Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 2.djvu/236

203 serve me but I must kill Zoulmekan and all the princes of Islam.”

Meanwhile, the Muslims passed three days in concern and anxiety, and on the fourth day, they saw a knight on the wall, holding a bow and about to shoot an arrow to which was fastened a letter. So they waited till he had shot, and the King bade the Vizier Dendan take the letter and read it. He did so, and when Zoulmekan heard its purport, his eyes filled with tears and he shrieked for anguish at the old woman’s perfidy, and Dendan said, “By Allah, my heart shrank from her!” “How could this traitress impose upon us twice?” exclaimed Zoulmekan. “By Allah, I will not depart hence till I fill her kaze with molten lead and set her in a cage, as men do birds, then bind her with her hair and crucify her at the gate of Constantinople.” Then he addressed himself again to the leaguer of the city, promising his men that, if it should be taken, he would divide its treasures equally among them. After this, he bethought him of his brother and wept sore; and his tears ceased not to flow, till his body was wasted with grief, as it were a bodkin. But the Vizier Dendan came in to him and said, “Take comfort and be consoled; thy brother died not but because his hour was come, and there is no profit in this mourning. How well says the poet:

Wherefore do thou leave this weeping and lamentation and strengthen thy heart to bear arms.” “O Vizier,” replied Zoulmekan, “my heart is heavy for the death of my brother and father and our absence from our native land, and my mind is concerned for my subjects.” Thereupon the Vizier and the bystanders wept; but they ceased not