"By Allah, there shall be no to-morrow in the matter. I will send for
the money at once, and the slaves shall be mine."
To this Asmut replied, "By your leave, not so fast. We desired,
indeed, that you should set a price on each of the slaves that we might
decide our dispute as to which of them is the better. But I by no
means intended or bound myself to accept any sum you might mention for
the slaves, whom I am in no hurry to dispose of."
"Very well," said the Caliph, who was quite unused to the chaffering of
merchants, although he had assumed the garb of one, "if the price I
have named does not content you, name your own price, for, in short,
the slaves I will have."
Asmut, after a few moments' consideration as to the highest sum he
could ask without going beyond what it seemed possible to obtain from
this very frank and eager buyer, said--
"The prices you have named, although no doubt large, are, in my
opinion, so much below the real value of two beauties of such
surpassing excellence, that I must insist on twice as much as you have
offered, namely, twenty thousand dinars for the one and eighty thousand
for the other."
The Caliph laughed and said, "Verily you are not a merchant for naught,
and you do not underestimate the worth of your own wares.
Nevertheless, I will give you your price."
The slave merchants could make no objection to this prompt agreement to
their terms; on the contrary, it suited their plans very well. Yet, in
order to appear indifferent and little anxious to conclude the business
with any undue haste and precipitancy, Asmut said--
"To-morrow, however, will be early enough to produce the money. It is
now dark and grows late, and besides, whom can you send?"
"I have a man whom I can send," said the Caliph, "for my servant will
have followed us here, and I will despatch him at once for the money."
And in fact Giafer, going to the gate, beckoned to Mesrúr, who had
followed them as usual, and who was waiting for them outside, and not
far from the house he had seen them enter.
The Caliph, taking out his tablets, wrote a few words to his treasurer,
bidding him send at once by Mesrúr, and in the hands of two slaves, the
sum of one hundred thousand dinars. This note he delivered to Mesrúr,
who saluted his master and immediately departed on his errand.
The Caliph and Giafer then seated themselves on the divan in the large
apartment into which they had been shown on first entering the house,
and, together with the slave merchants, passed the time in conversing
and discussing again the unique beauty of the two ladies whom the
Caliph was to purchase.
When Mesrúr returned, bringing with him two slaves carrying the hundred
thousand dinars in fifty bags, there being two thousand dinars in a
bag, they were shown at once into the large room where the merchants
and the Caliph were sitting.
As the slaves deposited the bags on the floor the slave merchants, as
also the Caliph and Giafer, rose and stood by them, Asmut so placing
the lamp as that they could all see him count the money as they stood
together.
He proposed to count the money in one of the bags, and that he should
then proceed to weigh the other bags against that which had been
counted. While all were watching him as he poured out and counted the
money with much noise and many loud exclamations from both merchants as
to the lightness of some of the coins, neither the Caliph, Giafer,
Mesrúr, nor either of the slaves, perceived that behind them, barefoot
and noiseless as camels, a number of huge and powerful black slaves had
entered the room.
Suddenly Asmut, seizing the empty bag and dashing it on the floor,
exclaimed, "I will count no more!"
This being the signal, no sooner had he uttered the words than the
slaves seized the Caliph and his companions, threw them down, and
before they could either struggle or cry out had securely bound and
gagged them.
"A good haul for one night's fishing," said Asmut, coolly; "a hundred
thousand dinars and five men, who will doubtless sell very well after
taking a voyage, that is not so bad."
Then ordering some of the slaves to be ready to take the prisoners down
to the river as soon as the dawn should appear, Asmut and his partner
personally superintended the removal from the room of the bags of gold.
Very early in the morning, as soon as it began to be light, a party of
the black slaves who had bound the Caliph and his followers came to
them, and unbinding their legs escorted them down to the river, where a
ship belonging to the slave merchants lay ready to receive them.
