Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/237

207 I may know where thou art, so I may send thee all I can lay my hand on. Thus shall thy wealth wax great and if my father die, I will send for thee, and thou shalt return in honour and worship; and if we die, thou or I [and depart] to the mercy of God the Most High, the Resur rectionResurrection [sic] will unite us. This, then, is the right counsel: and what while we both abide [alive and] well, I will not leave to send thee letters and monies. Arise, ere the day break upon thee and thou be confounded and perdition encompass thee.’

‘O my lady,’ said he, ‘I beseech thee of thy favour to bid me farewell with thine embracement.’ And she answered, ‘I will well.’ So he swived her and made the [complete] ablution; then, donning a slave’s habit, he bade the grooms saddle him a thoroughbred horse. So they saddled him a courser and he mounted and taking leave of his wife, rode forth the city at the last of the night, whilst all who saw him deemed him one of the Sultan’s slaves going abroad on an errand.

Next morning, the king and his vizier repaired to the sitting-chamber and sent for the princess, who came behind the curtain; and her father said to her, ‘O my daughter, what sayst thou?’ Quoth she, ‘I say, may God blacken thy vizier’s face, for that he would have blackened my face in my husband’s eyes!’ ‘How so?’ asked the king; and she said, ‘He came in to me yesterday; but, before I could name the matter to him, in came Ferej the eunuch, with a letter in his hand, and said, “Ten white slaves stand under the window and have given me this letter, saying, ‘Kiss for us the hands of our lord the merchant Marouf and give him this letter, for we are of his servants with the baggage, and it is told us that he hath married the king’s daughter, wherefore we are come to acquaint him with that which befell us by the way.’” So I took the letter and read as follows: “From the five