Schahzenan heard him with
attention, gave answers to every thing, and being rid of that
melancholy which formerly over-clouded his wit, he said a
thousand agreeable and pleasant things to the sultan.
Schahriar, who expected to have found him in the same condition
as he left him, was overjoyed to see him so cheerful, and spoke
to him thus: Dear brother, I return thanks to Heaven for the
happy change it has made on you during my absence; I am extremely
rejoiced at it; but I have a request to make to you, and conjure
you not to deny me. I can refuse you nothing, replies the king of
Tartary; you may command Schahzenan as you please; pray speak, I
am impatient to know what you desire of me. Ever since you came
to my court, replies Schahriar, I found you swallowed up by a
deep melancholy, and I did in vain attempt to remove it by
diversions of all sorts. I imagined it might be occasioned by
reason of the distance from your dominions, or that love might
have a great share in it; and that the queen of Samarcande, who,
no doubt, is an accomplished beauty, might be the cause of it. I
do not know if I be mistaken; but I must own that this was the
peculiar reason why I did not importune you upon the subject, for
fear of making you uneasy. But, without my being able to
contribute any thing towards it, I find now, upon my return, that
you are in the best humour that can be, and that your mind is
entirely delivered from that black vapour which disturbed it.
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