Then the poor lady, clad only in her chemise, threw herself upon her
knees before her brother and said to him--

"Sir, spare the life of my husband, for I have indeed married him;
and if you are offended punish only me, for what he did was done at my
request."

Her brother, beside himself with wrath, could only reply--

"Even if he be your husband one hundred thousand times over, yet will I
punish him as a rascally servant who has deceived me."

So saying, he went to the window and called out loudly to kill him,
which was speedily done before the eyes of himself and his sister. The
latter, on beholding the pitiful sight which no prayers on her part
had been able to prevent, spoke to her brother like a woman bereft of
reason.

"Brother," she said, "I have neither father nor mother, and I am old
enough to marry according to my own pleasure. I chose one whom many a
time you said you would gladly have me marry, and for doing by your own
counsels that which the law permits me to do without them, you have put
to death the man whom you loved best of all the world. Well, since my
prayers have been of no avail to preserve his life, I implore you, by
all the love you have ever borne me, to make me now a sharer in his
death even as I have been a sharer in all his living fortunes. In this
way, while sating your unjust and cruel anger, you will give repose
to the body and soul of one who cannot and will not live without him."
Although her brother was almost distracted with passion, (4) he had