ht; over it hung a
promontory, a huge jut of black rock. Now, the Princess when she landed,
seeing not him that supported her, delayed not to run beneath the rock,
and ascended by steps cut from the base of the rock. And Shibli Bagarag
followed her by winding paths round the rock, till she came to the
highest peak commanding the circle of the Enchanted Sea, and glimpses of
enthralled vessels, and mariners bewitched on board; long paths of
starlight rippled into the distant gloom, and the reflection of the moon
opposite was as a wide nuptial sheet of silver on the waters: islands,
green and white, and with soft music floating from their foliage, sailed
slowly to and fro. Surely, to dwell reclining among the slopes of those
islands a man would forfeit Paradise! Now, the Princess, as she stood
upon the peak, knew that she was not alone, and pretended to slip from
her footing, and Shibli Bagarag called out and ran to her; but she turned
in the direction of his voice and laughed, and he knew he was outwitted.
Then, to deceive her, he dropped from the phial twenty drops round her on
the rock, and those twenty drops became twenty voices, so that she was
bewildered with their calls, and stopped her ears, and ran from them, and
descended from the eminence nimbly, slipping over ledges and leaping the
abysses. And Shibli Bagarag followed her, clutching at the trailers and
tearing them with him, letting loose a torrent of stones and earth, till
on a sudden they stood together above a greenswarded basin of the rock
opening to the sea; and in the middle of the basin, lo! in stature like a
maiden of the mountains, and one that droopeth her head pensively
thinking of her absent lover, the Enchanted Lily. Wonder knocked at the
breast of Shibli Bagarag when he saw that queenly flower waving its
illumined head to the breeze: he could not retain a cry of rapture. As he
did this the Princess stretched her hand to where he was and groped a
moment, and caught him by the silken dress and tore in it a great rent,
and by the rent he stood revealed to her. Then said she, 'O youth, thou
halt done ill to follow me here, and the danger of it is past computing;
surely, the motive was a deep one, nought other than the love of me.'

She spoke winningly, sweet words to a luted voice, and the youth fell
upon his knees before her, smitten by her beauty; and he said, 'I
followed thee here as I would follow such loveliness to the gates of
doom, O Princess of