Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 3.djvu/63

for Notaries and Witneſſes, who ſigned the laſt Will he made in their Preſence. After which he took leave of his Wife and Children, and bid them the laſt Farewel. All his Family was drown’d Tears; ſo that there never was a more ſorrowful Spectacle. At laſt the Meſſenger came from the Califf to tell him that he was out of all Patience, having heard nothing from him, nor concerning the Negroe Slave, which he had commanded him to ſearch for, I am therefore order’d, ſaid he, to bring you before his Throne. The afflicted Vizier made ready to follow the Meſſenger, but, as he was going out, they brought him his youngeſt Daughter about five or ſix Years of Age. The Nurſes that attended her preſented her to her Father to receive his laſt Bleſſing.

As he had a particular Love for that Child, he pray’d the Meſſenger to give him leave to ſtop for a Moment, and taking his Daughter in his Arms, he kifſed her ſeveral times; as he kiſs’d her, he perceiv’d ſhe had in her Boſom that look’d bulky, and had a ſweet Scent. My dear little one, ſaid he, what haſt thou in thy Boſom? My dear Father, ſaid ſhe, ’tis an Apple, upon which is written the Name of our Lord and Maſter the Califf, our Slave Rihan^[1] ſold it me for two Sequins.

At the Words Apple and Slave the Grand Vizier cried out with Surprize, intermixt with Joy, and putting his Hand into the Child’s Boſom pulled out the Apple: He caus’d the Slave, who was not far off, to be brought immediately, and when he came, Raſcal, ſaid he, Where hadſt thou this Apple? My Lord, ſaid the Slave, I ſwear to you that I neither ſtole it in your Houſe, nor out of the Commander of the Faithful’s Garden; but t’other Day, as I was going along a Street, where three or four ſmall Children were at play, one of them having it in his Hand, I ſnatch’d it from him and carried it away. The Child run after me, telling me it was none of his own, but belonged to his Mother, who was ſick, and that his Father, to ſave her Longing, had made a long