The following day Irene could not see this damsel anywhere,
and on inquiring after her was told by her bedfellow in a whisper that
she had been strangled during the night. And oftentimes at dead of night
the silence would be broken by a shriek from the secret dungeon of the
Seraglio, followed by the sound of something splashing into the water,
and regularly, on the day following every such occurrence, a familiar
face would be missing from the Seraglio. All these victims were
self-confident slave-girls, who had been unable to conceal their joy at
the Sultan's favours, and therefore had been cast into the water. Nobody
ever inquired about them any more."
Janaki shivered all over.
"It is well that this is all a tale," he observed.
But Guel-Bejaze only continued her story.
"At last the Feast of Bairam arrived, and throughout the day all the
cannons on the Bosphorus sent forth their thunders. In the evening the
Sultan came to the Seraglio weary and inclined to relaxation, and then
the Sultana Asseki took Irene by the hand and conducted her to the
Padishah, and presented her to him, together with gold-embroidered
garments, preserved fruits, and other gifts intended for his
delectation. The Grand Seignior regarded the girl tenderly, while she,
like a kid of the flocks offered to a lion in a cage, stood trembling
before him. But when the Sultan seized her hand to draw her towards him
she sighed: 'Blessed Virgin!'--and lo! at these words her face grew
pale, her eyes closed, and she fell to the ground as one dead.
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