"What does the
old hag mean? Knock again, Mustapha."
Mustapha reiterated his blows."
"Ay--knock--knock--my door is like my mouth; I open it when I choose,
and I keep it shut when I choose, as once was well known. The time has
been--the time has been."
"We have been a long time standing here, and I am tired of waiting; so,
Mustapha, I think the time is come to kick the door open. Let it be
done."
Whereupon Mustapha put his foot to the door, but it resisted his
efforts. "Let me assist," said the pacha, and retreated a few paces; he
and Mustapha backed against the door with all their force. It flew open,
and they rolled together on the floor of the hovel. The old woman
screamed, and then, jumping on the body of the pacha, caught him by the
throat, crying, "Thieves; murder!" Mustapha hastened to the assistance
of his master, as did the two black slaves, when they heard the cries,
and with some difficulty the talons of the old Jezebel were disengaged
from the throat of the pacha, who, in his wrath, would have immediately
sacrificed her. "Lahnet be Shitan! Curses on the devil!" exclaimed the
pacha; "but this is pretty treatment for a pacha."
"Knowest thou, vile wretch, that thou hast taken by the throat, and
nearly strangled, the Lord of Life--the pacha himself," said Mustapha.
"Well," replied the old woman, coolly, "the time has been--the time has
been."
"What meanest thou, cursed hag, that 'the time has been'?"
"I mean that the time has been, when I have had more than one pacha
strangled.
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