sky--and the other was night, lit by the pale moon and thebright stars in heaven. And the face of man and the eyes of woman weremore than features to feel--they were spirit and soul, to watch and tofollow and to love without any hand being near them. 

"There is a great world about you, little one, " he said, "which you havenever seen, though you can hear it and feel it and speak to it. Yes, itis true, Naomi, it is true. You have never seen the mountains and thedangerous gullies on their rocky sides. You have never seen the mightydeep, and the storms that heave and swell in it. You have never seen manor woman or child. Is that very strange, little one? Listen: your motherdied nine years ago, and you had never seen her. Your father is holdingyour head in his hands at this moment, but you have never seen his face. And if the dark curtains were to fall from your eyes, and you were tosee him now, you would not know him from another man, or from woman, orfrom a tree. You are blind, Naomi, you are blind. "

Naomi listened intently. Her cheeks twitched, her fingers restednervously on her dress at her bosom, and her eyes grew large and solemn, and then filled with tears. Israel's throat swelled. To tell her of allthis, though he must needs do it for her safety, was like reproachingher with her infirmity. But it was only the trouble in her father'svoice that had found its way to the sealed chamber of Naomi's mind. The awful and crushing truth of her blindness came later to herconsciousness, probed in and thrust home by a frailer and lighter hand. 

She had always loved little children, and since the coming of herhearing she had loved them more than ever. Their lisping tongues, theirpretty broken speech, their simple words, their childish thoughts, allfitted with her own needs, for she was nothing but a child herself, though grown to be a lovely maid. And of all children those she lovedbest were not the children of the Jews, nor yet the children of theMoorish townsfolk, but the ragged, barefoot, black and olive-skinnedmites who came into Tetuan with the country Arabs and Berbers on marketmornings. They were simplest, their little tongues were liveliest, andthey were most full of joy and wonder. So she would gather them up intwos and threes and fours, on Wednesdays and Sundays, from the mouths oftheir tents on the Feddan, and carry them home by the hand. 

And there, in the patio, Ali had hung a swing of hempen rope, suspendedfrom a bar thrown from parapet to parapet, and on this Naomi would sportwith her little ones. She would be swinging in the midst of them, withone tiny black maiden on the seat beside her, and one little black manwith high stomach and shaven poll holding on to the rope behind her, andanother mighty Moor in a diminutive white jellab pushing at their feetin front, and all laughing together, or the children singing as theswing rose, and she herself listening with head aslant and all her fairhair rip-rip-rippling down her back and over her neck, and her smilingwhite face resting on her shoulder. 

It was a beautiful scene of sunny happiness, but out of it came thefirst great shadow of the blind girl's life. For it chanced one daythat one of the children--a tiny creature with a slice of the woman inher--brought a present for Naomi out of her mother's market-basket. It was a flower, but of a strange kind, that grew only in the distantmountains where lay the little black one's home. Naomi passed herfingers over it, and she did not know it. 

"What is it?" she asked. 

"It's blue, " said the child. 

"What is blue?" said Naomi

"Blue--don't you know?--blue!" said the child. 

"But what is blue?" Naomi asked again, holding the flower in herrestless fingers. 

"Why, dear me! can't you see?--blue--the flower, you know, " said thechild, in her artless way. 

Ali was standing by at the time, and he thought to come to Naomi'srelief. "Blue is a colour, " he said. 

"A colour?" said Naomi. 

"Yes, like--like the sea, " he added. 

"The sea? Blue? How?" Naomi asked. 

Ali tried again. "Like the sky, " he said simply. 

Naomi's face looked perplexed. "And what is the sky like?" she asked. 

At that moment her beautiful face was turned towards Ali's face, andher great motionless blue orbs seemed to gaze into his eyes. The lad waspressed hard, and he could not keep back the answer that leapt up to histongue. "Like, " he said--"like--"

"Well?"

"Like your own eyes, Naomi. "

By the old habit of her nervous fingers, she covered her eyes with herhands, as if the sense of touch would teach her what her other sensescould not tell. But the solemn mystery had dawned on her mind at last:that she was unlike others; that she was lacking something that everyone else possessed; that the little children who played with her knewwhat she could never know; that she was infirm, afflicted, cut off; thatthere was a strange and lovely and lightsome world lying round abouther, where every one else might sport and find delight, but that herspirit could not enter it, because she was shut off from it by the greathand of God. 

From that time forward everything seemed to remind her of heraffliction, and she heard its baneful voice at all times. Even herdreams, though they had no visions, were full of voices that told ofthem. If a bird sang in the air above her, she lifted her sightlesseyes. If she walked in the town on market morning and heard the din oftraffic--the cries of the dealers, the "Balak!" of the camel-men, the "Arrah!" of the muleteers, and the twanging ginbri of thestory-tellers--she sighed and dropped her head into her breast. Listening to the wind, she asked if it had eyes or was sightless; andhearing of the mountains that their snowy heads rose into the clouds, she inquired if they were blind, and if they ever talked together in thesky. 

But at the awful revelation of her blindness she ceased to be a child, and became a woman. In the week thereafter she had learned more of theworld than in all the years of her life before. She was no longera restless gleam of sunlight, a reckless spirit of joy, but a weak, patient, blind maiden, conscious of her great infirmity, humbled by it, and thinking shame of it. 

One afternoon, deserting the swing in the patio, she went out with thechildren into the fields. The day was hot, and they wandered far downthe banks and dry bed of the Marteel. And as they ran and raced, thelittle black people plucked the wild flowers, and called to the cattleand the sheep and the dogs, and whistled to the linnets that whistled totheir young. 

Thus the hours went on unheeded. The afternoon passed into evening, theevening into twilight, the twilight into early night. Then the air grewempty like a vault, and a solemn quiet fell upon the children, and theycrept to Naomi's side in fear, and took her hands and clung to hergown. She turned back towards the town, and as they walked in the doublesilence of their own hushed tongues and the songless and voicelessworld, the fingers of the little ones closed tightly upon her own. 

Then the children cried in terror, "See!"

"What is it?" said Naomi. 

The little ones could not tell her. It was only the noiseless summerlightning, but the children had never seen it before. With broad whiteflashes it lit up the land as far as from the bed of the river in thevalley to the white peaks of the mountains. At every flash the littlepeople shrieked in their fear, and there was no one there to comfortthem save Naomi only, and she was blind and could not see what they saw. With helpless hands she held to their hands and hurried home, over thedarkening fields, through the palpitating sheets of dazzling light, leading on, yet seeing nothing. 

But Israel saw Naomi's shame. The blindness which was a sense ofhumiliation to her became a sense of burning wrong to him. He had askedGod to give her speech, and had promised to be satisfied. "Give herspeech, O Lord, " he had cried, "speech that shall lift her above thecreatures of the field, speech whereby alone she may ask and know. " Butwhat was speech without sight to her who had always been blind? What wasall the world to one who had never seen it? Only as Paradise is to Man, who can but idly dream of its glories. 

Israel took back his prayer. There were things to know that words couldnever tell. Now was Naomi blind for the first time, being no longerdumb. "Give her sight, O Lord, " he cried; "open her eyes that she maysee; let her look on Thy beautiful world and know it! Then shall herlife be safe, and her heart be happy, and her soul be Thine, and Thyservant at last be satisfied!"

CHAPTER XVII

ISRAEL'S GREAT RESOLVE

It was six-and-twenty days since the night of the meeting on the Sok, and no rain had yet fallen. The eggs of the locust might be hatchedat any time. Then the wingless creatures would rise on the face of theearth like snow, and the poor lean stalks of wheat and barley that werecoming green out of the ground would wither before them. The countrypeople were in despair. They were all but stripped of their cattle; theyhad no milk; and they came afoot to the market. Death seemed to lookthem in the face. Neither in the mosques nor in the synagogues did theyoffer petitions to God for rain. They had long ceased their prayers. Only in the Feddan at the mouths of their tents did they lift up theirheavy eyes to the hot haze of the pitiless sky and mutter, "It iswritten!"

Israel was busy with other matters. During these six-and-twenty days hehad been asking himself what it was right and needful that he should do. He had concluded at length that it was his duty to give up the office heheld under the Kaid. No longer could he serve two masters. Too long hadhe held to the one, thinking that by recompense and restitution, by fairdealing and even-handed justice, he might atone to the other. Recompensewas a mockery of the sufferings which had led to death; restitution wasno longer possible--his own purse being empty--without robbery of thetreasury of his master; fair dealing and even justice were a vain hopein Barbary, where every man who held office, from the heartless Sultanin his hareem to the pert Mut'hasseb in the market, must be only as ahuman torture-jellab, made and designed to squeeze the life-blood out ofthe man beneath him. 

To endure any longer the taunts and laughter of Ben Aboo was impossible, and to resist the covetous importunities of his Spanish woman, Katrina, was a waste of shame and spirit. Besides, and above all, Israelremembered that God had given him grace in the sacrifices which he hadmade already. Twice had God rewarded him, in the mercy He had shown toNaomi, for putting by the pomp and circumstance of the world. WouldHis great hand be idle now--now when he most needed its mighty andmiraculous power when Naomi, being conscious of her blindness, wasmourning and crying for sweet sight of the world and he himself wasabout to put under his feet the last of his possessions that separatedhim from other men--his office that he wrought for in the early dayswith sweat of brow and blood, and held on to in the later days throughevil report and hatred, that he might conquer the fate that had firstbeaten him down!

Israel was in the way of bribing God again, forgetting, in the heatof his desire, the shame of his journey to Shawan. He made hispreparations, and they were few. His money was gone already, and so werehis dead wife's jewels. He had determined that he would keep his house, if only as a shelter to Naomi (for he owed something to her materialcomfort as well as her spiritual welfare), but that its furniture andbelongings were more luxurious than their necessity would require oraltered state allow. 

So he sold to a Jewish merchant in the Mellah the couches and greatchairs which he had bought out of England, as well as the carpetsfrom Rabat, the silken hangings from Fez, and the purple canopies fromMorocco city. When these were gone, and nothing remained but the simplerugs and mattresses which are all that the house of a poor man needs inthat land where the skies are kind, he called his servants to him as hesat in the patio--Ali as well as the two bondwomen--for he had decidedthat he must part with them also, and they must go their ways. 

"My good people, " he said, "you have been true and faithful servants tome this many a year--you, Fatimah, and you also, Habeebah, since beforethe days when my wife came to me--and you too, Ali, my lad, since yougrew to be big and helpful. Little I thought to part with you until mygood time should come; but my life in our poor Barbary is over already, and to-morrow I shall be less than the least of all men in Tetuan. Sothis is what I have concluded to do. You, Fatimah, and you, Habeebah, being given to me as bondwomen by the Kaid in the old days whenmy power, which now is little and of no moment, was great andnecessary--you belong to me. Well, I give you your liberty. Your papersare in the name of Ben Aboo, and I have sealed them with his seal--thatis the last use but one that I shall put it to. Here they are, both ofthem. Take them to the Kadi after prayers in the morning, and he willratify your title. Then you will be free women for ever after. "

The black women had more than once broken in upon Israel's words withexclamations of surprise and consternation. "Allah!" "Bismillah!" "HolySaints!" "By the beard of the Prophet!" And when at length he put thedeeds of emancipation into their hands they fell into loud fits ofhysterical weeping. 

"As for you, Ali, my son, " Israel continued, "I cannot give you yourfreedom, for you are a freeman born. You have been a son to me thesefourteen years. I have another task for you--a perilous task, a solemnduty--and when it is done I shall see you no more. My brave boy, youwill go far, but I do not fear for you. When you are gone I shall thinkof you; and if you should sometimes think of your old master who couldnot keep you, we may not always be apart. "

The lad had listened to these words in blank bewilderment. That strangedisasters had of late befallen their household was an idea that hadforced itself upon his unwilling mind. But that Israel, the greatest, noblest, mightiest man in the world--let the dogs of rasping Jews andthe scurvy hounds of Moors yelp and bark as they would--should fall tobe less than the least in Tetuan, and, having fallen that he shouldsend him away--him, Ali, his boy whom he had brought up, Naomi's oldplayfellow--Allah! Allah! in the name of the merciful God, what did hismaster mean?

Ali's big eyes began to fill, and great beads rolled down his blackcheeks. Then, recovering his speech he blurted out that he would not go. He would follow his father and serve him until the end of his life. Whatdid he want with wages? Who asked for any? No going his ways for him! Apretty thing, wasn't it, that he should go off, and never see his fatheragain, no, nor Naomi--Naomi--that-that--but God would show! God wouldshow!

And, following Ali's lead, Fatimah stepped up to Israel and offered herpaper back. "Take it, " she said; "I don't want any liberty. I've gotliberty enough as I am. And here--here, " fumbling in her waistband andbringing out a knitted purse; "I would have offered it before, only Ithought shame. My wages? Yes. You've paid us wages these nine years, haven't you; and what right had we to any, being slaves? You will nottake it, my lord? Well, then, my dear master, if I must go, if I mustleave you, take my papers and sell me to some one. I shall not care, and you have a right to do it. Perhaps I'll get another good master--whoknows?"

Her brows had been knitted, and she had tried to look stern and angry, but suddenly her cheeks were a flood of tears. 

"I'm a fool!" she cried. "I'll never get a good master again; but if Iget a bad one, and he beats me, I'll not mind, for I'll think ofyou, and my precious jewel of gold and silver, my pretty gazelle, Naomi--Allah preserve her!--that you took my money, and I'm bearing itfor both of you, as we might say--working for you--night and day--nightand day--"

Israel could endure no more. He rose up and fled out of the patiointo his own room, to bury his swimming face. But his soul was bigand triumphant. Let the world call him by what names it would--tyrant, traitor, outcast pariah--there were simple hearts that loved andhonoured him--ay, honoured him--and they were the hearts that knew himbest. 

The perilous task reserved for Ali was to go to Shawan and to liberatethe followers of Absalam, who, less happy than their leader, whosestrong soul was at rest, were still in prison without abatement ofthe miseries they lay under. He was to do this by power of a warrantaddressed to the Kaid of Shawan and drawn under the seal of the Kaid ofTetuan. Israel had drawn it, and sealed it also, without the knowledgeor sanction of Ben Aboo; for, knowing what manner of man Ben Aboo was, and knowing Katrina also, and the sway she held over him, and thinkingit useless to attempt to move either to mercy, he had determined to makethis last use of his office, at all risks and hazards. 

Ben Aboo might never hear that the people were at large, for Ali was toforbid them to return to Tetuan, and Shawan was sixty weary miles away. And if he ever did hear, Israel himself would be there to bear the bruntof his displeasure, but Ali the instrument of his design, must befar away. For when the gates of the prison had been opened, and theprisoners had gone free, Ali was neither to come back to Tetuan nor toremain in Morocco, but with the money that Israel gave him out of thelast wreck of his fortune he was to make haste to Gibraltar by wayof Ceuta, and not to consider his life safe until he had set foot inEngland. 

"England!" cried Ali. "But they are all white men there. "

"White-hearted men, my lad, " said Israel; "and a Jewish man may findrest for the sole of his foot among them. "

That same day the black boy bade farewell to Israel and to Naomi. He wasleaving them for ever, and he was broken-hearted. Israel was his father, Naomi was his sister, and never again should he set his eyes on either. But in the pride of his perilous mission he bore himself bravely. 

"Well, good-night, " he said, taking Naomi's hand, but not looking intoher blind face. 

"Good-night, " she answered, and then, after a moment, she flung her armsabout his neck and kissed him. He laughed lightly, and turned to Israel. 

"Good-night, father, " he said in a shrill voice. 

"A safe journey to you, my son, " said Israel; "and may you do all myerrands. "

"God burn my great-grandfather if I do not!" said Ali stoutly. 

But with that word of his country his brave bearing at length brokedown, and drawing Israel aside, that Naomi might not hear, he whispered, sobbing and stammering, "When--when I am gone, don't, don't tell herthat I was black. "

Then in an instant he fled away. 

"In peace!" cried Israel after him. "In peace! my brave boy, simple, noble, loyal heart!"

Next morning Israel, leaving Naomi at home, set off for the Kasbah, thathe might carry out his great resolve to give up the office he held underthe Kaid. And as he passed through the streets his head was held up, andhe walked proudly. A great burden had fallen from him, and his spiritwas light. The people bent their heads before him as he passed, andscowled at him when he was gone by. The beggars lying at the gate of theMosque spat over their fingers behind his back, and muttered "Bismillah!In the name of God!" A negro farmer in the Feddan, who was bent doubleover a hoof as he was shoeing a bony and scabby mule, lifted his uglyface, bathed in sweat, and grinned at Israel as he went along. Agroup of Reefians, dirty and lean and hollow-eyed, feeding theirgaunt donkeys, and glancing anxiously at the sky over the heads of themountains, snarled like dogs as he strode through their midst. The skywas overcast, and the heads of the mountains were capped with mist. "Balak!" sounded in Israel's ears from every side. "Arrah!" cameconstantly at his heels. A sweet-seller with his wooden tray swung infront of him, crying, "Sweets, all sweets, O my lord Edrees, sweets, all sweets, " changed the name of the patron saint of candies, and cried, "Sweets, all sweets, O my lord Israel, sweets, all sweets!" The girlselling clay peered up impudently into Israel's eyes, and the oven-boy, answering the loud knocking of the bodiless female arms thrust out atdoors standing ajar, made his wordless call articulate with a mockingecho of Israel's name. 

What matter? Israel could not be wroth with the poor people. Six-and-twenty years he had gone in and out among them as a slave. Thismorning he was a free man, and to-morrow he would be one of themselves. 

When he reached the Kasbah, there was something in the air about it thatbrought back recollections of the day--now nearly four years past--ofthe children's gathering at Katrina's festival. The lusty-lunged Arabssquatting at the gates among soldiers in white selhams and peakedshasheeahs the women in blankets standing in the outer court, the darkpassages smelling of damp, the gusts of heavy odour coming from theinner chambers, and the great patio with the fountain and fig-trees--thesame voluptuous air was over everything. And as on that day so on this, in the alcove under the horseshoe arch sat Ben Aboo and his Spanishwife. 

Time had dealt with them after their kind, and the swarthy face of theKaid was grosser, the short curls under his turban were more grey andhis hazel eyes were now streaked and bleared, but otherwise he was thesame man as before, and Katrina also, save for the loss of some teethof the upper row, was the same woman. And if the children had risen upbefore Israel's eyes as he stood on the threshold of the patio, he couldnot have drawn his breath with more surprise than at the sight of theman who stood that morning in their place. 

It was Mohammed of Mequinez. He had come to ask for the release ofthe followers of Absalam from their prison at Shawan. In defianceof courtesy his slippers were on his feet. He was clad in a piece ofuntanned camel-skin, which reached to his knees and was belted about hiswaist. His head, which was bare to the sun and drooped by nature like aflower, was held proudly up, and his wild eyes were flashing. He was notsupplicating for the deliverance of the people, but demanding it, andtaxing Ben Aboo as a tyrant to his throat. 

"Give me them up, Ben Aboo, " he was saying as Israel came to thethreshold, "or, if they die in their prison, one thing I promise you. "

"And pray what is that?" said Ben Aboo. 

"That there will be a bloody inquiry after their murderer. "

Ben Aboo's brows were knitted, but he only glanced at Katrina, and madepretence to laugh, and then said, "And pray, my lord, who shall themurderer be?"

Then Mohammed of Mequinez stretched out his hand and answered, "Yourself. "

At that word there-was silence for a moment, while Ben Aboo shifted inhis seat, and Katrina quivered beside him. 

Ben Aboo glanced up at Mohammed. He was Kaid, he was Basha, he wasmaster of all men within a circuit of thirty miles, but he was afraid ofthis man whom the people called a prophet. And partly out of this fear, and partly because he had more regard to Mohammed's courageous behaviourin thus bearding him in his Kasbah and by the walls of his dungeons thanto the anger his hot word had caused him, Ben Aboo would have promisedhim at that moment that the prisoners at Shawan should be released. 

But suddenly Katrina remembered that she also had cause of indignationagainst this man, for it had been rumoured of late that Mohammed hadopenly denounced her marriage. 

"Wait, Sidi, " she said. "Is not this the fellow that has gone up anddown your bashalic, crying out on our marriage that it was against thelaw of Mohammed?"

At that Ben Aboo saw clearly that there was no escape for him, so hemade pretence to laugh again, and said, "Allah! so it is! Mohammed theThird, eh? Son of Mequinez, God will repay you! Thanks! Thanks! Youcould never think how long I've waited that I might look face to faceupon the prophet that has denounced a Kaid. "

He uttered these big words between bursts of derisive laughter, butMohammed struck the laughter from his lips in an instant. "Wait nolonger, O Ben Aboo, " he cried, "but look upon him now, and know thatwhat you have done is an unclean thing, and you shall be childless anddie!"

Then Ben Aboo's passion mastered him. He rose to his feet in his anger, and cried, "Prophet, you have destroyed yourself. Listen to me! Theturbulent dogs you plead for shall lie in their prison until they perishof hunger and rot of their sores. By the beard of my father, I swearit!"

Mohammed did not flinch. Throwing back his head, he answered, "If I ama prophet, O Ben Aboo hear me prophesy. Before that which you say shallcome to pass, both you and your father's house will be destroyed. Neveryet did a tyrant go happily out of the world, and you shall go out of itlike a dog. "

Then Katrina also rose to her feet, and, calling to a group ofbarefooted Arab soldiers that stood near, she cried, "Take him! He willescape!"

But the soldiers did not move, and Ben Aboo fell back on his seat, andMohammed, fearing nothing, spoke again. 

"In a vision of last night I saw you, O Ben Aboo and for the contemptyou had cast upon our holy laws, and for the destruction you had wroughton our poor people, the sword of vengeance had fallen upon you. Andwithin this very court, and on that very spot where your feet now rest, your whole body did lie; and that woman beside you lay over you wailingand your blood was on her face and on her hands, and only she was withyou, for all else had forsaken you--all save one, and that was yourenemy, and he had come to see you with his eyes, and to rejoice over youwith his heart, because you were fallen and dead. "

Then, in the creeping of his terror, Ben Aboo rose up again and reeledbackward and his eyes were fixed steadfastly downward at his feet wherethe eyes of Mohammed had rested. It was almost as if he saw the awfulthing of which Mohammed had spoken, so strong was the power of thevision upon him. 

But recovering himself quickly, he cried, "Away! In the name of God, away!"

"I will go, " said Mohammed; "and beware what you do while I am gone. "

"Do you threaten me?" cried Ben Aboo. "Will you go to the Sultan? Willyou appeal to Abd er-Rahman?"

"No, Ben Aboo; but to God. "

So saying, Mohammed of Mequinez strode out of the place, for no manhindered him. Then Ben Aboo sank back on to his seat as one that wasspeechless, and nothing had the crimson on his body availed him, or thesilver on his breast, against that simple man in camel-skin, who ownednothing and asked nothing, and feared neither Kaid nor King. 

When Ben Aboo had regained himself, he saw Israel standing at thedoorway, and he beckoned to him with the downward motion, which is theMoorish manner. And rising on his quaking limbs he took him aside andsaid, "I know this fellow. Ya Allah! Allah! For all his vaunts andvisions he has gone to Abd er-Rahman. God will show! God will show! Idare not take him! Abd er-Rahman uses him to spy and pry on his Bashas!Camel-skin coat? Allah! a fine disguise! Bismillah! Bismillah!"

Then, looking back at the place where Mohammed in the vision saw hisbody lie outstretched, he dropped his voice to a whisper, and said, "Listen! You have my seal?"

Israel without a word, put his hand into the pocket of his waistband, and drew out the seal of Ben Aboo. 

"Right! Now hear me, in the name of the merciful God. Do not liberatethese infidel dogs at Shawan and do not give them so much as bread toeat or water to drink, but let such as own them feed them. And if everthe thing of which that fellow has spoken should come to pass--do youhear?--in the hour wherein it befalls--Allah preserve me!--in that hourdraw a warrant on the Kaid of Shawan and seal it with my seal--are youlistening?--a warrant to put every man, woman, and child to the sword. Ya Allah! Allah! We will deal with these spies of Abd er-Rahman!So shall there be mourning at my burial--Holy Saints! HolySaints!--mourning, I say, among them that look for joy at my death. "

Thus in a quaking voice, sometimes whispering, and again breaking intoloud exclamations, Ben Aboo in his terror poured his broken words intoIsrael's ear. 

