Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 09 (32 page)

For five days he awaited the reply, and hardly slept or ate, but
was as cross as could be all the time. On the fifth day his
messenger returned with a letter to say that the king of the land
of the north would not sell, but he would give, the king the
slave girl and her son. The king was overjoyed. He sent for his
Grand Wazeer and told him that he was going on one of his lonely
expeditions, and that the Wazeer must invent some excuse to
account for his absence. Next he disguised himself as an
ordinary messenger, mounted a swift camel, and sped away to the
place where the slave girl was to be handed over to him. When he
got there he gave the messengers who brought her a letter of
thanks and a handsome present for their master and rewards for
themselves; and then without delay he took the poor woman and her
tiny baby-boy up on to his camel and rode off to a wild desert.

After riding for a day and a night, almost without stopping, he
came to a great cave where he made the woman dismount, and,
taking her and the baby into the cave, he drew his sword and with
one blow chopped her head off. But although his anger made him
cruel enough for anything so dreadful, the king felt that he
could not turn his great sword on the helpless baby, who he was
sure must soon die in this solitary place without its mother; so
he left it in the cave where it was, and, mounting his camel,
rode home as fast as he could.

Now, in a small village in his kingdom there lived an old widow
who had no children or relations of any kind. She made her
living mostly by selling the milk of a flock of goats; but she
was very, very poor, and not very strong, and often used to
wonder how she would live if she got too weak or ill to attend to
her goats. Every morning she drove the goats out into the desert
to graze on the shrubs and bushes which grew there, and every
evening they came home of themselves to be milked and to be shut
up safely for the night.

One evening the old woman was astonished to find that her very
best nanny-goat returned without a drop of milk. She thought
that some naughty boy or girl was playing a trick upon her and
had caught the goat on its way home and stolen all the milk. But
when evening after evening the goat remained almost dry she
determined to find out who the thief was. So the next day she
followed the goats at a distance and watched them while they
grazed. At length, in the afternoon, the old woman noticed this
particular nanny-goat stealing off by herself away from the herd
and she at once went after her. On and on the goat walked for
some way, and then disappeared into a cave in the rocks. The old
woman followed the goat into the cave and then, what should she
see but the animal giving her milk to a little boy-baby, whilst
on the ground near by lay the sad remains of the baby's dead
mother! Wondering and frightened, the old woman thought at last
that this little baby might be a son to her in her old age, and
that he would grow up and in time to come be her comfort and
support. So she carried home the baby to her hut, and next day
she took a spade to the cave and dug a grave where she buried the
poor mother.

Years passed by, and the baby grew up into a find handsome lad,
as daring as he was beautiful, and as industrious as he was
brave. One day, when the boy, whom the old woman had named Nur
Mahomed, was about seventeen years old, he was coming from his
day's work in the fields, when he saw a strange donkey eating the
cabbages in the garden which surround their little cottage.
Seizing a big stick, he began to beat the intruder and to drive
him out of his garden. A neighbour passing by called out to him-
-'Hi! I say! why are you beating the pedlar's donkey like that?'

'The pedlar should keep him from eating my cabbages,' said Nur
Mahomed; 'if he comes this evening here again I'll cut off his
tail for him!'

Whereupon he went off indoors, whistling cheerfully. It happened
that this neighbour was one of those people who make mischief by
talking too much; so, meeting the pedlar in the 'serai,' or inn,
that evening, he told him what had occurred, and added: 'Yes; and
the young spitfire said that if beating the donkey would not do,
he would beat you also, and cut your nose off for a thief!'

A few days later, the pedlar having moved on, two men appeared in
the village inquiring who it was who had threatened to ill-treat
and to murder an innocent pedlar. They declared that the pedlar,
in fear of his life, had complained to the king; and that they
had been sent to bring the lawless person who had said these
things before the king himself. Of course they soon found out
about the donkey eating Nur Mahomed's cabbages, and about the
young man's hot words; but although the lad assured them that he
had never said anything about murdering anyone, they replied they
were ordered to arrest him, and bring him to take his trial
before the king. So, in spite of his protests, and the wails of
his mother, he was carried off, and in due time brought before
the king. Of course Nur Mahomed never guessed that the supposed
pedlar happened to have been the king himself, although nobody
knew it.

