The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 14 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (best book clubs .TXT) 📖

King, the Wazir’s passion for our mother waxed cool after the deaths of the nurse and the slave-girls and the eunuch; and she also held her peace and spake not a word there anent. On this wise time passed and he sat in the stead of my sire till the Sultan’s return drew near when the Minister dreaded lest our father, learning his ill deeds, should do him die. So he devised a device and wrote a letter to the King saying, “After salutation be it known to thee that thy Harem hath sent to me, not only once but five several times during thine absence, soliciting of me a foul action, to which I refused consent and replied, By Allah, however much she may wish to betray my Sovran, I by the Almighty will not turn traitor; for that I was left by thee guardian of the realm after thy departure.” He added words upon words; then he sealed the scroll and gave it to a running courier with orders to hurry along the road. The messenger took it and fared with it to the Sultan’s camp when distant eight days’ journey from the capital; and, finding him seated in his pavilion,[FN#153] delivered the writ.

He took it and opened it and read it and when he understood its secret significance, his face changed, his eyes turned backwards and he bade his tents be struck for departure. So they fared by forced marches till between him and his capital remained only two stations. He then summoned two Chamberlains with orders to forego him to the city and take my mother and us three girls a day’s distance from it and there put us to death. Accordingly, they led us four to the open country purposing to kill us, and my mother knew not what intent was in their minds until they reached the appointed spot. Now the Queen had in times past heaped almsdeeds and largesse upon the two Chamberlains, so they held the case to be a grievous and said each to other, “By Allah we cannot slaughter them; no, never!” Then they told my mother of the letter which the Wazir had written to our father saying such-and-such, upon which she exclaimed, “He hath lied, by Allah, the arch-traitor; and naught happened save so-and-so.” Then she related to them all she had done with the exactest truth. The men said, “Sooth thou hast spoken;” then arising without stay or delay they snared a gazelle and slaughtered it and filled with its blood four flasks; after which they broiled some of the flesh over the embers and gave it to my mother that we might satisfy our hunger. Presently they farewelled us saying, “We give you in charge of Him who never disappointed those committed to His care;” and, lastly, they went their ways leaving us alone in the wild and the word. So we fell to eating the desertgrasses and drinking of the remnants of the rain, and we walked awhile and rested awhile without finding any city or inhabited region; and we waxed tired, O King of the Age, when suddenly we came upon a spot on a hill-flank abounding in vari-coloured herbs and fair fountains. Here we abode ten days and behold, a caravan drew near us and encamped hard by us, but they did not sight us for that we hid ourselves from their view until night fell. Then I went to them and asked of sundry eunuchs and ascertained that there was a city at the distance of two days’ march from us; so I returned and informed my mother who rejoiced at the good tidings. As soon as it was morn the caravan marched off, so we four arose and walked all that day through at a leisurely pace, and a second day and so forth; until, on the afternoon of the fifth, a city rose before our sight fulfilling all our desires[FN#154] and we exclaimed, “Alhamdolillah, laud be to the Lord who hath empowered us to reach it.” We ceased not faring till sunset when we entered it and we found it a potent capital. Such was our case and that of our mother;[FN#155] but as regards our sire the Sultan, as he drew near his home after the return-journey from the Hajj, the Lords of the land and the Chiefs of the city flocked out to meet him, and the town-folk followed one another like men riding on pillions[FN#156] to salute him, and the poor and the mesquin congratulated him on his safety and at last the Wazir made his appearance. The Sultan desired to be private with the Minister—And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

 

The Three Hundred and Sixty-eighth Night, Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the King desired to be private with the Minister and when they were left alone he said, “O Wazir, how was it between thee and that Harim of mine?” Said the other, “O King of the Age, she sent to me not only once but five several times and I refrained from her and whatsoever eunuch she despatched I slew, saying, Haply she may cease so doing and abandon her evil intent. But she did not repent, so I feared for thine honour and sent to acquaint thee with the matter.” The Sultan bowed his head groundwards for a while, then raising it he bade summon the two Chamberlains whom he had sent to slay his wife and three children. On their appearing he asked them, “What have you done in fulfilling my commandment?” They answered, “We did that which thou badest be done,” and showed him the four flasks they had filled with the blood and said, “This be their blood, a flask-full from each.”