Israel made no answer. His eyes had become dim--he scarcely saw thewalls of the place wherein they stood. His ears had become dense--hescarcely heard the voice of Ben Aboo, though the Kaid's hot breath wasbeating upon his cheek. But through the haze he saw the shadow of onefigure tramping furiously to and fro, and through the thick air thevoice of another figure came muffled and harsh. For Katrina, havingchased away with smiles the evil looks of Ben Aboo, had turned to Israeland was saying--

"What is this I hear of your beautiful daughter--this Naomi ofyours--that she has recovered her speech and hearing! When did thathappen, pray? No answer? Ah, I see, you are tired of the deception. Youkept it up well between you. But is she still blind? So? Dear me! Blind, poor child. Think of it!"

Israel neither answered nor looked up, but stood motionless on thesame place, holding the seal in his hand. And Ben Aboo, in his restlesstramping up and down, came to him again, and said, "Why are you a Jew, Israel ben Oliel? The dogs of your people hate you. Witness to theProphet! Resign yourself! Turn Muslim, man--what's to hinder you?"

Still Israel made no reply. But Ben Aboo continued: "Listen! The peopleabout me are in the pay of the Sultan, and after all you are the bestservant I have ever had. Say the Kelmah, and I'll make you my Khaleefa. Do you hear?--my Khaleefa, with power equal to my own. Man, why don'tyou speak? Are you grown stupid of late as well as weak and womanish?"

CHAPTER XVIII

THE LIGHT-BORN MESSENGER

"Basha, " said Israel--he spoke slowly and quietly; but with forcedcalmness--"Basha, you must seek another hand for work like that--thishand of mine shall never seal that warrant. "

"Tut, man!" whispered Ben Aboo. "Do your new measles break outeverywhere? Am I not Kaid? Can I not make you my Khaleefa?"

Israel's face was worn and pale, but his eye burned with the fire of hisgreat resolve. 

"Basha, " he said again calmly and quietly, "if you were Sultan and couldmake me your Vizier, I would not do it. "

"Why?" cried Ben Aboo; "why? why?"

"Because, " said Israel, "I am here to deliver up your seal to you. "

"You? Grace of God!" cried Ben Aboo. 

"I am here, " continued Israel, as calmly as before, "to resign myoffice. "

"Resign your office? Deliver up your seal?" cried Ben Aboo. "Man, man, are you mad?"

"No, Basha, not to-day, " said Israel quietly. "I must have been thatwhen I came here first, five-and-twenty years ago. "

Ben Aboo gnawed his lip and scowled darkly, and in the flush of hisanger, his consternation being over, he would have fallen upon Israelwith torrents of abuse, but that he was smitten suddenly by a new andterrible thought. Quivering and trembling, and muttering short prayersunder his breath, he recoiled from the place where Israel stood, andsaid, "There is something under all this? What is it? Let me think! Letme think!"

Meantime the face of Katrina beneath its covering of paint had grownwhite, and in scarcely smothered tones of wrath, by the swift instinctof a suspicious nature, she was asking herself the same question, "Whatdoes it mean? What does it mean?"

In another moment Ben Aboo had read the riddle his own way. "Wait!" hecried, looking vainly for help and answer into the faces of his peopleabout him. "Who said that when he was away from Tetuan he went to Fez?The Sultan was there then. He had just come up from Soos. That's it! Iknew it! The man is like all the rest of them. Abd er-Rahman has boughthim. Allah! Allah! What have I done that every soul that eats my breadshould spy and pry on me?"

Satisfied with this explanation of Israel's conduct, Ben Aboo waited forno further assurance, but fell to a wild outburst of mingled prayers andprotests. "O Giver of Good to all! O Creator! It is Abd er-Rahman again. Ya Allah! Ya Allah! Or else his rapacious satellites--his thieves, his robbers, his cut-throats! That bloated Vizier! That leprous Naibes-Sultan! Oh, I know them. Bismillah! They want to fleece me. They wantto squeeze me of my little wealth--my just savings--my hard earningsafter my long service. Curse them! Curse their relations! O Merciful! OCompassionate! They'll call it arrears of taxes. But no, by the beard ofmy father, no! Not one feels shall they have if I die for it. I'm an oldsoldier--they shall torture me. Yes, the bastinado, the jellab--but I'llstand firm! Allah! Allah! Bismillah! Why does Abd er-Rahman hate me?It's because I'm his brother--that's it, that's it! But I've never risenagainst him. Never, never! I've paid him all! All! I tell you I've paideverything. I've got nothing left. You know it yourself, Israel, youknow it. "

Thus, in the crawling of his fear he cried with maudlin tears, pleadedand entreated and threatened fumbling meantime the beads of his rosaryand tramping nervously to and fro about the patio until he drew upat length, with a supplicating look, face to face with Israel. And ifanything had been needed to fix Israel to his purpose of withdrawing forever from the service of Ben Aboo, he must have found it in this pitifulspectacle of the Kaid's abject terror, his quick suspicion, his basedisloyalty, and rancorous hatred of his own master, the Sultan. 

But, struggling to suppress his contempt, Israel said, speaking asslowly and calmly as at first, "Basha, have no fear; I have not soldmyself to Abd er-Rahman. It is true that I was at Fez--but not to seethe Sultan. I have never seen him. I am not his spy. He knows nothingof me. I know nothing of him, and what I am doing now is being done formyself alone. "

Hearing this, and believing it, for, liars and prevaricators as were theother men about him, Israel had never yet deceived him, Ben Aboo madewhat poor shift he could to cover his shame at the sorry weakness hehad just betrayed. And first he gazed in a sort of stupor into Israel'ssteadfast face; and then he dropped his evil eyes, and laughed in scornof his own words, as if trying to carry them off by a silly show ofbraggadocio, and to make believe that they had been no more than ahumorous pretence, and that no man would be so simple as to think he hadtruly meant them. But, after this mockery, he turned to Israel again, and, being relieved of his fears, he fell back to his savage mood oncemore, without disguise and without shame. 

"And pray, sir, " said he, with a ghastly smile, "what riches have yougathered that you are at last content to hoard no more?"

"None, " said Israel shortly. 

Ben Aboo laughed lustily, and exchanged looks of obvious meaning withKatrina. 

"And pray, again, " he said, with a curl of the lip, "without office andwithout riches how may you hope to live?"

"As a poor man among poor men, " said Israel, "serving God and trustingto His mercy. "

Again Ben Aboo laughed hoarsely, and Katrina joined him, but Israelstood quiet and silent, and gave no sign. 

"Serving God is hard bread, " said Ben Aboo. 

"Serving the devil is crust!" said Israel. 

At that answer, though neither by look nor gesture had Israel pointedit, the face of Ben Aboo became suddenly discoloured and stern. 

"Allah! What do you mean?" he cried. "Who are you that you dare wag yourinsolent tongue at me?"

"I am your scapegoat, Basha, " said Israel, with an awful calm--"yourscapegoat, who bears your iniquities before the eyes of your people. Your scapegoat, who sins against them and oppresses them and brings themby bitter tortures to the dust and death. That's what I am, Basha, andhave long been, shame upon me! And while I am down yonder in the streetsamong your people--hated, reviled, despised, spat upon, cut off--you areup here in the Kasbah above them, in honour and comfort and wealth, andthe mistaken love of all men. "

While Israel said this, Ben Aboo in his fury came down upon him from theopposite side of the patio with a look of a beast of prey. His swarthycheeks were drawn hard, his little bleared eyes flashed, his heavy noseand thick lips and massive jaw quivered visibly, and from under histurban two locks of iron-grey fell like a shaggy mane over his ears. 

But Israel did not flinch. With a look of quiet majesty, standing faceto face with the tyrant, not a foot's length between them, he spokeagain and said, "Basha, I do not envy you, but neither will I share yourbusiness nor your rewards. I mean to be your scapegoat no more. Here isyour seal. It is red with the blood of your unhappy people through thesefive-and-twenty bad years past. I can carry it no longer. Take it. "

In a tempest of wrath Ben Aboo struck the seal out of Israel's hand ashe offered it, and the silver rolled and rang on the tiled pavement ofthe patio. 

"Fool!" he cried. "So this is what it is! Allah! In the name of the mostmerciful God, who would have believed it? Israel ben Oliel a prophet! Aprophet of the poor! O Merciful! O Compassionate!"

Thus, in his frenzy, pretending to imitate with airs of manifest mockeryhis outbreak of fear a few minutes before, Ben Aboo raved and raged andlifted his clenched fist to the sky in sham imprecation of God. 

"Who said it was the Sultan?" he cried again. "He was a fool. Abder-Rahman? No; but Mohammed of Mequinez! Mohammed the Third! That's it!That's it!"

So saying, and forgetting in his fury what he had said before ofMohammed himself, he laughed wildly, and beat about the patio from sideto side like a caged and angry beast. 

"And if I am a tyrant, " he said in a thick voice, "who made me so? IfI oppress the poor, who taught me the way to do it? Whose clever braindevised new means of revenue? Ransoms, promissory notes, bonds, falsejudgments--what did I know of such things? Who changed the silverdollars at nine ducats apiece? And who bought up the debts of the peoplethat murmured against such robbery? Allah! Allah! Whose crafty headdid all this? Why, yours--yours--Israel ben Oliel! By the beard of theProphet, I swear it!"

Israel stood unmoved, and when these reproaches were hurled at him, heanswered calmly and sadly, "God's ways are not our ways, neither areHis thoughts our thoughts. He works His own will, and we are but Hisministers. I thought God's justice had failed, but it has overtakenmyself. For what I did long ago of my own free will and intention tooppress the poor, I have suffered and still am suffering. "

All this time the Spanish wife of Ben Aboo had sat in the alcove withlips whitening under their crimson patches of paint, beating her fanrestlessly on the empty air, and breathing rapid and audible breath. Andnow, at this last word of Israel, though so sadly spoken, and so solemnin its note of suffering, she broke into a trill of laughter, and saidlightly, "Ah! I thought your love of the poor was young. Not yet cut itsteeth, poor thing! A babe in swaddling clothes, eh? When was it born?"

"About the time that you were, madam, " said Israel, lifting his heavyeyes upon her. 

At that her lighter mood gave place to quick anger. "Husband, " shecried, turning upon Ben Aboo with the bitterness of reproach, "I hopeyou now see that I was right about this insolent old man. I told youfrom the first what would come of him. But no, you would have your ownfoolish way. It was easy to see that the devil's dues were in him. Yetyou would not believe me! You would believe him. Simpleton as you are, you are believing him now! The poor? Fiddle-faddle and fiddlesticks! Itell you again this man is trying to put his foot on your neck. How? Oh, trust him, he's got his own schemes! Look to it, El Arby, look to it!He'll be master in Tetuan yet!"

Saying this, she had wrought herself up to a pitch of wrath, sometimeslaughing wildly, and then speaking in a voice that was like an angrycry. And now, rising to her feet and facing towards the Arab soldiers, who stood aside in silence and wonder, she cried, "Arabs, Berbers, Moors, Christians, fight as you will, follow the Basha as you may, you'll lie in the same bed yet! But where? Under the heels of the Jew!"

A hoarse murmur ran from lip to lip among the men, and the ghostly smilecame back into the face of Ben Aboo. 

"You must be right, " he said, "you must be right! Ya Allah! Ya Allah!This is the dog that I picked out of the mire. I found him a beggar, andI gave him wealth. An impostor, a personator, a cheat, and I gave himplace and rank. When he had no home, I housed him, and when he couldfind no one to serve him, I gave him slaves. I have banished hisenemies, and imprisoned those he hated. After his wife had died, andnone came near him, and he was left to howk out her grave with his ownhands, I gave him prisoners to bury her, and when he was done with themI set them free. All these years I have heaped fortune upon him. YaAllah! His master! No, but his servant, doing his will at the lifting ofhis finger. And all for what? For this! For this! For this! Ingrate!" hecried in his thick voice, turning hotly upon Israel again, "if you mustgive up your seal, why should you do it like a fool? Could you not cometo me and say, 'Kaid, I am old and weary; I am rich, and have enough; Ihave served you long and faithfully; let me rest'--why not? I say, whynot?"

Israel answered calmly, "Because it would have been a lie, Basha. "

"So it would, " cried Ben Aboo sharply, "so it would: you are right--itwould have been a lie, an accursed lie! But why must you come to me andsay, 'Basha, you are a tyrant, and have made me a tyrant also; you havesucked the blood of your people, and made me to drink it. "

"Because it is true, Basha, " said Israel. 

At that Ben-Aboo stopped suddenly, and his swarthy face grew hideous andawful. Then, pointing with one shaking hand at the farther end of thepatio, he said, "There is another thing that is true. It is true that onthe other side of that wall there is a prison, " and, lifting his voiceto a shriek, he added, "you are on the edge of a gulf, Israel ben Oliel. One step more--"

But just at that moment Israel turned full upon him, face to face, andthe threat that he was about to utter seemed to die in his stiflingthroat. If only he could have provoked Israel to anger he might havehad his will of him. But that slow, impassive manner, and that worncountenance so noble in sadness and suffering, was like a rebuke of hispassion, and a retort upon his words. 

And truly it seemed to Israel that against the Basha's story of hisingratitude he could tell a different tale. This pitiful slave ofrage and fear, this thing of rags and patches, this whining, maudlin, shrieking, bleating, barking-creature that hurled reproaches at him, wasthe master in whose service he had spent his best brain and best blood. But for the strong hand that he had lent him, but for the cool headwherewith he had guarded him, where would the man be now? In thedungeons of Abd er-Rahman, having gone thither by way of the Sultan'swooden jellabs and his houses of fierce torture. By the mind's eyeIsrael could see him there at that instant--sightless, eyeless, hungry, gaunt. But no, he was still here--fat, sleek, voluptuous, imperious. Andgood men lay perishing in his prisons, and children, starved to death, lay in their graves, and he himself, his servant and scapegoat, whosebrains he had drained, whose blood he had sweated, stood before himthere like an old lion, who had been wandering far and was beaten backby his cubs. 

But what matter? He could silence the Basha with a word; yet why shouldhe speak it? Twenty times he had saved this man, who could neitherread nor write nor reckon figures, from the threatened penalties of theShereefean Court, and he could count them all up to him; yet why shouldhe do so? Through five-and-twenty evil years he had built up this man'shouse; yet why should he boast of what was done, being done so foully?He had said his say, and it was enough. This hour of insult and outragehad been written on his forehead, and he must have come to it. Thencourage! courage!

"Husband, " cried the woman, showing her toothless jaw in a bitter smileto Ben Aboo as he crossed the patio, "you must scour this vermin out ofTetuan!"

"You are right, " he answered. "By Allah, you are right! And henceforth Iwill be served by soldiers, not by scribblers. "

Then, wheeling about once more to where Israel stood, he said in a voiceof mockery, "Master, my lord, my Sultan, you came to resign your office?But you shall do more than that. You shall resign your house as well, and all that's in it, and leave this town as a beggar. "

Israel stood unmoved. "As you will, " he said quietly. 

"Where are the two women--the slaves?" asked Ben Aboo. 

"At home, " said Israel. 

"They are mine, and I take them back, " said Ben Aboo. 

Israel's face quivered, and he seemed to be about to protest, but heonly drew a longer breath, and said again, "As you will, Basha. "

Ben Aboo's voice gathered vehemence at every fresh question. "Whereis your money?" he cried; "the money that you have made out of myservice--out of me--_my_ money--where is it?"

"Nowhere, " said Israel. 

"It's a lie--another lie!" cried Ben Aboo. "Oh yes, I've heard of yourcharities, master. They were meant to buy over my people, were they?Were they? Were they, I ask?"

"So you say, Basha, " said Israel. 

"So I know!" cried Ben Aboo; "but all you had is not gone that way. You're a fool, but not fool enough for that! Give up your keys--the keysof your house!"

Israel hesitated, and then said, "Let me return for a minute--it is allI ask. "

At that the woman laughed hysterically. "Ah! he has something left afterall!" she cried. 

Israel turned his slow eyes upon her, and said, "Yes, madam, I _have_something left--after all. "

Paying no heed to the reply, Katrina cried to Ben Aboo again, saying, "El Arby, make him give up the key of that house. He has treasurethere!"

"It is true, madam, " said Israel; "it is true that I have a treasurethere. My daughter--my little blind Naomi. "

"Is that all?" cried Katrina and Ben Aboo together. 

"It is all, " said Israel, "but it is enough. Let me fetch her. "

"Don't allow it!" cried Katrina. 

Israel's face betrayed feeling. He was struggling to suppress it. "Makeme homeless if you will, " he said, "turn me like a beggar out of yourtown, but let me fetch my daughter. "

"She'll not thank you, " cried Katrina. 

"She loves me, " said Israel, "I am growing old, I am numbering the stepsof death. I need her joyous young life beside me in my declining age. Then, she is helpless, she is blind, she is my scapegoat, Basha, as I amyours, and no one save her father--"

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Israel had spoken warmly, and at the tender fibres of feeling that hadbeen forced out of him at last the woman was laughing derisively. "Trustme, " she cried, "I know what daughters are. Girls like better things. No, I'll give her what will be more to her taste. She shall stay herewith me. "

Israel drew himself up to his full height and answered, "Madam, I wouldrather see her dead at my feet. "

Then Ben Aboo broke in and said, "Don't wag your tongue at yourmistress, sir. "

"_Your_ mistress, Basha, " said Israel; "not mine. "

At that word Katrina, with all her evil face aflame came sweeping downupon Israel, and struck him with her fan on the forehead. He did notflinch or speak. The blow had burst the skin, and a drop of bloodtrickled over the temple on to the cheek. There was a short deep pause. 

Then the hard tension of silence was broken by a faint cry. It came frombehind, from the doorway; it was the voice of a girl. 

In the blank stupor of the moment, every eye being on the two that stoodin the midst, no one had observed until then that another had enteredthe patio. It was Naomi. How long she had been there no one knew, andhow she had come unnoticed through the corridors out of the streetsscarce any one--even when time sufficed to arrange the scatteredthoughts of the Makhazni, the guard at the gate--could clearly tell. Shestood under the arch, with one hand at her breast, which heaved visiblywith emotion, and the other hand stretched out to touch the openiron-clamped door, as if for help and guidance. Her head was held up, her lips were apart, and her motionless blind eyes seemed to starewildly. She had heard the hot words. She had heard the sound of the blowthat followed them. Her father was smitten! Her father! Her father!It was then that she uttered the cry. All eyes turned to her. Quaking, reeling, almost falling, she came tottering down the patio. Soul andsense seemed to be struggling together in her blind face. What did itall mean? What was happening? Her fixed eyes stared as if they mustburst the bonds that bound them, and look and see, and know!

At that moment God wrought a mighty work, a wondrous change, such as Hehas brought to pass but twice or thrice since men were born blind intoHis world of light. In an instant, at a thought, by one spontaneousflash, as if the spirit of the girl tore down the dark curtains whichhad hung for seventeen years over the windows of her eyes, Naomi saw!

They all knew it at once. It seemed to them as if every feature of thegirl's face had leapt into her eyes; as if the expression of her lips, her brow, her nostrils, had sprung to them: as if her face, so fairbefore, so full of quivering feeling, must have been nothing until thenbut a blank. Nay, but they seemed to see her now for the first time. This, only this, was she!

And to Naomi also, at that moment, it was almost as if she had beennewly born into life. She was meeting the world at last face to face, eye to eye. Into her darkened chamber, that had never known the light, everything had entered at a blow--the white glare of the sun, theblue sky, the tiled patio, the faces of the Kaid and his wife and hissoldiers, and of the old man also, with the unshed tears hanging on thefringe of his eyelid. She could not realise the marvel. She did not knowwhat vision was. She had not learned to see. Her trembling soul had goneout from its dark chamber and met the mighty light in his mansion. "Oh!oh!" she cried, and stood bewildered and helpless in the midst. Thepicture of the world seemed to be falling upon her, and she covered hereyes with her hands, that she might abolish it altogether. 

Israel saw everything. "Naomi!" he cried in a choking voice, andstretched out his hands to her. Then she uncovered her eyes, and looked, and paused and hesitated. 

"Naomi!" he cried again, and made a step towards her. She covered hereyes once more that she might shut out the stranger they showed her, andonly listen to the voice that she knew so well. Then she staggered intoher father's arms. And Israel's heart was big, and he gathered her tohis breast, and, turning towards the woman, he said, "Madam, we arein the hands of God. Look! See! He has sent His angel to protect Hisservant. "

Meantime, Ben Aboo was quaking with fear. He too, saw the finger of Godin the wondrous thing which had come to pass. And, falling back on hismaudlin mood, he muttered prayers beneath his breath, as he had donebefore when the human majesty, the Sultan Abd er-Rahman, was the objectof his terror. "O Giver of good to all! What is this? Allah save us!Bismillah! Is it Allah or the Jinoon? Merciful! Compassionate! Curses onthem both! Allah! Allah!"

The soldiers were affected by the fears of the Basha, and they huddledtogether in a group. But Katrina fell to laughing. 

"Brava!" she cried. "Brava! Oh! a brave imposture! What did I say longago? Blind? No more blind than you were! But a pretty pretence! Wellacted! Very well acted! Brava! Brava!"

Thus she laughed and mocked, and the Basha, hearing her, took shame ofhis crawling fears, and made a poor show of joining her. 

Israel heard them, and for a moment, seeing how they made sport ofNaomi, a fire was kindled in his anger that seemed to come up from thelowest hell. But he fought back the passion that was mastering him, andat the next instant the laughter had ceased, and Ben Aboo was saying--

"Guards, take both of them. Set the man on an ass, and let the girl walkbarefoot before him; and let a crier cry beside them, 'So shall it bedone to every man who is an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman whois a play-actor and a cheat!' Thus let them pass through the streets andthrough the people until they are come to a gate of the town, and thencast them forth from it like lepers and like dogs!"

CHAPTER XIX

THE RAINBOW SIGN

While this bad work had been going forward in the Kasbah a greatblessing had fallen on the town. The long-looked for, hoped for, prayedfor--the good and blessed rain--had come at last. In gentle drops likedew it had at first been falling from the rack of dark cloud which hadgathered over the heads of the mountains, and now, after half an hour ofsuch moisture, the sky over the town was grey, and the rain was pouringdown like a flood. 

Oh! the joy of it, the sweetness, the freshness, the beauty, the odour!The air overhead, which had been dense with dust, was clearing andwhitening as if the water washed it. And the ground underfoot, whichhad reeked of creeping and crawling things, was running like a wholesomeriver, and bearing back to the lips a taste as of the sea. 

And the people of the town, in their surprise and gladness at thefalling of the rain, had come out of their houses to meet it. Thestreets and the marketplace were full of them. In childish joy theywandered up and down in the drenching flood, without fear or thoughtof harm, with laughing eyes and gleaming white teeth, holding out theirpalms to the rain and drinking it. Hailing each other in the voices ofboys, jesting and shouting and singing, to and fro they went and camewithout aim or direction. The Jews trooped out of the Mellah, chatteringlike jays, and the Moors at the gate salaamed to them. Mule-driverscried "Balak" in tones that seemed to sing; gunsmiths and saddle-makerssat idle at their doors, greeting every one that passed; solemn Talebsstood in knots, with faces that shone under the closed hoods of theirdark jellabs; and the bareheaded Berbers encamped in the market-squarecapered about like flighty children, grinned like apes, fired their longguns into the air for love of hearing the powder speak, often wept, andsometimes embraced each other, thinking of their homes that were faraway. 

Now, it was just when the town was alive with this strange scene thatthe procession which had been ordered by Ben Aboo came out fromthe Kasbah. At the head of it walked a soldier, staff in hand andgorgeous--notwithstanding the rain--in peaked shasheeah and crimsonselham. Behind him were four black police, and on either side of thecompany were two criers of the street, each carrying a short stafffestooned with strings of copper coin, which he rattled in the air for abell. Between these came the victims of the Basha's order--Naomi first, barefooted, bareheaded, stripped of all but the last garment thathid her nakedness, her head held down, her face hidden, and her eyesclosed--and Israel afterwards, mounted on a lean and ragged ass. Afurther guard of black police walked at the back of all. Thus they camedown the steep arcades into the market-square, where the greater body ofthe townspeople had gathered together. 

When the people saw them, they made for them, hastening in crowds fromevery side of the Feddan, from every adjacent alley, every shop, tent, and booth. And when they saw who the prisoners were they burst into loudexclamations of surprise. 

