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and finding that I was purſu’d, it made me judge the Robbers were not willing to quit the Booty they had got.
Scheherazade perceiving Day coming on, was oblig’d to ſtop here. Oh Siſter, ſaid Dizarzade, to-morrow I ſhall be more diligent, in hopes you will make Reparation to the Sultan for the Loſs that his Curioſity has ſuſtain’d through my Neglect. Schahriar aroſe without ſaying one Word, and went to his uſual Conſultation.
DInarzade fail’d not to call the Sultaneſs a good while before Day: My dear Siſter, ſays ſhe, if you be not aſleep, I pray you reſume the Story of the Callender; I conſent to it, ſaid Scheherazade; and ſo continu’d in theſe Words:
Here you ſee me, ſaid the Callender, all alone wounded, deſtitute of all Help, and in a ſtrange Country; I durſt not betake my ſelf to the high Road, fearing I might fall again into the Hands of theſe Robbers. When I had bound up my Wound, which was not dangerous, I march’d on the reſt of the Day, and arriv’d at the Foot of a Mountain, where I perceiv’d a Paſſage into a Cave; I went in, and ſtay’d there that Night with little Satisfaction, after I had eaten ſome Fruits that I gather’d by the way.
I continued my Journey for ſeveral Days following, without finding any Place of Abode: But after a Month’s time, I came to a large Town well inhabited, and ſituated ſo much the more advantageouſly, that it was ſurrounded with ſeveral Rivers, ſo that it enjoyed a perpetual Spring.
The pleaſant Objects which then preſented themſelves to my View, afforded me ſome Joy, and ſuſpended for ſome time the mortal Sorrow with which I was overwhelm’d, to find my ſelf in ſuch a Condition. My Face, Hands and Feet, were all tawny and ſun-burnt, and by my long Journey my Shoes and Stockings were quite worn out, ſo that I was forc’d to walk bare-footed; and beſides, my Cloaths were all in Rags. I entred into the Town to inform my ſeif where I was, and addreſs’d my ſelf to a