incontinently he thought in his heart that he might take them and none
know thereof, which could no ways be done unless he slew King Yahia.
When therefore it was night he gave order to cut off his head, and to
throw it into a pond near the house in which he had been taken. This
was done accordingly, and Abeniaf took the treasures, and they who were
set over King Yahia to guard him and murder him, took also each what he
could, and concealed it. And the body lay where it had been slain till
the following day; but then a good man who grieved for the death of his
Lord took it up, and laid it upon the cords of a bed, and covered it
with an old horsecloth, and carried it out of the town, and made a
grave for it in a place where camels were wont to lie, and buried it
there, without gravecloaths and without any honours whatsoever, as if
the corpse had been the corpse of a villain.




BOOK VI.


I. When Abeniaf had slain his Lord, as you have heard, he became
haughty like a King, and gave no thought to anything save to building
his own houses, and setting guards round about them by day and by
night; and he appointed secretaries who should write his secret
letters, and chose out a body from among the good men of the city to be
his guard. And when he rode out he took with him many knights and
huntsmen, all armed, who guarded him like a King; and when he went
through the streets the women came out to gaze at him, and shouted and
rejoiced in him; and he being elated and puffed up with these vanities,
demeaned himself in all things after the manner of a King. This he did