Chapter 51

This done, she retired to the princess of the isle of Ebene's apartment, to whom she communicated her joy, praying her still to keep the secret. She told her how she intended to manage their discovering themselves to each other, and to the kingdom; adding, that so vast was the distance between a gardener and a great prince, as he was, that it might be dangerous to raise him at once from the lowest condition of the people to the highest degree, though it was but justice it should be done. The princess of the isle of Ebene was so far from betraying her, that she rejoiced, and entered into the design; assuring her she would contribute to it all that lay in her power, and do whatever she would desire to serve them.

Next morning the princess of China ordered prince Camaralzaman to be conducted to the royal baths, and apparelled in the robes of an emir or governor of a province. She then went to the council, with the name, habit, and authority, of king of the island of Ebene. She commanded Camaralzaman to be introduced; and his fine mien and majestic air drew upon him the eyes of all the lords who were present.

The princess Badoura was charmed to see him again as lovely as she had often seen him, and that pleasure inspired her to speak the more warmly in his praise. When she addressed herself to the council, having ordered the prince to take his seat among the emirs, she spoke to them thus; my lords, Camaralzaman, the man whom I have advanced to the same dignity with yourselves, is not unworthy of the honour that is done him. I have known enough of him in my travels to answer for him; and I can assure you he will make his merit known to all of you, as well by his valour, as by a thousand other shining qualities which distinguish him from the rest of mankind.

Camaralzaman was extremely amazed to hear the king of the isle of Ebene, whom he was far from taking for a woman, much less for his dear princess, name him, and declare that he knew him, who, as he thought, was certain he had never seen him before. He was much more surprised to hear himself praised so excessively. However, those eulogiums, excessive as they were, did not confound him, though they came from the mouth of a king: he received them with sueh modesty as showed that he deserved them, and did not grow vain upon it. He porptrated himself before the throne of the king; and rising again, Sir, said he, I want words to express ny gratitude to your majesty for the honour you have done me: I shall do all that lies in my power to render myself worthy of your royal favour.

From the council-board the prince was conducted to a palace which the princess Badoura ordered to be fitted up for him; where he found officers and domestics ready to receive and obey his commands, a stable full of fine horses, and every thing suitable to the quality of an emir. When he was in his closet, the steward of his household brought a chest full of gold for his expenses.

The less he conceived how it came about that he met with so much good fortune, the more he wondered at it, never once imagining it was owing to the princess of China.

Two or three days after, the princess Badoura made him lord-treasurer, which office was then vacant, that he might be nearer her person. He behaved himself in this new charge with much integrity, and was so obliging to every body, that he not only gained the friendship of the great, but also the affections of the people, by his uprightness and bounty.

Camaralzaman, being the reigning favourite of the king of the isle of Ebene, and in the esteem of all his subjects, would have been the happiest man in the world, if he had had his princess with him. In the midst of his good fortune he never ceased lamenting her, and grieved that he could hear no tidings of her, especially in a country which she must necessarily have passed in her way to his father's court, and have arrived long before, if she had not met with some ill accident by the way: he would have doubted something, had the princess Badoura still gone by the name of Camaralzaman, which she took with his habit; but, on her accession to the throne, she changed it to that of Armanos, in honour of the old king her father-in-law. There were very few courtiers who knew that she had ever been called Camaralzaman, which she assumed when she arrived at the court of the isle of Ebene; nor had Camaralzaman so much acquaintance with any of them as yet to inform himself further of her history.

The princess, fearing he might do it in time, and desirous he should owe the discovery to herself only, resolved to put an end to their mutual torments, for she had observed that, as often as she discoursed about the affairs of his office, he fetched such deep sighs as could be applied to nobody but her. She herself lived in such constraint, that she could endure it no longer. Add to this the friendship of the emirs and courtiers, and the zeal and affection of the people; in a word, every thing contributed to her putting the crown of the isle of Ebene on his head without any obstacle.

The princess Badoura consulted the princess Haiatalnefous in this, as she had done in the other parts of the adventure; and both agreeing to have it done, she one day took prince Camaralzaman aside, saying, I must talk with you about an affair, Camaralzaman, in which I want your advice: it will not be so proper to do it by day-light, for our discourse may be long, and I would not be observed. Come hither in the evening: do not let us wait for you; I will take care to provide you a bed.

Camaralzaman came punctually to the palace at the hour appointed by the princess: she took him into the inner apartment; and, having told the chief eunuch, who prepared to follow her, that she had no occasion for his service, but only keep the door shut, she carried him into a private apartment adjoining to the princess Haiatalnefous, where she used to lie.

