Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/108

 man of contemplation. And upon this the Emir Fadel shouted to the tribesmen, and bade them " Seize hold of the two, and put them in fetters and take them to Alia, who may haply recognize the wrongdoer, and give us news of the truth of the matter." And they did all that he bade them, and they went into the presence of Alia, and showed to her Abu Zeyd. And when she saw the Emir Abu Zeyd, she made shift to speak to him by signs. And she said, "If thou hadst obeyed me and gotten thee hence home, it had been better for thee than now." But he said, " Fear not, for thou shalt see that of me which shall astonish thee." And he began to recite, and rejoicing quoted verses from the book, and leaping strenuously upward burst the chains that bound him, and it seemed as though he were light as the cotton-seed which floateth in the air. And he took the chains in his hands, and broke them to pieces from his neck and wrists and ancles. And when the tribesmen saw this they went to the Emir Fadel and told him all that had happened. And he said to them, "Not for my own pleasure did I this thing, but being over-persuaded by the diviner. Bring therefore the Sheykh to me that I may beg pardon of him, but take ye the diviner, and place him in his stead in irons. And burn him with fire, and be careful that ye leave him not alive."

Said the Narrator:

And upon this they obeyed and went to Bedr ibn Saleh that they might bind him, But he said to them: