“As I believed that this benevolent old woman took great pleasure in talking, I made an inclination of my head to thank her for her promised history, and she proceeded; but I must confess I did not listen with all the attention her narrative doubtless deserved.  Even curiosity, the strongest passion of us Turks, was dead within me.  I have no recollection of the old woman’s story.  It is as much as I can do to finish my own.

“The weather became excessively hot; it was affirmed by some of the physicians that this heat would prove fatal to their patients; but, contrary to the prognostics of the physicians, it stopped the progress of the plague.  I recovered, and found my purse much lightened by my illness.  I divided the remainder of my money with my humane nurse, and sent her out into the city to inquire how matters were going on.

“She brought me word that the fury of the plague had much abated, but that she had met several funerals, and that she had heard many of the merchants cursing the folly of Murad the Unlucky, who, as they said, had brought all this calamity upon the inhabitants of Cairo.  Even fools, they say, learn by experience.  I took care to burn the bed on which I had lain and the clothes I had worn; I concealed my real name, which I knew would inspire detestation, and gained admittance, with a crowd of other poor wretches, into a lazaretto, where I performed quarantine and offered up prayers daily for the sick.

“When I thought it was impossible I could spread the infection, I took my passage home.  I was eager to get away from Grand Cairo, where I knew I was an object of execration.  I had a strange fancy haunting my mind; I imagined that all my misfortunes, since I left Constantinople, had arisen from my neglect of the talisman upon the beautiful china vase.  I dreamed three times, when I was recovering from the plague, that a genius appeared to me, and said, in a reproachful tone, ’Murad, where is the vase that was entrusted to thy care?’

“This dream operated strongly upon my imagination.  As soon as we arrived at Constantinople, which we did, to my great surprise, without meeting with any untoward accidents, I went in search of my brother Saladin to inquire for my vase.  He no longer lived in the house in which I left him, and I began to be apprehensive that he was dead, but a porter, hearing my inquiries, exclaimed, ’Who is there in Constantinople that is ignorant of the dwelling of Saladin the Lucky?  Come with me, and I will show it to you.’

“The mansion to which he conducted me looked so magnificent that I was almost afraid to enter lest there should be some mistake.  But whilst I was hesitating the doors opened, and I heard my brother Saladin’s voice.  He saw me almost at the same instant that I fixed my eyes upon him, and immediately sprang forward to embrace me.  He was the same good brother as ever, and I rejoiced in his prosperity with all my heart.  ’Brother Saladin,’ said I, ’can you now doubt that some men are born to be fortunate and others to be unfortunate?  How often you used to dispute this point with me!’