She endeavoured to explain by way of pantomime, for
speaking was impossible, that she was there against her will, and it was
her dearest wish to humble herself before the face of the Sultana. It
was all of no use. The yells of the wild Bacchantes drowned every sound,
and Adsalis did not even condescend to look at her.
"Ye street-sweepings!" exclaimed Adsalis passionately, "what evil spirit
has entered into you that ye would thus compel the Sultana Asseki to
give way before a pale doll?"
"This woman comes before thee," replied the bayadere.
"Comes before me?" said Adsalis, "wherefore, then, does she come before
me?"
"Because she is fairer than thou."
Adsalis' face turned blood-red with rage at these words, while
Guel-Bejaze went as white as a lily, as if the other woman had robbed all
her colour from her. There was shame on one side and fury on the other.
To tell a haughty dame in the presence of ten, of twenty thousand
persons, that another woman is fairer than she!
"And she is more powerful than thou art," cried the enraged bayadere,
accumulating insult on the head of Adsalis, "for she is the wife of
Halil Patrona."
Adsalis, in the fury of despair, raised her clenched hands towards
Heaven and could not utter a word. Impotent rage forced the tears from
her eyes; and only after these tears could she stammer:
"This is the curse of Achmed!"
When they saw the tears in the eyes of the Sultana, everyone for a
moment was silent, and suddenly, amidst the stillness of that dumb
moment, from the highest window of the prison-fortress of the Seven
Towers, a man's voice called loudly into the square below:
"Sultana Adsalis! Sultana Adsalis!"
"Ha! a man! a man!" cried the furious mob; and in an instant they all
gazed in that direction--and then in a murmur which immediately died
away in an awe-struck whisper: "Achmed! Achmed!"
Only Adsalis was incapable of pronouncing that name, only her mouth
remained gaping open as she gazed upwards.
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