At that there rose a general cry of 'God forbid!' while one explained:

'It were a sin to refuse such a thing to a poor man in need who came
and begged for it in Allah's name. But men who take by stealth or
force are different. Think if your Honour had destroyed that thief,
the rascal would not now be robbing poorer folk, less able to sustain
the loss! Suppose that bag of lentils had been all you had! There may
be people in the world as poor as that.'

'Why should I kill a man who offered me no violence?' I asked
defiantly.

'Why should you not do so, when the man is evidently wicked?'

'Why do the Franks object to killing wicked people?' asked the
coffee-seller with a laugh. 'Why do they nourish good and bad in their
society?'

'It is because they are without religion,' muttered one man in his
beard.

An elder of superior rank, who overheard, agreed with him, pronouncing
in a tone of gentle pity:

'It is because they lose belief in Allah and the life to come. They
deem this fleeting life the only one vouchsafed to man, and death the
last and worst catastrophe that can befall him. When they have killed
a man they think they have destroyed him quite; and, as each one of
them fears such destruction for himself if it became the mode, they
condemn killing in their laws and high assemblies. We, when we kill a
person, know that it is not the end. Both killed and killer will be
judged by One who knows the secrets of men's breasts. The killed is
not deprived of every hope. For us, death is an incident: for them,
the end. Moreover, they have no idea of sacrifice. Killing, with them,
is always the result of hate.'

'What does your Honour mean by that last saying?' I inquired with
warmth.

The old man smiled on me indulgently as he made answer sadly:

'Be not offended if we speak our mind before you. We should not do so
if we wished you ill. Here, among us, it is not an unheard-of thing
for men to kill the creatures they love best on earth; nor do men
blame them when, by so doing, they have served the cause of God, which
is the welfare of mankind. Thus it was of old the rule, approved of
all the world, that every Sultan of the line of Othman had to kill his
brothers lest they should rise against him and disturb the peace of
all the realm. Was it not like depriving life of all its sweetness
thus to destroy their youth's companions and their nearest kin? Yet,
though their hearts were in the bodies of their victims, th