Part 53

Amgiad was very much confounded at this answer, which he did not expect: he durst not venture to take her home to his landlord’s house, fearing the good man would be scandalized by it, and he should have lost his protection, of which he stood in great need, considering he was in a city where it was so necessary for him to be always upon his guard: he knew so little of the town, that he could not tell where to carry her, and he could not resolve to lose this lucky adventure. In this uncertainty, he determined to throw himself upon chance; and without making any answer, he went before, and the lady followed him. Amgiad led her from street to street, from square to square, till they were both weary with walking: at last they came to a street, at the end of which was a great gate, shut up, opening to a handsome house, and having a seat on each side of it. Amgiad sat down on one of them, as if to take breath; and the lady, more weary than he, seated herself on the other.

When she had taken her seat, she asked him whether that was his house. You see it, madam, said Amgiad. Why do you not open the gate then? replied the lady; what do you wait for? Fair lady, answered Amgiad, I have not the key; I left it with my slave when I sent him on an errand, and he cannot be come back yet: besides, I ordered him afterwards to get something good for dinner; so that I am afraid we shall wait a long time for him.

The prince met with so many difficulties in satisfying his passion, that he began to repent of it. He therefore contrived this answer, in hopes that the lady would take the hint, and out of resentment leave him, and seek elsewhere for a lover; but he was mistaken.

This is a most impertinent slave, said the lady, to make us wait so long. I will chastise him myself as he deserves, if you do not, when he comes back: it is not decent that I should sit here alone with a man at a gate. Saying this, she arose and took up a stone to break the lock, which was only of wood, and weak, according to the fashion of the country.

Amgiad did all he could to hinder her. What are you doing, madam? said the prince. For Heaven’s sake stay a little! What are you afraid of? replied the lady; is it not your house? It is no great matter to break a wooden lock; a new one will not cost much. The lock she accordingly broke; and as soon as the door was open, entered the house, and walked before him.

Amgiad gave himself over for a lost man, when he saw the door forced open; he paused upon it, whether he should go into the house or not, or make off as fast as he could, to avoid the danger which he believed was inevitable; and he was going to fly, when the lady returned.

Seeing he did not enter, Why do not you come into your house? said she. The prince answered, I am looking to see if my slave is coming, fearing we have nothing ready. Come in, come in, said madam; we had better wait for him within doors than without.

Amgiad, much against his will, followed her into the house. Passing through a spacious court, neatly paved, they mounted by several steps into a grand vestibule, which led to a large open hall, very well furnished, where he and the lady saw a table ready spread with all sorts of delicacies, another heaped with fruit, and a sideboard full of bottles of wine.

When Amgiad saw these preparations, he gave himself up for lost. Poor Amgiad, said he to himself, thou wilt soon follow thy dear brother Assad!

The lady, on the contrary, transported at the sight, cried out, How, my lord, did you fear there was nothing ready? You see your slave has done more than you expected; but if I am not mistaken, these preparations were made for some other lady, and not for me: no matter, let her come; I promise you I will not be jealous; I only beg the favour of you that you will permit me to wait on her and you.

Amgiad, as much as he was troubled at this accident, could not help laughing at the lady’s pleasantry. Madam, said he, thinking of something else that tormented his mind, there is nothing in what you fancy; this is my common dinner, and no extraordinary preparation, I assure you. As he could not bring himself to sit down at a table which was not prepared for him, he would have taken his seat on a sofa, but the lady would not let him. Come, sir, said she, you must be hungry after bathing, let us eat and enjoy ourselves.

Amgiad was forced to do what the lady would have him: they both sat down and fell to. The lady, having eat a bit, took a bottle and glass, poured out some wine, and drank to Amgiad: and when she had drank herself, she filled another glass, and gave it to Amgiad, who pledged her. The more the prince thought of this adventure, the more he was amazed that the master of the house did not appear, and that so rich a house, and so well provided, should be left without a servant. It will be lucky, said he to himself, if the master of the house does not come till I am got clear of this intrigue. While he was occupied with these thoughts, and others more troublesome, she eat and drank heartily, and obliged him to do the same. They were almost come to the fruit, when the master of the house arrived.

It happened to be Bahader, master of the horse to the king of the magicians: this house belonged to him, but he commonly dwelt in another; and he seldom came here, unless to regale himself with two or three chosen friends. He always sent provisions from his other house on such occasions, and had done so this day by some of his servants, who were just gone as the lady and Amgiad entered it.

Bahader came as he used to do, in disguise, and without attendants, and a little before the time appointed for his friends coming: he was not a little surprised to see the door of his house broken open. He entered, making no noise, and hearing some persons talking and making merry in the hall, he stole along under the wall, and put his head half-way within the door to see who they were.

