Hassan was well content with this interpretation, when a eunuch entered and brought him a sealed letter on a golden salver. It was from the Pasha of Grosswardein.
The letter was anything but pleasant. Ali Pasha begged to inform the Vizier that the Government of Transylvania, having delivered Mariska Sturdza into the hands of Olaj Beg, the Beg at once set off with her, and had got as far as Királyhágó, when some persons hidden in the forest had suddenly rushed out upon him, massacred his suite to the last man, and left the Princess’ carriage empty on the high road. The Princess had in all probability been helped to rejoin her husband in Poland.
The letter fell from the hand of Hassan Pasha.
“Thou hast interpreted my dream backwards,” he roared, turning upon Azrael; “everything has turned topsy-turvy. The ape descended from the tree with the fruit, but knocked his brains out.”
At that moment the doorkeeper announced: “Olaj Beg has arrived with the Moldavian Princess.”
At these words Hassan Pasha, in the joy of his heart, leaped from his cushions, and after kissing Azrael over and over again, rushed forward to meet Olaj Beg, and meeting him in the doorway, caught him round the neck and exclaimed, beside himself with joy:
“Then my ape has not knocked his brains out, after all!”
Olaj Beg smilingly endured the title and the embrace, but on looking around and perceiving Azrael standing in the window he began doing obeisance to her with the greatest respect.
“Hast thou brought her? Where is she? Thou hast not lost her, eh? Thou hast well looked after her?” asked Hassan in one breath.
By this time Olaj Beg had bowed his head down to his very knees before the damsel, and was saying to her in a mollified voice:
“May I hope that the beautiful Princess will not find it tiresome if we talk of grave affairs in her presence?”
Azrael at once perceived the object of all this bowing and scraping. Olaj Beg wished her to withdraw.
“Thou mayest speak before me, worthy Olaj Beg, though what thou art about to say is no secret to me, for I can read the future, and my secrets I tell to none.”
And now Hassan intervened.
“Thou mayest speak freely before her, worthy Olaj Beg. Azrael is the root of my life.”
Olaj Beg made another deep and long obeisance.
He had heard enough of that name to need no further recommendation. He made up his mind on the spot to tell Hassan, who was in the power of this infernal woman, no more than he deserved to know.
“Then thou hast brought the Princess with thee?” insisted Hassan, whose joy beamed upon his face in spite of himself. “Did the Transylvanian gentlemen make much difficulty in handing her over?”
“They handed her over, but it would have been very much better if they had not. I should have preferred it if they had risen in her behalf, stirred up all Klausenberg against me and beaten me to death. At any rate, I should then have died gloriously. But alas! the Magyar race is degenerating, it has begun to be sensible. Those good old times have gone when they used to fire a whole village for the sake of a runaway female slave; and it was possible to seize a whole county in exchange for one burnt village; if the Hungarian gentry continue to be as wise as they are now the younger generation of them may strike root in our very Empire.”
“I was alarmed on thy account, for I have just received a letter from the Pasha of Grosswardein, in which he informed me that certain persons had attacked the Princess’s escort at Királyhágó and cut them down to a man.”
“I anticipated that,” replied Olaj Beg slyly. “When with much shedding of tears they handed the Princess over to me, I heard them whisper in her ear: ‘Fear nothing!’ and I well understood from that that those same gentlemen who in the council chamber, with wise precautions, resolved to deliver up the fugitive Princess, had agreed among themselves over their cups at dinnertime that as I left Transylvania they would lie in wait for, fall upon me, and liberate and take away with them the Princess whom, by the way, they did not deliver over immediately, giving out that she was sick and suffering torments. While I was awaiting her recovery, nobody but her ladies was allowed admittance to her, and as soon as she was on her legs again, I made all my preparations for the journey next day, marshalling all the carriages and baggage-wagons in the courtyard. I myself, however, got into a sorry matted conveyance with the Princess and her child, and set off the same night in the direction of Déva. My suite, with the empty carriages, was to follow next morning in the direction of Grosswardein. The masked men cut them down as arranged, but the Princess and her son were in safe hands all the time. Olaj Beg is an old fox, and a fox knows his way about.”
Hassan Pasha rubbed his hands delightedly.
“Nevertheless,” continued Olaj Beg, “imagine not, my good general, that because this woman is now in thy hands thou wilt be able to keep her. Sleeplessness will enter thy house as soon as thou hast admitted her within thy doors. If it be hard to guard any woman, it will be particularly hard to guard this one. The men and women of a whole kingdom have sworn to set her free by force or fraud, and will use every effort to do so. They will open thy bedroom doors with skeleton keys, they will dig beneath thy cellars, they will strew sleeping powder in thy evening potions, they will corrupt thy most faithful servants, and if no other poison make any impression upon thee they will pour into thy heart the most potent of all poisons, the tears of a supplicating woman.
