Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/384

354 catching hold of his skirt, laid it on her head and kissed his feet, saying, ‘Cover what God covers!’ Quoth he, ‘May Allah not cover thee nor him who would cover thee! Thou didst knock out my teeth and saidst to me, “Let none make mention to me of men and their ways!”’ So saying, he disengaged himself from her grasp and running out, locked the door on them and set another eunuch to guard it.

Then he went in to the King, who said to him, ‘Hast thou given the necklace to Heyat en Nufous?’ ‘By Allah,’ replied the eunuch, ‘she deserves more than that!’ And the King said, ‘What hath happened? Tell me quickly.’ ‘I will not tell thee, save in private,’ answered Kafour; but the King rejoined, saying, ‘Tell me at once and in public.’ ‘Then grant me immunity,’ said the eunuch. So the King threw him the handkerchief of immunity and he said, ‘O King, I went in to the princess Heyat en Nufous and found her asleep in a carpeted chamber, in the arms of a young man. So I locked the door on them and came back to thee.’ When the King heard this, he started up and taking a sword in his hand, cried out to the chief of the eunuchs, saying, ‘Take thy lads and go the princess’s chamber and bring me her and him who if with her, as they lie on the bed, coverings and all.’ So the chief eunuch and his men repaired to the princess’s apartment, where he found her and the prince standing up, dissolved in tears, and said to them, ‘Lie down on the bed, as you were.’ The princess feared for her lover and said to him, ‘This is no time for resistance.’ So they both lay down and the eunuchs covered them up and carried them into the King’s presence.

Abdulcadir pulled off the coverings and the princess sprang to her feet; whereupon he looked at her and would have struck off her head; but the prince threw himself between them, saying, ‘The fault was mine, not hers: kill