Yes, I
could see; but what a sight was presented to my eyes! I could have
closed them for ever with thankfulness. The sky was again serene, and
the boundless prospect uninterrupted as before; but the thousands who
accompanied me, the splendid gathering of men and beasts, where were
they? Where was the Emir Hadjy and his guards? where the mamelukes, the
agas, the janissaries, and the holy sheiks? the sacred camel, the
singers, and musicians? the varieties of nations and tribes who had
joined the caravan? All perished!! Mountains of sand marked the spots
where they had been entombed, with no other monuments save here and
there part of the body of a man or beast not yet covered by the desert
wave. All, all were gone, save one; and that one, that guilty one, was
myself, who had been permitted to exist, that he might behold the awful
mischief which had been created by his presumption and his crime.
For some minutes I contemplated the scene, careless and despairing; for
I imagined that I had only been permitted to outlive the whole, that my
death might be even more terrible. But my wife and children rushed to my
memory, and I resolved for their sakes to save, if possible, a life
which had no other ties to bind it to this earth. I tore off a piece of
my turban, and cleansing the sand out of my bleeding nostrils, walked
over the field of death.
Between the different hillocks I found several camels, which had not
been covered. Perceiving a water-skin, I rushed to it, that I might
quench my raging thirst; but the contents had been dried up--not a drop
remained.
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