Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/171

159 plunge into the ocean of battle in the darkness of the night.

When the King saw her pricking towards them, he knew her but too well and said to his eldest son, ‘O Bertaut, thou who art surnamed Ras el Killaut, this is certainly thy sister Meryem who charges upon us, and she seeks to do battle and wage war with us. So go thou out to her and give her battle: and I charge thee by the Messiah and the True Faith, if thou get the better of her, kill her not till thou have propounded to her the Nazarene faith. If she return to her old faith, bring her to me prisoner, but, if she refuse, slay her after the foulest fashion and make of her the vilest of examples, as well as of the accursed wretch who is with her.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ replied Bertaut and pricking out forthright to meet his sister, said to her, ‘O Meryem, doth not what hath already befallen on thine account suffice thee, but thou must leave the faith of thy fathers and forefathers and follow after the faith of the rovers in the lands, that is to say, the faith of Islam? By the virtue of the Messiah and the True Faith, except thou return to the faith of the kings thy forefathers and walk therein after the goodliest wise, I will put thee to an ill death and make of thee the most shameful of examples!’

She laughed at his speech and replied, ‘Avaunt! God forbid that the past should return or that he who is dead should live again! I will make thee drink the sorest of regrets! By Allah, I will not forsake the faith of Mohammed the son of Abdallah, who directed all peoples into the right road, for it is the true faith; nor will I leave the way of righteousness, though I drink the cup of perdition!’ When the accursed Bertaut heard this, the light in his