"And therefore thou wouldst lead me to the executioner? I thank thee, Manoli!"
All this was spoken while they were passing through the garden on their way to the fatal chamber into which Manoli disappeared with the Grand Vizier.
The Kizlar-Aga and the messengers of the insurgents waited till Manoli came forth again. He came out, covering his face with his hands, no doubt he was weeping. The Grand Vizier remained inside.
"To-morrow you shall see his dead body," said the Kizlar-Aga to the new Reis-Effendi, and with that he sent him and his comrade back to Halil.
"We would rather have had them alive," said the ex-ciaus, so suddenly become one of the chief dignitaries of the state.
That same evening Halil sent back Sulali with the message that the Chief Mufti might go free.
The old man quitted his comrades about midnight, and day had scarce dawned when he was summoned once more to the presence of the Grand Seignior.
All night long the Kizlar-Aga tormented Achmed with the saying of the Reis-Effendi: "We would rather have them alive!"
"No, no," said the Sultan, "we will not have them delivered up alive. It shall not be in the power of the people to torture and tear them to pieces. Rather let them die in my palace, an easy, instantaneous death, without fear and scarce a pang of pain, wept and mourned for by their friends."
"Then hasten on their deaths, dread sir, lest the morning come and they be demanded while still alive."
"Tarry a while, I say, wait but for the morning. You would not surely kill them at night! At night the gates of Heaven are shut. At night the phantoms of darkness are let loose. You would not slay any living creature at night! Wait till the day dawns."
The first ray of light had scarce appeared on the horizon when the Kizlar-Aga once more stood before the Sultan.
"Convey death to those who are already doomed."
Sulali and the mufti fell down on their knees.
"Wherefore this haste, O my master?" cried the aged mufti, bitterly weeping as he kissed the Sultan's feet.
"Because the rebels wish them to be surrendered alive."
"So it is," observed the Kizlar-Aga by way of corroboration, "the whole space in front of the kiosk is filled with the insurgents."
"Hasten, hasten! lest they fall into their hands alive."