Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 2.djvu/217

184 He joined us, his vengeance to wreak on all that believe not in God. Indeed, it is known to the folk what came of our strife and our frays. They slew of us some, but they woke on the morrow in Paradise, Each lodged in a palace on high, whereunder a river strays.

When Zoulmekan had made an end of reciting these verses, his brother Sherkan gave him joy of his safety and praise for that he had done; after which they set out by forced marches to rejoin their army.

Meanwhile, Dhat ed Dewahi, after she had spoken with Rustem and Behram, returned to the coppice, where she took her horse and mounting, sped on, till she drew near the host of the Muslims that lay leaguer before Constantinople, when she lighted down from her steed and led it to the Chamberlain’s pavilion. When he saw her, he signed to her with his hand and said, “Welcome, O pious recluse!” Then he questioned her of what had befallen, and she repeated to him her disquieting and deluding report, saying, “Indeed I fear for the Amirs Rustem and Behram, for that I met them on the way and sent them and their following to the King and his companions. They are but twenty thousand horse, and the unbelievers are more in number than they; so I would now have thee send of the rest of thy troops in haste to their succour, lest they be slain to the last man.” And she said to them, “Hasten! Hasten!” When the Chamberlain and the Muslims heard these her words, their hearts sank within them and they wept; but she said to them, “Ask aid of God and be patient under this affliction, taking example by those that have been before you of the people of Islam, for God hath prepared Paradise, with its palaces, for those who die martyrs; and needs must all die, but death is most praiseworthy, when it comes in fighting for the Faith.” When the Chamberlain heard this speech of the accursed old woman, he called for the Amir Behram’s brother, a cavalier named Terkash, and choosing out for him ten