characteristics of hypocrites and traitors." When the Wazir heard
the Chamberlains' speech his colour yellowed, his frame was
disordered and a trembling seized his limbs, and the King turned
to him and noted that these symptoms had been caused by the words
of the two officials. So he continued to them, "What mean ye, O
Chamberlains, by your saying that lies and leasing are the
characteristics of hypocrites and traitors? Can it be that ye
have not put them to death? And as ye claim to be true men either
ye have killed them and ye speak thus or you are liars. Now by
Him who hath set me upon the necks of His lieges, if ye declare
not to me the truth I will do you both die by the foulest of
deaths." They rejoined, "By Allah, O King of the Age, whenas thou
badest us take them and slay them, we obeyed thy bidding and they
knew not nor could they divine what was to be until we arrived
with them at the middlemost and broadest of the desert; and when
we informed them of what had been done by the Wazir, thy Harem
exclaimed, 'There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in
Allah, the Glorious, the Great. Verily we are Allah's and unto
Him are we returning. But an ye kill us you will kill us
wrongfully and ye wot not wherefor. By the Lord, this Wazir hath
foully lied and hath accused us falsely before the Almighty.' So
we said to her, O King of the Age, 'Inform us of what really took
place,' and said the mother of the Princesses, 'Thus and thus it
happened.' Then she fell to telling us the whole tale from first
to last of the nurse who was sent to her and the handmaids and
the Eunuch."[FN#157] Hereupon the Sultan cried, "And ye, have ye
slain them or not?" and the Chamberlains replied, "By Allah, O
King of the Age, whenas the loyalty of thy Harem was made
manifest to us we snared a gazelle and cut its throat and filled
these four flasks with its blood; after which we broiled some of