Now Cæsar, when he heard that troops had come,
And that the world was black with horsemen's dust,
Chose from those Rúmans five-score thousand men,
All famed in battle, requisitioned arms,
War-steeds and drachms, and thus much time elapsed.
He had one daughter Maryam hight, wise, grave,
Well counselled and resolved, and later on
Brought forth such stores of bridal bravery
That e'en the speedy baggage-beasts grew slow—
Gold trinkets, jewels that a king might wear,
Gems, gold-embroidered raiment, carpetings,
Brocade of Rúm with golden patterns wrought
Upon a ground of silk, torques, bracelets, earrings,
And three most costly and bejewelled crowns.
He had four gilded litters too made ready,
Their curtains decorate with royal gems,
And forty others made of ebony
All jewelled like the eye of chanticleer.
Then came three hundred moon-faced waiting-maids
All colour and perfume, five hundred slave-boys
Intelligent and bright with ornaments
Of gold and silver, forty Rúman eunuchs
Fay-faced, illustrious, attractive men,
And four of the philosophers of Rúm,
Wise, learned and famed. He gave them their
instructions,
And privily withal charged Maryam
To be obedient, order her desires,
To do her duty, to be bountiful,
As to her food and how to bear herself.
There was, as reckoned in the Rúman way,
More than three hundred millions' worth*
of goods.
To every envoy at his court he gave
A crown inlaid with jewels, robes withal,
Steeds and dínárs and much of all things fitting.
He bade write to the Sháh on painted silk:—
“Well may they raise their necks up to the moon,
These subjects of the Sháh! No man more courteous
Than Gustaham hath sprung from small or great.
Is there a champion like the chief Shápúr
To act as arbiter? Bálwí withal
Can keep a secret for he would not sell
His folk for aught, while none though he live long
Will see one like Kharrád, son of Barzín,
This written, he summoned
His counsellors and readers of the stars
To fix a lucky day for setting forth,
And started on Bahrám with favouring stars
And auguries. He went himself three stages,
And then resigned the conduct of the host,
Bade Maryam come to him, conversed with her
At large, and said: “Be ware of putting off
Thy girdle till thou comest to Írán.
Khusrau Parwíz must see thee not unveiled
Till then or things unlooked for may befall thee,”
Then bade her tenderly farewell: “May heaven
Protect thee on thy way.”
He had a brother,
The valiant Niyátús, who led his host
In that campaign, and “Maryam is akin
To thee,” he said, “in blood and, I would add,
In Faith. I charge thee with her, with this
wealth,
And this well ordered army.”
Niyátús
Accepted all from Cæsar who, this said,
Turned back in tears. The host marched toward
Warígh,
Led on by Niyátús with mace and sword.
Khusrau Parwíz, on hearing that the host
Had come, set out with forces from that city,
And when the leaders' dust-clouds and the flags
Of those mailed cavaliers appeared, and when
The troops came onward cloud-like, lapped in iron,
In helmet and cuirass, his heart laughed out,
Like Spring-tide roses, at that fine array;
He plucked up heart and gave his steed the heel.
He saw, embraced, and greeted Niyátús,
And testified his gratitude to Cæsar,
Who had endured such toil and with that toil
Of ordering the host had rendered void
His treasury; then going to the litter
Beheld the face of Maryam through her veil,
Saluted her and kissed her hand, rejoicing
To look upon the Fair. He bore her off
To his encampment where he gave his Moon
A bower and passed three days in converse with her.
Upon the fourth when Sol, the world's light, shone
They gat in readiness a choice pavilion,
And summoned Niyátús, Sarkab, and Kút,
The bold, with other chiefs both great and small,