When she entered the chamber, where was a bed, she shut the door; and, taking the talisman out of her pocket, gave it to Camaralzaman, saying, It is not long since an astrologer presented me with this talisman: you being skilful in all things, pray tell me for what it is good.

Camaralzanrian took the talisman, and drew near a lamp to view it. As soon as he knew it to be the princess's, he was transported with pleasure, and she was no less pleased to see it. Sir, said the prince, your majesty asked me what this talisman is good for. Oh, king! it is only good to kill me with grief and despair, if I do not suddenly find the most charming and lovely princess in the world, to whom it belongs; whose loss I was the occasion of, and of a strange adventure to me, the very recital of which will move your majesty to pity such an unfortunate husband and lover, if you have patience to hear it.

You shall tell me that another time, replied the princess; I am very glad I know something of it already. Stay here a little, and I will return to you in a moment.

At these words she went into her closet, put off her royal turban, and in a few minutes dressed herself like a woman; and, having the girdle round her which she had on the day of their separation, she entered the chamber.

Prince Camaralzaman immediately knew his dear princess; he ran to her, and tenderly embraced her, crying out, Ah! how much am I obliged to the king, who has so agreeably surprised me!--Do not expect to See the king any more, replied the princess, with tears in her eyes: Let us sit down, and I will explain the enigma.

They sat down, and the princess told the prince her resolution, when in the field where they encamped the last time they were together, as soon as she perceived she waited for him to no purpose; how she went through with it, till she arrived at the isle of Ebene, where she had been obliged to marry the princess Haiatalnefous, and accept of the crown, which king Armanos offered as one of the conditions of the marriage; how the princess, whose merit she highly extolled, took her declaration of her sex; how she found the talisman in the pots of olives mingled with the gold dust; and that her finding it was the cause of her sending for him to the city of the idolaters.

When she had finished the relation of her adventure, she obliged the prince to tell his. He informed her how the talisman occasioned their separation, and the rest of the story relating to him, as already told. They then bemoaned one another's ill fortune, and rejoiced in their good: he complained of her with the kindest expressions love could invent, chiding her tenderly for making him languish so long without her; and she excused herself with the reasons already related. After which, it growing late, they went to bed.

The princess Badoura and prince Camaralzaman rose next morning as soon as it was light; but the princess would no more put on her royal robes as king; she dressed herself in her natural dress, that of a woman, and then sent the chief eunuch to king Armanos, her father-in-law, to desire he would take the trouble to come to her apartment.

When the king entered the chamber, he was amazed to see a lady there who was unknown to him, and the lord-treasurer with her, to whom it was not permitted to come within the inner palace, nor to any of the lords of the court. He sat down, and asked where the king was.

The princess answered, Yesterday I was king, sir; but today I am only princess of China, wife to prince Camaralzaman, the true son of king Schahzaman. If your majesty will have patience to hear our histories, I hope you will not condemn me for putting an innocent deceit upon you. The king bade her go on, and heard her discourse from beginning to end, with astonishment. The princess finishing, said to him, Sir, though our religion does not suffer men to have more wives than one, without some sort of scandal, and we women do not easily comply with the custom men have introduced to have several, yet if your majesty will consent to give your daughter, the princess Haiatalnefous, in marriage to the prince Camaralzaman, I will with all my heart yield up to her the rank and quality of queen which of right belongs to her, and content myself with the second place. If this precedence were not her due, I would, however, give it her, being obliged to her for keeping the secret so faithfully. If your majesty approves of it, I am sure she will, and will pass my word that she will obey you with joy.

King Armanos listened to the princess with admiration, and when she had done, turned about to prince, Camaralzaman, saying, Son, since the princess Badoura, your wife, whom I have all along thought to be my son-in-law through a deceit of which I do not complain, assures me that she will divide your bed with my daughter, I have nothing more to do but to know if you are willing to marry her, and accept of the crown, which the princess Badoura should deservedly wear as long as she lived, if she did not quit it out of love to you. Sir, replied prince Camaralzaman, though I desired nothing so earnestly as to see my father, yet the obligations I have to your majesty and the princess Haiatalnefous are so weighty, that I cannot deny you any thing in my power.

Camaralzaman was proclaimed king, and married the same day with all possible demonstrations of joy; he being very well pleased with the princess Haiatalnefous's beauty and love for him. The two queens lived together afterwards as friendly as they had done before, both being contented with king Camaralzaman's equal carriage towards them; and they were alternately taken to his bed.

Next year each brought him a son, and the births of the two princes were celebrated with extraordinary feastings. The first, whom the princess Badoura was delivered of, king Camaralzaman named Amgrad, Most Glorious; and the other, who was born of queen Haiatalnefous, Assad, Most Happy.

