Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/242

198 and the troops and the folk, all of them, “Allah in heaven and Alaeddin on earth.” and they loved him yet more, having regard not only to the excess of his bounty and munificence, but to his knightly prowess, in that he had done battle for the kingdom and had routed the enemy.

So much for Alaeddin, and now to return to the Maugrabin enchanter. When he returned to his country, he abode all this time, bewailing that which he had endured of toil and stress, so he might compass the lamp, yet had his travail all been wasted and the morsel had escaped from his hand, after it had reached his mouth; and he still thought upon all this, bemoaning himself and reviling Alaeddin of the excess of his anger against him; and whiles he said in himself, “Since yonder whoreson is dead under the earth, I am content withal and I have hopes of the lamp, that I may yet achieve it, inasmuch as it is still safeguarded.” Then, one day of the days, he smote the sand and extracting the figures, set them down after the most approved fashion and adjusted them, so he might see and