y to start. The king handed over to him a sealed packet,
desiring him to give it himself only into the hands of the governor,
and to no one else. Nur Mahomed hid it carefully in his turban, swung
himself into the saddle, and five minutes later rode out of the city
gates, and set out on his long journey.

The weather was very hot; but Nur Mahomed thought that the sooner his
precious letter was delivered the better; so that, by dint of riding
most of each night and resting only in the hottest part of the day, he
found himself, by noon on the third day, approaching the town which was
his final destination.

Not a soul was to be seen anywhere; and Nur Mahomed, stiff, dry,
thirsty, and tired, looked longingly over the wall into the gardens, and
marked the fountains, the green grass, the shady apricot orchards, and
giant mulberry trees, and wished he were there.

At length he reached the castle gates, and was at once admitted, as he
was in the uniform of the king's bodyguard. The governor was resting,
the soldier said, and could not see him until the evening. So Nur
Mahomed handed over his horse to an attendant, and wandered down into
the lovely gardens he had seen from the road, and sat down in the shade
to rest himself. He flung himself on his back and watched the birds
twittering and chattering in the trees above him. Through the branches
he could see great patches of sky where the kites wheeled and circled
incessantly, with shrill whistling cried. Bees buzzed over the flowers
with a soothing sound, and in a few minutes Nur Mahomed was fast asleep.

Every day, through the heat of the afternoon, the governor, and his wife
also, used to lie down for two or three hours in their own rooms, and
so, for the matter of that, did most people in the palace. But the
princess, like many other girls, was restless, and preferred to wander
about the garden, rather than rest on a pile of soft cushions. What a
torment her stout old attendants and servants sometime thought her when
she insisted on staying awake, and making them chatter or do something,
when they could hardly keep their eyes open! Sometimes, however, the
princess would pretend to go to sleep, and then, after all her women had
gladly followed her example, she would get up and go out by herself, her
veil hanging loosely about her. If she was discovered her old hostess
scolded her severely; but the princess only laughed, and did the same
thing next time.

This very afterno