So speak out and hide
naught!"
When Shah Zaman heard this, he bowed groundward awhile his head,
then raised it and said: "I will tell thee what caused my complaint
and my loss of color. But excuse my acquainting thee with the cause of
its return to me and the reason of my complete recovery. Indeed I pray
thee not to press me for a reply." Said Shahryar, who was much
surprised by these words, "Let me hear first what produced thy
pallor and thy poor condition." "Know, then, O my brother," rejoined
Shah Zaman, "that when thou sentest thy Wazir with the invitation to
place myself between thy hands, I made ready and marched out of my
city. But presently I minded me having left behind me in the palace
a string of jewels intended as a gift to thee. I returned for it
alone, and found my wife on my carpet bed and in the arms of a hideous
black cook. So I slew the twain and came to thee, yet my thoughts
brooded over this business and I lost my bloom and became weak. But
excuse me if I still refuse to tell thee what was the reason of my
complexion returning."
Shahryar shook his head, marveling with extreme marvel, and with the
fire of wrath flaming up from his heart, he cried, "Indeed, the malice
of woman is mighty!" Then he took refuge from them with Allah and
said: "In very sooth, O my brother, thou hast escaped many an evil
by putting thy wife to death, and right excusable were thy wrath and
grief for such mishap, which never yet befell crowned king like
thee.
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