the
king to grant what I ask, let the king and Haman come to the feast which
I shall prepare for them; and to-morrow I will do as the king wishes."

So Haman went out that day joyful and happy, but when he saw Mordecai in
the king's gate and noticed that he neither stood up nor moved for him,
he was furiously angry with Mordecai. But Haman controlled his temper
and went home. Then he called together his friends and Zeresh, his wife,
and told them the greatness of his wealth, how many children he had, and
all the ways in which the king had honored him, and how he had given
him a place above the officials and the royal servants. Haman said,
"Queen Esther brought no one in with the king to the feast which she had
prepared but me, and to-morrow also I am invited by her along with the
king. Yet all this does not satisfy me as long as I see Mordecai, the
Jew, sitting at the king's gate."

Then Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends said to him, "Let a gallows
seventy-five feet high be built and in the morning speak to the king and
let Mordecai be hanged on it. Then go merrily with the king to the
feast." The advice pleased Haman, and so he had the gallows built.

On that night the king was unable to sleep; so he gave orders to bring
the books that told of great deeds; and they were read before the king.
And it was written how Mordecai had told about the two servants of the
king who had tried to kill King Xerxes. Then the king said, "How has
Mordecai been honored and rewarded for this?" When the king's pages who
waited on him replied, "Nothing has been done for him," the king said,
"Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the
king's house to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows
that he had prepared for him. So the king's pages said to him, "Haman is
standing there in the court." The king said, "Let him enter."

So Haman entered, and the king said to him, "What shall be done for the
man whom the king wishes to honor?" Haman said to himself, "Whom besides
me does the king wish to honor?" So Haman said to the king, "For the man
whom the king wishes to honor let a royal garment be brought, which the
king has worn, and the horse on which the king has ridden and on whose
head a royal crown has been placed. Then let the garment and the horse
be placed in charge of one of the king's noble officials and let him
clothe the man whom the king longs to honor and make him ride on the
horse t