Their prospects of escape out of the clutches of the slave merchants
who had robbed and kidnapped them seemed slight indeed. Giafer and the
faithful Mesrúr being included in the capture, seriously diminished the
chance of any effectual measures for their relief being promptly
undertaken, and a fatal period of delay was rendered all the more
probable in consequence of the Caliph's well-known fondness for seeking
adventures in disguise. When the morning should come, and it was
perceived that they had not returned to the palace, it was only too
likely to be assumed that they were still engaged in the prosecution of
some adventure in which the Caliph would not desire to be interrupted.
Filled with these painful reflections, the Caliph, together with
Giafer, Mesrúr, and the two slaves, accompanied the black slaves who
formed their guard, and proceeded towards the river.
They had nearly reached the bank of the stream, and their case seemed
altogether hopeless, when suddenly they met advancing towards them from
the river a man habited as a merchant, and in personal appearance
curiously resembling the Caliph himself. He was accompanied by two
companions, and seeing several men bound and gagged being marched along
under charge of the black slaves, he stopped and demanded in a firm and
authoritative tone who they were and whence they were going.
At the sight of this man the blacks appeared to be seized with a sudden
panic; the Caliph heard them say to each other hurriedly and with
terrified looks, "It is the son of a Slave[1] himself." And
immediately they turned about and fled at their utmost speed.
The stranger and his two companions at once released the prisoners, and
inquired how it came to pass that they found them thus bound and gagged.
The Caliph answered him: "Sir, we have suffered this indignity and
violence at the hands of two rascally and deceitful slave merchants. I
will presently relate to you all the details of our adventure, but
permit me first to despatch my servant on a piece of very urgent
business."
Then turning to Mesrúr he took him aside, and said, "Go instantly,
seize the two slave merchants and execute them at once; send the slaves
and plunder you find in their house to the palace, and raze their house
to the ground."
Mesrúr departed at once to the nearest guardhouse to procure help to
carry out the orders of the Commander of the Faithful. And it need
scarcely be said that he had never received a command from his Majesty
which he executed with so much alacrity and good-will.
After having despatched Mesrúr on this errand, the Caliph turned to the
merchant and his companions, and said--
"It is now time, gentlemen, that I should thank you for your
intervention on our behalf, and that I should explain to you how it
came to pass that we found ourselves in the plight from which you
released us."
Beginning, then, by saying that he and his friend had entered a certain
caravanserai to rest themselves, and had there met the slave merchants,
he related all that had befallen them, but said nothing to indicate his
true rank as Caliph and Commander of the Faithful.
After Haroun had thus explained to the merchant, who both in dress and
features so much resembled himself, the history of his own position, he
asked him whether he could in any way account for the sudden panic
which had seized upon the slaves directly he had appeared and addressed
them.
The merchant, who resembled Haroun Alraschid, not only in personal
appearance, but in a certain frank and bold bearing, laughed and said--
"My name is Sidi ibn Thalabi, and I am, as my dress bespeaks me, a
merchant. But having the good fortune to be both in stature and
features not only like yourself, which strange to say I certainly am,
but also, which is more to the point, like our Caliph, God be his
shield, I have been tempted in one thing to imitate his illustrious
example. The Prince of the Faithful is in the habit, as I dare say you
may have heard, of seeking adventures and seeing life in the disguise
of a merchant. People, who would feel constrained in the presence of
their sovereign, speak and act naturally in the presence of a simple
merchant, the equal of themselves. This pleases the Caliph, and
affords him the gratification and amusement of observing men as they
are. As Prince of the Faithful he sees them only as they pretend to
be. Well, I have the same fancy, only in the contrary direction. I
know how men act when they accept me as their equal, I play at being
their Prince and then watch their behaviour. Taking advantage of the
Caliph's well-known fondness for masquerading as a merchant and of my
personal likeness to him, it is very easy to allow the impression to
get about that I am he. This accounts for the precipitate flight of
the slaves. Having seen me no doubt on sundry occasions in my barge
upon the Tigris, and having been told by some of those busy-bodies who
affect to know every one and everything that I was the Caliph in
disguise, they no sooner saw me just now and heard me demand who you
were than they ran away, dreading the punishment they so richly
deserve."
