“Yes, I am the friend of your brothers, your brothers the Christians, now trampled under foot by a cruel despot, but one whom you can soften. The terrible Daker, the master of a part of Syria and Palestine, after he took for his minister a Christian, Ibrahim Sabbar, became the protector of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Do you not exercise over your master a power greater than Ibrahim did over his? A power that they say the very lions do not resist. God made use of Esther to touch the heart of Ahasuerus; he has marked you like her with his seal, to concur in the deliverance of his people. Faith has revealed it to me. Thanks to you, Ali-ben-Ali, the Pacha of Shivas, the butcher, the executioner, shall no longer turn his rage but against the enemies of the church. The divine light descending from the cross of Calvary shall penetrate the most hardened hearts—”
“Wretch!” exclaimed Baïla, awakening at last from the stupor into which this unexpected discourse had thrown her, “what has brought you here?”
“To teach you to mourn over your past life, to assist you in washing yourself from your sins, to save you, and with you, and by you, our brethren the Christians of Shivas.”
“Go then, apostle of the demon—retire, insolent,” repeats the beautiful odalisk, enveloping herself in her veil, the better to conceal herself from the looks of the profane; “go then, and be accursed.”
“No, you shall not drive me away thus,” replied the young enthusiast; “you shall hear me. God, who inspired me with the idea of this holy mission which I am now discharging, is about to change your heart; he can, he will.”
“Ah! do not blaspheme the God of your fathers; do not deny the holy belief which even without your knowledge has perhaps remained in your heart. Was it not you who, in a retired part of your garden, reared the humblest of crosses, doubtless to go thither to pray in private?”
This word, this remembrance of the branch of the azalea, brought suddenly to the memory of the young odalisk all the chimeras of her fantastic loves, all the hopes, all the illusions which were grouped by her around a single idea; the disgust at finding all her reveries effaced; the frightful thought of the peril she had sought, had braved, and which still threatens her at that very moment, and all to arrive at such a deception—to find an apostle when she expected a lover—so troubled her mind, that her voice, gradually rising, appeared to reach beyond the pavilion, and reach the sleeping slaves. To endeavor to calm her, the stranger, with a suppliant gesture, advanced a step.