’Haply shall Fortune draw her rein, and bring *
     Fair chance, for she is changeful, jealous, vain: 
Still I may woo my want and wishes win, *
     And see on heels of care unfair, the fain.’

And now, O my son, I am certified at this hour that thou art not mad; but thy case is a strange one which none can clear up for thee save the Almighty.”  Cried the Prince, “By Allah, O my father, deal kindly with me and seek out this young lady and hasten her coming to me; else I shall die of woe and of my death shall no one know.”  Then he betrayed the ardour of his passion; and turned towards his father and repeated these two couplets,

“If your promise of personal call prove untrue, *
     Deign in vision to grant me an interview: 
Quoth they, ’How can phantom[FN#277] appear to the sight *
     Of a youth, whose sight is fordone, perdue?’”

Then, after ending his poetry, Kamar al-Zaman again turned to his father, with submission and despondency, and shedding tears in flood, began repeating these lines.—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

      When it was the One Hundred and Ninety-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Kamar al-Zaman had repeated to his father these verses, he wept and complained and groaned from a wounded heart; and added these lines,

“Beware that eye glance which hath magic might; *
     Wherever turn those orbs it bars our flight: 
Nor be deceived by low sweet voice, that breeds *
     A fever festering in the heart and sprite: 
So soft that silky skin, were rose to touch it *
     She’d cry and tear-drops rain for pain and fright: 
Did Zephyr e’en in sleep pass o’er her land, *
     Scented he’d choose to dwell in scented site: 
Her necklets vie with tinkling of her belt; *
     Her wrists strike either wristlet dumb with spite: 
When would her bangles buss those rings in ear, *
     Upon the lover’s eyne high mysteries ’light: 
I’m blamed for love of her, nor pardon claim; *
     Eyes are not profiting which lack foresight: 
Heaven strip thee, blamer mine! unjust art thou; *
     Before this fawn must every eye low bow."[FN#278]

After which he said, “By Allah, O my father, I cannot endure to be parted from her even for an hour.”  The King smote hand upon hand and exclaimed, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!  No cunning contrivance can profit us in this affair.”  Then he took his son by the hand and carried him to the palace, where Kamar al-Zaman lay down on the bed of languor and the King sat at his head, weeping and mourning over him and leaving him not, night or day, till at last the Wazir came in to him and said, “O King of the age and the time, how long wilt thou remain shut up with thy son and hide thyself from thy troops.  Haply, the order of thy realm may be deranged, by