1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

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A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
shall be dragged or force in any way, from my house. You understand
me?”
“You did not force her from the prison, did you?” the old man asked,
with a sneer.
“I chose her and she came. I do not say she did not weep. They all wept
loudly, and bewailed their fate, but there was no sort of force used.
And now I come to think of it, I remember that Gul Begum came less
unwillingly than the rest, and that though there was something defiant
in her carriage she walked straight and briskly, and required no
hurrying at all.”
“She fancied you dark skin, perhaps,” the holy man said, sneeringly.
The Chief Secretary was not annoyed at the allusion to his dark skin;
he was a Rajput, and proud of his ancient race and lineage. His skin
was his birthright, had been the birthright of a hundred generations of
his ancestors. He had no cause for shame.
“Some girls like dark men, some fair,” he said, indifferently. “We shall
see which Gul Begum will choose,” and as he spoke he rose. The Mir
rose too.
“Nay,” said the other,” but I will fetch her.”
“That you shall not,” the elder man replied. “We will have fair play.
The girl shall be brought here, and here she shall decide whether she
will sta y with you, to be your slave, your surati – with you, who are
not of her colour, not of her race.”
“Are you then of her race – a Hazara?” the Chief Secretar y asked,
amused. He had quite recovered his temper.
The rival candidate paid no heed to the interruption, and continued.
“Or whether she will prefer to be taken in honourable marriage b y me,
who have no other wife, and no child living in the house with me, and
who am, moreover, a man chosen by God as His special servant and an
expounder of His religion, and who devote myself to the service of my
Creator, instead of to the service of a mere earthly king.”
“I quite agree to that,” the Chief Secretary replied; “you shall have
quite fair pla y and ever y chance. Ali Hakimgee, do me a favour,” he
continued, addressing the little man who had left the room at the
commencement of the discussion and who now returned and was
preparing to re-seat himself in the corner.
“Bally ( yes), Sahib; in what way can I be of service to you ?” he said,
straightening his knees and standing to the full of the small height that
Providence had given him.