Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 4.djvu/56

very well. Upon your Side, you are to act your Part, and that very diſcreetful, for if you do not, your Life is at Stake.

I gave him repeated Aſſurances of a punctual Performance of whatever ſhould be injoined me. Then, ſaid he, in the Evening you muſt be at the Moſque built by the Califf’s Lady on the Bank of the Tigris, and ftay there till one comes to call you. I agreed to all he propoſed; and after paſſing the Day in great Impatience, went in the Evening to the Prayer that’s ſaid an Hour and a half after Sun-ſet in the Moſque, and there I ſtayed after all the People were gone.

Soon after I ſaw a Boat making up to the Moſque, the Rowers of which were all Eunuchs, who came on Shore and put ſeveral large Trunks into the Moſque, and then retired; only one of them ſtaid behind, whom I perceived to be the ſame Eunuch that had all along accompanied the Lady, and had been with me that Morning. Much about the ſame time I ſaw the Lady enter the Moſque; and making up to her, told her I was ready to obey her Orders. Come, come, ſaid ſhe, we have no time to loſe; with that, ſhe opened one of the Trunks, and bid me get into it, that being neceſſary both for her Safety and mine. Fear nothing, added ſhe, leave the Management of all to me. I confider’d with my ſelf, I had gone too ſar to look back; and fo obey’d her Orders, upon which ſhe locked the Trunk. This done, the Eunuch that was her Confident, called the other Eunuchs who had brought in the Trunks, and order’d &nsquo;em to carry them on board again. Then the Lady and Eunuch re-imbarqued, and the Boat-Men row’d to Zobeide’s Apartment.

In the mean time I reflected very ſeriouſly upon the Danger to which I had expos’d my ſelf; and made Vows and Prayers, tho’ it was then too late.

The Boat put into the Palace Gate, and the Trunks were carried into the Apartment of the Officer of the Eunuchs, who keep the Key of the Lady’s Apartments, and ſuffers nothing to enter without a narrow Inſpection: The Officer was then in Bed, and ſo there was a neceſſity of calling him up——But now, Sir, ſaid Scheherazade, I ſee ’tis Day; upon which Schahriar roſe to hold a Council, reſolving to hear the reſt of the Story next Night.