Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/81

That., if a bird had heard, it had stooped from its way in heaven.
In figure and trope they sang, of four-and-twenty stanzas.
And Alia chose eight players, the cunningest among them,
Four for the lute and viol, and four for hymns and chauntings.
Each sat him down and played, and they sang with pleasant voices.
Thus twenty nights went by as a single hour in swiftness.
And it seemed to me my life had been ever thus from its outset,
Till I forgot Helal, even Helal ibn Amer.
Then suddenly the thought came to me of my people,
My tribe and my high place, my friends and war companions,
And tears ran down my face I did not seek to stay them
But sat as a man crazed. And Alia, when she saw me,
" What aileth thee, Abu Zeyd, and what may be thy trouble?"
And I said, tc O Alia, see me how I thus late remember
My glory and my tribe, and friends, and war-companions ;
See, I have lingered here these twenty nights in number
In this thy stranger tribe. And how then shall I end it ?
Arise and bring the mare, and see that thou delay not,
If thou be one of trust." And she, " I will surely bring her,