O ill-omened wight! How wilt thou make manifest that the right is
on thy side?" I replied "O our lord the Kazi, I deposited with
thee and in thy charge a woman whom we found at thy door, and on
her raiment and ornaments of price. Now she is gone, even as
yesterday is gone;[FN#39] and after this thou turnest upon us and
suest me for six thousand gold pieces. By Allah, this is none
other than a mighty great wrong, and assuredly some foe[FN#40] of
hers in thy household hath transgressed against her!" With this
the Judge's wrath redoubled and he swore by the most solemn of
oaths that I should go with him and search his house. I replied,
"By Allah I will not go, unless the Wali go with us; for, an he
be present, he and the officers, thou wilt not dare to work thy
wicked will upon me." So the Kazi rose and swore an oath, saying,
"By the truth of Him who created mankind, we will not go but with
the Emir!" Accordingly we repaired to the Judge's house,
accompanied by the Chief, and going up, searched it through, but
found naught; whereat fear fell upon me and the Wali turned to me
and said, "Fie upon thee, O ill-omened fellow! thou hast put us
to shame before the men." All this, and I wept and went round
about right and left, with the tears running down my face, till
we were about to go forth and drew near the door of the house. I
looked at the place which the woman had mentioned and asked,
"What is yonder dark place I see?" Then said I to the men, "Pull
up[FN#41] this jar with me." They did my bidding and I saw
somewhat appearing under the jar and said, "Rummage and look at
what is under it." So they searched, and behold, they came upon a
woman's mantilla and petticoat-trousers full of blood, which when
I espied, I fell down in a fainting-fit. Now when the Wali saw
this, he said, "By Allah, the Captain is excused!" Then my
comrades came round about me and sprinkled water on my face till