' When the old woman heard
this, the light in her eyes became darkness and she was sore in
fear of her mischief and said to her, 'O my lady Budour, what
unseemly words are these?' 'Out on thee, pestilent crone that
thou art!' cried the princess. 'Where is my beloved, the goodly
youth with the shining face and the slender shape, the black eyes
and the joined eyebrows, who lay with me last night from dusk
until near daybreak?' 'By Allah, O my lady,' replied the old
woman, 'I have seen no young man nor any other; but I conjure
thee, leave this unseemly jesting, lest we be all undone.
Belike, it may come to thy father's ears and who shall deliver us
from his hand?' 'I tell thee,' rejoined Budour, 'there lay a
youth with me last night, one of the fairest-faced of men.' 'God
preserve thy reason!' exclaimed the nurse. 'Indeed, no one lay
with thee last night.' The princess looked at her hand and
seeing her own ring gone and Kemerezzeman's ring on her finger in
its stead, said to the nurse, 'Out on thee, thou accursed
traitress, wilt thou lie to me and tell me that none lay with me
last night and forswear thyself to me?' 'By Allah,' replied the
nurse, 'I do not lie to thee nor have I sworn falsely!' Her
words incensed the princess and drawing a sword she had by her,
she smote the old woman with it and slew her; whereupon the
eunuch and the waiting-women cried out at her and running to her
father, acquainted him with her case.
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