Part 13

I cannot express the astonishment I felt at seeing the king, my uncle, treat his son in that manner after his death. “Sire,” said I to him, “however violent my grief may be at seeing so heart-rending an object, yet I cannot yield to it without first inquiring of your majesty, what crime the prince, my cousin, can have committed to deserve such treatment of his lifeless corpse.” The king thus replied: “Nephew, I must inform you that my son, unworthy such a title, loved his sister from his earliest years, and was equally beloved by her. I rather encouraged their rising friendship, because I did not foresee the danger that was to ensue. And who could have foreseen it? This affection increased with their years, and reached to such a pitch, that I dreaded the consequences. I applied the only remedy then in my power. I severely reprimanded my son for his conduct, and represented to him the horrors that would arise if he persisted in it; and the eternal shame that would tarnish our family, if he indulged himself in so criminal a passion.

“I talked to his sister in the same terms, and confined her, that she should have no further communication with her brother. But the unhappy girl had tasted of the poison, and all the obstacles that my prudence suggested, only irritated their passion.

“My son, well persuaded that his sister continued to love him, prepared this subterraneous asylum, under pretence of building a tomb, hoping some day to find an opportunity of getting access to the object of his flame, and concealing her in this place. He chose the moment of my absence, to force the retreat of his sister, which is a circumstance that my honour will not allow me to publish. After this criminal deed, he shut himself up with her in this building, which he furnished, as you perceive, with all sorts of provisions, to be able to enjoy for a length of time his detestable amours; which must create horror in all who hear of them. But God would not suffer such an abominable crime; and has justly punished each of them.” He wept bitterly on finishing these words, and I mingled my tears with his.

Some time after, he cast his eyes on me; “But, dear nephew,” resumed he, embracing me, “if I lose an unworthy son, I may find in you a happy reparation of my loss.” The reflections which arose on the untimely end of the prince and the princess, his daughter, again drew tears from us both.

We ascended the same staircase, and quitted this dismal abode. We put the iron trap-door in its place, and covered it with earth and the rubbish of the building, to conceal, as much as possible, so dreadful an example of the anger of God.

We returned to the palace before our absence had been observed, and shortly after, we heard a confused noise of trumpets, cymbals, drums, and other warlike instruments. A thick dust, which obscured the air, soon informed us what it was, and announced the arrival of a formidable army. It was the same vizier who had dethroned my father, and taken possession of his dominions, and who came now with a large number of troops to seize those of my uncle.

This prince, who had only his usual guard, could not resist so many enemies. They invested the city, and as the gates were opened to them without resistance, they soon took possession of it. They had not much difficulty to penetrate to the palace of the king, who attempted to defend himself, but he was killed, after having dearly sold his life. On my part, I fought for some time, but seeing that I must surrender if I continued, I retired, and had the good fortune to escape, and take refuge in the house of an officer of the king, on whose fidelity I could depend.

Overcome with grief, and persecuted by fortune, I had recourse to a stratagem, which was the last resource to preserve my life. I shaved my beard and my eyebrows, and put on the habit of a calender, under which disguise I left the city without being recognised. After that, it was no difficult matter to quit the dominions of the king, my uncle, by unfrequented roads. I avoided the towns, till I arrived in the empire of the powerful sovereign of all believers, the glorious and renowned caliph Haroun Alraschid, when I ceased to fear. I considered what was my best plan, and I resolved to come to Bagdad, and throw myself at the feet of this great monarch, whose generosity is every where admired. I shall obtain compassion, thought I, by the recital of a history so surprising as mine; he will no doubt commisserate the fate of an unhappy prince, and I shall not implore his assistance in vain.

At length, after a journey of several months, I arrived to-day at the gates of the city: when the evening came on, I entered, and having rested a little time to recover my spirits, and deliberate which way I should turn my steps, this other calender, who is next me, arrived also. He saluted me, and I returned the compliment; “You appear,” said I, “a stranger like myself.”--“You are not mistaken,” returned he. At the very moment he made this reply the third calender, whom you see, came towards us. He saluted us, and acquainted us, that he too was a stranger and just arrived at Bagdad. Like brothers we united together and resolved never to separate.

But it was late, and we did not know where to go for a lodging, in a city where we never had been before. Our good fortune, however, having conducted us to your door, we took the liberty of knocking; you have received us with so much benevolence and charity that we cannot sufficiently thank you. This, madam, is what you desired me to relate; this was the way in which I lost my right eye; this was the reason I have my beard and eyebrows shaved, and why I am at this moment in your company.

