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"Abdullah, and you, my brave Ibrahim, and you, Kiaja," said he, addressing them with a friendly smile, "in an hour's time our four heads will not be worth an earless pitcher," whereupon Damad Ibrahim sadly bent his head, and whispered with a voice resembling a sob: "Poor, poor Sultan!" Then they all four accompanied Achmed to his ship.
"Next they demand that the Kiaja Aga be handed over to them." The Sultan cut off one of the tulips with his knife and handed it to the Kizlar-Aga. "There, take it!" said he. The Aga was astonished, but presently he understood and took the tulip. "Then they want the Kapudan Pasha." The Sultan cut off the handsomest of the tulips. "There you have it," said he.
He cast away the flowers from the second basket, there also was a bloody head. "And whose is that?" "That is the Kiaja Beg's," sobbed the terrified girl. And now Halil brought forward the third basket, and dashing aside from it the fresh flowers, revealed to the eyes of Gül-Bejáze a grey head with a white beard, which lay with closed eyes at the bottom of the basket.
Entreat him, also, for the Kiaja and the Kapudan; they shall not be surrendered until you return." Again Sulali sought out Halil. He durst not say a word concerning the Kiaja and the Kapudan. He knew that it was the Kapudan who had seized upon Halil's wife when she was attempting to escape by sea, and that it was the Kiaja who had had her shut up in the dungeon set apart for shameless women.
"And just tell your master, the Kiaja," said he, "and all your white-headed grand viziers and grey-bearded muftis, that if they do not bring the Sultan and the banner of the Prophet into camp this very day, not a single one of them will need a barber on the morrow, unless they would like their heels well shaved in default of heads." Pelivan meanwhile was looking steadily into Halil's eyes.
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!"
"Yes, in Abraham's bosom, I expect," murmured the Kiaja to himself as he raced away again, while the Kapudan Pasha ambled jauntily into the city. Already from afar he beheld the palace of the Reis-Effendi, on whose walls were inscribed in gigantic letters the following announcements: "Death to the Chief Mufti! "Death to the Grand Vizier! "Death to the Kapudan Pasha! "Death to the Kiaja Beg!"
After the usual kissing of hands, the nuptials were proceeded with, the Kiaja representing the bridegroom and the Kizlar-Aga the bride, and everyone received a present. Then came the bridal retinue with the bridal gifts, a hundred camels laden with flowers and fruits, and an elephant bearing gold and precious stones and veils meet for the land of the peris.
In the opinion of the former, while the negociations were still proceeding, the ringleaders of the rebellion were to be quietly disposed of one after the other, whereas the Sultana insinuated that the Sultan should appease the rebels by handing over to them the detested Kiaja and any of the other great officers of state whose heads the mob might take a fancy to.
Let the honourable Kiaja therefore gird up his loins, and let all those great lords who repose in the shadow of the Padishah draw their swords and come among us once for all.
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