Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/183

159 of the Persian host was slain or wounded or fled, and the Muslims made prize of their tents and baggage and horses and camels and treasure-chests. Then they alighted and rested in the tents of the beaten army, till Gherib came up and seeing what Rustem had done, invested him with a dress of honour and said to him, ‘O Rustem, it was thou didst put the Persians to the rout; wherefore all the spoil is thine.’ So he kissed Gherib’s hand and thanked him, and they rested till the end of the day, when they set out for King Sabour’s capitaL

Meanwhile, the survivors of the defeated army reached Isbanir and went in to Sabour, crying out and saying, ‘Alas!’ and ‘Ruin!’ and ‘Woe worth the day!’ Quoth he, ‘What hath befallen you and who hath smitten you with his mischief?’ So they told him all that had passed and how his general Rustem had embraced Islam and fallen upon them in the darkness of the night and routed them. When the King heard this, he cast his crown to the ground and said, ‘There is no worth left to us!’ Then he turned to his son Werd Shah and said to him, ‘O my son, there is none for this affair but thou.’ ‘By thy life, O my father,’ answered Werd Shah, ‘I will assuredly bring Gherib and his chiefs of the people in chains and slay all who are with him.’ Then he numbered his army and found it eleven score thousand men. So they slept, intending to set forth on the morrow; but, next morning, as they were about to depart, a cloud of dust arose and spread till it covered the lands and baffled the sharpest sight.

Now Sabour had mounted to take leave of his son, and when he saw this great dust, he despatched a runner to discover the cause thereof, who went and returned, saying, ‘O my lord, Gherib and his men are upon you;’ whereupon they unloaded their beasts and drew out in order of battle. When Gherib came up and saw the Persians drawn out in battalia, he cried out to his men, saying, ‘Charge,