DS 
 
 287 
 
 .5 
 
 G7 
 
 1889 
 
 MAIN 
 
 ERSIA'S 
 
 Golden Days 
 
 R. J. GRIFFITHS. M.A., LL.D 
 
 ALEXANDER ROGERS. 
 
U'Ui'P^'' 
 
 ^f:':^.;?- 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
IN PERSIANS GOLDEN 
 DAYS. 
 
 ROBERT J. GRIFFITHS, M.A., LL.D., 
 
 ALEXANDER ROGERS. 
 
 LONDON ; 
 
 GRIFFITHS AND SON, 
 
 ST. PAULS BUILDINGS, E.G. 
 1889. 
 
Printed by Hazcll, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 

 TO 
 
 pis Impm^vl Utaj^sto, 
 NASIR-UL-DEEN SHAHINSHAH, 
 
 WE, 
 
 THE JOINT AUTHORS OF THE FOLLOWING SKETCH OF THE 
 
 CAREER OF ONE OF YOUR MAJESTY'S PREDECESSORS 
 
 ON THE ILLUSTRIOUS THRONE OF PERSIA, 
 
 BEG TO BE ALLOWED TO DEDICATE THE 
 
 WORK TO YOU IN TOKEN OF . 
 
 WELCOME ON YOUR ARRIVAL 
 
 ON ENGLAND'S 
 
 SHORES. 
 
 R. J. GRIFFITHS. 
 A. ROGERS. 
 
 Accepted on behalf, and by command, of the Shahinshah, 
 
 MALCOM KHAN, 
 
 Ambassador. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. THE PRINCES CRIME .... 
 II. THE LADY BEYOND THE WESTERN HILLS 
 
 III. THE CAMP OF THE AMAZONS . 
 
 IV. THE RIDE ACROSS THE DESERT 
 
 V. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT .... 
 
 VI. THE princess's WARNING, AND THE BEAUTY'S 
 
 VOW 
 
 VII. Mohammed's emissary .... 
 
 VIII. KHUSROO gets MARRIED, AND THEN FIGHTS A 
 GREAT BATTLE .... 
 
 IX. KHUSROO AND HIS WIFE CONVERSE 
 X. THE HERMIT ONCE MORE 
 XI. A THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION . 
 
 XII. A STRANGE PICNIC ..... 
 
 XIII. THE QUEEN COMES BACK . 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 9 
 i6 
 
 24 
 33 
 
 39 
 
 44 
 
 48 
 
 57 
 64 
 72 
 80 
 88 
 
IV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP 
 
 XIV. A RIGHT ROYAL BANQUET 
 XV. A STRANGE WEDDING 
 XVI. THE SIEGE OF THE CASTLE 
 XVII. THE KING IN DIFFICULTIES 
 XVIII. SHEEREEN YET LIVES 
 
 96 
 
 JO'S 
 114 
 123 
 132 
 
IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE prince's crime. 
 
 T was a bright, dr}', radiant morning full of the 
 promise of a scorching afternoon. In the city 
 of Madain, one of Persia's many capitals, when 
 the House of Sassan ruled over the great empire of 
 Iran, people had but little leisure on this morning of 
 mornings to think much about the weather. The bus}' 
 hum of the bazaar was hushed for once. The main 
 street, where the palaces of the late king, Khusroo I., 
 of his son, the reigning king, Hormuz, of Bahram 
 Choobeen, the great captain of Persia's hosts, and 
 of many another great noble — that street was de- 
 serted and empty, for King Hormuz was in his 
 divan, or hall of justice, sitting in judgment upon no 
 ordinary prisoner. Look well at the defendant as he 
 passes into the hall of justice, for he is the king's son. 
 In 3'ears to come his generals will expel the Romans 
 from Asia and Africa. The bounds of his empire will 
 
 I 
 
2 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 be equalled only by those of Darius the Great. He 
 will live a conqueror, and he will die — ah, well ! we 
 shall see how he died. This morning Khusroo, the 
 second of his name, passes into the divan with a 
 frown on his young handsome face. It is a brave, 
 strong face, marked though it is with traces which 
 show that he is not free from some of the vices of 
 Eastern princes. Into the hall he passes. Let us go 
 with him. 
 
 In the centre was a dais raised three steps above 
 the floor. Over it was spread a carpet of the richest 
 Oriental brocade. In the middle of the dais was a 
 cushion large enough to form a very cosy seat. It 
 was stuffed to the depth of several inches with fine 
 soft sheep's wool, and at the back was another cushion 
 upon which the king could lean. Over it all was 
 spread a rich cloth of gold, embroidered with green 
 leaves and crimson flowers. The steps of the dais 
 were covered with silver tissue, which threw out into 
 strange relief the pure white of the walls in the back- 
 ground. Glance for a moment at those walls, for the} 
 are worth looking at. They are made of the finest 
 lime, of shells brought for the purpose from the far-off 
 shores of the Persian Gulf. See how these shells have 
 been worked into a thousand quaint geometrical forms, 
 intermingled with small mirrors of stained glass of 
 myriad hues exquisitely blended together. Pause 
 at the door before the trial commences, and look 
 out from the courtyard at the city beyond. The 
 divan, like the cities of refuge, is approached by four 
 
THE PRINCES CRIME. 3 
 
 broad, straight roads. On either side of each of them 
 is a channel of masonry wherein flows the water that 
 nurtures the orange trees, upon which everywhere the 
 eye rests gratefully. Beyond the trees you may cateh 
 gHmpses of beds of the red rose of Persia. The still, 
 hot air is heavy with the fragrance of the flowers, 
 drowsy with the sweetness of a thousand orange 
 groves, and the boundless wealth of flowers beyond. 
 Of a truth. King Hormuz knows where and how to 
 live. 
 
 It is time, however, to turn round and re-enter the 
 hall ; the great nobles of the State have now arrived. 
 For them cushions similar to those on the dais have 
 been placed round the hall, but with this difference, 
 that they are unadorned save for a bunch of natural 
 roses placed upon each of them. In the courtyard 
 and in the hall itself the crowd is dense, the spec- 
 tators craning their necks and holding their hands 
 to their ears in the hope of catching some strange 
 utterance from within. Yes, it was a silent crowd, 
 and there was good reason for its silence, for behind 
 the royal judge stood a grim, gaunt figure, immov- 
 able apparently as a statue. It was the Ethiopian 
 executioner, armed with a bright scimitar. At the 
 royal nod the proudest head in all that great assembly 
 would have rolled in the dust. Interest in the trial, 
 tempered, perhaps, by the presence of that terrible 
 figure, kept the crowd dumb, although it was by no 
 means deaf. 
 
 King Hormuz sat on the dais. For some reason 
 
4 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 best known to themselves he was unpopular with his 
 subjects ; but, nevertheless, he was every inch a king, 
 although there was but little in his dress to betoken 
 his rank. Around his waist, indeed, was a richly 
 jewelled belt, and the one glittering diamond aigrette 
 in his tall, black, triangular hat of the finest Astracan 
 wool flashed back the rays of light as the king's head 
 moved. Otherwise he was plainly dressed in white ; 
 but the khanjar, or dagger, in his belt — a weapon with- 
 out which no Persian of rank in those days ever 
 appeared in public — was so richly jewelled that the fine 
 gold of its handle was hardly visible. By his side lay 
 the royal sword of State. Behind him was not only 
 the executioner, but also attendants with fly-whisks to 
 protect the royal person from these nuisances. On 
 either side of him was a chobdar, or macebearer, with 
 ihe insignia of his office on his shoulder — a short, 
 slightly carved club, covered with beaten gold, embossed 
 with flowers. 
 
 On the side cushions, attired in white, sat, as we 
 have said, the great officers of State. First of all, on 
 the right was the Vazir, or prime minister ; immediately 
 below him was the royal treasurer, distinguished by 
 a bunch of keys instead of a dagger at his waist ; on 
 the left were the chief Mobed, or high-priest, the royal 
 astrologer, the royal scribe, and half a score of other 
 great dignitaries of Persia ; last of all, was the culprit, 
 the 3^outh of twenty summers, who was to be tried. 
 With folded arms he stood on the steps leading to the 
 dais, and a close observer could have detected in that 
 
THE PRINCE'S CRIME. 5 
 
 swarthy countenance, half Jewish, half Persian, a 
 suppressed inclination to laugh. If he had laughed, 
 it would not have been wonderful. 
 
 For after all this prototype of our own fifth Henry 
 had done nothing amazingly wrong. The facts were 
 that Prince Khusroo, tired with a day's hunting, had 
 gone into a village, where he took too much wine, and 
 forthwith proceeded to make a night of it with his 
 companions. He began by turning a villager out of 
 his house, and taking possession of it. One of his 
 slaves next proceeded to get food without payment 
 from another villager ; and, last of all, into this same 
 villager's field the prince's horse was turned, much to 
 the detriment of the wheat crop standing in it. 
 
 The king's judgment, upon learning the facts, was 
 that all the prince's hunting apparatus should be given 
 to the man whose house had been taken possession of, 
 that the slave should become the property of the man 
 whom he had forced to feed him, and that the horse 
 that had eaten the crop should be punished by having 
 its feet cut off. The people shouted that the judgment 
 of the king was as that of Solomon, on whom be peace ! 
 The royal scribe was proceeding to register the decree 
 according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which 
 altereth not, when the prince called to him : 
 
 '' Stay thy hand, O Mirza ! Let not the bright page 
 of justice be stained with the blot of error ; and let 
 not the sun-like splendour of the light of equity 
 be overshadowed by the dark cloud of unbecoming 
 punishment ! " 
 
6 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 Then turning to the king, he continued : 
 
 '^ Sun of the country ! The Almighty's shade ! 
 Than Phoenix' wings more blest thy royal aid ! Hath 
 thy slave permission to endeavour to pierce the pearl 
 of the royal ear with the needle of persuasion ? " 
 
 The king having extended to him his right hand 
 in token of approval, Khusroo continued : 
 
 " O king, may thy good fortune last for ever ! 
 Thy slave has committed a fault, and so has thy slave's 
 slave. Let us both, who have sown the seed of evil, 
 reap the harvest of punishment, as the lord of justice 
 hath decreed. On our head and e3'es may it be ! But 
 this dumb beast of no understanding hath but trodden 
 the path in which he was placed. He hath but eaten 
 that which was given him ; nor could he know whether 
 the food was lawful or unlawful." 
 
 "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," 
 answered the king. " His feet have gone upon a wrong 
 road, and should be prevented from doing so again ! " 
 
 *' True, O king," replied the prince ; '^ but hath the 
 diver of thy mind brought up from the deep sea of 
 thine intellect the pearl of reflection ? Hast thou 
 considered that in cutting off the feet of the horse 
 thou dost also tear up the root of its sweet life ? " 
 
 " Nay," said the king, '' that would be going beyond 
 the law. What says our spiritual adviser ? " And 
 he turned towards the chief Mobed. 
 
 That functionary immediately rose, and prostrating 
 himself before the king, said : 
 
 ''The words of the refuge of the world are as a 
 
fountain of wisdom, and as the water of life to the 
 thirsty soul ! " 
 
 ''Rise, my trusty adviser!" Then said the king: 
 " Write, Mirza, the royal decree. The horse shall 
 live ; but he to whom it belongs shall pay ten times 
 the value of the crop destroyed. Thus would we 
 protect our subjects even against the oppression of 
 princes. And thou, my son, approach ! " 
 
 Thus saying, the king undid from Khusroo's waist 
 the golden chain which was the token that one of the 
 royal house was on his trial in the king's court of 
 justice, and said: ''And thou, my son, beware for 
 the future, lest the demon of intoxication lead thy foot 
 astray into the wilderness of evil." 
 
 It will thus be seen that the situation of Prince 
 Khusroo before the king was not at all unlike that of 
 Henr}' \\ of England when, as Prince of Wales, he 
 made the acquaintance of his father's Chief Justice. 
 In the present instance the king seemed not at all 
 indisposed to let matters pass much more easily for 
 the culprit, when suddenly Prince Khusroo knelt at 
 his father's feet, and presenting the sword that lay by 
 the side of the cushion, exclaimed : 
 
 " Punishment I can bear, but not that of the king's 
 displeasure. I humble my neck in the dust before 
 thee ! Cut off my wretched head ; but forget afterwards 
 the crime of which I have been guilty, and let my 
 memory remain in the royal favour!" 
 
 At this point many of the impressionable people in 
 the outer court burst into loud lamentations of "Hai! 
 
8 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 hai ! Shall the black crow of darkness, which the 
 gold-scattering sun of fortune was driving to its dismal 
 nest, again obscure with its ill-omened wing the morning 
 star of Ajam ? Shall the white page of the king's 
 rule be reddened by the foul stain of his innocent son's 
 blood ? Hai ! hai ! O king, restrain thy hand ! " 
 
 Gently then the royal father raised his kneeling 
 son, and, kissing him on the forehead, said : 
 
 " Go in peace : thou art my son again." 
 
 As Khusroo, after profound prostrations, arose and 
 backed out of the royal presence, the people shouted : 
 ''May the king's life be prolonged, and his fortune 
 last for ever ! Sorrow to him who doth not wish 
 thee joy ! Ruin to him who desireth not thy pros- 
 perity ! May the king live for ever ! " 
 
 Then King Hormuz rose, and went into the divan-i- 
 khas, where in private audience he transacted with 
 his ministers the business of the State, and his 
 judgment was likened throughout the land to that 
 of Solomon for its wisdom. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LADY BEYOND THE WESTERN HILLS. 
 
 HUBDEEZ was the prince's horse, and 
 Khusroo's first act when the trial was over 
 was to visit the stable of his steed ; as with 
 most other Eastern soldiers, his horse was an object 
 of intense interest to him. As he paced up and down 
 in Shubdeez's stable, this is how he apostrophized 
 that famous animal : '' Thanks be to God that I 
 have saved thee ! Oh, darling of my soul ! how could 
 I have borne life without thee ! The wild ass of the 
 desert would have rejoiced, and the fleet buck of the 
 Salt Plain would have leapt for joy, hadst thou been 
 slain ; but where would Khusroo's heart have been ? 
 It would quickly have gone to corruption in the earth 
 of thy honoured grave. No more mounted on my 
 lightning-paced steed should I have hunted the nimble 
 gazelle, or, spear in hand, charged home upon the lithe 
 panther, well knowing that thou wouldst bear me 
 safely beyond the reach of his spring." 
 
 Then, as he caressed Shubdeez, he continued : 
 "Dost thou remember the day when, sore wounded 
 and bleeding in the midst of foes, and almost de- 
 spairing of life, I threw myself upon thy neck, and thou, 
 
10 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 lashing out with thy heels, didst bear me along the 
 road of escape to my camp ? Come, Shubdeez, come, 
 and thou shalt have thy favourite lick of salt from thy 
 master's hand." 
 
 He loosed the rope at Shubdeez's head, and, followed 
 closely by the horse, he went to his own apartments. 
 There Shubdeez had the promised lick of salt, and, 
 having been handed over to an attendant, was taken 
 back to its picket, where, like all desert-bred horses, 
 it remained without tent or shelter ; the prince himself 
 passed into an inner court. In the centre was, of 
 course, a fountain. It was surrounded b}^ beds of 
 narcissus and tulips — favourite flowers both of them 
 in Persia — and adjoining them was a luxurious couch 
 shaded from the rays of the afternoon sun as it began 
 to sink into the golden west. For a time reclining 
 on the couch he remained absorbed in thought. Then 
 he gave three strokes with the fingers of one hand 
 on the palm of the other. This was a signal to a 
 slave who brought him his kalioon, or water-pipe, an 
 Eastern luxury as precious in Persia as a good cigar 
 is here. Let me describe it. The bowl was of the 
 finest porcelain of a turquoise blue. It would have 
 delighted the eyes of modern bric-a-brac collectors 
 could they have laid hands on that priceless pipe. 
 The tube through which the smoke was to be inhaled 
 was about a yard in length, so that the vapour, even if 
 it had not been passed through the purest rose-water, 
 would have been perfectly cool before it reached the 
 mouth. The mouthpiece, of what in India would have 
 
THE LADY BEYOND THE WESTERN HILLS. I I 
 
 been called a hookah, was a special gift of his father, 
 given to him on his last birthday. It was of the 
 finest amber, and was studded with costly pearls. 
 Khusroo had just commenced smoking when one of 
 the nobles of the court, an intimate friend of his, came 
 in. After respectfully kneeling down and touching the 
 ground with his forehead, he sat down in the half- 
 kneeling posture to be seen in old Persian pictures, 
 with his feet drawn under the long skirt of his white 
 coat. 
 
 '' If the king of my world will give command," 
 Shapur said, *' thy slave will pour into the royal ear 
 the words of truth." 
 
 '' First of all, friend," said Khusroo, " let me order 
 wine, that thy throat be not parched with the hot wind 
 of talk." 
 
 To this proposition his friend demurred. He gave 
 Khusroo some excellent advice as to some of his recent 
 escapades in this direction, but he accepted an ofter 
 of sherbet and a kalioon. These were brought by a 
 slave. For some time the two smoked in silence, broken 
 only by the drip of the fountain and the bubbhng of 
 the water in the kalioon bottles. 
 
 After a time Khusroo spoke. He reminded Shapur 
 that the latter had just returned from a tour behind 
 the Western Hills, and asked him if he had found 
 nothing new or strange there. 
 
 " Surely, my prince," said Shapur, " thy slave has 
 seen many things, the like of which the winner of 
 fancy has never painted upon the tablets of thought ; 
 
12 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 but strangest of all has it seemed to me that a tribe 
 of women should have a woman for their ruler, whom 
 they obey of their own will, and should conduct the 
 affairs of the State without the assistance of a man, 
 and should, in short, live precisely as if there were no 
 men in existence." 
 
 '' That is a very funny story," said the prince, 
 musingly ; " but where do these remarkable people 
 exist ? " 
 
 ''Their ruler, O prince," Shapur replied, "is one 
 Maheen Banoo, who men say is in purity like the fresh 
 fallen snow on Damavend's head, in wisdom and judg- 
 ment the equal of Jumsheed, and in loving qualities 
 such that her women care not to look upon the face of 
 a man. The heir is her brother's daughter, who has 
 been thus described to thy slave. Her eyes are black 
 as the water of life, her two lips like rubies of the 
 purest water, her eyebrows like the bent bow, her 
 locks like the spikenard, her stature like that of the 
 cypress, her gait graceful as the partridge's, her nose 
 like a silver sword that has cut an apple in two. The 
 writer of time would fail were he to endeavour to 
 tell all her charms on the page of eternity, and the 
 chronicles of the age would not contain all her virtues. 
 Like the moon traversing the heavens in her grace, 
 so is she among her seventy constellations of fair 
 maidens, each fairer than a Peri, and more sweet- 
 tongued than nightingales of Paradise." 
 
 " What is the fair one's name ? " eagerly inquired 
 Khusroo. 
 
THE LADY BEYOND THE WESTERN PHLLS. I 3 
 
 " Her name," replied Shapiir^ " suits her as doth thy 
 name, Purweez, the Victorious, describe my prince's 
 perfections. It is Sheereen, the ' Sweet,' that gratifies 
 all mouths and attracts all hearts." 
 
 "Thou spreadst a net of enchantment before the 
 bird of my desire," Khusroo continued. " But, alas ! 
 the cruel cloud of distance obscures the moon of my 
 hope. Is the treasury of thy invention empt}^ that 
 thou canst not provide me with the coin of stratagem 
 by which I may behold her beauty and refresh my soul 
 with her sw^eetness ? " 
 
 '' Maheen Banoo, my prince," observed Shapur, " is 
 not only a great ruler, but a powerful magician as v/ell. 
 She has a mirror which reflects from far and wide the 
 image of any stranger who approaches her camp, and 
 long ere the steed of his wish can advance upon the 
 plain of m.eeting the eye of her discernment will pierce 
 the cloak of his concealment, and lay bare the secret 
 of his coming." 
 
 " But," suggested the prince, *' the lamb does not 
 always remain by its mother's side : it sometimes may 
 be led away by sweeter pasture to fields distant from 
 its ordinary feeding-place ; so Sheereen cannot be 
 always with Maheen Banoo. Might not the panther 
 of our stratagem lay secret wait for this lamb of our 
 intent w^hen it had thus strayed from its fold, and carry 
 it off to the den of our longing ? " 
 
 " A wise man w-ill not reckon too much on the 
 feebleness of his foe," Shapur remarked. '^ The 
 panther might find that the lamb was guarded by 
 
14 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 the dogs of the shepherd, and Sheereen's seventy 
 maidens, without whom she does not go abroad, would 
 be more than a match for many men, though each of 
 these were a Purweez." 
 
 "Friend Shapur," the prince interrupted, impatiently, 
 " thou dost but bind the pigeon more firmly in the 
 fowler's snare. Flutter as it will, my heart cannot 
 escape, and Sheereen I must possess. Unlock, there- 
 fore, the door of thy wisdom and bring forth the 
 weapons of thy contrivance, so that we may be 
 rewarded with the booty of our endeavours." 
 
 " Be it upon the head and eyes of thy slave, O 
 prince ! " cheerfully answered his trusty henchman. 
 " The Jinn of opposition must have the wit of Solomon 
 and the valour of Roostum that shall keep the Peri of 
 thy desire from thy embrace. But now, to set to work. 
 I must at once to Khuzistan, where is to be found this 
 ruby of great price. Give me Shubdeez, thy well-loved 
 steed, that I may on my errand speed, and trust that 
 with my mother-wit I may full soon accomplish it." 
 
 *' Shubdeez shalt thou have," was Khusroo's reply. 
 "And when I whisper in his ear that he goes on his 
 master's errand, neither hunger nor thirst shall dis- 
 courage his fiery soul, neither storm nor torrent shall 
 stay his impetuous course, till thou return again with 
 good tidings of how thou hast sped. In how long may 
 I hope to see thee once more ? " 
 
 " Even on Shubdeez," Shapur said, " the journey 
 must be one of three or four days, and with the return 
 must take up seven or eight. Then how long I shall 
 
THE LADY BEYOND THE WESTERN HILLS. I 5 
 
 be there will depend on my friend's good fortune. By- 
 the-bye, had we not better consult the royal astrologer 
 as to the most auspicious hour for starting?" 
 
 '' Certainly," was the prince's answer ; '' leave that 
 to me, and go and prepare thyself for thy journey. 
 What escort wilt thou have ? " 
 
 " What thou wouldst do secretly with thy left hand," 
 said his friend, " let not thy right hand know. I will 
 ride alone, and in the disguise of a groom, so that 
 if the eyes of the prying should recognize Shubdeez 
 on the way, I may have wherewith, to answer their 
 inquisitiv^e inquiries in saying I go by thy command 
 to seek for him a worthy mate among the noble breed 
 of the Western Hills." 
 
 '' Go, then," said Khusroo. " Khooda hafiz ! God 
 be thy protector ! " 
 
 '* Khooda hafiz ! " he answered. "To-morrow's dawn, 
 at latest, should see me on my way." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CAMP OF THE AMAZONS. 
 
