The Picture: Constanza's Capitulation

Time – Late 18 th Century, Place – Harem of the Sublime Porte, Istanbul

Introduction

Mozart got it all wrong.  But then he was a man, and he was an infidel, and he had never seen the inside of a seraglio.  In fact he had never talked to anyone who had been inside a harem.  Actually all the events he based his opera on had taken place well before he was even born.  And he left me, probably the most important actor in the drama, out of his opera.  Mozart focused it on that stupid Constanza who was no more than my tool and my toy.  It was probably because he was thinking of his vacuous blond wife when he wrote music for the concubine's part.  And the poor Austrian composer sadly underestimated Blonde the serving girl who had ten times the brains and courage of her mistress.  However, I didn't and Blonde still serves me. But remember, my son became the next Pasha and that is what counts.  Constanza , in the end, provided me with nothing more than a pair of slippers and gloves.

Part I - Pasha Selim

Pasha Selim was of course the center of it all.  He was, after all, technically the ruler of the largest and richest empire on Earth.  Theoretically the empire of the Ottoman Turks stretched from the Atlantic Coast of Morocco to Mughal India and from the Sudan to the Balkans.  And Selim was its Pasha.  Realistically though, most of this empire paid little heed to the Sublime Porte.  The Islamic emirates of the Southern Mediterranean coast gave only the merest lip-service to Istambul .  The Mughal emperors of India had not paid homage in almost two hundred years.  Egypt, Greece and Persia were getting restless under Turkish rule.  About the only provinces that the Pasha could regard as loyal were Anatolia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and the Balkans.  Still this is not an inconsiderable expanse, larger than any kingdom of infidels.

But my poor husband Selim was not all-powerful in this limited domain.  First of all, the actual administration of our loyal territories is by the provincial governors who have very little respect for what Istanbul decrees, even in the matter of providing troops and tax tribute.  On top of this, civil administration is really province of the Grand Vizier.  The Pasha is supposed to be a military leader.   Now the Grand Vizier is a eunuch.  However, the last hundred years or so, the Vizier has been selected from the male offspring of a closely intermarried group of families.  These families also supply the young girls from among whom are selected the four wives of the Pasha.  Without armies and money the job of the Pasha - go out and conquer - has become a joke.  And as the job has become a joke so has the man.  It has been a hundred years since we stood before the gate of Vienna while the infidels trembled.  And it has probably been a hundred years since a real man sat the throne of the Sublime Porte on the shores of the Golden Horn.  Now he sits in his harem and we his four wives bicker and scheme for his favor.

At the time of this story Selim was actually a handsome man.  When Constanza came into our lives he was not the elderly corpulent buffoon usually depicted on the stage.  He was in fact a fine figure of man although not exactly hung like a bull.  His mustache and beard were neatly trimmed and he allowed us to dress him well, although he resisted sumptuous garb.  His fatal flaw was that he had nothing to do.  The Grand Vizier, my first cousin on my mother's side and my second cousin on my father's side, did not bother Selim with the nasty details of government and insulated him from petitioners who would only cause my husband upset.  In reality, Selim seldom set foot outside the Seraglio and its twenty acres of inner courtyards.  Instead he heavily indulged in the hooka and a bubble pipe was ever at his side.  One benefit of being supreme in a vast Middle East empire was having access to every form of formidable hashish.  I myself have never cared for the resin.  After the age of fifteen when he assumed the thone , Selim probably never had a whole day with a clear head.  Well, that was not his task in our society.  His job was to father a son to carry on the line.  For that purpose he had the four wives permitted by the Koran.  In that respect he was observant.  And in never touching alcohol.  And in the first few years of his reign, he did pay some attention to us and fathered many children.  Three with his number one wife, Fatima , one with me, Miriam, and two each with wives number three and four.  Unfortunately, except for my Mahmoud , they were all girls.  Actually there were a number of male babies born but all of them except for my Mahmoud , did at birth or within a day or so of birth.  Very unfortunate for them.  But at the time of our story, Mahmoud was not yet conceived.

And then there were the concubines.  But more of that later.

Part II – Constanza's Origins

 She came from an excellent family, dukes, rulers of a tiny German principality.  She was raised in ignorance of intrigue.  She was pampered and her every whim indulged.  Of the brutality inherent in all ruling classes she knew nothing.  She knew even less of the harsh lives that the vast majority of humans suffered.  When she was fourteen years old she was betrothed to an Italian prince of the two Sicilies and a year later was sent off to his parents capital.  It happened as always happens in such tales.  Her ship, on the way from Trieste to Naples was blown out to sea in a storm and later becalmed.  Sitting in a glassy sea it was happened across by a fleet of Barbary galleys.  

