Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/147

 to the schoolmaster, said to him, What induced thee to deal thus with me?  And she repeated to him what her neighbour had told her of her husbands well-being and of his having sent her a quilt and an extinguisher. Answered he, Thou art in the right, O good woman; for I was, at the time -- And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Four Hundred and Fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the pedagogue replied, Verily I was at that time fashed and absent-minded and, seeing the extinguisher wrapped up in the quilt, I thought that he was dead and they had shrouded him.  The woman, not smoking the cheat, said, Thou art excused, and taking the letter, went her ways. [FN#174]  And they relate a story of THE KING AND THE VIRTUOUS WIFE.

A certain King once went forth in disguise, to look into the affairs of his lieges. Presently, he came to a great village which he entered unattended and being athirst, stopped at the door of a house and asked for water. There came out to him a fair woman with a gugglet, which she gave him, and he drank. When he looked at her, he was ravished with her and besought her favours. Now she knew him; so she led him into the house and, making him sit down, brought out a book and said to him, "Look therein whilst I order my affair and return to thee." So he looked into the book, and behold, it treated of the Divine prohibition against advoutry and of the punishments which Allah hath prepared for those who commit adulterous sin. When he read this, his flesh quaked and his hair bristled and he repented to Almighty Allah: then he called the woman and, giving her the book, went away. Now her husband was absent and when he returned, she told him what had passed, whereat he was confounded and said in himself, "I fear lest the King's desire have fallen upon her." And he dared not have