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
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