THE STORY OF THE PRINCES AMGRAD AND ASSAD.

The two princes were brought up with great care, and, when old enough, had the same governor, and the same master for the arts and sciences which king Camaralzaman would have them learn; and they had the same master for each exercise. The friendship which from their infancy they entered into, occasioned an uniformity of manners and inclinations which increased with their years. When they were of age to keep a separate court, they loved one another so tenderly, that they begged king Camaralzaman to let them live together. He consented to it; and they had the same officers, the same domestics, the same lodging, and the same table. King Camaralzaman had so good an opinion of their capacity and justice, that he made no scruple of admitting them into his council at eighteen years old, and letting them by turns preside there, while he took the diversion of hunting, or recreated himself with his queens at his houses of pleasure.

The two princes being equally handsome, both in infancy and when they were grown up, the two queens loved them with incredible tenderness; in such a manner, however, that the princess Badoura had a greater kindness for prince Assad, queen Haiatalnefous' son, than her own; and queen Haiatalnefous loved Amgrad, princess Badoura's son, better than her own son Assad.

The two queens thought at first that this inclination was nothing but a friendship that proceeded from an exeess of their own for each other, which they still preserved; but as the two princes advanced in years, that friendship turned to a secret love, when the graces that appeared in their youth blinded their reason. They knew the criminality of their passion, and did all they could to resist it; but their efforts proved vain. They were accustomed to be familiar with them, to admire, to praise, to kiss and caress them from their infancy, and could not desist when they grew up, which inflamed their desires to such a height that they could neither eat, drink, nor sleep. It was their and the princes' ill fortune, that the latter, being used to be so treated by them, had not the least suspicion of their infamous desires.

The two queens had not discovered the secret of their passion, nor had either the boldness to mention the prince she loved, by word of mouth, or the guilty flame with which she burnt; they at last resolved to do it by billet, and made use of king Camaralzaman's absence to execute their wicked design, when he was gone a hunting, which would take him up three or four days.

Prince Amgrad presided at the council-table the day of king Camaralzaman's departure, and heard causes till three or four o'clock in the afternoon. When he returned to the palace from the council-chamber, an eunuch took him aside, and gave him a billet from queen Haiatalnefous, Amgrad took it but read with horror. Traitor! said he to the eunuch, as soon as he had read it through, is this the fidelity thou owest thy master and thy king? At these words he drew his sabre, and cut off his head.

Having done this, he ran in haste to the princess Badoura his mother, bearing his resentment still in his looks, and showing her the billet, told her the contents of it, and from whom it came; but, instead of hearkening to him, she fell into a passion, and said, Son, it is all a calumny and imposture: Queen Haiatalnefous is a very discreet princess, and you are very bold to talk after this rate. The prince was enraged at his mother, to hear her speak so of him. You are both bad alike, said he and had it not been for the respect I owe my father, this day should have been the last of Haiatalnefous's life.

Queen Badoura might have imagined, by the example of her son Amgrad, that prince Assad, who was as virtuous as the other, would not be pleased with such a declaration of love as had been made to his brother: yet that did not hinder her persisting in so abominable a design; she wrote him a billet the next day, which she trusted with an old woman belonging to the palace to convey to him.

The old woman watched her opportunity to give it as he was coming from the council-chamber, where he presided that day in, his turn: the prince took it; and, reading it, fell into such a fury, that, without finishing it, he drew his sabre, and punished the old woman as she deserved. He ran presently to the apartment of his mother queen Haiatalnefous with the billet in his hand; he would have shown it to her, but she did not give him time crying out, I know what you would have: you are as impertinent as your brother Amgrad, Begone! and never come into my presence again.

Assad stood as one thunderstruck at these words, of which he could not comprehend the meaning. When he recollected himself, he was so transported with rage, that he had like to have given very fatal demonstrations of his anger; but he contained himself, and withdrew without making any reply, fearing, if he staid, he might say something unworthy the greatness of his soul. Amgrad had put the same constraint on himself; and, guessing by his mother's carriage that she was altogether as criminal as queen Haiatalnefous, went to his brother, to chide him, for not communicating that hated secret to him, and to mingle his sorrow with Assad's.

The two queens grew desperate when they found so much virtue in the two princes; and, instead of reforming themselves, renounced all sentiments of mothers and of nature, and conspired together to destroy them: they made their women believe the two princes had attempted to ravish them: they counterfeited the matter to the life by tears, cries, and curses, and lay in the same bed, as if the resistance they had made had wasted them so much, that they were almost at death's door.

When Camaralzaman returned to the palace from hunting, he was very much surprised to find them in bed together in tears; and the part of desponding ladies was acted so well, that he was touched with compassion, and asked them, with earnestness, what had happened to them.

