Miriam, to kiss her hands; but she dealt him a buffet with her palm on
the cheek, saying, “Avaunt, O accursed! Thou hast followed after me
without surcease, till thou hast cozened my lord into selling me! But O
accursed, all shall yet be well, Inshallah!” The Frank laughed at her
speech and wondered at her deed and excused himself to her, saying, “O
my lady Miriam, what is my offence? Thy lord Nur al-Din here sold thee
of his full consent and of his own free will. Had he loved thee, by the
right of the Messiah, he had not transgressed against thee! And had he
not fulfilled his desire of thee, he had not sold thee.” Quoth one of
the poets:—
Whom I irk let him fly fro’ me fast and faster ✿ If I name his name I am
no directer.
Nor the wide wide world is to me so narrow ✿ That I act expecter to this
rejecter.[495]
Now this handmaid was the daughter of the King of France, the which is a
wide and spacious city,[496] abounding in manufactures and rarities and
trees and flowers and other growths, and resembleth the city of
Constantinople: and for her going forth of her father’s city there was a
wondrous cause and thereby hangeth a marvellous tale which we will set
out in due order, to divert and delight the hearer[497]——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the cause of
Miriam the Girdle-girl leaving her father and mother was a wondrous and
thereby hangeth a marvellous tale. She was reared with her father and
mother in honour and indulgence and learnt rhetoric and penmanship and
arithmetic and cavalarice and all manner crafts, such as broidery and
sewing and weaving and girdle-making and silk-cord making and
damascening gold on silver and silver on gold, brief all the arts both
of men and women, till she became the union-pearl of her time and the
unique gem of her age and day. Moreover, Allah (to whom belong Might and
Majesty!) had endowed her with such beauty and loveliness and elegance
and perfection of grace that she excelled therein all the folk of her
time, and the Kings of the isles sought her in marriage of her sire, but
he refused to give her to wife to any of her suitors, for that he loved
her with passing love and could not bear to be parted from her a single
hour. Moreover, he had no other daughter than herself, albeit he had
many sons, but she was dearer to him than all of them. It fortuned one
year that she fell sick of an exceeding sickness and came nigh upon
death, wherefore she made a vow that, if she recovered from her malady,
she would make the pilgrimage to a certain monastery, situate in such an
island, which was high in repute among the Franks, who used to make vows
to it and look for a blessing therefrom. When Miriam recovered from her
sickness, she wished to accomplish her vow anent the monastery and her
sire despatched her to the convent in a little ship, with sundry
daughters of the city-notables to wait upon her and patrician Knights to
protect them all. As they drew near the island, there came out upon them
a ship of the ships of the Moslems, champions of The Faith, warring in
Allah’s way, who boarded the vessel and making prize of all therein,
knights and maidens, gifts and monies, sold their booty in the city of
Kayrawán.[498] Miriam herself fell into the hands of a Persian merchant,
who was born impotent[499] and for whom no woman had ever discovered her
nakedness; so he set her to serve him. Presently, he fell ill and
sickened well nigh unto death, and the sickness abode with him two
months, during which she tended him after the goodliest fashion, till
Allah made him whole of his malady, when he recalled her tenderness and
loving-kindness to him and the persistent zeal with which she had nurst
him and being minded to requite her the good offices she had done him,
said to her, “Ask a boon of me?” She said, “O my lord, I ask of thee
that thou sell me not but to the man of my choice.” He answered, “So be
it. I guarantee thee. By Allah, O Miriam, I will not sell thee but to
him of whom thou shalt approve, and I put thy sale in thine own hand.”
