"This only we know, Khan. On my head be it that I say truth," replied the first speaker: "The brother of the Khan parted from the Uzden Arslan Gherrei in anger, that he would not let his daughter come to be queen of our chief's anderoon. We then travelled towards the castle of the Urus at Ghelendjik, where Besin Khan, taking with him only Kiru, ordered us to proceed a day's journey, and then wait for him. For two days he came not. We waited a third, and we then went to search for him. We heard that there had been a bloody fight between some of the tribes on the coast and the Urus, and we thought our young Khan would not have been absent; but all, of whom we asked for news of him, turned aside, and would not answer. We then went to the shore, where the combat took place, and among heaps of the vile soldiers of the Urus, almost destroyed by the birds of prey and wild beasts, we found the sabre, which was our young master's, broken, and his iron cap and his corslet, with a deep dent on its centre." As he spoke, the horsemen opened their ranks, and discovered between them, on a led horse, the shattered arms of Besin Khan. "As Allah is great, Khan, this is all we know," added the man. The rage of the chief seemed for a moment abated, by the shock he had experienced at the account of his brother's too probable death. But it as suddenly returned. "What lies are those you speak, villains?" he exclaimed. "Is it the custom of the chiefs of Abbaseik to leave their companion warriors when slain on the field? Though he had not his own clansmen with him, think you the other nobles would not have brought off his body were he slain? No; those cannot be the arms of my brother. If you have lied, some of you shall suffer for this. Follow me to my house. We will see, when light is brought, if these are truly my brother's arms." And turning his horse's head, he rode hastily homeward. Throwing himself on a divan, in his principal apartment, followed by all the newly-arrived troop, he caused torches to be brought, and the arms to be placed before him. He examined them narrowly. "Alas, my Khan!" said one of his attendants, "the hilt of this sabre I know it too well. Often have I seen it in your noble brother's hand."