There was once a King's daughter, who had no equal in her time
for beauty and loveliness and symmetrical stature and grace,
brilliancy, amorous lace and the art of ravishing the wits of the
masculine race and her name was Al-Datmá. She used to boast,
"Indeed there is none like me in this age." Nor was there one
more accomplished than she in horsemanship and martial exercises
and all that behoveth a cavalier. So all the Kings' sons sought
her to wife; but she would take none of them, saying, "No man
shall marry me except he overcome me at lunge of lance and stroke
of sword in fair field and patent plain. If any can do this, I
will willingly wed him; but, if I overcome him, I will take his
horse and clothes and arms and write with fire upon his forehead,
'This is the freed man of Al-Datma.'" Now the sons of the Kings
flocked to her from every quarter far and near, and she overcame
them and put them to shame, stripping them of their arms and
branding them with fire. Presently the son of a King of the Kings
of the Persians, by name Behram ibn Tájí, heard of her and
journeyed from afar to her father's court, bringing with him men
and horses and great store of wealth and royal treasures. When he
drew near the city, he sent her parent a rich present and the
King came out to meet him and honoured him with the utmost
honour. Then the King's son sent a message to him by his Wazir,
demanding his daughter's hand in marriage; but the King answered,
saying, "O my son, as regards my daughter Al-Datma, I have no
power over her, for she hath sworn by her soul to marry none
except he overcome her in the listed field." Quoth the Prince, "I
journeyed hither from my father's court with no other object but
this; I came here to woo and for thine alliance to sue;" quoth
the King, "Thou shalt meet her tomorrow." So next day he sent to
bid his daughter who, making ready for battle, donned her harness
of war, and the folk, hearing of the coming joust, flocked from
all sides to the field. Presently the Princess rode into the
lists, armed cap-ŕ-pie and belted and with vizor down, and the
Persian King's son came out singlehanded to meet her, equipped at
all points after the fairest of fashions. Then they drove at each
other and fought a great while, wheeling and falsing, advancing
and retreating, till the Princess, finding in him such courage
and cavalarice as she had seen in none else, began to fear for
herself lest he put her to shame before the bystanders and knew
that he would assuredly overcome her. So she resolved to trick
him and, raising her vizor, lo! her face appeared more brilliant
than the full moon, which when he saw, he was confounded by her
beauty and his strength failed and his spirit faltered. When she
perceived this, she fell upon him unawares in his moment of
weakness, and tare him from his saddle, and he became in her
hands as he were a sparrow in the clutches of an eagle, knowing
not what was done with him for amazement and confusion. So she
took his steed and clothes and armour and, branding him with
fire, let him wend his ways. When he recovered from his stupor,
he abode several days without meat or drink or sleep for despite
and love of the girl which had taken hold upon his heart. Then he
sent a letter by certain of his slaves to his father, advising
him that he could not return home till he had won his will of the
Princess or died for want of her. When his sire got the letter,
he was sore concerned for his son and would have succoured him by
sending troops and soldiers; but his Wazirs dissuaded him from
this and exhorted him to patience; so he committed his affair to
Almighty Allah. Meanwhile, the Prince cast about for a means of
coming to his desire; and presently, disguising himself as a
decrepit old man, with a white beard over his own black beard
repaired to a garden of the Princess wherein she used to walk
most of her days. Here he sought out the gardener and said to
him, "I am a stranger from a far country and from my youth
upwards I have been a gardener, and in the grafting of trees and
the culture of fruits and flowers and care of the vine none is
more skilled than I." When the gardener heard this, he rejoiced
in him with exceeding joy and carried him into the garden, where
he commended him to his underlings, and the Prince betook himself
to the service of the garden and the tending of the trees and the
bettering of their fruits and improving the Persian water-wheels
and disposing the irrigation-channels. One day, as he was thus
employed, lo! he saw some slaves enter the garden, leading mules
laden with carpets and vessels, and asked them the meaning of
this, to which they answered, "The Princess is minded to take her
pleasure." When he heard these words he hastened to his lodging
and, fetching some of the jewels and ornaments he had brought
with him from home, sat down in the garden and spread somewhat of
them out before him, shaking and making a show of extreme old
age,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
When it was the Five Hundred and Ninety-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the son of
the Persian King, after disguising himself as an old man shotten
in years and taking a seat in the garden, spread out somewhat of
the jewels and ornaments before him and made a show of shaking
and trembling as if for decrepitude and the weakness of extreme
senility. After an hour or so a company of damsels and eunuchs
entered with the Princess in their midst, as she were the moon
among the stars, and dispersed about the garden, plucking the
fruits and diverting themselves. Presently they espied a man
sitting under one of the trees; and, making towards him (who was
the Prince), found him a very old man, whose hands and feet
trembled for decrepitude, and before him store of precious jewels
and royal ornaments. So they marvelled at his case and asked him
what he did there with the jewels; when he answered, "With these
trinkets I would fain buy me to wife one of you." They laughed
together at him and said, "If one of us marry thee, what wilt
thou do with her?" Said he, "I will give her one kiss and divorce
her." Then quoth the Princess, "I give thee this damsel to wife."
