ecame so
necessary to his service, that he alone was admitted into his private
apartment. The monarch boasted continually of his virtues, and praised
this new favourite to the grandees of his Court, endeavouring to
render him as dear to them as he was to himself.

Amidst these flattering praises, which resounded in the ears of
Chamsada, what conflicts of tenderness did not this feeling mother
experience in the loss of her own son! She often perceived him, but
durst not cast upon him one affectionate look. She was forced to
restrain the affection of her heart, and give no visible tokens of her
regard. Every day she observed his steps, and secretly longed for the
moment when she might pour out her soul in his embraces. As he passed
one day before the door of her apartment, and when she presumed no one
would perceive her, she suddenly yielded to a mother's transports,
threw herself on his neck, and in that happy moment forgot many years
of sorrow.

While this fond mother was indulging the sweetest feelings of nature,
danger surrounded her. One of the King's ministers, coming
accidentally out of the neighbouring apartment, was the unintentional
witness of this scene. He was uncertain what to think of it. As
Chamsada was veiled he might have mistaken her. But having asked of
the eunuchs the name of the lady who inhabited the apartment before
which he had passed, he came trembling to his Majesty, eager to
discover the mystery of which chance had made him a witness. The
charming page had already gone before him to the throne.

"August Majesty," said the minister, "you see me still in horror at
the crime which has just now been committed, and of which I have been
a witness. Pardon me, sire, if I am under the necessity of discovering
to you the conduct of a spouse whom you have loved too dearly, but as
I passed before her apartment, I saw her embracing the vile slave who
is at your side."

He knows not the power of the passions who cannot figure to himself
the sudden revolution which this report occasioned in the soul of the
enamoured Sultan. The confusion of Shaseliman seemed still to increase
it, and to remove every doubt concerning the truth of the fact. The
Sultan instantly ordered the young man and the slave who had brought
him from Persia to be thrown into a dungeon.

"What abominable treachery!" exclaimed he. "What! was this pretended
treasure nothing but a slave?" And running hastily into Chamsada's
apartment, "Wh