Part 3

Noureddin, who very well knew the truth of what the Fair Persian had spoken, and that there was no other way of avoiding a shameful poverty, was in the end forced to yield to her first request. Accordingly he led her to the market, where the women-slaves are exposed to sale, with a regret that cannot be easily expressed. He applied himself to a courtier named Hagi Hassan: Hagi Hassan, said he, here is a slave that I have a mind to sell; I pray thee to see what they will give for her. Hagi Hassan desired Noureddin and the Fair Persian to walk into a room; and when she had pulled off the veil that covered her face, Sir, said Hagi Hassan to Noureddin, in a great surprise, if I am not mistaken, this is the slave your father, the late vizier, gave ten thousand pieces of gold for? Noureddin assured him it was the same; and Hagi Hassan gave him some hopes of selling her at a good rate, and promised to use all his art and cunning to raise her price as high as it would bear.

Hagi Hassan and Noureddin went out of the room, and locked the Fair Persian in; after which Hagi Hassan went to look after the merchants; but they being busy in buying slaves that came from different countries, he was forced to stay till the market was done. When their sale was over, and the greatest part of them got together, My masters, said he to them, with an air of gaiety in his looks and actions, every thing that is round is not a nut; every thing that is long is not a fig; all that is red is not flesh; and all eggs are not fresh. It is true you have seen and bought a great many slaves in your lives, but you never yet saw one comparable to her I am going to tell you of; in short, she is the very pearl of slaves. Come, follow me, and you shall see her yourselves, and by that judge at what rate I shall cry her.

The merchants followed Hagi Hassan into the chamber where the Fair Persian was; and, as soon as they beheld her, they were so surprised at her beauty, that at the first word they unanimously agreed that four thousand pieces of gold was the very lowest price that they could set upon her. The merchants then left the room, and Hagi Hassan, who came out with them, without going any farther, proclaimed with a loud voice, Four thousand pieces of gold for the Persian slave.

None of the merchants had yet offered any thing, and they were but just consulting together about what they might afford to give for her, when the vizier Saouy, perceiving Noureddin in the market, appeared. Said he to himself, Noureddin has certainly made some more money of his goods, (for he knew of his exposing them to sale,) and is come hither to buy a slave with it. Upon this he advanced forward just as Hagi Hassan began to proclaim a second time, Four thousand pieces of gold for the Persian slave.

The vizier Saouy, concluding by the extravagance of the price, that she must be some extraordinary piece of beauty, had a longing desire to see her; so spurring his horse forward, he rode directly up to Hagi Hassan, who was in the very middle of the merchants. Open the door, said he, and let me see this slave. It was never the custom to show their slaves to any particular person, till after the merchants had seen her, and had the refusal: but Saouy being a person of so great authority, none of them durst dispute their right with him; and Hagi Hassan being forced to open the door, beckoned the fair slave to come forward, that Saouy might have a sight of her without the trouble of alighting from his horse.

The vizier was astonished at the sight of so beautiful a slave; and knowing the courtier’s name, (having formerly dealt with him,) Hagi Hassan, said he, is it not at four thousand pieces of gold that you cry her? Yes, sir, answered he, it is but a moment since I cried her at that price, and the merchants you see gathered together here are come to bid money for her; and I question not but they will give a great deal more than that.

If nobody offers any higher, I will give that sum, replied Saouy, looking upon the merchants at the same time with a countenance that forbade them to advance any more. In short, he was so universally dreaded, that nobody durst speak a word, not so much as to complain of his encroaching upon their privilege.

The vizier Saouy having staid some time, and finding none of the merchants outbid him, What do you stay for? said he to Hagi Hassan: go, look after the seller, and strike a bargain with him at four thousand pieces of gold, or more if he demands it; not knowing yet the slave belonged to Noureddin.

