ing on. At
length, one loud, shrill, and searching scream of the bitterest woe
was heard, which was suddenly lost in an interval of the most frightful
silence. A heavy fall, which immediately succeeded, told us that all was
over. I was then roused, and with my head confused, half crazed and half
conscious, I immediately rushed to the spot, where my Zeenab and
her burden lay struggling, a mangled and mutilated corpse. She still
breathed, but the convulsions of death were upon her, and her lips moved
as if she would speak, although the blood was fast flowing from her
mouth. I could not catch a word, although she uttered sounds that seemed
like words. I thought she said, 'My child! my child!' but perhaps it
was an illusion of my brain. I hung over her in the deepest despair, and
having lost all sense of prudence and of self-preservation, I acted
so much up to my own feelings, that if the men around me had had the
smallest suspicion of my real situation, nothing could have saved
me from destruction. I even carried my frenzy so far as to steep my
handkerchief in her blood, saying to myself, 'This, at least, shall
never part from me!' I came to myself, however, upon hearing the shrill
and demon-like voice of one of her murderers from the tower's height,
crying out--'Is she dead?' 'Aye, as a stone,' answered one of my
ruffians. 'Carry her away, then,' said the voice. 'To hell yourself,'
in a suppressed tone, said another ruffian; upon which my men lifted the
dead body into the taboot, placed it upon their shoulders, and walked
off with it to the burial-ground without the city, where they found
a grave ready dug to receive it. I walked mechanically after them,
absorbed in most melancholy thoughts, and when we had arrived at the
burial-place, I sat myself down on a grave-stone, scarcely conscious
of what was going on. I watched the operations of the nasakchies with a
sort of unmeaning stare; saw them place the dead body in the earth; then
shovel the mould over it; then place two stones, one at the feet and the
other at the head. When they had finished, they came up to me and said
'that all was done': to which I answered, 'Go home; I will follow.' They
left me seated on the grave, and returned to the town.

The night continued dark, and distant thunders still echoed through the
mountains. No other sound was heard, save now and then the infant-like
cries of the jackal, that now in packs, and then by two or three at the
time, kept