" Whereupon she cried
out to the nurses and the eunuchs, saying, "Bring me my children."
So they brought them to her in haste, and they were three boy
children, one walking, one crawling, and one suckling. She took
them, and setting them before the King, again kissed the ground and
said: "O King of the Age, these are thy children, and I crave that
thou release me from the doom of death, as a dole to these infants.
For an thou kill me, they will become motherless and will find none
among women to rear them as they should he reared."
When the King heard this, he wept, and straining the boys to his
bosom, said: "By Allah, O Scheherazade, I pardoned thee before the
coming of these children, for that I found thee chaste, pure,
ingenuous, and pious! Allah bless thee and thy father and thy mother
and thy root and thy branch! I take the Almighty to witness against me
that I exempt thee from aught that can harm thee." So she kissed his
hands and feet and rejoiced with exceeding joy, saying, "The Lord make
thy life long and increase thee in dignity and majesty!" presently
adding: "Thou marveledst at that which befell thee on the part of
women; yet there betided the Kings of the Chosroes before thee greater
mishaps and more grievous than that which hath befallen thee; and
indeed I have set forth unto thee that which happened to caliphs and
kings and others with their women, but the relation is longsome and
hearkening groweth tedious, and in this is all-sufficient warning
for the man of wits and admonishment for the wise.
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