HKB
than formerly, and gave each of them a gratification; after which he told them he would go no further, ordered them to take horse, and returned speedily to his palace.
As soon as he arrived, he ran to the sultaness's apartment, commanded her to be bound before him, and delivered her to his grand vizier, with an order to strangle her; which was accordingly executed by that minister, without inquiring into her crime. The enraged prince did not stop here; he cut off the heads of all the sultaness's ladies with his own hand. After this rigorous punishment, being persuaded that no woman was chaste, he resolved, in order to prevent the disloyalty of such as he should afterwards marry, to wed one every night, and have her strangled next morning. Having imposed this cruel law upon himself, he swore that he would observe it immediately after the departure of the king of Tartary, who speedily took leave of him, and, being loaded with magnificent presents, set forward on his journey.
Schahzenan being gone, Schahriar ordered his grand vizier to bring him the daughter of one of his generals. The vizier obeyed; the sultan lay with her, and, putting her next morning into his hands in order to be strangled, commanded him to get another next night. Whatever reluctance the vizier had to put such orders in execution, as he owed blind obedience to the sultan his master, he was forced to submit. He brought him then the daughter of a subaltern, whom he also cut off the next day. After her, he brought a citizen's daughter; and, in a word, there was every day a maid married, and a wife murdered.
The rumour of this unparalleled barbarity occasioned a general consternation in the city, where there was nothing but crying and lamentation. Here a father in tears, and inconsolable for the loss of his daughter; and there tender mothers, dreading lest theirs should have the same fate, making the air to resound beforehand with their groans; so that, instead of the commendations and blessings which the sultan had hitherto received from his subjects, their mouths were now filled with imprecations against him.
The grand vizier, who, as has been already said, was the executioner of this horrid injustice against his will, had two daughters, the eldest called Scheherazade, and the youngest Dinarzade: the latter was a lady of very great merit; but the elder had courage, wit, and penetration, infinitely above her sex; she had read abundance, and had such a prodigious memory that she never forgot any thing. She had successfully applied herself to philosophy, physic, history, and the liberal arts, and for verse exceeded, the best poets of her times; besides this, she was a perfect beauty, and all her fine qualifications were crowned by solid virtue.