ons of these men who had passed through no school were already
well-fitted and invited to give new splendor to cities in their
decline, and new life to the learning of the countries they had subdued.
Everything in this council revealed talent, vitality, and ardor; and
Obada, who had been a slave, found it by no means easy to uphold his
pre-eminence among these assertive scions of free and respectable
families.

The Kadi spoke frankly and fearlessly against his recent proceedings,
declaring in the name of every member of the Divan, that they disclaimed
all responsibility for what had been done, and that it rested on the
Vekeel alone. Obada was very ready to accept it; and he announced with
such fiery eloquence his determination to give shelter at Fostat to the
natives whom the conflagration had left roofless, he was so fair-spoken,
and he had shown his great qualities in so clear a light during the past
night, that they agreed to postpone their attainder and await the reply
from Medina to the complaints they had forwarded. Discipline, indeed,
required that they should submit; and many a man who would have flown
to meet death on the field as a bride, quailed before the terrible
adventurer who would not shrink from the most hideous deeds.

Obada had won by hard fighting. No one could prove a theft against him
of so much as a single drachma; but he nevertheless had to take many a
rough word, and with one consent the assembly refused him the deference
justly due to the governor's representative.

Bitterly indignant, he remained till the very last in the
council-chamber, no one staying with him, not even his own subalterns,
to speak a soothing word in praise of the power and eloquence of
his address, while the same cursed wretches would, under similar
circumstances, have buzzed round Amru like swarming bees, and have
escorted him home like curs wagging their tails. He ascribed the
contumely and opposition he met with to their prejudice, as haughty,
free-born men against his birth, and not to any fault of his own, and
yet he looked down on them all, feeling himself the superior of each by
himself; if the blow in Medina were successful, he would pick out his
victims, and then....

His dreams of vengeance were abruptly broken by a messenger, covered
with dust from head to foot; he brought good news: Orion was taken and
safely bestowed in the Kadi's house.

"And why not in mine?" asked Obada in peremptory tones. "Who is the