certain that thou art Abu al-Hasan of Khorasan the Shroff.' With this I fell aweeping, O Prince of True Believers; and he said to me, 'Why dost thou weep? By Allah, she for whom thou weepest is yet more longingly in love with thee than thou with her! And indeed her case with thee is notorious among all the palace women. But what wouldst thou have?' Quoth I, 'I would have thee succour me in my calamity.' So he appointed me for the morrow and I returned home. As soon as I rose next morning, I betook myself to him and waited in his chamber till he came in and said to me, 'Know that yesternight when, after having made an end of her service by the Caliph, she returned to her apartment, I related to her all that had passed between me and thee and she is minded to foregather with thee. So stay with me till the end of the day.' Accordingly I stayed with him till dark, when the Mameluke brought me a shirt of gold-inwoven stuff and a suit of the Caliph's apparel and clothing me therein, incensed me[FN#358] and I became like the Commander of the Faithful. Then he brought me to a gallery with rows of rooms on either side and said to me, 'These are the lodgings of the Chief of the slave-girls; and when thou passest along the gallery, do thou lay at each door a bean, for 'tis the custom of the Caliph to do this every night,'"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Nine Hundred and Sixty-second Night, She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Mameluke said to Abu Hasan, "When thou passest along the gallery set down at each door a bean for 'tis the custom of the Caliph so to do, till thou come to the second passage on thy right hand, when thou wilt see a door with a marble threshold .[FN#359] Touch it with thy hand or, an thou wilt, count the doors which are so many, and enter the one whose marks are thus and thus. There thy mistress will see thee and take thee in with her. As for thy coming forth, verily Allah will make it easy to me, though I carry thee out in a chest." Then he left me and returned, whilst I went on, counting the doors and laying at each a bean. When I had reached the middle of the gallery, I heard a great clatter and saw the light of flambeaux coming towards me. As the light drew near me, I looked at it and behold, the Caliph himself, came surrounded by the slave-girls carrying waxen lights, and I heard one of the women[FN#360] say to another, 'O my sister, have we two Caliphs? Verily, the Caliph whose perfumes and essences I smelt, hath already passed by my room and he hath laid the bean at my door, as his wont; and now I see the light of his flambeaux, and here he cometh with them.' Replied the other, 'Indeed this is a wondrous thing, for disguise himself in the Caliph's habit none would dare.' Then the light drew near me, whilst I trembled in every limb; and up came an eunuch, crying out to the concubines and