Her Majesty the King

Her Majesty the King
HER MAJESTY THE KING
A Romance of the Harem
Done into American from the Arabic By
JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE
With Illustrations by OLIVER HERFORD
NEW YORK R. H. RUSSELL 1902
Copyright, 1898, by James Jeffrey Roche Copyright, 1902, by Robert Howard Russell
UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
To the lineal descendant of the Lady Kayenna, who told me this true history, the while I could but marvel and admire the teller; for, of a truth, since Scheherezade there hath been none to approach her in goodliness and wit and wisdom and all comeliness of mind and person and, especially, in a proper and intelligent appreciation of
THE ILLUSTRIOUS AUTHOR.
Many, and in sooth foolish, are they who writing books send them forth to the world with humiliating disparagement of their contents and servile appeals for mercy to those who may read them. Now a man who hath dates, or coffee, or rice to sell goeth not into the market-place crying out, “Lo! the merchandise which I offer for sale is poor and mouldy and unworthy stuff; yet of your charity, good people, I pray you to buy,” seeking yet to cajole his hearers with coarse flattery. As if any man were silly enough to buy damaged goods because, forsooth, the vendor praised the good judgment of the buyer!