But she is mad,
and were this man a leech, as he claimeth to be, he would have
healed her, for the King doth his utmost to discover a cure for her
case and a remedy for her disease, and this whole year past hath he
spent treasures upon physicians and astrologers on her account, but
none can avail to cure her. As for the horse, it is in the royal hoard
house, and the ugly man is here with us in prison, and as soon as
night falleth, he weepeth and bemoaneth himself and will not let us
sleep."
When the warders had recounted the case of the Persian egromancer
they held in prison and his weeping and wailing, the Prince at once
devised a device whereby he might compass his desire, and presently
the guards of the gate, being minded to sleep, led him into the jail
and locked the door. So he overheard the Persian weeping and bemoaning
himself in his own tongue, and saying: "Alack, and alas for my sin,
that I sinned against myself and against the King's son, in that which
I did with the damsel, for I neither left her nor won my will of
her! All this cometh of my lack of sense, in that I sought for
myself that which I deserved not and which befitted not the like of
me.
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