204 LITTLE HUNCH-BACK.

Christian to death till he knew the sultan’s pleasure. For this
end, he went to the palace, and acquainted the sultan with
what had happened, and received from the sultan this answer :
“IT have no mercy to show to a Christian that kills a Mussul-
man ; go, do your office.” Upon this the judge ordered a gibbet
to be erected, and sent criers all over the city to proclaim, that
they were about to hang a Christian for killing a Mussulman,
At length, the merchant was brought out of gaol to the foot of
the gallows ; and the hangman, having put the rope about his
neck, was going to give him a swing, when the sultan’s purveyor
pushed through the crowd, made up to the gibbet, calling to
the hangman to stop, for that the Christian had not committed
the murder, but himself had done it. Upon that, the officer
who attended the execution, began to question the purveyor,
who told him every circumstance of his killing the little
Hump-back, and how he conveyed his corpse to the place
where the Christian merchant found him. “ You were about,”
added he, “to put to death an innocent person ; for how can he
be guilty of the death of a man who was dead before he came
tohim? It is enough for me to have killed a Mussulman,
without loading my conscience with the death of a Christian,
who is not guilty.” The sultan of Cashgar's purveyor having
publicly charged himself with the death of the little hunch-
backed man, the officer could not avoid doing justice to the
merchant. “ Let the Christian go,” said he to the executioner,
“and hang this man in his room, since it appears, by his own
confession, that he is guilty.” Thereupon the hangman re-
eased the merchant, and clapped the rope round the purveyor's
neck; but just when he was going to pull him up, he heard the
voice of the Jewish doctor, earnestly ent-eating him to suspend
the execution, and-make room for him to come to the foot of
the gallows.

When he appeared before the judge, he honestly related all