the judge was up, and ready to examine him.  In the mean time, the Christian merchant grew sober, and the more he reflected upon his adventure, the less could he conceive how such single fisty-cuffs could kill the man.  The judge having heard the report of the watch, and viewed the corpse, which they had taken care to bring to his house, interrogated the Christian merchant, who could not deny the crime, though he had not committed it.  But the judge considering that little crump-back belonged to the sultan, (for he was one of his buffoons) would not put the Christian to death till he knew the sultan’s pleasure.  For this end he went to the palace, and acquainted the sultan with what had happened, and received from him this answer, I have no mercy to show to a Christian, who kills a Mussulman; go do your office.  Upon this the judge ordered a gibbet to be erected, and sent criers all over the city to proclaim that they were about to hang a Christian for killing a Mussulman.

In fine, the merchant was brought out of gaol to the foot of the gallows; and the hangman, having put the rope about his neck, was going to throw him off, when the sultan’s purveyor pushed through die crowd, made up to the gibbet, calling to the hangman to stop, for that the Christian had not committed the murder, but himself.  The sheriff who attended the execution immediately put interrogatories to the purveyor, who told him every circumstance of his killing the little crump-back, and conveying his corpse to the place where the merchant found him.  You were about, added he, to put to death an innocent person; for how can he be guilty of the death of a man who was dead before he saw him?  My burden is sufficient in having killed a Turk, without loading my conscience with the additional charge of the death of a Christian who is not guilty.

The sultan of Casgar’s purveyor having publicly charged himself with the death of the little hunch-backed man, the sheriff could not avoid doing justice to the merchant.  Let the Christian go, said he, and hang this man in his room, since it appears by his own confession that he is guilty.  Whereupon the hangman released the merchant, and clapped the rope round the purveyor’s neck; but just as he was going to pull him up, he heard the voice of the Jewish doctor, earnestly entreating him to suspend the execution, and make room for him to throw himself at the foot of the gallows.  When he appeared before the judge, My lord, said he, this Mussulman you are going to hang is not guilty:  the crime rests with me.  Last night a man and a woman, unknown to me, came to my house with a sick man they had brought along with them; and knocking at my door, my maid went and opened it without a light, and received from them a piece of money, with a commission to come and desire me, in their names, to step down and look upon the sick person.  While she was delivering her message to me, they conveyed the sick person to the stair-head, and then disappeared.  I went down,