Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights | Page 6

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 the King of Persia, who was still in the recess, heard this he began to love her more than ever, and resolved to express his gratitude in every possible way.
Presently Queen Gulnare clapped her hands, and in came some of her slaves, whom she had ordered to bring in a meal: as soon as it was served up, she invited the queen