Akbar Part 17

No sooner was he gone than Iravati's courage and firmness forsook her, and, worn out, she sank on a seat near, and covering her face with her hands, wept bitterly.

Her repose was but of short duration, the sound of approaching footsteps made her look up in alarm, and she saw Salhana before her.

"My daughter," he said, in a gentler tone than she ever remembered to have heard from him, "I know what occupies your thoughts and bows your head with sorrow. I have long known what you to-day have heard. I discovered some time ago Siddha's faithlessness in Agra, but concealed it until the time should come when it would be necessary that you should know it. Now all is known to you, and I trust that you will recognise that the respect you owe, not to yourself alone, but to me and my house, should oblige you to banish all thought of the man who in so shameful a manner has flung from him the alliance with our race. No, listen to me," he continued, as Iravati was about to reply. "Believe that I feel the deepest sympathy with you in this fatal moment; still I must not neglect to remind you what a daughter of our n.o.ble race owes to her honour and good name. At the same time, I will tell you, though in confidence, what I have discovered, which, though it cannot heal the wound you have received at once, will in the end bring consolation. A splendid future awaits you, Iravati; that which every woman in the whole of Hindustan would look upon as the most enviable lot can be yours--Prince Salim. I suspected it some time ago, and when I gave him the opportunity, he acknowledged all to me. Prince Salim loves you, and asks you for his wife."

"I know that," said Iravati.

"You know it! and how?"

"From the Prince himself, this very day."

"And your answer?"

"I refused his flattering offer."

"What!" cried Salhana, in the greatest astonishment and anger. "Refused! Are you out of your mind?"

"I believe not; but I am engaged to Siddha."

"Well, what has that to do with it? you are still free to choose; you are not yet his wife."

"No; but, what is to me the same thing, I have sworn faith to him, and he has not released me from my promise."

"Let that be. Before, this might have had weight; but now he has himself broken faith, and so released you from your word."

"So, perhaps, might others think, who have been brought up with different ideas. Mine forbid me to do as you wish. And if these opinions now stand in your way, you must blame yourself, Father, who have had me brought up in them. Above all--I will make no secret of it--I still love Siddha, in spite of all; and after him I can never love another."

"There is no necessity for talking of love! It is enough that Salim loves you, and that you can make use of the influence you have over him. But this you do not choose to accept, simply from devotion to antiquated and exaggerated habits of thought, and from a silly pa.s.sion for one unworthy of you. Think what you throw from you if you persevere in your foolish refusal. A kingdom is offered to you, to which the whole world can scarcely show a rival; and you throw it from you with contempt, for the sake of a dream--a whim!"

"It may be that I am wrong," said Iravati, with forced calmness, while her father became more and more excited; "but your representations cannot convince me. I have already heard them, and still more forcibly put, from the Prince, without being shaken in my resolution."

"Your resolution is, that you will resist your father. But it appears to me that hardly agrees with the principles to which you are so much devoted, and which teach that obedience from a child to a father is one of the first duties."

"Certainly; but not when this duty comes into conflict with a still higher one. However much it grieves me not to obey you, in this case I may not, and I cannot."

"Do you not know that a father has right over his daughter, and in cases of necessity forces her to obey?"

"I know it well, but also know that here compulsion would avail nothing. If I let myself be forced into a marriage with Salim, I should lose all value in his eyes, and so my influence over him would be as nothing. That he himself knows; but he will not think of force. If he did, he would not need your intervention. Akbar's heir is powerful enough to crush both your will and mine, if he chose."

Salhana clenched his hands, and impatiently bit his moustache. Beaten on all sides, and by whom? A simple girl, whom until now he had only known as the gentlest and most submissive of daughters. All his great plans and glittering prospects destroyed by this wilful and stubborn child. He who had dreamt not of a viceroys.h.i.+p alone, but to attain to the highest place next to the Emperor. He already saw himself in Agra, next to the throne as Grand Wazir, ruling Prince and land through his daughter; sovereign ruler over kingdoms and peoples--if not in name, at least in reality.

"Well," he cried at last, as he placed himself in a threatening att.i.tude opposite Iravati; "you will not listen to reason, and you do not fear compulsion; but there may be something that you fear--the curse of a father!"

"The sorrow that is already laid upon me would be increased twofold,"

she answered; "but I would strive for courage to bear my burden without faltering. That must happen which is written by fate."

"You are courageous," said Salhana, coldly and sarcastically; "or you try to be so. But are you so sure that your obstinacy will not injure this Siddha, whom you acknowledge that you still love, and that the Prince may not avenge your refusal on him?"

The last blow seemed to reach its aim. Iravati, in despair, lifted her hands on high and then let them fall powerless at her side, while her head sank on her breast. With a hateful, triumphant smile, Salhana watched her. The victory at last was his, and the strength of the invincible one broken.

