n you! This is my
wife and I am the master of the garden.” They paid no heed to him, but
fell upon the woman, who cried out to him for succour, saying, “Suffer
them not to defile me!” Accordingly he came up to them, calling out for
help; but one of them turned on him and smote him with his dagger and
slew him.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.


         Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Twentieth Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that after slaying
the husband the two young men returned to the wife and ravished her.
“This I tell thee, O King,” continued the Wazir, “but that thou mayst
know that it becometh not men to give ear unto a woman’s talk neither
obey her in aught nor accept her judgment in counsel. Beware, then, lest
thou don the dress of ignorance, after the robe of knowledge and wisdom,
and follow perverse rede, after knowing that which is righteous and
profitable. Wherefore pursue thou not a paltry pleasure, whose trending
is to corruption and whose inclining is unto sore and uttermost
perdition.” When the King heard this from Shimas he said to him,
“To-morrow I will come forth to them, an it be the will of Allah the
Most High.” So Shimas returned to the Grandees and Notables who were
present and told them what the King had said. But this came to the ears
of the favourite wife; whereupon she went in to the King and said to
him, “The subjects of a King should be his slaves; but I see, O King,
thou art become a slave to thy subjects, because thou standest in awe of
them and fearest their mischief.[150] They do but desire to make proof
of thine inner man; and if they find thee weak, they will disdain thee;
but, if they find thee stout and brave, they will dread thee. On this
wise do ill Wazirs with their King, for that their wiles are many; but I
will make manifest unto thee the truth of their malice. An thou comply
with the conditions they demand, they will cause thee cease ruling and
do their will; nor 