The vizier Saouy, cruelly bruised with the strokes he had received, by the assistance of his slaves made shift to get up, and had the mortification to see himself besmeared all over with blood and dirt. He leaned upon the shoulders of two slaves, and in that condition went straight to the palace, in the sight of all the people, with so much greater confusion because nobody pitied him. As soon as he reached the king’s apartment, he began to cry out, and call for justice, after a lamentable manner. The king ordered him to be admitted; and as soon as he came, he asked him who it was that had abused and put him into that miserable pickle. Sir, cried Saouy, your majesty ought to afford me a large share of your favour, and to take into your royal consideration my late abuse, since it was chiefly upon your account that I have been so barbarously treated. Say no more of that, replied the king, but let me hear the whole story, simply as it is, and who the offender is; and if he is in the wrong, you may depend upon it he shall be severely punished.
Sir, said Saouy then, telling the whole matter to his own advantage, having an occasion for a cook-maid, I went to the market of women-slaves to buy me one. When I came thither, there was a slave just cried at four thousand pieces of gold: I ordered them to bring the slave before me, and I think my eyes never did, nor ever will, behold a more glorious creature than she is. I had not time to examine her beauty thoroughly: but, however, I immediately asked to whom she belonged; and upon inquiry I found that Noureddin, son to the late vizier Khacan, had the disposing of her.
Sir, you may remember that, about two or three years ago, you gave that vizier ten thousand pieces of gold, strictly charging him to buy you a slave with it. The money indeed was laid out upon this very slave; but instead of bringing her to your majesty, thinking his son deserved her better, he made him a present of her. Noureddin, since his father’s death, having wasted his whole fortune in riot and feasting, has nothing left but this slave, which he intended to part with, and therefore she was to be sold in his name. I sent for him, and without mentioning any thing of his father’s baseness, or rather treachery, to your majesty, I very civilly said to him, Noureddin, the merchants, I perceive, have put your slave up at four thousand pieces of gold; and I question not but, in emulation of each other, they will raise the price considerably: let me have her for the four thousand pieces; I am going to buy her for the king, our lord and master: this will be a handsome opportunity of making your court to him, and his favour will be worth a great deal more than the merchants can propose to give you.
Instead of returning me a civil answer, as in good manners he ought to have done, the insolent wretch beholding me with an air of fierceness, Decrepit villain, said he, I would rather sell my slave to a Jew for nothing than to thee for money. Noureddin, replied I, without any manner of passion, though I had some reason to be a little warm, you do not consider that in talking at this rate you affront the king, who has raised your father and me to the honours we have enjoyed.
This admonition, instead of moving him to a compliance, provoked him to a higher degree; so that, falling upon me like a madman, he pulled me off my horse, beat me as long as he could stand over me, and has put me into this miserable plight your majesty sees me in; and therefore I beseech you, sir, to consider me, since it is upon your account I have been so openly affronted. At the end of these words, he bowed his head, and turning about, wept a plentiful shower of tears.
The abused king, highly incensed against Noureddin by this relation, full of malice and artifice, discovered by his countenance the violence of his anger; and, turning to the captain of his guards that stood near him, Take forty of your soldiers, said he, and immediately go plunder Noureddin’s house; and, having ordered it to be razed to the ground, bring him and his slave along with you.
The captain of the guards was not gone out of the king’s presence, when a gentleman-usher belonging to the court, who overheard the order that had been given, got before him. His name was Sangiar, and he had been formerly the vizier Khacan’s slave, by whose favour he was brought into the court service, where by degrees he was advanced higher.
Sangiar, full of gratitude to his old master, and affection for Noureddin, with whom in his infancy he had often played, and being no stranger to Saouy’s hatred to Khacan’s family, could not hear the orders without concern and trembling. May be, said he to himself, this action of Noureddin’s is not altogether so black as Saouy has represented it; but, however, the king is prejudiced against him, and will certainly put him to death without allowing him time to justify himself.
Sangiar made so much haste to Noureddin’s house, as to get thither time enough to acquaint him with what had passed at court, and to desire him to provide for his own and the Fair Persian’s safety. He knocked so violently loud at the door, that Noureddin, who had been a great while without any servant, ran immediately to open it: My dear lord, said Sangiar, here is no more staying for you in Balsora: if you design to save yourself, you must lose no time, but depart hence this very moment.
Why so? replied Noureddin; what is the reason I must be gone so soon? Ah! sir, said Sangiar, make haste away, and take your slave with you; for, in short, Saouy has been just now acquainting the king, after his own way of telling it, all that happened between you and him; and the captain of the guards will be here in an instant, with forty soldiers, and seize you and the Fair Persian. Here, sir, take these forty pieces of gold; it is all I have about me, to assist you in finding out some other place of safety. Excuse my not staying any longer with you: I leave you with a great deal of unwillingness; but I do it for the good of us both. I have so much interest with the captain of the guards, that he will take no notice of me. Sangiar gave Noureddin but just time to thank him, and away he went.