In Love With the Czarina and Other Stories Part 6

Bajazet had to admit that all was true which the women of the harem sang about him.

"I wish to see you," urged Maria, "I wish to see you in the blaze of your glory. I wish to see you as Djildirim, as the lightning which pursues the enemy! I want to admire you in the height of your glory! I want to applaud at and delight in your glory! I want to be on the spot, so that I may weave the wreath, and place it upon your brow, so that, dazzled by the light of victory upon your face, I may fall at your feet!

Will you not take me with you, my Djildirim?"

The Sultan said, "Let it be so!"

He was excited at the idea of fighting in the presence of his wife, and of proving to her, who believed him to be an earthly G.o.d, that he was one indeed. The desire being roused in his heart, he was now doubly thirsty for revenge and also for glory! His wife's eyes would watch his deeds; therefore they must be magnificent!

CHAPTER VIII

In the year 1446, according to the Christian era, an enormous comet appeared upon the horizon. The golden tint of this phenomenon of the heavens was observed for six months amongst the stars, and when it was closest to earth two-fourths of the sky was covered by the dreaded spectre. When the sun set and the gigantic marvel made its appearance, the pale phosphor head drawing its tail after it, everything was lit up by its wonderful light. Forests, mountains, people's faces, appeared ghastly by its illumination, and all around amongst the mountains was to be seen a glow which appeared like a distant fire lighting up the sky. Only the reflection of the light was not red, but green; and when the moon made her appearance, with her silver-tipped crescent, the two heavenly wanderers followed after one another with curious wonder. Once it happened that the moon went into the vaporous element of the comet, and astronomers then calculated how many million miles it covered and how long it would take before it would touch the moon with its head in place of its tail. Then both would shoot down from heaven, and the Day of Judgment would arrive. Religious folk went on pilgrimages and awaited the _Dies Irae_; whose herald was this Lampadias, the name given it by Greek astronomers. Under the fearful glitter of this heavenly phenomenon, which wandered over the horizon and lit up the entire surface of the earth, compelling the inhabitants to breathe its deadly poison, the two most dreaded men in the Mussulman world prepared to fight against one another in a life and death struggle. Sultan Bajazet had 420,000 men; Timur Lenk had 780,000. One million two hundred thousand fighting men, therefore, had to seek a suitable place amidst the Asiatic wastes, which would afford sufficient s.p.a.ce for the blood required to be shed.

The two conquerors of the world were not alarmed by the sign from Heaven. They not only divided between them the stars which led them, but they also cut the comet asunder! The head of the Lampadias bent towards the west, and the thinner end of its long mane hung to the east. Bajazet said it was a sword which the Prophet had sent to him, and that with its aid he should kill the heretic s.h.i.+taa. Tamerlan, however, gave out that this was the same club which the Prophet had given into his hands, and that the head was turned towards the heretic Szunnita. The stars at the end of the tail he held to be the head of the club, with which he would lay him low! And so, the two greatest generals of the period started in search of one another with two enormous forces, and as quickly as they neared one another, so quickly did the dreaded star approach the earth!

The two conquerors debated to themselves which of them would first grasp the comet by its tail!

CHAPTER IX

Both Bajazet and Timur Lenk did what no conqueror of the world ever did before or after them. They each carried their favourite wives with them to view the decisive battle of the world! It was as though they were to witness a dramatic spectacle, in which one million armed men took part, and by which the government of a portion of the world would be decided either to the right or to the left. Such a spectacle was surely never before presented by a general to his wife!

Bajazet's wife was in the camp in an elevated tent made of muleskin.

One thousand women riders went before, and one thousand after her, to keep from her gaze the face of every man. These were masculine women, accustomed to sword-handling, and to cutting off heads, women for whom men can feel but horror, and of whom it is difficult to form an idea.

Bajazet headed this woman's camp with 10,000 veteran Janesars and old soldiers scarred with wounds. They were picked out from amongst the Nicapol victors. Every one of them was a hero, and their attacks on the enemy were always made simultaneously. To the right of Maria were 15,000 Christians, mounted and mailed, and under the leaders.h.i.+p of Stephen Lazaruvich, the Servian Waidwode. These were the most faithful adherents of the Sultan. The remainder of the troops were led by the Sultan's sons. Suleiman, the eldest, was in the centre of the camp; whilst the two wings, consisting of Turcomans and Tartars, were commanded by Isa and Muza. Amongst these troops were the people of the Khan of Aidin.

Mustafa, another of the sons of the Sultan, led the heroic Arab troops; and Mohammed, yet another, was in command of the reserve. Timur Lenk's sons, Miran Shah, Chalit Shah, and Mirza Mohammed, were also in the camp. Fathers fought against fathers, sons against sons, and women against women! Mirza Mohammed Khan led his own troops, and each detachment was dressed in different colours--some, for instance, in red uniform and red bucklers, with red standards, red saddles, &c., others in blue or yellow, white or black. When they moved in square, it seemed as though figures were moving on a chess-board!

The name of the place where the two opposing forces met was Csibuk Abad.

It is an historic spot. Here Pompey and Mithridates fought a decisive battle! At the back stand the celebrated Stetta cedar-forests, and facing it are the endless plains where the tall oriental reeds grow in line from which the people cut stalks to make the stems of pipes, calling them from the place, Csibuk.

Towards the eastern horizon the towers of the citadels of Angora were to be seen, whence Timur might be observed approaching. He was engaged in bombarding this place against the Bey Yakab, when the approach of his opponent caused him to raise the siege.

