Gardener said to the Prince, “An the King’s daughter espy the shadow of
a man in her garden, she will strike off my head;” the youth replied,
“Have no fear, I will on no wise let any see me. But doubtless to-day
thou lackest of spending-money for thy family.” Then he put his hand to
his purse and pulled out five hundred ducats, which he gave to him
saying, “Take this gold and lay it out on thy family, that thy heart may
be at ease concerning them.” When the Shaykh looked upon the gold, his
life seemed a light thing to him[283] and he suffered the Prince to
tarry where he was, charging him straitly not to show himself in the
garden. Then he left him loitering about. Meanwhile, when the eunuchs
went in to the Princess at break of day, she bade open the private
wicket leading from the palace to the parterres and donned a royal robe,
embroidered with pearls and jewels and gems, over a shift of fine silk
purfled with rubies. Under the whole was that which tongue refuseth to
explain, whereat was confounded the brain and whose love would embrave
the craven’s strain. On her head she set a crown of red gold, inlaid
with pearls and gems and she tripped in pattens of cloth of gold,
embroidered with fresh pearls[284] and adorned with all manner precious
stones. Then she put her hand upon the old woman’s shoulder and
commanded to go forth by the privy door; but the nurse looked at the
garden and, seeing it full of eunuchs and handmaids walking about,
eating the fruits and troubling the streams and taking their ease of
sport and pleasure in the water said to the Princess, “O my lady, is
this a garden or a madhouse?” Quoth the Princess, “What meaneth thy
speech, O nurse?”; and quoth the old woman, “Verily the garden is full
of slave-girls and eunuchs, eating of the fruits and troubling the
streams and scaring the birds and hindering us from taking our ease and
sporting and laughing and what not else; and thou hast no need of them.
Wert thou going forth of thy palace into the highway, this would be
fitting, as an honour and a ward to thee; but, now, O my lady, thou
goest forth of the wicket into the garden, where none of Almighty
Allah’s creatures may look on thee.” Rejoined the Princess, “By Allah, O
nurse mine, thou sayst sooth! But how shall we do?”; and the old woman
said, “Bid the eunuchs send them all away and keep only two of the
slave-girls, that we may make merry with them.” So she dismissed them
all, with the exception of two of her handmaids who were most in favour
with her. But when the old woman saw that her heart was light and that
the season was pleasant to her, she said to her, “Now we can enjoy
ourselves aright: so up and let us take our pleasance in the garden.”
The Princess put her hand upon her shoulder and went out by the private
door. The two waiting-women walked in front and she followed them
laughing at them and swaying gracefully to and fro in her ample robes;
whilst the nurse forewent her, showing her the trees and feeding her
with fruits; and so they fared on from place to place, till they came to
the pavilion, which when the King’s daughter beheld and saw that it had
been restored, she asked the old woman, “O my nurse, seest thou yonder
pavilion? It hath been repaired and its walls whitened.” She answered,
“By Allah, O my lady, I heard say that the keeper of the garden had
taken stuffs of a company of merchants and sold them and bought bricks
and lime and plaster and stones and so forth with the price; so I asked
him what he had done with all this, and he said:—I have repaired the
pavilion which lay in ruins, presently adding:—And when the merchants
sought their due of me, I said to them, Wait till the Princess visit the
garden and see the repairs and they satisfy her; then will I take of her
what she is pleased to bestow on me, and pay you what is your due. Quoth
I—What moved thee to do this thing?; and quoth he:—I saw the pavilion in
ruins, the coigns thrown down and the stucco peeled from the walls, and
none had the grace to repair it; so I borrowed the coin on my own
account and restored the place; and I trust in the King’s daughter to
deal with me as befitteth her dignity. I said:—The Princess is all
goodness and generosity and will no doubt requite thee. And he did all
this but in hopes of thy bounty.” Replied the Princess, “By Allah, he
hath dealt nobly in rebuilding it and hath done the deed of generous
men! Call me my purse-keeperess.” The old woman accordingly fetched the
purse-keeperess, whom the Princess bade give the Gardener two thousand
dinars; whereupon the nurse sent to him, bidding him to the presence of
the King’s daughter. But when the messenger said to him, “Obey the
Queen’s order,” the Gardener felt feeble and, trembling in every joint,
