To all this the jeweller had not a
word to say, yet earnestly entreated the confident to conduct him
to her mistress's tomb, that he might say his prayers over her.
When he came in sight of it, he was not a little surprised to
find a vast number of people of both sexes, who were come thither
from all parts of Bagdad. As he could not come near the tomb, he
said his prayers at a distance; and then going to the confident,
who waited hard by, he said to her, I am altogether of a contrary
opinion to what I was just now; for now I am so far from thinking
that what you proposed cannot be put in execution, that you and I
need only tell abroad what we know of the amour of this
unfortunate couple, and how the prince died much about the same
time with his mistress, and is now bringing up to be buried; the
people will bring the thing about, and not suffer that two such
faithful lovers should be separated when dead, whom nothing could
divide in affection whilst they lived. As he said, so it came to
pass; for as soon as it came to be known that the corpse was
within a day's journey of the city, the inhabitants almost of all
sorts went forth, met it above twenty miles off, and marched
before it, till it came to the city gate; where the confident,
waiting for that purpose, presented herself before the prince's
mother, and begged her, in the name of the whole city, that she
would be pleased to consent that the bodies of the two lovers,
who had but one heart whilst they lived, especially during their
amour, might be buried in the same tomb now they were dead.
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