nor's daughter. She
was dark, almost as dark as my people. Her eyes were black as night,
with long, drooping lashes, and her hair fell about her shapely neck,
a mass of waving curls. She was tall and stately, and her bearing was
haughty. The mighty Laksamana, who had fought a hundred battles, and
had a hundred wives picked from the princesses of the kingdom,--for
there were none so noble but felt honored in his smiles,--loved this
dark-skinned foreigner. It was pitiful!

"His great fleet, which was to have swept the very name of the
Portuguese from the face of the earth, lay idle before the harbor. Its
captains were burning with ambition, but the Admiral would not give
the command, and they dare not disobey.

"Day after day went by while the great man hung like a pariah dog
on the words of his haughty captive. She scorned his words of love,
laughed at his prayers, and sneered at his devotion. Day after day the
sun beat down on the burnished decks of the war praus. Night after
night the evening gun in the besieged fort sent forth its mocking
challenge: still the Dato made no motion. Oh, but it was pitiful! One
by one the praus slipped away,--first those from Acheen, and then
those from Johore,--but the valiant Laksamana saw them not. He was
blind to all save one. Then she spoke: 'If thou lovest me as thou
boastest, and would win my smiles, send me to my father; then go
and bring me of this gold of Ophir,--for the Dato had laid his heart
bare before her,--enough to sink yon boat. The daughter of a Braganza
does not unite herself with a pauper. When the moon is full again,
I will expect you.'

"So did the Laksamana, to the everlasting shame of Islam. When the
moon was full he returned in his shining prau before the walls of
Malacca, He brought from Ophir, of gold more than enough; of the
pearls of Ceylon he brought a chupah full to the brim. He robbed
his great palace, that he might lay at the feet of the Portuguese a
fortune such as Solomon only ever saw. And yet the captains of his
fleet cared not for the gold, so long as the mighty Dato saved his
honor. When he left for the quay, on which stood the Governor, his
daughter, and the priests of their religion, they said not a word,
for he passed by with averted face; but each man grasped the jewelled
handle of his kris, and swore to Allah under his breath that should
but one hair of the mighty Admiral's head be lacking when he returned,
they would cut the false heart fr