The sultan received and embraced him with great joy;
complaining at the same time with a fatherly tenderness, of the
affliction his long absence had been to him; which he said was the
more grievous, since as fortune had decided in favour of Prince Ali
his brother, he was afraid he might have committed some act of
despair.
'Sir,' replied Prince Ahmed, 'your majesty knows that when I shot
my arrow the most extraordinary thing that ever befell anybody
happened to me, that in so large and level a plain it should not be
possible to find my arrow. Though thus vanquished, I lost no time
in vain complaints; but to satisfy my perplexed mind, I gave my
attendants the slip, and returned back again alone to look for my
arrow. I sought all about the place where Prince Houssain's and
Prince Ali's arrows were found, and where I imagined mine must have
fallen; but all my labour was in vain, until after having gone four
leagues, to that part of the plain where it is bounded by rocks, I
perceived an arrow. I ran and took it up, and knew it to be the
same which I had shot. Far from thinking your majesty had done me
any injustice in declaring for my brother Prince Ali, I interpreted
what had happened to me quite otherwise, and never doubted but
there was a mystery in it to my advantage; the discovery of which I
ought not to neglect, and which I found out without going further
from the spot.
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