skra and my husband sold me to him. I refused to submit
myself. Then Ilderhim beat me and turned me out of his house. You
understand, Monsieur le Commandant, that under our blessed religion a
man may have as many wives as he chooses and may divorce them when he
chooses. Well, there I was, without a husband, without a home, without
my child, and I passed the night in the arcades, among the camels. The
next morning I went to the hotel and asked for the Grand Duke.
'Monsieur,' I said to him, 'I am Mirza. I would not _sell_ myself to
you, but if you will take me as a gift, behold, here am I.' He took me
to Paris, to Vienna, to St. Petersburg. For a year he did not tire of
me. That was a long time for a savage to amuse a Grand Duke, was it
not? Then one day he gave me money, bade me keep the jewels he had
given me, and sent me back to Biskra. Since then I have been, first a
dancing-girl, and then, the mother of them all. I have never given the
authorities any trouble. I have observed the laws of France. What will
the laws of France do for me?" and she handed to the commandant the
invoice which Abdullah had brought with his freight.

The commandant read the paper and his face grew troubled.

"Chancellor," he said, "is this binding?"

The lawyer read the paper twice. "Yes," he said, "it is a mere hiring;
it is not a sale. I don't see how we can interfere."

"Mirza," said the commandant, "it seems that you have a good contract,
under Moslem law."

"Excellent," cried the _oukil_, rubbing his hands.

"Silence," thundered the commandant. "Speak French, and that only when
you are spoken to. Abdullah, have you anything which you wish to say to
me?"

Abdullah bent and whispered in the ear of the girl who sat trembling;
then he stepped forward.

"Monsieur le Commandant," he said, "will you have the kindness to read
this?" and he held out a paper. It was yellow with age and of quarto
size and twice folded. The commandant took it, unfolded it, and read
aloud, "_The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen_."

"Why, this is the last page of a Bible," he said.

"I do not know," said Abdullah. "He tore it from a book upon his table.
It was the only paper that he had. Upon the other side is writing."

The commandant reversed the paper and again read:

_THIS is to Certify that on the nineteenth day of February,
187-, in the Oasis of Zama, in the Great Sahara, having first
baptized them, I did unite in marri