 HE royal astrologer conveniently discovered 
 that next morning at daybreak would be 
 the most auspicious time for the commence- 
 ment of Shapur's journey. Shubdeez displayed his 
 usual powers of speed and endurance, and on the 
 evening of the third day carried his rider to a 
 hermitage at the foot of a hill in the neighbourhood 
 of which the nomads' camp was known to be. They 
 were now in their summer quarters on the plain at 
 the western foot of the hills that divide Ajam from 
 Khuzistan. The hermit, a magnificent old man with 
 a flowing white beard, who had left behind him the 
 cares and sorrows of the world to contemplate in 
 solitude the beneficence of the deity, gave Shapur 
 such hospitable entertainment as he could afford, in 
 the shape of parched grain to eat and pure spring- 
 water to drink, with a shake-down of dry grass for 
 himself and the horse, and directed him in the morning 
 to where he had been told the day-camp of Sheereen 
 and her seventy maidens was to be. When not 
 engaged in the chase, they usually chose for their 
 retreat during the day some secluded valley among the 
 
THE CAMP OF THE AMAZONS. 1/ 
 
 hills, where, sheltered by trees from the heat of the 
 sun, and provided with water from some mountain 
 stream, they could while away the time, not exactly 
 "in maiden meditation, fancy free," but in preparing 
 their arms for hunting, in looking after the accoutre- 
 ments of their horses, and in such other amusements 
 and trifling as might come into the heads of a bevy 
 of young and lively girls who had not the resources 
 of Mudie's or the Grosvenor Gallery at their command. 
 On the present occasion their bivouac — for their tents 
 were left behind in the camp at headquarters, to which 
 they all retired as darkness approached — was in a cosy 
 nook, from which, surrounded as it was by high rocks 
 covered with the light graceful foliage of the bamboo, 
 there was apparently no exit but by the pathway up 
 the bed of a stream by which it was entered. The 
 stream itself trickled down from the rock at the opposite 
 end, forming tiny casades, w^hich, with the brown fern- 
 clothed rock at their sides, contrasted prettily with 
 the varied tints of the,bamboo thickets that surrounded 
 them, and with the darker shades of the tamarind and 
 other lofty trees that grow wherever they could find 
 space on the banks and the open places in the valley. 
 About half-way up the valley the little river fell over 
 a rock about ten feet in height into a basin of pellucid 
 water of some depth, large enough to form a natural 
 bath, the pebbles and water-plants at the bottom of 
 which w^ere all distinctly visible. Unruffled by any 
 breeze, the water showed the reflection of every rock 
 and bush near it, so that each point and leaf and spray 
 
 2 
 
rS IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 stood out in relief in Nature's mirror in a manner inimit- 
 able by the clumsy hand of mortal artist. Horses 
 were picketed in groups of twos and threes beneath 
 the grateful shade of the tall tamarinds, and scattered 
 about among them and in clusters throughout the 
 valley Sheereen's attendants were employed in various 
 ways. Some with arms bared up to the elbow rubbed 
 the sleek coats of their favourite steeds till they shone 
 again, using neither curry-comb nor brush ; some led, 
 or rather were followed by, their animals to water 
 at the stream, for every horse came at its mistress's 
 call ; some polished the points of their arrows and 
 glittering spear-heads, or prepared new strings for 
 their bows ; others attended to the cooking of their 
 simple meal of unleavened cakes toasted over charcoal 
 fires, and a few wove garlands of the wild flowers with 
 which the valley was carpeted to wreath round the 
 head of their mistress, who reclined on a mossy bank 
 in the midst of a merry group, some of whom threw 
 water in sport ever others who "Splashed and frolicked 
 in the pool beneath the cascade ; whilst ever and anon 
 was heard the sound of a lute accompanying a sweet 
 voice that sang some legend of the deeds of their war- 
 like ancestors, or improvised a soul-stirring description 
 of adventure in the chase. 
 
 As Shapur cautiously approached this scene ot 
 enchantment — he had left Shubdeez behind him at 
 the hermit's cave — concealing himself behind rocks 
 and bushes as he came, these words, sung to a lively 
 air, caught his ear : 
 
THE CAMP OF THE AMAZONS. 1 9 
 
 " Off with the falcon ere dawning of day ! 
 Ride ere the deer from the plain speeds away ! 
 In its restraining leash hold back the hound, 
 Lest tow'rds the mountain the nimble buck bound ! 
 
 Ride, sisters, ride, 
 
 On your swift steeds of pride. 
 
 Keen as the eagle that hovers the plain. 
 
 Glistening spear in hand, 
 
 Start forth, a merry band, 
 
 Heading the deer ere their shelter they gain ! " 
 
 The song was evidently a favourite one, for the 
 chorus was caught up by fifty voices, and echoed again 
 and again through the valley. Then the single voice 
 began once more : 
 
 "Ere the bright dove of day with its pinion of light 
 Shall drive back to darkness the black crow of night, 
 And the violet's scent on the breeze of the morn 
 Through days opening gate to our senses is borne, 
 
 Wake, sisters wake ! 
 
 Your soft couches forsake ! 
 
 Sluggard is she who waits for the sun, 
 
 Lion and wolf and bear 
 
 Day to their dens will scare, 
 
 Hiding in caves ere her course has begun. 
 
 Hushed is the sound of the nightingale's trill — 
 Soon will the sun's arrows strike on the hill, — 
 Yet swifter than these must the huntresses be 
 On steeds like the wind, and their hearts just as free. 
 
 Ride, sisters, ride, — 
 
 On your fleet steeds of pride 
 
 Swoop like the falcon that thirsts for his prey ; 
 
 Nor tighten the rein 
 
 Till the chase is in vain. 
 
 And the antelope hides in the thicket away ! " 
 
20 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 And the valley resounded again as the girls from 
 different sides sang alternate lines of the chorus, and 
 danced, and as it were flung them at each other across 
 the stream. 
 
 Then Sheereen said to the singer: " Dilaram, my 
 heart's repose, thou art a poetess as well as a huntress, 
 and we never tire of hearing thy songs ; but we must 
 not always harp upon one string, as if we were never 
 weary of killing. Sing us a song of a gentler 
 strain. 
 
 Dilaram replied : '' It was after our last day's hunt 
 on the banks of the ' Zindah Rood ' that, as it grew 
 dusk in the evening, I wandered out of the camp to 
 enjoy the sea-breeze that had just begun to blow up 
 from the Gulf. Seeing by the light of the waning 
 moon some dark object behind a bush, I walked 
 towards it, and before I was perceived had time to 
 make out that it was a doe in vain endeavouring to 
 give suck to a fawn which, from having an arrow that 
 had pierced it still sticking in its leg, was unable to 
 move to reach the nurture offered, and lay panting and 
 faint with hunger. Painfully the mother bleated and 
 tried to get the little one to rise. She had no doubt 
 watched it from afar with a mother's eye, but not 
 dared to come nearer till darkness was coming on. 
 As I went on, she naturally bounded away ; and as I 
 knew the fawn would soon be set upon by jackals and 
 prowHng beasts of prey, I picked it up and carried it 
 home. That night I lay awake, after I had taken the 
 arrow out and bound up the wound, and poured milk 
 
THE CAMP OF THE AMAZONS. 2 1 
 
 down the little one's throat, and composed an air and 
 words, which I will sing if my princess desires." 
 
 '^ Sing, sing ! " at once cried a chorus of voices. 
 **The nightingale hides his head under his wing from 
 envy of thee, sweet Dilaram ! " 
 
 And Dilaram struck a plaintive minor chord, and 
 commenced her song : 
 
 " The sun had long set and the evening was still ; 
 The sough of the night wind was heard on the hill. 
 Awoke from their slumbers the bat and the owl, 
 And fierce beasts of prey were beginning to prowl. 
 Little bird, little bird, go to thy nest : 
 Thou art awake by day ; now take thy rest. 
 
 The huntresses came and they rode in their might. 
 
 Some deer had they slain, and the rest took to flight ; 
 
 But one little fawn that an arrow laid low 
 
 Crept away to a bush, so that no one should know. 
 Little bird, little bird, go to thy nest : 
 Thou art awake by day ; now take thy rest. 
 
 And yet some one had looked and had seen where it lay, 
 For its mother had watched till the close of the day. 
 Then, as the day closed and the darkness drew nigh, 
 Crept down to the bush with a heart-rending sigh. 
 Little bird, little bird, go to thy nest : 
 Thou art awake by day ; now take thy rest. 
 
 Faint and weak lay her darling, still panting for breath : 
 On its brow seemed to gather the damp dew of death. 
 ' Oh ! could I,' she thought, ' but some nourishment give, 
 The wound still might heal, and my little one live.' 
 Little bird, little bird, go to thy nest : 
 Thou art awake by day ; now take thy rest. 
 
 Poor mother, poor mother ! thy effort is vain ! 
 The dart in its flesh, and benumbed with the pain, 
 
2-2 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 The fawn bleated sadly, and said with its eyes 
 ' Fain life would I drink, but I cannot arise.' 
 Little bird, little bird, go to thy nest : 
 Thou art awake by day ; now take thy rest. 
 
 Yet cheer up, poor mother ! the darkness has passed. 
 And thy poor little fawn finds a haven at last. 
 A huntress has carried it home in her breast, 
 Where it nestles secure and serene in its rest. 
 Little bird, little bird, go to thy nest : 
 Thou art awake by day ; now take thy rest." 
 
 ''A place of peace, indeed, next thy heart, my 
 Dilaram," said Sheereen when the song was ended, and 
 the girls, who had gathered together to hear it, were 
 loud in their applause. 
 
 Meanwhile, Shapur had been sorely puzzled to 
 know how to proceed. He had heard terrific tales 
 of the fearful vengeance Maheen Banoo and her 
 tribe would wreak on any man who dared to intrude 
 on their privacy, and consequently was not over- 
 anxious to venture among them till he had made 
 some trial of their temper. At last he bethought 
 himself of trying the effect of Prince Khusroo's like- 
 ness on them, and fastened on a tree within their 
 view one of several portraits of him drawn on white 
 silk that he had brought with him. No sooner had 
 Sheereen seen it than she directed one of her maidens 
 to go and see what it was. The girl, finding it to be 
 the portrait of a very Handsome young man, feared 
 the effect it might have on one of her mistress's 
 excitable temperament, and, tearing it in pieces, returned 
 with the intelligence that it had been merely an illusion 
 
THE CAMP OF THE AMAZONS. 23 
 
 which some demon who had a spite against them had 
 put up on the tree to annoy them, and had vanished 
 when she tried to take hold of it. Duly impressed 
 with the power of magic from many things she had 
 seen Maheen Banoo do, Sheereen was satisfied with 
 the explanation, and Shapur, finding his experiment a 
 failure, made the best of his w^ay back to the hermit's 
 cave, determined to entrust him with the secret of his 
 errand, and endeavour to gain his assistance in carrying 
 it out. The long day drew gradually to an end, or, in 
 Persian phraseology, the Anka (a fabulous bird sup- 
 posed to live in the sun) sought his nest in the west, 
 and Sheereen and her seventy companions mounted 
 their horses and returned for the night to Maheen 
 Banoo's headquarters' camp. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE RIDE ACROSS THE DESERT. 
 
 RIEND ! " said the hermit, as Shapur entered 
 the cave on his return, '' the harvest of thy 
 hope has been blasted by the autumn wind 
 of disappointment." 
 
 '^Thy words are true, O man of discernment," he 
 answered ; " but how knewest thou this ? Has the 
 bird of the woods whispered into the ear of thy sense 
 what none could have known but thy slave ? " 
 
 " He who lives in the corner of retirement," the 
 hermit said, "and ponders on the things of the hidden 
 world, hath his ears open to many voices inaudible by 
 him whose ears are stopped with the wax of the affairs 
 of this perishable, existence. Lo, I touch thy forehead " 
 (and he did so) '' with the finger of penetration, and 
 know that thou didst hang a picture on the tree, laying 
 it as the grain of the fowler in thy snare before the 
 pigeon of thy desire ; but thy net was cut by the 
 envious mouse of thy ill fortune, and the corn reached 
 not the crop of that incautious bird. But though thy 
 arrow has not yet struck the target of thy wish, the 
 wheel of fortune still revolves, and the man of deter- 
 
THE RIDE ACROSS THE DESERT. 25 
 
 mination will never despair of an opportunity to try 
 once more the strength of the bow of his purpose and 
 the accuracy of the aim of his intent." 
 
 " The hands of my imagination are tied with the 
 cords of ignorance," Shapur remarked. " Oh, let a 
 ray from the sun of thy contrivance illumine the dark- 
 ness of my helplessness, and light up for me the path 
 of success ! " 
 
 '' Open, then, the lips of thy hope," then cheerfull}^ 
 said the hermit, " and thou shalt drink the wine of 
 th}' expectation. I will enchant the picture, so that it 
 shall become the amber that shall attract the straw 
 of Sheereen's desire. Hast thou another picture pre- 
 pared ? " 
 
 Shapur soon produced a facsimile of the prince's 
 likeness that had been torn up the day before. This 
 the hermit placed on the ground in the entrance of 
 the cave, and drew round it a circle with his rod. 
 On the circle he placed some of the dry thorns of 
 which a heap was stored outside the cave, and setting 
 them on fire waved his rod backwards and forwards 
 over the picture with his right hand, while, muttering 
 certain cabalistic sentences, he threw salt on the flames 
 and made them flare up and crackle. Then, having 
 sprinkled the embers with water from a cup over which 
 he uttered more words of enchantment, he gave the 
 portrait to Shapur again, saying : 
 
 '^ Go again in the morning to the new encampment 
 of those fairy-faced ones, and hang it on a tree as thou 
 didst to-day, and it shall come to pass that as soon as 
 
26 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 the eye of thy pigeon shall light upon it, the spark of 
 desire shall light up in her soul the fire of love, which 
 shall not be extinguished but with the water of union. 
 But now eat the meagre food a hermit's store can 
 alone afford thee, and rest on thy couch of grass till 
 the herald of the army of the day terrifies the host of 
 the moon and stars, and they withdraw themselves 
 within the skirt of his garment of flame. God be thy 
 protector ! " 
 
 The lark had not shaken the dew off" its wings for 
 its first morning flight into the regions of the upper air 
 when Shapur was on his way to the maidens' next 
 da3''s bivouac, which they could reach by a shorter 
 route than the rather circuitous one he had to follow 
 among the hills. Their place of amusement was very 
 similar to that of the previous day, but was rather more 
 extensive. 
 
 The bevy of fair maidens were employed in their usual 
 tasks and amusements when Shapur's picture again 
 appeared. Of course it at once attracted Sheereen's 
 attention. He had not managed on this occasion to 
 put it up without being himself seen. Intensely 
 excited, she sent one of her attendants to inquire who 
 he was, and why he had put up the picture so 
 mysteriously. He replied, saying to himself, ''The 
 seed has germinated, and if fate is propitious to 
 Khusroo, it will grow into a goodly tree." Then aloud 
 to the messenger, " Here is a pearl that is not to be 
 threaded ; and if it is, its method cannot be openly 
 shown." 
 
THE RIDE ACROSS THE DESERT. 2/ 
 
 The words were repeated to Sheereen who, more 
 and still more excited, went and sat by his side. He 
 kissed the ground at her feet and praised her beauty, 
 but at first gave no direct answer to her question of 
 who he was and whence he came. He excited her 
 curiosity by merely saying he was a man who had seen 
 much good and much evil, and God had concealed from 
 him no secrets either in the depths or in the heights. 
 When she at last pressed him as to the significance of 
 the picture, he promised to tell her in private if she 
 would send away her attendants. These, who had 
 clustered round their moon as the Pleiades, in Persian 
 phrase, at a signal from their mistress scattered like 
 stars in the Great Bear, and passed out of earshot. 
 Shapur then told her the likeness was that of Khusroo 
 Purweez, whose praises he proceeded to sing. He 
 said of him that he was gentle as a deer, but in his 
 rage like the fierce lion, a rose unwithered by the 
 autumn's blast, a fresh-sprouting spring on the branch 
 of 3^outh, the leaf of whose water-lily had not yet 
 appeared above the surface of the water, whose sun 
 was as yet unobscured by a cloud, who would open 
 a hundred doors with one breath from Paradise, whose 
 mouth shed pearls as he spoke, at the drawing of 
 whose sword the lion despaired of life, in descent 
 sprung from Jumsheed, in dignity like the sun, before 
 whose steed the world found the road narrow, who had 
 raised his flag above the seven thrones, who intoxicated 
 the ocean with its aroma when he took in his hand the 
 cup of Kaikhusro, and who with all this magnificence 
 
2 8 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 and these virtues loved her to distraction, neither 
 sleeping at night for seeing her image in his dreams, 
 nor reposing by day from thinking of her. 
 
 The Persian chronicle relates that, overwhelmed 
 with the description, Sheereen replied : 
 
 '' Who is my friend in this whirlpool of trouble ? 
 The waters have passed over my head ; what shall 
 I do ? I have no confidante among my companions. 
 1 am swallowed up in grief, and my heart has fallen. 
 I am like a sick ass in the mud. This grief has pene- 
 trated my heart, and made my body like a withered 
 narcissus." 
 
 Shapur answered : ^' O envy of the sun ! May thy 
 heart be soothed and thy life be prolonged ! Since 
 thy barque has fallen into this whirlpool, guide it 
 to the shore again. Breathe not a word of this to any 
 one ; but pretend to-morrow to go to the chase. Mount 
 Khusroo's horse Shubdeez and fly. None will reach 
 him in the race. I give thee a ring of Khusroo's. Take 
 it and go to his palace, w^here thou shalt find shelter 
 among his female attendants until the prince comes, 
 and thou mayest raise his throne from the earth to the 
 heavens. Shubdeez shall go to Maheen Banoo's camp 
 to-night, and when thou mountest on his back in the 
 morning, thou hast only to whisper the name of 
 Khusroo in his ear for him to be thy slave until 
 death." 
 
 Sheereen nodded her assent and went to her maidens, 
 w^hose curiosity in endeavouring to find out what had 
 passed between her and the strange man she had some 
 
THE RIDE ACROSS THE DESERT. 29 
 
 difficulty in putting aside, and Shapur returned to the 
 hermit's cave to tell him of his success and arrange 
 for sending Shubdeez to Maheen Banoo's camp. 
 
 The next morning's dawn saw Sheereen and her 
 seventy attendants on their way to a favourite hunting- 
 ground, where game was abundant. She had kept 
 her counsel to herself, and no one had the slightest 
 idea when she rode off at full speed after a buck that 
 there was anything unusual in the proceeding. Her 
 horse, it had been noticed, seemed particularly fresh 
 and difficult to manage ; but she was such a splendid 
 horsewoman that her being apparently run away with 
 caused no anxiety to her attendants, who believed the 
 animal would soon tire himself out and be brought 
 back subdued and tame. He had headed direct for the 
 hills in the east, which were at no great distance, and, 
 getting among the low forest at their base, was soon 
 lost to sight. Sheereen then slackened his speed, so 
 as not to waste his strength, and rode steadily on for 
 several hours towards a place where she and her 
 company had made their bivouac not long before, and 
 where she knew there was water and grass. It was 
 midday when she arrived there, and, turning Shubdeez 
 loose to graze, laid herself down on the bank of a 
 stream to think over her situation. Solitary as she 
 found herself, she in no way repented of her under- 
 taking. The handsome face she had seen in Shapur's 
 picture, backed by his glowing description of the 
 prince's excellencies, exercised that fascination over her 
 mind which the hermit would fain have set down to 
 
30 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 his magical skill. There could be no doubt that he 
 possessed in a great degree that power of influencing 
 the wills of others, even at a distance, which in modern 
 days has been called " mesmerism/' or " electro- 
 biology." Being looked upon as a holy man, he was 
 consulted by members of all the nomad tribes in his 
 own neighbourhood on matters of importance, and had 
 thus had opportunities of becoming acquainted with 
 Sheereen, of which he had not informed Shapur. He 
 was intimately acquainted also with Maheen Banoo, 
 and assisted her in the taking of auguries and in other 
 ceremonial observances enjoined by the custom of her 
 tribe. He was in some degree, however, her rival 
 in the profession of magic, and was not sorry on the 
 present occasion to have it in his power to twit her 
 with the failure of her celebrated mirror to foretell the 
 coming event. We shall hear more of the hermit and 
 his powers hereafter, but we must in the meanwhile 
 follow Sheereen and her fortunes. 
 
 Riding on in the afternoon, and coming on a well- 
 known track, she made for the encampment of a friendly 
 tribe at the foot of the hills on the opposite side to 
 the one she had entered by. Here she unhesitatingly 
 rode up to the chief's tent, and announcing herself 
 as Maheen Banoo's niece, was hospitably entertained. 
 For being alone and coming in so unceremonious a 
 fashion, she made the excuse that she had had a 
 quarrel with her aunt, and thought it advisable to visit 
 her father's tribe for a time until their mutual anger 
 had softened down. Her arrival in the camp caused 
 
THE RIDE ACROSS THE DESERT. 3 1 
 
 considerable excitement, especially among the younger 
 men, for her beauty was celebrated ; and as she was 
 well provided for among the chiefs family, and the 
 ormer could not pay her all the gallant little attentions 
 one and all were eager to pay, they lavished them upon 
 her horse, of whose good qualities, being themselves 
 keen connoisseurs, they could not speak sufficiently 
 highly. Shubdeez was thus in clover, and with good 
 food and a night's rest was fresh for his next day's 
 journey. That journey was to be for the most part 
 over a sandy desert plain. Sheereen's host provided 
 her, however, with some unleavened cakes and a bottle 
 of mare's milk, and a bag of grain tied round his neck 
 for Shubdeez. Many of the younger members of this 
 wild tribe offered to escort her, but none of the offers 
 were accepted. She told them that she was determined 
 to go alone, and alone she departed. 
 
 It was a ver}^ trying journey for that lonely beautiful 
 girl. Within an hour of sunrise the salt incrustation 
 on the plain over which she was riding produced that 
 perfect mirage which magnifies every stunted and 
 thorny bush into a perfect tree, and reflects the image 
 of every wild animal standing on the plain as perfect^ 
 as if the animal were standing alone on the brink 
 of some placid lake. Onward and onward Sheereen 
 the beautiful . and the courageous rode. Shubdeez 
 was thirsty ; but whenever he approached what he 
 thought to be water it turned out to be only the idle 
 desert mirage. 
 
 By midday even Shubdeez was faint and tired. 
 
32 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 That was quite evident. Overpowered by the burning 
 heat of the sun, and parched by thirst, Sheereen's proud 
 spirit began to give way. Suddenly, as she rode over 
 a rising piece of ground, she saw an oasis in the 
 desert. Before her lay at no great distance a con- 
 siderable stretch of water surrounded for some distance 
 by greensward. This at any rate was no mirage. 
 It was pure water bubbling up from a spring filling 
 a small basin, and overflowing into a stream, which, 
 before it was lost in the desert, was fringed for some 
 distance with yellow blossoming acacias and pink 
 oleanders. Imagine the joy such a discovery as this 
 was to the wild beauty and her famous steed. It did 
 not need her caressing touch to make him bound on- 
 wards to the water. Sheereen, like the horse, hastened 
 to that fountain of life. She looked round to see that 
 there was no one in sight, then she slipped off her 
 outer garments and plunged into that delicious flood. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. 
 
 HE was dressed in a short skirt which re- 
 vealed rather than concealed the fair form it 
 covered. Another glance around, and then, 
 being quite sure that there was no one in sight, she 
 slipped this garment off also and plunged into the deep 
 water. The Persian chronicler says that from contact 
 with that glittering body the water of life was darkened, 
 the wild rose united with the water-lily, and when she 
 dipped herself in the limpid element it was as if the 
 ermine had rolled itself over the face of night. 
 
 And then something else occurred. It so happened 
 that after Shapur had departed in search of Sheereen, 
 being in a restless state of mind, Prince Khusroo 
 started off on the same errand. He left word that 
 if Sheereen arrived during his absence she was to be 
 hospitably entertained ; but he himself, he said, was 
 going away on a hunting expedition. The next day 
 but one after Shapur's departure he was off too, and 
 on the very morning that Sheereen was taking her bath 
 in that desert lake he happened to have his camp in 
 the neighbourhood. Whilst it was being pitched, and 
 
 3 
 
34 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 things were being made ready for his reception, he 
 rode out to survey the plain. It was not long before 
 he suddenly came in sight of the water, and of course 
 he immediately made for it. In that water Sheereen 
 was at the moment washing her long black hair, while 
 an equally black horse marvellously like his own was 
 grazing quietly at the edge of the lake. Sheereen 
 saw him in a moment. It was a very awkward 
 situation. 
 
