May God Almighty be merciful unto his Soul—Amen.

It is well known that the proper name of that venerable Lord was Ibrahim,* and Ismaël, that of his son. This was no other than that same Zulficar-khan, so unjustly, so inhumanly murdered by Feroh-syur’s order, in the very beginning of his reign; and people remembered, that the son being unwilling to submit to the new Emperor, and fully able to assert his own independence, was soothed by the father’s entreaties, and totally subdued by the weight of paternal authority, which engaged him to lay aside all thoughts of opposition, and to repair with him to Feroh-syur’s quarters. Upon which, there were then handed about two very affecting lines, that deserve to be preserved. They are as follows:—

“The evening echo with tears of blood streaming from its eyes,

Repeats, lo! Hibrahim, is leading his Ismail to the stone of sacrifice.”

Long before this venerable man’s demise, the Emperor, whose main vice of administration was to have never discerned real merit, and who now repented of his precipitation, had rendered all his esteem and good will to that forlorn family. He was himself wondering at his precipitation, the more so, as he now felt deeply the fatal consequences of it. On hearing that Assed-khan was The Emper­or’s humble message to him just before his death. upon his death bed, he sent him a man of distinction, who after having humbled himself in his name, had orders to pay him a visit of condolence on his part, and to address him in these terms:— “It is a pity that we* should have not been at first sensible of all the merits of your illustrious family, and that such a fatal ignorance should have brought about a mournful event that ought never to have happened. Now we repent, and regret, and sob; but all these come too late, and prove of no avail. Never­theless, such is the high opinion we have conceived of your High­ness’s eminent character, especially for benevolence, and such are the emergencies of our situation, that we flatter ourselves, that you shall not deny us some piece of advice on what we are to do with the Sëids. Such a favour, after all, would not The dying man’s remark­able answer. prove a novelty in a character so renowned for sensibility and benevolence.”

The venerable old man, after having attentively listened to the message, answered in a mild tone of voice:—“You have committed a very great error; but such doubtless was our destiny,—and you was yourself under the actual impulse of fate;—but now the day of retribution, I am afraid, seems at hand; you are full in its way;—and I much fear, lest under the appearance of these dissensions, ruin and desolation should have crept under the columns of the Timurian throne. Now that you have so unfor­tunately given up your authority and Empire into the hands of the Sëids, it is too late to retrogade; on the contrary, spare nothing to keep them easy and satisfied, lest these dissensions, by being protracted to a length, should give birth to matters of a high nature, and reduce you to the necessity of suffering the reins of your liberty to slip absolutely out of your hands.”