Hagi Hassan having locked the chamber-door, went to confer notes with Noureddin: Sir, said he to him, I am very sorry to bring you the ill news of your slave’s being just going to be sold for nothing. How so? replied Noureddin. Why sir, said Hagi Hassan, you must know that the business at first went on rarely; for, as soon as the merchants had seen your slave, they ordered me to cry her at four thousand pieces of gold. Accordingly I cried her at the price; upon which the vizier Saouy came, and his presence has stopped the mouths of all the merchants, who seemed inclinable to raise her, at least to the same price your deceased father gave for her. Saouy will give no more than four thousand pieces, and it is much against my inclination that I am come to tell you the despicable price he offers. The slave indeed is your own; but I will not advise you to part with her upon those terms, since you and every body else are sensible of her being worth infinitely more: besides, he is base enough to contrive a way to trick you out of the money.

Hagi Hassan, replied Noureddin, I am highly obliged to thee for thy advice; but do not think I will ever sell my slave to an enemy of our family. My necessities indeed are at present very great, but I would sooner die in the most shameful poverty, than ever consent to the delivering her up to his arms. I have only one thing to beg of thee, who art skilful in all the turns and shifts of life, that thou wouldst put me in a way to prevent the sale of her.

Sir, said Hagi Hassan, there is nothing more easy: you must pretend, that, being in a violent passion with your slave, you swore to expose her in the market, and for the sake of your oath you have now brought her hither, without any manner of intention of selling her. This will satisfy every body, and Saouy will have nothing to say against it. Come along with me then; and just as I am presenting her to Saouy, as if it were by your own consent, pull her to you, give her two or three blows, and send her home. I thank thee for thy counsel, said Noureddin, and thou shalt see I will make use of it.

Hagi Hassan went back to the chamber, and having in two words acquainted the Fair Persian with their design, that she might not be surprised at it, he took her by the hand, and led her to the vizier Saouy, who was still, on horseback at the door: Sir, said he, here is the slave: she is yours; pray take her.

These words were scarce out of Hagi Hassan’s mouth, when Noureddin, catching hold of the Fair Persian, pulled her to him, and giving her a box on the ear, Come hither, impertinence, said he, and get you home again; for though your ill humour obliged me to swear I would bring you hither, yet I never intended to sell you; I have business for you to do yet, and it will be time enough to part with you when I have nothing else left.

This action of Noureddin’s put the vizier Saouy into a violent passion. Miserable debauchee, cried he, wouldst thou have me believe thou hast any thing else left to make money of but thy slave? And at the same instant, spurring his horse directly against him, endeavoured to have carried off the Fair Persian. Noureddin, nettled to the quick at the affront the vizier had put upon him, quits the Fair Persian, and, laying hold of his horse’s bridle, made him run two or three paces backwards. Vile dotard, said he to the vizier, I would tear thy soul out of thy body this very moment, were it not for the crowd of people here present.

The vizier Saouy being loved by nobody, but, on the contrary, hated by all, there was not one among them but was now pleased to see Noureddin mortifying him a little; and, by shrewd signs, they let him understand he might revenge himself upon him as much as he pleased, for nobody would meddle with their quarrel.

Saouy endeavoured all he could to make Noureddin quit the bridle; but he being a lusty vigorous man, and encouraged by those that stood by, pulled him off his horse, in the middle of a brook, gave him a thousand blows, and dashed his head against the stones till it was all of a gore of blood. The slaves that waited upon the vizier would fain have drawn their scimitars and fallen upon Noureddin, but the merchants interposing prevented them from doing it. What do you mean? said they to them; do not you see the one is a vizier, and the other a vizier’s son? Let them dispute their quarrel themselves; perhaps they will be reconciled one time or other; whereas, if you had killed Noureddin, your master, with all his greatness, could not have been able to protect you against the law.

Noureddin having given over beating the vizier Saouy, left him in the middle of the brook, and taking the Fair Persian, marched home with her, being attended by the people with shouts and acclamations for the action he had performed.

