1826.] Haroun, the Lonely Man of Shiraz. 175 
poor young gentlewoman, doubtless thought it extremely hard that she 
was to lose a husband who was so venerably old, and a lover who was so 
handsomely young, both in one day. The rascal mob murmured at this 
delicate distinction of the Cadi’s, who indignantly ordered the court to 
be cleared, after a dozen of the more obstreperous had been well 
bastinadoed for their impertinence in interrupting the course of justice. 
However, he repaired this seeming dereliction in the same day, for a 
ragged, rascally, poor villain was brought before him, charged with 
stealing, from an incontrollable hunger which the vagabond indulged in, 
part of a cold kid that had been left in the Cadi’s larder; and having 
neither gold, nor friend who had it and was willing to come down with 
it, he was strangled with the utmost punctuality, and the Cadi ate what 
he had left of the kid with the greater relish, that any one should have 
admired it so much as to run his neck into the bowstring for dining 
off it. 
Before this lover of justice and mercy, the trembling and chap-fallen 
Haroun was dragged by the many-armed law. “ We have brought into 
the presence of the mirror of magistracy, the medium of mercy, the 
mouth of wisdom, the tongue of truth, the sword of severity, and the 
tight string of terror, a singular sort of knave, who has robbed even 
a robber,” said the officers to the Cadi. “ Robbed him of what?” 
demanded the Cadi. “ Of life,” answered the myrmidons of the law. 
«Bring in the bowstring, and order up the coffee,” commanded the 
_ magistrate. “But,” urged Haroun, with a whining voice, “this robber, 
whom I have only drowned, my lord the Cadi, would have robbed my 
lord the King !”—« Of what, knave *” roared the Cadi. “Of this jar of 
jewels and gold, which I had commanded him in the King’s name to aid 
and assist me in conveying to the coffers of the muscle of monarchs, the 
pearl of princes, the diamond of dignity, light of the sun and moon, 
goldsmith of the stars, lord of the four-and-twenty umbrellas, parasol of 
Persia, milk of mercy, cream of courtesy, and seat of the five-and- 
twenty fistulas, the princeliest proof of the duration of his sitting on the 
throne of his ancestors (who were the first-made of men), and of the 
length of his reign over Persia, which reigns over all the rest of the 
world,” answered the wily Haroun, who knew well enough that the only 
safe way to play unarmed with power was to smooth down its paws, and 
forget that it had talons. “Oh, if that is the case, let the coffee take 
precedence of the bowstring, and we will in our clemency hear thee 
unfold thy tale,” countermanded the clement Cadi. The coffee was 
brought: “And now, slave, propound the possession of this wealth.” 
Then Haroun told the story of his finding the treasure, and where ; and 
calculating very shrewdly, that a living basket-maker was better than a 
dead one, he made it appear how honestly he meant to serve his lord 
the King in the whole affair, and that his zeal for his rights had been the 
sole cause of the unfortunate death which he had dealt the robber. “1 
could have saved him, as I am a good swimmer,” urged the wary 
Haroun, “but would it have become an honest man and a true subject to 
save a robber of his King ?”—* You are an honest fellow and a brave 
_ subject, and argue like a wise one, too,” said the Cadi, putting off his 
_ judicial frown for a judicious smile. “ The treasures which you have 
_ found are undoubtedly the King’s, for they were ‘taken from a river in 
» his kingdom: I therefore claim them in the name of the king my 
~ master,” continued the Cadi, laying his hand upon the mingled heap of 
