ercy; treachery calls for treachery ... I am resolved
... Quick, quick!

* * * * *

Thus incoherently, thus wildly wrote Ammalat, in order to cheat time and
to divert his soul. Thus he tried to cheat himself, rousing himself to
revenge, whilst the real cause of his bloody intentions, viz. the desire
of possessing Seltanetta, broke through every word.

In order to embolden himself for his crime, he drank deeply of wine, and
maddened, threw himself, with his gun, into the Colonel's tent; but
perceiving sentinels at the door, he changed his intention. The natural
feeling of self-preservation did not abandon him, even in his madness.
Ammalat put off till the morning the consummation of the murder; but he
could neither sleep nor distract his thoughts ... and re-entering his
tent, he seized Saphir Ali by the throat, who was lying fast asleep, and
shaking him roughly: "Get up, sleepy rascal!"; he cried to him, "it is
already dawn."

Saphir Ali raised his head in a discontented mood, and yawning,
answered: "I see only the dawn of wine on your cheek--good-night,
Ammalat!"

"Up, I tell you! The dead must quit their graves to meet the new-comer
whom I have promised to send to keep them company!"

"Why, brother, am I dead?... Even the _forty Imaums_[26] may get up from
the burial-ground of Derbend--but I will sleep."

[26] The Mussulmans believe, that in the northern burial-ground
of Derbend, are buried the forty first true believers, who were
martyred by the idolaters.

"But you love to drink, Giaour, and you must drink with me."

"That is quite another affair. Pour fuller, _Allah verdi_![27] I am
always ready to drink and to make love."

[27] God gave--Much good may it do you.

"And to kill an enemy!... Come, some more! A health to the devil!--who
changes friends into mortal enemies."

"So be it! Here goes, then, to the devil's health! The poor fellow wants
health. We will drive him into a consumption out of spite, because he
cannot make us quarrel!"

"True, true, he is always ready for mischief. If he had seen Verkhoffsky
and me, he would have thrown down his cards. But you, too, will not, I
hope, part from me?"

"Ammalat, I have not only quaffed wine from the same bottle with thee,
but I have drained milk from the same breast. I am thine, even if you
take it into your head to build yourself, like a vulture, a nest on the
rock of Khounzakh.... However, my advice wo