He wondered what kind of death the king would invent for him , and went through almost as much torture , as he lay awake nearly the whole of every night thinking over the situation , as he would have suffered if the king 's executioners were already setting to work upon his neck . At last they were only one day 's march from Wali Dad 's little mud home . Here a great encampment was made , and the merchant was sent on to tell Wali Dad that the King and Princess of Khaistan had arrived and were seeking an interview . When the merchant arrived he found the poor old man eating his evening meal of onions and dry bread , and when he told him of all that had happened he had not the heart to proceed to load him with the reproaches which rose to his tongue . For Wali Dad was overwhelmed with grief and shame for himself , for his friend , and for the name and honour of the princess ; and he wept and plucked at his beard , and groaned most piteously . With tears he begged the merchant to detain them for one day by any kind of excuse he could think of , and to come in the morning to discuss what they should do . As soon as the merchant was gone Wali Dad made up his mind that there was only one honourable way out of the shame and distress that he had created by his foolishness , and that was -- to kill himself . So , without stopping to ask any one 's advice , he went off in the middle of the night to a place where the river wound along at the base of steep rocky cliffs of great height , and determined to throw himself down and put an end to his life . When he got to the place he drew back a few paces , took a little run , and at the very edge of that dreadful black gulf he stopped short ! He COULD not do it ! From below , unseen in the blackness of the deep night shadows , the water roared and boiled round the jagged rocks -- he could picture the place as he knew it , only ten times more pitiless and forbidding in the visionless darkness ; the wind soughed through the gorge with fearsome sighs , and rustlings and whisperings , and the bushes and grasses that grew in the ledges of the cliffs seemed to him like living creatures that danced and beckoned , shadowy and indistinct . An owl laughed ` Hoo ! hoo ! ' almost in his face , as he peered over the edge of the gulf , and the old man threw himself back in a perspiration of horror . He was afraid ! He drew back shuddering , and covering his face in his hands he wept aloud . Presently he was aware of a gentle radiance that shed itself before him . Surely morning was not already coming to hasten and reveal his disgrace ! He took his hands from before his face , and saw before him two lovely beings whom his instinct told him were not mortal , but were Peris from Paradise . ` Why do you weep , old man ? '
said one , XXXXX a voice as clear and musical as that of the bulbul . '
At for from in like over that through to with