A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 (of 17)

Now when it was the Forty-eighth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Nazarene damsel said to Sharrkan (and he listening impatiently enow), "Verily if Sharrkan fell into my hands, I would go forth to him in the habit of a man and drag him from his saddle-seat and make him my captive and lay him in bilboes," pride and passion and knightly jealousy took possession of him and he desired to discover and declare himself and to lay on load; but her loveliness restrained him and he began repeating: —

An faulty of one fault the Beauty prove, ✿ Her charms a thousand advocates shall move.

So she went up and Sharrkan after her; and, when he saw the maiden's back and hinder cheeks that clashed against each other, like rollers in the rolling sea, he extemporised these couplets: —

For her sins is a pleader that brow, ✿ And all hearts its fair pleading must trow:When I saw it I cried, "To-night ✿ The moon at its fullest doth show;Tho' Balkís' own Ifrit183 try a bout, ✿ Spite his force she would deal him a throw.

The two fared on till they reached a gate over which rose a marble archway. This she opened and ushered Sharrkan into a long vestibule, vaulted with ten connected arches, from each of which hung a crystal lamp glistening like a spark of fire. The handmaids met her at the further end bearing wax candles of goodly perfume, and wearing on their heads golden fillets crusted with all manner bezel-gems,184 and went on before her (Sharrkan still following), till they reached the inner convent. There the Moslem saw couches and sofas ranged all around, one opposite the other and all overhung with curtains flowered in gold. The monastery floor was paved with every kind of vari-coloured marbles and mosaic-work, and in the midst stood a basin that held four-and-twenty jetting fountains of gold, whence the water ran like molten silver; whilst at the upper end stood a throne spread with silks fit only for Kings. Then said the damsel, "Ascend, O my lord, this throne." So he went up to it and sat down and she withdrew to remain absent for some time. Sharrkan asked of her from one of the servants who answered him, "She hath gone to her dormitory; but we will serve thee even as she ordered." So they set before him viands of rare varieties, and he ate his sufficiency, when they brought him a basin of gold and an ewer of silver, and he washed his hands. Then his thoughts reverted to his army, knowing not what had befallen it in his absence and calling to mind also how he had forgotton his father's injunctions: so he was troubled about his case, repenting of what he had done till the dawn broke and the day appeared; when he lamented and sighed and became drowned in the sea of sadness and repeated: —

I am not lost to prudence, but indeed ✿ Here I'm bewildered, what shall be my rede?Would any aid me in mine ails of love, ✿ By my own might and sleight would I be free'd:But ah! my heart is lost and passion-shent: ✿ To none save Allah can I trust my need!

When he ended his verse behold, there came up to him a rare show and a fair, more than twenty maidens like crescents encompassing the young lady, who shone in their midst as the full moon among the constellations guarding and girding her. She was clad in brocades befitting Kings; her breasts were like twin pomegranates, a woven zone set with all kinds of jewels tightly clasped her waist which expanded below into jutting hips; and her hinder cheeks stood out as a mound of crystal185 supporting a silvern shaft. When Sharrkan looked at her his wits went nigh to fly away from him with delight; and he forgot army and Wazir as he gazed on her fair head decked and dight with a net-work of pearls set off by divers sorts of gems. Handmaids on her right and handmaids on her left bore her train, as she paced with dainty graceful gait in all the pride of seemlihead. He sprang to his feet seeing such beauty and loveliness, and cried aloud, "Beware and beware of that zone rarely fair!" and broke out into these couplets: —

With heavy back-parts, high breasts delicate, ✿ And lissome form that sways with swimming gait,She deftly hides love-longing in her breast; ✿ But I may never hide its ban and bate:While hosts of followers her steps precede,186 ✿ Like pearls now necklaced and now separate.