The captain and crew of the sloop threw themselves into the sea rather than be captured.  They drowned to a man which was a mercy compared to the lot of a galley slave. Constanza's duenna, whom the girl regarded as an ancient though in fact she only 30 years old, met the pirates at the gangplank.  She glared defiantly at them and recited in both German, French and Italian the young noblewoman's qualities and ancestors as well as the credentials of the three Italian noblewomen escorting her to their relatives.  For this effort, the lady was swiftly stripped.  Then her sex and anus were raped and her nipples bitten off by over two-dozen pirates.  She was allowed to bleed to death on the deck in front of the horrified Constanza , her maid, and her three Italian ladies in waiting.  The duenna was to be an abject lesson. Because in this case, the chief of the corsairs was a bey .  He was all too aware of the beauty and value of his catch and forbade his men from immediately having their pleasure with the young women.  Instead they sent a young Turk of noble birth as an envoy off to Naples demanding a fittingly large ransom.  The cruel and callous Italians castrated and flayed the corsairs' envoy and cast his still breathing body into the sea.  They drank sweet yellow wine and listened to his screams as he died.  They drafted a reply stating that they would meet the Barbary pirates in battle at sea and called upon the Sublime Porte to reprimand their emir.  They vowed that if one hair of their daughters' heads were harmed, they would burn Algiers and Tunis to the ground.  The message was wrapped around the envoy's genitals and tossed aboard the pirates' messenger vessel.  After this, the Barbary pirates sold Constanza and the ladies-in-waiting to my father, the representative of the Sublime Porte in Tunis, and suggested that she would be a suitable tribute from Barbary to the throne.

My father was not intimidated by the Neopolitans .  He summoned the company of mercenaries who comprised his loyal bodyguard.  The young ladies were brought before him and his troops.  He instructed the women to all disrobe.  When they refused he had two soldiers hold each of them securely while my mother's maids carefully undressed each of them, tearing not a single seam nor popping a single button or hook.  Even their shoes and stockings were removed, excepting only the ribbons in their hair.  Then he had the three ladies-in-waiting tied to chairs.  He instructed his barber to ever so carefully shave their heads, removing their hair without disturbing their coiffure.  He had their clothing neatly folded and placed in three separate boxes and the hairpieces placed on top.  Then with the scourge, the three young ladies were given a mosaic number of lashes, that is two score less one.  Their bleeding bodies were assaulted by a dozen of his troops although he forbad them to abuse them to death.  Then he gave orders to three of fastest, most powerful Ottoman galleys.  Each was to take one of the Italian girls and transport her back to Italy, dropping her off at a small, poorly-defended coastal city.  Along the way, each day the noblewoman was to be beaten and abused in a different way than she was the previous day.  But not allowed to die.  If she perished he would have the captain flayed.  And on the voyage, each day, the girl's head was shaved.  When the three fleets reached Italy they sacked the three appointed towns.  They killed all the men and ate the flesh of their dogs.  The children they enslaved.  The women, no matter how old, they raped.  Afterwards they left a lady-in-waiting with the degraded women.  And so was the first part of my father's decree done.

Part III – Constanza's At The Sublime Porte

Thus, almost two years after she set out from Germany, I met Constanza .  My father had been called back to Istanbul and congratulated by the Vizier, who happened to be his cousin.  My father had met the Italian insult and done them one better.  The Vizier laughed until he lost control of his bladder at the thought of the Italian's receiving their daughters' intact hair and their ravaged beyond belief daughters.  The girls had all gone mad from their abuse.  When he saw the beauty of my father's gift, the eunuch summoned me from the palace.  Few infidels realize that the wife of the pasha can leave the seraglio but only to visit her closest family and then only with a massive retinue.  Since my father was the most powerful man in the western empire and my cousin was the Vizier, none would argue with them.  And Selim was too befuddled to care.   

When I arrived, the Vizier told Constanza and her maid, whose name was Blondie, to strip.  After the horrors that they had witnessed, they complied.  I was bemused by the grace with which the seventeen year old young woman removed her cumbersome western infidel apparel, albeit with the help of her maid. Constanza had a slim but beautiful body.  Her breasts, although fully developed, were not large but never-the-less immediately attracted the stares of all the men.  Even my cousin the Grand Vizier.  Pleasing breasts although not as voluptuous as mine.  Very pleasing nipples, although not as large as mine.  Her buttocks were feminine and her legs slim.  Above it all was a crown of long curly yellow hair.  Constanza was clearly a thing of wonder to behold.  She was instructed to sit on the end of a chaise lounge, lie back and spread her legs.  These were then lifted and further spread by two of my slave maidens to facilitate my inspection.  I first visually examined her nether region and then thoroughly explored her manually.  I reported, to my amazement and the amazement of all that she was flawless.  No scars and a virgin intact!  My father retorted that the corsairs obviously feared him worse than they feared the Italians or even Allah himself.  When he said he wanted a present fit for the Pasha, he meant it.

