One day, as the two Kings sat, rejoicing in the happy ending of
their troubles, they saw a cloud of dust arise and up came a
merchant, who ran to them, shrieking and crying out for succour.
"O Kings of the age," said he, "how comes it that I was in safety
in the country of the infidels and am plundered in your realm,
what though it be a land of peace and justice?" King Rumzan
questioned him of his case, and he replied, "I am a merchant, who
have been nigh a score of years absent from my native land,
travelling in far countries; and I have a patent of exemption
from Damascus, which the late Viceroy King Sherkan wrote me, for
that I had made him gift of a slave-girl. Now I was returning to
Irak, having with me a hundred loads of rarities of Ind; but, as
I drew near Baghdad, the seat of your sovereignty and the
abiding-place of your peace and your justice, there came out upon
me Bedouins and Kurds banded together from all parts, who slew my
men and robbed me of all my goods. This is what hath befallen
me." Then he wept and bemoaned himself before the two Kings, who
took compassion on him and swore that they would sally out upon
the thieves. So they set out with a hundred horse, each reckoned
worth thousands of men, and the merchant went before them, to
guide them in the right way. They fared on all that day and the
following night till daybreak, when they came to a valley
abounding in streams and trees.
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