much alacrity and good-will.

After having despatched Mesrur on this errand, the Caliph turned to the
merchant and his companions, and said--

"It is now time, gentlemen, that I should thank you for your
intervention on our behalf, and that I should explain to you how it
came to pass that we found ourselves in the plight from which you
released us."

Beginning, then, by saying that he and his friend had entered a certain
caravanserai to rest themselves, and had there met the slave merchants,
he related all that had befallen them, but said nothing to indicate his
true rank as Caliph and Commander of the Faithful.

After Haroun had thus explained to the merchant, who both in dress and
features so much resembled himself, the history of his own position, he
asked him whether he could in any way account for the sudden panic
which had seized upon the slaves directly he had appeared and addressed
them.

The merchant, who resembled Haroun Alraschid, not only in personal
appearance, but in a certain frank and bold bearing, laughed and said--

"My name is Sidi ibn Thalabi, and I am, as my dress bespeaks me, a
merchant. But having the good fortune to be both in stature and
features not only like yourself, which strange to say I certainly am,
but also, which is more to the point, like our Caliph, God be his
shield, I have been tempted in one thing to imitate his illustrious
example. The Prince of the Faithful is in the habit, as I dare say you
may have heard, of seeking adventures and seeing life in the disguise
of a merchant. People, who would feel constrained in the presence of
their sovereign, speak and act naturally in the presence of a simple
merchant, the equal of themselves. This pleases the Caliph, and
affords him the gratification and amusement of observing men as they
are. As Prince of the Faithful he sees them only as they pretend to
be. Well, I have the same fancy, only in the contrary direction. I
know how men act when they accept me as their equal, I play at being
their Prince and then watch their behaviour. Taking advantage of the
Caliph's well-known fondness for masquerading as a merchant and of my
personal likeness to him, it is very easy to allow the impression to
get about that I am he. This accounts for the precipitate flight of
the slaves. Having seen me no doubt on sundry occasions in my barge
upon the Tigris, and having been told by some of those busy-bodies who
affect to know every one and