Page:Marion Crawford - Khaled.djvu/62

 man who, coming to drink of a clear spring, finds the water bitter, while his thirst increases and grows unbearable.

'Why do you sigh?' Zehowah asked, after a little silence. 'Are you weary? Are you tired with the feasting? Are you full of bitterness, because I do not love you? Command me and I will obey. Are you not my lord to whom I am subject?'

He did not speak, but she drew him to her, so that his head rested upon her bosom, and she began to sing to him in a low voice.

For a long time Khaled kept his eyes shut, listening to her voice. Then, on a sudden, he looked up, and without speaking so much as a word, he clasped her in his arms and kissed her.

Before it was day there was a great tumult in the streets of Riad, of which the noise came up even to the chamber where Khaled and Zehowah were sleeping. Zehowah awoke and listened, wondering what had happened and trying to understand the cries of the distant multitude. Then she laid her hand upon Khaled's forehead and waked him.

'What is it?' he asked.

'It is war,' she answered. 'The enemy have surprised the city in the night of the feast. Arise and take arms and go out to the people.'

Khaled sprang up and in a moment he was clothed