The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2


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certain monarch having good cause to be jealous of his queen, not only  
puts her to death, but makes a vow, by his beard and the prophet, to  
espouse each night the most beautiful maiden in his dominions, and the  
next morning to deliver her up to the executioner.  
Having fulfilled this vow for many years to the letter, and with a  
religious punctuality and method that conferred great credit upon him  
as a man of devout feeling and excellent sense, he was interrupted one  
afternoon (no doubt at his prayers) by a visit from his grand vizier, to  
whose daughter, it appears, there had occurred an idea.  
Her name was Scheherazade, and her idea was, that she would either  
redeem the land from the depopulating tax upon its beauty, or perish,  
after the approved fashion of all heroines, in the attempt.  
Accordingly, and although we do not find it to be leap-year (which  
makes the sacrifice more meritorious), she deputes her father, the grand  
vizier, to make an offer to the king of her hand. This hand the king  
eagerly accepts--(he had intended to take it at all events, and had put  
off the matter from day to day, only through fear of the vizier),--but,  
in accepting it now, he gives all parties very distinctly to understand,  
that, grand vizier or no grand vizier, he has not the slightest design  
of giving up one iota of his vow or of his privileges. When, therefore,  
the fair Scheherazade insisted upon marrying the king, and did actually  
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