O Lord my foes are fain to slay me in despight ✿ Nor deem I anywise to find escape by flight: I have recourse to Thee t’ annul what they have done; ✿ Thou art th’ asylum, Lord, of fearful suppliant wight.
Then wept she grievously, till she fell down in a swoon, and presently coming to herself, repeated these two couplets[158]:—
Troubles familiar with my heart are grown and I with them, ✿ erst shunning; for the generous are sociable still. Not one mere kind alone of woe doth lieger with me lie; ✿ Praised be God! There are with me thousands of kinds of ill.
Oft times Mischance shall straiten noble breast ✿ With grief, whence issue is for Him to shape: But when the meshes straitest, tightest, seem ✿ They loose, though deemed I ne’er to find escape.
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Twentieth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Queen Nur al-Huda ordered into the presence her sister Princess Manar al-Sana, they set her between her hands and she, pinioned as she was recited the verses aforesaid. Then the Queen[159] sent for a ladder of wood and made the eunuchs lay her on her back, with her arms spread out and bind her with cords thereto; after which she bared her head and wound her hair about the ladder-rungs and indeed all pity for her was rooted out from her heart. When Manar al-Sana saw herself in this state of abjection and humiliation, she cried out and wept; but none succoured her. Then said she to the Queen, “O my sister, how is thy heart hardened against me? Has thou no mercy on me nor pity on these little children?” But her words only hardened her sister’s heart and she insulted her, saying, “O Wanton! O harlot! Allah have no ruth on whoso sueth for thee! How should I have compassion on thee, O traitress?” Replied Manar al-Sana who lay stretched on the ladder, “I appeal from thee to the Lord of the Heavens, concerning that wherewith thou revilest me and whereof I am innocent! By Allah, I have done no whoredom, but am lawfully married to him, and my Lord knoweth an I speak sooth or not! Indeed, my heart is wroth with thee, by reason of thine excessive hardheartedness against me! How canst thou cast at me the charge of harlotry, without knowledge? But my Lord will deliver me from thee and if that whoredom whereof thou accusest me be true, may He presently punish me for it!” Quoth Nur al-Huda after a few moments of reflection “How durst thou bespeak me thus?” and rose and beat her till she fainted away[160]; whereupon they sprinkled water on her face till she revived; and in truth her charms were wasted for excess of beating and the straitness of her bonds and the sore insults she had suffered. Then she recited these two couplets:—
