the inhabitants.

The wife of Abosaber bewailed this disaster.

"We are ruined," said she to her husband; "you see our flocks carried
off with those of the guilty, notwithstanding the orders they have to
spare whatever belongs to us. See with what injustice we are treated.
Speak to the officers of the King."

"I have spoken," said Abosaber, "but they have not time to hear me.
Let us have patience: the evil will recoil on those who commit it.
Unhappy the man who gives orders at once rigorous and urgent! unhappy
the man who acts without reflection! I fear that the evils which the
King has brought upon us will soon return upon himself."

An enemy of Abosaber had heard this discourse, and reported it to the
King.

"Thus," said he, "speaks the man whom the goodness of your Majesty had
spared!"

The monarch instantly gave orders that Abosaber, his wife, and his two
children, should be driven from the village and banished from his
dominions.

The wife of the wise and resigned Mussulman made loud complaints: she
reproached the authors of her calamity, and carried her resentment to
excess.

"Have patience, wife," said he to her: "this virtue is the sovereign
balm against adversity; it gives salutary counsel, and carries with it
hope and consolation. Let us go to the desert, since they persecute us
here."

The good Abosaber lifted up his eyes and blessed the Almighty as he
pursued his journey with his family. But they had scarcely entered
the desert when they were attacked by a band of robbers. They were
plundered, their children were carried off, and, deprived of every
resource or human aid, they were left to the care of Providence.

The wife, having lost by this new stroke of fate what was most dear to
her, gave free course to her grief, and set up mournful cries.

"Indolent man!" said she to her husband, "lay aside your listlessness.
Let us pursue the robbers: if they have any feeling of humanity left,
they will restore us our children."

"Let us have patience," replied Abosaber; "it is the only remedy for
evils which appear desperate. These robbers are well mounted; naked
and fatigued as we are, there is no probability of our overtaking
them. And suppose we should succeed in that, perhaps these barbarous
men, harassed with our lamentations, might put us to death."

The wife grew calm, for the decay of her strength made her unable to
complain; and they both arrived on the bank of a river, from whence
they di