The Wanderer

son by her, who would have been sultan here. But you in your blue-eyed innocence have let Khaireddin reap where I have sown, and I’m not at all surprised that he should seek to appease me with a fine saber and an expensive kaftan.”

But now I longed more than ever for my own reward, and after we had eaten I asked Abu where Giulia might be. He exchanged glances with Sinan the Jew and sighed, “Allah forgive me if I’ve done wrong, but the great Khaireddin wanted her to gaze into the sand for him, and so I left them alone together. But that was some time ago, and I begin to wonder what they can be doing.”

These words filled me with foreboding, and with a black look at Abu el-Kasim I said, “If anything has happened to Giulia I shall strangle you with my own hands, and I think no one will blame me.”

Ignoring the protesting eunuchs we passed through the golden door into the harem, and there we found Khaireddin seated on a mat with a dish of sand before him and beside him, gazing into it, was Giulia. Khaireddin’s eyes bulged in amazement, and on seeing us he exclaimed, “This Christian woman has seen the strangest things in the sand. If I told you all, you’d think I was out of my mind; but so much I can say: she beheld the waves of the sea sofdy kissing my tomb in the city of the great Sultan, on the shores of the Bosphorus. And she vowed that this tomb shall be revered and honored by all, so long as the name of Ottoman survives on earth.”

While he was speaking Giulia forgot her feminine modesty and pressed herself against him. But the lord of the sea surveyed her with indifference, and I flared up and said, “Giulia, Giulia! Remember your behavior. And know that from now on you belong to me, as my slave. But if you do your best to please me I may one day take you for my wife.”

I could contain myself no longer, but caught her hands and drew her eagerly toward me to embrace and kiss her to my heart’s content. But she struggled like a wildcat until I was forced to release her. Her eyes glittered with fury as she burst out, “Take away this lunatic slave and send him to the mosque hospital, to be thrown in chains and have the madness whipped out of him. Sinan the Jew gave me to the Deliverer, to gaze into the sand for him; I will gladly obey him in everything, as soon as he has grown used to my unfortunate eyes.”

So intense was her rage that the smile faded from Sinan’s face and he mumbled hesitantly, “Allah forgive me, but Michael el-Hakim is right. I swore by the Koran and by my beard that you should be his slave, and I can’t break such an oath. You’re now his slave, beautiful Delilah, and are bound to obey him in everything. This I declare here and now in the presence of the necessary witnesses.”

He repeated the first sura rapidly, to clinch the matter, but when he would have laid Giulia’s hand in mine she recoiled, thrust her hands behind her, and gasped in a stifled voice, “Never! Tell me, you blackguards who bargain away a woman’s honor behind her back, why is this miserable slave allowed to insult me? Is this the love you swore you felt for me, Abu el-Kasim, with such sighs and lamentations?”

Sinan the Jew and Abu el-Kasim raised their hands with one accord and pointed at me, saying, “No, no, we’re innocent! It was Michael who plagued and tormented us into it. And anyhow we were sure that he would fall into the hands of Selim ben-Hafs, and perish long before the Deliverer arrived in the city.”

Giulia stared at me incredulously. She came forward and brought her face close to mine and said, pale with fury, “Is this true, Michael? Then I’ll give you a foretaste of the joys awaiting you!”

With that she dealt me a resounding box on the ear, which deafened me and brought tears to my eyes. Then she broke into violent weeping, and sobbed, “I can never forgive you for this, Michael. You’re like a vicious boy who bites his mother’s hand. And what service did you render the Deliverer that can merit reward? I, by foretelling the future to the women of the harem, have done more than anyone. Indeed it was I and no one else who by this means slew Selim ben-Hafs as certainly as if I had done it with my own hands.”

