Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/143

131 And said, ‘O thou my wish and term of all desire, Behold, the morn is come with visage wan and white.’ I swear, if but a day were given to me of power And I became a king of puissance and of might, I’d break the corners down o’ the churches, all of them, And every priest on earth with slaughter I’d requite.

Then she pressed him to her bosom and kissed his cheek and said to him, ‘O Noureddin, how long hast thou been in the town?’ ‘Seven days,’ answered he. ‘Hast thou walked about in it,’ asked she, ‘and dost thou know its ways and issues and its sea-gates and land-gates?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ Quoth she, ‘Knowest thou the way to the offertory-chest of the church?’ ‘Yes,’ replied he; and she said, ‘Since thou knowest all this, as soon as the first watch of the coming night is over, go to the offertory-chest and take thence what thou wilt. Then open the door, that gives upon the passage leading to the sea, and go down to the harbour, where thou wilt find a little ship and ten men therein, and when the captain sees thee, he will put out his hand to thee. Give him thy hand and he will take thee up into the ship, and do thou wait there till I come to thee. But have a care lest sleep overtake thee this night, or thou wilt repent whenas repentance shall avail thee nothing.’

Then she took leave of him and going forth from him, aroused her women and the rest of the damsels, with whom she betook herself to the church door and knocked; whereupon the old woman opened to her and she went forth and found the knights and serving-men standing without. They brought her a dapple mule and she mounted: whereupon they raised over her head a canopy with curtains of silk, and the knights took hold of the mule’s halter. Then the guards encompassed her about with drawn swords in their hands and fared on with her, followed by her maidens, till they brought her to the palace of the king her father.