When he had finished his verses, the jeweller said to him, “O my lord, I now intend returning to my house.”  He answered, “There be no harm in that; go and come back to me with news as fast as possible, for thou seest my case.”  “So I took leave of him” (continued the jeweller) “and went home, and hardly had I sat down, when up came the damsel, choked with long weeping.  I asked, ’What is the matter’?; and she answered, ’O my lord, know then that what we feared hath befallen us; for, when I left thee yesterday and returned to my lady, I found her in a fury with one of the two maids who were with us the other night, and she ordered her to be beaten.  The girl was frightened and ran away; but, as she was leaving the house, one of the door-porters and guards of the gate met her and took her up and would have sent her back to her mistress.  However, she let fall some hints, which were a disclosure to him; so he cajoled her and led her on to talk, and she tattled about our case and let him know of all our doings.  This affair came to the ears of the Caliph, who bade remove my mistress, Shams al-Nahar, and all her gear to the palace of the Caliphate; and set over her a guard of twenty eunuchs.  Since then to the present hour he hath not visited her nor hath given her to know the reason of his action, but I suspect this to be the cause; wherefore I am in fear for my life and am sore troubled, O my lord, knowing not what I shall do, nor with what contrivance I shall order my affair and hers; for she hath none by her more trusted or more trustworthy than myself.’”—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

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

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the slave-girl thus addressed the jeweller, “’And in very sooth my lady hath none by her more trusted or more trustworthy in matter of secrecy than myself.  So go thou, O my master, and speed thee without delay to Ali bin Bakkar; and acquaint him with this, that he may be on his guard and ward; and, if the affair be discovered, we will cast about for some means whereby to save our lives.’  On this” (continued the jeweller), “I was seized with sore trouble and the world grew dark in my sight for the slave-girl’s words; and when she was about to wend, I said to her, ‘What reckest thou and what is to be done?’ Quoth she, ’My counsel is that thou hasten to Ali bin Bakkar, if thou be indeed his friend and desire to save him; thine be it to carry him this news at once without aught of stay and delay, or regard for far and near; and mine be it to sniff about for further news.’  Then she took her leave of me and went away:  so I rose and followed her track and, betaking myself to Ali bin Bakkar, found him flattering himself with impossible expectations.  When he saw me returning to him so soon, he said, ’I see thou hast come back to me forthwith and only too soon.’  I answered, ’Patience, and