capable that face was of a far
different expression from that which the dumb slave had given rise
to.

"I think he did not know me, excellency."

After a moment's pause the Sultan turned again to the gentle girl
that stood before him, and taking her hand, endeavored by his looks
of kind assurance to express to her that he should strive to make
her happy; and as he smoothed her dark, glossy hair tenderly, the
slave bent her forehead to the hand that held her own, in token of
gratitude for the kindness with which she was received, and when she
raised her face again. Both the Sultan and Mustapha saw that tears
had wet her cheeks, and her bosom heaved quickly with the emotion
that actuated her.

At this moment the Circassian felt her dress slightly drawn from
behind, and turning, confronted the person of a lad who might,
judging from his size, be some seventeen years of age. His form was
beautiful in its outline, and his step light and graceful; but the
face, alas! that throne of the intellect was a barren waste, and his
vacant eye and lolling lip showed at once that the poor boy was
little less than an idiot. And yet, as he looked upon the slave, and
saw the tear glistening in her eye, there seemed to be a flash of
intelligence cross his features, as though there was still a spark
of heaven in the boy. But 'twas gone again, and seeming to forget
the object that had led him to her side, he sank down upon the
cushioned floor, and played with a golden tassel as an infant would
char have done.

The idiot was an exemplification of a strange but universal
superstition among the Turks. With these eastern people there is a
traditionary belief in what is called the evil eye, answering to the
evil spirit that is accredited to exist by more civilized nations.
Any human being bereft of reason, or seriously deformed in any way,
is held by them to be a protection against the blight of the evil
eye, which, being once cast upon a person, renders him doomed
forever. Holding, therefore, that dwarfs, idiots or mad-men are
partially inspired, every considerable such establishment supports
one or more, whose privilege it is to follow, untrammeled, their own
pleasure. The idiot boy, in the Sultan's palace, was one of this
class, whom no one thwarted, and who was regarded with a half
superstitious reverence by all.

While this scene had been transpiring between the idiot boy and the
slave, the Sultan had been talking with Mustapha conce