had but a short time to live.

"The pace of death is fast and fleet,
And nothing my life can save,
I shall want no robe, but my winding sheet,
No mansion but the grave.

"And tell my father the wish of his heart
Has not been breathed in vain,
The doom he desired when he made me depart,
Has been sealed, and his son is slain!

"And, O! to my mother, in kindliest tone,
The mournful tidings bear,
And soothe her woes for her warrior gone,
For her lost Isfendiyar."

He now groaned heavily, and his last words were:--

"I die, pursued by unrelenting fate,
The hapless victim of a father's hate."

Life having departed, his body was placed upon a bier, and conveyed to
Iran, amidst the tears and lamentations of the people.

Rustem now took charge of Bahman, according to the dying request of
Isfendiyar, and brought him to Sistan. This was, however, repugnant to
the wishes of Zuara, who observed to his brother: "Thou hast slain the
father of this youth; do not therefore nurture and instruct the son of
thy enemy, for, mark me, in the end he will be avenged."--"But did not
Isfendiyar, with his last breath, consign him to my guardianship? how
can I refuse it now? It must be so written and determined in the
dispensations of Heaven."

The arrival of the bier in Persia, at the palace of Gushtasp, produced a
melancholy scene of public and domestic affliction. The king took off
the covering and wept bitterly, and the mother and sisters exclaimed,
"Alas! thy death is not the work of human hands; it is not the work of
Rustem, nor of Zal, but of the Simurgh. Thou hast not lived long enough
to be ashamed of a gray beard, nor to witness the maturity and
attainments of thy children. Alas! thou art snatched away at a moment of
the highest promise, even at the commencement of thy glory." In the
meanwhile the curses and imprecations of the people were poured upon the
devoted head of Gushtasp on account of his cruel and unnatural conduct,
so that he was obliged to confine himself to his palace till after the
interment of Isfendiyar.

Rustem scrupulously fulfilled his engagement, and instructed Bahman in
all manly exercises; in the use of bow and javelin, in the management of
sword and buckler, and in all the arts and accomplishments of the
warrior. He then wrote to Gushtasp, repeating that he was unblamable in
the conflict which terminated in the death of his son Isfendiyar, that
he had offered hi