There was a breathless silence; at length the Sultaun’s arm was uplifted to strike—the fortunate moment had arrived!
‘Bismilla-ir-ruhman-ir-raheem, in the name of the most clement and merciful! Strike, O Sultaun!’ cried the Sheikh.
The blow descended, and a shout arose, which mingling with the cannon and the drums, almost deafened the hearers; while each man of that great host applied himself to the task and tore down portions of the wall. Gradually, but rapidly, the long extent within sight disappeared, and in six days the whole for nearly twenty miles had been so destroyed as to make it useless for any purpose of defence. This completed, the army began to retrace its steps toward the capital, soon to enter upon new and fiercer scenes.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
We must not linger by the way, but at once proceed to the city, where the army has arrived a few days. And now there is bustle, activity and life, where of late all was dull and spiritless. Its arrival has brought gladness to many, but none to her whom we now introduce to the reader.
‘And thou hast seen him, Sozun?’ said Kummoo, the Khan’s wife who has been before mentioned, to her servant, who had always enjoyed her confidence—a woman with a cunning visage and deep-set twinkling eyes; ‘thou hast seen him—and how looked he? They say he was terribly wounded, and even now is pale and emaciated.’
‘They say truly, Khanum,’ said the woman; ‘your slave watched for him at the door of his house, and pretending to be a beggar asked alms of him in the name of the Beebee Muriam and Moula Ali of Hyderabad; and when he asked me if I were of Hyderabad, I said yes,—may Alla pardon the lie—and he flung me a few pice; lo, here they are. Yes, lady, he is pale, very pale: he looks not as if he could live.’
‘Ya Alla spare him!’ cried the lady: ‘when I last saw him he was a gallant youth; he was then going with the Khan to the Durbar; and as I beheld him urging his noble courser to curvet and bound before this window, my liver turned to water, and, as I live, his image hath been in my heart ever since.’
‘Toba! Toba! for shame! Beebee,’ said the woman in a mock accent of reproof. ‘How can you say so—and you a married woman?’