Ahmed Ben Hassan

“ To be the son and heir of Ahmed Ben Hassan seemed to him to be the highest pinnacle that any man's ambition could reach. He was perfectly indifferent to the flattery and attention that his money and his good looks brought him. My father entertained very largely and Ahmed became the fashion—'Le bel Arabe' he was called, and he enjoyed a succes fou which bored him to extinction—and at the end of the year, having written to the Sheik for permission to go home, he shook the dust of Paris off his feet and went back to the desert. ”

“ The smallness of their numbers was a source of pleasure rather than otherwise; if they won through to them would be the glory of victory; if they were annihilated with them would rest the honour of dying with the leader whom they worshipped, for not one of them doubted that Ahmed Ben Hassan would not survive his bodyguard, the flower of his tribe, the carefully chosen men from whose ranks his personal escort was always drawn. ”

“ Was it the nearness of his hereditary enemy, who had presumed to come closer than he had ever done before to the border of the country that Ahmed Ben Hassan regarded as his own, that was causing this great unrest? He laughed contemptuously. Nothing would give him greater pleasure than coming into actual collision with the man whom he had been trained from boyhood to hate. ”

“ Not a knife had been thrown—so far.
"Did we catch him?"
"So, my young charmer, your mission in life is to lure men into lonely ruins—to be robbed and tortured!"
"I may not be the first victim—but, by Allah, I shall be the one you'll remember!"
"An eye for an eye—a hate for a hate—that is the law of my father!"
"I hate you! I hate you!"
"Your gang will not collect from me this time. For once your kisses are free!"
The desert villa of Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan—young Ahmed's famous father. ”

“ At a signal from me you will come out; we will then seize them and deliver them over to the Pasha, to be punished as he sees fit.”
“With all my heart,” said Ahmed. “On my head be it; and, Inshallah! that squinting rogue’s feet will get a lesson that will mend his morals.”
On the following morning Hassan’s plan was carried out with complete success, and scarcely had Ahmed Aga ensconced himself in the curtained recess of Hassan’s office than the nazir entered, accompanied by the Sheik-el-Beled. ”

“ The sudden effort made by Hassan to recover his composure was not entirely successful; besides, he was too natural to feign with his friend a gaiety that he did not feel, so he replied—
“In truth, Ahmed, I was thinking of this poor animal’s former master, the Sammalous: she looks in vain for his return, and pricks her ears at every approaching footstep. Who knows what other loving hearts in the tents are also waiting in vain for that returning footstep?” ”

“ Hassan stepped forward, and having placed the edge of the Pasha’s pelisse to his forehead in token of acknowledgment, retired from the room.
“I like that young giant,” said Delì Pasha to himself as Hassan withdrew. “His manners are so quiet and his face so prepossessing; but there is the devil in his eye when his blood is roused, as I saw this morning.”
Hassan was no sooner alone than he remembered the letter given him by his old friend Mohammed Aga, in Alexandria, to Ahmed Aga, Delì Pasha’s master of the horse, and hearing that he had gone to the stables, followed and rejoined him. ”

“ He says that no one can make it so well as I do.” So saying, she bounded away to give the requisite orders to her slaves.
Meanwhile Hassan, aided by his new friend Ahmed Aga, had found a vacant room on the second floor, which was appropriated to his use, and his box and saddle-bags were transported thither. As he might, in his new capacity of khaznadâr, be called upon to take charge of sums of money belonging to Delì Pasha, he desired that a strong lock might be put on the door, of which he proposed to keep the key about his person. ”

“ Another of the earliest and most frequent of Hassan’s visitors was his old friend Ahmed Aga, who brought him many kind messages from Delì Pasha, although the latter had been forbidden by the Viceroy for the present to visit Hassan in person. Neither did our hero long remain without secret communication with his lady-love; for he had not been two days in Cairo ere the bowàb sent up word that a dumb boy wished to see him, and Murad rushed into the room and kissed Hassan’s feet and hands with every demonstration of overflowing attachment. ”

