News of the death of those famed warriors
Came to the Turkman king; his heart was pained,
His cheeks were wet with his heart's blood. He said:—
“Naudar is in my prison, yet my friends
Are vilely slaughtered thus! What can I do
But shed his blood and give new cause for feud?”
He was enraged and cried: “Where is Naudar,
For Wísa calleth for revenge on him?

Bring him,” he told an executioner,
“That I may teach him war.”

Naudar on hearing

Knew that his time was come. A clamorous throng
Departed, bound his arms firm as a rock,
And haled him bare both head and foot, fordone,
In shameful plight before the Crocodile.
Full of impatience great Afrásiyáb
Looked out for him, and seeing him approach
Reminded him of their ancestral feud,
Began with Salm and Túr, and washed away
From heart and eyes the reverence due to kings.
“Thou hast deserved whatever ill may come,”
He said, called fiercely for a scimitar,
Smote Sháh Naudar upon the neck and flung
In foul contempt the body in the dust.
Thus passed that Memory of Sháh Minúchihr
And left Írán bereft of throne and crown.
O man of knowledge shrewd exceedingly!
Don not the whole robe of thy greed, for throne
And crown have seen already many an one
Like thee, and thou mayst hear their history.
If thou hast gained the object of thy lust
And appetite hath ceased, so strong before,
Why shouldst thou ask this gloomy mournful dust
To make thee miserable any more?
They haled the other captives forth in shame,
And asking quarter. Virtuous Ighríras
Saw this and anxiously besought the king:—
“To slay so many noble warriors
And horsemen in cold blood—mere prisoners

Disarmed—is base, and base where we should look
For magnanimity. 'Twere worthier far
To spare their lives. Commit them bound to me
And I will prison them within a cavern,
Well guarded. Prison will restore their wits;
But shed not blood.”

At Ighríras' request,

Perceiving his distress and earnestness,
The monarch spared their lives, and bade men take
The captives to Sarí in shameful bonds.
This done he marched from Dahistán to Rai,
Hid earth beneath his cavaliers and made
His chargers sweat, assumed the royal crown,
Bestowed a liberal largess of dínárs,
And played as monarch of Írán his part
With thoughts of war and vengeance in his heart.