Diogenes of London (collection)/The Sword of the Kadi

AIDEE stole into her garden of roses and clung closely to me. There was a zephyr whispering in the myrtles, and the fragrance of a fine perfume on the gentle air; and I could not but think of it as the emanation of her divine presence. In her lissom body life ebbed and flowed in magnificent reversions as she pressed against my heart, and her lips quivered as I kissed her. She held me with her deep brown eyes, her head raised to regard me steadfastly.

'The Kadi has heard your call, my soul,' she whispered. 'He will send for you on the morrow.'

'Is it well?' I asked. 'What did he demand of me?'

'You are a Giaour,' said she; 'yet I love you; heart of mine, I love you,' she said passionately. 'What justice will the Kadi give when you meet upon the morrow? What justice?'

I bent to her slowly, 'My love,' said I, 'the Kadi shall not come between us twain. Though he put mountains betwixt I will climb them; though there be seas I will swim them; through fire and sword I will pass unscathed—to thee.'

'He will put you to some trial,' she murmured. 'Pray God it be not too hard. He will put you to some trial.'

I stooped, for I could barely catch her sweet, low voice; and the fragrance passed through my senses into my blood.

'I have sworn,' said I in that garden, 'he shall come not between you, my beloved, and me. Though his tests be fashioned in hell, I will shame the Devil by my strength. I will be God in this matter, and override the fiends themselves. Kadis and all, they are impotent against the Giaour's love. See, my Desire! To-morrow he shall give justice to the world, and thee to me.'

I could see her mouth drawn at the verges, and her olive cheeks pale in the soft moonlight. The wind rushed out of the cypress grove and whistled by us; she strained her face against mine, whispering in my ears.

'The Kadi is old, the Kadi is wise. Though Allah himself should descend. He will avail nothing against the Kadi. There is the cunning of years in this man. He has an evil eye; his face is dark, as are his thoughts. He has pleasure in the death of man; his desire is in the breaking of hearts. Hell is his jest; Paradise is his scoff; God is his scorn.'

'Star of my night,' I said to her, 'let his crafty wiles be infinite as the sands, I will be the sea to submerge them; let his purposes be of the most desperate research, I will contend with them. Have no fear for the morrow; have only joy in this night, my love.'

She drew from me a pace, her large eyes beneath a film of tears.

'I have loved you, my beloved,' she said brokenly; 'O my beloved, I have loved you. When you are come before the Kadi, think upon me. Have me in your thoughts, my heart, as you are ever in mine. And it shall haply befall that from before my image the enchantment of this devil shall flee.'

And vowing to her Prophet I would so hold her dear face in my mind, I watched her flit through the roses.

In the morning the Kadi called me into his presence about the hour of noon. He lay upon his couch, white-bearded, pulling at his long pipe, and I entered before him with his slaves.

'My son,' said he, 'you have put upon me a heavy charge. Were there not women as fair in your own land, that you would rob us of the pearl we cherish? Yet it is my place to deal justice with an even hand. May Allah guide me!'

'This woman,' said I boldly, 'is dearer to me than any pearl. Say if she shall not go whither she is held in most precious esteem?'

'The Giaour,' said the Kadi, 'has no rights in this world of ours. We give to him of our regard for justice—nothing more. It is the Kadi's part to hold the scales and judge between the good and the evil.'

'My lord,' I cried, 'place me among the good, for I would have this maid. Let nothing come between me and her, between the Faithful and the Giaour.'

The Kadi bowed his head. 'I have heard you,' he said; 'and I desire right and justice. Among the Faithful Allah decides. You shall pass some test for this girl.'

At his words I, suddenly recalling the anguished whisper of Haidee, shivered for one moment where I stood; but on the next instant, recalling also her sweet, low voice and dearest features, looked him in the eyes and bowed after his own fashion.

'I will do this thing,' said I.

The Kadi clapped his hands, and from the precincts of an inner room behind the silken hangings issued a slave, and put a table to the couch.

'What is love without faith and without discretion?' said the Kadi. 'Nay, what also is it without an imminent risk? We purchase what we value most at the peril of our lives,' said he.

'My life,' said I, 'is in the purchase of my love.'

