Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/412

390 THE DECLINE AND FALL — " I am not angiy : " — " and for those who pardon offences : — "1 pardon your offence : " — -"and for those who return good for evil : " — " I give you your Uberty, and four hundred pieces of silver." With an equal measure of piety, Hosein, the younger brother of Hassan, inherited a remnant of his father's spirit, and served with honour against the Christians in the siege of Con- stantinople. The primogeniture of the line of Hashem and the holy character of grandson of the apostle had centred in his person, and he was at liberty to prosecute his claim against Yezid the tyrant of Damascus, whose vices he despised, and whose title he had never deigned to acknowledge. A list was secretly transmitted from Cufa to Medina of one hundred and forty thousand Moslems, who professed their attachment to his cause, and who were eager to draw their swords so soon as he should appear on the banks of the Euphrates. Against the advice of his wisest friends, he resolved to trust his person and family in the hands of a perfidious people. He traversed the desert of Arabia' with a timorous retinue of women and children ; but, as he approached the confines of Irak, he was alarmed by the solitary or hostile face of the country, and suspected either the defection or ruin of his party. His fears were just : Obeid- ollah, the governor of Cufa, had extinguished the first sparks of an insurrection ; and Hosein, in the plain of Kerbela,!'-'^ was en- compassed by a body of five thousand horse, who intercepted his communication with the city and the river. He might still have escaped to a fortress in the desert that had defied the power of Caisar and Chosroes, and confided in the fidelity of the tribe of Tai, which would have armed ten thousand warriors in his defence. In a confei'ence with the chief of the enemy, he proposed the option of three honourable conditions : that he should be allowed to return to Medina, or be stationed in a frontier garrison against the Turks, or safely conducted to the presence of Yezid. But the commands of the caliph, or his lieutenant, were stern and absolute ; and Hosein was informed that he must either submit as a captive and a criminal to the conunaiuler of the faithful or expect the consequences of his I'ebellion. "Do you think," replied he, "to terrify me with death . And, during the short respite of a night, he prepared with calm and solemn resignatioji to encounter his fate. He checked the lamentations of his sister Fatima, who deplored the impending ruin of his house. " Our trust," said Hosein, " is in ^^[Kcrbela is about twenty-five luilcs X.W. of Kufa.]