But the proud girl raised her head again, and looking Salhana full in the face, she said, first in a faltering voice, which soon became steady:

"What you have said, Father, is cruel, horribly cruel, and I can scarcely believe that you really mean it. But even should it be a threat in earnest, it has not the power to make me forsake the sacred duty that is laid upon me. If Siddha stood before us, and saw me hesitate, and violate my promise to save him from danger, he would despise me, and thrust me with good right from him. My life I will sacrifice for him, for it is his; but not my honour, that belongs also to him. His death will be mine; but what is fated we cannot avoid. Let vengeance strike the guiltless, but neither Salim nor you will gain anything by it. You will have lost a daughter and your brother a son, that would be all; and your ambition would in no way be advanced. But let us break off a conversation that may end in causing me to lose the respect I owe you. Think, my Father, that I am your daughter, and one of a n.o.ble and ancient race, who cannot but be alarmed where duty or honour are concerned,--or the man I love."

For a moment Salhana stood silently looking at Iravati, standing proudly and almost defiantly before him.

Their positions were changed; the hitherto submissive daughter now commanded, and forced the haughty father to subjection. Without a word, he turned and hurried away, with a fierce expression of foiled rage on his dark countenance.

CHAPTER XI.

"TAUHID-I-ILAHI." [97]

As usual, when evening closed in, a gaily coloured crowd thronged round the shops and houses of one of the smaller bazars of Agra, situated on the river. Here and there dice-players sat in open verandahs round their boards; and there pa.s.sed drunken [98] soldiers armed with various weapons; a little retired from the crowd reposed solitary opium-eaters, lost in blissful dreams; and there also were grave Muhammadans deep in earnest conversation, and deigning for once to take a turn amongst the despised Hindus engaged in their social pleasures.

"Yes, Ali," said one of these to his companion, "with Akbar and his court things go from bad to worse. Evening after evening I know that these blasphemous meetings take place. Yesterday, about midnight, I pa.s.sed by the palace, and what do you think I saw? All the Emperor's windows were brilliantly lit, sparkling with many lamps and wax tapers. But for what? For no feast such as a prince might celebrate. No; all was still as death, excepting a solemn song, or rather hymn. Akbar himself has, I have heard, composed several of them; and however well they sound, they have nothing to do with our religious service to the praise of the Great Prophet."

"And what does this betoken?" said Ali.

"What it really signified," was the answer, "I cannot exactly say; but there is no doubt but that the light and singing were in connection with the new teaching that Akbar is trying to introduce in the place of that of Islam, and into which he initiates his confidants--a kind of fire and sun wors.h.i.+p, which in an evil hour he has taken from the ancient Pa.r.s.ees, and also from the unbelievers here. May Allah have mercy on them!"

"What kind of religion is it?" asked Ali. "Though I have heard of it more than once, yet I do not exactly know what it is."

"Nor do I very exactly," replied Yusuf; "but that it is very bad is proved by the opposition it meets with from all the faithful, especially from a man like Abdul Kadir, who is very learned and much esteemed by Akbar himself. From personal experience I have lately become acquainted with things still more disquieting than those of which I have already told you. Not long since I saw a man steal from the palace secretly, and as if afraid lest anyone should see him; a man whom you must know, but whom you cannot meet without a cold shudder of horror--Gorakh, the so-called Yogi. Now," continued he, sinking the whisper in which he spoke to a still lower tone, "do you know for what I hold that man? If not Shaitan himself, he is certainly his a.s.sistant; and with him Akbar has made a compact."

Yusuf was silent, regarding his comrade with horror. "Protect us, Allah!" he suddenly cried, pointing to a figure approaching by the river-side; "there he is in person! May the waters of the Jamuna swallow him up!"

And, in truth, there was the Durga priest, approaching a group of Hindus and Persians engaged in lively conversation.

"What I say," said one of these last, "is that we ought not, and we cannot, bear longer the scorn and ridicule which is openly and continually shown to our holy religion by Faizi and Abu-l Fazl, not to mention a still higher name; and I cannot understand how you people--although yours may be a different religion--how you can calmly look on at the destruction and overthrow of what you, as well as we, must hold sacred."

"But to that we have not yet come," said the Hindu. "It is well known that the Emperor and his followers do not think much of your Koran, and perhaps as much might be said of your religion. But so far I have heard nothing of destruction and overthrow; our temples are untouched, and no one interferes with our religious practices; while you Muhammadans in old days did nothing but torment and persecute us.

"As you well deserved, you sons of----"

"Come, men, no disputes," said a Persian soldier, interrupting them; "quarrels will not aid us." And he gave a sign to the angry Muhammadan.

"Let it be so," he answered, turning his back on the Hindu, and, accompanied by two friends, pa.s.sed on his way.

Now Gorakh joined in the conversation: "It was well that you were present, Mubarak," said he; "open disputes may be dangerous. Most Hindus hold to the side of the Emperor; but if for the moment they are not to be won, when fortune changes they will come over to us. In the meantime what progress have you made?"

"The greater part of our mansabdars are already won," answered Mubarak; "and they will openly declare on our side directly the signal is given. Those that go with the army will turn round at the right moment, and those that remain here at Agra will do the same, and they can depend on their troopers."