A few days later , the pedlar having moved on , two men appeared in the village inquiring who it was who had threatened to ill-treat and to murder an innocent pedlar . They declared that the pedlar , in fear of his life , had complained to the king ; and that they had been sent to bring the lawless person who had said these things before the king himself . Of course they soon found out about the donkey eating Nur Mahomed 's cabbages , and about the young man 's hot words ; but although the lad assured them that he had never said anything about murdering anyone , they replied they were ordered to arrest him , and bring him to take his trial before the king . So , in spite of his protests , and the wails of his mother , he was carried off , and in due time brought before the king . Of course Nur Mahomed never guessed that the supposed pedlar happened to have been the king himself , although nobody knew it . But as he was very angry at what he had been told , he declared that he was going to make an example of this young man , and intended to teach him that even poor travelling pedlars could get justice in HIS country , and be protected from such lawlessness . However , just as he was going to pronounce some very heavy sentence , there was a stir in the court , and up came Nur Mahomed 's old mother , weeping and lamenting , and begging to be heard . The king ordered her to speak , and she began to plead for the boy , declaring how good he was , and how he was the support of her old age , and if he were put in prison she would die . The king asked her who she was . She replied that she was his mother . ` His mother ? ' said the king ; ` you are too old , surely , to have so young a son ! ' Then the old woman , in her fright and distress , confessed the whole story of how she found the baby , and how she rescued and brought him up , and ended by beseeching the king for mercy . It is easy to guess how , as the story came out , the king looked blacker and blacker , and more and more grim , until at last he was half fainting with rage and astonishment . This , then , was the baby he had left to die , after cruelly murdering his mother ! Surely fate might have spared him this ! He wished he had sufficient excuse to put the boy to death , for the old hermit 's prophecy came back to him as strongly as ever ; and yet the young man had done nothing bad enough to deserve such a punishment . Everyone would call him a tyrant if he were to give such an order -- in fact , he dared not try it ! At length he collected himself enough to say : -- ` If this young man will enlist in my army I will let him off . We have need of such as him , and a little discipline will do him good . '
Still the old woman pleaded that she could not live without her son , and was nearly as terrified at the idea of his becoming a soldier as she was at the thought of his being put XXXXX prison .
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