If I speak not of this, I shall be guilty of
treachery, and shall have wrought unfaithfulness." When the king
returned from the chase, the chamberlain related to him what he had
seen, and the king was angry and said: "This woman has deceived me with
words and deeds, and has brought hither her desire by craft and cunning.
This conjecture must be true, else why did she play such a trick, and
why did she hatch such a plot, and why did she send the merchant?" The
king, enraged, went into the harem. The queen saw from his countenance
that the occurrence of the night before had become known to him, and she
said: "Be it not that I see the king angry." He said: "How should I not
be angry? Thou, by craft, and trickery, and intrigue, and plotting, hast
brought thy desire from Rome--what wantonness is this that thou hast
done?" Then he thought to slay her, but he forbore, because of his great
love for her. But he ordered the chamberlain to carry the youth to some
obscure place, and straightway sever his head from his body. When the
poor mother saw this she well-nigh fell on her face, and her soul was
near leaving her body. But she knew that sorrow would not avail, and she
restrained herself.
And when the chamberlain took the youth into his own house, he said to
him: "O youth, know you not that the harem of the king is the sanctuary
of security? What great treachery is this that thou hast perpetrated?"
The youth replied: "That queen is my mother, and I am her true son.
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