But the kaysar waxed wroth at this, and refused to give his daughter to the king.  When the ambassador returned thus unsuccessful, the king, enraged at being made of no account, resolved to make war upon the kaysar, and, opening the doors of his treasury, he distributed much money among his troops, and then, “with a woe-bringing lust, and a blood-drinking army, he trampled Rome and the Romans in the dust.”  And when the kaysar was become powerless, he sent his daughter to the king, who married her according to the law of Islam.

Now that princess had a son by a former husband, and the kaysar had said to her before she departed:  “Beware that thou mention not thy son, for my love for his society is great, and I cannot part with him.”  But the princess was sick at heart for the absence of her son, and she was ever pondering how she should speak to the king about him, and in what manner she might contrive to bring him to her.  It happened one day the king gave her a string of pearls and a casket of jewels.  She said:  “With my father is a slave well skilled in the science of jewels.”  The king replied:  “If I should ask that slave of thy father, would he give him to me?” “Nay,” said she; “for he holds him in the place of a son.  But, if the king desire him, I will send a merchant to Rome, and I myself will give him a token, and with pleasant wiles and fair speeches will bring him hither.”  Then the king sent for a clever merchant who knew Arabic eloquently and the language of Rome, and gave him goods for trading, and sent him to Rome with the object of procuring that slave.  But the daughter of the kaysar said privately to the merchant:  “That slave is my son; I have, for a good reason, said to the king that he is a slave; so thou must bring him as a slave, and let it be thy duty to take care of him.”  In due course the merchant brought the youth to the king’s service; and when the king saw his fair face, and discovered in him many pleasing and varied accomplishments, he treated him with distinction and favour, and conferred on the merchant a robe of honour and gifts.  His mother saw him from afar, and was pleased with receiving a salutation from him.

One day (the text proceeds) the king had gone to the chase, and the palace remained void of rivals; so the mother called in her son, kissed his fair face, and told him the tale of her great sorrow.  A chamberlain became aware of the secret, and another suspicion fell upon him, and he said to himself:  “The harem of the king is the sanctuary of security and the palace of protection.  If I speak not of this, I shall be guilty of treachery, and shall have wrought unfaithfulness.”  When the king returned from the chase, the chamberlain related to him what he had seen, and the king was angry and said:  “This woman has deceived me with words and deeds, and has brought hither her desire by craft and cunning.  This conjecture must be true, else why did she play such a trick, and why did she hatch such a plot, and