The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Anonymous (best books to read .txt) 📕

Assad presented the paper to queen Margiana, who admired alike the sententiousness of the thoughts, and the goodness of the writing. She needed no more to have her heart set on fire, and to feel a sincere concern for his misfortunes. She had no sooner read it, than she addressed herself to Behram, saying, Do which you will; either sell me this slave, or make a present of him to me: perhaps it will turn most to your account to do the latter.

Behram answered insolently, that he could neither give nor sell him; that he wanted his slave, and would keep him.

Queen Margiana, provoked at his boldness, would not talk to him about it any more. She took the prince by the arm, and turned him before her into the palace; sending Behram word, that if he staid a night in her port, she would confiscate his goods, and burn his ship. So he was forced to go back to his vessel, and prepare to put to sea again, notwithstanding the tempest was not yet subsided.

Queen Margiana commanded supper to be got ready; and, while it was providing, she ordered Assad to be brought into her apartment, where she bade him sit down. Assad would have excused himself: It does not belong to a slave, said he, to presume to this honour.

To a slave! replied the queen; you shall not be so long: henceforward you are no more a slave. Sit down near me, and tell the story of your life; for, by what you wrote, and the insolence of that slave merchant, I guess there is something extraordinary in it.

Prince Assad obeyed her; and, sitting down, began thus: Mighty queen, your majesty is not mistaken in thinking there is something extraordinary in the story of my life; it is indeed more so than you can imagine. The ills, the incredible torments, I have suffered, and the death to which I was devoted, and from which I am delivered by your generosity, will show, when I have related them, that my obligation to you is infinite. But, before I enter into the particulars of my miseries, which will strike horror into the hearts of all who hear them related, to explain the occasion of them, I must trace the matter a little higher, and begin with the source of my misfortunes.

This preamble increased queen Margiana's curiosity.

The prince then told her of his royal birth; of his brother Amgrad, and their mutual friendship; of their mother's criminal passion, which in a night turned into inveterate hatred, the cause of all their sufferings; of the king's rage; how miraculously they saved their lives; how he lost his brother; how he had been imprisoned, tortured, and was only sent there to be sacrificed on the Fiery Mountain.

When Assad had finished his discourse, the queen was more than ever enraged at the adorers of fire. Prince, said she, though I have always had an aversion to the adorers of fire, yet hitherto I have preserved some humanity for them; but, after their barbarous usage, and execrable design of sacrificing you, I will henceforth declare perpetual war against them.

She would have said more, but supper being served up, hindered her. She made prince Assad sit at table with her, being charmed with his beauty and eloquence, and touched with a most ardent passion, which she hoped soon to let him know. Prince, said she, we must make you amends for so many fasts and wretched meals which the pitiless adorers of fire forced you to make; you will want to be nourished after such sufferings. With these and such like words supper began; and the queen plied the prince with wine to recover his spirits; of which he drank more than he could well bear.

The cloth being taken away, Assad wishing to go out, watched his time when the queen did not see him. He descended into a court, and, seeing the garden-door open, went in. Being tempted by the pleasantness of the place, he walked there a while. At last he came to a fountain, where he washed his face and hands to refresh himself; and, lying down on some grass plots which surrounded the fountain, fell asleep.

It was almost night, and Behram, fearing the queen would do as she threatened, had weighed anchor, and was under sail, mightily troubled at the loss of Assad, by which he was disappointed of a most acceptable sacrifice. He comforted himself as well as he could with the thoughts that the storm was over, and that a land-breeze favoured his getting off from that coast. He was towed out of the port, and, as he was hoisting more sail to hasten his course, he remembered he wanted some fresh water. My lads, said he to the seamen, we must put to shore again, and fill our water-casks. The sailors excused themselves, for they did not know where to get water. Behram had observed, while he was talking to the queen in the garden, that there was a fountain at the end of it, near the port. Go, said he, to such a place of the palace-garden. The wall is not above breast high; you may easily get over. There is a fountain, where you may fill all your barrels, and hand them on board without difficulty.

The sailors accordingly went on shore to the place he directed them, leaped over the wall, filled their barrels, and easily enough heaved them over also, when they returned to their boat.

As they were filling the casks, they perceived a man sleeping on the grass, and knew him to be Assad. They immediately divided themselves; and, while some of the crew filled their barrels, others surrounded Assad, and observed him, lest he should awake, and offer to run away.

As soon as they had filled their casks, they handed them over the wall to others of their crew, who waited there to carry them on board.

They afterwards seized Assad, and bore him away asleep as he was.
They got over the wall into their boat, and rowed to the ship.
When they came near her, they cried out, Captain, sound your
trumpets, beat your drums; we bring your slave again!

