European could have asked more questions about the manners of the Turkish ladies, or have appeared more interested in the answers. She then observed that she sometimes wondered whether she had ever been at Stamboul, that her recollections of her infancy were so few and yet so vivid. Here she paused for a moment, her hands clasped, her lips slightly parted, and her beautiful eyes gazing before her with an earnestness of expression, and yet a beseeching look, which recalled the Beatrice Cenci. She spoke again after a few moments, but almost without changing her attitude, telling us that the only thing she remembered before coming to Egypt was, that she was one day playing with some other children in a cemetery, when all at once a man on horseback appeared, caught her up, and rode off at full speed. The next thing she recollects was being taken one night on board a vessel, and then finding herself in the palace of Mehemet Ali’s aunt in Egypt. She had never been able to recall in the least her parents or her home; all she remembered was that cemetery. And again that never-to-be forgotten look came over her. I felt afraid of breathing lest I should break the spell.
She subsequently learnt that the horseman was a slave-dealer whom the princess had employed, on the death of her own child, to obtain the most beautiful Circassian girl he could for her to adopt; her father wished to sell her, but her mother refused, and he, tempted by the price, agreed that the slave-dealer should carry her off as if by force.
On hearing this, kind as her protectress was, she took a great dislike to her, regarding her as the cause of her having been torn from her family. To her great joy, she was taken two or three years afterwards on a visit to Mehemet Ali’s hareem, and the then Vice-queen took such a fancy to her, that she asked her aunt to give her up to her: “to hear was to obey” in such a case, and though broken-hearted at parting with her favourite, the Princess was obliged to submit. Mehemet Ali also took a great fancy to the young stranger, and desired she should be brought up as the wife of his son Saïd, the present Viceroy.
We remained with the Vice-queen till sunset, the usual hour for retiring. She rose on our departure, shook hands, desired her compliments to my husband, and pressed me warmly to come and see her again, not only during my present stay, but whenever I came to Egypt.
CASTLES OF THE TAUNUS.
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PART II. FALKENSTEIN, &c.
