So he arose and looked, crying, ’One with plunging legs, high up in air over the City, between two bright bodies.’  Shibli Bagarag exclaimed, ’’Tis well!  The second chapter of the Event is opened; so call it, thou that tellest of the Shaving of Shagpat.  It will be the shortest.’

Then he said, ’The shadow of yonder palm is now a slanted spear up the looped wall of the City.  Now, the time of Shagpat’s triumph, and his greatest majesty, will be when yonder walls chase the shadow of the palm up this hill; and then will Baba Mustapha be joining the chorus of creatures that shriek toward even ere they snooze.  There’s not an ape in the woods, nor hyaena in the forest, nor birds on the branches, nor frogs in the marsh that will outnoise Baba Mustapha under the thong!  Wullahy, ’twill grieve his soul in aftertime when he sitteth secure in honours, courted, with a thousand ears at his bidding, that so much breath ’scaped him without toll of the tongue!  But as the poet says truly: 

     “The chariot of Events lifteth many dusty heels,
     And many, high and of renown, it crusheth with its wheels.”

Wah!  I have had my share of the thong, and am I, Master of the Event, to be squeamish in attaining an end by its means?  Nay, by this Sword!’

Thereat, he strode once again to the summit of the hill, and in a moment the Genii fronted him like two shot arrows quivering from the flight.  So he cried, ‘It is done?’

They answered, ‘In faithfulness.’

So he beckoned to Noorna, and she came forward swiftly to him, exclaiming, ’I read the plot, and the thing required of me; so say nought, but embrace me ere I leave thee, my betrothed, my master!’

He embraced her, and led her to where the Genii stood.  Then said he to the Genii, ’Convey her to the City, O ye slaves of the Sword, and watch over her there.  If ye let but an evil wind ruffle the hair of her head, lo!  I sever ye with a stroke that shaketh the under worlds.  Remain by her till the shrieks of Baba Mustapha greet ye, and then will follow commotion among the crowd, and cries for Shagpat to show himself to the people, cries also of death to Feshnavat; and there will be an assembly in the King’s Hall of Justice; thither lead ye my betrothed, and watch over her.’  And he said to Noorna, ‘Thou knowest my design?’

So she said, ’When condemnation is passed on Feshnavat, that I appear in the hall as bride of Shagpat, and so rescue him that is my father.’  And she cried, ’Oh, fair delightful time that is coming! my happiness and thy honour on earth dateth from it.  Farewell, O my betrothed, beloved youth!  Eyes of mine! these Genii will be by, and there’s no cause for fear or sorrow, and ’tis for thee to look like morning that speeds the march of light.  Thou, my betrothed, art thou not all that enslaveth the heart of woman?’

Cried Shibli Bagarag, ’And thou, O Noorna, all that enraptureth the soul of man!  Allah keep thee, my life!’