drink, eat, and be merry with them, and leave me at liberty to go to mine.  I must go alone, I have no occasion for company; besides, I must needs tell you, the place to which I go is not one where you can be received.”  “You jest, sir,” said he; “if your friends have invited you to a feast, what should prevent you from allowing me to go with you?  You will please them, I am sure, by introducing to them a man who can talk wittily like me, and knows how to divert company.  But say what you will, I am determined to accompany you.”

These words, gentlemen, perplexed me much.  “How,” thought I, “shall I get rid of this cursed barber?  If I persist in contradicting him, we shall never have done.”

Besides, I heard at this instant the first call to noon-prayers, and it was time for me to go.  In fine, I resolved to say nothing, and to make as if I consented to his accompanying me.  He then finished shaving me, and I said to him, “Take some of my servants to carry these provisions along with you, and return hither; I will stay for you, and shall not go without you.”

At last he went, and I dressed myself as expeditiously as I could.  I heard the last call to prayers, and hastened to set out:  but the malicious barber, who guessed my intention, went with my servants only within sight of the house and stood there till he saw them enter it, after which he concealed himself at the corner of the street, with an intent to observe and follow me.  In fine, when I arrived at the cauzee’s door, I looked back and saw him at the head of the street which alarmed me to the last degree.

The cauzee’s door was half open, and as I went in I saw an old woman waiting for me, who, after she had shut the door, conducted me to the chamber of the young lady who was the object of my love; but we had scarcely begun to converse, when we heard a noise in the streets.  The young lady put her head to the window, and saw through the gate that it was her father already returning from prayers.  At the same time I looked, and saw the barber sitting over-against the house, on the bench from which I had first seen the young lady.

I had then two things to fear, the arrival of the cauzee, and the presence of the barber.  The young lady mitigated my apprehension on the first head, by assuring me the cauzee, came but seldom to her chamber, and as she had forseen that this misadventure might happen, she had contrived a way to convey me out safely:  but the indiscretion of the accursed barber made me very uneasy; and you shall hear that my uneasiness was not without ground.

As soon as the cauzee was come in, he caned one of his slaves, who had deserved chastisement.  This slave made a horrid noise, which was heard in the streets; the barber thought it was I who cried out, and was maltreated.  Prepossessed with this thought, he roared out aloud, rent his clothes, threw dust upon his head, and called the neighbourhood to his assistance.  The neighbours collected, and asked