At this question, the dissembling queens wept and groaned more bitterly than before; and, after pressing them again and again to tell him, queen Badoura at last answered thus: Sir, our grief is so extraordinary, and so just, that we ought not to see the light of the sun nor live a day, after the violence that has been offered us by the princes your sons. Their brutality is such, that they entered into a horrid design in your absence, and had the boldness and insolence to make attempts upon our honour. Your majesty will excuse us from saying more; you may guess the rest by our affliction.

The king sent for the two princes, and would have killed them both with his own hand, if old king Armanos, his father-in-law, who was present, had not held his arm. Son, said he, what are you going to do? Will you stain your hands and your palace with your own blood? There are other ways of punishing, if they are really guilty.

He endeavoured thus to appease him, and desired him to examine the matter, and see whether they did indeed commit the crime of which they were accused. It was now a hard thing for Camaralzaman to be so much master of himself as not to butcher his own children. He ordered them to be put under arrest, and sent for an emir called Giendar, whom he commanded to carry them out of the city, and put them to death, as far off and in what place he pleased; but not to return unless he brought their clothes back, as a token of having executed his orders.

Giendar travelled with them all night, and early the next morning alighted, telling them, with tears in his eyes, the cruel commands he had received. Believe me, princes, said he, it is next to death to obey your father, who chose me to execute what he ordered concerning you. Would to Heaven I could avoid it! The princes replied, Do your duty; we know well you are not the cause of our deaths, and pardon you freely.

Then they embraced, and bid each other adieu with so much tenderness, that it was a long time before they could leave one another's arms. Prince Assad was the first who prepared himself for the fatal stroke. Begin with me, Giendar, said he, that I may not have the affliction to see my clear brother Amgrad die. Amgrad opposed him in this; and Giendar could not, without, weeping more than before, be witness of this dispute between them, which showed how perfect and sincere their friendship was.

They at last determined the contest by desiring Giendar to tie them together, and put them in the most convenient posture to kill them at one blow. Do not refuse two unfortunate brothers the poor comfort of dying together, said the generous princes; for all things, even our innocence, are common between us.

Giendar agreed to it, and, as they desired, tied them to each ether, breast to breast, close; and when he had placed them so as he thought he might strike the blow with the more surety to answer their request, and cut off their heads at once, he asked if they had any thing to command him before they died?

We have only one thing to desire, replied the princes; which is, to assure our father, on your return, that we are innocent; but do not charge him with our deaths, knowing he is not well informed of the truth of the crime of which we are accused.

Giendar promised to do what they would have him, and drew his sabre. His horse, being tied to a tree just by, started at the sight of the sabre, which glittered against the sun, broke his bridle, and ran away with all speed into the country. Giendar set a great price upon him, being a very good horse; besides, being richly harnessed, the emir could not well bear the loss. This accident so troubled him, that, instead of beheading the two princes, he threw down his sabre, and ran after his horse to catch him.

The horse gallopped on before him, and led him several miles out of his way into a wood. Giendar followed, and the horse's neighing roused a lion that was asleep not far off. The lion started up, and, instead of running after the horse, made directly towards Giendar, who thought no more of his horse, but how to avoid the lion, and save his life. He ran into the thickest of the wood, the lion pursuing him. Driven to this extremity, he said to himself, Heaven had not punished me in this manner, but to show the innocence of the princes whom I was commanded to put to death; and now, to add to my misfortune, I have not my sabre to defend myself!

While Giendar was gone, the two princes were seized with a violent thirst, occasioned by the fear of death, notwithstanding their steadfast resolution to submit to the king their father's cruel order.

Prince Amgrad showed his brother a fountain not far off. Ah, brother! said Assad, we have but a short time to live, and what need have we to quench our thirst? We can bear it a few minutes longer.

Amgrad, taking no notice of his brother's remonstrance, unbound himself, and his brother likewise, whether he would or not. They went to the fountain, and, having refreshed themselves, heard the roaring of a lion, who, in pursuit of his prey, had got to the end of the wood near where the princes were. They also heard Giendar's dreadful cries; on which Amgrad seized Giendar's sabre, which lay on the ground, saying to Assad, Come, brother, let us go and help poor Giendar; perhaps we may arrive soon enough to deliver him from the danger in which he now is.

The two princes ran to the wood, and entered it just as the lion was going to fall upon Giendar. The beast, seeing prince Amgrad advancing towards him with a sabre in his hand, left his prey, and came against him with fury. The prince met him intrepidly, and gave him a blow so forcibly and dexterously, that it felled him to the ground.