Tancred by Benjamin Disraeli (year 2 reading books .TXT) 📕

think we must have been seen.'

'That was clearly impossible,' said Cypros.

'Well, we must be seen at last,' said the lady. 'Heigho! I never shall be able to receive them, if my heart beat so.'

'I would let them wait a few days, sweet lady,' said Cypros, 'and then you would get more used to them.'

'I shall never be more used to them. Besides, it is rude and inhospitable not to see them. Yesterday there was an excuse: they were wearied, or I had a right to suppose they were, with their travelling; and to-day, there ought to be an excuse for not receiving them to-day. What is it, Cypros?'

'I dare say they will be quite content, if to-day you fix the time when you will receive them, sweet lady.'

'But I shall not be content, Cypros. Having seen them once, I wish to see them again, and one cannot always be walking by accident in the gallery.'

'Then I would see them to-day, sweet lady. Shall I send for the noble Keferinis?'

'I wish I were Cypros, and you were---- Hark! what is that?'

''Tis only the antelope, sweet lady.'

'I thought it was---- Now tell me, my Cypros, which of these two princes do you think is he who is one of us?'

'Oh, really, sweet lady, I think they are both so handsome!'

'Yet so unlike,' said the lady.

'Well, they are unlike,' said Cypros, 'and yet----'

'And what?'

'The fair one has a complexion almost as radiant as your own, sweet lady.'

'And eyes as blue: no, they are too light. And so, as there is a likeness, you think he is the one?'

'I am sure I wish they were both belonging to us,' said Cypros.

'Ah, me!' said the lady, ''tis not the bright-faced prince whom I hold to be one of us. No, no, my Cypros. Think awhile, sweet girl. The visage, the head of the other, have you not seen them before? Have you not seen something like them? That head so proudly placed upon the shoulders; that hair, that hyacinthine hair, that lofty forehead, that proud lip, that face so refined and yet so haughty, does it not recall anything? Think, Cypros; think!'

'It does, sweet lady.'

'Tell me; whisper it to me; it is a name not to be lightly mentioned.'

Cypros advanced, and bending her head, breathed a word in the ear of the lady, who instantly, blushing deeply, murmured with a faint smile, 'Yes.'

'It is he, then,' said Cypros, 'who is one of us.'


CHAPTER LII.


A Royal Audience


OUR travellers were speculating, not very sanguinely, on the possible resources which Gindarics might supply for the amusement of a week, when, to their great relief, they were informed by Keferinis, that the Queen had fixed noon, on this the day after their arrival, to receive them. And accordingly at that time some attendants, not accompanying, however, the chief minister, waited on Tancred and Fakredeen, and announced that they were commanded to usher them to the royal presence. Quitting their apartments, they mounted a flight of steps, which led to the wooden gallery, along which they pursued their course. At its termination were two sentries with their lances. Then they descended a corresponding flight of stairs and entered a chamber where they were received by pages; the next room, of larger size, was crowded, and here they remained for a few minutes. Then they were ushered into the presence.

The young Queen of the Ansarey could not have received them with an air more impassive had she been holding a levee at St. James'. Seated on her divan, she was clothed in a purple robe; her long dark hair descended over her shoulders, and was drawn off her white forehead, which was bound with a broad circlet of pure gold, and of great antiquity. On her right hand stood Keferinis, the captain of her guard, and a priestly-looking person with a long white beard, and then at some distance from these three personages, a considerable number of individuals, between whose appearance and that of her ordinary subjects there was little difference. On her left hand were immediately three female attendants, young and pretty; at some distance from them, a troop of female slaves; and again, at a still further distance, another body of her subjects in their white turbans and their black dresses. The chamber was spacious, and rudely painted in the Ionic style.

'It is most undoubtedly requested, and in a vein of the most condescending friendship, by the perfectly irresistible Queen, that the princes should be seated,' said Keferinis, and accordingly Tancred occupied his allotted seat on the right of the Queen, though at some distance, and the young Emir filled his on the left. Fakredeen was dressed in Syrian splendour, a blaze of shawls and jewelled arms; but Tancred retained on this, as he had done on every other occasion, the European dress, though in the present instance it assumed a somewhat more brilliant shape than ordinary, in the dark green regimentals, the rich embroidery, and the flowing plume of the Bellamont yeomanry cavalry.

'You are a prince of the English,' said the Queen to Tancred.

'I am an Englishman,' he replied, 'and a subject of our Queen, for we also have the good fortune to be ruled over by the young and the fair.'

'My fathers and the House of Shehaab have been ever friends,' she continued, turning to Fakredeen.

'May they ever continue so!' he replied. 'For if the Shehaabs and the Ansarey are of one mind, Syria is no longer earth, but indeed paradise.'

'You live much in ships?' said the Queen, turning to Tancred.

