CHAPTER II.
Although a slave, Lallcheen was possessed of considerable wealth, and his house would not have disgraced the dignity of a nobleman. On the day Gheias-ood-Deen had seen his slave’s daughter, he summoned the father to his presence.
“I have been considering thy services, Lallcheen, and shall reward them; from this moment thou art a free man.”
“I accept the royal boon with a bondman’s gratitude. But I marvel at this sudden change in the king’s sentiments.”
“Thou hast a daughter.”
“True.”
“For her sake, I recall my resolution of the morning, and give thee freedom; but thou must pay the price.”
“Name it; I am wealthy.”
“I only demand a single jewel.”
“If I possess it, the sovereign has only to signify his wish. What jewel does the king demand?”
“Thy daughter.”
“Ha! thy slave must feel the honour deeply; but will not the monarch of the Deccan be dishonoured by wedding a slave’s daughter?”
“Ay, in truth, he would, Lallcheen, if he were weak enough to wed a slave’s daughter; but of that he dreams not. If I give thee liberty, the lovely Agha must be mine upon my own terms.”
“King, I am your bondman, but not your pander. I despise liberty upon the terms you offer it. My child would scorn animpure alliance even with a mightier monarch than Gheias-ood-Deen. She has suitors of proud lineage, who woo her with honourable love.”
“Then my offer is refused? ’Tis well! the power that governs an empire is not to be slighted with impunity. You will repent this rash decision,—retire.”
Lallcheen did retire more than ever incensed against his royal master. He was stung deeply at the insult offered to his child, in the supposition that she would barter her purity for her father’s freedom. He felt himself, moreover, grievously wronged by his royal master harbouring the thought that he could be base enough to sell his daughter’s honour at any price. It was an injury neither to be forgiven nor forgotten. He quitted the royal presence with a throbbing heart and burning brow;—the blood had receded from his cheek and lips when he entered the apartment of his child. He found her singing an air in a voice that would have enchanted the nightingales of Cashmere, or drawn a tear of sympathy from the eye of a Peri. It was a strain of exquisite tenderness: the parent’s emotions were calmed at the sound of her celestial voice; but the blood returned not to those channels from which the silent struggles of passion had banished it.
“My father,” said Agha, as he entered; “why so pale?”
“I have been disturbed, my child, by the king.”
“How?”
“He would give me freedom.”
“Well, would not that be a blessed deliverance?”
“At the price of my child’s honour?”
Agha’s cheeks flushed,—they were overspread with an intense crimson. The blood seemed to ebb rapidly from her heart, which fluttered for a moment; but the reflux almost instantly came and poured in upon it a tide of womanly indignation. She continued silent, but the base proposals of one brother imparted by contrast in her thoughts a beautiful colouring to the honourable intentions of the other; and she was already half prepared to love Shums-ood-Deen, and detest his royal relative.
“Well, Agha, what answer shall I return to the master who honours his servant by loving that servant’s daughter?”
“Does my father require that I should frame an answer? Could not his own heart suggest it? My answer would be precisely such as I should return to a snake, were it to ask if I would permit it to sting me.”
“I have anticipated your feelings, my child, and given the sovereign no hopes. He threatens violence; his evil purposes, therefore, must be counteracted by artifice. You must feign acquiescence with his wishes. Having once hushed him into security, I will invite him to a banquet, under the promise of resigning you to his possession, and he shall then see that impunity is not the indefeasible right of kings.”
In obedience to this determination, Lallcheen affected to concur with his master’s views; but prevailed upon him on some plausible pretence to delay enforcing his claim to Agha for a few weeks, promising implicit obedience to his wishes at the end of a specified period.
Meanwhile Shums-ood-Deen had been daily admitted to the presence of Agha, upon whose young heart his generous affection had made a deep impression. She could not help contrasting his disinterested and honourable attachment with the selfish and debasing passion of his brother; and in proportion as her respect for the one declined, her love of the other increased. The father was gratified at witnessing this growing fondness; it roused his parental ambition: he was proud of his daughter, and longed to see her elevated to that distinction which he considered her born to adorn. Shums-ood-Deen was heir apparent to the throne of the Deccan. He might reign, and the beautiful Agha become a queen. These thoughts roused her father’s soul and stirred his passions to fiercer hostility against his royal master, who, as he considered, had so deeply injured him. Though the king was popular among his nobles, yet by some he was much disliked, and those who were hostile to the claims of the elder brother would willingly encourage the elevation of the younger.
Lallcheen took every opportunity which offered of making himself acquainted with the feelings of the nobles. Those who had not been raised to posts of honour and emolument in the state, were dissatisfied and ripe for a change of government; but were kept in awe by the large majority of the well-affected. The sovereign fancying himself secure in the affection of his subjects, took no care to subdue the murmurings of such as he considered unworthy of the royal patronage; he had, therefore, a greater number of enemies than he was aware of.
