Complete works of hall c.., p.437
Complete Works of Hall Caine, page 437
Not for forty years had anybody in Egypt spoken to the Consul-General like that, but he only said:
“Don’t stand there like a parson in a pulpit. Sit down and tell me all about it.” Whereupon Gordon took a seat by the desk.
“The only riot I witnessed in Alexandria, sir, was due simply to the bad feeling which always exists between the lowest elements of the European and Egyptian inhabitants. Ishmael Ameer had nothing to do with it. On the contrary, he helped to put it down.”
“You heard what he had said in the mosques?”
“I had one of his sermons reported to me, sir, and it was teaching such as would have had your own sympathy, being in line with what you have always said yourself about the corruptions of Islam and the necessity of uplifting the Egyptian woman as a means of raising the Egyptian man.”
“So you decided, it seems—”
“I decided, father, that to arrest Ishmael Ameer as one who was promulgating sedition and inciting the people to rebellion would be an act of injustice which you could not wish me to perpetrate in your name.”
The Consul-General put up his glasses, looked for a letter which lay on the desk, glanced at it, and said:
“I see you say that before you arrived in Alexandria it was known that you were to come.”
“That is so, sir.”
“And that after the riot you counselled the Governor to consent to the man’s request that he should preach in public.”
“I did, sir. I thought it would be a good experiment to try the effect of a little moral influence.”
“Of course, the experiment was justified?”
“Perfectly justified — the people dispersed quietly and there has not been a single arrest since.”
“But you had a battalion of soldiers on the spot?”
“I had — it was only right to be ready for emergencies.” The old man laughed bitterly. “I’m surprised at you. Don’t you see how you’ve been hoodwinked? The man was warned of your coming — warned from Cairo, from El Azhar, which I find you were so foolish as to visit before you left for Alexandria. Everything was prepared for you. A trick, an Eastern trick, and you were so simple as to be taken in. I’m ashamed of you — ashamed of you before my servants, my secretaries.”
Gordon coloured up to his flickering steel-blue eyes and said:
“Father, I must ask you to begin by remembering that I am no longer a child and not quite a simpleton. I know the Egyptians. I know them better than all your people put together.”
“Better than your father himself, perhaps?”
“Yes, sir, better than my father himself, because — because I love them, whereas you — you have hated them from the first. They’ve never deceived me yet, sir, and, with your permission, I’m not going to deceive them.”
The passionate words were hotly, almost aggressively spoken, but in some unfathomable depth of the father’s heart the old man was proud of his son at that moment — strong, fearless, and right.
“And the sermon in public — was that also on the corruption of Islam?”
“No, sir, it was about the spirit of the world — the greed of wealth which is making people forget in these days that the true welfare of a nation is moral, not material.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes — the hope of a time when the world will have so far progressed toward peace that arms will be laid down and a Redeemer will come to proclaim a universal brotherhood.”
“That didn’t strike you as ridiculous — to see one unlettered man trying to efface the laws of civilised society — asking sensible people to turn their backs on the facts of life in order to live in a spiritual hot-house of dreams?”
“No, father, that did not strike me as ridiculous, because—”
“Because what — what, now?”
“Because John the Baptist and Jesus Christ did precisely the same thing.”
There was silence for a moment, and then the old man said:
“In this golden age that is to come, he predicts, I am told, a peculiar place for Egypt — is that so?”
“Yes, sir. He holds that in the commonwealth of the world Egypt, by reason of her geographical position, will become the interpreter and peacemaker between the East and the West — that that’s what she has lived so long for.”
“Yet it didn’t occur to you that this was sedition in its most seductive form, and that the man who promulgated it was probably the most dangerous of the demagogues — the worst of the Egyptians who prate about the natives governing themselves and the English being usurping foreigners.”
“No, sir, that didn’t occur to me at all, because I felt that a Moslem people had a right to their own ideals, and also because I thought—”
“Well? Well?”
“That the man who imagines that the soul of a nation can be governed by the sword — whoever he is, King, Kaiser, or — or Czar — is the worst of tyrants.”
The old autocrat flinched visibly. The scene was becoming tragic to him. For forty years he had been fighting his enemies, and he had beaten them, and now suddenly his own son was standing up as his foe. After a moment of silence he rose and said, with stony gravity:
“Very well! Having heard your views on Ishmael Ameer, and incidentally on myself, and all I have hitherto attempted to do in Egypt, it only remains to me to tell you what I intend to do now. You know that this man is coming on to Cairo?”
Gordon bowed.
“You are probably aware that it is intended that he shall preach at El Azhar?”
“I didn’t know that, sir, but I’m not surprised to hear it.”
“Well, El Azhar has to he closed before he arrives.”
“Closed?”
“That is what I said — closed, shut up, and its students and professors turned into the streets.”
“But there are sixteen thousand of them — from all parts of the Mohammedan world, sir.”
