Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/194

150 bride in bed, I lay in the draught-house, a place dark and frightful, noisome of smell and accursed, and my ribs were straitened with cold.” Brief, he told the Vizier all that had befallen him and ultimately said to him; “Dear my father, I beseech thee speak with the Sultan that he release me from this marriage. True, it is great honour for me to be the Sultan’s son-in-law, more by token that the love of the Lady Bedrulbudour hath gotten possession of my vitals, but I cannot avail to endure one more night like the two that are past.”

When the Vizier heard his son’s words, he grieved and was exceeding chagrined, for that he had thought to greaten his son and advance him by making him the King’s son-in-law; so he bethought himself and was perplexed anent the matter and what was to do therein; and indeed it irked him sore that the marriage should be dissolved, for that he had long besought the Ten that