Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/131

 102 been put to death, all of you. Bring hither a clod of earth, and let the mightiest among them bear it as a burden from out the city gates." The Arabs. embraced the happy augury. A stalwart horseman forthwith seized the load, mounted his charger, and bearing it, rode away. Rustem coming up just then, the King told him of the affront he had put upon the simple Arabs. "Simple!" cried Rustem, "it is thou that art simple"; and he sent in haste to get the burden back. But the horseman was already out of sight; hurrying back to Al-Ḳādisīya, he cast the clod before his Chief, and exclaimed, "Rejoice, O Saʿd! for, lo, the Lord hath given thee of the soil of Persia!"

Rustem could no longer delay. Elephants and men had been gathered from every quarter to swell the host, now 120,000 strong. Yet, notwithstanding, he marched slowly and unwillingly. The auguries, we are told, boded some great disaster. But he cherished the hope that the Arabs, pinched in their supplies, would break up suddenly and disappear; or that, wearied with suspense, they might be drawn from their strong position across the river. After great delay upon the road, he crossed the Euphrates below Babylon. Advancing then on Al-Ḥīra, he chid the people for siding with the Arabs; but they replied that, deserted by the King, they had no resource but to bow before the invaders. At last, having whiled away many weeks, he came within sight of the Muslim force and pitched his camp on the opposite bank of the river.

During this long period of inaction, the impatience of the Arabs was checked by the strong hand of Saʿd, to whom, as lieutenant of the Caliph, they were bound to yield implicit obedience. Excepting raids and reconnoitring expeditions nothing was attempted. Some of these, however, were sufficiently exciting. Ṭoleiḥa, the quondam prophet, entered alone the enemy's camp by night, and carried off three horses. Hotly chased, he slew his pursuers one after another, and single-handed carried off the last, who embraced Islām and thereafter fought faithfully by his captor's side. As the enemy drew near, the Muslim host lay couched like the tiger in its lair, ready for the fatal spring.

The armies at last now face to face, Rustem had no more excuse for putting off the decisive day. On the morning