But no sooner had I thus seated myself than a negro of gigantic stature, and most hideous aspect, suddenly appeared from the shadow of a door, and threw himself upon me, exclaiming: "This is thine end, as it was written, O Ahzab the Merchant!" By Allah! (whose name be exalted) I thought it was even as he said; and none but myself had fallen into sudden dissolution, but that everything slippery is not a pancake, and the jar that is struck may yet escape unbroken. So it befell that by great good fortune and by the exercise of my agility and intelligence, I tripped the negro and his head came in contact with the _mastabah_, and before he could recover himself, I held to his ebony throat the blade of a razor which, by the mercy of God, and because it was a custom of my profession, I carried in my _kamar_. "O thou dog!" I exclaimed, "prepare to depart to that utter darkness and perdition that awaits assassins! For assuredly I am about to slay thee!" But he humbled himself to the ground before me, and embraced my feet, crying: "Have mercy, O my master! I but obeyed the commands!" "Of whom, thou vile and unnamable vermin?" I asked of him. "Of whom else but Abu-el-Hassan, the son of the Kadî! For hath he not revealed to thee that for what has passed with Jullanar (Pomegranate Flower), the daughter of the Walî, he will slay thee?" "He hath revealed this to me?" I asked of him, astonished at his words. And he replied: "Thou knowest, master, it was by my hand that the message was borne." Whereupon I praised Allah (whose name be exalted) and spurned the slave with my foot, saying: "Depart, O thou black son of filth, and report that I am dead. I give thee thy wretched life; depart!" But when he had gone, I again lifted up my voice in thanksgiving. And having come to my abode, I performed the preparatory ablution, and recited the prayer of night-fall; after which I recited the chapters "Ya-Sîn" (The Cow) and "Two Preventatives." For I perceived that this was the true purport of my brother's absence, and that in his love and affection he had resigned to me this affair, well knowing that I should perish! It was by the mercy of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful, that my case was not as he had foreseen. The damsel called Jullanar, daughter of the Walî, was famed from Cairo to the uttermost islands of China for her elegance and loveliness, and I knew that my beloved could be none other than she, and that Abu-el-Hassan, son of the Kadî, could be none other than the betrothed chosen of her father the Walî. I slept not that night, but passed the hours until sunrise reflecting upon this matter, and upon the dangers which awaited my father's handsome son on Friday. And I went not to the market on the next day, but sent a message to my brother's steward saying that I was smitten with sickness and enjoining him to acquaint the girl, who presently would come, where I was to be found.