forth from his room with drawn brand in hand and made at me, saying, ‘Who is this in my house?’ Quoth I, ’I am thy neighbour the jeweller;’ and he knew me and retired.  Then he fetched a light and coming up to me, said, ’O my brother, indeed that which hath befallen thee this night is no light matter to me.’  I replied, ’O my brother, tell me who was in my house and entered it breaking in my door; for I fled to thee not knowing what was to do.’  He answered, ’Of a truth the robbers who attacked our neighbours yesterday and slew such an one and took his goods, saw thee on the same day bringing furniture into this house; so they broke in upon thee and stole thy goods and slew thy guests.’  Then we arose” (pursued the jeweller), “I and he, and repaired to my house, which we found empty without a stick remaining in it; so I was confounded at the case and said to myself, ’As for the gear I care naught about its loss, albeit I borrowed part of the stuff from my friends and it hath come to grief; yet is there no harm in that, for they know my excuse in the plunder of my property and the pillage of my place.  But as for Ali bin Bakkar and the Caliph’s favourite concubine, I fear lest their case get bruited abroad and this cause the loss of my life.’  So I turned to my neighbour and said to him, ’Thou art my brother and my neighbour and wilt cover my nakedness; what then dost thou advise me to do?’ The man answered, ’What I counsel thee to do is to keep quiet and wait; for they who entered thy house and took thy goods have murdered the best men of a party from the palace of the Caliphate and have killed not a few of the watchmen:  the government officers and guards are now in quest of them on every road and haply they will hit upon them, whereby thy wish will come about without effort of thine.’” The jeweller hearing these words returned to his other house, that wherein he dwelt,—­and Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

      When it was the One Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the jeweller heard these words he returned to his other house wherein he dwelt, and said to himself, “Indeed this that hath befallen me is what Abu al-Hasan feared and from which he fled to Bassorah.  And now I have fallen into it.”  Presently the pillage of his pleasure-house was noised abroad among the folk, and they came to him from all sides and places, some exulting in his misfortune and others excusing him and condoling with his sorrow; whilst he bewailed himself to them and for grief neither ate meat nor drank drink.  And as he sat, repenting him of what he had done, behold one of his servants came in to him and said, “There is a person at the door who asketh for thee; and I know him not.”  The jeweller went forth to him and saluted him who was a stranger; and the man whispered to him, “I have somewhat to say between our two selves.”  Thereupon he brought him in and asked him, “What