received from his subjects, their mouths were now filled with
imprecations against him.

The grand vizier, who, as has been already said, was the
executioner of this horrid injustice against his will, had two
daughters, the eldest called Scheherazade, and the youngest
Dinarzade: the latter was a lady of very great merit; but the
elder had courage, wit, and penetration, infinitely above her
sex; she had read abundance, and had such a prodigious memory
that she never forgot any thing. She had successfully applied
herself to philosophy, physic, history, and the liberal arts, and
for verse exceeded, the best poets of her times; besides this,
she was a perfect beauty, and all her fine qualifications were
crowned by solid virtue.

The vizier passionately loved a daughter so worthy of his tender
affection; and one day, as they were discoursing together, she
says to him, Father, I have one favour to beg of you, and must
humbly pray you to grant it me. I will not refuse it, answered
he, provided it be just and reasonable. For the justice of it,
says she, there can be no question, and you may judge of it by
the motive which obliges me to demand it of you. I have a design
to stop the course of that barbarity which the sultan exercises
upon the families of this city. I would dispel those unjust fears
which so many mothers have of losing their daughters in such a
fatal manner. Your design, daughter, replies the vizier, is very
commendable; but the disease you would remedy seems to be
incurable; how do you pretend to effect it? Father, says
Scheherazade, since by your means the sultan makes every day a
new marriage, I conjure you, by the tender affection you bear to