I bear no blame; 'tis all my heart and eyne; ✿ So leave thy blaming, let me yearn and pine.
Now the handsome youth knew not the affair of the damsel; and his father had enjoined her closely, saying, "Know, O my daughter, that I have bought thee as a bedfellow for our King, Mohammed bin Sulayman al-Zayni; and I have a son who is a Satan for girls and leaves no maid in the neighbourhood without taking her maidenhead; so be on thy guard against him and beware of letting him see thy face or hear thy voice." "Hearkening and obedience," said the girl; and he left her and fared forth. Some days after this it happened by decree of Destiny, that the damsel repaired to the baths in the house, where some of the slave women bathed her; after which she arrayed herself in sumptuous raiment; and her beauty and loveliness were thereby redoubled. Then she went in to the Wazir's wife and kissed her hand; and the dame said to her, "Naiman! May it benefit thee,15 O Anis al-Jalis!16 Are not our baths handsome?" "O my mistress," she replied, "I lacked naught there save thy gracious presence." Thereupon the lady said to her slave-women, "Come with us to the Hammam, for it is some days since we went there: " they answered, "To hear is to obey!" and rose and all accompanied her. Now she had set two little slave-girls to keep the door of the private chamber wherein was Anis al-Jalis and had said to them, "Suffer none go in to the damsel." Presently, as the beautiful maiden sat resting in her rooms, suddenly came in the Wazir's son whose name was Nur al-Din Ali,17 and asked after his mother and her women, to which the two little slave-girls replied, "They are in the Hammam." But the damsel, Anis al-Jalis, had heard from within Nur al-Din Ali's voice and had said to herself, "O would Heaven I saw what like is this youth against whom the Wazir warned me, saying that he hath not left a virgin in the neighbourhood without taking her virginity: by Allah, I do long to have sight of him!" So she sprang to her feet with the freshness of the bath on her and, stepping to the door, looked at Nur al-Din Ali and saw a youth like the moon in its full and the sight bequeathed her a thousand sighs. The young man also glanced at her and the look made him heir to a thousand thoughts of care; and each fell into Love's ready snare. Then he stepped up to the two little slave-girls and cried aloud at them; whereupon both fled before him and stood afar off to see what he would do. And behold, he walked to the door of the damsel's chamber and, opening it, went in and asked her "Art thou she my father bought for me?" and she answered "Yes." Thereupon the youth, who was warm with wine, came up to her and embraced her; then he took her legs and passed them round his waist and she wound her arms about his neck, and met him with kisses and murmurs of pleasure and amorous toyings. Next he sucked her tongue and she sucked his and, lastly, he loosed the strings of her petticoat-trousers and abated her maidenhead. When the two little slave-girls saw their young master get in unto the damsel, Anis al-Jalis, they cried out and shrieked; so as soon as the youth had had his wicked will of her, he rose and fled forth fearing the consequences of his ill-doing. When the Wazir's wife heard the slave-girls' cries, she sprang up and came out of the baths with the perspiration pouring from her face, saying, "What is this unseemly clamour in the house18?" Then she came up to the two little slave-girls and asked them saying, "Fie upon you! what is the matter?"; and both answered, "Verily our lord Nur al-Din came in and beat us, so we fled; then he went up to Anis al-Jalis and threw his arms round her and we know not what he did after that; but when we cried out to thee he ran away." Upon this the lady went to Anis al-Jalis and said to her, "What tidings?" "O my lady," she answered, "as I was sitting here lo! a handsome young man came in and said to me: – Art thou she my father bought for me?; and I answered Yes; for, by Allah, O mistress mine, I believed that his words were true; and he instantly came in and embraced me." "Did he nought else with thee but this?" quoth the lady, and quoth she, "Indeed he did! But he did it only three times." "He did not leave thee without dishonouring thee!" cried the Wazir's wife and fell to weeping and buffetting her face, she and the girl and all the handmaidens, fearing lest Nur al-Din's father should kill him.19 Whilst they were thus, in came the Wazir and asked what was the