"Joy is nigh, O Masrúr, so rejoice in true rede; * Whenas night shall fall thou shalt do kind-deed: Crave not of the sordid a loan, fair youth, * Wine stole my wits but they now take heed: All thy good I reft shall return to thee, * O Masrúr, and I'll add to them amorous meed; For indeed th' art patient, and sweet of soul * When wronged by thy lover's tyrannic greed. So haste to enjoy us and luck to thee! * Lest my folk come between us speed, love, all speed! Hurry uswards thou, nor delay, and while * My mate is far, on Love's fruit come feed." Then she folded the paper and gave it to Hubub the handmaid, who carried it to Masrur and found him weeping and reciting in a transport of passion and love-longing these lines, "A breeze of love on my soul did blow * That consumed my liver for stress of lowe; When my sweetheart went all my longings grew; * And with tears in torrent mine eyelids flow: Such my doubt and fears, did I tell their tale * To deaf rocks and pebbles they'd melt for woe. Would Heaven I wot shall I sight delight, * And shall win my wish and my friend shall know! Shall be folded up nights that doomed us part * And I be healed of what harms my heart?" —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the Eight Hundred and Forty-ninth Night, She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that while Masrur, transported by passion and love-longing, was repeating his couplets in sing-song tone Hubub knocked at his door; so he rose and opened to her, and she entered and gave him the letter. He read it and said to her, "O Hubub, what is behind thee of thy lady's news[FN#325]?" She answered, "O my lord, verily, in this letter is that dispenseth me from reply, for thou art of those who readily descry!" Thereat he rejoiced with joy exceeding and repeated these two couplets, "Came the writ whose contents a new joy revealed, * Which in vitals mine I would keep ensealed: And my longings grew when I kissed that writ, * As were pearl of passion therein concealed."