' 'With all my heart,' answered
the King and straightway bade decorate the city after the
goodliest fashion. Then he took horse and rode out in all state
and splendour, he and his troops and household and grandees;
whilst the prince made ready for her a litter of green and
red and yellow brocade, in which he set Indian and Greek
and Abyssinian slave-girls. Moreover, he took forth of his
treasuries jewellery and apparel and what else of the things
that kings treasure up and made a rare display of wealth and
magnificence. Then he left the litter and those who were
therein and rode forward to the pavilion, where he had left the
princess; but found both her and the horse gone. When he saw
this, he buffeted his face and rent his clothes and went round
about the garden, as he had lost his wits; after which he came
to his senses and said to himself, 'How could she have come at
the secret of the horse, seeing I told her nothing of it? Maybe
the Persian sage who made the horse has chanced upon her and
stolen her away, in revenge for my father's treatment of him.'
Then he sought the keepers of the garden and asked them if they
had seen any enter the garden.
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