Between the two forces was only one well (Miral) which supplied the district abundantly with water. The inhabitants were, therefore, right to call it the Sainted Well. Bajazet hastened to seize this before his enemy. He knew very well that he who secured it would have the advantage of tiring out his opponents, who would be forced out into the desert.

Sheik Trzlan, an old Dervish, at one time an adherent of Timur Lenk, was the guardian of the well. As a follower of s.h.i.+ he possessed magic power over the people.

Bajazet rode to this Sainted Well, and asked the Dervish for a drink of water out of it. He filled the jug, and gave it over to the Padishah with the usual blessing, "Glory be to Him who created clouds and wells!"

The Sultan threw a golden piece to the Dervish. Sheik Irzlan picked up the money and looked at the portrait. Then he returned it, saying, "Oh!

my Lord, of what use is this money to me, when Timur Lenk's head is engraved here?"

The Sultan dragged the coin out of the Dervish's hand and threw it with horror into the air, wondering how his enemy's money could possibly have found its way into his camp. Then he took out another gold piece, upon which he first looked earnestly; then, seeing his own likeness engraved upon the coin, he threw it to the Dervish. Sheik Irzlan picked it up, and then, with marks of the greatest respect and reverence, he handed it back to him again.

"Why here, my master, on this piece also is engraved Timur's portrait!"

And so indeed it was.

Bajazet, who was now furious, took out a third coin, which he threw to the Sheik, who, on picking it up, showed him that again it bore the same superscription.

"You scoundrelly magician!" shouted Bajazet in despair, "it is your delusive magic!" and he slashed the Dervish across the face and breast with his whip.

"Thank you for your gracious kindness, mighty lord," said the Dervish, putting his blood-stained face into the dust.

Timur Lenk would not have acted like this. He allowed blood to flow in streams, but never in his life did he hurt a scholar or a Dervish.

Afterwards when the infuriated Sheik ran bleeding from the breast through the streets of Chorazan, Timur Lenk, looking at him, smiled and said: "This is a sign that Chorazan itself, which is the breast of Asia, will fly to me voluntarily."

And so indeed it came to pa.s.s.

Bajazet was so certain of having obtained possession of the Miril well, that the next day he organised a hunting expedition to the ancient forest of Stetta for Maria's amus.e.m.e.nt. Whilst half of his troops were pursuing the stag or shooting game, and he himself was shooting wild peac.o.c.ks, the enemy, at a distance of trumpet-call, commenced to pull down the stakes of his camp. In the evening, when the party returned, tired out, from the chase, Bajazet's son, Suleiman, who had been left behind with the rest of the forces, came to him in a furious state, and said:

"To-morrow we shall have to face the enemy."

"Why?" asked the Sultan, with surprise.

"Because we have no water!"

"Surely the well has not dried up in one night?"

"It has not dried up, but it is contaminated. The Dervish whose face you struck yesterday hung heavy stones round his neck last night and jumped into the well, where this morning he was found drowned. You know that when a man has been found dead in a well no one will touch its waters until the new moon. So the camp has been parched with thirst throughout the whole day!"

"Oh! cursed Dervis.h.!.+"

"Ah! the Dervishes were all devoted to Timur. Beware, for he who was capable of killing himself might yet kill you! And now you had best decide whether you will retreat or make an advance to-morrow, for in this place it is impossible for us to remain longer."

Bajazet angrily pointed to the watch-fires of Timur Lenk, and exclaimed, in hot fury, "Advance!"

CHAPTER X

It is quite natural that two loving hearts should think and dream alike, but it happens often, too, that the hearts of two opponents who bitterly hate one another think in concord. That night neither Bajazet nor Timur shut his eyes. Both of them were tortured by the conjecture as to which of the two should lead the morrow's attack, prove victor, and destroy his adversary. They both anxiously awaited the break of day, for each longed to be first upon the battle-field.

It was yet dark when the priests completed their morning prayer in Bajazet's camp, and as the Sultan stepped out from his tent, the 10,000 Janesars, who stood ready for attack, commenced to sing the blood-curdling song which thus concludes:

Do not let your son be lost!

This was the Sultan's daily greeting, and he now stood face to face with his son's murderer! At the other end of the camp the dreaded signal of the _gurgach_, twice repeated, responded to the strains of the song, and this was accompanied by the screaming and clacking of the _kernai reveille_. The _gurgach_ was a big drum and the _kernai_ a trumpet, and these signals announced that the attack had commenced. When the sun peeped out from behind the lilac-coloured mountains of Karadegh both camps were in marching order. The standards and the horses' tails used as banners were flying aloft in the centre, and the tails of two horses dyed red let it be known that two sovereigns were fighting face to face.

Here were Bajazet's Janesars, while there were Timur Lenk's brave Samarcand troops, and between them two rows of fighting and mailed elephants were placed to form barriers. Skilful armed throwers of Greek fire were placed in towers with orders not to waste their arrows on other heads but those of princes. Timur, who was resting upon the bare earth, was greeted in turn by his officers, who stood with their horses'

bridles in their hands, exclaiming:

"_Raszti ruszti!_"

These were historical words by which leave was taken, and they signified "Justice" and "Aid." Amongst the rows of elephants stood a white one, the largest of all. This Timur had brought from the Court of the Prince of Burmah, where it used to be wors.h.i.+pped as a holy animal. On the back of this curious beast a tower had been erected, where the two favourite wives of the Khan, Tumanaga and Csolpan, were seated. The one was the mother of his children, the other his latest favourite. Timur rode up to them before the commencement of the battle, greeted them lovingly, and unsheathed his sword before them. Raising it towards Heaven he exclaimed: