Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/26

8 A If Laylah wa Laylak. who, thou wilt have it loveth thee, took- from thee ten thousand ducats and bought therewith a slave-girl whose like none ever beheld ; but when he saw her, she pleased him and hg said v to his son : Take her : thou art worthier of her than the Sultan. So he took her and did away with her virginity and she is now in his house. The King will say : Thou liest ! to which he will reply : With thy leave I will fall upon him unawares and bring her to thee. The King will give him warranty for this and he will come down upon the house and will take the girl and present her to the Sultan, who will question her and she will not be able to deny the past. Then mine enemy will say : O my lord, thou wottest that I give thee the best of counsel ; but I have not found favour in thine eyes. Thereupon the Sultan will make an example of me, and I shall be a gazing-stock to all the people and my life will be lost." Quoth his wife, " Let none know of this thing which hath happened privily, and commit thy case to Allah and trust in Him to save thee from such strait ; for He who knoweth the future shall provide for the future." With this she brought the Wazir a cup of wine and his heart was quieted, and he ceased to feel wrath and fear. Thus far concerning him ; but as regards his son Nur al-Din AH, fearing the consequence of his misdeed he abode his day long in the ..flower- garden and came back only at night to his mother's apartment where he slept ; and, rising before dawn, returned to the gardens. He ceased not to do thus for two whole months without showing his face to his parent, till at last his mother said to his father, " O my lord, shall we lose our boy as well as the girl ? If matters continue long in this way he will flee from us." " And what to do ? " asked he ; and she answered, " Do thou watch this night ; and, when he cometh, seize on him and frighten him : I will rescue him from thee and do thou make peace with him and give him the damsel to wife, for she loveth him as he loveth her. And I will pay thee her price." So the Minister sat up that night and, when his son came, he seized him and throwing him down knelt on his breast and showed as though he would cut his throat ; but his mother ran to the youth's succour and asked her husband, " What wouldest thou do with him ? " He answered her, " I will split his weasand." Said the son to the father, " Is my death, then, so light a matter to thee ? " ; and his father's eyes welled with tears, for natural affection moved him, and he rejoined, " O my son, how light was to thee the loss of my good and my life ! " Quoth Nu al-Din, " Hear, O my father, what the poet hath said :