This news exceedingly afflicted king Saleh, who now repented of his being so easily wrought upon by king Beder, as to carry him away with him without his mother’s consent. He sent every where after him; but whatever diligence was used, he could hear no news of him; and instead of the joy he conceived at having carried on the marriage so far, which he looked upon as his own work, he felt a grief for this accident that was mortifying to him. While he was under suspense about his nephew, he left his kingdom to the administration of his mother, and went and governed that of the king of Samarcand, whom he continued to keep with great vigilance, though with all due respect to his character. The same day that king Saleh returned to the kingdom of Samarcand, queen Gulnare, mother to king Beder, arrived at the court of the queen her mother. The princess was not at all surprised to find her son did not return the same day he set out; because it was common for him to go farther than he proposed, in the heat of the chase: but when she saw he neither returned the next day nor the day after that, she began to be alarmed, as may easily be imagined, from the kindness she professed for him. This alarm was considerably augmented, when the officers who had accompanied the king, and were retired, after they had for a long time sought in vain both for him and his uncle, came and told her majesty they must of necessity have come to some harm, since, whatever diligence they had used, they had heard no tidings of them. Their horses, indeed, they had found; but, as for their persons, they knew not where to look for them. The queen, hearing this, dissembled and concealed her affliction, bidding the officers go and search once more with their utmost diligence; but in the mean time, saying nothing to any body, she went and plunged into the sea, to satisfy herself in the suspicion she had that king Saleh must have carried away his nephew along with him.