How Bandwí plotted with Bahrám, the Son of Siyáwush, to slay Bahrám Chúbína, and how Bandwí fled from Bond
For seventy days Bandwí, like cheetah bound,
Was in the prison of Bahrám Chúbína,
Watched by Bahrám, the son of Siyáwush—
A most unwilling jailor—whom Bandwí,
Still scheming though in bondage, thus beguiled:—
“Despair not of the monarch of Írán;
Though night be dark 'twill turn to day and though
His fortune, like the fortune of Pírúz
With Khúshnawáz, shall tarry long. The Maker
Restored him in the person of Kubád,
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And gave him back the world. Bahrám Chúbína
In like wise will retain not crown and throne.
Doth he himself, this man of fortune, think it?
Nay, perish any rustic who thus giveth
Himself in folly to the wind. Count thou
Two months upon thy fingers and thou'lt see
Troops from Írán in Rúm, and they will cast
Fire on this crown and throne, and break the jewels
On this man's head.”
Bahrám said: “If the king
Will grant me quarter I will deck my soul
With thine advice and do thy will in all,
But I must have a great oath sworn to me
By moon, Ázargashasp, by throne and crown,
That if Khusrau Parwíz come to our coasts,
And bring a host from Cæsar and from Rúm,
Thereat Bahrám's face brightened,
And he removed the fetters.
When night's veil,
Musk-hued, turned bright and dawn laid hand thereon
Bahrám said to Bandwí: “If my heart fail not,
What time Bahrám Chúbína playeth polo
To-day I have engaged me with five friends
To slay him.”
Calling for a coat of mail
He donned it 'neath his dress and rode away.
Bahrám, the warrior, had a wicked wife
Who wished him hewn to pieces. In her heart
She was enamoured of Bahrám Chúbína,
While hatred of her husband filled her soul;
So to Bahrám Chúbína she dispatched
Some one to say: “O thou that succourest!
Protect thyself because Bahrám hath donned
His mail beneath his robe and buckled it.
Bandwí the while
With his small band sped on like rushing wind.
Each carried with him what he could toward where
Mausíl, the Armenian, dwelt along a road
Infested by wild beasts and waterless.
Bandwí perceived a camp-enclosure pitched,
Saw that it was Mausíl's, found streams and food,
And hurried forward to that fertile spot
Alone, beheld Mausíl, did him obeisance,
And told him privily the case, who said:—
“Stay here, for here the latest news will reach thee
Of what Khusrau Parwíz doth in fair Rúm,
And if he contemplateth peace or war.”
Thereat Bandwí was minded to remain,
And called up his companions from the plain.