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ed the Golden Door, when the Princeſſes were abſent: You: have been no wiſer than we, and you had likewiſe the ſame Puniſhment; we would gladly receive you among us, to do ſuch Penance as we do, though we know not how long it may continue. But we have already declared the Reaſon that hinder us, therefore depart from hence and go to the Court of Bagdad, where you ſhall meet with him that can decide your Deſtiny: They told me the Way I was to travel, and ſo I left them.
On the Road I cauſed my Beard and Eye-brows to be ſhaven, and took on a Callender’s Habit, I have had a long Journey, but at laſt I arrived this Evening in this City, where I met theſe my Brother’s Callenders at the Gate, being Strangers as well as myſelf. We wonder’d much at one another, to ſee we were all three blind of the ſame Eye; but we had not leiſure to diſcourſe long of our common Calamities, we only had ſo much time as to come hither, to implore thoſe Favours which you have been generouſly pleaſed to grant us.
The third Callender having finiſhed this Relation of his Adventures, Zobeide addreſſed her Speech to him and his Fellow Callenders thus; Go where ever you think fit, you are all three at Liberty. But one of them anſwer’d, Madam, We beg you to pardon our Curioſity, and permit us to hear thoſe Gentlemens Stories who have not yet ſpoke. Then the Lady turn’d to that ſide where the Caliph, the Viſier Giafar, and Meſrour ſtood, whom ſhe knew not; but ſaid to them. ’Tis now your Turn to tell me your Adventures, therefore ſpeak.
The Grand Viſier Giafar, who had always been the the Spokeſman, anfwer’d Zobeide, thus, Madam, In order to obey you, we need only to repeat what we have ſaid already, before we enter’d your Houſe: We are Merchants of Mouſſel, that came to Bagdad, to ſell our Merchandize that lies in the Khan, where we lodge, We din’d to-day with ſeveral other Perſons of our Profeſſion, at a Merchant’s Houſe of this City; who after he had treated us with up choice Dainties, and excellent Wines, ſent for Men and Women Dancers, and Muficians. The great Noiſe we made brought in the Watch, who arreſted ſome of the Company, and we had the good Fortune to eſcape: But it being already late, and the Door of our Khan ſhut up, weknew
