:
My own allowance, which you set apart
Has lain some months untouched.

AL-HAFI.

Nor is this all.

SALADIN.

Then tell the whole.

AL-HAFI.

Whilst we've been waiting for
The gold from Egypt, she----

SITTAH.

Nay, hear him not.

AL-HAFI.

Not only has had nothing,----

SALADIN.

Dearest sister I--
But also has been lending it to you?

AL-HAFI.

Ay! at her sole expense maintained your state.

SALADIN (_embracing her_).

So like my sister!

SITTAH.

Who but you, my brother,
Could make me rich enough to have the power?

AL-HAFI.

And soon he'll make her once again as poor
As he is now.

SALADIN.

I poor! her brother poor!
When had I more--when had I less than now?
A cloak, a horse, a sabre, and my God!
What need I else? and these ne'er can I lack.
And yet, Al-Hafi, I could scold you now.

SITTAH.

Nay, brother, do not scold. I would that I
Could thus also relieve our father's cares!

SALADIN.

Ah! now my joy has vanished all at once.
We can want nothing; but he's destitute.
And whilst he wants, we all are poor indeed.
What shall I do? From Egypt we can hope
For nothing--though God only knows the cause.
'Tis general peace around, and as for me,
I could live sparingly, reduce, retrench,
If none else suffered; but 'twould not avail.
A cloak, a horse, a sword I ne'er can want.
As to my God, He is not to be bought.
He asks but little, only asks my heart.
I had relied, Al-Hafi, on your chest,
Upon the surplus there.

AL-HAFI.

A surplus there!
Say, should I not have been impaled or hanged,
If I had been detected hoarding up
A surplus? Deficits I might have ventured.

SALADIN.

Well, but what next? Could you have found out