sword and set him before the King—­And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say.  Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet and tasteful is thy tale, O sister mine, and enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

The Three Hundred and Eighty-first Night,

Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that at the King’s bidding they took up the Fakir who was still kneeling under the glaive and set him before the King who bade him be seated.  And when he sat him down the Sultan commanded all who were in the presence of Eunuchs and Chamberlains to withdraw, and they withdrew leaving the Sovran with the old religious.  But the second Darwaysh still knelt in his bonds under the sword of the Sworder who, standing over against his head, kept looking for the royal signal to strike.  Then cried the King, “O Mendicant, what drove thee to take my son, the core of my heart?” He replied, “By Allah, O King, I took him not for mine own pleasure; but he would not go from me and I threatened him, withal he showed no fear till this destiny descended upon us.”  Now when the Sultan heard these words his heart softened to the old man and he pitied him while the Sultanah who sat behind the curtain fell to weeping aloud.  Presently the King said, “O Darwaysh, relate to us thy history, for needs must it be a singular;” but the old man began to shed tears and said, “O King of the Age, I have a marvellous adventure which were it graven with needle-gravers upon the eye-corners were a warning to whoso would be warned.”  The Sultan was surprised and replied, “What then may be thy history, O Mendicant?” and the other rejoined, “O King of the Age, I will recount it to thee."[FN#196] Accordingly he told him of his kingship and the Wazir tempting his wife and of her slaying the nurse, the slave-girls, and the Eunuch; but when he came to this point the Sultanah ran out in haste and hurry from behind the curtain and rushing up to the Darwaysh threw herself upon his bosom.  The King seeing this marvelled and in a fury of jealousy clapped hand to hilt crying to the Fakir, “This be most unseemly behaviour!” But the Queen replied, “Hold thy hand, by Allah, he is my father and I am his loving daughter;” and she wept and laughed alternately[FN#197] all of the excess of her joy.  Hereat the King wondered and bade release the second religious and exclaimed, “Sooth he spake who said:—­

Allah joineth the parted when think the twain * With firmest
     thought ne’er to meet again.”