 A very awkward situation indeed. Instantly the 
 wild beauty drew her long hair around her, like the 
 prototype of Lady Godiva, as she was, so that it 
 answered perfectly the purposes of a veil. 
 
 ''Can this be Sheereen and my own horse Shub- 
 deez?" mused the prince. 
 
 '' Can this be Khusroo ? " was the thought which 
 flashed across Sheereen's mind. 
 
 He was almost rooted to the spot by the girl's 
 entrancing beauty; but of course he could scarcel}' 
 remain where he was. He retreated and looked awa}^, 
 so that the desert princess had an opportunity, not 
 only to put on her garments, but also to mount her 
 horse. She was in doubt whether it could be Khusroo ; 
 but there w^as an irresistible attraction which drew her 
 towards him. It was a genuine case of love at first 
 sight. Still she was pledged to Khusroo, and this 
 might not be the man. It was impossible to serve 
 two masters, or to worship at two shrines. In her 
 doubt and her distress she mounted Shubdeez and 
 flew away like the wind. Khusroo turned his head 
 
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. 3 5 
 
 and she was gone. He had found the spring-time, but 
 had gathered no fruit from' it. He had seen the river, 
 but had not moistened his Hps. He had seen his rose 
 in the morning, but alas I he had not plucked the 
 flower. 
 
 He made every effort to overtake her. 
 
 ''She must have been a Peri," he thought, ''flying 
 from the sight of a man, or she could not have become 
 so suddenly invisible." 
 
 As it was useless to stay longer where he was, he 
 marched out in the afternoon towards the hill of 
 Arman. Sheereen rode onwards at full speed until 
 she thought she was no longer pursued, and then she 
 slackened Shubdeez' pace until they reached Khusroo's 
 palace. It was a difficult position ; but, then, she lived 
 in the East and not in the West. She claimed admit- 
 tance, and told the attendants that in time Khusroo 
 himself would tell her story. She begged them in the 
 meantime to attend to Shubdeez, who had indeed 
 proved himself an animal of great price ; naturally the 
 attendants recognized the horse. Sheereen was re- 
 ceived by the female attendants with all the honours 
 that could be shown her. They clothed her in rich 
 garments ; and as she rested from the fatigues of her 
 journe}', then, to use the Persian phrase, the rose of 
 union with Khusroo bloomed for her in the garden 
 of promise. 
 
 The bride had come home before the bridegroom, for, 
 meanwhile, Khusroo, having reached the confines of the 
 kingdom, was royally entertained by the wardens of the 
 
36 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 marches. After some days of enjoyment he passed 
 on to Khuzistan. Maheen Banoo heard of his arrival. 
 She was overwhelmed with grief because of the loss of 
 her niece, who she thought must have been killed by 
 some wild beast ; but she came out in due state to meet 
 Khusroo. She went through the usual Istikbdl, or 
 ceremony of greeting, and invited him to confer honour 
 on Barora, her capital. Khusroo consented. If he had 
 only known what he was missing ! but, then, he thought 
 he was near the prize. 
 
 Shapur appeared before long, and from him he heard 
 the whole story of what had happened. Then Khusroo 
 came to a very queer determination. He sent Shapur 
 off" on Sheereen's own horse Goolgoon, an animal almost 
 the equal of Shubdeez, to fetch Sheereen back. On his 
 arrival at the palace Sheereen was quite eager to 
 return home. There she was received with great 
 rejoicing by Maheen Banoo and her attendants, who 
 do not seem to have had any idea as to where she 
 had been beyond this, that she had been lost on a 
 hunting expedition. 
 
 The would-be lovers, however, had not yet come to 
 the end of their troubles. Two days before her return 
 a carrier had reached Khusroo with the news that his 
 father, King Hormuz, was dead. His friends advised 
 him strongly to take immediate possession of the 
 throne of Persia. Love gave way to self-interest. 
 Having done this, he gave a series of State entertain- 
 ments, when in the course of hunting one day he 
 came across Sheereen once more. Suddenl}^ hearing 
 
\VHAT HAPPENED NEXT. 37 
 
 a sweet voice singing, he stood still to listen, and this 
 was the song : 
 
 " I look down below, and I look up above ; — 
 Tell me, O nightingale, where is my love ? 
 Fondly I search the horizon's bound, 
 Say where, sweet bird, my love may be found. 
 
 Oh ! is he there in the sun's glorious light, 
 Or in the moon's gentle radiance at night ? 
 Say, does he rest in the sea's cavern deep. 
 Where the pearl in its mother-shell lieth asleep ? 
 
 With my bodily e3^e I cannot see him here, 
 But the eye of my spirit still whispers, ' He's near.' 
 Nightingale, mount to the bright sky above. 
 Look down and tell me, oh ! where is my love ? " 
 
 It turned out to be one of the day bivouacs of 
 Sheereen and her maidens. As he came forward from 
 his hiding-place, the startled cry of " The prince ! The 
 prince ! " from her attendants told Sheereen who her 
 visitor was, and a glance show^ed her he was the same 
 person whom she had seen as she sat in her al fresco 
 bath. It needed no more to tell him Sheereen w^as 
 before him. She, after the custom of her people, 
 hastened to kiss the ground at his feet. To lift her up 
 and kiss her hand w^as the work of a moment ; but as 
 the attendants on both sides ran to the spot a some- 
 what awkward pause ensued. Sheereen, however, 
 with a deep blush that enhanced her charms, quickly 
 ended it by saying, " The sky derives dignity from thy 
 crown, and the earth loftiness from thy throne. 
 Though thou hast a hundred thousand slaves better 
 than I am, yet I have a dwelling-place in this neigh- 
 
38 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 bourhood which, if the king will honour by his presence, 
 in binding her loins in thy service the head of thy 
 servant will be exalted. If the elephant passes over 
 the carpet of the ant, the robe of her who has fallen 
 will fall into the blue ! " * The invitation, of course, 
 was eagerly accepted. Maheen Banoo, on being informed 
 of what had happened, sent a royal banquet, and he 
 was soon installed in a palace shaded by trees like 
 the Tooba of Paradise. 
 
 * That is, will be dyed and freshened up again. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE princess's WARNING, AND THE BEAUTY's VOW. 
 
 JAHEEN BANOO was wise in her generation 
 in knowing the feeling Sheereen entertained 
 towards the prince ; she bethought herself of 
 the necessity of caution in leaving fuel and fire in close 
 proximity to each other; she spoke seriously to her 
 niece on the subject. She told her she was a sealed 
 treasure ; that she did not know the good and evil of 
 the world, for it knew how to use fascination to steal 
 a pearl or pierce a ruby. If this lord of the world had 
 given his heart to her, she had hunted noble game; 
 but she must turn a deaf ear to his blandishments and 
 not yield to his impatience, for men, she said, were 
 clever at all stratagems and deceit. For all his 
 honeyed words, he must not be allowed to eat sweet- 
 meats without cost, and she must not fall into his oven 
 before she had eaten bread. As she was of pure 
 disposition, she should act as an antidote to his poison, 
 nor become as Vees with Rameen. She must not 
 scratch the face of her good name with dry thorns, but 
 live with fair fame. She had heard that he had ten 
 thousand sweet-lipped and chain-haired beauties at his 
 
40 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 command ; and if his heart laughed at all these roses, 
 how could she know that his affection would remain 
 firm to one pearl ? If he knew her purity and fair 
 fame, he would ask for her with all honour. Sheereen 
 was to remember that she was no lower than himself 
 in rank, for had not Maheen Banoo an ample kingdom ? 
 If he was a moon, she was a sun. If he was Kaoos, 
 she was Afrasiab. She must not follow after men like 
 Zuleikha, but be like Wamik's lover Uzra ; for there were 
 many who threw away a rose after its first sweet scent 
 had left it, and wine from the cup when they had once 
 tasted it. If she would follow this advice, she would 
 not fall into misfortune. 
 
 Sheereen, the chronicler relates, fastened these 
 admonitions as a ring in her ear, and swore by the 
 seven thrones of light, and by the glorious Testament 
 of the Lord of the world, that if she had to weep tears 
 of blood for it she would never be anything but 
 Khusroo's lawful wife. 
 
 Some time was now passed by the lovers and their 
 companions in feasting and sport. Not a day passed 
 that Sheereen did not lead the way to some enchanting 
 spot among the hills in the neighbourhood, or on 
 the plain close to them, whence, when the chase had 
 been unsuccessful, or she and her maidens were tired 
 of hurling the '^ chogan," or throwing the spear — sports 
 in which they rivalled the men of the prince's suite — 
 they could retire into some shady place to pass the 
 hotter hours of the day. Neither the song nor, 
 unfortunately, the wine-cup were wanting in their 
 
THE princess's WARNING, THE BEAUTY'S VOW. 4 1 
 
 feasts. There were, in addition to Sheereen herself, 
 several in her company who were proficient on the 
 barbut, or lute, and could on occasion improvise songs 
 on the adventures of the day, and amongst the 
 attendants of Khusroo some who had studied music 
 under Barbud, the famous singer, who shared with 
 Nakisa the musical and poetical honours of the Persian 
 court of the day. It was in an era previous to that 
 in which the advent of the religion of the Arabian 
 prophet, who no doubt was well aware of the excess 
 to which wine-drinking was carried, especially among 
 the nomad tribes, checked the propensity to indulgence, 
 and endeavoured to put a stop to it by prohibiting 
 the use of wine altogether. Women, as well as men, 
 were given to it. We have said that the vice of 
 intoxication had already led Khusroo into scrapes. 
 This, however, had not cured him of the propensity ; 
 and although Sheereen by her own studied moderation 
 set a good example, the custom of the country was 
 such that she could not have abstained altogether, 
 for fear of being counted wanting in the duties of 
 hospitality. The scenes that took place at these festive 
 meetings were therefore sometimes unpleasant. On 
 one occasion a lion disturbed them. Its appearance 
 was followed by an immediate stampede of those on 
 the spot ; but Khusroo, probably in one of his drunken 
 fits, and foolhardy accordingly, went against it with 
 a spear, and succeeded, possibly more by good luck 
 than good management, in killing it. On his return 
 from this adventure, with the dead animal borne before 
 
42 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 him in triumph to lay at Sheereen's feet, he first claimed 
 for his reward permission to kiss her hand ; but, not 
 content with this, proceeded to kiss her lips, an 
 operation to which she prudently submitted for the 
 time being ; but the incident, much as she loved him, 
 fortified her in her determination that nothing should 
 induce her to share his throne till his bad habit was 
 conquered. When he had recovered himself, she 
 warned him of the consequences, and pointed out the 
 disgrace into which he was bringing the name of a 
 Persian king, a descendant of such illustrious ancestors 
 as Noushirwan and Kaikhusroo, darkening the sun 
 of their glory with the eclipse of the moon of self- 
 indulgence, and himself sinking from the height of the 
 heaven of majesty into the gloomy sea of dishonour. 
 She lectured him soundly. She told him he had 
 already been absent a long time from his seat of 
 government, and it was her duty to tell him to return, 
 in spite of her fear that he might accuse her of a want 
 of hospitality ; for could he expect that his subjects, 
 when the sun of their adoration was long hid from 
 them by the fog of absence, would not turn their faces 
 towards a moon illumining their night, unobscured by 
 the clouds of doubt ? Did he not remember that 
 Behram Choobeen had already spread a scandalous 
 report that he had blinded his father, and on that 
 account, as well as from his youth and inexperience, 
 was unfit to rule over them ? 
 
 On this entreaty Khusroo promised her that he 
 would reform ; but she must allow him for a few days 
 
THE princess's WARNING, THE BEAUTY'S VOW. 43 
 
 more to enjoy the light of her presence and drink the 
 wine of her beauty. Weakly she did not insist on 
 his going away, and the few days of grace he had 
 begged for became a week, and the week became a 
 month. About this time alarming rumours began to 
 be spread about that the people of Ajam were tired 
 of w^aiting for their king, and were turning their eyes 
 towards Behram Choobeen, who was said to be return- 
 ing from Russia, where he had taken refuge after his 
 defeat by Khusroo. The infatuation of drink and 
 Sheereen's presence still possessed Khusroo. He would 
 not beheve the bad news, and dallied on from day 
 to day. 
 
 He was seated once on the bank of a stream, having 
 just awoke from a heavy sleep, when his attention 
 was drawn to a crowd in the camp. There w^as 
 something unusual afoot, that was quite clear ; and 
 Khusroo arose in anger from his drunken sleep. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Mohammed's emissary. 
 
 O us who only know Mohammedanism as a 
 great power in the world, it is strange to read 
 in the ancient Persian record how first Khusroo 
 heard of the new reUgion. An old man with long, 
 flowing, white beard and naked to the waist, holding 
 in his left hand a rod of polished steel covered with 
 iron rings, which he rattled as he came, advanced 
 towards the camp. In his right hand was a paper, 
 which he held to his head. Slowly he advanced 
 towards Khusroo. In spite of the thronging of the 
 people, he pressed onwards, looking neither to the 
 right hand nor to the left, repeating always the now 
 familiar formula, " There is no God but Allah, and 
 Mohammed is His prophet ; there is no God but Allah, 
 and Mohammed is His prophet." 
 
 It was the hermit of the cave. The founder of 
 Islam was at this time in his full career of conquest 
 in Arabia ; and having nearly subdued all his enemies 
 he determined to send messengers to all the surrounding 
 countries calling upon them to renounce Paganism 
 and to embrace the worship of the true God. News 
 
MOHAMMED'S EMISSARY. 45 
 
 travelled but slowly in those far-off days, and hardly 
 anything was known in Persia of the advent of the 
 prophet. The hermit had, however, heard of what 
 was occurring, and he crossed over ..into Arabia to see 
 for himself what was going on. The fiery zeal of the 
 first followers of Mohammed found in him a kindred 
 spirit. He was initiated in the new cult. He saw the 
 prophet himself. Mohammed had intrusted him with 
 a written document to Khusroo. The document he 
 pressed against his forehead as he came forward boldly, 
 and with none of those abject tokens of humility with 
 which it was customary to approach the presence of 
 Persian monarchs. The hermit respectfully kissed the 
 document, and then he handed it to Khusroo, who with 
 a gesture of impatience opened it. It was, however, 
 written in Arabic, a language he did not understand. 
 One of his attendants was better informed, and inter- 
 preted it to him. 
 
 This was the letter : 
 
 " From the Vicegerent of Allah the Merciful, the 
 Compassionate, the Lord of the two worlds, the Giver 
 of all that is good, and the Destroyer of all that is evil. 
 Be it known to Khusroo, commonly known as Purv/eez, 
 ruler of Ajam, that thou and thy subjects have gone 
 astray in the wilderness of unbelief, and worship the 
 sun and the moon and the hosts of heaven, which Allah 
 has created and which are no gods. Wherefore turn 
 ye and be converted, and abandon 3'our vain imagina- 
 tions and worship the one true God, Who has sent 
 thee his slave to show you the wa}-. Obey the word, 
 
46 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 and follow in the path. If you shall wander again, 
 lo, the sword is drawn. Ye shall be rooted out of the 
 earth, and cast into hell." 
 
 Khusroo could hardly bear with patience the reading 
 of this mysterious scroll. 
 
 " Who is this dog of an Arab," he exclaimed, " who 
 dares to tell us that we should abandon the faith of 
 our fathers and follow after some new strange god ? " 
 
 " There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the 
 prophet of Allah," was the reply. 
 
 "We know," said Khusroo, angrily, ^'that the Chris- 
 tians have gods and the Greeks and Romans have 
 gods ; but who is Allah that we should serve him, and 
 no longer look up to the light of heaven that gives 
 us heat and warmth, the vapour and clouds, whence 
 comes the rain that provides us with our meat and 
 drink ? And w^ho is this dog that calls himself 
 Mohammed and the prophet of God ? " 
 
 '' Thou blasphemest," said the hermit with bitter 
 emphasis; *'thou blasphemest the elect of Allah, and 
 hast sealed thine own fate. Though for a time the 
 white banner of victory float over thee as thou mountest 
 higher and higher to the Damavend of fame, there shall 
 come an hour when the rushing river of calamity shall 
 bear thee down to the depths of woe. I have spoken." 
 
 Khusroo tore the letter to pieces, and throwing it 
 into the stream at his feet, exclaimed : 
 
 " Seize the dog. Let him not depart hence. Seize 
 him, and strike off his head." 
 
 Khusroo's followers rushed forward to execute their 
 
MOHAMMED'S EMISSARY. 47 
 
 lord's commands, which would have been carried out 
 to the letter had not Sheereen's maidens, who had 
 collected together to see what was the cause of the 
 disturbance, closed round him. The hermit, taking 
 advantage of the succour thus brought him, walked 
 proudly away, saying, " AUahu akbar ! God is great ! 
 There is but one God, and Mohammed is His prophet ! " 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 KHUSROO GETS MARRIED, AND THEN FIGHTS A GREAT 
 BATTLE. 
 
 HE blow was not long in falling. Messenger 
 after messenger soon arrived with the news 
 that the people, disgusted with the continued 
 absence of their king, and not knowing to whom to 
 turn in the hour of their need when the near approach 
 of Behram Choobeen, with a large army of Tartars, 
 the daughter of whose chief he was reported to have 
 married, was announced, would certainly declare for him. 
 Forced at last out of his apathy by the news, backed 
 up by the entreaties of Maheen Banoo and Sheereen, 
 Khusroo turned towards his capital, Madain. About 
 a day's march from it he was met by an officer of some 
 rank in Behram's army, who bore a letter couched in 
 the most offensive and haughty terms. Styling himself 
 the friend of the gods, the conqueror of men and satrap 
 of satraps, the enemy of tyrants, the general of the 
 armies of Persia, and a prince adorned with the title 
 of eleven virtues, he called on Khusroo to shun the 
 example of his father and avoid his fate, to imprison 
 those traitors who had been released from their chains, 
 
KHUSROO GETS MARRIED, FIGHTS A BATTLE. 49 
 
 to deposit in some holy place the diadem which he 
 had usurped, and accept from his gracious benefactor 
 pardon for his faults and the government of a province. 
 Greatly incensed at the insolence of the message, 
 Khusroo would have ordered the immediate execution 
 of the messenger had he not been over-persuaded 
 by those about him, and warned of the disgrace that 
 would fall upon him if he took the life of an ambas- 
 sador. He therefore contented himself with refusing 
 to allow him to return to the camp of his master, and 
 kept him in attendance on himself while he pushed on 
 with all speed. 
 
 Arrived at Madain, he found everything in confusion 
 — that of course — and the people of the city in 
 consternation at the news that the Tartar army was 
 but a single march off. With difficulty he persuaded 
 the townspeople to take up arms in their own defence, 
 by pointing out to them the horrors that w^ould 
 certainly result from an invasion of the nomad savages, 
 and with the former, and the slaves of the palace 
 hastily equipped for the occasion, marched out to 
 meet the rebellious general. What might have been 
 expected occurred : Khusroo's small force found itself 
 many times out-numbered, and, awed by the martial 
 appearance of the masses of cavalry with which 
 Behram advanced, turned to escape at the first flight 
 of arrows shot among them. In vain was Khusroo's 
 personal bravery, in vain his appeals to the people 
 to strike a blow for the sanctity of their homes 
 and the honour of their wives and daughters ; they 
 
 4 
 
50 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 threw away their weapons and fled back to the city. 
 Astonished at the smallness of the numbers opposing 
 him, and fearing an ambuscade, Behram followed 
 cautiously, but found the gates open and Khusroo 
 himself fled. He had gone off at once, escorted by 
 but a few followers, and attended by his own immediate 
 household. They were followed in hot haste by Tartar 
 horse sent in pursuit by Behram ; but having a whole 
 day's start, and being better acquainted with the country 
 than their pursuers, they gained the mountainous 
 country held by Maheen Banoo and her tribe without 
 molestation. Here, split up into small parties, and 
 smuggled through the hills by different paths known 
 only to themselves by the friendly nomads, they gained 
 so m.uch on their enemies that their farther pursuit 
 was considered useless, and was abandoned. 
 
 Khusroo had now before him the choice of two 
 alternatives : to lurk in hiding among the nomads, or to 
 implore the assistance of the emperor at Constantinople. 
 He loved Sheereen, and wished to take the former 
 course ; but he knew that Maheen Banoo and her tribe 
 could be but of little assistance to him in his endeavour 
 to retrieve his fortunes and regain the throne of his 
 ancestors, whereas if the emperor helped him he 
 might hope for the assistance of the power of Greece. 
 Led by his early training in the religion of Zoroaster 
 to a superstitious belief in auguries, he determined 
 to allow the matter to decide itself by chance, and as 
 he arrived in the open country beyond the hills he 
 threw the reins on the neck of his horse. Shubdeez, 
 
KHUSROO GETS MARRIED, FIGHTS A BATTLE. 5 I 
 
 probably guided by his natural instinct in the direction 
 of water, took the road towards the 'Euphrates, and 
 this determined Khusroo's fate. He made up his mind 
 to implore the aid of the Emperor Maurice, into whose 
 territory he according^ crossed. Traversing the desert 
 on the other bank of the river, he halted not far from 
 Circesium, then held by a Greek garrison, and sent 
 on word of his arrival to the prefect. That officer 
 admitted him to the fortress, and subsequently for- 
 warded him with befitting ceremony to Hierapolis. 
 Thence the fugitive king sent an embassy to Constan- 
 tinople, and awaited its return. The letter sent to the 
 emperor referred to the vicissitudes of fortune, and 
 the common interests of princes. It set forth in severe 
 terms the ingratitude of Behram, and it urged that 
 it would be to the advantage of the Greeks to support 
 the two great monarchies of the world, the two great 
 luminaries by whose salutary influence it was vivified 
 and adorned. In reply to this representation the 
 emperor assured him that he w^ould espouse the 
 cause of justice and royalty ; that he would not invite 
 Khusroo to Constantinople on account of the expense 
 and delay of such a visit ; but in token of good-will sent 
 him jewels and gold and a valuable diadem. The best 
 proof of his favour, however, lay in his directing 
 Narses, his general, to assemble a powerful army 
 on the borders of Syria and Armenia, and, crossing 
 the Euphrates, not to sheath his sword until he had 
 restored Khusroo to his throne. The emperor at the 
 same time ga.ve him his daughter Miriam in marriage. 
 
5 2 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 Having obtained the militar}^ assistance he required, 
 Khusroo lost no time in marching directly on Madain. 
 carrying with him his new wife Miriam, who w^as 
 a Christian. Willingly as the people of Persia had 
 in the first instance consented to the expulsion of the 
 ancient dynasty of the Sassanian kings and the assump- 
 tion of the throne by Behram Choobeen, the priests 
 had refused to consecrate him, and he had thus been 
 forced to assume the sceptre by force. The people, 
 as a rule, had soon repented of their precipitancy in 
 not supporting the grandson of their great king 
 Noushirw^an, and the son of Hormuz, and the ex- 
 ecutions of individuals and other severities wath which 
 Behram endeavoured to consolidate his power had 
 only the effect of irritating them, so that when it 
 became know-n that their legitimate king was coming 
 to assert his rights with the assistance of a Greek 
 army the revulsion of feeling was complete, and showed 
 itself by numbers of partisans flocking to his standards 
 as soon as he entered the country. All along his 
 route his march was left unimpeded, for Behram was 
 afraid to leave the treacherous population of the capital 
 city in his rear, and he determined to risk ail on the 
 issue of a single battle before the walls of Madain 
 itself. The total force he had been able to collect 
 together were about forty thousand, the Tartars 
 having in the meanwhile returned to their own 
 homes, while the king's army numbered about sixty 
 thousand. 
 
