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el Jelis hither to sell her! What a solace to my heart! Then he
called the crier, who came up and kissed the ground before him,
and he said to him, Show me the girl thou art crying for sale.
The broker dared not cross him, so he answered, O my lord, in
the name of God! And brought the damsel and showed her to him.
She pleased him and he said, O Hassan, what is bidden for this
damsel? Four thousand five hundred dinars, replied the broker,
as an upset price. Quoth the Vizier, I take that bid on
myself. When the merchants heard this, they hung back and dared
not bid another dirhem, knowing what they did of the Vizier s
tyranny. Then Muin looked at the broker and said to him, What
ails thee to stand still? Go and offer four thousand dinars for
her, and the five hundred shall be for thyself. So the broker
went to Noureddin and said to him, O my lord, thy slave is gone
for nothing! How so? said he. The broker answered, We had
opened the biddings for her at four thousand five hundred dinars,
when that tyrant Muin ben Sawa passed through the market and when
he saw the damsel, she pleased him and he said to me, Call me
the buyer for four thousand dinars, and thou shalt have five
hundred for thyself. I doubt not but he knows she belongs to
thee, and if he would pay thee down her price at once, it were
well; but I know, of his avarice and upright, he will give thee a
written order on some of his agents and will send after thee to
say to them, Give him nothing. So as often as thou shalt go to
seek the money, they will say, We will pay thee presently, and
so they will put thee off day after day, for all thy high spirit,
till at last, when they are tired of thine importunity, they will
say, Show us the bill. Then, as soon as they get hold of it,
they will tear it up, and so thou wilt lose the girl s price.
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When Noureddin heard this, he looked at the broker and said
to him, What is to be done? I will give thee a counsel,
answered he, which if thou follow, it will be greatly to thine
advantage. What is that? asked Noureddin. Do thou come to me
presently, said the broker, when I am standing in the midst of
the market and taking the girl from my hand, give her a cuff and
say to her, O baggage, I have kept my vow and brought thee down
to the market, because I swore that I would put thee up for sale
and make the brokers cry thee. If thou do this, it may be the
device will impose upon the Vizier and the folk, and they will
believe that thou broughtest her not to the market but for
the quittance of thine oath. This is a good counsel, said
Noureddin. Then the broker left him and returning to the midst of
the market, took the damsel by the hand; then beckoned to Muin
and said to him, O my lord, here comes her owner. With this up
came Noureddin and snatching the girl from the broker, gave her a
cuff and said to her, Out on thee, thou baggage! I have brought
thee down to the market for the quittance of my oath; so now
begone home and look that thou cross me not again. Out on thee!
do I need thy price, that I should sell thee? The furniture of my
house would fetch many times thy value, if I sold it. When Muin
saw this, he said to Noureddin, Out on thee! Hast thou aught
left to sell? And he made to lay violent hands on him; but the
merchants interposed, for they all loved Noureddin, and the
latter said to them, Behold, I am in your hands, and ye all know
his tyranny! By Allah, exclaimed the Vizier, but for you, I
would have killed him! Then all the merchants signed to
Noureddin with their eyes as who should say, Work thy will of
him; not one of us will come betwixt him and thee. Whereupon
Noureddin, who was a stout-hearted fellow, went up to the Vizier
and dragging him from his saddle, threw him to the ground. Now
there was in that place a mortar-pit, into the midst of which he
fell, and Noureddin fell to cuffing and pummelling him, and one
of the blows smote his teeth, dyeing his beard with his blood.
There were with the Vizier ten armed slaves, who, seeing their
master thus evil entreated, clapped their hands to their swords
and would have drawn them and fallen on Noureddin, to kill him;
but the bystanders said to them, This is a Vizier and that a
Vizier s son; it may be they will make peace with one another
anon, in which case you will have gotten the hatred of both of
them. Or a blow may fall on your lord, and you will all die the
foulest of deaths; so you would do wisely not to interfere. So
they held aloof and when Noureddin had made an end of beating the
Vizier, he took his slave-girl and went home; and Muin rose, with
his white clothes dyed of three colours with black mud, red blood
and ashes. When he saw himself in this plight, he put a halter
round his neck and taking a bundle of coarse grass in either
hand, went up to the palace and standing under the King s
windows, cried out, O King of the age, I am a man aggrieved! So
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they brought him before the Sultan, who looked at him and knowing
him for his chief Vizier, asked who had entreated him thus.
Whereupon he wept and sobbed and repeated the following verses:
Shall fortune oppress me, and that in thy day, O King? Shall
wolves devour me, whilst thou art a lion proud?
Shall all that are thirsty drink of thy water-tanks And shall I
thirst in thy courts, whilst thou art a rain-fraught cloud?
O my lord, continued he, thus fare all who love and serve
thee. Make haste, said the Sultan, and tell me how this
happened and who hath dealt thus with thee, whose honour is a
part of my own honour. Know then, O my lord, replied the
Vizier, that I went out this day to the slave-market to buy me a
cook-maid, when I saw in the bazaar a damsel, whose like for
beauty I never beheld. She pleased me and I thought to buy her
for our lord the Sultan; so I asked the broker of her and her
owner, and he replied, She belongs to Noureddin Ali son of Fezl
ben Khacan. Now our lord the Sultan aforetime gave his father
ten thousand dinars to buy him a handsome slave-girl, and he
bought therewith this damsel, who pleased him, so that he grudged
her to our lord the Sultan and gave her to his own son. When Fezl
died, his son sold all that he possessed of houses and gardens
and household stuff and squandered the price, till he became
penniless. Then he brought the girl down to the market, to
sell her, and handed her to the broker, who cried her and the
merchants bid for her, till her price reached four thousand
dinars; whereupon I said to myself, I will buy her for our lord
the Sultan, for it was his money that paid for her. So I said to
Noureddin, O my son, sell her to me for four thousand dinars.
He looked at me and replied, O pestilent old man, I will sell
her to a Jew or a Christian rather than to thee! I do not buy
her for myself, said I, but for our lord and benefactor the
Sultan. When he heard my words, he flew into a passion and
dragging me off my horse, for all I am an old man, beat me till
he left me as thou seest; and all this has befallen me but
because I thought to buy the girl for thee. Then the Vizier
threw himself on the ground and lay there, weeping and trembling.
When the Sultan saw his condition and heard his story, the vein
of anger started out between his eyes, and he turned to his
guards, who stood before him, forty swordsmen, and said to them,
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