The Six Hundred and Ninety-eighth 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 when Sahlub went up to the Palace, he asked of Al-Hayfa, and the slave-girls told him that a youth had come thither and had taken her away and had carried her off to his own country. So he returned to Al-Mihrjan and informed him thereof, when the King took horse with all his host and pursued Yusuf with uttermost haste and hurry until there was between the twain less than a day's march. But as the Prince drew near his capital on the tenth day he went in to his sire and told him whatso had befallen him from incept to conclusion, nor did he hide from him aught; whereupon King Sahl mustered his many (all who received from him royal solde and allowances), and bade them take horse with his son Yusuf. The troops did accordingly and the Prince rode a-van, and after a little while the two armies met. Now Ibn Ibrahim had made a compact with five of the nobles who were the chiefest men of King Al-Mihrjan's reign and had promised them five hundred thousand dinars. So when the two hosts were about to engage, an Emir of the Emirs came forth (and he was one of those whom Ibn Ibrahim had appointed to watch over Yusuf) and said to the Prince, "O Son of the King, verily Ibn Ibrahim hath promised five of the nobles as many hundred thousand dinars of gold the which we may take and receive from thee." Replied he, "The like sum shall be thine from me with all thou canst ask of us." Presently the Emir returned from him to Al-Mihrjan and said to him, "Verily I have asked this youth that he make vain and void the battle between us twain, but he assented not and sware an oath that he would never return from affray until the enemies should meet and fight it out, and that he had with him a mighty host and a conquering whose van was not known from its rear.[269] Now 'tis my rede that thou strive to take him prisoner[270] and then do whatso he may please, especially he being son to thee, King of the mighty Kings and with him a thousand thousand knights all mailed cap-à-pie and clothed in steel not one of whom hath any fear of fight." King Al-Mihrjan waxed wroth at the Emir's speech and cried, "What words be these? Shall the Kings of the Age remain saying of me that a man hath debauched the daughter of Al-Mihrjan and hath carried her away perforce despite the nose of her father? Never shall such thing be spoken of me; no, never! But do thou know, ho thou the Emir, that an ye have no taste for fray nor avail for fight and ye have no training save for bibbing of wine and ease at home, I have sworn and swear by Him who lighted the lucident fires of the Sun and the Moon, none shall sally forth to do single combat with this youth save I myself." But when so saying he knew not that was hidden from him in the World of Secrets. Presently he rushed into the field of fight with reins floating upon his courser's neck and he renowned it, showing himself between the foremost files, and he played with the edge of glaive and spit of spear until men's wits were bewildered and he improvised the while and cried out the following couplets,
"Ibn Sahl, ho scion of tree abhorr'd! * Rise, meet me in mellay
and prove thee lord:
My daughter hast snatched, O thou foul of deed, * And approachest
me fearing the Lion of the horde.
Hadst come in honour and fairly sued * I had made her thine own
with the best accord;
But this rape hath o'erwhelmed in dishonour foul * Her sire, and
all bounds thou hast overscor'd."
Now when King Al-Mihrjan finished his verse, Yusuf rushed out to him, and cried at him with a terrible cry and a terrifying, and garred his own steed bound upon the battle-plain, where he played with brand and lance until he cast into oblivion every knight, reciting in the meantime the following verses,
"I am son to Al-Sahl, O of forbears vile! * Come forth and fight
me sans guile or wile;
Thou hast hurt my heart; O of deed misdone, * So thou com'st to
contend with this rank and file."[271]
King Al-Mihrjan re-echoed his war-cry, but hardly had he ended when Yusuf drawing near him answered it with a shout which enquaked his heart and ravished his reason with sore terror, and repeated in reply these couplets,
"I am not to be titled of forbears vile * O whose ape-like face
doth the tribe defile!
Nay, I'm rending lion amid mankind, * A hero in wilds where the
murks beguile.
Al-Hayfá befitteth me, only me; * Ho thou whom men for an
ape[272] revile."
When Yusuf had ended these words, Al-Mihrjan rushed forth and charged down upon him, and the two drawing nigh each of the foemen set on the other with a mighty onset and a prodigious. They fought in duello and lanced out with lance and smote with sword, and dashed together as they were two ships or two mountains clashing; and they approached and retired, and the dust- cloud arose over them and they disappeared from men's sight. But hardly had an hour passed by when Yusuf made a final attack upon his enemy and narrowed his course and barred his way and pressed him hard; and, hanging upon his flank, smote him with the scymitar upon the nape of the neck[273] and caused his head to fall between his feet, when he slipt from his steed upon the ground, and he lay stone dead and in his gore drowned. Now as soon as the folk looked upon Yusuf and what he had dealt to their King and how he had made his head fly his body and had done him dead, they turned to take flight. Thereupon Yusuf recognised Sahlub the cousin of Al-Hayfa, he who had been the cause of their separation and had roused her wrath against him; so he drew near to him and smote him with the bright shining blade on the right flank, and it came forth gleaming between his left ribs; so he fell to the ground drenched with blood, and he was left prostrate in the dust. And when Yusuf had slain King Al- Mihrjan and Sahlub, his nephew, the Grandees of the realm came around him and greeted him with the salam.—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it was the next night and that was