The caliph, touched with compassion, said to the fisherman, “Should you have courage to return and throw your nets once more? We will give you an hundred sequins for what you bring us.” The fisherman, taking the caliph at his word, and forgetting all the troubles of the past day, returned towards the Tigris, in company with him, Giafar, and Mesrour, saying to himself, “These gentlemen appear too civil, and too reasonable, not to recompense me for my pains; and even should they give me only an hundredth part of what they promise me, it will still be a great sum for me.”
They arrived on the banks of the river, and the fisherman, having thrown his nets, drew out a case well closed, and very heavy. The caliph immediately ordered the vizier to count him his hundred sequins, and discharged him. Mesrour took the case on his shoulders by order of his master, who in his curiosity to know what it could contain, returned immediately to the palace. The case being opened, they found a large basket made of palm leaves, and sewn at the opening with a bit of red worsted. To satisfy the impatience of the caliph, they cut the worsted with at knife, and drew out of the basket a packet, wrapped in a piece of old carpet, and tied with cord. The cord being untied, and the packet undone, they perceived with horror, the body of a young lady, whiter than snow, and cut into pieces. The caliph’s astonishment at this dismal spectacle cannot be described; but his surprise was instantly changed to anger, and casting a furious look at the vizier, “Wretch,” cried he, “is this the way you inspect the actions of my people? Assassinations are committed with impunity under your administration, and my subjects are thrown into the Tigris, that they may rise in vengeance against me on the day of judgment. If you do not speedily revenge the death of this woman, by the execution of her murderer, I swear by the holy name of God, that I will have you hanged together with forty of your relations.”—“Commander of the Faithful,” replied the grand vizier, “I entreat your majesty to grant me time to make proper inquiries.”—“I give you three days,” returned the caliph; “take care of yourself.”
The vizier Giafar returned home in the greatest confusion; “Alas!” thought he, “how is it possible for me, in so large and vast a city as Bagdad, to discover a murderer, who no doubt has committed this crime secretly, and without witness, and has now in all probability fled from the city? Another in my place might perhaps take any wretch out of prison, and have him executed, to satisfy the caliph; but I will not charge my conscience with such a deed; I will rather die, than save my life on such terms.”
He ordered the officers of police and justice, who were under his command, to make a strict search for the criminal. They not only sent out their dependants, but went themselves on this affair, which was not less interesting to them, than it was to the vizier. But all their diligence was fruitless; they could discover no traces by which to apprehend the perpetrator of the murder, and the vizier concluded, that his death was inevitable, without the interference of Heaven.
On the third day, an officer of the sultan’s came to the house of this unhappy minister, and summoned him to follow him. The vizier obeyed, and the caliph having inquired of him for the murderer, he replied, with tears in his eyes, “O, Commander of the Faithful, I have found no one who could give me any intelligence concerning him.” The caliph reproached him in the most angry terms, and commanded him to be hanged before the gates of the palace, together with forty of the Barmecides. [8]
Whilst they were preparing the gibbets, and the officers went to seize the forty Barmecides, at their different houses, a public crier was ordered by the caliph to proclaim, in all the quarters of the city, that, “Whoever wished to have the satisfaction of seeing the grand vizier Giafar, and forty of his family, the Barmecides, hanged, was to repair to the square before the palace.”
When every thing was ready, the criminal judge, and a great number of attendants and guards, belonging to the palace, conducted the grand vizier, together with the forty Barmecides, each under the gibbet that was destined for him; and passed the cord round his neck, by which they were to be elevated. The people, who crowded the square, could not be present at such a spectacle, without feeling pity, and shedding tears; for the vizier Giafar, and his relations, the Barmecides, were much beloved for their probity, liberality, and disinterestedness, not only at Bagdad, but throughout the whole empire of the caliph.
Every thing was ready for the execution of the irrevocable order of the prince, in this instance too severe, and they were on the point of taking away the lives of some of the worthiest inhabitants of the city, when a young man, of comely appearance, and well dressed, pressed through the crowd till he reached the grand vizier; having kissed his hand, “Sovereign vizier,” said he, addressing Giafar, “chief of the emirs of this court, the refuge of the poor; you are not guilty of the crime for which you are going to suffer; retire, and let me expiate the death of the lady who was thrown into the Tigris; I am her murderer, I alone ought to be punished.”
Although this discourse created great joy in the vizier, he nevertheless felt pity for a youth, whose countenance, far from expressing guilt, had something engaging in it; he was going to reply, when a tall man, of an advanced age, having also pushed through the crowd, came up, and said to the vizier, “My lord, do not believe what this young man says to you. I was the only person that killed the lady who was found in the case; I only am to be punished. In the name of God, I conjure you not to confuse the innocent with the guilty.”—“My lord,” interrupted the young man, addressing himself to the vizier, “I assure you, that it was I who committed this wicked action, and that no person in the world is my accomplice.”—“Alas! my son,” replied the old man, “despair has led you hither, and you wish to anticipate your destiny; as for me, it is a long time that I have lived in this world, I ought to quit it without regret; let me sacrifice my life to save yours. My lord,” continued he, addressing the vizier, “I repeat it, I am the assassin; sentence me to death, and do not defer it.”
The contest between the old man and the youth obliged the vizier Giafar to conduct them before the caliph, with the permission of the attending officer of justice, who was happy in an opportunity of obliging him.