 Behram had made a skilful disposition of his troops, 
 
KHUSROO GETS MARRIED, FIGHTS A BATTLE. 53 
 
 in order to make up for his inferiority in strength. 
 His rear rested on the walls of the city, so that he 
 could not be attacked from behind ; and on each side 
 was a mound where were situated two dokhmas, or 
 towers, for the exposure of the dead to be devoured 
 by birds of prey, according to the practice of fire- 
 worshippers, to prevent being taken in flank. The 
 front was thus the only side on which his army was 
 exposed, and even this was partly protected by the 
 watercourses that irrigated the fruit and vegetable 
 gardens of the city. If there w^as any fault to be found 
 with the position, it was that the front did not leave 
 sufficient room for the deploying of the troops. 
 
 Khusroo and the Greek commander had halted their 
 troops on the previous night about two miles outside 
 the town, in order to give them the advantage of a 
 night's rest after the fatigue of crossing the desert. 
 The angel of darkness had hardly commenced to lift 
 up his skirt to allow the passage of the advanced guard 
 of the army of light, in other words, the day had hardly 
 begun to dawn, when they moved forward. In the 
 centre were the Greeks, numbering about forty thousand, 
 drawn up in two lines according to their cohorts, in 
 double ranks. They were ordered to use their shields 
 as a protection against arrows, until they came to close 
 quarters, by the men in front carrying theirs in a 
 position to cover their bodies as much as possible, and 
 those in the rear rank holding theirs over the heads 
 both of the front rank men and themselves. The right 
 wing, commanded by Khusroo in person, consisted ot 
 
54 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 his personal followers, and others who had joined him 
 en route, having men on foot in the centre and a few 
 horsemen on each side. On the left, Shapur, who had 
 faithfully adhered to his friend and master's fortunes, 
 commanded, having the same disposition on his side 
 as the king had on the right. The centre, it had been 
 arranged, should be held back and kept out of sight 
 as much as possible, in order to allow the two wings 
 to execute a manoeuvre which, it was hoped, would 
 induce the enemy to come forward and deprive him 
 of the advantage of his position. Accordingly, in the 
 advance the right wing was somewhat confused, and 
 Shapur led on his troops apparently rather hurriedly 
 and in an irregular manner, as if anxious to be the 
 first to come into action. He knew every inch of the 
 ground, however, and made straight for the point 
 where he was aware that the watercourses were most 
 numerous and difficult to cross. Here, in apparent 
 perplexit}^, his men stood and commenced to discharge 
 arrows at their opponents. The manoeuvre succeeded. 
 One of Behram's officers, thinking the opportunity of 
 taking the enemy at a disadvantage was one not to be 
 lost, drew out his men from the centre, and vigor- 
 ously attacked those of Shapur's left wing. Now was 
 Khusroo's opportunity. Quickly wheeling the cavalry 
 of his wang to the left, he struck in in front of the 
 advancing Greeks, with a view to assist Shapur and 
 throw the enemy in his turn into confusion. But 
 Behram w^as too wary a general to allow this without 
 an effort to parry the stroke. Leading his men forward 
 
KHUSROO GETS MARRIED, FIGHTS A BATTLE. 55 
 
 in person, he attacked Khusroo's wing in flank as it 
 moved across his front ; a hand to hand engagement 
 took place, and as the Greeks had by this time come 
 forward, the battle became general. The Greek cohorts 
 pressed forward steadily and persistently. Khusroo 
 on one side and Behram on the other were in the 
 thickest of the fight, and in striving to get at each 
 other performed prodigies of valour, but were pre- 
 vented meeting by the crush of combatants. The dust 
 stirred by the feet of men and horses and the never- 
 ceasing flights of arrows combined to darken the air. 
 The whizzing of missiles, the clashing of swords and 
 spears, the screams of horses, the battle-cries and 
 shouts of men, and the groans and shrieks of the 
 wounded, were indescribable. 
 
 The roaring of the drums gave ears to the dead, and 
 deprived the living of their senses : in that forest the 
 wild ass escaped not from the raging lion, nor the lion 
 from the devouring of the sword ; the horsemen had 
 drawn their lightning-flashing swords, and the fierce 
 ones had bared their teeth one upon another ; death 
 lurked in ambush for life, and the spear prepared the 
 day of judgment for the world ; the eagles had mixed 
 their arrows with blood, and royal decrees rested upon 
 the feathers of the vultures ; the red silk of the 
 banners was opened out, and the sugar-cane field 
 burnt up with fire. 
 
 Behram's troops had now all pressed forward from 
 between the two hillocks. The battle was at its 
 fiercest, when above the noise of the combat there were 
 
56 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 heard the clatter as of a thousand horses' hoofs, and 
 the shrill sound of women's voices singing : 
 
 " Ride, sisters, ride, 
 On your swift steeds of pride ; 
 See that our women's arms strike for the right ! 
 Now with the lightning's flash 
 Straight through the foe we dash, 
 On till he saves himself headlong in flight ! " 
 
 And with cries of '' Maheen, Maheen ! Sheereen, 
 Sheereen ! " Maheen Banoo's tribe, with Sheereen 
 and her seventy maidens at their head, galloped over 
 the hillock to the right into the rear of Behram's men 
 and charged them home. Behram himself saw further 
 resistance was hopeless, and fled to his father-in-law's 
 tribe. His men trampled each other to death in 
 irretrievable confusion, and the Greek cohorts marched 
 steadily on through the wounded and dead into the 
 gates of the city. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 KHUSROO AND HIS WIFE CONVERSE. 
 
 .NCE again Khusroo entered into the palace of 
 his ancestors in triumph and amid the acclama- 
 tions of his people, who, disgusted with the 
 recent severity of Behram, and recollecting that the 
 faults of the former had been faults of omission rather 
 than of commission, of youthful heedlessness rather than 
 of deliberate neglect, welcomed the return of their 
 sovereign as the recommencement of an era of peace 
 and prosperity. The city rejoiced, and its inhabitants 
 testified their satisfaction and thankfulness to the army, 
 and especially to the foreign soldiers, by whom the 
 victory had been achieved, by welcome gifts of supplies 
 of food and wine, to which the troops had of late been 
 unaccustomed. Preparations were at once commenced 
 for a grand banquet in the king's palace that evening, 
 to which all the leading Greek officers were to be 
 invited. Nor were the humbler members of the popula- 
 tion forgotten amid the general rejoicings, for Khusroo 
 ordered the royal treasury to be opened and abundant 
 largesse to be bestowed upon the poor. 
 
 Immediately after the battle, Sheereen and her tribe 
 had disappeared as suddenly as they had come, so 
 
5 8 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 suddenly that Khusroo, anxious to thank her for the 
 signal assistance she had rendered him. had been 
 unable to do so. As a sovereign he owed her a deep 
 debt of gratitude for the timety aid given at a crisis 
 in his fortunes, and his heart was stirred with the 
 liveliest emotion towards one who had fearlessly 
 exposed her own life to danger for his sake. He 
 would have ridden off on the spot in pursuit of her, if 
 the prudent counsel of Shapur that on such an occasion 
 his presence in person was due to his people had not 
 restrained him, and induced him to content himself 
 with sending off a messenger to express his thanks 
 verbally. He begged her to accept his hospitalit}', and 
 honour with her presence the royal banquet that was 
 to take place in the evening. He did not leave the 
 field without directing the immediate despatch to the 
 camp of the tribe, wherever it might be, of ample 
 supplies for them and green fodder for their horses. 
 The latter was grown abundantly in the gardens that 
 surrounded the city. 
 
 The cortege that escorted Queen Miriam had followed 
 closely in the march of the army, and she was able 
 to take part in her husband's triumphal procession to 
 the palace. The procession was on a scale of true 
 Oriental magnificence. Headed by a band of drummers 
 beating the long brass drum called " koos," of a deep 
 bass tone, interspersed with others playing on highly 
 pitched kettle-drums, the two sets of instruments, keep- 
 ing exact time with each other, produced a rude kind of 
 monotonous, though rhythmical, melody which enabled 
 
KHUSROO AND HIS WIFE CONVERSE. $9 
 
 the troops to swing along with a martial, even-paced 
 step, sadly disturbed by the occasional interludes of 
 the band of musicians blowing upon the '' nai," a reed 
 instrument, with a note resembling that of the Scotch 
 bagpipes, who followed close behind them. Then came 
 a tribe of nomad Tartars, with long hair curled in 
 ringlets, armed with shield and spear, and with bows 
 and quivers of arrows slung over their shoulders, 
 whose dirty and ragged appearance added in the eyes 
 of the peaceable inhabitants of the city to the savage- 
 ness of their demeanour. Next there followed a troop 
 of twent}^ elephants with highly ornamented cloths of 
 gold beneath howdahs painted in brilliant colours, on 
 which were seated the officers of the Greek and native 
 troops. The docile but unwieldy beasts at the com- 
 mand of their drivers repeatedly raised their trunks in 
 salutation and uttered their shrill, trumpet-like cries, 
 and added to the Babel-like confusion of sounds that 
 accompanied the shouts of the populace, and their 
 exclamations of, '' May his Hfe be prolonged ! " " May 
 his good fortune endure ! " " May his prosperity endure 
 for ever ! " " May the rising sun of his reign soon 
 reach the meridian of sovereignty ! " and other Oriental 
 expressions of good-will. Following the elephants 
 were fift}^ highly caparisoned camels bearing takht-i- 
 rawan, or travelling litters, in which were seated, 
 evidently very uncomfortable from the swinging motion 
 they had to put up with, the female attendants of 
 Queen Miriam, the foreigners among whom attracted 
 the special attention of the people of the country. In 
 
6o IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 their midst was the queen herself, in a Htter drawn 
 by a pure white Bactrian dromedary of easy paces, 
 pale and languid from fatigue, and yet upholding by 
 her high mien and lofty bearing the dignity due to a 
 daughter of the Emperor of Rome. Her appearance 
 was hailed by the populace with renewed shouts of, 
 " May the queen live for ever ! " " The moon moving 
 gracefully among the Pleiades shall never suffer the 
 disgrace of eclipse ! " many of them prostrating them- 
 selves and touching the ground with their foreheads 
 in salutation and homage. 
 
 If the enthusiasm of the people was great as the 
 queen passed, it was redoubled when, after the march 
 of a cohort of Greek troops behind her, Khusroo himself 
 came by. He was dressed from head to foot in chain 
 armour inlaid with gold, and seated on his favourite 
 horse Shubdeez, which was also clothed over head, 
 neck, and shoulders with similar armour. He carried 
 in his right hand a battle-axe, its polished blade 
 glittering in the sun. As he rode slowly by, the 
 frantic citizens were only prevented by the whips of 
 his attendants on foot, and which were used without 
 mercy, from throwing themselves under his horse's 
 hoofs. Shapur, in chain armour, but little less gor- 
 geous than that of the king, followed on horseback a 
 few paces behind on his right, and the Greek general, 
 in knight's armour, in a similar position on his left 
 hand. Behind them came, surrounding the royal 
 standard-bearer, carrying aloft on his spear's point the 
 long milk-white horse's tail that Khusroo had adopted 
 
KHUSROO AND HIS WIFE CONVERSE. 6 1 
 
 for his banner, a large number of the nobles of the 
 court, also on horseback and in armour. These were 
 followed by more richly caparisoned elephants, and 
 the rear was brought up by detachments of the army, 
 native and foreign troops alternating with each other. 
 
 This spectacle of barbaric splendour, supported, as 
 it was, by the solid masses of the Greek troops, was 
 well fitted to make a deep impression on the minds 
 of the white-robed multitudes, who not only thronged 
 the streets through which the procession passed, but 
 crowded the flat roofs of the houses on each side. 
 This feeling was intensified as Khusroo arrived 
 before the principal fire-temple of the city, in front 
 of which stood the chief Mobed. He was clothed 
 in white and wore a long white beard, with his hands 
 upraised in the attitude of blessing. Khusroo got off 
 his horse and prostrated himself at the old man's 
 feet. This was all that was wanted to enlist the 
 hearts of the beholders, and the fervent cries of 
 '' Khooda hafiz ! " " God protect you ! " raised on all 
 sides convinced the king that at all events for the 
 time being he had the people thoroughly on his side. 
 
 And yet Khusroo was sad, for she who was the 
 light of his eyes and the hfe of his soul was not 
 present to share his triumph. He had married Miriam, 
 as it may be supposed, more as a matter of policy than 
 as one of affection, in order to secure the emperor's 
 assistance in recovering his throne from the usurpation 
 of Behram. He had conformed to the usages of the 
 age in visiting her and assiduously paying her all 
 
62 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 due ceremonious attention. Enervated by the habit of 
 drinking heavily which he had acquired, and sur- 
 rounded by other evil influences of an Oriental court 
 he yet preserved in his hand one spot green — the 
 memory of his beloved Sheereen. With any real 
 affection for Miriam not only did this passion inter- 
 fere, but the difference in their religions, she being 
 a Christian, prevented the springing up of common 
 sentiments and mutual sympathy that might by 
 degrees have led to love. With regard to Sheereen, 
 his devotion had by the morning's incident been 
 intensified by gratitude, and yearning for her presence, 
 he determined to strike whilst the iron was hot and 
 broach the matter to Miriam. Having married a 
 Christian, he had, by a formal stipulation to that effect, 
 in a manner bound himself to respect the feelings of 
 herself and her co-religionists in the matter of not 
 having more than one wife ; but he determined to en- 
 deavour to overcome her objection to his marriage with 
 Sheereen. Accordingly, only allowing the queen time 
 to rest herself a little after the excitement and fatigue 
 of the early part of the day, he sought her apartment 
 in the afternoon, and after enlarging on the great 
 obligation they were both under to Sheereen for her 
 conduct in the battle, and the political advantage of 
 bringing her warlike tribe, whose dwelling-place lay 
 in the direct path of enemies coming from the West, 
 under the immediate rule of Persia, he suggested the 
 advisability of making Sheereen his second wife, of 
 course in a position inferior in the royal household to 
 
KHUSROO AND HIS WIFE CONVERSE. 6^ 
 
 that of his chief queen. He took care to base his 
 proposition on these grounds alone, avoiding all allu- 
 sion to her beauty and accomplishments, and studiously 
 conceahng his former acquaintance with her. He 
 urged that, although the practice of monogamy had 
 been adopted by those of the Christian faith, it was 
 under no express commandment from its Founder, and 
 the great patriarchs, from Abraham downwards to 
 David and Solomon, had had more than one wife. 
 Miriam had, however, heard the story of his long 
 absence in the camp of the nomads, and the neglect of 
 the affairs of his kingdom that had paved the way 
 for the usurpation of the throne by Behram Choobeen, 
 and shrewdly surmised the state of Khusroo's feelings 
 towards the ncmad queen. She listened silently to 
 him to the end of his speech, and then firmly and 
 decisively refused her consent. Knowing that he had 
 only married her as a matter of policy, and not from 
 any attachment to herself personally, she was well 
 aware that the coming between them of one to whom 
 her husband was under such a great obligation could 
 only tend to estrange him from her more than ever, 
 and banish all chance of the fulfilment of the hope that 
 with the birth of the child she was soon to bear to 
 him he might be drawn towards her. The answer 
 was therefore brief and decisively in the negative, 
 and she gave him clearly to understand that if in 
 the exercise of his sovereign power he disregarded her 
 wishes, she would not hesitate to put an end to her 
 own existence. Obviously this was plain speaking. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE HERMIT O^XE MORE. 
 
 N the evening the cit}' was illuminated in 
 Oriental style. The illumination was carried 
 out by means of earthenware saucers filled 
 with naptha, derived from wells on the shores of the 
 Caspian Sea, the illuminating powers of the oil being 
 already known and taken advantage of in the neigh- 
 bouring countries. The outlines of the houses, and 
 of their windows and archways, were picked out with 
 these saucers suspended on strings, and in all public 
 open spaces, and especially in the vicinity of the palace ; 
 similar saucers were arranged on the ground in various 
 flower and geometrical patterns, shedding a gentle halo 
 of light over the whole city. There was hardly a breath 
 of air stirring, so that the effect of the illumination was 
 kept up all the night by the saucers being constantl}^ 
 replenished with naptha. The banquet which followed 
 was a right royal one. All the nobles of the court, 
 and the principal officers of both the foreign and native 
 troops, the most prominent citizens, and the chiefs 
 of the nomad tribes within convenient distance of the 
 capital, attended, clothed in their most sumptuous 
 
THE HERMIT ONCE MORE. 65 
 
 apparel. On a raised dais in the centre of the great 
 throne-room of the palace was placed the celebrated 
 throne of Khusroo, for the use of himself and his queen. 
 This is said to have been of pure gold, and to have 
 been adorned by a thousand globes of gold repre- 
 senting the planets and the constellations of the 
 Zodiac. The hall itself was of great height, and so 
 large that the roof had to be supported by forty 
 thousand pillars of silver of various orders of archi- 
 tecture. During the banquet bands of musical instru- 
 ments pla3^ed in the adjoining courts ; and as soon as 
 the serious part of the entertainment was over, and 
 the wine cup circulated freely around, dancing women 
 exhibited their skill in singing and posturing after the 
 manner of the East. In addition to the flesh of 
 domesticated beasts, venison and birds, such as the 
 partridge and woodcock, the sand-grouse and aquatic 
 birds, and fruits such as the orange, the apple, and 
 the pomegranate, played a conspicuous part. After 
 some time it became unequivocally clear that with 
 regard to many who were present the limits of 
 rational enjoyment had been passed. But before this 
 point had been reached, the queen had withdrawn, 
 and Khusroo was left to occupy the throne alone. 
 He had drunk heavily, and was, in fact, rapidly 
 becoming intoxicated, when he was instantaneously 
 brought to his senses by a cry at the entrance of the 
 hall, in the stentorian voice of the hermit of the cave, 
 of, " La haul wa la koowut ilia b' illah ! There is 
 no virtue nor power but in Allah ! " 
 
 5 
 
66 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 As the words were uttered, the hermit walked with 
 slow and deliberate step, unhindered by the attendants 
 or guests, up to the centre of the hall to the king's 
 throne. Khusroo started from his seat in anger, and 
 was about to speak, when, apparently reduced to 
 helplessness by the action of the hermit in fixing his 
 eye and pointing his finger at his forehead, he sank 
 back, and listened as the old man went on : 
 
 "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the 
 messenger of Allah ! Hear, O ye wine-bibbers and 
 gluttons, and open your ears, O ye worshippers of 
 fire ! Is it to see ye wallowing in the filth of your 
 appetites, like the unclean beast, that I have left the 
 corner of seclusion to come into the desert of the 
 world ? Is it to inflame my senses with the juice of 
 the grape till I become as devoid of wisdom as the 
 beasts of the field that I come, eating by the way the 
 parched grain of weariness and drinking the muddy 
 water of pain ? Nay, but to bring ye back from the 
 path of error in which ye walk, and to illuminate your 
 road with the lantern of truth ! Lo ! this is the message 
 I bring you from the prophet of God, in the name of the 
 King who is without life, and without whom is no life ; 
 the Ancient One who has no rising, and the Great One 
 whose ending is not ordained ; the Creator of being, 
 who can destroy' an elephant by means of a gnat, or 
 save a prophet through an ant. To Him make thy 
 supplications, though thou mayest be great, for if He 
 throw into hell every devout man who is on the earth 
 His decree is proper, and if every sad sinner He bring 
 
THE HERMIT ONXE MORE. 6^ 
 
 into Paradise He is not wrong. Though thou rulest, 
 power is of God. Seek not to know the ' what ' and 
 *how^ much/ for the servant is in the hand of his lord. 
 For lordship God alone is fit : it does not become a 
 servant. Thou art but a created thing, who in the end 
 must die. When wilt thou deliver thyself from the 
 hand of death ? Look not to thyself, for he who relies 
 on himself has no sight. The earth revolves from His 
 creation, and of Him are the four quarters of the world. 
 Reflect on what is greater in thy kingdom than the 
 honouring of God, and bear w^itness that the Creator 
 is one God. He is not in a certain place, and He 
 requires no fixed abode. God, who has given rule 
 to man, has made Mohammed His messenger to man. 
 Turn ye from the worship of fire, and make a Paradise 
 of the law to escape from hell. Delight ye yourselves 
 Hke peacocks in this garden ; and Hke the moth save 
 yourselves from the stain of fire, by becoming Mussul- 
 mans. ' Allahu Akbar !' 'God is greatest ! ' " 
 
 During this speech, the king sat apparently stupefied 
 and under the influence of the hermit's power. When 
 the hermit ended, he looked, as if for assistance, to 
 the Chief Priest, who sat not far from the throne, and 
 the latter rose from his seat amid suppressed signs ol 
 encouragement from the rest of the company. Address- 
 ing the hermit, he said with an air of dignity and 
 patience that well became his sacred office and personal 
 appearance : 
 
 *' Friend, I see that thy newly kindled fanaticism has 
 in some degree upset the balance of thy understanding 
 
68 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 and weighed down the scale towards the side of 
 presumption and insolence ; otherwise thou wouldest 
 not have come in this guise before the King of kings." 
 
 "I know of no King of kings," fiercely _ interrupted 
 the hermit, *' but Allah. He is the King of kings ! " 
 
 " Friend," continued the Mobed, calmly, " thou 
 knowest well that the title refers to earthly and not to 
 heavenly dignities. There is but one King of kings 
 and Lord of lords who, as thou sayest, is the Creator 
 of all things, and whom, being invisible to mortal eye, 
 we worship through His visible emblems, the sun that 
 warms and vivifies all creation, the moon and the 
 planets and the host of heaven, which illumine the 
 night, and by their combinations or oppositions in their 
 various spheres foretell, if they do not order and 
 control, the actions of men. We acknowledge but one 
 God, as thou thyself dost, in Asura Majda, the Great 
 Spirit. Him thou callest Allah, and the patriarchs 
 of the Jews worshipped under the name of Jehovah. 
 What difference is there between us ? We have our 
 prophet and lawgiver in Zartusht ; the Jews theirs 
 in Hazrat-i-Moussa, and the Christians theirs in 
 Hazrat-i-Eesa. But who is this Mohammed who sets 
 himself up in these days as the messenger of God ? 
 How does he show his divine message ? " 
 
 '' The Archangel Gabriel," the hermit answered, 
 *' has revealed, and is revealing to him, the Shara, 
 the Divine Law, which all must obe}', or be given 
 over to the power of Shaitan, and be cast into hell." 
 
 '' So might I say," continued the Mobed, " that our 
 
THE HERMIT ONCE MORE. 6g 
 
 prophet was inspiring me with a new Zendavesta. But 
 how will he prove the truth of what he asserts ? " 
 
 He answered : " Allah gives power to those who 
 believe to work signs and wonders. What would ye 
 say if standing here I summon to thy presence the 
 woman who led the tribe by whose attack this morn- 
 ing's victory was won ? " 
 
 Apparently roused to earnest attention by this offer, 
 Khusroo exclaimed, '' Do so, O dweller in solitude, and 
 I will say that thou art a wonderful man." 
 
 The hermit turned, and amidst a breathless silence — 
 for all conversation and drinking had been suspended 
 during this colloquy — pointed his iron rod towards the 
 west, and held it so for the space of several minutes. 
 Then in a voice of apparently frenzied inspiration, he 
 cried, ''She comes! She comes!" 
 
