of welfare, "God be your protector also. I obey your commands." Coming
out from thence, I mounted my horse, and having placed my reliance
on the protection of the Almighty, I set forward, and throwing two
stages into one, I soon reached the neighbourhood of Damascus.

In short, when I arrived at the city gate, the night was far advanced,
and the door-keepers and guards had shut them. I made much entreaty,
and added, "I am a traveller, who has come a long journey, at a great
rate; if you would kindly open the gates, I could get into the city
and procure some refreshment for myself and my horse." They rudely
replied from within, "There is no order to open the gates at this
hour; why have you come so late in the night?" When I heard this
plain answer of theirs, I alighted from my horse under the walls of
the city, and spreading my housing, I sat down; but to keep awake,
I often rose up and walked about. When it was exactly midnight, [112]
there was a dead silence. What do I see but a chest descending slowly
from the walls of the fortress! When I beheld this [strange sight], I
was filled with surprise, thinking what talisman is this! perhaps God,
taking pity on my perplexity and my misfortunes, has sent me here some
bounty from his hidden treasure. When the chest rested on the ground, I
approached it with much fear, and perceived it was of wood. Instigated
by curiosity, I opened it; I beheld in it a beautiful lovely woman (at
the sight of whom the senses would vanish), wounded and weltering in
her blood, with her eyes closed, and in extreme agonies. By degrees
her lips moved, and these sounds issued slowly from her mouth, "O
faithless wretch! O barbarous tyrant! Is this deed which thou hast
done, the return I merited for all my affection and kindness! Well,
well! give me another blow [and complete thy cruelty]: I entrust to God
the executing of justice between myself and thee." After pronouncing
these words, even in that insensible state, she drew the end of her