When the king heard this, he said, “This proof sufficeth me,” and rising forthright in the night, bade bring the youth and the Eunuch.  Then he examined his stepson’s throat with a candle and saw the scar where it had been cut from ear to ear, and indeed the place had healed up and it was like a thread stretched out.  Thereupon the king fell down prostrate before Allah, who had delivered the Prince from all these perils and from the distresses he had suffered, and rejoiced with joy exceeding because he had delayed and had not made haste to slay him, in which case mighty sore repentance had betided him.[FN#250] “As for the youth,” continued the young treasurer, “he was not saved but because his life-term was deferred, and in like manner, O king, ’tis with me:  I too have a deferred term, which I shall attain, and a period which I shall accomplish, and I trust in Almighty Allah that He will give me the victory over these villain Wazirs.”  When the youth had made an end of his speech, the king said, “Restore him to the prison;” and when they had done this, he turned to the Ministers and said to them, “Yonder youth lengtheneth his tongue upon you, but I know your tenderness for the weal of mine empire and your loyal counsel to me; so be of good heart, for all that ye advise me I will do.”  They rejoiced when they heard these words, and each of them said his say.  Then quoth the king, “I have not deferred his slaughter but to the intent that the talk might be prolonged and that words might abound, yet shall he now be slain without let or stay, and I desire that forthright ye set up for him a gibbet without the town and that the crier cry among the folk bidding them assemble and take him and carry him in procession to the gibbet, with the crier crying before him and saying, ’This is the reward of him whom the king delighted to favour and who hath betrayed him!’” The Wazirs rejoiced when they heard this, and for their joy slept not that night; and they made proclamation in the city and set up the gallows.

The Eleventh Day.

Of the Speedy Relief of Allah.

When it was the eleventh day, the Wazirs repaired in early morning to the king’s gate and said to him, “O king, the folk are assembled from the portals of the palace to the gibbet, to the end they may see the king’s order carried out on the youth.”  So Azadbakht bade fetch the prisoner and they brought him; whereupon the Ministers turned to him and said to him, “O vile of birth, can any lust for life remain with thee and canst thou hope for deliverance after this day?” Said he, “O wicked Wazirs, shall a man of understanding renounce all esperance in Almighty Allah?  Howsoever a man be oppressed, there cometh to him deliverance from the midst of distress and life from the midst of death, as in the case of the prisoner and how Allah delivered him.”  Asked the king, “What is his story?” and the youth answered, saying, “O king, they tell

The Story of the Prisoner and How Allah Gave Him Relief.[FN#251]