"Stand by me. Stir not. And when I raise my arm, cry the cry of
the Rajputs. NOW!"
And she flung her arm above her head, and instantly, like a lion
roaring, he shouted, drawing his sword, and from every litter
sprang an armed man, glittering in steel, and the bearers, humble
of mien, were Rajput knights, every one.
And Allah-u-Din thrust at the breast of the Queen; but around
them surged the war, and she was hedged with swords like a rose
in the thickets.
Very full of wine, dull with feasting and lust and surprised, the
Moslems fled across the plains, streaming in a broken rabble,
cursing and shouting like low-caste women; and the Rajputs,
wiping their swords, returned from the pursuit and laughed upon
each other.
But what shall be said of the joy of the King and of her who had
imagined this thing, in- structed of the Goddess who is the other
half of her Lord?
So the procession returned, singing, to Chitor with those Two in
the midst; but among the dogs that fled was Allah-u-Din, his face
blackened with shame and wrath, the curses choking in his foul
throat.
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