Thereupon they sought him but found him not and the
mother buffeted her face in grief for her child and
the father lost his right senses. Then the high
Officials fared forth to search for their King’s
son and sought him from early night to the dawn of
day, but not finding him they deemed that he had been
drowned in Tigris-water. So they summoned all
the fishermen and divers and caused them to drag the
river for a space of four days. All this time
and the boy abode with the Darwayshes, who kept saying
to him, “Go to thy father and thy mother;”
but he would not obey them and he would sit with the
Fakirs upon whom all his thoughts were fixed while
theirs were fixed upon him. This lasted till the
fifth day when the door-keeper unsummoned entered
the cell and found the Sultan’s son sitting
with the old men; so he went out hurriedly and repairing
to the King cried, “O my Sovran, thy boy is with
those Darwayshes who were wont daily to visit thee.”
Now when the Sultan heard the porter’s words,
he called aloud to his Eunuchs and Chamberlains and
gave them his orders; when they ran a race, as it
were, till they entered upon the holy men and carried
them from their cell together with the boy and set
all four[FN#194] before the Sultan. The King
exclaimed, “Verily these Darwayshes must be
spies and their object was to carry off my boy;”
so he took up his child and clasped him to his bosom
and kissed him again and again of his yearning fondness
to him, and presently he sent him to his mother who
was well-nigh frantic. Then he committed the
two Fakirs (with commands to decapitate them) to the
Linkman who took them and bound their hands and bared
their heads and fell to crying, “This be his
reward and the least of awards who turneth traitor
and kidnappeth the sons of the Kings;” and as
he cried all the citizens great and small flocked to
the spectacle. But when the boy heard the proclamation,
he went forth in haste till he stood before the elder
Darwaysh who was still kneeling upon the rug of blood
and threw himself upon him at full length till the
Grandees of his father forcibly removed him. Then
the executioner stepped forward purposing to strike
the necks of the two old men and he raised his sword
hand till the dark hue of his arm-pit showed[FN#195]
and he would have dealt the blow when the boy again
made for the elder Fakir and threw himself upon him
not only once but twice and thrice, preventing the
Sworder’s stroke and abode clinging to the old
man. The Sultan cried, “This Darwaysh is
a Sorcerer:” but when the tidings reached
the Sultanah, the boy’s mother, she exclaimed,
“O King, needs must this Darwaysh have a strange
tale to tell, for the boy is wholly absorbed in him.
So it is not possible to slay him on this wise till
thou summon him to the presence and question him:
I also will listen to him behind the curtain and thus
none shall hear him save our two selves.”
The King did her bidding and commanded the old man
to be brought: so they took him from under the