, as he gazed upon her, so silent
yet so beautiful, that she was richly worth her weight in pearls.

"A thousand piasters," repeated the vender of the slave market,
turning once more to the officer, then added, as he received no
encouraging sign from him, "a thousands piasters, and sold!"

The officer regarded her with much interest, and turned away in
evident disappointment, for the old Turk who had outbid him, had
gone beyond any means that he possessed. The purchaser handed forth
the money in a couple of small bags, and throwing a close veil over
the head of the slave, led her away through the narrow and winding
streets of old Stamboul to the water's side, where they entered a
caique that awaited them, and pulled up the harbor.

Its shooting caiques, its forest of merchantmen, and its hoard of
Turkish war ships; were changed, in a few moments of swift pulling,
for the breathless solitude of the Valley of Sweet Waters, which
opens with a gentle curve from the Golden Horn, and winds away into
the hills towards Belgrade, where the river assumes the character of
a silvery stream, threading its way through a soft and verdant
meadow on either hand, as beautiful in aspect as the Prophet's
Paradise. The spot where the Sultan sends his swift-footed Arabians
to graze on the earliest verdure that decks the face of spring.

It was up this fairy-like passage that the dumb slave was swept in
her master's caique, and by scenes so beautiful as even to enchant
her sad and silent bosom. The Turk marked well the influence of the
scenery upon the Circassian, and slowly stroked his beard with
silent satisfaction at the sight.

The caique soon stopped before a gorgeous palace, in the midst of
this fine plain, and the Turk, by a signal, summoned the guard of
eunuchs from a tent of the Prophet's green, that was pitched near
the banks of the Barbyses, that ran its meandering course through
this verdant scene. It was a princely home, the proudest harem in
all this gem of the Orient, for the old Turk had acted not for
himself in the purchase he had made, but as the agent of a higher
will than his own, and the dumb slave was led to the seraglio of the
Sultan.

The old Turk was evidently a privileged body, and following close
upon the heels of the eunuchs, he divested himself of his slippers
at the entrance of the palace, and led the slave before the "Brother
of the Sun."

The monarch was a noble specimen of his race, tall, commanding,