 Almost immediately the sound of a horse galloping 
 was heard, and Sheereen, dismounting at the door of 
 the banqueting-hall, walked up to the hermit in a dazed 
 kind of state, and stood gazing upon him until after 
 a few rapid passes of his hands before her eyes she 
 appeared to awake and become conscious of the position 
 she was in. 
 
 To account for this phenomenon it is necessary to 
 state that the magnetic influence the hermit had un- 
 doubtedly acquired over her, and which has to some 
 extent been alluded to in a previous chapter in the 
 matter of the likeness of Khusroo placed within her 
 view^ by Shapur, had been exercised by the hermit on 
 his way to the banquet, and he had commanded her 
 
70 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 to follow him for the purpose of enabling him to make 
 use of his power over her in propagating his new faith. 
 She had unconsciously obeyed the command, and as he 
 knew the distance from her camp, and had accurately 
 calculated the time it would take her to ride to the 
 banquet-hall, she had arrived at the exact moment 
 that suited his well-planned design. 
 
 A whisper of utter amazement passed through the 
 assembly as she arrived, and the general astonishment 
 was increased when in answer to his question of " How 
 comest thou here, Sheereen ? " she replied, " Thou 
 calledst me, and I came." 
 
 Starting from his seat, the Mobed cried, ** Daughter, 
 Ahriman, the spirit of evil, has possessed thee. Wilt 
 thou, too, forsake the faith of thy fathers, and follow 
 after this pretended prophet, who has already, as we 
 hear, commenced to spread his religion, not by con- 
 vincing the consciences of men as to what is the truth, 
 but by the violence of the sword ? Can men be taught 
 what is right by the point of the spear, and does the 
 arrow of force pierce the brain of conviction ? " 
 
 '^ Nay," she answered, lirmly. '' I see the sun, the 
 lord of the day, that gives light and life to all created 
 things, that raiseth the vapours and clouds which bring 
 the rain by which the flowers bloom and the grass 
 springs and the lofty trees spread their branches, but 
 who is this Arab that presumes to dictate to the 
 descendant of Noushirvan what he shall believe and 
 what he shall not believe ? " 
 
 '' Thou speakest the words of truth, light of my eyes. 
 
THE HERMIT ONCE MORE. J I 
 
 and sweet-voiced nightingale of my soul ! " said the 
 king, in maudlin tones. He was precluded from giving 
 vent to further endearing expressions, which might 
 have been inconvenient on such an occasion, by the 
 hermit's stern rejoinder to Sheereen : 
 
 " Lovest thou Maheen Banoo ? " 
 
 " More than my life," she answered. 
 
 " Go, then ! " he said, " if thou wouldst close her 
 eyes. She shall die for thy unbelief." 
 
 With a wild shriek Sheereen rushed from the hall, 
 and in another moment Goolgoon's hoofs clattered in 
 the still evening air, as she rode at frantic speed 
 towards her camp. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION. 
 
 T was near midnight when Sheereen, torn 
 by a thousand anxieties, reached the camp. 
 The clatter of Goolgoon's hoofs was greeted 
 by the welcoming whinnying of his fellows ; but the 
 camp, although hushed in the deepest silence, presented 
 to Sheereen's e3^e unusual signs of wakefulness and 
 activity in the faint glimmer of lights moving about, 
 especially in the immediate neighbourhood of the central 
 tent. Leaping off her horse, which quietly walked 
 away to his own picket, and hurrying to the tent, 
 her worst fears were confirmed. One of the diseases 
 common in the East, so sudden in their attack and 
 so rapid in their course, had struck down Maheen 
 Banoo in the full strength of middle age, and she lay 
 on a soft pile of skins, which formed her usual bed, 
 onl}^ half-conscious, with the sand of life's hour-glass 
 evidently fast running out. Surrounded by her weeping 
 maidens, who did all in their power to restore by the 
 appfication of hot cloths and fomentations the circula- 
 tion in her cold extremities, her e3^e yet seemed to 
 wander restlessly round as if in search of some well- 
 loved face she had been accustomed to see, and now 
 
A THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION. 73 
 
 in her last painful hour missed. The neighing of the 
 horses, and the clatter of Goolgoon's feet caught her 
 ear, and her eye brightened with a flash of recognition 
 as Sheereen, in a transport of sorrow, threw herself 
 upon her breast, exclaiming : 
 
 " Oh, mother ! my more than mother ! is it thus 
 I see thee ? Look up, mother : it is Sheereen, thy 
 own Sheereen, who has come to soothe thy pain and 
 to weep for thee ! " 
 
 Maheen Banoo, though by this time speechless, with 
 the little remaining strength she had drew down the 
 beloved face towards her, and in the Eastern manner 
 of expressing affection ran the knuckles of her hands 
 down Sheereen's temples. Then, apparentl}- exhausted 
 with the effort, she let her hands fall listlessl}' by her 
 side, though she still fixed her eyes, over which the 
 films of death were rapidly gathering, on the beloved 
 countenance. As the end was approaching, the dog, 
 on which a fire-worshipper is supposed to look at 
 in the last extremit}-, was brought and placed near 
 the couch ; but the gaze of the dying woman, after one 
 hasty glance at it, became fixed on Sheereen till its 
 power was quenched by eternal sleep. Sheereen had 
 folded the poor, cold hands between her own palms, 
 and strove by chafing and kissing to impart warmth 
 to them, while, as well as she could through her sobs , 
 she improvised to a plaintive, wailing air a farewell 
 to the dead chieftainess. 
 
 " Woe to the pride of the desert and plain ! 
 Hai, oh hai Hai, oh hai ! 
 
74 I^ PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 For the sharp spear of death our great Mother has slain ! 
 
 Hai, oh hai ! Hai, oh hai ! 
 Woe to the glory of wood and of hill ! 
 Though no foeman's sword, yet fate's arrows may kill. 
 Hai, oh hai ! Hai, oh hai ! 
 
 Weeping around her, her maidens lie low ; 
 
 Hai, oh hai ! Hai, oh hai ! 
 Crushed to the earth by fate's terrible blow ! 
 
 Hai, oh hai ! Hai, oh hai ! 
 Ne er to be folded again to the breast, 
 Where in weal and in woe they ever had rest ! 
 
 Hai, oh hai ! Hai, oh hai ! 
 
 Never again shall the horse-tail fly high ; 
 
 Hai, oh hai ! Hai, oh hai ! 
 The nomad's proud ensign of victory, 
 
 Hai, oh hai ! Hai, oh hai ! 
 In the van of the flight no more 'twill be seen. 
 For she who upheld it is gone ! Hai, Maheen ! 
 
 Hai, oh hai ! Hai, oh hai ! " 
 
 The mournful wail of " Hai ! oh hai ! Hai, Maheen ! " 
 borne far and wide through the still night air, soon 
 proclaimed to the world that the great chieftainess had 
 passed away, and that Sheereen reigned in her place. 
 As the disposal of the dead in hot climates requires 
 to be quickly carried out, a messenger on horseback 
 was despatched at once to Madain to summon priests 
 and corpse-bearers, a particular class dedicated to this 
 service, for the performance of the necessary funeral 
 ceremonies before sunset. The former came out in 
 numbers, attracted not only by the great respect in 
 which Maheen Banco had been held, but by the know- 
 ledge that their fees would be paid with a liberal hand. 
 The ceremonies at a fire-worshippers' funeral are few 
 
A THEOLOGICAL DLSCUSSION. 75 
 
 and simple. After the Izeshne, or funeral sermon, has 
 been read, the procession goes to the Dokhma, or 
 Tower of Silence, on foot, headed by priests walking 
 two and two, and holding a white cloth or handkerchief 
 between them. Then follows the body, on a plain, 
 open iron bier, carried on the shoulders of four corpse- 
 bearers (Nusesallar) : it is covered by a white cloth. 
 Behind follow the relatives and friends, all dressed in 
 white, and in full dress ; that is to say, with large white 
 waist-cloths folded round .their middles over their 
 ordinary clothes. As the procession moves along, the 
 deepest silence is observed until the Tower of Silence, 
 which is always situated on the highest eminence to 
 be found in the neighbourhood of a town or village, is 
 reached. The opening that gives admittance to this is 
 near the top, and is reached by a ladder or steps, and 
 the disposal of the corpse is effected by its being placed 
 on an open iron grating which separates the upper from 
 the lower part of the Tower, so that when vultures 
 or other birds have picked the body clean the bones 
 may fall through and remain below. The priests range 
 themselves at each side as the bearers convey the 
 body into the interior of the building, and there lay 
 it reverently on the grating, take in their hands the 
 farther end of the cloth that covers it, and walk forward 
 with it so that they may not see the body as it lies 
 exposed. Coming down the steps, they close the door 
 behind them, and leave the remains to the birds and 
 the air. Horrible as the idea may seem to Europeans, 
 the Parsees, the successors of the original Guebres, still 
 
^6 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 see with satisfaction the immediate descent of the 
 vultures, the obscene birds of prey that soon tear the 
 rem.ains of their dearest on earth Hmb from hmb, 
 assured that the spiritual essence has already gone 
 to that abode beyond this life where there will be 
 peace for ever and ever. 
 
 It is customary for the friends of the family of the 
 dead to visit the former for three days and condole 
 with them ; but Sheereen, anxious to quit as soon as 
 possible a spot to her fraught with such painful 
 memories, directed the immediate striking of the camp 
 and the return of her tribe to their usual abodes among 
 and near the hills that divide Ajam from Khuzistan. 
 
 After the sudden exit of Sheereen from the royal 
 banqueting-hall at Madain, the company, somewhat 
 awestruck by what had taken place, and disposed to 
 attribute to the hermit a degree of supernatural power, 
 which we have seen could be traced to unusual, though 
 not miraculous, natural causes, soon broke up, and the 
 king retired to rest in a half-maudlin state, and to a sleep, 
 which was disturbed by dreams of a terrific character, 
 in which Sheereen and the Persian lawgiver Zartusht, 
 the hermit, and the supposed new prophet Mohammed, 
 and his queen Irene and the Christian Messiah were 
 all mixed up in inextricable confusion. In the morning 
 the queen summoned the hermit to her presence. She 
 was somewhat of a theologian herself, and she desired 
 to be confronted with an emissary accredited directly 
 by the new prophet, just to see what he had to say for 
 himself, and what proofs he might be able to adduce 
 
A THEOLOGICAL DLSCUSSION. // 
 
 of the divine origin of his mission. The old man 
 kissed respectfully the hand she extended to him, and 
 commenced the conversation with the usual Mussulman 
 formula : '' La haul wa la koowut ilia b' Illah." *' There 
 is no virtue nor power but in Allah ! " 
 
 " Friend/' rejoined the queen, " I agree with thee, 
 if by Allah thou dost designate the God of the Christian 
 and the Khuda of the dwellers in Persia, the Supreme 
 Ruler of all. There is no virtue nor power but in God. 
 But ye, the followers of Mohammed, have an addition 
 to this formula of your creed of, '' There is but one 
 God," that is, '' and Mohammed is the prophet of 
 God." 
 
 "Amen! So be it!" replied the hermit. "Such is 
 the truth, and into the truth, thus hath it been revealed 
 to the prophet — on whom be peace ! — will Allah lead 
 such as He will, and the rest shall be destroyed with 
 the sword." 
 
 " But 3^e believe in Hazrat-i-Eesa ? " the queen 
 continued. 
 
 " Yes," he answered ; '' but not as ye Christians say, 
 that he was born of God, for it is blasphemy, and the 
 inspiration of Iblees, the devil, to make any one the 
 equal of Allah, as a son would be. Allah, the Ineffable, 
 can have no fellow ; and especially no one born of a 
 
 woman i 
 
 ! " 
 
 " Let that alone for the present," said the queen. 
 " The mystery of God made man is too deep for human 
 understanding. But ye acknowledge Eesa as a prophet, 
 and that he is Al-Maseeh, the Anointed One." 
 
yS IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 '' Yea, indeed/' he answered, '' and on Him be 
 peace ! " 
 
 "Then did He not say that there should arise after 
 Him many a false anointed one, or as we say in the 
 Greek, many a Kristos, but there would be no true 
 one ? " rejoined the queen. 
 
 '' But did He not say also that there should come 
 after Him a Paraclete, a Comforter ? " the old man 
 inquired. 
 
 '^ He did," the queen acknowledged ; " but in the 
 spirit, and not in the flesh. And we Christians say 
 that the spirit of the Comforter has alread}^ been 
 poured out upon a chosen few, and that in God's 
 own good time it will be poured out upon all flesh." 
 
 *' That Comforter is Mohammed ! " asserted the 
 hermit confidently. 
 
 *' Why ? " asked the queen. " What proof dost thou 
 produce ? " 
 
 " Did he not fly in a single night," he answered, 
 ^' from Mecca to Jerusalem ? and was he not taken by 
 Gabriel to the seventh heaven, where the word of the 
 Koran was partly revealed to him ? and doth the same 
 angel not continue to reveal to him chapter after chapter, 
 sura after sura, as men's minds are prepared to receive 
 them ? " 
 
 ^* So it may be said," replied the queen ; *' but the 
 precepts of the Koran, as far as I have heard them, 
 bear a strange likeness to the words of Eesa in the 
 Evanjoel, and its moral maxims are but the reflection 
 of many an ancient Eastern proverb current even here 
 
A THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION. 79 
 
 in Iran. What is beyond these breathes but of sword 
 and blood, and our Christian faith is one of love and 
 gentleness and mercy, falling gentl}^ as the dew. The 
 dove cannot mate with the falcon, and there can be 
 no agreement between us. Go, tell thy supposed 
 prophet that we will have none of him, and that even 
 the daughter of Iran, though she is not yet awakened 
 to the truths of the Gospel, still believes in the one 
 Great Author of all good, and scorns to be persuaded 
 by an upstart Arab ! Go in peace ! " 
 
 " We shall see," said the old man, as he walked 
 away with a proud air, ''which faith will conquer in 
 the end. The ways of Allah are sure ; and at the last, 
 though not for a few years, the standard of the Crescent 
 Moon shall wave over the walls of Madain. God is 
 great, and Mohammed is His prophet ! " 
 
 ''The Crescent, indeed ! " said she, as a parting shot. 
 " One never sees it but when it is sinking beneath the 
 western horizon, and it can never rise ! " 
 
 The hermit was discerning enough to see that the 
 time of Islam had not yet fully arrived, and that 
 Mohammed's power would have to be much more 
 consolidated than it was then to help to compete 
 with the ancient empire of Iran. And thus the 
 interview closed. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 STRANGE PICNIC. 
 
 HEEREEN assumed the rule over her tribe 
 in the full assurance of the love and willing 
 obedience of her subjects. They felt secure 
 of not being disturbed in the tranquil course of their 
 lives, relying on the well-known amiability of her 
 disposition, and on her hatred of every form of in- 
 justice and oppression. They desired to live at peace 
 with all their neighbours, to change their pasturage 
 grounds without interruption, from the plains in winter 
 and spring to their cooler retreats among the mountains 
 in summer and autumn, and to sell their wool and 
 the coarse blankets, the produce of their rude looms, 
 at the fairs periodically held in their neighbourhood, 
 their numbers being recruited from time to time from 
 among the young women of their kindred in the 
 adjacent tribes who might be attracted to them by the 
 freedom and happiness of their nomad mode of life, 
 and the reputation of the mild and benignant sway of 
 Maheen Banoo's successor. 
 
 Shortly after her accession to her new dignity, 
 Sheereen received, in some such little ceremony as 
 she found consistent with the grief which time had 
 
A STRANGE PICNIC. 8 1 
 
 not as yet assuaged, a formal visit from Shapur as 
 a special ambassador from the king, sent to con- 
 gratulate her on her elevation to the dignity of chief- 
 tainess of the tribe, and convey to her several horses, 
 camels, and other valuable presents, such as the capital 
 afforded, as becoming gifts on the occasion. Among 
 other animals he was commissioned to offer was 
 Khusroo's famous horse Shubdeez. This was done at 
 a private interview he begged for after his public 
 reception. He took advantage of the opportunity 
 again to urge Khusroo's suit, pointing out to her that 
 the gift of the splendid animal, which he would not 
 part with to any one else in the world, proved the 
 depth of his affection. Gratified as she might have 
 been by the offer, and longing to caress the noble 
 beast as an old friend, she thought it prudent firmly 
 to decline both the gift and the more brilliant prospect 
 of a share in the throne of Ajam, but assured him 
 that her affection for Khusroo was undiminished. 
 She could not, however, consent to his proposal in 
 the face of the opposition of the queen and as long 
 as the latter held him to his oath not to marry another 
 wife, stipulated for at Constantinople when Irene's 
 hand was bestowed upon him by the Imperial favour. 
 Apart from the sanctity of the pledge, which the king's 
 honour forbad him to break, she unselfishly urged 
 upon Shapur the consideration of the tie of gratitude 
 that bound the king to the emperor for the assistance 
 he had given him in his hour of utmost need in 
 recovering the throne of his fathers. Shapur, although 
 
 6 
 
82 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 disappointed at the ill-success of his diplomacy, could 
 not but admire the spirit of the woman in deliberately 
 setting herself on one side and acting solely in the 
 interest of her lover, whom notwithstanding his im- 
 perfections she yet evidently loved with all the strength 
 of her strong and proud nature. The ambassador, 
 forced to content himself with her unalterable decision, 
 returned to Madain, and reported his want of success 
 to his master, whose affection towards his queen was 
 certainly not increased by the event. 
 
 Shortly after this, two events occurred, both of con- 
 siderable importance to Khusroo. The former of these, 
 the death of Behram Choobeen, the defeated general, 
 among the Tartars with whom he took refuge, gave 
 an assurance of peace to the kingdom, and afforded 
 it that rest which it so much needed after the troubled 
 times since the latter part of the reign of Hormuz ; 
 the latter was the birth of a son to Queen Irene. 
 The appearance of a legitimate heir to his throne was 
 naturally a circumstance of great interest to the king, 
 and procured for Irene a far larger share of his con- 
 sideration than she would otherwise have received. 
 The despatch of an embassy to Constantinople to 
 announce the propitious event, and the festivities held 
 at Madain in its honour, took up a good deal of 
 Khusroo's time, and the reception and entertainment 
 of a return embassy of congratulation from the Emperor 
 Maurice served to pass away the greater part of 
 another 3^ear. About this time there began to arrive 
 disturbing rumours of the failing health of the emperor, 
 
A STRANGE PICNIC. 83 
 
 and a line of couriers was accordingly established, who 
 conve3^ed intelligence from Constantinople to Madain 
 and vice versa in about a month. They served at the 
 same time another purpose, namely, to keep the Court 
 of Persia well informed of the state of the country 
 through which they passed, information which even- 
 tually was turned to good purpose by Khusroo. 
 Meanwhile, Maurice's health not showing any signs 
 of improvement, and he himself expressing an anxious 
 wish to see his daughter and her child, it was deter- 
 mined that Queen Irene should visit her father at 
 Constantinople, taking her son, who had been named 
 Shiruiah, with her. Elaborate preparations were made 
 for her journey. A special escort of Greek troops 
 of the emperor's bodyguard was ordered to meet her 
 at the frontier at Ctesiphon. The principal officers 
 of the garrisons and territories en route were to make 
 the necessary arrangements for the accommodation 
 and entertainment of the royal cortege^ and everything 
 was done to make the journey as easy and comfortable 
 as possible, at a time when many conveniences for 
 travelling, except the inestimable one of well-laid-out 
 military roads between the chief strategical points, 
 were not in existence. Everything being satisfactorily 
 arranged, the queen and her son left Madain on a 
 bright morning when spring was merging into summer, 
 before the heat of the latter season had become so 
 great as to interfere with the comfort of traveUing. 
 A rather circuitous route was adopted at first, with 
 a view to avoid the bare, arid country that lay on the 
 
84 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 direct road from Madain to Sheereen's dominion, the 
 confines of which were reached in about a week from 
 the time of starting. 
 
 At a particular spot just within the border, w^here 
 the plain, flat and uninteresting, began to merge into 
 the lovely wooded dells, watered by sparkhng brooklets, 
 of the hills, Irene found the place of her mounted 
 escort quietly assumed b}^ a troop of female riders, 
 on hardy-looking, well-groomed mares, among which 
 no screaming or snorting was heard, and many of 
 which were followed by colts running behind them. 
 Each of the riders held in her right hand a spear, the 
 well-polished point of which cast back the rays of the 
 morning sun, while on her back was slung a bow and 
 a quiver of arrows. Their head-dress was the usual 
 Persian conical cap of black wool, bound round the 
 forehead with a coquettishly twisted white band in the 
 shape of a turban, that to some extent served to shade 
 the eyes. The outer upper dress, fitting the figure 
 looseh' and leaving ample room for the free use of the 
 arms, was of a dark brown colour, derived from a dye 
 made of the bark of a species of mimosa, and ended 
 in a skirt reaching down to the knee. Below this the 
 loose drawers or trousers that came down to the foot 
 were protected from thorns by long buskins of softly 
 tanned skins, which also served to keep the leg from 
 being chafed by the saddle. The sole of the foot, 
 which the end of the buskin covered, was clothed with 
 a thick leather sandal, and held in broad, shovel-shaped 
 stirrups, the inner side of which was sharpened so 
 
A STRANGE PICNIC. 85 
 
 as in case of need to take the place of the modern 
 spur. This, however, the willing and sturdy animals 
 that bore their light mistresses with ease and seeming 
 pride but rarely required the use of; a word or a 
 shake of the rein always sufficed to sharpen them into 
 immediate activity. 
 
 At the frontier Sheereen herself, for it was she who 
 led the band, standing on foot before the queen's 
 litter, offered on a small platter bread and salt, accord- 
 ing to the custom of the country, in token of submission 
 and good-will. Irene touched and tasted them by way 
 of acceptance, whilst at a gesture from their leader's 
 hand Sheereen's band passed half in front and half 
 in rear of the litter. She herself, as the train moved 
 on, took her post on horseback by the side of the litter, 
 and rode on with it to the first halting-place, where 
 everything had been prepared for the reception of the 
 queen and her people. Sheds of leaves and boughs 
 of trees had been constructed to accommodate them 
 all, while that intended for the use of the royal lady 
 and her child had been also thickly thatched with 
 grass. Water from a running stream hard by had 
 been amply stored in earthenware jars ; piles of fire- 
 wood for cooking purposes were heaped up near al 
 fresco kitchens, consisting of two stones laid length- 
 ways, and one across their ends, with the earth 
 scooped out between them, sufficient for every one ; 
 sheep killed and flayed hung on the trees at a retired 
 spot on the outskirts of the camp, ready for those who 
 required meat for their food ; while the horses and 
 
S6 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 camels had been equall}- well provided for by stacks 
 of green and dry grass and leaves stripped from trees. 
 The queen's shed and those for her female attendants 
 had been carpeted, and furnished with couches made 
 of soft skins, and rude washing utensils of brass. All 
 had been thought of that in such a rude state of society 
 could be arranged for with a view to the comfort of 
 the temporary inhabitants of the camp. 
 
