As soon as it was day, Rustem, clad in helmet and double suit of mail, leaped gaily, as it would seem, upon his horse. ‘By the morrow we shall have beaten them small,’ he cried.[265] But apart with his familiars he confessed that celestial omens were against him. And, indeed, previous mishaps, and the brave bearing of the Arab chiefs, were sufficient--astrology apart--to inspire grave forebodings. Crossing the dam unopposed, he marshalled his great host on the western bank, with the centre facing the fortress of Codeis. There were thirty war elephants in the field; eighteen were posted with the centre, and the remainder under Jalenûs and Firuzân with the wings.[266] A canopy covering a golden throne was pitched for Rustem by the river side; and, seated there, he watched the issue of the day. Messengers posted within earshot of one another the whole way from the battle-field to Medâin, shouted continually the latest news, and kept Yezdegird informed of all that passed. [Sidenote: Sád disabled by illness, marshals the army from the ramparts of Codeis.] As the Persians began to cross, the advanced guard of the Arabs fell back on Codeis, beneath which the main body was drawn up. On the rampart of the fortress, Sád, disabled by blains and boils, lay stretched upon a litter; from whence casting down his orders inscribed on scraps of paper, he guided thus the movements of the army. The troops, unused to see their leader, at such a moment, in a place of safety, murmured; and verses lampooning him were soon in the mouth of everyone. That he, the archer of renown, and the ‘first to shed blood in Islam,’ should be thus aspersed was insupportable, and Sád accordingly had the ringleaders seized and imprisoned in the fortress. He then descended, and discovered to the troops the grievous malady which rendered it impossible for him even to sit upright, much less to mount his horse. They accepted his excuse; for no man could doubt his bravery; but still a certain feeling of discontent survived.[267] Resuming his recumbent posture, he harangued the army from the battlements, and then he sent his chief captains, with the orators and poets that accompanied his force, along the ranks to rouse their martial spirit. [Sidenote: Sura _Jehâd_ recited before the army.]