1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

207
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
enemies have found opportunities to belittle me in the e yes of our
master.”
“Ah,” gasped the soldier anxiously, “that is bad, we had heard
something of it here, but we could not credit it. You who have alwa ys
been so high in his esteem! How could such a thing be?”
“This has been but a trifle, and hardly worth mentioning,” the official
replied quietly, as he sipped his tea, his servant peeling one hard
boiled egg after another, and placing them before him on the bread
which also formed his plate. “But I have not been so well in health of
late” (“May God cure you,” murmured the soldier fervently), “and
these troubles, instead of stirring me up to meet my enemies boldly,
have only made me feel more anxious to keep in my house, so that
these rogues have been left free to brew such plots as the y chose to
make undisturbed. The consequence is, that this ver y day I have had to
answer a most serious charge before the Ameer. Of course I was
innocent, and the Ameer in his heart never dreamt that I was otherwise,
but he felt he ought to try me as he would try and other man, to prove
to his people that he is just, and listens to complaints against the
highest as attentively as he does to those against the lowest.”
“Cursed be the fathers of these, your accusers,” the soldier murmured
again, but grasping his rifle a little more tightl y. The Chief Secretar y
was a great man, of course, and had been a good friend to the soldiers,
but if the Ameer were displeased with him, and he was tr ying to escape
justice, it was his business as a soldier to see that his plans were
frustrated. He was bu t a poor man, earning about eight shillings a
month, but his life was still worth something to him, and he did not
feel inclined to risk it in any one’s cause.
“Well,” continued the official, noting the slight movement in his
companion and understanding it perfectly, “I had recourse, as I alwa ys
do in all my troubles, to my God, and I made a vow that if He would
deliver me from my enemies, and would show the Ameer where the
guilt lay, that I would make a pilgrimage to this saint’s tomb, and that
to show my confidence in His power to protect me, I would come alone
and unarmed. You know I have never carried fire-arms, knowing that
my fate lies in God’s hands, and that He alone has the power of his life
and death.”
The soldier bent his head in acquiescence, but said nothing. Personally,
he had great faith in his good English-made rifle.
“So, feeling sure that nothing could happen without God’s direct
guidance, I went to Court and stood before the Ameer. Ah, Din
Mohamed, you should have seen those pariahs,” and the Chief
Secretar y’s e yes glistened in the moonlight, as he recalled the scene,
“you should have seen them melt away like snow before the spring sun.