Perceiving a young man and a young lady eating at his table the victuals that had been provided for his friends and himself, and that there was no great harm done, he resolved to divert himself with the adventure.

The lady’s back was a little turned from him, and she did not see the master of the horse, but Amgiad saw him immediately: he had then the glass in his hand, and was going to drink it off; he changed colour at the sight of Bahader, who made a sign to him not to say a word, but to come and speak with him.

Amgiad drank and rose. Where are you going? said the lady. The prince answered, Pray, madam, stay here a little; I shall be back again in a minute; a small affair obliges me to go out at present. Bahader waited for him in the vestibule, and led him into the court to talk to him without being heard by the lady.

When Bahader and Amgiad were in the court, Bahader demanded of the prince how the lady came into his house, and why they broke open his door. My lord, replied Amgiad, you may very reasonably think me guilty of a very unwarrantable action; but if you will have patience to hear me, I hope my innocence will appear. He then told him, in a few words, what had happened to him, without disguising any part of the truth; and to convince him that he was not capable of committing such an action as to break into a house, he told him plainly he was a prince, and what was the reason of his coming to the city of the magicians.

Bahader, who naturally loved strangers, was transported with an opportunity of obliging one of Amgiad’s rank and quality; for by his air, his actions, and his well-turned discourse, he did not in the least doubt of the truth of what he said. Prince, said Bahader, I am very glad I can oblige you in so pleasant an adventure as this: far from disturbing the feast, it will be a pleasure to me to contribute to your satisfaction in any thing. Before I say any more on this subject, I am happy to inform you my name is Bahader; I am master of the horse to the king of the magicians: I commonly dwell in another house which I have in this city, and come here sometimes to have the more liberty with my friends. You have made this lady believe you have a slave, though you have none: I will be your slave; and that this may not disturb you, and to spare your excuses, I repeat again, that I will positively be so; you will soon know my reason for it. Go to your place, and continue to divert yourself: when I return again, and come before you in a slave’s habit, chide me for staying so long; do not be afraid even to strike me. I will wait upon you all the while you are at table, till night; you shall sleep here, and so shall the lady, and to-morrow morning you may send her home with honour. I shall afterwards endeavour to do you more important services: go, and lose no time. Amgiad would have made him an answer, but the master of the horse would not let him, forcing him to go to the lady. He had scarce got into the hall before Bahader’s friends, whom he had invited, arrived. Bahader excused himself for not entertaining them that day, telling them they would approve of the reason of it when they knew it, which should be in due time. When they were gone, he went forth and dressed himself in a slave’s habit.

Prince Amgiad came to the lady much better pleased at finding the house belonged to a man of quality, who had received him so courteously. When he sat down to the table again, he said, Madam, I beg a thousand pardons for my rudeness: I was vexed that my slave should tarry so long; the rascal shall pay for it, when he comes: I will teach him to make me stay so for him.

Let not that trouble you, said the lady; so much the worse for him; if he is guilty of any faults, let him pay for it: do not let us think of him; we will enjoy ourselves without him.

They continued at the table with the more pleasure, as Amgiad was under no apprehensions of the consequence of the lady’s indiscretion, who ought not to have broken open the door, though it had been Amgiad’s own house. The prince was now as merry as the lady: they said a thousand pleasant things, and drank more than they ate, till Bahader arrived, disguised like a slave.

Bahader entered like a slave who feared his master’s displeasure for staying out when he had company with him: he fell down at his feet, and kissed the ground, to implore his clemency; and when he had done, stood behind him with his hands across, in expectation of his commands.

Sirrah, said Amgiad, with a fierce tone and angry look, is there such a slave as you in all the world? Where have you been? What have you been doing, that you came no sooner?

My lord, replied Bahader, I ask your pardon; I was executing your orders, and did not think you would come home so early.

You are a rascal, said Amgiad, and I shall break your bones, to teach you to lie and to disappoint me. He then rose up, took a stick, and gave him two or three slight blows with it; after which he sat down to table again.

The lady was not satisfied with the chastisement he bestowed on him. She also rose, took the stick, and fell upon Bahader so unmercifully, that the tears came into his eyes. Amgiad, offended to the last degree at the freedom she took, and that she should use one of the king’s chief officers so ill, cried out to her in vain, Enough. She continued striking him. Let me alone, said she, I will give him enough, and teach him to be absent so long another time. She continued beating him with great fury, till Amgiad rose from the table, and forced the stick out of her hand; which she did not part with without much struggling. When she found she could beat Bahader no longer, she sat down and railed at and cursed him.