 As soon as the queen had alighted Sheereen and 
 her women disappeared to their own halting-place in 
 a retired grove not far off, leaving a few of the latter 
 behind them to convey messages to her in case any- 
 thing more should be required. Irene had instinctively 
 recognized in the beautiful woman that rode so grace- 
 fully by her side her rival in her husband's affections, 
 and she was by no means surprised at the hold she 
 had gained over him. Naturall}' disinclined on that 
 account, however, to cultivate a closer acquaintanceship 
 with her lovely hostess, she discreetly allowed the 
 preparations that had been made for her accommo- 
 dation to pass with a cold word of thanks, which 
 Sheereen gracefully acknowledged by kissing the hand 
 the queen held out to her as she took her departure. 
 Next morning the march was conducted as before ; but 
 the little Shiruiah, as Sheereen held out her arms 
 to him from her horse, joyfully accepted the invitation, 
 and as she took him in front of her, and fondling and 
 caressing him let him play with her horse's mane, 
 prattled away with infantile delight until the mother's 
 heart was fairty softened, and she fondty wished there 
 
A STRANGE PICNIC. 8/ 
 
 were not between them the awkward barrier towards 
 a closer friendship which she had conjured up for 
 herself. As the sun grew hot, and Irene thought it 
 was time for the child to be brought into the litter, 
 he betrayed the first symptoms of that evil disposition 
 which he showed onl}^ too strongly afterwards, by 
 kicking and scratching and biting those who had to 
 take him from his new friend's arms. The rest of 
 the march was by no means an agreeable one to his 
 mother and the nurse on the opposite side of the Htter, 
 in consequence of the young prince's persistent bad 
 temper. 
 
 After the second day's rest it was arranged that an 
 afternoon's march should be made to a camp near the 
 Euphrates, in order that the queen might cross the 
 river early in the morning before the day had advanced 
 very far. The animals were to cross partly by wading 
 and partly by swimming, and the queen and her com- 
 pany on rafts floated on inflated skins. As Irene 
 alighted from her Utter to embark, Sheereen again 
 offered bread and salt, and said as she again kissed 
 the queen's hand : 
 
 " Lady, I know full well why thou canst not look 
 upon thy slave with the eye of kindness. But fear 
 not ; Sheereen is too proud to go where her presence 
 would not be welcome, nor must a Persian king's oath 
 be broken. God be thy protector ! " 
 
 Irene made no reply, but as she drew her fair rival's 
 forehead towards her and kissed it, a tear fell upon it 
 as she murmured, '' Go in peace ! " 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE QUEEN COMES BACK. 
 
 HEN Queen Irene arrived at Constantinople, 
 she found the state of her father's health very 
 unsatisfactory, and on that account made her 
 stay there longer than she had at first intended. Con- 
 sidering the not very cordial relations existing between 
 herself and her husband, however, and her not 
 unnatural preference for the society obtainable in the 
 centre of the civilized world as against what was to be 
 found in distant Persia, it cannot be said that her not 
 unwilling acceptance of the excuse was at all to be 
 wondered at. Here, surrounded by the choicest spirits 
 of the age, the men most renowned in literature, in 
 science, and in the arts, she could indulge in the tastes 
 rendered most congenial to her by her early education, 
 and could, moreover, associate with the most learned 
 theologians and professors of her own religion, the 
 free exercise of which, although perfect liberty in this 
 respect was allowed her at Madain, was not so easy 
 of accomplishment as in a Christian country. She 
 was, moreover, anxious that her son should from his 
 earliest years imbibe a taste for the splendid ritual of 
 
THE QUEEN COMES BACK. 89 
 
 the Greek Church, which might on his return to Persia 
 make him impatient of the comparatively tame and 
 simple services of the fire- worshippers. In this she 
 was no doubt wise in her generation. 
 
 Being well aware of the support that Khusroo could 
 always command from the Emperor Maurice, of whose 
 power they had a salutary dread, the neighbouring 
 Tartar tribes refrained from plundering expeditions 
 into the territory of the former. Khusroo, moreover, 
 naturally of an easy, pleasure-loving disposition, left 
 the management of the internal affairs of his kingdom 
 mostly in the hands of wise ministers, and thus, no 
 cause being given for dissatisfaction among his subjects, 
 peace reigned in the land, and he was able to enjoy 
 himself in hunting, of which he w^as passionately fond. 
 There were not wanting near him, however, restless 
 spirits, the principal of whom was Shapur, who urged 
 upon him the remembrance of the glories of Persia in 
 days of old, and instigated him to emulate their deeds 
 in recovering the territories that had passed into the 
 hands of the Greeks, in payment for the assistance 
 rendered him in wresting his throne out of the usurping 
 hands of Behram Choobeen. But profligate as he was 
 in some respects, Khusroo had the strictest regard for 
 his own honour, and resisted the temptation to show 
 ingratitude to the emperor. 
 
 Shapur, over whom the hermit had latterly acquired 
 great influence, so great as to cause the former to 
 waver in his allegiance to his old faith and half incline 
 him to become a convert to that of Islam, knowing 
 
90 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 Sheereen's power over the king, endeavoured to arouse 
 her patriotism and enhst her on his side in promoting 
 an invasion of the Greek territory. In this, however, 
 although aided by the power we have already seen the 
 hermit exercised over her also, he entirely failed. The 
 hermit found that, however, he could control her bodily 
 actions by the mysterious power he had gained over 
 her nerv^ous system, when the state of trance he could 
 throw her into had passed off her mind resumed its 
 own master}^, and she followed the dictates of her own 
 conscience. These would not permit her in any way 
 to countenance a course of action which might seem 
 to Queen Irene in the least to savour of annoyance or 
 opposition to her wishes. 
 
 The hermit was far-seeing enough to understand that 
 the greatest hindrance to the spread of the new faith 
 for which he was a zealot would arise from the West 
 and from Christianity, and strained every nerve to cause 
 dissensions to arise between the latter and Persia, so 
 as to weaken both, but especially the Roman Empire, 
 in which some symptoms of decay had already appeared 
 in the split between the Eastern and Western divisions. 
 He foresaw that among the less-educated and more 
 impressionable peoples of Asia the glamour of a con- 
 quering religion would seize more quickly upon the 
 miaginations of men, and the spread of Islam would be 
 comparatively far more rapid and lasting. He, too, 
 was wise in his generation, and for the present, until 
 Mohammed's temporal power was more widely esta- 
 blished, thought it prudent not to attempt proselytism 
 
THE QUEEN COiMES BACK. 9 1 
 
 too openly. He preferred working in secret, occasion- 
 ally making adroit use, when called on for proofs of 
 the divine nature of his prophet's mission, of the 
 extraordinary mesmeric power he possessed over the 
 nervous systems of individuals to force them to obey 
 him as if by the exercise of supernatural gifts. He 
 made man}^ efforts to gain an entrance into the inner 
 circle of the court, so as to bring this pgwer to bear 
 upon Khusroo himself; but the overbearing insolence 
 with which he had formerly acted in the first fire of 
 his new-born zeal had never been forgotten. The 
 king, supported by the full weight of the religious 
 influence of the Mobeds, positively refused to see him. 
 He therefore prudently determined to work on in 
 secret and to bide his time. 
 
 On one excuse or another Queen Irene's return to 
 Madain was delayed for over two years ; but the king's 
 patience at the absence of his son and heir-apparent 
 was at last exhausted, and he wrote peremptorily to 
 demand that the boy should be sent home, even if his 
 mother did not come herself The emperor's health, 
 too, being apparently fairly restored, Irene could no 
 longer refuse to return, and started, with a befitting 
 escort. Her march through Asia and the north-east 
 of Palestine to the bank of the Euphrates need not be 
 described. On its eastern shore she was met by her 
 Persian escort and by Sheereen and her band. 
 
 Sheereen offered the customary bread and salt, which 
 Irene accepted with more grace than she had previously 
 exhibited, remembering Sheereen's parting words to 
 
92 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 her. The nomad chieftainess had now developed 
 from a graceful, active girl into a beautiful woman, 
 whose perfections it would have puzzled the most 
 flattering Persian poet to describe in too glowing terms, 
 and Irene, knowing the effect such charms would have 
 upon the susceptible nature of her husband, gazed upon 
 her with a half-shy, half-inquiring look. Sheereen 
 guessed its meaning, and as she kissed her hand said 
 in a low tone of voice, a tone that, coupled with the 
 look of her frank, honest eyes, carried conviction to the 
 mind of the queen : '* Fear not, Khudawund (your 
 Majesty). Sheereen is still Sheereen, and the king's 
 honour is safe ! " 
 
 Irene with a grateful look kissed her forehead, and 
 this time no tear fell on it. 
 
 Sheereen had brought with her a beautiful Arab 
 pony, which she had had carefully trained for some 
 time, as a gift for the young prince, who, being now 
 between five and six years of age, she thought might 
 be allowed to ride it if led by two grooms. The boy 
 was delighted at the idea, and his mother, being 
 assured that the animal was perfectly quiet, allowed 
 him to put on the elaborately ornamented saddle that 
 had been prepared for it. Sheereen rode by his side, 
 and amused the child by telling him the Persian names 
 of the different animals and birds they came across on 
 the road, until his mother thought it was time for him 
 to come into the litter out of the sun. Shiruiah then 
 showed that his sojourn at Constantinople had not 
 improved his disposition : he fought with the utmost 
 
THE QUEEN COMES BACK. 93 
 
 of his infantile strength against being taken off the 
 pony, and was at last brought to reason only by the 
 threat that it should be sent away and he should not 
 ride it again. 
 
 Nothing worthy of note occurred during the re- 
 mainder of the march to Madain. Khusroo, in his 
 anxiet}' to see his son, came to meet the cortege on the 
 farther border of Sheereen's country, and escorted it 
 home. There the ro3'al party were received with great 
 enthusiasm. The city was illuminated, banquets on 
 a scale of royal magnificence were held, and the poor, 
 as well as the rich, had every reason to pray for the 
 ikhdl (prosperity) of the princely Sassanian house. 
 
 It was perhaps fortunate for Irene and her son that 
 they had left Constantinople when they did. Partly 
 from the natural weakness of his character, and partly 
 owing to his long-continued illness, during which the 
 reins of government had not been held with a suffi- 
 cientl}' firm hand, and the army of the empire, wearied 
 and demoralized by the constant inroads of the Avars, 
 a powerful Scythian tribe, and instigated by ambitious 
 men among themselves, who chose to attribute this 
 state of affairs to the feeble policy of the emperor 
 in yielding to and buying off* the barbarians instead 
 of opposing them with the full force of the Roman 
 arms, — all these causes led to disastrous results. The 
 chief of the mutineers was one Phocas, an intriguing 
 centurion of low origin, and ignorant of letters, of law, 
 and even of arms, but who had managed by the practice 
 of the wiles of a demagogue to win the confidence 
 
94 I^' PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 of a soldiery as ignorant and brutal as himself. It 
 is sufficient to state, without going in detail into the 
 events that occurred very soon after the queen's 
 departure from her father's court, that the rebellion 
 of Phocas was successful, and he was invested by the 
 soldiery with the Imperial purple. Maurice and his 
 sons fled, but were pursued and caught at Chalcedon, 
 where they were put to death by the usurper's orders 
 with every refinement of cruelty, the emperor himself 
 being forced to witness the cruelties practised on his 
 sons before he was himself relieved by death. Their 
 bodies were thrown into the sea, and their heads 
 exposed to the public gaze at Constantinople. The 
 queen had brought with her on her return to Madain 
 a train of Christian dignitaries, who, aided in their 
 pious endeavours by Irene herself, exerted all their 
 eloquence and powers of persuasion towards the con- 
 version of Khusroo to the religion of the Cross. 
 Public controversies between these dignitaries and the 
 Mobeds were permitted to be held. By the superior 
 argumentative powers and greater learning of the 
 former, Khusroo apparently allowed himself to be 
 persuaded, although he declined for the time being, 
 at all events, to undergo the rite of baptism. At the 
 root of his dissimulation in the matter lay a wish, seen 
 through by Shapur alone, to excite the jealousy of 
 Sheereen by a pretended conversion to the Christian 
 faith through the persuasions of her rival in his 
 affections. It was a strange situation. 
 
 The triumph of Phocas was not long-lived. As soon 
 
THE QUEEN COMES BACK. 95 
 
 as he ascended the throne he gave way to the natural 
 licentiousness of his nature, and indulged in the exercise 
 of brutal pleasures to such an extent as, combined 
 with men's horror at the uncalled-for barbarity of his 
 behaviour towards his unfortunate predecessor and his 
 sons, to alienate from him the affections of the soldiery, 
 on which alone his tottering rule was supported. He 
 was accordingly soon dethroned, and suffered retributive 
 justice by being beheaded at the same place where he 
 had so cruelly brought about the death of Maurice 
 and his sons. On the receipt at Madain of the dreadful 
 news of this atrocit}^, Irene, in the full belief that 
 Khusroo was a true convert to her own faith, urged 
 on him by the zeal for Christianity with which she 
 hoped to inspire him, by the ties of gratitude with 
 which he was bound to the memory of her deceased 
 father, and by the hope of recovering for Persia the 
 fortified places and territory ceded in return for the 
 assistance of the Greek troops, if not of restoring 
 the ancient glories of the kingdom, the invasion of the 
 Roman Empire. He had become aware, through the 
 reports of his couriers, of the weakness of many of 
 the garrisons in the country he would have to overrun, 
 in consequence of the withdrawal of troops for some 
 time past to meet the incursions of the barbarians 
 on the other side of the capital, and himself thought 
 the opportunity one to be taken advantage of to carry 
 out an enterprise which the death of Maurice had now 
 laid open to him. Persia soon resounded with a cry 
 to arms. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A RIGHT ROYAL BANQUET. 
 
 N the days of which we write, and in regions 
 where no camp equipage was provided for the 
 soldiery, every man on foot carrying on his 
 own person, in addition to his arms, the sheet or 
 blanket wrapped round with which he slept upon the 
 bare ground, and every horseman, besides these, a bag 
 with a small supply of grain for his beast and the 
 necessary ropes and pegs with which to picket him 
 out in the open, it did not take long to assemble an 
 army. They had no thought to take for cumbrous 
 trains of artillery for which roads had to be cleared, 
 nor for the keeping up of supplies of ammunition for 
 cannon and musket from a base of operations. No 
 wheeled vehicles were in use, and the grain that was 
 required for the food of the army and its animals was 
 carried on camels which in most places could forage 
 for themselves. Drill such as is seen in modern 
 civilized armies was of course unknown. The different 
 bodies of troops followed their several leaders and held 
 together, and made up for their want of discipline by 
 numbers. Supplies had to be found by the country 
 
A RIGHT ROYAL BANQUET. 97 
 
 through which an army passed, and were brought in 
 from every quarter b}^ foraging bands of horsemen, 
 who swept the neighbourhood of the army's route 
 as clean as a flight of locusts does the herbage of a 
 tract along which it passes, leaving the unfortunate 
 inhabitants to shift for themselves in the desert thus 
 created. 
 
 In about two months' time an army of a hundred 
 thousand, for the most part the mounted men of the 
 various nomad tribes scattered throughout Persia, 
 especially in the north on both sides lof the Alburz 
 range of mountains, had assembled on the Tigris in 
 the neighbourhood of Ctesiphon. It may be noted 
 here that Ctesiphon and Seleucia on the opposite bank 
 of the river generally went by the name of Al-Madain, 
 the Cities ; but this could not have been the town 
 known to them as the capital of Ajam, which lies on 
 the farther side of the range of hills to the east of 
 Khuzistan, now known as the Bakhtyari Mountains. 
 To attract these to the expedition no more was needed 
 than the report that there would be plenty of plunder. 
 Sheereen was most unwilling to join it from a fear of 
 being too frequently brought into contact with Khusroo, 
 which she felt would be good for neither of them, and 
 it needed all Shapur's power of persuasion and the 
 strongest appeal to her patriotism to induce her to join 
 the army with a picked band of fift}^ of her maidens ; 
 she did so then only on the condition that she should 
 be allowed always to choose her own camping-ground 
 separate from that of the rest of the troops. 
 
 7 
 
98 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 Owing to the distracted state of the empire in the 
 early part of the reign of Heraclius, who had succeeded 
 Phocas, the overrunning of Mesopotamia and Asia 
 Minor proved a comparatively easy task. Ctesiphon, 
 Dara, Amida, Edessa, and Cesarea, the capital of Cap- 
 padocia in Asia Minor, were successively besieged and 
 destroyed. Antioch, Damascus, and Jerusalem were 
 attacked and plundered ; and at the last-mentioned 
 city the sepulchre of Christ and the stately churches 
 erected there by Helena and Constantine were either 
 consumed or greatly injured by fire, much to the horror. 
 of Queen Irene, who, if she did not suspect her hus- 
 band of being privy to it, at all events blamed him for 
 permitting the wanton desecration of places so vener- 
 able in the minds of all Christians. Palestine and Egypt 
 were overrun; and as many as ninety thousand Christians 
 were reported to have been massacred by the bands 
 of Jews and Arabs who had joined the army. The 
 victorious army of Khusroo advanced on the south 
 as far as Egypt and the Nile, and on the north to 
 the Hellespont. But one little belt of water separated 
 him from the then capital of the world. 
 
 Throughout the campaign Sheereen and her little 
 band had followed his fortunes, and by her bravery 
 and generalship contributed greatly towards them. 
 Never exposing her troop to unnecessary danger in 
 the thick of a battle, where their light arms could not 
 have been used to any great effect, she ever hovered 
 near, and watched it with the eye of an eagle, and 
 wherever she saw the Persian troops hard pressed, or 
 
A RIGHT ROYAL BANQUET. 99 
 
 perceived an opportunity to assist them by a flank 
 or rear attack, she was sure to be in the right place 
 at the critical moment. Often had her sudden charge 
 with the war-cry of " Sheereen ! Sheereen ! " turned 
 the wavering tide of victory against the enemy, and 
 the cheery chorus of " Ride, sisters, ride ! " sung by 
 sweet girl-voices, enlivened the wearisome march ; and 
 such was the modest dignity with v/hich the little band 
 conducted itself that it had won the profoundest respect 
 from the rude soldiery with which it was associated. 
 Any man who had dared to offer them the slightest 
 indignity would have had but a short shrift at the 
 hands of the latter. 
 
 Khusroo's passion for the fair nomad was, it may be 
 imagined, greatly enhanced by her self-denial and 
 devotion in sharing the dangers and hardships of the 
 campaign ; and it had occurred more than once that 
 when he had himself been in a position of peril she 
 had been there to extricate him from it, just as if she 
 had made it her special duty to watch over his personal 
 safety. But she was careful never to meet him except 
 on the field of battle, or at all events in the company 
 of other leaders when a council of war was held, 
 so that he never could find an opportunity for again 
 urging his suit personally. 
 
 The rule she had laid down from the first, that she 
 was to be allowed to pitch her camp apart from that 
 of the rest of the army, had been rigidly carried out 
 and respectfully observed by all. 
 
 At last the Hellespont came in view ; the goal of 
 
100 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 all their endeavours was almost within striking 
 distance ! Heraclius, whom the Avars had again 
 defeated, had sued for peace, and saw no hope of 
 mercy in the present savage mood of the conquering 
 Persian king, who had but lately sworn to extirpate 
 the Christian religion from the face of the earth, after 
 he had flayed alive one of his own generals. The 
 latter had, after an interview with the fallen emperor 
 at Chalcedon, ventured to plead with his royal master 
 in favour of Heraclius, and met with this awful punish- 
 ment at the hands of the tyrant, whom his victorious 
 career had so puffed up with pride as to lead him 
 to aspire almost to divine honours. As the price of 
 the safety of the capital of his empire Heraclius had 
 submitted to the most ignominious terms, and agreed 
 to pay to Persia an enormous annual tribute, to collect 
 the means for meeting which his impoverished subjects 
 had to be doubly and trebly taxed, a proceeding which 
 led to the unexpected result we will mention directly. 
 
 Meanwhile, with a view to celebrate the great event 
 of the subjugation of the Roman Empire of the East, 
 it was decreed that a grand banquet should be held 
 in the camp, which was pitched within view of the 
 Hellespont. This was preceded by a review of the 
 army, who marched before the king in their thousands, 
 clad in suits of gorgeous armour, or in robes of Oriental 
 magnificence, headed by a hundred elephants adorned 
 with costly trappings of gold and silver brocade, on 
 which were seated the highest officers of the army and 
 the chiefs of the nomad contingents that accompanied 
 
A RIGHT ROYAL BANQUET. 1 01 
 
 it. On this occasion Khusroo was seated on a 
 golden throne in the centre of an amphitheatre of 
 low hills adjacent to the seashore, surrounded by the 
 Mobeds and principal officers of state in their most 
 sumptuous apparel, and immediately behind an altar 
 containing the sacred fire, which the high-priest con- 
 stantly fed with scented wood. On the hills around 
 stood the various divisions of the army in deep serried 
 ranks, looking with their bronzed faces like veterans 
 inured to war, at whose feet lay a conquered world. 
 When about half the army had defiled past the throne, 
 Khusroo came down from it, and, preceded by his body- 
 guard, a band of men in chain -armour of polished steel 
 with the butts of their spears fashioned like golden 
 pomegranates, and followed by the royal band of 
 musicians playing martial Oriental airs, walked with 
 the chief Mobed on his right hand, and his vazir, or 
 prime minister, on his left, to a headland, the feet of 
 which were washed by the sea. The bodyguard 
 dividing to the right and left, the king stood on the 
 brink, and after the manner of Xerxes, his great pre- 
 decessor, cast a golden chain into the water, exclaiming 
 in a loud voice : '' Thus art thou chained with the fetters 
 of bondage, O ocean, to the king of kings, the ruler 
 of this world, who is obedient to none but the powers 
 of heaven ! " 
 
 Thus saying, he knelt, and looking towards the 
 west, where the sun was just on the point of setting, 
 touched the earth with his forehead three times. All 
 of the vast host at his back who were on foot, as 
 
102 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 well as those who surrounded him, went through the 
 same ceremony, while those on horseback with one 
 accord raised their spears in salutation. These flashed 
 back the rays of the sun, and with the kneeling 
 myriads in front presented a spectacle as brilliant 
 as it was extraordinary. Drinking off a large goblet 
 of wine presented to him by a cup-bearer (saki) on 
 his knees, the king returned to his throne, and the 
 remainder of the army defiled past him, the rear being 
 brought up by Sheereen and her diminished band 
 of maidens. She, unlike the rest of the chiefs, left 
 her ranks, and galloping up to the foot of the throne, 
 presented to him the butt end of her spear, which 
 he encircled with a jewelled bracelet taken off his own 
 arm as she saluted and gracefully galloped back to 
 the head of her troop. '' Shabash ! " ('' Well done ! ") 
 The shout rose spontaneously to the hps of the great 
 multitude, who felt that the royal favour had been well 
 earned. 
 
 Meanwhile an army of carpet-spreaders and other 
 menials had invaded the plain, to make preparations 
 for the coming banquet. The viands, which were 
 distinguished by abundance rather than by anything 
 else, were spread on pieces of leather more or less 
 ornamented laid upon the ground, and around these 
 were arranged carpets on which the guests sat to eat 
 and drink, those highest in rank or in the royal favour 
 being placed nearest the royal dastar-khw'an, the name 
 of what took the place of a table-cloth in our more 
 refined mode of eating. Wine cups of gold and silver 
 
A RIGHT ROYAL BANQUET. 1 03 
 
 were placed on each according to the number of guests 
 it was to accommodate, and constantly filled by cup- 
 bearers in attendance for the purpose. A special 
 dastar-khw'an was laid for Sheereen and a few of her 
 band in close proximity to Khusroo's own. Sheep 
 and other animals roasted whole, and other huge joints 
 smoked upon lordly platters of the precious metals, 
 and were attacked by the guests with their own 
 daggers, which served for ^knives, the pieces being 
 transferred to similar plates and eaten with the fingers. 
 A special compliment to a guest being the conveying 
 to his plate part of the contents of one's own, Sheereen 
 was soon embarrassed by the quantity of food heaped 
 upon her plate by Khusroo, whom the excitement of 
 the day had led to drink a good deal more wine than 
 was good for him, and who was consequently pretty 
 far advanced in his cups. 
 