And she rejoiced herein with joy exceeding. Now the Persian had
expounded to her Al-Islam and she became a Moslemah and learnt of him
the rules of worship. Furthermore during that period the Persian had
taught her the tenets of The Faith and the observances incumbent upon
her: he had made her learn the Koran by heart and master somewhat of the
theological sciences and the traditions of the Prophet; after which, he
brought her to Alexandria-city and sold her to Nur al-Din, as we have
before set out. Meanwhile, when her father, the King of France, heard
what had befallen his daughter and her company, he saw Doomsday break
and sent after her ships full of knights and champions, horsemen and
footmen; but they fell not in any trace of her whom they sought in the
Islands[500] of the Moslems; so all returned to him, crying out and
saying, “Well-away!” and “Ruin!” and “Well worth the day!” The King
grieved for her with exceeding grief and sent after her that one-eyed
lameter, blind of the left,[501] for that he was his chief Wazir, a
stubborn tyrant and a froward devil,[502] full of craft and guile,
bidding him make search for her in all the lands of the Moslems and buy
her, though with a shipload of gold. So the accursed sought her, in all
the islands of the Arabs and all the cities of the Moslems, but found no
sign of her till he came to Alexandria-city where he made quest for her
and presently discovered that she was with Nur al-Din Ali the Cairene,
being directed to the trace of her by the kerchief aforesaid, for that
none could have wrought it in such goodly guise but she. Then he bribed
the merchants to help him in getting her from Nur al-Din and beguiled
her lord into selling her, as hath been already related. When he had her
in his possession, she ceased not to weep and wail: so he said to her,
“O my lady Miriam, put away from thee this mourning and grieving and
return with me to the city of thy sire, the seat of thy kingship and the
place of thy power and thy home, so thou mayst be among thy servants and
attendants and be quit of this abasement and this strangerhood. Enough
hath betided me of travail, of travel and of disbursing monies on thine
account, for thy father bade me buy thee back, though with a shipload of
gold; and now I have spent nigh a year and a half in seeking thee.” And
he fell to kissing her hands and feet and humbling himself to her; but
the more he kissed and grovelled she only redoubled in wrath against
him, and said to him, “O accursed, may Almighty Allah not vouchsafe thee
to win thy wish!” Presently his pages brought her a she-mule with
gold-embroidered housings and mounting her thereon, raised over her head
a silken canopy, with staves of gold and silver, and the Franks walked
round about her, till they brought her forth the city by the
sea-gate,[503] where they took boat with her and rowing out to a great
ship in harbour embarked therein. Then the monocular Wazir cried out to
the sailors, saying, “Up with the mast!” So they set it up forthright
and spreading the newly bent sails and the colours manned the sweeps and
put out to sea. Meanwhile Miriam continued to gaze upon Alexandria, till
it disappeared from her eyes, when she fell a-weeping in her privacy
with sore weeping——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Eightieth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Wazir of the Frankish King put out to sea in the ship bearing Miriam the
Girdle-girl she gazed Alexandria-wards till the city was hidden from her
sight when she wailed and wept copious tears and recited these
couplets:—
O dwelling of my friends say is there no return ✿ Uswards? But what ken
I of matters Allah made?
Still fare the ships of Severance, sailing hastily ✿ And in my wounded
eyelids tears have ta’en their stead,
For parting from a friend who was my wish and will ✿ Healed every ill
and every pain and pang allay’d.
Be thou, O Allah, substitute of me for him ✿ Such charge some day the
care of Thee shall not evade.
Then she could not refrain from weeping and wailing. So the
patrician[504] knights came up to her and would have comforted her, but
she heeded not their consoling words, being distracted by the claims of
passion and love-longing. And she shed tears and moaned and complained
and recited these couplets:—
The tongue of Love within my vitals speaketh ✿ Saying, “This lover boon
of Love aye seeketh!”
And burn my liver hottest coals of passion ✿ And parting on my heart
sore suffering wreaketh.
How shall I face this fiery love concealing ✿ When fro’ my wounded lids
the tear aye leaketh?
In this plight Miriam abode during all the voyage; no peace was left her
at all nor would patience come at her call. Such was her case in company
with the Wazir, the monocular, the lameter; but as regards Nur al-Din
the Cairene, when the ship had sailed with Miriam, the world was
straitened upon him and he had neither peace nor patience. He returned
to the lodging where they twain had dwelt, and its aspect was black and
gloomy in his sight. Then he saw the _métier_ wherewith she had been
wont to make the zones and her dress that had been upon her beauteous
body: so he pressed them to his breast, whilst the tears gushed from his
eyes and he recited these couplets:—
Say me, will Union after parting e’er return to be ✿ After long-lasting
torments, after hopeless misery?
Alas! Alas! what wont to be shall never more return ✿ But grant me still
return of dearest her these eyne may see.
I wonder me will Allah deign our parted lives unite ✿ And will my dear
one’s plighted troth preserve with constancy!
Naught am I save the prey of death since parting parted us; ✿ And will
my friends consent that I a weird so deadly dree?
Alas my sorrow! Sorrowing the lover scant avails; ✿ Indeed I melt away
in grief and passion’s ecstacy:
Past is the time of my delight when were we two conjoined: ✿ Would
Heaven I wot if Destiny mine esperance will degree!
