Said the Narrator:
And when the Emir Abu Zeyd had departed with the mare, and had taken his leave of the Princess Alia, and had passed into the outer pastures, then remained the Princess a long while weeping at his going, and in doubt how she should meet her people, and in fear of what might come to her through the stealing of the mare. And she returned to her tent, and threw herself upon her bed, weeping with both eyes. This for her. But as to the Emir Abu Zeyd, he too fell adoubting as he rode; and he said, ``If I go back now to the Arabs, mine own people, and to my business, nor take thought of Alia, it will certainly happen that our doings will be made known, and her father will slay her; and, on the other hand, if I should return to her, it will be a matter of long duration, and I shall be a great while withheld from my people and my affairs. Now, therefore, it were better I should go see that which is happening among them.'' And he stopped at a fountain of water, and he drank of it, and he gave his mare to drink. And he sat him down to think over all his plan, and he remembered the day of judgment, and the oath that he had taken to Alia that he would return to her before going to his own people. And this is what happened in the case of the Emir Abu Zeyd.
And at this point the Narrator began once more to sing, and it was in the following verses:
So did my thought return to the Helali Salameh,
When he took with him the mare, and set him to do his purpose,
With all that him befell, O men, among the great ones.
The grooms of the mare went in to the grey mare to groom her,
Entered within her tent, and found a lantern burning,
Yet found they not the mare, nor token of her presence.
And they fell in consternation, O people, and much doubting.
And they cried, ``Alack--a--day! To our help, O men, O warriors!
The grey mare of the King is not. Ho, ye of courage,
Go with the news straightway. Tell the Agheyli Jaber.''
And a tumult vast arose in all the neighbouring camp--fires.
And the Emir Fadel came, confused with the much shouting;
And he called to them aloud, ``O warriors, wherefore shout ye,
Casting the camps in fear, as though the foe were on ye?''
And they brought him a kassás, a cunning man, a tracker,
One learned in all signs, that he might search the desert.
And lo the footsteps ended at the tent of Alia.
Then were there wondering looks among the camel riders,
And a thousand horsemen rode, Fulano and Fulano,
Every name of worth, a gallant band of fighters.
And the hero Abu Zeyd lifted his eyes, and saw them,
Like locusts on the plain. And he tightened his mare's girthing,
And called aloud to all, ``Come on, if ye have courage.''
And they gathered near and near, and the dust of their hard riders
Rose like a cloud to heaven. And presently they saw him,
And he could see their eyes, and the flashing of their spearpoints.
And the foemen called aloud, ``O thou of the race of Himyar,
Thou shalt not flee our wrath, not though thy back grew pinions.
For he thy sire of old came thus. And thou, what wouldst thou?''
And to them Abu Zeyd, ``My right lies in my spear--point.
Wait rather, all of ye, that I may prove your boasting.''
And I charged, said Abu Zeyd, and lo I was among them.
And the din of battle rose, and the clanking of the swordblades,
And I could not count their numbers spread on the plain like locusts.
Roaring they came on me with the loud voice of lions.
You had said a cloud in heaven struck by the bolts of thunder.
And to my soul I said, ``O thou Helali Salameh,
To fly were shame on thee. Nay rather fear thou Alia,
Lest she should send for news how thy back turned in battle.''
And I saw my death by the spear as the best of doubtful issues.
``Death is better than talk,'' I said, ``the words of the idle,
Ay, than the words of disgrace. So go I to destruction,
Nay, though I win to my tomb in the day of evil fortune.''
And I turned my mare and sprang, like a lion in the seizing,
And I pressed her flank with my heel and sent her flying forward,
And I charged home on their ranks, nor thought of wound nor danger.
And I smote them with my sword till the air shone with smiting.
And I met them once and twice with stark blows homeward driven.
And they pressed me left and right as the high banks of a river,
Even the River Nile in the full day of its flooding,
When the whirlpools sweep with might and overwhelm the bridges.
Twenty foes and five fell down before me smitten,
Nor cared I them to slay, being of Alia's kindred,
But tumbled them on the ground with sharp taste of my spear--point.
And they turned back in confusion, each man to his own dwelling,
While I pursued them still as the King Death pursueth.
And I pricked them with my spear from the first third to the latest.
And they stopped, and charged, and rallied the while I pressed and smote them.
And I saw again their eyes, and again they pressed me sorely,
Till I put my care on the Lord, the Lord God the Creator,
And all my load on him, the Prophet, the Muhajer.
And I feared--they were so many--lest they should take or slay me,
Yet trusted I the Lord, who is a Lord of mercy.
But about the hour of the Doha there came at me a horseman,
And he cried out, ``I am he, the son of Agheyli Jaber,
Suliman men me call, the bravest of the bravest.''
And he shouted to me, ``O slave, is it thou, thou thief of horseflesh?
Thou who smitest our people, and makest naught of our great ones?
Show us here thy courage. Get thee to the fight, thou dark one.''
And I charged on him like a lion, a lion roused to the seizing,
And before my wrath he fled, nor found I one to withstand me.
Nor stayed he of his running till at the tents of the women,
Even the tent of Alia, hers with the plaited tresses.
And I pressed him close behind, and drove him to the tent ropes,
And Alia came out, crying, ``May the great God thee succour,
Even as He succoured Him who fled to the noble city.
Fight thou on in all heart, nor fear the sons of the Arabs,
O thou worthy of praise, for these Agheylat are boasters.
Fight with the whole of Agheyl, O thou redoubtable hero.''
And when they heard her words, the horsemen stayed in their running,
And seemed to take new thought in council with their great ones,
And at her railings stopped and looked at one another;
And each to the other said, ``She knoweth, then, this champion.
Hers is the fault of the mare, the grey mare of our chieftain,
Hers the treachery is. What further need we trouble,
Spending ourselves in vain, with treachery behind us?
Rather return we straight, and tell the Agheyli Jaber
Of the goings on in the camp, and that which was in his dwelling.''
And they turned to the Emir Fadel, the high Prince, the Agheyli.
And he asked them, ``Saw ye aught of the enemy of our people?''
And they said, ``Ay, saw we him thine own grey mare bestriding,
And he turned on us as a lion, a lion roused to the seizing,
Dark--hued, beautiful--faced, and noble in his anger.
And he drew his blade on us all, as it were the flash of the lightning.
Many were we, he one, nor was there any beside him.
Much we wondered to see him thus, O worthy of honour!
One alone he fought with us all, nor had he a helper.
And he drove us back from the field, our horse and camel riders,
He on the mare thou knowest, and following close behind us.
Thus we came to the camp, we first, and then the stragglers,
All of us fighting the hero, and no man looked to his fellow.
And so till the sun was high and the day rose to the Doha.
Then came thy son to our help, and he too fled from the fierce one,
Fled with a doubting heart, sore struck, to the tent of Alia.
And Alia, seeing this thing, came forth beyond the tent ropes,
And called aloud to the foe, and prayed for his more glory.
And little account made she of the trouble of her people.
Yet succoured she thy son. Though he, the adversary,
Is all the thing of her care, nor careth she for another.
And when this case stood clear, then said we each to other,
`Alia the stranger knoweth, the grey mare she hath given.
Hers the treachery is, thy daughter's, Agheyli Jaber.'
Therefore left we the foe, and came we here before thee.
Laying thee bare our case. And this is our tale and story.
And what hath been to the mare is clear to all the people.''
