Page 307 of 1116

Then he bade bind me hand and foot, and put me into a chest and

said to the sworder, "Take charge of this fellow, and go off with

him to the waste lands about the city; then draw thy scymitar and

slay him, and leave him to feed the beasts and birds." So the

headsman fared forth with me and when he was in the midst of the

desert, he took me out of the chest (and I with both hands

pinioned and both feet fettered) and was about to bandage my eyes

before striking off my head. But I wept with exceeding weeping

until I made him weep with me and, looking at him I began to

recite these couplets:-

"I deemed you coat o' mail that should withstand * The foeman's

shafts, and you proved foeman's brand I hoped your aidance in

mine every chance * Though fail my left to aid my dexter hand:

Aloof you stand and hear the railer's gibe * While rain their

shafts on me the giber-band: But an ye will not guard me from my

foes * Stand clear, and succour neither these nor those!"

And I also quoted:-