ANOTHER courtier thus introduced the following heart-ravishing charmer of history on the sopha of relation.

In a certain city there resided a hand­some and accomplished young man, who had upon his cheek two scars like the letters Laum Aleph, one indented into the other. He now and then visited and amused me with his brilliant jests and smart repartees. I asked him one day, “How he had received these wounds? whether on the field of battle in the line of the courageous, or in an encounter with assassins in the street?” requesting him to explain the mystery to me. The youth, blushing very much, remained for some interval silent; after which, lifting up his head from the col­lar of reflection, he said, “If you will from kindness withhold this impor­tunity, it will be agreeable, because the circumstance is not fit to be spoken of, but proper to be concealed.” From this denial, and his blushing, my curiosity for the unravelling of this mys­tery was tenfold more ardent; so that becoming more importunate, I repeated my entreaties beyond all reason. But the youth, as before, remained silent. He would not open his lip to speech, or suffer the fish of reply to swim in the sea of utterance on this subject. However­somuch I increased my demands, he redoubled his excuses; which added to my curiosity in such a degree, that I became restless, the reins of patience fell from my hands, and my impertinent teizing rose to a pitch higher than can be imagined. At last the young man saw no resource left for himself, but lifting up the veil from the face of the charmer of secrecy, and ushering her into the assem­bly of narration. He then began to weigh his stored pearls in the scales of delivery, as follows.