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return speedily to my realm, lest the kingdom pass out of my
hands. So he called the headsman and bade him strike off
Kanmakan s head, when behold, up came Rumzan s nurse and said to
him,  O august King, what wilt thou do? Quoth he,  I mean to put
these captives to death and throw their heads among their troops;
after which I will fall upon them, I and all my men, and kill all
we may and put the rest to the rout; so will this be the end of
the war and I shall return speedily to my kingdom, ere aught
befall among my subjects.
When the nurse heard this, she came up to him and said in the
Frank tongue,  How canst thou slay thine own brother s son and
thy sister and thy sister s daughter? When he heard this, he was
exceeding angry and said to her,  O accursed woman, didst thou
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not tell me that my mother was murdered and that my father died
by poison? Didst thou not give me a jewel and say to me,  This
jewel was thy father s ? Why didst thou not tell me the truth?
 All that I told thee is true, replied she:  but thy case and my
own are wonderful and thine and my history extraordinary. My name
is Merjaneh and thy mother s name was Abrizeh. She was gifted
with such beauty and grace and valour that proverbs were made of
her, and her prowess was renowned among men of war. Thy father
was King Omar ben Ennuman, lord of Baghdad and Khorassan. He sent
his son Sherkan on an expedition, in company with this very
Vizier Dendan; and Sherkan thy brother separated himself from the
troops and fell in with thy mother Queen Abrizeh, in a privy
garden of her palace, whither we had resorted to wrestle, she and
I and her other damsels. He came on us by chance and wrestled
with thy mother, who overcame him by the splendour of her beauty
and her valour. Then she entertained him five days in her palace,
till the news of this came to her father, by the old woman
Shewahi, surnamed Dhat ed Dewahi, whereupon she embraced Islam at
Sherkan s hands and he carried her by stealth to Baghdad, and
with her myself and Rihaneh and other twenty damsels. When we
came to thy father s presence, he fell in love with thy mother
and going in to her one night, foregathered with her, and she
became with child by him of thee. Now thy mother had three
jewels, which she gave to thy father, and he gave one of them to
his daughter Nuzhet ez Zeman, another to thy brother Zoulmekan
and the third to thy brother Sherkan. This last thy mother took
from Sherkan, and I kept it for thee. When the time of the
princess s delivery drew near, she yearned after her own people
and discovered her secret to me; so I went privily to a black
slave called Ghezban and telling him our case, bribed him to go
with us. Accordingly, he took us and fled forth the city with us
by stealth towards the land of the Greeks, till we came to a
desert place on the borders of our own country. Here the pangs of
labour came upon thy mother, and the slave, being moved by lust,
sought of her a shameful thing; whereat she cried out loudly and
was sore affrighted at him. In the excess of her alarm, she gave
birth to thee at once, and at this moment there arose, in the
direction of our country, a cloud of dust which spread till it
covered the plain. At this sight, the slave feared for his life;
so, in his rage, he smote Queen Abrizeh with his sword and slew
her, then, mounting his horse, went his way. Presently, the dust
lifted and discovered thy grandfather, King Herdoub, who, seeing
thy mother his daughter dead on the ground, was sorely troubled
and questioned me of the manner of her death and why she had left
her father s kingdom. So I told him all that had happened, first
and last; and this is the cause of the feud between the people of
the land of the Greeks and the people of Baghdad. Then we took up
thy dead mother and buried her; and I took thee and reared thee,
and hung this jewel about thy neck. But, when thou camest to
man s estate, I dared not acquaint thee with the truth of the
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matter, lest it should stir up a war of revenge between you.
Moreover, thy grandfather had enjoined me to secrecy, and I could
not gainsay the commandment of thy mother s father, Herdoub, King
of the Greeks. This, then, is why I forbore to tell thee that thy
father was King Omar ben Ennuman; but, when thou camest to the
throne, I told thee [what thou knowest]; and the rest I could not
reveal to thee till this moment. So now, O King of the age, I
have discovered to thee my secret and have acquainted thee with
all that I know of the matter; and thou knowest best what is in
thy mind. When Nuzhet ez Zeman heard what the King s nurse said,
she cried out, saying,  This King Rumzan is my brother by my
father King Omar ben Ennuman, and his mother was the Princess
Abrizeh, daughter of Herdoub, King of the Greeks; and I know this
damsel Merjaneh right well. With this, trouble and perplexity
got hold upon Rumzan and he caused Nuzhet ez Zeman to be brought
up to him forthright. When he looked upon her, blood drew to
blood and he questioned her of his history. So she told me all
she knew, and her story tallied with that of his nurse; whereupon
he was assured that he was indeed of the people of Irak and that
King Omar ben Ennuman was his father. So he caused his sister to
be unbound, and she came up to him and kissed his hands, whilst
her eyes ran over with tears. He wept also to see her weeping,
and brotherly love entered into him and his heart yearned to his
brother s son Kanmakan. So he sprang to his feet and taking the
sword from the headsman s hands, bade bring the captives up to
him. At this, they made sure of death; but he cut their bonds
with the sword and said to Merjaneh,  Explain the matter to them,
even as thou hast explained it to me.  O King, replied she,
 know that this old man is the Vizier Dendan and he is the best
of witnesses to my story, seeing that he knows the truth of the
case. Then she turned to the captives and repeated the whole
story to them and to the princes of the Greeks and the Franks who
were present with them, and they all confirmed her words. When
she had finished, chancing to look at Kanmakan, she saw on his
neck the fellow jewel to that which she had hung round King
Rumzan s neck, whereupon she gave such a cry, that the whole
palace rang again, and said to the King,  Know, O my son, that
now my certainty is still more assured, for the jewel that is
about the neck of yonder captive is the fellow to that I hung to
thy neck, and this is indeed thy brother s son Kanmakan. Then
she turned to Kanmakan and said to him,  O King of the age, let
me see that jewel. So he took it from his neck and gave it to
her. Then she asked Nuzhet ez Zeman of the third jewel and she
gave it to her, whereupon she delivered the two to King Rumzan,
and the truth of the matter was made manifest to him and he was
assured that he was indeed Prince Kanmakan s uncle and that his
father was King Omar ben Ennuman. So he rose at once and going up
to the Vizier Dendan, embraced him; then he embraced Prince
Kanmakan, and they cried aloud for very gladness. The joyful news
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was blazed abroad and they beat the drums and cymbals, whilst [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]