"Alas, alack and well-away for blamer's calumny! * Whether or not I make my moan or plead or show no plea: O spurner of my love I ne'er of thee so hard would deem * That I of thee should be despised, of thee my property. I wont at lovers' love to rail and for their passion chide, * But now I fain debase myself to all who rail at thee: Yea, only yesterday I wont all amourists to blame * But now I pardon hearts that pine for passion's ecstasy; And of my stress of parting-stowre on me so heavy weighs * At morning prayer to Him I'll cry, 'In thy name, O Ali!'" And also these two couplets, "His lovers said, 'Unless he deign to give us all a drink * Of wine, of fine old wine his lips deal in their purity; We to the Lord of Threefold Worlds will pray to grant our prayer' * And all exclaim with single cry 'In thy name, O Ali!'" Nur al-Din, hearing these lines and their rhyme, marvelled at the fluency of her tongue and thanked her, praising her grace and passing seductiveness; and the damsel, delighted at his praise, arose without stay or delay and doffing that was upon her of outer dress and trinkets till she was free of all encumbrance sat down on his knees and kissed him between the eyes and on his cheek-mole. Then she gave him all she had put off.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night, She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the girl gave to Nur al-Din all she had doffed, saying, "O beloved of my heart, in very sooth the gift is after the measure of the giver." So he accepted this from her and gave it back to her and kissed her on the mouth and cheeks and eyes. When this was ended and done, for naught is durable save the Living, the Eternal, Provider of the peacock and the owl,[FN#438] Nur al-Din rose from the séance and stood upon his feet, because the darkness was now fallen and the stars shone out; whereupon quoth the damsel to him, "Whither away, O my lord?"; and quoth he, "To my father's home." Then the sons of the merchants conjured him to night with them, but he refused and mounting his shemule, rode, without stopping, till he reached his parent's house, where his mother met him and said to him, "O my son, what hath kept thee away till this hour? By Allah, thou hast troubled myself and thy sire by thine absence from us, and our hearts have been occupied with thee." Then she came up to him, to kiss him on his mouth, and smelling the fumes of the wine, said, "O my son, how is it that, after prayer and worship thou hast become a wine-bibber and a rebel against Him to whom belong creation and commandment?" But Nur al-Din threw himself down on the bed and lay there. Presently in came his sire and said, "What aileth Nur al-Din to lie thus?"; and his mother answered, "'Twould seem his head acheth for the air of the garden." So Taj al-Din went up to his son, to ask him of