e gardener
follow him with the child, and when he came to his own house, which was
situated at the entrance to the gardens of the palace, went into his
wife's apartment. "Wife," said he, "as we have no children of our own,
God has sent us one. I recommend him to you; provide him a nurse, and
take as much care of him as if he were our own son; for, from this
moment, I acknowledge him as such." The intendant's wife received the
child with great joy, and took particular pleasure in the care of him.
The intendant himself would not inquire too narrowly whence the infant
came. He saw plainly it came not far off from the queen's apartment, but
it was not his business to examine too closely into what had passed, nor
to create disturbances in a place where peace was so necessary.

The following year another prince was born, on whom the unnatural
sisters had no more compassion than on his brother, but exposed him
likewise in a basket and set him adrift in the canal, pretending, this
time, that the sultana had given birth to a cat. It was happy also for
this child that the intendant of the gardens was walking by the canal
side, for he had it carried to his wife, and charged her to take as much
care of it as of the former, which was as agreeable to her inclination
as it was to his own.

The emperor of Persia was more enraged this time against the queen than
before, and she had felt the effects of his anger if the grand vizier's
remonstrances had not prevailed. The third year the queen gave birth to
a princess, which innocent babe underwent the same fate as her brothers,
for the two sisters, being determined not to desist from their
detestable schemes till they had seen the queen cast off and humbled,
claimed that a log of wood had been born and exposed this infant also on
the canal. But the princess, as well as her brothers, was preserved from
death by the compassion and charity of the intendant of the gardens.

Kosrouschah could no longer contain himself, when he was informed of the
new misfortune. He pronounced sentence of death upon the wretched queen
and ordered the grand vizier to see it executed.

The grand vizier and the courtiers who were present cast themselves at
the emperor's feet, to beg of him to revoke the sentence. "Your majesty,
I hope, will give me leave," said the grand vizier, "to represent to
you, that the laws which condemn persons to death were made to punish
crimes; the three extraordinary misfortunes of t