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Updated: May 25, 2025
Halil Patrona gratefully pressed the Janissary's hand. He knew right well that he spoke from no desire of glorification, he knew that Musli only wanted to go instead of him because it was very possible that the bearer of these demands might be beheaded.
Behind him came radiant knightly viziers and nobles, and venerable councillors in splendid apparel on gorgeous full bloods; but in front of him walked two men alone, Halil Patrona and Musli, both in plain, simple garments, with naked calves, on their heads small round turbans, and with drawn swords in their hands as is the wont of the common Janissaries when on the march.
"Allah give his blessing to the rulers of this world." Thus ran the message of the "Takimi Vekai." Halil Patrona had read these lines over and over again until he knew every letter of them by heart. They were continually in his thoughts, in his dreams, and the eternally recurring tumult of these anxious bodings allowed his soul no rest. What if it were possible to falsify this prophecy!
Suddenly one of these street dancing-girls scream aloud to her companions in the midst of the mazy dance, bringing them suddenly to a standstill. "Look, look!" she cried, "there comes Gül-Bejáze! Gül-Bejáze, the wife of Halil Patrona." "Gül-Bejáze! Gül-Bejáze!" resound suddenly on every side.
So it was a well-prepared trap into which Halil and his associates were to fall, and they had not the slightest suspicion of the danger that was hanging over their heads. The Grand Vizier sat in the centre of the councillors, beside him on his right hand sat Kaplan Giraj, while the place of honour on his left was reserved for Halil Patrona.
Janaki peeped through a chink in the roof, and observed how vigorously Halil Patrona performed his ablutions, and how next he went through his devotions with even greater conscientiousness than his ablutions, whereupon he produced a round trough, turned it upside down, laid it upon the rush-mat, placed his head upon the trough, and folding his arms across his breast, peacefully went to sleep in the Prophet.
"Halil Patrona!" answered the public crier, "it will be all the better for my tongue and your ears if I do not answer that question. I simply do what I have been told to do. I unveil this odalisk, I proclaim what she can do, to what use she can be put. I neither belittle her nor do I exalt her. I advise nobody to buy her and I advise nobody not to buy her.
"Thou seest the sun rising up yonder behind the hills?" "Yes, my master." "Before the shadows return to the side of yon hills take care to be well behind them, and let not another dawn find thee in this city!" The boatman bent low with his arms folded across his breast, then he disappeared in his skiff. But Halil Patrona hastened into the mosque. The Sultan's ambassadors were awaiting him.
These words, uttered in a ringing, sonorous voice, were accompanied by thunders of applause from the whole regiment, and during this tumult Musli endeavoured to add a couple of words on his own account to the message already delivered by Patrona.
This crazy counsel instantly met with general applause. Everyone approved of it, of that there could be no doubt. Halil Patrona regarded them all in contemptuous silence. Only when "crazy" Ibrahim's proposal had been resolved upon did he stand up and say: "I myself will go to the Seraglio." Some of them regarded him with amazement, others laughed.
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