' No, no! ' she cut him short. ' It would gain us nothing. Djezzar has long desired me and he is not the man to wait on ceremony. Now that he has my cousin's consent he will take no refusal. He will have the Imam pronounce the words over us whether I will or no. Then if I resist he will whip me until I consent to perform all the bestial acts that the women of his seraglio have told me he demands of them.'
' Then we must escape tonight.'
' Oh, if only we could,' she sobbed. ' But it is not possible.'
'It is,' Roger insisted. 'It must be. It would have been far easier to contrive had we had even a few days' warning. But we must do without. We'll manage somehow.'
'1 know you to be brave, but bravery is not enough she protested tearfully. 'They would catch us both and inflict some ghastly death upon you. It is my fate that I must suffer, but I'll not allow you to give your life to no purpose. You must remain here, continuing to pose as a eunuch. There is at least a chance that the French will take the city and you will be rescued before your imposture is discovered.'
' Oh, my sweet, courageous Zanthe! ' He turned her face up to his and kissed her tear-stained cheeks. ' What sort of man do you take me for to think that I would give you up to that brutal sadist while skulking here in safety? It would, I admit, be next to impossible for me to escape alone. For you to do so alone would be equally difficult. But together I have good hopes that we may.
You know the palace. You can judge at which exit we are likely to be faced with the fewest obstacles and guide me to it. I have the strength you lack to break down all but the strongest barriers. Provide me with a good weapon and, should our escape be opposed, I'll hack my way through half a dozen guards to carry you to safety.'
She closed her eyes and clung more fiercely to him. * My splendid love! My paladin! I know you would. I am blessed beyond all women that so fine a man should be willing to die for me. But we cannot escape! We cannot! There is a eunuch on duty day and night at the only entrance to these apartments. You could not kill him before he gave the alarm. Within a few moments the others would be upon you. Did you overcome them, that would still be only the beginning. Outside the door there is a sentry. Hearing the noise within he would summon the guard. Those Albanians are as brave as yourself and armed to the teeth. You could not possibly succeed in cutting a way for us through them. I should see you killed before my eyes. No, no! I would rather let Djezzar inflict what he will upon me.'
Til not have it,' Roger said firmly, 'and by the door is not the only way out. There is the balcony overlooking the harbour.'
' But it is thirty feet from the ground.'
' No matter. We will make a rope from the coverlets of divans. I will lower you by it and follow after. Quick now. We have no time to lose. You can rely on old Gezubb, can you not? Go now and get her to help you. I'll come down and join you the moment I have dressed.'
Zanth6 hesitated. ' Do you ... do you really think . . . ? '
'1 do indeed.' He gave her a quick kiss. ' Go now, I beg you. Find me a weapon, then start making a rope. It should be thick and the knots secure, otherwise it may part and one of us may break our neck.'
With sudden resolution she took her arms from around him and turned to the door. ' So be it, then. In the worst event we can but die together. I pray Allah to protect us.'
As soon as she had left him, Roger dressed. Over his eunuch's robes he put on his worn travelling coat and, kicking aside the sandals he had worn during his captivity, drew on his top boots. Tiptoeing from his room and down the stairs he entered Zanthe's apartments. Here and there a light had been left burning in one of the hanging lanterns and, knowing the rooms so well, he had no difficulty in finding his way to the main apartment. At the far end, to the right, there was a curtained archway that he knew led to Zanthe's sleeping chamber. He had never been in it but now, thrusting aside the curtain, he walked through to her.
The scent of jasmine hung heavily about it and it was furnished with the utmost luxury. But he hardly noticed that. To his relief he saw that Zanthe had already put on black robes similar to those in which he had first seen her and that she and her faithful negress were sitting side by side on the divan, making a rope from a hurriedly assembled assortment of silk materials.
As he entered the room Zanthe stood up. She handed him a scimitar, a curved dagger and the money-belt that had been taken from him. He buckled on the belt and examined the weapons, to find that both were razor-sharp. Then he said, ' We must keep our hands free, so can carry nothing with us. But take your jewels. Find a small bag to put them in, then tie it round your neck by a thick ribbon so that the bag is tight up under your left armpit.'
While Zanthe did as he bade her and drew on a pair of soft leather boots, Gezubb finished the rope to his satisfaction. Together they carried it out on to the balcony. For several minutes he peered over in the semi-darkness until he felt certain that the coast was clear, then he lashed one end of the rope securely to a pillar and put the other end in a loop round Zanthe's body below her arms. Gezubb, her eyes streaming with tears, knelt down and kissed her mistress's feet, while Roger kissed Zanthe on the mouth and told her that she had nothing to fear. Then she threw her legs over the balustrade of the balcony. Roger and Gezubb took the strain on the knotted rope and lowered her to the ground. The rope slackened and she called up to them in a low voice that all was well. Giving the weeping negress a friendly pat on the shoulder, Roger grasped the rope firmly and went down it hand over hand.
When he reached Zanthe, he peered anxiously into the shadows on either side, while old Gezubb pulled up the rope behind them so that it should not be discovered. The moon was up, but low in the sky; so he could not see far by its light. But this side of the great fortress palace had remained secure from attack and every available man was now needed to guard the garden side; so Roger was hoping that even if sentries normally patrolled the seafront they would now have been withdrawn.
The day's battle had long since died down. Occasionally there came a solitary shot or a short burst of musketry as a sentry on one side or the other imagined that he saw enemies approaching out of the darkness. After a few moments Roger took Zanthd's arm and said:
' Come, beloved, we must now to try to find a boat.'
' A boat! ' she echoed in surprise. ' Surely it would be rash to leave the harbour and try to make our way along the coast. We might be captured by the British.'
Now that an escape from Djezzar's palace had been forced upon Roger, the fact that the French had not yet taken Acre had, during the past hour, caused him to change his plans completely. As matters stood it would be difficult and dangerous to attempt to reach the French, whereas it should prove comparatively easy to get taken aboard a British ship. Drawing her forward, he said:
' That is just what I intend. We must place ourselves under the protection of Sir Sidney Smith as soon as possible.'
' But,' she objected, ' as a Frenchman they will make you a prisoner-of-war.'
There was no time to start explaining to her the complicated ramifications of the life he had long been leading; so he replied quickly, ' No matter. The English are chivalrous people. They will do me no harm, and placing ourselves in their hands is by far the simplest way of saving you from Djezzar.'
' No, no! You are mistaken,' she cried, pulling back. ' The English are Djezzar's allies. When he learns that I have fled he will be berserk with rage and have a search made for me everywhere. It would be impossible to conceal the fact that I have taken refuge on a British ship. The news that a Turkish lady had been brought aboard by a French Colonel would swiftly spread. Djezzar would demand my return and the English Admiral would have to hand me over.'