' When
the Khalif heard the girls' talk and knew that the tomb was a
trick and a fraud and that Cout el Culoub had been with Ghanim
ben Eyoub for four months, he was sore enraged and rising up,
summoned his officers of state, whereupon the Vizier Jaafer the
Barmecide came up and kissed the earth before him, and the Khalif
said to him, 'O Jaafer, take a company of men with thee and fall
upon the house of Ghanim ben Eyoub and bring him to me, with my
slave-girl Cout el Culoub, for I will assuredly punish him!' 'I
hear and obey,' answered Jaafer, and setting out with his guards
and the chief of the police, repaired to Ghanim's house. Now the
latter had brought home a pot of meat and was about to put forth
his hand to eat of it, he and Cout d Culoub, when the damsel,
happening to look out, found the house beset on all sides by the
Vizier and the chief of the police and their officers and
attendants, with drawn swords in their hands, encompassing the
place, as the white of the eye encompasses the black. At this
sight, she knew that news of her had reached the Khalif, her
master, and made sure of ruin, and her colour paled and her
beauty changed. Then she turned to Ghanim and said to him, 'O my
love, fly for thy life!' 'What shall I do?' said he; 'and whither
shall I go, seeing that my substance and fortune are in this
house?' 'Delay not,' answered she, 'lest thou lose both life and
goods.
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