Lallcheen’s plot rapidly advanced towards maturity, and he at length invited the king to an entertainment, promising that he would resign his daughter to him. Gheias-ood-Deen received the invitation with a thrill of passionate satisfaction. Agha not being privy to her father’s treachery, he had taken care on that day to remove her from the house on some plausible pretence, in order that she might not interfere with the execution of his scheme. It had been already arranged that she and the king’s brother should be married at the beginning of the ensuing year.
With Gheias-ood-Deen were also invited his chief Omrahs, who were all much attached to his person. At an early hour the royal party arrived, and were welcomed by the slave with extravagant marks of loyalty. The nobles, astonished at the splendour of the entertainment, freely expressed their surprise that a bondman should possess so much wealth.
“Wealth,” said Lallcheen, “will not purchase freedom, if it does not please the monarch to grant it.”
“What can compensate for the sacrifice of honest services?” said Gheias-ood-Deen, with a condescending smile; “I value them more, Lallcheen, than your gold.”
“But not more than my daughter, king,” said the slave, significantly.
“No, no; all things have their price. I set your ransom high; you will, therefore, value your freedom according to the price paid for it.”
The guests placed themselves at the banquet. Every luxury which the country produced was there in generous profusion.The rarest wines sparkled in golden chalices, and freemen waited upon the guests of the slave. The wine went round, and the king anticipating the joy of being presented to the beautiful Agha, drank liberally of the enlivening beverage. He began to be exhilarated.
Nautch girls were introduced to heighten the pleasures of the entertainment: they swam through the mazes of the dance with a light, floating motion, tinkling the silver bells which hung from their delicately small wrists and ankles, waving their arms with a graceful undulation that gave exquisite elegance to the curving motions of their bodies; every now and then throwing their long veils over their faces, and peeping through them with eyes that might have kindled a ray of admiration even under the tub of Diogenes.
The guests began to express their delight by loud acclamations, and it had already become evident that the sovereign was considerably elated by the wine he had taken. Lallcheen had been cautious in keeping himself perfectly calm. He drank but sparingly, and was therefore in a condition to take the best advantage of the state of his guests. When he considered the favourable moment had arrived for the consummation of his vengeance, he commanded the nautch girls to retire, and then in a whisper requested the king would order his nobles to withdraw, that his obedient host might introduce his daughter.
Gheias-ood-Deen, elated at the thought of beholding the beautiful creature who had so inflamed his passions, commanded his Omrahs to quit the room, as he desired to have some private conversation with the host. Excited by wine, and unsuspicious of evil consequences, they obeyed with ready alacrity, singing as they reeled from the apartment, and laughing stupidly at the fatuity of their own thoughts. When the guests had retired, the traitor led his sovereign respectfully to an ottoman, seated him, and began to arrest his attention by extravagant encomiums upon the beauty of his daughter. Gheias-ood-Deen listened with evident delight, and at length expressed himself impatient to be introduced to the idol of his love. Lallcheen perceiving that he was raisedto the proper pitch, told him he would instantly go and bring the peerless Agha to his royal master and guest. Quitting the room, he shortly returned, armed with a naked dagger.
“Where is your daughter?” asked the king.
“Here,” replied the slave, raising the dagger, and advancing towards his sovereign with the gleaming instrument of death in his hand.
Gheias-ood-Deen, though much intoxicated, staggered towards the traitor, and attempted to wrest the weapon from his grasp; but being unable to walk steadily, he fell, and rolled down a flight of steps. A eunuch was in the room, who, seizing the king by his hair, threw him upon his back, and pierced out his eyes with the point of a crease.
Lallcheen, perceiving that he had now gone too far to retreat, removed the wounded monarch to another apartment, and immediately despatched a messenger to the nobles who had that night been his guests, desiring in the king’s name that they would immediately return. The message was delivered to each noble separately, so that one by one they reached the slave’s residence. As the first who arrived entered the chamber where he had so lately partaken of Lallcheen’s hospitality, he was put to death by two eunuchs, who flung a noose over his head and strangled him. Thus the whole of them were destroyed to the number of twenty-four, and their bodies cast forth a prey to jackals.
On the morrow, when Agha returned to her home, she was shocked beyond expression at the sanguinary revenge which her father had taken. Her heart was chilled: she felt that she never could again look upon her parent with respect, and the fond yearnings of her bosom grew cold. She reproached him with his cruelty, but he silenced her with a stern rebuke. The disaffected Omrahs thronged to his house, prepared to assist him in his future views with respect to the government. The daring act of blinding the king and slaying his nobles, had produced a general panic. The people looked on in silent amazement; when Lallcheen, thinking it was high time to act definitively, placed Shums-ood-Deen, the deposed king’s brother, upon the throne, and sent the latter in confinement to the fortress of Sagur.