Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/156

144 me and I shall be at rest from this wretched life.’ And he passed the night with a heart free of care and trouble, humbling himself to God the Most High and saying, ‘O Lord, in Thy knowledge is that which dispenseth with asking!’

When the day came and the sun shone out upon the hills and valleys, the vizier came to the stable and loosing the bandage from the horse’s eyes, found them [altogether cured and] handsomer than ever, by the ordinance of the King who openeth [unto His servants the gates of sustenance and mercy]. So he said to Noureddin, ‘O Muslim, never in the world saw I the like of thee for the excellence of thy skill. By the virtue of the Messiah and the True Faith, thou fillest me with wonder, for all the farriers of our land have failed to heal this horse’s eyes!’ Then he did off his shackles with his own hand and clad him in a costly dress and made him his master of the horse. Moreover, he appointed him stipends and allowances and lodged him in an apartment over the stables. So Noureddin abode awhile, eating and drinking and making merry and commanding and forbidding those who tended the horses; and whoso neglected them or failed to fodder those tied up in the stable wherein was his service, he would throw down and beat grievously and lay him by the legs in shackles of iron. Moreover, he used every day to go down to the two chargers and rub them down with his own hand, by reason of that which he knew of their value in the vizier’s eyes and his love for them; wherefore the latter rejoiced in him with an exceeding joy and his breast dilated and he was glad, unknowing what was to be the issue of his affair.

Now in the new palace, that he had built for the Princess Meryem, was a lattice window overlooking his old house and Noureddin’s lodging. The vizier had a daughter, a virgin of extreme beauty, as she were a fleeing