the wise and virtuous Sergius.'

"'I marry Zarah!' I exclaimed, 'I! a monk!'

"'Surely,' said he, 'thou would'st not take away her husband without giving
her another in his stead?'

"'If he does I will throttle him,' cried Zarah.

"And I wept sore, and made great intercession. And it was agreed that there
should be a delay of forty days, in which space if any one else would marry
Zarah, I should be free of her. And I promised all my substance to any one
who would do this, and no one was found. And she was offered to thirteen
criminals doomed to suffer death, and they all chose death. And at the last
I was constrained to marry her. And truly I have now the comfort of
thinking that if I have offended by encouraging Abdallah's deceits, or
otherwise, the debt is paid, and Eternal Justice hath now nothing against
me; for verily I was an inmate of Gehenna until it came to pass that she
was herself translated thither. And respecting the manner of her
translation, inquire not thou too curiously. It was doubtless a token of
the displeasure of Heaven at her enormities that the water of the well of
Kefayat, which had been known as the Diamond of the Desert, became about
this time undrinkable, and pernicious to man and beast.

"As I sat in my dwelling administering to the estate of my deceased wife,
which consisted principally of wines and strong liquors, Abdallah again
appeared before me.

"'Hast thou come,' said I, 'to solicit me to abet thee in any new
imposture? Know, once for all, that I will not.'

"'On the contrary,' said he, 'I am come to set thee at ease by proving to
thee that I shall not again require thy assistance. Follow me.'

"And I followed him to a great plain, where was a host of armed horsemen
and footmen, more than I could number. And they bore banners on which the
name of Abdallah was embroidered in letters of gold. And in the midst was
an ark of gold, with the bones of Ad's camel, or cow. And by this was a
great pile of the heads of men, and warriors were continually casting more
and more upon the heap.

"'How many?' asked Abdallah.

"'Twelve thousand, O Apostle of God,' answered they, 'but there are more to
come.'

"'Thou monster!' said I to Abdallah.

"'Nay, father,' said he, 'there will not be more than sixteen thousand in
all, and these men were unbelievers. Moreover we have spared such of their
women as were young and handsome, and have taken them for our concubines,
as is ordained in the