The prince heard Ebn Thaher with a great deal of impatience, but suffered him, however, to speak out his mind; and then replied to him thus:  Ebn Thaher, said he, do you think I can forbear to love Schemselnihar, who loves me so tenderly?  She is not afraid to expose her life for me, and would you have me to regard mine?  No; whatever misfortune befal me, I will love Schemselnihar to my last breath.

Ebn Thaher, being offended at the obstinacy of the prince of Persia, left him hastily; and, going to his own house, recalled to mind what he thought on the other day, and began to think in earnest what he should do.  At the same time a jeweller, one of his intimate friends, came to see him:  this jeweller had perceived that Schemselnihar’s confident came oftener to Ebn Thaher than usual, and that he was constantly with the prince of Persia, whose sickness was known to every one, though not the cause of it.  The jeweller began to be suspicious, and finding Ebn Thaher very pensive, judged presently that he was perplexed with some important affair; and fancying that he knew the cause, he asked what Schemselniliar’s confident wanted with him.  Ebn Thaher, being struck with this question, dissembled, and told him, that it was a mere trifle that brought her so frequently to him.  You do not tell me the truth, said the jeweller, and give me ground to think, by your dissimulation, that this trifle is an affair of more importance than at first I thought.  Ebn Thaher, perceiving that his friend pressed him so much, said to him, It is true that it is an affair of the greatest consequence:  I had resolved to keep it secret; but since I know how much you are my friend, I choose rather to make you my confident, than to suffer you to be in a mistake about it.  I do not recommend it to you to keep the secret, for you will easily judge, by what I am going to tell you, how important it is to keep it.  After this preamble, he told him the amour between Schemselnihar and the prince of Persia.  You know, continued he, in what esteem I am at court, in the city, and with lords and ladies of the greatest quality; what a disgrace would it be for me, should this rash intrigue come to be discovered?  But what do I say?  Should not I and my family be quite destroyed?  That is the thing perplexes my mind.  But I have just now come to such a resolution as I ought to make:  I will go immediately and satisfy my creditors, and recover my debts; when I have secured my estate, I will retire to Balsora, and stay till the tempest I foresee blows over.  The friendship I have for Schemselnihar and the prince of Persia makes me very sensible to what danger they are exposed.  I pray Heaven to discover it to themselves, and to preserve them; but if their ill destiny will have their amours come to the knowledge of the caliph, I shall at least be out of the reach of his resentment; for I do not think them so wicked as to design to draw me into their misfortunes.  It would be extreme ingratitude in them to do so, and a sorry reward for the good service I have done them, particularly to the prince of Persia, who may save himself and his mistress from this precipice, if he pleases:  he may as easily leave Bagdad as I; absence would insensibly disengage him from a passion which will only increase whilst he continues in this place.