On the very same night of the tailor's attendance, the sultan had given
a secret order for taking off the head of the Aga of the Janissaries
(the fomenter of all the disturbances which had lately taken place among
his corps, and consequently their idol); and so anxious was he about its
execution, that he had ordered it to be brought to him the moment it was
off. The man entrusted with the execution, upon entering the room
where he had been directed to bring the head, seeing some one seated,
naturally took him for the sultan, and, without daring to look up,
immediately placed the burden at his feet, with the prostrations which
we have ready described as having been performed before the tailor. The
sultan, who not a minute before had taken away the bundle containing
the dervish's dress, had done so in the intention of deceiving his slave
Mansouri himself; so anxious was he of being unknown in his new disguise
even to him; and intended to have substituted another in its stead;
but not calculating either upon the reception of the head, or upon
Mansouri's immediate return to the tailor, he was himself completely
puzzled how to act when he found the tailor was gone, led off by his
slave. To have sent after them would have disconcerted his schemes, and
therefore he felt himself obliged to wait Mansouri's return, before he
could get an explanation of what had happened; for he knew that they
would not have gone away without the dress, and that dress he had then
in his possession. In the meanwhile, anxious and impatient to know
what had become of the expected head, he sent for the officer who
was entrusted with the execution; and the astonishment of both may be
imagined when an explanation took place.

"By my beard!" exclaimed the sultan, having thought awhile within
himself; "by my beard, the tailor must have got the head!"

His impatience for Mansouri's return then became extreme. In vain he
fretted, fumed, and cried "Allah! Allah!" It did not make the slave
retum a minute the sooner, who, good man, would have gone quietly to
rest had he not been called upon to appear before the sultan.

As soon as he was within hearing, he called out, "Ahi! Mansouri,
run immediately to the tailor--he has got the head of the Aga of the
Janissaries instead of the dervish's dress--run, fetch it without loss
of time, or something unfortunate will happen!" He then explained
how this untoward event had occurred. Mansouri now, in his turn, felt
h