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Suffer me but gently to crouch beside thee, dispense but thy love to me, and keep thy glory to thyself." Halil tenderly embraced and kissed the woman, and buried the three baskets as she desired in the palace garden beneath three wide-spreading rosemary bushes.
And as he, pursuing his way home, passed by the Tsiragan Palace, and there encountered riding past him the Padishah, Sultan Achmed III., accompanied by the Grand Vizier, Ibrahim Damad, the Kiaja Beg, the Kapudan Pasha, and the chief Imam, Ispirizade; and as he humbly bowed his head in the dust before them, it seemed to him as if something at the bottom of his heart whispered to him: "The time will come when the whole lot of you will bow your heads before me in the dust just as I, Halil Patrona, the pedlar, do obeisance to you now, ye lords of the Empire and the Universe!"
And with these words he waved his hand defiantly in the direction of the viziers and the magnates. Deep silence fell upon them. Through the closed doors resounded the tempestuous roar of the multitudes assembled around the Seraglio. Those within it trembled, and Halil Patrona stood there among them like an enchanter who knows that he is invulnerable, immortal.
Halil straightway ran home, clambered up to the roof by means of the rope-ladder, found both the letter and the money under the carpet, rejoiced greatly that they had not been stolen during his absence, and thrusting them both into his satchel of reeds without even taking the trouble to look at them, hastened off to the bazaar with them, where there was an acquaintance of his, a certain money-changer, who knew all about every man in Stambul, in order that he might find out from him where dwelt the man to whom the letter entrusted to him by the stranger was addressed.
I pray you, therefore, go back to your house, take this letter together with the purse, and hand them both over to the person to whom they are addressed and God bless you for it!" Halil at once turned round to obey this fresh request as quickly as possible. "Give also the money to him to whom it belongs!" said the Greek.
You know that no wild beast is savage when once it has been well fed." The Sultan pretended not to hear these words. He did not even look up when the Kapudan spoke. "Seek out Halil Patrona!" he said to the Chaszeki Aga, "and greet him in the name of the Padishah!" What! Greet Halil Patrona in the name of the Padishah!
He knew very well that such a threat as this never arose in the breast of Achmed. His gentle soul was incapable of such a thing. So he folded his arms across his breast and smiled. Then the chief imam fell down in the dust before him, and said in a humble voice: "Listen not, O Halil, to the words of my companion. The Padishah humbly implores you for his life and the lives of his children."
And now Halil held the warm, smooth little hand in his own big paw, he felt its reassuring pressure, he saw the girl smile, he saw her lips open to return his kiss, and still he did not believe his eyes still he shuddered at the reflection that when his lips should touch hers, the girl would suddenly die away, become pale and cold.
The insurgent mob, moreover, promised to disperse under two conditions: a complete amnesty for past offences, and permission to retain two of their banners that they might be able to assemble together again in case anything was undertaken against them. Their requests were all granted. Halil Patrona, too, was honoured by being made one of the privy councillors of the Divan.
"When thou art quite awake," said Halil, rapturously gazing at the fair face of the girl who was sleeping in his arms and he continued turning over the leaves of the book. And what then was in it? What did those brightly coloured letters contain? What was the name of the book? That book is the "Takimi Vekai."