sumptuous viands; so they fell to eating and drinking till they had their sufficiency and returned thanks to the housemaster.[FN#45] Thereupon Haykar led the Headsman aside into privacy and said to him, “O Abu Sumayk,[FN#46] what while Sarhadun the King, sire of Sankharib the King, determined to slay thee, I took thee and hid thee in a place unknown to any until the Sovran sent for thee.  Moreover I cooled his temper every day till he was pleased to summon thee, and when at last I set thee in his presence he rejoiced in thee.  Therefore do thou likewise at this moment bear in mind the benefits I wrought thee, and well I wot that the King will repent him for my sake and will be wroth with exceeding wrath for my slaughter, seeing that I be guiltless; so when thou shalt bring me alive before him thy degree shall become of the highest.  For know thou that Nadan my nephew hath betrayed me and devised for me this ill device; and I repeat that doubtless my lord will presently rue my ruin.  Learn, too, that beneath the threshold of my mansion lieth a souterrain whereof no man is ware:  so do thou conceal me therein with the connivance of my spouse Shaghaftini.  Also I have in my prison a slave which meriteth doom of death:[FN#47] so bring him forth and robe him in my robes; then bid the varlets (they being drunken with wine) do him die, nor shall they know whom they have slain.  And lastly command them to remove his head an hundred cubits from his body and commit the corpse unto my chattels that they inter it.  So shalt thou store up with me this rich treasure of goodly deeds.”  Hereupon the Sworder did as he was bidden by his ancient benefactor, and he and his men repairing to the presence said, “Live thy head, O King, for ever and aye!"[FN#48] And after this Shaghaftini, the wife of Haykar, brought meat and drink to her husband down in the Matamor,[FN#49] and every Friday she would provide him with a sufficiency for the following week without the weeting of anyone.  Presently the report was spread and published and bruited abroad throughout Assyria and Niniveh how Haykar the Sage had been done to die and slain by his Sovran; and the lieges of all those regions, one and all, keened[FN#50] for him aloud and shed tears and said, “Alas for thee, O Haykar, and alack for the loss of thy lore and thy knowledge!  Woe be to us for thee and for thy experience!  Where now remaineth to find thy like? where now shall one intelligent, understanding and righteous of rede resemble thee and stand in thy stead?” Presently the King fell to regretting the fate of Haykar whereof repentance availed him naught:  so he summoned Nadan and said to him, “Fare forth and take with thee all thy friends to keen and make ceremonious wailings for thy maternal uncle Haykar and mourn, according to custom, in honour of him and his memory.”  But Nadan, the fool, the ignorant, the hard of heart, going forth the presence to show sorrow at his uncle’s house, would neither mourn nor weep nor keen; nay,