SCENE VI

 

 

The palace at Bassora.
Alzayni, Salar.

ALZAYNI

So it is written here. Hot interchange
And high defiance have already passed
Between our Caliph and the daring Roman.
Europe and Asia are at grips once more.
To inspect the southward armies unawares
Haroun himself is coming.

SALAR

Alfazzal then
Returns to us, unless the European,
After their barbarous fashion, seize on him.

ALZAYNI

'Tis strange, he sends no tidings of the motion
I made to Egypt.

SALAR

'Tis too dangerous
To write of, as indeed 'twas ill-advised
To make the approach.

ALZAYNI

Great dangers justify
The smaller. Caliph Alrasheed conceives
On trifling counts a dumb displeasure towards me
Which any day may speak; 'tis whispered of
In Bagdad. Alkhasib, the Egyptian Vizier,
Is in like plight. It is mere policy,
Salar, to build out of a common peril
A common safety.

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SALAR

Haroun al Rasheed
Could break each one of you between two fingers,
Stretching his left arm out to Bassora,
His right to Egypt. Sultan, wilt thou strive
Against the single giant of the world ?

ALZAYNI

Giants are mortal, friend, be but our swords
As bold as sharp. Call Murad here to me.

Exit Solar.

My state is desperate, if Haroun lives;

He's sudden and deadly, when his anger bursts.
But let me be more sudden, yet more deadly.

Enter Murad.

Murad, the time draws near. The Caliph comes
To Bassora; let him not thence return.

MURAD

My blade is sharp and what I do is sudden.

ALZAYNI

My gallant Turk! Thou shalt rise high, believe it.
For I need men like thee.

MURAD (to himself)

But Kings like thee
Earth needs not.

VOICE WITHOUT

Justice! Justice! Justice, King!
King of the Age, I am a man much wronged.

ALZAYNI

Who cries beneath my window? Chamberlain!

Enter Sunjar.

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SUNJAR

An Arab daubed with mud and dirt, all battered,
Unrecognizable, with broken lips cries out
For justice.

ALZAYNI

Bring him here.

Exit Sunjar.

It is some brawl.

Enter Sunjar with Almuene.

Thou, Vizier! Who has done this thing to thee?

ALMUENE

Mahomed, son of Suleyman! Sultan

Alzayni! Abbasside! how shalt thou long

Have friends, if the King's enemies may slay

In daylight, here, in open Bassora

The King's best friends because they love the King?

ALZAYNI

Name them at once and choose their punishment.

ALMUENE

Alfazzal's son, that brutal profligate,
Has done this.

MURAD

Nureddene!

ALZAYNI

Upon what quarrel?

ALMUENE

A year ago Alfazzal bought a slave-girl
With the King's money for the King, a gem
Of beauty, learning, mind, fit for a Caliph.
But seeing the open flower he thought perhaps

Page – 667

Your royal nose too base to smell at it,
So gave her to his royaller darling son
To soil and rumple. No man with a neck
Dared tell you of it, such your faith was in him.

ALZAYNI

Is't so ? our loved and trusted Ibn Sawy!

ALMUENE

This profligate squandering away his wealth

Brought her to market; there I saw her and bid

Her fair full price. Whereat he stormed at me

With words unholy; yet I answered mild,

"My son, not for myself, but the King's service

I need her." He with bold and furious looks,

"Dog, Vizier of a dog, I void on thee

And on thy Sultan." With which blasphemy

He seized me, rolled in the mire, battered with blows,

Kicks, pullings of the beard, then dragged me back

And flung me at his slave-girl's feet, who, proud

Of her bold lover, footed my grey head

Repeatedly and laughed, "This for thy King,

Thy dingy stingy King who with so little

Would buy a slave-girl sole in all the world".

SUNJAR

Great Hasheem's vein cords all the Sultan's forehead.

MURAD

The dog has murdered both of them with his.

ALZAYNI

Now by the Prophet, my forefather! Out,
Murad! drag here the fellow and his girl,
Trail them with ropes tied to their bleeding heels,
Their faces in the mire, with pinioned hands
Behind their backs, into my presence here.

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Sack Sawy's mansion, raze it to the ground.
What, am I grown so bare that by-lane dogs
Like these so loudly bay at me ? They die!

MURAD

Sultan,—

ALZAYNI

He's doomed who speaks a word for them.

Exit.

ALMUENE

Brother-in-law Murad, fetch your handsome brother.
Soon, lest the Sultan hear of it!

MURAD

Vizier,
I know my duty. Know your own and do it.

ALMUENE

I'll wash, then forth in holiday attire
To see that pretty sport.

Exit.

SUNJAR

What will you do ?

MURAD

Sunjar, a something swift and desperate.
I will not let them die.

SUNJAR

Run not on danger.
I'll send a runner hotfoot to their house
To warn them.

Exit Sunjar.

Page – 669

MURAD

Do so. What will Doonya say
When she hears this ? How will her laughing eyes
Be clouded and brim over! Till Haroun comes!

Exit.

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