Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/114

92 from the battle till the day came to an end, when they drew apart. But the infidels had made Saadan prisoner, as he were a drunken man for loss of blood; and they bound him fast and set him by Gherib. When the latter saw the Ghoul a prisoner, he said, ‘There is no force and no virtue but in God the Most High, the Supreme! O Saadan, what is this?’ ‘O my lord,’ answered Saadan, ‘it is God (exalted and glorified be He!) Who ordaineth misfortune and deliverance, and needs must this and that betide.’ And Gherib said, ‘Thou sayst sooth, O Saadan!’ But Agib and his host passed the night in joy, and he said to his men, ‘To-morrow, we will fall upon the Muslims and leave not one of them alive.’

Meanwhile, the Muslims passed the night, dejected and weeping for their King and for Saadan; but Sehim said to them, ‘O folk, be not concerned, for the relief of God the Most High is near.’ Then he waited till midnight, when he disguised himself in the habit of a tent-keeper and repairing to Agib’s camp, made his way between the tents, till he came to the King’s pavilion, where he saw him seated on his throne, in the midst of his princes. So he entered and going up to the candles that burnt in the tent, snuffed them and sprinkled powdered henbane on the wicks; after which he withdrew and waited without the tent, till the smoke of the burning henbane reached Agib and his princes and they fell to the earth like dead men. Then he left them and went to the prison-tent, where he found Gherib and Saadan, guarded by a thousand men, who were drowsed with sleep. So he cried out at the guards, saying, ‘Out on you! Sleep not; but watch your prisoners and light the cressets.’

Then he filled a cresset with firewood, on which he strewed henbane, and lighting it, went round about the tent with it, till the smoke of the henbane entered the nostrils of the guards, and they all fell asleep; when he