"When e'er the Lord 'gainst any man, Would fulminate some harsh decree, And he be wise, and skilled to hear, And used to see; He stops his ears, and blinds his heart, And from his brain ill judgment tears, And makes it bald as 'twere a scalp, Reft of its hairs;[FN#495] Until the time when the whole man Be pierced by this divine command; Then He restores him intellect To understand." Then Nur al-Din began to excuse himself to his handmaid, saying, "By Allah, O my lady Miriam, verily runneth the Reed with whatso Allah hath decreed. The folk put a cheat on me to make me sell thee, and I fell into the snare and sold thee. Indeed, I have sorely failed of my duty to thee; but haply He who decreed our disunion will vouchsafe us reunion." Quoth she, "I warned thee against this, for this it was I dreaded." Then she strained him to her bosom and kissed him between the eyes, reciting these couplets, "Now, by your love! your love I'll ne'er forget, * Though lost my life for stress of pine and fret: I weep and wail through livelong day and night * As moans the dove on sandhill-tree beset. O fairest friends, your absence spoils my life; * Nor find I meeting-place as erst we met." At this juncture, behold, the Frank came in to them and went up to 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 Mirian, 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.'"[FN#496] Now this handmaid was the daughter of the King of France, the which is a wide and spacious city,[FN#497] 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.[FN#498]—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night,