Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/60

 and said to her, "O nurse, incline the lady's heart to me." "To hear is to obey," answered she and carried the script to her mistress, who kissed it and laid it on her head, then she opened it and read it and understood it and wrote at the foot of it these couplets,

"O whose heart by our beauty is captive ta'en, *         Have patience and all thou shalt haply gain!     When we knew that thy love was a true affect, *         And what pained our heart to thy heart gave pain,     We had granted thee wished-for call and more; *         But hindered so doing the chamberlain.     When the night grows dark, through our love's excess *         Fire burns our vitals with might and main:     And sleep from our beds is driven afar, *         And our bodies are tortured by passion-bane.     'Hide Love!' in Love's code is the first command; *         And from raising his veil thy hand restrain:     I fell love-fulfilled by yon gazelle: *         Would he never wander from where I dwell!"

Then she folded the letter and gave it to the nurse, who took it and went out from her mistress to seek the young man; but, as she would fare forth, the chamberlain met her and said to her, "Whither away?" "To the bath," answered she; but in her fear and confusion, she dropped the letter, without knowing it, and went off unrecking what she had done; when one of the eunuchs, seeing it lying in the way, picked it up. When the nurse came without the door, she sought for it, but found it not, so turned back to her mistress and told her of this and what had befallen her. Meanwhile, the Wazir came out of the Harim and seated himself on his couch; whereupon behold, the eunuch, who had picked up the letter, came in to him, hending it in hand and said, "O my lord, I found this paper lying upon the floor and picked it up." So the Minister took it from his hand, folded as it was, and opening it, read the verses as above set down. Then, after mastering the meaning, he examined the writing and knew it for his daughter's hand; whereupon he went to her mother, weeping so abundant tears that his beard was wetted. His wife asked him, "What maketh thee weep, O my lord?"; and he answered, "Take this letter and see what is therein." So she took it and found it to be a love-letter from her daughter Rose-in-Hood to Uns al-Wujud: whereupon the ready drops sprang to her eyes; but she composed