§ 21
How Túr was Slain by the Hand of Minúchihr

Noon passed. With vengeful hearts the brothers met
For consultation; mid their foolish schemes
They said: “Let us attempt a night-attack
And fill the desert and the plain with blood.”
That night those miscreants drew their army out,
Bent on a camisade. The Íránian scouts
Gat news thereof, and sped to Minúchihr
To tell him so that he might post his troops.

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That shrewd man heard and planned a counter-ruse.
He left Káran the host and led himself
An ambuscade with thirty thousand warriors,
All men of name. Túr came at night and brought
One hundred thousand men prepared for fight,
But found the foe arrayed with banners flying
And saw that battle was his sole resource.
A shout rose from the centres of the hosts,
The horsemen made the air a cloud of dust
And steel swords flashed like lightning: thou hadst said:—
“They make air blaze, earth gleam like diamonds.”
The clashing of the steel went through the brain,
While flame and blast rose cloudward. Minúchihr
Sprang from his ambush and surrounded Túr,
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Who wheeled and fled mid wailings of despair
From his own troops. Prince Minúchihr pursued,
Hot for revenge, and cried: “Stay, miscreant,
Who lovest fight so well and cuttest off
The heads of innocents! Know'st not that all
Desire revenge on thee?”

He hurled a dart

Against Túr's back, whose sword fell from his grasp.
Then Minúchihr like wind unseated him,
Cast him to earth, slew him, cut off his head,
And left the body for the beasts of prey;
Then went back to his camp to contemplate
That symbol of a fall from high estate.