Hardly, after dinner, had they concluded the customary ceremony of washing the hands, when the Khan called Ammalat into the spacious court-yard.  There caparisoned horses awaited them, and a crowd of noukers were already in the saddle.

“Let us ride out to try the mettle of my new hawks,” said the Khan to Ammalat; “the evening is fine, the heat is diminishing, and we shall yet have time, ere twilight, to shoot a few birds.”

With his hawk on his fist, the Khan rode silently by the side of Ammalat.  An Avaretz was climbing up to a steep cliff on the left, by means of a spiked pole, fixing it into the crevices, and then, supporting himself on a prong, he lifted himself higher.  To his waist was attached a cap containing wheat; a long crossbow hung upon his shoulders.  The Khan stopped, pointed him out to Ammalat, and said meaningly, “Look at yonder old man, Ammalat Bek!  He seeks, at the risk of his life, a foot of ground on the naked rock, to sow a handful of wheat.  With the sweat of his brow he cultivates it, and often pays with his life for the defence of his herd from men and beasts.  Poor is his native land; but why does he love this land?  Ask him to change it for your fruitful fields, your rich flocks.  He will say, ’Here I do what I please; here I bow to no one; these snows, these peaks of ice, defend my liberty.’  And this freedom the Russians would take from him:  of these Russians you have become the slave, Ammalat.”

“Khan, you know that it is not Russian bravery, but Russian generosity, that has vanquished me.  Their slave I am not, but their companion.”

“A thousand times the worse, the more disgraceful for you.  The heir of the Shamkhal pines for a Russian epaulette, and glories in being the dependent of a colonel!”

“Moderate your words, Sultan Akhmet.  To Verkhoffsky I owe more than life:  the tie of friendship unites us.”

“Can there exist a holy tie between us and the Giaour?  To injure them, to destroy them, when possible, to deceive them when this cannot be done, is the commandment of the Koran, and the duty of every true believer.”

“Khan! let us cease to play with the bones of Mahomet, and to menace others with what we do not believe.  You are not a moolla, I am no fakir.  I have my own notions of the duty of an honest man.”

“Really, Ammalat Bek?  It were well, however, if you were to have this oftener in your heart than on your tongue.  For the last time, allow me to ask you, will you hearken to the counsels of a friend whom you quitted for the Giaour?  Will you remain with us for good?”

“My life I would lay down for the happiness you so generously offer; but I have given my promise to return, and I will keep it.”

“Is this decided?”

“Irrevocably so.”