I fear some secret bond between fortune and him, but it is better to fling ourselves into battle than to delay here.” Thus he spoke, and, giving rein to his spirited horse, he raised his club and rushed like a flame past the wardens of the gate and into the palace. He dashed to the ground a talisman which Zuhak had set up against him, and struck `down all that offered resistance; he placed his foot upon the throne of Zuhak, seized the royal crown, and took his place.
A servant of Zuhak saw what had happened, and mounting a swift horse brought the tale to his master: “O king of a proud people, there are tokens that portend the fall of your fortunes. Three heroes have come from a strange land with an army. The youngest remains always between the two elder, his stature is that of a prince, his face that of a king. He carries a mighty club like a great rock, and he has seated himself upon the throne.”
Zuhak, in great haste, prepared to return with an army of divs and men. By devious ways he flung his army against the terraces and gates of the palace, thinking of nought but vengeance. But the army of Faridun and the inhabitants of the town fought together in the battle, and their mass was like a mountain.
Faithful counselor
Meantime rage incited Zuhak to further enterprise. Covering him-self from head to foot with armor, that none might know him, in the confusion he climbed unseen into the palace by means of a rope of sixty cubits. But he was recognized and pursued and, in his rage, leaped from the battlements to the ground. Faridun advanced, swift as the wind, and smote Zuhak with his club through his helmet to his head. But a faithful counselor held his hand, saying, “His time is not yet come. He is broken but not dead. Let him be placed to spend the rest of his days in the depths of the rocks, where neither his friends nor his vassals can find him.”
So Faridun prepared thongs of lion skin, and bound Zuhak`s hands and feet and body, in such manner that a wild elephant could not have broken the bonds. He bore the monster, thus tightly bound, to the height of the lofty mountain of Damawand, and there, in a narrow bottomless chasm, he chained him. And there Zuhak remains sus-pended until the ill he wrought shall have vanished from the earth.
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