the other side of the picture more rapidly exhibited, if all go as I
conceive and plot, and the trap be not premature nor too perfect for the
trappers; as the poet has declared:

"Ye that intrigue, to thy slaves proper portions adapt;
Perfectest plots burst too often, for all are not apt."

And I witness likewise to the excellence of his saying:

"To master an Event,
Study men!
The minutes are well spent
Only then."

Also 'tis he that says:

"The man of men who knoweth men, the Man of men is he!
His army is the human race, and every foe must flee."

So have I apportioned to thee thy work, to Baba Mustapha his; reserving
to myself the work that is mine!'

Thereat Feshnavat exclaimed, 'O Master of the Event, may I be thy
sacrifice! on my head be it! and for thee to command is for me to obey!
but surely, this Sword of thine that is in thy girdle, the marvellous
blade--'tis alone equal to the project and the shave; and the matter
might be consummated, the great thing done, even from this point whence
we behold Shagpat visible, as 'twere brought forward toward us by the
beams! And this Sword swayed by thee, and with thy skill and strength
and the hardihood of hand that is thine, wullahy! 'twould shear him now,