116 ot Prince Camaralzaman and

i:

 

returns to his duty, you will have the greater satisfaction, and if
he still continues averse to your proposal when this is expired,
your majesty may propose to him in full council that it is
highly necessary for the good of the state that he should marry,
and it is not likely he will refuse to. comply before. so grave an
assembly, which you honour with your presence.’

The year expired, and, to the great regret of the sultan, Prince
Camaralzaman gave not the least proof of having changed his
mind. One day, therefore, when there was a great council held,
the prime vizier, the other viziers, the principal officers of the
crown, and the generals of the army being present, the sultan began
to speak thus to the prince: ‘My son, it is now a long while since
I have expressed to you my earnest desire to see you married; and
I imagined you would: have had more consideration for a father,
who required nothing unreasonable of you, than to oppose him so
long. But after so long a resistance on your part, which has almost
worn out my patience, I have thought fit to propose the same thing
once more to you in the presence of my council. I would have
you consider that you’ ought not to have refused this, not merely
to oblige a parent; the well-being of my dominions requires it;
and the assembly here present joins with me to require it of you.
Declare yourself, then ; that, according to your answer, I may take
the proper measures,’
_ The prince answered with so little reserve, or rather with so
much warmth, that the sultan, enraged to see himself thwarted
in full council, cried out, ‘Unnatural son! have you the insolence
to talk thus to your father and sultan?’ He ordered the guards
to take him away, and carry him to an old tower that had been
unoccupied for a long while, where he was shut up, with only a
bed, a little furniture, some books, and one slave to attend him.

Camaralzaman, thus deprived of liberty, was nevertheless pleased —
that he had the freedom to converse with his books, and that made