Page:Sinbad the sailor & other stories from the Arabian nights.djvu/315

 consented; and Zubeydeh summoned an old woman and bade her run with all speed to this house of the quick and the dead and learn for a certainty which was prepared for the grave. And the old woman set forth running as fast as her legs would carry her.

Now, when Nuzhat-el-Fuad, seated at the window, saw her drawing near, she said to Abu-I-Hasan, "Methinks the Lady Zubeydeh hath found fault with Mesrur's report of thy death, and hath sent her messenger to learn the truth. Therefore, to preserve my honour in Zubeydeh's eyes, is it not proper that thou be dead?"

"That is so," said Abu-I-Hasan, and he extended himself on the floor, while his wife prepared his corpse for the grave. When the old woman came in she found Nuzhat-el-Fuad sitting at his head, weeping bitterly and tearing her hair. "O my mother!" she wailed, "there was none like him! Alas! I am alone and wretched!" And she fell to moaning and sobbing and rocking herself to and fro in uncontrollable grief.

The old woman comforted her and told her how Mesrur had sought to stir up a quarrel between the Khalifeh and Zubeydeh by a lying report. Nuzhet-el-Fuad, in return, protested that, not long since, she was with the Lady Zubeydeh, who had bestowed upon her a hundred pieces of gold and a piece of fine spun silk, saying, "Go prepare thy husband's body for the grave!" And in a fresh outburst of grief Nuzhet-el-Fuad cried, "Oh! would that Mesrur's tale were true! Would that I had died and Abu-I-Hasan had lived, for I am solitary and know not what to do."

After the two had wept together over the body of Abu-I-Hasan the old woman hastened back to the Palace and 219