Ahmed remained there as if in a dream until the shepherd came back. "Your
wife is dead," he said to him, "and if you wish, I'll give you her weight
in gold and silver."
But the shepherd answers: "I, too, am the son of a sultan. I have come to
pay this woman a visit and desire to see her. Calm yourself. I will take
neither your gold nor silver. This is the road to follow; go, till you
arrive at the castle where she is."
Ahmed starts, and when he arrives at the castle, he stands up in his
stirrups and throws the shadow of his spear upon the window.
Redah, addressing her negress, said to her: "See now what casts that
shadow. Is it a cloud, or an Arab's spear?"
The negress goes to see, comes back to her mistress, and says to her, "It
is a horseman, such as I have never seen the like of before in all my
life."
"Return," said Redah, "and ask him who he is." Redah goes to see, and says:
"O horseman, who dost come before our eyes,
Why seekest thou thy death? Tell me upon
Thine honor true, what is thine origin?"
He answers:
"Oh, I am Ahmed el Hilalieu called.
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