Blonde, Constanza's hand-maid was also examined.  She had a remarkable fluency with language and in the year and a half of her captivity had acquired a passable command of not only Arabic but also our somewhat more difficult Turkish language.  She said that she was nineteen, two years older than Costanza , and had she served her since she was eleven and Constanza was nine.  Blonde, as befitting her name also had yellow hair, but while Constanza's hair was a dark yellow, Blonde's hair, even her nether hair, was pale yellow.  Blonde's body was full and voluptuous, ever fuller than mine.  Her breasts were large as were her hips and thighs.  Suprisingly , at that time, her waist was narrow, smaller in fact than was Constanza's .  Of course, in later years this waist thickened and Blonde became quite corpulent.  But that is another story.  My final amazement was that Blonde too, had an unbroken hymen.  Quite a matched pair for my Selim , two blond infidel virgins, one of high rank.

So my father, my cousin and I sat down and discussed our plans over several glasses of truly superb red Hungarian wine.  For although the Magyars had thrown off our yoke, they were willing to trade to us their “Bull's Blood”.  We jokingly maintained that since the infidels called it “bulls blood” it could not come under the Prophet's injunction forbidding the fruit of the vine.  Obviously, we would gain favor from my husband by presenting him with a beautiful and exotic concubine.  However, she must be used to manipulate Selim but not to the point where he became so besotted with her that she would bend him to her wishes.  And above all he must never stud a son upon a concubine.  Even though the spawn of a concubine should not be in line for the throne, yet such offspring might always be used to complicate matters during times of turmoil.  Long into the night we discussed family matters and just before we broke we decided to present Constanza to the Pasha early in the morning when he was relatively clear headed.  We had the infidel brought in and bade her maid to make Constanza thoroughly clean.  For presentation to Selim she would be garbed in her most sumptuous dress, the one that she would have worn for her presentation to the court in Naples.  I figured that nothing would get my husband's attention like the slow and elegant removal of so many layers of clothing, ribbons, lace and lacings.  It was so nice to be able to explain this to the maid without the intermediary of an interpreter.  This would be interesting.

Part IV – Constanza's Presentation

One hour before dawn, I marched with my retinue from the Palace of the Sublime Porte to the Palace of the Grand Vizier where my father was staying.  When shortly after having married Selim I first received permission to leave the Sublime Harem in order to give greetings to my family I was embarrassed by the fuss and throng of retainers I was forced to take with me.  Yes, I realized that the whole point of the whole thing was to make sure that a large enough crowd went with me so that I could not ever be intimate with any man.  Still, two hand maids, five ladies-in-waiting, six common maids to carry the canopy over my head, ten eunuchs of the 2 nd grade, and fifty janissaries seemed a little much.  Eventually I realized my place and the meaning of it all.  Now, I never leave the palace with less than 200.  I love to tease my cousin the Grand Vizier about it.  Because his palace is the only place I ever meet any of my family.  And he has to provide meals for my retinue.  Well, he can afford it.  

At dawn I met my father in the outermost courtyard of the Dark Palace.  By his side stood Constanza in a yellow gown with a yellow lace veil over her head.  Since my marriage it has been forbidden for me to embrace my father, so I stood three feet away and bowed as low as my status would allow.  “How are you honored and beloved father” I inquired.  “Happy to submit to the will of God” he replied and continued “and how is my daughter beloved of his Sublime Majesty?”  “I am happy to bask in the light of the Sublime one” I responded and replied “and how is the most beloved of my brothers?”  Father said “he resides, tended to by forty maidens, in the bosom of Allah”.  We would never forget.  Finally after the pain cleared from his eyes he got down to the purpose of the day.  “Daughter of mine and Second Wife of the Pasha, I present to you for presentation to our lord, the fruit of the West, an Infidel Daughter of a Mighty Infidel King, a worthless piece of porcine feces compared to the might of our Majesty.  I beg you to offer it for his pleasure.”  “Esteemed father” I replied “and most powerful servant of our Majesty, come with me and enter into the deepest fastness of the Sublime Porte so that you may gaze upon our Pasha who few can behold without involuntary urination and defecation.”  Then we both turned to our cousin the Grand Vizier and invited “Come with us external manipulator of the power of our Pasha and assist us in presenting this offspring of swine to the Great One.”

So an hour after dawn we set out back to the seraglio.  Fifty of the Vizier's Nubian guards, eunuchs of the 3 rd grade, wearing only loin cloths on this cold fall day, their bodies glistening from olive oil.  Their muscles bulged since they were made less than men only when fully grown.  And their loincloths bulged since only their balls were removed from their scrotums.  They occupied all of their time in exercise in order to maintain their muscle tone.  And I can assure you that they were capable of erections despite the fact that they could not father children.  Then marched my father and my cousin, waving to the crowd that had assembled following my predawn trip to the Black Palace.  And my male relatives rewarded the homage of the crowd by tossing copper coins to them.  Which is why the crowd had assembled in the first place and gave such an enthusiastic welcome.  Then came my one hundred Crimean janissaries, light of skin but with slanted eyes.  Children of infidels, taken at age five and brought up to know nothing but obedience to the Sublime Porte.  Silence greeted their passage for their were the Pasha's own personal bodyguard and they were accorded the same respect as the Sublime himself.  Then I walked under my canopy, the sides of which were veiled so that none could look directly upon me, the Pasha's number two wife.  Immediately behind be were the two blond-haired infidels in their exotic finery.  Every neck craned to view them for their presence was exotic even here in Istanbul, the crossroads of the world.  Lastly came one hundred of my father's mercenaries who drew cheers from the crowd because they represented the only military victory we had won in a decade.  Even though it be only the sacking of three defenseless villages by a distant sea.  The mercenaries were in town and soon the forbidden wine would flow in a few select taverns.  And strumpets would entertain for far more than their usual price.

