"Ay, make peace with him, and with Scanderbeg, too, if that wild beast can be tamed, which I much doubt."

The Sultan rose from his cushion, his form animated with strong excitement, and, putting his hand upon the shoulders of the Vizier--who drew back at the strange familiarity--and looking him fixedly in the face, he whispered: "Everything must wait,"--and the words hissed in the hot eagerness with which he said them--"until--I have Constantinople."

Turning upon his heel, he withdrew toward his private chamber.

The Sultan threw himself upon his bed. The Capee Aga, or chief of the white eunuchs, whose duty it was to act as valet-de-chambre, as well as to stand at the right hand of the Sultan on state occasions, began to draw the curtains around the silver posts upon which the bed rested.

"You may leave me," said his majesty. "Nay, hold! Send Captain Ballaban of the Janizaries."

As the young officer entered, the face of the Sultan relaxed.

"You make me a man again, comrade," said he, grasping his hand. "These few days playing Sultan make me feel as old as the empire. I hate this parade of boring viziers and mincing eunuchs; and to be shut up here with these palace proprieties is as irksome to me as Timour's iron cage was to my grandfather Bajazet. I think I shall put my harem on horse-back, and take to the fields. Scudding out of Albania with Scanderbeg at one's heels were preferable to this busy idleness. You have had a rapid ride to get from Brusa so soon, and look winded. Roll yourself on that wolf's skin. I killed that fellow in Caramania. By the turban of Abraham! your red head looks well against the black hide. But why don't you laugh? Have they made a Padishah of you, too, that you must mask your face with care?"

"I have a care, Sire," said the soldier.

"Tell me it," said the Sultan, "and I'll make it fly away as fast as the Prophet's horse took him to the seventh heaven."

"The Janizaries are restless, Sire."

"Does not the donative I have announced pacify them?"

"I have not heard of it," said the officer.

"Listen! Is not that their shout?" Shout after shout rent the air from the court without.

The Janizary turned pale; but in a moment said, "Your donative has been announced. They are cheering your Majesty."

"Long live the Padishah!" "Long life to Mahomet!" rang again and again.

"I thank you, Sire," eagerly cried the young man, kissing the hand of the Sultan.

"What else would they have?" asked he.

"Nothing but chance to show their grat.i.tude by valiant service," was the reply.

"This they shall have, with you to lead them," putting his hand on the young officer's shoulder.

"Nay, Sire, I may not supplant those who are my superiors by virtue of service already rendered."

"But I command it. The corps shall to-morrow be put under your orders as their chief Aga."

"I beg your Majesty to desist from this purpose," said Ballaban. "The spirit of the corps, its efficiency, depends upon the strictest observance of the ancient rules of Orchan and Aladdin. By them we have been made what we are."

"But," cried Mahomet angrily, "there shall be no other will than mine throughout the army."

"I would have no other will than thine, Sire," was the response; "but it were well if your will should be to leave the Janizaries' rule untouched."

"You young rebel!" cried Mahomet, half vexed yet half pleased as, bursting into a laugh, he dashed over the face of his friend a jar of iced sherbet which was upon a lacquered stand at his side.

"You may thank the devil that it wasn't the arrow I once shot you with," said the playful tyrant, as Ballaban jumped to his feet.

"If you were not the Sultan now, I would pull you from the bed, as I pulled you from your horse that day," replied the good-natured favorite, making a motion as if to execute the threat.

"You are right," said Mahomet rising. "I am Sultan! Sultan? pshaw! Yet Sultan, surely." He paced the floor in deep agitation, and at length said, "I have a duty to perform, than which I would rather cut off my arms."

"Let me do the deed, though it takes my arm and my life," said Ballaban eagerly.

"You know not what it is, my old comrade."

"But I pledge before I know," was the response which came from stiffened lips and bowed head, as the captain made his obeisance.

The Sultan looked him in the face long and earnestly, and then, turning away, said:

"No! no! there are hands less n.o.ble than yours."

"But try me, Sire."

"You know the custom of our ancestors, approved by the wisdom of divans, as an expedient essential to the peace and safety of the empire, that--But I can not speak it: nor will I ask it of you. Leave me, Captain. Come to-morrow at this hour. I shall need the relief of your company then, even more than to-day."

FOOTNOTES:

[70] Brothers of the infidels.

[71] One of the sultanas of Amurath II. and daughter of George Brankovitch, Despot of Servia.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

An hour later the Kislar Aga, chief of the black eunuchs in charge of the royal harem, was announced.

"Well, Sinam, have any of your herd of gazelles escaped?" asked the Sultan.

"None. But Mira Sultana would pay her homage at your Majesty's feet."

"Mira, the Greek?" said Mahomet, the deep color rising to his temples.

Lowering his tone to a whisper, he conversed for a few moments with the eunuch, who prostrated himself upon the ground, and with harsh, yet thin voice, said:

"Your Majesty is wise, very wise. Your will is that of Allah, the Great Hunkiar. It shall be done."

Mira was a beautiful woman. The light texture of her robe revealed a perfect form; and the thin veil lent a charm to her face, such as shadows send across the landscape.

Mahomet shuddered, as the kneeling woman embraced his feet. The words of her congratulation to the young monarch, her protestation of devotion to him as to his father, though uttered with the sweetest voice he had ever heard, and with evident honesty, sent a visible tremor through the frame of her listener. And when she added, "My child, Ahmed, the image of his n.o.ble father and thine, will serve thee with his life, and"--

"It is well! It is well," interrupted the Sultan. "Be gone now!"