The Four Hundred and Fifty-fifth Night,

Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale, that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the Lion charged down upon Mohammed, Son of the Sultan, designing to rend him in pieces, but he confronted him and unsheathing his scymitar made it glitter in the sunshine[FN#366] and pressed him close and bashed him with brand between his eyes so that the blade came forth gleaming from between his thighs.  Now by doom of Destiny the daughter of the Sultan was sitting at the latticed window of her belvedere and was looking at her glass and solacing herself, when her glance fell upon the King’s son as he was smiting the Lion.  So she said to herself, “May thy hand never palsied grow nor exult over thee any foe!” But the Prince after slaying the Lion left the body and walked into the garden whose door had been left open and therein he found that all the trees were of precious metal bearing clusters like grapes of diamonds and emeralds.  So he went forwards and plucked from those trees six bunches which he placed within a cage, when suddenly he was met by the keeper who cried out, “A thief! a thief!” and when joined by the other gardeners seized him and bore him before the Sultan saying, “O my lord, I have come upon this youth who was red-handed in robbing yonder clusters.”  The King would have slain him forth-right, but suddenly there came to him a gathering of the folk who cried, “O King of the Age, a gift of good news!"[FN#367] Quoth he, “Wherefore?” and quoth they, “Verily the Lion which was wont hither to come every year and to pounce upon all that met him of men and of women and of maidens and of children, we have found him in such a place clean slain and split into twain.”  Now the Sultan’s daughter was standing by the lattice of the belvedere which was hard by the Divan of her sire and was looking at the youth who stood before the King and was awaiting to see how it would fare with him.  But when the folk came in and reported the death of the Lion, the Sultan threw aside the affair of the youth of his joy and delight and fell to asking, “Who was it slew the beast?” and to saying, “Wallahi!  By the rights of my forbears in this kingdom,[FN#368] let him who killed the monster come before me and ask of me a boon which it shall be given to him; nay, even if he demand of me a division of all my good he shall receive that same.”  But when he had heard of all present that the tidings were true then the city-folk followed one another in a line and went in to the Sultan and one of them said, “I have slain the Lion.”  Said the King, “And how hast thou slain him; and in what manner hast thou been able to prevail over and master him?” Then