When we reached the outer precincts of the palace the Vizier's black guard and my father's mercenaries stopped and were offered food and drink.  None but the imperial janissaries would enter the palace grounds proper bearing weapons.  Thus diminished we enter the Harem of the Sublime Porte.  After passage through a dozen corridors we approached the chamber where my husband was to receive us whereupon the remaining guards returned to the outer precincts.  For it was forbidden for intact men to remain long so deep within the seraglio and besides they wanted to join in the festivities with the other soldiers.  The chamber that Selim had chosen to meet us in was surprisingly shoddy for the favorite abode of the most powerful potentate on earth.  The furniture was decrepit, the plaster falling off the walls and there was no sign of the artistic treasures that four hundred years of empire had accumulated.  About the only thing that was well maintained was his hookah.  Fortunately, since it was two hours after dawn he had just arisen and had not yet had his first water-pipe full.  His eyes, for once, glistened alertly.  

My husband the pasha began the conversation for it was forbidden for anyone else to speak first. “Well, well!  My second wife, my Grand Vizier and my most esteemed Grand Envoy of the Supreme Porte, terror of the infidels, I understand that you are bringing me a prize and a gift.”  I dropped to my knees and bowed until my nipples brushed the mosaic tile floor.  I motioned forward the two young women.  “Well, well indeed, a most unusual deed has been accomplished by our Admiral General.  But I see that they do not observe the custom, here in the harem, that women do not appear before me with their busoms covered.”  I, of course, had discarded my cloak before entering his chamber baring my magnificent breasts with their huge nipples and wide dark brown areolae .  I explained, “my beloved husband, bull of Allah, these two are ignorant of our ways being infidel virgins.  And besides we wished to show before you the sumptuous splendor of their native dress, in particular that of the veiled who is a queen of Germanic infidels sent to be married to a king of Italian infidels.  Behold their beauty.”  

I nodded to them and Blonde stepped forward and slowly began to disrobe.  As befits a maid she was dressed in a simple straw-colored peasant dress, with her bosom encased in a tan bustier.  With her eyes downcast she unlaced the front-closing bustier and handed it to the eunuch standing behind her. Ah, we was proceeding as I instructed her.  Then she unloosed the drawstring chinching the neck of her dress and drew her dress down over her hips, dropping it to the floor and stepping out of it.  The light dress was quickly removed by the eunuch.  Blonde stood there in her off-white linen shift and simple petticoat.  The petticoat was slowly untied and dropped, revealing a set of white drawers.  The tape securing the drawers around Blonde's waist was also slowly untied and the drawers removed one leg at a time.  The servant was now clad only in shift, stockings and slippers.  Lastly, she untied the ribbon lacing together the front of her shift, slid the straps off her shoulders and deliberately lowered this last remaining undergarment revealing momentarily her massive breast and blonde thatched mons . Modestly Bonlde covered her nipples with her right forearm and her sex with her left hand.  I bowed once again, tickling my nipples on the chill tiles and said, “May I present a humble hand maiden, unworthy of your concern.  I thought it improper for her to be overdressed when disrobing her lady.”

Blonde took the my hint and began to undress Constanza .  First she removed the cloak, decorated with gold and silver thread and handed it to a waiting eunuch.  Then she removed from Constanza's waist the girdle inlaid with precious stones.  Going in back of her mistress, Blonde began to unhook the back of her mistresses gold brocade dress, a process that took some time.  Once she had accomplished that task, from the back she took the hands that Constanza had crossed over her chest and lowered them to the noblewoman's side.  Then the maid slid the gown over Constanza's shoulders and down her body until the stiff cloth was bundled on the ground.  The maid told her mistress to step forward for further inspection by the Pasha.  Selim had heard of the complexity of western garb but he had never encountered it up close before.  He beheld a blond with her camisole bound about with a stout corset and her petticoats projected out to the sides by a panier completely distorting the girls figure.  Blonde instructed Constanza to turn around several times so that the eastern potentate could see her from every angle.  Then the servant began the task of unlacing the back of Constanza's corset.  Much to our amazement, when the corset was removed, the young noblewoman's breasts did not sag in the least, such was the splendor of her youth.  Before the crinoline petticoat could be removed, Blonde had to reach up under it and unfasten the pannier that splayed the petticoat out to the sides.  Finally the voluminous underskirt could be released.  This revealed Constanza clad in a surprisingly brief camisole and drawers.  Blonde undid the tabs at the back of the drawers and drew them down over the thighs and calves of the girl revealing the bright yellow patch decorating her mistress's pubis.  It took a bit of effort to get the narrow leg openings of the lower undergarment over Constanza's ankles and shoes, which afforded tantalizing glimpses of the girl's sex.  Finally, the servant removed the bulky footwear and her mistress stood there clad only in a skimpy camisole and hose.  I wondered how Blonde would remove her mistresses extremely close fitting camisole with the elegance that had accompanied the disrobing so far.  Blonde bowed low to my husband and approached on her hands and knees.  With her head touching the floor she asked in passable Turkish if she could borrow my husband's small dagger.  We all sucked in our breath.  But he only laughed and flipped it out in front of her.  Blonde walked over to Constanza and cut the shoulder straps of her camisole and then slit it right down the center from in between her breasts to the hem just at the navel.  Blonde whipped off the cut garment and flipped it to the waiting eunuch and handed the Pasha's knife over to the Grande Vizier.  She turned to my husband and said in crude Turkish “Never again will milady come before you other than as a bare-breasted supplicant”.  We were all shocked into silent amazement.

