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The messenger hastened to the Sultan, and thus delivered his message: "Ahaback and Desra, the wicked enchanters who have upholden thy rebellious brother, are dead; the army of Ahubal is in the utmost consternation; and the friends of the Sultan wish to see thee hunting thine enemies, as the lion hunts the wild asses in the forest."
Ahubal beheld with surprise the magnificence of the pavilion, and seeing the invidious workmanship on the outside, where the deaths of his former friends were displayed, "Ahaback and Desra," said the Prince, "it is but just that you should revenge yourselves on my proud brother.
This, by some secret means, he contrived in the night to release from its confinement, while Ahaback and Desra were sleeping on the sofas beneath it; and ere day began to rise, their guards were surprised by the fall, and ran to release their masters from the stone; but, alas! their bodies were crushed to atoms, and still remain buried under the pavilion, as fifty of the strongest of thy troops were unable to remove the stone from the ground."
While these works of peace, rather than of war, were carrying on in the two armies of Misnar and Ahubal, the reinforcements of Ahaback and Desra arrived; and the captains in the Sultan's army, hearing of the great addition which was made to the rebel army, while the Vizier was spending his time with his curious workmen, petitioned the Sultan that one might be put over them who loved war rather than the amusements of females and children.
This messenger was succeeded by several of the Sultan's spies, who confirmed the account. Misnar then put himself at the head of his troops, ordered Horam back to his former confinement, and hastened to fall upon the forces of the rebels. Early the same morning, Ahubal was awakened by his guards, who, with countenances of woe, declared to him the death of his friends Ahaback and Desra.
She was followed by her malicious sister Ulin, squatting on the back of a hideous toad. Then, with a loud hiss, started forth, in many a fold, a black serpent, in length and bulk like the cedars of the forest, bearing the powerful enchantress Desra, whose wide-extended ears covered a head of iniquity. In his hand the giant brandished a tall pine, and, shaking it at the dauntless Misnar, said,
While the sumptuous tent was raising, the squadrons of Ahaback drew nearer and nearer, and the elephants of Desra were within thirty days of the camp of Ahubal. The Vizier Horam, having returned with his reinforcements, waited on the Sultan, and besought him to trust the management of his army to him for forty days.
"Prince of earth," said Ahubal, "I am the friend of Ulin, of Happuck, of Ollomand, of Tasnar, of Ahaback, and of Desra. I am he who, through the power of the enchanters, have contended for the throne of India." "Wretched, then, are they that league with thee," answered the giant Kifri, "thou son of fear, thou wretch unworthy of such support!
The great distress of the enchanters, and their unexpected deaths, alarmed the rest of that wicked race; and Ahaback and Desra, seeing that no one enchanter had succeeded against the Sultan, resolved to join their forces; and while one led a powerful army to Ahubal's assistance from the east, the other raised the storms of war and rebellion on the western confines of the Sultan's empire.
Ahaback and Desra, who were in the Prince's pavilion, hearing the account, resolved to go invisibly and examine it; and leaving the Prince, and putting each a ring on his fingers, they passed the sentinels and watches of both armies. But if the sight of the pavilion filled them with malice and envy, the histories of their brethren's deaths increased that malice, and urged them to revenge.
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