said in himself, “Doubtless, the Princess hath seen the young man, and
this day will be the most unlucky of days for me.” So he went home and
told his wife and children what had happened and gave them his last
charges and farewelled them, while they wept for and with him. Then he
presented himself before the Princess, with a face the colour of
turmeric and ready to fall flat at full length. The old woman remarked
his plight and hastened to forestall him, saying, “O Shaykh, kiss the
earth in thanksgiving to Almighty Allah and be constant in prayer to Him
for the Princess. I told her what thou didst in the matter of repairing
the ruined pavilion, and she rejoiceth in this and bestoweth on thee two
thousand dinars in requital of thy pains; so take them from the
purse-keeperess and kiss the earth before the King’s daughter and bless
her and wend thy way.” Hearing these words he took the gold and kissed
the ground before Hayat al-Nufus, calling down blessings on her. Then he
returned to his house, and his family rejoiced in him and blessed
him[285] who had been the prime cause of this business.——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Thirtieth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
Care-taker took the two thousand ducats from the Princess and returned
to his house, all his family rejoiced in him and blessed him who had
been the prime cause of this business. Thus it fared with these; but as
regards the old woman, she said to the Princess, “O my lady, this is
indeed become a fine place! Never saw I a purer white than its
plastering nor properer than its painting! I wonder if he have also
repaired it within: else hath he made the outside white and left the
inside black. Come, let us enter and inspect.” So they went in, the
nurse preceding, and found the interior painted and gilded in the
goodliest way. The Princess looked right and left, till she came to the
upper end of the estrade, when she fixed her eyes upon the wall and
gazed long and earnestly thereat; whereupon the old woman knew that her
glance had lighted on the presentment of her dream and took the two
waiting-women away with her, that they might not divert her mind. When
the King’s daughter had made an end of examining the painting, she
turned to the old woman, wondering and beating hand on hand, and said to
her, “O my nurse, come, see a wondrous thing which were it graven with
needle-gravers on the eye corners would be a warner to whoso will be
warned.” She replied, “And what is that, O my lady?”; when the Princess
rejoined, “Go, look at the upper end of the estrade, and tell me what
thou seest there.” So she went up and considered the dream-drawing: then
she came down, wondering, and said, “By Allah, O my lady, here is
depicted the garden and the fowler and his net and the birds and all
thou sawest in thy dream; and verily, nothing but urgent need withheld
the male pigeon from returning to free his mate after he had fled her,
for I see him in the talons of a bird of raven which hath slaughtered
him and is drinking his blood and rending his flesh and eating it; and
this, O my lady, caused his tarrying to return and rescue her from the
net. But, O my mistress, the wonder is how thy dream came to be thus
depicted, for, wert thou minded to set it forth in painture, thou hadst
not availed to portray it. By Allah, this is a marvel which should be
recorded in histories! Surely, O my lady, the angels appointed to attend
upon the sons of Adam, knew that the cock-pigeon was wronged of us,
because we blamed him for deserting his mate; so they embraced his cause
and made manifest his excuse; and now for the first time we see him in
the hawk’s pounces a dead bird.” Quoth the Princess, “O my nurse,
verily, Fate and Fortune had course against this bird, and we did him
wrong.” Quoth the nurse, “O my mistress, foes shall meet before Allah
the Most High: but, O my lady, verily, the truth hath been made manifest
and the male pigeon’s excuse certified to us; for had the hawk not
seized him and drunk his blood and rent his flesh he had not held aloof
from his mate, but had returned to her, and set her free from the net;
but against death there is no recourse, nor, O my lady, is there aught
in the world more tenderly solicitous than the male for the female,
among all creatures which Almighty Allah hath created. And especially
’tis thus with man; for he starveth himself to feed his wife, strippeth
himself to clothe her, angereth his family to please her and disobeyeth
and denieth his parents to endow her. She knoweth his secrets and
concealeth them and she cannot endure from him a single hour.[286] An he
be absent from her one night, her eyes sleep not, nor is there a dearer
to her than he: she loveth him more than her parents and they lie down
