was out of all patience, having heard nothing from him, nor concerning the negro slave, whom he had commanded him to search for:  I am therefore ordered, said he, to bring you before his throne.  The afflicted vizier made ready to follow the messenger; but, as he was going but, they brought him his youngest daughter, who was about five or six years of age.  The nurses who attended her, presented her to her father to receive his last blessing.  Having a particular love to the child, he prayed the messenger to give him leave to stop for a moment, and, taking his daughter in his arms, kissed her several times; as he was embracing her the last time, he perceived she had somewhat in her bosom that looked bulky, and a sweet scent.  My dear little one, said he, what hast thou in thy bosom?  My dear father, said she, it is an apple, upon which is written the name of our lord and master the caliph; our slave Rihan[Footnote:  This word signifies, in Arabic, basilic, an odoriferous plant; and the Arabians call their slaves by this name, as the custom in France is to give the name of jessamin to a footman.] sold it to me for two sequins.

At the words apple and slave, the grand vizier cried out with surprise intermixed with joy, and, putting his hand into the child’s bosom, pulled out the apple.  He caused the slave, who was not far off, to be brought immediately; and when he came, Rascal! said he, where hadst thou this apple?  My lord, said the slave, I swear to you that I neither stole it in your house, nor out of the commander of the faithful’s garden; but the other day, as I was going through a street where three or four children were at play, one of them having it in his hand, I snatched it from him, and carried it away.  The child ran after me, telling me it was none of his own, but belonged to his mother, who was sick; and that his father, to save her longing, had made a long journey, and brought home three apples, whereof this was one, which he had taken from his mother without her knowledge.  He said what he could to make me give it him back, but I would not; I brought it home, and sold it for two sequins to the little lady your daughter; and this is the whole truth of the matter.

Giafar could not enough admire how the roguery of a slave had been the cause of an innocent woman’s death, and almost of his own.  He carried the slave along with him, and, when he came before the caliph, gave the prince an exact account of all that the slave had told him, and the chance that brought him to the discovery of his crime.  Never was any surprise so great as the caliph’s, yet he could not prevent himself from falling into excessive fits of laughter.  At last he recovered himself, and, with a serious mien, told the vizier, That, since his slave had been the occasion of so strange an accident, he deserved an exemplary punishment.  Sir, I must own it, said the vizier, but his guilt is not irremissible; I remember a strange story of a vizier of Cairo, called