CALIPH
A message?

HASSAN
Written out black on paper, and dropped into the street.

CALIPH
Ho, Jafar, thou art a fool to this man! Take out thy pen and write.
Warn the Captain of the Soldiers. Warn the Police. Describe our position.
Offer the the Government of Three Provinces to the man who picks
up the paper. Write clearly, write quicker. Time's flying.
Write, and we are saved. Write for the Salvation of Bagdad;
write for the safety of Islam! O Hassan, the Confectioner,
if we are rescued I will fill my mouth with gold!

(JAFAR having written on a long roll of paper, they thrust it in the crack.)

HASSAN
No: at the corner here, where there is no balcony and the wall
drops straight into the street.

(MASRUR pokes out the paper with his sword.)

CALIPH
And now how shall we employ the time of waiting for our deliverance?

JAFAR
I shall meditate upon the mutability of human affairs.

MASRUR