Here Bakhtyār concluded his narrative, and observed, that he had struggled against his evil destiny, like that king, but in vain. Having said this, the King wished to send him back to prison; but the Ten Viziers unanimously declared that they would leave the country if Bakhtyār’s punishment was any longer deferred.
The King then acknowledged that he could not bear to behold the execution of the young man; in consequence of which the Viziers led him away, and assembled all the people by proclamation, that they might see him put to death.
CONCLUSION.
It happened at this time that Farrukhsuwār, who had found Bakhtyār at the side of the well, came, with some of his companions, to the city, and was wrapped in that embroidered cloak which the King and Queen had left with the infant. In passing by the place of execution he beheld the guards leading out Bakhtyār to punishment, on which he rushed amongst them with his companions, and rescued the young man from their hands, and then solicited an audience of the King.
On coming into the royal presence Farrukhsuwār exclaimed: “This young man is my son; I cannot bear to see him executed: if he must perish, let me also be put to death.”—“Your wish in this respect,” said the King, “may be easily gratified.”—“Alas!” cried Farrukhsuwār, “if the father of this youth, who was a king, or his mother, who was a queen, were informed of his situation, they would save him from this ignominious death!” The King laughed at the seeming inconsistency of Farrukhsuwār, and said: “You told me at one time that Bakhtyār was your son, yet now you describe him as the child of royal parents.”
Farrukhsuwār, in reply, told all the circumstances of his finding Bakhtyār near the well, and showed the cloak in which he had been wrapped. The King immediately knew it to be the same which he had left with the infant, and asked whether Farrukhsuwār had found anything besides. He produced the bracelet of pearls, and the King, now convinced that Bakhtyār was not the son of Farrukhsuwār, but his own, took the cloak and the bracelets to the Queen, and asked her if she had ever before seen them. She instantly exclaimed: “They were my child’s!—what tidings do you bring of him?”—“I shall bring himself,” replied the King; and he immediately sent an order to the Viziers that they should conduct Bakhtyār to the palace.
When he arrived, the King, with his own hands, took off his chains, placed a royal turban on his head, and covered him with the embroidered cloak, and then led him to the Queen, saying: “This is our son, whom we left on the brink of the well.” When the Queen heard this, and beheld Bakhtyār, the tears gushed forth from her eyes, and she embraced him with the greatest emotion. Bakhtyār then asked the Queen why she had endeavoured to destroy him by a false accusation, and she confessed that the Viziers had induced her; on which the King ordered their immediate execution, and then resigned the throne to Bakhtyār, who was acknowledged sovereign by all the people. Farrukhsuwār was invested with the dignity of chief Vizier, and his companions rewarded with honourable appointments; and Bakhtyār continued for many years to govern with justice, wisdom, and generosity.
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
⁂ In the Preface to his translation and text of the Bakhtyār Nāma, Sir William Ouseley states, that “as this work is chiefly designed for the use of those who begin to study the Persian language,” he selected for translation, from among three manuscripts in his own possession and five or six others in the collections of several friends, “that which seemed written in the most pure and simple style; for several copies, in passing through the hands of ignorant or conceited transcribers, have suffered a considerable depravation of the original text, and one, in particular, is so disguised by the alterations and augmented by the additions of some Indian Munshī, that it appears almost a different work. These additions, however, are only turgid amplifications and florid exuberancies, according to the modern corrupt style of Hindūstān, which distinguishes the compositions of that country from the chaste and classical productions of Īrān.” Regarding his own translation, he says that, while it will be found sufficiently literal, he has “not retained those idioms which would not only be uncouth, but perhaps unintelligible, in English: some repetitions I have taken the liberty of omitting; and as most of the stories begin and end nearly in the same manner, I have on such occasions compressed into a few lines the subject of a page.” But since the translation was mainly designed to aid learners of Persian, it seems strange that he should have deemed it advisable to take any “liberties” such as he mentions; and an examination of the text appended to his translation shows that he has occasionally done something more than omit mere “repetitions”: in several instances he has omitted whole passages, of which many are requisite to the proper connection of the incidents related in the stories; and this, too, in dealing with a text which is itself evidently abridged from “the original”—if indeed an original Persian text now exists.