ve me of the power over the fate
of my child."

"She cannot be mine," cried Al Raschid.

"Then," said Hussain, "my misfortune is great; permit me and my
daughter to go home, and mourn the loss of your favour in sackcloth and
ashes."

"And you, Ibrahim," said the caliph, turning to him, "will you not
advance a step towards the happiness of your child?"

"Commander of the Faithful," said Ibrahim, "I do not think that a man
is made more unhappy by not obtaining a woman upon whom he has set his
heart, perhaps only for a moment. If it were so, I ought to be very
unhappy, for Hussain is the very man who once robbed me of my
betrothed, and with her the hope of my youth. I trust my son will be
contented to share the fate of his father, and to suffer what I have
suffered--a grief which I know, from experience, does not endure long,
and for which the world affords us sufficient compensation."

The blood came into Al Raschid's face, and a fire flashed from his
eyes, which usually was the forerunner of sudden wrath; still he
restrained himself. "Is it your unalterable resolution," he asked, "to
conspire against the happiness of this young man, and against my will?"

Both parents perceived the emotion of the caliph's mind. Hussain
continued calm, but Ibrahim turned pale, and threw himself at the
caliph's feet, exclaiming: "I am your slave, your pleasure be done!
You are wise, and you act as the successor of the Prophet, as the
guardian angel of religion and the people. I give my consent." "My
son," he thought within himself, "may take several wives; he may
repudiate her whom he took first; I shall not lose so much as Hussain,
and be no nearer to him than formerly."

Hussain contemplated him, smiling, with a chilling and contemptuous
expression.

"And what do you say, Hussain?" asked the caliph.

"Commander of the Faithful, your will be done. To-morrow I will
celebrate the nuptials of my daughter; but you will permit me to take
her home with me to-night. Ali's betrothed must not pass the night in
the harem of the caliph."

"Take her; but your life shall answer for her."

"I answer for her with my life," said Hussain, with composure; and
taking his daughter by her hand, he retired.

"Oh! let him not go hence!" exclaimed Ali. "Gulhyndi, my beloved!"

She turned round, and looked at Ali with a sorrowful smile, and then
went away with her father. The caliph consoled Ali, who went home with
Ibrahim, in the great