Royal Consolation 



smothered, as he himself should have been, if he had not 

 (knowing the sort of work he was going to undertake) used 

 the precaution to extract the whole chapter of Alkafireen 

 out of the Koran (which his wife sewed, leaf by leaf, all 

 under his dress), and to carry the soorat el fatihat el kitab ^ 

 in his hand, which he had set over his eyes and nose and 

 mouth ; but it was unluckily not large enough to cover his 

 beard. 



The king, being very much disheartened with the failure 

 of his expedition, and Aelfa's treachery, saw no better way 

 to soothe his despondency than by cutting off the singed 

 head of the narrator ; which v^^as accordingly done. 



After passing the great gap in the mountain-barrier, the 

 road, without descending, crossed a flat green plain, or vega^ 

 very fertile, and in which, if you had been dropped there, 

 you would never have guessed you vi^ere three or four thou- 

 sand feet above the level of the sea. Around, still high 

 above us, stood the snow-capped hills, with great white 

 clouds leaning upon them. As we rode along, the wind 

 rose, and the clouds descended upon us. We had now 

 passed the flat land, and were winding among the turns of 

 low hills over which swept the galloping vapours. Every 

 now and then we could see the distant peaks of snow 

 through a momentary rent in this rushing mist, and fitful 

 gleams of sunshine would light up specious semblances of 

 embattled towns among the nearer outlines of the rocky 

 hills, and then roll the landscape up again in a moist 

 blanket, through which it was impossible to see more than 

 twenty yards ahead of us. 



I was very tired, and, impatient with the long-delayed 

 hope of getting to our day's work's end, ejaculated the 



' The opening prayer of the Koran. 

 221 



