Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 2.djvu/26

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The Thirty Ninth Night.

DInarzade being awake ſooner than ordinary, called her Sitter Scheherazade, My good Sultaneſs, ſaid ſhe, I pray you make an end of the Story of the firſt Callender, for I’m ready to die with Impatience till I know the Iſſue of it. Very well then, ſaid Scheherazade, You remember how the firſt Callender continu’d his Story to Zebeide; I cannot enough expreſs, Madam (ſaid he) how much I was aſtoniſh’d when I ſaw the King my Uncle, abuſe the Prince his Son thus after he was dead. Sir, ſaid I, whatever Grief this diſmal Sight is capable to impreſs upon me, I am forced to ſuſpend it on purpoſe to ask your Majeſty what Crime the Prince my Couſin may have committed, that his Corps ſhould deſerve this Sort of Treatment. Nephew, replied the King, I muſt tell you, that my Son (who is unworthy of that Name) lov’d his Siſter from his Infancy, and ſo ſhe did him: I did not hinder their growing Love, becauſe I did not foreſee the pernicious Conſequence of it. This Tenderneſs encreas’d as they grew in Years, and came to ſuch a Head, that I dreaded the End of it at laſt. I applied ſuch Remedies as were in my Power; I not only gave my Son a ſevere Reprimand in private, laying before him the foulneſs of the Paſſion he was entertaining, and, the eternal Diſgrace he would bring upon my Family, if he perſiſted in ſuch criminal Courſes: but I alſo repreſented the ſame thing to my Daughter; and beſides, I ſhut her up ſo cloſe, that ſhe could have no Converſation with her Brother. But that unfortunate Creature had ſwallowed ſo much of the Poiſon, that all the Obſtacles which by my Prudence, I could lay in the way, ſerv’d only the more to inflame their Love.

My Son being perſuaded of his Siſter’s Conſtancy, on Pretence of building a Tomb, caus’d this ſubterraneous Habitation to be made, in hopes to find one Day or other, an Opportunity to poſſeſs himſelf of that Object which was the Cauſe of his Flame, and to bring her hither, He laid hold on the time of my Abſence, to enter by Force in-
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