Part 65

Queen Labe who had never yet seen any one to compare with king Beder, and began to conceive a mighty passion for him, thought immediately of getting the old man to abandon him to her. Father, quoth she, will you not oblige me so far as to make me a present of this young man? Do not refuse me, I conjure you; and I swear by the fire and the light, I will make him so great and powerful, that no individual in the world ever arrived at such good fortune. Although my purpose were to do evil to all mankind, yet he shall be the sole exception. I trust you will grant me what I desire, more on the account of the friendship I know you have for me, than for the esteem you know I always had, and shall ever have, for your person.

Madam, replied the good Abdallah, I am infinitely obliged to your majesty for all the kindness you have for me, and the honours you propose to do my nephew. He is not worthy to approach so great a queen, and I humbly beseech your majesty to excuse him.

Abdallah, replied the queen, I all along flattered myself you loved me; and I could never have thought you would have given me so evident a token of your slighting my request. But I here swear once more by the fire and light, and even by whatsoever is most sacred in my religion, that I will pass on no farther till I have conquered your obstinacy. I understand very well what raises your apprehensions; but I promise you shall never have occasion to repent having obliged me in so sensible a manner.

Old Abdallah was exceedingly grieved, both on his own account and king Beder’s, for being in a manner forced to obey the queen. Madam, replied he, I would not willingly have your majesty entertain an ill opinion of the respect I have for you, and my zeal always to contribute whatever I can to oblige you. I put an entire confidence in your royal word, and I do not in the least doubt but you will keep it. I only beg of your majesty to delay doing this great honour to my nephew till you shall again pass this way. That shall be to-morrow, said the queen; who inclined her head, as a token of her being pleased, and so went forward towards her palace.

When queen Labe and all her attendants were out of sight, the good Abdallah said to king Beder, Son (for so he was wont to call him, for fear of some time or other discovering him when he spoke of him in public,) it has not been in my power, as you may have observed, to refuse the queen what she demanded of me with so great earnestness, to the end I might not force her to employ her magic both against you and myself openly or secretly, and treat you, as much from resentment to you as to me, with more signal cruelty than all those she has had in her power till now, as I have already told you. But I have some reason to believe she will use you well, as she promised me, on account of that particular esteem she professes for me. This you may have seen by the respect shewn, and the honours paid me by all her court. She would be a cursed creature indeed, if she should deceive me; but she shall not deceive me unrevenged, for I know how to be even with her.

These assurances, which appeared very doubtful, were not sufficient to support king Beder’s spirits. After all you have told me of this queen’s wickedness, replied he, you cannot wonder if I am somewhat fearful to approach her: I should, it may be, slight all you could tell me of her, and suffer myself to be dazzled by the lustre of grandeur that surrounds her, did I not know by experience what it is to be at the mercy of a sorceress. The condition I was in, through the enchantment of the princess Giauhara, and from whence I was delivered only to enter almost immediately into another, has made me look upon such a fate with horror. His tears hindered him from going on, and sufficiently showed with what repugnance he beheld himself in a manner under a fatal necessity of being delivered to queen Labe.

Son, replied old Abdallah, do not afflict yourself; for though I must own there is no great stress to be laid upon the promises and oaths of so perfidious a queen, yet I must withal acquaint you, her power extends not to me. She knows it full well herself; and that is the reason, and no other, that she pays me so great respect. I can quickly hinder her from doing you the least harm, if she should be perfidious enough to attempt it. You may depend upon me; and, provided you follow exactly the advice I shall give you, before I abandon you to her, she shall have no more power over you than she has over me.

The magic queen did not fail to pass by the old man’s shop the next day, with the same pomp as the day before, and Abdallah waited for her with great respect. Father, cried she, stopping just against him, you may judge of my impatience to have your nephew with me, by my punctual coming to put you in mind of your promise. I know you are a man of your word, and I cannot think you will break it with me.

Abdallah, who fell on his face as soon as he saw the queen approaching, rose up when she had done speaking; and as he would have nobody hear what he had a mind to say to her, he advanced with great respect as far as her horse’s head and then said softly, Puissant queen! I am persuaded your majesty will not be offended at my seeming unwillingness to trust my nephew with you yesterday, since you cannot be ignorant of the reasons I had for it; but I conjure you to lay aside the secrets of that art which you possess in so wonderful a degree. I regard my nephew as my own son; and your majesty would reduce me to despair, if you should deal with him as you have done with others.

