I said : `` Oh my son ! if there must be fruit of this fancy of yours , I will lead forth a great army against King Quimus . If he will give you his daughter freely , well and good ; and if not , I will ravage his kingdom and bring her away by force . '' This plan did not please him ; he said : `` It is not right to lay a kingdom waste and to destroy a palace so that I may attain my desire . I will go alone ; I will answer the riddle , and win her in this way . '' At last , out of pity for him , I let him go . He reached the city of King Quimus . He was asked the riddle and could not give the true answer ; and his head was cut off and hung upon the battlements . Then I mourned him in black raiment for forty days . After this another and another of my sons were seized by the same desire , and in the end all my seven sons went , and all were killed . In grief for their death I have abandoned my throne , and I abide here in this desert , withholding my hand from all State business and wearing myself away in sorrow . ' Prince Tahmasp listened to this tale , and then the arrow of love for that unseen girl struck his heart also . Just at this moment of his ill-fate his people came up , and gathered round him like moths round a light . They brought him a horse , fleet as the breeze of the dawn ; he set his willing foot in the stirrup of safety and rode off . As the days went by the thorn of love rankled in his heart , and he became the very example of lovers , and grew faint and feeble . At last his confidants searched his heart and lifted the veil from the face of his love , and then set the matter before his father , King Saman-lal-posh . ` Your son , Prince Tahmasp , loves distractedly the Princess Mihr-afruz , daughter of King Quimus , son of Timus . ' Then they told the king all about her and her doings . A mist of sadness clouded the king 's mind , and he said to his son : ` If this thing is so , I will in the first place send a courier with friendly letters to King Quimus , and will ask the hand of his daughter for you . I will send an abundance of gifts , and a string of camels laden with flashing stones and rubies of Badakhsham In this way I will bring her and her suite , and I will give her to you to be your solace .
But if King Quimus is unwilling to give her to you , I will pour a whirlwind of soldiers upon him , and I will bring to you , in this XXXXX , that most consequential of girls . '
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