United States or Denmark ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"And did you not go to the sheik and ulemas?" "The men of Praousta went themselves, and brought out the sheik and the ulemas, that they might speak decisively for all. We were to take their answer to the tschorbadji." "And they did this?" cried Mohammed, forgetting all proper reverence, and speaking to the men in the presence of the governor.
The young girls of that time have now become mothers, and sometimes tell their little ones of the Flower of Praousta and her death, as of a fairy tale of the olden time. It has become a fairy-tale, and has been written in verses which the fisher-boys sing when they go out upon the waves.
The slaves and servants saw the tschorbadji, supported by Mohammed, limp to the palanquin; Osman followed them with firm footstep, his head proudly erect. The people rejoiced in his stately appearance, and in the glittering uniform that became him so well. Osman was carried down to Praousta at his father's side.
With warlike music the company of soldiers from the nearest city marches into Praousta, in accordance with the command given by the governor to his captain. The men have been on the march all night, and now enter the village in the broad light of day, with their band playing. The military music rings out so loud and clear that the cries of lamentation are no longer heard.
The men of Praousta made no reply; they bowed their heads silently, and passed on, with clouded countenances, to the iron cage in which the governor's lion had once been confined, and where now stood the sheik and the ulemas, thus made wild beasts of; they, the best and wisest men of Praousta, the representatives of the people, made a public spectacle!
"The simple tax, Masa, amounts to one hundred sequins. Consider how heavy a burden this alone is. There are hardly fifty men of us living here in Praousta, and really it seems to us quite sufficient that each of us has two sequins to pay at the end of each summer. But to pay the double tax is simply impossible.
"Yes, they did this," returned the collectors, breathing hard. "What did they say!" demanded the tschorbadji, excitedly. "The sheik looked at us contemptuously, and ordered us to state to the tschorbadji that Praousta had no thought of paying either the double or the simple tax." "And the ulemas?" asked Osman, rising from his couch, "did they confirm what the sheik said?"
The ship presents a brilliant spectacle, and it may well be that the pacha is to embark this very evening. But no! Night sinks down, and all remains dark on board the ship, which casts a huge shadow across the waves. No, Cousrouf Pacha will certainly not embark this evening. The night is dark, and all is still in Praousta and on the sea-shore.
His heart was troubled, and his countenance sorrowful. He should not have permitted Mohammed Ali to go so far. How terrible it would be if this execution should really take place here in his courtyard, if the heads of the best men of Praousta should really fall to the ground!
He then shrieks, as if to make himself heard by the heavens and the earth, by the mountains and the sea: "My child is gone! Masa is not in her father's house, Masa is not at the mosque, and not on the beach! Where is my child?" He then swoons away. Djumeila now rushes down the street, and her cries of anguish resound through all Praousta. "Masa, the sheik's daughter, has disappeared!
Word Of The Day