ordered one of her women to bring her a fire-pan with a little
fire. After that she bade her retire, and shut the door. When she
was alone, she took a piece of aloes-wood out of a box, and put
it into the fire-pan. As soon as she saw the smoke rise, she
repeated some words unknown to the king of Persia, who observed
with great attention all that she did. She had no sooner ended,
than the sea began to be disturbed. The closet the king was in
was so contrived, that looking through the lattice on the same
side with the windows that faced the sea, he could plainly
perceive it.
At length the sea opened at some distance; and presently there
arose out of it a tall, handsome young man, with whiskers of a
sea-green colour; a little behind him, a lady, advanced in years,
but of a majestic air, attended by five young ladies, nothing
inferior in beauty to the Queen Gulnare.
Queen Gulnare immediately came to one of the windows, and saw the
king her brother, the queen her mother, and the rest of her
relations, who at the same time perceived her also. The company
advanced, supported, as it were, upon the waves. When they came
to the edge, they nimbly, one after another, sprung in at the
window. King Saleh, the queen her mother, and the rest of her
relations, embraced her tenderly on their first entrance, with
tears in their eyes.
After Queen Gulnare had received them with all imaginable honour,
and made them sit down upon a sofa, the queen her mother
addressed herself to her: "Daughter," said she, "I am overjoyed
to see you again after so long an absence; and I am confident
that your brother and your relations are no less so. Your leaving
us without acquainting any one with your intention, involved us
in inexpressible concern; and it is impossible to tell you how
many tears we have shed on your account. We know of no reason
that could induce you to take such a resolution, but what your
brother related to us respecting the conversation that passed
between him and you. The advice he gave you seemed to him at that
time advantageous for settling you in the world, and suitable to
the then posture of our affairs. If you had not approved of his
proposal, you ought not to have been so much alarmed; and give me
leave to tell you, you took his advice in a different light from
what you ought to have done. But no more of this; it serves only
to renew the occasion of our sorrow and complaint, which we and
you ought to bury forever in oblivion; give us now an account of
all that has happened to you since we saw you last, and of your
present situation, but especially let us know if you are
married."
Gulnare immediately threw herself at her mother's feet, and
kissing her hand, "Madam," said she, "I own I have been guilty of
a fault, and I am indebted to your goodness for the pardon which
you are pleased to grant me. What I am going to say, in obedience
to your commands, will soon convince you, that it is often in
vain for us to have an aversion for certain measures; I have
myself experienced that the only thing I had an abhorrence to, is
that to which my destiny has led me." She then related the whole
of what had befallen her since she quitted the sea for the earth.
As soon as she had concluded, and acquainted them with her having
been sold to the king of Persia, in whose palace she was at
present; "Sister," said the king her brother, "you have been
wrong to suffer so many indignities, but you can properly blame
nobody but yourself; you have it in your power now to free
yourself, and I cannot but admire your patience, that you could
endure so long a slavery. Rise, and return with us into my
kingdom, which I have reconquered from the proud usurper who had
made himself master of it."
The king of Persia, who heard these words from the closet where
he stood, was in the utmost alarm; "Ah!" said he to himself, "I
am ruined, and if my queen, my Gulnare, hearken to this advice,
and leave me, I shall surely die, for it is impossible for me to
live without her." Queen Gulnare soon put him out of his fears.
"Brother," said she smiling, "what I have just heard gives me a
greater proof than ever of the sincerity of your affection; I
could not brook your proposing to me a match with a prince of the
earth: now I can scarcely forbear being angry with you for
advising me to break the engagement I have made with the most
puissant and most renowned monarch in the world. I do not speak
here of an engagement between a slave and her master; it would be
easy to return the ten thousand pieces of gold he gave for me;
but I speak now of a contract between a wife and a husband--and a
wife who has not the least reason to complain. He is a religious,
wise, and temperate king, and has given me the most essential
demonstrations of his love. What can be a greater proof of the
sincerity of his passion, than sending away all his women (of
which he had a great number) immediately upon my arrival, and
confining himself to me alone? I am now his wife, and he has
lately declared me queen of Persia, to share with him in his
councils; besides, I am pregnant, and if heaven permit me to give
him a son, that will be another motive to engage my affections to
him the more."
