kicking him.

The servant bowed his head before the victor, and he never raised it
again, for Kleon chopped it off with his bloody sword, and sticking it
on the point thereof, raised it on high and cried to his bloodthirsty
comrades: "Here is their second general, Zaid, who came to subdue us!
Hallelujah!" and the victorious host repeated after him, "Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!"

And then they stuck the heads of the two generals on the points of two
lances, and carried them through the streets of Pulo in the sight of
the crowds of women and children on the housetops, bellowing, "We have
conquered! We have conquered! These are the heads of the enemy's
leaders: one of them is Omar Vrione, and the other is Zaid Bey! Kyrie
eleison?"

And what face was ever so pale as Zaid's when he heard his name called
out and saw how they mocked and jeered at the head they took for his?

The Suliotes returned to Janina with the captives and the emblems of
victory. Tepelenti, hearing that they had decapitated Zaid, went down
into the camp and demanded his head.

Kleon was sitting in front of his tent _en deshabille_. He was not
disposed to part with the symbol of victory, but wanted it to dazzle
the eyes of the host for some little time longer.

But Ali was ready at once with a good idea: "Cut off the head of
another prisoner," said he, "in its stead; none will notice the
difference."

Kleon acted upon the advice, and immediately sent forth his
men-at-arms to take the exhibited head to Ali. But Ali shook his own
head when he saw it, and wagging his finger at Kleon, he said: "Thou
art over-young, my son, to try and impose upon Ali. Thou wouldst turn
my counsel to my own hurt, and give me the head of another instead of
Zaid's!"

Kleon leaped to his feet. "Do you mean to say that is not Zaid's
head?"

"Of a truth it is not. Dost thou suppose I do not know the youth--I
who used to dandle him on my knee ever since he was a child, and was
the first to place a sword in his hand?"

"But, indeed, he himself told me," cried Kleon, pointing at the head,
"that he was Zaid, and he was wearing a general's uniform."

"'Tis a slave," said Tepelenti, regarding the head more closely. "Dost
thou not see? His ears have been cropped, so that he may not wear
ear-rings in them, which only great lords may do."

"Then Zaid has gone free!"

"Zaid will be among the captives," said Tepelenti. "I would recognize
him amongst a thousand. He was my favorite