Caesar & Hussein by Patrick O'Brian

Author:Patrick O'Brian [O’Brian, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-10-15T17:00:00+00:00

Eight

‘Now in the days of the great Shah Jehan there was a certain man who dwelt in this city: he was (here the story-teller’s eyes swept his audience — all Moslems) a true believer. He was a merchant — an upright man who had, nevertheless, accumulated a great store of precious things. Among all these things, such as the teeth of elephants, rubies and tears of the sea, he valued none so much as his only wife, in spite of the fact that she had borne him no children. She was of a singular beauty, comparable to the light of the moon on desert sands.

‘Now the merchant, whose name was Mahsud Khan, had always been a pious Moslem, and from his boyhood had cherished a desire to make the hadj to Mecca. So at a certain season, when his affairs were in an excellent condition, and there was peace in the land, he decided to fulfil his desire. His brother, Mustapha the Wazir, was high in the favour of the Shah Jehan, and to him Mahsud confided the care of his great possessions, his lands and his wife, Oneiza. Then he joined with a company of merchants and pilgrims who were going to the holy city, and they set sail, it being an auspicious day in the correct season, from Karachi, and after some days had passed they came, with the help of Allah, to Muscat.

‘Here Mahsud found a great host of the Faithful who were waiting for a caravan to set out. He passed many days in the company of the great merchants of the city, with whom he had traded, but he was careful to observe the whole ritual of the hadj, and he offended in no way.

‘At length a caravan was formed, and the pilgrims set their faces to the West.

‘Mahsud bought camels for himself and his servants and he joined the caravan. Many of the other merchants went by sea in ships to Jeddah, but Mahsud had a loathing of the sea, for it stirred him evilly and incessantly within, so he preferred the arduous pilgrimage by land, although two months were consumed thereby.

‘Meanwhile, Mustapha the Wazir had not prospered. The Frankish merchants were coming into the land: fierce men who measured their cloth with their swords.

‘Mustapha perceived that they were Nassani, an abomination to the Faithful, so he entreated them harshly, the more so because they bribed the lesser officials well, but the Wazir meanly.

‘Now the Franks of that day were by no means the same as the slow sahibs of these times: they were crafty men — at a later time their Clive Bahadur out-tricked even Omichaund the Merchant and won great fame — so they conspired with certain enemies of the Wazir, and together they poisoned the ear of the Shah Jehan against him, by means of venal officials.

‘At this time the great ruler was almost mad with grief at the death of his queen, so when he heard the tales that they

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