The vizier Saouy, cruelly bruised with the strokes he had received, by the assistance of his slaves made shift to get up, and had the mortification to see himself besmeared all over with blood and dirt. He leaned upon the shoulders of two slaves, and in that condition went straight to the palace, in the sight of all the people, with so much greater confusion because nobody pitied him. As soon as he reached the king’s apartment, he began to cry out, and call for justice, after a lamentable manner. The king ordered him to be admitted; and as soon as he came, he asked him who it was that had abused and put him into that miserable pickle. Sir, cried Saouy, your majesty ought to afford me a large share of your favour, and to take into your royal consideration my late abuse, since it was chiefly upon your account that I have been so barbarously treated. Say no more of that, replied the king, but let me hear the whole story, simply as it is, and who the offender is; and if he is in the wrong, you may depend upon it he shall be severely punished.

Sir, said Saouy then, telling the whole matter to his own advantage, having an occasion for a cook-maid, I went to the market of women-slaves to buy me one. When I came thither, there was a slave just cried at four thousand pieces of gold: I ordered them to bring the slave before me, and I think my eyes never did, nor ever will, behold a more glorious creature than she is. I had not time to examine her beauty thoroughly: but, however, I immediately asked to whom she belonged; and upon inquiry I found that Noureddin, son to the late vizier Khacan, had the disposing of her.

Sir, you may remember that, about two or three years ago, you gave that vizier ten thousand pieces of gold, strictly charging him to buy you a slave with it. The money indeed was laid out upon this very slave; but instead of bringing her to your majesty, thinking his son deserved her better, he made him a present of her. Noureddin, since his father’s death, having wasted his whole fortune in riot and feasting, has nothing left but this slave, which he intended to part with, and therefore she was to be sold in his name. I sent for him, and without mentioning any thing of his father’s baseness, or rather treachery, to your majesty, I very civilly said to him, Noureddin, the merchants, I perceive, have put your slave up at four thousand pieces of gold; and I question not but, in emulation of each other, they will raise the price considerably: let me have her for the four thousand pieces; I am going to buy her for the king, our lord and master: this will be a handsome opportunity of making your court to him, and his favour will be worth a great deal more than the merchants can propose to give you.

Instead of returning me a civil answer, as in good manners he ought to have done, the insolent wretch beholding me with an air of fierceness, Decrepit villain, said he, I would rather sell my slave to a Jew for nothing than to thee for money. Noureddin, replied I, without any manner of passion, though I had some reason to be a little warm, you do not consider that in talking at this rate you affront the king, who has raised your father and me to the honours we have enjoyed.

This admonition, instead of moving him to a compliance, provoked him to a higher degree; so that, falling upon me like a madman, he pulled me off my horse, beat me as long as he could stand over me, and has put me into this miserable plight your majesty sees me in; and therefore I beseech you, sir, to consider me, since it is upon your account I have been so openly affronted. At the end of these words, he bowed his head, and turning about, wept a plentiful shower of tears.

The abused king, highly incensed against Noureddin by this relation, full of malice and artifice, discovered by his countenance the violence of his anger; and, turning to the captain of his guards that stood near him, Take forty of your soldiers, said he, and immediately go plunder Noureddin’s house; and, having ordered it to be razed to the ground, bring him and his slave along with you.

The captain of the guards was not gone out of the king’s presence, when a gentleman-usher belonging to the court, who overheard the order that had been given, got before him. His name was Sangiar, and he had been formerly the vizier Khacan’s slave, by whose favour he was brought into the court service, where by degrees he was advanced higher.

Sangiar, full of gratitude to his old master, and affection for Noureddin, with whom in his infancy he had often played, and being no stranger to Saouy’s hatred to Khacan’s family, could not hear the orders without concern and trembling. May be, said he to himself, this action of Noureddin’s is not altogether so black as Saouy has represented it; but, however, the king is prejudiced against him, and will certainly put him to death without allowing him time to justify himself.

