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Updated: May 31, 2025
Then Ben Aboo sank back on to his seat as one that was speechless, and nothing had the crimson on his body availed him, or the silver on his breast, against that simple man in camel-skin, who owned nothing and asked nothing, and feared neither Kaid nor King.
Israel covered his face and groaned in his heart, and said, "It is the end, O Lord God, it is the end polluted wretch that I am, with the blood of these people upon me!" The companions of Absalam delivered themselves to the soldiers, who committed them to the prison at Shawan, and Ben Aboo went home in content.
There was just one man in the town who found no offence in either form of warfare. The more wicked the one and the more outrageous the other, the better for his person. It was the Governor of Tetuan. His name was El Arby, but he was known as Ben Aboo, the son of his father. That father had been none other than the late Sultan.
At the gate of the Kasbah he demanded to see the Kaid, and, after various parleyings with the guards and negroes who haunted the winding ways of the gloomy place, he was introduced to the Basha's presence. The Basha received him in a room so dark that he could but dimly see his face. Ben Aboo was stretched on a carpet, in much the position of a dog with his muzzle on his forepaws.
"The people are poor, Lord Basha," said Israel; "they are famishing, and they have no refuge save with God and with us." "Tut!" cried Ben Aboo. "A famine in my bashalic! Let no man dare to say so. The whining dogs are preying upon your simpleness, mistress Israel. You poor old grandmother!
"This madness is spreading," said Ben Aboo. "Yes," said Katrina; "and if all men follow where these men lead, who will supply the tables of Kaids and Sultans?" "What can I do with them?" said Ben Aboo. "Eat them up," said Katrina. Ben Aboo proceeded to put a literal interpretation upon his wife's counsel.
The Arabian historian El Makary gives a full account of the military precautions taken by Aboo Abdallah to defend his city; but as I do not wish to make a parade of my learning, or to write a costume novel, I shall pretermit any description of the city under its Moorish governors.
This in the Spanish tongue, and then in the tongue of his own country Ben Aboo heard the guttural shouts of his own people: "Sidi, try the palace." "Try the apartments of his women, Sidi." "Abd er-Rahman's gone, but Ben Aboo's hiding." "Death to the tyrant!" "Down with the Basha!" "Ben Aboo! Ben Aboo!" Last of all a terrific voice demanding silence. "Silence, you shrieking hell-babies, silence!"
He rose to his feet in his anger, and cried, "Prophet, you have destroyed yourself. Listen to me! The turbulent dogs you plead for shall lie in their prison until they perish of hunger and rot of their sores. By the beard of my father, I swear it!" Mohammed did not flinch. Throwing back his head, he answered, "If I am a prophet, O Ben Aboo hear me prophesy.
So shall there be mourning at my burial Holy Saints! Holy Saints! mourning, I say, among them that look for joy at my death." Thus in a quaking voice, sometimes whispering, and again breaking into loud exclamations, Ben Aboo in his terror poured his broken words into Israel's ear. Israel made no answer. His eyes had become dim he scarcely saw the walls of the place wherein they stood.
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