the riches and magnificence
of the palace in which the King of Dineroux and his wife now were,
that, besides the magnificent apartments in which they were lodged
themselves, there were twenty-four others occupied by as many ladies
belonging to the Sultan, each of whom was served by fifty slaves of
their own sex, in the bloom of youth and of the most exquisite beauty.

The treasures of the East seemed to have been exhausted in beautifying
these stately dwellings. The gardens were full of the rarest and the
most gaudy flowers; the waters, whose courses were distributed with
great art, presented a magnificent scene to the eye; the trees gave at
once, by the beauty of their fruit and the thickness of their foliage,
the idea of plenty and the delight of repose; the birds, with the
variety of their plumage and their song, enchanted the inhabitants of
these happy regions. Everything, in short, concurred to display the
riches of the great monarch of Persia, whose immense power was further
displayed by an army of two hundred thousand men which constituted his
life guard. A Prince so powerful and magnificent need spare nothing in
treating, in a manner suitable to their rank, the illustrious guests
whom he had received into his palace.

At the same time that he ordered a powerful army to be assembled on
the frontiers, with the necessary stores and military engines, he
endeavoured to dispel the melancholy of the husband and wife by
feasts, which displayed the greatest splendour and variety. But
generosity and greatness of soul were not the only cause of his
attentions; a less noble but more powerful feeling had taken
possession of his heart. He was enamoured of Baherjoa, whose beauty
was superior to that of all the wives in his seraglio. His passion for
her was disguised under the veil of friendship; but, from the
profusion which he displayed on every occasion, the delicacy of his
attentions, and the care which he took to anticipate her wishes, it
was easy to discover the love by which he was actuated. The sad
Baherjoa, whose attention was occupied solely by the loss of her son
and the misfortunes of her husband, was far from ascribing any of the
attentions which she met with to this motive; her soul, weighed down
with grief, was incapable of enjoying any of the pleasures which were
presented to her; her heart, sincerely affected, was inaccessible to
every impression but that with which it was already occupied. Her son
abandoned