Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/182

158 silent and hung down her head. Then he cried out to the midwives and slave-girls, saying, “Bind this harlot’s hands behind her and look at her privy parts!” So they did as he bade and said to him, “O King, she hath lost her maidenhead.” Whereupon he ran at her and would have slain her, but her mother threw herself between them, saying, “O King, slay her not, lest thou be for ever dishonoured; but shut her in a cell till she die.” So he cast her into prison till nightfall, when he called two of his officers and said to them, “Carry her afar off and cast her into the river Jihon and tell none.” They did his commandment, and indeed her memory is forgotten and her time is past.’

When Gherib heard this, he said, ‘By the virtue of Abraham the Friend, I will assuredly go to yonder dog and destroy him and lay waste his kingdom!’ Then he sent letters to Jemrcan and to the governors of Mosul and Meyya Farikin and turning to Rustem, said to him, ‘How many men hadst thou in thine army?’ ‘A hundred thousand Persian horse,’ answered he. And Gherib said, ‘Take ten thousand horse and go to thy people and occupy them with war.’ So Rustem took ten thousand Arab horse and departed, saying in himself, ‘I will do a thing that shall whiten my face with King Gherib.’ So he fared on seven days, till there remained but half a day’s journey between him and the Persian camp; when he divided his men into four troops and bade them attack the Persians from different sides and fall on them with the sword. So they rode on from eventide till midnight, when they came to the camp of the Persians, who were asleep in security, and fell upon them, shouting, ‘God is Most Great!’ Whereupon the Persians started up from sleep and their feet slipped and the sabre went round amongst them; for the All-knowing King was wroth with them, and Rustem wrought amongst them as fire in dry firewood, till, by the end of the night, the whole