also; and if you have a father or a mother in heaven, I will accuse
you, young man!"

She uttered these words in a ringing voice, then flew toward the
door. The soldiers pushed her out, and the collectors threw the
iron-bound doors together.

"Now I turn to you," said Mohammed, breathing more freely, and
looking toward the sheik and the ulemas.

"Will you murder us?" asked the sheik Alepp, as he looked with calm
dignity at the young man.

"No, if your blood must flow, so be it upon your own head," answered
Mohammed, earnestly. "You alone shall decide your own life or death,
and that of your three companions.--Come, soldiers, open this door;
we go out this way."

The soldiers obeyed, and opened the door on that side of the mosque
which lay nearest the mountain stairway.

The sheik and the ulemas, soldiers accompanying them, passed out,
Mohammed in front of them, his drawn sword in his hand. Behind them
came the collectors, with pikes in their hands.

Silently they went on their way toward the mountain-path.

The men who had waited, uncertain what to do, before the door of the
mosque, now went round to the side, and with out-cries of rage
pointed out to one another the road to the mountain-path.