"So that, brother," continued the queen Gulnare, "instead of
following your advice, you see I have all the reason in the
world, not only to love the king of Persia as passionately as he
loves me, but also to live and die with him, more out of
gratitude than duty. I hope then neither my mother, nor you, nor
any of my cousins, will disapprove of the resolution or the
alliance I have made, which will do equal honour to the kings of
the sea and earth. Excuse me for giving you the trouble of coming
hither from the bottom of the deep, to communicate it to you; and
to enjoy the pleasure of seeing you after so long a separation."
"Sister," replied King Saleh, "the proposal I made you of going
back with us into my kingdom, upon the recital of your adventures
(which I could not hear without concern), was only to let you see
how much we all love you, and how much I in particular honour
you, and that nothing is so dear to me as your happiness. Upon
the same account then, for my own part, I cannot condemn a
resolution so reasonable and so worthy of yourself, after what
you have told us of the king of Persia your husband, and the
great obligations you owe him; and I am persuaded that the queen
our mother will be of the same opinion."
The queen confirmed what her son had spoken, and addressing
herself to Gulnare, said, "I am glad to hear you are pleased; and
I have nothing to add to what your brother has said. I should
have been the first to condemn you, had you not expressed all the
gratitude you owe to a monarch that loves you so passionately."
As the king of Persia had been extremely concerned under the
apprehension of losing his beloved queen, so now he was
transported with joy at her resolution never to forsake him; and
having no room to doubt of her love after so open a declaration,
he resolved to evince his gratitude in every possible way.
While the king was indulging incredible pleasure, Queen Gulnare
clapped her hands, and immediately some of her slaves entered,
whom she had ordered to bring in a collation: as soon as it was
served up, she invited the queen her mother, the king her
brother, and her cousins to partake. They began to reflect that
they were in the palace of a mighty king, who had never seen or
heard of them, and that it would be rudeness to eat at his table
without him. This reflection raised a blush in their faces, and
in their emotion, their eyes glowing like fire, they breathed
flames at their mouths and nostrils.
This unexpected sight put the king of Persia, who was totally
ignorant of the cause of it, into a dreadful consternation. Queen
Gulnare, suspecting this, and understanding the intention of her
relations, rose from her seat, and told them she would be back in
a moment. She went directly to the closet, and by her presence
recovered the king of Persia from his surprise; "Sir," said she,
"I doubt not but that your majesty is well pleased with the
acknowledgment I have made of the many favours for which I am
indebted to you. I might have complied with the wishes of my
relations, and gone back with them into their dominions; but I am
not capable of such ingratitude, for which I should have been the
first to condemn myself." "Ah! my queen," cried the king of
Persia, "speak no more of your obligations to me; you have none;
I am under so many to you, that I shall never be able to repay
them. I never thought it possible you could have loved me so
tenderly as you do, and as you have made appear to me in the most
endearing manner." "Ah! sir," replied Gulnare "could I do less? I
fear I have not done enough, considering all the honours that
your majesty has heaped upon me; and it is impossible for me to
remain insensible of your love, after so many convincing proofs
as you have given me."
"But, sir," continued Gulnare, "let us drop this subject, and
give me leave to assure you of the sincere friendship the queen
my mother and the king my brother are pleased to honour you with;
they earnestly desire to see you, and tell you so themselves: I
intended to have had some conversation with them by ordering a
banquet for them, before I introduced them to your majesty; but
they are impatient to pay their respects to you; and therefore I
beseech your majesty to be pleased to honour them with your
presence."