To say the least, my plans had been totally disrupted by the clever handmaiden, but I recovered quickly.  I had to bring the audience to an end before my husband's mind wandered off into some obscure path.  “Would you like to inspect your gift more closely my stallion to verify that she is truly a virgin.”  I could see that he had lost all interest in the lady compared to the serving girl.  “No, No, I trust you my buxom nightingale” he said to me, just make sure that she is still intact when you bring her to me for my pleasure.  And make sure her skin is still creamy and smooth when I see her next.”  My husband had obviously caught word of some of the chastisements I had been handing out to the concubines as part of their training.  “But my pizzle of the elephant, may I at least be allowed to train her to the standards of performance expected by a good daughter of Islam” I implored.  “Let me turn her into a good Muslim girl.”  He responded “Very well, see to it.  I assume you will train her to put her lips to good use”.  Ah ha!  His fondness for fellatio was becoming more pronounced.  I replied “I will make sure this worthless concubine will pleasure you to the ultimate degree”.  I would take advantage of his weakness.  Then he added, “You may graze this blond cow among your maids” he said, referring to Blonde “I'm am sure she will provide ample amusement.  But remember, don't bring me any more concubines that have been flogged half to death.  At least not for the first time they are to pleasure me.  After that, you can do with them what you will if I have no further use for them.”  At that point he had one of his eunuchs filled the bowl of the hubble bubble with red resin and brought a coal from the brazier that was taking the chill from the room.  As the Pasha exhaled the first smoke we bowed and backed out of the room taking our two flaxen-haired young ladies with us.  My husband would not be attentive to very much for the rest of the day.

Part V – Constanza's Training

A week later my father visited me.  For purposes of formal respectability such visits always took place in the middle of the courtyard of my part of the seraglio when one and all could see that no untoward behavior of a sexual sort was being engaged in by the Pasha's wife.  Besides it was one of those rare days in late fall when the sun was shining brightly but the air was cool and refreshing.  We sat on a divan covered in richly embroidered pillows while being served a Tokay wine from Hungary and white grapes brought by express courier from Slovenia.  A bit of goat cheese and olives from Greece rounded out the mid day repast.  I began, “I am glad that you were able to come.  Were you able to bring along the slave that I requested.”  My father looked at me, as displeased as one can look at a daughter who is the second or third most powerful person in the empire.  “Rumors of some of your indulgences have reached to even outside the palace.  You should be more careful of what you do.  Yes I brought the slave.”  He nodded his head toward a handsome young man standing by the edge of the cloister.  “Oh father, thank you so much.  Things here in the palace are strange and I must adapt to the situation.  Selim is hard to please and harder to excite.  Fatima has had five children by him and those three that are still living are all girls.  He says that when she walks into the room, his prick shrivels up.  The living children of his two wives lesser than me are both girls but they still keep trying.  How long until he tires of them.  I manage to keep him excited.  Because I keep him enthralled, the other three are jealous.  What happens when he will service none of us wives?  He will turn to his concubines for sons and the Sublime Porte will shake to its foundations.  Concubines for breeding, it makes me sweat.  No I must pursue my policy of getting his penis wooden with concubine games and then riding him.  So if others think me scandalous let only his member stay stiff and all will work out for the best.”  My father still shook his head. “Indulge me” I pleaded.

