Then
will I go to King Afridoun and my son King Herdoub, and they will
sally forth on them with their troops and destroy them, nor leave
one of them alive." So she mounted and fared on across country
all that night, and at daybreak, she sighted the army of Behram
and Rustem advancing towards her. So she turned aside into a
wayside copse and alighting there, hid her horse among the trees,
saying to herself, "Belike they are returning, routed, from the
assault of Constantinople." However, as she drew near, she saw
that their standards were not reversed and knew that they were
not retreating because of defeat, but that they feared for their
king and their chiefs. When she was assured of this, she hastened
up to them, running at the top of her speed, like a stubborn
Satan as she was, and cried out, "Hasten, O soldiers of the
Merciful One, hasten to the holy war against the hosts of Satan!"
When Behram saw her, he dismounted and kissing the earth before
her, said, "What is behind thee, O friend of God?"[FN#111] "Do
not ask of evil case and sore disasters," answered she. "Know
that, when our comrades had taken the treasure from the hermitage
and were on their way back to Constantinople, there came out on
them a great host and a fierce of unbelievers." And she repeated
to them the story, in such wise as to fill them with trouble and
terror, and added, "The most of them are dead, and there are but
five-and-twenty left.
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