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The man stopped, and asked them what was the matter, and they

answered, "The Governor hath ordered us to bring this fellow

before him and, look ye, we are doing so." My brother's friend

urged them to release him, and offered them five hundred dinars

to let him go, saying, "When ye return to the Governor tell him

that you were unable to find him." But they would not listen to

his words and took my brother, dragging him along on his face,

and set him before the Governor who asked him, "Whence gottest

thou these stuffs and monies?"; and he answered, "I pray for

mercy!" So the Governor gave him the kerchief of mercy;[FN#681]

and he told him all that had befallen him from first to last with

the old woman and the flight of the damsel; ending with, "Whatso

I have taken, take of it what thou wilt, so thou leave me

sufficient to support life."[FN#682] But the Governor took the

whole of the stuffs and all the money for himself; and, fearing

lest the affair come to the Sultan's ears, he summoned my brother

and said, "Depart from this city, else I will hang thee."

"Hearing and obedience" quoth my brother and set out for another

town.