awaiting our orders save and except that I may lay a commandment on thee, wherein do thou not disobey me; and my commandment is that thou marry, for I am minded to wed thee to a King’s daughter and rejoice in thee ere I die.”  When the Prince heard this much from his royal sire, he bowed his head groundwards awhile, then raising it towards his father and being moved thereto at that time by youthful folly and boyish ignorance, replied, “But for myself I will never marry; no, not though I drink the cup of death!  As for thee, thou art great in age and small of wit:  hast thou not, twice ere this day and before this occasion, questioned me of the matter of marriage and I refused my consent?  Indeed thou dotest and are not fit to govern a flock of sheep!” So saying Kamar al-Zaman unclasped his hands from behind his back and tucked up his sleeves above his elbows before his father, being in a fit of fury; moreover, he added many words to his sire, knowing not what he said in the trouble of his spirits.  The King was confounded and ashamed, for that this befel in the presence of his grandees and soldier-officers assembled on a high festival and a state occasion; but presently the majesty of Kingship took him, and he cried out at his son and made him tremble.  Then he called to the guards standing before him and said, “Seize him!’ So they came forward and laid hands on him and, binding him, brought him before his sire, who bade them pinion his elbows behind his back and in this guise make him stand before the presence.  And the Prince bowed down his head for fear and apprehension, and his brow and face were beaded and spangled with sweat; and shame and confusion troubled him sorely.  Thereupon his father abused him and reviled him and cried, “Woe to thee, thou son of adultery and nursling of abomination![FN#234] How durst thou answer me on this wise before my captains and soldiers?  But hitherto none hath chastised thee,”—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

     When it was the One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Shahriman cried out to his son Kamar al-Zaman, “How durst thou answer me on this wise before my captains and soldiers?  But hitherto none hath chastised thee.  Knowest thou not that this deed thou hast done were a disgrace to him had it been done by the meanest of my subjects?” And the King commanded his Mamelukes to loose his elbow bonds and imprison him in one of the bastions of the citadel.  So they took the Prince and thrust him into an old tower, wherein there was a dilapidated saloon and in its middle a ruined well, after having first swept it and cleansed its floor-flags and set therein a couch on which they laid a mattress, a leathern rug and a cushion; and then they brought a great lanthorn and a wax candle, for that place was dark, even by day.  And lastly the Mamelukes led Kamar al-Zaman thither, and stationed an eunuch at the door.