Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/74

56 find some one who can tell me the secret of the lake and the fish.’ So he walked on, till he came to the black object, when he found it a palace built of black stone, plated with iron; and one leaf of its gate was open and the other shut. At this the King rejoiced and went up to the gate and knocked lightly, but heard no answer. So he knocked a second time and a third time, with the same result. Then he knocked loudly, but still no one answered; and he said to himself, ‘It must be deserted.’ So he took courage and entering the vestibule, cried out, ‘Ho, people of the palace! I am a stranger and a wayfarer and hungry. Have ye any victual?’ He repeated these words a second and a third time, but none answered. So he took heart and went on boldly into the interior of the palace, which he found hung and furnished with silken stuffs, embroidered with stars of gold, and curtains let down before the doors. In the midst was a spacious courtyard, with four estrades, one on each side, and a bench of stone. Midmost the courtyard was a great basin of water, from which sprang a fountain, and at the corners stood four lions of red gold, spouting forth water as it were pearls and jewels; and the place was full of birds, which were hindered from flying away by a network of gold stretched overhead. The King looked right and left, but there was no one to be seen; whereat he marvelled and was vexed to find none of whom he might enquire concerning the lake and the fish and the palace itself. So he returned to the vestibule and sitting down between the doors, fell to musing upon what he had seen, when lo, he heard a moaning that came from a sorrowful heart, and a voice chanted the following verses:

I hid what I endured from thee: it came to light, And sleep was changed to wake thenceforward to my sight. O Fate, thou sparest not nor dost desist from me; Lo, for my heart is racked with dolour and affright! Have pity, lady mine, upon the great laid low, Upon the rich made poor by love and its despite!