This marvelous occurrence was most unexpected. Everything was as it had been at the finding of the child save—ah! there was the bracelet! And, as he scanned the arm more closely, the prince was convinced that it had been accustomed to the wearing of a band, the exact width of that which the child, in its grief, had brought away from the palace.
Immediately upon noting this, the prince was filled with more wonder. He felt assured that the bracelet must be an amulet from which some life-giving power emanated. He therefore took it from [[93]]the child’s hand—who, strange to relate, yielded it up willingly—and clasped it about the lifeless arm.
His thoughtfulness was rewarded. While he stood, breathless, a slight convulsion stirred the figure of the woman. She sneezed, and after that effort, made a slow movement and sat up in the casket.
The child clung to her with a new zeal, and she, gathering him tenderly to her bosom, turned with wide-open eyes to regard the tall young personage who stood beside her. That he was of royal birth was evidenced by his bearing. The evidence was continued in his costume. The mystery of life and death was upon her; therefore were her thoughts clear. At once she was impressed that this must be the prince of whom she had been the promised bride.
The prince, upon his part, already had been won. How much more strongly, then, was his heart drawn to her when he beheld her living, breathing, moving? He made courtly obeisance and thus addressed himself to her:
“My queen, is it permitted me to ask before whom I have the honor to stand? And whose is this child which already possesses my heart?”
To which the Beautiful One, looking first at him and then at the child, made answer:
“My prince, I left my mother at Stamboul, and, [[94]]with slaves and guard, in charge of my former nurse and in company with her daughter, I was coming to be your bride. Upon the way, the nurse, who had been trustworthy until then, became jealous for the advancement of her own daughter. First, she took out my eyes; then she exchanged our clothing, and, finally, left me upon a mountain, alone, to die of grief and starvation.
“But Allah heard the falling of my tears. He caused a kind old muleteer to pass that way, who, when he espied me, was moved with compassion and led me to his house, where both he and his wife received me as if I had been their own child.
“Shortly afterward I caused some roses, that had bloomed at my cheeks, to be cried before your palace; with the command that they must not be sold for gold, but that only by the exchange of an eye, for each handful, could they be obtained. The evil ones saw the roses. They would secure them as a present to your Royal Highness. Eagerness weakened their wisdom to such extent that they accepted the condition, and thereby did I recover my eyes. As I put them in place, by Allah’s grace, they became seeing.