After the midday repast was cleared off the low table of Moroccan inlay a brazier was brought out followed by the two blond infidels, a woman in a cloak, and my physician.  Constanza was wearing nothing but a diaphanous wrapper.  Blonde was dressed in more conventional garb.  Silken drawers and a close fitting top of matching silk that left her midriff bare.  After they approached I addressed Blonde who translated for Constanza who stubbornly refused to learn any language other than German.  “Today your education will continue.  Earlier this week I explained to you the ways in which a woman may give pleasure to a man, a subject that you are singularly ignorant of.  Today you will receive your first practical lesson.”  I waited as Blonde explained things and I was not heartened by the look of shock on the face of the slim flaxen-haired beauty.  I continued “About all you learned before coming here was that the female plays a passive role and the man inserts his member and moves it in and out until he achieves pleasure.  He may make use either of the opening that Allah provided for procreation or into the opening through which solid waste passes.  Your practical experience in these matters is limited to watching your duenna being raped to death and the defilement of your three ladies in waiting.  I understand that throughout most of this time you were covering your eyes with your hands.”  By the time this was translated, Constanza's face was beet red.  I continued “In any case, vaginal or anal intercourse is not what I have in mind for you.  There are plenty of pussies and ass-holes for the Pasha to probe in this harem already.  You have a bit of novelty but that won't serve us long”.  I was pleased to note that Blonde could pick up the differences between the proper, formal nouns for the love holes and the street words for the orifices.  The deepening of Constanza's blush suggested that the translation was accurate.  I wondered where the buxom maid was learning her Turkish.  I instructed further.  “What I need is for my husband to become very excited.  Once he has achieved a proper degree of excitement, I can take over and take advantage of his male desires.  Do you understand.”  Constanza looked profoundly shocked.  Very good translation.  Lastly I explained “Failure to achieve adequate performance will have very serious consequences.  Constanza , my master has forbade me to whip you.  He does not want those portions of you skin that can be readily seen to be marked.  Did you understand that much when we last met with him.  But I have ways of inflicting pain other than flogging you.  And Blonde, he said nothing forbidding me from flogging you.  If your mistress is slow to learn, you body will be used to show her what happens when I get angered.  Now, Constanza , take off your wrapper.”  At this Blonde expression became aghast and what she said to Constanza made the lithe girl shake with terror.  But she complied and soon stood naked before us.

I turned to my father and asked him to summon the young man he had brought with him.  I in turn summoned the young woman in the cloak.  I instructed the dark haired servant to remove her cloak whereupon her nakedness was revealed.  She drew up the robe of my father's servant and undid his loincloth.  The young man responded to being uncovered in the sight of two naked women with a modest erection.  My servant then knelt before him and applied her lips to his sex.  As his member became larger and stiffer she took it into his mouth and soon revealed her talent for fellatio.  Constanza , who was protecting her modesty with her hands and arms was appalled at what they were doing.  I had never seen a woman blush over her entire body before.  I was appalled.  Blonde merely looked on in fascination.  This was going to be harder than I thought.  Spurred on by the ministrations of my dark-haired servant, the young man soon was merrily rendering service to her mouth as heartily as if it was the procreative orifice of the finest courtesan in the land.  Finally he tensed and began to ejaculate.  My servant removed his penis from her mouth at that point and let him spurt all over her face.  I spoke to Constanza through Blonde.  “See, this is what I want you to do.”  The girl shook her head back and forth in denial and said what in translation amounted to “I will die a thousand deaths first.  No torture could ever force me to dishonor myself in this way.”  She ranted on at a considerable length along these lines.  Mozart gave his character Constanza a similar line of argument in the second act of his opera but he was much more eloquent.  My Constanza simply ranted.

Realizing that simple example was not going to motivate the willful blond I had my father dismiss his servant and I indicated that he could leave if he wanted to.  No, he wanted to see exactly what I would do.  I guess he wanted to know if the rumors about me were true.  He said that he had been in the thick of many bloody battles and that nothing could surprise him.  I summoned my eunuchs and had Blonde inform Constanza that she was about to witness just the kinds of pain I was capable of causing.  My eunuchs took the dark-haired serving girl and tied her supine to the low table we had earlier lunched on.  The woman's buttocks and legs dangled below the foot of the table and she was secured by her waist with her hands bound beneath the table.  Then they raised up her legs, spreading them and securing them at the knee and the ankle by cords that ran under the table.  Thus bound, her most intimate parts were revealed.  I gave the naked Constanza a hand mirror.  I bade her squat and inspect her sex, comparing it with that of the bound servant girl.  Notice, I said that there was a bit of protuberant flesh just above the orifice where her urine came out.  My bound servant woman had only a scar at that spot.  I instructed Blonde to spread the lips of Constanza's genital cleft so that the girl could more closely inspect her nether region.  Now I instructed her to look at my servants vaginal opening, spread wide for all to see by her bondage.  Again, the area that should have contained inner lips held only scar and the scarring involved even the outer lips.  And my dear Constanza , there is more to this than simple scarring.

