Page:Persian Literature (1900), vol. 1.djvu/326

 the enemy.

Kahram, in the meantime, had been fiercely engaged with Bashútan, and was extremely reduced. At the very moment too of his discomfiture, he heard the watchmen call out aloud that Arjásp had been slain by Kherád. Confounded and alarmed by these tidings, he approached the fort, where he heard the confirmation of his misfortune from every mouth, and also that the garrison had been put to the sword. Leading on the remainder of his troops he now came in contact with Isfendiyár and his two hundred and sixty warriors, and a sharp engagement ensued; but the coming up of Bashútan's force on his rear, placed him in such a predicament on every side, that defeat and destruction were almost inevitable. In short, Kahram was left with only a few of his soldiers near him, when Isfendiyár, observing his situation, challenged him to personal combat, and the challenge was accepted.

So closely did the eager warriors close, They seemed together joined, and but one man. At last Isfendiyár seized Kahram's girth, And flung him to the ground, and bound his hands; And as a leaf is severed from its stalk, So he the head cleft from its quivering trunk; Thus one blow wins, and takes away a throne, In battle heads are trodden under hoofs, Crowns under heads.

After the death of Kahram, Isfendiyár issued a proclamation, offering full pardon to all who would unite under his banners. They had no king.

The country had no throne, no crown. Alas! What is the world without a governor, What, but a headless trunk? A thing more worthless Than the vile dust upon the common road. What could the people do in their despair? They were obedient, and Isfendiyár Encouraged them with kind and gentle words, Fitting a generous and a prudent master.

Having first written to his father an account of the great victory which he had gained, he occupied himself in reducing all the surrounding provinces and their inhabitants to subjection. Those people who continued hostile to him he deemed it necessary to put to death. He took all the women of Arjásp