‘“My lord,” she said, “pardon this young man; it is upon the guilty slave who has betrayed you that your blows should fall.”

‘“Ah! traitors,” cried the king, “let neither of you expect mercy; you shall perish. The ungrateful woman! she implores my mercy only for the bold fellow who has offended me; and he shows himself sensible only to the loss of her whom he loves; they both dare to display before my eyes their love’s passion. What insolence! Vizir,” he added, turning towards his minister, “conduct them to their punishment; let them be attached to beams, and after their death let them become the prey of dogs and birds.”

‘“Stop! sire,” I then cried; “beware of treating a king’s daughter with so much ignominy. Let your jealous anger respect the august blood which flows in your favourite’s veins!”

‘At these words Firouzshah appeared aston­ished. “What prince,” he said to Zelica, “is then the author of your being?”

‘The princess looked proudly at me and said: “Indiscreet Hassan, why have you revealed what I would have wished to keep secret? I had in dying the consolation of knowing that they were ignorant of my rank; in making known my identity you cover me with shame. Well, Firouzshah,” she con­tinued, addressing the King of Candahar, “learn, then, who I am. The slave whom you condemn to an infamous death is the daughter of Shah Tah­masp.” At the same time she related to him her whole history, without forgetting a single circum­stance of it.

‘After she had finished this story, which increased the astonishment of the king: “That, my lord,” she said, “is a secret which I had not intended to reveal to you, and which the indiscretion of my lover alone has drawn from me. After this avowal, which I do not make without extreme confusion, I pray you to order my life to be taken immediately; it is the only favour which I ask of your majesty.”

‘“Madam,” said the king to her, “I revoke the decree of your death; I am too just not to forgive you your infidelity. What you have just told me makes me look at it differently; I cease to com­plain of you, and I even give you your liberty. Live for Hassan, and let the happy Hassan live for you. I also give life and liberty to Schapour and your confidant. Go, perfect lovers; go and pass the rest of your days together, and may nothing interrupt the course of your happiness. As for you, traitor,” he continued, turning to the fakir, “you shall be punished for your treachery. Mean and envious-hearted man! you could not endure the happiness of your friend, you have come your­self to give him over to my vengeance. Ah, miserable fellow! it is you who shall serve as a victim to my jealousy.” At these words he ordered the grand vizir to take the fakir away, and to give him over to the executioners.

‘Whilst they were taking this scoundrel to death, Zelica and I threw ourselves at the feet of the King of Candahar. We watered them with our tears in a transport of gratitude and joy, and finally we assured him that, sensible to his generous kind­ness, we should preserve an eternal remembrance of him. We then left his apartment with Schapour and Calé-Cairi. We took the road to the house where I had been arrested, but we found it razed to the ground; the king had ordered it to be demolished, and the soldiers whom he had charged with this order had executed it so promptly that all the materials had already been removed and carried elsewhere; not a stone remained of it, and the people had pillaged all the furniture.

‘Charmed as we were to see ourselves together once more, the princess and I, although more enamoured of each other than ever, were not a little startled at this spectacle. This house was a hired furnished one, and consequently the furniture did not belong to us, but Zelica had had brought thither by Schapour an infinity of precious objects which had not been respected in the pillage. We had little money; we began to consult the eunuch and Calé-Cairi on the steps which we had to take, and after a long deliberation we thought it best to go and lodge in a caravanserai.

‘We were ready to betake ourselves thither when an officer of the king approached us. “I come,” he said, “on behalf of Firouzshah, my master, to offer you a lodging. The grand vizir lends you a house of his at the gates of the city, which is far more beautiful than that which has just been razed; you will be very comfortably lodged there. I am going, if you will, to conduct you thither; kindly follow me.”

‘We went thither with him. We saw a fine-looking and perfectly well-built house; the interior corresponded to the outside, the whole was mag­nificent and in good taste. We found more than twenty slaves there, who told us that their master had just sent to order them to furnish us abun­dantly with everything we wanted, and to wait upon us as upon himself during all the time we chose to stay at his house.

‘Two days after we received a visit from the grand vizir, who brought us, on behalf of the king, a large quantity of presents. There were several packets of silken stuffs and Indian cloths, with twenty purses each full of gold sequins. As we felt ill at ease in a borrowed house, and the presents of the king placed us in a position to establish ourselves elsewhere, we soon joined a large caravan of merchants of Candahar, and arrived happily with them at Bagdad.

‘We went to lodge in my house, where we spent the first days after our arrival in resting and recovering from the fatigue of such a long journey. After that I appeared in the town, and sought out my friends. They were somewhat astonished to see me again. “Is it possible,” said they to me, “that you are still in the flesh? Your associates who returned assured us you were dead.” As soon as I heard that my fellow jewel-merchants were at Bagdad, I ran to the grand vizir, threw myself at his feet, and related their perfidy to him. He sent to have them both arrested at once; he ordered me to interrogate them both in his presence.

‘“Is it not true,” I said to them, “that I awoke when you took me in your arms, that I asked you what you wished to do, and that without answering me you threw me into the sea through a port-hole of the vessel?”

‘They replied that I had dreamt that, and that I must have thrown myself into the gulf when asleep.

‘“But why,” said the vizir then to them, “did you pretend not to know him at Ormus?”

‘They replied that they had not seen me at Ormus.

‘“But what will you say, traitors,” he replied, looking at them with a threatening air, “when I show you a certificate from the cadi of Ormus which proves the contrary?”

‘At these words, which the vizir pronounced to test them, my associates grew pale and were troubled.

‘“You change colour,” he said to them. “Well, admit your crime yourselves; spare yourselves the tortures which are in preparation to draw this confession from you.”

‘Then they confessed everything, and on this confession he had them imprisoned, until the caliph, whom he wished, he said, to inform of this affair, should order what kind of death he wished they should die. But they found means to evade the vigilance of their guards or to corrupt their fidelity. They escaped from prison, and hid themselves so well in Bagdad that they could not be discovered, search as the grand vizir would,

‘All their goods, however, were confiscated and remained with the caliph, with the exception of a small portion which was given me to compensate me for what was stolen from me. After that I thought of nothing but living tranquilly with my princess. We passed our days in perfect unison, and I made vows to Heaven praying only that I might be left the rest of my days in the happy situation in which I found myself. Futile wishes! Can men long enjoy an agreeable fate? Is not their rest unceasingly troubled by misfortunes and annoyances.

‘One evening I was returning from amusing myself with my friends. I knocked at my door; I knocked loudly. In vain, no one came to open it. I was surprised at it, and, without knowing why, it caused me a sad foreboding. I redoubled my knocks. No slave came, my astonishment increased. What must I think of this, I said to myself; is this some new misfortune come to me? At the noise I made, several neighbours came out of their houses and, as astonished as I at my servants not answering, they helped me to break in the door. We entered; we found in the courtyard and in the first hall my slaves with their throats cut. We entered Zelica’s apartment. Oh, shocking sight! I beheld Schapour and Calé-Cairi lifeless and bathed in their blood. I called my princess, she did not reply; I ran through the house, and not finding what I sought, I felt my body fainting and I fell senseless in the arms of my neighbours.

‘Would that the Angel of Death had carried me away at that moment! But no, Heaven willed I should live to see all the horror of my fate. When my neighbours had recalled me to life, I asked them how it was possible that so great a carnage could have taken place in my house with­out their hearing the least sound. They told me they had heard nothing, and that they were not less surprised at it than I. I ran immediately to the cadi, who sent out his lieutenant with all his archers, but their inquiries were useless.