“Enough,” said Zobeidè, “we thank you, and you may retire whenever you please.” The calender excused himself, and entreated the lady to allow him to stay and hear the history of his two companions, whom he could not well abandon, as well as that of the three other persons of the party.

The history of the first calender appeared very surprising to the whole company, and particularly to the caliph. The presence of the slaves armed with their scimitars did not prevent him from saying in a whisper to the vizier, “As long as I can remember, I never heard any thing to compare with this history of the calender, though I have been all my life in the habit of hearing similar narratives.” He had no sooner finished, than the second calender began; and addressing himself to Zobeidè spoke as follows:

THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND CALENDER, THE SON OF A KING.

To obey your commands, madam, and to inform you by what strange adventure I lost my right eye, is to give you an account of my whole life.

I was scarcely more than an infant, when the king, my father, (for I too am a prince by birth,) observing that I possessed great quickness of intellects, spared no pains in its cultivation. He collected from every part of his dominions whoever was famous for science and a knowledge of the fine arts, for the purpose of instructing me. I no sooner knew how to read and write, than I learnt by art the whole of the Koran, that admirable book, in which we find the basis, precepts, and regulations of our religion. That my knowledge might not be shallow and superficial, I perused the works of the most approved authors who have written on the same subject, and both explained and illustrated that book by their commentaries. To this study I added an acquaintance with all the traditions received from the mouth of our prophet, by those illustrious men who were his contemporaries. Not satisfied with possessing a deep and extensive knowledge of our religion, I made also a particular study of our histories, and became master of polite literature, of poetry and versification. I then applied myself to geography and chronology, and became anxious to attain a knowledge of our own language in its greatest purity; and all this without neglecting those exercises which are so suited to a prince. There was, however, one thing in which I most delighted, and at length excelled, and that was in forming the characters of our Arabic language; and I surpassed all the writing-masters of our kingdom, who had acquired the greatest reputation.

Fame bestowed upon me even more honour than I deserved. She was not satisfied with spreading a report of my talents throughout the dominions of the king, my father, but even carried the account of them to the court of the Indies, whose powerful monarch became so curious to see me, that he sent an ambassador, accompanied with the richest presents to my father, to request me of him. This embassy, for many reasons, delighted him. He was persuaded that it was the best possible thing for a prince of my age to travel to foreign courts; and he was, also, very well satisfied at forming a friendship with the sultan of India. I set out with the ambassador, but with very few attendants and little baggage, on account of the length and difficulties of the way.

We had been about a month on our journey, when we saw in the distance an immense cloud of dust, and soon after we discovered fifty horsemen, well armed. They were robbers, who approached us at full speed. As we had ten horses laden with our baggage and the presents which I was to make to the sultan, in my father’s name, and as our party consisted but of very few, you may easily imagine that the robbers attacked us without hesitation. Not being able to repel force by force, we told them we were the ambassadors of the sultan of India, and we hoped they would do nothing contrary to the respect they owed to him. By this we thought we should preserve both our equipage and our lives; but the robbers insolently answered, “Why do you wish us to respect the sultan your master? We are not his subjects, nor even within his realm.” Having said this, they immediately surrounded and attacked us on all sides. I defended myself as long as I could, but finding that I was wounded, and seeing the ambassador and all our attendants overthrown, I took advantage of the remaining strength of my horse, who was also wounded, and escaped from them. I pushed him on as far as he would carry me; he then suddenly fell under my weight, quite dead from fatigue and the blood he had lost. I disentangled myself as fast as possible; and observing that no one pursued me, I supposed the robbers did not choose to neglect the plunder they had acquired.

Imagine me then, madam, alone, wounded, destitute of every help, and in a country where I was an entire stranger. I was afraid of regaining the great road from the dread of falling once more into the hands of the robbers. After having bound up my wound, which was not dangerous, I walked on the rest of the day, and in the evening I arrived at the foot of a mountain, on one side of which I discovered a sort of cave. I went in, and passed the night without any disturbance, after having eaten some fruits which I had gathered as I came along.

For some days following I continued my journey, without meeting with any place where I could rest; but at the end of about a month I arrived at a very large city, well inhabited, and most delightfully and advantageously situated; as several rivers flowed round it and caused a perpetual spring. The number of agreeable objects which presented themselves to my eyes, excited so great a joy that it suspended for a moment the poignant regret I felt at finding myself in such a miserable situation. My whole face as well as my hands and feet were of a brown tawny colour, for the sun had quite burnt me: and my slippers were so completely worn out by walking, that I was obliged to travel bare-foot; besides this, my clothes were all in rags.

