“Now,” added Bakhtyār, “had that unfortunate young man waited until night, the Princess Nigārīn would have been his, and he would have saved his eyes and his kingdom, and not have had occasion to repent of impatience. If the King will send me back to prison, he will not be sorry for the delay, as my innocence will hereafter appear; and if he hasten my execution, any future repentance will not avail.”
The King ordered Bakhtyār to go back to prison for that day.
CHAPTER IV.
On the following day, the fourth Vizier presented himself before the King, and, having paid his respects, advised him not to defer any longer the execution of Bakhtyār. The King immediately gave orders that the young man should be brought from the prison; the executioner with a drawn sword stood ready to perform his part, when Bakhtyār exclaimed: “Long be the King’s life! Let him not be precipitate in putting me to death; but as I have, in the story of Bihzād, described the fatal consequences of rashness, let me be permitted to celebrate the blessings attendant on forbearance, and recount the adventures of Abū Saber, the Patient Man.”
The King’s curiosity being excited, he desired Bakhtyār to relate the story, which he accordingly began in the following words:
STORY OF ABŪ SABER; OR, THE PATIENT MAN.
There lived in a certain village, a worthy man, whose principal riches consisted in a good understanding and an inexhaustible stock of patience. On account of those qualifications he was so much respected by all his neighbours, that his advice was followed on every occasion of importance.
It happened once that a tax-gatherer came to this village, and extorted from the poor peasants their miserable pittance, with such circumstances of cruelty and injustice that they could not any longer submit to the oppression: a number of the young men, having assembled in a body, slew the tax-gatherer and fled.
The other inhabitants, who had not been concerned in this transaction, came to Abū Saber, and begged that he would accompany them to the King, and relate to his Majesty the circumstances as they had happened; but Abū Saber told them, that he had drank of the sherbet of patience, and would not intermeddle in such affairs. When the King was informed of the tax-gatherer’s death, he ordered his servants to punish the people of that village, and to strip them of all their property.