have suffered--since I, by doing
justice to your talents, was the innocent cause of that which has
happened to you--if I deserve any return from you, vouchsafe to inform
me why you had poison about you when you were presented to Nourgehan?"

Diafer, surprised at this question, after having reflected some
moments, replied, "True, I had poison with me; but my heart, though I
bore it about me, was as pure as the dew of the morning. I even have
it now that I speak to you." Saying this, he drew a ring from his
finger and presented it to her. "The setting of this ring," said he,
"encloses a most subtle poison. It is a treasure that has been
preserved in our family from father to son these thousand years. My
ancestors have always worn it, to preserve themselves from the anger
of those Princes they served, in case they should have had the
misfortune to displease them in the exercise of their post of Vizier.
You may believe," continued he, "that when the King sent for me, who
was wholly unknown to him, to exercise that charge, and conscious of
the many enemies a stranger generally meets with, I would not forget
to bring this treasure. The sorrow that the cruel behaviour of
Nourgehan has given me, and the shame that he has covered me with,
render it still more precious to me: it will not be long before I make
use of it."

Damake obtained from him that he should delay, at least for some days,
this fatal design, and conjured him to wait in his palace till he
heard from her.

She immediately repaired to give an account to Nourgehan of what she
had learned. That Prince, perceiving by her relation that Diafer had
no ill design, and that the cruelty of Princes in general authorized
but too justly such a precaution, repented that he had received him so
unworthily, and promised Damake the next day to make amends for the
pain he had given him. She approved this design; but before she
quitted him she conjured him to satisfy her curiosity by informing her
how he could perceive the poison which Diafer had with him. Nourgehan
replied,

"Never will I have anything concealed from the sovereign of my heart.
I always wear a bracelet, which my father left me, and which has long
been in our family, though I am ignorant of the name of the sage who
composed it, or how it fell into the hands of my ancestors. It is of a
substance that nearly resembles coral, and it has the property of
discovering poison, even at a very great distance. It is moved