"May he who planned this deed be stung by a scorpion of Cashan!" exclaimed Shireen, with great emotion, as he wreathed both hands in his venerable beard; "in all these affairs I ever meant that the life of the Shah should be sacred!" "Whatever you meant, Khan," replied the other with a mocking smile, "the King of kings ordained otherwise, and Azrael, the angel of death, must be obeyed." And significantly touching the hilt of his sword, the speaker made a low salaam, quitted the garden, and Denzil saw him no more. Shireen remained for some time sunk in thought. "And this has been your morning's work, son of Zamon Khan, when I thought that you and your fifty juzailchees were on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Lamech, in the vale of Lughmannee!" he muttered, as he walked slowly away, referring to a white temple which covers what is alleged to be the grave of Noah's father, and is a favourite place of pilgrimage among the Afghans. Denzil felt alike saddened and depressed on hearing of this unforeseen event; but to it, in some respects, he owed his future safety, and the circumstance that Shireen Khan retained him in his own hands, and did not deliver him to the terrible Ackbar, as from the day of the unfortunate Shah's assassination, the Afghan chiefs were split into two factions--the Kuzzilbashes taking part with one, and the tribes of Cabul and the Kohistanees with another. CHAPTER XXIV. A MEETING. Day after day had gone past in utter monotony till Denzil's heart began to ache in the great weariness of the life he led; it was so calm and seemed so still after the fierce and keen excitement he had undergone. Had he entered upon a new state of existence? he asked of himself; if so, it was an intensely stupid one. One evening when seated as usual on the divan at his window, looking dreamily out upon the long vista of the green valley, and the conical hill that terminated it, dim and blue in distance, he was feeling the balmy breath of the spring breeze with pleasure, and with all an invalid's relish was watching the young buds expanding, and the first flowers of the season beginning to peep from the teeming soil, when the Nazir, or steward of the household, a tall man of venerable aspect, whose beard flowed to his girdle, and the middle of whose head was shaved, came with an invitation from the Khan, to join him and his family at their evening meal. Denzil bowed his acceptance, and in his sorely worn uniform, made what toilette he hastily could, for a Khan like the head of the Kuzzilbashes, who could bring into the field five thousand well-armed men, chiefly splendidly mounted cavalry, was assuredly a man of considerable note and power in the land, and his favour or protection were of some value in that far-away corner of the world.