ring
spectacle from the walls. That same eve, Scherirah, at the head of forty
thousand men, pushed on towards Bagdad, by Kermanshah; and Jabaster,
who commanded in his holy robes, and who had vowed not to lay aside his
sword until the rebuilding of the temple, conducted his division over
the victorious plain of Nehauend. They were to concentrate at the pass
of Kerrund, which conducted into the province of Bagdad, and await the
arrival of the king.

At the dawn of day, the royal division and the Sacred Guard, the whole
under the command of Asriel, quitted the capital. Alroy still lingered,
and for some hours the warriors of his staff might have been observed
lounging about the citadel, or practising their skill in throwing the
jerreed as they exercised their impatient chargers before the gates.

The king was with the Lady Miriam, walking in the garden of their
uncle. One arm was wound round her delicate waist, and with the other
he clasped her soft and graceful hand. The heavy tears burst from her
downcast eyes, and stole along her pale and pensive cheek. They walked
in silence, the brother and the sister, before the purity of whose
surpassing love even ambition vanished. He opened the lattice gate.
They entered into the valley small and green; before them was the marble
fountain with its columns and cupola, and in the distance the charger of
Alroy and his single attendant.

They stopped, and Alroy gathered flowers, and placed them in the hair of
Miriam. He would have softened the bitterness of parting with a smile.
Gently he relaxed his embracing arm, almost insensibly he dropped her
quivering hand.

'Sister of my soul,' he whispered, 'when we last parted here, I was a
fugitive, and now I quit you a conqueror.'

She turned, she threw herself upon his neck, and buried her face in his
breast.

'My Miriam, we shall meet at Bagdad.'

He beckoned to her distant maidens; they advanced, he delivered Miriam
into their arms. He pressed her hand to his lips, and, rushing to his
horse, mounted and disappeared.

A body of irregular cavalry feebly defended the pass of Kerrund. It
was carried, with slight loss, by the vanguard of Scherirah, and the
fugitives prepared the host of the caliph for the approach of the Hebrew
army.

Upon the plain of the Tigris the enemy formed into battle array. The
centre was commanded by Malek, the Grand Sultan of the Seljuks himself;
the right wing, headed by the Sultan of Syria, was protec