Next he asked them how much of that promise made by the Allies to Emir Feisul as the leader of the Arabs had been kept, or was likely to be kept; and they answered in one voice, 'None of it!' Whereat he nodded, as a teacher nods gravely when the pupils have their lesson well by heart, and said presently in a voice like that of a Guru denouncing sin: 'A woman's promise is a little matter; who believes it?
When it is broken all men laugh.

A promise extorted under threat or torture is not binding, since he who made the promise was not free to govern his own conduct; that is law.

A promise made in business,' said he, 'is a contract contingent on circumstances and subject to litigation.

But a promise made in wartime by a nation is a pledge set down in letters of blood.

Whoever breaks it is guilty of blood; and whoever fails to smite dead the breaker of that oath, commits treason against Allah!' "They applauded that speech greatly, sahib, and when they grew silent he bade them look about and judge for themselves at whose door the breaking of that sacred promise really lay.