The Sultan cut off the handsomest of the tulips.
"There you have it," said he.
"They further demand the banishment of the Chief Mufti."
The Sultan tore up the third tulip by the roots and cast it from him.
"There it is."
"And the Grand Vizier they want also."
The last tulip Achmed threw violently to the ground, pot and all, and then he covered his face.
"Ask no more, thou seest I have surrendered everything."
Then he gave him his signet-ring in which his name was engraved, and the Kizlar-Aga stamped the document therewith, and then handed back the signet-ring to the Sultan.
The Grand Vizier, meanwhile, was walking backwards and forwards in the garden of the Seraglio. The Kizlar-Aga came there in search of him, and with him were the envoys of Halil Patrona, Suleiman, whom he had made Reis-Effendi, Orli, and Sulali. Elhaj Beshir approached him in their presence, and kissing the document signed by the Sultan, handed it to him.