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Or a blow may fall on your lord, and you will all die the foulest of deaths; so you would do wisely not to interfere. So they held aloof and when Noureddin had made an end of beating the Vizier, he took his slave-girl and went home; and Muin rose, with his white clothes dyed of three colours with black mud, red blood and ashes.
'Leave him, thou, said the Khalif, and turning to Mesrour, commanded him to behead Muin. So Mesrour drew his sword and smote off the Vizier's head. Then said the Khalif to Noureddin, 'Ask a boon of me. 'O my lord, answered he, 'I have no need of the sovereignty of Bassora: all my desire is to have the honour of serving thee and looking on thy face. 'With all my heart, replied the Khalif.
Then Muin looked at the broker and said to him, 'What ails thee to stand still? Go and offer four thousand dinars for her, and the five hundred shall be for thyself. So the broker went to Noureddin and said to him, 'O my lord, thy slave is gone for nothing! 'How so? said he.
The King will say, "Thou liest!" To which Muin will reply, "With thy leave, I will fall on him at unawares and bring her to thee." The King will order him to do this, and he will come down upon the house and take the damsel and bring her before the King, who will question her and she will not be able to deny what has passed.
At this moment there arose a great cloud of dust and filled the air and the plain; and when the Sultan, who was sitting in the palace, saw this, he said to his attendants, 'Go and see what is the meaning of that cloud of dust. 'When we have cut off this fellow's head, replied Muin; but the Sultan said, 'Wait till we see what this means.
After this Jaafer abode three days at Bassora, the usual guest-time, and on the morning of the fourth day, Noureddin turned to him and said, 'I long for the sight of the Commander of the Faithful. Then said Jaafer to Mohammed ben Suleiman, 'Make ready, for we will pray the morning-prayer and take horse for Baghdad. And he answered, 'I hear and obey. So they prayed the morning-prayer and set out, all of them, taking with them the Vizier Muin ben Sawa, who began to repent of what he had done.
Then his son Noureddin arose and took order for his funeral, and the Amirs and Viziers and grandees were present, amongst them the Vizier Muin ben Sawa; and as the funeral train came forth of the palace, one of the mourners recited the following verses: The fifth day I departed and left my friends alone: They laid me out and washed me upon a slab of stone; Then stripped me of the raiment that on my body was, That they might put upon me clothes other than my own On four men's necks they bore me unto the place of prayer And prayed a prayer above me by no prostration known.
Meanwhile the King's officers came to Noureddin's house and breaking open the doors, entered and searched the whole place, but could find no trace of him and the damsel; so they demolished the house and returning to the Sultan, told him what they had done; whereupon he said, 'Make search for them, wherever they are! And they answered, 'We hear and obey. Then he bestowed upon the Vizier Muin a dress of honour and said to him, 'None shall avenge thee but myself. So Muin's heart was comforted and he wished the King long life and returned to his own house.
On the forty-first day, there came a present from the Khalif: which when the Sultan saw, it pleased him and he took counsel about it with his Viziers, one of whom said, 'Mayhap this present was intended for the new Sultan. Quoth Muin, 'We should have done well to put him to death at his first coming; and the Sultan said, 'By Allah, thou remindest me of him!
The broker answered, 'We had opened the biddings for her at four thousand five hundred dinars, when that tyrant Muin ben Sawa passed through the market and when he saw the damsel, she pleased him and he said to me, "Call me the buyer for four thousand dinars, and thou shalt have five hundred for thyself."
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