Now some one
had snatched off the broker's turban early in the night, and
seeing the hunchback standing there he concluded that he meant
to play him the same trick. So he clenched his fist and smote him
on the neck. Down fell the hunchback, whilst the broker called to
the watchman of the market and fell on the dead man, pummelling
and throttling him in the excess of his drunken rage. Presently,
the watchman came up and finding a Christian kneeling on a Muslim
and beating him, said to the former, 'What is the matter?' 'This
fellow tried to snatch off my turban,' answered the broker;
and the watchman said, 'Get up from him.' So he rose, and
the watchman went up to the hunchback and finding him dead,
exclaimed, 'By Allah, it is a fine thing that a Christian should
kill a Muslim!' Then he seized the broker and tying his hands
behind him, carried him to the house of the prefect of police,
where they passed the night; and all the while the broker kept
saying, 'O Messiah! O Virgin! how came I to kill this man?
Indeed, he must have been in a great hurry to die of one blow
with the fist!' And his drunkenness left him and reflection came
in its stead. As soon as it was day, the prefect came out and
commanded to hang the supposed murderer and bade the executioner
make proclamation of the sentence. So they set up a gallows,
under which they made the broker stand, and the hangman put the
rope round his neck and was about to hoist him up, when behold,
the controller of the Sultan's kitchen, passing by, saw the
broker about to be hanged, and pressing through the crowd, cried
out to the executioner, saying, 'Stop! Stop! I am he who killed
the hunchback.
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