the blood of your master is upon your
hands, where have you hidden him?" Turning to the guards, who entered
as he clapped his hands, he ordered them to secure the Grand Vizier,
and continued: "If you do not before this time to-morrow bring back
Haroun Alraschid into this hall, I shall know what to think, and as
surely as I am Caliph you shall die."

So saying the prince seated himself upon the royal divan, and forthwith
appointed Hafiz, a favourite of his own, to be Grand Vizier. He next
ordered the new Grand Vizier to put Zobeideh, Haroun's favourite wife,
and Prince Emin, her son, in prison, and declared that on the morrow,
when he judged Giafer, he would also pronounce sentence on the others.

That night the new Caliph spent in feasting and revelry, but Giafer,
and Zobeideh and her son, Prince Emin, likewise spent the hours in
depression and grief, looking forward to death in the morning.

When the day dawned, and the new Caliph, after morning prayers, had
assumed his seat on the Imperial divan, he commanded Giafer to be
brought before him. Then, with a sinister smile, he demanded of the
prisoner, "Where is the most illustrious Caliph Haroun Alraschid? Say,
Giafer, what hast thou done with him?"

To this Giafer replied, "Haroun Alraschid, my master, is in the hand of
God. But where he may be at this moment, I have told you that I do not
know."

"No one can know so well as thou where he is," said Ibrahim, "for did
he not go to Bussora with thee and has never returned? Doubtless thou
hast killed him, and hast hidden his body, otherwise he would be here,
therefore thy life is forfeited," and with that he made a sign to the
mutes, who immediately took Giafer and passed the fatal cord about his
neck.

As they waited with trained docility for the usual sign from the Caliph
to draw tight the silken cord and despatch their victim, a great shout
was heard, and outside the palace acclamations filled the air, and
cries of--"Haroun Alraschid returns! Welcome, Prince of the Faithful!"

Ibrahim hearing these words, after a few moments' hesitation, made the
sign to the mutes, and Giafer's life would have ended, but on the
instant an officer standing by, who owed his position to the Grand
Vizier, cut through the cord with his sword. As he did so, Haroun,
pale with anger and his eyes flashing, entered the door of the
audience-chamber. Ibrahim, pale as ashes, sat on the throne petrified
with terror. As Haroun's eyes