I promise you I will not, replied the queen; and I once more repeat the oath I made yesterday, that neither you nor your nephew shall have any cause to be offended at me. I see plainly, added she, you are not yet well enough acquainted with me: you never saw me yet but through a veil; but as I find your nephew worthy of my friendship, I will show you I am not any way unworthy of his. With that she threw on her veil, and discovered to king Beder, who came near her with Abdallah, an incomparable beauty. But king Beder was little charmed. It is not enough, said he within himself, to be beautiful; one’s actions ought to correspond in regularity with one’s features.

Whilst king Beder was making these reflections, with his eyes fixed on queen Labe, the old man turned towards him, and taking him by the arm, presented him to her majesty. Here he is, madam, said he; and I beg of your majesty once more to remember he is my nephew, and to let him come and see me sometimes. The queen promised he should; and to give a farther mark of her gratitude, she caused a bag of a thousand pieces of gold to be given him. He excused himself at first from receiving them, but she insisted absolutely upon it, and he could not refuse her. She had caused a horse to be brought as richly harnessed as her own, for the king of Persia. Whilst he was mounting him, I forgot, said the queen to Abdallah, to ask you your nephew’s name: pray how is he called? He answered, his name was Beder (the full moon:) her majesty replied, Sure your ancestors were mistaken; they ought to have given you the name of Shems (the sun.)

When king Beder was mounted, he would have taken his post behind the queen, but she would not suffer him, and made him ride on her left hand. She looked upon Abdallah, and after having made him an inclination with her head, she set forward on her march.

Instead of observing a satisfaction in the people’s faces at the sight of their sovereign, king Beder took notice that they looked at her with contempt, and even cursed her. The sorceress, said some, has got a new subject to exercise her wickedness upon: will Heaven never deliver the world from her tyranny? Poor stranger! cried out others, thou art much deceived if thou thinkest thine happiness will last long. It is only to render thy fall more terrible, that thou art raised so high. This talk gave king Beder to understand Abdallah had told him nothing but the truth of queen Labe: but as it now depended no longer on himself to escape the mischief, he committed himself to divine Providence, and the will of Heaven respecting his fate.

The magic queen arrived at her palace; whither she was no sooner come, out she alighted, and giving her hand to king Beder, entered with him, accompanied by her women and the officers of her eunuchs. She herself showed him all her apartments, where there was nothing to be seen but massy gold, precious stones, and furniture of wonderful magnificence. When she had carried him into her closet, she led him out into a balcony, from whence he observed a garden of surprising beauty. King Beder commended all he saw with a great deal of wit, but nevertheless so that he might not be discovered to be any other than old Abdallah’s nephew. They discoursed of indifferent matters, till the queen was informed that dinner was upon table.

The queen and king Beder arose, and went to place themselves at the table, which was of massy gold, and the dishes of the same metal. They began to eat, but drank hardly at all till the dessert came, when the queen caused a cup to be filled for her with excellent wine. She took it and drank to king Beder’s health; and then, without putting it out of her hand, caused it to be filled again, and presented it to him. King Beder received it with profound respect, and by a very low bow signified to her majesty that he in return drank to her health.

At the same time ten of queen Labe’s women entered with musical instruments, with which and their voices they made an agreeable concert, while they continued drinking till late at night. At length both began so to be heated with wine, that king Beder insensibly forgot he had to do with a magic queen, and looked upon her only as the most beautiful queen he ever saw. As soon as the queen perceived she had wrought him to the pitch she desired, she made a sign to her eunuchs and women to retire. They obeyed, and king Beder and she lay together.

Next morning the queen and king Beder, as soon as they rose, went to the bath; and when they came out, the women who had served the king there presented him with fine linen and a magnificent habit. The queen likewise, who was more splendidly dressed than the day before, came to receive him; and they went together to her apartments, where they had a good repast brought them, and spent the remainder of the day in walking in the garden, and in various other amusements.

Queen Labe treated king Beder after this manner for forty days, as she had been accustomed to do all her lovers. The fortieth night, as they were in bed together, she, believing he was really asleep, arose without making any noise; but he was awake, and, perceiving she had some design upon him, watched all her motions. Being up, she opened a chest, from whence she took a little box full of a certain yellow powder; taking some of the powder, she laid a train of it across the chamber, and it immediately flowed in a rivulet of water, to the great astonishment of king Beder. He trembled with fear, but still pretended to sleep, that he might not discover to the sorceress he was awake.

Queen Labe next took up some of the water in a vessel, and poured it into a basin, where there was flour; with which she made a paste, and kneaded it for a long time; then she mixed with it certain drugs, which she took from different boxes, and made a cake, which she put into a covered baking-pan. --As she had taken care first of all to make a good fire, she took some of the coals and set the pan upon them; and while the cake was baking, she put up the vessels and boxes in their places again; and on her pronouncing certain words, the rivulet, which run along the end of the room, appeared no more. When the cake was baked, she took it off the coals, and carried it into her closet, and afterwards returned to bed again to king Beder, who dissembled so well, that she had not the least suspicion that he had seen any thing of what she had done.

