Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 2.djvu/72

52 The true believer is pinched for his daily bread, Whilst infidel rogues enjoy all benefit. Where is a man’s resource and what can he do? It is the Almighty’s will; we most submit. Nor,” added the vizier, “is this, O king of the age, more extraordinary or stranger than the story of the king and his chamberlain’s wife; nay, the latter is rarer than this and more delightsome.”

When the king heard this story, he was fortified in his resolve to spare the vizier and to leave haste in an affair whereof he was not assured; so he comforted him and bade him withdraw to his lodging.