was heavy with foreboding.

(A hi! that Beauty should wander a pilgrim in the ways of sorrow!)

To Allah-u-Din therefore did the King dispatch this letter by swift
riders on mares of Mewar.

After salutations--"Now whereas thou hast said thou wouldest look upon
the beauty of the Treasure of Chitor, know it is not the custom of the
Rajputs that any eye should light upon their treasure. Yet assuredly,
when requests arise between friends, there cannot fail to follow
distress of mind and division of soul if these are ungranted. So, under
promises that follow, I bid thee to a feast at my poor house of Chitor,
and thou shalt see that beauty reflected in a mirror, and so seeing,
depart in peace from the house of a friend."

This being writ by the Twice-Born, the Brahman, did the Rana sign with
bitter rage in his heart. And the days passed.

III

On a certain day found fortunate by the astrologers--a day of early
winter, when the dawns were pure gold and the nights radiant with a
cool moon--did a mighty troop of Moslems set their camp on the plain of
Chitor. It was as if a city had blossomed in an hour. Those who looked
from the walls muttered prayers to the Lord of the Trident; for these
men seemed like the swarms of the locust--people, warriors all, fierce
fighting-men. And in the ways of Chitor, and up the steep and winding
causeway from the plains, were warriors also, the chosen of the Rajputs,
thick as blades of corn hedging the path.

(Ahi! that the blossom of beauty should have swords for thorns!)

Then, leaving his camp, attended by many Chiefs,--may the mothers and
sires that begot them be accursed!--came Allah-u-Din, riding toward the
Lower Gate, and so upward along the causeway, between the two rows of
men who neither looked nor spoke, standing like the carvings of war in
the Caves of Ajunta. And the moon was rising through the sunset as he
came beneath the last and seventh gate. Through the towers and palaces
he rode with his following, but no woman, veiled or unveiled,--no, not
even an outcast of the city,--was there to see him come; only the men,
armed and silent. So he turned to Munim Khan that rode at his bridle,
saying,--

"Let not the eye of watchfulness close this night on the pillow of
forgetfulness!"

And thus he entered the palace.

Very great was the feast in Chitor, and the wines that those accursed
should not drink (since the Outcast whom they call their Prophet forbade
them) ran like wa