Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 2.djvu/134

107 here and dost thou not know my station? Thou knowest none can stir from his place, except the guards seize him. So go thou to thy mistress and if thou hear any one reciting again, whether it be near or far, it will be I or some one whom I shall know, and thou shalt not know of him but by me.” Then he kissed the eunuch’s head and spoke him fair, till he went away; but he made a circuit and returning secretly, came and hid himself behind the stoker, fearing to go back to his mistress empty-handed. As soon as he was gone, the stoker aroused Zoulmekan and said to him, “Awake and sit up, that I may tell thee what has happened.” So Zoulmekan sat up, and the stoker told him what had passed, and he answered, “Let me alone; I will take no heed of this and I care for none, for I am near my own country.” Quoth the stoker, “Why wilt thou obey thine own inclinations and the promptings of the devil? If thou fearest no one, I fear for thee and myself; so God on thee, recite no more verses, till thou come to thine own country! Indeed, I had not thought thee so self-willed. Dost thou not know that this lady is the wife of the Chamberlain and is minded to chide thee for disturbing her. Belike, she is ill or restless for fatigue, and this is the second time she hath sent the eunuch to look for thee.” However, Zoulmekan paid no heed to him, but cried out a third time and repeated the following verses:

Hardly had he made an end of these verses when the eunuch, who had heard him from his hiding, came up to him; whereupon the stoker fled and stood afar off, to see