all thou needest.”  Presently the Queenmother and her daughter and son-in-law Salim went down to the ship and sailed on till they made the land of Makran.  Their arrival there befel at the last of the day; so they nighted in their ship, and when the morn was near to dawn, the young king landed, that he might go to the Hammam, and walked marketwards.  As he drew near the bath, the Cook met him on the way and knew him; so he seized him and pinioning him straitly, carried him to his house, where he clapped the old fetters on his feet and cast him back into his former place of durance vile.[FN#541] Salim, finding himself in that sorry condition and considering that wherewith he was afflicted of tribulation and the reverses of his fair fortune, in that he had been a king and was now returned to fetters and prison and hunger, wept and groaned and lamented and improvised these couplets,

“My God, no patience now can aid afford; * Strait is my breast, O
     Thou of Lords the Lord: 
My God, who in resource like thine hath force? * And Thou, the
     Subtle, dost my case record.”

On this wise fared it with Salim; but as regards his wife and her mother, when she awoke in the morning and her husband returned not to her with break of dawn, she forebode all manner of calamity and, straightway arising, she despatched her servants and all who were with her in quest of her spouse; but they happened not on any trace of him nor could they hear aught of his news.  So she bethought herself concerning the case and plained and wept and groaned and sighed and blamed Fortune the fickle, bewailing the changes of Time and reciting these couplets,[FN#542]

“God keep the days of love-delight!  How passing sweet they were!
     * How joyous and how solaceful was life in them whilere! 
Would he were not, who sundered us upon the parting-day! * How
     many a body hath he slain, how many a bone laid bare! 
Sans fault of mine, my blood and tears he shed and beggared me *
     Of him I love yet for himself gained nought thereby
     whate’er.”

When she had made an end of her verses, she considered her affair and said within herself, “By Allah, all these things have betided by the predestination of Almighty Allah and His decree and this upon the forehead was written in lines.”  Then she landed and walked on till she came to a spacious place, and an open, where she asked of the folk and hired a house.  Thither she transported forthright all that was in the ship of goods and sending after brokers, sold all that was with her.  Presently she took part of the price and began enquiring of the folk, so haply she might scent out tidings of the lost one; and she addressed herself to lavishing alms and preparing medicines for the sick, clothing the naked and watering the dry ground[FN#543] of the forlorn.  She ceased not so doing a whole year, and little by little she sold off her goods and gave charitable gifts to the