continued to gaze upon Alexandria, till it disappeared from her eyes, when she fell a-weeping in her privacy with sore weeping.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Eight Hundred and Eightieth Night, She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Wazir of the Frankish King put out to sea in the ship bearing Miriam the Girdle-girl, she gazed Alexandria-wards till the city was hidden from her sight when she wailed and wept copious tears and recited these couplets, "O dwelling of my friends say is there no return * Uswards? But what ken I of matters Allah made? Still fare the ships of Severance, sailing hastily * And in my wounded eyelids tear have ta'en their stead, For parting from a friend who was my wish and will * Healed every ill and every pain and pang allay'd. Be thou, O Allah, substitute of me for him * Such charge some day the care of Thee shall not evade." Then she could not refrain from weeping and wailing. So the patrician[FN#505] knights came up to her and would have comforted her, but she heeded not their consoling words, being distracted by the claims of passion and love-longing. And she shed tears and moaned and complained and recited these couplets, "The tongue of Love within my vitals speaketh * Saying, 'This lover boon of Love aye seeketh!' And burn my liver hottest coals of passion * And parting on my heart sore suffering wreaketh. How shall I face this fiery love concealing * When fro' my wounded lids the tear aye leaketh? In this plight Miriam abode during all the voyage; no peace was left her at all nor would patience come at her call. Such was her case in company with the Wazir, the monocular, the lameter; but as regards Nur al-Din the Cairene, when the ship had sailed with Miriam, the world was straitened upon him and he had neither peace nor patience. He returned to the lodging where they twain had dwelt, and its aspect was black and gloomy in his sight. Then he saw the métier wherewith she had been wont to make the zones and her dress that had been upon her beauteous body: so he pressed them to his breast, whilst the tears gushed from his eyes and he recited these couplets,