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Aladin proceeded instantly to the Christian temple, and, treating the priests with violence, tore the image from its shrine and conveyed it to his own place of worship. The necromancer then muttered before it his blasphemous enchantment.
He who is capable of mercy will, like Baharkan, sooner or later receive his reward." Aladin, perceiving Bohetzad inclined to listen to him, proceeded thus in the explanation of what he had advanced: HISTORY OF BAHARKAN. Baharkan was an intemperate Prince. He sacrificed everything to his passions, and, in order to gratify them, he boldly plunged into the greatest excess of tyranny.
Speak! Show yourselves openly as you really are. I have offended you by checking your rapine. You are my enemies and base slanderers." "You recriminate upon my Viziers," interrupted the King; "truth which flows from their mouths confounds you." "Nothing from them can confound me," replied Aladin; "not even the blackness of their calumny. It is coeval with their existence.
"Sire," added Aladin, after having finished his relation, "you see how this slave, condemned to perish upon the scaffold, on the false evidence of his enemies, and in danger of being devoured by lions, was miraculously delivered from these dangers; while his accusers and enemies, eager to feast their eyes with the sight of his tortures, were massacred and punished.
A short time after, Baharkan returned to his kingdom in a fleet well equipped, and at the head of an army of fifty thousand fighting men, commanded by Prince Tirkan. "In this manner," added Aladin, "Baharkan was rewarded for suffering himself to be softened when he was personally offended.
"Audacious ministers," said Aladin, looking at them with a confident but modest air, "it belongs not to you to mark my forehead with the seal of death! If the decree which strikes me comes not from Heaven, what could all your attempts avail? Guilt alone can be afraid of them.
They were enjoying the feast, and only returned to the apartment, which they had left open, to fill the pots with perfumes, and prepare, according to the custom of the East, a collation of different sherbets and dried sweetmeats. The hangings concealed the sofa on which Aladin lay. All these preparations being finished, the King and Queen retired to their apartment.
"I wish not to impose upon the King," said Aladin; "it is you who cherish falsehood and imposture." "Stop!" said Bohetzad to him; "I will yet put my patience to a last effort, and agree to hear the history of your slave and of his deliverance." "Oh, the clemency of my King!" replied Aladin. "May truth at length reach your heart, which is so difficult of access!
"I feel in spite of you," said the King, "that my heart revolts at what I am doing; nevertheless, as the safety of my kingdom depends upon this decree, I yield to your reasons. Let the criminal be conducted to punishment." That very instant the guard seized Aladin. He was bound with cords, loaded with chains, and led without the city to the place where he was to terminate his existence.
Allen, as your task is to discover money where there is none, I advise you to borrow the wonderful lamp of Aladin," gayly added Rowley, as the question was put, and carried; and the council, in a half-serious, half-sportive mood, broke up, and separated for the night.
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