ust be dead," answered the slave, and pressed him, half with
prayers and entreaties, and half with force, to take flight.

Jussuf hastened through the garden into the wood which joined it, and
ran like a startled roe urged forward by terror and dread of its
pursuers. The wood covered his flight. He came to the river below the
capital, and found a ship about to go down the stream. The man who
guided it yielded to his earnest request, took him in, and immediately
set sail. At the approach of night, Jussuf thought they would have
landed; but the man informed him, to his great joy, that the moon
would shine clearly, and favour their voyage. They let the ship float
down, and only guided it with a rudder now and then, when they saw a
rock or a dangerous place stand out of the water.

At midnight Jussuf made the man understand that he would guide the
rudder. He gave it up readily, and lay down to sleep. He sat alone in
the stillness of night at the helm, and thought over the events of the
last few days. All passed distinctly before his mind. He remembered
Haschanascha's sorrow at his resolution to remain alone at the
hunting-seat; her warning about the talisman; her illness when he no
longer possessed it; her life withering away, and her death. Then he
thought of the sorrow of her foster-father the King, and how he had
again fallen under the dominion of the crafty and deceitful
snake-priests. Also the image of his playful companion rose before
him, and the merry childish sports in which they had both joined, and
in which he had always forgotten all the care and sorrow of
Haschanascha.

He saw her, again, pierced by the arrow, sinking in his arms. He also
remembered Haschanascha's appearance as she knelt on the elephant, and
shot the deadly arrow at his companion. Could this only have been a
shade of the dead one? or was it she herself? No; she herself was
dead: the faithful slave had assured him so. All these reflections
brought no peace to his soul. Involuntarily Haschanascha's superiority
to his playfellow rose before him, and he felt with surprise that at
these thoughts his cheeks were wet with tears.

On the morrow they came near a city: he wished to recompense the
seaman, who had now reached his destination. Whilst he sought for a
piece of gold out of his purse, he remembered that he had left the box
of diamonds with the rest of his goods in the palace in his hasty
flight. The seaman would take nothing, but assured hi