As a last resort, the puffed-up sea captain humbled himself and sent for me to discuss certain matters. To make clear to him my rank and standing I sent him word again that my door stood open if he wished to consult me, but that I could not spare the time to go running all round the harbor looking for him. After tugging his beard for three days he came, bringing with him my old friends Torgut and Sinan the Jew, who were as shocked as himself at the Sultan’s behavior. He looked about him with wonder at the marble steps of my landing stage and at my splendid house that rose dreamlike from terraces ablaze with flowers, though the autumn was far advanced.
“What a city!” he exclaimed. “Slaves live in gilded mansions and wear kaftans of honor, while a poor old man whose whole life has been devoted to increasing the Sultan’s honor on the high seas must creep in rags to the throne without winning so much as a kind word for all his labors.”
To give outward expression to his injured feelings he had put on a plain camlet kaftan, with only a little diamond crescent in his turban in token of his dignity. I attended him with all due honor into the house and bade him be seated. Then I set the cooks to work and summoned Abu el-Kasim and Mustafa ben-Nakir, that we might all confer together as in the old days in Algiers. They came promptly. Khaireddin sent for the wares he had brought from his ship and lavished on us presents of ivory, ostrich feathers, flowered gold brocade, and silver vessels adorned with Italian coats of arms. Sighing heavily he followed these up with a purse of gold for each of us.
“Let all discord between us be forgotten,” he said. “After bestowing these presents I’m a poor man and hardly know where my next meal is to come from. Forgive me for failing to recognize you when you came aboard my ship to greet me. I was already dazed by all the rejoicings-and then you’ve grown so much handsomer!”
When we had all eaten and drunk, Khaireddin at last came to the point and asked the meaning of the Sultan’s silence. I therefore told him frankly all I had heard in the Seraglio and reminded him that he had needlessly aroused the resentment of the sea pashas and offended even the gentle Piri-reis by deriding his model ships and his sandbox. And he had come too late, I said: the Grand Vizier was in Aleppo and in his absence the pashas gave the Sultan no peace. They told him he stained his honor by taking into his service a ruffianly pirate, when in the arsenal and Seraglio there were many experienced pashas who had served him long and faithfully without thought of reward. Khaireddin ought not to be trusted with war galleys, for he would only make off with them as his brother had done and fight less for the glory of Islam than for his own temporal profit.
I enlarged upon this and did my best to mimic the whining tones of the pashas until Khaireddin flushed, tore his beard, and sprang up exclaiming, “What foolish and wicked accusations! I have never done anything but labor for the greater glory of Islam. These raises in their silken kaftans who sit on dry land and play at battles with their maps and compasses and sandboxes! It would do them good to smell powder and burning pitch now and then. But thanklessness is all our reward in this world.”
At this point Giulia drew aside the curtain and stepped in, wearing her lovely golden-brown velvet dress and a pearl-sewn net over her hair. She feigned alarm, made as if to draw her diaphanous veil across her face, and exclaimed, “Oh, Michael, how you all startled me! Why did you not tell me we had guests-and such welcome guests, too! I couldn’t help overhearing something of what you were saying, and I shall therefore give you a piece of advice. Why do you not appeal to a certain exalted and sympathetic lady who has the Sultan’s ear? If you wish I can speak a word to her on your behalf, provided Khaireddin will beg forgiveness of her for his most wounding and inconsiderate behavior.”
Khaireddin demanded wrathfully how he could have offended Khurrem. He had presented her with ten thousand ducats’ worth of ornaments and fabrics-enough surely for the most pampered and exacting woman. But Giulia shook her head with a smile.
“How stupid you men are! One of Sultana Khurrem’s gowns alone costs ten thousand ducats, and she receives ten times that amount yearly in pin money from the Sultan. Your present is neither here nor there, but she was greatly incensed at the two hundred girls you sent, as if there were not already enough of the useless creatures in the harem, without your pock-marked, squinting scarecrows! The Sultana was obliged to distribute them among the governors of remote provinces. For many years past the Sultan has had no eyes for any woman but Khurrem, so you may fancy how you have hurt her. However, I have spoken on your behalf and assured her that being an uncultured seaman you’ve not yet learned how to behave in the Seraglio.”
Khaireddin was scarlet in the face and his eyes goggled as he cried, “I put my faith in the one God! With the eye of an expert I chose each one of those girls myself; they were lovely as the virgins of Paradise and as pure-that is, generally speaking. Even the most devoted husband may weary of one wife and whet his blunted desires elsewhere, only to return to her with the greater ardor. Yet if Khurrem- sultana is really able to keep her husband’s love to herself alone, then indeed I believe in her power and I’m sure that she can help me to the three horsehair switches that have been promised me.”
“But it was Ibrahim who summoned you hither!” I exclaimed in dismay. “It would be altogether wrong for you to be indebted to Sultana Khurrem for your advancement, and I suspect in this a subtle intrigue to humiliate the Grand Vizier.”
Giulia shook her head and there were tears in her eyes as she replied, “Ah, Michael, how little you trust me, though I’ve told you a thousand times-the Sultana bears no ill will to anyone! She has promised to speak to the Sultan on Khaireddin’s behalf and is willing to receive Khaireddin from behind the curtain. Let us go at once to the Seraglio, that the Kislar-Aga may prepare a reception for Khaireddin and his senior captains-for it would be well for Khaireddin to arrive at the Seraglio with a brilliant retinue, that all may witness the favor he enjoys.”
As Khaireddin’s former slave I went with them to watch developments on the Grand Vizier’s behalf. Our arrival at the Seraglio was unpromising, for the janissaries made scornful gestures and the eunuchs turned their backs, but by the time we took our departure the news had spread. Blessings now rained upon us and the janissaries sitting by their cooking pots sprang up and cheered. It was a plain indication of the influence that Sultana Khurrem now exerted in the Seraglio.
She spoke with Khaireddin from behind the curtain and laughed her rippling laughter. But having flattered him and told him that he was the only adversary worthy of Doria, she chattered on about trivial matters, to my great relief, and ordered her slave women to serve us with fruits preserved in honey. Nevertheless she promised to speak for Khaireddin to the Sultan.
“But,” said she, “the sea pashas are irascible old men, and I would not hurt their feelings. All I can do is to tell my lord of the excellent impression I have of you, great Khaireddin. I will chide him gently for so long neglecting to give you the reward you deserve. He may reply, ‘It was the Grand Vizier’s suggestion, not mine, and the sea pashas in the Divan opposed it.’ Then I shall say, ‘Let the Grand Vizier decide! If having seen Khaireddin he is of the same mind, then bestow at once on the great man the three horsehair switches you promised him, and show him honor.’ The Grand Vizier has full powers and not even a unanimous Divan can reverse his decision.”
I could hardly believe my ears. She was renouncing in favor of the Grand Vizier all the advantages she would have gained had Khaireddin been indebted to her for his promotion. Charmed by her voice and her purling laughter I began to think that jealousy alone had inspired the Grand Vizier’s opinion of this lovely woman.