escape the shock. It seemeth the old woman hath gone and told
her lady and acquainted her with our case and she has disputed
with Masrur the Eunuch and they have laid wagers each with other
about our death and are come to us, all four, the Caliph and the
Eunuch and the Lady Zubaydah and the old trot." When Nuzhat al-
Fuad heard this, she started up from her outstretched, posture
and asked, "How shall we do?" whereto he answered, "We will both
feign ourselves dead together and stretch ourselves out and hold
our breath." So she hearkened to him and they both lay down on
the place where they usually slept the siesta[FN#78] and bound
their feet and shut their eyes and covered themselves with the
veil and held their breath. Presently, up came the Caliph,
Zubaydah, Masrur and the old woman and entering, found Abu al-
Hasan the Wag and wife both stretched out as dead; which when the
Lady saw, she wept and said, "They ceased not to bring ill-news
of my slave-girl till she died,[FN#79] methinketh Abu al-Hasan's
death was grievous to her and that she died after him."[FN#80]
Quoth the Caliph, "Thou shalt not prevent me with thy prattle and
prate. She certainly died before Abu al-Hasan, for he came to me
with his raiment rent and his beard plucked out, beating his
breast with two bits of unbaked brick,[FN#81] and I gave him an
hundred dinars and a piece of silk and said to him, "Go, bear her
forth and I will give thee a bed-fellow other than she and
handsomer, and she shall be in stead of her. But it would appear
that her death was no light matter to him and he died after
her;[FN#82] so it is who have beaten thee and gotten thy stake."
The Lady Zubaydah answered him in words galore and the dispute
between them waxed sore. At last the Caliph sat down at the head
of the pair and said, "By the tomb of the Apostle of Allah (whom
may He save and assain!) and the sepulchres of my fathers and