203
Then he put out his hand and finding the bread and water at his head, ate enough to keep life in him and drank a little water, but could get no sleep for the swarms of bugs and lice. As soon as it was day, the slave-girl came down to him and changed his clothes, which were drenched with blood and stuck to him, so that his skin came off with the shirt; wherefore he shrieked aloud and cried, ‘Alas!’ and said, ‘O my God, if this be Thy pleasure, increase it upon me! O Lord, verily Thou art not unmindful of him that oppresses me: do Thou then avenge me upon him!’ And he groaned and repeated the following verses:
Lord, I submit myself to that Thou dost decree, Contented to endure, if but it pleasure Thee;
To suffer at Thy will with patience nor complain, Though I be cast to burn on coals of tamarisk-tree.[1]
Mine enemies oppress and torture me; but Thou With benefits belike shall ’quite and comfort me.
Far be ’t from Thee to let th’ oppressor go unscathed; Thou art my hope and stay, O Lord of Destiny!
And what another says:
Avert thy face from thought-taking and care And trust to fate to order thine affair;
For many a weary and a troublous thing Is, in its issue, solaceful and fair.
That which was strait is oftentimes made wide And straitened that, which easy was whilere.
God orders all, according to His will; Gainsay Him not in what He doth prepare,
But trust in happy fortune near at hand, Wherein thou shalt forget the woes that were.
Then the slave-girl beat him till he fainted away and throwing him a cake of bread and a cruse of brackish water, went away and left him sad and lonely, bound in chains of iron, with the blood streaming from his sides
- ↑ The wood of which makes a peculiarly fierce and lasting fire.
