Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/53

 With us the noble ones, the daughters of the Sultans?'

And she said, 'He is none but Sahel, Sahel the son of Aaf,

He of the evil word with sole shame for his fortune/

And they bade her go to her father for that the prince might know it,

And so take vengeance due. And Alia straight departed.

And the sun had hardly risen e'er he, the lady's father,

Fell on my sire with the sword. And I fled before his anger,

Weeping, to lands afar, and stripped of all, an outcast;

For Jaber took our herds and servants and possessions,

Two hundred fair milch camels, and my red mare, the swift one ;

And twenty months have gone since I beheld my people

Or knew the sweets of home. O Zohwa, shouldst thou bring her,

This Alia, to my power, thou shouldst behold ajudgment,

A tale of death for her, and for her father sorrow,

Noised on the tongues of men till the last day of dooming."

And she, "I hear and obey, a thousand times obedient.

Death shall be surely hers, and a supreme destruction."

And he "Then compass thou the occasion of her coming."

And she, "So shall it be, thou glory of beholders."

And he, "Be up and doing, for lo, the short night waneth."

And she quickened her pace and went and came to the tent of Alia.