Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/99

87 fate would have it, the blow lit on his father’s right eye [and struck it out] and it ran down on his cheek; whereupon he fell down in a swoon and lay therein awhile. They sprinkled rose-water on him till he came to himself, when he would have beaten Noureddin; but his wife withheld him, and he swore, by the oath of divorcement from her, that, as soon as it was day, he would assuredly cut off his son’s right hand. When she heard her husband’s words, her breast was straitened and she feared for her son and ceased not to soothe and appease Tajeddin, till sleep overcame him.

Then she waited till the moon was risen, when she went in to her son, whose drunkenness had now ceased from him, and said to him, ‘O Noureddin, what is this foul thing thou hast done with thy father?’ ‘And what did I with him?’ asked he. Quoth she, ‘Thou dealtest him a buffet on the right eye and struckest it out; and he hath sworn by the oath of divorcement that, as soon as it is day, he will without fail cut off thy right hand.’ Noureddin repented him of that which he had done, whenas repentance profited him nothing, and his mother said to him, ‘O my son, this repentance will not profit thee; nor will aught serve thee but that thou arise forthright and seek safety in flight. Go forth the house privily and take refuge with one of thy friends and there await what God shall do, for He changeth case after case.’

Then she opened a chest and taking out a purse of a hundred dinars, said to Noureddin, ‘O my son, take these dinars and provide thyself therewith, and when they are at an end, send and give me to know thereof, that I may send thee other than these, and at the same time send me news of thyself privily. It may be God will decree thee relief and thou shalt return to thy dwelling.’ And she bade him farewell and wept passing sore. Noureddin took the purse and was about to go forth, when he espied