they sought him but found him not and the mother buffeted her face in grief for her child and the father lost his right senses. Then the high Officials fared forth to search for their King's son and sought him from early night to the dawn of day, but not finding him they deemed that he had been drowned in Tigris-water. So they summoned all the fishermen and divers and caused them to drag the river for a space of four days. All this time and the boy abode with the Darwayshes, who kept saying to him, "Go to thy father and thy mother;" but he would not obey them and he would sit with the Fakirs upon whom all his thoughts were fixed while theirs were fixed upon him. This lasted till the fifth day when the door-keeper unsummoned entered the cell and found the Sultan's son sitting with the old men; so he went out hurriedly and repairing to the King cried, "O my Sovran, thy boy is with those Darwayshes who were wont daily to visit thee." Now when the Sultan heard the porter's words, he called aloud to his Eunuchs and Chamberlains and gave them his orders; when they ran a race, as it were, till they entered upon the holy men and carried them from their cell together with the boy and set all four[FN#194] before the Sultan. The King exclaimed, "Verily these Darwayshes must be spies and their object was to carry off my boy;" so he took up his child and clasped him to his bosom and kissed him again and again of his yearning fondness to him, and presently he sent him to his mother who was well-nigh frantic. Then he committed the two Fakirs (with commands to decapitate them) to the Linkman who took them and bound their hands and bared their heads and fell to crying, "This be his reward and the least of awards who turneth traitor and kidnappeth the sons of the Kings;" and as he cried all the citizens great and small flocked to the spectacle. But when the boy heard the proclamation, he went forth in haste till he stood before the elder Darwaysh who was still kneeling upon the rug of blood and threw himself upon him at full length till the Grandees of his father forcibly removed him. Then the executioner stepped forward purposing to strike the necks of the two old men and he raised his sword hand till the dark hue of his arm-pit showed[FN#195] and he would have dealt the blow when the boy again made for the elder Fakir and threw himself upon him not only once but twice and thrice, preventing the Sworder's stroke and abode clinging to the old man. The Sultan cried, "This Darwaysh is a Sorcerer:" but when the tidings reached the Sultanah, the boy's mother, she exclaimed, "O King, needs must this Darwaysh have a strange tale to tell, for the boy is wholly absorbed in him. So it is not possible to slay him on this wise till thou summon him to the presence and question him: I also will listen to him behind the curtain and thus none shall hear him save our two selves." The King did her bidding and commanded