Orval, or The Fool of Time :: :: University of Virginia Library

All at the mid of the night, there arose
A quarrel 'twixt husband and wife;
For, the young Omer Bey and his spouse,
Falling into discussion and strife,
Wild words to each other they said,
Side by side, at the dead
Of the night, on their marriage bed.

Had it been about anything less
The quarrel might have passt by;
But it was not a trifle, you guess,
That set words running so high.
Yet the cause in dispute (to be brief)
Was only a white handkerchief,

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Broider'd all over with gold,
And scented with rose and with amber,
So sweet the whole house could not hold
That scent from the nuptial chamber.
For (the whole truth herewith to disclose)
This handkerchief border'd with gold,
And scented with amber and rose,
Had been given to the Bey (to enfold
Her letters, which lay on his breast),
By the mistress that he loved best.
But his wife had a sensitive nose
For the scent of amber and rose;
And the fiend himself only knows
Whether, but for a lie, ere the close
Of that quarrel there had not been blows.

“You know I've a sister, my treasure,
The wife of our friend Zekir Bey;
I love her, you know, beyond measure,
And she, dear, on our bridal day,
To me gave this white handkerchief,
Border'd all over with gold,
And scented with amber and rose;
Which precious, for her sake, I hold,
Though the scent of it, much to my grief,
Has troubled our nuptial repose.”

Smiling, her husband she heard,
Feeling no faith in his word,
For troubled his face was, she saw.
Up she leapt by the light of the taper,
Barefooted, and seized ink and paper;
And wrote to her sister-in-law:—

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“Wife of our friend, Zekir Bey,
Long live thy husband, nought ail him,
May'st thou never have cause to bewail him!
Speak truth, and fear nothing. But say
(For truly the truth must be told)
To thy brother, on our bridal day,
Did'st thou give a white handkerchief, brightly
Embroider'd all over with gold,
And scented with rose and with amber
So sweet, that the scent of it nightly
May be smelt in the Bey's bridal chamber?”

When this came to the wife of the Bey,
She burst into tears, as she read:
And “Pity upon me!” she said,
“For I know not, alas! what to say.
If I speak truth, I put strife
'Twixt the brother I love and his wife;
If I speak false, much I dread
Lest my husband die for it,” she said.

Then the letter she laid in her breast,
And she ponder'd with many a sigh,
“I choose of two evils the least,
If my husband must die, let him die!
Since the choice lies 'twixt one or the other—
Any husband a woman may spare,
But the sister that injures a brother
Does that which she cannot repair.”

Thus shrewdly the matter she saw:
And she wrote to her sister-in-law:—

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“Wife of my brother, the Bey!
My husband is well. May naught ail him!
And I trust I shall never bewail him.
To my brother on your marriage day
(And truly the truth shall be told)
I gave a white handkerchief, brightly
Embroider'd all over with gold,
And scented with rose and with amber
So sweet, that the scent (as you say,
And as I cannot doubt of it) nightly
May be smelt in the Bey's bridal chamber.”