--- title: The Crimson Fairy Book, part 28 — The Crimson Fairy Book · full text with trees · page 2 description: The Crimson Fairy Book, part 28, «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: “Stop, you promise-breaker,” shrieked he; “you have slipped through my hands once, but wait till I catch you again!” --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/) / The Crimson Fairy Book, part 28 # The Crimson Fairy Book, part 28 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/) **2** - [101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/101/) — “My husband lies dead at home, and he has spent all our money, and sold everything, and I have nothing left to bury him with,” sobbed the wife. - [102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/102/) — Then Subida took up a purse containing two hundred gold pieces, and said: “Your husband served us long and faithfully. - [103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/103/) — You must see that he has a fine funeral.” - [104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/104/) — The wife took the money, and, kissing the feet of the Sultana, she joyfully hastened home. - [105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/105/) — They spent some happy hours planning how they should spend it, and thinking how clever they had been. - [106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/106/) — “When the Sultan goes this evening to Subida’s palace,” said Abu Nowas, “she will be sure to tell him that Abu Nowas is dead. - [107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/107/) — ‘Not Abu Nowas, it is his wife,’ he will reply, and they will quarrel over it, and all the time we shall be sitting here enjoying ourselves. - [108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/108/) — Oh, if they only knew, how angry they would be!” - [109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/109/) — As Abu Nowas had foreseen, the Sultan went, in the evening after his business was over, to pay his usual visit to the Sultana. - [110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/110/) — “Poor Abu Nowas is dead!” said Subida when he entered the room. - [111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/111/) — “It is not Abu Nowas, but his wife who is dead,” answered the Sultan. - [112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/112/) — “No; really you are quite wrong. - [113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/113/) — She came to tell me herself only a couple of hours ago,” replied Subida, “and as he had spent all their money, I gave her something to bury him with.” - [114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/114/) — “You must be dreaming,” exclaimed the Sultan. - [115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/115/) — “Soon after midday Abu Nowas came into the hall, his eyes streaming with tears, and when I asked him the reason he answered that his wife was dead, and they had sold everything they had, and he had nothing left, not so much as would buy her a shroud, far less for her burial.” - [116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/116/) — For a long time they talked, and neither would listen to the other, till the Sultan sent for the door-keeper and bade him go instantly to the house of Abu Nowas and see if it was the man or his wife who was dead. - [117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/117/) — But Abu Nowas happened to be sitting with his wife behind the latticed window, which looked on the street, and he saw the man coming, and sprang up at once. - [118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/118/) — “There is the Sultan’s door-keeper! - [119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/119/) — They have sent him here to find out the truth. - [120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/120/) — Quick! throw yourself on the bed and pretend that you are dead.” - [121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/121/) — And in a moment the wife was stretched out stiffly, with a linen sheet spread across her, like a corpse. - [122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/122/) — She was only just in time, for the sheet was hardly drawn across her when the door opened and the porter came in. - [123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/123/) — “Has anything happened?” asked he. - [124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/124/) — “My poor wife is dead,” replied Abu Nowas. - [125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/125/) — “Look! she is laid out here.” - [126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/126/) — And the porter approached the bed, which was in a corner of the room, and saw the stiff form lying underneath. - [127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/127/) — “We must all die,” said he, and went back to the Sultan. - [128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/128/) — “Well, have you found out which of them is dead?” asked the Sultan. - [129](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/129/) — “Yes, noble Sultan; it is the wife,” replied the porter. - [130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/130/) — “He only says that to please you,” cried Subida in a rage; and calling to her chamberlain, she ordered him to go at once to the dwelling of Abu Nowas and see which of the two was dead. - [131](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/131/) — “And be sure you tell the truth about it,” added she, “or it will be the worse for you.” [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/28/) **2** - ← previous: [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/27/) - next →: [The Crimson Fairy Book, part 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/29/) - ↑ back to [The Crimson Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2435/)