Part 2

From that moment he forbore afflicting himself. Being unwilling to sup till he saw the whole scene that was acted under his window, he called then for his supper, eat with a better appetite than he had done at any time since his coming from Samarcande, and listened with some degree of pleasure to the agreeable concert of vocal and instrumental music, that was appointed to entertain him while at table.

He continued after this in very good humour; and when he knew that the sultan was returning, he went to meet him, and paid him his compliments with great gayety. Schahriar at first took no notice of this alteration; but politely expostulated with him, why he would not bear him company at hunting the stag; and without giving him time to reply, entertained him with a relation of the great number of deer and other game they had killed, and what pleasure he had in the sport. Schahzenan heard him with attention, gave answer to every thing, and being free from that melancholy which formerly overclouded his wit, he said a thousand agreeable and pleasant things to the sultan.

Schahriar, who expected to have found him in the same state as he left him, was overjoyed to see him so cheerful, and spoke to him thus: Dear brother, I return thanks to Heaven for the happy change it has made in you during my absence; I am extremely rejoiced at it; but I have a request to make to you, and conjure you not to deny me. --I can refuse you nothing, replied the king of Tartary; you may command Schahzenan as you please; speak, I am impatient till I know what you desire of me. --Ever since you came to my court, replied Schahriar, I found you swallowed up by a deep melancholy, and I in vain attempted to remove it by all sorts of diversion. I imagined it might be occasioned by reason of your distance from your dominions, or that love might have a great share in it, and that the queen of Samarcande, who, no doubt, is an accomplished beauty, might be the cause of it. I do not know if I be mistaken; but I must own, that it was for this very reason I would not importune you upon the subject, for fear of making you uneasy. But without my having contributed any thing towards it, I find now, upon my return, that you are in the best humour that can be, and that your mind is entirely delivered from that black vapour which disturbed it. Pray do me the favour to tell me why you were so melancholy, and why you are no longer so.

Upon this, the king of Tartary continued for some time, as if he had been meditating, and contriving what he should answer; but at last replied as follows: You are my sultan and master; but excuse me, I beseech you, from answering your question. --No, dear brother, said the sultan, you must answer me; I will take no denial. Schahzenan, not being able to withstand these pressing instances, answered, Well, then, brother, I will satisfy you, since you command me; and having told him the story of the queen of Samarcande’s treachery, This, says he, was the cause of my grief; judge whether I had not reason enough to give myself up to it.

Oh! my brother, says the sultan, (in a tone which showed what an interest he took in the king of Tartary’s story,) what a horrible story do you tell me! How impatient was I till I heard it out! I commend you for punishing the traitors who offered you such an outrage. Nobody can blame you for that action: it was just; and, for my part, had the case been mine, I should scarce have been so moderate as you. I would not have satisfied myself with the life of one woman; I verily think I should have sacrificed a thousand to my fury. I cease now to wonder at your melancholy. The cause of it was too sensible and too mortifying, not to make you yield to it. O heaven! what a strange adventure! Nor do I believe the like ever befel any man but yourself. But, in short, I must bless God, who has comforted you; and since I doubt not but your consolation is well grounded, be so good as to let me know what it is, and conceal nothing from me. Schahzenan was not so easily prevailed upon in this point, as he had been in the other, because of his brother’s concern it; but being obliged to yield to his pressing instances, answered, I must obey you, then, since your command is absolute; yet I am afraid that my obedience will occasion your trouble to be greater than ever mine was. But you must blame yourself for it, since you force me to reveal a thing which I should otherwise have buried in eternal oblivion. What you say, answers Schahriar, serves only to increase my curiosity. Make haste to discover the secret, whatever it be. The king of Tartary being no longer able to refuse, gave him the particulars of all that he had seen of the blacks in disguise; of the ungoverned passion of the sultaness and her ladies; and he did not forget Masoud. After having been witness to those infamous actions, says he, I believed all women to be naturally inclined thereto, and that they could not resist their inclination. Being of this opinion, it seemed to me to be an unaccountable weakness in men to place any confidence in their fidelity. This reflection brought on many others; and, in short, I thought the best thing I could do was to make myself easy. It cost me some pains, indeed, but at last I effected it; and if you will take my advice, you will follow my example.

THE LADY OF THE GLASS CASE.

Though the advice was good, the sultan could not relish it, but fell into a rage. What! says he, is the sultaness of the Indies capable of prostituting herself in so base a manner? No, brother, I cannot believe what you say, except I saw it with my own eyes; your’s must needs have deceived you: the matter is so important, that I must be satisfied of it myself. Dear brother, answers Schahzenan, that you may without much difficulty. Appoint another hunting match; and when we are out of town with your court and mine, we will stop under our tents, and at night let you and I return alone to my apartments; I am certain the next day you will see what I saw. The sultan, approving the stratagem, immediately appointed a new hunting-match; and that same day the tents were set up at the place appointed.

