An hour before day, Dinarzade, being awake, failed not to call upon the sultaness, and said, Pray, dear sister, go on with the history of the young king of the Black Islands. Scheherazade, calling to mind where she left off, resumed ths story thus:
As soon as the queen my wife went out, continues the king of the Black Islands, I got up, dressed me in haste, took my scimitar, and followed her so quick that I soon heard the sound of her feet before me, and then walked softly after her, for fear of being heard. She passed through several gates, which opened upon her pronouncing some magical words; and the last she opened was that of the garden, which she entered: I stopped at the gate, that she might not perceive me, As she crossed a plot, and looking after her as far as I could in the night, I perceived that she entered a little wood, whose walks were guarded by thick palisadoes. I went thither by another way, and slipping behind the palisadoes of a long walk, I saw her walking there with a man.
I gave good heed to their discourse, and heard her say thus; I do not deserve, says the queen to her gallant, to be upbraided by you for want of diligence; you know very well what hinders me; but if all the marks of love that I have already given you be not enough, I am ready to give you greater marks of it: You need but command me; you know my power. I will, if you desire it, before sun-rising, change this great city, and this fine palace, into frightful ruins, which shall be inhabited by nothing but wolves, owls, and ravens. Would you have me to transport all the stones of those walls, so solidly built, beyond mount Caucasus, and out of the bounds of the habitable world? Speak but the word, and all those places shall be changed.
As the queen finished these words, her gallant and she came to the end of the walk, turned to enter another, and passed before me. I had already drawn my scimitar, and her gallant being next me, I struck him in the neck, and made him fall to the ground. I thought I had killed him, and therefore retired speedily without making myself known to the queen, whom I had a mind to spare, because she was my kinswoman.
In the mean time, the blow I had given her gallant was mortal, but she preserved his life by the force of her enchantments, in such a manner, however, that he could not be said to be either dead or alive. As I crossed the garden to return to the palace, I heard the queen cry out lamentably, and, judging by that how much she was grieved, I was pleased that I had spared her life.
When I returned to her apartment, I went to bed, and being satisfied with having punished the villain that did me the injury, I went to sleep; and when I awaked next morning, found the queen lying by me. Scheherazade was obliged to stop here, because she saw day.
O Heaven! sister, says Dinarzade, how it troubles me that you can say no more! Sister, replies the sultaness, you ought to have awaked me sooner; it is your fault. I will make amends next night, replies Dinarzade; for I doubt not but the sultan will be as willing to hear out the story as I am; and I hope he will be so good as to let you live one day more.
The Twenty-fourth Night.
Dinarzade was actually as good as her word; she called the sultaness very early, saying, Dear sister, if you be not asleep, pray make an end of the agreeable history of the king of the Black Isles; I am ready to die with impatience to know how he came to be changed into marble. You shall hear it, replies Scheherazade, if the sultan will give me leave.
I found the queen lying by me, then, says the king of the Black Islands; I cannot tell you whether she slept or not; but I got up without making any noise, and went to my closet, where I made an end of dressing myself. I afterwards went and held my council, and, at my return, the queen was clad in mourning, her hair hanging about her eyes, and part of it pulled off. She presented herself before me, and said, Sir, I come to beg your majesty not to be surprised to see me in this condition; three afflicting pieces of news that I have just now received all at once are the cause of my heavy grief, of which the tokens you see are but very faint resemblances. Alas! what is that news, madam, said I? The death of the queen, my dear mother, said she; that of the king my father killed in battle; and that of one of my brothers, who is fallen headlong into it.