and fled.  But my brother overtaking her, cut off her head also.  The wicked old woman came running at the noise, and my brother seizing her, said to her, Treacherous wretch! do not you know me?  Alas, sir, answered she, trembling, who are you?  I do not remember that I ever saw you.  I am, said he, the person to whose house you came the other day to wash and say your prayers.  Hypocritical hag! said he, do not you remember it?  Then she fell upon her knees to beg his pardon; but he cut her in four pieces.

There remained only the lady, who knew nothing of what had passed.  He sought her out, and found her in a chamber, where she was ready to sink when she saw him.  She begged her life, which he generously granted.  Madam, said he, how could you live with such wicked people as I have now so justly revenged myself upon?  I was, said she, wife to an honest merchant; and the cursed old woman, whose wickedness I did not know, used sometimes to come to see me.  Madam, said she one day, we have a very fine wedding at our house, which you will be pleased to see, if you give us the honour of your company.  I was persuaded by her, put on my best apparel, and took with me a hundred pieces of gold.  I followed her; she brought me to this house, where the black has kept me since by force, and I have been three years here to my very great sorrow.  By the trade which the cursed black followed, replied my brother, he must have gathered together a vast deal of riches.  There is so much, said she, that you will be made for ever, if you can carry them off.  Follow me, and you shall see them, said she.  Alnaschar followed her to a chamber, where she showed him several coffers full of gold, which he beheld with admiration.  Go, said she, fetch people enough to carry it all off.  My brother needed not to be bid twice; he went out, but staid only till he got ten men together, and he brought them with him, and was much surprised to find the gate open, but more when he found the lady and the coffers all gone; for she, being more diligent than he, had carried them all away.  However, being resolved not to return empty-handed, he carried off all the goods he could find in the house; which were a great deal more than enough to make up the five hundred pieces of gold of which he was robbed; but, when he went out of the house, he forgot to shut the gate.  The neighbours, who saw my brother and the porters come and go, went and acquainted the magistrate with it; for they looked upon my brother’s conduct as suspicious.  Alnaschar slept well enough all night; but next morning, when he came out of his house, twenty of the magistrate’s men seized him.  Come along with us, said they; our master would speak with you.  My brother prayed them to have patience for a moment, and offered them a sum of money to let him escape; but, instead of listening to him, they bound him, and forced him to go along with them.  They met in the street an old acquaintance of my brother’s, who stopped them a while, and asked them why they seized my brother, and offered them a considerable sum to let him escape, and to tell the magistrate that they could not find him.  But this would not do; so he was carried before the magistrate.