Eastern Tales by Many Story Tellers

by Unknown

Sighs prevented her from saying more. They both tore themselves away from this dreadful sacrifice, and committed this sacred deposit into the hands of its Creator.

The noise they had made in coming thither had frightened away from the brink a hind, who, along with her fawns, was refreshing herself at this exuberant fountain. As soon as they were gone, she returned, and approached the languishing creature, which seemed about to lose for ever the little strength which remained. A powerful instinct led this animal to give the child that nourishment which was reserved only for her young ones. She fed quietly around her nursling, and left the place no more. The wild beasts of the forest, it appeared, had abandoned to her the enjoyment of this happy spot, although so necessary to the supply of their wants, amid the burning sands and parched deserts with which they were surrounded. Nevertheless, men came to disturb their repose.

It was a band of robbers, whom thirst had brought into these places. They saw a child wrapped in rich swaddling-clothes, but still more remarkable for the beauty of its features. The leader of the banditti approached it, took it up, and sent it straightway to his wife, that she might pay it the necessary attentions, and educate it as if it had been their own son. When the wife saw it she was moved with its innocent beauty, entered into the benevolent views of her husband, and immediately procured for their adopted son the best nurse in the horde.

Having seen the son of Bohetzad in safe hands, let us now follow the steps of those illustrious travellers.

Full of grief for the sacrifice which they had been forced to make, the King and Queen continued their journey in sadness till they reached the capital of Persia, where Kassera then reigned.

This powerful monarch received the fugitive Prince and his charming spouse with the respect which was due from a crowned head to a great Sovereign, his ally, whose rebellious subjects had revolted under the standard of a criminal usurper. To Bohetzad he allotted an apartment in his palace as magnificent as his own, and to Baherjoa one equal to that of his favourite Sultana. Such were the riches and magnificence of the palace in which the King of Dineroux and his wife now were, that, besides the magnificent apartments in which they were lodged themselves, there were twenty-four others occupied by as many ladies belonging to the Sultan, each of whom was served by fifty slaves of their own sex, in the bloom of youth and of the most exquisite beauty.

The treasures of the East seemed to have been exhausted in beautifying these stately dwellings. The gardens were full of the rarest and the most gaudy flowers; the waters, whose courses were distributed with great art, presented a magnificent scene to the eye; the trees gave at once, by the beauty of their fruit and the thickness of their foliage, the idea of plenty and the delight of repose; the birds, with the variety of their plumage and their song, enchanted the inhabitants of these happy regions. Everything, in short, concurred to display the riches of the great monarch of Persia, whose immense power was further displayed by an army of two hundred thousand men which constituted his life guard. A Prince so powerful and magnificent need spare nothing in treating, in a manner suitable to their rank, the illustrious guests whom he had received into his palace.

At the same time that he ordered a powerful army to be assembled on the frontiers, with the necessary stores and military engines, he endeavoured to dispel the melancholy of the husband and wife by feasts, which displayed the greatest splendour and variety. But generosity and greatness of soul were not the only cause of his attentions; a less noble but more powerful feeling had taken possession of his heart. He was enamoured of Baherjoa, whose beauty was superior to that of all the wives in his seraglio. His passion for her was disguised under the veil of friendship; but, from the profusion which he displayed on every occasion, the delicacy of his attentions, and the care which he took to anticipate her wishes, it was easy to discover the love by which he was actuated. The sad Baherjoa, whose attention was occupied solely by the loss of her son and the misfortunes of her husband, was far from ascribing any of the attentions which she met with to this motive; her soul, weighed down with grief, was incapable of enjoying any of the pleasures which were presented to her; her heart, sincerely affected, was inaccessible to every impression but that with which it was already occupied. Her son abandoned in the desert to the care of Providence, and her husband reduced by her father to the necessity of asking succour from a foreign King, were the only objects which engrossed her thoughts.

In the meantime, the army which Bohetzad was to command was assembled. He took leave of Kassera to put himself at the head of this formidable body, and soon penetrated into the heart of Syria. Asphand, the usurper, being informed of the danger which threatened him, communicated it to his associates, assembled them as quickly as possible, and met his enemy at the head of two hundred thousand men.

The armies were now in sight of one another. The centre of Bohetzad's army was commanded by an experienced Vizier of the Persian King. Bohetzad himself, at the head of a chosen body of knights, was everywhere to give orders. He suddenly began the combat on the right by attacking the opposite wing of the enemy with such fury that they were obliged to fall back upon the centre, and were thrown into confusion and disorder. The King of Dineroux lost not a moment: he advanced his main body towards that of the enemy as if he meant to attack it; but, frugal of the blood of his subjects, whose lives he wished to spare, he made them halt, and ordered his left wing to attack the right wing of the enemy: they gave way and fell back in disorder, so that three-fourths of Asphand's army remained surrounded. The usurper endeavoured in vain to rally his troops, whom an attack equally prudent and vigorous had thrown into disorder. Fear, and above all remorse, disarmed them. A pardon being offered, they accepted it; and, that they might appear less unworthy of it, they unanimously delivered up the ringleaders of the revolt. Asphand, his family, and his principal associates, were put to death on the field of battle.