Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 4.djvu/28

kard. However, as he came to the end of the Street, he ſtopped upon ſome neceſſary Occaſion, and leaned againſt the Shop where the Sultan’s Purveyor had put the Hench- back’d Corps; and the Corps being joſtled, tumbled upon the Merchant’s Back. The Merchant, thinking ’twas a Robber that came to attack him, knock’d him down with a fwinging Box on the Ear, and after redoubling his Blows, cried out Thieves.

The Outcry alarm’d the Watch, who came up immediately, and finding a Chriſtian beating a Turk (for Crump-back was of our Religion) What Reaſon have you, ſaid he, to abuſe a Musselman after this Rate? He would have robbed me, replied the Merchant, and jumped upon my back with intent to take me by the Throat. If he did, ſaid the Watch, you have revenged your ſelf ſufficiently, come get off of him. At the ſame time he ſtretched out his Hand to help little Crump-back up, but obſerving he was dead; Ah, Hey-day! ſaid he, is it thus that a Chriftian dare: to aſſaſſinate a Muſſelman? So he laid hold of the Chriſtian, and carried him to the Sheriffs Houſe, where he was kept till the Judge was ſtirring and ready to examine him. In the mean time the Chriſtian Merchant grew ſober, and the more he reflected upon his Adventure, the leſs could he conceive how ſuch ſingle Fiſty-Cuff could kill the Man.

The Judge having hard the Report of the Watch, and viewed the Corps which they had taken care to bring to his Houſe, interrogated the Chriſtian Merchant upon it, and he could not deny the Crime, tho’ he had not committed it. But the Judge conſidering that little Crump-back belonged to the Sultan, for he was one of his Buffoons, would not put the Chriſtian to Death, till he knew the Sultan’s Pleaſure. For this End he went to the Palace, and acqainted the Sultan with what had happen’d; and received from the Sultan this Anſwer, I have no Mercy to ſhew to a Chriſtian that kills a Muſfelman, Go do your Office. Upon this the Judge ordered a Gibbet to be erected, and ſent Criers all over the City to proclaim that they were about to hang a Chriſtian for killng a Muſſelman.

In fine, the Merchant was brought our of Goal to the Foot of the Gallows; and the Hangman having put the Rope about his Neck, was going to give him a Swing, when the Sultan’s Purveyor, ſhoving tho’ the Crowd,