up his goods and lay hands on him and his brothers and bring them to me, that I may hang them.”  And he was sore enraged and said, “Ho, off with the Emir at once, and fetch them, that I may put them to death.”  But the Wazir said to him, “Be thou merciful, for Allah is merciful and hasteth not to punish His servants, whenas they sin against Him.  More over, he who can build a palace in a single night, as these say, none in the world can vie with him; and verily I fear lest the Emir fall into difficulty for Judar.  Have patience, therefore, whilst I devise for thee some device of getting at the truth of the case, and so shalt thou win thy wish, O King of the age.”  Quoth the King, “Counsel me how I shall do, O Wazir.”  And the Minister said, “Send him an Emir with an invitation; and I will make much of him for thee and make a show of love for him and ask him of his estate; after which we will see.  If we find him stout of heart, we will use sleight with him, and if weak of will, then do thou seize him and do with him thy desire.”  The King agreed to this and despatched one of his Emirs, Othman highs, to go and invite Judar and say to him, “The King biddeth thee to a banquet;” and the King said to him, “Return not, except with him.”  Now this Othman was a fool, proud and conceited; so he went forth upon his errand, and when he came to the gate of Judar’s palace, he saw before the door an eunuch seated upon a chair of gold, who at his approach rose not, but sat as if none came near, though there were with the Emir fifty footmen.  Now this eunuch was none other than Al-Ra’ad al-Kasif, the servant of the ring, whom Judar had commanded to put on the guise of an eunuch and sit at the palace gate.  So the Emir rode up to him and asked him, ’ O slave, where is thy lord?”; whereto he answered, “In the palace;” but he stirred not from his leaning posture; whereupon the Emir Othman waxed wroth and said to him, ’O pestilent slave, art thou not ashamed, when I speak to thee, to answer me, sprawling at thy length, like a gallows bird?” Replied the eunuch “Off and multiply not words.”  Hardly had Othman heard this, when he was filled with rage and drawing his mace[FN#303] would have smitten the eunuch, knowing not that he was a devil; but Al-Ra’ad leapt upon him and taking the mace from him, dealt him four blows with it.  Now when the fifty men saw their lord beaten, it was grievous to them; so they drew their swords and ran to slay the slave; but he said, “Do ye draw on us, O dogs?” and rose at them with the mace, and every one whom he smote, he broke his bones and drowned him in his blood.  So they fell back before him and fled, whilst he followed them, beating them, till he had driven them far from the palace gate; after which he returned and sat down on his chair at the door, caring for none.—­And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

      When it was the Six Hundred and Twenty-first Night,