Tenth Tale Of a Wealthy Merchant and a Poor Man #4
The pirate travelled with all this to the country where the emperor’s daughter lived.
He arrived at her city and anchored his ship in the port.
He pretended to be a great merchant, and people would board the ship to purchase his expensive wares.
He stayed there for some time, a full season or more, and people continued to carry off the valuable merchandise they had purchased from him.
The emperor’s daughter, too, desired to buy goods from him, so she sent for him to bring her some goods.
He replied that it was not worth his time to bring goods to a customer’s home—even if she were an emperor’s daughter.
Whoever needed his wares could come to him; no one could compel a merchant in such things.
So the emperor’s daughter decided to go to him.
When she walked in the marketplace it was her habit to veil her face so no one might look at her, as people were liable to swoon because of her beauty.
The emperor’s daughter went 112 with her face veiled, bringing her ladies with her while a guard trailed behind.
She arrived at the merchant-pirate’s, purchased some goods, and left.
He said to her, When you return, I will show you things more beautiful than these, very fine things indeed.
She returned home. Some time later, she came back, bought more goods from him, and once more returned home.
The pirate remained there for some time.
In the meantime, the emperor’s daughter grew accustomed to visiting him and often went to see him.
Once, she came to him, and he went and opened the room where the golden birds stood to show her.
She saw what an extraordinary marvel it was.
The rest of her entourage also wanted to enter the room, but he said, No, no.
I will not show this to anyone except you, for you are the emperor’s daughter. I will show it to nobody else.
She alone entered the room. Then he, too, went in and locked the door. He behaved brutishly, taking a sack and forcing her into it. He removed all her clothes, then dressed a member of his crew up in them, veiling the sailor’s face and pushing him out on deck, saying, Go!
The sailor did not know what was going on.
The moment he appeared with his face veiled, the guard did not realize that it was he, and they all started to leave with him, thinking it was the emperor’s daughter.
The sailor went with the guard whither they were leading him, and had no idea where in the world he was until he arrived at the emperor’s daughter’s dressing room.
There his face was uncovered and they saw that it was a sailor, which caused a wild commotion.
The sailor was dealt a forceful 113 slap in the face and was then shoved aside since he was not responsible, nor did he know anything about the plot.
The pirate took the emperor’s daughter and, knowing he would be pursued, left the ship and hid with her in a cistern until the commotion subsided.
He ordered the crew of his ship to cut their anchors straight away and flee because they were sure to be pursued immediately.
The ship would not be fired upon as long as the emperor’s daughter was believed to be aboard.
But they will pursue you, the pirate went on, which is why you have to flee at once. If they should capture you, what do I care?
Such is the manner of pirates. They take risks, and so it was. There was a great commotion, and they were pursued at once, but she was not found aboard.
The pirate hid with her in the cistern. There they lay, and he menaced her into keeping silent so that no one would hear her scream.
He said to her, I have risked my life for your sake so that I might capture you, and if I were to lose you, and they take you from me, my life would be worth nothing to me.
So if you let out as much as a single cry I will strangle you on the spot, no matter what may happen to me.
Out of her fear of him, she remained too frightened to scream.
Some time later, they left the cistern and he led her into the city.
They walked on and on and came to another place.
The pirate discerned that they were being searched for there as well, so he hid them again, this time in a mikveh.
Later on they left there, too, and went somewhere else, where he hid them in another watery place.
They kept hiding in this way in different watery places until they had hidden in all the same places the 114 merchant had once hidden with her mother.
They did this until they came to the sea.
There the pirate searched for anything they could sail in to cross the sea with her, even a little fishing boat.
He found such a boat and took the emperor’s daughter aboard.
He did not desire her, since he was a eunuch, but he wanted to sell her to a king.
He was afraid lest she be taken from him.
So he went and dressed her in sailor’s clothes so she appeared to be a man.
The pirate sailed away with him. Suddenly, a gale blew up and bore the boat away to a coast. The vessel was destroyed but they made it to shore, which led to the same wasteland where the young man was living.
When they arrived and the pirate had learnt the lay of the land, the way marauders do, he realized that this place was a wasteland where no ships came.
As a result, he had no one to fear and released her bonds.
They went off, the marauder this way and the emperor’s daughter that way, to find something to eat.
She eluded the marauder, and he went on his way until he noticed that she was no longer nearby.
So he started yelling for her. She considered his yells but did not reply, thinking, I will end up being sold by him.
Why should I answer him? If he reaches me I will tell him I did not hear him, especially as he does not intend to kill me since he wants to sell me.
So she did not answer him and kept walking. The pirate searched for her everywhere. Unable to find her, he kept walking. Presumably, he was devoured by wild beasts.
She continued on and on and found something to eat.
She walked until she came to the oasis where the young man was living.
Her hair had grown long and shaggy, and, what is more, 115 she was still dressed like a man in sailor’s clothes.
So they did not recognize one another. As soon as she arrived, he grew merry that another person had joined him.
He asked her, Where did you come from?
She replied, I was accompanying a merchant on the sea. Where did you come from?
He answered likewise, By way of a merchant.
There they both stayed.
After the emperor’s daughter had been kidnapped, the empress mourned bitterly and tore her hair over the loss of her daughter.
She plagued the emperor with her words, saying, It is because of your arrogance that you dispatched that young man, and now our daughter is lost. She was the whole of our good fortune and our prosperity, and now we have lost her. What do I have left?
She scolded him harshly. He, for his part, was miserable over the loss of his daughter.
Add to that the empress sternly rebuking and vexing him, and there were serious quarrels and arguments between them.
She said such cruel things to him until she had made him terribly angry and he ordered her to be banished.
He appointed judges who ruled she be banished, and so she was.
Some time later, the emperor sent his armies to war, but he was not victorious.
So he blamed a general, saying, Because you have done this, we have lost the war.
Then he banished the general. Later, he again sent his armies to war, and again he was not victorious and banished another general.
In this way he banished a number of generals.
The people of his realm saw that he was behaving outlandishly.
First he had banished the empress and then the generals.
So they discussed whether they ought to do the 116 opposite: send for the empress and banish the emperor.
Then the empress would rule the country.
And that they did. They exiled the emperor and brought back the empress, and she ruled the country.
The empress immediately ordered that the merchant and his wife, whom the emperor had degraded and impoverished, be brought back, and she took them into her palace.
Once he had been banished, the emperor asked the ones who had led him away to let him go, saying, I was your emperor after all.
I surely did favours for you. Now, oblige me and let me go, for I will certainly not return to our country.
Have no fear; let me go. Let me be off. Allow me my freedom to live out the little time I have left.
They let him go, and he walked on and on.
Many years passed and the emperor had walked on and on until he reached a sea port.
The wind also drove his ship to that same desert shore, and he came to the place where the merchant’s son and the emperor’s daughter, still dressed as a man, were living.
None of them recognized each other, because many years had passed and all of them were overgrown with hair.
They asked him, Where did you come from?
He replied, By way of a merchant.
They answered likewise, and the three of them lived there together, eating and drinking and playing musical instruments, since they all knew how to play—he being an emperor and they having learnt together with their tutor.