Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 4.djvu/130

 a trooper, who been in my service, looked at me and knowing me, cried out, saying, 'This is he whom Al-Maamun wanteth.' Then he laid hold of me but the love of sweet life lent me strength and I gave him and his horse a push which threw them down in that slippery place, so that he became an example to those who will take example; and the folk hastened to him. Meanwhile, I hurried my pace over the bridge and entered a main street, where I saw the door of a house open and a woman standing upon the threshold. So I said to her, 'O my lady, have pity on me and save my life; for I am a man in fear.' Quoth she, 'Enter and welcome;' and carried me into an upper dining-room, where she spread me a bed and brought me food, saying 'Calm thy fear, for not a soul shall know of thee.' As she spoke lo! there came a loud knocking at the door; so she went and opened, and suddenly, my friend, whom I had thrown down on the bridge, appeared with his head bound up, the blood running down upon his clothes and without his horse. She asked, 'O so and so, what accident hath befallen thee?'; and he answered, 'I made prize of the young man whom the Caliph seeketh and he escaped from me;' whereupon he told her the whole story. So she brought out tinder and, putting it into a piece of rag bandaged his head; after which she spread him a bed and he lay sick. Then she came up to me and said, 'Methinks thou art the man in question?' 'Even so,' answered I, and she said, 'Fear not: no harm shall befall thee,' and redoubled in kindness to me. So I tarried with her three days, at the end of which time she said to me, 'I am in fear for thee, lest yonder man happen upon thee and betray thee to what thou dreadest; so save thyself by flight.' I besought her to let me stay till nightfall, and she said, 'There is no harm in that.' So, when the night came, I put on my woman's gear and betook me to the house of a freed-woman who had once been our slave. When she saw me she wept and made a show of affliction and praised Almighty Allah for my safety. Then she went forth, as if she would go to market intent on hospitable thoughts, and I fancied all was right; but, ere long, suddenly I espied Ibrahim al-Mosili for the house amongst his troopers and servants, and led by a woman on foot; and looking narrowly