Dinarzade was punctual this night, as she had been the former, to
awake her sister, and begged of her, as usual, to tell her a
story. I am going to do it, sister, says Scheherazade; but the
sultan interrupted her, for fear she should begin a new story,
and bid her finish the discourse between the Grecian king and his
vizier about his physician Douban. Sir, says Scheherazade, I will
obey you, and went on with the story as follows.
When the Grecian king, says the fisherman to the genie, had
finished the story of the parrot; and you, vizier, adds he,
because of the hatred you bear to the physician Douban, who never
did you any hurt, you would have me cut him off; but I will take
care of that, for fear I should repent it, as the husband did the
killing of his parrot.
The mischievous vizier was too much concerned to effect the ruin
of the physician Douban to stop here. Sir, says he, the death of
the parrot was but a trifle, and I believe his master did not
mourn for him long. But why should your fear of wronging an
innocent man hinder your putting this physician to death? Is it
not enough that he is accused of a design against your life to
authorize you to take away his? When the business in question is
to secure the life of a king, bare suspicion ought to pass for
certainty; and it is better to sacrifice the innocent than to
spare the guilty.
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