purpose, and the object of my journey was to deliver her from her present case; and it remaineth for us only to devise how we may get to her, since thy father cannot brook the thought of parting from thee.  So it is my counsel that to-morrow thou ask his leave to go abroad hunting.  Then do thou take with thee a pair of saddle-bags full of money and mount a swift steed, and lead a spare horse, and I will do the like, and say to thy sire, ’I have a mind to divert myself with hunting the desert and to see the open country and there to pass one night.’  Suffer not any servant to follow us, for as soon as we reach the open country, we will go our ways.”  Kamar al-Zaman rejoiced in this plan with great joy and cried, “It is good.”  Then he stiffened his back and, going in to his father, sought his leave and spoke as he had been taught, and the King consented to his going forth a-hunting and said, “O my son, blessed be the day that restoreth thee to health!  I will not gainsay thee in this; but pass not more than one night in the desert and return to me on the morrow; for thou knowest that life is not good to me without thee, and indeed I can hardly believe thee to be wholly recovered from what thou hadst,[FN#296] because thou art to me as he of whom quoth the poet,

’Albe by me I had through day and night *
     Solomon’s carpet and the Chosroes’ might,
Both were in value less than wing of gnat, *
     Unless these eyne could hold thee aye in sight.’"[FN#297]

Then the King equipped his son Kamar al-Zaman and Marzawan for the excursion, bidding make ready for them four horses, together with a dromedary to carry the money and a camel to bear the water and belly timber; and Kamar al-Zaman forbade any of his attendants to follow him.  His father farewelled him and pressed him to his breast and kissed him, saying, “I ask thee in the name of Allah, be not absent from me more than one night, wherein sleep will be unlawful to me, for I am even as saith the poet,

’Thou present, in the Heaven of heavens I dwell; *
     Bearing shine absence is of hells my Hell: 
Pledged be for thee my soul!  If love for thee *
     Be crime, my crime is of the fellest fell. 
Does love-lowe burn thy heart as burns it mine, *
     Doomed night and day Gehenna-fire to smell?’”

Answered Kamar al-Zaman, “O my father, Inshallah, I will lie abroad but one night!” Then he took leave of him, and he and Marzawan mounted and leading the spare horses, the dromedary with the money and the camel with the water and victual, turned their faces towards the open country;—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawning day and ceased saying her permitted say.

          When it was the Two Hundred and First Night,