till he left me as thou seest, and all this hath befallen me only
because I thought to buy this damsel for thee!" Then the Wazir
threw himself on the ground and lay there weeping and shivering.
When the Sultan saw his condition and heard his story, the vein
of rage started out between his eyes[FN#37] and he turned to his
body-guard who stood before him, forty white slaves, smiters with
the sword, and said to them, "Go down forthright to the house
built by the son of Khakan and sack it and raze it and bring to
me his son Nur al-Din with the damsel; and drag them both on
their faces with their arms pinioned behind them." They replied,
"To hear is to obey;" and, arming themselves, they set out for
the house of Nur al-Din Ali. Now about the Sultan was a
Chamerlain, Alam[FN#38] al-Din Sanjar hight, who had aforetime
been Mameluke to Al-Fazl; but he had risen in the world and the
Sultan had advanced him to be one of his Chamberlains. When he
heard the King's command and saw the enemies make them ready to
slay his old master's son, it was grievous to him: so he went out
from before the Sultan and, mounting his beast, rode to Nur al-
Din's house and knocked at the door. Nur al-Din came out and
knowing him would have saluted him: but he said, "O my master
this is no time for greeting or treating. Listen to what the
poet said,

'Fly, fly with thy life if by ill overtaken!
Let thy house speak thy death by its builder forsaken!
For a land else than this land thou may'st reach, my brother,
But thy life tho'lt ne'er find in this world another.'"[FN#39]

"O Alam al-Din what cheer?" asked Nur al-Din, and he answered,
"Rise quickly and fly for thy life, thou and the damsel; for Al-