"Ya Allah! Israel the Jew!" cried the Moors. 

"God of Jacob, save us! Israel ben Oliel!" cried the people of theMellah. 

"What is it? What has happened? What has befallen them?" they all askedtogether. 

"Balak!" cried the soldier in front, swinging his staff before him toforce a passage through the thronging multitude. "Attention! By yourleave! Away! Out of the way!"

And as they walked the criers chanted, "So shall it be done to every manwho is an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor anda cheat. "

When the people had recovered from their consternation they began tolook black into each other's face, to mutter oaths between their teeth, and to say in voices of no pity or rush, "He deserved it!" "Ya Allah, but he's well served!" "Holy Saints, we knew what it would come to!""Look at him now!" "There he is at last!" "Brave end to all his greatdoings!" "Curse him! Curse him!"

And over the muttered oaths and pitiless curses, the yelping and barkingof the cruel voices of the crowd, as the procession moved along, camestill the cry of the crier, "So shall it be done to every man who is anenemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor and a cheat. "

Then the mood of the multitude changed. The people began to titter, and after that to laugh openly. They wagged their heads at Israel; theyderided him; they made merry over his sorry plight. Where he was nowhe seemed to be not so much a fallen tyrant as a silly sham and animposture. Look at him! Look at his bony and ragged ass! Ya Allah! Tothink that they had ever been afraid of him!

As the procession crossed the market-place, a woman who was enveloped ina blanket spat at Israel as he passed. Then it was come to the door ofthe Mosque, an old man, a beggar, hobbled through the crowd and struckIsrael with the back of his hand across the face. The woman had lost herhusband and the man his son by death sentences of Ben Aboo. Israelhad succoured both when he went about on his secret excursions afternightfall in the disguise of a Moor. 

"Balak! Balak!" cried the soldier in front, and still the chant of thecrier rang out over all other noises. 

At every step the throng increased. The strong and lusty bore down theweak in the struggle to get near to the procession. Blind beggars andfeeble cripples who could not see or stir shouted hideous oaths atIsrael from the back of the crowd. 

As the procession went past the gates of the Mellah, two companies cameout into the town. The one was a company of soldiers returning tothe Kasbah after sacking and wrecking Israel's house; the other was acompany of old Jews, among whom were Reuben Maliki, Abraham Pigman, andJudah ben Lolo. At the advent of the three usurers a new impulse seizedthe people. They pretended to take the procession for a triumphalprogress--the departure of a Kaid, a Shereef, a Sultan. The soldierand police fell into the humour of the multitude. Salaams were madeto Israel; selhams were flung on the ground before the feet of Naomi. Reuben Maliki pushed through the crowd, and walked backward, and cried, in his harsh, nasal croak--

"Brothers of Tetuan, behold your benefactor! Make way for him! Make way!make way!"

Then there were loud guffaws, and oaths, and cries like the cry of thehyena. Last of all, old Abraham Pigman handed over the people's heads ahuge green Spanish umbrella to a negro farrier that walked within; andthe black fellow, showing his white teeth in a wide grim, held it overIsrael's head. 

Then from fifty rasping throats came mocking cries. 

"God bless our Lord!"

"Saviour of his people!"

"Benefactor! King of men!"

And over and between these cries came shrieks and yells of laughter. 

All this time Israel had sat motionless on his ass, neither showinghumiliation nor fear. His face was worn and ashy, but his eyes burnedwith a piteous fire. He looked up and saw everything; saw himself mockedby the soldier and the crier, insulted by the Muslimeen, derided by theJews, spat upon and smitten by the people whose hungry mouths he had fedwith bread. Above all, he saw Naomi going before him in her shame, andat that sight his heart bled and his spirit burred. And, thinking thatit was he who had brought her to this ignominy, he sometimes yearned toreach her side and whisper in her ear, and say, "Forgive me, my child, forgive me. " But again he conquered the desire, for he rememberedwhat God had that day done for her; and taking it for a sign of God'spleasure, and a warranty that he had done well, he raised his eyes onher with tears of bitter joy, and thought, in the wild fever of hissoul, "She is sharing the triumph of my humiliation. She is walkingthrough the mocking and jeering crowd, but see! God Himself is walkingbeside her!"

The procession had now come to the walled lane to the Bab Toot, the gategoing out to Tangier and to Shawan. There the way was so narrow and theconcourse so great that for a moment the procession was brought to astand. Seizing this opportunity, Reuben Maliki stepped up to Israel andsaid, so that all might hear, "Look at the crowds that have come out tospeed you, O saviour of your people! Look! look! We shall all rememberthis day!"

"So you shall!" cried Israel. "Until your days of death you shall allremember it!"

He had not spoken before, and some of the Moors tried to laugh at hisanswer; but his voice, which was like a frenzied cry, went to the heartsof the Jews, and many of them fell away from the crowd straightway, andfollowed it no farther. It was the cry of the voice of a brother. Theyhad been insulting calamity itself. 

"Balak!" shouted the soldier, and the crier cried once more, and theprocession moved again. 

It was the hour of Israel's last temptation. Not a glance in his facedisclosed passion, but his heart was afire. The devil seemed to bejarring at his ear, "Look! Listen! Is it for people like these that youhave come to this? Were they worth the sacrifice? You might have beenrich and great, and riding on their heads. They would have honoured youthen, but now they despise you. Fool! You have sold all and given to thepoor, and this is the end of it. " But in the throes and last gasp of hisagony, hearing his voice in his ear, and seeing Naomi going barefootedon the stones before him, an angel seemed to come to him and whisper, "Be strong. Only a little longer. Finish as you have begun. Well done, servant of God, well done!"

He did not flinch, but rode on without a word or a cry. Once he liftedhis head and looked down at the steaming, gaping, grinning cauldronof faces black and white. "O pity of men!" he thought. "What devil istempting _them_?"

By this time the procession had come to the town walls at a point nearto the Bab Toot. No one had observed until then that the rain was nolonger falling, but now everybody was made aware of this at once bysight of a rainbow which spanned the sky to the north-west immediatelyover the arch of the gate. 

Israel saw the rainbow, and took it for a sign. It was God's hand in theheavens. To this gate then, and through it, out of Tetuan, into the landbeyond--the plains, the hills, the desert where no man was wronged--GodHimself, and not these people, had that day been leading them!

What happened next Israel never rightly knew. His proper sense of lifeseemed lost. Through thick waves of hot air he heard many voices. 

First the voice of the crier, "So shall it be done to every man whois an enemy of the Kaid, and to every woman who is a play-actor and acheat. "

Then the voice of the soldier, "Balak! Balak!"

After that a multitudinous din that seemed to break off sharply and thento come muffled and dense as from the other side of the closed gate. 

When Israel came to himself again he was walking on a barren heath thatwas dotted over with clumps of the long aloe, and he was holding Naomiby the hand. 

CHAPTER XX

LIFE'S NEW LANGUAGE

Two days after they had been cast out of Tetuan, Israel and Naomi weresettled in a little house that stood a day's walk to the north of thetown, about midway between the village of Semsa and the fondak whichlies on the road to Tangier. From the hour wherein the gates had closedbehind them, everything had gone well with both. The country people wholay encamped on the heath outside had gathered around and shown themkindness. One old Arab woman, seeing Naomi's shame, had come behindwithout a word and cast a blanket over her head and shoulders. Thena girl of the Berber folk had brought slippers and drawn them on toNaomi's feet. The woman wore no blanket herself, and the feet of thegirl were bare. Their own people were haggard and hollow-eyed andhungry, but the hearts of all were melted towards the great man in hisdark hour. "Allah had written it, " they muttered, but they were moremerciful than they thought their God. 

Thus, amid silent pity and audible peace-blessings, with cheer of kindwords and comfort of food and drink, Israel and Naomi had wandered onthrough the country from village to village, until in the evening, anhour after sundown, they came upon the hut wherein they made their home. It was a poor, mean place--neither a round tent, such as the mountainBerbers build, nor a square cube of white stone, with its garden in acourt within, such as a Moorish farmer rears for his homestead, but anoblong shed, roofed with rushes and palmetto leaves in the manner of anIrish cabin. And, indeed, the cabin of an Irish renegade it had been, who, escaping at Gibraltar from the ship that was taking him to Sidney, had sailed in a Genoese trader to Ceuta, and made his way across theland until he came to this lonesome spot near to Semsa. Unlike thebetter part of his countrymen, he had been a man of solitary habit andgloomy temper, and while he lived he had been shunned by his neighbours, and when he died his house had been left alone. That was the chancewhereby Israel and Naomi had come to possess it, being both poor andunclaimed. 

Nevertheless, though bare enough of most things that man makes andvalues, yet the little place was rich in some of the wealth that comesonly from the hand of God. Thus marjoram and jasmine and pinks and rosesgrew at the foot of its walls, and it was these sweet flowers which hadfirst caught the eyes of Israel. For suddenly through the mazes of hismind, where every perception was indistinct at that time, there seemedto come back to him a vague and confused recollection of the abandonedhouse, as if the thing that his eyes then saw they had surely seenbefore. How this should be Israel could not tell, seeing that neverbefore to his knowledge had he passed on his way to Tangier so near toSemsa. But when he questioned himself again, it came to him, like lightbeaming into a dark room, that not in any waking hour at all had he seenthe little place before, but in a dream of the night when he slept onthe ground in the poor fondak of the Jews at Wazzan. 

This, then, was the cottage where he had dreamed that he lived withNaomi; this was where she had seemed to have eyes to see and ears tohear and a tongue to speak; this was the vision of his dead wife, whichwhen he awoke on his journey had appeared to be vainly reflected inhis dream; and now it was realised, it was true, it had come to pass. Israel's heart was full, and being at that time ready to see the leadingof Heaven in everything, he saw it in this fact also; and thus, withoutmore ado than such inquiries as were necessary, he settled himself withNaomi in the place they had chanced upon. 

And there, through some months following, from the height of the summeruntil the falling of winter, they lived together in peace and content, lacking much, yet wanting nothing; short of many things that are thoughtto make men's condition happy, but grateful and thanking God. 

Israel was poor, but not penniless. Out of the wreck of his fortune, after he sold the best contents of his house, he had still some threehundred dollars remaining in the pocket of his waistband when he wascast out of the town. These he laid out in sheep and goats and oxen. Hehired land also of a tenant of the Basha, and sent wool and milk by thehand of a neighbour to the market at Tetuan. The rains continued, theeggs of the locust were destroyed, the grass came green out of theground, and Israel found bread for both of them. With such simplehusbandry, and in such a home, giving no thought to the morrow, hepassed with cheer and comfort from day to day. 

And truly, if at any weaker moment he had been minded to repine for theloss of his former poor greatness, or to fail of heart in pursuit ofhis new calling, for which heavier hands were better fit, he had alwayspresent with him two bulwarks of his purpose and sheet-anchors of hishope. He was reminded of the one as often as in the daytime he climbedthe hillside above his little dwelling and saw the white town lying faraway under its gauzy canopy of mist, and whenever in the night the townlamps sent their pale sheet of light into the dark sky. 

"They are yonder, " he would think, "wrangling, contending, fighting, praying, cursing, blessing, and cheating; and I am here, cut off fromthem by ten deep miles of darkness, in the quiet, the silence, and sweetodour of God's proper air. "

But stronger to sustain him than any memory of the ways of his formerlife was the recollection of Naomi. God had given back all her gifts, and what were poverty and hard toil against so great a blessing? Theywere as dust, they were as ashes, they were what power of the world andriches of gold and silver had been without it. And higher than the joyof Israel's constant remembrance that Naomi had been blind and could nowsee, and deaf and could now hear, and dumb and could now speak, wasthe solemn thought that all this was but the sign and symbol of God'spleasure and assurance to his soul that the lot of the scapegoat hadbeen lifted away. 

More satisfying still to the hunger of his heart as a man was hisdelicious pleasure in Naomi's new-found life. She was like a creatureborn afresh, a radiant and joyful being newly awakened into a world ofstrange sights. 

But it was not at once that she fell upon this pleasure. What hadhappened to her was, after all, a simple thing. Born with cataract onthe pupils of her eyes, the emotion of the moment at the Kasbah, whenher father's life seemed to be once more in danger, had--like a fallor a blow--luxated the lens and left the pupils clear. That was all. Throughout the day whereon the last of her great gifts came to her, whenthey were cast out of Tetuan, and while they walked hand in hand throughthe country until they lit upon their home, she had kept her eyessteadfastly closed. The light terrified her. It penetrated her delicatelids, and gave her pain. When for a moment she lifted her lashes and sawthe trees, she put out her hand as if to push them away; and when shesaw the sky, she raised her arms as if to hold it off. Everything seemedto touch her eyes. The bars of sunlight seemed to smite them. Not untilthe falling of darkness did her fears subside and her spirits revive. Throughout the day that followed she sat constantly in the gloom of theblackest corner of their hut. 

But this was only her baptism of light on coming out of a world ofdarkness, just as her fear of the voices of the earth and air had beenher baptism of sound on coming out of a land of silence. Within threedays afterwards her terror began to give place to joy; and from thattime forward the world was full of wonder to her opened eyes. Thensweet and beautiful, beyond all dreams of fancy, were her amazement anddelight in every little thing that lay about her--the grass, the weeds, the poorest flower that blew, even the rude implements of the house andthe common stones that worked up through the mould--all old and familiarto her fingers, but new and strange to her eyes, and marvellous as if anangel out of heaven had dropped them down to her. 

For many days after the coming of her sight she continued to recogniseeverything by touch and sound. Thus one morning early in their life inthe cottage, and early also in the day, after Israel had kissed her onthe eyelids to awaken her, and she had opened them and gazed up at himas he stooped above her, she looked puzzled for an instant, being stillin the mists of sleep, and only when she had closed her eyes again, andput out her hand to touch him, did her face brighten with recognitionand her lips utter his name. "My father, " she murmured, "my father. "

Thus again, the same day, not an hour afterwards, she came running backto the house from the grass bank in front of it, holding a flower in herhand, and asking a world of hot questions concerning it in her broken, lisping, pretty speech. Why had no one told her that there were flowersthat could see? Here was one which while she looked upon it had openedits beautiful eye and laughed at her. "What is it?" she asked; "what isit?"

"A daisy, my child, " Israel answered. 

"A daisy!" she cried in bewilderment; and during the short hush andquick inspiration that followed she closed her eyes and passed hernervous fingers rapidly over the little ring of sprinkled spears, andthen said very softly, with head aslant as if ashamed, "Oh, yes, so itis; it is only a daisy. "

But to tell of how those first days of sight sped along for Naomi, withwhat delight of ever-fresh surprise, and joy of new wonder, would be along task if a beautiful one. They were some miles inside the coast, butfrom the little hill-top near at hand they could see it clearly; and oneday when Naomi had gone so far with her father, she drew up suddenlyat his side, and cried in a breathless voice of awe, "The sky! the sky!Look! It has fallen on to the land. "

"That is the sea, my child, " said Israel. 

"The sea!" she cried, and then she closed her eyes and listened, andthen opened them and blushed and said, while her knitted brows smoothedout and her beautiful face looked aside, "So it is--yes, it is the sea. "

Throughout that day and the night which followed it the eyes of hermind were entranced by the marvel of that vision, and next morning shemounted the hill alone, to look upon it again; and, being so far, shewalked farther and yet farther, wandering on and on, through fieldswhere lavender grew and chamomile blossomed, on and on, as though drawnby the enchantment of the mighty deep that lay sparkling in the sun, until at last she came to the head of a deep gully in the coast. Stillthe wonder of the waters held her, but another marvel now seizedupon her sight. The gully was a lonesome place inhabited by countlesssea-birds. From high up in the rocks above, and from far down in thechasm below, from every cleft on every side, they flew out, with whitewings and black ones and grey and blue, and sent their voices into theair, until the echoing place seemed to shriek and yell with a deafeningclangour. 

It was midday when Naomi reached this spot, and she sat there a longhour in fear and consternation. And when she returned to her father, shetold him awesome stories of demons that lived in thousands by the sea, and fought in the air and killed each other. "And see!" she cried; "lookat this, and this, and this!"

Then Israel glanced at the wrecks she had brought with her of thedevilish warfare that she had witnessed and "This, " said he, liftingone of them, "is a sea-bird's feather; and this, " lifting another, "isa sea-bird's egg; and this, " lifting the third, "is a dead sea-birditself. "

Once more Naomi knit her brows in thought, and again she closed her eyesand touched the familiar things wherein her sight had deceived her. "Ah yes, " she said meekly, looking into her father's eye, with a smile, "they are only that after all. " And then she said very quietly, as ifspeaking to herself, "What a long time it is before you learn to see!"

It was partly due to the isolation of her upbringing in the company ofIsrael that nearly every fresh wonder that encountered her eyes tookshapes of supernatural horror or splendour. One early evening, when shehad remained out of the house until the day was well-nigh done, she cameback in a wild ecstasy to tell of angels that she had just seen in thesky. They were in robes of crimson and scarlet, their wings blazed likefire, they swept across the clouds in multitudes, and went down behindthe world together, passing out of the earth through the gates ofheaven. 

Israel listened to her and said, "That was the sunset my child. Everymorning the sun rises and every night it sets. "

Then she looked full into his face and blushed. Her shame at her sweeterrors sometimes conquered her joy in the new heritage of sight, andIsrael heard her whisper to herself and say, "After all, the eyes aredeceitful. " Vision was life's new language, and she had yet to learn it. 

But not for long was her delight in the beautiful things of the worldto be damped by any thought of herself. Nay, the best and rarest part ofit, the dearest and most delicious throb it brought her, came of herselfalone. On another early day Israel took her to the coast, and pushed offwith her on the waters in a boat. The air was still, the sea was smooth, the sun was shining, and save for one white scarf of cloud the skywas blue. They were sailing in a tiny bay that was broken by a littleisland, which lay in the midst like a ruby in a ring, covered withheather and long stalks of seeding grass. Through whispering beds ofrushes they glided on, and floated over banks of coral where gleamingfishes were at play. Sea-fowl screamed over their heads, as if in angerat their invasion, and under their oars the moss lay in the shallows onthe pebbles and great stones. It was a morning of God's own making, and, for joy of its loveliness no less than of her own bounding life, Naomirose in the boat and opened her lips and arms to the breeze while itplayed with the rippling currents of her hair, as if she would drink andembrace it. 

At that moment a new and dearer wonder came to her, such as every maidenknows whom God has made beautiful, yet none remembers the hour when sheknew it first. For, tracing with her eyes the shadow of the cliff and ofthe continent of cloud that sailed double in two seas of blue to wherethey were broken by the dazzling half-round of the sun's reflected discon the shadowed quarter of the boat, she leaned over the side of it, andthen saw the reflection of another and lovelier vision. 

"Father, " she cried with alarm, "a face in the water! Look! look!"

"It is your own, my child, " said Israel. "Mine!" she cried. 

"The reflection of your face, " said Israel; "the light and the watermake it. "

The marvel was hard to understand. There was something ghostly in thisthing that was herself and yet not herself, this face that looked up ather and laughed and yet made no voice. She leaned back in the boat andasked Israel if it was still in the water. But when at length she hadgrasped the mystery, the artlessness of her joy was charming. She waslike a child in her delight, and like a woman that was still a childin her unconscious love of her own loveliness. Whenever the boat was atrest she leaned over its bulwark and gazed down into the blue depths. 

"How beautiful!" she cried, "how beautiful!"

She clapped her hands and looked again, and there in the still waterwas the wonder of her dancing eyes. "Oh! how very beautiful!" she criedwithout lifting her face, and when she saw her lips move as she spokeand her sunny hair fall about her restless head she laughed and laughedagain with a heart of glee. 

Israel looked on for some moments at this sweet picture, and, for allhis sense of the dangers of Naomi's artless joy in her own beauty, hecould not find it in his heart to check her. He had borne too longthe pain and shame of one who was father of an afflicted child to denyhimself this choking rapture of her recovery. "Live on like a childalways, little one, " he thought; "be a child as long as you can, be achild for ever, my dove, my darling! Never did the world suffer it thatI myself should be a child at all. "

The artlessness of Naomi increased day by day, and found constantlysome new fashion of charming strangeness. All lovely things on theearth seemed to speak to her, and she could talk with the birds and theflowers. Also she would lie down in the grass and rest like a lamb, withas little shame and with a grace as sweet. Not yet had the great mysterydawned that drops on a girl like an unseen mantle out of the sky, andwhen it has covered her she is a child no more. Naomi was a child still. Nay, she was a child a second time, for while she had been blind she hadseemed for a little while to become a woman in the awful revelation ofher infirmity and isolation. Now she was a weak, patient, blind maidenno longer, but a reckless spirit of joy once again, a restless gleam ofhuman sunlight gathering sunshine into her father's house. 

It was fit and beautiful that she who had lived so long without thebetter part of the gifts of God should enjoy some of them at lengthin rare perfection. Her sight was strong and her hearing was keen, butvoice was the gift which she had in abundance. So sweet, so full, sodeep, so soft a voice as Naomi's came to be, Israel thought he had neverheard before. Ruth's voice? Yes, but fraught with inspiration, repletewith sparkling life, and passionate with the notes of a joyous heart. All day long Naomi used it. She sang as she rose in the morning, and wasstill singing when she lay down at night. Wherever people came upon her, they came first upon the sound of her voice. The farmers heard it acrossthe fields, and sometimes Israel heard it from over the hill by theirhut. Often she seemed to them like a bird that is hidden in a tree, andonly known to be there by the outbursts of its song. 

Fatimah's ditties were still her delight. Some of them fell strangelyfrom her pure lips, so nearly did they border on the dangerous. But herfavourite song was still her mother's:--

 Oh, come and claim thine own, Oh, come and take thy throne, Reign ever and alone Reign glorious, golden Love. 

Into these words, as her voice ripened, she seemed to pour a deeperfervour. She was as innocent as a child of their meaning, but it wasalmost as if she were fulfilling in some way a law of her nature as amaid and drifting blindly towards the dawn of Love. Never did she thinkof Love, but it was just as if Love were always thinking of her; it waseven as if the spirit of Love were hovering over her constantly, and shewere walking in the way of its outstretched wings. 

Israel saw this, and it set him to chasing day-dreams that were likethe drawing up of a curtain. A beautiful phantom of Naomi's futurewould rise up before him. Love had come to her. The great mystery! therapture, the blissful wonder, the dear, secret, delicious palpitatingjoy. He knew it must come some day--perhaps to day, perhaps to-morrow. And when it came it would be like a sixth sense. 

In quieter moments--generally at night, when he would take a candle andlook at her where she lay asleep--Israel would carry his dreams intoNaomi's future one stage farther, and see her in the first dawn of youngmotherhood. Her delicate face of pink an cream; her glance of pride andjoy and yearning, an then the thrill of the little spreading red fingersfastening on her white bosom--oh, what a glimpse was there revealed tohim!

But struggle as he would to find pleasure in these phantoms, he couldnot help but feel pain from them also. They had a perilous fascinationfor him, but he grudged them to Naomi. He thought he could have givenhis immortal soul to her, but these shadows he could not give. That washis poor tribute to human selfishness; his last tender, jealous frailtyas a father. He dreaded the coming of that time when another--some otheryet unseen--should come before him, and he should lose the daughter thatwas now his own. 

Sometimes the memory of their old troubles in Tetuan seemed to crosslike a thundercloud the azure of Naomi's sky, but at the next hour itwas gone. The world was too full of marvels for any enduring sensebut wonder. Once she awoke from sleep in terror, and told Israel ofsomething which she believed to have happened to her in the night. Shehad been carried away from him--she could not say when--and she knewno more until she found herself in a great patio, paved and wailed withtiles. Men were standing together there in red peaked caps and flowingwhite kaftans. And before them all was one old man in garments thatwere of the colour of the afternoon sun, with sleeves like the mouths ofbells, a curling silver knife at his waistband, and little leather bagshung by yellow cords about his neck. Beside this man there was a womanof a laughing cruel face; and she herself, Naomi--alone her father beingnowhere near--stood in the midst with all eyes upon her. What happenednext she did not know, for blank darkness fell upon everything, and inthat interval they who had taken her away must have brought her back. For when she opened her eyes she was in her own bed, and the things oftheir little home were about her, and her father's eyes were lookingdown at her, and his lips were kissing her, and the sun was shiningoutside, and the birds were singing, and the long grass was whisperingin the breeze, and it was the same as if she had been asleep during thenight and was just awakening in the morning. 

