Upon the vizier’s return, Bedreddin Hassan was brought before him:  My lord, said Bedreddin, with tears in his eyes, pray do me the favour to let me know wherein I have displeased you.  Why, you wretch! said the vizier, was it not you who made the cream-tart you sent me?  I own I am the man, replied Bedreddin; but pray what crime is that?  I will punish you according to your deserts, said Schemseddin:  it shall cost you your life for sending me such a sorry tart.  Good God, cried Bedreddin, what news is this?  Is it a capital crime to make a bad creamtart?  Yes, said the vizier, and you are to expect no mercy from me.  While this interview lasted, the ladies, who were hid, observed Bedreddin narrowly, and readily knew him, though he had been so long absent.  They were so transported with joy, that they swooned away, and, when they recovered, would fain have run and fallen upon Bedreddin’s neck; but the promise they had made to the vizier, not to discover themselves, restrained the tender emotions of love and nature.

Schemseddin, having resolved to set out that very night, ordered the tents to be struck, and the necessary preparations to be made for his journey.  As for Bedreddin, he ordered him to be put into a chest or box well locked, and laid on a camel.  When every thing was got ready, the vizier and his retinue began their march, and travelled all that night and the next day without stopping.  In the evening they halted, when Bedreddin was taken out of his cage in order to be served with necessary refreshments, but still carefully kept at a distance from his mother and wife; and, during the whole expedition, which lasted twenty days, he was served in the same manner.  When they arrived at Cairo, and had encamped in the neighbourhood of that place, Schemaeddin called for Bedreddin, gave orders in his presence to a carpenter to get some wood with all expedition, and make a stake.  Heyday! said Bedreddin, what do you mean to do with a stake?  Why, to nail you to it, replies Schemseddin; then to have you carried through all the quarters of the town, that the people may have the spectacle of a worthless pastry-cook who makes cream-tarts without pepper!  Bedreddin cried out so comically, that Schemseddin could hardly keep his countenance:  Good God, cried he, must I suffer a death, as cruel as ignominious, for not putting pepper in a cream-tart?  Must I be rifled, and have all the godds in my house broken in pieces, imprisoned in a chest, and at last nailed to a stake? and all for not putting pepper in a cream-tart!  Good God! who ever heard of such a thing?  Are these the actions of Mussulmen, of persons who make professions of probity and justice, and practise all manner of good works?  With these words he shed tears; and then renewing his complaint, No, continued he, never was man used so unjustly, nor so severely.  Is it possible they should be capable of taking a man’s life for not putting pepper in a cream-tart?  Cursed be all cream-tarts, as well as the hour in which I was born!  Would to God I had died that minute!