"Madam," said the king of Persia, "I should be glad to salute
persons who have the honour to be so nearly related to you, but I
am afraid of the flames they breathe at their mouths and
nostrils." "Sir," replied the queen laughing, "you need not in
the least fear those flames, which are nothing but a sign of
their unwillingness to eat in your palace, without your honouring
them with your presence, and eating with them."
The king of Persia, encouraged by these words, rose and went into
the apartment with his Queen Gulnare She presented him to the
queen her mother, to the king her brother, and to her other
relations; who instantly threw themselves at his feet, with their
faces to the ground. The king of Persia ran to them, and lifting
them up, embraced them one after another. After they were all
seated, King Saleh began: "Sir;" said he to the king of Persia,
"we are at a loss for words to express our joy, to think that the
queen my sister, in her disgrace, should have the happiness of
falling under the protection of so powerful a monarch. We can
assure you, she is not unworthy of the high rank to which you
have been pleased to raise her; and we have always had so much
love and tenderness for her, that we could never think or parting
with her to any of the puissant princes of the sea, who have
often demanded her in marriage before she came of age. Heaven has
reserved her for you, and we have no better way of testifying our
gratitude for the favour it has done her, than beseeching it to
grant your majesty a long and happy life with her, and to crown
you with prosperity and satisfaction.
"Certainly," replied the king of Persia, "heaven reserved her for
me, as you observe. I love her with so tender and ardent a
passion, that I am satisfied I never loved any woman till I saw
her. I cannot sufficiently thank either the queen her mother or
you, prince, or your whole family, for the generosity with which
you have consented to receive me into an alliance so glorious to
me as yours." So saying he invited them to take part of the
collation, and he and his queen sat down with them. After the
collation, the king of Persia conversed with them till it was
very late; and when they thought it convenient to retire, he
waited upon them himself to the several apartments he had ordered
to be prepared for them.
The king of Persia treated his illustrious guests with continual
feasts; in which he omitted nothing that might shew his grandeur
and magnificence, and insensibly prevailed with them to stay with
him till the queen was brought to bed. When the time of her
lying-in drew near, he gave particular orders that nothing should
be wanting proper for such an occasion. At length she was brought
to bed of a son, to the great joy of the queen her mother, who
assisted at the labour, and presented him to the king.
The king of Persia received this present with a joy easier to be
imagined than expressed. The young prince being of a beautiful
countenance, he thought no name so proper for him as that of
Beder, which in the Arabian language signifies the Full Moon. To
return thanks to heaven, he was very liberal in his alms to the
poor, caused the prison doors to be set open, and gave all his
slaves of both sexes their liberty. He distributed vast sums
among the ministers and holy men of his religion. He also gave
large donations to his courtiers, besides a considerable sum that
was thrown amongst the people; and by proclamation, ordered
rejoicings to be kept for several days through the whole city.
One day, after the queen was recovered, as the king of Persia,
Gulnare, the queen her mother, King Saleh her brother, and the
princesses their relations, were discoursing together in her
majesty's bed-chamber, the nurse came in with the young prince
Beder in her arms. King Saleh as soon as he saw him, ran to
embrace him, and taking him in his arms, kissed and caressed him
with the greatest demonstrations of tenderness. He took several
turns with him about the room, dancing and tossing him about,
when all of a sudden, through a transport of joy, the window
being open, he sprung out, and plunged with him into the sea.
The king of Persia, who expected no such sight, believing he
should either see the prince his son no more, or else that he
should see him drowned, was overwhelmed in affliction. "Sir,"
said queen Gulnare (with a quiet and undisturbed countenance, the
better to comfort him), "let your majesty fear nothing; the young
prince is my son as well as yours, and I do not love him less
than yourself. You see I am not alarmed; neither in truth ought I
to be. He runs no risk, and you will soon see the king his uncle
appear with him again, and bring him back safe. Although he be
born of your blood, he is equally of mine, and will have the same
advantage his uncle and I possess, of living equally in the sea,
and upon the land." The queen his mother and the princesses his
relations affirmed the same thing; yet all they said had no
effect on the king, who could not recover from his alarm till he
again saw prince Beder.
