Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/333

. Îang Mûnah, who was acting as go-between for her mistress with the Saiyid, was to have her love passages with Awang Itam in comfort and security, without incurring any penalties therefor, and was moreover to have the princess's support in her candidature to become a permanent, and not a merely casual concubine of that young lady's father. Âwang Îtam would accompany his friend on his nocturnal visits to the palace, and while Tûan Bângau wooed the princess, her handmaiden would give herself to him, and thus the desire of his heart would at length be fulfilled. Eagerly he wooed his friend on Tŭngku Ûteh's behalf, and of the twain it was he who was the impassioned lover when together the two young men stole into the palace at the noon of the night.

They effected their entrance by a way known to few, the secret of which had been conveyed to them from the princess, through lang Münah; and they left by the same means before the breaking of the dawn, passing by a circuitous route to their quarters in the guardhouse, while all the town still slumbered.

For more than a month they paid their secret visits unobserved by any save those whom they sought, and by an old crone, who unbarred the door for them to enter; but one night, toward the end of that time, they narrowly escaped detection. The Sultan, like many Malay râjas, kept curious hours. The distinction between night and day had for him light or darkness, exactly when the fancy took him: