Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/277

245 clamped and banded with iron. So they made a strong ladder and wrought at it a whole month. Then all the company laid hold of it and set it up against the wall, and it reached the top as truly as if it had been made for it aforetime. The Amir marvelled at the excellence of their work and said, ‘The blessing of God be upon you! It seemeth as though ye had taken the measure of the wall.’ Then said he to his men, ‘Which of you will mount the ladder and walk along the wall and cast about for a way of descending into the city, so to see how the case stands and let us know how we may open the gate?’ Quoth one of them, ‘I will go up, O Amir, and descend and open to you.’ And Mousa answered, saying, ‘Go and the blessing of God go with thee!’

So he mounted the ladder; but, when he came to the top of the wall, he stood up and gazed fixedly down into the city, then clapped his hands and crying out, at the top of his voice, ‘By Allah, thou art fair!’ cast himself down into the place and was dashed to pieces. Quoth Mousa, ‘By Allah, the man is destroyed!’ But another came up to him and said, ‘O Amir, this was a madman and doubtless his madness got the better of him and undid him. I will go up and open the gate to you, if it be the will of God the Most High.’ ‘Go,’ replied Mousa, ‘and may God bless thee! But beware lest thou lose thy head, even as did he.’ Then the man mounted the ladder, but no sooner had he reached the top of the wall than he laughed aloud and saying, ‘Well done! Well done!’ cast himself down into the city and died forthright.

When the Amir saw this, he said, ‘If this be the fashion of a reasonable man, what is that of the madman? If all our men do thus, we shall have none left and shall fail of our errand and that of the Commander of the Faithful. Let us depart hence, for we have no concern with this city.’ But another of the company said, ‘Peradventure