The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Anonymous (best novels to read in english .TXT) 📗

and receive the genie. It is twenty-five years, as I told you before, that I have continued in this place, where, I must confess, I have every thing that I can wish for necessary to life; and also every thing that can satisfy a princess that loves nothing but fine dress and fashions.

Every ten days, says the princess, the genie comes hither to lie with me one night, which he never exceeds; and the excuse he makes for it is, that he is married to another wife, who would grow jealous if she came to know how unfaithful he was to her. Meanwhile, if I have any occasion for him by day or night, as soon as I touch a talisman, which is at the entrance of my chamber, the genie appears. It is now the fourth day since he was here, and I do not expect him before the end of six more; so, if you please, you may stay five days and keep me company, and I will endeavour to entertain you according to your quality and merit. I thought myself too fortunate to have obtained so great a favour without asking it, to refuse so obliging a proffer. The princess made me go into a bagnio, which was the most handsome, the most commodious, and the most sumptuous, that could be imagined; and when I came forth, instead of my own clothes, I found another very costly suit, which I did not esteem so much for its richness as that it made me look worthy to be in her company. We sat down on a sofa covered with rich tapestry, with cushions to lean upon, of the rarest Indian brocade; and, some time after, she covered a table with several dishes of delicate meats. We ate together, and passed the remainder of the day with very great satisfaction; and at night she received me to her bed.

The next day, as she contrived all manner of ways to please me, she brought in at dinner a bottle of old wine, the most excellent that ever was tasted, and, out of complaisance, she drank part of it with me. Whan my head grew hot with the agreeable liquor, Fair princess, said I, you have been too long thus buried alive; come follow me, and enjoy the real day from which you have been deprived of so many years, and abandon this false light that you have here. Prince, replied she with a smile, leave this discourse; if you, out of the days, will grant me nine, and resign the last to the genie, the fairest day that ever was would be nothing in my esteem. Princess, said I, it is the fear of the genie that makes you speak thus; for my part, I value him so little that I will break his talisman, with the conjuration that is written about it, in pieces. Let him come then, I will expect him, and how brave or redoubtable soever he be, I will make him feel the weight of my arm. I swear solemnly that I shall extirpate all the genies in the world, and him first. The princess, who knew the consequence, conjured me not to touch the talisman, for that would be a mean, said she, to ruin both you and me; I know what belongs to genies better than you. The fumes of the wine did not suffer me to hearken to her reasons, but I gave the talisman a kick with my foot, and broke it in several pieces.

The talisman was no sooner broken than the palace began to shake, and was ready to fall, with a hideous noise like thunder, accompanied with flashes of lightning, and a great darkness. This terrible noise in a moment dispelled the fumes of my wine, and made me sensible, but too late, of the folly I had committed. Princess, cried I, what means all this? She answered in a fright, and without any concern for her own misfortune, cries, Alas! you are undone, if you do not escape presently.

I followed her advice, and my fears were so great that I forgot my hatchet and cords. I was scarcely got to the stairs by which I came down, when the enchanted palace opened at once, and made a passage for the genie. He asked the princess, in great anger, what has happened to you, and why did you call me? A qualm at my stomach, said the princess, made me fetch this bottle which you see here, out of which I drank twice or thrice, and by mischance made a false step, and fell upon the talisman, which is broken, and that is all the matter.

At this answer the furious genie told her, You are a false woman and a liar. How came that axe and those ropes there? I never saw them till this moment, said the princess. Your coming in such an impetuous manner has, it may be, forced them up in some place as you came along, and so brought them hither without your knowing it.

The genie made no other answer but what was accompanied with reproaches and blows, of which I heard the noise. I could not endure to hear the pitiful cries and shouts of the princess so cruelly abused; I had already laid off the suit she made me put on, and taken my own, which I had laid on the stairs the day before, when I came out of the bagnio. I made haste up stairs, being so much the more full of sorrow and compassion that I had been the cause of so great a misfortune; and that, by sacrificing the fairest princess on earth to the barbarity of a most merciless genie, I was become the most criminal and ungrateful of mankind. It is true, said I, she has been a prisoner these twenty-five years; but, setting liberty aside, she wanted nothing that could make her happy. My madness has put an end to her happiness, and brought upon her the cruelty of an unrelenting devil. I let down the trap-door, covered it again with earth, and returned to the city with a burden of wood, which I bound up without knowing what I did, so great were my trouble and sorrow.

