“Alas, that it should have hurt her sweet face!” [[227]]sighed the prince. Then, arousing himself, “But what are we to do now?” he asked.
“The final answer of this young vixen is this, my son—ah, woe is me that the diamond ship visited our shores!—you are to build a golden bridge, as before, and place golden and silver candlesticks upon either side.”
“That is not difficult,” interrupted the prince.
“Wait! After that—what think you? My son, you, the prince, are to die and lie in a tomb at one end of the bridge; after which she will deign to come and stand at your head! O, my son! my son! Cease this madness! Let me prevail upon you.”
But the prince became jubilant. He kissed both of his mother’s hands three times, crying: “So she will come and stand beside me! Have patience, my honored mother! All will be well. I will pretend that grief for her has broken my heart unto death. For her coming one can wait—even in a tomb!”
“Verily,” answered the queen, “you are the prince. You will have your way. We shall see what will result from all this.”
The next day gold and silver candlesticks replaced the rosebushes along the bridge’s sides. A tomb was built, and the prince, arrayed as for burial, was borne upon a litter and laid therein. [[228]]
Let us return to the princess.
That night she asked permission from the director of the port, who granted it, that her ship be taken from its moorings in the harbor. All that had been carried from it into the house was returned thereto. Then, with her attendants, she went upon board and sailed near to the tomb in which the prince was lying. The ship ceased plying for a little, and, when all was still, the princess stood at the bow and called out:
“Ai, my prince! Here is the ship, and yonder is Stamboul!”