before he opened the chest, he swallowed a
large dram of brandy, and stuffed his nostrils with sponge dipped in
vinegar; he told me, he did to prevent his perceiving the smell of musk,
which always threw him into convulsions.

"The horror I felt when I discovered that I had spread the infection of
the plague, and that I had probably caught it myself, overpowered my
senses--a cold dew spread over all my limbs, and I fell upon the lid of
the fatal chest in a swoon. It is said that fear disposes people to take
the infection; however this may be, I sickened that evening, and soon was
in a raging fever. It was worse for me whenever the delirium left me,
and I could reflect upon the miseries my ill-fortune had occasioned. In
my first lucid interval I looked round, and saw that I had been removed
from the khan to a wretched hut. An old woman, who was smoking her pipe
in the farthest corner of my room, informed me that I had been sent out
of the town of Grand Cairo by order of the cadi, to whom the merchants
had made their complaint. The fatal chest was burnt, and the house in
which I had lodged razed to the ground. 'And if it had not been for me,'
continued the old woman, 'you would have been dead probably at this
instant; but I have made a vow to our great Prophet that I would never
neglect an opportunity of doing a good action; therefore, when you were
deserted by all the world, I took care of you. Here, too, is your purse,
which I saved from the rabble--and, what is more difficult, from the
officers of justice. I will account to you for every part that I have
expended; and will, moreover, tell you the reason of my making such an
extraordinary vow.'

"As I believed that this benevolent old woman took great pleasure in
talking, I made an inclination of my head to thank her for her promised
history, and she proceeded; but I must confess I did not listen with all
the attention her narrative doubtless deserved. Even curiosity, the
strongest passion of us Turks, was dead within me. I have no
recollection of the old woman's story. It is as much as I can do to
finish my own.

"The weather became excessively hot; it was affirmed by some of the
physicians that this heat would prove fatal to their patients; but,
contrary to the prognostics of the physicians, it stopped the progress of
the plague. I recovered, and found my purse much lightened by my
illness. I divided the remainder of my money with my humane nurse, and