re nigh blinded by the keenness
of its blaze. So they looked into the height, and saw straight over the
City a speck of cloud, but no thunder came from it; and the King cried,
'These be Genii! the issue of this miracle is yet to come! look for it,
and exult.' Then he turned to the other Kings, but they were leaning to
right and left in their seats, as do the intoxicated, without strength to
answer his questioning. So he exclaimed, 'A curse on my head! have I
forgotten the laws of hospitality? my cousins are famished!' He was
giving orders for the spreading of a sumptuous banquet when there passed
through the sky another mighty flash. They awaited the thunder this time
confidently, yet none came. Suddenly the King exclaimed, ''Tis the wrath
of Shagpat that his assailants remain uncastigated!' Then cried he to the
eunuchs of the guard, 'Hither with Feshnavat, the son of Feil!' And the
King said to Feshnavat, 'Thou plotter! envious of Shagpat!' Here the
King, Kresnuk, fell forward at the feet of Shagpat from sheer inanition,
and the King of the City ordered instantly wines and viands to be brought
into the Hall, and commenced saying to Feshnavat, in the words of the
wise entablature:

'"Of reckless mercy thus the Sage declared:
More culpable the sparer than the spared;
For he that breaks one law, breaks one alone:
But who thwarts Justice flouts Law's sovereign throne."

And have I not been over-merciful in thy case?'

As the King was haranguing Feshnavat, his nostril took in the steam of
the viands and the fresh odours of the wines, and he could delay no
longer to satisfy his craving, but caught up the goblet, and drank from
it till his visage streamed the tears of contentment. Lo, while he put
forth his hand tremblingly, as to continue the words of his condemnation
of the Vizier, the heavens were severed by a third flash, one exceeding
in fierceness the other flashes; and now the Great Hall rocked, and the
pillars and thrones trembled, and the eyes of Shagpat opened. He made no
motion, but sat like a wonder of stone, looking before him. Surely, Kadza
shrieked, and rushed forward to him from the crowd, yet he said nothing,
and was as one frozen. So the King cried, 'He waketh! the flashes
preceded his wakening! Now shall he see the vengeance of kings on his
enemies.' Thereupon he made a signal, and the scimitars of the guard were
in air over the head of Feshnavat, when darkness as of the dropping of
ni