CHAPTER IV

THE REVOLT.

To have gained a week is to have gained a great deal.

Within this time the viceroy will succeed in replenishing his coffers. His defterdar is very skillful in the art of getting money, and who should understand the art if not the minister of finance? He will find means to collect from the ulemas, from the rich sheiks, and from the merchants, money enough to quiet his rebellious troops.

A week is a long period, and he will find means to satisfy them all.

But, after a few days, the terrible intelligence reaches Cousrouf pacha: Taher Pacha is defeated; the stronghold Migne has been captured by the Mameluke beys. Taher Pacha is defeated, and is returning with his army-corps to Cairo!

"He shall not come, he must not come!" cried the viceroy, angrily.

"No, he must not come; as it is, we have rebellious soldiers enough here now. They would unite with Taher's troops, and clamor for pay again. And our coffers are empty. Send messengers to meet the advancing troops, with instructions to General Taher to march with his corps to Tantah, and there await further orders. In any case, I forbid him to return here to Cairo. Is my capital to be made a camp?

Is it merely an immense barrack in which these insolent fellows are to puff themselves up and do violence to all honest and respectable people? It is enough to have to tolerate Mohammed Ali and his men here. Taher Pacha shall not unite with them. Quick, dispatch the messengers at once!"

The messengers, in accordance with the viceroy's instructions, hastened forth in the direction from which Taher must come. But the messengers did not meet him. He did not come by the expected route.

He had taken another--a secret messenger having come to him with this warning:

"Hasten forward, Taher--you are to be kept at a distance from the capitol! It is intended to withhold their pay from your soldiers!"

He did not know from whom this messenger came, but he believed him.

Resolved not to remain where a message from the viceroy could reach him, Taher Pacha took another road, and, before another messenger could reach him, Taher entered Cairo with his army. The uproar in the streets, the shouting of the soldiers as they greeted their friends, announced to the viceroy what had taken place. And in great wrath he learned from the defterdar, who came running to the viceroy in despair, that his fears were only too well founded.

Yes, it was as he expected. The soldiers had not gone to their barracks; Taher had not come to seek repose in his house, but to demand his and his soldiers' pay. "We are in rags, and starving; we need shoes and clothes. Give us our pay, that we may satisfy our hunger and clothe ourselves!"

"But how am I to pay them?" said the defterdar, addressing the viceroy in anxious tones. "Our coffers are empty, and all resources exhausted. I know not what to do or where to turn."

The viceroy sat gazing at him gloomily. Suddenly a thought seemed to occur to him; his countenance brightened. "Mohammed Ali is shrewd and fertile in resources. We must apply to him. He will help us out of our difficulty. He is thoughtful, cool, and resolute. True, he assumed a hostile attitude toward me a few days ago, but he must be reconciled.

He must be prevented from uniting with Taher. The two united would be a fearful combination against me."

He instructs the defterdar to go in person to Mohammed Ali to request him to come to the viceroy. "We cannot pay the troops, but we can find enough to pay the general's salary."

Cousrouf Pacha takes from his own private funds ten purses of gold- pieces. He carries them himself to the apartment in which be intends to receive the sarechsme.

In the mean while the minister of finance had, in accordance with the viceroy's instructions, repaired with great haste to the palace in which the sarechsme resided. A body of Albanian soldiers were encamped about the palace. They called themselves the body-guard of the sarechsme. The heart of the finance minister throbbed with dismay when he beheld their daring, resolute faces.

"If this is the sarechsme's body-guard, then woe to the viceroy!"

said he to himself, as he ascended the stairway that led to the general's apartment. With a trembling voice and humble demeanor, he delivered the viceroy's message to the general.

"He begs you to come to him. He wishes to be reconciled to you; he will himself hand you the arrearages of pay. But I entreat you, come without your great suite--it might be wrongly interpreted. I mean well with you; I am your friend. Do not come with your body-guard, sarechsme."

"We two should understand each other better," replied Mohammed, smiling derisively. "You tremble for me. I thank you, but see, I am not trembling at all myself. He who pursues an honest course and is faithful to his master and his service, has no occasion to tremble.

