The vision passed as it came, and he spoke again in calm tones as of reason.
"I warn you that you are in danger; I devote you to human vengeance and divine wrath! For the last time I demand Azora's liberation."
The Sultan's patience was at length exhausted, "Seize him, and off with his head!" he thundered springing up.
Frenzy again blazed in the eye of Hassan: "Stop!" he shouted, as he dropped on his knee; "and may the curse of Mohammed and the Seven Sleepers cleave to the man that lays a hand on me!" then, springing to his feet, and swinging his mace round his head, he uttered a prolonged yell of triumph, and rushed through the crowd that recoiled terror-struck to open him a passage, and his shouts of vengeance rang in their ears until they died away in the distance.
This incident was not calculated to influence the Sultan's decision, but rather to increase his irritation against his victim. It would hardly have altered his resolve had the two witnesses come, like Judas, and said, "We have sinned, in that we have betrayed the innocent blood." But one being dead, and the other a madman, it left the case exactly as it stood.
At mid-day the fatal procession left the town by the Rahamna gate. First walked the Cadi and his secretaries, a green banner being carried before him: then followed the condemned martyr, in a long linen veil, surrounded by some thirty or forty guards, on foot and on horseback. Then came the executioners with torches, ropes, and long knives, a large crowd of horse and foot from the town followed. As they left the gate, they raised the usual chaunt, "La Illaw Il Allah, Mohammed er rasool Allaw." This was taken up by the crowd, and the poor girl's heart sunk within her; she had not lost all hope, as she had received intimations, not very clear, that an attempt would be made to deliver her, and she started as she heard the following words, from two men in the crowd, just outside the guards, "Is the black horse saddled?" and the reply, "Ay, Inshallah! and will win." She remembered the signal of her escape from the lion, and she hoped almost against hope, but in any case she was prepared to meet her God.
"Where is the race?" said Abd el Aziz, who was one of the guards, deceived by the stranger's speech.
"The other side of the town, O Kaïd!" said the stranger; "we had a wager on our horses, but followed this crowd, to see the execution, but my heart sickens at the thought of it—a woman too!"
"I don't like it myself," said Abd el Aziz, "but I am a slave of the Sultan, his word must stand. If it had been a man—I know this one, and the infidel is beautiful. May I not be unmanned and shame my beard—you are not a Marokshi."
"No! I am from Rif," said the horseman.