So he rose and coming up to her, leaning on his staff and
shivering and staggering, kissed her and gave her the jewels and
ornaments; whereat she rejoiced and they, laughing at him, went
their way. Next day, they came again to the garden, and finding
him seated in the same place, with more jewels and ornaments than
before spread in front of him, asked him, "O Shaykh, what wilt
thou do with this jewellery?"; and he answered, saying, "I wish
therewith to take one of you to wife even as yesterday." So the
Princess said, "I marry thee to this damsel;" and he came up to
her and kissed her and gave her the jewels, and they all went
their ways. But, seeing such generosity to her handmaids, the
Princess said in herself, "I have more right to all these fine
things than these baggages, and no harm can betide me." So when
morning morrowed she went down from her chamber singly into the
garden, in the habit of one of her damsels, and presenting
herself privily before the Prince, said to him, "O Shaykh, the
King's daughter hath sent me to thee, that thou mayst marry me."
He looked at her and knew her; so he answered, "With love and
gladness," and gave her jewels and ornaments of the finest and
costliest. Then he rose to kiss her, and she off her guard and
fearing nothing but, when he came up to her, he suddenly laid
hold of her with a strong hand and instantly throwing her down,
on the ground abated her maidenhead.
[FN#220] Then he pulled the
beard from his face and said to her, "Dost thou not know me?"
Asked she, "Who art thou?" and he answered, "I am Behram, the
King's son of Persia, who have changed my favour and am become a
stranger to my people and estate for thy sake and have lavished
my treasures for thy love." So she rose from under him in silence
and answered not his address nor spake a word of reply to him,
being dazed for what had befallen her and seeing nothing better
than to be silent, for fear of shame; and she bethought herself
and said, "If I kill myself it will be useless and if I do him
die, his death will profit me naught;" and presently added,
"Nothing will serve me but that I elope with him to his own
country." Then she gathered together her monies and treasures and
sent to him, acquainting him therewith, to the intent that he
also might equip himself with his wealth and needs; and they
agreed upon a night on which to depart. So, at the appointed
time, they mounted race-horses and set out under cover of the
gloom, nor did morning morrow till they had traversed a great
distance; and they ceased not faring forwards till they drew near
his father's capital in the land of the Persians. When the King
heard of his son's coming, he rode out to meet him with his
troops and rejoiced in him with exceeding joy. Then, after a few
days, he sent the Princess's father a splendid present, and a
letter to the effect that his daughter was with him and demanding
her wedding equipage. Al-Datma's father came out to meet the
messengers with the greatest gladness (for that he had deemed his
daughter lost and had grieved sore for her loss): after which he
made bride-feasts and, summoning the Kazi and the witnesses, let
draw up the marriage-contract between his daughter and the Prince
of Persia. He invested the envoys with robes of honour, then he
made ready her equipage and despatched it to her; and Prince
Behram abode with her till death sundered their union. "See
therefore, O King" (continued the favourite), "the malice of men
in their dealing with women. As for me, I will not go back from
my due till I die." So the King once more commanded to put his
son to death; but the seventh Wazir came in to him and kissing
the ground before him, said, "O King, have patience with me
whilst I speak these words of good counsel to thee; how many
patient and slow-moving men unto their hope attain, and how many
who are precipitate fall into shameful state! Now I have seen how
this damsel hath profligately excited the King by lies to
horrible and unnatural cruelties; but I his Mameluke, whom he
hath overwhelmed with his favours and bounties, do proffer him
true and loyal rede; for that I, O King, know of the malice of
women that which none knoweth save myself; and in particular
there hath reached me, on this subject, the story of the old
woman and the son of the merchant with its warning instances."
Asked the King, "And what fell out between them, O Wazir?" and
the seventh Wazir answered, "I have heard tell, O King, the tale
of
The House with the Belvedere."
