When they sighted the sails of the ship in which
were Sufiyeh and her maidens, they gave chase in all haste and
coming up with her before long, threw grapnels on board and made
fast to her. Then they made all sail for their own island and
were but a little distant from it, when the wind veered and rent
their sails and cast them on to a reef on our coast. Thereupon we
sallied forth on them, and looking on them as booty driven to us
by fate, slew the men and made prize of the ships, in which we
found the treasures and rarities in question and forty damsels,
amongst whom was Sufiyeh. We carried the damsels to my father,
not knowing that the King's daughter of Constantinople was among
them, and he chose out ten of them, including Sufiyeh, for
himself, and divided the rest among his courtiers. Then he set
apart Sufiyeh and four other girls and sent them to thy father,
King Omar ben Ennuman, together with other presents, such as
cloth and stuffs of wool and Grecian silks. Thy father accepted
them and chose out from amongst the five girls the princess
Sufiyeh, daughter of King Afridoun; nor did we hear aught more of
the matter till the beginning of this year, when King Afridoun
wrote to my father in terms which it befits not to repeat,
reproaching and menacing him and saying to him, 'Two years ago,
there fell into thy hands a ship of ours, that had been seized by
a company of Frankish corsairs and in which was my daughter
Sufiyeh, attended by near threescore damsels.
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