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

you are at present our lord, master, and judge, and we are your slaves, ready to obey your commands.

Nothing in the world, madam, so much astonished me as the passion and eagerness of those fair ladies to do me all possible service. One brought hot water to wash my feet; a second poured sweet scented water on my hands; some brought me all sorts of necessaries, and change of apparel; others brought in a magnificent collation; and the rest came with glasses in their hands to fill me delicious wines, all in good order, and in the most charming manner that could be. I ate and drank; after which the ladies placed themselves about me, and desired an account of my travels. I gave them a full relation of my adventures, which lasted till night came on.

When I had made an end of my story, which I related to the forty ladies, some of them that sat nearest me staid to keep me company, whilst the rest, seeing it was dark, rose to fetch tapers. They brought a prodigious quantity, which made such a marvellous light as if it had been day, and they were so proportionably disposed,, that nothing could be more beautiful. Other ladies covered a table with dry fruits, sweet-meats, and everything proper to make the liquor relish; and a side-board was set with several sorts of wines and other liquors. Some of the ladies came in with musical instruments, and, when every thing was prepared, they invited me to sit down to supper. The ladies sat down with me, and we continued a long while at supper. They that were to play upon the instruments, and sing, stood up, and made a most charming concert. The others began a sort of ball, and danced by two and two, one after another, with a wonderfully good grace. It was past midnight before those divertisements ended. At length one of the ladies says to me, You are doubtless wearied by the journey you have made to-day; it is time for you to go to rest; your lodging is prepared; but, before you depart, make choice of any of us you like best to be your bed-fellow. I answered, That I knew better things than to offer to make my own choice, since they were all equally beautiful, witty, and worthy of my respects and service, and that I would not be guilty of so much incivility as to prefer one before another. The same lady that spoke to me before answered. We are all very well satisfied of your civility, and find you are afraid to create a jealousy among us, which occasions your modesty; but let nothing hinder you. We assure you, that the good fortune of her whom you choose shall cause no jealousy; for we are agreed among ourselves, that every one of us shall have the same honour till it go round, and, when forty days are past, to begin again; therefore make your free choice, and lose no time to go and take the repose you stand in need of. I was obliged to yield to their instances, and offered my hand to the lady that spoke; she, in return, gave me hers, and we were conducted to an apartment, where they left us; and then every one retired to their own apartment. I was scarcely dressed next morning, when the other thirty-nine ladies came into my chamber, all in other dresses than they had the day before: They bid me good-morrow, and inquired after my health; after which they carried me into a bagnio*, where they washed me themselves, and, whether I would or not, served me in every thing I stood in need of; and when I came out of the bath, they made me put on another suit much richer that the former.

We passed the whole day almost constantly at table; and when it was bed-time, they prayed me again to make choice of one of them to keep me company. In short, madam, not to weary you with repetitions, I must tell you, that I continued a whole year among those forty ladies, and received them into my bed one after another: And during all the time of this voluptuous life, we met not with the least kind of trouble. When the year was expired, I was strangely surprised that these forty ladies, instead of appearing, with their usual cheerfulness, to ask how I did, entered one morning into my chamber all in tears: They embraced me with great tenderness one after another, saying, Adieu, dear prince, adieu! for we must leave you. Their tears affected me; I prayed them to tell me the reason of their grief, and of the separation they spoke of. For God's sake, fair ladies, let me know, said I, if it be in my power to comfort you, or if my assistance can be any way useful to you. Instead of returning a direct answer, Would to God, said they, we had never seen nor known you. Several gentlemen have honoured us with their company before you, but never one of them had that comeliness, that sweetness, that pleasantness of humour, and merit, which you have; we know not how to live without you. After they had spoken these words, they began to weep bitterly. My dear ladies, said I, be so kind as not to keep me in suspense any more: Tell me the cause of your sorrow. Alas! said they, what other thing could be capable of grieving us, but the necessity of parting from you? It may so happen that we shall never see you again; but if you be so minded, and have command enough over yourself, it is not impossible for us to meet again. Ladies, said I, I understand not your meaning; pray explain yourselves more clearly. Oh, then, said one of them, to satisfy you, we must acquaint you, that we are all princesses, daughters of kings; we live here together in such a manner as; you have seen, but, at the end of every year, we are obliged to be absent forty days upon indispensable duties, which we are not permitted to reveal; and afterwards we return again to this castle. Yesterday was the last day of the year, and we must leave you this day, which is the cause of our grief. Before we depart, we will leave you the keys to every thing; especially those belonging to the hundred doors, where you will have enough to satisfy your curiosity, and to sweeten your solitude during our absence: But, for your own welfare, and our particular concern in you, we recommend unto you to forbear opening the golden door; for, if you do, we shall never see you again; and the fear of this augments our grief. We hope, nevertheless, that you will follow the advice we give you, as you tender your own quiet, and the happiness of your life; therefore take heed that you do not give way to indiscreet curiosity, for you will do yourself a considerable prejudice. We conjure you, therefore, not to commit this fault, but to let us have the comfort of finding you here again after forty days. We would willingly carry the key of the golden door along with us; but it would be an affront to a prince like you to question your discretion and modesty.

