'Leave thou the days to breed their ban and bate, * And make thee
strong t' upbear the weight of Fate.'

And also how excellently saith another,

'Whoso shall see the death-day of his foe, * One day surviving,
wins his bestest wish.'"

Then he ordered his attendants to mount Nur al-Din upon the bare
back of a mule; and they said to the youth (for truly it was
irksome to them), "Let us stone him and cut him down thou our
lives go for it." But Nur al-Din said to them, "Do not so: have
ye not heard the saying of the poet,

'Needs must I bear the term by Fate decreed, * And when that day
be dead needs must I die:
If lions dragged me to their forest-lair, * Safe should I live
till draw my death-day nigh.'"

Then they proceeded to proclaim before Nur al-Din, "This is the
least of the retribution for him who imposeth upon Kings with
forgeries." And they ceased not parading him round about
Bassorah, till they made him stand beneath the palace-windows and
set him upon the leather of blood,[FN#74] and the sworder came up
to him and said, "O my lord, I am but a slave commanded in this
matter: an thou have any desire, tell it me that I may fulfil it,
for now there remaineth of they life only so much as may be till
the Sultan shall put his face out of the lattice." Thereupon Nur
al-Din looked to the right and to the left, and before him and