The Mercy of Allah: Essay. Hilaire Belloc

have,” replied his nephews, and they recited in chorus the descriptions which they had been taught by heart from the text-books of their Academy.

      “I am pleased,” replied their uncle, smiling, “to discover you thus informed. You will appreciate how ample a roof this singular vegetable affords.

      “Well, I proceeded under the morning sun through a pleasantly wooded and rising country, considering by what contrivance of usury or deceit I might next increase my capital, when I saw in the distance the groves and white buildings of an unwalled town, to which (since large places, especially if they are not war-like, furnish the best field for the enterprise of a Captain of Industry) I proceeded; … and there, by the Mercy of Allah, there befell me as singular an adventure as perhaps ever has fallen to the lot of man.

      “I had not taken up my place in the local caravanserai for more than an hour—I had met no likely fool, and my plans for the future were still vague in my head—when an old gentleman of great dignity, followed by an obsequious officer and no less than six Ethiopian slaves, approached me with deep reverence, and profferring me a leathern pouch, of a foreign kind, the like of which I had never seen before, asked me whether I were not the young man who had inadvertently left it upon a prayer-stone at a shrine outside the city.

      “I seized the pouch with an eager air, held it up in transports of joy, and kissing it again and again said, ‘Oh! my benefactor! How can I sufficiently thank you! It is my father’s last gift to me and is all my viaticum as well!’ with which I fell to kissing and fondling it again, pressing it to my heart and so discovered it to be filled with coins—as indeed I had suspected it to be.

      “Into so active an emotion had I roused myself that my eyes filled with tears, and the good old man himself was greatly affected. ‘I must warn you, young stranger,’ he said paternally, ‘against this thoughtlessness so common in youth! A great loss indeed had it been for you, if we had not had the good fortune to recover your property.’

      “You may imagine my confusion, my dear nephews, at finding that I had been guilty of so intolerable a fault. I blushed with confusion; I most heartily thanked the old gentleman, not for his integrity (which it would have been insulting to mention to one of his great wealth) but for the pains he had taken to seek out a careless young man and to prevent his suffering loss.

      “ ‘Nay,’ said that aged gentleman to me with a low and pleasant laugh, ‘you must not thank me. Perhaps had I myself come upon the treasure I might have thought it too insignificant to restore. But you must know that I am the Chief Magistrate of this city and that last evening my officer noticed from some distance a young man, apparently a stranger to this city, whom he describes as of your height and features, rise from the prayer-stone, but leave behind him some object which, in the gathering dusk, he could not distinguish. On his approach he found it was this purse of yours which some boys had already found and were quarrelling over, when he took it from them. He brought it to me with some description of your person: I thought you might well be at this caravanserai and brought it with me: I had the pleasure of hearing my officer, who now accompanies me, recognize you as we approached.’ That functionary bowed to me and I to him most ceremoniously, and as I did so I was rapidly revolving in my head what I had better do if the real owner should appear. I was torn between two plans: whether to denounce him as a thief before he could speak, or to run off at top speed.

      “This preoccupation I dismissed lest the anxiety of it should appear upon my face.

      “I again thanked this good old man most warmly and we entered into a familiar conversation. What was my delight at the close of it when he bade me without ceremony accept of his hospitality and come home to take a meal with him in his palace. I was eager for further adventures, and accompanied him with the greatest joy.

      “Reclining at table, where there was served (as I need hardly inform my dear nephews) lamb stuffed with pistachio nuts, the old man asked me whence I had come, what was my trade, and whither I was proceeding.

      “I answered (as I thought, prudently) that I had come from Aleppo, that I had been entrusted by my father with the sum in the purse he had so kindly restored to me, in order to purchase pearls, and that when the purchase was completed I had instructions to sell them in India in a market where my father was assured that pearls were rare and fetched the highest prices.

      “ ‘This is indeed well found!’ exclaimed the old man, with enthusiasm. ‘I am myself seeking for some one to whom I may sell a magnificent collection of pearls inherited from my great-grandmother, an Indian Begum. The old woman,’ he added nonchalantly enough, ‘was a miser; she kept the drops higgledy-piggledy in an old cedarwood box, and I confess myself quite ignorant of their value. Moreover, as I have taken a liking to you, I shall let you fix your own price, for I should much like to remember when my time comes that I had helped a friendless man in his first step to fortune; only, I am a little ashamed to appear to be making money out of an heirloom!’

      “While the old gentleman so spoke I was rapidly revolving in my mind what motive he could have for such an affection of indifference to wealth, when I recollected that he was the Chief Magistrate of the city, and immediately concluded that these pearls, being the property of local people, and obtained by him for nothing by way of bribes and other legal channels, he would both desire to have them sold at a distance and would let them go cheap.

      “ ‘Nay,’ continued he, seeing that I hesitated as these thoughts occurred to me, ‘I will take no denial. For me it is but a mere riddance, and for you a most excellent bargain. Come, I trust your honest face and youthful candour. You shall take them at your own price! And I will even advise you of the city of India where you will find your best market.’

      “Put thus, the offer, I will confess, attracted me; but I had already learned the wickedness of mankind (though not as yet, I am glad to say, my dear nephews, at my own expense), and I said that I would at least so far meet him as to take the jewels to a local merchant, invent some tale, as though they were my own, and see what sum might be offered for them. Only when I thus had some measure of their value could I honourably make an offer. I continued at some length in this strain, expressing a humble inability to judge, and the fear lest my capital might not be sufficient (which he pooh-poohed). I stipulated, for a reason you will soon perceive, that a slave of his should accompany me—if only as a matter of routine—for (said I) I was very jealous of my honour. He agreed, though he was good enough to call it a pure formality.

      “I left the aged magistrate with many thanks and, accompanied by the slave, proceeded with the pearls to the jewel merchants’ quarter in the Bazaar. I stopped before one of the richest and most reputed booths, and spreading the pearls before the merchant told him that I was compelled to sell these under order from authority as the end of a family dispute, to pay the dowry of my sister; that I therefore was in haste to settle and would take the least price he might choose to mention within reason. I was, said I, wholly in his hands. It was urgent for me that the bargain should be quickly completed, but before I could receive his cash I must hear the lowest figure he would name.

      “While I thus spoke the slave stood respectfully behind me and listened to our conversation. The jewel merchant said that no class of merchandise was more distasteful to him than pearls; there was at this moment no market for them. It was impossible to purchase them save properly set and in regular sizes; and finally it was well known that pearls were the most unlucky of gems. It was quite impossible for him to offer more than 10,000 dinars, and even so he would doubtless be the loser by the transaction.

      “When I heard this I rapidly wrote upon a slip of paper the following words:

      “ ‘My Lord—The chief merchant in this city estimates your jewels at 10,000 dinars. I cannot, alas, provide that sum, and therefore I cannot honestly make an offer myself as I had hoped; if you desire to have them sold here I will faithfully execute your commission, but if you prefer that I should return them to you send me word. Meanwhile, I will still bargain here awaiting your reply.’

      “I sent this note by the slave and begged him to give it to his master and to bring me an answer. The slave went off, and when I judged him to be well out of hearing I turned and said to the merchant, sighing: ‘Well, since you offer no more I