Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/138

126 is restored to thee, so do thou fulfil thy vow.’ ‘O my mother,’ replied the king, ‘by the virtue of the Messiah and the True Faith, there remaineth to me but this one captive, whom they are about to put to death: so take him to help thee in the service of the church, till there come to me [other] prisoners of the Muslims, when I will send thee other four. Hadst thou come earlier, before they cut off the heads of these, I had given thee as many as thou wouldst.’

The old woman thanked him and wished him continuance of life and glory and prosperity. Then she went up to Noureddin and seeing him to be a comely and elegant youth, with a delicate skin and a face like the moon at her full, carried him to the church, where she said to him, ‘O my son, put off these clothes that are upon thee, for they are fit only for the king’s service.’ So saying, she brought him a gown and cowl of black wool and a broad girdle, in which she clad him, and bade him do the service of the church. Accordingly, he tended the church seven days, at the end of which time the old woman came up to him and said, ‘O Muslim, don thy silken clothes and take these ten dirhems and go out forthright and divert thyself abroad this day, and tarry not here a moment, lest thou lose thy life.’ Quoth he, ‘What is to do, O my mother?’ And she answered, ‘Know, O my son, that the king’s daughter, the Princess Meryem, hath a mind to visit the church to-day, to seek a blessing thereof and to make oblation thereto, by way of thank-offering for her deliverance from the land of the Muslims and in fulfilment of the vows she made to the Messiah, so he would deliver her. With her are four hundred damsels, not one of whom but is perfect in beauty and grace, and they will be here forthwith, and if their eyes fall on thee, they will hew thee in pieces with swords.’