matter, and his wife said to him, "Swear that whatso I tell thee thou wilt attend to it." "I will," answered he. So she related to him what his son had done, whereat he was much concerned and rent his raiment and smote his face till his nose bled, and plucked out his beard by the handful. "Do not kill thyself," said his wife, "I will give thee ten thousand dinars, her price, of my own money." But he raised his head and cried; "Out upon thee! I have no need of her purchase-money: my fear is lest life as well as money go." "O my lord, and how is that?" "Wottest thou not that yonder standeth our enemy Al-Mu'in bin Sawi who, as soon as he shall hear of this matter, will go up to the Sultan?" – And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir said to his wife, "Wottest thou not that yonder standeth our enemy Al-Mu'in bin Sawi who, as soon as he hears of this matter will go up to the Sultan and say to him: – Thy Wazir who, thou wilt have it loveth thee, took from thee ten thousand ducats and bought therewith a slave-girl whose like none ever beheld; but when he saw her, she pleased him and he said to his son: – Take her: thou art worthier of her than the Sultan. So he took her and did away with her virginity and she is now in his house. The King will say: – Thou liest! to which he will reply: – With thy leave I will fall upon him unawares and bring her to thee. The King will give him warranty for this and he will come down upon the house and will take the girl and present her to the Sultan, who will question her and she will not be able to deny the past. Then mine enemy will say: – O my lord, thou wottest that I give thee the best of counsel; but I have not found favour in thine eyes. Thereupon the Sultan will make an example of me, and I shall be a gazing-stock to all the people and my life will be lost." Quoth his wife, "Let none know of this thing which hath happened privily, and commit thy case to Allah and trust in Him to save thee from such strait; for He who knoweth the future shall provide for the future." With this she brought the Wazir a cup of wine and his heart was quieted, and he ceased to feel wrath and fear. Thus far concerning him; but as regards his son Nur al-Din Ali, fearing the consequence of his misdeed he abode his day long in the flower-garden and came back only at night to his mother's apartment where he slept; and, rising before dawn, returned to the gardens. He ceased not to do thus for two whole months without showing his face to his parent, till at last his mother said to his father, "O my lord, shall we lose our boy as well as the girl? If matters continue long in this way he will flee from us." "And what to do?" asked he; and she answered, "Do thou watch this night; and, when he cometh, seize on him and frighten him: I will rescue him from thee and do thou make peace with him and give him the damsel to wife, for she loveth him as he loveth her. And I will pay thee her price." So the Minister sat up that night and, when his son came, he seized him and throwing him down knelt on his breast and showed as though he would cut his throat; but his mother ran to the youth's succour and asked her husband, "What wouldest thou do with him?" He answered her, "I will split his weasand." Said the son to the father, "Is my death, then, so light a matter to thee?"; and his father's eyes welled with tears, for natural affection moved him, and he rejoined, "O my son, how light was to thee the loss of my good and my life!" Quoth Nur al-Din, "Hear, O my father, what the poet hath said: —
Forgive me! thee-ward sinned I, but the wise ✿ Ne'er to the sinner shall deny his grace:
Thyfoe may pardon sue when lieth he ✿ In lowest, and thou holdest highest place!"
Thereupon the Wazir rose from off his son's breast saying, "I forgive thee!"; for his heart yearned to him; and the youth kissed the hand of his sire who said, "O my son, were I sure that thou wouldest deal justly by Anis al-Jalis, I would give her to thee." "O my father, what justice am I to do to her?" "I enjoin thee, O my son, not to take another wife or concubine to share with her, nor sell her." "O my father! I swear to thee that verily I will not do her injustice in either way." Having sworn to that effect Nur al-Din went in to the damsel and abode with her a whole year, whilst Allah Almighty caused the King to forget the matter of the maiden; and Al-Mu'in, though the affair came to his ears, dared not divulge it by reason of the high favour in which his rival stood with the Sultan.