she elicited from them, assured her that she had found her own sons again.  Tears streamed down her face as she embraced them, and revealed to them that she was the queen, their mother, about whom they had just been speaking.  She then told them all that had happened to her since she had been parted from them and their poor father, the king; after which she explained that although the merchant was a good man and very wealthy yet she did not like him well enough to become his wife, and proposed a plan for her getting rid of him.  “My device,” said she, “is to pretend to the merchant that you attempted my honour.  I shall affect to be very angry and not give him any peace until he goes to the king and complains against you.  Then will the king send for you in great wrath and inquire into this matter.  In reply you may say it is all a mistake, for you regard me as your own mother, and in proof of this you will beg the king to summon me into his presence, that I may corroborate what you say.  Then I will declare that you are really my own sons, and beseech the king to free me from the merchant and allow me to live with you in any place I may choose for the rest of my days.”

The sons agreed to this proposal, and next night, when the merchant was also sleeping in the house, the woman raised a great cry, so that everybody was awakened by the noise.  The merchant came and asked the cause of the outcry, and she answered, “The two youths who look after your warehouse have attempted to violate me, so I screamed in order to make them desist.”  On hearing this the merchant was enraged.  He immediately bound the two youths, and, as soon as there was any chance of seeing the king, took them before him preferred his complaint.  “What have you to say in your defence?” said the king, addressing the youths; “because, if what this merchant charges against you be true, I will have you at once put to death.  Is this the gratitude you manifest for all my kindness and condescension towards you?  Say quickly what you have to say.”  “O king, our benefactor,” replied the elder brother, “we are not affrighted by your words and looks, for we are true servants.  We have not betrayed your trust in us, but have always tried to fully your wishes to the utmost of our power.  The charges brought against us by this merchant are unfounded.  We have not attempted to dishonour his wife; we have rather always regarded her as our own mother.  May it please your majesty to send for the woman and inquire further into this matter.”

The king consented, and the woman was brought before him.  “Is it true,” he asked her “what the merchant, your affianced husband, witnesses against these two youths?” “O king,” she replied, “the youths whom you gave to help the merchant have most carefully tried to carry out your wishes.  But the night before last I heard their conversation.  The elder was telling the younger a tale, from his own experience, he said.  It was a story of a conceited king who had been defeated