So they perished. Gaunt with famine, still did Haroun's trusty hand
For his latest dead companion scoop sepulture in the sand.
Then he died; and pious Nature, where he lay so gaunt and grim,
Moved by her divine compassion, did the same kind thing for him.
Earth upon her burning bosom held him in his final rest,
While the hot winds of the Desert piled the sand above his breast.—
Onward in his fiery travel Abdel-Hassan held his way,
Yielding to the camel's instinct, halting not, by night or day,
'Till the faithful beast, exhausted in her fearful journey, fell,
With her eye upon the palm-trees rising o'er the lonely well:
With a faint, convulsive struggle, and a feeble moan, she died,
While her still surviving master lay unconscious by her side.
So he lay until the evening, when a passing caravan
From the dead incumbering camel brought to life the dying man.
Slowly murmured Abdel-Hassan, as they bathed his fainting head,
"All is lost, for all have perished!—they are numbered with the dead!
"I, who had such power and treasure but a single moon ago,
Now my life and poor subsistence to a stranger's bounty owe.
"God is great! His name is mighty! He is victor in the strife!
Stripped of pride and power and substance, He hath left me faith
and life."—