these fears
were justifiable; and it was with a rapidly beating heart that the new
minister hastened, attended only by a single slave, to the dwelling of
his imperial master. But when he was ushered into the presence of the
sultan--his own slave remaining in the ante-room--his apprehensions were
dissipated by the smiling countenance with which the monarch greeted
him. Having signaled his attendants to retire, Solyman the Magnificent
addressed the grand vizier in the following manner:

"Thy great talents, thy zeal in our service, and the salvation which I
owed to thee in the breach at Rhodes, have been instrumental, oh,
Ibrahim! in raising thee to thy present high state. But the bounties of
the sultan are without end, as the mercy of Allah is illimitable! Thou
hast doubtless heard that among my numerous sisters, there is one of
such unrivaled beauty--such peerless loveliness, that the world hath not
seen her equal. Happy may the man deem himself on whom the fair Aischa
shall be bestowed; and thou art that happy man, Ibrahim--and Aischa is
thine."

The grand vizier threw himself at the feet of his imperial master, and
murmured expressions of gratitude--but his heart sank within him--for he
knew that in marrying the sultan's sister he should not be allowed the
enjoyment of the Mussulman privilege of polygamy, and thus his hopes of
possessing the beautiful unknown to whom he owed so much appeared to
hover on the verge of annihilation. But might not that unknown lady and
the beauteous Aischa be one and the same person? The unknown was
evidently the mistress of an influence almost illimitable; and was it
not natural to conceive that she, then, must be the sister of the
sultan? Again, the sultan had many sisters; and the one who had exerted
her interest for Ibrahim, might not be the Princess Aischa, who was now
promised to him! All these conjectures and conflicting speculations
passed through the mind of Ibrahim in far less time than we have taken
to describe their nature; and he was cruelly the prey to mingled hope
and alarm, when the sultan exclaimed, "Rise, my Vizier Azem, and follow
me."

The apostate obeyed with beating heart, and Solyman the Magnificent
conducted him along several passages and corridors to a splendidly
furnished room, which Ibrahim immediately recognized as the very one in
which he had been admitted, many months previously, to an interview with
the beauteous unknown. Yes--that was the apartment in wh