"It was a dream, my child, " said Israel, thinking only with how vivida sense her eyes had gathered up in that instant of first sight thepicture of that day at the Kasbah. 

"A dream!" she cried; "no, no! I _saw_ it!"

Hitherto her dreams had been blind ones, and if she dreamt of her ownpeople it had not been of their faces, but of the touch of their handsor the sound of their voices. By one of these she had always known them, and sometimes it had been her mother's arms that had been about her, andsometimes her father's lips that had pressed her forehead, and sometimesAli's voice that had rung in her ears. 

Israel smoothed her hair and calmed her fears, but thinking both of herdream and of her artless sayings, he said in his heart, "She is a child, a child born into life as a maid, and without the strength of a child'sweakness. Oh! great is the wisdom which orders it so that we come intothe world as babes. "

Thus realising Naomi's childishness, Israel kept close guard and watchupon her afterwards. But if she was a gleam of sunlight in his lonelydwelling, like sunlight she came and went in it, and one day he foundher near to the track leading up to the fondak in talk with a passingtraveller by the way, whom he recognised for the grossest profligate outof Tetuan. Unveiled, unabashed, with sweet looks of confidence she wasgazing full into the man's gross face, answering his evil questions withthe artless simplicity of innocence. At one bound Israel was betweenthem; and in a moment he had torn Naomi away. And that night, while shewept out her very heart at the first anger that her father had shownher, Israel himself, in a new terror of his soul, was pouring out a newpetition to God. "O Lord, my God, " he cried, "when she was blind anddumb and deaf she was a thing apart, she was a child in no peril fromherself for Thy hand did guide her, and in none from the world, for noman dared outrage her infirmity. But now she is a maid, and her dangersare many, for she is beautiful, and the heart of man is evil. Keep mewith her always, O Lord, to guard and guide her! Let me not leave her, for she is without knowledge of good and evil. Spare me a littlewhile longer, though I am stricken in years. For her sake spare me, OhLord--it is the last of my prayers--the last, O Lord, the last--for hersake spare me!"

God did not hear the prayer of Israel. Next morning a guard of soldierscame out from Tetuan and took him prisoner in the name of the Kaid. Therelease of the poor followers of Absalam out of the prison at Shawan hadbecome known by the blind gratitude of one of them, who, hastening toIsrael's house in the Mellah, had flung himself down on his face beforeit. 

CHAPTER XXI

ISRAEL IN PRISON

Short as the time was--some three months and odd days--since the prisonat Shawan had been emptied by order of the warrant which Israel hadsealed without authority in the name of Ben Aboo, it was now occupiedby other prisoners. The remoteness of the town in the territory ofthe Akhmas, and the wild fanaticism of the Shawanis, had made theold fortress a favourite place of banishment to such Kaids of otherprovinces as looked for heavier ransoms from the relatives of victims, because the locality of their imprisonment was unknown or the dangerof approaching it was terrible. And thus it happened that some fifty ormore men and boys from near and far were already living in the dungeonfrom which Israel and Ali together had set the other prisoners free. 

This was the prison to which Israel was taken when he was torn fromNaomi and the simple home that he had made for himself near Semsa. "Ya Allah! Let the dog eat the crust which he thought too hard for hispups!" said Ben Aboo, as he sealed the warrant which consigned Israel tothe Kaid of Shawan. 

Israel was taken to the prison afoot, and reached it on the morning ofthe second day after his arrest. The sun was shining as he approachedthe rude old block of masonry and entered the passage that led downto the dungeon. In a little court at the door of the place the Kaid elhabs, the jailer, was sitting on a mattress, which served him for chairby day and bed by night. He was amusing himself with a ginbri, playingloud and low according as the tumult was great or little which came fromthe other side of a barred and knotted doorway behind him, some fourfeet high, and having a round peephole in the upper part of it. On thewall above hung leather thongs, and a long Reefian flintlock stood inthe corner. 

At Israel's approach there were some facetious comments between thejailer and the guard. Why the ginbri? Was he practising for the firesof Jehinnum? Was he to fiddle for the Jinoon? Well, what was a man to dowhile the dogs inside were snarling? Were the thongs for the correctionof persons lacking understanding? Why, yes; everybody knew their oldsaying, "A hint to the wise, a blow to the fool. "

A bunch of great keys rattled, the low doorway was thrown open, Israelstooped and went in, the door closed behind him, the footsteps of theguard died away, and the twang of the ginbri began again. 

The prison was dark and noisome, some sixty feet long by half as manybroad, supported by arches resting on rotten pillars, lighted only bynarrow clefts at either hand, exuding damp from its walls, droppingmoisture from its roof, its air full of vermin, and its floor reeking offilth. And only less horrible than the prison itself was the conditionof the prisoners. Nearly all wore iron fetters on their legs, and somewere shackled to the pillars. At one side a little group of them--theywere Shereefs from Wazzan--were conversing eagerly and gesticulatingwildly; and at the other side a larger company--they were Jews fromFez--were languidly twisting palmetto leaves into the shape of baskets. Four Berbers at the farther end were playing cards, and two Arabs thatwere chained to a column near the door squatted on the ground with abattered old draughtboard between them. From both groups of playerscame loud shouts and laughter and a running fire of expostulation andof indignant and sarcastic comment. Down went the cards with triumphantbangs, and the moves of the "dogs" were like lightning. First a mockingvoice: "_You_ call yourself a player! There!--there!--there!" Then ameek, piping tone: "So--so--verily, you are my master. Well, let uspraise Allah for your wisdom. " But soon a wild burst of irony: "You arelike him who killed the dog and fell into the river. See! thus I teachyou to boast over your betters! I shave your beard! There!--there!--andthere!"

In the middle of the reeking floor, so placed that the thin shaft oflight from the clefts at the ends might fall on them--a barber-doctorwas bleeding a youth from a vein in the arm. "We're all having it done, "he was saying. "It's good for the internals. I did it to a shipload ofpilgrims once. " A wild-looking creature sat in a corner--he was a saint, a madman, of the sect of the Darkaoa--rocking himself to and fro, andcrying "Allah! All-lah! All-l-lah! All-l-l-lah!" Near to this persona haggard old man of the Grega sect was shaking and dancing at hisprayers. And not far from either a Mukaddam, a high-priest of the Aissa, brotherhood--a juggler who had travelled through the country with a lionby a halter--was singing a frantic mockery of a Christian hymn to a tunethat he had heard on the coast. 

Such was the scene of Israel's imprisonment, and such were thecompanions that were to share it. There had been a moment's pause inthe clamour of their babel as the door opened and Israel entered. Theprisoners knew him, and they were aghast. Every eye looked up and everymouth was agape. Israel stood for a time with the closed door behindhim. He looked around, made a step forward, hesitated, seemed to peervainly through the darkness for bed or mattress, and then sat downhelplessly by a pillar on the ground. 

A young negro in a coarse jellab went up to him and offered a bit ofbread. "Hungry, brother? No?" said the youth. "Cheer up, Sidi! No goodletting the donkey ride on your head!"

This person was the Irishman of the company--a happy, reckless, facetious dog, who had lost little save his liberty and cared nothingfor his life, but laughed and cheated and joked and made doggerel songson every disaster that befell them. He made one song on himself--

 El Arby was a black man They called him "'Larby Kosk:" He loved the wives of the Kasbah, And stole slippers in the Mosque. 

Israel was stunned. Since his arrest he had scarcely spoken. "Stayhere, " he had said to Naomi when the first outburst of her grief wasquelled; "never leave this place. Whatever they say, stay here. I willcome back. " After that he had been like a man who was dumb. Neitherinsult nor tyranny had availed to force a word or a cry out of him. He had walked on in silence doggedly, hardly once glancing up into thefaces of his guard, and never breaking his fast save with a draught ofwater by the way. 

At Shawan, as elsewhere in Barbary, the prisoners were supported bytheir own relatives and friends, and on the day after Israel's arrival anumber of women and children came to the prison with provisions. It wasa wild and gruesome scene that followed. First, the frantic search ofthe prisoners for their wives and sons and daughters, and their wildshouts as each one found his own. "Blessed be God! She's here! here!"Then the maddening cries of the prisoners whose relatives had not come. "My Ayesha! Where is she? Curses on her mother! Why isn't she here?"After that the shrieks of despair from such as learned that theirbreadwinners were dying off one by one. "Dead, you say?" "Dead!" "No, no!" "Yes, yes!" "No, no, I say!" "I say yes! God forgive me! diedlast week. But don't you die too. Here take this bag of zummetta. " Theninquiries after absent children. "Little Selam, where is he?" "Beggingin Tetuan. " "Poor boy! poor boy! And pretty M'barka, what of her?""Alas! M'barka's a public woman now in Hoolia's house at Marrakesh. No, don't curse her, Jellali; the poor child was driven to it. What were weto do with the children crying for bread? And then there was nothing tofetch you this journey, Jellali. " "I'll not eat it now it's brought. Myboy a beggar and my girl a harlot? By Allah! May the Kaid that keeps mehere roast alive in the fires of hell!" Then, apart in one quiet corner, a young Moor of Tangier eating rice out of the lap of his beautifulyoung wife. "You'll not be long coming again, dearest?" he whispers. Shewipes her eyes and stammers, "No--that is--well--" "What's amiss?" "Ali, I must tell you--" "Well?" "Old Aaron Zaggoory says I must marry him, orhe'll see that both of us starve. " "Allah! And you--_you_?" "Don't lookat me like that, Ali; the hunger is on me, and whatever happens I--I canlove nobody else. " "Curses on Aaron Zaggoory! Curses on you! Curses oneverybody!"

No one had come with food for Israel, and seeing this 'Larby the negroswaggered up to him, singing a snatch and offering a round cake ofbread--

 Rusks are good and kiks are sweet And kesksoo is both meat and drink; It's this for now, and that for then, But khalia still for married men. 

"You're like me, Sidi, " he said, "you want nothing, " and he made anupward movement of his forefinger to indicate his trust in Providence. That was the gay rascal's way of saying that he stole from the bags ofhis comrades while they slept. 

"No? Fasting yet?" he said, and went off singing as he came--

 It will make your ladies love you; It will make them coo and kiss--

"What?" he shouted to some one across the prison "eating khalia in thebird-cage? Bad, bad, bad!"

All this came to Israel's mind through thick waves ofhalf-consciousness, but with his heart he heard nothing, or the very airof the place must have poisoned him. He sat by the pillar at which hehad first placed himself, and hardly ever rose from it. With great sloweyes he gazed at everything, but nothing did he see. Sometimes he hadthe look of one who listens, but never did he hear. Thus in silence andlanguor he passed from day to day, and from night to night, scarcelysleeping, rarely eating, and seeming always to be waiting, waiting, waiting. 

Fresh prisoners came at short intervals, and then only was Israel'sinterest awakened. One question he asked of all. "Where from?" If theyanswered from Fez, from Wazzan, from Mequinez, or from Marrakesh, Israelturned aside and left them without more words. Then to his fellows theymight pour out their woes in loud wails and curses, but Israel wouldhear no more. 

Strangers from Europe travelling through the country were allowed tolook into the prison through the round peephole of the door kept by theKaid el habs, who played the ginbri. The Jews who made baskets took thisopportunity to offer their work for sale; and so that he might see thevisitors and speak with them Israel would snatch up something and hangit out. Always his question was the same. "Where from last?" he wouldsay in English, or Spanish, or French, or Moorish. Sometimes it chancedthat the strangers knew him. But he showed no shame. Never did theiranswers satisfy him. He would turn back to his pillar with a sigh. 

Thus weeks went on, and Israel's face grew worn and tired. His fellowprisoners began to show him deference in their own rude way. When hecame among them at the first they had grinned and laughed a little. To do that was always the impulse of the poor souls, so miserablyimprisoned, when a new comrade joined him. But the majesty and thesuffering in Israel's face told on their hearts at last. He was a greatman fallen, he had nothing left to him; not even bread to eat or waterto drink. So they gathered about him and hit on a way to make him sharetheir food. Bringing their sacks to his pillar, they stacked them aboutit, and asked him to serve out provisions to all, day by day, share andshare alike. He was honest, he was a master, no one would steal fromhim, it was best, the stuff would last longest. It was a touching sight. 

Still the old eagerness betrayed itself in Israel's weary manner asoften as the door opened and fresh prisoners arrived. Once it happenedthat before he uttered his usual question he saw that the newcomerswere from Tetuan, and then his restlessness was feverish. "When--wereyou--have you been of late--" he stammered, and seemed unable to gofarther. 

But the Tetawanis knew and understood him. "No, " said one in answer tothe unspoken question; "Nor I, " said another; "Nor I, " said a third, "Nor I neither, " said a fourth, as Israel's rapid eyes passed down theline of them. 

He turned away without a word more, sat down by the pillar and lookedvacantly before him while the new prisoners told their story. Ben Aboowas a villain. The people of Tetuan had found him out. His wife was aharlot whose heart was a deep pit. Between them they were demoralisingthe entire bashalic. The town was worse than Sodom. Hardly a child inthe streets was safe, and no woman, whether wife or daughter, whom Godhad made comely, dare show herself on the roofs. Their own womenhad been carried off to the palace at the Kasbah. That was why theythemselves were there in prison. 

This was about a month after the coming of Israel to Shawan. Then hisreason began to unsettle. It was pitiful to see that he was conscious ofthe change that was befalling him. He wrestled with madness with all thestrength of a strong man. If it should fall upon him, where then wouldbe his hope and outlook? His day would be done, his night would beclosed in, he would be no more than a helpless log, rolling in anice-bound sea, and when the thaw came--if it ever came--he would beonly a broken, rudderless, sailless wreck. Sometimes he would swear atnothing and fling out his arms wildly, and then with a look of shamehang down his head and mutter, "No, no, Israel; no, no, no!"

Other prisoners arrived from Tetuan, and all told the same story. Israellistened to them with a stupid look, seeming hardly to hear the talethey told him. But one morning, as life began again for the day in thatslimy eddy of life's ocean, every one became aware that an awful changehad come to pass. Israel's face had been worn and tired before, but nowit looked very old and faded. His black hair had been sprinkled withgrey, and now it was white; and white also was his dark beard, whichhad grown long and ragged. But his eye glistened, and his teeth wereaglitter in his open mouth. He was laughing at everything, yet notwildly, not recklessly, not without meaning or intention, but with thecheer of a happy and contented man. 

Israel was mad, and his madness was a moving thing to look upon. Hethought he was back at home and a rich man still, as he had been inearlier days, but a generous man also, as he was in later ones. Withliberal hand he was dispensing his charities. 

"Take what you need; eat, drink, do not stint; there is more where thishas come from; it is not mine; God has lent it me for the good of all. "

With such words, graciously spoken, he served out the provisionsaccording to his habit, and only departed from his daily custom inpiling the measures higher, and in saluting the people by titles--Sid, Sidi, Mulai, and the like--in degree as their clothes were poor andragged. It was a mad heart that spoke so, but also it was a big one. 

From that time forward he looked upon the prisoners as his guests, andwhen fresh prisoners came to the prison he always welcomed them as ifhe were host there and they were friends who visited him. "Welcome!" hewould say; "you are very welcome. The place is your own. Take all. Whatyou don't see, believe we have not got it. A thousand thousand welcomeshome!" It was grim and painful irony. 

Israel's comrades began to lose sense of their own suffering inobserving the depth of his, and they laid their heads together todiscover the cause of his madness. The most part of them concludedthat he was repining for the loss of his former state. And when oneday another prisoner came from Tetuan with further tales of the Basha'styranny, and of the people's shame at thought of how they had dealt byIsrael, the prisoners led the man back to where Israel was standing inthe accustomed act of dispensing bounty, that he might tell his storyinto the rightful ears. 

"They're always crying for you, " said the Tetawani; "'Israel ben Oliel!Israel ben Oliel!' that's what you hear in the mosques and the streetseverywhere. ' Shame on us for casting him out, shame on us! He was ourfather!' Jews and Muslimeen, they're all saying so. "

It was useless. The glad tidings could not find their way. That blackpage of Israel's life which told of the people's ingratitude was sealedin the book of memory. Israel laughed. What could his good friend mean?Behold! was he not rich? Had he not troops of comrades and guests abouthim?

The prisoners turned aside, baffled and done. At length one man--it wasno other than 'Larby the wastrel--drew some of them apart and said, "Youare all wrong. It's not his former state that he's thinking of. _I_ knowwhat it is--who knows so well as I? Listen! you hear his laughter! Well, he must weep, or he will be mad for ever. He must be _made_ to weep. Yes, by Allah! and I must do it. "

That same night, when darkness fell over the dark place, and theprisoners tied up their cotton headkerchiefs and lay down to sleep, 'Larby sat beside Israel's place with sighs and moans and other symptomsof a dejected air. 

"Sidi, master, " he faltered, "I had a little brother once, and he wasblind. Born blind, Sidi, my own mother's son. But you wouldn't think howhappy he was for all that? You see, Sidi he never missed anything, andso his little face was like laughing water! By Allah! I loved that boybetter than all the world! Women? Why--well, never mind! He was six andI was eighteen, and he used to ride on my back! Black curls all over, Sidi, and big white eyes that looked at you for all they couldn't see. Well a bleeder came from Soos--curse his great-grandfather! Looked atlittle Hosain--'Scales!' said he--burn his father! Bleed him and he'llsee! So they bled him, and he did see. By Allah! yes, for a minute--halfa minute! 'Oh, 'Larby, ' he cried--I was holding him; then he--he--''Larby, ' he cried faint, like a lamb that's lost in the mountains--andthen--and then--'Oh, oh, 'Larby, ' he moaned Sidi, Sidi, I _paid_ thatbleeder--there and then--_this_ way! That's why I'm here!"

It was a lie, but 'Larby acted it so well that his voice broke in histhroat, and great drops fell from his eyes on to Israel's hand. 

The effect on Israel himself was strange and even startling. While'Larby was speaking, he was beating his forehead and mumbling: "Where?When? Naomi!" as if grappling for lost treasures in an ebbing sea. And when 'Larby finished, he fell on him with reproaches. "And you areweeping for that?" he cried. "You think it much that the sweet child isdead--God rest him! So it is to the like of you, but look at me!"

His voice betrayed a grim pride in his miseries. "Look at me! AmI weeping? No; I would scorn to weep. But I have more cause athousandfold. Listen! Once I was rich; but what were riches withoutchildren? Hard bread with no water for sop. I asked God for a child. Hegave me a daughter; but she was born blind and dumb and deaf. I askedGod to take my riches and give her hearing. He gave her hearing; butwhat was hearing without speech? I asked God to take all I had and giveher speech. He gave her speech, but what was speech without sight?I asked God to take my place from me and give her sight. He gave hersight, and I was cast out of the town like a beggar. What matter? Shehad all, and I was forgiven. But when I was happy, when I was content, when she filled my heart with sunshine, God snatched me away from her. And where is she now? Yonder, alone, friendless, a child new-born intothe world at the mercy of liars and libertines. And where am I? Here, like a beast in a trap, uttering abortive groans, toothless, stupid, powerless, mad. No, no, not mad, either! Tell me, boy, I am not mad!"

In the breaking waters of his madness he was struggling like a drowningman. "Yet I do not weep, " he cried in a thick voice. "God has a right todo as He will. He gave her to me for seventeen years. If she dies she'llbe mine again soon. Only if she lives--only if she falls into evilhands--Tell me, _have_ I been mad?"

He gave no time for an answer. "Naomi!" he cried, and the name brokein his throat. "Where are you now? What has--who have--your fatheris thinking of you--he is--No, I will not weep. You see I have a goodcause, but I tell you I will never weep. God has a right--Naomi!--Na--"

The name thickened to a sob as he repeated it, and then suddenly he roseand cried in an awful voice, "Oh, I'm a fool! God has done nothing forme. Why should I do anything for God? He has taken all I had. He hastaken my child. I have nothing more to give Him but my life. Let Himtake that too. Take it, I beseech Thee!" he cried--the vault of theprison rang--"Take it, and set me free!"

But at the next moment he had fallen back to his place, and was sobbinglike a little child. The other prisoners had risen in their amazement, and 'Larby, who was shedding hot tears over his cold ones, was caperingdown the floor, and singing, "El Arby was a black man. "

Then there was a rattling of keys, and suddenly a flood of light shotinto the dark place. The Kaid el habs was bringing a courier, whocarried an order for Israel's release. Abd er-Rahman, the Sultan, was tokeep the feast of the Moolood at Tetuan, and Ben Aboo, to celebrate thevisit, had pardoned Israel. 

It was coals of fire on Israel's head. "God is good, " he muttered. "Ishall see her again. Yes, God has a right to do as He will. I shall seeher soon. God is wise beyond all wisdom. I must lose no time. Jailercan I leave the town to-night? I wish to start on my journey. To-night?--yes, to-night! Are the gates open? No? You will open them?You are very good. Everybody is very good. God is good. God is mighty. "

Then half in shame, and partly as apology for his late intemperateoutburst, with a simpleness that was almost childish, he said, "A man'sa fool when he loses his only child. I don't mean by death. Time healsthat. But the living child--oh, it's an unending pain! You would neverthink how happy we were. Her pretty ways were all my joy. Yes, for hervoice was music, and her breath was like the dawn. Do you know, I wasvery fond of the little one--I was quite miserable if I lost sightof her for an hour. And then to be wrenched away! . . . . But I musthasten back. The little one will be waiting. Yes, I know quite wellshe'll be looking out from the door in the sunshine when she awakes inthe morning. It's always the way of these tender creatures, is it not?So we must humour them. Yes, yes, that's so that's so. "

His fellow-prisoners stood around him each in his night-headkerchiefknotted under his chin--gaunt, hooded figures, in the shifting light ofthe jailer's lantern. 

"Farewell, brothers!" he cried; and one by one they touched his hand andbrought it to their breasts. 

"Farewell, master!" "Peace, Sidi!" "Farewell!" "Peace!" "Farewell!"

The light shot out; the door clasped back; there were footstepsdying away outside; two loud bangs as of a closing gate, and thensilence--empty and ghostly. 

In the darkness the hooded figures stood a moment listening, and then acroaking, breaking, husky, merry voice began to sing--

 El Arby was a black man, They called him "'Larby Kosk;" He loved the wives of the Kasbah, And stole slippers in the Mosque. 

CHAPTER XXII

HOW NAOMI TURNED MUSLIMA

What had happened to Naomi during the two months and a half while Israellay at Shawan is this: After the first agony of their parting, in whichshe was driven back by the soldiers when she attempted to follow them, she sat down in a maze of pain, without any true perception of the evilwhich had befallen her, but with her father's warning voice and his lastwords in her ear: "Stay here. Never leave this place. Whatever they say, stay here. I will come back. "

When she awoke in the morning, after a short night of broken sleep andfitful dreams, the voice and the words were with her still, and then sheknew for the first time what the meaning was, and what the penalty, ofthis strange and dread asundering. She was alone, and, being alone, shewas helpless; she was no better than a child, without kindred to lookto her and without power to look to herself, with food and drink besideher, but no skill to make and take them. 

Thus her awakening sense was like that of a lamb whose mother has beenswallowed up in the night by the sand-drifts of the simoom. It wasnot so much love as loss. What to do, where to look, which way to turnfirst, she knew no longer, and could not think, for lack of the handthat had been wont to guide her. 

The neighbouring Moors heard of what had happened to Naomi, and someof the women among them came to see her. They were poor farming people, oppressed by cruel taxmasters; and the first things they saw werethe cattle and sheep, and the next thing was the simple girl with thechild-face, who knew nothing yet of the ways wherein a lonely woman mustfend for herself. 

"You cannot live here alone, my daughter, " they said; "you would perish. Then think of the danger--a child like you, with a face like a flower!No, no, you must come to us. We will look to you like one of our own, and protect you from evil men. And as for the creatures--"

"But he said I was never to leave this place, " said Naomi. "'Stay here, 'he said; 'whatever they say, stay here. I will come back. '"

The women protested that she would starve, be stolen, ruined, andmurdered. It was in vain. Naomi's answer was always the same: "He toldme to stay here, and surely I must do so. "

Then one after another the poor folks went away in anger. "Tut!" theythought, "what should we want with the Jew child? Allah! Was there eversuch a simpleton? The good creatures going to waste, too! And as for herfather, he'll never come back--never. Trust the Basha for that!"

