"Grasp me not so
tightly," cried Hussein Baba; "hold on by my belt and fear nothing."
She held firmly with both hands by the leathern belt that girded the
broad-backed renegado; but when he halted with the cavaliers to take
breath on the mountain summit, the duenna was no longer to be seen.
"What has become of Kadiga?" cried the princesses in alarm.
"Allah alone knows!" replied the renegado; "my belt came loose
when in the midst of the river, and Kadiga was swept with it down
the stream. The will of Allah be done! but it was an embroidered belt,
and of great price."
There was no time to waste in idle regrets; yet bitterly did the
princesses bewail the loss of their discreet counsellor. That
excellent old woman, however, did not lose more than half of her
nine lives in the water: a fisherman, who was drawing his nets some
distance down the stream, brought her to land, and was not a little
astonished at his miraculous draught. What further became of the
discreet Kadiga, the legend does not mention; certain it is that she
evinced her discretion in never venturing within the reach of
Mohamed the Left-handed.
Almost as little is known of the conduct of that sagacious monarch
when he discovered the escape of his daughters, and the deceit
practised upon him by the most faithful of servants. It was the only
instance in which he had called in the aid of counsel, and he was
never afterwards known to be guilty of a similar weakness.
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