“Persist, if thou wouldst truly reach thine ends,
     For failures oft are but advising friends.”

And he says: 

     “Every failure is a step advanced,
     To him who will consider how it chanced.”

Wherefore, will I that this attempt be made, keeping the counsel that is mine.  Thou must tell Baba Mustapha I wait without the city to reward him by my powers of reward with all that he best loveth.  So, when he has failed in his attempt on Shagpat, and blows fall plenteously upon him, and he is regaled with the accustomed thwacking, as I have tasted it in this undertaking, do thou waste no further word on him, for his part is over, and as is said: 

     “Waste not a word in enterprise! 
     Against—­or for—­the minute flies.”

’Tis then for thee, O Feshnavat, to speed to the presence of the King in his majesty, and thou wilt find means of coming to him by a disguise.  Once in the Hall of Council, challenge the tongue of contradiction to affirm Shagpat other than a bald-pate bewigged.  This is for thee to do.’

Quoth Feshnavat plaintively, after thought, ’And what becometh of me, O thou Master of the Event?’

Shibli Bagarag said, ’The clutch of the executioner will be upon thee, O Feshnavat, and a clamouring multitude around; short breathing-time given thee, O father of Noorna, ere the time of breathing is commanded to cease.  Now, in that respite the thing that will occur, ’tis for thee to see and mark; sure, never will reverse of things be more complete, and the other side of the picture more rapidly exhibited, if all go as I conceive and plot, and the trap be not premature nor too perfect for the trappers; as the poet has declared: 

  “Ye that intrigue, to thy slaves proper portions adapt;
   Perfectest plots burst too often, for all are not apt.”

And I witness likewise to the excellence of his saying: 

       “To master an Event,
        Study men! 
        The minutes are well spent
        Only then.”

Also ’tis he that says: 

  “The man of men who knoweth men, the Man of men is he! 
   His army is the human race, and every foe must flee.”

So have I apportioned to thee thy work, to Baba Mustapha his; reserving to myself the work that is mine!’

Thereat Feshnavat exclaimed, ’O Master of the Event, may I be thy sacrifice! on my head be it! and for thee to command is for me to obey! but surely, this Sword of thine that is in thy girdle, the marvellous blade—­’tis alone equal to the project and the shave; and the matter might be consummated, the great thing done, even from this point whence we behold Shagpat visible, as ’twere brought forward toward us by the beams!  And this Sword swayed by thee, and with thy skill and strength and the hardihood of hand that is thine, wullahy! ’twould shear him now, this moment, taking the light of Aklis for a lather.’