Bahader wiped his eyes, and stood up to fill out wine. When he saw they had done eating and drinking, he took away the cloth, cleared the hall, put every thing in its place; and, night coming on, lighted up the lamps. Every time he came in, or went out, the lady muttered and threatened him, and gave him abusive language, to Amgiad’s great disliking, who would have hindered her, but could not. When it was time for them to go to bed, Bahader prepared one for them on the sofa, and withdrew into a chamber, where he laid himself down, and it was not long before he fell asleep, having been fatigued with his beating. Amgiad and the lady entertained one another a good half hour afterwards, and the lady wanted to go forth before she went to bed. Passing through the vestibule, she heard Bahader snore; and having seen a sabre hanging up in the hall, she turned back again, and said to prince Amgiad, My lord, as you love me, do one thing for me. In what can I serve you? replied the prince. The lady answered, Oblige me so far as to take down this sabre, and cut off your slave’s head with it. Amgiad was astonished at such a proposal from a lady, not doubting but it was the wine she had drank that prompted it. Madam, said he, let my slave alone; he is not worthy of your notice; I have beat him, and you have beat him: it is sufficient: besides, I am very well satisfied with him; he does not use to be guilty of such faults.

That shall not do, replied the lady, in violent fury; the rogue shall die: if not by your hands, by mine. Saying this, she took down the sabre from the place where it hung, drew it out of the scabbard, and was going to execute her wicked design.

Amgiad met her in the vestibule, saying, You shall be satisfied, madam, since you will have it so; but I should be sorry that any one, beside myself, should kill my slave. When she had given him the sabre, Come, follow me, said he; make no noise, for fear we wake him. They went into Bahader’s chamber, where Amgiad, instead of striking him, struck at the lady, and cut off her head, which fell upon Bahader.

If the noise of the blow which Amgiad gave the lady, in cutting off her head, had not waked Bahader, her head falling upon him would have done it; he was amazed to see Amgiad with a sabre all bloody, and the body of the lady lying headless on the ground. The prince told him what had passed, and ending his discourse, said, I had no other way to hinder this furious woman from killing you, but to take away her life. My lord, replied Bahader, full of gratitude, persons of your rank and generosity are not capable of doing such a wicked action as she desired of you. You are my deliverer, and I cannot enough thank you. After he had embraced him, to show him what sense he had of his obligations to him, he said, We must carry this corpse out before it is quite day, leave it to me, I will do it. Amgaid would not agree to that, saying, he would carry it away himself, since he had struck the blow. Bahader replied, You are a stranger in this city, and cannot do it so well as one who is acquainted here; I must do it, if for no other reason, yet for both our safeties, to prevent our being questioned for her death: stay you here, and if I do not come back before day, you may be sure the watch has seized me; and for fear of the worst, I will by writing give this house and furniture for your habitation; you have nothing to do but to live in it.

When he had written, signed, and delivered the paper to prince Amgiad, he put the lady’s body in a bag, head and all, laid it on his shoulder, and went out with it from one street to another, taking the way to the sea-side. He had not gone far before he met with one of the judges of the city, who was going the rounds in person. Bahader was stopped by the judge’s followers, who, opening the bag, found the body of a murdered lady, bundled up with the head. The judge, who knew the master of the horse, notwithstanding his disguise, took him home to his house, and not daring to put him to death without telling the king of it, because of his quality, he carried him to court as soon as it was day. When the king had heard from the judge, what a foul action he had been guilty of, as he believed from the circumstances, he addressed the master of the horse in these words: It is thus then that thou murderest my subjects, to rob them, and then thou wouldst throw their dead bodies into the sea, to hide thy villany; let us rid them of you; go, hang him up immediately.

Innocent as Bahader was, he took his sentence of death with all imaginable resignation, and said not a word to justify himself. The judge carried him to his house, and, while the gallows was preparing, he sent a crier to publish throughout the city, that at noon the master of the horse was to be hanged for a murder committed by him.

Prince Amgiad, who had in vain expected Bahader’s return, was struck with terrible consternation when he heard the crier publish the approaching execution of the master of the horse. If, said he to himself, somebody must die for the death of such a wicked woman, it is I, and not Bahader; I will never suffer an innocent man to be punished for the guilty; and without deliberating any more about it, he hastened to the place of execution, whither the people were running from all parts.

When Amgiad saw the judge bringing Bahader to the gibbet, he went up to him, and said, I am come to tell you, and to assure you, that the master of the horse whom you are leading to execution is wholly innocent of the lady’s death: I am guilty of the crime, if it is one, to have killed a detestable woman, who would have murdered Bahader; and then he told him all as it happened.

The prince having informed the judge how he met her coming out of the bath; how she was the cause of going into the master of the horse’s pleasure-house, and all that had passed to the moment in which he was forced to cut off her head, to save Bahader’s life; the judge ordered execution to be stopped, and conducted Amgiad to the king, taking the master of the horse with him.

