Her women besought her,
fearing that her strong silence would break her heart; but still
she lay, her hands clenched in one another, enduring; and the
Emperor endured without. The Day of the Smiting!
So, as the time of the evening prayer drew nigh, a child was
born, and the Empress, having done with pain, began to sink
slowly into that profound sleep that is the shadow cast by the
Last. May Allah the Upholder have mercy on our weakness! And the
women, white with fear and watching, looked upon her, and
whispered one to another, "It is the end."
And the aged mother of Abdul Mirza, standing at her head, said,
"She heeds not the cry of the child. She cannot stay." And the
newly wed wife of Saif Khan, standing at her feet, said, "The
voice of the beloved husband is as the Call of the Angel. Let the
Padishah be summoned."
So, the evening prayer being over (but the Emperor had not
prayed), the wisest of the hakims, Kazim Sharif, went before him
and spoke:-
"Inhallah! May the will of the Issuer of Decrees in all things be
done! Ascribe unto the Creator glory, bowing before his Throne.
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