my escape by cross streets and alleys.  But the cursed barber followed me close, crying, “Stay, sir; why do you run so fast?  If you knew how much I am afflicted at the ill treatment you received from the cauzee, you, who are so generous, and to whom I and my friends are so much obliged!  Did I not tell you truly, that you would expose your life by your obstinate refusal to let me go with you?  See what has happened to you, by your own fault; and if I had not resolutely followed, to see whither you went, what would have become of you?  Whither do you go, sir?  Stay for me.”

Thus the barber cried aloud in the street it was not enough for him to have occasioned so great a scandal in the quarter where the cauzee lived, but he would have it known through the whole town.  I was in such a rage, that I had a great mind to stop and cut his throat; but considering this would have perplexed me farther, I chose another course.  Perceiving that his calling after me exposed me to vast numbers of people, who crowded to the doors or windows, or stopped in the street to gaze at me, I entered an inn, the chamberlain of which knew me, and finding him at the gate, whither the noise had brought him, I prayed him, for the sake of heaven, to hinder that madman from coming in after me.  He promised to do so, and was as good as his word, but not without a great deal of trouble; for the obstinate barber would enter in spite of him, and did not retire without calling him a thousand names.  After the chamberlain had shut the gate, the barber continued telling all he met what great service he had done me.  Thus I rid myself of that troublesome fellow.  After this, the chamberlain prayed me to tell him my adventure, which I did, and then desired him to let me have an apartment until I was cured .  “But sir,” said he, “will it not be more convenient for you to go home?” “I will not return thither,” replied I:  “for the detestable barber will continue plaguing me there, and I shall die of vexation to be continually teazed by him.  Besides, after what has befallen me to-day, I cannot think of staying any longer in this town; I must go whither my ill-fortune leads me.”  Accordingly, when I was. cured, I took all the money I thought necessary for my travels, and divided the rest of my property among my kindred.

Thus, gentlemen, I left Bagdad, and came hither.  I had ground to hope that I should not meet this pernicious barber in a country so far from my own, and yet I find him amongst you.  Be not surprised then at my haste to be gone:  you may easily judge how unpleasant to me is the sight of a man who was the occasion of my lameness, and of my being reduced to the melancholy necessity of living so far from my kindred, friends, and country.

When he had spoken these words, the lame young man rose up and went out; the master of the house conducted him to the gate, and told him, he was sorry that he had given him, though innocently, so great a subject of mortification.