And she panted and sighed, and wept, crying, ’Who, who will kiss me or have my kiss now, that I may indeed be as yonder beam?  Who, that I may be avenged on this King?  And who sang that song of the ascending of the moon, that comes to me as a part of me from old times?’ As she gazed on the circled radiance swimming under a plume of palm leaves, she exclaimed, ‘Ruark!  Ruark the Chief!’ So she clasped her hands to her bosom, and crouched under the shadows of the garden, and fled through the garden gates and the streets of the city, heavily veiled, to the prison where Ruark awaited her within the walls and Ukleet without.  The Governor of the prison had been warned by Ukleet of her coming, and the doors and bars opened before her unchallenged, till she stood in the cell of Ruark; her eyes, that were alone unveiled, scanned the countenance of the Chief, the fevered lustre-jet of his looks, and by the little moonlight in the cell she saw with a glance the straw-heap and the fetters, and the black-bread and water untasted on the bench—­signs of his misery and desire for her coming.  So she greeted him with the word of peace, and he replied with the name of the All-Merciful.  Then said she, ’O Ruark, of Rukrooth thy mother tell me somewhat.’

He answered, ’I know nought of her since that day.  Allah have her in his keeping!’

So she cried, ’How?  What say’st thou, Ruark? ‘tis a riddle.’

Then he, ’The oath of Ruark is no rope of sand!  He swore to see her not till he had set eyes on Bhanavar.’

She knelt by the Chief, saying in a soft voice, ’Very greatly the Chief of the Beni-Asser loved Bhanavar.’  And she thought, ’Yea! greatly and verily love I him; and he shall be no victim of the Serpents, for I defy them and give them other prey.’  So she said in deeper notes, ’Ruark! the Queen is come hither to release thee.  O my Chief!  O thou soul of wrath!  Ruark, my fire-eye! my eagle of the desert! where is one on earth beloved as thou art by Bhanavar?’ The dark light in his eyes kindled as light in the eyes of a lion, and she continued, ’Ruark, what a yoke is hers who weareth this crown!  He that is my lord, how am I mated to him save in loathing?  O my Chief, my lion! hadst thou no dream of Bhanavar, that she would come hither to unbind thee and lift thee beside her, and live with thee in love and veilless loveliness,—­thine?  Yea! and in power over lands and nations and armies, lording the infidel, taming them to submission, exulting in defiance and assaults and victories and magnanimities—­thou and she?’ Then while his breast heaved like a broad wave, the Queen started to her feet, crying, ’Lo, she is here! and this she offereth thee, Ruark!’