Next day the two princes set out with all their retinue; they arrived at the place of encampment, and staid there till night. Then Schahriar called his grand vizier, and without acquainting him with his design, commanded him to stay in his place during his absence, and suffer no person to go out of the camp upon any account whatever. As soon as he had given this order, the king of Grand Tartary and he took horse, passed through the camp incognito, returned to the city, and went to Schahzenan’s apartment. They had scarce placed themselves in the same window where the king of Tartary had beheld the scene of the disguised blacks, but the secret gate opened, the sultaness and her ladies entered the garden with the blacks, and she, having called upon Masoud, the sultan saw more than enough to convince him fully of his dishonour and misfortune.

O heavens! cried he, what an indignity! what horror! Can the wife of a sovereign such as I am, be capable of such an infamous action? After this, let no prince boast of his being perfectly happy. Alas! my brother, continued he, (embracing the king of Tartary,) let us both renounce the world; honour is banished out of it; if it flatters us one day, it betrays us the next! Let us abandon our dominions and grandeur; let us go into foreign countries, where we may lead an obscure life, and conceal our misfortunes. Schahzenan did not at all approve of this resolution, but did not think fit to contradict Schahriar in the heat of his passion. Dear brother, says he, your will shall be mine; I am ready to follow you whither you please: but promise me that you will return if we can meet with any one that is more unhappy than ourselves. I agree to it, says the sultan, but doubt much whether we shall. I am not of your mind in this, replies the king of Tartary; I fancy our journey will be but short. Having said thus, they went secretly out of the palace by a different way from that by which they came. They travelled as long as it was day, and lay the first night under trees; and getting up about break of day, they went on till they came to a fine meadow upon the bank of the sea, that was besprinkled with great trees. They sat down under one of those trees to rest and refresh themselves, and the chief subject of their conversation was the infidelity of their wives.

They had not sat long, before they heard a frightful noise from the sea, and a terrible cry, which filled them with fear; then, the sea opening, there arose up something like a great black column, which reached almost to the clouds. This redoubled their fear, made them rise speedily, and climb up into a tree to hide themselves. They had scarce got up, till looking to the place from whence the noise came, and where the sea opened, they observed that the black column advanced, winding about towards the shore, cleaving the water before it. They could not at first think what it should be; but in a little time they found that it was one of those malignant genii that are mortal enemies to mankind, and are always doing them mischief. He was black, frightful, had the shape of a giant, of a prodigious stature, and carried on his head a great glass box, shut with four locks of fine steel. He entered the meadow with his burden, which he laid down just at the foot of the tree where the two princes were, who looked upon themselves to be dead men. Meanwhile the genie sat down by his box, and opening it with four keys that he had at his girdle, there came out a lady magnificently apparelled, of a majestic stature, and a complete beauty. The monster made her sit down by him, and eying her with an amorous look, Lady, says he, nay, most accomplished of all ladies who are admired for their beauty, my charming mistress, whom I carried off on your wedding-day, and have loved so constantly ever since, let me sleep a few moments by you; for I found myself so very sleepy, that I came to this place to take a little rest. Having spoken thus, he laid down his huge head upon the lady’s knees, and stretching out his legs, which reached as far as the sea, he fell asleep presently, and snored so that he made the banks echo again.

The lady happening at the same time to look up to the tree, saw the two princes, and made a sign to them with her hand to come down without making any noise. Their fear was extreme when they found themselves discovered, and they prayed the lady, by other signs, to excuse them; but she, after having laid the monster’s head softly down on the ground, rose up and spoke to them with a low, but eager voice, to come down to her; she would take no denial. They made signs to her that they were afraid of the genie, and would fain have been excused. Upon which she ordered them to come down, and if they did not make haste, threatened to awake the genie, and bid him kill them.

