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So Amjed despatched thither a company of men, who sacked the house and took Behram and brought his daughter to the Vizier, who received her with all honour, for Asaad had told his brother all the torments he had suffered and the kindness that she had done him.
Isaac Bird, but the reader is referred in the margin to more ample sources of information.2 1 Written also Asaad el-Shidiak, and Asaad esh-Shidiak. 2 See Missionary Herald for 1827, pp. 68, 71-76, 97-101, 129-136, 169-177, 268-271, 369-372; for 1828, pp. 16-19, 115-119, 165, 373, 375; for 1829, pp. 15, 47, 111, 115; and The Martyr of Lebanon, by Rev. Isaac Bird, Boston, 1864, pp. 208.
On the 16th of March, Asaad received a kind and fatherly epistle from the Patriarch, begging him to return home, and relieve the anxieties of his mother and family, and giving him full assurance, that he need not fear being interfered with in his freedom. He was thus approached on his weak side.
Then she went forth with him to the palace of the Vizier, whom when Asaad saw, he exclaimed, 'By Allah, this is my brother Amjed! And threw himself upon him; whereupon Amjed also knew him and they embraced each other and lay awhile insensible, whilst the Vizier's officers stood round them.
Surrounded, as he was, by men insensible to pity, the mother's heart was deeply moved seeing him arrested and borne away as if he had been a murderer. She wept, and Asaad sympathized with her, and turned his back on the home of his childhood, weeping and praying aloud. He was first taken to the convent of Alma, and then to Canobeen.
Rather do thou send one of thine officers with them into the desert and let him kill them there, out of thy sight, for, as says the adage, "When the eye sees not, the heart grieves not." Kemerezzeman saw his father-in-law's words to be just, so he sheathed his sword and turning back, sat down upon his throne and called his treasurer, a very old man, versed in affairs and in the shifts of fortune, to whom he said, 'Go in to my sons Amjed and Asaad; bind fast their hands behind them and lay them in two chests and set them on a mule.
Ere ended day, they came up with it and surrounded it on all sides, even as Behram had taken Asaad forth of the chest and was beating and torturing him, whilst the prince cried out for succour and relief, but found neither helper nor deliverer; and indeed he was sorely tormented with much beating.
At last, despairing of coming to the end of the road, they retraced their steps and taking the other, that led over the mountain, followed it all that day, till nightfall, when Asaad, weary with much travel, said to Amjed, 'O my brother, I can go no farther, for I am exceeding weak. 'Courage, replied Amjed; 'may be God will send us relief. So they walked on part of the night, till the darkness closed in upon them, when Asaad became beyond measure weary and saying, 'O my brother, I am worn out and spent with walking, threw himself on the ground and wept.
As they sat talking, of a sudden they heard the townsfolk crying aloud and shouting to one another and calling for help, and the chamberlain came in to the King and said to him, 'Some King hath encamped before the city, he and his army, with arms displayed, and we know not who they are nor what they seek. The King took counsel with his Vizier and Asaad, and Amjed said, 'I will go out to him and learn the cause of his coming. So he took horse and riding forth the city, repaired to the stranger's camp, where he found the King and with him many soldiers and mounted officers.
When they drew near it, they thanked God the Most High and Amjed said to Asaad, 'O my brother, sit here, whilst I go to yonder city and see what and whose it is and where we are in God's wide world, that we may know through what lands we have passed in crossing this mountain, whose skirts if we had followed, we had not reached this city in a whole year: so praised be God for safety! 'By Allah, replied Asaad, 'none shall go but myself, and may I be thy ransom!
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