' And they
fettered him and cast him into prison. Now his mother was a
frequent visitor to the house of the Master of the Police and
used to go in to her son in prison and say to him, 'Did I not
warn thee to turn from thy wicked ways?' 'God decreed this to
me,' would he answer; 'but, O my mother, when thou visitest the
Amir's wife, make her intercede for me with her husband.' So when
the old woman came in to the Lady Khatoun, she found her bound
with the fillets of mourning and said to her, 'Wherefore dost
thou mourn?' 'For my son Hebezlem Bezazeh,' answered she, and the
old woman exclaimed, 'God keep thy son! What hath befallen him?'
So Khatoun told her the whole story, and she said, 'What wouldst
thou say of him who should find means to save thy son?' 'And what
wilt thou do?' asked the lady. Quoth the old woman, 'I have a son
called Ahmed Kemakim the arch-thief, who lies chained in prison,
and on his fetters is written, "Appointed to remain till death."
So do thou don thy richest clothes and trinkets and present
thyself to thy husband with an open and smiling favour; and when
he seeks of thee what men use to seek of women, put him off and
say, "By Allah, it is a strange thing! When a man desires aught
of his wife, he importunes her till she satisfies him; but if a
wife desire aught of her husband, he will not grant it to her.
Pages:
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423