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Updated: May 15, 2025
In a word, he renounced the glorious title of a generous protector for that of a base ravisher of the wife of his ally. Nevertheless, he appeared to receive with gratitude the embassy of Bohetzad, and the presents with which it was accompanied. Meanwhile, he was informed that the auxiliary troops, which he had furnished this monarch, had returned into Persia.
As soon as he saw himself out of the reach of power, he communicated to the governors of the provinces the affront which he had received; he excited them to revolt, by inspiring them with a fear that they would all meet with a treatment similar to that which he had received; and to determine them, he calumniated, in every instance, the person and government of Bohetzad.
"Behold," said he, "O ye who hear me, that which the unfortunate Kaskas hath gained by hardening himself against the decrees of his evil destiny, and despising the advice of his friends! Behold the lot of the obstinate!" Aladin having thus finished the history of the merchant, addressed himself directly to Bohetzad.
He feared that some extraordinary accident had befallen them. One of the knights came and told what had happened: he exaggerated the violence and despotic manner of Bohetzad, and filled the mind of the minister with fear and resentment, although he assured him that the monarch was that very night to marry his daughter.
His heart received a fatal wound: his passion, arrived at its height, aspired after gratification from the very moment of its existence; and Bohetzad, determined to make sure of the object of it, made use of his absolute authority, and spoke thus to the conductor of the litter: "I command you to take the road to Issessara, and to conduct the daughter of my Grand Vizier to my palace."
Balavan, his son, found, in attempting the death of one of his nephews, that no human power can hasten the moment of death marked out by Providence." "I should wish to know," said Bohetzad, "if you can show us in the history of this family an example of ingratitude like yours."
We conjure you, sire, to put an end to this disorder, which your ministers will soon be unable to restrain." Bohetzad, ashamed of his too great indulgence, caused the Superintendent to be brought before him. "Thou appearest at length," said he to him, "for the last time, on the scaffold, which thou art about to stain with thy blood. The crime which thou hast committed allows me no rest.
All the other Viziers supported this insidious harangue. Each of them alleged his own disinterestedness, his zeal, and his fidelity. "Unbridled audacity is in him united with matchless cunning," they said. "Everything is in danger if this offence remains unpunished." Bohetzad could not resist the unanimous voice of so many counsellors.
Guilt weighs you down, remorse preys upon you, and you are confounded with shame." "Your sentence, already written in heaven," resumed Bohetzad, "is about to be executed on earth. On the scaffold where my son was to suffer let these ten wretches finish their days, and let the public criers announce this decree to the people." The order was instantly executed.
The young man had related the adventures of the unfortunate merchant of Bagdad so naturally and with so much grace, and had made so happy an application of them, that Bohetzad, still disposed to favour a criminal whom he had loved so well, and moved by the instance of rash judgment which he had just heard, put off the execution which he had ordered till the day following, under pretence of its being too late for it then.
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