V. YELLOW-ROBED 227 VI. THE VIHARA OF TRUTH 240 VII. THE WHEEL OF THE LAW 254 VIII. THE OUTCAST 265 IX. THE STRUGGLE ON THE HEIGHT 283 X. THE WANDERER 299 XI. SUNRISE 315 XII. MANDU IN MALWA 323 XIII. A BROTHER OF THE SOUL 332 XIV. THE ANCIENT FLAME 353 XV. THE RIVER TEMPLE 370 XVI. “LA-ILAHA-IL-LAL-LAHA” 384 XVII. THE SIGN OF THE RUBY 399 XVIII. SUNSET 411 BOOK I FLESH-FIRE “Daily walked, in radiant beauty, To and fro, the Sultan’s daughter; In the twilight, where the fountain Ripples o’er with crystal water. Day by day the youthful slave stood In the twilight, where the fountain Ripples o’er with crystal water. Daily he grew pale and paler. “Once at evening came the Princess To his side, with hurried accents: ‘Tell thy name, for I would know it; And thy home, thy sire, and kindred.’ “And the slave replied: ‘My name is Mahomet. I come from Yemen, And my race is the race of Asra, Who must die if love they cherish!’” —HEINRICH HEINE, “The Asra.” THE FLAME-GATHERERS CHAPTER I THE CONQUEROR The sun was setting over the Narmáda plain. In the midst of long stretches of sunburnt farm land the waters of the great river rolled and flashed with light. The barren millet-fields were illumined with long streaks of yellow sunshine that ran to the base of Mandu, an immense plateau, rising sheer from the lowlands to a height of some three or four hundred feet. Between it and the nearest of the Vindhyas is a deep chasm, a quarter of a mile or more in width, bridged over by a miracle of man, a stone causeway, many centuries old even on the day of September 6, in the year of the Christian Lord 1205, and of the Hejira 601.