'We are an insular people,' he answered, somewhat confusedly, but the perfectly-informed Keferinis came to the succour both of Tancred and of his sovereign.

'The English live in ships only during six months of the year, principally when they go to India, the rest entirely at their country houses.'

'Ships are required to take you to India?' said her Majesty.

Tancred bowed assent.

'Is your Queen about my age?'

'She was as young as your Majesty when she began to reign.'

'And how long has she reigned?'

'Some seven years or so.'

'Has she a castle?'

'Her Majesty generally resides in a very famous castle.'

'Very strong, I suppose?'

'Strong enough.'

'The Emir Bescheer remains at Stamboul?'

'He is now, I believe, at Brusa,' replied Fakredeen.

'Does he like Brusa?'

'Not as much at Stamboul.'

'Is Stamboul the largest city in the world?'

'I apprehend by no means,' said Fakredeen.

'What is larger?'

'London is larger, the great city of the English, from which the prince comes; Paris is also larger, but not so large as London.'

'How many persons are there in Stamboul?'

'More than half a million.'

'Have you seen Antakia (Antioch)?' the Queen inquired of Tancred.

'Not yet.'

'You have seen Beiroot?'

'I have.'

'Antakia is not nearly so great a place as Beiroot,' said the Queen; 'yet once Antakia was much larger than Stamboul; as large, perhaps, as your great city.'

'And far more beautiful than either,' said Tancred.

'Ah! you have heard of these things!' exclaimed the Queen, with much animation. 'Now tell me, why is Antakia no longer a great city, as great as Stamboul and the city of the English, and far more beautiful?'

'It is a question that might perplex the wise,' said Tancred.

'I am not wise,' said the Queen, looking earnestly at Tancred, 'yet I could solve it.'

'Would that your Majesty would deign to do so.'

'There are things to be said, and there are things not to be said,' was the reply, and the Queen looked at Keferinis.

'Her Majesty has expressed herself with infinite exactitude and with condescending propriety,' said the chief minister.

The Queen was silent for a moment, thoughtful, and then waved gracefully her hands; whereupon the chamber was immediately cleared. The princes, instructed by Keferinis, alone remained, with the exception of the minister, who, at the desire of his sovereign, now seated himself, but not on the divan. He sat opposite to the Queen on the floor.

'Princes,' said the Queen, 'you are welcome to Gindarics, where nobody ever comes. For we are people who wish neither to see nor to be seen. We are not like other people, nor do we envy other people. I wish not for the ships of the Queen of the English, and my subjects are content to live as their fathers lived before them. Our mountains are wild and barren; our vales require for their cultivation unceasing toil. We have no gold or silver, no jewels; neither have we silk. But we have some beautiful and consoling thoughts, and more than thoughts, which are shared by all of us and open to all of us, and which only we can value or comprehend. When Darkush, who dwells at Damascus, and was the servant of my father, sent to us the ever-faithful messenger, and said that there were princes who wished to confer with us, he knew well it was vain to send here men who would talk of the English and the Egyptians, of the Porte and of the nations of Fran-guestan. These things to us are like the rind of fruit. Neither do we care for cottons, nor for things which are sought for in the cities of the plains, and it may be, noble Emir, cherished also in the mountains of Lebanon. This is not Lebanon, but the mountains of the Ansarey, who are as they have ever been, before the name of Turk or English was known in Syria, and who will remain as they are, unless that happens which may never happen, but which is too beautiful not to believe may arrive. Therefore I speak to you with frankness, princes of strange countries: Dar-kush, the servant of my father, and also mine, told me, by the ever-faithful messenger, that it was not of these things, which are to us like water spilt on sand, that you wished to confer, but that there were things to be said which ought to be uttered. Therefore it is I sent back the faithful messenger, saying, "Send then these princes to Gindarics, since their talk is not of things which come and go, making a noise on the coast and in the cities of the plains, and then passing away." These we infinitely despise; but the words of truth uttered in the spirit of friendship will last, if they be grave, and on matters which authorise journeys made by princes to visit queens.'

Her Majesty ceased, and looked at Keferinis, who bowed profound approbation. Tancred and Fakre-deen, also exchanged glances, but the Emir waved his hand, signifying his wish that Tancred should reply, who, after a moment's hesitation, with an air of great deference, thus ventured to express himself:

'It seems to me and to my friend, the Prince of the Lebanon, that we have listened to the words of wisdom. They are in every respect just. We know not, ourselves, Darkush, but he was rightly informed when he apprised your Majesty that it was not upon ordinary topics, either political or commercial, that we desired to visit Gindarics. Nor was it out of such curiosity as animates travellers. For we are not travellers, but men who have a purpose which we wish to execute. The world, that, since its creation, has owned the spiritual supremacy of Asia, which