The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07...

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Prince had made an end of his verses, the Princess strained him to her bosom and kissed him on the mouth and between the eyes; whereupon his soul returned to him and he fell to complaining to her of that he had endured for stress of love and tyranny of longing and excess of transport and distraction and all he had suffered for the hardness of her heart. Hearing those words she kissed his hands and feet and bared her head,[290] whereupon the gloom gathered and the full moons dawned therein. Then said she to him, “O my beloved and term of all my wishes, would the day of estrangement had never been and Allah grant it may never return between us!” And they embraced and wept together, whilst she recited these couplets:—

And when she ended her recitation, passion overcame her and she was distraught for love and wept copious tears, rain-like streaming down. This burnt the Prince’s heart and he in turn became troubled and distracted for love of her. So he drew nearer to her and kissed her hands and wept with sore weeping and they ceased not from lover-reproaches and converse and versifying, until the call to mid-afternoon prayer (nor was there aught between them other than this), when they bethought them of parting and she said to him, “O light of mine eyes and core of my heart, the time of severance has come between us twain: when shall we meet again?” “By Allah,” replied he (and indeed her words shot him as with shafts), “to mention of parting I am never fain!” Then she went forth of the pavilion, and he turned and saw her sighing sighs would melt the rock and weeping shower-like tears; whereupon he for love was sunken in the sea of desolation and improvised these couplets:—

Now when she heard his verses in praise of her, she turned back to him and embracing him, with a heart on fire for the anguish of severance, fire which naught save kisses and embraces might quench, cried, “Sooth the byword saith, Patience is for a lover and not the lack thereof. There is no help for it but I contrive a means for our reunion.” Then she farewelled him and fared forth, knowing not where she set her feet, for stress of her love; nor did she stay her steps till she found herself in her own chamber. When she was gone, passion and love-longing redoubled upon the young Prince and the delight of sleep was forbidden him, and the Princess in her turn tasted not food and her patience failed and she sickened for desire. As soon as dawned the day, she sent for the nurse, who came and found her condition changed and she cried, “Question me not of my case; for all I suffer is due to thy handiwork. Where is the beloved of my heart?” “O my lady, when did he leave thee? Hath he been absent from thee more than this night?” “Can I endure absence from him an hour? Come, find some means to bring us together speedily, for my soul is like to flee my body.” “O my lady, have patience till I contrive thee some subtle device, whereof none shall be ware.” “By the Great God, except thou bring him to me this very day, I will tell the King that thou hast corrupted me, and he will cut off thy head!” “I conjure thee, by Allah, have patience with me, for this is a dangerous matter!”

And the nurse humbled herself to her, till she granted her three days’ delay, saying, “O my nurse, the three days will be three years to me; and if the fourth day pass and thou bring him not, I will go about to slay thee.” So the old woman left her and returned to her lodging, where she abode till the morning of the fourth day, when she summoned the tirewomen of the town and sought of them fine dyes and rouge for the painting of a virgin girl and adorning; and they brought her cosmetics of the best. Then she sent for the Prince and, opening her chest, brought out a bundle containing a suit of woman’s apparel, worth five thousand dinars, and a head-kerchief fringed with all manner gems. Then said she to him, “O my son, hast thou a mind to foregather with Hayat al-Nufus?”; and he replied, “Yes.” So she took a pair of tweezers and pulled out the hairs of his face and pencilled his eyes with Kohl.[293] Then she stripped him and painted him with Henna[294] from his nails to his shoulders and from his insteps to his thighs and tattooed[295] him about the body, till he was like red roses upon alabaster slabs. After a little, she washed him and dried him and bringing out a shift and a pair of petticoat-trousers made him put them on. Then she clad him in the royal suit aforesaid and, binding the kerchief about his head, veiled him and taught him how to walk, saying, “Advance thy left and draw back thy right.” He did her bidding and forewent her, as he were a Houri faring abroad from Paradise.

Then said she to him, “Fortify thy heart, for thou art going to the King’s palace, where there will without fail be guards and eunuchs at the gate; and if thou be startled at them and show doubt or dread, they will suspect thee and examine thee, and we shall both get into grievous trouble and haply lose our lives: wherefore an thou feel thyself unable to this, tell me.” He answered, “In very sooth this thing hath no terrors for me, so be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool and clear.” Then she went out preceding him till the twain came to the palace-gate, which was full of eunuchs. She turned and looked at him, as much as to say, “Art thou troubled or no?” and finding him all unchanged, went on. The chief eunuch glanced at the nurse and knew her but, seeing a damsel following her, whose charms confounded the reason, he said in his mind, “As for the old woman, she is the nurse; but as for the girl who is with her there is none in our land resembleth her in favour or approacheth her in fairness save the Princess Hayat al-Nufus, who is secluded and never goeth out. Would I knew how she came into the streets and would Heaven I wot whether or no ’twas by leave of the King!” Then he rose to learn somewhat concerning her and well nigh thirty castratos followed him; which when the old woman saw, her reason fled for fear and she said, “Verily, we are Allah’s and to Him we shall return! Without recourse we are dead folk this time.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old nurse saw the head of the eunuchry and his assistants making for her she was in exceeding fear and cried, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! Verily we are God’s and unto him we shall return; without recourse we be dead folk this time.” When the head eunuch heard her speak thus, fear gat hold upon him, by reason of that which he knew of the Princess’s violence and that her father was ruled by her, and he said to himself, “Belike the King hath commanded the nurse to carry his daughter forth upon some occasion of hers, whereof she would have none know; and if I oppose her, she will be wroth with me and will say:—This eunuch fellow stopped me, that he might pry into my affairs. So she will do her best to kill me, and I have no call to meddle in this matter.” So saying, he turned back, and with him the thirty assistants who drove the people from the door of the palace; whereupon the nurse entered and saluted the eunuchs with her head, whilst all the thirty stood to do her honour and returned her salam. She led in the Prince and he ceased not following her from door to door, and the Protector protected them, so that they passed all the guards, till they came to the seventh door: it was that of the great pavilion, wherein was the King’s throne, and it communicated with the chambers of his women and the saloons of the Harim, as well as with his daughter’s pavilion.

