y his earnest entreaties, accepted forty
purses of gold, which he gave me to repudiate my deformed wife,
and I returned home with a lightened heart. The day following,
the lady came to my warehouse, when I thanked her for having
freed me from my ridiculous marriage, and begged her to accept of
me as a husband. To this she consented, but said she was, she
feared, too meanly born for me to marry, as her father was but a
cook, though of eminence in his way, and very rich. I replied,
"Even though he were a leather-dresser, thy charms would grace a
throne." In short, my lord, we were married, and have lived
together very happily from the day of our union to the present
time.

Such is my story, but it is not so surprising as that of the
learned man and his pupil, whose adventures were among the
miracles of the age, which I will relate.

Story of the retired Sage and his Pupil, related to the Sultan
by the Second Lunatic,

There was a learned and devout sage, who in order to enjoy his
studies and contemplations uninterrupted, had secluded himself
from the world in one of the cells of the principal mosque of the
city, which he never left but upon the most pressing occasions.
He had led this retired life some years, when a boy one day
entered his cell, and earnestly begged to be received as his
pupil and domestic. The sage liked his appearance, consented to
his request, inquired who were his parents, and whence he came;
but the lad could not inform him, and said, "Ask not who I am,
for I am an orphan, and know not whether I belong to heaven or
earth." The shekh did not press him, and the boy served him with
the most undeviating punctuality and attention for twelve years,
during which he received his instructions in every branch of
learning, and became a most accomplished youth. At the end of the
twelve years, the youth one day heard some young men praising the
beauty of the sultan's daughter, and saying that her charms were
unequalled by those of all the princesses of the age. This
discourse excited his curiosity to behold so lovely a creature.
He repaired to his master, saying, "My lord, I understand that
the sultan hath a most beautiful daughter, and my soul longs
ardently for an opportunity of beholding her, if only for an
instant." The sage exclaimed, "What have such as we to do, my
son, with the daughters of sovereigns or of others? We are a
secluded order, and should refrain ourselves