Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/347

317 seat of the Vizierate and said, ‘O King of the age, thou hast bestowed on me this; and indeed I am honoured by thy bounties; but hear one word from me.’ ‘Say on,’ answered the King, ‘and fear not.’ Quoth Ali, ‘Since it is thine august will to marry thy daughter, thou wouldst do better to marry her to my son.’ ‘Hast thou then a son?’ asked the King; and Ali replied, ‘Yes.’ ‘Send for him forthright,’ said the King; whereupon, ‘I hear and obey,’ answered Ali and sent a servant to fetch his son, who came and kissing the ground before the King, stood in an attitude of respect. The King looked at him and seeing him to be yet comelier than his daughter and goodlier than she in symmetry and brightness and perfection, said to him, ‘O my son, what is thy name?’ ‘O our lord the Sultan,’ replied the young man, who was then fourteen years old, ‘my name is Hassan.’ Then the Sultan said to the Cadi, ‘Write the contract of marriage between my daughter Husn el Wujoud and Hassan, son of the merchant Ali of Cairo.’ So he wrote the contract of marriage between them, and the affair was ended on the goodliest wise; after which all in the Divan went their ways and the merchants escorted the Vizier Ali to his house, where they gave him joy of his advancement and departed. Then he went in to his wife, who, seeing him clad in the Vizier’s habit, exclaimed, ‘What is this?’ So he told her all that had passed, and she rejoiced therein with an exceeding joy.

On the morrow, he went up to the Divan, where the King received him with especial favour and seating him beside himself, said to him, ‘O Vizier, we purpose to celebrate the wedding festivities and bring thy son in to our daughter.’ ‘O our lord the Sultan,’ replied Ali, ‘that thou deemest good is good.’ So the Sultan gave orders for the festivities, and they decorated the city and held high festival thirty days, in all cheer and gladness; at the end of which time, the Vizier Ali’s son Hassan went in to