Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/256

244 Then said Shimas, ‘O king, verily thou art our king, but we desire that thou assign the kingdom to thy son after thee, and we will be thy servants and subjects.’ So the king exhorted the learned men and others who were present to remember that which they had heard and do according thereto and enjoined them to obey his son’s commandment, for that he made him his heir-apparent, so he should be the successor of the king his father; and he took an oath of all the people of his empire, doctors and braves and old men and boys, that they would not oppose him [in the succession] nor transgress against his commandment.

When the prince was seventeen years old, the king sickened of a sore sickness and came nigh unto death, so, being certified that his last hour was at hand, he said to the people of his household, ‘This is a mortal sickness that is upon me; wherefore do ye summon the grandees and notables of my empire, so not one of them may remain except he be present.’ Accordingly, they made proclamation to those who were near and made known the summons to those who were afar off, and they all assembled and went in to the king. Then said they to him, ‘How is it with thee, O king, and how deemest thou for thyself of this thy sickness?’ Quoth Jelyaad, ‘Verily, this my sickness is mortal and the arrow [of death] hath executed that which God the Most High decreed against me: this is the last of my days in this world and the first of my days in the world to come.’ Then said he to his son, ‘Draw near unto me.’ So he drew near, weeping sore, that he came nigh to wet the bed, whilst the king’s eyes brimmed over with tears and all who were present wept. Quoth Jelyaad, ‘Weep not, O my son; I am not the first whom this inevitable thing betideth; nay, it is common to all that God hath created. But fear thou God and do good, that shall forego thee to the place whither