She gazed upon him for a long time and considered him till she was assured of him, when she came up to him and said, "In very sooth the place is honoured and illumined by thee, O Sharrkan! How sped thy night, O hero, after we went away and left thee?"; adding, "Verily lying is a vile thing and a shameful, especially in great Kings! and thou art Crown-Prince Sharrkan, son and heir of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman; so henceforth make no secret of thy rank and condition, nor let me hear aught from thee but the truth; for leasing bequeatheth hate and despite. And as thou art pierced by the shaft of Fate, be resignation thine and abide content to wait." When he heard her words he saw that artifice availed him naught and he acknowledged the truth, saying, "I am Sharrkan, bin Omar bin al-Nu'uman, whom fortune hath afflicted, and cast into this place; so whatso thou willest, do it in my case!" She hung her head groundwards a long while, then turned to him and said, "Be of good cheer and let thine eyes be cool and clear;187 for thou art the guest of my hospitality, and bread-and-salt hath made a tie between me and thee; wherefore thou art in my ward and under my safeguard. Have no fear for, by the truth of the Messiah, if all on earth sought to do thee hurt they should not come at thee, till life had left my body for thy sake: indeed thou art now under the charge of the Messiah and of me." Hereat she sat her down by his side and fell to playing with him, till his alarm subsided and he knew that had she desired to slay him, she would have done so during the past night. Presently she bespoke in the Grecian tongue one of her slave-girls, who went away and soon came back bringing a beaker and a tray of food; but Sharrkan abstained from eating and said to himself, "Haply she hath put somewhat in this meat." She knew what was in his thought; so she turned to him and said, "By the truth of the Messiah, the case is not on such wise, nor is there aught in this meat of what thou suspectest! Had my mind been set on slaying thee, I had slain thee ere now." Then she walked up to the tray and ate of every dish a mouthful; whereupon Sharrkan came forward and ate too. She was pleased at this and both ate till they were satisfied. They washed their hands and after that she rose and ordered a handmaid to bring perfumes and herbs of sweet savour, wines of all colours and kinds and a wine-service with vessels of gold, silver and crystal. She filled a first goblet and drank it off before offering it to him, even as she had done with the food: then she downed a second and handed it to him. He drank and she said to him, "O Moslem, see how thou art here in all solace and delight of life!" And she ceased not to drink and ply him with drink, till he took leave of his wits, – And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day, and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Forty-ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel ceased not to drink and ply Sharrkan with drink till he took leave of his wits, for the wine and the intoxication of love he bore her. Presently she said to the slave-girl, "O Marjánah188! bring us some instruments of music!" "To hear is to obey," said the handmaid and going out, returned in the twinkling of an eye with a Damascus lute,189 a Persian harp, a Tartar pipe, and an Egyptian dulcimer. The young lady took the lute and, after tuning each several string, began in gentle undersong to sing, softer, than zephyr's wing and sweeter than Tasmin190-spring, with heart safe and secure from everything the couplets following: —

Allah assain those eyne! What streams of blood they shed! ✿ How many an arrowy glance those lids of thine have sped.I love all lovers who to lovers show them dure; ✿ Twere wrong to rue the love in wrong-head born and bred:Haply fall hapless eye for thee no sleeping kens! ✿ Heaven help the hapless heart by force of thee misled!Thou doomest me to death who art my king, and I ✿ Ransom with life the deemster who would doom me dead.

Thereupon each and every of the maidens rose up and taking an instrument, played and recited couplets in the Roumi tongue; then their mistress sang also and seeing Sharrkan in ecstasies asked him, "O Moslem, dost thou understand what I say?"; and he answered, "Nay, my ecstasy cometh from the beauty of thy finger-tips." She laughed and continued, "If I sing to thee in Arabic what wouldst thou do?" "I should no longer," quoth he, "be master of my senses." Then she took an instrument and, changing the measure, began singing these verses: —

The smack of parting's myrrh to me, ✿ How, then, bear patience' aloë?I'm girt by ills in trinity ✿ Severance, distance, cruelty!My freedom stole that fairest she, ✿ And parting irks me bitterly.

