Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Ninety-sixth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that whenas Al-Malik al-Nasir said, “Give him his choice to take one of the girls for the ten dinars that are due to him;” they brought me to the captives’ lodging and showed me all who were therein, and I saw amongst them the Frankish damsel with whom I had fallen in love at Acre and knew her right well. Now she was the wife of one of the cavaliers of the Franks. So I said, “Give me this one,” and carrying her to my tent, asked her, “Dost thou know me?” She answered, “No;” and I rejoined, “I am thy friend, the sometime flax-merchant with whom thou hadst to do at Acre and there befel between us what befel. Thou tookest money of me and saidest, ‘Thou shalt never again see me but for five hundred dinars.’ And now thou art become my property for ten ducats.” Quoth she, “This is a mystery. Thy faith is the True Faith and I testify that there is no god but _the_ God and that Mohammed is the Messenger of God!” And she made perfect profession of Al-Islam. Then said I to myself, “By Allah, I will not go in unto her till I have set her free and acquainted the Kazi.” So I betook myself to Ibn Shaddád[35] and told him what had passed and he married me to her. Then I lay with her that night and she conceived; after which the troops departed and we returned to Damascus. But within a few days there came an envoy from the King of the Franks, to seek the captives and the prisoners, according to the treaty between the Kings. So Al-Malik al-Nasir restored all the men and women captive, till there remained but the woman who was with me and the Franks said, “The wife of such an one the Knight is not here.” Then they asked after her and making strict search for her, found that she was with me; whereupon they demanded her of me and I went in to her sore concerned and with colour changed; and she said to me, “What aileth thee and what evil assaileth thee?” Quoth I, “A messenger is come from the King to take all the captives, and they demand thee of me.” Quoth she, “Have no fear, bring me to the King and I know what to say before and to him.” I carried her into the presence of the Sultan Al-Malik al-Nasir, who was seated, with the envoy of the King of the Franks on his right hand, and I said to him, “This is the woman that is with me.” Then quoth the King and the envoy to her, “Wilt thou go to thy country or to[36] thy husband? For Allah hath loosed thy bonds and those of thy fellow captives.” Quoth she to the Sultan, “I am become a Moslemah and am great with child, as by my middle ye may see, and the Franks shall have no more profit of me.” The envoy asked, “Whether is dearer to thee, this Moslem or thy first husband the knight such an one?;” and she answered him even as she had answered the Sultan. Then said the envoy to the Franks with him, “Heard ye her words?” They replied, “Yes.” And he said to me, “Take thy wife and depart with her.” So I took her and went away; but the envoy sent after me in haste and cried, “Her mother gave me a charge for her, saying, My daughter is a captive and naked: and I would have thee carry her this chest. Take it thou and deliver it to her.” Accordingly I carried the chest home and gave it to her. She opened it and found in it all her raiment as she had left it and therein I saw the two purses of fifty and an hundred dinars which I had given her, untouched and tied up with my own tying, wherefore I praised Almighty Allah. These are my children by her and she is alive to this day and ’twas she dressed you this food. We marvelled at his story and at that which had befallen him of good fortune, and Allah is All-knowing. But men also tell a tale anent the