rth a daughter.

"I am that unfortunate princess; my father was rather grieved than
pleased at my birth; but he submitted to the will of God, and caused me
to be educated with all possible care, being resolved, since he had no
son, to teach me the art of ruling, that I might supply his place after
his death.

"There was, at the court of Deryabar, an orphan youth of good birth whom
the sultan, my father, had befriended and educated according to his
rank. He was very handsome, and, not wanting ability, found means to
please my father, who conceived a great friendship for him. All the
courtiers perceived it, and guessed that the young man might in the end
be my husband. In this idea, and looking on him already as heir to the
crown, they made their court to him, and every one endeavoured to gain
his favour. He soon saw into their designs, and forgetting the distance
there was between our conditions, flattered himself with the hopes that
my father was fond enough of him to prefer him before all the princes in
the world. He went farther; for the sultan not offering me to him as
soon as he could have wished, he had the boldness to ask me of him.
Whatever punishment his insolence deserved, my father was satisfied with
telling him he had other thoughts in relation to me. The youth was
incensed at this refusal; he resented the contempt, as if he had asked
some maid of ordinary extraction, or as if his birth had been equal to
mine. Nor did he stop here, but resolved to be revenged on the sultan,
and with unparalleled ingratitude conspired against him. In short, he
murdered him, and caused himself to be proclaimed sovereign of Deryabar.
The grand vizier, however, while the usurper was butchering my father
came to carry me away from the palace, and secured me in a friend's
house, till a vessel he had provided was ready to sail. I then left the
island, attended only by a governess and that generous minister, who
chose rather to follow his master's daughter than to submit to a tyrant.

"The grand vizier designed to carry me to the courts of the neighbouring
sultans, to implore their assistance, and excite them to revenge my
father's death; but Heaven did not concur in a resolution we thought so
just. When we had been but a few days at sea, there arose such a furious
storm, that our vessel, carried away by the violence of the winds and
waves, was dashed in pieces against a rock. My governess, the grand
vizier, and all that attended m