Page 215 sur 1116

Now when the Sultan heard the mournful voice he sprang to his

feet; and, following the sound, found a curtain let down over a

chamber door. He raised it and saw behind it a young man sitting

upon a couch about a cubit above the ground; and he fair to the

sight, a well shaped wight, with eloquence dight; his forehead

was flower white, his cheek rosy bright, and a mole on his cheek

breadth like an ambergris mite; even as the poet doth indite:-

A youth slim waisted from whose locks and brow * The world in

blackness and in light is set. Throughout Creation's round no

fairer show * No rarer sight thine eye hath ever met: A nut brown

mole sits throned upon a cheek * Of rosiest red beneath an eye of

jet.[FN#113]