Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 2.djvu/73



When it was night, the king summoned the vizier and sought of him the hearing of the [promised] story. “Hearkening and obedience,” replied Er Rehwan, “Know, O august king, that STORY OF THE KING AND HIS CHAMBERLAIN’S WIFE.

There was once, of old days and in bygone ages and times, a king of the kings of the Persians, who was passionately addicted to the love of women. His courtiers bespoke him of the wife of a chamberlain of his chamberlains, for that she was endowed with beauty and loveliness and perfection, and this prompted him to go in to her. When she saw him, she knew him and said to him, ‘What prompteth the king unto this that he doth?’ And he answered, saying, ‘Verily, I yearn after thee with an exceeding yearning and needs must I enjoy thy favours.’ And he gave her of wealth that after the like whereof women hanker; but she said, ‘I cannot do that whereof the king speaketh, for fear of my husband.’ And she refused herself to him with the most rigorous of refusals and would not do his desire. So the king went out, full of wrath, and forgot his girdle in the place.