onsult their safety by a timely
flight: they unanimously refused to desert or survive their beloved
master: and their courage was fortified by a fervent prayer and the
assurance of paradise. On the morning of the fatal day, he mounted on
horseback, with his sword in one hand and the Koran in the other: his
generous band of martyrs consisted only of thirty-two horse and forty
foot; but their flanks and rear were secured by the tent-ropes, and by a
deep trench which they had filled with lighted fagots, according to the
practice of the Arabs. The enemy advanced with reluctance, and one of
their chiefs deserted, with thirty followers, to claim the partnership
of inevitable death. In every close onset, or single combat, the despair
of the Fatimites was invincible; but the surrounding multitudes galled
them from a distance with a cloud of arrows, and the horses and men were
successively slain; a truce was allowed on both sides for the hour
of prayer; and the battle at length expired by the death of the last
companions of Hosein. Alone, weary, and wounded, he seated himself at
the door of his tent. As he tasted a drop of water, he was pierced in
the mouth with a dart; and his son and nephew, two beautiful youths,
were killed in his arms. He lifted his hands to heaven; they were full
of blood; and he uttered a funeral prayer for the living and the dead.
In a transport of despair his sister issued from the tent, and adjured
the general of the Cufians, that he would not suffer Hosein to be
murdered before his eyes: a tear trickled down his venerable beard; and
the boldest of his soldiers fell back on every side as the dying hero
threw himself among them. The remorseless Shamer, a name detested by the
faithful, reproached their cowardice; and the grandson of Mahomet was
slain with three-and-thirty strokes of lances and swords. After they had
trampled on his body, they carried his head to the castle of Cufa, and
the inhuman Obeidollah struck him on the mouth with a cane: "Alas,"
exclaimed an aged Mussulman, "on these lips have I seen the lips of the
apostle of God!" In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the
death of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader. [179]
[1791] On the annual festival of his martyrdom, in the devout pilgrimage
to his sepulchre, his Persian votaries abandon their souls to the
religious frenzy of sorrow and indignation. [180]

[Footnote 1781: According to Major Price's authorities a mu