CHAP. VI.
 
STORY I.

ONE of the intelligent attendants thus introduced the charmer of eloquence into the bride-chamber of narration.

There was a young man of noble quality, who possessed an ample share of riches and blessings, and who had acquired of the requisites for the enjoy­ment of life sufficient store. For strength of mind, and vigour of bodily frame, he was unequalled by the contemporary youth, and unparalleled in valour and fortitude. In generosity and benevo­lence, he bore away the ball of excel­lence from his fellows and associates, and excelled all in personal beauty and outward graces. He had married a wife from among the daughters of his own tribe, and his heart was attached to her to that degree, that he for an instant could not bear to be absent from her; and, constantly eager to preserve her affection and retain her love, preferred her satisfaction to every other object. The wife also, held by the chain of love, and captivated in the net of affection for her husband, like a handmaiden, night and day strove to serve him with submission and humility. If for an instant, the young man, for the management of his affairs, or to procure the necessaries of life, (from which the strugglers in the confined space of this borrowed world have no resource) went abroad, the wife, shedding the wine of understanding from the goblet of her brain, let fall a deluge of tears from the fountain of her eyes. In every street and alley of the city nothing was spoken of by either sex but the story of their loves; and where­ever two met together, they conversed upon nothing else but the anecdotes of the affection of these distinguished per­sonages. The young man being fond of the chace, every morning went to the field, and bringing home game, with his beloved quaffed draughts of wine, and enjoyed savoury dishes made of his acquisitions.

By accident, between this young man and the brother of the governor of the city a strong friendship took place, and the foundation of regard and union was confirmed, so that the latter most days visited the house of the former to drink wine. One day, his eye fell upon the wife; their looks met, and the dishonest wretch, at the instigation of the devil, forgetting altogether former obligations, friendship, and gratitude, out of sensual lust became eager to enjoy her. Having found out an old go-between, one of those artful wretches destructive of domestic honour, he sent her to the wife to disclose his passion, and entreat an interview. For some time she refused; but, as in the watery and clayey composition of women there is no steadiness or constancy, and in the mind of this sex not a hair’s line of fidelity can be traced; at length, sinking the boat of affection for her husband in the whirlpool of annihilation, and obliterating with the point of vicious ardour the characters of regard and attachment, which she had employed an age in sketching, she gave up herself to error. Like the rose, tearing* the collar of her own purity and the honour of her hus­band, she sounded the drum of ill fame through the four quarters of dishonour.

When some time had passed in this manner, at length surmises and reports began to spread among the neighbours, of a business so destructive to the fragile vase of character and reputation. The wife began to dread the sword of her husband’s vengeance, and alarm for her life overpowered her mind. Having, out of wickedness and folly, resolved on the base resource of elopement, she com­municated the design to her paramour. The impure wretch, regarding this as an important blessing, entered firmly into the measure, and they waited impa­tiently for an opportunity to fly. At length, the husband according to custom went to hunt, and having roused an antelope, she bounded towards a village, the residence of the parents of his wicked spouse. The young man pur­suing got the game into his power just at the entrance of the place. As the deer of the forest of the seven azure* plains had retired into the cave of the west, and the husband, from much fatigue in pur­suit, found himself unable to return to his own house, he from necessity entered the village, and took up his lodgings under the roof of his relations, to whom, after putting by a part for his beloved, he presented the remainder of his game. He himself had no inclination to eat, which the hosts observing, were distressed in mind, and enquired the cause of his disgust, for to them their guest was very dear. The young man replied, “I will not conceal from you that my love for your daughter is ardent, and it is a long time, during which we have not, but in company with each other, extended our hands to eat, nor has this been from compliment, but true affection; therefore, in time of absence from her, my soul rests not for an instant in my body. On this account, excusing me, vex not your own gentle minds. A part of the venison I have kept, that, if fate shall spare me, I may eat it to-morrow in company with that bestower of new life, and quaff wine under the arch of her crescent-formed eyebrow.”

The father and mother of the impure woman, on hearing this, were filled with pleasure; while the simple husband, unsuspicious of the crooked minds of females, passed the night till early dawn in restlessness and anxiety. The profli­gate wife, with hardness of heart, infidelity, and vice, informed her paramour of the absence of her husband, and by the contrivance of her unworthy cunning and treacherous artifice, having formed a plot, became the directress of her foul gallant in crime and wickedness. In the middle of the night, by her desire, he set fire to one end of her house, and mount­ing a courser swiftly-paced as lightning, stationed himself at the door, with another steed, fleet as the western gale, of Persian descent. After a short interval, when the fire spread, and the hand of human endeavour became unable to quench the flames, the abandoned wife, from whose brain this blaze of calamity had arisen, hypocritically uttered loud screams, and awakened her mother-in-law and maid servants, who, overcome by fright, began to throw out the household goods. Seizing this opportunity as precious, she slipped out, and mounting the steed, in company with her paramour, dived into the night, and posted rapidly to a dis­tant city; where a house being hired, the two impure wretches remained con­cealed. Here, to the extent of their wishes, they began to scatter the dust of disgrace on the head of their conditions, and engaged in quaffing the wine of adultery.

When the fire was at length extinguished, the mother-in-law not find­ing her daughter, explored every part of the ruined mansion with much alarm. Though she hurried over every corner of the building, of her, like the phœnix, she could behold no trace. Suspecting now that she must have been burnt in the fire, the old lady began immediately to weep, and give way to lamentation.

In a short time, the young husband, tortured by the flame of ardent love, and having felt a long night’s pain of absence, with impatient fondness reached his home. He beheld the house a heap of ashes, his mother in mourning, strew­ing dust upon her head, and every trace of his wife vanished away. Amazement and dread confounded his mind. He tremblingly enquired of his domestics what was the accident, and whence came the destruction of his house? They informed him of the fire, and that their mistress was burnt in the flames.

Instantly on hearing this, the fire of madness seized the vest of the young man’s soul, the tears of despondency flowed from his eyes, and in extreme anguish he uttered this verse; “Alas! alas! has no one beheld my beloved?” He now commanded that the bones should be searched for in the fire, in order to be buried; but no relic of them appeared.

The husband was astonished at this circumstance, and thought within him­self what could have become of the woman, and what could have been the causes, that no remains of her could be found. If she was burnt, cer­tainly some one of her members would have appeared; and how was it possible that a living person should so burn in a fire, that no one could tell the least of the accident from beginning to end, or the smallest relic be left to the eye. The suspicion now struck the young man, that possibly, as the nature of woman is leavened with infidelity, having invented a fiction, or formed a plot, she might possibly herself have set fire to the man­sion of her family honour. This idea became fixed in his mind. He arose from thence, and went to the house of the governor’s brother, that he might tell to him the secret of his heart, and ask his assistance. When he arrived at his house, he received intelligence, that since midnight he had disappeared.