out, and in a few moments after returned with his
wife. The King had scarcely looked at her, when he ordered her to be
conducted into the palace, and the man's head to be cut off, who had
come to complain of her. The order was obeyed. The Viziers, the
officers, and the whole divan murmured aloud, that Abosaber might hear
them.

"Never was there seen such an act of violence," said they among
themselves. "The King who was beheaded was never guilty of so shocking
an action, and this brother, coming out of a well, and promising at
first wisdom and prudence, is carried in cold blood to an excess which
borders on madness."

Abosaber listened and remained patient, till at length a wave of his
hand having imposed silence, he spoke as follows:

"Viziers, Cadis, ministers of justice, and all ye vassals of the Crown
who hear me, I have always advised you against precipitation in your
judgments; you owe me the same attention, and I pray you hear me.

"Arrived at a point of good fortune to which I had never even dared to
aspire, the circumstances which were necessary for my success being so
difficult to be united; indifferent as to the crown which I wear, and
to which I had no right by my birth; it only remains for me to gain
your esteem by justifying the motives of my conduct, and making myself
known to you.

"I am not brother to the King whom you judged unworthy to reign; I am
a man of mean birth. Persecuted, undone, and driven from my country, I
took refuge in this kingdom, after having seen my two children and my
wife torn from me in the way. I devoutly submitted to the strokes
which fate had laid on me, when, at the entrance of this city, I was
seized by force, and constrained to labour at the building of the
palace. Convinced in my mind that patience is the most necessary
virtue to man, I exhorted one of my fellow-labourers to bear with
resignation a dreadful evil he had met with in breaking his leg.
_Patience_, said I to him, _is so great a virtue, that it could raise
a man to the throne, although he were cast into the bottom of a well_.

"The King, my predecessor, heard me. This maxim shocked him, and that
instant he caused me be let down into the well, from which you took me
to set me on the throne.

"When a neighbouring monarch, driven by an usurper from his dominions,
came to implore my assistance, I recognized in him my own Sovereign,
who had unjustly stripped me of my possessions and sent me into
banishment. I