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PRINCE AHMED
195

venting Schaibar from entering, ran away too. Thus the prince and he advanced without any obstacle to the council-hall, where the sultan was seated on his throne surrounded by his councillors.

Schaibar haughtily approached the throne, and without waiting for Prince Ahmed to present him, thus addressed the sultan: "Thou hast sent for me. What dost thou wish?"

The sultan, instead of answering, put his hands before his eyes to exclude so frightful a sight. Schaibar, enraged at this reception, lifted up his bar of iron. "Wilt thou not speak, then?" he exclaimed, and let it fall directly on the sultan's head, and crushed him to the earth.

He did this before Prince Ahmed had the power to interfere. Then he destroyed all the councillors who were the enemies of Prince Ahmed, and only spared the grand vizier at Prince Ahmed's earnest entreaty. Having completed this dreadful execution, Schaibar left the hall of audience, and went into the middle of the court with the bar of iron on his shoulder. "I know there is a