this, the chamberlain said to himself, “What is passing in his mother’s breast?  What have I not done I can yet do, and it were better that I preserve this youth some days, for such a rose may not be wounded through idle words, and such a bough may not be broken by a breath.  For some day the truth of this matter will be disclosed, and it will become known to the king when repentance may be of no avail.”  So he went before the king and said, “That which was commanded have I fulfilled.”  On hearing this the king’s wrath was to some extent removed but his trust in the Kaysar’s daughter was departed; while she, poor creature, was grieved and dazed at the loss of her son.

Now in the palace-harem there was an old woman, who said to the queen, “How is it that I find thee sorrowful?” And the queen told the whole story, concealing nothing.  This old woman was a heroine in the field of craft, and she answered, “Keep thy mind at ease; I will devise a stratagem by which the heart of the king will be pleased with thee, and every grief he has will vanish from his heart.”  The queen said that, if she did so, she should be amply rewarded.  One day the old woman, seeing the king alone, said to him, “Why is thy former aspect altered?  And why are there traces of care and anxiety visible on thy countenance?” The king then told her all.  Then said the old woman, “I have an amulet of the charms of Sulayman, in the Syriac language, and in the writing of the jinn (genii).  When the queen is asleep, do thou place it on her breast, and whatever it may be, she will tell the truth of it.  But take care, fall not asleep, but listen well to what she says.”  The king wondered at this and said, “Give me that amulet, that the truth of this matter may be learned.”  So the old woman gave him the amulet, and then went to the queen and explained what she had done, and said, “Do thou feign to be asleep, and relate the whole of thy story faithfully.”

When a watch of the night was past, the king laid the amulet upon his wife’s breast, and she thus began:  “By a former husband I had a son, and when my father gave me to this king, I was ashamed to say I had a tall son.  When my yearning passed all bounds, I brought him here by an artifice.  One day that the king was gone to the chase I called him into the house, when, after the way of mothers, I took him in my arms and kissed him.  This reached the king’s ears; he unwittingly gave it another construction, and cut off the head of that innocent boy, and withdrew from me his own heart.  Alike is my son lost to me and the king angry.”  When the king heard these words he kissed her and exclaimed, “O my life, what an error is this thou hast committed?  Thou hast brought calumny upon thyself, and hast given such a son to the winds, and hast made me ashamed!” Straightway he called the chamberlain, and said, “That boy whom thou hast killed is the son of my beloved and the darling of my beauty!  Where is his grave, that we may