"Woe to thee, O Moslim!" said Hassan in an excited tone. "Think you the pangs and shrieks of a son of Adam in torture can be grateful to a merciful God? Think you the diabolical spirit of the murderers can be pleasing to a beneficent Creator? In the infancy of the faith the Prophet's policy allowed this; now it is useless, barbarous! And this is a woman! O God! O God!" And he pressed his hands to his eyes as though the flames blasted them.
Ali gazed on him with unfeigned surprise; at first he thought he was counterplotting to mislead him, but sincerity was too plainly marked on his haggard face to admit of a doubt.
"From you, this!" he said; "is it possible? Even as the tongue of the Cadi is before, while his hand is behind for the bribe; so men act one thing and speak another."
"And who am I?" said Hassan; "and who is your father's son that you reflect on me as double-faced? When have we met before?"
"Never! and yet I am not wrong," said Ali, fixing on his face a stern and inquiring glance; "I am not wrong in thinking I speak to the accuser of this woman. Do I not speak to the principal cause of her sufferings and death? Hassan, son of Ibrāhim, do I not know you?"
Hassan's blood rushed to his brow and then left his face ashy pale, as he said in a low voice,—
"Just God! is the brand of blood already on my brow that even strangers know the murderer? The guilt of innocent blood is even now beginning to fall on my head."
"You repent?" said Ali; "then why have you done nothing to save her?"
"Too late! Oh, that I could! But how do I know," said Hassan, checking himself, "that I am not trusting to an enemy? What matter? It is known! What have I to fear? I would give my life—a life that is hateful to me, if it would save hers. And you,—you have travelled far to see this scene of horror?—I see it now!"
"I spoke to gain your confidence," said Ali; "knowing you as the destroyer of the innocent, I was your foe; now,—we are friends, and I can trust you. But however little value you place upon your own life, when I entrust you with a secret which would be no less fatal to mine, you must swear to confide it to no other. I come to save her!"