I summoned my favorite eunuch to come forward and for Constanza to sit on the divan, open her legs and lean back.  My favorite eunuch then demonstrated why he was my favorite eunuch by applying his tongue and lips to the beautiful blond's clitoris and labia.  Soon he was stimulating her love button with his large nose while using his tongue to massage that portion of her vagina that was accessible before further penetration was blocked by her hymen.  Although Constanza struggled to maintain her intellectual virginity the skill of my favorite eunuch were too much for her and in a surprisingly short period of time she had experienced the first orgasm of her life.  As she lay there panting, my father shook with laughter.  “To think that my daughter, the closely shielded child of my middle age has become such a wanton.  Who would have believed it.  The rumors are true”.  To which I replied, “Remember father, only four wives is allowed to a man by the prophet.  He has already used one up.  And the two after me are throwing only girls.  If I succeed our family will be secure for another generation.  It is a deadly serious game I play and I intend to be successful at it.”  

I went over to the spent Constanza and slapped her sharply but not so severely as to leave a bruise.  “Get up slut,” I addressed her.  “Now that you have known pleasure learn about the other realities of life.”  I took her over to where the dark haired serving girl was bound.  “In countries where women submit to the will of Allah, many are forced to have those organs which give them pleasure snipped.  Look and see.  Place your fingers on her bottom.  See, her clitoris is gone.  Her labia are gone.  Rub there, there is nothing to swell, nothing to give pleasure.  And yet when she first disrobed you noticed nothing amiss.  When you were presented to my husband as a potential concubine and were given over to me for training, you should recall that he and I specifically discussed subjecting you to certain practices sacred to Islam.  Well this is one of them.  It is called infundibulation or circumcision of the female.  Remember those words I spoke, ‘let me turn her into a good Muslim girl,' Remember those words.”  I motioned my surgeon forward and he put a knife into the brazier.  I continued “And at periods of time thereafter, it is sometimes necessary to further sear the tissues to make sure that no pleasure is ever again associated with touching this area.”  I had one of the eunuchs gag my serving woman with a silken sash.  At this point my doctor applied the heated blade to the area where my servants clitoris once resided being very careful not to injure the urethra.  The woman gave out a heart-rending cry but it was muffled by the silk.  Twice again the knife was heated and applied to either side of the vaginal opening but the searing of the left labia was accompanied by silence because my servant became unconscious when her right labia was burned.  I had my eunuchs untie her and bear her off to my servants areas where she would have her burns tended.  My surgeon's attention was directed to Constanza who had fainted at the third branding.

While Constanza was revived I instructed Blonde to remove her silken top which she did promptly.  I then took her over to one of the numerous pomegranates which grew in the courtyard.  “ Constanza ”, I instructed, “the pomegranate is not really a tree but rather is a bush.  Notice how around the base of the trunk there are numerous shoots springing up.  In order to force the pomegranate into the habitus of a tree it is necessary to continually prune out these shoots.”  I instructed her to remove about six or seven shoots which were almost four feet in length and we returned to the center of the courtyard.  There my father was standing over the naked Constanza , seated on the divan, who had just recovered from her faint.  I put Blonde to work binding the butts of the pomegranate sprouts together.  I paid my attentions to Constanza .  I took her beautiful chin in my left hand and slapped her left cheek with my right hand and then applied the back of my right hand to the right side of her face.  If there were bruises, they would fade before I had to present her to Selim again.  “Slut, do you see what lies ahead for you.  If in one week you show any deficiencies in your ability to arouse a man with your mouth I will make a good Muslim girl of you.  Between now and then, every morning and every afternoon you will practice on the eunuchs of the Black Guard, those that were castrated when adults.  If you can bring a eunuch to cum you will have learned your trade well.  Meanwhile there are other lessons to learn.”  

I instructed my eunuchs to bind up the wrists of Blonde to the branches of the persimmon tree where we had lunch.  It was late enough in the year so that the persimmon had lost it leaves but although the fruit had all turned from green to orange they were just becoming red, soft and ready to eat.  I put the bundle of pomegranate switches into Constanza's hand and led her over to where Blonde was strung up on her tip toes.  “You failed your servant.  Blonde did a good job today while you blanched, blushed and fainted.  It is forbidden, at this point, to whip you.  So instead Blonde will suffer for you, and you will wield the scourge.  Consider the thin but resilient shoots of the pomegranate.  They are not heavy enough to bruise but they sting, and if properly applied they can cut the skin.  Now pull down her silken pantaloons and leave no part of her body above the knees and below the neck untouched.  You will whip her until all the fruit has been shaken from the persimmon tree or until I tell you to stop.  Remember the price of failure to perform in a task I have given you.  Do you want to be an infidel or a good Muslim girls.”  As Constance began Blonde's torment by whipping her buttocks and thighs, I walked my father to the outer precincts of the harem.  As we walked along he cautioned me not to be too brutal.  I replied that he had engaged in honorable battle where success or failure was measured by who held the field of battle at the end of the day.  I pointed out that I lived in a world of fear where at the end of the day you never knew where you stood.  Only in the morning when you awoke to find that you had not been strangled in your sleep did you know that you had won the previous day.  And that just entitled you to fight another day.  Blonde never screamed that afternoon.  That young woman had courage.  By the time she passed out from loss of blood there were only six fruit left on the persimmon tree.  Constanza cried all night.