“That’s why! The Press as a medium of disaffection was bad enough, but El Azhar is worse. It is a hotbed of rebellion, and a word spoken there goes, as by wireless telegraphy, all over Egypt. It is a secret society, and as such it must be stopped.”
“But have you reflected—”
“Do I do anything without reflection?”
“Closed, you say? The University? The mosque of mosques? It is impossible! You are trifling with me.”
“Have you taken leave of your senses, sir?”
“I beg your pardon, father. I only wish to prevent you from doing something you will never cease to regret. It’s dangerous work to touch the religious beliefs of an Eastern people — you know that, sir, better than I do. And if you shut up their University, their holy of holies, you shake the foundations of their society. It’s like shutting up St. Peter’s in Rome, or St. Paul’s in London.”
“Both events have happened,” said the old man, resuming his seat.
“Father, I beg of you to beware. Trust me, I know these people. No Christian nation nowadays believes in Christianity as these Moslems believe in Islam. We don’t care enough for our faith to fight for it. But these dusky millions will die for their religion. And then there’s Ishmael Ameer — you must see for yourself what manner of man he is — careless alike of comfort or fame, a fanatic, if you like, but he has only to call to the people and they’ll follow him. All the wealth and well-being you have bestowed on them will go to the winds and they’ll follow him to a man.”
The Consul-General’s lip curled again, and he said, quietly, “You ask me to believe that at the word of this man without a penny and with his head full of worthless noise, the blue-shirted fellaheen will leave their comfortable homes and their lands—”
“Aye, and their wives and children, too — everything they have or ever hope to have! And if he promises them nothing but danger and death, all the more they’ll go to him.”
“Then we must deal with him also.”
“You can’t — you can’t do anything with a man like that — a man who wants nothing and is afraid of nothing — except kill him, and you can’t do that either.”
The Consul-General did not reply immediately, and, coming closer, Gordon began to plead with him.
“Father, believe me, I know what I am saying. Don’t be blind to the storm that is brewing, and so undo all the good you have ever done. For Egypt’s sake, England’s, your own, don’t let damnable scoundrels like the Grand Cadi and the Prime Minister play on you like a pipe.”
It was Gordon who had blundered now, and the consequences were cruel. The ruthless, saturnine old man rose again, and on his square-hewn face there was an icy smile.
“That brings me,” he said, speaking very slowly, “from what I have done to what you must do. The Ulema of El Azhar have received an order to close the University. It went to them this morning through the President of the Council, who is acting as Regent in the absence of the Khedive. If they refuse to go, it will be your duty to turn them out.”
“Mine?”
“Yours! The Governor of the city and the Commandant of Police will go with you, but, where sixteen thousand students and a disaffected population have to be dealt with, the military will be required. If you had brought Ishmael Ameer back from Alexandria this step might have been unnecessary, but now instead of one man you may have to arrest hundreds.”
“But if they resist — and they will — I know they will—”
“In that case they will come under a special tribunal as persons assaulting the members of the British Army of Occupation, and be despatched without delay to the Soudan.”
“But surely—”
“The Ulema are required to signify their assent by tomorrow morning, and we are to meet at the Citadel at four in the afternoon. You will probably be required to be there.”
“But, father—”
“We left something “to your discretion before, hoping to give you an opportunity of distinguishing yourself in the eyes of England, but in this case your orders will be definite, and your only duty will be to obey.”
“But will you not permit me to—”
“That will do for the present. I’m busy. Good day!”
Gordon went out dazed and dumbfounded. He saw nothing of Ibrahim, who handed him his linen-covered cap in the hall, or of the page-boy at the porch who gave him his reins and held down his stirrup. When he came back to consciousness he was riding by the side of the Nile, where the bridge was open, and a number of boats with white sails, like a flight of great sea-gulls, were sweeping through.
At the next moment he was at the entrance to his own quarters, and found a white motor-car standing there. It was Helena’s car, and, leaping from the saddle, he went bounding up the stairs.
XVIII
HELENA was at his door, with an anxious and perplexed face, talking to his soldier servant. At the next instant they were in each other’s arms, and their troubles were gone. Her smile seemed to light up his room more than all its wealth of sunlight, and nothing else was of the smallest consequence. But after a moment she drew out a letter and said:
“I told father you were back, and he dictated a message to you. He was going to send it by his A.D.C., but I asked to be allowed to bring it myself and he consented. Here it is, dear.”
Gordon opened and read the General’s letter. It was a formal request that he should be in attendance at the Citadel at four the following day to receive urgent and important instructions.
“You know what it refers to, Helena?”
“Yes, I know,” she answered.
The look of perplexity had returned to her face, and for some minutes they stood arm in arm by the open window, looking down at the Nile in a dazed and dreamy way.
“What are you going to do, Gordon?”
“I don’t know — yet.”
“It will be an order now, and as an officer you can do nothing but obey.”
“I suppose not, dear.”
“There are so many things calling for your obedience, too — honour, ambition, everything a soldier can want, you know.”
“I know! I know!”
She crept closer and said, “Then there’s something else, dear.”
