The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 3 | Page 6

down at
the garden gate, I rose, groaning for pain and misery, and made my way
to our home and entering, I came upon my mother weeping for me, and
saying, "Would I knew, O my son, in what land art thou?" So I drew
near and threw myself upon her, and when she looked at me and felt me,
she knew that I was ill; for my face was coloured black and tan. Then I

thought of my cousin and all the kind offices she had been wont to do
me, and I learned when too late that she had truly loved me; so I wept
for her and my mother wept also Presently she said to me, "O my son,
thy sire is dead." At this my fury against Fate redoubled, and I cried till
I fell into a fit. When I came to myself, I looked at the place where my
cousin Azizah had been used to sit and shed tears anew, till I all but
fainted once more for excess of weeping; and I ceased not to cry and
sob and wail till midnight, when my mother said to me, "Thy father
hath been dead these ten days." "I shall never think of any one but my
cousin Azizah," replied I; "and indeed I deserve all that hath befallen
me, for that I neglected her who loved me with love so dear." Asked
she, "What hath befallen thee?" So I told her all that had happened and
she wept awhile, then she rose and set some matter of meat and drink
before me. I ate a little and drank, after which I repeated my story to
her, and told her the whole occurrence; whereupon she exclaimed,
"Praised be Allah, that she did but this to thee and forbore to slaughter
thee!" Then she nursed me and medicined me till I regained my health;
and, when my recovery was complete, she said to me, "O my son, I will
now bring out to thee that which thy cousin committed to me in trust
for thee; for it is thine. She swore me not to give it thee, till I should see
thee recalling her to mind and weeping over her and thy connection
severed from other than herself; and now I know that these conditions
are fulfilled in thee." So she arose, and opening a chest, took out this
piece of linen, with the figures of gazelles worked thereon, which I had
given to Azizah in time past; and taking it I found written therein these
couplets,
"Lady of beauty, say, who taught thee hard and harsh design, * To slay
with longing Love's excess this hapless lover thine? An thou fain
disremember me beyond our parting day, * Allah will know, that thee
and thee my memory never shall tyne. Thou blamest me with bitter
speech yet sweetest 'tis to me; * Wilt generous be and deign one day to
show of love a sign? I had not reckoned Love contained so much of
pine and pain; * And soul distress until I came for thee to pain and pine
Never my heart knew weariness, until that eve I fell * In love wi' thee,
and prostrate fell before those glancing eyne! My very foes have mercy
on my case and moan therefor; * But thou, O heart of Indian steel, all
mercy dost decline. No, never will I be consoled, by Allah, an I die, *

Nor yet forget the love of thee though life in ruins lie!"
When I read these couplets, I wept with sore weeping and buffeted my
face; then I unfolded the scroll, and there fell from it an other paper. I
opened it and behold, I found written therein, 'Know, O son of my
uncle, that I acquit thee of my blood and I beseech Allah to make
accord between thee and her whom thou lovest; but if aught befal thee
through the daughter of Dalilah the Wily, return thou not to her neither
resort to any other woman and patiently bear thine affliction, for were
not thy fated life tide a long life, thou hadst perished long ago; but
praised be Allah who hath appointed my death day before thine! My
peace be upon thee; preserve this cloth with the gazelles herein figured
and let it not leave thee, for it was my companion when thou was
absent from me;"--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir Dandan
pursued to King Zau al-Makan, And the youth Aziz continued to Taj
al-Muluk: So I read what my cousin had written and the charge to me
which