“ Suddenly a faint cry from the water reached the ear of Hassan, and turning his eyes in the direction whence it came, he thought he descried something like drapery hurried along by the current about fifty yards from the shore.
Quick as thought he sprang from his horse, cast his cloak on the ground, threw his pistols on it, and crying to Ahmed, “Wallah! there is a woman or child drowning,” plunged head-foremost into the dark and boiling waters.
Ahmed Aga, who had seen no object in the water and heard no cry, thought that his young friend must be mad. ”

“ Are you sure if the match is to be the day after to-morrow?”
“Yes; I was told so as I came in by Ahmed the mirakhor. I hope that some of those brought by the Kiahia will be strong and skilful, so as to make head against that tyrannical, ill-natured Osman Bey, our Pasha’s wakeel. Here we have no one who can contend with him. I dislike him,” added the old eunuch, “but, to say the truth, I have not seen his match at the jereed.”
“Will not the young stranger whom you spoke of?” said Amina, hesitating to mention the name.
“Hassan?” said Mansour. ”

“ And having retained only a few Mamelukes for the service of his wardrobe and chibouq, he desired his own boats to go forward as originally designed, placing the kateb-es-serr, or chief secretary (a quiet, respectable, and elderly Turk) , in charge of the leading dahabiah, and in command of those whom she contained. To Ahmed Aga and Hassan he said, “I know that I can trust my boats and harem to your vigilance at night; there are many thieves in Upper Egypt, so you must not indulge in more than a hare’s sleep.” ”

“ She has 257been long in our house, and we know her discretion.”
“I wished to say,” replied Hassan, “that your mirakhor, Ahmed Aga, is a true and faithful servant of your lordship, and he is a true and good friend of mine: it is his right and privilege to convey to the Viceroy any horse presented by your lordship. On such occasions you know that his Highness gives a liberal present to the bearer. Were you to send me with the horse, it would be an unjust slight to a faithful servant, and would give me the pain of supplanting a friend.” ”

“ She could not understand the cause of this melancholy, for his lost sword had been recovered, the young Mameluke Kasem had been liberated by his order, and Mohammed Ali had shown his regard for him and his appreciation of the Arab mare Nebleh by sending an officer specially to inquire after his health, and to present him with a diamond ring on the part of his Highness, accompanied by a handsome sword for Ahmed Aga and a cashmere shawl for Hassan. ”

“ Not I. It is better to slip with the foot than with the tongue."
"He is blind," said Sidi ben Abdallah, the magistrate.
"The greater his happiness!" cynically suggested the green-turbaned priest of the Mosque of Swords.
Thus they reasoned. Besides they were a clannish race, and until the end of the chapter, for all his wealth, for all his carefully acquired Moorish speech and manners, Hassan was to them still the nomad, the outsider, while they were men of Fez, bred close to its tame, warm conveniences and coiling intrigues, with one tongue for their friends and one for their enemies. ”

“ Scarcely was he out of sight ere Mohammed Ali muttered between his hard-set teeth, “Dog! hyena! serpent! Inshallah! to-morrow he shall see and feel how traitors are punished! Hakim-Bashi, you are a learned man, and read many books: I never read anything but men’s faces, and, Mashallah! I rarely read them amiss. I have long had my eye mistrustfully on this scoundrel: look from his false and malignant countenance to the open face and clear bold eye of Hassan; why, man, there is truth written there as plainly as in the Fat’hah. ”

“ During this time Abou-Hamedi and Abd-hoo stood beside their leader, pistol in hand, and ready to spend the last drop of their blood in saving or avenging him.
Hassan took advantage of the brief pause to say to Emily, who still stood trembling near her bound father, “Sit down, sit down, lady, beside your father; pistol-balls may be flying in a moment, and a stray one might strike you. It is only my life now that they seek; and if I fall, tell them in Cairo that Hassan’s death redeemed the last year of his life.” ”

“ We were of the party whom you treated so well when we were in your power, and when you sent back Osman Bey to Siout on a donkey.”
“I believe, comrades,” he replied, “that on that day I maltreated none excepting Osman Bey, and he had deserved it at my hands.”
“He was a brute,” said the first speaker, lowering his voice; “but Ali Bey, our present chief, is better: he always takes our part against those who rob and injure us.”
“Who are they who rob and injure you?” inquired Hassan.
“Why, Mohammed Ali, to be sure, and his rascally Paymaster-General.” ”