So the old woman halted and said, “Here we are, O my son, and glory be to Him who hath brought us thus far in safety! But, O my son, we cannot foregather with the Princess except by night; for night enveileth the fearful.” He replied, “True, but what is to be done?” Quoth she, “Hide thee in this black hole,” showing him behind the door a dark and deep cistern, with a cover thereto. So he entered the cistern, and she went away and left him there till ended day, when she returned and carried him into the palace, till they came to the door of Hayat al-Nufus’s apartment. The old woman knocked and a little maid came out and said, “Who is at the door?” Said the nurse, “’Tis I,” whereupon the maid returned and craved permission of her lady, who said, “Open to her and let her come in with any who may accompany her.” So they entered and the nurse, casting a glance around, perceived that the Princess had made ready the sitting-chamber and ranged the lamps in row and lighted candles of wax in chandeliers of gold and silver and spread the divans and estrades with carpets and cushions. Moreover, she had set on trays of food and fruits and confections and she had perfumed the place with musk and aloes-wood and ambergris. She was seated among the lamps and the tapers and the light of her face outshone the lustre of them all. When she saw the old woman, she said to her, “O nurse, where is the beloved of my heart?”; and the other replied, “O my lady, I cannot find him nor have mine eyes espied him; but I have brought thee his own sister; and here she is.”

Cried the Princess, “Art thou Jinn-mad? What need have I of his sister? Say me, an a man’s head irk him, doth he bind up his hand?” The old woman answered, “No, by Allah, O my lady! But look on her, and if she pleases thee, let her be with thee.” Then she uncovered the Prince’s face, whereupon Hayat al-Nufus knew him and running to him, pressed him to her bosom, and he pressed her to his breast. Then they both fell down in a swoon and lay without sense a long while. The old woman sprinkled rose-water upon them till they came to themselves, when she kissed him on the mouth more than a thousand times and improvised these couplets:—

She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when her lover visited Hayat al-Nufus in her palace, the twain embraced and she improvised some happy couplets beseeming the occasion. And when she had ended her extempore lines she said, “Is it indeed true that I see thee in my abode and that thou art my cup-mate and my familiar?” Then passion grew on her and love was grievous to her, so that her reason well-nigh fled for joy and she improvised these couplets:—

As soon as it was day, she made him enter a place in her apartment unknown to any and he abode there till nightfall, when she brought him out and they sat in converse and carouse. Presently he said to her, “I wish to return to my own country and tell my father what hath passed between us, that he may equip his Wazir to demand thee in marriage of thy sire.” She replied, “O my love, I fear, an thou return to thy country and kingdom, thou wilt be distracted from me and forget the love of me; or that thy father will not further thy wishes in this matter and I shall die. Meseems the better rede were that thou abide with me and in my hand-grasp, I looking on thy face, and thou on mine, till I devise some plan, whereby we may escape together some night and flee to thy country; for I have cut off my hopes from my own people and I despair of them.” He rejoined, “I hear and obey;” and they fell again to their carousal and conversing. He tarried with her thus for some time till, one night, the wine was pleasant to them and they lay not down nor did they sleep till break of day. Now it chanced that one of the Kings sent her father a present, and amongst other things, a necklace of union jewels, nine-and-twenty grains, to whose price a King’s treasures might not suffice.

Quoth Abd-al-Kadir, “This rivière beseemeth none but my daughter Hayat al-Nufus;” and, turning to an eunuch, whose jaw-teeth the Princess had knocked out for reasons best known to herself,[296] he called to him and said, “Carry the necklace to thy lady and say to her:—One of the Kings hath sent thy father this, as a present, and its price may not be paid with money; put it on thy neck.” The slave took the necklace, saying in himself, “Allah Almighty make it the last thing she shall put on in this world, for that she deprived me of the benefit of my grinder-teeth!”; and repairing to the Princess’s apartment, found the door locked and the old woman asleep before the threshold. He shook her, and she awoke in affright and asked, “What dost thou want?”; to which he answered, “The King hath sent me on an errand to his daughter.” Quoth the nurse, “The key is not here, go away, whilst I fetch it;” but quoth he, “I cannot go back to the King without having done his commandment.” So she went away, as if to fetch the key; but fear overtook her and she sought safety in flight. Then the eunuch awaited her awhile; then, finding she did not return, he feared that the King would be angry at his delay; so he rattled at the door and shook it, whereupon the bolt gave way and the leaf opened. He entered and passed on, till he came to the seventh door and walking in to the Princess’s chamber found the place splendidly furnished and saw candles and flagons there.