Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/77

 Or is of darker eyes ? And when was I blameworthy ?

Where is my fault ? Nay, truly, were it but yours to keep it,

My oath should bind ye too. Speak rather in all plainness,

And I will hear ye out, for true words are a precept."

And they said, cc Thy oath is binding. Thou doest: well to keep it,

And to betray were sin, ay, even the seal of perdition.

We are thy witness all, thy whole life hath been blameless,

A luminous life and fair, beseeming thy high lineage :

Daughter of glorious sires, none might presume to blame thee.

Only we wondered somewhat to see thee with this stranger,

For thou treatest him as brother, and thee thyself as sister

And we were astonished thereat, and our minds fell in doubting,

And we talked and questioned still, and argued it together."

But she, " O damsels, hear me. Did ye but know his merit,

Ye would sell all to possess him, he being of the great ones,

A prince of noble lineage, a mighty man of valour ;

This is he, the renowned, who made Helal victorious,,

Abu Zeyd Salame, the Hejazi, and none other."