Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/241

216 and made him draw near to himself. Now there had been private with the sage in question a company of the vizier’s enemies, who besought him to slander the vizier to the king and counsel him to put him to death, in consideration of that which they promised him of wealth galore; and he agreed with them of this and told the king that the vizier would slay him in the course of the [ensuing] month and bade him hasten to put him to death, else would he surely slay him.

Presently, the vizier entered and the king signed to him to cause avoid the place. So he signed to those who were present to withdraw, and they departed; whereupon quoth the king to him, “How deemest thou, O excellent vizier, O loyal counsellor in all manner of governance, of a vision I have seen in my sleep?” “What is it, O king?” asked the vizier, and Shah Bekht related to him his dream, adding, “And indeed the sage interpreted it to me and said to me, ‘An thou put not the vizier to death within a month, he will slay thee.’ Now I am exceeding loth to put the like of thee to death, yet do I fear to leave thee on life. What then dost thou counsel me that I should do in this matter?” The vizier bowed his head awhile, then raised it and said, “God prosper the king! Verily, it skills not to continue him on life of whom the king is afraid, and my counsel is that thou make haste to put me to death.”

When the king heard his speech, he turned to him and said, “It is grievous to me, O vizier of good counsel.” And he told him that the [other] sages testified [to the correctness of their fellow’s interpretation of the dream];