Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/64

 44 Alf Laylah wa Laylah. guest-time, and on the morning of the fourth day, Nur al-Din All turned to him and said, " I long for the sight of the Commander of the Faithful." Then said Ja'afar to Mohammed bin Sulay- man, " Make ready to travel, for we will say the dawn-prayer and mount Baghdad-wards ; " and he replied, " To hear is to obey." Then they prayed and they took horse and set out, all of them, carrying with them the Wazir, Al-Mu'in bin Sawi, who began to repent him of what he had done. Nur al-Din rode by Ja'afar's side and they stinted^ not faring on till they arrived at Baghdad, the House of Peace, and going in to the Caliph told him how they had found Nur al-Din nigh upon death. There- upon the Caliph said to the youth, " Take this sword and smite with it the neck of thine enemy." So he took the sword from his hand and stepped up to Al-Mu'in who looked at him and said, " I did according to my mother's milk, do thou according to thine." l Upon this Nur al-Din cast the sword from his hand and said to the Caliph, " O Commander of the Faithful, he hath beguiled me with his words ; " and he repeated this couplet : By craft and sleight I snared him when he came ; o A few fair words aye trap the noble-game ! " Leave him then," cried the Caliph and, turning to Masrur said, " Rise thou and smite his neck." So Masrur drew his sword and struck off his head. Then quoth the Caliph to Nur al-Din AH, " Ask a boon of me." " O my lord," answered he, " I have no need of the Kingship of Bassorah ; my sole desire is to be honoured by serving thee and by seeing thy countenance." " With love and gladness," said the Caliph. Then he sent for the damsel, Anis al-Jalis, and bestowed plentiful favours upon them both and gave them one of his palaces in Baghdad, and assigned stipends and allowances, and made Nur al-Din AH bin Fazl bin Khakan, one of his cup-companions ; and he abode with the Commander of the Faithful enjoying the pleasantest of lives till death overtook him. " Yet (continued Shahrazad) is not his story in any wise more wondrous than the history of the merchant and his children." The King asked " And what was that ? " and Shahrazad began to relate the *'.*. according to my nature, birth, blood, de roff