But when the humanity of the true souls had conquered their selfishness, they came again one by one and vied with each other in many simpleoffices--milking and churning, and baking and delving--in pity of thesweet girl with the great eyes who had been left to live alone. AndNaomi, seeing her helplessness at last, put out all her powers to remedyit, so that in a little while she was able to do for herself nearlyeverything that her neighbours at first did for her. Then they would sayamong themselves, "Allah! she's not such a baby after all; and ifshe wasn't quite so beautiful, poor child, or if the world wasn't sowicked--but then, God is great! God is great!"

Not at first had Naomi understood them when they told her that herfather had been cast into prison, and every night when she left her lampalight by the little skin-covered window that was half-hidden underthe dropping eaves, and every morning when she opened her door to theradiance of the sun she had whispered to herself and said, "He will comeback, Naomi; only wait, only wait; maybe it will be tonight, maybe itwill be to-day; you will see, you will see. "

But after the awful thought of what prison was had fully dawned uponher as last, by help of what she saw and heard of other men who had beenthere, her old content in her father's command that she should neverleave that place was shaken and broken by a desire to go to him. 

"Who's to feed him, poor soul? He will be famishing. If the Kaid findshim in bread, it will only be so much more added to his ransom. Thatwill come to the same thing in the end, or he'll die in prison. "

Thus she had heard the gossips talk among themselves when they thoughtshe did not listen. And though it was little she understood of Kaids andransoms, she was quick to see the nature of her father's peril, and atlength she concluded that, in spite of his injunction, go to him sheshould and must. With that resolve, her mind, which had been the mindof a child seemed to spring up instantly and become the mind of a woman, and her heart, that had been timid, suddenly grew brave, for pity andlove were born in it. "He must be starving in prison, " she thought, "andI will take him food. "

When her neighbours heard of her intention they lifted their hands inconsternation and horror. "God be gracious to my father!" they cried. "Shawan? You? Alone? Child, you'll be lost, lost--worse, a thousandtimes worse! Shoof! you're only a baby still. "

But their protests availed as little to keep Naomi at her home now astheir importunities had done before to induce her to leave it. "He mustbe starving in prison, " she said, "and I will take him food. "

Her neighbours left her to her stubborn purpose. 

"Allah!" they said, "who would have believed it, that the littlepink-and-white face had such a will of her own!"

Without more ado Naomi set herself to prepare for her journey. Shesaved up thirty eggs, and baked as many of the round flat cakes of thecountry; also she churned some butter in the simple way which the womenhad taught her, and put the milk that was left in a goat's-skin. Inthree days she was ready, and then she packed her provisions in the leafpanniers of a mule which one of the neighbours had lent to her, and gotup before them on the front of the burda, after the manner of the wiveswhom she had seen going past to market. 

When she was about to start her gossips came again, in pity of her wilderrand, to bid her farewell and to see the last of her. "Keep to thetrack as far as Tetuan, " they said to her, "and then ask for the roadto Shawan. " One old creature threw a blanket over her head in such away that it might cover her face. "Faces like yours are not for thedaylight, " the old body whispered, and then Naomi set forward on herjourney. The women watched her while she mounted the hill that goes upto the fondak, and then sinks out of sight beyond it. "Poor mad littlefool, " they whimpered; "that's the end of her! She'll never come back. Too many men about for that. And now, " they said, facing each other withlooks of suspicion and envy, "what of the creatures?"

While the good souls were dividing her possessions among them, Naomi wasawakening to some vague sense of her difficulties and dangers. She hadthought it would be easy to ask her way, but now that she had need to doso she was afraid to speak. The sight of a strange face alarmed her, and she was terrified when she met a company of wandering Arabs changingpasture, with the young women and children on camels, the old womentrudging on foot under loads of cans and kettles, the boys driving theherds, and the men, armed with long flintlocks, riding their prancingbarbs. Her poor little mule came to a stand in the midst of thiscavalcade, and she was too bewildered to urge it on. Also her fearwhich had first caused her to cover her face with the blanket that herneighbour had given her, now made her forget to do so, and the men asthey passed her peered close into her eyes. Such glances made her bloodto tingle. They seared her very soul, and she began to know the meaningof shame. 

Nevertheless, she tried to keep up a brave heart and to push forward. "He is starving in prison, " she told herself; "I must lose no time. " Itwas a weary journey. Everything was new to her, and nearly everythingwas terrible. She was even perplexed to see that however far shetravelled she came upon men and women and children. It was so strangethat all the world was peopled. Yet sometimes she wished there were morepeople everywhere. That was when she was crossing a barren waste with nohouse in sight and never a sign of human life on any side. But oftenershe wished that the people were not so many; and that was when thechildren mocked at her mule, or the women jeered at her as if she mustneeds be a base person because she was alone, or the men laughed andleered into her uncovered face. 

Before she had gone many miles her heart began to fail. Everything wasunlike what she expected. She had thought the world so good that she hadbut to say to any that asked her of her errand, "My father is in prison, they say that he is starving; I am taking him food, " and every one wouldhelp her forward. Though she had never put it to herself so, yet she hadreckoned in this way in spite of the warnings of her neighbours. But noone was helping her forward; few were looking on her with goodwill, andfewer still with pity and cheer. 

The jogging of the mule, a most bony and stiff-limbed beast, hadflattened the panniers that hung by its side, and made the round cakesof bread to protrude from the open mouth of one of them. Seeing this, a line of market-women going by, with bags of charcoal on their backs, snatched a cake each as they passed and munched them and laughed. Naomitried to protest. "The bread is for my father, " she faltered; "he isin prison; they say he--" But the expostulation that began thus timidlybroke down of itself, for the women laughed again out of their mouthschoked with the bread, and in another moment they were gone. 

Naomi's spirit was crushed, but she tried to keep up a brave frontstill. To speak of her father again would be to shame him. The poorlittle illusions of the sweetness and goodness of the world which, inspite of vague recollections of Tetuan, she had struggled, since thecoming of her sight, to build up in her fresh young soul, were nowtumbling to pieces. After all, the world was very cruel. It was the sameas if an angel out of the clouds had fallen on to the earth and foundher feet mired with clay. 

Six hours after she had set out from her home Naomi came to afondak which stood in those days outside the walls of Tetuan on thesouth-western side. The darkness had closed in by this time, and shemust needs rest there for the night, but never until then had shereflected that for such accommodation she would need money. Only a fewcoppers were necessary, only twenty moozoonahs, that she might lie inthe shelter and safety of one of the pens that were built for the sleepof human creatures, and that her mule might be tethered and fed onthe manure heap that constituted the square space within. At last shebethought her of her eggs, and, though it went to her heart to use forherself what was meant for her father, she parted with twelve of them, and some cakes of the bread besides, that she might be allowed to passthe gate, telling herself repeatedly, with big throbs of remorse betweenher protestations, that unless she did so her father might never getanything at all. 

The fondak was a miserable place, full of farming people who were to goon to market at Tetuan in the morning, of many animals of burden, andof countless dogs. It was the eve of the month of Rabya el-ooal, andbetween the twilight and the coming of night certain of the men watchedfor the new moon, and when its thin bow appeared in the sky theysignalled its advent after their usual manner by firing their flintlocksinto the air, while their women, who were squatting around, kept up acooing chorus. Then came eating and drinking, and laughing and singing, and playing the ginbri, and feats of juggling, as well as snarling andquarrelling and fighting, and also peacemaking by means of a cudgelwielded by the keeper of the fondak. With such exercises the nightpassed into morning. 

Naomi was sick. Her head ached. The smell of rotten fish, the stench ofthe manure heap, the braying of the donkeys, the barking of the dogs, the grunt of the camels, and the tumult of human voices made herlight-headed. She could neither eat nor sleep. Almost as soon as itwas light she was up and out and on her way. "I must lose no time, " shethought, trying not to realise that the blue sky was spinning round her, that noises were ringing in her head, and that her poor little heart, which had been so stout only yesterday, was sinking very low. 

"He must be starving, " she told herself again, and that helped her toforget her own troubles and to struggle on. But oh, if the world wereonly not so cruel, oh, if there were anyone to give her a word of cheer, nay, a glance of pity! But nobody had looked at her except the women whostole her bread and the men who shamed her with their wicked eyes. 

That one day's experience did more than all her life before it to fillher with the bitter fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good andevil. Her illusions fell away from her, and her sweet childish faith wasbroken down. She saw herself as she was: a simple girl, a child ignorantof the ways of the world, going alone on a long journey unknown to her, thinking to succour her father in prison, and carrying a handful of eggsand a few poor cakes of bread. When at length the scales fell from theeyes of her mind, and as she trudged along on her bony mule, afraid toask her way, she saw herself, with all her fine purposes shrivelled up, do what she would to be brave, she could not help but cry. It was allso vain, so foolish; she was such a weak little thing. Her father knewthis, and that was why he told her to stay where he left her. What if hecame home while she was absent! Should she go back?

She had almost resolved to return, struggle as she might to pushforward, when going close under the town walls, near to the very gate, the Bab Toot whereat she had been cast out with her father rememberingthis scene of their abasement with a new sense of its cruelty and shameborn of her own simple troubles, she lit upon a woman who was comingout. 

It was Habeebah. She was now the slave of Ben Aboo, and was just thenstealing away from the Kasbah in the early morning that she might go insearch of Naomi, whose whereabouts and condition she had lately learned. 

The two might have passed unknown, for Habeebah was veiled, but thatNaomi had forgotten her blanket and was uncovered. In another moment thepoor frightened girl, with all her brave bearing gone, was weeping onthe black woman's breast. 

"Whither are you going?" said Habeebah. 

"To my father, " Naomi began. "He is in prison; they say he is starving;I was taking food to him, but I am lost, I don't know my way; andbesides--"

"The very thing!" cried Habeebah. 

Habeebah had her own little scheme. It was meant to win emancipation atthe hands of her master, and paradise for her soul when she died. Naomi, who was a Jewess, was to turn Muslima. That was all. Then her troubleswould end, and wondrous fortune would descend upon her, and her fatherwho was in prison would be set free. 

Now, religion was nothing to Naomi; she hardly understood what it meant. The differences of faith were less than nothing, but her father waseverything, and so she clutched at Habeebah's bold promises like adrowning soul at the froth of a breaker. 

"My father will be let out of prison? You are sure--quite sure?" sheasked. 

"Quite sure, " answered Habeebah stoutly. 

Naomi's hopes of ever reaching her father were now faint, and herpoor little stock of eggs and bread looked like folly to her new-bornworldliness. 

"Very well, " she said. "I will turn Muslima. "

A few minutes afterwards she was riding by Habeebah's side into thetown, through the Bab Toot across the Feddan, and up to the courtyardof the Kasbah, which had witnessed the beginning of her own and herfather's degradation. Then, tethering the beast in the open stablesthere, Habeebah took Naomi into her own little room and left her alonefor some minutes, while she hastened to Ben Aboo in secret with herwondrous news. 

"Lord Basha, " she said, "the beautiful Jewess Naomi, the daughter ofIsrael ben Oliel, will turn Muslima. "

"Where is she?" said Ben Aboo. 

"Sidi, " said Habeebah, "I have promised that you will liberate herfather. "

"Fetch her, " said Ben Aboo, "and it shall be done. "

But meanwhile Fatimah had gone to Habeebah's room and found Naomi there, and heard of the vain hope which had brought her. 

"My sweet jewel of gold and silver, " the black woman cried, "you don'tknow what you are doing. Turn Muslima, and you will be parted from yourfather for ever. He is a Jew, and will have no right to you any more. You will never, never see him again. He will be lost to you--lost--Isay--lost!"

Habeebah, with two of the guard, came back to take Naomi to Ben Aboo. The poor girl was bewildered. She had seen nothing but her fatherin Fatimah's protest, just as she had seen nothing but her father inHabeebah's promises. She did not know what to do, she was such a poorweak little thing, and there was no strong hand to guide her. 

They led her through dark passages to an open place which she thoughtshe had seen before. It was a great patio, paved and walled with tiles. Men were standing together there in red peaked caps and flowing whitekaftans. And before them all was one old man in garments that were ofthe colour of the afternoon sun, with sleeves like the mouths of bells, a silver knife at his waistband, and little leather bags, hung by yellowcords, about his neck. Beside this man there was a woman of a laughingcruel face, and she herself, Naomi, stood in the midst, with every eyeupon her. Where had she seen all this before?

Ben Aboo had often bethought him of the beautiful girl since hecommitted her father to prison. He cherished schemes concerning herwhich he did not share with his wife Katrina. But he had hitherto beenwithheld by two considerations: the first being that he was beset withdifficulties arising out of the demands of the Sultan for more moneythan he could find, and the next that he foresaw the necessity thatmight perchance arise of recalling Israel to his post. Out of thesegrave bedevilments he had extricated himself at length by imposingdues on certain tribes of Reefians, who had never yet acknowledged theSultan's authority, and by calling on the Sultan's army to enforce them. The Sultan had come in answer to his summons, the Reefians had beenrouted, their villages burnt, and that morning at daybreak he hadreceived a message saying that Abd er-Rahman intended to keep the feastof the Moolood at Tetuan. So this capture of Naomi was the luckiestchance that could have befallen him at such a moment. She should witnessto the Prophet; her father, the Jew, would thereby lose his rightsin her; and he himself, as her sole guardian, would present her as apeace-offering to the Sultan on crossing the boundary of his bashalic. 

Such was the new plan which Ben Aboo straightway conceived at hearingthe news of Habeebah, and in another moment he had propounded it toKatrina. But when Naomi came into the patio, looking so soft, so timid, so tired, yet so beautiful, so unlike his own painted beauties, with thelight of the dawn on her open face, with her clear eyes and the sweetmouth of a child, his evil passions had all they could do not to go backto his former scheme. 

"So you wish to turn Muslima?" he said. 

Naomi gave one dazed look around, and then cried in a voice of fear "No, no, no!"

Ben Aboo glanced at Habeebah, and Habeebah fell upon Naomi withprotests and remonstrances. "She said so, " Habeebah cried. "'I will turnMuslima, ' she said. Yes, Sidi, she said so, I swear it!"

"Did you say so?" asked Ben Aboo. 

"Yes, " said Naomi faintly. 

"Then, by Allah, there can be no going back now, " said Ben Aboo; and hetold her what was the penalty of apostasy. It was death. She must choosebetween them. 

Naomi began to cry, and Ben Aboo to laugh at her and Habeebah to pleadwith her. Still she saw one thing only. "But what of my father?" shesaid. 

"He shall be liberated, " said Ben Aboo. 

"But shall I see him again? Shall I go back to him?" said Naomi. 

"The girl is a simpleton!" said Katrina. 

"She is only a child, " said Ben Aboo, and with one glance more at herflower-like face, he committed her for three days to the apartments ofhis women. 

These apartments consisted of a garden overgrown by straggling weeds, with a fountain of muddy water in the middle, an oblong room that wasstifling from many perfumes, and certain smaller chambers. The gardenwas inhabited by a gazelle, whose great startled eyes looked out throughthe long grass; and the oblong room by a number of women of varyingages, among whom were a matronly Mooress, called Tarha, in a scarlethead-dress, and with a string of great keys swung from shoulder towaist; a Circassian, called Hoolia, in a gorgeous rida of red silk andgold brocade; a Frenchwoman, called Josephine, with embroidered redslippers and black stockings; and a Jewess, called Sol, with a band ofsilk handkerchiefs tied round her forehead above her coal-black curls, with her fingers pricked out with henna and her eyes darkened with kohl. 

Such were Ben Aboo's wives and concubines and captives, whom he had notdivorced according to his promise; and when Naomi came among them theydid their duty by their master faithfully. Being trapped themselves, they tried to entrap Naomi also. They overwhelmed her with caresses, they went into ecstasies over her beauty, and caused the future whichawaited her to shine before her eyes. She would have a noble husband, magnificent dresses, a brilliant palace, and the world would be at herfeet. "And what's the difference between Moosa and Mohammed?" said Sol;"look at me!" "Tut!" said Josephine, "there's nothing to choose betweenthem. " "For my part, " said Tarha, "I don't see what it matters to us;they say Paradise is for the men!" "And think of the jewels, and theearrings as big as a bracelet, " said Hoolia, "instead of this, " and shedrew away between her thumb and first finger the blanket which Naomi'sneighbour had given her. 

It was all to no purpose. "But what of my father?" Naomi asked again andagain. 

The women lost patience at her simplicity, gave up their solicitations, ignored her, and busied themselves with their own affairs. "Tut!" theysaid, "why should we want her to be made a wife of the Sultan? She wouldonly walk over us like dirt whenever she came to Tetuan. "

Then, sitting alone in their midst, listening to their talk, theirtales, their jests, and their laughter, the unseen mantle fell uponNaomi at last, which made her a woman who had hitherto been a child. In this hothouse of sickly odours these women lived together, having nooccupation but that of eating and drinking and sleeping, no educationbut devising new means of pleasing the lust of their husband's eye, nodelight than that of supplanting one another in his love, no passion butjealousy, no diversion but sporting on the roofs, no end but death andthe Kabar. 

Seeing the uselessness of the siege, Ben Aboo transferred Naomi to theprison, and set Habeebah to guard her. The black woman was in terror atthe turn that events had taken. There was nothing to do now but togo on, so she importuned Naomi with prayers. How could she be sohard-hearted? Could she keep her father famishing in prison when oneword out of her lips would liberate him? Naomi had no answer but hertears. She remembered the hareem, and cried. 

Then Ben Aboo thought of a daring plan. He called the Grand Rabbi, andcommanded him to go to Naomi and convert her to Islam. The Rabbiobeyed with trembling. After all, it was the same God that both peoplesworshipped, only the Moors called Him Allah and the Jews Jehovah. Naomiknew little of either. It was not of God that she was thinking: it wasonly of her father. She was too innocent to see the trick, but the Rabbifailed. He kissed her, and went away wiping his eyes. 

Rumour of Naomi's plight had passed through the town, and one night anumber of Moors came secretly to a lane at the back of the Kasbah, wherea narrow window opened into her cell. They told her in whispers thatwhat she held as tragical was a very simple matter. "Turn Muslima, " theypleaded, "and save yourself. You are too young to die. Resign yourself, for God's sake. " But no answer came back to them where they weregathered in the darkness, save low sobs from inside the wall. 

At last Ben Aboo made two announcements. The first, a public one, wasthat Abd er-Rahman would reach Tetuan within two days, on the openingof the feast of the Moolood, and the other, a private one, that ifNaomi had not said the Kelmah by first prayers the following morning sheshould die and her father be cut off as the penalty of her apostasy. 

That night the place under the narrow window in the dark lane wasoccupied by a group of Jews. "Sister, " they whispered, "sister of ourpeople, listen. The Basha is a hard man. This day he has robbed us ofall we had that he may pay for the Sultan's visit. Listen! We have heardsomething. We want Israel ben Oliel back among us. He was our father, he was our brother. Save his life for the sake of our children, for theBasha has taken their bread. Save him, sister, we beg, we entreat, wepray. "

Naomi broke down at last. Next morning at dawn, kneeling among men inthe Grand Mosque in the Metamar, she repeated the Word after the Iman:"I testify that there is no God but God, and that our Lord Mohammed isthe messenger of God; I am truly resigned. "

Then she was taken back to the women's apartments, and clad gorgeously. Her child face was wet with tears. She was only a poor weak littlething, she knew nothing of religion, she loved her father better thanGod, and all the world was against her. 

CHAPTER XXIII

ISRAEL'S RETURN FROM PRISON

Such was the method of Israel's release. But, knowing nothing of theprice which had been paid for it, he was filled with an immense joy. Nay, his happiness was quite childish, so suddenly had the darknesswhich hung over his life been lifted away. Any one who had seen him inprison would have been puzzled by the change as he came away from it. He laughed with the courier who walked with him to the town gate, andjested with the gate porter as with an old acquaintance. His voice wasmerry, his eye gleamed in the rays of the lantern, his face was flushed, and his step was light. "Afraid to travel in the night? No, no, I'llmeet nothing worse than myself. Others _may_ who meet me? Ha, ha!Perhaps so, perhaps so!" "No evil with you, brother?" "No evil, praisebe God. " "Well, peace be to you!" "On you be peace!" "May your morningbe blessed! Good-night!" "Good-night!" Then with a wave of the hand hewas gone into the darkness. 

It was a wonderful night. The moon, which was in its first quarter, was still low in the east, but the stars were thick overhead, making asilvery dome that almost obliterated the blue. Rivers were rumbling onthe hillside, an owl was hooting in the distance, kine that could not beseen were chewing audibly near at hand, and sheep like patches of whitein the gloom were scuttling through the grass before Israel's footsteps. Israel walked quickly, tracing his course between the two arms of theJebel Sheshawan, whose summits were visible against the sky. The air wascool and moist, and a gentle breeze was blowing from the sea. Oh! thejoy of it to him who had lain long months in prison! Israel drank in thenight air as a young colt drinks in the wind. 

And if it was night in the world without, it was day in Israel's heart. "I am going to be happy, " he told himself, "yes, very happy, veryhappy. " He raised his eyes to heaven, and a star, bigger and brighterthan the rest, hung over the path before him. "It is leading me toNaomi, " he thought. He knew that was folly, but he could not restrainhis mind from foolishness. And at least she had the same moon and starsabove her sleep, for she would be sleeping now. "I am coming, " he cried. He fixed his eye on the bright star in front and pushed forward, neverresting, never pausing. 

The morning dawned. Long rippling waves of morning air came down themountains, cool, chill, and moist. The grey light became tinged withred. Then the sun rose somewhere. It had not yet appeared, but the peakof the western hill was flushed and a raven flew out and perched on thepoint of light. Israel's breast expanded, and he strode on with a firmerstep. "She will be waking soon, " he told himself. 

The world awoke. From unseen places birds began to sing--the wheatearin the crevices of the rocks, the sedge-warbler among the rushes of therivers. The sun strode up over the hill summit, and then all the earthbelow was bright. Dewdrops sparkled on the late flowers, and lay likevast spiders' webs over the grass; sheep began to bleat, dogs to bark, kine to low, horses to cross each other's necks, and over the freshnessof the air came the smell of peat and of green boughs burning. Israeldid not stop, but pushed on with new eagerness. "She will have risennow, " he told himself. He could almost fancy he saw her opening the doorand looking out for him in the sunlight. 

"Poor little thing, " he thought, "how she misses me! But I am coming, Iam coming!"

The country looked very beautiful, and strangely changed since he sawit last. Then it had been like a dead man's face; now it was like a facethat was always smiling. And though the year was so old it seemed tobe quite young. No tired look of autumn, no warning of winter; only thefreshness and vigour of spring. "I am going to see my child, and I shallbe happy yet, " thought Israel. The dust of life seemed to hang on him nolonger. 

He came to a little village called Dar el Fakeer--"the house of the poorone. " The place did not even justify its name, for it was a cinereouswreck. Not a living creature was to be seen anywhere. The village hadbeen sacked by the Sultan's army, and its inhabitants had fled to themountains. Israel paused a moment, and looked into one of the ruinedhouses. He knew it must have been the house of a Jew, for he couldrecognise it by its smell. The floor was strewn over with rubbish--cans, kettles, water-bottles, a woman's handkerchief, and a dainty redslipper. On the ragged grass in the court within there were some littlestones built up into tiny squares, and bits of stick stuck into theground in lines. A young girl had lived in that house; children hadplayed there; the gaunt and silent place breathed of their spiritsstill. "Poor souls!" thought Israel, but the troubles of others couldnot really touch him. At that very moment his heart was joyful. 

The day was warm, but not too hot for walking. Israel did not feelweary, and so he went on without resting. He reckoned how far it wasfrom Shawan to his home near Semsa. It was nearly seventy miles. Thatdistance would take two days and two nights to cover on foot. He hadleft the prison on Wednesday night, and it would be Friday at sunsetbefore he reached Naomi. It was now Thursday morning. He must loseno time. "You see, the poor little thing will be waiting, waiting, waiting, " he told himself. "These sweet creatures are all so impatient;yes, yes, so foolishly impatient. God bless them!"