My landlord, the tailor, was very much rejoiced to see me. Your absence, said he, has disquieted me very much, by reason you had intrusted in with the secret of your birth, and I knew not what to think. I was afraid that somebody had known you; God be thanked for your return. I thanked him for his zeal and affection, but never a word durst I say of what had passed, nor the reason why I came back without my hatchet and cords.

I retired to my chamber, where I reproached myself a thousand times for my excessive imprudence. Nothing, said I, could have paralleled the princess's good fortune and mine, had I foreborn to break the talisman.

While I was thus giving myself over to melancholy thoughts, the tailor came in and told me, An old man, said he, whom I do not know, brings me your hatchet and cords, which he found in his way, as he tells me, and understood, by your comrades that go along with you to the woods, that you lodge here. Come out and speak to him, for he will deliver them to none but yourself.

At this discourse I changed colour, and fell a-trembling. While the tailor was asking me the reason, my chamber-door opened at once, and the old man, having no patience to stay, appeared to us with my hatchet and cords. This was the genie, the ravisher of the fair princess of the isle of Ebone, who had thus disguised himself, after he had treated her with the utmost barbarity. I am a genie, said he, son of the daughter of Ebis, prince of genies. Is not this your hatchet? said he, speaking to me, and are not these your cords?

After the genie had put the question to me, he gave me no time to answer, nor was it in my power, so much had his terrible aspect put me beside myself. He grasped me by the middle, dragged me out of the chamber, and, mounting into the air, carried me up as high as the skies, with such swiftness, that I perceived I was got so high as not to be able to take notice of the way, being carried in so few moments. He descended again in like manner to the earth, which, on a sudden, he caused to open with a knock of his foot, and so sunk down at once, where I found myself in the enchanted palace before the fair princess of the isle of Ebone. But, alas! what a spectacle was there; I saw that which pierced me to the heart; this poor princess was quite naked, all in blood, and laid upon the ground, more like one dead than alive, with her cheeks all bathed in tears.

Perfidious wretch, said the genie to her, pointing at me, is not this your gallant? She cast her languishing eyes upon me, and answered mournfully, I do not know him; I never saw him till this moment. What, said the genie, he is the cause of thy being in the condition thou art justly in; and yet darest thou say thou dost not know him? If I do not know him, said the princess, would you have me to make a lie on purpose to ruin him? O then, said the genie, pulling out a scimitar, and presenting it to the princess, if you never saw him before, take the scimitar and cut off his head. Alas! replied the princess, how is it possible I should execute what you would force me to do? My strength is so far spent that I cannot lift my arm; and if I could, how should I have the heart to take away an innocent man's life, and one I do not know? This refusal, said the genie to the princess, sufficiently informs me of your crime. Upon which, turning to me, And thou, said he, dost thou hot know her?

I should have been the most ungrateful wretch, and the most perfidious of all mankind, if I had not shown myself as faithful to the princess as she was to me, who had been the cause of her misfortunes. Therefore I answered the genie, How should I know her, that never saw her till now? If that be so, said he, take the scimitar and cut off her head. On this condition I will set thee at liberty, for then I will be convinced that thou never saw her till this very moment, as thou sayest thyself. With all my heart, replied I, and took the scimitar in my hand.

Do not think, madam, that I drew near to the fair princess of the isle of Ebone, to be the executioner of the genie's barbarity; I did it only to demonstrate by my behaviour, as much as possible, that as she had shown her resolution to sacrifice her life for my sake, so I would not refuse to sacrifice mine for her's. The princess, notwithstanding her pain and suffering, understood my meaning, which she signified by an obliging look, and made me understand her willingness to die for me; and that she was satisfied to see also how willing I was to die for her. Upon this I stepped back, and threw the scimitar on the ground. I shall for ever, says I to the genie, be hateful to all mankind, should I be so base as to murder, I do not only say a person whom I do not know, but also a lady like this, who is ready to give up the ghost; do with me what you please since I am in your power; I cannot obey your barbarous commands.

I see, said the genie, that you both out-brave me, and insult my jealousy; but both of you shall know, by the treatment I give you, what I am capable to do. At these words, the monster took up the scimitar and cut off one of her hands, which left her only so much life as to give me a token with the other, that she bid me for ever adieu. For the blood she had lost before, and that which gushed out then, did not permit her to live above one or two moments after this barbarous cruelty, the sight of which threw me into a fit. When I was come to myself again, I expostulated with the genie, why he made me languish in expectation of death. Strike, cried I, for I am ready to receive the mortal blow, and expect it as the greatest favour you can show me.