now become as one annihilated.  So do thou have ruth upon him and revive his heart and restore his health.”  Now when my mother heard these words, she bade her Eunuchs seize that Castrato and carry him from the room to the middle of the Divan-court and there slay him; but she did so without divulging her reasons.  They obeyed her bidding; and when the Lords of the land and others saw the body of a man slain by the eunuchry of the palace, they informed the Wazir, saying, “What hateful business is this which hath befallen after the Sultan’s departure?” He asked, “What is to do?” and they told him that his Castrato had been slain by a party of the palace eunuchry.  Thereupon he said to them, “In your hand abideth testimony of this whenas the Sultan shall return and ye shall bear witness to it.”  But, O King, the Wazir’s passion for our mother waxed cool after the deaths of the nurse and the slave-girls and the eunuch; and she also held her peace and spake not a word there anent.  On this wise time passed and he sat in the stead of my sire till the Sultan’s return drew near when the Minister dreaded lest our father, learning his ill deeds, should do him die.  So he devised a device and wrote a letter to the King saying, “After salutation be it known to thee that thy Harem hath sent to me, not only once but five several times during thine absence, soliciting of me a foul action, to which I refused consent and replied, By Allah, however much she may wish to betray my Sovran, I by the Almighty will not turn traitor; for that I was left by thee guardian of the realm after thy departure.”  He added words upon words; then he sealed the scroll and gave it to a running courier with orders to hurry along the road.  The messenger took it and fared with it to the Sultan’s camp when distant eight days’ journey from the capital; and, finding him seated in his pavilion,[FN#153] delivered the writ.  He took it and opened it and read it and when he understood its secret significance, his face changed, his eyes turned backwards and he bade his tents be struck for departure.  So they fared by forced marches till between him and his capital remained only two stations.  He then summoned two Chamberlains with orders to forego him to the city and take my mother and us three girls a day’s distance from it and there put us to death.  Accordingly, they led us four to the open country purposing to kill us, and my mother knew not what intent was in their minds until they reached the appointed spot.  Now the Queen had in times past heaped alms-deeds and largesse upon the two Chamberlains, so they held the case to be a grievous and said each to other, “By Allah we cannot slaughter them; no, never!” Then they told my mother of the letter which the Wazir had written to our father saying such-and-such, upon which she exclaimed, “He hath lied, by Allah, the arch-traitor; and naught happened save so-and-so.”  Then she related to them all she had done with the exactest truth.  The men said, “Sooth thou