He met people on the road, and hailed them with good cheer. Theyanswered his greetings sadly, and a few of them told him of theirtrouble. Something they said of Ben Aboo, that he demanded a hundreddollars which they could not pay, and something of the Sultan, that hehad ransacked their houses and then gone on with his great army, histwenty wives, and fifteen tents to keep the feast at Tetuan. But Israelhardly knew what they told him, though he tried to lend an ear to theirstory. He was thinking out a wonderful scheme for the future. With Naomihe was to leave Morocco. They were to sail for England. Free, mighty, noble, beautiful England! Ah, how it shone in his memory, the littlewhite island of the sea! His mother's home! England! Yes, he would goback to it. True, he had no friends there now; but what matter of that?Ah, yes, he was old, and the roll-call of his kindred showed him pitifulgaps. His mother! Ruth! But he had Naomi still. Naomi! He spoke her namealoud, softly, tenderly, caressingly, as if his wrinkled hand were onher hair. Then recovering himself, he laughed to think that he could beso childish. 

Near to sunset he came upon a dooar, a tent village, in a waste place. It was pitched in a wide circle, and opened inwards. The animals werepicketed in the centre, where children and dogs were playing, and thevoices of men and women came from inside the tents. Fires were burningunder kettles swung from triangles, and sight of this reminded Israelthat he had not eaten since the previous day. "I must have food, " hethought, "though I do not feel hungry. " So he stopped, and the wanderingArabs hailed him. "Markababikum!" they cried from where they sat within. 

"You are very welcome! Welcome to our lofty land!" Their land was theworld. 

Israel went into one of the tents, and sat down to a dish of boiledbeans and black bread. It was very sweet. A man was eating beside him; awoman, half dressed, and with face uncovered, was suckling a child whileshe worked a loom which was fastened to the tent's two upright poles. Some fowls were nestling for the night under the tent wing, and a younggirl was by turns churning milk by tossing it in a goat's-skin andbaking cakes on a fire of dried thistles crackling in a hole over threestones. All were laughing together, and Israel laughed along with them. 

"On a long journey, brother?" said the man. 

"No, oh no, no, " said Israel. "Only to Semsa, no farther. "

"Well, you must sleep here to-night, " said the Arab. 

"Ah, I cannot do that, " said Israel. 

"No?"

"You see, I am going back to my little daughter. She is alone, poorchild, and has not seen her old father for months. Really it is wrong ofa man to stay away such a time. These tender creatures are so impatient, you know. And then they imagine such things, do they not? Well, Isuppose we must humour them--that's what I always say. "

"But look, the night is coming, and a dark one, too!" said the woman. 

"Oh, nothing, that's nothing, sister, " said Israel. "Well, peace!Farewell all, farewell!"

Waving his hand he went away laughing, but before he had gone far thedarkness overtook him. It came down from the mountains like a denseblack cloud. Not a star in the sky, not a gleam on the land, darknessahead of him, darkness behind, one thick pall hanging in the air onevery side. Still for a while he toiled along. Every step was an effort. The ground seemed to sink under him. It was like walking on mattresses. He began to feel tired and nervous and spiritless. A cold sweat brokeout on his brow, and at length, when the sound of a river came fromsomewhere near, though on which side of him he could not tell, he had nochoice but to stop. "After all, it is better, " he thought. "Strange, howthings happen for the best! I must sleep to-night, for to-morrow night Iwill get no sleep at all. No, for I shall have so many things to say andto ask and to hear. "

Consoling him thus, he tried to sleep where he was, and as slumber creptupon him in the darkness, with five-and-twenty heavy miles of densenight between him and his home, he crooned and talked to himself ina childish way that he might comfort his aching heart. "Yes, I mustsleep--sleep--to-morrow _she_ must sleep and I must watch by her--watchby her as I used to do--used to do--how soft and beautiful--howbeautiful--sleeping--sleep--Ah!"

When he awoke the sun had risen. The sea lay before him in the distance, the blue Mediterranean stretching out to the blue sky. He was on theborders of the country of the Beni-Hassan, and, after wading the river, which he had heard in the night, he began again on his journey. It wasnow Friday morning, and by sunset of that day he would be back at hishome near Semsa. Already he could see Tetuan far away, girt by its whitewalls, and perched on the hillside. Yonder it lay in the sunlight, withthe snow-tipped heights above it, a white blaze surrounded by orangeorchards. 

But how dizzy he was! How the world went round! How the earth trembled!Was the glare of the sun too fierce that morning, or had his eyes growndim? Going blind? Well, even so, he would not repine, for Naomi couldsee now. She would see for him also. How sweet to see through Naomi'seyes! Naomi was young and joyous, and bright and blithe. All the worldwas new to her, and strange and beautiful. It would be a second and farsweeter youth. 

Naomi--Naomi--always Naomi! He had thought of her hitherto as she hadappeared to him during the few days of their happy lives at Semsa. But now he began to wonder if time had not changed her since then. Twomonths and a half--it seemed so long! He had visions of Naomi grown froma sweet girl to a lovely woman. A great soul beamed out of her big, slow eyes. He himself approached her meekly, humbly, reverently. Nevertheless, he was her father still--her old, tired, dim-eyed father;and she led him here and there, and described things to him. He couldsee and hear it all. First Naomi's voice: "A bow in the sky--red, blue, crimson--oh!" Then his own deeper one, out of its lightsome darkness: "Arainbow, child!" Ah! the dreams were beautiful!

He tried to recall the very tones of Naomi's voice--the voice of hispoor dead Ruth--and to remember the song that she used to sing--the songshe sang in the patio on that great night of the moonlight, when hewas returning home from the Bab Ramooz, and heard her singing from thestreet--

 Within my heart a voice Bids earth and heaven rejoice. 

He sang the song to himself as he toiled along. With a little lisp hesang it, so that he might cheat himself and think that the voice he wasmaking was Naomi's voice and not his own. 

Towards midday Israel came under the walls of Tetuan, between theSultan's gardens and the flour-mills that are turned by the escapingsewers, and there he lit upon a company of Jews. They were a deputationthat had come out from the town to meet him, and at first sight of hisface they were shocked. He had left Tetuan a stricken man, it was true, but strong and firm, fifty years of age and resolute. Six months hadpassed, and he was coming back as a weak, broken, shattered, doddering, infirm old man of eighty. Their hearts fell low before they spoke, butafter a pause one of them--Israel knew him: a grey-bearded man, his namewas Solomon Laredo--stepped up and said, "Israel ben Oliel, our poorTetuan is in trouble. It needs you. Alas! we dealt ill with you, but Godhas punished us, and we are brothers now. Come back to us, we pray ofyou; for we have heard of a great thing that is coming to pass. Listen!"

Something they told him then of Mohammed of Mequinez, follower ofSeedna Aissa (Jesus of Nazareth), but a good man nevertheless, and alsosomething they said of the Spaniards and of one Marshal O'Donnel, who was to bombard Marteel. But Israel heard very little. "I think myhearing must be failing me, " he said; and then he laughed lightly, as ifthat did not greatly matter. "And to tell you the truth, though I pitymy poor brethren, I can no longer help them. God will raise up a betterminister. "

"Never!" cried the Jews in many voices. 

"Anyhow, " said Israel, "my life among you is ended. I set no store byplace and power. What does the English poet say, 'In the great hand ofGod I stand. ' Shakespeare--oh, a mighty creature--one who knew wherethe soul of a man lay. But I forget, you've not lived in England. Doyou know I am to go there again, and to take my little daughter? Youremember her--Naomi--a charming girl. She can see now, and hear, andspeak also! Yes for God has lifted His hand away from her, and I amgoing to be very happy. Well, I must leave you, brothers. The little onewill be waiting. I must not keep her too long, must I? Peace, peace!"

Seeing his profound faith, no one dared to tell him the truth that wason every tongue. A wave of compassion swept over all. The deputationstood and watched him until he had sunk under the hill. 

And now, being come thus near to home, Israel's impatience robbed himof some of his happy confidence and filled him with fears. He beganto think of all the evil chances that might have befallen Naomi. Hisabsence had been so long, and so many things might have happened sincehe went away. In this mood he tried to run. It was a poor uncertainshamble. At nearly every step the body lurched for poise and balance. 

At last he came to a point of the path from which, as he knew, thelittle rush-covered house ought to be seen. "It's yonder, " he cried, andpointed it out to himself with uplifted finger. The sun was sinking, andits strong rays were in his face. "She's there, I see her!" he shouted. A few minutes later he was near the door. "No, my eyes deceived me, "he said in a damp voice. "Or perhaps she has gone in--perhaps she'shiding--the sweet rogue!"

The door was half open; he pushed it and entered the house. "Naomi!" hecalled in a voice like a caress. "Naomi!" His voice trembled now. "Cometo me, come, dearest; come quickly, quickly, I cannot see!" He listened. There was not a sound, not a movement. "Naomi!" The name was like agurgle in his throat. There was a pause, and then he said very feeblyand simply, "She's not here. "

He looked around, and picked up something from the floor. It was aslipper covered with mould. As he gazed upon it a change came over hisface. Dead? Was Naomi dead? He had thought of death before--for himself, for others, never for Naomi. At a stride the awful thing was on him. Death! Oh, oh!

With a helpless, broken, blind look he was standing in the middle of thefloor with the slipper in his hand, when a footstep came to the door. Heflung the slipper away and threw open his arms. Naomi--it must be she!

It was Fatimah. She had come in secret, that the evil news of what hadbeen done at the Kasbah and the Mosque might not be broken to Israel toosuddenly. He met her with a terrible question. "Where is she laid?" hesaid in a voice of awe. 

Fatimah saw his error instantly. "Naomi is alive, " she said, and, seeinghow the clouds lifted off his face, she added quickly, "and well, verywell. "

That is not telling a falsehood, she thought; but when Israel, with acry of joy which was partly pain, flung his arms about her, she saw whatshe had done. 

"Where is she?" he cried. "Bring her, you dear, good soul. Why is shenot here? Lead me to her, lead me!"

Then Fatimah began to wring her hands. "Alas!" she said, weeping, "thatcannot be. "

Israel steadied himself and waited. "She cannot come to you, and neithercan you go to her. " said Fatimah. "But she is well, oh! very well. Poor child, she is at the Kasbah--no, no, not the prison--oh no, sheis happy--I mean she is well, yes, and cared for--indeed, she is at thepalace--the women's palace--but set your mind easy--she--"

With such broken, blundering words the good woman blurted out the truth, and tried to deaden the blow of it. But the soul lives fast, and Israellived a lifetime in that moment. 

"The palace!" he said in a bewildered way. "The women's palace--thewomen's--" and then broke off shortly. "Fatimah, I want to go to Naomi, "he said. 

And Fatimah stammered, "Alas! alas! you cannot, you never can--"

"Fatimah, " said Israel, with an awful calm. "Can't you see, woman, I have come home? I and Naomi have been long parted. Do you notunderstand?--I want to go to my daughter. "

"Yes, yes, " said Fatimah; "but you can never go to her any more. She isin the women's apartments--"

Then a great hoarse groan came from Israel's throat. 

"Poor child, it was not her fault. Listen, " said Fatimah; "only listen. "

But Israel would hear no more. The torrent of his fury bore downeverything before it. Fatimah's feeble protests were drowned. "Silence!"he cried. "What need is there for words? She is in the palace!--that'senough. The women's palace--the hareem--what more is there to say?"

Putting the fact so to his own consciousness, and seeing it grossly inall its horror, his passion fell like a breaking in of waters. "OGod!" he cried, "my enemy casts me into prison. I lie there, rotting, starving. I think of my little daughter left behind alone. I hasten hometo her. But where is she? She is gone. She is in the house of my enemy. Curse her! . . . . Ah! no, no; not that, either! Pardon me, O God; notthat, whatever happens! But the palace--the women's palace. Naomi! Mylittle daughter! Her face was so sweet, so simple. I could have swornthat she was innocent. My love! my dove! I had only to look at her tosee that she loved me! And now the hareem--that hell, and Ben Aboo--thatlibertine! I have lost her for ever! Yet her soul was mine--I wrestledwith God for it--"

He stopped suddenly, his face became awfully discoloured, he dropped tohis knees on the floor, lifted his eyes and his hands towards heaven, and cried in a voice at once stern and heartrending, "Kill her, O God!Kill her body, O my God, that her soul may be mine again!"

At this awful cry Fatimah fled out of the hut. It was the last voice oftottering reason. After that he became quiet, and when Fatimah returnedthe following morning he was talking to himself in a childish waywhile sitting at the door, and gazing before him with a lifeless look. Sometimes he quoted Scriptures which were startlingly true to his owncondition: "I am alone, I am a companion to owls. . . . I have cleansedmy heart in vain. . . . My feet are almost gone, my steps have well-nighslipped. . . . I am as one whom his mother comforteth. "

Between these Scriptures there were low incoherent cries and simplefoolish play-words. Again and again he called on Naomi, always softlyand tenderly, as if her name were a sacred thing. At times he appearedto think that he was back in prison, and made a little prayer--alwaysthe same--that some one should be kept from harm and evil. Once heseemed to hear a voice that cried, "Israel ben Oliel! Israel ben Oliel!""Here! Israel is here!" he answered. He thought the Kaid was callinghim. The Kaid was the King. "Yes, I will go back to the King, " he said. Then he looked down at his tattered kaftan, which was mired with dirt, and tried to brush it clean, to button it, and to tie up the raggedthreads of it. At last he cried, as if servants were about him and hewere a master still, "Bring me robes--clean robes--white robes; I amgoing back to the King!"

CHAPTER XXIV

THE ENTRY OF THE SULTAN

Meantime Tetuan was looking for the visit of His Shereefian Majesty, the Sultan Abd er-Rahman. He had been heard of about four hours away, encamped with his Ministers, a portion of his hareem, and a detachmentof his army, somewhere by the foot of Beni Hosmar. His entry was fixedfor eight o'clock next morning, and preparations for his coming wereeverywhere afoot. All other occupations were at a standstill, andnothing was to be heard but the noise and clamour of the cleansing ofthe streets, and the hanging of flags and of carpets. 

Early on the following morning a street-crier came, beating a drum, and crying in a hoarse voice, "Awake! Awake! Come and greet your Lord!Awake! Awake!"

In a little while the streets were alive with motley and noisy crowds. The sun was up, if still red and hazy, and sunlight came like a tunnelof gold down the swampy valley and from over the sea; the orangeorchards lying to the south, called the gardens of the Sultan, were redrather than yellow, and the snowy crests of the mountain heights abovethem were crimson rather than white. In the town itself the small redflag that is the Moorish ensign hung out from every house, and carpetsof various colours swung on many walls. 

The sun was not yet high before the Sultan's army began to arrive. Itwas a mixed and noisy throng that came first, a sort of ragged regimentof Arabs, with long guns, and with their gun-cases wrapped about theirheads--a big gang of wild country-folk lately enlisted as soldiers. Theypoured into the town at the western gate, and shuffled and jostled andsqueezed their way through the narrow streets firing recklessly into theair, and shouting as they went, "Abd er-Rahman is coming! The Sultan iscoming! Dogs! Men! Believers! Infidels! Come out! come out!"

Thus they went puffing along, covered with dust and sweltering inperspiration, and at every fresh shot and shout the streets they passedthrough grew denser. But it was a grim satire on their lawless loyaltythat almost at their heels there came into the town, not the Sultanhimself, but a troop of his prisoners from the mountains. Ten of themthere were in all, guarded by ten soldiers, and they made a sorryspectacle. They were chained together, man to man in single file, not hand to hand or leg to leg but neck to neck. So had they walked ahundred miles, never separated night or day, either sleeping or waking, or faint or strong. The feet of some were bare and torn, and drippingblood; the faces of all were black with grime, and streaked with linesof sweat. And thus they toiled into the streets in that sunlightof God's own morning, under the red ensigns of Morocco, by themany-coloured carpets of Rabat, to the Kasbah beyond the market-place. They were Reefians whose homes the Sultan had just stripped, whosevillages he had just burnt, whose wives and children he had just driveninto the mountains. And they were going to die in his dungeons. 

It was seven o'clock by this time, and rumour had it that the Sultan'strain was moving down the valley. From the roofs of the houses a vasthuman ant-hill could be seen swarming across the plain in the distance. Then came some rapid transformations of the scene below. First thestreets were deserted by every decent blue jellab and clean white turbanwithin range of sight. These presently reappeared on the roofs of theprincipal thoroughfare, where groups of women, closely covered in theirhaiks, had already begun to congregate with their dark attendants. Next, a body of the townsmen who possessed firearms mounted guard on thewalls to protect the town from the lawlessness of the big army that wascoming. Then into the Feddan, the square marketplace, came pouring fromtheir own little quarter within its separate walls a throng of Jewishpeople, in their black gabardines and skull-caps, men and women andchildren, carrying banners that bore loyal inscriptions, twanging attambourines and crying in wild discords, "God bless our Lord!" "God givevictory to our Lord the Sultan!"

The poor Jews got small thanks for such loyalty to the last of theCaliphs of the Prophet. Every ragged Moor in the streets greeted themwith exclamations of menace and abhorrence. Even the blind beggarcrouching at the gate lifted up his voice and cursed them. 

"Get out, you Jew! God burn your father! Dogs, take off yourslippers--Abd er-Rahman is coming!"

Thus they were scolded and abused on every side, kicked, cuffed, jostled, and wedged together well-nigh to suffocation. Their bannerswere torn out of their hands, their tambourines were broken, theirvoices were drowned, and finally they were driven back into their Mellahand shut up there, and forbidden to look upon the entry of the Sultaneven from their roofs. 

And the vagabonds and ragamuffins among the faithful in the streets, having got rid of the unbelievers had enough ado to keep peace amongthemselves. They pushed and struggled and stormed and cried and laughedand clamoured down this main artery of the town through which theSultan's train must pass. Men and boys, women also and young girls, donkeys with packs, bony mules too, and at least one dirty and terrifiedold camel. It was a confused and uproarious babel. Angry black facesthrust into white ones, flashing eyes and gleaming white teeth, andclenched fists uplifted. Human voices barking like dogs, yelping likehyenas, shrill and guttural, piercing and grating. Prayings, beggings, quarrellings, cursings. 

"Arrah! Arrah! Arrah!"

"O Merciful! O Giver of good to all!"

"Curses on your grandfather!"

"Allah! Allah! Allah!"

"Balak! Balak! Balak!"

But presently the wild throng fell into order and silence. The gate ofthe Kasbah was thrown open, and a line of soldiers came out, headed bythe Kaid of Tetuan, and moved on towards the city wall. The rabble werethrust back, the soldiers were drawn up in lines on either side of thestreet, and the Kaid, Ben Aboo himself, took a position by the westerngate. 

By this time there was commotion on the town walls among the townsmenwho had gathered there. The Sultan's army was drawing near, a confusedand disorderly mass of human beings moving on from the plain. As theycame up to the walls, the people who were standing on the house-roofscould see them, and as they were ordered away to encamp by the river, none could help but hear their shouts and oaths. 

When the motley and noisy concourse had been driven off to theircamping-ground, the gates of the town were thrown wide, for the Sultanhimself was at hand. 

First came two soldiers afoot, and then followed five artillerymen, withtheir small pieces packed on mules. Next came mounted standard-bearersfour deep, some in red, some in blue, and some in green. Then came theoutrunners and the spearmen, and then the Sultan's six led horses. Andthen at length with the great red umbrella of royalty held over him, came the Sultan himself, the elderly sensualist, with his dusky cheeks, his rheumy eyes, his thick lips, and his heavy nostrils. The fat Fatherof Islam was mounted that day on a snow-white stallion, bedecked ingorgeous trappings. Its bridle was of green silk, embroidered in gold. Solomon's seal was stamped on its headgear, and the tooth of a boar--asafeguard against the evil eye--was suspended from its neck. Its saddlewas of orange damask, with girths of stout silk, and its stirrups wereof chased silver. The Sultan's own trappings were of the colour ofhis horse. His kaftan was of white cloth, with an embroidered leatherngirdle; his turban was of white cotton, and his kisa was also white andtransparent. 

As he passed under the archway of the town's gate the cannon of theKasbah boomed forth a salute, Ben Aboo dismounted and kissed hisstirrup, and the crowds in the streets burst upon him with blessings. 

"God bless our Lord!"

"Sultan Abd er-Rahman!"

"God prolong the life of our Lord!"

He seemed hardly to hear them. Once his hand touched his breast when theKaid approached him. After that he looked neither to the right nor tothe left, nor gave any sign of pleasure or recognition. Neverthelessthe people in the streets ceased not to greet him with deafeningacclamations. 

"All's well, all's well, " they told each other, and pointed to the whitehorse--the sign of peace--which the Sultan rode, and to the riderlessblack horse--the sign of strife--that pranced behind him. 

The women on the housetops also, in their hooded cloaks, welcomed theSultan with a shrill ululation: "Yoo-yoo, yoo-yoo, yoo-yoo!"

Not content with this, the usual greeting of their sex and nation, someof them who had hitherto been closely veiled threw back their muslincoverings, exposed their faces to his face, and welcomed him with morearticulate cries. 

He gave them neither a smile nor a glance, but rode straight onward. Beside him walked the fly-flappers, flapping the air before his podgycheeks with long scarfs of silk, and behind him rode his Ministers ofState, five sleek dogs who daily fed his appetites on carrion that hishead might be like his stomach, and their power over him thereby thegreater. After the Ministers of State came a part of the royal hareem. The ladies rode on mules, and were attended by eunuchs. 

Such was the entry into Tetuan of the Sultan Abd er-Rahman. In theirheart of hearts did the people rejoice at his visit? No. Too well theyknew that the tyrant had done nothing for his subjects but take theirtaxes. Not a man had he protected from injustice; not a woman had hesaved from dishonour. Never a rich usurer among them but trembled at hismessages, nor a poor wretch but dreaded his dungeons. His law existedonly for himself; his government had no object but to collect his dues. And yet his people had received him amid wild vociferations of welcome. 

Fear, fear! Fear it was in the heart of the rich man on the housetops, whose moneys were hidden, as well as in the darkened soul of the blindbeggar at the gate, whose eyes had been gouged out long ago because hedared not divulge the secret place of his wealth. 

But early in the evening of that same day, at the corners of quietstreets, in the covered ways, by the doors of bazaars, among the horsestethered in the fondaks, wheresoever two men could stand and talkunheard and unobserved by a third, one secret message of twofoldsignificance passed with the voice of smothered joy from lip to lip. Andthis was the way and the word of it:

"She is back in the Kasbah!"

"The daughter of Ben Oliel? Thank God! But why? Has she recanted?"

"She has fallen sick. "

"And Ben Aboo has sent her to prison?"

"He thinks that the physician who will cure her quickest. "

"Allah save us! The dog of dogs! But God be praised! At least she issaved from the Sultan. "

"For the present, only for the-present. "

"For ever, brother, for ever! Listen! your ear. A word of news for yournews: the Mahdi is coming! The boy has been for him. "

"Bismillah! Ben Oliel's boy?"

"Ali. He is back in Tetuan. And listen again! Behind the Mahdi comesthe--"

"Ya Allah! well?"

"Hark! A footstep on the street--some one is near--"

"But quick. Behind the Mahdi--what?"

"God will show! In peace, brother, in peace!"

"In peace!"

CHAPTER XXV

THE COMING OF THE MAHDI

The Mahdi came back in the evening. He had no standard-bearers goingbefore him, no outrunners, no spearmen, no fly-flappers, no ministers ofstate; he rode no white stallion in gorgeous trappings, and was himselfbedecked in no snowy garments. His ragged following he had left behindhim; he was alone; he was afoot; a selham of rough grey cloth was allhis bodily adornment; yet he was mightier than the monarch who hadentered Tetuan that day. 

He passed through the town not like a sultan, but like a saint; not likea conquering prince, but like an avenging angel. Outside the town he hadcome upon the great body of the Sultan's army lying encamped underthe walls. The townspeople who had shut the soldiers out, with all therabble of their following, had nevertheless sent them fifty camels' loadof kesksoo, and it had been served in equal parts, half a pound to eachman. Where this meal had already been eaten, the usual charlatans ofthe market-place had been busily plying their accustomed trades. Black jugglers from Zoos, sham snake-charmers from the desert, andstory-tellers both grave and facetious, all twanging their hideousginbri, had been seated on the ground in half-circles of soldiers andtheir women. But the Mahdi had broken up and scattered every group ofthem. 

"Away!" he had cried. "Away with your uncleanness and deception. "

And the foulest babbler of them all, hot with the exercise of theindecent gestures wherewith he illustrated his filthy tale, had slunkoff like a pariah dog. 