“What else, Helena?”
“Haven’t I always told you that sooner or later that man would come between us?”
“Ishmael?”
“Yes. Last night my father said... but I hate to mention it.”
“Tell me, dear, tell me.”
“He said: ‘You couldn’t marry a man who had disobeyed and been degraded?’”
“Meaning that if I refused to obey orders, you and I perhaps... by arrangement between your father and mine, maybe—”
“That is what I understood him to mean, dear, and therefore I came to see you.”
He flushed crimson for a moment and then began to laugh.
“No, no! I’ll never believe that of them. It would be monstrous — impossible!”
But the questioning look in Helena’s eyes remained and he tried to reassure her. So many things might happen to remove the difficulty altogether. The Ulema might take the order of the Government as a protest against the visit of Ishmael Ameer, and send him instructions not to come to Cairo.
“He’s here already, dear,” said Helena.
As she drove down from the Citadel she had crossed a crowd of natives coming from the direction of the railway station, and some one had said it was a procession in honour of the new prophet, who had just arrived from Alexandria.
“Then you’ve seen him yourself, Helena?”
“I saw a man in a white dress on a white camel, but I didn’t look — I had somebody else to think about.”
He was carried away by the singleness of her love, and with a score of passionate expressions he kissed her beautiful white hands and did his best to comfort her.
“Never mind, dear! Don’t be afraid! The Governors of El Azhar may agree to close their doors — temporarily, at all events. Anyhow, we’ll muddle through somehow.”
She made him promise not to go near the “new Mahdi,” and then began to draw on her long, yellow driving gloves.
“I suppose the gossips of Cairo would be shocked if they knew I had come to see you,” she said.
“It’s not the first time you’ve been here, though. You’re here always — see!” he said, and with his arm about her waist he took her round his room to look at her portraits that hung on the walls. It was Helena here, Helena there, Helena everywhere, but since that was the first time the real Helena had visited his quarters, she must drink his health in them.
She would only drink it in water, and when she had done so she had to slip off her glove again and dip her finger into the same glass that he might drink her own health as well. In spite of the shadow of trouble which hung over them they were very happy. A world of warm impulses coursed through their veins, and they could hardly permit themselves to part. It was sweet to stand by the window again and look down at the dazzling Nile. For them the old river flowed, for them it sang its sleepy song. They looked into each other’s eyes and smiled without speaking. It was just as if their hearts saw each other and were satisfied.
At length she clasped her arms about his neck, and he felt the warm glow of her body.
“You think that still, Gordon?”
“What, dearest?”
“That love is above everything?”
“Everything in the world,” he whispered, and then she kissed him of herself, and nothing else mattered — nothing on earth or in heaven.
XIX
WHEN Helena had gone the air of his room seemed to be more dumb and empty than it had ever been before; but the bell of the telephone rang immediately, and Hafiz spoke to him.
Hafiz had just heard from his uncle that the Ulema were to meet at eight o’clock to consider what course they ought to adopt. The Chancellor was in favour of submission to superior force, but some of his colleagues of the reactionary party — the old stick-in-the-muds made in Mecca — not being able to believe the Government could be in earnest, were advocating revolt, even resistance.
“Hadn’t you better go up to El Azhar to-night, Gordon, and tell them the Government means business? They’ll believe you, you know, and it may save riot, perhaps bloodshed.”
“I hadn’t intended to go there again, Hafiz, but if you think I can do any good—”
“You can — I’m sure you can. Let me call for you at eight, and we’ll go up together.”
“Can’t see why we shouldn’t.... But wait! Ishmael Ameer is in Cairo. Will he be there, think you?”
“Don’t know — should think it very likely.”
“Well, it can’t he helped. Eight o’clock, then! By bye!” said Gordon, and with that he rang off and wrote to Helena, telling her what he was going to do. He was going to break his word to her again, but it was only in the interests of peace and with the hope of preventing trouble.
“Don’t suppose these people can influence me a hair’s breadth, dearest,” he wrote, “and, above all, don’t be angry.”
At eight o’clock Hafiz came for him, and, dressed in mufti, they walked up to the University. With more than usual ceremony they were taken to the Chancellor’s room in the roof, and there, in a tense, electrical atmosphere, the Ulema were already assembled — a group of eight or nine rugged and unkempt creatures in their farageeyah (a loose gray robe, like that of a monk), squatting on the divans about the walls. All the members of the Board of El Azhar were present, and the only stranger there, except themselves, was Ishmael Ameer, who sat, in his spotless white dress and with his solemn face, on a chair beside the door.
In silence, and with many sweeping salaams from floor to forehead, Gordon was received by the company, and at the request of the Chancellor he explained the object of his visit. It was not official, and it was scarcely proper, but it was intended to do good. There were moments when, passion being excited, there was a serious risk of collision between governors and governed. This was one of them. Rightly or wrongly, the Consul-General was convinced that the University of Cairo was likely to become a centre of sedition. Could they not agree to close it for a time, at all events?
