Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/334

300 himself; “Except there were therein treasures greater and finer than any I have seen, she had not forbidden me therefrom.” So he rose and opened the door, when, lo, behind it was the very bird that had brought him to the island, and it said to him, “An ill welcome to a face that shall never prosper!” When he saw it and heard what it said, he fled from it; but it followed him and seizing him in its talons, flew with him an hour’s journey betwixt heaven and earth, till it set him down in the place whence it had first carried him off and flew away. When he came to his senses, he called to mind his late great and glorious estate and all the honour and fair fortune he had lost and fell to weeping and wailing.

He abode two months on the sea-shore, where the bird had set him down, hoping yet to return to his wife, till, as he sat one night wakeful, mourning and musing, he heard one speaking and saying, “How great were the delights! Far, far from thee is the return of that which is past!” When he heard this, he redoubled in his regrets and despaired of recovering his wife and his late fair estate; so he returned, weary and broken-hearted, to the house where he had dwelt with the old men and knew that they had fared even as he and that this was the cause of their weeping and mourning; wherefore he held them excused. Then, being overcome with chagrin and regret, he took to his chamber and gave himself up to mourning and lamentation; and he ceased not to weep and lament and left eating and drinking and pleasant scents and laughter, till he died and they buried him beside the old men. See, then, O King,’ continued the Vizier, ‘what cometh of haste; verily, it is unpraiseworthy and begetteth repentance; and in this I give thee true and loyal counsel.’

When the King heard the Vizier’s story, he turned from slaying his son; but, on the sixth day, the favourite came in to him with a naked knife in her hand and said to him,