JAFAR I had forgotten the height of this room above the streets: and on either side stretches the empty garden of this house!
(The CALIPH, JAFAR and MASRUR rush around as though trying to find a way out of their prison, and banging on the iron walls. HASSAN takes his seat on the carpet.)
CALIPH Allah! and this room is a box within a box like a Chinese toy. And that man will surprise my soldiers in the chill of dawn, and sack my palace and burn Baghdad. He will discover my identity and bury me alive!
JAFAR
Alas, Master! What shall we do?
CALIPH Thou dog! Thou dirt! Thou dunghill! Thou dustheap! Did I make thee Vizier to ask counsel or to give it? Find out what we shall do! Thou hast let me fall into a trap, and now dost quiver and quake and shiver and shake like a tub of whey on the back of a restive camel: my kingdom is reduced from twelve provinces to twelve square cubits: my subjects from thirty millions unto three, but Bismillah! one of my subjects is the Executioner, and Mashallah! another one merits execution: and Inshallah! if thy head doth not immediately devise a practical scheme of escape it shall dive off my shoulders and swim across the floor.
JAFAR What shall happen, shall happen. But here is one who is occupied in meditation, and is aloof from the circumstances of the moment: let us invite him to Council.
CALIPH
Ho, thou Hassan! What occupies thy spirit?
HASSAN I am examining the square of carpet. It is of cheap manufacturer, inferior dye and unpleasant pattern.
CALIPH
Art thou a carpet dealer?
HASSAN
No, sir, I am a confectioner,