At these words Mahmoud fixed his eyes upon the speaker, and gazed long upon those dark features, as sinister as an eclipse of the sun. Then he arose, turned away, and replied in a low voice, hissing with contempt:
"The Sultan owes no reply to his servants."
Kara Makan's face was convulsed at these words. Scarce was he able to stifle his wrath, and he replied, in broken sentences:
"Sire, the lion is the king of the desert--but if he is in a cage--he listens to the voice of his keeper--thou knowest this hand, which hath fought for thee in many engagements--and thou knowest that whatever this hand seizeth it seizeth with a grasp of iron."
The Sultan pondered long. Then all at once he seemed to bethink him of something, for his face seemed to lose its severity, and he turned towards the Janissary leader with a mild, indulgent look.
"What, then, dost thou require?" This softened look concealed the genesis of the thought--the Janissaries must be wiped off the face of the earth. "What dost thou require?" said the Padishah, softly.
Kara Makan put on an important look, as of one who knows that the fate of empires is in his hands.
"Hearken to our desires. We are honest Mussulmans. We do not ask impossibilities. If thou canst convince us that our demands are unlawful, we renounce them; if thou canst not convince us, accomplish them."
Mahmoud's lips wore a bitter smile at this wise speech.
"I do not strive with you," he replied. "Ye command me. The Caliph of caliphs listens to his servants. Bring hither parchment and an ink-horn, and dictate to my pen what ye demand. The Sultan will be your scribe, great rebel!"
Kara Makan was not bright enough to penetrate the irony of these words; nay, rather, he felt himself flattered by the humility of the Sultan's speech. With haughty self-assurance he bared his bosom and drew forth a large roll of manuscript.
"I will save your majesty the trouble," said he to Mahmoud, smoothing out the document before him. "Behold, it is all ready. Thou hast only to write thy name beneath it."
"Will ye allow me to read it?" inquired the Sultan, with the same bitter smile; "or is it the wish of the people that I should sign it unread?"
Mahmoud took up the documents one after another, and piled them up beside him as he read them.