Sangiar made so much haste to Noureddin’s house, as to get thither time enough to acquaint him with what had passed at court, and to desire him to provide for his own and the Fair Persian’s safety. He knocked so violently loud at the door, that Noureddin, who had been a great while without any servant, ran immediately to open it: My dear lord, said Sangiar, here is no more staying for you in Balsora: if you design to save yourself, you must lose no time, but depart hence this very moment.

Why so? replied Noureddin; what is the reason I must be gone so soon? Ah! sir, said Sangiar, make haste away, and take your slave with you; for, in short, Saouy has been just now acquainting the king, after his own way of telling it, all that happened between you and him; and the captain of the guards will be here in an instant, with forty soldiers, and seize you and the Fair Persian. Here, sir, take these forty pieces of gold; it is all I have about me, to assist you in finding out some other place of safety. Excuse my not staying any longer with you: I leave you with a great deal of unwillingness; but I do it for the good of us both. I have so much interest with the captain of the guards, that he will take no notice of me. Sangiar gave Noureddin but just time to thank him, and away he went.

Noureddin presently acquainted the Fair Persian with the absolute necessity of their going that moment. She only staid to put on her veil, and then they both stole out of the house together, and were so very lucky, as not only to get clear of the city, without the least notice being taken of their escape, but also safely to arrive at the mouth of the Euphrates, where they embarked in a vessel that lay ready to weigh anchor.

They were no sooner on ship-board than the captain came upon deck amongst his passengers: My children, said he to them, are you all here? have any of you any more business to do in the city? or have you left any thing behind you? They answered him they were all there, and ready prepared; so that he might set sail as soon as he pleased. When Noureddin came aboard, the first question he asked was, whither the ship was bound? and being told for Bagdad, he greatly rejoiced at it. And now the captain having weighed anchor, set sail, and the vessel with a very favourable wind lost sight of Balsora.

But now let us see how matters went at Balsora, in the mean time, while Noureddin and the Fair Persian made their escape from the fury of the enraged king.

The captain of the guards came to Noureddin’s house and knocked at the door, but nobody coming to open it, he ordered his soldiers to break it down, who immediately obeyed him, and in they rushed in a full body. They searched every hole and corner of the house, but neither he nor the Fair Persian were to be found. The captain of the guards made them inquire of the neighbours, and he asked himself if they had seen them lately: it was all in vain; for, though they had seen him go out of his house, so universally beloved was Noureddin, that not one of them would have said the least word that might be injurious to him. As soon as they had rifled the house and levelled it to the ground, they went to acquaint the king with the news. Look for them, said he, in some other places, for I am resolved to have them found.

The captain of the guards made a second search after them; and the king dismissed the vizier Saouy with a great deal of honour. Go home, said he to him; trouble yourself no farther with Noureddin’s punishment; for with my own hand I will revenge the insolence he has offered your person.

Without any farther delay, the king ordered the public criers to proclaim throughout the whole city a reward of a thousand pieces of gold for any person that should apprehend Noureddin and the Fair Persian, with a severe punishment upon whomsoever should conceal them. But after all this pains and trouble, there was no news to be heard of them; and the vizier Saouy had only the comfort of seeing the king espouse his quarrel.

In the mean time, Noureddin and the Fair Persian, after a prosperous voyage, landed safe at Bagdad. As soon as the captain came within sight of that city, pleased that his voyage was at an end, Children, cried he to the passengers, cheer up, and be merry! look, yonder is that great and wonderful city, where there is perpetual concourse of people from all parts of the world: there you shall meet with innumerable crowds every day, and never feel the extremity of cold in winter, nor the excess of heat in summer; but enjoy an eternal spring, always crowned with flowers, and the delicious fruits of autumn.

