Page 77 - Bulbul Hezar

hen the sultaness's reckoning was out, she was safely
delivered of a young prince, as bright as the day; but neither
his innocence nor beauty were capable of moving the cruel
hearts of the merciless sisters. They wrapped him up
carelessly in his blankets, and put him into a little basket,
which they abandoned to the stream of a small canal which

ran under the sultaness's apartment, and declared she was
delivered of a little dead dog, which they produced. This
disagreeable news was presently told to the sultan, who
conceived so much grief and anger thereat, as might have
proved fatal to the sultaness, if his grand visier had not
represented to him, that he could not, without injustice,
make her answerable for the variations of nature.
In the mean time, the basket in which the little prince was
exposed was carried by the stream beyond a wall which

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