When she ended her verse, she looked at Sharrkan and found him lost to existence, and he lay for a while stretched at full length and prone among the maidens.191 Then he revived and, remembering the songs, again inclined to mirth and merriment; and the twain returned to their wine and wassail, and continued their playing and toying, their pastime and pleasure till day ceased illuminating and night drooped her wing. Then the damsel went off to her dormitory and when Sharrkan asked after her they answered, "She is gone to her sleeping-chamber," whereto he rejoined, "Under Allah's ward and His good guard!" As soon as it was morning, a handmaid came to him and said to him, "My mistress biddeth thee to her." So he rose and followed her and, as he drew near her lodging, the damsels welcomed him with smitten tabrets and songs of greeting, and led him through a great door of ivory studded with pearls and jewels. Thence they passed with him into a tall and spacious hall, at the upper end of which was a wide daïs carpeted with all kinds of silks, and round it open lattices commanding a view of trees and streams. About the saloon were figures carved in human form, and fashioned on such wise that the air passed through them and set in motion musical instruments within, so that the beholder would fancy they spoke.192 Here sat the young lady, looking at the figures; but when she saw Sharrkan, she sprang to her feet and, taking him by the hand, made him sit down by her side, and asked him how he had passed the night. He blessed her and the two sat talking awhile till she asked him, "Knowest thou aught touching lovers and slaves of love?"; and he answered "Yes! I wot somewhat in verse on that matter." "Let me hear it," quoth she, so he began quoting: —

Pleasure and health, good cheer, good appetite ✿ To Azzah, freest with our name and fame!By Allah! would I near her off she flies ✿ At tangent, granting less the more I claim:I dote on Azzah, but when clear I off ✿ My rivals, clears me too that dearest dame;Like wandering wight that chose for shade a cloud ✿ Which, ere siesta done, thin air became.

When she heard this she said, "Verily Al-Kuthayyir193 was conspicuous for sweet speech and chaste, and he was superlative in his praise of Azzah when he sang (and she began to recite): —

"Did Azzah deal behest to Sun o' noon, ✿ The judge had 'judged her beauty's bestest boon;And girls who come to me and carp at her, ✿ God make their rosy cheeks her sandal-shoon!"

"And indeed," quoth she, "'twas said that Azzah boasted exceeding beauty and loveliness." Then she asked Sharrkan saying, "O Prince, dost thou know aught of Jamíl's194 verses to Buthaynah? if so repeat to us somewhat of them;" and he answered, "Yes, I know them better than any;" whereupon he began repeating these couplets: —

"Jamíl, in Holy war go fight!" to me they say: ✿ What war save fight for fair ones would I e'er essay?To me their every word and work are mere delight, ✿ And martyrs clepe I all they slay in fight and fray:An ask I, "O Buthaynah! what's this love, I pray, ✿ Which eats my heart? quoth she "'Twill stay for ever and aye!"And when I cry, "Of wits return some small display ✿ For daily use," quoth she, "Far, far 'tis fled away!"Thou seekst my death; naught else thy will can satisfy ✿ While I no goal espy save thee and thee alway.

"Thou hast spoken right well," said she, "O King's son, and Jamíl also spoke excellently well. But what would Buthaynah have done with him that he saith in his hemistich: —

Thou seekst my death; naught else thy will can satisfy?"

"O my lady," quoth Sharrkan, "she willed to do him what thou willest to do with me, and even that will not satisfy thee." She laughed at his opportune reply and they ceased not carousing till Day put out her light and Night came in darkness dight. Then she rose and went to her dormitory and slept, while Sharrkan slept in his place till morning dawned. As soon as he awoke, the handmaids came to him with tabrets and other instruments of mirth and merriment, as wont; and, kissing the ground between his hands, said to him, "Bismillah! – in Allah's name – be so kind as to come195: our mistress biddeth thee to her presence!" So he rose and accompanied the slave-girls who surrounded him, playing on tabrets and other instruments of music, till they passed from that saloon into another and a yet more spacious hall, decorated with pictured likenesses and figures of birds and beasts, passing all description. Sharrkan marvelled at the art and artifice of the place and began reciting: —

He pluckt fruits of her necklace in rivalry, ✿ And her breast-pearls that bedded in gold-mine lie.Pure water on silvern bars is her brow, ✿ And her cheeks show roses with rubies vie:Meseems in her eyne that the violet's hue ✿ Lies purpling set in the Ithmid's196 dye.

When the lady saw Sharrkan, she stood up to him in honour and, taking his hand, seated him by her side and asked, "O son of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, hast thou any cunning in the game of chess?" "Yes," he answered, "but do not thou with me as said the poet: —

I speak and longing love upties me and unties me; ✿ Till with her honey-dew of inner lip she plies me:I brought the chess-board and my liefest lover plays me ✿ With white and black,197 but black-cum-white ne'er satisfies me:'Twas as if King for Castle I were fain to place me ✿ Till wilful loss of game atwixt two queens surprise me:And if I seek to read intent in eyes that eye me ✿ Oh man! that glance askance with hint of wish defies me."

