The three apples.

Sir, said she, I have already had the honour to entertain your majesty with a ramble which the Caliph Haroun Alraschid made one night from his palace; I will give you an account of one more.  This prince one day commanded the grand vizier Giafar to come to his palace the night following.  Vizier, says he, I will take a walk round the town, to inform myself what people say, and particularly how they are pleased with my officers of justice.  If there be any against whom they have reason of just complaint, we will turn them out, and put others in their stead, who may officiate better:  If, on the contrary, there be any that have gained their applause, we will have that esteem for them which they deserve.  The grand vizier being come to the palace at the hour appointed, the caliph, he, and Mesrour the chief of the eunuchs, disguised themselves so as they could not be known, and went out ail together.  They passed through several places, and by several markets; and as they entered a small street, they perceived, by the light of the moon, a tall man, with a white beard, who carried nets on his head; he had a folding basket of palm leaves on his arm, and a club in his hand.  This old man, says the caliph, does not seem to be rich; let us go to him, and inquire into his circumstances.  Honest man, said the vizier, who art thou?  The old man replied, Sir, I am a fisher, but one of the poorest and most miserable of the trade; I went from my house about noon to go a-fishing, and from that time to this I have not been able to catch one fish; at the same time I have a wife and small children, and nothing to maintain them.  The caliph, moved with compassion, says to the fisherman, Hast thou the courage to go back and cast thy nets once more?  We will give thee a hundred sequins for what thou shall bring up.  At this proposal, the fisherman, forgetting all his day’s toil, took the caliph at his word, and with him, Giafar, and Mesrour, returned to the Tigris; he saying to himself, These gentlemen seem to be too honest and reasonable not to reward my pains; and if they give me the hundredth part of what they promise me, it will be a great deal.  They came to the bank of the river; and the fisherman throwing in his net, when he drew it again, brought up a trunk close shut, and very heavy.  The caliph made the grand vizier pay him a hundred sequins immediately, and sent him away.  Mesrour, by his master’s order, carried the trunk on his shoulder; and the caliph was so very eager to know what was in it, that he returned to the palace with all speed.  When the trunk was opened, they found in it a large basket made of palm leaves, shut up, and the covering of it sewed with red thread.  To satisfy the caliph’s impatience, they would not take time to unrip it, but cut the thread with a knife, and they took out of the basket a bundle wrapt up in a sorry piece of hanging, and bound round with a rope, which being untied, and the bundle opened, they found, to their great amazement, the corpse of a young lady, whiter than snow, all cut in pieces.