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She found him drunken and said to him, 'O my son, none was the cause of thy release from prison but the wife of the Master of Police, and she would have thee go about to kill Alaeddin Abou esh Shamat and get his slave-girl Jessamine for her son Hebezlem Bezazeh. 'That will be the easiest of things, answered he, 'and I will set about it this very night. Now this was the first night of the new month, and it was the Khalif's wont to pass that night with the Princess Zubeideh, for the setting free of a male or female slave or what not else of the like.

'My name is Jessamine, replied she; and he said to Hebezlem, 'O my son, an she please thee, bid for her. Then he asked the broker what had been bidden for her and he replied, 'A thousand dinars. 'She is mine for a thousand and one, said Hebezlem, and the broker passed on to Alaeddin, who bid two thousand dinars for her; and as often as Hebezlem bid another dinar, Alaeddin bid a thousand.

When the broker returned, after having delivered the girl and received his brokerage, Hebezlem called him and said to him, 'Where is the girl? Quoth he, 'She was bought for ten thousand dinars by Alaeddin, who hath set her free and married her. At this the young man was greatly cast down and heaving many a sigh, returned home, sick for love of the damsel.

As change would have it, that very day, the Amir Khalid, Chief of the Baghdad Police, had gone down to the market to buy a slave-girl for his son Hebezlem Bezazeh. Now this son he had by his wife Khatoun, and he was foul of favour and had reached the age of twenty, without learning to ride, albeit his father was a valiant cavalier and a doughty champion and delighted in battle and adventure.

'We know not whether this was he or another. Then the Khalif bade bury the body and Alaeddin became altogether forgotten. As for Hebezlem Bezazeh, the Amir Khalid's son, he ceased not to languish for passion and desire, till he died and they buried him; whilst Jessamine accomplished the months of her pregnancy and being taken with the pains of labour, gave birth to a male child like the moon.

But why dost thou not bid him cast about to get the girl Jessamine for my son Hebezlem Bezazeh? 'That will I, answered she and going out from her, repaired to her son.

Then he told me of the sickness of Hebezlem Bezazeh, son of the Amir Khalid, by reason of his passion for the damsel Jessamine, and how he himself was released from prison and that it was he who stole the lamp and robe and so forth.

Now his mother was a frequent visitor to the house of the Master of the Police and used to go in to her son in prison and say to him, 'Did I not warn thee to turn from thy wicked ways? 'God decreed this to me, would he answer; 'but, O my mother, when thou visitest the Amir's wife, make her intercede for me with her husband. So when the old woman came in to the Lady Khatoun, she found her bound with the fillets of mourning and said to her, 'Wherefore dost thou mourn? 'For my son Hebezlem Bezazeh, answered she, and the old woman exclaimed, 'God keep thy son!

'Because, answered Ahmed, 'lives have been lost for it. 'Whose life? asked Aslan; and Ahmed said, 'There came hither a man named Alaeddin Abou est Shamat, who was made Captain of the Sixty and lost his life through this lantern. Quoth Aslan, 'And how was that? 'Know, replied Ahmed Kemakim, 'that thou hadst an elder brother by name Hebezlem Bezazeh, for whom, when he became apt for marriage, thy father would have bought a slave-girl named Jessamine. And he went on to tell him the whole story of Hebezlem's illness and what befell Alaeddin, undeserved.

One night, he had a dream of dalliance in sleep and told his mother, who rejoiced and told his father, saying, 'Fain would I find him a wife, for he is now apt for marriage. Quoth Khalid, 'He is so foul of favour and withal so evil of odour, so sordid and churlish, that no woman would accept of him. And she answered, 'We will buy him a slave- girl. So it befell, for the accomplishment of that which God the Most High had decreed, that the Amir and his son went down, on the same day as Jaafer and Alaeddin, to the market, where they saw a beautiful girl, full of grace and symmetry, in the hands of a broker, and the Vizier said to the latter, 'O broker, ask her owner if he will take a thousand dinars for her. The broker passed by the Amir and his son with the slave and Hebezlem took one look of her, that cost him a thousand sighs; and he fell passionately in love with her and said, 'O my father, buy me yonder slave-girl. So the Amir called the broker, who brought the girl to him, and asked her her name.