kill him. And his infatuation for her increased, and he almost died of love when he saw her shew him such sweetness of word and thought; and his head swam, and the world seemed nothing in his eye.
When they came to the end of the supper and the wine had already mastered his brain, and the Lady Bedr-el-Budur observed it, she said: "We have a custom in our country, but I know not if ye have it here. Tell me if ye have or not." And the Moor asked, "What is this custom?" "At the end of supper," she replied, "for every one to take the cup of his beloved and drink it." And she forthwith took his cup and filled "it with wine for herself, and bade the handmaid give him her cup, wherein was wine mixed with the benj. Now the maid knew what to do, for all the maids and eunuchs in the palace wished for his death, and sympathised with the Lady Bedr-el-Budur. So the girl gave him the cup, and he, when he heard her words and saw her drinking out of his cup and giving him hers to drink, thought himself Alexander the Great, Lord of the two Horns, as he gazed upon all these tokens of love. Then she said to him, undulating her sides, and putting 'her hand in his: "O my soul, here is thy cup in my hand, and my cup in thine, thus do lovers drink from one another's cups." Then she kissed his cup and drank it and put it down and came to him and kissed him on the lips. And he flew with delight, and resolved to do as she did, and raised the cup to his mouth and drank it off, without thinking if there were anything in it or not. And instantly, in a moment, he fell on his back, like a corpse, and the cup fell from his hand.
Then the Lady Bedr-el-Budur rejoiced, and the maidens ran and opened the door to 'Ala-ed-Din, their master, who came in, and went up to his wife's room, and found her sitting at the table, with the Moor lying in front of her like a dead man. And he drew near and kissed her and thanked her. Then rejoicing with excessive joy, he turned to her and said: "Do thou and thy slave-girls retire to thy apartment and leave me alone now, that I may arrange my plan." And the Lady Bedr-el-Budur delayed not, but went, she and her maidens. Then 'Ala-ed-Din arose, and locking the door after them, went up to the Moor and put his hand into his bosom and took