 Towards the end of the feast, the chief Mobed rose, 
 and pointing to the evening star, already plainly visible 
 in the twilight, said to the king : " Behold, the star of 
 thy nativity riseth to add the splendour of its light 
 to the diadem of the king of kings, the lord of lords, 
 the world's ruler ! " 
 
 Khusroo at these words staggered to his feet, and 
 with a sudden impulse passing to where Sheereen sat 
 put his arm round her waist, and raising her, said : 
 
 '' And this is the queen who must share that diadem 
 with me ! " 
 
 Sheereen at once put him aside with an air of gentle 
 dignity, and with her maidens retired to her own camp. 
 
104 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 There, after a short drunken pause, the king followed 
 her, only to be brought up before he reached her tent 
 by a ring of maidens who, at Sheereen's cry of, " Sisters, 
 help me ! " had surrounded her, with their spears 
 extended in an impenetrable circle. Before the morning 
 Sheereen and her band were on their way home to 
 Persia. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A STRANGE WEDDING. 
 
 HE summit of the Persian fortunes had been 
 reached, and from this time their descent was 
 very rapid. Heraclius, under a show of the 
 most abject submission and feigned despair, was 
 crouching Hke the tiger before his spring. In the 
 neighbourhood of Chalcedon, unknown to the Persians, 
 he collected troops and assiduously drilled them, being 
 convinced that now that Khusroo had been led to 
 imagine the empire had been crushed beneath his feet, 
 he would soon leave his army, and probably withdraw 
 a large portion of it. He had the military ability to 
 see that the success of the Persians in the campaign 
 had been mainly due to the weakness of the Roman 
 garrisons in Mesopotamia, a circumstance that could 
 not have been avoided at the time owing to troops 
 having had to be withdrawn to meet the incursions of 
 the Avars at the other extremity of his realm. The 
 small garrisons left, moreover, he knew had been 
 demoralized by the insane conduct and barbarity of 
 Phocas, which had led to that absence of proper central 
 control, without which their discipline could not be 
 efficiently maintained. He had no doubt in his own 
 
I06 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 mind that the steady valour and discipHne of his 
 own troops would in the end prove more than a match 
 for the numbers of irregular troops the Persian king 
 could put into the field, and set to work accordingly 
 to drill and thoroughly re-organize the former. In 
 their late wars with barbarian tribes the old Roman 
 formations and tactics had not been thoroughly studied 
 and carried into practise in the field, and he determined 
 to revive them. He knew, moreover, by means of 
 his spies in the Persian camp, that the nomads were 
 beginning to grumble at their prolonged absence from 
 their homes, now that there was no more fighting to 
 be done and no more plunder to be obtained. 
 
 As soon as Sheereen and her band had made their 
 departure, Khusroo, satisfied with the terms of peace 
 he had exacted, also made up his mind to return to 
 Persia, and in a short time carried his resolve into 
 effect. He took with him all the cavalry of the nomad 
 tribes, thus reducing the army by fully a half, in 
 addition to those required to estabhsh strong garrisons 
 in the fortified towns on his line of communications in 
 Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. Having ascertained the 
 certainty of Khusroo and the larger part of the army 
 having left, Heraclius acted at once. Although his 
 land forces had been defeated, his navy was still 
 efficient, and he promptly made use of it to convey 
 his own army to the Gulf of Scanderoon, somewhat 
 to the south of v\^here the Persians lay, and concealed 
 from them by hills, so that they should not be able 
 to ascertain his strength or the composition of his force. 
 
A STRANGE WEDDINX-. 10/ 
 
 Taking care not to risk the chances of a general 
 engagement, he manoeuvred so as to weary out the 
 enemy by partial combats in many directions, and in 
 so doing accustomed his men to the Persian mode 
 of warfare, and proved to them that their own tactics 
 were superior. After thus inuring his troops to war, 
 he manoeuvred so as to slip past the enemy, and, 
 passing along by the Black Sea, he turned southwards 
 through the mountains of Armenia, and penetrated 
 almost without opposition into the heart of Persia 
 before he was obliged to put his army into winter 
 quarters, thus ending his first campaign. 
 
 It had become evident to Khusroo that he could not 
 maintain armies at such distant points as the Nile and 
 the Bosphorus, and foreseeing that the next struggle 
 would take place in Mesopotamia, he recalled his troops 
 from the more distant places for the defence of that 
 region, abandoning his conquests in Palestine as well. 
 This was the final blow to Queen Irene's hope of being 
 able to exercise her influence for the benefit of Jeru- 
 salem and other holy places of the Christians. It had 
 been long kept alive by the belief that the splendid 
 gifts her husband had from time to time made to the 
 shrine of Sergius, one of the local saints of Antioch, 
 were a proof of his leaning at heart towards her own 
 religion : they were, in fact, only the sign of a super- 
 stitious veneration Khusroo had conceived for the 
 saint, who he fancied had appeared to him in his 
 dreams and aided him at various times. Already 
 embittered by her husband's too evident neglect of her, 
 
I08 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 entirely separated from him in all religious thought, 
 and having no common ties of sympathy with him 
 except with regard to their son, her health began to 
 fail, and this to a man of Khusroo's temperament 
 created a further bar to their amicable intercourse 
 with each other. As to her pious mind everything in 
 this world should be made subservient to what she 
 considered tended to his soul's welfare, she never 
 ceased to inculcate on Shiruiah the vital importance of 
 belief in the Christian doctrines ; whilst, on the other 
 hand, the Mobeds, in whose hands his father had placed 
 the superintendence of his education, did all they 
 could to keep him steadfast in the faith of his fathers. 
 The natural result was that he pleased himself in the 
 matter, and paid but little attention to religious exer- 
 cises of any kind. Possessed of no natural modesty, 
 and being submitted to in all his whims, and petted 
 and spoiled by all about the court, he had become a 
 most intolerable little tyrant by the time he arrived 
 at the age of ten. 
 
 On the arrival of the news of the first defeat of the 
 army and the incursion of Herachus through Armenia 
 into the north of Persia, Sheereen had conceived the 
 idea of erecting a strong fort on the eastern edge of 
 the Bakhtyari Hills on the edge of the desert on 
 the road to Madain as a kind of outwork to that 
 city, to impede the march of an army advancing 
 in that direction, and serve in case of necessity as a 
 place of refuge in the troubled times she thought 
 might be approaching when the contending creeds of 
 
A STRANGE WEDDING. 1 09 
 
 Christianity/ Magianism (fire-worship), and Moham- 
 medanism would strive for the mastery of the East. 
 Mentioned to Shapur, who had returned with his 
 royal master from the campaign, the project met 
 with his warm, support, and through him, with that of 
 Khusroo himself, in the latter case induced partly by 
 the consideration that the residence there of the object 
 of his devoted passion would bring her within a few- 
 days' forced march of the capital, and afford him an 
 excuse for visiting her on his frequent hunting expe- 
 ditions. No time, therefore, was lost in setting to work 
 in the matter. A skilled architect was sent by the 
 king to superintend the building, and as stone and lime 
 abounded in the mountains near at hand, and labour 
 also was plentiful, the castle rose apace and was com- 
 pleted in about eighteen months. It received the name 
 of Kasr-i-Sheereen, the Castle of Sheereen, who made 
 it her chief place of residence at all seasons of the 
 year, finding the advantage in administering her 
 government of having one fixed spot w^here her sub- 
 jects might be tolerably sure of finding her when they 
 had any business to transact. 
 
 It may be as v/ell to give here, w^ithout vouching 
 for its historical accuracy, the tale narrated in Nizami's 
 poem of Khusroo and Sheereen in connection with the 
 latter taking- up her abode at Kasr-i-Sheereen, and 
 the manner in which Khusroo's jealousy was excited 
 by her proceedings. 
 
 Sheereen, from some cause or another, had taken to 
 a milk diet, and found a good deal of difBculty in 
 
no IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 procuring the necessary supply for herself and her 
 household, owing to the distance of the pasturage 
 grounds of her flocks and herds from the castle, which 
 was situated within the limits of the desert. On her 
 mentioning the matter to Shapur, he informed her that 
 he would put it into the hands of an acquaintance of 
 his, who was skilled in engineering work of all descrip- 
 tions, and would no doubt soon devise a remed}^ 
 This was Ferhad Koohkan, or Ferhad the hill-digger, 
 celebrated in Persian romance, who incontinently 
 fell in love with the beautiful Sheereen, and for the 
 sake of her beaux yeux, set to work, and within a 
 month dug a canal from the pasturage ground to 
 the castle, with a reservoir at the end of it, into 
 which the milk of her sheep flowed morning and 
 evening without fail, and saved her attendants the 
 labour of going to fetch it. When the work was 
 completed and inspected by Sheereen, it appeared to 
 her to be the work of the gods, not of a man, and 
 she praised Ferhad accordingly. Such praise from the 
 mouth of the beloved object added fuel to the fire 
 of his passion, and he wandered away into the desert 
 in a state of distraction, looking at the castle from a 
 distance in despair, and coming at night to take his 
 only sustenance of milk from the reservoir. The tale 
 was told to Khusroo, who came to reason with him 
 and endeavoured to talk him out of his madness, but 
 to no avail. The interview is said ,to have ended 
 by the king, enraged at his obstinacy, ordering him to 
 perform the impossible task of cutting, single-handed. 
 
A STRANGE WEDDING. I I I 
 
 a road through the hill of Bee-sitoon. Ferhad at once 
 accepted the task, on condition that if he accomplished 
 it he was not to be forbidden to indulge his apparently 
 hopeless passion. Thereupon he immediately bound 
 up the loins of resolution and attacked the hill with 
 the pickaxe of determination, and laboured at it day 
 and night, bewailing his hard fate, and falling every 
 morning at the feet of an image of Sheereen which 
 he carved out of the rock. The story of his devotion 
 reaching the ears of Sheereen, she came to see him, 
 and out of compassion brought him a bowl of milk, 
 which he received with all gratitude, and afterwards 
 escorted her hom.e, carefully leading her horse down 
 from rock to rock. Re-animated b}^ the interest the 
 beloved one took in his labours, he set to work again, 
 and went on with the proposed road through the hill 
 more vigorously than ever, until Khusroo, afraid of 
 the impression such self-devotion might make on the 
 heart of Sheereen, consulted his friends as to what 
 further steps he should take in the matter. They 
 advised him to try the effect of the sudden announce- 
 ment to Ferhad of Sheereen's death. For this purpose 
 a hard-featured and stony-hearted man w^as chosen, 
 and he bluntly and mercilessly told the unfortunate 
 man the false stor}^ The desired effect was produced, 
 for Ferhad, shocked at the news, threw himself off a 
 rock and was killed. Sheereen, much affected at this 
 tragic event, had him buried with the ceremonies due 
 to men of worth, erected over his remains a lofty dome, 
 and returned in tears to her castle. Here shortly after- 
 
112 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 wards she was surprised and pleased by the receipt 
 of a letter of condolence from Khusroo, which was the 
 means of bringing about a rapprochement between them 
 It was not long before Queen Irene, worn out by 
 her many troubles, died at Madain, and Sheereen, in 
 return for Khusroo's letter on the occasion of Ferhad's 
 death, sent him a letter about that of his queen. 
 
 The only obstacle to the marriage of Khusroo and 
 Sheereen was thus removed, although it seems to have 
 been delayed for some time by his marriage to another 
 lady of Isfahan, who had been recommended to him 
 on account of her beauty and her other good qualities. 
 This did not quench his ardour for an union with his 
 old love, which — after due provision for a dowry had 
 been made in the shape of a thousand black-eyed camels 
 with red hair adorned with golden anklets, a thousand 
 star-eyed black ones with paces swifter than the wind, 
 a thousand horses with golden bits and iron hoofs, a 
 thousand pomegranate-breasted attendants, a thousand 
 fair-faced slaves dressed in brocade, boxes full of 
 treasure and jewels, a golden litter, ten litters full 
 of peacocks and sand-grouse, and many other costly 
 gifts — was accomplished with the blessing of the 
 Mobeds. On the night of their wedding, Khusroo, 
 sad to relate, lay intoxicated and heavily asleep, while 
 his bride sorrowfully watched him and sang : • 
 
 Spent with the chase my loved one lies ; 
 Sleep, as an infant's, seals his eyes. 
 Whilst o'er his slumbers watch I keep, 
 Hush, nightingale, nor break his sleep. 
 
 Hush ! Oh, hush ! 
 
A STRANGE WEDDING. I I 3 
 
 Go, nightingale, thy thousand woes 
 Tell in the bosom of the rose. 
 If thy complaint she will not hear, 
 Breathe not thy tuneful sorrows here. 
 
 Hush ! Oh, hush ! 
 
 Should he at morn wake unrefreshed, 
 Thy voice shall soothe his troubled breast ; 
 But now restrain thy tuneful song, — 
 No more thy melody prolong. 
 
 Hush ! Oh, hush ! 
 
 Seek, nightingale, another grove, 
 And murmur there thy timid love. 
 Go, or thy rose for thee will pine, 
 And leave me here alone with mine. 
 
 Hush ! Oh, hush ! 
 
 It was not till the sun was high that Khusroo awoke, 
 and apologized to his wife for his misbehaviour. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE SIEGE OF THE CASTLE. 
 
 HE second campaign of Heraclius had not been 
 less unfortunate for the Persians. Having 
 now re-organized his forces and restored their 
 ancient discipHne, he recovered Asia Minor, and steadily 
 pushed forward into Mesopotamia, the fortified places 
 in which one after another fell into his hands. As the 
 Persians gradually retired, they were joined by the 
 garrisons of the towns in Egypt and Palestine, which 
 Khusroo directed to be withdrawn, seeing it was 
 useless to endeavour to retain his more distant con- 
 quests when the war was being brought so much nearer 
 home, and might, if the wheel of fortune did not turn 
 in his favour, soon be transferred into the ancient 
 dominions of Persia itself. In this campaign Sheereen 
 had taken no part, partly from resentment at Khusroo's 
 behaviour to her on the Bosphorus, and partly from 
 being occupied with the building of her castle. The 
 campaign ended with the recovery by the Romans 
 of the whole of Mesopotamia, almost up to the limit 
 of territory held by them at the time of the Emperor 
 Maurice's death. 
 
THE SIEGE OF THE CASTLE. I I 5 
 
 It was in the interval between the second and third 
 campaign that the marriage of the king and Sheereen 
 took place. . Khusroo would have celebrated the 
 occasion with the utmost pomp, for he had still a large 
 treasure derived from the plunder of Asia Minor, 
 Egypt, and Palestine in hand, notwithstanding the 
 expenses of the war, had not Sheereen refused to 
 sanction it. She foresaw that the Emperor Heraclius 
 would not rest content with the recovery of the territory 
 formerly belonging to Rome, but would in the next 
 campaign move forward into Persia, and patriotically 
 desired to husband its resources to the utmost, so as 
 to be prepared for a desperate resistance when he 
 advanced. It required all her skill in managing her 
 husband, and constant appeals to the real affection 
 he had long borne towards her to rouse him to action 
 from the state of apathy into which he had fallen. 
 This had been brought about by the continued success 
 of the Roman arms, against which it was apparently 
 hopeless to strive, and the misbehaviour of his son 
 Shiruiah. The prince, since the death of his mother 
 towards whom he had maintained some semblance; 
 of respect, had been surrounded by an intriguing faction 
 at the Court, and as he grew older seemed more and 
 more disposed to rebel against the authority of his 
 father. She succeeded, however, in at last per- 
 suading the king to take the field in person, and 
 determined to accompany him and do all in her power 
 to save her country. A respectable army had been 
 collected together, and although as queen she could 
 
I 1 6 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 not head her maidens and lead them to the fight as 
 in former days, she deemed rightly that her own 
 popularity would do much towards encouraging the 
 feeble-hearted, and animating the troops with that 
 patriotic zeal which Khusroo's late apathetic behaviour 
 had greatly damped. She was enthusiastically sup- 
 ported by the Mobeds, w^ho had hailed the death of 
 Queen Irene as a sign of the arrest of the shadow of 
 Christianity that seemed to be stealthily creeping over 
 their land, and looked with great hope to the influence 
 of their new national queen to re-establish the national 
 faith on a firm basis. They had every confidence 
 in her constancy in this respect, and were equally 
 suspicious of Shiruiah, who, over-indulged and allowed 
 by his mother to have entirely his own way, had 
 treated their rites and religious practices with scant 
 ceremony, or even with actual insult. 
 
 The spectacle was a grand one when the two oppos- 
 ing hosts stood to arms early in the morning of an 
 autumn day to contend for the mastery in what all 
 felt must be the decisive battle of the campaign. It 
 was in the immediate neighbourhood of the old-world 
 city of Nineveh, amidst whose mound-covered remains 
 the two great emxpires of the West and East now^ con- 
 fronted each other, looked down upon, it may be, by 
 the shades of long dynasties of mighty Assyrian kings 
 with interest, to see how the puny inhabitants of the 
 modern world would comport themselves in the fight. 
 Nor can the latter have been disappointed in the event, 
 for the battle was fiercely contended and blood3^ 
 
THE SIEGE OF THE CASTLE. I I / 
 
 The army of the Persians had been skilfully dis- 
 posed on and about the mounds in two lines, the 
 foremost of which was composed of elephants and 
 cavalry, and the second of their infantry. The Romans 
 advanced in echelon in alternate phalanxes, flanked by 
 cavalry, Vv-hich was not nearly so numerous as, though 
 far better disciplined than, that of Khusroo, the latter 
 consisting only of Tartars and horsemen of the nomad 
 tribes. On the backs of the elephants were placed a 
 species of towers, the lower portions of which were 
 constructed of wood of sufficient thickness to resist 
 the passage of arrows, so that the archers and javelin 
 men in them were partially protected, their heads anc/ 
 the upper parts of their bodies only being exposed. 
 The king and queen were seated on a magnificently 
 caparisoned elephant on the highest of the mounds, 
 so as to obtain as clear a view of the field as possible, 
 and were surrounded by Sheereen's own tribe as a 
 bodyguard. 
 
 The battle was begun by the Persian cavalry moving 
 forward in dense masses, before which that of the 
 Romans retired in good order, and sending flights of 
 arrows, which darkened the air, among the ranks of 
 the infantry as it advanced, occasionally feigning flight 
 in order to tempt the latter to break their ranks and 
 follow them in pursuit, and sometimes charging close 
 up to them and casting spears among them. But to 
 no purpose. Steadily and remorselessly the phalanxes 
 moved on until the first line arrived within bowshot 
 of the line of elephants, which had hitherto stood still, 
 
Il8 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 awaiting attack. Then there moved forward from 
 among the Roman ranks bodies of men dragging along 
 with ropes what were evidently engines of war of 
 some description, but for what purpose these were 
 intended was at first not clear. The mystery was soon 
 solved by their being brought to a halt and beginning 
 to throw from machines in the form of balistas blazing 
 balls of tow dipped in oil among the elephants with a 
 view to terrify them. They had the desired effect, for 
 the unwieldy animals began to jostle each other in 
 their attempts to turn their backs to the fiery missiles, 
 and the line was thrown into confusion. Khusroo 
 sent instant word to his cavalry to charge in upon 
 the machines and scatter the men in charge of them. 
 It was too late, however ; the mischief was already 
 done. With loud trumpetings the elephants turned 
 and fled, trampHng down their own infantry in their 
 flight, and creating such a panic among them that 
 sauve qui peut soon became the order of the day. 
 The men in the towers, jolted about from side to side 
 when the elephants began to run, were unable to use 
 their weapons or regain control over their terrified 
 beasts, and the whole field was soon a mass of 
 fugitives, among whom the Roman infantry steadily 
 advanced, slaughtering them by hundreds. 
 
 The cavalry did all in their power to interpose and 
 put a stop to the panic, but, finding that their horses 
 were alarmed by the trumpeting and rushing of the 
 elephants, prudently drew to one side and awaited 
 orders, finally dispersing in the afternoon when they 
 
THE SIEGE OF THE CASTLE. II9 
 
 saw their army defeated and no commands reached them. 
 The royal elephant, as soon as Khusroo saw that the 
 defeat was irretrievable, was driven off the field 
 surrounded by Sheereen's bodyguard, and not halted 
 until Kasr-i-Sheereen was reached late at night. The 
 Roman general, deeming that an}^ hasty or disorderly 
 pursuit of the flying enemy in the face of the threatening- 
 masses of their cavalry would be dangerous, pitched 
 camp at Nineveh. The wisdom of building Sheereen's 
 castle was now to be manifested. It served as a rally- 
 ing point for the defeated army, and was so strong 
 in itself that it could not be taken by a coup de main, 
 especially if the passes in the hills before it was reached 
 from the West were made use of to delay the progress 
 of an advancing army, and time was thus gained to 
 lay in provisions, to strengthen the garrison, and other- 
 wise prepare for a siege. These measures were now 
 taken. The march of the invaders was impeded at 
 every possible point. Knowing thoroughly every foot- 
 path through the hills, the native troops, which had 
 re-assembled in considerable numbers, were able to 
 take the foreigners at a disadvantage in many places, 
 to cut off stragglers and convoys of provisions, and 
 oblige the Roman general to proceed very cautiously. 
 Time, as the winter was approaching, and the latter 
 would soon be forced to go into winter-quarters, was 
 of the greatest consequence to the Persians. A good 
 fortnight elapsed before the enemy could formally sit 
 down and form the siege of the castle, which, as it 
 stood on the direct road to Madain, could not be left 
 
120 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 behind for fear of affording an opportunity for cutting 
 off the retreat of his army. 
 
 Kasr-i-Sheereen was built in the shape of a square, 
 with a courtyard in the centre where horses and camels 
 could be stabled, and provisions and fodder stored. At 
 each corner was a round tower for flanking defence, 
 and one in the middle of each of the longer sides of the 
 parallelogram. Round the whole had been dug t^vo 
 deep dry moats, with a wall and breastwork between the 
 two. Admittance was gained by a gate at one angle 
 of the outer fortification, and thence into the interior of 
 the enceinte by another at the opposite corner. The 
 moats prevented the use of battering-rams for knocking 
 down the gates, and the walls being of solid stone fire 
 would be of no avail against them, whilst to guard 
 against the latter contained in fireballs or lighted 
 arrows the precaution was taken to cover everything 
 inside that was inflammable with skins. A well had 
 been dug inside the fort which afforded an ample 
 supply of water, while outside it could only be procured 
 at some distance from one of the small streams in the 
 hills. Thus prepared, the king and queen awaited the 
 siege with confidence, knowing that the winter would 
 be on them ere long, and that the enem}^ dared not 
 linger in his present position beyond the first symptoms 
 of a fall of snow, for fear of the passes through the hills 
 in his rear being blocked up and his retreat cut off 
 
 Reconnoitring the place immediately on his arrival, 
 the Roman general saw at once that his only chance 
 of capturing it in time was by setting it on fire or by 
 
THE SIEGE OF THE CASTLE. 12 1 
 
 escalade, for the gates or walls could not be battered 
 down until the moats had been filled up. The former 
 was first of all tried, and for a whole night his engines 
 threw fire-balls into the castle : the precautions that 
 had been taken, however, and the alertness of the 
 garrison prevented the success of the plan. For the 
 next few days it was evident that a great number of 
 the besiegers had been withdrawn from before the 
 castle, and it was ascertained by a spy let out at night 
 for the purpose that they had been em.ployed in cutting 
 wood in the hills to make ladders with. All prepara- 
 tions were accordingly made to meet this plan of 
 operations as well, by heaping huge stones on the 
 ramparts to hurl down on the attacking party, and by 
 lighting large fires for the double purpose of boihng 
 cauldrons of pitch and of preventing the enemy from 
 approaching them unseen. 
 