When the vessel came to anchor a little below the city, the passengers got ashore, and every body went to the place they designed to lie at that night. Noureddin gave the captain five pieces of gold for his passage, and went ashore also with the Fair Persian; but being a perfect stranger in Bagdad, he was at a loss for a lodging. They rambled a considerable time about the gardens that bordered on the Tigris; and, keeping close to one of them that was enclosed with a very high wall, at the end of it they turned into a street finely paved, where they perceived a garden door, and a charming fountain near it.

The door, which was very magnificent, happened to be shut, but the porch was open, in which there stood a sofa on each side. This is a very convenient place for us, said Noureddin to the Fair Persian: night comes on apace; and though we have eaten nothing since our landing, yet I believe we must even lie here to-night, and to-morrow we shall have time enough to get a lodging; what say ye to it, my dear? Sir, replied the Fair Persian, you know very well I am never against what you propose; therefore let us go no farther, since you are willing to stay here. Each of them having drunk a draught of water at the fountain, they laid themselves down upon one of the sofas; and, after a little chat, being invited by the agreeable murmur of the water, they fell fast asleep.

The garden, it seems, belonged to the caliph; and in the middle of it there was a pavilion, called the Pavilion of Pictures, because its chief ornament was pictures, after the Persian manner, drawn by the most celebrated limners in Persia, whom the caliph sent for on purpose. The stately hall beneath this pavilion was adorned with fourscore windows, and in every window a branched candlestick. The candles were never lighted but when the caliph came thither to spend the evening, which was never but when the weather was so very calm that not a breath of air was stirring. Then, indeed, they made a glorious illumination, and could be plainly discerned at a vast distance in the country on that side, and by the greatest part of the city.

There was but one person that had the charge of this fine garden, and the place was at this time enjoyed by a very ancient officer, named Scheich Ibrahim, whom the caliph himself, for some important service, put into that employment, with a strict charge not to let all sorts of people in, but especially to suffer nobody either to sit or lie down on the sofas that stood at the outward door, that they might always be clean and handsome; and whenever he found any body there, to punish them severely.

Some business had obliged this officer to go abroad, and he was not as yet returned. When he came back, there was just daylight enough for him to discern two persons asleep upon one of the sofas, with both their heads under a piece of linen cloth, to secure them from the gnats. Very well, said Scheich Ibrahim to himself, here are brave people, to disobey the caliph’s orders; but I shall take care to pay them handsomely what they deserve. Upon this, he opens the door very softly, and a moment after returns with a swinging cane in his hand, and his sleeve tucked up to the elbow. He was just going to lay on them with all his force; but, withholding his arm, he began to reason with himself after this manner: Thou wast going to strike, without any consideration that these perhaps are strangers, destitute of a lodging, and utterly ignorant of the caliph’s order; for that reason, it would be advisable in thee to know first who they are. Upon this, he gently lifts up the linen that covered their heads, and being wonderfully astonished to see two persons so mightily beautiful and well-shaped, waked Noureddin, with pulling him softly by the feet.

Noureddin presently lifting up his head, and seeing an old man with a long white beard standing at his feet, got up, and throwing himself upon his knees, Good father, said he, Heaven preserve you! What do you want, my son? replied Scheich Ibrahim: who are you, and from whence came you? We are strangers newly arrived, answered Noureddin, and we would fain tarry here till to-morrow. This is not a proper place for you, said Scheich Ibrahim: but come in with me, and I will find one fitter for you to sleep in than this; and I fancy the sight of the garden, which is very fine, will please you, when you see it to-morrow by daylight. Is this garden your own? said Noureddin. Yes, replied Scheich Ibrahim; it is an inheritance left me by my father: pray walk in, for I am sure you will not repent your seeing it.

Noureddin rose up to thank Scheich Ibrahim for the civility he had shown them, and afterwards the Fair Persian and he went into the garden. Scheich Ibrahim locked the door, and going before, led them to an eminence, from whence at one look they might almost take a view of the grandeur, order, and beauty of the whole garden.