The prince continued some moments swallowed up with these
melancholy thoughts: at last he lifted up his head, and calling
one of his servants, Go, said he, to Ebn Timber's house, and ask
any of his domestics if he be gone to Balsora; run and come back
quickly, and tell me what you hear. While the servant was gone,
the jeweller endeavoured to entertain the prince of Persia with
indifferent subjects; but the prince gave little heed to him, for
he was a prey to fatal grief. Sometimes he could not persuade
himself that Ebn Thaher was gone; at other times he did not doubt
the truth of it, when he reflected upon the discourse he had the
last time he saw him, and the angry countenance with which he
left him.
At last the prince's servant returned, and reported that he had
spoken to one of Ebn Thaher servants, who assured him that he was
gone two days before to Balsora. As I came from Ebn Thaher's
house, added the servant, a slave well arrayed came to me, and,
asking if I had the honour to belong to you, she told me she
wanted to speak with you, begging, at the same time, that she
might come along with me: she is now in the house, and I believe
has a letter to give you from some person of note. The prince
commanded him to bring her in immediately: he doubted not but it
was Schemselnihar's confident slave, as indeed it was.
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