Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/127

107 I have discovered here and wherewith I am ashamed to confront the king; but, if I hold my peace thereof, I fear lest other than I discover it and I [be deemed to] have played traitor to the king in the matter of my [duty of] loyal warning and my trust.’ Quoth Dabdin, ‘Speak, for thou art none other than a truth-teller, a trusty one, a loyal counsellor in that which thou sayest, undistrusted in aught.’ And the vizier said, ‘O king, this woman to whose love thy heart cleaveth and of whose piety thou talkest and her fasting and praying, I will make plain to thee that this is craft and guile.’ At this, the king was troubled and said, ‘What is to do?’ ‘Know,’ answered the vizier, ‘that some days after thy departure, one came to me and said to me, “Come, O vizier, and look.” So I went to the door of the [queen’s] sleeping-chamber and beheld her sitting with Aboulkhair, her father’s servant, whom she favoureth, and she did with him what she did, and this is the manner of that which I saw and heard.’

When Dabdin heard this, he burnt with rage and said to one of his eunuchs, ‘Go and slay her in her chamber.’ But the eunuch said to him, ‘O king, may God prolong thy continuance! Indeed, the killing of her may not be at this time; but do thou bid one of thine eunuchs take her up on a camel and carry her to one of the trackless deserts and cast her down there; so, if she be at fault, God shall cause her to perish, and if she be innocent, He will deliver her, and the king shall be free from sin against her, for that this damsel is dear to thee and thou