Redouble then, O Heart, thy pains and, O mine eyes, o’erflow ✿ With
tears till not a tear remain within these eyne of me?
Again alas for loved ones lost and loss of patience eke! ✿ For helpers
fail me and my griefs are grown beyond decree.
The Lord of Threefold Worlds I pray He deign to me return ✿ My lover and
we meet as wont in joy and jubilee.
Then Nur al-Din wept with weeping galore than which naught could be
more; and peering into every corner of the room, recited these two
couplets:—
I view their traces and with pain I pine ✿ And by their sometime home I
weep and yearn;
And Him I pray who parting deigned decree ✿ Some day He deign vouchsafe
me their return!
Then Nur al-Din sprang to his feet and locking the door of the house,
fared forth running at speed, to the sea shore whence he fixed his eyes
on the place of the ship which had carried off his Miriam whilst sighs
burst from his breast and tears from his lids as he recited these
couplets:—
Peace be with you, sans you naught compensateth me ✿ The near, the far,
two cases only here I see:
I yearn for you at every hour and tide as yearns ✿ For water-place
wayfarer plodding wearily.
With you abide my hearing, heart and eyen-sight ✿ And (sweeter than the
honeycomb) your memory.
Then, O my Grief when fared afar your retinue ✿ And bore that ship away
my sole expectancy.
And Nur al-Din wept and wailed, bemoaned himself and complained, crying
out and saying, “O Miriam! O Miriam! Was it but a vision of thee I saw
in sleep or in the allusions of dreams?” And by reason of that which
grew on him of regrets, he recited these couplets[505]:—
Mazed with thy love no more I can feign patience,
This heart of mine has held none dear but thee!
And if mine eye hath gazed on other’s beauty,
Ne’er be it joyed again with sight of thee!
I’ve sworn an oath I’ll ne’er forget to love thee,
And sad’s this breast that pines to meet with thee!
Thou’st made me drink a love-cup full of passion,
Blest time! When I may give the draught to thee!
Take with thee this my form where’er thou goest,
And when thou’rt dead let me be laid near thee!
Call on me in my tomb, my bones shall answer
And sigh responses to a call from thee!
If it were asked, “What wouldst thou Heaven should order?”
“His will,” I answer, “First, and then what pleases thee.”
As Nur al-Din was in this case, weeping and crying out, “O Miriam! O
Miriam!” behold, an old man landed from a vessel and coming up to him,
saw him shedding tears and heard him reciting these verses:—
O Maryam of beauty[506] return, for these eyne ✿ Are as densest clouds
railing drops in line:
Ask amid mankind and my railers shall say ✿ That mine eyelids are
drowning these eyeballs of mine.
Said the old man, “O my son, meseems thou weepest for the damsel who
sailed yesterday with the Frank?” When Nur al-Din heard these words of
the Shaykh he fell down in a swoon and lay for a long while without
life; then, coming to himself, he wept with sore weeping and improvised
these couplets:—
Shall we e’er be unite after severance-tide ✿ And return in the
perfectest cheer to bide?
In my heart indeed is a lowe of love ✿ And I’m pained by the spies who
my pain deride:
My days I pass in amaze distraught, ✿ And her image a-nights I would see
by side:
By Allah, no hour brings me solace of love ✿ And how can it when
makebates vex me and chide?
A soft-sided damsel of slenderest waist ✿ Her arrows of eyne on my heart
hath plied?
Her form is like Bán[507]-tree branch in garth ✿ Shame her charms the
sun who his face most hide:
Did I not fear God (be He glorified!) ✿ “My Fair be glorified!” Had I
cried.
The old man looked at him and noting his beauty and grace and symmetry
and the fluency of his tongue and the seductiveness of his charms, had
ruth on him and his heart mourned for his case. Now that Shaykh was the
captain of a ship, bound to the damsel’s city, and in this ship were a
hundred Moslem merchants, men of the Saving Faith; so he said to Nur
al-Din, “Have patience and all will yet be well; I will bring thee to
her an it be the will of Allah, extolled and exalted be He!”——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-first Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old
skipper said to Nur al-Din, “I will bring thee to her, Inshallah!” the
youth asked, “When shall we set out?” and the other said, “Come but
three days more and we will depart in peace and prosperity.” Nur al-Din
rejoiced at the captain’s words with joy exceeding and thanked him for
his bounty and benevolence. Then he recalled the days of love-liesse
dear and union with his slave-girl without peer, and he shed bitter
tears and recited these couplets:—
Say, will to me and you the Ruthful union show ✿ My lords! Shall e’er I
win the wish of me or no?
