it but that I use stratagem.  So she rose and donned some of her husband’s clothes and riding-boots, and a turband like his, drawing one corner of it across her face for a mouth-veil.[FN#312] Then, setting a slave-girl in her litter, she went forth from the tent and called to the pages who brought her Kamar al-Zaman’s steed; and she mounted and bade them load the beasts and resume the march.  So they bound on the burdens and departed; and she concealed her trick, none doubting but she was Kamar al-Zaman, for she favoured him in face and form; nor did she cease journeying, she and her suite, days and nights, till they came in sight of a city overlooking the Salt Sea, where they pitched their tents without the walls and halted to rest.  The Princess asked the name of the town and was told, “It is called the City of Ebony; its King is named Armanus, and he hath a daughter Hayat al-Nufus[FN#313] hight,”—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

          When it was the Two Hundred and Ninth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Lady Budur halted within sight of the Ebony City to take her rest, King Armanus sent a messenger, to learn what King it was who had encamped without his capital; so the messenger, coming to the tents, made inquiry anent their King, and was told that she was a King’s son who had lost the way being bound for the Khalidan Islands; whereupon he returned to King Armanus with the tidings; and, when the King heard them, he straightway rode out with the lords of his land to greet the stranger on arrival.  As he drew near the tents the Lady Budur came to meet him on foot, whereupon the King alighted and they saluted each other.  Then he took her to the city and, bringing her up to the palace, bade them spread the tables and trays of food and commanded them to transport her company and baggage to the guess house.  So they abode there three days; at the end of which time the King came in to the Lady Budur.  Now she had that day gone to the Hammam and her face shone as the moon at its full, a seduction to the world and a rending of the veil of shame to mankind; and Armanus found her clad in a -suit of silk, embroidered with gold and jewels; so he said to her, ’O my son, know that I am a very old man, decrepit withal, and Allah hath blessed me with no child save one daughter, who resembleth thee in beauty and grace; and I am now waxed unfit for the conduct of the state.  She is shine, O my son; and, if this my land please thee and thou be willing to abide and make thy home here, I will marry thee to her and give thee my kingdom and so be at rest.”  When Princess Budur heard this, she bowed her head and her forehead sweated for shame, and she said to herself.  “How shall I do, and I a woman?  If I refuse and depart from him, I cannot be safe but that haply send after me troops to slay me; and if I consent, belike I shall be put to shame.  I have lost my beloved Kamar