annihilated. So do thou have ruth upon him and revive his heart
and restore his health." Now when my mother heard these words,
she bade her Eunuchs seize that Castrato and carry him from the
room to the middle of the Divan-court and there slay him; but she
did so without divulging her reasons. They obeyed her bidding;
and when the Lords of the land and others saw the body of a man
slain by the eunuchry of the palace, they informed the Wazir,
saying, "What hateful business is this which hath befallen after
the Sultan's departure?" He asked, "What is to do?" and they told
him that his Castrato had been slain by a party of the palace
eunuchry. Thereupon he said to them, "In your hand abideth
testimony of this whenas the Sultan shall return and ye shall
bear witness to it." But, O King, the Wazir's passion for our
mother waxed cool after the deaths of the nurse and the
slave-girls and the eunuch; and she also held her peace and spake
not a word there anent. On this wise time passed and he sat in
the stead of my sire till the Sultan's return drew near when the
Minister dreaded lest our father, learning his ill deeds, should
do him die. So he devised a device and wrote a letter to the King
saying, "After salutation be it known to thee that thy Harem hath
sent to me, not only once but five several times during thine
absence, soliciting of me a foul action, to which I refused
consent and replied, By Allah, however much she may wish to
betray my Sovran, I by the Almighty will not turn traitor; for
that I was left by thee guardian of the realm after thy
departure." He added words upon words; then he sealed the scroll
and gave it to a running courier with orders to hurry along the
road. The messenger took it and fared with it to the Sultan's
camp when distant eight days' journey from the capital; and,
finding him seated in his pavilion,[FN#153] delivered the writ.