'Tis a fine emerald, may it please your
highness, and doubly valuable to me as a love-token from my Fatima.
No consideration in the world could induce me to part with it; and so,
being asleep, here are three honest men who will prove the sleep, comes
this little vagabond, may it please your highness, who while he pretends
to offer me my coffee, takes him my finger, and slips off this precious
ring, which he now wears upon his beggarly paw, and will not restore to
me without the bastinado.'
'Abdallah is a faithful slave, may it please your highness, and a
Hadgee,' said Ali, his master.
'And what sayest thou, boy?' inquired Honain.
'That this is a false knave, who lies as slaves ever will.'
'Pithy, and perhaps true,' said Honain.
'You call me a slave, you young scoundrel?' exclaimed Abdallah; 'shall
I tell you what you are? Why, your highness, do not listen to him a
moment. It is a shame to bring such a creature into your presence; for,
by the holy stone, and I am a Hadgee, I doubt little he is a Jew.'
Honain grew somewhat pale, and bit his lip. He was perhaps annoyed that
he had interfered so publicly in behalf of so unpopular a character as
a Hebrew, but he was unwilling to desert one whom a moment before he had
resolved to befriend, and he inquired of the youth where he had obtained
the ring.
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