for indeed there appeareth no cause such as calleth for killing, and it may not be denied that this accident is a thing whose like may well occur and that he may easily have been the victim of suchlike chance.’  Then he addressed me and questioned me of my lineage; so I set forth to him my genealogy and he, exclaiming, ’A man of her match, honourable, understanding,’ offered me his daughter in wedlock.  I consented to this and marrying her, took up my abode with him and Allah hath opened on me the gates of weal and wealth, so that I am become the richest in monies of the tribesmen; and the Almighty hath stablished me in that which He hath given me of His bounties.”  The young man marvelled at his tale and lay the night with him; and when he arose in the morning, he found his estrays.  So he took them and returning to his folk, acquainted them with what he had seen and all that had befallen him.  “Nor” (continued the Wazir) “is this stranger or rarer than the story of the King who lost kingdom and wealth and wife and children and Allah restored them to him and requited him with a realm more magnificent than that which he had forfeited and better and finer and greater of wealth and degree.”  The Minister’s story pleased the King and he bade him depart to his abode.

The Twenty-sixth Night of the Month.

When came the night, the king summoned his Wazir and bade him tell the story of the King who lost kingdom and wife and wealth.  He replied, “Hearing and obeying!  Give ear, O sovran, to

The Tale of the King who lost Kingdom and Wife and Wealth and Allah restored them to Him.[FN#508]

There was once a king of the kings of Hind, who was a model of morals, praiseworthy in policy, lief of justice to his lieges, lavish to men of learning and piety and abstinence and devoutness and worship and shunning mischief-makers and froward folk, fools and traitors.  After such goodly fashion he abode in his kingship what Allah the Most High willed of watches and days and twelvemonths,[FN#509] and he married the daughter of his father’s brother, a beautiful woman and a winsome, endowed with brightness and perfection, who had been reared in the king’s house in delicacy and delight.  She bare him two sons, the most beauteous that might be of boys, when came Destiny from whose decree is no deliverance and Allah the Most High raised up against the King another king, who came forth upon his realm, and was joined by all the folk of the city that had a mind to lewdness and frowardness.  So he strengthened himself by means of them against the King and compassed his kingdom, routing his troops and killing his guards.  The King took his wife, the mother of his sons, and what he might of monies and saved his life and fled in the darkness of the night, unknowing whither he should wend.  Whenas wayfare grew sore upon them, there met them highwaymen on the way, who took all that was with them, so that naught remained to each of them save a shirt and trousers;