“ Is he not a dog of an infidel?”
“There is no God but Allah, and Mahomet is his prophet,” said Hassan. “Those who are ignorant of the truth are to be pitied; but our lord (Mohammed Ali) has made friends with these Franks. They buy and sell here in peace, and it is not right to strike or insult them without cause in our streets.”
“And who are you, youngster, who dare to preach to me?” said the athlete contemptuously. “Are you perhaps a sheik, or a mollah, or a kâdi?” ”

“ You did not know, what Abou-Hashem knew, that these dahabiahs belonged to my friends—that I had eaten from their table and shared their salt! When all the provinces of Egypt are open to our swift horses and our sharpened steel, could you, brave warriors of the desert, find no more honourable foray than to attack defenceless strangers, and those, too, the friends of your leader? If such be your mind, I know you no more. Go and choose another leader from among 364thieves and moharrabin, [109] for Hassan will no longer be your chief. ”

“ The Easterns have a proverbial saying, that Fortune when serving Vice rides on an Arab horse, and when serving Virtue rides on a camel,—the moral being that she is generally swift to aid the vicious in their undertakings, whilst she is more slow, though more sure and steady, in aiding those of the virtuous. In illustration whereof it fell out that on the following morning Hassan rose early, and strolled in a musing mood on the road which led along the bank of the river to Boulak: he did not observe that he was followed by two persons at a little distance, an old woman and a man. ”

“ I am ready.”
“He will not seek a quarrel with you,” said Delì Pasha, smiling at Hassan’s simplicity. “Have you heard of calumny and slander? Have you heard of poison in a cup of coffee? Have you heard of stabbing in the dark? These are the weapons that great men in Egypt use when they wish to get rid of one whom they hate.”
“I fear him not,” repeated Hassan with the same frank boldness. “My life is in the hand of Allah, and neither Osman Bey nor any other 164man can take it until the predestined day arrives. ”

“ Hashú, name of a Nosk of the Zand-Avesta, I. 274. Hassan al Basri, a short account of him, II. 389 and n. 1; III. 18 n. 2. Hassen ben Hassáin ben Ali ben Abi akil, eminent in scholastic theology, II. 378. Hassan, son of Sábáh, a deputy of the Imám, author of a book—abstract of it, II. 411, 417 —his lineage, 423, 424 n. 1. —comes to Nishapur, 426. —his favor and disgrace at court, 427, 429. —his travels, 429. —goes to Egypt, 430. —favor and disgrace there—goes to Syria, 430, 431. —travels, spreads his doctrine, gains the fort Alamut, 432, 433. ”

“ We part as friends, I hope?”
“Mashallah! your hand is always open,” shouted the freebooters, ashamed of their late conduct. “Stay with us, and be still our leader; we will never disobey you again.”
369“It cannot be,” said Hassan; “my destiny compels me to go to Cairo, where certain death would await you all, and where it is not unlikely to await me also: but what is written must come to pass—there is neither power nor strength but in Allah. Abd-hoo, bring me my horse. Farewell, comrades; may happiness attend your path.” ”

“ Our hero was just receiving the congratulations of his father and Delì Pasha when he was directed to reappear immediately in Mohammed Ali’s presence. On entering the room the Viceroy said to him—
“When you captured the conspirators, did you learn anything certain of their numbers or associates without? Wallah! I forgot myself, or I 444would have ordered the scoundrels to be tortured to make them tell before their heads were cut off.”
“Men under torture,” said Hassan, “often tell falsehoods to gratify spite and revenge ”

“ A bright gleam shot from the eyes of Mohammed Ali as he replied—
“You are a brave youth, Hassan, and all shall be done as you desire. Go in with the hakim to his room, prepare the letters, and despatch your messenger. Allah be with you.”
Hassan retired, and in a short time Abou-Hamedi 421was despatched with the letters and full verbal instructions. An hour later our hero was arrested and sent into the Esbekiah Palace under a strong guard, and the news was spread all over Cairo that Hassan Ebn-el-Heràm was to be tried and judged on the following day. ”