The king had a mind to hear the story from Amgiad himself; and the prince, the better to prove his own innocence and the master of the horse’s, took that opportunity to discover who he was, and what had driven him and his brother Assad to that city, with all the accidents that had befallen them, from their departure from the capital city of the isle of Ebene, to the time in which he talked to him.

The prince having done speaking, the king said to him, I rejoice that I have by this means come to the knowledge of you; I not only give you your own and my master of the horse’s life, whom I commend for his kindness to you, but I restore him to his office; and as for you, prince, I declare you my grand vizier, to make amends for your father’s unjust usage of you, though it is also excusable, and I permit you to employ all the authority I now give you to find out prince Assad.

Prince Amgiad having thanked the king of the city and country of magicians for the honour he had done him, and taking possession of his office of grand vizier, he took every possible means to find out the prince his brother. He ordered the common criers to promise a great reward to any one who should bring forth prince Assad, or tell any tidings of him. He sent men up and down the country to the same purpose; but notwithstanding all his diligence, he could hear no news of him.

The Sequel of the Story of Prince Assad.

Assad in the meanwhile continued in the dungeon in chains; Bostama and Cavama, the cunning old conjuror’s daughters, treating him daily with the same cruelty and inhumanity as at first.

The solemn festival of the adorers of fire approached; and a ship was fitted out for the fiery mountain as usual; the captain’s name was Behram, a great bigot to that religion. He loaded it with proper merchandise; and when it was ready to sail, he put Assad in a chest, which was half full of goods, a few crevices being left between the boards for him to breathe, enough to keep life in him. This chest was stowed in the bottom of the hold, for the greater security.

Before the ship sailed, the grand vizier Amgiad, Assad’s brother, who had been told that the adorers of fire used to sacrifice a Mussulman every year on the fiery mountain, suspected that Assad might have fallen into their hands, and be designed a victim at that bloody sacrifice; wherefore he resolved to search the ship in person. He ordered all the passengers and seamen to be brought upon deck, and commanded his men to search all over the ship, which they did, yet Assad could not be found, he was so well concealed.

When the grand vizier had done searching the vessel, she sailed, and as soon as Behram was got out to sea, he ordered prince Assad to be taken out of the chest, and fettered, to secure him, fearing least he should fling himself into the sea in despair, since he knew he was going to be sacrificed.

The wind was very favourable two or three days, and then it turned contrary, after which there arose a furious storm; and the vessel was not only driven out of her course, but neither Behram nor his pilot knew where they were. They were afraid of splitting against the rocks, for in the violence of the storm they discovered land, and a dreadful shore before them. Behram saw he was driven into the port and capital of queen Margiana, which was a great mortification to him.

This queen Margiana was a devout professor of the Mahometan religion, and a mortal enemy to the adorers of fire. She banished all of them out of her dominions, and would not let any of their ships touch at her ports.

It was no longer in the power of Behram now to help putting into the port of this queen’s capital city, or else he had been dashed to pieces against the frightful rocks that lay off the shore. In this extremity he held a council with his pilot and seamen. My lads, said he, you see to what a necessity we are reduced; we must choose one of these two things; either resolve to be swallowed up by the waves, or put into queen Margiana’s port, whose hatred to all persons of our religion you very well know. She will certainly seize our vessel and put us all to death, without mercy. I see but one likely way to escape her, which is, to take off the fetters from the Mussulman we have aboard, and dress him like a slave. When queen Margiana commands me to come before her, and asks what trade I use, I will tell her I deal in slaves; that I have sold all I had, but one, whom I keep to be my clerk, because he can read and write. She will see him, to be sure, and he being handsome, and of her own religion, will have pity on him. No doubt she will then ask to buy him of me, and on this condition will let us stay in the port till the weather is fair. If any of you have any thing else to propose, that will be of more advantage to us, I am ready to hearken to it. The pilot and seamen applauded his judgment, and agreed to follow his advice.

Behram commanded prince Assad’s chains to be taken off, and had him dressed like a slave very neatly, as became one who was to pass for his clerk before the queen of the country. They had scarce time to do this, before the ship drove into the port, and dropped anchor.

Queen Margiana’s palace was so near the sea-side, that her garden extended down to the sea-shore. She saw the ship anchor, and sent to the captain to come to her, and the sooner to satisfy her curiosity, waited for him in her garden.

Behram, who expected to be sent for, landed with prince Assad; whom he required to confirm what he had said of his being a slave, and his clerk. When he was introduced to the queen, he threw himself at her feet, and informed her of the necessity he was in to put into her port; that he dealt in slaves, and had sold all he had but one, which was Assad there present, whom he kept for his clerk.

The queen was taken with Assad from the minute she first saw him, and was extremely glad to hear that he was a slave; resolving to buy him, cost what it would. She asked Assad what was his name.