Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/65

45 undone?’ ‘O Vizier,’ asked Jouder, ‘whose daughter is yonder damsel? Verily, she hath captived me and ravished my reason.’ ‘She is the daughter of thy friend the King,’ replied the Vizier; ‘and since she pleases thee, I will speak to him that he marry thee to her.’ ‘Do so, O Vizier,’ quoth Jouder, ‘and as I live, I will bestow on thee what thou wilt and will give the King whatsoever he shall ask to her dowry; and we will become friends and kinsfolk.’ And the Vizier said, ‘It shall go hard but thy desire be accomplished.’ Then he turned to the King and said to him, ‘O King of the age, thy friend Jouder seeks alliance with thee and will have me ask of thee for him the hand of thy daughter, the princess Asiyeh; so disappoint me not, but accept my intercession, and what dowry soever thou askest he will give thee.’ Quoth the King, ‘The dowry I have already received, and as for the girl, she is his handmaid; I give her to him to wife and he doth me favour in accepting her.’

They spent the rest of the night together and on the morrow the King held a court, to which he summoned great and small, together with the Sheikh el Islam. Then Jouder demanded the princess in marriage and the King said, ‘The dowry I have received.’ So they drew up the contract of marriage and Jouder sent for the saddle-bags containing the jewels and gave them to the King as his daughter’s dowry. Then the drums beat and the pipes sounded and they held high festival, whilst Jouder went in to the girl. Thenceforward he and the King were as one and they abode thus awhile, till Shems ed Dauleh died; whereupon the troops proclaimed Jouder Sultan, and he refused; but they importuned him, till he consented and became King in his father-in-law’s stead. Then he bade build a congregational mosque over the latter’s tomb in the Bundecaniyeh quarter and endowed it. Now the quarter in which he dwelt was called the Yemaniyeh quarter; but, [sic]