thou, Zarah,' he continued, 'wilt lose nought, but gain exceedingly, in
becoming the spouse of the wise and virtuous Sergius.'

"'I marry Zarah!' I exclaimed, 'I! a monk!'

"'Surely,' said he, 'thou would'st not take away her husband without giving
her another in his stead?'

"'If he does I will throttle him,' cried Zarah.

"And I wept sore, and made great intercession. And it was agreed that there
should be a delay of forty days, in which space if any one else would marry
Zarah, I should be free of her. And I promised all my substance to any one
who would do this, and no one was found. And she was offered to thirteen
criminals doomed to suffer death, and they all chose death. And at the last
I was constrained to marry her. And truly I have now the comfort of
thinking that if I have offended by encouraging Abdallah's deceits, or
otherwise, the debt is paid, and Eternal Justice hath now nothing against
me; for verily I was an inmate of Gehenna until it came to pass that she
was herself translated thither. And respecting the manner of her
translation, inquire not thou too curiously. It was doubtless a token of
the displeasure of Heaven at her enormities that the water of the well of
Kefayat, which had been known as the Diamond of the Desert, became about
this time undrinkable, and pernicious to man and beast.

"As I sat in my dwelling administering to the estate of my deceased wife,
which consisted principally of wines and strong liquors, Abdallah again
appeared before me.

"'Hast thou come,' said I, 'to solicit me to abet thee in any new