Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 3.djvu/62
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dear Wife, of whom I had deprived my ſelf after ſo cruel a manner, by giving too eaſy Credit to the Report of a lying Slave.
This, Commander of the Faithful, is the ſincere Confeſſion your Majeſty demanded from me. You have heard now all the Circumſtances of my Crime, and I moſt humbly beg of you to order the Puniſhment due for it, how ſevere ſoever it may be, I ſhall not in the leaſt complain, but eſteem it too eaſy and gentle.
Scheherazade perceiving Day left of ſpeaking; but next Night purſu’d her Diſcourſe thus.
The Ninety Third Night.
SIR, ſaid ſhe, the Califf was very much aſtoniſh’d at the Young Man’s Relation. But this juſt Prince, finding he was rather to be pitied than condemned, began to ſpeak in his Favour: This young Man’s Crime, ſaid he, is pardonable before God, and excuſable with Men. The wicked Slave is the ſole Cauſe of this Murder, ’tis he alone that muſt be puniſh’d; wherefore, ſaid he, looking upon the Grand Vizier, I give you three Days time to find him out; if you do not bring him within that ſpace, you ſhall die in his ſtead. The unfortunate Giafar, who thought himſelf now out of Danger, was terribly perplexed at this new Order of the Califf; bur as he durſt not return any Anſwer to this Prince, whoſe haſty Temper he knew too well, departed from his Preſence, and retir’d to his Houſe with Tears in his Eyes, perſuading himſelf he had but three Days to live; for he was ſo fully perſuaded that he ſhould not find the Slave, that he made not the leaſt Enquiry about him. It is poſſible, ſaid he, that in ſuch a City as Bagdad, where there’s an infinite Number of Negro Slaves, I ſhould be able to find out him that is guilty. So that unleſs God be pleaſed to bring it about, as he hath already deteſtes the Murderer, nothing can ſave my Life.
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