“Nor” (continued the Wazir) “is this, O king of the age, rarer or stranger than the story of the King and his Chamberlain’s wife; nay, this is more wondrous than that and more delectable.”  When the king heard this story, he was strengthened in his resolve to spare the Minister and to eschew haste in an affair whereof he was not certified; so he comforted him and bade him hie to his home.

The Twenty-fourth Night of the Month.

When it was night, the King summoned the Wazir and sought of him the hearing of the story.  Al-Rahwan replied, “Hearkening and obedience!  Listen, O august sovran, to

The Tale of the King and his Chamberlain’s Wife.[FN#488]

There was once, in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before, a King of the kings of the Persians, who was much addicted to the love of fair women.  His courtiers spoke him of the wife of a certain of his Chamberlains, a model of beauty and loveliness and perfect grace, and this egged him on to go in to her.  When she saw him, she knew him and said to him, “What urgeth the King to this that he doeth?” and he replied, saying, “Verily, I long for thee with excess of longing and there is no help but that I enjoy thy favours.”  And he gave her of wealth that after whose like women lust; but she said, “I cannot do the deed whereof the king speaketh, for fear of my husband; “[FN#489] and she refused herself to him with the most rigorous of refusals and would not suffer him to win his wish.  So the king went out in wrath, and forgot his girdle in the place.  Now it chanced that her husband entered immediately after his lord had departed, and saw the girdle and knew it.  He was aware of the king’s love for women; so quoth he to his wife, “What be this I see with thee?” Quoth she, “I’ll tell thee the truth,” and recounted to him the occurrence; but he believed her not and suspicion entered his heart.  As for the King, he passed that night in care and concern, and when the morning morrowed, he summoned that Chamberlain and made him governor of one of his provinces; then he bade him betake himself thither, purposing, after he should have departed and fared afar, to foregather with his wife.  The Chamberlain perceived his project and kenned his intent; so he answered, saying, “To hear is to obey!” presently adding, “I will go and order my affairs and give such injunctions as may be needed for the well-doing of my affairs; then will I go about the sovran’s commission.”  And the King said, “Do this and make haste.”  So the Chamberlain went about that which he needed and assembling his wife’s kinsfolk, said to them, “I am determined to dismiss my wife.”  They took this ill of him and complained of him and summoning him before the sovereign, sat prosecuting him.  Now the King had no knowledge of that which had passed; so he said to the Chamberlain, “Why wilt thou put her away and how can thy soul consent to this and why takest thou unto thyself a fine and fertile piece of land and presently forsakest it?” Answered the husband, “Allah amend the king!  By the Almighty, O my King, I saw therein the trail of the lion and fear to enter that land, lest the lion devour me; and the like of my affair with her is that which befel between the Crone and the Draper’s Wife.  The king asked, “What is their adventure?” and the Chamberlain answered, “Hear, O king,