, and prevents my approach; and it
is written in the volumes of fate that no enchantment shall prevail
against Misnar unless he first allow our crafty race to deceive him.
Otherwise, Ibrac, dost thou suppose that so many of my brethren,
before whom the mountains tremble and the ocean boils, should need to
league against a boy? No, Ibrac; Misnar were beneath our vengeance or
our art, did not Mahomet espouse him, and his mean vassals, the good
genii of mankind! The conquest of this boy, while thus supported,
would add strength to our cause."

Ibrac then furnished the magician with the clothing of one of the
common soldiers; and he was mustered with the rest of the troops.

Early in the morning on which Misnar was to review his men, the Sultan
arose, and bade his slaves, who waited in the pavilion, call his
Vizier Horam to him.

"Horam," said the Sultan, "I suspect the crafty magician Happuck: he
is doubtless here disguised in our camp, and if I expose myself
to-day, it may be in his power to destroy me, and set the crown of
India on my brother's head."

"Let my Sultan, then," said Horam, "proclaim a reward to him who
discovers the magician, even to the holding of the second place in
your empire."

"That contrivance would have little effect," said the Sultan. "Happuck
would elude our search, and, transforming himself into some reptile,
escape our vengeance, and then meditate some new device to deceive
us. No, Horam," continued Misnar, "if he be really with us, it were
folly to let him escape."

"But how will my lord discover him amidst three hundred thousand
troops?" answered the Vizier. "There is no officer in your army who
knows the fiftieth part of your soldiers; and where recruits are daily
coming in, to search for a particular person, without giving the alarm
so that Happuck might escape, would be impossible."

"In how many ranks," said the Sultan, "is the army to be disposed?"

"The plain," answered the Vizier, "on which they are to be reviewed
will contain three thousand in a row."

"Bring me, then, two hundred of the most expert archers in my army,"
said the Sultan, "and take them from those troops who are the farthest
from the deserters who lately joined the army."

The Vizier did as the Sultan commanded, and brought the archers before
the royal pavilion.

"Go now, Horam," said the Sultan, "and order all the troops to be
drawn out on the plain."

"They are almost assembled already," said Horam.