As the Mahdi entered the town a number of mountaineers in the Feddanwere going through their feats of wonder-play before a multitude ofexcited spectators. Two tribes, mounted on wild barbs, were charging inline from opposite sides of the square, some seated, some kneeling, somestanding. Midway across the market-place they were charging, horses atfull gallop, firing their muskets, then reining in at a horse's length, throwing their barbs on their haunches, wheeling round and gallopingback, amid deafening shouts of "Allah! Allah! Allah!"

"Allah indeed!" cried the Mahdi, striding into their midst withoutfear. "That is all the part that God plays in this land of iniquity andbloodshed. Away, away!"

The people separated, and the Mahdi turned towards the Kasbah. As heapproached it, the lanes leading to the Feddan were being cleared forthe mad antics of the Aissawa. Before they saw him the fanatics came outin all the force of their acting brotherhood, a score of half-nakedmen, and one other entirely naked, attended by their high-priests, theMukaddameen, three old patriarchs with long white beards, wearing darkflowing robes and carrying torches. Then goats and dogs were riven aliveand eaten raw; while women and children; crouching in the gatheringdarkness overhead looked down from the roofs and shuddered. And as thefrenzy increased among the madmen, and their victims became fewer, eachfanatic turned upon himself, and tore his own skin and battered his headagainst the stones until blood ran like water. 

"Fools and blind guides!" cried the Mahdi sweeping them before him likesheep. "Is this how you turn the streets into a sickening sewer? Oh, theabomination of desolation! You tear yourselves in the name of God, butforget His justice and mercy. Away! You will have your reward. Away!Away!"

At the gate of the Kasbah he demanded to see the Kaid, and, aftervarious parleyings with the guards and negroes who haunted the windingways of the gloomy place, he was introduced to the Basha's presence. The Basha received him in a room so dark that he could but dimly see hisface. Ben Aboo was stretched on a carpet, in much the position of a dogwith his muzzle on his forepaws. 

"Welcome, " he said gruffly, and without changing his own unceremoniousposture, he gave the Mahdi a signal to sit. 

The Mahdi did not sit. "Ben Aboo, " he said in a voice that was halfchoked with anger, "I have come again on an errand of mercy, and woe toyou if you send me away unsatisfied. "

Ben Aboo lay silent and gloomy for a moment, and then said with a growl, "What is it now?"

"Where is the daughter of Ben Oliel?" said the Mahdi. 

With a gesture of protestation the Basha waved one of the hands on whichhis dusky muzzle had rested. 

"Ah, do not lie to me, " cried the Mahdi. "I know where she is--she is inprison. And for what? For no fault but love of her father, and no crimebut fidelity to her faith. She has sacrificed the one and abandoned theother. Is that not enough for you, Ben Aboo? Set her free. "

The Basha listened at first with a look of bewilderment, and somehalf-dozen armed attendants at the farther end of the room shuffledabout in their consternation. At length Ben Aboo raised his head, andsaid with an air of mock inquiry, "Ya Allah! who is this infidel?"

Then, changing his tone suddenly, he cried, "Sir, I know who you are!You come to me on this sham errand about the girl, but that is not yourpurpose, Mohammed of Mequinez! Mohammed the Third! What fool said youwere a spy of the Sultan? Abd er-Rahman is here--my guest and protector. You are a spy of his enemies, and a revolutionary, come hither to ruinour religion and our State. The penalty for such as you is death, and byAllah you shall die!"

Saying this, he so wrought upon his indignation, that in spite of hissuperstitious fears, and the awe in which he stood of the Mahdi, he halfdeceived himself, and deceived his attendants entirely. But the Mahditook a step nearer and looked straight into his face, and said--

"Ben Aboo, ask pardon of God; you are a fool. You talk of putting me todeath. You dare not and you cannot do it. "

"Why not?" cried Ben Aboo, with a thrill of voice that was like aswagger. "What's to hinder me? I could do it at this moment, and no manneed know. "

"Basha, " said the Mahdi, "do you think you are talking to a child? Doyou think that when I came here my visit was not known to others thanourselves outside? Do you think there are not some who are waiting formy return? And do you think, too, " he cried, lifting one hand and hisvoice together, "that my Master in heaven would not see and know it onan errand of mercy His servant perished? Ben Aboo, ask pardon of God, Isay; you are a fool. "

The Basha's face became black and swelled with rage. But he wascowed. He hesitated a moment in silence, and then said with an air ofbraggadocio--

"And what if I do not liberate the girl?"

"Then, " said the Mahdi, "if any evil befalls her the consequences shallbe on your head. "

"What consequences?" said the Basha. 

"Worse consequences than you expect or dream, " said the Mahdi. 

"What consequences?" said the Basha again. 

"No matter, " said the Mahdi. "You are walking in darkness, and do notknow where you are going. "

"What consequences?" the Basha cried once more. 

"That is God's secret, " said the Mahdi. 

Ben Aboo began to laugh. "Light the infidel out of the Kasbah, " heshouted to his people. 

"Enough!" cried the Mahdi. "I have delivered my message. Now woe to you, Ben Aboo! A second time I have come to you as a witness, but I will comeno more. Fill up the measure of your iniquity. Keep the girl in prison. Give her to the Sultan. But know that for all these things your rewardawaits you. Your time is near. You will die with a pale face. The swordwill reach to your soul. "

Then taking yet another step nearer, until he stood over the Basha wherehe lay on the ground, he cried with sudden passion, "This is the lastword that will pass between you and me. So part we now for ever, BenAboo--I to the work that waits for me, and you to shame and contempt, and death and hell. "

Saying this, he made a downward sweep of his open hand over the placewhere the Basha lay, and Ben Aboo shrank under it as a worm shrinksunder a blow. Then with head erect he went out unhindered. 

But he was not yet done. In the garden of the palace, as he passedthrough it to the street, he stood a moment in the darkness under thestars before the chamber where he knew the Sultan lay, and cried, "Abder-Rahman! Abd er-Rahman! slave of the Merciful! Listen: I hear thesound of the trumpet and the alarum of war. My heart makes a noise in mefor my country, but the day of her tribulation is near. Woe to you, Abder-Rahman! You have filled up the measure of your fathers. Woe to you, slave of the Compassionate!"

The Sultan heard him, and so did the Ministers of State; the women ofthe hareem heard him, and so did the civil guards and the soldiers. Buthis voice and his message came over them with the terror of a ghostlything, and no man raised a hand to stop him. 

"The Mahdi, " they whispered with awe, and fell back when he approached. 

The streets were quiet as he left the Kasbah. The rabble of mountaineersof Aissawa were gone. Hooded Talebs, with prayer-mats under their arms, were picking their way in the gloom from the various mosques; and fromthese there came out into the streets the plash of water in the porticosand the low drone of singing voices behind the screens. 

The Mahdi lodged that night in the quarter of the enclosure called theM'Salla, and there a slave woman of Ben Aboo's came to him in secret. It was Fatimah, and she told him much of her late master, whom she hadvisited by stealth, and just left in great trouble and in madness; alsoof her dead mistress, Ruth who was like rose-perfume in her memory, aswell as of Naomi, their daughter, and all her sufferings. In spasms, ingasps, without sequence and without order, she told her story; but helistened to her with emotion while the agitated black face was beforehim, and when it was gone he tramped the dark house in the dead ofnight, a silent man, with tender thoughts of the sweet girl who wasimprisoned in the dungeons of the Kasbah, and of her stricken father, who supposed that she was living in luxury in the palace of his enemywhile he himself lay sick in the poor hut which had been their home. These false notions, which were at once the seed and the fruit ofIsrael's madness, should at least be dispelled. Let come what would, theman should neither live nor die in such bitterness of cruel error. 

The Mahdi resolved to set out for Semsa with the first grey of morning, and meantime he went up to the house-top to sleep. The town was quiet, the traffic of the street was done, the raggabash of the Sultan'sfollowing had slunk away ashamed or lain down to rest. It was awonderful night. The air was cool, for the year was deep towards winter, but not a breath of wind was stirring, and the orange-gardens behind thetown wall did not send over the river so much as the whisper of a leaf. Stars were out and the big moon of the East shone white on the whitewalls and minarets. Nowhere is night so full of the spirit of sleep asin an Eastern city. Below, under the moonlight, lay the square whiteroofs, and between them were the dark streets going in and out, trailingthrough and along, like to narrow streams of black water in a bed ofquarried chalk. Here or there, where a belated townsman lit himselfhomeward with a lamp, a red light gleamed out of one of the thindarknesses, crept along a few paces, and then was gone. Sometimes aclamour of voices came up with their own echo from some unseen place, and again everything was still. Sleep, sleep, all was sleep. 

"O Tetuan, " thought the Mahdi, "how soon will your streets be uprootedand your sanctuaries destroyed!"

The Mooddin was chanting the call to prayers, and the old porter at thegate was muttering over his rosary as the Mahdi left the town in thedawn. He had to pick his way among the soldiers who were lying on thebare soil outside, uncovered to the sky. Not one of them seemed tobe awake. Even their camels were still sleeping, nose to nose, in thecircles where they had last fed. Only their mules and asses, all hobbledand still saddled, were up and feeding. 

The Mahdi found Israel ben Oliel in the hut at Semsa. So poor a place hehad not seen in all his wanderings through that abject land. Its wallswere of clay that was bulged and cracked, and its roof was of rushes, which lay over it like sea-wreck on a broken barrel. Israel was in hisright mind. He was sitting by the door of his house, with a dejectedair, a hopeless look, but the slow sad eyes of reason. His clothing wasone worn and torn kaftan; his feet were shoeless, and his head was bare. But so grand a head the Mahdi thought he had never beheld before. Notuntil then had he truly seen him, for the poverty and misery that sat onhim only made his face stand out the clearer. It was the face of a manwho for good or ill, for struggle or submission, had walked and wrestledwith God. 

With salutations, barely returned to him, the Mahdi sat down besideIsrael at a little distance. He began to speak to him in a tender way, telling him who he was, and where they had met before, and why he came, and whither he was going. And Israel listened to him at first with abrave show of composure as if the very heart of the man were a frozenclod, whereby his eyes and the muscles of his face and even the nervesof his fingers were also frozen. 

Then the Mahdi spoke of Naomi, and Israel made a slow shake of thehead. He told him what had happened to her when her father was taken toprison, and Israel listened with a great outward calmness. After that hedescribed the girl's journey in the hope of taking food to him, and howshe fell into the hands of Habeebah; and then he saw by Israel's facethat the affection of the father was tearing his old heart woefully. At last he recited the incidents of her cruel trial, and how she hadyielded at length, knowing nothing of religion, being only a child, seeing her father in everything and thinking to save his life, thoughshe herself must see him no more (for all this he had gathered fromFatimah), and then the great thaw came to Israel, and his fingerstrembled, and his face twitched, and the hot tears rained down hischeeks. 

"My poor darling!" he muttered in a trembling undertone, and then heasked in a faltering voice where she was at that time. 

The Mahdi told him that she was back in prison, for rebelling againstthe fortune intended for her--that of becoming a concubine of theSultan. 

"My brave girl!" he muttered, and then his face shone with a new lightthat was both pride and pain. 

He lifted his eyes as if he could see her, and his voice as if shecould hear: "Forgive me, Naomi! Forgive me, my poor child! Your weak oldfather; forgive him, my brave, brave daughter!"

This was as much as the Mahdi could bear; and when Israel turned to him, and said in almost a childish tone, "I suppose there is no help forit now, sir. I meant to take her to England--to my poor mother's home, but--"

"And so you shall, as sure as the Lord lives, " said the Mahdi, rising tohis feet, with the resolve that a plan for Naomi's rescue which hehad thought of again and again, and more than once rejected, which hadclamoured at the door of his heart, and been turned away as a barbarousimpulse, should at length be carried into effect. 

CHAPTER XXVI

ALI'S RETURN TO TETUAN

The plan which the Mahdi thought of had first been Ali's, for the blacklad was back in Tetuan. After he had fulfilled his errand of mercy atShawan; he had gone on to Ceuta; and there, with a spirit afire for thewrongs of his master, from whom he was so cruelly parted, he had sethimself with shrewdness and daring to incite the Spanish powers tovengeance upon his master's enemies. This had been a task very easy ofexecution, for just at that time intelligence had come from the Reef, ofbarbarous raids made by Ben Aboo upon mountain tribes that had hithertooffered allegiance to the Spanish crown. A mission had gone up to Fez, and returned unsatisfied. War was to be declared, Marteel was to bebombarded, the army of Marshal O'Donnel was to come up the valley of theriver, and Tetuan was to be taken. 

Such were the operations which by the whim of fate had been so strangelyrevealed to Ali, but Ali's own plan was a different matter. This wasthe feast of the Moolood, and on one of the nights of it, probably theeighth night, the last night, Friday night, Ben Aboo the Basha was togive a "gathering of delight, " to the Sultan, his Ministers, his Kaids, his Kadis, his Khaleefas, his Umana, and great rascals generally. Ali'sstout heart stuck at nothing. He was for having the Spaniards brought upto the gates of the town, on the very night when the whole majesty andiniquity of Barbary would be gathered in one room; then, locking theentire kennel of dogs in the banqueting hall, firing the Kasbah andburning it to the ground, with all the Moorish tyrants inside of it likerats in a trap. 

One danger attended his bold adventure, for Naomi's person was withinthe Kasbah walls. To meet this peril Ali was himself to find his wayinto the dungeon, deliver Naomi, lock the Kasbah gate, and deliver up toanother the key that should serve as a signal for the beginning of thegreat night's work. 

Also one difficulty attended it, for while Ali would be at the Kasbahthere would be no one to bring up the Spaniards at the proper moment forthe siege--no one in Tetuan on whom the strangers could rely not tolead them blindfold into a trap. To meet this difficulty Ali had gone insearch of the Mahdi, revealed to him his plan, and asked him to helpin the downfall of his master's enemies by leading the Spaniards at theright moment to the gates that should be thrown open to receive them. 

Hearing Ali's story, the Mahdi had been aflame with tender thoughtsof Naomi's trials, with hatred of Ben Aboo's tyrannies, and pity ofIsrael's miseries. But at first his humanity had withheld him fromsympathy with Ali's dark purpose, so full, as it seemed, of barbarityand treachery. 

"Ali, " he had said, "is it not all you wish for to get Naomi out ofprison and take her back to her father?"

"Yes, Sidi, " Ali had answered promptly. 

"And you don't want to torture these tyrants if you can do what youdesire without it?"

"No-o, Sidi, " Ali had said doubtfully. 

"Then, " the Mahdi had said, "let us try. "

But when the Mahdi was gone to Tetuan on his errand of warning thatproved so vain, Ali had crept back behind him, so that secretly andindependently he might carry out his fell design. The towns-people wereready to receive him, for the air was full of rebellion, and many hadwaited long for the opportunity of revenge. To certain of the Jews, hismaster's people, who were also in effect his own, he went first with hismission, and they listened with eagerness to what he had come to say. When their own time came to speak they spoke cautiously, after themanner of their race, and nervously, like men who knew too well whatit was to be crushed and kept under; but they gave their helpnotwithstanding, and Ali's scheme progressed. 

In less than three days the entire town, Moorish and Jewish, washoneycombed with subterranean revolt. Even the civil guard, the soldiersof the Kasbah, the black police that kept the gates, and the slaves thatstood before the Basha's table were waiting for the downfall to come. 

The Mahdi had gone again by this time, and the people had resumed theirmock rejoicings over the Sultan's visit. These were the last kindlingsof their burnt-out loyalty, a poor smouldering pretence of fire. Everymorning the town was awakened by the deafening crackle of flintlocks, which the mountaineers discharged in the Feddan by way of signal thatthe Sultan was going to say his prayers at the door of some saint'shouse. Beside the firing of long guns and the twanging of the ginbri thechief business of the day seemed to be begging. One bow-legged rascalin a ragged jellab went about constantly with a little loaf of bread, crying, "An ounce of butter for God's sake!" and when some one gave himthe alms he asked he stuck the white sprawling mess on the top of theloaf and changed his cry to "An ounce of cheese for God's sake!" A pertlittle vagabond--street Arab in a double sense--promenaded the townbarefoot, carrying an odd slipper in his hand, and calling on all menby the love of God and the face of God and the sake of God to give him amoozoonah towards the cost of its fellow. Every morning the Sultan wentto mosque under his red umbrella, and every evening he sat in the hallof the court of justice, pretending to hear the petitions of the poor, but actually dispensing charms in return for presents. First an oldwrinkled reprobate with no life left in him but the life of lust: "Acharm to make my young wife love me!" Then an ill-favoured hag behinda blanket: "A charm to wither the face of the woman that my husband hastaken instead of me!" Again, a young wife with a tearful voice: "A charmto make me bear children!" A greasy smile from the fat Sultan, a scrapof writing to every supplicant, chinking coins dropped into the bag ofthe attendant from the treasury, and then up and away. It was a nauseousdraught from the bitterest waters of Islam. 

But, for all the religious tumult, no man was deceived by the outwardmarks of devotion. At the corners of the streets, on the Feddan, by thefountains, wherever men could meet and talk unheard, there they stoodin little groups, crossing their forefingers, the sign of strife, or rubbing them side by side, the sign of amity. It was clear that, notwithstanding the hubbub of their loyalty to the sultan, they knewthat the Spaniard was coming and were glad of it. 

Meantime Ali waited with impatience for the day that was to see the endof his enterprise. To beguile himself of his nervousness in the night, during the dark hours that trailed on to morning, he would venture outof the lodging where he lay in hiding throughout the day, and pickhis steps in the silence up the winding streets, until he came under anarrow opening in an alley which was the only window to Naomi's prison. And there he would stay the long dark hours through, as if he thoughtthat besides the comfort it brought to him to be near to Naomi, thetramp, tramp, tramp of his footsteps, which once or twice provoked thechallenge of the night-guard on his lonely round, would be company toher in her solitude. And sometimes, watching his opportunity that hemight be unseen and unheard, he would creep in the darkness under thewindow and cry up the wall in an underbreath, "Naomi! Naomi! It is I, Ali! I have come back! All will be well yet!"

Then if he heard nothing from within he would torture himself witha hundred fears lest Naomi should be no longer there, but in a worseplace; and if he heard a sob he would slink away like a dog with hismuzzle to the dust, and if he heard his own name echoed in the softervoice he knew so well he would go off with head erect, feeling like aman who walked on the stars rather than the stones of the street. But, whatever befell, before the day dawned he went back to his lodging lesssore at heart for his lonely vigil, but not less wrathful or resolute. 

The day of the feast came at length, and then Ali's impatience roseto fever. All day he longed for the night, that the thing he had to docould be done. At last the sunset came and the darkness fell, and fromhis place of concealment Ali saw the soldiers of the assaseen goingthrough the streets with lanterns to lead honoured guests to thebanquet. Then he set out on his errand. His foresight and wit hadarranged everything. The negro at the gate of the Kasbah pretended torecognise him as a messenger of the Vizier's, and passed him through. Hepushed his way as one with authority along the winding passages to thegarden where the Mahdi had called on Abd er-Rahman and foretold hisfate. The garden opened upon the great hall, and a number of guests werestanding there, cooling themselves in the night air while they waitedfor the arrival of the Sultan. His Shereefian Majesty came at length, and then, amid salaams and peace-blessings, the company passed in tothe banquet. "Peace on you!" "And on you the peace!" "God make yourevening!" "May your evening be blessed!"

Did Ali shrink from the task at that moment? No, a thousand times no!While he looked on at these men in their muslin and gauze and linen andscarlet, sweeping in with bows and hand-touchings to sup and to laughand to tell their pretty stories, he remembered Israel broken and alonein the poor hut which had been described to him, and Naomi lying in herdamp cell beyond the wall. 

Some minutes he stood in the darkness of the garden, while the guestsentered, and until the barefooted servants of the kitchen began to troopin after them with great dishes under huge covers. Then he held a shortparley with the negro gatekeeper, two keys were handed to him, and inanother minute he was standing at the door of Naomi's prison. 

Now, carefully as Ali had arranged every detail of his enterprise, downto the removal of the black woman Habeebah from this door, one fact hehad never counted with, and that seemed to him then the chief fact ofall--the fact that since he had last looked upon Naomi she had come bythe gift of sight, and would now first look upon _him_. That he wouldbe the same as a stranger to her, and would have to tell her who he was;that she would have to recognise him by whatsoever means remained tobelie the evidence of the newborn sense--this was the least of Ali'strouble. By a swift rebound his heart went back to the fear that hadhaunted him in the days before he left her with her father on his errandto Shawan. He was black, and she would see him. 

With the gliding of the key into the lock all this, and more than this, flashed upon his mind. His shame was abject. It cut him to the quick. On the other side of that door was she who had been as a sister to himsince times that were lost in the blue clouds of childhood. She hadplayed with him and slept by his side, yet she had never seen his face. And she was fair as the morning, and he was black as the night! He hadcome to deliver her. Would she recoil from him?

Ali had to struggle with himself not to fly away and leave everything. But his stout heart remembered itself and held to its purpose. "Whatmatter?" he thought. "What matter about me?" he asked himself aloud ina shrill voice and with a brave roll of his round head. Then he foundhimself inside the cell. 

The place was dark, and Ali drew a long breath of relief. Naomi musthave been lying at the farther end of it. She spoke when the door wasopened. As though by habit, she framed the name of her jailer Habeebah, and then stopped with a little nervous cry and seemed to rise to herfeet. In his confusion Ali said simply, "It is I, " as though that meanteverything. Recovering himself in a moment he spoke again, and then sheknew his voice: "Naomi!"

"It's Ali, " she whispered to herself. After that she cried in atrembling undertone "Ali! Ali! Ali!" and came straight in the accustomeddarkness to the spot where he stood. 

Then, gathering courage and voice together, Ali told her hurriedly whyhe was there. When he said that her father was no longer in prison, butat their home near Semsa and waiting to receive her, she seemed almostovercome by her joy. Half laughing, half weeping, clutching at herbreast as if to ease the wild heaving of her bosom she was transformedby his story. 

"Hush!" said Ali; "not a sound until we are outside the town, " and Naomiknitted her fingers in his palm, and they passed out of the place. 

The banquet was now at its height, and hastening down dark corridorswhere they were apt to fall, for they had no light to see by, and cominginto the garden, they heard the ripple and crackle of laughter from thegreat hall where Ben Aboo and his servile rascals feasted together. Theyreached the quiet alley outside the Kasbah (for the negro was gone fromhis post), and drew a lone breath, and thanked Heaven that this much wasover. There had been no group of beggars at the gate, and the streetsaround it were deserted; but in the distance, far across the town in thedirection of the Bab el Marsa, the gate that goes out to Marteel, theyheard a low hum as of vast droves of sheep. The Spaniard was coming, andthe townsmen were going out to meet him. Casual passers-by challengedthem, and though Ali knew that even if recognised they had nothing tofear from the people, yet more than once his voice trembled when heanswered, and sometimes with a feeling of dread he turned to see that noone was following. 

As he did so he became aware of something which brought back the shameof that awful moment when he stood with the key in hand at the door ofNaomi's prison. By the light of the lamps in the hands of the passers-byNaomi was looking at him. Again and again, as the glare fell for aninstant, he felt the eyes of the girl upon his face. At such moments hethought she must be drawing away from him, for the space between themseemed wider. But he firmly held to the outstretched arm, kept his headaside, and hastened on. 

"What matter about me?" he whispered again. But the brave word broughthim no comfort. "Now she's looking at my hand, " he told himself, buthe could not draw it away. "She is doubting if I am Ali after all, " hethought. "Naomi!" he tried to say with averted head, so that once againthe sound of his voice might reassure her; but his throat was thick, andhe could not speak. Still he pushed on. 

The dark town just then was like a mountain chasm when a storm that hasbeen gathering is about to break. In the air a deep rumble, and then aloud detonation. Blackness overhead, and things around that seemed tomove and pass. 

Drawing near to the Bab Toot, the gate that witnessed the last scene ofIsrael's humiliation and Naomi's shame, Ali, with the girl beside him, came suddenly into a sheet of light and a concourse of people. It wasthe Mahdi and his vast following with lamps in their hands, entering thetown on the west, while the Spaniards whom they had brought up to thegates were coming in on the east. The Mahdi himself was locking thesynagogues and the sanctuaries. 

