wrath and fear. Thus far concerning him; but as regards his son
Nur al-Din Ali, fearing the consequence of his misdeed he abode
his day long in the flower garden and came back only at night to
his mother's apartment where he slept; and, rising before dawn,
returned to the gardens. He ceased not to do thus for two whole
months without showing his face to his parent, till at last his
mother said to his father, "O my lord, shall we lose our boy as
well as the girl? If matters continue long in this way he will
flee from us." "And what to do?" asked he; and she answered, "Do
thou watch this night; and, when he cometh, seize on him and
frighten him: I will rescue him from thee and do thou make peace
with him and give him the damsel to wife, for she loveth him as
he loveth her. And I will pay thee her price." So the Minister
say up that night and, when his son came, he seized him and
throwing him down knelt on his breast and showed as thou he would
cut his throat; but his mother ran to the youth's succour and
asked her husband, "What wouldest thou do with him?" He answered
her, "I will split his weasand." Said the son to the father, "Is
my death, then, so light a matter to thee?"; and his father's
eyes welled with tears, for natural affection moved him, and he
rejoined, "O my son, how light was to thee the loss of my good
and my life!" Quoth Nur al-Din, "Hear, O my father, what the
poet hath said,

'Forgive me! thee-ward sinned I, but the wise * Ne'er to the
sinner shall deny his grace:
Thy foe may pardon sue when lieth he * In lowest, and thou
holdest highest place!'"

Thereupon the Wazir rose from off his son's breast saying, "I