me?” and presently he asked her, “And wherein hath the Caliph done thee an injury?” She replied, “And what hath the Caliph left us of livelihood and so forth when he marauded our mansion and seized all our seisins?  Even this hall was part of the plunder and they laid it waste after taking from it all they could of marble and joinery and what-not; and they left us paupers, as thou sawest, without aught wherewith to veil us and naught to eat.  So had it not been that Almighty Allah favoured us with thyself, O Robber, we had been of the destroyed by famine and so forth.”  “And wherefore did the Caliph plunder you?” asked he, “and what was the cause of his so doing?” She answered,[FN#173] “My son was a Chamberlain of the Commander of the Faithful, and one day as he was sitting in this our home two women asked him for a draught of water which he gave to them.  Presently the elder brought him a porcelain charger full of pancakes with the tidings that it had been sent as a return gift from the young lady her companion who had drunk from his hand; and he replied, ’Set it down and wend thy ways,’ which she did.  Presently as my son sat outside his door, the Watchman came up to offer blessings on the occasion of the Greater Festival and he gave him the charger and the man fared forth; but ere an hour had sped, folk came who marauded our mansion, and seizing my son, carried him before the Caliph, who demanded of him how the charger had come to his hands.  He told him what I have told thee, and the Commander of the Faithful asked him, ’Say me sawest thou aught of the charms of the young lady?’ Now my son had on his lips to say No, but his tongue foreran him and he stammered out, ’Yes, I espied her face,’ without really having seen her at all, for that when drinking she had turned to the wall.  The Caliph hearing this hapless reply summoned the lady and bade smite both their necks, but in honour of the Festival-eve he had them carried off to prison.  Such be then the reason of the wrong by the Caliph wrought, and except for this injustice and his seizure of my son, O Robber, it had been long ere thou hadst wedded my daughter.”  When the Prince of True Believers heard the words of her, he said in his mind, “Verily I have oppressed these unhappiest” and he presently asked her, “What wilt thou say if I cause the Caliph to free thy son from gaol and robe him and return his fiefs to him and promote him in the Chamberlain’s office and return him to thee this very night?” Hereat the old woman laughed and made answer, “Hold thy peace!  This one is no Chief of Police that he fear thee and thou work on him whatso thou willest:  this one is the Prince of True Believers Harun al-Rashid, whose behest is heard both in Orient and in Occident, the lord of hosts and armies, one at whose gate the lowest menial is higher in degree than the Wali.  Be not therefore beguiled by whatso thou hast done, nor count the Caliph as one of these lest thou cast thyself into doom of destruction, and there be an end of thy