The Shaving of Shagpat, George Meredith [popular e readers TXT] 📗

majestically, and they descended from the roof into the street, criers running in front to clear the way. When Baba Mustapha was hidden from view by a corner of the street, Noorna shrank in her white shoulders and laughed, and was like a flashing pearl as she swayed and dimpled with laughter. And she cried, “True are those words of the poet, and I testify to them in the instance of Baba Mustapha:

“ ‘With feathers of the cock, I’ll fashion a vain creature;
With feathers of the owl, I’ll make a judge in feature’;

“Is not the barber elate and lofty? He goeth forth to the mastery of this Event as go many, armed with nought other than their own conceit: and ’tis written:

“ ‘Fools from their fate seek not to urge:
The coxcomb carrieth his scourge.’ ”

So Feshnavat smoothed his face, and said, “Is’t not also written?⁠—

“ ‘Oft may the fall of fools make wise men moan!
Too often hangs the house on one loose stone!’

“ ’Tis so, O Noorna, my daughter, and I am as a reed shaken by the wind of apprehensiveness, and doubt in me is a deep root as to the issue of this undertaking, for the wrath of the King will be terrible, and the clamour of the people soundeth in my ears already. If Shibli Bagarag fail in one stroke, where be we? ’Tis certain I knew not the might in Shagpat when I strove with him, and he’s powerful beyond the measure of man’s subtlety; and yonder flies a rook without fellow⁠—an omen; and all’s ominous, and ominous of ill: and I marked among the troop of slaves that preceded Baba Mustapha one that squinted, and that’s an omen; and, O my daughter, I counsel that thou by thy magic speed us to some remote point in the Caucasus, where we may abide the unravelling of this web securely, one way or the other way. ’Tis my counsel, O Noorna.”

Then she, “Abandon my betrothed? and betray him on the very stroke of the Sword? and diminish him by a withdrawal of that faith in his right wrist which strengtheneth it more than Karavejis and Veejravoosh wound round it in coils?” And she leaned her head, and cried, “Hark! hear’st thou? there’s shouting in the streets of Shiraz and of Shagpat! Shall we merit the punishment of Shahpesh the Persian on Khipil the builder, while the Event is mastering? I’ll mark this interview between Baba Mustapha and Shagpat; and do thou, O my father, rest here on this roof till the King’s guard of horsemen and soldiers of the law come hither for thee, and go with them sedately, fearing nought, for I shall be by thee in the garb of an old woman; and preserve thy composure in the presence of the King and Shagpat exalted, and allow not the thing that happeneth let fly from thee the shaft of speech, but remain a slackened bow till the strength of my betrothed is testified, fearing nought, for fear is that which defeateth men, and ’tis declared in a distich⁠—

“ ‘The strongest weapon one can see
In mortal hands is constancy.’

“And for us to flee now would rank us with that King described by the poet:

“ ‘A king of Ind there was who fought a fight
From the first gleam of morn till fall of night;
But when the royal tent his generals sought,
Proclaiming victory, fled was he who fought.
Despair possessed them, till they chanced to spy
A Dervish that paced on with downward eye;
They questioned of the King; he answer’d slow,
“Ye fought but one, the King a double, foe.” ’

“And, O my father, they interpreted of this that the King had been vanquished, he that was victor, by the phantom army of his fears.”

Now, the Vizier cried, “Be the will of Allah achieved and consummated!” and he was silenced by her wisdom and urgency, and sat where he was, diverting not the arch on his brow from its settled furrow. He was as one that thirsteth, and whose eye hath marked a snake of swift poison by the water, so thirsted he for the Event, yet hung with dread from advancing; but Noorna bin Noorka busied herself about the roof, drawing circles to witness the track of an enemy, and she clapped her hands and cried, “Luloo!” and lo, a fair slave-girl that came to her and stood by with bent head, like a white lily by a milk-white antelope; so Noorna clouded her brow a moment, as when the moon darkeneth behind a scud, and cried, “Speak! art thou in league with Karaz, girl?”

Luloo strained her hands to her temples, exclaiming, “With the terrible genie?⁠—I?⁠—in league with him? my mistress, surely the charms I wear, and the amulets, I wear them as a protection from that genie, and a safeguard, he that carrieth off the maidens and the young sucklings, walking under the curse of mothers.”

Said Noorna, “O Luloo, have I boxed those little ears of thine this day?”

The fair slave-girl smiled a smile of submissive tenderness, and answered, “Not this day, nor once since Luloo was rescued from the wicked old merchant by thy overbidding, and was taken to the arms of a wise kind sister, wiser and kinder than any she had been stolen from, she that is thy slave forever.”

She said this weeping, and Noorna mused, “ ’Twas as I divined, that wretched Kadza: her grief’s to come!” Then spake she aloud as to herself, “Knew I, or could one know, I should this day be a bride?” And, hearing that, Luloo shrieked, “Thou a bride, and torn from me, and we two parted? and I, a poor drooping tendril, left to wither? for my life is round thee and worthless away from thee, O cherisher of the fallen flower.”

And she sobbed out wailful verses and words, broken and without a meaning; but Noorna caught her by the arm and swung her, and bade her fetch on the instant a robe of blue, and pile in her chamber robes of