Yes, said I, in a rage, it is I who chastized that monster
according to his desert; I ought to have treated thee in the same
manner; I repent now that I did not do it; thou hast abused my
goodness too long. As I spoke these words, I drew out my
scimitar, and lifted up my hand to punish her; but she,
steadfastly beholding me, said, with a jeering smile, Moderate
thy anger. At the same time she pronounced words I did not
understand, and afterwards added, By virtue of my enchantments, I
command thee immediately to become half marble and half man.
Immediately, my lord, I became such as you see me, already a dead
man among the living, and a living man among the dead. Here
Scheherazade, perceiving day, broke off her story.
Upon which Dinarzade says, Dear sister, I am exceedingly
obligated to the sultan, for it is to his goodness I owe the
extraordinary pleasure I have in your stories. My sister, replies
the sultaness, if the sultan will be so good as to suffer me to
live till to-morrow, I shall tell you a thing that will afford as
much satisfaction as any thing you have yet heard. Though
Schahriar had not resolved to defer the death of Scheherazade a
month longer, he could not have ordered her to be put to death
that day.
The Twenty-fifth Night.
Towards the end of the night, Dinarzade cried, Sister, if I do
not trespass too much upon your complaisance, I would pray you to
finish the history of the king of the Black Islands.
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