‘I see,’ replied Arouya, ‘the misfortune which threatens us; but is it not possible to avoid it? Instead of going to the king and irritating him by announcing to him that I decline the honour that he wishes to do me, take all the money which remains to you. Let us take all that we have of value and leave Damascus; let us fly and commend ourselves to the Prophet; he will not abandon us.’ Banou approved of this advice, and resolved to follow it.

They had no sooner formed their resolution than they executed it. They left the town that very day and marched towards Cairo. I learnt all that the next day from Dalla Monkhtala, who had not wished to accompany her mistress, and who was brought to me by a confidential man whom I had sent to Banou in my impatience to see him again. If I had been less master of my passions and had wished absolutely to satisfy myself, I should soon have had Arouya in spite of herself in my seraglio—I had only to pursue her; but that would have been committing an unjust action, and I have never cared to constrain the hearts of others.

I therefore left the merchant’s wife at liberty to flee from me and go where she wished, and I set myself to conquer an unfortunate passion, a task which was not less vain than painful. Arouya, in spite of all the efforts which I made to put her from my mind, was ever present in my thoughts. Her beauty and her virtue were ever before me, and for more than twenty years her memory has made me insensible to the charms of the most beautiful of my slaves; the most attractive amuse me without absorbing me.’

‘You see, my lord,’ then, said the vizir, ‘there is no one who is without trouble. The happiest people are those whose troubles are most support­able. Do not let us lament. If neither your majesty, nor the Prince Seyf-el-Mulouk, nor myself are fully satisfied, let us reflect that there are others more unhappy.’

It was thus that Sutlumemé finished the story of the King of Damascus and his vizir. The women of Farrukhnaz, as usual, applauded her. They praised highly the constancy of the lovers whose adventures they had just heard, and the princess, as was her custom, did not fail to speak against their fidelity.

This did not deter the nurse, who asked per­mission to relate new stories. She obtained it, and the following day she began thus: