Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/69

Rh

"And whence does the negro get the silver?" asked the King. The lady remaining silent, he added, "Give me some information, please."

She signified with a sign from the corner of her eye that he had got it all from the wife of the Grand Vizir.

The King understood her, and continued, "O Beder el Bedour! I have faith and confidence in you, and your testimony will have in my eyes the value of that of the two Adels. Speak to me without reserve as to what concerns yourself."

She answered him, "I have not been touched, and however long this might have lasted the negro would not have got his desire satisfied."

"Is this so?" asked the King.

She replied, "It is so!" She had understood what the King wanted to say, and the King has seized the meaning of her words.

"Has the negro respected my honour? Inform me about that," said the King.

She answered, "He has respected your honour as far as your wives are concerned. He has not pushed his criminal deeds that far; but if God has spared his days there is no certainty that he would not have tried to soil what he should have respected."

The King having asked her then who those negroes were, she answered, "They are his companions. After he has quite surfeited himself with the women which he had got brought to him, he handed them over to them, as you have seen. If it were not for the protection of a woman where would that man be?"