and determined to bring about his ruin.

In order to do this he asked to speak in private with the king,
saying that he had a most important communication to make.

"What is it?" asked the king.

"Sire," answered the grand-vizir, "it is most dangerous for a monarch
to confide in a man whose faithfulness is not proved, You do not know
that this physician is not a traitor come here to assassinate you."

"I am sure," said the king, "that this man is the most faithful and
virtuous of men. If he wished to take my life, why did he cure me?
Cease to speak against him. I see what it is, you are jealous of him;
but do not think that I can be turned against him. I remember well
what a vizir said to King Sindbad, his master, to prevent him from
putting the prince, his son, to death."

What the Greek king said excited the vizir's curiousity, and he
said to him, "Sire, I beg your majesty to have the condescension
to tell me what the vizir said to King Sindbad."

"This vizir," he replied, "told King Sindbad that one ought not
believe everything that a mother-in-law says, and told him this story."



The Story of the Husband and the Parrot