There was once a king named Bihkard and he had mickle of wealth and many troops; but his deeds were evil and he would punish for a slight offence, and he never forgave any offender. He went forth one day to hunt and a certain of his pages shot a shaft, which lit on the king's ear and cut it off. Bihkard cried, "Who shot that arrow?" So the guards brought him in haste the misdemeanant, whose name was Yatrú, and he of his fear fell down on the ground in a fainting fit. Then the king said, "Slay him;" but Yatru said, "O king, this which has befallen was not of my choice nor of my knowledge; so do you pardon me, in the hour of your power over me, for that mercy is of the goodliest of deeds and Perhaps it shall be in this world a provision and a good work for which you will be repaid one of these days, and a treasure laid up to yours account with Allah in the world to come. Pardon me, therefore, and fend off evil from me, so shall Allah fend off from you the like evil." When the king heard this, it pleased him and he pardoned the page, albeit he had never before pardoned any.

Now this page was of the sons of the kings and had fled from his sire on account of a sin he had committed: then he went and took service with Bihkard the king, and there happened to him what happened. After a while, it chanced that a man recognised him and went and told his father, who sent him a letter, comforting his heart and mind and calling upon him to return to him. Accordingly he returned to his father, who came forth to meet him and rejoiced in him, and the Prince's affairs were set right with his sire. Now it befell, one day of the days, that king Bihkard shipped him in a ship and put out to sea, so he might fish: but the wind blew on them and the craft sank. The king made the land upon a plank, unknown of any, and came forth, mother naked, on one of the coasts; and it chanced that he landed in the country whereof the father of the page aforesaid was king. So he came in the night to the gate of the sovran's capital, and finding it shut, lodged him in a burying place there. When the morning morrowed and the folk came forth of the city, behold, they found a man lately murthered and cast down in a corner of the burial ground, and seeing Bihkard there, doubted not but it was he who had slain him during the night; so they laid hands on him and carried him up to the king and said to him, "This fellow has slain a man."

The king bade imprison him; whereupon they threw him in jail, and he fell to saying in himself, what while he was in the prison, "All that has befallen me is of the abundance of my sins and my tyranny, for, indeed, I have slain much people unrighteously and this is the requital of my deeds and that which I have wrought whilome of oppression." As he was thus pondering in himself, there came a bird and lighted down on the pinnacle of the prison, whereupon, of his passing eagerness in the chase, he took a stone and threw it at the bird. Now the king's son was playing in the exercise ground with the ball and the bat, and the stone lit on his ear and cut it off, whereupon the Prince fell down in a fit. So they enquired who had thrown the stone and finding that it was Bihkard, took him and carried him before the king's son, who bade do him die. Accordingly, they cast the turband from his head and were about to fillet his eyes, when the Prince looked at him and seeing him cropped of an ear, said to him, "But for your villainies yours ear had not been cut off." Bihkard said, "Not so, By God! Nay, but the story of the loss of my ear is so and so, and I pardoned him who smote me with an arrow and cut off my ear." When the prince heard this, he looked in his face and

Of Envy And Malice. 81 knowing him, cried out and said, "Are you not Bihkard the king?" "Yes," he replied, and the Prince said to him, "What ill chance threw you here?" Thereupon he told him all that had happened him and the folk wondered and extolled the perfection of the Almighty, crying "Subhána 'llah!—laud to the Lord!" Then the Prince rose to him and embraced him and kissed him and, entreating him with respect, seated him in a chair and bestowed on him a robe of honour; and he turned to his sire and said to him, "This be the king who pardoned me and this be his ear which I cut off with a shaft; and indeed he deserves my pardon by having pardoned me." Then he said to Bihkard, "truly, the issue of mercy has been a provision for you in such hour as this." And they entreated him with the utmost kindness and sent him back to his own country in all honour. "Know, then, O king" (continued the youth), "that there is no goodlier quality than mercy and that all you do of clemency, you will find before you a treasure for you treasured up." When the king heard this, his wrath subsided and he said, "Return him to the prison till the morrow, so we may look into his case."

The Eighth Day