therein, particularly Lindora and her father,
otherwise the Lord Cedi Mohammed Ibn
Amar, Caliph of the Sultan, was prepared in
the Sultan's name to lay siege to its walls.
A valorous discussion followed, which was
closed by a follower of Al Zagal, who with a
stone from a sling struck the herald on the
forehead and unhorsed him. Then the siege
commenced.

The siege was tedious, for the castle walls
were thick, but as the black band was not
accustomed to live peaceably on short
provisions, it turned very blue when the wine
failed, and became finally seditious. Never-
theless the siege was tedious, and Cedi
Mohammed Ibn Amar began to fear the
approach of the rainy season and the
departure of his' peasant allies, when one day
he saw, in strong relief against the morning
sky, Lindora and her father led out chained
upon the battlements of the Black Castle.
Al Zagal had an offer of accommodation to
suggest. If the siege were raised he would
give up his captives for a ransom of a
thousand mets-kal. If not, he would cut off
their heads next morning, and throw them
down into the camp.

This threw Cedi Mohammed Ibn Amar
into great perplexity, for his honour as a
soldier and his desire as a lover, were played off
unpleasantly against each other. "While he
still pondered in his tent, the tent curtain was
drawn aside and the dark envoy entered.
Cedi Mohammed Ibn Amar knew the dark
envoy well, although he did not know him as
the first cause of Lindora's misery: he knew
him only as a doughty fighting man throughout
the siege. What did the dark envoy
want? " Son of Amar," he said, " grant but
a free pass to myself and a few companions,
and the castle shall be delivered up to-night
into your hands. Al Zagal has wronged me,
and the sons of Allah are not able to forgive."
"Can I believe this! " " Fear not, Cedi; I
will remain in this tent till my word has been
fulfilled. To-night Al Zagal, having lulled
and deceived thee by this morning's offer, will
make a sally with his whole band, and
attempt to cut a way to safety for himself
and for his captives through your unsuspicious
ranks. He hopes to get beyond the
mountains into Rif. His men will be divided into
two bands, one headed by myself, the other
by my brother, who will join against him at
a given signal."

"Fight thine own battles with Al
Zagal," said Cedi Mahommed Ibn Amar;
"I will have no traitor for ally." The
youth, nevertheless, profited by the dark
envoy's useful information, and disseminated
it industriously throughout his camp. In
the night, the castle gates having been
thrown open, a band of horsemen passed
the drawbridge stealthily with muffled hoofs,
formed into rank, and placed their captives
in the centre, intending to burst in their old
way with a sudden cry upon the sleeping
enemy. " By the beard of my father," said
Al Zagal, " we will yet teach the shepherds
what it is to have a lion at bay." He had
not long spoken before the lances of the
shepherds came upon him, and lances of his
own troops also were turned against him.
Seeing that he was betrayed, he closed with
those men who were faithful to him round
the captives, and endeavoured to regain the
castle; but the enemy possessed the path.
There was a terrible fight, and Cedi
Mohammed riding high among the torches,
friends fought against friends, Emirs,
splendidly caparisoned on Arab steeds,
engaged with half-clad members of the black
baud, on wiry mountain ponies. Al Zagal,
through the tumult and the torch-light
fighting desperately, succeeded with a few
followers in forcing a way with Lindora back
into the castle, of which a large part was
already in the hands of the besiegers. He
secured Lindora in a secret room, and then
descending through dark vaults and passages
to a magazine that had long been prepared
for any such occasion, added arson to his
other crimes. The savage horror of the
scene was at its highest as the flames leaped
their highest up into the night. The red
blaze was a pleasant beacon-fire to men who,
waking up by chance in distant places, said
it must be the Black Castle that was then on
fire, and so there would be peace again upon
their tents now that the Black Castle was
destroyed.

But among the blazing ruins the strife still
went on. The band of Al Zagal had their
lives to sell, and valued their lives dearly.
"There is one chance more," said Al Zagal to
a gigantic black who had been unhorsed in
the struggle; " let us mount the first horses
we can get, and we may yet escape beyond
the mountains into Rif." Al Zagal had soon
forced an Emir from his charger, and was
darting from the castle when the dark envoy
confronted him. " Know me! " the chief
said; " I am Al Zagal." But the dark envoy
struck him, bidding him die like a dog; and
after a great struggle he did die, like a brave
dog, fighting gallantly. But the dark envoy
had fought for Lindora, and had made Lindora
his war-cry in the act of treason. Down there
came therefore, in wrath, upon the head of
the dark envoy the sword of Cedi Mohammed
Ibn Amar. There was another desperate
encounter, and I suppose no shrewdness could
discover which of the two combatants was
killed.

Cedi Mohammed Ibu Amar rushed, at
great peril of his life, among the chambers of
the burning castle seeking his Lindora. In
the uppermost apartment of the western
tower, still spared from the flames, he found
her stretched upon a low divan, pale and
dishevelled, almost senseless. Her lover
carried her among the ruins to a resting-place
upon the trampled, blood-stained grass, and
there under the fresh breeze of early morning