"What!" said the Sultan, enraged, "hast thou brought me through the dangerous passes of the mountains by night only to cut a rope asunder? And was I called forth to see only a passage made in the rocks, and the slaves of Horam as ill employed as their master lately has been? Lead me, villain!" continued he, "back to my tent, and expect with the rising of the sun the fate you have so amply merited."
Thus saying, the Sultan returned, and the captain of the guard led Horam back in chains to his place of confinement.
In the morning, the army of the Sultan Misnar, which had escaped to the mountains, were all drawn out, the cymbals sounded, and a gibbet forty feet high was erected in their front, to which the captain of the guard led the unfortunate Vizier Horam.
At the sound of the cymbals the Sultan came from his tent, and gave orders that Horam should be conducted to his fate.
The Vizier, unmoved at his doom, surrendered himself to the officer who was to execute the Sultan's sentence; and the ignominious rope was put about his neck, when a messenger, attended by several sentinels, came running into the camp.
The messenger hastened to the Sultan, and thus delivered his message: "Ahaback and Desra, the wicked enchanters who have upholden thy rebellious brother, are dead; the army of Ahubal is in the utmost consternation; and the friends of the Sultan wish to see thee hunting thine enemies, as the lion hunts the wild asses in the forest."
This messenger was succeeded by several of the Sultan's spies, who confirmed the account.
Misnar then put himself at the head of his troops, ordered Horam back to his former confinement, and hastened to fall upon the forces of the rebels.
Early the same morning, Ahubal was awakened by his guards, who, with countenances of woe, declared to him the death of his friends Ahaback and Desra.
"Are my friends dead?" said Ahubal, trembling: "by what misfortune am I bereaved of them? What new device has Misnar practised against them? Are not these wise and sage magicians, then, a match for a boy's prudence? Alas! what can I effect against them, when these fall away before his victorious arm?"