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| THERE came a man, making his hasty moan | |
| Before the Sultan Mahmoud on his throne, | |
| And crying out, “My sorrow is my right, | |
| And I will see the Sultan, and to-night.” | |
| “Sorrow,” said Mahmoud, “is a reverend thing: | 5 |
| I recognize its right, as king with king; | |
| Speak on.” “A fiend has got into my house,” | |
| Exclaimed the staring man, “and tortures us,— | |
| One of thine officers; he comes, the abhorred, | |
| And takes possession of my house, my board, | 10 |
| My bed;—I have two daughters and a wife, | |
| And the wild villain comes and makes me mad with life.” | |
| “Is he there now?” said Mahmoud. “No; he left | |
| The house when I did, of my wits bereft, | |
| And laughed me down the street, because I vowed | 15 |
| I ’d bring the prince himself to lay him in his shroud. | |
| I ’m mad with want, I ’m mad with misery, | |
| And, O thou Sultan Mahmoud, God cries out for thee!” | |
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| The Sultan comforted the man, and said, | |
| “Go home, and I will send thee wine and bread” | 20 |
| (For he was poor) “and other comforts. Go; | |
| And should the wretch return, let Sultan Mahmoud know.” | |
| |
| In three days’ time, with haggard eyes and beard, | |
| And shaken voice, the suitor reappeared, | |
| And said, “He’s come.” Mahmoud said not a word, | 25 |
| But rose and took four slaves, each with a sword, | |
| And went with the vexed man. They reach the place, | |
| And hear a voice, and see a woman’s face, | |
| That to the window fluttered in affright: | |
| “Go in,” said Mahmoud, “and put out the light; | 30 |
| But tell the females first to leave the room; | |
| And when the drunkard follows them, we come.” | |
| |
| The man went in. There was a cry, and hark! | |
| A table falls, the window is struck dark: | |
| Forth rush the breathless women, and behind | 35 |
| With curses comes the fiend in desperate mind. | |
| In vain: the sabres soon cut short the strife, | |
| And chop the shrieking wretch, and drink his bloody life. | |
| |
| “Now light the light,” the Sultan cried aloud: | |
| ’T was done: he took it in his hand and bowed | 40 |
| Over the corpse, and looked upon the face; | |
| Then turned and knelt, and to the throne of grace | |
| Put up a prayer, and from his lips there crept | |
| Some gentle words of pleasure, and he wept. | |
| In reverent silence the beholders wait, | 45 |
| Then bring him at his call both wine and meat; | |
| And when he had refreshed his noble heart, | |
| He bade his host be blest, and rose up to depart. | |
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| The man amazed, all mildness now and tears, | |
| Fell at the Sultan’s feet with many prayers, | 50 |
| And begged him to vouchsafe to tell his slave | |
| The reason first of that command he gave | |
| About the light; then, when he saw the face, | |
| Why he knelt down; and lastly, how it was | |
| That fare so poor as his detained him in the place. | 55 |
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| The Sultan said, with a benignant eye, | |
| “Since first I saw thee come, and heard thy cry, | |
| I could not rid me of a dread, that one | |
| By whom such daring villanies were done, | |
| Must be some lord of mine,—ay, e’en perhaps a son. | 60 |
| For this I had the light put out: but when | |
| I saw the face, and found a stranger slain, | |
| I knelt and thanked the sovereign Arbiter, | |
| Whose work I had performed through pain and fear; | |
| And then I rose and was refreshed with food, | 65 |
| The first time since thy voice had marred my solitude.” | |
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