pare his sister-in-law from the hopes he
entertained of one day obtaining her hand. This hope, however,
restrained his murdering arm. As for Selimansha, he escaped this
monster by the vigilance of his guards. At the moment when he
approached the apartment of his father, in the dreadful design of
completing his crimes by embruing his hands in his parent's blood, he
was perceived by a slave, who, assisted by the eunuchs of the guard,
deprived the murderer of every hope of success in the crime he was
about to commit. Convinced then that he could not escape suspicion, he
fled and concealed himself on the frontiers of the kingdom, in a
castle fortified both by nature and by art.

Day, which began to appear, was soon to discover the horrors of this
bloody night. With the first rays of morning the nurse went to feed
her tender care, whose blood deluged the cradle. Lost in astonishment,
she ran to the apartment of the King and Queen to announce this fatal
news. Her despair and shrieks went before her, and awakened Chamsada.
The unhappy Queen opened her eyes, and found her husband breathing his
last at her side. The cries of the nurse made her dread misfortunes
still more terrible. A widowed spouse and a weeping mother, she ran to
the cradle of her son and took him in her arms. He still breathed, and
she conceived the hope of saving his life. The whole palace was in
motion. Selimansha arrived with his eunuchs, and surgeons were called,
whose skill and attention restored the life of this innocent creature.
But they were employed to no purpose on the body of the young monarch,
whose death the unfortunate Chamsada deplored. Aromatic and medicinal
herbs and the balms of the East produced their effect on the wound of
the child, and rekindled the hopes of his mother. He was again placed
in the bosom of his nurse, and the presumptive heir of Selimansha was
at length out of danger.

In the meantime the aged monarch endeavoured to discover the murderer
of his children. The hasty flight of Balavan, his poniard stained with
blood, which was found in the apartment, soon confirmed the suspicions
to which his vicious disposition had at first given rise. The
unfortunate old man with difficulty restrained the excess of his
grief.

"Heaven," exclaimed he, "keep far from me the angel of death, since it
is your will that I should still be useful on earth."

After this he assembled the grandees and the Viziers, and announced to
them his intent