Said Al Harith, son of Hammam: Now when I perceived that the pleadings of the old man were as the pleadings of Ibn Surayj, I knew him to be the Glory of the Serujis: and I delayed until the stars of the darkness glittered, and the knots of the crowd dispersed: and then I sought the Governor's courtyard; and lo! the old man guarding the youth. And I adjured him by God to say whether he was Abu Zayd: he said, "Yes, by him who hath permitted the chase." I said, "Who is this boy, after whom the understanding darts?" He said, "In kin he is my chick, and in making gain my springe." I said, "Wilt thou not be satisfied with the graces of his make, and spare the Governor temptation by his forelock?" He said, "Were it not that his forehead put forth its ringlets, I should not have snatched the fifty." Then he said, "Pass the night near me that we may quench the fire of grief, and give enjoyment its turn after separation. For I have resolved to slip away at dawn, and to burn the Governor's heart with the flame of regret." Said Al Harith, Then I spent the night with him in conversation more pleasant than a garden of flowers, or a woodland of trees: until when the Wolf's Tail lighted the horizon, and the brightening of the daybreak came on in its time, he mounted the back of the highway, and left the Governor to taste burning torment. And he committed to me, in the hour of his departure a paper firmly closed, and said, "Hand it to the Governor when he has been bereft of composure, when he has convinced himself of our flight." But I broke the seal as one who would free himself from a letter of Mutelemmis, and behold there was written in it: Tell the Governor whom I have left, after my departure, repenting, grieving, biting his hands, That the old man has stolen his money and the young one his heart; and he is scorched in the flame of a double regret. He was generous with his coin when love blinded his eye, and he has ended with losing either. Calm thy grief, O afflicted, for it profits not to seek the traces after the substance is gone. But if what has befallen thee is terrible to thee as the ill-fate of Al Hosayn is terrible to the Moslems; Yet hast thou gotten in exchange for it understanding and caution; and the wise man, the prudent, wishes for these. So henceforth resist desires, and know that the chasing of gazelles is not easy; No, nor does every bird enter the springe, even though it be surrounded by silver. And how many a one who seeks to make a prey becomes a prey himself, and meets with naught but the shoes of Honayn! Now consider well, and forecast not every thundercloud: many a thundercloud may have in it the bolts of death: And cast down thine eye, that thou mayest rest from a passion by which thou wouldest clothe thyself with the garment of infamy and disgrace. For the trouble of man is the following of the soul's desire; and the seed of desire is the longing look of the eye.