“I have more than once begun to speak to Akhmet Khan about my hopes; but his eternal reply has been—­’Swear to be the enemy of the Russians, and then I will hear you out.’”

“We must then bid adieu to hope.”

“Why to hope, Seltanetta?  Why not say only—­farewell, Avar!”

Seltanetta bent upon him her expressive eyes.  “I don’t understand you,” she said.

“Love me more than any thing in the world—­more than your father and mother, and your fair land, and then you will understand me, Seltanetta!  Live without you I cannot, and they will not let me live with you.  If you love me, let us fly!”

“Fly! the Khan’s daughter fly like a slave—­a criminal!  This is dreadful—­this is terrible!”

“Speak not so.  If the sacrifice is unusual, my love also is unusual.  Command me to give my life a thousand times, and I will throw it down like a copper poull.[8] I will cast my soul into hell for you—­not only my life.  You remind me that you are the daughter of the Khan; remember, too, that my grandfather wore, that my uncle wears, the crown of a Shamkhal!  But it is not by this dignity, but by my heart, that I feel I am worthy of you; and if there be shame in being happy despite of the malice of mankind and the caprice of fate, that shame will fall on my head and not on yours.”

    [8] Coin.

“But you forget my father’s vengeance.”

“There will come a time when he himself will forget it.  When he sees that the thing is done, he will cast aside his inflexibility; his heart is not stone; and even were it stone, tears of repentance will wear it away—­our caresses will soften him.  Happiness will cover us with her dove’s wings, and we shall proudly say, ‘We ourselves have caught her!’”

“My beloved, I have lived not long upon earth, but something at my heart tells me that by falsehood we can never catch her.  Let us wait:  let us see what Allah will give!  Perhaps, without this step, our union may be accomplished.”

“Seltanetta, Allah has given me this idea:  it is his will.  Have pity on me, I beseech you.  Let us fly, unless you wish that our marriage-hour should strike above my grave!  I have pledged my honour to return to Derbend; and I must keep that pledge, I must keep it soon:  but to depart without the hope of seeing you, with the dread of hearing that you are the wife of another—­this would be dreadful, this would be insupportable!  If not from love, then from pity, share my destiny.  Do not rob me of paradise!  Do not drive me to madness!  You know not whither disappointed passion can carry me.  I may forget hospitality and kindred, tear asunder all human ties, trample under my feet all that is holy, mingle my blood with that of those who are dearest to me, force villany to shake with terror when my name is heard, and angels to weep to see my deeds!—­Seltanetta, save me from the curse of others, from my own contempt—­save me from myself!  My noukers are fearless—­my horses like the wind; the night is dark, let us fly to benevolent Russia, till the storm be over.  For the last time I implore you.  Life and death, my renown and my soul, hang upon your word.  Yes or no?”