Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 018.djvu/683

homed Kooly Khan's, otherwise he would have opened his mind to me. I assured him that my heart was with Boodah Khan, and that, in return for his kindness, I would lay down my life to serve him. 'Well,' said he, 'my master has been invited to an enter- tainment in the underoon, whither his people cannot accompany him, and I fear some evil may be intended. I have tried to dissuade him from it; but he is so strict an observer of the laws of hospitality, that he can sus- pect no one else; and Mahomed Kooly Khan has acquired so great an influ- ence over him, that he believes every- thing he is told by him. I wish you to attend in the Haram ; and if any- thing happens, to let me know imme- diately, that we may come to his re- scue/ I promised to do so, and went directly to the inner apartments, that I might be sure to be there during the entertainment. " The dinner was served with great magnificence, and a profusion of every delicacy was spread before the guests. Mahomed Kooly Khan paid Boodah Khan the most marked attention, and delighted every one with the variety of his anecdotes, the extent of his in- formation, and the depth of his judg- ment. His manners were so dignified, lively, and affable, and his compli- ments so delicate, his mention of him- self so modest, and his professions of regard had so much appearance of sincerity, that Boodah Khan could not refrain from exclaiming, that had he known Mahomed Kooly Khan as well before as he did now, he would have made any sacrifice to obtain his friend- ship. " Mahomed Kooly Khan at length called for the dancers. This was an appointed signal. The dancers did en- ter, and along with them a body of Afshars. "A voice from the door of the apart- ment called out, ' Khan, look to your- self.' Boodah Khan started to his feet, and in an instant was surrounded. His dagger was plucked from his gir- dle before he had time to draw it, and he was left unarmed amidst his ene- mies. Still he stood towering in the midst of them, and, like the lion surrounded by the huntsman's dogs, wherever he turned, his assailants fell back, but only to renew their attacks from behind. They gradually closed upon him, and hung on the skirts of his garments. Wherever his hand fell, an Afshar fell beneath it ; but, hemmed in on every side, exhausted and un- armed, the host around him at length succeeded in hurling him to thegrountl. " A wild shout of triumph announ- ced his fall. I tried to reach the outer court, and alarm his people, but every door was closed and guarded. They bound him hand and foot, and scoffed at him, and mocked him : and amidst the din of voices, I heard the dreadful order given by Mahomed Kooly Khan himself to blind him. " There was a moment's silence, a moment of cold horror, of chilled fren- zy, in which the heated blood ran freezing to the heart. " I heard one deep, heart-rending groan. One angry appeal to justice and to mercy, a half-upbraiding prayer to Heaven, was drowned by a repeated cry to blind him. "Another shout was raised, another sound of many tongues. They threw themselves upon him, and with a dag- ger's point they dug his eye-balls from their sockets, and held them up to view with noisy exultation. They then unbound him, and left him to grope his way in darkness ; but he rose not from the floor ; he complained not ; I only heard him say, ' My light is turned to darkness ;' and when Ma- homed Kooly Khan exulted over him, he turned himself to where the voice came from, and cried, ' May God darken the light of your soul as you have put out the light of my body/ " There was something in his ap- pearance, in his voice, and in the tone of bitter earnestness with which he ut- tered these words, which went to the heart of his oppressor. He bit his lip and would have spoken, but the words did not come. Boodah Khan still sat upon the floor, his sunken eye-lids streaming blood. There was some- thing terrible in the expression of his countenance ; his mind no longer look- ed out upon those around him; his thoughts seemed to have retired deep within himself, and his soul to hold communion with other beings. "After a time they carried him away, and chained him in a dungeon. I went to the house-top to calm myself, for I was too much agitated to go to rest. I was leaning over the wall of the fort, and thinking of the scene which I had witnessed, when I heard some one whisper my name from below. I an- swered, and found it to be Ahmed. The Koords, suspecting from the