The sea at length became troubled, when immediately King Saleh
arose with the young prince in his arms, and holding him up in
the air, reentered at the window from which he had leaped. The
king of Persia being overjoyed to see Prince Beder again, and
astonished that he was as calm as before he lost sight of him;
King Saleh said, "Sir, was not your majesty in alarm, when you
first saw me plunge into the sea with the prince my nephew?"
"Alas prince," answered the king of Persia, "I cannot express my
concern. I thought him lost from that very moment, and you now
restore life to me by bringing him again." "I thought as much,"
replied King Saleh, "though you had not the least reason to
apprehend danger; for before I plunged into the sea, I pronounced
over him certain mysterious words, which were engraved on the
seal of the great Solomon the son of David. We practise the like
in relation to all those children that are born in the regions at
the bottom of the sea, by virtue whereof they receive the same
privileges as we have over those people who inhabit the earth.
From what your majesty has observed, you may easily see what
advantage your son Prince Beder has acquired by his birth on the
part of his mother Gulnare my sister: for as long as he lives,
and as often as he pleases, he will be at liberty to plunge into
the sea, and traverse the vast empires it contains in its bosom."
Having so spoken, King Saleh, who had restored Prince Beder to
his nurse's arms, opened a box he had fetched from his palace in
the little time he had disappeared, which was filled with three
hundred diamonds, as large as pigeons' eggs; a like number of
rubies of extraordinary size; as many emerald wands, each half a
foot long, and thirty strings or necklaces of pearl consisting
each of ten feet. "Sir," said he to the king of Persia,
presenting him with this box, "when I was first summoned by the
queen my sister, I knew not what part of the earth she was in, or
that she had the honour to be married to so great a monarch. This
made us come without a present. As we cannot express how much we
have been obliged to your majesty, I beg you to accept this small
token of gratitude in acknowledgment of the many favours you have
been pleased to shew her, wherein we take equal interest."
It is impossible to express how greatly the king of Persia was
surprised at the sight of so much riches, enclosed in so little
compass. "What! prince," cried he, "do you call so inestimable a
present a small token of your gratitude, when you never have been
indebted to me? I declare once more you have never been in the
least obliged to me, neither the queen your mother nor you. I
esteem myself but too happy in the consent you have given to the
alliance I have contracted with you. Madam," continued he,
turning to Gulnare, "the king your brother has put me into the
greatest confusion; and I would beg of him to permit me to refuse
his present, were I not afraid of disobliging him: do you
therefore endeavour to obtain his leave that I may be excused
accepting it."
"Sir," replied King Saleh, "I am not at all surprised that your
majesty thinks this present so extraordinary. I know you are not
accustomed upon earth to see precious stones of this quality and
number: but if you knew, as I do, the mines whence these jewels
were taken, and that it is in my power to form a treasure greater
than those of all the kings of the earth, you would wonder we
should have the boldness to make you so small a present. I
beseech you therefore not to regard its trifling value, but
consider the sincere friendship which obliges us to offer it to
you, and not give us the mortification of refusing it." These
engaging expressions obliged the king of Persia to accept the
present, for which he returned many thanks both to King Saleh and
the queen his mother.
A few days after, King Saleh gave the king of Persia to
understand, that the queen his mother, the princesses his
relations, and himself, could have no greater pleasure than to
spend their whole lives at his court; but that having been so
long absent from their own kingdom, where their presence was
absolutely necessary, they begged of him to excuse them if they
took leave of him and Queen Gulnare. The king of Persia assured
them, he was sorry it was not in his power to return their visit
in their own dominions; but added, "As I am persuaded you will
not forget Gulnare, I hope I shall have the honour to see you
again more than once."
Many tears were shed on both sides upon their separation. King
Saleh departed first; but the queen his mother and the princesses
his relations were obliged to force themselves from the embraces
of Gulnare, who could not prevail with herself to let them go.
