the latter had found means to disgrace him with the khalif and to have him deprived of his office.  After lingering near the house in vain till nightfall, in hopes of once more obtaining a glimpse of this beauty, he retired for the night to a burying-ground, where he was soon joined by two thieves, who pressed upon him a share of the good cheer with which they had provided themselves, but while the thieves were feasting and talking over a robbery which they had just accomplished, the police suddenly pounced upon them, and took all three and cast them into prison.

In the morning they were examined by the kazi, and the thieves, seeing it was useless to deny it, confessed their crime.  The prince then told the kazi how he chanced to fall into company of the thieves, who confirmed all he said, and he was set at liberty.  Then the kazi began to question him as to how he had employed his time since he came to Baghdad, to which he answered very frankly but concealed his rank.  On his mentioning the brief glance he had of the beautiful lady at the window of the ex-governor’s house, the kazi’s eyes sparkled with apparent satifaction, and he assured the prince that he should have the lady for his bride; for, believing the prince to be a mere beggarly adventurer, he resolved to foist him on Mouaffac as the son of a great monarch So, having sent the prince to the bath and provided him with rich garments, the kazi dispatched a messenger to request Mouaffac to come to him on important business.  When the ex-governor arrived, the kazi told him blandly that there was now an excellent opportunity for doing away the ill will that had so long existed between them.  “It is this,” continued he:  “the prince of Basra, having fallen in love with your daughter from report of her great beauty, has just come to Baghdad, unknown to his father, and intends to demand her of you in marriage.  He is lodged in my house, and is most anxious that this affair should be arranged by my interposition, which is the more agreeable to me, since it will, I trust, be the means of reconciling our differences.”  Mouaffac expressed his surprise that the prince of Basra should think of marrying his daughter, and especially that the proposal should come through the kazi, of all men.  The kazi begged him to forget their former animosity and consent to the immediate celebration of the nuptials.  While they were thus talking, the prince entered, in a magnificent dress, and was not a little astonished to be presented to Mouaffac by the treacherous kazi as the prince of Basra, who had come as a suitor for his daughter in marriage.  The ex-governor saluted him with every token of profound respect, and expressed his sense of the honour of such an alliance:  his daughter was unworthy to wait upon the meanest of the prince’s slaves.  In brief, the marriage is at once celebrated, and the prince duly retires to the bridal chamber with the beauteous daughter of Mouaffac.  But in the morning, at an early hour, a servant of the kazi knocks