case[FN#216] spake aloud saying:— Mine eyes were dragomans for my tongue betied * And told full clear the love I fain would hide: When last we met and tears in torrents railed * For tongue struck dumb my glances testified: She signed with eye glance while her lips were mute * I signed with fingers and she kenned th' implied: Our eyebrows did all duty 'twixt us twain; * And we being speechless Love spake loud and plain. Then, O my mistress, the lady threw away the sword and said, "How shall I strike the neck of one I wot not, and who hath done me no evil? Such deed were not lawful in my law!" and she held her hand. Said the Ifrit, "'Tis grievous to thee to slay thy lover; and, because he hath lain with thee, thou endurest these torments and obstinately refusest to confess. After this it is clear to me that only like loveth and pitieth like." Then he turned to me and asked me, "O man, haply thou also dost not know this woman;" whereto I answered, "And pray who may she be? assuredly I never saw her till this instant." "Then take the sword," said he "and strike off her head and I will believe that thou wottest her not and will leave thee free to go, and will not deaf 'hardly with thee." I replied, "That will I do;" and, taking the sword went forward sharply and raised my hand to smite. But she signed to me with her eyebrows, "Have I failed thee in aught of love; and is it thus that thou requitest me?" I understood what her looks implied and answered her with an eye-glance, "I will sacrifice my soul for thee." And the tongue of the case wrote in our hearts these lines:— How many a lover with his eyebrows speaketh * To his beloved, as his passion pleadeth: With flashing eyne his passion he inspireth * And well she seeth what kits pleading needeth. How sweet the look when each on other gazeth; * And with what swiftness and how sure it speedeth: And this with eyebrows all his passion writeth; * And that with eyeballs all his passion readeth.