A visit-boon by you will shifty Time vouchsafe? ✿ And seize your image
eyelids which so hungry grow?
With you were Union to be sold, I fain would buy; ✿ But ah, I see such
grace doth all my means outgo!
Then Nur al-Din went forthright to the market and bought what he needed
of vitiacum and other necessaries for the voyage and returned to the
Rais, who said to him, “O my son, what is that thou hast with thee?”
said he, “My provisions and all whereof I have need for the voyage.”
Thereupon quoth the old man, laughing, “O my son, art thou going
a-pleasuring to Pompey’s Pillar[508]? Verily, between thee and that thou
seekest is two months’ journey an the wind be fair and the weather
favourable.” Then he took of him somewhat of money and going to the
bazar, bought him a sufficiency of all that he needed for the voyage and
filled him a large earthen jar[509] with fresh water. Nur al-Din abode
in the ship three days until the merchants had made an end of their
precautions and preparations and embarked, when they set sail and
putting out to sea, fared on one-and-fifty days. After this, there came
out upon them corsairs,[510] pirates who sacked the ship and taking Nur
al-Din and all therein prisoners, carried them to the city of France and
paraded them before the King, who bade cast them into jail, Nur al-Din
amongst the number. As they were being led to prison the galleon[511]
arrived with the Princess Miriam and the one-eyed Wazir, and when it
made the harbour, the lameter landed and going up to the King gave him
the glad news of his daughter’s safe return: whereupon they beat the
kettle-drums for good tidings and decorated the city after the goodliest
fashion. Then the King took horse, with all his guards and lords and
notables and rode down to the sea to meet her. The moment the ship cast
anchor she came ashore, and the King saluted her and embraced her and
mounting her on a blood-steed, bore her to the palace, where her mother
received her with open arms, and asked her of her case and whether she
was a maid as before or whether she had become a woman carnally known by
man.[512] She replied, “O my mother, how should a girl, who hath been
sold from merchant to merchant in the land of Moslems, a slave
commanded, abide a virgin? The merchant who bought me threatened me with
the bastinado and violenced me and took my maidenhead, after which he
sold me to another and he again to a third.” When the Queen heard these
her words, the light in her eyes became night and she repeated her
confession to the King who was chagrined thereat and his affair was
grievous to him. So he expounded her case to his Grandees and
Patricians[513] who said to him, “O King, she hath been defiled by the
Moslems and naught will purify her save the striking off of an hundred
Mohammedan heads.” Whereupon the King sent for the True Believers he had
imprisoned; and they decapitated them, one after another, beginning with
the captain, till none was left save Nur al-Din. They tare off a strip
of his skirt and binding his eyes therewith, led him to the rug of blood
and were about to smite his neck, when behold, an ancient dame came up
to the King at that very moment and said, “O my lord, thou didst vow to
bestow upon each and every church five Moslem captives, to help us in
the service thereof, so Allah would restore thee thy daughter the
Princess Miriam; and now she is restored to thee, so do thou fulfil thy
vow.” The King replied, “O my mother, by the virtue of the Messiah and
the Veritable Faith, there remaineth to me of the prisoners but this one
captive, whom they are about to put to death: so take him with thee to
help in the service of the church, till there come to me more prisoners
of the Moslems, when I will send thee other four. Hadst thou come
earlier, before they hewed off the heads of these, I had given thee as
many as thou wouldest have.” The old woman thanked the King for his boon
and wished him continuance of life, glory and prosperity. Then without
loss of time she went up to Nur al-Din, whom she raised from the rug of
blood; and, looking narrowly at him saw a comely youth and a dainty,
with a delicate skin and a face like the moon at her full; whereupon she
carried him to the church and said to him, “O my son, doff these clothes
which are upon thee, for they are fit only for the service of the
Sultan.[514]” So saying the ancient dame brought him a gown and hood of
black wool and a broad girdle,[515] in which she clad and cowled him;
and, after binding on his belt, bade him do the service of the church.
Accordingly, he served the church seven days, at the end of which time
behold, the old woman came up to him and said, “O Moslem, don thy silken
dress and take these ten dirhams and go out forthright and divert
thyself abroad this day, and tarry not here a single moment, lest thou
lose thy life.” Quoth he, “What is to do, O my mother?”; and quoth she,
“Know, O my son, that the King’s daughter, the Princess Miriam the
Girdle-girl, hath a mind to visit the church this day, to seek a
blessing by pilgrimage and to make oblation thereto, a douceur[516] of
thank-offering for her deliverance from the land of the Moslems and in
fulfilment of the vows she vowed to the Messiah, so he would save her.