to sleep in each other’s arms, with his hand under her neck and her hand
under his neck, even as saith the poet:—
I made my wrist her pillow and I lay with her in litter; ✿ And I said to
Night “Be long!” while the full moon showed glitter:
Ah me, it _was_ a night, Allah never made its like; ✿ Whose first was
sweetest sweet and whose last was bitt’rest bitter![287]
Then he kisseth her and she kisseth him; and I have heard of a certain
King that, when his wife fell sick and died, he buried himself alive
with her, submitting himself to death, for the love of her and the
strait companionship which was between them. Moreover, a certain King
sickened and died, and when they were about to bury him, his wife said
to her people: Let me bury myself alive with him: else will I slay
myself and my blood shall be on your heads. So, when they saw she would
not be turned from this thing, they left her, and she cast herself into
the grave with her dead husband, of the greatness of her love and
tenderness for him.” And the old woman ceased not to ply the Princess
with anecdotes of conjugal love between men and women, till there ceased
that which was in her heart of hatred for the sex masculine; and when
she felt that she had succeeded in renewing in her the natural
inclination of woman to man, she said to her, “’Tis time to go and walk
in the garden.” So they fared forth from the pavilion and paced among
the trees. Presently the Prince chanced to turn and his eyes fell on
Hayat al-Nufus; and when he saw the symmetry of her shape and the
rosiclearness of her cheeks and the blackness of her eyes and her
exceeding grace and her passing loveliness and her excelling beauty and
her prevailing elegance and her abounding perfection, his reason was
confounded and he could not take his eyes off her. Passion annihilated
his right judgment and love overpassed all limits in him; his vitals
were occupied with her service and his heart was aflame with the fire of
repine, so that he swooned away and fell to the ground. When he came to
himself, she had passed from his sight and was hidden from him among the
trees;——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Thirty-first Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Prince
Ardashir, who lay hid in the garden, saw the Princess and her nurse
walking amongst the trees, he swooned away for very love-longing. When
he came to himself Hayat al-Nufus had passed from his sight and was
hidden from him among the trees; so he sighed from his heart-core and
improvised these couplets:—
Whenas mine eyes behold her loveliness, ✿ My heart is torn with love’s
own ecstasy.
I wake o’erthrown, cast-down on face of earth ✿ Nor can the
Princess[288] my sore torment see.
She turned and ravished this sad Love-thrall’d sprite; ✿ Mercy, by
Allah, ruth; nay, sympathy!
O Lord, afford me union, deign Thou soothe ✿ My soul, ere grave-niche
house this corse of me;
I’ll kiss her ten times ten times, and times ten ✿ For lover’s wasted
cheek the kisses be!
The old woman ceased not to lead the Princess a-pleasuring about the
garden, till they reached the place where the Prince lay ambushed, when,
behold she said, “O Thou whose bounties are hidden, vouchsafe us
assurance from that we fear!” The King’s son hearing the signal, left
his lurking-place and, surprised by the summons, walked among the trees,
swaying to and fro with a proud and graceful gait and a shape that
shamed the branches. His brow was crowned with pearly drops and his
cheeks red as the afterglow, extolled be Allah the Almighty in that He
hath created! When the King’s daughter caught sight of him, she gazed a
long while on him and noticed his beauty and grace and loveliness and
his eyes that wantoned like the gazelle’s, and his shape that outvied
the branches of the myrobalan; wherefore her wits were confounded and
her soul captivated and her heart transfixed with the arrows of his
glaces. Then she said to the old woman, “O my nurse, whence came yonder
handsome youth?”; and the nurse asked, “Where is he, O my lady?” “There
he is,” answered Hayat al-Nufus; “near hand, among the trees.” The old
woman turned right and left, as if she knew not of his presence, and
cried, “And pray, who can have taught this youth the way into this
garden?” Quoth Hayat al-Nufus, “Who shall give us news of the young man?
Glory be to Him who created men! But say me, dost thou know him, O my
nurse?” Quoth the old woman, “O my lady, he is the young merchant who
wrote to thee by me.” The Princess (and indeed she was drowned in the
sea of her desire and the fire of her passion and love-longing) broke
out, “O my nurse, how goodly is this youth! Indeed he _is_ fair of
favour. Methinks, there is not on the face of earth a goodlier than he!”
