, I was surprised to see neither the
Princess of Cassimir nor the magician Bennaskar.

While I was in this confusion, the Cadi and his guards, being
impatient at our stay, entered the chamber, and the Cadi commanded his
guards to seize me, saying, "Villain! where is the Princess of
Cassimir, and the man who revealed thy unrighteous actions?"

At this I began to answer, when I perceived that my voice was as the
voice of Bennaskar. I immediately looked on my clothes, and found them
changed. In short, I doubted not that my malicious foe had transformed
me into his own appearance.

I fell at the feet of the Cadi, and besought him for one moment to
hear me. I acquainted him with every circumstance of my adventures,
from my entrance into the house of Bennaskar to the present moment.
But he and his guards laughed at my tale, and commanded me to deliver
up my friend and the Princess of Cassimir. In vain did I call Allah to
witness the truth of my story; the Cadi was enraged at my persisting
in the tale, and ordered his guards to give me a hundred strokes with
the chabouc.

To add to my misfortune, Bennaskar appeared at one end of the room;
and when I cried out and pointed to him, the Cadi, who saw him not,
thinking that I meant to mock him, ordered me another hundred lashes
with the chabouc.

Vexed with myself, and subdued by the pain, I fell on the ground, and
my guards were ordered to carry me to the prison, where I was loaded
with chains, and thrown into a deep dungeon.

The next morning I was brought out again before the Cadi, and carried
into the hall of justice. The Cadi there passed sentence upon me, that
I should be burnt alive the next day unless I delivered up Mahoud and
the Princess of Cassimir.

Finding it vain to repeat my declarations that I was the real Mahoud,
and that I suffered through the vile enchantments of Bennaskar, I
remained silent; but this was construed into surliness, and I was
ordered five hundred bastinadoes to make me speak.

The Cadi then commanded me to be carried back to the dungeon, and
ordered a large pile of wood to be raised in the market-place, whereon
I was to be burnt the next morning, before all the people.

I spent the night in the utmost horror, and earnestly wished that the
sun might never more behold my sorrows. But the darkness passed away
as usual, and I beheld the dreadful morning dawn. A tumultuous crowd
had collected before the door of the dungeon to see me pass to