Страница 583 из 1116

And he found her a pearl unpierced and unthridden and a filly by

all men save himself unridden; and he abated her virginity and

had joyance of her youth in his virility and presently he

withdrew sword from sheath; and then returned to the fray right

eath; and when the battle and the siege had finished, some

fifteen assaults he had furnished and she conceived by him that

very night. Then he laid his hand under her head and she did the

same and they embraced and fell asleep in each other's arms, as a

certain poet said of such lovers in these couplets:-