 On a dark, cloudy night about a week after the 
 commencement of the siege the attack was delivered. 
 In order to distract the attention of the besieged, all 
 four faces of the castle were attacked simultaneously 
 shortly before dawn. As the besiegers had no exact 
 measurements of the depth of the outer moat and the 
 height of the wall, some of the ladders proved to be 
 too short ; the rungs of some, owing to their being 
 fastened together with small twisted shoots of trees 
 and bushes, gave way beneath the weight of the men. 
 The defenders poured down hot liquid pitch, arrows, 
 darts, and stones on the heads of the assailants. Only 
 at one point did the latter by undaunted resolution 
 
122 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 make good their footing on the outer rampart, and 
 here they were attacked with such fury by Khusroo 
 himself at the head of his bodyguard that, over- 
 whelmed by numbers and unsupported by their 
 comrades, they were forced back over the wall and 
 few of them escaped alive. Daylight surprised the 
 other three attacking parties while they were still 
 struggling to plant fresh ladders, and afforded a good 
 mark for the arrows and other missiles of the garrison, 
 and, seeing the hopelessness of the attack, the Roman 
 general at last withdrew his men. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE KING IN DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 REAT were the rejoicings in Kasr-i-Sheereen 
 when the attack was foiled, and proportion- 
 ately depressed was the feehng in the camp 
 at this unexpected check to the conquering progress 
 of the Roman arms. It was doubly unfortunate that 
 it should have occurred just at the end of the cam- 
 paigning season, when winter was so near at hand, 
 and there was a possibility of the passes among the 
 hills being blocked up by snow. It was particularly 
 disappointing, because, if it had not been for the grim, 
 impediment of the castle, which frowned down upon 
 them in its undiminished strength, their road to 
 Madain lay open, and the army might then have gone 
 into luxurious winter quarters. There had alread}^ 
 been severe frosts at night, and a sudden snowstorm 
 might effectually cut off their retreat. A council of 
 war was accordingly held to consider the situation, 
 and decide upon their future proceedings. 
 
 The hermit, in his zeal for the propagation of his 
 new faith, had anxiously watched the course of events, 
 in the hope that the opposing forces of Christianity 
 
124 ^N PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 and Zoroastrianism would be so weakened by the 
 conflict that an opportunity might be afforded for 
 the arms of the prophet to strike with success at one 
 or the other. Owing to the steady onward career of 
 Heraclius for several years past he had come to the 
 conclusion that of the two the Persian power was the 
 one that would succumb, and, believing that the Romans 
 would not remain long in a country so distant from 
 the seat of their own rule as Persia, looked forward 
 to a day not far distant when the hosts of Islam might 
 burst this barrier, and, pouring like a flood through it, 
 create a new empire for the Crescent in the East. He 
 had hoped that after their victory at Nineveh the 
 Christian army would not stop short of Madain, and 
 was annoyed beyond measure at the successful resist- 
 ance offered by Kasr-i-Sheereen. Uninvited, accord- 
 ingly, he entered the camp, and appeared at the 
 council. Finding that the general opinion of those 
 present was in favour of retreat while the road in their 
 rear still remained open, he urged them to march upon 
 Madain by the road already mentioned which led 
 round the edge of the desert, assuring them that water 
 and supplies were abundant along the route, and that 
 in a v/eek's time Madain would be in their possession. 
 But more prudent counsels prevailed. The military 
 leaders, confident as they were in their power to over- 
 come the resistance of the Persian army in the field, 
 knew the hazard of advancing w^hen Kasr-i-Sheereen 
 still lay intact behind them, and the still more formid- 
 able enemy of a winter climate might any day be 
 
THE KING IN DIFFICULTIES. 125 
 
 added to the number of their opponents. It was 
 accordingly resolved to commence their retreat on the 
 following day, sending detachments before them to 
 secure the passes. The hermit, however, did not yet 
 despair, but determined to make an effort that night 
 through his power over Sheereen to gain an entrance 
 into the castle. He communicated his plan only to 
 the Roman general, who, although extremely sceptical 
 of his so-called supernatural influence, yet promised 
 to have a select body of men ready to take advantage 
 of any chance that might present itself. These were 
 stationed close to the gatewa}', with orders to rush 
 forvv'ard and seize it if the gate was opened, in hope 
 that the guard might be taken by surprise and over- 
 powered before the garrison could come to their 
 assistance. 
 
 By midnight all was ready, and the hermit, standing 
 by the moat opposite the gateway, cast his spell over 
 Sheereen and summoned her to his presence. 
 
 Straight from her couch she rose, and with a noiseless 
 step went down the winding staircase into the court- 
 yard and to the gate of the inner enclosure. Knowing 
 her person, and thinking that she was on her way 
 to visit the guards, as she was in the habit of doing, 
 the men on duty opened the gate and let her pass 
 out. Thence she took her way directly to the outer 
 gate, and would have passed it, too, but it was locked. 
 The key had been taken out and delivered into 
 Khusroo's own hand on the previous evening ! It 
 was piteous to see the state of trembling eagerness 
 
£26 
 
 with which she tried to force back the bolt with her 
 hands, not heeding in the least the men who gathered 
 round her, and naturally enough thought her mad. 
 They sent word, however, to the king, who hurriedly 
 arrived on the scene. The touch of his hand seemed 
 to dispel the enchantment that had been put upon her, 
 and in astonishment at her position she allowed him 
 to lead her back to her own apartment. Khusroo 
 remembered what had occurred on a previous occasion, 
 and when she told him she dreamt the hermit had 
 called her and she could not but obey him, felt that 
 there was more than a dream in the matter, and fully 
 resolved that if he once got the old man into his 
 power the spell should be broken once and for 
 ever. 
 
 For several hours the latter stood with the men- 
 at-arms in anxious expectation outside the gate, and 
 at last as day began to davrn invoked the curses of 
 Allah on those who had frustrated his design, and 
 went off to his solitary abode among the hills. As 
 the invaders struck their camp and moved off a heavy 
 storm burst over them, fortunately not accompanied 
 by so much snow as to block up the passes, but 
 sufficiently heavy to prove the wisdom of the decision 
 of the council of war to retire while they were able 
 to do so. Their retreat was not unmolested, for as 
 soon as it was evident that the army had started back, 
 the cavalry of the nomads swarmed and hovered 
 round them like vultures on the look-out for carrion. 
 Huge rocks and trees were found blocking up the 
 
THE KING IN DIFFICULTIES. 12/ 
 
 narrow paths that served for roads ; the water in the 
 best watering-places as they proceeded was rendered 
 filthy and undrinkable by mud and all kinds of dirt 
 thrown into it ; and occasional^, as they wound their 
 way through narrow defiles, clouds of arrows shot 
 by enemies hidden in the thickets by the side of the 
 track picked off numbers of their men. More and 
 more disorderly grew the array as the army pressed 
 forward to get out into the open country. Here even 
 they found no respite. The Persians so outnumbered 
 them in light cavalry that they were forced to hold 
 together closely in their ranks and not attempt to 
 retaliate on the enemy for the constant attacks made 
 on them from all sides. The actual loss in men was 
 not great, for their armour protected them greatly from 
 the arrows of the Persians ; but the fatigue and watch- 
 fulness the men had to undergo were excessive, and 
 it was with a feeling of intense relief that the Roman 
 general after a series of skirmishes prolonged over 
 several days saw his men safe at last within the walls 
 of Ctesiphon and Seleucia for their winter quarters. 
 
 It was high time for the king to return to his capital. 
 The intrigues of Shiruiah's faction had prospered 
 greatly during Khusroo's absence, and every advantage 
 had been taken of the continued defeats of the ro^^al 
 troops to fan the fire of his unpopularity which had been 
 smouldering ever since he commenced his retrograde 
 movement from the Bosphorus. The bow of the 
 popular favour, which had been strung to its highest 
 point of tension when their forward m.arch had brought 
 
128 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 the armies of the king of kings within sight of 
 Constantinople and apparently brought back the golden 
 da3'S of the Persian Empire, had flown back with 
 proportionate force as defeat after defeat sullied their 
 arms, and fortress after fortress and province after 
 province were again wrested from their grasp. It needed 
 only treachery at home, such treachery as Shiruiah's 
 advisers knew how to bring to bear on it, to make the 
 king's situation dangerous in a high degree. It was 
 only the hold the Mobeds had on the general religious 
 feelings of the people, and the alarm the priests took 
 care to excite in their minds, that Shiruiah leant towards 
 his mother Irene's faith, that counterbalanced the 
 situation and prevented him from proceeding to ex- 
 tremities and supplanting his father. Skilful use was 
 now made of the retreat of the enemy from before 
 Kasr-i-Sheereen to magnify the military sagacit}' of the 
 king in luring on the Romans when winter would soon 
 prove a formidable ally to the national forces, a sagacity 
 which the event had proved to be based on real ability. 
 The defeat at Nineveh was demonstrated to be due, not 
 to a want of valour on the part of the Persian soldiers, 
 but to the accidental unruliness of the elephants when 
 employed in a kind of warfare to which they had not 
 been accustomed. This was to a certain extent true, 
 and, coupled with the undoubtedly hurried retirement 
 of the enemy from before Kasr-i-Sheereen, served to 
 restore the good-will of the populace towards the king, 
 and throw back his son's pretensions into the shade. 
 Accordingly, when the king and queen returned to 
 
THE KING IN DIFFICULTIES. 1 29 
 
 Madain, their reception was sufBciently enthusiastic to 
 warrant a feeling on their part that all would now go 
 well, and that during the winter they would be able to 
 re-organize the army, and put it in a thoroughly efficient 
 condition to, at all events, restrict the Romans to their 
 original territories. Political measures were also not 
 neglected. An embassy bearing valuable presents was 
 despatched to the Tartars on the north and east, and 
 their Khakan persuaded of the advisability of throwing 
 in his lot with Persia to check the further advance of 
 the Romans, as there could be no doubt that if Persia 
 were brought under his sway the Emperor Heraclius 
 would not long delay to strike a blow at the independ- 
 ence of the Tartars also. The importance of a fortress 
 in staying the advance of an enemy having, moreover, 
 been demonstrated in the case of Kasr-i-Sheereen, it 
 was determined, as far as it could be done during the 
 winter, to fortify the passes through the hills, and thus 
 turn to account the defences nature had provided for 
 the country. At the same time Shiruiah's intrigues 
 were by Sheereen's advice quietly frustrated by remov- 
 ing the most influential men of his party to honourable 
 but distant posts in the provinces, so as to deprive 
 them of all opportunity for combination ; whilst he 
 himself was made to feel that he was in disgrace by the 
 unusual favours bestowed on his half-brother Merdaza, 
 a son of the king by one of his numerous concubines. 
 This rankled in the young prince's breast, with the 
 consequence we shall see by-and-by. 
 
 We have seen that the hermit, after the failure of 
 
 9 
 
I30 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 his plan to betray Kasr-i-Sheereen to the Roman 
 general, retired to his cave in the hills. Here he was 
 visited shortly afterwards by Shapur, who conveyed 
 to him an invitation from the king to present himself 
 at Madain on pretence of a religious disputation 
 between the professors of Christianity, the Mobeds, and 
 himself as the representative of Islam, but really with 
 a very different object. 
 
 The Divan-i-Aam was arranged as a court of justice 
 in the manner described in the first chapter of this 
 history. The same officers sat and stood within its 
 precincts, and an equally dense and curious crowd 
 thronged the garden in front ; but Khusroo sat on the 
 seat of judgment in the place of his father Hormuz, 
 and the culprit on his trial was no longer Prince 
 Khusroo, but the hermit. 
 
 He stood with his arms folded across his breast, 
 an attitude of respect in the East, and not, as with 
 us, one of nonchalance or insolence, clothed in a long 
 religious mendicant's robe, and with a triangular lamb's 
 wool cap on his head, without shoes ('' for the place 
 whereon thou standest is holy ground ! "), assiduously 
 telling a rosary of brown beads which he held in his 
 left hand. The charge on which he was arraigned 
 was that of practising enchantment on the queen. 
 
 It had been understood that Sheereen herself would 
 give evidence before the court, and as she was popular 
 with all classes, the trial excited great interest. But 
 her presence was rendered unnecessary by the course 
 matters took. The hermit acknowledged the truth 
 
THE KING IN DIFFICULTIES. 131 
 
 of the charge and gloried in it. There was then 
 nothing to do but to ask the chief Mobed what was 
 the fitting punishment for such a crime. 
 
 The Mobed prostrated himself, and then, rising and 
 standing v/ith folded palms, replied : " May it please 
 the Asylum of the world ! The punishment of treason 
 against the person of a sovereign of Ajam is death, 
 by the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth 
 not ! " 
 
 At a sign from Khusroo, the Mirza chronicled the 
 decree. 
 
 The hermit heard his sentence unmoved, but telling 
 his beads walked at a sign down to the central fountain, 
 where, kneeling as he was commanded, he cried : 
 " There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His 
 prophet ! Allahu akbar." 
 
 The words were uttered, and the sword of the 
 Ethiopian executioner rolled the venerable head in 
 the dust. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SHEEREEN YET LIVES. 
 
 RIEVED as she was at the severity of the 
 sentence, Sheereen yet felt relieved that she 
 was free of the mysterious influence the 
 hermit had no doubt had over her, an influence to 
 which, being uneducated and superstitious, she had 
 also attributed the death of Maheen Banoo. Another 
 circumstance that had impressed on her mind a con- 
 sciousness of the old man's power was the fact of the 
 literal fulfilment of his prophecy with regard to her 
 husband's career of conquest in the first instance and 
 his final defeat by the Romans. It was no doubt a 
 remarkable prophecy, but one by no means beyond 
 the capacity of a sagacious observer who knew the 
 character and resources of the two empires, and 
 understood their circumstances and the relation in 
 which they stood towards each other at the time it was 
 uttered. She was prudent enough, however, to keep 
 her thoughts on the subject to herself, and to let her 
 husband feel she considered the action he had taken 
 in the matter entirely due to his affection for her and 
 desire to rescue her from the hermit's influence over 
 her. Khusroo had been a Httle nervous as to the effect 
 
SHEEREEN YET LIVES. I 33 
 
 of the old man's execution, of his determination to 
 carry out which he had not informed her beforehand, 
 upon her sensitive nature, and her ready acquiescence 
 in the justice of the sentence only convinced him more 
 and more of the soundness of her judgment, and, if 
 possible, increased his affection for her. 
 
 Everything, with the exception of Shiruiah's be- 
 haviour, thus seemed to promise tranquillity, at least for 
 some time to come. The absence of any cause for 
 excitement, under jhe influence of which alone Khusroo 
 thoughtlessly sometimes took too much wine, had the 
 good effect of making him moderate in his potations. 
 He set himself steadily to work to regain his lost 
 popularity by reforming abuses, by allowing the people 
 to approach him freely with their complaints and 
 petitions, by administering impartial justice in person 
 and attending to all the details of State affairs in the 
 manner in which alone a despotic king can hope his 
 rule to be successful. Supported by his beloved queen 
 with all her grace and beauty, he was in a fair way 
 to emulate the fame of his grandfather, Noushirwan 
 the Just, and his memory to live equally in the 
 affections of his people. 
 
 But yet the cloud of Shiruiah's conduct on the 
 otherwise clear horizon loomed ominously enough. 
 He appeared bent on ingratiating himself w^ith the 
 lowest classes of the populace by affecting a dignity 
 and show due only to the king himself, by promoting 
 to places of trust in his own household men of low 
 origin and little or no education, utterly unworthy of 
 
134 IN PERSIA S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 confidence, by riding roughshod over the prejudices 
 of the people in matters of rehgion, and by endeavour- 
 ing to interfere with the course of justice in cases 
 in which his unworthy favourites were concerned. To 
 his father and the queen he was entirely wanting 
 in respect, and did not hesitate to intimate to his 
 half-brothers that when he came to the throne he 
 should certainly follow the common custom of Oriental 
 countries and dispose of them by death or blinding. 
 It was, in fact, only by the entreaties of Sheereen that 
 he was constantly saved from the punishments he so 
 richly deserved. 
 
 At last matters came to a crisis. It was the custom 
 of the royal family on the occasion of the New Year's 
 festival to attend at the principal fire-temple of the 
 city, when public prayers were offered up for the 
 safety and prosperity of the realm during the coming 
 year, and the king received the blessing of the Chief 
 Priest. If the king happened to be away, as in the 
 case of his absence on a campaign or elsewhere, some 
 member of the royal family was always present to 
 represent him. Since the commencement of the war 
 this duty had generally fallen to Shiruiah, but had 
 for several years past been performed by him with 
 more and more aversion. The new year had now 
 come round again, and the king and queen were to 
 proceed in state to the temple in order to show them- 
 selves to the people in the public performance of the 
 duties of their rehgion on their return to the capital. 
 It was presumed as a matter of course that the prince 
 
SHEEREEN YET LIVES. 1 35 
 
 would accompany them, and a richly caparisoned 
 elephant was accordingly sent to his palace, the same 
 which Khusroo himself had occupied in his younger 
 days, to convey Shiruiah to the king's palace to 
 join the procession there. He flatly refused to go. 
 Now, as this was not only an offence against the 
 religion of the people, but a personal insult to the 
 king, the blessing bestowed on whom by the mouth 
 of the highest religious dignitary of the realm was 
 believed to be essential to the well-being of the country, 
 it was a matter that could not be overlooked ; and as 
 the prince repeated his refusal, although several high 
 officers were sent to remonstrate with and persuade 
 him to come, the king ordered k guard to be sent to 
 confine him to his own palace as a prisoner for the 
 present until he could be tried for the crime of which he 
 was guilty. To mark his sense of his son's proceed- 
 ing, also, Khusroo seated Merdaza on Shiruiah's 
 elephant, and during the procession and the temple 
 ceremony openly had paid to him the honours usually 
 accorded to the heir-apparent to the throne. 
 
 The day passed over quietly. The populace accorded 
 a cordial reception to the king and queen ; but the 
 minds of both of them were troubled with a vague 
 sense of coming evil, which they unselfishly concealed 
 from one another. By mutual consent, however, on 
 that night the noise of musical instruments and the 
 voices of singing-men and singing-women were hushed 
 in the palace, and Khusroo, after several hours of 
 wakefulness, was lulled into sleep by the sweet, low 
 
136 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 voice of his wife telling him stories after the manner 
 of the East, and soothing him by gently pressing his 
 feet. Overcome with fatigue, and her mind wearied 
 with anxious care, Sheereen soon also fell into a sleep, 
 troubled with terrific visions ; visions, however, not 
 more terrific than that which she was soon to 
 behold. 
 
 The night was dark : the wind howled, and a tempest 
 raged without the palace, raised, one might have fancied, 
 by the demons of the air in harmony with a deed of 
 blood. What is this form that, cowering and hiding, 
 and every moment, as it were, stopping and holding 
 its breath to listen and hear whether any sound stirred, 
 draws gradual)}^ nearer to the couch where the royal 
 pair lie side by side unconscious ? Is there no friendly 
 dog that will raise a howl of despair to warn them 
 of their danger ? Is there no board that will creak 
 under the stealthy tread of the approaching assassin 
 to startle them out of their sleep ? No ! The floor 
 is of smooth polished lime, covered with costly, soft 
 carpets that echo no footstep, and the howling of the 
 gale hides all other sounds from the watch-dog and 
 the sentry. A soft, subdued light from a lamp in 
 an adjoining room gives just sufficient distinctness to 
 the noble forms lying there to enable the hand that 
 is raised over that of the king to strike silently, but 
 with effect. In another moment the form glides out 
 of the chamber as noiselessly as it has entered, and 
 Khusroo lies bleeding to death from a wound inflicted 
 by his own son ! 
 
SHEEREEN YET LIVES. I 37 
 
 The Persian poet touchingly relates that, awoke by 
 the blow and feeling that life was fast ebbing away^ 
 the king's first thought was to awaken Sheereen and 
 ask for something to drink ; but his second that she 
 had not slept for nights, and he had better let her 
 sleep on and gain strength to bear the awful sight that 
 would be presented to her when she awoke. And 
 so suffering, whilst longing for one last touch of her 
 dear hand, he passed away while Sheereen still lay 
 asleep and unconscious. 
 
 We draw a veil of silence over the scene that took 
 place when the dawning day revealed to her what had 
 occurred. Something even yet more awful to her pure 
 mind than the assassination of her husband by his own 
 son was to happen, which filled her with such horror 
 as to make life itself no longer endurable. Shiruiah 
 made overtures to her, w^hich she, with a view to gain 
 time and accomplish a purpose she now fully resolved 
 upon, feigned to accept, and promised to meet him 
 as soon as the king's funeral obsequies had been 
 performed. 
 
 Shiruiah lost no time in assembling his partisans, 
 and having himself proclaimed king. He took imme- 
 diate possession of the royal treasury, and distributed 
 large sums out of it both to his own followers and 
 others who he thought were only lukewarm in his 
 favour, whilst those he was aware were opposed to him 
 he imprisoned without mercy. Many of these never 
 again left their prisons alive. At the same time he 
 ordered the funeral rites of his father to be performed 
 
138 IN PERSIA'S GOLDEN DAYS. 
 
 with more than usual magnificence, with a view to 
 impress the populace with an idea of his filial piety. 
 All the nobles of the land who were within reach were 
 directed to attend, and as many of the troops as could 
 be collected were summoned to line the street through 
 which the body was to pass. 
 
 To conceal his real intentions with regard to them, 
 he seated Merdaza and several others of his half- 
 brothers on' elephants, while he himself headed the 
 procession, after the Mobeds, on foot and in mourning 
 garments. The bier was placed upon a golden litter 
 preserved from former days, and only used at the 
 funerals of kings.- Behind the bod}^ walked Sheereen 
 herself among the female attendants and slaves of the 
 palace, bareheaded and with their long hair flowing 
 down over their shoulders. How Sheereen managed 
 to control her feelings and preserve outwardly a calm 
 demeanour is shown by the Persian chronicler relating 
 that she appeared not to be grieved at Khusroo's 
 death, and Shiruiah had no doubt that his evil purpose 
 would be accomplished. 
 
 When the funeral train arrived at the Tower of 
 Silence those present formed two rows, one on each 
 side of the body, up to which Sheereen walked with 
 a firm step. She lifted the cloth from the face of him 
 she had loved so long and so well, and bared the 
 wound in his breast through which his life-blood had 
 poured. In another instant she drew a dagger from 
 her belt, and buried it in her own bosom. And then, 
 as she fell upon 'his body and clasped it in a last fond 
 
SHEEREEN YET LIVES. I 39 
 
 embrace, the sweet soul of Sheereen fled to the place 
 of the departed. In life they were one, and in death 
 they were not severed. 
 
 Little remains to be said, in concluding this melan- 
 choly history. Shiruiah, after the manner of many 
 Eastern potentates, either killed or confined in prison 
 and blinded the whole of his half-brothers, for fear 
 of their aspiring to the throne. Mercilessly he dealt 
 with all who had opposed him during his father's 
 lifetime, and finding that even his liberal gifts failed 
 to reconcile the people to the rule of a parricide, en- 
 deavoured to secure his position by cruelty and the 
 sternest repression. The one good ideed recorded of 
 him is that he, probably through personal indifference 
 to all religion, tolerated every creed. It is not the 
 purpose of this history to follow his career farther 
 than to note that his reign lasted lao longer than 
 eight months. 
 
 Sheereen yet lives in the legends of Persia and the 
 East as the model of virtue and constancy, and the 
 loves of her and her husband form the constant theme 
 of poets' lays. 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
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