Page 65 - Bulbul Hezar

will, but must submit to do as the sultan thinks fit. Let your
husbands make interest, and get some courtier to ask this

favour of the sultan; and if he speaks to me about it, be
assured, that I shall not only express the pleasure he does
me, but thank him for making choice of you.
The two husbands applied themselves to some courtiers,
their patrons, and begged of them to use their interest to
procure their wives the honour they aspired to. Those
patrons interceded so much in their behalf, as that the sultan

promised them to consider of it, and was as good as his
word; for, in conversation with the sultaness on that affair, he
told her, that he thought her sisters were the most proper
persons to assist her in her labour, but did not think fit to
name and appoint them to be her midwives before he asked
her consent. The sultaness, sensible of the deference the
sultan so obligingly paid her, said to him, Sir, I am ready to
do as your majesty shall please to command me; but since
you have been so kind as to think of my sisters, I thank you

for that regard you have shewn them for my sake; and
therefore I shall not dissemble with you, but tell you, I had
rather have them than strangers.
Then the sultan Khosrouschah named the sultaness's two
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