al-Din into the prison, locked the door upon him. Then he gave
orders to sweep a bench behind the door and, spreading on it a
sitting-rug and a leather-cloth, seated Nur al-Din thereon and
loosed his shackles and entreated him kindly. The Wazir sent
every day enjoining the jailor to beat him, but he abstained from
this, and so continued to do for forty days. On the forty-first
day there came a present from the Caliph; which when the Sultan
saw, it pleased him and he consulted his Ministers on the matter,
when one of them said, "Perchance this present was for the new
Sultan." Cried Al-Mu'in, "We should have done well had we put
him to death at his first coming;" and the Sultan cried "By
Allah, thou hast reminded me of him! Go down to the prison and
fetch him, and I will strike off his head." "To hear is to
obey," replied Al-Mu'in: then he stood up and said, "I will make
proclamation in the city:--Whoso would solace himself with seeing
the beheading of Nur al-Din bin al-Fazl bin Khakan, let him
repair to the palace! So follower and followed, great and small
will flock to the spectacle, and I shall heal my heart and harm
my foe." "Do as thou wilt," said the Sultan. The Wazir went off
(and he was glad and gay), and ordered the Chief of Police to
make the afore-mentioned proclamation. When the people heard the
crier, they all sorrowed and wept, even the little ones at school
and the traders in their shops; and some strove to get places for
seeing the sight, whilst others went to the prison with the
object of escorting him thence. Presently, the Wazir came with
ten Mamelukes to the jail and Kutayt the jailor asked him, "Whom
seekest thou, O our lord the Wazir?"; whereto he answered, "Bring
me out that gallows- bird." But the jailor said, "He is in the
sorriest of plights for the much beating I have given him." Then
he went into the prison and found Nur al-Din repeating these