"By the moon."
"Are you no longer in favour with her?"
"Since I have lost my liberty, she uses me as she pleases. She formerly owed me great obligations, but now she has forgotten them. She had an enormous wart upon her nose, of which I cured her. Thus it is to me she owes that beautiful appearance which you sometimes see her assume. Besides, by causing her to go on her side, I saved her from an eclipse which was expected by all the astronomers. At first she showed me some gratitude; but since I have been confined, if I address her in her increase, she is yet too weak to act in my favour; if I address her when she is full, she is surrounded with clouds and mist; but if in her wane, all her malignant influences are at my service. Defluxions, rheumatisms, catarrhs are showered down upon me. I endeavour actually to deliver myself from this last mark of her beneficence. Ah! if I could get hold of her some day, she would find that she has not obliged an ungrateful person."
"And what will you do to get hold of her?" inquired Mesrour.
"Nothing can be more easy," said the smoker: "if a man like you would assist me; she will come this evening at nine o'clock to admire herself, and to bathe in that well which you see in the middle of the court. I will give you my table, and you will lie in wait. She will not suspect you; and while she is amusing herself with making her beams play upon the water, you will suddenly shut the well: then we shall get hold of her. It will make both our fortunes, and we will see how she will be put to it to justify her conduct."
"She will speak, then?" said Mesrour. "Shall we hear her?"
"I don't say that you will hear it very distinctly," answered the smoker; "but I, whose ear is by practice become so perfect as to be able to mark the cadence of the celestial harmony, shall not lose a single word. With respect to you, we must know how your ear is formed."
So saying, the smoker laid down his pipe, examined narrowly Mesrour's ear, and, taking hold of it very roughly, suddenly pulled it with all his force, crying out, "Your ear is too short!"
Mesrour uttered a dreadful cry. One of the keepers ran up, and caused the astrologer to quit his hold. The eunuch, holding his ear with both his hands, rejoined the Caliph, and related to him his lamentable adventure.
"I have long been persuaded," said Haroun, smiling, "that those madmen who have an air of wisdom are most to be distrusted. Come, Giafar," said he to his Grand Vizier, "you are warned beforehand not to allow your ear to be pulled. Proceed to your examination: Mesrour and I will not go far from the cell which you enter, that we may be at hand to assist you if there is occasion."