Page:Princess Badoura, a tale from the Arabian nights.djvu/21

9 a throne that monarch or people could find it in their hearts to desire.

He was of surpassing comeliness and grace, perfect in form and stature; and his father loved him so tenderly that he could scarcely bear to be away from him either by night or day. This devotion to his son was, indeed, so excessive, that the King himself was perturbed by it, for always accompanying it was a terror lest the Prince might die.

One day he said to his Grand Vizier, 'How came it that my happiness in the possession of such a son gives me anxiety rather than rest? When I was childless I was miserable, and now that the desire of my heart has been satisfied, I am full of dread lest he also should die childless and my hope of posterity fail? Calamities and accidents come when we least expect them, and so it seems to me now that the Prince being vigorous and strong is in greater danger of death than I who am near the