One day, that the convenient husband had left them tête-à-tête, and that Kerfael, having ungirt his scimitar, was endeavouring to allay Fatme’s suspicions by protestations, which cost nothing to lovers, but never surprise the credulity of a jealous woman; she assumed an affrighted air, and having tore her dress at five or six pulls, shriek’d out horridly, and call’d to her husband and domestics for help; who ran immediately, and became witnesses to the injury, which Fatme said she received from Kerfael; and showing the scimitar, added: “This the infamous villain lifted at my head ten times to make me submit to his will.”
The young man, struck dumb at the blackness of the accusation, had not power either to answer or make his escape. He was seiz’d, dragg’d to prison, and deliver’d up to justice and the prosecution of the Cadilesker.
The laws ordained that Fatme should be visited. Accordingly she was; and the report of the matrons proved very unfavourable to the accused. They had an original standard, by which they could determine the condition of a violated woman; and every circumstance concurred against Kerfael. The judges examined him, Fatme was confronted with him, and the evidence was heard. In vain did he plead innocence, deny the fact, and demonstrate by the commerce which he held with his accuser above two years, that she was not a woman to be ravished. The circumstance of the scimitar, the tête-à-tête solitude, Kerfael’s confusion at the sight of the husband and domestics; taken all together formed, in the opinion of the judges, violent presumptions. Fatme on her side, far from owning that she had granted him favors, would not even allow that she gave him the least glimmering of hopes; and maintain’d that her obstinate adherence to her duty, from which she had never flinch’d, was without doubt what urged Kerfael to acquire by force, what he despair’d obtaining by craft. The verbal process drawn up by the commissaries was another terrible piece. Nothing more was requisite, than to run it over, and compare it with the articles of the Criminal Code, to read unhappy Kerfael’s condemnation therein. He lost all expectations of life either by his defence, or the credit of his family; the magistrates had fixed the definitive sentence to the thirteenth of the month of Rebeg: and this was even published by sound of trumpet, according to custom.
This affair became the topic of conversations, and people were divided upon it for a good while. Some old hags, who had always been very safe from any apprehensions of a rape, ran about crying: “That Kerfael’s attack was enormous; that unless a severe example were made of him, innocence would be no longer in security; and that an honest woman would be exposed to insults, even at the horns of the Altar.” Then they cited instances of little impertinent puppies having attack’d the virtue of several respectable ladies: and the circumstances left no room to doubt, but that those respectable ladies mentioned by them were themselves: and all these speeches were made to Bramins less innocent than Kerfael, and by devotes as chaste as Fatme, by way of edifying conversations.
The Petits-Maîtres on the contrary, and even some Petites-Maîtresses, asserted that a rape was a chimaera, that a woman never surrendered but by capitulation; and that, if a fort was defended, though ever so little, it was absolutely impossible to take it by storm. Examples were alleged in support of this reasoning: the women knew some; the Petits-Maîtres invented others; and there was no end of quoting instances of women, who had not been ravished. “Poor Kerfael,” said they, “what the devil had he in his head, to take to little Bimbreloqua,” which was the dancer’s name, “why did he not stick to Fatme? They were extremely well together, and the husband left them at full liberty: what a blessing—Those witches the matrons put on their spectacles to no purpose, for they saw nothing. And indeed, who is the person that can see clear in that place? And besides, the senators are going to deprive him of his joy, for having burst an open door. The poor lad will die of it, no doubt. After that, pray consider, what will not dissatisfied women be authorized to do.”
“If this execution takes place,” interrupted another, “I will make myself a freemason.”
Mirzoza, naturally compassionate, remonstrated to Mangogul, who was joking her on Kerfael’s case, that if the laws spoke against Kerfael, good sense deposed against Fatme. “Moreover,” added she, “it has never been heard, that, in a wise government, the letter of the law should be so closely adhered to, that the simple allegation of a female accuser should be sufficient to endanger the life of a subject. The reality of a rape cannot be too clearly proved; and you will allow, Sir, that this fact is as much at least within the province of your ring as of your senators. It would be very singular, that the matrons should be more knowing on this head than the Toys themselves. Hitherto your highness’s ring has done little more than satisfy your curiosity. Might not the Genius, from whom you had it, have intended some more important end? If you employ it for the discovery of truth, and the happiness of your subjects, can you think the Genius will be offended? Try. You are in possession of an infallible method of drawing from Fatme a confession of her crime, or a proof of her innocence.”
“You are in the right,” replied Mangogul, “and you shall be satisfied.”
The Sultan departed immediately: and indeed there was no time to lose: for it was the night of the twelfth of the moon Rebeg, and the senate was to pronounce sentence on the thirteenth. Fatme was just got into bed, the curtains were not quite closed. A night taper threw a dull light on her countenance. The
