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Rh at the same time, with a fatherly tenderness, of the affliction his long absence had occasioned.

"Sire," replied Prince Ahmed, "I could not bear to resign the Princess Nouronnihar to my brother Ali, and I felt that my arrow, though it could not be found, had gone beyond his. The loss of my arrow dwelt continually on my mind, and I resolved to find it. I therefore returned alone to look for it, and I sought all about the plain where Houssain's and Ali's arrows were found, and where I imagined mine must have fallen, but all my labor was in vain. I had gone in the same direction about a league, a distance that the strongest archers could not reach with their arrows, and was about to abandon my search and return home, when I found myself drawn forward against my will. After having gone four leagues, to the end of the plain, where it is bounded by rocks, I perceived an arrow. I ran, took it up, and knew it to be the same which I had shot. Far from blaming your majesty for declaring in favor of my brother Ali, I never doubted but there was a mystery in what