Then she brought the chess-board and played with him; but Sharrkan, instead of looking at her moves, kept gazing at her fair mouth, and putting knight in place of elephant and elephant198 in stead of knight. She laughed and said to him, "If thy play be after this fashion, thou knowest naught of the game." "This is only our first," replied he, "judge not by this bout." When she beat him he replaced the pieces in position and played again with her; but she beat him a second time, a third, a fourth and a fifth. So she turned to him and said, "Thou art beaten in everything;" and he replied, "O my lady, how should one playing with the like of thee avoid being beaten?" Then she bade bring food, and they ate and washed their hands; after which the wine was set before them and they drank. Presently, she took the dulcimer, for her hand was cunning in smiting it, and she began repeating to an accompaniment these couplets: —

Twixt the close-tied and open-wide no medium Fortune knoweth; ✿ Now ebb and flow then flow and ebb this wise her likeness showeth:Then drink her wine the syne she's thine and smiling thou dost find her; ✿ Anon she'll fall and fare away when all thy good forth goeth.

They ceased not to carouse till nightfall and this day was pleasanter even than the first. When darkness set in, the lady betook her to her dormitory, leaving him alone with the handmaids; so he threw himself on the ground and slept till dawn, when the damsels came to him with tambourines and other instruments according to custom. Seeing them he roused him hastily and sat up; and they carried him to their mistress, who came to meet him and, taking him by the hand, seated him by her side. Then she asked him how he had passed his night, whereat he prayed that her life be prolonged; and she took the lute and sang to it these verses which she improvised: —

Ne'er incline thee to part ✿ Which embitters the heart;E'en the sun when he sets ✿ Shall in pallor depart.

