“Sir,” replied Alciphenor, “the racket they make increases daily; and if it continues, we shall soon not be able to hear ourselves. But nothing is so diverting as the indiscretion of Zobeida’s Toy. It has given her husband a catalogue of her adventures.”

“And a prodigious one,” says Marmolin: “it mentions five agas, twenty captains, almost an entire company of janissaries, twelve Bramins: and they say that I am named too, but that is a mere joke.”

“The best past of the affair is,” added Grifgrif, “that the affrighted husband ran away with his fingers in his ears.”

“This is quite horrible,” said Mirzoza.

“Yes, madam,” interrupted Fortimbek, “horrible, frightful, execrable.”

“More than all that, if you please,” replied the favorite, “to dishonor a woman upon hearsay.”