These words did so much intimidate the princes, that they began to come down with all possible precaution, lest they should awake the genie. When they came down, the lady took them by the hand, and going a little farther with them under the trees, made a very urgent proposal to them. At first they rejected it, but she obliged them to accept it by her threats. Having obtained what she desired, she perceived that each of them had a ring on his finger, which she demanded of them. As soon as she received them, she went and took a box out of the bundle, where her toilet was, pulled out a string of other rings of all sorts, which she showed them, and asked them if they knew what those jewels meant. No, said they, we hope you will be pleased to tell us. These are, replied she, the rings of all the men to whom I have granted my favours. There are full fourscore and eighteen of them, which I keep as tokens to remember them; and asked your’s for the same reason, to make up the hundred. So that, continued she, I have a hundred gallants already, notwithstanding the vigilance of this wicked genie, who never leaves me. He may lock me up in this glass box, and hide me in the bottom of the sea; I find a way to cheat his care. You may see by this, that when a woman has formed a project, there is no husband or lover that can hinder her putting it into execution. Men had better not put their wives under such restraint, as it only serves to teach them cunning. Having spoken thus to them, she put their rings upon the same string with the rest, and sitting down by the monster, as before, laid his head again upon her lap, and made a sign for the princes to be gone.

They returned immediately by the same way they came, and when they were out of sight of the lady and genie, Schahriar says to Schahzenan, Well, brother, what do you think of this adventure? Has not the genie a very faithful mistress? And do not you agree that there is no wickedness equal to that of woman? Yes, brother, answers the king of Tartary; and you must also agree that the monster is more unfortunate, and more to be pitied than we. Therefore, since we have found what we sought for, let us return to our dominions, and let not this hinder us from marrying. For my part, I know a method by which to keep inviolable the fidelity that my wife owes me. I will say no more of it at present, but you will hear of it in a little time, and I am sure you will follow my example. The sultan agreed with his brother; and continuing their journey, they arrived in the camp the third night after they left it.

The news of the sultan’s return being spread, the courtiers came betimes in the morning before his pavilion, to wait on him. He ordered them to enter, received them with a more pleasant air than formerly, and gave each of them a present: after which he told them he would go no farther, ordered them to take horse, and returned speedily to his palace.

As soon as he arrived, he ran to the sultaness’s apartment, commanded her to be bound before him, and delivered her to his grand vizier, with an order to strangle her, which was accordingly executed by that minister without inquiring into her crime. The enraged prince did not stop here, but cut off the heads of all the sultaness’s ladies with his own hand. After this rigorous punishment, being persuaded that no woman was chaste, he resolved, in order to prevent the disloyalty of such as he should afterwards marry, to wed one every night, and have her strangled next morning. Having imposed this cruel law upon himself, he swore that he would observe it immediately after the departure of the king of Tartary, who speedily took leave of him, and being laden with magnificent presents, set forward on his journey.

Schahzenan being gone, Schahriar ordered his grand vizier to bring him the daughter of one of his generals. The vizier obeyed; the sultan lay with her, and putting her next morning into his hands again, in order to be strangled, commanded him to get him another next night. Whatever reluctance the vizier had to put such orders in execution, as he owed blind obedience to the sultan his master, he was forced to submit. He brought him then the daughter of a subaltern, whom he also cut off next day. After her he brought a citizen’s daughter; and, in a word, there was every day a maid married, and a wife murdered.

The rumour of this unparalleled barbarity, occasioned a general consternation in the city, where there was nothing but crying and lamentation. Here, a father in tears, and inconsolable for the loss of his daughter! and there, tender mothers, dreading lest their daughters should have the same fate, making the air to resound beforehand with their groans: so that, instead of the commendations and blessings which the sultan had hitherto received from his subjects, their mouths were now filled with imprecations against him.

The grand vizier, who, as has been already said, was the executioner of this horrid injustice, against his will, had two daughters, the eldest called Scheherazade, and the youngest Dinarzade. The latter was a lady of very great merit; but the elder had courage, wit, and penetration infinitely above her sex. She read much, and had such a prodigious memory, that she never forgot any thing she had read. She had successfully applied herself to philosophy, physic, history, and the liberal arts; and for verse exceeded the best poets of her time. Besides this, she was a perfect beauty, and all her fine qualifications were crowned by solid virtue.