Now when the old woman was assured that the love of him had gotten
possession of the Princess, she said to her, “Did I not tell thee, O my
lady, that he was a comely youth with a beaming favour?” Replied Hayat
al-Nufus, “O my nurse, King’s daughters know not the ways of the world
nor the manners of those that be therein, for that they company with
none, neither give they nor take they. O my nurse, how shall I do to
bring about a meeting and present myself to him, and what shall I say to
him and what will he say to me?” Said the old woman, “What device is
left me? Indeed, we were confounded in this matter by thy behaviour”;
and the Princess said, “O my nurse, know thou that if any ever died of
passion, I shall do so, and behold, I look for nothing but death on the
spot by reason of the fire of my love-longing.” When the old woman heard
her words and saw the transport of her desire for him, she answered, “O
my lady, now as for his coming to thee, there is no way thereto; and
indeed thou art excused from going to him, because of thy tender age;
but rise with me and follow me. I will accost him: so shalt thou not be
put to shame, and in the twinkling of an eye affection shall ensue
between you.” The King’s daughter cried, “Go thou before me, for the
decree of Allah may not be rejected.” Accordingly they went up to the
place where Ardashir sat, as he were the full moon at its fullest, and
the old woman said to him, “See O youth, who is present before thee!
’Tis the daughter of our King of the age, Hayat al-Nufus: bethink thee
of her rank and appreciate the honour she doth thee in coming to thee
and rise out of respect for her and stand before her.” The Prince sprang
to his feet in an instant and his eyes met her eyes, whereupon they both
became as they were drunken without wine. Then the love of him and
desire redoubled upon the Princess and she opened her arms and he his,
and they embraced; but love-longing and passion overcame them and they
swooned away and fell to the ground and lay a long while without sense.
The old woman, fearing scandalous exposure, carried them both into the
pavilion, and, sitting down at the door, said to the two waiting-women,
“Seize the occasion to take your pleasure in the garden, for the
Princess sleepeth.” So they returned to their diversion. Presently the
lovers revived from their swoon and found themselves in the pavilion,
whereat quoth the Prince, “Allah upon thee, O Princess of fair ones, is
this vision or sleep-illusion?” Then the twain embraced and intoxicated
themselves without wine, complaining each to other of the anguish of
passion; and the Prince improvised these couplets:—
Sun riseth sheen from her brilliant brow, ✿ And her cheek shows the
rosiest afterglow:
And when both appear to the looker-on, ✿ The skyline star ne’er for
shame will show:
An the leven flash from those smiling lips, ✿ Morn breaks and the rays
dusk and gloom o’erthrow.
And when with her graceful shape she sways, ✿ Droops leafiest
Bán-tree[289] for envy low:
Me her sight suffices; naught crave I more: ✿ Lord of Men and Morn, be
her guard from foe!
The full moon borrows a part of her charms; ✿ The sun would rival but
fails his lowe.
Whence could Sol aspire to that bending grace? ✿ Whence should Luna see
such wit and such mind-gifts know?
Who shall blame me for being all love to her, ✿ ’Twixt accord and
discord aye doomed to woe:
’Tis she won my heart with those forms that bend ✿ What shall lover’s
heart from such charms defend?
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Thirty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Prince
had made an end of his verses, the Princess strained him to her bosom
and kissed him on the mouth and between the eyes; whereupon his soul
returned to him and he fell to complaining to her of that he had endured
for stress of love and tyranny of longing and excess of transport and
distraction and all he had suffered for the hardness of her heart.
Hearing those words she kissed his hands and feet and bared her
head,[290] whereupon the gloom gathered and the full moons dawned
therein. Then said she to him, “O my beloved and term of all my wishes,
would the day of estrangement had never been and Allah grant it may
never return between us!” And they embraced and wept together, whilst
she recited these couplets:—
O who shamest the Moon and the sunny glow: ✿ Thou whose slaught’ring
tyranny lays me low;
With the sword of a look thou hast shorn my heart, ✿ How escape thy
sword-glance fatal of blow?
Thus eke are thine eyebrows a bow that shot ✿ My bosom with shafts of
fiercest lowe:
From thy cheeks’ rich crop cometh Paradise; ✿ How, then, shall my heart
the rich crop forego?
Thy graceful shape is a blooming branch, ✿ And shall pluck the fruits
who shall bear that bough.
Perforce thou drawest me, robst my sleep; ✿ In thy love I strip me and
shameless show:[291]
Allah lend thee the rays of most righteous light, ✿ Draw the farthest
near and a tryst bestow:
Then have ruth on the vitals thy love hath seared, ✿ And the heart that
flies to thy side the mo’e!
And when she ended her recitation, passion overcame her and she was
distraught for love and wept copious tears, rain-like streaming down.
