He did
not shut the door behind him, that the confident, who followed
him, might come in. She accordingly did so; and when she came to
his chamber, Sir, said she to him, you can make no use of the
letter you have found; and you would make no difficulty in
returning it to me, if you knew from whom it came, and to whom it
is directed. Besides, let me tell you, you cannot honestly keep
it.
Before the jeweller answered the confident, he made her sit down,
and said to her, Is not this letter from Schemselnihar, and
directed to the prince of Persia? The slave, who expected no such
question, blushed. The question puzzles you, replied he, but I
assure you I do not propose it rashly: I could have given you the
letter in the street, but I suffered you to follow me, on purpose
that I might discourse with you. Tell me, is it just to impute an
unhappy accident to people who no ways contributed towards it?
Yet this you have done, in telling the prince of Persia that it
was I who counselled Ebn Thaher to leave Bagdad for his own
safety. I do not intend to lose time in justifying myself to you;
it is enough that the prince of Persia is fully persuaded of my
innocence in this matter: I will only tell you, that instead of
contributing to Ebn Thaher's departure, I have been extremely
afflicted at it; not so much for my friendship to him, as out of
compassion for the condition in which he left the prince of
Persia, whose correspondence with Schemselnihar he has
acknowledged to me.
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