‘“You remember, lord Hassan, the night Zelica chose to discover herself to you, and the promise she made on leaving you cannot yet have faded from your memory.

‘“The following day I asked her what resolution she had taken, and what evidence of affection she proposed giving you. She replied that she wished to make you happy, and often have secret interviews with you, whatever danger she might have to run. I will not deny that, opposed to her sentiments, I spared nothing to dispel them. I represented to her that it was an extravagant idea for a princess of her rank to think of exposing her life for a page. In a word, I combated her love strenuously, and you must forgive me, since all my arguments only served to augment her passion. When I saw that I could not persuade her, ‘Madam,’ I said, ‘I cannot contemplate without a shudder the dangers you are going to expose yourself to, and since nothing can detach you from your lover, you must seek a means of seeing him without compromising your life or his. I know a way which would doubt­less flatter your love, but I should not dare propose it to you, so delicate does it seem to me.’

‘“‘Speak, Calé-Cairi,’ said the princess, ‘what­ever the means may be do not hide it from me.’ ‘If you employ it,’ I replied, ‘you must resolve to quit the court, to live as though Heaven had caused you to be born in the commonest condition of life. You must renounce all the honours which are attached to your rank; do you love Hassan enough to make so great a sacrifice for him?’

‘“‘Do I love him!’ she replied with a deep sigh. ‘The lowliest lot with him will please me more than all the pomp which surrounds me. Tell me what I ought to do to see him unre­strainedly, and I will do it without hesitation.’ ‘Since it is useless to oppose you, I will yield to your wish,’ I said. ‘I know a herb which has a somewhat singular virtue; if you place but one leaf of it in your ear, you will fall an hour afterwards into a lethargy: you will pass for dead; your funeral will be held, and at night I shall get you out of the tomb’”

‘At these words I interrupted Calé-Cairi. “Oh Heaven!” I cried, “is it possible that the princess Zelica is not dead? What has become of her?”

‘“My lord,” said Calé-Cairi, “she still lives, but I beg you to listen to me; you shall hear all you wish to know. My mistress,” she continued, “embraced me with joy, so ingenious did this project appear to her; but, reflecting upon the difficulty of executing it on account of the ceremonies observed at funerals, she told me what she thought of it. I removed all the difficulties, and this is how we carried out this great enterprise. Zelica complained of a head-ache and went to bed. The following day I spread the rumour that she was dangerously ill. The king’s physician came, allowed himself to be deceived, and ordered remedies which were not taken. The following days the illness increased, and when I thought the time came to announce that the prin­cess was in extremity, I put in her ear a leaf of the herb in question. I then ran to inform Shah Tahmasp that Zelica had only a few more moments to live and wished to speak with him.

‘“He hastened to her side, and remarking, because of the working of the herb, that her face changed every moment, he grew sad and began to weep. ‘My lord,’ said his daughter to him then, ‘I con­jure you by the affection you have always had for me, to command that my last wishes shall be exactly carried out. I wish that after my death no other woman but Calé-Cairi shall wash my body and rub it with perfumes; I do not wish my other slaves to share this honour with her; I also ask that she may watch alone with me the first night, and that no one but she shall water my tomb with tears; I wish it to be this zealous slave who shall pray the Prophet to save me from the assaults of the bad angels.’

‘“Shah Tahmasp promised his daughter that I should render her these sad services as she desired. ‘That is not all, my lord,’ she said, ‘I pray you to set Calé-Cairi free as soon as I am no more, and with her liberty give her presents worthy of you and of the attachment she has always had for me.’

‘“‘My daughter,’ replied Shah Tahmasp, ‘set your mind at rest with regard to everything you ask me; if I have the misfortune to lose you, I swear that your favourite slave, laden with presents, shall be able to retire where she pleases.’

‘“Hardly had he finished these words than the herb produced its effect; Zelica lost consciousness, and her father, believing her to be dead, retired weeping to his apartment. He ordered that I alone should wash and perfume the body, which I did. I then wrapped it in a white cloth and put it in a coffin, after which it was borne to the place of burial, where, by order of the king, I was left alone the first night. I looked everywhere to see whether anyone were hidden to observe me, and having found no one, I drew my mistress from the coffin and from her lethargy. I made her put on a robe which I had under mine with a veil, and we both betook ourselves to a place where Schapour awaited us. This faithful eunuch conducted the princess to a little house which he had hired, and I returned to the tomb to pass the rest of the night. I made a bundle of stuff in the form of a corpse; I covered it with the cloth which had served to envelop Zelica and enclosed it in the coffin.

‘“The following morning the other slaves of the princess came to take my place, which I did not leave without making beforehand all the grimaces which usually accompany false grief. They told the king of the evidences of sorrow which I had shown, which would have prompted him to make me presents had he not already been determined to do so. He had ten thousand sequins counted out to me from his treasury, and he granted me the permission I asked of him to retire and take with me the eunuch Schapour; after which I went to find my mistress, to rejoice with her on the happy success of our strategy. The following day we sent the eunuch to the king’s chambers with a note, in which I begged you to come and see me; but one of your companions said you were indisposed, and that you could not be spoken to. Three days after we sent him back; he learned that you were no longer in the seraglio, and that they did not know what had become of you.”

‘I interrupted Calé-Cairi at this juncture. “Ah! why was I not informed of your project? Why did you not let me know of it through Schapour? Ah! what pain one word would have spared me!”

‘“Ah! would to Heaven,” interrupted Calé-Cairi in her turn, “a mystery had not been made of it to you. Zelica would have been living with you now in some part of the world; had it depended on me you would both have been happy. Hardly had we formed our plan than I wished to acquaint you with it; but my mistress did not wish it. ‘No, no,’ she said, ‘he must feel my loss; he will be more sensible to the pleasure of seeing me again, and his surprise will be all the more agreeable for the grief caused him by the idea of my death.’

‘“I could not enjoy this refinement of affection. It seemed to me that I foresaw its sad consequences: and bitterly has Zelica repented of it. I cannot say how grieved she was at your disappearance. ‘Ah! unhappy woman that I am,’ she cried perpetually, ‘what does it avail me to have sacrificed every­thing to love, if Hassan is to be lost for ever?’ We had you sought for everywhere. Schapour spared nothing to find you; and when we had lost hope of it we left Shiraz. We went towards the Indus, because we imagined you had perhaps wended your steps in that direction; and, stopping at all the towns which are on the banks of that river, we made enquiries for you as searching as they were vain. One day, going from one town to another, although we were with a caravan, a great band of robbers surrounded us, beat the merchants, and pillaged their merchandise. They made them­selves our masters, took the gold and jewels they found with us, took us then to Candahar, and sold us to a slave merchant whom they knew.

‘“This merchant had no sooner got possession of Zelica than he resolved to show her to the King of Candahar. Firouzshah was charmed with her as soon as she appeared before him; he asked her whence she came. She replied that Ormus was her birthplace, and did not reply with more truth to the other questions this prince put to her. He bought us, put us in his women’s palace, and gave us the finest apartment in it.”

‘Calé-Cairi ceased speaking; or, rather, I inter­rupted her. “Oh! Heaven,” I cried, “ought I to rejoice at meeting Zelica? But is it finding her again to learn that a powerful king keeps her enclosed in his seraglio? If, rebellious to the love of Firouzshah, she only drags out languishing days, what grief for me to see her suffer! And if she be contented with her fate, can I be so with mine?”