real peace, and never any opportunity of slipping away. In
fact, after a few days, despair possessed him to such a degree that he
made up his mind that all that happened was fate, and that escape was
impossible; but he hoped devoutly some turn of fortune would reveal
to him a way out of the difficulties which he had, with the best
intentions, drawn upon himself.

On the seventh day they all started, amidst thunderous salutes from
the ramparts of the city, and much dust, and cheering, and blaring of
trumpets.

Day after day they moved on, and every day the poor merchant felt more
ill and miserable. He wondered what kind of death the king would invent
for him, and went through almost as much torture, as he lay awake nearly
the whole of every night thinking over the situation, as he would have
suffered if the king's executioners were already setting to work upon
his neck.

At last they were only one day's march from Wali Dad's little mud home.
Here a great encampment was made, and the merchant was sent on to tell
Wali Dad that the King and Princess of Khaistan had arrived and were
seeking an interview. When the merchant arrived he found the poor old
man eating his evening meal of onions and dry bread, and when he told
him of all that had happened he had not the heart to proceed to load
him with the reproaches which rose to his tongue. For Wali Dad was
overwhelmed with grief and shame for himself, for his friend, and for
the name and honour of the princess; and he wept and plucked at his
beard, and groaned most piteously. With tears he begged the merchant to
detain them for one day by any kind of excuse he could think of, and to
come in the morning to discuss what they should do.

As soon as the merchant was gone Wali Dad made up his mind that there
was only one honourable way out of the shame and distress that he had
created by his foolishness, and that was--to kill himself. So, without
stopping to ask any one's advice, he went off in the middle of the night
to a place where the river wound along at the base of steep rocky cliffs
of great height, and determined to throw himself down and put an end
to his life. When he got to the place he drew back a few paces, took a
little run, and at the very edge of that dreadful black gulf he stopped
short! He COULD not do it!

From below, unseen in the blackness of the deep night shadows, the water
roared and boiled round the jagged rocks--he could picture the place
as he knew i