Instead of returning me a civil answer, as in good manners he ought to have done, the insolent wretch beholding me with an air of fierceness, Decrepit villain, said he, I would rather sell my slave to a Jew for nothing than to thee for money. Noureddin, replied I, without any manner of passion, though I had some reason to be a little warm, you do not consider that in talking at this rate you affront the king, who has raised your father and me to the honours we have enjoyed. This admonition, instead of moving him to a compliance, provoked him to a higher degree; so that, falling upon me like a madman, he pulled me off my horse, beat me as long as he could stand over me, and has put me into this miserable plight your majesty sees me in; and therefore I beseech you, sir, to consider me, since it is upon your account I have been so openly affronted. At the end of these words, he bowed his head, and turning about, wept a plentiful shower of tears. The abused king, highly incensed against Noureddin by this relation, full of malice and artifice, discovered by his countenance the violence of his anger; and, turning to the captain of his guards that stood near him, Take forty of your soldiers, said he, and immediately go plunder Noureddin’s house; and, having ordered it to be razed to the ground, bring him and his slave along with you. The captain of the guards was not gone out of the king’s presence, when a gentleman-usher belonging to the court, who overheard the order that had been given, got before him. His name was Sangiar, and he had been formerly the vizier Khacan’s slave, by whose favour he was brought into the court service, where by degrees he was advanced higher. Sangiar, full of gratitude to his old master, and affection for Noureddin, with whom in his infancy he had often played, and being no stranger to Saouy’s hatred to Khacan’s family, could not hear the orders without concern and trembling. May be, said he to himself, this action of Noureddin’s is not altogether so black as Saouy has represented it; but, however, the king is prejudiced against him, and will certainly put him to death without allowing him time to justify himself. Sangiar made so much haste to Noureddin’s house, as to get thither time enough to acquaint him with what had passed at court, and to desire him to provide for his own and the Fair Persian’s safety. He knocked so violently loud at the door, that Noureddin, who had been a great while without any servant, ran immediately to open it: My dear lord, said Sangiar, here is no more staying for you in Balsora: if you design to save yourself, you must lose no time, but depart hence this very moment.