' As for this wretched woman, put her away
from thee and from thy thought and heart." And she ceased not to
weep and implore him, till he relented and said, "I pardon her,
but I will set a mark on her that shall stay with her all her
life." Then he made the slaves strip off my clothes and hold me
down, and taking a rod of quince-wood beat me with it on the back
and sides till I lost my senses for excess of pain and despaired
of life. Then he commanded slaves, as soon as it was dark, to
carry me back to the house in which I had lived before my
marriage with him, taking the old woman with them to guide them.
They did as he bade them and cast me down in my house and went
away. I did not recover from my swoon till the morning, when I
applied myself to the dressing of my wounds, and medicined myself
and kept my bed for four months, at the end of which time my body
healed and I was restored to health; but my sides still bore the
marks of the blows, as thou hast seen. As soon as I could walk, I
went to the house where all this had happened, but found the
whole street pulled down and nothing but heaps of rubbish where
the house had stood, nor could I learn how this had come about.
Then I betook myself to this my half-sister and found with her
these two black bitches. I saluted her and told her what had
befallen me; and she said, "O my sister, who is safe from the
vicissitudes of fortune? Praised be God, who hath brought thee
off with thy life!" And she repeated the following verse:
Fortune indeed was ever thus: endure it patiently, Whether thou
suffer loss of wealth or friends depart from thee.
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