to her and said, “O ill-omened old woman, O accomplice of robbers, knowest thou not that he who rappeth is the Master of Police and his young men?  So open to us forthright.”  Quoth she, “We be Harims and ne’er a man with us, therefore we will not open to any;” and quoth he, “Open, or we will break it down.”  The old woman made no reply but returning to her daughter within said to her, “Now look at this Robber and how from the first of this night we have been humbled for his sake:  yet had he fallen into this trap his life had been taken, and would Heaven he may not come now and be made prisoner by them.  Ah me!  Were thy father on life the Wali never had availed to take station at our house-door or the door of any other.”  “Such be our lot,” replied the girl, and she went to the casement that she might espy what was doing.  This is how it fared with them; but as concerneth the Caliph, when the folk had finished crowding the streets he disguised himself and hending in hand his pellet-bow and slinging his sword over his shoulder he went forth intending for his bride.  But when reaching the head of the street he saw lanthorns and stir of crowd:[FN#153] so he approached to look and he espied the Wali and his men with the merchant standing by the Chief’s side together with the lieutenants, all save one shouting, “Break down the door and rush in and seize the old woman:  then let us question her with torture until she confess where be her Robber of a son-in-law.”  But Hasan the fourth officer dissuaded them saying, “O good folk, do ye fear Almighty Allah and be not over hasty, saving that hurry is of old Harry.  These be all women without a man in the house; so startle them not; and peradventure the son-in-law ye seek may be no thief and so we fall into an affair wherefrom we may not escape without trouble the most troublous.”  Thereupon Shamamah came up and cried out, “O Hasan, it ill becometh thee to stand at the Wali’s door:  better ’twere for thee to sit on the witness-bench; for none should be gate-keepers to a head policeman save they who have abandoned good deeds and who devour ordure[FN#154] and who ape the evil practices of the populace.”  All this and the Caliph overheard the fellow’s words and said to himself, “’Tis well!  I will indeed gladden thee, O Accurst.”  Then he turned and espied a street which was no thoroughfare, and one of its houses at the upper end adjoined the tenement wherein was his bride; so he went up to it and behold, its gateway showed a curtain drawn across and a lamp hung up and an Eunuch sitting upon the door-bench.  Now this was the mansion of a certain noble who was lord over a thousand of his peers and his name was the Emir Yunas:[FN#155] he was an angry man and a violent; and on the day when he had not bastinado’d some wight he would not break his fast and loathed his meat for the stress of his ill-stomach.  But when the Eunuch saw the Caliph he cried out at him and sprang up to strike him exclaiming, “Woe to thee! art thou Jinn-mad? whither going?” But