“The morning was already far advanced, the heat increasing, but the apartment in which I found myself (which was ablaze with the most costly tiles and hangings of the Indies) was very cool; and again the pleasant sound of water plashing from a scented fountain refreshed the air.
“Before the throne stood, in respectful order, the twelve councillors of the King; and He himself, upon a marble throne, exquisite in workmanship and venerable with age, sat: a young man of a dreamy, melancholy, but pleasing countenance, who bowed his head very slightly at my approach, smiled gently as he did so and welcomed me. Such was the King. I in my turn cast myself down before him with a full obeisance until he bade me rise.
“Our business was not long in concluding. The Grand Vizier, who stepped up and stood on the right hand of the throne, put me certain questions—Whether I had my treasure with me? Whether I could produce it by such a date? And so forth. I satisfied him by signalling to my attendants with their burdens. The packages were opened before the eyes of the Council and at that sitting all was arranged. For the terms which I proposed were discovered suitable enough. I have told you, my dear nephews (and I do confess it again to my shame), that desire for ease had now taken place in my mind, whereas further gain should have occupied it. I very modestly asked for no more than five dinars yearly on the hundred, I told the Council and his Majesty that for the million dinars which could here be counted I should ask annually but fifty thousand for revenue, and that paid on such dates as they thought fit.
“All nodded gravely; the King gently complimented me upon my public spirit, for now (as he was good enough to say) he regarded me as a subject.
“He looked round among his councillors as though seeking a suggestion, when one of them, Tarib by name (whom I distinguished by his fine intelligent face and felt drawn towards already), said in a firm voice, ‘The Salt Tax,’ and all, including the King himself, murmured approval.
“Then did I learn that for many generations past the people of this wealthy and fortunate realm had paid to the State a fixed tax upon salt, which amounted yearly, upon the average, to the sum I had demanded. It was regularly received; for all the salt of this land came over sea and the toll was levied at the ports of entry. A Charter was drawn up by the Council in simple terms. It was agreed by my own wish that my name should not be published to the people, lest, perhaps, the odium of receiving tribute should attach to one so recently come among them. But the King assured me, as he signed, that not odium, but gratitude, was my due: he for his part would never cease to believe that I had been moved to make so generous an offer by some particular affection for himself and his people.
“Rooms within the palace were set at my disposal until I should have time to choose some house in the city, and through the importance of my connexion with the State I was sworn of the Council with the rest.
“As I read my Charter through all alone in the privacy of my room I noted with pleasure the short and simple phrasing of this great commercial people:
“‘To Mahmoud, his assignees and heirs for ever and ever, so long as the State shall last, and the Salt Tax be gathered’
ran the what is called among the mighty ‘The Operative Clause: the Words of Power.’ I had them by heart in a moment. I could not forbear to write them down in my own hand more than once, for the pleasure it gave me.