While they were solacing themselves after this fashion, behold, there arose a great and sudden clamour, and a confused crowd of knights and men rushed in, holding drawn swords that glittered and gleamed in their hands, and cried aloud in the Grecian tongue, "Thou hast fallen into our hands, O Sharrkan, so make thee sure of death!" When he heard this, he said to himself, "By Allah, she hath entrapped me and held me in play, till her men should come. These are the Knights with whom she threatened me; but 'tis I who have thrown myself into this strait." Then he turned towards the young lady to reproach her, but saw that she had changed colour and her face was pale; and she sprang to her feet and asked the crowd, "Who are ye?" "O most gracious Princess and peerless union-pearl," answered the leading Knight, "dost thou weet who is yon man by thy side?" "Not I," she replied, "who may he be?" Quoth the Patrician, "This is of towns the highwayman! This is he who rideth in the horseman's van! This is Sharrkan, son of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman! This is he that forceth fortalice and penetrateth every impregnable place! The news of him reached King Hardub, thy father, by report of the ancient dame Zat al-Dawahi; and thy sire, our sovereign, hath made sure that thou hast rendered good service to the army of the Greeks by taking captive this ominous lion." When she heard this, she looked at the Knight and asked him, "What be thy name?" and he answered, "I am Masurah, son of thy slave Mausúrah bin Káshardah, Knight of Knights." "And how?" quoth she, "durst thou enter my presence without leave?" Quoth he, "O my lady, when I came to the gate, none forbade me, neither chamberlain nor porter, but all the doorkeepers rose and forewent us as of wont; although, when others come, they leave them standing at the gate while they ask permission to admit them. But this is not a time for long talking, when the King is expecting our return with this Prince, the scorpion-sting199 of the Islamitic host, that he may kill him and drive back his men whither they came, without the bane of battling with them." "These words be ill words," rejoined the Princess, "and Dame Zat al-Dawahi lied, avouching an idle thing and a vain, whereof she weeteth not the truth; for by the virtue of the Messiah, this man who is with me is not Sharrkan, nor is he a captive, but a stranger who came to us seeking our hospitality, and I made him my guest. So even were we assured that this be Sharrkan and were it proved to us that it is he beyond a doubt, I say it would ill befit mine honour that I should deliver into your hands one who hath entered under my protection. So make me not a traitor to my guest and a disgrace among men; but return to the King, my father, and kiss the ground before him, and inform him that the case is contrariwise to the report of the Lady Zat al-Dawahi." "O Abrizah," replied Masurah, the Knight, "I cannot return to the King's majesty without his debtor and enemy." Quoth she (and indeed she had waxed very wroth), "Out on thee! Return to him with my answer, and no blame shall befal thee!" Quoth Masurah, "I will not return without him." Thereupon her colour changed and she exclaimed, "Exceed not in talk and vain words; for verily this man had not come in to us, were he not assured that he could of himself and single-handed make head against an hundred riders; and if I said to him: – Thou art Sharrkan, son of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, he would answer, Yes. But 'tis not of your competence to let or hinder him; for if you so do, he will not turn back from you till he hath slain all that are in this place. Behold, here he is by my side, and I will bring him before you sword and targe in hand." "Albeit I were safe from thy wrath," answered Masurah the Knight, "I am not safe from that of thy father, and when I see him, I shall sign to the Knights to take him captive, and we will carry him to the King bound and in abject sort." When she heard this, she said, "The matter shall not pass thus, for 'twould be blazoning mere folly. This man is but one and ye are an hundred Knights: so if you would attack him come out against him, one after one, that it may appear to the King which is the valiant amongst you." – And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Fiftieth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Princess Abrizah said to the Knight, "This man is but one, and ye are an hundred: so if ye would attack him, come out against him, one after one, that it may appear to the King which is the valiant." Quoth Masurah, the Knight, "By the truth of the Messiah, thou sayest sooth, and none but I shall sally out against him first." Quoth she, "Wait till I go to him and acquaint him with the case and hear what answer he will make. If he consent, 'tis well; but if he refuse, ye shall on no wise come to him, for I and my handmaids and whosoever is in the convent will be his ransom." So she went to Sharrkan and told him the news, whereat he smiled and knew that she had not informed any of the Emirs; but that tidings of him had been bruited and blazed abroad, till the report reached the King, against her wish and intent. So he again began reproaching himself and said, "How came I to adventure and play with my life by coming to the country of the Greeks?" But hearing the young lady's proposal he said to her, "Indeed their onset, one after one, would be overburdensome to them. Will they not come out against me, ten by ten?" "That would be villeiny," said she; "Let one have at one." When he heard this, he sprang to his feet and made for them with his sword and battle-gear; and Masurah, the Knight, also sprang up and bore down upon him. Sharrkan met him like a lion and delivered a shoulder cut200 which clove him to the middle, and the blade came out gleaming and glittering from his back and bowels. When the lady beheld that swashing blow, Sharrkan's might was magnified in her sight and she knew that when she overthrew him in the wrestle it was not by her strength but by her beauty and loveliness. So she turned to the Knights and said, "Take wreak for your chief!" Thereupon out came the slain man's brother, a fierce and furious Knight, and rushed upon Sharrkan, who delayed not, but smote him also with the shoulder-cut and the sword came out glittering from his vitals. Then cried the Princess, "O ye servants of the Messiah, avenge your comrade!" So they ceased not charging down upon him, one after one; and Sharrkan also ceased not playing upon them with the blade, till he had slain fifty knights, the lady looking on the while. And Allah cast a panic into the hearts of the survivors, so that they held back and dared not meet him in the duello, but fell upon him in a body; and he laid on load with heart firmer than a rock, and smote them and trod them down like straw under the threshing-sled,201 till he had driven sense and soul out of them. Then the Princess called aloud to her damsels, saying, "Who is left in the convent?"; and they replied, "None but the gate-keepers;" whereupon she went up to Sharrkan and took him to her bosom, he doing the same, and they returned to the palace, after he had made an end of the melée. Now there remained a few of the Knights hiding from him in the cells of the monastery, and when the Princess saw this she rose from Sharrkan's side and left him for a while, but presently came back clad in closely-meshed coat of ring-mail and holding in her hand a fine Indian scymitar. And she said, "Now by the truth of the Messiah, I will not be a niggard of myself for my guest; nor will I abandon him though for this I abide a reproach and a byword in the land of the Greeks." Then she took reckoning of the dead and found that he had slain fourscore of the Knights, and other twenty had taken to flight.202 When she saw what work he had made with them she said to him, "Allah bless thee, O Sharrkan! The Cavaliers may well glory in the like of thee." Then he rose and wiping his blade clean of the blood of the slain began reciting these couplets: —

How oft in the mellay I've cleft the array, ✿ And given their bravest to lions a prey:Ask of me and of them when I proved me prow ✿ O'er creation, on days of the foray and fray:When I left in the onslaught their lions to lie ✿ On the sands of the lowlands203 in fieriest day.

