What good was there in imprisoning him?' 'Have no care for him,'
answered the Vizier. 'By Allah, no hurt will befall him! Leave
him in prison for a month, till his humour yield and his spirit
be broken and he return to his senses.' As he spoke, in came the
eunuch, in the aforesaid plight, and said to the King, who was
troubled at sight of him, 'O our lord the Sultan, thy son's wits
are fled and he has gone mad; he has dealt with me thus and thus,
so that I am become as thou seest, and says, "A young lady lay
with me this night and stole away whilst I slept. Where is she?"
And insists on my telling him where she is and who took her away.
But I have seen neither girl nor boy; the door was locked all
night, for I slept before it, with the key under my head, and
opened to him in the morning with my own hand.' When the King
heard this, he cried out, saying, 'Alas, my son!' And he was
sore enraged against the Vizier, who had been the cause of all
this, and said to him, 'Go, bring me news of my son and see what
hath befallen his wit.' So the Vizier rose and hastened with the
slave to the tower, tumbling over his skirts, in his fear of the
King's anger. The sun had now risen and when he came in to
Kemerezzeman, he found him sitting on the couch, reading the
Koran; so he saluted him and sitting down by his side, said to
him, 'O my lord, this wretched slave brought us news that
disquieted and alarmed us and incensed the King.
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