they applauded that too. He said that the Allies, persuaded thereto by
the British, had made a promise to the Emir Feisul on the strength of
which the Arabs made common war with the Allies against the Turks and
Germans, losing of their own a hundred thousand men and untold money.

"So, sahib. Next he asked them how much of that promise made by the
Allies to Emir Feisul as the leader of the Arabs had been kept, or was
likely to be kept; and they answered in one voice, 'None of it!'
Whereat he nodded, as a teacher nods gravely when the pupils have their
lesson well by heart, and said presently in a voice like that of a Guru
denouncing sin: 'A woman's promise is a little matter; who believes
it? When it is broken all men laugh. A promise extorted under threat
or torture is not binding, since he who made the promise was not free to
govern his own conduct; that is law. A promise made in business,' said
he, 'is a contract contingent on circumstances and subject to
litigation. But a promise made in wartime by a nation is a pledge set
down in letters of blood. Whoever breaks it is guilty of blood; and
whoever fails to smite dead the breaker of that oath, commits treason
against Allah!'

"They applauded that speech greatly, sahib, and when they grew silent he
bade them look about and judge for themselves at whose door the breaking
of that sacred promise really lay. 'Show me,' said he, 'one trace of
Arab government in all Palestine. Who owns the land?' he asked them.
'Arabs!' said they. 'Yet to whom has the country been given?' he
shouted. 'To the Jews!' they answered; and he grew silent for a while,
like a teacher whose class has only given half the answer to a question
until presently one man growled out, 'To the sword with the Jews in the
name of Allah!' and the others echoed that which satisfied him, for he
smiled, nevertheless not using those words himself. And presently he