• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 29454 0

the thought of his kingdom's passing to another family. One evening, while indulging his gloomy thoughts, he dropped into a doze, from which he was roused by a voice exclaiming, "Sultan, thy wife this night shall conceive. If she bears a son, he will increase the glory of thy house; but if a daughter, she will occasion thee disgrace and misfortune." In due time the favourite sultana was delivered of a daughter, to the great mortification of the parents, who would have destroyed her had not her infant smiles diverted their anger. She was brought up in the strictest privacy, and at the end of twelve years the sultan had her conveyed to a strong citadel erected in the middle of a deep lake, hoping in such a confinement to prevent her from fulfilling the prediction which had been made concerning her. Nothing could excel the magnificence of her abode, where she was left only with female attendants of the highest accomplishments, but no male was allowed to approach even the borders of the lake, except when supplies were conveyed for the use of its fair inhabitants, who were then restricted to their apartments. The gate of the citadel was entrusted to the care of an old lady, the princess's nurse. For three years the fair Aleefa lived happy in her splendid prison, but the decree of fate was not to be overcome, and an event predestined by heaven overturned the cautious project of sultan Mherejaun.

Eusuff, a dissipated young prince, son to the sultan of Sind, having offended his father, fled from his court, and with a few attendants reached the borders of the lake, in his way to seek an asylum in the territories of Mherejaun. Curious to know who inhabited the citadel in the midst of it, he swam over the lake, and landed at the gate, which he found shut, but no one answered his loudest call for admission. Upon this he wrote a note, requesting compassion to a helpless stranger, and having fixed it to an arrow, shot it over the battlements. It luckily for him fell at the feet of the princess, then walking in one of the courts of her palace. She prevailed upon her nurse to open the gate, and at sight of Eusuff fell in love with him, as he did with her. He was admitted, and the tenderest interviews took place between them. Joy and pleasure prevailed in the citadel, while the prince's attendants remained, expecting his return, on the banks of the lake.

After some time, sultan Sohul wishing to be reconciled to his son, and having learnt the route he had taken, dispatched his nephew named Yiah to assure him of forgiveness, and invite him to return to Sind. Yiah arriving at the lake, was informed by Eusuff's attendants that the prince had entered the citadel, since which they had not seen or heard anything of him. Yiah, upon this, penned a note expressive of the sultan's forgiveness, and his wish to see the prince, which he fixed to an arrow and shot it into the palace, in the garden of which it fell, as Eusuff and Aleefa were walking for their amusement. The prince, on reading the note, overcome with joy at the intelligence of his father's forgiveness of his errors, resolved to return home and pay his duty to his parents. He communicated his design to the princess, who was plunged into the deepest sorrow at the thought of his departure, but he comforted her by assurances of his speedy return, declaring that nothing but filial duty could have torn him from her, even for a moment. She now implored him to to take her with him, but Eusuff prudently represented that such a step could only disgrace her fame and enrage her father, who, on discovery of her flight, would invade the kingdom of Sind with his powerful armies, and a scene of unnecessary bloodshed would ensue. On the contrary, it they waited patiently, sultan Mherejaun might be prevailed upon to consent to their union; but, in the mean time, he would visit her often, while their meetings might, through the fidelity of their mutual attendants, be kept secret. Aleefa, though unwilling, was obliged to acknowledge the justice of his reasoning, and consented to his departure; but on his