Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights | Page 6

her also. The company came forward,
borne, as it were, upon the surface of the waves. When they came to the
edge, they nimbly, one after another, sprang up to the window, from
whence Queen Gulnare had retired to make room for them. King Saleh,
the queen her mother, and the rest of her relations, embraced her
tenderly, with tears in their eyes, on their first entrance.

After Queen Gulnare had received them with all imaginable honour,
and made them sit down upon a sofa, the queen her mother addressed
herself to her: 'Daughter,' said she, 'I am overjoyed to see you again
after so long an absence; and I am confident that your brother and your
relations are no less so. Your leaving us without acquainting anybody
with it involved us in inexpressible concern; and it is impossible to tell
you how many tears we have shed upon that account. We know of no
other reason that could induce you to take such a surprising step, but
what your brother told us of the conversation that passed between him
and you. The advice he gave you seemed to him at that time very
advantageous for settling you handsomely in the world, and very
suitable to the then posture of our affairs. If you had not approved of
his proposal, you ought not to have been so much alarmed; and, give
me leave to tell you, you took the thing in a quite different light from
what you ought to have done. But no more of this; we and you ought
now to bury it for ever in oblivion: give us an account of all that has
happened to you since we saw you last, and of your present situation;
but especially let us know if you are satisfied.'
Queen Gulnare immediately threw herself at her mother's feet; and after
rising and kissing her hand, 'I own,' said she, 'I have been guilty of a
very great fault, and I am indebted to your goodness for the pardon
which you are pleased to grant me.' She then related the whole of what
had befallen her since she quitted the sea.
As soon as she had acquainted them with her having been sold to the
King of Persia, in whose palace she was at present; 'Sister,' said the
king her brother, 'you now have it in your power to free yourself. Rise,
and return with us into my kingdom, that I have reconquered from the
proud usurper who had made himself master of it.'
The King of Persia, who heard these words from the recess where he
was concealed, was in the utmost alarm. 'Ah!' said he to himself, 'I am
ruined; and if my queen, my Gulnare, hearkens to this advice, and
leaves me, I shall surely die.' But Queen Gulnare soon put him out of
his fears.
'Brother,' said she, smiling, 'I can scarce forbear being angry with you

for advising me to break the engagement I have made with the most
puissant and most renowned monarch in the world. I do not speak here
of an engagement between a slave and her master; it would be easy to
return the ten thousand pieces of gold that I cost him; but I speak now
of a contract between a wife and a husband, and a wife who has not the
least reason to complain. He is a religious, wise, and temperate king. I
am his wife, and he has declared me Queen of Persia, to share with him
in his councils. Besides, I have a child, the little Prince Beder. I hope
then neither my mother, nor you, nor any of my cousins, will
disapprove of the resolution or the alliance I have made, which will be
an equal honour to the kings of the sea and the earth. Excuse me for
giving you the trouble of coming hither from the bottom of the deep, to
communicate it to you, and for the pleasure of seeing you after so long
a separation.'
'Sister,' replied King Saleh, 'the proposal I made you of going back with
us into my kingdom was only to let you see how much we all love you,
and how much I in particular honour you, and that nothing in the world
is so dear to me as your happiness.'
The queen confirmed what her son had just spoken, and addressing
herself to Queen Gulnare, said, 'I am very glad to hear you are pleased;
and I have nothing else to add to what your brother has just said to you.
I should have been the first to have condemned you, if you had not
expressed all the gratitude you owe to a monarch that loves you so
passionately, and has done such great things for you.'
When