"That--that cannot be Soheil," he said almost timorously.
"It is Soheil, Most High," replied Bâki Cheghaniâni in a courtier's voice; then repeated pompously the well known verse:
"How far dost thou shine, Soheil?
And where dost thou rise?
Who knows? But this cannot fail:
Thy light brings luck to the eyes
Who see it and cry, 'All hail!
Soheil!'"
"Gentlemen!" rang out Babar's jubilant young voice, cutting the clear night air like a knife. "Let us give it all we can...! All hail!--Soheil!"
"All hail! Soheil!" The cry clamoured round the rocks and surged up from the ravines where men were still striving upwards; while on that downward path to the pleasant valleys below where spear points were already beginning to cluster, the troopers paused to echo and re-echo:
"All hail! Soheil!"
And Babar's star was veritably in the ascendant. Within a month--yet once more without battle, without contest--he had gained complete possession of Kâbul and Ghazni with the countries and provinces dependent thereon.
It had been almost unbelievable success ever since that day when on the uplands of Ilâk, he had shaved off his beard and set aside, once and for all, his childish hopes and aims!
Really, it was rather quaint! The thought of it, with its hint of imagination, its something beyond the dull routine of the inevitable, added zest to the young King's almost rapturous appreciation of his new dominions.