thy handmaids; but alas! thou knowest full well that our beauties are here all in vain nor can our love now warm thy clay.”  Then they also departed in the deepest grief.  As soon as they had disappeared the Sultan and all with him rose up and walked thrice round the figure that had been set up under the dome; then standing at its feet the father said, “O my beloved son, enlighten these eyes which tears for the stress of separation have thus bedimmed.”  He then wept bitterly and all his Ministers and Courtiers and Grandees joined in his mourning and lamentations; and, when they had made an end of the obsequies, the Sultan and his suite returned palace-wards and the door of the dome was locked.—­And as the morn began to dawn Shahrazad held her peace till

          The end of the Six Hundred and Second Night.

Then said she:—­I have heard, O auspicious King, that the Sultan commanded congregational prayers in all the mosques for a full told week and he ceased not to mourn and weep and wail before the cenotaph of his son for eight days.  And as soon as this term was passed he commanded the Grand Wazir that vengeance be meted out for the murther of Prince Khudadad, and that the Princes be brought out from their dungeons and be done to death.  The tidings were bruited about the city, and preparations were made for executing the assassins and crowds of folk collected to gaze upon the scaffold, when suddenly came a report that an enemy whom the King had routed in bygone times was marching upon the city with a conquering army.  Hereat the Sultan was sore troubled and perplexed and the ministers of state said one to other, “Alas! had Prince Khudadad been on life he would forthwith have put to flight the forces of the foe however fierce and fell.”  Natheless the Sovran set out from the city with his suite and host, and eke he made ready for flight to some other land by way of the river should the enemy’s force prove victorious.  Then the two powers met in deadly combat; and the invader, surrounding the King of Harran’s many on every side, would have cut him to pieces with all his warriors, when behold, an armed force hitherto unseen rode athwart the plain at a pace so swift and so sure that the two hostile Kings gazed upon them in uttermost amazement, nor wist any one whence that host came.  But when it drew near, the horsemen charged home on the enemies and in the twinkling of an eye put them to flight; then hotly pursuing felled them with the biting sword and the piercing spear.  Seeing this onslaught the King of Harran marvelled greatly and rendering thanks to heaven said to those around him, “Learn ye the name of the Captain of yonder host, who he may be and whence came he.”  But when all the foemen had fallen upon the field save only a few who escaped hither and thither and the hostile sultan who had been taken prisoner, the Captain of the friendly forces returned from pursuit well pleased to greet the King.  And, lo and behold!