Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 4.djvu/18

Hour in which I was born! Would to God I had died that Minute.

Diſconſolate Bedreddin did not ceaſe to ſpin out his Lamentations; and when the Stake was brought, and the Nails to nail him to it, he cried out bitterly at the horrid Sight. Heaven! faid he, can you ſuffer me to die an ignominious and painful Death? And all this, for what Crime? ’Tis not for Robbery or Murder, or renouncing my Religion; but for not putting Pepper in a Cream Tart.

Night being then pretty far advanced, the Vizier Schemfeddin Mohammed ordered Bedreddin to be clapt up again in his Cage, ſaying to him, Stay there till to Morrow; the Day ſhall not be ſpent before I give Orders for your Death. Then the Cheſt or Cage was carried away and laid upon the Camel that had brought it from Damaſcus: At the ſame time, all the other Camels were loaded again; and the Vizier mounting his Horſe, ordered the Camel that carried his Nephew to march before him, and ſo entred the City, with all his Equipage at his back. After paſſing thro’ ſeveral Streets, where no body appeared, every one being in Bed, he arrived at his Houſe, where he ordered the Cheſt to be taken down, but not opened till further Orders.

While his Retinue were unloading the other Camels, he took Bedreddin’s Mother and his Daughter aſide; and addrefſed himſelf to the latter; God be praiſed, ſaid he, my Child, for this happy Occaſion of meeting your Couſin and your Husband. You remember to be ſure what Order your Chamber was in on your Wedding Night: Go and put everything in the very fame Order they were then in; and in the meantime, if your Memory do not ſerve you, I can ſupply it by a written Account, which I cauſed to be taken upon that Occaſion: As for what elſe is to be done, I will take care of that.

The beautiful Lady went joyfully about her Father’s Orders; and he at the fame time began to put the Things in the Hall in the fame Order they were, in when Bedreddin Haſfan was there with the Sultan of Egypt’s Hump’d-back’d groom. As he went over his Manuſcript, his Domeſticks placed every Moveable accordingly. The Throne was not forgot, nor yet the lighted Wax-Candles. When every thing was put to rights in the Hall,