When he ended his verse, the Princess came up to him with smiles and kissed his hand; then she doffed her hauberk and he said to her, "O lady mine, wherefore didst thou don that coat of mail and bare thy brand?" "To guard thee against these caitiffs,"204 she replied. Then she summoned the gate-keepers and asked them, "How came ye to admit the King's Knights into my dwelling without leave of me?"; and they answered, "O Princess, it is not our custom to ask leave of thee for the King's messengers, and especially for the chief of his Knights." Quoth she, "I think ye were minded only to disgrace me and murder my guest;" and bade Sharrkan smite their necks. He did so and she cried to the rest of her servants, "Of a truth, they deserved even more than that!" Then turning to Sharrkan, she said to him, "Now that there hath become manifest to thee what was concealed, thou shalt be made acquainted with my history. Know, then, that I am the daughter of King Hardub of Roum; my name is Abrizah and the ancient dame, yclept Zat al-Dawahi, is my grandmother by the sword side. She it certainly is who told my father of thee, and as surely she will compass a sleight to slay me, more by token as thou hast slain my father's chivalry and it is noised abroad that I have separated myself from the Nazarenes and have become no better than I should be with the Moslems. Wherefore it were wiser that I leave this dwelling while Zat al-Dawahi is on my track; but I require of thee the like kindness and courtesy I have shown thee, for enmity will presently befal between me and my father on thine account. So do not thou neglect to do aught that I shall say to thee, remembering all this betided me not save by reason of thee." Hearing her words, Sharrkan joyed greatly; his breast broadened and his wits flew from him for delight, and he said, "By Allah, none shall come at thee, while life is in my bosom! But hast thou patience to bear parting from thy parents and thy people?" "Even so," she answered; and Sharrkan swore to her and the two plighted their troth. Then said she, "Now is my heart at ease; but there remaineth one other condition for thee." "What is it?" asked he and she answered, "It is that thou return with thy host to thine own country." Quoth he, "O lady mine, my father, King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, sent me to wage war upon thy sire, on account of the treasure he plundered from the King of Constantinople, and amongst the rest three great jewels, noted givers of good fortune." Quoth she, "Cheer thy heart and clear thine eyes: I will tell thee the whole of the tale and the cause of our feud with the King of Constantinople. Know that we have a yearly festival, hight the Convent-Feast, whereat Kings from all quarters and the noblest women are wont to congregate; thither also come merchants and traders with their wives and families, and the visitors abide there seven days. I was wont to be one of them; but, when there befel enmity between us, my father forbade me to be present at the festival for the space of seven years. One year, it chanced that amongst the daughters of the great who resorted to the patron, as was their custom, came a daughter of the King of Constantinople, a beautiful girl called Sophia. They tarried at the monastery six days and on the seventh the folk went their ways;205 but Sophia said, I will not return to Constantinople save by water. So they equipped for her a ship in which she embarked with her suite; and making sail they put out to sea; but as they were voyaging behold, a contrary wind caught them and drove the vessel from her course till, as Fate and Fortune would have it, she fell in with a Nazarene craft from the Camphor Island206 carrying a crew of five hundred armed Franks, who had been cruising about a long time. When they sighted the sails of the ship, wherein Sophia and her women were, they gave chase in all haste and in less than an hour they came up with her, when they laid the grappling-irons aboard her and captured her. Then taking her in tow they made all sail for their own island and were but a little distant from it when the wind veered round and, splitting their sails, drove them on to a shoal which lies off our coast. Thereupon we sallied forth and, looking on them as spoil driven to us by Fate,207 boarded and took them; and, slaying the men, made prize of the wreck, wherein we found the treasures and rarities in question and forty maidens, amongst whom was the King's daughter, Sophia. After the capture we carried the Princess and her women to my father, not knowing her to be a daughter of King Afridun of Constantinople; and he chose out for himself ten including her; and divided the rest among his dependants. Presently he set apart five damsels, amongst whom was the King's daughter, and sent them to thy father, King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, together