Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/224

202 sirrah!’ said she. ‘Arise and stand up, ere any see thee and slay thee.’ So he came forth and standing up, kissed her hands and wept and said to her, ‘O my lady, I cast myself on thy protection! Have ruth on one who is parted from his people and wife and children, one who hath haste to rejoin them and adventureth his life and soul [for their sake!]. Take pity on me and be assured that Paradise will be thy reward; or, if thou wilt not receive me, I beseech thee, by God the Great, the Concealer, to conceal my case!’ The merchants, seeing him talking with her, stared at him; and she, seeing his humility and hearing his speech, was moved to compassion for him; her heart inclined to him and she knew that he had not ventured himself and come to that place, save for a grave matter. So she said to him, ‘O my son, take heart and be of good courage and return to thy hiding-place till the coming night, and God shall do as He will.’

Then she took leave of him and he crept under the settle as before, whilst the troops lighted flambeaux compounded of aloes-wood and crude ambergris and passed the night in sport and delight till the morning. At daybreak, the boats returned to the shore and the merchants busied themselves with buying and selling and the transport of the goods and gear till nightfall, whilst Hassan abode hidden beneath the settle, tearful-eyed and mournful-hearted, knowing not what was decreed to him in the secret purpose of God. As he was thus, the woman with whom he had taken refuge came up to him and giving him a shirt of mail and a helmet and spear and sword and a gilded girdle, bade him don them and seat himself on the settle and let none know his case, after which she left him, for fear of the troops. So he arose and donned the coat of mail and helmet and clasped the girdle about his middle. Then he slung the sword over his shoulder and taking the spear in his hand, sat down on the settle,