Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 3.3.3

3.3.3

Didar-Kan, one of the principal eunuchs of the Seraglio, had built a house, to which he sometimes resorted for entertainment, and where he often slept. He became enamoured of a beautiful woman, the sister of a neighbour, a Gentile, and a scrivener by profession. An illicit intercourse continued for some time between them, without creating much suspicion. After all, it was but an eunuch, privileged to enter anywhere, and a woman! The familiarity between the two lovers became at length so remarkable, that the neighbours began to suspect something, and chaffed the scrivener on the subject. He felt so stung by these taunts that he threatened to put both his sister and the eunuch to death if the suspicions of their guilt should be verified. Proof was not long wanting: they were one night discovered in the same bed, by the brother, who stabbed Didar-Kan through the body, and left his sister for dead.