Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 3.djvu/106

88 Whenas the couriers came with news of thee, how fair Thou wast and sweet and how thy visage shone with light, All, all, for thy sweet sake, I left; ay, I forsook Aziz, my sire, and those akin to me that hight And unto Irak fared, my way to thee to make, And crossed the stony wastes i’ the darkness of the night. Then sent I speech to thee in verses such as burn The heart; reproach therein was none nor yet unright; Yet with perfidiousness (sure Fortune’s self as thou Ne’er so perfidious was) my love thou didst requite And deemedst me a waif, a homeless good-for-nought, A slave-begotten brat, a wanton, witless wight.

Then he folded the letter and committed it to the nurse and gave her five hundred dinars, saying, “Accept this from me, for that indeed thou hast wearied thyself between us.” “By Allah, O my lord,” answered she, “my desire is to bring about union between you, though I lose that which my right hand possesseth.” And he said, “May God the Most High requite thee with good!” Then she carried the letter to Mariyeh and said to her, “Take this letter; belike it may be the end of the correspondence.” So she took it and breaking it open, read it, and when she had made an end of it, she turned to the nurse and said to her, “This fellow putteth off lies upon me and avoucheth unto me that he hath cities and horsemen and footmen at his command and submitting to his allegiance; and he seeketh of me that which he shall not obtain; for thou knowest, O nurse, that kings’ sons have sought me in marriage, with presents