King Beder, whom the pleasures and amusements of a court had made to forget his good host Abdallah, began now to think of him again, and believed he had more than ordinary occasion for his advice, after all he had seen the queen do that night. As soon as he was up, therefore, he expressed a great desire to go up and see his uncle, and begged of her majesty to permit him. What! my dear Beder, cried the queen, are you then already tired, I will not say with living in so superb a palace as mine is, where you must find so many pleasures, but with the company of a queen, who loves you so passionately as I do, and has given you many marks of affection?

Great queen, answered king Beder, how can I be tired of so many favours and graces as your majesty perpetually heaps upon me? So far from it, that I desire this permission, madam, purely to go and give my uncle an account of the mighty obligations I have to your majesty. I must own likewise, it is partly for this farther reason, that my uncle, loving me so tenderly, as I well know he does, and I having been absent from him now forty days, without once seeing him, I would not give him reason to think that I consent to remaining longer without seeing him. Go, said the queen, you have my consent; but you will not be long before you return, if you consider I cannot possibly live without you. This said, she ordered him a horse richly caparisoned, and he departed.

Old Abdallah was overjoyed to see king Beder. Without regard to his quality, he embraced him tenderly, and king Beder returned the like, that nobody might doubt but that he was his nephew. As soon as they were sat down, Well, said Abdallah to the king, how have you done, and how have you passed your time with that infidel sorceress?

Hitherto, answered king Beder, I must needs own she has been extraordinary kind to me, and has done all she could to persuade me that she loves me entirely; but I observed something last night, which gives me just reason to suspect that all her kindness hitherto is but dissimulation. Whilst she thought me asleep, although I was really awake, she stole from me with a great deal of precaution, which made me suspect her intention, and therefore I resolved to watch her, still feigning myself asleep. Going on with his discourse, he related to Abdallah how and after what manner he had seen her make the cake; and then added, Hitherto, said he, I must needs confess, I had almost forgotten, not only you, but all the advice you gave me concerning the wickedness of this queen; but this last action of hers gives me reason to fear she neither intends to observe any of her promises or solemn oaths to you. I thought of you immediately, and I esteem myself happy in that I have obtained permission to come to you.

You are not mistaken, replied old Abdallah, with a smile, which showed he did not himself believe she would have acted otherwise; nothing is capable of obliging a perfidious woman to amend. But fear nothing; I know the way to make the mischief she intends you fall upon herself. You are alarmed in time; and you could not have done better than to have recourse to me. It is her ordinary practice to keep her lovers only forty days; and after that time, instead of sending them home, to turn them into animals, to stock her forests and parks; but I thought of measures yesterday to prevent her doing you the same harm. The earth has borne this monster long enough, and it is now high time she should be treated as she deserves.

So saying, Abdallah put two cakes into king Beder’s hands, bidding him to keep them to make use of as he should direct. You told me, continued he, the sorceress made a cake last night; it was for you to eat, depend upon it; but take great care you do not touch it. Nevertheless, do not refuse to receive it when she offers it to you; but, instead of tasting it, break off part of one of the two I shall give you unobserved, and eat that. As soon as she thinks you have swallowed it, she will not fail to attempt transforming you into some animal, but she shall not succeed; which when she sees, she will immediately turn the thing into pleasantry, as if what she had done was only out of joke to frighten you; but she will conceal a mortal grief in her heart, and think she omitted something in the composition of her cake. As for the other cake, you shall make a present of it to her, and press her to eat it; which she will not refuse to do, were it only to convince you she does not mistrust you, though she has given you so much reason to mistrust her. When she has eat of it, take a little water in the hollow of your hand, and throwing it in her face, say, ‘Quit that form you now wear, and take that of such or such animal,’ as you shall think fit; which done, come to me with the animal, and I will tell you what you shall do afterward.

King Beder told Abdallah, in the most expressive terms, the great obligations he had to him, for his endeavours to defend him from the power of a pestilent sorceress; and after some farther discourse, took his leave of him, and returned to the palace. --Upon his arrival, he understood that the queen waited for him with great impatience in the garden. He went to her, and she no sooner perceived him, but she came in great haste to meet him. My dear Beder, said she, it is said, with a great deal of reason, that nothing shows more the force and excess of love than absence from the object beloved. I have had no quiet since I saw you, and it seems ages since I have been separated from you. If you had stayed ever so little longer, I was preparing to come and fetch you once more to my arms.