But as he was very angry at what he had been told, he declared
that he was going to make an example of this young man, and
intended to teach him that even poor travelling pedlars could get
justice in HIS country, and be protected from such lawlessness.
However, just as he was going to pronounce some very heavy
sentence, there was a stir in the court, and up came Nur
Mahomed's old mother, weeping and lamenting, and begging to be
heard. The king ordered her to speak, and she began to plead for
the boy, declaring how good he was, and how he was the support of
her old age, and if he were put in prison she would die. The
king asked her who she was. She replied that she was his mother.

'His mother?' said the king; 'you are too old, surely, to have so
young a son!'

Then the old woman, in her fright and distress, confessed the
whole story of how she found the baby, and how she rescued and
brought him up, and ended by beseeching the king for mercy.

It is easy to guess how, as the story came out, the king looked
blacker and blacker, and more and more grim, until at last he was
half fainting with rage and astonishment. This, then, was the
baby he had left to die, after cruelly murdering his mother!
Surely fate might have spared him this! He wished he had
sufficient excuse to put the boy to death, for the old hermit's
prophecy came back to him as strongly as ever; and yet the young
man had done nothing bad enough to deserve such a punishment.
Everyone would call him a tyrant if he were to give such an
order—in fact, he dared not try it!

At length he collected himself enough to say:—'If this young man
will enlist in my army I will let him off. We have need of such
as him, and a little discipline will do him good.' Still the old
woman pleaded that she could not live without her son, and was
nearly as terrified at the idea of his becoming a soldier as she
was at the thought of his being put in prison. But at length the
king— determined to get the youth into his clutches—pacified
her by promising her a pension large enough to keep her in
comfort; and Nur Mahomed, to his own great delight, was duly
enrolled in the king's army.

As a soldier Nur Mahomed seemed to be in luck. He was rather
surprised, but much pleased, to find that he was always one of
those chosen when any difficult or dangerous enterprise was
afoot; and, although he had the narrowest escapes on some
occasions, still, the very desperateness of the situations in
which he found himself gave him special chances of displaying his
courage. And as he was also modest and generous, he became a
favourite with his officers and his comrades.

Thus it was not very surprising that, before very long, he became
enrolled amongst the picked men of the king's bodyguard. The
fact is, that the king had hoped to have got him killed in some
fight or another; but, seeing that, on the contrary, he throve on
hard knocks, he was now determined to try more direct and
desperate methods.

One day, soon after Nur Mahomed had entered the bodyguard, he was
selected to be one of the soldiers told off to escort the king
through the city. The procession was marching on quite smoothly,
when a man, armed with a dagger, rushed out of an alley straight
towards the king. Nur Mahomed, who was the nearest of the
guards, threw himself in the way, and received the stab that had
been apparently intended for the king. Luckily the blow was a
hurried one, and the dagger glanced on is breastbone, so that,
although he received a severe wound, his youth and strength
quickly got the better of it. The king was, of course, obliged
to take some notice of this brave deed, and as a reward made him
one of his own attendants.

After this the strange adventures the young man passed through
were endless. Officers of the bodyguard were often sent on all
sorts of secret and difficult errands, and such errands had a
curious way of becoming necessary when Nur Mahomed was on duty.
Once, while he was taking a journey, a foot-bridge gave way under
him; once he was attacked by armed robbers; a rock rolled down
upon him in a mountain pass; a heavy stone coping fell from a
roof at his feet in a narrow city alley. Altogether, Nur Mahomed
began to think that, somewhere or other, he had made an enemy;
but he was light-hearted, and the thought did not much trouble
him. He escaped somehow every time, and felt amused rather than
anxious about the next adventure.

