"Morigen had already seized me, when the old woman, our confidante, threw herself at the feet of her mistress.
"'Oh, madam!' said she, 'do not commit such a crime; do not expose yourself to remorse which you will be unable to support.'
"The behaviour of the old slave brought my wife to reflection. She appeared to meditate a little; and then, changing her opinion, ordered me to receive the bastinado. While Morigen was executing her rigorous orders, which I endeavoured to bear without complaining, she seized a musical instrument, and made the chords resound with an air which expressed a mixture of jealous rage and malignant satisfaction.
"The pain I suffered totally deprived me of feeling; and I did not recover till I was in my father's house, placed upon a bed, surrounded by the whole family, and attended by physicians, who were employed in procuring me relief. I had been carried away after the fatal execution of my wife's orders, and left on the threshold of my father's door.
"It was six weeks before I recovered from the consequences of the severe treatment I had undergone. At the end of this time, when I was again able to be out of bed, my father tried to gain my confidence, and I concealed not the smallest circumstance of my last adventure.
"'O Heaven!' said he, 'you are united, my son, to a monster of cruelty and injustice.'
"'Do not say so, father!' exclaimed I: 'my wife, I must confess, was cruel, but she thought she had reason to complain, and I was wanting in my duty to her, even when she loaded me with kindness and affection. I find that I still adore her, and that my love is increased by the consciousness of my fault, and by the fear of a final separation. Ah! would that I were admitted to be the lowest of her slaves!'
"'You have not the feelings of a man,' said my father: 'know the dignity of your sex. I cannot determine to what kind of a being you have been united by the ceremony of a contract. I should suppose it entirely whimsical, if so strong proofs, and particularly the last, had not been given us of its reality. Be ashamed, that a man like you, who are well descended, and who might have aspired to a connection with the best families in Bagdad, has been hurried away by a foolish passion to so extraordinary and unequal a connection as that which you have now formed. Forget your disgraceful passion.'
"Every word which my father uttered, by way of invective against my marriage and my wife, was a dagger to my heart.
"'I shall one day discover this abominable creature,' added he. 'I will bring an information against her before the Caliph, who will put it out of her power to make further victims.'