any obligations from
your majesty and the late emperor, your father, of happy memory, that I
desire no more than the honour of dying in your favour." He took his
leave of the emperor and retired with the two princes and the princess
to the country retreat he had built. His wife had been dead some years,
and he himself had not lived above six months with his charges before he
was surprised by so sudden a death that he had not time to give them the
least account of the manner in which he had discovered them. The Princes
Bahman and Perviz, and the Princess Periezade, who knew no other father
than the intendant of the emperor's gardens, regretted and bewailed him
as such, and paid all the honours in his funeral obsequies which love
and filial gratitude required of them. Satisfied with the plentiful
fortune he had left them, they lived together in perfect union, free
from the ambition of distinguishing themselves at court, or aspiring to
places of honour and dignity, which they might easily have obtained.

One day when the two princes were hunting, and the princess had remained
at home, a religious old woman came to the gate, and desired leave to go
in to say her prayers, it being then the hour. The servants asked the
princess's permission, who ordered them to show her into the oratory,
which the intendant of the emperor's gardens had taken care to fit up in
his house, for want of a mosque in the neighbourhood. She bade them,
also, after the good woman had finished her prayers, to show her the
house and gardens and then bring her to the hall.

The old woman went into the oratory, said her prayers, and when she came
out two of the princess's women invited her to see the residence, which
civility she accepted, followed them from one apartment to another, and
observed, like a person who understood what belonged to furniture, the
nice arrangement of everything. They conducted her also into the garden,
the disposition of which she found so well planned, that she admired it,
observing that the person who had formed it must have been an excellent
master of his art. Afterward she was brought before the princess, who
waited for her in the great hall, which in beauty and richness exceeded
all that she had admired in the other apartments.

As soon as the princess saw the devout woman, she said to her: "My good
mother, come near and sit down by me. I am overjoyed at the happiness of
having the opportunity of profiting for some moments