When the criers had performed what the king had enjoined them,
that prince ordered the mother and the daughter to be turned out
of the palace, and left to their choice to go where they thought
fit. As soon as they appeared, all persons fled from them, so
great an impression had the late prohibition made upon all. They
easily perceived that every body shunned them; but not knowing
the reason, were much surprised; and their amazement was the
greater, when coming into any street, or among any persons, they
recollected some of their best friends, who immediately retreated
with as much haste as the rest. "What is the meaning of this,"
said Ganem's mother; "do we carry the plague about us? Must the
unjust and barbarous usage we have received render us odious to
our fellow-citizens? Come, my child," added she, "let us depart
from Damascus with all speed; let us not stay any longer in a
city where we are become frightful to our very friends."
The two wretched ladies, discoursing in this manner, came to one
of the extremities of the city, and retired to a ruined house to
pass the night. Thither some Mussulmauns, out of charity and
compassion, resorted to them after the day was shut in. They
carried them provisions, but durst not stay to comfort them, for
fear of being discovered, and punished for disobeying the
caliph's orders.
In the mean time king Zinebi had let fly a pigeon to give the
caliph an account of his exact obedience. He informed him of all
that had been executed, and conjured him to direct what he would
have done with Ganem's mother and sister. He soon received the
caliph's answer in the same way, which was, that he should banish
them from Damascus for ever. Immediately the king of Syria sent
men to the old house, with orders to take the mother and
daughter, and to conduct them three days' journey from Damascus,
and there to leave them, forbidding them ever to return to the
city.
Zinebi's men executed their commission, but being less exact
their master, in the strict performance of the caliph's orders,
they in pity gave the wretched ladies some small pieces of money,
and each of them a scrip, which they hung about their necks, to
carry their provisions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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