After he had taken two whiffs of his pipe, and the slave had left the room, "Are you prepared? says he; have you brought the _needful_ along with you?" I wished to have occasion to join Soliman, and answered, "My servants are at the outer door, and have the vomit you wanted." "D--n you and the vomit too, says he with great passion, I want money, and not poison. Where are your piastres?" "I am a bad person, said I, Fidele, to furnish you with either. I have neither money nor poison; but I advise you to drink a little warm water to clear your stomach, cool your head, and then lie down and compose yourself, I will see you to-morrow morning." I was going out. "Hakim, says he, infidel, or devil, or whatever is your name, hearken to what I say. Consider where you are; this is the room where Mek Baady, a king, was slain by the hand of my father: look at his blood, where it has stained the floor, which never could be washed out. I am informed you have 20,000 piasters in gold with you; either give me 2000 before you go out of this chamber, or you shall die; I will put you to death with my own hand." Upon this he took up his sword, that was lying at the head of his sofa, and, drawing it with a bravado, threw the scabbard into the middle of the room; and, tucking the sleeve of his shirt above his elbow like a butcher, said, "I wait your answer." I now stept one pace backwards, and dropt the burnoose behind me, holding the little blunderbuss in my hand, without taking it off the belt. I said, in a firm tone of voice, "This is my answer: I am not a man, as I have told you before, to die like a beast by the hand of a drunkard; on your life, I charge you, stir not from your sofa." I had no need to give this injunction; he heard the noise which the closing the joint in the stock of the blunderbuss made, and thought I had cocked it, and was instantly to fire. He let his sword drop, and threw himself on his back on the sofa, crying, "For God's sake, Hakim, I was but jesting." At the same time, with all his might, he cried, "Brahim! Mahomet! El coom! El coom[27]!"--"If one of your servants approach me, said I, that instant I blow you to pieces; not one of them shall enter this room till they bring in my servants with them; I have a number of them armed at your gate, who will break in the instant they hear me fire."