The pain had made me so weak that I was scarcely able to walk. But at last I got home, where I again fainted, as I went into my chamber. Meanwhile, the old woman applied her remedy. I came to myself, and went to bed. My husband came to me at night, and seeing my head bound up, asked me the reason. I told him I had the headache, which I hoped would have satisfied him; but he took a candle, and saw my cheek was hurt. "How comes this wound?" he said. Though I did not consider myself as guilty of any great offense, yet I could not think of owning the truth. Besides, to make such an avowal to a husband, I considered as somewhat indecorous. I therefore said, "That as I was going, under his permission, to purchase a silk stuff, a camel,[37] carrying a load of wood, came so near to me in a narrow street, that one of the sticks grazed my cheek, but had not done me much hurt." "If that is the case," said my husband, "to-morrow morning, before sunrise, the grand vizier Giafar shall be informed of this insolence, and cause all the camel drivers to be put to death." "Pray, sir," said I, "let me beg of you to pardon them, for they are not guilty." [Footnote 37: The streets of Eastern cities are often so narrow as to be blocked up with a wide camel load, or to prevent two horsemen riding abreast. This is the cause of those footmen who run before great men to prepare the way for them.] "How, madam," he demanded, "what, then, am I to believe? Speak; for I am resolved to know the truth from your own mouth." "Sir," I replied, "I was taken with a giddiness, and fell down, and that is the whole matter." At these words my husband lost all patience. "I have," said he, "too long listened to your tales." As he spoke, he clapped his hands, and in came three slaves. "Strike," said he; "cut her in two, and then throw her into the Tigris. This is the punishment I inflict on those to whom I have given my heart, when they falsify their promise." I had recourse to entreaties and prayers; but I supplicated in vain, when the old woman, who had been his nurse, coming in just at that moment, fell down upon her knees and endeavored to appease his wrath. "My son," said she, "since I have been your nurse, and brought you up, let me beg you to consider, 'he who kills shall be killed,' and that you will stain your reputation and forfeit the esteem of mankind." She spoke these words in such an affecting manner, accompanied with tears, that she prevailed upon him at last to abandon his purpose. "Well, then," said he to his nurse, "for your sake I will spare her life; but she shall bear about her person some marks to make her remember her offense."