Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 5.djvu/21

Comrades ſhould confeſs the Truth, you muſt order them three Times as many Blows as I have had, and you will find they will open their Eyes as well as I did.

My Brother and the-other two blind Men would have clear’d themſelves of this horrid Cheat, but the Judge would not hear them: Villains, ſays he, Do you feign your ſelves blind then, and under that Pretext cheat People by begging their Charity, and abuſing poor Women? He is a Cheat, cry’d my Brother, we take God to Witneſs that none of us can ſee.

All that my Brother could ſay was in vain, his Comrades and he received each of them 200 Blows. The Judge look’d always when they ſhould have opened their Eyes, and aſcrib’d to their Obſtinacy what really they could not do. All the while the Highway-man ſaid to the blind Men, Poor Fools that you are, open your Eyes, and don’t ſuffer your ſelves to be killed with Blows. Then addrefſing himſelf to the Judge, ſays, I perceive, Sir; that they will be maliciouſly obſtnate to the laſt, and will never open their Eyes: They have a mind certainly to avoid the Shame of reading their own Condemnation in the Race of every one that looks upon them; it were better, if you think fit, to pardon them, and ſend ſome Perſon along with me for the 10000 Drachms they have hid.

The Judge did ſo, gave the Highway-man 2500 Drachms, and kept the reſt to himſelf; and as for my Brother and his two Companions, he thought he ſhew’d them a great deal of Pity by ſentencing them only to be baniſhed. As ſoon as I heard what befel my Brother, I run after him; he told me his Misfortune, and I brought him back ſecretly to the Town, I could eaſily have juſtified him to the Judge, and have got the Highway-man punifh’d as he deſerved, but durſt not attempt it, for fear of bringing my ſelf into Trouble. Thus I finiſh’d the ſad Adventure of my honeſt blind Brother. The Califf laughed at it, as much as as thoſe he had heard before, and ordered again that ſomething could be given me; but without ſtaying for him, I begun the Story of my fourth Brother.