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daughter, who was brought up with thy mistress and is sore concerned for what has befallen her, and I desire of thy favour that my daughter may go in to her and look on her awhile, then return whence she came, and none shall know it.’ ‘This may not be, except by night,’ replied the eunuch, ‘after the King has visited the princess and gone away; then come thou and thy daughter.’ She kissed the eunuch’s hand and returning home, waited till the morrow at nightfall, when she dressed her son in woman’s apparel and taking him by the hand, carried him to the palace. When the eunuch saw her, he said, ‘Enter, but do not tarry long.’ So they went in and when Merzewan saw the princess in the aforesaid plight, he saluted her, after his mother had taken off his woman’s attire: then pulling out the books he had brought with him and lighting a candle, he began to recite certain conjurations. The princess looked at him and knowing him, said to him, ‘O my brother, thou hast been absent on thy travels and we have been cut off from news of thee.’ ‘True,’ answered he; ‘but God has brought me back in safety and I am now minded to set out again; nor has aught delayed me but the sad news I hear of thee; wherefore my heart ached for thee and I came to thee, so haply I may rid thee of thy malady.’ ‘O my brother,’ rejoined she, ‘thinkest thou it is madness ails me?’ ‘Yes,’ answered he, and she said, ‘Not so, by Allah! It is even as says the poet:
Quoth they, “Thou’rt surely mad for him thou lov’st;” and I replied, “Indeed the sweets of life belong unto the raving race.
Lo, those who love have not, for that, the upper hand of fate; Only the madman ’tis, I trow, o’ercometh time and space.
Yes, I am mad; so bring me him for whom ye say I’m mad; And if he heal my madness, spare to blame me for my case.”’
Then she told him that she was in love, and he said, ‘Tell me thy story and what befell thee: peradventure