The Sultan hent them in hand and mused over what had taken place between him and his wife of love and affection and union; so he wept with bitter weeping and fell down in a fainting fit. After an hour or so he recovered and turning to the Wazir said, “Tell me, hast thou spoken sooth?” and the other replied, “Yes, I have.” Then the Sultan addressed the two Chamberlains and asked them, “Have ye put to death my daughters with their mother?” But they remained silent nor made aught of answer or address. So he exclaimed, “What is on your minds that ye speak not?” They rejoined, “By Allah, O King of the Age, the honest man cannot tell an untruth for that lying and leasing are the characteristics of hypocrites and traitors.” When the Wazir heard the Chamberlains’ speech his colour yellowed, his frame was disordered and a trembling seized his limbs, and the King turned to him and noted that these symptoms had been caused by the words of the two officials. So he continued to them, “What mean ye, O

Chamberlains, by your saying that lies and leasing are the characteristics of hypocrites and traitors? Can it be that ye have not put them to death? And as ye claim to be true men either ye have killed them and ye speak thus or you are liars. Now by Him who hath set me upon the necks of His lieges, if ye declare not to me the truth I will do you both die by the foulest of deaths.” They rejoined, “By Allah, O King of the Age, whenas thou badest us take them and slay them, we obeyed thy bidding and they knew not nor could they divine what was to be until we arrived with them at the middlemost and broadest of the desert; and when we informed them of what had been done by the Wazir, thy Harem exclaimed, ‘There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great. Verily we are Allah’s and unto Him are we returning. But an ye kill us you will kill us wrongfully and ye wot not wherefor. By the Lord, this Wazir hath foully lied and hath accused us falsely before the Almighty.’ So we said to her, O King of the Age, ‘Inform us of what really took place,’ and said the mother of the Princesses, ‘Thus and thus it happened.’ Then she fell to telling us the whole tale from first to last of the nurse who was sent to her and the handmaids and the Eunuch.”[FN#157] Hereupon the Sultan cried, “And ye, have ye slain them or not?” and the Chamberlains replied, “By Allah, O

King of the Age, whenas the loyalty of thy Harem was made manifest to us we snared a gazelle and cut its throat and filled these four flasks with its blood; after which we broiled some of the flesh upon the embers and offered it to thy Harem and her children saying to them, ‘We give thee in charge to Him who never disappointeth those committed to His care,’ and we added, ‘Your truth shall save you.’ Lastly we left them in the midmost of the waste and we returned hither.” When the Sultan heard these words he turned to the Wazir and exclaimed, “Thou hast estranged from me my wife and my children;” but the Minister uttered not a word nor made any address and trembled in every limb like one afflicted with an ague. And when the King saw the truth of the Chamberlains and the treachery of the Minister he bade fuel be collected and set on fire and they did his bidding. Then he commanded them to truss up the Wazir, hand tied to foot, and bind him perforce upon a catapult[FN#158] and cast him into the middle of the fiery pyre which made his bones melt before his flesh.

Lastly he ordered his palace to be pillaged, his good to be spoiled and the women of his Harem to be sold for slaves. After this he said to the Chamberlains, “You must know the spot wherein you left the Queen and Princesses;” and said they, “O King of the Age, we know it well; but when we abandoned them and returned home they were in the midst of the wolds and the wilds nor can we say what befel them or whether they be now alive or dead.” On this wise fared it with them; but as regards us three maidens and our mother, when we entered the city—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say.

Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and enjoyable and delectable?” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

 

The Three Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night, Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming