His majesty listened to me with some sort of comfort, and when I had done, “Nephew,” said he, “what you tell me gives me some hope.  I knew that my son ordered that tomb to be built, and I can guess pretty nearly the place; and with the idea you still have of it, I fancy we shall find it:  but since he ordered it to be built privately, and you took your oath to keep his secret, I am of opinion, that we ought to go in quest of it without other attendants.”  But he had another reason for keeping the matter secret, which he did not then tell me, and an important one it was, as you will perceive by the sequel of my story.

We disguised ourselves and went out by a door of the garden which opened into the fields, and soon found what we sought for.  I knew the tomb, and was the more rejoiced, because I had formerly sought it a long time in vain.  We entered, and found the iron trap pulled down at the head of the staircase; we had great difficulty in raising it, because the prince had fastened it inside with the water and mortar formerly mentioned, but at last we succeeded.

The sultan my uncle descended first, I followed, and we went down about fifty steps.  When we came to the foot of the stairs, we found a sort of antechamber, full of thick smoke of an ill scent, which obscured the lamp, that gave a very faint light.

From this antechamber we came into another, very large, supported by columns, and lighted by several branched candlesticks.  There was a cistern in the middle, and provisions of several sorts stood on one side of it; but we were much surprised not to see any person.  Before us there appeared a high estrade, which we mounted by several steps, and upon this there was a large bed, with curtains drawn.  The sultan went up, and opening the curtains, perceived the prince his son and the lady in bed together, but burnt and changed to cinder, as if they had been thrown into a fire, and taken out before they were consumed.

But what surprised me most was, that though this spectacle filled me with horror, the sultan my uncle, instead of testifying his sorrow to see the prince his son in such a condition, spat on his face, and exclaimed, with a disdainful air, “This is the punishment of this world, but that of the other will last to eternity;” and not content with this, he pulled off his sandal, and gave the corpse of his son a blow on the cheek.

I cannot adequately express how much I was astonished when I saw the sultan my uncle abuse his son thus after he was dead.  “Sir,” said I, “whatever grief this dismal sight has impressed upon me, I am forced to suspend it, to enquire of your majesty what crime the prince my cousin may have committed, that his corpse should deserve such indignant treatment?” “Nephew,” replied the sultan, “I must tell you, that my son (who is unworthy of that name) loved his sister from his infancy, as she did him:  I did not check their growing fondness, because I did not foresee its pernicious