28 gh. Prince Beder and
SS

me such a present unless you had a request to propose. If

there be anything in my power, you may freely command it, and

I shall feel the greatest pleasure in granting it. Speak, and tell

me frankly wherein I can serve you.’ -

‘E must own, replied King Saleh, ‘I have a boon to ask of
your majesty; and I shall take care to ask nothing but what is
in your power to grant. The thing depends so absolutely on
yourself, that it would be to no purpose to ask it of any other.
I ask it then with all possible earnestness, and I beg of you not
to refuse it me.’

‘If it be so, replied the King of Samandal, ‘you have nothing
to do but acquaint me what it is, and you shall see after what
manner I can oblige when it is in my power.’

‘Sir, said King Saleh, ‘after the confidence your majesty has
been pleased to encourage me-to put in your goodwill, I will not
dissemble any longer. I came to. beg of you to honour our
house with your alliance by the marriage of your honourable
daughter the Princess Giauhara, and to strengthen the good under-
standing that has so long subsisted between our two crowns.’

At these words the King of Samandal burst out laughing,
falling back in his throne against a cushion that supported him,
and with an imperious’and scornful air, said to King Saleh: ‘ King
Saleh, I have always hitherto thought you a prince of great sense ;
but what you say convinces me how much I was mistaken. Tell
me,.I beseech ‘you, where was your discretion, when you imagined to
yourself so great an absurdity as you have just now proposed to
me? Could you conceive a thought only of aspiring in marriage
to a princess, the daughter of so great and powerful a king as] am?
You ought to have: considered better beforehand the great distance
between us, and not run the risk of losing in a moment the esteem
I always had-for your person,’ .
King Saleh was extremely nettled at this affronting answer,