The Seventh Night of the Month.

At eventide the king sat in his wonted seat and sending for the Wazir, said to him, “Tell me the story of the Fuller and his Wife.”  The Minister replied, “With joy and goodly gree!” So he came forward and said, “Hear, O king of the age,

The Tale of the Fuller and his Wife and the Trooper.[FN#362]

There was once in a city of the cities a woman fair of favour, who took to lover a trooper wight.  Her husband was a fuller, and when he went out to his work, the trooper used to come to her and tarry with her till the time of the fuller’s return, when he would go away.  After this fashion they abode awhile, till one day the trooper said to his mistress, “I mean to take me a tenement close to thine and dig a Sardabsouterrain from my house to thy house, and do thou say to thy spouse, ’My sister hath been absent with her husband and now they have returned from their travels; and I have made her home herself in my neighbourhood, in order that I may foregather with her at all times.  So go thou to her mate the trooper and offer him thy wares for sale, and thou wilt see my sister with him and wilt see that she is I and I am she, without a doubt.  Now, Allah, Allah,[FN#363] go to my sister’s husband and give ear to that which he shall say to thee.’” So the trooper bought him a house near hand and made therein a tunnel abutting upon his mistress’s house.  When he had accomplished his affair, the wife bespoke her husband as her lover had lessoned her and he went out to go to the trooper’s house, but turned back by the way, whereupon said she to him, “By Allah, go at once, for my sister asketh of thee.”  The fool of a fuller went out and made for the trooper’s house, whilst his wife forewent him thither by the underground passage, and going up, sat down beside the soldier her leman.  Presently, the fuller entered and saluted the trooper and salamed to his own wife and was confounded at the coincidence of the case.[FN#364] Then, doubt befalling him, he returned in haste to his dwelling; but she preceded him by the Sardab to her chamber and donning her wonted clothes, sat awaiting him and said to him, “Did I not bid thee go to my sister and greet her husband and make friends with them?” Quoth he, “I did this, but I misdoubted of my affair, when I saw his wife;” and quoth she, “Did I not tell thee that she favoureth me and I her, and there is naught to distinguish between us but our clothes?  Go back to her and make sure.”  Accordingly, of the heaviness of his wit, he believed her, and returning on his way, went in to the trooper; but she had foregone him, and when he saw her by the side of her lover, he began looking on her and pondering.  Then he saluted her and she returned him the salam; and when she spoke he was clean bewildered.  So the trooper asked him, “What aileth thee to be thus?” and he answered, “This woman is my wife, and the speech is her speech.”  Then he rose in haste and, returning to his own house,