"It appears to me," said Haroun, "that the amusement in which you
indulge is a somewhat dangerous one. The Caliph is, I am told, of a
fierce and rather hasty temper; should he learn by chance of your
pranks, it might cost you your head. However, that is your affair.
For myself, I am indebted to your temerity for my liberty and probably
for my life, therefore I have certainly no cause to quarrel with it. I
shall be delighted to form one of your company in any further
adventures you may undertake, and meanwhile should hear with pleasure
an account of any that may have already befallen you."
To this Sidi ibn Thalabi replied, "I shall gladly conduct you to my
boat on the Tigris, whither I was going when I had the good fortune to
meet with you. And when we are seated there at our ease and have
partaken of some food, of which you must stand greatly in need after
your night's lodging with the slave merchants, I will tell you how it
happened that I obtained the reputation of being the Prince of the
Faithful, and some incidents that have occurred in consequence. But
first," he continued, "let me introduce my friend and companion, who is
indeed no other than my brother-in-law Abraha, but whom the people who
take me to be the Caliph insist upon regarding as the Grand Vizier."
"Yussuf," said Haroun, addressing Giafer by that name in order to
further their disguise and continue what gave promise of proving a very
entertaining misunderstanding, "I am sure you will salute with due
respect the person of this Grand Vizier, who is, I doubt not, as good a
man or even a better than Giafer himself."
"Friend Hamad," replied Giafer, speaking to Haroun in the style and by
the name they had previously agreed upon, "I salute with pleasure both
our new acquaintances, and am ready to believe that Abraha is no less
worthy to be really Grand Vizier than Sidi ibn Thalabi is to be really
Caliph."
Haroun perceived both from the manner and the answer of Giafer that the
sham Grand Vizier was a joke not quite to his liking. This amused
Haroun not a little, and he employed the time as they walked towards
the river in further light and playful discourse upon the topic.
Addressing Abraha, he said, "You must be pleased, sir, to excuse any
roughness or want of good manners and politeness on the part of my
friend Yussuf; he is perhaps a little bit jealous of the good fortune
of one who has been regarded as the Grand Vizier."
Abraha, who was a rather dull and stolid personage, accepted these mock
apologies with such imperturbable gravity and sincerity that Haroun was
delighted with him.
Saluting Haroun very solemnly, the sham Grand Vizier said, "Sir, I beg
that you will give yourself no concern respecting the language or
demeanour of your friend Yussuf. I dare say he is a good plain man,
however unused to the company of high personages, and in any case I am
able to make allowances for any whiff of passing ill-humour or
jealousy."
During this conversation between Haroun and Abraha, Giafer and Sidi ibn
Thalabi had fallen a little way behind and were walking and talking
together. A little way behind these came the two slaves whom Mesrúr
had brought to the slave merchants with him to carry the gold pieces.
When the party arrived at the bank of the Tigris, Haroun, stepping
aside, beckoned the slaves to him and despatched them to the palace
with a note addressed to the Grand Chamberlain.
In this note he informed that functionary that he should not return to
the palace for some hours, and commanded him to send the two slaves at
once, under guard and without allowing them to speak to any one, to a
town fifty days' journey from Bagdad, he having no mind to entrust the
secret of his last night's adventure to the indiscreet tongues of the
slaves who had participated in it. Having thus got rid of the slaves,
Haroun and Giafer accompanied their new acquaintances, Abraha and Sidi
ibn Thalabi, on board the ship or pleasure barge belonging to the
latter.
After they had been seated for some time, and had appeased their hunger
by partaking of a very substantial breakfast, Haroun said to Sidi ibn
Thalabi--
"I must now remind you of your promise to tell me something of your
recent experience."
Upon which Sidi ibn Thalabi spoke as follows: