ident had befallen them.
One of the knights came and told what had happened: he exaggerated the
violence and despotic manner of Bohetzad, and filled the mind of the
minister with fear and resentment, although he assured him that the
monarch was that very night to marry his daughter.

"Thus to oppose himself to my disposal of my own family! to carry off
my daughter! to marry her against my will!--in this manner to repay my
services!" said the enraged minister.

Full of a desire of vengeance, he immediately ordered expresses to be
sent to all his friends, the Princes and grandees of his family, to
assemble them at his house. When they were come, he represented to
them the outrage which the King had committed against his daughter,
the Prince of Babylon, and himself. Shame and resentment entered into
every breast. Asphand perceived, from the effect of the relation which
he had made them, that it would be easy to associate them with him in
his schemes of revenge.

"Princes and lords!" said he to them, "the King, occupied with his
pleasures, is not delicate about the means of gratification; and, as a
recompense for my labours, he hesitates not to expose me to the
disgrace of an irreparable insult. I am nothing but a vile slave in
his eyes. Thinks he that my daughter is obliged to share his unsteady
attachment? You yourselves will not be safe from this dishonour; your
wives and daughters will not be spared. His torrent of iniquity will
discharge itself on you, if we endeavour not to stop its course."

The relations and friends of the Vizier entered into his interests,
and a deliberation was held concerning the measures which were to be
taken. One of them, deeply skilled in politics, thus gave his opinion:

"Vizier, write to the King, and express to him how sensible you are of
the unexpected honour which he has done you, to which you could never
have had the smallest pretensions. Along with this letter send another
to your daughter, in which you must seem delighted with her good
fortune. Supplicate Heaven with her, to pour down happiness upon a
monarch so beloved by his people. Accompany these despatches with
magnificent presents, and Bohetzad, blinded by his passion, will
readily believe everything which can flatter it. You will take
advantage of this security to leave him at the first opportunity,
under pretence of attending to his business; and, having secured
yourself against any sudden attack from him, transmit to all