That is
what I had in my thoughts, said the sultan; and I make him my
son-in-law from this moment. Some time after, the prime vizier
died, and the sultan conferred the place on the dervize. The
sultan himself died without heirs-male; upon which the religious
orders and the militia gathered together, and the honest man was
declared and acknowledged sultan by general consent.
The honest dervize, being mounted on the throne of his
father-in-law, as he was one day in the midst of his courtiers
upon a march, espied the envious man among the crowd of people
that stood as he passed along, and calling one of his viziers
that attended him, whispered him in the ear thus: Go bring me
that man you see there, but take care you do not frighten him.
The vizier obeyed, and when the envious man was brought into his
presence, the sultan said, Friend, I am extremely glad to see
you. Upon which he called an officer: Go immediately, says he,
and cause to be paid this man out of my treasury one hundred
pieces of gold; let him have also twenty load of the richest
merchandise in my store-houses, and a sufficient guard to conduct
him to his house. After he had given this charge to the officer,
he bade the envious man farewell, and proceeded on his march.
When I had finished the recital of this story to the genie, the
murderer of the princess of the isle of Ebone, I made the
application to himself thus: O genie! you see here that this
bountiful sultan did not content himself with forgetting the
design of the envious man to take away his life, but treated him
kindly, and sent him back with all the favours which I just now
related.
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