Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/385

355 me before her.’ The King made at him, to kill him, but Heyat en Nufous threw herself on her father and said, ‘Kill me and not him; for he is the son of a great King, lord of all the land in its length and breadth.’ When the King heard this, he turned to his chief Vizier, who was a compend of all that is evil, and said to him, ‘What sayst thou of this matter, O Vizier?’ Quoth the Vizier, ‘What I say is that all who find themselves in such case as this have need of lying, and there is nothing for it but to cut off both their heads, after torturing them with all manner of tortures.’ With this the King called the swordsman of his vengeance, who came with his lads, and said to him, ‘Take this gallows-bird and strike off his head and after do the like with this harlot and burn their bodies, and consult me not again about them.’ So the headsman put his hand to her back, to take her; but the King cried out at him and cast at him somewhat he had in his hand, which had well-nigh killed him, saying, ‘O dog, wilt thou show clemency to those with whom I am wroth? Put thy hand to her hair and drag her along by it, so that she may fall on her face.’ So he haled the two lovers by their hair to the place of blood, where he tore off a piece of his skirt and bound the prince’s eyes therewith, putting the princess last, in the hope that some one would intercede for her. Then he swung his sword three times, whilst all the troops wept and prayed God to send them deliverance and raised his hand to cut off Ardeshir’s head, when, behold, there arose a cloud of dust, that spread till it covered the landscape.

When King Abdulcadir saw this, he said, ‘O folk, what is the meaning of yonder dust that obscures the sight?’ The Grand Vizier went out to reconnoitre and found behind the cloud men like locusts, beyond count or limit, filling the hills and plains and valleys. So he returned and told the King, who said to him, ‘Go down and learn