hat it consumes his life is
not unworthy of my care. When I am careful for my whole kingdom, this
care extends to each individual; if, then, I am careful for one, this
one is a member of the whole, and thus my care is not lost. But speak,
what is the cause of your sorrow and your tears?"

Then Naima recounted the mysterious disappearance of his son; how he
had sought for him everywhere, and how all trouble had been useless,
so that all his messengers had returned home without the least trace
of him. "I must therefore weep for him as one that is dead"--thus he
ended his relation; "and tears, perhaps, might appease my sorrow, if
at the same time a ray of hope did not dart through my heart that
possibly he is still alive; but where does he live, if indeed he be
still alive? This ray of hope keeps the wound in the father's heart
always open."

"You have real cause for grief," answered the Caliph, "and I
comprehend that the uncertainty of your son's fate must be as terrible
to bear as would be the mournful certainty of his death. You did wrong
in not applying to me before: my power extends not only over
believers, but also in foreign lands. Other kings and rulers I have as
my servants, whose eyes see for me, whose ears hear for me, and whose
hands perform what is necessary for my pleasure. That which was not
possible to yourself, your friends, and your servants to accomplish,
might perhaps have been easy to me. Now go home, and believe that you
shall obtain news of your son, if he lives on the earth, in any land
where my power can reach."

With these words he dismissed him, after he had first inquired the
marks by which his lost son might be recognized.

When Naima again sat with his friend Saad in the evening, he related
to him the gracious and comforting words of the Caliph. Saad perceived
that hope was again revived in his friend's heart, and that he
confidently trusted to find his son. He thought it therefore his duty
to damp this hope, and said,

"Beloved friend, I have once heard a speech, which by its truth sank
deeply in my memory: it is, 'Trust not in princes; they are but men.'
The moral of which is, that the mightiest on earth are subject to
fate. If the Caliph have influence in distant lands, it must be in a
confined and narrow limit. That which is but a span distant is under
the control of all-governing fate, even from the meanest slave to the
Ruler of the Faithful."

But if the power of Haroun al Raschi