with other gifts, such as broadcloth208 and woollen stuffs and Grecian silks. Thy father accepted them and chose out from amongst the five girls Sophia, daughter of King Afridun; nor did we hear more of her till the beginning of this year, when her father wrote to my father in words unfitting for me to repeat, rebuking him with menaces and saying to him: – Two years ago, you plundered a ship of ours which had been seized by a band of Frankish pirates in which was my daughter Sophia, attended by her maidens numbering some threescore. Yet ye informed me not thereof by messenger or otherwise; nor could I make the matter public, lest reproach befal me amongst the Kings, by reason of my daughter's honour. So I concealed my case till this year, when I wrote to certain Frankish corsairs and sought news of my daughter from the Kings of the Isles. They replied: – By Allah we carried her not forth of thy realm; but we have heard that King Hardub rescued her from certain pirates. And they told me the whole tale. Then he added in the writing which he writ to my father: – Except you wish to be at feud with me and design to disgrace me and dishonour my daughter, you will, the instant my letter reacheth you, send my daughter back to me. But if you slight my letter and disobey my commandment, I will assuredly make you full return for your foul dealing and the baseness of your practices.209 When my father read this letter and understood the contents,210 it vexed him and he regretted not having known that Sophia, King Afridun's daughter, was among the captured damsels, that he might have sent her back to her sire; and he was perplexed about the case because, after so long a time, he could not send to King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and demand her back from him, especially as he had lately heard that Heaven had granted him boon of babe by this Sophia. So when we pondered that truth, we knew that this letter was none other than a grievous calamity; and my father found nothing for it but to write an answer to King Afridun, making his excuses and swearing to him by strong oaths that he knew not his daughter to be among the bevy of damsels in the ship and setting forth how he had sent her to King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, who had gotten the blessing of issue by her. When my father's reply reached King Afridun he rose up and sat down,211 and roared and foamed at the mouth crying: – What! shall he take captive my daughter and even her with slave-girls and pass her on from hand to hand sending her for a gift to Kings, and they lie with her without marriage-contract? By the Messiah and the true Faith, said he, I will not desist till I have taken my blood-vengeance for this and have wiped out my shame; and indeed I will do a deed which the chroniclers shall chronicle after me! So he bided his time till he devised a device and laid notable toils and snares, when he sent an embassy to thy father, King Omar, to tell him that which thou hast heard: accordingly thy father equipped thee and an army with thee and sent thee to King Afridun, whose object is to seize thee and thine army to boot. As for the three jewels whereof he told thy father when asking his aid, there was not one soothfast word in that matter, for they were with Sophia, his daughter; and my father took them from her, when he got possession of her and of her maidens, and gave them to me in free gift, and they are now with me. So go thou to thy host and turn them back ere they be led deep into, and shut in by, the land of the Franks and the country of the Greeks; for as soon as you have come far enough into their interior, they will stop the roads upon you and there will be no escape for you till the Day of retribution and retaliation. I know that thy troops are still halting where thou leftest them, because thou didst order a three days' rest; withal they have missed thee all this time and they wot not what to do." When Sharrkan heard her words, he was absent awhile in thought; then he kissed Princess Abrizah's hand and said, "Praise be to Allah who hath bestowed thee on me and appointed thee to be the cause of my salvation and the salvation of whoso is with me! But 'tis grievous to me to part from thee and I know not what will become of thee after my departure." "Go now to thine army," she replied, "and turn them back, while ye are yet near your own country. If the envoys be still with them, lay hands on them and keep them, that the case may be made manifest to you; and, after three days, I will be with you all and we will enter Baghdad together." As he turned to depart she said, "Forget not the compact which is between me and thee;" then she rose to bid212 him farewell and embrace him and quench the fire of desire, so she took leave of him and, throwing her arms round his neck, wept with exceeding weeping, and repeated these verses: —