Thinking that rage had bereft Giulia of reason, I strove to calm her, and begged the others to pay no attention to what she said. But she stamped her foot. Blue and yellow lightnings flashed from her eyes, and she screamed, “I chose Amina for the work, because she was the most wanton of all in the harem, and the most ambitious. It was at her orders that the black wrestler came down to the market place to challenge Antar. Everything went as planned and Antar won the match, as I had foretold in my sand gazing. It was through my soothsaying alone that he was enrolled in the palace guard. Then I saw in the sand that Amina’s son would be sultan, as indeed it was, though for a very short time. If there’s to be a reward for removing Selim ben-Hafs, I am indeed the only one who can fairly claim it.”

I listened to her open mouthed, marveling at the skill with which she had played the part of an innocent, while in reality fully aware of the secret plot. She stormed and raved, Abu exclaimed, Andy expostulated, and she sank her teeth in his hand until at length he quelled her with a sharp slap on the hinder parts. By this time Khaireddin was weary of the scene, and ordered me to remove my property and trouble him no longer.

“You’ve made your bed,” he said. “Now lie on it. You have no one to blame but yourself.”

There was nothing for it but to go. Hesitantly I held out my hand to Giulia and said, “Don’t you understand that I love you, Giulia? It was to win you that I toiled and strove so long, and risked my life.”

But Giulia’s shoulders were like lead beneath my hand, and she answered sourly, “Don’t touch me, Michael, or I won’t answer for the consequences. You’ve wounded me deeply.”

We set off for home, the dog slinking behind us with his nose to the ground. When we came to the door of our house I put the key into the lock, but it jammed, and struggle as I would I could not turn it. At last in a rage I forced the door and tumbled inside. The dog yelped with fright and a cudgel came down on my head with such violence that all went black and I knew no more until next morning. Giulia and the deaf-mute carried me to bed; it was this blockhead, faithful to his charge, who had dealt the blow. He had felt me tugging

and rattling at the door, and in the darkness mistook me for a thief.

Such was my bridal night, and I have no more to say of it. I will therefore begin a new book to tell of how I captured the Spanish fortress, and how a notion of Mustafa ben-Nakir’s led to my entering the service of the ruler of all the faithful-the great Sultan in Constantinople.

BOOK 3.

Giulia

I CAME to my senses in a soft bed, and was aware of a continuous din as of thunder that shook the room and caused cups and dishes to rattle together. At first I thought the noise came from my own aching head, and I wondered where I was. I seemed to see two angels, a white one on my right hand and a blade one on my left, both engaged in recording my good and evil deeds in their books. But the white angel had seemingly little to write, while the black one was so busy that his head wagged with the exertion. I besought them in piteous tones to bring water that I might wash myself and say my prayers. The room vibrated to renewed thunder, but just then my dear dog jumped up onto my chest and licked my face. With tears in my eyes I said, “Bis- millah and inshallah! Allah is merciful indeed to allow my dog to keep me company in hell. Rael is many times more deserving of Paradise than I am, but I know he would turn his back upon it to follow me into the abyss.”

The white angel lifted my head, causing such acute pain that the scales fell from my eyes and I saw that I lay in Giulia’s bed. Giulia herself was anxiously bending over me. To my left sat the deaf-mute, mixing eggs and honey together into a paste. Ashamed of my distracted fancies I said sharply, “Leave my head alone, Giulia. If it has not already split it soon will.” I pushed away the dog pettishly and asked what the noise was, and whether Giulia had hit me on the head the night before. Giulia wept and stroked my cheek.

“Ah, Michael, are you really alive? Although I was angry with you I don’t want you to die. The noise you hear is gunfire; the Moslems are besieging the Spanish fortress. And it was not I who struck you, but this faithful slave.”

I felt my head cautiously and found it still upon my shoulders, though because of the many bandages it felt twice its usual size. I sighed feebly and whispered, “Giulia, send at once for a cadi and four witnesses. Take the purse from my kaftan and pay them, and keep the remainder for yourself. My intentions weren’t so base as you supposed; I never wanted you as a slave, though I said so to tease you. I meant to send for a cadi and the necessary witnesses and give you your freedom; that was why I claimed you in reward for my services. It seemed