Madam, replied king Beder, I can assure your majesty I was no less impatient to rejoin you; but I could not refuse to stay a little longer with an uncle that loves me, and had not seen me for so long time. He would have kept me still longer, but I tore myself away from him, to come where love calls me. Of all the collations he prepared for me, I have only brought away this cake, which I desire your majesty to accept. --King Beder had wrapped up one of the two cakes in a handkerchief very neatly, took it out and presented it to the queen, saying, I beg your majesty to accept of it.

I do accept it with all my heart, replied the queen, receiving it, and will eat it with pleasure for yours and your good uncle’s sake; but before I taste of it, I desire you for my sake will eat a piece of this, which I have made for you during your absence. Fair queen, answered king Beder, receiving it with great respect, such hands as your majesty’s can never make any thing but what is excellent; and I cannot sufficiently acknowledge the favour you do me.

King Beder then artfully substituted in the place of the queen’s cake the other which old Abdallah had given him; and having broken off a piece, he put it in his mouth, and cried while he was eating, Ah! queen, I never tasted any thing so charming in my life. They being near a cascade, the sorceress seeing him swallow one bit of the cake, and ready to eat another, took a little water in the palm of her hand, and throwing it in the king’s face, said, ‘Wretch! quit that form of a man, and take that of a vile horse, blind and lame.’

These words not having the desired effect, the sorceress was strangely surprised to find king Beder still in the same form, and that he only started for fear. Her cheeks reddened; and as she saw that she had missed her aim, Dear Beder, cried she, this is nothing, recover yourself. I did not intend you any harm; I only did it to see what you would say. I should be the most miserable and most execrable of women, should I attempt so black a deed; I do not only say, after all the oaths I have sworn, but even after so many testimonies of love as I have given you.

Puissant queen, replied king Beder, persuaded as I am that what your majesty did was only to divert yourself, yet I could not help being surprised. What could hinder me from being a little moved at the pronouncing of so strange a transformation? But, madam, continued he, let us drop this discourse; and since I have eat of your cake, would you do me the favour to taste mine?

Queen Labe, who could not better justify herself than by showing this mark of confidence in the king of Persia, broke off a piece of his cake, and eat it. She had no sooner swallowed it, but she appeared much troubled, and remained, as it were, motionless. King Beder lost no time, but took water out of the same basin, and throwing it in her face, cried, ‘Abominable sorceress! quit that form of a woman, and be turned instantly into a mare.’

The same instant queen Labe was transformed into a very beautiful mare; and her confusion was so great to find herself in that condition, that she shed tears in great abundance, which perhaps no mare before had ever been known to do. She bowed her head to the feet of king Beder, thinking to move him to compassion; but though he could have been so moved, it was absolutely out of his power to repair the mischief he had done. He led her into the stable belonging to the palace, and put her into the hands of a groom, to bridle and saddle; but of all the bridles which the groom tried upon her, not one would fit her. This made him cause two horses to be saddled, one for the groom, and the other for himself; and the groom led the mare after him to old Abdullah’s.

Abdallah, seeing at a distance king Beder coming with the mare, doubted not but he had done what he advised him. Cursed sorceress! said he immediately to himself, in a transport of joy, Heaven has at length punished thee as thou deservest. King Beder alighted at Abdallah’s door, and entered with him into the shop, embracing and thanking him for all the signal services he had done him. He related to him the whole matter, with all its circumstances, and moreover told him he could find no bridle fit for the mare. Abdallah, who had one for every horse, bridled the mare himself; and as soon as king Beder had sent back the groom with the two horses, he said to him, My lord, you have no reason to stay any longer in this city; mount the mare, and return to your kingdom. I have but one thing more to recommend to you, and that is, if you should ever happen to part with the mare, be sure not to give up the bridle. King Beder promised to remember it; and having taken leave of the good old man, he departed.

The young king of Persia no sooner got out of the city, but he began to reflect with joy on the deliverance he had had, and that he had the sorceress in his power, who had given him so much cause to tremble. Three days after he arrived at a great city, where, entering the suburbs, he met a venerable old man, walking on foot towards a pleasure house he had there. Sir, said the old man, stopping him, may I presume to ask from what part of the world you come? The king stopped to satisfy him; and as they were discoursing together, an old woman came up, who, stopping likewise, wept and sighed bitterly at the sight of the mare.

King Beder and the old man left off discoursing to look on the old woman, whom the king asked what cause she had to lament so much? Alas! sir, replied she, it is because your mare resembles so perfectly one my son had, and which I still mourn the loss of on his account, and should think your’s were the same, did I not know she was dead. Sell her to me, I beseech you; I will give you more than she is worth, and thank you too.