Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/59

Were he here, Abu Zeyd, even now in this hour of speaking,
Him would I smite to death and leave in his blood to perish."
And Abu Zeyd from the tree heard all the words between them,
And my mind rose to her help as a full pot boiling over.
And I heard my name in their mouths, and my heart grew hot within me,
Like a pitcher from the well which brims and spills with fulness.
For why should Sahel slay her, and I not stand between them?
Sahel his sword hath drawn and leapt on her with cursings
The while she cryeth aloud. But I too cried, '^Take courage.
Lo, I am here to thy hand, one able for thy burden.
And of a sudden I dropped and ran to the three that struggled.
And Sahel I seized by the throat and dragged towards destruction.
And he cried, ^' Who art thou and whence and what the way of thy sending ? "
And 1. "From Death the King am I come to take possession.
Life is weary of thee, and Death's edge presseth nearly."
And he, *^ O Sheykh^of Afrits, wilt thou not spare the sword stroke,