Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/66

48 O my daughter, that I have given thee in marriage to this magnanimous king and valiant lion, Bedr Basim, son of Queen Julnar, for that he is the goodliest and most powerful of the folk of his day and the most exalted of them in degree and the noblest in rank; he befitteth none but thee and thou none but him.’ ‘O my father,’ answered she, ‘I may not gainsay thee; do as thou wilt, for indeed chagrin and despite are at an end and I am one of his handmaids.’

So they summoned the Cadis and the witnesses, who drew up the marriage contract between King Bedr and the princess Jauhereh, and the townsfolk decorated the city and beat the drums in token of rejoicing. Moreover, they released all who were in the prisons, whilst the king clothed the widows and the orphans and bestowed dresses of honour upon the grandees and amirs and notables; and they made bride-feasts and held high festival night and morn ten days, at the end of which time they unveiled the bride, in nine different dresses, before Bedr, who bestowed a dress of honour upon King Es Semendel and sent him back to his country and people and kinsfolk. And they ceased not from the most delightsome of life and the most solaceful of days till there came to them the Destroyer of Delights and the Sunderer of Companies; and this is the end of their story, may God have mercy on them all!