Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/332

320 answered, ‘Yes.’ ‘Praised be God,’ exclaimed Aboukir, ‘who hath preserved thee from the mischief of yonder villain and enemy of the faith, to wit, the bath-keeper!’ ‘And what of him?’ asked the king. ‘Know, O king of the age,’ replied Aboukir, ‘that, if thou enter the bath again, after this day, thou wilt surely perish.’ ‘How so?’ inquired the king; and the dyer answered, ‘This bath-keeper is thine enemy and the enemy of the faith, and he induced thee not to set up this bath but because he designed to poison thee therein. He hath made for thee somewhat which, when thou enterest the bath, he will present to thee, saying, “This is an unguent, which if one apply to his privy parts, it will remove the hair with ease.”

Now it is no unguent, but a deadly drug and a violent poison; for the Sultan of the Christians hath promised this filthy fellow to release to him his wife and children, if he will kill thee; for they are captives in the hands of the Sultan in question. I myself was captive with him in their land, but I opened a dyery and dyed for them various colours, so that they inclined the king’s heart unto me and he bade me ask a boon of him. I sought of him freedom and he set me free, whereupon I made my way hither, and seeing yonder man in the bath, asked him how he had effected his escape and that of his wife and children. Quoth he, “We ceased not to be in captivity, I and my wife and children, till one day the King of the Christians held a court, at which I was present, amongst a number of other people. Presently, I heard them discourse of the kings and name them, one after another, till they came to the name of the king of this city, whereupon the King of the Christians cried out, ‘Alas!’ and said, ‘None irketh me in the world, but the king of such a city! Whosoever will contrive me his slaughter,