With her are four hundred damsels, not one of whom but is perfect in
beauty and loveliness and all of them are daughters of Wazirs and Emirs
and Grandees: they will be here during this very hour and if their eyes
fall on thee in this church, they will hew thee in pieces with swords.”
Thereupon Nur al-Din took the ten dirhams from the ancient dame, and
donning his own dress, went out to the bazar and walked about the city
and took his pleasure therein, till he knew its highways and gates,——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-second Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din,
after donning his own dress and taking the ten dirhams from the ancient
dame, fared forth to the market streets and wandered about a while till
he knew every quarter of the city, after which he returned to the
church[517] and saw the Princess Miriam the Girdle-girl, daughter of the
King of France come up to the fane, attended by four hundred damsels,
high-bosomed maids like moons, amongst whom was the daughter of the
one-eyed Wazir and those of the Emirs and Lords of the realm; and she
walked in their midst as she were moon among stars. When his eyes fell
upon her Nur al-Din could not contain himself, but cried out from the
core of his heart, “O Miriam! O Miriam!” When the damsels heard his
outcry they ran at him with swords shining bright like flashes of
leven-light and would have slain him forthright. But the Princess turned
and looking on him, knew him with fullest knowledge, and said to her
maidens, “Leave this youth; doubtless he is mad, for the signs of
madness be manifest on his face.” When Nur al-Din heard this, he
uncovered his head and rolled his eyes and made signs with his hands and
twisted his legs, foaming the while at the mouth. Quoth the Princess,
“Said I not that the poor youth was mad? Bring him to me and stand off
from him, that I may hear what he saith; for I know the speech of the
Arabs and will look into his case and see if his madness admit of cure
or not.” So they laid hold of him and brought him to her; after which
they withdrew to a distance and she said to him, “Hast thou come hither
on my account and ventured thy life for my sake and feignest thyself
mad?” He replied, “O my lady, hast thou not heard the saying of the
poet[518]?:—
Quoth they, “Thou’rt surely raving mad for her thou lov’st;” and I,
“There is no pleasantness in life but for the mad,” reply.
Compare my madness with herself for whom I rave; if she Accord
therewith, then blame me not for that which I aby.”
Miriam replied, “By Allah, O Nur al-Din, indeed thou hast sinned against
thyself, for I warned thee of this before it befel thee: yet wouldst
thou not hearken to me, but followedst thine own lust: albeit that
whereof I gave thee to know I learnt not by means of inspiration nor
physiognomy[519] nor dreams, but by eye-witness and very sight; for I
saw the one-eyed Wazir and knew that he was not come to Alexandria but
in quest of me.” Said he, “O my lady Miriam, we seek refuge with Allah
from the error of the intelligent[520]!” Then his affliction redoubled
on him and he recited this saying[521]:—
Pass o’er my fault, for ’tis the wise man’s wont
Of other’s sins to take no harsh account;
And as all crimes have made my breast their site,
So thine all shapes of mercy should unite.
Who from above would mercy seek to know,
Should first be merciful to those below.
Then Nur al-Din and Princess Miriam ceased not from lovers’ chiding
which to trace would be tedious, relating each to other that which had
befallen them and reciting verses and making moan, one to other, of the
violence of passion and the pangs of pine and desire, whilst the tears
ran down their cheeks like rivers, till there was left them no strength
to say a word and so they continued till day departed and night
darkened. Now the Princess was clad in a green dress, purfled with red
gold and broidered with pearls and gems which enhanced her beauty and
loveliness and inner grace; and right well quoth the poet of her[522]:—
Like the full moon she shineth in garments all of green, With loosened
vest and collars and flowing hair beseen.
“What is thy name?” I asked her, and she replied, “I’m she Who roasts
the hearts of lovers on coals of love and teen.
I am the pure white silver, ay, and the gold wherewith The bondmen from
strait prison and dour releasèd been.”
Quoth I, “I’m all with rigours consumed;” but “On a rock,” Said she,
“such as my heart is, thy plaints are wasted clean.”
“Even if thy heart,” I answered, “be rock in very deed, Yet hath God
caused fair water well from the rock, I ween.”