but she knew it not, nor did she
turn towards the boy at all, while he still swung steadily as though
he had been bound by cords to the tree.

Once more she started, but it was a false alarm. The notes she had
heard were those of an instrument, played by some favorite of the
harem, who looked forth upon the night scene, and coupled its charms
with the notes of her lute.--But this too soon died away, and again
Komel breathed quick and anxiously as she sat there at midnight. The
guard on his rounds came past now, and she assumed a quiet and
careless air to avoid notice, while a soldier cast a wondering eye
at the idiot boy, and then strode on, with the barrel of his carbine
resting lazily in the hollow of his arm.

At this moment there swelled forth upon the night air the note of
that well remembered song. It was the preconcerted signal, and
springing to her feet, Komel stole quickly to that part of the
seraglio wall nearest the water. The idiot boy seemed to comprehend
the movement instantly, and to recognize the notes that he had heard
once before, and which had so affected the beautiful Circassian, nor
had she fairly reached the wall before he was close by her side. She
paused for a moment to smile kindly upon him and place her hand upon
his head, then turned to listen again.

The boy appeared to understand that something extraordinary was
going on, and became as nervous as possible. Now he darted off
towards the path where the sentinel had disappeared, and now came
back with a step as fleet as a deer, and as noiseless as a cat's.
But the scene soon changed by the appearance, above the wall, of the
head of Captain Selim, who, peering carefully around for a moment,
asked in a whispered tone:

"Lady, lady, are you there?"

"I am," replied Komel, cautiously, while the idiot crowded close to
her side.

"If I throw over this rope ladder, will you mount now to the top of
the wall?"

"Yes, O yes; let me get away from here quickly."

"Step away from the wall then for a moment," said the young officer,
and in an instant after a rope ladder made fast on the outer side,
was cast over to her.

"Are you ready, lady?"

"Yes."

"Then come quickly; don't pause for a moment in the ascent, lest you
be seen."

Komel thinking of nothing but release from her confinement in the
Sultan's household, and seeing in perspective her home and parents,
for the Armenian had promised that she should be taken thither,
sprang lightly