mounted their beasts and issued forth the convent gate,--
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.

When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-second Night,

She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Zayn
al-Mawasif and her handmaids issued forth the convent gate and,
under favour of the night, rode on till they overtook a caravan,
with which they mingled and found it came from the city of 'Adan
wherein the lady had dwelt. Presently, Zayn al-Mawasif heard the
people of the caravan discoursing of her own case and telling how
the Kazis and Assessors were dead of love for her and how the
townsfolk had appointed in their stead others who released her
husband from prison. Whereupon she turned to her maids and asked
them, "Heard ye that?"; and Hubub answered, "If the monks were
ravished with love of thee, whose belief it is that shunning
women is worship, how should it be with the Kazis, who hold that
there is no monkery in Al-Islam? But let us make our way to our
own country, whilst our affair is yet hidden." So they drave on
with all diligence. Such was their case; but as regards the
monks, on the morrow, as soon as it was day they repaired to Zayn
al-Mawasif's lodging, to salute her, but found the place empty,
and their hearts sickened within them. So the first monk rent his
raiment and improvised these couplets,

"Ho ye, my friends, draw near, for I forthright * From you
depart, since parting is my lot:
My vitals suffer pangs o' fiery love; * Flames of desire in heart
burn high and hot,