A week later my father declined to come to Constanza's circumcision party.

Part VI – Constanza's Service

And so it happened just as I planned it.  After her infundibulation , Constanza required only one further application of the red-hot knife before she was able to fellatio a dozen eunuchs of the Black Guard at one kneeling.  They all agreed that she had a skill that no courtesan of the Jewish Quarter could equal.  And Blonde made it her business to teach Constanza the most arousing amatory exclamations in the Turkish language.  And Constanza's failings necessitated only one more whipping for Blonde.  I even had my favorite eunuch teach Constanza to bring Blonde to sexual fulfillment.  It served to remind Constanza of what she would be missing in life.

Ten days after my period ended.  That's when I set the appointment with Selim for.  In the morning, immediately after he got up.  We would bring his coffee to him.  Constanza I had bathed and oiled.  Her hair curled and beautifully spread.  Her body naked except for the bounds that secured her elbows and wrists behind her back and held her ankles together.  I had my eunuchs carrier her to Selim's favorite chamber.  The shoddy one.  She was so beautiful, naked, slim, fettered.  I was not so bad looking myself, my breasts bared, my nipples and areolae rouged.  But she was so beautiful I kissed her lips and stoked her breasts while we waited for Selim to appear.  I kissed her nipples and called her a good girl.  I promised her freedom if all went well.  I promised her that she and Blonde could go back to the West, borne on my father's finest galley.

Oh did she arouse my Pasha.  She took his sex in her mouth.   She kissed its head and licked its shaft.  She sucked his testicles and tongued his anus.  She aroused him as he had not been aroused in weeks, in months, maybe in years.  He never thought of his hubble bubble.  And then when he was at his peak of arousal, I sat astride him and took him into me.  And he exploded inside me.  And he pumped and he pumped and I sucked him dry by clenching my vaginal muscles.  And then, as he was reaching for his hookah, she grabbed him by his manhood and with her lips brought him around again.  She made it swell and took it deep into her throat.  And he fucked her face.  And then when he was once again fully aroused I mounted him again.  And he came within me.  He spoke not another word that whole day.  And the next day we did it to him again in the early morning with the first beams of sunlight streaming into the room.  It was ten months before I had another menstrual period.  It was a month after Mahmoud was born.     

Afterwards

 We tried to work our magic on him, Constanza and I upon Selim the Pasha.  For a whole year.  Until well after Mahmoud's first birthday.  No use.  Even Constanza could no longer arouse him.  As far as his third and fourth wives.  They couldn't even get in to see him.  He loved only his water pipe.  And that was the end of the story.  I had my son spawned off the Pasha.  Succession was assured and my cousin the Vizier was very happy.  My father considered that he had spawned a wanton but took consolation that in my own field of battle I was as victorious as he was with his galleys.  And being the grandfather of the next Pasha did not hurt too badly.

Oh yes, there really was a Belmont.  A minor prince of Southern Italy who came to Istanbul looking for a blond german girl.  Offering a huge amount of money to anyone who would help him find her.  Of course he had never met the lady and had only a locket with her picture, very crudely done.  We had a merry time with him my cousin the Vizier and I.  We bought a blond Serbian whore in the slave market for a few gold pieces who had learned a few phrases of German while a girl.  We put her in the Black Palace and had the Vizier pretend he was the chief eunuch guard of the Pasha's Seraglio of the Sublime Porte.  Belmont spent thousands of gold pieces before he abducted his strumpet from the eunuchs' quarters.  He left Istanbul much richer and greatly amused.  She fucked him to death somewhere in the Greek isles.  He never realized that she had syphilis.  He never even made it home to Naples.  He did happy though insane with Lues .  Have to give that to him, poor, deluded, insane but happy.

Blonde did well.  She was easily assimilated and is still with me.  And her genitals are intact.  Eventually she learned so much from my favorite eunuch that she supplanted him in my favor.  My genitals are intact.  I guess I am not a good pious Muslim girl.  But I am the mother of the Pasha now and even at age 60 I enjoy having my clitoris and labia sucked.  Blonde, once a year I give her a good whipping just to prove who is boss.  Blond, you are fat but you are alive and happy and you serve me very well.  Constanza unfortunately did not do well.  She could never assimilate.  When she heard about Belmont she went into a funk.  Particularly when he took a whore rather than her and never knew the difference.  Actually he was probably better off with the whore.  When Mahmoud turned three years old we held a birthday party for him out in my favorite courtyard.  Under the persimmon tree.  We stripped her naked and skinned her alive.  We slowly stripped the skin from her and tormented the underlying flesh with candle flames.  We stuffed the hide later and sent it off to Naples to her prospective in laws.  The ones that flayed the Turkish envoy.  Except I kept enough skin to have a pair of gloves and a pair of slippers made.

I guess I never mentioned that the envoy was my beloved brother.  They say he died hard.  Constanza died even harder because a Turkish woman is more patient than a bunch of Italian men.