Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 5.djvu/75

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Am not I unhappy to be born to love, without Hope of enjoying him whom I love? This doleful Thought oppreſſes me ſo, that I ſhould die were I not perſuaded that you love me: But this ſweet Comfort ballances my Deſpair and preſerves my Life: Tell me that you love me always; I will keep your Letter carefully, and read it a thouſand times a Day: I will endure my Afflictions with leſs Impatience: I pray Heaven may ceaſe to be angry at us, and grant us an Opportunity to ſay that we have one another without Fear; and that we may never ceaſe to love. Adieu, I ſalute Ebn Thaher who has ſo much oblig’d us,

The Prince of Perſia was not ſatisfy’d to read the Letter once, he thought he had read it with too little Attention, and therefore read it again with more Leiſure; as he read, ſometimes he utter’d Sighs, ſometimes he wept, and times he diſcover’d Tranſports of Joy and Affection, as one who was touch’d with what he read. In a Word, he could not keep his Eyes off thoſe Characters drawn by ſo lovely a Hand, and therefore began to read it a third time. Then Ebn Thaher told him that the Confident could not ſay, and that he ought to think of giving an Anſwer. Alas! cries the Prince, how would you have me anſwer ſo kind a Letter? In what Terms ſhall I expreſs the Trouble that I am in? My Spirit is toſs’d with a thouſand tormenting Things, and my Theughts deſtroy one another the ſame Moment they are conceiv’d, to make way for more; and ſo long as my Body ſuffers by the Impreſſions of my Mind, how ſhall I be able to hold Paper or a Reed[1] to write?

Having ſpoke thus, he took out of a little Desk, Paper, Cane, and Ink.

Scheherazade perceiving Day, broke off her Story, and began again next Day as follows.

The

  1. ↑ The Arabians, Perſians, and Turks, when they write, hold the Paper ordinarily upon their Knee with their left Hand, and write with their Right, with a little Reed or Cane, cut as we do our Pens; this Cane is hollow, and reſembles our Reeds, but is harder.
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