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it was this caused the state in which ye saw me.’ Then they went away, and I made my excuses to my friends and asked if any of the goods that had been stolen from my other house had been returned.’ ‘Yes,’ answered they. ‘Some of them have come back: and the manner of their coming was that a man came and threw them down in the doorway and we saw him not.’ So I comforted myself and abode two days, unable to rise, at the end of which time I began to regain strength and went to the bath, for I was worn out with fatigue and troubled at heart for Ali ben Bekkar and Shemsennehar, because I had no news of them all this time and could neither get to Ali’s house nor rest in my own, out of fear for myself. And I repented to God the Most High of what I had done and praised Him for my safety. Then I bethought me to go to such and such a place and see the folk and divert myself; so I went to the stuff-market and sat awhile with a friend of mine there. When I rose to go, I saw a woman standing in my road; so I looked at her, and behold it was Shemsennehar’s slave-girl. When I saw her, the world grew dark in my eyes and I hurried on. She followed me, but I was afraid and fled from her, trembling whenever I looked at her, whilst she pursued me, saying, ‘Stop, that I may tell thee somewhat.’ But I heeded her not and went on, till I reached a mosque in an unfrequented spot, and she said to me, ‘Enter the mosque, that I may say a word to thee, and fear nothing.’ And she conjured me: so I entered the mosque, and she after me. I prayed a two-bow prayer, after which I turned to her, sighing, and said, ‘What dost thou want?’ She asked me how I did, and I told her all that had befallen myself and Ali ben Bekkar and asked her for news of herself. ‘Know,’ answered she, ‘that when I and the two maids saw the robbers break open thy door, we doubted not but they were the Khalif’s officers and would seize us and our mistress and we perish forth-
