The good old nurse went directly to the false widow. My dear Nouz-hatoul-aonadat, said she, with a sorrowful face, I come not to interrupt your grief and tears for a husband who loved you so tenderly. Ah! good mother, replied the counterfeit widow, you see my misfortune, and how unhappy I am by the loss of my beloved Abon Hassan. Abon Hassan, my dear husband! cried she, what have I done that you should leave me so soon? Have I not always rather obeyed your will than my own? Alas! what will become of poor Nouz-hatoul-aonadat? The nurse was in a great surprise to see every thing quite the reverse of what the chief of the eunuchs had told the caliph. This black-faced Mesrour, said she, lifting up her hands, deserves to be impaled for having made so great a difference between my good mistress and the commander of the faithful, by the notorious lie he told them. I will tell you daughter, said she, the wickedness of that villain Mesrour, who has asserted, with an inconceivable impudence, before my mistress’s face, that you were dead, and Abon Hassan was alive. Alas! my good mother, cried Nouz-hatoul-aonadat, I wish to heaven that it was true! I should not be in this sorrowful state, nor bewail a husband so dear to me. At these words she burst out into tears, and feigned a most desperate trouble. The nurse was so much concerned for her tears, that she sat down by her, and cried too: then gently lifting up the turban and cloth, looked on the face of the corpse. Ah! poor Abon Hassan, cried she, covering the face again, God have mercy upon thee. Adieu, child, said she to Nouz-hatoul-aonadat; if I could stay longer with you, I would, with all my heart: but I am obliged to return immediately, to free my mistress from the uneasiness that black villain has given her by his impudent lie, assuring her with an oath that you was dead. As soon as the nurse was gone, and had pulled the door after her, and Nouz-hatoul-aonadat thought she would not come back again, she wiped her eyes, and went and unloosed Abon Hassan, and then both went and sat down on a sofa against the window, expecting what would be the end of this cheat, and to be ready to act according as things should offer. The nurse, in the mean time, made all the haste she could to Zobeide. The pleasure of carrying the princess good news, and hopes of a good reward, added wings to her feet; and running into the princess’s closet, quite out of breath, there gave her a true account of all she had seen. Zobeide hearkened to the old woman’s relation with a most sensible pleasure; and when she had done, she said, Repeat it once more before the caliph, who looked upon us all to be fools, and would make us believe we have no sense of religion, nor fear of God; and tell your story to that wicked black slave, who had the insolence to assert a falsity, and which I know to be one.