It was the custom of that city that the officer for the day of
the palace guards should receive all his food direct from the
king's kitchen. One day, when Nur Mahomed's turn came to be on
duty, he was just sitting down to a delicious stew that had been
sent in from the palace, when one of those gaunt, hungry dogs,
which, in eastern countries, run about the streets, poked his
nose in at the open guard-room door, and looked at Nur Mahomed
with mouth watering and nostrils working. The kind-hearted young
man picked out a lump of meat, went to the door, and threw it
outside to him. The dog pounced upon it, and gulped it down
greedily, and was just turning to go, when it staggered, fell,
rolled over, and died. Nur Mahomed, who had been lazily watching
him, stood still for a moment, then he came back whistling
softly. He gathered up the rest of his dinner and carefully
wrapped it up to carry away and bury somewhere; and then he sent
back the empty plates.

How furious the king was when, at the next morning's durbar, Nur
Mahomed appeared before him fresh, alert and smiling as usual.
He was determined, however, to try once more, and bidding the
young man come into his presence that evening, gave orders that
he was to carry a secret despatch to the governor of a distant
province. 'Make your preparations at once,' added he, 'and be
ready to start in the morning. I myself will deliver you the
papers at the last moment.'

Now this province was four or five days' journey from the palace,
and the governor of it was the most faithful servant the king
had. He could be silent as the grave, and prided himself on his
obedience. Whilst he was an old and tried servant of the king's,
his wife had been almost a mother to the young princess ever
since the queen had died some years before. It happened that, a
little before this time, the princess had been sent away for her
health to another remote province; and whilst she was there her
old friend, the governor's wife, had begged her to come and stay
with them as soon as she could.

The princess accepted gladly, and was actually staying in the
governor's house at the very time when the king made up his mind
to send Nur Mahomed there with the mysterious despatch.

According to orders Nur Mahomed presented himself early the next
morning at the king's private apartments. His best horse was
saddled, food placed in is saddle-bag, and with some money tied
up in his waist-band, he was ready to start. The king handed
over to him a sealed packet, desiring him to give it himself only
into the hands of the governor, and to no one else. Nur Mahomed
hid it carefully in his turban, swung himself into the saddle,
and five minutes later rode out of the city gates, and set out on
his long journey.

The weather was very hot; but Nur Mahomed thought that the sooner
his precious letter was delivered the better; so that, by dint of
riding most of each night and resting only in the hottest part of
the day, he found himself, by noon on the third day, approaching
the town which was his final destination.

Not a soul was to be seen anywhere; and Nur Mahomed, stiff, dry,
thirsty, and tired, looked longingly over the wall into the
gardens, and marked the fountains, the green grass, the shady
apricot orchards, and giant mulberry trees, and wished he were
there.

At length he reached the castle gates, and was at once admitted,
as he was in the uniform of the king's bodyguard. The governor
was resting, the soldier said, and could not see him until the
evening. So Nur Mahomed handed over his horse to an attendant,
and wandered down into the lovely gardens he had seen from the
road, and sat down in the shade to rest himself. He flung
himself on his back and watched the birds twittering and
chattering in the trees above him. Through the branches he could
see great patches of sky where the kites wheeled and circled
incessantly, with shrill whistling cried. Bees buzzed over the
flowers with a soothing sound, and in a few minutes Nur Mahomed
was fast asleep.

Every day, through the heat of the afternoon, the governor, and
his wife also, used to lie down for two or three hours in their
own rooms, and so, for the matter of that, did most people in the
palace. But the princess, like many other girls, was restless,
and preferred to wander about the garden, rather than rest on a
pile of soft cushions. What a torment her stout old attendants
and servants sometime thought her when she insisted on staying
awake, and making them chatter or do something, when they could
hardly keep their eyes open! Sometimes, however, the princess
would pretend to go to sleep, and then, after all her women had
gladly followed her example, she would get up and go out by
herself, her veil hanging loosely about her. If she was
discovered her old hostess scolded her severely; but the princess
only laughed, and did the same thing next time.