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The Scapegoat-Part33_Hall Caine(1853-1931)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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a new petition to God. "O Lord, my God," he cried, "when she was blind



and dumb and deaf she was a thing apart, she was a child in no peril

from herself for Thy hand did guide her, and in none from the world,



for no man dared outrage her infirmity. But now she is a maid,

and her dangers are many, for she is beautiful, and the heart



of man is evil. Keep me with her always, O Lord, to guard and guide her!

Let me not leave her, for she is without knowledge of good and evil.



Spare me a little while longer, though I am stricken in years.

For her sake spare me, Oh Lord--it is the last of my prayers--the last,



O Lord, the last--for her sake spare me!"

God did not hear the prayer of Israel. Next morning a guard of soldiers



came out from Tetuan and took him prisoner in the name of the Kaid.

The release of the poor followers of Absalam out of the prison



at Shawan had become known by the blind gratitude of one of them,

who, hastening to Israel's house in the Mellah, had flung himself down



on his face before it.

CHAPTER XXI



ISRAEL IN PRISON

Short as the time was--some three months and odd days--since the prison



at Shawan had been emptied by order of the warrant which Israel had sealed

without authority in the name of Ben Aboo, it was now occupied



by other prisoners. The remoteness of the town in the territory

of the Akhmas, and the wild fanaticism of the Shawanis,



had made the old fortress a favourite place of banishment

to such Kaids of other provinces as looked for heavier ransoms



from the relatives of victims, because the locality of their imprisonment

was unknown or the danger of approaching it was terrible.



And thus it happened that some fifty or more men and boys

from near and far were already living in the dungeon from



which Israel and Ali together had set the other prisoners free.

This was the prison to which Israel was taken when he was torn from Naomi



and the simple home that he had made for himself near Semsa. "Ya Allah!

Let the dog eat the crust which he thought too hard for his pups!"



said Ben Aboo, as he sealed the warrant which consigned Israel

to the Kaid of Shawan.



Israel was taken to the prison afoot, and reached it on the morning

of the second day after his arrest. The sun was shining as he approached



the rude old block of masonry and entered the passage that led down

to the dungeon. In a little court at the door of the place



the Kaid el habs, the jailer, was sitting on a mattress,

which served him for chair by day and bed by night. He was amusing



himself with a ginbri, playing loud and low according as the tumult

was great or little which came from the other side of a barred



and knotted doorway behind him, some four feet high, and having

a round peephole in the upper part of it. On the wall above



hung leather thongs, and a long Reefian flintlock stood in the corner.

At Israel's approach there were some facetious comments between the jailer



and the guard. Why the ginbri? Was he practising for the fires

of Jehinnum? Was he to fiddle for the Jinoon? Well, what was a man



to do while the dogs inside were snarling? Were the thongs

for the correction of persons lacking understanding? Why, yes;



everybody knew their old saying, "A hint to the wise, a blow to the fool."

A bunch of great keys rattled, the low doorway was thrown open,



Israel stooped and went in, the door closed behind him, the footsteps

of the guard died away, and the twang of the ginbri began again.



The prison was dark and noisome, some sixty feet long by half as many

broad, supported by arches resting on rotten pillars, lighted only



by narrow clefts at either hand, exuding damp from its walls,

dropping moisture from its roof, its air full of vermin, and its floor



reeking of filth. And only less horrible than the prison itself

was the condition of the prisoners. Nearly all wore iron fetters



on their legs, and some were shackled to the pillars. At one side

a little group of them--they were Shereefs from Wazzan--



were conversing eagerly and gesticulating wildly; and at the other side

a larger company--they were Jews from Fez--were languidly twisting



palmetto leaves into the shape of baskets. Four Berbers

at the farther end were playing cards, and two Arabs that were chained



to a column near the door squatted on the ground with a battered

old draughtboard between them. From both groups of players



came loud shouts and laughter and a running fire of expostulation

and of indignant and sarcastic comment. Down went the cards



with triumphant bangs, and the moves of the "dogs" were like lightning.

First a mocking voice: "_You_ call yourself a player!



There!--there!--there!" Then a meek, piping tone: "So--so--verily,

you are my master. Well, let us praise Allah for your wisdom."






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