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It was Adsalis, the favourite Sultana, and behind her stood Elhaj Beshir, the Kizlar-Aga. Both of them knew there would be a peculiar spectacle, something well worth seeing in that chamber to-day. The curtains covering the doors of the Porcelain Chamber bulged out, and immediately afterwards two men entered.
Here the eyes of the father and the husband involuntarily filled with tears. "Wherefore do you weep? How silly of you! Why, you know, of course, it is only a tale. Listen now to how it goes on! The robber carried the maiden he had stolen to Stambul. He took her straight to the Kizlar-Aga whose office it is to purchase slave-girls for the harem of the Padishah. The bargaining did not take long.
Ibrahim perfectly comprehended what was said to him, and placing the cannon-ball in a box nicely lined with velvet took it to the Seraglio, and when he got there sent for the Kizlar-Aga, placed it in his hands, and commissioned him to deliver it to the Sultan. "The Army," said he, "has sent this present to the most glorious Padishah.
And now the Kizlar-Aga admitted the two dignitaries who had been waiting outside. The Chief Mufti entered first, and after him came the Grand Vizier, Damad Ibrahim. Both of them had long, flowing, snow-white beards and grave venerable faces. They bowed low before the Sultan, kissed the hem of his garment, and lay prostrate before him till he raised them up again.
At night the phantoms of darkness are let loose. You would not slay any living creature at night! Wait till the day dawns." The first ray of light had scarce appeared on the horizon when the Kizlar-Aga once more stood before the Sultan. "Master, the day is breaking." "Call hither the mufti and Sulali!" Both of them speedily appeared. "Convey death to those who are already doomed."
Here Irene was seized by a black eunuch a horrid, pockmarked man, whose upper lip was split right down so that all his teeth could be seen." "Just like the present Kizlar-Aga!" cried Musli laughing, "I fancy I can see him standing before me now!" "The Moor commanded Irene to fall on her face before the Sultana.
The Banner of Affliction ought never to have been exposed at all, we should have been slain there and then." "You three withdraw into the Chamber of the Executioners," said the Grand Vizier to his colleagues, "but wait for me till the Kizlar-Aga arrives to demand from me the seals of office, till then I must perform my official duties."
At the words of the Kizlar-Aga he removed his foot from the stirrup in which he had dreamily placed it with the help of the kneeling Rikiabdar, and said in the tone of a man who has at last made up his mind: "We will go to-morrow." Ibrahim was in despair at this fresh delay.
Damad Ibrahim pressed the writing to his forehead and his lips, and, after carefully reading it through, handed it back again, and taking from his finger the great seal of the Empire gave it to the Kizlar-Aga. "May he who comes after me be wiser and happier than I have been," said he. "Greet the Sultan from me once more.
At these words the features of Achmed grew still more gentle, still more radiant with smiles. He signified to the Khas-Oda-Bashi and the Kapu-Agasi that they should withdraw into another room, while he dispatched the Kizlar-Aga to bring in the Sultana Asseki. Adsalis, for so they called her, was a splendid damsel of Damascus. She had been lavishly endowed with every natural charm.
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