When this country seat was finished, the intendant of the gardens went
and cast himself at the emperor's feet, and after representing his
long service and the infirmities of age, which he found growing upon
him, begged permission to resign his charge and retire. The emperor
gave him leave, and asked what he should do to recompense him. "Sire,"
replied the intendant of the gardens, "I have received so many
obligations from your majesty and the late emperor your father, of
happy memory, that I desire no more than the honor of being assured of
your continued favor."
He took his leave of the emperor, and retired with the two princes and
the princess to the country retreat he had built. His wife had been
dead some years, and he himself had not lived in his new abode above
six months when he was surprised by so sudden a death that he had not
time to give them the least account of the manner in which he had
saved them from destruction.
The Princes Bahman and Perviz, and the Princess Perie-zadeh, who knew
no other father than the intendant of the emperor's gardens, regretted
and bewailed him as such, and paid all the honors in his funeral
obsequies which love and filial gratitude required of them. Satisfied
with the plentiful fortune he had left them, they lived together in
perfect union, free from the ambition of distinguishing themselves at
court, or aspiring to places of honor and dignity, which they might
easily have obtained.
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