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

basin of water was brought to him, and handed round by slaves, and all dipped in it their hands, and renewed their countenances and rearranged their limbs; and the hall brightened with the eye of the King, and he cried, “O people, lo, the plot is revealed to me, and ’tis a deep one; but, by this beard, we’ll strike at the root of it, and a blow of deadliness. Surely we have humiliated ourselves, and vengeance is ours! How say ye?”

A noise like the first sullen growl of a vexed wild beast which telleth that fury is fast travelling and the teeth will flash, followed these words; and the King called to his soldiers of the guard, “Ho! forth with this wretch that dared defile Shagpat, the holy one! and on your heads be it to fetch hither Feshnavat, the son of Feil, that was my Vizier, he that was envious of Shagpat, and whom we spared in our clemency.”

Some of the guard went from the hall to fulfil the King’s injunction on Feshnavat, others thrust forth Baba Mustapha in the eyes of the King. Baba Mustapha was quaking as a frog quaketh for water, and he trembled and was a tongueless creature deserted of his lower limbs, and with eyeballs goggling, through exceeding terror. Now, when the King saw him, he contracted his brows as one that peereth on a small and minute object, crying, “How! is’t such as he, this monster of audaciousness and horrible presumption? Truly ’tis said:

“ ‘For ruin and the deeds preluding change,
Fear not great Beasts, nor Eagles when they range:
But dread the crawling worm or pismire mean,
Satan selects them, for they are unseen.’

“And this wretch is even of that sort, the select of Satan! Off with the top of the reptile, and away with him!”

Now, at the issue of the mandate Baba Mustapha choked, and horror blocked the throat of confession in him, so that he did nought save stagger imploringly; but the prompting of Noorna sent Kadza to the foot of the throne, and Kadza bent her body and exclaimed, “O King of the age! ’tis Kadza, the espoused of Shagpat thy servant, that speaketh; and lo! a wise woman has said in my ear, ‘How if this emissary and instrument of the Evil One, this barber, this filthy fellow, be made to essay on Shagpat before the people his science and his malice? for ’tis certain that Shagpat is surrounded where he sitteth by genii invisible, defended by them, and no harm can hap to him, but an illumination of glory and triumph manifest’: and for this barber, his punishment can afterwards be looked to, O great King!”

The King mused awhile and sank in his beard. Then said he to them that had hold of Baba Mustapha watching for the signal, “I have thought over it, and the means of bringing double honour on the head of Shagpat. So release this fellow, and put in his hands the tackle taken from him.”

This was done, and the people applauded the wisdom of the King, and crowded forward with sharpness of expectation; but Baba Mustapha, when he felt in his hands the tackle, the familiar instruments, strength and wit returned to him in petty measures, and he thought, “Perchance there’ll yet be time for my nephew to strike, if he fail me not; fool that I was to look for glory, and not leave the work to him, for this Shagpat is a mighty one, powerful in fleas, and it needeth something other than tackle to combat such as he. A mighty one, said I? by Allah, he’s awful in his mightiness!”

So Baba Mustapha kept delaying, and feigned to sharpen the blade, and the King called to him, “Haste! to the work! is it for thee, vile wretch, to make preparation for the accursed thing in our presence?” And the people murmured and waxed impatient, and the King called again, “Thou’lt essay this, thou wretch, without a head, let but another minute pass.” So when Baba Mustapha could delay no longer, he sighed heavily and his trembling returned, and the power of Shagpat smote him with an invisible hand, so that he could scarce move; but dread pricked him against dread, and he advanced upon Shagpat to shear him, and assumed the briskness of the barber, and was in the act of bending over him to bring the blade into play, when, behold, one of the chamberlains of the King stood up in the presence and spake a word that troubled him, and the King rose and hurried to a balcony looking forth on the Desert, and on three sides of the Desert three separate clouds of dust were visible, and from these clouds presently emerged horsemen with spears and pennons and plumes; and he could discern the flashing of their helms and the glistening of steel-plates and armour of gold and silver. Seeing this, the colour went from the cheeks of the King and his face became as a pinched pomegranate, and he cried aloud, “What visitation’s this? Awahy! we are beset, and here’s abasement brought on us without self-abasing!” Meantime these horsemen detached themselves from the main bodies and advanced at a gallop, wheeling and circling round each other, toward the walls of the city, and when they were close they lowered their arms and made signs of amity, and proclaimed their mission and the name of him they served. So tidings were brought to the King that the Lords of three cities, with vast retinues, were come, by reason of a warning, to pay homage to Shagpat, the son of Shimpoor; and these three cities were the cities of Oolb, and of Gaf, and of Shiraz, even these!

Now, when the King heard of it, he rejoiced with an exceeding joy, and arrayed himself in glory, and mounted a charger, the pride of his stables, and rode out to meet the Lords of the three cities surrounded by the