Murad the Unlucky and Other Tales | Page 9

of tobacco
and of opium; but in most of my brother Turks it arose from the
confidence which the belief in predestination inspired. When a bullet
killed one of their companions, they only observed, scarcely taking the
pipes from their mouths, 'Our hour is not yet come: it is not the will of
Mahomet that we should fall.'
"I own that this rash security appeared to me, at first, surprising, but it
soon ceased to strike me with wonder, and it even tended to confirm

my favourite opinion, that some were born to good and some to evil
fortune. I became almost as careless as my companions, from following
the same course of reasoning. 'It is not,' thought I, 'in the power of
human prudence to avert the stroke of destiny. I shall perhaps die
to-morrow; let me therefore enjoy to-day.'
"I now made it my study every day to procure as much amusement as
possible. My poverty, as you will imagine, restricted me from
indulgence and excess, but I soon found means to spend what did not
actually belong to me. There were certain Jews who were followers of
the camp, and who, calculating on the probability of victory for our
troops, advanced money to the soldiers, for which they engaged to pay
these usurers exorbitant interest. The Jew to whom I applied traded
with me also, upon the belief that my brother Saladin, with whose
character and circumstances he was acquainted, would pay my debts if
I should fall. With the money I raised from the Jew I continually
bought coffee and opium, of which I grew immoderately fond. In the
delirium it created I forgot all my misfortunes, all fear of the future.
"One day, when I had raised my spirits by an unusual quantity of opium,
I was strolling through the camp, sometimes singing, sometimes
dancing, like a madman, and repeating that I was not now Murad the
Unlucky. Whilst these words were on my lips, a friendly spectator, who
was in possession of his sober senses, caught me by the arm, and
attempted to drag me from the place where I was exposing myself. 'Do
you not see,' said he, 'those soldiers, who are firing at a mark? I saw
one of them, just now, deliberately taking aim at your turban; and
observe, he is now reloading his piece.' My ill luck prevailed even at
this instant--the only instant in my life when I defied its power. I
struggled with my adviser, repeating, 'I am not the wretch you take me
for; I am not Murad the Unlucky.' He fled from the danger himself; I
remained, and in a few seconds afterwards a ball reached me, and I fell
senseless on the sand.
"The ball was cut out of my body by an awkward surgeon, who gave
me ten times more pain than was necessary. He was particularly hurried
at this time, because the army had just received orders to march in a
few hours, and all was confusion in the camp. My wound was
excessively painful, and the fear of being left behind with those who
were deemed incurable added to my torments. Perhaps, if I had kept

myself quiet, I might have escaped some of the evils I afterwards
endured; but, as I have repeatedly told you, gentlemen, it was my ill
fortune never to be able to judge what was best to be done till the time
for prudence was past.
"During the day, when my fever was at the height, and when my orders
were to keep my bed, contrary to my natural habits of indolence, I rose
a hundred times, and went out of my tent in the very heat of the day, to
satisfy my curiosity as to the number of the tests which had not been
struck, and of the soldiers who had not yet marched. The orders to
march were tardily obeyed, and many hours elapsed before our
encampment was raised. Had I submitted to my surgeon's orders, I
might have been in a state to accompany the most dilatory of the
stragglers; I could have borne, perhaps, the slow motion of a litter, on
which some of the sick were transported; but in the evening, when the
surgeon came to dress my wounds, he found me in such a situation that
it was scarcely possible to remove me.
"He desired a party of soldiers, who were left to bring up the rear, to
call for me the next morning. They did so; but they wanted to put me
upon the mule which I recollected, by a white streak on its back, to be
the cursed animal that had kicked me whilst I was looking for the ring.
I could not be prevailed upon to go upon this unlucky