One of Them
Charles Lever
Paperback
(Forgotten Books, Nov. 30, 2018)
Excerpt from One of Them There is an Eastern tale - I forget exactly where or by whom told Of a certain poor man, who, being in extreme distress, and sorely puzzled as to how to eke out a livelihood, bethought him to give out that he was a great magician, endowed with the most marvellous powers, amongst others, that of tracing out crime, and detecting the secret history of all guilty transactions. Day after day did he proclaim to the world his wonderful gifts, telling his fellow-citizens what a remarkable man was amongst them, and bidding them thank Destiny for the blessing of his presence. Now, though the story has not recorded whether their gratitude was equal to the occasion, we are informed that the Caliph heard Of the great magician, and summoned him to his presence, for it chanced just at the moment that the royal treasury had been broken into by thieves, and gems Of priceless value carried away. Find out these thieves for me, said the Caliph, or with your own head pay the penalty of their crime. Grant me but forty days, 0 king, cried he, and I will bring them all before you. So saying, he went away, but was no sooner at home and in the solitude Of his own house than he tore his beard, beat his breast, and, humbling his head to the ground, cried out. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.