The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

THE SCORPION father! [She goes down to corþse] Akbar, my little one! Strong wast thou and greater than thy brothers. Thou hadst the hawk’s eye, and the deer’s foot; and thine hand on the bowstring was surer and stronger than thy father’s ! Three, of my five, my five that should guard me and cherish me! Three taken, and two left! Yet, while one is left . . . LEDMIYA [at window]. The battle is fiercer every moment. Hundreds and hundreds must be killed. But the press is thinner. I can make out the banners. Oh! I can see Sliman’s banner ! LAYLAH. Let me see! let me seel [She rushes to window] Yes! it flows free in the good air! How fierce he fights. I cannot see him ; but he must be there. Yes! it moves forward now; the Christians part before him like the air before an arrow. The dust swallows all up again. [Wailing rises without, louder and more insislenl. A curse upon these fools! But for them I could hear his battle-cry. . . . Has he ever cried, and I not heard him? Oh, why did the strange knight not bear me on his palfrey? I must be mad. FATMA. You must be mad ! LAYLAH. Bewail the dead, thou bald vulture, shaggy tooth- less crone, dam of perdition! There floats the banner again, above them all. The Templar’s banner dips; some one has cut through the staff. The Christians are in rout. . . , [Pour eunuch: enter, bearing the corpse of OTl-IMAN. FATMA. Othman is dead! Alas! Alas! Weep, mother, three brave boys beside their sire! All dead! dead! LAYLAH [not inrnz‘ng from window]. Lay him beside his father and his two brothers! Brave banner! Brave 91