ve you
are come to tell me that we must part: if there be nothing more
to dread, I hope Heaven will give me the patience which is
necessary to support your absence." "Alas!" replied the too
tender Schemselnihar, "how happy do I think you, and how unhappy
do I think myself, when I compare your lot with my sad destiny!
No doubt you will suffer by my absence, but that is all, and you
may comfort yourself with hopes of seeing me again; but as for
me, just Heaven! what a terrible trial am I brought to! I must
not only be deprived of the sight of the only person whom I love,
but I must be tormented with the presence of one whom you have
made hateful to me. Will not the arrival of the caliph put me in
mind of your departure? And how can I, when I am taken up with
your dear image, express to that prince the joy which he always
observed in my eyes whenever he came to see me? I shall have my
mind perplexed when I speak to him, and the least complaisance
which I shew to his love will stab me to the heart. Can I relish
his kind words and caresses? Think, prince, to what torments I
shall be exposed when I can see you no more." Her tears and sighs
hindered her from going on, and the prince of Persia would have
replied, but his own grief, and that of his mistress, deprived
him of the power of speech.

Ebn Thaher, who only wished to get out of the palace, was obliged
to comfort them, and to exhort them to have patience: but the
trusty slave again interrupted them. "Madam," said she to
Schemselnihar, "you have no time to lose; the eunuchs begin to
arrive, and you know the caliph will be here immediately." "O
Heaven! how cruel is this separation!" cried the favourite. "Make
haste," said she to the confidant, "take them both to the gallery
which looks into the garden on the one side, and to the Tigris on
the other; and when the night grows dark, let them out by the
back gate, that they may retire with safety." Having spoken thus,
she tenderly embraced the prince of Persia, without being able to
say one word more, and went to meet the caliph in such disorder
as cannot well be imagined.

In the mean time, the trusty slave conducted the prince and Ebn
Thaher to the gallery, as Schemselnihar had appointed; and left
them there, assuring them, as she closed the door upon them, that
they had nothing to fear, and that she would come for them when
it was time.

When Schemselnihar's trusty slave had left the prince of Persia
and Ebn Thaher,