Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/93

 'Alia the stranger knoweth, the grey mare she hath given.

Hers the treachery is, thy daughter's, Agheyli Jaber.'

Therefore left we the foe, and came we here before thee.

Laying thee bare our case. And this is our tale and story.

And what hath been to the mare is clear to all the people."

Said the Narrator:

And when the Agheyli Jaber heard this talk he was overcome with trouble, and it seemed as though his understanding had flown from him and his senses, And he said, " Bring Alia before me." And they made haste and went to her, and bade her, "Go, for thy father calleth thee." And she obeyed, and went with them before her father. And he said, "'O wicked one, what is this that I learn of thee and thy deceits, and that thou art the reason of the loss of our mare, and that thou didst call down a blessing of victory on our foeman when he had wounded thy brother Sulyman, and that thou gavest him in ransom and all our people for that other °" And she said to him, '* Yea verily, for I know this enemy, and it is I that gave to him the mare; and wert thou acquainted with his worth, thou wouldst surely give him (and it would be a pleasure to thee) all thy wealth and thy possessions and everything that thou hast." But when he heard these words of her, the matter appeared to him still more of moment. And he called on those near him to bind the girl by the shoulders, and to bring