ents under
the reign of your illustrious father: your Majesty, perhaps, is
ignorant of what happened to him in the city of Shiras."

The King having commanded him to inform him of it, Abourazier pursued
his discourse thus:

"Imadil Deule,[8] in the last war which we sustained against Persia,
led our victorious army as far as Shiras, which he took, and, by a
sentiment of humanity, preserved from being plundered. His soldiers,
however, demanded a recompense that might make them amends for the
booty they expected to have obtained, and spoke to him so strongly,
that he was obliged to promise one to them, though he knew not where
he could procure it."

[Footnote 8: The support and assistance of felicity.]

"One day as he was in his palace, thinking of this demand, he
perceived a serpent creep out of a hole in the wall and return into it
again. He called the officers of his harem, and said to them, 'Break
open that hole, and take out the serpent that I saw enter it this
moment.'

"The courtiers obeyed him, and found a vault full of presses ranged
along the walls, with chests piled upon each other. They were opened,
and found to be filled with sequins, while the presses were heaped up
with the most magnificent stuffs. Imadil Deule returned thanks to God
for this discovery, and distributed the treasure to his soldiers. He
afterwards commanded a tailor to be sent for to make habits of these
stuffs, with which he designed to recompense the merits of those
officers who had served under his command. The most experienced tailor
of the city was presented to him, who had always wrought for the late
Governor. Imadil Deule said to him, 'Not only thou shalt be well paid
if these habits are carefully made, but I will procure thee a further
recompense, and some bowls of cassonnade.'"[9]

[Footnote 9: A kind of sherbet mixed with honey.]

"The tailor, who was deaf of one ear, understood that he was to have
the bastinado, and fell a-weeping. Imagining that it was intended to
exact an account of the late Governor's clothes which he had in his
possession, he declared he had only twelve chests full, and those who
accused him of having more had not said the truth.

"Imadil Deule could not forbear smiling at the effect which fear had
produced in the poor tailor: he caused the habits to be brought, which
were found to be magnificent and entirely new. The only use he made of
them, as well as of the rich stuffs he found in the presses, was