This discourse of the fair princesses made me extremely sorrowful. I omitted not to make them sensible how much their absence would afflict me: I thanked them for their good advice, and assured them that I would follow it, and willingly do what was much more difficult, in order to be so happy as to pass the rest of my days with ladies of such rare qualifications. We took leave of one another with a great deal of tenderness; and having embraced them all, they at last departed, and I was left alone in the castle. Their agreeable company, the good cheer, the concert of music, and other pleasures, had so much diverted me during the whole year, that I neither had time, nor the least desire, to see the wonderful things contained in this enchanted palace. Nay, I did not so much as take notice of a. thousand rare objects that were every day in my sight; for I was so taken with the charming beauty of those ladies, and took so much pleasure in seeing them wholly employed to oblige me, that their departure afflicted me very sensibly; and though their absence was to be only forty days, it seemed to be an age to live without them. I promised myself not to forget the important advice they had given me, not to open the golden door; but as I was permitted to satisfy my curiosity in every thing I took the first of the keys of the other doors, which were hung in good order. I opened the first door, and came into an orchard, which I believe the universe could not equal; I could not imagine that any thing could surpass it, but that which our religion promises us after death; the symmetry, the neatness, the admirable order of the trees, the abundance and diversity of a thousand sorts of unknown fruits, their freshness and beauty, ravished my sight.

I ought not to forget, madam, to acquaint you, that this delicious orchard was watered after a very particular manner; there were channels so artificially and proportionably digged, that they carried water in abundance to the roots of such trees as wanted it for making them produce their leaves and flowers. Some carried it to those that had their fruit budded;* Others carried it in lesser quantities to those whose fruit was growing big; and others carried only so much as was just requisite to water those which had their fruit come to perfection, and only wanted to be ripened. They exceeded the ordinary fruits of our gardens very much in bigness; and, lastly, those channels that watered the trees whose fruits were ripe, had no more moisture than what would just preserve them from withering. I could never be weary to look at and admire so sweet a place; and I should never have left it, had I not conceived a greater idea of the other things which I had not seen. I went out at last with my mind filled with those wonders; I shut that door, and opened the next. Instead of an orchard, I found a flower-garden, which was no less extraordinary of its kind; it contained a spacious plot, not watered so profusely as the former, but with greater niceness, furnishing no more water than just what each flower required. The roses, jessamines, violets, dills, hyacinths, wind-flowers, tulips, crowsfoots, pinks, lilies, and an infinite number of other flowers, which do not grow in other places but at certain times, were there flourishing all at once; and nothing could be more delicious than the fragrant smell of this garden.

I opened the third door, where I found a large volary, paved with marble of several fine colours that were not common. The cage was made of sanders and wood of aloes: it contained a vast number of nightingales, goldfinches, canary birds, larks, and other rare singing-birds which I never heard of; and the vessels that held their seed and water were of the most precious jasper or agate. Besides, this volary was so exceedingly neat, that, considering its extent, one would think there could not be less than an hundred persons to keep it so clean as it was; but all this while not one soul appeared, either here or in the gardens where I had been, and yet I could not perceive a weed or any superfluous thing there. The sun went down, and I retired, being perfectly charmed with the chirping notes of the multitude of birds, which then began to perch upon such places as were convenient for them to repose on during the night. I went to my chamber, resolving to open all the rest of the doors the day following, except the golden one.

I failed not to open a fourth door next day, and if what I had seen before was capable of surprising me, that which I saw then put me into a perfect ecstasy. I went into a large court, surrounded with buildings of an admirable structure, the description of which I shall pass by to avoid prolixity. This building had forty doors, wide open, and through each of them there was an entrance into a treasury, several of which were of greater value than the largest kingdoms. The first contained heaps of pearls; and, what is almost incredible, the number of these stones, which are most precious, and as large as pigeons' eggs, exceeded the number of those of the ordinary size: in the second treasury there were diamonds, carbuncles, and rubies: in the third there were emeralds: in the fourth there were ingots