The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

THE EQUINOX LAYLAH. Silence, thou blotchy spider! Thou baboon of ugliness ! Mother of curses! [Four eunuch: bring in the corpse of the 6051 MOHAMMED. Ah God ! my youngest, my own delicate darling! Lay him by his sire ! [She goes down and bends 01187 hint] Was not this arm too tender to bear a sword ? Why would he go to the battle? He was made for luting and the zephyr. His eyes were larger and lovelier than the gazelle’s ! His eyebrows were blacker than the kohl upon mine eyelids. Alas, my baby | My young one, my tender one! . . . Is there tidings, girl? LEDMIYA. One rides fast, His horse stumbles at the gate. He leaps clear. The horse has fallen, He runs hither. LAYLAH. News! News l [LEDMIYA goes out Enter a Messenger. 2ND MESSENGER. The duty οί my lord to his mother! We keep the hounds at bay now. Prince Sliman is like the Angel of Death. No man can stand before him. The Christians tremble, and give back when he rides against them. LAYLAH. A man! A man! He is not hurt? 2ND MESSENGER. Scratches. As if a lion were at play with kittens ! [.₪/1.1111 I am glad he has scratches. Every one shall be sung by the poets as if it were the axe-blow of old Duke Walter. [Again the mailing surges in lhe courtyard. LEDMIYA rushes in. LEDMIYA. Alas, alas, my queen! I cannot say it! Do not ask me to say it ! . . . They are bringing him in. LAYLAH. Who? Devil—child! [She strikes her. Four euuuehs bring in the corpse of AKBAR] Forgive me! I am not myself. I am not a woman. Lay him there, beside his 90