So it is my counsel that tomorrow thou ask his leave
to go a-hunting, saying, "I have a mind to divert myself with
hunting in the desert and to see the open country and pass the
night there." Then do thou take with thee a pair of saddle-bags
full of gold and mount a swift hackney and I will do the like;
and we will take each a spare horse. Suffer not any servant to
follow us, for as soon as we reach the open country, we will go
our ways.' Kemerezzeman rejoiced mightily in this plan and said,
'It is good.' Then he took heart and going in to his father,
sought his leave to go out to hunt, saying as Merzewan had taught
him. The King consented and said, 'O my son, a thousandfold
blessed be the day that restores thee to health! I will not
gainsay thee in this; but pass not more than one night in the
desert and return to me on the morrow; for thou knowest that life
is not good to me without thee, and indeed I can hardly as yet
credit thy recovery, because thou art to me as he of whom quoth
the poet:
Though Solomon his carpet were mine both day and night, Though
the Choero?s' empire, yea, and the world were mine,
All were to me in value less than a midge's wing, Except mine
eyes still rested upon that face of thine.
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