STORY OF THE LOVER AGAINST HIS WILL
A story is told of a certain woman who was desperately in love with one of her neighbours, whose virtue and piety were well known. She declared to him her passion; but, finding all her advances constantly repulsed, in spite of all her wiles, she resolved to have her satisfaction nevertheless, and this is the way she went to work her purpose:
One evening she apprised her negress that she intended to set a snare for that man, and the negress, by her order, left the street door open; then in the middle of the night, she called the negress and gave her the following instructions: "Go and knock with this stone at our street door as hard as you can, without taking any notice of the cries which I shall utter, or the noise I make; as soon as you hear the neighbor opening his door, come back and knock the same way at the inner door.[1] Take care that he does not see you, and come in at once if you observe somebody coming." The negress executed this order punctually.
Now, the neighbour was by nature a compassionate man, always disposed to assist people in distress, and his help was never asked in vain. On hearing the noise of the blows struck at the door and the cries of his neighbour, he asked his wife what this might mean, and she replied, "It is our neighbour so and so, who is attacked in her house by thieves." He went in great haste to her aid; but scarcely had he entered the house when the negress closed the door upon him. The woman seized him, and uttered loud screams. He protested, but the
- ↑ Note in the autograph edition.—The Arabian houses are generally situated in an inner court, which communicates by a door with the street, while a second door leads to the rooms.