This royal company were no sooner out of sight, than the king of
Persia said to Gulnare, "Madam, I should have looked upon the
person who had pretended to pass those upon me for true wonders,
of which I myself have been eye-witness from the time I have been
honoured with your illustrious family at my court, as one who
would have abused my credulity. But I cannot refuse to believe my
senses; and shall remember them while I live, and never cease to
bless heaven for directing you to me, in preference to any other
prince."
Beder was brought up and educated in the palace under the care of
the king and queen of Persia, who both saw him grow and increase
in beauty to their great satisfaction. He gave them yet greater
pleasure as he advanced in years, by his continual sprightliness,
his agreeable manners, and the justness and vivacity of his wit;
and this satisfaction was the more sensible, because King Saleh
his uncle, the queen his grandmother, and the princesses his
relations, came from time to time to partake of it.
He was easily taught to read and write, and was instructed with
the same facility in all the sciences that became a prince of his
rank.
When he arrived at the age of fifteen, he acquitted himself in
all his exercises with infinitely better address and grace than
his masters. He was withal wise and prudent. The king, who had
almost from his cradle discovered in him virtues so necessary for
a monarch, and who moreover began to perceive the infirmities of
old age coming upon himself every day, would not stay till death
gave him possession of his throne, but purposed to resign it to
him. He had no great difficulty to make his council consent to
this arrangement: and the people heard his resolution with so
much the more joy, as they conceived Prince Beder worthy to
govern them. In a word, as the king had not for a long time
appeared in public, they had the opportunity of observing that he
had not that disdainful, proud, and distant air, which most
princes have, who look upon all below them with scorn and
contempt. They saw, on the contrary, that he treated all mankind
with that goodness which invited them to approach him; that he
heard favourably all who had anything to say to him; that he
answered everybody with a goodness that was peculiar to him; and
that he refused nobody any thing that had the least appearance of
justice.
The day for the ceremony was appointed, when in the midst of the
whole assembly, which was then more numerous than ordinary, the
king of Persia came down from his throne, took the crown from his
head, put it on that of Prince Beder, and having seated him in
his place, kissed his hand as a token that he resigned his
authority to him. After which he took his place among the crowd
of viziers and emirs below the throne.
Hereupon the viziers, emirs, and other principal officers, came
immediately and threw themselves at the new king's feet, taking
each the oath of fidelity according to their rank. Then the grand
vizier made a report of divers important matters, on which the
young king gave judgment with that admirable prudence and
sagacity that surprised all the council. He next turned out
several governors convicted of mal-administration, and put others
in their room, with such wonderful and just discernment, as
exalted the acclamations of every body, which were so much the
more honourable, as flattery had no share in them. He at length
left the council, accompanied by his father, and went to wait on
his mother Queen Gulnare at her apartment. The queen no sooner
saw him coming with his crown upon his head, than she ran to him
and embraced him with tenderness, wishing him a long and
prosperous reign.
The first year of his reign King Beder acquitted himself of all
his royal functions with great assiduity. Above all, he took care
to inform himself of the state of his affairs, and all that might
any way contribute towards the happiness of his people. Next
year, having left the administration to his council, under the
direction of his father, he left his capital, under pretence of
diverting himself with hunting; but his real intention was to
visit all the provinces of his kingdom, that he might reform
abuses, establish good order, and deprive all ill-minded princes,
his neighbours, of any opportunities of attempting anything
against the security and tranquillity of his subjects, by shewing
himself on his frontiers.
It required no less than a whole year for the young monarch to
execute a design so worthy of him. Soon after his return, the old
king his father fell so dangerously ill, that he knew at once he
should never recover. He waited for his last moment with great
tranquillity, and his only care was to recommend to the ministers
and other lords of his son's court, to persevere in the fidelity
they had sworn to him: and there was not one but willingly
renewed his oath as freely as at first. He died at length, to the
great grief of King Beder and Queen Gulnare, who caused his
corpse to be borne to a stately mausoleum, worthy of his rank and
dignity.