for fighting? Who is for jousting? Let come forth to me to-day no
weakling or niderling; ay, let none come forth to me but the
champions who the enemies of The Faith represent, that I may give
them to drink the cup of ignominious punishment. O worshippers of
idols, O miscreants, O rebellious folk, this day verily shall the
faces of the people of the True Faith be whitened and theirs who
deny the Compassionate be blackened!" Now when the King saw his
eldest son slain, he smote his face and rent his dress and cried
out to his second son, saying, "O Batrus, thou who art surnamed
Khara al-Sus,[FN#13] go forth, O my son, in haste and do battle
with thy sister Miriam; avenge me the death of thy brother
Bartaut and bring her to me a prisoner, abject and humiliated!"
He answered, "Hearkening and obedience, O my sire, and charging
down drave at his sister, who met him in mid-career, and they
fought, he and she, a sore fight, yet sorer than the first.
Bartus right soon found himself unable to cope with her might and
would have sought safety in flight, but of the greatness of her
prowess could not avail unto this sleight; for, as often as he
turned to flee, she drave after him and still clave to him and
pressed him hard, till presently she smote him with the sword in
his throat, that it issued gleaming from his nape, and sent him
after his brother. Then she wheeled about in the mid-field and
plain where cut and thrust are dealed, crying out and saying,
"Where be the Knights? Where be the Braves? Where is the one-eyed
Wazir, the lameter, of the crooked faith[FN#14] the worthy
believer?" Thereupon the King her father cried out with heart in
bleeding guise and tear-ulcerated eyes, saying, "She hath slain
my second son, by the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which
is no liar!" And he called aloud to his youngest son, saying, "O
Fasyan, surnamed Salh al-Subyan,[FN#15] go forth, O my son, to do