“I have received from my confidant intelligence which gives me no less concern than it must give you.  In Ebn Thaher, we have indeed sustained a great loss; but let this not hinder you, dear prince, from thinking of your own preservation.  If our friend has abandoned us through fear, let us consider that it is a misfortune which we could not avoid.  I confess Ebn Thaher has left us at a time when we most needed his assistance; but let us bear this unexpected stroke with patience, and let us not forbear to love one another constantly.  Fortify your heart under this misfortune.  The object of our wishes is not to be obtained without trouble.  Let us not be discouraged, but hope that heaven will favour us, and that, after so many afflictions, we shall see a happy accomplishment of our desires.  Adieu.”

While the jeweller was conversing with the prince of Persia, the confidant had time to return to the palace and communicate to her mistress the ill news of Ebn Thaher’s departure.  Schemselnihar immediately wrote this letter, and sent back her confidant with it to the prince of Persia, but she negligently dropped it on her way.

The jeweller was glad to find it, for it furnished him with an opportunity of justifying himself to the confidant, and bringing her to the point he desired.  When he had read it, he perceived the slave seeking for it with the greatest anxiety.  He closed it again quickly, and put it into his bosom; but the slave observed him, and running to him, said, “Sir, I have dropped a letter, which you had just now in your hand; I beseech you to restore it.”  The jeweller, pretending not to hear her, continued his way till he came to his house.  He left his door open, that the confidant, who followed him, might enter after him.  She followed him in, and when she came to his apartment, said, “Sir, you can make no use of that letter you have found, and you would not hesitate to return it to me, if you knew from whom it came, and to whom it is directed.  Besides, allow me to tell you, you cannot honestly keep it.”

Before the jeweller returned her any answer he made her sit down, and then said to her, “Is not this letter from Schemselnihar, and is it not directed to the prince of Persia?” The slave, who expected no such question, blushed.  “The question embarrasses you,” continued he; “but I assure you I do not put it rashly:  I could have given you the letter in the street, but I wished you to follow me, on purpose that I might come to some explanation with you.  Is it just, tell me, to impute a misfortune to persons who have no ways contributed towards it?  Yet this you have done, in telling the prince of Persia that it was I who advised Ebn Thaher to leave Bagdad for his own safety.  I do not intend to waste time in justifying myself; it is enough that the prince of Persia is fully persuaded of my innocence; I will only tell you, that instead of contributing to Ebn Thaher’s departure, I have been extremely afflicted at it, not so much from