They then ordered the Muezzins to
call the people to prayers, both for the sake of getting them out of the
way and of endeavouring by their petitions to avert the calamity; but
neither of these expedients was a whit more successful: the sight of this
fatal ball was alone sufficient to draw after it every beholder. The
Muezzins themselves, though they saw it but at a distance, hastened down
from their minarets and mixed with the crowd, which continued to increase
in so surprising a manner, that scarce an inhabitant was left in Samarah,
except the aged, the sick confined to their beds, and infants at the
breast, whose nurses could run more nimbly without them. Even Carathis,
Morakanabad, and the rest were all become of the party.
The shrill screams of the females, who had broken from their apartments,
and were unable to extricate themselves from the pressure of the crowd,
together with those of the eunuchs jostling after them, terrified lest
their charge should escape from their sight, increased by the execrations
of husbands urging forward and menacing both, kicks given and received,
stumblings and overthrows at every step; in a word, the confusion that
universally prevailed rendered Samarah like a city taken by storm and
devoted to absolute plunder.
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