'It is well,' he answered; 'Allah shall decide,' and, signing to his slave, bade him begone. 'He that hath wisdom,' said the Kadi, 'and constancy and courage, is meet for any bride, be she of the Faithful or the Giaour. We have a game played upon this table with six colours. It is for the player to bring his colour through the moves into the crowning square. There shall be given you six maidens bound each with a different colour. The Giaour is crafty of the head. Choose you the maiden, and if so be before the sun sets o'er the Western Gate her colour shall stand upon the crowning square, she shall depart with you, my son. But if so be at sunset you have failed, upon the Western Gate your head shall hang ere the darkness be fallen. Allah shall decide, not human frailty.'

Astounded at this strange pact, I turned upon the table, whereon were many lines and colours; and as I gazed, reflecting upon my curious trial, the hangings were swept apart and there entered six fair women. Though her veil had fallen across her face, I knew her by her gait and by her trembling. Haidee slipped past me, a scarlet band burning upon her sweet and delicate arm.

'Life is a game from the beginning,' said the Kadi. 'We are employed upon the puzzle many years, and the sooner the end the simpler the solution. The dead are fortunate. Choose you the colour, my son. And forasmuch as the Kadi holds the balance in his hands, keep counsel with yourself. But in the end you must tell me your choice. They are all fair women, not one alone, my son; yet you may depart if you have now the mind.'

But looking at Haidee in the centre of her fellows, her face paling as she opened her dewy eyes upon me with affright, I turned to him and said:

'My lord, I will do this thing.'

She had prayed me to keep her picture in my thoughts; but now her dear presence filled my soul. The Kadi turned to his pipe again, while I, with my eyes upon the scarlet about her arm, fell to my work with a heart of fire.

From the high noon the sun declined upon the city gate, but my task was unfulfilled. One by one in the order of their moves had I placed those pieces in their squares, placed and replaced, moved and removed, adjusted, readjusted, schemed, manœuvred, calculated, and contrived—but in the end it was all one: no nearer came the scarlet to my haven of desire. My brain whirled and was weary; the colours ran in my eyes; each but the one that blazed in my vision came within reach of my goal, but I thrust them back—unashamed and reckless. And as the sun fell lower the Kadi lifted his eyes from the board and beckoned, and the room filled with slaves; and behind them was one taller than the habit of their stature, bearing a great sword. Raising my face from the darkening room I glanced through the archway and beheld the dome of the Western Gate, as scarlet in the sunset as the ribbon upon the naked arm of my beloved.

'There is yet one half-hour, my son,' said the Kadi.

The faces of the maidens wore a marvelling look, but all was silent in that room. Dazed with the play and my long solicitude, I let my gaze go round them. Foremost of them all was one, tall, most fair with flowing locks, with a great delicateness of air, bound round with a blue band that did her infinite service. And it seemed to me, as I gazed at her, that there lurked in her blue eyes a melting humour to seduce the soul of man from the straight way of honour. So out of keeping was it with that time that involuntarily I swept round and found Haidee's great eyes of brown fastened upon me utterly. Her bosom quickened with her breathing, and beneath the soft orbs of those great eyes I could see the soul couchant, chained only by a woman's fear. With a cry I fell into my work again.

The Kadi took the long pipe from his mouth and stroked his beard. The pieces straggled upon my board, and on the margin of the crowning square gleamed the blue; behind showed the scarlet infinitely removed. I looked up, and once more the blue eyes gazed into my face; they were soft and roguish as the twinkling sea, but the eyes of Haidee were as the gazelle. I turned upon my love, backward, alas! in the cold distance; but a little stood betwixt me and doom. I felt the slaves draw nearer from behind; the Kadi stroked his beard. Haidee's lustrous eyes leapt out upon me in fear and passionate love, as she leaned to me nearer from her place; but the mist was in mine, and the blue eyes smiled at me through the haze, the white arm gleamed in the falling sunlight. Haidee was in the dusk.

A sudden stir rose in the room; the Kadi moved slightly; and I was aware of the great sword turned to the red of blood above me. My flesh crept upon my body in the silence. I put my fingers to the blue piece upon the board and thrust it forward: I saw Haidee's soul burst its bonds and leap forth; the sunlight faded swiftly; I reached out my hand and laid it upon a warm, palpitating bosom.

'O Kadi," I cried, throbbing, 'the blue was my choice.'

The Kadi smiled.