longer give way to inconsolable grief for a misfortune which came to other husbands as well as to himself. He ordered supper to be brought, and ate with a better appetite than he had before done since his departure from Samarcand, and even enjoyed the fine concert performed while he sat at table.
Schah-riar, on his return from hunting at the close of the second day, was delighted at the change which he found had taken place in his brother, and urgently pressed him to explain both the cause of his former deep depression, and of its sudden disappearance. The King of Tartary being thus pressed, related to his brother the narrative of his wife’s misconduct, and of the severe punishment which he had visited on the offenders. Schah-riar expressed his full approval. “I own,” he said, “had I been in your place, I should have been less easily satisfied. I should not have been contented with taking away the life of one woman, but would have sacrificed a thousand to my resentment. Since, however, it has pleased God to afford you consolation, and as I am sure it is as well founded as the cause of your grief, inform me I beg of that also and make me acquainted with the whole.”
The reluctance of Schah-zenan to relate what he had seen yielded at last to the urgent entreaties of his brother, and he revealed to him the faithlessness of his own queen. On hearing these dreadful and unexpected tidings, the rage and grief of Schah-riar knew no bounds. He far exceeded his brother in his fury. He immediately sentenced to death his unhappy
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