I will marry thee to her." Replied Hasan, "I am thy servant and
whatso good thou dost with me will be a deposit with the
Almighty!" and the Persian rejoined, "O my son, have fair
patience and fair shall betide thee." Therewith he gave him the
piece of sweetmeat and he took it and kissing his hand, put it in
his mouth, knowing not what was hidden for him in the after time
for only the Lord of Futurity knoweth the Future. But hardly had
he swallowed it, when he fell down, head foregoing heels, and was
lost to the world; whereupon the Persian, seeing him in such
calamitous case, rejoiced exceedingly and cried, "Thou hast
fallen into my snares, O gallows-carrion, O dog of the Arabs!
This many a year have I sought thee and now I have found thee, O
Hasan!"--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.

When it was the Seven Hundred and Eighty-first Night,

She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when
Hasan the goldsmith ate the bit of sweetmeat given to him by the
Ajami and fell fainting to the ground, the Persian rejoiced
exceedingly and cried, "This many a year have I sought thee and
now I have found thee!" Then he girt himself and pinioned
Hasan's arms and binding his feet to his hands laid him in a
chest, which he emptied to that end and locked it upon him.
Moreover, he cleared another chest and laying therein all Hasan's
valuables, together with the piece of the first gold-lump and the
second ingot which he had made locked it with a padlock. Then he
ran to the market and fetching a porter, took up the two chests
and made off with them to a place within sight of the city, where
he set them down on the sea-shore, hard by a vessel at anchor