The History of Badoura - Page 8

Author: Laurence Housman

Camaralzaman threw himself upon the couch weeping, for bitterly now did he repent of his injurious conduct to his father; yet even in his affliction he ceased not to inveigh against marriage. " Malediction upon women! " he cried, " alas, why were they invented to give sting to the affections and divide father and son! Had Allah refrained from creating women, certainly I should not have been here! "

Thus in his misfortune did Camaralzaman find truths to comfort him. Meanwhile the King, his father, was suffering an equal affliction, and lacking the philosophy of youth he sought to find comfort in laying the blame for all that had happened upon the Grand Vizier. " See, O Vizier! " he cried, " what comes of taking counsel with thee! Thou alone hast been the cause of my son's undoing; for had I spoken to him privately on this matter as aforetime, he would not have answered me otherwise than as a son should and in such manner as would have made forgiveness possible. Now, therefore, since we are brought to this pass by the foolishness of thy wisdom, it is for thee to devise means by which we may find a remedy."

The Vizier replied: "O King, let the Prince stay where he is for another fifteen days, so shall he have time to cool himself. I doubt not that thereafter his mind toward marriage will be all that your heart can desire. Better to him then will seem the bride's chamber than the stone walls of his prison."

Shahzaman took the Vizier's advice and slept on it, or rather slept not at all, for the loss of his son so troubled him that he lay awake all night tossing restlessly from side to side and longing for the light of day.

Far better did Camaralzaman fare; for when night came the eunuch brought lantern and candle, and having prepared a table set food before him. The Prince ate little and thought much, sorrow for his ill-conduct having severed his appetite in half, and when he had finished he called for water and washed his hands from all taint of food; then he performed the ablution preparatory to prayer, and recited with his accustomed regularity the prayers of sunset and nightfall. After that he sat upon the couch reciting extracts from the Koran: he recited the chapters from "The Cow" and "The Family of Emran " and " The Two Preventives "; and having done all these things he commended his soul to Allah and laid himself down upon the couch, whereon was a mattress of figured satin showing its pattern on both sides and stuffed abundantly with ostrich plumes. And when sleep drew near he took off his outer raiment and clothed himself in a fine shirt of waxed linen, and wrapped about his head a kerchief of blue muslin so that he seemed like the moon on its fourteenth night. Then with the lantern at his feet and the candle at his head, he covered himself with the sheet and fell into the sleep of the just from which he awakened not till after the third hour, knowing naught of the hidden event which then awaited him, or what Allah, who knoweth all secrets, had decreed should befall.