Straightway the king commanded that they should bring his governor; and they sought him but found him not, and came and told the king. The king said, “This day it is needful to make manifest my justice; let the executioner come.” He came; and the king commanded, saying, “Take the youth and all those vezirs; and kill them.” And they took the whole of them from the presence of the king; and they made clean the judgment-square and sprinkled it with sand. And they made the vezirs sit down by tens, and they brought the youth too. Then the executioner set the prince upon his knees and bound his eyes, and he drew his sword from its scabbard and bared it, and said, “Is there leave, O king? In thy glory is my arm strong and my sword keen. The cut-off head grows not again, and too late repentance profits not.” And he went twice round the divan and asked leave of the king; and the king commanded him, saying, “Smite off his head.” The executioner went round the divan once more, and as he was again asking leave of the king, the bearer of glad tidings came, crying, “The prince’s governor comes!” The king said, “Quick, seize and bring him.”
Forthwith the slaves brought the governor, not letting his feet touch the ground. When the king saw the governor he was wroth, and said, “Kill him!” The governor said, “O king, wherefore art thou angry? If it be thy desire to make the youth speak, bring him and let him speak.” Quoth the king, “Is it thou who saidest to the youth, ‘Speak not’?” The governor answered, “Yea.” The king said, “Why?” The governor said, “O king of the world, I saw the prince’s ruling star in the astrolabe that for forty days it was in evil aspect, such evil aspect that if he uttered the least word he should perish, but that if he spake not he should escape. I taught him a Name, and charged him straitly that he should not speak the least word. Now is the time accomplished, and I am come; command that they bring him, and I shall give him leave to speak.” The king commanded that they brought the youth, and the governor said, “My prince, be my life a ransom for thy father and for thee! Praise be to God! the evil aspect of thy star is accomplished; loose thy nightingale tongue and speak; what is this plight?”
Straightway the youth said, “In the name of God!” And he related what befell him with the lady from its beginning to its end; and then he fell upon the ground and began to weep. And the king put his finger to his mouth and wondered. And the members of the divan marvelled at this deed of the woman, and they said, “The prince’s words are with reason and truth, and such like trickery comes from womankind.”
Then the king asked the slave-girls, and they bare witness that they had been behind the wall and had heard the thing, and that the prince spake truly. And the king saw that the right was the prince’s, and he repented him of what he had done. And he besought pardon, and kissed the prince’s two eyes, and pressed him to his heart and wept full bitterly. And straightway he commanded that they bring the vezirs; and the king made many excuses to them, and clad each of them in sumptuous robes, and bestowed boundless gifts and favors upon them, and begged forgiveness of all of them. And the vezirs said, “My king, whatsoever cruelty and injustice thou hast done us, be it all forgiven thee; our fear was lest thou should slay the prince, acting on the woman’s word; for our vezirship is by the health and safety of our king and our prince; and their existence is a mercy to the world; after they were perished the perishing of the whole of us were a thing assured.” And they all kissed the ground together, and asked for retribution on the woman.
And the king commanded that they bring a wild ass; and they took the lady to the square of judgment and set her upon that ass, and bound her fast to his tail and legs, and took her forth to the desert. And they smote the ass with a whip, and the ass began to gallop and the woman fell from his back to the ground; and the wild ass looked, and when he saw the woman behind him he shied and ran off. And the woman was torn into pieces small even as her ear, and left upon the shrubs and stones. Thus that which she had purposed against the prince befel herself. The sires say, “Wish good that good may come to thee: if thou dig a pit for another, dig it deep; for it is like thou shalt fall therein thyself; then thou needest not trouble trying to get out.” And from that time has the saying been among the folk, “May I see thee on the ass!” After that the king summoned all the vezirs and the nobles and the commonalty, and he made a great feast with all manner of minstrels and music, and for forty days and forty nights they feasted and made merry gratefully. And then they lived for many years, and did justice and dealt with equity.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A fabulous bird, a species of vulture or gigantic condor.
[2] Drugs.
[3] Koran, lii. 15.
[4] Ib. xii. 31.