Whereat my command of silence forsook me! As Allah is the one god, and Mohammed his only Prophet, I became as one possessed of a devil! "Robber!" I cried; and my words lost themselves within the box. "Cheat! accursed disgrace of my father! infamy of my race! O dog! O unutterable dirt!" Jullanar cried out in fear, but my accursed brother took her in his bosom, soothing her with soft words. "Fear not, O my beloved!" he said. "I gave the mendicant wine that his heart might warm to his lowly task, but I fear he has become intoxicated!" "O thou liar!" I cried. "O malevolent scoundrel! O son of a disease!" And with all my strength I sought to raise the weight that bore me down; but to no purpose. "Know, my beloved," continued my thrice-accursed brother, "what I have suffered on thy account. But three days since I was attacked by four gigantic negro assassins despatched by Abu-el-Hassan to slay me! But I vanquished them, killing one and maiming a second, whilst the others escaped and ran back to their wretched master." "O unutterable liar!" I groaned. For I was near to hastening my predestined end both from suffocation and consuming rage. "Thou didst fly, thou jackal! from that peril, and reapest the fruits of my courage and dexterity! O, mud! O, stench!" "Lest he should despatch a number too great for me to combat, I have lurked in hiding, delight of souls! in a most filthy hovel belonging to a barber!" "May thy tongue turn into a scorpion and bite thee!" I cried. "My abode is as clean as the palace of the Khedive! Thou hast never entered it, O thou gnat's egg! Thou hast hidden in I know not what hole, like the unclean insect thou art, until thy steward (may his beard grow backward and smother him!) informed thee of this! O Allah! (to whom be ascribed all might and glory) give me strength to move this accursed box that I may crush him!" Scarce had I uttered the last word, when a girl came running into the apartment, crying: "Fly, my master! O my mistress! The Walî! the Walî!" Upon hearing these words, my rage departed from me and in its place came excessive fear. My breath left my body, and my heart ceased to beat. "He that falleth in the dirt be trodden on by camels," I reflected. "It is not enough, O Es-Samit, that thou hast suffered the attack of the assassin; that thou hast all but died of fear at the door of the Walî's house; that thou hast been torn from the arms of the loveliest creature God hath created; thou are destined, now, O most unfortunate of men, to be detected by the Walî in his daughter's apartments, concealed in a box!" And I pronounced the _Takbîr_, crying, "O Allah! thy ways are inscrutable!" "Fly, my beloved!" cried Jullanar to Ahzab. "My women will conceal thee!" Wherewith she swooned and fell upon the floor senseless. "Quick! follow me closely, O my master!" cried the girl, and I heard my perfidious brother depart from the room by one door, as the Walî entered by another.