t was about to terminate his existence.

"O Allah!" said he, raising his innocent hands to heaven, "my life is
in Thy hands; to Thee I resign it; but watch over the life of my
mother!"

Shaseliman and the slave were brought before the Sultan. The Prince
did not leave to others the care of proving a fact so important to his
honour and repose. He ran to the young man, and searched in his bosom
for the scar of Balavan's poniard; he found it, and, transported with
joy, he exclaimed, "O Allah! for ever be Thou blessed for having
preserved me from the dreadful crime I was about to commit! and thou
His great Prophet, a signal mark of whose protection the virtues of
Chamsada have drawn down upon me, to so many favours still add that of
enabling me to efface, by my services, the dreadful sorrows I have
occasioned, and the idea of the injustice I was about to commit!"

Then throwing himself into the arms of Shaseliman, "Come, dear and
unfortunate Prince, come to my heart! Let your image be joined there
with that of my beloved Chamsada, that my most tender affections may
henceforth be centred on one object alone! But deign to satisfy my
curiosity, and inform me by what chain of events you have been
conducted hither, unknown to all the world. How have you existed?
Speak, Prince. I am impatient to know more particularly the person who
restores me to happiness."

Shaseliman, encouraged by the demonstration of such affecting
kindness, then gave a faithful detail of his adventures, from the very
moment in which he had been hurled from the throne into prison, even
to that in which, reduced to the humble condition of a shepherd, he
had been found by the messenger of his mother, surrounded by robbers,
drawn up out of the well into which they had been let down, and
conducted to the Court of the Sultan.

While this recital engaged the attention of Bensirak, Chamsada, his
spouse, although less troubled than on the preceding days, was not
altogether in a tranquil state. The events had become too important
for her. She endeavoured to find out with what design the Sultan,
after having questioned her, had departed so abruptly. She had not
been able to learn what he had done, nor what was become of him, since
the confession which she had made to him. She was indulging these
reflections, and continued sunk in the sleep in which the Sultan
seemed to surprise her. All at once twenty slaves, carrying flambeaux,
came to illuminate her apartment;