Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/217

 which was built for that purpose on the same place where the ashes had lain.

The grief which the sultan felt for the loss of his daughter threw him into a fit of illness, which confined him to his chamber for a whole month. He had not fully recovered strength when he sent for me: 'Prince,' said he, 'hearken to the orders that I now give you; it will cost you your life if you do not put them into execution.' I assured him of exact obedience, upon which he went on thus: ' I have constantly lived in perfect felicity, and was never crossed by any accident: but by your arrival all the happiness I possessed is vanished; my daughter is dead, her attendant is no more, and it is through a miracle that I am yet alive. You are the cause of all those misfortunes, for which it is impossible that I should be comforted; therefore depart from hence in peace, without farther delay, for I myself must perish if you stay any longer: I am persuaded that your presence brings mischief along with it. This is all I have to say to you. Depart, and beware of ever appearing again in my dominions; no consideration whatsoever shall hinder me from making you repent of it.' I was going to speak, but he stopped my mouth with words full of anger; and so I was obliged to leave his palace, rejected, banished, an outcast from the world, and not knowing what would become of me. And so I became a hermit.