This answer of the prince extremely afflicted the sultan his father. This monarch felt real grief at finding in his son so great a repugnance to matrimony. He did not, however, think proper to treat it as disobedience, nor to make use of the authority of a parent; he contented himself with saying, “I will not use any undue influence over you on this subject; I give you time to think of it, and to consider, that a prince, destined as you are to govern a large kingdom, ought in the first place to turn his thoughts to provide a successor in his own family. In giving yourself this satisfaction you will afford me a very great one, who shall love to see myself live over again in you and in the children, who are to prolong my race.”
Schahzaman said no more to prince Camaralzaman. He allowed him free entrance to the councils of state, and in every other respect gave him reason to be satisfied with his conduct towards him. At the expiration of a year he took him aside; “Well, my son,” said he, “have you remembered to make your reflections on the design I formed last year, of marrying you? Will you still refuse me the joy I should experience from your compliance with my wishes, and do you intend that I should die without experiencing this satisfaction?”
The prince appeared less discontented than on the former occasion, and did not long hesitate to reply with firmness in these words, “I have not, sire, omitted to reflect upon the subject; I gave it all the attention which it deserves; but, after having maturely considered it; I am still more confirmed in my resolution to live without any matrimonial engagement. In fact, the numberless evils which women have from time immemorial been the occasion of in the universe, as I have been well informed by our histories, and the daily accounts I hear of their cunning and malice, are the motives which determine me never to have any connexion with them. Therefore your majesty will pardon me, if I dare to assure you, that any arguments you may use, to endeavour to persuade me to marry, will be fruitless.” Here he ceased, and left the presence of the sultan in an abrupt manner, without even waiting for him to return an answer.
Any other monarch besides Schahzaman would with difficulty have restrained himself from using violence, after the rude and obstinate way in which the prince, his son, had expressed himself, and would have ordered him some punishment; but he tenderly loved him, and wished to employ every gentle means of persuasion before he had recourse to more rigid methods. He communicated this new cause of sorrow which Camaralzaman had given to him, to his prime minister. “I have followed your advice,” said he, “but my son is still more adverse to matrimony than he was the first time I spoke to him on the subject; and he explained himself in such a determined manner, that I needed all my reason and moderation to restrain my anger. Fathers who pray for children as ardently as I did, are madmen and fools, who seek to deprive themselves of that repose and quiet which they might otherwise have tranquilly enjoyed. Tell me, I entreat you, by what means I can reclaim a mind so rebellious to my desires.”
“Sire,” replied the grand vizier, “a great many things are accomplished through the medium of patience; perhaps this may not be of a nature to be conquered by such means; but your majesty will not have to reproach yourself with being too precipitate, if you consent to allow the prince another year to form his determination. If, during this interval, he does not return to his duty, you will have a much greater satisfaction in the consciousness of having employed no method, but that of paternal kindness, to obtain his consent. If, on the contrary, he persists in his obstinacy, then, when the year is expired, I think your majesty will be fully justified in declaring to him, before the whole council, that the good of the state requires his marriage. It is not possible that he should be wanting in respect towards you before an assembly of enlightened and celebrated men, which you honour with your presence.”
The sultan, who so passionately and ardently wished to see his son married, that so long a delay appeared ages to him, had some difficulty in consenting to wait so much longer. He, however, was persuaded by the arguments of the grand vizier, which he could neither contradict nor disapprove.
When the prime minister had retired, the sultan Schahzaman went to the apartment of the mother of prince Camaralzaman, to whom he had long since imparted the ardent desire he had of marrying his son. When he had related to her the painful disappointment he had just met with from his second refusal, and also the indulgence he still intended to grant him by the advice of his grand vizier, he added, “I know, madam, that he has more confidence in you than in me, that you converse with him, and that he listens to you with more familiarity; I entreat you, therefore, to take an opportunity to speak to him seriously on this subject; and to make him sensible, that if he persists in his obstinacy, he will oblige me at last to have recourse to extremities, which I should be sorry to adopt, and which would make him repent of his disobedience.”
Fatima, for this was the name of the prince’s mother, informed Camaralzaman, the first time she had any conversation with him, that she had been acquainted with his fresh refusal to marry, which he had testified to the sultan; and expressed herself much chagrined at his having occasioned his father so great a cause for anger. “Madam,” replied Camaralzaman, “do not, I entreat you, renew my grief on this affair; I fear, that in my present state of mind, I might be guilty of saying something disrespectful to you.” Fatima knew by this answer, that the wound was too recent to continue the subject; she therefore dropped it for the present.
Some time after this, Fatima thought she had met with an opportunity of renewing it, and with more prospect of success in obtaining a hearing. “My son,” said she, “if it be not painful to you, pray tell me what are the reasons that have given you so great an aversion to marriage. If you have none stronger than the art and wickedness of women, believe me, you could not have chosen any more weak or unreasonable. I will not undertake the defence of artful women, for that there are numbers of that description, I am well persuaded; but it is the most flagrant injustice to accuse the whole sex of this crime. Surely my son, you do not form your opinion from the few examples which your books mention, and who have, I confess, occasioned great disorder and confusion in the world; such, I will not attempt to justify; but why, on the other hand, do not you remark also, the many monarchs, sultans, and inferior princes, whose tyranny, barbarity, and cruelty excite the deepest horror in those histories, which I have read as well as yourself. For one woman, who has been guilty of such crimes, you will find a thousand of these barbarians and tyrants. And do you think the poor women who have the misfortune to be married to these wretches, and who are, perhaps, good and prudent wives, can be very happy?”
“Madam,” replied Camaralzaman, “I do not doubt, that there is in the world a great number of prudent, good, and virtuous women, of gentle dispositions and good morals. Would to God they all resembled you! But what deters me is the doubtful choice a man is obliged to make, when marrying; or rather the dread, that he is often deprived of the liberty of making that choice himself.