This you shall see, for I intend to go to the viceroy entirely alone. Only my men shall at least know where I have gone, that is all. Come!"

With a haughty smile, the defterdar following, he descended the broad stairway of his palace, and cordially greeted the soldiers standing about the gateway, who received him with shouts of joy.

"Be patient, my friends, I entreat you, be patient, and await my return. I will return in an hour; wait here for me that long. Should I not return by that time, seek me."

The defterdar, who hears every word of this, murmurs to himself: "It will be necessary to acquaint his highness with this, that he may be on his guard, and not detain the sarechsme in his fortress too long.

The consequences might be dangerous."

In humble terms he begs to be permitted to hasten in advance to announce his coming to the viceroy. The sarechsme assents with a gracious inclination of the head, and smiles benignantly on the finance minister.

"We understand each other right well, my good defterdar. You are right; go in advance, and announce me to the viceroy."

He waited a short time in the court-yard, conversing with the soldiers who gathered around him to complain of their wrongs.

"I am going up to the citadel to the viceroy, in your interests.

Wait patiently for an entire hour," repeated Mohammed.

He then mounts his horse and rides up to the citadel. The defterdar has hardly had time to convey the warning to the viceroy:

"Do not detain him here too long, highness. If he remains here longer than an hour, his soldiers will come up here after him in open revolt. Taher's troops have not gone to their barracks, and are only awaiting the signal to join them."

Cousrouf nodded his assent, and muttered to himself: "I was wrong in not treading this viper under foot in Cavalla; now it intends to bite me--I feel it, it intends to bite me; but it shall not. I will draw its fangs."

His Nubian slave now enters and announces to his master that the sarechsme, Mohammed Ali, stands without, awaiting his pleasure.

Cousrouf's countenance quickly assumes a friendly expression.

"Leave me, defterdar, and await me in the next room. I shall not detain the sarechsme long."

The defterdar withdrew, and the Nubian slave opened the door to admit the general. With a military greeting, Mohammed Ali entered, and advanced toward the viceroy, who, on this occasion, received him standing, and not indolently reclining on his cushions, as was his habit; he even stepped forward to meet him, extending his hand, and saluting more cordially than usual.

"Sarechsme, when we last met, it was in anger. This I have deeply regretted, for you know what I think of you."

"Yes, highness, I know what you think of me," replied Mohammed, quietly.

The viceroy saw the derisive smile that played about his lips.

"I think well of you, Mohammed! I expect great things of you, and know that you are the truest and most devoted of my servants."

Mohammed looked up at him with a strange, inquiring glance. "Of your servants, highness? I did not know that I was one of them. I am devoted to you, as the general of the viceroy's troops should be, yet both of us are the servants of our master, the grand-sultan, at Stamboul."

"You are right, both of us are servants, the grand-sultan is master of us both; but I am his representative here, and it therefore follows that the proud sarechsme need not blush when I call him my faithful servant, as I stand for him in the place of the grand- sultan. And it is because you recognize in me his representative, and because you have sworn to serve him faithfully, that I have such confidence in your devotion to me."

"Highness, I am faithful to my oath, faithful to the grand-sultan, and faithful to you. I deeply regret that discord has arisen between you and me, ever devoted to you as I am. But let us not speak of this. I suppose you have called me on account of my troops. They have long received no pay; they are without food, and their clothes are in rags. They need and demand their pay. I, as their protector and general, must insist on your compliance with their just demand."

"The week within which I promised to pay them has not yet elapsed, four days still remain," said Cousrouf, suppressing his rage with difficulty; "therefore wait for your soldiers' pay, but you, Mohammed, you shall not wait. See how I honor and esteem you! There lie ten purses of gold-pieces, that is your salary. I joyously give it you out of my own private funds. Take your pay, my sarechsme!"

He pointed to a little marble table, on which the ten purses, through whose meshes the gold-pieces glittered, were laid in a row.

"I accept them, highness. It is my salary, and I am justly entitled to it. I accept them, and, though you only gave me my due, I nevertheless thank you for having done so."

"And you are now reconciled, Mohammed Ali, and no longer angry?"

said Cousrouf, in flattering tones.