alarmed
and greatly enraged; he issued orders for the seizure of Moslem and his
children, and desiring to have them brought to his presence, offered
immense sums of money for their capture. The friends of Moslem, however,
succeeded, for a time, in secreting his person from King Yuzeed's
emissaries, trusting the darkness of night would enable him to escape. But
the slaves and dependants of the tyrant being despatched into all quarters
of the city, Moslem's retreat was eventually discovered; and, through the
influence of a purse of gold, his person was given up to the King's
partizans.

The unfortunate agent of Hosein had confided the charge of his two sons to
the Kauzy[22] of the city, when the first report reached him of the tyrant
Yuzeed's fury. This faithful Kauzy, as the night advanced, intended to get
the poor boys conveyed to the halting place of a Kaarawaun,[23] which he
knew was but a few miles off, on their route for Medina. The guide, to
whom the youths were intrusted, either by design or mistake, took the
wrong road; and, after wandering through the dreary night, and suffering
many severe trials, they were taken prisoners by the cruel husband of a
very amiable female, who had compassionately, at first, given them shelter
as weary travellers only; but, on discovering whose children they were,
she had secreted them in her house. Her husband, however, having
discovered the place of their concealment, and identified them as the sons
of Moslem, cruelly murdered the innocent boys for the sake of the reward
offered for their heads. In his fury and thirst for gold, this wicked
husband of the kind-hearted woman spared not his own wife and son, who
strove by their united efforts, alternately pleading and resisting, to
save the poor boys from his barbarous hands.

This tragic event is conveyed into pathetic verse, and as often as it is
repeated in the families of the Mussulmauns, tears of fresh sympathy are
evinced, and bewailings renewed. This forms the subject for one day's
celebration during Mahurrum; the boys are described to have been most
beautiful in person, and amiable in disposition.

After enduring ignominy and torture, and without even being brought to
trial, Moslem was cast from a precipice, by Yuzeed's orders, and his life
speedily terminated, to glut the vengeance of the tyrant King.

As the disastrous conclusion of Moslem's mission had not reached the ear
of Hosein, he, elated with the favourable recep