I entered the town in order to learn the language spoken, and thence to find out where I was. I addressed myself to a tailor, who was at work in his shop. On account of my youth, and a certain manner about me, which intimated I was something better than I appeared, he made me sit down near him. He asked me who I was, where I came from, and what had brought me to that place. I concealed nothing from him, but informed him of every circumstance that had happened to me, and did not even hesitate at discovering even my name. The tailor listened to me very attentively, but when I had finished my narration, instead of giving me any consolation, he augmented my troubles. “Take care,” said he to me, “that you do not place the same confidence in any one else that you have in me, for the prince who reigns in this kingdom is the greatest enemy of the king, your father; and if he should be informed of your arrival in this city, I doubt not but he will inflict some evil upon you.” I readily believed the sincerity of the tailor, when he told me the name of the prince; but as the enmity between my father and him has no connection with my adventures, I shall not, madam, enter into any detail of it.

I thanked the tailor for the advice he had given me; and told him that I placed implicit faith in his good counsel, and should never forget the favour I received from him. As he supposed I was not deficient in appetite, he brought me something to eat, and offered me even an apartment at his house, which I accepted.

Some days after my arrival, the tailor remarking that I was tolerably recovered from the effects of my long and painful journey, and being aware that most of the princes of our religion had the precaution, in order to guard against any reverse of fortune, to make themselves acquainted with some art or trade to assist them in case of want, asked me if I knew any thing by which I could acquire a livelihood, without being chargeable to any body. I told him, that I was well versed in the science of laws, both human and divine, that I was a grammarian, a poet, and above all, that I wrote remarkably well. “With all this,” he replied, “you will not in this country procure a morsel of bread; nothing is more useless here than this kind of knowledge. If you wish to follow my advice,” he added, “you will procure a short jacket, and as you are strong and of a good constitution, you may go into the neighbouring forest and cut wood for fuel. You may then go and expose it for sale in the market; and I assure you, that you may acquire a sufficient small income so as to live independently of every one. By these means you will be enabled to wait till heaven shall become favourable to you, and till the cloud of bad fortune which hangs over you, and obliges you to conceal your birth, shall have blown over. I will furnish you with a cord and hatchet.”

The fear of being known, and the necessity of supporting myself, determined me to pursue this plan, in spite of the degradation and pain which were attached to it.

The next day the tailor bought me a hatchet and a cord, and also a short jacket; and recommending me to some poor people who obtained their livelihood in the same manner, he requested them to take me with them. They conducted me to the forest, and from this time I regularly brought back upon my head a large bundle of wood, which I sold for a small piece of gold money, current in that country: for although the forest was not far off, wood was nevertheless dear in that city, because there were few men who gave themselves the trouble of going to cut it. I soon acquired a considerable sum, and was enabled to repay the tailor what he had expended on my account.

I had passed more than a year in this mode of life, when having one day gone deeper into the forest than usual, I came to a very pleasant spot, where I began to cut my wood. In cutting up the root of a tree, I discovered an iron ring fastened to a trap-door of the same materials. I immediately cleared away the earth that covered it, and on lifting it up I perceived a stair-case, by which I descended with my hatchet in my hand. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I found myself in a vast palace, which struck me very much, by the great brilliancy with which it was illuminated; as much so indeed as if it had been built on the most open spot above ground. I went forward along a gallery supported on columns of jasper, the bases and capitals of which were of massive gold, but stopt suddenly on beholding a lady, who appeared to have so noble and graceful an air, and to possess such extraordinary beauty, that my attention was taken off from every other object, and my eyes fixed on her alone.

To prevent this beautiful lady from having the trouble of coming to me, I made haste towards her; and while I was making a most respectful reverence, she said to me, “Who are you; a man or a Genius?”--“I am a man, madam,” I answered, getting up, “nor have I any commerce with Genii.”--“By what adventure,” replied she, with a deep sigh, “have you come here? I have remained here more than twenty-five years, and during the whole of that time I have seen no other man than yourself.”

Her great beauty, which had already made a deep impression on me, together with the mildness and good humour with which she received me, made me bold enough to say: “Before, madam, I have the honour of satisfying your curiosity, permit me to tell you, that I feel highly delighted at this unexpected interview, which offers me the means, both of consoling myself under the affliction in which I am, and perhaps of making you happier than you now are.” I then faithfully related to her by what strange accident she saw in me the son of a king, why I appeared to her in that condition, and how accident had discovered to me the entrance into the magnificent prison in which I found her; and of which, from all appearance, she was heartily tired. “Alas, prince,” she replied, again sighing, “you may truly say this rich and superb prison is unpleasing and wearisome. The most enchanting spots cannot afford delight, when we are there against our wills. Is it possible, you have never heard any one speak of the great Epitimarus, king of the Ebony Isle, a place so called from the great quantity of that precious wood, which it produces. I am the princess, his daughter.