The vizier passionately loved a daughter so worthy of his tender affection; and one day, as they were discoursing together, she says to him, Father, I have one favour to beg of you, and most humbly pray you to grant it me. I will not refuse it, answers he, provided it be just and reasonable. For the justice of it, says she, there can be no question, and you may judge of it by the motive which obliges me to demand it of you. I wish to stop the course of that barbarity which the sultan exercises upon the families of this city. I would dispel those unjust fears which so many mothers have of losing their daughters in such a fatal manner. Your design, daughter, replies the vizier, is very commendable; but the evil you would remedy to me seems incurable; how do you pretend to effect it? --Father, says Scheherazade, since by your means the sultan makes every day a new marriage, I conjure you by the tender affection you bear to me, to procure me the honour of his bed. The vizier could not hear this without horror. O heavens! replied he, in a passion, have you lost your senses, daughter, that you make such a dangerous request to me? You know the sultan has sworn by his soul that he will never lie above one night with the same woman, and to order her to be killed next morning: and would you have me propose you to him? Consider well to what your indiscreet zeal will expose you. --Yes, dear father, replies the virtuous daughter, I know the risk I run; but that does not frighten me. If I perish, my death will be glorious; and if I succeed, I shall do my country an important piece of service. No, no, says the vizier, whatever you can represent to engage me to let you throw yourself into that horrible danger, do not think that ever I will agree to it. When the sultan shall order me to strike my poinard into your heart, alas! I must obey him; and what an employment is that for a father! Ah! if you do not fear death, yet at least be afraid of occasioning me the mortal grief of seeing my hand stained with your blood. Once more, father, says Scheherazade, grant me the favour I beg. Your stubbornness, replies the vizier, will make me angry; why will you run headlong to your ruin? They that do not foresee the end of a dangerous enterprise, can never bring it to a happy issue. I am afraid the same thing will happen to you that happened to the ass, which was well, and could not keep himself so. What misfortune befell the ass? replies Scheherazade. I will tell you, says the vizier, if you will hear me.

FABLE. The Ass, the Ox, and the Labourer.

A very wealthy merchant possessed several country-houses, where he kept a large number of cattle of every kind. He retired with his wife and family to one of these estates, in order to improve it under his own direction. He had the gift of understanding the language of beasts, but with this condition, that he should not, on pain of death, interpret it to any one else. And this hindered him from communicating to others what he learned by means of this faculty.

He kept in the same stall an ox and an ass. One day as he sat near them, and was amusing himself in looking at his children who were playing about him, he heard the ox say to the ass, Sprightly, O! how happy do I think you, when I consider the ease you enjoy, and the little labour that is required of you. You are carefully rubbed down and washed, you have well-dressed corn, and fresh clean water. Your greatest business is to carry the merchant, our master, when he has any little journey to make, and were it not for that you would be perfectly idle. I am treated in a very different manner, and my condition is as deplorable as yours is fortunate. Daylight no sooner appears than I am fastened to a plough, and made to work till night, which so fatigues me, that sometimes my strength entirely fails. Besides, the labourer, who is always behind me, beats me continually. By drawing the plough, my tail is all fleaed; and in short, after having laboured from morning to night, when I am brought in they give me nothing to eat but sorry dry beans, not so much as cleansed from dirt, or other food equally bad; and to heighten my misery, when I have filled my belly with such ordinary stuff, I am forced to lie all night in my own dung; so that you see I have reason to envy your lot.

The ass did not interrupt the ox; but when he had concluded, answered, They that called you a foolish beast did not lie. You are too simple; you suffer them to conduct you whither they please, and show no manner of resolution. In the mean time, what advantage do you reap from all the indignities you suffer? You kill yourself for the ease, pleasure, and profit of those who give you no thanks for your service. But they would not treat you so, if you had as much courage as strength. When they come to fasten you to the stall, why do you not resist? why do you not gore them with your horns, and show that you are angry, by striking your foot against the ground? And, in short, why do you not frighten them by bellowing aloud? Nature has furnished you with means to command respect; but you do not use them. They bring you sorry beans and bad straw; eat none of them; only smell and then leave them. If you follow my advice, you will soon experience a change, for which you will thank me.

The ox took the ass’s advice in very good part, and owned he was much obliged to him. Dear Sprightly, added he, I will not fail to do as you direct, and you shall see how I will acquit myself. Here ended their conversation, of which the merchant lost not a word.

Early the next morning the labourer went for the ox. He fastened him to the plough, and conducted him to his usual work. The ox, who had not forgotten the ass’s counsel, was very troublesome and untowardly all that day, and in the evening, when the labourer brought him back to the stall, and began to fasten him, the malicious beast, instead of presenting his head willingly as he used to do, was restive, and drew back bellowing; and then made at the labourer, as if he would have gored him with his horns. In a word, he did all the ass had advised him. The day following, the labourer came as usual, to take the ox to his labour; but finding the stall full of beans, the straw that he had put in the night before not touched, and the ox lying on the ground with his legs stretched out and panting in a strange manner, he believed him to be unwell and pitied him, and thinking that it was not proper to take him to work, went immediately and acquainted his master with his condition. The merchant perceiving that the ox had followed all the mischievous advice of the ass, determined to punish the latter, and accordingly ordered the labourer to go and put him in the ox’s place, and to be sure to work him hard. The labourer did as he was desired. The ass was forced to draw the plough all that day, which fatigued him so much the more, as he was not accustomed to that kind of labour; besides, he had been so soundly beaten, that he could scarcely stand when he came back.