Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/177

153 said the King, ‘O dog, thou hast destroyed my troops and forsaken thy faith and comest now to make me do likewise!’ With this Gherib stepped up to him and dealt him a buffet on the neck, that knocked him down; whereupon the Marids bound him fast and all the women fled.

Then Gherib sat down on the throne and said to Raadshah, ‘Do thou justice upon thy father.’ So Raadshah turned to him and said, ‘O perverse old man, become a Muslim and thou shalt be saved from the fire and the wrath of the Almighty.’ And Terkenan said, ‘I will die in my own faith.’ Whereupon Gherib drew El Mahic and smote him therewith, and he fell to the earth in two pieces, and God hurried his soul to the fire and ill was the abiding-place [to which he went]. Then Gherib bade hang his body over the gate of the palace and they hung one-half on the right hand and the other on the left and waited till day, when Gherib caused Raadshah don the royal habit and sit down on his father’s throne, with himself on his right hand and Jemrcan and Saadan and the Marids standing right and left; and he said to Kailjan and Courjan, ‘Whoso entereth of the princes and officers, seize him and bind him, and let not a single captain escape you.’ And they answered, saying, ‘We hear and obey.’

Presently, the officers made for the palace, to do their service to the King, and the first to appear was the chief captain, who, seeing Terkenan’s dead body cut in half and banging on either side the gate, was seized with horror and amazement. Then Kailjan laid hold of him by the collar and dragged him into the palace and bound him; and before sunrise they had bound three hundred and fifty captains and set them before Gherib, who said to them, ‘Have you seen your King hanging at the palace-gate?’ Quoth they, ‘Who hath done this thing?’ And he answered, ‘I did it, by the help of God the Most High; and whoso gainsayeth me, I will do with him likewise.’ Then