Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/143

123 Now the king’s son was playing in the exercise-ground with the ball and the mall, and the stone lit on his ear and cut it off, whereupon the prince fell down in a swoon. So they enquired who had thrown the stone and [finding that it was Bihkerd,] took him and carried him before the prince, who bade put him to death. Accordingly, they cast the turban from his head and were about to bind his eyes, when the prince looked at him and seeing him cropped of an ear, said to him, ‘Except thou wert a lewd fellow, thine ear had not been cut off.’ ‘Not so, by Allah!’ answered Bihkerd. ‘Nay, but the story [of the loss] of my ear is thus and thus, and I pardoned him who smote me with an arrow and cut off my ear.’ When the prince heard this, he looked in his face and knowing him, cried out and said, ‘Art thou not Bihkerd the king?’ ‘Yes,’ answered he, and the prince said to him ‘What bringeth thee here?’ So he told him all that had betided him and the folk marvelled and extolled the perfection of God the Most High.

Then the prince rose to him and embraced him and kissed him and entreated him with honour. Moreover, he seated him in a chair and bestowed on him a dress of honour; and he turned to his father and said to him, ‘This is the king who pardoned me and this is his ear that I cut off with an arrow; and indeed he deserveth pardon from me, for that he pardoned me.’ Then said he to Bihkerd, ‘Verily, the issue of clemency hath been a provision for thee [in thine hour of need].’ And they entreated him with the utmost kindness and sent him back to his own country in all honour and worship. Know,