Behram, who could not imagine how the seamen could find and take him again, and did not see Assad in the boat, it being night, waited their coming on board with impatience, to ask what they meant by their shouts; but seeing it was true, and that they had really got him, he could not contain himself for joy. He commanded him to be chained again, not staying to inquire how they came at him; and having hauled the boat on board, set sail for the Fiery Mountain.

In the mean while queen Margiana was in a dreadful fright. She did not much concern herself at first when she found prince Assad was gone out, because she did not doubt that he would soon return. When several minutes, and then an hour, were past, without hearing any thing, she began to be uneasy, and commanded her women to look for him. They searched all about without finding him; and, night coming, she ordered them to search again with torches, which they did, but to as little purpose.

Queen Margiana was so impatient and frightened, that she went with lights all over the garden to seek him herself; and passing by the fountain, saw a slipper, which she took up, and knew to be prince Assad's: her women also said that it was his; and the water being spilled about the cistern in which the fountain played, made her suspect that Behram had again carried him off. She sent immediately to see if he was still in the port; and hearing that he had set sail a little before it was dark, and had stopped some time off the shore, while he sent his boat for water from the fountain, she doubted no longer of the prince's ill fortune. So she commanded the commodore of ten men of war, who lay ready in the port to sail as occasion required, to prepare to put to sea, for that she would embark herself next morning as soon as it was day. The commodore ordered the captains and subalterns, seamen and soldiers, on board, and was ready to sail at the time appointed. She embarked, as she had said; and, when the squadron was at sea, told the commodore her intention. Make all the sail you can, said she, and give chase to the merchantman that sailed yesterday out of this port: I give it to you to be plundered, if you take it; if not, your life shall answer it.

The ten ships chased Behram's two entire days, and could not come near her; but on the third day they got up with her, and encompassed her so that she could not escape.

As soon as cruel Behram saw the ten men of war, he did not doubt but it was queen Margiana's squadron in pursuit of him; and upon that ordered Assad to be bastinadoed, which he did every day, and had not once missed treating him go barbarously since he left the port of the city of the magicians. On sight of these ships, he treated him more cruelly than before. He was very much puzzled what to do when he found he was encompassed. To keep Assad was to declare himself guilty; to kill him was as dangerous, for he feared some token of it might be seen; he therefore commanded him to be unfettered, and brought from the bottom of the hold where he lay. When he came before him, It is thou, said he, who art the cause of my being pursued; and upon that he flung him in the sea.

Prince Assad, knowing how to swim, got safe to shore. The first thing he did, after landing, was to thank Heaven, who had delivered him from so great a danger, and once more rescued him out of the hands of the adorers of fire. He then stripped himself, and wringing the water out of his clothes, he spread them on a rock, where, by the heat of the sun and the rock together, they soon dried; after which, he lay down to rest, deploring his miserable condition, not knowing in what country he was, nor where to turn himself. He refreshed himself as well as he could with wild fruits and fair water, and then went on his way, keeping as near the sea-side as he could. At last he came to a sort of path, which he followed, and travelled ten days through a country not inhabited, still living on herbs, plants, and fruits. On the eleventh he approached near a city, which be knew to be that of the magicians, where he had been so ill used, and where his brother Amgrad was grand vizier. He was very glad of it, resolving not to come near anyone of the adorers of fire, but only to converse with Mussulmen; for he remembered having seen some the first time he entered the town. It being late, and seeing the shops were already shut, and few people in the streets, he resolved to stay in a churchyard near the city, where several tombs were built in the form of mausoleums. Finding the door of one open, he entered it, with an intention to pass the night there.

We must now return to Behram's ship, which was soon surrounded on all sides by queen Margiana's squadron, after throwing prince Assad overboard. Queen Margiana's ship, in which she was in person, first boarded; and Behram, being in no condition of defence against so many, lowered his sails as a token of yielding.

The queen herself came on board him, and demanded where the clerk was whom he had the boldness to take away from her out of her very palace. Behram replied, 0 queen, I swear before your majesty, that he is not in my ship; you will, by searching it, see my innocence.

Margiana ordered the ship to be searched as narrowly as possible; but she could not find the man whom she so passionately longed to recover, as well out of love to him, as out of that generosity which was her distinguishing character. She was going to kill Behram with her own hand, which she, however, did not; contenting herself with seizing his ship and cargo, and turning him and his men on shore.

Behram and his seamen arrived at the city of the magicians the same night that Assad did, and stopped at the same church yard, the city gates being shut, intending to stay in some tomb till next day, when they were opened