This burnt the Prince’s heart and he in turn became troubled and
distracted for love of her. So he drew nearer to her and kissed her
hands and wept with sore weeping and they ceased not from
lover-reproaches and converse and versifying, until the call to
mid-afternoon prayer (nor was there aught between them other than this),
when they bethought them of parting and she said to him, “O light of
mine eyes and core of my heart, the time of severance has come between
us twain: when shall we meet again?” “By Allah,” replied he (and indeed
her words shot him as with shafts), “to mention of parting I am never
fain!” Then she went forth of the pavilion, and he turned and saw her
sighing sighs would melt the rock and weeping shower-like tears;
whereupon he for love was sunken in the sea of desolation and improvised
these couplets:—
O my heart’s desire! grows my misery ✿ From the stress of love, and what
cure for me?
By thy face, like dawn when it lights the dark, ✿ And thy hair whose hue
beareth night-tide’s blee,
And thy form like the branch which in grace inclines ✿ To Zephyr’s[292]
breath blowing fain and free,
By the glance of thine eyes like the fawn’s soft gaze, ✿ When she views
pursuer of high degree,
And thy waist down borne by the weight of hips, ✿ These so heavy and
that lacking gravity,
By the wine of thy lip-dew, the sweetest of drink, ✿ Fresh water and
musk in its purity,
O gazelle of the tribe, ease my soul of grief, ✿ And grant me thy
phantom in sleep to see!
Now when she heard his verses in praise of her, she turned back to him
and embracing him, with a heart on fire for the anguish of severance,
fire which naught save kisses and embraces might quench, cried, “Sooth
the byword saith, Patience is for a lover and not the lack thereof.
There is no help for it but I contrive a means for our reunion.” Then
she farewelled him and fared forth, knowing not where she set her feet,
for stress of her love; nor did she stay her steps till she found
herself in her own chamber. When she was gone, passion and love-longing
redoubled upon the young Prince and the delight of sleep was forbidden
him, and the Princess in her turn tasted not food and her patience
failed and she sickened for desire. As soon as dawned the day, she sent
for the nurse, who came and found her condition changed and she cried,
“Question me not of my case; for all I suffer is due to thy handiwork.
Where is the beloved of my heart?” “O my lady, when did he leave thee?
Hath he been absent from thee more than this night?” “Can I endure
absence from him an hour? Come, find some means to bring us together
speedily, for my soul is like to flee my body.” “O my lady, have
patience till I contrive thee some subtle device, whereof none shall be
ware.” “By the Great God, except thou bring him to me this very day, I
will tell the King that thou hast corrupted me, and he will cut off thy
head!” “I conjure thee, by Allah, have patience with me, for this is a
dangerous matter!” And the nurse humbled herself to her, till she
granted her three days’ delay, saying, “O my nurse, the three days will
be three years to me; and if the fourth day pass and thou bring him not,
I will go about to slay thee.” So the old woman left her and returned to
her lodging, where she abode till the morning of the fourth day, when
she summoned the tirewomen of the town and sought of them fine dyes and
rouge for the painting of a virgin girl and adorning; and they brought
her cosmetics of the best. Then she sent for the Prince and, opening her
chest, brought out a bundle containing a suit of woman’s apparel, worth
five thousand dinars, and a head-kerchief fringed with all manner gems.
Then said she to him, “O my son, hast thou a mind to foregather with
Hayat al-Nufus?”; and he replied, “Yes.” So she took a pair of tweezers
and pulled out the hairs of his face and pencilled his eyes with
Kohl.[293] Then she stripped him and painted him with Henna[294] from
his nails to his shoulders and from his insteps to his thighs and
tattooed[295] him about the body, till he was like red roses upon
alabaster slabs. After a little, she washed him and dried him and
bringing out a shift and a pair of petticoat-trousers made him put them
on. Then she clad him in the royal suit aforesaid and, binding the
kerchief about his head, veiled him and taught him how to walk, saying,
“Advance thy left and draw back thy right.” He did her bidding and
forewent her, as he were a Houri faring abroad from Paradise. Then said
she to him, “Fortify thy heart, for thou art going to the King’s palace,
where there will without fail be guards and eunuchs at the gate; and if
thou be startled at them and show doubt or dread, they will suspect thee
and examine thee, and we shall both get into grievous trouble and haply
lose our lives: wherefore an thou feel thyself unable to this, tell me.”
