opening the bundle beheld sumptuous raiment and, amongst other
valuables, a necklace of precious stones. So she said to the
nurse, "This is indeed ornamental gear, especially the collar;"
and said the nurse, "O my lady, these are from thy slave the
Wazir by way of love-token, for he doteth on thee with extreme
desire and his only wish is to forgather with thee and converse,
he and thou, for a couple of hours, either in his own place or in
thine whither he will come." Now when my mother heard these words
from the nurse she arose and drew a scymitar which lay hard by
and of her angry hastiness made the old woman's head fall from
her body and bade her slave-girls pick up the pieces and cast
them into the common privy of the palace. So they did her bidding
and wiped away the blood. Now the Wazir abode expecting his nurse
to return to him but she returned not; so next day he despatched
another handmaid who went to my mother and said to her, "O my
lady, our lord the Wazir sent thee a present of dress by his
nurse; but she hath not come back to him." Hereupon my mother
bade her Eunuchs take the slave and strangle her, then cast the
corpse into the same house of easement where they had thrown the
nurse. They did her bidding; but she said in her mind, "Haply the
Wazir will return from the road of unright:" and she kept his
conduct a secret. He however fell every day to sending
slave-girls with the same message and my mother to slaying each
and every, nor deigned show him any signs of yielding. But she, O
our lord the Sultan, still kept her secret and did not acquaint
our father therewith, always saying to herself, "Haply the Wazir
will return to the road of right." And behold my father presently
came back from hunting and sporting and pleasuring, when the
Lords of the land met him and salam'd to him, and amongst them
appeared the Minister whose case was changed. Now some years