‘He did not fail to come. We both seated our­selves at table and passed all the day in drinking the best of wines. The lady would not be of the party; she even took great care to remain in retirement during the meal. As she had strongly urged me to amuse the merchant and not to allow him to return home that night, I detained him in the evening in spite of all his entreaties to be allowed to go. We continued drinking and carried on the debauch till midnight.

‘Then I led him into a room where there was a bed prepared for him. I left him there and retired to my own room.

‘I went to bed and fell asleep, but I did not long enjoy the sweets of slumber. The lady soon came to wake me. She held a torch in one hand and a dagger in the other. “Young man,” she said, “get up: come and see your guest bathed in his perfidious blood.”

‘I rose full of horror at these words. I dressed in haste. I followed the lady into the merchant’s room, and saw the unhappy man stretched life­less on his bed. “Ah! cruel woman,” I cried, “what have you done? How can you have committed such a black deed? And why have you made me an instrument of your rage?”

‘“Young stranger,” she said, “do not be angry at having helped me to revenge myself on Namah­ran. He was a traitor. You will not pity him when you know his crime; or, rather, when you learn that he is the author of my misfortune that I am going to relate to you.”