He answered, “In very sooth this thing hath no terrors for me, so be of
good cheer and keep thine eyes cool and clear.” Then she went out
preceding him till the twain came to the palace-gate, which was full of
eunuchs. She turned and looked at him, as much as to say, “Art thou
troubled or no?” and finding him all unchanged, went on. The chief
eunuch glanced at the nurse and knew her but, seeing a damsel following
her, whose charms confounded the reason, he said in his mind, “As for
the old woman, she is the nurse; but as for the girl who is with her
there is none in our land resembleth her in favour or approacheth her in
fairness save the Princess Hayat al-Nufus, who is secluded and never
goeth out. Would I knew how she came into the streets and would Heaven I
wot whether or no ’twas by leave of the King!” Then he rose to learn
somewhat concerning her and well nigh thirty castratos followed him;
which when the old woman saw, her reason fled for fear and she said,
“Verily, we are Allah’s and to Him we shall return! Without recourse we
are dead folk this time.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Thirty-third Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old
nurse saw the head of the eunuchry and his assistants making for her she
was in exceeding fear and cried, “There is no Majesty and there is no
Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Verily we are God’s and
unto him we shall return; without recourse we be dead folk this time.”
When the head eunuch heard her speak thus, fear gat hold upon him, by
reason of that which he knew of the Princess’s violence and that her
father was ruled by her, and he said to himself, “Belike the King hath
commanded the nurse to carry his daughter forth upon some occasion of
hers, whereof she would have none know; and if I oppose her, she will be
wroth with me and will say:—This eunuch fellow stopped me, that he might
pry into my affairs. So she will do her best to kill me, and I have no
call to meddle in this matter.” So saying, he turned back, and with him
the thirty assistants who drove the people from the door of the palace;
whereupon the nurse entered and saluted the eunuchs with her head,
whilst all the thirty stood to do her honour and returned her salam. She
led in the Prince and he ceased not following her from door to door, and
the Protector protected them, so that they passed all the guards, till
they came to the seventh door: it was that of the great pavilion,
wherein was the King’s throne, and it communicated with the chambers of
his women and the saloons of the Harim, as well as with his daughter’s
pavilion. So the old woman halted and said, “Here we are, O my son, and
glory be to Him who hath brought us thus far in safety! But, O my son,
we cannot foregather with the Princess except by night; for night
enveileth the fearful.” He replied, “True, but what is to be done?”
Quoth she, “Hide thee in this black hole,” showing him behind the door a
dark and deep cistern, with a cover thereto. So he entered the cistern,
and she went away and left him there till ended day, when she returned
and carried him into the palace, till they came to the door of Hayat
al-Nufus’s apartment. The old woman knocked and a little maid came out
and said, “Who is at the door?” Said the nurse, “’Tis I,” whereupon the
maid returned and craved permission of her lady, who said, “Open to her
and let her come in with any who may accompany her.” So they entered and
the nurse, casting a glance around, perceived that the Princess had made
ready the sitting-chamber and ranged the lamps in row and lighted
candles of wax in chandeliers of gold and silver and spread the divans
and estrades with carpets and cushions. Moreover, she had set on trays
of food and fruits and confections and she had perfumed the place with
musk and aloes-wood and ambergris. She was seated among the lamps and
the tapers and the light of her face outshone the lustre of them all.
When she saw the old woman, she said to her, “O nurse, where is the
beloved of my heart?”; and the other replied, “O my lady, I cannot find
him nor have mine eyes espied him; but I have brought thee his own
sister; and here she is.” Cried the Princess, “Art thou Jinn-mad? What
need have I of his sister? Say me, an a man’s head irk him, doth he bind
up his hand?” The old woman answered, “No, by Allah, O my lady! But look
on her, and if she pleases thee, let her be with thee.” Then she
uncovered the Prince’s face, whereupon Hayat al-Nufus knew him and
running to him, pressed him to her bosom, and he pressed her to his
breast. Then they both fell down in a swoon and lay without sense a long
while. The old woman sprinkled rose-water upon them till they came to
themselves, when she kissed him on the mouth more than a thousand times
and improvised these couplets:—
Sought me this heart’s dear love at gloom of night; ✿ I rose in honour
till he sat forthright,
And said, “O aim of mine, O sole desire ✿ In such night-visit hast of
guards no fright?”
Replied he, “Yes, I fearèd much, but Love ✿ Robbed me of all my wits and
reft my sprite.”
We clipt with kisses and awhile clung we ✿ For here ’twas safe; nor
feared we watchman-wight:
Then rose we parting without doubtful deed ✿ And shook out skirts where
none a stain could sight.
——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Seven Hundred and Thirty-fourth Night,