Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/73

Tale of the Second Eunuch, Kafur. 53 labourers, with spades and baskets, went on my track, with many people behind him ; and I ran on before them, howling and casting dust on my head and beating my face, followed by my mistress and her children keening for the dead. But I got ahead of them and entered the garden before them, and when my master saw me in this state, I smiting my face and saying, " Well-away ! my mistress | Alas ! Alas ! Alas ! who is left to take pity on me, now that my mistress is gone ? Would I had been a sacrifice for her!", he stood aghast and his colour waxed yellow and he said to me, "What aileth thee O Kafur! What is the matter?" "O my lord," I replied, "when thou sentest me to the house, I found that the saloon-wall had given way and had fallen like a layer upon my. mistress and her children ! " " And did not thy mistress escape ? " " No, by Allah, O my master ; not one of them was saved ; the first to die was my mistress, thine elder daughter ! " " And did not my younger daughter escape ? "; " No, she did not ! " " And what became of the mare-mule I use to ride, is she safe ? " " No, by Allah, O my master, the house-walls and the stable-walls buried every living thing that was within doors, even to the sheep and geese and poultry, so that they all became a heap of flesh and the dogs and cats are eating them and not one of them is left alive." "And hath not thy master, my elder son, escaped ? " " No, by Allah ! not one of them was saved, and now there is naught left of house or household, nor even a sign of them : and, as for the sheep and geese and hens, the cats and dogs have devoured them." When my master heard this the light became night before his sight ; his wits were dazed and he so lost command of his senses that he could not stand firm on his feet : he was as one struck with a sudden palsy and his back was like to break. Then he rent his raiment and plucked out his beard and, casting his turband from off his head, buffetted his face till the blood ran down and he cried aloud, " Alas, my children ! Alas, my wife ! Alas, my calamity ! To whom ever befel that which hath befallen me?" The merchants, his friends, also cried aloud at his crying and wept for his weeping and tore their clothes, being moved to pity of his case ; and so my master went out of the garden, smiting his face with such violence that from excess of pain he staggered like one drunken with wine. As he and the merchants came forth from the garden-gate, behold, they saw a great cloud of dust and heard a loud noise of crying and lamentation; so they looked and lo! it was the Governor with his attendants and the townsfolk, a world of people, who had