h conducted me to the throne,
while your passionate, cruel, and rash conduct hath brought you down
from one. It appears to me that, in seeing you thus at my discretion,
I am commissioned to execute on you the decrees of Heaven, as a
warning to the wicked."

After this reproof, and without waiting a reply, Abosaber commanded
his officers to drive the exiled King and all his followers from the
city. These orders were instantly put in execution, but they
occasioned some murmurs. Should an unfortunate and suppliant King be
treated with so much rigour? This seemed contrary to all the laws of
equity, of humanity, and of policy.

Some time after this Abosaber, having been informed that a band of
robbers infested a part of his dominions, sent troops in pursuit of
them. They were surprised, surrounded, and brought before him. The
King recognized them to be those who had carried off his children, and
privately interrogated their chief.

"In such a situation," said he to him, "and in such a desert, you
found a man, a woman, and two children. You plundered the father and
mother, and carried away their children. What have you done with them?
What is become of them?"

"Sire," replied the chief of the robbers, "these children are among
us, and we will give them to your Majesty to dispose of them as you
please. We are ready, moreover, to deliver into your hands all that we
have heaped up in our profession. Grant us life and pardon; receive us
into the number of your subjects; we will return from our evil
courses, and no soldiers in your Majesty's service shall be more
devoted to you than we."

The King sent for the children, seized the riches of the robbers, and
caused their heads to be instantly struck off, without regarding their
repentance or entreaties.

The subjects of Abosaber, seeing this hasty conduct, and recollecting
the treatment of the exiled Monarch, in a short time did not know what
might be their own. "What precipitation!" said they. "Is this the
compassionate King, who, when the Cadi was about to inflict any
punishment, continually repeated to him, '_Wait, examine, do nothing
rashly; have patience_'?" They were extremely surprised, but a new
event rendered them still more astonished.

A gentleman came with complaints against his wife. Abosaber, before
hearing them, said to him, "Bring your wife with you: if it be just
for me to listen to your arguments, it cannot be less so to hear
hers."

The gentleman went