Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/100

82 estate and weeping for himself; and the three servants wept for themselves, whilst the king’s daughter deemed that they sang. Now it was her wont, whenever any one from the land of Egypt or elsewhere fell into her hands and he pleased her, to advance him to high estate with her; and by the ordinance of God the Most High, it befell that, when she saw Seif el Mulouk, his beauty and grace and symmetry pleased her, and she commanded to loose him and his companions from their cages and bade entreat them with honour.

One day she took Seif apart and would have him lie with her; but he refused, saying, ‘O my lady, I am an exile and distraught with passion for a beloved one, nor will I consent to love-delight with other than her.’ Then she coaxed him and importuned him, but he held aloof from her, and she could not anywise approach him nor get her desire of him. At last, when she was weary of courting him in vain, she waxed wroth with him and his men and commanded that they should serve her and fetch her wood and water.

They abode thus four years, till Seif el Mulouk became weary of this life and sent to intercede with the princess, so haply she might release them and let them go their ways and be at rest from that their travail. So she sent for him and said to him, ‘If thou wilt fall in with my desire, I will set thee free from this thy duresse and thou shalt go to thy country, safe and sound.’ And she went on to humble herself to him and wheedle him, but he would not consent to do her will; whereupon she turned from him, in anger, and he and his companions abode in the same plight. The people of the island knew them for the princess’s birds and dared not do them any hurt; and she herself was at ease concerning them, being assured that they could not escape from the island. So they used to absent themselves from her two and three