"Lock them up, " he was saying. "It is enough that the foreigner mustburn down the Sodom of our tyrant; let him not outrage the Zion of ourGod. "

Ali led Naomi up to the Mahdi, who saw her then for the first time. 

"I have brought her, " he said breathlessly; "Naomi, Israel's daughter, this is she. " And then there was a moment of surprise and joy, and painand shame and despair, all gathered up together into one look of theeyes of the three. 

The Mahdi looked at Naomi, and his face lightened. Naomi looked at Ali, and her pale face grew paler, and she passed a tress of her fair hairacross her lips to smother a little nervous cry that began to break fromher mouth. Then she looked at the Mahdi, and her lips parted and hereyes shone. Ali looked at both, and his face twitched and fell. 

This was only the work of an instant, but it was enough. Enough forthe Mahdi, for it told him a secret that the wisdom of life had not yetrevealed; enough for Naomi, for a new sense, a sixth sense, had surelycome to her; enough for Ali also, for his big little heart was broken. 

"What matter about me?" thought Ali again. "Take her, Mahdi, " he saidaloud in a shrill voice. "Her father is waiting for her--take her tohim. "

"Lady, " said the Mahdi, "can you trust me?"

And then without a word she went to him; like the needle to the magnetshe went to the Mahdi--a stranger to her, when all strangers were asenemies--and laid her hand in his. 

Ali began to laugh, "I'm a fool, " he cried. "Who could have believedit? Why, I've forgotten to lock the Kasbah! The villains will escape. Nomatter, I'll go back. "

"Stop!" cried the Mahdi. 

But Ali laughed so loudly that he did not hear. "I'll see to it yet, " hecried, turning on his heel. "Good night, Sidi! God bless you! My love tomy father! Farewell!"

And in another moment he was gone. 

CHAPTER XXVII

THE FALL OF BEN ABOO

The roysterers in the Kasbah sat a long half-hour in ignorance of thedoom that was impending. Squatting on the floor in little circles, around little tables covered with steaming dishes, wherein each plungedhis fingers, they began the feast with ceremonious wishes, piousexclamations, cant phrases, and downcast eyes. First, "God lengthen yourage, " "God cover you, " and "God give you strength. " Then a dish of dates, served with abject apologies from Ben Aboo: "You would treat us betterin Fez, but Tetuan is poor; the means, Seedna, the means, not the will!"Then fish in garlic, eaten with loud "Bismillah's. " Then kesksoo coveredwith powdered sugar and cinnamon, and meat on skewers, and brownedfowls, and fowls and olives, and flake pastry and sponge fritters, eacheaten in its turn amid a chorus of "La Ilah illa Allah's. " Finally threecups of green tea, as thick and sweet as syrup, drunk with many "Do methe favour's, " and countless "Good luck's. " Last of all, the washingof hands, and the fumigating of garments and beard and hair by thelive embers of scented wood burning in a brass censer, with incessantexchanges of "The Prophet--God rest him--loved sweet odours almost asmuch as sweet women. "

But after supper all this ceremony fell away, and the feasters thaweddown to a warm and flowing brotherhood. Lolling at ease on their rugs, trifling with their egg-like snuff-boxes, fumbling their rosaries foridleness more than piety, stretching their straps, and jingling on thepavement the carved ends of their silver knife-shields, they laughed andjested, and told dubious stories, and held doubtful discourse generally. The talk turned on the distinction between great sins and little ones. In the circle of the Sultan it was agreed that the great sins were two:unbelief in the Prophet, whereby a man became Jew and dog; and smokingkeef and tobacco, which no man could do and be of correct life andunquestionable Islam. The atonement for these great sins were fiveprayers a day, thirty-four prostrations, seventeen chapters of theKoran, and as many inclinations. All the rest were little sins; andas for murder and adultery, and bearing false witness--well, God wasMerciful, God was Compassionate, God forgave His poor weak children. 

This led to stories of the penalises paid by transgressors of the greatsins. These were terrible. Putting on a profound air, the Vizier, a fatman of fifty, told of how one who smoked tobacco and denied the Prophethad rotted piecemeal; and of how another had turned in his grave withhis face from Mecca. Then the Kaid of Fez, head of the Mosque andgeneral Grand Mufti, led away with stories of the little sins. Thesewere delightful. They pictured the shifts of pretty wives, marriedto worn out old men, to get at their youthful lovers in the dark byclambering in their dainty slippers from roof to roof. Also of thediscomfiture of pious old husbands and the wicked triumph of rompishlittle ladies, under pretences of outraged innocence. 

Such, and worse, and of a kind that bears not to be told, was theconversation after supper of the roysterers in the Kasbah. At everyfresh story the laughter became louder, and soon the reserve and dignityof the Moor were left behind him and forgotten. At length Ben Aboo, encouraged by the Sultan's good fellowship, broke into loud praises ofNaomi, and yet louder wails over the doom that must be the penalty ofher apostasy; and thereupon Abd er-Rahman, protesting that for hispart he wanted nothing with such a vixen, called on him to uncover herboasted charms to them. "Bring her here, Basha, " he said; "let us seeher, " and this command was received with tumultuous acclamations. 

It was the beginning of the end. In less than a minute more, while therascals lolled over the floor in half a hundred different postures, withthe hazy lights from the brass lamps and the glass candelabras on theirdusky faces, their gleaming teeth, and dancing eyes, the messenger whohad been sent for Naomi came back with the news that she was gone. ThenBen Aboo rose in silent consternation, but his guests only laughed thelouder, until a second messenger, a soldier of the guard, came runningwith more startling news. Marteel had been bombarded by the Spaniards;the army of Marshall O'Donnel was under the walls of Tetuan, and theirown people were opening the gates to him. 

The tumult and confusion which followed upon this announcement does notneed to be detailed. Shoutings for the mkhaznia, infuriated commands tothe guards, racings to the stables and the Kasbah yard, unhobbling ofhorses, stamping and clattering of hoofs, and scurryings through darkcorridors of men carrying torches and flares. There was no attempt atresistance. That was seen to be useless. Both the civil guard and thesoldiery had deserted. The Kasbah was betrayed. Terror spread like fire. In very little time the Sultan and his company with their women andeunuchs, were gone from the town through the straggling multitude oftheir disorderly and dissolute and worthless soldiery lying asleep onthe southern side of it. 

Ben Aboo did not fly with Abd er-Rahman. He remembered that he hadtreasure, and as soon as he was alone he went in search of it. Therewere fifty thousand dollars, sweat of the life-blood of innocent people. No one knew the strong-room except himself, for with his own hand hehad killed the mason who built it. In the dark he found the place, andtaking bags in both his hands and hiding them under the folds of hisselham, he tried to escape from the Kasbah unseen. 

It was too late; the Spanish soldiers were coming up the arcades, andBen Aboo, with his money-bags, took refuge in a granary underground, near the wall of the Kasbah gate. From that dark cell, crouching on thegrain, which was alive with vermin, he listened in terror to the soundsof the night. First the galloping of horses on the courtyard overhead;then the furious shouts of the soldiers, and, finally, the mad cries ofthe crowd. "Damn it--they've given us the slip. " "Yes; they've crawledoff like rats from a sinking ship. " "Curse it all, it's only a bungle. "This in the Spanish tongue, and then in the tongue of his own countryBen Aboo heard the guttural shouts of his own people: "Sidi, try thepalace. " "Try the apartments of his women, Sidi. " "Abd er-Rahman's gone, but Ben Aboo's hiding. " "Death to the tyrant!" "Down with the Basha!""Ben Aboo! Ben Aboo!" Last of all a terrific voice demanding silence. "Silence, you shrieking hell-babies, silence!"

Ben Aboo was in safety; but to lie in that dark hole underground and tohear the tumult above him was more than he could bear without going mad. So he waited until the din abated, and the soldiers, who had ransackedthe Kasbah, seemed to have deserted it; and then he crept out, made forthe women's apartments, and rattled at their door. It was folly, it waslunacy; but he could not resist it, for he dared not be alone. He couldhear the sounds of voices within--wailing and weeping of the women--butno one answered his knocking. Again and again he knocked with his elbows(still gripping his money-bags with both hands), until the flesh was rawthrough selham and kaftan by beating against the wood. Still the doorremained unopened, and Ben Aboo, thinking better of his quest forcompany, fled to the patio, hoping to escape by a little passage thatled to the alley behind the Kasbah. 

Here he encountered Katrina and a guard of five black soldiers who werehelping her flight. "We are safe, " she whispered--"they've gone back intothe Feddan--come;" and by the light of a lamp which she carried she madefor the winding corridor that led past the bath and the sanctuary to theKasbah gate. But Ben Aboo only cursed her, and fumbled at the lowdoor of the passage that went out from the alcove to the alley. He waslumbering through with his armless roll, intending to clash the doorback in Katrina's face, when there was a fierce shout behind him, andfor some minutes Ben Aboo knew no more. 

The shout was Ali's. After leaving the Mahdi on the heath outside theBab Toot, the black lad had hunted for the Basha. When the Spanishsoldiers abandoned the Kasbah he continued his search. Up and down hehad traversed the place in the darkness; and finding Ben Aboo at last, on the spot where he had first seen him, he rushed in upon him andbrought him to the ground. Seeing Ben Aboo down, the black soldiersfell upon Ali. The brave lad died with a shout of triumph. "Israel benOliel, " he cried, as if he thought that name enough to save his soul anddamn the soul of Ben Aboo. 

But Ben Aboo was not yet done with his own. The blow that had been aimedat his heart had no more than grazed his shoulder. "Get up, " whisperedKatrina, half in wrath; and while she stooped to look for his wounds, her face and hands as seen in the dim light of the lantern were bedaubedwith his blood. At that moment the guards were crying that the Kasbahwas afire, and at the next they were gone, leaving Katrina alone withthe unconscious man. "Get up, " she cried again, and tugging at BenAboo's unconscious body she struck it in her terror and frenzy. It wasevery one for himself in that bad hour. Katrina followed the guards, andwas never afterwards heard of. 

When Ben Aboo came to himself the patio was aglow with flames. Hestaggered to his feet, still grappling to his breast the money-bagshidden under his selham. Then, bleeding from his shoulder and withblood upon his beard, he made afresh for the passage leading to the backalley. The passage was narrow and dark. There were three winding stepsat the end of it. Ben Aboo was dizzy and he stumbled. 

But the passage was silent, it was safe, and out in the alley a sea ofvoices burst upon him. He could hear the tramp of countless footsteps, the cries of multitudes of voices, and the rattle of flintlocks. Lanterns, torches, flares and flashes of gunpowder came and went at bothends of the long dark tunnel. In the light of these he saw a strugglingcurrent of angry faces. The living sea encircled him. He knew what hadhappened. At the first certainty that his power was gone and that therewas nothing to fear from his vengeance, his own people had gatheredtogether to destroy him. 

There were two small mean houses on the opposite side of the alley, andBen Aboo tried to take refuge in the first of them. But the woman whocame with uncovered face to the door was the widow of the mason who hadbuilt his strong-room. "Murderer and dog!" she cried, and shut the dooragainst him. He tried the other house. It was the house of the mason'sson. "Forgive me, " he cried. "I am corrected by Allah! Yes, yes, it istrue I did wrong by your father, but forgive me and save me. " Thus hepleaded, throwing himself on the ground and crawling there. "Dog andcoward, " the young man shouted, and beat him back into the street. 

Ben Aboo's terror was now appalling to look upon. His face was that ofa snared beast. With bloodshot eyes, hollow cheeks, and short thickbreath, he ran from dark alley to dark alley, trying every house wherehe thought he might find a friend. "Alee, don't you know me?" "Mohammed, it is I, Ben Aboo. " "See, El Arby, here's money, money; it's yours, only save me, save me!" With such frantic cries he raced about inthe darkness like a hunted wolf. But not a house would shelter him. Everywhere he met relatives of men who had died through his means, andhe was driven away with curses. 

Meantime, a rumour that Ben Aboo was in the streets had been bruitedabroad among the people, and their lust of blood was thereby raised tomadness. Screaming and spitting and raving, and firing their flintlocks, they poured from street into street, watching for their victim andseeing him in every shadow. "He's here!" "He's there!" "No, he'syonder!" "He's scaling the high wall like a cat!"

Ben Aboo heard them. Their inarticulate cries came to him laden withone message only--death. He could see their faces, their snarling teeth. Sometimes he would rave and blaspheme. Then he would make another effortfor his life. But the whirlpool was closing in upon him; and at last, like one who flings himself over a precipice from dizziness, fears, and irresistible fascination, he flung himself into the middle of theinfuriated throng as they scurried across the open Feddan. 

From that moment Ben Aboo's doom was sealed. The people received himwith a long furious roar, a cry of triumphant execration, as if theirown astuteness at length had entrapped him. He stood with his back tothe high wall; the bellowing crowd was before him on either side. By thetorches that many carried all could see him. Turban and shasheeah hadfallen off, and the bald crown of his head was bare. His face retainedno human expression but fear. He was seen to draw his arms from beneathhis selham, to hold both his money-bags against his breast, to plunge ahand into the necks of them, and fling handfuls of coins to the people. "Silver, " he cried; "silver, silver for everybody. "

The despairing appeal was useless. Nobody touched the money. It flashedwhite through the air, and fell unheard. "Death to the Kaid!" wasshouted on every side. Nevertheless, though half the men carried guns, no man fired. By unspoken consent it seemed to be understood that thedeath of Ben Aboo was not to be the act of one, but of all. "Stones, "cried somebody out of the crowd, and in another moment everybody waspicking stones, and piling them at his feet or gathering them in theskirt of his jellab. 

Ben Aboo knew his awful fate. Gesticulating wildly, having flung themoney-bags from him, slobbering and screaming, the blighted soul wasseen to raise his eyes towards the black sky, his thick lubber lipsworking visibly, as if in wild invocation of heaven. At the next instantthe stones began to fall on him. Slowly they fell at first, and hereeled under them like a drunken man; the back of his neck arched itselflike the neck of a bull, and like the roar of a bull was the groan thatcame from his throat. Then they fell faster, and he swayed to andfro, and grunted, with his beard bobbing at his breast, and his tonguelolling out. Faster and faster, and thicker and thicker they showeredupon him, darting out of the darkness like swallows of the night. Hisclothes were rent, his blood spirted over them, he staggered as a beaststaggers in the slaughter, and at length his thick knees doubled up, andhe fell in a round heap like a ball. 

The ferocity of the crowd was not yet quelled. They hailed the fall ofBen Aboo with a triumphant howl, but their stones continued to showerupon his body. In a little while they had piled a cairn above it. Then they left it with curses of content and went their ways. When theSpanish soldiers, who had stood aside while the work was done, came upwith their lanterns to look at this monument of Eastern justice, theheap of stones was still moving with the terrific convulsions of death. 

Such was the fall of El Arby, nicknamed Ben Aboo. 

CHAPTER XXVIII

"ALLAH-U-KABAR"

Travelling through the night, --Naomi laughing and singing snatches inher new-found joy, and the Mahdi looking back at intervals at the hugeoutline of Tetuan against the blackness of the sky, --they came to thehut by Semsa before dawn of the following day. But they had come toolate. Israel ben Oliel was not, after all, to set out for England. Hewas going on a longer journey. His lonely hour had come to him, his darkhour wherein none could bear him company. On a mattress by the wall helay outstretched, unconscious, and near to his end. Two neighboursfrom the village were with him, and but for these he must have beenalone--the mighty man in his downfall deserted by all save the greatJudge and God. 

What Naomi did when the first shock of this hard blow fell upon her, what she said, and how she bore herself, it would be a painful task totell. Oh, the irony of fate! Ay, the irony of God! That scene, and whatfollowed it, looked like a cruel and colossal jest--none the less cruelbecause long drawn out and as old as the days of Job. 

It was useless to go out in search of a doctor. The country was asinnocent of leechcraft as the land of Canaan in the days of Abraham. Allthey could do was to submit, absolutely and unconditionally. They werein God's hands. 

The light was coming yellow and pink through the window under the eavesas Israel awoke to consciousness. He opened his eyes as if from sleep, and saw Naomi beside him. No surprise did he show at this, and neitherdid he at first betray pleasure. Dimly and softly he looked upon her, and then something that might have been a smile but for lack of strengthpassed like sunshine out of a cloud across his wasted face. Naomipressed a pillow-under his loins, and another under his head, thinking to ease the one and raise the other. But the iron hand ofunconsciousness fell upon him again, and through many hours thereafterNaomi and the Mahdi sat together in silence with the multitudinouscompany of invisible things. 

During that interval Fatimah came in hot haste, and they had news ofTetuan. The Spaniards had taken the town, but Abd er-Rahman and most ofhis Ministers had escaped. Ben Aboo had tried to follow them, but hehad been killed in the alcove of the patio. Ali had killed him. He hadrushed in upon him through a line of his guards. One of the guards hadkilled Ali. The brave black lad had fallen with the name of Israel onhis lips and with a dauntless shout of triumph. The Kasbah was afire; ithad been burning since the banquet of the night before. 

Towards sunset peace fell upon Israel ben Oliel, and then they knew thatthe end was very near. Naomi was still kneeling at his right hand, andthe Mahdi was standing at his left. Israel looked at the girl with aworld of tenderness, though the hard grip of death was fast stiffeninghis noble face. More than once he glanced at the Mahdi also as if hewished to say something, and yet could not do so, because the power oflife was low; but at last his voice found strength. 

"I have left it too late, " he said. "I cannot go to England. "

Naomi wept more than ever at the sound of these faltering words, and itwas not without effort that the Mahdi answered him. 

"Think no more of that, " he said, and then he stopped, as if the wordthat he had been about to speak had halted on his tongue. 

"It is hard to leave her, " said Israel, "for she is alone; and who willprotect her when I am gone?"

"God lives, " said the Mahdi, "and He is Father to the fatherless. "

"But what Jew, " said Israel, "would not repeat for her her father'stroubles, and what Muslim could save her from her own?"

"Who that trusts in God, " said the Mahdi, "need fear the Kaid?"

"But what man can save her?" cried Israel again. 

And then the Mahdi, touched by Naomi's tears as well as her father'simportunities, answered out of a hot heart and said--

"Peace, peace! If there is no one else to take her, from this dayforward she shall go with me. "

Naomi looked up at him then with such a light in her beautiful eyesas he has often since, but had never before seen there, and Israel benOliel who had been holding at his hand, clutched suddenly at his wrist. 

"God bless you!" he said, as well as he could for the two angels, theangel of love and the angel of death, were struggling at his throat. 

Israel looked steadily at the Mahdi for a moment more, and then saidvery softly--

"Death may come to me now; I am ready. Farewell, my father! I tried todo your bidding. Do you remember your watchword? But God _has_ given merewards for repentance--see, " and he turned his eyes towards the eyes ofNaomi with a wasting yet sunny smile. 

"God is good, " said the Mahdi; "lie still, lie still, " and he laid hiscool hand on Israel's forehead. 

"I am leaving her to you, " said Israel; "and you alone can protect herof all men living in this land accursed of God, for God's right arm isround you. Yes, God is good. As long as you live you will cherish her. Never was she so dear to me as now, so sweet, so lovable, so gentle. Butyou will be good to her. God is very good to me. Guard her as the appleof your eye. It will reward you. And let her think of me sometimes--onlysometimes. Ah! how nearly I shipwrecked all this! Remember! Remember!"

"Hush, hush! Do not increase your pains, " said the Mahdi. "Are youfeeling better now?"

"I am feeling well, " said Israel, "and happy--so happy. "

The sun had set, and the swift twilight was passing into night, whenanother messenger arrived from Tetuan. It was Ali's old Taleb, sheddingtears for his boy, but boasting loudly of his brave death. He hadheard of it from the black guards themselves. After Ali fell he liveda moment, though only in unconsciousness. The boy must have thoughthimself back at Israel's side, "I've done it, father, " he said; "he'llnever hurt you again. You won't drive me away from you any more; willyou, father?"

They could see that Israel had heard the story. The eyes of the dyingare dry, but well they knew that the heart of the man was weeping. 

The Taleb came with the idea that Israel also was gone, for a rumour tothat effect had passed through the town. "El hamdu l'Illah!" hecried, when he saw that Israel was still alive. But then he rememberedsomething, and whispered in the Mahdi's farther ear that a vastconcourse of Moors and Jews including his own vast fellowship was eventhen coming out to bury Israel, thinking he was dead. 

Israel overheard him and smiled. It seemed as if he laughed a littlealso. "It will soon be true, " he muttered under his breath, that cameso quick. And hardly had he spoken when a low deep sound came from thedistance. It was the funeral wail of Israel ben Oliel. 

Nearer and nearer it came, and clearer and more clear. First a mightybass voice: "Allah Akbar!" Again another and another voice:"Allah Akbar!" and then the long roar of a vast multitude:"Al--l--lah-u-kabar!" Finally a slow melancholy wail, rising and fallingon the darkening air: "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is theProphet of God. "

It was a solemn sound--nay, an awful one, with the man himself alive tohear it. 

O gratitude that is only a death-song! O fame that is only a funeral!

Israel listened and smiled again. "Ah, God is great!" he whispered; "Godis great!"

To ease his labouring chest a moment the Mahdi rose and stepped tothe door, and then in the distance he could descry the processionapproaching--a moving black shadow against the sky. Also over theirbillowy heads he could see a red glow far away in the clouds. It was thelast smouldering of the fire of the modern Sodom. 

While he stood there he was startled by the sound of a thick voicebehind him. It was Israel's voice. He was speaking to Naomi. "Yes, " hewas saying, "it is hard to part. We were going to be very happy. . . . But you must not cry. Listen! When I am there--eh? you know, _there_--Iwill want to say, 'Father, you did well to hear my prayer. My littledaughter--she is happy, she is merry, and her soul is all sunshine. 'So you must not weep. Never, never, never! Remember! . . . . Ah! that'sright, that's right. My simple-hearted darling! My sunny, merry, happygirl!"

Naomi was trying to laugh in obedience to her father's will. Shewas combing his white beard with her fingers--it was knotted andtangled--and he was labouring hard to speak again. 

"Naomi, do you remember?" he said; and then he tried to sing, and evento lisp the words as he sang them, just as a child might have done. "Doyou remember--

 Within my heart a voice Bids earth and heaven rejoice, Sings 'Love'--"

But his strength was spent, and he had to stop. 

"Sing it, " he whispered, with a poor broken smile at his own failure. And then the brave girl--all courage and strength, a quivering bow ofsteel--took up the song where he had left it, though her voice trembledand the tears started to her eyes. 

As Naomi sang Israel made some poor shift to beat the time to her, though once and again his feeble hand fell back into his breast. Whenshe had done singing Israel looked at the Mahdi and then at her, andsmiled, as if he and she and the song were one to him. 

But indeed Naomi had hardly finished when the wail came again, nownearer than before, and louder. Israel heard it. "Hark! They are coming. Keep close, " he muttered. 

He fumbled and tugged with one hand at the breast of his kaftan. TheMahdi thought his throat wanted air, but Naomi, with the instinct ofhelp that a woman has in scenes like these, understood him better. Inthe disarray of his senses this was his way of trying to raise himselfthat he might listen the easier to the song outside. The girl slid herarm under his neck, and then his shrunken hand was at rest. "Ah! closer. 'God is great'!" he murmured again. "'God--is--great'!" With that wordon his lips he smiled and sighed, and sank back. It was now quite dark. 

When the Mahdi returned to his place at Israel's feet the dying manseemed to have been feeling for his hand. Taking it now, he brought itto his breast, where Naomi's hand lay under his own trembling one. Withthat last effort, and a look into the girl's face that must have pursuedhim home, his grand eyes closed for ever. 

In the silence that followed after the departing spirit the deep swellof the funeral wail came rolling heavily on the night air: "Allah Akbar!Al-lah-u-kabar!"

In a few minutes more the procession of the people of Tetuan who hadcome out to bury Israel ben Oliel had arrived at the house. 

"He has gone, " said the Mahdi, pointing down; and then lifting his eyestowards heaven, he added, "TO THE KING!"

Notes: 1. Italic text starts and ends with an underscore. 2. Wherespelling inconsistencies in the printed text appear to be unintentional, they have been made consistent in this Etext version, either by adoptingthe dictionary spelling or the spelling most frequently used in theprinted text. 3. In the printed text, many representations of Arabicwords use accented characters; in this Etext version, the accents havebeen removed to allow transmission by email using the 7-bit characterset.