“The king, my father, had chosen for my husband a prince, who was my cousin; but on the very night of our nuptials, in the midst of the rejoicings of the court and capital of the Isle of Ebony, and before I had been given to my husband, a Genius took me away. I fainted almost the same moment, and lost all recollection: and when I recovered my senses, I found myself in this place. For a long time I was inconsolable; but habit and necessity have reconciled me to the sight and company of the Genius. Twenty-five years have passed, as I have already told you, since I first was brought to this place, in which I must own, that I have, even by wishing, not only every thing necessary for life, but whatever can satisfy a princess, who is fond of decoration and dress.

“Every ten days,” continued the princess, “the Genius comes and passes the night here; he never sleeps here oftener, and gives as a reason, that he is married to another, who would be jealous of the infidelity of which he was guilty, should it come to her knowledge. In the mean time, if I have any occasion for him, I have only to touch a talisman, which is placed at the entrance of my chamber, and he appears. It is now four days since he was here, and I have therefore to wait six days more before he again makes his appearance. You therefore may remain five with me, if it be agreeable to you, in order to keep me company; and I will endeavour to regale and entertain you equal to your merit and quality.”

I should have thought myself too happy to obtain so great a favour by asking it, not to accept it after so obliging an offer. The princess then conducted me to a bath, the most elegant, convenient, and at the same time sumptuous you can possibly imagine. When I came out, I found instead of my own dress, another very rich one, which I put on, less for its magnificence than to render myself more worthy of her notice.

We seated ourselves on a sofa, covered with superb drapery; the cushions of which were of the richest Indian brocade; she then set before me a variety of the most delicate and rare dishes. We eat together, and having passed the remainder of the day very agreeably, she received me at night in her chamber.

The next day, in order to devise every method of entertaining me, she produced, at dinner, a flask of very old wine, the finest I ever tasted; and to please me, she drank several glasses with me. I no sooner found my head rather heated with this agreeable liquor, than I said, “Beautiful princess, you have been buried here alive much too long; follow me, and go and enjoy the brightness of the genuine day, of which for so many years you have been deprived. Abandon this false though brilliant light you have here.”--“Let us talk no more, prince,” she answered, smiling, “on this subject. I value not the most beautiful day in the world, if you will pass nine with me here, and give up the tenth to the Genius.”--“Princess,” I replied, “I see very well that it is the dread you have of the Genius, which makes you hold this language. As for myself, I fear him so little, that I am determined to break his talisman in pieces, with the magic spell that is inscribed upon it. Let him then come; I will wait for him; and however brave, however formidable, he may be, I will make him feel the weight of my arm. I have taken an oath to exterminate all the Genii in the world, and he shall be the first.” The princess, who knew the consequence of this conduct, conjured me not to touch the talisman. “It will be the means,” she said, “of destroying both you and myself. I am better acquainted with the nature of Genii than you can be.” The wine I had drank, prevented me from acknowledging the propriety of her reasons, I kicked down the talisman, and broke it in pieces.

This was no sooner done than the whole palace shook, as if ready to fall to atoms, accompanied with a most dreadful noise like thunder, and flashes of lightning, which heightened still more the intermediate gloom. This formidable adventure in a moment dissipated the fumes of the wine, and made me own, though too late, the fault I had committed. “Princess,” I exclaimed, “what does all this mean?” Without thinking of her own misfortune, and alarmed only for me, she, in a fright, answered, “Alas, it is all over with you, unless you save yourself by flight.”

I followed her advice; and my fear was so great, that I forgot my hatchet and my cord. I had hardly gained the stair-case, by which I descended, than the enchanted palace opened to afford a passage to the Genius. “What has happened to you, and why have you called me?” he demanded of the princess, in an angry tone. “A violent pain,” replied the princess, “obliged me to search after the bottle which you see; I drank two or three glasses, and unfortunately making a false step I fell upon the talisman, which I thus broke. There is no other cause.” At this answer the Genius, in the utmost rage, exclaimed; “you are both impudent and deceitful, how came this hatchet and this cord here then?” “I have never seen them,” replied she, “till this instant. Perhaps, in the haste and impetuosity with which you came, you have taken them up in passing through some place, and have brought them here, without observing them.”