Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 9.djvu/211

185 wife hath complained of thee to him.’ Quoth he, ‘He made peace between us [but now].’ But they answered, ‘We come from another Cadi, and thy wife hath complained of thee to our Cadi.’ So he arose and went with them to the [second] Cadi, calling on God for succour against her; and when he saw her, he said to her, ‘Did we not make peace, good woman?’ But she said, ‘There abideth no peace between thee and me.’ So he came forward and told the Cadi his story, adding, ‘And indeed the Cadi such an one made peace between us but now.’ Whereupon the Cadi said to her, ‘O strumpet, since ye have made peace with each other, why comest thou to me complaining?’ Quoth she, ‘He beat me after that.’ But the Cadi said, ‘Make peace with one another, and thou, [O man] beat her not again, and she will cross thee no more.’ So they made peace and the Cadi said to Marouf, ‘Give the serjeants their fee.’ So he gave them their fee and going back to his shop, opened it and sat down, as he were a drunken man for excess of chagrin.

Presently, a man came up to him and said, ‘O Marouf, hide thyself, for thy wife hath complained of thee to the High Court and the men of violence are after thee.’ So he shut his shop and fled towards the Gate of Victory. He had five paras left of the price of the lasts and gear; so he bought four paras’ worth of bread and one of cheese, as he fled from her. Now it was the winter season and the hour of afternoon-prayer; so, when he came out among the rubbish-heaps, the rain descended upon him, as [from] the mouth of water-skins, and his clothes were drenched. So he entered the Aadiliyeh, where he saw a ruined place and therein a deserted cell, without a door,