and set him before the King--And Shahrazad was surprised by the
dawn of day and fell silent and ceased saying her permitted say.
Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet and tasteful is thy
tale, O sister mine, and enjoyable and delectable!" Quoth she,
"And where is this compared with that I would relate to you on
the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?" Now when it
was the next night and that was

The Three Hundred and Eighty-first Night,

Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be
other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short
the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love
and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the
director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting
and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that at the
King's bidding they took up the Fakir who was still kneeling
under the glaive and set him before the King who bade him be
seated. And when he sat him down the Sultan commanded all who
were in the presence of Eunuchs and Chamberlains to withdraw, and
they withdrew leaving the Sovran with the old religious. But the
second Darwaysh still knelt in his bonds under the sword of the
Sworder who, standing over against his head, kept looking for the
royal signal to strike. Then cried the King, "O Mendicant, what
drove thee to take my son, the core of my heart?" He replied, "By
Allah, O King, I took him not for mine own pleasure; but he would
not go from me and I threatened him, withal he showed no fear
till this destiny descended upon us." Now when the Sultan heard
these words his heart softened to the old man and he pitied him
while the Sultanah who sat behind the curtain fell to weeping