as 'twere in my grave and therefrom thou hast withdrawn me; and I
praise Allah Almighty because I am at this moment certified that
no man in the world is happier than I or more fortunate." Then he
took patience until two of the three months had gone by. Now one
day of the days his mother fared forth about sundown to the Bazar
that she might buy somewhat of oil; and she found all the market
shops fast shut and the whole city decorated, and the folk
placing waxen tapers and flowers at their casements; and she
beheld the soldiers and household troops and Aghas[FN#140] riding
in procession and flambeaux and lustres flaming and flaring, and
she wondered at the marvellous sight and the glamour of the
scene. So she went in to an oilman's store which stood open still
and bought her need of him and said, "By thy life, O uncle, tell
me what be the tidings in town this day, that people have made
all these decorations and every house and market-street are
adorned and the troops all stand on guard?" The oilman asked her,
"O woman, I suppose thou art a stranger and not one of this
city?" and she answered, "Nay, I am thy townswoman." He rejoined,
"Thou a towns-woman, and yet wottest not that this very night the
son of the Grand Wazir goeth in to the Lady Badr al-Budur,
daughter of the Sultan! He is now in the Hammam and all this
power of soldiery is on guard and standing under arms to await
his coming forth, when they will bear him in bridal procession to
the palace where the Princess expecteth him." As the mother of
Alaeddin heard these words, she grieved and was distraught in
thought and perplexed how to inform her son of this sorrowful
event, well knowing that the poor youth was looking, hour by
hour, to the end of the three months. But she returned
straightway home to him and when she had entered she said, "O my
son, I would give thee certain tidings, yet hard to me will be